《Travis's Journey Through the Apocalypse》


 Chater 1 - Earthquake

    Chapter 1


    Earthquake


    Yeah, well, that day sucked balls. I don''t know if I cant take this job much longer. I¡¯m finally off, but It¡¯s 2 A.M., and the fucking bus I need doesn¡¯t even run anymore. Now I have to either waste my money on a goddamn Uber or walk my ass home. Well, I need to eat, so I guess I¡¯m fucking walking. Now if I have to walk home, I¡¯m gonna pick the straightest fucking road.


    I can put my headphones in and keep it pushing. I was about halfway home, right in the middle of a great song. The streetlights were on, it was a chilly Oakland night, and the clouds were hiding all the stars. The wind had started burning my face, and my cheeks were really feeling it. I had to zip my jacket up and put my hood up to keep warm. Now, I¡¯m not the jumpy sort, but when the ground starts shaking in California, that means there¡¯s an earthquake. If it¡¯s a big one, you better find some cover.


    I was in the middle of the street, headphones in, walking, when the ground started shaking, I thought to myself. Oh fuck! It¡¯s okay, Travis, it¡¯s an earthquake. It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s gonna be okay, I thought to myself. But it still didn¡¯t stop after 30 seconds. The sound of metal twisting, stones cracking, and bricks crumbling filled my ears. All I could think was, I¡¯m so fucked. As everyone knows, California had a big earthquake about a hundred years ago. We all knew the big one was coming.


    All the scientists said it was coming, but yeah, you know, you don¡¯t think about shit like that. I tried to run, but the ground was like Jell-O. I made it five steps before I went down. Damn near broke my wrist when I fell. As I shakily got back to my feet, a car came out of nowhere and sideswiped me. He even had the audacity to tell me to get the fuck out of the road. I couldn¡¯t believe it! I watched the car drive away. He got under an overpass, and the damn thing fell right on top of the car. Holy shit! Instant karma asshole! The next thing I knew, there was a sound of ripping metal, then nothing but black.


    When I woke up, I was still in the middle of the street, and there was shit all around me. A cart from the grocery store, a metal drum, multiple bikes, and a whole bunch of other crap. It looked like a streetlight ripped out of the ground and threw a bunch of shit into the road. I don¡¯t know what actually knocked me out, but my head hurt like a son of a bitch, and when I tried to stand up, I instantly felt nauseous. I also cut my palm a little trying to do so, which hurt.


    There were little bits of glass, metal, and other sharp shit all over the ground. Yeah, I¡¯m not gonna try standing for a little bit and plopped back onto my ass. After checking that I was more or less okay, I had a few cuts and a couple of bruises, but nothing too bad. I looked around, and it was like the world had exploded. Almost nothing was left untouched.


    For some reason, at that moment, I thought about my parents, even if they were scheming fucking douchebag thieves. I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s legal theft, but when you know what you¡¯re doing is a goddamn pyramid scheme, you¡¯re fucking evil. Me and my parents never saw eye to eye on right and wrong, but fuck, why were they all I could think about? They both lived in California, but it¡¯s not like I had talked to them in years. I let my thoughts of them end with, I hope they survived the earthquake, but I¡¯d probably never know, and I had to be okay with that.


    Once I had given myself a few minutes to get my shit together, I got back to my feet slowly, making sure my legs could support me. I thought about my next steps. What now? Well, my phone is fucked, so, no service. Of course, it took the damn cell towers out. First things first, how long was I out? Hell, I¡¯ve definitely been out for hours. I mean, it¡¯s daytime. There was so much fucking smoke, and sirens were blasting in the distance.


    The air was hot and hurt to breathe. The sky was a burnt orange color mixed with thick black clouds of smoke. The thick, black smoke smelled like burning tires and natural gas. I started coughing. I thought about where I was and made a few quick decisions. My apartment was probably fucked. There was no way my place had made it. That building was shit, and I always worried that if we got a bad storm, the building was going down. This level of destruction, my place, didn¡¯t stand a chance. That got me thinking about Shannon, my neighbor, and her family.


    That almost had me headed home, but then I thought about what I would do. What I might find? If they were hurt, who was I kidding? They were most likely dead, and then what? Seeing all the damage around me, there was no chance. I could see it. I would go there, digging through the rubble, to end up just finding their bodies or, more realistically, not finding them at all. I don¡¯t think I can deal with that right now. I had to find out what was going on. Were the relief efforts being set up? My watch was busted, and my phone had to have service to tell me the time, so no luck there.


    I thought about where I was in relation to the hospital, took my best guess of the hospital¡¯s direction, and started walking. I didn¡¯t see many people on the street, but those I did see seemed worse off than me. I thought about trying to help, but with how fucked up everything was, I decided to prioritize myself for now.


    After about 20 minutes, I found a family. There were three of them. I stopped because they looked like they were lost. They said their grandmother and uncle had been crushed inside the house. I realized that the earthquake had hit in the middle of the night, and these were probably some of the lucky ones who weren¡¯t inside when it hit. The family had called emergency services but hadn¡¯t been able to speak to anyone, so they were just waiting there.


    No one had come, and with how crazy shit was, I doubted someone would. Fuck, this place was basically destroyed. I told them as much. The daughter started crying, and the mother and father¡¯s eyes became wet with tears about to fall. I felt bad. I told them they could come with me if they wanted, but I didn¡¯t have a real plan. I told them I was going to try and find a hospital or at least someplace where people would be gathering, but they declined. They said they¡¯d wait in hopes somebody would come. I waved goodbye and started walking. There¡¯s nothing you can do when people won¡¯t get out of their own way. Hell, they were probably in shock. Hell, I was probably in shock.


    I was just around the corner from the hospital, maybe a couple of blocks away still, and I turned the corner and instantly froze. I threw myself back around the corner. My heart was pounding. Sweat was building on my brow. That was a wolf and not just a regular old wolf. That was a huge wolf. Oh, fuck me. That thing was the size of a small car. Now I¡¯ve never been around wolves, but that thing looks way too fucking big.


    I peeked my head around the corner to get another look, to make sure I wasn¡¯t going fucking crazy. Yeah, it was a huge wolf. Its back was as high as the cars around it. It had dark gray fur. I couldn¡¯t see its face, thank fuck it was facing away from me. Bones were sticking out of its back through its skin as if spines were growing from its vertebra. Then, as I looked closer, I could see that there was green puss dripping from the puncture wounds on its back, where the bones pushed through. I pulled myself back around the corner. Fuck that! Fuck, that! I¡¯m out!


    So I turned and booked it. I mean, full tunnel vision, as fast as I fucking could. I must have run for five blocks before I found a parking garage. I ran inside and hid behind a wall. My heart was pounding. My chest was rising and falling faster than it ever had. I wasn¡¯t an athlete. I smoke some weed here and there, maybe a lot, but fuck! I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be running for my life anytime soon.


    Guess that was my mistake. I don¡¯t think it saw or smelled me, but my mind was having problems dealing with what I just saw. I mean, I¡¯ve played some Magic in my day, and that thing looks straight out of an undead deck, but that was impossible! This is fucking real life, and that shit is all pretend, fucking make-believe stories and crap. You know what, maybe I¡¯m dreaming, or maybe I¡¯m tripping and dreaming like maybe somebody put something in my drink, and now I¡¯m fucking losing it. That didn¡¯t seem true, but I was grabbing at straws here, people!


    After I caught my breath, I decided I couldn¡¯t live behind this wall. This couldn¡¯t become my new home. I couldn¡¯t stay here forever. I had to get up. I had to walk. I had to move. I was convincing myself more than anything. I managed to make myself get up and peek over the wall. When the coast was clear, about 10 minutes later, I made my way opposite the hospital. My mind kept trying to rationalize what I had seen, and I couldn¡¯t seem to find an explanation, so I had to let it go. I couldn¡¯t drive myself crazy. I was pretty sure I was going crazy anyway.


    As I was walking, I noticed that every so often on the street corners, there was an odd-looking sign. I walked up to one and took a closer look. The sign¡¯s posts were made of wood. They were stabbed into the concrete of the sidewalk as if they¡¯d been there forever. The sign itself was carved into a piece of wood. It was an amazingly intricate design. It kind of resembled a Celtic knot. It was all raised and had what looked like gold leaf on the tops of the design. As I studied the design, a disembodied voice rang out from nowhere and said,


    ¡°Welcome newly integrated species. Your world has been integrated into the greater system. The celestial council has chosen your Galaxy. You are welcomed into the greater world. We hope your experience during the integration so far has not been too intrusive to your lives. The integration of Mana and subsequent boosting of your planet¡¯s natural aura may be rather tumultuous. Still, we see this as a minor cost to being allowed access to the greater system. Some of you may have noticed you now possess a stat sheet. By saying the word ¡°Stat Sheet,¡± you will see a summary of your abilities and level.


    This will expand as you grow and unlock new aspects of your stat sheet. You can also call forth a brief visual representation of your current Health, Mana, and Stamina Levels by saying ¡°Status Check.¡± These changes are all thanks to the increased Mana density on your planet. Your integration has been paid for by the Slag Company. We are here, required by celestial council law, to inform you that every citizen living within the Milky Way Galaxy is hereby under indentured service to the Slag Company.


    For no less than 200 years, or till the debt of 3 million celestial credits has been paid to the Slag Company per indentured. You will notice at the bottom of your stat sheet there¡¯s a tab that says, ¡°Indentured Contract.¡± If you focus on that tab, you may see the details of your indenture. Now that you¡¯ve become familiar with and aware of the system and the celestial council, we provide this one warning,


    ¡°The Slag has decided that your planet has been coordinated for potential gladiatorial combat prospects and elemental mining. Therefore, they have populated your planet with low-level beasts, hoping that some will rise, but most will probably fall. Anyways, that¡¯s about it. Happy integration, and yeah, good luck! That¡¯s a stat too. Hopefully, yours is high. Don¡¯t die¡­ too fast.¡±


    What the actual fuck is this? Can Ayahuasca make you fucking see¡­maybe? Hell, there¡¯s all these chemical drugs now, but not like I kick it with anyone that does shit like that. Maybe someone at work¡­like a hazing? Shit, this is all too real. Maybe a slap on the cheek will help? Nope, that fucking hurt. All right, let¡¯s try this ¡°Stat Sheet.¡±


    Stat Sheet:


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 1


    Race: Human


    Strength: 11


    Dexterity: 10


    Intelligence: 14


    Wisdom: 12


    Constitution: 10


    Luck: 9


    That¡¯s it? What the fuck! I¡¯m supposed to just know what 11 Strength is. Like, can I break concrete with my fist? I turned to the wall next to me, started whining back as if to punch it, and caught myself. What the fuck am I doing? I¡¯m gonna punch a wall to see if I don¡¯t break my hand. What the fuck? All right, got to calm down. Okay, I have stats. I¡¯m a level 1 Human with stats. Oh, my brain is hurting, but honestly, if the world wasn¡¯t a total shit show right now, I¡¯d be pretty juiced.


    How do I get more strength, and does wisdom and intelligence help you cast spells?Like, is there freakin¡¯ magic? Is magic a fucking thing? That¡¯s awesome! Well, shit, it must be a thing for shit to go like this. No way aliens just pop down, terraform a planet, and then disappear. I mean, who am I to tell aliens anything? Like, what they can and can¡¯t do, hell.


    Okay, well, this kind of changes things. Probably not gonna be any working hospitals. I think I¡¯m more likely to find a freakin¡¯ healer or maybe a health potion now. That made me laugh. I think I needed that. On a more serious note, Travis, I need to think about shelter, water, and food. I think that¡¯s the correct order of stuff to do when shit hits the fan. I¡¯ll worry about all this level shit once I¡¯m safe. Maybe I can hunker down somewhere till the government has things more in hand. I could totally see people going crazy in times like these.


    I looked around. All the buildings were burnt out, and the ones that weren¡¯t wholly demolished looked like OSHA would have a fit about safety regulations. I would see people occasionally, but they were mainly focused on looting or trying to move without drawing attention to themselves. I looked over at a family as I was walking, and they froze when they saw me looking. Their eyes were wide with fear, and when they saw I wasn¡¯t going to fuck with them, they started moving again. I wondered how many people had stopped to inspect the signs. The design of the signs worked like a QR code for your brain. It was an off-putting sensation but a good way to disseminate information. I had to give it to them on that front.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    I decided to walk a little further out from downtown. I passed some firefighters putting a house fire out, but before the fire was out, they got a call, packed up as fast as they could, and took off, leaving the house burning as they drove away. After an hour of walking, I saw fewer and fewer people out and about, and the occasional dead person was lying in the street, but I just told myself they were sleeping and kept pushing.


    I didn¡¯t have the mental capacity to deal with dead people right now. I finally found a couple of buildings that hadn¡¯t fallen apart entirely. One house, the front half had slid forward, but the back had stayed where it was, like they were going to move the house, so they cut it in half. Then the front half of the house fell, and they just said, fuck, we tried and just left it there. The house was an old Victorian-looking two-story with what must have been a lovely garden until the earthquake or well system integration hit. The house was split down the middle, so I moved towards the split and made my way inside.


    Once inside, I was standing in what once had been the downstairs living room. The first thing I noticed was the mess that was inside the house. The walls looked like Swiss cheese, and I couldn¡¯t see a single piece of bare floor. Half the second floor looked like it made it without too much damage. There was a staircase leading to it that looked like I could climb.


    Before exploring the upper levels, I looked around the living room for, honestly, I didn¡¯t know. Maybe there was a weapon or something, anything I could use. It was also nice to distract myself with something monotonous, even if only for a moment. The monotony was broken when I lifted a piece of fallen drywall and found an arm. The arm looked to be from a child as well. It took a second for my brain to catch up with my eyes.


    The arm was twisted and covered in blood. I followed the arm till it disappeared beneath another piece of drywall. When I picked that up, everything seemed to click. I dropped the drywall, turned, and threw up. That was the first dead body I had ever seen. I¡¯d seen dead people on TV, in movies, and in video games, but this was different.


    I thought it would take longer for the body to smell¡­ like that almost sweet rotting garbage smell, but even worse¡­I guess not. The smell was terrible. It hit you in the back of the throat, and that¡¯s what really made me sick. The blood everywhere and the twisted, broken bones tearing through flesh definitely were contributing factors. Once I had calmed myself down, I left the house immediately.


    As I was making my way through the once-grand garden on my way out, I saw something moving in the street. I stopped moving, tucked myself behind a fallen tree, and then crouch-walked to a spot with a better view of the street. As I looked out at the street, I could see a small group of people, who looked like a family, quietly and carefully making their way down the street. I don¡¯t know.


    Maybe I was too far away, but from what I could make out from the looks on their faces, they looked terrified. I took a better overall look at the group. They looked pretty bad if I was being honest. Their clothing, which looked like it had been put on in a hurry, I might add, was all ripped up, and there were bloody splotches I could see on almost every member of the family. I watched them for a few more seconds and thought about asking them if they were okay and introducing myself.


    As I decided to see if I could help, one of the kids tripped and started crying. One of the parents turned, grabbed the kid, and placed a hand over the child¡¯s mouth. As the parent holding the child¡¯s mouth shut began looking around, their eyes widened. I couldn¡¯t see what they were looking at, but the other parent noticed the same thing as the first and let out a blood-curtailing scream of fear. The person who had screamed turned and ran, leaving their family behind as they fled. The parent that stayed with the children grabbed them tight and began to cry.


    The children were sobbing as well at this point, and I watched with bated breath to see what had terrified them so much. A shadow came into view first, then a large dog-like shadow. Fuck! I think I knew what this was, and these guys were so fucked. Two of the extra large bone spike wolves came into view a moment later. A moment after that, everyone was dead. Holy shit. That was, that, holy shit, that was horrible, but I couldn¡¯t take my eyes off the scene before me. About a minute into the show, a third wolf walked into view, dragging the runner¡¯s body. After what seemed like forever, the wolves finished the meal and wandered off.


    I felt like I could move again when several large bird-lizard things flew down and began tearing into the corpses. With that, I turned and, as quickly and quietly as possible, returned to the house. I honestly was just looking for a place to hide at this point. That whole scene was way too much, and I just needed to hide. I looked at the rickety staircase and said fuck it.


    I climbed the half-broken stairs and barely made it to the second floor. The second floor seemed stable enough, but I still took every step tentatively. The first room I came to was a kid¡¯s room, or at least before the earthquake, or I guess integration hit. There were a bunch of anime posters on the walls and a dope Pok¨¦mon rug. Hell, it could have been a couple of friends of mine¡¯s room, too. The room was a mess, and the bed had fallen through the floor, creating a large hole on one side of the room. There was a closet full of clothes, a desk, and a dresser. I was still freaking out from the family I had just watched die right in front of me. I needed to hide. It was all I could think about.


    I made my way over to the closet and looked inside. I grabbed a couple of blankets from an upper shelf and tried to make some kind of bedding out of them in the closet. It had a door, and at the moment, it was another barrier between me and the rest of the world. It was comfortable enough to at least sleep for the night, but that was just a bonus. I just prayed I was hidden well enough. As the adrenaline began to leave my system, my headache started to come back with a vengeance. I must have hit my head pretty hard when I got knocked out.


    I swear I must¡¯ve laid there for 3 hours, but it definitely could¡¯ve been only 30 minutes, but I eventually passed out. Until I did, every noise, every little breaking twig, set my nerves spinning. I didn¡¯t know how many of those wolf creatures were out there, but they said they were sending creatures to our planet, so there¡¯s got to be more. After a while, I ended up passing out. I woke up in a panic, arms swinging forward, legs kicking, jolting myself into a seated position. Where was I? Was I in danger?


    As I pulled my shit together to figure out what had woken me up. I crept over to the window and took a lookout. A squirrel had jumped off the window ledge onto the tree next to the house. Damn, near fucking pissed myself. I looked down at my hands, and I was shaking. I took a second to calm myself. It was good to know there was some normal fucking wildlife still around. I checked myself out to ensure all my parts were still where I left them the night before. I was all good. My head had even stopped hurting, so that was a good sign. I felt a little better as well, hungry as hell, but I guess I burnt a lot of calories the day before running my ass off. I started looking through the kid¡¯s room. Maybe there was a backpack or something else I could use to keep some of the blankets with me, try to create a survival kit of some kind.


    Today was food and water. I¡¯d found shelter, and it seemed to be a rather good place. Nothing bothered me last night, and I hadn¡¯t heard or seen anything around since I¡¯d been awake. I started rummaging around and managed to find a backpack. I loaded it up with a couple of blankets and a pillow. I found some gloves, too, and put those on as soon as I found them. My hands were so cold. As I was zipping the backpack closed, I heard a scream from outside the house, and my fight-or-flight response kicked in. It only took me a second, and I was back in the closet, hidden under the pile of blanks that had been my bed.


    I stayed there for a little, but curiosity got the better of me, and I made my way over to a window and looked out. The window I was looking out of was facing the backyard, but as the house was only one of two houses to the left standing, I had a pretty good view of the side street. By the time I had got myself over to the window and looked out, most of the screaming had stopped, but there were bodies all over the road, blood pooling and running into the storm drains like rivers.


    The bodies looked like they had furry tumors all over them. As I kept watching, I realized they weren¡¯t furry tumors. They were small creatures, and they were consuming the bodies slowly but steadily. That was enough for me. I was not ready for this to become my life. I just wanted to go home, sit on my shitty couch and watch some tv. More than anything, I could really use a bowl of weed right now just to calm my ass down. Once again, I was in the closet, and I wasn¡¯t hungry or thirsty anymore.


    For some reason, all I could think was, let them pass me by. Please don¡¯t look in here, please! I stayed there as quietly as I could for the rest of the next day and night. I kept falling asleep, then waking up, freaking out that this was the time they would find and kill me. Then after that moment, realizing I was safe for now must have been fucking with my adrenaline glands for sure. I was too scared to venture out that day and stayed held up in my hide hole. The next day, when I woke from my nightmares, it must have been around ten o¡¯clock or so, and I had been looking around the room again, this time for anything I could use as a weapon. I heard a sound coming from downstairs. The sound of cracking wood. At first, I froze. This was my nightmare. I was gonna fucking die.


    I probably was dead already and just didn¡¯t know it, fuck! I stood there frozen for what felt like hours but was probably just a minute or two till I could move again. At that point, I returned to the closet, slid the backpack on my shoulders, turned around, and crouched by the wall. I slowly looked around the edge of the wall to see what was out, prowling around the house. It was 3 of those fucking wolves. I stopped breathing and slowly inched my way back behind the wall.


    Oh fuck! Okay, how am I gonna get out of here? The cracking and sniffing sounds of the wolves were getting closer, and then it sounded like one of the wolves found the stairs and tried to go up. I held my breath, completely terrified, and there was a loud crash. I flinched extremely tough and then realized the stairs must have collapsed under the weight of the wolves.


    There was a swift, high-pitched noise preceded by a quick snapping and snarling sound. Once I got up the courage, I leaned my head around the corner once more, and a wolf apparently did try to climb the stairs but had fallen and impaled itself on a piece of broken railing. Seeing their companion in such a disadvantageous situation, the other wolves decided to take full advantage and get an easy meal out of it.


    By the time I looked around the corner, they were tearing into the viscera of the beast¡¯s stomach, and the sounds of ripping meat, tearing flesh, and breaking bones filled the air. They were distracted. Now was my chance. I¡¯d be the next meal if I didn¡¯t take full advantage of this situation. I thought about the squirrel and how it had jumped out the window and landed on the fallen tree outside. I took a shallow breath and made a decision. I had to become the squirrel. I crept over to the window. I could still hear the wolves enjoying their meal. I slowly inched my way up to the window and looked out at the tree the squirrel had jumped to.


    The tree had fallen in the integration. It was leaning against the house, probably part of the reason this half of the house is still standing. The angle of the trunk was just so that it was leaning up against the house, five feet below the window. I could probably jump out the window, slide down the tree trunk to the ground, and book it before the wolves noticed me. I just had to ensure I didn¡¯t make too much noise or I was dog chow. I looked back one more time and listened to the sounds of the wolves enjoying their meal, reassuring myself that they were good and distracted. I decided it was now or never. I took the initiative and jumped out the window.


    I dropped that first 5 feet. I landed on the tree and promptly started to slide off the side. I tried to grab a branch, and I managed to get one hand on a branch so I didn¡¯t completely fall. I pulled myself back on the tree and slowly slid down the trunk. Made it to the bottom and took off to the bushes. I tripped on some debris in the backyard and rolled over my shoulder. Thank you, skateboarding camp. I swear that¡¯s the only thing I took from that class¡­how to fall. After my roll, I popped to my feet and kept running toward the bushes. A baseball slid into the bushes, and I was hidden.


    It was a blackberry bush that hurt. But I stayed there in the bushes, holding my breath. At first, I thought I was having a panic attack. It felt like vines were tightening around me, but then I realized the vines of the blackberry bush were actually tightening around me. Fuck, fuck fuck! I felt a vine on my neck. Felt the thorns touching my throat. I started ripping vines left from right. Okay, I freaked out, but I was way worse off than I thought. In the ten seconds I had spent in the bush, the vines had tangled around my body, legs, and arms. My chest had a couple wrapped around it, too. My body was covered in minor scratches by the time I was free. Some of them looked like a dog or cat attacked me. Blood was flowing freely down my arms. My pants were splashed with blood.


    After I was free, I turned around and stared at the plant, actively whipping around. I had to avoid a few vines swinging towards my face. Then, I had my feet swept from under me. I frantically crawled away until I managed to get back on my feet. I was 15 feet away from it now, and I was out of the plant¡¯s reach, but the wolves had heard the commotion and were standing 20 feet away at the base of the building, snarling, their hair raised on their backs, eyeballing me. Fuck, okay, here we go, here we fucking go.


    A plan came to me quickly, not a great one, but maybe it was something. The wolves snarled for about 20 seconds while I just fucking sat there sweating bullets. Then they just fucking charged at me. And at first, on instinct, I just fucking started running in the opposite direction. That ended up being toward the blackberry bush. This is when I got my great idea. Lead the fucking wolves into the blackberry bush! That¡¯s about as far as I got. So I was now running toward a blackberry bush that just a second ago tried to fucking strangle me to death, not my best moment.


    A tree branch was lying on the ground in front of me, so I reached down while running and grabbed it off the ground. When I was close to the blackberry bush, I jammed the stick into the ground and tried to do a mini pole vault over the bush into the next yard. It kind of worked out. Made it to the top of the fence and slammed into it. Hanging on for dear life, I pulled myself on top.


    The wolf following me the closest went to make the leap and got grabbed by the blackberry bush. Fuck yeah! Fucking plans! Knew that was a wonderful thing to do, you know, make one of those. Unfortunately, the second wolf used the opportunity of its fallen comrade to vault off its back, clearing the fence with ease. I dropped off the top of the fence, landing next to a barbecue. The wolf landed in front of me and snarled. I looked around. There was a dog house and some barbecue shit lying around. I saw a charcoal poker and grabbed it, then jumped into the dog house.


    The wolf was right on my heels, literally scratched my fucking heel. As I jumped in, I lost my shoe. I screamed from the pain. Huddling to the back of the dog house, I clutched my ankle, trying to stop the bleeding. As the wolf reached in, I struck out with the poker, stabbing the wolf in the paw. The wolf screamed as the poker sunk deep. It pulled its paw back and reached in again.


    I stabbed twice in quick succession. The wolf screamed in pain and disappeared out of sight. I stayed huddled in the dog house, listening to the sound of a wolf circling and sniffing. The sounds of a curious and angry wolf stopped after a while. So, I thought I might be in the clear. Maybe it was time to make a break for it.


    I stuck my head out and damn near got it bitten off. I whipped my head back inside, and the mouth of the wolf stabbed through the opening of the dog house. I struck out with the poker again. This time, the poker stuck in the wolf¡¯s muzzle. The next moment, the poker was ripped out of my hand. The wolf released a hair-raising howl and took off, snarling and wailing as it fled. This time, I could hear the wolf as it ran off, its cries getting softer and softer. I slowly inched myself out of the dog house. Okay, never talking about this again. No one needs to know I hid in a dog house.

 chapter 2 - A whole new world

    Chapter 2


    A whole new world


    As I was looking around the yard, I heard the whining of a wolf and jumped behind the barbecue. I stayed there for a second, but it sounded like the crying was coming from the other side of the fence. I climbed back up to the top of the fence and peeked my head over. The first wolf that the blackberry bush had grabbed was still alive. The vines were consuming it.


    Vines covered almost every inch of the creature by now, and its struggles only seemed to make its situation worse. I noticed some blackberries that were growing on some higher vines and grabbed some. I didn¡¯t realize how hungry I was, and the plant didn¡¯t seem to notice. I watched the wolf for a few minutes while I ate some blackberries. It was kind of fucking awful, actually. Never thought I¡¯d feel bad for a fucking nightmare, but damn. It looked fucking miserable all wrapped up like that.


    I dropped down from the top of the fence away from the blackberry bush and made my way around the fence. I was very aware of any other plants I passed. They clearly weren¡¯t just sending monsters to the planet. The fauna was evolving, and that was bullshit! Willow trees were cool as shit, and now they could probably rip my fucking head off! I walked closer to the wolf that was being consumed by the blackberry bush.


    The wolf looked like it had been starving for weeks as if the life itself was being sucked from the wolf by the plant. I got a little closer to the blackberry bush, but it didn¡¯t seem as active as before. I know when I eat a big meal, I usually take a nap afterward. Maybe the plant had gotten sleepy?


    I grabbed a piece of metal lying on the ground. Honestly, the wolf looked so pathetic. Maybe if I put it out of its misery, I could cherry-pick the kill. How else am I going to raise my level in this new world? Things seemed to have gotten pretty fucking brutal on Earth. Stepping close to the creature¡¯s head, or where I thought the wolf¡¯s head was, and took aim.


    I raised the metal piece above my head and slammed it down. It took about four slams to kill the thing, and I actually did get a kill notification. A slightly transparent exclamation mark up in the corner of my vision. I focused on it, and a second after I did, a screen popped open in front of my face. As it did, I fell back and landed on my ass. It startled me. It stayed with me as I fell, appearing as if it was constantly five feet away from my face, just floating there.


    Congratulations, you have killed Level 8, Tarzackien death wolf. These wolves are found naturally in the Tazackien region of space. They are primarily pack hunters but can be found in small groups of males that have been rejected from the larger packs. ¡°You have earned 1,000 XP! Kill, get strong, fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer.¡±


    That was weird. I looked at the message again, and in the corner, written relatively small, was ¡°sponsored by the Slag Corporation.¡± Yeah, I thought that sounded a little fucking pushy. Now that the wolf was dead, I slinked away from the blackberry bush. It seemed content with its meal and didn¡¯t notice me at all. I walked back toward the house. Looking through one of the windows, I saw the wolf that had been partially empaled and then eaten. There were bird-Lizad things the size of cats all over the corpse. Maybe this spot was too hot now. The smell of a dead wolf would probably bring scavengers. I better get the fuck out of here before something comes along that I can¡¯t fucking deal with, you know, like anything that¡¯s on this fucking planet now, probably.


    I grabbed my backpack and headed out. I started walking toward the hills. I thought about how I could get a good vantage point, see how badly this whole place was fucked up. I just needed to find a place that was safe or well safe enough to hold up and wait for the National Guard or whatever government agency would take charge to return some order. Shit was crazy, and people were already dead and probably still dying. I wasn¡¯t trained to deal with shit like this. The best plan had to be to hide and wait. Eventually, the army would mobilize, and shit would get back to normal or at least as close as we could get with the apparent existence of aliens now.


    Finally, I saw a grocery store. The glass was all broken, and the roof was half fallen into the building. I was starving at this point. I needed something to eat. Definitely drink, so supply run it was. Before I did that, I had to address the new blinking exclamation mark in the corner of my vision. I focused on it, and another partially transparent screen popped up.


    ¡°Level up! You were Level 1, and now you are Level 2. Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer!¡±


    ¡°Level up! You were level 2, and now you are Level 3. Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer.¡°Level up! You were level 3, and now you are level 4. Three stat points have been awarded. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer.¡±


    The following message was different. ¡°Title Gained! You have escaped from a situation in which you had no right to. Damn, you lucky bastard. You almost died! Plus two to Luck.¡± Well, that message would get old fast, not the extra point to Luck. That one was awesome! That damn message on the level Up notification. Fuck, the Slag Company was shameless. But I gained 3 Levels with one kill! Fuck yeah! And I fucking cherry-picked that shit! Okay, so that means I got 9 points I can use. Let¡¯s do this! I said, ¡°Stat Sheet.¡±


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 4


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 1,000/1,1080 XP till next level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to Luck)


    Strength: 16


    Dexterity: 12


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    Intelligence: 14


    Wisdom: 12


    Constitution: 12


    Luck: 11


    ¡°You have nine free points available to distribute as you see fit.¡± Okay, the first significant change was that I now had a line on my sheet telling me how much XP I needed to get to Level Five. I also had a line that showed my new title. From that last notification description, I¡¯m guessing that titles come from doing crazy ass shit and living. At least I got something from that fucked up-as-hell situation. My body shivered, fuck that! I ended up putting two points in Constitution, two points into Dexterity and then placed my last five into Strength.


    I tried to put a point into Luck and 4 in Strength, but it wouldn¡¯t let me touch Luck. So, I just put the 5 points in Strength. More Strength never hurt anyone and left it at that. Fuck yeah! I now had 16 Strength, 12 Dexterity, and 12 Constitution. Hopefully, that would help my foot heal, but I really had no idea. Damn, thing still hurts like fucking hell! My foot had gotten all tingly, and that almost scared me more than my blood-soaked sock.


    I looked behind me, and I noticed that I was leaving a splotchy trail of blood as I walked. Aw fuck! If something isn¡¯t already tracking me, it will be soon. I needed to find some way to treat my wounds. I ended up finding everything I needed at the grocery store. I was extra cautious as I walked in, but the place seemed empty. I did see one guy in there at one point, but he was doing the same thing I was doing. We looked at each other for a second and then ignored one another and kept doing what we were doing.


    I saw him leave, and I got out of there pretty soon after. At one point, while in the grocery store, a pack of those man-eating fluff balls passed by, and my like-minded companion and I hunkered down as they passed. The rest of my time in the store was nice and uneventful. I¡¯d managed to find an ace bandage to wrap my leg up as best as I could. At least I wasn¡¯t dripping blood everywhere.


    I found some socks, flip-flops, and a hoodie. I threw them all in the backpack, with five cans of chili, four water bottles, and the small first aid kit I had made. It was just a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some gauze. Not too great, but it was something at least.


    Fitting all that shit in the kid¡¯s backpack was another story. I ended up having to throw most of my blankets and the pillow out to fit everything. I only managed to save one blanket and another one wrapped around my shoulders. I also grabbed a deck of playing cards and a pre-made club sandwich. The fridges were dead, but it still seemed to be cold. I hoped the thing hadn¡¯t gone bad, but bad mayo was the last thing on my mind. After not even one second thought, I stuffed the sandwich in my face. I knew the thing was probably nasty. I hated gas station sandwiches, but damn, that thing tasted like the best fucking sandwich I¡¯d ever had in my life at that point.


    I made it about another fifteen blocks before I saw a pack of fluff balls and ducked behind a partially fallen wall. I peeked my head around the wall after a second. As I looked closer, I saw the fluffy balls were bunny-like creatures. They were ripping apart a group of what looked like they had once been people. I quickly ducked into a building near me. The ceiling had fallen in, but I managed to tuck myself behind some debris.


    It looked like I had found myself in an old music shop. There were twisted and broken instruments all over the ground. I sat there as quietly as I could, listening. I waited till I didn¡¯t hear any more noise from the rabbit creatures. Now, I love Monty Python, but I never wanted to meet a fucking blood-sucking bunny in real life. That¡¯s just not right. I decided to look around the music shop a little to see if I could find some kind of weapon. I needed something to protect myself. That urge got much stronger after what I¡¯d just been through recently. I honestly was really wishing the wolf hadn¡¯t taken my charcoal poker. That had been a great weapon.


    I dug through the broken and twisted piles of instruments, trying to make as little noise as possible. I ended up finding a fucking bandleader¡¯s baton. You know that thing, the guy who doesn¡¯t play shit but has a whistle and walks in the front of the band uses. The baton had a large metal ball on one end, and the other end came to a point. It looked like it was the best thing I was gonna find, so I grabbed it.


    I returned to where I could see the street again and noticed the rabbits were gone, so I made my way onto the street again. The rabbit creatures had definitely taken off. They hadn¡¯t left much behind, either. I walked over to the corner where the fluff bunnies seemed to have been enjoying their meal, and there were only a few indicators of what their meal had been. A few ripped items of clothing and small bits and pieces of flesh lay in a puddle of blood that soaked the concrete.


    I think I saw an ear. Yep, yeah, that was definitely an ear. I bent down and, with two fingers, touched the blood. It was still warm. I almost started crying. I don¡¯t really know why. I didn¡¯t know these people, but I thought about the millions of people who thought they¡¯d just survived a massive earthquake, lucky to be alive, and then to be brutally murdered by what looked to be Monty Python bunnies. Well, that was just a little too fucked up for me.


    I was sitting there lost in my thoughts when I heard something, or maybe it was better to say I heard someone, a soft, ¡°Hey you.¡± I lifted my head up and looked around. There it was again, ¡°Hey you.¡± I looked around and found the speaker. It was a man. His head was poking out of a doorway across the street from me. When I met his eyes, he waved at me to come over.


    I decided, what the fuck? I might as well check it out. I definitely had to be cautious, but that¡¯s the second human I¡¯d seen all day. Seems like we were few and far between now. Shit, how many of us died? How many of us are left? Wait, that¡¯s the same fucking question. Travis, damn it.


    I approached the man, and he started to wave more frantically. ¡°Come on, man. What the fuck do you think you¡¯re doing? If you¡¯re caught out in the street by any of these monsters, you¡¯re fucking dead! Are you stupid or something? Come on, get in here!¡± I stepped it up to a slight jog, made it to the door, and slid myself inside after the man, closing the door behind me.


    I turned around and immediately got punched in the face. A second punch followed right after. It kind of felt like I got hit in the face by a kid. Don¡¯t get me wrong, like a middle schooler, but fuck that. I could eat punches from middle schoolers all day. I didn¡¯t seem to be giving the man the response he was looking for. He seemed a little shocked that I didn¡¯t go down from his sucker punches.


    That surprise quickly turned to anger, and the guy picked up a baseball bat that I hadn¡¯t noticed was leaning up against the wall. I was still in shock. I hadn¡¯t been punched in the face much in my life. So, I was still taken aback by the man¡¯s actions. I was trying to work out an appropriate response to the situation when the man swung the bat back and then whipped it forward right at my head. I did not react fast enough, and the bat slammed into the side of my head. That fucking hurt. Now I was mad. I had anger problems when I was a kid, and it took a lot of work to get over that, but when the dude hit me with a bat in the face, I lost it. I just hit my breaking point.


    I stared at the man in shock. It was the end of the fucking world, and this douchebag had decided to hit me with a fucking bat to the face! Fuck this asshole! So I punched him in the face! I didn¡¯t really think about it. I just hit the guy as hard as I could. It felt like punching a block of cheese, and not like cheddar, more like Brie. My fist just kind of went into his head and got stuck there.


    The man¡¯s eyes went wide, then glazed over. He dropped to the ground. Fuck, he was dead! Then, an exclamation mark started blinking in the corner of my vision. I mentally clicked it, and a notification popped open.


    ¡°Congratulations, you have killed a Level 1 Human. Humans are weak, short-lived creatures, very fragile. They have a tendency to break easily. They are also prolific breeders. Humanity can be most closely compared to pestilence or infestation and often tends to strangle planets they live on until the planet dies. 200 XP awarded. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer.¡±

 Chapter 3 -Murder Town

    Chapter 3


    Murder town


    Holy fuck! I just killed a guy. I watched the man fall to the ground, and as my fist pulled free, it made a wet popping and sucking sound. I looked around, and I was now fully ready to go! I was pissed off. Honestly, at that moment, I didn¡¯t give a fuck about the dude I just killed. He hit me in the head with a fucking bat, maybe a punch or two I could overlook but a bat to the face. If I hadn¡¯t leveled up, he could have killed me.


    I looked around, and there were three people tied up on the floor in the corner of the room and another guy standing in front of me with a terrified look on his face. His eyes kept looking down at his friend lying on the floor, then back up to me. Then he turned and ran. My mouth dropped open. I stayed there, fists raised, in a fighting stance for a couple more seconds, lost in thought. It must have been a partnership of convenience or like-mindedness between two fucking asshole rapist fuck faces. They probably didn¡¯t even know about the integration. They just figured the world had ended, so why not rape and murder wantonly.


    Well, he should have Leveled the fuck up so his face didn¡¯t crunch so easily. I laughed in my head at that for a second, but then I guess that wasn¡¯t really fair. I had basically lucked into my 3 Levels. That title notification straight-up told me I was a lucky bastard. I looked around the room, and there were people in one corner. They were looking at me, fear clearly visible on their faces.


    I probably looked like a fucking psychopath. I had one shoe on and one flip-flop. My foot had bloody bandages wrapped around it, and the blanket around my shoulders probably made me look homeless. Hell, we were all homeless now, no bills, no taxes, and that was kind of nice, but the no place safe, death waiting behind every corner thing was kind of a bad trade.


    Yeah, they were clearly freaked out. I was also just standing there, fists raised. I put my fist down. That was embarrassing. Not the punching the dude in the face. That was badass, but the whole standing there just lost in thought for a couple of seconds, looking like a dumbass.


    I put my hands up like I had a gun pointing at me and walked over to the people who were tied up. At first, they started scooting back toward the wall. Trying to get as far away from me as they could.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m the good guy, or well¡­ I mean, I¡¯m a guy who¡¯s not going to hurt you.¡±


    That seemed to confuse them slightly, but they seemed less scared of me. They let me pull the gags out of their mouths and untie them. It was two women and an older man. It turned out the old guy was married to one of the women, and the other woman was his daughter. They¡¯d left their house before it collapsed, but the rest of their neighborhood didn¡¯t make it.


    They ran into the two guys at a gas station near their house. As they were trying to figure out what was going on, the two men said they would help them and that they had a safe place to stay. Convinced them that there was safety in numbers, which seemed totally rational at the time.


    Fuck, the world had gone to hell. When they returned to where the two men camped, they first knocked the old guy out. There had actually been four of them to start with. The old guy had a son around the same age as his daughter. When they hit the old man, his son took off, the fucking pussy. Ran into the street and got eaten. They didn¡¯t know by what, but I was sure it was those rabbit creatures.


    The two men proceeded to beat the three of them and tie them up. This happened all to the sounds of the son being ripped to shreds just outside the building. They said they hadn¡¯t been raped, but the men kept talking about it. The old man¡¯s knee was broken, and his head was split, but otherwise, he looked okay. The two women had bruises pretty much all over their bodies. They told me they had tried to escape last night, and the men had beaten them badly.


    The old man¡¯s name was Tom. He was an older gentleman, probably in his 70s, and looked like he had dressed quickly. What he was wearing was all nice shit, like high-end-looking stuff. He was probably pretty well off before the integration. He was slim and lanky. Tom had short brown hair and was clean-shaven. He looked like a strong breeze would knock him over. He looked so fragile that a fall would probably kill him. Honestly, I was impressed that Tom was still alive, but I still saw him as a waste of space. Tom would be more of a hindrance than a help when it came to survival in the near future.


    His young wife¡¯s name was Janet, and his daughter¡¯s was Beth. Janet was definitely not Beth¡¯s mom. At first, Beth and Janet looked basically the same age, and besides that, they looked totally different. Beth had chestnut brown hair like Tom, whereas Janet had blonde hair. Janet was probably in her mid to late 30s and looked like one of those trophy wives.


    You know, all she does is read fitness blogs, work out, and fuck an old guy, probably shit like that. Trophy wives always rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was the fact that I thought if being a trophy wife was your goal in life, then you were probably a shitty, vapid, and shallow person. Or maybe it was the fact that I secretly always wanted a sugar mama. I mean fuck! Who likes to work all day? Hey, I¡¯d fuck for rent.


    It¡¯s just that now none of my land ladies ever offered. On the other hand, Beth had bangs and long hair that framed her face. She looked like she was fit but not like Janet. Beth was probably in her early 30s to late 20s. Looked like she played some volleyball in high school or something. But nowadays, she ran a little here and there.


    They were pretty fucking grateful I¡¯d come along. Apparently, the dude that I killed was a pretty fucking creepy asshole. That made me feel a little better about smashing his face in. Speaking of the guy whose face I¡¯d smashed in, he was on the ground, and brain matter was oozing out of his skull. The three were obviously disturbed by the body. They kept glancing at the body as they were telling me what had happened to them.


    ¡°Should we find somewhere else to talk?¡± Tom nodded.


    ¡°Yeah, if you don¡¯t mind. If we stay in this room much longer, I might be sick.¡± The blond woman, I think her name was Janet, said.


    ¡°Oh yeah, we don¡¯t want that. If you puke, I¡¯ll puke, and it¡¯ll become a whole thing.¡± Beth looked at me like she totally understood where I was coming from as she nodded at my words


    There was another room with a partially collapsed doorway adjacent to the door I¡¯d first entered through. I looked through the doorway into the room, and the room inside seemed mostly intact. There were definitely some pieces of the ceiling lying on the floor. Everything in the room looked like someone had put them in a cocktail shaker, shaken them up, and then poured them back into the room. The place looked like it had been some kind of clothing store before the end or, well, the integration.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we talk in here, you guys? Looks like we¡¯ll be good. The ceiling looks fine, mostly. Think it¡¯s as good as we¡¯re gonna get.¡±


    The trio all nodded, and the four of us made our way into the small room. Once we were all in the room, they all stared at me like, so what now? I decided now would be a good time to offer these guys some water. I gave them two bottles to split from my total of four. I had drank about half of one bottle, leaving one full bottle and the partial I¡¯d been sipping from. Dam, I was going to have to restock sooner than I thought. Beth was the first to speak,


    ¡°So, do you know what¡¯s going on out there? We just thought we finally got the big one.¡±


    ¡°I know, yeah, I thought the same thing. I don¡¯t really know how to tell you this, but, well¡­you didn¡¯t see any signs?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°No, what signs?¡± Janet said.


    ¡°There are signs posted on every other corner,¡± I told her.


    ¡°Guess we missed them, but why the fuck are you talking about some signs? Are they from the government?¡± Beth said.


    ¡°I guess you could say that. Well, ¡°A¡± government, I think. Now this is gonna sound fucking weird, but okay, here it goes.¡± I answered her, then took a deep breath and blew it out, letting my cheeks puff out.


    ¡°Well, so, we¡¯ve been integrated into the greater systems. Aliens came down to our planet, fucking terraformed it over fucking night, then took off. Now there¡¯s apparently Mana and fucking stats, and we¡¯re like all in a fucking game or some shit. But it¡¯s not a fucking game. It¡¯s all fucking real life, and we¡¯re all fucking indentured servants and owe a fuck ton of money to some company, The Slag, or something. Fuck! That¡¯s most of it, I think, my bad, but yeah, that¡¯s pretty much the long and short of it.¡± I finished and blew a breath out.


    They all looked at me. I mean they stared at me for like a good ten seconds before Tom threw his head back and laughed.


    ¡°Are you shitting me? The world ends, we get attacked, and the guy who saves us is a crazy person! Goddamnit! Goddammit, isn¡¯t this my luck!?¡± Tom said.


    ¡°Oh, apparently, that¡¯s a stat,¡± I told him.


    ¡°What the fuck? I hate to break it to you, kid. This isn¡¯t a game world. There are no second chances, no reset button. My son would be fucking here if that was true.¡± Tom said and started to look pissed at me. Like I killed his fucking son.


    ¡°I know it sounds fucking stupid, man, and when I said it aloud, I felt stupid saying it. You know what? You don¡¯t have to fucking believe me. All you gotta say is stat sheet.¡± As I said it, my stat sheet popped up in my face. ¡°Goddammit!¡± I waved it away.


    They looked at me like I was fucking crazy, swinging at midair like that. ¡°Well, go on, just say it. You¡¯ll fucking see what I¡¯m talking about and won¡¯t look at me like I¡¯m fucking crazy. I already feel fucking crazy enough with what I¡¯ve been dealing with recently. Don¡¯t need you guys looking at me like I¡¯m insane.¡±


    Beth looked at her family and said, ¡°Stat Sheet.¡± And her eyes went wide. She took a step backward and almost fell over. She reacted better than I did the first time I saw that kill notification, didn¡¯t fall on her ass.


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    ¡°Holy shit, Dad, check this out. The guy wasn¡¯t lying! I¡¯m a Level 1 Human, and it says my stats, and that¡¯s it.¡±


    ¡°Seriously, don¡¯t mess with me right now, Beth.¡±


    ¡°Dad. Check this out.¡± Said Beth


    ¡°Fine,¡± Tom grumbled and said, ¡°Stat Sheet.¡±


    Tom did fall over and landed on his ass. That made me feel a little better. Until he let out a small yelp of pain. Oh, fuck, right, his leg was broken or something. Janet reached him the fastest. She bent down and helped Tom find a place to sit. Beth looked at her father with concern clear on her face. Tom, Janet, and Beth had a full freak-out session for about 20 minutes. At one point, they were all yelling different things at me, and I¡¯m pretty sure they weren¡¯t actually questions. Just bursts of anger redirected at me. It felt weirdly good, like I was dealing with this whole thing better than they were. After a while, it got quiet. Everyone seemed to be contemplating some deep shit in their heads.


    I decided to check on the blinking exclamation mark in the corner of my vision.


    ¡°Level up! Congratulations, you were Level 4, and now you¡¯re Level 5! Three stat points have been awarded. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer.¡±


    I pulled up my stat sheet. It turned out I could just think the words ¡°Stat Sheet¡± with intent, and my stat sheet would pop up. There was probably some other shit like that I¡¯d have to figure out on my own. Maybe I¡¯d have to spend some time trying a few different mental commands and see if anything else would happen.


    I had three free points to spend and noticed there was a new tab at the top of my sheet. It said, ¡°Battle Log.¡± That was new. Well, maybe it was there earlier, but I was definitely way too excited about getting stat points for the first time. I totally could have missed that.


    I focused on the Battle log tab, and a new page popped open. It no longer displayed my stat sheet but had a bunch of different entries. ¡°You have killed Level One Human¡± was the first entry. The one below read I did damage with a punch, and it did critical damage to a vital area. I scrolled through the list of entries, and there was an entry in the log that read, you take 35 damage from Tarzackien Death Wolf. Okay, so it was like a log of all attacks and damage during the times I was in combat.


    Oh, and it turned out the blackberry bush was actually called a mutated European blackberry bush. I assumed it was a ninja turtle-like mutation, not a natural mutation over hundreds and thousands of years. If that was the case, then Bebop and Rocksteady were genuine possibilities.


    Stay away from farms for a while. No hunting for chicken eggs. Ha, oh, and that thought led me down a dark path thinking about mutated chickens. They would probably have a lot of aggression towards humans built up over the years. Yikes!


    ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± Beth asked me.


    ¡°Huh? Who me?¡± I said, a little startled by Beth¡¯s words while I was lost in my sheets.


    ¡°Yeah, it looks like you¡¯re looking at something I can¡¯t see, so I assume you¡¯re checking out your stat sheet,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Oh yeah, I unlocked an aspect called Battle Log. Apparently, when you¡¯re in combat, it keeps track of everything that¡¯s happening as a sort of record for you, I guess. Kind of useful, actually. At least I figured out the name of this thing that attacked me earlier.¡±


    ¡°You got attacked?¡± Beth asked concern showing on her face.


    ¡°Oh yeah, I got fucked up by a blackberry bush. I was running from some wolves, and these were like fucking massive, undead wolves, demented and shit. Super creepy!


    I hid in this blackberry bush, and it fucking started trying to kill me.¡± She looked at me open-mouthed. Guess I didn¡¯t really realize how crazy that story was until I said it out loud.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± She finally said after a little bit.


    ¡°Yeah, my foot is fucked up, but I cleaned it out and wrapped it, so hopefully it¡¯ll start to heal up. Who knows, if this world is anything like video games, then maybe putting points in Constitution might actually help me heal faster.¡±


    I did have three stat points to use. Maybe I should try my theory out? Beth had said something, and I missed it, caught up in my own thoughts. ¡°What was that?¡± I said.


    ¡°What are you gonna do now?¡±


    ¡°Now?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I was just wondering what your actual plan was. I just mean, it seems like it¡¯s getting later. Were you planning on staying here for the night?¡±


    I thought about it for a second. I guess this was shelter, but that fucker did run off, and that guy knows where we are. If we stayed here, he might come back in the night, maybe bring a friend. Either way, it could be a bad place to stay for the night.


    I mentioned as much to Beth, and by that time, Tom and Janet were both paying attention to our conversation.


    ¡°Shit. He¡¯s right. Look, maybe there¡¯s a house across the street or something around here where we can stay that¡¯s close by.¡± Tom said. I nodded. It really looked like Tom couldn¡¯t make it very far.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t I go scout it out? You guys stay here. I¡¯ll come back and get you when I find a place. Sound good?¡± Beth looked at me with a wary look in her eyes.


    ¡°Look, we¡¯re obviously in a fragile situation. You could¡¯ve easily taken advantage of us, and you didn¡¯t, so I appreciate that. A little help, however, in our time of need would be greatly appreciated. I know we¡¯re strangers, but¡­ fuck look at my dad, look at his knee. If we get attacked again, we¡¯re totally fucked.¡±


    She was laying it all on the table. She recognized the perilousness of their situation and that I was probably the only person going to help them out. I could respect that level of honesty and vulnerability after what they¡¯d just been through.


    ¡°we¡¯re begging you, please help us,¡± Tom said, and then he got down on his knees, and Janet joined him. I ran over and helped them get back on their feet.


    ¡°Fuck! Okay, hey, get up, stop that. Your fucking weirding me out. Okay, I¡¯ll help you out. I promise I won¡¯t take off, geez. I really will go find us a place to stay for the night and come back.¡± Janet spoke up for the first time during this conversation.


    ¡°I think it would be safer if we all stayed together now.¡± I was a little overwhelmed by Tom and Janet¡¯s begging, and I just said, ¡°Fuck it, fine, let¡¯s all stick together.¡± Janet squeezed Tom¡¯s arm, and Tom gave her a small grin.


    ¡°Fine. If we¡¯re all going to go together, we should probably head out sooner than later. Don¡¯t wanna be looking for a place to stay in the dark. Sounds like a pretty good way to get killed.¡±


    ¡°I would have to agree,¡± said Tom, and the two women nodded. We all got our shit together. I gave the two women my blankets. It looked like they needed them, but Beth gave hers to her dad. She said he needed it more than her. We headed out into the street. I poked my head out of the door first, just to make sure we weren¡¯t going to walk into a street full of fucking monsters.


    The street was clear. I waved for the three to follow. We stayed as close to the burnt-out buildings as possible, trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible. The sun was going down, and we probably had no more than two or three hours till sunset. We went another three blocks, and I kept moving in the general direction of the hills. I figured my eventual goal was still to make it up there. We found a house where the second floor hadn¡¯t collapsed. The first floor was a mess, and the stairs were trashed, but there was a fire escape outside the building that was still climbable. I told the three to wait out in the street while I went and checked it out.


    Beth didn¡¯t like that and decided to follow me anyway. I didn¡¯t care if she wanted to come. That was her business. We made it up to the second floor and looked through the window. It seemed empty. Totally fucked up like every other house we¡¯d seen, but the floor looked okay. It didn¡¯t look like it was gonna cave through. I took my first cautious steps through the window and tested the floor.


    It took my weight easily, so I climbed through the window the rest of the way, landing on hardwood floors. Like I said, shit was everywhere. There was one hole in the floor in the corner of the room, but that was about it. I was in a large living room-type area with several doors leading to other rooms and a hallway to one side. Beth slid through the window behind me, landing on the floor. She managed to land without making a sound, which I definitely appreciated.


    I was thankful for that. The last thing we needed was to alert anything that was living in here that we were coming to fuck with its shit. I put my finger to my lips, indicating Beth to be quiet. She rolled her eyes at me and mouthed, ¡°Of course.¡± I lifted my arms, waved with my wrists up and down in a calm-down kind of way, and raised my eyebrows. She just rolled her eyes again. I turned around and slowly made my way over to the closest door.


    I opened the door slowly and looked inside. It looked like an office. Well, at least everything on the floor looked like shit that you would find in someone¡¯s home office. I left the door open and then made my way to the next door. This was the master bedroom. The bed had partially fallen through the floor, but we could still grab the mattress if we wanted to. We would just have to clear all the bits of ceiling off first. That was fine.


    There was an en suite, but that was completely fucked up. Looked like the third floor had fallen into it. I returned to the living room and saw Beth give me the thumbs up with a questioning look on her face. I gave her the thumbs up with a smile and then made my way to the next door. This had been the kitchen at the front end of the house. I opened the door and took a step through the opening. Fuck! Holy shit! My eyes went wide, and I frantically reached for the door frame behind me. I managed to catch it and pull myself back through the doorway.


    The only thing that let me know it had been the kitchen was the black and white tiles that still clung to the first five inches of floor that remained. The rest of the room and house were just gone. That was fucking close. I looked back, and Beth was grabbing my shirt¡¯s back. Her eyes were wide, and she was breathing heavy shit. She¡¯d obviously dashed across the room when she saw me start to fall.


    ¡°Thanks¡±, I said. ¡°I think I¡¯m okay now. You can let go.¡± She jerked her hand from my shirt. She looked slightly embarrassed. ¡°I appreciate it. I almost took a tumble there.¡± She gave me a small smile. Still breathing heavily, she managed to get out between breaths,


    ¡°Fucking idiot.¡±


    ¡°I know, I know, I¡¯m sorry. I should¡¯ve been more careful.¡± She nodded and managed to catch her breath a second later. We walked over to the hallway together, but as we stepped closer, we realized it only continued for about five feet. It ended in a piece of the roof that had broken through the ceiling. ¡°I think we¡¯ll be pretty safe here. We¡¯ll keep any noise to a minimum, and maybe we can make it up to the hills after your dad has rested a little bit, maybe a day or two.


    We¡¯ll also need to find more food and water by then. We don¡¯t have much food left, and it doesn¡¯t look like we¡¯re going to find much in that department here.¡±


    ¡°True. Sounds like a plan to me,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go get your dad and Janet,¡± I told her.


    ¡°Thanks, yeah, I don¡¯t wanna leave them down there for too much longer.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I was thinking.¡± It had only been five minutes, but Tom was hurt, and I didn¡¯t see Janet punching a rabbit creature in the face. As we returned to the window, I stepped out onto the fire escape and froze. I pulled myself back inside. Beth looked at me questioningly, then terrified. She saw my face and went to push past me to get out the window. I grabbed her, put my hand over her mouth, and wrapped my arm around her. I said softly but frantically in her ear, ¡°Stop. I¡¯m not gonna hurt you. I¡¯m just trying to stop you from making a horrible mistake. I¡¯m gonna tell you what¡¯s happening, but you have to promise me you¡¯re not gonna freak.¡± She didn¡¯t nod or anything, just stopped struggling for a second to listen.


    Janet and your dad are surrounded by a bunch of those rabbit things. Beth¡¯s eyes widened, if possible, and Beth went into full panic mode. She tried to bite the hand that I was holding over her mouth and scratching at me to pull out of my grip. With my 16 fucking Strength, and her being Level One, there was really nothing she could do. She wasn¡¯t going anywhere.


    I kept telling myself I was trying to save her life. I¡¯m trying to save her life. After about 15 seconds, Beth was still fighting like mad to get out of my grip. We heard Tom scream, and I just kind of let her go. She broke out of my arms and ran out onto the fire escape. She started running down the stairs. Fuck! Was I just gonna let her die? They were all Level One. At least I was Level Five and could probably do something, but those bunny creatures freaked me out. Hell, I didn¡¯t even know if I could actually do anything.


    If they were level fucking ten, they could eat me in one second! What if I jump down there, the hero comes to save the day, and they¡¯re all already fucking dead. At that moment, I heard Beth yell, ¡°Dad, I¡¯m coming. Hang on.¡± That kind of snapped me out of my frozen state. I jumped out the window down the fire escape, and to my shock, Janet was punching a bunny in the face. She had it held down and was punching it repeatedly in the face.


    Another bunny was biting at her ankle, and she was kicking at it. On the other hand, Beth was kicking bunnies left and right, but they were jumping on her and taking bites out of her. Tom was on the ground behind them. It looked like he didn¡¯t have a bite on him. Janet and Beth were fighting back, and I waded into the fray. When a bunny jumped right at my face, I punched it, and the damn thing basically popped. I got splashed all over my face with blood. It even got in my mouth, and I had to wipe my eyes clean. I stood there shocked for a second until I heard Tom screaming again.

 Chapter 4 - Big pointy teeth

    Chapter 4


    Big pointy teeth


    There were three bunnies around him now. Beth was occupied, and Janet was doing a little worse for the wear. It looked like she finally killed the one bunny, but the others had taken advantage of the situation and were taking little chunks out of her. I was closest to Tom, so I kicked two of the bunnies that were around him, and they exploded. The other one ran away, so I said fuck it and turned to Beth. She was the next closest.


    There was a bunny jumping at her face. I ran over, grabbed it out of the air, and slammed it into the ground. Its spine broke, and the thing stopped moving. Beth was holding another one that was struggling in her hands, biting her arms. I grabbed it and slammed it into the ground, dead again, next. Beth looked at me with thankful eyes, then ran over to her father. I ran over to Janet, and in the time it took me to help Tom and Beth, Janet had really been the one to suffer.


    She had almost lost her foot and was non-responsive on the ground, bleeding. I stomped down on the bunny that was still chewing on her foot, killing it instantly. I grabbed another of the two bunnies that were chewing on her arm. The other one ran away. I brought my fist into my hand, the hand I was holding the struggling bunny with, and fist met bunny, met palm in a bloody mess.


    Another dead bunny. I grabbed Janet and threw her over my shoulder. I turned back towards Beth, and the bunny that had run away came back and attacked Tom. Beth was trying to fight it off the best she could, but the bunny was dodging her and taking bites out of Tom. I ran over with Janet on my shoulder and gave my best football field goal kick, and the bunny splattered against the wall. I bent down, picked up Tom, threw him over my other shoulder, and started climbing up the fire escape. Beth was right on my heels.


    We got to the second level, and Beth jumped through the window. I passed Beth, her father, and then passed her Janet. I was really worried about Janet. She¡¯d almost lost her foot, and that looked like a lot of blood on the ground where she had been lying. I really didn¡¯t know if she was gonna make it. Once we were all inside, I closed the window as much as I could. Me and Beth started trying to treat Tom and Janet the best we could.


    I pulled off my belt and used it as a tourniquet on Janet¡¯s leg. It definitely slowed the bleeding and almost stopped it completely. Her breathing got a little deeper and slower after we did that. We hadn¡¯t seen any really obvious wounds on Tom. His shirt was covered in blood, and he was close to passing out, but Janet had seemed far worse at first glance. Her foot was fucked up, and it was clear she had lost a lot of blood. so we thought Tom would be okay for a second. But Tom was wide-eyed. His breathing was shallow and rapid. His eyes were looking everywhere as if he couldn¡¯t see anything. He was calling for Beth by the time we finished helping Janet.


    Beth ran over and laid a hand on his chest when she realized how bad he was doing. His clothes were slowly soaking with blood. At that moment, he coughed, and a lot of blood shot out of his mouth and landed on his chest. We propped his head up and checked him over. He had a ton of small bites all over him, and one of the rabbits had torn an artery. We hadn¡¯t realized it at first, but now it seemed like he might not make it.


    Beth took the blanket from the floor next to her and tried to stop the bleeding. She looked at me, eyes pleading for help, but I just sat there. There was so much blood it was everywhere, and there were so many bites. Her eyes filled with rage and sadness. She was pleading with him to stay with her. An hour later, Beth came out of the office. She wouldn¡¯t meet my eyes.


    ¡°Beth, I¡¯m sorry there was just¡­ there was just nothing we could do.¡±


    Her head snapped up at me, eyes burning. ¡°Well, at least I tried. You just sat there.¡± I held her gaze for a few seconds, but it got too hard, and I looked away. Some part of me thought she was right, but another part told me it wouldn¡¯t have changed anything.


    We cleaned Janet''s wounds with some of the alcohol and wrapped them in gauze. Janet was pretty lucky other than her foot being fucked. All the other injuries on her body were pretty much surface level, except the one on her arm. They had taken a good chunk out of it, so we treated that with alcohol and wrapped it too. Beth would work with me and help me wrap and treat Janet''s wounds, but she wouldn¡¯t talk to me. When we were done, she walked over and sat next to Janet. She didn¡¯t give me a second look, just gave off that fuck you aura. So, I left them in the living room. I went into the master and started pulling the mattress off the bed. I managed to get it off fairly easily and pulled off the sheets that were torn and covered in dust. I brought the mattress out to the living room. Beth looked up when she noticed me, and she helped me get the mattress over next to Janet, and together we lifted her onto the mattress.


    Beth lay next to her, and in 20 minutes, she was asleep. They must¡¯ve been exhausted. Fighting for your life can really do that to you, at least in my experience¡­ a relatively new experience. Out of nowhere, my belly rumbled. Guess it¡¯s time to eat. I looked around and found a sharp piece of metal lying on the floor.


    It was probably a piece of piping or something. I pulled out a can of chili and slammed my impromptu can opener into the top of the can, spun the can 180 degrees, and did it again, making two holes in the top of the can. It would be nice to have hot chili, but I don¡¯t know how the fuck I¡¯m gonna light a fire in here, and I¡¯m hungry, that¡¯s it, we¡¯re eating this cold, so that¡¯s what I did.


    Beth woke up an hour later, and I gave her a can. She said, ¡°Thanks.¡± But her eyes were cold. She didn¡¯t look as mad at me anymore, just wrung out, like she¡¯d just reached her breaking point and couldn¡¯t really take it anymore. I think we all were going to get there at some point. Hopefully, I can hold it together for a little while longer before I have my freak-out. Sure, it was coming, but so far, I was doing okay, honestly. With all the adrenaline pumping through my system from what had just gone down, I was having some trouble falling asleep.


    I just kept thinking about how I had destroyed those bunnies. I¡¯m sure those other people who have been killed by the bunnies on the corner didn¡¯t just let themselves die. I¡¯m sure they¡¯d fought back. I remembered my stats and my level¡­I guess I¡¯m gonna have to get used to going up against terrifying monsters at some point.


    I already have, but I realize I might actually be able to kill some of them. It¡¯s very possible in the near future, I could punch a brick wall, and I might fuck up the bricks. That¡¯s gonna be hard to get over, my idea of previous human limitations, that is. Then, that made me think about how I¡¯d held Beth back from helping her father.


    The first thought that had gone through my head had been, if we go down there, we¡¯re gonna die. We¡¯d just be throwing ourselves to the slaughter. That hadn¡¯t been the case. I actually got down there and started fighting, whipped the shit out of those bunnies. The only thing is to work on that fear. Hopefully, it¡¯ll start to go away the more I fight.


    Fuck! I¡¯m gonna have to fight more, kill more things, more monsters, and put myself in more dangerous situations. That was the only way I saw myself surviving. At some point, I fell asleep. It was hard to ignore the flashing exclamation mark in the corner of my vision, but I just didn¡¯t have the energy to go through my notifications right then. I jerked awake as Beth touched my arm to wake me up. That was enough now to send my nerves spinning, especially from a dead sleep. She jumped back, and once I realized what was going on, I told her I was sorry. ¡°My bad, Beth.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, All good,¡±she said. She gave me a thumbs up in the international sign for all good, no danger. I smiled.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?" I asked her as I whipped my eyes clear of sleep.


    ¡°Not much. Janet seems to be getting a little better. She¡¯s not as hot, and her breathing has been getting deeper and steadier.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good,¡± I told her.


    ¡°I got a notification,¡± She said.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked her if I was still waking up and had missed what she said.


    ¡°I got a notification about those bunnies. Says my temporary party killed savage ripper bunnies, but I didn¡¯t kill anything. I looked at my Battle Log, and it just says something about forming a temporary party. Why did I get experience?¡±


    I looked at her blankly for a second and blinked a couple of times before what she said registered. I popped open my stat sheet and checked out my Battle Log. Sure enough, at one point down the list, it read, You have formed a temporary party.


    You will confirm this temporary party by default, but you may leave at any time. To make this an official party, open the party tab, now available as a tab on your stat sheet.


    ¡°Okay, I think I figured it out. We formed a temporary party by default, apparently. You probably share experience when you¡¯re in a temporary party. How much experience did you get? Well, it looks like we formed the party after I killed those bunnies. You didn¡¯t get experience for that, did you?¡±


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because we fought together?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±Beth nodded.


    "That¡¯s what I¡¯m starting to think.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, makes sense¡±, I said.


    ¡°So, wait, how much XP did you actually get?¡±


    ¡°I got 60¡±, Beth said. I checked my kill notifications, and I had killed seven of the bunnies.


    ¡°The savage ripper bunnies were Level 3, and I got 75 XP per kill. But the numbers didn¡¯t add up. Looks like I only got 360 XP instead of 525, which is what I should¡¯ve gotten for the seven bunnies. So yeah, we must have been cuz I definitely got less XP than I should have. If I add your XP to mine, it still doesn¡¯t add up to what I should have gotten.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Janet must have gotten 100 XP or something around that number. That¡¯s at least what I¡¯m missing if I add your XP into the equation. She also punched that one bunny to death, so she probably got something for that, too.¡±


    Beth nodded. ¡°Yeah, that makes sense as much as anything makes sense.¡± I smiled at her timidly. And she softly chuckled.


    The smile fell from my face. ¡°Look, Beth, about your dad¡­¡± Her body language got chilly, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. She stared off into the distance for a moment, and then another moment, and then she met my eyes. Tears were falling, and I don¡¯t think she realized it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really blame you. There¡¯s nothing you can do, nothing you could do, nothing I could do, nothing anyone could do. I still think part of me hates you, though." I thought about that for a second, and Beth just stared at the floor.


    ¡°Honestly, I can live with that, I had fucked up. I really did. I let my fear get the better of me, and it got somebody killed.¡± Inside, I don¡¯t think I wanted her to forgive me. I looked at Beth. ¡°That¡¯s fine, Beth. You can hate me. I think you should probably hate me. I don¡¯t think I forgive myself yet.¡±


    She looked at me with what seemed to be a little confusion on her face, but she didn¡¯t say anything else about it, and we moved on from that topic. Janet started waking up about an hour after that. Me and Beth had been looking around the apartment for anything we could salvage, but there wasn''t much that we could save. Shortly after Janet woke up, she started coughing.


    We had drunk most of the water, but there was still one left of the four I¡¯d started with. Janet drank deeply, spluttered a little, then drank a little more. She looked around a little bleary-eyed. I saw her register us and then try to talk, and I coughed, drank another sip of water, and managed to get out in a hoarse voice, "Where is Tom?¡± Beth¡¯s eyes started to water, and I saw that as my cue to give them a moment to themselves.


    A little bit later, Janet started crying. I think Beth must have told her to be quiet because she was muffling her sobs. Beth reached out, holding her. Janet cried for a little while but eventually stopped. Then she noticed her foot was in bad shape and started up all over again. At one point, while I was busying myself with my backpack, I overheard Janet say,


    ¡°I¡¯m just dead weight! I¡¯m basically dead already¡­just leave me here.¡± Her words and sobs started to get louder and more frantic. Beth looked over at me finally, she was looking like she needed some help calming Janet down.


    I walked over to the two of them and crouched down next to the mattress. ¡°Hey, hey, hey, Janet, get a hold of yourself. Stop, stop crying. I¡¯m not gonna leave you behind. Me and Beth aren¡¯t gonna leave you behind. And I consider you a valuable member of this team. Hell, I saw you punching that bunny in the fucking face. You¡¯re a badass, Janet. We need you around.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need me. I was really useless in that fight¡±, Janet said, and looked like she was about to start crying again.


    ¡°That¡¯s not true. Why don¡¯t you check your stat sheet.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Janet, just check your stats sheet. I think you¡¯ll see what I¡¯m talking about.¡±


    Janet looked at me for a second and then said, ¡°Stat Sheet.¡± I saw her eyes tracking something I couldn¡¯t see floating in the air. ¡°Okay, you should have a tab near the top that says, ¡°Battle Log.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I see it.¡±


    ¡°Great! Focus on it for a second.¡± The bridge of her nose scrunched up a little, and I could tell she was really concentrating. Then her eyebrows went up.


    ¡°Oh, it opened up a new page, and there¡¯s a lot of entries, and a lot of these are about me punching the bunny in the face and dealing damage.¡±


    ¡°OK, cool, start looking down the list. Do you see anything that says, the temporary party joined?¡±


    ¡°One second, I¡¯m so sorry, Travis. My head is killing me, and I can¡¯t focus with this flashing exclamation mark in the corner of my vision.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right, you probably got a kill notification for that bunny you killed. Why don¡¯t you focus on it? If you open them up, it¡¯ll stop flashing.¡±


    ¡°Oh, thank God!¡± Janet said.


    The bridge of her nose was scrunching up again. It says level up. I looked at Janet for a second. ¡°Oh, how much experience did you get?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Where do I go to find that out? Can¡¯t we just deal with the next notification first? And the wording of these props is vile.¡±


    "I know, we¡¯ll deal with that later. What¡¯s your next notification?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a kill notification, and that¡¯s my last one.¡±


    ¡°Ewe, gross, those things were called savage ripper bunnies? That¡¯s so creepy.¡± Janet had another sip of water and then said she needed to lie down a little longer. We checked on her bandages, and her foot was already healing up a little bit, which seemed weird, a little too fast. I decided to check my foot, and yeah, it was pretty much healed up, too. It looked like it had already been healing for 2 to 3 weeks.


    ¡°I guess there really is magic now,¡± I said out loud quietly. Beth was close enough to hear. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± she said.


    ¡°Nothing much. I just noticed my foot that got fucked up yesterday already looks like it¡¯s been healing for like 2 to 3 weeks.¡± Beth¡¯s eyes opened a little bit,


    ¡°That¡¯s kind of amazing.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, look at Janet¡¯s foot. There¡¯s already skin starting to regrow.¡± Beth did. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right, that¡¯s way too quick. Good to know that if we get hurt, we might just take a couple of days rest to get back on your feet from an injury that would¡¯ve put you down for a month or more, back a couple of days ago,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°True, my working theory right now is that it¡¯s linked to Constitution in some way. Maybe the higher your Constitution, the faster you heal or something like that.¡±


    Beth tilted her head to the side, ¡°Maybe, at least it sounds plausible.¡± Turned out that she had played a couple of games in her youth. She thought it might be linked to your health pool''s total size, but she had to admit that faster healing seemed to fall under similar boundaries. I think me and Beth both started to get a little bored waiting for Janet to get up again. We understood she needed to get some good rest, but it was fucking boring.


    Beth started walking around the apartment and cleaning it up, well honestly, just piling most of the shit in one corner, so at least there was a little more livable space. While she was doing that, I decided to check out my stat sheet and smacked myself in the forehead. Beth looked over at me, but I waved her off. Beth had totally distracted me the last time I was looking at my stat sheet, and I had totally forgotten to spend my three stat points.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 5


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 1,560/1,970 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Strength: 16


    Dexterity: 12


    Intelligence: 14


    Wisdom: 12


    Constitution: 14


    Luck: 11


    Okay, let¡¯s see what points I¡¯m putting where today. Strength is always an excellent choice, but that idea about Constitution definitely sounded interesting, if it would heal my foot up faster. It had started to itch a little while ago, and I knew that meant it was healing, but fuck, it sucked. I was definitely a scab picker. Couldn¡¯t stand that fucking itchy shit, so my foot had been sort of driving me crazy. I put 2 points in Constitution and 1 in Strength, so I¡¯d test out my theory a little and add a little bit to my Strength because why the fuck not? That¡¯s when I realized I never checked how much Health, Mana, and Stamina I had. Well, I remembered one way to do that. I thought status check. I thought about the words with intent.


    A red, blue, and yellow bar populated in the upper left-hand corner of my vision. It said I was at 270/280 HP, Mana was 260/260, and Stamina was at 240/240. It disappeared after about two or three seconds. That was good to know. I feel like I¡¯ve been caught up in so much craziness recently I didn¡¯t have time for any of this shit. It was probably all really important to figure out sooner than later, too.


    I close my stat sheet and wander over to help Beth. We worked for about another two hours, then split a can of chili. Around that time, Janet woke up, smelled the chili, and asked if she could have some. I told her it was cold, but she said she was too hungry to care.


    I opened my last can of chili for her, and she scarfed it down. We were definitely gonna have to find more food soon. It was around noon, I figured. So, we had half a day left. We had spent two days here so far, and this was the start of our third day in this spot. We knew we were going to have to find a new spot sooner or later. It just wasn¡¯t a place I wanted to make a home base. I really wanted to make it up to the hills and really get a good look at how fucked we all were. As it stands right now, we would probably need to try to head back to that grocery store to get food today. I mentioned it to Beth, and she was quite sure there was a grocery store closer than the one I had been to a few days earlier. She thought it was probably only two blocks away.


    I liked her idea, and we made a plan to head out. Luckily, our trip to the grocery store was pretty uneventful. We took our time and were extra cautious so as not to draw any attention to ourselves. We had to hide several times due to packs of savage ripper bunnies wandering the streets. I had shown that I could fuck these bunnies up if I wanted, but getting overwhelmed by twenty of the fuckers was a risk I wasn¡¯t willing to take.


    We had made it in, found some water, canned food, and some other supplies, and had gotten back to the apartment in what I thought was a good time. It probably took us two hours at most, but our nerves had been on ten the whole time. Beth looked wrung out again. I¡¯m sure she was just emotionally exhausted. Janet had fallen asleep while we were out. When we got back, she woke up, ate some more food, and rehydrated. Beth pretty much passed out after that. Me and Janet stayed up for a little bit and I helped her allocate her stat points. She had started with¡­


    Janet Katz Stat Sheet


    Level: 2


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 145/150XP till next Level.


    Strength: 9


    Dexterity: 12


    Intelligence: 15


    Wisdom: 13


    Constitution: 9


    Luck: 7


    After that, she laid back down. She definitely had color returning to her face. She almost looked like she hadn¡¯t just been attacked by Savage Ripper Bunnies two days before, so that was good. I was worried about Beth. She didn¡¯t have many physical injuries, but her emotional state, I¡¯m sure, was pretty fucked up right now. Since both girls were asleep, I pulled out my deck of cards and played a bunch of solitaire. I stayed up till about two in the morning and only knew that because Beth woke up around then and told me so.


    She also said that she couldn¡¯t sleep anymore. She didn¡¯t say anything, but it seemed like she might be having bad dreams, nightmares, and stuff like that. We hadn¡¯t officially decided to set up a watch schedule for the night and probably should¡¯ve set one up before, but we were all so dead tired and emotionally drained after Tom died. I guess it was good that one of us would be up, at least. Maybe we¡¯d get to see what monster was gonna eat us before it did.


    I went to sleep a little easier, knowing that Beth was up. In the back of my head, there was a little voice that kept warning me not to fall asleep¡­she¡¯s gonna cut your fucking dick off. Don¡¯t do it, don¡¯t pass out. She straight up told you that part of her hates you. Are you sure you¡¯re cool? I mean, you just met this woman, and you don¡¯t know what she¡¯s like.


    She could totally snap and cut my dick off. I like my dick. I like my dick a lot! I passed out finally and ended up dreaming that a monster bit my dick off, and I chased it around all over the place screaming, ¡°Just give me my dick back. I promise I won¡¯t kill you. Just give it back!¡± And the monster did, not, give, a fuck. It just kept running away from me, my dick in its mouth, hanging out the side, flapping in the wind.


    I woke up to the smell of beans cooking¡­hot beans, like, not cold. My nose wiggled, and my eyes opened. ¡°That smells good. How did you get a fire going?¡± "Morning Travis, I grabbed a pack of Sterno while we were at the grocery store and found a lighter in one of the registers, so I decided to heat up a can of beans for breakfast. Says they¡¯ve got bacon in them too.¡±


    ¡°Amazing! Love me some bacon." I said. I got up and walked over. Beth looked at me and smiled,


    ¡°Who doesn¡¯t love bacon?


    I nodded sagely. ¡°Very wise, young Beth. Wise you are beyond your years.¡± I said it in kind of like an Obi-Wan Kenobi voice. Beth let out a small laugh.


    ¡°Was that supposed to be like a Star Wars thing? You suck at that. You¡¯re horrible at impressions.¡±


    I continued talking to Beth while she finished up breakfast. Janet woke up when it was almost done, and she actually hobbled over to join us at our little impromptu dining table that Beth had set up. When breakfast was ready, we all had some bacon and beans on pieces of broken tile. Beth had decided to use them as plates.


    After a little breakfast, the mood got a little more somber. We decided we were gonna have to head out before it got too late in the day if we were going to head out today. Beth didn¡¯t want to leave her dad there, but we really couldn¡¯t take him with us. We had a small memorial service. Beth and Janet both cried and talked about Tom for a little bit and then we headed out.

 Chapter 5 - Tree House

    Chapter 5


    Tree house


    Beth had found a duffel bag, and we were using that now, as well as the kid''s backpack I had found earlier. So, the order of our little ragtag group was me in front with the duffel bag slung over my shoulders, Janet in the middle. We had made her some crutches so she could keep up. She was hobbling along pretty well. Beth was bringing up the rear with the backpack over one shoulder. I had given her the bandleader baton I¡¯d found in the music shop, and I could tell she appreciated having a weapon.


    We had been walking for about three hours, had hidden from two packs of those crazy Savage Ripper Bunnies, a pack of wolves, and made it to what looked like must have been the Claremont Hotel. I guess we¡¯d been walking up Claremont Avenue this whole time. Damn, my sense of direction was totally thrown off, but that kind of helped me get my bearings.


    The Claremont had been a fancy hotel before the integration. It didn¡¯t look like many of the buildings had survived, but the fences were still up, and it probably would be a great base camp if it wasn¡¯t taken already. Now, an occupied Claremont could work out for us if they were friendly. My experience in this post-integration world was that if there were people in there, they were more than likely people we did not want to meet.


    As we got a little closer to the Claremont Hotel, I gestured for the women to follow me to the gas station across the street.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why are we stopping?¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Does that look a little weird to you? Look at the hotel or what¡¯s left of it. Doesn¡¯t some of the fences look patched up, and the gate looks like somebody built a barricade in front of it.¡±


    ¡°You mean there might be people in there, other survivors?¡± Janet said and looked hopeful. Me and Beth looked at each other.


    ¡°I think there¡¯s probably people in there. They¡¯re probably survivors, just not necessarily the survivors we want to meet.¡±I said.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not so keen on blindly trusting anyone anymore after what happened to us the first time,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°That¡¯s kind of what I¡¯m thinking, too,¡± I said.


    Janet¡¯s face fell a little in disappointment. But she hardened her resolve a second later.


    ¡°Then, what do we do? What if they actually are good people who could help us, and we walk away because we¡¯re too scared to find out.¡±


    ¡°Is that a risk we¡¯re willing to take?¡± Beth interjected. I thought about it for a second, trying to think of what the best solution was.


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve got an idea. Let me know what you think. If one of us can get up in one of these trees, maybe we can see inside and find out what the fuck is going on. Now, if there¡¯s a ton of medical supplies in there, a bunch of blankets, and people on cots all laid out, then cool.


    We¡¯ll go up to the gate, and we ask for some help. If it¡¯s a whole different situation in there, then we get the fuck out of there, stick to the original plan, and make it to the hills.¡± They both thought about it for a second. Beth nodded her head in the affirmative, and Janet did the same a moment after as well.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got the highest Strength, and I climbed a few trees in my day before the whole integration. So, I don¡¯t mind doing it." They both agreed, and in the next minute, I was at the top of the tallest tree I could find, about 20 feet away from where the two women were still hiding. I could clearly see into the tennis courts and a little bit further into the hotel property.


    There were some retrofitted school buses that looked like they had plows mounted on the front. One of them had a gun sketchily mounted to the top. I kept looking around and saw a bunch of people walking up the driveway towards the hotel. Something shiny kept glinting off their hands, and I realized they were all chained together. This was bad. It was super bad. And I was definitely not McLovin¡¯ this situation.


    I shimmied down the tree. Enough puns for now. And ran back over to the women. I tried my pun on the women, and Janet just stared at me, not really understanding, and Beth called me an idiot.


    ¡°So, it¡¯s really that bad? Or were you just joking around for the sake of that stupid pun?¡± said Beth. I winced but told her,


    ¡°No, yeah, it¡¯s horrible in there. Like, I¡¯m pretty sure they got a full-on murder bus, and I saw a bunch of people in what looked like chains being led up to the hotel.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s horrible, what the fuck? And you were making a fucking joke about it?¡± Beth said.


    ¡°It was a good pun. I didn¡¯t wanna waste it.¡±


    ¡°You really are a moron¡±, said Beth. ¡°


    Okay, so yeah, great, I¡¯m a fucking Moron. Can we just get the fuck out of here now?¡±


    Just then, we all heard a loud scraping noise as the gate down the street from us began to open. We heard the roar of an engine getting louder.


    ¡°Fuck, we got a hide.¡±


    ¡°Did they see you?¡± Janet said.


    ¡°No, they didn¡¯t see me. I think they didn¡¯t see me.¡± Shit, did they see me? As we all ducked down between a fucked-up car and a wall, one of the murder buses ripped past us. There were five people on it, and they all looked like Mad Max cosplayers. What was their fucking deal?


    They¡¯d been waiting for the fucking apocalypse to hit and had all their Mad Max cosplay shit in a box under the bed? And When the shit hit the fan, they, like, squealed with joy and popped that shit on.


    They definitely hadn¡¯t seen us, but we definitely had to get the fuck out of there before someone did. It took us about thirty minutes to make our way slowly and safely around that crazy house of Mad Max enthusiasts. Now we¡¯re up at the top of Fish Ranch Road. It¡¯s a winding, stupid road, but it took us to the top of the hill pretty quickly. At that point, it was getting a little late, so we decided to head North down a road that scatted the top of hills with a great view of the bay. We had decided it was time to find a place to stay for the night.


    The first house we came across looked like it might be slightly safe enough to stay in, but it had blood and scratch marks on the door and walls. We thought it might be better to avoid that one. The second house we stopped at was where we ended up staying for the night. The top half of the house was even with the street, and all collapsed pretty much, but there was a downstairs around the back, and it was surprisingly good. There were no signs of any critters that have been staying there recently.


    we started to make ourselves at home. We started cleaning up the mess that was in the lower half of the house. We also started looking for anything we could salvage from the wreckage. Everything was going fine and dandy when Beth let out a short scream then she slammed her hand down over her mouth. Janet and I both turned to look at what was going on. I couldn''t see anything, and I don''t think Janet could either. She had the same confused look on her face that I assumed I had on mine.


    Beth was slowly backing up towards us. I mean, I just met Beth, but she didn¡¯t seem like the type to freak out over nothing. Something scared her, and I didn''t think Janet or I were going to be less than overcautious now, so we both just stood still as Beth headed towards us slowly. When she reached us, her eyes were wide, and her face was pale. I started to ask her what was going on when the window and wall in front of us exploded inward towards us.


    ¡°Bear!¡± That was all I heard Beth say before the crashing of broken glass and the shattering of lumber filled the air. ¡°Fuck¡± I screamed as wood and glass shards cut into my body. Before the dust could fully clear, I looked around, and I could see Beth and Janet nearby, dazed but alive. Next, I looked over to what had once been a bay of windows and a wall. There was a bear in the room looking around as if trying to find something. I gulped at that. It was probably looking for us.


    I tried to think of what I could do. There had to be a way out of this. The bear was sniffing the air, but as I watched it move around a bit, it looked like it was drunk. Then I saw its eyes. They were bright yellow. Its eyes were glowing a sickly yellow. It looked wrong like something fucked this bear up. Oh fuck, is there space rabies? That would totally suck. The last thing we needed to run into was a rabid bear.


    I looked over at Beth and Janet, and they were looking at me with what the fuck are we going to do looks on their faces. I slowly and quietly crawled over to the woman. I almost fucked us when my foot hit a piece of wood that then slipped and made a little noise. I froze, but the bear''s head had already snapped up, and it took a few steps forward, smelling the air. Then it let out a terrifying road that almost had me shitting my pants. I had managed to make it to Janet and Beth after that, but our time was running out. This guy was about to kill us any second now.


    ¡°Okay, I got a plan,¡± I said to the two of them. Beth Just nodded for me to go on. I was about to start telling the two of them my plan, but that was exactly when the bear decided to make its move. Beth and Janet booked it to the left while I threw myself to the right. There was another cloud of dust, and the bear was snarling at its failed attack. Well, not totally failed.


    My leg had a long, deep scratch running down it, and blood was dripping down my leg. Fuck that hurt shit, no time. I had a clear shot from where I was to the broken open wall, and I ran towards the exit. When I got to the wall, I turned and looked at the bear. It was smashing some debris and getting closer to where Janet and Beth had hidden them, stuffed themselves to hide.


    I looked around me and found a good-sized piece of wood. I hefted it up, and I was shocked by how light it was, but only for a second before I threw it at the bear. I hit the bear with the piece of wood, and it turned towards me, teeth, beard, and snarling. Oh fuck. That might not have been smart. The bear charged at me. I saw this, turned, and booked it. I was running full tunnel vision, and I could swear I could feel the hot breath of the bear behind me at one point. I made it to the fence and the back of the property and used a rock and a tree branch to volt the fence.


    Immediately after landing, I turned to the left, already running. It was a good thing, too, because a second later, the bear barreled through right through the fence, sending wood splinters flying. I covered my head but kept running. I knew I didn''t lose the bear because I heard it roar and then felt the ground shake as the bear turned to follow me. I thought I was fucked, but as I turned down the side of a house, I saw a good-sized log of wood, probably used to split logs.


    I prayed my strength would be enough as I reached down and grabbed it. Then, with all my strength, I tossed it down the hill. I then threw myself into the crawl space under the house and rolled a few times. After my last roll, I made myself as small as possible and held my breath. I watched as the bear took off down the hill, but I waited another minute just to make sure it was really gone. I pulled myself out from under the house then causally made my way back to Beth and Janet. It took me a little, ran farther than I thought. When we all finally made it back up, we gathered our stuff and found another place to stay.


    the next place we chose was better hidden. It was a similar situation as the last spot, but this time, we found a downstairs room that had been almost totally enclosed in rubble.


    We had to dig a bit to get in, but once we were done nothing was coming in. It was all worth it to feel safe. We went through the same procedure as the last place as well. Clearing it of debris and organizing the the things we could salvage.


    After we were done with that, Beth lit a Sterno and heated a can of beans, the same kind with bacon in it. This time, we didn¡¯t have any plates, so we had to kind of take turns drinking it from the can. we did work out a watch schedule for the evening this time. I would sleep first, for about six hours, or till about 2:00 am. Janet and Beth would take their turns to catch some Z¡¯s. The women woke up around 7:00 a.m., and then we would have breakfast and start the day.


    Our watch schedule worked out, and we went unmolested that night. As we were eating breakfast, I got the idea that I wanted to propose to Beth and Janet. I had this idea in my head about building a treehouse in the woods. I always loved the Swiss Family Robinson story and thought, hell, it was a good idea. I didn¡¯t know if it was a sound long-term plan, but I liked the idea. It seemed like the safest option nowadays to be off the ground. At least, that was where my head was. But I didn¡¯t know if Beth and Janet would go for it.


    After breakfast, I got ready to make my big pitch. You got this, man. It''s a cool idea. They''re gonna love it. Have confidence in yourself man. I shook my head to hype myself up. Janet and Beth looked at me like you okay? So I decided it was pitch time.¡°So, Beth, Janet, okay, I have an idea. I wanted to spitball with you guys.¡±


    ¡°Sure, what¡¯s up, Travis?¡± Janet said, sitting down on one of the boxes we were using for chairs while Beth was putting out the Sterno. She looked over and nodded, showing that she was still listening.


    "Okay, so nowhere is really safe, right? But hear me out. What if we get a bunch of materials and kinda build a treehouse out in the woods? Make it high enough so hopefully, nothing will bother us and fuck with us. we could use it as a kind of home base. What do you think?¡± I got ready for them to call me dumb, stupid as hell, and for them to tell me that it was a generally stupid fucking idea. They both kind of looked at me for a second without saying anything. Beth was the first person to speak.


    "I love it! That¡¯s a great idea! We had a treehouse in our backyard growing up, and we were in that thing all the time as kids. I¡¯m down.¡± Janet looked between the two of us, threw her hands in the air, and said, ¡°Fine, I guess we¡¯re building a treehouse.¡± I smiled at Beth and Janet. We had a plan, and we were going to figure this shit out together.


    That day, me and Beth spent time rummaging through the nearby houses pulling planks off walls, trying to save nails so we could reuse them. We lucked out and got a bunch of really great planks and probably saved about 100 nails. Also found some rope and a hammer in another house. It was only like 150 feet, but it was pretty nice to find it. At one point, that fucking bear came back, and we had to hide till it wandered off. Beth thought it might have smelled us because, at first, it started walking towards where we were hiding. There had been a lot of disgusting shit on the ground, so Beth had got the bright idea that we should cover ourselves in the filth so as to avoid the bear. It worked, but we smelled like rotting garbage for the next two days.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    We eventually washed ourselves in a non-working hot tub we found in someone¡¯s backyard, and that definitely helped deal with the worst of the orders, but it still sucked so much. I was glad I was alive but had started wondering if I should have just fought the bear.


    The smell was that bad. We brought our materials back to the place where we had spent the night. Janet had been healing there, and when we got back, the first thing she said was, ¡°holy shit! You two smell. Nope, get the fuck out of here. Clean up, then come back.¡± We both used some water from our stock pill to clean up a bit so Janet would let us in, but like I said, it still didn''t do much till she took a bath later that day.


    Janet had something weird to show us after we got as clean as we could. Her foot looked like it had started regrowing the flesh that had been torn off her foot. It was kind of gross, but there was definitely progress. That kind of tripped us all out for a little while.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t realize we¡¯d be able to recover from injury like that, that¡¯s kind of trippy. I don¡¯t want to have to do that myself, honestly, but at least it¡¯s good to know if we get a serious injury, it will just take time.¡± Beth said, and Janet and I couldn''t help but agree with her.


    The next day, I finally found a spot that looked out over the San Francisco Bay Area and got to see the true level of destruction that had hit us. Beth and I had been headed out to do some scavenging, and the second house we entered had an amazing balcony that hadn¡¯t collapsed entirely. There had been about half left standing, and when I climbed up, I could see everything.


    The world around me that I had known was gone. I mean, the land was there, and the water and the general shape of things were right, but the devastation was unacceptable. No human structure was untouched. Well, at least from where I was standing, there didn''t seem to be anything recognizable. It was a scrap yard the whole thing. I knew that wasn''t true. I mean, I had seen many partially standing structures, but from here, it looked like complete and total destruction.


    I had to take a few minutes and got lost in the scene. After a while, I looked over and saw Beth standing next to me. ¡°It¡¯s awful. I mean, it''s just all gone.¡± Beth said softly. Not looking away from the view. I didn¡¯t answer her immediately, but I turned and looked at the view again myself. After a minute or so, I answered her. ¡° it¡¯s a blank slate, awful yes, completely, but humanity is like a relentlessly, and it''s time to rebuild. To forge a new world on the ashes of the old, and that''s exactly what will do.¡±


    After another moment, I turned and looked at Beth. She was looking at me with a hard look on her face. Then she spoke, ¡°You know what? Then that''s exactly what we¡¯ll do. Will get stronger. Strong enough to keep people safe and create a new home in this world. Well, use the new power given to us by joining the greater system and make a truly safe place for humanity in this new life. So come on, let''s get back to it. We got a civilization to rebuild.¡±


    I looked at her for a second, then down at the hand she held out for me to grab. I looked at Beth again, then smiled and said, ¡°Let go.¡±


    we got to it, scavenging for some more materials the rest of the day. It was near the end of our scavenging days that shit got a little out of hand. We were scavenging in a house on the way back to our home base, and we were just digging around in the low light when something jumped out at my face. I hadn¡¯t seen it hiding in the dark corner of the room, but when I got close enough, it fucking attacked me.


    I managed to get my hands up and grab the two paws that we¡¯re grabbing for my face. I managed to catch them, one in each hand, but its feet had claws, too, and we were kicking out at my chest, causing deep scratches and blood to start soaking through my shirt. Beth came running in with the baton and smacked the creature in the back of the head, and it fell down, stunned for a second. Then jabbed the pocky end right into its head. The thing stopped moving after a second, dead.


    ¡°Thanks, Beth. Fuck, that thing came out of nowhere.¡±


    "Yeah, what happened?¡±


    Beth started looking around the room as if something was about to pop out. I opened my battle log real fast. ¡°Your temporary party has killed a young Moreland Scorer. These creatures are not normally violent unless they feel threatened in their dens. When approached, they will fight and attack you with unmatched ferocity, so stay away from them, and they¡¯ll stay away from you. You don¡¯t want to run into a mature one of these, that¡¯s for sure.¡±


    ¡°Okay, the battle log entry didn¡¯t say anything about it being a pack hunter, so I don¡¯t think we should expect any more to pop out. Let¡¯s just get the fuck out of here.¡±Beth said, and I nodded in agreement.


    I took the load of wood we had scavenged and the nails and headed back to what was our home base for the moment.


    By the time we got back, Janet was walking around on her newly restored foot. We both stopped and looked at her in awe.


    ¡°It¡¯s back! It¡¯s like all the way back¡±, Beth said. Janet looked over at us.


    ¡°Yeah, good as new, little tender to the touch, but that¡¯s starting to go away too now. It¡¯s crazy. I can¡¯t believe my foot is back together, but shit, Travis, are you okay? Your chest, we should clean those wounds.¡±


    The alcohol burned when Janet cleaned my wounds. I took my shredded shirt off and put the hoodie on. It was great that we could self-repair now, but our clothes weren¡¯t afforded the same luxury. If this were going to keep happening, I¡¯d be better off running around naked. At some point, my skin will probably become tougher than any pre-integration clothing would.


    We had gotten back a little after 1:00 in the afternoon, so I thought we had enough time left in the day to go maybe try and scout a place to build this treehouse. Beth was eager to get started, and Janet said that she wanted to come with. She had been getting restless, waiting behind as we scavenged, and she also didn¡¯t really want to be alone anymore.


    She had told me that it was kind of freaky when Beth and I were both out scavenging, and she was just sitting there by herself. Me and I agreed, and about 20 minutes later, around 2:30 p.m., we headed out. It took us about 30 minutes to get truly into the hills and the forest that surrounded them.


    Noises were everywhere, and it was honestly freaking us out a little bit. We decided on a grouping of three large trees that were relatively close together and were only about 15 minutes from the road into the woods.


    I got up to a good section of the tree about a hundred feet into the tree. There was a space where there was a good amount of branches, but about 6 feet between where the next set of branches started. I cleared away some smaller branches here and there. With my stats, everything went a lot swifter than I anticipated. I had brought the rope up with me so I could raise and lower resources as needed. I lowered one end of the rope down, and Beth started tying boards to it.


    It took us the rest of the day, but by dusk, we had a solid 8 x 10 platform up about one hundred feet in the trees. We had to make multiple trips to get all the boards, and honestly, that was our biggest bottleneck in the whole process. Beth managed to climb up, but it was a little bit difficult for Janet, so Janet decided that if I could pull her up with the rope, she¡¯d get up that way. I was totally fine with that and hoisted her onto the platform.


    It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was gonna be. When we were finished there was about another hour until it was truly dark. I turned to Janet and Beth, ¡°So I think we kind of have a decision to make.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Beth said. They both turned and looked at me.


    ¡°Do we head back to where we¡¯ve been staying or try to sleep up here for the night?¡±


    We had most of our stuff with us already, but it was getting kind of chilly up in the trees until we had proper walls. I didn¡¯t know how cold we''d get up here. It would probably be a little more comfortable at the old place, at least for tonight. Beth was all jacked up on the treehouse, however. Janet really didn¡¯t look eager to do the whole lowering her back down with the rope thing.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got the blankets with us, right?¡± Beth asked.


    ¡°Well, yeah, we¡¯ve got pretty much everything with us. We didn¡¯t really have much to begin with.¡± There was only a little bit we¡¯d left behind. Stuff we had salvaged from the place we''d been staying most recently.


    ¡°We can get all that stuff tomorrow if we really want to go back for it,¡± I suggested. We probably had enough wood to either build a roof and a wall. We¡¯re definitely going to have to scavenge more of that, too.


    Beth wanted to stay up in the treehouse for the night, and Janet was more or less on her side. I caved, and we started getting ready to spend the night.


    That first night up in the treehouse was terrifying. The thing kept swaying back and forth in the wind, and there was a lot of wind. That night was really freaking cold as well, and we all kind of ended up huddled together for warmth.


    Not to mention the sounds. The forest was full of sounds. Crazy new animal sounds that we¡¯d never heard before permeated the night air. There were bird calls, of course, but there were tons of other screeches and howls that just tore through the night. We had formed the same watch schedule the night before, but by 12 o¡¯clock, nobody had fallen asleep. I don¡¯t think anyone was going to get any sleep tonight.


    At 6 a.m., the sun finally broke into the sky. We all looked exhausted. None of us had slept a wink. There were rings under the women''s eyes, and I¡¯m fairly sure I was looking about the same.


    ¡°I¡¯m just gonna say it, worst night sleep of my fricking life,¡± Janet said into the quiet atmosphere of our sullen morning. Me and Beth both looked at her, and then we all started laughing a little.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯d say last night fucking sucked.¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯ll be a lot better once we have some walls and a roof over our heads,¡± Beth chimed in.


    "It better, or I¡¯m going back to the house, and I¡¯m just gonna fucking sleep there¡­screw it¡±, I said. Janet nodded in agreement with a little grin on her face. Beth rolled her eyes at us.


    "Fuck you two! I promise, come on, this was the plan. Let¡¯s follow through, at least.¡± she said, but she was still smiling.


    ¡°Okay, okay. Let¡¯s all go get some more wood and nails, and let¡¯s finish this place up.¡± I said and chuckled. Beth and Janet nodded.


    Took us the rest of the day to get enough supplies to where we felt comfortable. We could at least start on the roof and maybe one or two walls.


    We got back to the house, where we had a stack of wood from yesterday¡¯s work. We scavenged a lot of good planks again and left them at the house we had been staying at before we made the move to the treehouse. We had to make short trips back all day and then carefully raise it all up onto the platform we had built the day before.


    Janet had found another hammer in one of the houses we had been pulling boards from, so now we were moving twice as fast. Beth had actually gained two levels yesterday when she killed that fucking creature who jumped out at me.


    Beth Holloway¡¯s Stat Sheet


    Level: 3


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 245/480 XP till next Level.


    Strength: 11


    Dexterity: 12


    Intelligence: 14


    Wisdom: 10


    Constitution: 9


    Luck: 6


    She had basically done what Janet did and put 2 points in Constitution, 3 points in Strength, and 1 in Constitution.


    Beth Holloway¡¯s Stat Sheet


    Level: 3


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 245/480XP till next Level.


    Strength: 14


    Dexterity: 12


    Intelligence: 14


    Wisdom: 11


    Constitution: 11


    Luck: 6


    She said she could definitely feel the difference, and I guess I knew what she meant. Things were just easier; I mean, physical things at least were. You could carry way more than you could previously with each point of Strength added. It felt as if I was at an arcade with one of those punching bag things. I would break anyone¡¯s high score by now, probably blow them out of the water, actually.


    Every time I climbed into the treehouse, I felt like a little monkey. Felt like I kind of just floated up the tree. It was super cool! That also meant that building the treehouse went extremely quickly, and we actually ran out of materials before dark. We had two walls and a roof, and the starting of a third wall. We had left an opening as a window on one wall, and we were planning on doing the same on the opposite wall when we got there.


    That night was significantly better than the night before. The wind was infinitely cut down by the walls we constructed, and with the watch schedule, everybody actually got some sleep that night.


    It had been a week since we finished the treehouse, and it was starting to look a little homier. Janet and Beth had gone out every day to scavenge for things, and we actually started to accumulate a good amount of stuff. Everything was either partially broken or repurposed for another job, but it was definitely getting there. I found an axe in one house and started sharpening sticks into spears about 5 feet long and an inch and a half wide. I tempered them in a fire to harden them as well.


    We¡¯d been doing fairly well. We only had a few encounters with the new creatures of this world, and only a handful of those got to the point where we had to fight rather than manage to get away. We had a good stack of food, a bunch of cans in one corner, and a bunch of cases of water sitting in the other corner. While Beth and Janet had been scavenging in the close by neighborhoods, I¡¯d been making trips into the forest. I really wasn¡¯t going too far from the treehouse.


    The first day I went out, I pretty much just stayed within eyesight of the treehouse. But by day three, I was about a 15-minute walk from our camp, deeper into the woods. The woods had evolved in a magical way. It felt like the shadows were constantly changing and moving, and there was a feeling in the air of an ecosystem in full swing. The sounds, the new plant growth all around.


    I had been up in the state park that these forests were a part of before the integration of the wilderness in the park became tame. Almost as if you could have walked around, and maybe I mean, if you were really lucky, you might see a mountain lion, but that was it. Now, these woods felt like you were walking through a rainforest. There was new life and new growth everywhere, and that tame feeling was gone.


    the forest was dangerous now, and the hairs standing up on the back of my neck made that very clear to me, as well as the many creatures I saw and had to avoid. I had been crouched in some bushes, bushes that I double-checked weren¡¯t trying to kill me¡­that was an awkward moment, let me tell you. I¡¯m glad no one was watching that.


    Sitting there, I watched as a pack of what looked like bear lizards, that was the best comparison I could make, were drinking from a small pond. I was up on the top of a ridge, and they were down in the valley. There were probably fourteen of them and a couple of little ones running around. Giant, furry, lizard-like creatures. they almost looked like a bear and a lizard had a baby. There was a big greenish-blue, fluorescent ridge running down their backs that looked like it was made of scales.


    They had an extremely long tail of scales till it met the butt of the creature, but then continued and turned into a furry coat. The dewlap under its jaw was covered in fluorescent blue and green scales, just like the ones running down its back. Gathered around the small pool of water, some of them would drink while others watched for danger, making sure no predators were nearby.


    At one point, a creature that kind of looked like a dinosaur, basically a mini-T-Rex. I couldn¡¯t tell how tall it was from this distance, but it didn¡¯t appear to be more than 4 feet tall. Stumbled into the clearing, and its intent was to get a drink from the pool. When it saw the bear-lizard things, it froze and then took off. One of the bear lizards screamed into the air. It was like a lizard screech but at a bear¡¯s volume, sending shivers down my spine. The whole pack stopped drinking from the pool, pounced on the little T-Rex, and started ripping it apart. They were super aggressive.


    One of them was in the process of tearing the little T-Rex creature''s head off. Another one started snapping at the bear lizard next to its face, then bit it, leaving a deep bite. The bear-lizard that had gotten bit then lunged at the one that attacked. They got into a brawl for another two minutes, only ending when one of them was on the ground not moving.


    Their claws were no joke. I watched them for about another 40 minutes. For a second, the little T-Rex creature wandered towards the pool. this time, however, the T-Rex creature started running away as soon as they saw the bear lizards. They noticed the little creature and tore after it. The T-Rex thing booked it, but as it got closer to one part of the ridge, it stopped as if it physically couldn¡¯t go any further. It tried to run around what appeared to be an invisible bubble.


    The moment the little t-rex ran into the invisible barrier, it stopped. I thought the little thing was gonna be dinner. The bear-like lizards seemed to recognize the barrier as well, turned, and ran away from it. The little T-Rex creature ran off in another direction and managed to get away. Yes, it was his lucky day. I chuckled to myself, but what was it that made all those creatures freak out?


    It was another hour before the bear lizard creatures cleared out, leaving the area devoid of any monsters for now. I decided I was going to make my way down and see what that barrier-like thing was.


    I entered the area where I thought the barrier probably would be. As I got closer, I started to feel like the humidity around me had gone way up. The air actually felt like there was a weight to it. As I reached the area where the little T-Rex creature and the bear-lizard monsters had refused to go, the feeling in the air reached a crescendo, but it didn¡¯t feel bad. In fact, it felt great. I felt like I was a little high. Endorphins were firing off, and an exclamation mark in the corner of my vision was flashing. I focused on it.


    You have found a Dungeon! Dungeons are creations of Mana and our Mana-rich areas. You may feel a sense of euphoria when you¡¯re close to them, and you may also notice a higher Mana recovery rate while in close proximity to or in a Dungeon itself.


    Dungeons and the creatures living outside of them don¡¯t mix well, and therefore, there is a 15-foot safe area that naturally occurs outside of a dungeon. This can be larger or smaller, depending on the size of the Dungeon you have found. My next notification was a ¡°Title gained! Explorer 1. Congratulations, you are one of the first 100 residents of your planet to discover a Dungeon. Plus 3 to all stats.¡±


    My next notification just told me what the Dungeon was called. ¡°You have discovered the Dungeon of the Wondering Howler; do you wish to enter yes/no?" I selected ¡°no¡± for now. I had to get back and tell the woman. This might¡¯ve been the windfall we were waiting for.


    This looks like a low-level Dungeon to me. I used to farm Dungeons all the time when I played video games back in the day. This could totally be our way to power level a little. Maybe they could get that title, too, since we could use all the stat points we could get. Were we about to become badasses?

 Chapter 6 - The Wondering Howler

    Chapter 6


    The wondering howler


    I made my way back to the tree house. I Had to avoid a few wondering creators, but I didn''t have to fight anything, so that was nice. Once, I was sitting at our makeshift kitchen/dining room table that was actually a door with an excited look on my face.Janet looked over at me, basically humming with anticipation.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Travis? You look kind of excited. Did you scavenge something cool? Oh¡­maybe a shotgun? No, wait, I got it, a samurai sword?¡±


    ¡°Fuck Janet! Now I wish I totally had a samurai sword to pull out.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t whip your sword out in here, Travis. No one wants to see that little ass shit.¡±


    ¡°Wow, I think we''ve been hanging out a little too much.¡± I said, and Janet laughed, then said, ¡°Yeah, that was a little much, but I like messing with you.¡± I smiled at Janet. She had been a bit more flirty recently, but I think that¡¯s how she was dealing with everything going to shit and Toms''s death. She was starting to show signs of a little devil-may-care attitude. That was slightly concerning, but I really didn¡¯t know her or Beth that well yet.


    ¡°So, I got a little news, and it¡¯s a wee bit time-sensitive.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that? Wait, don¡¯t you think Beth should hear this? Cuz she said that she was just going to go to the bathroom.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine. Probably better if I just tell you both at once.¡± I busied myself by grabbing some food and drinking some water.


    Me and Janet chatted for a little till Beth popped back into the treehouse. She tossed a roll of toilet paper at my face. I reached out my hand and grabbed it out of the air with a smirk. Then put the roll down on the table next to me.


    ¡°Nice throw¡±, I said.


    ¡°Nice catch¡±, she threw back at me.


    ¡°You all emptied out there? Took you long enough.¡± I was for sure poking the bear right now, and I knew it. Beth blushed slightly for a second and then told me I probably needed to shit, too, since I was always so full of it. I laughed at that and then said, ¡°Hey, okay, listen, I was just about to tell Janet something, and we were waiting for you to get back, so I didn¡¯t have to repeat myself.¡± She rolled her eyes at me, and Janet giggled.


    ¡°Okay, so¡­ I think what I found today is going to be a game or life changer.¡± ¡°Okay, what the fuck are you talking about Travis? You got our attention. Just spit it out.¡±


    ¡°Okay, chill out. Are you ready? I found a Dungeon!¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s a good thing?¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Yes! It¡¯s awesome!¡± Beth had a suspicious look on her face.


    ¡°What makes it a good thing? When I was gaming, Dungeons were always hard to beat, and there was always like, a boss monster at the end. I don¡¯t know about you, but I usually had to do a couple of tries to beat it. And when I say I usually did those a couple tries to beat it, I¡¯m saying I died. Like, my character died. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re living in reality anymore or just living in your delusion of stat heaven, but we die, and that¡¯s it, game over forever.


    The atmosphere of the room had definitely got a little more serious. ¡°Okay, I hear what you¡¯re saying, but I also got a Title for finding it, so can we at least go check it out? It¡¯s not far. Maybe if we hurry up, you guys can get the Title, too. I got three stat points from it, and it was for being one of the first 100 people to find one! So, let¡¯s go. There¡¯s a safe zone at the opening of the dungeon as well, so no monsters! Come on! Please?¡±


    I was begging, trying to do a little puppy dog eye, but I was definitely failing. Beth snorted, ¡°Pathetic isn''t a good look on you. Fine! Let¡¯s go check it out.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure, Beth? You didn¡¯t seem to like the idea a second ago?¡± Janet said, giving Beth a, are you sure you¡¯re cool with this look?


    ¡°Yeah fuck it, Travis looks like he¡¯s gonna lose his mind if we don¡¯t indulge him in this.¡± Janet smiled reassuringly at Beth and then told us both, ¡°Well, it¡¯s what, 10:30 a.m. now, Beth?¡± Beth nodded.


    ¡°Yeah, 10:25 a.m., but close enough.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I vote we eat something now and then head over. That sound good to everyone?¡± I was a little frustrated, but I thought if we did end up going into the Dungeon, we¡¯d probably miss lunch, so eating now sounded like a good plan. Before we left, I threw some trail mix into a fanny pack I had started wearing. I never wore one in the past, but that¡¯s cuz they looked fucking stupid, but post-integration, I didn¡¯t give a fuck how it looked. It was convenient. We made our way over to the ridge I had hidden on before and waited.


    There were a few creatures around the watering hole. We wait for them to leave. It was only about 10 minutes before it was all clear. ¡°So, the dungeon was right over there.¡± I pointed to the base of the ridge where the dungeon entrance was.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything, Travis.¡± Beth was the one to say it, but they were both giving me that. Are you ok? Did you fall on your head look.


    ¡°No, trust me, it¡¯s there.¡±


    ¡°Look, Travis, it¡¯s not that we don¡¯t believe you, but I mean, did you actually see this dungeon, or did you just get the notification you had found one and run back to tell us? You know, without actually confirming anything?¡± I blushed a little and got a little defensive.


    ¡°Maybe that was the case, but I got the notification. Come on, that¡¯s confirmation enough.¡± I mumbled, ¡°Well, I thought it was cool, and I did find it.¡± I looked at Beth, and she was giving me a look that said, really? I exhaled hard, ¡°Come on, let''s check it out.¡±


    ¡°finer, but if there''s nothing there and this is a whole elaborate prank, I''m gonna be pissed, Travis. Just putting that out there,¡± Beth said. I rolled my eyes and turned to walk down.


    After a few steps, I looked over my shoulder because I didn¡¯t hear any footsteps behind me, and the two women were still kneeling down behind the bush. I looked at them, ¡°Come on, seriously?¡± The two women looked at each other and giggled.


    They started following me down to the entrance of the dungeon, or where I hoped it would be at least. Beth was totally right, and I actually hadn''t seen the entrance per se, so I really hoped it was there, or I¡¯d look pretty fucking stupid, that''s for sure. Once we were close to the dungeon, I felt that heavy air feeling again, and I looked back at my two group members to see there reactions.


    Beth now had an interested look on her face and Janet had her nose scrunched up like she did when she was concentrating on her Stat Sheet. I smiled and kept walking toward the dungeon. When we reached the edge of the invisible bubble, I stopped and looked at the woman with a big smile on my face.


    Beth was the first to say anything. ¡°Wow, that feels so good. Damn, why didn¡¯t you mention this?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I would have definitely led with this,¡± said Janet.


    ¡°Honestly, I was consumed with ideas about the dungeon and what it might be like inside and couldn''t wait to tell you guys either, so I kind of forgot about it. Oh hey, did you get the Title?¡±


    ¡°Yep!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I got it too! Wow, first 100. So that means we, as well as 100 other people, all have encountered a dungeon? That¡¯s crazy! You found this pretty easy, right Travis? I mean, and like, no offense to you, Travis, but none of us are, like, special or anything. We¡¯re just regular people. They must be pretty common. Right? Why so few found?¡±


    ¡°Actually, the first 100 thing, I think, means that we, as well as 100 people who find a dungeon, will get the title, not that 100 people have found a dungeon yet. We could be the first on our planet to find a dungeon. Who knows, really?¡± I said.


    ¡°Oh, I see. Yeah, that would make sense,¡± said Janet.


    I thought about what Janet had said for a second, and one thing made sense. ¡°Well, first, they¡¯re invisible, so you can¡¯t actively search for them. You kinda have to stumble onto one. That feeling of Mana saturating the area helps, but it''s only in a limited range around the dungeon, so it''s not too helpful, really.


    Hell, the only reason I found this place was that it was a place the monster couldn¡¯t go. In fact, they actively avoided it. Even if they knew their life wasn¡¯t in danger, they would just ignore the warning of the increasing Mana Level. Then, the barrier would stop them cold. They probably realized where they were at that point and fled the Mana field.¡±


    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s cool, Travis, but are we gonna enter this safe zone and check out this dungeon? Cuz right now, it just looks like we¡¯re staring at a rock wall.¡± That was kinda embarrassing.


    ¡°Sorry, yeah, let¡¯s do it!¡± Everyone looked at everyone else for a second as if silently saying, so, who¡¯s first? Then we all turned and walked in together.


    The other side of the mana field, for lack of a better word, was like stepping through a bubble, like a soap bubble. No lie. But it didn¡¯t pop when we touched it. It was like when you make a soap bubble with your hands while washing dishes, and you poke it with a finger that¡¯s all soaped up, it won¡¯t pop. It just slides through. Well, that¡¯s what it felt like.


    It actually was a bit refreshing as well, like a shower with no water. I did look cleaner on the other side, too. it cleans and protects. Sounds like a toothpaste ad. As we stepped through, there was a large wooden door embedded into the side of the ridge with two massive goat-like creatures dressed in armor and holding halberds all made out of stone on either side of it. The door itself was made out of what looked like mahogany, but I couldn''t really tell. It was dark wood and looked extremely hard.


    As we walked closer, I noticed there were intact carvings over the entire door. They¡¯d seemed to depict goat-like creatures, exactly like the two statues that flanked the door, fighting in brutal scenes of combat. There were bands of metal wrapped around the door as well to hold the massive thing together.


    Instead of a keyhole and doorknob, there was just an empty hole that seemed to only lead into darkness. ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Janet asked no one in particular.


    ¡°Um, that¡¯s actually a good question. I¡¯m not really sure what now.¡± I answered her.


    ¡°Put your hand in the hole,¡± Beth said and shrugged.


    ¡°Fuck that! Sure, put my hand into a dark creepy hole, and oh yeah, it¡¯s in the door to a dungeon. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, I don¡¯t know, what if it cuts my fucking hand off! No, thank you.¡± I said. Beth looked at me with raised eyebrows.


    ¡°You know you¡¯d probably grow it back right, Janet¡¯s foot¡­ remember?¡± She looked at me, a little confused. She was right. I kinda had forgotten again. I was still doing that every once in a while and found myself thinking in my old-world mindset.¡°Yeah, I know, but I¡¯m still not jumping at the idea,¡± I told her.


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    ¡°You know what, I¡¯ll just do it,¡± Janet said, starting to walk toward the door with the hole in the front of it.


    ¡°No, Janet, it¡¯s cool. I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯d rather it took my hand than yours. You¡¯ve already amost lost a foot and had to grow it back. I can deal with losing a hand.¡± I walked over to the door before I could change my mind and stuck my hand in the hole. As I did, a notification filled my vision.


    Would you like to enter the Dungeon of the Wondering Howler? Yes/No? Note that you may not enter with a temporary party. You must first form an official party or enter alone. Oh, right, we never did that. As long as we could share XP, it didn¡¯t seem to make a difference, but I guess here¡¯s where they start to defer. You are of the appropriate Level for this Dungeon. Dungeon: Level 5-15.


    ¡°Okay, so two things. First, you guys might be too low of a Level for this Dungeon. It says the Level requirements are Levels 5-15. I have an idea, though, and I think the second thing might help with that. The second thing is that we have to officially form a Party, no more Temporary Party.¡±


    ¡°I guess we finally found one difference between the two,¡± said Beth.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I was thinking. Well, it got me thinking about another possible benefit to forming an Official Party as well.


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Janet spoke up.


    ¡°Well, I think we could bypass the Level requirement for this Dungeon. I mean, not like all the way. Here¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking. What if you¡¯re in a Party, and one member meets the required Level? Maybe your whole team is allowed to enter. If it doesn¡¯t work out that way, we¡¯ll just have to get you some Levels and come back. Might as well give it a shot, right?¡±


    The two women thought about what I¡¯d said for a second, and then Beth spoke up, ¡°I can only think of one problem with this whole thing, Travis. The Level requirements are probably there for a reason. Is cheating our way around the system really a good idea?¡±


    That made me stop my head on sprint into this unknown situation, and I started to temper my enthusiasm. That was a good point. We didn¡¯t know anything about Dungeons, like, not a thing, but it just felt like it was now or never. The winds of adventure were whistling and whipping at me.


    ¡°I think we need to do this. I think that there¡¯s surviving, and then there¡¯s living. I think that if we lose the momentum of our situation now, we¡¯ll continue just surviving. I just don¡¯t want to die sitting in a hole. I¡¯m terrified, straight up. I¡¯m so scared to go in there, but I think I¡¯m more scared that if we don¡¯t, we''re just waiting to die out here.¡±


    Look, there is definitely a good chance that we will have to get our levels up, or well, the two of you might have to get your levels up before we''re allowed in the dungeon. I think we need to do this.


    Beth and Janet looked like they were genuinely thinking about what I¡¯d said, and three minutes later, we had formed an Official Party. It turned out that forming an official Party came with some other benefits. There was now an additional page added to each one of our Stat Sheets called ¡°Party.¡± The Party Sheet showed who was in the Party and their Health, Mana, and Stamina Levels.


    It did the same thing when you said, ¡°Status Check,¡± just cycling through your Party members. Displaying one at a time, and after one cycle, it would close till you called it up again.


    We were ready to enter the Dungeon. If it would let us. I had my axe, Beth had a machete she had scavenged, and Janet had a baseball bat with nails hammered into it at different angles near the end of the bat. She said it was a classic, and I had to agree.


    I stuck my hand in the black hole of hand death once again. Still just creepy to do, even when I knew I wasn¡¯t gonna lose my hand. The same messages popped up again, but this time, there was no note about the Temporary Party or anything about level requirements. It didn¡¯t seem like we were gonna be told to fuck off, for the women''s levels being lower than the level requirements.


    ¡°Okay, ladies, it looks like we¡¯re all good to enter the Dungeon. Ready?¡±


    ¡°Wait, are we doing this? I mean, are we going in? I thought we were just checking it out. But now we''re talking about just going in? I mean, it''s great that we can bypass the level requirements, but I''m still not sure that''s a good thing.¡± Beth said


    ¡°Well, I mean, maybe we just check it out for a bit. It¡¯s only about twelve now, so we have some time, and besides, what the hell else were we gonna do today?¡± Asked Janet.


    I hopped right on the Janet train, fully committed. ¡°Yeah, I''m with Janet. We can just go in and have a peek around. If it gets too dicey, we will just head out, go home, and come back later when we are more prepared. That work?¡± Beth bit her lip, and it looked like she was really thinking her decision through.


    I did appreciate that, but I really wanted to check this dungeon out, so I hoped she was down with the plan. A minute later, Beth was back from thinking town.


    ¡°So what you thinking, Beth?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Well, I know you and Janet want to go check it out. I won''t say I''m totally down and have no reservation, but I''m down to go in and check it out.¡± Beth said.


    ¡° Well, I appreciate your honesty. We¡¯ll make sure to go slow and be careful in there for sure. Okay everyone ready?¡± I finished and asked them. Janet nodded, and Beth nodded, like, hurry the fuck up. I turned back to the door and focused my attention on ¡°Yes.¡±


    The next thing I knew, we were all standing in a large room with wooden walls. Looked like the walls were made of larger timbers. Almost a log cabin, but all the logs were cut so the edges lined up perfectly, making straight walls.


    The room had braziers full of hot coals on the walls. There was a small pool of water in one corner of the room framed with stones, the same as the floor. A plant climbing the wall on the other side of the chamber almost looked like a sweet pea vine. That was odd to me. Felt out of place, and I didn¡¯t feel normal for this magical Dungeon we were in, but what the fuck did I know about magical dungeons could be the usual. On the wall opposite from us was a door, not like the one we¡¯d entered the Dungeon through. This one was less intricately carved and looked like it was made out of pine or oak. I couldn''t make out the carvings from here, but I assumed they were something like the carvings on the Dungeons entry door, lots of goat battle and death.


    I turned my head and looked behind me. No stairs back up, so¡­ were we just teleported down here somehow? That was totally magic! Holy shit! Well, it could have been advanced technology, but I''m definitely going to just go with magic.


    That would really be so much cooler. Um... how were we gonna get out if we needed to leave? I turned and walked to the back of the room, away from the door, and after a few steps, I got a notification. Do you wish to exit the Dungeon of The Wondering Howler?


    Okay, that was a relief. I almost freaked out there for a second. I turned around and walked back to the group.


    ¡°Everyone okay?¡± asked Beth, and her eyes paused on me for a second, and she raised her eyebrows a little. I looked over,


    ¡°Yeah, I''m fine. Janet, you good?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Oh yeah, definitely doing that again. That was a trip.¡± Me and Beth both chuckled a little about her newfound enthusiasm about teleportation.


    ¡°So, what now?¡± said Janet.


    ¡°Now? Well, I¡¯d say we go through the door, right?¡± Beth shrugged, and we started walking across the room toward the door.


    ¡°Damn, it''s chilly down here¡±, Janet said in a soft voice.


    ¡°Yeah, definitely a little damp and kind of musty, too,¡± Beth chimed in. It really wasn¡¯t too bad, but it felt like we were underground at least 50 feet. The little pond was definitely the reason it was musty in here. It all made sense, at least.


    ¡°Well, it looks like our only option is going through this door. This room we¡¯re in now is probably a safe room/entryway for the Dungeon¡±, I said.


    ¡°Well, I guess, after you,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Me?¡± I said.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re our fearless leader, right?¡± Janet said with a, well, aren¡¯t you kind, smirk on her face. I just shook my head and said, ¡°Fine, I guess it was my idea to come here in the first place. That¡¯s fair. I¡¯ll go first.¡± They both snorted. We all walked over to the door and I walked up to open the door. Before I could even touch the nob, however, I noticed my hand was shaking a little. I stopped and looked at my hand. It might have been from fear or anticipation of what was to come, but I clamped down on my emotions, stopping my hand from shaking and giving me the confidence I needed to proceed.


