《After the Tower [book 1 complete] [book 2 ongoing]》 Chapter 1 - Solstice Josh stabbed the monstrous boar in the eye with his combat knife. It squealed one last time and died, nearly crushing him when it fell over hard enough to shake the ground. He landed with a splat into the mud and muck and just lay there, breathing hard. For a moment, all was still, just a few leaves falling from the trees. Then a loud ascending ding chimed in his head, and a semi-transparent text box popped up in front of him.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 39 Hunter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Precision and Flexibility.
¡°Blast it all,¡± he muttered. He waved the notification away. His friend Mary offered him a hand up, which he took. She smirked as he brushed dirt from his pants. ¡°Oi, you''re acting more daft than usual. You do know that the point is to capture these things, right? It''s a little late for some grinding.¡± Mary was a willowy young woman taller than most men, though still a good head shorter than him. She had shoulder-length brown hair, a button nose that she got incensed when he poked, and a perpetual smirk on her face. ¡°Ah, bugger off,¡± he said flatly. He sheathed his knife, then picked up his bow. He had dropped it when the boar broke out of his trap unexpectedly and charged at him. He looked around and grimaced. ¡°Not seeing anything else to capture.¡± Of course, surrounded as they were by tall trees as thick on the ground as nuns in a convent, he couldn''t see that far. Mary shrugged. ¡°We can be heading back if you want. How many you have already?¡± ¡°Five.¡± ¡°Eh, should be enough. You want to risk looking for one more?¡± Josh thought about it, looking around. There weren''t any obvious monsters lurking among the trees, which wasn''t all that surprising. They were still close to the vanguard outpost''s wooden palisade, and the area was largely cleared out. The problem was that the sky was growing dark, and he did not want to be in the Jungle in the dark. Even as he had that thought, he saw vines creeping along the ground, drawn by the blood spilling from the monster''s corpse. If he left it alone, they would wrap it up and start to feed. By tomorrow, there would be a tree here that looked like it was ten years old. Mary slashed through the vine with her sword. The plant spurted watery sap and withdrew back into the dark trees. The trees rustled, as if angry. There might be no monsters out here, but that didn''t mean it was safe. First rule out here on the edge: The Jungle was always hungry. ¡°Let''s head back,¡± Josh said at last. ¡°Five should be enough for me.¡± They headed towards the wall. They left the monster. It wasn''t worth the effort of fighting the Jungle over it so late. He glanced at her as she sheathed her sword. ¡°How many did you bag, anyway?¡± ¡°Six,¡± she said. ¡°Mine tip-top at a hundred and twenty levels.¡± She glanced at him. ¡°You?¡± He did the math in his head. He had captured five monsters, with the lowest at level 20. ¡°Think... a hundred and five. Maybe a hundred and six?¡± He frowned and looked at her. ¡°That should be enough, right?¡± She shrugged. ¡°Probably.¡± They were dressed about the same, in jeans and t-shirts with leather armor crafted from monster hides. The Jungle rotted the leather at an annoying rate, so the tannery was running all day and night. But that was just the price for living out here on the edge of civilization. Mary might be a tall girl, but Josh was a big boy. He was a couple inches over six feet and about as wide. He looked like he wrestled bears in his spare time, while Mary looked like she played substitute for a beanpole. Still, even out here, at the edge of civilization, she managed to make her survivalist scavenger gear look fashionable. She''d always been good at that sort of thing, while Josh looked like a brute who got dressed by robbing corpses. This was one of the many border outposts where they cut back the Jungle. It was a constant task, one that required overwhelming force. The Jungle had overtaken the entire world when the Tower first rose, bringing low all the nations of old. Eighty years after the Tower was cleared, by the grace of the Eight Heroes who had saved the world, they had only reclaimed a fraction of what had been lost. The vanguard outposts were at the front of that push. Within a few minutes, they were in sight of the wall. It was a basic wooden palisade, sharpened logs driven into the ground to form a crude fence. It couldn''t do much more than slow down anything actually dangerous, but they moved the camp too often to make anything more permanent. The ground around the wall was scorched black, creating a border ten feet wide. Even though the ground had been burned just last night, green shoots were already starting to burst through the soil again. The Jungle was always hungry. Technically, the outpost was outside the Burn Line. Pushing forward meant you couldn''t rely on the safety of being behind it. Sure, they burned the land around them to hold off the Jungle, but that was temporary. It took more work to make it permanent. Josh and Mary nodded to the guards as they entered. The guards recognized them, and pulled the gates closed behind them. It seemed like they were the last to return. They were buttoning up the outpost for the night. Everyone here was a reclaimer. They were the ones who lived at the edge, far from the safety of the City. Here, they cut back the Jungle, fighting monsters and trees that could sprout up overnight and devour a man who rested his head in the wrong place. Josh and Mary were specifically scavengers. They were the ones who went out into the Jungle to collect items and artifacts from the ruins of the Old World. That, however, was not what they had been doing tonight. ¡°You two!¡± an authoritative voice called. A man strode up from the line of tents. They were more solid than simple camp tents, but they were still temporary. They''d be broken down and moved soon, maybe as early as tomorrow morning. That also summed up the man in front of them, to Josh''s mind. He had the look of a man who had lived his entire life as a scholar, only to be thrown out into the wilds to survive on his own for a year. He was tall, skinny, without an ounce of fat on him and only a little more muscle. ¡°Paul,¡± Josh said. ¡°How can we help you?¡± ¡°You said you were bringing back another captive,¡± the man said. He crossed his arms and looked up at Josh. Paul was about average height, which meant Josh towered over him. He stood there in leather armor just like their own, but with his back straight and arms behind his back, he made it look like a uniform. ¡°Why did you return without it?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°Bad luck, had to kill it.¡± Paul frowned. ¡°Do you have enough for tomorrow?¡± ¡°Should be.¡± ¡°I have enough,¡± Mary added, smirking. Paul didn''t say anything, just looked back towards the gate, that frown still on his face. It made Josh nervous. He forced a smile and gave Paul a playful smack on the arm. ¡°Come on, boss, I''ll be fine. Can we turn in our quests?¡± Paul shook himself out of his stupor. ¡°Yes, apologies. The night before is just... difficult.¡± He tapped at an invisible screen in front of himself. Instantly, notification windows appeared in front of both of them.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the quest: Kill Four Boars! Reward: 80 experience.
This repeated eight times in total, for bounties on various forest animals and murderous plants. The quests were almost a joke. 640 experience was nothing at their current level, and each individual quest could give out no more than 80 experience. Still, they were free to create and free to take, so the outpost leader made sure to let everyone fill out their quest logs every morning. Giving everybody a little extra experience for something they would be doing anyway didn''t hurt. Even if tonight, it was a waste of time to even turn the quests in, it wasn''t like they could do anything else with them. They''d expire tomorrow one way or another. ¡°Get some food and some sleep,¡± Paul called after them as they walked away. ¡°We''re pushing for that factory in the morning.¡± Both Josh and Mary stopped and gave each other aghast looks. Mary whirled around. ¡°On the Summer Solstice?¡± She sounded almost horrified. ¡°You want to make a push on the first day?¡± ¡°The City really wants that factory,¡± Paul said grimly. He jerked his thumb at the truck that had rolled in that morning. It was an Old World pickup truck, with what looked like a small apartment built over the bed of the truck. Josh was shocked that anyone would bring it out here. Whoever owned it had to be loaded. ¡°They even sent an operative to keep an eye on our little outpost. They want that thing up and running as soon as possible.¡± Josh gave Mary a look. ¡°This is your fault, you know.¡± She just rolled her eyes. In one of her early scouting missions this year, she had gotten close to the factory and identified it as mostly intact. Later scouts had confirmed that it didn''t even look like the Jungle had broken the walls yet. They didn''t know what the factory had made, but it almost didn''t matter. Any production machines from the Old World were invaluable. Paul ignored their byplay. ¡°Do you two have your classes and advancements planned out yet?¡± Tomorrow morning would be a rush, as everyone tried to advance as quickly as possible to get to a stable footing again. It was like that everywhere on the solstice, but it was so much worse in the vanguard outposts. People on the safe side of the Burn Line could afford to take a few days to leisurely level. They didn''t have that luxury here. ¡°I''m starting as an Archer,¡± Mary said confidently. ¡°I''m not sure yet,¡± Josh admitted. ¡°I''m leaning towards Rogue, though.¡± He had been a Hunter this year, which was easiest to reach from the Rogue base. Though he had started as an Archer this time. There were multiple paths to every possibility. There were eight foundational classes to choose from: Rogue, Archer, and Mage were classes of the Attacker role, meaning they focused on direct damage, in various ways. Knight, Shielder, and Shrouder were classes of the Defender role, meaning they focused on protecting themselves and others. Mender was of the Healer role, meaning it, well, healed people. And Beastmaster was from the Tamer role, meaning it focused on pets and minions. There were only eight foundational classes to choose from, but those classes could then advance to more, then to more still, so on and so on. The base eight weren''t bad, but they had limitations. Planning out your advancement path ahead of time was important. Paul sighed. ¡°Well, I was hoping for more Healers, but I won''t complain about having more Attackers. That factory is going to be infested with monsters.¡± They both nodded. The Jungle was always hungry. After another few quick words, they said their goodbyes. Josh and Mary went off to their respective tents, both large and solid enough to be mistaken for real houses. Josh called goodnight, then stepped inside his tent. Inside were five monstrous boars. They were swollen to disgusting size, their muscles so large it looked as if they shouldn''t even be able to move. Their tusks were as long as swords and at least as sharp, while their hooves were as big as plates. Their course fur was as thick as steel wool, and their eyes glowed with a red, baleful light. Each one was in its own bamboo cage, hardly even large enough to contain them, and they were tied down with leather straps so that they could hardly move. They growled when he entered the tent, but they could do no more than shiver angrily. Josh checked each one of them, careful not to get too close. He nodded to himself. All their ties were still solid, and would hold until the morning. He checked the spear he had in his weapon rack. It had a strong metal head that was still sharp. He almost never took the Lancer class¡ªthe path to it was frustrating¡ªbut he always made sure he had a good spear on the solstice. He frowned at the boars, doubt twinging at his mind. Traditional wisdom was that you needed eight captive monsters on the eve of the Summer Solstice, but what actually mattered was the total levels. Six level 20 monsters would have been more than enough, even though that was a bit low-level for the area. Five should be enough. He shook his head. It would have to be. Even if it wasn''t, it wouldn''t be the end of the world. He pushed the thought from his mind. He had a quick snack, cleaned up for the night, and then went to sleep on his thin mattress. Paul had been right, he was exhausted, and tomorrow was going to be even worse. He was woken up in the morning by a System notification.
WARNING! The light of the Summer Solstice has touched the Tower. The current season has ended, and the world turns once more. All levels reset. Top players of the season are:
Josh dismissed the notification. He didn''t need to see the leaderboard, though he did spot [Jonah Moore, Arch Gun-Lord] at the top. He had seen that name a few times, back when he actually paid attention to the leaderboard. Now, he had more important things to worry about. Before he even got up, he checked his status.
Name: Joshua White
Race: Human (earth-type)
Role: Not Applicable
Class: Unclassed, level 0
Stats: Strength 5, Agility 3, Constitution 5, Perception 4, Power 4, Flexibility 4, Capacity 4, Sensitivity 4
Techniques: None
Spells: None
Skills: None
He sighed, then rolled out of bed, trying to ignore the way his body was weak and slow. When he picked up his spear, it felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, and his fingers, once so nimble, almost fumbled it. The entire world seemed dull, as if his eyes were half closed and his ears stuffed with cotton. He didn''t really need to bring up his status to know what had happened. He didn''t know why he bothered. With the Summer Solstice and the end of the current ¡°season,¡± the System had reset everyone. He had gone from a level 39 Hunter¡ªa respectable achievement, though not breaking any records¡ªto a level 0. He had even lost all his hard-earned techniques and spells. Josh hated Summer Solstice. He always had, even when he was a kid who had just gained access to the System. In his first year, he had hardly even scraped together a handful of levels before the solstice, but it still felt like a punch to the gut to lose them all. But here, on the the border, right next to the hungry Jungle and the wildlands? Here, it was far more than annoyance. A level 0 could survive in the City just fine, do some trash collecting quests to level up over days or weeks. In the wildlands, they had to level up much faster. Josh took a moment to steady himself, aimed the spear, and stabbed the first boar as hard as he could straight in the eye. Red mist gathered out of the corpse, slowly turning white. He breathed in deep, and the white mist flowed into him.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 3! You have three attribute points to allocate. Warning: You may not allocate your attribute points until you choose a class.
The boar died instantly, without even a scream. Josh withdrew the spear and moved on to the next one. This one managed to squeal in pain and rage, and he had to root around with the spear to kill it.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 4! You have four attribute points to allocate. Warning: You may not allocate your attribute points until you choose a class.
Three left.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 5! You have five attribute points to allocate. Warning: You may not allocate your attribute points until you choose a class.
Normally, a level 0 killing a level 20 monster would be enough to propel him halfway to twenty all on its own. But he received an experience penalty for killing something that was tied up, and more so since it had, according to the System, been tied up by ¡°someone else.¡± The reset was weird like that. He moved on to the next one.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 6! You have six attribute points to allocate. Warning: You may not allocate your attribute points until you choose a class.
Furthermore, everyone received a bonus to experience for performing actions suited to their role. Attackers got a bonus for dealing damage, Defenders got a bonus for taking hits, Tamers got a bonus for directing minions, Healers got a bonus for healing. All of which made perfect sense, and it mostly worked well. The problem was, you couldn''t select a class until level 8. Meaning he didn''t have a role yet, or any way to collect bonus experience. The only way to level before you had a class was to finish quests, or to kill monsters. And quests were slow. Josh was sweating when he turned to the last boar. This was the highest-level one; he had killed them in order from lowest to highest. He felt he was on the cusp of level 7. He needed to get all the way to level 8 with this one. He took a deep breath, then thrust with his spear. The boar snapped forward, trying to intercept his attack. Its ropes must have loosened at some point in the night, but it had been intelligent enough to hide that. Not that it mattered. His spear stabbed up through the roof of its mouth, into its brain. It thrashed for a moment, then stilled. It glowed with red mist, which slowly transformed into white. The cloud was noticeably larger than any of the previous ones, and Josh breathed it in eagerly. He felt its energy seep into his muscles and his bones.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 7! You have seven attribute points to allocate. Warning: You may not allocate your attribute points until you choose a class.
His heart fell. Level 7. And if the feeling in his chest was accurate, he was only halfway to 8. At this point he wasn''t even sure that a sixth boar would have been enough. ¡°Bollocks,¡± he muttered. He stood there for a moment, frustrated, then shook his head. Nothing for it. He dropped the spear, got dressed at record speed, and stepped outside. The morning air was cool, damp, and thick with the smell of boar blood. Everyone was getting their killing done as soon as possible. Out here on the border, you couldn''t afford to be unclassed for long. He spotted Mary coming out of her tent. She already had a bow and quiver slung over her shoulder. ¡°You ready to go?¡± she asked. Her eyes unfocused, and she frowned. ¡°Wait, you''re still level 7?¡± His heart sank further. He had hoped she wouldn''t check the party screen. At that thought, he checked her status. They were the only two in their party, and he could see that she was listed as a level 8 Archer. Not a surprise. ¡°Bad luck,¡± he grunted. ¡°I need quests from Paul.¡± ¡°I''m here.¡± They both spun to see that the man had appeared behind them. He rolled his eyes at their reactions. ¡°Allocate your points. And by the Eight, don''t forget to put some in Perception.¡± He looked between them. ¡°I''m giving out the quests, but am I to understand you still need your class?¡± ¡°I''m almost there,¡± Josh said quickly, which was only slightly a lie. Halfway to 8 wasn''t that bad. ¡°A full load of quests should get me over the bump.¡± Paul grimaced. ¡°Yeah, but all I can give you are monster hunt quests. By the time you finish them, you''ll be well past 8 anyway.¡± He sighed. ¡°I wish I could give you fetch quests.¡± Well, he could give them fetch quests. Quests to collect wood or tinder or even random rocks. In the City, Summer Solstice was a day of cleaning, as everyone scrambled to finish quests to collect and turn in random pieces of trash. The problem was that to complete a fetch quest, you had to turn it into a citystone, not the quest giver. The closest citystone was on the other side of the Burn Line, at one of the larger farms. Not far, but too far to just casually return to dump quests. ¡°Give them to me anyway,¡± Josh said decisively. ¡°It can''t hurt.¡± Paul nodded. That was the entire philosophy behind giving out quests. He gave both of them a full load, then moved on to the next party. He yelled out again, reminding everyone they were starting on the factory today. Mary looked at Josh with concern. ¡°You sure about this?¡± ¡°No,¡± he said flatly. ¡°But what am I gonna do? Running monsters is the only thing I can do. Paul is right, the City needs that factory.¡± He punched her arm in a good-natured way. ¡°Besides, the monsters always get lethargic after the reset.¡± The monsters didn''t have their levels reset on the Summer Solstice; that was purely something humans had to deal with. But they did get... complacent. As if they knew that people wouldn''t be as much of a threat to them for a few weeks. They''d be less aggressive, less territorial, at least for a time. This was the best time to at least make a probing attack for a new asset. Pushing this hard, this fast, was still surprising, though. Out here on the edge, most people didn''t like doing anything risky until they were level 16 with their first class refinement under their belts. People died, pushing this hard, this fast. Hell, entire outposts died this way. Even reclaimers, who knew what they were doing, could have a bad day and get wiped out. Josh saw Paul standing next to the truck he had spotted earlier, speaking to a well-dressed man in a sharp suit. Was that the City''s operative? He saw someone peek out from inside the structure built into the back of the truck. The operative waved them away, and the person disappeared inside before Josh could see their face. He turned his mind away from that, and looked to the gates. Reclaimers were already lining up, armed with whatever weapons they could use at their low levels. Bows, knives, and even arcane focus devices for the magic types. None of them were enchanted, unfortunately. Some people had a few enchanted objects, but no one had brought out their enchanted weapons. There were a small number scattered around the outpost, but they couldn''t be used at such low levels. In the Old World people used to make enchanted weapons for every level, tier, and class combination. Now, since they didn''t have any way to make new enchanted objects, they had to make do with what they scavenged. Enchanted objects eventually lost their power if they weren''t used for too long, so nothing found in the ruins still held its enchantments. He looked the other way, south, back towards the City. He couldn''t see the City, of course. They were a good eighty kilometers away. But he could imagine it, that massive white Tower poking up high above even the skyscrapers. That was why they were doing this. For the City, for the people who lived at the base of the Tower. He forced himself to focus on that, instead of everything else that could go wrong. Josh and Mary joined the line, and she gave him a look. ¡°You''re sure¡ª¡± ¡°Yes,¡± he snapped, a bit harsher than he intended. He sighed and wiped his hand down his face. ¡°Sorry. But I just need one good kill to level.¡± He''d get more experience for a real fight, even if Mary did most of the work. ¡°Then I''ll be able to pull my weight.¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Mary nodded. ¡°All right.¡± She grinned and clapped him on the back. ¡°Let''s get that class, and that factory.¡± An hour later, they had managed one of those things. The reason Paul had rushed them was to get to the factory as soon as possible, while the monsters were still lazy. They cut a straight path through the Jungle, planning to surround the factory with sheer numbers, then hold it while they leveled up on anything that tried to take it back. Even considering the lethargy of the monsters, it was difficult. The entire outpost, about a hundred strong, encountered half a dozen boars and three angry monkeys over the course of half a mile. They still almost killed several people, and the vanguard had to retreat to heal while they handled each monster, one by one. Even a hundred level 8 fighters working together had to be careful here, where monsters averaged around level 30. A single bad hit could kill someone. It was a long, slow process as the scouts found the monsters, pulled them away from their bands, and brought them in range of the reclaimers. Even with everyone working together to fight each monster, it took some time to take them down. Level 30 monsters were no joke. They did manage to cut through without any losses on their side. Quite a few people gained a handful of levels. Out here, in real combat, the experience came fast and strong. Josh did not level. He couldn''t participate enough to earn even a sliver of the experience. The factory itself was about what he had expected. He had never seen it himself, but Mary had described it to him. It was a gray, multi-story rectangular building that looked as if it had been designed to be as simple and practical as possible. It was almost completely undamaged, just some basic vines on the walls that tried to attack when they got too close. Even that was less than normal. The Jungle didn''t care about structures, though it tended to consume anything in its path as a matter of course. But the structure was surrounded by an electric fence, kept operational over the decades by solar panels on the roof and a great deal of luck. That discouraged monsters from exploring, and without anything alive inside, the Jungle didn''t spend any extra effort on consuming it. Of course, now there was plenty of life inside. An electric fence wouldn''t keep the monsters out when they smelled fifty humans. Paul had sent half of their number back to the outpost, while the rest of them secured the area. They were given explicit orders to lay down their lives to defend the factory if they had to. The factory, as it turned out, produced screws. That was better than a hundred acres of untouched farmland. Screws could be used for almost anything, from moderately advanced machinery to simple buildings. Everyone was smiling and laughing, and Josh saw Paul shaking hands with the City operative. Josh tried not to let his own depression get the best of him. This was a great victory for the City and for the reclaimers. They''d all get a big bonus for their part in this operation. He was just annoyed that he still hadn''t managed to level. He was sitting in the field outside the factory, watching Mary and the other Archers train. They were taking turns shooting each other''s arrows out of the sky. If they managed to do it once, they''d gain the Intercept Shot technique. It wasn''t a very useful technique, but that wasn''t the point. Inventing new abilities granted a decent experience boost. And since you could re-discover old abilities after the reset, it was an effective way to level early on. Unfortunately, it only worked when you had a class. Josh was still stuck. He watched Mary out of the corner of his eye, but he was facing the Jungle, and the path back to the outpost. Reclaimers were spreading pitch and oil on the trees, soaking them so thick that he could smell the sharp scent from here. The Jungle''s plants were resistant to fire, but eventually the Mages would feel confident that they could burn everything down. This would become just another blackened section of ground, more land reclaimed from the Jungle. Then the outpost that they had left behind could become a real village. There were a few patches close to the outpost where the trees had been cut down, clearing the area for farming. Josh noticed that they were spreading pitch on those areas too. That was normal. All plants grew at an insane rate inside the Jungle''s influence. Somehow the Jungle gave plants the ability to feed directly off the mana in the air. That meant that you could grow a full field of crops in a few hours. You just had to make sure that your tomatoes didn''t try to eat you when you picked them. A true farming village would send food back to the City. Since the City was on the safe side of the Burn Line, the side without the Jungle, their food production wasn''t accelerated. The City relied almost entirely on imports for food. But this wasn''t a farming village, it was a vanguard outpost. The fields were only there to feed the reclaimers. It was easier to just burn it along with the rest of the Jungle, then sow new fields once the Burn Line had been moved up. There was a cheer from the Archers. Josh turned to see that Mary had managed her shot, and had her arms raised in triumph. He smiled, but paid it little mind. There were plenty of other trick shots she could practice, so she''d still be here for a while. To his surprise, she walked over to him, leaving her comrades to continue on their own. It looked like she was the first one to earn the technique today. ¡°Surely you''re not done,¡± he said. She laughed. ¡°Nah, just taking a quick tea break.¡± She nodded at the Jungle, and the reclaimers preparing for the burn. ¡°They''re almost ready. I''m going to try to earn the Pyro Arrow spell by helping them.¡± Josh nodded. Every class had both techniques, which cost stamina to use, and spells, which cost magic to use. Most classes leaned one way or the other, though, and it was notoriously hard to learn the other side. Getting her first Archer spell would be more a matter of luck than anything else. It would be easier after that. ¡°Anyway, wot are you doing out here?¡± she asked. ¡°I''m sure you''ve got something better to do than watch the burn.¡± ¡°Eh, they said if they find any monsters they''ll try to let me kill them,¡± Josh explained. They both knew that wasn''t likely. Monsters were smart enough to avoid fire unless they had an overwhelming advantage. She rolled her eyes. ¡°We both know what you want to do. Go inside, have a laugh exploring.¡± He gave her a look. ¡°I''m not an engineer.¡± ¡°No, but you''re an explorer.¡± She made shooing motions. ¡°It''s a big factory. See if there''s any extra treasure. Who knows, maybe there are phones in the lockers or something. I don''t know.¡± He rolled his eyes and rose to his feet. ¡°Mary...¡± ¡°Josh,¡± she said, serious for once. ¡°You''re doing no good out here. I''m sure they need extra eyes.¡± She brightened. ¡°Maybe you can find me a gun!¡± He chuckled. ¡°There are better things in the world than guns.¡± She scoffed. ¡°That''s because you''ve never had the Gunner class.¡± He had, in fact, had the Gunner class twice before. It had been a huge pain to get the second time, with Mary''s help even. It hadn''t been much better to actually use. Mary, on the other hand, had become obsessed with it. ¡°Fine,¡± he said, walking towards the factory. ¡°Just give a holler if you need anything.¡± ¡°Oi, get me some meat,¡± she called after him. ¡°I ran out of jerky!¡± ¡°Nitwit!¡± he called back. Josh found Paul soon enough, who directed him to the offices in the back of the factory. They had enough people combing over the main production floor and the warehouse, including actual engineers. But Mary had been right, they needed extra hands and eyes. The offices were surprisingly intact, though absolutely filthy. The monsters and the Jungle hadn''t gotten inside, but rain and time had taken their own toll. The carpet was pitted and rotten, revealing cracked concrete floors. The paint was peeling off the walls, half the cubicles had collapsed, and most of the long lights had fallen from the ceiling. There were computers, but Josh didn''t have enough training to identify if they were salvageable. He didn''t dare try to turn them on to check. He just dutifully marked them all on his map for the engineers to get to later. He had more success with the cabinets, desks, and drawers. They were mostly metal, so while they were rusted shut, once he broke them open there wasn''t all that much damage to their contents. There were plenty of papers and records that he didn''t care about, but maybe Paul would find them useful. He did find a few small tools, devices, and other treasures. The electronics were all dead, of course. Hopefully they could be recharged. Regardless, everything went in the sack. As he went, he marked the containers he searched with a splash of paint from his spray bottles. Green for something he was done with, yellow for something that he had to leave behind like the papers, and red for a container he wasn''t able to open. There weren''t many of those. He might not be an engineer, but he was experienced. He knew how to crack open a filing cabinet. Eventually, he reached a locked door. In his experience, those were rare in places like this. Generally, Old World buildings tended to either leave every door unlocked or leave them all locked. Depended on how paranoid the owners were. He glanced around and saw a faded nameplate next to the door. He couldn''t read it, but he would bet that it was a manager''s office. He smiled to himself. This could be something good. He was a bit more careful on this door, just in case breaking down the door damaged something useful. Still, it wasn''t a difficult lock, and he managed to get inside without too much trouble. It was, as he had expected, a manager''s office. There was a solid desk in the center of the room and faded pictures on the walls. There was a plant in the corner that had spilled out of its pot. It was sitting right beneath a tiny hole in the ceiling which apparently gave it enough water and sunlight to thrive. Of course, with the magic of the Jungle filling the air, a plant didn''t need much. Sitting in a chair behind the desk was a skeleton, flesh and clothing almost completely rotted off. Josh gave it hardly a blink. This wasn''t the first time he had seen a corpse, in any condition. This wasn''t as bad as when one of his fellow reclaimers fell. Still, it was a bit rare to find intact corpses out in the Jungle. The monsters devoured every piece of human flesh and bone they could get to. He wasn''t sure how old this body was. Even without the monsters, the Jungle would rot human flesh quick as you pleased. If this was out in the open, he would assume that this skeleton had been here for a month or so. Maybe less. But how long did it take for a body to reduce to bones in a closed room like this? He wondered how this person got here. Sneaking past the monsters wouldn''t have been all that hard, and getting by the fence without disabling it would have been easy. But the door had been locked. Besides, why would someone find a treasure like this factory and not report it to the City? No one had known about this place before Mary scouted it out. Josh stepped around the desk. Clutched in the corpse''s skeletal hand was an old revolver. Looking closer, he spotted the hole in the skull. A suicide, then. Well, that was hardly unheard of, though coming out this far just to kill yourself was a bit odd. As he was prying the gun out of the hand¡ªMary was going to be smug about this for weeks¡ªhe spotted something else on the desk. It was a bit of a mess, all sorts of rotted papers and even an ammo box. But there was also a small red crystal, a marble about the size of his thumb. Red mist swirled inside, roiling like a trapped storm. He paused at that. A bloodstone. These were the artifacts that granted classes. You needed one when you hit level 8 to choose a class, and most later class refinements needed one. Anyone with a class could make a bloodstone. All it took was an effort of will and the sacrifice of a pint of blood. Your bloodstone would match whatever your first class of the reset was. So Mary would be able to make an Archer bloodstone, but if she later became a Gunner, she would still only be able to make an Archer bloodstone. This was why there were only eight foundational classes. The eight immortal heroes who had saved the world all had incredible, advanced, and overpowered classes, but they could still only give away bloodstones for their foundational classes. Gunner was actually a Basic-tier class, technically. So were Swordsman, Samurai, Priest, and plenty of other classes. In the Old World, bloodstones for those classes were common. But in the modern world, there were no bloodstones for those classes, so they had to get to them from class refinements, which were less efficient. Everyone knew the eight types of bloodstones by heart, even Josh. Rogue, Archer, Mage, Knight, Shielder, Shrouder, Mender, and Beastmaster. Three classes for the Attacker role, three classes for the Defender role, one for the Healer role, and one for the Tamer role. In the old world, there had been thousands of different types of bloodstones, and only about half of them were for the Combat roles. Now, after the Fall of Humanity, they were reduced to eight combat roles. No more. Josh shrugged and pocketed the bloodstone. He had left his own stones back in the outpost. Monsters ate bloodstones whenever they could, so keeping them on you could be a bad idea. Of course, maybe if he had kept them on him, he would have already encountered a monster and managed to level. Anyway, it didn''t matter. Bloodstones were cheap as dirt. It was considered polite to create a couple new bloodstones for your class soon after you first took it, to make sure the supply never went low. Josh could get a full set for the price of the box to carry them. He finally got the gun out of the corpse''s hand, then winced and cursed as he felt something sharp against his palm. He looked down to see a few tiny splinters sticking out of his skin. ¡°Again?¡± he muttered. ¡°How did that even happen?¡± He glared out the hole in the wall, as if he could see anything. It was sheer luck that he happened to be looking out the hole when the monster jumped through it. Josh recognized the monster at a glance. It was a large hairy bat, the size of his head, with glistening sharp claws at the end of its wingtips and glowing red eyes. It was a common monster out here at the border, a natural animal corrupted by the power of the Jungle. Even if he didn''t recognize it, he would be able to tell that it had clearly advanced at least twice. That meant it had to be at least level 16, but hadn''t hit level 24 yet. Most monsters advanced every eight levels, like humans. While he didn''t really need to, he used his Identify skill on it almost by reflex.
Chiropteran Hunter
Level 21 Monster
Aw, isn''t it cute? Look at those beady little eyes! This little guy is a tracker and a predator, still mostly adapted to hunting mundane animals. But ever since it was transformed by the Jungle, it''s learning how to hunt bigger things! Such as humans. There''s nothing cuter than when this little guy has successfully taken down prey ten times its size. Which it can do. Easily. Fun fact: Chiropterans often bathe in the blood of their prey while their victims are still alive! Isn''t that adorable?
Josh was frozen for several long seconds. The System''s unnecessarily verbose and graphic description was only part of it. He couldn''t stop staring at that number. Level 21. Then the monster screeched, and he ran. Yesterday, a level 21 monster would have been nothing to him. In fact, a level 40 monster would have been little to worry about. He had been a level 39 Hunter, a combat class that he was experienced with, and had fought worse odds. Today, he was level 7, and unclassed. So he ran. He slammed the door behind him, and the monster screeched again with the impact. Josh was nearly bounced away just from that, but he forced himself to hold it. He shoved a screwdriver in the handle. It might buy him a couple seconds. He ran again. ¡°Hey!¡± he cried as he ran on the catwalks over the factory floor. ¡°Monster! Monster loose in the building!¡± The reclaimers on the floor looked up in shock. But when they saw the crazed bat burst out of the office, they all cried out. They dropped their clipboards and their notes and ran. ¡°Oi, come on!¡± he yelled. ¡°One of you daft lot has to have a combat spell already!¡± He knew for a fact that Mages started out with a basic energy bolt. He cursed them even as he looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. Could he trap the monster somewhere? Drop something heavy on it? He gripped the railing, his heart beating a drum in his chest. He only had one hand free. Should he drop¡ª He blinked, then looked down at the gun in his hand. Oh, right. Josh took a stance, aimed, and fired at the bat flying straight at him. Josh didn''t have much experience with guns, and he didn''t have a class to help cover his deficiencies. The bat jinked left to dodge his first shot, then right to dodge his second, and then dove¡ª His third shot hit it straight in the chest. The monster fell to the ground, flapping wildly, trying to ignore its own wound and take to the air again. Chiropterans didn''t have very high Constitution. A single shot would never do so much damage to a boar. But it was still level 21, so it could take a few hits. Josh stepped forward. Once he was within a few feet, but still out of range of its flailing, he took aim again and fired. He emptied his gun into it, the shots echoing around the building. After a moment, red mist gathered out of the corpse, slowly turning white. He breathed in deep, and the white mist flowed into him.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 8! You have eight attribute points to allocate. Warning: You may not allocate your attribute points until you choose a class.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached a milestone! You may select your first class.
Josh dismissed the notice. He''d pick his class in a moment. He shook himself and took a few deep breaths, willing his heart to calm. Once he thought he could walk without shaking, he reached down, grabbed the corpse, and hefted it in his arms. There were some uses for monster corpses. As he walked down the stairs onto the main factory floor, Paul came running in. ¡°What in the name of the Eight happened?¡± he demanded. ¡°Monster got in,¡± Josh said with a grunt. He glared at some of the workers he recognized. ¡°Your boys were just brilliant, by the by. Maybe make sure they''re all up to spic and span?¡± Paul scowled at the workers. ¡°Half of you have Attacker classes!¡± He shook his head and turned back to Josh, looking up at him. ¡°You get hit? We can have a Mender look at you.¡± Josh shook his head. ¡°I''m good.¡± ¡°You sure? Infections are no joke.¡± ¡°Nah, it didn''t even get me.¡± He nodded down at the corpse in his arms. ¡°Is that armorer bloke still at the outpost?¡± They didn''t have the true Armorer class of course, because that was a Crafter class. They only had Attacker, Defender, Tamer, and Healer classes. Still, even without the assistance of a class, monster leather made decent armor. As it turned out, he couldn''t take the corpse back to the outpost, because they were about to set half the Jungle on fire. Josh put the bat in a box on a cart, then sat down to watch the show. Mary, as she had said, had earned the right to make the first shot. She drew back her arrow and held it. A moment later, a Mage snapped her fingers, and the head of the arrow burst into flame. Mary loosed the shot, and it arced beautifully into the line of trees, just beyond the electric fence. Half a mile of the Jungle burst into flame, seemingly all at once. A massive wave of heat and air pressure pushed out, a gust of wind that threw up every loose object. Hats, unsecured papers, and even one of the smaller reclaimers were all thrown up in the air. Everyone laughed. The truck belonging to the City operative, parked at the corner of the factory, had its back open so that the occupant could watch the show. The operative himself stood next to the truck, smiling at the flames. They didn''t have to worry about the fire spreading. The Jungle was frustratingly difficult to burn. In fact, it was unlikely even all the pitch and oil they had used would be enough to ensure that this patch would stay on fire long enough to turn to ash. They''d probably have to come back with axes to remove everything before it regrew, then they''d burn the bare earth again. Even then, they''d have to keep an eye on it to make sure nothing sprouted up. The Jungle was always hungry. Mary was the loudest, whooping in laughter. It seemed she had earned her spell. This was the Burn Line, or at least the first step for expanding it. Just cutting down the Jungle did little. Its magic lived in every plant and every speck of moss. You had to burn it, then burn it again, and keep doing it until it stopped growing back with visible speed. Then, finally, you could say that the land had been reclaimed. One daffy thing was that all the ash and churned up earth of the burned-up Jungle actually made for nicely fertile ground even without the magic. It would just take a few months before this part of the land was green again. That could be a problem, because the Jungle could take root again, but that was why they were always pushing the Burn Line forward. By the time this part of the land regrew, the Jungle would have been pushed at least half a kilometer off. Josh smiled and turned to his class selection. It was then that he remembered that he didn''t have his normal bloodstones, just the one he had found in the office. He sighed. Well, if it was something annoying, he could always ask the other reclaimers to see if they had something better. What if it was a Defender? He hated the foundational Defender classes. Then he saw the notification, and froze.
You are currently unclassed! Once you choose a class, you may allocate your banked statistic points.
You have ONE (1) class advancement resource in your possession.
You have ONE (1) class choice. Seek out additional class advancement resources to expand your choices.
CLASS OPTIONS: Woodcrafter (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and structures from wood.
Josh stared. He stared for at least a full minute before his brain started moving. There were eight types of bloodstones. They were all Combat classes. Three for the Attacker role, three for the Defender role, one for the Tamer role, and one for the Healer role. Switching to a different role was impossible, as far as anyone knew, without using a bloodstone of an appropriate class. Rogue was an Attacker role, but if you combined it with a Knight bloodstone, which was a Defender, you got the Samurai class, which was a Defender. Different combinations produced different classes, and there were multiple routes to every class. Combining a Shrouder with an Archer bloodstone got you a Veiler, which was still a Defender. Combining a Veiler with an Archer again got you a Hunter. There were other ways to refine your class without a bloodstone, but they required stat score minimums, and didn''t change your role. The point being that there hadn''t been a Utility class in eighty years. None of the Eight Heroes had a Utility foundational class. In the Old World, before the Fall, roughly half the classes and half the bloodstones were non-combat classes, more formally called Utility roles. There were four Utility roles: Crafter, Gatherer, Scholar, and Explorer. Because none of the Eight Heroes had a Utility foundational class, that meant that there had been no bloodstones for them. No one had been able to get a non-combat class for the past eighty years. This didn''t make sense. There was no way that someone had somehow discovered a Utility class and then just... come out here to die! Then he realized. Unless the corpse was more than eighty years old. The factory had been protected. Monsters hadn''t gotten in, even the Jungle hadn''t gotten in. If someone had given up right before the end, left their bloodstone behind and then killed themselves... Was it possible? Before Josh could second-guess himself, before he could risk the possibility of losing this impossible gift, he made his choice.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 8 Woodcrafter! You have 4 free attribute points and 4 class attribute points to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Craft Wood. Make items from wood, plants, and vegetation.
NEW SPELL LEARNED: Instant Crafting. With the proper tools, complete any known blueprint crafting instantly. This spell can be combined with Hands-Free Crafting.
NEW SPELL LEARNED: Hands-Free Crafting. You may craft a known blueprint without the proper tools. This spell can be combined with Instant Crafting.
He let out a breath. Okay. That... was a bit to take in. Even at a brief glance, he had some ideas. It was rare for spells to explicitly allow combination, for example. He didn''t have time for experimentation right now, though. He stood up and walked over to Mary. She was surrounded by a crowd of smiling people patting her on the back. She grinned and laughed and exchanged jokes. First Archer to earn a spell wasn''t exactly a major achievement, but it was worth a handshake. Josh tried not to show his anxiety, tried to pretend he was just waiting to congratulate his friend like everyone else. He wasn''t sure he was entirely successful, since a few people gave him odd looks. Once the crowd cleared out, Mary turned to him. The smile slipped off her face once she saw him. ¡°What''s eating you?¡± she asked. He grimaced. ¡°It that obvious?¡± ¡°You look like the time you broke Paul''s locker.¡± He chuckled ruefully. ¡°It''s not that bad.¡± In fact, it was so much worse, but he didn''t see the need to bog her down in minor details right now. He glanced around. ¡°Can we talk?¡± Mary threw her arm around his shoulder and gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes. ¡°Fiiine, but you know I hate pranks!¡± While she didn''t yell, she did say it loudly enough for anyone listening to hear clearly. Most of them lost interest at that point. Mary had always been better at stealth than Josh. Once she had pulled him into a corner of the compound, only slightly overgrown by the Jungle, he wheeled around on her. ¡°Check your party screen.¡± She raised an eyebrow. ¡°Okay... why.¡± ¡°Just do it. Please?¡± She rolled her eyes and sighed. Her gaze went distant, and there was a short pause. He could easily spot the exact moment where she found it, because she froze as still as a statue. Slowly, very slowly, she spoke. ¡°Josh... what did you do?¡± He wrung his hands. ¡°I found a bloodstone.¡± He explained, in brief, the corpse in the office and how he suspected it had survived so long unmolested. He also displayed for her the class description for Woodcrafter, so that they were on the same page. Mary stared at her screens for the entire explanation, as if afraid that his class would disappear if she took her eyes off it. ¡°Okay,¡± she said at last. ¡°Let''s start simple. Can you make a bloodstone?¡± He held out his hand and concentrated. He felt his strength leeching out of his hand, exactly as if he was losing too much blood, and at the same time a pressure built up until it felt like his hand would explode. A moment later, a tiny orb filled with swirling red mist appeared in his hand. Mary plucked it from his palm while he took deep breaths to recover. Making a bloodstone wasn''t hard, but he had just lost a pint of blood, and he was low level. He''d need a minute. Mary''s eyes unfocused as she read the item description. ¡°Woodcrafter,¡± she muttered. ¡°If I use this with my Archer class, I will gain the... Bowyer class? Huh, and it''s still an Attacker role. Interesting.¡± She handed the stone back to him. ¡°What''s the plan from here?¡± Josh rubbed his forehead. ¡°I don''t know,¡± he muttered. ¡°What happens if I just admit everything to the boss?¡± To her credit, Mary gave it serious thought. ¡°He wouldn''t try to steal your bloodstones,¡± she said slowly. She started pacing. ¡°Most everyone in the camp already has their class. The biggest advantage here is being the first Crafter. No one else can do that any more, which means you''re valuable. They can''t just kill you.¡± Josh nodded along. ¡°I don''t think Paul would kill me outright anyway.¡± ¡°No, I don''t think so either, but with this much money on the line, it''s best to have assurances.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Money?¡± She stopped and looked at him. ¡°I thought you knew how shiny and valuable this was.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± he said. ¡°I mean, in theory. I don''t know exactly what kind of blueprints I can make yet, but even if I''m limited to just wooden tools, having a Crafter of any type will mean new unique classes.¡± Mary sighed. ¡°Well, ignoring the fact that it will definitely be more than just wooden tools, the unique classes alone will be invaluable.¡± She spread her arms. ¡°I''m an Archer. I checked, and I''ll be able to use it to become a Bowyer at level 16. Do you know what that means?¡± ¡°You''ll be able to make bows and arrows,¡± Josh said, a little lost. Yes, he understood that it would be a valuable class, but archery gear wasn''t that hard to make. Their own group had a dozen spare bows. ¡°Yes,¡± she said patiently. ¡°But it also implies that it will do the same for other classes. What happens if a Swordsman uses this bloodstone? Will he become a Swordsmith? Gain the ability to make swords instantly? What about a Gunner?¡± Josh was getting excited too, but he tempered that emotion. Last time he got this excited, he had lost a major opportunity because he was distracted. ¡°I think we''re running ahead a bit. We don''t even know what this class is capable of yet.¡± Mary nodded. ¡°That means we need to test you.¡± Then she smirked. ¡°I guess we''ll have to chop down a few trees, get you some rubbish to play with.¡± Josh snorted. ¡°No complaints on my end.¡± Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°Not all trees are evil, man.¡± ¡°We''re in the Jungle,¡± he said flatly. ¡°Yes, they are.¡± Chapter 2 - Operative Several hours later, Josh and Mary pulled Paul aside. He took them to his office back in the main camp. The fires had burned out for now, so it was safe to cross the Jungle. The reclaimers would dig it up before night fell, to reduce the chance of immediate regrowth. If they continued the process long enough, they''d eventually kill the Jungle in this area. At least long enough to push the Burn Line up. ¡°All right,¡± Paul said. He sat down in his chair with a sigh. ¡°By the Eight, what is this all about? You''re acting like you stole from a dragon.¡± Without a word, Josh scattered a bunch of sticks, stones, and feathers on the desk. There was nothing special about any of them. They were just random detritus from the Jungle that he had picked up on his way back. Paul closed his eyes in exasperation. ¡°I just cleaned this desk. Do you know how hard it is to keep a clean desk out here? If you don''t have anything¡ª¡± ¡°Hands-Free Crafting,¡± Josh said. It wasn''t necessary to speak the spell name out loud to make it work. It was, however, suitably dramatic. This one spell drained his mana down to zero. While he only had a 4 in Capacity and a 4 in Sensitivity, which reduced mana costs. This was an expensive one. The sticks immediately began levitating off the desk. They pulled themselves straight, the bark falling off and the knobbly bits shaved away. The stones chipped themselves into points and affixed themselves to the ends with plant fibers. The feathers attached themselves to the other ends, perfectly balanced for stability in flight. Finally, eight arrows clattered to the desk in a small pile of wood shavings and bark. The entire process took five minutes. Paul spent the entire time staring, open-mouthed. ¡°W-what,¡± he said at last. ¡°What just happened?¡± So, they told him. The part about finding and using the bloodstone took the longest. Paul interrupted multiple times, demanding to know exactly when and where this had happened. Midway through, he opened his door and ordered a runner to return to the factory and clear out the office, but didn''t tell him what he was looking for. He asked more questions when it became clear he could make bloodstones. Unlike Mary, he didn''t ask to touch one. When they got to the part about testing his new class abilities, he just nodded. ¡°Yes, I can see why you would want to get a handle on them before you spoke to me,¡± he said. ¡°What have you discovered so far?¡± ¡°I have to build an object at least once to get a blueprint,¡± Josh said. ¡°Though I already knew how to make arrows out of Jungle materials. It might be more difficult with something I don''t know. The object seems to need to be primarily wood, though as you can see, it doesn''t have to be entirely wood.¡± He gestured to the stone arrowheads and feathers. Paul was not surprised. ¡°That fits with what I''ve heard of Crafter classes. What about combining your spells? You said the descriptions allowed it.¡± Using multiple spells in quick succession was, of course, common. Actually being able to combine them, casting them so that they took effect at the same time, was more rare. Josh shook his head. ¡°I don''t have enough mana for that.¡± Paul ran his hand through his hair. ¡°Yeah, that sounds right.¡± He frowned. ¡°What are you putting your points into? If you put enough into Capacity, you should have the mana for it.¡± ¡°I haven''t spent any of them yet. I wanted to be safe.¡± ¡°Neither of us know anything about Crafter classes,¡± Mary put in. ¡°You know stat optimization can get wonky. Especially if you want to refine your class.¡± Paul nodded, stroking his chin. ¡°Yes, good point.¡± He snapped his fingers. ¡°Of course! I should have thought of this first! Jonah will know. Or at least he''ll know someone we can ask.¡± He shook his head ruefully. ¡°Honestly, we need to talk to him anyway.¡± Josh exchanged a look with Mary. ¡°Who''s Jonah? He''s not the Tamer with the rats, is he?¡± ¡°No, he''s that Rogue, right?¡± Mary said. She made a circular motion with her hand. ¡°You know, the one who always tries to get the Zephyr class, and fights using twin rings?¡± ¡°That''s Jacob,¡± Josh pointed out. ¡°Remember, with the ears?¡± ¡°As amusing as this is,¡± Paul interrupted, sounding anything but amused, ¡°Jonah Moore is the operative from the City. He''s the one who they sent to make sure we got the factory. I''m sure he''ll be very interested in all this.¡± Josh was a little hesitant to talk to a City operative. There was, after all, a reason he had decided to come out here into a Jungle full of monsters, rather than staying safe behind the City walls. But it was doubtful that this operative would be looking for him specifically, and even if he was, it wasn''t like he''d have orders to kill on sight. Probably. They went outside to find the operative. He was standing at the back of his truck, talking to someone in the shed on the back. The operative was a tall, thin black man, his hair braided into cornrows. Rather than a rich suit, which Josh had expected, he wore thick jeans, a black leather jacket, and thin gloves. He wore a long rifle on his back, and a combat pistol at his hip. He had a stern, no-nonsense face, clearly used to not smiling, but there was a spark of kindness in his eyes, aimed at whoever was in the truck. Curious, Josh used his Identify skill on him.
Attacker: Level 17
Josh blinked. He was already level 17? How in the world did he level that quickly? It had hardly been three hours! Mary whistled. ¡°Whoa, buddy, you work quick, huh?¡± She nodded to his weapons. ¡°Did you already get the Gunner class?¡± The man stepped back from the truck, putting himself between the newcomers and whoever was inside. His hand fell down to his pistol so casually that Josh wasn''t sure he even noticed. ¡°Yes.¡± His tone was short and clipped. His eyes flicked to Mary and paused just long enough that Josh could tell he was using his own Identify skill. He continued on to Paul. ¡°Captain. Is something wrong?¡± Paul chuckled ruefully. ¡°Maybe the exact opposite, sir.¡± He paused, then jerked his head at Josh. ¡°Why don''t you check him?¡± Josh stepped out from behind Mary and stood tall, then met the operative''s eyes. He had to look down to do it. The Identify skill needed a good view of someone to get a reading. Even the simplest of masks could keep it from working. There was a half second pause, then the operative''s eyes widened. ¡°What is this?¡± Josh held out the bloodstone he had found. ¡°It''s what you think it is, sir.¡± The operative looked down at the bloodstone, then back up at Josh. With surprising gentleness, he picked up the stone. After a pause¡ªchecking it against his own class advancement, no doubt¡ªhe gripped it tightly. ¡°You can make more of these?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Yes, sir.¡± ¡°Jonah,¡± the operative said, sounding distracted. ¡°Jonah Moore. What''s your name, reclaimer?¡± He swallowed. They... wouldn''t kill him on sight, right? They had no reason to. Of course, they''d had no reason to chase him out of the City, either. ¡°Joshua Hundredborn, sir.¡± Next to him, Mary shifted subtly, ready to move if Jonah looked like he was about to commit violence. But it was clear that violence was the last thing on Jonah''s mind. He smiled. It was a sharp, small thing, the smile of a man clearly unused to such expressions. It was still a real smile, though, and he nodded to himself. ¡°Excellent to meet you, Joshua. I think we''re going to have a long and profitable relationship. RUTH!¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The last word was a shout, and Josh jumped about three feet in the air. The operative didn''t seem to notice his reaction. A black girl poked her head out of the truck''s apartment. No, not a girl, a young woman. She looked to be about the same age as Josh and Mary, so thirty at the oldest, with a round face and full mouth. She wore a white and brown traveling dress that was rather pretty, though clearly designed for the rigors of the road. Her black hair was long, done up in a braid, and there was an annoyed look in her blue eyes. Josh used Identify on her. It was a matter of habit, more than anything.
Unclassed: Level 8
He blinked. Wait, she didn''t have a class yet? She was level 8, what was the problem? There was no way a City operative would have trouble getting his hands on bloodstones. ¡°Yes, papa?¡± she asked. Her voice was kind, but exasperated. She sounded like the sort of girl who tried to be helpful to others, but usually got her way in the end. ¡°Are you willing to admit that I''m right?¡± ¡°I have a new class for you,¡± the operative said, not taking his eyes off the bloodstone in his hand. She brightened at that. ¡°Is it a Mage?¡± ¡°It''s not a Mage.¡± She scowled. ¡°It''s not a Mender, is it?¡± She held up a bloodstone. ¡°Papa, I told you I don''t want to be a Mender again!¡± Josh raised his hand. ¡°It''s not a¡ª¡± Father and daughter both glared at him. ¡°Right,¡± he said quietly. ¡°Talking was a mistake, I see that now.¡± The operative turned back to his daughter. ¡°Please, just take it.¡± The woman¡ªRuth, apparently¡ªfrowned as she stepped out of the apartment. She picked up the bloodstone. Her eyes clouded over as she checked her system messages. A moment later they went so wide that Josh thought they were going to pop out of her head. ¡°This¡ªthis is¡ª¡± She looked at Josh. ¡°You. You''re a¡ª¡± She looked down at the bloodstone. ¡°A Woodcrafter? How?¡± Josh opened his mouth to answer. The operative answered first. ¡°It doesn''t matter. Use it.¡± Ruth frowned. ¡°But what if¡ª¡± ¡°Use it,¡± the operative insisted. ¡°Everything else can wait.¡± Ruth still looked conflicted. After a moment, she nodded. The stone in her palm shattered, releasing a cloud of red mist. It quickly turned white, then flowed into her body as if she was breathing it in. There was a pause, and then she smiled. Josh checked her again.
Crafter: Level 8
¡°All right,¡± the operative said, smiling that small, hard smile again. ¡°Now we can hear the full story.¡± So they went back into Paul''s office, and Josh went over it all again. The operative didn''t ask any questions, just listening intently as if he was trying to memorize every word. Ruth, meanwhile, was a much more interesting listener, gasping or exclaiming in awe at all the appropriate moments. Once they got to the part about Josh needing advice on his stat distribution, Jonah nodded. ¡°A wise choice. What did you say your primary stats are?¡± ¡°Perception and Sensitivity,¡± Josh replied instantly. Ruth nodded. Jonah''s fingers tapped a pattern on his pistol. ¡°I don''t have any specific information on Crafter classes. However, if you are hoping to refine your class beyond Woodcrafter¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, please,¡± Josh interrupted. Jonah glared at him. Josh winced. ¡°Uh, sir.¡± Jonah rolled his eyes. ¡°I understand your position. I doubt Woodcrafter will grant any great powers, even though a Crafter class alone is obviously invaluable. Trying to refine it to something else, either with bloodstones or stat milestones, is a good idea.¡± He paused. ¡°The problem is, it''s unclear what you need.¡± ¡°Putting points into your primary stats is always a good idea, right?¡± Ruth asked. She was fiddling with random pieces of detritus she had found on the ground. Josh frowned. Was she trying to get blueprints? ¡°That''s how Papa got to Gunner so fast.¡± ¡°Yes, but we know Gunner''s primary stats,¡± Operative Moore said. ¡°Agility and Perception. Archer is Strength and Perception, so I had to put most of my points into Agility to make sure I reached the milestones fast enough.¡± He shrugged helplessly. ¡°We don''t know the primary stats for any Crafter classes.¡± ¡°So, what?¡± Mary asked, sounding a little confrontational. ¡°Just put everything in Perception and Sensitivity, then hope for the best?¡± The operative sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. ¡°Unfortunately, yes, that seems like the best option.¡± With no better ideas, Josh shrugged and dumped four of his points into Perception and four into Sensitivity. Then he opened up his status screen.
Name: Joshua White
Race: Human (earth-type)
Role: Crafter
Class: Woodcrafter, level 8
Stats: Strength 5, Agility 3, Constitution 5, Perception 8, Power 4, Flexibility 4, Capacity 4, Sensitivity 8
Techniques: 4
Spells: 2
Skills: 2
Would you like to see a full list of your abilities?
He clicked [Yes].
Techniques: Craft Arrows (rank 1), Straighten Wood ( rank 1), Sharpen Wood ( rank 1), Fletch Arrows ( rank 1)
Spells: Hands-Free Crafting (rank 1), Instant Crafting (rank 1)
Skills: Identify, Blueprint: Wooden Arrow
Josh was proud of his baseline stats. Without any class bonuses or level advancements, he had 4 in almost everything, except a 5 in Strength and Constitution, and a 3 in Agility. 4 was the average, so he ended up one point ahead. Plenty of people had a point higher or lower here or there, but it usually still averaged out to 4. On a whim, he drilled down farther, into the actual stats. It had been years since he checked the descriptions.
Strength: The measure of your ability to use your physical power to maximum benefit. For every point of Strength, you may put an extra point of stamina into your techniques, above the default cost. Overcharging your techniques will increase their speed, power, and damage. A higher Strength score also increases your physical strength, including your ability to lift and carry heavy objects.
Agility: The measure of your ability to recover from physical exhaustion and return to the fight. For every point of Agility, you recover 1 point of stamina per minute. A higher Agility score also increases your physical speed and dexterity, including your flexibility and fine motor control.
Constitution: The measure of your total physical endurance and capacity. For every point of Constitution, you have 1 higher maximum stamina. A higher Constitution score also increases your general health, resistance to disease and poison, and exhaustion.
Perception: The measure of your ability to sense the most efficient uses of your physical energy. For every point of Perception, your techniques cost one point less stamina. Note: This cannot reduce stamina cost to below 1. A higher Perception score also increases your physical senses, such as sight, hearing, and kinesthesia.
Power: The measure of your ability to use your magical strength to maximum benefit. For every point of Power, you may put an extra point of mana into your spells, above the default cost. Overcharging your spells will increase their speed, power, and damage. A higher Power score also increases your magical power, including your ability to force through barriers in your spells.
Flexibility: The measure of your ability to recover from magical enervation and return to the fight. For every point of Flexibility, you recover 1 point of mana per hour. A higher Flexibility score also increases your magical swiftness and arcane agility, including your ability to twist your spells.
Capacity: The measure of your total magical resolution and endurance. For every point of Capacity, you have 1 higher maximum mana. A higher Capacity score also increases your general energy, resistance to depletion and enfeeblement, and chance to defy curses.
Sensitivity: The measure of your ability to perceive the most efficient uses of your magical energy. For every point of Sensitivity, your techniques cost one point less mana. Note: This cannot reduce mana cost to below 1. A higher Sensitivity score also increases your magical senses, such as psychometry, remote viewing, and telepathy.
He dismissed the screen. It seemed strange to him that he had learned techniques, which actively required stamina, for basic things like carving and straightening the wood he had used to make the arrows. Especially since he had also gotten a technique for crafting arrows, which seemed like it should supersede all the other techniques. He had received experience for learning all those techniques, though, so he wasn''t going to complain. He was already pushing up to the edge of level 9. And he received a little experience when he crafted things, so he should be well on his way. ¡°I think I''m going to put some points into Capacity,¡± Ruth muttered, mostly to herself. ¡°I want to be able to combine those spells.¡± ¡°There''s nothing wrong with experimenting a little,¡± Paul said. For some reason, that made Mary grin wickedly. ¡°All right,¡± Josh said. ¡°Now what?¡± That small, satisfied smile came back to Jonah''s face. ¡°Now, we grind out some levels for you two.¡± Chapter 3 - Crafting Four days later, Josh had a new appreciation for the work ethic of a City operative. Josh had assumed that Jonah would bring him out to fight monsters. That was, after all, how everyone else leveled up. Instead, either due to concerns for his daughter''s safety or simply because he didn''t think a non-combat class should see combat, the operative had practically locked them in a warehouse and told them to work. The various craftsmen and artisans in the camp were brought in to teach them how to craft new items, anything that they could possibly get a blueprint for. Every moment they weren''t learning a new blueprint, they were crafting. Piles of wood, leather, and stone were brought in to provide materials, and they both used their spells constantly to maximize efficiency. Josh preferred using Hands-Free Crafting, so that he didn''t need to worry about tools, while Ruth preferred using Instant Crafting, so that she could craft extra batches while she was working with her hands. Of course, she didn''t have enough mana to keep it up constantly. Josh had almost been surprised when the operative brought in the entire camp to help. Somehow, he had assumed that they would keep this whole thing secret. When asked, Jonah had pointed out that keeping the two of them out of sight or in hoods to hide from Identify skills wasn''t a realistic solution. They had to just trust that the reclaimers understood how important this was. More importantly, no one else in camp was unclassed, so there wasn''t much point in trying to steal a bloodstone off them. Even so, Josh and Ruth were both ordered to keep their bloodstones on them at all times. After four days of grueling, mind-numbing labor, of doing absolutely nothing but working with wood until his hands were numb and smelled perpetually of sap, Josh finally reached his next class milestone.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 16! You do not meet the minimum requirements for class refinement. You do not possess any class advancement resources. Would you like to pause your level-up to obtain advancement resources?
Josh sighed. Every eight levels, you gained a class refinement. Or a class advancement, but the difference was mostly just vocabulary. Every eight levels, you either changed a class¡ªwhich required either reaching hidden stat milestones or a bloodstone¡ªor stuck with what you already had. Either way, you earned new abilities. He had been hoping he would be able to refine his class into something better, but it was probably too much to expect that so early. Still, sticking with one class had its own advantages. Even though he hated that he was still forced to work with wood. He clicked [NO].
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 16 Woodcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Architecture. Learn and utilize blueprints for large-scale construction.