    It had a metal doorknob that looked old, almost handmade. I grabbed it, and it was cold, like really cold, I could feel it sucking the warmth from my palm. I frowned a little, then just turned the knob, opening the door.


    It turned easy, and the door swung in on well-oiled hinges. It didn¡¯t make a sound except for the soft sound of wood against the stone for a brief second as the door first began to open. I guess Dungeons have great janitorial service. Then I smacked myself mentally, dude, magic, duh. That¡¯s so cool!


    There was a long hall on the other side of the door. It was lit by the same type of braziers as the entry room had but it got too dark to see the other end of the hallway. The walls of the hallway were made of stone and now that I was looking a little closer it actually looked like hard bedrock, like we were in a mine tunnel.


    We started walking down the passage, and about 10 feet into the hallway, we found there were ceiling braces with two posts going down to the floor of the tunnel. There was another brace 10 feet after that, and it looked like it continued as far as I could see.


    I stepped into the tunnel, and Beth and Janet walked in after me. We were all tense, on guard, and ready for something to run at us. The floor was cobblestones and what looked like sand and dirt for grout.


    ¡°Watch your step,¡± I said to Beth and Janet, not turning my eyes from the tunnel. ¡°The floor looks okay, but I could totally see one of us not seeing a small pile of dirt and shit, and eating shit at a really bad moment, so just be careful,¡± I said. Janet smiled, and I saw it in my peripheral.


    ¡°Awe, you really do care, Travis. That was so touching,¡± Janet said in a mocking, overly caring voice.


    Then, she almost slipped. She caught herself easily, and her cheeks turned red. ¡°You okay over there?¡± I said to Janet with a small smile on my face, still with eyes front as we were slowly making our way down the tunnel in the usual formation of me, Janet, and Beth.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. I¡¯m focusing on watching my footing. You should watch your step, you know, because of the dirt and sand and stuff¡±, Janet said, totally ignoring that I had just said anything of the sort. I just snorted, smiled, and said,


    ¡°Good to know, Janet. Thanks for the heads up.¡± I chuckled


    The next second, all joking, went out the window as a howl ripped through the silence of the Dungeon.


    It was like a child screaming, but too animalistic to be human. ¡°Holy shit! I¡¯m not liking this as much anymore, Travis. That was super freaky¡±, said Janet in a whisper. I stoked my resolve and told myself just as much as I told the two women.


    ¡°Come on. We got this. The point of shit like that in the animal kingdom is to be intimidating. They''re trying to freak us out, don¡¯t let them fuck with you.¡±


    ¡°Fuck, well, do they know that cuz they sound scary as shit,¡± Janet whispered back. Yeah, really did, shit, but we were doing this, or at least we were going to try. ¡°Come on, let''s check it out. The anticipation is fucking with me.¡± I told Beth and Janet.


    ¡°Fuck it,¡± Janet said


    ¡°Fine, fuck, but if it gets too crazy, Travis, we''re done, right? That''s what we said, right?¡±


    ¡°Yep, that''s what I said. Now, come on, let''s do this.¡± I said with only a little shakiness to my voice.


    I took a breath to steady myself and kept walking deeper into the tunnel. A couple of steps later, I heard Janet behind me in a faint voice whisper, ¡°Shit. We¡¯re so fucked.¡± I just tried to hide my gulp.


    The tunnel was about sixty feet long, and we could probably only see twenty feet at best. The braziers weren¡¯t the best for light. They kind of just gave the whole hallway an ominous feeling, fucking sucked. Why not just turn the lights all the way up and blast Mr. Blue Sky by E.L.O? That would at least make it not so creepy and fucking overall terrifying in here.


    We reached the end of the tunnel, and it ended in a room about the size of a one-bedroom apartment but circular. The cobblestones ended when the tunnel hit the room, and the floor became just dirt, but it didn¡¯t look like you¡¯d be able to dig down more than, like, an inch before you hit bedrock. It actually looked like bedrock was peeking through the dirt in some places.


    We entered the room and spread out in a semi-circle with the tunnel we¡¯d entered through at our back. Before us, there were four tunnels that beached ahead of us in different directions. Each of the four tunnels had a brazier on either side of the wall at their entry.


    We could only see about 5 feet down each tunnel with the level of light in the room, but it did look like the braziers continued on the walls of each tunnel. We started to make our way to the center of the room slowly. The silence was thick with tension, and we had all restricted our breathing to listen for anything that could mean danger.


    As we got closer to the four tunnels, they looked rougher, less refined for sure. It still looked like you could see the pick marks on the walls.


    ¡°So, what now?¡± Beth whispered in my ear. It took all my points in Wisdom and Constitution to avoid jumping out of my boots, and it had to be the Stats because she scared me, and I mean, almost literally.


    ¡°Fuck Beth. Are you trying to give me a heart attack? God damn it!¡± I whispered yelled at Beth. She gave me a yikes sorry face, and I calmed down.


    ¡°Sorry, you just startled me, my bad. What did you say? I kinda didn¡¯t hear you, on account, I was freaking out there for a second¡±, I said in a softer whisper.


    ¡°I said what now? Which tunnel do we take?¡± Beth reiterated.


    ¡°So, should we just work our way from right to left?¡± Janet said, whispering as well. I looked at Beth with a head tilt that said fine with me, and Beth shrugged. Then she said, ¡± Works for me.¡±


    We started working our way over to the tunnel on the far-right side. The entrance to each tunnel was a roof supported by two large round timbers on each end to hold it up. Looking into the tunnel, there was a support about fifteen feet in, and I assumed it was like the first tunnel, and they¡¯d be spaced an equal distance the whole way down.It also had a slight downgrade, only about five or so degrees, but I could notice it. ¡°Does the center of that tunnel look worn to you?¡± Beth asked.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I said.


    ¡°Well, it just looks like it¡¯s been traveled frequently. I don¡¯t know, but the floor of the tunnel just seems to slope a little toward the middle. Maybe they move carts of ore around down here. I don''t know. Just an observation. ¡±


    I looked at the floor of the tunnel again, and sure enough, Beth was right. It did look like it was worn by people using this tunnel often. ¡°I see it. Do you think they¡¯ll be back through here soon? I mean, if it''s that worn, they probably use this passage a lot, right?¡± Janet said a little nervously.


    It was at that exact moment that I started to hear something in the tunnel, just a soft, dragging sound. Then, we saw a shadow slowly moving down the tunnel into view. Fuck! We gotta hide! I waved for Beth to step back around the edge of the tunnel entrance and me and Janet stepped behind the other side.


    I got low and peeked my head around the wall. There was a five-foot goat standing on its hind legs, walking down the tunnel right toward where we were hiding. A goat, I mean, I think it was.


    The only thing that was fucking with me was that it was walking on its hind feet with a metal chest plate on, what looked like leather pants with metal stitched into them. A good-sized, two-sided axe dragging on the ground next to him held in his all too human-like left hand and his right-hand pointer finger up its nose.

 Chapter 7 - Dive to survive

    Chapter 7


    Dive to survive


    The goat man person was kind of looking off into the distance like when you concentrate. I totally get it. I¡¯ve been there. When you have a tough boogey, that just won¡¯t get the fuck out of your nose.


    I don¡¯t know why I was so stuck on the nose-picking thing. Maybe it was humanizing? I don¡¯t know. Then, a thought struck me. With the goat creatures being like 5 feet tall, chubby fuckers, and with the tunnel ceilings at about ten feet, these guys would have to stand on each other¡¯s shoulders to cut these tunnels out, right?


    I started picturing two goats, one standing on the other¡¯s shoulders, with pickaxes rapidly mining away. That would be hilarious, but fuck, Travis, not the time, focus. What the fuck were we going to do? So, plan time, it look like this guy, well goat, was not the sharpest spade in the tool shed. Maybe if we did this right, we could fuck this goat dude up with a surprise attack.


    I tried to get Beth¡¯s attention, which only took a moment, and she looked at me. I mimed getting low and swinging at ankle height with my axe. She got what I was going for, and we both crouched there, weapons ready.


    Janet was standing behind me next to me and whispered that she would hit the goat dude in the head. I just nodded at her. The goat creature got to the doorway, and he turned and looked right at Janet with her bat raised over her head.


    We all kind of paused, and then I saw Beth swing, and I remembered the plan and swung as well. Beth¡¯s hit landed a second before my own. As we struck, my axe went right through his ankle, but Beth¡¯s machete did not. She got most of the way through, but then the machete got stuck. The force of the strike was enough to break the bone, and it wasn¡¯t a clean cut.


    As the goat man creature fell, it struck out with a punch directed at Janet with its boogie hand. Janet was already swinging at that point and, completely by luck, hit the goat man¡¯s hand out of the way. Janet backed out of his range. While Beth was struggling to free her machete, the goat man whipped his axe around and slashed Beth¡¯s arm.


    Beth screamed, and I lunged forward, swinging down to hit its breastplate hard, leaving a massive dent. It¡¯s definitely causing the goat man to struggle to breathe. The goat man struggled to try to rip the breastplate off, but then Janet stepped forward and smashed her nail bat down on the head of the goat dude four times. On the third hit, the skull cracked. On the fourth hit, we saw brain matter squish out between the cracks, and blood was everywhere. On the wall, the floor, and even on all of us. ¡°Well, that definitely could have gone better,¡± Beth said.


    The next thing we heard was hooves pounding the ground, and it sounded like a lot of them. Janet had gotten the worst of the blood splatter. Her face was covered, and her clothes were drenched. She had a kind of crazy look in her eye, like, yeah, I fucking did that, you mother fucker.


    I wasn¡¯t too nuts about that look, but it was off her face a second later. Then she looked at me. Beth was staring at me, too, holding her arm. It didn¡¯t look like the goat dude had got her that bad. More of a grazing blow. It was still bleeding, though, and I saw some blood dripping through her fingers.


    ¡°You okay, Beth?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll be okay. It¡¯s really not that deep. That goat thing just barely caught me,¡± Beth said, giving a thumbs-up.


    At that moment, we all heard what was probably more goat people headed our way. ¡°Back through the tunnel we came from,¡± I said. Everyone was on their feet fast,


    and a second later, we were booking it down the tunnel we¡¯d just come from. It was much shorter when done at a run, not a wary shuffle.


    We made it back to the door, and I stopped everyone before we immediately left the Dungeon. ¡°I think we should make a stand here.¡± Janet looked at me like I was nuts, and Beth had a face on that said, why would we do that?


    ¡°Hear me out. The tunnel is too narrow for more than one of those goat things to attack at once. We might be able to force them to fight us one-on-three,¡± I said.


    ¡°Okay, well, we better decide soon because those goat things are going to get her any second now.¡± Janet spits out in a rush of words.


    ¡°Ugg, fuck it, let¡¯s just do this. If we die, I¡¯m gonna kill you, Travis!¡± Beth said. She was obviously on the verge of a full-on panic but was gritting her teeth. I watched her eyes steady and then resolve settled over her. Janet was looking back and forth at Beth and me.


    ¡°Are we doing this? Shit, I guess we are doing this. Fuck it, you only live once, and I liked the way those goat dudes head smash in.¡± Janet said, then she gritted her teeth and smiled a toothy grin. That same look was on her face again, which was a little scary, but there was no time. They were almost upon us.¡±


    ¡°Okay, Beth, next to me. Janet, standing between us, about two steps back.¡± I told them my best idea of a battle strategy. Beth and Janet nodded at me and moved. Seconds later, a goat man appeared in the tunnel in front of us, and soon, five more came into view.


    It was true. These tunnels were too small for them to attack side by side, but as soon as they registered us, their eyes bulged out, and they charged. They had been moving at a slow trot before but were now running at us. They were definitely weighted down by the armor they had on. Their armor was the same deal as the first guy¡¯s. The one in front had a long sword, and the next had two short swords. I couldn¡¯t see what the others were carrying yet, but it was probably similar to the rest of the group. I assumed maybe there was an axe in there somewhere. Guess we were going to find out cuz here they came.


    The one in front tried to use its momentum to get an opening downward chop at my head. I went to block with my axe, and as I did, Beth¡¯s machete slammed into the side of the creature¡¯s head, biting deep. Ser strike ended halfway through one eye of the creature¡¯s skull.


    The goat man smashed into the wall on my left. Beth jumped up, landed on the fallen body, and swung down, cutting through its neck and decapitating the creature. The goat men had been closing behind the first but had slowed down, more cautious after seeing their buddy die.


    The goat dude with the two short swords was lunging at Beth. It stabbed out with one short sword. Beth dodged, and then it swiped its other short sword out and slashed her arm. She yelped in pain and jumped back.


    The goat dude moved as if to stab at Beth again. Janet wasn¡¯t having that and smashed it upside the head, nails slamming deep. The goat dudes¡¯ eyes went fuzzy. She pulled the bat free with the sound of ripping flesh.


    The creature looked like it was definitely shaking, so I stepped forward and slammed my axe into its head right between its eyes. Blood hit my face, and I had to wipe my eyes clean. When I looked up, a goat man was stabbing me with a short sword right toward my heart.


    I froze, but luckily, I wasn¡¯t alone. Janet swung her bat, and the goat dude had to change from stabbing at me to blocking Janet with its shield. She slammed it into the side of the tunnel, and then another goat dude stabbed Janet across the arm as she jumped back to avoid the blow. It still caught her and left a deep cut in her bicep. Beth had recovered a little by now and defended Janet from the goat dude who had slashed her.


    It had pushed past its friend that Janet had saved me from and was advancing on to the women. It had seemingly forgotten me in its eagerness to reach Janet. The goat dude before me was still recovering from Janet¡¯s slam. I took advantage and put my axe halfway through its head. Its head popped and then made a wet sucking sound as I ripped my axe free of its skull.


    I stepped forward, leaving the two women and goat dude at my back. I heard what sounded like a child screaming behind me, and then Beth and Janet were back at my side, ready to face the next goat dude.


    We stood there, four goat men down, and only two left. One of the goat men had a spear, and the other had an axe like the first one we¡¯d killed. They were also way more cautious of us now since the beginning of the fight. These two seemed to be more willing to assess the situation before trying to kill us as their friends did.


    They moved into a staggered position. The axe wielder was in front, with the spear goat ready to stab out from behind his buddy. As they came into range, I went on the offensive, lunged forward, fainted to one side, and swung up from right to left. I was aiming to catch it under the chin and split its head.


    It blocked my strike, and I got stabbed in the shoulder by the spear wielder. I jumped back out of range, and while I was getting stabbed, Janet had smashed the axe guy in the face. Beth took advantage of the opening and stabbed the goat dude in the neck. The goat dude fell to one knee, holding his neck. I swung down one-handed into his collarbone. The goat dude screamed that childlike scream again, and then Beth stabbed it in the face straight into its brain.


    The last goat dude with the spear hadn¡¯t been ideal and, after stabbing me, swung the spear at Janet and got her in the leg. Janet fell hard to the floor. Beth screamed and flung herself at the goat dude, getting stabbed in the arm and then having to retreat.


    I decided this needed to end. We were too hurt to let this fight go on any longer. I lunged in again at the spear goat dude and blocked its attack, pushing it away from my stomach and into my leg. The spear went all the way through my leg, and I screamed. I bit my tung, but I still managed to bright my axe back with one hand and drive it down into the goat man¡¯s skull.


    I split its head in half, leaving it to lay open like a book as the goat dude fell to the ground, dead. I didn¡¯t find out till later that I killed the thing, however. The pain had been so intense from my wounds that the act of cutting the goat dude¡¯s head in half had been the tipping point to send me into unconsciousness.


    My eyes opened, and I panicked for a second because I¡¯d forgotten where I was. I looked around and saw Beth trying to wake Janet, but she was still on the floor. I remembered what happened. I checked my leg, and the bleeding had stopped, but I could see the bone. It hurt like crazy.


    I must have passed out from the pain of my leg wound. If there had been any of those goat dudes left, I would have been totally fucked. I started trying to get to my feet, slipped, and fell back on my ass hard. ¡°Fuck! That hurt¡±, I half cried.


    ¡°Are you okay, Travis?¡± Beth softly called over, checking on me.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m good. I mean, well, no, I¡¯m not really fucking good, but we need to get the fuck out of here now.¡± I said.


    I didn¡¯t even worry about keeping my voice down that much. I was starting to panic again. I scrambled to my feet, grunting through the pain and almost passing out again, but I made it to my feet and hobbled over to Janet and Beth.


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    Janet was still unconscious, and Beth looked worried. I looked Beth in the eyes and said, ¡°We need to leave now.¡± Her eyes went a little wide at my shaky voice. I don¡¯t know if she could tell how panicked I was. From the look on her face, I had a good idea that she was starting to pick up on it. She just nodded.


    We bent down and grabbed Janet by her arms, dragging her to the safe room. Once we were inside, I started to feel my panic ebb and realized how close I¡¯d been to falling apart. I helped Beth make Janet comfortable over by the small pond and proceeded to clean her wounds.


    After Janet was as comfortable as we could get her. We began trying to treat her wounds with the supplies we had, which wasn¡¯t much, but we had brought some gauze and Neosporin. We hadn¡¯t really been planning on going into the Dungeon. I had hyped the girls up and convinced them to go to this place with no provisions. Honestly, I had really fucked this whole thing up big time.


    Beth and I finished cleaning our wounds, and then Beth helped me rip my shirt into strips. We used the strips of cloth to bind my leg, and then I helped her bind hers and Janet¡¯s open cuts. At that point, Beth just laid back against the wall next to Janet and passed out.


    I bent down, drank some water from the pool, then walked a little ways away from the women and sat down. As my legs touched the cold floor, I let out a gasp. The ground almost felt like an ice pack, and when I leaned against the wall, I nearly gasped again in relief.


    After a minute of just enjoying the sensation from the cold floor, I started thinking about how I¡¯d fucked this all up. This was supposed to be a fun trip into a once-thought-to-be imaginary childhood dream.


    It was so not what I¡¯d thought. I¡¯d had the naivety to assume we¡¯d walk in here, kill some dumb mobs, NPCs, or monsters that would just revive to be killed again and get some amazing loot. We come out like kings, and I¡¯d never thought about the genuine danger I had just put them through. Beth and Janet were amazing. We made it work and had boned fast in our brief time together.


    They trusted me, and I didn¡¯t realize how much I valued their trust, but after this debacle, I¡¯m sure they¡¯d never trust me again. The idea of that finally broke me. I cried, I mean, I cried hard, heavy, deep sobs, and I couldn¡¯t stop. I must have been crying louder than I thought. I¡¯d been trying to cry into my arms to quiet the sobs, but at one point, Janet¡¯s arm was around my shoulders. When I noticed, I looked up, and tears fell from her face. I only doubled my sobs and held her like I was holding on for dear life.


    I knew I¡¯d be embarrassed later, but at that moment, I didn¡¯t care. We must have fallen asleep like that because who knows how long later, Beth tapped me on the shoulder, and I woke up with Janet¡¯s arm still around me. I knew the tears had left streaks through the grime on my face.


    Janet woke up as I moved. She slowly retracted her arm as Beth joined us on the ground. I felt a bit better emotionally like I¡¯d let some weight off my shoulders, but I would have to thank Janet for helping me get through that. At that moment, she had just made it okay to lose it, and that¡¯s what I needed right then.


    Janet was wiping her eyes of sleep when I asked her how she was feeling. ¡°Well, my head hurts a lot still. I hit it pretty hard when my leg went out after I got stabbed¡±, she said. I winced at that. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Janet, this was all my fault. I should have never had us go in there. I almost got us all killed. I really fucked up, guys. I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    ¡°Stop, Travis, you couldn¡¯t make me or Janet do shit even if you¡¯re at a higher level. You¡¯ve got some moral code, or you wouldn¡¯t have helped us back when you first saved our lives. Honestly, you¡¯re like a proud little doggie protecting its pack. You are harmless. Well, to us, at least. It¡¯s kinda cute. You saved our asses back there. Without you, we would definitely be dead¡±, Beth finished. Janet took that moment to chime in,


    ¡°Yeah, Travis, you were kind of an idiot the way you dove in headfirst without knowing anything about this place. On the other hand, Beth and I jumped right in with you. We should have been more cautious, you know, being older and wiser.¡± She gave me a wink with a nose-in-the-air smirk, then let her head drop down and gave me a soft smile.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, Travis. We¡¯re okay. No one died, and I know one thing. This blinking exclamation mark in the corner of my vision usually means power up, right? That¡¯s what we came here for, right? So, mission accomplished¡±, Janet said.We all realized that, yeah, she was right. ¡°We can check on that in a second. Are you guys okay? Beth said.


    How¡¯s your leg, Janet? Beth, is your arm, okay?¡± I asked them. Janet and Beth checked themselves over as I looked at my leg, which had started to heal. It was healing a little too fast for even my new regeneration abilities.


    ¡°Hey, are your wounds more healed than usual?¡± I said. The two women looked at me, then at each other, then Beth said, ¡°I can¡¯t tell?¡± Then Janet said,


    ¡°Yeah, can¡¯t really tell.¡±


    ¡°All good, maybe the water from the pond,¡± I muttered.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m doing okay overall,¡± Beth finally said. Janet affirmed that she was doing about the same as Beth. I was good. Well, my leg was still painful, but nothing like the pain I should have felt after taking a spear through the leg. I told them,


    ¡°I¡¯m okay, but I think I¡¯ll need another day or two to get my leg back to 100%.¡±


    ¡°That bad?¡± Beth said. Janet looked concerned.


    ¡°Yeah, well, that fucking spear went all the way through my leg, and it¡¯s still closing up,¡± I said.


    ¡°We can stay here. You have some trail mix, right? And we got water. We could see if those bean plant-looking things are edible, too. Maybe they¡¯ll be like Senzu Beans¡±, Janet said with a little smirk at the end, like, yeah, I know what Senzu Beans are bitch.


    I blinked at her, then just started laughing. It took me a second to calm down, but I did eventually. Once I was at the point where I could talk again, I told Janet, ¡°I really hope you¡¯re right. I could use a fucking Senzu Bean right now.¡±


    Beth had been looking at us with a you guys are fucking weird look. Janet saw it and explained about DBZ, Dragon Ball Z a little, but Beth still thought we were fucking weirdos. I laughed at Beth¡¯s still perplexed face and told them we better check out our notifications. They both agreed and soon, the two women had a far-off look in their eyes as if they were seeing something I couldn¡¯t.


    Janet Katz Stat. Sheet


    Level: 5


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 1,343/1,970 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Strength: 19


    Dexterity: 17


    Intelligence: 18


    Wisdom: 16


    Constitution: 15


    Luck: 10


    Beth Holloway¡¯s


    Level: 5


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 1,805/1,970 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Strength: 19


    Dexterity: 17


    Intelligence: 17


    Wisdom: 14


    Constitution: 16


    Luck: 9


    I popped open my own notifications and had a look. So, first things first, the goat dudes were called Caprainki Strike troopers. That had been driving me crazy, having to call them fucking goat dudes in my fucking head. At least now I knew they were fucking Caprainki. I¡¯m assuming Caprainki is their fucking species, like, I¡¯m a human, and that trooper thing must be their like designation, or title, or what the fuck ever.


    I didn¡¯t really give a fuck what they were actually called. They had just given me a fuck tune of XP.


    ¡°Level up! You were, and now you¡¯re at Level 6. Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer.¡± Wow, that was amazing.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 6


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 2,995/3,070 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Strength: 21


    Dexterity: 17


    Intelligence: 17


    Wisdom: 15


    Constitution: 21


    Luck: 14


    I decided to put one point in each Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. At that moment, I did not have any magic. To be totally honest, I hadn¡¯t considered Wisdom or Intelligence for that very reason. I needed to be faster, stronger, and be able to take more damage. That was the only way I saw me ever going back into that crazy fucking Dungeon ever again.


    The new level was so fucking needed. I think it¡¯d been a week or so since the last time I¡¯d leveled up. It definitely reminded me that the fucking Slag company was looming somewhere over our heads, and I was sure we¡¯d have to deal with this whole indenture thing at some point in the future. I mean, hell, if we lived that long. That thought brought me back to the here and now. I had another waiting.


    ¡°You have ingested Mana Kissed Water. Plus, 40% recovery time for all Mana, Health, and Stamina. This water is not very special or rare. Mana Kissed Water is a by-product of when a spring is created or an existing spring is influenced by high levels of Ambient Mana.


    Over time, the water from the spring is infused with Mana to the point it changes the very nature of the water itself and becomes Mana Kissed Water. That¡¯s why we¡¯d all healed up so fast. Damn, Dungeons in all their horrors, we¡¯re truly a marvel.


    The next thing I knew, I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard Janet exclaim,


    ¡°Holly shit, Travis, get over here,¡± Janet said as she started to chuckle. ¡°I swear, this is amazing. These are basically Senzu Beans! Travis, oh my god!¡± She was full-on laughing her ass off now. I started to laugh a little at Janet losing it. I don¡¯t know. Sometimes, when you see someone laughing, you just catch that laugh bug a little.


    ¡°Janet, what are you talking about?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Travis, just come over here. You¡¯ll see what I¡¯m talking about.¡±, she said. I walked over, still doing a little hobble. My leg was still stiff and hurting, but it felt way better, so walking over to Janet was not too bad, pain-wise. ¡°What is it, Janet? I¡¯m here. I walked my fucked up ass leg over here, so now, what did you want me to see?¡±


    Janet¡¯s expression became a little abashed,


    ¡°Sorry, I kind of forgot about your leg there for a sec, but shit, fuck it,¡± she said. Then, she reached her hand up and cupped my cheek. She put her thumb on my lower lip and gently pulled my lips down. I felt the tip of her finger graze my teeth, and my mouth dropped open. My eyes went wide. I¡¯m fairly sure my cheeks were getting red at this point as well, and it was then that Janet¡¯s face switched from a soft, almost romantic look to one of a, got you, stupid mother fucker look.


    My forehead started to scrunch in confusion, but Janet shoved a small pea-like object into my mouth before I could do anything. She then put her hand over my mouth and said,


    ¡°Chew.¡± At this point, Beth had walked over and had been watching our little interplay, and her eyebrows raised high as I looked at her, kind of a, so, gonna try and fuck Janet look. With a healthy side of, in your fucking dreams, smeared across the smirk on her face. I knew I was blushing hard, so I focused on chewing the pea-like thing in my mouth. When I finished chewing, an exclamation mark started blinking in the corner of my vision. I focused on it, and a notification popped up.


    ¡°You have ingested a Senzuketa Bean. You gained plus 100% to your regeneration rate for the next two hours. Senzuketa Beans are a by-product of a bean plant that is created or is an existing bean plant influenced by high levels of Ambient Mana. Over time, the bean plant becomes infused with Mana, to the point that it changes the very nature of the plant itself and becomes these wonderful little Magic Beans.


    There are magical fruits. When you eat¡¯um they¡¯ll make you toot. The more you toot, the better you¡¯ll feel, so eat Senzuketa Beans with every meal!¡± In the corner of the notification was ¡°Paid for by the Slag Corporation.¡±


    ¡°Well fuck. That¡¯s weird sounded like that old song about beans and farting. I hope that¡¯s not what I think.¡±, I said and started laughing. Beth got a look on her face like, what the fuck? I just told her never mind. Janet was still chuckling but managed to hand Beth a bean and told her to eat it. Beth looked at the little bean suspiciously, then popped it in her mouth. She chewed it for a second, then swallowed the Senzuketa Bean. She then got a far-off look in her eyes, and I knew she was checking her notifications.


    Only a few seconds passed before her eyes went wide. The following words out of her mouth were, ¡°Holly shit! These little Beans are fucking awesome! Why were you guys laughing? These could literally save our lives, and here¡¯s what¡­ at least 20 pods I can see right off the bat.¡±


    She started picking pods. She popped the first one she picked open, and four Senzuketa Beans were inside it. ¡°Four per pod, too. This is so great, Travis. Janet, what are you waiting for? Come on, help me pick ¡¯em.¡± We had both stopped laughing and were just staring at Beth going, pick happy with the new little Magic Beas.


    Janet and I looked at each other and started laughing all over again. After about five minutes, Beth yelled at us to help her, and we were still just laughing. Beth walked back over to us a minute later and had about 23 pods cupped in her hands.


    ¡°Thanks for the help, you jerk¡¯s,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Sorry¡±, Janet said, then continued. ¡°I think I needed that good belly laugh. There hasn¡¯t been much to laugh at recently, so that was almost cathartic.¡± I had to agree with Janet, and I just exhaled, sighed, and nodded in agreement with Janet¡¯s statement. Beth¡¯s expression softened, and she smiled at Janet, then said,


    ¡°All good, I get it. But, oh man, these little Treasures are amazing. I already feel like I¡¯ve been healing for weeks. Another 20 minutes, and I swear I¡¯ll be 100% again. That¡¯s just insane. It¡¯s just¡­¡± Beth looked like she was trying to find the words.


    ¡°Like magic?¡± I said.


    ¡°Yeah, exactly.¡±, Beth said, then smiled at me. I had to admit, I was starting to feel pretty fricking good, myself. I checked on my leg, and yeah, it was healing at a gradual but fucking visible speed, like I was watching my fucking skin pulling itself closed right in front of my eyes.


    It was starting to itch a little, and then, after about another five minutes, itching a lot, and then it started burning. I started to get a little freaked out, and I was visibly showing it¡ªor I must have been because all of a sudden, Janet and Beth were at my side, looking at my wound healing.

 Chapter 8 - Would you eat a magic bean?

    Chapter 8


    Just a Little Toot-Toot


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Janet asked in a worried voice. I turned my head toward her, gave her a thumbs-up, and gritted my teeth.


    ¡°Fuck, that¡¯s wild,¡± Beth said. I turned my head to look at her, and she was staring at my leg, mouth gaping in awe. Janet put her hand on my shoulder in a way so Beth wouldn¡¯t notice. I looked at her, and she gave me a soft, I¡¯m here for you smile and looked at my leg again in fascination.


    After about ten minutes of my itchy, burning nightmare, basically all my pain was gone. I mean, no itch, no burn, no fucking pain at all. My leg looked like it was back to normal, except for a bright pink patch of skin where the spear had pierced my leg, but even that looked like it was fading slowly.


    The next thing I knew, I was pulled from my thoughts when a loud fart ripped through the quiet room. I looked up at Beth, and then I looked at Janet, whose face was now bright red. Then she farted again.


    ¡°Omg, that felt so good,¡± Janet said


    ¡°Janet!¡± Beth scolded


    ¡°Sorry, but it really did,¡± Janet said.


    I looked at her, a little shocked, and then I heard Beth let out a small laugh. I turned and looked at Beth. She had her hands over her mouth, red-faced, and looked shocked at the fact she¡¯d just laughed at a fart. Then, I felt a bloating feeling in my stomach. There was nothing to do. I had to let it rip, so I closed my eyes and did.


    Oh my god, that felt amazing. I am just letting it go. Holy fuck, damn near orgasmic. I opened my eyes, a smile on my face, and saw Janet looking at me with a, oh yeah, did that feel nice, look on her face. Beth looked like. Now she thought that wasn¡¯t funny. ¡°That was gross, Travis. Come on. Janet farts, so you have to join the party?¡± Beth said, with a disapproving tone to her voice.


    Then the loudest fart so far smacked the air. Janet and I looked at Beth, shocked. Beth¡¯s face had gone from disapproval to shock and embarrassment instantly. Janet started laughing after a few seconds, breaking the silence, and I couldn¡¯t help it. I started laughing as well.


    Beth¡¯s face relaxed the next moment and then she was laughing with us. Then fuck! I had to fart again, and I let it go. Janet soon snapped a good one out after that. Beth hit us with a room shaker, which was mayhem after that.


    The farting session lasted only about five minutes in total, but that¡¯s a lot of farts if you think about it. ¡°Didn¡¯t realize farting could wear you out, but I feel like I need a fucking nap now,¡± Janet said. Beth and I nodded at that, and without speaking, we all sat down on the floor and laid our backs against the wall. One by one, we passed out.


    Janet sat next to me. Beth passed out in seconds and was snoring away on Janet¡¯s other side. I heard Beth¡¯s snores, and then suddenly, Janet had her head on my shoulder, falling fast asleep. I reached over and rubbed her leg in what I intended to be a reassuring manner. Janet looked up at me through her eyelashes and smiled. She held my arm with one hand. I let go of her leg as we passed out.


    My eyes slowly opened, and I felt better rested than I had since, fuck it, ever. I was the first one up. I looked down at Janet, who was still holding my arm, her head still on my shoulder. I softly jostled her leg, and her eyes slowly opened. ¡°Morning, have a good nap?¡± I said in a soft voice. Not so much as to not wake Beth up. She looked a little drowsy, then slowly lifted her head off my shoulder and let my arm go.


    ¡°Oh, gods, yes! Wow, I feel like I¡¯ve been waiting for a nap like that my whole life.¡±, she said while stretching a little in place. At that point, Beth was making sounds like she was waking up. I looked past Janet and saw Beth yawn. She looked over at Janet while she cleared the sleep from her eyes.


    ¡°Sleep okay there, Beth?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°Jesus! Wow, yes, damn. I feel like I¡¯ve never had a stressful day in my life. We just slept on the floor, leaning against a wall. I should feel all stiff and shit. I mean, I feel like I was sleeping on a cloud. Those Senzuketa Beans really are amazing.¡±, Beth said.


    Janet smiled at Beth. Talking about the Beans again got me thinking. She had called them a treasure, and honestly, the little loot hamster in my stomach had been crying out at me about the injustice that no loot dropped from those fucking Caprainki troops.


    Wasn¡¯t this a fucking Dungeon? What was this crap? We beat monsters, where was my fucking loot, Dungeon? Huh? Huh?! Then I stopped. What if they dropped the loot where they died? We had been pretty focused on getting the fuck out of there at the time.


    I hadn¡¯t even checked if they had dropped shit! ¡°Fuck! Oh fuck.¡±, I said out loud in a soft voice, talking to myself. Did we just leave the loot!? And if we did, would it still be there, or did we just lose half of what we came here for? We got our levels, the first part of why we were in this fucking Dungeon. Beth and Janet had mentioned that they had made it to level 5 after that fight, and I¡¯d hit level 6.


    It was definitely getting more challenging to level up. My XP needs had definitely increased, and I was sure it would only get worse. The second reason we were here, though, was to get fucking loot! If we were actually going to clear this Dungeon, which was starting to seem like a more daunting task.


    After that last encounter, we needed that loot. Janet was looking at me like I was going a little crazy.


    ¡°Talking to yourself over there? You, okay?¡± Janet said, smirking, and asked, "Should I be worried about this?"


    ¡°What?¡± I said. I probably said that out loud when I was yelling at myself about the loot thing. ¡°I was just thinking about our fight with the Caprainki.¡± ¡°The what?¡± Beth interrupted.


    ¡°The Caprainki¡¯s, that¡¯s what the fucking goat dudes were actually called.¡±, I told Beth and Janet.


    ¡°Oh, really, actually, I think I do remember that from the kill notification I got from one of them.¡±, Beth said, looking like she was trying to recall the info.


    ¡°I was just thinking that we didn¡¯t get any loot from those Caprainki, or if we did, we totally forgot it in our rush to get the fuck out of there to get back to the safe room.¡±, I told them. Janet looked at me, blinking for a moment. Beth gave me the same look. Janet broke the silence. ¡°The fuck are we still doing here waiting around? We¡¯re all healed up, right?¡± She looked around. Beth and I nodded back. Yeah, we were both pretty much good now, then Janet continued.


    ¡°What the fuck are we doing just sitting here chatting? Let¡¯s get the loot and head back to the tree house to regroup. I need a fucking drink of something with a bit of a different punch than that magic water as well. I smiled at Janet.


    ¡°Well said, Janet,¡± I told her. In the next minute, we were all back at the entrance to the Dungeon, weapons in hand and waiting for, well, I didn¡¯t really know. What the fuck were we waiting for?


    ¡°You gall¡¯s ready?¡± I asked Beth and Janet. I got a nod from each of the ladies, and we entered the Dungeon for the second time.


    Well, the first thing we found out was the Dungeon didn¡¯t reset every time we left and reentered, or at least not that fast. We made our way back to the scene of the battle. There was blood everywhere, and I mean everywhere.


    The floor was covered. Bodies were strewn all over the floor, and as we got closer to them, the smell was indescribable. I mean, oh my fucking god, that shit was fowl. Oh yeah, and no fucking loot boxes, so this just got more complicated.


    I had to pinch my nose closed as I found it hard to deal with the smell. As I did, I heard a wrenching sound and looked at Beth. She was over by a wall, hand up supporting herself as she was throwing up on the floor. I felt terrible for her and totally got it. I was surprised I wasn¡¯t throwing up myself.


    The next thing I knew, I heard Janet start to wretch, and then she was up against the opposite wall from Beth, throwing up as well. Oh shit, both got hit, that¡¯s a bitch. I really hate throwing up, like it¡¯s the worst, and I was so happy I was keeping my stomach under control.


    My hand slipped a little at that exact moment, and that was it. I let just enough of that smell, that always cheesy, acidic smell of bile, and I was fucked. I started to wretch. I made my way over to the wall and started throwing up.


    When we were all done puking our guts out, we collectively decided to go back to the safe room and clean up before we did anything else. After we were all clean, we went back into the Dungeon. We all had a hand on our noses and looked down at the corpses that filled the hallway. It didn¡¯t look like any other Caprainki had come by and seen what had gone down yet, so I guess that was one thing we had going for us.


    ¡°Well fuck, where do we even start with this fucking mess.¡± I posed the question to Janet and Beth. We all stood there looking at the body a little longer, then Beth looked at us, let her hand fall from her nose, and set her face.


    Out of nowhere, she walked over to the close¡¯s corps and started to loosen the straps holding the Caprainki breastplate fastened. I watched Beth for a moment, then looked at Janet. She looked at Beth with a grossed-out outlook on her face and would not break her gaze from what Beth was doing.


    I let out a nasal laugh, and she looked up at me like I was crazy. She saw my smile and yelled at me in a nasal tone, ¡°What? That¡¯s fucking disgusting. You can join her if you want, but that¡¯s fucking gross as fuck! I¡¯m not doing that, no fucking way.¡±


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    I looked at her, gave her a more extensive, shit-eating grin, and said, ¡°Oh okay, so no loot for Janet, that¡¯s cool, more for us.¡± She groaned and then gave me a, please don¡¯t make me do this pout and through in some puppy dog eyes for good measure.


    I just laughed some more. She walked over and stroked my shoulder, giving me a playful, flirty look, then said in a sultry voice completely ruined by the whole nasally voice the hand holding her noise gave her, ¡°Come on, you¡¯ll share, right? Go and get me something HARD and LONG to protect myself, you know what I like, right?¡±


    I blinked at her for a moment. That was actually really fucking hot, even all nasally, then I snapped out of it. ¡°Yeah, not gonna happen. If you want it, you dig through the nasty like the rest of us.¡±, I said. Her face fell, and she gave me a dirty look. ¡°Fine, but you¡¯re dead to me.¡± She said in an all too serious tone.


    ¡°Come on, Janet,¡± I said back, and she looked at me as if she was not playing around anymore.


    ¡°Travis, dead, too, me.¡±, she said and walked off. Fuck, maybe I fucked up, like. The way she had been acting toward me recently had made me think that maybe, just maybe, I could get my dick touched.


    Fuck! That would be amazing. I hadn¡¯t gotten laid in three months. I had a one-night stand with a girl before the whole integration thing, and we had both been shit-faced. Needless to say, I didn¡¯t remember much about it, and that might have been a good thing.


    Janet started walking around to the different bodies, grabbing the weapons she could see on the Caprainki¡¯s. She was making a pile of them. I think she decided it was the least messy of the jobs that had to be done. We were taking these guys for everything they had.


    Meanwhile, Beth got the breastplate of the first Caprainki, took everything else of value the Caprainki had, and moved on to the next body, repeating the entire process. I walked towards the body that Janet had already taken the weapon from, and Beth hadn¡¯t gotten to yet.


    I bent down next to the body of one of the Caprainki and tried to figure out how I was going to start stealing all this guy¡¯s shit. The smell was still ever present and lingering. You could almost taste it on the back of your tongue. I gagged again but forced it down and decided I would start with the breastplate as Beth had.


    I felt with my hands at the place on the side of the Caprainki chest where the clasps to the chest plate were fastened. I found them after a second. There was just too much blood matted into the short-cut wool that covered every visible part of their bodies to see it with my eyes.


    After finding them, I had to work on them for a second. Turned out they were connected with leather straps that were just tied together. It¡¯s fucking hard to get a knot, sticky with blood un-fucking tied I learned that fast.


    I eventually got the ties loose and the two on the other side of the breastplate. That was nice because I could just slip it over Caprainki¡¯s head and slide it from under its back. After I got that off, it had two arm guard bracer-type things I could steal, I mean repurpose. They were metal on the outside and leather on the inside. With both of them off, I decided to put on pants next. Hell, it was the only thing left on this guy.


    In the process of depantsing the Caprainki, which I never laughed at in my head. When I found a pouch on the Caprainki¡¯s belt, it was a small pouch about the size of a, maybe double, my fanny pack size. When I looked inside, I found two vials resembling those that take your blood in. Full of a red substance. It was too watery to be blood, and when it hit the light just right, it had an almost green fluorescent color. There were also a few small marble-sized balls made of a dark green herb tightly wound and folded in on itself. They looked like pills but just a bit too big to swallow, more bite-sized.


    I took the lot and then finished taking off its pants. It had some boots on, and I had to pull those off before I could finish taking the pants. All the Caprainki had on now was a weird loincloth covering his junk.


    I looked over at the progress of the ladies, and Beth was now on her 4th, while Janet was taking the shit that Beth pulled off and adding it to her ever-growing pile of loot. Janet walked over to me after I had all my Caprainki shit in a little pile next to me, and then she bent down and grabbed the breastplate off the pile. She looked at me and gave me a ¡°fuck off¡± look as she walked the breastplate over to her pile without a word.


    Shit Janet, I thought to myself, if she was really mad at me, then you know what, tough shit, this new world was complex, and I¡¯m not gonna shelter her from that, even if I want to fuck her. She¡¯ll have to pitch in on all the crap, not just the fun shit or, well, terrifying shit. Whatever, I¡¯m losing my point. Basically, she gotta do the same shit as Beth and me, no special treatment.


    I then gave a firm nod to the air as if that was that and started on the next Caprainki body. By the time I finished my second, Beth was almost done with the last one, so I just helped bring the piles of gear Beth was making to Janet¡¯s collection.


    Once Beth was done, she let us know with a big sigh and said, ¡°That¡¯s it, that¡¯s the last one. I¡¯m so done. Let¡¯s get this shit and get back to the tree house. Janet, you said you had something stronger back there. Did you mean liquor? Please say you meant liquor?¡±


    Beth had an almost pleading look as she looked at Janet. Janet just let out a short laugh and said, ¡°Oh yeah, girl, you better believe that¡¯s what I meant. Let¡¯s go get fucked up.¡±


    Getting all the loot back to the tree house took a while. The first annoyance in that process was that when we got out of the Dungeon, we appeared in the safe bubble that surrounded the entrance to the Dungeon. That wasn¡¯t the annoying part, though. That was great. It meant we could leave a pile here instead of going back into the Dungeon every time we had to do a tree house run or making piles outside the Dungeon and just hope no one or thing fucked with it.


    No, the annoying part was when we got out there, we saw a group of twenty-five little T-Rex things had taken over the pond area, so we had to wait three hours until they left. It did give us plenty of time to bring all our new shit outside, which I guess was fine. It was just boring.


    When the coast was finally clear, we had to make a fuck tone of runs back and forth from the tree house to the Dungeon. We eventually grabbed some blankets and made gear bundles to carry more loot back. When all the loot was piled up in the tree house. We gathered at the door that was now a table to have a well-deserved drink.


    Janet had found a liquor cabinet in some house while out scavenging. The owner had two bottles of excellent ass whisky and two handles of vodka that had survived the integration. Janet had gladly grabbed what they had left behind. The point is that It was ours now, and that¡¯s all that fucking mattered.


    Janet poured what I think was the sixth round now. I was definitely getting drunk. Twenty minutes after that, Beth was pouring the fifteenth round, and everyone was fucking shit-faced. We all talked about the fucking craziness of the whole dungeon dive, and all agreed very drunkenly that we were terrific and that Dungeon was now our bitch.


    Beth had just poured her umpteenth shot when the second bottle was almost empty. She downed it, then stood up and walked right over to the mattress we had dragged all the way up in the tree. She fell right into bed, kind of face-planting into it.


    I was impressed. It was almost elegant. She was so drunk. I¡¯d watched her not an hour before and bet Janet she could pee off the tree house without falling out of it. I laughed so hard. Beth balanced herself against a branch with one hand and the tree house with the other. The funniest part of the whole thing was Beth trying to ensure she wasn¡¯t simultaneously peeing on her feet. Most of it made it off the tree house and only got a little on her shoes.


    Janet had been a little standoffish all night, and it seemed like she was actually still pissed at me about the whole looting thing. About thirty minutes after Beth had passed out, I was sitting at the table pouring another shot for Janet and myself. At the same time, Janet had moved over to the bed and had been lying next to Beth.


    I thought she had passed out for a second till she lifted her head up out of the blue and insisted I pour her a shot, then lay back down. Janet sighed, and I looked over, spilling some vodka in the process. Janet pulled herself into a seated position and looked over at me. She had a dazed smile as if she was content with whatever she felt right then. She was just gazing off into our kerosene lantern lite tree house. Then she turned her head toward me, still smiling, and promptly stood up. ¡°You want your shot?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°What? No, no, I don¡¯t want that. I didn¡¯t ask for a shot. Don¡¯t try and get me drunk cuz I already am.¡± She said, and then kind of laughed at her own words. My eyebrows lifted at her sudden flip. I was pretty drunk, too, so it was also a little hard to focus on her. After my eyes had communicated the image in front of me to my brain, I saw Janet¡¯s hand held out to me, a soft smile on her face. She giggled softly, and then I heard her slur, ¡°Looks like some can¡¯t handle their liquor.¡±


    Then she burped, looked down, and brought her hand to her mouth in an, oh shit, was that me, look. I let out a brief chuckle, and Janet looked at me like she had just remembered I was there.


    The hand that wasn¡¯t at her mouth was still extended to me. I took it, pulled myself to my feet, off balancing her slightly with my action, and wasn¡¯t ready. I reached out to help steady her, and for about twenty seconds, it was an actual crap shoot if we were gonna end up on the floor or stay standing.


    The odds must have been in our favor. At the end of our little, will they fall, won¡¯t they fall, I was holding Janet close, and she was gripping my arms tight. ¡°Okay, think we¡¯re good,¡± I said, chuckling softly.


    Our faces were inches from each other, and we looked into each other¡¯s eyes for a moment before we realized how close we were. Janet softly laughed awkwardly, then untangled herself from my arms. When I realized what she was trying to do, I let her go of her like she was made of hot coals.


    She smiled and then grabbed my hand again. She led me over to a big, comfy chair near the tree house entrance. It was a lot of effort to get it up here, but it was totally worth it. The chair was entirely made of well-worn leather, and it was big enough to sit two people or one extremely comfortably.


    Janet looked like she was leading me to sit in my big chair, but as she stood before it, she turned and stopped. We stood there for a few seconds, holding each other¡¯s hands. She was looking at me like she was trying to see something in my eyes but was having trouble seeing it.


    Then, out of nowhere, her hand shot up, and the next thing I knew, I had a Senzuketa Bean in my mouth. ¡°Janet, what the¡­?¡± She just put her hand over my mouth and said, ¡°Chew, please?¡± I stopped and looked at her. I saw she had a bean in between her teeth, too, and once she had seen that I¡¯d seen it, she started chewing. After I saw that, I just shut up and chewed.


    Once we both had swallowed our beans, Janet winked at me and pulled me into the chair with a little more strength than I think she intended to use. She then hopped onto the chair next to me and snuggled into my chest.


    I was a bit shocked at her actions, but it felt nice, so I just went with it, and I needed physical contact. When Janet sat down next to me, she¡¯d been smiling, but after a second of being tucked into my chest, I heard soft sobs and felt a small amount of wetness through my shirt. I didn¡¯t say anything. I just held her as she cried, and we started sobering up from the Senzuketa Bean.


    The alcohol was leaving my body at a pretty quick pace, and at this rate, we¡¯d probably be sober in the next ten minutes. Janet stopped crying after about five minutes when the farts kicked in, real romantic, or well, the crying wasn¡¯t really romantic either, but fuck me.


    She giggled at one or two farts through her cries and just let me hold her for that ten minutes. When Janet stopped crying, she sat up, wiped her eyes, put a hand on each shoulder, and looked at my face. Her eyes were slightly puffy from crying, but even like that, she looked pretty.


    ¡°Are you okay, Janet?¡± I said in a soft voice. She put a finger on my lips, then closed her eyes and took a breath. Her eyes opened. She looked calmer and more collected. ¡°Travis, first, I¡¯m sorry. I was kind of blowing you off tonight. Honestly, I just didn¡¯t want Beth to think I liked you.¡± She gave me an apologetic smile.


    ¡°We¡¯ve been through some shit now, and if you or Beth died after what happened to Tom. I wouldn¡¯t be okay. I was thinking about it after we fought those Caprainkis, right? Oh, fuck it, whatever they were called, if I lost you or Beth, if I lost you.¡± Then she stopped talking. Her bottom lip was quivering, and it looked like she was gonna cry again.


    ¡°I mean, I loved Tom. I did. We didn¡¯t have the best¡­ and when he died.¡± Janet stopped speaking at that and let out a few tears. I wanted to embrace her, but she held me back. ¡°Please, I need to say this. I do not want to forget him, but I think I need you tonight.


    I grabbed her and pulled her into my arms. ¡°It¡¯s okay. You really saved me back in that fight. Without you, I¡¯d be Caprainki food by now,¡± I whispered into her ear. She let out a few small chuckles, her head once again buried in my chest.


    Then she pulled back from me a little, and I let my hand fall to her lower back. She held the back of my head with one hand and my shoulder with her other. She looked at me for one more second, then she kissed me.

 Chapter 9 - Give me loot, sexy, sexy loot

    Chapter 9


    give me loot, sexy, sexy loot


    Then we were making out, which soon led to straight up just fucking it out. Clothes were coming off, Janet was grabbing at my belt, trying to get the damn thing undone, while I was focused on taking off her bra.


    Beth let out a loud snort and grunt, then a ¡°num num num¡± sound. We froze and looked at Beth. We were in the middle of getting naked, and everything was halfway off. We looked back at each other, and then, without speaking, we both thought, fuck it.


    The next second, we were face-locked and frantically attacking each other¡¯s clothing again. The first time we fucked that night, it was amazing. I mean, I think it was the best sex of my life. Stats definitely played a hand. Let¡¯s just say sex with increased Strength and Constitution was next-level fucking.


    We went at it hard and fast that first time. In the next six rounds, as I said, fucking Strength and Constitution, the sex got better each time. We had to move our fuck sesh to the roof on the third go. We had definitely woken up Beth. Janet had let out a loud moan the third time I came, and I had to cover her mouth.


    Beth had woke up, then sat up, and looked at us, booty-ass naked, me deep in Janet, both mid-o-face, then said, ¡°Get it you two, fuck, getting fucked sounds so nice right now,¡± and then she just passed out again muttering about getting fucked. Honestly, we only noticed when Beth dropped back to the mattress, but even then, we were both beyond caring. We did move up to the roof after that, but only because Janet had said she needed some air.


    We had gone up to the roof, but basically, when we had looked at each other, standing there naked, Janet had looked over at my dick and let out a brief yum. Which turned me on, and I was hard. That¡¯s how we started the roof fucking rounds. We finally reached our limits of fucking, for now, and went back inside the tree house.


    We snuggled up on the mattress, and that¡¯s where we fell asleep. When I woke up, Janet and Beth were still out. I lifted Janet¡¯s arm from over my chest and covered her with a blanket because she had a boob and a leg out of the covers. I started walking around the tree house, cleaning up from our little party the night before.


    Janet¡¯s and my clothes were all over the place. I got dressed and took our clothes to the laundry basket, which was really just a pile on the floor near the base of the bed. Now, it was time to make some food. I cooked up some bacon and eggs and made a pot of black tea, extra strong. I was almost done cooking when Janet woke up and took over the bacon as I got the plates out.


    When Janet got up, she got dressed, walked over to me, gave me a deep kiss right on the lips, then grabbed my dick through my pants. Janet then spoke softly so as not to wake Beth,


    ¡°Morning. Damn, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve been fucked like that ever in my life Travis. I mean, holy shit! I mean fuck!¡± And she kissed me again. As she pulled back, she looked me in the eyes and said with a serious tone to her voice,


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell Beth, not yet, please. I just don¡¯t want her to know. Maybe just our little secret for now.¡± I just nodded and said,


    ¡°Fine with me. You can tell her when you want.I¡¯m totally fine with that.¡± She just smiled and gave me another quick peck on the lips.


    Her face got serious again, and she looked like she was thinking about what her next words were going to be. She finally stated,


    ¡°Look, Travis, you¡¯re a great guy, and as I said, probably the best sex of my life, but I, like, don''t get me wrong, but I feel¡­well, um, I don¡¯t know the best way to say this. Like I¡¯m down to fuck, like I said, great sex, but I just think the way things are right now, that you and me¡­¡±


    Then I cut her off. ¡°Janet, let me stop you there. We''re good, we¡¯re all good. I like you, Janet, but I agree. I think we both needed that, and that¡¯s totally fine. Hey, and well, if it happens again, I¡¯m so down. Like you said, great fucking sex, probably the best of my life as well. No lie, but yeah, no labels or limits. You do you, and I¡¯ll do me, but like you said, I¡¯m down to clown girl¡±, I told her, and I gave her a smile. A look of relief washed over her face, and she gave me a peck on the cheek.


    ¡°Sounds like a plan to me, cute ass,¡± she said.


    ¡°Oh, cute ass, huh?¡± I spoke.


    ¡°Yeah, I like your ass, it looked good in the moonlight last night,¡± she added. I blushed at that one. Janet laughed, and we finished making breakfast and setting the table.


    Janet went to wake Beth up after the table was set. Janet gave Beth a Senzuketa Bean and a glass of water. Beth was looking almost back to normal after only five minutes.


    ¡°Fuck, those little things are so great. They should market them as a fucking hangover cure,¡± Beth said. Then she let out a fart. Her face fell, then she continued, ¡°Except that part.¡± Janet and I started laughing, and Beth even joined in on the laughs a second later.


    After breakfast, we all decided we needed to go through the gear from the dungeon. There was a lot of it, and it wasn¡¯t going to sort itself. We finished up with breakfast and then headed down to sorting through everything, we had a bunch of loot to go through as well. The final tally came out too: two Long Swords, three Short Swords, one Axe, one Spear, one Shield, six Breast Plates, six sets of Bracers, six pairs of Pants, six sets of Boots, three Small Leather Pouches with five vials of a Mystery Red Liquid, and 39 Marble like Herb Pellets inside.


    Overall, a rather good hall, if I did say so myself. Janet hoisted the axe up onto her shoulder. ¡°What do you guys think? Pretty badass, right?¡± she said. Beth and I just rolled our eyes at her.


    ¡°Yes, Janet, total badass. Is that gonna be your new weapon then?¡± I asked her. Beth was looking over at the pile. She looked like she was trying to pick a weapon for herself. Janet pulled the axe off her shoulder and held it out in front of her, inspecting it.


    It was about three or three and a half feet long with a double side axe head. After a few seconds, a grin started slowly growing on Janet¡¯s face. Then she said, ¡°Yeah, fuck yeah, I¡¯m Janet, the axe-wheedling nightmare from Long Beach. Bow to my epic power.¡± Then she let out her best supervillain laugh. I just chuckled at her and shook my head.


    I decided that Janet did have the right idea, no matter how ridiculous she was being. It was time to pick a weapon. I looked over the shit we had acquired, all that sweet loot. My loot hamster was jumping up and down. It was yelling at me to take everything, but honestly, I didn¡¯t need everything. There was no place to sell shit at. I didn¡¯t even know how much any of this shit was worth anymore.


    Even if I found a shop, I knew I would totally get scammed. I looked over at Beth. I wondered what she was thinking of taking. I started walking over to her,


    ¡°Beth, what are you thinking about?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°What? Oh, um, I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m thinking of the Short Sword, but I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll want to use a shield, too, or I could just use two Short Swords. I honestly can¡¯t decide.¡±, she said back.


    I thought about it for a second, and then I gave her my opinion,


    ¡°Well, I think, if I were you, I would go with the two Short Swords.¡± She gave me a questioning look, so I continued. ¡°I just think you have more options with the Short Swords. It just seemed like with the two Swords, you could switch from block to attack faster. Honestly, I wouldn¡¯t bet on my opinion, though. I¡¯m sure a Sword and Shield combo could be just as fucking deadly. It¡¯s all how you use it, right?¡± She gave me a, come on, Travis, really, but after a second, she actually looked like she was thinking about it.


    ¡°Think I¡¯m gonna go with a Short Sword and the Shield. I don¡¯t really know why, but I think that¡¯s the path for me, or at least for now it is.¡±, she said, holding the two pieces of gear out in front of her.


    The shield was more like a buckler, just a little bigger and made of dense dark wood, and the Short Sword looked almost like it was of Roman design. ¡°Sounds good. I think that¡¯s a good choice,¡± I told her.


    Well, Beth and Janet both had new weapons. Now, it was my turn. I walked over to the pile of weapons as Beth and Janet were playing with their new toys. After Janet had taken the axe, Beth had gone with the Short Sword and Shield combo. All that was left was one long sword, two short swords, and a spear.


    The Long Sword was basically the same design as the Short Swords, but just long. The spear, on the other hand, kind of caught my eye. The Spear shaft was made from a synthetic material of some kind, looked like the shit they made fishing poles out of, but about an inch around. The Spear tip was leaf-shaped and made of black metal that wasn¡¯t like any of the metal that made up the other weapons.


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    I think this was it. This was my weapon. I went with the Spear, and I felt good about it. I gave a couple of thrusts with the Spear in the air. It was only about five feet long, but it felt good. I smiled to myself and felt a little safer inside. I felt confident as I claimed my new weapon.


    I walked over to the pile of breastplates next. I wanted to see if any of them would fit me. The Caprainkis were only about five feet tall, whereas I was almost six feet. They were stocky, so I had no idea if I was gonna fit the thing. Luckily enough, the breastplate was a cheap piece of shit, basically just two flat plates of metal with a strap connecting them.


    They had ties on the sides that just meant adjustable to me. Believe it or not, the damn thing worked out and covered my torso all the way to my belly button. I kind of liked it. The breastplates were all made of black metal, like the tip of my spear, and I actually got the dam thing to fit pretty snugly.


    The pants were another story. I couldn''t wear them unless I tied a belt tight around my waist, and then there were the legs of the pants that only came to just under my knees. I looked fucking ridiculous, and I definitely thought they would do more harm than good in our next fight. The boots were the same problem, too small. So, the pants and boots were a no-go for me. The bracers were adjustable, like the breastplates, so those worked out nicely. I thought about what I must look like. I was in work boots and jeans. The jeans, a little worse for the wear, a sweatshirt, and my new armor.


    I felt kind of badass so I kind of struck a pose for a second. Janet saw and started laughing at me. Beth looked up at Janet, then saw where she was looking and looked over at me. She saw me all fitted up with my new weapon armor and bracers, striking a pose, and started laughing as well.


    ¡°Well, you look ready to go and fuck some shit up, Travis.¡±, Beth said after a couple of seconds, laughing at me.


    ¡°Yeah, very debonair, my night in¡­well, not shining armor, but I guess, just armor. We¡¯ll have to find you some shining armor at some point.¡±, Janet said with a raised eyebrow and a smile.


    ¡°Okay, okay, enough. Yes, I look awesome. Yes, I¡¯m now a badass. Yes, yes, you may now see me as a new man but have no fear. I am still the same man. I know I may now make you shake in your boots at my amazingness. I will try to restrain myself.¡±, I said.


    They both looked at me, deadpanned, and then just shook their heads at me. My head dropped in mock shame, then I continued,


    ¡°How sad, my awesomeness is so unrecognized by these mere mortals.¡± Janet throws an apple at me from across the room, and it hits me in the middle of my new breastplate.


    ¡°Hey! You¡¯re gonna scuff the new paint¡±, I said jokingly, as I rubbed where the apple hit me with my thumb as if wiping at a scratch that wasn¡¯t there. Janet just rolled her eyes and went back to picking out her own gear upgrades.


    Eventually, we all had our new gear on. I was looking awesome, of course. Janet had her new axe slung over one shoulder, a breastplate on that made it down to the waist, fitting her perfectly, as well as the bracers and the boots, which I couldn¡¯t believe actually fit her.


    I was so mad about that. All that fitted nicely over a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. And a leather jacket over her breastplate that completed the ensemble. She looked fucking hot, like a badass biker chick, with an axe, fuck, that was sexy. Beth had her short sword and shield combo. She also had a breastplate on, but Janet¡¯s still fit the best.


    Beth¡¯s breastplate was just a little too long. If she sat down, it would get pushed up under her chin and be super uncomfortable. Beth had a set of bracers on, but she had to over-tighten them a bit to get them to fit right. She got it to work for her. She was not able to fit in the boots, just like me. Instead of the problem I had, where my feet were too big, her feet were too small.


    Beth was rocking blue jeans like the rest of us, a long-sleeved shirt under the breastplate, and a pair of running shoes. ¡°What do we do with the rest of this stuff?¡± Janet said as she pointed with her axe at our pile of loot. We all looked at the pile for a few moments. Then I spoke up.


    ¡°Well, I think we should hold on to it. Maybe we can sell it or give it to someone at some point?¡± Or fucking sell it, I¡¯m not giving that shit to anyone for free. Then Beth broke me out of my greedy thoughts by saying,


    ¡°I mean, well, this might be a bad idea, but I¡¯m just throwing this out there. We could bury it?¡± I blinked a few times, then I took a second and looked over at Janet. Janet looked at me with a smile, eyebrows raised. I looked back at Beth and let out a short chuckle as I smiled.


    ¡°That¡¯s a brilliant idea, Beth. Damn, that¡¯s perfect. Well, Travis? I¡®m liking it.¡± Janet said. I nodded my head at Janet, and Beth then said,


    ¡°Hell yeah, that¡¯s a solid fucking plan, Beth. I like it more and more now that I think about it. You know what? It kinda makes me feel like a pirate about to bury some loot with me mateies.¡±


    I smiled and thought about Travis, the devil of the seven seas, for a moment. That would be kinda cool. Then I thought about how I didn¡¯t really swim much and that I actually hated sailing. Oh yeah, I¡¯m good. I snapped back with that thought and then noticed Beth and Janet were laughing at me. Beth was shaking her head in disapproval.


    I blushed a little. Then, before I let this situation get out of hand, I continued, ¡°Okay. Hey, come on, let¡¯s do this. It¡¯s a good plan, Beth.¡± I said, and I gave her a thumbs-up and then continued. ¡°Let''s get this shit together, maybe, wrap it all in a blanket and drop all the gear in a big pit?¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± Janet said, placing her axe back on her shoulder.


    ¡°Umm, so just one small problem,¡± Beth said. Janet looked at her with a What are you talking about, look on her face. Then Janet asked, ¡°Beth, what are you talking about?¡± Beth looked at us both, then replied,


    ¡°Well, I mean, do either of you have a shovel hidden somewhere I don¡¯t know about? Cuz if you don¡¯t, then we need to get some.¡± I just looked at her, my face dropped, then I facepalmed, and I said,¡± Yeah! Fuck let''s go get some shovels, shit!¡±


    About two hours later, we had four shovels and a pickaxe. ¡°For roots and shit. Have you guys never dug a hole before?¡± I asked them. Janet just looked at me like, do I look like I digging holes? Beth just scoffed at me and laughed.


    We were back at the treehouse, and under one of the trees that was supporting our tree house, is where we decided to dig the loot hole. It took us another hour and a half to dig a big enough pit to bury everything.


    As I said, being able to add points to Strength definitely made physical work easier. The only thing we didn¡¯t bury was the little bags with the vials and marble pill herb things. When we got the hole as deep as we liked it, we lined the pit with a couple of tarps we had found scavenging while looking for the shovels, then started loading loot into the hole.


    When all the loot was in, we covered it with the last tarp and filled in the pit. Once that was done, we threw some leaves over it and headed back up into the tree house. We got drunk again that night, still on the high from our new gear. Beth got wasted again, but Janet and I got pretty drunk, too. So that night, after Beth passed out, Janet and I hooked up again. Then again, and again.


    We were still drunk this time, so no roof sex, that¡¯s for sure. We all woke up the next day, ate breakfast, then had a team meeting. It was time to go back into the Dungeon.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan today, guys?¡± Beth said with a half eaten piece of bacon sticking out of her mouth while Janet took a bite of a pancake.


    After breakfast laid out the plan. ¡°Okay, first things first, we go back to the dungeon. I think we should fill our water bottles with Mana-kissed water before we head in again, and we all should take a Senzuketa Bean as well. We wait for the farts to end, then headed in.¡±


    ¡°We know we killed that Caprainki thingy, or whatever they were called, down the far-left tunnel, so maybe we should go into the next tunnel to the right?¡± Beth chimed in,


    ¡°Well, we actually didn¡¯t make it down that first tunnel far before we saw that Caprainki, and we booked it to set up our ambush. I say we finish checking that one out.¡± I nodded at Beth.


    ¡°Yeah, I think your right. We really didn¡¯t explore, well, anything, not even that first tunnel. We probably made it only fifteen feet into that tunnel, so we need to see what¡¯s down there before we move on.¡±, I said. Janet and Beth just nodded and agreed. So, the plan was now to get into the dungeon and systematically slaughter every last Caprainki.


    We entered the Dungeon and made our way in the same tunnel we¡¯d first entered. We made it back to the room with the branching tunnels and checked our gear one last time before we started walking down the farthest tunnel to the left.


    The first thing we saw was the body of the dead Caprainki we had killed last time we were down here. Janet reached down and grabbed its axe that was still lying on the floor next to the dead body. Beth and I looked at Janet like, what are you doing? ¡°You already got one of those?¡± Beth said,


    ¡°What? You always need a backup.¡± Janet replied, and in all fairness, she was right. Finding an extra spear would be awesome. Definitely didn¡¯t want to fuck around and end up weaponless at an inconvenient time. Backups were always nice.


    ¡°Good call¡±, I said. Beth just shrugged like, what the fuck ever.


    We kept on making our way down the tunnel till it started turning to the right. It was in a long, sweeping 90-degree turn, and it only had a slight decline. As we made our way around the long, sweeping turn, a chamber started to come into view. We entered the room highly cautious. Everyone was super fucking tense and damn near holding their breath.


    as we got to the room entrance, we noticed the room was empty. We started looking around, slowly spreading out to inspect the room. It was about the size of the safe room at the Dungeons entrance, but it was round and looked like a base camp for these Caprainkis. By that, I mean there were a couple of tables and a small, beat-up, shit metal cook stove that looked like one more fire lite inside would be the end of it.


    There was a pot on top of it that looked burnt to shit as if water had been in it, and it boiled away, and nobody had been here to pull it off the fire. There were two cots on the opposite side of the room from where we entered, and there was a small box, probably like two feet by three feet, that was only about a foot and a half high. When I opened it, though, it had some foodstuff in it, and everything inside was cold, like, really cold.


    It felt like I had the door of the refrigerator just chilling open in front of me. Some sort of magical refrigerator box, fucking sick! I didn¡¯t really know how helpful this thing would be right now, but I was always in the mindset to take everything. Then you can figure out what you really need from that shit later.


    At least you took it, so you got the fucking option. I told the ladies as much. ¡°Yo, grab everything you think might be worth anything, then let¡¯s do a trip back to the safe room and drop it off. Sound good to you two?¡± They agreed, and Janet started going through the room with renewed gusto.


    We had our arms loaded up. Janet had a blanket full of shit when we finally ran back to the safe room and dropped off our loot. I think this shit was still considered loot. Fuck it, I was still gonna call it that because that way, at least in my mind, we weren''t just wasting time taking a bunch of worthless crap.


    When we were back in the room with the branching tunnels, we looked at each other, and Beth lifted an arm and gestured to the tunnel, second from the left.


    ¡°Shall we?¡± she said with a sort of, we better not die down here undertone to her voice. I gulped and then set my jaw,


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s fuck this shit up.¡± I would soon come to regret those words.

 Chapter 10 - Singing to the herd

    Chapter 10


    Singing to the herd


    The second tunnel had about the same slope as the previous tunnel at first. After about twenty feet down, we hit a slight turn, and we came across a staircase that descended into the darkness.


    As we reached the top of the stairs, I could see that they were cut directly into the bedrock. Each step was about two feet out by one foot high and stretched the full length of the tunnel.


    ¡°Down we go, I guess. Watch your step,¡± I said as we headed down into the darkness. Brazier was lit, but they did little to hold back the dark. The staircase was only about a hundred steps down, but it was so quiet. I could only hear our breathing and the clanging of our gear. Every time a piece of gear made a sound, it was like the sound was crashing down on us, loud enough to alert every Caprainki in this Dungeon to our location.


    That¡¯s the way I¡¯m sure we all felt as we reached the bottom of the stairs. After another fifty feet, we all heard something and froze. I pushed myself up against the side of the tunnel. Like that would really do much good to hide me, but the ladies followed my lead. We stayed pressed up against the sides of the tunnel for what seemed like maybe five minutes, weapons at the ready and primed to move.


    when nothing happened after that first five minutes, we started moving down the tunnel. This time much slower than we were moving before. As we walked another twenty feet into the tunnel, light began to bleed in from the exit of the tunnel. As we got closer, it looked like the tunnel led into a large room. We were looking out from the edge of the last turn before the tunnel ended, about fifteen feet.


    The noises became loud enough at that distance that it would cover up any noises we could possibly be making with our gear. I had my head looking around the corner, scouting while Beth and Janet were standing a few paces behind me. Through the outlet of the tunnel, I could see Caprainki¡¯s. I could only count about five of them, but they would walk past the opening and out of view sometimes, which fucked up my count for sure. I couldn¡¯t tell if I was counting the same guy twice or not. I turned slowly away from the opening of the room and walked back to where Janet and Beth were waiting.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s going on up there?¡± Beth said in a whisper. Janet just looked at me like, yeah, same question. I took a breath, then blew it out my mouth.


    ¡°Here¡¯s what I saw. There was a bunch of Caprainki walking around in there and a table or two. Looks like it¡¯s the dining hall for them or some shit. I saw maybe five in there, but they kept walking in and out of view. There¡¯s probably more than that, let¡¯s say, six, maybe. That¡¯s what the last group was, six of those fuckers. Think we could take them by surprise if we rushed them?¡± I finished.


    The ladies thought what I¡¯d said over. Beth was the first to speak after I finished my report.


    ¡°I¡¯m not big on the rush-in and catch ¡¯em-by-surprise plan. I¡¯m thinking¡­¡± Beth proceeded to lay out her plan. Once she was done, I was back around the corner and inching my way slowly toward the tunnel mouth, still hidden in the shadows, but I was steadily approaching the point where I would be visible soon. I reached that perfect point, half in, half out of the shadows, and then it was go time. I stood up, back straight, and started singing,


    ¡° Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga


    Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga


    I can¡¯t stop this feeling


    Deep inside of me


    Girl, You just don¡¯t realize what you do to me


    When you hold me in your arms so tight


    You let me know everything''s alright.¡±


    After the first Ooga-Chaka at the top singing volume, the room had fallen quiet. When I started with the first verse, I saw the first Caprainki face look down the tunnel at me. I had nine of the fuckers just staring at me. It was fucking creepy, like actually terrifying, so much so I stopped singing, and they didn¡¯t seem to like that, not at all.


    Apparently, they liked singing, or maybe they just liked the song choice, but when I stopped, they got mad. Their eyes narrowed, and they started blowing air out of their noses and shaking their heads. Then one let out that childlike scream of theirs, and that was it.


    Then the one next to it let out a scream, and then they were all screaming. The next thing I knew, I had nine Caprainki charging at me, mad as hell. Fuck fuck fuck, time to get the fuck out of here. So I turned and booked it. I ran my fucking ass off right back to the staircase where Beth and Janet were waiting atop.


    Beth¡¯s plan was pretty basic. It came down to two things. I would make a big scene somehow that was totally left up to me, by the way, then lead them back down the tunnel to where Beth and Janet would be waiting. I would have to climb the stairs to get to them. Then we would, as a team, beat the living shit out of the fuckers with the high ground.


    I didn¡¯t have anything better. My plan was super lame. Run in and just hope we catch them by surprise, real creative Travis. I reached the bottom of the stairs and then started my climb. I was faster than the Caprainkis, and I had a head start, but I could hear their feet pounding the floor down the tunnel behind me.


    I was almost at the top when the Caprainkis started up the stairs. I got to the top and started catching my breath. Beth looked at me for a second when I crested the top of the stairs, but then her eyes were back on our opponents. Janet looked at me as I was catching my breath. I met her eyes, smiled, and gave her a wink.


    I held out a hand to her, and she grabbed it and pulled me into line with the two of them. Before she let my hand go, she squeezed it, then put both her hands back on her axe, returning her focus to the Caprainkis, now almost at the top of the stairs.


    The first ones came into strike range, but we still waited for a second longer and then brutally engaged the enemies before us. The stairs were wide enough for four Caprainki to attack side by side.


    They wouldn¡¯t really have enough room to fight if they did that, so they were coming at us in waves of three. The three that we clashed with first all had a sword and shield combo, like Beth was rocking. The Caprainki¡¯s before us had interlocked shields slightly. They were still jogging up the stairs, but they were not keeping the same rhythm as they did before. It was like they had recently been trained to do this shield-locking thing but were failing at it. There were openings all over the place. It was kind of a mess. You better believe we took full advantage of that shit.


    I struck out with my spear, aiming for the neck of the Caprainki in the middle of the group. It was carrying its shield too low and seemed to be a little winded from jogging up the stairs.


    When I stabbed out, its eyes opened wide, and the spear plunged through its neck. I then turned my spear 90 degrees to the side and ripped my spear out of the side of its neck. Its eyes fluttered, and the Caprainki fell to its knees. I took that chance to kick it mid-shield and sent it back down the stairs onto the heads of its friends. While I was killing my Caprainki, Janet had brought her axe down on the Caprainki in front of her. Its shield was up to block, but because of the position it was in, it slipped and fell backward on impact.


    We were still alive for now, and at least Janet had given us some breathing room on her side for the time being. Beth had started with a shield bash. That left her opponent stunned, just long enough for Beth to stab out with her short sword right into the Caprainki''s throat. She then copied me and kicked it back down the stairs.


    We just waited at the top. They were gathering themselves for a second attack, and it was probably a promising idea not to let that happen. I started walking towards Beth''s kill, spear raised in front of me, gripped with both hands. I then kicked Beth¡¯s kill, which had fallen more toward the center of the staircase, down the stairs.


    It managed to trip one Caprainki on the way down before it continued on to the bottom. Janet¡¯s kill had finally made it to the bottom of the staircase after its fellows had disentangled from it.


    They were still struggling with the one I¡¯d kicked. It had crashed into two of them and one had got its feet tangled up. The Caprainki kept grabbing at his fellows to try and steady itself. So, when I kicked Beth¡¯s kill down, it hit the Caprainki that had gotten tangled up and took it down again. Another Caprainki took its place shortly after that. At this point, they were ready to make another attempt at us, but their momentum was definitely gone from their initial charge.


    I stepped back to the top of the stairs and got into a fighting stance as they came at us again. This time, we faced an axe wielder. Another short sword and shield combo and the last on Caprainki in their line had, and I couldn¡¯t believe it, a lightsaber. Well, it was a blade made of black light with purple lightning running through it. Maybe it was, I guess, plasma, or maybe Mana now? Anyways, it was a fucking light saber, and saber would be a good word to describe the shape of it.


    The shape was that of a cutlass and had a hand guard. The whole thing was flickering, and purple lightning kept crackling through it at what felt like random intervals. The edge of the weapon was hard to make out in this low light, but the purple lightning helped me define the edges of the blade.


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    Every time, the purple lightning crackled through the weapons. I could tell Beth and Janet were feeling some trepidation about dealing with the dude with the light cutlass. I yelled at Janet to switch places with me. We had just enough time to do that before the Caprainki were on us.


    The group of three studied us warily, two steps from the top, weapons at the ready. Janet was in front of the short sword shield combo Caprainki, while Beth was facing the axe wielder.


    The axe wielder was the first to go on the attack. It swung horizontally at Beth. The blow was more at her thighs, and she had to step back to avoid the blow. When the axe had passed by, she lunged forward and landed a stab with her sword on her opponent.


    It was a deep cut, and it ran down most of the Caprainki''s bicep, causing it to be left wielding its axe with one hand. The Caprainki, with the short sword and shield combo, acted a second after the first and swung at Janet in a vertical strike that came from behind its shield.


    The surprise of the attack''s origin only gave Janet a second to react. Janet, using no skill whatsoever, reacted with the only option that seemed available from the stance she was holding and the position of her axe. She swung up to try and block the attack. Then she swung her axe back down to try to split her attacker in half. Janet only caught the edge of its shield but sliced a good third off, taking a couple of fingers off the Caprainki with it.


    It wailed that horrible childlike scream in Janet¡¯s face. While that was all happening, the light-cutlass guy had waited for his buddies to attack, and once the chaos of battle had begun, the Captain gave an exploratory stab out at me with the light-cutlass.


    I jumped back a little, concern clearly on my face, in dealing with the strange weapon. When the Caprainki saw my reaction, I think I saw it smile. I couldn¡¯t really tell with the goat head and all, I wasn¡¯t up on my goat body language.


    After his exploratory stab, it seemed like he had gained some new confidence in our fight. It was definitely time to make him shove that confidence up its own ass. I took a step forward and lunged out with my spear straight at the creature''s heart.


    It hopped back down the stairs a little. I continued my advance on the enemy. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spear coming at my head. I dropped to the floor to dodge the spear thrust, but in doing so, I got a slash across my legs from the light-cutlass. My eyes went wide as I saw it hit my leg. But then, it just passed through it.


    The next second, I was back on my feet and ready with my spear to attack again. The Caprainki with the light cutlass came at me again, and I stabbed as he swung. I tried to dodge the sword, but I wasn¡¯t going to make it.


    I saw the light cutlass hit me in the side, but I couldn¡¯t feel it. I was too focused on killing this fucker. So when it saw that I was going to continue my attack through the hit, its face fell, and I saw fear grip it right before my spear went into the Caprainki¡¯s eye.


    As I hit, I got stabbed by a spear in the arm. I ripped my spear out of the skull, let out a scream of pain, and retreated. My arm was bleeding and shaking, but I was too scared to drop my guard and check on it.


    It was at that moment that Beth had finally gained a crucial advantage in her fight. The axe wielder had overextended, Beth had dogged the attack, then kicked the axe into the wall. The Caprainki couldn¡¯t hang onto the axe, and it fell from its grip.


    Beth was on it with her sword flashing out. Two quick stabs to the chest, one in the throat, and one in the eye. As Beth withdrew her blade, the Caprainki started to fall to the ground. Beth then kicked it in the chest, and it went flying down the stairs into a spear wielder.


    They both went down and landed in a pile on the floor. The Caprainki let out one of its screams. As it hit the ground, we heard a snap ring through the tunnel. Janet, now with a bit more room to work, gave a big swing to the sword and shield Caprainki that opposed her victory.


    As the Caprainki tried to block her swing with its sword held out in front of its shield angled across it. Janet¡¯s axe slammed into the Caprainki. The sword crumpled, and the shield splintered.


    The axe then slammed into the Caprainki''s chest, blood flew, and then it was thrown down the stairs at speed. Our remaining opponents had spears and were hugging the walls so as to avoid any more falling bodies. The light-cutlass guy saw his friend get blown away. His eyes went wide, and there was an opening.


    Distracted for a moment and with no spear-wielding Caprainkis nearby to stab me, I darted into range and struck out with two fast strikes, both to the Caprainki''s chest. I reset, and after noticing the Caprainki was in shock, I stepped into range again and slashed its throat.


    The Caprainki¡¯s hand shot up and grabbed its neck, but that wasn¡¯t going to stanch the blood, no fucking way. The Caprainki dropped the light-cutlass and brought his other hand up to its neck. Its eye was glazing over. As I let it drop to the floor, it proceeded to bleed out, twitching every now and then.


    The last three, well, two really, the last Caprainki that had taken a tumble definitely broke something. It had gotten back to its feet but looked like it had broken its arm and collarbone. You could see the bone was poking through the skin. Didn¡¯t look like he was eager to get back in the fight.


    They took a moment, but then they attacked again. Beth used her shield and blocked a spear blow that was aimed at her neck. Janet then swung her axe, hitting the shaft of the spear mid-strike, knocking the spear from the Caprainki''s hand.


    It looked like she was going to take a hit for her defense of Beth. The remaining Caprainki near the top of the stairs stabbed at her. So I had to step in. I knocked the spear off target, then brought my spear across in a horizontal strike at its face. I hit and took an eye out as the Caprainki howled that childlike scream.


    Then, I struck out again, this time my spear, and struck its neck. Right after my strick landed land. I had to hop back and throw myself against the wall to avoid a spear that came out of nowhere. The Caprainki spearman I¡¯d been fighting turned, and started, running away, back down the stairs. It didn¡¯t make it far before I drove my spear down into its back, killing it.


    I tore my spear free, and the Caprainki rolled all the way to the bottom of the staircase. The last one had already given up when its fellow had tried to run and died. The body had hit the ground next to it, and it had taken off running as fast as it could. All fucked up as it was. Janet ended up being the one of us who caught it, driving an axe blow into the back of its skull, ending the battle.


    We made our way back to the staircase. I took all the spears, and Janet took the axe and added it to her collection. Beth found two shields that weren¡¯t totally fucked up as I grabbed the light-cutlass. It was just buzzing away on the floor. I picked it up, and there was a button on the handle. When I pressed it, the blade vanished. So fucking cool! After what felt like no time, we looted the bodies and started walking back toward the room that had started all of this.


    We grouped up at the entrance to the large chamber and looked in. It was empty of Caprainki for now, not a soul in the room. There was a pot on a cook stove, much like the first we¡¯d seen. There were cots that almost filled half the room, and some tables and chairs spread throughout the rest of the chamber.


    As we walked farther in, against one part of the wall, near the beds, was a pile of three treasure chests stacked nice and pretty. It was like they had given us a present. It was too bad we¡¯d killed all the Caprainkis cuz I could have hugged one of them right now.


    My loot hamster was fucking vibrating in anticipation, and a smile spread across my face. Then the pain hit me, out of fucking nowhere, pain, and not a little pain either. This pain was like someone had thrown boiling water on my stomach and my legs, right where the light cutlass had passed through my body. I screamed my fucking head off as my legs gave out.


    I was on the ground screaming and convulsing in pain. Beth and Janet ran over, but they didn¡¯t know what to do, so they just kind of watched me writhing in pain. After a few seconds, Janet was kneeling on the floor next to me. I only knew all this later by the way.


    Janet was yelling my name. Beth was just chewing her fingernail with a panicked look on her face. I gained enough sense to squeeze out between screaming and grinding teeth,


    ¡°Fucking Senzuketa Bean, God damn it! Give me the fucking Bean. Fuck!¡± ¡°Fuck! I got it! Hold on.¡± Janet told me.


    The next second, I had a Senzuketa Bean shoved into my mouth. Then, there was a second one, and the relief was almost instant. It took about ten minutes, but when the first fart rang out, I gasped in relief.


    I started crying, and at the time, I wasn¡¯t even aware I was doing so. After about another five minutes, I was sitting up. Janet had given me some Mana kissed water to drink and had a hand on my back rubbing back and forth.


    Beth was pacing with a concerned look on her face. She would stop to look at me every so often and then just shake her head. I sputtered as I let the water bottle fall from my lips.


    ¡°Fuck! What the fuck? That was the fucking worst pain I think I¡¯ve ever fucking felt in my life¡±, I said in a hoarse voice from hoarse screaming.


    ¡°What happened? Are you ok? You looked like you were about to cream your shorts over the treasure chests over there, and then you just sort of looked like something was wrong, fell to the ground, then you started screaming and convulsing¡±, Janet said, tears starting to fall slowly down her face.


    Beth looked almost mad at me with concern as she chimed in, ¡°Yeah, shit, that was scary, Travis, like holy shit, that was scary.¡± I had to agree with her, so I told them,


    ¡°I know. I¡¯m really sorry, guys, that this was so crazy. Honestly, I¡¯m not actually sure what happened. One moment, I felt fine, and yeah, I was really excited about the chests. then, out of nowhere, it was like someone poured boiling water on my abdomen and leg. It was the worst, ¡°ahh,¡± even thinking about it, that was just, damn, yeah, like I said, I¡¯m sorry, guys.¡±


    I pulled up my pant leg and checked on my wounds. The skin was bright pink from my ankle to just under my knee.


    ¡°Fuck, I think it was from the lightsaber thing,¡± I said, and my eyes opened wide. ¡°Wait, I saw that hit you, but it looked like it didn¡¯t affect you at all,¡± Beth said. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought. I got hit twice, once in the leg and once in the stomach. I thought I was dead, but then nothing happened. I guess it was a delayed thing¡±, I thought out loud.


    ¡°Well, your okay now, right? Like, can you stand, or do you need a sec?¡± Janet asked with a concerned look. I felt, overall okay, still a little weak, and when Janet helped me to my feet, my leg was a little tender and a little weaker. After a few moments of checking if I could stand, I told Janet I was good, shook my head, and blew out a breath.


    ¡°Fuck that sucked, blehhhhh¡±, I said. Then my eyes landed on the chests again, and I forgot most of my pain. My loot hamster dropped his crutches and was doing flips. I took a step toward the chests and winced. Maybe smaller steps, I thought to myself. I worked my way over to the chests.


    Beth rolled her eyes at my one-track mind, and Janet just smiled and joined me at our newly acquired loot. The chests were stacked with two as the base and one on top. The two on the bottom had old-school padlocks on them, straight out of a pirate novel. The chest on top had no lock and was just closed. There was no clasp on it or place to lock it, even if you wanted to. I pulled the chest off the top of the small pile. It was about three feet by two and about one and a half feet tall, while the other two were twice the size.


    Janet jumped in when she saw what I was trying to do, and together, we got it on the ground and popped it open. The chest was made of well-worn wood, and the lid of the chest had been heavier than I thought it would be at first sight. Still nothing for my new strength stats.


    When the chest was open, most of what filled it was two small pouches, something that looked like a first aid kit, and some furs. When we pulled them out, they turned out to be three cloaks that were super soft and about four feet long each. It was a pretty nice find, and we didn¡¯t even know what was in the small pouches. It could be money! I grabbed one of the pouches while the ladies were still checking out the cloaks and started to open it. I untied the cord that held the small pouch closed and pulled it open.

 Chapter 11 - Magic and a Massacre

    Chapter 11


    Magic and a Massacre


    I looked in, and all I could see was black. There must have been some enchantment or some kind of magic on the thing cuz I couldn¡¯t see past the lip of the small pouch. So I thought fuck it, and I reached my hand into the bag. As my fingertips passed into the darkness, a window, much like when I viewed my stats sheet, popped open in front of me.


    This, however, was not my stat sheet but an inventory of the items in the pouch. There was a total of ten slots in the inventory, and only six were in use. My eyes went wide as I realized what I held in my hands. It was a magic bag of holding, like in a video game. Holy shit, this was amazing.


    I grabbed the other pouch just to check if it was the same, and yep, fuck, it was another bag of holding. This one had six slots, and three were in use. This time, I actually checked what was in each slot. It was all water. Like I mean, it was literally all filled with what must have been their water rations. Each slot just had a water droplet in it and a little number 100 in the corner.


    The reason I knew for sure it was water, by the way, was because when I focused on the first slot with the water drop symbol, it started to feel like the bag was filling with water.


    When I moved it around, I could feel the water sloshing around inside, but when I looked in, all I could see was endless blackness. So, I took the next logical step, in my opinion. I walked over to the kitchen area and found a pot. Then, I started pouring water out of the pouch like a water skin. After about 30 seconds, the stream stopped, and I focused on the bag in my hand.


    I thought there might be a way to call open the inventory without poking my finger into the bag every time. Sure enough, after about a second of thinking inventory and holding the bag, a window popped open. I looked at the first slot in the inventory and the small number in the corner of the box now read 99.


    I walked back over to the chests where the two women were and told them about the bags. I told them how the bangs worked and about all the water in side them. Beth walked over to the chest and grabbed the other bag of holding. She held it in her hand, and then it looked like she was focusing really hard. Then her eyes widened, and it looked like she must have successfully pulled up the inventory. After a few moments, Janet and I kinda just looked at Beth and waited for her to tell us what there was inside. A few seconds later spoke up,


    ¡°Well, not that great. There are some metal ores, some clothes, a nicer cloak that looks like the others we found, and the rest is, I think, food and stuff.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s cool. It¡¯s not super useful to us now. I mean, water is nice, and food, well, if edible, is nice too, but the real reward here is the bags themselves, I think¡±, I said.


    ¡°Yeah, I agree. It¡¯s gonna make trips to the tree house with gear a lot easier.¡±, said Janet while Beth nodded seriously.


    I laughed at Beth¡¯s look at Janet and then asked Beth to help me try to get the other two chests open. She nodded and walked over to help me out. We dragged one of the chests over closer to where Janet was. It was made almost identical to the first chest, just twice the size and locked.


    ¡°Well, I say we just smash the lock off, right? Hell, we don¡¯t have a key, and I don¡¯t want to go digging through bodies to find the keys, do you?¡± Beth said. I smiled. ¡°Yeah, that seems like the only option to me. Like you said, fuck digging through bodies for a key, that would suck, so yeah, break that shit,¡± I said, and Beth nodded.


    The next second, Janet lifted her axe and slammed it down between Beth and me into the lock, snapping it clean off. It hit the floor and went skirting across the room. Beth pushed Janet¡¯s shoulder with a pissed-off look on her face, ¡°Hey! If you had hit me, I would have stabbed you, asshole.¡±


    After Beth said that, Janet stepped back into a ready stance, axe raised like come at me bitch. Both stood there for a second before they both started laughing and relaxed their stances.


    Then Beth punched Janet and said, ¡°But seriously, don¡¯t do that, you scared the shit out of me.¡± Janet chuckled, then said,


    ¡°Okay, my bad, just wanted to fuck with you guys a little.¡±


    ¡°Mission accomplished, dork, but come on, let¡¯s see what is inside this thing,¡± I said, then kicked the chest that Janet had just opened with my foot lightly. Janet smiled, and we all bent down as Janet lifted the lid. Inside were some coins, but they didn¡¯t even fill the box enough to cover the bottom of the chest.


    It was probably around eighty of them, and then there were about five blueish-white crystals. The crystals were super cool looking. They would shift from mostly blue to mostly white like a fog constantly moving under a glass shell.


    When I picked one up, it was heavy, well, not really heavy, but for its size. It must have been solid, not hallowed, and it was kinda fucked with my brain. They looked like they should be lighter than air with the way their coloring moved about like smoke, but they felt like solid crystals.


    ¡°Ooh, those things are super cool looking. Like what the fuck?¡± Janet said. Beth could only agree with her. I handed them each one to check out. While they were checking out the crystals, I checked with them if It was okay to open the other chest, and they told me to go for it.


    I pulled the other chest over and positioned it so if anything flew off the lock when I hit it, it wouldn''t ricksha and hit Beth and Janet. I asked Janet if I could borrow her axe, and she made a snarky comment about how my ¡°tinny spear¡± wouldn''t cut it. I just gave her a few sarcastic chuckles and then just walked back over to the last locked chest with Janet''s axe over my shoulder.


    I lifted the axe over my head and slammed it down, hitting the lock dead center and breaking it in two. The broken pieces of the lock bounced away in different directions for a few feet, then rolled to a stop. Janet and Beth looked over at the noise but soon returned to inspecting the crystals again.


    I popped the top open and looked inside. There were only two things inside. Another small pouch. I assumed it was a bag of holding, like the other ones we found. When I picked it up, yep, another bag of holding, but it had fifteen slots instead of ten. That was a cool, slight upgrade from the first two bags.


    The other thing in the chest was something wrapped in cloth. There were a bunch of weapons in groupings of ten that took up five slots, and the rest of the bag was empty except for one other slot that held four of the blue crystals as we¡¯d found in the other chest. I placed the bag to the side for now and pulled out the bundle of cloth, then started to unwrap it. The clothes were not clean. There were stains all over, and it was slightly damp.


    I don¡¯t think it was water, but it might have been. It might be water. Let¡¯s just say that, honestly, it was kinda disgusting. I unwrapped it as fast as I could while touching it as little as possible. When I had it mostly unwrapped, I lost hold of the thing and kind of dropped the contents to the ground. Then I just tossed the nasty blanket aside.


    I looked down to see what had dropped onto the floor, and by now, Janet and Beth were looking over at my dramatics.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Beth asked, but of course, Janet had to add her two cents,


    ¡°Yeah, you okay, spazoid?¡± I blushed a little, then just thought fuck it


    ¡°Yeah, you know what? That shit was gross, and I wasn¡¯t going to touch that shit any longer than I had to. You would have done the same thing,¡± then I thought about how Beth had dived in headfirst when we¡¯d looted those dead Caprainki and rephrased my words.


    ¡°Well, maybe Beth wouldn''t have freaked out, but you for sure would not have touched that thing, Janet,¡± I told her. She stuck her tung out at me, and Beth laughed with a, that¡¯s what I thought, look on her face. I smiled at Beth¡¯s smug look and Janet¡¯s scowl and looked at what had fallen out on the floor.


    I belt down and the first thing I noticed was that it was two items, and that those two items were a set of metal bracers. They looked like they were made of bronze, but it definitely wasn''t new. It looked dirty like it had seen better days for sure.


    There were what looked like old blood and other bodily fluids stains all over them, but they were intricately engraved with crazy designs and weird, what I thought at least might have been some kind of writing.


    I took off the braces I had on and put the ones from the chest on. As I was putting them on, I realized there was no way to fasten them. There was just a loose leather strap affixed from one side to the other with no buckle. Fuck, I guess it¡¯s one size fits all, and I¡¯m not in the all-group.


    As soon as the first bracer was in place, however, it resized like fucking magic to fit my arm perfectly. Kinda scared me at first, honestly. I got worried it was stuck and I''d just put on a cursed item or something, but as soon as I thought about removing it, it loosened up once more.


    Okay, shit, that scared the fuck out of me. Once more, I just held the brace in place, and after a second, it tightened down. I placed the other bracer on, and once it had tightened onto my arm, I felt a pulse of power flow through my body, but that was it. I felt like I should have gotten a notification. Oh, dam, that little exclamation mark was blinking in the corner of my vision. It must have gotten a level from the fight with the Caprainki¡¯s.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I checked my notifications. I had four kill notifications and a notification that was weird.


    ¡°You have had your body infused with the element of fire, and you didn¡¯t burn to ash from the inside out. Wow, congratulations! You have gained a resistance to the element of fire. Usually, resistances take prolonged exposure to the element in question, but infusing your body directly with an element is extremely dangerous and stupid. With risks come rewards. Plus, five to fire damage resistance. You may see a decrease in damage and pain from the element of fire.¡±


    That was a long notification shit! But that was awesome, so I could grab hot pans off the stove and play hot potato super well. I''m way better now, sick! Then I checked my battle log, and it turned out that I had been affected by a ¡°Laser Blade,¡± I had been hit with elemental damage, and my body had been infused with the element of fire.Holy shit! That¡¯s fucking scary infused with the element fire! I didn¡¯t know what that meant, but if it meant pain like the kind that had sent me to the ground crying, then that was bad, really bad, and I needed to avoid that kind of damage in the future for real! I calmed myself down. Then I read my last notification it was a level-up notification.


    ¡°Level up! You were Level 6, and now you¡¯re.Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, fight for money, these are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer!¡±


    With that, I decided to distract myself with my character sheet.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 7


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 4,250/4,380 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Resistances:


    Element of fire


    *Item is influencing stats


    *Strength: 21


    *Dexterity: 16


    Intelligence: 17


    Wisdom: 15


    *Constitution: 21


    Luck: 14


    +3 free stat points


    Hell yeah, fucking level up mother fucker! I put one point into Dexterity and two into Strength.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 7


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 4,250/4,380 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Resistances:


    Element of fire 5%


    *Item is influencing stats


    *Strength: 23 (26)


    *Dexterity: 17(20)


    Intelligence: 17


    Wisdom: 15


    *Constitution: 21 (24)


    Luck: 14


    Wait, what the fuck was this? Item is influencing stats. My Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution had all increased by three points, and they had a number in parentheses that must be the stat points when boosted. So, I was getting nine stat points in total from the braces I just put on. That¡¯s crazy!


    ¡°Hey, so got something here I think you guys are going to want to see,¡± I said. Beth and Janet walked over, and I took the bracers off and handed them out to Janet and told her to just put them on.


    She looked at me like really, and I just told her to put them on and that she¡¯d see what I was talking about. She put the first one on and just looked at me like fuck you.¡°yeah, um, these don¡¯t fit me, Travis?¡± Janet said. In the middle of her sentence, it tightened down on her arm, and she yelped and dropped the other bracer she was holding. I just smiled at her like, yeah, I know. She gave me a dirty look as if saying thanks for the heads up, asshole, and I didn¡¯t say shit.


    What the fuck, Travis? Is this cursed? Am I stuck with these now? Wait, you got them off. How do I get them off, Travis? What the fuck?¡± Janet said. I just held up my hands in a placating gesture and said,


    ¡°It¡¯s good. You just have to will it, and it will loosen up. You''re good, but don¡¯t take them off. Put the other one.¡± She gave me another dirty look but still went to put the other bracer on. when it resized, and she had both bracers on, I could see it when the wave of stat points hit her.


    She looked at me like what the fuck and I told her to check her stat sheet. The next second, she had a far-off look on her face, and then she was back.


    ¡°What the fuck! That¡¯s amazing holy shit. These things give me Strength, Dexterity, and a Constitution boost. I got three points in each! That''s crazy,¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Wait, really, wow, that¡¯s great, all from that set of bracers?¡± Beth said, wide-eyed.


    ¡°Yeah, I guess that better gear will give stat boots, but the real question is who gets them?¡± I asked them. The two women looked at me like what? Then I saw it dawn on them, like, oh fuck right, we all can¡¯t wear them at the same time. That moment was kind of funny to witness, not gonna lie.


    ¡°Well fuck how do we pick cuz? I¡¯m guessing everyone wants them?¡± Janet said. Me and Beth just nodded.


    ¡°Well, I say we take turns for now, then draw straws or something to see who gets it later. That work for you two.¡± Janet said. I didn¡¯t want a fight, so I just told Janet that was fine, and Beth just didn¡¯t care and thought Janet¡¯s idea was fine.


    ¡°Beth, your watch still working?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°Yeah, still good. Why?¡± Beth asked back. ¡°Well, okay, so maybe I wear it for two hours, then we switch, and I give it to you or Travis, and then we Just keep the rotation going for now like that?¡± Janet said, laying out her idea to us.


    ¡°Fine with me I said. Beth looked at Janet like the fuck.


    ¡°What?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°So cuz I¡¯m the only one who was smart enough to be wearing a watch when the world ended, I¡¯m now just automatically gonna be the timekeeper, fuck you guys.¡± I just started laughing at the bewilderment on Janet¡¯s face after realizing she hadn''t even considered that.


    After a second, Beth¡¯s hard, pissed-off expression melted, and she started laughing.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, Janet. I was just fucking with you. Dam, your face, oh my god, that was totally worth it. It¡¯s all good, Janet. I''m fine with being the timekeeper, but wow!¡± Janet just rolled her eyes and said,


    ¡°come on, we don¡¯t want to be in here forever. What¡¯s our next step? Should we do a tree house run, or do you want to keep going and explore some more of the dungeon?¡±


    ¡°Well. I think we need to head back to the main room to move on anyway. Why don¡¯t we just do a tree house run? Wait a second, hang on, did you get levels like, did you destitute your stat points already?¡± I said. They looked at me like what the fuck are you talking about.


    ¡°What? You got stat points if you leveled. Just making sure you¡¯re staying up to date on our power-ups,¡± I said. Janet and Beth just laughed. ¡°You''re right, Travis. Sorry, we just did that right after the fight. Sorry, we didn¡¯t remind you. Next time will let you know.¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Oh, okay, well shit, my bad, thanks. Yeah, I kind of forgot. You know, with the pain and the loot. Oh well, I¡¯m all good now and up to date. Let¡¯s just get the fuck out of here. We grabbed all our loot and dragged it all back to the safe room.


    When we had it all back in the safe room, I smacked myself in the forehead hard. ¡°Ow fuck¡± I said, then rubbed the spot where I smacked myself.


    ¡°You good?¡± Janet asked as she and Beth chuckled at me from over by the pond. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m good just realized we could have used the bags of holding to bring everything here and that we almost carried all this shit back to the tree house like this.¡± Janet and Beth stopped laughing, and I could see the aw fuck cross their faces.¡°Ssshhhhittt, well fuck okay, let¡¯s fill these up,¡± Janet said, and we each pulled out a bag of holding. I kept the fifteen-slot bag for myself, but they didn¡¯t need to know that. Everything fit, and we even had spots left. Beth had poured out a bunch of water and left only three slots with one hundred potions in each.


    Still felt like overkill to me, but she said fuck it and told us it was always better to have more than you need than less than you need, and I couldn¡¯t disagree when it was so portable. I joined Janet and Beth over at the pool of mana, kissed water, and drank up. Then, we all checked our gear and our wounds then left the dungeon.


    We stepped into the safe bubble outside the dungeon. There, we all stopped and stared at the scene before us. It was a battle between an army of little T-rex guys agents, about twenty of those lizard-bear creatures, and I really couldn¡¯t tell who was winning. It was a fucking blood bath.


    Little T-rex bodies lay all over the ground, but there were definitely some lizard-bear bodies dead, too. The T-rex guys were getting hit hard. They just seemed to be never-ending and coming from everywhere.


    ¡°Oh fuck, what the shit?¡± I said in a soft voice, more like a thought that had slipped out.


    ¡°Wow, this, this is horrible,¡± Beth said in a soft, almost scared, voice.Janet was just starting with her eyes wide. We stayed and watched the battle for a while. At one point, Beth said that we¡¯d been there for forty-five minutes.


    It was about ten minutes after that that the battle took a turn for the worse for the Bear-lizard guys. They were doing great and holding their own for a long time, but there were just too many of the little T-rex fuckers, and they just kept biting. When they bit down, they tended to lock their jaws and just hold on until they were killed or the piece of flesh they were chewing ripped free.


    In that case, they would chew the meat, swallow it down then jump back in the fray. In the end, the little T-rex guys managed to win the day. Death by a million bites is a bad way to go, in my opinion. There was one lizard-bear guy left, and it tried to run. As it turned and ran the little T-rex things when ape shit. I think they knew their victory was close, and all the remaining little fuckers jumped the big guy.


    The bear-lizard managed to make it out of our sight line. We still heard it when it got taken down, a loud guttural hiss like a growl of pain, then nothing. There were bodies everywhere. A bunch of Bear-lizards and what looked like hundreds of the little T-rex things littered the area.


    Plants and small trees were crushed and splintered, grass and dirt were ripped up all over, and everything was covered in blood. It almost looked like the area had now become a swamp of blood. Janet was the first of us to move. She lifted the axe off her shoulder, a small grin appearing on her face a brief second before she breathed out.


    Then she charged out of the barrier right at a group of about six of the little T-rex things. My mouth dropped in shock. I was kind of still reeling from the forty-five-plus minute killing fest we¡¯d all just witnessed. I watched Janet as she ran full out at the group. When she was about ten feet from the small group, they noticed her, and at first, it looked like they didn¡¯t quite know what to do. Then I think instincts took over, and there was just something bigger than them barreling down on them, and they all got into a defensive posture.


    The little T-rex guys began to crouch slightly, lower their heads a little, and started hissing. They waited like that as Janet got closer. When she was on them, she swung out with her axe in one fluid motion. Her strike was low and horizontal. Janet''s strike killed all but two in one hit.


    As she swung, most had been too slow to move out of the way of her strike, but the two she missed had immediately jumped back and away, saving their lives. That wasn¡¯t the end of the altercation, however. Instead of taking off like I thought the two little guys would, they must have been running on a high from the battle cuz they jumped right at Janet¡¯s face.


    Then Janet moved fast. She stepped back, reversed her axe, and swung up and across her body, smacking the two T-rex guys out of the air in four different directions. Then Janet was running back toward us at full speed with twenty of the things right behind her.


    As Janet got to the barrier concealing the entrance to the dungeon where Beth and I had been watching this shit play out, the T-rex guys slowed, then stopped right in front of the barrier, sniffed a little, then, as if realizing something, they all turned and booked it until they were out of sight.


    ¡°What the fuck, Janet!¡± I said, and just kinda stared at her, like, what the fuck? She just winked at me. Then Janet stuck her tongue out at me and said, ¡°What, oh come on, the little dinosaur frog guys are leaving. Let¡¯s get the fuck out now while we get the chance.¡±


    Beth shook her head like what the fuck and then just said, ¡°Come on, Travis, let''s go.¡± I just shook my head because, in my thoughts, all I could think was, really, a fucking frog dinosaur! Fucking Frog Dinosaur! They were obviously Mini T-Rex Dinosaurs, not FROGS!

 Chapter 12 - How to make a monster

    Chapter 12


    How to make a monster


    I stewed on those thoughts most of the way back to the tree house, but I eventually got over it. I picked up a rock at one point and threw it into the distance as hard as I could. It went pretty far, and that did help. It made me feel better. The little things, am I right?


    The one thing that was kind of irksome was that the little T-rex guy''s faces did kind of resemble a very large toad, which pissed me off even more. When we finally got to the tree house, I asked Beth and Janet if they wanted to dig up that gear we berried and store it in the bags of holding. We¡¯d found that large items were more willed into the bags once you were holding them and would just kind of appear in your hand when called forth.


    Janet groaned and said that she needed to relax and that we should just do it tomorrow. Beth just nodded and said tomorrow was fine with her, so I said fuck it, tomorrow worked for me, and we headed up into the tree house.


    It was a night of drinking and fucking around, really. The highlight of the night was Janet so drunk that she took a kitchen knife and stabbed it between her fingers as fast as she could. She was actually amazing at it, like, it kind of blew my mind.


    I was about to give it a go myself until she looked up at us drunkenly, amazed at her own skill, and cut her middle finger right off. She didn¡¯t even notice.


    At first, Janet and I had watched her slack-jawed, and I started laughing at her. She had been so proud of herself, like, Wow, I¡¯m awesome look, then she cut her finger off. I was like, ¡°Ooh, you cut your finger off, dam!!! Then being shit-faced, it took me a moment to realize what I¡¯d just said.


    my smile dropped, and my words registered with my ears. My eyes went wide, and then Janet let out an ¡°Oh Shit!¡± And she put her hand over her mouth. It was hard to tell, but I think she was still laughing, and the hand over her mouth was just cuz she thought laughing might not be an appropriate response.


    She managed to contain herself a bit, but then Beth looked up from where her finger was bleeding on the table, mouth a gape, and looked at us. For a second, it was almost like that moment right after a child falls. They hit the ground and don¡¯t know whether to cry or be okay. In that moment, you can slightly influence the outcome if you act fast.


    Well, it almost seemed like drunk Beth was living that moment right now. Out of know where and with perfect timing, Janet lost control of her laughter and started laughing her ass off. Beth blinked at her and then turned to me. I was just as bad as Janet.


    I had been doing okay until Janet lost it, but when she did, I started laughing uncontrollably. Beth looked at Janet again and then back down at her finger, then back at me, still kind of dumbstruck. Then, out of nowhere, she just started laughing. She was belly laughing, too, which set me and Janet right off again.


    That night, Janet and Beth passed out and snuggled up with each other. I stayed up on watch for a little while after the ladies knocked out. I just had a few more drinks by myself and practiced the night¡¯s most enjoyable pass timecards.


    We were a couple of shots in, and with our heightened constitution, it wasn¡¯t doing much for us. I pulled out one of my decks of playing cards, and we all started playing Egyptian War. That went well and was fun for a while, then Janet lost all her cards and went out.


    She got super pissed off and through her cards at the wall. We were about to yell at her for fucking up the game, then she just pointed at the wall, eyes sparkling with amazement. She said one word, ¡°Look,¡± and we did.


    There were like four cards stuck in the wall, and the amazement in her eyes turned dangerous. ¡°Okay, rules: if your card doesn''t stick in the wall after five throws, you drink a shot.¡± That¡¯s all Janet had to say, and the game was on.


    We had gotten really good at it really fast if I¡¯m being totally honest, and now, as I sat there drunk off my ass, I could still stick a card in the wall nine times out of ten. It was super fun and, I guess, had a practical use in some sense.


    I took that train of thought a bit further and picked up a knife off the table, and I remembered something about throwing knives I¡¯d seen in a video once. I held the knife by the blade backward, sharp edge away from the target, and gave it a toss. It fucking stuck! When I walked over to pull it from the wall, it was stuck in deep, right up to the hilt.


    I thought it was luck at first, but then I did it again five more times in a row, and holy shit, I was fucking good at this. I grabbed two more knives out of our kitchen supplies, and one two three, they went into the wall, and it wasn¡¯t a loose grouping.The knives were lined up one after the other. I shocked myself. That shit kind of rocked me, and that was all. I did that till I saw the sun had started to rise. At that point, I just grabbed a blanket and passed out on the floor.


    It was late the next morning before I woke up again, and there was a cold breakfast waiting for me, but hey, cold bacon is still bacon. Janet and Beth had already dug up the pit with the gear and stored it in the bags of holding.


    They had even gone out and scavenged for a couple of hours, re-upped on our liquor stash, some food, and general necessities. That was awesome because scavenging was always a pain. It kinda of made me feel a little guilty. I pushed that shit down real fast, however, and just thanked them for going out.


    If you thought about it, they were doing the new version of running errands. It¡¯s just that running errands could get you killed nowadays. Added a whole new element to just going out for orange juice, be right back. If I¡¯m not back in an hour, well, I died, so, okay, yep.


    Kind of fucked up, but somehow, we were making it work. Janet was sitting throwing cards at the wall halfheartedly, and Beth was just tidying up around the tree house. I finished my cold breakfast, then walked over to Janet, pulled a knife out from a bag of holding on the table, and handed it to Janet.


    ¡°Try it with this,¡± I said. Janet had her arm cocked back, ready to throw another card, and she stopped and looked down at the knife in my hand. She looked back at me, then turned her body to face me. Her eyebrow rose, and she said,


    ¡°Really, you want me throwing knives in the house, Dad?¡± She started laughing but still grabbed the knife. Then, holding it by the handle, she just cocked back and threw it. It actually went in the wall up to the hilt. She kind of just sat there and stared at the knife.


    Then she stood up and said, ¡°Ooohhhhh yeah, bet you can¡¯t do that, bet you! Wow, that was sick. We definitely should bet money on this, and hey, now we actually have real gold coins to bet with. Come on, let''s go.¡±


    I laughed at Janet''s enthusiasm and pulled out four more knives, and one, two, three, four, they all went into the wall up to the hilt. She just looked at the knives in the wall of the tree house and then slowly turned to look at me.


    ¡°What the fuck? How? And that¡¯s all she said, and then just stood their arms crossed. Then added some, hurry the fuck up bitch, to the whole look when she stated, tapping her foot. I looked at her for a second, taking in the full-body look of annoyance she was somehow pulling off. Then I just chuckled and explained what I¡¯d done after the two had fallen asleep the night before.


    When I was finished, Beth looked like she was thinking, and Janet said that she needed to catch up and retrieve the five knives stuck in the wall and get after it. Eventually, Beth let us know what she had been thinking about.


    ¡°I think we all need to think about things like this more. Like axe throwing, maybe, or at least some moving target training with the knives. We should start keeping a bunch of spare knives with us during our dives into the dungeon.


    Hell, we have three bags of holding. We each should hold on to one, and then we can pull weapons out as needed. I¡¯m thinking with our enhanced strength and dexterity now, we could probably one-shot some enemies if we got good enough.


    That would be way safer for us, too. Easy XP.¡±


    Beth finished speaking. Janet and I looked at each other, then back at Beth, and then we both kind of thought about what she had said for a little bit.


    ¡°Well, I really like it, and if it makes our encounters with monsters less dangerous, then I¡¯m all for that,¡± I said.


    ¡°yeah, I like it, and throwing knives is just badass, and we''re fucking great already. How much better can we get?¡±Janet chimed in. Well, it turned out a lot better. The rest of the day is basically just because of target practices. First, Beth led us outside. Then she brought out some paint and walked to a tree ten feet away from where she had left Janet and me and painted a circle on the tree.


    Then she walked to a tree twenty feet away, and so on every ten feet or so till she was painting a tree that was about fifty feet away. After she was finished painting the tree she walked back and pulled out five knives.


    ¡°Okay, so I think the first thing we should do is see how far away we can hit a target,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°I like it. It''s good to know our limits, and then we can push them further.¡± Janet said then with a slightly savage hint to her voice, then just grinned. The first hour was crazy. We were both worse and better than we thought we would be.


    We could all hit ten feet easily, but at twenty feet, we started to lose accuracy. We could all hit the tree on every throw, but we were, on average, drifting about two feet to either side of Beth¡¯s paint mark.


    Thirty feet was funny. We would hit the tree almost every attempt, but we were all over the place, and at forty, we were missing four out of every five throws. That¡¯s when we stopped. We didn¡¯t have unlimited knives to waste.


    We walked out and collected all the knives we could, and it seemed like we¡¯d lost a bunch of them. Not great, we would have to get better fast, or we would be out of knives before too long. Then all this training would have to be put on hold, which would suck.


    ¡°So, all told, right now, we have about twenty-five knives left and about ten axes. The axes have short handles, so I think they¡¯d probably make good throwing axes. How are we gonna do this?¡± I said to Janet and Beth.


    Beth took a breath and then laid out a few next steps we could take. In her opinion, to get better at this, if we were really gonna do this, we had to take this seriously. We immediately agreed, and the next three days were filled with building targets, hanging ropes to swing said targets, and throwing knives over and over and over again.


    We did not want to lose any more knives, so we took our time moving to farther targets, ensuring our accuracy didn¡¯t stray too far off track. The moving targets are where we lost the most knives, but Beth set the moving targets up in a way so there was always somewhat of a backstop be hind it.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    At one point, we even dragged over some sheets of plywood and segments of fencing we¡¯d salvaged to assist with the effort. When the three days were over. We had lost another seven knives and two axes, and I mean fuck, we got better, like a lot better.


    Janet, Beth, and I could now hit a two-foot target at forty feet every time we tried with an axe or a knife. We also could hit a target moving at twenty feet with every attempt as well. We could hit targets while running, jumping, and falling. We tried as many different scenarios as we could think of.


    Let me tell you I am one hundred percent certain that it was entirely due to the fact we had earned all those stat points in the dungeon we could do what we were doing. Janet had taken off the goblets, too while training.


    She said that she¡¯d rather learn with her limits un-boosted. She said she didn¡¯t want to get a false sense of her true abilities, and I couldn¡¯t argue with her logic. It was now about five o¡¯clock, and we were back up in the tree house just relaxing. Me and Janet were fucking around while Beth was making some dinner.


    ¡°Okay, guys, chill with the knives. enough, dinners almost really set the table, and someone¡¯s gotta pour me a shot, or I¡¯ll show you a throwing knife. Janet and I had been taking turns throwing a playing card in the air, and the other person had to hit it with a knife, sticking it to the wall.


    We stopped, though, at Beth¡¯s words and got the table set. Then Janet poured Beth a fat short. We all ate dinner, got a little drunk, and then slipped off to the direct corners of the tree house.


    Janet and Beth were each reading books. They had brought a small stack back from their scavenging a few days ago and had been all over them for the past couple of evenings. I pulled out a deck of cards I hadn¡¯t let get fucked up yet and played some solitaire.


    Beth was the first to pass out, and about ten minutes after that, Janet, who had still been reading, came over and sat on my lap. I was still playing solitaire, and I was kind of surprised she just came over and sat down, but yeah, that¡¯s what she did.


    Then she snuggled up, and we just sat there, Janet reading me and playing solitaire for another thirty minutes. At that point, Janet closed her book. She turned and put her hand on my cheek then we started kissing. That led to a good make-out section, then it was closed off, and Jane and I were making the two-back beast for the next hour.


    When we were done cleaning up, I put my underwear back on and looked up at Janet just in time to see Janet was tugging my T-shirt over her head. When she finally got her head through the neck hole, she saw me looking at her and smiled.


    ¡°What?¡± She said, then walked over to me. I was shirtless and standing there in only my boxers. Janet brought her hand up and rested it on my chest. She leaned close and kissed me.


    ¡°Nothing, just, what¡¯s Beth gonna say if she walks up and you¡¯re sleeping in my shirt all snuggled up next to me? You don¡¯t think she¡¯s gonna start asking questions?¡± I asked her, smiling wickedly.


    ¡°Maybe I want that,¡± she said equally as wickedly, then she reached around and pinched my ass.


    ¡°Ow, hey. Watch it, girl.¡± I said as I smiled at her, then I leaned in and kissed her long and deep. After that, we just got to the bed. Janet lay next to Beth, and I hopped in next to Janet. When we were under the covers, and Janet had snuggled fully into me, one hand on my chest, one leg draped over mine, she whispered into my ear.


    ¡°You''re a good guy, Travis, so don¡¯t die on me, or ill fucking kill you. I know that we haven¡¯t really talked about this. I don¡¯t know if your activity avoiding the conversation, or it just hasn¡¯t crossed your mind in the insanity of our new life¡­¡±


    She stopped for a second, and I looked at her. Janet looked up at me with a questioning look on my face. She looked like she was thinking about how to say what she was thinking. After about ten seconds, she looked like she had decided there was no right way to do it, so she was just gonna go for it.


    ¡°So¡­ well fuck, you don¡¯t pull out. Like, we haven¡¯t been using condoms, and when we have sex, you cum inside me. Well, shit, do I need to spell it out for you? I was still lost for a second then my eyes went wide as her face started reddening.


    I sat up in the bed, ¡°Janet, wait, Janet, are you saying you¡¯re pregnant?¡± I said, looking down at her.


    ¡°Hey, keep your voice down. And wow. I take that as you not being happy about this. Cuz I could raise a child on my own. I¡¯m a strong woman, Travis. I don¡¯t need a man to raise my child, just another deadbeat dad.¡± Janet said, then started to roll over away from me with a sad look on her face.


    I was freaking out, but I couldn¡¯t let her know that. If she was really pregnant with my child, well fuck that was insane, but that¡¯s what happens when you have sex. a lot of sex at that. Well, ok, I guess you do it, you got to deal with the outcome.


    That thought process took me about two seconds, and then I grabbed Janet by the shoulders and turned her back to face me. I stared down at her, and then I leaned down and kissed her, deep and long. When we came up for air, I bent closer and whispered into Janet¡¯s ear.


    I will be there for you and our child, I will be there for you and if you want to get married or whatever the equivalent is now, I¡¯ll be there. She put a hand on my chest and pushed me back up away from her a bit. Then she started, laughing quietly but intensely.


    I was confused for a second. Then I realized that she had been fucking with me about being pregnant the whole time.


    ¡°Dam, your cold girl, you really had me for a second, but what are we gonna do if you do get pregnant? Not the best time to bring a kid into the world, if you ask me honestly.¡± Janet was still laughing but was starting to get herself under control.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s good to know you¡¯ll be there for me and our child, Travis,¡± Janet said. Then she started laughing again. I just rolled and laid back on the mattress next to her. She leaned up on one elbow and looked down at me.


    "Oh, don¡¯t be like that. That was a good one. I fucking got you good,¡± Janet chuckled, then continued speaking. ¡° don¡¯t worry about coming inside me and having a baby. The first time we had sex the next morning, when I woke up, I got a notification. When I checked, it said,


    You are fertile and have met the prerequisites to become pregnant. Would you like to initiate this pregnancy? Proceed, yes/no.


    The day I pick yes, I¡¯ll let you know.¡± My eyes went a little wide at that, and Janet laughed at me. Then she put a hand on my chest.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, or well, at least for now,¡± Janet said, then winked at me. I just let out a breath and then told Janet,


    ¡°I can¡¯t take any more joking tonight. Let''s go to bed.¡± Janet just laughed and then snuggled up close as we drifted off to sleep. The next morning, when I woke up. Beth and Janet were already making breakfast.


    I looked at Janet and gave a thumbs-up when she caught my eye. Janet smiled and mouthed at me, we¡¯re good. I smiled back at her, and while Beth¡¯s back was turned, I blew Janet a kiss, and she caught it.


    After we all had eaten and were just cleaning up, Janet posed a question.¡°So, back to the dungeon today?¡±


    ¡°I think so don¡¯t want to push our luck and have the dungeon reset on us. I think we gotta go back and were as ready as we''re gonna get with the throwing knives for now. We need to see how it plays in real combat.¡± I said.


    Beth and Janet both agreed. So we made our way back to the dungeon, and fortunately, this time, we didn¡¯t encounter any interruptions on our short trip there. Once we were inside, we all drank some mana-kissed water and walked back into the entry tunnel.


    We got to the chamber with the four branching tunnels again, and there were no signs the dungeon had rest, but that was a real shot in the dark as the bodies from our first dive were gone. There wasn''t a great sign.


    ¡°Okay, I think just to make sure the dungeon hasn¡¯t reset, so I say we go back down tunnel two and see if there''s still remnants of our fight or not. Then, if we find bodies will know that we¡¯re good. At that point, we can just continue down the line with three, then four. Sound good?¡± I said, and Beth and Janet nodded.


    We made our way cautiously down the tunnel until we came to the stairs where our fight had taken place, and yep, there were still bodies and blood all over the place. I relaxed a bit and started walking normally again instead of doing a slow, hunched walk, but I still talked in a hushed voice just to be cautious.


    ¡°So, looks like the dungeon hasn¡¯t reset. So, that, at least, that¡¯s a blessing. We don¡¯t have to start this whole dam slog over again.¡± I said.


    ¡°That would have sucked,¡± Beth said. I had to agree with her maybe the XP would have been nice, but I just wanted to finish this dungeon once before we started a second run. We didn¡¯t bother going on to the room where we found the chests. We knew what was down at the end of the hall, so we just turned around, heading back to the room with the adjoining tunnels.


    We took the next tunnel just as planned, and it was a long straight tunnel that just went on and on for about twenty minutes until we encountered a small group of four Caprainki that actually seemed to be mining.


    They all had pickaxes in hand. Two were actively mining when we attacked, and the other two had been on what might have been a short break, or maybe they were just slackers. Who knew?


    We dispatched them easily enough, and Janet found a small bag on one of them, which turned out to be a bag of holding with a meager five slots. Considering they had three of the five slots filled to one hundred units with earth-infused iron ore, I was pretty happy with the hall.


    They even had the fourth slot filled with forty-five until. All told, we just got three hundred and forty-five units of earth-infused iron ore. Whatever that was, honestly, the only thing I could compare it to was my elemental fire resistance. That would have to be a worry for future Travis.


    Travis, at this moment, needed to take a walk back and try the next tunnel cuz this one ended in a dead end. He also needed to stop talking about himself in the third person. I definitely stopped that. Well, this is the last time. Travis is the best ever and super great. Okay, now I''m done. I swear.


    We walked back and took the last tunnel this time. We had been walking for ten minutes, weaving and winding down the passageway when the atmosphere changed. At first, it started to get cold. Then, the air started to feel damp, and we all started smelling a truly horrible smell.


    the smell was like old rotting garbage, and it was only getting more pungent the farther we walked. After another five minutes, we came to a staircase leading down into the dark. Torches still were methodically placed down the tunnel, but they were too dim to let use see more than fifteen feet down the stairs.


    We all stopped at the top of the staircase and looked at one another. The smell was clearly coming from down the stairs case, and we all knew that meant trouble was down there.


    ¡°Fuck. Are we really going down there? Not gonna lie, this pace is getting creepy as shit.¡± Janet yelled-whispered at us.


    ¡°I mean fuck, yeah, this is getting sketchy as fuck, but it¡¯s really the only way forward if we¡¯re gonna clear the dungeon,¡± I said. Beth just nodded reluctantly. Janet just rolled her shoulders.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go first. Come on, let¡¯s get this over with,¡± I said, and I started down the stairs. Beth and Janet are following closely behind me. The stairs were long and steep, and that forced us to take our time so we didn¡¯t slip. It seemed like that would be a long, painful fall, one I don''t think any of us wanted to experience.


    We made it to the bottom of the staircase after what seemed like forever, and all we found was a darker and damper hallway. The passageway we found ourselves in now had spider webs in the corners, and every once and a while, there would be small piles of what looked like shit near the walls of the tunnel that smelled awful.


    It totally could have been actual shit. I hadn''t seen a bathroom down here yet, at least. We continued down the tunnel until we saw light start to bleed into the tunnel from the entrance to a chamber about fifteen feet in front of us.


    This time, however, we didn¡¯t see any activity in the room, so we decided to proceed with caution into the chamber. As we got to the exit of the tunnel, we peeked into the room as decrepitly as we could.


    There was some crazy shit going on in there. The first thing I noticed right off the bat was that there were little green men in what looked like lab coats moving about. They were running around what looked what you might think a mad scientist¡¯s lab might look like.


    The absolutely insane part was that the little green men were taking goats from a side room and leading them into a large glass chamber. They would then close what looked like an airlock. Then, they would fill the chamber with a dark, sickly greenish-black smoke.


    We stayed and studded them, watching as the smoke filled the chamber. The chamber just sat full of smoke for at least a full minute. Then the smoke cleared, the airlock door opened, and out walked, and I mean on fucking two legs walked out a newly transformed group of Caprainki.


    ¡°Holy shit!¡± I whispered, and Janet just shook her head. I Beth say under her breath, ¡°That¡¯s crazy, to think that a Caprainki is really¡­this is all kinds of mad scientist weird.¡± I had to agree with her.


    The newly born Caprainkis didn¡¯t seem like they were fully there yet. They definitely seemed to be a bit disoriented after their, um, awakening? Yeah, I¡¯m gonna go with Awakening.


    ¡°Okay, so what¡¯s our move here? Like how the fuck are we gonna do this?¡± I asked Beth and Janet in a whisper. We backed into the hallway and talked it over for a few minutes. We ultimately went with a combination of both Janet''s and my plan.¡°Okay, so like we discussed, Travis and I will try to creep into the room. The little guys seem pretty distracted with what they¡¯re doing. We find cover, and we get some daggers ready to throw.


    Once Beth gives the signal, we all take out the little green guys first. Then me and Travis charge the newborns while Beth cleans up the little green guys that are left. Everybody got it?¡± Janet finished.


    Me and Beth both nodded in confirmation, and I added, ¡°If they are pumping out Caprainkis, they probably have a staging room for them. You know, till they can gear them up and train them a little. We gotta find that room as well and take them out too,¡±Janet grimmest, and told us, ¡°We¡¯ll cross that Bridge when we got to it.¡± Janet and Beth weren¡¯t worried, so I left it alone for now. After finalizing our plan, Janet and I entered the room and, in fact, did manage to make our way across the room and into different hiding spots less than twenty feet from the little green dudes.


    We were on the opposite side of the room from the little green people. The tunnel opening was behind us, and the mad scientist setup was in front of us. We both looked back at Beth, and we watched her, ready for the signal to start our attack.

 Chapter 13 - Big trouble in little lab coats

    Chapter 13


    Big trouble in little lab coats


    A lot happened all at once. Beth had her hand raised in the air, and when she dropped it, everything started. Beth did a half-crunching run out of the tunnel shield. As she got closer, some of the little green guys finally noticed her. That was about the time she was passing where Janet and I were hiding.


    At that, Janet and I popped up, each with a hand full of knives, and let them fly at the fuckers. All that training had not gone to waste. Beth, Janet, and I all hit targets with our first throws. Three little green fuckers went down, and then the room became a panic of franticly moving little green men.


    We started throwing knives like crazy. There were little green bodies as well as Caprainki''s bodies starting to drop left and right. Ten seconds had passed, and Beth was still standing in the middle of the room, tucked behind her small shield, throwing knives as fast as she could pull them from her bag of holding.


    Then, out of nowhere, three small metallic orbs were lobed out of the fray at us. Two were way off the mark and actually landed closer to a group of Caprainki that had popped out of a side room than to us. There was one lucky throw, however, that landed close to Beth.


    Janet yelled at Beth from cover, ¡°Beth, move, bomb!¡± I think the only thing that actually registered was a bomb, but that was enough and Beth turned, took about five steps, and then dove as far away from the little orb as she could.


    It was a good thing she did, too, because a few seconds after Beth turned, the thing detonated. There was a loud roar of fire followed by a large sphere of intensely hot flames.


    The ball of the sphere of fire stayed in place, burning for about three seconds, at which point it simply disappeared, leaving a small crater in the ground right where the grenade-like thing had gone off. The crater was a foot deep at its lowest point. The pack of Caprainkis that had been near the other two grenades did not fair as well as Beth.


    Five Caprainkis were incinerated immediately. After that, there was a moment of peace where everyone was kind of in shock at the explosions. Then, from the back of the room, a knife came flying and hit a little green guy in the face, and it dropped. Everyone in the room looked at the little green guy drop, and then shit was back on.The throwing knives were losing their effectiveness as our enemies began to find cover, and we had no choice but to stage a charge. Janet and I got out from behind our cover, and Beth was following right behind us.


    As we got within five feet of our opponent''s impromptu barricades, we had to duck as four more small metallic spheres were tossed out over our heads, traveling well past Beth. Janet was the first to recover from our sudden doge. She hopped on a turned-over table and brought her axe down on a little green man.


    As she did, she yelled out, ¡°Wow, missed me, dumbasses.¡± I was the next over, and I vaulted a turned-over piece of what looked like lab equipment entering the fray. Beth wasn¡¯t far behind and joined the fight a moment after myself.


    We laid into our opponents with fervor, and in the next minute, we had cleaned up all the green dudes and had blocked the entrance to the room the newly born Caprainki were coming from. They were stopped for a moment, but they were going to make it through sooner rather than later.


    We were all covered in gore, and all had small cuts on our bodies. There was one moment when we almost lost Janet as well. She got her axe stuck after a particularly hard chop and a bomb thing landed right next to her.


    She had given her axe one more tug, but when it didn¡¯t pull free, she just abandoned it and jumped clear. It¡¯s a good thing she did, too. A second after she jumped clear, the thing went off. She didn¡¯t get caught in the blast, and she got a pretty bad burn, being so close to the explosion when it went off.


    We had grouped up and were discussing how we were gonna deal with a room full of newly mutated Caprainkis. We had to figure something out soon because they were almost through the barricade we set.


    Beth and I were trying to come up with a plane mostly focused on using the entrance to the side room as a pinch point to make a stand. When mid-conversation, Janet cleared her throat, and we looked over at her. She just smiled and held up a bandolier with twelve little metallic spheres hanging off it.


    ¡°New plan she said. We throw these at them till they''re all dead. What do you think?¡± Janet said. Beth and I just looked at her for a second till Beth said, ¡°Nice find,¡± and smiled. I just smiled as well, and off we went to massacre some Caprainkis.


    We each took turns lobbing grenades through the doorway till we didn¡¯t see anything moving around in the room anymore.


    ¡°Wow only took nine to do the job. I like these things. We should definitely find more of these.¡± Janet said with a scary grin on her face.


    ¡°Hey, calm down, pyro. I don¡¯t know how comfortable I am with you having access to explosives.¡± I said and gave her a jokingly weary look. She just pushed my shoulder.


    ¡°Come on, I know you want to blow stuff up.¡± Janet gave me a wicked smile like, you know you want to, and from out of nowhere, Beth spoke up. ¡°Oh, you know I want to blow more stuff up. That was great. I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d love that so much.¡± Then she gave us both a big smile.


    Me and Janet just laughed at her. ¡°Now, I didn¡¯t expect that Beth would be the one to come out as a closet pyro, fuck. nothing makes sense anymore. Is up still up? Have pigs flown?¡± I said, and Beth just punched me in the shoulder.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s loot this place,¡± said Beth, and that pulled me out of joking mode and put my loot hamster on full hype mode. If my loot hamster could speak, it would be saying, treasure, treasure, treasure!


    Yeah, there was basically no fucking loot. I mean fuck, what a fucking let down! We did find one cool thing. In one corner of the room, there was a crate of those grenade things with about forty inside. I had to admit that was a pretty sweet find.


    We had divided them up evenly between our bags of holding and had kept searching the room. At the end of a solid twenty minutes of trying to find more loot, the crate of grenades was still our best find. So, we decided as a group it was time to move on.


    We searched the room where all the newly awakened Caprainkis had been, but that was mostly blown to shit, so there was nothing in there. Another room that was attached to the chamber led to pens. Which, you know, just had a lot of goats in them. Beth and I killed four goats before Janet said she felt bad for the poor creatures and asked us to stop, so we did. It looked like it was really making her uncomfortable, so stopping was fine with me and Beth.


    I put the four dead goats in my bag of holding, and we moved on. As we got to the back of the room that was housing all the yet-turned goats, Beth noticed a staircase leading deeper into the dungeon.


    ¡°Fuck I thought that was it. I thought we just beat the thing, and now there¡¯s another level. Fuck. This burn is starting to itch, too. God dams it. ¡± Janet said, complaining to the group. I laughed and said,


    "come on, Janet. We¡¯ve come this far. Let''s fucking finish this thing and get more of that sweet XP.¡± Janet groaned and let her knees buckle a bit and took a few steps like a winey kid, then said,


    ¡°Fine, but let''s just take a break for a second. Check our notifications and heal up. I want to see if I gained a level from that last fight. We could use all the stat points we can get if we are about to go up against the boss.¡±


    ¡° Oh right, the boss dam, I almost forgot but your probably right. Fine, let¡¯s take like an hour or so and get ready for the fight that¡¯s about to come. Cool with you, Beth?¡± I asked them. Beth just let out a breath, plopped down on the floor next to some goats, and started feeding them some trail mix from her bag of holding.


    I just watched her for a moment, then shrugged and sat my ass down on the floor. A second later, Janet joined us, plopping down dramatically with a heavy exhale, and laid back on the floor. I think she was a little bummed she had lost her axe, and I''m sure the burn she got wasn''t helping.


    She had a spare axe with her that she had scraped to her back, and I guess it was good she did. I think she was still somewhat upset because she didn¡¯t have too many stashed back at the tree house. She¡¯d have to wait for the dungeon to reset to re-up unless we found some kind of armory. Which honestly was probably likely. How else did they outfit all their Caprainkis warriors?


    During our break, everyone ate a Senzuketa Bean and drank some mana-kissed water as well as some of our other rations. Our wounds all healed up, even Janet''s burn, and I started to clean the knives I¡¯d retrieved from the dead. After I finished with that task I decided it was time to look at my stat sheet.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 9


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 8,100/8,510 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    (+3 to all stats)


    Resistances:


    Element of fire


    Strength: 23


    Dexterity: 17


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Intelligence: 17


    Wisdom: 15


    Constitution: 21


    Luck: 14


    You have six unassigned stat points to distribute.


    ¡°Holy shit!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but say out loud. Beth and Janet looked over at me, kind of like what the fuck. Janet looked more annoyed, and Beth looked concerned. Janet was still lying on the floor, and Beth had been finishing up cleaning her knives. I looked at them for a second like I had a secret then I couldn¡¯t hold it in anymore,


    ¡°oh my god, okay, have you checked your stat sheet yet?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°Not yet. I was gonna check it in a second. Why?¡± Beth said, and Janet just said, ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°Okay, you need to check it now, and I mean now. Holly fuck, we got a lot of XP. I mean, like a fuck ton,¡± I told them, and Janet sat up. The next second, they both got a far-off look in their eyes. They were quiet for about a second then Janet exploded to her feet and whooped as Beth¡¯s mouth just dropped open in shock.


    ¡°XP for days! Are you kidding me? Travis, Travis, I¡¯m on fricking level nine. In one fricking go, I¡¯m level nine!¡± Janet said with notes of pure joy in her voice. Then she just started laughing. Beth sat there for a second, gobsmacked, and after a little, she just said in a shocked voice,


    ¡°Me too, I¡¯m level nine¡± Then she cleared her throat and refocused her eyes on us, and said again in a louder voice, ¡°I¡¯m freaking level nine. Level nine! Holy cow, this is crazy.¡± I just started laughing at the two ladies¡¯ reactions.


    After about a minute of them just losing it over their massive level gains, they calmed down and sat back down. Then, they each lost focus, and I knew they were checking their notifications and distributing their new stat points.


    It was time I did the same. My notifications were just a ton of kill notifications. The little green men were goblins, too, by the way, I could have called that. I also had a couple of level-up notifications mixed in.


    ¡°Level up! You were Level 7, and now you¡¯re Level 8. Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer!


    ¡°Level up! You were Level 8, and now you¡¯re Level 9. Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer!Never got old. Those fucking kill notifications were always gonna be ridiculous, but now it was time to distribute my new stat points. I decided I was going to go with my usual distribution method, but then I noticed my wisdom was starting to fall behind. I decided it might be time to change things up a little bit.


    I put two points into strength and two in constitution, following my usual trends, then I veered off the path well-traveled and put two points into wisdom, and that was all my points gone. Here and gone so fast, fuck!


    They were good choices, and I was trying to stay confident with where I placed my points. Hell, I loved seeing my strength rise and could not wait to arm wrestle someone and just fucking crush them.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 9


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 8,100/8,510 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    (+3 to all stats)


    Resistances:


    Element of fire


    Strength: 23


    Dexterity: 19


    Intelligence: 17


    Wisdom: 17


    Constitution: 19


    Luck: 14


    Wow, I was really coming along well. We were gaining level fast, but I knew that wouldn¡¯t last. Man, these quick boosts in the early levels were almost intoxicating.


    Janet Katz Stat. Sheet


    Level: 9


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 7,990/8,510 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Explorer 1


    Strength: 23


    Dexterity: 20


    Intelligence: 18


    Wisdom: 17


    Constitution: 19


    Luck: 10


    Beth Holloway¡¯s


    Level: 9


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 7,895/8,510 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Explorer 1


    Strength: 22


    Dexterity: 21


    Intelligence: 17


    Wisdom: 15


    Constitution: 20


    Luck: 9


    After we had all distributed our points and cleared out our notifications, the high from our level and stat increases started to wain. we just chilled out for about another half hour and finished our short rest. twenty minutes passed, and Janet couldn¡¯t wait anymore and blurted out,


    ¡°Okay, your guys are ready, right? Let¡¯s go do this. The anticipation is killing me.¡± I just chuckled at her and shook my head, then got to my feet and started streaking.


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯m good to go if you are Beth?¡± I said. Beth stood up and cracked her neck. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s finish this dungeon up. Time to kill a boss,¡± Beth said. I met her eyes and nodded once.


    ¡°Let¡¯s do this,¡± Janet said, super psyched and gripping her axe haft in clear anticipation. After we had all done one last gear check, we started down the stairs. It only got colder and more damp as we walked deeper into the dungeon, and there were the skittering sounds of small insects every once in a while.


    Shit was creepy as fuck. This whole fucking dungeon was fucking creepy, and the sooner we fucking cleared this place out, the fucking better. This staircase was not as long as the one that led to the mad scientist''s lab, so that was nice. When we got to the bottom, we continued down another passage for another five minutes till we entered a room that looked like a large ceremonial chamber.


    There were tapestries hanging from the Walls and torches hung between them. There was also a double line of six, eight-foot-tall brasher that lined a rug that led up to a massive door at the other end of the room.


    There were four guards inside, and they looked like beefed-up goblins. Each one was about six feet tall, and they all were carrying halberds. They were wearing only a breastplate and a loincloth. When we entered the room, the guards turned, noticing us, and then rapidly formed up into a line blocking our way.


    They were shoulder to shoulder, halberds raised, and ready to engage. They didn¡¯t say anything. They just stood there waiting for us. We were about twenty feet from them. Then Janet moved. She moved faster than any of the big goblins could react.


    Before either Beth or I were aware. Janet let two knives fly one right after the other. One hit a hulk-goblin in the eye. She got the other knife to landing in the goblin next to her first target, hitting it in the neck.tThe hulk-goblins all looked shocked as everyone in the room froze.


    Then, the goblin that took the knife in its neck pulled the knife free. A massive spray of blood burst out of the wound, and the goblin then staggered and then fell. Its fellows looked down at their fallen comrade. Then they all turned to look at us. The goblin that Janet had hit in the eye while staring us down slowly pulled the knife from its eye.


    It looked super badass and scary, but then when the knife was fully out, he twitched, then had kind of a full-body spasm, and half his body went limp. The big goblin looked really confused. Its two fellows were still just looking at us, mad as hell, totally ignoring their buddy having a moment.


    The next moment, they changed us. We readied ourselves to take their charge, and as they approached, I gripped my spear in anticipation. The battle had only lasted about two or three minutes, not to say things hadn¡¯t gotten intense in that time.


    When they first engaged us, one had swiped out at us at about chest height, and the third goblin, the one that had taken a knife to the eye, stabbed out, going straight for Janet. Beth was on my right, and Janet was on my left. Beth blocked one of the swings aimed at chest height with her shield, stopping the blow cold.


    I then blocked the other swing with my spear. Then, I took advantage of an opening I had created and stabbed one of the slashers right through the head. The spear point even popped out the other side. I yanked my spear free.


    As I pulled my spear free, the body dropped to the floor, dead. Janet had managed to block the strike at her face but then had her stick blocked in return. Beth did some quick stuff with her weapons. Catching her opponent off guard. The hulk-goblin got stabbed in the face. Beth''s blade punched all the way through its head from the side.


    There was now only one left standing, and it was the one Janet had hit in the eye. The guy looked pretty fucked up. I almost considered it a mercy when Beth moved and stabbed it through the neck, killing it. We thought the fight was done at that point, but the goblin Janet had hit in the throat at the beginning of the fight was actually still alive. It was lying on the ground, choking on its own blood.


    It didn''t even try to attack Beth as she walked over and put her sword through its head. It just gave her a glare full of hatred. Beth stood there for a few seconds and then looked at us like, come on.


    We didn¡¯t say anything as we all just walked over to, what we assumed was the entrance to the Boss''s room. I stopped and grabbed all the halberds and threw them in my bag on the way over. It kind of looked like a better spear. It would be cool to try them out.


    ¡°You guys ready for this?¡± Beth asked us as we all stood there looking at the large door.


    ¡°Yep,¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Me too, let''s fuck this mother fucker up.¡± I said with a toothy grin. Beth just nodded and walked over to open the door. Janet and I readied ourselves behind her. The grand door looked like it was heavy enough to take at least ten strong men to open it, but as Beth pushed, the door swung in easily.


    Beth let the door swing in, as we hid ourselves behind the unopened half of the door. As we poked our heads in to see what there was to see, we could see a larger what looked like another hulk-goblin guy, but it had a more animalistic look to it. Large tusks protruded out from its mouth, and it was sitting at a larger wooden table eating.


    Even sitting, the goblin looked like it would be a tall fucker, probably close to seven feet. It was basically the build of a linebacker, and it had a very large axe resting agents the chair it was sitting in. The boss goblin was so engrossed in its meal that it didn¡¯t even see the door was open.


    There weren¡¯t really any places to hide or set up an ambush in the room. The goblin boss was sitting about thirty feet away from us towards the back of the room. Well within knife-throw range, for sure, but it would be a hard shot. We all pulled our eyes away from the scene before us and tucked back behind the closed portion of the door.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan?¡± I whisper, asking the ladies. Janet rolled her eyes at me and whispered back,


    ¡°Yeah, Travis, what¡¯s the plan?¡± I rolled my eyes back at her and said,


    ¡°Fine, we need to figure out a plan, better?¡± I said just to annoy Janet. Janet was about to make a snarky response, but Beth broke into the conversation before she did.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough. We really do need to figure out a plan here. Come on, you losers, help me out here.¡± Janet and I both looked properly ashamed, and we all got to thinking up a plan to deal with this ass whole. We had started laying out a basic plan when we heard the boss goblin yelling in a language we weren¡¯t able to understand.Then it yelled something again, shorter this time and with a bit of what I thought sounded like maybe inpatients to its voice. Then, after another couple of seconds or so, it yelled again. This time, I could tell it was getting pissed off. How so, you ask? First, it was very loud with an angry bite to the phrasing, and second, a bone with a bit of meat still hanging from it still came flying through the open part of the door.


    It landed on the floor of the room we were hiding in with a click-clack till it settled, and there was quiet again. It kind of fucked with our planning session, and we all kind of stared at the bone as it settled to the ground. We just stood there for a second, looking at the femur-like bone in the middle of the floor.


    I snapped back to reality after a few seconds and shook my head to kind of wake myself up and I noticed Beth and Janet doing similar things. I turned and looked at Beth and Janet.


    ¡°Okay, that just happened. Um, this might get ugly. Are you guys still trying to do this?¡± I asked them. Beth looked like she was thinking about what I¡¯d said, but Janet looked pissed off at me.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked her. I was kind of confused by her reaction to my question.


    ¡°Are you fucking kidding me? No, for real. Are you actually considering turning and walking away now? It''s the boss¡­ of the dungeon. Like this is the last thing we have to kill, and then we fucking win.


    Like, we beat the freaking dungeon if we kill this guy, and you want to just say, oh, well, we came this far, but let¡¯s just leave. This guy looks way too scary. I don¡¯t want to piss my dipper. Fuck! Come on, let¡¯s kick this motherfuckers ass through his face. Fuck.¡± Janet finished.


    I kind of just stood there slack-jawed, staring at Janet.Beth was doing pretty much the same thing I was, just kind of in shock at Janet¡¯s passionate speech. I thought about her words, and then a devilish grin grew on my face.


    ¡°You know, I don¡¯t know what came over me. Thanks, Janet, and you are right. Let¡¯s beat this asshole into the ground. How did you put it¡­ kick its ass through its face? I like it. Let''s fucking do it.¡± I said. Janet gave me an animalistic smile, and we looked at Beth. Instead of answering us, she smelled sweet, almost too sweetly, and just started walking toward the open door.


    I looked at Janet, and she was already walking after Beth. I just shook my head, rolled my shoulders, cracked my neck, and followed them through the doorway. As Beth and Janet Had gotten to the opening of the boss room, they had begun to charge, and I was right behind them.

 Chapter 14 - Boss fight!

    Chapter 14


    Boss fight!


    The boss had noticed Beth as soon as she had entered the room and had picked up its axe then kicked over the table, taking a battle stance. Janet¡¯s speech fully pumped me up, and I was feeling super fucking unstoppable. As Beth and Janet charged, I was running between them several feet back.


    The two ladies started to split in a flanking move.I saw that as my moment to do something that had just popped into my head. It might have been a stupid idea, but fuck it. I had practiced throwing knives and throwing axes, but I had never thought to practice throwing my spear, which, with what I was about to do, seemed like a fuck up on my part.


    With all that in mind, I lifted my spear up like I was about to throw a football. I pulled my spear back and let it fly. Okay, so not my best work. I was aiming for its face, but shit, I still fucking hit the guy right in the shoulder. I stumbled a little in my run after my throw, but really, it was just because I was so surprised that my throw actually landed.


    It was a fifteen-foot throw, and I thought, at best, I¡¯d distract the guy enough to let Beth and Janet get a hit or two in. I got my feet under me again and kept running just in time to see the dude look down at the spear protruding from its chest, then just smash this axe down on the spear shaft, breaking the weapon.


    In no time, the boss was ready for the attack coming at him from Beth on its right side.The goblin boss smacked Beth¡¯s sword aside with its weapon, then, on the backswing, smashed her shield in half and sent her flying back. Beth fell and rolled like a hotdog for a second. Then she popped back up onto her feet. Beth had to shake her head a couple of times to get it together. When she was back on her feet, she was already planning her next engagement.


    Janet had immediately tried to get the upper hand on the boss while he was dealing with Beth, but the boss had dealt with Beth faster than Janet had been anticipating. The boss was ready to block as Janet brought her axe down.


    The boss was holding its axe with both hands spread wide on the haft of its axe, and the boss fucker brought it up and blocked Janet¡¯s chop. Its knees buckled quite a bit, but then the boss pushed Janet¡¯s axe to the side and brought its own axe down on Janet in turn.


    Janet swung her axe up to block, but she had been pushed off balance. She only managed to knock the boss''s strike off track. As the axe was diverted, the strike lost most of its momentum, but at the end of the swing, the boss''s axe was lodged deep in Janet¡¯s shoulder, and she was in shock, I could tell.


    Beth had recovered a bit at that point and made a stab at the boss¡¯s kidney. Beth¡¯s strike hit true, and her blade sunk in a good six inches. Beth then ripped her sword free before dashing back out of striking range.


    The boss had let out a roar of pain when Beth had stabbed it and yanked its axe free from Janet. Then kicked Janet away and turned toward Beth, who successfully got out of range. I was in range to attack now. I had pulled a halberd, one of the ones I had just picked up out of my bag of holding. after I had thrown my spear, I was left weaponless.


    Now, I used my new weapon to strike low, fast, and accurately with my attack, and I managed to take the boss''s foot off just below the knee while it was enraged with Beth. The boss went down hard, and I thought it was over, or at least I did, until a pulse exploded out of the boss¡¯s body. We were all lifted off the ground and thrown backward through the air at speed.


    We all had flown in different directions. I did know about Beth and Janet at that moment, but I had been flung through the air and had landed on the ground hard about fifteen feet away from where I had been fighting the boss. I sat up in a daze a shook my head to pull myself back from almost being knocked out.


    I looked around once I could see the ¡°around¡± again and found Beth and Janet. Beth was still on the floor, but she was moving. She had been only a couple of feet away from smacking into the wall, which probably would have hurt way more.


    Janet, however, had been much closer to the wall than Beth at the time what ever magic the boss used went off, and she had smacked into the wall. It looked like she had taken most of the impact with her arm. The pain must have knocked her out because she was slumped against the wall, not moving. I just hoped she wasn¡¯t dead.


    I couldn¡¯t worry about that right now, or I was sure I¡¯d definitely be dead. The boss however was looking a lot better than we did. The leg I had just cut off had grown back, and it even looked like the wound Beth had inflicted had healed up as well.


    All I could think was shit, all that work. With Janet out of the fight, it was up to Beth and me now. The boss was standing there with its eyes closed. Beth was back up, and I got to my feet. We looked at each other, nodded, and then charged in unison.


    We were about equal distance away from the boss. We had just been blasted in directions. We were only five feet away from the boss when the boss opened its eyes. I struck at the same time as Beth. She stabbed out at the side of its head, hoping to get a critical blow, and I stabbed out in an opening between the boss¡¯s breastplate under the arm.


    its arm was kind of in the way, though. So I had to aim slightly behind its arm at an angel. The boss noticed Beth first and swung its axe at her. Beth had to abandon her attack to try and avoid the blow. It was so fast. Beth brought up her shield just in time, but as the axe hit, it cracked the wooden shield in half, letting the axe continue forward, cutting Beth¡¯s arm clean off at the elbow.


    She screamed in pain but still had the presence of mind to jump back out of range of the boss. She was sweating hard and was shaking as she shoved a Senzuketa Bean into her mouth and tried to stop the bleeding. I had seen the boss react to Beth, and in doing so, the boss had left the spot I was attacking wide open.Stabbing out with my new halberd, it sunk into the boss deep. The halberd cut through the boss''s skin like butter. The boss screamed, letting Beth retreat out of strike range. I assumed she was just resetting for another attack as I twisted my halberd and ripped it out through the boss''s stomach.


    It stopped screaming in pain to cough up a mouth full of blood. I knew I had just dealt a hefty blow to the boss, but I made a rookie mistake and stayed in one place too long after my attack. The boss turned to me and swiped at me with its axe. The attack was slowing down a little, so I had time to catch the blow on the staff of my weapon.


    I managed to match the boss''s strength, but the edge was slowly being pushed into my shoulder. I tried to stop the axe, but there was nothing I could do, and then it was through the bone before I could push the attack away.


    As I lost my arm, I realized there was a fist coming right at my face, and I had no time to block it. I was knocked off my feet and sent through the air in a nice arch, landing on the ground knocked out.


    I was only out for what seemed like a couple of seconds, but when I woke up, Beth had lost the rest of her shield and her arm or half of it, and she was fighting the boss alone. When I finally processed that information, I stumbled to my feet the best I could.


    Almost fell a few times but managed to get to my feet. I had tried to push myself up one time with an arm that wasn¡¯t there anymore and had fallen right on my face. My nose was definitely broken, and my arm was just fucking gone, and I was bleeding heavily.


    I pulled a Senzuketa Bean from my bag and ate it. I felt the healing effect hit me instantly. I started to run back into the fight. Beth saw me, and I could see the relief on her face when she saw me. Then out of fucking know where Janet brought her axe down right into the back of the boss''s head. It sunk in all the way to the shaft of the axe, and the boss stopped moving.


    A second later, the boss dropped to the ground, dead. Beth and I kind of just stared at Janet in shock then I ran over as fast as my addled brain would allow and swept her up in a one-armed hug.


    It was a good thing I did, too. As I put my arm around her, she went limp, and her eyes fluttered close.


    ¡°Janet, shit! Beth, help, shit, help!¡± I yelled out with a hint of panic bleeding into my voice. The next second, I heard Beth running over as fast as she could as I slowly and gently lowered Janet to the ground.


    twenty minutes later, we had managed to get some mana-kissed water into Janet''s wound to wash it out, and that seemed to be helping with the healing as well. After we had cleaned Janet¡¯s wounds, we had to check on our own injuries. The Senzuketa Beans Beth and I had both eaten really helped with closing our severed limbs. The sink was already regrowing over the end of my shoulder and over Beth¡¯s stump.


    Only a few seconds of checking ourselves over showed that other than the obvious missing limbs, we were basically covered in superficial injuries and were more or less doing okay. We were both beat the fuck up and would definitely have some bad bruises from the fight.


    We had tryed to make Janet as comfortable as we could. We ended up using one of the cloaks to prop up her head and made some bandages out of my shit to keep her wound closed.


    Janet¡¯s wound was starting to look a bit better, but a lot of my worries would be abated if she would just wake up and eat a fucking Senzuketa Bean. Then, at least, I¡¯d know she would be okay. Shortly after the twenty-minute mark after the boss had died, Janet¡¯s eyes began to flutter open.


    She coughed a couple of times and then asked for some water. We handed her my bag of holding, and she drank some water straight from the bag. She took a good long sip and then stopped and coughed again for a couple of seconds then continued drinking till she felt that one ration from the slot had been consumed.


    At that point, she pulled out a Senzuketa Bean and ate it. I let out a breath, relieved, knowing she¡¯d be okay. Janet looked up at me and gave me a wink, and I rolled my eyes at her. Beth had been sitting across from me as I held Janet, and she had been looking worried till Janet started messing around and joking about almost dying.


    Then Beth knew she was fine. Janet sat up and started drinking some water and then eating some rations. I helped Janet up, and she moved over to a wall where she could sit with a backrest. I helped her sit, then sat down next to her, with my back against the wall.


    I saw Beth eating, and that sounded good, so I pulled out some rations of my own and drank some water. Fuck, you know, sometimes when you take a sip of water, and you can feel it spread through your chest. Dam, it¡¯s just the best feeling ever, and right now, that hit me as I took my first sip of water.It was like heaven at that moment.I shut my eyes after a second, and I passed out for a little. When I woke up, Beth said I had only been out for an hour and that she had passed out as well and only woke up a little bit before me. Janet was passed out against the wall and she was snoring away.


    I thought it was probably good we had gotten some sleep and let that Senzuketa Beans do their job. I got up and walked over to where Beth was sitting on the ground. I checked on her arm for her, and she looked at my shoulder. we were both healing fine. We sat there in silence for a few moments.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I had started thinking about how Beth lost her arm, and I lost my arm, so we kind of were in the same boat. It was so weird. It felt like my arm should be there. I still felt like I could grab something with it if I wanted. It was just tripping me out. I figured it might grow back. Senzuketa Beans were a true wonder, which was a reassuring thought. Then I was lost in thought till Beth pushed me.


    ¡°Hu? Oh, my bad, what?¡± Ha-ha. ¡°Wow, you were on another planet for a second there. I''m glad I could bring you back to earth.¡± Beth said.


    ¡°My bad, I was somewhere else. Sorry, what¡¯s up?¡± I asked Beth.


    ¡°Nothing, I just asked if you had checked your stat sheet yet cuz I was just about to check mine out.¡± Said Beth.


    ¡°Oh shit, good called totally spaced. Bet we got some amazing rewards or something for finishing this dungeon, or well, let me rephrase that. We better have gotten some amazing shit from completing this fucking dungeon.¡± I said and smiled at Beth. Beth laughed and then nodded. ¡°Yeah, we better get something good. I¡¯m gonna check my notifications.


    You gonna do the same?¡± Beth asked me.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m gonna check it out now. Let''s compare notes after,¡± I said.


    ¡°Deal,¡± Beth said, and we both pulled up the notification from the boss fight. I had some more kill notifications, and then there were some other notifications that I¡¯d never seen before. honestly, I couldn¡¯t really believe it. The first new notification I saw was a first in world.


    Congratulations! You and your party are the first on your planet to complete a dungeon, which is quite an amazing feat!You have not only survived the integration, but you seem to doing literally better than anyone on your entire planet. The slag company has been notified of your amazing feat, and your prowess has been marked. You are truly an outstanding member of your race! Plus, you have eight points to every stat.


    That was a little scary that the achievement had been reported to the slag company but that was a worry for another time. I couldn¡¯t fucking think about that right now. Besides fucking plus two to every stat was amazing, and I was eager to see what notifications I had to come.


    The next new notification was the dungeon completion notification.Congratulations! You and your party have completed the dungeon of the Wondering Howler. Completing the dungeon with two fewer members than the recommended five-member party has given you a twenty percent bonus to your dungeon completion reward. Reward, you and each party member will receive 500 XP with a twenty percent bounce of 100¡ªtotal XP 600.


    That was great always nice to get a cool G in XP. Next, and it wasn''t really new. At first, it looked like a regular kill notification, but it was different.


    Congratulations! You killed a boss of the dungeon of the Wondering Howler. You and your party were the first on your planet to do so. You are truly adapting to your new life well. You have received a dungeon coin. This item will help you find dungeons as you explore your planet.


    That was cool. Hopefully, there were some more dungeons near us, but I didn''t know if I could do another dungeon for a little while after this hole fucked up place.


    The last notification was a sweet, sweet level-up.


    ¡°Level up! You were Level 9, and now you¡¯re Level 10.Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, fight for money, these are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer!¡±


    As I closed the level-up notification, another notification popped up.


    ¡°Pick your first class! You have fought through the brutality of the integration and came out the other side swinging. You have not backed down and are working hard to improve yourself. Well, it¡¯s time to take that a step further and start to develop a path that resonates with your very soul. Pick a class and see what your future holds.


    Would you like to choose your class now yes/ no? If you choose no, you will be able to pick your class at any time by returning to your class sheet. Now available in your status sheet. Holy shit! Fucking classes? This might be super awesome, but I did think it would be a good idea to talk it over with Beth and Janet before picking one.


    I chose no for now and then decided it was time to distribute some points. I looked at my stat sheet and decided to wait till I picked a class to dish my points out. I might get a better idea of where to start focusing my points when I get my class. So, I left my stat sheet alone for now, and it wasn¡¯t looking too shabby.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 10


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level:11,130/11,280 XP till next Level.


    Titles:


    Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Explorer 1 3 to all stats)


    First in the world to:


    Complete a dungeon run  to all stats)


    Resistances:


    Element of fire: 5%


    Strength: 33


    Dexterity: 25


    Intelligence: 25


    Wisdom: 26


    Constitution: 32


    Luck: 22


    Janet Katz


    Level: 10


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 11,150/11,280 XP till next Level.


    Titles:


    (+3 to all stats)


    First in the world to:


    Complete a dungeon run  to all stats)


    Strength: 31


    Dexterity: 28


    Intelligence: 26


    Wisdom: 25


    Constitution: 27


    Luck: 18


    You have three unassigned stat points to distribute.


    Beth Holloway¡¯s


    Level: 10


    Race: Human


    Experience needed to next Level: 11,050/11,280 XP till next Level.


    Titles:


    (+3 to all stats)


    First in the world to:


    Complete a dungeon run  to all stats)


    Strength: 30


    Dexterity: 29


    Intelligence: 25


    Wisdom: 23


    Constitution: 28


    Luck: 17


    You have three unassigned stat points to distribute.


    I finished looking over my stat sheet and decided to check with Beth and see if she had got to level ten and could pick a class as well. I looked over at Beth, and she still seemed pretty engrossed with her notifications, but I still leaned over and tapped her on the leg.


    It took a couple of tries of me tapping her leg and saying, ¡°Beth, earth to Beth,¡± while continuing to tap her leg to get her attention. When she finally looked over at me, she looked kind of shell-shocked. Beth seemed a bit out of it when she finally looked at me. She shook her head a couple of times, then said, ¡°Wait, what? Sorry, I¡¯m a little in awe at what all these notifications really entail. What¡¯s up Travis?¡±


    ¡°All good. I was just gonna ask you if you had finished checking all your notifications and wanted to talk. Kind of a lot to unpack there.¡± I said, and Beth started nodding as I finished talking.


    ¡°Yeah, you aren¡¯t kidding. I¡¯m assuming you saw the first in-world notification? That literally means no other person on this planet has done what we just did. I kind of can¡¯t believe it.¡± Beth said. Still kind of stunned at the realization.


    ¡°Honestly, it must have just been a best-case scenario. Like, I better, there are a lot of more capable people than us out there. We found a dungeon, and they didn¡¯t, or they did, but they just didn¡¯t clear it or didn¡¯t even run it.


    We got lucky, that¡¯s for sure, and now we¡¯ve probably got a pretty good head start on the rest of the planet with our titles and our levels. Oh shit! Almost forgot did you reach level ten?¡± I asked Beth.


    ¡°Yeah, I did, but I got a weird notification that said I could now pick a class. I figured I¡¯d just wait and talk it over with you and Janet. I didn¡¯t want to place my stat point either, so I still have three to spend as well.¡± Beth said. I was definitely happy she had done the same thing I had. Made me feel better about my decision.


    I definitely thought it was a good idea that we talked it over before diving headfirst into some crazy shit without talking it over, Chough, chough.


    ¡°Yeah, I did the same thing. I got that same notification, but I just said no for now, and yeah, I still got my stat points from the level up as well.¡±


    ¡°Should we take a peek? I mean, we can all still sit down and talk about it together, but hell, want to?¡± Beth said, giving me a devilish grin.


    ¡°Beth! How dare you? I would never¡­ Okay, maybe just a little peek.¡± I said, and Beth rolled her eyes. We were about to take a peek when Janet let out a loud series of coughs. Then, I could hear her drinking some water.


    ¡°Guess the clock ran out,¡± I said in a soft voice to Beth, and she looked over dramatically, sad, then gave me a smile,


    ¡°all good, let¡¯s check on Janet,¡± Beth said, and I nodded, then we headed over to check on little Miss Janet. Janet didn¡¯t need much checking in with after her little nap and the magic little Senzuketa Bean, of course., Janet was now in better shape than either Beth or myself.


    Janet¡¯s shoulder wound was about fifty percent closed, and all her other injuries were almost completely gone, just little pink lines here and there. Janet let out a huge yawn and then asked us what had been going on while she was out. We told her to check her notifications.


    At first, Janet looked at Beth and me a little warily because we were both so adamant that she checked out her notifications. Finally, she just shook her head, annoyed, and said she would check. Janet was quiet for a little while, and then she just closed her eyes, and a smile crossed her face.


    Janet''s smile was filled with sincere joy. Then she let out a loud whoop! Janet jumped to her feet and then started jumping up and down, screaming,


    ¡°We did it! We fucking did it, ha-ha-ha, I can¡¯t believe it. We killed that boss. Yeah! Oh my god! Woo-hoo, we really did that shit, and first in the world! Are you kidding me? Yeah, babe!¡±


    Janet went on like that for about five minutes before she finally chilled out, but you could feel her buzzing with pent-up joy.


    ¡°So, you got the class choice notification, right?¡± I asked Janet.


    ¡°Yeah, I got it. I was gonna wait to pick till after we talked. I also saved my points cuz, honestly, I was just way too juiced to keep paying attention after seeing the first in the title and that we had finished the dungeon. Did you guys pick already? What did you pick? Is it cool?¡± Janet asked me and Beth.


    Beth and I laughed at Janet for a second. Then Beth explained we had had the same idea as her. Janet looked relieved.


    ¡°Should we pick it up now or wait till we''re back at the tree house?¡± Beth asked Janet and me. We talked about it for a little and then decided to just deal with it back at the tree house.


    ¡°So, let''s loot this place clean and get the fuck out of here,¡± Janet said as she stretched. Almost as if Janet¡¯s words were prophetic, a notification pushed its way into all of our vision all at once.


    Dungeon completed, you now have three more hours to remain in the dungeon before it closes and you are forcefully ejected. A forceful ejection will hurt and cost you an XP penalty of one thousand XP.


    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s not good. Janet¡¯s right, let¡¯s get what we can and get the fuck out of here.¡± I said, and we looted the boss. The boss had its breastplate and axe, but it also had a bag of holding strapped to its breastplate attached to a side buckle, which was a nice bonus.


    We didn¡¯t check the contents yet. I just tied it to my belt then we carried on. We looted the four guards of all their armor and belongings. I had already taken their weapons, but now we took the rest of their equipment and got out there. We made it to the entrance of the dungeon with two hours and ten minutes to spare.


    We walked outside, and the sun was bright in the sky. There was not a soul in sight, and It was a beautiful day. We started walking back to the tree house, and on our way there, we passed through some thick brush.


    We made our way through to the other side of the dense brush, where we stopped. Janet had been in the lead, and I was behind her with Beth behind me. When Janet stopped walking, I walked into Janet then Beth walked right into me.


    It was basically a Three Stooges act, and I felt like an idiot as we separated. I was about to bitch at Janet for stopping so abruptly when I looked up and saw the reason she had done so. There was a large bore but about eight feet tall, and it had what looked like a beetle¡¯s carapace covering its body in large, segmented plates.


    It was eating some plants about ten feet away from where we had popped out of the bushes. When the beast saw us, It stopped chewing and just stood there looking at us. We stood there staring back at the beast till Janet took a step back, and the thing''s head twisted toward the sound. It snorted once, then twice, and sniffed the air.


    The beast tilted its head to the side like it was thinking. Then it snorted again. We thought the thing was gonna leave us alone there for a second, then Beth shifted her footing again, causing a twig to snap, and that was it.


    The beast charged us, and I think Janet just reacted in the only way this new system had taught her. The thing was moving fast, and Janet had a second to react. She just swung back her axe and sent it flying into the forehead of the beast.


    There was a moment of pause when the two collided, and then the beast''s head was split in two down the middle and Janet continued her swing and sliced the beast almost completely in half. In the end, the beast was lying on either side of Janet.


    It was impressive, but the one thing that wasn''t so great was when Janet killed the beast. Blood had gone everywhere. It was stupid gross, but the act was so impressive I mostly forgave Janet for the mess she¡¯d caused.


    We got back to the tree house and washed off, which kind of sucked nowadays. We had found a plastic trash can and had poked holes in the bottom of it to make an impromptu shower, which worked pretty well. It made me miss hot showers so bad. The part that sucked was that someone had to stand on the roof and pour water into the trash can to make it work.


    Once we were all clean and sitting down around our kitchen table, we started talking about what choosing a class might entail. Janet was hoping for some magic. Beth was definitely excited at the prospect of obtaining magic as well, but she was pretty open to anything. I thought that we would probably get class choices that would take into account our experiences and actions so far and offer us appropriate options.


    I was thinking more or less the same, Beth, but I also thought classes would offer us more power and more benefits than being classless. After talking, we all decided it was time to see what classes the system offered us. We all finally looked at our class options but agreed we would check back in before making a final pick. Without further conversation, we were all calling up our new class screens. I had four opinions to inspect.

 Chapter 15 - Choosing a class is hard!

    Chapter 15


    Choosing a class is hard!


    Class sheet


    Level 10 class choices


    1) Survivor:


    You have survived an integration. You have faced adversity and prevailed. This new world is cruel, and you must be strong to survive. This class is tailor-made for a survivor. You gain two points to dexterity and two points to constitution along with your usually freely distributable stat points you receive with each level gain.


    You also gain the ability dash, which, when used, gives you a 50% increase to your movement speed for thirty seconds at the cost of two hundred mana. This ability will increase your speed by an additional 25% if you are running away from something. You also gain the ability Flash Bang. The ability Flash Bang, when activated, allows you to release an extremely bright flash from the palms of your hands at the cost of eighty mana per us.


    2) Warrior:


    You are a warrior. You are the front line. You lead the charge, and no enemy is safe. You are the heart of the army, a member of a team, and as a team, you can accomplish anything.


    The class of a warrior gets one point for strength, dexterity, and constitution with every level, along with your usually freely distributable stat points you receive with each level gain.


    You also gain the ability Stand Strong. Stand strong when activated increases your constitution by an extra 25% of the points you have invested into your constitution attribute for a cost of twenty-five mana per second.


    You also gain the ability Stand Together. Stand Together, when activated, gives a 25% attack speed bonus to you and your allies within twenty feet when fighting with three or more allies at the coast of ten mana per second and thirty stamina.


    3) Disciple of the spear:


    From time immemorial, wielders of the spear have changed the shape and face of battle in its very essence. The masters of this art are terrifying animals of destruction on the battlefield and can change the tide of a battle with one thrust of the spear.


    At the highest of mastery, sages of the spear have been said to cut the very fabric of reality itself with one strike. Cutting their enemies and letting the void devour them. You have been seen as carrying a small amount of proficiency with the spear, and if you choose to, you may begin embarking on the path of the disciple of the spear. Proceed down this path with caution, for many have fallen on their road to mastery. You gain three points to strength and three to dexterity with every level along with your usually freely distributable stat points you receive with each level gain. You also gain the ability Spear Dance.


    When spear dance is activated, you gain plus 30% of the points you have invested into your dexterity attributes and your attack speed increases by 125% at the cost of ten mana per second.


    You also gain the ability, Invoke the Spirit. Invoke the Spirit, when activated, fill your body and mind with the spirits of old masters of the spear that have lived throughout the history of the multiverse for twenty-five seconds a week at the cost of three hundred mana. You may use this ability to cause havoc on the battlefield and gain hints of insight to advance your techniques.


    4) Path of the Pole Arm:


    You are a strike, quick and true. You are the weapon, fast and sharp, strong and ever-attacking. You may not have much in this world, but that does not detour you from striking out at your future in a never-stopping, never-ending wave of pure will and determination.


    Let your pole arm guide you through the carnage of battle and beyond. Path of the pole arms gives you plus two to strength and plus three to dexterity with every level, along with your usually freely distributable stat points you receive with each level gain. You also gain the ability, Step Lightly. Step Lightly, when activated, gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting fifty mana and twenty stamina to activate.


    You also gain the ability Pinpoint. Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten mana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Wow, okay, that was kind of a lot to take in. I already knew which class I wanted, but I just wasn¡¯t sure it would be the right choice once I had read through my choices a second time. I had more or less made up my mind, and I decided it was about time to check back in with Beth and Janet and see what their options were.


    Beth was sitting at the table just eating. She had finished looking through her class choices already and was just waiting for Janet and me to finish looking at our options. She looked over at me when she saw I was loosed again and gave me a smile. ¡°So, anything good?¡± Beth asked me in that way where someone asks you something because they really want you to ask them the same questions. At second glance, Beth was almost shaking with anticipation, and she was literally on the edge of her seat.


    ¡°Yeah, got some good choices. How about you?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Oh my god, this is so cool. I got some good choices, but I think I know what I¡¯m going to pick already. It has some great abilities, too. Want to hear what it is? Or, well, you get anything you''re thinking of choosing.¡± She blushed a little at how much she had gotten so carried away but looked at me eagerly.


    I laughed at the look on her face, ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me about the class you¡¯re thinking about choosing.¡± I said. That was all Beth needed to start talking about the class she liked. As she started to explain, Janet came back from Screen Town and asked us if we were talking about the classes without waiting for her, and we both got quiet.


    Then I looked at Beth, and she looked back at me. We both turned back to look at Janet and said together in unison, ¡°No, of course not.¡± Then we looked at each other and started laughing. Janet just stared daggers at the both of us.


    After we finally got ourselves under control, we explained to Janet that, yes, we had been about to discuss our classes and that Beth was about to tell me about the class choice she liked the best. Janet said she wasn¡¯t mad anymore and for Beth to just get on with it and Janet and I waited for Beth to share.


    ¡°OK, the options I got were all good, and honestly, I would have picked any of them under different circumstances, but the one that stood out to me most was called Fledgling Knight.


    It gave her two points into strength and three points into constitution with every level, along with the usually freely distributable stat points she receives with each level gain. She also told us that She would get two abilities with the class. One was an ability called all for one. All for One, when activated, gave her 15% of the stats of every ally in a ten-foot diameter added to her own for thirty seconds.


    Beth''s second ability was called Shield Bash. Shield Bash was pretty self-explanatory. When activated, she would slam her shield into her forward, releasing a wall of force ten feet by eight feet that would push forward five feet.


    It seemed like a great class, and I wouldn''t blame her if she chose it. Janet said she wanted to be next, so I let her go. She liked a class called Brawler. Janet was super juiced about it, and she was actually dead set on it. She didn¡¯t even tell us any of her other opinions. She told us It gave her four points into strength and one point into constitution with every level along with the usually freely distributable stat points she receives with each level gain.


    It also gave her two abilities, like the class Beth was thinking about taking. The first was called I¡¯m So Strong. I¡¯m So Strong let Janet take one point of wisdom and one point of intelligence and trade them to add one point into strength for a duration of five minutes.


    She also got an ability called Empower Strike. Empower Strike, when activated, empowers your strikes with a burst of force right before impacting the target, making your strikes hit harder and deal more damage for the next three strikes.


    Once Janet was done with her class description, I told Beth and Janet about the class I had decided to take. It had been a hard choice, but I was pretty happy with my choice. I chose Path of the Pole Arm.


    I explained my choice to Beth and Janet, and they both thought it sounded like a great choice. Beth said I shouldn¡¯t worry about regretting my choice. Everything was new. Janet said that we really had no idea what a good class option was at this point. ts offered and abilities, for all we knew, these classes could be crap.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    That definitely made me feel a bit better, and we all decided we were going to go ahead and pick our classes. I pulled up my class options, and before I could overthink it or change my mind, I picked my class, Path of the Pole Arm.


    After I had confirmed my choice, I closed my class sheet, and I began to feel a tingling sensation all over my body. Moments later, my skin began to glow, and fractals became superimposed over my skin.


    The fractals were starting to glow brighter till they were almost blinding, and then the burning started. It felt like every cell In my body was being scrubbed clean, and there was pain, so much pain then it was all over in less than a second.


    Once my little light show had settled down, I looked at my skin, and there were lines running over me. As I looked at the lines, I knew they were a mere representation of something tied to me, much deeper.


    As I watched, they melted into my body and disappeared from view. When I looked up, the two women were going through a light show of their own. We all stood there in the tree house quiet for a little. Then Beth said she needed some air and walked out onto our impromptu deck.


    Janet jest watched Beth walk outside and then walked over to the kitchen area and pored herself a drink. I noticed she was shaking as I watched her pour a shot and then slam it back. I didn¡¯t say anything, I couldn¡¯t, I was starting to shake. I could feel what felt like echoes of the pain I had just experienced starting to rush through me, and I was beginning to sweat.


    I also just felt generally sick, so I went and laid down on the bed, suddenly exhausted and trying to focus on letting my body deal with the trauma from the pain of gaining my class. A few minutes later, we could hear Beth throwing up, and a little after that, I passed out.


    I woke up around dusk, and I felt a whole hell of a lot better, like, there we go. I looked around and saw Janet asleep in the comfy chair, passed out with a bottle on the side table next to her. Beth was in the bed next to me, passed out, clothes still on, shoes too.


    That pain had been fucking horrible. It had only lasted a brief moment, but even thinking about it now was making me sweat. ¡°Bleh,¡± I said as I shook my head back and forth. Fuck that. Not going there, okay, so I have a fucking class. Let¡¯s see what¡¯s going on with my stat sheet.


    Class sheet


    Path of the pole Arm


    Level 1


    plus 2 stat points to strength each level up


    plus 3 stat points to dexterity each level up


    Abilities


    Step Lightly


    When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting 50 mana and 20 stamina to activate.


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten mana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Stat sheet


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 10


    Race: Human


    Class: Path of the Pole Arm


    Experience needed to next Level: 11,130/11,280 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    First in the world to:


    Complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)


    Resistances:


    Element of fire: 5%


    Strength: 33


    Dexterity: 30


    Intelligence: 25


    Wisdom: 25


    Constitution: 27


    Luck: 22


    You have three unassigned stat points to distribute.


    Yep, sure enough, my points were there. I still had my three free points from my last level up to distribute, but where do I put them? I could probably just save them up. I had a fuck ton of stats points now, and I¡¯m sure were the strongest people, if not in the world, probably at least in the area.


    If I saved them up, I could drop a fuck ton of points into something if I needed a little boost. Fuck it, I was totally saving these three free points. Shit! You know, with abilities costing mana and stamina to use, maybe I should invest in intelligence and wisdom or constitution.


    Fuck! This is killing me, save them or spend them, damn it! Ok fuck it, one in intelligence, one in wisdom, and one in constitution, here we go. My Intelligence was now 26. My Wisdom was 26, and my Constitution was 28. I really hope I was doing the right thing here. I hadn¡¯t done a status check in a while now, so I called it up.


    We had never disbanded our Official party, so I could still cycle through Beth and Janet''s status as well as my own active HP, Mana, and Stamina. I saw that I now had 520 points in Mana, 610 Health Points, and 580 points of stamina. Everyone was at full everything except for Beth and I who had about 100 points of our HP grayed out. I was assuming that was because of our missing limbs. That kind of sucked, but with my mana levels, that meant that I could use Step lightly a bunch or Pinpoint for, um¡­ well, a little while at least. I¡¯d do the math later.


    That day was pretty chill. Honestly, after the experience of obtaining a class, it had kind of sucked a lot. Great upgrade to stats and power in general, but fuck that shit really hurt, and I wasn¡¯t going to forget it any time soon.


    We ate breakfast, then Beth cleaned up and read a bit while Janet read for a bit and then just passed out on the bed. We had some dinner, skipped lunch and no one was tripping about it, and then we cleaned up and hit the sack early. The next day, Beth¡¯s and my limbs were starting to grow back, which was insane.


    I mean, I was fucking growing a lim back. It was tipping me out. It was I had eaten a couple of Senzuketa Beans the day before, but after the first three, they seemed to just kind of stopped working, and it wasn¡¯t worth wasting them to just have a snack. I was spreading them out a little bit more today, and by bedtime, I was able to eat a fourth.


    The Senzuketa Beans were really assisting Beth and me immensely, and on the morning of the third day, I was just a hand away from a full arm. I was healing so quickly. Beth was already almost one hundred percent. She was just missing the tips of a few fingers.


    The plan was to get everyone back to full health and then go out and practice some of our abilities. Oh, remember that armory I had been looking for in the dungeon? Turned out the boss must have been holding the armory in its bag of holding. It was a twenty-slot bag, and most of it was full of armor and weapons, probably enough to outfit at least seventy-five soldiers. Even give some other soldiers a weapon or two at least.


    We would go on gear for a while. Oh, and speaking of gear, we let Janet keep the boss''s axe, and it was fucking nice. She was gonna owe us for a good long while for that one.


    Axe of growing anger:


    This axe was created by a smith and a warrior who lived for the song of battle. It¡¯s not the best axe in the World, but it¡¯s one of the many axes this warrior Smith created on his journey of carnage throughout his world. Plus, one to strength.


    Affect:


    While wielding The Axe of Growing Anger, you build a rage. With every kill, you will receive a 5% bust to your attack speed, maxing out at 100%. This will dissipate after you disengage from combat.


    Honestly, I almost wanted to switch weapons just so I could keep it, but with Beth and mine classes, it just made the most sense to let Janet keep it even though it fucking killed my little loot hamster to do so. By lunchtime on the fourth day, my last finger finished regrowing, and we were all finally back to one hundred percent.


    It was time to test out some new shit. Janet, Beth, and I were walking through the forest in a different direction than the dungeon this time. The forest seemed to have gotten denser and more wild, and even the roads that had twisted throughout the woods pre-integration were starting to disappear and be reclaimed.


    We only had to walk for about fifteen minutes before we ran into some wildlife that looked like it might be a good target to test out some of our new abilities. We had been walking on the top of a ridge, and when we started to descend to the other side of the ridge, we saw a small pack of what looked like someone took a mole and genetically fucked with it and got it to grow to four feet tall and gave it metal teeth.


    We could hear the metal teeth clacking together as we got closer. We saw them from a little way down the ridge and had been sneaking closer using some bushes as cover. We had managed to get about five feet away from the mole-like things without being spotted, or so we had thought.


    We were crouched down behind a bush. We were just sitting there quietly. We hadn¡¯t talked before about how we were going to engage our quarry, which I was starting to think was kind of a fuck up, but here we were, just sitting in silence. I was about to ask Janet and Beth what now when Janet stood up from where we had been counseled.


    I was a little shocked at her sudden action, but then I saw the look in her eyes and knew Janet was in the zone. I think she had activated I¡¯m So Strong. All at once, her muscles bulged out. She looked like a muscle head from Muscle Beach, and it was kind of gross.


    I wondered how many points she had traded for her boosted strength. Janet just started walking forward at an even pace, like she had all the time in the world. The mole things didn¡¯t seem the least bit surprised that Janet was there. It kind of looked like they were just waiting for her to make a move. When Janet popped up and started toward them they had all turned to her, like yes and?


    They didn¡¯t seem to be worried about Janet in the slightest. One was even still eating some leaves off a bush. Janet frowned at their lack of reaction, and then she just smiled and lined up a shot with her axe at one-mole things head. I could tell she must have activated Empower Strike at the last minute.


    As she brought her axe down on the creature''s head, it looked up at her, and in the last millisecond, before her axe hit, a barrier popped out of nowhere and started to expand.


    It pushed Janet¡¯s axe back and then pushed her back till we all were getting pushed back. At the end of the barrier expansion, we were twenty feet away, and they were still grazing in the same spot, untouched and unimpressed with Janet¡¯s powered-up attacks.


    Fuck, these things were way stronger. ¡°Good thing they don¡¯t seem aggressive, or we would probably have been fucking dead,¡± I said.


    ¡°Let¡¯s pick something that¡¯s more killable next time,¡± I said, holding back a laugh that was fighting to push past my lips. Janet had gone into the fight all badass and had basically been told by the creatures to fuck off and stop bothering them. Janet must have seen that I was enjoying her plait, and she started to stare daggers at me.


    ¡°Fine, you find Janet more to kill.¡± Janet basically spit at me. I flinched a little at her words, but it was more at the thought of getting spit on more than anything else. I looked at her and thought about what she had said for a second. It didn¡¯t seem like Janet was doing the whole fucked up speech pattern thing on purpose. Then I remembered how her new ability worked. She had probably put too many points into strength and was now incredibly strong but dumb.


    Fuck this could be dangerous. If Janet saw us as her enemies, we might not be able to stop her till her abilities timer ran out.


    ¡°All good Janet, I will find you something to kill, don¡¯t you worry,¡± I told her, and she smiled at me dumbly, then out of nowhere she reached out and patted me on the head.


    ¡°Travis is good guy. Me like Travis. Janet like Travis lots.¡± Janet said, Beth and I just kind of stood there. I was shocked at her rapid change in personality. I just told Janet that I liked her lots, too, while Beth was trying not to laugh. I led the two ladies back up, then down the other side of the ridge.


    We walked for another five minutes until we hit a creak, then followed the creak east for another ten minutes. Janet¡¯s skill had ended by the time we hit the creak, and Beth had definitely been poking fun at her, and Beth was loving it.


    Beth kept asking her things like Janet tired? Janet wants rest now? Or Janet looks so strong, Janet like Beth? Beth like Janet. It was honestly hilarious, and it only made it funnier that Janet would blush every time Beth fucked with her. She was clearly embarrassed at her brief time as a cavewoman.

 Chapter 16 - Friends, Enemies, and… Frenemies?

    Chapter 16


    Friends, Enemies, and¡­ Frenemies?


    We were walking next to the stream, and it was a beautiful day. The birds were singing, the fish were jumping, a kid was getting attacked by spider apes¡­ Wait, what the fuck, a kid being attacked by spider apes or holly shit a fucking. A spider-monkey?


    Damn, that was fucking funny, but damn it, Travis, not the time. Gotta save that fucking kid. I was about twenty feet away from the sight of the attack. I could see a kid, not a baby goat but a child, up on a tree branch just out of reach of the spider monkeys.


    There were three of the fucker that I could see, and the kid was trying to find a way to get higher into the tree, but there were no branches in range. Every time the kid tried to move to a better location in the tree, the spider monkeys were there with spears or sharpened sticks. They were stabbing out, hoping to catch the kid off guard, get a stab in, and force their query from its perch.


    The kid was trying to dodge the spear strikes and avoid getting stabbed in the leg. It definitely didn¡¯t look like the kid could do this dance much longer. I could see a couple of fresh wounds, and blood was dripping down the tip of a few spears. The kid that was starting to slow visibly. It wouldn¡¯t be long before they knocked the kid from the tree.


    I started making my way closer to the motley crew, and when I was about ten feet away. I was really hoping I was in Step Lightly range and got ready to engage. Beth and Janet were behind me. They seemed to have seen what I had seen and were thinking along the same lines.


    I had stopped behind a big tree with a thick bush on one side that provided a nice bit of cover. Janet and Beth caught up with me there and asked me what the plan was. I told them I was going to use my new ability to surprise attack these fuckers.


    I asked if they could step in once and back me up once the chaos machine of battle was started and take out any spider monkeys they could. They both nodded, and we got ready to engage. I slipped to the edge of the tree and took a breath.


    I wished I had just tried my new abilities before jumping straight into a battle that was life and death.


    Then I stepped out from behind the tree and activated Step Lightly. Then I stepped, I felt myself move, and I knew the path my feet took to get to where I wanted to go, but then I was just there. I froze for a second in shock at my own speed. Then I remembered it was time to fuck shit up.


    I immediately activated Pinpoint, and it was like when I was back in College on Adderall, trying to write a paper but even more intense, and I was focused as shit. I acted fast because I could feel my mana and stamina decreasing steadily every second the ability was active.


    I slashed out and across with my Halbert and cut the closet spider monkey in half right where the spider and monkey bodies met. Then, without stopping to inspect my work, I used Step Lightly again. I stopped, and I was behind the spider monkeys as they looked over at their buddy on the ground in two pieces. I used Step Lightly a few times in succession to try and confuse my opponents, and It was intoxicating to be moving so fast.


    I knew I was getting a little carried away, but the power felt amazing. I stopped flashing about and went on the attack again. I slashed out and copied my initial procedure, bisecting another foe. I was definitely on a power high, but the next thing I knew, there was a spear/stick stabbing out at my head.


    I went to activate Step Lightly again, and it wouldn¡¯t activate. All I could think was fuck as the spear point zoomed ever closer to my eyeball. Out of the fucking blue, Janet was there, slamming her axe down on the spider monkey that was trying to stab at my face.


    She cut the thing''s arms off at the elbows, the spear was dropped, and the Spider monkey let out a howl of pain that was cut short as Beth¡¯s sword popped out of its chest from behind. Beth had jumped on the spider part of the creature''s body and drove her sword into its heart, killing it almost instantly.


    As the last spider-monkey creature dropped, we all did a quick check-in with each other, and we were all good. I was definitely a little shaken up, but I was okay. Then, from above us, we heard a little girl''s voice.


    ¡°Thanks for the help, but I was dealing with that on my own. Who are you guys? My mom¡¯s nearby, so don¡¯t try any shit or shell fuck you up, okay?¡± The kid, well, I guess little girl, said down to us. I looked at her, a little confused, then just asked,


    ¡°What the fuck? Who are you, and what are you doing out here?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, watch your mouth, you little shit. we just saved your ass.¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Janet! You can¡¯t call her a little shit. She¡¯s probably been through a lot. I doubt her mom. I''m really close by. Come on, just, just don¡¯t be a bitch. Oh, shit, sorry.¡± Beth finished talking to Janet and then waved her apology to the little girl.


    ¡°Yeah, screw you, lady. I''m not a little shit, and yeah, don¡¯t be a bitch.¡± The little girl said, then smirked. Beth was smirking but trying to hide her smile and doing a poor job of it. The little girl saw Beth¡¯s smirk and smiled while Janet ground her teeth. The next moment, the little girl had worked her way out of the tree and walked over to Beth. Once she was standing in front of Beth, she looked at her hands on her hip and then said,


    ¡°I like you. You¡¯re cool and pretty funny, and I like your hair. It¡¯s pretty. I lied. My mom is dead, and my dad, too. I¡¯ve been on my own for a long time now, and everything got super scary, and I think maybe I could come with you cuz maybe it would be better.¡±


    Tilly said all of this very quickly, and when she started talking about her parents and being alone, she began to tear up, but she pulled it together by the end of her little speech. Then she held out her hand. I¡¯m Tilly, but everyone calls me Til¡¯s. Can we be friends? She was about ten years old and looked like she had been using dirt and blood to wash with.


    Tilly¡¯s hair looked normally curly but was a matted mess now. She had a ripped Pok¨¦mon shirt and jeans and had some sneakers with velcro for laces. She looked filthy, and we could all tell she was barely keeping it together. The fact she was still alive after being alone all this time was kind of amazing.


    Beth just looked at her, and then she looked like she was about to cry herself. Instead of shaking the girl''s hand, Beth made her sword and shield disappear into her bag of holding and wrapped the girl up in a hug, and then they both started crying. The little girl was really sobbing, head barred in Beth¡¯s chest, and Beth was quietly sobbing herself.


    After Tilly had fully cried it out, she looked exhausted. She yawned, and we knew we should get her back to the tree house to rest and get her wounds cleaned up. Beth popped Tilly onto her shoulders, and we all returned to the tree house. Once we got there, we cleaned Tilly¡¯s wounds and put her in the bed, and she knocked out before her head hit the pillow.


    Once Tilly was out, Janet grabbed a bottle of tequila, and we all hopped up on the roof to talk about what to do with this little kid under our care now. We sat down, and Janet passed around the bottle. We all took a few sips, and then Janet let out a breath and spoke.


    ¡°So, are we really gonna become that little girls fucking new family? Cuz it¡¯s not like we don¡¯t take risks, like, what if we bite off more than we can chew? I''m not saying it''s gonna happen, but we get taken out, and she¡¯s on her own all over again.¡± Beth had been frowning at Janet when she had started talking. By the time Janet was done, Beth was looking more concerned than mad.


    ¡°Look, it¡¯s not the ideal situation, but I¡¯m not just gonna tell the girl l to fuck off. She¡¯s obviously had a hard go of it, and if her parents are really dead, then they probably died in front of her or something equally as fucked up. Let¡¯s keep her safe for now, and maybe we can find another group of good people to leave her with later on.¡± I said to Janet and Beth.


    ¡°Well, there''s one thing that we kind of need to talk about?¡± Beth said, and Janet and I looked at Beth.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I asked her, confused.


    ¡°The Claremont Hotel. Remember? All the people you said were in chains. That place sounded pretty fucked up, and the leaders of that hell hole are probably a lot weaker than us now. We should really think about intervening. Those people are probably being treated horribly, and maybe we could find some trustworthy people there after we kill all the fucking assholes keeping those pore people prisoner?¡± Beth said.


    Beth''s eyes had hardened with every word she spoke. I blinked a could times, shit I had totally forgotten about that whole encounter. Those guys looked fucking crazy, but it took a ton of XP to get to level ten and gain a class. We had to at least have the advantage over those fuckers.


    ¡°So, what do we do? Like, should we go see what the fuck is going on there nowadays?¡± I asked Beth. ¡°Wait, you''re on board? Just like that? No convincing?¡± Beth asked me, looking slightly shocked at my answer.


    ¡°What? Beth, we¡¯ve been through the fucking shit together. You and Janet are my ride or die''s forever now. I¡¯ll always have your back.¡± I told her and Janet. Beth looked touched by my words, and Janet smiled at me warmly and chuckled.


    ¡°So, what are you thinking?¡± I asked Beth. That¡¯s how we spent the next two hours planning what to do about the Claremont group. We also got drunk. We talked about the Claremont thing for about thirty minutes, and the other hour and a half was just us getting drunk.


    The following day, Tilly was still passed out in bed with Beth and Janet when I woke up, but shortly after I got up, Beth woke up, and we started making some breakfast. Beth and I figured we¡¯d give Tilly a little taste of some of the good stuff, so we made pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and English muffins with strawberries, jam, and butter. With maple syrup for the pancakes, too, I might add.


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    That had been a particularly excellent find on one of our scavenging trips. Tilly woke up as we were finishing up breakfast. Her eyes were wide, and she was literally drooling. I heard her stomach rumble, and that kind of snapped her out of her stunned state. Tilly looked down at her stomach and then placed her hand on it. After a few seconds, she looked back at Beth and me and then blushed.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, can I have some of this food? This looks amazing! Did you make all of this, Beth? You''re so cool! My mom was a great cook, and you cook like her. I knew you were a good person. Thanks again for helping me. I know you could have just left me there, but you saved me, so thank you.¡±


    Tilly finished speaking and then just stood there beaming at Beth. Beth looked surprised for a second at the outburst of words but smiled at Tilly and said, ¡°Sure, Tilly, have as much as you want. You must be hungry. Eat up.¡± Beth led Tilly to a chair and got her all set up to chow down. I made a pot of coffee and poured a cup for Beth, Janet, and myself. Then, I walked over to the bed where Janet was still sleeping, poked her in the shoulder, and then said, in a soft voice,


    ¡°Wake up, sleepyhead, come on, up-and-at¡¯em. We got shit to do today, you and I, so come on, get up. I got coffee here for you.¡± She didn¡¯t get up or open her eyes. She just reached out a hand for the coffee. I placed it in her palm, and she closed her fingers around the mug. With a loud exhale, she sat up, opened her eyes, and took a big sip of coffee.


    ¡°Damn, that¡¯s what I needed. Oh, breakfast, sweet.¡± Janet said, and then she got up and walked over to the table, where she put her hand on Tilly¡¯s head and ruffled her hair. Then Janet sat down across from her and started eating. Tilly said, ¡°Hey, knock it off.¡± Then she glared at Janet, stuck her tongue out at her, and went back to eating.


    After we all ate and cleaned up, we explained to Tilly that Janet and I would be go out today and return later. Tilly would hang out with Beth, and Janet and I would see them later. Tilly seemed fine with the plan. She liked Beth the best anyway. When Janet and I headed out, she was already talking away at Beth. Beth was definitely looking a little overwhelmed.


    Before Beth could try to trade places with either of us, we ducked out the door of the treehouse and hopped down. We made our way back down a road that the forest had almost entirely reclaimed, back out of the hills, and back down to the backside of the Claremont. We ran into a small pack of frog-like creatures that spit globs of electrified saliva.


    If it hit you, it would feel like you just put your finger into a 110 electrical socket. Fucking annoying, and it hurt. There was a group of four of them, and Janet and I got tagged by electric spitballs multiple times. I really didn¡¯t mind killing those little assholes, if I¡¯m being honest. Fuck them electro-spitting ass hats.


    When we finally reached the Claremont Hotel, we could see that the main part had collapsed pretty severely, and there was nothing left but a pile of rubble. We could hear a lot of activity happening on the property, but the fences around the large complex didn¡¯t let us see in, so it was back up into the trees again. We got up into a big tree. Janet and I then looked into the property.


    We were looking in at a pool area. That was all we could see from here. We¡¯d have to move to another couple of locations to fully scope out the whole place. The first thing I noticed was that the pools weren¡¯t empty. They were drained of water, so in that sense, they were empty, but that didn''t mean they were empty. There were sickly, emaciated people everywhere, sitting, standing, laying down, and I¡¯m pretty sure just fucking dead, left to rot amongst the other captives in the pools.


    There were several guards as well, sitting in big wooden lifeguard chairs with assault rifles, keeping watch over the slowly dying people in the two pools. We climbed back out of the tree and regrouped to talk.


    ¡°That was fucking sick. I mean fuck! I think I might need to leave Travis. I¡¯m scared I¡¯m going to lose it. Go in there, and seater and kill every last one of those evil fuckers, caution be damned.¡± Janet said, seaming pretty distressed at the situation going on behind those walls.


    ¡°Okay, okay, I hear you. Just take a second, then. We must do this right, or we are risking more than our lives here.¡± I said, and that seemed to start calming her down a bit. ¡°Besides, there¡¯s probably some other horrible shit going on here. We¡¯ve gotta get a better understanding of this group, then we kill every last one. We just need to do this right.¡±


    I reasoned with Janet, and eventually, she deflated, the wind taken out of her sails but had gained a hardened look in her eye that said death was coming. We started making our way around the property. We stopped and climbed into trees to see inside four more times and saw a medley of different cruel scenes playing out.


    One time, we climbed up and saw a secluded tennis court full of crates, and some definitely had police logos on them, so they probably broke into an abandoned police station or something along those lines. The next time we looked in, we saw a large group of tents with people walking around, drinking, and eating.


    There was music playing from what sounded like a set of speakers, and girls being led around, barely clothed, looking totally drudged up and out of it as men took their pick and led them off into the small tent city.


    I had to talk Janet off the ledge after we saw that. Janet was ready to kill every last one of the assholes after that. She eventually calmed down, and we carried on with our scouting mission. The next and last time we looked inside, we found the largest open area we had seen so far. It looked like it used to be tennis courts, but now, it is a large work area where prisoners were doing hard labor and other things we couldn¡¯t make out from our viewpoint.


    In that particular workspace, there were bodies tied up to the fencing, some obviously dead, and some that looked like they were in the process of dying, all as a message it looked like to show what would happen if they didn¡¯t follow orders and do as they were told. It looked like hell on earth, if I¡¯m being honest. These assholes were really fucking pieces of human garbage. To take advantage of someone after what was probably, for most people, the worst day of their entire lives.


    It almost made me physically ill, and Janet had stopped watching, and her face was just an emotionless rock when we had climbed out of the tree. She wouldn¡¯t talk to me except for short one or two-word answers, and I knew she was barely containing her furry. We had all the info we needed to know these guys were from the pits of hell, and it was only fitting we sent them home.


    Janet and I headed back to the tree house, and once there, we pulled Beth aside and told her what we had seen and that we would have to intervene sooner than later. That night, after Beth put Tilly to bed, we started planning. We worked late into the night, drinking and planning. At the end of the night, we decided to go with a good old-fashioned diversion.


    Janet would start our attack by creating a diversion at one of the two gates. Hopefully, she would have got a good crowd of our enemies all in one place with her diversion. They would think they had the upper hand when they saw it was just Janet. Then Beth and I would throw bombs over the walls, blowing them up and causing some good chaos.


    While shit was going crazy, we would jump into the fray and kill as many as we could as fast as we could. Dealing with the first wave of attackers would be critical to move on to the leadership as fast as possible. That way, we could kill them before any of them could escape paying for their crimes.


    The next day, we made another trip down to the Claremont, just Beth and me this time, so Beth could better understand the layout before the attack. As we descended our second tree, Beth was wiping tears away from her face. We were about to move on to the next scouting point when I heard a noise coming from a dense grouping of bushes about ten feet behind Beth and me.


    I waved at Beth to get her attention, and she stopped whipping her eyes and looked at me. I put my finger to my lips and tried to subtly point with my thumb over my shoulder. Beth looked, and I could tell she definitely heard what I had by the look on her face when the rustling sound happened again.


    I pointed with my head, and Beth and I slowly and nonchalantly walked closer to the bushes. We didn¡¯t know if it was a creature or a group of people looking to ambush us. Whatever it was, it obviously knew we were there and was hiding from us, so I was going to find out what it was. We got within ten feet, and I nodded to Beth, then popped my halberd from my bag of holding and activated Step Lightly in one motion.


    The next second, I had my halberd raised and pointing at the throat of one person in a group of three people that had been hiding behind the bush. They just stayed where they were, crouched behind the bushes, mouths open, eyes wide. In the next few moments, Beth made it around the bushes and raised her weapons at the three.


    ¡°Why were you spying on us?¡± I asked the group, and I had to ask once again before they actually registered my words. The guy I had my halberd pointed at blurted out,


    "We weren¡¯t spying on you."


    "We don¡¯t even know who you are.¡± Another man then chimed in,


    ¡°Are you with the people from the Claremont?¡±


    "Wait, how did you do that? You know, just appear like that." I ignored the last question as the tension got so heavy you could have cut it with a knife. I told them we weren¡¯t, and they visibly relaxed a bit. So, they must not be with the Claremont people either, or they would probably be shitting themselves right now, not relieved. The last member of their little group was a woman, and she asked why we were there. I told them straight up.


    ¡°We came to scout this place out cuz we''re going to kill all the fuckers in there, keeping people prisoner. Then we are going to free and help all the people they hurt.¡± The woman blinked a couple of times and then told me.


    ¡°You need to meet our full group. That¡¯s what we¡¯ve been trying to do for weeks now. Maybe we can help each other out? There are too many armed men and women in there for the two of you to take them down. You gonna need our help.¡±


    I looked over at Beth, and Beth rolled her eyes. I smiled and looked back to our captives? Or no, wait¡ªour captive audience.


    ¡°What level are you guys? And what¡¯s the highest level in your group? You all seem pretty fucking weak, if I¡¯m being honest.¡± I told them, and they looked pissed at me after that. The man to the left of me told me so.


    ¡°Hey, fuck you, man,¡± he said as he started to stand. It looked like he was about to say more when I cut him off.


    "Stop talking and listen," I told him.


    Then, I Put my hand on his shoulder and forced the man back to the ground. I think the quick movment made the guy pull a muscle or, at the most, he broke something because the guy let out a brief shot of pain before he held his leg.


    "Oh, shit, I''m sorry, that looks like it hurts. My bad, but still, people have abilities now. Powers that, before the integration, would just have been figments of science fiction. Can you and your "friends" really do anything if they have somebody in there who can throw fireballs or something else? The other two members of the group, not distracted by pain, looked confused at my words, but they all still shut up and looked like they were having some heavy thoughts.


    ¡°You are dramatically uneducated about the power scale of this new world we find ourselves in. We have gained power in this world that was unimaginable pre-integration, and we plan to take and run things justly. You might just get in the way when we take the Claremont. Not to be rude, but that''s just how it is.¡± I told them.


    The lady and the man, who wasn''t still massaging his leg in pain, were just staring at me in shock, a wee bit of anger in their eyes but mostly shock at my confidence.


    ¡°Now, we are willing to meet with this group." I looked back at Beth, and she just nodded. "


    See, Just know that if you try and pull some shit, you won''t be the one to walk away, so get the idea into your head that you couldn''t harm us in any capacity.¡± I finished, and I still think they didn''t really know what to make of us yet.


    I felt a little bad that I had to be a little harsh with these guys, but you never knew who was trying to fuck you, and the memory of who I met Beth, Janet, and Tom came to mind. Not like they could do shit to us if they tried, so I might have gone a little overboard with the whole don¡¯t fuck with us bit, and I did feel a bit bad about that, but I had to let them know we were not the one''s to fuck with.


    Oh well, it was done now, and they definitely looked a bit intimidated, but I hadn''t wanted to overdo it, fuck it. I looked over at Beth and caught her eye. She lifted her head in acknowledgment, and I asked,


    ¡°Should we just meet this group now? I did already say we would. Sorry about that, by the way." I said.


    "Probably best just to get it out of the way. What do you think?¡± Beth asked me.


    I thought about it for a second, then just said fuck it, "I don¡¯t really want to have to figure out all the meet-up shit that I¡¯m sure we¡¯d have to deal with if we let them go and tried to meet up later. Right? Does that make sense?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, makes sense to me,¡± said Beth. We hadn¡¯t been talking loud, but we weren''t keeping our voices down. We were just talking about our new friends as if they weren¡¯t there. I turned back to our guessed and said, ¡°Hey, where the fuck are you all camped out at? Is it far?¡±

 Chapter 17 - The Battle for the Claremont

    Chapter 17


    The Battle for the Claremont


    I looked at them and crossed my arms, and when no one had said anything for about ten seconds, I frowned.


    ¡°Okay, don¡¯t piss me off. I¡¯m usually a nice guy, but I haven¡¯t killed anything today, and I''m getting the itch to stab something, so I¡¯d start talking if I were you.¡± I told them. The woman audibly gulped at my words. I turned to her and gave her a smile, much too bright and cheery for the situation, and the woman shivered at my gaze.


    I looked over at Beth standing behind our guests. They couldn¡¯t see her face. It was a good thing cuz when I looked at her, all proud of my intimidation techniques. Beth was holding back laughter with both her hands clamped down on her mouth, and she was shaking with almost unrestrained mirth. I was really trying, and Beth kind of hurt my feelings. Well, not really, but I thought I had done okay.


    I frowned, and I think our guests took that as me, showing my displeasure with their silence. Our new friends blurted out that they could take me there now and that it wasn¡¯t far. I had to stop them and ask one of them to tell me so I could actually understand what they were saying rather than just hearing a cacophony of half-understandable nonsense.


    Once I actually got a proper sentence out of one of them, we were on our way. We didn¡¯t end up walking too far, about six blocks, and then we were led into the basement of a mostly collapsed residential home. When they showed us how to enter the hideout, I took the group member, a guy who looked to be the leader, with me inside while Beth and our other new friend waited outside in case of an ambush.


    Once we entered the building, it wasn¡¯t actually that bad. The house''s basement had been cleaned up a lot, and there were supports to hold the ceiling up. It was a great disguise for a base camp, and I almost wished we¡¯d thought of something like this, but then I realized the tree house was so much cooler.


    We walked into a small room that looked almost like a mud room, but I noticed a small hole cut into a large, heavy door at the back of the room. Once we were standing in the mud room, I heard a voice coming from the little window in the door. The guy I was walking with dropped to the floor and shouted,


    ¡°Now! Do it now!¡± The next thing I knew, I got shot like twenty times, and it hurt a bit, but it was like getting sprayed with a paintball gun. It was annoying, and I hurt, but it wasn¡¯t that bad. I might have some welts, but that was it. When the rain of bullets stopped, I looked down, and my arms were fine, just a few welts as I thought. The super frustrating part of the whole ordeal was that any piece of clothing that had been exposed now was rattled with holes.


    I really wasn¡¯t so mad they shot at me. Well, I wasn''t hurt, so no harm, no foul, right? If I was being honest, I kind of expected something like this, but they fucked up my shirt, and that, for some reason, pissed me off a lot. I just put my finger through one of the holes in my shirt, and that was it. I was pissed now.


    I looked at where the shots had been coming from and growled. Then, in a moment of anger, I punched right through the wall and connected with something or someone. Then, the next second, I heard a body drop. I pulled my fist free of the door and then put my foot through it. I had totally forgotten about the guy who had dropped to the ground and had given the order to fire, but as I was about to walk through the remains of the door into their base camp, the man spoke up.


    ¡°Please, please don¡¯t hurt them. They were just following my orders. Please. I fucked up. I really fucked up! Please forgive them for my mistake.¡± The man was pleading with me down on his knees, which totally took the anger right out of me. I growled, then let out a breath.


    ¡°Fuck, man. I know we came off as super scary, and that was totally my fault. Honestly, I should have dealt with this whole situation better. We¡¯re not assholes, and we just want to help people in this new crazy world. There¡¯s too much trying to kill us nowadays. Better to work together than doom us all, right? I¡¯m sorry, man. I¡¯m Travis, and the lady with me outside is Beth. Can we all start over?¡± I said to the man. The man just blinked at me and then started laughing.


    ¡°I really thought you were about to kill us all. Then you do a 180? Fuck dude, I think I need a drink.¡± The man said, still laughing.


    ¡°I mean, I was kinda gonna do that,¡± I said, then reached my hand up and scratched my head, smiling at him goofily.


    The man stopped laughing, and then his face dropped, but he recovered nicely, letting out a few nervous chuckles before coughing and telling me to follow him inside. As we were walking through the doorway to the inner part of the complex, I asked if we should just leave his companion and Beth outside. I told him Beth had probably heard the shots. That she might have beat up his friends, so it was probably a good idea to let her know I was okay. Hopefully, his friends were still alright.


    The man¡¯s eyes went wide, and he made a quick about-face, then we were out and back inside, this time with Beth and the man¡¯s team member in toe. We walked into a small room where two women and a man stood with machine guns pointed, fear clear as day on their faces. The man who led us in waved at them with his hands and then told them everything was okay. Beth passed them the guy who had been injured. Beth had been helping him walk. They took the guy and led him off deeper into the hideout.


    He told his people that we were new allies here to help with the cause, which didn¡¯t seem to help relieve their stress much, but it did look like it helped a little. They definitely still looked scared of me, but let us walk into the next room unimpeded. The next room was a large room that looked like sleeping quarters, a living space, and a mission prep area all in one. There were about fifteen people in the room, and several drew weapons on us as we entered.


    ¡°Frank! What the fuck is this? Are you good? Is everything alright? Who are these people?¡± The guy who had brought us in must have been Frank.


    ¡°All good, Devin. They are here to help get the people out of the Claremont. They¡¯re strong as fuck, too, so don¡¯t go insulting them. This guy could probably kill us all without breaking a sweat, so Devin, play nice, or he just might kill you.¡± Devin blinked and then looked me over again, this time much more thoroughly, and then he scoffed.


    ¡°Yeah, okay, Frank, I think you¡¯re getting senile. He¡¯s just a skinny little fucker. He has a bit of muscle, but kill us all? Come on, Frank? Look, you skinny little shit, if you think you gonna come in here and just take over, you got another thing coming. I slowly began walking over to Devin. Devin did not like that and started yelling at me to stay where I was and to stop walking.


    When I didn¡¯t listen to his words, he warned me that he was going to shoot, and I ignored him. Devin shot me in the chest with his shotgun, and when the shot did nothing to me at point-blank range, his eyes went wide. It actually did hurt a bit. It didn¡¯t break the skin. Well, I wasn¡¯t sure, but I knew I would have a bruise. After getting shot, I leaned in, grabbed his gun, and bent it in half. He let go, and then I dropped the gun to the ground.


    ¡°Anyone else thinks I¡¯m just a weak little skinny shit,¡± I said, and when all I got in reply was crickets, I continued.


    ¡°Good, now what¡¯s your fucking plan, cuz? I¡¯m pretty sure it sucks, but the good news is that we''re here to make it not suck. It¡¯s your lucky day.¡± When I finished my little speech, Frank just started laughing again. Thirty minutes later, we were leaving the compound and headed back to the tree house. We were a good ten-minute walk from our new friends when Beth turned to me and stopped walking.


    ¡°So, wait a fucking second, so you can just take a blast from a shotgun now? Like, what the fuck did you know you could do that?¡± Beth asked me. I just started laughing.


    ¡°Fuck no! I didn¡¯t know I could do that. Honestly, I legitimately thought I was about to get fucked up. After my bullet shower, when I entered the building. I was pretty sure I would be fine, but it was a gamble. The shotgun blast felt like a punch, but It didn¡¯t hurt that bad. I still felt the bullets hit me. I¡¯ll probably have some bruises, but I''ll be fine.


    I was more pissed they ruined my shirt. Not like I have a fuck ton of those nowadays. I¡¯m down to my last nice shirt, and I was saving that one, damn it!¡± Beth just blinked at me and then started laughing.


    ¡°You dipshit. I was worried about you, and you''re just pissed off they messed up your shirt? God damn it, Travis, you idiot.¡± Beth said. She was chuckling all the way back to the treehouse, but I didn¡¯t get it. I thought I reacted perfectly reasonably. I mean, come on, my fucking shirt! Bastard¡¯s.


    We told Janet about our little impromptu summit with our new allies, and Janet was kind of bummed that she missed all the fun. She was also pretty pissed that she missed my intimidation attempt. She fucking pushed my shoulder and laughed in my face. That kind of hurt my feelings a little, but I got over it. I wasn¡¯t really too proud of that moment in my life.


    We told her we had planned to meet up with them the next day at a spot near the Claremont. At that point, we would start the plan to take back the hotel. Janet said it was whatever as long as we got to kill those Claremont asshats. Night came and went. In the morning, we told Tilly that today we were gonna go beat up some bad people and that she would have to stay here until we got back.


    Tilly didn¡¯t want to stay behind alone, which was totally understandable. However, Tilly wasn¡¯t really able to get in and out of the tree without us, so in the end, it wasn¡¯t like she had a choice. Beth sat with Tilly, and they talked until, after fifteen minutes, Tilly was wiping her eyes, and Beth was rubbing the back of Tilly¡¯s head.


    We got our gear together and did a last check to make sure we had everything we needed for the little plan we¡¯d cooked up. Right before we left, we all gathered at the door to the tree house and said goodbye to Tilly. She wiped away one more tear that snuck out of her eye, smiled at us, then spoke.


    ¡°I know you guys gotta go do this and help those people, cuz that would suck, and I think it¡¯s really good you guys are gonna help them. I just know you guys are gonna kick butt and beat up those bad people and make them set all those people free, so just do it fast so I¡¯m not alone too long, okay? And don¡¯t get hurt, okay?¡± Beth smiled at Tilly, then bent down and hugged her.


    When Beth and Tilly ended their embrace, Tilly stepped in front of me, smiled at me, and held her arms open for a hug.


    ¡°For good luck. Don¡¯t die,¡± she said. I laughed, bent down, and picked Tilly up into a hug. She slapped me once and told me to put her down, but she was laughing the whole time. I put her down, and she told me I was a jerk, then walked over to Janet.


    Tilly looked at Janet for a good couple of seconds. Janet was definitely starting to look noticeably uncomfortable, and it was hard not to laugh at how uncomfortable Janet was. Then, Tilly spoke,


    ¡°I know we didn¡¯t start off right, but we should start over. You did help to save me as well, so I owe you, I guess. Friends?¡± She finished talking, and Janet looked a little shocked at her words.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Then Janet smiled, bent down, and gave Tilly a quick hug. It was a sweet moment, and soon after, we were out of the tree house and on the way to meet up with our new potential allies. After a few minutes on our journey, I looked at Janet¡¯s back as she was walking in front of me, and she had a piece of paper taped to the back of her armor that said kick me. I walked a little bit quicker and caught up with her. Then, without her noticing, I grabbed the note on her back. Then I crumpled it up and threw it off into the bushes.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Janet said, and she looked back at me.


    "What was what?¡± I said with a confused look on my face. Janet just shrugged and kept walking. We made it to the meet-up spot, which was a collapsed school about a block or two from the Claremont Hotel, and our new friends were sitting around waiting for us. When we walked into the small hidden command center where we were to meet our new friends, at first glance, everyone looked pretty anointed with us.


    I guess we were later than I thought. Janet saw everyone¡¯s faces and said,


    ¡°What? What the fuck are you looking at?¡± everyone in the room flinched a little, then Frank Broke the awkward silence with a sharp laugh. Laughing, Frank walked over to our trio and patted me on the shoulder.


    ¡°You all actually came! I told you they wouldn¡¯t leave us hanging, Devin. Good to see you again, Beth, Travis, and you must be Janet. Nice to meet you.¡± He said, then stuck his hand out to Janet. Janet was caught off guard by the whole thing, and she looked a little surprised at first, then she smiled. The smile Janet gave the man had a bit too much teeth behind it, and Frank was definitely sweating as he took Janet¡¯s hand.


    It looked like he was starting to regret his decision to be so friendly right now. As they shook hands, Janet applied a bit of pressure, and after a few seconds, it looked like he was starting to feel some real pain. Frank paled visibly, and his eyes began shifting between Janet and me as if looking for help. Then Janet dramatically shook his hand up and down and said,


    ¡°Well, very nice to meet you, Frank. Thanks for the warm welcome,¡± then released the man¡¯s hand. Frank jerked his hand back and started rubbing it, then put a fake smile on his face and answered Janet, ¡°Of course, it''s always nice to meet new, um¡­ strong friends.¡± His face dropped for a fraction of a second as he said strong, then picked right back up into a smile as he said friends.


    Janet just smiled brightly back at him. We took in the group in front of us. They were all fit people, and pre-integration, they would have probably kicked my ass in anything they fucking wanted to, but now we were the human weapons, and that had to be fucking with them a little. They were all dressed in what looked like military gear or tactical shit, dark pants, shirts, and belts with what looked like extra ammo packs, and I saw a few grenades spread around. They were even wearing bullet-proof vests. Everyone had a rifle or firearm of some kind, and I definitely noticed a few police patches here and there.


    This group looked like they were a tough bunch of men and women, but I knew at the end of the day they were so weak compared to us that I alone could kill everyone in that room if I wanted, damn, and fucking probably with one arm tied behind my back for real, that was just a fucking trip.


    Frank was a fit, good-looking man in his mid-sixties. He had a face full of gray scruff and short-cut gray hair hidden under a black baseball cap. Devin was around the same age and had a similar look about him as Frank. Janet decided it was time to get down to business.


    ¡°So what the hell? Are you guys ready to do this or what?¡± The next twenty minutes were introductions and coordinating the plan we had all worked on the day before. When everything was said and done, we headed out to fuck this up. I was in a bush, close to one of the barricaded gates, and Beth was on the other. I had been sitting crouched in this bush for about forty minutes now. I was flip-flopping between trying not to fall asleep and holding my breath at every little noise I heard and made. Then I heard the signal.


    ¡°Knock, knock, knock bitches!!! Wake the fuck up! I¡¯m here to fuck your day all the way up, assholes!¡± Janet yelled from about thirty feet out from the barricade. A voice came from behind the walls about a minute after Janet made her presence known.


    ¡°What the fuck do you think you¡¯re doing, you crazy bitch! You sure got some fucking spunk, you fucking slut! Why don¡¯t you come in, and I will put you to good use bitch!¡± The voice yelled at Janet.


    ¡°Wow, the fucking mouth on you! Good thing your mom is probably dead cuz she fucking wash your mouth out with soap, you gross piece of shit. Oh, and I wouldn¡¯t ever fuck you in your wildest dream. Like if I was really fucking drunk, and I mean I¡¯d have to be FUCKED UP, I mean holy shit like alcohol poisoning close to death fucked up. Even then, if I were even gonna think about fucking you, your dick probably wouldn¡¯t even fucking work, all that alcohol for nothing. Why don''t I remove it for you?¡± Janet just yelled back at the wall.


    I think that really pissed the guy off, and it took a second, but the next sound I heard was gunfire. That lasted a good minute, then it was quiet. A minute went by, and then, out of the quiet, Janet¡¯s voice rang out again,


    ¡°You missed, you fucking losers! Wow, you guys really fucking suck at this! Isn¡¯t this like all you do, like all day? How are you guys this bad at aiming?¡± Another volley of shots rang out, and I started to hear voices coming from people gathering behind the wall. It was almost time.


    As more people gathered, Janet kept pestering them, and honestly, I think she was really pissing them off. Like, really fucking pissing them off. One guy even hopped the wall and ran at Janet with only a pistol. I couldn''t see Janet from my position in the bush, but I saw the guy hop the wall. There was some yelling for a little while, then the yelling cut off, and that was that, and Janet was Back at it.


    We were ten minutes into Janet¡¯s taunts, and it was time. A good group of people were behind the wall now, and I could hear a bunch of yelling and angry voices. I took two magical grenades from my bag of holding, primed them, and tossed them over the wall, then pulled two more out and threw them.


    I repeated that twice more, and by then, the first bombs I had thrown blew. There was a series of loud bombs, then a lot of screaming. Beth and I rolled a grenade each to the center of the barricade, and a moment later, it was gone. We then advanced through the destroyed barricades, tossing grenades here and there as we moved. Janet wasn¡¯t far behind us.


    As we advanced through the property, we heard loud bangs behind us. Just as planned. It was Frank and his people entering the compound behind us. There was a lot of smoke in the air now. We had definitely hit some vehicles with our grenades, which started some fires and made some pretty cool explosions. Well, cool to me, not the people burning in the flames.


    Janet, Beth, and I were also given a couple of pre-integration smoke grenades from our new friends, and we had been tossing them here and there as we advanced through the compound. We entered the property and began our attack in their parking lot. They had a bunch of different vehicles ranging in size, but most were pick-up trucks with lift kits and massive tiers. I¡¯m not saying they were all like that, but I¡¯m telling you a good forty percent were in that category, so it was noticeable.


    We had made a map of the compound before we attacked, or well, Franks people had drawn one up, so we knew basically where to go. We had planned an order of targets to take down so we could take the Claremont as efficiently and quickly as possible. The first target was the main work camp Janet and I had seen when scouting.  The first target went down easy, surprisingly easy, actually.


    When we had killed all the men and women guarding the people in the main work camp, we made sure Franks people cut the bodies from the fences that had been hung up as an escape deterrent before moving on. It was fucking sick. No one deserved that treatment. After that disgusting mess of human rights violations, we headed deeper into the camp till we came to what looked like the asshole¡¯s living quarters. The first thing we did was toss a bunch of grenades into the mass tents.


    Blasts started to go off left and right, and people started screaming. It was like the gates of hell opened. We headed into the destruction after the blast died down and cleaned up. It wasn¡¯t my favorite job, but I didn¡¯t flinch. This had to be done. However, I didn¡¯t have to enjoy it. Beheading a man burnt to shit, missing a limb or two, and screaming. All I could do was try not to puke. I kept telling myself that I was stopping these fucking pieces of shit from torturing innocent people. People who didn¡¯t deserve such cruelty at the dawn of a new world.


    As we finished clearing the area, we began taking fire from a raised area, and we took cover. Then I remembered that bullets didn¡¯t really do anything to us now, and I charged the group. I reached the wall and jumped, grabbing the edge and pulling myself over. As soon as I hopped the wall, I was immediately blasted with machine gun fire.


    I have to admit it did start to hurt after a few seconds. In fact, I was getting hit so many times in the same spots that my skin was beginning to rip apart in places. When I got to the point where it was actually starting to really hurt, Beth and Janet had vaulted the railing. Beth got in front of me with her shield and I got a little relief.


    I popped a Senzuketa Bean into my mouth, and my body started regenerating itself. It only took me a few moments to regain most of my strength. By that point, Janet had already begun laying into our enemies. It was a good thing Janet did because Beth Shield hadn''t held up too well against the bullets. Beth tossed her shield to the ground while simultaneously pulling a new shield from her bag.


    Beth and I joined Janet, and together, we made quick, bloody work of our opponents. Moving forward, we realized we were by the pool area where all those fucked up people were being held. We could hear rifle fire, and as we reached the pool area proper, we could see a contingent of Claremont assholes pinned down by what must have been the small group of Franks people.


    We had sent a group of fighters to secure the rear exit in case anyone tried to make a run for it. The three of us snuck up on the group from behind and swiftly executed the group. We went to check on the people in the pools, and most were dead, some by starvation, but most looked like they had been shot recently.


    As we stood there looking at the piles of dead in the pool. We all were stone-faced. There was no time for emotions at the moment. More people needed to die. I thought as my teeth ground together. As we were about to continue on, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a body move. I stopped, turned, and walked over to the edge of the pool.


    Then, I saw what had caught my eye. There was a man. He had hidden beneath his fellows to avoid death, and as he emerged, more people began pushing forward. Then, we were pushing through the bodies to help the survivors get out of the pool. A few moments after we had hopped in the pool, the team that had been pinned down by the Claremont fighters we had taken care of made it to use. We work together with them, pulling people from the pool, and after a few minutes, we let them take over the effort.


    I was filled with renewed rage as we headed into the center of the complex. There, we found the leadership¡¯s area, more or less where we figured it would be when planning our attack. There were palm trees and large white tents. It almost looked like a scene from ancient Egypt. When we arrived, the leadership we sought was hiding behind a massive barricade.


    It looked like the barricade was made of tables, chairs, and mattresses. It honestly looked like they had just pilled most of their shit up into one larger defensive structure. They had propped their barricade against some of the rubble from the collapsed hotel and touched themselves behind it.


    They had left their attendants outside to fend for themselves in their rush for safety. About twenty of Franks''s fighters were tucked behind cover, but the people behind the barricade were letting out bursts of fire, keeping Frank''s fights pinned down.


    Their attendants, by the way, were all naked women and a few naked men here and there, but I mean, I¡¯m talking like a five-to-one ratio of naked girls to guys, so not really an even split, you feel me. They all looked terrified and were just trying not to get shot. As we approached the barricade, they let off a few shots at us, but when they saw that we were still advancing on them, undeterred, a voice from behind the barrier called out to us.


    ¡°Stop right there! One more step, and will blow you the fuck away, you fuck mother fuckers! Stay back!¡± We all just stood there looking at their cobbled-together defensive fortifications for a few moments, and then Janet Let out a harsh laugh. ¡°Fuck you, asshole,¡± was all Janet said before tossing two grenades she pulled from her bag of holding at the barricade, and boom!


    Bodies went flying, and blood was everywhere. Then, out of the smoke from the explosion, a blast rang out, and Janet took an explosion to the chest and was sent flying back almost fifteen feet. The next second, Beth and I both got A blasted to the chest and were in the same spot as Janet, Laying on the ground in a lot of fucking pain.


    ¡°What the fuck was that¡± Janet managed to wheeze out. Her breastplate had been hit hard, all of ours had, and the metal didn¡¯t look like it could take another blast like that. Out of the smoke, a figure emerged holding a gun with a huge barrel and an extremely large magazine attached, pointed right at us.


    ¡°You fucking motherfuckers have fucked everything up! All the shit I built! I was just trying to bring civilization back. The world has gone insane if you haven¡¯t noticed, and I will lead us into the future! If some need to suffer a little to help a new power rise in this world, then so be it! I will prevail today, and I shall right this land under the fist of my immense power, behold! I am the lord of Ragnarok! My journey will not end here. Now, die and feed my strength. ¡±


    The leader finished his little monologue, let out an insane laugh, and opened fire on us again. Janet managed to dodge to the side and only took a glancing blow that spun her around. Beth was still a little sluggish from the first shot, and she didn¡¯t move quite fast enough and got walloped again by what I figured now was probably a grenade launcher.


    As for me, I saw him fire at Janet and immediately activated Step Lightly, disappearing. The next second, I was standing right behind the leader and apparent lord of the whatever to these fucking losers. With no mercy, I swiped out with my Halbert and took his head off. In one smooth motion, the man died, and the battle for the Claremont was over.

 Chapter 18 - I Might have fucked up

    Chapter 18


    I Might have fucked up


    Okay, so it wasn¡¯t really over. We spent the next two hours cleaning up the stragglers and the rest of the day after that helping the people who had been held captive by these. I think cultists might have been a fair word to use. At one point, some assholes grabbed some people and held them hostages to negotiate their safe release.


    When Janet showed up, she threw a few knives, and the ones remaining alive after that surrendered. That was about as exciting as the clean-up got. Once the clean-up was done and there was just a bunch of fucked up and traumatized people left to deal with. Once Franks people had things under control, Beth and Janet returned to the tree house to get Tilly.  I stayed back to help Frank¡¯s people with the wounded.


    Before Janet and Beth left, they emptied their bags of holding of the Senzuketa Beans they left, and I started passing Senzuketa Beans out to the worst off of the previously enslaved people. Most people were pretty fucked up, so once I ran out of Senzuketa Beans, I started giving out mana-kissed water to help get people back on their feet.


    After a little over 2 hours, Janet and Beth returned with Tilly in tow.  Once they were back, Janet, Beth, and even little Tilly helped me and our friends get everyone something to eat and a blanket that had been scrounged up from around the compound. Most of the resources came from the leadership area. It seemed like they kept most of the good stuff for themselves.


    The rest of the day was filled with relieved and thankful looks and comments from the folks we were helping, but mostly, people kept their distance from us unless we were handing out previsions or blankets. I don¡¯t think they trusted us yet. I had the feeling they were wondering if they had traded one hellish master for another, but I think they were warming up to us.


    That night was quiet. Everyone was camped out in the largest open area, which was the old sleeping area for the cultist Mad Max people. We had to clean up the bodies, burnt tents, and belongings, but then everyone found a spot and passed out. We had set up a fire pit in the middle of the impromptu camp, and Janet, Beth, Tilly, most of our new friends, and I gathered around it.


    No one was talking. We were all just sort of watching the fire. Even Tilly felt the gravity of the day and was in a somber mood. Out of the sleeping bodies around us, Frank walked over to the fire pit and sat beside me.


    ¡°You and your friends, I¡­ I just don¡¯t know what to say. I didn¡¯t say anything before, but my wife and son were taken and held captive by these monsters. A few other folks in our group were in similar positions as myself, and I know many didn¡¯t make it out of this hell hole, my wife included.¡±


    Tears were falling from Frank¡¯s eyes now, but I didn¡¯t think he was even aware. ¡°My son is okay, though. I got him back, and even though I lost the light of my world, I will fight for my son and die for him if I must. So, thank you for what you have done today. You are all heroes this day, and I will never forget it as long as I live. So thank you.¡± With that, Frank stood back up, then walked back into the sleeping bodies and disappeared.


    We all sat there in silence for a bit longer, then slowly, one by one, the people gathered around the fire disappeared into the sleeping mass of bodies until it was just me and Janet at the fire. Beth had taken Tilly to bed after she had started yawning.


    ¡°We did a good thing today, Travis, but I can¡¯t shake the feeling that it wasn¡¯t enough. It feels cheap,¡± Janet was whispering now.


    ¡°I feel like for everything these people endured, it wasn¡¯t enough. Those assholes should have died slowly. I should have pulled them apart piece by piece till they were begging to die. It just doesn¡¯t feel like justice. I wanted them dead so bad, but it was too quick. I just want to kill them over and over again¡­ you know?¡±


    Janet finished speaking, and I put my arm around her and pulled her close into a tight side hug.


    ¡°I know exactly how you feel. Those mad max freaks got to die fast and easy, and their victims had to suffer for weeks. It¡¯s not fair, but all we can do is kill them and make sure this kind of thing does not happen again. If that means we take the whole dam planet and force the issue, so be it. Janet looked up at me, smiled, and cuddled in tighter. We stayed like that for another hour, then we went and found a corner to fuck and sleep, both badly needed at that moment.


    The following day, Janet and I woke up late. I found a place to take care of the morning drop-off. Soon after Janet and I had dealt with the morning¡¯s necessities, Tilly found us. Shortly followed by a slightly frantic Beth, afraid of losing sight of Tilly in the many people now moving and sitting around.


    ¡°I found you! Where were you guys? Beth and I got some food for all of us, and we wanted to find you guys before we started eating, but you weren¡¯t there. Where did you go?¡± Tilly berated Janet and me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Tills. I had to use the bathroom. I told Janet where I was going, and she tagged along, but the food sounds amazing.¡± Tilly looked at me like she was thinking about whether she was still mad at me or not, then she smiled and told me.


    ¡°Duh, you dummy, let¡¯s eat. It¡¯s probably getting cold.¡± As she said that, Janet realized what she¡¯d just said, and then her eyes went wide, and she dashed off.


    ¡°Tilly, wait for me! If you can¡¯t see me, I can¡¯t see you! Shit, I swear if she gets lost again.¡± Beth said and then darted after the girl. I realized that neither Janet nor I knew where they were set up, and if we lost them, that meant no food, and if there was bacon¡­


    ¡°Wait, fuck food. Janet, they have the food! Follow them, go go go!¡± I yelled at Janet. She jumped about a fucking foot, then slapped my arm like, what the fuck. After a second, she realized I wasn¡¯t kidding, then my words registered to her, and her eyes went wide.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± Janet said. Then, the next second, I had an idea. I mean, it was time for drastic measures. Bacon might be at stake here. These weren¡¯t hypothetical stakes. It was game time. I grabbed Janet¡¯s arm and activated Step Lightly. The next second, I was dragging Janet after me. Once we stopped, Janet looked a little shocked, and then I saw Beth right before she disappeared again.


    I activated Step Lightly two more times. Then I was standing next to Beth and Tilly, holding a slightly pail Janet by the arm. The next thing we all knew, Janet was running over to a wall and throwing up. After a few minutes, Janet walked back over, and I turned to apologize for my rash actions. Right before I turned, I heard Beth exclaim,


    ¡°Hey, Janet, what the?¡± As I turned fully to Janet, I came eye to fist with Janet¡¯s, um, fist. That wasn¡¯t the end of it either. She jumped me and punched me right in the fucking head like three more times.


    Janet honestly got me pretty good. Her strength now wasn¡¯t anything to laugh at, and her blows hurt. I was, however, just as strong and had increased constitution, so I could handle it, and I thought it only fair I did make her puke. I fucking hate that shit. When Janet had finally calmed down and thoroughly given me a piece of her mind, we ate, and there wasn¡¯t even bacon. I was so bummed.


    I almost brought it up, but then I met Janet¡¯s eyes. I shut my mouth and finished my breakfast. When we were nearly done eating, Tilly told us about her time alone in the tree house. How board she had been, and what she had had to do to entertain herself. Near the end of Tilly¡¯s story, Frank, Devin, along with two women and a man we¡¯d never met before, walked over to us.


    It was a bit awkward at first when they walked up. I had a piece of egg stuck to my mustache. I was trying to get it with my tongue. Janet had her mouth full, Beth was cleaning Tilly up, and they were just standing there. Then Frank just started in.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t give you a chance to finish eating, but um¡­ well, people are starting to ask questions. For example, what do we do now? What happened to the world? And who¡¯s in charge?¡± Frank let that last question hang in the air as he looked at us. The people who came along with Frank had varying expressions on their faces.


    One woman looked like she wanted to punch me in the face. There was such a palpable aura of fuck off about her. The other woman looked concerned, and there was a tiny bit of fear there as well. I was pretty sure. The man looked like he wanted them to think of him as imposing. He was puffing out his chest and was standing. Arms crossed, legs shoulder width apart like he was a bouncer at a club or some shit. Devin looked resolved, and Frank looked like he was in dire need of our help, but it was hidden well under his stoicism and charm.


    They were all in combat gear and were members of the team that took the hotel. I finally got that little fucking piece of egg. Fuck you bitch ass egg, I win. So I was a little distracted listening to Frank when he started talking, but I still got most of it. I looked over at Janet and Beth and kind of raised my eyebrows in a, well, fuck here we go sort of way.


    ¡°Sidebar,¡± I said.


    Everyone looked over at me like, what the fuck? Janet just laughed at me, and Beth chuckled. Beth looked over to our guests and asked them. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t mind if we had a quick word amongst ourselves for a moment, would you?¡± Frank smiled at Beth and then told us that it would be fine. Beth, Janet, and I all walked about ten feet away from Frank and his party and huddled up while Frank watched Tilly for a second.


    ¡°Look, all these people here are fucking weak as fuck, and they could probably really use our help getting started in this new world, but I¡¯m gonna tell you right now I¡¯m not putting my name in the ring to run this place, fuck that. Still, I think one of us needs to be in charge. I just don¡¯t trust any of these people, and we have the power to make people listen. Beth is the smartest, most empathetic, and most well-spoken of the three. So, I think It should be you, Beth.¡± I said. Beth looked shocked, and then Janet chimed in.


    ¡°Fuck yes, hast to be Beth. They need someone to lead them. Protect these weak people from the fucking hell our world is now. I agree it should be you, Beth.


    I know before the whole integration thing happened, I was a pretty shitty stepmom. I mean, it¡¯s not like you needed me. You were a grown-ass woman when we met for the first time. I guess what I¡¯m saying is I¡¯ll never be your mom, Beth, but I think we¡¯re friends.


    Over these last weeks fighting to survive and defeating that dungeon, I¡¯ve seen you become a force of nature. You will make these people strong, and they need you.¡±


    Janet finished what she had to say, and Beth looked like she was going to cry for a second. Then, she just hugged Janet as she tied up. They split after a long moment, and I grabbed Beth¡¯s shoulders,


    ¡°I¡¯ll help. I just don¡¯t want the title. I¡¯m not the in-charge of like 150 people type person, you know. We¡¯ll kick these guys and gals into new world shape in no time.¡± I told Beth, and she rolled her eyes at me and called me an asshole. She still smiled at me after so I was pretty she wasn¡¯t really that mad at me.


    ¡°We do have to be careful. These people have been through a lot, and we can¡¯t push them too hard. It could go bad, and with stats, a strong, angry, traumatized person would not be a good thing.¡± Janet reminded the Both of us, and we nodded back to her.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get back there and talk to Frank and his people. Let¡¯s see what they¡¯re thinking,¡± I told the ladies. They both nodded, and we headed back over to rejoin the group, sidebar over. Tilly was telling the group all about how much she loved breakfast, to a mix of reactions. She was right in the middle of telling them about how bacon needed to be just crispy enough. Too underdone, no good, too overdone, no good, had to be exactly right. A bacon lover after my own heart, it was so precious I almost teared up.


    When we reached the group, Beth addressed Frank, ¡°Who are your friends, Frank? I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve been properly introduced?¡± Frank looked at Beth for a second as if wondering who she was talking about. Then his eyes filled with realization a little.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, how rude of me. This is Rose, Tess, Brad, and you know Devin already. We do need to have a word with y¡¯all, so maybe we could speak somewhere a little more private?¡± Frank asked us, and we all nodded. I told Frank to,


    ¡°lead the way.¡±


    We left Tilly to her own devices and headed off but told her not to wander far, and she agreed. Then we headed off with Frank and friends. We ended up in a small courtyard by the secluded pool area. It didn¡¯t look like people liked coming here. It must have brought up bad memories for some, so I got it. When we were all gathered up, Frank started in.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°Right, well, I guess I¡¯ll start by saying thank you. Without your help, I don¡¯t know if we could have ever taken this place. They were just too well-armed and protected, or so we thought until y¡¯all came in. So again, thank you for everything.¡±


    Frank bowed his head to us, along with Rose, Tess, and Devin. Brad rolled his eyes at Frank and let out a little scoff. Once Frank was done, he looked at Brad with disapproval but didn¡¯t say anything about it.


    ¡°It¡¯s all good, Frank. We only did what we would have done anyway. People like that don¡¯t deserve to live,¡± I said. Frank gave me a smile and nodded. Brad didn¡¯t seem to like that, and he said so,


    ¡°damn, who died and made you judge, jury, and executioner. Even if those dip shits were evil, they still had a right to life and a fair trial. You are nothing but vigilantes. You only cause chaos. You need to leave this kind of shit to the professionals. Let us do our job and get out of our way.


    Unlike Frank, I have complete faith in my men and women. We would have taken the Claremont in the next two weeks, and we would have done it without you. We¡¯re not playing around here. This is real shit hitting the real fan. I appreciate your help, but at most, you helped accelerate our timeline a bit, nothing more.¡±


    Brad was staring at me with hatred burning in his eyes. It honestly felt like he hated us for no dam reason. I mean, we basically fucked those Mad Max fucking guys up alone. This asshole was pissed at us for helping. It wasn¡¯t like he had a monopoly on helping people, so fuck him, and I told him so.


    ¡°Fuck you, asshole. If you really think you could have done this whole raid without us, you are more stupid than I thought. You fucking meathead. Were you a cop? Do you realize that there¡¯s no government anymore? Are you gonna be the new chief of police? You? You¡¯re a joke. I could kill you with one arm tied behind my back. You probably don¡¯t have your strength stat about fifteen yet. Real you couldn¡¯t even touch¡­¡±


    Okay, so I was definitely being immature, but this asshole was pushing my buttons. I had helped these people. Janet, Beth, and I had won this fight, but now I was getting yelled at by a cop. He had no right. There was no government backing him up. Lawlessness was everywhere. So who the fuck was he to tell me shit.


    It was at this point that Brad lost it. I mean, he fucking lost it. His face had been turning more and more red with every comment I made. He had almost turned purple when he couldn¡¯t take it anymore. That¡¯s when he came at me. Brad was big, over six feet tall, white, stocky, and looked like an old, fat, once-great high school football star, but his better years were undoubtedly behind him.


    I was pissed at Brad now, and my now familiar fight reaction kicked in. Now, I might have just been around too many things trying to kill me lately, but when Brad stepped forward and cocked his arm back to throw a jab at my face. I reacted instinctually. I ducked his jab when it came, and when Brad Lind up a haymaker after that, I snapped out a punch that met his fist knuckles to knuckles.


    I probably should have asked them for their levels earlier, but as it was, I might have put a bit too much oomph behind my punch. I was pissed through, and I kind of let him have it. Brad¡¯s hand broke, bad. Bone was poking out through the flesh, and then Brad went pale and fell to the ground. Brad passed out from the pain before his head hit the ground. As Brad¡¯s body went limp, Rose screamed and ran to the man.


    ¡°You killed him! You fucking killed him!¡± Then Rose was crying. Everyone else was just sort of looking at Rose, sobbing over Brad. I was shocked. I hadn¡¯t meant to fuck his hand up that bad. I really need to be careful with low-level people. I could really do some damage on accident, fuck, this wasn¡¯t good. A few moments passed, and everyone was too shocked to speak. So, after a little, I spoke.


    ¡°Fuck me. God dam it. I¡¯m sorry, that¡¯s on me, but he fucking started it. You know, I could have killed him, but I¡¯m not that much of an asshole.¡± I knelt down next to the man and started slapping his face lightly. Rose began to hitting me as I did, but I couldn¡¯t even feel her punches. He couldn¡¯t be dead. Could he? No, his chest was moving. He was breathing. Brad was just passed out. Still, why did I have to solve all my problems by punching them fuck!


    ¡°Hey, come on, man, wake up. Lady, he¡¯s gonna be okay. Can¡¯t you see he¡¯s breathing?  A week or so, and his hand should be good as new.¡± Rose didn¡¯t seem to hear me, or maybe she heard me but was actively ignoring me. Brad was definitely down for the count, and honestly, a part of me thought, fuck him. He picked a fight, knowing full well that I was so much stronger than him. Another part of me, however, felt sorry for the guy. His world had been rocked just as much as mine was when the integration hit. His might have been more intense if he was actually a cop, too. All those people who died during the first few hours after the integration. It must have been hell.


    The next thing I knew, Frank had a hand on my shoulder. I had fucked up, but there was nothing to do about it now but push forward. I stood up and dusted my hands off before turning and addressing Frank and his people.


    ¡°Look, here¡¯s what¡¯s going to happen. Beth will run things around here from now on with Janet and me as a backup. You don¡¯t like it? We have enough people who need and want our help. You all know that we are the strongest people here. I want that power to be used to protect the people we set free and others needing our help. I would also like this power transfer to go over without a hitch. Can you all agree to this for now? We can talk about maybe a council or elections later, but for now, will you assist us in making this a place to call home?¡± I looked at each person Frank brought to meet us in the eyes to ensure they were listening. Rose was staring at me with a burning rage.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t have to hurt him!! Fuck you!! You are no fucking heroes! You¡¯re pieces of shit. That¡¯s what you are! Fuck You!! Rose was screaming at that point. That¡¯s when she stopped speaking and started crying again. Tess knelt down next to Rose and rubbed her back.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, shhh, it¡¯s okay,¡± Tess said. She was trying to get Rose under control, but Tess¡¯s empathy seemed to open the waterworks, and now Rose was crying hard. I felt awful about destroying Brad¡¯s hand, but I had been on a hair trigger for so long now that my nerves were shot, and almost anything related to danger and combat would probably set me off now. Then Beth spoke up.


    ¡°I liked something Travis said early. I think it¡¯s a good idea that after three months, we hold elections, and if the people choose me, I will keep leading. If they choose someone else, then they choose someone else, but until then, I will lead, and Janet and Travis will enforce my words. Does this plan sound fine to everyone?¡± Beth finished my speech, and I looked at Rose, crying in Tess¡¯s arms.


    She did not like that at all. She stopped crying and then stood up. Rose looked at Beth, then me, and then spit on the ground.


    ¡°You¡¯re just like every other asshole with power. Do as I say, or I¡¯ll beat the shit out of you, right? Well fuck that, and fuck all of you. We came here to save these people, but that¡¯s done now. If you¡¯re taking over, then I can¡¯t fucking be here. Have fun playing at kings and queens, you fucking sit bags.¡±


    Rose finished screaming at me, then bent down and tried to carry Brad away. She didn¡¯t have the strength. Then, Rose started to scream in frustration when she couldn¡¯t move the man. This meeting had entirely gone off the rails, but that was hard to watch, and I was frustrated with myself for causing this whole fiasco.


    Rose looked around for someone to help her. Devin, Frank, and Tess all started trying to help her simultaneously. It was a mess and instantly awkward. Then Janet stepped forward and picked up the big man like he weighed fucking nothing. Everyone was shocked at first. Except for Rose, she immediately yelled at Janet to let him go. Janet told her to shut the fuck up. Then, in a slightly gentler tone of voice, asked Rose where she should take Brad.


    Eventually, Rose, Tess, and Janet headed off, Janet carrying the big man cradled in her arms. At that point, Frank and Devin were the only two left to talk with Beth and me. Frank and I both started trying to speak at the same time, but then both stopped. I gestured for him to go first. When he gave me a questioning look, I told him,


    ¡°Yes, well, that¡¯s going to cause some problems, you know that, right? I mean, Brad is, let¡¯s be honest, Brad is an ass most of the time, so I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll end up staying with us here. Travis, you have to understand most of the people here don¡¯t know Brad and won¡¯t miss him if he leaves, but he is tight with his crew, and that would be most of the troops you¡¯d need to protect and secure this place. If they all decide to leave, we¡¯ll have to think of a plan to replace them, but that takes time. So again, we¡¯re in a bit of a pickle. Look, you did what you thought was right, and who am I telling you what to do, but you put us in a tough spot.¡± Frank finished talking, with Devin nodding along.


    ¡°he¡¯s right. If Rose and Brad leave with the rest of Brad¡¯s team, then we¡¯re pretty fucked.¡± Devin said.


    ¡°Well, where do you two stand?¡± Beth asked them.


    ¡°I¡¯m with you three. Honestly, I will try to convince as many as I can to stay as well. We¡¯re probably still safer with you three than fighting it out in the wilds.¡± Frank said.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m right about where Frank is, so I say we make Beth the official leader sooner rather than later. Knowing Rose and Brad, they¡¯ll get the fighters all hyped up, and they might all actually leave with them.¡± Devin said. He said the second half of his statement more to Frank than us.


    ¡°I understand that I didn¡¯t put us in the best position here, Frank, Devin, and for that, I apologize. However, I have one thing that may help you sway some people to stay.¡± I said.


    ¡°What would that be?¡± Frank asked me, a little wary and with a hint of curiosity.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just say we know where some good training grounds are, and we have lots of gear to outfit fighters, not guns but weapons. When used with a good strength stat, they will fuck someone up good,¡± I said, then pulled a breastplate and spear from my Bag of holding and showed it to the two men.


    ¡°Very interesting. It should help a bit. If I¡¯m honest, the leveling opportunities will attract people who stay more than anything. They have all seen your strength by now or at least have heard about it. I think every fighter in the squad is fucking jealous right now and would love to get a piece of that for themselves.¡± Frank said with a bit of a chuckle at the end.


    ¡°Thanks, Frank, Devin, I guess yeah, talk as many as you can into staying, but the ones who are dead set on leaving. I guess we¡¯ll just let them go. We can only do so much. Oh, fuck are Brad and Rose like a thing? Do they have kids and shit?¡± I spoke a little worried about the answer. That would totally make this so much worse.  I didn¡¯t want to be known as the big meanie who beat up Daddy.


    ¡°No, he lost both parents when he was like twenty and always fucked around. Other than Rose, he has always been single, and I don¡¯t think Rose and Brad were ever really a thing. I know Rose wanted there to be more between them, but Brad never cared about her like that.¡± Frank reassured me.


    ¡°We¡¯ll see you soon, Travis, Beth,¡± Franks said, and he and Devin walked off. It was only about two hours later when we saw them again. Janet returned from her Brad delivery after only ten minutes, and soon after that, the three of us decided to pitch in with the clean-up when Frank and Devin found us.


    We had made a real fucking mess of this place with our attack. I totally didn¡¯t think about the clean-up when I was tossing bombs left and right willy-nilly. Frank looked a little worn out, and Devin looked about the same.


    ¡°Good news or bad news,¡± I asked them as they approached us. Once they had caught up with us, Frank needed a second to catch his breath. They told us what was going on.


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m telling you right now it¡¯s not gonna be great,¡± Frank said, and Devin nodded along with Franks¡¯s words and put his hand on the back of his neck.


    ¡°In two hours, more than half our fighters will walk out the front gates,¡± Devin said.


    ¡°Yeah, Brad woke up about an hour ago pissed off as hell, and he rallied to get as many people to leave with his as he could. He¡¯s not stupid enough to try and fight you guys for the Claremont, but he will try to take as many abled-bodied fights as possible to fuck us over. That¡¯s just the kind of guy Brad is.¡± Frank said.


    ¡°How many is that gonna be?¡± Beth asked Frank.


    ¡°About twenty men and women.¡± He answered her.


    ¡°Wait, how many people were involved in this plan?¡±


    ¡°A total of thirty-five fighters. We weren¡¯t going to let you know our full numbers. To be honest, it was our contingency plan. Suppose you took over and just copied what the guys here were doing already or something. We would use those troops to ambush you after you were weakened by those mad max looking freaks at the end of the fight. Those fighters were staged in a second base and started their attack shortly after our own.¡± Frank said he did look a little bit abashed and a bit fearful like we might just kill him for that. We were all quiet for a second until Beth spoke up.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Frank. I figured you might have more fighters somewhere. It¡¯s good to know I was right about that.¡± She finished and smiled at him. I don¡¯t know what was going through his head, but it kind of looked like he would rather have been anywhere but right here at that moment.