Josh froze. So far, every blueprint he had learned had been for something small. The largest had been a wooden shield. He had made blueprints for every type of toy, tool, and equipment you could possibly make out of wood, even if it wouldn''t actually be effective. He had wooden swords, wooden trowels, wooden buckets and bowls... anything that was at least made from a majority of wood. He''d tried to make a table. While he had, to a limited degree, been able to use some of his woodworking techniques to help the process, he hadn''t gotten a blueprint out of it, so he hadn''t bothered to try again. Now, he suspected that it was simply because he hadn''t had the right skill. Would furniture be covered under this skill? It said ¡°large-scale construction,¡± did that mean furniture, or just buildings? He decided he didn''t care, because this might be what he needed to advance at a faster pace. As with any class, performing your role actions earned you experience. More specifically, he had found that learning new blueprints earned him a decent experience boost, as did learning new techniques related to woodworking. What really earned him the most experience was crafting items from a blueprint¡ªat first. His gains dropped quickly, and he had to learn a new blueprint to continue gaining experience at a reasonable rate. Unfortunately, there were only so many tools that you could make out of wood. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. But if he could make buildings, then that opened up all new options for him. Across the worktable, Ruth Moore continued her own project, oblivious to his sudden level-up and epiphany. She was carving a small wooden figure, trying to get a new blueprint. Unfortunately, that sort of thing was lumped together by the system. Any sculpture of a certain size was listed just as ¡°Sculpture (wood, small),¡± no matter what it depicted or what art style was used to create it. Ruth kept trying to trick the system, figure out what counted as a new blueprint. Ruth finally noticed that he had stopped making arrows. They got him almost nothing for experience now, but they were still something the camp needed. Besides, the experience did add up. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± she asked, hands still moving. ¡°I leveled,¡± Josh said. ¡°No new class, but I¡ª¡± Ruth put down her finished sculpture, then blinked in surprise. ¡°Oh, me too! I guess that put me over the edge.¡± Her eyes went distant. ¡°No refinement from stats... no surprise there. I guess I''ll just use this after all.¡± She pulled out her Mender bloodstone and concentrated on it. The stone shattered into red mist, which turned white even as she breathed it in. ¡°Did it work?¡± Josh asked. A slow smile spread over Ruth''s face. ¡°Yeah. I got it.¡± She raised her arms over her head in an expression of victory. ¡°I am now officially the only Enchanter in the world!¡± Josh smiled too. ¡°I''m happy for you,¡± he said, genuinely. ¡°Do you still have all your Woodworker abilities?¡± That was how it worked for Combat classes, but no one was sure about Utility classes. Well, he knew how it worked, but may as well let Ruth figure it out on her own. Ruth nodded happily. ¡°Uh-huh! See?¡± She picked up the block of wood and carving knife. ¡°Instant Crafting!¡± Block and tool both glowed for a moment, and then there was a small wooden sculpture on the table. Josh wasn''t sure what it was supposed to be. Some sort of... horse? ¡°I really want to figure out how to enchant things, though!¡± Her eyes glazed over as she checked her screens, then she frowned. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± Josh asked, tensing. They hadn''t really talked much the past four days, being too busy, but you couldn''t spend hours sitting next to a person without learning something about them. This was Ruth''s ¡°I''m worried what my father will think¡± face. ¡°I don''t have any runes,¡± she said. Her voice was quiet, disappointed. ¡°I suppose it makes sense¡ªwe didn''t get any blueprints with the Woodcrafter class. I just hoped...¡± She shook her head. ¡°I don''t know where to go from here,¡± she admitted. ¡°I don''t think I can just guess runes.¡± She wrinkled her nose. ¡°I have a skill called Rune-Chains. It says I can link runes together to make bigger effects. What does that matter if I don''t actually have runes?¡± For a moment, Josh was stumped. She was right, there was no way you could just guess runes. Getting the shape right would be hard enough. You also had to get the depth of the carving right, and the exact type of magic you put into it. Human magic, colorless mana, would work for many runes, but not all. ¡°You have an enchanted dagger, yeah?¡± he asked. She looked up. ¡°What? Right here.¡± She pulled a small dagger out of her sleeve. He suspected it was a gift from her father. ¡°What of it?¡± ¡°Just a mo''.¡± He used his Identify skill on it, just to be sure.
Dagger: One-handed, stabbing. Enchanted. Unidentified enchantment. Level requirement: Level 8. This isn''t yours, buddy. If you want to get a closer look, you should ask nicely! Or have a dagger of your own.
He ignored the flavor text. ¡°What''s the enchantment?¡± She shrugged. ¡°It says plus one damage. I think that means it''s as if I put in one extra stamina point.¡± Joshua nodded. Many of the system messages were like that. They could be specific in some places, and frustratingly vague in others. ¡°It has a rune. Just one, right? Try copying that.¡± Ruth flipped the dagger over to reveal a rune carved into the blade. It was a simple, geometric pattern, and if anything it reminded him of a few fours smashed together with an extra line or two. The rune glowed white and leaked radiant mist, the color of purified, colorless mana. She grinned. ¡°Yeah, I think that will do the trick!¡± It wouldn''t, he knew. Even the simplest of runes would require luck to get all the details right, and she wouldn''t get it right on the first try. But it was a start. Between her new runes and his new architecture, he was looking forward to the next few days. Josh took a deep breath. For the first time in a very long time, he felt... at peace. Which was why he was surprised when that peace was rudely interrupted. Chapter 4 - Into the Dungeon ¡°You want to clear out a dungeon?¡± Josh asked, incredulous. The City operative nodded. ¡°I think it''s the best idea at the moment, yes.¡± He tapped his long cigarette on the table, then took another drag. It was the next morning. Josh had walked into the planning room after breakfast, expecting more of the usual, when they dropped this bombshell on him. Paul and the operative were both here, but Ruth wasn''t. Josh wasn''t sure if that was because she was still sleeping in, or if her father had already sent her to work on her runes. Mary didn''t seem much more impressed. ¡°I''m not sure I see the point,¡± she said. ¡°I mean, dungeon monsters don''t even give good experience.¡± ¡°They do have loot, though,¡± Paul pointed out. Dungeons were like small Towers, digging underground rather than soaring into the sky. There was usually something worthwhile in them, such as a monster nest with rare materials in a biome that wasn''t native to the area. But the loot wasn''t that great, and the monsters were typically of lower level than the surrounding area. The stronger monsters always left the dungeon as soon as they could. It was the weaker ones, scared of the outside world, that stayed. It generally wasn''t worth the trouble. ¡°I will not pretend I have no interest in the magical materials,¡± the operative said gravely. ¡°The dungeons themselves are enchanted, as well. Studying the runes could be helpful for Ruth. But that is not the main reason I propose such an expedition.¡± He tapped the map. Josh saw that the dungeon was close to the factory. Just a couple miles farther north. ¡°It''s too close to our location.¡± ¡°So?¡± Mary asked flippantly. ¡°Look, maybe it''s different close to the City, but we''re used to dungeons out here. Leave them be, and they''ll leave you be.¡± The operative raised an eyebrow. ¡°I am well aware of how things work out here, Miss Manganese,¡± he said in a clipped, professional tone. ¡°What you are forgetting is that our little camp is becoming a more permanent settlement. Between the factory and the aid of Mister Hundredborn, we are going to be here for quite some time. We will not have the luxury of uprooting and finding a safer location if an unexpected enemy appears.¡± Josh nodded in understanding. ¡°You''re worried about something popping out of the dungeon to cock us up at the worst moment.¡± ¡°Precisely. Even if we clear-cut the Jungle and salt the earth for a hundred kilometers¡ª¡± ¡°Which I''m all for, by the way,¡± Josh interjected. The operative gave him an odd look, pulled on his cigarette, and continued. ¡°Even if we cut back the Jungle, the dungeon will remain a threat.¡± ¡°Look, I''m not a dungeon expert,¡± Mary said, cleaning her fingernails, ¡°but aren''t they trapped in there? They can only come out one day a year. We can handle that.¡± The operative sighed. ¡°Of course we can. But why bother placing guards on the dungeon entrance, taking up valuable manpower, when we can simply send a small party in now and clear it out?¡± He frowned at the map. ¡°Honestly, I''m tempted to go myself.¡± Josh understood the sentiment. In fact, he was surprised that the man wasn''t insisting on going. He''d get first crack at the rewards, which would probably go straight to his daughter. If they were really lucky, they''d even find enchanted items. That had happened a few times. ¡°Why don''t you have a go, then?¡± ¡°Too much to do up here,¡± Jonah grumbled, looking more human than Josh had ever seen him. ¡°In addition to organization and logistics, there are a number of monster clusters that require my personal attention.¡± He shook his head. ¡°No. We will leave this to a small party. Someone trustworthy, but not particularly valuable.¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°I''ll go.¡± Everyone looked at her. ¡°Wot?¡± she asked, sounding offended. ¡°I''ve got nothing else going on, I''m reliable, and I''ll probably get a pretty pouch of experience from the monsters. Do we know their levels?¡± ¡°Scouts said the ones in the entrance were level 10,¡± Paul said. Mary snorted. ¡°Oi, I bet I can clear the whole dungeon by myself.¡± The operative and Paul both nodded, and Josh couldn''t find it in him to disagree. It had been known to happen. Technically a party of four was recommended for any dungeon, but you could go in alone, or take as many as eight. ¡°I am amenable to your participation,¡± the operative said grudgingly. ¡°Not alone, though. Paul, can you spare a Mender?¡± ¡°Sure, Stephen isn''t doing much right now.¡± ¡°Excellent. With that settled¡ª¡± ¡°I''d like to go too,¡± Josh said. Jonah and Paul stared at him. Mary just grinned. ¡°Why on Earth would you want to do that?¡± the operative demanded. ¡°You are a non-combat class. You are both more use here, and far more vulnerable than anyone else. Not to mention your value.¡± ¡°Non-combat classes get experience from killing monsters too,¡± Josh pointed out. The combat classes got more for performing their role actions in combat, but everyone got experience for killing monsters. ¡°My gains on the blueprints I know have slowed to a crawl. Besides, I think I''ll learn something new if I try to fight.¡± Paul nodded slowly. ¡°You know, I think I''ve heard something about that in the old histories. The Grand Mechanist, who built the life pods, was a Crafter. He joined in the Last Raid.¡± ¡°He died in the Last Raid,¡± the operative said, tone short and curt. Paul didn''t blink. ¡°So did almost everyone else. But he got there, and I think Josh can get some good experience this way.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Unless you would rather he fight the level 30 and above monsters wandering around out here.¡± The operative glared for a moment longer, before turning to Josh again. ¡°I will not make an issue of it. If you truly believe this will get you past your bottleneck, then by all means go.¡± He tapped ash off his cigarette. ¡°Simply be careful.¡± Mary snorted. ¡°Yeah, because nothing ever goes to shambles if people are just careful.¡± Josh elbowed her, then gave the operative a solemn nod. ¡°We will be on our best behavior.¡± ¡°You also won''t be going alone,¡± Paul said. He rolled his eyes. ¡°You think we''re letting you wander in there without any backup? Like I said, Stephen should be available, but I think we should be able to find you a Defender as well.¡± Mary frowned. ¡°Wait. Stephen usually rolls a Defender. He''s a Healer this time?¡± It was Josh who answered. ¡°He said he wanted to try something new.¡± He snapped his fingers, remembering. ¡°Y''know, I think he said he swapped classes with Darius. He''s trying out Defender this year.¡± The operative did not look impressed. ¡°Are you two comfortable partying with a completely green Healer and Defender?¡± Maria shrugged. ¡°Having anyone is probably overkill, and you know it. They may as well get their experience somewhere safer than the Jungle.¡± The operative waved his free hand. ¡°Very well. If you think that is best, who am I to stop you?¡± Josh nodded and prepared to leave. Before he could, though, the door of the planning room opened. Ruth walked in, holding her skirts up, a broad smile on her face. ¡°I did it!¡± she said proudly. ¡°I mastered the first rune! Once I did it right once, I got a blueprint for it.¡± Her father nodded. ¡°Good. Do you know what you did wrong? I hope it wasn''t simply random luck.¡± ¡°I guess it matters how deep you carve the rune,¡± Ruth said with a huff. ¡°That''s going to be annoying, but now that I know what to look for I should be able to learn more runes soon. Everyone has been so helpful!¡± She looked between them. ¡°What''s going on? Are you leaving?¡± Josh nodded, but said nothing. The operative was a little... protective of his daughter. Josh had no desire to draw his ire. Mary, as usual, didn''t care one whit. ¡°Yeah, we''re gonna go run a dungeon with a couple of our idiots. You wanna come?¡± Ruth immediately brightened as if she had been given a thousand birthdays at once. Her father choked on his cigarette. ¡°Yes!¡± Ruth said. ¡°Oh, I''ll have to change, but I would love to¡ª¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°No!¡± the operative snapped. ¡°Absolutely not!¡± He pointed at Mary. ¡°You stop putting ideas in her head!¡± Ruth puffed out her cheeks. ¡°Daddy.¡± ¡°Sending out one of our Crafters is risk on its own,¡± he said, regaining his calm authority. ¡°With a backup, I can accept it. Sending out both of you¡ªon the same mission, no less¡ªis impossible.¡± He shook his head. ¡°We''ll capture some monsters for you.¡± She glared at him. ¡°I''m done with leaked experience! You never even let me fight the monsters myself!¡± Josh blinked. Wait, she had gotten all the way to level 8 with leaked experience? That was when you were in a party with someone who killed a monster, but you didn''t do anything yourself. It was much slower than shared experience. Exactly how many monsters did her father kill to level her up that fast? The operative didn''t so much as blink. ¡°This matter is settled.¡± He pulled out a replacement cigarette. ¡°Stay here, practice your runes. You''ll probably level faster than Mister Hundredborn if you''re diligent.¡± Ruth scowled. ¡°We only have three runes throughout the entire camp!¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Wait, really?¡± He had known enchanted weapons were rare¡ªpartly because all the ones they had left were too weak to bother with¡ªbut he would have thought they had more than that. ¡°I know more than three people with enchanted weapons.¡± Ruth puffed out her cheeks. ¡°The runes are almost all duplicates. I can''t learn much here.¡± She stomped her foot. ¡°Which is why I need to go to the dungeon! There are runes inside, I''ve read about them!¡± That was true, Josh realized. Most people focused on the valuable parts of the rare monsters, but there were also various glowing runes inside the dungeon itself. The walls were all enchanted to prevent the monsters inside from leaving. Or, he assumed that was what they were for. Her father was not moved. ¡°The reclaimers will copy them down for you.¡± ¡°That won''t work! There''s a depth to the runes that I can''t tell from a sketch¡ª¡± ¡°Then you will have to simply guess,¡± the operative snapped. ¡°This matter is closed.¡± She glared at him for a few moments. She was trembling, but Josh couldn''t tell if it was with rage or tears. After a moment, she spun on her heel and marched out of the room. She slammed the door so hard that Josh heard something crack. I might be able to fix that, he thought idly. With my new Architecture skill. He hadn''t had time to really flex the skill yet. All he''d done so far was learn blueprints for posts, beams, and planks. Those had counted as separate blueprints, even though to his eyes they were all basically just square lengths of wood. The operative took a long drag on his cigarette, then turned to Josh. ¡°You have your orders, Mister Hundredborn.¡± He nodded. ¡°Sir.¡± He saluted and left with Mary. Fifteen minutes later, the two of them met up with the other members of their new team at the gate. All the reclaimers knew each other, so there were no surprises, though Josh and Mary hadn''t gone on any missions with these two before.
Healer: Level 12
Stephen Deacon, the new Mender, was a big Asian man built like a brick outhouse, one of the few men who matched Josh in size. This worked well for him in the class he normally started with, Shrouder. Seeing him with a Healer''s staff was vaguely odd, like seeing a dog with a knife in its teeth. His staff was one of the few enchanted items in the camp. Most of the magic classes needed an enchanted item to even use some of their basic abilities, and Healers were too valuable to settle for inefficiency. In this case, without a staff Stephen''s healing would have been limited to what he touched. With a staff, he could cast at range.
Defender: Level 10
The other man, Darius Danson, was black, reasonably tall, and with the reedy build of an active Healer. Not muscular, and certainly not fat either. Just someone who got enough exercise to run after the more physical classes. He had a big bushy afro, square glasses, and wore a sensible jacket and jeans ensemble. Unfortunately, he was unarmed. That tracked with him being a Shrouder this time, instead of a Healer. Shrouder was a Defender class, if a non-standard one. And he didn''t have the magic item that made Shrouders most effective. That item, the shroud itself, was more rare than a Healer''s staff. At least unlike a Mender, a Shrouder could get by without any special equipment. Mostly. Josh wondered if Ruth would be able to create new shrouds one day. He didn''t know much about enchanting, but he suspected the process was more complicated than just copying down the right runes and putting the right magic in them. There were definitely magic items that worked without runes, and he thought shrouds might be one of them. ¡°Hey, boys,¡± Mary said as she strode up. ¡°Ready for a trial by fire?¡± Darius frowned and adjusted his glasses. ¡°I thought the dungeon was going to be easy.¡± ¡°The dungeon?¡± Mary asked in mock confusion. ¡°No, I mean me!¡± She patted the revolver at her hip. It was the same one that Josh had found at the factory. ¡°I need to see what you can do, so get ready!¡± Darius raised an eyebrow, and Stephen just cocked his head. ¡°You already got the Gunner class, Mary?¡± She nodded. ¡°Really buckled down and went for it. It''s just stat milestones.¡± Stephen made a face. ¡°I hate going for stat milestones, especially this early. You can''t branch out at all. Did you put any points into anything besides Agility?¡± Mary blew out a breath. ¡°No, and that means my magic stats are still crap right now.¡± She scowled. ¡°I managed to get three spells that will work for Gunner, but I can''t use them yet because I don''t have the Capacity or the Sensitivity for them!¡± That was the problem with learning too many new abilities. Sometimes you ended up with something that seemed great, but you couldn''t make use of it with your build. Darius was looking between them as though he expected them to come to blows at any moment. He also didn''t look all that worried about that possibility. More annoyed that he might have to find new party members. ¡°What about you, Danson?¡± Josh asked. ¡°Why go for the Shrouder? You didn''t want to start with something easier?¡± Almost every other foundational class they had access to¡ªincluding the other Defender classes, Knight and Shielder¡ªwere easier to learn than Shrouder. Darius huffed in annoyance. ¡°I thought I would pick it up. Besides, the class evolution path is powerful.¡± ¡°Sure, if you can get past the first step, which is being a Shrouder.¡± He rubbed his forehead. ¡°Please tell me you''re at least properly specced for it?¡± ¡°Oh, yes. All my points are in Power and Capacity.¡± That meant he could keep up his shields for longer. That was really all a low-level Shrouder could do. But, as he said, there were some nice upgrade paths. If he played his cards right, he could get a powerful Improved-tier class as early as level 16. As far as Josh knew, that was the soonest of any of the eight foundational classes they had access to. But getting an Improved-tier class was more than just a case of the right stats and the right bloodstones. There were performance goals to meet. Hopefully, Darius had a plan for that part. ¡°All right,¡± Josh said. He looked out the gate, at the Jungle around them. Even though they were cutting it back every day, it was still creeping up to the walls again. The doors closed behind him with a boom. ¡°Which way to the dungeon?¡± ¡°This way,¡± Ruth said, pointing. Josh nodded. ¡°Thanks. Now we just need to¡ª¡± He stopped, blinked, then turned to her. ¡°Ruth?¡± She smiled at him with suspicious innocence. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Ruth?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Mary started laughing. ¡°Your dad''s gonna kill me,¡± Josh muttered to himself. Should he run? He should run. But the only place to run to was into the Jungle, which was horrible... Ruth smacked him on the back¡ªhard. He stumbled forward and almost tripped on a root. ¡°Oh, lighten up! He''s clearing out some chiropteran nest near the factory. We''re going in the opposite direction.¡± She grinned. ¡°What he won''t know won''t hurt him!¡± ¡°It might hurt me, though,¡± Josh said. He struggled with himself for a few moments. ¡°Wot happens if I order you to go back?¡± Ruth smirked. ¡°Fair,¡± he said. It had been a stupid question. ¡°Wot if we throw you back inside and run for it?¡± ¡°I''ll make it to the dungeon before you, because I''m the only one who actually knows where it is.¡± She leaned forward, grinning up at him. ¡°You could have looked at a map before leaving, you know.¡± Josh sighed. She was right. Short of tying her up, he doubted there was any way to keep her from following at all. He suspected her father wouldn''t appreciate them doing that to her, either. Even if it was for a good cause. And he had to admit, she did seem prepared. She was wearing sensible traveling leathers and had a solid wooden club¡ªone she had crafted herself, he assumed. It even had a single rune glowing with colorless light. She was also level 16, the same as him, making her overpowered for this dungeon. ¡°Why are you even here?¡± he asked, more tired than anything. ¡°You can get plenty of experience with what I bring back.¡± She huffed. ¡°I don''t want to just leech experience. I want to help people.¡± She grinned and hefted her club. ¡°Here''s the best place to do that. To be able to actually see that what I''m doing is important.¡± ¡°Yeah, fine,¡± he said with a sigh. ¡°You can come.¡± ¡°Yesss.¡± She pumped her fist. He nodded at her clothes. ¡°You sure you don''t want some better armor?¡± She smirked. ¡°What, like yours?¡± He raised his chin. ¡°Oi, this is monster flesh. I''m practically a barbarian warrior!¡± ¡°It''s wood, Josh,¡± Mary said with a laugh. ¡°Wood from walking trees!¡± he snapped back. ¡°Brought down in epic battle!¡± Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°Whatever you say, buddy.¡± The armor was awkward, at best. It was heavy, clunky, and didn''t really offer enough protection to be worth the trouble. There was a reason people didn''t normally wear wooden armor. But it fit him literally perfectly, and he suspected that wearing it in actual combat might get him a bonus or new blueprint or something. Ruth took the lead, and Darius¡ªbless him¡ªstuck close to her side, ready to defend her if need be. He might be new at actually rolling a Defender, but he knew basic tactics. Even in this case, defending Ruth was more about making sure her father didn''t murder them all when they got back. Chapter 5 - The Dungeon (part 1) It didn''t take them long to find the dungeon. It was a small round dome in the earth, no taller than a man. It would be easy to miss, if not for the fact that no plants or trees grew over it. In the hungry Jungle, it stood out like a bleached white bone in the middle of a garden. There was a hatch at the top of the dome, with four indentations for hands. That reminded him that, with Ruth here, they had one more than normal. That meant there was an extra person to split the rewards with. Well, they hadn''t been likely to get anything decent out of this dungeon anyway. Getting twenty percent experience for killing a level 10 monster wasn''t much worse than getting twenty-five percent. Four of them placed their hands in the indentations, and the hatch cracked open with a pneumatic hiss. They dropped down the ladder into the dungeon''s entrance. It was a small, circular chamber with white walls and a single exit. There were a handful of rune circles glowing on the walls, like lamps. The second all of them were inside, they received a system message.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have discovered the dungeon GLORIOUS ASCENSION TO ULTIMATE VICTORY. Spawn level: 8.
¡°That''s a name,¡± Ruth said with a laugh. ¡°Is that normal?¡± She pulled out a notepad and some setting clay and started getting measurements on the runes. Mary shrugged. ¡°Anyone can change the name. A scout was probably having a laugh.¡± After a few minutes of waiting for Ruth to finish, Darius adjusted his glasses. He probably thought the nervous tick was subtle. ¡°Can we please just get this over with? Some of us have plans for later today.¡± He looked around with a frown. ¡°Where are the monsters?¡± Mary stepped past him, through the seemingly empty doorway. It rippled like a disturbed pond as she passed. Josh clapped Darius on the shoulder and followed her, his armor clattering as he did. Passing through the invisible barrier didn''t feel any different than stepping into a cold room, though far more sudden. On the other side was a room identical in size and shape to the first, still round and white. Mary had her gun out and was getting ready to fight. Four small creatures, the general size and shape of raccoons, were spread around the room glaring at them. But these animals had already been corrupted by the Jungle. Their tails were thick, thorny vines, and more thorns sprouted from their fur at random locations. Some of them dripped liquid.
Procyonic Thorntail. Level 10 Monster. Yeah, it''s an evil raccoon. Really, this dungeon is a terrible environment for them, you''re going to have an unfair advantage. You should probably leave. That poison is painful. Or don''t! It would probably be funny to watch you die to a level 10 mob.
Poison, Josh thought. Brilliant. At least they had a Mender. Thankfully, the monsters hadn''t attacked yet. Before they could change their minds, the rest of the party stumbled out behind them. ¡°Stephen, Ruth, you''re in the back,¡± Josh ordered reflexively. He drew his sword. His steel sword. He had decided against bringing one of his wooden ones, even with Ruth''s enchantments. ¡°Danson, you''re with me. We''re the distraction. Mary, you ready?¡± She checked her revolver one last time, all trace of silliness gone. ¡°Ready.¡± ¡°Go!¡± Josh jumped forward and, to Darius'' credit, he was just a step behind. One of the raccoons hissed and leaped forward, its thorns extending even farther. Josh stepped to the side, letting Darius move in. The raccoon slammed into a glowing blue shield made of light that surrounded his body. Properly distracted, it left itself open for Josh to stab through its neck in one swift, sure motion. Mary''s gun roared, the sound echoing in the enclosed space so loudly that Josh thought he might be deafened. He ignored that, though, moving on to the next threat. The next raccoon didn''t leap at him, but attacked his ankles, trying to dig through the wooden shin guards with its teeth. Though the armor saved him for a second, it wouldn''t hold for long. Josh kicked the monster hard enough for it to hit the wall, then followed after it and swung his sword. Attacking small monsters was always awkward, but he managed to skewer it on the end of his blade. A moment later, another gunshot echoed around the chamber. Josh turned to see Mary glaring at him, looking annoyed. She said something, but there was a ringing in his head, and he couldn''t hear her. Stephen pointed his staff at him. Healing magic flowed through Josh, and his hearing returned even as the ringing disappeared. ¡°She said, she wanted to get more than you,¡± Stephen explained patiently. Even as he spoke, the red mist rising from the monsters transformed into white and flowed into all of them equally. Josh dug some blood out of his ear. ¡°This isn''t a competition.¡± Mary crossed her arms over her chest. ¡°You say that because you won.¡± Josh chuckled. ¡°Yeah, that''s true.¡± Mary directed her glare at Ruth. ¡°I would have had a better time if someone hadn''t jumped into my firing lane!¡± ¡°This is literally the first real fight I''ve ever been in!¡± Ruth said. She sounded almost cheerful, and her smile was somewhat mad. ¡°I wanted to get some hits in, not just leaked experience!¡± ¡°That''s not the argument you think it is,¡± Stephen said dryly. ¡°You''ll get shared experience just by being in the dungeon,¡± Josh said. ¡°Everyone in the same party is equal.¡± In the Old World, it had been a common way to power level newbies. You didn''t need the weaklings to actually fight to get experience. Now, dungeons managed to both be too dangerous and not dangerous enough at the same time. You couldn''t protect a newbie all the way to a dungeon surrounded by high-level monsters, and once you got there, everything inside was too weak to be worth it. After checking the system messages¡ªnone of them got much experience from the raccoons, as expected¡ªthey moved on. Josh briefly considered looting the bodies, but none of them had the skill to skin them properly, and they didn''t have any bottomless bags to make bringing the whole bodies back easy. He missed having bottomless bags. The next room was slightly larger, and had six raccoons instead of four. It was only slightly harder, and Ruth did indeed get a few hits in. Josh still won his contest with Mary, though, which put a smile on his face. Most of the rest of the rooms were much the same. Some were a little bigger, some had a few more enemies, and in some the monsters attacked the second they saw them. But none of the rooms had more than eight monsters, none of them were higher than level 12, and they were never seriously threatened. They cleared a total of six rooms like this, one after another, doing little more than pause in between so that Stephen could heal them and occasionally recover mana. Darius and Stephen both leveled once, which was nice. They stopped in the sixth room to use the Meditation skill. Well, the system called it a skill, but people said it was actually a technique. It was only listed as a skill because it didn''t cost stamina to use. Under normal circumstances, mana regenerated at a rate of 1 point per Flexibility stat per hour. Considering it was entirely possible for even high-Capacity people to burn through their entire mana pool in one or two fights, that was a huge downside. You couldn''t pause for a couple hours after every fight. Mana potions were far too expensive to make, as they didn''t have any members of the Alchemist class any more. Instead, they used the Meditation skill. Everyone learned the skill as soon as possible every reset, usually soon after they learned their first spell. It let you breathe in the mana of the atmosphere, process it inside your body, and use it to refill your personal mana pool. Your Flexibility stat still influenced your regeneration heavily, and it was a common rule of thumb that Meditation changed it from a point per hour to a point per minute. It wasn''t actually that simple, Josh knew. The density of mana in the atmosphere played a huge role. You could even dry up the mana in the atmosphere, using it so fast that more couldn''t flow in fast enough to replace what you were burning up. But at their low levels, most of that hardly mattered. Really, even stopping here was just being overly cautious. They''d had no trouble with the first six rooms. The seventh room was a fair bit worse. First off, it was bigger. It had one small, circular room that was more like an entry chamber than anything else. An entire quarter of the room was missing, creating an effect like a window into a much broader space. It was another circular room, big enough to park a fleet of cars in. The ceiling was the same height, though, creating the odd effect of making a larger place feel more cramped. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. There were also more monsters. Josh thought he counted as many as twenty, but it was hard to tell because they were all clustered in one big pile, writhing and crawling all over each other. ¡°What are they doing?¡± Ruth whispered quietly. Not quietly enough, though. A large beast looked up, its maw bloody. It was too big and too muscular, with vines writhing around its head like a lion''s mane, but Josh still identified it as a horse. It roared at them, and every other monster perked up as well. In seconds, there was a flood of beasts rushing towards them. Josh identified more of the Jungle-touched raccoons, several birds with leaves for feathers, and a number of smaller rodents that were likely rats. The biggest threats, however, were definitely the horse and the viper as thick as Josh''s leg. Those two both looked as though they had gone through advancement at least twice, meaning they were at least level 16. ¡°Mary, the horse!¡± Josh called as he ran forward. ¡°I''ll handle the snake! Everyone else, kill the little ones, quick as you can!¡± Josh might be in a non-combat class right now, but he had grown up fighting on the front lines of this war. He had spent more time fighting than most people spent sleeping. Just because he couldn''t learn any actual Combat techniques hardly made him helpless. He swung hard, aiming for the snake. Unfortunately, he missed a step. He clipped a rat by accident, cutting it in two and sending a splash of foul-smelling viscera across the floor. The snake, however, dodged backwards, before hissing and lunging forward again. He didn''t have enough time to recover, and its fangs bit deep into his ankle. He cried out in pain¡ªhe''d lost the armor there two rooms ago. He grit his teeth and swung down again. Unfortunately, both his Strength and his Constitution were too low to get a really good boost. Still, it was enough, and the snake was beheaded. Josh imagined he could feel the poison¡ªvenom, whatever¡ªburning in his veins. He checked his stamina; still more than enough left, even with his exertion. He took a deep breath and focused. He hadn''t even used a real technique, but he had still burned one point of his tiny stamina pool. More gunshots echoed around the chamber. Josh had gotten used to ignoring them. He glanced back to see that the horse was closing the distance to Mary, who was backpedaling while quickly reloading her revolver. Without any damaging techniques or spells that she could use yet, guns weren''t the best solution against a big, advanced enemy like the Jungle-touched horse. Josh stepped forward, but his leg immediately collapsed under him. He cursed under his breath. As a Hunter, he''d had half a dozen movement techniques and spells that would let him close the distance. As a low-level Crafter, it was too hard to learn new combat abilities, especially advanced ones that worked at range. He hefted his sword, cocked it back, and then... Threw it at the horse. Throw Sword was an easy technique to earn, but took an absurd amount of effort to get it to reach a useful level. At low levels, you would be lucky if you hit the broad side of a barn, and even luckier if the sharp end hit your target. And that was if you could learn the technique. Which he hadn''t. The rules for which classes and roles could learn which abilities were complex, and mostly still a mystery. The fact remained, he didn''t have a single combat technique or spell. He missed his target completely. Thankfully, he didn''t really need to hit his target. His sword clattered to the ground a good five feet from the horse, which caused it to stumble and flinch away. It was a distraction, and not a very effective one. It only paused for a moment. That was long enough for Mary to finish reloading. She shot it twice in the head at point-blank range, leaving nothing but a gory mess. She immediately turned to scan the rest of the room, looking for more targets. Josh followed her gaze. At a glance, everything else was dead. Between Darius attracting the monsters to himself and Stephen healing him, Ruth was easily able to smash them apart with her enchanted club. He had known they''d be fine, but still, it was a relief. He let out a deep breath... and then his wounded leg collapsed under him. He didn''t lose consciousness, but he almost wished he did when the others cried out in alarm and ran over to him. Thankfully, other than that, everyone was fine. It still slowed them down, since they had to wait almost an hour as Stephen continuously healed him while they waited for the poison to run its course. At least he got something out of the fight.
CONGRATULATIONS! Due to testing your designs in real combat, you have learned the blueprint: Pierce-Resistant Armor (wood). It''s still made of wood, but it''s more effective at blocking arrows! Warning: Blocking arrows is not guaranteed. The System does not take responsibility for arrows piercing through your terrible armor.
It wasn''t much, and he hardly got any experience from learning the blueprint. Still, he didn''t have a problem with it. This was more of a proof of concept than anything else. Though wooden armor was just a couple steps up from useless, eventually he''d be able to craft something better. And now he knew for sure that he could improve through combat and trial. Ruth had sketched every rune she came across, even though she hadn''t had time to test any of them yet. Even though none of them knew what any of them did, at the very least the extra blueprints from the runes themselves would be worth something. Besides, Josh had some ideas for rune chains that she might like. ¡°I feel bad for complaining,¡± Ruth said slowly, ¡°but... is this too easy?¡± She glanced at Josh. ¡°I mean, I know you were hurt, but¡ª¡± He waved her off. ¡°No, it''s fine. Getting one moderate injury over seven fights is easy.¡± He shrugged. ¡°But that''s a dungeon for you. All the scary things leave when they can. It''s just the weak things that stay inside.¡± Ruth nodded. ¡°I read about that. The monsters are only allowed to leave the dungeon once a year, the day before the reset. But why are they here in the first place?¡± ¡°It''s not...¡± Darius started to respond, then stopped, looking between them. ¡°Go ahead, buddy,¡± Mary said. ¡°I don''t think anyone else wants to explain. It''s a hassle.¡± Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°They aren''t allowed out the day before the solstice. That is when the Tower gathers its energy for the reset. The barriers weaken, and they have the opportunity to escape. That''s all.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Ruth said, nonplussed. ¡°I guess that makes sense. And where do they come from?¡± ¡°It''s the Jungle,¡± Josh said, suddenly feeling more tired than he had for years. ¡°The Jungle rips open rifts to new realities, trying to find fresh blood. The Tower then drops these dungeons on them, sealing them up.¡± He shrugged. ¡°For whatever reason, the Tower can''t get rid of the rifts entirely, so it just keeps them contained until we come along. We can seal rifts.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Ruth said, sounding surprised. ¡°Monsters come from rifts? My tutors never mentioned that!¡± ¡°Well, they used to come from the rifts.¡± Josh winced as the poison took some more of his life. Stephen healed him again. ¡°But once enough got out for their own breeding population, it didn''t really matter.¡± ¡°I''ve never understood the theory,¡± Stephen said, even as he projected light from his staff over Josh. ¡°The teachers explained it, sure. It just doesn''t make sense. Why do these rifts appear? Where do they lead? Why does the Tower seal them up?¡± ¡°Oh, that''s easy!¡± Mary counted them off on her fingers. ¡°No one knows, nobody knows, and who knows?¡± Josh rolled his eyes. ¡°Oi, you don''t have to be all snippy.¡± She affected a posh air. ¡°I respectfully disagree.¡± He scoffed. ¡°Whatever, you spoon. How are you on ammo?¡± She checked her pouch. ¡°Lower than I''d like, but not terrible. I can handle one more big fight.¡± He grunted. ¡°Good. The boss is gonna be a bitch.¡± Ruth looked between them with wide eyes. ¡°There''s a boss monster? No one told me about this!¡± Darius raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°Then perhaps you should have thought to do some research before diving headfirst into danger, Miss Moore.¡± Ruth flinched. ¡°It''s alright, innit?¡± Mary said, rubbing Ruth''s hair playfully. ¡°Don''t worry love, it''s the boss of a tiny dungeon no one bothered to clear yet.¡± She glanced at Josh. ¡°What level was that snake?¡± Josh double-checked his combat log. ¡°Looks like... level 17. Yeah, that''s what I thought.¡± He stood up and stretched. ¡°Even Mary can handle a boss of that level.¡± ¡°It won''t be level 17,¡± Darius warned. He turned to Ruth, explaining mostly for her benefit. ¡°I would estimate level 20. Perhaps as high as level 23. It likely won''t have reached its next advancement, at level 24, which is a small mercy, but 23 is still dangerous. I''d prefer to retreat and try again tomorrow, in fact.¡± ¡°We don''t need to retreat,¡± Stephen said with a smile. ¡°Honestly, Darius, you act as though I''ll fall apart if a monster so much as looks at me. I''ve been doing well with the healing so far!¡± Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°You underestimate our foes at your peril.¡± Josh smiled. ¡°Come on, Danson, I think we''re working well together, right? You keep covering him, Mary keeps doing damage, Ruth and I keep covering the gaps. We''ll be fine, all right?¡± That seemed to mollify Darius. Ruth was less confident. ¡°Can we get back to the boss monster?¡± she said with a squeak. ¡°What does that mean? Is it some sort of giant elite with like, six stages and minions and it transforms into a human and traps us in nightmares and¡ª¡± Mary clapped a hand on her shoulder. ¡°Breathe.¡± Ruth took a deep breath, and did indeed seem to calm down. Josh couldn''t quite keep a small smirk off his face. ¡°Calling it a ''boss'' is just a word. It doesn''t have any weird special abilities, it''s just the strongest enemy in the dungeon.¡± ¡°Well, it could have special abilities,¡± Stephen pointed out. ¡°I don''t think it earned its spot in the boss room with a winning smile.¡± Josh waved that off. ¡°Yeah, but they''re normal special abilities, you see what I mean? Like a bear that can make its skin invincible, not that it can summon an army of angels or whatever.¡± Darius did not look amused. ¡°Underestimating¡ª¡± ¡°If it summons an army of angels you can say I told you so, yeah?¡± Josh said flatly. Darius shrugged and gave up. Chapter 6 - Into the Dungeon (part 2) After a few minutes, Stephen''s mana was fully recovered, and they prepared to enter the last door. Unlike the others, it wasn''t just an opening in the wall with an invisible barrier. It was a tall pair of steel doors, wide enough for four people to walk through side by side. Strange designs and glowing runes etched the door; Ruth had spent most of the wait sketching those runes and taking measurements. She''d been sketching every rune she''d come across, but hadn''t had a chance to practice any of them and earn the blueprints. ¡°Everyone ready?¡± Josh asked once she put her notebook away. ¡°Last chance to run away screaming.¡± Mary smirked. Darius rolled his eyes. Ruth just smiled, and Stephen chuckled. Josh grinned. ¡°All right. Let''s get this over with!¡± He put his hand on the matching symbol on the door. Mary, Ruth, and Darius did the same with the other three. Light flowed out from where they touched the door, running through veins in the steel like electricity in a circuit board. In seconds, a pattern emerged, a complex geometric rune that Josh could feel Ruth itching to draw. There was no time, though, as the doors cracked open and revealed the chamber on the other side. It was bigger than the one they were already in, though Josh didn''t think by much. It was hard to tell for sure, because there were no walls, no ceiling. Instead, it was as if there was a large circular platform suspended in a sea of stars. Twinkling, glittering motes of light danced in an infinite expanse of black, making it feel as though they would all tumble out into the void if they took a single step. In the middle of the chamber was the rift, a purple-edged tear in the fabric of reality itself. It felt as though a massive claw had reached out and ripped the very air apart, as easily as if tearing a painting. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling, tall enough for a giant to walk through and wide enough for a boat to sail through. There was an odd structure around the rift, a mound of something strange. A mix of black and white, like different colors of ash. He couldn''t tell what it was in the dim light. A pile of scorched bones, an ossuary or just a pile of sticks. The pile had the shape of something constructed, and it reminded Josh of ancient burial mounds. He didn''t have much of a chance to focus on that, however, because of the giant bird that was slowly rising to its feet in front of them. It was an eagle with a wingspan as large as a bus. Its eyes glowed a hateful red, and its feathers glistened with a sheen of crimson, as if it had bathed in the blood of its enemies. Even so, Josh noticed that the wings seemed small for its size. Its body was oversized, and its talons gouged into the stone of the dungeon itself. He suspected that even if it did have room inside, it wouldn''t be able to fly. He scanned it, his heart sinking even as he did.
Avian Accipitridae Destroyer
Level 24 Monster
Ah, the Avian Destroyer. It''s always fun when birds take this evolution path. You know that guy at your school who is kind of an idiot, but is really good at one sport? Rugby or something. I dunno. Well, that''s what the Destroyer is. It''s a bird that has given up its flight in exchange for size, strength, and toughness, in that order. Give it a handful more evolutions, and its wings will be gone entirely. Right now, they remain one of its main weaknesses. Well, they would be, if any of you pansies had weapons strong enough to break them.
That... was bad. A full party of level 10 reclaimers would be slaughtered by this monster. He didn''t have much confidence they would do better. Sure, they were higher level and had an extra party member, but most of them were inexperienced and they hadn''t been expecting anything like this. They weren''t prepared. ¡°Well?¡± Ruth said, even as the boss monster stretched up to its full size. ¡°What''s the plan?¡± ¡°Fighting retreat,¡± Josh said instantly. ¡°Danson¡ªDarius.¡± He deserved his first name, at least. ¡°You''re our tank, but try to dodge. If you take a hit, make sure your shroud is overcharged as hard as you can. Stephen, keep an eye on him.¡± Everyone nodded. The bird watched them, head cocked in a curious manner. ¡°Now back it up,¡± Josh whispered. ¡°Back it way up.¡± The bird threw back its head and screamed. Josh clapped his hands over his ears and scrambled back. He didn''t dare turn his back on the monster. It spread its wings and flapped, creating a draft that made them stagger. Before anyone had a chance to do anything else, before Mary had a chance to shoot or the boss had a chance to attack, a massive claw came down on the bird''s back. It was squashed down with a squawk that quickly turned into a cry of pain. Then the claw continued pushing down, breaking through the bird''s ribs and chest as easily as pushing through a pile of dry leaves. The bird''s cries were cut off before they could even start. In moments, a huge cloud of red mist rose out of the corpse. Slowly, the mist turned red, and flowed into the thing that had killed it. Josh had assumed that the thing around the rift was a mound of dirt and sticks. The poor lighting had made it hard to see anything, but it had looked like the rift had sunk into the middle of it, creating a ring of dirt around the wound in space. It had been a dragon. A dragon, curled around that huge rift like a cat around a heater. It was not a small dragon. Even curled up, one claw stretched out, it was the size of a large house. Stretched out from snout to tail, Josh suspected that it would be a hundred feet or longer. It had six legs like pillars, four wings like sails, and its mouth was filled with sharp fangs the size of glistening swords. Now that he was paying more attention, he could see that its scales were a strange shift of black and white, from deepest black on the tip of its nose, gradually growing lighter until it was gray in the middle of its belly, then finally blindingly white at the tip of its long tail. Its eyes were closed. It hadn''t woken up. It had killed the Avian Destroyer as a reflex, in its sleep. Josh scanned it.
True Dragon
Level: ?? Attacker
Level ?? Monster
Most so-called dragons are just overgrown lizards or mutated birds, twisted by the Jungle into a shape that humans think looks like a dragon, due to your horrendously over-used pattern recognition skills. Not the case for this one! This is Flamebreak, first named as an insult for his lack of ability to breathe fire. He soon became known for murdering other dragons, especially ones proud of their fire. Weaknesses: Lacks fire breath. Strengths: Literally everything else. Recommended tactics: If you start running now, you may have a chance to enjoy your last thirty seconds of life.
Josh didn''t speak. He didn''t dare. He just waved desperately at the door. They backed up, ever so slowly. He kept his arms wide, as if he was protecting them. What a laughable concept. This was a monster so far above him he couldn''t see its level. That meant it was at least sixty-four levels above him. No one said anything. No one argued. No one so much as breathed. With his high Perception, Josh still noticed when Ruth''s foot scraped a little too hard on the floor. One of the dragon''s eyes opened, a black and white orb that radiated power. Everyone froze. Josh wasn''t even sure his heart was beating. ¡°Guests?¡± the dragon hissed, a low, reverberating noise that shook dust from the ceiling. It¡ªhe? The System had referred to it as male. He chuckled, a sound somewhere between a growl and an amused rockslide. He pushed the corpse of the bird monster aside, apparently completely unconcerned to have woken up to a dead body. ¡°It has been so long since I had had guests. Are we to the new world already?¡± Josh couldn''t move. The monster was talking. That wasn''t something that happened. Ever. Oh, he had heard stories about talking monsters. Everyone had. But they were nothing more than drunken ramblings of reclaimers and adventurers. The only stories that had any truth to them were the ones about mimics luring in travelers with fake distress calls. Either this was the most convincing mimic he had ever seen, or this thing was intelligent. ¡°Wait...¡± the dragon rumbled. Three more black and white eyes opened. The monster slowly raised its head, like a massive snake rising out of a coil. ¡°You''re... human. How are there any humans still alive?¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Josh swallowed. ¡°G-greetings, Great One,¡± he said. He had to say something. It was obvious that this thing was far, far too powerful for them to even think about fighting. Politeness was more likely to save their lives than empty boasts. ¡°We did not realize this dungeon was occupied by one so grand as you.¡± He bowed low. ¡°Please, my lord, accept our apologies for disturbing your rest.¡± That sounded good, right? His friends were still silent, which was probably the wisest course of action. They bowed too, which was a relief. ¡°There shouldn''t be any humans left,¡± the dragon muttered to himself, though it was still loud enough that Josh could feel it reverberating in his bones. ¡°It''s been at least a hundred years... surely they didn''t...¡± His eyes focused on Josh again. ¡°You there. Did someone reach the top of the Tower? What was their wish?¡± Josh straightened. Should he try to answer while still bowing? That felt more rude than meeting the dragon''s eyes. ¡°Y-yes, almost eighty years ago now. A small group defeated the final challenge and wished for immortality. They have led our people ever since.¡± Which was a vast oversimplification, but he had a feeling the dragon didn''t want to hear about the life pods and how the first generation was raised. The dragon stared at him for a long moment, and Josh couldn''t identify the expression on his face. Was he angry? Disbelieving? Impressed? Then he threw back his head and laughed. His laughter shook Josh''s body, shook the room. He had to resist the urge to clap his hands over his ears, though he had a feeling he had taken real damage there. He saw the others trying to shake it off, and Stephen even surreptitiously started healing them. Eventually, the dragon''s mirth faded. He had an expression on his face that Josh suspected was an amused grin. ¡°Of all the wishes to make... I cannot decide if your leaders are fools or geniuses. And they stayed!¡± He laughed again, shorter this time. ¡°They have at least some foolishness in them, then.¡± He leaned down, close enough that Josh could smell ancient, rotten meat on his breath. He wanted to make a witty comment. He did not. ¡°Tell me, little Crafter,¡± he said, sounding like nothing more than a cat who had realized the mice were playing nearby. ¡°Do you know what happens when someone makes a wish upon the Tower?¡± Josh did not like that tone. ¡°N-no, my lord.¡± ¡°The top level of the Tower is transformed into a gateway.¡± He moved aside, gesturing at the rift in the center of the room. ¡°Similar to this, in concept. But instead of leading to some random world, a place where the hordes can spill out and be slaughtered like the beasts they are, it leads to somewhere greater.¡± His lips pulled back, revealing countless gleaming teeth. ¡°So thank you, little human. For telling me that your species survived. That they won.¡± He pulled back and looked down on them. ¡°That means that there is a prize to be claimed.¡± His head snapped forward. Everyone was ready for it. Stephen and Darius, experienced in combat if not in their current classes, scattered and ran towards the exit. Mary grabbed Ruth by the scruff of her neck and dragged her away, not looking back for one single second. That left Josh to fend for himself. He was the dragon''s target, directly in the path of that horrible maw, big enough to snap him up in one bite. Josh didn''t have any movement abilities, no combat techniques or teleportation spells. All he had was experience. This was not the first time he had been in a dungeon. This was not the first time he had faced a boss monster that was more dangerous than expected. Instead of running backwards, to the exit, he ran to the side, towards the wall that separated the chambers. The doors were wide enough to accommodate the dragon''s entire head and impossible teeth. They were not, however, wide enough to accommodate the dragon''s entire body¡ªat least not easily. The dragon snapped uselessly in the air, then tried to twist his neck around to bite at Josh again. He observed his thrashing for a moment, then ran around the edge of the room, towards the exit doorway. The dragon snapped at him again, missing first by yards, then by feet, then¡ª He felt the wind from his jaw snapping shut behind him. The dragon''s roar of rage made his ears bleed. ¡°It can''t follow, right?¡± Ruth asked, even as Stephen healed them. ¡°I''m sure as hell not gonna stick around here to find out,¡± Josh said decisively. He glanced around. The room was still empty, nothing but monster corpses. ¡°Come on!¡± Getting out was much easier than getting in. Despite the dragon''s roars making the entire dungeon shake and dust fall from the ceiling, there was no sign of actual pursuit. The dungeon was empty, as they had killed every other monster. Never in his life had Josh been so thankful that he had decided to be thorough. They climbed out the ladder one at a time; Mary first, to kill any curious monsters outside, then Ruth, then Stephen, then Darius, and then Josh himself. He looked back, just once, and swore he could see those black and white eyes in the next room over. He scrambled up the ladder, out into the darkening Jungle, and slammed the hatch shut behind him. An unnecessary gesture. ¡°So it can''t get out now?¡± Ruth asked, looking rattled. ¡°What?¡± Josh said, still struggling to get his head back on straight. ¡°No, yeah, nothing can get out of a dungeon. They''re prisons for monsters. That''s the point.¡± He gave a weak chuckle. ¡°There have been level 1000 monsters stuck in these things, can''t get out any more than level 10 raccoons.¡± ¡°Until the day before the solstice,¡± Darius said darkly. Josh shivered. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Right, then!¡± Mary said, clapping her hands together. Her voice was cheery, but even in the fading light he could see that her hands were shaking. ¡°It''s getting late, so let''s just get back to camp, mention this little problem to Ruth''s daddy, and hope he''s got connections all the way to the top.¡± She gave them all a broad, but shaky smile. ¡°Sound good?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Sounds good.¡± This was exactly what operatives were for. Even though he certainly couldn''t do anything about this creature himself, he could make the calls, get the right people involved. Maybe even the Eight Immortals themselves. This was a disaster scenario, he realized. This was the disaster scenario. A high-level monster relatively close to the City. If it got out now, it could slaughter the entire human race by itself. This was why the Eight were flying around the world, exterminating high-level monster nests. ¡°All right,¡± Josh said, nodding to himself. He took a couple deep breaths. ¡°All right, that''s what we''ll do. Head back to camp, figure things out¡ª¡± A shape moved out of the corner of his eye. Before he had a chance to do anything, to ask any questions, Stephen pushed him out of the way. Josh fell to the ground just in time for a long knife to stab through Stephen''s back and out the front. The knife was withdrawn, and Stephen collapsed. The assailant advanced on Josh, still sitting there on the ground, a splatter of warm blood on his face. Josh had fought monsters before. He had seen people die before, in every variation. He had seen it happen suddenly. He had seen it happen slowly. He had seen people die in victory, or in shame. That didn''t make it easier. Especially when it was a human who had done it. Josh couldn''t move. The assailant had their knife ready, red blood dripping off a silver blade. Every part of them was cloaked in black from head to toe, except for that knife. It was impossible to focus on anything else. He couldn''t move. Ruth threw herself in the way, shielding him with her own body. ¡°No!¡± she cried. The assailant paused. Josh assumed that they''d just kill them both, or, at best, go around Ruth. Instead, they cursed under their breath. They ran away so fast that they almost seemed to disappear. Josh''s Perception was high enough to realize that they had simply run away at incredible speed, not actually teleported. ¡°Oh, thank the Eight,¡± Ruth muttered. She collapsed in relief. Josh let out an oof as her full weight settled onto his stomach. ¡°Thank the Eight Saints who saved the world.¡± ¡°Ruth...¡± Josh gasped. She didn''t seem to notice, just hugging him tighter as if to convince herself that he was still there and still alive. Mary stumbled over. ¡°Get up, you lot! We need to see if we can save Stephen!¡± Josh almost threw Ruth off himself, but she got the hint and scrambled to her feet. Stephen was lying in a pool of his own blood, hand over the gaping hole in his chest. His hand glowed with healing magic, but it was weak. Even at a glance, Josh could tell that it wouldn''t be enough to save him. Darius was struggling with bandages, desperately packing them in and around the wound. ¡°Do any of you have a healing spell?¡± he asked in what almost seemed like a calm tone. The only thing that gave him away was the slight quaver in his voice, and the way he kept scrambling with the first aid kit. Josh glanced at the others. Ruth and Mary both looked away sadly. Of course not. Healing spells, obviously, belonged to the Healer role. It was impossible to learn spells and techniques outside your specific role. That was why Josh hadn''t been able to learn any combat techniques this time, and why no one else had been able to learn any utility abilities in the past eighty years. The only exception was if you switched your roles; you kept your old abilities. They remained silent as Darius used up every bandage, every cleaning pad and bottle of disinfectant. Their first aid kit hadn''t been very large to start with, since they had a Healer, and Darius went through them quickly. Eventually, Darius stopped trying. There was no dramatic last gasp, not even someone with a clock announcing the time of death. Darius just slowly realized that he was fighting a battle that was already over. He let his bloodied hands fall to his sides. Then he just sat there, slumped over as if he had died himself. Josh waited a good long moment, then put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Come on, bud,¡± he said quietly. ¡°We gotta get back to camp before it gets any darker.¡± Ruth, who had also been silently mourning, looked up, wide-eyed. ¡°What? No! We can''t go back!¡± He let out a deep sigh. ¡°Ruth, we''re all tired. Why don''t you just skip to the part where you explain?¡± ¡°I recognized that assassin,¡± she said earnestly. ¡°My father sent her.¡± Josh stared. Mary stared. Even Darius looked up and stared. ¡°Well,¡± Josh said finally. ¡°Shit.¡± Chapter 7 - The Meeting Operative Jonah Moore was outside the factory, at the edge of the Jungle and smoking his cigarette, when the assassin found him. ¡°Report,¡± he said, not looking up. He glared at the cigarette in his fingers. He really needed to quit... ¡°Mission failure,¡± she said without preamble. ¡°The Mender is dead. He jumped in the way of my strike. Other than that, no kills. The Woodcrafter still lives.¡± Jonah frowned. ¡°Why would a Mender¡ª¡± He shook his head. ¡°Not important.¡± It was always unfortunate when they lost a Healer, but it wasn''t as if he actually mattered. ¡°I presume there was a reason you couldn''t simply finish the job?¡± ¡°Ruth got in the way.¡± Jonah made a face. He should have kept a better eye on his daughter. He knew she had a willful streak, and he still let her out of his sight at the worst possible time. ¡°My fault, then,¡± he said. He and Jael had worked together for years; she was well aware he would never forgive any harm to his daughter. In fact, she had been the one to enforce his lack of forgiveness on more than one occasion. ¡°Were you able to confirm that they''d be returning here?¡± If they returned to camp, setting a trap would be simple. In fact, he might not even have to kill Joshua, if he played his cards right. ¡°I was not,¡± she said. ¡°I had to flee in case they tried to fight back.¡± Jonah took a pull from his cigarette and chuckled. ¡°You had to flee, Jael? From a handful of reclaimers and Ruth?¡± ¡°It is still early days,¡± she said, no sign of embarrassment in her voice. ¡°I did not outlevel them to such a degree that I could fight all of them at once. Especially not if Ruth insisted on throwing herself in my path.¡± Well, he couldn''t argue with that math. The early days were always an annoyance for everyone. Of course, on the grand scale, they were far worse than a mere annoyance. As an operative of the City, Jonah was far too aware of how the world death rate spiked in the first few weeks after the reset. Once a year, every human being was reduced to level zero. The monsters were not. Year after year, the monsters grew stronger, while the humans kept getting ground down. That was why the work of the reclaimers was so important. Old technology, factories and even weapons, were the only thing that truly evened the playing field. And these new Crafter classes might, one day, be able to bring them true victory. Jonah ground out his cigarette on his armor. ¡°Thank you, Jael. I understand you did the best you could in a bad situation. I will prepare for all possibilities, and inform you of your next mission soon.¡± It was a clear dismissal, but Jael didn''t move. She just stood there, black in the night, staring at him through her mask. He raised an eyebrow. ¡°You had something to say?¡± Most of his employees would never even imply such disrespect as to ignore a dismissal. Jael, of course, was an exception in multiple ways. ¡°I am simply wondering why you are doing this,¡± she said, no emotion in her voice. ¡°You had the boy in your power. The first Crafter was working for you willingly. He even gave Ruth a bloodstone, making her the second Crafter, a valuable position to be in on its own. If you really wanted Ruth to be known as the first Crafter, I suspect he would have been amenable to some simple bribes. He would have played along.¡± She cocked her head to the side. ¡°So why assassinate him?¡± Jonah paused for a long moment, considering how best to answer. He wanted another cigarette, but that was a bad idea. ¡°I sent a message to the City,¡± he said at last. ¡°I wanted full background checks done on all the reclaimers, especially Joshua Hundredborn. I needed to know what kind of people I was getting into business with.¡± Jael said nothing. ¡°There were no real surprises.¡± Jonah shrugged. ¡°A few criminals, a few lost heirs. Mary has twelve brothers, somehow, and Paul was granted Quest Giver status by the First Archer herself. Other than that, nothing unexpected.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. He waited for Jael to ask. She didn''t. ¡°Except,¡± he said finally, ¡°for Joshua Hundredborn. I expected him to be easy. Podborn aren''t hard to keep track of, as I''m sure you are aware. I wasn''t able to give my informant an exact birth date, but that shouldn''t have mattered much.¡± There were only a hundred podborn a year, because there were only a hundred pods. Joshua Hundredborn''s name meant he was born from somewhere between pod ninety-one to pod one hundred. You could track those ten pods back to the past eighty years without much trouble. ¡°And?¡± Jael asked, finally playing her part. ¡°And Joshua Hundredborn doesn''t exist,¡± Jonah said flatly. ¡°All the podborn from those pods are accounted for. My informant tracked every Hundredborn for the past forty years, and not one of them is missing.¡± ¡°Look at the dead ones,¡± Jael said instantly. Jonah shook his head. ¡°They''re all still alive. Every single one. Apparently podborn get good medical treatment.¡± Well, everyone in the City got good medical treatment, but podborn typically didn''t leave the City. ¡°We have no idea who this man could possibly be.¡± She was silent. ¡°I interviewed the reclaimers,¡± he continued. ¡°As far as anyone can tell, this man appeared out of nowhere a little over two years ago, looking for work out on the Burn Line. People out here don''t ask many questions, and he didn''t stand out enough to be suspicious. No one thought anything of it, until now.¡± ¡°Seems a jump,¡± Jael noted. ¡°Are you trying to kill him just because he has no one backing him? Because it is more convenient?¡± There was no judgment in her tone. He had done far worse without her complaining. He had done far worse using her without her complaining. ¡°My informants started finding leads when they started showing his picture. Nothing firm. No one gave them a real name. No one gave them a reason. But...¡± He reached for another cigarette. He forced himself to stop. ¡°People started showing an interest. Asking why they were asking questions.¡± ¡°Government?¡± Jael asked. ¡°Criminals?¡± ¡°Both. And everything in between.¡± He shook his head. ¡°One of my men had to burn a safehouse to escape from a suspiciously convenient mob. There are multiple factions who are very interested in any news of this man.¡± Jael said nothing. ¡°So he fled the City.¡± Jonah shrugged. ¡°Fine. Plenty of people do that. But then he somehow managed to find an impossible bloodstone, making himself the most valuable person in the world?¡± The Eight, of course, didn''t count. ¡°I don''t know who he is, I don''t know what he wants, but everything about him is suspicious.¡± ¡°So you want him dead,¡± she finished for him. ¡°I want him contained,¡± he corrected. He finally admitted defeat, took out another cigarette, and lit it with a match. ¡°Unfortunately, you were the only tool I had available.¡± He gave her a sideways look. ¡°And, really Jael, you know I appreciate your skills, but you couldn''t bring someone in alive if you had all Eight Immortals helping you.¡± She didn''t argue the point. ¡°Why not simply wait for him to return? Surely capturing him would be simple.¡± ¡°That was my first thought. It has the same problem we encounter when attacking an unknown target on their own turf. What traps and preparations does he have in store?¡± He waved his hand in the direction of the outpost, smoke tracing lines in the air. ¡°Perhaps every single reclaimer would fight to the death for him. You said the Mender jumped in front of your attack. Would you say that was an accident?¡± Jael said nothing. Jonah pulled on his cigarette, then let out a long breath. ¡°I foresee two possibilities. Either he immediately comes back here, to his closest safe haven. If he is innocent, he will come to me for help. Especially with Ruth there to provide witness for his story.¡± Ruth didn''t know about what Jael did for him, of course. They would have no reason to suspect anything. ¡°In which case it will be a simple matter to isolate him and find the truth of the matter. If he is guilty, he will either turn the outpost against me or, if he does not have that much influence, he will gather any valuables he has and escape.¡± ¡°And the second possibility?¡± ¡°He will flee immediately, abandoning anything he doesn''t have on him.¡± Jonah looked out over the dark Jungle. He really should go inside. ¡°This is the most dangerous option, for everyone involved. He will have a hostage. He will go to the City, as he clearly has something there.¡± He smirked. ¡°That is where we will have him.¡± Jael cocked her head to the side. ¡°You think your influence exceeds his own? That seems a dangerous gamble.¡± ¡°Over the City? Maybe, maybe not.¡± As an operative, Jonah had a decent amount of political capital, but he didn''t spend enough time in the City to be a real master of its various factions and gangs. He grinned. ¡°But I have an advantage that I know he doesn''t have. If he doesn''t show up here in a few days, we''ll know it''s time to use it.¡± Jael stared at him for a long moment. Then she shook her head. ¡°You better hope you''re right about this one. You know the Eight don''t like people using that trick.¡± ¡°This time, I suspect they will forgive me.¡± It was his daughter''s life on the line, after all. Chapter 8 - The Guards After a quick funeral for Stephen, Josh, Darius, Mary, and Ruth agreed to head towards the City without delay. They couldn''t risk returning to the outpost, not with Operative Moore and his assassin already there. The operative could have already turned the entire outpost against them. He certainly had the authority to do it. In fact, Josh wasn''t sure why he had bothered with the assassin. Setting up a trap for when they came back seemed far easier. Of course, first they asked Ruth why her father was trying to kill Josh. There was lots of yelling. Ruth didn''t know. She had thought that her dad liked him. This was as much of a surprise to her as it was to them. It didn''t really matter. There was nothing back in the outpost valuable enough for them to risk their lives over. Both Josh and Ruth were worried about getting into the City, if not for quite the same reasons. Ruth was worried that people might recognize her, and would inform her father. There were plenty of people who would want to curry favor with him by grabbing his daughter to ¡°keep her safe.¡± She might be able to convince some of them to give them real help, though. Josh had the exact opposite problem. He knew some people in the City would recognize him, and they would not be in a helpful mood. If they ran into the wrong guard, they''d never make it past the walls alive. It took three days of hard travel before they were in sight of the walls. It had been a long time since Josh¡ªor Mary¡ªhad been on this side of the Burn Line. It was strange, seeing rolling hills of grass or even bare dirt instead of the endless trees of the Jungle. But that was the point of the Burn Line. To burn out the Jungle itself, to bring the world back to sanity. Here, plants didn''t grow at a rate of centimeters measured in minutes. The grass didn''t grow as tall as your head, trees didn''t sometimes get up and attack people. There were even natural animals, herds of deer in the distance and flocks of birds overhead. Oh, there were natural animals on the other side of the Burn Line too, but they were chased out of their territory, or corrupted by the magic in the air. It was rare to actually see them in large numbers. Monsters wandered over the Burn Line as well, sometimes even in big groups. Monsters gained power from the mana in the air; that was why there was a worldwide ¡°minimum¡± monster level. But to get over that minimum, they needed humans. Either killing humans or eating bloodstones¡ªor even citystones, if they got that lucky¡ªwould give them huge boosts of power. So, they wandered over the Burn Line, seeking dense pockets of humanity that seemed unprotected. This close to the City, there were enough young adventurers looking for easy bounties that any monster that got within ten kilometers was dead before it could so much as growl menacingly. This last stretch had been as easy as a walk in the park. Ruth had proven surprisingly adept at camping. Apparently her father didn''t coddle her completely. He had made sure she understood the basics of making and breaking camp, and even of setting a watch and foraging for food. Between the four of them, three days of travel had almost been easy. Though Mary was running out of bullets. Standing at the edge of a copse of trees, looking out at the walls, Josh felt a surge of homesickness. Which was silly. He had never really lived in the City for any extended period. He hadn''t grown up behind these walls. The walls, twenty meters tall and twice that thick, had been built by the Eight shortly after the Last Raid. Now it was repaired right before every reset, when levels were highest. The wall encircled an area of at least a few hundred square kilometers¡ªthough that included part of the bay, to the northwest. The wall was impressively simple. It was nothing more than stone blocks, mortared together with cheap cement and stacked up cleanly. It was the kind of design that a child stacking blocks would dismiss as boring, and absolutely no one would win any awards for ingenuity. However, the blocks were each the size of a car. The wall had been constructed using every trick of magic that a whole City full of high-level Combat classes could come up with, which was why it was so simple. Earth Mages had quarried the stone and shaped it into blocks, then moved it into place either by themselves or with help from high-Strength fighters. Of course, in the exact center of the walls, where the City could crowd around its base like a child around their mother''s skirts, was the Tower. A pure white tower of stone reaching high into the sky, it looked as thin as a needle at this distance. That was an illusion. It was forty meters wide at the base, and only just narrowed at the very top. Not that its exterior dimensions mattered; every floor inside was big enough to host a small city on its own. The Tower was a deceptively simple construction. Josh had heard people say that it dwarfed modern skyscrapers. This was true, but it failed to capture the heart of the matter. The Tower made modern skyscrapers look like weeds sprouting at the base of a majestic tree. The largest and grandest human creation, great edifices of steel and stone and glass, couldn''t reach high enough to be even a blip on the horizon at this distance. But the Tower stood tall. The Tower rose above them all. Legend said that the Tower had just appeared one day, rising from the ground with the gentle light of dawn. The System had come with it, and the Jungle. It was hard to tell which one had come first, and Josh wasn''t sure it mattered. No one lived in the Tower any more. Well, no one had ever lived in it, but no one could enter it any more. The doors were sealed shut with magic greater than what any of them, including the Eight, had access to. The dragon had claimed that there was power waiting inside. Did he have some way past the barrier? ¡°Sooo...¡± Ruth said, dragging it out. ¡°How bad will it be, once he gets out?¡± Josh gave her a sideways look. ¡°Wot, who? Your dad?¡± She giggled. ¡°No, of course not.¡± She sobered. ¡°The dragon.¡± ¡°Oh. Yeah.¡± He looked at the walls. ¡°I dunno. Not well, I don''t think.¡± ¡°But it shouldn''t be too bad, right?¡± she pressed. ¡°The City will have lots of high-level people hanging around the day before the solstice, right? Even if the Eight don''t get involved, it''s not like it''s an extinction event!¡± ¡°Assuming the dragon does not simply wait a day,¡± Darius said, tone dull. ¡°Once it is out, it will remain out. And then it can wait for the reset and slaughter us all then. It is a monster. It is immune to the reset.¡± Everyone was silent for a moment. In a musing tone, Mary said, ¡°Danson, you''ve got a brain.¡± Darius did not so much as blink. ¡°Truly a unique attribute among your acquaintances.¡± Mary punched him in the shoulder. ¡°Muppet. I was asking ''cuz I thought you might know. There''s some way to call the Eight back, right? We won''t have to just, I dunno, wait for them to fly back on their own and hope for the best.¡± He adjusted his glasses with one finger. ¡°I would not know. I assume you are correct, but that information is not made public. Even if the City leaders do have some method of contacting the Eight, I do not know how simple it is to use. We must assume that we will require cooperation, and that it is not some item we can just steal.¡± ¡°They use the worldwide address,¡± Josh said, stifling a yawn. The other three turned to him. ¡°Wot?¡± he said, offended. ¡°How else would they do it? The City has a Master-tier citystone, remember.¡± It was the only citystone in the world above Basic-tier. ¡°You put out a quest that everyone in the world gets, that includes the Eight. If they see it''s something important, they can come back. If it''s something stupid, they ignore it. Simple.¡± ¡°I suppose,¡± Darius said. He turned back to the walls. ¡°I would have thought they would have a more elegant solution, though.¡± Mary snorted. ¡°Like wot? A giant light shinin'' on the clouds? Hard to call someone halfway across the continent with that, innit?¡± ¡°I like it,¡± Ruth said cheerily. ¡°It sounds like an effective use of existing tools! My dad used to say that it''s better to find a new use for something you already have than trying to make something new.¡± ¡°Assassin!¡± Mary shot back. Ruth pouted. ¡°You can''t use that to get out of every argument.¡± ¡°Evidence suggests otherwise,¡± Darius noted dryly. ¡°C''mon, that''s enough,¡± Josh said. ¡°Let''s just get inside, and we''ll¡ª¡±
NEW WORLD QUEST! Wanted: Joshua Hundredborn.