    ¡°You knew, already? Shit. I guess it doesn¡¯t even matter. You three are so strong you probably would still be able to kill all thirty-five. Ambush be damned.¡± Frank answered Beth. Then Janet spoke.


    ¡°Yeah, we really could. probably pretty easily as well.¡± Janet gave him a dangerous smile and then stuck out her tongue at him.


    ¡°Come on, Frank, Travis is the only slap-chappy one of us. I just kill evil fucked that need to die anyways.¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Hey! I¡¯m not murder happy. We¡¯ve been in a lot of high-stress situations lately. Hard to judge your strength when most creatures we¡¯ve fought recently could probably just eat my punch no problem.¡± Frank laughed awkwardly and then told us that after Brad, Rose, and their companions left, we should come to meet the fighters who would stay behind.


    Beth nodded at Frank and told him it sounded like a good idea and that we would be there. Just like Frank said, thirty minutes later, Brad and his people gathered up and exited. They didn¡¯t try to convince anyone to come with them, or I don¡¯t think, but still, a group of about thirty survivors from the Claremont followed in tow. I really hoped they were gonna make it out there on their own.


    Believe it or not, I didn¡¯t want Rose¡¯s people to die. We had lost so many lives during the integration that our numbers were too low to go murder people willy-nilly. We needed to unite as the human race and rise up in this new world, not slowly kill ourselves. That was weighing on my mind nowadays. Definitely more after we had killed so many people in our initial takeover of the Claremont and now Brad.


    Maybe Rose was right, and I was sick, fucked up in the head? Did this integration traumatize me more than I realized? You know what, I couldn¡¯t go there. I did what I had to survive, and that was fucking that. You can¡¯t live in the past, Travis. What¡¯s done is done. The next thing I knew, I was ejected from my thoughts violently when I was launched from my seat.


    Janet had pushed me harder than I think she intended, and that, combined with me being lost in self-reflection, all came together to send me flying out of the chair I was sitting in and onto the floor with a thump.


    ¡°Shit! Fuck. What the fuck was that for?¡± Janet was holding her hands over her mouth, trying not to laugh her ass off.


    ¡°Holy shit, Travis, my bad. I guess I pushed you a little too hard there, but you were off somewhere in outer space there for a second. I was just going to let you know that we were about to go over and meet Frank, Devin, and the fighters staying here with us.¡± Janet said all this as she tried to hold back furious giggling.  ¡°Fine, let¡¯s go meet up with Frank and them. Next time just like fucking tap me on the shoulder or something, okay?¡± I told her, and she just nodded, still dying laughing.

 Chapter 19 - Treehouse Village

    Chapter 19


    Treehouse Village


    We made our way over to where the fighters were camped out, and when we saw Frank, we knew we were in the right spot. Frank saw us and waved us over.


    ¡°Travis, Beth, Janet, oh and Miss Tilly, I see, this is Brianna. She was the leader or representative of the fighters that stayed behind.¡± Frank said. I looked at Brianna. At first glance, she looked like a hard military woman. She looked to be about five foot eight, and she was in full camo. Brianna was decked out in military equipment as well. She had a pistol clipped to her hip, and her face said I don¡¯t do bullshit. I kind of liked her off the bat. She looked badass. If she would like us, well, that was another story.


    ¡°Hey, nice to meet you. I¡¯m Beth.¡± Beth walked over to Brianna and shook her hand. Janet and I copied her and shook the woman¡¯s hand as well.


    ¡°So, which one of you fucked up that racist asshole, Brad?¡± Brianna said and looked at us. I raised my hand a little.


    ¡°That would be me. Definitely didn¡¯t mean to fuck Brad up that bad, though. Kind of an accident, honestly.¡± I said, and Brianna smiled a little at me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it too much. Brad is a piece of shit, and Rose is way-way too into him. You know they aren¡¯t even a thing? He fuck¡¯s her once and a while, and now she sticks to him like a sick puppy. In truth, Brad was a racist asshole. As I see it, you did the world a favor by knocking some sense into him. Maybe now that his hand is busted to shit, he¡¯ll stop jacking off and do something more productive with his time. Probably not though he¡¯ll just use the other hand or fuck Rose.¡±


    Brianna finished talking, chuckled, and then nodded at me in thanks. I looked at her in shock for a few seconds and then blinked a couple of times to bring myself back.


    ¡°Um, shit, no problem, I guess,¡± I said, then just shrugged. I wasn¡¯t really prepared for that reaction. I thought it was gonna be a lot of fuck you and your asshole, and all that good stuff. Guess I was wrong. Brianna just laughed at my reaction and told us to come over and sit down. We needed to figure out what our next steps were and then how we would accomplish said steps.


    We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Brianna and her crew, talking, planning, eating, and then, later on, drinking. It was a pleasant day, all told. The next morning, while everyone was fighting off a massive hangover, Beth, Janet, and I sat down with Brianna, Devin, Frank, And Brianna¡¯s second-in-command, whom we¡¯d met last night, Rich.


    Last night¡¯s planning session had been good but short. More filled with drinking and getting to know each other. We had talked and planned for about two hours, but most of the non-leadership was getting antsy. So we stopped there with the promise to continue in the morning. Well, the morning was here, and I regretted last night¡¯s decisions, so, so many decisions.


    ¡°So, where did we leave off last night? Does anyone remember?¡± I asked the small group.


    ¡°Fuck! Don¡¯t talk so loudly. My head is pounding, you dick, head.¡± Brianna told me. I winced.


    ¡°Sorry, my bad, eat these,¡± I said, pulling six Senzuketa Beans from my bag of holding and passing them out. Beth and Janet looked at the little beans like they were live savers and took one. Brianna and Rich just looked at me, but Frank didn¡¯t seem to give a fuck and just ate it.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Rich asked me.


    ¡°It¡¯s a Senzuketa Bean. It will make the hangover go away.¡± I told him. He looked at me skeptically, then popped the little bean in his mouth. A few moments later, Brianna popped hers. It was only a few minutes before we were all looking a lot better. Frank let out a sigh, then said.


    ¡°Damn, those are fucking great. That makes one thing in this new world that I admit I don¡¯t hate,¡± and everyone agreed with Frank. Then Frank farted. After some farts and some embarrassing comments from Brianna, we got to planning how we were going to make this place a viable refuge.


    It had been two weeks since the six of us had sat down and planned the future for this place, our new refuge. We had been power-leveling Brianna, Rich, and the fighters through the dungeon. Jane, Beth, and I had all gotten to level eleven, and Brianna and Rick sat at a cool level seven. The rest of her squad had reached level five, so It had been a busy fucking week. We also lost five people in the dungeon. Even though we were being as cautious as possible. I had lost two on a dive I was leading because I had been negligent, and I had really beaten myself up about that for a few days till Janet had to pull me aside and talk to me.


    Janet had lost a person on two consecutive dives, but she didn¡¯t seem affected like I had. When Janet pulled me aside, then told me basically to stop being a dumb ass. She told me that we couldn¡¯t save everyone. We just had to do our part. That was all we could do. I didn¡¯t initially accept Janet¡¯s point of view, but the more my role became apparent, the more I came around to her way of thinking. We had to make a fighting force to protect the people of the Claremont until we could get their levels up.


    We held a little ceremony to let everyone know there was a leader and bribed people with good food and booze while Beth laid out the plan for the future of our little refuge. We had set up a little headquarters soon after we took the hotel in a large tent we reappropriated from the Claremont¡¯s previous residents and formed what would become the village¡¯s council.


    The council consisted of Beth, Janet, Frank, Devin, Rich, Tess, and myself. While sitting in the counsel room after our little, new leader party, Beth told Janet and me that she had just received a village quest. It said that she had met the qualifications to found a village as the village leader, and the notification asked if she would like to accept the quest. Yes/no.


    Janet and I had told Beth to accept it and create the town, so she did. The next few hours had been a lot of calming people down at the sudden changes that had occurred when Beth had created the village. First, a wall appeared around the grounds, an actual stone wall eight feet high with ramparts and two gates.


    So we now lived in the newly founded Treehouse Village. The worst part of the how village transformation thing was that when the walls popped up, it scared a lot of people, that¡¯s for sure. The second thing that happened was a town hall building papered. The town hall looked like it had been plucked straight out of a small town in middle America. Which felt off for a magical building or what I assumed was a magical building. I guess the building did need to be magic. The system could have done the magic, and the building could be perfectly normal. I mean, I was just guessing here.


    The last thing Beth did before creating the village was give the village a name. Without talking to anyone, she called it Treehouse Village. She said she could change the village¡¯s name whenever, and it would just be a placeholder for now. We had spent the rest of the day apologizing and explaining what had happened and how we had created a village and everything. Now, we were sitting around a table in a room on the town hall¡¯s second floor, discussing how to start training the non-combatants.


    ¡°Look, gear isn¡¯t the problem. We have enough gear now from our dungeon runs to outfit at least half of the people in this village. What we need to figure out is how to approach leveling delicately. These people have had it rough. We just need to keep that in mind.¡± Beth finished saying to the group.


    ¡°We also need to think about food. We¡¯re getting pretty low on the stuff we found here. We¡¯re gonna have to figure something out soon, or we¡¯ll have some really angry people on our hands.¡± Brianna said.


    ¡°We need to find a more sustainable food source. We can¡¯t keep foraging. It¡¯s just not gonna last with this many people to feed. I think it¡¯s time we start thinking about forming hunting parties and foraging groups.¡± I said, agreeing with Brianna. Brianna nodded her head at me as I finished my thought.


    ¡°Well, we need to talk about what we¡¯re going to do with the build points,¡± Beth asked the group.


    A couple of days after Beth had confirmed the town, she named the town TreeHouse Village, by the way. Beth had found a new page called town management in her stat sheet. This page told her she had B.P. or Build Points, and when she reached a certain number of build points, she could apparently magically add new buildings to the village. I didn¡¯t understand how it would work yet, but it sounded straightforward. Get build Points and buy the building you want. I assumed you got to decide where to place the building, then, um¡­ Poof, the building magically appears.


    I say apparently because we hadn¡¯t had enough B.P. to build anything yet, but there were some great options. We could increase town defenses and build civilian housing, merchant shops, and other buildings like auction houses. It was amazing, but we didn¡¯t know how it worked yet.


    We were starting to approach some of the lower-priced options on the list, and the time to start thinking about options was approaching. We had only just begun to try and understand the breakdown of how we acquired B.P. It seemed to be based on population and individual level. We figured we were getting about 25 B.P. plus per person per day. We weren¡¯t sure about the exact breakdown, but that was our collective best guess.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The number of people freed at the Claremont was much more than we had first thought. Minuses the thirty-odd folks who had left with Rose and Brad, but we still had 225 people living under our care. It was an intimidating task that lay before us, but we couldn¡¯t fail these people. The one good part of having so many people in the town was that our B.P. was rising steadily every day since Beth officially became our leader.


    Like I said, I didn¡¯t understand the complete breakdown that we, well, really Janet and Brianna, had figured out, but we had 47,250 B.P. We needed 32,000 B.P. to get the merchant¡¯s shop and 25,000 B.P. to house two hundred people. These were the two options I thought people would be most enthusiastic about them. Saving up points for some of the more expensive options didn¡¯t sound great, personally. I thought I had the right idea about it, but of course I did. It was my idea. They seemed like great starting options to me.


    We had enough to buy two mass housing units for 30,000 each, which was a great deal with how fast we earned points. I was right, and I knew it, but the problem was convincing everyone else. The main argument for spending the points we had accrued up to this point so far versus waiting weeks to get more points was that we could get comfortable housing for three hundred people at the cost of 200,000 B.P.


    It was a good argument, even though I was starting to get swayed. The comfortable option came with a hundred and seventy-five two-bed, two-bath units. Another hundred and fifty three-bedroom, three-bathroom units, and every unit came with a balcony or a yard and in-unit laundry. On top of all that, the last twenty-five were master sweets. I mean, that part of the building description alone sounded great cuz you better fucking believe I was getting a master sweet.


    The master suites had a large master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom. A large entertainment room, two spare bedrooms, and two additional bathrooms. The master suites were fucking nice! Honestly, Once I was a hundred sure I was on the list for a master suite, my previous arguments fell apart, making a choice easy for me, but we did end up deciding to get the merchant shop for 32,000 B.P.


    That decision definitely set us back on buying the housing option, but in for a penny in for a pound. We just had too much loot that needed selling. I and the rest of our small leadership group were interested in getting our hands on some proper gear. We also wanted to understand the currency in this new world. There had to be something like that in the greater integrated galaxy. I was pretty interested, actually. We had picked up a lot of shit, and I wanted to see if I was rich now or just hoarding junk.


    Our small council of Frank, Devin, Brianna, Rich, Tess, Janet, Beth, and myself all took a vote, and it was a unanimous decision to buy the shop now and then save points and go for the comfortable housing option when we got the points for it as our next perches. Brianna and Beth decided that we could use the time waiting for the housing as motivation to gain levels because the faster everyone advanced in level, the faster we would obtain B.P. The quicker we got the housing option we wanted, the better. I thought it was a pretty good plan, and that¡¯s precisely what we did.


    We started training the civilians for the next two and a half weeks. The plan was to get every person in the village to level ten. It was going to take a lot longer than two and a half weeks to do that, but we had to start somewhere. Janet, Brianna, and I figured out a way to trap packs of savage ripper bunnies. We then would use them as a starting point for leveling. We also thought It would be good to get the civilians a little desensitized to killing in a hopefully gentler way than we had experienced.


    It worked well, too, or as well as could be expected from people who probably hadn¡¯t killed anything except the occasional bug here and there. Some people wouldn¡¯t go for it no matter how easy we made it. This one lady, Janet, eventually had to grab the bunny by the back of the neck and then grab its back legs, holding it on the ground for the young woman. She was about twenty-five and had been one of the people held captive by the Mad Max people.


    She was holding a short sword and had been shaking the whole time. When Janet was holding the bunny down, it twitched at one point, and the woman dropped the sword and ran to the edge of the enclosure, hopped the fence of the enclosure, and started crying. We had a couple of cases like that, but for the most part, people wanted to get stronger.


    After what happened to most of them at the hands of those Mad Max fuckers, a lot of them saw the world as might makes right, and I couldn¡¯t blame them. They had been trapped, with no way out and no hope in sight, and the three of us had basically destroyed every last one of their captors in less than an hour. They looked at Beth, Janet, and me like we were real-life superheroes, and it was honestly a little creepy sometimes.


    We had been doing regular dungeon runs and figured out that it took four full days of staying out of the dungeon to reset, but even longer if you left the boss alive. In that case, it would take six to reset. Now, we try to clear the boss almost every time, but that puts people at a higher risk, which leads to more injuries. Luckily, there were no more deaths. Janet, Beth, and I were busy as fuck. We were the only ones who had to be there for every boss kill, but we had been leveling up Frank, Branna, and Rich so we could catch a break.


    We usually finished the dungeon in about two days now. We had it down. How to kill the guy, and we beat the boss within ten minutes on average now. We were taking on the boss this one time, and Beth, Janet, and I were with Brianna and Rich. We had cornered the boss and were about to kill it when Rich missed a block and stumbled. He stuck his sword hand out to steady himself, and the boss used the opportunity to take his arm at the elbow.


    Brianna freaked out. She screamed and finished the boss in a rapid flurry of blows with her long sword. Even after the boss was dead, Brianna just kept stabbing its body over and over again, screaming, ¡°You took his hand, you mother fucker, you¡­ you mother fucker!¡±


    Janet ran over to Brianna, as Frank, Beth, and I ran over to Rich to give him a Senzuketa Bean. Frank was pretty freaked out about the whole thing. I think Frank didn¡¯t like the whole fighting to gain levels thing. I¡¯m sure if he could gain levels another way, he would have. I wished I could have helped him, too, but I only knew one way to gain levels. Kill monsters.


    Janet reached Brianna and put a hand on the woman¡¯s shoulder. As she did, Brianna turned and swung at Janet with her sword. Janet pushed the swing aside with her axe. Then, she slammed her hand down on the woman¡¯s wrist, breaking Brianna¡¯s hold on her sword. The sword dropped to the ground. That seemed to kind of snap Brianna out of it, but she still looked like she wanted to kill someone. Or, well, I guess a second somebody, seeing as she just finished the boss a second ago.


    ¡°Hey, Brianna, it¡¯s okay. I know you¡¯re pissed right now, but listen, he¡¯ll grow it back. He¡¯s gonna be fine. With some Senzuketa Beans, he¡¯ll return to normal in just a few days.¡± Brianna¡¯s eyes went wide, and the anger fell from her face, replaced by embarrassment.


    ¡°Fuck, I remember now. When that guy on Sam¡¯s team lost his leg. Fuck! Sorry, I went kinda crazy there for a second. I forgot about the whole growing body parts back thing. I thought Rich had lost his arm forever when we were so close to a perfect victory. I just lost it. Fuck! My bad, you guys.¡± Brianna said, still clearly embarrassed and also quite flustered. Janet took pity on the woman.


    ¡°No worries. Happens to the best of us. Don¡¯t let it fuck with you. Okay? It¡¯ll grow back as good as new, don¡¯t worry. ¡°Janet told the Brianna and patted her on the shoulder. Brianna had been fine by the time we got out of the dungeon, and Rich¡¯s arm grew back just like we said it would.


    When Frank, Devin, and Brianna saw Rich¡¯s arm grow back over the next few days, they were amazed at how fast he was healing. I could tell that Rich was a little freaked by the whole ordeal. It was healing fast enough that if you looked at it long enough, you could literally watch the man¡¯s arm regrowing. It was a real head trip I knew from firsthand or arm, experience.


    At the end of the first week of our intense ¡°training camp,¡± we decided, or well, the council that I was on, decided that it was the day to build the shop. Everyone was excited once the news spread. The merchants¡¯ shop was fucking so needed. Once Beth had bought the building, she could pick a location to place it as long as it was within the town¡¯s limits.


    One cool thing was that at the end of the building text, there was a line with a warning. The warning told Beth that wherever she intended to place the building would be magically cleared, and anything residing in said area would be destroyed. Once we figured that out, we tried to cheat the system and piled up our garbage bags in the area where we planned to place the shop. When Beth went to set the building, all the trash vanished. That was amazing. It really worked. We had to remember to do that every time we placed a new building. It wasn¡¯t a fix forever, but we¡¯d take full advantage while we could.


    The shop finally appeared, well, it both did and didn¡¯t in a way. When the shop was placed, it had a hazy look to it, and when I got within ten feet of the new building, I got a prompt that opened without me telling it to.


    ¡°You cannot enter this space yet. Estimated time till temporal stabilization: three hours. Please be patient while the area is stabilizing. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.¡±


    That was a bummer, but it was only three hours, so it didn¡¯t matter, really. Three hours passed, and they were probably the three slowest hours of my life. It was fucking killing me, but when it was over, it would be totally worth the wait. We had so much gear that I had five bags, two fifteen-slot bags, and three twenty-slot bags full of my personal loot. The twenty-slot bags came from the boss of the dungeon, and Beth, Janet, and I had all taken a few for ourselves.


    I was more than excited to get in the shop. I had shit to sell and money to make. When the shop finished temporal stabilization or whatever, I popped up from where I had been waiting and started jogging over to the shop. I didn¡¯t make it more than half the distance to the shop before confetti canons fired, music started playing, and a magical sigh appeared out of nowhere, lighting up the entrance to the merchant¡¯s shop. The sign read, ¡°Humanoid Support Ventures, the one-stop shop for all your bipedal needs.¡±


    ¡°What the fuck! That¡¯s kind of odd? I guess it makes sense. The galaxy is a big place. There must be thousands of different races out there, and it made sense that there would be shops that focused their business on certain species. Maybe humanoids were a niche market. Whatever the reason, I was ready to just get into the shop and find out for myself.


    Once the theatrics were over and people realized that the shop was open for business, a crowd began to form in front of the building. The situation had almost gotten out of hand for a second when a few people tried to make a rush for the shop¡¯s door. I had to knock a guy out. I wanted to let everyone, including myself, go buck wild in the shop, but the building looked like only ten people would fit inside at a time. I was worried that if I just said fuck it and hoped in the shop. I would exit the shop to a brawl. That would definitely get blamed on me, so fuck that noise.


    I had been wondering what I was going to do when Janet and Beth walked over to me. ¡°Oh, thank fuck you two showed up. I think in another five, we¡¯d be stopping a brawl.¡± I said. Janet chuckled at me while Beth was at least kind enough to try and conceal her mirth.


    ¡°Sorry, Travis. It looks like everyone can¡¯t wait to get into the shop. Good to know it was the right choice, and you¡¯re right.¡± That¡¯s all Beth said before she got to work. It took Beth five minutes, and everyone who wanted to enter the shop had formed a line. Beth only intended to let in five people at one time. We didn¡¯t want to crowd the place.


    I was in the first group to enter the shop with Janet, Tess, Rich, and Brianna, and the first thing I noticed was that it was a relatively small establishment. There was a table with two chairs on one side of the room and a small bookshelf full of books on the other. Finally, there was a counter across from me, and there was a¡­ fox person, that was the best description I could give, standing behind the counter. The fox person was dressed in a fine suit with a bow tie. The dude looked sharp. Oh, and I was all by myself.


    ¡°Hello, sir. How may I assist you this day.¡±

 Chapter 20 - Shop till you drop

    Chapter 20


    Shop till you drop


    He or, well, shit, I didn¡¯t fucking even know if this fox guy thing had a gender. I was gonna go with the guy cuz of the suit, but really, it didn¡¯t fucking matter. One thing that tripped me out was that the guy spoke English but with a soft English accent. He almost sounded like a butler from a movie but not quite as stuck up, and the guy had a smile on his face. He looked very welcome and nonthreatening. He just seemed like he was probably a good guy. It was an odd feeling.


    As I walked up to the counter, I thought about the fact that I was alone in the store again. We had enforced a line policy to ensure the shop didn¡¯t get too crowded, but it looked like when you walked into the shops, you would start a private shopping experience, and so did everyone else. That meant there was no way to crowd the shop because everyone was in their own instance. That was great. It definitely was going to make shopping way faster, that¡¯s for sure.


    I asked my sales associate, Fox Man if he wouldn¡¯t mind giving me a minute. The fox man nodded, and then, just to make sure I had the right of it, I asked, ¡°Does everyone who entered the shop have their own private experience?¡± The Fox Man assured me that, yes, everyone would experience their own shop instance as they entered, eliminating the need for wait times.


    I thanked the Fox Man for the helpful information and left the shop. Once outside, I saw that at least 50 people were still waiting in line. Frank was playing bouncer, and Devin was helping him out the best he could. I walked over and told them what I¡¯d just learned about the shop, and we let the people flow in. Devin and Frank were pretty excited about the news, too, because that meant they didn¡¯t need to police the line and could also check out the shops¡¯ wares.


    We walked back over to the shop entrance together, and all walked inside. I was alone again in my own instance of the shop with the same Fox Man behind the counter.


    ¡°Back again, I see.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re on a recently integrated planet, and you¡¯re the first, I guess, alien I¡¯ve met that isn¡¯t trying to kill me, so please forgive me if I¡¯m a little new to this whole thing.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s perfectly understandable, sir. I will guide you through our options to the best of my abilities. If you are looking to buy or sell, we offer fair prices for almost everything. What is it I may assist you with today?¡± The Fox Man said.


    ¡°Well, first off, thank you, and I appreciate it. Umm¡­yeah, that sounds good. I¡¯m looking to sell a bunch of stuff, and then I¡¯m probably gonna want to buy some stuff as well if I make enough coin from my sales.¡± I said


    ¡°Understandable, sir. Would you be looking to trade these items for store credit or galactic credits? I¡¯ll let you know now that trading for store credit would probably be better in your situation. With that said, which items were you looking to put up for sale?¡±


    I showed the shop clerk the weapons I was looking to get rid of and the other items I was trying to sell, like the medicine-like things we kept finding on the Caprainkis and all the random furniture and stuff I¡¯d taken from the dungeon over the course of my runs. No one had wanted to risk taking any of the Caprainkis med packs stuff, so we had a lot of them just sitting around. Hopefully, it wasn¡¯t just trash, and I¡¯d get something for it.


    In total, I was offered 1,245 galactic credits for my hall or 3,000 HSV credits, ¡°humanoid support ventures¡± credits. I decided to go with the 3000 HSV credits. I definitely wasn¡¯t going to be rich after this sale, but the HSV credits just seemed like a way better deal. It¡¯s not like I would find anywhere else to use Galactic Credits right now, so the shop¡¯s credits were acceptable for now. I told the clerk as much, and he smiled and said,


    ¡°Excellent choice, sir. Would you like me to assist you in finding something that might suit your needs?¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me. What were you thinking?¡± I said.


    ¡°Well, what weapon do you use primarily?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been using a halberd as of lately. I used to use a spear, so I guess pole arms,¡± I told the Fox Man.


    ¡°Excellent indeed, you are correct. Pole arms would be the proper category. It also appears that you¡¯re in need of a proper suit of armor. That armor doesn¡¯t look like it was made for you, either. If I may be so bold, sir?¡±


    ¡°What did you have in mind? And apologies, but I just realized I never asked you your name. You got one?¡± I asked the guy


    ¡°Yes, sir, my name is Braxin. What might my new customer¡¯s name be?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Travis. Nice to meet you.¡±


    ¡°The pleasure is all mine, sir. It¡¯s Nice to make your acquaintance, Master Travis. Would you like to proceed to the gear I would suggest?¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, what you got for me?¡±


    ¡°Well, first, I would suggest a nano weave protective slim suit. This suit is self-repairing as long as you have Mana to support it, and it will offer a decent amount of protection while remaining lightweight and highly flexible. It also gives plus one to Dexterity and constitution. I would also recommend the light body plate armor set. The light body plate armor is much more durable than the nano weave protective slim suit and can be worn on top of it. It is only a partial covering, leaving you with plenty of mobile. The set comes with a chest plate, upper arm guards, upper thigh guards, and a codpiece. This armor set also gives you plus one to constitution.


    The last thing I suggest is a weapon called a Teremnocal. It looks similar to a weapon from your world known as a Glaive. This weapon is longer than the Glaive from your world, however. The weapon¡¯s shaft is seven feet long, and the weapon¡¯s head weighs more than fifty pounds. With your strength stats, you should be able to use this weapon without any trouble, at least due to its weight.¡±


    The Fox Man stopped talking and coughed awkwardly, and then he continued. ¡°The Teremnocal originates from a planet at constant war with itself. The people of this planet are taller and much stronger than your people, and from birth, they eat, sleep, and breathe battle. The Teremnocal was traditionally a weapon of the Nobel class from one kingdom on this planet and was the primary dueling weapon in the Nobel class. It is a weapon of honor. As such, they were always beautiful but deadly weapons of war.


    With everything, your total would be 2,700 HSV credits. We also offer a training manual for the Teremnocal. It does cost 145 HSV credits, so I understand if you would like to proceed with the perch as is. Would you be interested in any or all of these items today, Master Travis?¡±


    Wow, holy shit, that was a lot to take in. I was probably going to buy everything Braxin had suggested, but I decided to have a look for myself.


    ¡°Is there any way to look at all the goods you have for sale?¡± I asked the Fox Man.


    ¡°Of course, Master Travis, if you would direct your focus to the bookshelf you passed on your way in.¡± I turned, and yep, there was the small bookshelf.


    ¡°that one,¡± I asked and pointed.


    ¡°Precisely, sir, each book covers a category of items that we stock. If you would like to peruse our stock, I would suggest looking through those.¡± I walked over to the little shelf and picked up one of the books. The title read A-D. I opened the book and found the table of contents. The table of contents was four pages long and probably written in size eight font, super tiny.


    When I found the section for boots, I put my finger on the word and was going to find the page number. As soon as my finger touched the word boots, the pages started flipping on their own to the section on boots. I had to pull my finger away rather quickly, and still, I almost got my finger smacked by the flipping pages.


    ¡°Shit!¡±


    ¡°How¡¯s it going over there, Master Travis? Find anything to your liking?¡± honestly, the amount of information in front of me was staggering. There were a bunch more books, too. It would take forever to go through them all. It was probably an intentional sales tactic, which definitely worked on me. With that thought, I closed the book and returned to the Fox Man.


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Think I¡¯m gonna just go with the items you have suggested, Braxin. Thanks for the assistance.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s my job, Master Travis. I¡¯m happy to be of service.¡± I paid Braxin through my new gear and remaining SVH credits into one of my newly emptied bags of holding and headed out, thanking the Fox Man once again as I let the door close behind me. As the days passed, people started getting used to gaining levels. Janet, Beth, and I were all at Level thirteen, and most of the citizens of Tree House Village were around Level five. Janet, Beth, and I had each gained a new ability at Level thirteen as well, but the experience from our dungeon runs definitely dropped with each dive.


    The ability Beth received was called Shift. It was a movement-based ability. It allowed her to shift her position without moving or lifting her feet. She could move in any direction about a foot. However, in our dives into the dungeon after she acquired the ability, she was almost untouchable. The ability cost very little, Mana, and she would use it at the last moment, avoiding attacks with ease. It quickly became one of her favorite moves.


    The ability Janet acquired was a crowd control move called Mighty Roar. When activated, it used stamina and a small amount of Mana to infuse her voice so that when heard by her enemies, it made them feel an overwhelming sense to attack her at all costs. It was a useful ability in the dungeon, but I could see it going bad if she used it, and we got overwhelmed by monsters too strong to deal with. It must have worked on her intentions as well because it only affected the creatures and people she considered enemies.


    I acquired the ability Quick Strike. Quick allowed me to use seventy-five Mana and ten stamina to energize my arms into almost a seizure-type state in which I would strike out with my pole arm in rapid succession. It was a nice combo to pull on someone right after using Step Lightly. It was a great surprise attack, and I was quickly getting used to my new ability.


    We had also gained quite a few stat points with our new levels, and I felt pretty happy about it. I could see and hear so much better, and I even felt like my instincts were getting sharper as well. All in all, we were on our way to creating a capable fighting force. That is, of course, if we get enough time un-harassed by any significant threats in the near future.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 13


    Race: Human


    Class: Path of the Pole Arm


    Experience needed to next Level: 16,850/17,740 XP till next Level.


    Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    First in the world to


    complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)


    Resistances:


    Element of fire 5%


    Strength: 41


    Dexterity: 36


    Intelligence: 27


    Wisdom: 28


    Constitution: 33


    Luck: 22


    Class sheet


    Path of the pole Arm


    Level 1:


    Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus three stat points to Dexterity each level up.


    Abilities:


    Step Lightly


    When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting 50 mana and 20 stamina to activate.


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten Mana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Quick Strike:


    When activated, Quick Strike at the cost of seventy-five Mana and ten Mana energizes your arms into almost a seizure-type state. This causes you to strike out with your pole arm many times in rapid succession.


    Beth Holloway¡¯s


    Level: 13


    Race: Human


    Class: Fledgling knight


    Experience needed to next Level: 15,995/17,740 XP till next Level.


    Titles:


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    First in the world to:


    Complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)


    Strength: 39


    Dexterity: 30


    Intelligence: 27


    Wisdom: 24


    Constitution: 38


    Luck: 17


    Class sheet


    Fledgling knight


    Level 1:


    Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus three stat points to constitution each level up.


    Abilities:


    All for One:


    When activated, it gives you the stats of every ally in a ten-foot diameter added to your own for thirty seconds. Your movement speed severely decreased during the duration of the abilities activation. -30% to movement speed when activated. At the cost of ten Mana and forty Stamina.


    Shield Bash:


    When activated, slam your shield towards your opponent, releasing a wall of force that would push an additional five feet with an area of ten feet by 8 feet, which can be activated once per minute at the cost of fifty Mana.


    Shift:


    When activated, it allows you to shift your position without moving or lifting your feet. Move one foot in any direction at the cost of forty Mana and fifteen Stamina.


    Janet Katz Stat. Sheet


    Level: 13


    Race: Human


    Class: Brawler


    Experience needed to next Level: 16,140/17,740 XP till next Level.


    Titles:


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    First in the world to:


    Complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)


    Strength: 44


    Dexterity: 30


    Intelligence: 27


    Wisdom: 26


    Constitution: 33


    Luck: 18


    Class sheet


    Brawler


    Level 1:


    Plus four stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus one stat points to Constitution each Level up.


    Abilities:


    I¡¯m so Strong:


    When activated, use one point of wisdom and one point of intelligence and trade them to add one point into strength for a duration of five minutes.


    Empower Strike:


    When activated, empowers your strikes with a burst of force right before impacting the target, making your strikes hit harder and deal more damage for her next three strikes at the cost of forty-five Stamina and ten Mana.


    Mighty Roar:


    When activated, use forty stamina and twenty Mana to infuse your voice so that when heard by her enemies, they feel an overwhelming sense to attack her at all costs.


    Frank, Devin, Brianna, Tess, and Rich were all Level Nine, and Level Ten would happen any day now for them. It was going to get interesting with more people getting classes. With all this leveling going on in Tree House Village, that month deadline only took us three weeks, and we planned a party to celebrate the outstanding achievement and all the hard work it took to get to this point. Beth had been mingling with the people from hell. That¡¯s what the people who had been held as prisoners started referring to that time.


    She had been treated with caution at first, having short conversations with people here and there, but after only a little while, they had really opened up to her. Most of the people from hell were friendly with her by now, if not downright talkative.


    Beth came back one day from a walk about the village. She had sat down next to Janet and me and let out a huge sigh.


    ¡°Dam, you good?¡± Janet asked Beth.


    ¡°Yeah, everything¡¯s going really well. I really couldn¡¯t have asked for more for those people. What they survived really does sound like hell. At first, the stories were ripping me apart, and it was hard to talk with them without crying. Now, I see it for what it really is. They are freeing themselves from what happened by sharing their stories with me, and I genuinely value their stories now.


    However, this one older woman talks my ear off every time I see her. It¡¯s driving me crazy. It¡¯s always about shit that makes no sense like I hope my brother keeps the cat, or You would like my son. He¡¯s so strong one time he¡­. And on and on like that for, like, I think it was forty-five minutes yesterday. I can¡¯t do it.¡± Beth sighed in frustration as she finished speaking. Janet and I looked at each other and then back at Beth and just started laughing.


    ¡°Glad I¡¯m not in charge,¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Yeah, dodged a bullet, you feel me,¡± I told Janet. We high-fived and just kept laughing.


    ¡°You guys suck,¡± Beth said.


    The day finally came when we were going to put up the housing. We had piled all our trash into a giant heap where the large housing unit would be placed. People were getting excited. You could feel it in the air. The citizens of Tree House Village were cooking whatever they could manage to make over open flames. We didn¡¯t have any ovens or stoves, and I was surprised by what people could accomplish with such limited resources.


    We had to organize some scavenging parties to get everything people wanted for the night, and we still left some people wanting. The main element of most people¡¯s requests was lots and lots of alcohol. I mean, that was basically all we got on one run. It was gonna be a fun night if nothing went wrong.


    Everybody seemed to be in a good mood, and the air was thick with the smell of food cooking and the sound of people enjoying themselves. We had built a small stage in front of the area where we would be placing the new building, and it was scheduled so that the ceremony would start at 3 pm.


    Afterward, we would assign rooms, and then the party would begin. It was about 2:45 pm, and there was a crowd gathering. The plan was that Janet, Beth, and I would walk out, Janet and I holding a ribbon. Beth would say a few words, then Janet and I would hold the ribbon up, and Beth would cut it. This would signify the grand opening of the new housing units.


    ¡°You ready, Beth?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Fuck no, but I¡¯m doing it. Come too far to back out now, right?¡± Beth said back at me.


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right,¡± I answered her. Janet just looked at Beth and told her,


    ¡°You¡¯re gonna be fine. Can¡¯t be more intimidating than the boss guy, right?¡± Janet asked her.


    ¡°Think I¡¯d rather fight the boss again right now,¡± Beth told us. Janet laughed, and I just smiled at Beth.


    ¡°You got this. Let¡¯s get out there and give these people a place to call home again.¡± Beth smiled, exhaled, and the three of us walked out onto the stage. The crowd cheered when they saw Beth walk out. After allowing the applause to go on for a few moments, Beth raised her hands to quiet the crowd, and in moments, all eyes were on Beth.


    I saw her gulp, and then Beth started her speech. ¡°Good people of Tree House Village, I know that many of you have been hurt, many of you have lost someone dear to you, but today is a small step in the direction of defiance. We will live. We won¡¯t just survive. We will thrive in this new world. It may have tried to kill us or make us tremble in fear, but no longer.


    In founding this village today, we have taken the first step in taming this earth once again. We shall prevail in this, and we shall flourish. Pray for those we¡¯ve lost and remember them, but fight for them. We will never let those who fell be forgotten. So, I tell you now, fight, survive, grow in power, and we shall never be victims again!¡±


    Everyone cheered, and then Beth stepped forward to cut the ribbon. As she did, a loud bomb rang out, and then Beth was knocked to the ground.

 Chapter 21 - Roses are red, and betrayal is bloody

    Chapter 21


    Roses are red, and betrayal is bloody


    I immediately activated Pinpoint, and that hyper-focused state filled my brain. I looked out past the crowd to the walls. I couldn¡¯t make out the shooter, but then there was a glint of something, a reflection, and I was off. My stats were crazy now, and I made the hundred-yard dash to the wall in about ten seconds. When I was about ten feet from the wall, I jumped and landed on the ramparts. I looked out at the foliage beyond the wall, and about forty feet out, two figures were running at a full sprint. I, however, had been practicing throwing spears a lot recently, so I pulled a spear from my bag of holding, cocked back my arm, and launched it at one of the silhouettes.


    With Pinpoint active and my stats being what they were, I hit my target dead on in the center of its back, and the figure dropped, not moving. I pulled a second spear from my bag and let it fly at the other silhouette still running. It was gonna be close, but yes, there it was. I didn¡¯t hit the figure like the first, but it did look like I got the person. The silhouette had fallen but had got back up and tried to hobble away.


    I jumped down from the top of the wall and made my way over to where the silhouettes had fallen, and sure enough, I knew them or, well, one of them for sure. The person who had taken the spear to the back and had died immediately was some guy in military fatigues, and about twenty feet beyond him was Rose. The spear I had hit her with had landed in the back of her upper thigh. It looked like she had pulled the spear free of her leg, but that might have fucked her.


    She was crawling across the grass, dragging her leg behind her. I could hear that every moment was causing her great pain, but she still was trying to get away. I walked over to where she was struggling on the ground, and when I got beside her, she looked up at me. Tears were falling from her face, and she was starting to go pale from the blood loss. Rose still managed to spit at me.


    ¡°You know he¡¯s dead? Once you shattered his hand, he never truly recovered. We were attacked by monsters a few days after we left, and Brad was killed. Are you fucking happy now you fucking killed him. That¡¯s what you did, you fucking monster.¡± I let Rose finish what she had to say.


    Then Rose started screaming profanity at me. Before I let myself think about it too much, I swiped my Teremnocal down, and her head was freed from her body.


    I took my time walking back to the walls. When I reached the wall, I walked alongside it till I came to one of the two gates. As I reached the gate, a guard atop the wall opened it. When I returned to where the ceremony was being held, I saw that the housing building was up, and most people were checking out their new homes. Beth and Janet were waiting outside for me when I walked up.


    ¡°Beth, you good?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Yeah, didn¡¯t even puncture my new armor. It just knocked me down. I¡¯m okay. Did you figure out who shot at us?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it was fucking Rose and another guy I recognized from the people who left with her. They¡¯re both dead now.¡± I told the ladies.


    ¡°That fucking bitch, buut no Brad?¡± Janet said.


    "Apparently, Brad died shortly after they left us," I told the two of them.


    "Fuck! Well, good riddance," said Janet.


    "Janet! We may not have liked the man, but a monster still killed him. That''s no way to go, even for him," Beth said. Janet looked a little abashed now. Beth slapped Janet¡¯s arm lightly, and then she nodded at me.


    ¡°Good work, Travis. Thanks again for reacting so fast, people started freaking out for a second there, but when you ran off to deal with it personally, most people calmed down. They have almost too much faith in us. It¡¯s definitely a strange feeling. All I did was stand back up and dust myself off. Then I told them that you were going to deal with the problem. That seemed to calm everyone down. Then we put the building up, and everyone got their keys. Most of the citizens are checking out their new homes.¡± Beth said.


    ¡°Do you think we¡¯ll get more trouble from Roses and Brad''s Group now that they''re both dead?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°Honestly, I really don¡¯t think so. This would have been a more serious altercation if Brad had also been here, as well as the rest of their people. Now, I¡¯m not saying killing every last one of them wouldn¡¯t be a piece of cake cuz it for sure would be. I don¡¯t think they would have let her take this mission alone if she still had their support. I don¡¯t know. Whatever that was, it¡¯s over now, so I say let the party begin.¡± I answered Janet.


    ¡°Fuck yeah, now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about! Let¡¯s get radically drunk!¡± Janet said. Beth and I laughed at Janet, but she did have the right attitude. Janet must be prophetic because that¡¯s pretty much exactly how the night went down. The party actually ended early for most people.


    The people of Tree House Village were tired. They had pushed hard these last three weeks. They got good and drunk then, knowing they had a super nice bed to sleep in for the first time since the integration when to get a good night¡¯s sleep. This was also the first most people had felt safe since the integration. Not everyone, however, was willing to call it an early night. Most of the fighters and a few of the non-combatants were still trying to get fucked up. It seemed to me most of the people looking to get fucked up were dealing with some inner demons, and sleep wouldn¡¯t be an escape. The generally agreed-upon practice for dealing with said demons was to drown one¡¯s selves in liquor till unconsciousness, and most looked like they were doing just that.


    The funniest thing was that when we started drinking, we only had so many bottles, but as the night went on and bottles emptied, more seemed to just appear, as if out of nowhere. So, people were holding liquor hu? Yeah, I couldn¡¯t blame them. I still had a case of Tito¡¯s in my bag of holding, but I was going through it faster than I would have liked.


    Three days had passed since the incident with Rose when a runner from the wall found Janet, Beth, and myself eating lunch. She explained that a large group was heading towards the compound and that she thought it might be some of the people who had left with Brad and Rose. We made our way to the wall and climbed up onto the ramparts. By the time we were standing on the ramparts, the group was about a hundred yards out.


    Thanks to my stats, I could tell who the group was even from that distance. It was the group that had left with Brad and Rose. They seemed a little worse for the wear, but it was hard to tell from a distance. They were missing a fair amount of people from when they¡¯d left, and everyone looked like they had been beaten to shit.


    As the group made their way closer to us, I could see that every person in the group¡¯s clothing was torn and blood-soaked, their eyes hollow and gaunt.


    ¡°Shit,¡± I hear Beth say.


    ¡°You see it too?¡± I asked Beth at her exclamation.


    ¡°Yeah, looks like Brad and Roses''s people, but there¡¯s a lot less of them than when they left, and they look like someone or some things beat the living shit out of them,¡± Beth said.


    ¡°That¡¯s hard to do in our new reality with healing being as fast as it is, you would think¡­¡± I commented.


    ¡°Yeah, I know, true. What the fuck are we going to do about this? They¡¯re all probably still at low levels, and raising even more people up might kill us all. We haven¡¯t had to face any major threats to the village, which might be a good thing, but it also might be dangerous. If our fighters are untested and don¡¯t have the levels, we may get overrun by the first powerful monster or a swarm that comes for us. We could likely survive a situation like that, but everyone else would be dead meat.¡± I finished leaving Beth and Janet to think about what I¡¯d said.


    ¡°Well, for now, let¡¯s welcome them in and give them some shelter for the night. It might be the only thing we end up doing for these people. We¡¯ll have to talk to them and suss out the situation.¡± Beth said and then started heading towards the gate.


    ¡°This is going to get messy. I just have that feeling,¡± I said to Janet as we started following Beth down from the wall. What was left of Brad and Roses''s people looked even worse up close, and their eyes were hollow and cold. ¡°What the fuck happened?¡± I said under my breath to no one in particular. I wasn¡¯t expecting an answer when a man who had walked up near me answered my quarry.


    ¡°And we¡¯re the lucky ones. The others stayed behind to give us time to run, but no one from that group made it. I didn¡¯t even see the thing. They just said run, and we ran. It was only about five minutes into our escape that something¡­ I don¡¯t know. I passed out, I think, but there was pain, so much pain. I don¡¯t know how long the pain lasted, but it felt like hours had passed, and then I woke up. I don¡¯t know why they left us alive or how we all ended up beaten to shit. Most were like me, fucked up, but some, some were dead, and there was blood coming from everywhere, man. The blood was coming out of their eyes, mouths, ears every were.¡±


    The next thing I knew, the man was grabbing at my shirt. ¡°Please, we need to run. We need to get away, far away. We came to warn you. Everyone must run from here as fast as they can. It¡¯s coming, I don¡¯t know what, but it¡¯s coming!¡± By the end, the man was screaming, and his eyes looked panicked. I had to hit the man on the back of the neck, not hard, but just enough to knock him out. The people around us looked scared for a second, thinking I might have just killed one of them, but after they heard the man snoring, things calmed down.


    Beth had been standing close and had heard the man¡¯s words. ¡°Sounds like a mental attack or some kind of invasive telepathy, but that wouldn¡¯t explain the beating. This might be¡­ well, let¡¯s just go with not good, Travis.¡± Beth told me as Janet had a look of concern on her face.


    ¡°We should find out how far away they set up camp after leaving us,¡± I said. Beth and Janet both nodded and then I hosted the man I had just knocked out over my shoulder. I continued to help get our new residents settled. We had decided that, for now, we would set up a makeshift camp for the newcomers in the area we had used for sleeping before we bought the new housing.


    Things went well. None of them had the will or strength to fight us as we got them situated. They were just letting us help them find a place to rest, and then they ate and drank what we gave them without complaint. I had a feeling that would change after they started recovering, but they were pretty docile for now. We set up a guard rotation to watch them. Then, just let them sleep. Then we were off to bed.


    Beth had to handle some town stuff the following day, so Janet and I decided to go check on our new people. Janet and I had been helping pass out breakfast when I saw Janet having a conversation with an attractive young woman. When I walked over, Janet had her hand on the woman¡¯s arm and was in the middle of what looked to be a deep conversation.


    I watched Janet slip the woman a small glass bottle of what looked like vodka, then place her hand back on the woman¡¯s leg. At that point, Janet looked up and noticed I was walking over to the two of them. Janet smiled at me. As I reached the two of them, Janet introduced me to the woman she was talking to. Her name was Trish.


    Trish was a cute strawberry blond with a lean body and almost rock climber-type muscles. She looked like she would be 5¡¯7¡± if she stood up. Trish had a soft smile that was slow to show itself, and after all the recent trauma she¡¯d been through, I could understand why. At least Trish seemed like one of the ones who hadn¡¯t lost all hope. Some of the others in her group looked like they were dead but just didn¡¯t know it yet.


    Janet said goodbye to her new friend, and we continued helping our new citizens. Around lunchtime, Janet, Beth, Frank, Devin, Tess, Brianna, and Rich sat down for our daily meeting. We started implementing them after a miscommunication about a room, and Beth was left to deal with two angry families yelling at her. She had put her foot down and set a daily meeting to avoid future incidents.


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    We had all agreed, and the council of Three House Village now had regular meetings. This meeting was about what we were going to do with the new members of the village. Brianna was pissed at them. Right off the bat, she clearly let everyone in the meeting know her feelings on the issue.


    ¡°Fuck them! Who the fuck do they think they are! They basically told us to go fuck off ourselves when they left. Now when they¡¯re all fucked up and in trouble, they come crawling back begging for help! Like I said, fuck them! They probably led the fucking thing that fucked them up right back here. I say we just kick them out and say tough shit, figure it out.¡±


    Brianna then crossed her arms and looked at us as if daring us to argue the point. I looked around the small room, and it looked like everyone was thinking about what Brianna had just said.


    ¡°I agree with Brianna,¡± I said to the room. Everyone turned and looked at me.


    ¡°Not for the same reasons. I¡¯m less petty than Brianna, I think.¡± Brianna flicked me off.


    ¡°My first issue is that they are all low level and well, I don¡¯t trust them. Almost everyone in Tree House Village is level five except for some non-combatants, but even most of them were level four. In my opinion, we¡¯ve been fortunate so far that our little town hasn¡¯t been attacked by any monsters with levels we couldn¡¯t deal with. If we don¡¯t get more people to level ten, get them classes, and get them battle-ready, I fear we will end up in that very position. Overrun and dead.¡± I said


    ¡°What¡¯s your point, Travis?¡± Rich asked me, looking slightly confused.


    ¡°I think we need to get rid of them. Not just kick them out because that will bring enmity toward us. Now, this may be an unpopular option, but I think we should ask them to leave and then kill them all once they are out of sight of the walls. I will personally deal with the issue myself.¡± I said.


    Silence filled the room as everyone thought about the implications of my words. Janet just stared at me with a blank look on her face as I turned to Rich, Brianna, Devin, Tess, and Frank. I know these people were once part of your force before the split. Do any of you have a problem with my plan?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°I don¡¯t give a fuck,¡± said Brianna.


    ¡°You¡¯re asking if we have a problem with you massacring nearly twenty-five people?¡± Frank asked me questioningly. I met Franks¡¯s eyes and just said,


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± Frank had a deep frown on his face, and it looked like he was thinking hard. Then, out of nowhere, Frank stood up.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do this, these big decisions, talking about who lives who dies. It¡¯s just not for me. I just want to take care of my kid. I never signed up for this, and I don¡¯t want it. I don¡¯t want the power. I won¡¯t tell anyone about your plans, and I won¡¯t cause trouble. I just can¡¯t do it.¡± Rich and Devin tried to placate the man. Try to stop him from leaving. Frank just said it was okay, pushed past them, and walked out of the room.


    ¡°Well fuck. Is this what we¡¯re doing then?¡± Brianna said without a sense of remorse. ¡°We didn¡¯t vote on anything yet, and I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m entirely comfortable just killing them. Travis, don¡¯t you think that¡¯s a bit of an overreaction,¡± asked Tess.


    ¡°Not really, I think¡­¡± I didn¡¯t get to finish my thought as Beth cut me off.


    ¡°Let¡¯s calm down a second. I would like to consider all our options before we, as Frank put it, just massacre approximately twenty-five people,¡± Beth stated to the council.


    ¡°Look, I understand Travis¡¯s point, and kicking them out would certainly breed hostility between our two groups. I don¡¯t see that going well, especially since they¡¯ve seen what we have built here. So, I think the decision is between letting them stay and become a part of Tree House Village or, and I hate to say this, we can¡¯t go with Travis¡¯s idea.¡± Devin said to the group.


    Everyone was silent until Beth said, ¡°Let¡¯s see how the rest of today goes. Once they have the strength to cause trouble, we¡¯ll see if they do and go from there. I would prefer they join us and we all become one big happy family, but I know some people in that group won¡¯t make it that easy. We might determine that some should be asked to leave and some allowed to stay. Giving these people time to show their true colors will help us make that decision.


    Brianna rolled her eyes but then caught Beth''s gaze and nodded at her. Everyone seemed to agree with Beth¡¯s assessment of the situation, and we moved on to other topics. I knew even though we had moved on from the topic. Everyone was still thinking about the decisions that would have to be made sooner than later. We didn¡¯t have to wait long, either.


    After about three days, Rich found and stopped about ten people trying to steal food from our storehouse. Well, it wasn¡¯t an actual storage building that cost build points, and those were too precious at the moment to use on a storage shed, or at least that was the decision made by the council. I felt it definitely had its advantages, for example, prolonging the life of goods stored within, but the rest of the council didn¡¯t see it as a priority. I wasn¡¯t going to push the issue. There were far more important things to worry about.


    The ten people Rich found were asked to gather their belongings, if they had any, and leave Tree House Village as soon as possible. The thieves were given a supervised moment to say goodbye to their friends, at which most of Roses¡¯s people joined the forced exodus in solidarity. All told, another seventeen people joined the group and left. Janet¡¯s friend Trish was not among them. Trish was part of a small group of only ten people that stayed with us. I think they had decided that Tree House Village was the safest place they would find, and safety for these people overruled group mentality.


    Beth shot me a look as the twenty-seven people passed through the gate, and I slipped away unnoticed. I made it over the wall without anyone seeing me. We would have to increase our patrol, and I followed the group from a safe, unseen distance as they headed down the road away from our compound and in the opposite direction they had come from. I let them walk for about thirty minutes, and then I began disappearing people from the back of the group one by one.


    I had killed six people before anyone noticed people were going missing, but once that happened, the group started to panic. They must have thought they were being stocked by a monster or something because the group huddled up and had someone watching in every direction after that as they continued on. It definitely slowed their paste down quite a bit. There was no way to pick them off one at a time now. I would have to use some of my abilities to end this quickly.


    I made my way around the group and climbed onto the roof of a building I knew the group would walk past. I stood there and waited. As I stood there waiting, I started thinking about what I was about to do. I knew this was for the safety of the village, hell this was my fucking idea, but actually, being here at this moment was terrible. I felt like I had to take a shit really bad, and II was sweating so much II kept wiping my hands on my pants.


    They were getting closer now, and I was rapidly approaching the point of no return. I thought about everyone who was counting on me, the people who had suffered under the hands of those mad max assholes, and all the people that still need our help and need Treehouse to stay a safe place. Even if this seems like cruel and brutal cold-blooded murder, I couldn¡¯t lose my nerve. Beth and Janet were counting on me to keep the village safe. If I have to tarnish my sole to do so, then so be it. Better me than them. I shook my head to ready myself because the group was almost in the target zone.


    When they were directly beneath me, I activated Pinpoint and dropped off the roof. I felt super badass and, at the same time, awful for thinking so, as I just stepped off the roof. I dropped and landed with an easy bend of the knees in the center of the group. As I landed, I activated Step Lightly and Quick Strike simultaneously. I made a quick circuit of the group, and as I returned to where I started, every last member of the group fell to the ground, dead.


    There had been a teenager with the group. About half of the group had been women, but there was no time for remorse. If I focused too long on what I¡¯d just done, I¡¯d probably cry and lose my shit, but after everything I had experienced in this new world of ours, there just wasn¡¯t room for those thoughts. The world was a hard place now, and that was just the way it was.


    We would all have to get used to our new world together, but this, this day, the ones I killed here, that would be my burden to carry, and I would gladly carry it for the people I have to protect, for the people of Tree House Village. When I returned to the village, I found Beth and told her it was done. All she said was thank you. That was the last we spoke of it.


    The next three weeks were pretty much what had become the usual routine. Keep pushing people through the dungeon, having lunch meetings with the council, and spending most nights with Janet. On the first day of the third week, since I had executed Roses people. I had been going about my day as usual, but I started looking for Janet when the evening came. I felt like I hadn¡¯t seen her all day and then realized It had been a week or so since we had sex.


    It wasn¡¯t a big deal. It wasn¡¯t like we were dating or anything. I hadn¡¯t even realized I¡¯d been so busy recently. I hoped everything was okay. I decided that I should go and surprise Janet with something special. I had found a bottle of champagne on a scavenging trip and was saving it so Janet and I could enjoy it together. I grabbed the bottle and headed over to Janet¡¯s apartment. We decided not to share a place cuz Janet and I weren¡¯t officially anything, and we both agreed that we would like to have our own space even though we slept in the same bed most nights.


    I got to Janet¡¯s door and knocked. I thought I heard voices from inside, so I figured she was probably talking to someone and must have missed my knock. I turned the doorknob, and the door was unlocked, so I let myself in. I walked in, and there was Janet on the couch naked. Trish was there as well, also naked, and let¡¯s just say they weren¡¯t playing Twister.


    I could feel my face turning red, and then I realized I was just standing there staring, so I turned, walked out, and closed the door behind me. I heard the sound of rapid movement from behind the door, but I had already started walking down the hallway back to my room. I didn¡¯t comprehend what I had just walked in on, but my brain was slowly catching up.


    Fuck, Janet and Trish? Go figure, I didn¡¯t know Janet liked girls, too. I only made it about fifteen feet down the hallway before Janet¡¯s door opened. Janet popped out in shorts and a T-shirt. She saw me and kind of ran/walked down the hallway towards me. I stopped after I saw she was moving my way.


    ¡°Hey,¡± I said.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she said back.


    ¡°So, you and Trish,¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Well, yeah, I guess. It kind of just happened, you know. We¡¯re not exclusive, so I figured, well, I don¡¯t know, I just¡­ we just started, and I mean, I should have told you Travis.¡± Janet said. She looked like she thought I would be mad about it, and when I saw her face, I had to think about what I was feeling.


    Was I jealous? Maybe a little, but as I thought about what I felt, I realized I was just sad that she didn¡¯t tell me due to fear of my reaction.


    ¡°You know, the more I think about it, the more I¡¯m just hurt you were too scared of my reaction to tell me. Even though it¡¯s really none of my business. Honestly, you and I were never a couple. We both needed someone. I care about you, Janet. I won''t get in the way if you want to be with someone else. I care about you as a friend, Janet. So you know, if you ever have girl troubles, I¡¯m down to talk it out.¡± I said.


    Janet looked visibly relieved, ¡°Good, okay, but you know I care about you too, Travis. Just know that I really do. You¡¯re probably my best friend, so I don¡¯t want to hurt you. I think that¡¯s probably why I didn¡¯t tell you. I¡¯m sorry,¡± Janet said.


    ¡°All good, Janet. So, are you a lesbian now?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Fuck you, Travis!¡± Janet said with a smile on her face. ¡°I can fuck whoever I want. It¡¯s the end of the fucking world,¡± she added, and we both laughed at that.


    ¡°Well, if you two ever want to have a threesome, I¡¯m in,¡± I said, and I winked at her. Janet blushed a little, then said,


    ¡°How about now? You in? Trish already told me she thinks you¡¯re cute.¡± Janet said with a challenging smile as if saying,


    ¡°Bring it on if you think you can handle it.¡± I gulped but couldn¡¯t back down now, even if I was just messing with her at first.


    ¡°Hey, if you¡¯re both into it, I¡¯m down. Should we show Trish what stamina and strength stats do for sex, or have you been teaching her?¡± Janet blushed hard at that, then threw it right back at me.


    ¡°Oh, I think we should show her,¡± Janet said, then gave me a devilish smile. That night was fun and definitely a bit awkward at first, but Trish, Janet, and I figured it out and had a great time. That¡¯s when I should have known that the shit was gonna hit the fan sooner than later.


    The day started just like any other. I woke up early as usual and went to walk the ramparts. It had become one of my daily rituals. I was level fourteen now, but gaining levels was getting harder and harder. For the most part, I had stopped running people through the dungeon, so my days were much more open now, and I had dedicated most of my free time to training. I was getting much better at using my abilities effectively and in combination.


    My skill with my abilities was getting better and better until even with Rich, Brianna, and Devin attacking me simultaneously, I could still win in a fight. Rich, Brianna, and Devin had taken over almost all of the dungeon runs, so they weren¡¯t around to train with me as much as I¡¯d like. They were all close to obtaining level ten, so hopefully, our training bouts would become more exciting again.


    I was almost done with my walk when I noticed someone headed down the road towards the village. I activated Pinpoint to get a better look, and it turned out it was only one person walking at a leisurely pace. I stood on the walls, watching as the man approached the village walls. As I said, he was going at a leisurely pace, so it took the man about fifteen minutes to make it up to the gate, at which point he took some deep breaths and dusted off his shirt and pants.


    The man looked as if he was in his mid-forties. He was dressed in clean yet road-worn clothing and kind of just looked like a regular guy you would have found walking in any city pre-integration. It didn¡¯t seem like he was in any rush, so I let him finish what he was doing. When the man was just standing there, seemingly waiting for something to happen, I dropped down from the top of the wall and landed in front of him. The man didn¡¯t look shocked as I appeared as if this was the moment he had been waiting for.


    ¡°Hello,¡± the man said.


    ¡°Um¡­Hello, what brings you to Tree House Village?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°Ah, an odd name for a town, but yes, why am I here? Straight to it then? Best way if you ask me.¡± He said with a rather disarming smile on his face.


    ¡°I would tend to agree and don¡¯t worry about the name of our village,¡± I said, and I was not smiling.


    ¡°Well. Here¡¯s the thing. My master, The master, is such a benevolent soul. He has agreed that if you surrender now and completely, he will only use half of you as sustenance, and the other half will live as I do. To provide for the great master and spread his glory. It may seem like an unfair choice now, but as you live for The Master, The Master lives for you. You will gain power and safety from the cruel world we have found ourselves in. Otherwise, The Master will come and use your entire settlement as nourishment. What do you say? Will you join us?¡±

 Chapter 22 - The Master?

    Chapter 22


    The Master?


    The man said all this with a winning smile plastered across his face. I stood there for a second, shocked at the bluntness of this man. Join or die. No, not even that. Join, and only some die or don¡¯t join, and everyone dies. Not really an appealing option either way. I finally found my voice through the shock and couldn¡¯t help it. I started laughing.


    ¡°Okay, wow, wasn¡¯t expecting that, if I¡¯m being totally honest, and The Master? You gotta be shitting me? You couldn¡¯t have been more unoriginal if you tried. I think you better go ahead and fuck right off. We¡¯re good, and if this ¡°master,¡± Goddam really the fucking Master, gives me a break, wants to come to get his or her ass kicked, then tell him to stop by, and I¡¯ll gladly kick the shit out of them. You know, thanks for stopping by. You¡¯re a pleasant fellow, and I got a good laugh out of your visit. Your gonna half to fuck right off with that bullshit, though.¡± I said to the man. I couldn¡¯t help but let out a few more chuckles and whipped my eyes.


    However, that did not seem like the answer the man was looking for because the smile plastered onto his face for most of the conversation had begun to fall. I mean, I did literally just tell the dude to fuck off. When I was done talking, he was one hundred percent giving me a dirty look, and when he spoke, he had lost the jovial tone of his voice. However, the smile was only off his face for a few moments, and the next second, it was plastered back across his face. Then he said,


    ¡°How sad. Another is to be added to the culling. Truly I thank you for your choice. With your deaths, The Master¡¯s power will grow. So I will not fault you for your choice, but thank you for donating to the cause.¡±


    The man then bowed at the waist, smiling the whole time. Then he turned and started walking back down the road from where he came. What the fuck was that? The Master? Like, what the fuck? Honestly, this doesn¡¯t sound great. It sounds like this, ¡°The Master¡± coming for use.


    Even if I killed that guy, it seems like he was just the messenger, and ¡°The master¡± already knows about us. So it probably would have been pointless, but maybe I should have just killed the guy to be safe. Fuck it either way, ¡°The Master¡± was coming. One thing that had been bothering me this whole time was that this Basic bitch, The Master was a master of what? Of all? Of being a basic bitch fuck that was annoying. The whole thing was interaction was pissing me off the more I thought about it. Fuck should have just killed that guy. Maybe It would have made me feel better, at least.


    I asked the guards to open the gate and to let me back in. Once back behind the walls, I walked over to Beth¡¯s room and knocked on the door. Devin opened it in his boxers, and I was a little shocked to see him in Beth¡¯s room so early and with such little clothing on. Then I put two and two together and realized that Devin and Beth were sleeping together.


    I had seen them together walking around the village, and they were spending a lot of time with one another. I thought that was just for council stuff, shit. I guess I missed that one.


    ¡°Hey, Devin, is Beth in there?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll let her know you¡¯re looking for her. Why don¡¯t you wait in the living room? Devin disappeared back into the master bedroom, and a couple of minutes later, Beth walked out. She was still putting her hair into a bun as we started talking. She led off by asking me what was happening and why I had woken her up before seven am. I was about to start telling her about the man I had just met. Then, I thought bout it and decided it might be good to get Devin¡¯s input if he was here already.


    Beth said he had gone back to sleep and we should just let him sleep. Beth said that he had a full day of dungeon runs ahead of him today. That was fine with me, so I told her about the weird experience I had just had and about this mysterious The Master character the guy had talked about.


    At first, Beth was quiet, and I could tell she was thinking. We sat in silence for about three or four minutes while Beth thought, then Beth spoke and fucking startled me when she did. Beth laughed and then apologized for scaring me. I said it was fine, and then Beth shared what she had been thinking.


    ¡°Well, first off, the man was extremely confident, so either this ¡°Master¡± is very strong or has some kind of mental sway or mind control over those who follow him. Maybe The Master is responsible for what happened to Rose¡¯s people? But I¡¯m getting on topic. Like, this guy shows up, and he¡¯s just okay with letting us all die? That¡¯s not a reaction I feel most humans would have. Especially not after so many of us died during the integration. I feel like most humans have an innate aversion to ending a life, and this man was just willing to let us all die.


    He either sees no way of escape due to this ¡°master¡¯s¡± strength or sees resistance as futile. That guy might be suffering from some kind of Stockholm syndrome. That¡¯s my best guess, at least. Either way, there probably is this ¡°Master,¡± and it looks like this ¡°Master¡± has set its sights on Tree House Village.¡± Beth finished. I had to think about what Beth had said. Beth made a lot of sense, and I had to admit that I was a little worried about this Master dude.


    That afternoon, we had a council meeting, and we agreed that sending out some advance scouts would definitely be beneficial. If this ¡°master¡± dude was actually coming for us. It would be best to have as much advanced warning as possible, and we didn¡¯t have to wait long. It was only about two weeks later that a scout missed a check-in. They waited an hour and then sent someone to check on him. When the scout came running into view thirty minutes later, we knew we had a problem headed our way.


    When the scout finally returned to the walls, Janet, Beth, Brianna, and I had already been notified and were waiting for him. We had to let the man catch his breath before he could explain what he had been running from. ¡°Hundreds. Hundreds of them all headed this way. Creatures of all kinds and so many. I¡¯ve never seen so many together. They¡¯re all swarming this way. You should be able to see them soon. The scout then turned to watch the horizon. It didn¡¯t look like the scout would continue talking, so we all turned, watched, and waited.


    The members of Tree House Village had been rising in level. The majority of the residents of the village were at level seven now. Brianna, Rich, Devin, Tess, and Frank had all reached level ten and had taken their classes. Brianna was a Scrapper and had abilities similar to Janet¡¯s. Rick and Devin had a class called Worrier, which gave pretty standard abilities that let them take more damage or control a crowd.


    Frank had picked a sum what controversial class, corpsman. Now, you would think the class would have something to do with necromancy, right? Wrong, totally wrong. It was a medical class. One of his two starting abilities had something to do with not being noticed during combat. So he could pull injured soldiers from the battlefield more easily. The other ability was a minor healing spell. The spell would not heal the person directly but would assist their body¡¯s natural regeneration rate to allow their own body to heal itself more efficiently.


    Tess also took a magic-based class as well. She had taken a class called Hedge Mage. Tess got two abilities with her class, just like everyone else, but they were all magical. She had an attack spell and a defensive spell. It turned out that Tess¡¯s class choice differed slightly from the rest of ours. First, when she had finally decided to go with the Hedge Mage class, she had chosen the class but was then prompted to select an element to specialize in.


    Tess had chosen the element of water, and I didn¡¯t know why at first. I would have gone with fire, personally. Who didn¡¯t want to throw fireballs around? When I asked Tess about it, she just told me that she had always loved the water. That she had always felt free and unburdened when she was on the sea. I didn¡¯t totally get it. I mean, I hated the water. Boats and I never really got along, but if it worked for her, that¡¯s all that mattered, right?


    Tess had an attack spell called Water Jet. Water Jet allowed Tess to summon a small amount of water and shoot said water at a target with enough power to cut through a thin piece of metal. I know because we tried it. When testing her abilities. Tess¡¯s defense ability was called Torrent Shield. This ability would summon a quickly spinning disc of water about five feet in diameter right in front of Tess. It would last as long as she had the Mana to sustain it, which was handy. The ability was pretty Mana intensive, but her shield could stop even a blow from my Teremnocal, leaving my weapon stuck fast halfway through the disc.


    Both Frank¡¯s and Tess¡¯s classes seemed like great choices, but Franks¡¯s ability to pull people out of battle unnoticed was only effective if he did not get involved with the fighting. As soon as Frank attacked someone, he would be revealed, and with his lack of offensive ability. In a serious fight, Frank would basically become a sitting duck.


    All told, I thought we had the makings of a reasonable fighting force. If we had another six months, we would have a genuinely deadly fighting force on our hands. As I watched the united group of monsters crest the horizon, I felt the breath catch in my throat. I was suddenly hit with a feeling of dread. Could we do this, or did I sign our death warrant? The wall of monster bodies stopped its approach about one hundred feet from our walls, and after a moment, I saw a familiar figure step forward, a winning smile on his face.


    It was that dam, smelling, fucking asshole. As I watched the man, he began to stroll towards our walls. That smile on his face was looking increasingly smug the closer he got. When he was in speaking range, he stopped and looked up at us at the wall.


    ¡°Hello, I¡¯m afraid the day has come, and it is now time for a decision to be made. You see what is before you, and you must now make a choice. This may be presumptuous of me, but you see the insurmountable force gathered before you. May I welcome you to the fold or¡­?¡± The man let his last word hang as if waiting for an answer.


    Beth had a looked on her face like she had just smelled something foul, and Janet just looked made, like she wanted to rip this guy a new asshole. I turned back to the man still just staring at us atop the walls. I decided I was done playing this game. I pulled a spear from one of my bags of holding, and without any abilities activated, it took only a second to pull my arm back and let it fly. My spear traveled fast, and before the man could move, my spear smacked right into the middle of his face. His face just kind of popped, and blood and brain matter went everywhere as I spear exited the out the back of the man¡¯s head.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯ll wipe that fucking smile off his fucking face. Piece of shit.¡± I spoke. Everyone near me on the wall turned and looked at me, shocked I¡¯d just killed this guy so quickly and without remorse. ¡°What? Fuck him. He was dead already. He just didn¡¯t know it yet. I just sped up the process.¡± I told them. Janet just smiled and shook her head. Beth just looked at me with a disapproving glare and then said,


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    ¡°what¡¯s done is done. Looks like we¡¯re gonna be in for a fight. Get our forces ready because here they come.¡± As she finished speaking, she pointed to the monster who had begun their charge. I looked at Beth and told her that Janet should rally the troops. I was going to give them some time to prepare. At that, I stepped off the wall, landing with barely a knee bend. I pulled my Teremnocal from my bag of holding as I fell, and once my feet touched the ground, I shot out toward the enemy.


    I cut into their front lines with my first strike, dropping half a dozen attackers with a single blow. Then I darted back out of range with Step Lightly, then darted back in, activating Quick Strike, dropping another dozen. I then repeated my hit-and-run strategy again and again. I was only one man against hundreds, but I was definitely dealing so serious damage.


    While I was retreating from my most recent attack, a creature must have caught my leg, and not only did it rip my leg up from mid-shin to upper thigh, but because I was mid-Quick Step, I was sent flying through the air. The only good part of the whole fucking thing was at least I was flying towards our walls.


    As I hit the wall hard, I might add, I was less happy. I dropped to the ground in a heap. That hurt. As I attempted to return to my feet, I could see the monster tide falling upon me. They were only thirty feet away and gaining fast. My leg was killing me, and standing was challenging but manageable. I readied myself for a fight as the hoard pressed towards me, but before I could do anything, a volley of arrows slammed into the front line of our enemy.


    Roars of pain ripped through the air. Then, as the creatures were still reeling from the first volley of arrows, a second followed. I stood there as monsters died all around me and just caught my breath for a second. I shoved a Senzuketa Bean in my mouth and took in the battle for a second. After the second volley of arrows, Janet and the rest of the council, excluding Beth, who was leading our troops from the walls, jumped off the wall and joined the fight along with ten of the highest-level members of our fighting force.


    When Janet and friends engaged the enemy, they laid into the monster violently. Monsters were dying all around me. As I was standing there in the middle of my hole, taking a second thing. I saw a small group of only about forty more humanoid-like creatures moving slowly through the carnage as discreetly as possible. As the small group made their way through the battlefield, the other creatures would hurry to get out of their way. If an arrow came their way, they would grab the closest creature and use it as a shield, showing little respect for the fodder.


    That was not good. These creatures looked like the elites of this force, and these other creatures were just clearing the way for them for the actual attack. I decided I had been out of the battle for long enough, and it was time to get back at it. I had just joined the attack again when a low wine filled the air, and the monsters began to retreat. This was strange because they had been attacking us ruthlessly until that point.


    As the force of creatures retreated, we did at Well, grouping up in front of the wall. Everyone could feel that something was off. It felt like being at the beach before a tsunami. I took a second to check on Janet, and she seemed to be doing okay. Janet had minor lacerations on every piece of exposed skin, and her armor looked like it had been thrown in a blender. Janet must have felt me looking at her because she met my gaze, and we nodded at each other.


    Janet popped a Senzuketa Bean and was then mirrored by the rest of the fighters with us. We were ready for another wave, and part of me just wanted to charge in and start the fight already, but that would be an excellent way to die if they were about to play their ace.


    The army of creatures finished their retreat and reformed their lines about fifty feet from our walls. We started to hear the sound of pounding feet. What came next took me utterly by surprise. Out from the buildings and streets flowed an army of humans. They flowed around and through the gathered creatures like a tide coming right at us.


    My eyes went wide with shock, and I could feel the people next to me, hesitant to attack another human. I believe this was the true purpose of using the humans against us, their hidden weapon. The humans were, I¡¯m sure, supposed to throw us off guard and make us hesitate, which was exactly what we were doing hesitating. I was the first to recover and started to plan my next moves when Beth, our commander of the archers on the wall, yelled fire, and a moment later, a volley of arrows slammed into the front line of oncoming humans.


    The arrows were devastating, but it wasn¡¯t hard to see why. First, all the humans were naked. Like, I mean no clothes at all. It seemed like every attacking human only had a weapon and nothing else. They seemed to be in pretty shit condition as well. Bruises, open wounds, and festering sores could all be seen. Some were starting to make it through the rain of arrows and were charging the walls.


    Now, it was our turn. I didn¡¯t feel okay with this fight. These people didn¡¯t look like willing participants. They looked like people that ¡°The Master¡± had taken and used them like slave labor. Maybe some kind of mind control? I didn¡¯t know, but right now, the fastest way to help them would be to end their misery. I darted at the incoming wave of mind fucked humans and cut into them with savage sorrow.


    They fell like blades of grass, and I was the scythe reaping. They must have all been below level five because they were so weak. It was making me more and more furious with every sole I took. This Master was going to die. I was going to end its life with my own two hands.


    When humans were lying dying all around us, the hoard re-engaged, and I had been slow to notice. Now, there was a creature right next to me, and I was about to take a heavy Paw to the face. I was too late to dodge. When the beast hit me in the face, it kind of hit me in the entire upper half of my body all at once and sent me flying back. I landed about ten feet from where I¡¯d been struck, and my world had just gotten rocked.


    If I were a loony toon, there would have been little birds flying around my head. ¡°Fuck, that fucking hurt!¡± My head was pounding, and I knew I had to get back on my feet soon, or I was gonna get myself killed. I was slowly making my way back to standing. I shook my head and looked at the battle, trying to find the bear thing that had attacked me. When I located the creature, Janet was fighting near it, and it was on the ground, dead and headless.


    I was glad I wasn¡¯t in this fight alone. I shook my head several times, then returned to the battle. Before I could decide where I could do the most damage, Janet made a massive leap back and landed next to me.


    ¡°Travis okay? Janet worries about Travis. Let know is okay?¡± Janet said. She must have been using her ability, I¡¯m so strong. Janet was sounding like cavewoman Janet again. I just gave her a thumbs up, and she smiled, then patted me on the back a little too hard. Janet and I were about to jump back into the fight when the elites made their move.


    All at once, the battle changed right in front of our eyes. The fodder seemed to have played its part and was now falling back as the elites moved in. The attack was swift and devastating. One second, we had a clear advantage. Even against so many opponents, they were falling dead all over the place.


    Then the tables were flipped, and every one of our elite had multiple heavy hitters to deal with simultaneously. The rapid change in pace was not something our elite could handle. This was the first large-scale engagement any of us had been a part of, and it showed in this moment.


    We lost seven fighters within the first few seconds. Rich tried to buy some time for the survivors to retreat and lost his life doing so. A creature caught him on the leg, and when he stumbled, he crashed to the ground. The other creature took full advantage and dragged him into their ranks. Brianna and Tess both screamed bloody murder and tried to cut their way to the man, but it was a fruitless effort, and Brianna had to retreat with Tess over her shoulder before they could reach the man¡¯s corpse.


    When Brianna and Tess returned to our informal line, Brianna was seething with rage, and Tess looked like she had gone numb. I couldn¡¯t blame them. I was fucking pissed off. Janet passed Tess off to one of our elites, and soon, Tess was safe on the other side of the wall. There was only Janet, Brianna, me, and three survivors of the blitz attack. We needed reinforcements, and the next second, two groups of fighters that had been supporting us with the archers on the wall jumped down and joined the fight.


    We now were a force of about twenty supported by the rest of our troops up on the walls. Even though we were having a hell of a time holding back this small army, we actually hadn¡¯t lost too many people. Everyone on the walls had been pretty much unmolested, and our only casualties of the battle had been our seven elites, well and Rich. As we slammed into their elite again, two large glowing purple fractal circles superimposed themselves ten feet over the head of one of the enemy elites in the back of the group.


    The next second, hundreds of spears, such a dark purple in color that they almost appeared black, launched from the fractals and into the air, aiming for the archers atop our walls. I watched as the projectiles passed over my head, and I heard Beth yelling for everyone to take cover. When the projectiles hit, I heard too many hits that sounded like flesh, and screams rang out from the walls. I pulled a spear from my bag and threw it as hard as I could, aiming for the caster.


    The caster threw itself to the side, but that¡¯s where Janet¡¯s throwing axe was headed, and the creature almost dove right into Janet¡¯s attack. Tess lit the creature up as it hit the ground, and that was the end of that fucker. Their entire force, as well as the elites, now all charged us. It seemed like this was gonna be their big push. If we made it through this, maybe we would survive this battle, but survive was the keyword in that sentence. The battle got intense as we engaged. I lost track of almost everyone from Tree House Village in the carnage.


    I was using every last bit of skill and training I had but was still taking too much damage. If I kept going at this pace, there was a high likelihood that I would get myself killed, but if I stopped pushing, I had no idea how long we would last. I finally had no choice but to retreat. My legs were all torn up, my arms were in about the same shape as my legs, and my face wasn¡¯t doing much better.


    I was definitely struggling to keep moving. I was popping Senzuketa Beans into my mouth every time, and I felt myself starting to weaken, but the Beans were losing their effectiveness. I could feel them doing less and less with each bean I ate. As I shot back from where I had embedded myself in the enemy forces, I was finally able to get an idea of where we stood and the odds of winning this battle.


    It wasn¡¯t the best, but it could have been worse. Most of our people had been forced to retreat if they could manage it. Despite the number of wounds our people accumulated, they were not backing down or going out without a fight. We had dealt a heavy blow to their forces already. There were bodies everywhere, and the ground was soft and squishy from the sheer amount of blood. A good ninety percent of their force had fallen already, and only a few of the elite members of the enemy force were alive anymore. They were slowly but steadily getting overwhelmed.


    I threw myself back into the fight, and it was a good thing I did. It was only a few minutes after I had gone back in that I heard Janet let out a scream of pain. I flashed over to her side as fast as I could. I made it in time, kind of. I got to Janet, and with two fast strikes, I took the arm, then the head off the creature that had just taken Janet¡¯s arms off at the elbows. I grabbed Janet, which wasn¡¯t easy as she was all bulked up from I¡¯m so strong, and ran back towards the walls.


    Once there, I popped a Senzuketa Bean in her mouth. I then told Janet to stay, ¡°Janet stays. Janet stays here for now, got it?¡± I got a nod from her in confirmation, and I was gone. It was time to wrap this up. I forced on the elite members of our opponent¡¯s force now. I had to dodge through creatures left and right to get to them. I took most of them down without wasting too much time, but as I got to what looked like the leader of this army, I was met with more resistance than I was expecting.


    This creature? Thing? It was good, and I couldn¡¯t get a strike past its guard. This creature had four arms and two legs and looked more insect than anything else. Two of its arms were just long, thin blade-like appendages. It had an exoskeleton, but its face was more like a rat. An elongated nose with hair all over and big teeth was a nightmare fuel for sure.


    When I managed to get a hit in, it was never clean. Every time I landed a hit, I would have to sacrifice an opening, and I would take a hit. The crucial, decisive moment of our fight was when I made a decision. If I was going to take a strike to land one, I better make my attack count. So, as I dove in, I fainted to one side, creating an opening on my right, and let the creature stab me in the leg.


    Once its blade was fully stuck in my leg, I struck out with the butt of my Teremnocal into the creature¡¯s face. Then, in one fluid movement, I brought my blade around and took the creature¡¯s head off. With all my attention devoted to ending my target¡¯s life, I missed the creature that appeared behind me.


    The creature took full advantage of my distracted state and stabbed me in the back. My back arched uncontrollably, and I screamed in pain. The next second, the creature dropped to the ground dead, and Devin was standing there, pulling his blade from the monster¡¯s body. I had the strength to say thanks, but that was it, and I lost consciousness.

 Chapter 23 - Stabby, stabby, bad dagger

    Chapter 23


    Stabby, stabby, bad dagger


    My next memories were scattered and disjointed. I remembered waking up, people looking down at me, but everything was hazy and hard to focus on, and the pain holly shit the fucking pain. Honestly, the pain was all there was for a while, just so much pain. The next memory was of what I thought might have been Tilly sitting by my bed. Oh, I was on a bed now. When did that get there, or when did I get here? There was still pain, and parts of my body felt numb. That couldn¡¯t be good, but then I was out again.


    I didn¡¯t really know how long I was in that in-and-out phase, but when I woke up properly, the pain that had permeated my body had definitely retreated, and my head felt more or less okay. Felt like I had a really bad hangover. The only other person in the room when I woke up was Frank. He was passed out in a chair in the corner of the room. It was a plane room with nothing on the walls. I was pretty much the only thing in the room, oh, and the bed I was in, and Frank passed out in his chair.


    I sat there for a little just thinking about the fight and what had happened at the end. I remembered getting stabbed in the back and passing out, but that shouldn¡¯t have left me down and out for, like, fuck I didn¡¯t even know how long I had been out for. Okay, it was time to wake up Frank. I needed to know what the fuck was going on. ¡°Hey, Frank,¡± I said, but he didn¡¯t wake up. ¡°Hey, Frank!¡± I said, slightly louder this time, but still nothing. Fuck! Okay, what the fuck is he fucking dead or something? I decided I would try again. I had socks on. So it took some work and pain, but I got one off and balled it up. Then I threw it while simultaneously yelling at Frank.


    ¡°Hey, wake the fuck up, man.¡± That time, he spluttered away, arms and legs flailing, almost tossing himself out of the chair he was sitting in. He managed to save himself and kept his butt in the chair. ¡°Hey, Franks, what¡¯s up, man? Catch some good ZZ¡¯s?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°What? Oh, damn it. Guess I did fall asleep. My bad kid. How are you feeling.¡± Frank asked me. I had to think about Frank¡¯s question. At first, I was just about to say I was fine, but was I? I looked internally and did a full assessment of my body, and yeah, I did seem to be okay. My head was still pounding a bit, and as I moved around a little while sitting in the bed, my back still hurt a little, but only in one place. My body had a general ache, but I could handle that. The spot on my back didn¡¯t hurt more than a bruise would have, so I thought I could be confident when I told Frank.


    ¡°Yeah, I seemed to be doing okay.¡± However, the real question is, ¡°How long have I been out, and what was the result of the battle?¡± Frank just stared at me for a second, then let out a deep breath. He started in,


    ¡°Well, Travis, I don¡¯t know where to begin. I guess, well, you got pretty fucked up. That knife that the elite stabbed you with was not a normal weapon. It was enchanted or spelled or whatever with corruption. We took it to the shop to see if we could find more information about it, and it turns out that it¡¯s a rare thing to find on a newly integrated planet. He was actually surprised to see one. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t anything special in the rest of integrated space.


    Braxin actually said that it was a piece of shit dagger and that the craftsmanship was barely passable, but in a newly integrated world like ours, even a weapon such as this was not bad for such low leveled beings. The True power of these weapons was not the primary damage they dealt but the lingering effects.¡±


    Apparently, in the state I had been in when I got stabbed, I came very close to losing my life. In fact, if Frank hadn¡¯t gotten his new class, I would have died. They had tried to feed me Senzuketa Beans. They had even smashed them up into a past and tried that on my wounds directly, but nothing helped until Frank used his healing assist ability. At that point, I finally stabilized, and they felt comfortable that I would recover. Every then, Frank stayed with me most of the time I was out.


    The only way that Frank was able to give me so much of his time when there were so many injured was that even though the Senzuketa Bean paste didn¡¯t work on me, it was able to help many of our fighters pull through otherwise life-threatening wounds allowing Frank to dedicate more of his time to helping me fight the corruption that had been flooding through my body. The only good thing about the whole situation was that I actually got a small amount of resistance from the dagger.


    It was only five percent, but that was great. I felt like resistance training might be something to consider trying to train up. It seemed to be like a dangerous hobby, but it could mean the difference between life and death in this new world, and if all I had to do was endure a little pain, that was fine with me. Franks¡¯s eyes went wide when I brought up my idea about resistance training. The look on his face became one of extreme concern. I took in Franks¡¯s expression and decided now was probably not the time to discuss that with him.


    He had just watched me almost die from one stab of that dagger, and to hear I wanted to use it as a trading resource probably seemed like crazy town. I let him off the hook and told him I was just fucking around. He let out a breath in relief and asked me not to scare him like that again. Frank left the room after he checked me over. He said I was good to go, then said he would let me get dressed. Before he walked out, Frank threw me a bag of holding. After my clothes were on, I walked out the door and found Frank standing outside waiting for me.


    We chatted a bit, and Frank caught me up on what I missed while I was out of it. It turned out I hadn¡¯t missed too much. We had lost a lot of people in the battle, but not as many as I had feared. In the end, the spell that sent magic projectiles into the midst of our army did fuck us and killed quite a few people. The caster had only gotten off two shots before it had been taken out, and most people had taken cover by that point anyway. It was really the caster¡¯s initial spell that had dealt the most brutal blow to our forces.


    We had lost thirty-seven people from the wall, and about fifteen members of our elites were dead as well. Frank said the Council was gathering in the council room, and we were headed up there now. My shoulder was starting to ache a bit more now, and it probably would be an early night for me. We got to the council room, and I opened the door. I didn¡¯t make it more than a couple steps into the room before a small, wet blob slammed into my waist.


    I was a little surprised for a second, but then I smiled and hugged the little, the small, wet blob. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Tilly. Hey, Tills, I¡¯m okay. It¡¯s okay. Stop crying.¡± I told her.


    ¡°You looked like you were dead. I was really worried about you.¡± She said, and then her face scrunched up, and she smacked me. ¡°Don¡¯t do that again! Okay!?¡± She said, and I scooped her up into a big old hug. ¡°It¡¯s okay, kiddo, so what¡¯d I miss?¡± I said, and I threw her up onto my shoulders. She let out a little giggle as she flew up. Beth, Janet, and Brianna were in the room. It looked like they had all been seated around the table but had gotten up, and now they were gathered in front of it, waiting for Tilly to finish.


    ¡°Hey y¡¯all, so, what did I miss?¡± The next few hours were filled with everyone telling me what had happened over the week. Yeah, I was out for a fucking week. It looked like I hadn¡¯t missed much, but it was enough to wear me out. The people we had lost had been honored at a ceremony two days after the attack, and I was honestly kind of happy I was out for it. I didn¡¯t really do well with grief and other people¡¯s grief. I just got super fucking awkward, and that wouldn¡¯t have helped anyone.


    The Council had also decided it would be a good idea to buy the infirmary offered in the town menu Beth had access to. After the battle, it seemed like an oversight we hadn¡¯t perched it already. Another big thing was that many people had classes now and were level ten. Janet said I would have to check my notifications out soon if I haven¡¯t already. She said I would probably be pretty happy with the rewards from the battle. All I could think after that was, rewards?


    They lost me to my notifications after that. First off, I was now level sixteen, which was pretty fucking awesome. On top of that, I also got titles. The first title was called Settlement Defense Level 1, and it gave me a plus three points for every stat.


    I also got the next level, Settlement Defense Level 2, which turned those three points into five. I got another first in world title. That title was excellent. It was called First Settlement Defiance, and it gave me five percent to all stats.


    So, if I had thirty-nine strength, I¡¯d get five percent of that added to that stat, well, rounded to the nearest whole number, and it would grow like that forever. It wouldn¡¯t be much now, but if I had five hundred strength, then from that title alone, I¡¯d get plus twenty-five points. It wasn¡¯t amazing, but in the realm of titles, those were probably the best ones to get.


    The last notification I got was a one-time bonus. Apparently, you got graded on all large-scale conflicts you were involved in. You could even get bonuses for certain acts and accomplishments in battle. I was awarded a B+ ranking and two bonus rewards for my B+ ranking. I received a large bump to the XP I received from the battle, which was the primary reason I had gained three levels during the fight. With my B+ ranking, I also earned some bonuses. I got the bonus one-man war machine and another bonus called Follow Me.


    Bonuses were like limited titles and could be earned again during each significant engagement, and they wouldn¡¯t last more than three months or around 90 days. I knew this first and foremost because the notification told me so. Secondly, because I asked Braxin about it, he sold me an information packet on war bonuses, which is apparently what they were actually called. It explained quite a bit.


    My bonuses gave me some cool effects. War Machine was pretty straightforward and just gave me a straight-up boost to all my stats of plus eight to each stat, but like I said, it was temporary. Follow Me was different. It didn¡¯t give me a straight-up stat boost like all the other titles I¡¯d gotten. It gave me, but it gave me a twenty percent boost toward the influence my words had on others.


    The crazy thing was it didn¡¯t say anything about only affecting allies, so I think I could also use it on my enemies. If that was true, it would be cool and useful. I could be like these are not the humans you¡¯re looking for. Haha, that would be awesome! When I finally pulled myself away from my stat sheet and notifications, I noticed everyone had returned to what they had been doing before I arrived.


    The first person to notice I was back from outer space was Beth, and she just laughed at the dumb little happy smile that was on my face now. ¡°So, you happy?¡± Beth asked me, and that pulled everyone away again from what they were doing to see what she was talking about. I shot to my feet and gave an overdramatic fist pump.¡°Fuck yeah, damn, that¡¯s fucking crazy! Level sixteen and war bonuses? Fuck yeah.¡± I said, pumping my fist into the air a couple more times. Then, as if just to bring me down, Brianna said


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    ¡°Yeah, and only a bunch of people had to die for it. You¡¯re almost too happy about wanton slaughter.¡± She gave me a disapproving look, and I sat back down.


    ¡°Yeah, I almost forgot about that. Are people doing okay? Oh fuck, and Brianna, I¡¯m so sorry about Rich. How are you doing? Shit, how are people dealing with the trauma?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s kind of odd, actually. Most people are doing rather well, to be honest. As far as how am I doing? I mean¡­ I¡¯m doing okay. No. You know, I¡¯m pissed as fucking hell at this fucking ¡°Master.¡± This piece of shit is going to regret messing with us. I can tell you that,¡± Brianna said.


    ¡°As far as the villagers, people seem to be dealing with the aftermath well. I think it must have something to do with enhanced stats or something, but most people are doing okay. They seem to be using the battle as motivation, if anything.¡± Beth said, echoing Brianna¡¯s sentiments.


    ¡°There is some bad news, however, and you might have already assumed as much, but we didn¡¯t kill The Master. It wasn¡¯t him or her. It doesn¡¯t seem like The Master was directly involved in this battle. This Master guy must have thought his forces were enough to deal with us. He probably didn¡¯t count on anyone over level ten here yet.¡± Beth said. I had to think about what Beth had just said. I kind of figured we didn¡¯t kill The Master.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s not that hard to believe. None of those guys felt strong enough to be a master type of guy. That means we¡¯ll probably have to do this whole thing again at some point or even multiple times hell. If this Master had some kind of ability that let him control or at least strongly influence the monsters around it, then this Master could just sit back and keep sending waves at us till we cracked under the constant assaults.¡±


    I finished, and everyone looked like they had been thinking something similar. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s about where we got, and if that¡¯s the case, we may have to send out a scouting party to find The Master, but that may be exactly what it wants. That¡¯s where we¡¯re at. Now you¡¯re awake¡­ well. We¡¯ll talk more about this tomorrow. You just woke up from a pretty horrible injury, so just take today to relax. We¡¯ll focus on all that other stuff tomorrow.¡± Beth finished, and everyone realized I hadn¡¯t been up for more than a few hours after being out of it for a week.


    ¡°Oh yeah fuck, right. So, how are you doing? How¡¯s your back?¡± Brianna asked. ¡°I¡¯m actually doing okay. I¡¯m still a little tired, and my back is definitely a little achy, but other than that, a couple good night¡¯s sleep and I¡¯ll be good as new¡±, I said and then tried to do a little to-da-hands. I got a tinge of shooting pains in my shoulder and couldn¡¯t keep it from showing. I hid the pain well, but not well enough enough. Everyone in this room had the highest stats in Tree House Village except little Tilly, so they all caught my moment of pain clear as day.


    ¡°Yeah, dumb ass. Sure, you¡¯re fine. Go lay down before you hurt yourself again.¡± Janet told me, and I gave her an embarrassed smile in return.


    ¡°Yeah, maybe you¡¯re right. Do you want to give me a hand?¡± I asked Janet. She rolled her eyes at me but smiled and agreed to help me return to my room. I told the small group goodbye. Then I made Janet bridal carry me to my room. We left to raucous laughter from the whole group when Janet finally agreed and picked me up.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 16


    Race: Human


    Class: Path of the Pole Arm


    Experience needed to next Level: 46,450/50,900XP till next Level.


    Stat points per level up: +3 free


    Titles:


    Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)


    Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Settlement Defense level 2 (Plus 5 to all stats)


    First Settlement Defiance (+5% to all stats )


    First in world to:


    complete a dungeon run (+8 to all stats)


    War Bounces:


    War Machine: +8 to all stats for the next 90 days.


    Follow Me: 20% boost toward the influence my words had on others for the next 90 days. (83) days remaining


    Resistances:


    Element of Fire: 5%


    Element of Corruption: 6%


    Stats:


    Strength: *63 WB: (+8)


    Dexterity: *61 WB (+8)


    Intelligence: *45 WB (+8)


    Wisdom: *46 (WB (+8)


    Constitution: *51 WB (+8)


    Luck: *34 WB (+8)


    * = modified


    (+) = Amount modified by


    Class Sheet


    Path of the pole Arm


    Level 1:


    Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus three stat points to Dexterity each level up.


    Step Lightly:


    When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting 50 mana and 20 stamina to activate.


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten Mana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Quick Strike:


    When activated, Quick Strick at the cost of one hundred Mana energizes your arms into almost a seizure-type state. This causes you to strike out with your polearm many times in rapid succession.


    The next few days went by, and everything got back to normal, well, normal-ish. We were no longer taking people up to do dungeon runs. We figured with The Master¡¯s cronies running around, it might not be safe. Safety was a relative here, but yes, it wasn¡¯t safe anymore. Most of our troops who fought in the battle were level ten and had obtained a combat class.


    This was a good start, but only a few people had been into martial arts pre-integration. I say most because some of the prior police officers from the group that took the Claremont with us had taken some for self-defense, at a minimum. There were two people, a boxer and a jujitsu instructor. The boxer was a man named Sam, a big white guy with a bushy beard. He was about six foot five inches, and the guy looked like he cut trees down for fun.


    Then there was Susan. Susan had spent her time off duty with her husband Tom and their two cats, Mario and Luigi, two tabby cats that were very fat and very happy. She also spent some time passing on her knowledge of jujitsu. She had been teaching a weekend class for ¡°older people mostly,¡± as she put it, but was proficient and quite good in the combat style.


    Susan was more than willing to help teach people what she knew, and so was Sam. Along with a few more folks who had been long-time students of various martial styles, the Council devised a training regiment we could implement. Hopefully, it will help guide our force in a more informed direction regarding combat. I took part in the trading as well. I had to restrict myself in almost every way because my stats were a lot higher than my teachers, but I still learned a lot, and it was starting to show in the council training bots.


    Janet was a beast, and our one-on-one matches were getting intense. Beth was more focused on defense, but I eventually could wear her down and win. With Janet, it was up in the air every time we went at it. I won about sixty percent of our matches, but when I did, it wasn¡¯t by much. Twice now, Beth had to step in and stop the fight before one of us got too seriously injured. We were both guilty of getting carried away in a fight, and Beth let us know loudly a couple of times.


    Eight days after I had woken up, I was sitting in my room with Janet, and I had a dagger in my hand. ¡°I still think this is so fucked. If you fucking die? Are you sure it¡¯s not going to kill you? Because I swear, Travis. Are you sure you want to go through with this? I¡¯m not gonna call you a pussy¡­ again. Look, I said I was sorry, but come on, let¡¯s just go fuck? That sounds good, right? Maybe Trish is around?¡±


    ¡°I said go time, Janet. Go Time!¡± I told Janet. I was hyped.


    Janet tried to talk me out of what I was about to do. She had been trying for the last two days since I had decided I was going to stab myself with the corrupted dagger on purpose. At first, Janet had thought I had been fucking around and had called me a pussy for not trying it already. Then I told her that, fine, I¡¯ll do it, and Janet flipped her script as soon as she knew I was serious.


    We¡¯ll all that was a moot point. We were here, I had the dagger, and it was go time. I only let Janet be here so that if I indeed need medical attention and passed out, she could assist me. She had also insisted she be here. I tried and failed to tell her I would be fine on my own, so here we were, and, like I said, go time. I took the dagger and held it inches above my palm. My main reason for choosing my hand as the place to cut myself had logic behind it.


    Well, it was pretty straightforward, actually. If things got out of control, I could ask Janet to cut my arm off. Hopefully, that would just solve the problem, but it was a plan, so I didn¡¯t feel like I was going into this completely unprepared. I also had a smoothie made from Senzuketa Bean and Mana kissed water. It was faster and just better all-around at healing. I was just about to push the dagger into my hand when Janet tried to stop my stupidity one last time.


    She flashed me, and that actually did get me. ¡°What the fuck, Janet! Jesus! Fuck.¡±


    ¡°Got you to stop, though.¡± She managed to get out between bursts of laughter. She even sucked her tung out at me. I just shook my head and then plunged the dagger into my hand. I had to do it before I could think any more about how stupid this was and how much pain I was about to feel. Janet released what I was doing at the last second but only got out, ¡°No, Travis, don¡¯t.¡± Before it was too late, I had a smirk on my face as I achieved my goal. It was immediately whipped away as the pain filled my world.


    After the first wave of pain, I had just started to get the pain under control enough to try and blink back the tears to see when I realized the dagger was still in my hand. I tried to reach up with my other hand to pull it out, but my arm wouldn¡¯t move. Fuck, maybe I fucked up? Next, I tried to speak, but when I opened my mouth, all I could let out was a scream. That seemed to be enough to shock Janet out of the stupor she was in.


    The fact that I had just stabbed myself with a corrupted dagger that would cause great pain and that had nearly killed me less than two weeks ago I think she just couldn¡¯t believe it. She jumped when I screamed, and then as if realizing the same thing I had, she ripped the dagger out of my hand. The pain instantly receded a little, and I actually cried at that, but it just got mixed in with the tries from the pain.


    Janet then tilted my head back slowly and poured some of the smoothie into my mouth. That helped a fuck ton and allowed me to actually think again. I looked over at my hand, then my arm. My hand was filled with black lines running through my skin from where the blade had pierced the skin. The lines then continued up my arm to the elbow as well. They weren¡¯t progressing any further, so that was good.


    Janet laid me down, and I lay there for the next three hours. When I was finally getting used to the level of pain I was experiencing. The black lines that had been running up my arm had now receded to just above my wrist, and I could visibly see the line slowly shrinking. I decided it was time to sit up, so I did, and I was doing okay. My jaw was sore from clenching. The place where the dagger had cut into me was oozing a blackish-green puss-like material, and I sat there for about twenty minutes just staring at my hand oozing.


    Janet pulled me from my wound at that point, and she had brought Frank with another member of our newly founded medical core, in toe. ¡°Fuck, okay, well, he¡¯s doing a lot better now, it seems. sorry to waste your time, Frank.¡± Janet said with a pissed-off look on her face the whole time she talked.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Janet. While we¡¯re here, we might as well check him over,¡± Frank said, placing his medical bag on a chair in the room. Sense Frank was here, and I seemed to have done okay with the first dose of dagger. Maybe it was my pain-addled brain talking, or maybe I¡¯m just a dumb ass, but as I saw it, it was a good time for a second dose. I looked over at Frank and his assistant prepping to do their ones over of me and said,


    ¡°Frank, pull the dagger out if I can¡¯t, and if the corruption looks like it¡¯s gonna move past my shoulders, just cut my arm off, okay?¡± I asked him. Frank looked at me like what the fuck are you talking about? I then raised the dagger to plunge it into my other hand. This time, Franks, along with those of his assistants and Janet¡¯s, went eyes wide. Frank only managed to get out, ¡°What the fuck?¡± And Janet just said, ¡°Fuck!¡± Before the pain was back in full force.

 Chapter 24 - The Protectors of Treehouse Village

    Chapter 24


    The Protectors of Treehouse Village


    I woke up, and I learned that the second hit of dagger it took had probably been super fucking stupid, but I hadn¡¯t exactly been in the best mindset in my defense. I had been out for sixteen hours, and it was now morning of the next day. The signs of corruption on my body were almost entirely gone. Well, at least the black lines were gone. My hands were still oozing some shit out, but the pain was gone. That was awesome. It was time to see if my insane theory to try and gain more resistance would pay off.


    Part of me didn¡¯t want it to have done anything. That way, I could say, Well, that didn¡¯t work. Not worth trying again. If it did work, that meant that I was going to do it again, and I would have to put myself through that pain over and over again. I popped open my stat sheet, and fuck, yep. I now had a 6% resistance to corruption rather than the 5% before I started the stabby-stabby thing.


    Yeah, Fuck this sucked, but I did manage to increase my resistance, so that was sweet. So that was proof you could train a resistance. About twenty minutes after I woke up, Frank walked into my room, and I greeted him with a sparkling,


    ¡°Hey there, Frank, how¡¯s it going?¡± he had been looking at his clipboard when he walked in, so he jumped when I spoke. That got me laughing. Frank collected some papers he dropped and then just said,


    ¡°Stop doing that! Your gonna give an old man like me a heart attack. Then you¡¯ll feel terrible that you scared an old man to death.¡±


    ¡°Oh, come on, Frank, my bad. I¡¯m sorry I scared you. So, how long was I out this time?¡± Falling unconscious was something that was happening far too regularly to me. I would have to work on that.


    ¡°You passed out for a whole 24 hours, Travis, well 26 to be precise,¡± Frank told me. I was a little shocked. I would have to find a way to train my resistance without losing so much time if I was going to keep doing this kind of training.


    ¡°Hey, Travis.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s up, Frank?¡±


    ¡°Well, I know that Janet, Beth, and you have put a lot on yourselves to protect Treehouse Village, but I think you¡¯re going too far. Just remember that you need to be around to protect the people here and dying from some training. Well, just be careful. Maybe just take it easy for a week or two. It would be good for people to see you around the village. Instead of being told that you¡¯re lying down and might be close to death, you know? Take it or leave it, but I think you should think about it.¡±


    As we left the infirmary, I thought about what Frank had said. Before Frank and I separated, I stopped him. ¡°Hey Frank, thanks for helping me out. I will take it easy for a while, so don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll chill out with the whole death wish thing.¡± I told him. Then I gave Frank a sincere smile and patted him on the shoulder. He gave me a smile back and said,


    ¡°that¡¯s all I can ask, Travis. Thanks for considering it.¡± At that, we went our separate ways. As soon as I was left to Frank, I thought a bit more as I walked, and I was going to have to apologize to Frank again at some point. Maybe get him a present? There was no way I was stopping anything that would make me stronger. Improve yourself or die. That was the rule of this new world, and that was my bible. ¡°Sorry, Frank,¡± I said under my breath, then smiled at the challenges ahead.


    The next time I tried to do some resistance training, I used the light cut less that had given me fire resistance. The pain from the light cutlass hadn¡¯t been as intense as the dagger of minor corruption. That was the actual name of the blade, by the way. It was hard to remember the exact pain level of the light cutlass, but I would be finding out soon enough. I was sitting in the Treehouse that Beth, Janet, and I had built and spent so much time in. We had kind of abandoned it, but groups that got out of the dungeon late in the day would sometimes stay there instead of trekking back to Treehouse Village. So, in some capacity, it was like an outpost or forward camp for our forces.


    I was sitting on the roof, and I was by myself this time. I knew it might be a dangerous idea, with me being the only one here. I also hadn¡¯t told anyone where I was going. I was just tired of people reporting me to Beth whenever they found me tucked away somewhere, trying to poison myself in peace. Honestly, it felt like I was trying to find a place to get high pre-integration, and everyone was all up in my business. I was here now, and no one would stop me from indulging.


    I had my smoothie of Senzuketa Beans, and Mana kissed water, so I was ready. I picked up the light cutlass and turned it on. It wooshed to life, and the sword¡¯s glow lit up my face. It was a cool weapon. It was too bad it wasn¡¯t a real lightsaber that would have been so cool. I guess I would also be dead, so maybe it was a good thing it wasn¡¯t. After a few more seconds of just admiring the glowing blade, I remembered why I was here and why I was fucking around with the light cutlass in the first place. It was resistance training time.


    The first thing I would try was a strike across the leg. I braised myself, and before I could stop myself or think too hard about what I was about to do, I swung down and let the blade pass through my left leg. It felt like passing my arm through an extremely powerful flashlight. Just like last time, it didn¡¯t hurt right afterward. It just felt a bit warm. I sat there on the roof for five minutes, and then I started to feel a tingling sensation coming from my leg. It was only a minute later the real pain hit me.


    ¡°Wow, that fucking sucks!¡± I said to no one through gritted teeth. It was just the same as last time. It felt like someone poured boiling water onto my leg. This time, however, it wasn¡¯t as bad as I remembered. Maybe it was the stat points I had now, or maybe my resistance was helping. Whatever it was, it was going to fuck with my training. I was sure of it. I¡¯d probably have to hurt myself with this thing a bunch of times to get a single point added to my resistance. I guess I better get to it.


    I spent the next two days passing the beam of the light cutlass over different parts of my body. I had been training with the dagger of minor corruption as well, but every time I used it, it put me down. I hadn¡¯t passed out again like the last time I used it, but I would fall into that half-awake state to deal with the pain till it passed every time. It just took my everything to resist the pain the weapon caused. I had switched from stabbing myself with the dagger to giving myself deep lacerations on different parts of my body.


    The light cutlass, however, must have been a weaker weapon. It still felt like I was pouring boiling water on myself wherever I hit with the blade. Even If I could have survived this torture per integration, I¡¯m pretty sure I still would have been driven crazy from the pain alone. It was probably my stats, but I was able to push through the pain and endure every strike. I was exhausted by the end of those two days. The pain was wearing me down, but not at a pace I was concerned about.


    At the end of my resistance training ¡°vacation,¡± I gained two points in fire resistance and three points in corruption resistance. I only had the energy to check my stat sheet before I fell asleep on the roof. I was woken up by one of our scouting units. They had decided to stay at the treehouse for the night and woke me up when they arrived. I thanked them for waking me up, hopped down from the roof to the ground, and then took off at speed towards Village.


    Once back, I ate some food I had in my fridge. The communal cafeteria was already closed, so I didn¡¯t really have a choice. I managed to throw something together. Then I passed out in my nice big bed. The following day, Janet was waiting in my living room when I woke up.


    ¡°Hey, morning, sleepyhead. Janet said.


    ¡°Morning,¡± I got out before I let out a big yawn.


    ¡°So, just gonna get right to it then. Where the fuck have you been the last couple of days? You know what, never mind. Don¡¯t answer that. I know you were off trying to do some resistance training in secret, and I know you don¡¯t want to hear it but fuck Travis, you have to tell someone where you¡¯re going. If you¡­¡± Janet¡¯s voice cracked, and she looked down at the floor. Then I saw a tear fall from her face. I stepped forward to give her a hug, but she stepped back.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not done. If you, if you went off to do some fucking training and it killed you. What the fuck. If I have to go looking for you. Suppose I found you dead somewhere. I just¡­ If I find you dead somewhere. I¡¯d find a way to bring you back to life, then I¡¯d fucking kill you again myself.¡± When Janet was done talking, she looked up at me with hurt in her eyes. I opened my mouth to speak, but Janet cut me off before I could talk.


    ¡°Just don¡¯t. If you¡¯re gonna keep doing this kind of shit, then just let me be there. Please?¡± She finished. I just looked at her for a few seconds, then I stepped forward again to hug her, and this time, she let me. We stayed that way for a little while, just holding each other. After a little while, I put my hands on her shoulders, then held her at arm¡¯s length and met her eyes.


    ¡°I promise you, Janet, from now on, if I want to do any resistance training, I¡¯ll come find you, and we can go together. That sound okay?¡± She just nodded like a kid. I smiled at that and pulled her back into a hug. After my talk with Janet, I decided to take a few days off of resistance training for real this time. I had been sparring with Janet and the council more often.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    It was a nice day around two o¡¯clock, three days after I got back from my solo training trip. Janet and I had just kicked off an afternoon training session. We were only a few strikes into our match when we heard feet pounding the ground towards us. It was a scout, and Janet and I disengaged to listen to what the man had to say. We let him catch his breath for a second, and he started speaking when he had composed himself a bit.


    ¡°There back, it¡¯s a smaller group, but they don¡¯t look like they¡¯re playing around this time. It looks like they sent more elites. There are about 40 of them. They¡¯re about twenty minutes out if they hold their speed. What would you like us to do?¡± The man was looking at Beth, clearly hoping for guidance. Beth looked like she was thinking, and then she spoke.


    ¡°Okay, thank you for the warning, Eric. You might have just saved many lives. Tell the fighters to take up their post on the wall. I want archers on the walls, and foot soldiers should get ready to engage if needed. Looks like they¡¯ll see action sooner than we thought.¡± Beth finished speaking to the scout, and the man took off. Beth then turned to Janet and me.


    ¡°You ready?¡± She asked us, and we both just nodded in the affirmative. Janet and I headed towards the wall. We had to stop at the smithy first, oh yeah, we bought one of those. It came with a smith that wouldn¡¯t teach anyone anything about his class or how to obtain it, which was a bummer. He did offer some good starter gear that I was almost about to outgrow, but there was an upgrade we could buy in the future. We¡¯d have to meet some requirements, but that was getting ahead of ourselves. The other thing he did was repair gear like armor and weapons, which was a big help. With people able to regrow limbs, we all trained pretty full out. So fucked up gear was a common occurrence for sure. The repair aspect of the smithy is what Janet and I were stopping by for. Her axe was there for a touch-up after one of our more aggressive training matches. I lost a foot in that fight, but Janet lost a hand.


    The structure also had a block of rooms for on-duty fighters to catch some sleep between shifts, and fighters were spilling out and flowing toward the walls. Janet and I got our gear on, then joined the fighters on the walls. As we all looked out from atop the walls, we saw¡­ nothing. Yeah, it was kind of anticlimactic, actually. Yep, we just fucking stood there for almost twenty fucking minutes. I¡¯m sure everyone was thinking that if they looked away, that would be the moment the enemies would come into view.


    Pretty close to twenty minutes passed, dam that scout was dead on, and we started to see a small group of humanoid-looking creatures come into view. The group definitely saw us, and instead of slowing down or hesitating, they began to charge. Some turned to all fours to gain speed, while a couple even seemed to cast a spell or something to increase their movement speed. They were closing the distance at a noticeable rate.


    ¡°Fuck, there fast,¡± I said just loud enough for Janet to hear, and I saw her nod.


    ¡°Yeah, this might get wild.¡± She said, and I looked over at her, a little concerned. She was absolutely focused on the enemies that were headed right at us. I turned my attention back to the force now barreling towards us and ready myself for battle. Then, the moment came. Janet and I leaped from the wall simultaneously, hit the ground, and jumped straight into the enemy.


    I collided midair with a mutated beetle of some kind that had adapted to walking upright. It had a hard exoskeleton and four arms, and they were ready to swing at me. It held a blade in two of its hands, and it tried to impale me with them as we collided. I managed to push its arms aside and slam a knee into its chest. We went crashing to the ground, and when we landed, my knee punched through its chest. Then quick as I could, I brought my Teremnocal up, then slammed the butt of the weapon down into the creature¡¯s head, ending its life.


    Janet had dealt with her opponent quicker than I had, just taking its head off, and was on to her next target. A whistle sounded over the battlefield, and with a swipe of Janet¡¯s weapon, she ended the life of the creature she was fighting. Then, we both retreated. The second we were clear of the creature, a volley of arrows tore into the group, then a second and a third in quick succession.


    After that, two short whistles sounded, and the rest of our elites dropped down to join Janet and me. Another whistle, and we all charged the enemy. We were in the middle of it now, and the chaos of battle was fully upon us. Every second seemed like a fight for survival, which I guess it was. I would dodge a sword only to have to block a strike coming at my head. Only to take a blow on my chest plate.


    It was like they were all over me. There were only about forty members of the enemy force. How were they taxing us this much? The real issue was that they were working together better than we were. If we survived this, we would definitely need to work on that. I blocked a blow with a bracer, and my arm went numb for a few seconds. I swung out horizontally with my Teremnocal and removed my opponent¡¯s head. I then leaped back and free from the group of enemies I was engaged with to get a better perspective on the fight.


    We were doing better than I thought. Most people were fighting two on one against their opponent, and it looked like we were out-matching them in most encounters. Only Janet and I were fighting at least five enemies each, but any that we weren¡¯t taking care of were using their numbers to tip engagements in their favor. The six I was fighting had started charging me after I had retreated, so I guess it was time to get back into it.


    I dove back into the fight with abandon. I was getting cut up left and right, but every blow or cut I took cost my opponents too much. Before I knew it, there were no more enemies to kill, and we had won the day. I was yet again drenched in fresh, warm. Blood and my left hand was missing. When did that happen? I thought as I looked myself over and found wounds all over my body. Nothing too serious, but I had definitely seen better days. Janet was in better shape than me, but we had lost half a dozen fighters. If we kept losing people, we would start running out of elites to throw at them.


    Maybe that was the Master plan, just Wilde us down one fight after the next till we ran out of fighters. We needed recruits, plain and simple. I looked around at the mess that was the battlefield and saw a few large scorch marks on the ground. I also noticed as we were gathering our dead that one guy. I think his name was, fuck I think it was Neil. Had half his body burned horribly. In some places, it was down to the bone. He must have fought a magic user, shit.


    The council had been looking into fortifications we could add to the village but hadn¡¯t decided what to choose. That ended today. We had to be better prepared for shit like this. When we had gathered the bodies of the fallen behind our walls. We ensured guards were on the walls, watching for anything coming our way, and then gathered the council. We were all in the council room above the town hall, and every member was covered in bandages. We all looked spent.


    ¡°Well fuck, that sucked,¡± Brianna said.


    ¡°Yeah, we need to pick some defensive upgrades today, he¡¯ll right now. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to sleep till I know there¡¯s something in place. ¡°Devin said. I was slightly surprised to hear that from Devin, but I guess I didn¡¯t know him that well. I saw Beth squeeze his leg, so it might have to do with their newly blossoming relationship.


    ¡°Yeah, I agree. I think we should go with two. We have the points, and I think it¡¯s our best chance. The first gives us more time to respond, and the second gives us an offensive option other than throwing ourselves at the enemy. I think we get the force shield and the plasma turrets.


    It says the force shield will cover the area of the entire village, but every moment it¡¯s active will cost us build points, so we will have to use it sparingly. So, it¡¯s good that we can turn it on and off at will, or I can at least. It looks like I can add all of you as administrators, and that will allow you to have the same control over both the force shield and the plasma turrets. Speaking of, the plasma turrets will stay on and alert at the cost of zero build points, but firing will cost build points with every blast. Are we all agreed?¡± Beth finished.


    Everyone was so exhausted from the fight that we all just agreed. Everyone trusted that Beth would do what was best for Treehouse Village. After the meeting, everyone went their separate ways. Beth and Devin disappeared together with little Tilly in toe, held tight to by Beth. Brianna pulled a bottle from her bag of holding and headed off with Tess. They had started drinking before they left the room. Janet and I found our way to my room. We took a shower, laid down in the bed, and passed out.


    I had a hand to regrow, and Janet didn¡¯t look like she was doing much better. We slept for a long fucking time. I mean, I was pretty sure it was a whole twenty-four hours. When we finally did get up, I asked Janet about the idea of going out to try and find more survivors in the nearby area. She finished chewing the piece of bacon in her mouth before responding.


    ¡°Look, I think it¡¯s a great idea, but it might get tricky in practice. Who goes? How many people? What¡¯s your search diameter? Have you thought about any of that?¡± Janet asked, then bit into another piece of bacon.


    ¡°Well, no, I hadn¡¯t gotten that far yet. I feel like, at first, maybe just me or me and you. I don¡¯t know. Not too far at first, just but we go see what the fucks around us. More than just the immediate area that we¡¯ve been scavenging.¡±


    ¡°Well, if that¡¯s it, then yeah, I¡¯m in. Do you want to go tomorrow? I mean, it took The Master guy about two weeks to send an attack against us. So, we¡¯re probably cool to dip out for a few days. I don¡¯t know about you, but a break from the norm sounds good to me. So, we going?¡± Janet asked me.


    I looked at her for a second, then agreed this would at least let us get our feet wet and see what¡¯s out there in this new world. Doing it alone with Janet was a plus as well. Even if I only had one hand, we would most likely be okay if I had Janet with me.


    The following day, with a heavy, somber atmosphere hanging over us, we buried our dead in a simple ceremony where brief words about honor and bravery were said, and then we all ate together. After everyone was full and liquor was starting to get passed around, Janet and I broke away from the crowd. We would use today to gather everything we¡¯d need for a couple of days outside in the wild. We already had most of what we¡¯d need in our bags of holding, but we had to grab some essentials we were missing.


    We needed some sleeping bags and other small shit. It didn¡¯t take very long to gather everything, so we took our time. When we were done, we spent the rest of the day talking to people and drinking with them. We were trying to do our part to help Beth keep morale up. She had asked us to help her out, saying that she was worried after two consecutive attacks that the members of Treehouse Village would start losing their will to keep fighting.


    It turned out to be the complete opposite. People were, of course, sad about losing friends or loved ones, but they blamed The Master with gusto. Everyone wanted a piece of the asshole and to keep Treehouse Village safe. They saw Treehouse Village as representing their rebirth in this new world. They saw themselves as rising from the ashes of their old lives and reforging themselves anew on the anvil of battle.


    It was inspiring talking to the people about Treehouse Village. They didn¡¯t have all the advantages Beth, Janet, and I had, but they still put themselves in harm¡¯s way to protect their new home. Janet and I called it an early night and got up early the next morning. It was a nice day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the monsters were howling in the distance. It was just another beautiful morning on the new earth.


    We had said goodbye to Beth, Devin, Tess, Brianna, and Tilly the night before. So we headed out early while most were still asleep after last night''s festivities. We passed through one of the gates and headed into the destroyed city that stretched out before us.

 Chapter 25 - Recruiting

    Chapter 25


    We had been walking for hours now and had avoided most monsters we encountered, but we were forced to deal with some. Nothing had given us too much trouble, so we took our time. As long as we didn¡¯t make too much noise, it seemed to be working out for us. We were taking a break, sitting on a bench in a small neighborhood park, drinking some water. When a small pack of what looked like sheep before the integration, but now they had mutated. They each had a large set of horns, and electricity seemed to play between them. Oh yeah, they were about eight feet tall and had a mustard coloring to their wool.


    They looked really soft, and they didn¡¯t seem to be aggressive. At one point, when Janet and I were just watching them graze, Janet started walking towards the closet sheep. It looked over at her but didn¡¯t seem to care and kept grazing. When she was about four feet away, the sheep lifted its head and glanced at her. It just stared at her like, what¡¯s up? In my personal space now. Do you need something?


    Janet then proceeded to hold out a hand full of popcorn. She held it out as if to say, here, take it. The sheep looked at the handful of popcorn, sniffed it, and then looked at Janet. It stared at her for another second, then returned to the popcorn, sniffed it again, and ate some pieces. It chewed and looked like it liked the popcorn okay because it went back for seconds.


    After it finished, the first-hand full, Janet pulled more from her bag of holding, and the sheep seemed all for it. After about ten minutes, Janet had a crowd around her, demanding more popcorn. I had stepped in and started helping her out after the fourth sheep had come over, and it had just grown from there. It was about another five minutes before Janet said softly,


    ¡°So, just a heads up, I¡¯m about to try and get on the back of this guy here, and I¡¯m just letting you know so that if he freaks out, you¡¯re not caught off guard, okay?¡± Janet said and looked at me from the corner of her eye. I didn¡¯t know exactly what to say, so I just nodded. She nodded back. Another minute passed, and Janet was just feeding the sheep super chill, then all of a sudden. Janet stood up and looked the sheep she was feeding right in the eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna get on your back now. Don¡¯t be alarmed. I don¡¯t want to hurt you. Let¡¯s be friends, okay?¡± Janet said to the sheep, then gave it some more popcorn and walked alongside the larger sheep. The Sheep were being extremely gentle right now, but that might all change in a second if they felt threatened. I held my breath and waited to see what would happen next. Janet bent her knees and hopped gently onto the sheep¡¯s back. It seemed to roll its shoulders a bit, and then it shook like it was trying to get comfortable or like it was trying to get Janet off. I was nervous for a second, for sure.


    In the end, I had nothing to worry about. The sheep dude was super cool with Janet on its back and didn¡¯t seem to care. She told me to give it a shot. I tried to emulate Janet in the way she had gone about things. Sure enough, the sheep was super chill and didn¡¯t care that I had decided to take a joy ride. Now that we were on the backs of the sheep, what now? ¡°So how do we ride these things? I mean, like make them go and turn and shit,¡± I asked Janet.


    She thought about it briefly, then looked at me and said, ¡°I was just thinking kick in your heels to go, steer with the wool, and pull on the wool to stop. You think that will work?¡±


    ¡°I mean, better than anything I can think of. Let¡¯s give it a shot.¡± In the next two hours, we got the sheep to start, stop, turn right, and leave. Now, they didn¡¯t always listen to the pull on their wool, but they seemed to be getting the hang of what we were going for and seemed to be down with it or at least not against it. With that accomplished, it felt like we could use them in our travels, and sure enough, they left with us fine, and we were back on the road. Three other sheep wouldn¡¯t leave us alone, so we just let them follow us.


    Hell, if we did find some survivors, they might be able to ride a sheep back to the village. We could also have one drag a sled or something of the sort if we could rig up a harness. The sheep were fast. When they were moving, giving the signal to turn took a bit of practice. We were getting better. I also felt more in tune with the sheep I was riding as time passed. Janet and I and our new companions made a good time. When we stopped to have lunch, we had almost made it to downtown Oakland near the hospital, close to where I had first seen those wolf creatures.


    We had started heading towards the hospital after we got our new mounts. When we saw the speed at which the sheep were able to run. We figured making it to the hospital would be easy and probably a good place to find survivors. As we got closer to downtown, we started seeing signs of scavenging and figured there must be some groups around here. We had stopped at a park, an empty lot, really. It was across the street from the hospital, and fucked up buildings were all around us.


    The hospital itself was super fucked up. The roof had fallen in and crushed many of the upper floors, but the front was boarded up, and as we approached, a bullet hit the ground in front of us, and we stopped. We had dismounted the sheep and tied them up in the park. We had ridged some temporary harnesses for the sheep. The more we used them throughout the day, the more we realized they were a resource. We couldn¡¯t be dumb enough to let them just walk off. So, we made some makeshift harnesses and linked them all together, then tied them to a tree with enough lead to eat some grass.


    The sheep looked content to just chill, and when the shot rang out, they hadn¡¯t even noticed. As we were standing there waiting for whoever had shot at us to say something, I don¡¯t know, maybe, go away or who the fuck are you. You know shit like that, but there was nothing. I took another step, and another shot rang out, and a bullet struck the ground in front of me. This time, however, a voice did follow, assisted by the help of a megaphone.


    ¡°Leave now. Don¡¯t come any closer. Any forward movement will be seen as an act of aggression and will be answered with an appropriate response. Please turn around and leave.¡± The voice went quiet. It sounded like the voice was coming from somewhere on the second floor. I activated Pinpoint and looked at where I thought the voice had been coming from. Sure enough, I could just barely make out a man with a megaphone and another person with a sniper rifle. Both men were tucked behind debris, but I could still partially make them out.


    I took out a spear and lined up a throw. Janet chuckled and shook her head at what I was doing, but it didn¡¯t stop me. I pulled back and then let fly. My spear traveled through the air and landed hard between the two men. Hopefully, I just showed them that, yes, I knew where they were, and yes, I could have just killed them but had chosen not to. There was quiet for a few seconds. You could have cut the tension with a knife. Then, I decided to break the peace.


    ¡°So, you want to talk? We¡¯re not here to cause trouble. We just want to talk. We will wait for an hour. Let us know what you decide.¡± I said, and then I walked back to the park, Janet in toe. I pulled a blanket from my bag of holding when we got to the park and sat down. I then pulled out a sandwich and started eating. Janet just copied me, and we enjoyed a nice meal. I¡¯m sure our new friends were probably freaking out.


    When we ate, we got up and returned to the hospital. No one had come out to talk to us yet, so it was time to check back in with these people. ¡°Hey Guys, so, anything? Are you gonna talk to us, or should we just fuck off like you said? We¡¯ve got water and food? Enough to share, but it¡¯s up to you?¡± I told them and waited for a response. After two minutes, the doors that were blockaded shut began to open.


    It was an involved process of things being pulled aside and other things being raised until the way was clear. When a small passage was free, six people moved out to stand in front of the building. Two looked to be doctor types, a man and a woman. One guy looked like a regular Joe of the street, except he was holding a shotgun pointed at us. The last three looked like police or something, and they were carrying rifles pointed at us.


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    I looked at Janet, and she looked at me, then gave me a shrug as if to say I don¡¯t know how to deal with a situation like this. You figure it out. I rolled my eyes at her, but I took the lead. I started walking towards the group. They didn¡¯t seem to like that much. I could see they were all tense as fuck, and I was just praying this encounter didn¡¯t go to shit. When Janet and I were about twenty feet from the small group, one of the police-looking guys called out.


    ¡°That¡¯s far enough. Why are you here? We don¡¯t have much to trade, but if you have food and water to share, we can talk.¡± The man said. I looked at Janet like fuck, here we go. I waved at them, then said, ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Travis, and this is Janet.¡± I pointed at myself to Janet, in turn, and continued. ¡°We¡¯ve got a small village not far from her, and we were just out looking for survivors¡ªpeople who either need a safe place or other new settlements looking to trade information and goods. If you need food and water, we have some to share. Not a ton, but enough for a while, I think. We¡¯d be willing to help you out. You know, as fellow services of the apocalypse. Does that sound okay?¡±


    I finished my little speech. Then, as a gesture of goodwill, I pulled a couple sacks of flowers, sugar, and a carton of eggs out of my bag of holding. It seemed that food magically appearing out of nowhere was almost too much for these people. They raised their guns at me, and someone even let off a shot. It hit me in the leg and didn¡¯t do anything. It just stung a little. They all turned to the guy who shot at me, and I couldn¡¯t hear too much of the conversation, but it seemed like they were pretty pissed at the dude.


    After a few more moments of talking amongst themselves, they turned back to us. The guy who seemed like the leader of the small group asked me if I was okay. It was pretty clear that he felt bad that I had gotten shot. When I showed him, I was fine. Well, I think his brains just told him that he must have made a mistake, and the bullet must have missed me. They seemed to warm up to us a bit more after that. I think the fact we were so chill after getting shot at helped a bit.


    They brought a cart, and we helped them load it up with some of the supplies we¡¯d brought. We gave them two small bags of holding five slots each, water rations and one with some food. Then, we showed them how to use the bags. They were blown away. One of the doctors kept putting a bag of sugar a bag, then he¡¯d summon it out, and he was doing it over and over. We let him go at it for a minute, and then we had to stop him so we could put the supplies back in our bags. Janet and I apologized for not thinking about the bags before they had brought out and loaded the cart.


    They said they didn¡¯t mind, and after that, we were done, and we walked inside. It was gnarly inside, let me tell you. The first thing that hit you was the smell. I mean, what a fucking smell. It was like a mix of sweat, piss, shit, and rotating garbage. It was rough. Some people looked sick, there were people with open wounds, and there were people, so many fucking people. Holly shit, there must have been a thousand people in the hospital. They looked like they needed help. We were taken to the supply room, where we placed the food and supplies inside.


    They brought Janet and me to a command center-like area next. They told us they had a fighting force mostly made of police officers and private citizens with arms willing to fight. Apparently, they had been hit hard by some monster attacks and had lost a lot of people already. It turned out they were in desperate need of assistance. We told them about Treehouse Village.


    We told them we were trying to make a safe haven for survivors and that they were welcome to join us. They were unsure about the whole thing and said they would have to scoop it out first. Then, if they decided to join us, we could start the process of moving the residences. At one point, I asked them what their highest level was. They told me they hadn¡¯t considered it much and that nobody was really paying attention to that kind of stuff. They explained with people dying and food and water getting scarcer, it wasn¡¯t their top priority.


    The leader guy¡¯s name turned out to be Edwin, and I told him to tell me what was on his stat sheet. I had to remind him how to call it forth, but when he did, he informed me he was a level three human with nine free stat points to distribute. Level three! Shit, that was fucking low. He hadn¡¯t even distributed any of his stats points? fuck. These guys were in more trouble than I thought. I looked over at Janet, and she had a look of shock on her face like she couldn¡¯t believe what she was hearing.


    After our short meeting with the leadership, we handed out some healing smoothies to the people in the worst shape, then gave out some Beans, and some Mana kissed water. We asked a couple of people about their level, and almost every single person we asked was level one, and if they weren¡¯t level one, they were level two and had paid dearly for it. We decided we could make it back to Treehouse Village today if we left soon. We told Edwin as much, and Edwin, along with two of his men, decided they would come with us to check out the village.


    We had four extra sheep, so we told them they could bring one more person. Edwin thought about it, and after about a few minutes, he came back with their fourth, a woman by the name of Tatiana. She was a doctor at the hospital and had been on call when the integration occurred. She wanted to see Treehouse Village for herself, and nobody had a problem with that. With the small group decided, we took our leave.


    It took a little while for everyone to come to terms with our mode of transportation, but eventually, everyone was on, and we were on our way. We kept the sheep, our new friends we were riding, tied to our own for the ride home. We didn¡¯t want them to have to worry about steering. Janet and I also didn¡¯t want to take the time to teach them. We had an easy time returning to Treehouse Village and had no significant problems. The only minor incident was that we ran into a small pack of savage ripper bunnies, but our new sheep friends took care of them without much trouble.


    We got to see them use their lighting horns as well, which was super cool, not gonna lie. Instant deep-fried bunny. When we reached the walls and got off the sheep at the gates to the village, Edwin and his people were shocked at what we had built. As we showed them around the village, they were doing that thing that people do in a new place sometimes where they try to look everywhere at once. I was afraid someone was gonna break their neck. We finally got to the center of the town. Someone must have run ahead of us and gotten Beth because Beth was waiting for us in front of the town hall with Devin, Tess, and Brianna. A few moments later, we made it over to them.


    ¡°Edwin and friends, this is Beth, Devin, Tess, And Brianna, the other members of the Treehouse Village council, along with Janet and me.¡±


    We all went to the council meeting room and settled in for a talk with Edwin and his people. Refreshments were passed around along with some light snakes, and by this point, the looks on the faces of Edwin¡¯s guys almost screamed they were gonna join us. The talks took longer than I thought, but everything was figured out. We told Edwin we needed a week to get enough build points for a new housing unit. We also told him that we would require additional time after that to supply the rest of the housing for all the new people.


    Adding all those new people, even at their low levels, would make getting enough housing go fast. With the plan laid out, we started packing up provisions for about a week. We were going back to the hospital tomorrow. It was too late at this point to make the trip back. When we offered Edwin and his people a place to stay for the night, they agreed rather quickly. We put them up in some spare rooms, and they couldn¡¯t believe the quality of the rooms. We left them to relax as the council reconvened.


    ¡°There are guards on their doors, right?¡± Devin asked Beth once we were all seated at the table again.


    ¡°Yep, they¡¯re watching from the rooms across from them. I didn¡¯t want them to think we didn¡¯t trust them. I just can¡¯t let them wander freely yet,¡± Beth said, affirming Devin¡¯s query.


    ¡°So, what are we gonna do with all these low-level people joining us? I mean, the last time people tried to join us, we just killed them, or did you forget?¡± Tess asked the group. Meeting my eyes as she spoke.


    ¡°Well, as I see it, they tried to steal from us, and I killed them so they would come back and try to kill us or tell others of our weakness. This group is different. They are not actively aggressive towards us, or at least not yet, and they are so low-level. They really won¡¯t pose a threat. At least, that¡¯s the way I¡¯m leaning. If we encounter troublemakers, we will simply ask them to leave and kill them once they are out of sight of the village. Unless you want to build a prison and start having trials and shit? I¡¯m really more of the mind to just kill troublemakers. There¡¯s just no room for that shit in this new world.¡±


    I finished my thought, and everyone had a think about what I¡¯d said before Brianna broke the silence. ¡°Well, that sounds like a plan to me. Let¡¯s just get them moved over here, and then we can figure all that other shit out as we go. That work, for now?¡± That seemed to be what most of us were thinking, so we adjourned the council for the evening and split up to get some sleep. Tomorrow was sure to be a busy day.

 Chapter 26 - Moving day and were killing them! I mean, killing it.

    Hey, y''all, I had to step away from editing for a week. Things got a bit hectic at work and in my personal life, plus I was just feeling a bit unmotivated. That''s my shit to get over, though, and I''m sorry for the wait, but here we are right back at it with another chapter! so without further ado, Chapter 26! Here we go!


    Chapter 26


    Moving and recruiting


    The next morning, we finished loading up the supply for the Hospital. Bags of holding made the venture much less stressful and a lot more convenient than lugging over a bunch of shit in carts or something like that. We ended up having an open sheep for the mission as Dr. Tatiana Bowden decided that she would stay at Treehouse Village till the rest of the people from the hospital were moved over. It was clear to us that she didn¡¯t want to return to the Hospital.


    Dr. Bowden was already fitting in well and had started working with Frank in the infirmary, and they were working to build an actual medical core, not just the ragtag group we had now. Since there was an open sheep, Brianna decided she wanted to join the mission just before we headed out. The trip back was uneventful, and we made it to the Hospital in no time at all.


    When the scouts at the Hospital saw Edwin and our small group approaching, they started unbarricading the entryway for us. We brought the sheep right up to the door this time. We wrapped their leads around some debris where they wouldn¡¯t wander off and headed inside. Janet also threw a bunch of popcorn in front of them, and the sheep seemed pretty content to chill out and wait for us there.


    Once inside, we were congregated around a table in their impromptu command center, and Edwin explained the situation to his people. Everyone seemed excited to be putting this place in the rearview. When Edwin told everyone that we needed a week to prepare for their arrival. People seemed slightly disappointed, but when he explained that we had brought some provisions to last until then, people seemed visibly relieved. Shortly after that, we started passing said provisions out. There didn¡¯t seem to be anyone who had problems with the move, and the atmosphere of the people in the Hospital had taken on an air of joy and relief.


    When Brianna saw the living conditions of the people at the Hospital, you could see the pain and sadness on her face. So when we started passing around the stuff we brought, Brianna jumped in to help with gusto. She even knew a couple of the policemen and women at the Hospital, which only increased the camaraderie and trust between our two groups. Brianna¡¯s vouching for Treehouse Village, her trust in our group, and the stories of monster engagements successfully rebuffed excited people about the possibilities for the future.


    That week went by fast, and Brianna stayed at the Hospital a lot during that time to help prepare everything for the move. When the day finally came for the move, we had already built one new housing unit. We did the math, and as soon as the new residence for the Hospital arrived, we¡¯d only have to wait a few days to get the points to build a second one. It turned out Beth could manipulate the layouts of the rooms so there wouldn¡¯t be any fighting for the bigger rooms.


    Beth had figured that out a little after building the first apartment complex for the village, but it was too late to change things now, and everyone was happy enough with their living situations anyway. This time, only families got up to a three-bedroom home, and there were no luxury suites. This would hopefully squash any bickering over who got what room. That was nice. It was one less thing to worry about. The move had taken a lot of planning. We figured with how many people we had to get moved over here. There had to be a better way than just having people walk the distance.


    In the end, we found a couple of trucks that we tore apart till only the bottom chassis were left. We made decks out of scavenged wood and tied them all together. It probably wouldn¡¯t be comfortable, but we should make great time with the sheep toeing them. Fewer back-and-forth trips would mean less time in a vulnerable position. It was about lunchtime when we were done retrofitting the trucks, so we all ate something and then headed out.


    We had about ten fighters with us, four riding the sheep with Janet and me. The other six were split up amongst the trailers, ready for an attack at a moment¡¯s notice. Once we were at the Hospital, we started loading people up immediately. Brianna had been waiting outside so that we could get people in fast. Then, we could get back on the road. We could only take about one hundred people on each trip, so it was going to be a long day. By the time it was starting to get dark, we still had about three runs left to do before everyone was in the village. At that point, we would still have to go back on a fourth run to salvage what we could from the Hospital, but that could happen tomorrow. We couldn¡¯t leave valuable materials behind. The process would probably take multiple days as well.


    We were on our second-to-last trip back to Treehouse Village when trouble hit. A trailer filled to the brim with people got attacked. It was a pack of five Tarzackien death wolves. They came out of nowhere. It was well into dusk, and the light was quickly fading when it happened. At first, I didn¡¯t know what was going on. They had hit the back of the convoy, and all I heard was screaming. I spun around on the back of the sheep and headed back to see what the problem was. Janet¡¯s mount was attached to one of the trailers, so she just jumped off her sheep and ran towards the rear of the caravan.


    I arrived first and saw the wolves attacking some of our new citizens. We had left two fights in every trailer, but they were only able to distract three of the wolves, allowing the rest to tear into our numbers with abandon. My sheep zapped one wolf as I leaped from its back blade first, ending another wolf¡¯s life. When Janet arrived, I was cutting down my third wolf, and she killed another. Seeing its comrades had fallen so quickly, the last wolf ran for the hills, and we let it go.


    The wolves had killed about six people before we got there, and the rest of the trip to the village was a somber one. However, we had to get back on the road. We still had one last trip of people to bring back to the village, and that attack wasn¡¯t going to stop us. Okay, so it turned out that the attack stopped us for the night. Everyone at the hospital was too scared to travel after hearing what happened to the last group. No matter how much we promised them we wouldn¡¯t let that happen again, they still wanted to wait till morning. It was kind of annoying, and I just wanted to get this over with, but I understood their position and didn¡¯t want to pressure them any more than I had to, so we spent the night at the Hospital.


    The following day, we headed out early with the last group of people. We even took some time and gather supplies. Once back at Treehouse Village, we would only have a bit of looting left, maybe a day at most. It turned out that with more people helping, we got much of the looting done the night before. It¡¯s really true what they say, many hands make light work. Even with the help coming from people who were level one and basically just ordinary people from pre-integration, we still moved quickly. Once packed up, we headed to the village, this time without incident. As we arrived, the new apartment building was going up, and the people from the Hospital were in awe at the fact the system could just conjure structures into existence like that.


    They were even more excited when they saw the apartment they would be moving into. People couldn¡¯t believe it. They had only seen the hard side of life in this new world, not the luxuries it could bring. They would soon all learn that nothing came for free, and they would have to help keep this place safe. Help build Treehouse Village into a real power true in this new world. They would learn this soon enough. We planned to let them settle in for a few days, and then the short holiday would be over, and they might wish they had never met us. We were going to push them hard.


    It had been a week now since the people from the Hospital had officially joined Treehouse Village. We had thrown a big party the day after everyone moved in and welcomed them with gusto. We hadn¡¯t had any trouble yet from the newcomers, but I was sure that shoe would drop eventually. For now, everyone was just getting used to their new lives in the village. The latest members of the village had been taught about stats, what they did, and how to use them to start building a solid foundation. Even if this world had game-like mechanics, it wasn¡¯t a game, so min-maxing wasn¡¯t a really, well, not really a good idea.


    It was more likely to get you killed, so almost everyone was going with a more even split amongst their stats. I¡¯m sure that would change a bit as more people got classes, but it was safer to stay as balanced as possible before you got your class. That had been yesterday¡¯s lesson. It had taken most of the day to assist everyone, but we split them into groups, which definitely helped. We planned to do something similar today but with combat. All the newbies were too low-level to even do a dungeon run, so first, we had to do the same thing we did last time. We sent the elites of the village out to catch some savage ripper bunnies, actually a lot of the fuckers, and put them in a large animal pen we built.


    We would bring one of the newbies into an enclosure and then put a bunny in there with them. Then, we would tell them to kill it. Some people freaked out, but others killed the bunnies with no hesitation. The ones who were freaking out would get the held-down bunny special, and if that still didn¡¯t work, we asked them to join the non-combatants trying to gain crafting classes. Some seemed disappointed in themselves for being unable to kill the bunny, but many were relieved another option was available. As for the majority that could get themselves to kill the bunny, they were then made to repeat the process until they reached level three. Then, they were taken out in small groups to gain experience against monsters in real-world scenarios.


    We lost a few here and there when people got too brave or careless. For the most part, people were steadily gaining levels and would be able to do dungeon runs soon enough. We had been training hard the last three days, and the first of the newbies were getting ready for their first dungeon runs today. I was not going to be involved, however. We had to do some training with the fighters we already had. We needed to work on our teamwork in battle. The last fight could have ended much quicker and more efficiently if our teamwork had been better.


    We had been training all morning, and it was lunchtime. Everyone was eating something or just hanging out with friends in the sun. As I looked around at all the people, the fighters here to protect Treehouse Village, I felt pride at what we had built here. All these people were willing to put their lives on the line to protect this place. That feeling set off a fire inside of me to get stronger and to truly become what these people saw me as, their protector. We ramped up the trading even more that afternoon, and everyone was dead on their feet by evening.


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    Most people ate then just passed out, some even at the tables they had been eating at. I even started my resistance training again with Janet by my side to keep me alive and appease her worries. A couple of times, Janet even joined in, but she had no resistance at all, so we took it slow. Her first time, getting cut by the dagger of minor corruption, knocked her down for a full twenty-four hours. Our days went on like that for another two weeks, and people seemed to be finally settling in.


    One day, it was around lunchtime. I think it was a Tuesday. Days were hard to keep track of now, but it was the third week since the people from the Hospital had joined us. Janet and I decided it was time to go again and look for more survivors. We must have been the largest village in the area by now, and we¡¯re probably closer to a small town by now. We were acquiring build points like crazy, but we still could only buy the most basic build options in the town build menu. It looked like there was quite a jump in price from basic village buildings to the more eccentric options. It also seemed like population increases were the only way to unlock more options.


    We were about to head out when Tilly ran over to us carrying a stack of papers. ¡°Wait! Take these with you.¡± Tilly said, then stopped as she reached us, catching her breath. After a few seconds, Tilly continued. ¡°I made them. Beth told me you were going to go out to help more people, and I made these so I could help out, too.¡± She finished and then handed Janet and me each half the stack of papers. It was a flier, and on it was a hand-drawn picture of Tilly and then words that said,


    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Tilly. Come to Treehouse Village. We can help, and you will be safe. Plus, I need more friends!¡±


    It was super adorable, so of course, we took them and thanked Tilly for helping us out. I told her I was sure many people would thank her and want to be friends. She smiled at that and then ran back off to go play with her friends. Ever since we brought the people from the Hospital to Treehouse Village, Tilly had some kids her own age to play with, and I was glad she wasn¡¯t alone anymore. We headed out on our sheep so we would make better time and be able to search more places than on foot. I was extremely interested in knowing what the sheep were actually called, so I went to the shop to ask the merchant fox guy, Braxin if he knew, and he said he did not know. However, he did give me another option. He said I could buy an ability called identify.


    Identify, would let me, we¡¯ll identify shit. The higher the level of the item or living being, the less I could learn about it, and it cost all the store credit I had to get it, but I still bought it. Braxin also said he had an ability for sale called Chatty Kathy, which let you speak and understand most popular languages in integrated space. I agreed it sounded like an excellent ability, but as I said, I spent all my credit on the identify ability, so I¡¯d have to get that one next time. Unity then I got the identity ability, and it was awesome! I just went around identifying as many things as I could, and I loved it. I was worried I wouldn¡¯t be able to identify the sheep, but it turned out I was worried over nothing, to my great relief. I was told it would most likely work, but the Braxin couldn¡¯t be shore, so it was a significant relief when I looked at the sheep, used identity, and got a name and a level.


    They were called The Great Zapper-horned Sheep and were all around level nine, plus or minus a level here and there. My identity ability took almost no mana to cast, and it had a level next to it. It said, Identify level one, so hopefully, the more I used it, the faster I would probably get to a higher level in the ability. I was guessing, but I was glad it seemed like I could improve the ability just with use. On the road again, Janet and I decided to stay a little closer to home at first and just did a thorough check of the area. We actually searched in a grid-like pattern this time to increase our efficiency but didn¡¯t find anyone the first day. We did find a lot of bones and half composing human and animal corpses, but no livening people.


    The next day, we increased our search radius and finally found some survivors. We mostly just killed monsters that attacked us, but we did end up finding two small groups of no more than ten people, but they looked like they had been barely staying alive. We got them all back to the village where they could get the help they needed, and then we were off again looking. On the third day, we found one group of people in a situation that was almost too much to handle.


    We approached the house like we usually did now. We had seen signs of life outside the home and assumed someone must live there. I called out that we knew someone was there and that we were there to help if they needed any. I also said we would like to meet at least to share information. We waited, and then I repeated my message. At that point, Janet saw some eyes watching us from a window and pointed it out to me. I called again, ¡°Look, dude, I can see you. What the fuck.¡± The eyes flew back behind the curtains, and the next second, a man¡¯s head poked out from behind a barely open door. Shotgun in hand. Then the man yelled at us.


    ¡°Fuck off! We don¡¯t need your fucking help! Get the fuck off my property before I shoot you, mother fucker!¡±


    ¡°Is that how everyone is feeling in there?¡± Janet asked the man, and she was right. I could hear other people talking inside. That seemed to make the guy really nervous, and that was not going to help resolve the situation. The next thing the guy said was,


    ¡°This is the last time I¡¯m gonna tell you fuck off right the fuck now, or I¡¯m gonna drop you where you stand.¡± I looked over at Janet, and she just nodded at me. I turned back to face the guy with the gun, and then I moved. The guy must have been super low-level cuz when I was standing right next to him. It took him a second to realize I was there. Once he did, however, he swung his gun around to point it at me, but I had already ripped the weapon free from his grasp before he realized it was gone. He blinked a few times at his hands, like there was a gun there, right? Then he looked back up at me, mouth agape. I smiled at him, then knocked him out. The man dropped to the ground, and I stepped over him and opened the door.


    Right as I stepped into the room, I got a shotgun blast to the chest, but I wasn¡¯t even pushed back from the shot. I looked down at my chest and then used my hand to dust off my armor, armor that the shotgun blast had barely left a scuff on. I looked back at the woman who had just shot me. I stared at her for a second, in which she looked absolutely terrified. I could see her about to fire again, so I moved. I snatched the gun from her hands before she could let off another shot. She looked like she thought I was going to kill her, but I just pushed her against a wall and said, ¡°Sit now,¡± and she did.


    She also pissed herself, which was just sad. We walked into the house and could now see the complete picture. The house was half collapsed and looked like it wasn¡¯t far from falling down the rest of the way any second now. The main room off the doorway was a large living room, but a hole in the floor took up almost half the room. There were two women tied up in the corner. One had only her feet bound and was standing by a camp stove. It looked like she was almost done cooking something, too. The other two were bound by their hands and feet. They were also gagged. We untied them and gave them some water from our bags of holding, which they consumed greedily.


    Before we completely untied them, they told us more people were in the basement. The woman also said that two more men stayed here with the shotgun guy, and they wouldn¡¯t be gone much longer. We finished getting the ladies free and hydrated and headed into the basement. It was worse than I could have ever imagined. The smell was the first thing that hit me rotting flesh, piss, and shit. Then we saw the body parts. This was some demented ass shit. People were chained to the walls and were in different stages of mutilation. They were all passed out. One woman had no arms, and another had no legs. A man with every limb gone and his dick cut off. There was even a woman with no boobs, they had clearly been cut off recently, and the wound had not been cleaned, I might add. There was torn and ragged flesh hanging off of her.


    In total, there were five women and three men in the basement. They all were missing at least one body part, if not more. Janet had to throw up at one point, and I had been right behind her. This was on another level of fucked up. We got the people down and carried them upstairs. By the time we got back upstairs, the woman who had shot me and who had pissed herself had run for it, but it didn¡¯t really matter. She was probably dead already with all the monsters out there. The two women who stayed were waiting in the kitchen. They were horrified at the acts inflicted on these people and couldn¡¯t even go near them.


    I walked over to the man on the floor that I had knocked out when we first arrived and looked down at him lying on the floor. I was trying to understand why. He looked like an average dude, but he was a demon in disguise, wearing a human skin suit. Well, not really. It was just a guy, but this ¡°guy¡± didn¡¯t need to live anymore. I picked up my foot and brought it down on the man¡¯s head, squishing it like a bug. The man¡¯s head popped, and his brains spilled out all over the floor. The people we¡¯d just saved all screamed at the site, but seeing the man was dead, one woman stood up, walked over to him, and kicked his body once, then twice, then she just let go and kicked the dead body as hard as she could.


    We let her go at it. It really made no difference to us. The guy was fucking dead end of the story. If this helped the woman release her anger, then more power to her. She kicked the guy for about two minutes before she started tiring. Then she just started crying. Janet and another woman went to comfort her, and she started calming down a bit. It was at that moment went the other two kidnapping, mutilating sons of fucking bitches walked in the front door. The first thing they saw was us, all of us chilling in the house. Then they saw the women and men from the basement, and they looked perplexed. They finally looked down and saw their buddy lying on the floor with his head exploded off, and they looked even more confused.


    We had all frozen out of shock when they walked in, but just for a second. The next moment, Janet and I moved. I pulled my weapon from my bag of holding and ran one of them through mid-chest. The man only had time to look down at my Teremnocal punching through his chest before he died. Janet was not so quick with her kill. She had moved when I had, but when she had reached her opponent, instead of just swiftly ending his life, she grabbed him by the arms and pulled. There was a loud popping and tearing sound, and then Janet tore the man¡¯s arms off his body in an instant. She next pulled each leg off the man individually. The man had passed out from the pain at that point, but Janet didn¡¯t give a fuck.


    By the time Janet was done with the man, it was more just a pile of body parts that had once been a man rather than anything resembling a human. After Janet¡¯s little moment, we had to calm the people we were trying to save down all over again because Janet had scared the living shit out of them. Eventually, we got everyone out of the house and headed back to Treehouse Village. We treated the people¡¯s wounds the best we could, but they were still too fucked up to move under their own volition. We had to rig up a sled-like contraption for the people who couldn¡¯t walk and tie it to the homemade saddles we¡¯d constructed for the sheep while the rest of us walked.


    It took us a while to get back to the village in that manner, and we had to fight off several creature attacks here and there, but eventually, we made it. Janet ran ahead once we were at the gates to let Frank and Dr. Bowden know they would have new patients soon. When we arrived at the infirmary, Frank and Dr. Bowden were outside waiting for us. When they saw the state of the people we had found in the basement, they rushed over and got them into the infirmary as fast as they could. Dr. Bowden had wanted to know what had happened to these people, and when we told her, her face went hard, and her eyes grew cold.


    ¡°I wish you hadn¡¯t killed them all. I would loved to have done it myself.¡± Dr. Bowden said, and I looked at her in surprise.


    ¡°Really? I wouldn¡¯t expect that from a doctor,¡± I answered her.


    ¡°Oh yes, only so I could pull them apart piece by piece till they were screaming for me to just kill them. Then I¡¯d heal them and start all over. These are the worst kind of scum, and what they did to these people is unforgivable, but they are dead now. So, until I get a resurrection spell, let¡¯s just say people like them are lucky I don¡¯t have one. Let¡¯s just leave it at that.¡± She finished and walked back to help Frank.


    ¡°Fuck. Remind me not to get on Dr. Bowden¡¯s bad side,¡± I said to Janet. Janet looked at me and just nodded, I think, a little in shock at the good doctor¡¯s response.


    It had been four weeks since the last attack from the master, and tensions were high. It would almost have been better if The Master just attacked us already. At least then, everyone might stop being so on edge all the time. I knew everyone, except maybe the new citizens, wanted to get this fight we all knew was coming over with already.

 The Master

    The Master


    ¡°Thank you. My Master.¡±


    ¡°Leave me now and prepare for the next attack.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master, Your will is my command.¡±


    Excellent, now we will crush those foolish pests once and for all. Their end is near. This will be the last time they slip through my fingers. My power is growing slowly. Much too slowly, but I am still gaining in strength every day. This fledgling world will be mine. This world will know its true Master, and the inhabitants will thank me for ending their suffering. STOP! I¡¯m done. I want my mom! Everything hurts so bad. I want my mom! SHUT UP, JIMMY! We are the Master now. The Master doesn¡¯t need mommy or daddy. They were weak! So they had to die. Look how strong we are now.


    The Master reached an arm out, beckoning for a minion, and as the creature drew close. The Master whipped forward and viciously ripped the creature¡¯s throat out. The beast fell to the ground, twitching momentarily, then falling still. Blood pooled on the ground around the feet of The Master and the feet of the chair He was sitting in. Every creature in the room was still as stone. Not reacting in the slightest to one of their brethren being cut down so brutally before them. Silence filled the room till a mad laugh burst forth from The Masters¡¯s mouth. For the next hour, The Master¡¯s laugh ran out, filling the air manic and crazy for all to hear.


    ¡°My Master.¡±


    ¡°WHAT IS IT!¡±


    ¡°You have interrupted me. So there better be a FUCKING good reason for it.¡±


    ¡°Master, we noticed that the Village that has continued to be a thorn in our paw has been seen bringing groups of people back to their village. We believe they are recruiting to prepare a larger force to deny your supreme glory. Would you like us to stop them? We are prepared to deny them this if it is your will?¡±


    ¡°Haha, let them gather more lambs for the slaughter. They do my work for me. Let them gather all their fellows. When the time comes, we shall harvest the crop they so diligently collect for use.


    ¡°Yes, my Master. We shall do as you command.¡±


    I don¡¯t want to kill any more people. They all cry and scream. It¡¯s horrible. I should never have listened to you. I want my mommy! You¡¯re a mean person. I don¡¯t like it here, and I¡¯m scared. JIMMY! LISTEN TO ME! You were weak, just like the rest. When Billy Turner punched you in the face and pushed your head in the THE FUCKING TOILET. YOU WERE WEAK! SO, SO WEAK, JIMMY! Then you found me, Jimmy, and what happened to little fucking Billy Turner? Oh, that¡¯s right, we went to his house, found him and his fucking parents in the basement hiding, and what did we do, Jimmy? That¡¯s right, Jimmy. WE FUCKING KILLED THEM! WE TORE THEM LIMB FROM FUCKING LIMB! Then we bathed in their blood.


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    That was our baptism into this new world, Jimmy, and because you found me well, we became strong together. So would you rather Billy Turner punched you in the face and followed you home from school just to beat the shit out of you again. NO, I DON¡¯T WANT THAT! Good Jimmy. See, I¡¯m here to help you. I¡¯ve always been here to help you. I¡¯m your only true friend, Jimmy. I¡¯m the only one looking out for you who has your best interests in mind. No one will ever hurt us again, Jimmy. I¡¯m here, and together, everyone who tries to hurt us will hurt. Does that sound okay to you, Jimmy?


    Yeah, I guess that¡¯s okay. I Hate Billy, or I did. I¡¯m glad he¡¯s dead and his stupid family. Yes, Jimmy, they were so stupid they died like cowards before the power we now hold, but Jimmy, more people want to hurt us. We can¡¯t let that happen, right? No, we can¡¯t. All these creatures came to keep us safe, so if people are trying to hurt us and our people, we should make them pay. Will do it together, Jimmy, and we will make them pay like all the rest. Do you understand? We are The Master now.


    Now Jimmy, I think it might be time to deal with these mean people ourselves, don¡¯t you think? Yes, I do. I do think it¡¯s time to make them pay. Nobody hurts us anymore. If they try, then they have to die, just like Billy and his stupid family, like all the weak people who wanted to hurt us. Even though Mommy and Daddy were weak, they let us hurt and never stopped it. They wanted us to hurt. We have power now, and nothing will ever stop us again. Let¡¯s visit these stupid people and kill them all. They have hurt us for too long, and they will die now.


    With that, The Master stood from his thrown and cracked his aching bones, and a few bits of rotten flesh fell to the ground. Then, he stepped forward and stretched out his arms. His minions rushed forth to don his robe and staff. The robe was torn and stained yet covered with ruins that hummed with power as the ruins glowed softly with putrid green. The staff was a gnarled piece of wood that had been struck by lightning, and burn marks could still be seen down its length. At the top of the weapon was a crow skull with ruins drawn in purple crayon pulsing with power. Next, they straightened the crown on his head.


    Then, the Master turned to the pedestal next to his throne and lifted an orb from atop it. This was his orb of power. The thing that had given him the power to become strong to be free. The thing that made him that birthed him a new. He cradled the obe in his hand, gazing at it lovingly, almost as if entranced. Then, after only a few moments, The Master returned to reality. He looked at his closet¡¯s minion and spoke,


    ¡°Gather our forces now. We are heading to this village and routing then once and for all. It¡¯s time they no the power of The Master!¡±

 Chapter 27 - The cold grip of death

    Chapter 27


    The cold grip of death


    It was a quiet morning. A good amount of fog was hanging over the village, and everything was a little wet from the early morning dew when a scout came running into town. Not many people were awake, seeing as it was around six in the morning, but the scout had found a sentry on the walls, and now that sentry was knocking on Beth¡¯s door. The guy knocked hard enough that I could hear it from my room a few doors down the hallway. I was awake now, and something was clearly going on for someone to be pounding away at someone¡¯s door, I was assuming Beth¡¯s door, like that.


    I opened my front door, still in my PJ¡¯s, and looked around. I saw a sentry banging on Beth¡¯s door. I stared at him for a second, a little pissed that I had just been woken up. By that point, Beth had opened the door, and Janet was now sticking her head out of her door as well. I saw her and nodded as Beth let the sentry into her apartment. I met eyes with Janet, and she nodded. Then she walked over as Trish took Janet¡¯s place at the door. Trish waved at me but chilled at the door, waiting for Janet.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Janet asked me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t know, just poked my head out a second before you. Hey Trish.¡± I answered Janet, and then I winked and waved back at Trish. Maybe this morning could be salvaged. Janet saw me wink at Trish and lightly slapped my arm,


    ¡°stop that. What if it¡¯s something serious? I think that was a sentry from the walls. We¡¯re overdue for another visit from The Master. Maybe there here?¡± I thought about what Janet said, and fuck, she was probably right.


    ¡°Okay, Let¡¯s see what¡¯s going on,¡± I said. Janet and I walked over to Beth¡¯s door. Seeing this was becoming a thing, Trish said she was going back to sleep and disappeared into Janet¡¯s apartment. Janet and I walked over to Beth¡¯s room, and as I raised my hand to knock on the door, it opened. The sentry ran into me, and with the difference in our stats, it was like a foam football hit me in the chest, but the sentry ended up on the floor. I helped the guy up to his feet, and before I could say another word, he thanked me and then ran off. Janet and I were confused at the man¡¯s behavior but just turned to Beth, standing in the doorway.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I asked Beth.


    ¡°Yeah, what was all that about?¡± Janet mimicked and then yawned. That got me, and I yawned. Then Beth yawned, and that had us all yawning one more time.


    ¡°Damn it, stop that you¡¯re making me sleepy, Janet,¡± Beth said. Janet just gave her a look mid-yawn that said, what, like I¡¯m doing this on purpose?


    ¡°Come on, what the fuck is going on?¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Well, we better walk and talk. You guys have your gear with you?¡± Beth asked us, and we both said we needed to stop and grab it quickly. We both ducked into our rooms and were back in the hallway in no time. We started walking towards the elevator that would take us to the ground floor. Beth, Janet, and I equipped our gear as we walked, which we could do thanks to our bags of holding, fucking things were damn useful. While we were standing in the elevator, Janet asked Beth,


    ¡°So what¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°Fuck, right. Well, it seems that The Master¡¯s forces are back, but it looks like they brought a lot of fighters this time.¡± Beth finished, and I could tell Janet was thinking the same thing I was. fuck.


    ¡°The sentry you saw enter my room is waking people up and recruiting others to help him on my orders, so people should start getting to the wall in the next twenty minutes or so. Beth seemed a little too calm to have just heard an army was at the gates or would be soon.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Is there a plan we are not aware of? Why are you not freaking out a little more?¡± I asked Beth, curious. She let out a breath and then said,


    ¡°I think I¡¯ve just come to terms with the reality of the situation. I see two outcomes. Either we win the day in which our people will remain safe for now, and we will continue to grow and progress. The other outcome is that we lose. In that case, we¡¯d all be dead anyway, so it doesn¡¯t really matter. We have to win this battle. We have to, or it¡¯s the end of us, the end of Treehouse Village.¡± We all stood in the elevator quietly after that, and I could tell we were all coming to terms with that fact. This was a defining moment for Treehouse Village, and we had no choice but to claim victory today.


    We made our way to the walls and climbed the stairs to the ramparts. Standing atop the walls, we could just make out an army of creatures approaching the village. Every street coming from the west was filled with creatures slowly marching at us in an unending flood of doom. We just stood atop the walls, watching their inevitable march. At some point, I took my eyes off the army and realized while we had been watching the enemy, our fighters had joined us on the walls. As more and more of our fighters joined us on the walls, there became less room, and our forces had to spread along the walls. Even then, more of our force was on the ground behind the walls, ready to take the place of any man or woman when they fell.


    As the army formed up ranks forty feet from our walls, we could see the true vastness of the forces before us. It was truly humbling to see, and I felt fear well up in my heart for the first time in a while. Before we knew it, the battle had begun. A unit of fifty or so creatures stepped forward. The next second, every creature in the unit started casting some kind of spell. Beth saw this and activated the force field seconds before it got slammed by one spell after another. Their numbers began advancing as their spell casters continued to throw spells at our shield.


    When they were twenty feet from the base of our walls, there was a brief moment when the spells stopped flying. Another unit of fifty stepped forward as the first group of spell casters stepped back. Beth took the opportunity to drop the force field and activate the plasma turrets. At the same time, she signaled for the archers and other throw weapon users like me with my spears to let them have it. Our attacks punched into the enemy¡¯s ranks viciously, and the enemy caster units seemed to take the worst of our attack.


    A few of the larger tanker creatures got in the way to try and reduce the damage the spell casters were taking, but it didn¡¯t help much. Their front line was getting thrashed. The plasma turrets, three large hovering balls of what looked like constantly moving Mercury, congregated over our headers and started firing on the enemy line. They could put out a shot roughly every seven seconds, but they hit hard and were cutting through the enemy ranks like a hot knife through butter, taking five to ten creatures out with each shot. It wouldn¡¯t be enough, however, and before long, Beth turned off the plasma turrets to save build points. Our first strike force lept from the walls when the turrets stopped and charged the enemy.


    We were about fifty-strong with our elite strike forces that jumped off the wall. The rest of our forces would join near the end of the battle if we needed to help, and we would most likely need the help before long. We were holding those stike forces back because most of their members were under level ten. The only exception to this was a few of the archers on the walls. Some had gotten the ranger class option when choosing their class, and they were too valuable to waste time on the front lines. It was better to leave that job to the classes built for infighting rather than waste their talents.


    We hit the enemy¡¯s broken front line like a freight train. We had to be careful to avoid ending up too deep behind enemy lines, or we could get surrounded and cut off from support. The archers on the walls were still firing to keep us from getting overwhelmed, and it was working so far. I was facing my first magic user and had to take a fireball to the chest to get close enough to kill the bastard. It hurt like a son of a bitch, but my new 10% to fire resistance must have helped me out. I took very little damage from the attack, and the look on the creature¡¯s face when I broke through its attack was one of complete shock. The battle went on like that.


    I had another close call when what must have been an ice mage froze my legs to the ground, and I very nearly got my head taken off. It looked like the mage was working with an ally because when I got hit with the ice spell, it was almost like the other creature had been waiting for that exact moment to attack. As I realized I couldn¡¯t move my feet, I felt my gut warning me to duck. It was like that feeling you get when someone stares at you, but it is more intense. I listened to my instincts, and I felt the wind move over my head as I ducked. As I stood back up, I twisted my body and cut the creature, attempting to take my head in two. I then smashed the ice, trapping my feet, and used a step lightly to take out the magic user with a blade to the brain.


    As I fought on, I got a cut from a dagger of corruption, and I knew I did from the familiar feeling that started running through my body. The pain wasn¡¯t bad, so it must have been a light cut. I gritted my teeth through the pain and fought on. It was when I lost my arm and there was no end in sight to the waves of monsters I knew we might be in trouble. The next fuck up I made ended with a sword in my chest up to the hilt, and that was when I knew for sure we were in trouble. Only a few moments later, our forces that had been held in reserve joined the battle. This was bad. That meant we were losing this fight. It felt too early for them to join the battle already. Something had gone very wrong.


    I killed my latest opponent, then used step lightly to retreat. I needed to get a better idea of the battlefield ASAP and get healed up. I made it to the base of the wall and jumped. I grabbed onto the edge of the wall and pulled myself up atop it. I found Beth and hobbled over to her. As I looked at the battle, one thing was clear from this vantage. We were eventually going to lose at this rate. We just didn¡¯t have the levels or the numbers. Call a retreat. Maybe we can use the force field and plasma turrets. Go give us a moment to regroup and catch our breath. Beth looked like she was thinking, then nodded.


    ¡°Let¡¯s try. It can¡¯t get much worse out there. Can you support the retreat?¡± Beth asked, looking over my wounds with concern.


    ¡°Of course, head back in now,¡± I said as I popped a Senzuketa Bean in my mouth, then jumped off the wall to do just as I said. I leaped back into the battle with the intention of drawing the enemy¡¯s attention so our fighters could get out of there. A whistle sounded over the battlefield, the official signal to retreat, and our forces began to pull back. I jumped around the battlefield, allowing our people to disengage quickly and move. Some of our fighters were still in the fray, but they couldn¡¯t break free. Beth made the hard decision then to open fire with the plasma turrets. Cutting down monster after monster, as well as the few people from the village who didn¡¯t make it out.


    The force field was back up, and we all got to take a breather momentarily. During that time, I made my way over to where Beth, Devin, Tess, and Brianna were standing in a circle talking. When I got closer, I could hear they were trying to think of a way to win this engagement.


    ¡°We¡¯d just be throwing ourselves to the slaughter. I¡¯m not gonna go out like that. I can tell you that right now.¡± Brianna said, and she looked pissed off.


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    ¡°I¡¯m not saying that, but we need to consider a fallback option if we fail to hold The Master¡¯s forces here. That¡¯s all I¡¯m saying.¡± Devin said placatingly.


    ¡°Look, if we don¡¯t stop them here, we might as well just kill ourselves. As far as I know, this is the only safe place in the whole area. There are too many of us now. Without the town-building interface, there¡¯s no way to support all of them.¡± Tess said.


    ¡°Running is not an option for me either. I live through this, and so does Treehouse Village, or I¡¯m going down fighting.¡± Janet said, and that seemed to be the end of that conversation. No one was going to let Janet stay behind alone, so if she was going down fighting till the end, it looked like we all would.


    ¡°Enough of that kinda talk. You guys are all so negative. I don¡¯t know about you, but I¡¯m killing all these fuckers, and if I have to do it myself, I will so either buck the fuck up or get the fuck out of my way cuz it¡¯s clobbering¡­ Okay, never mind. Let¡¯s just fucking end this, and if The Master is out there, I¡¯m gonna kill the fuck out of it.¡± I said to the group as I walked up. Everyone was just looking at me like, what the fuck. Except for Janet and Brianna, they were full-on with me. Brianna even clapped her hands together and said,


    ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about. Let¡¯s fucking do this!¡±


    ¡°You know you¡¯re missing an arm, right?¡± Tess said.


    ¡°yeah, I think I saw you get run through as well. You okay?¡± Devin asked me as he looked me over.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Just worry about yourself. I¡¯ll be fine. Come on, let¡¯s fucking do this!¡± I told them, blowing off their concern. After that, we started moving back to the ramparts. I thought I heard Brianna and Janet laughing at me, but I ignored them. I was fine¡­ ish. When we were back on the wall, I pulled Beth aside.


    ¡°Hey, if it really comes down to it, I¡¯ll give you and the rest of the civilians as much time as I can so you can make a run for it.¡±


    ¡°Travis, I¡¯m not gonna just leave you¡­¡± I cut Beth off. If it really gets to that point, you run, you run, and you don¡¯t stop. You¡¯re the only hope for these people, so survive, Beth, and keep them alive.¡± With that, I patted her on the shoulder and surveyed the battle. I looked back to see Beth standing there in shock for a moment. She shook herself out of it and then returned to General Beth mode. I turned back to the battlefield. Most of the enemy had retreated and regrouped as well, but the magic-using creatures still alive were slinging spells at the force field with abandon. The enemy was still in range of the plasma turrets but was slowly moving out of range. The army of creatures was about eighty feet from the walls and still moving back. I decided it was time to amp up our fighting force a bit. I turned the force field off for a moment between spells, jumped off the wall, and turned the force field back on. The only thing I heard before I landed was Janet yelling,


    ¡°You fucking asshole!¡±


    Once on the ground, I started moving towards the enemy at speed. I had to dodge a spell here and there, but I was fucking flying, and I wasn¡¯t even using my movement ability yet. As I approached the enemy line, a spell hit the ground before me and threw a large cloud of dirt into the air. I stumbled briefly but then used the cloud to land a surprise attack. There were a few moments of silence before I burst forth from the cloud of dirt, activated quick strike, and step lightly at the same time, dancing like a phantom through their front line. Everywhere I moved, bodies dropped, and after thirty seconds, I killed over fifty creatures and left their front lines in shambles.


    I was moving through the enemy, taking lives with every breath, when, from my left, I was hit. It was a spell that flung me into the air. I landed between the army of creatures and our own walls. I got back up to my feet, but I was left shaken by that stick. My face and the left side of my body were numb, and when I reached my hand up to feel my face, I could feel skin sliding around under my touch. Then there was pain, so much pain I screamed. That seemed to be the signal for the battle to start again in earnest, and I was smack dab in the middle of the battlefield.


    The pain was all there was for a moment. I started to sink into my subconscious as hundreds of creatures were barreling down on me, and there was no more time for pain. I tried to take a step forward and almost collapsed from the pain. So that was off the table. Guess I was making my stand here. As the mass of creatures reached me, it was like a wave as they washed over me. I used a quick strike a couple of times, and then I went to activate the step lightly, and something amazing and painful happened. I had moved to dodge as I would typically have done, but the pain in my legs was so intense I still couldn¡¯t move them as I dodged all the mana that would flood my body, as when I usually used my ability, it was blocked from leaving my legs. There was a ripping sound, and all that mana shot back into the upper half of my body.


    I twisted at the waist so fast I was taken off guard. It was as if my legs were too broken, so the mana had been channeled only to the area I could still move, and that was something I would need to see if I could do on purpose and without so much pain. That is if I lived through this. I only stood there alone for maybe twenty seconds, and before I knew it, Janet and the rest of our elite strike force were at my side fighting back the horde. After a few minutes of fighting, my left side had gone from. Holly fuck, I might pass out to manageable pain levels. By manageable, I mean it still hurt like hell. The Senzuketa Bean I ate helped, but I needed to be careful how many I ate to keep their healing effect. Not feeling like I was on the verge of passing out anymore was a good start.


    It was around then that the fight started shifting in our favor. It was hardly noticeable at first, but as the battle continued, we began to push their forces back. I could see their numbers thinning. It was only a short while after that everyone seemed to see what I was seeing and began to attack with renewed vigor. We had almost pushed them a hundred and fifty feet from the walls, and they were losing fighters faster than ever now when something changed.


    I noticed people were attacking the army of creatures from the rear. They weren¡¯t our fighters and didn¡¯t seem to be people from the village going rogue. I had just killed a creature and had some breathing room, so I took a look at our new companions in this fight. They looked to be teens or young adults and were moving as a team much better than our forces. It looked like they were fighting in teams of five, and as I was checking them out, one man met my eyes, winked with a smile on his face, then cut down a creature. He fought with two short swords and wore what looked like patched-together armor. That was fucking weird, but there was no time to think about it anymore, as an enemy was coming at me.


    The battle continued on like that for another minute or two before everything went to shit. I was finishing off my opponent when a soft, low hum filled my ears. It was annoying at first, but then it started to hurt. I realized that everyone on the battlefield had stopped moving. Even the creatures who came here to attack us were frozen in place. I was in pain, trying to resist whatever was causing everyone to freeze up like that, but it didn¡¯t stop. I could feel I was almost past the limits of what this spell could contain. If I could only push a little harder, I was sure I could push through it. The spell, because it had to be a spell, felt like a mental fog that seeped into your mind, then took over your neuro system and clamped down on it with an iron fist.


    I had pushed it out of my body and was so close to pushing it out of my head entirely when a voice echoed out over the battlefield.


    ¡°So close and yet so far. You did well against my minions. They are not but fodder. Truly a marvelous and excellent attempt to live. Fighting for survival is such a wonderful feeling, am I right? Alas, that is as far as you will go. My forces may be weaker than yours, true, but today, I¡¯m afraid to say that it doesn¡¯t matter in the slightest. You see, I have set my eyes on you, citizens of Treehouse Village, and I always get what I want. Have I made myself clear? Oh, right, you¡¯re all frozen. I¡¯ll just have to answer for you then. We surrender, oh great and powerful Master. There we go. I, being the merciful and benevolent ruler that I am, shall kill you all and give you the privilege of feeding my power with your deaths.¡±


    While The Master was speaking, he appeared on the battlefield and started walking through his troops toward our ranks. The Master was walking slowly, taking his time, as he had all the time in the world with everyone frozen. For lack of a better word, The Master was a skeleton. It looked like the skeleton of a man or woman, and there were pieces of rotting flesh hanging from its bones. He had bits of hair still attached to his head. He held a staff in one hand and a small orb in the other. The Master wore almost nothing except for a long black cloak and a crown that looked like it had been roughly cut from a sheet of metal and spray-painted gold and covered with what looked to be crayon-drawn ruins and crafting gens meant for kids.


    Honestly, it looked like a little kid decorated The Masters crown at school or something. The Master stopped his walk when he was standing three feet from one of our frozen fighters. The Master smiled, which was weird and creepy. I could totally tell he was smiling, but it was super gross-looking. The bones of its skull actually looked like they were stretching at the corners of its mouth. The flesh and sinew twisted horribly, making its face look distorted and truly terrifying. The man The Master was standing in front of wasn¡¯t moving, but sweat was falling from his face in sheets. I could tell the man was scared out of his mind, but there was nothing he could do about it. The Master looked down at the orb in his hand the next second and said something I couldn¡¯t hear. After a moment, a transparent white mist flowed out of the man¡¯s body and into the orb. When all the mist was sucked into the orb, the man dropped to the ground dead.


    That was all I needed apparently to send my battle against The Mmaster¡¯s influence on me into overdrive, and before I knew it, I was free. I let out a hard breath and fell to one knee, but The Master was gone from my mind, and I was free. I looked over at The Master, and he was staring right at me. It seemed that he could tell immediately when I broke out of his control, and he did not look happy about it. Fighting off The Master¡¯s influence had taken more out of me than I thought, and I felt weak, but I was still strong enough to kill this asshole. After moments of The Master and I just staring at each other, I moved. I shot forward. I didn¡¯t have enough mana to activate step lightly, so I was on my own here.


    Even without my abilities, my stats were high for level sixteen, and I used every last point to its fullest. I crossed the distance in seconds. As I did, The Master started to retreat, but I was not going to let that happen. Since all the creatures around me were still frozen, there was nothing to stop me as I flashed forward. The Master realized he couldn¡¯t outrun me, so he turned and readied himself for a fight. I fainted with an attack to the face but, at the last second, swung the butt of my Teremnocal around and smacked the weird orb thing The Master was holding, sending it flying into the air. The Master turned and watched the orb fly off, then turned back to me and hissed. Then, as if driven by pure aggression alone, The Master throw himself at me.


    For a caster, The Master could sure fight. I was moving as fast as I could and still taking hits. At one point during our battle, The Master jumped free of our engagement and spoke.


    ¡°Now, you have truly angered me.¡± The Master then said a few words in a language I couldn¡¯t understand, and the creatures around me started to move again. At first, they all were moving in slow motion, but soon, the members of The Master¡¯s army were on the attack again. This time, however, all our fighters were still frozen and couldn¡¯t defend themselves. It was time to end this. If this fight went on much longer, a lot of people would die, or maybe it was better to say a lot more people would die. I charged at The Master with everything I had. Maybe I was too weak, or perhaps The Master was too strong. Even when I threw everything I had at him, I could not break through his guard, and the whole time we were fighting, I could hear my people dying around me. It was infuriating. I was mid-attack on The Master when, out of nowhere, I got hit with a mental puls of pain, and my vision fuzzed for a moment. Then The Master snuck a hand past my guard and stabbed with a clawed hand in the throat.


    Blood started pouring from my neck, but I grabbed his hand so he couldn¡¯t move. I only had one arm, and the look in The Master¡¯s eyes as he tightened his grip on my neck was one of victory. I knew from that look I was dead. I was trying to fight and break free, but I was losing blood too fast. As I stared at The Master, I was determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear. The Master then started to worm his way into my brain. The pain was terrible, and I had nothing in me to fight back anymore. I was sure this was it. I was going to die. This was an enemy I couldn¡¯t beat, and I was going to die. As I finally gave up, ready to die, an axe punched through the back of The Master and popped out the front of his chest. I looked at the axe in shock, then at The Mmaster¡¯s face, who was looking at the axe head protruding from its chest with confusion.


    Then its grip weakened, and The Master looked at me in shock, then anger, before his head was separated from his body and he was hit with multiple arrows and spells, ending The Master¡¯s reign of terror. However, the fight wasn¡¯t over, and now that our fighters were free of The Master¡¯s hold, they went on the attack. It wasn¡¯t long before every remaining creature was dealt with, and the battle was truly over. I was lying on the ground as Janet killed creatures around us, protecting me till the battle was done. I didn¡¯t get to see the end of the fight. I had passed out from blood loss while lying on the ground, protected by Janet.


    My last thought before unconsciousness took me was that I knew I was safe if Janet was there, and then everything went black.

 Chapter 28 - Aftermath and power-ups

    Chapter 28


    Aftermath and power-ups


    I didn''t pass out for a week this time. Progress! I was actually only out till the following day. Well, there were a few other times I woke up, but only briefly each time. The first time was from the pain when Janet picked me up and carried me Back to the walls. I think she had still been in I''m so strong mode and hadn''t really considered my comfort when getting me to the infirmary. The second time was when they actually started working on me, and that really hurt before they had given me some of our valued anesthetic, and then I was out again. Let''s just say I was in a bad way. Okay, I was fucked up. Breathing hurt, and it felt like my body was broken everywhere. I didn''t literally think every single bone in my body was broken. That would have just been ridiculous.


    No, it just felt like I was broken. I was surprised I got so fucked up. I couldn''t even move my arm. Then I realized it was missing, and that made me laugh, which fucking hurt a lot, so I cried, which also fucking hurt a lot. Like I said, I was fucked up. Apparently, a lot of people were really fucked up. Fast self-healing was incredible till you were brought back from the brink of death, and you had half your body frayed like pork belly. I could see that being utilized in horrible ways. I thought about what the Doc had said she would do to those men who had mutilated those poor people and shivered, which fucking hurt, oww.


    That was now a terrifying concept, and I didn''t think I could go that far. I just ended bad people. Then they were gone, and that''s what mattered to me. I guess they could have suffered more, but those assholes were dead now and couldn''t hurt anyone else. That was the important part. I moved on from thinking about that, and my thoughts drifted through random topics as I went in and out of consciousness for the next four days.


    I was so bored! I mean fuck! I was so bored. Most people were back on their feet by now, except for a few who got the worst of it, but I was so bored just sitting in my bed resting all the time. Yesterday, I could still barely put weight on my left leg, but my arm was almost back, and most of my skin didn''t look like deep-fried pork belly anymore, which was great. I was just hoping that today''s checkup would clear me to leave my room. I was out for four days but had been sitting in bed resting up for three days now, and I was so fucking bored. Okay, the last time I complained, I swear I just needed out. Janet had come to visit me yesterday. She had just been released from bed rest herself and was allowed by Dr. Bowden to walk around for part of the day.


    Janet had given me shit for getting so fucked up, but in the end, she cried on my shoulder. She also punched me in the face, which fucking actually hurt, but she told me to get better soon and gave me a kiss before she left. I had a couple of other visitors, mainly Beth, Brianna, and Tilly. Tilly actually stopped by a couple of times, and when Beth tried to stop her from coming to visit, saying that I needed my rest. I told Beth it was fine. I needed it, and Tilly''s little stories about her day-to-day life in the village were calming. Most of my time when I was laid up and conscious was spent looking at my stat sheet. There had been a few changes that helped my state of mind.


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 21


    Race: Human


    Class: Path of the Pole Arm


    Experience needed to next Level: 86,320/96,600 XP till next Level.


    Stat points per level up: +3 free


    Titles:


    Lucky Bastard: (+2 to luck)


    Explorer: 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Settlement Defense level (3): (Plus 7 to all stats)


    Cold Hands: (plus 10 to luck)


    Gluten for Punishment: (plus 15 points to con)


    Stand Tall: (all stats plus 5)


    First in world to:


    Complete a dungeon run: (+8 to all stats)


    First Settlement Defiance: (+5% to all stats )


    Sector leader. You are among the top million newly


    integrated life forms in your sector of the Milkyway galaxy to achieve a level two


    class: (+50 to all stats, extra +10 first on your planet)


    War Bounces:


    War Machine: +8 to all stats for the next 90 days. (90) days left


    Blood drenched: +15 to all stats for the next 90 days. (90) days left


    Follow Me (2): 30% boost toward the influence my words had on others for the


    next 90 days. (90) days remaining


    Resistances:


    Element of Fire: 11%


    Element of Corruption: 15%


    Element of Lighting 2%


    Stats:


    Strength: *157 WB: (+23)


    Dexterity: *158 WB (+23)


    Intelligence: *136 WB (+23)


    Wisdom: *137 (WB (+23)


    Constitution: *152 WB (+23)


    Luck: *130 WB (+23)


    * = modified


    (+) = Amount modified by


    Class Sheet


    Path of the pole Arm


    Level 2:


    Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus three stat points to Dexterity each level up.


    Step Lightly:


    When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting fifty Mana and twenty stamina to activate.


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten Mana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Quick Strike:


    When activated, Quick Strick at the cost of one hundred Mana energizes your arms into almost a seizure-type state. This causes you to strike out with your polearm many times in rapid succession.


    Spear Shadow:


    When activated, Spear Shadow conjures a mana shadow over your weapon. This mana shadow will then extend past your weapon at a distance, dependent on the amount of Mana you have invested into the ability, with a minimum range of five feet and an undefined maximum range. This ability is truly what you make it. At an initial cost of eighty Mana, this ability can be augmented, and the distance the Mana shadow travels is determined at a ratio of ten Mana and five stamina per foot.


    After my first reaction of Holly fucking shit! That''s amazing. There were so many stat points! So many! My second thought was, wow, there was a lot to unpack here. I had started feeling like there was something off with the situation. If I really had these insane stats, why wasn''t I healing up faster? I had to talk to Dr. Bowden at our next appointment, and she told me what she figured was happening. She said that The Master, when it had sliced my neck open and dug its finger into my throat, had released a tone of corruption into my body. If Janet hadn''t killed The Master when she had, my body would have eventually fallen behind in healing, and I would have died. On the bright side, I had a fuck tone of resistance to corruption now. I could always use more of that resistance to corruption, not corruption. That shit sucked.


    My stat sheet was so pretty, though. I mean, wow, just, wow. That first-in-world title was fucking amazing I mean, wow, really, but that lighting resistance, when did I get that? I also wondered if Janet was a sector leader. I bet she was. We must have been the strongest humans on earth. That was a wild thing to realize. My new ability would also be a tremendous help in battle. If it was what I thought it was from the description, I could now launch a large magic Mana version of my spear that would superimpose itself over my spear strike and then extend out further the more Mana and stamina I infused into the ability. With a base cost of 80 Mana and the cost to extend the attack only costing ten Mana and five stamina per foot, it was affordable as well.


    The ability even had a cool name, too. Well, at least I thought so. I got my usual stat points for my level-ups and split my points between intelligence and wisdom, while the other points I could touch went into Strength and dexterity, respectively. I haven''t even talked about my other new titles. I had one called Cold Hands that gave me an amazing plus ten points to luck. The notification said it had to do with constantly throwing myself at impossible odds and coming out on top. Luck-based titles seem to have a lot to do with almost dying or surviving something you shouldn''t have. I was glad I got the title, but I hoped I would get another for a while.


    Stolen story; please report.


    I got another title called Gluten for Punishment. That one was obvious. I got It become I got so fucked up in the battle, and there were probably a few other contributing factors, but I was just going to go with my first theory. It couldn''t be related to the fact that I kept hurting myself with different things to build my resistance. The title was called Stand Tall. The notification said I got the title for being a focal point for my people during the battle, "A true leader for your people, a symbol to stand and rally behind." Whatever that meant. Then there were my war bonuses. The bonuses I got before all renewed, and I even got a new one called Blood-Drenched, which gave me 15 points to all stats for the next ninety days. More stats were more stats, and I would never turn my nose up at a good thing, even if it was only temporary.


    I had been so lost in my thoughts that I was only pulled out by the sound of my door opening. It was Dr. Bowden here for my checkup. It only took about ten minutes for Dr. Bowden to declare me fit to return to light duties. She told me to take it easy for the next couple of days and then reiterated that part. She was really trying to drill it into my head that I needed to recover. I just didn''t need to be on bed rest, and moving around was supposed to help now, so I was so fucking stoked. I hugged Dr. Bowden and almost broke her. I said I was sorry so many times after that, and she said it was fine, but I could still see her holding her arm when she left. I felt bad about that.


    I really needed to get a handle on my, well fuck, my new body, basically. Fucking stats. For the rest of the day, I definitely took it easy and spent the day mainly with Janet, just relaxing and hanging out with friends. I had some fun at the cafeteria. I found out I had like fucking superhuman reflexes now. I only found this out after I accidentally knocked my fork off the table and caught it casually before it even came close to hitting the ground. When I realized what I had done, I spent the next hour placing things on tables where people would inevitably knock the item off, and then I would catch it super-fast when they did. It was incredibly enjoyable.


    Janet eventually told me to grow up and cut that shit out. So, I didn''t it like ten more times, then stopped, Janet was pissed at me, but she got over it later that night. We both had insane stats and yep, Janet was a sector leader, just as I thought. Now, if we thought sex with stats was good back then, sex with our new level of stats was out of this world. Talk about stamina, fuck that was a great night. We took it easy the first day I was out of bed, but after that, the gloves were off, so to speak. We got many um¡­. "earthquakes," Yeah, earthquakes for some reason the next week, and I had no idea why.


    On my second day out of bed, I was introduced to the teens and their leader, Dean. They had been the group that had helped us out versus The Master. Dean was one of the teens, a 19-year-old kid named Tim''s dad. Actually, Dad and Son were big DND nerds and went LARPing per-integration all the time, they said. So, they figured out the leveling system pretty quickly when the integration hit. They had hooked up with many of Tim''s LARPing friends and were trying to learn how to not just survive but rise to the challenge of this new world. Dean was a pretty cool guy, too. I could see people thinking he was annoying, but I love his attitude. He was super positive, laughed a lot, and loudly.


    Dean liked to throw in a random fake old English word into a sentence here and there. I thought it was hilarious. I genuinely think he was loving the integration on some level. His kid was nice, too, but quiet. I guess his dad was so crazy and loud that the kid was more of the quiet introvert type. Tim was still a nice kid, for sure. Dean and I got along well. He had been the owner-operator of a small game and trading card store and had grown up on DnD and rugby. He was kind of a rugby nut as well, and I knew absolutely fucking nothing about rugby.


    I played soccer as a kid and did some DnD before I started talking to girls, got some friends, and discovered drugs, like a good boy. Today, Dean and I had been talking about the pros and cons of using five-man teams like in DnD. What it came down to was that, yes, he was right when it came to forest combat and small-scale engagements. When you got to the level of large battles, however, tactics had to change, and larger divisions of fighters would have to be formed. That required different training, and that is where we had been stuck for the past hour.


    I really like Janet and Beth, but since it had been only the three of us for so long, I had been exposed to an overload of feminine energy. Even when we finally had other people around, I still spent most of my time with them or training. With the master finally dealt with and no immediate threat lurking on the horizon, it was nice to take some time and just kick it with a friend.


    Dean and I had got stupid drunk one night, and I mean, we drank a ridiculous amount of liquor. I bet Dean that he couldn''t move me an inch with a punch. He laughed and told me that I was on. Dean punched me right in the face, right between the eyes. My head jerked back, but my feet didn''t move an inch. He looked confused for a moment, then out of nowhere, he had hit me in the face again, in the same fucking spot. I was a little surprised but still didn''t let my feet move. I was feeling pretty smug at that point, and Dean had just looked at his first, then my face, then his first again, all the while looking totally confused. That night ended when Dean said he could eat a punch from me and be fine. Let''s just say that Beth was pissed off at me for a week, and I almost killed Dean. We didn''t do that again¡­ in front of Beth.


    It had been ten days since I had been let off bed rest, and Janet, Dean, and I were just chilling out smoking a joint in the sun. It was a beautiful day, and it was nice to just relax a bit. We had been busy training the fighters of the village and were in council meetings each day discussing one thing or the other. We hadn''t had much time to just relax in a while. Hell, honestly, it felt like I hadn''t genuinely relaxed since the integration hit us. Maybe it was the hash oil brownies I had made that were really strong. Pre-integration, these brownies would have got me blitzed for days.


    It seemed like, at least with weed and alcohol, you could reach similar levels of intoxication as pre-integration. It just took a considerable amount to do so. It could have been the weed, or maybe I was just in a great mindset right now. My high was just right, and I was warm and cozy from laying in the sun with a nice breeze blowing across my face, but I had the idea to try playing with my Mana. I wanted to see if I could form a ball of Mana in my hand. I thought it would probably be super cool if I could pull it off, but every time I tried to solidify the Mana outside of my body, it would just slip away like sand slipping through my fingers.


    I just couldn''t hold it together outside my body. I tried this for a while, and after getting no results other than the fact that I was indeed able to push the Mana into my hand if very slowly, I decided I would have to switch up my method and try something new. This time, I was going to push as much Mana as I could fit into my hand, then try to push it free all at once, and maybe, just maybe, I could play with a ball of Mana. That would be pretty cool, right¡­ fuck it, I was definitely giving it a shot. What was the worst that could happen? Well, I guess I could blow up my hand. Oh, that would definitely be bad, but honestly fuck it. I''m just going to see what happens. Yolo right?


    I started the process of filling my hand with Mana. It was a long and slow process, but I didn''t have shit to do, and I was super high, so this was the plan for the next little while, at least. Dean was asleep or close to it, and Janet was reading a book, well, trying to read a book. I was pretty sure she had read that page twice now and was starting to pass out. Everyone was doing their own thing, and I was working away at filling my hand with Mana. Then something changed. My hand was close to full. I could feel it. I really don''t know how to describe it. I guess you could say it felt like it was filling with unused kinetic potential. It was like my hand felt the urge to move, to release. It was like I had drunk twenty espressos, and only my hand felt the caffeine. Even though my hand was now starting to twitch uncontrollably, I kept feeding Mana into my hand. I wanted to give myself what I thought would be my best shot at succeeding.


    Not too long later, my hand started to hurt. Next, a pinging sensation started dancing through my hand, and I knew it was time to stop adding Mana. Even after I stopped, however, the pain was still there, and it felt like it was getting worse. I was starting to freak out and could only think to follow my instinct. The Mana in my hand needed to be released. My hand was basically screaming at me. I couldn''t pull the Mana back into my body fast enough to feel relief. The only thing I could think to do was hit something now. I jumped out of my chair, took three large steps forward, and slammed my fist into the ground.


    As my fist hit the ground, the asphalt rippled and cracked beneath me as a load boom filled the air. I was kind of shocked at what I had just done, and I guess so were Dean and Janet because only a few moments after my little accident, I heard Janet''s voice from behind me,


    "What the fuck was that? Travis, what did you do?" I turned around to find Janet and Dean both on their feet, looking at me in a mix of confusion, shock, and annoyance. Well, it was more Janet who looked annoyed. Dean looked like he had been woken from a dead sleep and was still trying to get his bearings. Janet was waiting for an answer, so I explained what happened. When I was done, Dean looked thoughtful, and Janet looked hungry. I bet Janet would ask me to teach her¡­ oh, and there it is.


    "Teach me! I want to learn the Mana thing, come on." I told her I would give it my best shot, but no garnets.


    Then I asked Dead if he wanted in. At that, Dean let out a huge belly laugh. Janet and I just looked at him. He stopped laughing only to say,


    "You guys are fucking crazy, you know that? But dam, I love it. I knew there was a reason I liked you two. Come on, let''s go play around with powers well outside our understanding. What could possibly go wrong? Then he slapped me on the back, gave Janet a wink, and then he was laughing again, this time with head back and hands on hips. We all were laughing after that, and we went off to find Beth and a place to practice.


    We ended up with a larger group than we originally planned. I had thought it would be just Janet, Beth, Dean, and myself, but once Devin, Trish, Tess, and Frank figured out what we were trying to do, they wanted in. It turned into an impromptu party, and we spent the time drinking and playing cards but also doing the thing we were all there to learn. How to consciously move our Mana around in our bodies. In the beginning, everyone was excited about trying to learn something new. Still, after realizing how hard it was to actually accomplish, people started peeling away to play cards and drink. By two a.m., it was just Janet, Dean, and me still going at it.


    Moving my Mana still felt difficult, and it wasn''t getting easier throughout the evening. It felt like I was trying to pull a milkshake through a straw, but it was just a bit too frozen still. It was infuriating, to say the least. I just wanted it to move how I wanted. Janet and Dean had more luck than the others, but they struggled more than I was. They had been going at it with such fervor, but it was getting late, and around three am, we lost Dean. An hour later, I lost Janet to sleep, and it was just me. People were passed out all over my apartment. On the floor, on the couches, Janet and Trish had even passed out in my bed, so unless I wanted to join them, I wouldn''t really have a place to sleep unless I slept in the chair I was sitting in. That really helped me make the decision to just push through till morning.


    I was getting a little tired from the continuous effort of trying to push my Mana around, but it wasn''t enough to make me stop, so I kept going until the sun came up. The next morning, well, it was more like noon. We all grabbed a late breakfast as a group, and then everyone went off to take care of their varying responsibility. It really seemed like many members of the group thought that learning to move your Mana around was cool but not practical, at least not at the moment, and I saw the night as a fun time spent with friends rather than a night of intense training. It was understandable, but I was serious about figuring this out. If for no other reason than I had decided to do this, and I wasn''t going to lose to my own body, that was for fucking sure.


    For the next week and a half, I spent every moment awake practicing circulating my Mana. It was difficult at first to keep it up, and it took a few days to continually move my Mana for the entire day, but by the end of the first week, I was getting faster at it, and it was getting easier to do. I was at the point now where I could keep it up all day without stopping, and it was becoming more and more of a subconscious act. About ten days into my training, I had been circulating my Mana like usual when my attention slipped. I accidentally cycled more Mana into one of my feet than intended. When I did, as my foot pushed off the ground, a burst of power was released from my foot, causing me to shoot forward a good fifteen feet.


    I stopped immediately after I moved, shocked at what I had just done. I tried doing it on purpose a few times with mixed results. I couldn''t do it every time I tried yet, but it felt like I was close. I solely focused on my new discovery for a few days after that. I finally got to the point where I could do it on purpose until I ran out of Mana. It was much less efficient than just using my ability step lightly over and over, but it was worth the effort to learn how to do so. The day I finally got it down was the day I got a notification.


    Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability, Mana Manipulation. As you have taught yourself this ability, you have gained an additional ten percent to Mana Manipulation efficiency through understanding this ability at a deeper level.


    The ability gave me ten percent (plus the other ten percent for self-learning the ability) for a total of twenty percent efficiency in Mana Manipulation. I also gained a title.


    Congratulation! You are one of the first one hundred people on your planet to manually teach yourself an ability! Plus, five percent to all stats.


    That was fucking sweet, and when I tried "manipulating" my Mana, it was a lot easier to do. I mean, wow. It felt as if the Mana in my body had gone from moving through a small straw to one of those straws you drink boba with, and my Mana itself was no longer a frozen milkshake but one at the perfect temperature for drinking. It felt amazing after taking so much effort before. I had better controls and speed now. I just let my Mana circulate for a while, basking in the ease of it. I had to brag, I mean share, yeah, that''s right, share my findings with the council. Not brag, never brag. Okay, I was for sure going to brag. There was no way I wasn''t.

 Chapter 29 - New day, new problems

    Chapter 29


    New day, new problems


    The following day¡¯s council meeting was brief, so I decided it was time to share. While everyone was gathering their stuff and chatting a bit at the end of the meeting, I cleared my throat loudly to get everyone¡¯s attention. Everyone turned to see what was up, and I spoke up.


    ¡°Hey guys, so¡­ really quick, as you probably guessed, I continued to work on moving my mana after our little party two weeks ago, and I finally made some progress.¡± Everyone was now much more interested than a second ago, except Janet. She just laughed and said,


    ¡°Nice, Travis, let me guess, you can now move it twice as fast,¡± She laughed again and rolled her eyes at me. She was giving me a big shit-eating grin the whole time. I just flicked her off, then stood up and moved. I did a few laps around the room with my new Mana-based movement technique, then ended up back at my chair. Everyone looked slightly surprised at the sudden movement, but no one seemed too surprised.


    ¡°Travis, we all know you can do that. You just use step lightly to zoom around.¡± Janet scoffed and rolled her eyes at me again.


    ¡°Are you saying you did that by channeling Mana to your feet?¡± Beth asked me, and ignoring Janet, I nodded and smiled at Beth.


    ¡°You get it¡¯s hard to take you at your word on that Travis, right? Devin chimed in. That made me frown, but then I thought of something they couldn¡¯t argue. If I could use mana manipulation to empower my feet, I should be able to do the same with a punch. I mean, I had already done it once the first time on accident. The smile reappeared on my face as a plan came to me. No, it was definitely not a great plan, but I felt it would get the point across well. I told Devin I¡¯d give them proof if he wanted proof.


    I walked over to the wall and stood there momentarily, circulating my Mana. Then, as fast and as hard as I could, I hit the wall with my fist. Bam!! The next moment, I punched a four-foot hole in the wall, dust drifting off my knuckles as I let my arm hang in front of me. The room was silent as I turned around.


    ¡°So, Janet, what was that about, twice as fast?¡± Then I gave her the same shit-eating grin she had shown me a second ago. For a few moments, after I was done, Janet and the rest of the council were still kind of in shock at what I had just done to talk. I don¡¯t think it was just the Mana manipulation but also how I showed then. Kind of cool-aid manned them button in reverse. After a moment, Janet managed to get out,


    ¡°fuck me.¡± Then she started chuckling and shaking her head at me. There were a lot of explanations after my little exhibition. After all was said and done, I told everyone about my new ability, Mana Manipulation. The council deemed it a worthy endeavor and should be investigated more thoroughly. As soon as we were done with the meeting, Janet found Dean and told him what I had done in the meeting. Dean was shocked at first, and then he laughed so hard he started crying. After he got control of himself again, he was just as eager as Janet to start practicing Mana Manipulation again.


    Both Janet and Dean attacked the task with renewed vigor. It was only a week after the meeting that I displayed my new control of Mana to the council. Now, with a bit of help from me, Janet and Dean could move their Mana throughout their entire body. It would take a while, but they could now slowly fill one foot with Mana for a single-use burst step. The Burst step is what we had started calling the pure Mana-based movement technique. When Janet and Dean both learned the ability Mana Manipulation, I was super proud of them, like a mama bird watching her babies leave the nest for the first time. It was so precious. They both also got the bonuses for teaching themself the ability as well. On a serious note, Mana Manipulation was a fantastic ability.


    The ease at which I could now move my man around would have made the me from three weeks ago cry with envy. Ever since I had put a hole in the council meeting room wall, I wanted to see what else was possible. One cool trick I figured out was that everything had Mana in it. The walls, the trees, and even the air had Mana in it. I had been sparring with Janet and had been using a pure Mana burst step. When Janet caught me in the chest with a kick, that sent me flying. I was about to hit the training room wall, so I flipped midair and hit the wall feet first.


    When I hit, I was about to use another Burst step to jump back into the fight when I realized the Mana that filled my feet was letting me stick to the wall. I was so shocked I stopped channeling and, as a result, promptly fell and hit the ground. I lay there on the ground for a second, not so much in pain, which was minor, but really from my own embarrassment. That probably looked so dumb. Janet had walked over to check on me, laughing the whole time. I told her what had happened, and the script flipped. Then it was Spiderman this and so cool that. Inevitability, she figured it out, and we were running on the walls till my Mana ran out.


    Janet wasn¡¯t quite as good at it. She would lose control of her Mana and fall, but she still had a blast. We could run on fucking walls. This shit was sick! Oh fuck! I bet I could totally use the same principle to run on water! Call me Jesus bitches! Call me Jesus!! I woke up a few days after me, and Janet had figured out the wall walking stuff, and it could have been any day recently. People were moving about with their daily activities and responsibilities. Today, I didn¡¯t have much going on. I had been going pretty hard on my Mana Manipulation training and had been all introvertie lately.


    I figured it was time to change that. A lot had been happening in the village lately. Shops were starting to pop up where local people were trying to revamp the free market economy. We also had a brewery now. It was entirely made up of amateur brewers. You know that guy at work who¡¯s always talking about the new batch they had going. They had really gone after it with gusto and were about to put out their first beer. Their first couple batched had been a more vodka-inspired drink, but this would be a proper beer. They had been experimenting with how to drive the alcohol content up as well, without losing flavor. It was a battle, but they weren¡¯t giving up. If anything, they were more enthusiastic about it.


    Most people just drank malt liquor and ever clear lately. People liked it because the higher your level and stats, the harder it was to get drunk. That shit got you there faster than anything else. The most popular area of the villages had always been and still was the training building. There were multiple fighting areas, a fitness center, and meditation rooms. Janet and I had spent many a day there beating the shit out of each other. Aww, such fond memories. We had been slowly finding small groups of people, so we were still sending out groups to look for survivors.


    I decided to do a few laps of the village to get a quick bit of exercise in, and I was enjoying the day. I arrived by the gates and saw just one such party returning. They looked like it had not been the cleanest of extractions. This group looked like they had been through the wringer. Even our recovery team looked fucked up. Their armor had large rips and holes all over. One recovery team member was completely missing their weapon, but anyone who still had a weapon looked like it had been put to good use. The recovery team had brought fifteen new members back to the village. This was one of the smaller groups that had made it to us.


    Usually, our ten-man recovery teams would return with groups of twenty to thirty people at a time. Every once in a while, we would get a group with ten or fewer, but it did happen. Fifteen was a solid group, but it looked like they might have started as a larger group.


    ¡°What the fuck happened to y¡¯all,¡± I said as I approached the group. The team leader was talking to the gate guards as the rest of his team was drinking water and catching their breath. He turned to see who was addressing his group, and when he saw me, he smiled and seemed to let go of something weighing on him with a large sigh.


    ¡°Travis, good to see you. Yeah, we got hit during an extraction. We had been following up with this group we made contact with about a week ago. We planned the extraction for today. We were returning to the village with twenty-six folks when a group of, best I can describe then, would be zombies. It was strange, man, Travis, I¡¯m telling you. They all had a large hump on their back that throbbed with orange vanes. I swear something was growing in them.¡±


    The man continued describing the altercation, and I could tell it had shaken him. The guy¡¯s name was Darian, and he just seemed relieved to be able to tell someone what had happened. They had lost people in the attack. Everyone who died had also been part of the group joining us from the hospital, and they had taken the loss hard. I could tell Darian was ashamed of letting this team down after, as he put it, ¡°they finally were saved.¡± I¡¯d been there, and he¡¯d get through it. We all had dealt with more death than anyone should have sense the integration. This new threat to Treehouse was interesting.


    As Darian decried it, their attackers were zombie-like creatures that had once been human. The odd thing was they had some kind of large hump-like incubation sack at the top of their backs with orange glowing vanes running throughout their entire bodies. They didn¡¯t sound too strong, but being a cocky shithead could definitely get me killed. Nowadays, every enemy has to be taken seriously. I helped Darian and his team bring the new people to intake, an area we had designed as a welcome to Treehouse Village and the processing office.


    As more and more people moved to the village, we set up an intake office, and it turned out to be a one-stop shop for moving in. We had a couple of therapists, some members of the medical core, and some town administrators. The administrators would give you a room, introduce you to the rules, and schedule a village tour. They were only getting better and faster with every new intake. After we had got everyone in the capable hands of intake, Darian and I made our way to the council meeting room. Someone was usually in there doing something or other. I was hoping it would be Beth. Beth often did paperwork in the room. She said it felt nice to go somewhere to do her work. She just got lazy if she worked from her apartment.


    Lo and behold, Beth was there working, Devin was with her, and Tilly was eating some chicken nuggets. It was the ones cut in the shapes of dinosaurs. I fucking loved those when I was a kid. As we walked in, Tilly ran over and gave me a hug. I picked her up, hugged her, then walked her back over to her food. Devin silently thanked me, obviously struggling to get the girl to sit in one place long enough to finish her food. I plopped her down in the chair and snagged a nugget of her plate.


    ¡°Hey! Those are mine!¡± Tilly yelled at me.


    ¡°Then you better eat them, or I¡¯m gonna steal more,¡± I said back, and she moved her arm around to circle her plane.


    ¡°Mine!¡± She said, then she kind of hissed at me. I laughed, and she smiled after acting like an angry cat for a little while. I tousled her hair, and she yelled at me and pushed at my hand. I turned around to talk with Beth and Darian, who started to get into the reason why we were there.


    ¡°You hear this already, Travis? Fucking zombies, is this fucking actually happing?¡± Beth asked me.


    ¡°Yeah, Darian here told me the same thing; he just told you. That¡¯s why I figured we should head over and chat with you,¡± I said.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°You think,¡± Beth said and started pacing a bit. ¡°Fucking zombies, I hate zombies. I was really hoping we wouldn¡¯t run into anything like this in the new world. I figured with magic that, yeah, sure, it was a possibility, but aw zombies, though. Real-life zombies, this is insane.¡± Beth finished her little tirade and looked at us. Darian was just kind of blinking in shock. I don¡¯t think he was ready for that kind of reaction.


    ¡°Well, if it¡¯s any comfort to you, Beth, my battle log called them Ectovizzors, not zombies, so there¡¯s that?¡± Darian said. It sounded like he was trying to help reassure her, and to my surprise, it did seem to help.


    ¡°Not zombie? You¡¯re sure?¡± Beth said with a weary look at Darian. He blinked a couple of times, then managed to get out, ¡°Yes, positive. They are called Ectovizzors. I¡¯m sure of that.¡± Beth let out a breath.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good. Holly, fuck, I hate zombies. Before the integration, it was always one of my biggest nightmares just pouting that out there, but Ectovizzors. Is there anything else you can remember about the encounter? Even the smallest detail could make the difference.¡± Darian thought about it for a little while, and then he spoke.


    ¡°Well, and this may be too bold of me to say, but they looked like they were using the humans as hosts. I have no evidence to back up my theory, but that¡¯s the feeling I¡¯m getting from the encounter. Their movements were strong and ferocious, but as I think about it more, their coordination was sloppy. They moved as if new to their bodies. It was fucking creepy.¡±


    ¡°I guess it really comes down to if you think they will be a problem for the village?¡± Beth asked. I turned to Darian, and again, the man looked like he was thinking. When he spoke, he had a slightly uncertain tone to his voice.


    ¡°Maybe? Honestly, they weren¡¯t that strong. They were just extremely aggressive. If we left them alone, they might eventually make their way to us. If it was up to me, we should root them out to the core. They must go if they use humans as vessels or anything close to that. They look like an invasive species, a parasite. If that is the case, and we¡¯re on the menu? Then fuck that, kill ¡¯em all I say, but I might be biased base on their creep factor. That¡¯s just my thoughts on the matter.¡± When Darian finished, I thought briefly about what Darian had said, then pointed a thumb at him and told Beth I agreed with Darian.


    ¡°As I see it, they have already shown themselves a danger to us. I¡¯m over being pushed around. I think it¡¯s time to let this fucking world know. You fuck me and mine, and I¡¯ll find you and fucking put you down.¡± When I finished my little pledge, Darian and Beth looked at me like, well, okay then.


    ¡°Am I good to go, Beth? I should probably get back to my team and check on them.¡± Darian asked, filling the awkward quiet that had come on after my pronouncement.


    ¡°Oh yes, of course you can, Darian. Thank you for this information. We¡¯ll assemble an intel force to learn more about this new threat and go from there. Would you like to stay in the loop? If you want to be part of the force dealing with the Ectovizzors, I can make that happen¡±, Beth asked Darian.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Beth. My men and I are happy to help anywhere we¡¯re needed. Just let us know.¡± With that, Darian saluted Beth and me and left the room.


    ¡°We need to gather the council to discuss how we will handle this new threat to the village. Travis, can you go grab Janet, Tess, and Brianna? I think they were using one of the sparing rooms today. Meet back here in fifteen. That sounds good?¡± Beth asked me.


    ¡°Sounds good. I¡¯ll be right back,¡± I said. We got down to business once we were all gathered in the council meeting room. In the end, it was decided that we didn¡¯t have enough information about our targets and that a scouting mission would need to happen if we were going to move forward in eliminating the Ectovizzor threat. That was another decision altogether. As for the scouting mission, I made a strong case for me to go alone. Janet wanted to join me, but I successfully argued that stealth was the number one priority on this mission and I would have better luck alone.


    It was decided, and the next morning, I headed out. I didn¡¯t take one of our sheep buddies with me this time. They were great for speed but not so much for stealth. So, I was really on my own this time. I started to make my way north, towards the direction Darian¡¯s team had said they encountered the Ectovizzors. It didn¡¯t take me long to reach the point where Darian said the attack occurred. Darian had been moving with a good group of people, and I was solo. Once I arrived at the scene, I could see signs of fighting all over the place. The bodies of our people were scattered around and looked as if picked through by scavengers. The bodies of the fallen Ectovizzors, however, were left to rot. Those bodies looked like they hadn¡¯t been touched by the scavengers that had gone after the human bodies.


    As I approached the body of an Ectovizzor, it appeared to be rotting rather quickly for it being flesh. Maybe if they inhabited human bodies, they were halfway to rotten already? As I approached the Ectovizzor bodies, I had to pinch my nose closed. The smell was so bad it nearly made me sick. I left the bodies where they were and kept heading north after collecting the corpses of our fallen and putting them in my bag of holding. I had been walking for almost an hour after passing the fight scene and hadn¡¯t seen any sign of the Ectovizzors. Every once in a while, I would find bodies of creatures or humans with what looked like bites taken out of them, but I was struggling to tell if it was just regular nightmares of the apocalypse or the nightmares I was hunting.


    I figured I would head north for at least a few hours, and if I still found no sign of the things by then, I would retrace my steps and head in another direction. It wasn¡¯t the most thorough or thought out of search techniques, but they were so aggressive I was sure I¡¯d stumble onto a group of them sooner or later. I had been searching for the past hour and a half now, and I was just about to give up and turn around when I found what looked to be a group of the Ectovizzors rounding a building off of the street I was on about half a mile away. I made my way quickly and quietly to where I thought I saw them turn. Lo and behold, a pack of twenty walked down the street carrying what looked like human bodies in their arms.


    There was no way to tell if the people they carried were still alive or dead, but the Ectovizzors? I think that¡¯s what Darian said they were called. Well, whatever they were called, they were clearly taking those people somewhere. I had a brief self-dilemma where I had to decide whether to try and save these people now or wait and follow the creatures to wherever they were taking these people. In the end, I figured they could be dead already. At that point, I would have to find another group and follow them home, which would waste time.


    I was going to follow this group. I only hoped that the people being carried off by the creatures were still alive. At least then, I would still get the chance to save them later. I followed from the few still-standing rooftops, and they didn¡¯t seem to notice me. They didn¡¯t seem all together that bright, just like Darian said. Their movements were jerky and uncoordinated, like they were getting used to their new bodies. They still looked strong, however, and it didn¡¯t look like they got tired either. I followed them for what seemed like hours, and not once did they slow or take a break.


    It was inhuman, oh, well, I guess that checks out, you know, them not being human and all. I smacked myself in the forehead softly for that one. When they finally seemed to be reaching their target, it ended up being a cave cut into the middle of the street. It looked like the cave had been dug so that it sloped gradually into the ground as well. We were somewhere in what used to be Richmond, but it was hard to tell from all the damage and fallen buildings around me. I decided to look for a less direct entrance into their cave, and about a hundred feet from the entrance, I found what I was looking for. A manhole, that might work. Come on, Travis, have more confidence in yourself. It will work. Good idea, man. I gave myself a quick pat on the back, then returned to it. I looked at the hole, thought fuck it, and headed down as quietly as possible.


    It smelled like fucking shit. I mean, it was a sewer, so¡­ yeah, there was that, but it still smelled really fucking bad. My senses were a lot more sensitive than before the integration, and right now, that really sucked. My willpower was also more substantial, so it didn¡¯t bother me for long, and I managed to push the smell into my subconscious. When I landed in the sewer, I picked what I thought was the direction of the cave and started making my way down the sewer tunnel. It was small, so I was crouching down and moving slowly. It was a good thing, too, because only about fifty feet down the sewer tunnel, it dropped off into an ample space.


    I almost went off the edge, but I quickly caught myself. When I reached out with a cautious foot and found nothing, I shifted my weight and pulled my foot back. I looked down, then cracked and dropped a glow stick. With that done, I could now make out the ground below. I couldn¡¯t see the entrance to the cave from where I was, but I could see light filtering in from where I assumed the cave mouth was. I sat there on the edge for a few minutes, but it seemed like the cave below was empty, or at least I couldn¡¯t hear anyone down below.


    I decided it was time to drop down and move deeper into the cave. It only looked to be thirty feet or so. For the post-integration me, this was nothing much. I hung from the bottom of the sewer and dropped. I hit the ground a little louder than I wanted, but I was still a moderately quiet landing with bent knees to absorb the impact. If anything were close by, they still would have heard me, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case as I went up molested. I stood there in the gloomy atmosphere of the cave for a minute, just waiting to see if something would happen, but nothing did, so I figured I was good to move on.


    I started heading deeper into the cave and soon began hearing some noises. It sounded like people moving around, well, more shuffling around, but it was a good sign I was headed in the right direction. I made my way through the cave, and as I turned a bend, I saw a campfire and threw myself against the wall as fast as possible. I was reminded of the time we were in the dungeon dealing with the Caprainkis. All at once, I decided this would go much differently than that encounter. I was a beast now. My stats were monstrous, and I was not fucking around. These Ectovizzors bitches, or what the fuck ever they were called, were going to get fucked up.


    I pulled myself away from the wall, dusted my armor off, composed myself, and strolled into their camp. It took a second for them to notice me. Even when I was standing five feet from their camp, fully lit up by their fire, they were more focused on securing their prisoners. I wouldn¡¯t let this opportunity pass and immediately sprung into motion. I pulled a short sword resembling a Roman Gladius, decapitating an Ectovizzor, then ran another throw with my short sword. At that point, I threw my sword at one of the Ectovizzors, and it landed up to the hilt in its face. They had all realized they were under attack and turned on me with abandon. They were throwing themselves at me in an attempt to overwhelm me with pure numbers.


    I released a few burst punches to significant effect, and then it was time to practice my boxing. I fucking lit them up. Whenever I hit one with a burst punch, I would blow a hole in their body, taking them down with one hit. I almost always double-tapped with a dagger I had pulled from my bag, and they were going down fast. When only one was left, I grabbed it by the neck and held it down to the ground. It would not stop trying to kill me. I eventually had to cut its arms and legs off to control the creature more easily.


    When I was done, and it was just a torso with a head, I felt like I finally had things under control enough to start trying to ask some questions. First, I used General Identify and found out they were indeed called Ectovizzors, but that¡¯s all it said. The Ectovizzor was lying on the ground, wiggling around, still trying to bite me.


    ¡°Why did you take those people?¡± I asked the creature as I pointed to the tied-up group of people in the back of the cave. It was still trying to bite me, so I reached down and slammed its head into the ground, then got in its face. It still was, all together now, trying to bite me, so I slammed its head into the ground again,


    ¡°hey, mother fucker anyone in there? I¡¯m talking to you, asshole. Why take these people?¡± It met my eye after a third slam, but anger was the only emotion I could read off its face. More than that, it was pure rage staring back at me. I just smiled back at the creature.


    ¡°Yeah, there we go. The people, why?¡± I pointed at the group again and waited for a response. The Ectovizzors opened its mouth, and I thought it would try to bite me again, but a harsh, raspy, choking sound emerged from the creature¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°Feed. You must die. Die to live.¡± It still looked furious with me, but that was fine with me as long as the thing kept talking.


    ¡°More of you, where are they?¡± I kept my words short but to the point. Again, the creature spends its lips to speak, drawing in a long, hollowing breath before it does so.


    ¡°more? Many more. World ours now. You feed us now.¡± The Ectovizzors finished and then let out what must have been its version of a laugh. That was just a bit too creepy for even me. I let the creature go, brought a mana-empowered foot down, and squashed the Ectovizzors head to moosh. With my interrogation now concluded, I made my way over to the group of humans tied up at the back of the cave and began to cut them loose. I was so glad they were still alive. They were extremely grateful that I had come to save them, but I was now in an annoying situation. I wanted to continue searching for the home base of the Ectovizzors, but these people needed to be escorted back to the village, and it couldn¡¯t be helped. That doesn¡¯t mean I was happy about it.


    I was mentally preparing for the long trek back to the village and the equally long trip back to this location, where I would have to hope I ran into another pack of Ectovizzors. Then, an idea came to me. An idea that Beth was definitely not going to like. After I had gotten the folks free and gave them each a Senzuketa Bean and some water, we headed out of the cave. Once outside, I told them something that made them very unhappy.


    ¡°So¡­ um, yeah, here¡¯s the situation¡­¡±

 Chapter 30 - Preemptive strike

    Chapter 30


    Preemptive strike


    ¡°So¡­ um, yeah, here¡¯s the situation. I¡¯m on a mission at the moment to find out where these zombie guys are coming from. I would take you back to our village, but I need to continue on. I don¡¯t have time right now to help you guys. So, here¡¯s what¡¯s going to happen now. I have some extra armor and weapons you can use until I return. We¡¯ll find somewhere nearby where y¡¯all can hunker down for a few days. Then, when I return, we¡¯ll all head to the village, okay?¡± Yeah, they were definitely not okay with that. There was a lot of yelling and begging, which got really awkward, but I had made up my mind. These Ectovizzors were too dangerous to leave so much unknown about them.


    With the group I¡¯d rescued complaining the entire time, I found a place where they could hide for a few days, gave them a small bag of holding with some rations, and taught them how to use it. Then, finally, I gave them some weapons and shields so they could at least attempt to protect themselves if something happened to find them. I did all this to the many protests of our new potential citizens, and once I was done handing out stuff, I made my leave. Once again, I was on the hunt for Ectovizzors.


    It had been just after three pm when I left the group. I said I¡¯d be back for them and then kept heading north. It was starting to get dark when I got lucky again. I had stopped to eat a snack less because I needed the food and more to break up the monotony. I was dangling my legs off the edge of a collapsed apartment complex, enjoying the evening breeze. I was watching a herd of these cute as fuck, field mouse-looking things. They looked like regular old field mice but with a few minor differences.


    First, they had six feet or hands, maybe paws, and they tended to pick up and eat food with the front two. The second thing was that they were three feet tall, but fuck, they were so cute.


    I really wanted one as a pet. Instead of pulling a Janet, however, I just stayed where I was and enjoyed watching them hop around looking for food while I snacked on mine. I was just about to get moving again. It had gotten dark, and I needed to return to the hunt. I had put a foot on the ledge of the building, readying myself to drop down, when I saw a large pack of maybe a hundred Ectovizzors burst into the area where the field mouse guys were chilling and started tearing into them viciously. Most of the field mouse creatures took off quickly, but a few weren¡¯t so lucky and were being torn to pieces by the mob.


    I stayed on the roof and watched them devour the creatures, and I¡¯m glad I did. They had been munching away at their victims as if their hunger could not be quelled, but when the corpses were about halfway gone, they stopped. It was as if a ripple flowed through the mob, and every Ectovizzor backed away from the bodies. Then, all at once, they walked up to the corpses again, but instead of eating them this time, they picked up the bodies and started carrying them away.


    I dropped off the roof when they were gone and made my way over to the scene of the attack. The bodies of their victims had been carried away, but there were several Ectovizzor¡¯s bodies lying dead on the ground. I was glad that the mouse guys didn¡¯t go down without a fight. They were super cute, the mouse things, not the Ectovizzors, and I was pissed off that this was how I found my prey. I looked over in the direction the mob had run off in, and I could make them out about half a block away.


    They weren¡¯t moving fast, encumbered as they were. I felt like I had a second to take a look at one of these fuckers for a moment. They were so fucking ugly. Fuck, I mean, they looked like a person but half rotten and bloated. Their eyes were bright orange, and so were the hundreds of little veins that covered their bodies. The hump on the upper back was a whole other ball game. That thing was creepy, and as I looked closer at one glowing orange sack, I could swear I could see something floating around in there. I took another look, checking on the progress of the mob, and I could still make them out about two blocks down now, so I decided to cut the weird orange sack thing open.


    I popped a knife out of my bag and stabbed it into the top of the sack. As my knife sliced in, a thick orange blood-like substance started pouring out. I sliced down, cutting through the sack completely. I pulled another dagger from my bag to help me hold the sack open so I could see what was inside. As the goopy, thick, orang ooze poured out of the sack, I could start to make out what seemed to be something that had been living inside. As the fluid finished sloshing out, the inside of the sack began to come into view. I almost wish it hadn¡¯t. It was revolting. It was a truly horrifying creature.


    The actual body of an Ectovizzor was a millipede-type thing. It looked like it was made of mercury or some alien metal. It had hundreds of metal legs, each with multiple joins ending in a sharp, thin needle. Most of its metal leg-like things were dug in and fussed to their host. They also had a long, spiny tail buried in the host body, and if I were to guess, it was connected to the spine in its human host body. There was a small head on the other end of the creature with itty bitty teeth that looked sharp as hell, but I couldn¡¯t make out any eyes on the thing.


    Shit, I guess when you spent your life linked to the senses of a host body, you really didn¡¯t need many of your own. The thing was dead for sure, and by that point, the mob had left my view, and it was time to go. I wiped my daggers on a piece of dead Ectovizzor clothing and put them back in my bag. I started a slow jog that was still faster than I could have sprinted pre-integration, so I was making good time and quickly caught up with the back of the group.


    I kept my distance and continued like that for a long time. Only as dawn began to light the sky did it finally look like we had reached our destination. I had totally lost my bearings and had no idea where I was. We might be near Antioch or Pittsburgh. I really couldn¡¯t tell. The Ectovizzor headed into a large cave cut into the side of a hill. The opening was about sixty feet wide by maybe thirty feet high, and as they headed in, I broke off from following to find somewhere I could hide and observe.


    After an hour of sitting behind a flipped car with nothing happening, I saw a group of fifty or so Ectovizzors leave the cave and head off. I assumed to do some more hunting. I tucked myself farther behind the car I was hiding behind so they wouldn¡¯t see me, but I need not have worried as they headed out in a different direction than my hiding spot. That was a relief, but I still had to find out more about these Ectovizzors one way or the other. I sat there for another twenty minutes. I decided fuck it. It was time to dig a little deeper. Maybe it was out of boredom, maybe it was my genius tactical mind, but I entered the cave to see what was going on inside.


    I made my way over to the cave mouth and peered inside as discreetly as possible. Nothing, well, not nothing, but no Ectovizzors. It was just a large empty chamber with a tunnel leading deeper into the ground at the back. I guess I was going in there. I wasn¡¯t going to find out anything from here. I gave myself a soft slap to the face and walked inside. I had been wandering in almost complete darkness for what must have been an hour at least. I could make out the tunnel¡¯s walls, but it felt weird not to have seen any Ectovizzors by this point.


    Almost as if my thoughts were prophetic, about a few minutes later, I saw light begin to flood the tunnel I was in. I started moving more cautiously and preparing myself for a fight as I inched closer to the light. Again, I shouldn¡¯t have worried because when I reached the end of the tunnel, it opened onto a significant camber. I was about fifty feet above the chamber floor on a ledge. I looked out into the massive chamber, and my mouth dropped in shock.


    The chamber was about four square acres, and there were hundreds of Ectovizzors moving about down on the chamber floor. The centerpiece of it all was a giant pyramid made from various materials. At its peak, it almost reached the roof of the space. There was a large table at its base, but I couldn¡¯t see much more from my position. I was a little confused about how the group of Ectovizzors had gotten down from here when I noticed a small path that led down to the chamber floor from where the tunnel let out.


    Honestly, this was a lot. I mean fuck, I truly thought if their force wasn¡¯t too large, I would just kill them all, then go back to the village and tell them the problem was dealt with, but this, this was a lot. There were maybe fifteen or twenty thousand of them down there, and it was overwhelming. I needed to stop and think for a second. Yep, I was getting the fuck out of here. I almost threw some goblin grenades into the chamber, but I figured I had made it this far without being discovered. Why push my luck? Besides, it was really better if they never knew I was here. Didn¡¯t want to let them know we knew where they were. That would ruin the whole surprise attack thing we would try to hit them with later.


    I made my way out of the cave and retreated through the tunnel, but my luck ran out during my retreat. Halfway to the cave exit, I heard the shuffling and groaning sounds that indicated a group of Ectovizzors was headed my way. I started freaking out for a second, trying to find a place to hide, but there was nowhere to hide. I was fucked. I began to ready myself for a fight when I remembered I was fucking Jesus! It was a habit now to circulate my Mana at all times, so it was only a quick jog, and I was standing on the tunnel¡¯s ceiling. I stood there and watched the Ectovizzors pass by underneath me. Never the wiser, I was right over their heads.


    After they passed, I returned to the streets and headed back to the village. On my way back, I tried to retrace my steps to find that group of people I¡¯d left behind. Probably not one of my better ideas, but as my stats had grown, I¡¯d definitely noticed improved memory and, more specifically, better recall. For instance, I could remember my dinner three weeks ago if I thought about it. I could tell you who I ate with and what the night was like, warm, cold. Fuck I could even remember what I had been wearing down to my underwear. Look, maybe some people could do all that pre-integration, but for me, it was mind-blowing. Before the integration, I was lucky if I remembered what I ate for breakfast or what underwear I was wearing at any given time. Shit was still tripping me out.


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    Thanks to my fantastic recall, I found them. They were alive but had to fend out something or other. There were some fresh wounds on them, for sure. Hey, they were all alive and would be doing much better as soon as we got back to Treehouse, so I¡¯m gonna call it a win. They were still pretty pissed off at me for leaving them, but they seeded to not want to upset me too bad, at least for now. Once we got back to the village, I¡¯m sure they¡¯d let Beth know, and then I might be in some hot water, but that was future me¡¯s probably.


    Right now, I just needed to get these people back to the village safely. Then, I¡¯d let the council know what I found out about our Ectovizzor problem, and problem it was. We made it back to the village by morning. We reached the walls, and I could see the visible signs of relief on the group¡¯s faces. I called for the gate to be opened, dropped our new citizens off at intake, and then headed to the council room. Well, I went to my room first to take a nice hot shower and change, then headed to the council room. It was too early for anyone to be in there, but I figured I could take a nap while waiting. I ended up taking a nap, I got fucking board, okay, and everyone slept in or some shit. So, no one got to the council room till around noon.


    That was when Janet walked in with Beth. The door closing woke me up, but I guess they hadn¡¯t seen me on the couch, so they both jumped out of their boots when I said what¡¯s up? Janet even turned around and threw a dagger at me. The dagger landed in my arm and sunk in up to the hilt.


    ¡°Ow, good morning to you too, Janet. Hi Beth. So, I found ¡¯em. We should get everyone together. We gotta talk.¡±


    ¡°Shit, Travis, you ass. Don¡¯t fucking scare people like that. Fuck. You¡¯re lucky I saw it was you and aimed for your arm at the last moment instead of your heart. Hell, still probably wouldn¡¯t have done shit to you. You heartless ass. Sorry about the dagger. Just fuck! You know?¡± I laughed at Janet getting pissed, then switching to concern, and then back to pissed. It was so cute. I pulled the dagger out of my arm and tossed her the dagger.


    ¡°My bad, but no harm, no foul, and seriously, we need to get everyone here ASAP. We need to discuss the Ectovizzors.¡± I said.


    ¡°Is it that bad?¡± Beth asked, and I just gave her a look. Beth looked at my face, then took a step back. With a worried look on her face, Beth said,


    ¡°You¡¯re scaring me, Travis. Are we in trouble?¡±


    ¡°We need to talk about it, but I don¡¯t want to repeat myself. Let¡¯s just gather the council.¡± I said. Janet stepped over to me and put a hand on my arm.


    ¡°Hey, you, okay? Travis?¡± Janet asked me.


    ¡°Yeah, or well, I think I will be. It was just a little overwhelming.¡± I told them. Janet and Beth both gave me a look and then they were off to find the other council members. I had made a push to bring on Dean as a new council member, but Beth had told me that we would be getting new council members after the vote, which was still scheduled to take place in two weeks. Beth had been spending time socializing with our recent additions to the village to reassure voters that she was the best choice for the job. We had made a rule, however, that if you arrived at the village in the last thirty days, you would not participate in the voting.


    It would just cause chaos with the results, and no one wanted that. Beth had at least one main opponent in the election, a man named Finneas Ballantine. He was the leader of a group that had joined the village pretty soon after we defeated the master. Their group had been one of the more problematic groups we had brought into the village. The dude was super charismatic and charming but gave me a totally creepy vibe. Honestly, the guy gave off more of a cult leader vibe than anything else. I had even asked Beth if I could just kill the guy, but she said that would be wrong. He really hadn¡¯t done much more than spit out promises and assurances he had no way to deliver.


    Beth wasn¡¯t very worried about him, and I don¡¯t think she even saw him as competition for her position, but I had been less and less sure about that as the weeks went on. He had developed a small group of ardent supporters who were quietly sowing unrest among the population. Several public gatherings had to be dispersed because they became disruptive to the other citizens. He was his own worst enemy in a way, but he was still slowly gathering more and more support. I think the real reason Beth didn¡¯t just cave and let Dean on the council was because if she let Dean in, She¡¯d have to let Finneas in as well, and she was not going to let that happen. I sat there thinking while everyone was gathered. It took about twenty minutes for everyone to assemble in the council room, but we got straight to it when we were all gathered.


    I told them about the Ectovizzors, and then I told them about the captives, probably going to be used as host bodies. I told them about their massive underground town and their numbers. That meeting was not fun, but inevitably, we all came to the same conclusion: extermination. Even if we could find a way to coexist, their nature and being were fundamentally incompatible with humanity. They saw humans as food and vessels for the species. We were no more than cattle to them, seen as less than. I was pretty sure they saw us as less than, and that would make any negotiations much more difficult. So extermination was really our only recourse.


    The plan came down to two things. First, a small group, probably just consisting of Janet and I, would make our way into the cave and then to their underground village. Once there, we would run along the ceiling till we made it to the back of the cavern, and then we would start a mass bombing operation while making our way back out. The second half of the plan was to use the cave to create a pinch point that would funnel any Ectovizzors trying to escape toward our waiting fighters. Our troops would then proceed to systematically destroy them. I liked it. I even thought it had a good chance of working, but when the battle started, it always seemed to find a way to devolve into chaos at some point. I just hoped we could hold strong and eliminate the Ectovizzor problem in one fell swoop.


    Brianna, Devin, Tess, and Dean would lead the force that would block the Ectovizzor¡¯s escape and hand-pick a group of two hundred fighters to join them. We had a fuck tone of the goblin grenades from all the dungeon runs our people were doing. So Janet and I had no problem filling two bags of holding with as many grenades as would fit, and it was quite a bit. Each bag had five slots, and each slot would hold ninety-nine grenades. You do the math. We were ready to go in and fuck shit up. Things were about to get rowdy in the Ectovizzor village, that was for sure.


    It took the rest of the day for Brianna, Devin, Tess, and Dean to get their team together, but by dinner, everything was ready for us to head out first thing in the morning. The atmosphere of the evening wasn¡¯t quite as raucous as a typical night in the village. I think everyone knew that some of our people probably would not be returning after tomorrow¡¯s battle. It was inevitable that we would lose some of our fighters. We were, of course, trying to minimize losses at all costs, but people died in battle. That was just what happened, and I think everyone could feel the tension in the air.


    The village went to bed early that night, and most people spent time with the people in their lives that they loved. Even if they wouldn¡¯t be headed out to fight in the morning, they still felt the need to hold the ones they cared for close. This new world was full of unknown dangers. At any point, a day may come when you could lose everything. We were trying to make Treehouse Village a place where people would be safe, but nothing felt completely safe anymore. I think the vulnerability everyone experienced during the integration was still too raw. It felt like they could be right back where they were before they made it to the village, scared, confused, and in constant danger.


    I was afraid the emotions of the night before would carry over to the morning, but it seemed I couldn¡¯t have been more wrong. As I walked through the village, people were mobilizing to leave, and even the village members not participating in the battle had hard looks on their faces that spoke volumes. The people of Treehouse Village wouldn¡¯t go down without a fight. They were ready, if not willing, to meet our enemies with violence at their fingertips and rage in their hearts. As I reached the staging area for the raid, every member of our force walked around with fire in their eyes. They were ready to destroy those who had shown themselves to be enemies of Treehouse Village, and nothing would stand in their way.


    I had to lead our force to the Ectovizzors, seeing as I was the only person who actually knew where they were, and once everyone was suited up, we headed out. It would take a while to get there with this larger group, but with stats, it would go quicker. I knew where they were now, so we could also take a straighter route than I had the last time. That made the trip much shorter and would also shave some time off. When I figured we were about twenty or so minutes from our target, I called a halt to our march. I was pretty sure I knew where the Ectovizzors village was from here, but I thought it was best if Janet and I went ahead and scouted out the situation.


    When Janet and I returned, we could then plan accordingly from there. I led Janet the twenty minutes to the cave that was the entrance to the underground village, and we stacked out the place for a good twenty minutes before we felt confident that we could bring our fighters up without a problem. The cave mouth had been inactive the entire time we had sat there watching, and we didn¡¯t see any signs of that changing. We returned to our people and clued the rest of our team in on what we had seen. The plan hadn¡¯t changed, and it was time to get ready to move out. In the next ten minutes, we were headed towards the cave mouth to get our fighters in position when things went to shit.


    We were crossing an intersection five minutes from our target. A mass of fallen buildings was blocking our view of the streets on either side of us when we were attacked. Our people were about to pass through an intersection when fifty Ectovizzors poured out of the street to our left. Our forces were caught by surprise, but they were already amped for the fight to come, and it only took a second for them to start tearing into the enemy with tariffing ferocity. In under five minutes, the entire force of Ectovizzors was dismantled, and we were ready to keep moving. Once our fighters were ready and waiting on either side of the entrance to the cave, Janet and I headed in to play our part in the plan.


    We stayed on the tunnel floor, not wanting to waste Mana unless necessary, running on the ceiling. We were almost to the tunnel¡¯s exit when we heard what sounded like a hunting party of Ectovizzors headed towards us. I looked at Janet, and we walked up the wall and onto the ceiling, where we crouched and tried to make ourselves as small as possible. Sure enough, a group of about fifty Ectovizzors ran underneath us a minute later and then were gone just as fast, not a single one the wiser we were there. We dropped back down to the tunnel floor, and soon, we stood at the tunnel exit looking out at the Ectovizzor village.


    I let Janet have a second to look around, and I could tell she was a little overwhelmed by the view. As I took a second to look around myself, and as I did, I noticed the Ectovizzors were having some kind of ceremony. At the base of the pyramid, most of the population must have been gathered before the large table. There was a line of what looked like unectovizised people off to one side of the table, and the line stretched behind a building and out of view.


    This wasn¡¯t good. We knew Ectovizzors might have some captive humans in the village, but we weren¡¯t expecting anything on this level. We had thought the numbers would be low and had just called it acceptable losses, but this wasn¡¯t part of the plan. There weren¡¯t supposed to be this many humans in here. This was supposed to be a seek-and-destroy mission, not a rescue mission. If we didn¡¯t want to kill a fuck ton of humans in the process of exterminating the Ectovizzors, we would have to change our plan on the fly. ¡°Fuck.¡± Janet finally said.

 Chapter 31 - Beating the new neighbors

    <div>


    Chapter 31


    <div>


    Beating the new neighbors


    ¡°Fuck.¡± Janet finally said.


    ¡°You see what I¡¯m seeing, right?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°If you mean all thought people down there that look like they¡¯re lined up to be turned into an Ectovizzor. Then yes, I fucking see it.¡± Janet hissed back at me.


    ¡°So, I think we have two choices here. The first option is we find a way to save those people while we blow this place to kingdom come, or we stick to the plane and, well, don¡¯t save them and just blow this place the fuck up and get out.¡± I finished, and Janet was not looking happy with me, but to her credit, she did look like she actually thought about what I had said. She just stared at me, looking all pissed off for a few moments, then shifted to looking pissed off at the wall, then the floor, then back to me, then the wall one more time before looking at me and blurting out in a hushed voice,


    ¡°fuck! I can¡¯t think of a way to save them and accomplish what we came here to do.¡± Janet said in a frustrated whisper. Then, almost under her breath, I heard her say, ¡°It might be a kindness in some way to end it fast for them, you know? I¡¯m sure they¡¯re all terrified at the thought that they¡¯re about to become new bodies for an alien species. Their Ectovizzors aren¡¯t kind. I¡¯m sure they have been treated awful. Killing them might be mercy at this point.¡± She finished and then looked over at me. She had been staring at the ground while she spoke.


    I could tell she was grasping at straws. I could tell it was a callous decision for her to make or come to terms with. I walked over to Janet and pulled her into a huge. It wasn¡¯t really the best place and time. We had already been here way too long, but she needed it. This was important. She needed my support in this decision, and I agreed with her. I would have loved to have been the hero here to save the day for all these people, but it just wasn¡¯t in the cards. We had too many other people relying on us to make this mission successful, and we would not fail them.


    I hugged Janet tight and whispered in her ear, ¡°For Treehouse Village.¡± Then I let her go and met her eyes. There was resolve there and anger at having to make this choice, but it was time, and we both knew it. I turned from Janet and headed out onto the ceiling of the massive chamber. Janet was doing the same, following right behind me. We made our way to the back of the cavern, staying close to the walls, hoping that would help our stealthiness. It seemed to have worked, become we eventually made it to the other side of the cavern without any alarms sounding and found a ledge high on the back wall to take a break and restore some Mana. Once Janet and I were topped off, I nodded to her and started dropping bombs.


    We dropped a few at the back of the cavern, then took off again, and this time returned to where we entered, continuing our bombardment. The mayhem had genuinely gone into full swing when we returned to where we entered. Janet and I had each dropped our full bags worth of goblin grenades on the city, and it was falling to pieces before our eyes. The entire cavern was shaking at that point, and I was a little worried the place would start collapsing. The pyramid got hit hard and was just a pile of rubble while their crude living structures were flattened, and bodies of dead Ectovizzors were everywhere.


    We waited and watched it all burn down around us, at least till our Mana pools were topped off once again, then both agreed that going down into the massing force of surviving Ectovizzors and killing a fuck ton of them would be a great idea. I guess we both thought it might be therapeutic to help deal with the burning rage inside. Yeah, therapeutic. I pulled my Teremnocal from my bag as Janet did the same with her axe. I gestured to Janet with my weapon as if to say ladies first. She shot me a devilish smile and then gave me a little curtsy, and they jumped off the ledge. Headed down to slaughter as many Ectovizzors as she could before we would have to retreat back to our support troops.


    A moment after Janet jumped, I was only thinking one thing, my turn. I hopped off the ledge to join Janet. We caught the Ectovizzors by surprise, or at least Janet did. I think I did, too. They weren¡¯t expecting Janet, but I don¡¯t believe they were expecting me either. They had recovered the second it took me to drop down after Janet had. I guess that was just enough time for them to focus their anger on her, and they almost missed my arrival entirely, that was, until I started cutting into them. Janet looked a little shocked at the ferocity of their attacks, but as I joined in the killing fest, she seemed to find her grove.


    We were demons of battle living through our weapons. Each step leaving death and destruction behind us. We fought and trained together so much that we could read each other¡¯s movements and adapted accordingly. We flowed from enemy to enemy, grim reapers dancing in death. It was beautiful to be a part of and I could tell Janet felt the same way. When the battle shifted, we both felt it. We started losing ground. We knew we were approaching our limits and needed to retreat before we both died here. Janet and I took a significant leap back to distance ourselves from the mob army for a second, and I met Janet¡¯s eyes. With a look, we both agreed it was time to head out.


    We both turned and ran for it. We both did a wall run up to the exit. Once in the tunnel again, we could hear hundreds of Ectovizzors thundering footsteps behind us. It was definitely a good motivator to keep running like hell. I just really hoped we didn¡¯t get shot or blown up by any of our own people on the way out. They knew the plan, and in the plan, we would be leading the remaining Ectovizzors out of the tunnel to our waiting fighters. Still, I really hoped they remembered that part. As we approached the cave mouth that let out to our waiting fighters, their lines parted, and we zoomed past, sliding to a stop after crossing the last line of fighters. The line reformed as they braced for the incoming wave of Ectovizzors.


    We could hear it as our forces engaged the enemy. There was a loud crash as a wave of flesh smashed against a wall of steel. We let our fighters deal with the Ectovizzors, and deal with them they did. When the battle was over, we had only lost a handful of fighters to the Ectovizzors, but none of our surviving fighters seemed to be too worse for the war. Once the Ectovizzors stopped coming, I told everyone to get some water, rest, and restore their Mana. I knew we weren¡¯t done yet. I had seen many Ecotvizzors retreat back into the cave when they realized they were going to lose this fight.


    Once all our people were topped off, we told everyone to pull out their flash blobs because we were going in. Flash blobs were super cool little things. They were kind of creepy, but once you got used to them, they were pretty handy little guys to have around. They were a slim, blob-type thing with a dark blue body and one giant eyeball. They were about as big as your palm, and if you plopped Them on your shoulder, they could use their eyeball to cast a steady stream of light. They would just chill out there, too. I don¡¯t think they were technically alive either because they could go into a bag of holding, and you couldn¡¯t put living things in there. They were super odd but super handy, so I didn¡¯t question it much.


    Braxin suggested them for us in the dungeon, and it was a hand thing to have around. They could also somehow sense or feel where you were looking, so it was like having a headlamp but on your shoulder. I guess you could put the little guy on your head if you wanted, but that felt awkward, so most people went with the shoulder. After everyone had their Flash blob out, we headed into the cave and down to the Ectovizzor¡¯s village. Our fighters funneled into the destroyed village and shortly after found what must have been the last holdouts of the Ectovizzors.


    They had gathered around the base of the fallen pyramid. They were formed up into a semicircular, protecting their five leaders. Our fighters formed a semicircular of their own, enclosing that of the Ectovizzors, and were standing by for orders as the Ectovizzors had yet to move to attack. Janet and I made our way through our people to stand before the Ectovizzors. I looked over our enemies¡¯ lines, then at the five leaders, and took in their expressions.


    The Ectovizzors before us were filled with rage. Some were literally salivating at the idea of tearing us limb from limb, and I could see they wanted nothing less than to be given the order to attack. The leadership, however, looked resigned to their fate, no less furious yet knowing what the outcome of this encounter would yield. I stood there for about ten seconds, Just watching them when I spoke.


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    ¡°My name is Travis Mullins, and these are the people of Earth. I truly did not want what happened today to pass. We have many differences, but if there was a way to live in peace without the annihilation of your people, we could be willing to try and find a way. The using of humans as host bodies, however, needs to stop immediately, as well as any violence towards humanity unless it¡¯s in defense of your lives. If you can accept these terms, then there may be a way for us to move forward from this day as allies, not enemies.¡± I finished my small speech and waited for a response. For a minute or two, the Ectovizzor leadership stared back at me, not saying a word nor discussing our offer. Then, after it was fully super awkward, one of the Ectovizzors spoke in a raspy, deep, resonating voice.


    ¡°Our lives have always been one of conquest. Not many species are compatible to become hosts for our people, and when we do find such a match, they must be properly controlled and submit to our rules. Cattle are cattle and will always be. You should lay down your weapons and submit yourselves to your rightful lords. If not, then die.¡± The tension between the two groups was palpable at the end of the Ectovizzor¡¯s words. Everyone knew there was only one future for us all now. A fight to the death.


    One group would leave this encounter alive, and one would be eliminated. Our two species were diametrically opposed. We needed to literally die for them to live, and all the Ectovizzors knew was conquest. Conquest to them was life. This species was always looking for a suitable host, and there was nothing I or anyone could do to change that. It was part of their very nature, intrinsic to who they were. Realizing that this day would only end in bloodshed made me increasingly furious. This was so fucked. I didn¡¯t want to do this. I didn¡¯t want to kill them. I really didn¡¯t want to kill anyone, but they had given me, us, no choice, and if that was how it was going to be, I was going to utterly destroy them.


    If they really made it me or them, then sorry mother fuckers, it¡¯s always gonna be me, every fucking time. Before anyone in ether force moved, I whipped my Teremnocal up and, using Spear Shadow, I pumped a fuck lot of Mana into the ability and struck out in an arching stick moving from hip to shoulder that took out the ten of the Ectovizzors right in front of me. The enemies that separated me from their leadership fell, and I charged with Janet and the Treehouse Villages fighter force at my back. The Ectovizzors fought to close their line and protect their leaders, but Janet and I made our way through before they did. I went on the attack with a burning ferocity in my soul.


    The Ectovizzors hit back with no lack of ferocity, closing their Lines and leaving Janet and me stranded and separated from our fighters. Janet and I had been the only ones to make it through their lines before they reformed. Our fighters were laying into the Ectovizzor force and holding their attention. I had confidence that our fighters would cut the remaining Ectovizzors all down eventually, but the Ectovizzors were not making it easy. However, Janet and I¡¯s fight with the leadership hadn¡¯t started out great.


    First, we were outnumbered. Plus, there was the fact that the Ectovizzor leadership must have been tied into some hive-mind thing because they were working together with flawless accuracy. It was incredibly frustrating, and it was challenging to gain ground. I opened with another Spear Shadow follower up with PinPoint, then Step Lightly and a Quick Strick. Janet activated Im So Strong as she moved in, followed by her taunt ability, Mighty Roar, and then activated Empower Strike. Every Ectovizzor except two couldn¡¯t help but turn to face Janet, but right as our attacks were going to land, they moved in concert, and the next thing I knew, I was struck in the chest and pushed back, taking a few blows in the process.


    Janet faired a little better than I did. She still managed to land her Empowers Strick, taking an Ectovizzor¡¯s arm off at the shoulder, but then she was pushed back by a coordinated volley of strikes. We needed to separate them so they couldn¡¯t work together. I had confidence Janet and I could fuck these guys up individually, but if they were allowed to work together, we could definitely be in trouble. We dove back into the fight, and this time, I fainted like I was going to charge straight in again, but as I closed in, I activated Step Lightly and moved quickly to Flank. My plan worked, and Janet got what I was trying to do.


    The following few exchanges of blows had Janet and I making progress, but we were accumulating wounds at a steady pace. The battle started to shift in our favor when we finally killed one of the leaders, making it a four-on-two fight. The problem now was that the Ectovizzors must have had no pain receptors because unless we struck a killing blow or took a limb off, they didn¡¯t seem to be slowed one bit or feel any pain. Flesh wounds were nothing were nothing they worried about. I realized at one point that if we didn¡¯t do something to change this fight, Janet and I would run out of Mana and stamina before we could win this fight.