Joshua Hundredborn has stolen a unique bloodstone and kidnapped the daughter of a City operative. For his crimes against the City and for endangering the future of the human race for selfish gain, a WORLD QUEST has been issued for his elimination. Hundredborn has stolen the unique role of Crafter, and should not be left alone unsupervised. Recommend kill on sight; no extra rewards will be granted for live capture.
OBJECTIVE: Bring Joshua Hundredlborn to the citystone for inspection.
OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE: Bring known associate Mary Manganese to the citystone for inspection.
OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE: Bring suspected associate Darius Danson to the citystone for inspection.
NOTE: The safety of the kidnapped daughter, Ruth Moore, is paramount. All rewards will be forfeit if she is harmed. ADDITIONAL NOTE: If Ruth Moore is killed, a WORLD QUEST will be automatically issued for her killer.
REWARD: Ten million credits, Quest Giver authority, free guild charter, free town charter, 80 experience.
Josh started swearing profusely. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Of all the guttersnipe moves some arse can pull!¡± Mary yelled. ¡°What the hell? What the actual flippin'' hell?¡± ¡°Oh, hearts of the Eight,¡± Ruth muttered. She had fallen to the ground, sitting on her rear with her face in her hands. ¡°By the Mender''s divine light. I knew he had full citystone access, but I didn''t think he''d ever issue a world quest.¡± ¡°Of course he would!¡± Mary yelled. ¡°Because he''s a bleedin'' muck-eating snake-seller!¡± Josh scowled. ¡°You mad about the bounty, or about being dropped to an optional objective?¡± ¡°I can be mad about two things!¡± Darius, at least, appeared to be keeping his head. Josh saw him reading through the quest several times. ¡°Very interesting wording,¡± he noted. ¡°I understand why he felt he had to reveal your class role. Any lie on that front would break down too quickly. But he claimed you stole the bloodstone. This gives people an extra reason to be angry with you.¡± ¡°And what, you and me were just standing nearby when it happened?¡± Mary snapped. Darius waved her down. ¡°Claiming Ruth was kidnapped, in addition to helping ensure her safety, also provides an explanation for why he doesn''t need such a unique resource kept alive. Once anyone sees Ruth, they''ll know she''s a Crafter as well.¡± Josh was pacing. ¡°Okay, okay. We''ve got a giant bloody target on our backs. That''s great. We can''t get close to the City without them trying to capture us. Anyone have any other ideas?¡± ¡°Send me in alone?¡± Ruth suggested. Darius shook his head. ¡°A Crafter will draw too much attention.¡± ¡°Grab a guard, steal his uniform,¡± Mary suggested. ¡°We just need to get to City Hall, right? It''s not like we''re trying to sneak into the bloody guild vaults.¡± ¡°Wait, why do we need to make it all the way to City Hall?¡± Ruth asked. ¡°Why can''t we just find someone closer to the walls?¡± ¡°Telling a random guard won''t exactly do much.¡± Josh continued pacing. ¡°We need someone with authority. Someone who can convince others that there''s a bloody dragon four days walk from the City.¡± He grimaced. ¡°Your dad really would have been perfect for this, Ruth.¡± ¡°Sorry he went insane.¡± She sounded sincere. Josh thought about it for another few minutes, pacing back and forth on the dirt path. Then, finally, his shoulders sagged in defeat. ¡°You got it?¡± Mary said, perking up. ¡°Yeah, I got it,¡± he said glumly. ¡°You''re not gonna like it, though.¡± He was right. She didn''t. Mary was still yelling at him as they walked up the path to the front gate, arms raised. ¡°How is this a good plan!? How is this even a plan?¡± ¡°It''s our best go,¡± he said firmly. He kept his eyes ahead. The guards were starting to notice them. ¡°Surrender, and it will give them a reason to pay attention to what we have to say. If we get captured, it''s all just yelling from the condemned.¡± ¡°It seems the best idea to me,¡± Darius said. ¡°The City is reasonable. We can talk our way out of this.¡± ¡°If you say so,¡± Ruth said. She was in the back, arms also raised. She looked more apprehensive than the rest of them, even though she had the least to fear in this situation. ¡°Halt!¡± one of the guards yelled. He raised a gun; Josh and the others stopped. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°We''re surrendering,¡± Josh called. ¡°We''re coming in peacefully.¡± He used his Identify skill on the guard.
Attacker: Level 24
Josh blinked at that notice. How exactly did he get so high level so quickly? Even with access to the citystone and plenty of quests, you could only level so fast. Especially here, without easy access to monsters. The guard was probably a Gunner, so Josh decided to be even more careful. While Josh was scanning him, it seemed the guard had done the same in return. He noticeably flinched back. ¡°Wait... you''re that Crafter. Joshua Hundredborn.¡± He scanned over the rest of them and scowled. ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°A surrender,¡± Josh said, fighting back the urge to snark. ¡°We want to come in quietly, and answer your questions.¡± The other guard circled around them while the first covered them. Josh and the others did nothing to stop him, though Josh did follow him with his eyes. ¡°Hey!¡± the first guard snapped. ¡°Don''t look at him, look at me! Why should I believe you?¡± Josh raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°Believe what? That we''re surrendering? We''re all unarmed, and we aren''t attacking. I don''t know how much more clear I can be.¡± They had left their weapons and armor hidden in the copse of trees that they had found a ways off. Mary had complained about leaving her gun behind. The second guard tried to pull Ruth out of the group. She flinched back from his hand, and both guards raised their guns higher. ¡°Let her go,¡± the first guard said, his tone low and dangerous in a way that Josh didn''t appreciate. ¡°We''re not holding her,¡± he said. ¡°Ruth¡ª¡± ¡°Don''t!¡± the first guard snapped. ¡°Don''t speak to her, just let her go. Now!¡± Josh blinked. ¡°I''m... not grabbing her.¡± He looked up at his hands, suddenly wondering if he was somehow tied to her in a way he hadn''t noticed. He wasn''t. ¡°I was just going to tell her to go with you.¡± ¡°Put any devices on the ground, then step away.¡± ¡°I don''t have any devices.¡± He was getting annoyed now. He had stripped down to his basic shirt and pants for this, and somehow that wasn''t good enough. ¡°What are you even talking about?¡± The guard ground his teeth. ¡°The Tamer device.¡± ¡°What Tamer¡ª¡± Josh felt a wave of pure horror flow through him. ¡°Oh, God. You lot think I''m mind-controlling her!?¡± The guard fired. Thankfully, Darius and Mary had both decided they''d had enough of this silliness. Darius covered himself in a shroud, a shimmering barrier that easily absorbed the bullet when he stepped in front of Josh. Mary grabbed the second guard''s wrist and swiftly disarmed him of his weapon with a technique. Before he could react, she shot him in each knee. Then she turned and shot the other guard in the chest. Ruth screamed. ¡°Mary!¡± Josh yelled. She didn''t need to shoot them. ¡°Oh, come off it! They''ve got enough Healers around to survive getting'' their heads pulped!¡± She waved her free hand at the wall, where more guards were already pouring out. One had a Healer''s staff. ¡°See, it''s fine. We running or fighting?¡± Josh cursed under his breath, then grabbed Ruth''s hand. ¡°Come on!¡± They ran back to their copse of trees at top speed, Darius in the back to deflect any bullets from the guards. Thankfully, it seemed they were more interested in making sure their comrades were safe, and didn''t pursue. Ten minutes later, the group was hidden among the trees and breathing heavily. Mary retrieved her gun, though she kept the new one. Everyone else started putting their own weapons and armor back on, though more slowly. Darius pounded his head against a trunk. ¡°Of course he was prepared for this. Surrendering to the guards was the obvious move. Of course he would have seen a way to counter it!¡± ¡°W-what happened, exactly?¡± Ruth asked, looking between the three of them. ¡°I feel like I missed something? They said something about you being a Tamer, but you''re not a Tamer. They can see that easily.¡± Josh sighed and sat down, his wooden armor scraping against the tree. ¡°No, I''m not. But they can''t see exactly what I am. I could be some Tamer slash Crafter cross-class with the ability to make slave collars or whatever.¡± Ruth''s hand went to her throat¡ªwhich was not wearing a collar. She seemed to relax slightly, but not entirely. Everyone had grown up on the old stories of various [Tamer] classes enslaving people. Most [Tamer] classes were harmless, and [Tamers] were a staple of any large group. But taking the Necromancer or Slaver classes were both punishable by years in prison at best. ¡°I''ve never had a, uh...¡± Ruth looked like she was struggling to find the word. ¡°...multi-role? I''ve never had a class that can be part of more than one role. Just a Healer.¡± ¡°Cross-class is the most common term,¡± Darius said, shifting back into teaching mode. ¡°However, it is not an official System term. As far as the System is concerned, all classes can be sorted neatly into four roles.¡± He looked at Josh. ¡°Or eight, I suppose, counting the non-combat classes. Your role determines what actions gain you experience, and influence how easy it is to earn new abilities. That is why no one has ever gained any crafting abilities for the past eighty years. With no Crafter classes, they were impossible.¡± ¡°Okay, I guess I see that,¡± Ruth said. ¡°My dad mostly goes for the more straightforward classes, but I know my aunt likes mixing in different kinds of magic. So, what, they think you took a Beastmaster bloodstone and got some new class that gives you magic slave collars or whatever?¡± ¡°Seems about right,¡± Josh grumbled. ¡°Your dad told the guards I had some class that makes something with mind-control. That explains why you''re with me, seemingly not being threatened, and gives them yet another reason to shoot first and ask questions never.¡± He beat the back of his head against the tree. ¡°God, what a mess.¡± Mary paced. ¡°So that''s it, innit? We''ve got no more rolls of the dice left?¡± Josh held up his hand. ¡°We can give it another go. I''ve got some ideas to make it past his little blockade.¡± Mary made a face. ¡°You don''t want to... talk to the government, do you?¡± Josh choked out a laugh. ¡°Nah, we''ll call that a last-ditch move, yeah?¡± It wasn''t as though he had many contacts in the City, and definitely not more than an operative. ¡°Nah, we''re starting with something worse.¡± He grinned at her. ¡°How''s your aunt doing these days?¡± Mary groaned. Chapter 9 - The City Getting over the wall wasn''t actually that hard. The guards couldn''t watch all of it, and there were always gaps. The north-west, where they originally tried to surrender, was one of the most guarded stretches of wall. That was the direction where they were pushing farther into the Jungle, so there was always lots of traffic. The guards knew to keep their eyes on it. The east, on the other hand, was nothing but mountains. No human settlements, and even the Jungle''s monsters didn''t bother attacking from that direction. So why bother putting any people on it? The wall was tall enough to discourage anything too excessive. The guards did wander by every once in a while, but that was no great obstacle. Everyone knew their patrol patterns, and unlike the more important parts of the wall, the guards didn''t bother with surprise shift changes or anything of the sort. They showed up, made sure there weren''t any holes in the wall or ladders with people clambering over them, then went back to their lunches. Once the guards were gone, the criminals brought out the elevators again. Josh and the others covered their faces with rags made from a ripped-up shirt when they approached the wall. This prevented the Identify skill from working on them, and was standard practice for any criminal except the worst of the worst, who worked with the government and didn''t need to hide. They paid their fee to a bored-looking level 12 Attacker, then waited for the elevator to come down. It was a simple wooden platform attached to a rope and pulley system, nothing complicated. They were pulled to the top, where they found the cheap wooden crane hidden inside an alcove between two buildings, attended by a few Mages who used their magic to do most of the heavy lifting. Once Josh and his group paid another bribe, they stepped through one of the doors on the side of the skyscraper. Inside, the place was a dull warehouse. Nothing but echoing concrete floors and stacks upon stacks of supplies. Josh didn''t even know what this place was supposed to be storing. Maybe dry foods or something else important but not urgent. Something to justify having armed guards, but little police presence. Instead of immediately going down the stairs or taking an electric elevator, Josh led his friends out onto the skyscraper''s balcony. Josh loved the City. He hadn''t grown up here, obviously. He had been born in a small town to the east, past the mountains and just at the edge of the state line. When it had been destroyed, he and his sister had traveled west, looking for the medical technology he had needed to survive. He had been a sickly child. They hadn''t settled in the City. In fact, it was years and years before they settled at the base of the Tower, and even then they only stayed for a few years. Every time he came back, he had to smile at what he found. By the time of the Last Raid, when the greatest heroes of the world were pushing through the Tower to conquer the final challenge, the only humans left were here. Squatting in the ruins of one of the richest cities in the world, huddled against the base of the Tower like children around their mother''s skirts. It wasn''t a city, it was a refugee camp. Josh had seen the pictures. Old, dirty tents as far as the eye could see, arranged haphazardly around cook fires and scavenged machines put out for communal use. It was an impressive stand against the end of all things, but it had failed. Everyone died, and all that remained were the eight heroes who survived the Last Raid. When the Eight Immortals came down from the conquered Tower, they found nothing but dry bones, destroyed ruins, and the Jungle. They established the Burn Line by the simple method of raining down fire from above, but they hadn''t been able to hold onto a very large area for their descendants. They started in a small circle around the base of the Tower, the shantytown that had sprung up near the end of the world. As the population increased, people were able to expand the Burn Line more carefully, recovering artifacts and relics from the old city instead of just burning everything. However, the first generation had never forgotten the oldest lessons from when space was at a premium. Therefore, rather than building outward in a suburban sprawl, they built up. Skyscrapers rose high in every direction, a thicket of metal and glass made by human hands. Hundreds and hundreds of skyscrapers, some broad enough to cover an entire block, many small enough that two or three could fit, and some so thin that they looked like needles from this distance. The new City varied drastically from the cities of the Old World, however. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the way that the skyscrapers were connected to each other. Great skyways crossed above the streets, letting people walk between buildings without ever having to go down to the ground. It was said that you could visit every building in the City without ever going outside, crossing from one building to another, forever. It was more than just the skyways, though. Every skyscraper had rooftop and balcony gardens, some had waterfalls splashing down from a hundred floors up. The City was green and alive in a way that no Old World urban area ever was. This was not a part of the Jungle any more¡ªthat was the point of the Burn Line¡ªso plant and animal growth was not accelerated. Even just this small balcony they were on now had a full garden on it. These were just ordinary plants, bushes and vines and even full trees, cultivated and cared for by people who wanted a little more life around them. Even in a world where the trees could get up and attack you, people wanted to be surrounded by the life of the world. And here, more than anywhere else, it was safe to do so. This was all thanks to the powers granted by the System, Josh knew. Few machines had survived the Fall, mostly tough trucks and cars. As far as he knew, not a single construction crane had been recovered in working condition. No, the City had been built almost entirely by hand. Even without the [Crafter] classes, high-level people were strong enough to lift cars, could cut stone with their swords, and could fly or use telekinesis. In the later months of every reset, the City was a buzz of activity as Earth Mages found and shaped what they needed, Air Mages lifted people and materials, and Fire Mages welded everything into place. Josh had been surprised to hear of how many architecture books had survived the Fall. He would have thought that everything would have to be learned from scratch, and he knew that none of the Immortals were architects or urban planners or even librarians. As it turned out, in the waning days of the Old World, some people with classes from the [Scholar] role had been worried about losing everything. So they collected every book they could find, downloaded everything that was reasonable off the internet, and printed everything out using every means available to them, magical and not. The result was that when the Eight descended back to Earth to find the entire human race dead, they also found entire warehouses full of books, computers with high-density storage mediums, and magical stone tablets. It was astonishing how much was saved. Of course, having the knowledge and being able to use it were two very different things. So much of modern technology was impossible to replicate without extensive support networks. It didn''t matter that they knew how to make computers with micro circuitry; they didn''t have any intact factories to make them. They didn''t have the factories to make the tools to make the factories. And no matter how much power a Mage had, [Combat] classes were not designed for anywhere close to fine detail work. Even a great Fire Mage couldn''t reliably forge a decent screw. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Though they couldn''t see them from here, Josh knew that there were cannons lining the walls, modeled after ancient fortress cannons instead of any modern firearms. They were little more than metal tubes on a swivel, designed to direct a gunpowder charge to propel a massive metal ball. Like so much of the City, there wasn''t enough technology to spare for anything more advanced. That didn''t mean there was no technology, though. They took an electric elevator down to the ground level, then used a trolley to get closer to their destination. There weren''t any cars around; most people walked, and deliveries from the outlying villages were handled at the wall, then shipped in by electric rail line. Josh had always loved the City. It was so different from what had come before. It was more crowded with people instead of cars, people just walking about on their lives. He saw old men sitting on street corners, parents wrangling their children, and even schoolkids in uniform. Kids. Going to school. Not fighting on the front lines, not desperately trying to level in order to fight back the endless tide of the Jungle. Just... living their lives like nothing was wrong. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. There wasn''t as much greenery down at ground level, where the skyscrapers blocked out much of the light. There were a number of hardy trees planted at strategic locations, that sort of thing. Instead, the streets were lined with rock gardens, murals ranging from masterpieces by professional artists to simple doodles by children. There were even small ornamental rivers running down many of the old streets, replacing the old thrum of cars and trucks with the pleasant burbling of water. Not bad for a place that was technically halfway to a desert. ¡°Oi,¡± Mary said, sounding amused. ¡°You press your face against that window any harder, you''re liable to break it.¡± The other three didn''t seem all that interested in the sights. Mary and Ruth, he knew, had grown up here. Mary hated the place for reasons entirely related to her family, and Ruth had probably spent more time exploring the wilderness than walking the streets. Darius appeared to be taking notes on something. Perhaps that was his own way of appreciating the beauty around him. Of course, as beautiful as the City was, it was also fragile. Josh knew that better than anyone. Normally, the monsters weren''t the real issue. Those cannons might be primitive, but they got the job done, especially when paired with high-leveled [Attackers]. No, the real danger to the City was food. Two million people called the City home. With all the vertical construction, that was a lower population density than you might expect, but it was still loads of people, who needed loads of food. Rooftop gardens weren''t even a blip on the radar there. Everything had to be grown from outside and shipped in. Growing the food wasn''t the problem. Any farm on the Jungle side of the Burn Line measured its harvests in hours, and even a small farm could easily keep up with the demand of hundreds of people. The problem was shipping it into the City. As always, it was the supply lines where everything was at its most dangerous. Josh breathed in deeply, taking in the clean mana of the air. On this side of the Burn Line, all mana emanated from the Tower, rather than from the Jungle. It was thick and easy to use, like cream just waiting to be spread on toast. The mana in the Jungle was wild; sometimes it was thicker, sometimes it was thinner, and sometimes it manifested as an elemental monster that wanted to rip your face off. It was good that the mana was so thick here, because the City could not survive without magic. Even ignoring the ornamental features that needed a dedicated Mage to make them work¡ªthose waterfalls didn''t just come out of nowhere¡ªmost of the City''s electricity was generated directly by Lightning Mages. There were waterwheels and wind turbines to pick up the slack, especially early in the year, but this trolley wouldn''t work without magic. They wouldn''t be able to charge the electric trucks and cars that brought in food without mana. They wouldn''t even be able to reload the cannons on the walls, because the freight elevators were powered by electricity that came from mana. Sometimes Josh thought the entire City was a beautiful model made out of spun sugar. Sweet, but so fragile. Liable to dissolve if it encountered even the slightest real problem. And he had showed a dragon that it was here. That thought made his gut twist. All this could fall, and it would be his fault. After they got off the trolley, they slipped through the side streets, sun shining down on them. It was a hot day, but it was always hot around the solstice. They had to avoid people as much as possible, to reduce the risk of anyone getting close enough to use Identify on them. Their crude masks would help, but people would ask too many questions. Eventually, the police would be called. If the gate guards had been told a fake brainwashing story, surely so had the police. Still, their destination wasn''t far. Mary''s aunt did much of her work in the east portion of the City, so her headquarters was nearby. Specifically, it was in an old park or golf course, converted into a community center and then claimed as a base of operations. This was one of the only parts of the City that was still flat without any skyscrapers. Healthy, cut grass created a lush carpet, and trees a hundred feet tall provided ample shade. The Jungle might not be accelerating growth in this area any more, but the trees had been given eighty years to grow. It was an exquisite picture of cultivated natural beauty. There was one single-story building in the center of the park, nothing too impressive. It looked like a modest home, though without as many windows, with a few winding stone paths leading to and from it. If not for the armed guards standing outside, it would look like a nice place to live. A quick glance told him that all three of them were between levels 20 and 23. Seeing the levels of the guards almost made Josh stop on the path. It had been surprising to see the City guards had already reached level 16. It was a bit hard for reclaimers, people working at the edge of civilization and fighting constantly, to reach that this early. But here were three people who had almost hit their second class advancement. Josh, Mary, and Ruth, who had all been leveling at a frankly absurd speed, had just hit 18, hardly three days after the reset. Darius was at a more realistic level, at 14. How had these people gotten so high so fast? People were taking risks, he realized with a sinking feeling. No method of power-leveling was completely safe, and if he had a guess, they weren''t just capturing monsters and slaughtering them after the reset. If you fed a monster bloodstones, it would level and be a bigger experience boost when you killed it. The only problem was that this required making the monster stronger... strong enough, perhaps, to break free of whatever was keeping it in check and going on a rampage. That was dangerous. Villages died that way, out past the Burn Line, when they accidentally made a level 56 Porcine Fire-Bomber or whatever. He didn''t even want to know what would happen if a monster got loose in the middle of the City. After a moment, he decided it didn''t matter. They weren''t here to level. Once they got within sight, the guards raised their rifles and pointed them at the group, but didn''t say anything. Ruth and Darius stopped, arms up, but Josh and Mary pulled them along. It was only when they got to within a few feet¡ªfar enough that they couldn''t lunge for the guards¡ªthat they stopped and waited. The guards nodded. ¡°Masks off,¡± the one in front ordered. ¡°What''s your business?¡± Mary pulled hers off first. ¡°I''m here to speak to my aunt.¡± The guard looked at her, nodded, then turned to the others. With a sigh, Josh pulled off his mask, then gestured for the others to do the same. He saw the exact moment when the guards used their Identify skill, because all three flinched back and raised their guns. Darius stepped in front of them and raised his shroud. Thankfully, the guards didn''t actually attack. They glanced at Mary, then slowly lowered their guns. ¡°You try any tricks, we shoot,¡± the guard said. ¡°No more warnings.¡± It seemed they had heard about the mind-control as well. At least they were being more reasonable about it. Chapter 10 - The Smuggler The four of them were escorted inside the building. The only room they saw was a small, sterile open room with a desk built into the corner and polished wooden floors. It reminded Josh of a principal''s office. It even had that smell of a principal''s office. Paper and ink in equal measure, as well as the general human scents of a lived-in building. A place that was cleaned regularly, but was used. Behind the desk, as if she was a secretary doing paperwork, was an older woman. She was thin, attractive in a severe way, with a single streak of gray in her red hair. That red was dulling with age, but it was still a striking color. Her eyes flipped up when they walked in, but she didn''t say anything until they sat down at the table. She looked like, well, like a secretary. Or perhaps the matron of an orphanage. A woman who might not be at the top of the food chain, but was high enough up that she could make trouble when she wanted to. You would never think just from looking at her that she was the head of the biggest crime family in the City. She dealt in everything from selling the services of illegal classes to smuggling illicit materials through the different districts without paying taxes. As far as Josh knew, she didn''t do anything truly heinous. Her family had shut down the burgeoning slave trade in the City, though that was before her time. She was the unofficial queen of the City''s underworld in large part due to the fact that the City''s legitimate authority, and perhaps even the Eight themselves, considered her better than any of the other alternatives that could arise in her place. ¡°Well,¡± Miriam Manganese said as she shut her book. She even sounded like the matron of an orphanage. She had that clipped, slightly unkind voice of a woman used to getting her way, even if she had to argue with stupid children first. ¡°To what do I owe the pleasure of my least favorite niece?¡± Mary smirked. ¡°I can''t come to see my first favorite aunt?¡± Mary was Miriam''s only niece, and Miriam was Mary''s only aunt. It was a familiar joke. Miriam didn''t seem interested in the old banter. ¡°I''ve got a world quest blaring in my head about you, an official government notice with your boy''s threat assessment, and rumors of ten thousand crimes he''s committed cycling through the pigs. So no, you can''t just come to see me on a whim.¡± She drew a long breath on a cigarette. ¡°Start from the beginning.¡± So, they did. The story didn''t take that long, all things considered, though Josh still appreciated Miriam having snacks and tea brought in. No one in this bloody City knew how to make tea except Miriam''s staff. Once they were done¡ªwith Mary and Josh telling most of the story, and Ruth only jumping in briefly to explain her father as best as she could¡ªMiriam was sitting at the table with them, drinking her own tea. ¡°That,¡± she said at last, ¡°is quite the story.¡± Josh''s heart fell. He put the tea cup down. ¡°You don''t believe us.¡± ¡°I didn''t say that. It''s just...¡± She pursed her lips. ¡°You''ve made up stories before.¡± He scowled and leaped to his feet. ¡°Wot? When? Tell me one bloody time!¡± ¡°What''s your name?¡± He froze. Darius and Ruth both looked at him in surprise. Mary just closed her eyes. Miriam sipped at her tea. ¡°You are not actually a very good liar, Mister Hundredborn,¡± she said calmly. ¡°You never have been. Now, I believe that Operative Moore is trying to eliminate you to improve his daughter''s position.¡± He nodded at Ruth. ¡°I have met Jonah before. It sounds like one of his plans. However, everything else is... less reliable.¡± Josh took a deep breath. ¡°It''s all true.¡± ¡°Really. So you just happened to find a bloodstone in the middle of the Jungle, well within reach of any monster who might try to devour it, and it just happened to have an extremely valuable class and role?¡± ¡°But¡ªwe are Crafters!¡± Ruth interjected. ¡°You can see that! How else did we get the role?¡± ¡°I don''t know,¡± Miriam admitted. ¡°Perhaps it is related to his other secrets.¡± She eyed him over her teacup. ¡°An old family cache, I presume?¡± While that wasn''t true¡ªJosh had, of course, found the bloodstone by honest chance¡ªit was getting a little too close to a secret he did indeed want to hide. He crossed his arms over his chest. ¡°You know what? I don''t give a flip. You want to think I buried a bloodstone out in the middle of the Jungle or whatever? Fine. But the dragon. What about the bloody dragon?¡± Darius nodded. ¡°An excellent point. Unless you are claiming that all four of us are lying about such a threat, you must believe us.¡± Miriam cocked her head. ¡°Why? You could all be lying. I don''t trust any of you.¡± ¡°Oi!¡± Mary snapped. Miriam didn''t even blink. ¡°You least of all, love. I can think of a hundred ways you could benefit from making me think a dragon was coming.¡± ¡°Are you going to send someone to the dungeon?¡± Josh asked. ¡°I have few resources outside the City.¡± That was a no. He scowled and turned away, pacing. ¡°What about reporting it?¡± Ruth asking, sounding a little desperate. ¡°You can at least pass it along to the proper authorities, and they can send someone to the dungeon!¡± ¡°Perhaps,¡± Miriam said. That could mean she was genuinely considering it, or she had politely dismissed it out of hand. Josh didn''t know her well enough to be sure which way she would fall. ¡°Fine,¡± he growled. ¡°This was a waste of time. Thanks for the tea, we''ll get out of your hair.¡± At that, the others took his signal and rose. The exits were soon covered by guards. Miriam hadn''t moved. ¡°We''ll bring you in alive,¡± she promised in a conversational tone. ¡°That is a far better offer than you will receive from anyone else.¡± ¡°You don''t want to do this,¡± Josh warned. ¡°Just let us go, and we can let bygones be bygones, yeah?¡± Miriam let out a long sigh. ¡°Mister Hundredborn. Please do not try to intimidate me inside my own house.¡± She gave him an unimpressed look. ¡°Especially when you are so obviously outmatched.¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. She was right, of course. There were two guards at each exit, so six total, plus Miriam herself. A quick scan told him that everyone was pushing the edge of level 24¡ªexcept for Miriam herself, who was a level 26 Healer. Three reclaimers and a pampered rich girl couldn''t overcome that level disparity. Especially when two of them had non-combat classes. But Josh hadn''t always had a non-combat class. He''d spent his entire life trying out every single combat class the human race knew about. He had fought on the front lines against monsters and worse. He had fought other humans before, and though he hated it more than anything, he had learned every trick and tactic for fighting when outnumbered. First rule: There was no such thing as fighting dirty. He threw his teacup at Miriam''s face. She flinched, and the cup hit her head-on, shattering and splashing her with hot tea. She ground her teeth and glowed with a green light. Two of her guards immediately moved to cover her. That was all right. He didn''t think he could kill her even in the best of circumstances. He just wanted her distracted. While she was being covered by her guards, she wasn''t paying attention to the rest of them. Two guards charged at them, wielding knives. Guns were hard to get in the middle of the City, even for Miriam Manganese, and her first rule was always to avoid attracting attention. These were Rogues, high-leveled and ready for a fight. Rogues worked best from ambush, but they could hold their own in direct combat. They just had to be quick on their feet and not get hit. Mary shot them both in the chest with the gun she had managed to smuggle past the guards outside. Really, they hadn''t been given more than a cursory look-over. It was almost insulting. Both men went down.. While Darius put up a shroud to discourage the ones guarding Miriam from doing anything, Josh and Ruth went for the last two. They were low-level non-combat classes. But they had spent four days in the wilderness, expecting to be attacked by an assassin at any moment. They had prepared. One of the men stabbed down with a knife, and Josh blocked with his wrist. The blade bounced off his wooden bracer, made using the Pierce-Resistant Armor blueprint that he had earned in the dungeon. Josh slashed with his sword, the Attack rune that Ruth had carved into the pommel glowing red. It wasn''t much, but it was enough to pierce through the man''s leather armor at the neck. He stumbled back, spluttering blood. Ruth had conceded to wearing wooden armor like his own. Though she didn''t have the same combat instincts he did, the armor covered her mistakes. It also helped that the guard was clearly trying not to kill her. He hesitated after every strike, as if worried that the System itself would kill him if he so much as touched her. Ruth, however, did not hesitate. Whatever else she was, Ruth wasn''t shy about getting into fights. She hammered down with her new club, which was big enough to be mistaken for a small tree all on its own. She had carved her first rune-chain into it: A gravity reduction enchantment, allowing her to lift the heavy lump of wood. She had specifically not put a self-charging feature into it. She had to use mana to make the enchantment work. That meant she could turn it off just by stopping the mana flow. When she lifted the club up, it weighed a few kilograms. When she slammed it down, it weighed twenty times as much. It only took a few hard smacks before the guard was a crumpled heap on the ground. Josh was surprised how well this fight was going, but he knew better than to get too greedy. Trying to go for Miriam would just get them killed. They had gotten lucky by responding with more fury than expected. That didn''t mean they had won this fight, and even if they did, Miriam had dozens more men in shouting distance. ¡°Out the back!¡± he yelled to the others. There shouldn''t be as many guards in that direction. ¡°Quick as you can, let''s go!¡± The two guards protecting Miriam were pushing forward, forcing Darius to move his shroud to block them repeatedly. He grit his teeth as he put more mana into it. Josh knew that wouldn''t last forever. Miriam leaned down to lay hands and heal some of her men. She couldn''t heal at range without a staff, so that was something. ¡°Darius!¡± Josh yelled as they all backpedaled. The Shrouder was still standing in the middle of the room, holding back the guards. ¡°Let''s go!¡± ¡°Run!¡± Darius yelled over his shoulder, clearly intending to hold the line for them. ¡°Hurry!¡± Josh ground his teeth. ¡°Oh, no you don''t!¡± He ran up and pulled him back by the shoulder. ¡°C''mon, we''re all getting out of¡ª¡± One of Miriam''s guards got up faster than he expected and sliced with his knife. He went straight for Josh''s face, recognizing that he couldn''t get through the armor with his Strength score. Josh instinctively shielded his face with his hand. It happened so fast that Josh missed it. One second, the knife was flashing in front of him. The next, there was a spray of red, a cool feeling, and a sort of shocked numbness. Then he saw his severed fingers land on the ground, and he started screaming. Josh had been in many battles. He had been shot, stabbed, burned, frozen, electrocuted, crushed, and everything else in between. He had even lost a limb before. His whole arm, hacked off just below the elbow. It had taken a very high-level Healer to reattach it. He should be able to shrug off a few more fingers as nothing but another injury to ignore. Maybe he could, given time. But right now? Right now it hurt. He screamed, so loud that he couldn''t even hear what Miriam was saying. Probably asking them to surrender. He screamed so loud that he didn''t even hear the gunshots as Mary returned to scare the guards off again. He only finally started to stop screaming, finally reduced to nothing but pathetic sobs, when Ruth and Darius dragged him out of the building and into the cultivated forest. Cultivated it might be, but it was still a forest. There was enough underbrush to hide them, at least for a moment. His friends dragged him behind some tall bushes, breaking line of sight with Miriam''s compound. Somehow, he managed to get his voice under control, so that he didn''t give away their position. Darius wrapped his hand with the practiced ease of an experienced Mender. ¡°You''re going to be fine,¡± he said in a soothing tone. Well, as close as Darius ever got to sounding soothing. Clipped and professional would be more accurate. ¡°Blood loss is minimal, and you retain a good amount of manual dexterity.¡± Retain a good amount of manual dexterity. Which was a rather polite way of saying that he had lost three fingers. Mary poked her head out of the bush they were hiding in. ¡°They''re going to find us soon. Aunt Miriam has Beastmasters with dogs. They can track us.¡± ¡°B-but, where do we go?¡± Ruth asked, sounding lost. It was a sharp contrast to how competent she had been in the fight just minutes ago. She even had a few drops of blood on her face from where she had bashed a man''s head in. ¡°My father owns the guards, and if we managed to get on the bad side of the biggest crime family in the City...¡± ¡°We''ll go to the government,¡± Darius said as he finished the bandages. ¡°It will be a long shot, but if we continue making a nuisance of ourselves¡ª¡± Josh took a deep, ragged breath. ¡°No.¡± Everyone stopped and stared at him. ¡°No?¡± Darius asked. He pushed his glasses up. ¡°If you think you have a better idea¡ª¡± ¡°I do,¡± Josh said firmly. He ground his teeth, pushing past the dull, throbbing pain in his hand. ¡°We go south, the opposite direction of Paul''s outpost. We go over the Burn Line and into the Jungle.¡± ¡°Wot?¡± Mary asked. ¡°Did you get your brains knocked out or something? Why would you want to do that?¡± ¡°There''s nothing out there,¡± Darius added. ¡°Surely you don''t intend to personally fight the dragon.¡± Josh shook his head. ¡°Th-there are towns out there.¡± He hissed in pain, then rallied and continued. ¡°Reclaimers, even people just trying to live their lives. All we need to do is find one and build our power.¡± ¡°So...¡± Ruth said slowly. ¡°We are fighting the dragon ourselves?¡± Again, he shook his head. ¡°Once we''re strong enough, people will listen to us. We can get reinforcements, even hire them, have them check out the dungeon with us. Even if we''re not strong enough to handle the dragon by then, we can prove that it exists.¡± Darius nodded. ¡°Yes... yes, I can see that. There is nothing respected in this world more than strength. If we get enough people involved, even Operative Moore might be forced to withdraw his world quest.¡± Mary twirled her gun in her hand. ¡°Alright, this isn''t the worst plan I''ve ever heard. Got some kinks to work out, but I like it!¡± She looked back the way they had come. ¡°Still gotta get out of here though, don''t we? Planning for the future is all well and good, but we can''t have a go if we don''t get and go.¡± Josh stood, winced, and pushed past the pain. ¡°We''ll¡ªGod that hurts¡ªwe''ll need to cross the river. Every river we can, dive into dumpsters, all that muck. Anything to throw off our scent.¡± Ruth checked his hand, frowning. ¡°I''m sorry I can''t do anything. If I had a healing rune...¡± Josh waved his free hand. ¡°We''ll talk later, yeah?¡± He heard dogs barking in the distance. ¡°Now''s the time for putting foot to floor.¡± Chapter 11 - The Tamer Miriam Manganese was not a woman who regretted much. In her business, you had to act swiftly, without second-guessing yourself. Therefore, regretting turning on her niece and the boy was something of a unique feeling. When it came down to it, she was more regretting that she had failed. That made it easier to deal with, as it was a tactical problem rather than a moral one. Should she have ordered her men to fight with intent to kill? Joshua, whatever his real name, was at least expendable. She could deal with Mary''s glares if everyone else was captured and alive. She sighed as she finished healing the last of her guards. At least they had all survived. One of the advantages of preferring the Mender class was that she had a rather low rate of attrition, especially among her own elite guards. ¡°Where is that Beastmaster?¡± she asked to the room at large. Her guards, bless them, were already cleaning up the mess without being ordered. ¡°My niece is liable to be halfway across the City by now.¡± If she ended up going to the government, of all people, the girl''s parents would never forgive her. They would rather Miriam capture her than let her talk to the government, Miriam knew. One of her guards saluted. ¡°Ma''am! She was in the northern sector. Dealing with the dockworkers union, if you''ll recall. She should be here soon.¡± Miriam sighed. ¡°The wonders of modern technology,¡± she muttered. ¡°We can call anyone in the City and know instantly that they''ll be too late.¡± ¡°Sorry, ma''am.¡± She waved the comment away. ¡°When she gets here, set her on the trail regardless. Send some of our other guards right now. The ones who have assisted her in the past.¡± It wasn''t as if Beastmasters were the only people who could track, they were just best at it. ¡°Already done, ma''am.¡± Well, that was something. ¡°Good.¡± She was still hoping to turn in that quest. It wasn''t about the money¡ªthough ten million credits was nothing to sneeze at, even for her. She could buy almost anything with what she already had. Anything, that was, except for Quest Giver authority, a guild charter, and a town charter. The government didn''t hand those out to criminals, no matter how much money they had. ¡°With luck, we''ll at least know what direction they went in.¡± She drummed her fingers on the edge of her chair. ¡°Which direction will that be, though?¡± The guard didn''t say anything. She was talking to herself, anyway. Miriam still wasn''t clear what Mary''s little band actually wanted. Coming to the City was an obvious opportunity, of course. This was the center of the world in a very real sense. But every part of the City was closed to them now. Operative Moore had turned the government against them, and they wouldn''t be stupid enough to use any underworld contacts now. There were other criminal kingpins, but Miriam was the only one with any inclination to be kind to them. If they had any common sense, they would find somewhere to lay low. They were reclaimers, so they knew how to survive in at least the shallow edges of the Jungle. They couldn''t go north because of Moore, but south was a good option. They could find a little farming village or something, use their unique talents to quietly survive until the end of the year. After the reset, they''d be in a better position to negotiate with Moore. Assuming that was what they actually wanted. The problem was their story about a dragon. She had exaggerated her disbelief. No, she did not believe that there was a dragon hiding in a dungeon within a week''s walk of the City. That was insane. But then why tell it? The rest of their story made perfect sense, lies or no. Either Joshua found a bloodstone or dug up a cache, but either way he immediately went to the nearest authority figure for protection, was betrayed, and went on the run. Maybe he kidnapped the girl, but Miriam doubted it. She had seen what a Slaver''s power looked like, and that wasn''t it. Most people weren''t as familiar with forbidden classes. The dragon was the part that didn''t fit. It had nothing to do with why they''d run from the operative, it didn''t provide a convenient explanation for how he''d found the bloodstone. It was also easy to disprove, making it a fragile lie. The only way the story of the dragon made any sense was if there was something important in that dungeon. It could be something dangerous. If not to the City, then at least to whoever went inside the dungeon. Surely Mary hadn''t been trying to get Miriam killed? No, of course not, she wouldn''t have warned her at all in that case. Just told her there was treasure to be had. She snapped her fingers and one of her men stepped forward. ¡°Organize a team,¡± she ordered. ¡°Fast fighters, scouts who can get to a location quickly and survive anything they find there. Skilled in running away. It''s possible that this is a trap, but I want to be sure¡ª¡± Miriam heard a sound she was uncomfortably familiar with: The sound of a man gurgling as he choked on his own blood. Miriam jumped up from her seat and spun around to face the new threat. She stepped backwards to stand behind her guards, ready to heal or empower them at a moment''s notice. Her guards, in turn, had their blades out in a heartbeat. They faced someone wearing leather armor that covered every inch of their slender frame. Slender, but tall. Whoever this person was, they were at least seven feet from their scuffed boots to their face-concealing hood. The height made Miriam think the intruder was male, while the slender build made her think they were female. On one of their shoulders was a large bird of prey with glowing blue eyes. It watched Miriam and her men, not attacking, just ready. A small monkey climbed up the intruder''s body even as she watched, settling on their other shoulder. Once it settled itself down, it stared at Miriam with its own glowing blue eyes. It also had a bloody knife in its hand, and one of her men was dead on the floor. Many people would find the monkey to be silly, knife or no. Miriam was not most people. She employed a Beastmaster, and had taken that class herself once. Any animal that survived in the Jungle was dangerous, and they would only become more so when controlled by a Beastmaster. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it This wasn''t Miriam''s Beastmaster, of course, not even in a disguise. Putting aside the question of the girl''s loyalty, she wasn''t seven feet tall. Still, Miriam gave the animals a quick scan just to give an idea of what they were dealing with. She couldn''t scan the Beastmaster, since their face was covered, but she could scan the monsters.
Avian Aesalon Seeker
Level 30 Monster
You ever seen a bird pluck a berry off a bush, and kind of flail around a bit until it gets that whole mess down? Picture your eye as the berry. But messier.
Primate Ateles Knifer
Level 30 Monster
Yep, this adorable little guy has a knife, and he knows how to use it. Isn''t he cute? Look at him just running around shanking everything! Shank your ankles! Shank your spleen! Why, the only thing that could make this guy more fun is if he was the pet of a Beastmaster who knew exactly how to use him for maximum effect.
Level 30. A Beastmaster had to be the same level or higher to control a monster. That was one of the reasons why the class was growing more unpopular, but also why it was growing more important. Still, that was high for this early in the year. Miriam and her men had stockpiled a few dozen monsters each to level as fast as possible, and then they''d learned dozens of abilities for the experience. She wouldn''t have thought anyone could have outpaced them. At least not without doing something dangerous like artificially raising a monster''s level. The intruder just stood there, watching her from under their hood. They didn''t move, didn''t twitch. ¡°You have my attention,¡± Miriam said bitterly. She had lost a man because this Beastmaster had an overinflated sense of drama and had decided to kill someone to announce their presence. If they wanted to kill Miriam, they would have done so already. ¡°I suspect we have business to discuss.¡± ¡°Indeed we do,¡± the intruder said. The voice was refined, aristocratic, and male. ¡°I must say, I appreciate a businesswoman who is able to move onto what is important even in a stressful situation.¡± Miriam thought she detected a trace of a Japanese accent in the man''s voice, but it was faint. ¡°You have me at a disadvantage, Mister...¡± ¡°Mizuno Masahiko.¡± She could sense a smile in his voice, and she suspected he was genuinely enjoying this conversation. Though his monkey was still cleaning its knife and staring at her intently. ¡°Lord Mizuno, if you don''t mind, Lady Manganese.¡± Well, that was a bit presumptuous, but fair was fair. ¡°Very well, Lord Mizuno.¡± She gestured at the chairs. ¡°Would you care to sit?¡± He chuckled. ¡°A generous offer, but no. I am afraid that I am on a bit of a short timetable. You understand, I am sure.¡± She cocked her head and pursed her lips. ¡°You''re after them as well, then?¡± ¡°I am afraid that I am.¡± He bowed his head. ¡°I do apologize for getting in your way and damaging your property. Alas, my master is more demanding than you are.¡± It took Miriam a moment to realize that the ¡°property¡± he was talking about was her guard, who was now dead on the floor. It took an effort of will for her not to clench her fists. Show nothing. ¡°And your master would be...¡± ¡°Concerned with his privacy.¡± Of course. She was tempted to order her men to attack right then and there. His level was surprisingly high, but they had him outnumbered, and they knew how to handle Beastmasters. Take out the man himself, and his beasts would be easy prey. But there was still a chance that they could end this without further bloodshed. If they attacked now, they would take further casualties. ¡°You want to know where they went,¡± Miriam said flatly. It was the only reason he would have decided to talk to her. ¡°All I need is a direction.¡± His voice was reasonable, almost cheerful. ¡°Point, and you will save me an hour''s work. I will be most grateful.¡± Miriam nodded. ¡°And what happens when you catch them? I don''t suppose you''d be willing to share the bounty?¡± As long as she could get the charters and the authority, she didn''t care about the money. Hell, she''d pay almost as much if that was what it took. If she could build her own town out in the Jungle, everything would change. Let the City government keep their little fiefdom, with their absurd rules and regulations. She''d have everything she needed. She even had a perfect spot in the mountains to the east picked out. It had a brilliant view of the dawn. But Mizuno cocked his hooded head to the side. ¡°Bounty?¡± He paused, then nodded. ¡°Ah, yes, I saw the world quest. I suppose that would be quite a temptation. Well, I certainly don''t need any of that. I would have no objection to giving you the corpses for your own purposes.¡± ¡°Actually, I would prefer they remain alive,¡± Miriam said. ¡°One is my niece.¡± She affected a polite chuckle. ¡°And of course, you can''t kill Miss Moore.¡± He waved his hand dismissively. ¡°Unfortunately, that is not an option. I have to kill all four of them.¡± A shard of ice shot through her heart. ¡°Wot''s that supposed to mean?¡± she asked. She carefully moved her hands behind the backs of both of her men, where Mizuno couldn''t see her doing anything. ¡°You do know why there''s the bounty on them, yeah? You don''t have to kill any of them, and you can''t kill the girl.¡± He chuckled. ¡°I think you misunderstand. My quest is quite different than yours. And yes, the death of all four is required.¡± He shrugged, sending the animals on his shoulders bouncing up and down. Neither broke their stares at Miriam. ¡°As I said, I see no reason for our goals to be mutually exclusive.¡± Miriam swallowed. ¡°Why would your master place such a requirement? If he''s not after the bounty, then why are you even¡ª¡± She stopped. This had something to do with the dragon. ¡°...ah,¡± Mizuno said. ¡°They told you, then.¡± He sounded genuinely regretful. ¡°I''m sure we can still come to some sort of arrangement,¡± she said, even as she silently placed damage buffs on both of her men. Casting spells without speaking wasn''t hard, though it did require a bit of practice. Casting spells while speaking normally was significantly harder, and she was proud of her ability in that regard. Her guards leaped forward before she even finished speaking; giving them damage buffs was the prearranged signal for them to attack, no matter what else she was saying or doing. People so rarely expected you to attack during your own speech. It had caught many of her enemies off guard, over the years. Mizuno Masahiko was not caught off guard. He blocked one strike with his own sword, moving with a fluid grace that she would have expected of a Rogue, not a Beastmaster. He disabled the second man with an elbow to the gut, slowing him just long enough to press the attack on the first. Then three wolves the size of bears crashed into her home, their eyes glowing blue. At the same moment, Miriam realized that she had lost track of Mizuno''s other pets. She felt a sharp pain in her ankle, and collapsed with a cry. She looked up, and saw the bird swooping down, talons outstretched for her eyes. Her last thought was of the view of the dawn from that mountain. Chapter 12 - Ruin It had been three days, and Josh still couldn''t stop staring at his bandaged right hand. The pain had at last faded to a reasonable level, it just hadn''t really mattered. He still couldn''t stop staring at the white bandage. Every time Darius changed the bandage, he saw the missing fingers. That vision was burned into him, right there every time he closed his eyes. The System message he had received just made it worse.
ALERT: You have suffered a crippling injury, perhaps due to overestimating your juggling skills, or simply doing something stupid like trying to block a knife with your bare hand. Minus 25% manual dexterity.
The System always got its most passive-aggressive in status ailment messages, he felt. As if it wanted to dig the knife in just a little deeper, to remind him that he had suffered this injury due to his own stupidity. Going to Miriam Manganese was always a risk, and he had always known that. There was always the chance that a meeting with her would go bad. She had earned her place in the City''s underworld by being fair and keeping to deals, true, but she was also famous for ruthlessly exploiting any advantage. Leaders of successful criminal organizations had to be, unless they wanted to become the leaders of unsuccessful criminal organizations. He simply hadn''t considered the influence of the world quest. He had thought that, between being Mary''s aunt and already having more money than she knew what to do with, the quest wouldn''t be an issue. He had been an idiot. He had been an idiot, and it was a miracle that all he had lost were a few fingers in the bargain. They couldn''t be regrown. Not any time soon, anyway. Even if they did have a Healer in the party, it would have taken a high level to regrow bone. Darius stopped in the middle of the path, and the others stumbled behind him. While they had left the main thoroughfare almost a full day ago, there were still plenty of other roads. This one was wide enough for three people to walk down, though it was already in danger of being overtaken by the Jungle. Josh guessed that no one had maintained it for a week or two. Since the reset, maybe? Now that he was paying attention, he realized that they were at a fork in the road. There were three directions to choose from: One descended deeper into the dark Jungle, tall trees overshadowing the path. One rose higher, towards a tall stone hill, the earliest foothills of the true mountains. The last was a straight path east, the most cleared of the options. ¡°Well?¡± Mary asked, impatient. ¡°Do you know where we are?¡± Darius pointed. ¡°This one leads up to the mountains, as I''m sure you can guess. There are some outposts in that direction, but they are isolated. That could work to our benefit, but I''m not certain.¡± He pointed to the cleared path. ¡°This one leads to Coyote Lake. It is the edge of City influence, officially.¡± He turned to the last path. ¡°And this one leads to every town and village that decided to live outside the City''s direct authority.¡± ¡°San Martin is next,¡± Josh said, trying to focus on anything besides his hand. ¡°I think it is, at least.¡± He was mostly remembering pre-Fall maps, so he couldn''t be completely sure, but it was a reasonable guess. Most of the new towns were named after the old ones. Darius nodded. ¡°Should just be down the road, I believe.¡± He started walking, and the rest of them followed. ¡°Y''know anything about this place?¡± Josh asked. He rolled his left arm, holding his sword. He''d managed to fight off a few monsters with it, but he still wasn''t used to fighting with his left hand. And, of course, he didn''t have any combat techniques or spells. His wooden armor, while nice, was not going to keep up forever. Darius shook his head. ¡°It''s a map, not a travel guide. I''m sure that it''s the same as any other town.¡± Ruth nodded. ¡°A strong wall and a small citystone.¡± Mary turned to walk backwards so that she could give Ruth a raised eyebrow. ¡°Surprised you''d know much about it, love. Didn''t your dad keep you locked up all the time?¡± Ruth smiled. ¡°Father did keep me overly protected, but he also made sure to take me out on most of his trips! He insisted that I take the Mender class every year, and then he''d give me bodyguards who I could support.¡± She sighed, and it wasn''t entirely unhappy. ¡°I wish he''d let me take a different class, but it wasn''t terrible.¡± Josh pushed through some large fronds, winced as they pushed on his bandaged hand, and cut through with his sword. ¡°So this is your first go-round with anything but a Healer class?¡± Ruth gave an eager nod. ¡°Yep! Even when I was able to advance my class before, it was always still in the Healer role. Let''s see...¡± She started ticking them off on her fingers. ¡°I''ve been a Priestess, a Shaman, a Lifeweaver a couple times... oh, and I even got to High Priest once!¡± She beamed. ¡°That was a good year.¡± Josh couldn''t help but smile. Her good cheer was infectious. ¡°Good to hear. Getting up a tier is hard. I remember one time I managed to get all the way to Arch-Swordsman, about two days before¡ª¡± He pushed through another wide frond, and stopped. They had found the town. Or rather, what was left of it. It was immediately obvious that the town had fallen, because the tall wooden palisade that encircled the entire settlement had several large holes in it. Through the holes, Josh could see the Jungle already beginning to reclaim what was lost. Homes were overgrown, and the well in the center was choked by vines. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. They walked inside, through the broken wall, wandering in a daze. It wasn''t that the town had been demolished. For the most part, the town just looked abandoned. Yes, there were signs of violence, but they were buried under the signs of neglect and disrepair. It was easy to imagine that the broken wall was the result of natural decay, that the barracks had collapsed because no one had driven off the rot for a few weeks. ¡°What happened here?¡± Darius asked, voice thick. ¡°The reset,¡± Ruth said quietly. She clutched her enchanted club tightly to her chest, as if it was a teddy bear. Josh grimaced. ¡°One of the trapped critters got loose?¡± She nodded. ¡°That''s a possibility, yes. One level 30 monster in a town like this, right after the reset... the walls would be a prison for the people.¡± She shuddered. ¡°I''ve seen it before. Someone didn''t tie up a monster enough, or they didn''t act fast enough after the reset, or any of a hundred other mistakes.¡± They walked in silence for a few more minutes. As if there was any chance of finding anything other than death. They walked past a home where the entire roof had collapsed. A tree was growing out of the rubble. It was already twenty feet tall and thick enough that Josh would have trouble wrapping his arms around it. ¡°This village was bigger than our outpost,¡± Mary said. It was the first time she had spoken since they entered the walls. ¡°How many you think were here?¡± Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°As few as a dozen or as many as fifty, depending on how cramped they were willing to be.¡± He waved his hand at a long building that Josh couldn''t quite identify. A church? A school? A town hall? ¡°Regardless of their current number, it is quite clear that they were preparing to expand.¡± ¡°And how often does this happen?¡± she asked. ¡°How often do we lose towns during the reset?¡± There was a long pause. ¡°A few,¡± Ruth said at last. She gave a shaky smile. ¡°There''s a reason founding a village requires explicit authorization.¡± ¡°It''s been getting worse,¡± Darius added. ¡°We''ve been losing more villages.¡± Josh gave a bitter laugh. ¡°It''s always getting worse. It''s inevitable. The monsters grow stronger, the people reset.¡± He shook his head. ¡°It''s the same muck from before the Fall. It''s why the whole bleeding world got eaten.¡± ¡°How did they figure it out?¡± Mary asked. ¡°I mean, I know they did something. They found some way around the reset, and got strong enough to finish off the Tower. Don''t think I ever heard how.¡± Ruth giggled. ¡°What do they teach in school these days?¡± ¡°No, this is certainly taught in school,¡± Darius said, giving Mary a sideways look. ¡°I suspect Miss Manganese had a slightly non-standard education.¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°Dad wanted me to learn the books, mum wanted me to learn the guns. That''s about the shape of it.¡± ¡°It was the Mechanist.¡± The others turned. Josh stood in front of a half-burned building, still smelling of acrid smoke. It looked small, about the size of a one-person home or perhaps a small store. Had a new Mage tried to defend themselves? Had they trapped monsters inside and burned them alive? Whatever they tried, it hadn''t been enough. ¡°Josh?¡± Ruth asked gently. She stepped up beside him and took his hand. She held the bandage between her hands, and it felt less painful, just for a minute. He expected her to press for how he was feeling, but she smiled instead. ¡°What was that about the Mechanist?¡± He chuckled. ¡°You don''t know?¡± ¡°I do. Don''t you want to explain?¡± She was good at that. Knowing when to let someone else talk. Meanwhile, Darius looked like he was physically holding back the desire to rant about the exact history of the Mechanist and the way they had found a way around the reset. ¡°The Mechanist invented pods.¡± Mary frowned. ¡°Like the birth pods?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°The birth pods were decades before the Fall, though. They''re impressive technology, but less impressive compared to what came next. These were hibernation pods, to keep someone safe for years or longer. The theory was that, if people were in the pods during the reset, they''d manage to dodge it.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Short way is, it worked.¡± Mary''s eyes widened in realization. Darius scoffed. ¡°That is missing quite a bit of context.¡± He turned to Mary. ¡°The Mechanist tried quite a few variations of the pods before he settled on the ones that worked. We actually have recovered a number of his earlier models, but they do not allow one to dodge the reset. None of them did, until he incorporated magic into his machines.¡± Ruth brightened at that. ¡°He got help from an Enchanter!¡± ¡°Technically, she was an Arch-Rune Architect.¡± Josh rolled his eyes. ¡°And technically the Mechanist was a Silverlight Mechanist of the Third Order. The class names get all flowery at higher tiers. No one cares.¡± ¡°The biggest problem,¡± Darius said, adjusting his glasses in a way that Josh suspected was to hide his embarrassment, ¡°is that each hibernation pod can only be used once. That, of course, is a limit of magical items. There is always an end to the enchantment.¡± Everyone nodded. It was why enchanted items were rare. They fed on the mana of the user, just a little, to work. If left alone for too long, they lost their power. Even if there had been other powerful items scattered around the world, they would all be useless by now. ¡°We have Crafters now,¡± Mary whispered. Josh wasn''t sure if anyone else was meant to hear. She raised her voice. ¡°Eventually we can start making up the difference. Create magic items, maybe even those hibernation pods again.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°We know it''s possible now.¡± Ruth grinned. ¡°We''ll get started once we find someplace to settle down. I know I''ve barely scratched the surface of what my runes can do, much less the ones I haven''t discovered yet!¡± Josh chuckled. ¡°I think we might need to pace ourselves a bit. We don''t have to solve all the world''s problems in one go, yeah?¡± ¡°If we want to stop the dragon, we will need to do something,¡± Darius said. He walked away from the still-smoking ruin. ¡°Come. The next town shouldn''t be too much farther. I would prefer to make it before nightfall.¡± Chapter 13 - South Valley The next town was South Valley, built along the old freeway, one of the primary routes through and out of the valley. It was dead too. The wall was taller and thicker, without any major holes in it. There were still monsters inside, a few large boars that hadn''t been able to break through the wall after killing everyone. They had injuries to their faces that implied someone had tried to stab them through the eyes, only to fail. The boars were in the high thirties, but the town was large enough that they could draw the monsters off one by one. Josh and the others finished them off with quick efficiency, as quietly as possible. Once it was all done, Josh, Mary, and Ruth had all leveled once, putting them at level 19. Darius had leveled twice, making him level 16. On a whim, Josh gave him a Woodcrafter bloodstone to see if he would get anything interesting out of it. Darius stopped in the middle of the town. They were walking towards the gate, which they could open from this side. Climbing over the wall had been annoying. ¡°What''s up?¡± Josh called back. ¡°You get something good after all?¡± Wordlessly, Darius gestured as if flinging something in his direction. A window appeared in Josh''s vision.
CLASS OPTIONS: Shroudcrafter (Defender). Primary statistics: Flexibility, Capacity. This is a Basic Combat class of the Defender role. Defend yourself with shrouds, enhanced by the focus devices you create.
Josh stopped too. He had loads of questions, and didn''t remember exactly what a shroud focus did. If it did what he hoped, this might be more valuable than his own Woodcrafter class. Definitely in direct combat. Most of those questions, however, could be answered just by making a shroud focus. ¡°What do you need?¡± he asked. ¡°Did you get a blueprint? Does it need enchanted materials? We have an Enchanter. Will she be enough?¡± Mary and Ruth had received the shared window too, thankfully, so they didn''t think Josh had suddenly gone mad. They were staring at their own invisible windows, open-mouthed. Darius raised a hand to stop the flood of questions. ¡°So you think I should take the class, then?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Josh shouted, loud enough to wake the dead. ¡°Unless you got Uber-Knight Castle-Eater as an alternative, yes, take the class!¡± Darius nodded, as if the answer had ever been in doubt, and tapped something invisible in front of him. His eyes glazed over as he searched through his new class. ¡°Hm... fascinating. I did not receive the [Hands-Free Crafting] and [Instant Crafting] spells. I presume those are unique to your role.¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Well?¡± Josh demanded. ¡°What did you get?¡± Darius threw another screen at him.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Craft Shroud. You may craft and enchant a shroud. Crafting from blueprints is faster and more precise than inventing new shrouds or reverse-engineering shrouds you have.
Josh frowned. ¡°Wait, is this saying that it''s impossible to craft a shroud focus without this skill?¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± ¡°Or could just be hyper-whatever,¡± Mary pointed out. ¡°Y''know, like how Josh''s Architecture skill makes it sound like you can''t build a building without it.¡± Darius gave her a long-suffering look. ¡°Do you mean hyperbole?¡± She shrugged. Josh waved her off. ¡°If he can build a shroud, I don''t care if no one else in the world can. This is what we''re here for, yeah? Things that change the world.¡± He grinned. ¡°How rare are shroud focuses right now? What if everyone could have some?¡± Mary raised an eyebrow. ¡°You having a go? What do you think a shroud focus can do?¡± Josh just grinned wider. Darius was still looking through his screens. ¡°I only have the one blueprint right now, for a rather basic focus. I need... let''s see...¡± He sighed. ¡°Monster parts. Of course. It''s an infusion class.¡± Josh was surprised he knew that term. It was an old term for how some magic items were made. Some magic items were made by carving the right runes into something and filling them with magic. ¡°Infusion crafting¡± put the magic into the item directly. Temporary infusions were common among higher-tier combat classes. Infuse magic into your sword and it would have a flaming edge for an hour. So on. Permanent infusions were something else altogether, and typically required very specific magic types, from very specific sources. Such as, for example, draining the magic from monster parts. Ruth brightened. ¡°If I experiment with monster parts, do you think I''ll get Enchanter blueprints?¡± She hadn''t had a chance to experiment with her runes, so Josh suspected she was feeling useless with her class. ¡°Could be,¡± Josh said. He knew there were plenty of magic items that used infusion crafting and runes both. He waved his hand at the corpses of the slain monsters. He winced at the sight of the missing fingers, but forced himself to smile. ¡°Have a go at it, then!¡± ¡°Specific monster parts,¡± Darius said, giving him a withering look. He read his screens again. ¡°I suspect I can change some of these requirements, but I don''t know anything about how this class or how shrouds function yet. I need to at least craft it the normal way once first.¡± That seemed logical enough to Josh. ¡°Sure! There has to be a shop¡ª¡± His smile faded, as he remembered they were standing in the middle of a dead town. He sighed, then forced another smile. It was much weaker. ¡°What''s the next town on the list?¡± Ruth had the map out now. ¡°Uh, Monterey?¡± She frowned. ¡°Isn''t that a state?¡± ¡°It was a city in the old world,¡± Josh said tiredly. ¡°Much farther than this one.¡± He clapped Darius on the back and gave a weak chuckle. ¡°Come on. I''m sure this next town will have something to sell us.¡± Chapter 14 - Getting their Bearings (part 1) Monterey was, it turned out, named after the highway it had been built near. There was a road sign sitting proudly in the center of town, next to the town hall. This town had clearly been here for a few years at least. There were multiple permanent buildings, and Josh saw something that looked like the beginnings of an observatory. There was a large telescope at the top, though the rest of the building was flimsy, little more than scaffolding. This town was dead too. In this case, Josh suspected the problem wasn''t a mistake during the reset. Rather than a bunch of escaped monsters, the town was infested with monstrous birds. The town was filled with crows and hawks the size of dogs, with feathers like leaves and beaks like old wood. There was a buzzard the size of a bus, perched on top of the town hall, surrounded by dozens of its smaller brethren, its eyes blazing with green fire. There were dozens of the monsters, perched on every building and squawking at each other. Every once in a while they would fly down to the streets, presumably still fighting over the scraps of meat left in town. ¡°So,¡± Josh said. They stood on a hill overlooking the town, too far for the birds to take notice of them. ¡°What are you thinking?¡± ¡°I suspect it is as simple as it seems,¡± Darius said. ¡°Likely an adventurer brought back something that caught the attention of the monsters. A natural treasure, or perhaps simply a particularly delectable haunch of meat. This attracted too many flying monsters for the town to deal with, too quickly, then the fighting attracted more, so on and so on.¡± ¡°I meant should we burn out the monsters, or just move on.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°Well, my blueprint does require monster feathers. Specifically, Air-affinity feathers. Basic-tier are fine. We would find more than enough here.¡± ¡°Got no fire magic, though.¡± Mary stretched. ¡°Don''t get me wrong, I''m willing to give it a go if everyone else is, but I''ve only got so many bullets, don''t I? Maybe save it for something else.¡± Ruth nodded, though she still looked down at the town with sadness. ¡°Maybe someone can do something with this place if the monsters are cleared out, but that''s no reason to get ourselves killed over it!¡± The Jungle had hardly even started to crawl in through the wall, so the actual buildings were almost untouched. If not for the splashes of red everywhere, from this distance the town could be mistaken for normal. Except for the lack of a citystone, and the birds. ¡°How far to the next town?¡± Josh asked. Darius didn''t even need to take out his map. ¡°A few hours. If we really wanted to restock, then come back to clear this place out, we could.¡± ¡°Yeah, if that place isn''t a vulture-picked corpse too,¡± Mary muttered. Thankfully, Mary was wrong. Gilroy Crossing had been built in the ruin of a shopping mall, as far as Josh could tell. It was hard to be sure, since the Jungle had consumed almost everything of the old world. The old parking lot had been cleared of the trees and undergrowth enough to show the remnants of the ancient asphalt. The buildings had that look of being built on old foundations, and were the blocky and functional shape of a world that was more concerned about efficiency of construction than surviving a siege. The wooden palisade around the town was tall and strong, with spiked tops to deal with climbers. There were plenty of guard towers that looked ready to deal with airborne monsters, and there were two strong gates. One faced northwest, back towards the City, and one faced southeast, out of the valley. The wall encircled a relatively wide area, on the scale of parking lots, but not on the scale of towns. Even with people willing to be rather cramped, they couldn''t fit more than a few hundred inside the walls. Most towns dealt with that by just encouraging people to go build a new town somewhere. This wasn''t always the best solution, as town charters were extremely expensive. Founding a town without a citystone was possible, but it would lose out on major advantages. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Josh thought Gilroy''s solution was ingenious. Obviously they couldn''t expand the town wall every time people got a little cramped, so instead they constructed smaller circles of walls nearby. Two of them actually abutted the town directly, with gates allowing passage between the towns. Would they be called suburbs? There were more circles of walls, mini-villages that were little more than a handful of buildings. Maybe all the buildings in one circle belonged to one family. In fact, as they were coming down the road, he heard roars from one of the more distant circles, and wondered if it had captured monsters. Josh could already tell it wasn''t a perfect system. It was probably a nightmare for the guards to patrol it all. But it was certainly better than letting everyone rough it outside the walls. This way, everyone was close enough to trade and help, while still being far enough to quarantine one circle if something went wrong. Their little party walked up to the guards at the main gate. Josh and Ruth had decided to wear masks to prevent scanning by the Identify skill, and Darius had pointed out that it would look suspicious if they were the only ones masked. Now all four of them wore face-concealing masks made out of bark and leaves. Josh had actually received a blueprint and a laughably small experience reward for making the first one. They made the group look like cannibals wandering in from the mountains. Josh tried to smile reassuringly. There were only two guards, though there was a large bell that could call more at a moment''s notice. The woman, wearing a massive shield taller than she was, had the bored expression of an experienced guard: Completely uninterested, but ready to leap into action. The fact that they were all wearing masks clearly didn''t make her happy, but she didn''t say anything about it. ¡°Hello, and welcome to Gilroy Crossing. What''s your business in town?¡± Next to her, the second guard was picking something out of his teeth. Josh was much less confident in his readiness. Mary cocked her head, hands on her hips, to display her gun holstered there prominently. ¡°We''re here for the Estival Day celebration, innit obvious? We came all dressed for dancing.¡± Josh cuffed her upside the head. ¡°Come off it.¡± He turned to the guard with a grin. ¡°Sorry about her. She followed me home one day and I never could get rid of her. We''re hoping to put down roots here, if that''s an option. At least hunt some monsters and buy some treasures.¡± The guard nodded. ¡°There''s no fee to come in, though if you want to claim some land you''ll need to talk to the mayor. Welcome, and hope you can make something of yourself.¡± Inside was much the same as every other outpost town Josh had ever seen. The walls loomed over everything, as most buildings didn''t want to poke out too high. People walked around with a guarded, but not paranoid air, and everyone was armed with at least one weapon. Josh noted that bows seemed to be the most common, meaning the Archer class, but he also saw plenty of people who he suspected were Rogues, Mages, and even a few people who seemed to have already refined to Swordsman or Pyromage classes. There were plenty of buildings, and Josh was surprised to realize most of them weren''t private homes. That was what you normally saw out here, as most of these towns had been built by individual settlers, one or two at a time. Instead, there was a long row of shops and businesses, ready to greet any newcomers to the town. The large building nearby, the one that Josh suspected had been built on the bones of the old shopping center, seemed to serve as a silo or storage. Of course, at the center of everything was the crystal. It looked like a red teardrop gemstone, carved by someone who gave up before they finished polishing it. It was three meters tall, pointed end straight up, and covered in rough facets and angles. It floated gently a meter or so off the ground, rotating slowly in place. This was a small citystone, as were all the crystals outside of the City. Josh could tell at a glance that it was no more than Basic-tier. Advancing a citystone required something special from a Craft class. I can do something about that, Josh thought with a start. Or Ruth, maybe. He didn''t actually know how to advance a citystone. It hadn''t exactly seemed important before. He knew he should have paid more attention in class. The path led straight to the citystone, so all four of them walked up to it. Without saying a word, they all put their hands on the crystal.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the quest: Kill Four Boars! Reward: 80 experience.
This repeated for all eight quests that they had been given by Paul back in the vanguard outpost. 640 experience wasn''t much, of course, and none of them managed to level. Still, it was something, and they all took a moment to grab another full load of extermination quests. They focused on birds, in the hope that they could clear out Monterey and finish their quests at the same time. Chapter 15 - Getting their Bearings (part 2) There were a few other quests, mostly deliveries and the like, but Darius recommended they hold off until they knew what the local rules were. Though delivering eight logs certainly sounded easy, sometimes towns had rules on exactly who could cut down trees where. Besides, hauling eight heavy logs back to the citystone was exhausting. Especially since none of them had specialized in their Strength score. ¡°Where to next?¡± Ruth asked, smiling brightly. She leaned forward, eyes twinkling. ¡°Oh! Can we look at that place?¡± She pointed at a blacksmith. ¡°They might have magic items! I can learn more runes!¡± ¡°I dunno, I don''t have a better idea.¡± Josh glanced at Mary. ¡°You?¡± She twirled one of her guns. ¡°I''d like another shooter,¡± she said. ¡°Get some options, really go to town.¡± ¡°As eager as I am to give you more destructive potential,¡± Darius said dryly, ¡°I suspect we should start with the mayor. If we are going to put down roots here, it would be good to know where to start.¡± Josh shrugged his large shoulders. ¡°Sure.¡± He looked around. ¡°And where''s that supposed to be, then?¡± The town hall wasn''t all that far from the citystone, as he should have expected. There were no guards at the door, but there was a secretary. It took a few minutes of arguing to get past him. The mayor was much more accommodating. Honestly, considering the size of the town, Josh was surprised how easy it was to see her and how accommodating proved to be. She was a young woman, about their age, but she stood with a straight back and regal poise. She didn''t wear a mask, so he knew she was a [Level 20 Attacker]. There was a nice compound bow in the corner, and a few swords on the wall behind her. He wondered if she was an Archer or a Swordswoman. ¡°We did already know about Monterey,¡± she said, once they explained the situation. She looked stern, but composed. This was the face of a woman who had weathered tragedies. ¡°A few of the survivors came our way. Apparently one of their scavengers found a natural treasure of the Air affinity, and failed to secure it properly.¡± She inclined her head. ¡°I''m sure you understand.¡± Josh grimaced. ¡°Yeah, muck happens, we get it. Still, not exactly a laugh.¡± Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°Have your reclaimers retrieved the natural treasure?¡± The mayor shook her head. ¡°No. The monsters are high thirties. No one wants to go in there until at least level 40.¡± She raised an eyebrow at them. More specifically, she looked at their masks. ¡°You''re not level 40, are you?¡± ¡°We''re not planning on clearing out the town.¡± Josh sidestepped the question about their level. It was pretty rude to ask that, anyway. He crossed his arms over his chest. ¡°We were hoping to get some monster parts, though. Knock out a few birds, kite them from the flock.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± She thought for a moment. ¡°Are you looking for experience, or upgrade materials?¡± Creating true magic items was impossible after the Fall, without Enchanters and similar classes. It was, however, possible to affix monster parts to something, which was sometimes almost as good. Arrows made with Air-affinity feathers flew faster and farther, for example. Josh shrugged. ¡°Upgrade materials, for now. Experience is always good, though.¡± The mayor sat down at her small desk, nodding. ¡°Of course. And you said you wanted land in the city?¡± She pulled out a paper and started writing quickly. ¡°Now, we''re short-staffed because of the reset. We lost some good people, and everyone else is still under-leveled for the area. I''m willing to make some accommodations.¡± ¡°You want to give us some poor mucker''s house?¡± Josh asked with a raised eyebrow. The mayor shook her head. ¡°All the houses are claimed.¡± She gave a bitter smile. ¡°We keep our wills updated out here, and next-of-kin are well documented. No, those are all spoken for, but I do have a few small walls set up, just waiting for someone to come in and exploit them.¡± She handed Josh the paper she had been writing on. ¡°I can give one to your team without trouble.¡± Josh took the paper, and Darius took it from him before he could do much more than glance at it. His eyes narrowed. ¡°This... is a rather large plot of land. It seems generous to just give it away to the first people who wander by.¡± The mayor gave him a thin smile. ¡°It''s uncleared land. We have the wall up, and there weren''t any monsters in there when we checked two weeks ago. If you wait much longer, the Jungle will eat the wall. This is not a gift. At best, I''m giving you a job.¡± She gestured to the door. ¡°Show that to my secretary, and we''ll have a guard direct you to your new property. I wish you the best of luck.¡± Their new walled circle of land was almost a mile outside the main town wall. It was one of the furthest circles, though a few others were well within sight. It was at least a couple acres, though Josh didn''t have enough experience to be sure. It was also, as the mayor had promised, completely uncleared. The palisade surrounding the land was a good twenty feet tall, thick wooden logs plunged into the earth. The trees inside towered over them, looking as if the youngest was a hundred years old. There were scraggly pines, towering oaks, majestic redwoods, and a dozen other species that Josh couldn''t name. Underneath it all, the ground was choked with so much undergrowth it didn''t look like you could clear it with a flamethrower. While they called it the Jungle, the truth was more complicated. All plant life was corrupted, growing fast and feasting on blood. Strengthened by the strange magic that had spilled out of the Tower, biomes and basic habitability zones had been completely upended. Redwoods could grow on the equator, chimpanzees could survive in the Arctic. Seeing a random collection of trees from all sorts of environments mixed together like this wasn''t particularly surprising. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°All right,¡± Josh said, clapping his hands together. He tried not to wince at the feel of his missing fingers. ¡°Do we have enough oil?¡± Darius gave him a withering look. ¡°I do not think that setting a large fire inside our wooden palisade would be wise.¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°It''s the Jungle. You''ve seen burns before. They never spread far.¡± ¡°Be that as it may,¡± Darius said, after visibly composing himself. ¡°We do not, in fact, have enough oil. We do not have any oil, nor funds with which to purchase it.¡± Josh grimaced. ¡°Old-fashioned way it is, then.¡± He pulled his hatchet off his thigh. He kept it strapped there tightly, where it wouldn''t bounce when he moved. Ruth blinked, looked down at his belt, and frowned. ¡°Have you had that this entire time?¡± ¡°Uh, yeah?¡± He flipped the small ax end over end and caught it again. ¡°Most reclaimers do.¡± Mary and Darius pulled out their own hatchets, giving Ruth odd looks. She turned red. ¡°S-so maybe I miss some things! I''ve been a little busy these past few days!¡± She pulled out a small notebook. ¡°I''ve been writing down runes!¡± Josh, figuring that this was going to take a while, started chopping at a nearby tree. He picked a rather small one that he was pretty sure wasn''t secretly a monster. It didn''t attack him when he chopped into it, so it was probably just a normal tree instead of a mobile evil tree. The motion was awkward, as he wasn''t used to the missing fingers, but not as bad as he had expected it to be. The mayor had pointed them to a Mender who had helped get rid of the last of the pain and soreness. ¡°Why''d you even need to write down runes?¡± Mary asked Ruth. ¡°Thought you got blueprints and all that muck.¡± ¡°I do, but it takes a bit to get them right enough that I get the blueprint. Besides, I still have to take notes and come up with possible rune-chains!¡± Darius was just about to start on his own tree nearby, but stopped and looked up. ¡°Rune-chains? I assume that is something more complicated than simply inscribing a single rune on an object?¡± Josh could hear the smile in Ruth''s voice. He didn''t look at her, focused on chopping down his tree. If he was right... ¡°Yep! Not counting the connection runes, I only have four element runes and four others. I know there are more, though, and I''m looking forward to discovering them! But if I connect them into chains, I can already do some cool things with them!¡± A pause. ¡°Probably.¡± Josh slammed the final blow home with a satisfyingly solid sound. The tree toppled over, leaves rustling until the entire thing slammed into the ground with the crunch of breaking branches. It was a good start to clearing out the area. His prize, however, was better.
NEW TECHNIQUE LEARNED: Chop Tree (rank 1). An improved technique for chopping down trees and other large, solid objects. Cost: 8 stamina (variable by equipment). Requires: Ax (variable).
Mary realized something was up with him immediately. ¡°Oi! You look too happy! What happened?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing much.¡± He threw the screen at all three of them. ¡°I just think this is going to be easier than expected.¡± He turned to a new tree, raised his ax again, and activated [Chop Tree]. His arms swung forward almost of their own volition, chopping deep into the trunk. It wasn''t a supernaturally strong blow¡ªnot yet. At first rank, it wouldn''t be any better than if he just chopped the tree normally. But it would be more consistent, and it would improve with time. Eventually, he''d be able to chop down a tree with one swing of the technique. ¡°Cheater,¡± Mary muttered. Since she was an [Attacker], she had no chance of earning such an ability. If combat classes could learn this sort of thing, the world would be a very different place. Ruth perked up. ¡°Ooh! Do you think I''ll get something like that?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°I guess it depends on if I got it because I''m a Woodcrafter, or a Crafter.¡± He smiled and handed her the ax. ¡°One way to find out, yeah?¡± Ruth did, in fact, earn the [Chop Tree] technique. It just took roughly eight times as long. Josh nodded as Ruth collapsed, panting, over her last felled tree. ¡°Yeah, that''s about what I expected. Think it''s like when an Archer tries to learn a Rogue technique. You can do it, but it takes forever.¡± Ruth groaned. The air was still filled with the steady sounds of axes chopping wood, as Mary and Darius continued. They had just paced themselves better. ¡°I''m going to be useless here, aren''t I?¡± ¡°Yeah, maybe.¡± She pouted. ¡°Hey!¡± Josh grinned. ¡°Telling it like it is, love.¡± He reached down to grab his hatchet, but hesitated. His hand was aching, especially the stumps of his fingers. He had enough stamina to keep going, he just didn''t want to use his hand. He hadn''t tried this, but... He walked over to the nearest tree. It was a young tree, hardly even taller than he was. In the Jungle, that meant it was only a few days old. Most of the trees were pretty young, actually. He suspected that the town had burned the Jungle as much as they could right before the reset. He placed his hand on the trunk and concentrated on his [Chop Tree] technique. [Error: Conditions not met.] As expected. He wasn''t holding an ax, or even anything that might do the job. He was curious what would happen if he tried with a sword. He''d get to that later. Instead, he concentrated on his technique again. Then he tried to activate it at the same time as his [Hands-Free Crafting] spell. A loud chop rang out, louder than what Mary and Darius were managing. Josh grinned as he saw the large divot appear in the trunk of the tree, exactly as if he had swung an ax into it. With his high Perception and Sensitivity scores, [Chop Tree] and [Hands-Free Crafting] took one point of stamina and mana, respectively. He was surprised the base cost for [Hands-Free Crafting] was so low in this case, though. His guess was that it cost more when replacing more complex tools. Now that he thought about it, the stamina cost for [Chop Tree] was also pretty low. Even ignoring his high Perception bringing it down to the minimum, 8 was cheap for such an effective technique. A Swordsman''s basic [Slash Attack] was 10. Maybe because it was so specific? You could use [Slash Attack] on anything, but [Chop Tree] would only work on trees and tree-like things. Still, the low cost had its advantages. He touched the tree again¡ªhe still hadn''t retrieved his hatchet¡ªand concentrated. Not just on [Chop Tree] and [Hands-Free Crafting], but on his Strength score. With a Strength of 5, that meant he could overcharge a technique to put 5 extra points of stamina into it. Of course, with a Constitution of 5, he only had 5 points of stamina total. His high Perception brought the cost of [Chop Tree] down to 1, so that meant he had 4 extra stamina points to put into it. He did so. The energy left him in a rush, making him suddenly feel as though he had run a marathon. Zeroing out stamina was always exhausting. It was even worse for mana. It certainly had an effect on the tree, though. His invisible ax strike sunk twice as deep as before, lining up perfectly with the previous one and biting deep into the hardwood. The tree creaked and groaned, and with little more than a hard shove, Josh was able to topple it over. It crashed to the ground, its branches crunching. ¡°All right!¡± he said, grinning. ¡°Let''s see how many trees we can clear before night!¡± Chapter 16 - Into Town
CONGRATULATIONS! Technique rank-up! Chop Tree rank 3 has reached rank 4. Experience gained.
Josh dismissed the notice and surveyed their progress. In six hours, they''d managed to clear a good chunk of their land. About half an acre, he''d say. It had been slow at first, even though these trees were relatively small and all the reclaimers had plenty of experience lumberjacking. There was just too much logistical work that Josh always forgot about. Someone had to strip the branches off the fallen trees and haul them away. They didn''t have the equipment for that. At first. Constructing a wagon big enough to carry the logs was easy enough. Josh had gotten into the habit of carrying around nails, screws, and other miscellaneous tools to help craft new blueprints. Luckily, Operative Jonah had insisted on making sure both Josh and Ruth knew every complicated wooden mechanism he could think of, so they could make wheels and axles. Josh could make a waterwheel and a wooden elevator, if he had to. But even a well-made wagon would still be heavy with a few logs piled in, and none of them were specialized in Strength. Ruth found the solution, with her runes. She had already demonstrated her Gravity rune back in the dungeon. That had been a crude thing, just the rune itself, inscribed into the tool. Feed mana into it, and it made something heavier. She had already discovered how to invert runes, so a Gravity rune would make something lighter, but hadn''t found a use for it. Darius had suggested putting it on the cart, and that had helped significantly. She still hadn''t figured out how to make the runes self-powered, but she did manage to give them the ability to retain mana by attaching a Gravity rune, a connector rune, and a Capacity rune. Any one of them could push mana into the rune-chain, and it would last for a few minutes. Long enough to run the logs outside and dump them. Once the logistics of getting the logs out of the way was done, there came the question of improving their speed at actually cutting down the trees. Josh''s tricks with techniques and spells were nice, but he was still just one man. Even if eventually he could cut down a tree with one swing, he wasn''t there yet, and Ruth was coming along even slower. The answer was more runes. This time, Ruth didn''t try anything fancy, she just put a single Gravity rune on their hatchets, as she had done with her club. It took a bit for them to get used to putting mana into it right as they brought it down. Once they got the hang of it, they could chop down trees twice as fast as before. Josh thought they made as much progress in the last hour as they did in the first five combined. ¡°Not bad for a day''s sweat,¡± he said cheerily. ¡°Might finish up tomorrow, you reckon?¡± Mary poured a cup of water over her head. ¡°Get me some healing for my hands, and maybe.¡± Ruth perked up at that. ¡°Oh! If I can find some healing items, I might be able to help with that! I''ll just need to copy down the runes!¡± Josh nodded. ¡°I expect there''s something like that in the shops.¡± ¡°It will be expensive, though,¡± Darius said as he toweled off. ¡°I doubt turning in these logs will earn us much.¡± Ruth scrunched up her face. ¡°I checked. They''re offering ten credits per log! I know trees are cheap, but surely they''re worth more than that?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°May as well just use them ourselves, then.¡± The experience reward for the quest came out to 8 points per log, which wasn''t worth hauling them over to the citystone. Maybe if Ruth managed to create a self-propelled vehicle... He looked up at the darkening sky. ¡°Everyone ready for supper?¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Ruth said with a grin. She looked around. ¡°Where are we going to eat?¡± Then she frowned. ¡°Or sleep?¡± ¡°Town this big has gotta have enough inns to station an army and a half,¡± Mary said. She stretched a few times as she said it, getting the kinks out of her back. ¡°Find something that smells good, rent a couple rooms.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°We can build our own homes¡ªhell, this far out they''d expect us to. Not tonight, though.¡± He yawned theatrically. ¡°Think I''m tired enough for a good ale at the Prancing Pony or whatever.¡± Darius rolled his eyes. ¡°People have more imagination than to name an inn The Prancing Pony.¡± As it turned out, they didn''t. There were several inns scattered around the town, but Josh and Mary both insisted on picking the one named the Prancing Pony. Josh thought the reference was hilarious, Mary didn''t get it but thought Darius'' annoyance was hilarious, and Ruth didn''t get it but was happy to just go along. The inn was a wooden building about the size of a small restaurant in the Old World. It wasn''t overly crowded, though it wasn''t empty either. There were a few scatterings of tough-looking people sitting at tables and drinking from mugs. Of course, out here everyone was tough-looking. You had to at least be able to fake it if you wanted to live past the nominal edge of civilization. Thankfully, that also meant many of them were wearing masks to foul Identify, so they didn''t earn any extra looks for that. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The man at the counter who was polishing glasses wasn''t wearing a mask, though. A quick Identify labeled him as [Attacker: Level 16]. Not bad, considering how early it was in the year, and how little need he would have to go out and slay monsters. Josh wondered if there were some special repeatable quests he could do, bring drinks to the citystone or something. Then authorized town representatives could withdraw the drinks and distribute them. No, if that was the case, the inn would be built around the citystone... Josh was knocked out of his musing by the bartender''s wide grin. ¡°Newcomers, eh? Name''s Manean Smith. Call me Manny. What brings you to my humble watering hole?¡± Josh stepped forward with a smile of his own. ¡°My friends and I just got some land in the area. We''re not done getting it ready, though, so we''ll need dinner and rooms for the night.¡± ¡°Sure, sure. Just tonight, or longer?¡± Josh thought about it. They could probably finish clearing out their land tomorrow if they pushed, but there was no way they''d finish building homes. Not even with his Architecture skill. ¡°At least tomorrow night. After that?¡± He shrugged. ¡°Think we plan to just play it by ear.¡± ¡°Fair enough.¡± He moved to grab some menus. ¡°I recommend the pork. Or, if you don''t like eating Jungle-touched, our soup isn''t bad.¡± Josh handed the menus off to the others. He doubted anyone would care about eating monsters. He was more squeamish on the matter than most people, and even he didn''t care most of the time. Manny rolled his sleeve up as he did some dishes, catching Josh''s eye. ¡°That''s a nice tat.¡± It was the number 50 in large, block letters, with a date written underneath it in smaller numbers. It was thirty-two years ago. Josh couldn''t for the life of him think of anything he had heard about from that time worth tattooing on yourself. Manny laughed. ¡°Yeah, it''s my pod. Seems silly now, but I always wanted to be sure I remembered where I came from, you know?¡± Josh blinked owlishly. ¡°Wot? You''re podborn? You''ve got a name, though.¡± He waved his hand. ¡°A family name. You know what I mean.¡± That earned him a snorting laugh. ¡°Yeah, I get that a lot. I was born in an off year. You know, when the Immortals let parents use the pods for their own kids.¡± ¡°Oh, that makes sense.¡± Josh guessed most podborn who weren''t orphans didn''t see a need to advertise it. ¡°Did you have to drink that stupid goo for the first eight years?¡± Now it was Manny''s turn to blink. ¡°Why, yes. You''re podborn?¡± Josh grinned. ¡°Josh Hundredborn, at your service. Pod 96. I''m told I came out big and happy.¡± He affected a sigh. ¡°And then they gave me a tube of that stupid nutrient paste and I didn''t know food had taste for sixteen years.¡± ¡°...sixteen?¡± Manny asked. ¡°Had some developmental issues.¡± Manny nodded. ¡°I hear that can happen.¡± Then he chuckled. ¡°Looks like you got over them, though!¡± Josh laughed and flexed his massive bicep. ¡°Yeah, they overdid it a bit, you think?¡± While they had been chatting, the others had been looking over the menus. They ordered, and Manny promised to bring out their food in a few minutes. Josh just ordered the daily special, which was some sort of pulled pork sandwich. ¡°I''m jealous,¡± Ruth said, pouting as she poked at her food. Josh chuckled. ¡°Then you should have ordered the sandwich yourself!¡± She rolled her eyes. ¡°Not that.¡± She waved her fork, indicating him up and down. ¡°You''re all big and muscly. Dad would never let me do anything, so I look like a stupid doll. My base Strength is a three.¡± She poked at her food despondently. ¡°I''ll bet yours is, like, seven.¡± ¡°It''s five,¡± he said dryly. ¡°You ever tried weight lifting? I thought you said your dad let you do whatever, as long as it wasn''t dangerous.¡± She sighed. ¡°Yeah... but I was always a Healer. Never really found the time to exercise for hours a day, you know? Strength is pretty much useless for them. Most of the physical scores, really.¡± Josh snorted around his sandwich. He swallowed his bite, then jerked his thumb at Mary. ¡°When I first met this mucker, she was running a physical Mender build.¡± Darius looked up, a completely deadpan expression on his face. ¡°You must be joking.¡± Mary just laughed. ¡°Nope, it''s true! I was in one of those research groups, you know, where they have you try all sorts of random tricks to see what you get junk for? I got some nifty Mender techniques, could even get some pretty good use outta them.¡± She paused, thinking, as she chewed. ¡°The reset¡ª¡± ¡°Don''t talk with your mouth full,¡± Darius said flatly. Mary glared at him, swallowed, and continued. ¡°The reset hit before I could go all in, but I think I was close to unlocking some arts. That''s where the real power in the build would have been.¡± ¡°If you want, I can show you some moves,¡± Josh said to Ruth. ¡°I exercise in the morning, and having a buddy always helps. Get a little bit of extra motivation, yeah?¡± ¡°Is that really appropriate?¡± Darius asked in a long-suffering tone. Both Josh and Ruth just blinked at him. ¡°Why wouldn''t it be?¡± Josh asked. Darius looked between the two, then shrugged. ¡°I suppose so.¡± Chapter 17 - Building (part 1) They started bright and early the next day. As promised, Josh guided Ruth through some basic exercises. Crunches, push-ups, a good run, that sort of thing. He warned her that she wouldn''t see major gains early on, especially since they didn''t have weights. She just seemed excited to be included, and didn''t mind. As it turned out, the chores around their land were decent training themselves. They had to spend an hour cleaning up saplings and new shoots, because they had forgotten to burn what they had cut last night. Mary stomped over to the nearest store, Darius trailing behind her. They came back with enough oil to at least burn out the new growths. It cut into their savings, but no one complained. Thankfully, besides that, the work went well. Josh cut through the trees at a mad measure, his [Chop Tree] technique ranking up step by step. By the end of the day it was rank 8, and he could cut down a small tree with a single swipe. Combined with [Hands-Free Crafting], he just had to touch a tree and it almost fell over on its own. Ruth was slower in comparison to him, but faster than both Mary and Darius combined. She didn''t have the Perception and Sensitivity scores to use her techniques and spells so casually, so she had to swing her ax normally. Still, Josh managed to convince her it was good Strength training. Which was true, even if it would take an absurd amount of exercise before she received a boost to her score that way. Darius and Mary ended up mostly using the cart to get the logs out of the way. They were collecting quite the stack. Darius estimated that they had almost two hundred trees total on their property. Even though most of them were on the smaller side, they piled up. They took breaks every once and a while to learn their own techniques and spells, since they weren''t gaining any experience from the tree cutting. Well, Josh and Ruth weren''t getting any experience from the actual tree cutting; that was a [Gatherer]-role activity. Still, they were gaining experience from improving their abilities, and from the occasional crafting they had to do. They only had to pause to meditate for mana every once in a while. So, Mary and Darius trained. They set up targets, and Mary worked on infusing mana into her gunshots. She managed to gain the [Pyro Shot] spell on her second try thanks to already having the Archer version of the spell. Darius still didn''t have the materials to make shroud focuses¡ªwhat little money they had needed to go to food and supplies¡ªbut he did discover that he could learn plenty of [Defender]-type spells. He might not have taken the Shrouder class before, but he had been prepared. He had a literal checklist of spells to learn, and instructions on the best ways to do so. By six o''clock, they were about two-thirds of the way through their property. Considering that this was only their second day, Josh thought they had done a good job. If they really pushed, he thought that they could manage to finish it up tonight, but it wasn''t worth it. ¡°Reckon we can manage the houses tonight,¡± he said confidently. He wiped sweat off his forehead. ¡°Ruth, you agree?¡± She dropped his hatchet, breathing heavily. ¡°Maybe? Phew, I don''t know.¡± She looked at the very large pile of logs stacked up next to the palisade. ¡°We can at least try, right?¡± Josh nodded. He walked over to one of the larger logs and activated [Hands-Free Crafting]. There was a sound suspiciously like a buzzsaw for a few moments, and then the log was a few planks. The sawdust had even been collected in a nearby bucket that they had prepared. This wasn''t a technique, though he did have a technique for sawing planks. This was a blueprint for wooden planks. It was interesting, because if he didn''t use the spell, there wouldn''t be any real difference between him and a normal person doing it. He''d have the blueprint in the forefront of his mind the entire time, so he''d know the process perfectly and know how to follow it, but he still had to follow every step normally. It was only with [Hands-Free Crafting] that he could skip all of that due to not actually needing the tools. He assumed [Instant Crafting] would be even better, but he didn''t actually have the right tools for this since he left the vanguard outpost, so he couldn''t test it. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Ruth helped with her own spells, and in a few minutes they had a nice stack of planks, plus some posts and beams. Everything they needed to get the frame of a house up and at least get started on the walls. Digging the holes for the posts was harder than he had expected¡ªhe''d never used the tool before, and it was awkward¡ªbut they managed it. They didn''t have any cement, so they had to dig deep in order to make sure that the posts would be properly anchored. Josh made sure to focus on every step of the process as they dug the hole, set the post, and filled it back in with hard-packed dirt. Once they were sure it was solid, he got what he had been hoping for.
CONGRATULATIONS! Due to experimenting with your designs, you have learned the blueprint: Foundation Post (wood) (variant). It''s a post in the ground. Don''t get too excited.
The fact that it was labeled as a variant meant that it was treated the same as his basic post blueprint. He didn''t gain any experience for inventing the new blueprint, and his rate of gaining experience from crafting it would decay along with the basic post. He wouldn''t level from this. Of course, that wasn''t the point. It had taken over an hour to plant this first post. Mostly because they hadn''t really known what they were doing. He suspected they could cut it down to half an hour now, maybe fifteen minutes if they got good. Instead, they dragged another post over to where they wanted the corner of the house to be, along with all the necessary tools. ¡°Here goes nothing,¡± he said. He made sure that everything was within hand''s reach. ¡°Instant Crafting.¡± There was a flash of light and a cloud of dust that made them cough and wave their hands in front of their faces. Once they blinked their eyes clear, they saw it: A stable post, sitting there in the ground as solid as if they had spent over an hour ensuring it. [Instant Crafting] had cost more than usual. Josh expected that was because the blueprint took longer. However, it also cost less than he would have thought for a full hour''s work. He expected that was because the work, while long, was easy. He grinned wide enough that his face hurt. He was still grinning as he sat down on the ground to meditate and recover his mana. Mary waggled her eyebrows at him. ¡°Oh? You ready for another go?¡± Darius pushed his glasses up. ¡°Don''t make it sound so... tawdry.¡± She punched him in the shoulder. ¡°That was you, you muppet.¡± ¡°I''m ready,¡± Josh said, still grinning. He stood up. ¡°I''ve got a few more shots in me tonight.¡± Mary pointed an accusing finger at him. ¡°Now that was tawdry.¡± They didn''t do anything fancy. They just wanted four rooms to sleep in. They''d deal with kitchens and so on later. Putting up the remaining posts took a grand total of half an hour, including waiting for his mana to recharge. While they waited, they started on all the supports and so on, making sure that the foundation was steady. Then they put in the planks for the floor, and finally the walls. It required loads of nails, and Josh briefly considered just stacking up logs instead. But nails were cheap, even on their budget, so it probably wasn''t worth what they''d save. All told, the first little one-room shack took about three hours to build. It was a terrible house without even a door, but it would keep the wind and the rain off. Josh had never been prouder in his life. ¡°Oi.¡± Mary punched him in the shoulder. ¡°Wipe that grin off your face. You look like a man with a hen that just laid three eggs.¡± He laughed. ¡°C''mon, can you blame me?¡± She snorted. ¡°Suppose not.¡± ¡°Now for the real test.¡± Three hours was an incredible speed for even something this small, but he might be able to do it faster. Because he had received a blueprint when they had finished the house.
CONGRATULATIONS! Due to combining various different designs, you have learned the blueprint: Small Shack (wood). This is the kind of building you use to store yard tools you don''t care about. Or the crazy uncle who won''t leave your property and never bathes!
Chapter 18 - Building (part 2)
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 19 Woodcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
He put one point in Perception and one in Sensitivity, as usual. Dumping everything into his class stats was kind of insane, and if it didn''t earn him a new class by level 24, he''d probably stop. An unbalanced build had plenty of drawbacks. He made sure they had all the materials and tools for another shack within arm''s reach. He checked twice, then sat in the middle and took a deep breath. ¡°Instant Crafting,¡± he said, unnecessarily.
Spell failed! Not enough mana.
His shoulders sagged. It was worth a shot. The others immediately realized what had gone wrong. ¡°Don''t worry, Josh!¡± Ruth cheered. ¡°You''ll get it eventually!¡± ¡°How much is the mana cost, out of curiosity?¡± Darius asked. Josh checked his status. Now that he had tried the spell once, he could see the cost. He could even see the breakdown and calculation of each individual part, the percentage discount for efficiency, and then the flat discount for his high Sensitivity. He stared at the number. Darius gave him a wry chuckle. ¡°That high?¡± Josh put his face in his hands. ¡°It''s basically the cost of casting the spell about a hundred times, with the discount from my Sensitivity only applying once at the end.¡± Darius nodded. ¡°That is how combination spells normally work. Though I doubt there are any others so complex.¡± Ruth cocked her head to the side. ¡°What about combination techniques?¡± Darius dismissed that with a wave of his hand. ¡°Far more rare, but they follow the same rules.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Mary piped up. ¡°When physical-types like me talk about combos, we mean using one technique after another. You''ve got to time everything perfect so your stamina regenerates at the right time.¡± Ruth turned to Josh, eyes shining. ¡°Can we practice that the next time we exercise?¡± He resisted the urge to laugh. ¡°You get a combat class when I wasn''t looking? The only techniques you got are those carving things.¡± Woodcrafter might be fairly balanced between physical and magical, but Enchanter appeared to be almost entirely magical. He still wasn''t sure why she insisted on joining him on his morning workout. He figured she''d lose interest soon. Ruth pouted. ¡°I still want to try.¡± She sighed. ¡°Maybe I should take another bloodstone at level 24, try to move to a combat role.¡± Josh gave the others glances. Darius looked horrified, but Mary just shrugged. ¡°We won''t stop you,¡± Josh promised. ¡°You''re valuable to the team like this, though.¡± ¡°Yay, I can make heavier axes and lighter carts,¡± Ruth said dully. ¡°Hooray for me.¡± ¡°Well, maybe it''s time to come up with some more tricks.¡± He reached down and picked up his ax¡ªwincing at the missing fingers yet again¡ªbefore hooking it into his belt. ¡°Come on. It''s too late to keep going today. You can think about it at the inn.¡± It was fully dark by the time they got back to the inn. They ate their dinners and retreated up to their rooms, though Josh took a moment to explain to Manny that they wouldn''t need them after tonight. Then, because it wasn''t that late, they gathered in the room that Ruth shared with Mary to go over her runes. ¡°It''s more than just combining the different runes,¡± Ruth began to explain. ¡°I can''t just try every possibility and see what happens. For one thing, I have to build the entire rune-chain at once, so I have to have the mana for all of it. Right now, I can only manage two runes, even when I keep them small.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Josh and Mary nodded. It made sense to them. Darius was writing down notes. ¡°I presume there''s another reason you can''t simply attempt every two-rune combination.¡± ¡°If I get it wrong, it explodes.¡± Everyone looked up at that. Mary actually grabbed her hand in concern. Ruth waved her hands frantically. ¡°No, it''s okay! It''s not dangerous, more like... a big pop!¡± She mimed something popping with her hands and jumped a little in her seat, as if she had been startled. ¡°It was fine.¡± Josh, however, was remembering some of the things he had heard about Enchanters. ¡°Two runes aren''t dangerous. What about more?¡± Everyone fell silent at that. Ruth forced a smile. ¡°Which is why I have to be careful!¡± She pulled out a pad of paper. ¡°I have eight runes right now, plus the four connector runes. The elemental runes are easy¡ªGeo is earth, Anemo is air, Pyro is fire, and Vareo is gravity.¡± She sketched the last rune, then pointed to the earth and air runes. ¡°It''s a combination of earth and air, but it''s its own rune. I don''t know how many of them can be condensed like that.¡± ¡°Gravity is a higher-tier element,¡± Josh pointed out. ¡°That probably has something to do with it.¡± Darius nodded. ¡°It''s Exemplary-tier. Perhaps if you have all the Basic-tier and Improved-tier elements, you can simply combine them to create the runes for Exemplary-tier and Master-tier elements.¡± Ruth made a face. ¡°I don''t know... this gravity rune is pretty complex. It''s not just like mashing the two runes together will work. I tried that, and it wouldn''t even activate. It was like trying to put mana into a blank piece of wood.¡± Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°Wot? Can you actually do that?¡± Infusing objects wasn''t an Enchanter ability. Ruth shrugged. ¡°Sure! Doesn''t do much, though. Just makes the object stronger for a while, and I can suck the mana back out at a loss. Like a really mucky battery.¡± ¡°That''s not nothing, though.¡± He thought for a minute. ¡°You said something about a Capacity rune, yeah? For storing mana that powers the runes?¡± She nodded eagerly. ¡°Can you use that for a battery? Just... pour a bunch of mana into it and then take it back out later?¡± He knew Enchanters could make batteries, both for themselves and for others, he was just unclear as to how. This sounded like as good a place to start as any. ¡°Sure! I did it already, actually. But it doesn''t increase my mana pool, so I can''t use it to cast bigger spells.¡± Well, that was unfortunate, but hardly unexpected. If she could expand all their mana pools, even by just a few points, his crafting would really take off. But if it was that easy, he would have heard about it before. There were ways to increase your mana pool with magic items, usually with something that gave a simple bonus to your Capacity score. He just didn''t think she''d be able to make those any time soon. ¡°All right, what else...¡± Josh drummed his fingers for a moment. ¡°What matters with your runes? Is it just the combination?¡± Ruth shook her head. ¡°As far as I can tell, everything matters. Vareo-wa-Ful creates the Gravity axes, as you saw, but Ful-wa-Vareo doesn''t seem to do anything, even though it is a valid rune-chain!¡± She threw up her hands. ¡°I don''t know what to do with it all!¡± Josh was a little lost with her specific terminology. Mary seemed to be in much the same boat, and though Darius was probably fine, he was also too busy taking notes to talk. Still, Josh got the information he needed. ¡°Right,¡± he said after a moment. ¡°Does the location of the runes matter? You put your runes on our hatchet heads. What if you put them on the handles, instead?¡± ¡°That''s explained in the basic rune description,¡± Ruth said, in a matter-of-fact tone. ¡°The effect will be centered on the rune. I think for more complex runes, or more complex objects, moving the runes around has more of an effect.¡± She shrugged. ¡°When it''s just about gravity, the effect of the location is obvious. But what if I figured out how to make bags of holding? Where should the runes go, and does it matter?¡± Josh stared at her for a good, long moment. ¡°Please tell me you at least know how to make a bag of holding,¡± he said, trying not to sound like he was begging. Even though that was exactly what he was doing. ¡°I imagine that it would require, at minimum, use of the Space element,¡± Darius pointed out. He didn''t look up from his notes. ¡°That''s a Master-tier element. Even supposing she did manage to find the right runes and combine them into this more advanced form, she doesn''t have the Space-type mana to power it.¡± Josh snapped his fingers at that. ¡°That''s what you need to make next. A mana converter.¡± Ruth shrugged. ¡°I don''t know, colorless mana has been working for me so far.¡± ¡°But it would work better if it was actually the right mana type,¡± he insisted. ¡°Besides, once you figure out how to make your runes draw in their own mana from the air, it will be a problem.¡± Humans had colorless mana, but all other mana had an elemental affinity. Those affinities didn''t usually play nice together. Ruth''s gravity rune, being a combination of Geo and Anemo, could presumably draw from either earth or air mana, but Josh doubted anything good would happen if someone tried to power it with fire. She''d need a converter to make sure her creations could work anywhere. ¡°Regardless, she doesn''t have the right runes,¡± Darius pointed out, far too reasonably. ¡°We''ll see if we can find some magic items tomorrow morning.¡± Chapter 19 - Building (part 3) They did manage to find a handful of magic items for sale the next morning. A few weapons, one or two armor pieces, and for some reason a bracelet that could light up on command. They couldn''t afford any of them, or let Ruth study the runes long enough to copy them down¡ªat least without people wondering why they cared about runes so much. They weren''t ready to expose their classes yet. Thankfully, Ruth looked so dejected when they walked away that the merchant sighed and gave them the bracelet. Apparently he''d been trying to sell it for years with no success; it didn''t glow brightly enough to even be useful as a light source, much less in combat. Ruth, however, loved it, and the second they got back to their land she copied down its one rune. The shack they had built last night hadn''t fallen over in the meantime, which Josh declared a rousing success. They built the next three shacks in little more than an hour and a half. Then Josh made a blueprint for a wooden door, which was harder than it needed to be. They didn''t have metal hinges on hand, and the Woodcrafter class wasn''t letting him make a blueprint that required crafting metal that much. Eventually, he gave up and made some hinges out of wood. He got a blueprint for that, then another for making the door. They''d need more replacing than metal hinges, but oh well. After that, they went back to chopping down trees. More specifically, Josh chopped down trees. Ruth practiced with her runes, especially her new Luxos rune. Mary and Darius helped a little with both, before Mary declared the whole endeavor ¡°boring¡± and went out to hunt monsters for quests and experience. Darius went with her. Josh couldn''t blame them. They weren''t getting any experience chopping trees since they weren''t ranking up techniques, and the group needed more money somehow. At least Mary could use her guns more freely, since she could actually buy bullets. Without their help, it took him almost the entire rest of the day to finish clearing out their land. Ruth helped every once in a while, mostly with smaller jobs. She used her Pyro rune to light fires¡ªthough it was still slow and inefficient¡ªso she could spread oil and burn off the new growth that had popped up while they slept. If they left it alone, their little shacks would be consumed in a matter of days. The Jungle was always hungry. By the time Josh had finished, his [Chop Tree] technique had reached rank 12. A very respectable rank, even if it was a specialized ability. He was chopping down big trees that looked like they were as old as the mountains as easily as if they were new-growth saplings. He did have to switch between using his spells and using his hands when his mana ran out, though. His hands throbbed, especially the stumps of his missing fingers. He did his best to ignore it. His experience gain slowed down considerably, though. By the time he was done, he was a level 20 Woodcrafter. Not a bad gain for a day''s work, but he needed to accelerate his progress. The faster he leveled, the sooner people would listen to him. He had to outpace everyone else, or they would just attack him on sight. His goal was to advance his class to Mechanist. As a tech-based [Crafter] class, that would really open up the field. He thought he knew how to advance it from there to one of the magitech [Crafter] classes. If he could make the hibernation pods that let people dodge the reset, the City would buy him three skyscrapers and execute Operative Jonah if he asked. He just needed to get that far before the dragon escaped its prison. Ruth managed to reach level 20 Enchanter halfway through the day, which was good. Josh suspected it was her new rune and all the combinations she could make with it that gave her the extra push. ¡°Not bad,¡± he said, dropping his hatchet next to her. He grabbed a bucket of water, dumped half of it over his head, and drank a few gulps from a ladle. ¡°Sure you don''t want to try for some more brawny experience?¡± He flexed his free arm. Ruth, sitting inside a circle of small boards she had been practicing her runes on, laughed. ¡°I got enough exercise today! I''m not sure you''re a good role model for a reasonable amount of work, you know?¡± Josh grinned. ¡°Yeah, I guess.¡± He looked her over. ¡°Any chance you got any stat bonuses?¡± She didn''t look more muscular, but she did carry herself better. It would be lucky beyond belief if she got a stat bonus from just two day''s exercise, but sometimes the System surprised you on that sort of thing. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. She shook her head. ¡°Nothing. You?¡± ¡°Nah.¡± It took loads of effort to upgrade your stats manually, and more the higher your base stat was. Thankfully, as far as anyone could tell, that effort wasn''t reset at the solstice. Of course, the human body didn''t just keep bulking up forever, and most exercise was about keeping yourself from losing what you had gained. The gate opened, and Mary and Darius entered, their arms full of... paper bags. Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°Oi! You already went on a spree?¡± Mary put her bags next to the fire pit they had dug. ¡°Hey, we needed junk! We completed some quests, got some cash, found what we needed.¡± Josh inspected them both quickly. Mary now scanned as [Attacker: Level 20], and Darius as [Defender: Level 18]. Darius was catching up, it seemed. Good for him. Ruth perked up. ¡°Did you buy that sword I liked?¡± It seemed she had more long-term concerns on her mind. Mary snorted. ¡°Didn''t get that much cash.¡± Ruth pouted. ¡°We did purchase food and materials for my blueprints, however,¡± Darius said. ¡°With luck, those will produce the effect we were hoping for.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°Yeah, I''m looking forward to it.¡± Ruth looked between them, frowning. ¡°What are¡ª¡± ¡°And I found a blueprint!¡± Mary declared, fishing something out of her bag. She handed it to Josh triumphantly. ¡°One single-person bed, with full assembly instructions!¡± The small packet of paper looked old and weathered. It was something that had been produced in a printer, not hand-written. Not something from the Old World¡ªthere was no way Mary could have afforded an artifact from before the Fall¡ªbut definitely at least a few years old. ¡°You mucker,¡± Josh said. ¡°That''s not a blueprint, it''s a bloody assembly manual!¡± It looked like something out of IKEA. It might be a copy of something out of IKEA, now that he thought of it. ¡°Why would anyone even have something like this?¡± She rolled her eyes and waved it at him. ¡°I dunno, maybe because a load of people out here have a bunch of wood on their hands and the free time to build junk themselves? It''s better than just mucking around in the dark, innit?¡± Josh rolled his eyes and took the packet. A system window immediately popped up.
You have discovered a new blueprint: Bed-frame (single) (wood). Would you like to learn this blueprint?
Eyes wide, Josh mentally tapped ¡°yes.¡±
CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the blueprint Bed-frame (single) (wood). Hey, you finally have a blueprint that is actually supposed to be made out of wood!