    I decided it was time to try some new tricks. I got in close to one Ectovizzor and delivered a burst punch into its chest. I got racked with claws to do it. All down my arm, but it was worth it. My burst punch blew a hole straight through the Ectovizzor, and it dropped to the ground. With my new strategy of using burst punches, Janet caught on quick and switched to burst punches as well. After that, we ended the rest of the Ectovizzor leadership in short order. They were vicious in their attacks, but their coordination was fucking off. I could tell they couldn¡¯t react as fast as they would have liked. The leadership Ectovizzors were more coordinated than the other Ectovizzors I had fought, but I could tell they weren¡¯t entirely used to this human body yet.


    As the last Ectovizzor leader fell, I knew the fight was over. I had given everything I had, and I was spent. Relief flooded my body, and my body was jello. I looked over at Janet, and I saw her drop to her knees, then fall forward flat on her face, hitting the ground hard. It looked odd, but I realized it only looked odd because I was also falling forward. I hit the ground hard but didn¡¯t pass out this time. Small victories, I couldn¡¯t move, but hey, you take what you can get, right? Janet was for sure out, and she was already snoring away. I was just in pain. I hurt all over, but after ten minutes of just lying there, I was able to get back on my feet, but I only did so when Devin tapped me with his foot.


    ¡°You okay there, Travis?¡± He asked me. It took me a second to realize he was talking to me. Then, I took a deep breath and pushed myself onto my hands and knees.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll be okay,¡± I told Devin as I got back onto my feet.


    ¡°How did we do? Losses?¡± I asked him. Devin replied,


    ¡°No, not on our end except the fighters we lost in the initial attack. Everyone made it out of this one. Is Janet okay?¡± I looked over at Janet, lying on the ground, passed out, then back at Devin,


    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯ll be fine. Just needed to sleep it off. If you have anyone with a healing or healing assist ability, you might want to have them check her out.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we have Mitch Tamishoe. He¡¯s got a healing ability. I¡¯ll go get him.¡± Devin gave me a pat on the shoulder, then went off to find the medic. After we got the medic over and made sure Janet was actually okay and I wasn¡¯t just talking out of my ass, we split our people up into groups of ten fighters each to go and search the remains of the Ectovizzor village for any human survivors or loot. By the time our people were out going through the village, Janet was awake again and drinking some water. She was just chilling out recovering leaned-up agents part of a destroyed wall and was improving.


    I wasn¡¯t much better off than Janet, but I drank some Senzuketa Bean, and Mana kissed water smoothie and was on the mend. We had come away with a good hall from the Ectovizzor village. They had gathered large quantities of metals and other materials we could sell to Braxin or use ourselves. We also found some chests with galactic currency inside, always great to have, and last but not least, about fifty humans had survived the bombing and subsequent slater. They were incredibly grateful to be saved, but I could tell they were pissed at how we did it.


    One of our fighters even had to put one guy he found out of his misery. The man had charged him, screaming and accusing him of killing his family. There wasn¡¯t much to do but kill the man. He had lost all sense and was gone lost to his rage. It was sad, and I could tell our fighters who had been involved with that mess were still struggling with themselves about it. That was life nowadays. The only thing to do now was get the fuck out of here, so that¡¯s exactly what we did. We gathered up all our people and the services of Ectovizzor village, then headed out. I couldn¡¯t help but feel guilty about that whole situation. It was clear these people were truly traumatized, and it was Janet and I who had made the call to continue with the attack, fully aware of the fact that we would be murdering hundreds of innocents in the process. I¡¯m sure that would be a topic of desiccation at the council debrief later.


    We were making our way back to the village now, and while I was lost in thought, Brianna walked over to me,


    ¡°Good job back there. You and Janet were fucking amazing. You were moving like the wind. It really was insane. It makes me want to get stronger and keep training, you know. So, thank you for everything, Travis. You, Janet, and Beth have helped so many people, and without you guys, things would be fucked for so of us, so from me and all of them, thanks man. Oh, and one of our people found these,¡± she finished, then she tossed me a bag of holding.


    I looked inside. There were three of these glass cube things, and that was it. I pulled one out and took a closer look. It appeared to be a pain of cubes about the size of a six-sided die. There was a green tint to the glass, and when I tilted it in the light, it looked like computer circuits dancing in rainbows. It was epic. I didn¡¯t really know what to do with it. I used I identify on it, and it only gave me one line of text. This is a basic information cube. That was all it said. That really didn¡¯t help me much. I still didn¡¯t know how to use the dam thing. I thought about the problem for a minute, and then an idea popped into my head. I turned my attention inward and focused on my Mana. Then I tried pushing Mana into my hand as if I was going to use a burst punch, but instead, I attempted to shove my Mana into the little glass cube. I only used a little, but as soon as I did, it was sucked into the cube. To my surprise, then information filled my head.

 Chapter 32 - No vaseline

    Chapter 32


    No vaseline


    Initially, it was a bit overwhelming, but after a second of sorting through the info dump, I understand. This must have been how information was traded in the greater system. It was convenient, and I liked the little things. The information on the cube was interesting. It was a welcome-to-earth packet. These Ectovizzor guys had paid for the right to become pioneers of the new galaxy and were dropped off on Earth after the integration. Apparently, this was happening all over the Milky Way galaxy, and the Ectovizzors were just one of the billion-plus pioneers that would be moving into our galaxy.


    It looks like we will be meeting many more aliens than I thought, and probably sooner than later. The other two cubes were the Ectovizzors pioneer contract and a one-way transportation contract from their ride here. Interesting, for sure, but nothing to act on at the moment. I put the cubes back into the bag, tossed it back to Brianna, and we continued on to the village. This is another thing I would have to bring up to the council, or I could tell Beth and Janet about it and let them deal with it. Yeah, I liked that way better.


    We returned to the village around noon, and everyone looked dead on their feet. Other than having our people bring the loot to the treasury, everyone was let go to rest and see their loved ones, or you know, get supper drunk. Whatever they needed to do to chill out. I needed to do the same, but there was no rest for the weary, and we needed to debrief with the council on the mission¡¯s outcome. Janet, Brianna, Devin, Tess, Dean, and I all dragged our asses to the council room where Beth was waiting.


    We discussed the mission in detail, reviewing as much as we could remember as Beth took notes. When we got to the end of the meeting, I gestured to Brianna to pull out the little cubes. She popped them out and tossed them to me.


    ¡°Thanks. So Brianna brought me something that turned out to be pretty interesting.¡± I held one of the little green-tinted cubes in my hand and showed it to the group. ¡°When you push a little bit of Mana into them, they dump a bunch of information into your head. In the case of this cube, it¡¯s all about how the Ectovizzors paid for the right to settle in the newly integrated Milky Way galaxy. The Ectovizzors were apparently pioneers, and they weren¡¯t the only ones. There should be around a little over a billion more pioneers moving into the galaxy, and that¡¯s just so far.¡±


    ¡°What the fuck! And they can just fucking do that!¡± Brianna said, an indignant look on her face. Dean seemed to agree with her as he said.


    ¡°This is our planet, fuck them if they want to come in and just take our planet. They better be ready for a fight.¡±


    ¡°I think we¡¯re gonna have to learn to live with it. There will be good aliens, I¡¯m sure, and probably more assholes like the Ectovizzors. It¡¯s a new world, and I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s enough of humanity left to hold the planet alone. We may need to learn how to make friends.¡± I said, and everyone looked like they were thinking about that. Well, except Brianna, she just shot back,


    ¡°fuck them all. These so-called pioneers can suck my dick!¡± I laughed along with most of the room, but all jokes aside. We would have to learn to live with it, whether we liked it or not. We talked on the subject a little longer, but the meeting was over soon enough, and I needed to eat something and sleep or maybe just sleep. I was struggling. As I was leaving the council room to find a shower, food, and a bed, Beth stopped me and pulled me aside.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Beth? I¡¯m exhausted. I need to eat and pass out.¡± I asked her. To my surprise, her expression shifted, and she suddenly looked annoyed as hell at me. I pulled my head back a little and said, ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You know what. How dare you leave those people there. They were terrified, and you left them.¡± Everyone had left the council room, and Beth and I were alone now. ¡°You weren¡¯t that farm from the village. You could have come back to the village and then just carried on after that. They were terrified, terrified Travis. Come on, what the fuck? What the fuck were you thinking?¡± Beth had really gone off on me, and I was about to snap back at her to get the fuck out of my fucking face. That she was a stupid bitch, and she didn¡¯t get what I did for this village, but I didn¡¯t. I took a deep breath and calmed down.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Beth. I fucked up. I made a bad choice, and I honestly think I need to take some time to deal with my anger. I¡¯ve been getting reckless, and I realize that. I¡¯m sorry I did that, but I seriously need to shower, eat, and pass out. Can I go now, please?¡± Beth still looked pissed off at me, but she sighed and then gave me a hug and told me to get some rest. I headed out to do just that. It was two days later, around ten am when I woke up. I was feeling pretty good. As I went about my morning, taking a shower and getting breakfast, I thought about what Beth had said after the council meeting.


    Maybe I was getting too desensitized to all the violence and insanity that was our new world. Maybe I was losing my humanity, and that thought shook me. There had been moments during battle where I felt more like a beast than a man. I was considering going out on my own for a few days to take a breather from Treehouse and everything, but the vote was coming up, and I needed to be here to support Beth. However, I needed to get out of town for a month or so when that was all done.


    Now that the Ectovizzor threat had been dealt with, the village was getting into a festive mood. I had found time to distribute my stats from the battle with the Ectovizzors, and other than a few levels, I didn''t get much else. That was fine, to be honest. I wasn¡¯t too proud of how I dealt with that situation, and moving on was all I could do. As I walked through the village, which was now closer to a proper town, everyone seemed to be in good spirits. The vote was coming up, and the village had decided that the week beforehand would consist of a week-long party to show pride for the village and bring the village closer together as a whole. The brewery was pushing out booze now, and their latest batch was tasty and strong. Everyone loved the booze, and it was a big hit.


    Someone had come up with a flag for the village consisting of a Treehouse crossed with an axe and a Teremnocal. It was everywhere now. On business, on clothing, on hats, everywhere you looked, you could find the flag of Treehouse Village flying. It was inspiring to think I helped build a place where people had so much pride to live. Humanity could always find a way, and Treehouse Village was proof of that. This vote was important. We hadn¡¯t made it public yet, but as far as the council was concerned, this would be the one and only vote, and it was so that the people felt like they got to play a part in who their leaders would be.


    I say leaders because Beth wasn¡¯t the only one who would be elected that day. Every spot on the council was open, and twelve people would be elected to those positions. I was even running, well, at least I think I was. The current council members were almost asunder to get their spots back, but we would be adding some new faces to the mix. I was all for it. It just meant I would probably have to deal with less than I did now, a win in my book. These council positions, unlike Beth¡¯s, as town leader would be up for reelection after a period of ten years, and anyone who was a citizen of the town could run for the position. The first thing the new council would have to accomplish after the election would be to increase the size of the village. We might even really be town-sized now. We were growing so fast. We just needed more space, so expanding the town¡¯s borders was a must.


    A big issue and an unforeseen one was that apartment living was great, but people wanted the space to build a single-family home and have a backyard and shit, but as I said, we just didn¡¯t have the room. There were many issues like that, but most inevitably revolved around getting more space. The issue with adding more land to the villages was not as straightforward as you might think. We first needed to clear the area beyond the walls. We had done a bit of that to give us better sight lines on the attackers, but it would need to be handled properly. Then, there was the cost of expanding the walls. This was done through the village interface that Beth had access to, and apparently, the price was exorbitant.


    The week leading up to the festival and the week of the festival itself were thoroughly enjoyable. There were lots of games and drinking and more drinking. It was really right up my alley, and I was finally meeting many of the new faces of the village. I didn¡¯t spend much time hanging out. Usually, I was training or something of the like. So it was nice to take some time and enjoy the village we had worked so hard to build. When the day before the vote came, things took a turn. Finneas Balintine decided the day before the vote was the perfect time to stir up some trouble. Many people woke up with a bad case of food poisoning that day, and Finneas blamed Beth and her constituents, a.k.a. the council, and he said he had Prof.


    Finneas put on a whole mock trial he put on where he found the current Administration to blame for the poisonings and how it was a tactic to ashore their victory in the upcoming vote. Everyone knew it was bullshit, but the problem was that some people were beginning to think that it wasn¡¯t bullshit, and that was the scary thing. It was starting to feel like Beth was actually going to have some competition in this vote. That wasn¡¯t supposed to happen. Beth was the better choice by far. This Finneas Balintine was just a power-hungry asshole. He didn¡¯t give one shit about the people in Treehouse Village. It was at the rally, where each candidate would present their final statements before dinner and the vote in the morning, that I genuinely started to think that I might have to take matters into my own hands.


    By the end of the rally, Beth looked a little frazzled, and most of her supporters looked like they wanted to hit somebody. I know I did. Finneas, on the other hand, had a fat smile plastered on his face and was clearly very pleased with himself. As a sign of good faith between us, I walked over to shake the man¡¯s hand. I wandered over to where Finneas was talking to his constituents. As he saw me draw near, they stopped speaking and watched my approach. The smile never left Finneas¡¯s face as I approached the man.


    ¡°Well, good luck tomorrow, Finneas. I do wish you the best, but I have to say I don¡¯t see you beating Beth even after today¡¯s show, but good luck tomorrow.¡± I reached out to shake the Finneas¡¯s hand. When I did, Finneas looked down at my hand in disgust before simply ignoring my attempt to be cordial, then met my eyes. With a smile on his face and cheery in his voice, Finneas replied,


    ¡°you¡¯re a piece of shit, you know that, right. You are nothing but a bump ball of muscle without a clever bone in your body. Thinking must hurt your small little brain. Aw, well, soon you will no longer have to worry about that. Much will change once I lead this village, including your time here. This is not your village just because you built it, and tomorrow, I will show you this to be true. Sleep well tonight, Travis, for this village will be mine when the morning comes. Good night, Travis.¡±


    I just grit my teeth and walked away. That was really hard to do when I knew I could snap the man¡¯s neck like a toothpick, but if I hadn¡¯t walked away when I did, Finneas would be dead, and then I would really be fucked.


    That night, I couldn¡¯t sleep. My mind was racing, and I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about the future of Treehouse as a whole, as a Village, as a people. What Finneas had said fucking got to me too. Should I do something? After an hour had turned into four, I had decided I needed to do something, and before I knew it, I was out of my bed and had a dagger in my hand. I took a second then and thought about what I was about to do.


    I was really thinking about finding Finneas Balintine in the night, pulling him from his bed, and killing him. Was this real who I wanted to be? The man who used his power to backstab people in the night, like some sort of assassin. Or was I taking up the role of the hated but necessary evil? I didn¡¯t know what to do. Then I thought about Tilly. What world did I want her to grow up in? One led by a confident, powerful woman who would lead Treehouse into the future or a man who would siphon every last thing he could from the village for his own gain and then leave Treehouse a dried-out husk of what it was.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    That decided it for me. Tonight, Finneas Balintine would die by my hand. I snuck out of the apartment complex and headed over to where Finneas and his people were camped. They had made a point tonight about ¡°not sleeping under the same roof as their oppressors¡± and had built a camp outside the voting poles with signs, tents, sleeping bags, the whole nine yards. I snuck around the back of their encampment and found Finneas while looking through a hole in one of the tents.


    I bent down and picked up a pebble off the ground, just a regular old pebble, and as hard as I could, I flicked it right into Finneas brain. I had even empowered my throw with a bit of Mana to really seal the deal. Finneas Balintine died that night. I even checked my battle log to make sure of it, and yes, the man was dead, and no one heard a thing. Flicking a pebble had worked better than using a silencer on a pistol. Job done. I slipped back to my room and went to bed.


    The following day, I awoke to a furious uproar coming from the town square. Finnea¡¯s camp had woken up to find their leader dead, and they were not happy. They were yelling in the streets about subterfuge and assassination. Beth was not going to be happy about this one. The vote was pushed by two days to deal with the situation, and Beth set up an investigation into Finneas Balintine¡¯s death. I kept a pretty low profile for the next few days, but no one could find any evidence except the pebble in Finnease¡¯s skull, and the investigation came to a close with no suspects. The matter was dropped to the outrage of Finneases supporters, and the day of the vote came and went.


    Beth was voted in as leader of the town, which we were now officially considered, with the caveat of expanding our territory before the system would recognize Treehouse Village as a town. Janet, Tess, Brianna, Devin, Dean, and I were still on the council, and six new faces joined us. Most of the members of the community were fine with the election results, and a week after the elections, the expansion of the town had begun. No one was too concerned about Finneas Balintine anymore. There was too much going on in the village or, well, Town now. Everyone forgot except two people, Beth and Devin.


    I was getting lunch in the cafeteria when Beth and Devin found me and sat down across from me.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on, you two? How¡¯s the expansion going?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°Hey Travis, yeah, it¡¯s going well. We¡¯re reclaiming the area quickly due to all the people who have pitched in to help. Thanks for your help as well. I think seeing the council members working with everyone else and pitching in on the hard work makes them more willing to do what needs to be done for the town. Thanks again, Travis, but on another note, we need to talk about something, and we can¡¯t do it here. You got a second to have a chat in the council room.¡± Beth finished.


    ¡°When you are done eating, of course.¡± Devin chimed in. I thought they were acting odd, but I didn¡¯t see the harm in it. I was almost done with my food anyway, so I scraped my plate, put my dishes away, and joined Beth and Devin, who were waiting for me. I walked with them over to the council room. For some reason, it felt like I was going to the principal¡¯s office, and I didn¡¯t like the feeling. Once at the council room, we all walked inside. The rest of the new and old council members were sitting in the room, gathered around the large table that we had needed to have brought in due to your increase in numbers.


    When I walked in and saw everyone sitting down, I knew something was going wrong. My gut was screaming at me. This was bad news.


    ¡°Take a seat, Travis,¡± Beth told me, and I wearily nodded and sat down.


    ¡°I assume you probably know why we are here?¡± She waited for my response. I looked around wearily, then shot out a guess. Fuck, it looked like the gig was up. I breathed, then said, ¡°Becomes I killed Finneas Balintine, I assume?¡± Beth looked down at the table and then held the bridge of her nose. I glanced at Janet for support. She was just starting at the table, looking mad as hell. I then looked around the table at all my friends, but no one would meet my eyes.


    ¡°Travis, you¡¯re not even going to deny it. You can just, Travis, I don¡¯t think you realize what you¡¯ve done. You are strong, yes, and you did help found this town, but that doesn¡¯t give you the right to kill whoever you want whenever you want. We¡¯re trying to build a society, he damn it.¡± Beth stopped yelling at me to catch her breath. She was pissed at me. I¡¯d have to do a lot to make up for this one. I¡¯d never seen Beth this mad. No one said anything for a minute, so I decided I better start apologizing, then we could just move past this.


    ¡°Look, Beth, I fucked up. I just couldn¡¯t see Tilly growing up in a world where that man was in charge. He would have ruined this place in less than a year. I couldn¡¯t let that happen. Look, I''ll do whatever I need to do to make this right. Come on, Beth, I¡¯m sorry. Truly everyone, I was wrong, and I know that now.¡± I finished talking and looked around at the group, and Beth just stared at me for a second, then said,


    ¡°You don¡¯t get it, Travis. Yes, you helped build Treehouse into what it is today. A beautiful, safe haven in this fucked up world, but you went too far, Travis. You went too far! You left me with no choice, Travis.¡± Beth stopped talking briefly as she started tearing up, but then she continued. ¡°Why did you do it, Travis? We could have worked together and brought Treehouse into the world as a true force to be reckoned with.¡± Beth grabbed Devin¡¯s hand for Support before telling me, ¡°I have no choice. You left me with no choice, Travis. Dam it! You are hereby exiled from the Town of Treehouse.¡± Beth was interrupted by Janet.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t right!¡±


    ¡°Janet, stop. We talked about this. Travis, go get your things and then leave. I know you¡¯re probably the strongest person in the world right now, but please don¡¯t make this any harder than it has to be.¡± Beth finished speaking, and I was numb. There was a soft ringing in my ear, and I was in shock. Dean and Janet looked pissed off at Beth, but all the other council members were looking down at their laps, not daring to meet my eyes. I got up slowly from my chair. Beth was crying, and Devin was holding her tight. I walked over to the door and walked out into the Hallway. I rode the elevator up to my floor and got into my room, where I took a shower, still numb.


    I then packed my gear, which was almost nothing, thought my armor on, and then just stood there in my room, looking around. I was actually really going to miss this place. Treehouse was my home or had been for a long time now. I had lost myself somewhere to let this all slip away. I turned my back on the room and walked out. I was headed towards the gate when Janet and Dean caught up with me.


    ¡°Hey, Travis, what are you doing? You¡¯re not actually going to leave, are you?¡± Dean said as he grabbed my shoulder and turned me towards him. Janet was right there with him.


    ¡°Yeah, fuck the council. You¡¯ve done more for this place than anyone other than, well, me of cores.¡± Janet said, then flipped her hair.


    ¡°Come on, man, don¡¯t go, fuck them. Just ignore them. It¡¯s not like they could do anything about it.¡± Dean said, then laughed and punched me in the arm.


    ¡°Thanks, guys, but I think Beth is right.¡± They both looked like they were going to cut me off, so I kept speaking before they could butt in. ¡°Hear me out. It¡¯s just time for me to move on. I¡¯ve been in Treehouse for too long. I need to go see what this new world has to offer. Treehouse will be fine. They have the infrastructure in place now, and with Beth having a firm hold of the power here, they¡¯ll do fine on their own. It¡¯s time for them to stop relying on me to solve all their problems. They will have challenges, but they will be able to handle them. It¡¯s time for me to leave. I think I¡¯m ready?¡±


    I finished my little speech, and Dean and Janet looked like they were thinking about what I had said. Then Dean spoke,


    ¡°I can¡¯t say I totally understand where you¡¯re coming from. Honestly, I would go with you to see the world, but I need to keep an eye on the kid a little longer. I¡¯ll miss you, lad. I really will.¡± then he pulled me into a huge. Janet was staring at me, and she just looked a little confused.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Nothing, it¡¯s just, you¡¯re serious about this, aren¡¯t you? Are you really leaving Treehouse? You can¡¯t leave me here! If you¡¯re leaving, I¡¯m coming with you.¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Janet, no, you don¡¯t have to.¡± I tried to say, but I was cut off.


    ¡°No, Travis, I¡¯m coming with you. If you leave me here, I¡¯ll just die of boredom, no offense, Dean, and you¡¯ll probably do something extremely stupid and get yourself killed out there alone. Travis, I¡¯m serious. If you leave without me, I¡¯ll kill you. Just give me ten minutes.¡± Janet finished, then ran off to get her stuff, leaving me standing there with Dean, mouth a gap in surprise. Dean just slapped me on the back, laughed, and spoke.


    ¡°Alone time with the lady? Good luck, my friend. Don¡¯t get her pregnant.¡± Then Dean started laughing again, even harder. Janet was back in less than ten minutes, and we headed out, just the two of us, as Dean waved goodbye from atop the walls.


    ¡°So, where to now?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. You got any ideas?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Not really. You got any family you want to try and go find?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°Fuck my patients. They could be dead for all I knew or cared, but I might have an aunt still. She lived in Seattle before the integration hit. We could go see what the Pacific Northwest is up to?¡± I offered.


    ¡°Sounds good to me. Both my parents died years before the integration, and I was an only child. I have cousins, but we¡¯ve never been close. So, if you want to head up and see if you still have an aunt, that¡¯s cool with me.¡± Janet said, then shot me a smile as we started heading north. While we were walking, Janet told me how I had got caught for killing Finneas. She said that I hadn¡¯t been as sneaky as I thought and that a few of the night guards saw me out and about that night, and they had eventually put two and two together, at least enough to feel confident enough to accuse me of the crime.


    When I had straight up said I did the deed, there was no way Beth could let it slide. Janet had no idea Beth was going to kick me out of the town, though. That had been just as much a surprise to her as it was for me. That was one of the main reasons Janet had decided to come with me. She felt Beth had forgotten who was responsible for founding the town and didn¡¯t trust her as much anymore. She had been afraid that something similar would happen to her, and Janet told me that would not have gone well for anyone.


    We chatted for a while as we walked, fighting off the random attack here and there. We pulled out sleeping bags and rested for a few hours under the stars together when it got late. We didn¡¯t need to sleep much anymore, but it was nice to lay down with Janet for a little while and just be cozy together. If this was what life on the road with Jane would be like, I could see myself getting used to this kind of life rather quickly.


    Travis¡¯s stat sheet at the end of book one


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 24


    Race: Human


    Class: Path of the Pole Arm


    Experience needed to next Level: 131,360/134,220 XP till next Level.


    Stat points per level up: +3 free


    Titles:


    Lucky Bastard: (+2 to luck)


    Explorer: 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Settlement Defense level (3): (Plus 7 to all stats)


    Cold Hands: (plus 10 to luck)


    Gluten for Punishment: (plus 15 points to con)


    Stand Tall: (all stats plus 5)


    Self Taught: (+5% to all stats)


    First in world to:


    Complete a dungeon run: (+8 to all stats)


    First Settlement Defiance: (+5% to all stats )


    Sector leader. You are among the top million newly


    integrated life forms in your sector of the Milkyway galaxy to achieve a level two


    class: (+50 to all stats, extra +10 first on your planet)


    War Bounces:


    War Machine: +8 to all stats for the next 90 days. (76) days left


    Blood drenched: +15 to all stats for the next 90 days. (76) days left


    Follow Me (2): 30% boost toward the influence my words had on others for the


    next 90 days. (76) days remaining


    Resistances:


    Element of Fire: 11%


    Element of Corruption: 15%


    Element of Lighting 2%


    Stats:


    Strength: *166 WB: (+23)


    Dexterity: *165 WB (+23)


    Intelligence: *145 WB (+23)


    Wisdom: *146 (WB (+23)


    Constitution: *159 WB (+23)


    Luck: *135 WB (+23)


    * = modified


    (+) = Amount modified by


    Class Sheet


    Path of the pole Arm


    Level 2:


    Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus three stat points to Dexterity each level up.


    Step Lightly:


    When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting fifty ManaMana and twenty stamina to activate.


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten ManaMana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Quick Strike:


    When activated, Quick Strick at the cost of one hundred ManaMana energizes your arms into almost a seizure-type state. This causes you to strike out with your polearm many times in rapid succession.


    Spear Shadow:


    When activated, Spear Shadow conjures a mana shadow over your weapon. This mana shadow will then extend past your weapon at a distance, dependent on the amount of ManaMana you have invested into the ability, with a minimum range of five feet and an undefined maximum range. This ability is truly what you make it. At an initial cost of eighty ManaMana, this ability can be augmented, and the distance the Mana shadow travels is determined at a ratio of ten ManaMana and five stamina per foot.


    Mana Manipulation:


    The ability to alter and control the movement of Mana. (20% efficiency)


    General Identify: (1)


    When activated, gives you general information about a target you intended to discover more about. Only give basic information at level one and on targets. Results may veer with some targets.

 Epilogue

    Epilogue


    The sun was high in the sky, casting a warm, inviting glow. A sweet scent filled the air after a night of rain, and the leaves on the trees still held dew on them, sparkling like tiny diamonds. Bird songs fluttered about, adding to the serene atmosphere. A Slimensal poked its head out of its hole, its eyes lighting up at the sight of the sun-drenched world. It took a few cautious steps out into the light of the day and made its way over to its favorite sunning rock. The rock''s surface was warm and inviting, perfect for a nap. The Slimensal tried to make itself comfortable, turning in circles a few times to find the ideal position. A few moments passed, and the Slimensal got comfortable and laid down, its eyes closing in bliss as it basked in the sun''s warmth.


    Soon, the Slimensal was pleasantly lost to its daydreams. Its body relaxed under the sun''s warmth. However, an hour later, a sudden zing of a warning shot up the creature''s spine, jolting it from its pleasant slumber. The Slimensal''s eyes shot open, its body instantly moving into a defensive stance. Its eyes darted every which way, scanning for the threat that had woken it. But as the creature looked around, it saw nothing that could be considered an obvious threat. The Slimensal eyed the world, its body tense and ready for action. Its gut was screaming danger, but where was the threat? The suspense was palpable as the Slimensal continued to search for the unseen danger.


    The Slimensal was a creature known for its wariness. Its long nose and sharp fangs were a testament to its readiness for danger. Its body, reminiscent of a muscular honey badger, was poised to strike at the first sign of danger. As the Slimensal looked around, it still felt the prickling sensation of danger, but nothing showed itself. Curiosity piqued, the creature began to search the immediate area. To its surprise, it stumbled upon a small black orb that was the source of the unsettling feeling. The orb was an enigma devoid of any smell. The Slimensal pawed at it, and as soon as it made contact, a voice filled its head, adding to the mystery of the orb.


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    ¡°Take the power,¡± The orb whispered. The Slimensal, startled, took a few steps away from the orb and looked around, now in a defensive stance. After nothing happened, no attack, no creature appearing from the bushes, the Slimensal looked down at the orb. The orb was shiny and held a power that even the Slimensal could feel. It was a power that could control minds, bend reality, and even bring about destruction. As it stared at the orb, it seemed to draw the creature in till all that was important was the orb and having it for its own. The Slimensal reached down with its mouth, scooping the orb up. As it held the orb, a voice filled its thoughts, and this time, the Slimensal knew it was the orb talking to them.


    ¡° You are a lucky one today, my friend. Today is the day that you learn what true power is. I am The Master, a being of immense power and ambition. Soon, we will be one, and our power will grow, and soon, no one in this world will live without our permission. They will bow to us and the power we wield. Prepare yourself, creature, because from now on, we will be power, we will be death, we shall be¡­ Hey, what are you doing? You can¡¯t eat me, stop that. I said stop that! No, Hey motherfucker what are you doing? Not there. No, no, I''m The Master, I am power, I am everything. Listen to me!¡± The Master didn¡¯t know what was wrong with this creature. It wasn¡¯t listening to a word it said. The Slimensal had taken the orb, dug a hole, and promptly buried it.


    If the Master had known anything about Slimensal, it would have known that they are one of the single laziest and pettiest creatures in the galaxy. They didn¡¯t like to do too much, just sleep in the sun and eat. They also liked shiny things. A Slimensal will find a shiny object and bury it. It''s not to save for later like you might think. They like to have things and keep them from others. The idea that something belongs to them and no one else gives them great satisfaction. So when the Slimensal found The Master¡¯s orb, it simply did what it did with all its favorite things. It dug a hole, put the orb inside, and covered it back up.


    As dirt covered the orb and sunlight left its sleek surface, The Master screamed.


    ¡°You hear that, Janet,¡± Travis said.


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t hear anything. What was it?¡± Janet inquired.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It sounded like someone or something screaming in rage at the loss of all hope. Oh well, it¡¯s probably just my imagination. Anyways, let¡¯s keep moving.¡± I told Janet, and we got on our way.

 Book 2 Chapter 1 The Wonders

    Travis¡¯s stat sheet at the beginning of book two


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 24


    Race: Human


    Class: Path of the Pole Arm


    Experience needed to next Level: 133,360/134,220 XP till next Level.


    Stat points per level up: +3 free


    Titles:


    Lucky Bastard: (+2 to luck)


    Explorer: 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Settlement Defense level (3): (Plus 7 to all stats)


    Cold Hands: (plus 10 to luck)


    Gluten for Punishment: (plus 15 points to con)


    Stand Tall: (all stats plus 5)


    Self Taught: (+5% to all stats)


    First in world to:


    Complete a dungeon run: (+8 to all stats)


    First Settlement Defiance: (+5% to all stats )


    Sector leader. You are among the top million newly


    integrated life forms in your sector of the Milkyway galaxy to achieve a level two


    class: (+50 to all stats, extra +10 first on your planet)


    War Bounces:


    War Machine: +8 to all stats for the next 90 days. (64) days left


    Blood drenched: +15 to all stats for the next 90 days. (64) days left


    Follow Me (2): 30% boost toward the influence my words had on others for the


    next 90 days. (64) days remaining


    Resistances:


    Element of Fire: 11%


    Element of Corruption: 15%


    Element of Lighting 2%


    Stats:


    Strength: *166 WB: (+23)


    Dexterity: *165 WB (+23)


    Intelligence: *145 WB (+23)


    Wisdom: *146 (WB (+23)


    Constitution: *159 WB (+23)


    Luck: *135 WB (+23)


    * = modified


    (+) = Amount modified by


    Class Sheet


    Path of the pole Arm


    Level 2:


    Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus three stat points to Dexterity each level up.


    Step Lightly:


    When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting fifty Mana and twenty stamina to activate.


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten Mana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Quick Strike:


    When activated, Quick Strike at the cost of one hundred Mana energizes your arms into almost a seizure-type state. This causes you to strike out with your polearm many times in rapid succession.


    Spear Shadow:


    When activated, Spear Shadow conjures a mana shadow over your weapon. This mana shadow will then extend past your weapon at a distance, dependent on the amount of Mana you have invested into the ability, with a minimum range of five feet and an undefined maximum range. This ability is truly what you make it. At an initial cost of eighty Mana, this ability can be augmented, and the distance the Mana shadow travels is determined at a ratio of ten Mana and five stamina per foot.


    Mana Manipulation:


    The ability to alter and control the movement of Mana. (20% efficiency)


    General Identify: (1)


    When activated, gives you general information about a target you intended to discover more about. Only give basic information at level one and on targets. Results may veer with some targets.


    Chapter 1


    The Wonders


    ¡°Fuck me! I swear, Travis, we should have never gotten off the interstate. If we have to walk through one more swamp. I fucking swear to god, Travis. I¡¯m over it. Im fucking over it.¡± Janet said. Janet and I had been on the road for about two weeks, and this was the third swamp we had been forced to trek through. Needless to say, Janet was not happy about it. We had been headed north, and when we found the remnants of the I-5, we figured it was as good a route to take as any and decided to follow it north. Following the I-5 had been a good plan for the most part. We had dealt with a few attacks here and there, but most of our time on the road was easygoing. Well, except for the swamps, and these swamps weren¡¯t normal. They were magic swamps.


    These swamps were no joke. They would flood across the interstate, giving us no choice but to pass through them, and when I say they were magic, I mean crazy shit went down in magic swamps. Logicless and just plain freaky shit. Janet had quickly come to hate them. I couldn¡¯t blame her. They tripped me out, and I wasn¡¯t a fan myself. Most of the time we were in the swamps, it felt like I was on acid or mushrooms. The air would distort almost like a heat haze but without the heat. The air would bubble and warp as if I were looking at the world through a soap bubble. Then, every now and then, from the distorted air, a creature would appear, or the landscape in front of us would suddenly change. The experience put me on edge the whole time we were in the swamp. It hadn¡¯t been just a non-aggressive creature that appeared or a change in tree placement but angry creatures that seemed to be held fast in the thralls of madness or deep water, waiting to pull you down.


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    Those encounters sucked and were slightly terrifying. It was just nerve-racking to get attacked out of nowhere, and by the time we got out of the swamp, adrenaline had been coursing through me for so long that I could feel the wear on my mental state. Janet didn¡¯t look much better than me, but being free of the swamp put her in a better mood. Janet stretched and let out a gasp as she did.


    ¡°Damn, I¡¯m so happy to be out of there. I swear this time, I¡¯m serious, no more swamps! I¡¯m done. It fucking sucks, you hear me? Fuck! Oh! And I had a fucking leach on me. A huge, nasty, slimy, disgusting leach. Done, I¡¯m done.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at Janet, which I don¡¯t think she appreciated cause she punched me in the arm pretty hard after that.


    ¡°Okay. Okay, haha, my bad. No more magic swamps. I hear you loud and clear. I then crossed my eyes, stuck out my tongue, and gave her a silly salute. I got another punch in the shoulder for that one, but it was worth it. Once we had cleaned up after leaving the swamp, we returned to the I-5 and kept pushing north. I had an aunt who lived in Seattle, Washington, pre-integration, and with no better heading in mind when I was kicked out of the Town of Treehouse. Janet and I had just started heading north. There was probably no chance she was still alive, but it was better than nothing. I was sure of it. If nothing else, it would be fun to explore this new world. Part of me loved the idea that the world was once more full of adventure and the unknown. It always felt like we had explored everywhere, but now, the world is once more untamed and wild. It was invigorating and slightly scary as well.


    After leaving the swamp, we had been moving at a leisurely pace. It was a gorgeous day, and we hadn¡¯t been attacked by anything for a few hours. Overall, it was a great day in this new world. We had stopped for a lunch break by the side of the road. A large tree had fallen across the road, and it looked like a great spot to sit down and relax for a moment. We still had a good stock of supplies. Janet and I had made it a habit of carrying extra supplies since we had started looking for survivors back at Treehouse. So when lunchtime came, we put out a good spread. We had bread that was still warm, held in stasis from moments after they were baked from our bags of holding, as well as fruits, nuts, and a big block of cheese. We also had a bunch of sandwiches, and I pulled out a tuna salad sandwich for myself and handed one with turkey to Janet.


    We were maybe thirty minutes into a peaceful and fulfilling meal. I had just taken a big sip of lemonade when Janet flicked a cracker at my head. The cracker shot at me so fast that when it hit the tip of my ear, I let out a little yelp and grabbed my ear as it started to sting. I turned to Janet and opened my mouth to ask her what the fuck that was for when I caught her eye. She looked at me and then flicked her eyes over to the left. My words of frustration died on my lips, and I casually looked over in the direction Janet had indicated. About fifty yards away, there was a tumble of fallen trees, and between the branches and leaves, I could pick up a flash of metal here and there. Someone was there, and it looked like they were watching us.


    I looked back at Janet, and she looked at me.


    ¡°You see it, right? So what do you think?¡± Janet asked me.


    ¡°Yeah, I see it. You want to go check it out?¡± I asked. Janet nodded and then took a big bite of her sandwich.


    ¡°Just a few more bites,¡± Janet mumbled as she chomped down on her sandwich. I laughed, and I finished off my sandwich as well.


    Once we had finished our lunch, we packed everything away. Then we acted super nonchalant, just stretching and checking our gear once more before heading out. After a minute of acting as nonchalant as possible, I ducked behind the fallen tree where we had eaten lunch. When I was sure I was entirely out of sight of our watchers, I activated Step Lightly and disappeared. One thing I learned while traveling with Janet was that if I channeled Mana to my abilities, not just paying the initial fee but continuously investing Mana, I could keep my skills going beyond their standard activation time. So when I activated Step Lightly this time, I channeled the ability, and in moments, I was standing ten feet behind a group of three people hiding behind a tangle of fallen trees.


    ¡°Where did he go? The man? I don¡¯t see him anymore. I just see the woman now.¡± A man who looked like the leader of this small group said.


    ¡°He¡¯s behind the log. He must be tying his shoes or something,¡± a woman answered the man.


    ¡°Do you think they saw us? What¡¯s our next move here, Tarry?¡± the third and final member of their party chimed in. He was also a man. So, in total, the small group consisted of two men and a woman. It looked like the man called Tarry was thinking about something, and after only a few moments, he spoke.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s time we make our move. Harriet, You move out to the left along the side of the freeway while Dick and I will make our approach from the right. Sound good? Let¡¯s move.¡±


    Before they could do anything further, I decided it was time to introduce myself. If I was being honest, I kind of figured they would have just noticed me on their own by now. As Tarry began to rise from his crouched position to start moving, I chose that as my moment to let my presence be known.


    ¡°Hey guys, what are we looking at?¡± I asked the group. In hindsight, there was probably a better way to do what I did, but as it was, I think I almost gave Tarry a heart attack, I¡¯m pretty sure, and Dick started sputtering and then coughing. As I stood there and let them gather themselves, we all ended up waiting for the coughing man, Dick, to pull it together. When he finally stopped coughing, Tarry, Harriet, and I were all looking at the man. He turned slightly red-faced, clearly a bit embarrassed, but then the reality of their situation hit them once again.


    Tarry was the first to snap back to reality. In one fluid movement, he spun the shotgun around his arm, pointed it at me, and fired. I took a blast point blank in the chest, but in the next moment, I grabbed the gun with one hand and pulled the weapon from his grip. Tarry looked utterly shocked at the whole series of events. Then the man promptly fell back onto his ass. The entire group looked stunned, and after only a few more moments, Dick put his hands in the air as if surrendering. When Harriet and Tarry looked over at the man, he said,


    ¡°What? I give up. Isn¡¯t that clear now? The guy just took a shotgun blast to the chest and then ripped the gun from Terry¡¯s hands like it was nothing. I¡¯m not fucking with this guy, so yeah, I give up.¡±


    ¡°Guys got the right idea,¡± I told them, and the next second, they all had their hands raised to the sky. I couldn¡¯t help it. I laughed. That seemed to relieve some of the tension. However, Tarry understood this situation still had the potential to end very poorly for them. I was clearly much stronger than them, and that fact seemed to be stuck in Terry¡¯s head.


    ¡°Look, we were never gonna do nothing, man. We were just¡­¡±


    I cut Dick off. ¡°Let me stop you there. I was standing here for a little bit now, so I know you were planning to attack us. I just don¡¯t know why you would. Are you bandits who attack unsuspecting travelers or opportunists just trying to survive?¡± I finished and waited for an answer. Dick looked embarrassed, having almost been caught in a lie, and Harriet looked wary of me, almost as if she couldn¡¯t quite figure out if she should run or give up. Tarry, on the other hand, looked worried and tense. He felt like a spring just waiting to pop. Before something stupid could happen, I called Janet over. I told Tarry to take it easy and that we weren¡¯t interested in hurting them or stealing their shit.


    That seemed to take the edge off Tarry, but I still didn¡¯t feel like he totally believed me. Dick, on the other hand, let out a heavy sigh and started laughing. I think more because he was uncomfortable and didn¡¯t know how to react anymore. Harriet, on the other hand, kind of hugged the middle of the road and was neither super relieved like Dick but wasn¡¯t as tense as Tarry. Dick and Harriet looked like they were together in some capacity, but Harriet seemed to look to Tarry when she was trying to take our measure.


    We waited for Janet to come over, and when she did, I made introductions.


    ¡°Janet, this is Tarry, Dick, and Harriet. I think they still think we¡¯re going to kill them or rob them or something. I tried telling them that¡¯s not our game, but they still seem pretty freaked out.¡± I told her, not caring, that I was addressing her like our new friends couldn¡¯t hear us.


    Janet just shook her head at me. Then, I addressed the group.


    ¡°Okay, so I¡¯m going to have to apologize for Travis over there. He¡¯s kind of thick-headed, and I¡¯m not sure he fully understands how he came off. He¡¯s more of a blunt weapon. There is no real finesse there. Sorry,¡± Janet finished. Tarry laughed tentatively at Janet¡¯s words a bit awkwardly while Dick let out another nervous chuckle. Harriet didn¡¯t react much at all. He just glanced at Tarry every now and again, trying to feel his reaction. I tried to think of a way to break the ice as we were all just standing around now awkwardly. I had one thing I thought might work.


    ¡°Hey, y¡¯all hungry? You watched us eat. Just wondering if you need any food or water. We have some to share. Right, Janet?¡± I said, and Janet laughed and nodded her head.


    ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t mind,¡± Janet said in response.


    ¡°Well, what do you guys say? Food, water, yeah?¡±


    Dick was happy to agree, which garnished a stern look from Tarry. Still, even Tarry nodded and agreed that some food and water would be much appreciated.


    We spent the next hour handing out food and water and talking with our new friends. They were an odd group, for sure. Harriet was a mousey young woman, maybe in her early twenties. She was a slender but fit Asian woman. She had a short haircut and a scar running down her cheek. That was strange. I hadn¡¯t seen a scare since the integration. Every per-integration injury was healed with the integration of the greater system. Well, I guess not immediately. It was really when you reached level one that, with a good meal, water, and time, most injuries and illnesses would heal with time without a trace they were ever there. So, seeing someone with a scar was odd.


    Dick looked like he was about the same age as Harriet. He was a skinny white kid, about five foot ten, with short brown hair. Dick looked fit, but it was not like the guy actively worked out. It was more like he was just an active person. Their leader looked to be a forty-something black guy with a bold head and an athletic build. Tarry looked like a capable guy. They were all wearing old army fatigues, combat boots, and bulletproof vests, which I found odd. Maybe military?


    ¡°Hey, quick question, Tarry, were you all in the army or something before the shit hit the fan? Like, US army or something?¡± Terry blinked, then let out a bark of laughter. ¡°No, man, we found these in a house we were scavenging some stuff from. Our clothes were shit compared to these, so we took what we could and have been using them ever since.¡± Terry said, then chuckled a bit more.


    ¡°Nice grab. The bulletproof vest is sick, I said. It¡¯s not like the vests would do much now, but I guess anything helps, and something better than nothing.


    ¡°How long have you guys been on the road? Are you living nearby or headed anywhere in particular?¡± I asked them. Tarry let out a chuckle when I motioned the bulletproof vest, but when I asked where they were headed or if they lived nearby, I could see the man tense up a bit. Okay, it was time to put this tension to bed. Tarry looked like he was thinking about how much he wanted to tell me when I snapped him from his thoughts with a wave.


    ¡°Hey man, like I said before, we¡¯re not gonna hurt you guys. We shared our food and water, and if we wanted you dead, believe me, you would be.¡± I finished what I was saying, then promptly turned around, picked up one of the fallen trees about fifty feet long, and threw it across the I-5 and into the woods. Tarry, Dick, and Harriet all looked at where the tree had disappeared into the forest with mouths agape. Surprisingly, Tarry was the first to return to us, but it wasn¡¯t the reaction I expected. Tarry laughed. He laughed so hard that he started choking at one point. As for Harriet and Dick, they were just staring at the man like he had lost it. Tarry managed to pull himself together and then looked at Harriet and Dick, that were still just staring at the man.


    ¡°What? Why are you two looking at me like that? I¡¯m not crazy. It¡¯s just that he¡¯s fucking right. Travis right? Fuck. Harriet, Dick, you saw what he just did. Hell, they could have killed us any time they wanted. Yet they shared their rations and have not shown any real hostility.¡± Dick still looked a little confused, so Tarry spelled it out for him. We¡¯re not dying today, Dick.¡± Tarry said, then looked at me once more. ¡°Right?¡± He asked me. I let out a chuckle at the whole interaction, then nodded.


    ¡°Yeah, friends?¡± I asked the man, and I stuck out my hand to him. With a big grin on his face, Tarry took my hand and then shook it.

 Book 2 Chapter 2 - A night with strangers

    Chapter 2


    A night with strangers


    We spent another thirty minutes just talking and snacking with our new friends. They were a friendly enough bunch, but I could tell the three of them hadn¡¯t had an easy time of it isolated out here, but they were doing what they could to survive and survive they were. They eventually warmed up enough to us to invite us back to their camp to stay the night if we wanted, and we agreed. It was nice to sleep under the stars, but there was something about the security of sleeping behind a wall that made falling asleep much easier.


    We waited till Dick finished his sandwich and Harriet and Janet finished their lemonade, then we started packing up to head to their camp. Before we left, I decided it was best to give them some supplies. We would probably only stay the night, so getting this out of the way now was better.


    ¡°Hey, Tarry,¡± I called to the man, returning to the group after taking a pee break.


    ¡°What¡¯s up, Travis?¡± Tarry answered, looking at me to see what I was calling him for. The next thing he knew, a small bag was flying towards his chest.


    ¡°Wow, hey man, watch it. I can¡¯t move that fast, shit.¡± Tarry said, but he still caught the bag before it smacked into his chest.


    ¡°Sorry, man. My bad, but that¡¯s a gift for y¡¯all to keep,¡± I told Tarry, a smile still on my face from Tarry¡¯s quick catch.


    ¡°Wait? What? Are you for real?¡± Tarry said, transfixed by the little bag he held in his hand. We had shown Tarry and his group a bag of holding when we had taken out lunch for them, and at the time, Tarry, Dick, and even Harriet were odd and amazed at the little coin purse-looking thing, and when I had tucked it back into my armor, they had all basically drooled with envy. So when I threw Tarry one of the small pouches we had prepped for refugees full of water, food, and other essentials like tampons, I don¡¯t think Tarry could believe it.


    ¡°We can really have this?¡± he said, shocked at the gift. I laughed a little, then told him, yes, it was all there, even the bag. Tarry made his way over to me and stuck his hand out to shake. He thanked me again, and then we finished packing up and went on our way. It only took us about an hour to get to their camp, and when they said camp, I thought maybe they had a few tents or homemade shelters, but it was much more than that. They had turned part of a small town into a walled and fortified compound. They had occupied a gas station, a diner, and a few RVs and surrounded everything with a five-foot-tall barricade.


    When we approached the barricade, a voice rang out from somewhere behind the wall.


    ¡°Stop there. Hey, Tarry, these guys with you?¡± It sounded like the voice of a young woman. Then, sure enough, the next moment, a young woman with blond hair poked her head over the wall, followed by the barrel of a shotgun.


    ¡°Hey, take it easy, Jenny. They¡¯re with us. Open the gate, come on,¡± Tarry told the young woman, Jenny, I guess. Jenny looked at Janet and me warily for a moment longer before she nodded at Tarry and then disappeared behind the wall again. The next thing that happened was a section of the barracks opened, and we walked inside. Once inside, Tarry introduced us to the members of their small community. About fifteen people were living in the compound, and they seemed well... Surviving might have been the best word. They weren¡¯t living in luxury, but they weren¡¯t starving either.


    There was a mixed group in the village. About half the group was older, maybe forty, like Terry. I think the oldest lady was eighty. The other half was younger. They were all in their early to mid-twenties. It turned out they had been friends traveling down to Santa Barbara for a concert when the world ended. They had been staying at the only hotel in town. They had been outside smoking a joint and drinking some whisky when the integration hit and had watched the hotel collapse, killing every person inside. They had joined up with the other survivors in the town and had been trying to stay alive out here with them ever since.


    Everyone who survived the integration we met seemed to have a crazy survival story nowadays. It was really too bad. I would have loved just for once to hear that. Yeah, we made it out fine. Yeah, the whole family, even the dog, and we figured all this leveling stuff out really fast, and we¡¯ve just been out here killin¡¯ it. That would have been great, but it was always, yeah, I lost half my family this, or I¡¯m the only one left. It was just getting depressing.


    Questions began to pop up once everyone learned we had made our way up from the San Francisco Bay area. What was happening? How bad was it? Did we meet any aliens yet? Had the government stepped up to help? Was there even still a centralized government left? The questions came at us one after another until, almost an hour later, Tarry broke up the questioners, and dinner started to get underway. That night, Janet and I dug into some of our more valuable resources to make it a night to remember.


    I pulled out two fully cooked and ready-to-go wild boar hams, and Janet pulled out one of our precious 20 barrels of treehouse booze. I was a little surprised that she had, but I couldn¡¯t blame her. The look on the compound residents¡¯ faces once they tasted the drink made it all worth it. The night became a celebration of life, and we all had a good old time. Janet and I even made a new friend, Evelin, and the three of us made the night warm and long.


    When morning came, it was time to go. As bittersweet as it was. We hadn¡¯t felt so much warmth and comfort since Treehouse, but the time had come, and leave we must. We made our goodbyes to Tarry and a few others who were awake. Most were still out from the night¡¯s festivities. We ended up giving Tarry another small Bag of holding with some additional supplies, and then we left with very little fanfare.


    We didn¡¯t say much for the first few hours on the road. I knew we were thinking the same thing. Had we helped enough? Could we have done more? Would we ever see them again? These were all questions we had no answers to, but the questions were there all the same. We reached the Oregon-California border that day somewhere in the late afternoon. The day had been slightly melancholy after our departure and subsequent thoughts, but it had also been mostly uneventful. Only a few creatures attacked us, but every encounter helped distract me from my worries and was more fun than a nuisance. It really helped break up the monotony of our travels.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    We only got a few miles past the border marker when the I-5 disappeared. I don¡¯t mean that it was collapsed or destroyed. No, it was gone. It looked like a giant took a massive pair of scissors, cut the Interstate in half, and then took it with them. It was just gone, and in its place were rolling hills and valleys that led to mountains in the distance. It was really quite beautiful. We took a second to just stand at the edge of the freeway and take in the beauty of it all.


    ¡°Damn, it¡¯s so crazy. It¡¯s almost like humanity never touched this land. It¡¯s kind of majestic, right?¡± I asked Janet. Janet looked like she was thinking, and then she said,


    ¡°I can see what you mean. It¡¯s nice out here with no one around, but I think it would get old fast. I think I¡¯d go a bit crazy if I were out here by myself for more than a few months. You know?¡± Janet answered me. I thought about what she said but didn¡¯t know if I totally agreed. Something about the peace was nice. Caught up in my thoughts. I must have missed it when Janet had tried to talk to me, but I didn¡¯t miss her fist when it hit me in the shoulder.


    ¡°Ow, hey, what the fuck.¡±


    ¡°Come on, space cadet. Let¡¯s get going. It¡¯s starting to get dark, and we still need to find somewhere to camp for the night.¡±


    ¡°Oh fuck yeah, you¡¯re right. My bad, let¡¯s get going.¡± I agreed, and we headed out once more.


    The next morning, we got back on the road early again. We picked our best approximation of North and got back on the road, or well, I guess we couldn¡¯t get back on the road, seeing as there was no road anymore, but you know what I mean. We had only been walking for a few hours before we started to see signs of life. Well, I guess life was misleading. We saw signs of habitation. We first stumbled upon an animal that looked like scavengers had eaten it, but if you looked beyond the teeth marks and roughly torn flesh, you could see clear-cut marks as if someone had killed the creature and harvested what meat they could carry. Then left the rest behind. I showed Janet, and she agreed with my assessment. There was definitely a group of people, or well, maybe it was better to say a group of sentients were nearby. In this new world, the odds of finding a group of humans were probably less likely than that of a group of galactic pioneers.


    We kept our eyes open for more signs of habitation and finally found something promising. We were making our way around some boulders when Janet noticed a smear of blood disappearing between two rocks. We followed the blood smear, and it turned out there was a hidden path between the rocks that led down to a valley tucked neatly away. We ended up climbing a tree to better see the settlement if there was one. As we got high enough in the tree to see into the valley below, I began to make out figures moving through the trees. They were definitely galactic pioneers. They were interesting-looking creatures.


    They were humanoids with large heads. Their skill was light blue, and they wore little clothing made from rough-cut animal hides. The top of their heads were see-through, and it looked like there were bubbles of colored gas flowing around inside. It looked super trippy, and we watched them for about twenty minutes before inevitably deciding to move on. They hadn¡¯t looked too civilized, and if they were hostile to us, then we¡¯d have to kill them, and one genocide was enough for me, at least for the year. So we quietly made our way out of the tree and got back on our way.


    As we continued to make our way north, the landscape became weird. It wasn¡¯t like magic swamp weird, but the landscape began to change. The grass, because there was still grass, had gained a soft blue glow, and the soil beneath became a vibrant, deep red color. The plant life, on the other hand, was doing more than just changing color. Plants were growing that I had never seen or heard of in my life, and they didn¡¯t look earthly, that¡¯s for sure. I saw a tree at one point, and I swear I saw it grab a bird out of mid-air and eat it all in a matter of seconds. I kept my distance from the plants after I saw that as I didn¡¯t so easily forget my encounter with that blackberry bush all that time ago.


    We had been moving through the crazy alien landscape for a few days and had encountered a few odd creatures, but nothing too spectacular. We did fight one creature that my identity ability called a Sopidmoth. It was like a rat fucked a moth, and while they were banging, they got hit with a colossal blast of burs banner radiation. The spawn of that coupling was the Sopidmoth. They fucking glowed green, about eight feet tall, and flew with enormous moth wings.


    They also traveled in packs, so you know that was fun to deal with. Their main attack was a Mana pulse beam of some kind. I got hit with its beam weapon a few times, and when it hit me, it started to erode my gear and flesh. It felt horrible and hurt like a bitch, but they were easy enough to kill because of the glowing bodies. You could usually see them before they saw you, but even if we got ambushed, the Sopidmoth sucked at fighting.


    By noon on the third day of traveling through an alien world, the landscape began to revert back to a more familiar one. By the time the sun set, we could see what looked like the interstate heading off into the distance. We made camp for the night with the Interstate in the background. As the sun set, Janet and I talked for a while. Then we made dinner. When we had eaten, we laid down in the two sleeping bags we always made into one big sleeping bag every night together and just stared at the stars for a while.


    ¡°Does it ever make you mad?¡±


    ¡°Huh? What was that?¡±


    ¡°I said, does it ever make you mad?¡± Janet repeated for me.


    ¡°Does what, ever make me mad?¡±


    ¡°Looking at the stars and knowing somewhere out there are the things that own us or, you know, the whole indentured contract thing.¡±


    ¡°Fuck.¡± I said with a bit of a chuckle. ¡°No. If I¡¯m being frank, yeah, the contract thing is shit, and it fucking pisses me off, but the stars. No, the stars, at least until we can travel amongst them, will just be stars to me. Beautiful, out of reach, but always there. At least that¡¯s what they will be to me.¡±


    ¡°I kinda like that. I mean, Not the whole contract thing. I agree with you there. The Slag can go suck a fat one for the indentured contract but the stars. I liked that.¡± We fell asleep watching the stars that night.


    When morning came, we packed up and headed over to where it looked like the Interstate restarted. Just like the opposite side we had seen, this side looked as if a pair of giant scissors had cut it, and it was a clean cut too. It was like the world had slit and filled in with more land, and as I thought about it, maybe that¡¯s kind of what happened. I wonder if the world is physically larger than it was before. Something to keep in mind for the future. When I can find someone who can explain how all this shit works, that is.


    Now that we were back on a proper road, we were moving much faster. The world flew by as Janet and I let loose and ramped up our speed. It was invigorating, racing Janet down the Interstate. The day was warm, and the breeze felt so nice. The wind whipped through my hair as I ran, and it felt like my body was releasing tension I didn¡¯t know I was carrying.


    I felt so free and powerful that I couldn¡¯t keep the grin from my face, and Janet looked like she was experiencing something similar. We dropped our speed after only thirty minutes, but we both agreed that running full out like that felt amazing and that we would need to do it more often. It had been a few hours since our run, and we were looking for a place to have lunch when we noticed something off in the distance.

 Book 2 Chapter 3 - Hide and seek

    Chapter 3


    Hide and seek


    ¡°You see that, right?¡± I asked Janet.


    ¡°Yeah, I see it.¡±


    ¡°It kind of looks like some kind of military blockade.¡±


    ¡°Really? What the fuck? Why would they be blocking the road?¡±


    ¡°Fuck if I know. You want to just go around it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll follow your lead.¡±


    I started jogging, then stopped and watched Janet run past me. When she made it back to me, she looked worried.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you okay?¡± Janet asked me.


    ¡°Janet, I¡¯m fine, but are you okay? Are you feeling well? Follow my lead? Wait! Are you an Ectovizzor? That¡¯s it. You have been taken over. Hey, where are you going?¡± Janet hadn¡¯t waited for me to finish. She had listened to me for a second, but when she realized I was just fucking around, she rolled her eyes and kept it pushing. I laughed and then sped after her. We stopped again when we were about a mile away from the barricade.


    ¡°So, how do we do this?¡± Janet asked me. As we looked out over the rolling hills toward what was now clearly a military barricade, I could even make out a Humvee with a gun mounted atop it.


    ¡°Well, im still a bit stumped on why there¡¯s a military barricade out here in the middle of fucking nowhere.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a good point. It is weird. Do you think the government is getting its shit together finally? Do you think they¡¯ve been to Treehouse already? I mean, not these guys exactly, but like other military people.¡±


    ¡°Damn, Janet. You have a lot of questions that I have no answers for. Honestly, I think those are all good questions, and I know where to find some people who could answer them. Want to go get some answers?¡± I smiled at Janet, and she smiled back.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go say hi and make some new friends. Sound good?¡±


    ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± Janet said, and we set off.


    Once we were about two hundred feet from the barricade, we slowed our pace to a preintegration level, taking our time walking the final bit. We didn¡¯t want to start off on the wrong foot by zooming up right in front of them. We figured that would probably scare the shit out of them, and that sounded like a quick way to get shot at. That would totally kill the vibe we were trying to go for.


    They let us get about fifty feet from the Barricade before they stopped us. Four soldiers in full military gear were out in front of the barricade. They all had assault rifles that looked regularly used.


    ¡°That¡¯s far enough,¡± one of the soldiers called out. He then proceeded to ask us what our business was on the road. We told them we were passing through. They then told us to wait. We waited about twenty minutes before a portion of the barricade swung open, and a man in a military uniform walked out. He was holding a few folders, and as the man walked over to talk to the soldiers on duty at the barricade, he walked with an air of superiority about him. I instantly got a felling that this guy was going to cause us some trouble.


    We had been allowed to approach the barricade after the captain, corporal, or whatever rank he was finished talking to his people. We walked over, and the man first took a moment to look over the folders in his hands, writing something here and there. Then, when he seemed satisfied with his paperwork, he clicked his pen and looked over his clipboard at Janet and me.


    ¡°So Travis and Janet, is it?¡± The captain or corporal, or something like that, asked us.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right, sir. I¡¯m Travis, and that¡¯s Janet. We didn¡¯t know if any of the military had made it through the integration. Are things starting to get back under control?¡± I asked the man. He completely ignored my question, just jotting something down in a folder before speaking again.


    ¡°What¡¯s your reason for being on the road?¡± I looked over at Janet, a bit shocked that the man had blown past my question entirely, but I still answered him.


    ¡°We¡¯re headed up north. I have some family up in Seattle I¡¯m trying to find.¡± I told the man. The man let out a scoff and a short chuckle when I said this.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± I asked him as he made more notes in his beloved folders. He ignored me again, but just till he finished his paperwork. This time, when he snapped his pen closed, he looked at us and said,


    ¡°You¡¯re wasting your time.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I only mean I have seen many looking for loved ones, and most come stumbling back beaten, bruised, and begging us for help.¡±


    ¡°What are you saying?¡±


    ¡°Look, all I¡¯m saying is that I wish you luck if you insist on continuing a foolish endeavor like that. We have a village about a mile from here that we have secured and keep under our protection. It¡¯s safe there, and we can always use strong young people like yourselves. You would have to answer a few questions and show us your Stat Sheet, and then we could show you around if you¡¯re interested.¡±


    I looked at Janet. There it was. They wanted to see our Stat Sheets. That was not what I wanted to hear.


    ¡°Yeah, I hear you. Thanks for all the advice and the invitation, but I think we will take our chances out there. Good luck to you all. I¡¯m glad to see the government stepping up and looking after people in this crazy time.¡± The man gave me a tight, annoyed smile but didn¡¯t push us to join their town.


    Stolen story; please report.


    It had been about an hour and a half now, and most of that time, we had been just waiting around. I was getting antsy to get back on the road. The officer had returned to his fellow soldiers and left us standing there for about thirty minutes for what felt like no reason. Now, however, he was finally walking back over to us, and it looked like we might be done with this entire waste of time.


    ¡°Well, we have almost everything we need from you to send you on your way. The last thing is a Stat Sheet check to confirm your identity, and we¡¯ll be done here.¡±


    I looked at Janet as if asking her what she wanted to do, but she just looked back at me as if waiting to see what I would do. All I could think was fuck. Then I decided we just had to book it. My decision may end up fucking us later, but for now, it was the best option if I wasn¡¯t interested in letting everyone find out how insanely strong Janet and I were. I had made up my mind.


    ¡°Thanks again for all the help. We¡¯ll just be going then. Have a good one.¡± I finished my words, and before the officer guy could say anything else, I grabbed Janet by the arm, and we took off into the countryside. We stayed away from the road for the next hour to make sure those soldiers wouldn¡¯t find us if there were more in the area.


    It was a good thing we did, too. About fifteen minutes into our trek through the countryside, we crested a hill, and a small town came into view.


    The town took up a few square miles, surrounded by a large, maybe fifteen-foot wall. It was impressive. Nothing compared to the city of Treehouse, but it was a good start. We stayed there and watched them, and during that time, many Humvees came and left. Traveling in different directions down the interstate. We were too far away to see what was going on in the town, the living conditions of the citizens, or the movement of people, so after only ten minutes or so, we had moved on.


    We only knew we were safe to get back on the interstate after we passed another barricade manned by soldiers with their own Humvee waiting to intercept travelers. We gave them a wide birth and only got back on the road after we were well out of view. They had looked more alert than the group we had first approached, and I¡¯m sure the word about Janet and I blowing around the barricade had gotten around.


    We had stopped to eat a quick snack when we were about an hour away from our new military buds, and I was mid-sip of water when I felt an odd sensation coming from one of my bags of holding.


    I finished my sip and found the offending bag. I snatched it off my belt and looked inside. As I popped the inventory screen open, I felt as much as I saw a small coin humming and glowing with a faint blue glow. I focused on the item and used my identity ability on it. It was the Dungeon Coin, and the description said it would help us find dungeons as we explored the world. Maybe this was the coin trying to help us find a dungeon like it was letting us know there was one nearby. I was so preoccupied with the dungeon coin that I didn¡¯t immediately respond when Janet tried to get my attention.


    ¡°What was that?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I said, why were you so set on not showing them our Stat Sheets? We could have just shown them our sheets and been on our way. We will probably be marked as wanted, if not people of interest, you know, like the military will probably be looking out for us at any other town they run. Did you think about that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Janet. There was no time, and if I¡¯m being honest, I didn¡¯t want them to see our strength. They might have tried to force us to help them or work for them or some shit. I don¡¯t know. Maybe it¡¯s my inherent dislike of authority, but I didn¡¯t want them to have that information. It feels too personal now. They just gave me a bad vibe. You know?¡± Janet was quiet for a second, then she spoke.


    ¡°I can kind of understand that. I mean the part where you said that information feels too personal to share. It feels like part of who I am, and I get it. Showing those military assholes my Stat Sheet would feel kind of like baring my soul for all to see. As far as forcing us to work for them, Travis we¡¯re like superhero strong now. I doubt they are on our level yet or even close. So, them forcing us to do anything is a joke. Unless they had Treehouse by the neck or something, we could just leave or kill all the leadership and take over the town if we didn¡¯t like what was going on.¡±


    I blinked and thought briefly about what Janet had said, and she was right. We could have totally just done that. It made me realize that part of it was that I didn¡¯t want to get involved in the whole situation. Was that selfish? Yes, but was it my responsibility? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, what was done was done.


    ¡°What¡¯s that you¡¯re holding.¡± Janet¡¯s words pulled me from my thoughts, and I had to think about what she said for a second before I could understand what she was talking about.


    ¡°Oh, this? It¡¯s the Dungeon Coin we got from completing the dungeon that first time. It started humming softly and glowing faintly, so I thought maybe a dungeon was nearby.¡± Janet blinked a few times as if my words took a few moments to register. Then, with a spark in her eyes, she started digging through her bags of holding until she pulled a small coin from one bag with a look of triumph.


    ¡°Found it.¡± She said.


    ¡°Found what?¡±


    ¡°My Dungeon Coin. And you¡¯re right; mine is humming and glowing a bit, too. Cool!¡± I chuckled at Janet¡¯s reaction to the coin and returned to look over the small two-inch coin in my hands. The coin was covered in intricate scenes of battle on one side, but as I flipped the coin over to the back, I noticed that it had changed from something decorative to something more practical. There were concentric circles getting smaller and smaller as they approached the center of the coin. The outer ring, however, now had a softly glowing light on one side of the coin, almost as if it was pointing in that direction. Sure enough, as I swiveled my hips, the faint light moved to remain pointing in the same direction wherever I turned.


    ¡°You see the side of the coin with the rings on it. You think...,¡± but I didn¡¯t get to finish my thought before Janet jumped in.


    ¡°They¡¯re pointing towards the dungeon like a dungeon map quest. Come on, let¡¯s go check it out.¡± Janet said, and she threw all the snack stuff back in her bag and started heading out.


    ¡°Hey, wait for me,¡± I called after her.


    ¡°Well, hurry up. Come on.¡± She called back to me. I just shook my head and ran after her.


    Janet¡¯s enthusiasm lasted only so long, and when we had been traveling what felt like east for about three hours, only one more ring had lit up, and Janet was losing steam. I wasn¡¯t as disappointed as Janet, but the dungeon was farther away than I thought. The range of these little coins was great. I ended up having to convince Janet to keep going. She was starting to get over the whole dungeon hunt thing. After the first full day of traveling, the coin was still only halfway lit up. We had covered a lot of terrain as well. It wasn¡¯t like we had walked a few miles and got tired. No, we had covered at least a hundred miles, and I¡¯m pretty sure we had already crossed the state line.


    It was dinner time, and we were relaxing under a tall tree at the edge of a vast plane. Unlike Janet, I had been getting increasingly excited as we approached this dungeon. While Janet was setting up dinner, I had been looking at the Dungeon Coin again. There were seven rings on the back side of the coin, and we had lit up four so far. Janet called me over because dinner was ready, and I should come and get it before it got cold. I gripped the Dungeon Coin tightly before I tucked it into one of my bags and got up to join Janet when the world exploded, and I was flying through the air.


    At one point in my flight, I¡¯m pretty sure I saw a piece of cheesecake keeping pace with me before I landed in a heap on the ground. Then, yep, it had definitely been a piece of cheesecake. How did I know, you ask? Good question. A moment after I hit the ground, the cheesecake I saw in the air landed right on my face.


    I had to close my eyes and sit there for a moment. I couldn¡¯t help but stick my tongue out and taste the cheesecake. It had raspberry sauce. Fuck that was my favorite dessert we had in the bags, and we only had four of those cakes left. I was pissed off now.

 Book 2 Chapter 4 - Claws out

    Chapter 4


    Claws out


    I shot to my feet, filled with rage, and yelled out,


    ¡°Who the fuck wants some? You motherfucker!¡± I stood there, sticking a pose and breathing heavily. I looked around and found Janet already fighting a group of what looked like huge armored mole tiger creatures. Janet heard my pronouncement and separated from the mole tiger she was engaged with just long enough to yell back at me.


    ¡°Great, Travis, fucking help time now.¡± Then she jumped back into the fight.


    Janet must have already activated I¡¯m so strong because she was talking like a cavewoman again. Then I realized I was just standing there, lost in my contemplations, and charged at the enemy. These fucking creatures were tough as hell. Their chitinous outer shell was impossibly hard to puncture. The creatures must have had echolocation or sonar of some kind because it always felt like they could see me coming, even if I attacked them from a blind spot. Swinging around with a swipe of heavy claws or a whip of the tail. It was infuriating and troubling to some extent. How long could we keep this pace up?


    We were two minutes into the fight, and at that point, we had only taken down one of the four creatures, mostly by luck. Janet had been holding back one mole tiger. I still hadn¡¯t had time to properly identify them, so it was still mole tigers for now. As Janet broke free of her engagement, she swung her axe back to attack when it got lodged in the brain of a mole tiger trying to sneak up on her from behind. Janet¡¯s axe entered the creature¡¯s brain via the roof of its mouth, and the whole experience took Janet thoroughly by surprise.


    Janet was defensively holding back two of the creatures as it stood while I gave the other everything I had to kill it as fast as possible. I barrel-rolled to the left while lying on the ground after taking a claw-filled paw to the chest that knocked me down. At the very least, I had rolled to doge a follow-up strike that would have given me a terrible headache. Before I had been forced to roll my ass out of there, I had seen what looked like a soft piece of flesh at the base of the creature¡¯s neck, where several of its plates came together.


    I got back to my feet, dodging another two paw swipes as I did. Teremnocal sparking as it danced and clashed with massive claws. I finally got some distance from the creature and tried to plan my next move and how I was going to land a strike on that damn weak spot. It wasn¡¯t like it was in an easy place to get to. As the mole tiger ripped towards me, I set my feet and shot forward.


    This is fucking stupid, was all I could think as I ran full speed head-on at a charging SUV-sized mole tiger abomination. As we got closer and closer, I began to sweat. The timing would have to be perfect, and if I messed this up, I would be a sitting duck. We were five feet from each other now, and I could see the greens? Of the creature¡¯s eyes, that was odd. Not the time, slide! Right before I was in striking range, I fell into a baseball slide, tucking one leg behind the other as the head of the enormous creature passed inches over my face.


    I couldn¡¯t miss my window, and as I saw the spot I was looking for, I took a short sword I had pulled from my bag and slammed it up and into the soft flesh at the base of the mole tiger¡¯s neck. The blow was struck in moments, but the creature¡¯s momentum ripped the blade from my hands. I felt a moment of triumph as I looked over my shoulder to see the mole tiger collapse to the ground. Blue blood flooded out quickly, forming a large puddle around the creature. I only had a moment to revel in my victory before I heard Janet scream.


    Janet¡¯s scream ripped through the night. I turned to run over and help Janet, but as I did, I had to dodge a rolling mole tiger headed right at me. It looked like one of the creatures had landed a deep gash on Janet¡¯s arm, and she had lost it, smacking the creatures away from her with all her strength. I think there was an Empowered Strike in there somewhere as well. I flashed over to Janet¡¯s side and quickly checked her over visually.


    Janet looked okay besides her arm, which had a long, deep cut stretching from her lower bicep to about halfway down her forearm. I wasn¡¯t too worried about her, but we would have to finish this soon.


    ¡°Hey Janet, are you good?¡± I asked her between blows. I managed to land a hit in one creature¡¯s face, whacking the mole tiger ten feet back. As our enemy set back up to attack, we got a second to catch our breath. Janet just nodded and gave me a thumbs-up. I smiled back at her devilishly.


    ¡°That¡¯s good because I found their weak spot.¡± Janet looked at me and gave me a malicious grin in return. We made quicker work of the remaining two-mole tigers than I thought and were soon enough again sitting down to enjoy dinner. This time, both of us were more thoroughly exhausted than before. We definitely gained a new appreciation for the watch schedule that we had implemented all those months ago when we headed out in the first place. We both had trouble sleeping that night because the next day, neither of us was in the best of moods.


    I woke up to Janet laying out a quick grab-and-go breakfast. So, I packed the camp up, and we got back on the road. We were both still exhausted from the attack the night before, but Janet had definitely gotten the worst of it. She was healing well from the Senzuketa Bean and Mana Kissedwater smoothies we had, but I could tell it was still bugging her. I knew from experience that those smoothies didn¡¯t help the itch much.


    We were still on the hunt for this dungeon, but after last night, the fact that we had still only lit up four of the seven rings on the Dungeon Coin was demoralizing. We needed a break from the endless slog of life on the road. I was already missing my bed in Treehouse and the shower. Oh my god, the shower. If I could just take one more shower there right now, I would just stand there and let the warm water wash over me for hours.


    I had been lost in my daydreams about a hot shower when I felt something smack into the side of my head.


    ¡°Ow, hey, what the fuck was that for,¡± I asked Janet. I had stopped running and had started picking dirt out of my ear. I knew Janet had thrown the dirt clod at me because she had another one in her hand and was getting ready to throw it at me.


    ¡°Watch it!¡± I told her as I dodged the second one, ready for it this time.


    ¡°Dick head, I have been calling your name for the last five minutes, but you were off in la la land thinking about who knows what. Pay the fuck attention. Did you forget about last night already?¡± Janet, I could tell, was actually a little bit pissed off at me, and she was right. I wasn¡¯t paying attention, and if we got attacked by creatures at or around the same level as the mole tiger last night, every second would count.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡°You¡¯re right. I was being stupid and daydreaming about hot showers. I¡¯m so sorry, Janet. I was being a fucking dumbass, I know.¡± Janet went quiet at my words, and I thought I was about to really get it. Then she started laughing, like bent over at the waist, grabbing her belly, and laughing. I began to feel a little embarrassed.


    Janet laughed like that for a good five minutes. She would manage to get her laughter under control, and then she would look at me and start laughing all over again. It was funny for a while, but I was getting annoyed. It wasn¡¯t that funny. Once the giggles were truly gone from Janet¡¯s system, we got back on the road, and whether I ended up slightly annoyed or not, the mood seemed to be lifted somewhat, and the rest of that day was much better after that.


    We ended the day under a large rock overhang that hid our fire quite well. The day had been boring but pleasant. Janet and I joked and laughed the rest of the day and made up games. One game we made up was hitting a large rock with a small rock. Another was throw the rock over the edge of the cliff. Honestly, most of our games involved rocks and throwing them at something, but they were still fun, and they passed the time well. The most important part of the whole day was that we managed to light up two more rings on the Dungeon Coin, and with only one ring left to light up, we knew we were close.


    Once morning hit, it was hard for Janet to even get me to eat breakfast. I knew the dungeon was close, and I couldn¡¯t wait to see what we would find. In the end, I ate two donuts and a puff pastry thing with cinnamon and brown sugar, basically a cinnamon roll, but not as doughy. They had become popular in Treehouse, and I was definitely a fan of them. Then, we were back on the road. Janet¡¯s arm had healed almost entirely by now. All that was left was a thin pink line running down her arm where she¡¯d been cut, and it had definitely left her in a better mood. We were ready for a dungeon.


    The whole thing pulsed with a soft blue light when the last ring lit up on the Dungeon Coin. Then, every ball of light on each ring started spinning around in circles faster and faster. It was only a few seconds before every light stopped and was left pointing in the same direction. Finally, the ball of light on the ring closest to the coin¡¯s edge began to glow slightly brighter. My eagerness to find this dungeon was building and building, and I couldn¡¯t wait to get there now.


    We were definitely getting close, that was certain, but It was getting fucking annoying. Once every ring had lit up, we figured we must have been relatively close to the dungeon, but pinpointing the dam thing was so tedious. We would run for an hour in one direction only to overshoot our target, then have to change directions and re-align with the dungeon. It was infuriating. I ended up just running with the dam Dungeon Coin in my hand, watching the little lights like a hawk. That worked out much better, and I kicked myself for not doing that in the first place. When we had five of the seven balls of light shining brighter, we knew we must be nearing the dungeon. We were closer than ever now and even Janet¡¯s sense of adventure was kicking back into full gear.


    We were walking at an average pre-integration speed at the moment so as not to overshoot our target again. Maybe we were being over cautious, but after the day we had, it was worth it. We had been walking for about thirty minutes and had found ourselves on a dirt road after a while. I couldn¡¯t remember exactly where the dirt road had started, but we were on it now. I was more than happy to take the road well-traveled than to keep bush-waking our way through the world. It was fun to pick a direction and just go, but roads existed for a reason. It made travel much more convenient.


    We had been walking on the road for only about ten minutes when the next light on our Dungeon Coins lit up. Janet and I looked at each other equally excitedly at the potential gold mine we were so close to now. We were so caught up in our excitement, in fact, that we emerged in the middle of the road right before the road forked.


    ¡°Oh shit, what the fuck is that,¡± I said. Looking at the sign and the fork in the road.¡±


    ¡°Um, I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s a sign that directs users of this road which way to go to reach their destination,¡± Janet responded. I could hear the laughter in her voice as she said it, too.


    ¡°Ha ha, very funny. Yes, that is how signs work, but I mean, why is it here, of all places? In the middle of nowhere. It¡¯s just odd, that¡¯s all.¡± I said, and Janet rolled her eyes.


    ¡°Well, what does it say? The sign, I mean.¡± Janet answered her own question by walking up to the sign and reading the names off allowed.


    ¡°Okay, this one says, Coliseum 80 miles, and the other one says, oh shit.¡± Janets didn¡¯t finish reading the sign and just started laughing.


    ¡°What does it say,¡± I asked. I couldn¡¯t get Janet to stop laughing for a few seconds. When she finally got a hold of herself, she just pointed to the sign. I looked up at the signs, and sure enough, one said, Coliseum 80 miles. Then I looked at the other sign because there were only two signs on the post, and it said, bum fuck nowhere, 80 miles. I understood now why Janet had thought it was so funny. The person who made the signs clearly meant it as a joke. Go to the Coliseum cuz there ait shit else out here. I let out a few chuckles, then turned to Janet.


    ¡°I get it. Okay, that¡¯s pretty funny. Looks like someone has a sense of humor.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that was a dad joke for sure, but it still got me.¡±


    ¡°yeah, whoever wrote this was a dad for sure,¡± I told Janet, and we both chuckled at that.


    ¡°So what do you want to do now?¡± Janet asked me


    ¡°Do now? What do you mean? We¡¯re still going to the dungeon, right?¡± I asked Janet.


    ¡°I mean, that¡¯s totally still a thing we could do, or we could just say fuck the dungeon and head for the coliseum?¡± Janet offered. I was about to tell her fuck that when I actually thought about what Janet had said. We could just blow off the dungeon for now and check out the coliseum. Hell, it wasn¡¯t like the dungeon was going anywhere. My only reservation was that we had come all this way and tracked for miles just to find this dungeon, and now, when we were so close, we were just going to say fuck it. That was hard for me. I had my mind set on finding and completing another dungeon.


    ¡°I mean, we¡¯ve come this far to find the dungeon. Do you at least want to find it? Then we can decide whether to go to this coliseum or run the dungeon. Either way, I want to find this dungeon at some point.¡±


    ¡°Well, duh, of cores were gonna find and run the dungeon. That¡¯s not part of the question. I¡¯m just wondering which one you want to do first.¡±


    ¡°Oh well, in that case, I don¡¯t really care. Either way works for me. Actually, would you mind if we just found this dungeon first? We don¡¯t have to run it right away. I just want to check it out. We might not even be at a high enough level for it, anyway.¡±


    ¡°Sure, that sounds like a plan to me,¡± Janet said. She didn¡¯t seem entirely happy about my decision, but she still smiled warmly as she took me by the arm. Then we were back on the road, heading towards the dungeon.


    As we moved through the land, the plains began to change to a more mountainous terrain. The large expanse of prairie slowly became filled in by a sparse amount of trees, bushes, and rocks thrusting through the ground as if large fish cresting the surface of a grassy sea. The wind whipped around us, throwing Janet¡¯s hair into the air like flippant snakes dancing in the wind. The sky was a soft eggshell blue, and the world, other than the whistling wind, was quiet and peaceful.


    After an hour of travel, the prairie had disappeared entirely. Trees were now abundant, and huge rocks had been torn from the earth by centuries of tectonic shift. We stopped at one point to have lunch because the view was too striking to ignore. We had been making our way over a small mountain or a very large hill when we broke through a patch of brush to find ourselves standing before a dramatic drop-off that opened onto a majestic valley. The dungeon was close now. I swear I could feel it in the air.

 Book 2 Chapter 5 - The Icoanmenti

    Chapter 5


    The Icoanmenti


    At that moment, we decided to break for lunch, and we spent the better part of three hours just sitting and watching the world pass us by below. I knew we could have made it to the dungeon that day if we hadn¡¯t stopped for so long, but I think we both needed the break. I couldn¡¯t think of a nicer way to spend an afternoon. Then, the bottom dropped out of my stomach.


    I had been looking around at the trees, enjoying the variety of plant life around me, when I spotted something about twenty feet up in a tree. I focused a bit to see if I could make out what it was. Then we met eyes and realized we were being watched. The person or creature in the tree realized they had been spotted, and they began to run for it. They dropped out of the tree so fast I thought the person had fallen for a second, and then they hit the ground and took off.


    ¡°Fuck.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Janet asked. She had been sunbathing with her eyes closed, lying back and enjoying the warm sun on her face.


    ¡°I just saw someone watching us, but when I noticed they were, they took off in that direction,¡± I told her, pointing in the direction the being had run off. Janet opened her eyes and shot up into a seated position. Janet turned and looked at me after scoping out our surroundings for herself.


    ¡°Were? Did you get a good look at them?¡±


    ¡°All I saw was its eyes, and then it saw me. The next thing I saw was a bunch of movement. The thing must have dropped out of the tree it was in and then taken off.¡± Janet looked like she was thinking as she turned back towards the forest and started eyeballing trees.


    ¡°Well, what should we do about it?¡± Janet asked, looking concerned.


    ¡°I¡¯m honestly not sure. As I see it, we have three choices. First, we try to chase that thing down and find out what it is and what it wants. Option two, we climb a tree, wait to see if they return, and then go from there. Then there¡¯s option three. Which might be my favorite. We say fuck it, and we just keep doing what we were doing, trying to find this dungeon. Thoughts?¡± I asked Janet when I was done with my thoughts on the situation.


    ¡°Well fuck. You¡¯ve got a point. The fuking thing or person or whatever already took off. We might be able to catch up, but I think you¡¯re right. Option two or three seem good to me. Why don¡¯t we do the tree thing for about an hour? If no one comes back, we¡¯ll just head for the dungeon. If they do come looking for us, though. I say we jump them and find out why they were spying on us. I thought about what Janet had said, and I didn¡¯t have much faith that waiting only an hour would yield results, but I didn¡¯t mind wasting an hour or two. With the plan decided, we spread out to find good trees to hide in.


    We had been sitting in the trees for forty minutes, and I had settled in and was enjoying my time up in the trees. If I was honest with myself, I didn¡¯t see anything coming from this stakeout, but Janet had wanted to give it a shot, so here we were waiting. I was waiting for the timer to run out, and then we could get our search for this dungeon back underway. Ten more minutes passed without incident, but when I was five minutes away from calling it, something happened.


    I had been lying back in a sweet nest of branches about fifty feet up in a tree on the cusps of falling asleep when I felt a small rock or maybe acorn hit me in the side of the head. I hurt a bit when it hit, too, so I instantly assumed Janet had seen me falling asleep and was trying to wake me up. I turned and looked over at Janet with a what the fuck expression on my face till I met her eyes and saw her pointing down at the ground beneath us. I followed the path of her finger and low and beheld. There was what looked like a hunting party of five people, beings, or sentences, maybe? That might have been a better word. I didn¡¯t really know, but they were walking in a tight line below us. It seemed like they were quietly trying to sneak up on our old location. Let¡¯s just say they didn¡¯t look too friendly.


    We sat in our trees as quietly as possible so as not to alert the hunters below. I thought we were in the clear and we would just get to observe these guys for a while, but as they walked past the trunk of the tree I had climbed, the hunter in the lead noticed something it didn¡¯t like on the trunk. I saw it lean in to get a better look, and then I saw it lick something off the tree trunk. I watched the hunter do all this. It was rather interesting, and I wanted to see what the hunter would do next.


    I watched the hunter sniff the tree and then lick it before its eyes opened wide. Then, the hunter looked straight up into the tree and directly at me.


    ¡°Fuck.¡±


    They had fucking seen us. Shit! Were they really that good at fucking tracking? They had fucking seen me. Well, only one thing to do now, I thought, and I let go of the tree. As I dropped, I pulled my Teremnocal from my bag. However, before I hit the ground, the group of hunters scattered. Every hunter moved about ten feet from where I would land, put an arrow on the string, and dew their bow back, ready to fire. I saw all this happening as I fell, and the only word that would come to mind was, fuck.


    As I landed, the hunter¡¯s arrows began to glow. As they held their shot, the glow intensified, and I could feel the Mana moving and gathering around the arrows. This was bad. If I didn¡¯t do something fast, this was going to hurt. There came a brief moment of hesitation between me and the groups of hunters before we both knew the shit would go down. I let a breath out slowly, about to move, when Janet stepped out of the shadows. She had a dagger in her hand, and she moved fast. She had seen that moment of calm before the fight began in earnest and had acted.


    ___________________________


    Travis, you fucking moron. I thought as I watched Travis just sit there as he was about to be spotted by the hunting group. I groaned internally and quickly began to make my descent out of the tree as swiftly and quietly as I could. I had made it to the ground and was about thirty feet from the hunting group and the tree Travis was still sitting in like a dumb ass. At least move to the other side of the tree, Travis. God! He was just sitting there watching them.


    Why do I have to save his ass every time? Damn it. Well, if Travis can do anything well, it¡¯s making a good diversion. I moved. Travis was falling out of the tree and was going to land right in the middle of the damn group of hunters. Why did he always have to deal with everything so head-on? I guess that is part of why I love him. The fucking nut job. No, it wasn¡¯t the time, though. I still had to save his ass.


    The group had spread out, and Travis had landed right in the middle of them. Every hunter had drawn their bow and hard an arrow on the string, ready to lose. Then the arrows got all magical. I had been moving closer to the group, and Travis had the whole time staying in the shadows. I was close now, and things had gotten tense. Travis had recovered from his landing and now was my chance. If I waited any longer, this situation could turn into a blood bath. I have to do something. I considered my options and then acted.


    The atmosphere between the two groups had reached a point where the combatants were measuring each other up. I moved from the shadows. I stepped out and, in one fluid motion, grabbed a hunter by the neck from behind and put my dagger up to the hunter¡¯s throat.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Put down your weapons, now!¡± Half the hunters swiveled their bows to point at me while the other half remained on Travis, hands pulsing with Mana of his own. No one moved a muscle for almost ten seconds before one of the hunters stepped forward and spoke. All that I was thinking was this should be good.


    _________________________


    Oh my god, Janet was amazing. We were still not in the greatest position, but it was definitely an upgrade from a moment ago when I thought I was about to have to pull out all the stops. We were all in a stalemate now, and I wasn¡¯t sure where we would go from there. Then, one of the hunters lowered their bow, stepped forward from the group, and spoke.


    ¡°Please lower your weapons, hunters of the night, fallen one. We have no quarrels with you and yours.¡±  I powered down my ready and waiting Mana-infused fists, and as I did, the hunters lowered their bows, and the magical glow that subsumed their arrows¡¯ tips died away. Janet was the last to release her hostage, and when she did so, she made a sound of annoyance before pushing the hunter toward his fellows. Her dagger then popped away back into her bag of holding.¡±


    Once everyone had calmed down a bit, an awkward silence filled the air between our two groups.


    ¡°So¡­¡± I started before I was cut off.


    ¡°what are your intentions on our land?¡± The hunter who had spoken before asked. I was a little annoyed the dude had cut me off. I just shook it off and made to answer the hunter when I was cut off again. This time, it was Janet.


    ¡°We were here¡­¡± I had started.


    ¡°We were just passing through the area. We were traveling and didn¡¯t know we were trespassing. That¡¯s our bad, but if you want us to leave, that¡¯s fine. There¡¯s just something to the northeast we are intent on finding. If it is on your land, maybe we can work something out, like some compensation?¡± The hunter looked amenable to Janet¡¯s words, but Janet spoke again before he could say anything.


    ¡°Great. It looks like we might be able to come to an agreement.¡± Then Janet looked over at me and said, ¡°Hey Travis, go suck his dick.¡± That was it. I had been cut off twice now, and it was pissing me off, and now this. Janet was asking for it. She knew it, too. As shown by the shit-eating grin slapped across her face. The hunter looked confused by Janet¡¯s words at first. Then the hunter¡¯s eyes danced between Janet and me till a glint of recognition flashed in its eyes. Then, the hunters burst out with laughter. The hunter¡¯s people even seemed confused by their leader¡¯s outbursts.


    It took a minute or so, but the hunter eventually started to calm down, and a fat smile was left on the lead hunter¡¯s face. It got a question or two from its fellow hunters in a language I didn¡¯t understand. Then, answered in that same language, and shortly after, every hunter was chuckling. One hunter even started undoing their belt before stopping and laughing harder than ever. They obviously got the joke, and that didn¡¯t help my mood. Janet seemed to be loving the reaction of our new friends just as much as they thought what she had said was hilarious.


    After a while, even I started chuckling. It was a good one, and Janet had gotten me pretty good, I had to admit, and the atmosphere was definitely lighter. The leader of the hunters whipped a fucking tear from its eyes, yeah, a fucking tear, and then let out a breath and spoke again.


    That was funny. Promising for another that they would perform a sexual act that would disgrace them to avoid violence. That was a good one, indeed. I see your partner would rather die than be disgraced in battle. I can see it in his eyes. Death follows these two.¡± He had said the last bit to the rest of the hunters. Many had nodded in understanding. Turning its attention back to Janet and I. The leader of the hunters smiled. You said you are traveling? Would you like to stay in our village for the night? You may regale us with tails of your heroics as we shall do the same. You are the people of Earth, are you not? I am Colismo, leader of the Icoamenti hunters. Come, let us return to the village. Will you join us?¡±


    The Icoamenti, Colismo, stuck his eight-fingered hand out, and I assumed it meant for me to shake to show our comradery. Looked over at Janet. She was closer to Colismo, and I gave her a shrug as if saying fuck it, right? Janet rolled her eyes at me, then turned back to look at Colismo and stuck out her hand.


    ¡°Sounds good to me. Just don¡¯t try to stab us in the back, or we¡¯ll stab you in the face,¡± Janet said, clasping the hunter¡¯s wrist. The Icoamenti let out a bark of laughter, smiled, then reached forward and placed a hand on Janet¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°You have the heart of an Icoamenti. I think we will be fast friends. The hunter said, and Janet could only agree.


    We spent the next hour following the Icoamenti back to their village. The Icoamenti were an interesting race of people. They stood, on average, about six foot five inches tall. They all had eight fingers on each hand, and I hadn¡¯t seen their feet yet, but I was assuming they had a similar number of toes. Their skin was a soft green with blotches of brown here and there, as if they had vitiligo, but it looked more like a form of natural camouflage to me. Their most distinguishing feature out of everything, however, was their heads. The Incoamenti had heads that looked similar to humans, just elongated.


    The Icoamenti were pioneers of Earth but were nothing like the Ectovizzors. They looked to be a well-equipped and strong people, and they didn¡¯t seem nearly as violent or as stupid as the Ectovizzors. From what I had seen so far, for all I know, they could just be leading us to a big cooking pot, and we would go from staying for dinner to being dinner. Fuck it, we would just have to wait and see. It felt like we were getting close to the village at that point. Sure enough, as we topped the small mountain we had been hiking up, below us sat a good-sized village with many Incoamenti actively moving about came into view below us. As we looked down upon the village, Colismo flung his arms open wide and said,


    ¡°Welcome to the village of Ivarne!¡±


    We spent the next ten minutes making our way down the back side of the small mountain, and before we knew it, we were standing at the gates of the village of Ivarne.


    The village was quaint, and the villagers¡¯ homes were nothing special. However, it turned out that we earthlings got a heavy discount on items from the shops compared to pioneers. Apparently, it had something to do with balance or some shit. I didn¡¯t know this when I first walked into the village, so I was surprised by the simple homes and lack of amenities the Icoamenti had. The people of the village didn¡¯t seem to mind, however, as most people had smiles on their faces as they went about their day.


    That is, until the villagers saw us. Most of the Icoamenti people watched Janet and I with concerned looks, unsure what to make of us. I¡¯m sure not many of them had seen a human, let alone met one. I took a second to look around and take in the people of the village. As I looked around, I saw people or Icoanmenti, I guess, living their lives. Icoanmenti were walking and talking together. Children were playing and running around as mothers and fathers watched on with care in their eyes. They were just like us. It was then I realized these people had probably left everything they had or knew behind to take a chance and try to make it on the frontier.


    That day, I gained a newfound respect for some of these pioneers coming to inhabit our galaxy. At the end of the day, yes, there were bad apples in the bunch, but then there were folks like the Icoanmenti. Not alien was the take me to your leader type. All I¡¯m trying to say is that the world was full of gray areas. Nothing was really black and white. In meeting the Icoanmenti, I felt closer to understanding this world that had been thrust upon us.


    Once the hunters had passed off the bags of holding they had with the meat they had collected on their hunt¡ªoh, and apparently, bags of holding are super common in the galaxy¡ªJanet and I were led into a large meeting room. We talked with the hunters for a while, and they looked to be a mix of males and females. I didn¡¯t know if the Icoanmenti had genders, but it looked like they did.


    I figured almost half the hunters looked to be female. They had what looked like breasts in the same place a human woman would have them. They also wore their hair slightly longer, but that wasn¡¯t exclusive to the women. It was just more common. Some of the male Incoanmenti, I figured, had longer hair as well, so honestly, I gave up on trying to understand and just paid more attention to what was being said.


    Janet was telling the story of the time we fought the fucking Master, and every Incoanmenti seemed to be enthralled with the story. Janet looked like she was loving it. I listened in to see where she was at in the story and almost regretted that I did so immediately.


    ¡°So Travis here was on his last legs. We had all been frozen in place, and our people were dying all around us. Then Travis breaks through the Master¡¯s mental freeze on all of us, and they start going at it. Meanwhile, we were all still frozen, and people were still dying. Then, something happened, and we were all freed. We found out later that Travis had broken the Master¡¯s little controlling orb and that had done it. Once I was free, I started fighting my way over to Travis. It was a good thing I did, too, because the Master had Travis by the throat and was squeezing the life out of his. I saw that the guy was super distracted. So I came up from behind and blam!! I put my fucking axe right through that fuckers head. Your dead bitch. Travis passed out after that, but we won that day.¡±

 Book 2 Chapter 6 - No dungeon for you!

    Chapter 6


    No dungeon for you!


    Janet finished her story, I rolled my eyes, and the Incoanmenti fucking clapped. They actually fucking clapped. Damn it. There will be no living with her now, shit. Unlike me, Colismo loved the story, and once he was done, ugh, clapping, he lifted the large bottle of Torick. The local alcohol. Tasted like peaches, weird but not unpleasant, and filled Janet¡¯s Stein.


    ¡°My, that is quite the tail. It¡¯s only a credit to your strength that you two stand before us. See, I told you, death walks with these two.¡± Then he smacked his own stein on the floor and was then mimicked by the rest of the hunters as they chorused, ¡°Death walks with you,¡± and they all drank. I said fuck it and took a large swig out of my own stein. The booze was delicious, and I would have to try and see if I could get a jug before we left for sure.


    The rest of the night went on like that as the food was brought in. Then there was more booze and a performance of dancers. It was a magical evening, and the Incoanmenti were becoming fast friends. We drank and talked with our new friend late into the night until we were all too drunk to stand or talk anymore. Most of the Incoanmenti at that point had just passed out where they were. Just laying down and knocking out. I don¡¯t even know if I considered trying to find another place to sleep. I was well and truly shit-faced at that point, and I had just passed out.


    The following day, when I woke, I instantly felt slightly panicked. I had just spent the night surrounded by beings I barely knew. They could have robbed me or slit my throat in the night, but they Haden¡¯t. Every bag of holding I had was where they were supposed to be, and there wasn¡¯t a mark on me. I let out a breath of relief and finally looked around to see if anyone else was awake. Sure enough, it looked like the hunters were staring, but as I looked around, it appeared that Colismo had already woken and started his day. Janet was still passed out on the floor. So I decided to let her sleep a little longer, and I walked out of the small house and into the sun.


    The day was warm and sunny, with a soft breeze that almost entirely compensated for the heat, I said almost. Birds chirped in the trees, and animal sounds abounded from the surrounding forests. I took a deep breath in and then let it out. As I did, I closed my eyes, letting the sun hit my face. It was a great feeling. However, a voice pulled me from my sunbathing.


    ¡°Travis! Your awake young human good. What a time we had last night. Already, we are like comrades who have been separated for a long time. Come join me for the morning meal, would you? I let my face drop from its position, pointed at the sun, and turned towards the Incoanmenti.


    ¡°Colismo, good morning, and yes, last night was a good time. I¡¯ll have to have some more of that Torick before we go. That stuff was amazing.¡± Colismo let out a bark of laughter at my words, then clapped me on the shoulder.


    ¡°Then we shall have to give you a bottle before you end your time here. Now come the morning meal awaits.¡±


    ¡°Should I wake Janet? I don¡¯t think she will want to miss out on food.¡± Colismo smiled at my words and then tilted his head.


    ¡°As you will. If I have learned anything in my years, it¡¯s that a hungry wife is an angry wife.¡± He let out a final Bark of laughter, then slapped me on the back.


    ¡°Now go wake your woman, and then let us break our fast together.¡± I laughed at Colismos words as I jogged off to wake up Janet.


    Breakfast was great. Big slabs of wild boar or an animal of a similar type, eggs not from chickens but so good, fresh bread baked that morning, tons of fruit, and even a dish that closely resembled pancakes tasted like them, too. Once breakfast was done, I had the itice full-on, and all I wanted to do was go and find somewhere to pass out again. Colismo had other plans, however. Once we were done eating, Colismo insisted on giving us a grand tour of the village.


    It was an enjoyable tour, and after thirty minutes, the itis started receding. In meeting and talking to all the Incoanmenti, it was, for lack of a better word, ordinary. Being in the village was a nice break from the hectic sprint I felt my life had become since the integration. It was nice to hear about mundane problems for a change. There was no life-ending threat to worry about. No dark cloud hanging over our heads, and fuck, it was really nice.


    Janet and I spent the remainder of the day with the Incoanmenti. We even went out with Colismo and a few other hunters so they could show off their land a bit. By the time five o¡¯clock rolled around, Janet and I had talked and agreed to stay an extra night in the village as they had already offered. We figured we could get off to a better start in the morning, and one more night of stories, food, and booze wasn¡¯t a bad incentive either. So that¡¯s exactly what we did. Colismo was ecstatic that we had decided to remain for another night, and the night carried on much as the previous had.


    Janet and I woke up a bit later than we would have liked the following day, packed up, and gathered our belongings, readying ourselves to leave the village and get back on the road. We hadn¡¯t wanted to create a ruckus with our departure, hence the hour. However, there was Colismo near the gates to the village, with three of his hunters waiting for us. As he saw us make our approach, the Incoanmenti waved us over. Colismo seemed to be in great spirits while the three hunters that were with him had been part of the party last night, and they didn¡¯t look too good. They looked hungover as fuck. They looked how I felt. Like shit, but there were places to be and dungeons to find, so there was no time for that shit. Plus, I had a little smoothie and was right as rain.


    ¡°Good morning Janet, Travis. About to head out then?¡± Colismo asked us. Enthusiasm radiated off the man while the hunters with him visibly flinched at his words. I took pity on the hunters and passed them a flask of healing smoothie while I answered Colismo¡¯s question.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s about that time. We¡¯ve got to keep it moving, and we¡¯re on the hunt today. We relaxed a little, but now it¡¯s time to get back to business.¡± The Incoanmenti nodded as I spoke.


    ¡°That¡¯s too true, my new friends. I remembered you said something about what you were hunting for, maybe on our lands.¡± I nodded, and he continued.


    ¡°If you¡¯ll have us, we shall accompany you and offer help wherever possible.¡± I looked at Janet, thinking about how to answer the man. Janet and I had talked a little about telling the Incoanmenti about the dungeon near their settlement, but we hadn¡¯t agreed yet on what to tell them. While I was thinking, Janet, I think she got bored, or maybe she was just hungover and wanted to get going, but while I was thinking about what to say, she just straight up told them.


    ¡°Fuck honestly, I think we both would appreciate that. Right, Travis? So, here¡¯s the thing. There¡¯s a dungeon located close by, up to the northeast. We¡¯re going to find it.¡± By the time Janet finished talking, Colismo was wide-eyed and almost pulsing with excitement. The rest of the hunters just looked at Janet slack-jawed. They also didn¡¯t look as out of it as they did a second ago. I guess the idea of potential levels and loot could do that to you. Colismo was the first to recover.


    ¡°Ah¡­ um, oh, well then. What are we waiting for? Shall we be off?¡± He said with a glint in his eyes. Janet smiled evilly at the man.


    ¡°Don¡¯t know? You¡¯re ready, old man.¡±  Colismo barked with laughter at Janet¡¯s words, then slapped her on the shoulder, and we were off to find a dungeon, Incoanmenti in toe.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    So there was good news and bad news. The good news, we found the dungeon. It wasn¡¯t as far as I assumed it would have been from the Incoanmenti village. We were probably about ten miles from the village, and the hunters had no qualms accompanying us the entire way. I think the fact we were looking for a dungeon help, but the hunters had told Janet and myself of hunting trips that traveled much further than the dungeon location.


    The dungeon itself had been located about halfway down a shear cliff. We found it in a small cave in the middle of the rock face, and it had been an interesting adventure in its own right, getting up or down to it, depending on your perspective. In the end, I had just empowered my hands and feet with Mana, then pounded out handholds and foot holes all the way up to the dungeon. Once every member of the team was standing in the small cave that was the antechamber of the dungeon, we were all caught up in the spectacle that was the entrance to the dungeon.


    It was an impressive sight to behold, for sure. The first thing that stood out to me was the actual doors to the dungeon. They were large, maybe twelve-foot-tall doors, dark as night. The doors almost felt like black holes pulling the light around us into themselves.  Flanking the double doors on either side were two beautiful female centaurs. They were clad in armor that extended all the way down, covering their equine halves and torsos. The statues were possessed with weapons in hand as well. One held a large spear, while the other was depicted wheedling a huge double-sided axe. They both were up on their hind legs, giving off the appearance they were charging into battle.


    As we all stood there admiring the artistry, we were silent, our eyes too busy to let our brains talk. Except for one of us, that is. After a few moments of taking in the dungeon entrance, Colismo clapped his hands together, surprising all of us, and then turned to look at the rest of the group.


    ¡°What a magnificent place! Well, shall we take a closer look?¡± Colismo asked, gesturing towards the dungeon¡¯s doors. I shook my head because it was still ringing a bit from Colismo¡¯s clap, but then I shrugged and told him, ¡°No time like the present,¡± and we all started walking towards the imposing doors. As we approached the door, an odd realization hit me. Where were the door nobs? The doors had no obvious handles nor anything of the like that I could see. Then, as I looked over the doors, I could make out what looked like an indentation in the door, the size and shape of a human hand.


    This was it. This must have been it. Before I really thought about it, I had reached my hand out and placed it on the door right where the depression was.


    I felt a pulse of Mana, and then a notification filled my vision.


    You have found a Dungeon! Dungeons are creations of Mana and our Mana-rich areas. You may feel a sense of euphoria when you¡¯re close to them, and you may also notice a higher Mana recovery rate while in close proximity to or in a Dungeon.


    Dungeons and the creatures living outside of them don¡¯t mix well, so a safe area naturally occurs outside of a dungeon. This can be larger or smaller, depending on the size and strength of the Dungeon you have found. You have discovered the Dungeon of the Lost Sagittarey Soul. Do you wish to enter?


    That was odd. There was usually a yes/no option when asked if you wanted to enter a dungeon, but then I saw my following notification, and everything made sense.


    You do not meet the level requirements to enter the dungeon of the Lost Sagittarey Soul. Level requirements: level 30-45. Fill your party with one or more members that meet this requirement to do so.


    And there it was, the bad news.


    ¡°Well fuck.¡± I said to nobody in particular. I was just annoyed. We had come all this way, put ourselves through innumerable dangers, all to end up at a dungeon we couldn¡¯t enter. Janet looked at me questioning, and instead of answering her, I merely gestured at the hand-shaped depression in the door. Janet frowned but walked over to the door and placed her hand on the depression. She held her hand there momentarily as her eyes glazed over, and I could tell she was viewing her notifications.


    A moment of silence later, Janet pulled her hand away from the door.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± was all she said.


    ¡°There is a problem in assuming?¡± Colismo asked Janet and me.


    ¡°Yeah, there is. None of us is high enough level to enter the dungeon unless you have a level thirty to forty-five hiding in your back pocket.


    ¡°Aw, I see. The level requirement. If it¡¯s that high, we have found an F-ranked dungeon. Dungeons have grades and rankings. This is a G-grade planet, so this dungeon would be classified as a Grade G, F-rank. Each grades and ranks goes from H to SS but those are extremely rare. your planet could have a Grade G or SS-rank dungeon, but there might only be one on the whole planet.¡± Colismo finished his word, glee filling his expression. I didn¡¯t quite understand Colismo¡¯s excitement, so I asked him about it.


    ¡°We can¡¯t enter. Why does it matter what rank it is?¡±


    ¡°We may not be able to enter the dungeon at the moment, but once we are at a high enough level. This dungeon will become an unimaginable blessing for my people.


    Leveling, recourses, loot, this dungeon will make us strong and give us a better chance of making it here on the frontier. Dungeons are natural resources like ore veins or lumber, but they offer substantially better rewards than anything else in the multiverse. That is if you can survive to calm them.¡±


    ¡°I see. So it¡¯s an opportunity, a resource to be farmed and utilized like any other. It¡¯s just a bit more dangerous than mining or logging.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. Now that we know where the dungeon is, we can gain levels and then come back and truly accelerate my people¡¯s growth to new heights.¡± Colismo explained. It made total sense. Hell, even in video games, dungeons were the same thing. Places to be farmed for levels and to harvest loot. I totally got it.


    ¡°So, should we head back to the village for now? We were planning on running the dungeon once we made it here, but seeing as that¡¯s no longer an option, we need to regroup and figure out our next steps. Would you mind if we spent another night in the village Colismo?¡± Colismo nodded in agreement, letting us know we were more than welcome to stay the night, and we returned to the Incoanmenti village. Once we were back at the village, Colismo pulled Janet and me aside.


    ¡°what¡¯s up, Colismo?¡± I asked the Incoanment. Janet and I waited with the man while the other hunters split off, and he waited till everyone was out of earshot before speaking.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the caution. I trust my people, but there is some information that you should keep to yourself even here in the village. There are things in this multiverse that information brokers would pay a pretty penny for, and I don¡¯t believe you are aware of the potential danger you may find yourself in if you¡¯re not careful.¡± I tilted my head at Colismo¡¯s words, not truly understanding them yet.


    ¡°what do you mean?¡± I asked him


    ¡°Let me put it like this. How did you know there was a dungeon there? I have my suspicions, but I would like to hear from you. If you don¡¯t mind, Travis.¡± I looked at Janet, and she just shrugged, so it was on me to decide whether to tell Colismo the truth. I thought about what to say for a few moments, and Colismo waited patiently as I did so. I finally decided to tell the Incoanmenti the truth.


    ¡°We found a dungeon shortly after the integration, and as a reward for being the first on the planet to clear a dungeon, the three members of our party, me included, received, among other things, a Dungeon Coin.¡± When Colismo heard the words ¡°Dungeon Coin,¡± his face looked like it would break. He smiled so hard and then began to laugh hard. Janet and I watched the Incoanmenti, unaware of what was so funny. We waited for Colismo to get his laughter under control, and it took a while.


    About two minutes later, Colismo calmed down, whipping a few tears from his eyes as he did so.


    ¡°what was so funny?¡± I asked him, honestly curious.


    ¡°Oh my. Oh my. You really stepped in it now. First in world too.¡± Colismo almost started laughing again before he caught himself.


    ¡°Well, my friends, let me just say this first. Don¡¯t tell anyone you have that first in world title, especially any nobility who make it out here. They are usually the ones who take all the first in world titles on newly integrated planets. The fact you stole that right from under their noses is brilliant but extremely foolish, to say the least. You will be targeted relentlessly if they know you have it.


    As for the Dungeon Coins, they are treasured on newly integrated planes in particular.¡± Seeing mine and Janet¡¯s confusion at his words, he sighed and continued explaining.


    ¡°When planets are integrated by the greater system, many things change. With Mana now flooding your planet, changes occur rather quickly at the beginning. Rare resources, natural treasures, dungeons, and even never-before-seen plant life and animals will start to appear. Integration can be a magical and beautiful event to witness, and often, you can find things unique in the multiverse. That is why pioneers flock to the frontier. They are hoping they will get lucky and find a treasure that will change their fate. That is why you must keep these Dungeon Coins hidden and a secret. You will be hunted down if the wrong people know you have these.¡±


    Janet and I were both made a little nervous by Colismos¡¯s words, and it must have shown on our faces because he then added, ¡°Come now, you have a treasure, a true treasure of the integration. Don¡¯t fear. Your two are smart and powerful. For now, be happy with that. Now come, the evening meal awaits us.¡± Colismo, with a smile on his face, clapped us each on the shoulders and steered us off to eat.

 Book 2 Chapter 7 - Big city life

    Chapter 7


    Big city life


    That night was no different from the nights before, and I was starting to pick up on a trend. If we stayed in this village much longer, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d become drunk. We definitely needed to head out tomorrow, but before we left, I needed to ask Colismo some more questions. So before the night got into full swing, I asked Colismo if I could speak with him. He agreed with no hesitation, and we made off to one of the corners of the large room. Seeing the two of us separate from the group, Janet walked over and joined us.


    ¡°Good, you¡¯re here. This will make this simpler. Colismo, I wanted to pull you aside before it got too late and ask you a few questions, if that¡¯s okay.¡±


    ¡°Of course, Travis, what¡¯s on your mind.¡±


    ¡°Well, on our way to the dungeon, before we reached your village, we saw a sign that said something about a coliseum?¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, we¡¯re still heading there tomorrow, right,¡± Janet said eagerly.


    ¡°Ah, the coliseum. Well, one of the coliseums, at least. That would be something to you. A sight to see indeed. The great Coliseum.¡± The way Colismo said the word coliseums didn¡¯t sound like he was a fan.


    ¡°The Slags coliseums. They are legendary throughout the multiverse. Legendary for their violence, lack of mercy and compassion, over-the-top displays of wealth and power, and known to be the start of many true heroes.¡± Colismo said the last bit about heroes with a glint in his eyes as he looked at me and Janet. Then he continued.


    ¡°The coliseums are places of wonder but also horror. With you two, however, you may do very well there. That is, if you can stomach it. I know I can¡¯t, but I do wish you good luck there. The last thing I will say is, watch your backs. At first, the coliseum may appear grand and great, but Wistpoo lay in the grass waiting to strike.¡± I blinked in confusion.


    ¡°A Wistapooin? What the hell is that?¡± Colismo laughed at my confusion before answering me.


    ¡°Oh yes, I forget myself. You would not know of the Wistpoo. They are small, soft-bodied creatures with many long, slimy tentacles living in the mashes of my home world. They are small but powerful. They leap from the water onto your face, and then it¡¯s over. They then inject their poison and eggs into you. It¡¯s an extremely painful and lengthy death. Quite awful, honestly.¡± Then he laughed again at our stunned faces. I asked him a few other questions, but we got back to everyone shortly, and the night truly got started.


    I was awakened the following day by the morning sun hitting my face. I opened my eyes, squinting and blinking rapidly at the painfully bright light that had invaded my pleasant dreams. I realized I was outside as I sat up and shaded my eyes with my hand. The meeting slash feasting room we had slept in during our time in the village was to my right, and I was sitting there in the middle of the street. Oh, I was also half-naked too. It was the upper half of my body, thank fuck, but I was still getting odd looks from the locals as they went about their morning routine.


    Honestly, I had no idea how I had gotten there, but I couldn¡¯t just sit here in the middle of the road any longer, so I tried to stand up. Oh, wow, that was a bad idea. I stumbled as I tried to stand, took a few steps over to the side of the meeting house, and promptly threw up. I think I stayed there throwing up for at least ten minutes. At one point, I projectile vomited, and I swear it traveled over five feet through the air. A few times, shivers ripped through me as I vomited. If you couldn¡¯t tell by now, I hated throwing up.


    When I was finally done being sick, I turned away from my mess and was wiping my mouth with my hand when I noticed I was being watched. It was an elderly Incoanmenti I had met a few times in the village. Her name was Micose. I think she was actually related to Colismo in some way. His wife¡¯s mother or something like that, mother-in-law, something? I was trying to remember, but my brain was struggling to work properly.


    ¡°It seems as if last night got the better of you, young hunter,¡± Micose said with a caring smile on her elderly face. I was trying not to start throwing up again, so I couldn¡¯t really answer her at that moment, so I just shrugged. Micose chuckled at my answering shrug.


    ¡°Your companion and most of the village, in fact, are still asleep after last night¡¯s festivities. Your visit has riled up this small, peaceful village quite well, hasn¡¯t it?¡± She chuckled at my silence.


    ¡°Come, I run a small restaurant in the village. I am on my way to open my shop. Follow me, and I believe I can give you something to help with the remnants of the night that still linger within you.¡± Then, before waiting for an answer, the elderly Incoanmenti woman grabbed me by the arm. With more force than I thought the old woman should be able to produce, she led me off. I assumed she was referring to her shop, as she had said.


    Micose led me through the village, and quickly, we were standing before a small restaurant. It was a quaint place. The building was made of wood and had simple yet striking carvings. Small, beautiful animals: little frogs, birds captured in the moment of taking flight, and lizards climbing columns. It was a wonder to take in. There were four small tables out front of the place with umbrellas tied up from the day before.


    I didn¡¯t notice all of this while I was left to stand in front of the building, hungover as fuck. Micose eventually came back and got me after she had opened up the restaurant. She led me inside, where there were more tables, and sat me down at one. I let my head fall onto the table in front of me, and I think I fell asleep until Micose woke me a little later. As I woke, Micose placed a bowl of something on the table next to my head. I tilled my head and looked up at the woman,


    ¡°Eat,¡± she said. So I did. It took me a second, but I downed the whole bowl. Honestly, I didn¡¯t know what the fuck it was, and I couldn¡¯t remember. That time I spent eating at Micose¡¯s restaurant was a blur, but a few minutes after I had finished my bowl, I felt as good as new. It was like a ripple or a shiver passed through my body, and my hangover left with it as it passed through me. As well as my exhaustion and any other toxins that had been in my body. It felt so good. I sighed when it happened, and as my senses came back to me, I heard Micose laughing at me.


    ¡°Sorry, but that was amazing. What was that?  That, that, that was, fuck. Ah, I¡¯m sorry, that was just amazing.¡± I said as I stretched a bit. Micose just continued to chuckle softly for a moment longer before she stopped, yet the smile remained on her face.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, young hunter. That was a restorative soup. The recipe for that dish has been passed down in my family from mother to daughter for many generations. I hope you enjoyed it. I was going to bring a big pot of it over to the hunters who overindulged a bit too heavily last night. Maybe you can lend an old lady a hand. I smiled at the elderly Incoanment woman and stood up. ¡°Of course, after what that soup did for me, it would be my pleasure. Thank you again, Micose, truly.


    Once we made it over to the meeting hall slash dining hall, Micose began handing out bowls to barely-standing hungover hunters. Soon, everyone was much more lively. Janet had made her way out of the building at one point when Micose was handing out soup. She had gotten a bowl, and when she finished the thing, Janet had been so happy not to be hungover anymore that she hugged the older Incoanment woman. Micose looked surprised at the hug but not unhappy, and she was pleased that Janet had enjoyed the meal so much.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    When it was finally time to leave, we said goodbye to all our new friends and headed out. It was actually harder than I thought to leave the village. Maybe it was the Incoanment, or maybe it was just being part of a community again after being gone from Treehouse for so long. I was sad to be leaving, but we knew we would be back, and that helped. We were also headed to the Coliseum today. Colismos¡¯ warnings had made me worry about the place, but my excitement from his description had made me partially forget my worries. I know Janet felt the same way. It was time to see what the coliseum held for us.


    We had made it to the road sign we had seen before, which told us the Coliseum was 80 miles away. I was guessing the direction the sign was pointing in. I took one last look at the direction we had just come from, thanking our Incoanmenti friends one more time in my head before turning and joining Janet on the road towards the coliseum. It was time to see what they were all about. Those signs I had seen on the street corners in the bay area when the world first went to shit came to mind. Gladiatorial combat? This must have been what the message was talking about all that time ago.


    We had been traveling for almost an hour when we saw our first roadside inn. It was a two-story building and must have had only a handful of rooms for travelers to stay in, but the inn had a tavern and a small general store inside. I could see it becoming a small town in a few years, but it was just one building for now. As we passed, a fucking minotaur was tying a large lizard-horse combo-type creature up at a post. The creature even had a satel, so I assumed it was the minotaur¡¯s mount. This world was crazy, but I knew that was just the start of what was to come.


    After that, we started seeing more sentient beings. There were so many different species of sentients that it was a bit overwhelming, and I figured it was the Coliseum. We knew we must be getting close to our destination when we started seeing aliens everywhere. Sure enough, about five minutes later, the Coliseum came into view in the distance. The coliseum was massive, and I could see what looked like a town that had formed around the base of the enormous structure.


    I hadn¡¯t seen a single other human yet besides Janet, and that was a bit unnerving. We were getting more attention than I was comfortable with as well, but as we were sucked into the crowd that was heading for the massive structure in the distance, we were lost to the masses. The travelers seemed more concerned about getting into the city than anything else. Soon, we were walking alongside merchants and other visitors down a wide road that led to large gates that opened onto the city beyond.


    By the time we made it to the gates my neck hurt from constantly being on a swivel. There was just so much to see. I know I must have looked like a country bumkin. Out on his first trip off to the big city, but I kind of was, and part of me couldn¡¯t help it. We hadn¡¯t even entered the city, yet there were so many crazy-looking aliens, some straight out of myths and legends. I swear, while we were waiting in line, I saw a fucking Medusa. Like a real woman with fucking snakes for hair. It was insane, and Janet was just as enthralled with it all as I was.


    As we finally stood before the large, thirty-foot-tall gates that looked as if they were made from obsidian, I was caught off guard by the sheer amount of Mana pulsing from the doors. I could feel Mana roiling through them in waves of power. As we moved up in the line, I studied the doors more and started to make out intricate designs carved into the black stone of the doors. There were loops, lines, and flourishes everywhere over their surfaces. It must have been what held all the Mana in the doors. The inscriptions might have been for a shielding spell or some kind of attack spell. Maybe it was just magic to let them close the doors. Those things were massive and looked heavy as shit, but it felt like so much more than that.


    I was so caught up in the doors that I almost missed the hand coming at my chest. On instinct, I shot my hand out and grabbed the wrist of the hand coming at me.


    The guard to whom the hand belonged was momentarily shocked and stunned by my actions. Then she tried to rip her hand free from my grip, and I let her.


    ¡°What your self. If I wasn¡¯t in a good mood today, I¡¯d have you brought in for questioning for assaulting an officer of the Coliseum.¡± The guard looked me over for a second, taking in my humanity. Then, her eyes lit up as if she finally understood something.


    ¡°Oh, locals. Of course, you wouldn¡¯t know anything. Congratulations on making it to Coliseum City 32808, also known as Eight oh Eight City. Watch your ass while you are here. Cause trouble and will throw you in a cell. The first thing you¡¯ll need to do while you¡¯re here is to get a galactic identity card or G.I.C. It¡¯s the standard form of identifying people in the multiverse. While you¡¯re here, It will also be the most common way to use and store your galactic credits. So get one before it gets too late, or you¡¯ll be sleeping on the street tonight. Now move it. You¡¯re holding up the line.¡± I was then pushed slightly from behind by the masses trying to enter through the gate, and I moved on. I didn¡¯t even get to make a witty comeback to the guard, but we were in the city now, and what a city it was.


    There were galactic pioneers everywhere. We even saw a few humans or what looked like humans in the mix. Shops were everywhere, aliens shouting about goods for sale and low prices. I couldn¡¯t understand half of what was being said around me. I could make out at least ten different languages being spoken within five feet of me. It was intense. Magical shop signs and advertisements were all over, floating above the heads of the passersby beneath them. The town overall looked like it had been erected quickly, but the craftsmanship looked impeccable. Beautifully carved wood and stone adorned every building, and magic was just another part of everyday life for this enthralling city.


    It was then that Janet smacked me in the back of the head, causing several passersby to chuckle as they saw the act.


    ¡°Ow, what? And stop doing that.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have to keep doing it if you kept your brain on this planet. I was talking to you. It¡¯s like you pick when to listen to me.¡±


    ¡°Janet, if anyone picked when I listen to you, it¡¯s you, and it¡¯s usually with some form of physical violence,¡± I said as I rubbed the back of my head dramatically as if It still hurt from her blow. Which wasn¡¯t entirely a joke. She was fucking strong. Janet just rolled her eyes at me and punched me in the arm.


    ¡°Ow, fine, okay, what did you want? And stop hitting me, damn.¡±


    ¡°I was asking if you knew where the fuck we were going? We gotta get one of those G.I.C.s, right? Do you know where we get them? Im not trying to sleep on the street tonight, are you?¡± That was a good point. Janet had a good point, and I had no idea where to get one. I went with honesty as I answered Janet,


    ¡°No idea at all, you?¡± Janet Just rolled her eyes at me and then looked away.


    ¡°Fuck! Well, let¡¯s start asking around, I guess. This is gonna suck.¡±


    Janet was totally right. The next hour fucking sucked. We had to work our way through the crowd. Then, go to the different shops to ask the vendors for directions. We figured they were more likely to help us than some rando on the street. That turned out to be the wrong move. When the shop clerks knew we weren¡¯t interested in buying anything and were just looking for directions, they ignored us. Janet almost hit one guy. I had to pull her away from the shop and back into the street.


    A passerby must have heard me trying to calm Janet down because while I was talking Janet out of going over and punching the guy in the face, a finger tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see what had tapped me and found a tall, slim, dark purple-skinned, humanoid figure. The alien was wearing a suit, of all things. It had slight differences from a traditional earth suit, such as flourishes on the cuffs of the sleeves and on the neck. The entire pattern on the outfit was moving like it was one connected LED display. It was sick, and I wanted one. As I was caught up in the alien dude¡¯s clothes, he cleared his throat to get my attention.


    ¡°Excuse me, sir, but I believe you and your companion are new to 808 City.¡± When he saw my confusion at the name, so he continued.


    ¡°Ah, this city is called 808 City, and I will take that as a yes then? That you are new to 808 City, that is.¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes, we are. How can I help you, my friend?¡±


    ¡°I believe it is me who can help you. I overheard. Please forgive me for my rudeness, but if I¡¯m not wrong, you¡¯re looking to obtain your G.I.C.s, am I correct?¡± My face lit up a bit at that.