Josh grinned. He flipped through the packet, though he didn''t really need to. Everything he needed was all in his head now. He quickly confirmed what he had suspected: The blueprint required nothing but wooden parts. Rather simple wooden parts, at that. This had clearly been designed with amateurs in mind. He rushed over to their pile of planks. Josh had been using [Hands-Free Crafting] to saw felled trees into planks all day, off and on. Ruth needed them for her enchanting practice, and they knew their blueprints would need them for something. He scanned over the planks for a few that were of about the right size. Once he found enough, he carried them inside one of the shacks. His friends waited at the door. It would be crowded if everyone piled inside. Josh made sure he had a hammer, a small saw and file, and a hand-drill. That should be everything he needed, according to the instructions. He placed the planks in the middle of the floor, grinned widely, and said ¡°Instant Crafting.¡± Then there was a bed-frame in the middle of the shack. Josh whooped. ¡°It worked!¡± ¡°How?¡± Mary demanded. She seemed almost offended¡ªwhich was just her being contrarian, since this was all thanks to her. ¡°Shouldn''t it have counted as like six casts of the spell?¡± Josh shook his head. ¡°I had all the parts, close enough to the right size to count. We were trying to skip too many steps with the shack.¡± ¡°I wonder what the threshold is,¡± Darius mused. ¡°If we had planted all the posts and then put the parts in the middle of the area, would you have been able to Instant Craft the rest?¡± ¡°Time to test, then!¡± Josh declared. Chapter 20 - Building (part 4) First, they took a few logs from the pile¡ªenough to provide enough parts for another bed-frame, but which hadn''t been cut into planks. Using [Instant Crafting] on them immediately returned an error. He needed more mana. He used [Hands-Free Crafting] to cut one log into planks, meditated to regenerate his mana, and tried again. Still nothing. He repeated the process until he had enough planks to build another frame. Then, of course, it worked. Because it was exactly what he had done the first time. And then they had to wrestle the frame inside the second shack. That was annoying. For the next two frames, they carried the planks inside the shacks again. Now all they needed was mattresses and blankets. Sheets would be nice, but were ultimately optional. Josh wondered if he could make anything like that himself. Rope and cloth were often cotton and other plant matter. Did that fall under his class purview? He knew he wouldn''t be able to do anything with leathers or animal furs. Of course, he''d need to learn how to make rope and cloth first, and that wasn''t likely out here. Most production like that was handled inside the City. They wandered into town with their little cart, bought the mattresses, and returned. Jose, the owner of the furniture store, was a nice Hispanic man with a trimmed beard, and sold them for cheap. Well, relatively cheap. Mattresses weren''t terribly hard to make, but they were a valuable commodity out here beyond the edge of civilization. Apparently he had a cousin in the City who provided them. Almost everything else he sold was hand-made. He was very proud of his skills. Josh decided not to tell him that if given the chance, he could copy any of his pieces and produce a dozen an hour. Especially when the nice man threw in some decent blankets for free. By the time they got back, the sun had finally started to set. Mary and Josh cooked up some simple boar steaks on the fire pit, while Ruth tried to make light with her runes and Darius started on his shroud focuses. Josh didn''t pay much attention to Ruth''s attempts. Without some way for the runes to recharge themselves, they were going to remain limited by the mana she could put into them. That could be useful, but it wouldn''t be interesting to watch. Darius was another story. ¡°I don''t have your Instant Crafting or Hands-Free Crafting spells,¡± he said, as he laid out tools and materials in front of him. ¡°Though I am unsure if I would be able to make best use of them regardless. This blueprint requires an investment of mana, and I am not sure I would be able to cast either spell while paying the cost.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°How much do you understand of the blueprint? Do you understand the muckity-muck of the theory, or you just tracing the lines?¡± His blueprints gave him some knowledge of how and why the blueprint was designed, but, well, his blueprints were all mostly wood. He understood wood pretty well, he didn''t need all that much extra magic insight to see how the blueprints worked. Darius nodded. ¡°Some. Not much, but some. For example.¡± He pointed at a lead rod, about the size of his hand. ¡°I know that the purpose of this rod is to ground out the energies of the item, to limit outside interference during the crafting. Otherwise, it is difficult to predict what will happen.¡± Mary leaned over. ¡°Small rod, innit?¡± Darius gave her a small glare, as if he wasn''t sure if that was a sex joke or not. Josh, on the other hand, knew that it definitely was one. It always was. ¡°This is a small project,¡± Darius said at last. ¡°It does not require much. I suspect that for larger projects, I might need a full rune-circle to protect my work area. I do not know if that would be provided with the blueprint, though I suspect not.¡± ¡°All right,¡± Josh said. ¡°You need help with anything?¡± ¡°I do not believe so, no. I will let you know when I am done.¡± Josh watched him out of the corner of his eyes as he worked on dinner. Darius arranged small crystals in a pattern around glowing feathers and other monster parts, the lead rod spiked in the middle of the dirt like a maypole. Slowly, the glow from one of the items disappeared, and Darius threw it out only to rearrange the circle around the remaining items again. This repeated several times over ten or twenty minutes, until all that was left was a small metal torc, glowing gently. ¡°Is that it?¡± Josh asked, even as he and Mary passed out dinner. Darius nodded. ¡°It is the simplest, weakest, and least efficient shroud focus I could infuse.¡± He looked at Ruth. ¡°I wish it used runes, because it has several self-charging properties that I know you would find useful for your own items.¡± Ruth just looked confused more than anything. ¡°Why would your focus need to charge itself?¡± ¡°Is this like Mages with their wands?¡± Mary asked. She mimed waving a stick around. ¡°You know... pchew pchew!¡± She made sounds that could be generously interpreted as a Mage casting magic with a wand. ¡°In a manner of speaking,¡± Darius said slowly. ¡°The point of a wand is to use its own store of mana instead of your own. It is limited in what it is capable of, and generally can''t provide mana for spells outside a specific range, if that.¡± Josh felt a grin stretching across his face. ¡°You''re being cagey. That means you did it, right?¡± Darius rolled his eyes, adjusted his glasses, and then threw the torc to him. ¡°See for yourself.¡± Josh used Identify on the torc. He grinned wider, put it around his neck, and then beckoned to Mary. ¡°Come on.¡± Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. She raised an eyebrow. ¡°Come on... what?¡± ¡°Come on, hit me!¡± She stared at him for a good, long moment. Then she shrugged, whipped out her gun, and shot him. In the leg. ¡°Oi!¡± he said, indignant. The sound of the gunshot was still ringing through the Jungle, and his ears hurt. ¡°Wot was that for?¡± She grinned. ¡°You said to hit you.¡± ¡°I meant punch me, you muppet!¡± ¡°You look all right to me.¡± It was true. For a brief moment, a glittering blue force field had manifested around him like a second skin, blocking the bullet. Josh could sense the power in the talisman. It had gone down significantly, but it could block another bullet. Maybe. And it was already regenerating, though slower than he''d like. Ruth was on her feet, her chisel in her hand. ¡°What was that?¡± Her eyes darted between the two of them. ¡°What the muck was that?¡± Josh proudly displayed his torc. ¡°It''s a shroud focus! It creates a shroud, a magical shield, around the wearer that goes off when they''re in danger!¡± She stared at him. ¡°I thought that was just something for people who use shrouds. You know, like wands? Which we were just talking about?¡± Josh shook his head, still grinning. ¡°I wasn''t sure until Big D finished.¡± ¡°Don''t call me that,¡± Darius said, sounding pained. Josh ignored him. ¡°I knew it was possible to make shroud focuses that normal people could use, I just didn''t know if he''d be able to do it at his level! Here.¡± He brought up the torc''s information screen, then threw it over to her.
Terrible Torc. Shroud focus. Basic-tier. This metal ring fits around the wearer''s neck and provides a defensive shroud against enemy attacks. When depleted, the shroud will regenerate with time. However, since this is the lowest-quality shroud focus made by a child who had no idea what he was doing, don''t expect it to do much. It might be able to survive a punch. Or maybe a strong sneeze.
¡°I already have ideas for improving the process,¡± Darius said. He seemed defensive about what the System was saying. He shouldn''t be. The System was always an ass. ¡°This was, magically speaking, basically pouring water into a bowl. I can do much better.¡± ¡°Don''t get my hopes up too high,¡± Josh said with a grin. ¡°This is loads better than nothing. I feel like we''ll finally be fighting like we''re supposed to.¡± Before the Last Raid, when [Crafters] were commonplace, everyone had a shroud, if only a weak one. But after the human race was reduced to eight survivors and a hundred growth pods, so much had been lost. Enchanted items lost their power if a human didn''t touch them for too long, and hunting down those sorts of things hadn''t been a high priority in the early days. By the time the Eight Immortals had realized they needed to collect as many magic items as they could, it was already too late. Ruth still didn''t look happy that her friends were shooting each other, but she tabled it. She turned to Darius. ¡°How much did this cost?¡± ¡°All my mana.¡± He paused. ¡°And all the money we had left.¡± Ruth groaned. ¡°Come on, Big D! Josh and I need crafting materials!¡± ¡°Don''t call me that.¡± He pointed at Josh. ¡°If this turns into a thing, I''m blaming you.¡± Josh ignored that. ¡°Okay!¡± He clapped his hands and smiled. ¡°That means it''s time to take on a dungeon!¡± Darius and Ruth stared at him. Mary, however, just nodded. ¡°We need money,¡± Josh explained. ¡°We also need more materials and more experience, both the real kind and the System kind.¡± He waved at the piles of lumber and everything else he had built. ¡°I''m getting muck and smoke from the blueprints I''ve got. I need to use my junk in combat.¡± Darius stood, frowning. ¡°I do not believe you will gain any useful blueprints through that method. Even your Pierce-Resistant Armor is only marginally better than wearing nothing.¡± ¡°Sure, I''d agree with you¡ªif that was the point.¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°It''s not. Wood''s never going to be good for fighting, I know that. I can get new blueprints to get more experience, though.¡± He grinned. ¡°Maybe you will too? Who knows!¡± Mary gave Darius a look. ¡°Did you get any experience from bashing together that focus? Since you''re not actually a Crafter, I mean.¡± Darius shook his head. ¡°I didn''t. I likely have to use them in combat.¡± ¡°See? There you go.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°Tomorrow we''ll find us a dungeon, beat up some weak monsters, and be home in time for dinner.¡± Darius gave him a flat look. ¡°I do not believe it will be that simple.¡± ¡°Y-yeah!¡± Ruth said, fists clenched as if forcing herself to stay strong. ¡°What if there''s another dragon? I mean, I want more runes¡ªI know I''m missing something obvious¡ªbut dungeons are dangerous at the best of times! What if we wake up another stupidly powerful monster?¡± Josh shrugged. He wasn''t that concerned. It was a danger, he''d admit that, just not as large of one as Ruth''s panic was making it seem. ¡°People delve in dungeons on the regular. Out here, they probably have a rotation and a waiting list. We make sure we find one in our level range, clear it out, let it get refilled over the next week.¡± He grinned. ¡°Simple!¡± Ruth still didn''t look convinced. However, before anyone could say anything else, Mary stretched and yawned. ¡°Can we just have our bloody dinner and go to sleep? I''ve been out hunting monsters all day already, and I''m beat.¡± Darius gave her a sideways look. ¡°We fought eight monsters.¡± Mary snorted. ¡°Yeah, and we spent the whole day skulking around the Jungle like rats, jumping monsters ten levels above us.¡± She looked Darius dead in the eye. ¡°I hate skulking. I''m a mucking Gunner, not a Ninja. I want to get stronger.¡± She clenched her fist. ¡°I don''t want to get driven out of another town.¡± Josh paused the witty quip he had ready. Mary was his oldest living friend¡ªbesides his sister¡ªbut it was easy to forget that she wasn''t some invincible wall who was never phased by anything. Mary took her licks and kept on going... usually. Some things still left scars. Getting betrayed by your favorite aunt and forced to flee into the Jungle might be one of those things. Her hand shook, and Ruth reached over. She gave Mary a small smile. Mary took a deep breath and nodded. She didn''t smile, but she stopped shaking. Darius sighed. ¡°I suppose it is a reasonable risk to increase our power.¡± Josh grinned and clapped his hands together again. ¡°Good! Now, let''s eat before this gets cold.¡± The boar steaks were terrible. None of them were cooks. But they were filling, and that was enough for now. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. Chapter 21 - Bug Dungeon (part 1) They got breakfast at Manny''s inn. Though they didn''t have money, he accepted a trade of boar meat. All of them except for Ruth knew how to dress and skin most of the common animals in the area, so they had been able to get it done fast. Once they were done with their bacon and eggs, Manny pointed them towards the dungeon board on his wall. There were three dungeons in the area, and as Josh had thought, the town kept an eye on them. Monsters respawned in dungeons¡ªor maybe came from other worlds, no one was sure¡ªon a regular basis. If left alone for too long, the monsters would kill each other until only the strongest were left. When they eventually spilled out right before the solstice, they would be too much for anyone to handle. They were in luck, because the closest dungeon didn''t have anyone waiting for it yet. It was filled with level 20 monsters, which was too high for fighting casually, but too low to power-level. Someone would get to it eventually. This time, it was them. In fact, the entrance was less than a mile north of their own little plot of land. They brought their cart, Josh taking the effort to use [Chop Tree] to cut a path for them through the smaller trees. This area had been burned by high-level fire magic before the reset, so most of the trees were only a few weeks old. Even though he couldn''t dig up the stumps easily, it still made a difference. As they finally reached the dungeon, pulling their cart over the bumpy terrain, Josh wondered if maybe he should try to get some sort of skill for uprooting stumps. They hadn''t bothered with that on their own land yet, as there had been enough open space for their shacks. Would that count as falling under the Woodcrafter purview, like the [Chop Tree] technique? Not for the first time, he wished he had found a [Gatherer] bloodstone instead of a [Crafter] one. He could have clear-cut half the Jungle by now and would be level 30 at least. The dungeon looked much the same as the one they had found near Paul''s outpost, though this one had large metal signs staked around it, marking it clearly so that no one could miss it. To Josh''s eye, it looked like the signs were old street signs, uprooted and then staked back here. Most of them were stop signs, just painted over to read ¡°DUNGEON¡± in big, block letters. ¡°Well,¡± Mary said, amused. ¡°That''s easy to spot, innit?¡± Josh pulled the cart the last few feet. He had the highest Strength in the party... by one point. He groaned as he put it down. ¡°Remember, we don''t need to fight the boss. Least, not today. We''ll just clear a room or two, let Ruth gawk at all the pretty writing, then come right back out.¡± Everyone nodded. Even Ruth had stopped complaining. Sometimes you would even get lucky and find a piece of magical equipment in a dungeon, but that was a rarity. One in sixty-four was the statistic Josh had heard most often, though he thought it was likely truly random, just things that the monsters brought with them from whatever realm they came from. Besides, most of that magical loot was trash. Stuff like a sword that was one point of Strength stronger, or a dagger that did nothing but glow. If dungeons spat out bags of holding or healing staffs, people would pay much more attention to them. Mary grinned. ¡°Everyone ready?¡± They all nodded. ¡°Good! D-Man, you''re in front.¡± ¡°Please don''t call me that,¡± Darius said, though he took his place as requested. He started down the dungeon''s ladder. ¡°You''ve got to pick one sometime,¡± Josh called after him. ¡°Else she''ll just keep trying!¡± Darius'' grunt of disapproval echoed up the ladder. Josh chuckled, and the rest of them followed. The system message appeared when his feet hit the ground.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have discovered the dungeon DUNGEON NUMBER THREE: BUGS. Spawn level: 16.
¡°Insects?¡± Ruth asked. She was the last down the ladder. ¡°Blag.¡± Mary stuck out her tongue as if she had tasted something foul. ¡°I hate bugs.¡± She looked at her guns in annoyance. ¡°I was going for single-target damage. I just have the one area spell, and it''s still not great.¡± ¡°None of us have area attacks,¡± Darius warned. ¡°If I can figure out how to make ammo, we can do something about that,¡± Josh pointed out. That was the main advantage of a Gunner. They couldn''t put their Strength into most of their techniques, so they couldn''t boost their damage that way. Instead, they swapped ammo and reloaded at superhuman speed, letting them use specialist ammunition for any situation. Mary snorted. ¡°You''re not getting that at your next milestone, I''m sure of that.¡± She checked her guns. ¡°Still, I''ve got a couple tricks. And if there''s a queen bee or whatever, I bet I can pop her before the rest of you even see her.¡± Josh understood why she thought this was a bee dungeon. The entrance was the same small, circular chamber with white walls and a single exit that was every dungeon antechamber. But the walls were half-covered in some sort of golden, sticky substance that he hoped was wax. Ruth had already given up on the runes on the walls. Apparently they were the same as the ones she already had. Josh was sure that wouldn''t hold true for the rest of the dungeon. While the first room was always the same, everything after was always different. Josh waited for her to put her notebook away and nod to him. While she had Darius'' shield focus, it still wasn''t very good. He didn''t want her to be caught off guard. He nodded to Darius in turn, who stepped through the seemingly empty doorway. It rippled just like all dungeon doorways did, and the others followed, ignoring the cold feeling. The second room was taller¡ªfar too tall to fit in the space under the dungeon. That was normal. Dungeons were some sort of pocket dimension deal. High above, the walls and ceiling were covered in that wax substance, and it had dripped onto the floor in places. The monsters had dug holes into the material, tunnels and nests big enough to hold a large dog. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The room was darker than usual, as many of the rune-circles that would normally light it up were hidden under the wax. Josh couldn''t see any monsters, but he could hear them. The dry chittering noise of insects going about their business, of carapaces rubbing together and wings rustling. There was a sickly-sweet smell in the air, and he identified it instantly. It wasn''t honey, but it was something similar. A powerful fermented nectar that was dangerous and addictive to humans. Well, it was addictive to almost anything. ¡°Not bees, then,¡± Mary said grimly. She recognized the smell too. Nectar was a good part of her aunt''s stock and trade. ¡°Ants.¡± ¡°Is that worse?¡± Ruth asked in a too-loud whisper. She clutched her wooden club, eyes darting around. Her club had more runes carved into it now, though Josh didn''t think most of them would actually be much more useful. ¡°Are ants worse than bees?¡± ¡°Bees fly and have poison,¡± Darius said quietly. His eyes, Josh noted, were also watching the ceiling. ¡°Ants have far fewer fliers... but far more overall. Be cautious.¡± Josh gripped his sword tighter. Ruth had carved a Gravity rune into it in case he needed it, but he didn''t think it would help much. ¡°CONTACT!¡± Mary yelled. ¡°Pyro Shot!¡± She fired one of her guns, a booming report echoing around the chamber like a ball bearing in a tin can. The second the bullet left the chamber, it erupted into flame, the light burning back the darkness¡ªeven as the projectile slammed into the giant red ant that had been crawling down the wall. She got it right in the head, and it fell off the wall, curling into a scorched mess of carapace before it even hit the ground. Then all hell broke loose. That first ant looked like a normal ant, other than being the size of a Labrador. It had a red carapace, large clicking mandibles, and six spindly legs. Josh didn''t even think it was a warrior, though he was hardly an expert. He thought the warriors had bigger mandibles. This one had smaller, more dexterous mandibles, better suited for manipulation instead of direct damage. The problem with fighting insects was that they evolved early, they evolved often, and there were loads of different evolutionary paths they could take. The next ant to fall down from the ceiling hardly looked like an ant at all. It looked like some sort of ant-centaur, a humanoid torso growing out of where the ant''s head would be. The upper body was covered with red carapace as well, and it still had much smaller mandibles on its six-eyed face. It also had four arms, all of which had relatively normal fingers. It held no weapons. That... was odd. Josh stepped forward to attack it, but still spared a second to use Identify on it.
Formic Mage. Level 20 Monster. Like most members of the Formic Hive, the Mage chose its evolutionary path solely based on what would be best for the hive. Good news: These guys are suicidal and fragile. Bad news: Their magic is very powerful for their level. Also, gross.
¡°Caster!¡± Josh yelled. He put on an extra burst of speed. ¡°They''ve got casters!¡± He activated the Gravity rune on his sword as he brought it down with far more strength than he could have otherwise managed. The ant''s hands had just started to glow with magic when Josh chopped right through its neck, severing its head in one blow. It collapsed to the ground. The problem with ants was, there were always more. He heard a chittering sound and looked up to see another Mage clinging to the wax on the wall. Why were ants using wax? Didn''t they prefer dirt? He didn''t know, and he didn''t care. This one was already halfway through a spell; he could tell by the glow and the way its hands moved. Before he could think of what to do, another ant attacked him from the side, biting into his wooden armor. The plates cracked, despite his use of the Pierce-Resistant Armor blueprint, and he was forced to turn his attention to the new threat. This one wasn''t a centaur, but it was a hulking beast that walked on thick hind legs as if it were a person. It roared and lunged forward with arms as thick as the posts in his new house.
Formic Brute. Level 20 Monster. The Brute is a common evolutionary path for the Formic Hive. Big and strong, they don''t need to be particularly smart to do their job. Which is a good thing, because they''re all idiots. Outside of combat, Brutes are known for blundering around their hives, breaking things. If ants had any sort of advanced social structure, they''d be the big friendly jocks who are too stupid to realize how much trouble they cause just by existing.
Josh dropped to the side. He didn''t even try to attack it; he knew his dinky little sword wasn''t going to put a dent in its armor. Instead, he cut down another worker ant while scrambling backwards. The Brute stomped over the stunned worker, finishing it off just as Josh''s back hit the wall with a wet squelch sound. The beast roared, raising its claw¡ª And fell over, dead, when its head exploded. Josh gave Mary a nod in acknowledgment, then moved on. Nothing needed to be said. Unfortunately, she had lost her opportunity to take out the Mage while she was saving him. Up on the wall, the Mage raised its hands above its head, light gathering even as its clicking and chittering reached a crescendo. A cloud of radiant golden mist burst out of the ant. It got in Josh''s mouth, making him cough and choke. It wasn''t an attack, even though it smelled and tasted terrible. It was the smell of ant pheromones amplified a thousandfold. He swung his sword around while he coughed, trying to fend off any attackers while he was distracted. When he recovered, he realized that the cloud hadn''t been targeting him. The mist sunk into the carapaces of every ant still alive. They had managed to kill ten or more, but there were still at least a dozen left. And every single one of them breathed in the glowing mist and swelled with power. Mary finally shot the Mage, but that didn''t stop the mist. Josh glanced around and realized that they weren''t going to get out of this without some sacrifices. ¡°Ruth!¡± he yelled. ¡°Grenades!¡± She looked surprised for a second, then nodded. She reached into her pouch and threw an object to him. It was nothing but a round piece of wood the size and rough shape of a pear, with random pieces of scrap metal hammered into it. She had also scratched a fire rune into it. Chapter 22 - Bug Dungeon (part 2) Josh caught the grenade out of the air and forced his mana into the rune. It took all of his mana¡ªhis mad Sensitivity score wasn''t much help here¡ªand the rune began glowing bright red. It started glowing red in his hands. There was a way to make real grenades with enchanting, Josh knew. Some combination of runes that would hold power on its own and could be activated on a timer. All the power would then combine into a single explosion, not a drop of mana wasted, blasting anything in range. The Enchanter could even change the effects drastically. You could make grenades that only affected living things, that only damaged objects, or even ones that specifically healed only your allies. Ruth didn''t have the runes for that. None of them even knew what runes she might need. Darius, however, had a basic knowledge of engineering and physics that had proven quite helpful. Josh and Ruth had both earned the blueprint for [Water Bottle (wooden) (variant)]; apparently sticking random bits of metal into it didn''t count as more than a variant blueprint. They had filled the wooden vessels with water, screwed on the tops, and then Ruth had scratched the runes into them. Now, when Josh tossed the grenade into the middle of the group of ants, the fire rune boiled the water inside the vessel. The water expanded. The grenade exploded. Shards of metal and splinters of wood pierced through the carapace and into the flesh beneath. The ants screamed in pain and rage, too confused to attack. Most of them were still alive, though. A random steam grenade made in a shack was not going to kill an entire horde of armored Formics. Three more grenades sailed into the group before they had a chance to react. They exploded, one after another. After every blast, the screams came back louder, the ants raging at the thought that someone could attack them like this inside their own hive. That someone would dare attack them like this. After the last blast, there was silence. No more screams of pain and rage, no more chittering and clacking ants. Just the heavy sound of their breathing, the soft sound of wax and water dripping down from high places. Josh pulled himself out of the wall with some difficulty. He had been embedded in the wax, and now he was covered in it. He was sure he smelled terrible; he pushed that aside. He ignored the shrapnel and splinters that had embedded in his armor or shattered against it. His face was bleeding from small scratches. He ignored that too. There was a shape in the mist. Right in the middle of where they had thrown the grenades. It wasn''t moving. It could be dead. Then it roared, and the sheer force of the noise blasted away the mist, leaving the horror bare and unshrouded. It was eight feet tall if it was an inch. It walked on its thick hind legs, making it look vaguely like a four-armed humanoid in armor. Its arms were at least as thick as its tree-trunk legs and ended in giant claws that seemed to gleam with sharpness. Its red carapace was cracked in a dozen places, pierced by shrapnel and leaking yellowish fluid. Half of its eyes were missing. It glared at Josh with all that remained. He used Identify on it almost by habit.
Formic Destroyer. Level 24 Monster. Remember how I said the Brute is the big friendly jock who just kind of stumbles around, breaking shit because he''s too big to do anything else? Yeah, these guys are like that... except they''re doing it on purpose. Also, you pissed this one off something fierce.
It charged. Josh had tried every combat role, and dozens of combat classes. He knew how to fight. He had the instincts of a dozen soldiers working together. Fighting a monster four levels above him was not something to do lightly, but it wouldn''t be hard. Especially with it already injured. Given thirty seconds to think, he could finish this monster off in one hit. He didn''t have thirty seconds. He jumped away in a dive, desperately trying to dodge. He could have killed it easily. Even as he jumped, he saw a weak point he could have taken advantage of. If he had braced his sword, the monster would have impaled itself. He thought this as the monster grabbed him with its massive arms. He thought this as it slammed him into the wall, as his sword fell from his hand, his remaining fingers not strong enough to hold it. He coughed up blood as he was slammed against the hard stone. The disgusting wax did not help soften the blow. He was dazed and confused, and couldn''t think of what to do. The ant''s hot breath, smelling of sweet nectar and rotting meat, assaulted his mind and senses. The edges of his vision turned black. The air, forced from his lungs, was taking his consciousness with it. He felt himself fading, and knew that if he blacked out, he would never wake again. Two shots rang out. Then two more. Then a high-pitched yell as a wooden club came down on the monster''s head, squashing it flat as easily as if it were still the size of a crumb. The grip on Josh''s body loosened. He pulled in a great, shuddering breath. His vision began to clear. ¡°Josh! You okay!?¡± Ruth threw herself down in front of him. His eyes were still too blurry to get a good look at her, but he could feel the concern radiating off her. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Eurgh,¡± he said, verbosely. ¡°I''ll live.¡± He blinked a few more times and managed to get his eyes open. The Formic Destroyer was dead, a steaming pile of smashed carapace on the ground in front of him. ¡°Wot about you?¡± He looked Ruth over. She was covered in stinking yellow gore, so he could put two and two together there. ¡°I had the shroud, remember? I''m fine!¡± Josh nodded, slowly, so as to not make his headache worse. ¡°And everyone else?¡± ¡°They''re mostly okay,¡± Ruth said. ¡°Mary was nowhere near the blast, and Darius got his shroud up in time.¡± She leaned in closer, eyes wide. ¡°But what about you? Do you need a recovery potion?¡± He grimaced at the thought. Recovery potions were like healing potions, except not magical. They were the best they could do without members of the Alchemist class. They were expensive, hardly even effective, and made using Jungle parts that created a particularly disgusting concoction. They also had only brought a few with them, and needed to ration them. ¡°I''m sure I''ll be¡ª¡± Before he could finish his excuses, he coughed up more blood. ¡°No more arguing!¡± She called over to Mary. ¡°Need a pot over here!¡± Josh leaned back against the wall and groaned. ¡°How many did we even bring with us?¡± ¡°Four,¡± Mary said. She rudely pinched his nose, yanked his head back, and poured the sludge down his throat. It was like trying to drink expired yogurt with leaf bits floating in it. Josh had to fight not to puke. ¡°Not sure we''re going past this room, so don''t worry about our supplies.¡± Josh grimaced and wiped his face. ¡°We need to do better than one room.¡± Mary made a similar grimace, but nodded. ¡°Maybe. Check your notes. See what you''ve gained. We can decide from there.¡± She got up and walked over to Darius. Josh called up the system notifications. They minimized into a folder so that they weren''t in his face in the middle of the fight. He had leveled. Well, that wasn''t a surprise, he had been pushing the bounds of level 20, almost reaching level 21, this morning. That was a bit behind the curve for the area, and far behind the actual safety margin, but still respectable for this time of year. He was level 22 now, which was a good jump for one fight, even a big one. He could already feel that he was more than halfway through level 22. One more room might be able to push him all the way to 24, which was another milestone. That might be just what he needed to finally get a new class out of this. Assuming they could survive the next room. His armor had ranked up as well. Or, rather, his ability to craft stronger Pierce-Resistant Armor had ranked up. He wouldn''t be able to take advantage until they were outside and he had more materials. Josh dropped his points into Perception and Sensitivity, as usual, though he was tempted to put something into Constitution or even Strength. A little bit of extra toughness and damage wouldn''t go amiss. But, he decided that at this stage, it wouldn''t make much of a difference. Lack of stats hadn''t really been the problem in this room. There were just too many ants. He glanced around and checked everyone else. Ruth was also level 22¡ªas was Darius. He had finally caught up. Being a [Combat] class, he got more out of fighting than they did. Everyone got experience for killing monsters, of course, but [Combat] classes got experience just for performing their role actions. Darius got experience for defending people, including himself, and Mary got credit for attacking. Speaking of which, Mary was level 23. She had the annoyed look on her face that Josh recognized as meaning she thought she deserved more experience, because she was almost close enough to level again. She got that look every time she felt she didn''t level fast enough. Which was almost always. The calculations that the Tower used to award experience were complex, and they only got more so when more people and monsters were involved in a fight. Mary might have reached level 24 already if she had been the first person to throw a grenade. Or if she had been the last. Or if she hadn''t thrown a grenade and had just kept shooting. It was hard to say. ¡°I didn''t think we''d level so fast,¡± Ruth said, her fingers dancing through invisible menus. ¡°I know there were a lot of the ants, but they were also close to our level.¡± ¡°We might''ve gotten a bonus for using stuff we crafted in combat,¡± Josh suggested. He had made the grenade housings, Ruth had added the runes. That should be enough for the system to credit both of them. Then he shrugged. ¡°''sides, there were loads of them.¡± ¡°At least a dozen, perhaps as many as two,¡± Darius put in. He was pushing through the pile of cracked and oozing corpses, clearly hoping for something valuable. ¡°It could be as simple as that. Don''t underestimate quantity.¡± Ruth shook her head. ¡°I-I don''t think it''s that simple, guys. My dad is big on power-leveling. I know how much it takes to level up.¡± She looked around, frowning. ¡°Was this too easy?¡± ¡°It is rare to have explosives, or even basic area-of-effect spells, at this level,¡± Darius pointed out. ¡°A Mage would be unlikely to be able to cast a large fireball spell, even if they could learn it.¡± Josh nodded. One of the benefits of a high Perception or Sensitivity score was that it was easier to learn techniques or spells. Plenty of powers were effectively, even if not literally, gated behind stat minimums. And then there was the fact that powers like that could have absurdly high mana costs. Techniques tended to be cheaper, but need to be boosted with Strength to be truly effective. There were always exceptions, of course. It all depended on your class and build. ¡°I guess...¡± Ruth murmured, not looking convinced. ¡°What if we''re missing something? What if these guys are a lot stronger than we think? Maybe they''re just weak to explosions or something.¡± ¡°Then it''s a good thing we brought the boom, eh?¡± Josh gave her a playful elbow in the side. ¡°I see your worries, but we''re fine, all right?¡± She pouted. ¡°We''re out of grenades. And I don''t think we''re going to find more wood here!¡± She had a point there. Glancing around, Josh saw plenty of carapace and chitin, as well as the gross waxy substance that he didn''t think ants should even be using. No wood, though. Other than their armor, there was none in the room, and he wasn''t going to start breaking that into parts. ¡°Tell you what,¡± he said. ¡°Why don''t you look at those runes while we sort through the loot? We don''t have to rush this. Maybe you''ll find something useful.¡± She didn''t look all that convinced, but she nodded and rose to her feet. She crossed over to one of the walls, made a face, and scraped away the wax to expose the glowing runes underneath. Chapter 23 - Bug Dungeon (part 3) Josh stood up and walked over to Mary and Darius. They were arguing over the pile of ant corpses that they were supposed to be sorting. ¡°Formic bodies are a wealth of materials,¡± Darius insisted. ¡°Even one of these workers can produce poisons and acids that chemists find useful. Did you know that insects actually evolve every four levels instead of every eight? That makes their materials more valuable than they would normally¡ª¡± ¡°Hardly even,¡± she snapped back. ¡°And I''m not in a mood to carry a bunch of ant carcasses on my back so that some rich kid can buy butt cream!¡± ¡°It is far more than that and you know it.¡± ¡°Oi,¡± Josh called. They snapped out of their argument to glare at him. He weathered their looks and continued. ¡°Are we good to keep going, or we need to call it a day?¡± Mary cocked her head. ¡°You don''t want to try for 24?¡± ¡°I do,¡± he admitted. ¡°That''s not what I asked though, is it? Can we manage another room? I don''t want to be another idiot who gets himself offed by being too greedy.¡± Darius pushed his glasses back up his nose. ¡°I do not recommend it. We have depleted our supply of grenades, and those were the only reason we were able to clear this room with such ease. We can return tomorrow with more supplies.¡± ¡°Muck that,¡± Mary snapped. ¡°We burned through all our grenades, a good pot, and too much ammo. All that, and we didn''t get anything out of it.¡± She waved her hand, vaguely encompassing the entire chamber. ¡°There''s no magic items stashed here, and the corpses are too heavy to carry.¡± Darius looked like he was going to argue with that, but Josh interrupted. ¡°What about the nectar?¡± He could smell the sweet scent on the air. Formic nectar wasn''t the most valuable material to be harvested from monsters, but it was worth collecting. Darius shook his head. ¡°It''s gone. If I had to guess, I would theorize that the formics ate it before engaging us.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Wait. So we were fighting bugs hopped up on super-juice?¡± ¡°It is more complicated than that. Formic nectar increases their speed and aggression, but burns them out from the inside.¡± Darius paused. ¡°So... yes, I suppose. I suspect that is part of the reason they proved so susceptible to our grenades.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Josh considered for a moment. ¡°Whelp, I figure that''s one less reason to go on, yeah? I don''t want to see how a drugged-out ant colony fights when we''re not bombing their faces off.¡± Mary put her hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side. ¡°I dunno, sounds like a laugh to me.¡± ¡°That''s what you said about nicking the ''special'' candy from your aunt''s stash last Halloween.¡± Mary snorted. ¡°Yeah, and I was right, wasn''t I?¡± Josh chuckled despite himself. ¡°Yeah, you were right.¡± Darius did not look amused. ¡°I would like to note, for the record, that you two are definitely going to get us all killed.¡± Josh and Mary both snorted. Like they''d never heard that before. ¡°Hey guys, over here!¡± Ruth called. She was standing by the doorway to the next room. ¡°I think I''ve found something.¡± They all walked over. ¡°You found some new runes?¡± Josh asked. Ruth bobbed her head. ¡°Oh yeah, tons! More than makes sense, actually.¡± She waved her hand at the pieces of chitin surrounding her. Each scrap of carapace glowed with a single rune. There were at least a dozen. It seemed she had been practicing while the others were arguing. ¡°I didn''t get a lot of main runes, but I got a lot of connectors. Like, a lot a lot.¡± She frowned. ¡°I think maybe I misunderstood what they were, because there shouldn''t be this many if they''re just articles and particles in a language, you know?¡± ¡°That what you wanted to talk about?¡± Ruth shook her head to clear it. ¡°No, no! Look, here!¡± She pointed at a circle of runes next to the door. ¡°This circle is different from the rest of the runes?¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Darius looked interested. ¡°New runes?¡± ¡°No, no, I''ve already got all of these. I mean everything else¡ª¡± She waved her hand to indicate the room. ¡°Is baked into the walls. They affect the stone and the dungeon and have all sorts of redundancies. I could erase every rune in the room, and I don''t think the dungeon would be affected. But this...¡± She tapped the glowing circle. ¡°This is designed to be interacted with. It''s separate from the rest.¡± Josh looked around. While most of the walls were still obscured by wax, he could tell even at a glance that she had a point. All the runes he could see were in straight, unbroken lines. Like words written in a book. Or maybe signs written onto a building. They weren''t meant to be removed or separated. This section, next to the door, reminded him of nothing so much as... He blinked. ¡°It''s a switch,¡± he said. It was the perfect size to put his hand on it. ¡°Like for a light, or a button for an elevator.¡± ¡°I have never seen a circle such as this, however,¡± Darius said. He peered closer, but was careful not to touch it. ¡°Surely a glowing circle next to a door would stand out.¡± ¡°Oh, it wasn''t glowing until I touched it,¡± Ruth said with a happy smile. ¡°I had to put some mana into it. I think it only worked because I''m an Enchanter!¡± That made sense. All of them, including Josh, had tried putting mana into runes she had prepared. They could do it, but it cost more mana than when she did it herself. It was one of many reasons she really wanted to find a way to let her items recharge themselves. Josh tried to remember if he had heard about anything like this before. The problem was that even back when Enchanters were common, they hadn''t wandered into dungeons much. No one had, really. They just weren''t worth the effort most of the time. In the Old World, no one had really tried to reclaim areas lost to the Jungle, as they were too busy keeping what they still had stable. He shrugged. ¡°If you don''t know what it does, then you don''t know what it does. Let''s get out of here before...¡± He trailed off, frowning. There was something off about the doorway next to the circle. Ruth looked between him and the circle. She had a notepad out, and was quickly sketching out the circle. She had already filled the pad almost to full. ¡°Uh, before what? Also, did you know that this circle is a palindrome? I wonder if that''s important.¡± Josh shook his head, still frowning. The doorways in dungeons were invisible, so he didn''t see anything different. But something was different. Something about the way that the air was flowing¡ª His eyes widened. ¡°Ruth, look out!¡± He tackled her to the side just as a magical spear came rocketing through the space she had occupied a moment before. As they crashed to the ground in a clatter of wooden armor, he heard angry chitters of frustration from the other room. The rune circle had controlled the invisible door, and Ruth had turned it off. Thankfully, Darius was on it. He jumped in front of the doorway, holding up his hands to block it with his shroud. Just in time, as a Formic Brute slammed into him, trying to push past. The shroud pushed it back, but Darius still grunted with effort. Mary took up position behind him and started firing over his shoulder. ¡°There''s loads in there!¡± ¡°How many?¡± Josh called, still on the ground. ¡°Can we take them with the choke point?¡± ¡°Not liking our odds!¡± He paused for a heartbeat. ¡°Hold them for a minute! I''ve got an idea!¡± ¡°You WOT? Josh, you mucker, get¡ª¡± Any further cursing was interrupted by her own gunshots. ¡°Ruth, you too!¡± He stripped off his armor. ¡°We need the wood!¡± She frowned. ¡°What are you¡ª¡± Then her face brightened. ¡°Oh! That could work!¡± Josh started on the bracers. They weren''t as important to his continued survival as the chest piece. He stripped the leather and ties off the wood as best he could, grabbed his tools and the water bottle, and piled them all together. ¡°Instant Crafting.¡± The pile glowed, but there was a pause, as if the materials weren''t sure what to do with themselves. After a moment, the glow brightened. When it faded, there was a small wooden bottle, similar to the grenades he had made earlier except without the pieces of metal sticking out of it. Also, there was an obvious seam where the pieces joined together, and he could already see water slowly starting to seep out.
Water Bottle (wooden) (shoddy). This is a degraded version of an existing blueprint due to shoddy materials, shoddy tools, or both. It is barely functional.
Josh shoved the ¡°bottle¡± at Ruth even as he started on the next one. Idly, he realized that he hadn''t received experience for crafting it. It seemed the System didn''t want to reward him for making flawed products. Between the two of them, they were able to make four grenades in about as many minutes. It required the sacrifice of their bracers and gauntlets, and Josh remained unsure if they would explode properly, but they were better than nothing. For the moment, Darius and Mary were holding the door. The room was filled with the bitter smell of formic pheromones, the sharp smell of gunsmoke, and Mary''s constant swearing. Just as Josh was bundling up the grenades to bring over, however, a new notification appeared.
NEW TECHNIQUE LEARNED: Scavenge (rank 1). A technique for deconstructing any constructed object to repurpose its parts. Increases your chances of finding usable parts when taking apart an object. Cost: 20 stamina (variable by equipment, item). Requires: None (variable).
He dismissed the notification. That would have been pretty useful about five minutes ago. Chapter 24 - Bug Dungeon (part 4) The doorway was practically clogged with bodies. Too many monsters to count, ant-like bodies scrambling forward to attack the enemy, scrambling over and around each other in an effort to scratch and bite at their foe. Darius still had his shroud up, plugging the hole like a cork, and it was the only thing that had kept them from being overwhelmed. The shroud was only visible when it took damage, a crackling corona of energy surrounding Darius like a cloud for a brief moment. Or, it was supposed to be for a brief moment. He was under such constant attack that the shroud was almost constantly visible, a swirling aurora of light and energy. That energy was fading in places, cracks in the shield as the monsters attacked again and again. Every few moments the shroud would flicker, and those weaknesses would disappear¡ªbut at the cost of the entire shroud fading just slightly. When it failed, it would all fail at once. The stench of ozone was strong in the air. Mary stood behind him, her handguns alternating fire as she shot over his shoulders. She was having minimal impact, though she was cutting down any of the insects that tried to climb up its fellows and over Darius'' head. Josh couldn''t help but be impressed by their coordination and trust. Darius was standing there stoically while Mary shot at him. Sure, his shroud could handle a few bullets, but it was still an expression of trust that he could stand there without flinching. Impressive as it was, it couldn''t last. Darius'' shroud would fail any second, and Mary didn''t have unlimited bullets. ¡°Oi!¡± Josh yelled. ¡°Head''s up!¡± He forced as much mana as he could into one of the grenades, then tossed it over the shroud. There was a pause, and then a burst from the other room. Not an explosion, a burst. It clearly wasn''t as strong as the other grenades they had made. It still made the Formics angry, though, and they withdrew from the door, just a bit. Josh heard chittering screams of rage and pain from the next room. He looked past Darius. Were they... attacking something? Did they think they had been attacked from behind? That didn''t make much sense, Formics were infamously loyal to other members of the same hive. Still, it gave a chance for Darius'' shroud to recover, so Josh would take it. Darius stumbled back, sweating and gasping for breath. Pushing that much power into his shroud wasn''t comfortable. Josh passed out the grenades to Mary and Darius. When he looked up, he was surprised to see that Ruth had taken up the place in front of the door, her giant club held ready, her face determined. ¡°Oi!¡± he called, caught between annoyance and panic. ¡°You looking to die?¡± ¡°I''m the only other one with a shroud. Plus, I''ve got armor.¡± She looked back and gave him a shaky smile. ¡°I can do this. I promise.¡± Josh didn''t know how to respond to that. Ruth was a tiny little girl who had never had any class besides Mender before now. Everything about her screamed that she needed to stay in the back and be protected. He had never thought anything was strange about her father insisting she stay out of combat. She looked like a girl born to be a valuable support class, and for the most part she acted that way too. Except... she had insisted they start working out together. She wore armor whenever she could. She had invented special rune-chains to allow her to use a heavy weapon in combat. She had accepted the shroud that Darius had made. The rest of them had intended it as a precaution, a way to keep her safe if the worst should happen. He suspected she had taken it for entirely different reasons. He remembered what she had said earlier. That the reason she had gone with them to the dungeon in the first place was because she wanted to help people. That she wanted to do something that she could actually see was important. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Ruth Moore was a born Defender, stuck in the body of a Healer. The ants returned to the attack, their chittering like the sound of pebbles in an aluminum can. Ruth smacked one down with her heavy club, shouldered another back, and took the bite of a third on her shroud. Her shroud dipped dangerously; it would regenerate on its own, but she couldn''t bolster it like Darius could with his own. Josh shook himself out of his fugue. He charged another grenade and threw it into the next room. Darius and Mary followed suit, and a moment later all three exploded almost at the same time. The screeches of pain were louder now, as was that bitter smell of dead Formics. ¡°Come on!¡± Ruth yelled, and charged forward. She abandoned her superior tactical position so that she could dive in the middle of the enemy. Josh and the others stared after her. He could tell they were all thinking the exact same thing: Ruth might have the soul of a Defender, but she would need a bit more training to have the brains of a Defender. There were more chittering screams from inside, and Josh rallied. He raised his sword, gripping tight with his remaining fingers, and charged in. They didn''t have any grenades left, and not much more material to make more even if they wanted to. They had to finish this quickly. The second room was nearly identical to the first. It was big, and the walls were covered in wax and tunnels. There were Formics everywhere, but they were all on the ground, not up above and out of reach. Their grenades, though weaker, had damaged more of them than last time. Every single one of the dozens of ant monsters had at least one major wound leaking yellow blood. Ruth stood in the middle of the crowd, swinging around that club that looked as if it was heavier than she was. She swung it with such wild abandon that it almost swept her off her feet, but every swing cracked at least one carapace. Josh wasn''t sure how many kills she was getting, but she was at least pushing the ants back. Not many of them were getting hits in. Oddly, in the center of the room was a small wax... nest? Altar? A circular section of wax, creating a bed or protective space. There were four ant corpses here, each killed by the massive bee trapped in the nest. It looked like nothing so much as a normal bee, though it was twice as big as the Formic Destroyers¡ªmeaning it was about the size of a truck. Its wings and legs had all been torn off somehow, leaving a limbless body trapped where it was. Still, it was so large that it had managed to easily crush the Formics when they got too close to its mouth. Josh examined its properties.
Apid Queen. Level 28 Monster. Like most insects, Apids utilize an unenlightened form of government. Rather than trying something silly like democracy or something wise like a meritocracy based on the levels and powers granted by a nigh-omniscient neutral System, Apid hives follow unelected, unproven monarchs called queens. Thankfully, they aren''t smart enough for it to actually matter. Anyway, the Apid Queen is a bit different from a normal bee queen. In addition to serving as the sole source of baby Apids, the Apid Queen has a number of unique support spells that can affect her entire hive at once. If monsters had class roles, she''d be a Healer.
That... was strange. On the one hand, it explained all the wax. This had, apparently, been an Apid Hive instead of a Formic Colony until recently. Josh wasn''t fully up to date on dungeon theory, but he''d guess that the Formics came in during the solstice. The question was, why had they kept the queen alive? Josh glanced around, identified the nearest Formic Mage, and cut its head off with a single swipe. The queen could wait. At least she was no threat so long as they didn''t get within reach. The rest of the insects were another story. Since Ruth was for the most part holding her own against the normal Formics, Josh circled around the fight, looking for more ranged combatants. There was only one more Formic Mage, but he had to kill three Formic Spikers¡ªants that grew spikes and threw them with disturbing accuracy. While he was doing that, Darius and Mary rushed in, having recovered enough from their previous fight. Darius jumped in next to Ruth, putting up his shroud again, and Mary started firing off Pyro Shots to finish off the wounded Formics. Josh, seeing no more ranged threats, started picking at the flanks of the mass of ants centered on Ruth and Darius. It was not an easy fight. Even with the ants injured, confused, and clearly outmatched on every level, there were loads of them. It took a good ten minutes to finish them off in a grinding fight that somehow managed to be both slow and frantic at the same time. Josh lost himself in the motions and flow of the battle, which might be why he got distracted and took a bad wound to the arm from one of the Brutes. Chapter 25 - Bug Dungeon (part 5) After all the Formics were dead, Josh forced down another potion and tried not to puke. ¡°Ugh. My God, I swear this stuff tastes worse every time.¡± He eyed the nearby giant queen bee. ¡°We got a plan to deal with this one?¡± Darius slowly rolled to his feet, trying to preserve his dignity. Considering he was exhausted, covered in ant guts, and smelled like he''d gone frolicking through a chemical forge, it didn''t work. ¡°Apid Queens secrete a number of valuable jellies.¡± ¡°I''m not sticking around here long enough for her to poop out gold,¡± Mary said flatly. Josh nodded. ¡°Same here.¡± He looked at the queen, frowning. ¡°Should we kill her? Maybe there''s some glint already in there with her.¡± Darius shrugged. ¡°We won''t get much experience. They''ve already done too much damage to her.¡± ¡°Aww, come on!¡± Ruth leaned perilously close to the giant bee. The monster snapped her mandibles, but Ruth didn''t seem to notice. ¡°She looks all sad and pathetic!¡± ¡°We''re not taking a bloody Apid Queen home with us,¡± Josh said, flat as a broken drum. ¡°Even if we did have a Beastmaster, it would be an awful idea.¡± Ruth looked over and rolled her eyes. ¡°Not that. I mean we should put her out of her misery. The ants were torturing her!¡± ¡°Yeah, ''bout that...¡± Mary frowned. ¡°How smart are Formics, anyway? Did they really capture an enemy monster so that they could farm her?¡± ¡°You would be surprised,¡± Darius said. ¡°I have read literature on pre-Jungle animals and insects. Apparently, some species would enslave enemy insects, and there were even reports of something very much like agriculture.¡± Josh stared at him. ¡°Wot mucking books are you reading?¡± He knew a bit more about the world before the Jungle than most people did, and he had never heard anything like that. Next Darius would talk about monkeys domesticating wolves. Mary shook her head, holding up her hands in defeat. ¡°Look, it doesn''t matter. Let''s just kill her, get the experience, and see if she''s got anything worth being got.¡± Darius performed the finishing blow. He was still lagging a little behind the rest of them in levels, so even with the experience penalties, it was best to give it to him. The queen didn''t have anything useful on her, but then Mary and Darius got into another argument on if they should try to haul her corpse back to town for the alchemy materials. Josh sighed. This would all be so much easier if they had anyone with a [Gatherer] class. Even a Basic-tier class like Scavenger could cut up the monsters and find all the valuable glands and so on. Not to mention the fact that all [Gatherers] had an inventory. Once again, he cursed the fact that they didn''t have any more bloodstones. Yes, the Woodcrafter bloodstone had done loads for them, but he still wasn''t sure it was worth all the trouble. What could he do with a [Gatherer] class, or a [Scholar] class? Or an [Explorer] class. If he had a Runner bloodstone... He shook himself out of his daze. This was not the time for regrets. He called up the notifications that had been minimized during combat.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 23 Woodcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 24! You meet the minimum requirements for class refinement. You do not possess any class advancement resources. Would you like to pause your level-up to obtain advancement resources?
Josh selected ¡°no.¡± New windows immediately popped up.
You have TWO (2) class choices. Seek out additional class advancement resources to expand your choices.
CLASS OPTIONS: Bonecrafter (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and structures from bone, hair, and hide.
Stonecrafter (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and structures from stone.
Oh boy. This was more than he had asked for. He hadn''t expected a choice. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Guys?¡± he called out weakly. ¡°I think I need some help here.¡± Mary and Darius looked up from the pile of corpses. It seemed they hadn''t found anything valuable, though that hadn''t stopped them from trying to pry the carapaces apart and dig for the glands and organs manually. Ruth, on the other hand, had the glazed-over look in her eyes that meant she was looking through her own screens. ¡°You get your advance?¡± Mary asked. Josh nodded slowly. ¡°Something like that.¡± He sent over his options to both of them. ¡°Advancements for stats don''t usually have choices.¡± ¡°Stonecrafter,¡± Mary said instantly. ¡°You''re going up the tech-tree, yeah? Maybe you''ll get Metalcrafter next.¡± ¡°Perhaps,¡± Darius said, his eyes still distant. ¡°I don''t disagree, I''m simply not certain that constant advancement up the technological tree is the best option. Bonecrafter, for example, would certainly give you the ability to craft all this carapace into armor.¡± ¡°Yeah, and then it''s a dead-end because there''s no tech that goes from bones to, I dunno, Mechanist.¡± Mary gave Josh a serious look. ¡°You go with Bonecrafter, then if you''re lucky you''ll be able to jump back to Stonecrafter next advance. Best case, you''re hobbling yourself eight levels. Don''t miss the target.¡± Josh nodded slowly. He had a specific goal in mind: Mechanist, which would in turn lead to more advanced classes with a mechanical bent. Bonecrafter was unlikely to lead in that direction. Darius sighed. ¡°I see your mind is set.¡± He pushed his glasses up. ¡°I do wish we could at least see what his advancement bonus would be. That might influence his decision.¡± Mary waved that away. ¡°Nah. Bonecrafter might have some cool trick, ''specially if it''s a dead-end. He should still go with Stonecrafter.¡± ¡°Who should what?¡± Ruth asked, walking over. She looked between the three of them, then smiled at Josh. ¡°Did you get your advancement?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± A thought occurred to him. ¡°Did you?¡± She smiled and shook her head. ¡°Nope! Still just an Enchanter! No stat advancements are available to me yet, and I checked what bloodstone advancements I''d get a while ago. I figured it was best to stay the same for now.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Not a bad idea.¡± Then he grinned. ¡°Me, I''m changing up a bit.¡± He clicked the option for Stonecrafter.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 24 Stonecrafter! You have 2 free attribute points and 2 class attribute points to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Craft Stone. Make items from stones, dirt, and clay.
NEW SPELL LEARNED: Runestones. Craft a single primary rune into a stone, creating a simple talisman. This talisman provides a weak passive benefit, or can be destroyed for a stronger short-term benefit. Duration of benefit is influenced by Power, speed of crafting runestones is influenced by Flexibility, number of total runestones is influenced by Capacity, and cost of runestones is influenced by Sensitivity.
Josh froze. He could... use runes? Like an Enchanter? Reading the description over a couple more times, he calmed down a bit. He''d have to test it to figure out the limits, but this was clearly nothing like Ruth''s ability to craft rune-chains. He smiled to himself. He felt silly for jumping to such a conclusion so quickly. There was no way that the Stonecrafter would have all the benefits of the Enchanter class on top of its own. If it was a higher-tier class, that could happen, but they were both Basic-tier. ¡°Hey, Ruth,¡± he called. She was getting ready to retreat, even as Mary and Darius continued bickering over the loot¡ªor lack thereof. ¡°What runes do you have so far?¡± She frowned and took out her notepad. ¡°Well, that''s the thing. I''m not sure I actually understood how runes and rune-chains worked all along? The runes on the walls here are written very differently than the magic items I studied. They use far more connector runes.¡± She shook her head. ¡°It''s almost like a full language, but if so I only understand a dozen words.¡± She brightened. ¡°I''ll know more once I master all the runes I''ve copied down, because I''ll get the blueprints and the descriptions for them!¡± Josh nodded. ¡°How many primary runes you got?¡± She blinked in surprise. ¡°Oh. Uh.¡± Her eyes went distant as she called up her screens. ¡°Geo, Anemo¡ª¡± He held up a hand to stop her. ¡°Plain English, if you don''t mind.¡± She giggled and smiled. ¡°Right, sorry. Uh, Earth, Wind, and Fire are my Basic-tier elemental runes. Light is an Improved-tier rune. I also have Gravity, but that''s an Exemplary-tier rune, so it''s more expensive. My body runes are Strength, Perception, Capacity, and Flexibility.¡± Josh blinked in surprise. ¡°Wot? Those sound like stat scores.¡± She nodded happily. ¡°Yeah, I think that''s right! I wasn''t sure at first, because I was able to add them to items and they did things on their own. Without enhancing the person wearing it, I mean.¡± She cocked her head to the side. ¡°Maybe it''s the other way around? Maybe our scores are named after these runes?¡± Josh wasn''t so sure of that, but he supposed it didn''t really matter. ¡°Do you mind showing me how to make them?¡± Ruth stopped dead, blinking at him. ¡°Uh, what? You want to try to carve runes? Why?¡± He grinned. Chapter 26 - Back to Base In the end, they didn''t take much with them when they left the dungeon. They didn''t know enough about the monsters to know what was valuable, and the ants had already drank all the nectar and any other obvious treasures. There would definitely have been more of them deeper in the dungeon¡ªthere always was¡ªbut they weren''t willing to risk taking one more step. When they returned to their land, not only had all the grass regrown to almost knee height, but a few monsters had already moved in. Just a small family of Jungle-touched rabbits, but those could become a huge problem if they weren''t dealt with quickly. At least they were all lower than level 20. Josh guessed that they had all been born recently, since the last reset, and grown at an accelerated rate. Or maybe not. No one actually knew how monsters reproduced and leveled. One of the rabbits spit acid in his face. After it was dead, he had to take another of those stupid recovery potions to heal. He was beginning to feel like a punching bag. This was why he didn''t pick the [Defender] role. Ruth, of course, was more than happy to teach him runes once he gave in and admitted what he wanted them for. It wasn''t until after dinner that he successfully managed to carve a runestone. Surrounded by dozens of hand-sized rocks that he had tried to chisel, covered in rock dust from the explosions when he tried to force mana into them, he finally managed to get one right. When he channeled his mana into it, not too hard, it glowed gently. He sat there, holding his breath, praying it wouldn''t explode.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the blueprint Runestone of Strength (basic). When worn as a talisman, this stone grants a +1 bonus to the Strength score. When crushed, this stone grants a +2 bonus to the Strength score for 4 minutes.
It wasn''t much. But it was something. Learning the blueprints for the other stat scores went faster, since now he had various Stonecrafter techniques like [Chisel Stone] to help the process along. Even with his missing fingers, it wasn''t that hard. By noon the next day, while the others were still clearing the bushes and grass that had grown while they were gone, he finished learning the blueprints for Perception, Capacity, and Flexibility runestones. The limitations were immediately apparent. First off, the bonuses didn''t stack. You could gain the benefit of exactly one runestone and no more. That was a bit unusual. Most enchanted gear that provided stat score bonuses stacked. Josh suspected these talismans didn''t count as true ¡°equipment¡± like necklaces or rings, and were something else. Regardless, the point was that they each had to choose a single stat score to improve. Josh chose Capacity, Mary chose Perception, Darius chose Flexibility, and Ruth chose Strength. Crushing the stones, thankfully, proved easy. It was more about making the willful effort than actually having the physical strength to do it. Which was a good thing, because none of them had Strength worth a damn. Josh made two talismans of the chosen stat score for each of them. While they didn''t stack, this way if they needed to use the temporary boost, they would still have a backup once the first one was gone. Again, better than nothing. Josh was also surprised to discover that the runestones weren''t considered variant blueprints. Each one was a new blueprint, and gave a decent chunk of experience for discovering it, and then more for crafting the stones. Once he had some spare time, he was going to grind out as many stones as he could until he stopped getting decent experience for them. Unfortunately, that was going to take a while. He didn''t have enough mana for [Instant Crafting] with these, since they needed a big chunk of mana to activate the rune. Well, for a normal person of his level it would be a relatively small amount, but he still only had a Capacity of 4. It went up to 5 with the runestone, which wasn''t enough. At the end of that first day, he was level 25. Mary had reached level 25 in the dungeon, and hadn''t received a decent advancement at 24, so she had stayed a Gunner. Darius had finally caught up, for the most part, and was level 24. He also had stayed with his current class. He said he thought he had some ideas for crafting new shrouds, even if he still didn''t have the materials for even the most basic. They would need to buy more. That was the crux of their argument over their rabbit stew. ¡°I think we should sell the runestones,¡± Mary said between mouthfuls. ¡°How much would you pay for a bonus to your favorite score?¡± ¡°I only have half the stats,¡± Ruth reminded her. She blew on her own soup. She seemed almost terrified of burning her tongue. ¡°I didn''t get any new Prime runes in the dungeon. There were lots of Secondary runes, though.¡± Josh had already tried, and putting a Secondary rune on a runestone didn''t do anything. He could do it, and he even received a blueprint for it, but it was a generic one just named ¡°Runestone.¡± The runestone didn''t seem to do anything, and he was pretty sure they were all missing something important about how runes functioned. ¡°I am certain that we will find them quite profitable regardless,¡± Darius said. ¡°That is not the issue. The issue is what happens when people begin asking where these new enchanted items came from.¡± He nodded politely at Ruth. ¡°I remain impressed with your grenades, Miss Moore. I simply do not think that is enough to keep us safe. People will soon ask questions, and that World Quest is impossible to ignore.¡± Everyone grimaced at that. The big World Quest announcement repeated every day at noon. When they had spent time in the tavern, they had heard people talking about it. Some people found it annoying, some people found it enticing. But everyone knew about it. If they realized there were [Crafters] around here, word would get out sooner than later. ¡°We have to do something,¡± Josh pointed out. ¡°We lost loads of money in that dungeon and got nothing out of it.¡± As much as he hated the recovery potions, they were expensive and useful. ¡°I don''t think doing monster hunt quests will get us enough glint to catch eyes and filch the goods.¡± Darius looked confused for a moment. ¡°What is that¡ªyou mean make money and buy the materials I need?¡± Josh gave him a sideways look. ¡°Yeah. That''s what I just said.¡± Darius sighed for some reason. He seemed to do that fairly often. ¡°The fact remains, selling the talismans will bring too much attention. Sooner or later, someone will realize we aren''t finding these in dungeons, and that we must be making them.¡± The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Well, we can''t sell anything else, can we?¡± Josh gestured at Ruth. She dodged his spoon. ¡°The grenades are too obvious. Those aren''t the sorts of things monsters have on them, or that you find in dungeons. Same with anything else Ruth puts a rune on. The talismans are all we''ve got.¡± ¡°There''s always the mad option,¡± Mary said. ¡°We could trust someone with the bloodstones.¡± She said this in a casual tone. As if she was suggesting that they could get more water by leaving a bucket out in the rain. Everyone turned to stare at her. ¡°Wot?¡± she snapped, sounding genuinely defensive. ¡°We were always gonna go public at some point. Why not now?¡± She waved a hand at both of them. ¡°Everyone will fall over to give Ruth enchanted glint to study, and Josh can build a house in a day or repair a wall or all sorts of other muck. Even more, now he''s got stone added to the list.¡± Oh, right. He had been so excited testing his new runestones that he hadn''t even tried to do anything with his actual Stonecrafting. He had earned a few simple techniques for working stone, but nothing large-scale. ¡°I am curious as to exactly what constitutes ''stone,''¡± Darius said. He took another spoonful of soup before continuing. ¡°Do you think you could build something out of concrete?¡± Josh paused, spoon halfway to his mouth, as he thought about it. ¡°...maybe?¡± ¡°If you used [Instant Crafting], would it instantly turn from cement to concrete?¡± ¡°Uh, maybe?¡± He didn''t think so, though. None of his current blueprints required any sort of waiting period, but that didn''t seem right. ¡°That''s jumping ahead a bit, innit? I haven''t even made a bloody stone wall. Or cement.¡± Darius took a deep breath and leaned back. ¡°Apologies. I have been... overeager.¡± He adjusted his glasses again. ¡°It is just that your skills have enormous potential, and require nothing more than testing and cheap materials. That makes it simpler to use than mine or even Miss Moore''s.¡± ¡°It''s okay, Dee-Dee!¡± Ruth cheered. ¡°Your heart''s in the right place!¡± He glared at her. ¡°Don''t call me that.¡± She pouted. For about half a second, before brightening again. ¡°Oh, I know! Why don''t we ask Miss Vashti?¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Who?¡± ¡°The mayor, silly!¡± she said with a laugh. ¡°She only gave us a big plot of land for free!¡± ¡°Land infested with monsters, trees, and monster trees,¡± Darius said flatly. Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°Oh? I thought there were no walking trees. I didn''t see any, that''s damn sure.¡± Mary put her soup down, serious as an execution. ¡°We really talking about this? Just walking up to the mayor and giving her a chance to stab us in the heart?¡± Josh sighed. ¡°It''s not that bad.¡± ¡°Sounds that bad,¡± she snapped back. ¡°Wot, you think she''s just going to give us money and mats out of the sweetness of her soul?¡± She slammed her fist against the table Josh had made. ¡°Best case, we''re slaves until the next reset, then we get to watch the City burn from a good perch.¡± ¡°That''s a bit much, don''t you think?¡± Josh asked dryly. ¡°More likely,¡± she said, ignoring him, ¡°this bird turns us in for the bounty.¡± She pointed at Ruth. ¡°Her dad kills Josh¡ªmaybe all three of us¡ªand she gets shoved in some bunker while the City burns.¡± ¡°I''d at least be able to convince him to fight the dragon,¡± Ruth muttered into her soup. ¡°The Eight would come back. The City would be fine.¡± Mary ignored this as well. ¡°I''m not trusting some bird who we met once with a secret that could get us killed.¡± ¡°I didn''t hear any other ideas,¡± Josh snapped. ¡°You think this is a bad one, give us something that shines better!¡± Darius cleared his throat. ¡°Perhaps we should¡ª¡± Mary jumped up. ¡°It''s not on me to find something better! It''s not a question of sell ourselves out or die, it''s sell ourselves or keep doing what we''re doing! We did fine in the dungeon, we can do that again!¡± Josh clenched his fist. The one missing fingers. ¡°Fine? We almost all died because we didn''t have what we needed! We need money to make up the difference, it''s as simple as that! You want glint, you need to talk to someone with polish! You should know that!¡± ¡°OI!¡± She stomped forward, making Darius and Ruth scramble back before she could bowl them over. ¡°What''s that supposed to mean!?¡± Josh stood up too, looming over her. As usual, she didn''t care that he was almost a foot taller and wider than her. ¡°It means that not everyone got tutors and teachers growing up! Not everyone had a gun on their hip, ready and waiting to advance to Gunner on their eighth birthday! Not everyone is a bloody mafia princess!¡± ¡°What the hell is the mafia!?¡± ¡°Italian criminals!¡± ¡°I''M NOT ITALIAN!¡± An explosion of light in front of them forced them apart. There was very little sound and force, but the flash alone almost blinded them, causing them to stumble back in sheer confusion. ¡°That''s enough!¡± Ruth said. She was crying, and holding the disintegrating remnants of a small piece of wood she had put a Light rune on. She had overcharged it. ¡°I-I don''t know why you''re both so... so angry about this, but I''m not letting it continue!¡± She looked between the two of them, then nodded to herself. ¡°Josh, you''re coming with me to talk to Miss Vashti.¡± Mary bristled. ¡°Like hell¡ª¡± ¡°And Mary¡ª¡± Ruth continued, talking over her. ¡°You''re going out hunting with Darius.¡± She took a breath. ¡°Everyone needs to just... just cool off!¡± Mary clenched her fists and ground her teeth. Josh breathed hard, focusing on the pounding in his ears. Neither of them reached for their weapons. That had never been a possibility, Josh knew¡ªhe and Mary hadn''t gotten into worse arguments than this without devolving into an actual fight. But he could see Darius ready to jump in between them with a shroud. ¡°Fine,¡± he bit out at last. ¡°Let''s see what the mayor has to say.¡± At this point, he was just about ready to give everything to her just to piss off Mary. Chapter 27 - On Patricide They found the mayor on the first floor of the inn, watching a play. All the tables had been removed, and all the chairs moved to one side. That gave enough room for an audience of about thirty to watch the performers. It was still a bit cramped; this was hardly a grand theater in the City. But it had a warm, friendly atmosphere, and Manny the bartender was quietly moving through the crowd, distributing drinks. Ruth tried to ask Josh about Mary a few times, but he brushed her off. This was not something he wanted to talk about. He had a feeling that once his blood cooled, he might even feel bad about airing their dirty laundry in front of relative strangers. Mary was Josh''s best friend; they had known each other for years. Unfortunately, that meant loads of time for grudges to build up. They came into the play right in the middle of a big scene. Josh recognized it immediately, and smiled. ¡°¡ªnever told you what happened to your father,¡± one of the actors was saying. He wore black armor that covered his entire body and face, and his voice was unusually deep and booming. ¡°He told me enough!¡± the other actor said. He was on the floor, doing a decent job of pretending he was dangling over a precipice. ¡°He told me you killed him!¡± ¡°No. I am your father.¡± Most of the younger audience members gasped. Josh was surprised at how many kids were in the audience, before realizing that was a silly thought. Children showed up everywhere, one way or another. Just because it was more dangerous out here than in the City didn''t change that. As the scene continued, Josh and Ruth sneaked their way around the back of the room, trying to stay out of sight. It didn''t take long to find the mayor. She was sitting in the back, close to the bar, and there was a suspiciously large man standing nearby, trying very hard to pretend he wasn''t a bodyguard. Josh and the bodyguard eyed each other as they approached. Almost everyone was wearing masks to prevent the system identification, but Josh still had experience in this sort of thing. Despite the bodyguard''s size, Josh guessed that he was a speed class, maybe Rogue. Quick reflexes were often more important for a guard than raw strength. The mayor was a young Japanese woman with short black hair. She wore a simple shirt and pants, both black. Nothing fancy, but it counted as formal dress out here, away from City sewing machines. Josh and Ruth still wore their wooden armor¡ªwhich he had repaired with his improved blueprint¡ªbecause they didn''t have anything better. Josh thought the mayor was about their age, but the dark circles under her eyes made her look older. It was hard to pin her down. Was she an older woman who had aged well, or a younger woman who had aged poorly? After a moment, he decided she was likely on the older side. Even out here beyond the Burn Line, where rules were loose, it would be strange to see someone younger than thirty or so running a real town. Even if she was as old as forty, Josh still wasn''t clear how she had enough political capital to get her hands on a citystone. She didn''t have a mask, so Josh could see that she was still a [Attacker: Level 20]. She hadn''t leveled in the few days since he had seen her last. That wasn''t all that unusual, though most people at least made their way to an advancement before letting their progress lapse. The mayor looked at them with polite curiosity for a moment, before she nodded. ¡°Ah I forgot you two came in together. Nice to see you again, Mister Hundredborn.¡± Josh blinked. ¡°You remember us? That''s a surprise and a half.¡± She favored him with a small smile. ¡°This might surprise you, but I do not receive many visitors out here. Especially so early in the reset.¡± She nodded at Ruth. ¡°And of course I remember your friend here.¡± Josh looked between them. ¡°You''re boinking the mayor?¡± Ruth blushed crimson and smacked his arm. ¡°Don''t be crude! I just talk to people when I''m doing our shopping! Miss Vashti usually makes her rounds at about the same time, so we talk! That''s all!¡± The mayor raised an eyebrow at that. Josh suspected that, even if he had been off the target, he had at least been in the right ballpark. He recovered his composure. ¡°I suppose.¡± He nodded his chin at the door. ¡°You mind if we ditch the eyes? Think you''d prefer we keep this private-like.¡± He didn''t mention that he would very much prefer to keep this private. He disagreed with Mary''s stance on authority figures, but he didn''t want to shout his secrets from the rooftops. Not at first, at least. The mayor did not look surprised, or curious. She just nodded, as if this happened every day. She rose and spoke to Manny. The bartender smiled, nodded, and then waved to Josh and Ruth. Josh waved back hesitantly, and Ruth waved back enthusiastically. The mayor¡ªor more accurately, her bodyguard¡ªled them out of the inn and into the warm night. Despite it being fully dark, it was still pleasantly warm, and Josh would have felt comfortable walking around in short sleeves. If not for the ever-present threat of monsters, anyway. The mayor didn''t seem all that concerned, but her bodyguard kept his eyes on the sky, clearly aware of the possibility of Chiropterans or Strigans swooping down in the night. Once they reached the mayor office and settled in their chairs, she met both their gazes. ¡°I apologize for the delay. Normally I would be here, even so late, but we wanted to distract the kids with a play. I thought it best to put in an appearance.¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°The kids need something shiny to focus on? More than typical?¡± The mayor gave a small sigh. ¡°Those towns you reported destroyed were not the only ones. Good people died. Friends and family members of the children in this town.¡± She shook her head sadly. ¡°You understand how it is. Kids are strong, but they need things to do. While our guards and scavengers are leveling as fast as they can, somebody has to make sure they don''t wander out trying to solve things themselves.¡± Josh winced. Everyone gained access to the System if they were eight years old on the day of the solstice. This meant that they could, in theory, match adults. This did not sit well with anyone, and it was always a chore to keep the kids from wandering around trying to fight monsters. Well, Josh had heard it was a chore. He had never been put in charge of kids. ¡°I''m sorry,¡± Josh said, and meant it. He had seen far, far too many cities and towns fall. ¡°This is always a difficult time.¡± The mayor nodded somberly. ¡°We always lose one or two towns. I can''t tell you how many times we''ve lost South Valley.¡± She gave a sad chuckle. ¡°It''s fine. We are, unfortunately, used to it. We rebuild and continue on. This was just a worse year than most.¡± ¡°I would have expected more guns,¡± Ruth said obliviously. ¡°I mean, walls are great, but you need to be able to kill the monsters! If you can''t kill them before the reset, then you have to kill them after!¡± The mayor gave her an indulgent smile. ¡°Unfortunately, we''re not a high priority out here. We can hardly afford to give every adult a gun. If a town survives the Surge, they''re usually too exhausted to make a big push before the reset.¡± The Surge was the last day before the reset, when monster attacks got much worse. Josh wasn''t sure if it was because monsters were coming out of dungeons and disrupting established territory, or if the monsters were actually being driven to supernatural aggression. Maybe both. The Surge was part of the reason for the Burn Line. If everyone wasn''t so busy at the very end, then all the high level fighters could just cut back the monsters in the days or weeks leading up to the solstice, leaving everything clear. Instead, if you didn''t clear out everything, the monsters would just return stronger and angrier than before. They had to advance step by step, year by year, burning out the Jungle and reclaiming land. ¡°Surely you have something to trade the City,¡± Ruth insisted. ¡°You can grow food faster out here!¡± The mayor chuckled with polite amusement. So did Josh. Ruth looked put out. ¡°Kind of a double-edged sword there,¡± he said dryly. ¡°You can grow a ripe tomato in two days, but it might try to eat you.¡± ¡°Of course, we still do grow food for the City,¡± mayor Vashti said, back to a business tone. ¡°It''s just there aren''t enough guns to go around.¡± She waved her hand. ¡°Oh, they''ll sell us muskets by the ton, but no one can make modern firearms yet.¡± She brightened slightly, though she remained composed. ¡°I heard that they reclaimed a new factory up north. Wasn''t that area known for guns?¡± Josh snorted again. That was an exaggeration if he ever heard one. ¡°Not exactly. I''d be surprised if there was a single gun factory in a thousand miles.¡± California was not known for anything like that. ¡°This one made screws.¡± Vashti nodded. ¡°Well, I''m sure that will be helpful.¡± She looked at Ruth again. ¡°The point is, all the real guns are in the City. Most of us here just go with the Archer class if we need range. A close friend of mine is a Hunter already.¡± ¡°But we might be able to help,¡± Ruth said, giving Josh a plaintive look. ¡°With... making defenses and stuff.¡± ¡°Of course. That is part of the reason I gave you that land. Just being there will help distract the monsters a little.¡± She looked around on her desk. It was cluttered with papers. ¡°In fact, I recall that you went into that Apid dungeon.¡± ¡°It''s full of ants now,¡± Josh said dryly. ¡°Not sure if that''s harder or softer.¡± ¡°B-but that''s not the point!¡± Ruth insisted. ¡°We can do more! We just... need your help to do it!¡± She looked back at Josh, eyes wide and pleading. Josh sighed, then nodded. They both removed their masks. The mayor raised an eyebrow, then focused on them. A split second later, her eyes widened. She glanced between the two of them in shock. ¡°The World Quest...¡± she whispered. ¡°Is a pile of muck and leaves,¡± Josh interrupted, before she could jump to any conclusions he would regret. He went over the events of the past couple weeks quickly, from finding the bloodstone to getting chased out of the City. His missing fingers throbbed when he got to that part. ¡°Then we came here,¡± he finished. ¡°We''ve been crafting in our little pen, but we need scrap and shine to get much farther.¡± Seeing the confused look on the mayor''s face, he rephrased. ¡°Ah, materials and money. You understand why we''re not keen to go public, yeah?¡± The mayor sat in her chair-straight backed and motionless, for a very long moment. ¡°...I have no idea how to handle this,¡± she said at last. ¡°You don''t have to do much,¡± Josh promised. ¡°Mostly, Ruth just needs to see some runes.¡± He jerked his thumb at her. ¡°Let her look at some enchanted gear, and she can make more. Might even be able to copy what you''ve got.¡± ¡°Though no guarantees!¡± Ruth said quickly. ¡°I''m limited by my mana pool!¡± ¡°Still, it''s worth a go.¡± The mayor nodded. ¡°Yes, yes, we can do something there. I have a few personal items.¡± She gestured at the compound bow in the corner. Looking closer, Josh realized it had a few runes scratched into it. ¡°That''s Judith''s bow. You''re free to start there. I''ll see what I can do about the rest tomorrow.¡± Ruth cooed and ran over to the bow, and pulled out her notepad. She sketched out the runes and took measurements to be sure. It would take her a few minutes until she was confident that she''d be able to reproduce the runes, but she wouldn''t be absolutely sure until they got back to their land and she practiced. Josh thought there had to be a better way for her to measure the runes. Some sort of quick-drying plaster, to make a mold, maybe? At the very least, she could carry around some wooden tokens so she could practice the runes. She only had to get a rune perfect once, and then she''d get a blueprint. ¡°And you, Mister Hundredborn?¡± the mayor asked him. ¡°You are a Woodcrafter, you said.¡± She nodded at his armor. ¡°Your wooden armor is better than nothing, depending on how fast you can craft it. What else can you do? Can you build structures?¡± Josh smiled. ¡°You bet I can. More importantly, I''m a Stonecrafter now. I haven''t had a chance to push the edges yet.¡± ¡°Well then.¡± She steepled her hands in front of herself. It seemed she had recovered most of her poise. ¡°I am very interested in seeing what you can do.¡± Chapter 28 - Linguistics Ruth ended up getting two new runes from the bow. A water-element rune, and something called a ¡°verb Attack¡± rune. Josh wasn''t entirely sure what that meant. It seemed to modify the water rune, make it so that the bow used water to attack. That made sense, but Ruth insisted on calling it a ¡°verb¡± rune. Not a verbal rune, which was his first thought. A verb. When he asked if elements were nouns, her eyes had gone wide, and she whispered ¡°that makes so much sense.¡± Then she scribbled in her notebook for an hour. Mary and Darius came back late. Almost disturbingly late, in fact. Josh wished they had radios. Mary still didn''t talk to him, but she did give him a polite nod before she went to sleep, so he would call that a win. Darius confirmed that they didn''t do much. They shot some monsters, but nothing large or valuable. They hadn''t leveled, or found anything worth bringing back. Still, Mary had burned off much of her frustration, and that was the real point. The mayor came around the next morning to see what they could do. Mary walked right out of breakfast, dragging Darius with her, declaring that they were going to find him the materials he needed. Josh wished them luck. The mayor was impressed with Ruth''s steam frag grenades and Josh''s runestone talismans. However, what she really wanted to see was what kind of structures he could create. When he built a table with a literal wave of his hand, she was suitably impressed. He said he didn''t want to build another shack, since they didn''t need another shack. The mayor agreed. ¡°What about your abilities with stone?¡± she asked. ¡°Wood is a useful building material because it is in infinite supply. But if you can build a stone wall, that will be quite the improvement.¡± ¡°I haven''t done much yet,¡± he admitted. ¡°I need some real tools to do most of it.¡± The mayor nodded. ¡°We''ll make a list.¡± Her bodyguard took out a clipboard. The list was short. Josh didn''t exactly have experience working with stone; he didn''t know what he would need. Still, he thought the basics were easy enough. A hammer, a chisel, a pick, a hand drill. Once he had all of those, he thought the rest could be covered by his spells. He did have a chance to make some stone equipment, though, even if it wasn''t that impressive. He made a stone spear and got a blueprint for it. The mayor pointed out that they had metal spears. He had already tried to get a blueprint for a spear with a metal head. Despite the majority of the weapon''s mass being wood, it hadn''t worked. Josh assumed he needed a skill to craft metal first. Stone armor was out of the question. Well, mostly. He made a stone breastplate out of a single large, flat stone that was about the right shape already. He chipped away at the edges, drilled holes for leather straps, and attached it to a leather chest piece. He immediately received a blueprint for [Stone Chest Piece (stone) (shoddy)]. It was considered a poor variant of the [Wooden Chest Piece] blueprint he already had. Mary was much calmer now, though she tried not to speak to the mayor. She laughed at his stone armor, and was very impressed with Ruth''s new runes. ¡°I wish I could learn your spells,¡± she said ruefully. ¡°I need at least eight spells to be able to advance to Mage Gunner. I have one.¡± The mayor walked over. Ruth was carving runes into wood, muttering to herself about palindromes of all things, while Josh made large bundles of arrows with [Instant Crafting]. Mary lounged in the chair Josh had made. ¡°What''s this?¡± the mayor asked. She quirked an eyebrow at Mary. ¡°You''re trying for an Improved-tier class so early?¡± Basic-tier classes were easy to earn. There were a dozen ways to earn every one, through various combinations of bloodstones or stat milestones from a specific class. Everything beyond that required a specific achievement to earn, sometimes along with a stat milestone. Mage Gunner was a well-known one: You needed eight Gunner spells by the time of your class advancement. The problem was that Gunner was a physical-type class. It was hard to get spells for it. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°Yeah,¡± Mary said. ¡°It''s always fit my style, and this doesn''t seem like the year to experiment.¡± She jerked a thumb at Josh. ¡°We''ve already got one doing enough with a class he''s not used to.¡± The mayor nodded. ¡°I''ve tried for Mage Gunner before. I gave up and went with Sniper instead. What do you have?¡± ¡°Pyro Shot,¡± Mary grunted. She had learned that spell without too much trouble because she already had Pyro Arrow from her Archer class. The mayor made a noise of agreement. ¡°Yes, that''s how it was for me as well.¡± She shook her head. ¡°I wish it was easier to learn more elements.¡± She gave a small smile. ¡°One time, I tried tying a rock to the end of my arrow to see if I got a spell for that.¡± Darius walked over. ¡°Fire is easy. It is energy. Natural fire and magical fire are not so different. Natural earth and magical earth are something else altogether.¡± ¡°Yes, but I was frustrated and willing to try absurd solutions.¡± ¡°I got it!¡± Ruth cried, jumping up with the piece of wood in her hands. She held it up triumphantly. It had a circle of glowing runes on it: One large rune at the top, and the rest circling around it. They all flinched back. Not just because she had suddenly surprised them, but because the ground under their feet moved. Every time she waved that piece of wood around, the light of the runes flared, and the ground shifted. As if trying to follow around the board like a puppy. ¡°Ruth,¡± Josh said, exasperated, ¡°what''s got you all up in a tizzy? What did you do?¡± She grinned. ¡°The runes on the dungeon were so confusing. There were almost no major runes, and so many connector runes, and I only know what some of them are, but then the Attack rune was a verb, and you said the elements were nouns, which means¡ª¡± ¡°Oi!¡± Josh clapped his hands. Ruth jumped as if he had grabbed her. She looked at him with wide eyes. He spoke slowly. ¡°What did you do?¡± She grinned widely. ¡°The runes are a language. The ''connector'' runes are most of it. Each rune-chain has to be a sentence. There has to be a major rune to form the core, and then the rest describes what that rune does or how it''s used.¡± She pointed at the circle. ¡°I still don''t understand most of this. I copied this circle exactly from the dungeon. This one controls earth in a small area.¡± ¡°Okay...¡± Josh said. ¡°Can you give it a toggle?¡± Ruth blinked. ¡°What?¡± Darius sighed. ¡°He means turn it off, Ruth.¡± She finally noticed that the ground under their feet was shaking every time she twitched. ¡°Oh!¡± She concentrated on the board. The light faded, though Josh noticed there was still a subtle glow. A minimum required for the runes to be considered valid, perhaps? She had said she had to put magic in them all at once. ¡°It didn''t really have enough power to do anything, though.¡± ¡°It did a sight more than nothing,¡± Mary muttered, wiping off her pants. Josh thought for a moment. ¡°But you could make some runes that could shake something bigger, yeah?¡± ¡°Well, sure, but I don''t think I''m going to be burying any monsters any time soon! It''s too slow.¡± Josh laughed. ¡°I was thinking more a magic shovel.¡± Ruth blinked for a moment, then smiled. ¡°Yeah! I think I can do that.¡± The mayor took the board from her, frowning. ¡°This rune, the large one.¡± She tapped it. ¡°It controls the earth?¡± Ruth twirled around. ¡°Oh by the Eight, it''s so much more complicated than that! It''s not just dirt, or soil, or whatever, it''s everything! Stone and mud and I think metal? I haven''t gotten that far yet. That''s why all the extra minor runes are needed to control it! I think all the runes are like that, with a bunch of extra functions that have to be controlled manually.¡± ¡°But it controls elemental earth,¡± the mayor pressed. ¡°Yep!¡± ¡°Can you put it on a bullet?¡± Mary stopped muttering to herself and looked up at the mayor. Darius looked at her for a moment before pulling out a notepad and quickly writing. Josh grinned. After a moment, so did Ruth. ¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°I think I can do that.¡± Chapter 29 - Testing (part 1) By the time that the mayor''s bodyguard returned with a cart full of the tools Josh had requested, Mary had learned a total of six Gunner spells, including the Pyro Shot she already had. That was all the elemental runes Ruth had. Like with the Pyro Arrow spell, it wasn''t as simple as firing off a shot with the right elemental effect attached. Mary fired off three earth-element bullets¡ªwhich turned to stone in flight and shattered against their wooden palisade like shrapnel¡ªbefore realizing they needed a new approach. Darius suggested that she focus more on the runes and the power they exuded, using her Sensitivity score to watch the magic and observe how it might interact with her and her own magic. Mary used Pyro Shot twice, a thoughtful expression on her face, before nodding and loading another earth-element bullet. She immediately earned the Geo Shot spell. Not all spells were equally useful. Hydro Shot was basically just a heavy splash of water. If it did any damage at all, they couldn''t tell. Josh had been hoping that it would create an ice spell, but Darius reminded him that was an Exemplary-tier element, like gravity. Still, Josh was sure they were missing something. Regardless, Mary learned all the elements Ruth could give her. Anemo Shot was surprisingly powerful, a massive blast of wind that blew out all the leaves from half an acre, while still doing damage to the target. Luxos Shot was basically just a bright, glowing bullet, but he suspected that it would be useful for tracking someone. That could certainly be invaluable. Things got very interesting with Vareo Shot. Gravity was an Exemplary-tier element, so the rune cost more for Ruth to make. That was expected. Mary wouldn''t be able to learn the spell if the cost was higher than her mana pool, but Darius did the math and said it should be fine. Mary loaded up the bullet, pointed it at the same wall she had been shooting at all morning, and fired. Gravity wasn''t an element people had much experience with. As Ruth had said, there was a huge variety in effects. The fire element typically manifested as flame, but it could just raise the general temperature of an area or even move all the heat out of an object, freezing it. With the gravity-element shot, Josh made a bet with the mayor''s bodyguard, who was named Samson. Josh bet that the shot would make anything it hit heavier. Sam bet that it would do the opposite, lightening the load. They both agreed that the effect would be dramatic. Either the post would be driven deeper into the ground, or it would be ripped out and fly into the sky. Mary fired the bullet. The shot rang out. They barely heard it over the roar of breaking wood. The targeted section of the palisade was crushed, twisted, and broken in and on itself. The thick logs snapped as easily as toothpicks. That was what the sound reminded Josh of. Snapping toothpicks, but amplified ten thousand-fold. Like an explosion in a sawmill. Once the sound finally ended, once all the sawdust had settled and they could see what had happened, they saw... Nothing. Or, more specifically, they saw a very large gap where there had once been a solid part of the palisade. It took a few minutes for them to figure out what had happened. Josh and Darius waded in, the smell of sap and sawdust in their noses, to observe the carnage. Eventually, they put together a working theory. The bullet had only directly affected a small portion of the wall. Possibly even just one part of one log. But it hadn''t just made the log heavier, or lighter. It had apparently subjected it to random gravity fluctuations, causing it to leap out of the ground at the same time as it was driving deeper back in, at the same time as it was being crushed to either side a thousand other directions. All that wild thrashing had pulverized the surrounding logs just as thoroughly. There was little more than a pile of splinters left, scattered around an area at least ten feet wide. ¡°Did you at least grok the spell?¡± Josh asked tiredly. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Mary stared at the hole in the wall. ¡°...yeah. Grokked, grabbed, grappled. Got it.¡± He just nodded. ¡°I suspect the spell normally would not be so powerful,¡± Darius mused aloud. His eyes were distant. ¡°Between the mass of the target and the close confines it was trapped in, its effects were amplified.¡± He looked at Mary. ¡°Still. That is not something to attempt on a target you wish to remain intact.¡± She gave a single, slow nod. ¡°Well,¡± the mayor said, clapping her hands. ¡°That was certainly interesting. I''m afraid I''ve spent too long here already. I have work to do, but I will send Samson back with at least a few magic items for you to look at later.¡± She raised an eyebrow. ¡°And I suspect you can put those tools to good use repairing the wall. I would be interested in seeing an instant stone wall go up.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°I will do my best.¡± Then he had a thought. ¡°Actually, do you have any cement mix? We think my skills might work on it.¡± The mayor looked briefly surprised, then shook her head. ¡°Not much, I''m afraid. We don''t have much use for it. Still, I can look into it. I am aware of ways to make it from monster parts. If we can find a colony of rockback crabs, we can get something done.¡± She gave a small, polite wave as she left. ¡°Good luck, everyone.¡± Ruth waved enthusiastically enough for all four of them. ¡°Bye, Vashti!¡± Testing the limits of his Stonecrafting was an amusing distraction for a few hours. As he had suspected, using a pickaxe on the large boulders littering the property earned him new techniques. [Break Stone] was good for getting rid of the big ones, but it wasn''t until he got [Mine Stone] that he started getting anything useful on a regular basis. Mining the stone left behind larger bits that he could then chisel down into more useful shapes. He built stone versions of a few of his earlier blueprints, but most of them were listed as shoddy variants, so he soon stopped. Using the tools the mayor had given him, he eventually got something new¡ªnot a technique, but a blueprint. [Stone Block (stone)]. It was, as he had expected, nothing but a simple stone block. It defaulted to about half a meter long by half a meter wide and half that tall. He could change the size of the blueprint, though it just counted as a variant and didn''t change the experience gains. In terms of experience, this blueprint was almost worthless. In terms of everything else, it was solid gold. With his tools in hand, a single cast of [Instant Crafting] would reduce a boulder to a stack of blocks of the appropriate size. They would all be the same size and any leftover stone would be little more than dust and stone shards, so he had to be careful. There wasn''t exactly a preview button. Darius helped with the measurements. He also discovered that the spell would let him craft blocks even if they would crack and break the second he tried to move them, so he had to be careful there, too. Stone was, once again, too brittle if it was thin. They eventually settled on bricks about as long as his hand. They were portable, though he was worried how a wall like this would stand up to a determined attack from a monster. Still, he made about a hundred of them out of a few boulders, then used their cart to carry them to the gap in the wall. Which led them to their next problem: They had no mortar. None of them knew how to make mortar. Josh wasn''t sure if anyone in town would know, since it wasn''t something in high demand out here. He also thought that cement could do the trick, but he knew there was a difference between cement and mortar. If cement was just as good as mortar, no one would ever use mortar. For the time being, they settled on an interlocking brick design, without mortar. Each brick would support each other, locking together like a puzzle. They built it flat on the ground, as if they could just pick it up and move it into place once they were done. Darius pointed out that this version was actually stronger, it was just more complex and took more time to build. It also took twice as many bricks as a normal mortared wall, but at least it was twice as thick. And besides, Josh had an advantage over most people building a wall like this.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the blueprint Interlocking Brick Wall (stone) (small). This wall is like Tetris in real life! Except it''s boring, and if you get it wrong, all your friends die.
Josh almost wept at the notification. He pulled up the image of the blueprint and double-checked it. Yes, the way he and Darius had designed it, the way they had hoped the blueprint would appear in his interface, meant that there were interlocking bricks on all sides of the design, just waiting to lock in. That meant that he could take this design, two meters wide and two meters tall, and just build copies already interlocked with the next one in line. He would have to make sure holes were dug in the ground for the foundation, but that was no huge effort. Briefly, he wondered what Tetris was, before dismissing the thought. The System often dropped references to Earth media and culture, but they were horribly outdated. Sometimes he recognized them. Usually he didn''t. Now for the real test. They had done all this testing right next to the hole in the wall, so they were already in range. He put one hand on the interlocked wall on the ground, facing down in the dirt. Then he concentrated on his blueprint, and on where he wanted it to go. It wasn''t as simple as having the blinking, three-dimensional blueprint appear in front of him. He had to imagine it in the right place and hope that he wasn''t just lying to himself. He wouldn''t even know if this was remotely possible until he tried. Chapter 30 - Testing (part 2) He took a deep breath. ¡°Instant Crafting,¡± he whispered. There was a pause, as if the system was deciding whether this was a fair use of his spells. Then the bricks under his hand¡ªthe bricks held together with nothing but their own interlocked design¡ªdisassembled themselves and flew into place in the gap in the wall. They reassembled themselves vertically, so fast that he almost didn''t see it happen. One second they were flying through the air, and then he blinked and there was a new wall section in place. I wonder if I could do that as an attack, he thought, before he was tackle-hugged by Ruth. ¡°You did it!¡± she cried. ¡°Oh, I knew you could do it, but you did it!¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± he said, putting a hand to his head. ¡°Drained me to zero, though. Gonna need a minute to get my moxie back.¡± He wouldn''t have even been able to do it at all without his Capacity runestone boosting his mana just that last little bit. He didn''t quite understand how the base cost of each blueprint was determined, but he suspected that if the design had required one more brick, he wouldn''t have had the mana to cover it. Ruth stepped back, nodding furiously. ¡°Yep, yep! You make sure you''re all good to go! I''ll find more rocks for you!¡± She ran off, deeper into their property. ¡°Someone should go with her,¡± Josh said tiredly. His mana was inching back up with each breath, but even with his [Meditation] skill he was still exhausted. Even just bringing his mana down to zero was debilitating and gave him a migraine. It was so much worse if it hit the negatives. ¡°Any chance that won you a whole new level?¡± Mary asked. She leaned over him, hair falling down to frame her face as she looked down. ¡°An extra point might be just what the doctor ordered.¡± Darius leaned over him as well. ¡°Yes, until you gain another point in either Capacity or Sensitivity, this is too impractical to continue. We can''t have you collapsing every time you craft a single blueprint.¡± Josh wearily checked his level. He groaned. ¡°Nope. Still level 25 Stonecrafter.¡± Mary stuck her tongue out at him. ¡°That means I''m still ahead of you.¡± Josh rolled his eyes. The experience he gained from crafting was more reliable¡ªand sure as the Tower safer¡ªthan combat, but it was also slower. Not to mention that as an [Attacker], Mary got more experience from combat than him anyway. Every time she attacked an enemy, she got a little bit of experience. Josh only got a share of the experience from killing the monster. Ruth slammed a boulder bigger than she was down on the ground next to him. He jumped to his feet, heart pumping and head swimming, thinking that he was under attack. ¡°So,¡± she said, seemingly not noticing how everyone was staring at her with wide eyes. ¡°I was going to ask for help to wrestle it into the gravity cart. Then I thought I could use a rune, but then I thought that might interfere with your crafting, and then I thought maybe that was a good experiment!¡± She smiled. ¡°So, here we are!¡± She had carved a rune-chain into the boulder, letting her effectively reduce its weight by making it fall ¡°up.¡± She had been having trouble earlier with the exact fractions of gravity to use, but it seemed like she had gotten it. Even so, she had probably needed the enhanced strength from her talisman to lift the boulder. ¡°...thanks,¡± Josh said at last. He gave her a shaky grin. ¡°Maybe next time, give us a holler before you drop half a quarry next to my head?¡± Ruth blinked, then smiled sheepishly. ¡°Oh! Sorry.¡± Having recovered his mana, he was feeling much better, and he used [Instant Crafting] without delay. It worked without any trouble, though it did cancel the rune effect on the stone, even though Josh was careful to line up his blueprint so that the rune-chain remained intact. That wasn''t a surprise, but Ruth had been hoping the entire pile would end up enchanted. He then used the bricks to make another wall section, slotting it in next to the first. It worked exactly as intended, locking into place as solidly as if they had built it with their hands. Unfortunately, it knocked him on his ass again. As Darius had said, it wasn''t really feasible to use his spell to build the wall until he improved a bit. Darius might have had an ulterior motive, though, because he wanted help with something. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Mary and I gathered enough materials for three more shrouds,¡± Darius explained. Josh frowned, then turned to Mary. ¡°When was this?¡± She gave a vague wave of her hand. ¡°When we were about.¡± She scowled. ¡°He bought some of the shinies off your new bird.¡± ¡°My new¡ª¡± He stopped himself, then rolled his eyes. ¡°Just because I gave the mayor a smile doesn''t mean she''s my anything.¡± ¡°Yeah, sure.¡± He rolled his eyes, though he did see Ruth mouthing bird? to Darius in confusion. Darius pressed on. ¡°I am sure that we all want our own shroud focus devices. However, it would be advantageous if I could learn the Instant Crafting spell from you first.¡± Ruth looked up, her face scrunched up in a frown. ¡°Is that even possible?¡± ¡°Of course. It might be easier to learn techniques outside of class advancements, but it is certainly possible with spells.¡± ¡°No, not that.¡± She waved her hands vaguely. ¡°I mean because it''s a Crafter spell. Josh and I can''t learn Attacker spells or techniques, why would this be any different?¡± ¡°There''s always overlap and loopholes and ''special cases,''¡± Josh said, making quote marks with his fingers. He very specifically did not look at his missing fingers. ¡°Techniques and spells aren''t branded with a role in their description. We don''t know anything for certain.¡± ¡°More to the point,¡± Darius said, adjusting the glasses on his nose. ¡°My class is a hybrid class. Yes, it is labeled as a [Defender], and I receive experience for performing defensive actions. But I clearly have some [Crafter] abilities, such as the skills and blueprints.¡± ¡°It''s worth a shot in the dark,¡± Josh said. He struggled to sit up, then moved to a comfortable lotus position. ¡°You ever tried learning a spell outside your nice and proper class advancements?¡± ¡°I used to be a Mender,¡± Darius reminded him. ¡°I typically learned Cure Disease and Cure Poison the moment I had the mana for them.¡± Everyone nodded. That was a common tactic. At the first milestone, when first taking the class, the Mender class granted the [Least Heal] spell, in addition to the [Anatomy] skill to help use it. At the second milestone they learned [Cure Disease], and at the third [Cure Poison]. These were both relatively easy to learn on their own, and if you did, you could skip straight to the fourth milestone, [Regeneration]. It was like how Josh was supposed to learn [Instant Crafting] and [Hands-Free Crafting] when he took the Stonecrafter class, but he got the runestones instead. On the other hand, [Regeneration] was extremely difficult to learn on your own without a class advancement. Josh had no idea if [Instant Crafting] would be one of the easy ones or one of the hard ones. ¡°What''s your Sensitivity these days?¡± he asked. ¡°Ten,¡± Darius said. ¡°In addition to the hard benefits, it gives me a better idea of where to place my shrouds for maximum effect.¡± Josh bobbed his head in agreement. Every stat score had the hard, mathematical benefits to stamina or mana, but also more vague benefits to your body and spirit. Having a high Strength score literally made you stronger, but it wasn''t always clear to what degree. Was it a percent, or additive? A high Sensitivity expanded your magical senses and improved their precision, but it wasn''t as simple as saying your range increased by a meter with every point or anything like that. ¡°All right,¡± Josh said, sitting down cross-legged on the ground. They could go back to their shacks, but he didn''t see a need. ¡°Let''s go with something a couple breaths easier than a bloody wall. Mary, stick me!¡± She picked up a stick about the size of her arm. She threw it underhanded with quite a bit of strength, whipping it through the air. Josh caught it with one hand without looking, in what might be the coolest moment of his adult life. ¡°So,¡± he said as he put the stick down. ¡°I''m gonna just craft a basic statue.¡± He used a knife and his [Chop Tree] technique to cut the stick into smaller pieces. They were rough cuts, and he wondered if trying to get a new technique would have worked better. ¡°You ready for me to go?¡± Darius nodded, eyes focused. ¡°I am ready.¡± ¡°All right. Instant Crafting.¡± A piece of wood transformed into a small stylized statue of a fox. It wasn''t a complex or impressive statue. But considering he hadn''t seen a real fox in a very long time, he was rather proud that he even got close. Darius didn''t say anything for a long moment. He closed his eyes, clearly concentrating deeply on what he had just seen. Josh knew better than to interrupt. His sister had rolled a [Healer] more than once, and interrupting her while she was trying to master a spell was a good way to get smacked. Josh passed the time by whittling with his knife at a spare stick. He wasn''t trying to do anything specific, which was probably why he didn''t gain a new technique. Or maybe he couldn''t gain more wood-based techniques now that he was a Stonecrafter? He could still learn wood blueprints, but maybe that was a different thing. After a few minutes, Darius took a deep breath and nodded. ¡°All right.¡± Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°All right... what?¡± Ruth poked her head up from behind the pile of boulders she had brought over. ¡°Did you get the spell?¡± Darius shook his head. ¡°No. But I certainly sensed something. That''s the first step. Please, continue.¡± Chapter 31 - Testing (part 3) Josh picked up one of the other pieces of wood he had prepared. ¡°Instant Crafting.¡± He went with a rat this time. Still stylized, more like a small block with vaguely rat-like features than a true statue. Darius nodded again, slowly. ¡°I felt the pattern that time. I just need a better look at it.¡± Josh picked up the last piece of wood. ¡°Instant Crafting.¡± This time, it was a pig. He''d certainly seen more than enough of those. Darius was quiet for a very long time. He sat there, eyes closed, meditating on what he had observed. No one spoke, not wanting to interrupt him. Josh and Mary communicated in sign language, and she brought over the materials Darius would need for their shrouds. Ruth also brought over a few more heavy sticks if he needed to demonstrate the spell again. After ten minutes or so, Josh got up to take a walk. After twenty more minutes, Josh wondered if Darius had fallen asleep. He sighed to himself. He probably shouldn''t have let Darius try this so early. Darius had exactly one blueprint, and he had crafted it exactly once. He understood why Darius was rushing. [Instant Crafting] changed the equation entirely. He just wasn''t sure if Darius knew how crafting as a whole worked well enough to replicate it. On a whim, Josh decided to meditate on the spell himself. Due to earning it from a class advancement, he had a clear, if shallow, understanding of the spell. He knew the exact pattern to move his mana in, when and where it should enter and leave his body and in what concentrations, to produce the desired effect. However, he didn''t know why that pattern was needed, making it difficult to teach. The spell patterns reminded him of runes. In school, he had been taught that runes were like tiny, stabilized spell patterns. He wasn''t sure if that was actually true, and no one had bothered to teach him anything more than that, but he could still see the connection. Would Ruth be able to study spell patterns to learn runes? Probably not. Especially since it was generally easier to find runes than watch spell patterns. They should just wait for the mayor to come back with enchanted items. Still, he thought there was something there, in the spell patterns. Something he could work with. It was enormously complex, like trying to follow a circulatory system that extended outside the body. But maybe, if he changed the pattern just a little, he could... ¡°Ah-HA!¡± Darius cried with surprising enthusiasm. ¡°I''ve got it!¡± Josh blinked out of his trance. ¡°Wot? Really?¡± Darius'' mood dimmed. ¡°Well, not quite. It''s... here.¡± He flicked his fingers at Josh, sending him a screen.
Combat Crafting. With the proper tools, complete any known blueprint crafting automatically, in half the normal time.
¡°...huh,¡± Josh said. ¡°That''s more than nothing, that''s for sure.¡± ¡°Hold on a mo'',¡± Mary said, looking at an invisible screen in front of herself. ¡°Is this anything but a bump down? That doesn''t seem fair.¡± Darius shrugged. ¡°That happens. Considering I do not technically have a [Crafter] class this might be the best I can hope for.¡± ¡°Maybe it has better mana costs?¡± Josh suggested. Darius shook his head. ¡°We have no overlapping blueprints. There is no way to be certain.¡± He paused. ¡°My instincts tell me no, however. The name implies this is intended to be used, if not during combat, then at least soon before. Perhaps to set up traps and defenses. I am not sure it is intended for use with any blueprint I don''t want to bother constructing by hand.¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°Then they should have put in a limiter, right?¡± She punched Darius in the arm. ¡°Come on, let''s see what you see.¡± Darius rolled his eyes, but put out all his materials and tools in a semi-circle in front of himself. He took a few moments making sure that everything was in its proper place before he nodded once. ¡°Combat Crafting,¡± he said solemnly. Everything instantly floated up into the air. Like darting insects, the enchanted knives and small stones and tweezers and monster parts all swirled together, a tornado of motion all bent towards a singular goal. Josh still didn''t understand how crafting shrouds worked, but it seemed very different to what either he or Ruth did. There were no runes, no mechanisms. Parts glowed or stopped glowing seemingly at random, and he could feel energy being transferred at the edges of his awareness. He knew that it was ¡°infusion¡± magic, moving mana from one vessel to another, but how did it then stick? How did the enchanted object know what it was supposed to do? Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. After less than a minute, it was done. Darius held in his hand a small metal bracelet, a single solid piece, as if it was the holy grail personally handed to him by Jesus. ¡°It worked,¡± Darius breathed. Josh chuckled. ¡°That''s a surprise, is it?¡± Darius shot him an annoyed look. ¡°Auto-build, Mister Hundredborn. No chance of failure. Do you realize how valuable this is?¡± Josh just stared back, confused. ¡°Wait...¡± Ruth said slowly. ¡°What do you mean, no chance of failure?¡± Darius blinked at them both. ¡°When I use this spell, there is no chance of failing to craft the item. Yes, it costs more mana, which will be a problem, but it is still an invaluable new tool in our arsenal.¡± ¡°Do your shrouds come with a chance of failure?¡± Josh asked, face scrunched up. ¡°Baked in, I mean. Not just if you screw something up, but things go sideways with a random flip?¡± Some techniques and spells were like that, a flat chance to succeed or fail or some other effect. The Gambler class was most famous for it, but there were plenty of others. ¡°No¡ªwell, not quite. It''s not random.¡± Darius shrugged. ¡°The blueprint description simply says that the materials will be ruined if I fail when crafting the shroud.¡± He paused. ¡°Do yours not say anything about that?¡± Josh and Ruth both shook their heads. Darius thought for a moment. ¡°Perhaps it is because I use delicate and expensive materials,¡± he mused. ¡°Ruin a stone and it can be replaced. Ruin an Avian Anemo Feather and it is another matter entirely.¡± He had a point there. Josh had ruined plenty of arrows and other simple items while crafting by hand. He hadn''t even considered the fact that he hadn''t had any such mishaps while using either of his spells. And Ruth had constant problems with her runes. Sometimes they were bad enough that she had to start over. ¡°That still don''t solve the biggest problem,¡± Mary pointed out bluntly. ¡°You need more blues.¡± She poked his new shroud. ¡°This is pretty and all, but it''s basic as dirt. We need to tier up if we want to make a dent in the world.¡± Darius nodded. ¡°I want to study these devices more. Learn what I can about infusing magic into items. Compare them to traditional enchanting, if possible, to see what the difference is.¡± He paused. ¡°You were talking about blueprints, weren''t you?¡± Mary cocked her eyebrow at him like he was an idiot. Before that could turn into yet another argument, Josh heard a surprising sound: The rumble of a truck driving up to their gate. They all looked at each other, then got up to investigate the noise. It was indeed a truck. Not one of the giant eighteen-wheelers which Josh hadn''t seen since he was a kid, but a decent-sized pickup truck that only looked a decade or two old. There was an aluminum factory in the City, so they could make a new chassis for a vehicle without too much trouble. Even if the insides were still just constantly refurbished parts from almost a hundred years ago. The truck parked in front of their gate, and the mayor''s bodyguard stepped out. He gave a short, but polite bow. ¡°I am told the princess needs materials?¡± Ruth blushed, half in embarrassment and half in anger. ¡°H-hey! I''m not some spoiled little doll! I can take care of myself!¡± The guard held up his hands in surrender. ¡°Sorry. Sore spot?¡± He didn''t wait for an answer, just turned around and pulled the tarp off the back of the truck. ¡°Couldn''t get much on short notice, and it will have to go back.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Still, I think you''ll like it.¡± Ruth''s face turned from angry to delighted in a second. ¡°Oh, wow! There''s so much in here!¡± She was exaggerating. There was... a decent selection. Josh spotted a spear with a rune glowing on the head, a shield with an entire circle of runes, two sheathed swords, and a simple t-shirt that looked like it was fresh from the factory, but was probably kept fresh by the runes on the collar. Josh doubted anything here was all that impressive. The good stuff stayed in the City, or was sometimes rented out to the reclaimers on the Burn Line. Not sent out into the wilds where it could be lost. Ruth hopped into the bed of the truck. Josh smirked. She kept finding excuses to show off her new, higher Strength score. ¡°I''m not seeing anything obviously elemental...¡± She cupped her hands around her mouth. ¡°Sorry, Mary! We''re not getting you any more of those spells today!¡± ¡°I''m right here, no need to shout,¡± Mary said as she walked up. She stuck a finger in her ear and grimaced, as if getting out a blockage. ¡°What''s all this? The bird came through?¡± Josh rolled his eyes. ¡°Still not my bird.¡± Ruth just grinned. ¡°Yeah, this stuff is great!¡± She picked the spear up, and her eyes went distant as she checked its properties. ¡°I won''t be sure until I learn the runes, but I think this is some sort of Attack rune?¡± She looked at it more closely. ¡°Yeah, it''s similar to the one I already have, but different.¡± ¡°Learn all of them,¡± Josh said. ¡°There''s no limit to the amount of blueprints you can have, so there''s no reason to be stingy. We''re not on a time crunch.¡± ¡°Except for the big one,¡± Mary quipped. Josh winced. Yeah, there was one big scaly time limit looming over them. But an extra couple hours to let Ruth learn a new rune that turned out to be useless wasn''t going to kill them. Mary was just being an ass. ¡°Darius, finish up those shroud focuses,¡± Josh ordered. ¡°If you''ve got golden luck, you''ll proc a new blueprint.¡± That happened sometimes. He had earned a couple variant blueprints while endlessly making arrows. ¡°Either way, you can experiment once you''re done.¡± ¡°And you?¡± Darius asked. He looked around at the pile of mostly useless stone equipment. ¡°Are you going to continue working on the wall?¡± Josh grinned. Samson¡ªwith impeccable dramatic timing¡ªbrought out two heavy burlap sacks. They weren''t labeled, and they had the consistency of sand or something close to it. ¡°Nope,¡± Josh said, ¡°I''m gonna play with cement!¡± Chapter 32 - Playing with Stone (part 1) As it turned out, cement did fall under the purview of his Stonecrafter class. Furthermore, the blueprints he received for it were not counted as variant stone blueprints, but entirely new ones. That meant he got full experience for them. It didn''t take long for him to get up to level 26, which gave him more breathing room for his spells. The bad news was, the blueprints were the cement, not the concrete. [Instant Crafting] didn''t create a dry concrete block, it created a wet cement one, complete with the wooden slats he used to keep it in place. Still, this had heaps of potential. He could even re-use the cement if he used the spell again before it had dried out too much. That gave him loads more potential for fixing mistakes than was normally possible with cement. His biggest limit was that the town didn''t have anyone who knew how to make cement. It wasn''t a complex recipe, but cement wasn''t in high demand, so no one had bothered to learn it. According to mayor Vashti, the town chemist thought he could figure it out. Josh made a mental note to visit the man. Josh continued filling up the gap in the wall with stone, and ran into two problems. First, while he wasn''t bringing his mana down to zero with every casting any more, he was still using loads of mana over and over again in a short time. It was exhausting, and he eventually decided to slow down. If he kept on for too long, he''d get an actual penalty to some of his stats, and those always lasted an annoyingly long time. The second problem was that he ran out of stone. There weren''t really all that many large boulders inside their land. He was sure there was plenty of stone scattered around the area the town had claimed, but it seemed more trouble than it was worth to drag them all back here. While he was considering that problem, Darius finished the shrouds, leaving one for all four of them. He didn''t get any new blueprints automatically. That was okay. He had enough materials to experiment, and Josh thought he''d have more success this way. Besides, he was clearly having the time of his life¡ªeven if he seemed to think his face might crack if he smiled. Ruth had more success. Over the course of three days, she copied every new rune on the items the mayor had brought her. She learned an Exemplary-tier Attack rune with Strength aspects, as well as a Heal rune that had some similarities to the Constitution rune¡ªJosh didn''t understand it. He thought the Basic-tier Dexterity and Constitution runes were more useful. The rest were all either runes she already had, or connection runes that modified the regular runes. Josh still wasn''t sure what all that was about, but Ruth kept insisting that she was close to a breakthrough. Josh planned to copy all those runes as well. He didn''t know if he could use any runestones better than Basic-tier, but he was willing to give it a shot. He didn''t really have time for all that right now. Ruth seemed to learn runes faster than he did. He was too busy digging. The discovery was a complete accident. He had asked for a shovel just to dig out a stubborn boulder that he thought was bigger than it looked. Darius suggested digging down to see if they could find bedrock. If it was close enough to the surface, they could mine all the stone they needed. Josh wasn''t sure if it would be smart to start a quarry right under their feet, but seeing how far down the bedrock was seemed like a good idea. Assuming that he would need to dig down more than a couple feet, he dug down at an angle, building a ramp wide enough to walk. It turned out ¡°building¡± was the right word, because once he dug down eight feet, with a nice solid-packed dirt ramp, he received a notification.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the blueprint Dirt Ramp (stone) (pedestrian). A small ramp suitable for pedestrian foot traffic. Look, this is labeled ¡°stone,¡± but it''s below Stone Age tech. This is basically free experience.
Josh spent a full minute staring into space. No one else noticed; they were all busy with their own things. Mary wasn''t even inside the walls, she was outside testing her shroud against the local monsters. Forget the runestones. This could change everything. He had already received a [Dig] technique, which had proven valuable and was a decent source of experience as it ranked up. Getting a full blueprint was something else altogether. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Eventually, Josh recovered. He took a deep breath, mentally selected the blueprint, and used [Instant Crafting]. The ramp instantly extended another eight feet down. This left a large chunk of dirt hanging precariously above it, the part that hadn''t been removed or packed down by the spell. Speaking of, where was the extra dirt? If he had constructed the ramp normally, he would have had to throw it out of the hole. He looked over and saw that his dirt pile was about twice as large as it was a moment ago. Had it just appeared there? That was something for later. Turning his attention back to the pit and the ramps, he started hacking at the dirt above the ramp. He didn''t want it falling down on his head when he traveled under it. It took a while to get rid of it all, and he didn''t get any new blueprints for it. Which made sense. Removing dirt wasn''t constructing something. That was fine. He had a plan for that. Once the dirt was cleared out, he returned to the lowest point he had dug. He scraped out lines on the dirt wall in front of him, as if he was marking a door. He went back up to grab a pick-ax. Between that and the shovel, he managed to make progress, cutting a tunnel through the dirt that was reasonably clean. With his [Dig] technique and the odd cast of [Instant Crafting], he made far better time than he would have thought possible. Once he had dug enough to create a square tunnel eight feet tall and eight feet deep, he paused to catch his breath. Nothing happened. He frowned. Eight was the magic number for the System, so if this would earn him a blueprint, eight feet should be enough. Logically, that meant a simple dirt tunnel didn''t count as a ¡°construction.¡± What else did he need for a tunnel? With a flash of inspiration, he ran back up to the surface. He grabbed a few of the more solid pieces of wood. Mostly the two-by-fours, but some planks too. He ran back down and put the planks down as a floor, then used [Instant Crafting] to put the posts up as braces. He already had a support brace blueprint from building the shacks. He added a few more posts and planks to keep the ceiling properly supported. This time, it worked.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the blueprint Dirt Tunnel (stone) (pedestrian). A small tunnel in the dirt, suitable for pedestrian foot traffic. Definitely more advanced than the ramp, but still pretty simple. Look, you''re probably feeling real proud of yourself, but it''s not exactly rocket science, buddy.