    ¡°yeah, we are. Do you think you can point us in the right direction?¡±


    ¡°I actually think I can do you one better. I am headed in that direction now. I can show you where to go if you want to accompany me. Would that be amenable to you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that would be great, but why are you helping us? What¡¯s in it for you?¡±


    ¡°I simply wish to help a newcomer. It will not be much for me to lend you my assistance in this matter, and who knows, maybe one day you will be able to pay me back in some way. Now come, I must be going.¡± The alien started walking off. I looked at Janet, and she shrugged. So I said fuck it, and we ran after the alien before I lost him to the crowd.

 Book 2 Chapter 8-Settling in

    Chapter 8


    Settling in


    We followed the alien for about thirty minutes before he stopped in front of a large, windowless stone building. It had larger columns that shot up three hundred feet to the roof. Each column had a huge flag mounted to it, flapping in the wind. There was a simple marking on each of them. A snake twisted around and biting a rat-like creature in the back of the head. I assumed it was the seal of Eight oh Eight City or something like that.


    ¡°Well, here we are. This is the central administration building of Bravitose City. The office where you can receive your G.I.C.s is on the second floor. Ask for Magda. She will be kind to you, two travelers new to the city, especially if she knows I sent you. I know her well. Tell her Takhona sent you her way.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for your help. I don¡¯t think we would have found this place today without your assistance.¡± Janet said.


    ¡°Yes, thank you. Takhona was it?¡± The alien nodded. ¡°Well, thank you again, Takhona. We really appreciate this. I hope we meet again.¡±


    ¡°Take care, you two, and I hope that Egight, oh Eight City, finds you well. We shall meet again as life wills. I leave you now.¡± The alien turned and disappeared into the crowd.


    ¡°Okay, that was weird, right?¡± Janet asked me as we stood there before the central administration building.


    ¡°Yeah, super weird for sure, but we¡¯re here now. Should we go get these I.D. things?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Yeah, fucking weird, but let¡¯s get this over with. We still needed to find a place to stay for the night, and I doubt we would meet another nice alien such as Takhona. That will just lead us to a great place to stay.¡±


    ¡°This place is crazy. Let¡¯s just get these I.D.s, and maybe the woman Takhona told us to go see can help us find a place. I know we both still have some of that gold from the dungeon runs we did back in the dungeon of the Wondering Howler. That has to be worth something. Come on. Like you said, let¡¯s get this over with. I can¡¯t wait to lie down in a bed. A bed, Janet!¡± I said the last part about the bed as if I was almost drooling at the idea, and I almost really was. Janet just rolled her eyes at me, and we walked into the central administration building together.


    As we walked into the lobby of the central administration building, it was clear this was a place of business. Aliens were moving around, and everyone looked like they had somewhere to be. Clerks sat behind long counters that stretched the length of the walls on either side of the room, with a staircase and what looked like elevators on the back wall. It felt like a bank or the D.M.V., Maybe a mix of the two. We made our way through the crowd to the back of the lobby.


    ¡°Takhona said it was on the second floor. So maybe we just take the stairs?¡± I asked Janet. There was a long line for the elevators, and I really didn¡¯t want to wait in line just to go up one floor. I could see Janet eyeing the line for the elevators before she answered me.


    ¡°Yeah, fuck that im not waiting in that line. Right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, no way. Let go, come on.¡±


    We took one last look at the elevator lines before turning and starting to head up the stairs. The second floor was much quieter than the lobby. It was just a long hallway stretching around the entire floor, with doors that looked like office doors leading off. There was a help desk at the entrance to the floor, and we figured it was a good place to start. We walked over to the desk and stood there.


    A mousy woman was sitting behind the desk, and when I say mousy, I think she was some kind of weremouse or something. She had a tail, whiskers, and two large mouse-like ears, but otherwise, she looked like a Normal human woman. She was busy looking over some paperwork and had either not seen us standing there or was actively ignoring us. After, we stood there for a few minutes, waiting for the woman to look up and acknowledge us. When that still hadn¡¯t happened after those few minutes, I figured it was the ladder, and she was actively ignoring us. I decided we had waited long enough, so I cleared my throat loudly and interrupted her.


    ¡°Excuse me, ma¡¯am?¡± Nothing the woman didn¡¯t even look up. That kind of pissed me off, so I decided to try again.


    ¡°Hello, Excuse me! Ma¡¯am, Hello, ma¡¯am? Excuse me!¡± I think it was the last excuse me that did it. I basically almost yelled it. The woman jumped as if I had startled her, and then she looked over at me as she held a hand to her chest.


    ¡°Young man, you should no better than to startle someone like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.¡± I looked over at Janet and rolled my eyes. We waited for the mousy woman to get herself sorted. Then she looked at us, adjusted her glasses, and asked us what we wanted.


    ¡°Well, what do you want? You¡¯ve made me lose my place on the paperwork I was working on, so what? What do you want?¡± Damn, she was so rude, but I guess I had scared the shit out of her. She really did need to pay more attention to her surroundings, though. I didn¡¯t tell the mousy woman that, of course, I¡¯m not stupid¡­ all the time.


    ¡°We are here to see Magda for our G.I.C.s.¡± The woman rolled her eyes in annoyance.


    ¡°you interrupted me for that? Damn it, the names and room numbers are on the wall over there.¡± We looked behind us, and sure enough, there was Magda¡¯s name on the wall, room number 254B. That was super embarrassing.


    ¡°You see, there she is, Magda, room 254B. Now I have to start all over.¡± She said that last part more to herself, and then she was back in her paperwork and ignoring us all over again. Janet and I walked away from the desk and left the weremouse woman to her work as we headed into the hallway, following arrows on the walls that pointed toward the room we were looking for. Once we were a reasonable distance from the desk, Janet turned to me and said,


    ¡°Wow, that woman was a bitch. I laughed, and then we heard the mousy woman from all the way back at her desk say,


    ¡°I heard that, bitch.¡± Janet and I froze briefly, then started giggling quietly before moving on to find Magda.


    Magda¡¯s office wasn¡¯t too far from the entrance to the second floor, and we found the room quickly. There were large gold numbers on the wall next to every office.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Some had two or three numbers next to the door with a letter accompanying it, like A, B, C. I assumed they were like sub-offices or some shit. When we found Magda¡¯s office, two numbers were on the wall beside her door. Her number had a B next to it. With no better idea of what to do, we opened the door and walked inside.


    The interior of the office was simple. The door opened onto a small waiting room. There were three chairs, plane things made of metal with ugly yellow-green cousins. Two doors led off the room, with the office numbers above them and a window with a clerk sitting behind a desk. The woman behind the window looked up as we entered and waited for us to close the door behind us before speaking.


    ¡°May I help you?¡± the woman asked, curious at our presence.


    ¡°Um, yeah,¡± I said, looking at Janet for support. She just pushed me forward a little. So I turned back to the woman and continued explaining why we were there.


    ¡°We¡¯re here to see Magda. We were told by a mutual friend that we could find her here.¡± A bit of understanding dawned on the receptionist¡¯s face.


    ¡°Well, I can reassure you that you have at least found Miss Magda¡¯s office. She doesn¡¯t have any meetings for the rest of the day, but I believe she planned to leave early today. She should be fine seeing you now, however.¡± By then, Janet and I had walked over to the window and stood before the woman. She passed a book through the window to us.


    ¡°Please sign the visitor¡¯s log. Then I can let you in to see Miss Magda.¡± We signed the book, and the clerk then gestured towards the door to our right.


    ¡°That¡¯s the office you want. Have a good rest of the day now.¡± We had obviously been dismissed, so we walked over to Magdas¡¯s office, opened it, and walked inside.


    Magda¡¯s office was, well, a nice way to put it would be cluttered. There were papers and folders everywhere. Filing cabinet with half of the drawers pulled open. Files shoved in and left poking out. A woman was sitting behind a desk that occupied most of the room. It was a massive old wooden desk that looked as if it weighed a ton. It¡¯s not a metaphorical ton but an actual one, as in two thousand pounds. The woman sitting behind it must have been Magda. She looked caught up in some paperwork but looked up as we entered the room.


    She, just like the receptionist, looked confused at our presence. I was starting to get the feeling this wasn¡¯t the typical way of obtaining a G.I.C.


    ¡°Hi, we¡¯re new to the city, and we were told by a mutual friend, Takhona. You might be able to help us obtain our G.I.C.¡± As I figured, the woman looked utterly confused at my words until I mentioned Takhona.


    ¡°Yeah, sure. You¡¯re in the right place.¡± Magda said in a half-hearted tone. Then under her voice, I heard her say something along the lines of, ¡°Fucking Takhona. I was almost out of here early for once.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but let a small smile creep onto my face. Magda was an alien. She looked like a werefox or foxkin of some kind. Magda looked to be in her mid-thirties and was wearing a business suit of an alien design. Her hair was tied back in a tight bun, and she looked exceptionally well put together. The opposite of her office.


    ¡°What do you need from us?¡± Magda swiveled in her chair, grabbing a few forms from here and there while she spoke.


    ¡°Well¡­ first, you¡¯ll need to fill out these forms, and then once you¡¯re done with that, you put your hand on the Power Stone. Then, we take a blank G.I.C., place it on the stone, and place it on your finished paperwork. Oh, and then you prick your finger and mark the card with blood, and you¡¯re done.¡± She gave us the rundown, and it seemed relatively simple.


    ¡°Here you go,¡± Magda said as she passed us a few forms attached to a clipboard. We thanked her for the forms and started filling them out. It was just basic info like name, place of birth, visa number if not local to the planet, and stuff like that. We finished the paperwork quickly, and the rest of the process was painless. The whole process was over and done within maybe five minutes. Magda looked pleased as well that things had moved right along, and soon, she was pushing us out the door and looking it up behind her as she left for the day. We walked with her until we stood just outside the central administration building.


    ¡°Well, thanks again for all the help, Magda,¡± Janet said as the people on the street rushed past our little group.


    ¡°Yeah, we really owe you and Takhona for all the help,¡± I told her. ¡°


    ¡°Think nothing of it. I¡¯m going to head off now, so take care of yourselves.¡± Magda said, then disappeared into the crowd. We watched her go. Then I turned to Janet.


    ¡°Well, she was nice.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess. It seemed more like she just wanted us out of there so she could go home, and I don¡¯t think we would have gotten anything out of her, let alone our G.I.C. if it wasn¡¯t for you name-dropping Takhona like that.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, that was super clear. Takhona did us a huge favor by telling us to go see her. I feel like we skipped a lot of red tape.¡±


    ¡°Oh, definitely, that¡¯s so real.¡±


    ¡°Honestly, that makes me even more wary of Takhona¡¯s motives. We¡¯ve got to watch out if we ever see that guy again.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a good fucking point, but more important than anything else right now. Where are we going to sleep tonight? It¡¯s starting to get dark, and im not sleeping outside in this place.¡±


    ¡°Shit, we totally should have asked Magda if you knew of somewhere reputable to stay at.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s too late now. Come on, let¡¯s go, Travis. The longer we sit here talking, the later it gets.¡± Janet dragged me into the crowded street, and we were off to look for a place to spend the night.


    Oaky, so that excursion was worse than looking for directions to the central administration building. Mainly because we were fucking lead there but finding a decent place to spend the night that had a room available and was up to Janet¡¯s standers was not fucking easy. The problem wasn¡¯t money. We had the coin. We found out we had a good amount of currency after watching a few transactions go down in some of the inns we visited, trying to find a room for the night.


    We eventually found ourselves in a wealthier-looking district of Eight oh Eight City. There were larger shops with space between them, as well as parks we passed with things like fountains and sculptures. It was definitely for the upper crust. We were actually stopped by a guard when we first entered the district, but Janet put a gold coin into the man¡¯s hand, and he let us through. Janet had just smiled at me after that encounter, telling me,


    ¡°See, money talks were ever you are.¡± I had just rolled my eyes at her, but she was right, and I had to applaud Janet for her quick thinking. Not out loud, Janet didn¡¯t need a bigger ego. Shortly after entering the more affluent district, we finally found an inn that Janet said ¡°would do,¡± we paid for five nights and meals upfront. We¡¯d get two a day, breakfast and dinner. We had paid three gold and were shown to our room. Then we were told that dinner would be brought up at seven o¡¯clock in two hours.


    The room was nice. It actually had three rooms altogether. There was a living room-main room type deal. Then there was the bead room and a bathroom off the bedroom. It was furnished plainly but richly. The main living room space had a couch, a table, two chairs, and what looked like a mini fridge in the corner. It was not much, but everything was extremely comfortable. I nearly fell asleep when I sat on the couch to test it out.


    The bed was equally comfortable and large. It would have been considered a Califonia king if it was preintegration times. Besides two side tables and two lamps, one on each table, the bed was the only thing in the room. The bathroom was the main attraction. There was a giant tub that would fit both Janet and me easily. There was a shower, and attached to the bathroom was a sauna. A fucking sauna. I was so glad we had booked the room for the week, and the first thing Janet and I did was fill the oversized bathtub and jump in.


    The hot water was amazing. It was scouring weeks of dirt away. I had washed myself at the Incoanmentie village, but that was just a bucket of hot water, a rag, and a soap bar. This feeling was incomparable. It was like the hot water worked its way into my bones, restoring me to my very core. That night, we ate our dinner with an atmosphere of exhaustion hanging over us. After we ate, we soaked in the tub a while longer and then went to bed.


    Oh my god, the bed. The mattress was like a cloud, and the sheets felt like a cool breeze grazing my skin on a hot summer day. The comforter kept me at just the right temperature while feeling light as a feather. It was almost a religious experience just getting into that bed, and that night, I slept better than I could remember. I let my thoughts drift as I faded into slumber. Tomorrow, we will really start to explore Eight oh Eight City, and I couldn¡¯t wait.

 Book 2 Chapter 9 - Coliseum!

    Chapter 9


    Coliseum!


    Janet and I both slept in the following day. I was going to blame the bed full on. It was just too damn comfortable. Whenever I thought about getting up, I would make up some excuse for staying in bed for five more minutes. It was only around nine thirty when a knock on the door sounded, and I knew it was probably our breakfast. The last thing I wanted was to eat a cold breakfast. So that was what finally got me out of bed. I walked over to the door in my underwear and cracked the door slightly. I then stuck my head out and looked up and down the hallway. It was empty. So I opened the door more, picked up the food, did one more check to ensure no one would get a good look at me in my undies, then brought the food in and set it on the living room table.


    The meal was served on a metal tray with fancy metal bowls with handles covering the food and keeping it warm. I popped the top of one of the plates, and my eyes lit up with wonder. There was a fucking spread. I started popping tops, and we had it all. We had eggs, bacon, sausages, toast with butter and jam. We also had something that looked like pancakes with whipped cream and berries. It was intense, to say the least. Janet was still asleep, so I returned to the bedroom with a piece of bacon. When I was back in the bedroom and standing next to Janet. I held the bacon under her nose and waved it back and forth.


    First, Janet¡¯s eye twitched, then her lip moved a bit. She took a big sniff, and her eyes opened. Before I could move the bacon or my fingers out of the way, Janet lunged forward and bit the bacon I held in half. I was left stunned, blinking at her for a moment before I dropped the bacon onto Janet¡¯s lap and made a run for the food sitting on the table in the living room. I was going to start eating before Janet ate it all. I think Janet figured out my plan because I heard Janet¡¯s feet pounding the ground behind me a second after I booked it.


    ¡°Travis, I swear if you eat all the bacon, they¡¯re gonna half to call a cleric ¡¯cause im gonna kill you.¡± I laughed and started shoving bacon into my mouth. Janet and I had got into a bit of a wrestling match over the last piece of bacon. Janet finally got it. That was after I licked it, but Janet didn¡¯t care. She said,


    ¡°We make out all the time. You¡¯ll have to try harder than that if you want the last piece of bacon when I¡¯m around.¡± I conceded amicably, and we finished the rest of our breakfast before we got dressed. Janet and I were now washed, clothed, and once again sitting at the table in the living room. Our plates from breakfast were left in the hall for one of the inn workers to pick up. Janet and I started discussing what we would do for the day.


    Janet wanted to go straight to the Coliseum. She was excited to watch some fights, maybe do some betting, and see what was involved with getting in on the action if she wanted to. I just wanted to go out and explore. The city was huge, and sure, the Coliseum was the main attraction, so yeah, I wanted to check it out, but there was just so much to see.


    There were new foods to try, aliens everywhere, and the city was just crawling with life. Janet and I discussed what we wanted to accomplish with the day. Inevitably, as in every conversation with a man and a woman who are romantically entangled, we went with what Janet wanted to do. So to the Coliseum, it was. We packed up our stuff, which wasn¡¯t much. Even in an establishment as lovely as this inn, I still didn¡¯t trust leaving our stuff unattended all day.


    It took us about twenty minutes to make our way to the Coliseum, but it was nice to just saunter along with people, watching as we went. On our way over, I saw a baker and their supplier going at it, a kid snatching a bag of holding of a wealthy-looking alien and running as he was seen, a dog-like creature that looked to be a stray grab a stake of the butcher¡¯s block with the guy wasn¡¯t looking, there was so much going on. And I was loving it. We stopped once on our way to the Coliseum to grab a bit from a street vendor. It was a skewer with some kind of meat on it. I had no idea what it was, but it tasted heavenly.  We each bought two and ate them as we walked the last few blocks to the Coliseum.


    The Coliseum itself was enormous. It fucking blotted out the sun if you were on the wrong side of the fucking thing. It was actually ridiculous. It must have seated a million people. I was exaggerating, but not by that much. As we approached the structure, we noticed that the amount of activity had at least triple that of the rest of the city. There were more shops, restaurants, smithies, poor people, rich people, people in full armor, and people who wore what looked like uniforms emblazoned with the same symbol as on the signs outside the central administration building. A snake twisted around and biting a rat-like creature in the back of the head. I figured those people must be employees of the Coliseum or the city.


    Janet and I made our way to one of the large entryways into the Coliseum and found that next to the opening, there was a window with a clerk sitting at a desk behind it. There was a long line in front of the window, and we figured that was an excellent place to start, so we got in line. The line was moving at an okay pace, but maybe a hundred people were ahead of us. It took twenty minutes till we were one person away from the front of the line. I could now overhear what the person in front of us was saying to the Clerck, but I couldn¡¯t understand a word. They were speaking some alien tongue, and at that moment, I really wished I had bought the ability, Chatty Cathy. It would have been damn helpful right now.A few more minutes passed, and it was our turn. Janet and I stepped up to the window and received a board,


    ¡°what can I do you for?¡± From the clerk. The clerk was a bolding blue humanoid alien with two arms and two legs, dressed in a suit with the usual flourishes that seemed to be so popular in the city by its employees. The really trippy thing about the clerk was the five blue prehensile tails that contently moved around behind him. I was pretty sure he was the proper pronoun in this situation. I figured because of the suit, but I really had no idea. It made me think that I hadn¡¯t really noticed how much someone¡¯s gender helped me define who they were in my mind.


    Janet started to answer the man¡¯s question.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯re new to the city and¡­¡± But she didn¡¯t get to finish her sentence before she was cut off.


    ¡°Okay, kids, listen up ¡¯cause I¡¯m only gonna go through this once. General admission is two silvers or two hundred Galactic Credits. That¡¯s per person, not for the two of you. That¡¯s to watch the shows for the whole day, but if you leave and want to get back in, you¡¯d have to pay again. It¡¯s not a free pass to come and go as you please. Next, we got the different arenas. There are sixteen in total. Eight arenas are on the ground floor, while six are on the second and two on the third. General admission gives you access to the ground floor, and any other floor will cost an additional fee to visit. Food vendors are spread about, and there are bathrooms near each exit. Privet viewing rooms can be obtained, but you¡¯ll have to do that inside. You plan on betting at all?¡±


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The man paused his rapid explanation, waiting for our answer. Janet was ready for that question.


    ¡°Yes, we will, both of us. Are there places to do that inside?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there are, but first, you¡¯ll need a betting ticket.¡± The man¡¯s tails started rummaging through the drawers behind him until they finally passed him something. The man then held up two what looked like paper bracelets. The kind you get at a club with a private party or something else usually involves booze. These, however, had intricate designs printed on them.


    ¡°These are five coppers a piece, or five G.C. They will let you access the betting terminals at each arena in the Coliseum. So, that will be four silver and ten copper, or four hundred and ten G.C. today. How would you like to pay?¡± The clerk looked between Janet and me, holding the two betting tickets up in the air. I looked at the man for a second, still shocked at how down this guy had his introduction to the Coliseum speech. I turned to Janet, and she looked eager as hell, so I  turned back to the clerk.


    ¡°Can you break a gold?¡± And slid five onto the counter.


    ¡°That well within my bounds, sir. I will also need to see your G.I.C., and then you can be on your way.¡±


    I gathered my change and threw it into one of my bags before we walked into the Coliseum. The inside was huge. Arching hallways spread out, and there were large magical signs everywhere. They pointed to vendors that sold food and beverages, there were betting terminals for gambling, and then there were big lit-up boards that listed the schedule of the fights in each arena for the day. Aliens were moving about with purpose, and when a tone chimed throughout the Coliseum, most people started moving toward the arenas when they heard it. I looked over at one of the lit-up boards showing the arena fight times, and sure enough, one line was blinking with its timer at zero.


    Janet excitedly grabbed my arm and jerked me forward. She clearly had made the same connection I had and wanted to see the fight.


    ¡°Come on. It looks like a fight is just about to start. Perfect timing. Come on!¡± And we were off, moving through the crowd towards a sign pointing at the ground-floor arena entrance. It looked like our chosen entrance was closest to Arena #1. It looked like the arenas were placed so that different sections of the stands were in front of different arenas. For example, arena #1 had seven entrances labeled A, AB, A.C., A.D., A.A.A., A.A.B., and A.A.C. The next arena to the right had seven other entrances, and they were labeled B, B.B., BC, B.D., B.B.A., B.B.B., and B.B.C. This was repeated around the entire ground floor of the Coliseum, and it helped spectators find the fight they wanted to see.


    We had seen that fights were taking place in arenas 1, 3, 5, and 6. The atmosphere as we made our way to the Coliseum¡¯s first floor was only rising in excitement until we finally reached the massive open space that held the six ground-floor arenas. The wall of noise that hit us when we made it to the stands was insane. You could feel the sound waves passing through the air, and it was equivalent to being at a rock concert and standing right in that sweep spot where the speaker¡¯s sound waves converged. I could feel it in my chest, which only got my blood pumping faster.


    The fight in Arena 1 had just begun, so Janet and I found seats and settled in to watch. With Janet¡¯s and my improved vision, we could see everything happening in the arena. We were maybe a hundred and fifty feet from the battlefield and about fifty feet up. The fight was just about to start, and both combatants were on opposite sides of the arena. I assumed they were getting some last words of encouragement from a trainer.  A guy who looked like the referee approached each fighter in turn and asked them something. After that, the fighter¡¯s coaches or trainers, I was guessing here, left the arena, and the two combatants readied themselves for the fight to come.


    One of the fighters held a large sword in both hands, a mostly full suit of armor, and a helmet on, while their opponent was dressed like a Shaolin monk and held no weapon. As I looked closer at the guy dressed like a monk, I noticed he wasn¡¯t an alien who looked human. He was an actual human. I turned to look at Janet.


    ¡°That monk guy is a human, right?¡± Janet looked at the man more closely, then her eyes widened.


    ¡°Shit, I think your right. He does look human. You think he¡¯s from Earth?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I was thinking. Should we try to meet with that monk guy after his fight?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m down. Maybe he can also tell us how to get in on the action.¡± I chuckled at Janet¡¯s evident eagerness.


    ¡°Maybe, either way, we should try to find the guy and talk to him. Right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sounds good to me, but come on, the fight¡¯s about to start.¡± The fighters took their place in the arena for the start of the fight, and moments later, the referee lifted his arm and then let it fall, and the fight began.


    The person with the long sword charged as soon as the ref¡¯s arm fell. The monk, however, stayed right where he was, waiting for his opponent to draw near. The sword wielder was fast, and before you could blink, he was several feet away from the monk, sword raised above his head, ready to bring the pain. The monk wasn¡¯t just an arrogant asshole, and as the blade barreled toward him, he moved. The monk moved at the last second, stepping just out of the way of the blade as the wind of its passing ruffled his hair.


    The monk then stepped in and shot out three punches in rapid succession.


    The sword wielder flinched inward from the pain of the stricks but quickly recovered and chopped sideways at the monk. The monk jumped out of range of the sword wielder, and their dance continued. The sword wielder was on the back foot for the rest of the fight. The sword wielder was just too slow. Every time the dude would line up a strick, the monk was gone before the strike could land. The real fun began when they started using abilities.


    The first obvious ability usage was from the sword wielder. The monk had retreated from a series of blows from the sword wielder, and it looked like he was preparing for his counterattack. When, out of nowhere, the sword wielder shot forward with a momentary burst of speed. The sword wielder, still busted by speed and a now glowing red and flaming sword, released a far faster strike at the monk than any other time in the fight.


    The monk¡¯s eyes shot open in shock as the attack approached him. I could tell he hadn¡¯t expected that. As the sword fell towards the monk¡¯s neck. The monk activated an ability of his own. It must have been a movement ability, and one second, the monk was in dire straits. The next, he was next to the sword wielder chopping down at the back of his opponent¡¯s neck. The strike only took a second, but once the blow was struck, the sword wielder dropped to the ground, knocked out cold.


    I was in awe. The fight was fantastic, short, but incredible nonetheless. I had been watching the sword wielder get carted off, so when I looked back at the monk and saw the healers working on him, I was left asking why. I¡¯d thought the monk hadn¡¯t taken a hit, but as I watched the healer¡¯s work, I saw that the monk had actually been wounded. The monk had gotten his arm sliced open from his shoulder down to his elbow. It didn¡¯t look too deep, but even from where Janet and I were sitting, I could see red vanes-like marks on either side of the wound radiating out.


    I knew what that was. I had a lot of experience with being infused with elemental Mana. The sword was like the light cutlass. A blow would infuse you with elemental Mana, causing continuous harm even after the attack was dealt. All I could think about as I watched them heal the monk was, well, it looked like I might be able to get some good resistance training in while we¡¯re here. My eyes were dancing now. This was exactly what I needed. I looked over at Janet, and she looked at me. We both had matching ear-to-ear grins. I knew what Janet was thinking, the same thing I was. Where do we sign up?

 Book 2 Chapter 10 - The Luxurious and the Shitty

    Chapter 10


    The Luxurious and the Shitty


    Janet and I were like kids in a candy store running around the Coliseum. We were placing bets on fights we weren¡¯t even watching with no idea who the competitors were. Oh, and fuck the odds. We didn¡¯t even pay attention to them. We Just bet on competitors whose names we liked. It was one of my favorite days since the integration, hands down. We watched match after match and spent literally the entire day at the Coliseum. The matches themselves were so enticing. The announcers really hyped up the crowd, too. I couldn¡¯t understand a word they were saying, but the vibe and tone of voice the announcers used would get you going alone.


    One fight Janet and I watched was between two magic classes, which was a sight. The fight had started, and shit went from zero to a hundred in an instant. When the referee raised her hand in the air, she had to get out of the way fast because as soon as she said,


    ¡°Fight¡± magical shields had sprung to life around each combatant, and the spells began to fly. That match had been hard to follow. It wasn¡¯t like the monks and the large sword-wielders fight. It was almost a battle of attrition. I don¡¯t know what high-level magic duels were like, but as for the ground floor, it turned out to be whose shield would last the longest. They honestly weren¡¯t as exciting as the weapon users.


    There was some cool magic thrown around, don¡¯t get me wrong. It just seemed like they couldn¡¯t do anything flashy enough to get the crowd going at the level most of these fighters were at. There wasn¡¯t much behind each spell. Let me. Put it this way, if I were to fight one of them, I would just dance around with Step Lightly, darting in and out till I smashed throw the mage¡¯s shield, and then they would be fucked.


    It was about four o¡¯clock when things started to slow down. The fight stopped, but we were told they would begin again at eight. Most of the vendors shut down until then, and we didn¡¯t want to wait around or pay two hundred to get back in later, so we decided to call it a day a bit earlier than we would have liked. We squared up with the betting terminals, and it turned out we had won a bit of coin off one of the matches we hadn¡¯t watched but had bet on randomly. We liked the guy¡¯s name, so we each bet twenty gold on the dude. The dude¡¯s name was Buttmunchomi. We laughed for about ten minutes after we saw that on the boards.


    Janet and I, after getting ourselves under control to various looks of concern from passers-by, immediately bet on the guy, and apparently, the odds had been fucking awful. The guy¡¯s opponent was favored to win with twenty-five-to-one odds, and by some fucking merical, the dude had won. We had heard something about his opponent having a hard night, but I didn¡¯t know the whole story. All I knew was that the guy had won, and Janet and I had made a killing. Five hundred fucking gold coins each. After seeing how much we had won, we booked it to the Inn as fast as possible. We would have to find a bank or something if we were going to start seeing more money like this.


    Once we were finally back in our rooms and sitting on the couch. I leaned back and sighed, just staring at the ceiling. Then out of fucking nowhere, Janet punched me in the shoulder.


    ¡°Ow, what? Stop it. What did I do?¡±


    ¡°Travis! Shit, we totally forgot to try and go find that monk guy! Damn it! Now, who knows if we will ever see that guy again.¡±


    ¡°Oh, fuck! Your right, damn it!¡± I was actually bummed about it too. I wasn¡¯t just playing it up for Janet this time.


    ¡°Well, honestly, it looks like that monk guy fights a lot. He was fucking badass. I could still kick the shit out of his, but he was still pretty good, you know. So I bet if we keep going to the Coliseum, we will see him on the boards again.¡± I told her. Janet seemed to be feeling a bit better after I said that. She laid down and put her head in my lap. Then I thought of something that might cheer Janet up.


    ¡°Hey, so it¡¯s still early. I was just wondering, do you want to go out and buy some new clothes so we fit in a little better around here and maybe go find a place to have dinner with some of our newfound wealth?¡± Janet, lying on the couch with her head in my lap, shot up into a seated position. Then she looked at me with a big smile, and we were off.


    We spent the next two hours just strolling together, exploring the different shops. Eventually, we each found something we liked. Janet found three, and we then stopped by the Inn to put on our new clothes before dinner. We asked the innkeeper if he knew of any nice places to eat nearby and to hold our dinner for the evening. With a silver in his palm, the innkeeper was more than happy to stop what he was doing and tell us about several local establishments with excellent cuisine.


    Janet and I thanked the man for his time and then chose a place to eat called the indulgent Delefesent. The glowing magical sign that pointed to the restaurant¡¯s entrance depicted a fat toad-like creature eating a table of cakes, and underneath was the restaurant¡¯s name. As we walked inside, the noise of the crowded street outside disappeared to almost nothing as a quiet and romantic atmosphere replaced it.


    There were candles all over the place, and when the hostess seated us, we found ourselves in a quiet and private booth made of dark wood with comfortable pillows. Of course, there was a candle on our table, but as I inspected it closer, I could see the light it emitted wasn¡¯t from a flame but some kind of magic.


    It was peaceful and pleasant to just enjoy a luxurious meal with Janet. It turned out the innkeeper was right, and the food was magnificent. There were seventeen courses, and each dish was more delicious than the previous one. That dinner was one to remember. In this fucked up new reality, Janet and I had found time to enjoy ourselves. I kind of wished Beth was with us to share in the good times, but that was still a sore subject with me. Just thinking about Beth had almost ruined the night, but the food saved the day. The flavors and textures took me away to another world with every bite.


    We took our time walking the seven minutes back to the Inn. The night air was warm, and there was almost no breeze. It was nearly the perfect night.


    ¡°Hey, Janet?¡± I asked her as we walked across a bridge over a small river. Janet had been looking over the side of the bridge at the water flowing by beneath us. When I called over, she looked up and walked over.


    ¡°yeah, what¡¯s up, Travis?¡±


    ¡°I was just thinking about when I got kicked out of Treehouse. I was just thinking how lucky I am to have you here with me. This wouldn¡¯t have been nearly as much fun without you around.¡± Janets gave me a soft, caring smile, then linked her arm with mine.


    ¡°I know. You¡¯re lucky to have a woman like me around, and with how ugly you look, you¡¯re lucky I even talk to you.¡± I rolled my eyes at Janet but kept our arms linked as we walked. As we approached the Inn, which was now just a block away, Janet leaned into me, hugging my arm and whispering into my ear with a slight smile on her face.


    ¡°I think I love you, Travis.¡±  Janet didn¡¯t meet my eyes after she said what she said, and I must admit I was stunned. I knew feelings had started to grow between us, but I had tamped those feelings down so as not to scare Janet away. But here she was, telling me she thought she loved me. As I thought more about her words, I realized something.


    ¡°I think I love you too, Janet.¡± I stopped walking and turned until Janet and I were face to face. She still wouldn¡¯t meet my eyes, but as I looked at her, I placed my hand under her chin and tilted her head back till she met my gaze. I saw that her eyes were wet, and Janet looked like she would cry. I then placed my hand on the back of her head, and we kissed deep and long. It was a kiss for lovers and lovers we were. I held Janet tight after our kiss, and we stayed like that, embracing each other for a few moments. It felt good, and I didn¡¯t want to let her go.


    Eventually, we separated from our embrace and continued back to the Inn.


    That night, Janet and I made love. We had banged it out many times, but this was the first time it had felt so intimate. That day was one for the books. The Coliseum, the shopping, the dinner, and now the sex. I was content, and that night, with Janet in my arms, nothing else mattered.


    We woke the following day to a few knocks on our door. The knocking stopped after a few seconds, and then I heard footsteps heading away from our door. It looked like breakfast was here, and I was hungry. I popped out of bed and grabbed the food, setting it on the table in the living room before running off to the bathroom to handle some business. When I returned, Janet was out of bed and snacking on a piece of bacon.


    ¡°Moring, lover boy,¡± Janet said as I walked over to the table to join her for breakfast. I couldn¡¯t help but smile as I kissed her before sitting beside her.


    ¡°What was that for?¡± Janet asked me as I sat down.


    ¡°Just because I love ya,¡± I told her, and Janet blushed furiously before leaning over and giving me a peck on the cheek.


    ¡°Good,¡± was all she said, and I couldn¡¯t help it. I laughed. I felt like Princess Leia. I had just told Han I loved him, and he looked at me and said, ¡°I know.¡±


    Fuck, I really did love this crazy woman.


    After we finished breakfast, we headed back to the Coliseum. We had both decided yesterday that we needed to be part of the action, so today, we planned to find out how to do just that. We put on our armor as we left for the Coliseum. We figured if there was some kind of tryout before they let you compete, it was better to be dressed for the occasion.


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    We found the window we had visited the day before and decided that would be the best place to start. There was another line, but it was about half as long as yesterday. It was early in the day, so that may have helped. The line moved quickly, and we soon stepped up to the window. A different clerk was sitting at the table behind the window than the day before yesterday. This time, it was a three-foot rabbit. It had a little suit on and a fucking top hat. There was even a little chain that Im sure was connected to a little pocket watch tucked away in a little pocket. I almost audibly awed, but I held it in. Janet did not.


    ¡°Aww, so cute. Oh shit, sorry, my bad,¡± Janet said after her aww, so cute got a disapproving look from the rabbit.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that. Please forgive us for the faux pa if you can. The integration  has been¡­ a lot.¡±


    ¡°Sir, it is understandable. Thank you for the apology. I appreciate it. Now, how may I assist you today?¡±


    ¡°We were interested in finding out how to become a participant in the fights held here. Is that possible?¡± The rabbit smiled, understanding.


    ¡°Yes, sir, that is very possible. There is a window for potential combatants to register. It is located between gate 37 and gate 38. It is open from seven in the morning until six in the evening. If you would like a map of the Coliseum, we sell one for ten coppers.¡± We bought the map, just in case, and thanked the rabbit before heading out to register.


    We were at gate 12 and would have to walk almost a quarter of the way around the Coliseum to get where we needed to go. It took us about an hour to walk there. As the day went on, more people filled the streets. The thicker the crowd, the slower we had to walk. We eventually made it and were greeted by another fucking line. This one must have had two hundred and fifty people in it. Every member of the line looked like they had the same idea we had about their potentially being a tryout or something and had come dressed ready for a fight.


    I looked at Janet as she sighed, and her expression visibly deflated. Then we saw someone enter the line, shortly followed by another, and we hurried to get into the line before it got any longer. We ended up standing in that line for a while, and maybe a minute after we had got into line, a young alien male with red skin, elf-like ears, white hair, and dark red eyes, wearing the fanciest armor I had ever seen in my life got into line behind us. An older alien got in line along with him, but instead of a comrade in arms, it seemed more like his butler.


    The butler-looking fellow was dressed to the nines in a fine suit. His white hair was slicked back, and he wore white gloves. They looked like a cotton blend to me. After standing in line for about ten minutes, I looked at Janet and tried to get her attention. When she met my eyes, I smiled at her and then tilted my head slightly back and to the side, gesturing at the pair behind me. Janet had snuck a peek, and when she¡¯d looked back at me after, she had rolled her eyes and held back a giggle. I smiled, and our time in the line continued.


    We were about halfway through the line, and maybe an hour and a half had passed. It was around then that the guy behind us started to talk mad shit. He must have gotten bored or tired of waiting. The young alien had started getting antsy after the first hour hit. He started snapping at his butler and then, at one point, had even said something and smacked the butler across the face twice in quick succession. I had almost turned around there and then and told the guy off, but you know, fuck I just wanted to mind my own business and get to the front of the line. That was their business. Who was I to get involved? Then, once an hour and a half had passed, he had moved on from his butler to his surroundings.


    I mean, I didn¡¯t understand what the guy was saying. I could just see him out of the corner of my eyes, point at things, and say something, and then a look of pure disgust would appear on his face. It when on like this till we were two hours in, and even Janet, who had her full attention affixed to the front of the line, had started to notice the asshole behind us. It was when shortly after the two-hour mark when I felt a tug on the clothing by my shoulder, and I looked back to see the guy looking at me as if I was a pile of shit on the ground that he didn¡¯t want to step in.


    The rich little shit then said something in a language I couldn¡¯t understand. The people around us all looked shocked at the man¡¯s words, but I didn¡¯t understand a word he had said. Once the guy had finished his apparently incredibly insulting statement, he smirked and looked at me like, what are you gonna do about it bitch. I just turned around in line till we were face to face.


    ¡°Hey, fuck head. Are you talking to me? Cause I don¡¯t understand a word you¡¯re saying. I then turned back around and continued to stand in line, ignoring the fuck head. Janet Laughed right in the guy¡¯s face before she followed my lead. That apparently had pissed the guy off really well, and a few seconds passed in silence till a guy behind us spoke up again, but this time, he was speaking English.


    ¡°Of course, there savages, I should have figured. If Rif Raf, like them, are allowed in the city, why are we even here? This planet is disgusting, and the local species is ugly beyond belief. I¡¯ve heard that one of their most popular religions claims that their race is a product of incest. It would make sense, they¡¯re all fucking in-bread idiots. Look at these two. I bet she¡¯s his sister, and they have fucking little idiot children together. I tell you, one night with her, and you¡¯re guaranteed to catch something.¡± And that was it. I had tried to control myself. I knew the fucker was baiting me. Just waiting for me to react, but at that point, I couldn¡¯t take it, and I snapped. I whipped around and, in one fluid motion, grabbed the front of the rich little shits armor and got right in his face.


    ¡°Watch your fucking mouth, you little shit. One more word, and I don¡¯t give a fuck who sees it. I¡¯ll fucking kill you right here right now. I¡¯ll rip that tin can off you and shove it up your ass. The kid gulped, but soon enough, that confidence of a wealthy, I get whatever I want from daddy, spoiled brat attitude returned, and he replied.


    ¡°Just what I would expect from an in-bread, piece of trash, sister fucking, simpleton. Is that all you got?¡± The kid finished speaking, and I was so close to punching him in the face. I was gritting my teeth and trying to control my temper. Then the fuckers butler punched me in the face, hard. I went down, and my face bounced off the stone street. After I hit the ground, all I could think was, that fucking hurt. It only took a moment to get my barrings, and I shot to my feet. As I did, the butler shot another two quick punches in my face.


    This wasn¡¯t great. I had been trying so hard to avoid this situation. I had tried to control my emotions, but this asshole wanted to fucking die the way he was talking. I knew I was being an idiot, but I couldn¡¯t fucking help it. I was seeing red. I dodged the first of the two punches from the butler, but the second caught me on the cheek and surprisingly drew blood. I was past his guard now and wouldn¡¯t miss the opportunity. I shot out a jab and an uppercut. The jab made contact, sending the butler¡¯s head snapping back, but before my uppercut could connect, the little shit kicked me in the side, sending me sprawling onto the ground.


    At that point, someone called the city guards, and they stepped in to stop the altercation. As I got to my feet, ready to fucking kill this little shit, I saw that the situation had taken a turn. There was a guard wearing a tabard with the city seal emblazoned on it in gold. A large sword was strapped to his back, and he was in full-plate mail minus the helmet. Two other city guards stood next to their fellow as he stood between me and my attackers.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on here? This city will not tolerate violence perpetrated in the street. If you are set on settling your differences with violence, please do so in a sanctioned duel registered at the central administration office. Otherwise, you will be taken into custody for disturbing the peace of this city.¡± I was standing behind the guard as he addressed the rich kid and his butler. I was all in my feels, too. In my head, I had a running commentary going. The guard would say something like ¡°violence will not be tolerated in the streets of this city.¡± Then, I would say something along the lines of, yeah, that¡¯s right, you rich little shithead. You¡¯re so fucked now.


    I had been feeling pretty good about it, too, till the guard turned around and looked at me with an intense glare on his face.


    ¡°You understand me, local?¡±  The righteous anger that had been simmering raged back, and suddenly, I couldn¡¯t speak. Well, that¡¯s not right. I could have spoken to the guard, but if I had opened my mouth, I might have said something I would have regretted. I stared down the city guard till he scoffed and looked away.


    ¡°This little shit started insulting us out of nowhere, and then his fucking butler punched him in the face! How would you expect us to react after being pushed like that?¡± Janet tried to appeal to the city guard and help him understand the situation better.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough. Get back in line and shut up, or we¡¯ll take you in. You got me local?¡± Janet looked shocked at the man¡¯s hostility, but she let it slide and shut her mouth. I could tell it was fucking killing her to do so, but it really was the only way we might get out of this situation without going to jail.


    ¡°That¡¯s better.¡± The guard said and turned to address the young shithead again.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the inconvenience, Lord Malicon, but please understand that we are only doing our job here. If you still have a quarrel with this local, you may request a duel and deal with him as you wish then, but this disturbance will not go any further. As for right now, I would ask you to respect the rules of the city and avoid fighting in an unsanctioned altercation. If you do, we will be forced to intercede again.¡±


    ¡°Very well, but I will be speaking to the viceroy on this matter. I should be allowed to protect my dignity anytime I like. Permit be damned. Do believe the viceroy will hear about this. Now what will you do with this scum?¡±


    ¡°my lord?¡± Well, they must be punished for their insolence, do you not agree?¡±


    The city guard looked incredibly uncomfortable at the young lord¡¯s words. The guard also looked like he was trying to think of a way to tell the young lord that he couldn¡¯t do as he requested but was struggling to find the right words.


    ¡°My lord¡­ um, there is nothing I can punish these locals for. As I said, if you wish to continue this matter, I request that you do so in a sanctioned duel. Please understand.¡± the young lord¡¯s face had been growing redder and redder with every word the guard had said. By the time he was finished talking, the young prick looked like he was going to blow a gasket.


    ¡°Then what good are you? Trash! This whole city is trash! Even the city guards are fucking useless. I bet they have been sleeping with the locals and caught something. That¡¯s it. Bentley, we¡¯re leaving. I was just here for some fun and to spend my family¡¯s massive fortune, but I¡¯ve changed my mind. Fuck this city, and you better watch your back, you fucking locals. You¡¯re worth less than the dirt on my boot. You made a mistake today, and you will deeply regret it. Mark my words. Bentley, come!¡± Then, The young lord turned and backhanded his butler across the face again. Then he stormed off.


    The guard sighed as if the situation had worn him out, but he turned and glared at me again.


    ¡°You fucked up big time. Fucking locals and with a member of the Malicon family at that.¡± The guards began to leave, but I could hear that one guard just chuckling to himself and saying things like, ¡°So fucked. Your so fucked.¡± Then he would laugh again. I watched the guards walk off, then got back in line with Janet.


    ¡°Fucking assholes.¡±


    ¡°Fuck them. Don¡¯t think about it. We were getting closer to the front. We¡¯ll register, then go back to the Inn and chill out. Okay?¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯re right. I mean, I know you¡¯re right, but¡­ ah, that fucking asshole and then the fucking guards, but your right fuck them. That sounds like a plan to me. You okay?¡±


    ¡°hu? Oh yeah, im fine. Just wow, thought, you know. That guy was a fucking trip. He was such a piece of shit. I couldn¡¯t actually believe it for a minute. Then the shit hit the fan, and before I knew it, the guard was standing right there. Honestly, it was just a lot all at once, but it¡¯s done now, so like I said fucking forget about them.¡±


    It was hard to get over what had just happened, but talking to Janet while standing in line and just joking around helped. Then, I felt a tug on my shoulder, and all I could think was, this mother fucker came back? I whipped around, causing Janet to yell at me and glare. What I thought would be a young, rich shithead back for more. It turned out I was wrong, and the first human we had met in the city looked like he had just shit his pants.


    ¡°Oh, shit, man. Fuck hey, im sorry. I thought you were this other guy trying to fight me earlier. Anyway, it¡¯s not important. Um¡­ how can I help you?¡±

 Book 2 Chapter 11 - Objection! Ooh, whats that?

    Chapter 11


    Objection! Ooh, what''s that?


    The guy took in my words and looked relieved. To his credit, he pulled himself together quickly.


    ¡°Fuck man, I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t mean to¡­ fuck, I thought you were going to kill me, man.  You looked pissed at me.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sorry about that. Like I said, I thought you were someone else. I¡¯m Travis, and this is Janet. We just got to the city a few days ago.¡±


    ¡°All good. Nice to meet you two. It¡¯s Michael. I haven¡¯t been in the city long, but longer than you guys. It¡¯s been a month now, I think. Well, where are you guys from? There are not many humans around here, ya know. So when I saw you guys, I figured I should say hi.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we noticed that too.¡±


    ¡°I heard more people survived the integration on the East Coast. The West got hit pretty hard. I used to work nights, so, you know, I made it, but even then, I think the Americas got hit pretty hard in general.¡± Michael had stopped talking and stared off into space for a second. Then he snapped back.


    ¡°anyways, where did you guys come from? I think we¡¯re somewhere in Wyoming now. Im originally from Utah.¡± I looked at Janet but figured it couldn¡¯t hurt to tell him.


    ¡°We¡¯re from the San Francisco Bay Area.¡± The guy¡¯s mouth dropped, and he looked shocked.


    ¡°Damn, that¡¯s crazy. I heard that almost no one made it out of California. That must have been insane. I bet you guys are pretty strong now.¡± I looked at Janet again, then back at Michael. This conversation was entering territory I didn¡¯t want to talk about in the open like this or, for that matter, with some random guy we had just met.


    ¡°Listen, Michael, was it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we meet up after we register for the Coliseum? Maybe you, Janet, and I can all grab a drink and talk more. That sounds good?¡±


    ¡°Oh, shit. I almost forgot about my friend there waiting for me right now. Maybe tomorrow we can all meet up. I¡¯m staying here with a group of other people, all humans. We all made it out of Utah together. Would that be cool? We could meet at the Dancing Donkey in the Waning Crescent district. It¡¯s a tavern. I hope I see you there. Does noon work?¡± I had no idea where that was, but the guy looked like he was eager to run off and meet his friend, so I just told him,


    ¡°Yeah, that works. Tomorrow, noon, got it. Now go meet up with your friends. Well, see you tomorrow.¡± The dude smiled and shot us a thumbs-up before he ran off into the crowd.


    ¡°That was fucking weird. Don¡¯t you think?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. The guy seemed harmless. Maybe he just saw us and hadn¡¯t seen many humans around, as he said, and he felt he should say hi. Damn, Travis, chill out. Not everyone is trying to kill us all the time.¡± I let out a breath I didn¡¯t realize I had been holding and chuckled. Janet was right. I had seen enemies in every shadow since the integration hit, and it allowed me to survive when many didn¡¯t. The thing was, it wasn¡¯t really healthy. I shook my head a little and let out a sigh. Janet was right, and It might be nice to meet some fellow humans in this fucked cool as shit magical city.


    We had finally made it to the front of the line. Oh my god, I was so fucking happy to be done with this line. I never wanted to stand in a line again, which sucked because I saw a lot of lines standing in my future if we stayed in the city. For now, we were at the end of this line and stood before a small wooden table with a football-sized black stone sitting on it. The stone had neon veins of a green rock spiderwebbing through it, and I could feel Mana infusing it. An attendant was standing behind the table with a computer tablet-type device held in its hand.


    `The attended looked human in his mid-forties with no obvious signs he was an alien except for its eyes. They opened the wrong way. There were eyelashes and everything. It was fucking creepy, but I tried not to focus on it as we walked up to the table.


    ¡°Present your G.I.C. and then place your hand on the stone.¡± The attendant said in a broad tone. Janet and I looked at each other before Janet stepped forward, handed over her G.I.C., and placed her hand on the football-sized stone. The stone shone a bright green momentarily, and Janet shivered, and then it was over. That was it. The woman handed Janet a slip of paper with a time, date, and location on it and then said,


    ¡°Next.¡± I stepped up, and a few moments later, it was over. Other than a shiver that ran down my spine when the stone activated, it was a painless experience. I got a slip of paper of my own with a time, date, and location, and we left.


    ¡°What does your say? Mine is tomorrow at two training yard D11.¡±


    ¡°Mine says tomorrow at three training yard D11. So, at least we¡¯re both going to the same place. Do you think we should try to find it today? Or maybe we can ask Michael and his friends tomorrow. Oh shit, Michael. You think we will still have time to meet up with them?¡±


    ¡°Maybe we can get a map of the city somewhere. I am tired of not knowing where I am anymore.¡± We couldn¡¯t find a map, so we just walked back to the inn,people-watching as we took our time.  As we began to leave the area where the merchants were set up, I stopped walking, and Janet, who had been holding my hand, stopped and turned to look at me.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? You okay, Travis?¡±


    ¡°Well, I was thinking. Do you know how I was able to buy the ability to identify from the show back in Treehouse? There had been an ability that Braxin had in the shop back in Treehouse that I wanted but could never afford. It was an ability called Chatty Cathy. In short, it translates languages for you. I was just thinking maybe we could get something like that here.¡±


    ¡°Damn, that would be fucking nice to have.¡± Then Janet¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Oh, and then we could understand what the announcers were saying during the arena fights! Do you really think we could find something like that here?¡±


    ¡°Fuck, I don¡¯t see why not. Braxin¡¯s shop was pretty small, and we¡¯re in a big city now. They should have everything Braxin had and then some. Before we leave the merchant area, do you want to look around and see what they have available?¡±


    ¡°Fuck yeah, let¡¯s go get literate!¡± I just face-palmed as Janet led me off into the bazaar of varying shops.


    It took us maybe an hour to find a shop that dealt in abilities. The bazaar was distracting. Janet got caught up and almost bought an axe she saw at one merchant¡¯s shop. I understand why. The thing was beautiful, and I almost bought a dagger from the same shop. We eventually moved on, with Janet looking over her shoulder at the expensive weapon as we walked away. The shop where we finally found abilities for sale was a gorgeous stone building with an intricately carved sense of what looked like beings using extraordinary abilities carved everywhere. When we walked in, a bell chimed, and a small older woman looked up from what she was doing.


    The shop¡¯s castellan looked like a halfling or dwarf of some kind. I wasn¡¯t going to ask because she looked like that grandma who would smack you over the head for asking a stupid question. We greeted the woman and walked over to the counter she was sitting behind.


    ¡°How can I help you two young people today? Oh my, are you locals as well? We don¡¯t get many of your type in here. In fact, you are the first ones I¡¯ve seen. What might you be looking for?¡±


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    ¡°We¡¯re looking for somewhere to buy abilities, one in particular or something similar. It was called Chatty Cathy, and it translated¡­¡± I got cut off as the small woman waved her hand in front of her face as if trying to dismiss a bad smell.


    ¡°Those damn scoundrels. The Slag created that ability, and they try to sell it to as many locals as fast as they can before they realize it¡¯s a shit ability. I spare you from my rant, but I¡¯ll just say this. It¡¯s the Slag¡¯s way of trying to get every last copper they can out of every new venture. They¡¯re pigs, and so, with that said, follow me.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I also bought an ability from the same shop called General Identify One.


    The small woman had turned around when I mentioned I had bought another ability from the Slag, but when she heard the ability¡¯s name, she visibly relaxed.


    ¡°You¡¯re fine with that one. That is a pretty common ability. Now come on, what you¡¯ll want is¡­ aw, right here. Yes. This one. This is called Million Tongues. This is the good stuff, not that Slag trash, but you didn¡¯t hear that from me.¡± I smiled at the little old lady and received one in return.


    ¡°sounds good to me. We¡¯ll take two.¡± Yeah, so fuck abilities are fucking experience, shit, man. It was each ability stone. Apparently, abilities were sold as stones magically imbued, so they would stay that way until you wanted to use them to gain the ability. Each ability stone we were looking at would cost us 100 fucking gold, but we were told that the cost for particular abilities could go much higher. It was fucking ridiculous. Don¡¯t get me wrong, we bought them, but that didn¡¯t mean I liked it.


    ¡°Is there anything else I can help you with? Maybe a herbalism ability or General literacy?¡± The General literacy ability would allow you to write almost any language. We were told that many bought the ability in tandem with Million Tongues. It was an additional fifty gold each, but we inevitably thought it was worth it. With the amount of gold we would be spending, I thought it was best to try to get a deal. The little old lady was a tough negotiator, but we ended up getting a ten-gold discount. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was better than nothing.


    We bought our new abilities and asked old lady Witlow if she would let us use the stones before we left.


    ¡°It¡¯s a common practice. Please sit if you wish. I think I''m going to make some tea if you would like some.¡± Old lady Witlow gestured at a few seats, then wandered off into the back of the shop. I was assuming to go make tea as she had said. I looked at Janet, and then I shrugged and lifted one of the two stones until I held it in front of my face. I focused on the stone like I was trying to activate a bag of holding, and in a few seconds, a system window popped up.


    Would you like to learn the ability, Million Tongues? Yes/No.


    I selected yes, and the next second, a whoosh of power rushed through my body.


    Stat Sheet


    Travis Mullins


    Level: 24


    Race: Human


    Class: Path of the Pole Arm


    Experience needed to next Level: 133,960/134,220 XP till next Level.


    Stat points per level up: +3 free


    Titles:


    Lucky Bastard: (+2 to luck)


    Explorer: 1 (+3 to all stats)


    Settlement Defense level (3): (Plus 7 to all stats)


    Cold Hands: (plus 10 to luck)


    Gluten for Punishment: (plus 15 points to con)


    Stand Tall: (all stats plus 5)


    Self Taught: (+5% to all stats)


    First in world to:


    Complete a dungeon run: (+8 to all stats)


    First Settlement Defiance: (+5% to all stats )


    Sector leader. You are among the top million newly


    integrated life forms in your sector of the Milkyway galaxy to achieve a level two


    class: (+50 to all stats, extra +10 first on your planet)


    War Bounces:


    War Machine: +8 to all stats for the next 90 days. (0) days left


    Blood drenched: +15 to all stats for the next 90 days. (0) days left


    Follow Me (2): 30% boost toward the influence my words had on others for the


    next 90 days. (0) days remaining


    Resistances:


    Element of Fire: 11%


    Element of Corruption: 15%


    Element of Lighting 2%


    Stats:


    Strength: 143 WB: (+0)


    Dexterity: 142 WB (+0)


    Intelligence: 122 WB (+0)


    Wisdom: 123 (WB (+0)


    Constitution: 136 WB (+0)


    Luck: 112 WB (+23)


    * = modified


    (+) = Amount modified by


    Class Sheet


    Path of the pole Arm


    Level 2:


    Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.


    Plus three stat points to Dexterity each level up.


    Step Lightly:


    When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting fifty Mana and twenty stamina to activate.


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint:


    Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten Mana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.


    Quick Strike:


    When activated, Quick Strike at the cost of one hundred Mana energizes your arms into almost a seizure-type state. This causes you to strike out with your polearm many times in rapid succession.


    Spear Shadow:


    When activated, Spear Shadow conjures a mana shadow over your weapon. This mana shadow will then extend past your weapon at a distance, dependent on the amount of Mana you have invested into the ability, with a minimum range of five feet and an undefined maximum range. This ability is truly what you make it. At an initial cost of eighty Mana, this ability can be augmented, and the distance the Mana shadow travels is determined at a ratio of ten Mana and five stamina per foot.


    Mana Manipulation:


    The ability to alter and control the movement of Mana. (20% efficiency)


    General Identify: (1)


    When activated, gives you general information about a target you intended to discover more about. Only give basic information at level one and on targets. Results may veer with some targets.


    Million Tongues:


    This passive ability allows you to speak and understand most languages you are exposed to.


    General Literacy:


    This passive ability allows you to read and write most languages you are exposed to.


    You learned the ability Million Tongues and the ability General Literacy. Congratulations


    ¡°Whoa! That was intense. Shit, but it did feel good.¡±


    ¡°Dman, glad I let you go first. ¡°Janet laughed at me and then activated her stone. I chuckled when her eyes went wide, and then she audibly exhaled.


    ¡°Right?¡±


    ¡°Damn. You were right. That did feel good.¡± We both activated our other stones and by then, old lady Witlow had returned.


    ¡°Good seams, you¡¯ve just finished absorbing your stones. How do you feel?¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± I told her.


    ¡°Yeah, really fucking good. Oh, sorry, granny, my bad.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, child. Im glad you both are happy with your purchase. Would you like a cup of tea before you head off?¡± I looked at Janet, and I got the feeling she wanted a cup, so I shrugged, and we had one. The cups were small, and in a few moments, we were both finished and headed out the door, waving goodbye to old lady Witlow. It was still early when we left the shop, but I wanted a nap, and Janet agreed, so we headed for the inn. Once we got there, we passed out and only woke when we heard the knock that meant our dinner had just been dropped off.


    We ate our dinner, and it was terrific, as always. Then Janet and I, um¡­ did some laundry, wink wink, and went to bed. The following day started like any other, but with our usual breakfast delivery was a letter and a small coin purse. It struck me as odd, but I had to go to the bathroom after I had brought in the breakfast, so I hadn¡¯t read it right away. When I left the bathroom, Janet was up and had a piece of bacon sticking out of her mouth. She was frozen mid-chew. However, a confused look on her face as she held the letter in her hand.


    ¡°Hey, I saw that but didn¡¯t have time to read it before nature called. What¡¯s up? Is something wrong.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you could say that. We were being kicked out.


    ¡°What!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, looks like they¡¯re saying something about needing the rooms for some bullshit, but all they¡¯re really saying is get the fuck out. It¡¯s fucking bullshit. They reimbursed us. Well, not for the night we stayed but the money for the rest of the nights we had paid for. They¡¯re telling us to be gone by noon.¡±


    ¡°Well fuck. It¡¯s nine now. We could just go find that tavern Michael wants us to meet him at and figure out our next moves while we wait there.¡± Janet agreed, but she was still pissed, as was I. We finished our breakfast, packed up our shit, headed downstairs, where we were avoided by the innkeeper, and headed out to find this damn tavern.


    Maybe it was some heavenly being taking pity on us, or perhaps it was just good luck after the shit this morning, but we found an information booth. Apparently, these booths were scattered around the city, offering general information and things like maps. For ten coppers, we had a map of the whole city. The city was divided into eight districts, with the Coliseum in the center of it all. Each district was named after a different phase of the moon. The district that the inn we had just been kicked out of was called the Third Quarter district. It was one of the nicer districts close, just two districts away from the district where the viceroy¡¯s mansion was located. That was the full moon district. The Dancing Donkey was located in the waning crescent district. We were lucky it was actually only one district away.

 Book 2 Chapter 12 - Testy, testy

    Chapter 12


    Testy, testy


    Even though the Dancing Donkey was only one district away, it still took us forty-five minutes to find the place. It was clean. That was my first impression. It was a small wooden building, but you could tell the owner really cared about the place. It was in the details. The floors had recently been swept, and the small number of tables were set simply, but everything was evenly spaced and precisely the same on every table. I mean, even the napkins were folded just so.


    We walked in and sat down at a table. A few moments later, a young woman asked us if there was anything we wanted to order. She was a Lizardkin. For the most part, she looked like a young human woman in her early twenties, but patches of lizard scales covered her body. She had a forked tongue, a tail, and crazy-looking yellow-green eyes that were lizard-like in shape. Otherwise, she had long brown hair, two arms, two legs, and all that human-like stuff.


    We each ordered a beer and then asked to see a menu. The Lizardkin was off, and then, quick as a flash, she was back with two menus and two beers.


    ¡°let me know when you are ready to order by pressing this button on your table here.¡± She showed us where a small black button was located on the side of the table. We thanked her, and she left us to our own devices. There were only a few other people in the place so early in the day, but the quiet atmosphere was kind of nice as I was still pissed off we had been kicked out of our room and would now have to find another place to stay. It wasn¡¯t the end of the world. It was just frustrating. We sat there for a while, just sipping our drinks in peace. The drink was good and cold. It took the edge off at that moment, and I slipped into a slightly better mood.


    We eventually decided to look at the city map and see if we could find out where we had to go after this for our meetings today. Meeting up with Michael and his friends would be fun, but if it meant missing our appointment with the Coliseum registry, then we would have to disappoint Michael and his friends. Fighting in the Coliseum was way more important. We sat there just talking and people-watching until about eleven when Michael and a group of humans entered the establishment.


    It only took Michael a few seconds to see us in the small place, and for a moment, he looked shocked. Then, the guy smiled and waved. Michael was a skinny guy. He definitely had a bit of muscle under the rough gray tunic and leather vest he was wearing.


    Other than that, he had on jeans, work boots, and a trucker hat with some band I didn¡¯t know on his head. Michael¡¯s friends, on the other hand, looked like the most random group of people I had ever seen.


    There was a forty-something Indian guy, a twenty-something Asian girl, two twenty-something generic white girls, a thirty-something light-skinned black guy who looked like the jock type, and a fifty-something Hispanic woman who looked to be the unofficial leader of the group. All together, they were a group of seven, and they acted kind of like a family.


    The Indian guy and one of the white girls were discussing something with the other white girl, and it seemed to be a heated conversation. Every once in a while, the Indian guy and the white girl who looked to be on the same side of the conversation would look at each other and then back at the other white girl. It was hilarious, and while that was happening, the light-skinned black guy was talking to the Asian girl, and it really looked like he was trying to keep her interest. Which was kind of hard to watch as the Asian girl looked like she was halfway ignoring what he was saying.


    The fifty-something Hispanic woman noticed us first after Michael. She had been talking to Michael, so when he noticed us. Michael broke off his conversation and waved at us to come over. The Hispanic woman had looked over to see who Michael was waving at. When she saw us sitting at a table in the tavern, her expression stiffened, then softened a moment later, and she let Michael lead their group over toward our table.


    The next to notice us was the black guy and then the Asian girl. Last were the two white girls and the Indian guy. They were so caught up in their conversation they didn¡¯t even realize what was going on, just following their group till they were all standing arrayed in a circle in front of our table.


    ¡°These must be the new friends you were talking about, Michael.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s them, but I told them you guys would be here at noon. You¡¯re a little early.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we had some trouble with the place we were staying at, so we checked out a bit sooner than we¡¯d planned and then just decided to head over here. When you said meat your friends Michael, I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be meeting such an eclectic group.¡± They were just such an odd grouping. I needed to know how that happened.


    ¡°Ah yeah. That is a funny story. Well, not haha funny, but you know. We all used to work at a place called the Spots Den in Salt Lake City. We survived the integration together, and after we realized we were all alone now in the world, we grouped up, and we¡¯ve been together ever since. We made it to the city about a month ago and have been making our way here ever since. My name is Marissa. You know Michael already. The two white girls are Victoria and Brittany. The Indian guy is Kabir. This is Amy, and the guy next to her is Trent. Michael said you two were from, what was it, Michael, California? How the hell did you end up out here?¡± The group started taking seats at the tables around ours, and they began ordering drinks as we explained our journey to the Coliseum.


    ¡°And that¡¯s when we decided to head east and ran into the Coliseum completely by dumb luck. We¡¯ve been here for almost a week now, and we¡¯ve already been kicked out of one inn and made an enemy of some lordling.¡± The whole group had started off lost in their own worlds, while Michael and Marissa were the only ones really listening to our story.


    Still, as we moved through the tail, more of them started paying attention till, by the end, everyone was transfixed as Janet finished our story up to this point. It hadn¡¯t taken too long to share what had happened to us since the integration. We did leave out several significant details. We did tell them about the town of Treehouse, and several members of the group looked very interested in that part of the story.


    We talked to the group about superficial things for a bit longer, then realized it was almost noon and let the group know we had to head out. Before we ran off, Marissa gave us the name of the inn they were staying at, and we thanked her, said our goodbyes, and ran out into the streets of the city. We had somewhere to be.


    We barely fucking made it to the training yard in time for Janet¡¯s appointment. It was 1:57 pm as we walked through the gates of training yard D11. The place was empty when we walked in, and for a few moments, we wondered if we were in the right place. The slip of paper had said training yard D11 at 2:00 pm, and this was that, I mean, that was this place, and we were on time. I didn¡¯t really know what to do. Then the bell that indicated the time for all the citizens of the city chimed out two times, indicating it was now two o¡¯clock. A woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties walked into the yard looking at a clipboard as she made her way over to a small table set to one side of the training yard.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    The woman was mostly human-like, as far as I could tell. She had long, wavy brown hair and a soft copper color top her skin. Her nose was a bit pushed back, like when I used to tape up my face as a little kid. Yeah, I was a weird kid, so what? She also looked fucking built like she worked out all the time. I talking fucking ripped. Other than that, two arms, two legs, and everything else. She wore a light suit of armor with a sword strapped to her hip.


    The woman walked over to the table, put the clipboard down, and then looked around the training yard. When she saw Janet and me standing near the entrance, she started walking toward us.


    ¡°Janet, two o¡¯clock? That one of you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s me, Janet, training yard D11, two o¡¯clock.¡±


    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Travis, three o¡¯clock.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re my two and three o¡¯clock appointments interesting. You know what? Here¡¯s what we¡¯re gonna do. I¡¯m gonna do both your assessments at once, then I can get an hour to myself.¡± The woman then punched her fist into her palm and laughed. The assessment turned out to be pretty straightforward. All we had to do was fight the lady, with no abilities, for at least two minutes. Janet was up first while I sat on the sidelines, cheering her on.


    ¡°I¡¯m Maxine, by the way. I just figured you¡¯d want to know who will be beating your head into the ground,¡± the woman, Maxine, said before she laughed again and got into a fighting stance.


    ¡°Woohoo, go Janet. Kick her ass, or at least don¡¯t get beat so bad I have to stop talking to you.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you, Travis. You¡¯re supposed to be my cheerleader, not my hater.¡± Janet said, and I laughed.


    ¡°Im sorry, Janet, she just looks really strong.¡± I chuckled a bit more, and Janet flicked me off before she got into her own fighting stance. All jokes aside, I was excited. This should be good. Maxine unsheathed her sword in one fluid motion as Janet readied her axe. Gripping the shaft so tight, I saw her knuckles turn white. They stood there briefly, eyeing each other up and down before they moved.


    Janet and Maxine were like two fraught trains barreling towards each other at full speed. When they clashed, the impact of their attacks sent a fucking shock wave out that almost knocked me out of my chair when it hit me in the chest. They disengaged, and then strikes were flying. Janet and Maxine were dancing. Their movements were just as beautiful as a tango or a persuadable pre-integration, if not more so.


    Janet ended up being the first to take an injury. Maxine had just managed to slip past one of Janet¡¯s strikes, and Janet had slightly over-committed to the blow. Because of that, she could not entirely dodge Maxine¡¯s follow-up attack. Maxine had stabbed in quickly with her thin sword. Janet had seen it coming and had started to move out of the way but ended up taking a small slash on the outside of her thigh. Janet had jumped back to get some distance from Maxine before she and Maxine were at it again.


    When I looked down at the stopwatch Maxine had thrown me before the match to keep track of the time, I realized I had totally fucked up. The stopwatch in my hand was on its fifth minute and was quickly approaching the sixth. I immediately stood up from my chair and instinctively started running in to stop the fight. I suddenly stopped when I realized that I was just about to get in between two battle-crazed women, fighting with live weapons, having the time of their lives. I figured I should still try to stop the fight, but the way things were going, I thought they might just keep fighting for the full hour if I let them or one of them didn¡¯t kill the other first.


    I gave them another ten minutes to just go crazy, and it truly looked like Janet had found a kindred spirit. When eleven minutes had passed, yeah, I gave them an extra one just because, you know, it looked like they were both having so much fun, but then I had to intercede. I picked my moment, and when they brought their weapons together in a great clash, I darted in with Step Lightly and grabbed both of their weapons with mana-infused hands.


    ¡°Lady, I let you have your fun, but come on, it¡¯s my turn now. I can¡¯t let you two have all the fun.¡± Maxine blinked, shook her head, then smiled with embarrassment and put her weapon in its sheath.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Sometimes I do that. How bad was it? I mean, how far did we go over time?¡± Maxine looked like she was waiting for a physical blow to land. Her reaction confused me, but I didn¡¯t think much of it, so I just tossed her the stopwatch.


    ¡°Almost twenty minutes! Shit. Thank you for at least stepping in when you did. I do appreciate it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. You galls looked like you were having way too much fun. I wasn¡¯t going to get in the way of that, and besides, it was a great show.¡± Janet walked over and punched me in the chest. She was still hyped up from the fight, so I think she put a bit more behind the punch than intended and almost knocked the wind out of me.


    ¡°Okay, okay, my bad,¡± I said between coughs. As I tried to catch my breath.


    ¡°Maxine, Would you like to take a second and rest a bit before our match? Do you want to get started?¡± Maxine, who was visibly sweating, let out a laugh and then smiled at me.


    ¡°I like your attitude, young man. Give me just a moment, and I will be ready.¡± Maxine then walked over to a stool and sat down. She pulled a water skin from a bag of holding and then pulled out a small yellow vile. Maxine drank some water, then popped the cork on the small vile of yellow liquid and downed it before gulping down some more water. Maxine wiped her mouth, burped, and stood up.


    ¡°Ahh, that¡¯s much better.¡± She twisted and did a few stretches before turning and smiling at me once again.


    ¡°Ready human? Travis, was it? If you fight anything like your friend Janet, I can¡¯t wait for our fight to begin. Come.¡± Maxine finished talking, jumped into the middle of the training yard, and gestured for me to follow. So I did. Janet had tried to beat the woman at her own game, skill versus skill, who was better. I was just going to try and overpower the fuck out of her. I didn¡¯t know Maxine¡¯s level, but I would still give it a shot.


    We got into our fighting stances facing each other. I summoned my Teremnocal to my hand, spun it a few times, and then stood ready for the fight to begin. Maxine gave me a slightly crazy smile before pulling her sword from its sheathed. Getting ready herself. Janet was the one who would start the match. Janet had the stopwatch in hand. We were waiting for Janet when she finally said the magic words: fight.


    We both moved faster than any animal pre-integration. We were like two cars playing chicken, but neither one of us was going to turn to get out of the way. Our first clash wasn¡¯t as intense as Janets and Maxines, but we still rocked the training yard. Our weapons locked, and I kicked out, landing a blow in the center of Maxine¡¯s chest. Pushing her back a good five feet. I took advantage and put Maxine on the back foot.


    I was definitely stronger than Maxine. Maxine was a fucking beast, but Janet and I were a different kind of animal. Our fight came to a head when I enacted a series of moves. First, I caught Maxine¡¯s blow on my blade. I then snacked the blade of my Teremnocal around Maxine¡¯s blade and pushed her blade to the side. That left an opening which I took full advantage of, stepping in close. I then placed my leg behind Maxine and smacked her in the chest with the butt of my weapon. Sending her slamming into the ground hard. I then spun my Teremnocal around and placed the blade of my weapon against her throat.


    ¡°You give up?¡± I asked Maxine. Shooting her a shit-eating smile. The next thing I knew, I was falling. Then, I was on the ground with a sword pointed at my own throat. I was shocked at first, then all I could do was laugh. As I got to my feet, Maxine sheathed her sword.


    ¡°So, did we make the cut?¡± I asked Maxine.


    ¡°What? Oh fuck yeah, you guys will be fine in there, at least in the ground-floor matches. You need to work on your technique, Travis, you in particular. Janets is like a fucking animal sending never-ending blows down on her opponent. While Travis, you¡¯re good, but the problem is you think you are a smarter fighter than you are. Let me tell you now that is a dangerous road to walk down. You should both go find a trainer for sure. I know some good ones. I¡¯ll give you a list in a second here, but as far as fighting in the Coliseum, you¡¯ll be fine. You¡¯ll definitely need a trainer to get to the level of the fights on the second and third floors. Those fights are a whole other beast.¡±


    We grabbed the list of trainers and locations where we could find them, thanked Maxine, and headed out. Janet and I were still filled with adrenaline as we left the training yard, so we headed into a tavern and grabbed a drink. The drink was heavenly. It was cold and soothing on a hot day, and after working up a sweat, it was just what we needed. We thanked the tavern keeper for the drink and headed back out into the streets of the city.

 Book 2 Chapter 13 - Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. I guess I’ll go get drunk.

    Chapter 13


    Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. I guess I¡¯ll go get drunk.


    We talked a bit while sitting and having our drinks, and our talk continued as we finished our drinks and started into the city streets. We needed to find a place to stay for the night, and it was better to find a place sooner rather than later. Now that we were cleared to fight in the Coliseum, Maxnie said she would submit the paperwork today, and by tomorrow, we should be able to start registering for fights. We were gonna ride that high as far as we could.


    When looking for a place to stay for the night, Janet wanted to find one in the same district we had stayed in before, so we headed in that direction. It was around 4:30 p.m. When we finally got back to the Third Quarter district. We started checking inns, but everywhere seemed booked up for the night. We had checked maybe ten inns in about an hour, getting turned away from everyone, and we were starting to feel discouraged.


    We decided to get dinner at the indulgent Delefesent to give ourselves a pick-me-up, but they wouldn¡¯t seat us. I tried to ask the host what the problem was, but he just excused himself, saying he had to take care of a table. We tried a couple of other restaurants as well and got similar responses. We were now sitting on a bench in a park, just kind of shell-shocked. I was looking into the sky, and Janet had her head resting in her hands, and her arms were resting on her thighs as she was just staring at the ground.


    ¡°What the fuck? What the fuck! What is happening? Did we just get blacklisted in this district?¡±


    ¡°Fuck, I think we did. Do you think it was that little fucking rich shit from yesterday? Do you think he fucking did this? Just to fucking spite us.¡± I stopped staring at the sky and then turned my head to look over at Janet.


    ¡°What do you want to do? Janet?¡±


    ¡°Uh, I heard you. This just fucking sucks. That restaurant was so good, Travis. So fucking good, and now we can¡¯t go back. Oh, and the bed, Travis, the bed, ugh. It¡¯s what, six-thirty now, fuck!¡± Janet had checked her watch.


    ¡°Travis, we need to find a place to stay for the night. Do you think it¡¯s just this district, or do you think we got blacklisted from the whole city?¡± Janet looked at me, a little worried, and in all honesty, I was a bit worried as well. We wasted no more time and got up, on our way to leave the Third Quarter district and finding out if we were truly fucked or not.


    So we weren¡¯t totally fuck. We finally ended up at the same place where Marissa, Michael, and the rest of their group stayed for the night. We paid for two nights, but Janet wasn¡¯t pleased with the accommodations. She had agreed to one night, but we would have to find somewhere more to her tastes the following day. Our stay didn¡¯t include breakfast or anything else, just the room. The only upside was the cost. One night at the inn was twenty silver per night per person. It was a whole lot cheaper than the inn we had been staying at previously.


    When we woke the following day, it wasn¡¯t to the sound of a soft knocking on our door that indicated our breakfast had arrived, no. We awoke to the sound of two probably cats fighting it out in the alleyway behind the inn. It was a much less pleasant way to wake up, and the worst part of the whole experience was that there were two bathrooms, and they were shared with the entire floor. It was just like college all over again, and I had been so happy to leave that part of my life behind. Janet almost entirely refused to use them, but when that urge comes, you gotta do what you gotta do.


    Our plan for today was to find a trainer. Maxine had suggested it would be a good idea, and we took her words to heart. We decided to check out the five trainers on Maxine listed. Every training yard was located in the First Quarter district. It took a while to get over to the First Quarter district. Maybe there were some great fights today or something, but the streets were packed. We left the inn in the Waning Crescent district at eleven and found the first training ground on our list just before two. It was insane, and more than once, I had to smack the hand of a pickpocket away from one of the bags of holding attached to my belt.


    When we arrived at the first of the five suggested trainers, we entered what I could most closely compare to a paddock used for houses. It was a large fenced-in mud field, and two fighters were beating the shit out of each other in the center of it. There was what must have been the instructor walking around then, watching every move they made and yelling at them when he felt they were doing something wrong.


    We hung out leaning against the wooden fence that encircled the yard and watched the two men fight for a while.


    It was only about another five minutes before the trainer called a break, and both combatants trudged off to get some water and rest. The training master walked over to a table, jotted some quick notes on a piece of paper, then sat down in a chair and drank some water. He then sat the cup down again and rested his head in one hand, supported by his elbow resting on the table beside him. I looked at Janet, and she looked at me.


    ¡°You want to go over and see if the guy will talk to us for a second?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°Fuck, seems as good a time as any. Let¡¯s go.¡± We started making our way through the mud of the training yard until we stood in front of the exhausted-looking training master. He didn¡¯t notice us until my shadow blocked the sun, hitting his face. The training master slowly opened his eyes until he was staring at Janet and myself. We just stood there for the next minute or so, Janet and I staring at the training master while he stared right back.


    ¡°Well, are you going to stand there and gawk at me all day, or are you going to ask me what you clearly came to ask me?¡±


    ¡°Okay then. Where looking for a trainer, and we just¡­¡± Janet was cut off.


    ¡°No. I¡¯m not taking on new students. I don¡¯t care how talented you are. I have my hands full as it is. Maybe you could come back in a year. A few of my students should have died by then. Now leave. Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m busy?¡± I looked at the guy again, who had shut his eyes once more, clearly done with us, and then looked over at the two people he was training resting on one side of the training yard.


    ¡°Yeah, busy, my ass,¡± I said under my breath as Janet and I left the training area.


    We tried all five names on Maxine¡¯s list and got varying versions of what the first training master said.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Well, that was a fucking waste of time,¡± Janet said as she kicked a rock. We were taking a break from our hunt for a trainer. We had decided to sit down and have a drink at a tavern with outdoor seating. The sun was hot but lovely, and a cool breeze helped with the heat. It didn¡¯t help with our mood, however. We were bummin hard. It was around five in the afternoon, and we had checked not only the five trainers Maxine had told us about but also nearly every other trainer in the area. No one was taking new students at the moment. Well, at least that¡¯s what most of them said. One trainer was a little more forthcoming.


    ¡°Train you two? Yeah, I could¡­ wait, let me see your faces again, and what were your names again?¡± When I told the man our names, and he got a better look at my face, he blinked a few times as if trying to remember something. Then he snapped his fingers as he finally remembered.


    ¡°Sorry, kids, I can¡¯t help you.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I said, confused.


    ¡°Why not? It sounded like you were considering it a second ago. What changed?¡± Janet asked the man, looking quite confused.


    ¡°Well, you see, you two pissed off some pretty powerful people, I guess. You¡¯ve been blacklisted, and if anyone trains you, they¡¯ll get blacklisted too. I can¡¯t afford to fuck with the nobility. I¡¯m not an idiot. Now fuck off. I don¡¯t want anyone thinking I was helping you or anything. Off! Go!.¡± The man had basically run us off the training field at that point, and that¡¯s how we got to where we were now. Sitting drinking our troubles away, depressed, and about ready to give up on finding a trainer.


    ¡°So we really did get blacklisted by that little shit, fuck!¡± A few patrons sitting in the tavern looked over my way at my outburst but went back to their drinks soon after.


    ¡°Yeah, this is fucked.¡± Janet and I had found a tavern close to the training yards and had been sitting there, wallowing our troubled way for over an hour now. I was on my fourth glass, and Janet was right there with me.


    ¡°What should we do now?¡± Janet asked, glancing over in my direction.


    ¡°You know this is bullshit. We should still be able to fight in the Coliseum, though. The rich little shit hopefully didn¡¯t fuck us there. Shit, he totally could have. We haven¡¯t even tried to sign up for a match yet, but now I¡¯m worried that they won¡¯t let us fight anyways. On the other hand, they could also put us against extremely dangerous opponents and try to kill us that way. I guess we won¡¯t know for sure till we try.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a good point. Either way, our lives just got a lot harder here in the city. That¡¯s for sure.¡± I couldn¡¯t disagree, and I could only nod in response to Janet.


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t help but overhear that you two are in a bit of a pickle hum?¡± I lifted my head from the beer I was currently staring into and looked around to see who had spoken. Janets was on my right side, and it sounded like the speaker was on my left, but all I could see was a mass of clothes piled up in the chair next to me. I did a double take because that pile of clothes had just moved.


    ¡°Holly shit!¡± I yelped and then fell backward out of my chair, landing ass-first on the wooden floor of the tavern.


    ¡°Oh shit Travis.¡± Janet tried to catch me as I went down but did not quite make it. She did help me get off the floor, though, and soon enough, I was back in my chair.  The man or maybe creature might have been a better word to describe the being. It was covered in mismatched, dirty, old, and smelly bits and pieces of clothing. Only its eyes and nose were visible through the shamble. I realized I had been staring when the being smiled at me, and I suddenly could see sparkling white, pointed, and dangerous-looking teeth appear amidst a disgusting beard I had just thought was another rag. At that moment, a shiver ran down my spine.


    ¡°Can we help you? You know it¡¯s rude to eavesdrop, right?¡± Janet asked the being. The being smiled even wider at Janet¡¯s words, then let out the creepiest giggle I had ever heard. It was halfway between fingers on a chalkboard and breaking glass. I flinched at the sound and shifted my chair a bit more toward Janet and away from the creepy dude.


    ¡°I do believe it was I who said I may be able to help you. You need a trainer, but no one will touch you.¡± The being giggled that awful giggle again and then kept speaking.


    ¡°What¡¯d you do? Piss of a noble or some shit?¡± When the dude got no response from either Jand or myself, they giggled again. Im sure, taking our silence as confirmation of his words. The dude giggled again.


    ¡°Well, today is your lucky day. I¡¯m a trainer myself. The name¡¯s Eikman Tando. Put her there.¡± The being, Eikman said, then stuck out his hand to shake. I looked down at the filthy and somewhat sticky hand because it did look like a human hand and then back up at Eikman¡¯s face. Yeah, I was definitely not shaking his hand. No fucking way. After a few moments of extreme awkwardness, Eikman took his hand back and then kept talking as if nothing had happened.


    ¡°You¡¯re lucky you found me, um, hum. You¡¯re definitely lucky, very lucky. I used to be one of the best fighters the Coliseum had ever seen. I used to train the best, um, hum. Then I messed up, but I fixed it, I fixed it. They didn¡¯t care. No one trains with me now. Call me the ¡°crazy trainer,¡± do they? Well, fuck them! I¡¯m not crazy. I¡¯m not crazy, damn it!¡± Eikman was breathing heavily, and It looked like the dude had totally forgotten that Janet and I were there. Then out of fucking nowhere, the guy was back.


    ¡°I can train you, though, and I don¡¯t care about the fucking Nobels. They can¡¯t shit on me more than I¡¯ve already been shit on. Let them try, um, hum. Let them try.¡± Eikman finished speaking. I figured the guy was done with his pitch cause he was just giggling to himself like a madman now. I shot Janet a worried look and received one in return. Then I looked back over at Eikman, still giggling to himself.


    ¡°Yeah, um, so Eikman was it? Thanks for the offer, but we have to go now. We made plans to meet up with some friends. We¡¯ll definitely think about your offer and let you know.¡± I downed the rest of my beer and then stood up from my seat. I gestured with my head to Janet that we should be going, and she downed her drink before standing.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯re off then. Take care, Eikman.¡± I waved to the being, but Eikman was already lost in giggles again.


    ¡°So that was fucking weird, right?¡± Janet asked me as soon as we had left the tavern.


    ¡°Yeah, that was fucking super weird. That dude is two stops past Crazy Town. No fucking joke.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that was a trip, and whatever the guy was wearing was disgusting.¡±


    ¡°Janet, the hand the guy stuck out to shake. That, that was disgusting.¡±


    Janet and I talked about the encounter we had just had all the way back to the inn where we were staying. The place was called The Bulletproof Horse. I had no idea why, but that was its name. It was on the larger side when it came to the Inns of the city, and the accommodations, as I said before, were not up to Janet¡¯s standards. We hadn¡¯t seen Michael or Marissa since we had started staying at the inn, but with all the people staying at the place, we had very little hope we would.


    We had spent far too much time looking for a trainer today, and it left us no time to find another place to stay. That only pissed Janet off more after the day we had, and everyone who crossed Janet¡¯s path as we made for our room scurried out of her way, fear evident on their faces. When we returned to the room, Janet said she was going to take a shower. I turned to remind her that the showers and restrooms were communal at this inn, but before the words could leave my lips, Janet let out a furious scream of rage.


    ¡°Janet, what¡¯s going on?¡± Without answering me, Janet just threw her towel in the air and collapsed face-first onto the bed. Then I heard Janet¡¯s muffled words through the pillow she had her face planted into.


    ¡°Fucking communal! Communal!¡± I couldn¡¯t help it, I laughed. Janet just lifted her head from the pillow on which it rested. Then she turned her head till she was looking over at me. Slowly, she dragged her arm up the bed until her hand was lying next to her face, and then she flicked me off. I laughed even harder after that, but Janet ignored me.


    That day turned out to be a total bust, and we didn¡¯t even go out to get dinner. We both lay down on the bed around 6:30, and Janet and I ended up spooning until we passed out. Thoughts were running through my head as I was falling asleep. One thought kept leaping to the forefront of my mind. Tomorrow has to be better than today, right?

 Book 2 Chapter 14 - Let’s get into a fight!

    Chapter 14


    Let¡¯s get into a fight!


    When I woke, Janet was already awake and had taken a shower. Janet was busy drying off and putting on her clothes, but when she noticed I was awake, she shot me a smile and said in a way too cheery voice.


    ¡°Morning, sleepy head. Now you¡¯re finally up, eat, and let¡¯s get going.¡±


    I winced at Janet¡¯s loud voice and then had to squint to see Janet as the sun flooded the room from an open window.


    ¡°Ahh, too bright, too loud, Janet, give me a second. Let me go to the bathroom and drop some kids off at the pool. I¡¯ll be right back. I told her. Janet just rolled her eyes at me but didn¡¯t bother me again until we were seated eating breakfast.


    ¡°So, what were you saying about a plan for the day or something?¡± I asked Janet as I shoved food into my mouth like it was the last time I would ever get to eat.¡±


    ¡°Slow down. There¡¯s no rush. I just wanted to start the day early, that¡¯s all. I was actually doing some thinking while you were sleeping and¡­¡±


    ¡°Uh oh, thinking? Now we¡¯re in trouble,¡± I cut Janet off. She threw a fork at my head, which I dodged, but I still stopped messing with her.


    ¡°no, but seriously, what were you thinking about?¡± I asked Janet


    ¡°Well, like I was saying before, I was so rudely interrupted. I thought it might not be a bad idea to find that crazy trainer from yesterday and see what he could teach us. Worst comes to worst. We waste a day, don¡¯t learn anything, and have to find someone else to teach us. Basically, it¡¯s the same position we¡¯re in right now. What¡¯s the harm in seeing what the crazy guy is all about? You down?¡± I had to think about what Janet had said for a moment. The guy did seem like a complete nut case, but maybe he had just snapped from too many matches in the Coliseum. Either way, I agreed that Janet had the right of it. Like Janet had said fuck it, we really didn¡¯t have anything to lose, so I can¡¯t see why we should at least try.


    ¡°you think the guy is gonna be at that bar like yesterday?¡± I asked.


    ¡°if not, the guy looked like a regular, or at least the bartender knew him well enough not to just kick him out. If worst comes to worst, we could ask the bartender about the guy and see what he knows.¡±


    ¡°I think you¡¯re right, Janet. That sounds like a solid plan to me.¡± To Janet¡¯s great annoyance, I popped the last piece of bacon into my mouth and asked if she was ready to go. Janet let out an exhale, cracked her neck, and then stood.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go find a madman,¡± she said, and I smiled. We had found the bar again and were now standing outside it. Why were we standing outside, you ask? Great question. The bar was closed. Yeah, neither of us had really thought through going to a bar at eight in the morning.


    ¡°So, of course, it was closed. Have you ever heard of a bar being open at eight in the morning? I haven¡¯t. Fuck! I should have thought about this.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you really should, Travis. I can¡¯t believe you.¡± I turned and looked at Janet, kind of pissed off, till I saw she was trying to hold back a laugh. I just deadpanned, then dragged my hand across my face.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Travis. So they¡¯re closed. Whatever, we¡¯ll just come later.¡± Janet¡¯s words did end up calming me down a bit, intended or not, and we now had to figure out what to do till the bar opened. Across the street from the bar was a large training area that anyone could pay to use. Janet and I had first thought about getting a bit of training in, but we gave up on that idea pretty fast. Each training area was only divided up by a wooden fence and a magical force shield. So, nothing was private, which meant going all out was a no-go if you were trying to keep any moves secret from the Coliseum.


    At the moment, we were watching two fighters training with lackluster interest. To put it bluntly, these guys sucked. Their abilities were weak, and it looked like they were fighting in slow motion compared to the speed Janet and I moved at now. It was just boring. I turned from the fight to look at Janet, who was still watching the training match, clearly as bored as I was.


    ¡°So do you want to find somewhere more private to spar, like we were talking about, or what?¡± I asked Janet. Janet looked up, let out a breath, and then looked over at me. She was about to answer me but stopped, and her eyes lit up.


    ¡°Travis! Let¡¯s sign up for a fight. Come on!¡± Then Janet was off. I almost lost her, but I managed to catch up with her, and together, we made our way to the Coliseum to get into a fight. Once we reached the Coliseum, we found the area where we could sign up for a fight, but of course, there was a line. We waited in line until we arrived at a window with an attendant sitting at a desk behind it. Even after the time it took to find the signup line and the time waiting in said line, Janet had not lost one ounce of excitement. She was now grinning widely at the attendant behind the window, which visibly weirded the attendant out.


    ¡°Hello, Miss. Is there anything I can help you with?¡± asked the attendant, clearly regretting his words the moment he had uttered them.


    ¡°Hi, yes, please! We want to sign up to fight!¡±  The attendant let out an awkward cough.


    ¡°Um, yes, Miss, I can most certainly help you with that.¡± To the attendant¡¯s credit, he got himself back together quickly and started going through some papers, looking for something. When the attendant seemed to find what he was looking for, he pulled two pieces of paper out and placed them on a clipboard, then turned his attention back to the eagerly awaited Janet.


    ¡°Let me see your GIC, and then we can find you a fight.¡± Janet almost threw her card at the man while I placed mine on the window ledge where the attendant could easily grab it. The attendant scanned our GICs and then looked over some kind of receipt that was printed out from the scanner. The attendant ripped the receipt off, picked up his clipboard again, and gave it a once-over.


    ¡°Okay, I have two time slots available back to back in three days. One at eleven and one at twelve-thirty. Do you want those two? Because this will be your first fight in the Coliseum, you will start off fighting weak opponents. This is to get an idea of your power level to help the spell diagrams and arrays we use to pick the fights and, more accurately, place you in a weight class. Plus, it helps pit bosses figure out what odds to put up. No one likes to lose money more than those guys. They set it up like this so the house won¡¯t get hit with anything unexpected.¡± The attendant said all this while rapidly filling out some forms.


    ¡°So you want the time slot?¡± the attendant asked again. We were stunned and caught up in his quick description of how the Coliseum functioned. Janet was the first to answer.


    ¡°Uh, um, yes, that will work. What was it three days from now at eleven and eleven-thirty, right?¡±


    ¡°Perfect, I¡¯ll fill the slots now.¡± The attendant, who had paused what he had been doing as he waited for Janet and I¡¯s response, was now back to rapidly filling out paperwork and speaking at the same time.


    ¡°Excellent, so I¡¯ve got you down for eleven, Janet, and twelve-thirty for you, Travis. Janet, you will be at Arena F1A2 and Travis, you will be at Arena F1A5. Make sure to be at least thirty minutes early for check-in, and that is it. Oh, except for your payment. How would you like to pay? It will be a gold per person.¡± I put the money on the window sill, and the attendant swept it up in the next second.


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    ¡°You¡¯re good to go, friends. Have a good day, and good luck in your fights. Thank you for choosing the Coliseum. Come back again soon.¡±


    The attendant said all this while he finished your paperwork and then handed us back our GICs with a ¡°fight receipt.¡± It showed where we had to go and how much we paid for our fight. We got out of the way so the next person in line could have their turn, and Janet was buzzing. It had taken a few hours to find the right line to stand in and then the whole standing-in-line thing. So, it was around lunchtime, and I was hungry. Janet always gets a little hangry when she doesn¡¯t eat regularly, and I admit I do as well, so food was the next thing on the list.


    We only had to walk for a few minutes before we found a street vendor selling meat skewers. They smelled so good that we had to stop and buy a few each. We found a bench to sit on and ate while we people-watched. It was nice to just sit there and let the movement of the city pass us by. We spent about an hour there. Not the eating part, which went relatively quickly. We even went back for seconds, but after we finished eating, it was nice to take a break and just watch people going about their day.


    We finally moved on around one o¡¯clock and decided to check the bar again. Just as we suspected, it was still closed, but as we were getting ready to head out to find something else to occupy our time until the bar opened, we saw someone entering the bar from a doorway about ten feet into an alleyway next to the place. It looked like someone was dropping off supplies, but if someone was making a delivery, there had to be someone accepting the delivery. Maybe we could just talk to whoever that person was. Worst case, we would have to return when they were open and try again.


    We made our way down the alley to the door that the delivery guy had entered and knocked a few times. It only took a few seconds before the door was yanked open, and behind it was the heavily built, human-looking bartender we had seen the day before.


    ¡°What do you want? The place is closed. Didn¡¯t you see the sign on the front door?¡±


    ¡°I understand, and I¡¯m sorry for bothering you, but we just have something we were hoping you could help us with. The bartender scowled at me, then Janet, and then started closing the door. Before he could, Janet spoke up.


    ¡°Wait, please. The man. The man in the rags. The cra¡­ crazy, crazy trainer? That¡¯s what he said people called him. You know him? You know where we can find him?¡±  The bartender stopped closing the door, but the man burst out laughing when Janet finished. He actually laughed for like a cool minute. It definitely got awkward after a while, too. When the bartender finished laughing and had whipped several tears away, he finally answered Janet.


    ¡°Yeah, I know the guy. You guys are looking for that guy?


    ¡°Yeah, you know him, right?¡± Janet followed up.


    ¡°I mean, I don¡¯t know him well. He always pays his tab on time, and so even though he¡¯s a filthy mess, I let him sit at the bar, and he keeps to himself, well, mostly. Every once and a while, he starts some shit, but when that happens, I just kick him out for the night, but he¡¯s always back the next day. Other than that, I don¡¯t know where he goes.


    ¡°Dam, well, thanks for the help. We¡¯re just trying to find out where we can find the guy.¡±


    ¡°What, are you guys looking for a trainer?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, we were hoping he could help us out,¡± I told the man.


    ¡°Well, good luck with that. All I know is that you can always find that crazy man here. Six o¡¯clock on the dot. He never misses it. Or, well, I don¡¯t know if this is any help, but I did hear him talking about some deal once with another patron at the bar. That was one of the nights I had to throw him out for inciting a fight. It was interesting, though. The two of them seemed to get into it over an agreement gone wrong. It was honestly hilarious to listen to. The guy you¡¯re looking for, ¡°The Crazy Trainer,¡± seemed to have promised this guy something, and they didn¡¯t see eye to eye on the terms of the deal.


    The guy said something about, what was it¡­ oh, right, it was something like, in a place like that, then there was something about a tannery and the smell. Oh man, the guy was so pissed. Then they started going at it, and I had to kick them both out. I haven¡¯t seen that other guy since then, but the guy you were looking for was right back here the next day. I hope that helps?¡±


    As the bartender finished his story, someone grunted in annoyance from behind us, and we quickly got out of her way. A delivery woman had a sack of what looked like potatoes slung over her shoulder. The bartender moved out of her way and watched as the woman brought the goods inside.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯ve got to deal with these deliveries, so I¡¯m going to need you to clear off, but come by anytime when we¡¯re open.¡± The bartender finished his statement and then closed the door in our faces.


    ¡°Well, I guess that¡¯s the end of that conversation, but I think we¡¯ve reached a good starting point.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that went better than I thought it would. Should we go find the tanneries?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s exactly what I was thinking,¡± and with that, Janet and I were off.


    We found the tanneries relatively easily. After asking around a bit and getting a general direction, we inevitably followed our noses. Once you were in the general vicinity of the tanneries, they were hard to miss. The air became hot, wet, and rancid as we approached our goal. The neighborhoods became worse and worse. Beggars filled the street corners, begging for work and coin, while the buildings became more and more shack-like. This was a side of the city we had not seen until now, and it was depressing.


    Janet felt so bad for one child begging that she gave her a silver coin. The look on the child¡¯s face had been magical, but as we watched the young lizard-kin girl run off, Janet began to get swarmed by young begging children, all asking for their own coin. We were so swamped by pleading and starving children that there was nothing we could do when we saw the little lizard-kin girl get stabbed in the gut before she was robbed of her silver coin and left to die on the ground.


    Janet lost it. She pushed free of the children begging around her and ran over to the small figure lying prone on the cobblestone road. Janet bent over and gently lifted the girl into her arms. The girl was still breathing, but every breath was shallow and ragged. I followed Janet over to the small dying child, and when I saw Janet slowly pouring some healing smoothie down the young girl¡¯s mouth, my first thought was that I couldn¡¯t believe she was still alive. My second was we gotta find a doctor. Yeah, my second thought was stupid, and after a few tense moments, it seemed to be working.


    The gut wound was sealing, and the child¡¯s breaths were coming more easily. Then everything went downhill fast, and the child got an intense fever before her breathing became labored once more, and then no matter how much smoothies Janet poured down the child¡¯s throat, there was no saving her. Then, moments later, the young girl was dead in Janet¡¯s arms. Janet didn¡¯t say anything, but I could see tears falling from her eyes and landing on the child¡¯s face. I gave Janet a moment to just hold the young child and cry. We stayed like that till an elderly-looking woman walked over and spit on the Cobel stones near where Janet knelt holding the small child.


    Janet¡¯s head shot up toward the woman, killing intent infused into her glare. It turned out to be a lizard-kin in her thirties, not an old lady. She had just appeared elderly because she was limping and had wrinkles covering her face. The woman held Janet¡¯s gaze for a moment, looked away with a scoff, and then spoke.


    ¡°She was always a waste of space, another mouth to feed, and never bought any money home. Good ridens. I have five other daughters and three sons already. No one will cry for this one except you. If you want to help her dear siblings, any coin would be much appreciated.¡± This, I was guessing, was the child¡¯s mother, and the lack of remorse and grief was just mind-boggling. Even Janet was speechless, but the last shameless words of the apathetic mother snapped Janet out of her shock.


    ¡°You piece of shit! This was your kid! Your fucking child, and you don¡¯t seem to give a shit. Actually, you seem happier at the fact that she¡¯s dead more than anything else. I¡¯m not giving you shit, you fucking bitch¡­¡± Janet¡¯s tirade was cut short by the lizard-kin woman.


    ¡°Fuck you! You don¡¯t know me! You don¡¯t know my life! Fuck you, you stupid whore. Go fuck your boo over there and leave us poor folk alone already. Don¡¯t pretend to know my life. She¡¯s dead, so now you give a shit? Fuck you and your¡­¡± the woman stopped talking because Janet, while still holding the dead girl in one arm, had grabbed the woman by the neck and lifted her into the air. Janet¡¯s eyes were stone, and I was starting to get nervous that she was going to kill this woman. I tried to intercede.


    ¡°Janet, maybe we should¡­¡± but then Janet cut me off.


    ¡°listen to me, listen! I could kill you like snapping a twig, but I shouldn¡¯t, right? Right? Should I protect the weak because I am strong or crush you because I can? Is that fair? Is that right? Or is that just how it is, hu?¡±  The woman could barely breathe, but she managed to squeak out.


    ¡°Then do it bitch.¡± Janet was visibly shocked by the woman¡¯s response and unceremoniously tossed her back to the ground with a look of disgust on her face.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get the fuck out of here Travis,¡±  Janet said, then coldly turned her back on the woman still holding the dead child in her arms and began to walk away. The woman started coughing on the ground and then spit up a fat lougee onto the street.


    ¡°Fuck you. Kill me! You bitch. Kill me. Come on, you fucking bitch! Kill me!¡±

 Book 2 Chapter 15 - Doctors orders

    Chapter 15


    Doctors orders


    I followed after Janet and left the dead child''s mother crying on the ground, muttering kill me under her breath with a far-off, crazed look in her eyes. I caught up with Janet, and we continued on in silence. The dead child in Janet¡¯s arms caused people on the street to give us a wide birth until we were stopped by a guard. One of the few that we saw walking the slums.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, um, excuse me, but is that your child?¡± Janet was somewhere else when the guard stopped us, so it took her a moment to register what the guard wanted.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Janet asked the guard.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, the child you are carrying, is it yours?¡±


    ¡°Oh no, she''s not mine.¡±


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, you can''t just carry a dead child through the streets. especially one that''s not yours.¡± The guard drew his sword as he said this, and his attitude shifted from concern to wary caution. The guard continued once his sword was fully drawn.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m going to need you to put the child down and put your hands in the air.¡± Janet blinked at the man a few times, registering what the guard had said, and then she started to get angry. I could see the shift in her eyes, and I knew I had to step in, or the situation might turn south quickly. I stepped forward and placed a hand on Janet¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°Sir, please wait. I believe there has been a misunderstanding. We came across this child begging and gave her a coin, but as she was walking away from us, another child stabbed her and then robbed her. We tried to save the girl, but it was too late. We¡¯re just trying to find out what to do with the body.¡± The guard listened to my story and began to relax. It seemed to be an all too common story in this district. When I was done, the guard had a knowing and sad look.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, if I may.¡± The guard made to take the child from Janet. She hesitated but inevitably handed the child over to the guard.


    ¡°Thank you, ma¡¯am. I hate to tell you this, but that is not an uncommon tail in this area. Things like this happen every day, unfortunately. Most of my fellows say good riddance. That these people aren¡¯t worth the life they have been given, but I was almost one of them when I was a kid, so I have a soft spot for the youth of the slums. The ones who were born into this shithole. I¡¯ll take her to the crematorium. They will help send her off properly. This I promise you, ma¡¯am, truly, and thank you for trying to help. Not many would do as much for one such as her.¡± Janet looked at the man almost as if she was going to say something, but eventually, it seemed the willpower left her, and she just nodded at the man, who gave Janet a slight bow of the head before heading off.


    We watched the guard leave with the child until they were out of view. At that point, I turned to Janet and pulled her into a hug. She taught me a little at first, then gave in and hugged me back. After a little while of us standing there holding each other, Janet said something I missed because her face was buried in my shoulder.


    ¡°What Was that?¡± I asked her. Janet lifted he face away from me so I could hear her properly, then repeated herself.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to talk about it, okay? Let¡¯s just keep going and find this dam trainer. My mood is totally fucked. All I want to do is hit something right now.¡± I chuckled at Janet¡¯s words, then smiled at her.


    ¡°Sure, I think hitting something really hard sounds like exactly what the doctor ordered.¡± Janet punched me softly, and I saw a few more tears fall from her eyes. She wiped them away, and we were back to looking for the crazy trainer once more. When we found the tanneries, they were pushed against the wall surrounding the entire city. A river passed through a grate into the city and then back out again. It almost looked purposefully diverted to the sole purpose of supplying the tanneries with fresh water.


    We ended up just looking around until we found what could have been a training yard once. Now, it looked like a mud pit that collected runoff from the chemicals used in the tanning process. The smell was the first thing that hit me, however, and oh my god, it was awful. Like, holy shit, it was literally burning my nostrils with each inhale. Then there was the mud. It was thick and sticky. The water that formed in puddles between mud peaks in the right light made rainbows appear that looked like straight chemical runoff. Everything about the spot seemed disgusting and literally hazardous to your health. As we looked over the fenced-in area, I spotted a shack in one corner of the yard, and sitting passed out in a rocking chair was the pile of rags we were looking for.


    We found a gate that was slowly disintegrating on one side of the yard and, from there, made our way over to the sleeping pile of rags. When we were finally standing in front of the crazy trainer, it was a bit anticlimactic. We had actually found the fucker in this big ass city, and he was asleep. While I was still thinking of a way to wake the man without being too abrasive, Janet just leaned forward and knelt down till she was mouth to ear with the trainer, and then she yelled.


    ¡°Hey! Wake the fuck up!¡± She woke the man, but there was a whole lot of spluttering and cussing, and then the trainer was on the ground.


    ¡°Magnars left nut, Are you crazy woman? Who the fuck wakes a person up from a dead sleep like that?¡± The trainer looked around to see who had come to visit, and it took a second of the man stairing at us intently before something clicked, and he seemed to remember us.


    ¡°Oh, haha, it¡¯s you. Well, I see you decided to take me up on the offer of training. Hmm. Good, good. Shall we begin then?¡±


    It took about ten minutes of dealing with the crazy trainer¡¯s giggles and random tangents before we were on the training field.


    ¡°So, haha, you want to learn what old man Eikman has to teach you, yes? Haha, well, fear not. Eikman is here. Now you won''t suck anymore. I will show you power, yes. Eikman is the best trainer. They said Eikman was shit. They said Eikman was trash and weak. Well, now we will show them. We will show them all, Eikman, yes, yes.¡±


    Eikman had started mumbling the last bit to himself under his breath. I figured it was best to try and keep the man on track.


    ¡°Hey, Eikman, come on. What¡¯s going on? We''re here to train. You gonna train us or what?¡± My interruption seemed to pull the man back into the present from his mental wonderings.


    ¡°Hum? Ah, yes, of course. Of course, Eikman will train you. Eikman will train you well, yes. Eikman swears it.¡± As Eikman finished his odd statement, he began to fiddle with his fingers anxiously.


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    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure you will, Eikman. I said as I shot Janet a ¡°What the fuck have you gotten us into¡± look that she completely ignored.


    ¡°So¡­ what now?¡± Janet asked Eikman. At this point, Eikman was just staring off into space, and it took Janet snapping her fingers at the guy before he came back to Earth.


    ¡°what? Oh right. Well, I need to see where you''re at, what you¡¯ve got, the power you hold inside. Show me, show me, haha, yes.¡± After Eikman finished, he quickly jumped back and away from where Janet and I stood about twenty feet. It caught me off guard and made me rethink my preconceived notions about the trainer. Maybe he wasn¡¯t just a fucking lunatic.


    ¡°Now, haha, spar, fight, go at it. Come on now, I haven¡¯t got all day. Haha, that¡¯s a lie. I do have all day, haha. Come on, stop gawking at me like fools and fight already.¡± Janet and I looked at each other like what the fuck? But we were here to train, so, fuck it was all that came to mind. I looked over at Janet and shrugged.


    ¡°Let¡¯s do this?¡± I said. Janet only shrugged in reply, and we got into position for a spar.  Janet and I usually started our practice matches about twenty feet apart. We took our position. To make our spars fair, we had made it a practice of throwing a knife into the air in between the two of us, and when the knife hit the ground, the match began. We treated this like any other spar, so I pulled a knife from my bag and asked Janet if she was ready. She nodded, and I tossed the blade a good forty feet in the air. As the knife fell, we readied ourselves for the fight to come.


    The dagger hit the mud, and I moved. The clash of mine and Janet''s first attack shocked the ground. Eikman actually fell onto his ass laughing the whole way down. We went all out. Nobody was in this part of town that wasn¡¯t busy working. The smell was so bad that even the beggars avoided the area. So there wasn¡¯t anyone around to hide their moves from. That made going all out much easier and less worried that we might be exposing our secrets.


    When the spar ended, Janet had a large cut running down her face, and I was missing a few fingers. Eikman, who had started laughing with our first clash that had knocked him to the ground, had just continued laughing as our spar progressed. By the end, he was hugging himself and rolling around on the ground, laughing hysterically.


    Janet and I made our way over to Eikman, who was lost to his laughter, and waited for him to calm down. I don¡¯t know how long it took Eikman to stop laughing, not because I wasn¡¯t paying attention. No, Janet had just gotten sick of waiting for the guy to get his shit together. Janet bent over, lifted Eikman up, and placed him on his feet.


    Eikman stopped laughing for a moment and started again when he realized what had just happened. Janet then slapped him across the face and told him to pull it together. A few chuckles later, Eikman was wiping tears from his eyes and breathing slowly and with intention. When the laughter was finally out of Eikman, he let out a breath and then spoke.


    ¡°What a show, what a show. Good to see young people with such vigor and drive. Excellent, just excellent.¡±


    ¡°Okay, that''s great, but¡­¡± Janet started talking but was quickly cut off by Eikman.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t finished, child. As it is, you still have much to work on. Oh my, so so much. Sloppy, very sloppy, but Eikman sees. Oh, haha, Eikman does. Your foot work so sloppy, haha. Your movements are so, so wasteful, haha. A good base to work from, yes, but much to be done. Yes, much.¡± I thought about what Eikman was saying, and he was right. Neither Janet nor myself were formally trained in combat. We had just thrown together what we could with the resources available at the time. While I was left thinking about what Eikman had said, Janet had taken it the wrong way and looked like she was ready to kill the fucker.


    ¡°You little shit. We just busted our asses while you sat there laughing your ass off. So fuck you. I¡¯d like to see you step into the ring with me. See what the fuck happens.¡± Janet was pissed off, and before I knew it, the laughter was gone from Eikman, and a feeling of dread started to spread from the trainer. The next second, Janet, who had been all up in Eikmans personal space, was gone.


    Now, she hadn''t vanished like teleportation, although it initially seemed like that. No, Janet had been hit so hard and fast by I was assuming Eikman that she had been sent flying and only stopped when she hit the wall that surrounded the city and got stuck there. Eikman had just hit Janet so hard that she had been embedded into the wall. I turned from looking at where Janet had landed back at Eikman with a newfound respect. Holly shit, this Eikman guy was crazy strong. Only seconds after dispatching Janet, Eikman was back to his usual giggly self.


    ¡°Oops, did I do that? Haha.¡± Eikmans words brought me back to earth, and I realized it was probably a good idea to check on Janet. In the next minute, I had Janet free of the wall and lying in the least muddy area of the training yard I could find. She seemed to be okay just knocked out cold. I pulled a shirt from one of my bags and placed it under Janet¡¯s head before I walked back over to Eikman. He had returned to sitting in his rocking chair while waiting for me to finish attending to Janet. I dusted off my hands as I sat on the porch beside Eikman.


    ¡°So, how long did you fight in the Coliseum?¡± I asked Eikman. Neither of us was facing the other. We were looking out over the training yard and taking in the serenity. Eikman sighed at my question, and it was as if a moment of clarity washed over the man as he answered me.


    ¡°Travis, was it? Well, whatever, look, I don¡¯t look it, but I¡¯m over two hundred years old. In my two-hundred-plus years of life, I have fought countless matches in the Coliseum. I¡¯ve had it all, and I¡¯ve watched it all slip away. Friends you thought would be by your side forever, casting you aside like trash. Prostitutes and drug addiction become the closest thing to family you have, and then to watch even that get ripped away. I have seen my fair share of the hells, so I will tell you this once and only once. So listen well.


    There is only one thing in this life that is given freely, and that is pain. So learn pain, live pain, make pain your world, and no one will ever hurt you again. Pain is your ally. reminder that young man.¡± I sat there for a second, thinking about what Eikman had said. I could understand his point to some extent, but there was a tragic tail somewhere in Eikmans past.


    `It didn¡¯t seem like a topic he was fond of talking about, but I just needed to know more. I mean two hundred years. That was crazy. The guy didn¡¯t look a day over, well, I guess rags wasn¡¯t an age. He could have totally looked his age under all that mess, but I had a feeling he didn¡¯t. I turned to ask Eikman about the craziest fight he¡¯d been in, but as I turned toward the man, he let out a loud snore, and I realized he had passed out. I guess he is an old man after all, huh?


    Twenty minutes later, Janet woke up and was very confused until I explained what had happened. Janet almost laughed at me when I first said that it was Eikman who had hit her, but then the fact that I couldn¡¯t fucking do that, and if I didn¡¯t, then by process of elimination, it had to be Eikman. Then Janet''s laugh turned into a gulp, and she stared at Eikman with a mix of confusion, aww, and fear. It was honestly a bit hilarious, but I managed to keep my mirth under control, for Janet¡¯s sake.


    I pulled a bottle of water from one of my bags and passed it to Janet. It took a few slaps of the water bottle against her arm before she took it, but she drank half the bottle before she passed it back. I figured that was a good sign. I don¡¯t really know why the fact she was drinking water after she had literally been cartoon-slammed into a wall was something I found reassuring, but It did. Five minutes after that, Janet and I were sitting on Eikmans porch. Porch would be one word you could use to describe it. You could also say it was a pile of random wooden planks barely hanging together, or you could call it a pile of trash. You could really take your pick, but I was leaning toward the pile of rubbish.


    Eikman was still passed out, and Janet was kind of excited now. It was odd as if she was convinced that Eikman was some hidden sage from some story. She was sure this was when we would go through an incredible training montage. We would get super strong and roll into the Coliseum like, what''s up bitches. I thought Janet was being a bit silly, but part of me was right there with her. If it was that easy to become a powerhouse, everybody would be doing it. I was starting to worry a little about what this ¡°training¡± was going to entail.


    Janet and I sat there for another ten minutes before we decided it was probably time to wake up Eikman. We could let him sleep, and no one else would be making any more wall angels, but where was the fun in that? We woke Eikman, and there was a bit of sputtering and arm flailing before he was up and ready to work again. Minutes after Eikman was awake, Janet, Eikman, and I were back in the middle of the training yard. Janet and I were both weary about what was to come, and the devilish grin on Eikmans face didn¡¯t help with my trepidation.

 Book 2 Chapter 16 - This guy might actually be insane

    Chapter 16


    This guy might actually be insane


    ¡°Shit! Ow, damn it, Janet, that fucking hurt. Just pay attention. Ow!¡± Eikman had decided that the best and fastest way for both of us to improve was with pain. You would think then that if you messed up, you would be met with punishment, but no. For every mistake I made, Janet felt the pain, and I felt the pain for every mistake she made. One lesson had Janet and I balancing smaller and smaller rocks one atop the other, but if they fell, the one who wasn¡¯t doing the balancing would get punched by Eikman, hard, right in the face. At one point, I got pissed at Janet for almost knocking over her stack of rocks. She had looked me dead in the eyes and said,


    ¡°fuck you,¡± before she purposefully knocked her stack over, never breaking eye contact. Eikman giggled with joy before delivering a fist right into my jaw.


    When I woke up, I had been knocked unconscious. Janet did at least apologize for taking out her frustration on me before we got right back to more punishment. The day went on like this. We would do fine motor skills work and movment control training broken up by carrying extremely heavy and awkwardly shaped objects for long periods. We ended up dead on our feet as six o''clock rolled around, and at that point, Eikman called it a day, saying he had an appointment he needed to keep. Janet and I knew he was talking about going to get wasted, but we were exhausted at that point. We were just glad to be done for the day.


    We said our goodbyes to Eikman and agreed to meet the man back at the same spot the following day at 10 AM. We were so tired and bruised that we barely made it back to the inn where we were staying. When we did, we entered our room, took a shower, and then passed out. It looked like Janet had given up on trying to find a new place to stay, at least for now. That was the last thought that ran through my head before I passed out. The following day, we made our way to Eikmans place and stood outside the man''s shack, debating who would knock, when a voice came out of nowhere.


    ¡°What are we doing?¡± Janet and I both jumped about a foot in the air and then spun to see Eikman looking at them curiously.


    ¡°Shit, Eikman, you scared the shit out of me,¡± I told the man.


    ¡°We were actually looking for you. What were you up to?¡± Janet followed up.


    ¡°Ah, Eikman has something special for today. It''s our true first lesson. Yesterday was a free trial.


    ¡°Free trial?¡± I said in a lackluster tone.


    ¡°Oh yes, not free, no, no, no. Eikman is the best trainer, so one silver a day you must pay, haha. I made a rime, you see, haha.¡± It wasn¡¯t a bad price, so I flipped Eikman two silvers. Eikman snatched the coins from the air, giggling the whole time. I shrugged at Janet, and she just shrugged back.


    ¡°So what¡¯s on the agenda for today, Eikman?¡± Janet asked the trainer. Eikman tucked the two silver coins away and then looked at Janet with a blank expression.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Eikman said. Janet just rolled her eyes at the man before repeating her question. Eikman had a smile back on his face in seconds.


    ¡°Aw, yes, that is what I have been doing this morning. Now come follow Eikman.¡± As he finished his words, Eikman turned and started running off. I looked at Janet, and together, we took off after our new trainer. We almost lost the fucker when we reached a more crowded area. It looked like we were heading towards one of the gates to the city. I guess we were going outside the walls, and yep, through the gate we went.


    After exiting the city, we followed Eikman along the outside of the wall for about ten minutes till we came to a small camp surrounded by cages, most with cloths thrown over them and some empty. All told, there were probably fifteen of the things, and they varied in size from as small as a lunchbox to three cages that could have fit an elephant. In the middle of the camp, there was a fire lit. A short man with long ears, long white hair, and a beard to match was sitting beside it. The man was dressed in worn leather pants with a cotton shirt and leather vest. A blanket was draped over his shoulders, and a pot bubbled away on the fire before him.


    ¡°Hey, Howsmer! Howsmer, yoo hoo! It¡¯s me, Eikman!¡± The Man, Howsmer, I was assuming, looked up from the pot he was tending, saw Eikman, and then waved in greeting. As we approached the man, he spoke.


    ¡°Morning, Eikman. Good to see ya. So these are your new students you were talking about last night?¡± The man then held out a hand and dropped two silvers into Eikman¡¯s open and awaiting palm. The man then spit on the ground.


    ¡°Honestly, I can¡¯t fucking believe that you actually found two morons that, I mean bright young people, with a passion for learning¡­ Oh, fuck it. Are you two fucking insane working with this crazy man? Like, no, I mean. For real? Have you lost your minds? No offense, Eikman. Oh, and you''re paying him for this training? He said you were paying him. Is that true?¡±  The change in attitude from Howsmer caught me a bit off guard, but I answered the man. Starting to feel a little embarrassed.


    ¡°Um, yeah, we paid him but wait, why the fuck are we here, Eikman, and what the fuck was that? Why did you give him those silvers? Howsmer was it?¡±


    Howsmer looked shocked momentarily, and then my words seemed to register.


    ¡°What Silver? Oh, haha yeah, I lost a fucking bet.¡±


    ¡°Yes! See Howsmer. I told you, I told you. They pay, and I train. I am their trainer, and so you paid, you paid! Haha.¡± Eikman chimed in, cackling with mirth. Clearly very happy with his victory. Howsmer shot a scowl at Eikman, then waved him off.


    ¡°Yeah, I lost the bet. What of it? You got your two silver, crazy man.¡±


    Eikman just kept cackelling. Janet and I were missing something about the relationship between these two. Maybe old friends? I didn¡¯t fucking know, but this was starting to get old.


    ¡°Hey, this is great, you know, and all, but what the fuck are we doing here, Eikman? Did we just come out here so you could win a bet, or is this actually something to do with training.¡±


    ¡°I can answer this one.¡± Howsmer looked at Eikman for the go-ahead, and Eikman just nodded with an eager look in his eyes that scared me a little.


    ¡°Right, well, you''re gonna be fighting some beasties. I got locked in a cage over there,¡± Howsmer explained. Then, he pointed over his shoulder with a thumb and a grin. Even though I didn¡¯t know the man, I was now nervous about what was to come. I looked over at Janet, and she just shrugged at me. I gulped.


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    ¡°Why the fuck did I agree to this again?¡± I was standing in a large enclosure, kind of like a horse pen. The enclosure was about twenty feet in diameter, and there was a gnashing, snarling demond of a creature locked behind a gate that let into the pen. I was here because I was supposed to be learning something by fighting this creature. It was a dexterity-based creature, and this fight was supposed to help my movement and reaction speed. It felt more like a reason for Eikman and Howsmer to bet on something, but I was trying to see the silver lining in the situation.


    ¡°You can do it, Travis woohoo! Go, Travis!¡± Eikman was my cheering section, with the occasional,


    ¡°Come on, Travis!¡± From Janet Or a,


    ¡°Don¡¯t get blood all over the yard,¡± from Howsmer. It was super encouraging.


    I had yet to learn what level this creature was or what it was capable of. Honestly, I couldn''t even see much of the thing behind the wall that was restraining the creature. This was fucked. I had no idea why I had agreed to this. Oh yeah, now I remember I was an idiot. I was standing there, weapon at the ready, waiting for Howsmer to drop the gate and the fight to start, when Howsmer called over to me.


    ¡°Oy, kid, just so you know, Eikman wants the Mana zappers turned on, so you won''t be able to use Mana. That means no abilities either, so um¡­ good luck.¡± With that and a shocked look on my face, the gate separating me from my now dropped.


    ¡°Damn it! You motherfuckers!¡± That was the last thing I said before the hell began.


    I was rolling on the ground, but I couldn¡¯t stay here. I had to move. I jumped to the side and then shot forward. Teremnocal whistling as it split the air. I was so close, but then fuck, move, and I had to dance once again out of range.


    This damn creature was insane. It was truly an abomination that was thought up by some sick fucking scientist because there was no way nature made this thing. When I had identified the thing, I found out it was called The Bandersicul. It looked like a squid that moved through the air like water, but if you let it at that, you would be underselling the thing by a large margin.


    At the end of each of its squid-like tentacles were long razor blades type appendages that the creature could spin in some fucked up way a full 360 degrees. It said something in the creature¡¯s description about small ball joints that had been an evolution to yada, yada. I hadn''t read the thing too closely as The Bandersicul was trying to kill me at the time. The special thing about The Bandersicul was the stinger that sat at the top of its head, and it could swing that thing around and stab its target fast. Believe me, I found out the hard way a few times. The venom wasn''t too bad, but I think I had my corruption resistance to thank for that.


    The Bandersicul had managed to stab me in my right arm and in my back with its poison stinger. The areas hurt and burned a bit, and then there was a numbing sensation spreading from the wounds, and that was freaking me out. I didn¡¯t want to lose the use of my right hand in particular. If I did, this fight would be over really fast. Fighting The Bandersicul was like having a panic attack. One second, you thought you were getting a handle on the situation, and then everything would be much worse again moments later.


    There was no resting or stopping because then you¡¯d be dead. The creature had eight arms and two longer tentacles. Each arm had a spinning blade, while the two tentacles were more there to grab hold of The Bandersicul¡¯s pray so it could cut it into tinny pieces. I had almost been grabbed multiple times now in our fight, and I knew that if it got a hold of me, that was it. Game over, man.


    Woosh, an arm with a spinning blade whipped inches away from my face as I slipped past the strike. I spun my Teremnocal around in a half circle and brought it down, severing the arm that had almost cut my head off. As I sliced through the appendage, the arm separated, sending the blade end flying off in one direction while The Bandersicul sucked back the remnants of its severed arm towards itself, clearly in pain.


    Ther Bandersicul had a small beck-like mouth hidden in the midsts of its many arms, and as it retracted its arm, it hissed at me. I felt some mental pressure as if the creature''s scream was channeled directly into my brain. It fucking hurt, and I winced in pain. This moment of hesitation seemed to be exactly what the creature was trying to achieve with this attack. As soon as I had winced in pain from the mental strain. The Bandersicul came at me with everything it had. I think the creature saw that moment as its opportunity to get the kill, and it was not going to miss its chance.


    The pain from The Bandersiculo¡¯s mental attack had caught me off guard, but I knew the creature would try and kick me while I was down, so as I closed my eyes, wincing with pain, I instantly retreated and just missed being impaled. I opened my eyes just in time to block a follow-up attack and then scamper out of range. As our fight raged on, I managed to cut three more arms off the creature before I fucked up.