Josh immediately tried to use [Instant Crafting] with the remaining wood to build another tunnel. It didn''t work, which he expected. He basically never had enough mana to craft any compound blueprints. What he didn''t expect was that he almost had enough mana to do it. Assuming he stuck with his current build, he should be able to do it in about ten more levels. He''d take it. When he climbed out of the pit, he discovered that it was later than he had expected. It was almost fully dark, and everyone had returned to their little circle of shacks for dinner. It seemed like he had lost track of time while building that tunnel. Even with his [Dig] technique, it still took time to tunnel through dirt. They all shared their progress. Everyone was level 27 now, including Darius, which surprised everyone. Darius hadn''t gained any new blueprints, but he had gone out to help Mary fight monsters. As it turned out, he received experience when someone using a shroud he had crafted took damage. The [Defender] role always received experience for, well, defending people, but no one had realized this would extend to crafted items. They had done some experimentation, and discovered that while the other person didn''t have to be in his party, they did have to be nearby. So he couldn''t give out shroud focuses to everyone in town and just rake in the experience. Mary was still having a blast with her new spells. Vareo Shot was both too damaging and too mana-intensive for casual use. Not only did it drain her almost dry, but it destroyed the corpses of anything she hit. Porcine Chargers and Sciuridae Ambushers weren''t exactly the most valuable monsters to harvest, but there was usually something worth grabbing. A bullet of randomized high-intensity gravity left no opportunity to recoup costs. She had more success with Pyro Shot and Anemo Shot. Josh shared his own progress, even though he felt like he hadn''t done much. He''d proven that loads could be done with his crafting, but he just didn''t have the stats to do any of the really impressive things yet. Right now, he just had a couple blueprints that were useful but tired him out too much, and a few more that he couldn''t use at all. Well, that he couldn''t use with [Instant Crafting]. Building that tunnel again would be easier with a blueprint, even without extra magical help. Chapter 33 - Playing with Stone (part 2) Ruth was ecstatic over her progress with the runes, and was almost vibrating with the need to share. ¡°I finally figured it out!¡± she said. ¡°I mean, I had hints of it before, but now I''ve finally got enough to actually do something with it! It''s all in the connector runes!¡± Josh nodded as he sipped his soup. At least it was good soup. Mary had traded away the meat from her kills for real meals. ¡°I figured as much. There''s too many of them to just be pretty set dressing. Lemme guess, they''re a language?¡± Darius and Mary looked surprised, but Ruth just nodded happily. ¡°Yep! I think every single connector rune is its own word. It''s not phonetic, I don''t think.¡± She bit her lip. ¡°There are still a lot of questions. I have less than a hundred connector runes so far. But at least I know how to use them! Basically, I write a sentence around the main rune I want to use. So now I can do stuff like control which way a gravity rune falls, or how hot a fire rune gets!¡± ¡°Now that does sound interesting,¡± Darius said, leaning forward. ¡°Can you include activation parameters?¡± Ruth grinned. ¡°Oh yeah. That was one of the first things I learned.¡± She waved her spoon in the air, tracing a circle. ¡°The real trick is that the runes work best as a closed circle. There''s no power loss that way. And I think they''re more likely to work if they''re a palindrome?¡± She scrunched up her face in annoyance. ¡°I''m not good at wordplay like that, so I''m not sure.¡± ¡°I''d be happy to help,¡± Darius said. ¡°I might not be an expert at palindromes, but I am skilled at most puzzles.¡± ¡°That sounds great!¡± Mary had a look of annoyed confusion on her face. ¡°What''re palindromes, again? Is that the one where it''s always the same number of syllables or summat?¡± Ruth giggled. ¡°Of course not, silly!¡± Mary gave her a glare, but there was no heat to it. It was hard to be mad at Ruth, Josh knew. She was just so earnestly happy all the time. Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°You are thinking of a haiku, or perhaps some other form of poetry. That is the most common place where syllable count matters. It has to do with the meter, or way the line flows.¡± Mary could not be mad at Ruth. She could absolutely be mad at Darius. She gave him a much angrier glare. ¡°I didn''t hear the word ''palindrome'' anywhere in that ramble, did I?¡± ¡°Palindromes are the ones that are the same back and front,¡± Josh said. ¡°You know, like... uh...¡± He realized he couldn''t think of an example. ¡°Uh...¡± He suddenly felt like he had shown up for a class presentation naked. Everyone was staring at him. God dammit, this wasn''t difficult! ¡°Race car!¡± he said at last. ¡°It''s the same backwards and forwards!¡± Mary''s eyes drifted as she mentally checked the spelling. ¡°I... guess?¡± She turned to Ruth. ¡°It really that easy?¡± Ruth nodded. ¡°Yep! I think it will be easier with the runes once I get used to it too, since like I said, it''s not phonetic. I just have to make sure they all line up right.¡± She paused. ¡°I think. I, uh, might have to use iambic octameter too. I''m not sure.¡± ¡°Start with the palindromes,¡± Josh said, tone dry. ¡°Figure out the rest later, yeah?¡± Ruth nodded. ¡°Yeah. I did want to study the citystone, though.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Wot? Why?¡± It seemed like a sudden turn to him. ¡°Citystones have rune circles on them,¡± Darius said. He cocked his head at Josh. ¡°Did you not know that?¡± ¡°Uh, I haven''t studied them or anything like that,¡± Josh said carefully. ¡°But I think I would have noticed a bunch of runes on them somewhere.¡± ¡°They''re on the underside,¡± Ruth said, miming the bottom of a floating crystal. ¡°I''m really curious what they do, and Vashti said I could look at them tomorrow!¡± She grinned. ¡°I didn''t even know about them before she told me!¡± Josh gave Mary a look. ¡°You sure she''s not Ruth''s bird?¡± She punched him in the shoulder. ¡°Don''t be a muppet. You can be more than one person''s bird.¡± ¡°Yeah, that''s not what''s happening here.¡± ¡°Are you sure you want to do that?¡± Darius asked, bringing them back to the matter at hand. ¡°Alter the citystone, I mean. What if you break it?¡± Ruth wrinkled her nose. ¡°No one said anything about altering anything. I just want new runes!¡± ¡°Think Darius is trying to give you a subtle hint,¡± Josh said with a chuckle. He grinned at the other man. ¡°You heard that rumor too, I expect? That it was Enchanters who upgraded citystones in the Old World?¡± Darius gave him a scathing look. ¡°It''s not a rumor, it''s a historical fact.¡± Josh shrugged. He had never paid much attention to that sort of thing. ¡°Still. You want to make an impact?¡± He pointed his spoon at Ruth. ¡°That''s how you do it. Figure out how to upgrade citystones. That''s the kind of thing that gets you in the history books.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Ruth shrank down into herself. ¡°I don''t really want to be in the history books.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Josh backtracked. It only took him a second to think of a better argument. ¡°Do you know what upgraded citystones can do?¡± She frowned and shook her head. ¡°More quest options?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± he admitted. ¡°In the Old World, they could do all sorts of cool things. Escort missions, crafting missions, anything you could think of.¡± Darius nodded. ¡°Yes, Basic-tier citystones can only give out monster hunting quests and item retrieval quests, and only the simplest levels, at that. That is why you can''t give someone a quest to...¡± He thought for a moment. ¡°Kill the level 50 Porcine Juggernaut Breaker south of the City, for example. You can only give a quest to kill eight Porcine-type monsters. The quest then rewards minimal experience, because it is assumed you are killing the weakest possible.¡± Mary snorted. ¡°Yeah, but the weakest we can find is level 24 beasties that have evolved, what, three times?¡± Josh waved them away. ¡°Come off it, none of that is what I mean.¡± He grinned at Darius. ¡°I know you know better.¡± Darius rolled his eyes and looked away. Ruth cocked her head. ¡°What did you mean, then? Better quests would be worth more than anything else I can think of!¡± ¡°Citystones can be enhanced by an Enchanter to hold additional abilities,¡± Darius explained. ¡°The Enchanter creates some sort of space or slot on the stone.¡± He held up a hand when she tried to interrupt. ¡°Before you ask, no, I don''t know the exact runes or method to do this. Perhaps the City has that information stored.¡± Once again, Josh kicked himself for failing to see through Jonah''s machinations. If they had been able to find allies within the City, they would have access to the central libraries. He was sure that there were hundreds of runes recorded there, maybe even information on class advancements for the [Crafter] role. ¡°Wot''s this about?¡± Mary asked. ¡°I''ve never heard nothing ''bout additional abilities.¡± ¡°Sure you have,¡± Josh said. ¡°You know the story about the Last Stand, right before the Eight defeated the final boss of the Tower and saved the world? You know, when the citystone was throwing lightning at the monsters? That was an addition.¡± ¡°To put it simply, an addition is a class ability,¡± Darius elaborated. ¡°For example, a Mage can put a lightning spell in a citystone, and someone with administrative access to that stone will then be able to cast it from the stone''s mana pool. The spell will also be modified in various ways. Its range will be extended to the entirety of the stone''s influence, and it will often be stronger as well.¡± ¡°That''s all well and good,¡± Mary said dryly, ¡°but remember that they lost the Last Stand. All the defenders died, and every single human being on the planet was killed.¡± ¡°Except for the Eight,¡± Ruth said with what cheer she could muster. ¡°Except for the Eight,¡± Mary agreed, as if anyone had needed the reminder. ¡°Thank you, Ruth.¡± ¡°Honestly, putting Attacker spells on a citystone is a waste of an addition,¡± Josh said. ¡°You need wide buffs and heals. The kind of thing that can boost your entire army at once. If the stone needs to attack, it''s already too late.¡± Then he grinned. ¡°But there are other things you can put in a citystone.¡± Ruth cocked her head. ¡°What do you¡ª¡± Her eyes widened. ¡°You can give it Instant Crafting!?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Precisely. Only one blueprint for each slot, but that''s far from nothing.¡± Besides, it only took a few minutes to swap out an addition. ¡°And since it has much higher mana capacity than I do, that means it can do blueprints I can''t. It also draws materials directly from its storage.¡± Well, he assumed that''s what it did. He had only seen a citystone build something once, and no one had bothered to explain the process to him. Ruth almost vibrated with excitement. ¡°We can build better walls! Or homes for everyone! Oh, oh, we need to get more blueprints!¡± She made a strange motion with her hands. It took Josh a moment to realize she was miming unrolling a physical blueprint. ¡°What if we got actual blueprints? Would that work? You know, would you earn the blueprint without having to build one first?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Yeah, that''s what happened with the bed, remember? I don''t know why bigger blueprints would be different. Though I doubt we''ll find any more in this town, either way.¡± Darius, however, had a thoughtful look on his face. ¡°Perhaps we should find where the closest city planning building used to be? I do not have high hopes for finding anything, but surely asking cannot hurt.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, I think you muck-heads are getting a bit ahead of yourselves,¡± Mary said, dry as bleached bone. ¡°We don''t even know if Ruth can do anything with this stupid rock yet, and you''re already planning, what? Turn this little town into a second City and hope we can beat the dragon when he gets out?¡± That sobered everyone quickly. They were still on a deadline. Josh did think that this was ultimately a good idea, however. Upgrading the town would be something that no one could ignore. Jonah couldn''t just dismiss it as some strange criminal act and have them all arrested again. ¡°Wait,¡± Ruth said. ¡°So, citystones have mana?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Does... that mean they have levels?¡± Josh grimaced and wiggled his hand back and forth. ¡°Sort of? Not really? They gain mana from everyone inside their area of effect. That''s the closest they have to leveling, besides their tiers. You can use the mana for a few things. Mostly casting spells from additions, but a few other tricks too.¡± ¡°Such as creating new citystones, or relays,¡± Darius added. ¡°The City has used relays to cover the entire space inside the wall in their stone''s influence. Thus, they are receiving mana from all of them at once, and they have an advantage over anyone else.¡± ¡°You can buy food and water from them,¡± Mary added. ¡°I mean, the food is crap, I''d rather eat my boots¡ª¡± ¡°She means it!¡± Josh said with a laugh. ¡°When we first met, she was gnawing on her own bloody boot!¡± Mary punched him in the shoulder, but she was grinning. ¡°Come off it! I was trapped underground for three days, didn''t exactly have access to a three-star restaurant, did I?¡± Darius frowned. ¡°Don''t you mean five-star?¡± Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°Those places are scams. No food is worth that much money! Just go for something cheaper!¡± She shook her head. ¡°Anyway, food is crap, but water is pure.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Keeps anybody from dying in a boring way, I guess.¡± ¡°The point is, everyone will be happy as geckos in rain if you can get that citystone upgraded,¡± Josh said. He grinned. ¡°You''ll get more than a little something out of it too, right?¡± She nodded happily. ¡°I''m looking forward to it!¡± Chapter 34 - Citystones and Runestones The next day didn''t go as well as Ruth hoped. Of course, she had been hoping to instantly learn ten thousand new runes and upgrade the local citystone straight to Mythic-tier, so Josh thought she should temper her expectations a tad. But despite the lack of immediate benefits, she did gain something from studying the citystone. They both did, actually. While there were complex circles of runes on the bottom, as Ruth had expected, Josh realized something else important just by stepping close enough: The citystone was, in fact, a runestone. He wasn''t sure if he gained more insight into the matter from his Runestones spell or his Sensitivity score. Either way, once he was within a few feet, it seemed obvious. The citystone had a single rune at its heart, shaping its power at its most basic level. At first, he thought it was a Capacity rune, like the one he was using for his runestone talisman. That was his first impression of the rune, that it was one of capacity, of containing power. But that was just what he felt. When he got closer, putting his hands against the crystal and peering inside its cloudy depths, he didn''t see a Capacity rune. Well, at first he didn''t see anything. He was looking for what turned out to be a rune the size of his head in the center of a crystal too large for him to wrap his arms around. Peering through several feet of cloudy crystal was hard, and then he realized he was looking at it from the wrong angle and had to move. But when he did get a good look at it, it didn''t look like a Capacity rune. It had some similarities, but there were other parts he didn''t understand. In fact, if anything, it looked like two runes had been smashed together¡ª He started and stumbled back when he finally realized what he was looking at. It was a combination rune, Capacity and something else. Something that Ruth didn''t already have. ¡°Hey, Ruth,¡± he said, tone casual. ¡°Can you pick apart one of those combo runes? Get the little runes out of the big ones?¡± ¡°No,¡± Ruth called from under the citystone. Someone had found her a wheeled flat cart, the kind that mechanics used to work on cars. She rolled out, bouncing on the rocky dirt. ¡°I looked at my Vareo rune. Uh, I mean my Gravity rune. It''s a combination of Earth and Air, both of which I have. I can see how they merge together.¡± She shook her head. ¡°But too much is smeared and mixed and even missing. I can''t really reconstruct them.¡± Well, that was disappointing. Josh made a hum of agreement as he looked closer at the rune in the center of the stone. He thought he had the shape of it right, but he had no way to measure the relative depths of the lines. Should he just start carving it and hope he got it right eventually? ¡°What about the other way ''round?¡± Mary asked. ¡°Can you plop two runes together and make a combo?¡± ¡°I dunno!¡± Ruth chirped. She wiped sweat off her forehead. ¡°I think it''s more likely to work, I guess. I just don''t have enough experience yet. What would the combinations even be, anyway?¡± Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°You have all four Basic-tier elements, correct?¡± Darius asked, in the tone of a lecturer who knew the answer. ¡°There are eight Exemplary-tier elements based off those, though I must confess I don''t recall the combinations.¡± He started ticking them off on his fingers. ¡°Gravity you already know. There are also Ice, Metal, Storm, Explosion, Lightning, Destruction, and Creation.¡± Ruth frowned up at him. ¡°Waaait...¡± She counted on her fingers. Then she counted again, then frowned up at him. ¡°Unless there are duplicates, or more than two elements to a combo, then four elements should form six pairs, not eight.¡± ¡°Destruction is no element, Creation is all elements,¡± Josh said, distracted. He turned his head, trying to look at the rune from a different angle. Yes... he could see the angle of the lines. Not perfectly, but it was something. Should he try to measure them, or eyeball it? ¡°That''s for the Basic-tier elements. The Improved-tier element combinations do the same thing, but I don''t remember the names.¡± ¡°I''m surprised to hear that you know the elements, especially the higher-tier ones,¡± Darius said. ¡°Yeah!¡± Ruth piped up. ¡°Don''t you normally roll Archers and go the Hunter route?¡± Josh blinked. ¡°Wot?¡± He shook himself. ¡°Yeah, I normally go to physical-type classes, but I''ve tried a few others off and on.¡± He nodded at Mary. ¡°Besides, Archers and Hunters can learn spells easy enough. If Mary can do it, anyone can.¡± She socked him in the arm with a grin. ¡°Jerk.¡± ¡°I wish we had a Mage,¡± Ruth said with a pout. It looked silly, with her down on the ground looking up at them all like that. ¡°I can see hints of the runes when Mary uses her spells. Maybe I could learn new ones from watching a Mage!¡± Josh wasn''t sure that a Mage would be able to learn any spells for the higher-tier elements without help, at which point it would be moot. It was certainly possible, Josh knew that. His sister''s best friend had made a habit of re-learning spells on the first day of every reset. All four Basic-tier elements, all four Improved-tier elements, all eight Exemplary-tier combinations, and all eight Master-tier combinations. By the time he was finished, he would be level 20 before he had even ranked up his spells. But that man had been an exception in more ways than one. ¡°Not sure that would help,¡± he said with a chuckle. ¡°Good luck getting some fresh-faced Mage to learn a Lightning or Storm spell for you.¡± Ruth sighed and rolled back under the citystone. ¡°I think I''ve got something here,¡± she called. ¡°I already know about half of these runes. Once I finish the rest, I might be able to figure something out!¡± Josh decided to follow her lead. He took out a small piece of wet clay and started sketching the rune into it with a stylus. Both he and Ruth had been surprised when they realized wet clay counted perfectly fine for using and learning rune blueprints. Though they made for terrible runes, and tended to explode wetly if you tried to run mana through them, they worked well enough for confirming you had the rune right. It took Josh four hours to finally earn the rune. He and Ruth got plenty of odd looks from people using the citystone in that time. He didn''t care. His heart had just about stopped when he saw what rune he received.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the blueprint Runestone of Power and Capacity (improved). When worn as a talisman, this stone grants a +1 bonus to the Power and Capacity scores. When crushed, this stone grants a +2 bonus to the Power and Capacity scores for 8 minutes.
He smiled. This had potential. Chapter 35 - Class Upgrades (part 1) Two days later, while Ruth was still working on puzzling out the rune circles under the citystone, the mayor brought people over for bloodstones. They had all known this was coming, of course. Josh and Ruth could do some interesting things, but what really made them invaluable was their ability to make [Crafter] bloodstones. That ability was useless if they didn''t use it. The mayor had wanted to wait until she had people ready for advancement. Four of them showed up at the plot of land that the mayor had gifted them. She hadn''t given him or Ruth any warning, which annoyed him a little. In fact, he suspected that she had waited until they had returned from studying the citystone for the day. She didn''t want anyone to see them give people bloodstones. There were probably enough questions about the two of them as it was. None of the people were unclassed, and Josh hadn''t expected any. He doubted there were even any unclassed kids in the City by now, much less adults out here past the Burn Line. In addition to the mayor herself and her bodyguard, who were both level 24, there was a mousy young woman who scanned as a [Level 16 Attacker], and a grouchy, middle-aged woman who was a [Level 24 Attacker]. ¡°What''s the big secret, Vashti?¡± the older woman asked. She had a sharp, no-nonsense voice, and was dressed in a reclaimer''s set of light armor with a compound bow slung over her shoulder, with matching quiver. She reminded Josh of his mother, before she got hurt. Caring, but rarely gentle. ¡°You have an overdeveloped sense of drama. If this is important, we should get it over with.¡± The other woman was much younger. Josh almost assumed she was a teenager, but on second glance she was likely just a bit small and mousy. She wore light, functional white robes with wide sleeves, the kind common among magic classes who didn''t have to actually see combat. She smiled, the calm and gentle smile of someone who trusted everything will work out. ¡°Judith, please be patient. We have new friends to meet.¡± She bowed deeply to Josh and the others. ¡°Thank you for welcoming us into your home.¡± The older woman, Judith, sighed. ¡°Sorry.¡± She gave a quick, not unfriendly nod to the others. ¡°I was in the middle of something, but I''m sure this is important.¡± ¡°It is.¡± Vashti stepped forward, hands behind her back, projecting an air of military dignity. ¡°Neither of you have chosen your class advancements, correct?¡± Judith smirked. ¡°Yeah, though I don''t know why. There''s no way you have an achievement so that we can get an Improved-tier advancement.¡± Lydia cocked her head to the side. ¡°I can think of a few that might be possible. Especially for you.¡± She looked around. ¡°Are there any monsters left inside these walls?¡± Josh ignored the question. He raised his eyebrow at Mayor Vashti. ¡°You lot haven''t given them any scratch or scrap?¡± She shook her head. ¡°I wanted to keep a tight rein on any information. Rumors will spread, of course. Even so, I wish to keep everything under control for as long as possible. Now, please.¡± She made a gesture for him to get on with it. Josh paused, then removed his mask. Next to him, so did Ruth. He thought he heard Darius and Mary doing the same behind him. Judith and Lydia took the cue and examined them all. He could see the exact instant when they realized what they were looking at. Judith flinched back, her hand reaching up to her bow. Lydia smiled as bright as the sun and almost rushed forward. She settled for staying put and flexing her hands, as if she wanted to grab them and prod them all over. ¡°Crafters,¡± Judith whispered. Her eyes flicked between them, and she drew her bow, though she didn''t ready an arrow. ¡°You are the ones who stole the bloodstone.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Josh scowled. ¡°Oi! You think maybe there''s more to the story, yeah?¡± Ruth stepped forward. ¡°I''m Ruth Moore. My father was the one who issued the world quest.¡± The story came out quickly. They had gotten used to telling it by now. By unspoken agreement, they didn''t mention the dragon. Not yet. Josh did explain that there was a reason they needed to get strong quickly, but he let them assume it was because they needed to be able to survive Jonah''s assassins. Which... well, that wasn''t wrong. They couldn''t fight a bloody dragon if they knives to their throats by some level 40 with a stealth class. ¡°Oh, you poor dear!¡± Lydia said, eyes filled with tears. They were all sitting around the cook fire, though they weren''t eating. She reached out and gripped Ruth''s hand. ¡°It must be so hard for you, turning against your father like that.¡± Ruth''s smile was shaky. ¡°W-well, yeah, but the others have it worse. Especially Josh!¡± ¡°Yep,¡± Josh said. Everyone gave him a look. ¡°Wot?¡± he asked defensively. ¡°I''ve got assassins after me and the whole bloody world thinks I''m a thief because I tried to do the right thing. I''m entitled to go a bit spare.¡± Darius sighed and adjusted his glasses. ¡°I do not disagree in principle. I''m sure you can understand our need for secrecy.¡± Judith nodded slowly. Her face was stony, her jaw clenched. Josh got the impression that she wasn''t mad at them¡ªquite the opposite. ¡°Operatives have a duty to the City and the human race. He''s endangering all of that for personal gain.¡± Ruth flinched. Lydia squeezed her hand tighter. ¡°Politics aside,¡± Darius said, ¡°I believe our course is clear. We need to spread the [Crafter] role to everyone we can. As we have already said, Josh is a Stonecrafter now, and Ruth is an Enchanter. I am a Shroudcrafter, but that is a [Defender] class with [Crafter] elements. While it has been more than helpful, I can only make so many shrouds with the materials I have available.¡± ¡°And you?¡± Judith asked Mary. She eyed the guns on her waist. ¡°Some sort of Gunsmith class?¡± Mary shook her head. ¡°I previewed my advancement, and yeah, I''d get the Gunsmith class. It''s still an [Attacker] though, and that means it''s a right bitch to get any sort of auto-build.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Doesn''t seem worth it for party comp, you know? Think it''s best for me to go for a pure [Attacker] class.¡± ¡°She has six Gunner spells already!¡± Ruth added. ¡°She just needs two more to qualify for Mage Gunner at her next advancement!¡± Judith looked surprised at that. ¡°Six spells at level 29? Not bad at all. How''d you manage that?¡± Ruth opened her mouth, but Lydia interrupted. ¡°Oh, oh, I know!¡± She smiled at Ruth. ¡°It was you, wasn''t it? You enchanted her guns and she learned from there?¡± Ruth grinned back. ¡°Yep! Well, her bullets, but still!¡± Judith frowned. ¡°Does that mean you only have six runes? Don''t you gain a library when you first take the class?¡± Ruth shook her head. ¡°Nope and nope! I have to learn every single rune individually, but I have more than six. Those are just my elemental runes. Those seem to be the only ones that give spells Mary can learn.¡± She had used some of the other runes to enchant bullets, and it had worked. Josh was especially impressed with the Attack rune, which gave the bullet a small piercing effect. However, Mary hadn''t been able to learn a spell off it. Whether because it was too far from the Gunner skillset or because she just wasn''t experienced with anything besides elemental spells, she''d tried almost twenty times before giving up. Lydia brightened. ¡°I think I have a few runes in the library that you might find useful. Well, I have quite a few runes, and I think at least a few should be elemental runes. What do you have so far?¡± Before Ruth could answer, Vashti raised a hand for silence. ¡°While I appreciate your enthusiasm, Miss Piper, perhaps we should accelerate the process.¡± She nodded at Josh. ¡°Are they ready?¡± ¡°Yep!¡± He pulled out a small wooden jar he had made. He had wanted to use clay and ceramic, but there wasn''t a kiln in this town. He needed to make something the normal way at least once to earn a blueprint. He couldn''t use [Hands-Free Crafting] to skip the kiln before that. Well, probably. ¡°Four bloodstones for the Woodcrafter class, as requested.¡± He smashed the jar without ceremony. He hadn''t designed it to be opened. Chapter 36 - Class Upgrades (part 2) Samson picked up one of the small glowing red stones. His eyes went distant, and he nodded. ¡°It says I can become an Armorsmith. It remains a Defender class.¡± Lydia scrambled to pick one up as well. ¡°Let me see...¡± She smiled. ¡°My class of Mage can become an Enchanter. It is a Crafter class.¡± She turned to Ruth. ¡°That''s your class! But you didn''t start as a Mage.¡± Ruth was almost bouncing in her seat. Well, on the log she was using as a seat. It was an interesting contrast to Lydia''s much more reserved enthusiasm. ¡°No, I started as a Woodcrafter, then added a Mender bloodstone and became an Enchanter! I''m surprised it''s so easy to get to Enchanter from multiple directions!¡± Judith rolled the small red stone in her hand. ¡°I''m a Hunter. Advances to Trapmaker. Still a Defender role.¡± She nodded. ¡°That makes sense to me.¡± Mayor Vashti waited until everyone else had picked a stone before picking one up herself. ¡°I am a Swordsman, as I am sure you all know. If I take this stone, I will become a Swordsmith. It is still an Attacker.¡± There was a pause as everyone sat there, staring at the stones in their hands. ¡°Well?¡± Mary asked with a laugh. ¡°You lot gonna sit there at loose ends all day, or you gonna have a go?¡± Lydia laughed. Judith smirked. Samson nodded solemnly. Vashti remained stone-faced. A moment later, all their stones dissolved into glowing white dust. It swirled around them for a moment, before sinking in. Each of them glowed for the length of two heartbeats, before it faded. Mary grinned. ¡°Get anything shiny?¡± Mayor Vashti, Samson, and Judith all received a skill for making their specific type of item, plus a small selection of blueprints. Nothing too impressive, though Josh thought that some of Judith''s traps had potential. Lydia, however, received not only the [Craft Runes] skill, but also the [Instant Crafting] and [Hands-Free Crafting] spells. Josh wondered if that was normal for all classes in the [Crafter] role. She didn''t gain rune-chains yet, which was frustrating. When Ruth had gained the class, she had skipped ahead on the ability list because she already had a few. Lydia could only use single runes right now. Single runes were still useful, though, and she immediately started learning every rune that Ruth had to offer her. They just plopped down on the dirt right there, not a care in the world, trying to speedrun Lydia through Ruth''s entire library. Samson, on the other hand, had a quick discussion with Mayor Vashti, then suggested Josh come over to the smithy tomorrow when they started working with the forge and the furnace. After all, while Josh couldn''t work metal yet, that would hopefully change in the future. Besides, maybe working at a forge would be an achievement necessary to get an Improved-tier class. Josh doubted it, but agreed to the meeting regardless. Darius seemed quiet and contemplative, even by his standards, as they left. He stared off into the distance, distracted, while he cleaned the dishes with mechanical efficiency. ¡°What''s rattling around in your noggin?¡± Josh asked. Darius started in surprise. ¡°What? Oh.¡± He sighed. ¡°I suppose it doesn''t matter. It''s exceedingly unlikely we''ll ever find another new bloodstone.¡± ¡°...you lost me.¡± He adjusted his glasses. ¡°I was just wondering if a Stonecrafter bloodstone would have given different advancement options. Swordsmith and Armorsmith seem to have little to do with wood. It''s almost as if the Woodcrafter bloodstone is acting as some generic Crafter bloodstone.¡± Josh shrugged. He wasn''t sure how accurate that actually was, but he knew people had said that sort of thing before. Some bloodstones seemed to be grouped together in unofficial, unlabeled ways. Mayor Vashti''s Swordsman class, if they actually had a bloodstone for it, would have a similar effect to the Swordmaster and Bladedancer bloodstones when combined with other classes. Not actually identical, but there was loads of overlap. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Maybe,¡± Josh said noncommittally. Then he grinned and clapped his hands. ¡°Now that the secret''s out, are you getting the mats for more shrouds?¡± Darius gave him a confused frown. ¡°I''ve already made shroud focuses for all of us.¡± Josh scoffed. ¡°First off, these things are all shiny and new, but we both know there''s prettier glint to be made. You''ve got to grind your skills and upgrade your blueprints.¡± Seeing something you constructed used in combat could earn you rank-ups to your blueprints. Unfortunately, the rank-ups weren''t very impressive. Josh hoped that Darius would learn and engineer better versions himself. ¡°Second, no one else in town has shrouds. They could use the extra help.¡± ¡°Well, I suppose, if we are going public...¡± ¡°Not sure that''s the right word, but yeah.¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°Sell them through the Mayor, or the nice scholar girl. You know, if you don''t want to just whip it out for all to see.¡± Darius opened his mouth, then closed it again. ¡°Did you have to phrase it in that exact way?¡± ¡°Wot?¡± Darius sighed. ¡°I think we should just do what we can.¡± Josh nodded solemnly. ¡°Always a smart idea.¡± ¡°Dee-Dee!¡± Ruth cried as she ran over. ¡°Dee-Dee, I think I''ve got it!¡± Darius frowned. ¡°Don''t call me that. And what do you have?¡± Ruth pulled out a sheaf of papers covered in disorganized notes and scrawls. ¡°I was talking to Lydia about the citystone, and she says she''s pretty sure the equations are in base eight!¡± ¡°Equations?¡± Josh asked. ¡°Is that the trick of it? The runes are equations?¡± It was the first he was hearing of any of it. Then again, he had been busy perfecting his new talismans over the past few days. Ruth bobbed her head eagerly. ¡°I think so! I mean, I''m...¡± She winced. ¡°I''m not great with math, you know? My dad wanted me to learn finances and stuff, but I never had a head for it. But I do know how to recognize equations, even if these ones didn''t make any sense.¡± She showed him the papers. ¡°See, each connector rune has an assigned number, from one to eight. We can check that in the blueprint description. So, treat them as digits in a calculator or program and¡ª¡± ¡°Let''s just skip to the part where I believe you,¡± Josh said with a grin. He ruffled Ruth''s hair. She pouted, and he just smiled wider. ¡°This why you dashed out early on our session today? Thought lifting weights was boring, thought you''d have a go at these equations?¡± ¡°Oh, no,¡± Ruth said, dead serious. ¡°Exercise is so much more fun than stupid math!¡± She sighed. ¡°I wish I could have gotten a physical-type class, something more like a Stonecrafter. I could have lived with being a Stonecrafter or whatever comes after that.¡± ¡°Metalcrafter would be my guess,¡± Josh mused. He was hoping for Mechanist, which would lead him to the higher-tier classes he wanted. He didn''t think he''d actually get it, though. It probably needed another advancement. There were loads of things he was chasing, and the Mechanist class was the first step to almost all of them. The Forgotten Engine-Seer was an Exemplary-tier class that could integrate magic into technology, and which he knew for a fact allowed for the creation of the hibernation chambers that could be used to skip the solstice reset. Blood-Metal Techno-Heretic was an Exemplary-tier class that he suspected could create the bloodstone drip, a device that allowed for the creation of bloodstones besides your foundational class. It had been little more than a curiosity in the Old World, but it would be invaluable in the here and now. Even if that class wasn''t enough, techno-necromancy was useful, if horrifying, and most likely one of its later advancements would have access to the bloodstone drip. And of course there was the Silverlight Mechanist of the Third Order, the same class as the man who participated in the Last Raid only to die without leaving behind a bloodstone. It allowed for the creation of giant robots, machines big enough to carry cities on their backs, and engines that could affect the entire world. The least of the Silverlight Mechanist''s blueprints was an upgrade to the hibernation chamber that affected an entire room at once. That let dozens of people skip the reset, and was how the people who had become the Eight Immortals had survived long enough to challenge the Tower that last time. That was a Master-tier class, and even in the best of circumstances it would be out of reach for a while. Well. That was no reason to do nothing. He grinned and clapped his hands. ¡°Let''s get to work!¡± Chapter 37 - The Tamer and the Dragon Mizuno Masahiko sat by the edge of a lake, idly skipping rocks into the water. It was a distraction of course, out here away from any towns or people. He preferred it out here. He was always uncomfortable in a drowning world with too much civilization. It wasn''t that he had anything against people doing their best to survive. In fact, he admired them. It was just... depressing. In every world, the pattern was the same. Magic came to the world, and with it the Jungle. The Jungle enhanced the growth of the world''s magic just like it did everything else. With higher magic levels came monsters. The monsters grew more and more powerful, year after year, while the people were always reset. Eventually, the monsters outpaced the people, and everyone died. It was a very simple process, as predictable as watching a rising tide drown someone stuck below the waterline. Masahiko had seen it play out dozens of times before. Starting with his own world, long ago. That didn''t change the fact that watching a man try to desperately save himself from drowning was simply depressing. He couldn''t save this civilization. He couldn''t even save one or two people from this civilization. They were all dead, just waiting to be finished off by the last monster. This was slightly different from normal worlds, but not enough to make it truly distinctive. People defeated the Tower challenge sometimes. They reached the top, beat the boss, and won a wish. But they almost always used that wish to leave their overgrown world. They couldn''t resurrect their dead people. They couldn''t turn back time or burn away the Jungle. All they could do was leave, ascend to one of the higher worlds. Sometimes worlds won the Tower before their world was overrun. Masahiko liked those worlds. They had a fascinating balance between civilization and the Jungle. Indeed, he had enjoyed the time he spent in this world''s sole City, and its smaller villages. But, in the end, everyone drowned under the tide of monsters. The fact that the victors of the Tower had stayed behind was helping this world limp along, but the fact that they had lost almost all of their bloodstones was far worse. Masahiko gave this world another eighty years or so. Well, that was what he had given it before that dragon had decided he wanted another shot at a Tower. Now, Masahiko could pin down this world''s lifespan to the day. He threw another rock out into the water. He wasn''t actually sure this was a lake. Several of the edges were too regular. It could have been a reservoir that was damaged at some point. Regardless, now it was a glittering plane of water as flat as a mirror and as big as a Ky¨±d¨­ field. The trees of the Jungle towered over it, the smallest three times his height, casting shade across the water. All around him, his tamed beasts hunted. Even as he threw another rock, his Avian Desert Hunter, an evolved hawk, killed a mid-level rabbit monster. Masahiko received an experience notification that he waved away. Normally [Tamers] only got experience when they personally directed their minions. It could be a frustrating system to learn when you were more used to the other, simpler roles. However, he had an aura that let him see and feel through all his beasts within a large radius. He directed all of them at once, which was enough to earn him experience for everything they did. Every class role had a trick to it. Something to level it faster and more smoothly. Masahiko liked [Tamers] best for this reason. Most of the others required too much physical labor. Just as he was considering getting up to find some more dangerous monsters¡ªhe suspected there might be a Vespid nest nearby¡ªhis mind echoed with a voice that was not his own. ¡°Mizuno Masahiko,¡± the dragon boomed inside his mind. ¡°There has been a development.¡± Masahiko gritted his teeth against the pain, but his voice managed to be somewhat cheerful when he responded. ¡°How may I serve, Lord Hon¨­nashide?¡± The dragon had a dozen names, like all true dragons. Masahiko used the name from his ancient home. It was the name for a dragon without fire. As he understood, originally it had been a disparaging nickname. In this world, the dragon was named Flamebreak. If he had a preference, he had never shared it. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°I know where the prey have escaped to,¡± the dragon said. He spoke in Masahiko''s own native language with no hint of an accent. ¡°A citystone has been upgraded. South of the Tower, near the end of the valley.¡± Masahiko did not ask how Hon¨­nashide had somehow sensed this. The dragon had more techniques and spells than Masahiko could imagine, as well as countless tricks and exploits. Masahiko still didn''t even know how the dragon could speak to someone outside his dungeon. It was supposed to be a prison. That did not mean there were no questions, though. ¡°Is there any more evidence?¡± he asked. ¡°Your prey are not the only people capable of upgrading a citystone.¡± You didn''t have to be an Enchanter to use runes. There were other classes that learned the basics, and a truly dedicated scholar could ape most of the class features with study. It was one of the reasons Masahiko rarely bothered with the class himself. ¡°If they have not puzzled it out in eighty years, they will not puzzle it out now,¡± Hon¨­nashide growled. Masahiko winced again. That voice was like a steel file across his teeth. ¡°The most likely possibility is the girl. Go. Find them. Silence them.¡± Masahiko took a deep breath and nodded. ¡°Of course, my lord. Your experience and wisdom are not to be underestimated.¡± They were actually almost the same age, but Hon¨­nashide was a dragon. Even without the resets, he would always be stronger. ¡°It will take me some time, however.¡± He had followed the trail north, to an outpost at the edge of the Jungle. When the trail ended, he had gone further north, assuming that his quarry had simply traveled deeper into the Jungle. There were more ruined cities in the area, so it was a reasonable place to explore for whatever treasures they sought. Except they weren''t here. They had evaded his trackers and gone in the complete opposite direction. He wanted to be angry, but really he was just embarrassed. Hon¨­nashide grumbled in his mind. ¡°Do not tarry. The longer you wait, the more witnesses you will have to silence.¡± Masahiko took a long, deep breath. ¡°Of course, my lord. It will be done.¡± He felt the presence withdraw from his mind, then stood. He whistled, and a dozen beasts converged on his location. His hawk, his wolves, his horse, and more. Every beast had been chosen to complement the team and himself as a whole. He had the experience necessary to craft a team that could challenge the Tower itself. Not that he''d be competing with a dragon to do that. On a whim, he brought up his status screen. He hadn''t checked it in a while.
Name: Mizuno Masahiko
Race: Human (water-type)
Role: Tamer
Class: Beastmaster, level 35
Stats: Strength 9, Agility 19, Constitution 5, Perception 6, Power 17, Flexibility 10, Capacity 14, Sensitivity 18
Techniques: 16
Spells: 24
Skills: 8
Would you like to see a full list of your abilities?
He waved away his list of techniques and spells. He kept those at a reasonable rank. That was half the secret of how he had leveled so quickly, so he knew where he stood there. Normally he wouldn''t keep a Basic-tier class for so long, but he had to ration his bloodstones on this world. He climbed atop his Equine Charger. It was smaller than he was used to, like every other animal in this world, but it had a certain stout strength. It would carry him to his destination quickly. And then he would kill everything he found there. As his horse charged off at speeds no normal animal could match, he pushed down his pity, his mercy, and his remorse. He reminded himself once again that this was a drowning world. The tide of monsters was rising. Everyone here was already dead. Nothing he did mattered. Nothing. Chapter 38 - Family Calling (part 1) Josh had the unique pleasure of standing right next to Ruth when she finished etching the last rune into the citystone, upgrading it to Improved-tier. The moment she finished the last rune and breathed her mana into it, the stone stopped its slow spin. A glow built up and retreated inside it, like the beating of a heart but too slow to be noticed. At least at first. The glow started beating faster and faster, until it was flashing like a strobe light, and Josh was sure that everyone within ten miles could see it. It built to a crescendo, the warning flash of a bomb about to explode. Josh grabbed Ruth by the collar and yanked her back, hoping against hope that both of their shrouds combined might actually save her from the explosion. Instead, the flashing light stopped. A heartbeat later, chunks of red crystal fell from the citystone, crashing to the ground with a sound like shattering glass. The shattered pieces dissipated into white mist that soon evaporated. What was left behind was a slightly smaller, slightly more regular floating red crystal. It looked... polished. Like how you would cut a ruby to show off its best luster. This ruby might be the size of an elephant and had been cut by an amateur, but it did show clear signs of workmanship. A breeze blew out from the citystone, a wave of gentle power that felt like a perfect warm summer day. He breathed in deeply, and swore he could smell flowers and moist dirt after a light rain. In short, the citystone felt just a little more like home than it had moments ago. Ruth got up with a grunt of effort, then a grin of victory. ¡°Glad that worked! It would have been super embarrassing if we had shattered the citystone after all that!¡± Josh chuckled. They had gotten Mayor Vashti''s permission for this first, of course. Everyone knew the risks. Still, Josh hadn''t thought it likely things would go too bad. Citystones were tough little buggers. It was more likely to backfire on Ruth than to shatter the stone. ¡°Did you level?¡± he asked. ¡°This was a big ''un, should''ve given you a boost and a half.¡± Her eyes went distant, and she grinned. ¡°Yep! I am now a level 31 Enchanter!¡± She pouted. ¡°I still wish it was officially Enchantress. Seems like a waste.¡± Ruth had been lagging behind the rest of their group. Now they were all at level 31, coming up on another advancement. Josh didn''t think anyone would get anything all that interesting next level, but who could say for sure? He looked over the altered citystone again. More people were wandering over, drawn by the flare of light and power. While the mayor still hadn''t made any official announcement, people had started to figure out where all the enchanted items were coming from. While Josh and Ruth still went out in their masks, everyone knew she was an Enchanter. ¡°How many addition slots did you grok?¡± he asked. He knew the answer, unless something very strange had happened. He was mostly speaking for the benefit of the crowd. Ruth put her hand on the stone, then nodded. ¡°Just one.¡± She grinned. ¡°Ready for something fun?¡± Josh blinked in surprise. ¡°Wot? I thought we were¡ª¡± The stone glowed red briefly before settling down. Josh glared. ¡°Oi. What was that about?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing...¡± she said in a sing-song voice. ¡°Just wanted to see if that rune you found could be put to better use.¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°Don''t think you can use a citystone to put runes on a citystone.¡± At best, it would be like any other crafting blueprint, letting her put the rune on items in the radius. He didn''t think that would work, though. ¡°C''mon, up up, let''s swap it with something useful.¡± She grinned wider. ¡°Oh no, I''ve got something better than that.¡± The stone glowed again. Then a massive rune traced itself in the air above the stone, red light shining like neon lamps above their heads. The rune covered most of the main village, and Josh suspected the effect extended much farther. It was the rune he had discovered inside the citystone. A Power and Capacity rune that he had used for his runestone talisman. Except this wasn''t a rune anymore. ¡°You learned sigils?¡± he asked, incredulous. ¡°When did you learn sigils? How? That''s not something that you can just pick up¡ª¡± He groaned and smacked his hand against his face. ¡°Your level 24 advancement. Bloody hell. You never told us what it was.¡± She bounced on her feet. ¡°Yep! I can draw sigils now!¡± She tossed the description over to him.
Spell gained from Enchanter advancement: Sigils. Draw a temporary rune in the air, creating a single effect. This effect varies based on rune drawn. Sigils cannot be chained together using the Rune-Chain skill. Strength of effect is influenced by Power, speed of drawing is influenced by Flexibility, number of sigils at once is influenced by Capacity, and range is influenced by Sensitivity.
¡°I haven''t been able to practice with them much, and they don''t count as blueprints,¡± she continued. ¡°They''re spells, so I don''t get experience as a Crafter for casting them.¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Josh nodded. The rules for what worked to earn each class role their extra experience had some weird details and quirks. Just like he didn''t earn extra experience for his [Instant Crafting] spell, she wouldn''t earn anything for this. ¡°Is it all one spell?¡± he asked. ¡°Can the stone cast any sigil?¡± She shook her head. ¡°I have to slot in each one by itself.¡± She grinned. ¡°But this is a good one! The sigil gives everyone in the town''s area plus one to Power and Capacity. It will recast it every time it''s about to run out, too.¡± Josh blinked at that, then checked his stats. Sure enough, he had an extra point in both scores. This was on top of the bonus he already received from using the same rune for his talisman. That was nice. ¡°Not a bad haul,¡± he agreed. They started to walk away from the stone. The mayor and the others were back at their own fort. ¡°Y''know, Mary and Darius might be able to learn some of these sigils.¡± It was hard to figure out which spells were transferable and which weren''t. Ruth looked at him sideways. ¡°Not you?¡± ¡°I''ll try,¡± he promised. ¡°I just thought I''d mention them. Not as obvious.¡± He frowned. ¡°I think I remember something about people learning all sorts of sigils, but only ones that match their class. I''d bet copper to gold Mary can learn an Attack sigil, just not so sure of anything past that.¡± Ruth nodded. ¡°Fair enough.¡± ¡°Don''t forget you need to teach Mary that last rune,¡± he added. ¡°She needs another spell to make Mage Gunner next level.¡± Ruth wrinkled her nose. ¡°Do you really want her to learn something else after that blood bullet spell? That one is so gross. And creepy.¡± ¡°It''s a Gunner spell, and that''s what''s important,¡± Josh said. ¡°Pretty sure teaching her sigils doesn''t count.¡± Abilities didn''t come with labels, clearly pointing them out as belonging to one class or role. It was usually obvious, but not always, and in cases like this it could get frustrating. ¡°You do have another rune for her, yeah?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Ruth said. She sighed, before brightening. ¡°I know she''s been pausing her advancement, so this might push her over the edge all on her own!¡± ¡°Could be,¡± Josh admitted. ¡°Maybe¡ª¡± ¡°Ruth?¡± someone called. ¡°Honey, is that you?¡± Ruth stopped dead in her tracks. ¡°It is you!¡± A bright, cheerful woman walked over. She had been standing at one of the shop stalls. She had short-cropped black hair, glittering black eyes like gemstones, and skin so pale that Josh thought she had never stepped outside a day in her life. She wore a light white sundress that looked pretty, comfortable, and completely useless outside the walls. ¡°Oh, dear, we''ve been so worried!¡± ¡°H-hey, auntie,¡± Ruth said, accepting a hug from the strange woman. ¡°I didn''t expect to see you out here.¡± She pushed away and swallowed a very obvious lump in her throat. ¡°I... really, really didn''t expect to see you out here.¡± The woman¡ªRuth''s aunt, apparently¡ªlaughed. ¡°Well, I''ll admit I''ve spent the past couple of weeks in the City, looking for you.¡± She booped Ruth''s nose, which earned her a small grin. ¡°Turns out you weren''t even there!¡± Ruth''s brief smile faded again. ¡°Ah, yeah. We had some trouble.¡± Josh''s missing fingers throbbed. He resisted the urge to grab his hand. He had gotten pretty good at ignoring them, but every once in a while... He smiled instead. ¡°Hello, there. I''m Josh Hundredborn.¡± He held out a hand to shake. Ruth''s aunt smiled and took it, not even blinking at his missing fingers. ¡°Of course, of course, and you would be Ruth''s...¡± She wiggled her eyebrows at him. Josh expected Ruth to laugh the joke off. When she didn''t, he looked at her, wondering if she would be blushing and embarrassed by the implication. Instead, she looked... tired. Resigned. Not at all her usual chipper self. He wasn''t sure that she had even heard the joke. This... was Ruth''s aunt, right? She wasn''t acting like a long-lost family member had found her. Then again, she wasn''t acting like this was some random stranger pretending to be a long-lost family member, either. The woman didn''t seem to notice anything odd about Ruth''s behavior. She looked past her, peering at the citystone. ¡°What happened here, anyway? Did you see that? The stone flashed and did something weird.¡± ¡°...yeah,¡± Ruth said. ¡°Yeah, it''s something all right.¡± ¡°Why don''t we go for a walk?¡± The woman looked around. ¡°There are a lot of people here.¡± She chuckled. ¡°You know I get claustrophobic in towns.¡± They were already off the main walkway, out of direct sight. Josh suspected there were too many people in shouting distance. ¡°Sure,¡± Josh said, deliberately casual. ¡°We''ve got a place nearby, you know.¡± He didn''t mention that their friends, including Lydia and Judith, would be there waiting for them. Judith had practiced her Trapmaster class by covering the area in non-lethal traps. She smiled. ¡°Sounds good to me! Lead the way.¡± ¡°No,¡± Ruth said quietly. Her aunt cocked her head. ¡°Oh? You want to stay here?¡± ¡°We''re not going anywhere with you, Aunt Jael.¡± Josh froze. He slowly turned to look at Ruth. He knew that he had a look of complete, absolute horror on his face. He stared at Ruth, praying that she would explain this was a mistake, that this was an entirely different Jael. Not the one she had told them about. Not the one she had warned them about. It was a common name, right? Ruth just had to shake her head, and it would be fine! Instead, she nodded, once. His blood was ice in his veins. Oh, God. Chapter 39 - Family Calling (part 2) Josh checked Jael''s status. She was listed as a [Level 40 Attacker]. He swallowed, hard. She was nine levels above him, and he would bet anything that she was specialized for combat. Unlike him, who was specialized for building forts, and Ruth, who was specialized for making pretty lights. Ruth had gotten really good at enchanting things to glow. The mayor was very happy to save money on torches, it was earning her loads of friends and loads of money, and it was completely useless in combat. Jael looked between them, confused. She took a step back¡ªmaking distance for an attack¡ªand put her hands on her hips¡ªgrabbing hidden weapons. She frowned at them both like a disappointed schoolteacher. ¡°What is with you two? Really, dear, are you pregnant? Is that what all this is about? I won''t tell your father if you don''t want. I can keep you hidden for the entire rest of the reset if you need.¡± ¡°Aunt Jael,¡± Ruth said, her voice dry and croaked. ¡°I know.¡± ¡°Know what¡ª¡± ¡°At the dungeon,¡± Ruth interrupted. ¡°You killed Stephen.¡± Jael froze. ¡°You tried to kill Josh.¡± Ruth''s eyes glittered with unshed tears. ¡°And then when I jumped in the way, you stopped. You could have gone through me, but you didn''t. You ran away.¡± Everything was frozen for what felt like forever. Josh couldn''t even breathe. Slowly, Jael relaxed. It wasn''t just that she let her hands fall from her sides. The silly, friendly tourist melted off like a puddle in the sun. Her stance shifted to something more loose, her body language changed to something more languid. She went from seemingly a normal woman wound tight to a sleek, dangerous weapon. A gun without a finger on the trigger. Not an immediate threat, but absolutely a threat nonetheless. ¡°How long have you known?¡± Jael asked, her tone flat, though not unkind. ¡°A few years now.¡± Ruth balled up her hands into fists and took a deep breath. ¡°It was that thing with the corn farm monopoly. You always went missing on nights when someone was assassinated.¡± Jael nodded. ¡°I told your mother that you''d figure it out soon enough. She always said it didn''t need to last long.¡± She let out a breath. ¡°And then of course she had to go off and...¡± She shook her head. ¡°No. Blaming her, again, solves nothing.¡± Ruth did not respond to that. Josh, for his part, was slowly reaching behind his back for his hatchet. He might not have any techniques for it that would work on a human, but he could swing it hard enough. ¡°Please don''t, Mister Hundredborn.¡± Jael looked up. She smiled, but there was no mirth in her voice. ¡°I would prefer not to get any of your blood on my niece. Call me sentimental.¡± ¡°Why is he doing this?¡± Ruth demanded. She stepped between them. Jael adjusted to try to keep a clear line at Josh, but Ruth matched her. ¡°Why is Dad fighting us?¡± Jael had a pained look on her face. ¡°Dear, he''s not fighting you¡ª¡± ¡°If he''s fighting my friends, he''s fighting me!¡± Ruth snapped. There were tears in her eyes. ¡°What happened? Something changed, right? We were all working together! Dad wouldn''t have just woken up one day and decided to kill Josh!¡± Jael gave her a long-suffering look. ¡°You don''t want an answer to that question.¡± ¡°Yes! I do!¡± Actually, Josh really wanted an answer to that question too, but he was worried that if he spoke up and reminded Jael of his presence, she might just skip the hassle and kill him outright. Best to remain silent for now. Unfortunately, she turned to glare at him anyway. ¡°Does she know your name? Your real name?¡± Josh just stared at her in shock. ¡°Wot? That''s what this is about?¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Yes.¡± She offered no further information. He scoffed. ¡°Ruth, your dad''s mad as a hatter.¡± He knew who Josh was, and his first thought was to attack him? ¡°Look lady, I know you''re his personal assassin or whatever¡ª¡± ¡°Problem-solver,¡± she said, her eyes flicking to Ruth. ¡°Whatever! But maybe think twice about working for the mucker who wants to go this hard?¡± He shook his head. ¡°What''s his endgame here? What can he possibly think this will win him?¡± Sooner or later, Josh''s sister would find out what was going on, fake name or not. He couldn''t see how that would possibly end well for Jonah. Being a high-level Operative wouldn''t protect him. Of course, in all likelihood Josh would be dead by then, so he wasn''t going to cling onto that particular future for any comfort. Jael crossed her arms over her chest. ¡°Perhaps he just doesn''t want you close to his daughter.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Ruth snapped. She stepped right into her aunt''s space and glared up at her. ¡°Of the three people we''re talking about, Josh is the only one who has never attacked me!¡± That earned a flinch from her aunt. ¡°I¡ªI wasn''t intending to attack you. You just got in the way¡ª¡± ¡°THAT STILL COUNTS!¡± Ruth yelled. ¡°It all still counts! You don''t get to just wave away all your mistakes as accidents, and blame everyone else for theirs!¡± Jael took a deep breath. ¡°We do not have time for this.¡± She pointed at Josh, but didn''t take her eyes off Ruth. ¡°I am going to kill him, then I am going to take you home. That is all. Now, if you¡ª¡± Several things happened at once. First, Josh swung his ax at Jael. He had no technique that worked here. He tried to activate [Chop Wood] and [Instant Crafting], but he received an error. That was fine, and expected. It was still a heavy ax. Second, Ruth traced a sigil in the air. Her fingers left glowing lines that remained floating in front of her. Josh recognized the swift, precise motions of someone who was casting a spell almost entirely with the system assist. Third, a knife appeared in Jael''s hands literally from nowhere. She cocked her wrist, preparing to flick it at his heart. Fourth, the village warning bells started ringing. Josh paused, ax raised. Jael paused, knife cocked. Ruth''s sigil exploded into a blinding burst of light. Josh''s vision was replaced with white, and he heard Jael cry out. A small hand grabbed his own, tugging him away. Towards the wall? He couldn''t be sure. He dropped his hatchet, he was so disoriented. It took him a few minutes to blink his eyes clear, and by the time he could see straight again, Ruth had dragged him out of the walls. They were running through the Jungle, towards their own fort. ¡°What happened?¡± he yelled over the still-ringing bells. ¡°I don''t know!¡± Ruth shouted. She let go of his hand and pulled her hammer off her back. She had upgraded it considerably since the days of her simple club with a Gravity rune on it. Now it was a stone-headed mallet with a full rune-chain that increased the efficiency of the gravity effect. Good thing, too, because she couldn''t even lift the thing without Gravity magic. ¡°Maybe it was her?¡± ¡°You think she rang the bells on herself?¡± ¡°No, I mean someone saw her and thought she was suspicious?¡± ¡°They wouldn''t ring this many bells for one bloody assassin¡ª¡± The tree he was trying to run past reached down to grab him. The bloody tree reached down to grab him. I really hate this place, he thought. Josh dodged into a roll, the roots and stones of the rough forest floor doing almost as much damage to him as the monster would have. Years of Combat classes gave him the instincts to survive, no matter his current class. Ruth cried out when she realized he had stopped, and came back with her hammer. Unfortunately, a blunt weapon was almost useless against this kind of enemy. He scanned it quickly.
Viridian Quercus: Level 28
A level 28 walking oak tree. He and Ruth were both level 31, they had the advantage. Of course, Ruth''s weapon was ineffective, his was on the floor somewhere between here and the fort, and all they had were Ruth''s untested sigils. Ruth didn''t seem to have much faith in her sigils, either, because she yelled out a battle cry and ran forward with her hammer. When she brought it down on the trunk, the runes on the hammer''s head glowed bright white. The head was twice the size of a normal sledgehammer, and Josh knew that when the runes activated on the downward swing, it doubled in weight. It slammed into the trunk at full force... and bounced off, sending Ruth stumbling backwards. The tree advanced on her silently. Viridians were always silent, because they didn''t have anything to yell with. Its branches rustled, its wood creaked, and its roots scrambled over the hard-packed dirt of the forest floor. But under the sound of the bells and the yelling townsfolk, it was still eerily silent. Chapter 40 - Family Calling (part 3) Josh didn''t have any choice, didn''t have any time to think. He rushed forward with a yell, hand raised over his head, and activated both [Chop Wood] and [Hands-Free Crafting] at the same time. He didn''t expect it to work. A Viridian was a monster, not a plant. Many techniques and spells simply wouldn''t work on one or the other, no matter how many similarities they seemed to have. And even if [Chop Wood] could theoretically work on it, he wasn''t sure that [Hands-Free Crafting] would really let him get away with it. But it did. A deep divot appeared in the tree, sending up splinters of bark, exactly as if he had swung his ax. The tree recoiled, fleeing instinctively from the blow. At the same moment, Josh received a notification.
CONGRATULATIONS! New art learned: Empty Chop. Cut with your willpower, combining magic and skill to shape the power as you see fit. Does not require a weapon. Certain bonuses can be applied by channeling this art through a weapon. Damage of attack is influenced by Strength and Power, speed of attack is influenced by Dexterity and Flexibility, size of attack is influenced by Constitution and Capacity, and cost of attack is influenced by Perception and Sensitivity.
He blinked. An art? He had earned an art, this early? He was only level 31! Arts were basically combinations of techniques and spells, and required both stamina and mana to use. They were expensive and often hard to learn. On the upside, they also received all the benefits of both physical and magical stat scores. Josh hadn''t used his Strength or Power to put any extra force into the art, but it had still done real damage to the tree. The monster was leaking sap like blood, and still wouldn''t get close to him. He glanced at his mana. His absurd Perception and Sensitivity scores meant that the art only cost 1 point of stamina and mana. But his mana was still low, and he didn''t have the time to properly meditate to recover it. Still, with his talisman runestone and Ruth''s addition to the citystone, his mana was currently at 5, out of 6 maximum. Five more times, he thought. Just got to finish off the baddies with five more hits. He wasn''t even sure he could finish off this first one in five more hits. There would be more behind it. Before he could come up with anything like a plan, Ruth ran up and shoved something into the wound in the tree''s side. She then ran back, grabbing his hand and pulling him along behind her. ¡°Come on!¡± He glanced over his shoulder. ¡°What did you¡ª¡± The grenade exploded. Josh and Ruth had learned early on how to use a steam explosion to make grenades. At the time, they hadn''t been able to figure out how to make pure fire grenades, at least not cheaply. He had told Ruth it was better this way, because it reduced the chance of them setting themselves on fire. As it turned out, being too close to a steam explosion with plenty of shrapnel was only slightly better. Sharp shards of wood from the bottle cut through the back of Josh''s legs as they ran. He cried out and covered his head as he stumbled. Ruth pulled him up again. She was fine, probably because she had been shielded by his body. At least he had enough armor to cover the rest of his body. Good thing, too. The attack had cut right through their shrouds. Still, his legs were screaming at him, and he swore he could feel ragged shreds of flesh flapping in the wind. There was too much warm, sticky wetness; he was bleeding, and bad. They needed a healer. Ruth never had found a Life rune, meaning she couldn''t make healing items. Ironic, considering she had advanced to Enchanter with a Mender bloodstone. Or at least he thought that was ironic. Was this one of those things that looked ironic but actually wasn''t? Like an oxymoron? His head was foggy. He needed to focus. Pain and shock were making his head swim, and the blood loss probably wasn''t helping. Drawing on a lifetime''s experience with [Combat] classes, he forced the feeling aside for a brief moment. He slowed to a stop, leaning against a tree¡ªnot another Viridian, thankfully¡ªand quaffed one of those disgusting recovery potion concoctions. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Ruth had stopped with him, and clutched her hammer as she looked around, eyes wide. The hammer''s rune-chain was glowing, so she had it activated, and it didn''t weigh much. Still, he was surprised she could lift it. How many points had she put into Strength? ¡°I hope Mayor Vashti figures out how to get Alchemists soon,¡± he said. His throat felt and sounded raw. ¡°I really want potions that don''t taste like they were buried in a swamp for three months.¡± ¡°She''s working on it,¡± Ruth said, sounding distracted. ¡°Most magic classes combined with the Woodcrafter bloodstone just make Enchanters.¡± Josh was pretty sure that Alchemists were actually a non-magical class, but he didn''t have time for that discussion now. Besides, bloodstone combinations didn''t always make sense. He knew for a fact that combining the Samurai class with a Swordsman bloodstone created the Steelsinger class, which focused on levitating blades to attack your enemies. A distant scream forced his attention back on what was important. ¡°There''s a bugger full of fights out there,¡± he hissed. ¡°This is too big to be random. Sounds like someone is having a run at the town.¡± The stupid tree had just been their bad luck to run into. This was something else. ¡°Bandits?¡± Ruth asked. Josh shrugged. ¡°Could be. Could even just be monsters.¡± Monsters raided towns sometimes. Gathered in hordes and attacked in waves. It was why towns had walls. Ruth furrowed her brow. ¡°They''re after the citystone?¡± ¡°Or the people.¡± Monsters gained power from killing humans, from eating bloodstones, and most of all from eating citystones. Villages always had to deal with attacks, because they were basically filled with everything monsters wanted to eat. ¡°Do...¡± She paused, before starting again. ¡°Do you think this is my fault?¡± Josh stared at her. ¡°Wot?¡± ¡°Because of the citystone, I mean,¡± she said in a rush. ¡°I upgraded the citystone, and poof, there are monsters! What if they sensed what I did and came and it''s all my fault just like everything¡ª¡± Josh chopped down on her head with his hand. She fell silent, too shocked to do anything but stare. ¡°Monsters attack villages,¡± he said, tone solemn. ¡°It''s that simple. I don''t care if they did or didn''t notice what you did, it''s still not your fault.¡± He gave her a stern look. ¡°You understand?¡± She looked like she was about to cry. ¡°But¡ª¡± He raised his hand to chop her again. ¡°I said, understand?¡± ¡°Ack!¡± She cringed back, covering her head. ¡°Yes, yes, I understand!¡± ¡°Good.¡± He patted her gently on the head. She was so much smaller than him. She felt fragile in a way that he didn''t like. ¡°Come on. Let''s find the others, see if we can help the town fight off this horde. How many more grenades¡ª¡± A bat monster came swooping down from the sky. It screeched at them both, then started glowing with a dangerous orange light. Ruth shrieked and swung with her hammer. It might be supernaturally light right now, but the chiropterean was still lighter. She knocked it off into the trees like she was scoring a home run. There was a distant explosion of light and fire. Ruth looked surprised. ¡°Did I do that?¡± She looked down at her hammer. ¡°That was a Bomber-type monster,¡± Josh said. He looked around, trying to keep his eyes open for any threat. ¡°They aren''t natural.¡± She frowned at him. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Monsters don''t evolve into Bomber-types on their own.¡± Or, if they did, they exploded five minutes later and humans never found out about them. ¡°That bat was sent by a Tamer who trained and evolved it that way on purpose.¡± Ruth blinked her wide, innocent eyes. ¡°But... this is a monster raid. You''re saying there''s a Tamer working with the monsters?¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± There were a thousand possibilities. Could be that a Tamer was just trying to take advantage of the situation, or they had started this whole thing. He didn''t think the details mattered. ¡°The point is there''s an enemy Tamer out there somewhere.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Ruth gripped her hammer tighter. ¡°Okay, okay. Let''s¡ª¡± Josh never had a chance to hear what she was planning to do, because he was caught up in the charge of a Jungle-touched horse the size of a small tank. He had been hit by charging monsters before. Usually when he had a Combat class and more than four points in Constitution, but he knew how to handle getting bowled over. You went limp for the impact and hoped nothing was broken too bad when the Menders arrived. Any flailing around was likely to just get you injured worse. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the exact wrong thing to do when a Jungle-touched horse reached down with its mouth, grabbed you by the collar, and picked you up like a misbehaving kitten. Josh had just a second to see Ruth''s horrified face before he was carried out of sight, out past the edges of the village while monsters howled and people screamed. Chapter 41 - Who Youre Meant to Be (part 1) Ruth Moore ran through the forest alone, carrying a hammer bigger than she was, as she rushed after her friend. Parts of her were screaming. Screaming that people were in danger, that surely, somehow this was all her fault. Just like everything was always her fault. It was her fault that her mom was gone. It was her fault her dad had decided to attack Josh. It was her fault that the monsters were attacking now, that people were dying to a sudden swarm. It was always her fault. But another part of her, a part that was growing stronger with each passing moment, was saying something different. People were always in danger, people always died. She wouldn''t wish that on anyone. She just wanted to be one of the people fighting. Her dad had always chosen her class, and he had always insisted on Mender. It was safest, he said. It was valuable and useful, he said. It was a good way to contribute without putting yourself in danger, he said. Ruth had never been a very good [Healer]. She didn''t have the battlefield awareness to keep track of an entire party at once, and she didn''t have the right mindset for it. She didn''t want to fix problems, she wanted to break the thing causing the problems. Now she had a hammer in her hand and an enemy in front of her. She breathed deep of the smoky air and grinned. This is real, she thought. Now she just needed to rescue her friend from that horse before she came to regret everything even more than she already did. She was also pretty sure it was taking Josh to the [Tamer] controlling the monsters, so that was two birds with one stone. Three monsters that looked like green-shelled spiders the size of dogs barred her path. A quick Identify labeled them as [Carcinioform Forest Scramblers]. So, crabs. And they had evolved a few times, so they might have a few extra tricks. That was probably where they got the color and forest adaptation. She yelled and jumped into the air. She raised her hammer over her head, cutting off the flow to the Vareo rune-chain. Just as she brought it down, the hammer went from light as a feather to heavy as a boulder. It slammed down into the first crab like a meteor, shattering the shell as easily as if it was made of glass. The other two rushed forward, chittering, as she reset the rune on her hammer. She still wasn''t strong enough to swing the hammer without the gravity enhancement, but she did have enough strength to punt the closest crab. It spun five feet away and hit a nearby tree. There was a crack, though both the crab and the tree seemed fine. The monster got up, scrabbled left and right angrily, then charged her again. She was still dealing with the first crab. She used the haft of her hammer, lightweight again, to block first one pincer, then the second. It stepped back, as if re-evaluating the fight, trying to find a way around her defenses. By now, she had regained a point of mana, so she felt safe activating her rune-chain again. She focused on her hammer, feeding extra mana into it, a twist of the mind that she had grown adept in. It was inefficient, and she knew there were better ways to do this trick. Every time she turned it off, almost all the mana in the rune-chain disappeared, so she had to fuel it again when she needed it. If she could make a proper on/off gating rune-chain, she wouldn''t need to waste mana with that. She needed to study and practice more. Suddenly the hammer may as well have weighed nothing at all. She dodged around the crab, no longer a plodding glacier, now as fast as lightning. She swung the hammer at the crab, not canceling the rune-chain yet. The mass of the hammer staggered it, but without weight it just wasn''t enough. The crab chittered angrily at her before she raised the hammer over her head, brought it down, and canceled the rune-chain at just the right moment. Blue crab blood splattered the forest floor. The last crab, the one she had kicked into the tree, had finally recovered and was coming her way. With a grunt, Ruth lifted her hammer up to her shoulder. Her Strength score was 6 now¡ªliterally twice her base. Still, her hammer looked like it weighed a thousand pounds, and it felt even worse. Thankfully, the crab was too angry for tactics, or just stupid. It charged at her with its sideways gait, claws clicking, and she was able to easily predict its path and bring her hammer down, splattering it just as thoroughly as the others. Red mist rose from the corpses. It stirred, slowly turned white, before flowing into Ruth. She closed her eyes, breathing it in and enjoying the feeling of energy invigorating her every cell.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 32! You meet the minimum requirements for class refinement.