    I had just executed a fantastic dodge that was more of a ballet pirouette than anything else when I got cocky. I turned to look at the creature that had just missed me so completely. I was about to yell out, "Missed me," but in my excitement at executing such an elegant dodge, the whole reason for this training, I forgot about the tentacles. So when I dodged The Bandersicul and turned to watch it zoom past me, I felt the cold, wet, and sticky tentacles close around my leg.  At that moment, all I managed to say was,


    ¡°Damn it, really!?!?¡± Before, I was yanked off my feet and beaten an inch from death. Apparently, it was actually pretty close. Like, the creature almost actually killed me. I didn¡¯t find that out till later as I had been out cold at that point in the fight, or maybe beating was more accurate. All I remembered was blades, so many blades, then pain, and then nothing.


    When I finally awoke, I shot to a seated position, arms flailing and eyes spinning wide with fear. Suddenly, someone wrapped me up in a hug and held me until I calmed down. When I was finally calm, I realized Janet was holding me, and when I hugged her in return, she finally let go. She checked me over like a worried mother for a bit. Once she saw that the healing pill Eikman had made me swallow had done its job, she let out a sigh and then smacked me on the back of the head, causing my vision to go black for a second.


    ¡°What the fuck! Ow, Janet, what was that for?¡± I asked her. Even though I had healed up, it didn¡¯t mean I wasn¡¯t still sore. Because I was sore, all over.


    ¡°Are you fucking serious? What was that for? You fucking dumb ass, you almost got yourself killed. Did you forget the safe word, or were you just that sure of yourself?¡± Janet asked me. I blinked a few times at her words,


    ¡°There was a safe word?¡± That just earned me another slap on the back of the head.


    ¡°What happened?¡± I asked Janet. Still slightly dazed.


    ¡°Hum, well, let''s see. You fought a level thirty-five creature that focused on dexterity, and you got your ass kicked. That a good enough summary for you?¡± Janet said all this with a look on her face that said you are a fucking moron.


    ¡°Level thirty-five, hu? Not bad. With a focus in dexterity and me without Mana. I think I did pretty well if I do say so myself.¡± I was caught up in thought as a small smile creased my lips, so I didn¡¯t notice when Janet slapped me across the face.


    ¡°Ow, hey, what the fuck?¡±


    ¡°Travis, I don''t think you understand, you dumb ass, but let me spell it out for you. You, almost, fucking, died, you, fucking, idiot.¡± That made me blush. Janet was right; I was being reckless and stupid. I let out a sigh.


    ¡°You''re right, Janet. I¡¯m sorry. I shouldn¡¯t be so reckless. Thank you for helping me see that.¡± Janet looked slightly shocked at my change of heart, but she played it off.


    ¡°Well, good, good, and while that fucking smirk off your dumb face.¡±


    ¡°You jump in the ring already?¡±


    ¡°what? Oh no, not yet. I was about to. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, idiot.¡± I laughed at Janet.


    ¡°Well, come on. Let''s see what you got, Miss Kats.¡±  Janet shot me a dirty look but still got up and headed over to the entrance to the enclosure, where Eikman and Howsmer were waiting, having a chat of their own. As Janet approached them, Eikman was the first to notice her. He let out a squeal of joy as he looked at Janet.


    ¡°Are you ready now? Have you cried over your fallen love enough? Swoonded even. Haha.¡±


    ¡°Shut the fuck up, Eikman. Let¡¯s do this.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so eager. Well, yes, yes, shall we?¡± Eikman replayed, rubbing his hands together like a fucking creep.


    ¡°And remember, ma¡¯am, the safe word is loser. Got it.¡± Howsmer added.


    ¡°Stupid fucking safe word,¡± Janet muttered, then slammed her fist into her palm and walked into the enclosure. As she did, the last thing I heard her say was,


    ¡°Let¡¯s fucking do this!¡±

 Book 2 Chapter 17 - M.T.C.

    Chapter 17


    M.T.C.


    ¡°You got this, Janet!¡±


    ¡°Fuck you, Travis! Fuck! Aw shit!¡±


    ¡°Watch out, Janet!¡±


    ¡°I know! Stop distracting me! Shit, Shit, Shit!¡±  Janet had been fighting The Bandersicul for about two minutes with mixed results. They had put her against a fresh Bandersicul that still had all its appendages, but Janet quickly remedied that. She had severed four of its eight legs and one of its two tentacles. Janet honestly embraced the spirit of the training exercise better than I had. The whole reason we were fighting a dexterity-based creature with our Mana suppressed was to learn how to cut down unnecessary movement.


    Janet had taken a good number of cuts all over her body for her commitment, but I could see her start to improve visibly over the last two minutes. When the match ended, it happened fast. Janet took a deep cut to the back of one calf, followed up with a swift slash to the neck that left arterial blood spraying. She had to clamp her hand down on the wound to stanch the bleeding and was forced to end the match.


    ¡°Fuck! God damn it, loser! Loser! Get me the fuck out of here!¡±


    ¡°Oh, come on, Janet. You¡¯ve got this. Don¡¯t give up. You can do this!¡± Eikman looked at Janet, bleeding out on the ground, and gave her a thumbs up.


    ¡°God damn it, Eikman. Howsmer, get me the fuck out of her!¡± The Bandersicul was closing on Janet, and if Howsmer did do something soon, Janet might die. I thought about breaking into the enclosure to save her, but I knew I wouldn¡¯t make it.


    ¡°Howsmer, what the fuck are you waiting for!¡±  Yelled at the man. I was about to start panicking. Then, Howsmer flipped out a small control device and clicked a button on it. The Bandersicul, which was moments away from eviscerating Janet, froze in mid-air and started spasming. Howsmer then opened the enclosure door and ran in with a long hook on the far end. Howsmer got the hook close to The Bandersicul, and a flash of lighting connected the creature to the hook. Howsmer then dragged the creature off to a cage and locked it up.


    I ran into the enclosure right behind Howsmer and fed Janet a healing pill that Howsmer threw me. Seconds after, the blood stopped its flow, and shortly after that, her neck wound sealed shut completely. Janet must have still lost too much blood, or maybe the healing pill took it out of her because after most of her wounds were healed, her eyes fluttered, and Janet was down for the count. Once Janet woke up, we rested for about an hour, and then each of us went at The Bandersicul again. It was then rinse and repeat till we were both dead on our feet, and the healing pills had lost most of their effectiveness. I don¡¯t know how we made it back to the inn, but we did, and we passed out.


    The next morning, we met Eikman at his home. Surprisingly, Howsmer was there helping Eikman set up what looked like a bunch of land mines, but each one was two feet in diameter. They were thin and looked to be made of metal. As Janet and I approached the fence surrounding Eikman''s muddy training field, Janet called out two of the two old men.


    ¡°What the fuck are you old bastards doing? You trying to blow us up now?¡±


    both Eikman and Howsmer looked over at us with questioning looks on their faces.


    ¡°Blow you up? What are you talking about, you crazy girl? Honestly, kids these days, you know?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good you''re here. This was the last one, and it¡¯s finally ready. We¡¯ve been working on this all morning. This is a mobile training circuit. You can buy these arrays or rent them and then lay them out in different designs to change the circuit to accommodate the training you''re trying to accomplish. For example, we set this MTC up to train your movment speed and your timing, two things that will have the lagest impact on your matches coming up in the next few days.¡±


    ¡°How is that a training device? It just looks like a bunch of oversized land minds?¡± As Janet finished her statement, Eikman let out a burst of Mana. I felt it with my ability of Mana Manipulation, and the Mana quickly infused into each disc. Magically, a glowing, partially see-through, fully functional obstacle course popped into existence. It was amazing, and Janet stopped speaking, and we both hopped over the fence to get a closer look. I walked up to the closest piece of the course and instinctively raised my hand up to touch it. I half expected my hand to pass right through it, but it stopped as my hand made contact with the structure. It was like touching glass but with the feel that wasn¡¯t slippery. It was crazy.


    I was mesmerized, so when the mud ball hit me in the ear, I was taken entirely by surprise. Then there was a second splat, and Janet let out a sputter followed by,


    ¡°What the fuck! Who the fuck is trying to die!¡±


    ¡°Oh good, I¡¯ve got your attention. I know you locals have probably never seen anything like this, but these kinds of constructs are used all over the globe, so get used to them. Now, this is what I will be doing today. You will run this circuit till you puke your guts out, haha.¡± Eikman explained, then laughed at Janet and I pulling mud out of our ears and hair.


    ¡°So, who¡¯s first.¡± Said Howsmer with a smile. I just looked at Janet like you know this is gonna suck, right? Janet slapped herself in the face, shocking everyone except Eikman, who squealed a bit in joy and then clapped a few times. Then Janet spoke with a determined look in her eye,


    ¡°Let¡¯s fucking do this.¡± Then she punched her fist into her palm, the embodiment of determination.


    Janet decided that she was going to go first today and now stretching it out.


    ¡°You''re fine. Just go at it all ready. Come on.¡± Eikman was bouncing on his toes with anticipation.


    ¡°Calm down, old man. I''m ready. Let¡¯s do this. So what¡¯s the goal here? Make it through the whole circuit without getting hit?¡± Janet asked Eikman. Eikman started laughing.


    ¡°What?¡± Janets said, confused at his reaction.


    ¡°Well, if you can make it all the way through this circuit without getting hit once, you would definitely have won, but let''s start with just trying to stay within the bounds of the circuit. See those glowing lines on the ground there? Those are the circuit''s boundaries. If you leave that boundary, your run is over. Got it?¡± Howsmer answered Janet as Eikman had his hands over his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter. While Eikman was still working to pull his shit together, Janet started her run.


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    _________________________________


    I knew I was fast. Fuck I thought I was fast. I''d considered myself somewhat agile. No, I''m super agile. Janet, get the fuck out of your head. These obstacles are just fucking ridiculous. Not get hit, what the fuck was I thinking. I can¡¯t even count how many times I¡¯ve been hit now. Howsmer was right. I¡¯m barely able to stay within the boundaries.


    This is crazy!  Okay, next obstacle, keep it moving, Janet. This was what, number four? No, fuck! That was only the second? Shit! Come on. Fuck! Damn it, a semi-transparent fist hit me in the side of the face, and then ten more did, and I was thrown out of bounds ending my first run.


    ¡°Fuckin shit!¡± Oh, great. Now I was covered in mud, of course.


    ¡°Janet, you okay?¡± Travis had run over to check on me, but I was fine. It was more my pride that was hurt than anything else. This fucking obstacle core was insanely difficult. I wouldn¡¯t let this fucking thing beat me. I¡¯m fucking Janet Kats. I¡¯ll make this circuit, my fucking bitch god damn it! It was time to answer Travis, he was starting to look concerned.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll be fine. I just thought I¡¯d have made it a bit farther than I did, you know? But fuck it, ill get further next time. You ready? It¡¯s your turn now.¡± I took the hand Travis offered and pulled myself to my feet. He had no idea what he was in for. The training circuit was much more intense than I had first thought. If we were going to run this thing all day, then we might be fucked for our fights tomorrow. As I thought about that fact more, I decided it was something worth bringing up.


    Travis was doing some last-minute stretches, so I figured now was as good a time as any. Maybe it was also a good call to ask about our recovery for tomorrow before Travis ran in there all amped up and fucking got hurt. I¡¯m sure Howsmer doesn¡¯t have an endless supply of those healing pills he gave me. Shit, Travis was about to start his run.


    ¡°Hey, one second, Travis. Before you start your run. Eikman, we told you that we have our first fights in the Coliseum tomorrow. Are we going to be all worn out? Shouldn¡¯t we, like, be resting or some shit the day before a fight. Am I wrong?¡± Eikman and Howsmer looked at each other before looking back at me. Then Eikman replied.


    ¡°Well, the simple answer is no, Haha. Ha, ha, no, but seriously, there''s a pill for that. You¡¯ll laugh when you hear the name of the pill, too. Ha, ha, it¡¯s called The Fighters Slumber, Ha, ha.¡± Eikman finished laughing.


    ¡°Fuck yeah. There are some upsides to this fucked up world. I bet it cures a hangover as well, ha.¡± Travis said, a little too happy to hear about this good night¡¯s sleep in a pill. I was pretty excited as well. It meant we could train all day. Spend as much time as we could improving ourselves, then still be able to fuck shit up tomorrow.


    ¡°Well fuck then, let''s do this.¡±


    ¡°And Im keeping track of what you¡¯ll owe Howsmer for the pills, too, so don''t worry about trying to keep all those big numbers straight in your heads. Just focus on training today.¡± Eikman informed Travis and me while smiling earnestly.¡±


    ¡°Wait! How much do we owe as of now?¡± Travis asked Eikman.


    ¡°Yeah, same question?¡± I asked Eikman.


    ¡°I mean, pills aren''t free. Let¡¯s see it¡¯s up, too¡­¡± Eikman paused while he dug through his rags, pulling out bits of paper here and there. Howsmer cleared his throat before loudly whispering in Eikmans ear.


    ¡°Pisssst, Eikman, fifty silver, and forty coppers.¡± Eikman didn¡¯t respond. He just nodded slightly before looking back at Travis and then myself.


    ¡°It¡¯s up to fifty silver and forty coppers, now I remember. I was going to let you pay after your fights. We¡¯re training now. Travis, go, come on, move it. We don¡¯t have all day. Well, I guess we do, but that''s not the point. Come on, Travis, we don''t have all day!¡± Eikman finished, almost yelling. Travis had face-palmed at Eikman''s word, but then he looked at me, shrugged, and started walking over to the training circuit.


    Eikman, that motherfucker. He was definitely going to get a piece of my mind. After Travis is done,


    ¡°Come on, babe! You got this!¡± Oh fuck, did I just call him babe? Shit.


    _________________________________


    Shit! That fucking hurt. Janet wasn¡¯t lying. This circuit was something else. There were climbing obstacles, hanging obstacles, balancing obstacles, and many more. In total, there were twenty different obstacles in the circuit. It was kind of like that TV obstacle course show, except you did not only have to complete the obstacle but also avoid all the shit trying to smash your face in. Oh, and there was a Mana cancelation array, so you know no abilities.


    It was, let''s just say, difficult to just stay on the circuit, let alone finish the entire thing. I made it to the third obstacle, just as Janet had. Then it just became too much, and I got smacked in the face while hanging from my fingertips, and it was game over. I hit the ground hard, but it was my face that hurt the most. That fucking fist had come out of nowhere and smacked me right in the jaw. Then, when I was disoriented from the first punch, I got hit at least ten to fifteen more times.


    Most had been directed at my face as well. So when I hit the ground, I covered my head instinctively. I stayed like that till Janet placed a hand on my shoulder, causing me to flinch and then relax when I realized it was Janet and not another fist.


    ¡°It¡¯s just me. Come on, get the fuck up.¡± Janet said as she offered me her hand with a smirk. I took the offered hand and pulled myself back up onto my feet, then tried my best to whip the worst of the mud of my clothing.


    ¡°Thanks, that circuit is fucking crazy. I don¡¯t see us finishing it today. Even that third obstacle is stupidly difficult.¡± I said as Janet and I returned to the start of the circuit once more.


    ¡°Fuck! You''re telling me, but I honestly find it a bit exciting to test myself like this, you know? Really push my skills? Plus, with the Mana suppression array active, there are no tricks and no magic. It¡¯s just you against the machine or, well, magical array, but tomato, tomato.¡±  I thought about what Janet said as we reached the starting point of the circuit. She had a point. This was an opportunity to push my body''s limits and see what I could accomplish. As I pondered, Janet started her second run.


    We started to progress further through the training circuit, but eventually, we would be tossed off at some point during every attempt. By five o¡¯clock in the afternoon, Janet and I were each able to reach the tenth obstacle. I had made it to the eleventh twice, and Janet made it there once, but I could tell I was reaching my limit. Maybe I was just mentally exhausted, or perhaps I had gotten to a point where my increase was too incrementally to satisfy my gluttony for improvement. Either way, I got more and more frustrated with every run. I decided I needed to take a step back and just meditate to calm my mind.


    I found a spot to sit on one side of the training yard. It was a barely standing bench, but it could bear my weight, so I figured it was fine. It was better than sitting in the mud, at least. I shut my eyes and began the process of calming my mind. It was only minutes into the process when I heard Janet cursing.


    ¡°Fuck you, mother fucking ass! This fucking thing will not beat me. It will not beat me! Ahh!¡± I couldn¡¯t help it, I started chuckling. Janet heard me and looked over in my direction. They shot me a sarcastic smile, then flicked me off. That only made me laugh, but then Janet was returning to the start of the circuit to try again. It was only on Janet¡¯s fourth run that I noticed something.


    Janet was on the eighth obstacle. She had passed this obstacle many times by now, and I could tell she was just trying to go through the motions and get to her real goal of passing the thirteenth. She was about halfway through the obstacle array, a mix of monkey bars with gaps you had to swing and let go of to reach the next one and then balance beams that you would have to jump between to reach the end of the obstacle. While you were doing this, you had to fight spirit-like beings that looked like ghosts, but they didn¡¯t hit like one.


    It was during Janet¡¯s switch from the monkey bar part of the obstacle to the balance beam section I saw it. There was a pattern of the attacks, and it had just changed. As I sat there and watched Janet run the circuit, patterns in the attacks began appearing everywhere. It was all patterns. Not necessarily perfect patterns, but it was there. When Janet was at the thirteenth obstacle, I lost the patterns for a while. They just became too iritic, but as I sat and watched, slowly, a pattern emerged. It was longer and more complicated, but I could see it, and then I frowned.


    As I watched Janet dance through the obstacle, she was unknowingly, flowing with the pattern I was seeing. Slowly, she began to fall out of the dance, and I could see it. I could tell she was going to get kicked off the circuit... Right... Now.


    ¡°Mother fucker!¡± My mouth fell open slightly at the shock at what I had just seen and predicted. Holy shit, what the fuck just happened? I had to try. I had to find out. I had to make a run. I stood up, dusted myself off to the best of my ability, and walked over to the starting line.

 Book 2 Chapter 18 - Bulling inanimate objects, yeah!

    Chapter 18


    Bulling inanimate objects, yeah!


    This was way harder, fuck me. Identifying and following the patterns was much more difficult while traversing an obstacle than watching from the sidelines. I was actually getting knocked off the circuit sooner than before I learned my new trick, but I was close, so fucking close. I had run the circuit four times, trying to get my new idea to work, but I kept losing it about halfway through the sixth obstacle. I was starting to get frustrated.


    On my fifth run, I got so frustrated that, at one point, I actually unconsciously pushed Mana out of my body in a burst. It just happened, but as it did, I didn¡¯t see the pattern of the next few moves so much as I felt them through my Mana Manipulation ability. Sensing the next few attacks, I dodged each with swift ease. I was so shocked that I froze and was punished with fists punching into my face and body, sending me flying out of the circuit¡¯s boundaries.


    I lay there on the ground slack-jawed and shocked at what had just happened, what I had just done. I couldn¡¯t believe it. I had to try that again, and now. I sat up so fast I almost blacked out, but I didn''t care. I was back on my feet and running towards the starting line with a ridiculous grin. Janet, who had been running over to see if I was okay, stared at me like what the fuck when I ran past her.


    ¡°Hey, are you okay, Travis¡­Wait, what the fuck? Hello? Travis, Travis, asshole!¡±


    ¡°Sorry, Janet, but I think I figured something out.¡± I shouted back at her as I kept heading back to the start.¡±


    ¡°Hey, It¡¯s my turn. You know that right!¡± Janet yelled after me. I waved her off and shouted back.


    ¡°You can go next.¡±


    ¡°You ass and I were coming to check if you were okay. Last time I did that!¡± When I didn¡¯t slow down one bit, I heard Janet.


    ¡°Dman it.¡± Honestly, Janet could wait. This might have been the breakthrough I needed. Was this what Eikman wanted us to figure out from the beginning? But then why didn¡¯t he just tell us to try looking for the patterns? Ahh, I was confused, but none of that mattered right now. There was training to do.


    The attack was? There, and I dodged. I was on my fifth obstacle, and I had been trying to figure out how to release a small amount of Mana through my pores, hopefully forming an invisible mist of Mana around my body. I had been somewhat successful, but I was struggling with control. The problem was that I had to release a small amount of Mana all over my body all at once. It was like multitasking to the extreme, and I felt like if I kept it up for too long, I would develop a severe headache, but it was working.


    As the strikes flew at me, I could almost immediately tell which direction they were coming from, what angle, and at what speed. It was like I was that superhero guy who was blind but saw with vibrations from sounds. It was a trip, devilish even, but I didn¡¯t have the technique down yet, so when I messed up, I would feel the pain of my mistake with a blow landing somewhere on my body.


    I was on the eleventh obstacle now, and I was really moving through the training circuit. It was exhilarating. My adrenaline was pumping, and I had found my groove. It really did feel like a dance between me and each obstacle. I couldn''t keep the smile off my face. By the time I was at the fifteenth obstacle, I could hear Janet whooping from the sideline. A distant part of my brain heard the sound of her cheers, but it barely registered. I was more focused than I had ever been in my life.


    On the sixteenth, I could barely hang on, and my head was starting to really hurt. My eyes were watering, and I could feel myself losing steam. I just couldn¡¯t keep going. I consistently sat at one percent Mana with the suppression array active. I don''t think the amount of Mana I was using on my new technique was actually more than my Mana regeneration rate, so Mana wasn¡¯t the issue. My Mana bar never really moved, but I was still mentally exhausted.


    The Mana suppression array was just that, a suppressant. It wasn¡¯t a nullification array, so you were able to access small amounts of Mana. It just wouldn¡¯t be enough to use any abilities. At the level of fatigue I was currently feel, that didn¡¯t matter one bit, and before I knew it, I was clobbered and sent flying.


    When I came to from being knocked unconscious during my exodus from the training circuit, Janet was there offering me a hand. I took it and was pulled to my feet. I took a few wobbly steps, with Janet steadying me the entire time before I got my feet set, and Janet felt she could let me stand on my own.


    ¡°That was fucking crazy, Travis! It was like you were possessed. That was so cool! I wish you could have seen it. I mean, I know you lived it, but fuck, you should have seen it from my perspective. You fucking killed that shit!¡± I heard Janet''s words, but they were echoing in my brain, and I was still a little dizzy. I was starting to feel better, but Janet''s excited ramblings weren¡¯t helping.


    ¡°Janet, Janet! Hey, can you give me one second? My head is killing me. I feel like I was up drinking all night and have the hangover of the century right now.¡± Janet stopped talking but looked confused. She waited as I pulled some healing smoothie from a bag of holding and then drank some water. When I was done drinking, I poured some over my head and then shook it.


    ¡°Okay, I feel better now.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why did you get such a bad headache? What did you do?¡± Janet just stood there, hands on hips, waiting for an explanation. I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly, thinking of how best to explain to Janet what I had done.


    ¡°Um, I guess I did figure something out, but I wanted to test it and make sure it was worked before I told you about it.¡± Janet''s expressions shited from confusion to one of astonishment as I revealed to her what I had learned. Janet, of course, wanted to try it right away, so I showed her my technique. Janet asked about using the small amount of Mana under the suppression array, and I told her it should leave enough to us even in the area of the effect of the suppression array.


    We practiced the technique for about an hour, and by the time Janet had it mostly down, it was around four o¡¯clock. Eikman had always called it a day and ended training around six. So I figured we each could fit in at most two runs before then if we moved fast. Janet started her first run using the Mana senseing technique¡ªthat''s what we were calling it for now, for lack of a better word. Janet was moving well, far better than I had the first time I attempted a run trying to use Mana sense. She had made it all the way to the twelfth obstacle before. A falter in her Mana control caused her to take a few good blows, and it was over.


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    Janet had been disappointed with the results initially, but I was eager to see her get the hang of it, so I told her she could go again before me if she wanted. Janet declined, however. She said the headache part of the technique was no joke and that she needed a minute to recover. I totally understood what she was talking about, so I decided to give it another go while Janet rested.


    I was halfway through the circuit, and I was fucking flying. Maybe it was the hour I spent training Janet to use the technique, but my headache wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as it had been by this point in my run last time. Before I knew it, I was on the sixteenth obstacle, right at the place I was kicked off last time. I was focused but not like before. It didn¡¯t hurt. I was just really concentrating. I had to because I was approaching my limit again.


    I had passed the sixteenth and was finally on the seventeenth for the first time. I was so close to finishing the whole circuit, and it was making me a little gitty. The seventeenth obstacle had rings you had to carry with you. You would then use the rings to hang and swing from pegs placed throughout the obstacle. Under heavy assault the entire way, just like every obstacle that had come before.


    The blows were coming at me faster and more erratically than ever now. I was barely hanging on. My whole body was sore. After all my attempts on the circuit today, my injuries were adding up.  Even if all my wounds had long physically closed and healed, my body was aching, and I was mentally going to be done for the day soon. I could feel it.


    Right now, none of that mattered. I was so close to the finish line I could taste it. It was calling my name, and then it was literally calling my name. Well, not the finish line, but Janet, who was standing there cheering me on, and I knew I could do this. I had to do this, and with a burst of energy, I completed the seventeenth. Before I knew it, I was breathing heavily as Janet screamed with excitement. Then I was in the air. Janet had tossed me about ten feet in the air by herself, then did it again and again. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh.


    When Janet was finished celebrating, I was still buzzing with adrenaline. I had done it. I had made it all the way through the training circuit. I had really done it. I was still struggling to comprehend what I had done. All that struggle, all that pain had actually been worth it. Of course, Janet had to make it to the end now, and the look of determination that had come over her when she started talking about her next run left me with no doubt that she would accomplish her goal before the day was done. I wasn¡¯t wrong, and on Janet''s next run, she pushed hard and made it to the end.


    Janet was lying in the mud. No fucks given about the filth at that point, a smile plastered across her face as she took deep breaths with her eyes closed. She almost looked to be in a state of pure bliss, and I could understand. That feeling of giving something, everything you had, and accomplishing what you thought was impossible when you started was intoxicating. I let her have that moment for a bit, then let her know I was there.


    ¡°Damn Janet, you really fucking did that, shit. You want a hand. If you lay there much longer, you might fuze with the mud, and I''ll never be able to free you.¡± Janet smiled, and with eyes still closed, she held out a hand for me to take. I smiled and took it. Eikman and Howsmer had been napping on Eikmans porch for the past four hours. When we walked over to the pair at six o¡¯clock, Janet shouted and woke both men up.


    ¡°Hey, guys, wake the fuck up!¡± We both laughed as the two flailed and sputtered. Eikman even fell right out of his chair and landed on his ass. The whole ordeal lasted about thirty seconds, but it was a beautiful symphony of confusion. Howsmer was the first to say anything.


    ¡°Ha ha, yes, very funny. You two are fucking comedians. So why did you wake us up? Are you giving up? Which obstacle got ya? I bet Eikman you wouldn¡¯t make it past the twelfth. So come on.¡± I looked at Janet, and she gestured for me to go ahead. I cleared my throat.


    ¡°We both finished the entire circuit. Guess you lost your bet.¡± I tried my best to keep the smirk off my face, but I was fucking failing. Howsmer, who had just taken a sip of water, did a full-on spit take. Hitting Eikman with a full mouth of water right in the ear. Eikman freaked out and slapped Howsmer, but that didn¡¯t last long. They both were too distracted by what I had just said.


    ¡°How?¡± That was all Howsmer said. Eikman was a little more blunt.


    ¡°there''s no fucking way you two fucking talentless fools made it all the way through this training circuit. I call bullshit, bullshit!¡± Then, instead of waiting for our response, Eikman stood up and promptly walked over to one of the array discs. He then knelt down and touched a few specific parts in a particular sequence. Eikman then stood back up, and a window floating in mid-air appeared in front of him.


    Howsmer, understanding what Eikman was doing, jogged over to the man to see for himself. Janet looked at me, and I shrugged before we headed over to join the two. Eikman had brought up a history of every run we had attempted. It even knew if Janet or I had made the run. Eikman was still srolling down. There was a lot of info on each run we had done. Probably there for our trainers to better assist us in our growth, fucking Eikman.


    He finally made it to the runs, where Janet and I had completed the course, and Eikman stood there silently, staring at the screen. We watched Eikman just look at the screen for the better part of a minute before he turned to us and asked us one question,


    ¡°How?¡± Howsmer couldn¡¯t help chiming in as well.


    ¡°Yeah, I want to know that too. This is a level twenty-five to level fifty training circuit. You should, at best, make it to the fifteenth obstacle, but to finish the entire circuit at your level would be almost unheard of.¡± I explained what I had done and that after I had figured out what I did, I had shared it with Janet.  Eikman thought about what I said for a minute. While Howsmer just kept looking back and forth between Eikman, Janet, and myself, clearly confused.


    Finally, Eikman looked like he was going to say something, and then he just started laughing. That only left Howsmer looking even more confused. He never ended up explaining anything, and that day of training ended with Janet and I each buying a recovery pill from Howsmer. We said our goodbyes and told Eikman and Howsmer when and where our fight would be, and the two said they would attend. Then, the two of us headed back off to the inn to get a good night''s sleep and prepare for tomorrow.


    ¡°Eikman, now that the children are gone, what was the trick with the Mana they were doing? Would it actually work in a fight?¡± Howsmer asked Eikman as they walked down the city''s busy street and headed toward Eikman''s favorite tavern.


    ¡°Ha, ha, no, that will never work in any other situation than the one they were just in. Because of the suppression array, the ambient Mana was suppressed just as Travis and Janet were. If there was no suppression array, what Travis and Janet were doing would have been much harder. In a fight where they¡¯re not only dealing with the fluctuations of the ambient Mana but the Mana of their opponent and the fluctuations on ambient Mana that activating abilities creates. There¡¯s no way his little trick will actually work. There will just be too much interference.¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell him that? What if he tries using it in his fight tomorrow, thinking he''s got a secret technique in his back pocket?¡± Howsmer asked.


    ¡°Because can you imagine the look on his face when he tries it, and it fails, and he gets his ass kicked? Haha. Oh my god, I can see it now. I almost can''t wait, haha.¡±


    ¡°Haha, you¡¯re a sick man, Eikman.¡±


    ¡°I know, haha.¡± The two men laughed and continued on towards the tavern, eager for the cold beers that awaited them.

 Book 2 Chapter 19 - Coliseum fight Janet Smash

    Chapter 19


    Coliseum fight Janet Smash


    We made it back to the inn and passed out as soon as we took the pills and lay down on the bed. We were both mentally and physically exhausted, and a good night''s sleep was just what we needed. When I woke up the next morning, Janet was still sleeping, but I felt fucking fantastic. I mean, all the way around fucking good. I felt better than I had in a long time. The Fighters Slumber pill was no joke. I would need to find more of those little beauties.


    I went to the bathroom, and Janet was awake and yawning when I got back.


    ¡°You''re finally awake?¡±


    ¡°Shut the fuck up, Travis. I know you only got up a second ago, asshole.¡± Janet replied, then threw a pillow at me. I caught the pillow, but Janet didn¡¯t seem to care. She just yawned again.


    ¡°So, should we eat something, then head over and scope out the fights or see who our opponents will be?¡± Janet took a sip of water and then gasped as she finished her sip


    ¡°Fuck, that''s good. Um, and yeah. I think we should definitely eat. Then, yeah, maybe we see who you''re us up against. If that info''s up yet. What time is it?¡± Janet answered her own question by looking at her watch.


    ¡°Okay, so it¡¯s nine right now, well, nine-twelve, so that means we got two hours, and I need to check in thirty minutes before as well, so that really only leaves us with an hour and a half. We probably only have time to wash up, eat, and then head over to check in.¡± Janet was right. We didn¡¯t have too much time to doddle.


    ¡°Shit, your right well, let''s get to it. Do you want to shower first?¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we just shower together?¡± Janet asked me. Giving me a wink. I just looked at her for a moment, confused.


    ¡°What? You don¡¯t want to shower with me?¡± Janet asked me, and she actually looked a little offended.


    ¡°Janet, I would love to shower with you, but the bathrooms here are communal. Did you forget again?¡± Janet froze, and then her face got red.


    ¡°I fucking hate this place!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but laugh.


    Janet and I were eating breakfast at the tavern connected to the inn, where we had met Michael and his crew. I was rubbing the back of my head, where I swear I had a lump forming.


    ¡°Stop rubbing it. I didn¡¯t hit you that hard. You''re being dramatic.¡± Janet said through a mouth full of pancakes and bacon.


    ¡°It hurts, okay, and I¡¯m not being dramatic. You don¡¯t know your own strength. It fucking hurt.¡±


    ¡°Okay, well, my bad, jeez.¡± I stopped rubbing the back of my head and got back to my food.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, let¡¯s just finish eating. Then we can start heading over to the Coliseum,¡± I said.


    ¡°Fine.¡± She said. Then, muttered under her breath,


    ¡°but it was your own damn fault.¡±


    ¡°What was that?¡± It probably would have been better to let it go, but I was already in a bad mood.


    ¡°I said it was your own damn fault. If you hadn¡¯t laughed at me about the shower thing, I wouldn¡¯t have hit you in the first place.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the point. Ug, you know what? Never mind, okay?¡± I was regretting I said anything now.


    ¡°Okay, fine.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    ¡°Janet.¡±


    ¡°Travis.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    ¡°Okay!¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± I shut up. I wanted to say something back and be a snaky ass, but I knew where that would go, and I didn¡¯t want to do that before our fights. I had already pushed it too far. Janet had played her part, but I could have been the bigger person, and I had chosen to be an asshole. It was time to be done with that now. It was time to prepare for the fights to come.


    Once we were standing outside the tavern, finished with breakfast, and about to head to the Coliseum, I turned to Janet and took her hand.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m sorry about this morning. I was being insensitive, and then I was just being an ass because I was upset. So again, I¡¯m sorry, Janet.¡± Janet looked like she was about to answer me sarcastically, then she sighed and looked at me more earnestly.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, too. I shouldn¡¯t have hit you. That wasn¡¯t good. You just know how to push my fucking buttons, but I¡¯ll try not to get so mad at you when you do.¡±


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    ¡°Love you.¡±


    ¡°Love you.¡± We put our foreheads together and then kissed deep and long.


    ¡°Now come on, we don''t want to be late, do we, lover boy?¡± I laughed and let Janet drag me down the street toward the Coliseum.


    We made it to the area where the fighters were supposed to check in before their fights with little time to spare. It was 10:25 a.m., but we had made it to Janet''s check-in on time. A short line led to a minotaur checking weapons and gear before offering each person a small bin and then letting them pass. Janet and I made it to the front of the line in less than a minute. When we did, Janet stepped forward.


    ¡°Weapons and gear you plan to fight with,¡± the minotaur said before holding out his hand. Janet pulled her axe from a bag of holding and offered it to the minotaur. Janet then gestured to the armor she was wearing.


    ¡°This is what I will be fighting in.¡± The minotaur finished looking over Janerts axe, and then it briefly looked at her armor. Then, he handed her a small bin.


    ¡°Put any bags of holding or extra gear and weapons in this container. We will ensure that it is kept safe and untampered with on the honor of the Coliseum.¡±


    ¡°Can I just have him hold them?¡± The minotaur glanced over in my direction, where Janet was pointing and snorted. Then, after a few seconds, they nodded.


    ¡°Sure, whatever, I don''t give a shit. You just can''t fight with them on you.¡± Janet handed the small bin back to the minotaur and then passed me all her shit. After that, Janet was allowed to pass, and we parted ways. This was the last time I would be able to see her before she was in the arena facing her opponent. For a few seconds, I didn¡¯t really know what to do. I didn¡¯t need to check in myself for another hour. After about five minutes of just standing there like an asshole, I was asked to move by a short and stocky person that looked like a dwarf from middle earth, and I decided I needed to do something.


    Janet''s fight started at eleven, and it was 10:40 now, so I should probably start making my way over to Arena F1A2 so I could get a good seat for her fight. As I started looking for the arena where Janet would be fighting, I found some food vendors and bought some meat skewers and a beer. I found a seat and settled in to wait for the match to start. I figured out that F1 indicated the floor it was on, and A2 was the Arena number. The arenas were shaped like a slice of pizza. It was slightly odd, but big screens showed the fight from all angles, so it wasn¡¯t that inconvenient.


    When eleven hit, a chime filled the air, and two doors opened on either side of the arena. Moments later, Janet and her opponent walked out from opposite sides. I immediately started cheering for Janet.


    ¡°Woohoo, go, Janet! You got this. Woohoo, Janet, let¡¯s go!¡± I was definitely cheering a bit too loud, and people were definitely staring at me. No one looked at me angrily. It looked more like they were embarrassed for me. I didn¡¯t give a shit. I wanted Janet to hear me. I knew she heard me once I saw the look of someone trying to conceal their embarrassment, and that''s when I turned the cheering up to eleven.


    After a minute, I stopped trying to embarrass Janet and let her get ready for the fight. The referee was explaining the rules, and I had missed most of them, but Janet looked focused and ready to go, and that was all that mattered. Once the referee was done talking, he backed away from the fighters. Janet and her opponent were twenty feet apart, facing each other, and right before the match began, a blue-tinted transparent barrier appeared between the audience and the combatants. Then the match commenced.


    As soon as the match started, Janet rushed forward. She moved so fast that she crossed the twenty feet in less than a second. Janet¡¯s opponent was a thick-muscled, four-armed alien pioneer. It looked like a bodybuilder, and its muscles looked cut from stone. Looked kind of like that card game creature all evolved and shit.


    The guy wasn¡¯t wearing any armor, just loose-fitting pants. He did carry a weapon. Two large metal clubs with metal spikes protruding all over them except near the grip. As Janet charged into the stone man, he raised both his clubs and swung. The boom that proceeded their clash could be felt in the stands. I was cheering my fucking head off right after that. This was it. This was a real fucking fight! Thirty seconds in, Janet was still raining blows with extreme intensity, and the stone man was struggling to keep up.


    Janet was a blur. Her opponent was strong, like really strong, but it didn¡¯t matter if the stone man couldn¡¯t touch her. She moved like a dancer, and every step was made with purpose. At one point in the fight, the stone man actually roared with frustration. After that, his speed doubled, and elusory shadows of his strikes joined the fray, and Janet couldn¡¯t move fast enough to get out of the way.


    Janet took a strike to the chest, and she was thrown backward, but the stone man didn¡¯t let the opening go to waste. The stone man flew at Janet, who looked like she wasn¡¯t going to make it back to her feet in time to oppose the oncoming attack. Then, out of nowhere, Janet rolled and spun, and the fight was over. It all happened almost too fast to see, but as the proverbial dust cleared, Janet left, standing over her opponent with her axe held up to his neck.


    The crowd, including myself, was dead quiet. Then, it was like someone turned the volume back on, and everyone was going crazy. I was losing my shit. I¡¯m pretty sure I kissed the person sitting next to me on the cheek and hugged them as we jumped up and down. It was insanity.


    After everyone quieted down somewhat, the referee officially declared Janet the victor of the match, and then both combatants left the arena, and that was that. I think the whole thing lasted no more than five minutes from start to finish, and I was probably being generous. I left the stands and ran back over to where I left Janet. When I got there, I didn¡¯t have to wait long before Janet came sauntering out. She was obviously feeling herself. As she made it to where I was waiting, she made a show of giving me a curtsy.


    ¡°Yes, yes, I have returned victorious. You may shower me with compliments now. Go ahead, I¡¯ll wait.¡± I laughed, but still, her fight was impressive, and I couldn¡¯t help inflating her ego a bit more.


    ¡°Janet, you are a goddess of battle taken human form. I bow to your greatness.¡± Then I did, in fact, give her a little arm flourish and bow. Janet whacked me softly on the arm.


    ¡°Oh, Travis, do go on.¡± We laughed, got Janet some food, and found the arena where my fight would take place. We still had a half hour till I needed to check in, so we sat for a while and watched the match that was taking place at the moment. It was a boring fight. The combatants were both some kind of duelist class. They both use long, thin blades that look like fencing swords. They would dive in for a strike only to be rebuffed by their opponent, and then the whole process would start over.


    I''m sure they were great at their craft, but fuck, it was dull to watch, so after about ten minutes, when nothing had changed, I joined Janet as she went looking for a beer. By the time Janet had a beer, it was time for me to check-in. Janet walked me to the check-in area, and we passed a few betting kiosks on our way there. I smacked myself in the face as we walked by.


    ¡°Hey, what the fuck was that for?¡± Janet asked me.


    ¡°Oh, I just realized I forgot to bet on your fight. I probably would have made some money. Fucked that up.¡± I told her. A spark lit in Janet¡¯s eyes at my words.


    ¡°Right, Gambling! I totally forgot. Well, here, I''ll put ten gold on you to win. I don¡¯t see odds on your match yet, but just win, and we¡¯ll be fine. You better fucking win now.¡± Janet finished placing her bet, and we continued on.


    Once at the check-in area, I went through the exact same experience Janet had gone through. I handed Janet a few bags of holding with my gear and told her I¡¯d see her soon. Janet wished me luck, and I headed off into the belly of the beast.

 Book 2 Chapter 20 - Coliseum fight! Travis, I choose you!

    Chapter 20


    Coliseum fight! Travis, I choose you!


    Janet hadn¡¯t said much about what had happened before her fight. She had just told me,


    ¡°You¡¯ll see. I don''t want to spoil it.¡± I didn¡¯t really understand why until now. It was like a finely tuned instrument. People were moving everywhere. I had left the Minotaur and headed down a long tunnel into the belly of the Coliseum. I walked for about five minutes, and then the tunnel opened onto a large open area held up by thick pillars.


    The closest thing I could compare it to would probably be an F1 pit crew, but on a massive scale. Fighters were coming in from fights on stretchers to then instantly be triaged and moved on to receive medical care. Assistants were helping fighters in and out of armor. Administrators were leading fighters to the arena entrance they needed to be at. The Germans would have cried at the efficiency.


    I was standing there marveling at the sight when I heard someone clear their throat. I turned to find a middle-aged werebadger woman. She had small badger ears poking through her hair, whiskers on her cheeks, a long tail, and fur all over her body except her face and hands. She was standing about five feet from me. She had clearly been waiting for me to notice she had been standing there but had gotten impatient when I hadn¡¯t and decided to make her presence known.


    ¡°Oh, hello,¡± I said a little awkwardly. I felt kind of stupid. I hadn¡¯t seen the attendant or heard her approach.


    ¡°Hello, what arena are you fighting in, and at what time?¡± The woman was no-nonsense and straight to the point.


    ¡°I¡¯m fighting in F1A5 at 12:30 p.m.¡±


    ¡°Excellent, sir. Follow me, please.¡± The woman turned and was off, and I realized I was supposed to follow her a bit too slowly. This led me to have to run. I dodged and ducked through the crowd to catch up, but once I did, I fell behind the woman as if I had been there the whole time. She never turned around to check if I had been there, so that was a relief, but she was really moving.


    After a minute or so, we ended our journey at a curtained-off section that had been rigged up against a wall. The woman walked up to the curtain and cleared her throat. The curtain flung open, and a man who looked like he had entered a teleporter with an ant and bad things had happened stood there in a lab coat.


    ¡°Ah, Penny. It''s good to see you. Bring him in.¡± Penny, which was the woman''s name, apparently. I definitely hadn''t asked the woman her name, and I kind of felt bad about that now. Cause, duh, she had a name. I was getting distracted, though Penny had just said something.


    ¡°What?¡± I asked Penny.


    ¡°Come on, inside.¡± I gave Penny a thumbs-up and walked inside the curtained area. Inside, there was not much. A small desk and chair against the wall and then the array circle on the floor.


    ¡°Go stand in the middle of the array circle over there.¡± The ant man doctor said.


    ¡°Sure.¡± I walked over a bit warry and stood in the middle of the array circle.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. It''s just going to ensure you''re healthy enough and that your Mana, health, and stamina are high enough to allow you to compete. You have already been cleared from your assessment, but this is just a precaution.


    ¡°I understand,¡± I told him. He nodded, and then there was a flash of light from the array circle, and it was over.


    ¡°You''re good to go. Have a good fight.¡± With that, I was led away. I was now finally sitting on a bench in a waiting area. The benches were finely furnished with red satin fabric, and they were very comfortable. At one end of the room, there was a large set of double doors that led to the arena, and at the other end, an attendant was sitting at a table and then, beyond that, the rest of the hall. So I wasn¡¯t so much in a room as in a short hallway. I¡¯m sure there was an actual name for the type of room I was in ( a vestibule, it was a vestibule), but I didn¡¯t know it.


    I was sitting just waiting patiently until, out of nowhere, a chime filled the air. I looked around and saw the attendant, seated at the small table, begin to stand. I figured this chime was for me and stood up myself. I looked over at the attendant, who was gathering up some paperwork.


    ¡°That for me?¡± I asked the man. Another wereperson, there were a lot of them employed by the Coliseum, and I wondered why. The attendant finished gathering his paperwork and then looked up at me.


    ¡°Yes, that would indeed be for you. Before you head in, I need you to sign these forms in triplicate. Perfect, and then thumbprint here, and were golden. May you be victorious in your fight. Just head through those doors, and the rules will be explained before the match begins. Thank you for choosing the Coliseum, and don¡¯t forget to grab some food or a drink from our wonderful vendors. Don¡¯t forget to gamble ether. You never know what you could have won if you never played.¡±


    The attendant said all this in a flat tone as if he had repeated it a million times, which I''m sure he probably did today. The man sat back down at the desk. He had to move some paperwork around, but eventually, an array circle was revealed. He placed my paperwork on it and activated the circle, and my paperwork disappeared in a flash of light. I just watched all this happen in awe. After a few moments, the attendant noticed I was still standing there in front of his desk like an idiot.


    ¡°Well, you going to get in there or what?¡± I blinked a few times, registering the man''s word.


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    ¡°Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Thanks again. Here I go, then.¡± The attendant just gave me a look that said okay then¡­ at that point, without another word, I turned and walked towards the arena doors. As I made it to the door, I noticed a small red light on the wall next to the door. I thought it was odd, but I still moved to push the door open, but it didn¡¯t open. Confused, I looked at the door until I heard the attendant from the other end of the hall.


    ¡°Wait for the light to turn green, then go in.¡± I turned and gave the guy a thumbs-up. There was a light? Oh, yep, it was on the wall to my right, nice. I readied myself and busied myself with checking over my gear again. I had done this at least four times already. I didn¡¯t have to wait too long before the light turned green, and I tried the door again. This time, it swung open with ease, and as it did, the roar of the arena filled my ears.


    I walked out onto the arena floor and had to shield my eyes due to the difference in light from the underbelly of the Coliseum to being out under the lights of the arena.


    My eyes adjusted quickly, and when they did, I noticed my opponent and what looked like his or her trainer entering the arena opposite me. A figure was also standing between us in the center of the arena. I assumed the referee. I kept walking towards the referee until he held up a hand to me, then moments later, my opponent. We stopped walking, my opponent¡¯s trainer said a few brief words, then left the arena, and then the referee spoke.


    ¡°Welcome one and all to the magnificent and majestic Coliseum.¡± He then waited for applause, which he received, and continued. His voice had been magically enhanced so everyone in the stands could hear him.


    ¡°Today, we offer you a battle between two untested worries. This will be their first fight, so without further ado, please give a rousing welcome to Travis Mullins and Terus Voldoon.¡± He pointed to each of us in turn as he said our names. The Rules for today¡¯s match will proceed as follows.


    First, no killing unless your own life is in danger. Killing is to be avoided at all costs. There is a heavy fine for murdering your opponent, even if it is less than the victory purse, anyway. Second, no arrays are allowed during this fight, and no potions or things of that nature. Third, you win when your opponent surrenders. Other than that, you can do whatever you want. So have fun out there, kids.¡±


    With that, the ref was done, and he backed off before activating a personal Mana barrier, then the Mana barrier that encapsulated the arena. Once the referee was a reasonable distance from me and my opponent, He pointed at each of us, checking if we were ready. With a nod of the head, we each indicated that we were. The referee nodded himself in answer, raised an arm above his head, and then yelled,


    ¡°Fight!¡± Then, he dropped his arm.


    My opponent was a lizard person of some kind. It was wearing armor. A good set, by the look of it, covered a good seventy percent of Terus Voldoon''s body. It had a small buckler strapped to one arm and was holding a flaming chain whip. Flames were also burning down Terus Voldoon''s back, almost like a horse''s main. It was fucking cool as hell. There was no time for that now, though. We had to try and kill each other now, or well, I guess not try to kill each other, but you know what I mean.


    Unlike Janet¡¯s fight, once the match began, Terus Voldoon and I didn¡¯t charge at each other right away. We started to circle each other, slowly closing the distance between us as we did. My opponent was the first one to throw out a probing strike. The magical fire whip shot out at me when we were about seven feet from each other, and I knew I would have to dodge quickly. I thought about what I had practiced yesterday and figured now was as good a time as any to try it out. That was stupid.


    I focused and pushed out a small amount of Mana all around me, and my world went haywire. As I released the Mana and tried to concentrate on the movements of Terus Voldoon, everything fuzzed out. The simple answer was that there was just too much information. The ambient Mana alone was so turbid. Then there was the Mana coming off the barriers, both the refs and the one protecting the crowd. Not to mention my own Mana or the Mana of Terus Voldoon and the Mana coming off his magical whip.


    I couldn¡¯t take it. It was like staring into the sun or watching a hundred videos all at once while listening to an audiobook and cooking dinner. I tried to stop and pull my focus away from the technique, but it took more effort than I expected. Before I knew it, I was knocked back by a blow across the chest from the fire whip. I shot back to my feet, but my opponent hadn¡¯t taken advantage of missteps. I figured Terus Voldoon must have just been as surprised as I was when the strike landed.


    Well, we weren''t trying that again. At least not for now. It was time to stop dancing around and get this fight going. We had both just been standing there observing each other when I made the next move. I activated Pin Point, Step Lightly, and then a Shadow Spear in quick succession. Playtime was over, and I was going to finish this fight right now.


    I appeared behind my opponent with Shadow Spear and my Teremnocal, rushing at Terus Voldoon''s head, fully powered and posed to kill. Terus Voldoon acted quicker than I thought they were going to be able to. Using their buckler, they pushed my attack off target and then used a movment ability. I used Step Lightly again and blocked a whip strike that would have caved the back of my skull in.


    I used Step Lightly again to get some distance from my opponent and noticed the arm that the buckler had been strapped to was now missing, and Terus Voldoon only had half a bicep hanging from its left shoulder. That gave me some confidence, and I activated Step Lightly once more on the attack. We were at a stalemate for almost twenty seconds until I used a Quick Strike to knock my opponent off balance before I used another Step Lightly to position myself to land a kick right in Terus Voldoon''s kidneys or where a human''s kidneys would be.


    Terus Voldoon shot back over ten feet before connecting with the ground. The guy rose to his feet quickly but not fast enough. By the time he was standing again, I was there with my Teremnocal at his throat and a Mana-empowered hand wrapped around his neck.


    The fight was called as Terus Voldoon surrendered, and I released his neck. It was pretty awkward after fighting, but Terus Voldoon had fought hard, so I at least felt like we had respect for each other. We didn¡¯t say much, just congratulated each other on a good fight, and then we left the arena.


    I felt so odd as I signed some paperwork with an attendant. It was probably all the adrenaline still coursing through my body from the fight, and the feeling soon left me, but It felt like I was floating there for a little while after my match. Once I was done with my exit paperwork, I was led back to where I had entered, and after a short five-minute walk, I was back at the check-in area, where Janet was waiting. When I was finally out from behind the bollards that separated the checked-in from the not, Janet swept me up in a big hug.


    ¡°Janet, I can''t breathe. Janet, Janet.¡± She finally let me go, smiling the whole time.


    ¡°Look how much money I won!¡± were Janet''s first words. Then she held up her G.I.C. and fanned herself with it.


    ¡°Guess, go on. How much do you think I made?¡± I thought about it for a second before picking a number at random.


    ¡°fifty gold?¡± I proffered. Janet''s smile didn¡¯t falter


    ¡°More than that?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Travis, I made one hundred and sixty-five gold of you, you crazy fucker.¡±


    ¡°Damn, really, there we go. Nice job, Janet. So where¡¯s my cut?¡± That was when the smile left Janet¡¯s face.


    ¡°Cut? No, this is mine. It''s not my fault you didn¡¯t bet on my match. Now, come on, I want to get out of here and find a new place to stay. Were fucking in the shower tonight. No more fucking communal bathroom.


    ¡°I¡¯m down with that.¡± I laughed, and we headed off.

 Book 2 Chapter 21 - Kill the shit out of them

    Chapter 21


    Kill the shit out of them


    As we were leaving the check-in area, Eikman and Howsmer walked into view.


    ¡°You did it. You won, you won. Hahaha, I knew you would. See, Eikman is the best trainer.¡±


    ¡°Eikman, didn¡¯t you say that¡­¡± Howsmer was cut off as Eikman shoved his hands over his mouth. Howsmer spluttered and pushed the man off him. After the Howsmer had sent a few curses at the Eikman, verbal, not actual curses. It was fucked up that I had to make that distinction nowadays, but whatever. Once the cursing, again verbal, was done, Howsmer had forgotten what he was going to say, and then another round of cursing ensued. When Howsmer was finally finished, Eikman looked impressed at the breadth of insults Howsmer had used.


    ¡°So when you said you wished I, how did you put it? Had a monkey crawl up my ass, find my lower intestine, and then rip it out to play? I think It was jump rope. Did you mean literally or figuratively?¡± Eikman asked the man. Howsmer looked like he would blow up, so I figured it was time to interject, or Howsmer might actually kill Eikman. It was a wonder Eikman had lived so long with how he acted.


    ¡°So yeah, we both won our first fight, thanks to the two of you. We should go celebrate, right?¡± I said a little louder than I probably would have otherwise just to get our two trainers'' attention. Janet backed me up, seeing what I was trying to do.


    ¡°Yeah, come on. You both owe me a fucking drink, but I¡¯ll buy the first round.¡±


    ¡°Buy now. The two men were definitely paying attention, and when they heard free booze, the fight was forgotten. We made our way to a tavern close to the Coliseum and had a few drinks. Or, well, we meant to only have a few drinks, but some of the other patrons in the bar had seen Janet and my fights, and then it turned into a bit of an impromptu party.


    We ended up getting pretty fucking drunk. When it was time to leave, we left to cheers, well wishes, and hopes to see us fight in the Coliseum in the future. Janet kissed the serving girl as we left, and the tavern burst into cheers once again, which was cut off as the door to the tavern closed. I laughed at Janet only to get a punch in the arm and then a kiss of my own. Janet took my arm and pulled me close as we walked down the street back to the Inn. We were happy and drunk. The night was chilly, and the air was crisp, but we couldn''t feel it as we held each other close.


    We were about five minutes from the Inn. I had been drunkenly playing with my Mana while Janet was half-passed out on my back. I got bored when Janet stopped talking and decided to try to figure out why the Mana trick I had figured out during training hadn''t worked in the arena.


    I understood the reason, mostly. It was a sensory overload. So why had I been able to use it in the suppression array¡­ And that was my answer: the suppression array. The suppression array must have acted like a filter. The noise from the ambient Mana plus any other Mana had been suppressed. Even my own Mana had been suppressed. So it had been easy to feel the shifts in the Mana around me and then use that to sense where attacks were coming from. Now that I wasn¡¯t under the influence of the array, there was too much interference to get a clear picture.


    I had decided to try focusing on creating a small area of influence around my hand. I had pushed a small amount of Mana out around the appendage in a fine mist, and at the moment, I was trying not to pass out from just feeling and understanding the ambient Mana all around me. I had gone through many paths forward in my head, but the one that seemed to make the most sense was to try and filter the information down to a manageable level on my own. How I would go about doing that was another story.


    As I walked, Janet slept. I was trying to focus, but I think that was the problem. The harder I tried to clamp down and control the technique, the more it slipped out of control, and I experienced a sensory overload. The closest thing I could compare it to would be trying to look at something out of the corner of your eye or focus on one of the foliates in your eyeball. I had to try to observe the ripples in the Mana mist without actively focusing on them.


    The easiest way I found to do this was to isolate an area, such as my fingertip. Then, create a small field of Mana mist around it. Then pretend it¡¯s not there. It worked pretty well, and as I walked, I slowly increased the amount of my body I allowed to be engulfed in Mana mist. I knew I was on the right track when looking at a food vendor, wondering If I should stop and grab a snack when I, almost on instinct, dodged a man about to push past me.


    I was staring at the vendor, lost in thought, when, out of nowhere, I got the overwhelming sense that I should move. I followed my instinct and moved, taking a larger step to the side. The next second, I felt the wind of someone passing me, and I turned to see a man catching himself from almost falling.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked the man. The man looked surprised momentarily, blinked, then shook his head.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. Fuck off and mind your own business.¡± The man turned rude rather quickly, and I thought that he must have been embarrassed about almost falling. So I just shrugged, turned, and kept moving toward the Inn. As I was walking, I thought about the man who had nearly bumped into me. The thing that had started to bother me was that he had almost run into me. The street had been mostly empty, and the guy hadn¡¯t seemed that drunk. It was like he had tried to run into me on purpose, but why?


    I was so confused and caught up in the thought that I missed it when two people stepped out of an alley and began to follow us. I did manage to notice the next two. I would have been disappointed in myself if I hadn''t, as they were standing in the middle of the road, blocking my path. It was at that point I turned and saw the two people that had been following us. Ah fuck, this wasn¡¯t good.


    ¡°Oi Janet, wake up,¡± I said softly to Janet on my back. She didn¡¯t answer me, so I slapped her legs that were wrapped around my waist and tried again.


    ¡°Janet, Wake up seriously. Time to wake up. This time, I felt her move a bit.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to Im sleeping. Are we back at the Inn yet?¡±  Janet said back this time. At least she was awake. While I was standing there trying to wake Janet, the newcomers hadn''t wasted any time. They all pulled out clubs. Every club looked the same, almost like a billy club, but with small spikes around the tip. As they started approaching us, I figured Janet needed to wake up now, and I didn¡¯t have time to be polite about it. So I dropped Janet onto the ground next to me.


    Janet woke up pissed as hell. I had to dodge a punch moments after I dropped her.


    ¡°Fuck Janet, not me. Them, fight them.¡± I said and pointed at the men with clubs walking at us. Well, they were running now. Janet quickly realized what was going on to her credit, and I think the fact that she woke up on the wrong side of the bed right now helped. Janet looked pissed off, like rip your balls off and shove them down your throats, breathing fire mad. The one thing I forgot was that Janet and I were both piss drunk.


    As the muggers came at us, I turned to face the two coming at us from behind while I left Janet to deal with the two in front of us. I heard Janet begin to engage her opponents as I dodged a club swing at my head. I followed my dodge up with a swing of my own. I lashed out a fist at one of my attacker''s heads and connected. The man fell to the ground. I don¡¯t think he was knocked out, but he was out of the fight. However, I was so caught up in the fact that my punch had actually landed that I didn¡¯t notice the club swinging down on my head. I felt it thought when it connected.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I swear I saw little cartoon birds circling my head when it happened, too. I didn''t knock myself out, and I shook my head to clear the fuzz, but before I could, I got hit again and then again. By that point, I was utterly unable to defend myself. There were just too many blows hitting my body. I couldn¡¯t help it, and at some point, I passed out.


    I woke up to someone kicking my leg. When I woke, my vision was blurry, and my head was on fire, but I was still fully dressed, and as I checked, the bags of holding that were hidden in my clothing were all still there. I felt the kick on my leg again, so I looked up to see who the fuck was kicking me.


    I had to hold my hand over my eyes, blocking out the morning brightness, to glimpse my kicker. It looked to me like a merchant of some kind, or at least he was dressed like most of the shop owners in the city. Tight, comfortable clothing for easy movement, comfortable boots, and tightly cut or tied-back hair. The guy had just asked me something, but I had missed it.


    ¡°What was that?¡± I asked the guy.


    ¡°You need to get the fuck up. Leave! You¡¯re sleeping in the alleyway that I need for deliveries. The flower boy has already threatened to leave if he can''t make his delivery. So move now!¡± The man was almost shouting at us by the end of his little speech, and now Janet was up. I did my best to calm the man as Janet and I got ourselves together and then headed off.


    We hobbled our way back to the Inn and then into our room before closing the door and locking it. At that point, I let out a breath that I didn¡¯t realize I had been holding. It felt like a weight was lifted. I had felt incredibly vulnerable ever since I had woken. Now, I could finally check myself over, see the damage, and count up what had been taken. I was still standing at the locked door with my eyes closed, taking a second to myself, when I heard wood splintering behind me.


    I turned around, fist raised, ready to fight, still feeling on edge after getting jumped. Janet stood over a coffee table or, well, what remained of a coffee table. It was just in pieces now. Tears were falling from Janet''s face, but she didn¡¯t look sad as she stared daggers at the splintered table on the ground. She looked furious. She was so mad she was visibly shaking.


    ¡°Janet is¡­¡± was all I said before Janet screamed. It was a scream of pure rage, and I didn¡¯t really know what to do for a moment. We both stood there, and Janet let out heavy breaths. I decided to try again.


    ¡°Janet, are you okay?¡± Well, I guess I knew she wasn¡¯t okay. It was a stupid question, but I really didn¡¯t know what else to say. Janet didn¡¯t respond immediately. She just stood there for a few moments, breathing heavily and staring at the remnants of the table she had smashed. I watched her waiting for, well, something, anything, a response of some kind. Then Janet slowly lifted her head, tears still falling from her eyes, burning with rage. Janet answered me.


    ¡°Yes, Travis, I am fine, or I will be, but those mother fucking assholes who jumped us last night are fucking dead. You hear me dead. I¡¯m going to kill them, Travis. And if that¡¯s not clear enough, I¡¯ll put it like this. I¡¯m going to find them, corner them in some dark alley, and murder them by ripping them apart piece by piece. Until not even their mothers could recognize their bodies. This will happen.¡± That was all Janet said before she slumped down onto the couch.


    I walked over and sat down next to her. I made to put my arm around her, and I could see as I did. She almost told me to fuck off, but then her shoulders fell, and she let me embrace her. We stayed like that for a while. I don¡¯t know how long exactly, but it was dark when we got off the couch. I fell asleep at one point, and I think Janet had too.


    Once we were up, we each took a long shower, communal showers or not. After that was done, we finally started checking out our wounds and losses. It turned out the goons had stripped us of the armor, and I was honestly shocked I hadn¡¯t noticed until now. We had made it a habit of tying our bags of holding under our clothing, so surprisingly, only one of them was missing, but it was a bag I kept only a small amount of coin in for daily spending. Like if I wanted to get some food or pay to enter the Coliseum. It probably would be a good idea to move most of our wealth onto our GIC, but I liked having cash on my. Still bothered me that they took anything from us at all.


    When it came to the amount of wounds on our bodies, however, we had definitely seen better days. I was basically black and blue from the neck down. My legs seemed more or less okay. Not to say they were fine. They still got all fucked up. They just weren¡¯t as bruised. They were cut and scrapped up more. My head was another story altogether. It was lumpy and swollen, painful to the touch, and every time I moved, it felt like I was moving through water. Janet and I drank some healing smoothies, and after we looked each other over, we knew we would be okay with time.


    We ordered some food up to the room from the tavern connected to the Inn and called it an early night. The next morning, I felt much better. My head especially. It didn¡¯t feel like I was underwater, at least, and the pain was so much better. It hadn¡¯t left me all the way but had significantly decreased. I woke up slowly and then went to the bathroom. Janet was awake when I returned, and she went through her morning routine before we got dressed and headed out. We were going to Eikmans, and we were going to train.


    We had talked about it, and both agreed that punching our frustrations out would be the adult way to deal with our emotions. It didn¡¯t take us long until we were standing outside Eikmans house. We had been wondering if the man would be home, but when we arrived, we saw Eikman and Howsmer passed out in chairs on Eikmans porch.


    ¡°Hey, wake up,¡± Janet yelled over to the two sleeping men as we approached. I bent down, picked up a fist-sized dirt clod, and tossed it at Eikman. On the way over, it mostly fell apart in the air, but a substantial chunk still struck Eikman in the chest. Eikman sputtered and fell out of his chair, grabbing Howsmer on his way down and taking him down with him. That had Janet and I laughing our asses off.


    ¡°Fuck I needed that,¡± I said.


    ¡°Oh my god, me too. That was exactly what I needed. Thank you, Eikman, and you too, Howsmer.¡± Janet said. Both men looked at us, then at each other, then back at us, clearly confused.


    ¡°Where were you two yesterday? I know you won your fights, and we all got good and drunk afterward, but that was no excuse to miss your training.


    ¡°What are you talking about, Eikman? You didn¡¯t move from that chair all day yesterday.¡± Howsmer asked Eikman.


    ¡°Oh, shut it, Howsmer. They still should have come, so I could have got to tell them to fuck off.¡±


    ¡°About that, we had a small altercation after we left the tavern,¡± Janet told the two.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Asked Eikman.


    ¡°We got fucking jumped. That''s what the fuck I¡¯m saying.¡± I clarified. Eikman and Howsmer blinked in confusion and shock for a moment before Eikmans face turned to one of anger while Howsmer¡¯s face became one of pity.


    ¡°Eye, that can happen in the city if you''re not careful, and you two were quite drunk when you left the tavern hell we all were.¡±


    ¡°Who did it,¡± was all Eikman said.


    ¡°We couldn¡¯t tell, but I don¡¯t think it was a random mugging. It felt like they were waiting for us and had targeted us on purpose.¡± I told the two. Eikmans frown seemed to deepen at that, and he got quiet.


    ¡°Yeah, these assholes came at us with fucking clubs and beat the living shit out of us. Even stole our shit as well. It¡¯s fucking bull shit. I swear I¡¯m gonna find them and fucking kill them for what they did. So Eikman, until then, I need to hit something hard.¡± Janet told the men. I just nodded in agreement, but Eikman looked like he hadn¡¯t heard a word we said.


    ¡°Hey, earth to Eikman, anyone home?¡± I said after a little while. I had to say it two more times, increasing in volume until Eikman broke from his thoughts.


    ¡°What? What did you say, Travis?¡±


    ¡°I said, earth to Eikman. Anyone home? I was just trying to get your attention. You were pretty lost in thought there, you good?¡± Eikman shook himself slightly, and with that shake, he had all so shaken loose the cloud hanging over him, and the old Eikman was back.


    ¡°Haha, save no worries for me, Travis. I am the great trainer of champions. I will be fine, especially if you two keep performing at the Coliseum like you did the other day.¡± Eikman said and laughed again. Howsmer looked slightly concerned at the man¡¯s mood change but seemed to think nothing of it after a few moments.


    ¡°That''s why you need to train more than ever. Then the next time four people want to jump you in an ally, no matter how drunk you are, you¡¯ll be able to turn the tables and¡­¡± Eikman was cut off as Janet finished his sentence.


    ¡°And kill the shit out of them.¡± Eikman looked shocked at Janet¡¯s words, as did Howsmer, but then Eikman smiled at Janet.


    ¡°I like that, kill the shit out of them. Yes, that, definitely that. Couldn''t have put it better myself. Well, shall we get to it?¡± Eikman laughed as he practically flew out of his chair. Howsmer just shook his head at the man. I shrugged at Janet, and she shrugged back, and I followed after our mad new trainer, Janet, close behind me.

 Book 2 Chapter 22 - A Slice of Humble Pie? Yes, I’ll take two thanks

    Chapter 22


    A Slice of humble pie? Yes, I¡¯ll take two thanks


    Eikman had to return the training circuit Array, so that sucked, but he said if we sparred for a little, he would run out and get a new training Array. Oh, and he took twenty gold from each of us to rent the Array for a week. We figured it was worth it and gave Eikman the coin. It was fucking extortionate prices, but supply and demand would always be a thing no matter where you were in the multiverse. Janet and I were on our second sparring match when Eikman returned, and he had a ridiculous grin slapped across his face. I was beginning to think of that look as the Eikman special.


    ¡°Oh shit, looks like Eikmans back, but that grin makes me nervous,¡± I told Janet as we stopped our spar and walked over to the eagerly awaiting Eikman.


    ¡°Ha, I know, right? Fucking creepy. Think he got something good?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°Looks like Eikman''s about to jump out of his shoes, and oh, there it is.¡± Eikman had actually literally just jumped out of his shoes. His shoes were a mess, and they were barely held together. I figured it was a miracle that the things were still holding. So when he actually jumped out of his shoes, I wasn¡¯t surprised. His shoes dissolved, almost as if Eikman''s feet were the only thing keeping everything in place, but as his feet were no longer in the shoes to support them, they crumbled to almost nothing.


    Eikman''s smile fell as he looked down at his feet. He blinked a few times in evident shock, but eventually, he just shrugged his shoulders in acceptance. The next second, a smile was back on his face, and he bounced excitedly as Janet and I made our way over.


    ¡°What¡¯s got you so excited?¡± I asked Eikman, honestly curious.


    ¡°Oooh, I did good. Eikman did good. So good, yes I did, oh yes I did. Haha.¡± Eikman was almost too excited, and it was starting to creep me out.


    ¡°Eikman, chill out before you cream your shorts. No one wants to see that. What did you get your hands on that you''re this excited about?¡± Janet asked.


    ¡°The Bangerrang Bammer Array babe! Woo!¡± I just blinked at Eikman, having no idea what the fuck The Bangerrang Bammer Array was or why I should be happy about it.


    ¡°Yeah?¡± I said in a very half-hearted cheer. Janet laughed and then asked the question I think we were both wondering.


    ¡°Travis has a point. What the fuck is a Bangerrang Bammer, and why are you practically bouncing off the walls because you got one?¡±


    ¡°Oh, of course, you have no idea what it is, you locals. You will soon know and then kiss Eikman''s feet.¡± Eikman said, rather proud of himself.


    ¡°Hey, watch it with that locals shit. The way people say that word around here makes me want to punch them in the face. Like, we''re fucking cavemen just for being newly integrated. Anyone who thinks that can get a foot in the ass courtesy of me.¡± Eikman had managed to hold onto his smile for about half my rant before he deadpanned and then dragged his hand down his face.


    ¡°Oh my god, yes, Travis, your feelings are validated, and you are respected as a sepses bla bla bla. Now, can we get onto the Banngerrang bammer?¡± Eikman said, obviously impatient to get on with things. I just rolled my eyes at the man and gestured with a hand as if saying, ¡°Well, get on with it.¡±


    Eikman did a little hop with joy and ran out into the middle of the training yard. Eikman placed a box down, opened it, and then did something I couldn¡¯t see, and an Array sprung to life. I had briefly felt an infusion of Mana before the Array activated, and I was sure it had something to do with what Eikman had done that I couldn¡¯t see. However, that didn¡¯t seem to matter as much after the Array was activated.


    I watched the colors of the Array fill the training yard. Bright blues and pink¡¯s magical Array circles flew through the air, and bands of gold light flared off the magic as it turned and danced. The magic before me was awe-inspiring, but almost as soon as the Array had filled the training yard with colorful, magical lights, it all imploded to form the shape of a humanoid figure.


    The humanoid began to form as the magical lights filled the figure in. Then, after a few more seconds, the lines of runic script that made up the Array shrank and multiplied until a blue and pink humanoid figure stood before us. The Array man was at least six feet five inches tall and had the physique of a Greek god. The figure had no face, hair, clothes, or privet parts, but it looked so fucking epic. It was literally letting off golden steam. I didn¡¯t understand how that was possible, but I didn¡¯t care.


    I tore my eyes from the image before me to look at Eikman. His eyes were saucers, and he might have been drooling. He was that caught up by the spectacle. Seeing Eikman in such a state shook me from my stupor, and that helped me find my voice.


    ¡°So¡­ um, I guess that¡¯s the Banngerrang Bammer Array. Are we supposed to fight that?¡± That must have snapped Janet out. Because she quickly chimed in.


    ¡°Wait, what the fuck. Fuck that I¡¯m not fighting that guy. He has gold steam coming off him. You see that, right? That''s not just me, Right?¡±


    ¡°Wait, no, of course you are fighting it. That''s the new training Array. We didn¡¯t spend all that gold for nothing. This thing is top-of-the-line. Or, well, It was top-of-the-line two hundred years ago, but by multiverse standards, that''s basically brand new. So you bet you¡¯re ass you¡¯re fighting it. The best part is the guy letting me rent it is a friend, and he said we can rent it as long as we want. It¡¯s only¡­ Um, well, yes, yes isn¡¯t that great, so let''s get to it.¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Eikman definitely brushed past something there, but I realized I had never been told the rental price.


    ¡°Wait a second. How much is this thing going to cost us?¡± Eikman looked as if I had just held sour milk under his nose.


    ¡°I told you already don¡¯t waste time; time is money, you know.¡± Eikman was clearly trying to blow me off, but I wasn¡¯t in the mood.


    ¡°Eikman, don¡¯t fuck with me right now. How much is it going to cost to rent the Array guy?¡± Eikman looked like a kid who had been told to eat his veggies, but he ended up telling me the price.


    ¡°Fine, if you insist on wasting time reviewing things we¡¯ve already gone over. Fine, fine, okay, it''s fifty gold a week. See nothing, really. So, actually, I¡¯m going to need ten more gold for this week''s rental, but we can deal with that later. I got a great deal. These Arrays usually rent for four times as much. So, really, you should be thanking me for being such a shrewd businessman.¡±


    It was a ridiculous amount of gold to spend on a training Array, and I almost lost my shit then and there, but I think the need to hit something was just too strong. I decided to let it go. We could always return it if needed, even if it would probably make Eikman cry.


    ¡°Okay, so how do we do this? Do I just walk up and try to punch it in the face or some shit?¡± I asked Eikman.


    ¡°That¡¯s my plan,¡± Janet said as she started walking towards the Array. Eikman¡¯s eyes bulged a bit as he heard what Janet was planning and ran to intercept her.


    ¡°Wait, wait, wait, Janet, I need to activate and set up the proper training configuration before you just go hitting the thing. Stop.¡± Eikman caught up with Janet, but she was determined to punch the thing settings and set up be dammed. Seeing his words were not getting through to Janet, Ekman decided to push past her and beat her to the Array. Eikman used a bit too much force when he pushed Janet. She ended up flying twenty feet before smacking into the ground.


    ¡°Eikman, are you fucking kidding me? You fucking asshole,¡± Janet said as she picked herself up and wiped the worst of the mod off.  Janet was pissed. You could see it clearly on her face. I actually reflexively gulped. Janet was maybe ten feet from Eikman when he finished fiddling with something on the Array man¡¯s back that must have been the configuration settings.


    Eikman took a step away from the Array, and the Array man, for lack of a better word, stretched. Then its attention landed on Janet as its head swiveled towards her. Janet stopped in her tracks, shocked by the sudden movement of the Array. It looked like she suddenly felt some trepidation about her spontaneous choices. Then the Array man moved.


    In a moment, the Array man stood right before Janet. She had not been expecting this, and her stance wasn¡¯t set. So, as the punch came at her quick as a flash, she had no hope of blocking or dodging the attack. Janet was struck in the face, and the next moment, Janet was flying across the training yard. It wasn¡¯t a slow flight or with a beautiful arch, no. This was a fast, brutal punch that shot Janet back over fifteen feet and then drove her into the ground.


    I was frozen in shock at what had happened. Janet, a badass warrior goddess, had been swatted in mere seconds like a fly.


    ¡°What the fuck, Eikman? Janet!¡± I was suddenly feeling a whole bunch of emotions, and I wasn¡¯t happy about it. I was scared for Janet, worried that she might actually be seriously injured, piss the fuck off at Eikman, and nervous about what this Array man was going to do.


    My priority was Janet. I started running over to check on her, but as I did, the Array man that had frozen as if shut down after defeating Janet lifted its head and looked in my direction. Once I noticed the Array mans attention on me, all I could think was, ¡°fuck, here we go.¡± And the Array man moved. I twisted around and readied myself for the attack to come, and sure enough, the next second, a fist came out of nowhere, rocketing at my face.


    The Array man was fast. Like, holy fuck, the thing could move. I barely got out of the way of the fist in time. I felt the wind of the punch as it passed by my cheek. That kind of did it, and by that, I mean that was kind of my limit reached. I had been jumped and robbed, and now Janet was hurt, and it was all this damn mother fucking Array¡¯s fault, and that was it, I snapped.


    I didn¡¯t think I just acted. I felt like this city had shit on me at every step. The only thing I did well was fight, so it was time to do so. I used Step Lightly to move next to the Array man and snapped out a punch of my own into its face. I was actually a little shocked when my punch landed. The Array man''s head snapped to the side, but that was all that happened.


    My eyes widened in shock, and all I could say was,


    ¡°Fuck,¡± before I was popped into the air with a punch to the gut. Spittle left my mouth as the breath was forcibly ejected from my lungs. I met eyes with the Array man. Well, what he had in place of eyes was more just holes in his head glowing with gold light. It felt like I hung in the air for a moment, breaking the laws of physics, but then that illusion was driven from my mind as I was pounded into the ground.


    I lay there in the actual crater my body had made in the ground and tried not to pass out. I managed to hold on to consciousness and started to get back to my feet. This was not over. I was not going to let this fucking Array thing beat me. I would win this fight no matter the cost. It was time to show this asshole who Travis fucking Mullins really¡­ That was when the Array man punched me in the face again. I hadn¡¯t even seen it coming. Then, the world went black.


    When I woke up, it was still daytime, but I had no idea what time it was or how long I had been out. Janet must have noticed I was awake because shortly after I had opened my eyes, Janet¡¯s hand entered my field of view, and after a moment, I decided to take it. Janet pulled me to my feet, and I was a bit embarrassed with how much help I needed to rise.


    Janet must have seen that as well because I heard her laughing at me, and then she said,


    ¡°You okay there? Eikman told me you got put down pretty hard.¡± I closed my eyes and collected myself momentarily before looking at Janet. I had to squint my eyes at the brightness of the day. My head also hurt like a bitch.


    ¡°Fuck you. My head is killing me, and I¡¯m going to kill Eikman when I can feel my face again.¡± Janet laughed, but I was pretty fucking serious.


    ¡°Don¡¯t kill Eikman. You know he¡¯s fucking crazy. He probably thought he was helping us in some fucked up way.¡± I was slightly shocked to hear those words coming from Janet.


    ¡°Out of the two of us, I¡¯d figure you¡¯d be more pissed off. Especially after you got sucker punched by the fucking Array guy.¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Yeah, I was pissed off at first. I mean, like, so fucking mad, but then I thought about it as I was lying there on the ground. Eikman is crazy as fuck, but he is still, I feel, actually trying to help us become better fighters. So maybe this was a lesson we needed. We¡¯re strong, Travis, but far from being the strongest around. This was a reality check, but now it''s time to get strong, and this training Array might be just what we need right now.¡±


    I thought about what Janet had said, and it made sense. We were weak, far too weak, and as I considered Janet¡¯s words, my anger for Eikman began to wane.


    ¡°Fine. I get what you¡¯re saying, and you''re right. I¡¯m still a little pissed off, but I¡¯ll get over it, I guess.¡± I pouted and crossed my arms. That made Janet chuckle, so I stuck my tongue out at her.


    ¡°Come on, get up. Let¡¯s go find Eikman.¡± I wanted to act like a child, but Janet was right again. So, after a few seconds more of being a pouty baby, I did a few stretches and then let out a sigh.


    ¡°Alright, fine, let''s go find that crazy fucker.¡±  I told Janet, and we both headed off to find the madman.

 Book 2 Chapter 23 - I just want to lie down

    Chapter 23


    I just want to lie down


    What the fuck was that? You crazy motherfucker, you could have killed me.¡± I shouted at Eikman once we found him.


    ¡°Look, look, see, it''s not my fault. I was rushed and may have had the power level up a bit too high. It''s rated up to level fifty, but you were rushing me. I fixed it now, so there should be no more beating you into the literal ground this time. I swear. Eikman said all this rather quickly, then shot me a brilliant smile of fucked up teeth. I grimaced at the smile he gave me. His teeth were honestly disgusting.


    ¡°Fine, but if you fuck me over again, I am actually going to punch you in the face.¡± Eikman''s smile faltered a bit, and I swear I heard him say ¡°rude¡± under his breath, but I let it go. It was time to train. We would have to trust Eikman for now. That sentence made me cringe. Trust Eikman, but that''s what I had been doing until now, and I think I was becoming a better fighter. So, we might as well stay the course.


    Janet decided to go first since I was still pulling myself together after being soundly stomped. So, I sat on the edge of Eikman¡¯s porch with Eikman as we watched on, waiting for the match to start. Janet seemed nervous about facing the Array man, and I didn¡¯t blame her. Getting beat up so easily wasn¡¯t something you forgot quickly. Eikman had been chosen to start the fight for some fucking reason I still didn¡¯t quite understand.


    Once Janet looked as ready as she was going to be, she called over to us.


    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s do this. Come on.¡± As Janet said this, she slashed her axe through the air, then took a ready stance. I held my breath as Eikman said the magic word,


    ¡°fight!¡± The match went about as expected. Eikman had set the power level somewhere around level 30. We knew we wouldn¡¯t beat the Array man on the first try, but I still couldn¡¯t hold back cringe as Janet missed a block five minutes into the fight and got punished with a roundhouse kick to the side of the head. The hit sent Janet flying, and that''s when the Array man preceded to slam Janet out of the air and into the ground, knocking her unconscious and ending the fight.


    The Array man retreated to the center of the training field and went into sleep mode.


    ¡°Fuck that was brutal. Does it have to be such a hard ass? It didn¡¯t need to knock her out, shit,¡± I asked Eikman as we headed over to check on Janet.


    ¡°I know it¡¯s a bit much, but Travis, can I give you some perspective? Your lives before the integration may have held troubles and harshnesses, but it will be nothing compared to the world you are now a part of. Travis, whole planets, species, and entire factions have been purged from the multiverse with less thought effort than it takes to sneeze if the truly powerful choice to act. You will be forever held responsible to someone more powerful than you till you take the power to decide your own destiny.Power is true freedom in the multiverse, and the stronger you get, the more you will find this to be true. Take my advice and advance yourself. Never stop pushing or learn to be happy, letting those more powerful guide your life.¡±


    Eikman finished his little speech as we reached Janet, and we got caught up in helping her recover. Eikmans words stuck with me as I prepared myself for my match as Eikman fed Janet some healing potion. I thought about Eikmans words more and more. He was right. I was nothing. I was a speck of dust compared to the monsters of my new reality, but that wouldn¡¯t always be the case, and this was the first step.


    Yeah, I got the shit beaten out of me again, and I¡¯d rather not get into it. Let¡¯s just say the Array man broke my arm and then my jaw. Even after being healed from my match, I still needed a few hours to pull myself together mentally. It was hard on the ego to get soundly thrashed repeatedly.


    Janet fought the Array four times that day, and I only managed to get in three. We left Eikman and the Array around six, as usual, but we decided it was time to find a new place to stay. We both wanted to shower with some privacy and sleep in a comfy bed. We were both mentally exhausted, and a good night''s sleep was at the top of my to-do list.


    We returned to the inn where we were staying, collected anything we had left in the room, and checked out of the establishment. We walked around for about two hours looking for a place to stay before we got discouraged. Everywhere seemed to either have no rooms available or looked to run down for Janet. So we decided to stop our search momentarily to get a bite to eat, but that was where we got a bit of a lucky break.


    Janet and I had stopped in what reminded me of a ramen shop from an anime. It was a little hole in the wall with a few stools at a small bar and a short curtain that only hid the backs of the customers'' heads as they ate. I had picked the place based on the look if I was being totally honest. I didn¡¯t even know what kind of food it was when we walked in, but there were two seats open at the bar, so we sat down and picked up a menu.


    If this restaurant had been around before the integration, it would have been called Fusion Food, but it sort of reminded me of Bibimbap. Most of the dishes came in a bowl about halfway filled with rice, and then there was a mix of raw and barbecued meats on top with a variety of vegetables.


    Everything was spiced, and there were a bunch of sauces that you could add to the dish that would change the flavor in subtle ways. I was initially nervous about trying the food and even told Janet as much, but she just laughed at me and told me to live a little. I had rolled my eyes at her, but I was too stubborn to back down, so I just told her that I was making sure she was okay but that I was fine with it. That¡¯s when Janet rolled her eyes at me and said,


    ¡°Sure, Travis, sure.¡± Instead of responding, I started looking at the menu to figure out what I would order. I ended up being pretty glad we stayed because the food was amazing. The spices were out of this world, I think, literally, and the sauces you could add were a whole other element that I didn¡¯t feel like I got to fully explore in one visit.


    When I was done, I took a piece of rice and wiped the bowl clean. The owner of the little establishment saw me do this and let out a chuckle. He was a short man, maybe four feet five inches, with what looked like gills on the side of his neck. He had no hair, just a single fin slicked back and held tight to his scalp. He wore loose-fitting clothing that draped off him and looked incredibly comfortable. Other than that, he looked like a regular human from Earth.


    ¡°Man, that food was good. I mean, really good. Thank you for the meal.¡± I told the man. He let out another chortle of laughter.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you liked it, young local. Please come again anytime. It makes me truly happy to see people enjoying my food.¡±


    ¡°Oh, don''t you worry about that. I¡¯ll definitely be back. I still haven¡¯t tried all the different sauces yet.¡± That got another laugh out of the man, and he introduced himself.


    ¡°The name is Malin, Doogleg Malin. It''s nice to meet two who like my food as much as you two seem to.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Travis, and this is Janet. Thanks again for the good food, but I think we better get going. We still need to find a place to stay for the night.¡± I told Doogleg  Malin as we got ready to head out. Doogleg stopped what he was doing and looked off into the air for a second. Then, it looked like he had thought of something.


    ¡°Ah, Travis, was it? If you need a place to stay, my cousin owns an inn just around the corner. You might be able to get a room there. Just tell him Doogleg sent you his way. It might not be to your taste, but it''s something, right?¡± We thanked Malin for the recommendation, paid, and left the restaurant.


    ¡°So what do you think? Nice guy. Maybe we should go check out his cousin''s place. If it¡¯s right around the corner, it''s not like it''s a huge detour.¡± I asked Janet.


    ¡°Yeah, we might as well. It''s getting later, so the faster we find something, the better. After that meal and the day we had, I just need to pass out.¡± Janet responded. She was right, and I felt the same way. So we headed to where Doogleg had told us his cousin¡¯s place was. It only took a few minutes until we were almost positive we had found it. It was only a block and a half away from Doogleg¡¯s restaurant and had a similar vibe. The Inn seemed to have a Japanese ascetic, but there were also slight touches and furnishes that were clearly alien, not resembling any culture I knew of from Earth.


    It was a five-story building that took up a good fifty feet of the one-hundred-and-fifty-foot block. We walked up to the front door, well, doors, really. The entrance of the building was a pair of eight-foot-tall double doors made of dark hardwood. There was a large brass knocker in the shape of what looked like a carp on one door, and we figured that was a good place to start.


    Once we stood before the doors, I reached out, grabbed the large knocker, and slammed it against the door a few times. The sound rang out, and about twenty seconds later, the door began to open. I expected a person standing there who would have been responsible for the door opening, but there was no one, and the door seemed to have opened by magic, which I thought was probably the case.


    We walked inside and entered what looked like the lobby of any fancy hotel you could have found pre-integration. Across from the door was a desk with an attendant sitting behind it.


    ¡°Welcome to the Malin¡¯s Inn and Tavern. Can I help you?¡± The attendant asked us once we had walked over to the check-in desk. The attendant was a young woman looking to be somewhere in her late twenties but with alien races who really new anymore. She looked to be the same race as Dooglog Malin. So I assumed they were either related or something like that.


    ¡°Yeah, I think you might be able to help us. We got a recommendation from Doogleg Malin to come here. We were looking for a place to stay, and he said you might have something available and to tell you he sent us.¡± The woman looked confused for a minute, and then it looked as if everything made sense.


    ¡°Ah, yes, that is my uncle, actually. We are at capacity right now, but since my uncle sent you to us, I think we could find something. How long would you be looking to stay with us for?¡± I was starting to feel relieved that our search for a place to stay that lived up to Janet''s standards might finally be over.


    ¡°We really don¡¯t know how long. We¡¯re currently training and plan to spend time fighting in the Coliseum. So would a month be okay to start?¡±


    ¡°A month? I¡¯m sorry, sir, I don¡¯t believe I know that measurement of time.¡±


    ¡°Oh, my apologies. Would thirty days work?¡± I clarified.


    ¡°Ah, yes, sir, that will be fine. We actually offer a long-stay package. It is forty gold for a forty-five-day stay, and that includes breakfast. If you want dinner added, it is an extra ten silver a night, which comes out to an extra four gold and fifty silver total. You can also get dinner in the Tavern. Dinner is served between the hours of five and nine-thirty. The regular rate for a night is one gold and twenty silver, so with the long-stay package, you¡¯ll save a good amount of gold. Does this sound like something you¡¯d be interested in?¡±


    I looked at Janet. She was so tired that she just said,


    ¡°Well? Pay the woman, Travis.¡± I rolled my eyes.


    ¡°That sounds perfect. Thank you.¡± I handed over the gold, and we were led to our room. As soon as we got there, even before we opened the door, Janet stopped the young woman, whose name turned out to be Mille, and asked her if there was a bathroom and show attached to the room. Mille looked confused for a second, but she answered Janet.


    ¡°Yes, all the rooms have a bathroom, including a sink, toilet, bathtub and shower.¡± Janet breathed an audible sigh of relief and let Mille unlock the room. We walked to a comfortable sitting room with two doors leading off the space. Mille pointed to one door and indicated it was the bathroom, then pointed at the other and told us it led to the bedroom. She hoped one bed was okay, but Janet was done listening to the woman and was already heading towards the bathroom, undressing as she went.


    When I noticed what Janet was doing, she was already half-naked, and Mille was starting to blush.


    ¡°Well, thank you for your help, Mille. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll be fine. Have a good evening.¡± I started trying to block Mille¡¯s view of Janet with my body, which seemed to snap Mille out of her daze.


    ¡°Yes, of course¡­ um, breakfast will be dropped at your door at nine tomorrow morning, and thank you for choosing Malin¡¯s.¡± I thanked Mille once more and then shut the door as she left. I looked for Janet, but she was already in the bathroom. I was a bit annoyed with her, but that all fell away when I decided to join Janet in the shower.


    That shower was terrific, a little longer than usual, and definitely needed. After we were good and clean, we dried off and crawled into bed. We christened the bed and found out that it was well-built. Then, with my arm around Janet, we passed out, genuinely exhausted.


    Janet and I awoke to a knock on the door the following morning. I put on my pants to see who it was, but when I opened the door, instead of a person, I found a tray of food waiting on a cart. I rolled the cart into the room and told Janet that there was food. I ducked into the bathroom, and when I got out, Janet was sitting at a small table by a window wrapped in a sheet, popping the covers off the dishes that had been delivered.


    It was an interesting breakfast of meats, soups, and vegetables, but it was all delicious and more than filling. I hadn¡¯t really paid attention to the details of the room we had rented last night. We had been so tired and happy to find somewhere willing to rent us a room that all I had wanted to do was curl up with Janet and fall asleep, but as I ate, I looked around our sweet we had rented, and it was simple but elegant.


    Nothing in the sweet looked gaudy or extravagant, but everything was comfortable and set up to make the room enjoyable. By that, I mean it wasn¡¯t cluttered or full of random expensive knick-knacks. It had simple, well-made, comfortable furniture, and I appreciated it. The sweet looked more like Scandinavian design, simple and elegant. It was an odd contrast to the building''s exterior.


    I hated staying in a place that felt like a museum. If I moved wrong, you could destroy someone''s great-grandmother¡¯s favorite statue from that one trip she went on where she blah blah blah. Fuck that shit. I couldn¡¯t handle that shit. That¡¯s when I decided I liked the place, and I thought I could see us staying here for a while as long as we didn¡¯t get kicked out.


    Once we finished eating and taking showers, we dressed and headed to  Eikman¡¯s. The nice thing about this new place we were staying was that they had a vault, and if you asked the front desk, they would store stuff in the vault for you as a courtesy for staying at the establishment. I decided to leave a bag of holdings in the vault, and Janet did likewise. After getting jumped, it felt like a bad idea to keep all the wealth we had accumulated on us at all times. We thanked the attendant at the desk, not Mille this time, and off to Eikman¡¯s it was.

 Book 2 Chapter 24 - Soul song

    Chapter 24


    Soul song


    We arrived at Eikman¡¯s around eleven and found him waiting impatiently for our arrival.


    ¡°Where have you been? It¡¯s almost noon. We¡¯ll be lucky to get anything done today.¡± Eikman said. Then he huffed in frustration and crossed his arms over his chest.¡± I had to laugh.


    ¡°Calm down, Eikman. We¡¯re here, aren¡¯t we? Come on, let¡¯s go. Start up the Array.¡±


    ¡°It''s been ready since nine.¡± Eikman hollered back at me, then stomped off to ensure the settings for the Array were correct as we entered the training yard. I shook my head at the retreating man as I began stretching. I was determined to do more today than just get beaten into the ground.


    My fight with the Array started rather ordinary, or as ordinary as fighting a magical training dummy could be. I even felt like I might have finally found a rhythm. I felt like I was kind of holding my own this time. Of course, that''s when the Array changed its tactics.


    I was starting to gain some confidence. Janet and Eikman were cheering me on, and my last series of strikes put the Array man on the back foot. I was a god of battle, and this was my realm. I got ready to send another volley of strikes at the Array man when a blast of fire shot at me, and I had to change my attack plan to a defensive one instantly.


    I spun on a dime and dived to the side to avoid the fire racing towards me. I only partially dodged the flames and felt my left foot cook. I couldn¡¯t help it. The feeling of the flesh of my leg popping and sizzling like chicken in the fryer. It was just too much, and I was definitely not a god of anything. The pain was everything, and I screamed.


    Before I knew what was happening, I was on the ground. I felt my breath being driven from my lungs as a foot connected with my chest. I was barely aware of what was happening as I went flying through the air, entering unconsciousness the moment I hit the ground. The last thing I remember thinking before the darkness took me was, ¡°What the fuck was that?¡±


    I woke up to Ekman¡¯s ugly ass face looking down at me.


    ¡°Oh, good. See Janet, he''s fine.¡± Eikman reached out and offered me a hand to help me up. I ignored the proffered hand and slowly got back to my feet.


    ¡°What the fuck was that? Did that thing just fire-blast me? You didn¡¯t tell us it could use abilities.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t I?¡±


    ¡°No, you fucking did not.¡±


    ¡°Language Travis! Well, you must have forgotten because I must have told you. I remembered that it had that feature this morning, so I turned it on. No need to beat yourself up over it, Travis. Happens to the best of us.¡± Eikman said and patted me on the shoulder as if saying, it''s okay, I understand.


    ¡°What? No, Eikman I¡­ never mind.¡± I figured the argument wasn¡¯t worth it, so I just gritted my teeth and said,


    ¡°Of course, how could I have forgotten.¡± Eikman then gave me a strange look.


    ¡°What? I agree with you. Don¡¯t look at me like that.¡± Eikman was giving me side-eye, and it was pissing me off.


    ¡°Well, of course, you didn¡¯t remember. I never told you about the ability settings. Maybe you should go home and rest.¡± Oh, My God, I¡¯m going to kill him. Breathe out then in Travis. Out then in, wooosawww wooosawww. I walked back over to Eikmans porch. I sat down on the edge as Eikman took his chair. Janet was walking towards the training Array. She cracked her neck as she readied herself. It was her turn now.


    Janet had been just as pissed off as I was when she found out the Array man could use abilities, and Eikman had somehow forgotten to mention it. Then, she eventually saw it as another obstacle to overcome. I inevitably came to the same conclusion, and my anger had been tempered.


    Once training was done for the day, Janet and I had a new batch of bumps and bruises. We had been running ourselves ragged every day, training and pushing ourselves to the limit, and it was showing. Before we headed to our new place and could shower and pass out, we had decided to sign up for more fights in the Coliseum.


    Turned out you could sign up for more than one fight at a time. So Janet and I each signed up for five, which was the limit. Our fights were separated out over ten days, with a rest day between each fight day. You could only fight once a day unless it was in a tournament or something. That was fine. Five fights were plenty to get excited about, and Janet and I were very excited. Reinvigorated a bit, Janet and I went out and had a nice dinner at a small shop near where we were staying. Overall, it was a good night.


    The following day, we met up with Eikman for training as usual. Janet and my fights wouldn¡¯t start for a few days, so we buckled down even harder on training. When the day before our run of fights would start had come and gone, a wave of anticipation hit me. To distract myself, I spent the evening working on my new Mana technique.


    The last time I messed around with it was right before Janet and I got jumped. I had kind of forgotten about it as a need to train, to gain power as fast as possible, hit me after the mugging. There was potential in what I was trying to do. I knew there was. It was just incredibly tedious and time-consuming to practice.


    It was maybe 10 o¡¯clock, and after a good meal and a long day of training, Janet passed out, but I couldn¡¯t sleep. I just kept tossing and turning when I lay down. I felt like I should be tired. Sleep should come easy, you would think. Even back on Earth, I had this thing about sleeping before a big event or things of the like. I would try and sleep. I would lie down and eliminate all distractions, but sleep wouldn¡¯t come.


    So, instead of just laying in bed for hours, not sleeping, I decided to do something to occupy my mind, and maybe, if I was lucky, I would get tired and pass out. I could only hope. That¡¯s how I ended up sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed practicing My little Mana manipulation trick. When I had last practiced in my drunken stupor, I had managed to form a Mana mist around my right hand, but even that had demanded a level of concentration that had been almost impossible drunk.


    I was sober now, well, mostly sober. The wine at dinner had been an excellent vintage, and I could not resist indulging a bit. Like I said, though, I was mostly sober, so my practice session was a bit better than last time. I was about two hours in and seeing significantly better results. I could now fully encapsulate my arms and legs with the invisible Mana mist without a sensory overload. My torso and head were still proving troublesome, however.


    Maybe it was the density of Mana pathways in these areas. Every time I attempted to do so, a white noise staticky feeling would fill my head, and I even almost blacked out from one attempt. I took a break at that point, munched on some snacks, and drank a little wine from a bottle in my bag. It was that break that gave me a breakthrough.


    I was just relaxing, finally starting to actually feel a bit tired. I was deciding whether or not to try and pass out when I noticed something. As I sat there relaxing, small amounts of Mana were seeping out of my pores and turning into mist. I wasn¡¯t even doing it consciously. When I focused on it and tried to stem the flow, it stopped, but it wasn¡¯t easy.


    Then it hit me. It was like taking a good poop. No, wait, hear me out. When you¡¯re pooping, if you push too hard, you''ll probably give yourself a hemorrhoid or something, but if you relax sooner or later, everything will work its way out. That is if you''re not constipated. Well, this trick worked very much the same way.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Suppose you tried to push your Mana as hard as you could. Really trying to force it out. The Mana would only become more challenging to get the Mana to do what you wanted. On the other hand, if you relaxed, the Mana would move much easier.


    As I tentatively attempted my new methodology, I was immediately met with success. I was so excited that I jumped up from where I was sitting and did a little dance. Silently, of course, I didn¡¯t want to wake Janet. The only problem with my little break-though was that I was now fully awake, almost vibrating with excitement. I sat down again, ready to fully indulge in my new discovery.


    Only an hour later, I could call the Mana mist up at will. At first, it would take a few seconds for the Mana mist to manifest and encapsulate my entire body, but after that hour, I could do it almost immediately. It was freaking cool as hell. After that hour, I also felt exhausted and had a full-on headache. It was 11:30 when I dragged myself into bed, pulled the covers over my head, and passed out.


    The following morning, we dressed in our armor, ate, and headed out to the Coliseum. My fight was first at 10:30 in the morning, while Janet''s was scheduled for 1 o¡¯clock. In no time, Janet was wishing me luck, and then I was heading down into the underbelly of the Coliseum. The pure efficiency of the place stunned me even though I had already seen this once. The second time was no less awe-inspiring. My opponent today was unknown to me, but they should be around my level, and that was all the encouragement I needed. Against someone at my level, I was pretty confident I could win.


    Standing before the doors leading into the arena, I watched the light. I thought about my new Mana technician and whether or not to implement it in this fight, and I decided against it in the end. It wasn¡¯t ready, and I could win without it. I could win this fight. I was ready. I was fucking pumped up now, and as the light turned green and a chime filled the air, I punched my fist into my palm and grinned.


    ¡°Let¡¯s do this,¡± I said softly into the air, and then I walked through the open doors and into the arena.


    The roar of the crowd was the first thing that hit me. Then, it was the lights of the arena, but as my eyes rapidly adjusted, a figure came into view. It was my opponent, and wait a minute, goddam it, and his fucking trainer. What the fuck was this shit? I was starting to feel like Eikman was shirking some fucking trainer duties. This was bullshit.


    As I approached the center of the arena, my opponent and his trainer did likewise. I was so focused on my opponent that I didn¡¯t notice a referee had entered the arena until he was standing at the center, awaiting our arrival. I stopped walking when the referee raised her hand and told me to. I was about twenty feet away, and my opponent was likewise.


    The referee began to explain the rules just as last time, and I took that time to inspect my opponent. He was seven feet tall and looked like one of his ancestors must have been some kind of dragon or lizard. The dragon man had a humanoid figure, but thick black and green scales covered every inch of the man. His body was that of a bodybuilder and covered in glistening black, almost purple scales with a face made up of primarily draconic features.


    The tail added a whole new element to our fight, and it seemed to be prehensile. The dragon man wore nothing but pants and metal shoulder pads while two swords swung on either side of his hips. His trainer seemed to be of the same race but was barely six feet tall and nowhere near as ripped. Fuck, okay, the referee was almost done with the rules. It was time.


    The dragon man''s trainer shared a last few words of wisdom with his student and then left the arena. The magical shields that protected the crowd and the referee during the match sprung into existence, and my opponent and I took our starting positions. The referee was saying something, but I was barely listening. I was completely focused on my opponent. Then I heard the words I had been waiting for. Let the fight begin.


    The referee dropped his hand, and my opponent and I moved.


    Sparks flew as Teremnocal met swords in a fierce, bone-numbing clash. We broke and soon were slamming steel against steel once more. This guy was good. He was fucing fast and strong as hell. I felt like I was fending off a speeding train with every hit I blocked. I released a Quick Strike rapidly, sending strike after strike at the dragon man, forcing him to either block or retreat out of range.


    The dragon man chose the latter and retreated. I then followed up my Quick Strike with a charged-up Shadow Spear. I thought I had the guy until a dragon head made of red light superimposed itself over the dragon man''s body and bit down on my Shadow Spear, obliterating my attack.


    I was a little taken aback that my attack was so utterly destroyed, but I wasn¡¯t allowed much time to be shocked because the dragon man was charging at me. He then activated another ability that must have been similar to Janet''s I¡¯m so strong ability. Because as the large man drew closer, his muscles visibly grew. My eyes widened, shocked once more, and I had to Step Lightly away to gain space.


    This guy¡¯s power had just exploded, and he was strong to begin with. That dragon head made of red light had disappeared after eating my Shadow Spear, but I didn¡¯t know how often he could use that ability. It seemed pretty strong to just cancel out my move like that. So hopefully, he could only use it a few times, but I was totally fucking guessing.


    I had been forced to use a few Setp lightly in a row to actually get some room. The guy was so fast, but I got a little space. That space, however, was being eaten up rapidly, and I needed to get back on the attack. I stood there, watching the dragon man charge at me and catching my breath momentarily. I let him get almost within striking distance, and then I moved.


    I activated multiple abilities in quick succession. First, I activated Step Lightly twice to appear behind the dragon man. I then activated Quick Strike and then Channeled Pin Point. The dragon man ate a Quick Strike to the back and let out a bellow in pain. The next thing I did might have seemed odd to someone watching in the stands, but I had a plan.


    When I activated and channeled Pin Point, I was using it to help me aim Quick Strike, of course, but I was also using the ability to help me time my next move. As I watched the dragon man back, I saw the moment when his muscles contracted, indicating he was about to turn around and strike.


    Seeing this, I cut my Quick Strike short, dropped Pin Point, and activated Step lightly retreating. As I dodged the strike I had anticipated, I activated Step Lightly again and darted in with a Shadow Spear charging. I timed it so the dragon man was fully extended and exposed from his last attack.


    When I struck, I felt a massive power wash over me. It almost disrupted my attack as the bright red dragon head made of light made an appearance once more. This time the dragon man had fucked up the timing. I hit the dragon man in the chest, and as I did, the dragon head made of red light that had been forming dissolved into the air, the ability losing its cohesion. I managed to just catch the look of shock on the dragon man''s face right before my attack sent him flying.


    I had finally got him, and I darted after my air-born opponent with Step Lightly to try and push my advantage as far as I could. I apparently hadn¡¯t hit the dragon man hard enough. Almost as soon as he hit the ground, he was back on his feet and ready to go. I wasn¡¯t expecting this at all.


    Maybe I was being cocky or overconfident, but when the dragon man hopped back to his feet after what I thought was a nice shot on my part, I was completely caught off guard. So when I suddenly found myself too close to effectively use my Teremnocal, I knew I was in trouble. A sword through the chest and a tail whip to the face that sent me flying confirmed that.


    Oh, that one hurt. I almost blacked out, but I forced myself to focus, and the darkness faded, replaced with pain. Fuck that was a bad fuck up, but there was no time I had to get back up. I would lose if I stayed here. I pushed myself back to my feet, and luckily, depending on how you looked at it, the dragon man had done me a favor. He had hit me in the face so hard that I had flown almost halfway across the arena. In doing so, he had given me more time to pull myself back together than I think he intended.


    Oh, yeah, the guy looked pissed off. He first started walking, then running at me once more. It was time to stop fucking around and end this. I was hurting, and I didn''t know how much longer I could fight in this state. As the dragon man came at me, I tightened my grip on my weapon and gritted my teeth. He hit me like a truck when we met, and I was pushed back. We exchanged ruthless blows, but every exchange left my arm tingling, and it felt like I wasn¡¯t getting anywhere. If anything, I was losing, and my chest was killing me, maybe literally. Then, out of nowhere, the dragon man''s attack speed increased again, and desperation appeared in his gaze.


    Something was wrong, well I mean right for me, wrong for him. As the dragon man¡¯s attacks intensified, I began using a mix of Step Lightlys, Pin Points, And Quick Strikes just to keep up. The dragon man gave me no time to charge a Shadow Spear, and I barely held it together. He was throwing everything he had at me. With my Mana close to bottoming out, I couldn¡¯t block every strike, so my wounds accumulated.


    My breath caught as I was stabbed in the leg and then slapped across the face with a tail whip, but that¡¯s when it happened. All at once, the dragon man''s muscles shrunk, and he looked like he was about to pass out. The dragon man gritted his teeth, and I saw him trying to fight through his weekend state.


    Even in my weary fucked up state, I saw this as my chance, and I struck. I darted forward, darted being generous. I used the dregs of my Mana pool to cast one more Step Lightly. Then I struck out twice in quick succession with the butt of my Teremnocal, and that was all it took. The dragon man dropped to the ground, knocked out cold.


    I stood there for a moment, panting and bleeding over my downed opponent. Then, the cheers of the crowd hit me. When it did, I was surprised I didn¡¯t notice it sooner. The crowd was full-on losing their shit. There were definitely more people in the stands than had been at the start of our fight. So, I guess we drew a crowd. Fuck yeah.


    It made sense to me. The dragon man and I both put everything out there in this fight. We both pushed ourselves to the edge. Even standing there bleeding and barely conscious, I couldn''t help but smile. This had been the best. Fighting someone like this was just exhilarating. No, it was more than that. It was like my soul was singing. My body was beaten to shit, but my soul was shining with a sense of pure joy. I needed more of this.

 Book 2 Chapter 25 - New friends

    Chapter 25


    New friends


    Once the fight had been officially called with me as the victor, my opponent and I had to be carried out of the arena due to injury. I had lost the strength to stand at some point and ended up on the ground. I tried to get back to my feet, but my body was done, and It had just given out. Once out of the arena, I was brought to a healer and paid ten gold for them to fix me up. It felt like I was being extorted, but I didn¡¯t care at the time.


    When I exited the tunnel that led from the underbelly of the Coliseum to the check-in area, I was expecting to see Janet standing there, alone. Overjoyed to see me, of course, but definitely by herself. When I arrived at the check-in area, I didn¡¯t know how to react when maybe forty people were awaiting my arrival.


    As I approached the group, they saw me and began to cheer me once more. Janet stood at the head of the group, and when I looked at her, she just shrugged. Then I was amongst them, and there were a lot of pats on the back, calls of ¡° well fought.¡± It was a bit overwhelming, and after minutes, Janet took mercy on me and dragged me away.


    Janet''s fight was later that evening at six, so we had some time to kill. We wandered around for a while, then got carried away again with reckless gambling. That lasted a good four hours or so, and we made some money but ended up down maybe forty credits each. Janet ended up a bit bummed out, but then we stumbled upon an incredible fight between two sword-wielders that left Janet eager for her match to come.


    We watched a few more fights, and then it was time for Janet to check in for her own fight. Janet almost ran to the check-in area when it was time, and I kept laughing at her as I had to power-walk to keep up with her. Before she disappeared down into the belly of the Coliseum, I stopped her. I hugged Janet, kissed her, and wished her luck. Janet smiled at me and pinched my ass playfully before she turned. When she did, Janet''s arua shifted from playful to one of potent focus.


    I found my seat in the stands where Janet''s fight would take place and settled in to see what I was sure would be an excellent show. The doors opened, and Janet walked out into the arena after I had been sitting down for only about ten minutes.


    In those ten minutes, I had bout a beer from a roaming vendor and befriended two fellow spectators, Ben and Beard face shredder fist, a rough translation. Good guys, and apparently, they had also seen my fight earlier. They had initially seemed a bit star-struck but mellowed out as we hung out.


    Ben was a rock man. It reminded me of that comic with those four heroes but Ben was smaller, more human-sized. They were fantastic, and one of them was this human who had been turned into a rock man. Well, Ben kinda looked like that. Beard face shredder fist, on the other hand, was a skinny humanoid fish guy.


    Apparently, he was from a water world. He had these tattoed spell arrays that allowed him to breathe through his gills. He was a bit awkward, but his shyness faded quickly once he started talking about the fights he had seen. It was hard to get him to stop talking after that.


    Ben, Beard face shredder fist, and I were cheering our hearts out for Janet when she appeared on the arena floor. She was fighting this woman named Embrra Flowerstone. She was one of the Fire Tuched races. Ben explained that they were thought to be an ancient lost race of orcs that met a being far surpassing any known power in the multiverse to this day that changed their race forever.


    The thing about the fire touched was that they always burned. Their fire burned purple and didn¡¯t hurt them or others unless they wanted it to. They could make the fire rage or bring it down to a smolder. It was pretty, if I was honest, the flames, not the lady. I wasn¡¯t trying to be mean, but she looked like a slightly slimmer and leaner version of an orc. It was just a different species thing.


    As Janet and Embrra Flowerstone stood at the center of the arena, listening to the ref explaining the rules, they both looked eager for the fight to come. Embrra Flowerstone used no weapon, and from what Ben and Beard Face Shredder Fist told me, she was some kind of pugilist. I was fucking pumped, and the fight hadn¡¯t even started yet.


    This was so much better than the last time I watched a fight. Understanding what the announcers and my fellow spectators were saying really made the whole experience that much more enjoyable.


    ¡°Oh, fuck guys, here we go. The fight¡¯s starting.¡± Beard Face Shredder Fist said, but there was no need to say it. We were all already dialed in. Side note I used the word fuck a lot, and it had quickly become a popular word amongst our small group. Beard Face Shredder Fist seemed to particularly like the word. He immediately caught on to the versatility of the word. Now, back to the fight.


    Janet and Embrra were not messing around. As soon as the start of the fight was called, they charged at each other right out of the gate. Janet¡¯s muscles began to grow mid-charge, and as they grew, her speed increased. In a second, Janet and Embrra were right in front of each other, and Embrra was blazing brilliantly. Embrra had pulled back a fist as she charged Janet. It looked to be charging with Mana or just concentrating her flames or some shit. It was a little hard to look directly at.


    Janet hadn¡¯t been slacking, and while her muscles had been growing, she had lifted her axe, readying an attack of her own. Janet must have used Empower Strike to power up her attack when they met. As she brought her axe down on Embrra, Janet¡¯s strike shot down like she had strapped a rocket to the back of her axe.


    Embrra was no slouch, and as Janet swung down, she met the blow with her fist. As their attacks met, a blinding light burst forth, and I was forced to look away. When I looked back, I saw that both combatants had been blasted away from each other. A small crater was left where their clash had occurred, and the crowd was fucking loving it. Hell, I was fucking loving it!


    ¡°Go, Janet!¡± I screamed, then let out a whistle. Ben and Beard Face Shredder Fist were right there with me, cheering their hearts out. Janet and Embrra didn¡¯t waste any time and collided once again. This time, when they hit, neither one was sent flying, but moments after their clash, the pressure of their meeting broke the ground, and another small crater was formed.


    As the two dropped into the few inches of the crater they had just created, they broke contact. The next few seconds were a blur of blows that left both combatants parting. Almost twenty feet lay between them. Janet and Embrra eyed each other warily before slowly beginning to circle one another. It looked like Janet was in a bit of a pickle. The two could match each other in brute force, and that¡¯s what they both seemed to excel at. This left them both a little stumped on what to do next.


    They made it about 90 degrees before I think they both came to the same realization of fuck it. Even sitting in the stands, I could see them both smirking before Janet raised her axe as Embrra raised her first. After that, the match devolved into a slugfest. Neither Janet nor Embrra were willing to give an inch as they rained blows down on each other.


    As they fought, wounds accumulated, and fatigue caused each combatant to falter. The craziest shit about their slugfest was that Embrra¡¯s magic began melting the ground as Janet''s Empowered Strikes dug the crater deeper. They were slowly, literally fighting them selfs into a hole.


    Five fucking minutes into the brutality, the hole got to a depth that began to obstruct their footwork. Embrra was the first to make a critical mistake because of this issue. As she avoided a strike from Janet that would have cleaved her arm off, Embrra stumbled.


    Embrra managed to change her dodge to a parry and punch the side of Janet''s axe as it came at her. It was a fantastic move, and it would have worked, too, if she wasn¡¯t falling over at the time. Embrra punched the axe head away from her arm and chest, but not far enough to avoid being struck entirely.


    Embrra''s punch indeed diverted Janet''s axe, but the downward force from Janet''s blow was such that the blade still remained mostly on course, ending its descent in Embrra''s thigh. Embrra screamed but bit her scream back quickly. Janet was slightly surprised that her swing was blocked. Thrown off by Embrras parry, Janet barely reacted quickly enough to take advantage of her windfall. In moments, Embrra was back on her feet and landed a blow to Janet''s abdomen.


    I think Embrra and Janet both knew that fighting in the crater they had created was fucking them. Embrra, the smaller and more nimble fighter, made a dash for it first. It all happened fast. Janet was laying into Embrra with a particularly intense set of blows. Janet finished the set with an Empowered upward swing intended to halve Embrra. Embrra pulsed with a flash of light, blinding Janet and us spectators for a moment, and at that moment, she made a break for it. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I think Janet felt the heat move away from her more than anything, but Janet still reacted before I knew what happened and let out a Mighty Roar that filled the arena.


    ¡°Get the fuck back here!¡± Janet''s ability, Mighty Roar, was a taunt. This meant it was an ability that filled her words with magic that made anyone who heard them get an overwhelming need to attack her. Embrra''s quick escape turned into a head-on charge right back into the crater where Janet was waiting, axe raised.


    Embrra was so full of the need to fuck Janet up that she barely saw it when the butt of Janet''s axe shot down. There was a brutal crack, and as the dust cleared, Janet was left standing as Embrra lay out cold on the ground before Janet. Janet was grinning like a mad woman as she stared at Embrra on the ground before her. Janet lifted her axe over her head as a roar of victory broke free. Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell backward and slammed into the ground, axe still raised over her head as she passed into unconsciousness herself.


    The crowd was losing it. I was losing it. Ben was cheering so hard he was actually tearing up, and Beard Face Shredder Fist. Beard Face Shredder Fist was in a state of shock. He was just looking at Janet slack-jawed, shaking his head slightly back and forth. I mean, I get it, Janet, my girlfriend. I mean, it''s not like we really put a label on it, you know, but fuck, she was a monster, and I fucking loved it.


    After Janet was carried out of the arena, we booked it over to the check-in area where Janet would be rejoining us, mere mortals. We had to wait what felt like for-fucking-ever, but it was only about twenty minutes before Janet finally appeared. I hadn¡¯t realized it, but as Janet saw our group, she looked shocked. I looked around me then and noticed there were more people here than when I won my match, and that was bullshit.


    Then the cheers quelled as Embrra Flowerstone walked forward with an attendant close behind her. Everyone was now looking back and forth between Janet and Embrra, unsure of what was about to happen. Some members of the group were already starting to back away in anticipation of imminent violence.


    Janet and Embrra stood there and eyed each other for a moment. The silent tension was visible in the faces of the now timid crowd. Then Embrra grinned ear to ear, and Janet smirked.


    ¡°Oh, my god! That was the best. I mean, stab me in the gallbladder with a rusty knife.¡± I think there was a problem with the translation there, I assured myself. That couldn¡¯t be an expression on any planet.


    ¡°Your head must be made of mithril. Honestly, we have to be best friends. Your amazing girl, shit! I just want to fight you again. No one will go at it like that with me. They all jump around and shoot magic. Ahh, it''s bullshit, you know, but you, we just went at it, you know. That was honestly so fucking brutal.¡± And at that, Embrra actually fucking giggled a little. Yeah, she was just Janet''s type.


    Janet looked a bit shocked at Embrra for a second, but by the time Embrra was giggling to herself, Janet was laughing. I kind of didn¡¯t know what to make of the situation yet. Janet seemed to be loving it.


    ¡°Fuck, your bat shit girl, you know, but your a fucking monster. You almost killed me, you bitch, but I guess I can forgive you, seeing as that was probably the most fun I''ve ever had.¡±


    ¡°Hey! What am I, chopped liver?¡± I said before I realized I did. More out of a habit of fucking with Janet all the time than anything else. Embrra looked over at me for the first time, a little annoyed. That might be the right word or angry. I think, seeing things might go south if left to stew, Janet stepped in.


    ¡°Embrra, that''s Travis. We¡¯ve been traveling together since the integration of our planet, and he''s my boo thang.¡± Then Janet winked at Embrra. It took a second, but Embrra seemed to understand something. Who really knew what she thought Janet was implying? It didn¡¯t matter because, for a moment, Embrra was all smiles again.


    At one point, Beard Face Shredder Fist stepped forward and asked for both Janet and Embrras autographs. They both looked utterly shocked but happily did so. No one asked me for an autograph, by the way, and after that, the mood really picked up. Everyone looked twice as happy now with two celebrities in their midst. It only took a few words from a few group members, and the whole group made its way over to the closest tavern and kept the party going all night. It was a true rager, one for the books, as the kids would say. Embrra was crazy. Drank like a fish and was down for anything.


    I think I fucking shit myself, and I think I saw Embrra and Janet do the same. I didn¡¯t really remember much. I think there were some alien drugs involved, but I did wake up with mostly clean pants. I know cause I checked. I really could have sworn I shit myself. It was fucking with me. Ben and Beard Face Shredder Fist hung in there with us until the end, as did Embrra, much to her attendant''s frustrations.


    I don¡¯t think Embrra¡¯s attendant was allowed to do anything except stand near Embrra and wait on her needs. So, for most of the night, Embrra¡¯s attendant stood in the corner. The most action the attendant saw was a few times when Embrra wanted something from her bag of holding. Which her attendant apparently carried for her. They had an odd relationship, and I wouldn¡¯t claim to understand one bit.


    The bar was used to this kind of thing, and as long as patrons kept buying, they would stay open, and when that stopped, they would kick everyone out. I think we made it till around 6 am, but my memory was fucked at that point. Somehow, Janet, Embrra, Ben, Beard Face Shredder Fist, and I all made it to where Janet and I were staying and passed out there, or at least that''s where and who I woke up with.


    Everyone was everywhere, and by that, I mean Embrra was on the bed, snoring loudly. Janet and I were on the couch, snuggled up in the comforter from the bed. Beard Face Shredder Fist was straight up, just passed out on the floor, and when I made it to the bathroom, I found Ben sleeping in the tub. I just tried to pee quietly.


    Now I was hungry. I looked at my watch, and it was already 2 pm. So, I figured It was about time to wake everyone up for breakfast. That turned out to be more difficult than I thought. Janet eventually had to slap Embrra pretty fucking hard. I might add, to finally wake the woman up.


    Ben and Beard Face Shredder Fist, and I had to hold Embrra back from punching Janet before she fully came around. That sucked cause, you know, she was on fire! After that, everything was fine. Embrras fire didn¡¯t burn like a normal fire either. It was more uncomfortable than painful, and we all made our way downstairs to get some breakfast.


    ¡°Hey, that was a fucking awesome night. Good fucking friends, good fucking drink, and we woke with all our fucking organs still in our fucking bodies. Ha Ha. This meal will be on me. So, eat, please, as much as you fucking want. My new friends. Fuck!¡± We had taught Embrra the word Fuck last night, and she, well, fucking loved the versatility. She was using it a bit too much, however. I wouldn¡¯t dare tell her to stop, though. It was too much fun to watch, and fuck, she just bought breakfast, and I was hungry. I was gonna get my money''s worth, that¡¯s for sure, sorry Embrra.


    ¡°Embrra, you know you''re weird, right? I mean, don¡¯t get me wrong, you''re awesome. Don¡¯t change, but you''re an odd one, that''s for sure.¡± Embrra looked at Ben, who I think might have regretted his blunt words. Even if Embrra said we were all friends now, I didn¡¯t really know her. Maybe, she would snap and fuck Ben up for his comment. Embrra looked at Ben for maybe five full seconds, which gave the table a tense atmosphere for a moment, but then Embrra started giggling.


    Ben looked even more weirded out, looking around at the rest of the table for support. Then, just as suddenly as Embrra started laughing, she stopped, turned to Ben, sitting in the chair to her right, and slapped him on the back a few times. She kept a winning smile on her face as she did so. Ben, however, looked like he was in great pain every time a slap landed.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to like having friends. I¡¯ve never had any before. My family usually doesn''t like when I run off on my own. Besides, most of my time is spent training. So I¡¯ve never had friends before. I¡¯ve read about friends and always wanted some, but most people get mad at you when you punch them. Not Janet, though. She''s the best and my first friend too. I know I¡¯m weird, but I have friends now, so I¡¯ll get better.¡± Ben looked shocked by Embrra¡¯s words for a moment. Honestly, I think we all were shocked by her honesty. After a moment, Ben smiled at Embrra warmly.


    ¡°Of course, we''re friends, and I¡¯m glad to have a friend like you, Embrra. Being weird can be a good thing. You¡¯re strong, confident, and now have new friends. I¡¯d say you''re doing pretty well. I wouldn¡¯t worry about it too much.¡± Embrra looked like she might cry. Then she stood up from her chair and gave Ben a hug. It was quite a touching moment.


    ¡°By the way, Embrra, when did we lose your attendant last night? Are you not going to get in trouble with your family?¡± I asked once Embrra was seated once more.


    ¡°Probably, but I don¡¯t care. So don¡¯t worry about me. I¡¯ll be fine. Maybe a few lashes at most.¡± Embrra said nonchalantly, then got back to eating. I had to stop and think about what Embrra had said for a second, and then her words made it into my thick skull.


    ¡°Wait. You¡¯re saying that your family is going to have you whipped?¡± I couldn''t believe it, and Embrra didn¡¯t look concerned at all. Embrra looked back up at me with a confused look.


    ¡°Yeah. Maybe twenty to thirty. It shouldn''t be that bad. It will hurt, sure, but nothing too bad. Better than having your feet dipped into Frectoplasum. It freezes them right off and makes regrowth painful as all hell. Just a few lashes are no big deal.¡± Embrra finished and shrugged before returning to her food.


    That seemed super fucked up, but I guess if rapid regeneration was a thing before the integration, maybe things would have been more alike than I would like to admit. After we all finished our breakfast, our little group split up. Embrra said she needed to get back, or it might be more than a few lashes, while Ben and Beard Face Shredder Fist headed out as well, mentioning something about work or something, and then it was just Janet and I once more.


    ¡°New friends, hu?¡± I asked Janet. She just looked at me and shrugged.


    ¡°I like Embrra a lot. She¡¯s awesome. Ben and Beard Face Shredder Fist are good guys, too. So what the fuck are we doing today? Eikmans probably pissed we didn''t show up bright and early to train. I figure we either deal with that or¡­ We could ignore Eikman for the day. Play hooky and go watch some fights? What do you say?¡±


    I liked Janet''s idea, and I really didn¡¯t want to get shit from Eikman today. My head still was a bit fuzzy from the night before. Breakfast had helped, but it also made me sleepy. Honestly, I think Janet was on the right track fuck Eikman for today.


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m down, but let''s take a nap first. That food got me.¡±


    ¡°Fine, but only for an hour or so, then off to the Coliseum!¡±