You have ONE (1) class advancement resource in your possession.
Would you like to pause your level-up to obtain advancement resources?
Ruth blinked. She had a bloodstone? She didn''t have a bloodstone¡ªoh, right, she had a Rogue bloodstone she had gotten from Judith. She had wanted to see what that would do when combined with Enchanter. She selected ¡°no,¡± so that she could see her options. Despite what the notification said, her level-up was already paused until she selected something for her level 32 advancement. It was just that she could choose Enchanter again and gain the normal bonuses then. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! New windows immediately popped up.
You have FOUR (4) class choices. Seek out additional class advancement resources to expand your choices.
CLASS OPTIONS:
Enchanter (Crafter). Primary statistics: Capacity, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Carve runes into objects to manipulate the flow of magic. This is your current class.
Shadow (Attacker). Primary statistics: Agility, Perception. This is a Basic Combat class of the Attacker role. Use magic to hide in the shadows and attack from stealth.
Bladesmith (Attacker). Primary statistics: Perception, Flexibility. This is a Basic Combat class of the Attacker role. Forge edged weapons.
For killing EIGHT (8) enemies using an active rune-chain effect, you have gained access to the Rune Warrior class.
Rune Warrior (Attacker). Primary statistics: Strength, Capacity. This is an Improved Combat class of the Attacker role. Use both temporary and permanent runes to enhance your performance in combat. Focuses on personal runes, but party support is possible.
Ruth stared at the notification. Her heart was still beating fast from the fight, and this wasn''t helping it slow. The first two new classes were irrelevant, though she did file them away to write down later. Rune Warrior was the surprise. An Improved-tier class at level 32? It was possible¡ªher dad could speedrun to one by level 24¡ªbut this was an accident. Would she have ever discovered this if she didn''t have a Rogue bloodstone on hand? She had expected to stay an Enchanter for at least another few advancements. She was pretty sure she knew what the requirements were for the Rune Architect class. That was what she needed. Well, that was what the party needed. Rune Architect was a [Crafter] class, one of the few Improved-tier [Crafter] classes they had decent information on. In addition to allowing her to continue enchanting weapons and items, it would allow her to make a special type of rune called a glyph that she could draw on any surface. They were normally used as traps, but she had a few ideas for utility. But... that wasn''t what she wanted. Oh, she was enjoying being an Enchanter. She had figured out how to replicate a few weak magic items, and Vashti was slowly handing them out. She was helping people and getting paid for it. It was perfect! But she had always known what she wanted. Yes, she wanted to help people, but she didn''t actually like being support. When she was a kid, she had wrestled with people twice her size. She had climbed trees and run through streams and laughed when she got hurt. She wanted to be moving, to be doing things, not to sit on the sidelines like a cheerleader. She hesitated for a moment longer before shaking her head. No, she was being selfish. This class, while nice, would pale in utility to the Enchanter class. Sure, she wouldn''t lose anything if she became a Rune Warrior; she could still enchant things, still learn new runes. But if she stuck with what she had, eventually she''d have the opportunity to get an Improved-tier version of the Enchanter class, and that was where things would really take off. She was just about to dismiss the Rune Warrior notification and choose Enchanter again when a scream tore through the air. Ruth froze. It wasn''t Josh, but the scream was nearby. Someone was hurt, or dying. They were facing monsters, and she was sitting here thinking over a class advancement? Maybe Enchanter would be better in the long run. Right here and now, though, the people didn''t need an Enchanter. They needed a Rune Warrior. Before she could second-guess herself again, she made the choice.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 32 Rune Warrior! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Strength and Capacity.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Rune Weapon Mastery. Gain a full understanding of any weapon you hold that has an active rune.
NEW SPELL LEARNED: Activate Rune. Turn a rune on or off at range. Deactivating a rune pauses its mana consumption; if a rune still has enough of a charge, activating it costs no mana. You may only use this spell on one rune at a time (use extra mana with your Power score to increase the number of runes affected with each casting). Warning: If this rune is not designed to be deactivated, it may break. Size of runes you can activate or deactivate influenced by Power, speed of activation and deactivation influenced by Flexibility, number of runes you can keep active influenced by Capacity, and range of effect influenced by Sensitivity.
NEW SPELL LEARNED: Overcharge Rune. Insert extra mana into a rune, increasing its performance temporarily. Effects vary. Warning: If this rune is not designed to be overcharged, it may break. Effect of overcharge influenced by Power, speed of overcharge influenced by Flexibility, number of runes you can overcharge influenced by Capacity, and range of effect influenced by Sensitivity.
Ruth took a deep breath. She could feel every inch of her hammer. The magic running through it from her rune-chain was like an extension of her body. She could feel where it was weakest, where it was close to breaking. She adjusted her grip, changing her balance just slightly. The new spells were interesting, too. The [Overcharge Rune] spell could be dangerous to practice, so she put that aside for now. She focused on her [Activate Rune] spell, as if she was putting her finger on the trigger of a gun. Instantly, she could feel every rune in range. The rune-chain on her hammer was the most obvious, but she could also feel her grenades on her belt, and the Strength runes on her armor. She could even feel the runestone talisman that Josh had made, which surprised her. She had assumed the spell would only work on runes she had made herself. That had potential, and she hoped she''d have a chance to test it. Right now, she just focused on her hammer. She deactivated the gravity rune in the rune-chain. She could only touch one rune at a time, not one rune-chain. That could definitely backfire. Still, this rune-chain was pretty simple, and was centered entirely on the gravity rune. With it turned off, the hammer was suddenly its full weight again, and Ruth sagged. Even with her improved Strength, it was heavy. But the rune-chain was still stable, just circling the magic in a loop without doing anything. She focused on it again, reactivating the gravity rune. The hammer was instantly light as a feather, with no loss in mana. Ruth grinned. This was what she had been waiting for. This was her opportunity to finally do some real good. Chapter 42 - Who Youre Meant to Be (part 2) There was an explosion nearby. Ruth hefted her hammer and ran towards the sound. It wasn''t Josh, she knew that, but it was at least in the right direction. She ran into a clearing around an Old World building. A quick glance at the sign out front told her it was a refurbished bank. She guessed that the locals had been interested in the vault. She didn''t know if there would actually be anything valuable in there, but the vault itself was probably worth using. Right now, Mary was standing in front of the doors, shooting at monsters with two guns while next to her a few Archers shot burning arrows into the enemy horde. Ruth ran up to the sandbags that they were hiding behind. The Archers gave her a look, but didn''t argue, and Mary just gave her a curt nod before turning her attention back to the advancing horde. The ground was already littered with monster corpses. Ruth was nauseated to also see a number of human corpses. She couldn''t even tell how they had held out this long, but it seemed like the horde was making one last push. There were dozens of monsters, maybe even hundreds. The majority were lower-level Formics, basically just giant ants. Thankfully she didn''t see any of the more evolved ant-centaurs or mages. The ants were going down in one hit each, but there were just so many of them, the defenders didn''t seem to be making much of a dent. Mixed in with the ants, though, were other types of monsters. Ruth spotted a Porcine Bloodbreaker, a massive pig walking around on its hind legs with almost human-like arms and hands. She saw a Feline Juggernaut, a cat the size of a truck with blood covering its face, staying in the back and ready to charge when it saw an opportunity. She even identified an Ursine Moonkin in the mass of bodies, clearly prepared to do something dangerous. Well. She was here to do something dangerous too. She pulled one of the steam grenades off her belt and threw it into the horde with a heavy overhand pitch. She didn''t prime it before throwing it, instead focusing on her new [Activate Rune] spell when it was already in the air. The grenades were very simple constructs. They only had a single rune, a fire rune that would heat the water inside the bottle until it exploded. Normally, she had to be touching the rune to put mana into it. That was dangerous, and Ruth had always been terrified that someone was going to blow their hand off. Josh''s jokes that he''d make sure to use his injured hand didn''t help. Now, she didn''t have to worry about that. The grenade activated nice and far away from her, deep in the heart of the horde. There was a dull whumph, and ant pieces went flying everywhere as a few of them were unceremoniously shredded by the shrapnel built into the housing of the device. Unfortunately, there were just so many of them. The small gap in the horde was filled in before she could blink. They were getting closer, and Ruth didn''t think this had slowed them down at all. Still, Mary nodded in approval. Ruth wasn''t sure she had noticed the new spell, and just assumed she had activated it manually. ¡°How many more?¡± Ruth checked her belt. ¡°Three more grenades!¡± Mary grunted. ¡°That''s just our luck, innit? Got any miracles ready?¡± Ruth grimaced. ¡°Not a miracle, but...¡± She fished out half a dozen bullets inscribed with a specific rune. ¡°Here!¡± Mary dropped one gun unceremoniously and started loading the other. ¡°What are they?¡± ¡°Dark runes!¡± Mary gave her an incredulous look. ¡°You mucking with my head? What good are these going to do?¡± ¡°Nothing!¡± Ruth admitted. Well, she didn''t think they''d do anything. Dark runes appeared to only affect actual light. They could have their uses, but this wasn''t really the place for them. ¡°They''re the last spell you need!¡± Mary''s eyes brightened, and she nodded. If she learned eight Gunner spells, she could advance to Mage Gunner. Ruth suspected that she had already reached level 32, and was holding off her advancement. ¡°Got it!¡± She turned and started firing into the horde, more carefully this time. She was focusing on each shot, trying to learn the spell. Ruth, for her part, focused on her own new trick. A trick that, just moments ago, she had already decided was too dangerous to try without proper testing. [Overcharge Rune] warned right in the description that it could have unexpected effects. She didn''t want to think about what would happen if she overcharged one rune in even one of her simple rune-chains. But if the magic item only had a single rune already, and she overcharged that... She hefted another of her grenades. She thought for a moment, then touched on her [Overcharge Rune] spell just briefly. She immediately realized that it only affected the runes she was touching, as expected. However, when she also reached for [Activate Rune] at the same time, then she was able to use it at range. She threw the grenade and used both spells on it at once. The rune flared bright enough to shine in the night even as the grenade arced over the horde. It didn''t even have a chance to land in their midst, instead bursting just above their heads. Ruth''s dad loved military history. Most of the Old World''s internet and media had been recovered, even after the end of all things, and he would pore over old battles like they were sporting events. He would gleefully show Ruth how tactics and strategies had evolved, and how eventually, once humanity recovered their technological advantage, they''d be able to use these lessons to fight back the Jungle''s monsters once and for all. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. So Ruth knew how much more destructive an air-burst explosive could be, if timed right. The crude shrapnel of the steam grenade scythed out and cut down dozens of Formic monsters in a wave. Even the Porcine Bloodbreaker howled in pain and fury as tiny shards of burning metal and splinters of wood embedded in its flesh. It turned eyes full of burning hate towards her and snarled around its tusks. That could be a problem. ¡°Um, a little help here?¡± Ruth called to no one in particular. Mary had the distant look of someone who was searching through their screens¡ªreally, she decided to do that now?¡ªso she turned to the Archers. ¡°Any chance either of you has anything that can get a grenade down the throat of a wereboar thing?¡± One of the Archers pulled back an arrow on his string, sighted, and released. The arrow caught fire as it flew, and one of the larger ants screamed as it cooked inside its own carapace. ¡°Nope, sorry. I doubt we can tie it to one of our arrows, either.¡± The other Archer was firing a bit faster than the first. ¡°I have a weak telekinesis spell.¡± Ruth blinked at her. ¡°You do?¡± The first Archer stopped to stare at her. ¡°Wait, you do?¡± She nodded. ¡°It''s not worth much, but it lets me move arrows midflight. Good for correcting a miss and hitting the target.¡± ¡°I knew you cheated!¡± Ruth pushed forward eagerly, ignoring the indignant man. ¡°Yes, that sounds perfect! I need you to guide my throw down the pig''s mouth. Can you do that?¡± ¡°I... I think so?¡± She didn''t sound sure. In the end, it was so easy that Ruth almost cried. She threw her grenade towards the Porcine monster. She could see that she got it close enough to cause damage, but not close enough to have any chance of getting in its mouth. Then the monster roared, and the little grenade suddenly changed directions in mid air and zipped down its throat. Ruth barely had time to overcharge its rune before she lost sight of it. The explosion took out more of the horde than she would have expected. Apparently bone made for good shrapnel. Not only were half the ants cut down, but the giant cat was blinded and fled. Even the bear was damaged, leaving it easy prey for a flurry of arrows and Mary''s bullets. ¡°I suspect that the magical fire reacted with the monster''s blood somehow,¡± a familiar voice mused. Ruth wheeled around to see Darius stepping out of the building, a curious expression on his face. ¡°Such things have been reported before. I''m sure you have heard of the First Mage''s famous experiment, where he tested an ice spell used on a pond and then on a monster. The spell had a drastically increased effect once the monster''s innate resistance was overcome¡ª¡± ¡°Deedee!¡± Ruth cried. She threw open her arms and hugged him. ¡°You''re okay!¡± He struggled futilely in her grip. ¡°Of course I am okay. I''m one of the only people on this battlefield with a shroud focus, I am more resistant to damage than the fortress.¡± He struggled some more. ¡°And stop calling me that!¡± Ruth let him go and grinned. ¡°How many of those shrouds did you pass around?¡± Darius scowled. ¡°Barely any.¡± Behind him, both of the Archers held up their wrists, just briefly, to show her their shiny new shrouds. Even though Darius still hadn''t figured out how to make anything better than the most basic blueprints, these basic shrouds could still save lives. Darius was muttering about how it had all been a waste, and he hadn''t even gotten any good experience because no one had gotten hit and needed his shrouds. Ruth was only half listening, but she got the point that he hadn''t reached level 32 yet. Once he did, surely he''d get something interesting out of it. She looked out across the field to the horde again. Well, it wasn''t really a horde any more. Now, it was more like a scattering of giant ants and ant-centaurs. Mary and the Archers could finish them off without her help. Which meant this was the perfect time for some practice. She was liking her [Activate Rune] and [Overcharge Rune] spells so far, and the synergy between them. Grenades and bombs weren''t what this class was really designed for, though. It was a melee class, designed around using a rune-inscribed weapon to maximum effect and beyond. She hefted her hammer, still light as a feather, and charged into the fray. By this point, the shots from Mary and the Archers were sporadic, careful precision attacks instead of a wild rain. She didn''t have to worry about accidentally getting hit, they just avoided her. She ran up to the closest ant-centaur and swung her hammer down at full strength, deactivating the gravity rune at just the right moment. She squashed the Formic in a single blow, leaving behind a pile of foul-smelling carapace. It was like a broken juice box that had been left out in the sun for too long. She was a bit surprised by what happened next, though.
NEW TECHNIQUE LEARNED: Smash (rank 1). A technique for hammers and other blunt weapons. Swing your weapon with downward force. Increases damage, area of effect, and chance to crack armor. Damage is influenced by Strength, speed is influenced by Dexterity, recovery is influenced by Constitution, and accuracy is influenced by Perception. Cost: 20 stamina (variable by equipment, item). Requires: Blunt weapon (variable).
Ruth had never earned a combat technique. Not once. Mender was a magic-type class, making it difficult to learn any techniques at all. And of course it was a [Healer] class, making it difficult to learn any damaging spells, either. She had learned [Pain Touch], [Reverse Healing], and a few similar spells over the years, but her father didn''t give her many opportunities to practice them. They were ¡°just for emergencies,¡± he said. People had died while he made her wait for ¡°emergencies.¡± Ruth tightened her grip on her hammer and grinned. ¡°Okay,¡± she said. ¡°We''ve got monsters to smash and a friend to save. Who''s with me?¡± Mary grinned as well, spinning her guns theatrically. ¡°I''m with you all the way. Show these muck-heads who''s boss, yeah?¡± Darius heaved a heavy sigh. ¡°I suppose you''ll need me to keep you idiots alive.¡± Ruth laughed, and then, finally, waded into the battle. Chapter 43 - Drowning (part 1) Josh was embarrassed at how easily he had been captured. Really, carried off by a Jungle-touched horse and dropped into a hole in the ground? He''d seen fresh-faced recruits do better. Even considering that he was pretty sure a [Tamer] was involved, he was embarrassed at himself. His old trainer would have kicked him straight back to boot for a stunt like this. So now he was trapped in a hole in the ground, with a tunnel leading in one direction. He sighed, took out a chemical light stick, and snapped it to activate it. While he was obviously being led by the nose, he had to go down the path before him, whether he knew it was a trap or not. The tunnel looked like some sort of mine shaft, judging by the rusted metal rail tracks on the ground. Water dripped from the ceiling and the walls were rough stone, braced by wooden supports. It was a rather ordinary tunnel that didn''t look much different from the tunnels he had made¡ªthough he still wasn''t strong enough to use one with the [Instant Crafting] spell yet. Still, something was off about it, and it took him a moment to put his finger on what it was. The Jungle wasn''t here. Well, that was putting it too simply. The tunnel was still inside the Jungle''s domain. When Josh took a deep breath, he could feel all the mana in the air, and he drew it in to replenish his reserves. You didn''t get that on the safe side of the Burn Line. He thought if he dug down deep enough, he''d fall out of range or however you wanted to call it. But despite the fact that, despite all the magic in the air and everything that implied, the Jungle itself was not in the tunnel. No vines reached down from above, growing so fast that he could see it. No trees sprouted in the small pool of sunlight he was standing in, no tiny shrubs with too many sharp thorns. There weren''t even mosses and mushrooms on the wooden supports. It was, for all the world, like a perfectly ordinary tunnel. It was a well-known fact that the Jungle didn''t like going underground. No one had been able to determine why for certain. Lack of sunlight was the obvious culprit, but things that lacked photosynthesis didn''t enjoy accelerated growth either. A mushroom above ground could spore and sprout over an hour on a dead log. Underground, everything proceeded as normal. It wasn''t a hard and fast law. In some towns, they coaxed the Jungle into caves to get special mosses or fungi to grow at accelerated rates. Josh had never been to any of them before, though. He had assumed it was the magic in the air that made the difference. Everyone knew that the Jungle increased the mana density around it, which it then used to grow more and increase that density further. But if that was true, then the mana in this tunnel should be accelerating growth as well. And yet... it wasn''t. This was very strange. Josh hadn''t exactly grown up in the Jungle-touched wilderness, he knew what the world was supposed to be like. He had seen lands choked by the Jungle and its magic, and he had seen lands free of the taint. Seeing them mixed was... strange. Josh shook his head, clearing out the cobwebs. He didn''t have time for this. Maybe this was just what a place felt like when the mana first rolled in, before it had a chance to accelerate plant growth. Or maybe this was a sign of the end of the world. He didn''t know, and he had more immediate problems to deal with. He was walking into a trap. That was obvious. The question then was, how did he turn the trap around and ambush whoever had set this all into motion? Josh touched the nearest wooden support pillar. ¡°Hands-Free Crafting.¡± Bits of wood shaved off the pillar, as if he was going at it with a scraper and a pick. Within a minute, his spell had carved out a large handle, the kind suitable for a lumber ax. There was even a wooden head, but he quickly detached that and tossed it aside. He had tried using a wooden ax before. It hadn''t really worked. The support pillar creaked and groaned, and Josh hurried on. Once he was sure he was far enough away to escape any potential collapse, he started hunting for the next part of his plan. A big heavy stick might be enough on its own, but he wanted something a bit more substantial. It didn''t take long to find a nice, heavy stone, about the size of his head. He knelt down next to it, handle in one hand, and touched the rock with his other. With a quick cast of [Hands-Free Crafting], the stone chiseled itself into a simple ax head and attached itself to the haft. He actually had most of the tools he would have needed to carve both haft and head by hand. But using the spell did it automatically, which was easier. He thought having the tools might reduce the cost a bit, but with his sky-high Sensitivity such a simple crafting only took him a single point of mana anyway. He didn''t want to look deep into his menus for the gritty numbers when he was in a potential danger zone. He took a deep breath, activating his [Meditation] skill for just a moment to get that mana point back. Even though it might have regenerated on its own by the time he fought anything, there was no reason to be careless. He was still in what had clearly been intended to be a trap. Just having a shoddy ax wouldn''t be enough to get him out of it. He continued down the tunnel. There was still only the one path. It sloped down slowly, and he had to wonder where it had come from. There weren''t exactly loads of mines in this region. Or at least no active ones. The City still stuck mostly with scavenging the Old World, and this area hadn''t been big on iron or other industrial metals even before the Fall. He brushed his hand along one of the wooden support beams. Though he was hardly an expert, and this clearly wasn''t a brand-new construction, he didn''t think it was that old, either. Surely not from when people were still mining gold in the area. That was... what, three hundred years ago now? For some reason that thought made him feel unbearably old. Which was mad, because it wasn''t as if he had been there. He shook the feeling off. The point was that he highly doubted that a tunnel made three hundred years ago would still be intact. But he couldn''t imagine that someone had been keeping the place maintained all the way up to the Fall. After a good ten or twenty minutes of walking, he came out in a large underground chamber. Not a cavern, because it didn''t appear to be natural. There was a small river nearby that he thought was probably natural, because the stone there was rougher and more rounded. The rest of the chamber had squared-off walls and supports built into the ceiling. It looked like someone had greatly expanded a cave. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. There were a few more tunnel exits, all of them marked with rusted metal signs that were now illegible. There was also a large pile of very dirty plastic crates, most of them still sealed. He walked over to one that had been opened. It was filled with silvery foil packets, and after a second''s inspection he realized that they were MREs and other emergency rations. ¡°Was this a shelter?¡± he said aloud. ¡°Oh, it was more than that,¡± a voice echoed across the chamber. He spun around to see a man standing near the river. He was wrapped from head to toe in leather armor, without an inch of skin showing. Josh wasn''t even sure of the person''s gender, though the voice was pretty masculine. They were tall, too¡ªand Josh wasn''t exactly a small person himself. They were seven feet, though slender and willowy, which made things more confusing. ¡°This place was once a mine, as I understand,¡± they said. ¡°Though I will admit that I am not familiar with such things myself. My people have never been adept at digging underground.¡± Their accent sounded Japanese. Was that a reference to... what? Josh didn''t think there was any weird Japanese stereotype about them being bad at mining. ¡°Some time before the Fall¡ªI apologize for being unable to be more specific¡ªsomeone with a measure of authority in the region thought to make use of these mine shafts. As I am sure that you are aware, the Jungle reaches towards the sun. It does not grow underground unless coaxed.¡± They rubbed their hand along the wall. ¡°Which means if you find a tunnel deep enough, you can escape the Jungle''s tyranny.¡± Josh finally realized why they were down here. Now that he was paying attention, he could sense it in the air. The lack of a scent, the lack of humidity, the lack of an electric charge. There was no mana here. They had managed to dig under the Jungle''s influence after all. ¡°Who are you and what do you want?¡± Josh demanded. Best to get straight to the point. The lack of mana was making his skin ache, and he was worried it was part of some plot. ¡°I am Mizuno Masahiko,¡± they said. A single, polite nod. ¡°You may call me Lord Mizuno.¡± Well, that answered one question. ¡°Yeah, not gonna call you that.¡± Mizuno gave a lazy shrug. ¡°My family taught me to introduce myself. I am certainly not going to force you to be polite.¡± He cocked his head. ¡°For example, it is polite for one to introduce themselves in turn.¡± Josh said nothing. Mizuno did not let the silence stretch for long. ¡°Mister Hundredborn, I am not going to pretend that I am here for friendship.¡± Josh didn''t miss the little detail that he already knew his name. ¡°I am not even going to pretend that my intentions are noble.¡± ¡°You''re here to kill me, yeah?¡± Josh asked, tone light. ¡°Gonna grok you some glint and shine, then set up your little farm with cows and chicks and all that?¡± There was a pause. ¡°I''m not even sure that was English,¡± Mizuno said at last. ¡°Yes, I am here to kill you. However, I see no reason to be impolite about it.¡± He gave an exaggerated shrug. ¡°I truly don''t believe any of this is your fault. If this world wasn''t drowning under a tide of monsters, perhaps...¡± He sighed. ¡°Well. I suppose such hypotheticals are little more than a depressing distraction, in the end.¡± Josh hefted his ax. He tried to project a confidence he didn''t feel. He was still wearing his mask, so Mizuno couldn''t inspect him for his level¡ªand vice versa, Josh couldn''t inspect him¡ªbut he was well aware of his odds here. He had a non-combat class. Almost everyone else in the world had an advantage over him in a direct confrontation. ¡°I''m gonna roll the dice and make a guess,¡± he said. ¡°You already know my class, and can probably figure my level. That about the size of it?¡± Mizuno gave a simple tilt of his head, acknowledging the point. ¡°Unless you have had a truly exceptional run of good luck, I would assume you are still a Stonecrafter. Or did you decide to step off the Basic-tier advancement path? I am not an expert in Crafter classes, but you could have an Improved-tier class already if you chose to specialize.¡± Josh ignored that. He had always known it was a risk sticking with his current build. He had his goal in mind. Mechanist, then magitech. ¡°I think it would only be a fair shot for you to share, yeah?¡± Mizuno cocked his head to the side, then nodded. ¡°Very well. I am a Tamer, specifically the Beast Caller class. I am level 42.¡± Josh blinked. That was easier than he had expected. He had figured that Mizuno would drop the polite gentleman act, or at least find some excuse not to answer. Then he realized what Mizuno had actually said, and his blood drained out of his face. Not only was he fully eleven levels above Josh¡ªin a combat class, because of course he was¡ªbut he had an Improved-tier class. He''d be able to juggle Josh around like a ball if he was even slightly competent. Beast Caller was a summoner-type class, an unofficial subset of the [Tamer] role. Mizuno would be able to summon temporary copies of the monsters he had tamed. It was a powerful class, though reliant on mana. If he ran out, he wouldn''t be able to summon his pets, and would be largely helpless. ...so why had Mizuno taken him here, outside the Jungle''s influence? There was no mana in the air to breathe in through [Meditation]. Summoners were famous for letting their pets do the fighting, meaning that they could actually recover their mana in the middle of a fight if they knew what they were doing. This might be the worst place in the world for him to fight. ¡°I don''t suppose I could buy you off?¡± Josh asked, playing for time. ¡°I''ve made some money recently.¡± Not anywhere near enough to match the world quest, but it was worth a shot. ¡°Apologies,¡± Mizuno said with a chuckle. ¡°I am not doing this for money.¡± He sighed. ¡°In fact, at this point you are almost an afterthought. I apologize for that, as well.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Wot? The hell''s that supposed to mean?¡± Why would anyone want to kill him, besides the world quest? Well, maybe people would really be mad about him ¡°stealing¡± the class, but Mizuno didn''t sound like one of those. And what did he mean by ¡°afterthought?¡± Josh looked up, towards the village and the monster horde attacking it. ¡°Yes, I am afraid your suspicions are correct,¡± Mizuno said. There was real grief in his voice, which just made Josh angrier. ¡°I am the one behind the attack. It is not a distraction or a trick. My monsters will kill every single person they find.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Josh snapped. His hands tightened on his ax. ¡°What did any one of those people do to you?¡± ¡°Oh, they did nothing to me.¡± He pointed a finger at Josh. ¡°My goal is to eradicate everyone who might have possibly spoken to you.¡± ¡°Is this some weird guilt by association thing?¡± Josh demanded. ¡°Most of them never even met me!¡± ¡°Knowledge is like a virus, Mister Hundredborn,¡± he said sadly. ¡°It spreads and spreads, difficult to drown out at the source. Sometimes the only solution is to kill all who might know something.¡± Josh thought he could hear the screams. He thought he could smell the fires. He remembered the last time he saw a town burn. Long, long ago. They had thought themselves safe from the Jungle. They had thought they had everything under control. He remembered holding his sister''s hand as the town burned. They had both been adults, veterans of the endless war against the encroaching Jungle, and yet he had clutched her hand as if he was a child clinging to their mother again. I can''t go on like this, he had said, as tears ran down his cheeks. I know, she had said, as she healed his burns. We have a plan. Chapter 44 - Drowning (part 2) ¡°Is this about the dragon?¡± Josh asked. ¡°Or Jonah''s assassin?¡± ¡°The first,¡± Mizuno said, unconcerned. ¡°I am sorry, Mister Hundredborn. I have my orders.¡± Josh didn''t waste any more time. He charged forward at top speed, leveraging his physical advantages to the fullest. He might be stuck in a [Utility] class for now, but he had been rolling [Combat] classes most of his life. He was tough, fast, and strong. He also knew the weaknesses of the [Tamer] role, and the Beast Caller class. The entire point of a [Tamer] was the minions; there were always exceptions, but most of the classes were largely helpless on their own. Beast Caller was one of those, with the caveat that Mizuno could just summon his pets to his side in a moment. Not to mention that, as a [Combat] class, Mizuno could learn other combat techniques and spells. It was difficult to learn anything directly outside his role, but if he was smart, he would have learned a few. The closest Josh had to a combat technique was [Chop Tree]. It required an ax, which he had. It required stamina, which he had, and melee range. When he got close enough to Mizuno, he raised his ax. Mizuno flinched back, clearly surprised at his sudden rush. Josh figured that he hadn''t thought a [Utility] class would be so quick or aggressive. However, [Chop Tree] wasn''t a combat technique. It was a utility technique for the [Crafter] role, and was therefore extremely overspecialized. It was designed to work on trees, and could sometimes be stretched to work on tree-like objects; wooden fences, tree monsters, that sort of thing. It could never be used on a person. The technique simply wouldn''t activate. [Empty Chop] was not a utility art. It was a combat art, and would work on anything. Josh activated his new art, channeling it through his ax. The art was designed to work without a weapon, but the description had said the effect would vary if he used one anyway. Before, it had released a single slash of cutting energy, exactly as if he had swung an ax, just without the ax. Now that he was swinging an ax, the energy was far more dense, a gray sheen in the air like light made solid. It crashed down onto a shimmering shroud that Mizuno had around him, which was a surprise. He didn''t know where he had gotten a shroud device, but it didn''t matter. While it dissipated most of the art''s energy, some force got through and cut into his head. Mizuno leaped back, still alive but clearly injured. He pressed his hand to his forehead, staunching a wound, and then muttered a curse in Japanese and ripped off his mask and leather helmet. Before he could follow up his attack, Josh was stopped dead by what he saw. The man was Japanese, that much was obvious. The color of his skin, the angle of his black eyes, and even the way his black hair was tied up in a topknot all made him look unquestionably Japanese. His pointed ears were something else altogether. Josh had met plenty of people with pointed ears before. He''d always thought it was a cute little quirk, especially since so many fantasy races had pointed ears when plenty of perfectly ordinary humans had them, to various degrees. When he was growing up, he knew a kid who had ears so pointy they looked like someone had taken a knife to them. Mizuno''s ears were not pointy. They were long and tapered, almost rising above his head. They looked long enough to be used as radio antennae, and it had clearly been painful to scrunch them down under the helmet. There was no way that these ears could possibly be mistaken for anything human. In fact, combined with his willowy build, Josh could only come to one possible conclusion. ¡°You''re an elf?¡± he asked, incredulous. ¡°Elves are a thing?¡± Mizuno scowled, the first real emotion Josh had felt from him. He wiped his face, smearing the blood from the cut on his forehead. ¡°I''m human.¡± Josh stared at him. ¡°You don''t look human.¡± Mizuno scoffed. ¡°Says the dwarf.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Josh blinked. Wait, what? Where had that come from? The elf stood there, glaring and not making a move, so Josh allowed himself to be distracted for a moment. He tried to think about this from Mizuno''s perspective. Mizuno was a full two feet taller than most people and built like a beanpole. What did Josh look like to him? Well, now that he thought about it, Josh probably looked short, compact, and practically as wide as he was tall. He also noticed that Mizuno didn''t have any chin scruff, while Josh was getting some stubble because he hadn''t shaved since yesterday. To him, Josh probably looked just like a fantasy dwarf. ¡°Earth-type,¡± Josh said, realization dawning. ¡°It''s right on our character sheets. We''re earth-type humans.¡± Mizuno nodded, his expression calming. ¡°You are. As I am a water-type human.¡± His face scrunched up in disgust. ¡°An... elf, some people would say.¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°Waterworlder is the more polite term.¡± Josh would have thought a water-type species would have gills, but fine, whatever. ¡°I don''t know why you''re doing this, but surely we can work¡ª¡± ¡°I am doing this,¡± Mizuno said, a sad look on his face, ¡°because your world is drowning. Your world is already dead, and nothing I do actually matters.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I came here for nothing important, but Flamebreak had other ideas. He wants to be free, and he does not appreciate loose ends.¡± He sighed. ¡°I am sorry, Mister Hundredborn.¡± ¡°Flamebreak¡ªthe dragon?¡± Josh''s jaw fell open. ¡°You''re working for the dragon?¡± ¡°A temporary contract, I assure you.¡± The bastard really did sound like he was trying to be reassuring. As if Josh would care in the slightest. ¡°Oh, I''m sorry,¡± he said, laying on the sarcasm as thick as he could. ¡°I didn''t realize you were only helping him on a temporary basis. So does your little contract end before or after he kills the entire world?¡± Mizuno didn''t look annoyed, or angry, or defensive. He just looked sad. ¡°This world,¡± he said flatly, ¡°is dead. It is a drowning man with no land in sight. The monsters will grow stronger, until eventually you have no hope of surviving the reset.¡± ¡°I have a Crafter class,¡± Josh insisted. ¡°We have a chance.¡± ¡°Oh, child.¡± The elf just looked so unaccountably sad. ¡°Most worlds have a full roster of classes. Most worlds work tirelessly for decades, for centuries, building up their walls and their defenses. They drown nonetheless.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Your world has already died once. Every single human alive but for the Eight Immortals died, correct?¡± That wasn''t quite correct, but Josh decided it was close enough to not be worth an argument. ¡°Your world is like a man who found one last burst of strength. One last kick to push his head above the water.¡± Mizuno closed his eyes. ¡°But there is still no land in sight. He is still tired, and gasping, and he has no way to survive. He just has a few seconds left.¡± He opened his eyes again. ¡°This world is doomed, Mister Hundredborn. Nothing I do, and nothing you do, will change that.¡± ¡°Then why come after me?¡± he demanded. ¡°Seems like a bit of a daffy idea if nothing matters.¡± ¡°You can''t save this world,¡± Mizuno reiterated. ¡°That''s not the problem. The problem is that you could kill Flamebreak.¡± Josh felt his heart skip a bit. What? Mizuno shrugged and continued in a more casual tone. ¡°Or at least seriously inconvenience him in a variety of ways. Flamebreak doesn''t want to destroy this world, or conquer it, or whatever else you think he''s doing. He couldn''t, anyway. He just wants the Tower.¡± Josh narrowed his eyes. ¡°Then that''s even more daft, innit? The Tower''s dead. An empty shell. You can go see it for yourself. No one''s stopping you.¡± According to the histories, when the Tower had first arrived, it had seemed like an infinite treasure chest. Each floor had been the size of a city, a self-contained world that was filled with magic and wonders. One might be a vast cavern filled with glittering magical gems and valuable metals practically falling out of the walls¡ªbut protected by golems and elementals. Another was a seemingly endless plain of wildflowers, magic herbs and hostile plant monsters both calling the place home. Each floor had higher-level enemies, more challenges, and more treasures. It had taken decades to clear the Tower even after the human race understood what they were doing, and what was at stake. In the end, it hadn''t been enough. Eight people survived the Last Raid, the final boss fight on the last floor. Eight people on the entire planet still alive. Chapter 45 - Drowning (part 3) ¡°You greatly misunderstand the nature of the Tower,¡± the elf said cryptically. ¡°Then and now.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Then again, my people were no better. None of us have the context to understand when it first arrives. Some learn, before the end, but...¡± He shook his head. ¡°I should not be wasting words on you, dead man. I do apologize, but unfortunately I can offer you nothing more.¡± Josh didn''t wait to give him another opportunity to do anything else. He rushed forward, [Empty Chop] ready. Mizuno dodged better, but the line of dense cutting energy still cut through his shroud¡ªwhich had regenerated while they were talking¡ªand cut a line along his arm. Josh raised his ax for another swing. Mizuno ducked under his guard, far too fast for a man of his size, and hit him square in the forehead with a palm strike. Josh stumbled back, seeing stars. Worse than that was the blinding, burning headache. He fell to the ground, not even able to see straight, as he struggled to figure out what the elf had done. Had he used a technique? It hadn''t looked like a technique. He recognized this burn, and the System notification that came in a moment later confirmed it.
ALERT: You have been reduced to negative mana by the non-enhanced strike of an uppity elf who would lose an arm wrestling contest with a particularly energetic toddler. You should be ashamed. 50% reduced mana regeneration until you reach 0 mana.
Blows to the head did mana damage. Anything that injured your mind did that, actually. A particularly strong drink could drain your mana on a bad day, which was why magic-type classes had a reputation for not drinking. But one hit? How did he get reduced to negative mana in one hit? Through bleary eyes, he saw Mizuno looking down at him, surprised. ¡°Even I didn''t expect that to work so well. I know I outlevel you, but I haven''t exactly put many points into Strength. What is your Capacity?¡± Oh. Right. He had dumped everything into Sensitivity, meaning he had a hilariously small mana pool. Even with his rune talisman, he was still only at five mana. Six when in range of the citystone¡ªwhich he wasn''t in range of, because a bloody Jungle-touched horse had dragged him down a hole. He struggled to breathe, to activate his [Meditation] skill, but it was no use. He was so out of it, so dazed by the burning pain and his swimming vision, that it took him far too long to remember that he was underground. Outside the range of the Jungle and the mana in the air. He finally checked his mana. Negative three. That was hardly even anything. On the surface, he could recover that in three breaths, even with the penalties. But down here, with nothing to draw on but the furnace of his own pitiful soul... Two hours. It would take two hours just to get back to zero mana. He stood up on shaky feet. His magic was lost to him now; you couldn''t use a spell if it would push you below zero mana, meaning he couldn''t use any spells right now. All his techniques were [Utility], and wouldn''t even let him target Mizuno. He had a full stamina bar, but it may as well have been empty too. But he had a big, heavy ax in his hand. He had an enemy in front of him. He could do something. He could stand and fight. That was when Mizuno summoned his beasts. If someone asked him after, Josh would blame the manaburn for the fact that he had forgotten he was facing a bloody Beast Caller. The truth was, though, that seeing Mizuno''s face and ears had been enough of a shock that he had entirely forgotten what he was up against. The ghostly image of a bear appeared, standing on its hind legs and even larger than Mizuno. While Josh couldn''t use his Identify skill on it, he recognized a high-level Ursine Geo-Breaker when he saw one. They were surprisingly common. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The monster roared and lunged forward, swiping a claw at Josh''s head. He let his legs collapse under him, dodging, but his head swam even worse, and he lay there on the ground for a moment, too woozy to move. If Mizuno had any of his monsters with him for real, that would have been the end right there. He didn''t have the strength to lift his head, much less defend himself. This was the weakness of the Beast Caller over a normal Beastmaster. They could summon their pets without putting them in danger, but only temporarily. Only long enough for a single attack. Summoning them permanently would cost more time and mana than Mizuno would be willing to spend right now. Josh didn''t see the summon disappear, though he heard it¡ªthe distinctive rushing sound like a statue made of sand collapsing. Josh ignored it to try to focus on his predicament. He struggled to his feet, mind racing as fast as it could, considering the manaburn. He could hardly even see Mizuno in front of him, standing well out of reach. Josh still had his ax in his hand. Could he throw it? Throwing things was technically influenced by the Perception stat, which he certainly had high enough. Before he could get his muddled thoughts into order, Mizuno summoned another beast. This one was an Apid, a giant bee, though small by their standards. It didn''t look that different from a normal bumblebee, other than being the size of a basketball. It didn''t have a stinger, which he found odd, and its stripes were red and black. Its stripes started to glow, and his eyes widened as he realized what this was. It was a Bomber-type monster. Mizuno had somehow raised a living bomb, then summoned an expendable copy of it. Meaning he could have it blow up and then just summon a new one, over and over again. Josh didn''t have time to think. As the Apid''s wings buzzed harder and it started to fly towards him, he threw his ax at it. The ax flew through the air, end over end, and smashed into the monster with all the grace of a boulder. Both crashed into the ground. Just as the giant bee''s corpse started to flash brighter, and Josh got ready to jump to safety, the bee dissolved into golden dust. The dust disappeared in a moment. Mizuno didn''t say anything. He just took a few steps to the side so that he could put one foot on Josh''s fallen ax, trapping it and dashing any hope of grabbing it again. Josh clenched his fists. He was out of weapons. His head still felt like someone had stuck it in a bell and rung it a few times, then made him snort hot sugar. Everything hurt, and he couldn''t even think about thinking until he got some mana back. ¡°I am sorry,¡± Mizuno said. He said that quite often, now that Josh thought about it. ¡°I do not enjoy working for a dragon. But we all must make sacrifices for our goals.¡± He sighed. ¡°I am sorry. But the life of a drowning world is not worth arguing with a dragon.¡± That was it. That was his only chance. The elf didn''t want to kill him. Not really. He just didn''t think there was any reason not to kill him. Why would he? This entire world was dead to him. Nothing would matter one way or another. The dragon¡ªapparently¡ªwould survive long enough to make its gratitude or displeasure known. Backing him was the safer bet. Josh couldn''t tell if he hated Mizuno more or less for that cold calculus. Right now, he didn''t have the time or brain power to spare on such thoughts. Instead, he turned and ran at a right angle from the elf. There was a pause, which Josh hoped was caused by Mizuno being too shocked to move. After a moment, however, a new summon appeared in front of him. The horse. It reared up, ready to clobber him with its hooves, but he dove under its legs, running past it and jumping straight to his goal. He had been aiming for the river running down the side of the chamber. He thought that if he leaped headfirst, he''d be able to escape into the underground waterway. The elf wouldn''t be able to follow him there. Mizuno, however, wasn''t going to let him get away that easily. He jumped in front of Josh, trying to intercept him with his own body. It seemed he couldn''t call another summon just yet. One of the many Basic-tier classes was called the Pugilist. It was a bare-knuckle brawler class, and indeed shared a number of similarities with the actual Brawler class. The main difference was that it put more emphasis on wrestling and grappling. For years, it was Josh''s favorite class. He tackled Mizuno right in the middle like an Old World linebacker. The elf might be tall, but he was thin, and Josh outweighed him by a significant margin. He easily overpowered him and pushed him forward like a freight train. Right into the water. Before Josh even had a chance to acknowledge the sharp, biting cold, it had swept both of them into a tunnel and out of the room. He knew only darkness. Chapter 46 - The Walls Mary loved being a Mage Gunner. She loved being able to shoot through hordes of monsters, her friends at her side and her guns blazing. She loved the feeling of the experience rolling in, making her feel like every pull of the trigger was an accomplishment. She did not love people dying all around her. She unloaded a fusillade of shots on two Ursine Skulkers that were harassing some low-level Defenders. The bears, far too sleek and lithe to look natural and with jet-black fur, turned to roar at her. Which was of course what she had intended, but another dozen low-level Porcine Runners came with them. Mage Gunner was good at single-target damage, but it was hard to collect good area spells for it. She hadn''t had time for that yet, leaving her weak against smaller, more numerous enemies. She kept her attacks on the bears, trusting Ruth''s grenades, or even just her wild hammer blows, to get the job done. Mary''s mana zeroed out, and she breathed in deep to accelerate her regeneration. One of the quirks of the Mage Gunner class was that you didn''t need bullets for your guns. Shots required a small amount of mana, and more for using an actual spell. That meant it was very easy to run out of mana very quickly. Thankfully, upon taking the class Mary also received the [Gunner''s Focus] aura. As an aura, it reserved a large portion of her mana, but in exchange it massively increased her passive mana regeneration. To be more specific, it let her breathe in the mana of the air, almost as good as if she was using the [Meditation] skill at all times. Unlike that skill, she could still fight while regenerating mana. Unlike Josh, Mary had her stats spread out pretty well, so while the aura dipped into her mana pool pretty heavily, her Capacity made up for it. Her Sensitivity was enough to reduce the cost of her bullets to a manageable level, and her Flexibility let her draw in that mana very quickly. It was still a delicate balance, though. ¡°I''m running low!¡± Mary called over her shoulder. ¡°Mana in the area is dipping!¡± That could happen when too many people breathed in mana at once. It would regenerate soon enough once they left, but for the moment her regeneration rate was stuttering like an old engine. She continued blasting away at the monsters. Every pull of the trigger produced a flash of light from one of her guns, a beam or afterimage from the barrel, and a sharp smell of too-sweet smoke. Monsters crunched and squealed in pain as they died. It wasn''t enough, and around her more people were slaughtered. They had chosen the gate of the main village to make their stand. This was where the horde was concentrated, coming after the most amount of people and, most importantly, after the improved citystone. That was what had drawn them here. Mary didn''t think that Ruth had figured it out yet. She certainly wasn''t going to tell her, and they had more important things to worry about right now. Right now, Ruth was on the front line, bashing into the monsters with her giant hammer next to Mayor Vashti, Samson, and every other melee fighter that they could get their hands on. [Defenders] with giant shields or thick armor¡ªa gift from Samson''s Armorsmith class¡ªkept the monsters back as best as they could, while the [Attackers] darted between them, stabbing or poisoning anything they could reach. They looked like they were trying to beat back the tide. The horde seemed infinite, countless low-level Formics pouring out of the thick trees, interspersed with higher-leveled ant-centaurs and bigger monsters like the Ursines and Porcines. Every once in a while, an animated tree would stumble into the open, and everyone with a fire ability would drop everything to burn it down. One strong tree monster could rip their walls apart. Mary stood on the top of the wall with the two Archers from earlier, plus dozens more ranged [Attackers] and every [Healer] in the town. Even Judith, the Hunter who had turned into a Trapmaker, was up with her, throwing out new traps as fast as she could make them. It wasn''t how her class was supposed to work, but she was tying up major targets or even causing small explosions that put a dent in the horde. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Mary wished the melee fighters could retreat inside the walls, but the sad irony was that the walls were too weak for that. A wooden palisade was not strong enough to handle an attack like this. By keeping their fighters out front, the horde concentrated their attention in one spot, giving them a chance to fight them back. If they closed the gates, the horde would just rip the walls apart. She understood that, tactically. She might not be some genius strategist, but you didn''t last long as a reclaimer if you didn''t understand the basics of fighting a horde. That didn''t mean she had to like how many people they were losing. Even as she watched, she saw a man she didn''t know, a Zephyr by the looks of his equipment, dragged screaming under the carpet of ants and squealing boars. The Zephyr class was a dodge-type [Defender], perfect against a single slow target and absolutely terrible against multiple enemies. There was the brief glow of green healing magic, a [Healer] trying to save him, before he was dragged under the monsters. She couldn''t even hear his screams over the sound of the horde. The chittering of the ants, the squeals of the pigs, the cracking of the trees and howls of the wolves... it all turned into a massive ocean of sound, washing over her as a single wave of noise that she felt more than heard. ¡°Oi!¡± Mary yelled, hardly even managing to make herself heard. ¡°Need more bombs on eight o''clock!¡± Farther up the curve of the wall, a Mage called out, then started casting with both hands. Fire started swirling between his palms. Mary waited until he was almost done, then fired a Vareo Shot at the part of the horde closest to the position she had called out. She got lucky and hit a big walking tree. The gravity bullet caused the monster to stop, the weight of its own dense wood suddenly turning against it and breaking it into splinters. Mary could already see it beginning to break when the Mage''s fireball hit it square in the trunk. The explosion took out most of the ants and pigs in a ten-yard radius, giving the [Defenders] in that area a bit more breathing room. Mary saw the Zephyr, just briefly, as the ocean of monsters was pushed back for a moment. He wasn''t getting up again. Darius had taken his place on the line. Almost every [Defender] had one of his shrouds now, including Darius himself of course. It was the only reason that they were lasting as long as they were. But they were still basic shrouds, and they didn''t last long. They tried to swap out, to give the shrouds time to recharge, but they didn''t always manage it in time. Ruth came up again and started throwing her simple grenades into the horde. They did a good job of reducing the numbers of lesser monsters, but they barely even injured the bigger ones. She hadn''t managed to repeat her earlier feat, getting a monster to swallow a grenade and blowing it up from the inside. Mary thought that if she managed that, they might actually thin the horde enough to break them. Monsters weren''t infinite, not even insect-type monsters. Eventually, enough of them would die that they''d be scared off, at least until they built their numbers back up again. There was no way the attacks would be this bad every time. Yes, the improved citystone was a huge draw, but there had to be something pushing them forward. It was as if every insect colony and wolf pack in a hundred miles had decided to attack at the same time! She fired off another few Pyro Shots. There had to be an enemy [Tamer] working against them. Maybe more than one. While there was no way that a single [Tamer] could have controlled this many monsters¡ªnot unless the Seventh Immortal himself was fighting them¡ªhe had to have done something. Stirred up the nests and sent them towards the village. That sort of thing. Mary took in another breath of mana and grimaced. She wasn''t regenerating anywhere near as much mana as she should be. She glanced over at the other magic-types scattered along the wall. Mayor Vashti had ordered them to space themselves out to hopefully reduce the drain on the mana in a single area. Clearly, that wasn''t working as well as she had hoped. One of the Mages was sitting below the lip of the wall, eyes closed and trying to meditate, while the others were being more conservative with their spells. She took in another breath, more to steady herself than anything, and pushed more magic into her guns. They were growing hot, and had that burned-sugar smell indicative of too much magic. She didn''t have time to worry about that. She didn''t have time to consider how she had fired her guns more tonight than she ever had in her entire life. She didn''t have time to worry about what would happen if she somehow managed to break them. She just raised her guns and resumed shooting. That was when the rear wall of the village exploded into shrapnel. Chapter 47 - Clearing Your Head In hindsight, Josh thought that maybe jumping into an underground river wasn''t the best idea. He knew that it had to lead somewhere. The people who built the refuge wouldn''t want a river flowing through their little stronghold unless they knew where both ends went. Though there was the possibility that they had put a gate on it somewhere downstream, he suspected they''d want to avoid impacting the local ecosystem any more than they already had. He would have free passage until the end of the line. He was right, mostly. The tunnel didn''t have any gates or grates or even sharp rocks. It was even big enough for him¡ªand he was a big guy. He suspected it had been widened some time in the past. But it was still dark, his mind was still on fire, and he could hardly summon the intelligence to lift his head above the water every once in a while to get a new breath. The elf struggled in his grip. Josh refused to allow him to escape. It was the only other thought in his head. If he escaped, Josh was dead. After an indeterminate amount of time, Josh was dumped out into another large cavern. This one had a massive underground pool, a reservoir for all the water rushing in from above. It was about the size of a football field, well-lit with luminescent mosses and fungi. Josh recognized the touch of someone with an Herbalist-type class. They had carefully selected and cultivated their seeds eighty years ago or more, and everything had just continued growing ever since. Josh managed to push through the pain in his mind long enough to swim to the shore, still clutching the elf. The lake was deep, and he could see drainage grates at the edge. However the builders had engineered this system, they had clearly decided that this was enough water, and any more could safely wash back into the ecosystem. Josh was hardly an expert, but this could probably keep the entire City hydrated for a decent amount of time. When he climbed up onto the stone shore, he found that there wasn''t really anything else in the cavern. A few crates, but nowhere near as many as were up above. He pushed that aside and checked Mizuno. He had stopped struggling, and Josh threw him onto his back onto the stony bank. His eyes were wide, his skin pale, and he wasn''t breathing. He looked shocked at what had happened to him. Josh groaned and fell over. The elf was dead. Shrouds didn''t protect against drowning, and his physical stats clearly hadn''t been up to the task of fighting both Josh and the water at the same time. He hated killing people, but this was hardly his first time. And he had no doubt that Mizuno deserved it. Red mist did not rise out of Mizuno''s corpse. Josh wouldn''t gain any experience for murking him. That was the way of things. Humans received experience for killing monsters, monsters received experience for killing humans. He had thought that perhaps Mizuno was lying, that he was some sort of strange monster... but no. He was human. Or close enough, at least. Still nursing his headache, Josh rose to his feet, his clothes dripping water from the lake. He patted down the elf''s corpse, and was surprised by what he found. There was the shroud focus of course, likely better than the one he already had. But everything else Mizuno was wearing was also magical. As he stripped them off, he found that they all had runes stitched into their seams or inscribed onto small leather armor pieces sewn into the clothes. He used his Identify skill on them. He didn''t receive much information¡ªhis skill wasn''t high enough rank to learn anything specific¡ªbut he confirmed that they were magical equipment, with level requirements and everything. That meant they weren''t just made with rune magic, but also infusion magic. They''d be powerful, and maybe Ruth could learn some new runes. There was a strange bracer with a number of burned-out gemstones. It had clearly been magical, but now it didn''t register as anything. That happened sometimes. Josh wondered what it had been for a moment. Some sort of protective item that had been overwhelmed? Something else entirely? Josh changed out of his own clothes into the new ones, then put his wooden armor back on over the top. The clothes wouldn''t provide him any benefits until he infused his mana into them, and he couldn''t do that while still suffering manaburn. Still, there was nowhere else to store them. The irony was that Mizuno had an enchanted ring that Josh thought might be a storage artifact. Unfortunately, he couldn''t use it yet, not until his mana had recovered. That would definitely be his first priority. He went over to the crates. A quick glance through one told him they were mostly filled with water purification and testing equipment. He dried off his new clothes as he searched through them. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Nothing was magical. This far away from the mana of the Jungle, nothing would have lasted long without a human putting their own mana into them constantly. Clearly, whoever had built this place had done their research, because there weren''t even unpowered magic items. Everything here was pure technology and non-magical chemistry. On the one hand, that was a good thing, because a water elemental would have definitely condensed in the lake by now if there was enough magic for it. On the other hand, he wouldn''t have this pounding manaburn headache, because he would have recovered already. Oh, and now his missing fingers were throbbing too. That was just great. It was probably because they were warming up from the cold water. There were more tunnel exits from this chamber. He even found a map on the wall which was most of the ways legible. The first thing he did was confirm that there wasn''t a direct route from the first chamber down to here. There were a bunch of residential caverns and more storage areas in the way. He was staggered by the scale of this place. There were dozens of chambers, each big enough to hold at least a few dozen people. Even with high-level advanced classes to dig the place out, surely someone would have noticed this amount of construction. He knew that things had been mad at the end, but this was just impossible. As far as he could tell, the place hadn''t ever even been used. There were no signs of habitation, and the only opened boxes were the ones he had looked at. This whole thing was too confusing, and his head hurt too much to think about it. He could understand how the place was empty. The entire world had died, it wasn''t a surprise that something had gone wrong and no one had managed to get to their safe haven. He hadn''t been there at the end, but he had heard more than enough. By the end, every community and city was hunkered down, trying to weather the storm of monsters and the hungry, hungry Jungle. Hordes of low-level monsters had swept over villages, breaking through defenses by sheer weight of numbers. Draconic monsters¡ªnot the true dragons like Flamebreak¡ªhad been too strong for anyone to handle, and had killed every hero and champion that tried to protect anyone. The world had drowned. That was what the elf hadn''t seemed to understand. The world had drowned. It already had died. When the Eight Immortals defeated the Tower, it burned up most of the magic of the world. Even eighty years later, it still hadn''t recovered to the same level as it had been at the Fall. This was why they had managed to survive so long with one City and eight classes. During the Fall, the base level of monsters had been sixty. Any newborn monster would breathe in the mana of the world and reach that level within a year. Then they didn''t reset with the solstice, meaning soon every monster in the world was level sixty at minimum. They only got stronger by killing humans. When the magic levels dropped, many of the high-level monsters killed each other over territory, as they were wont to do. Except since their replacements were limited to the weaker magic, they were at a far lower level. And of course the Eight had spent the first few years burning out every monster nest within spitting distance of the City to make sure that there was nothing too dangerous around nearby. Now they traveled around the world, killing off any especially powerful monsters that were still alive. Josh rubbed his head with both hands. He needed to focus. He was tired, his brain was on fire, and he needed to get out of here. From the map, he could see that there were multiple exits from the cave complex. Most were easier to get to than the one he had been dragged into. That one was labeled ¡°First Mine Entrance,¡± answering a few questions. Most of the rest seemed to be new exits carved by Mages with earth powers. Maybe Champion Geo Wizards. Those boys could move loads of rock with the precision needed to dig stable tunnels. The problem was, most of the other tunnels led away from the village. Josh wanted to get up there as soon as possible. Had Mizuno been telling the truth? Had the elf been killing the entire town, just in case he had mentioned the dragon to them? He rubbed his forehead again. Everything about that sentence annoyed him on an existential level. Since when were elves real? And Josh was a dwarf, apparently? Except that might be a racial slur? Mizuno had also mentioned more worlds. That seemed more important than some lad with pointy ears. He had far too many questions that he did not have time to answer right now. His first priority needed to be to just get up to the surface, breathe in some mana, and finally be able to think again. Then he could save the town. At least he knew where his friends would be. Ruth wouldn''t let them run away if there was any chance of saving anyone. Not that Josh expected Mary or Darius to actually try to run. Mary was always up for helping if it involved blowing up monsters, and Darius hid a good heart under his prickly exterior. Josh double-checked the map, found the correct tunnel, and started jogging up it. He winced as the increased pace made it feel like his brain was bouncing around inside his skull. He just needed to get up there as soon as possible. Everything would be fine. Chapter 48 - Last Stand Darius raised his arm above and bellowed, using his [Engaging Roar] technique. It was a taunt, forcing every monster within a wide radius to focus on him. Since there was a line of fighters standing between him and the enemy, this distracted the monsters for a few precious seconds as they tried futilely to reach him. It was also a technique, not a spell, which was important because he needed all his mana for his shrouds. He always made a point of learning techniques for magic classes, and spells for physical classes. Diversification was the way to go. It was similar to the idea of this village, in fact. Multiple walled areas instead of just one, so that when one fell the survivors could retreat to another. He stretched out his shroud to another [Attacker] who had overextended themselves. He had given shroud focuses to almost everyone, but those were still weak and inefficient. They had lost too many people, so no one had time to swap out and let their shrouds recharge. He had also realized too late the obvious fact that the shrouds were drawing on atmospheric mana to recharge themselves. In a battle this thick, with dozens of spellcasters and no time to breathe, there was a real danger of the magic running out. The shrouds were slower to recharge, and Darius couldn''t regenerate his mana at any real speed. Slowly but surely, they were being overwhelmed. Darius wondered where it had all gone wrong. It wasn''t when the monsters had broken through the wall. That was inevitable by the time they were surrounded by a full horde, no matter how many fighters they had defending them. It wasn''t even when the walls were surrounded in the first place; that, too, was inevitable. The moment he had realized just how big a horde they were facing, he had realized they were doomed. Villages didn''t survive hordes of this size. Not unless the Eight themselves fell out of the sky. But how had they gotten here in the first place? As much as he wanted to blame the situation on Ruth upgrading the citystone, it couldn''t be that simple. He knew something of history. Higher-tier citystones were common in the Old World. If they caused this effect every time they were upgraded, it would have been mentioned in the histories. Nor could he blame it on mismanagement of the local monster population. Darius had been out hunting with Mary on multiple occasions while Josh and Ruth worked on their crafting. The area around the village was wild, certainly, but Mayor Vashti made a point of destroying any Formic colonies and Porcine burrows as soon as they appeared. Discounting the dungeons, which of course were still sealed, there shouldn''t have been any major monster groups within ten miles. And yet here was a seemingly endless horde. It made no sense. The line broke in front of him as one of the fighters, a Knight wearing some of Samson''s armor, was speared through the chest by a humanoid Lupine with sharp bone blades for arms. Darius used his Identify skill on it out of habit¡ªit was a Level 33 Lupine Osteoclast¡ªbefore dragging the fallen Knight out of the line. Ruth took the opportunity to jump into his place, swinging her giant hammer with both speed and force. Her every blow smashed at least one monster flat, and this was with her being conservative with her mana. Darius could tell that she wanted to do more, to push her class farther. She wasn''t even using her grenades any more, holding them in reserve. He would have to get used to her being an [Attacker] now. He still wasn''t sure it was a good idea; at least she was making good use of it so far. She had been dreaming of this sort of thing her entire life, so she knew what to do. The problem was, he didn''t know where they were supposed to go from here. If this was a normal horde, they would have already cleared it down to a manageable level. If this was a normal horde, it might even be a net boon. Everyone was gaining experience, and even spread out over the entire fighting force, it was a large amount. Deaths so far were minimal because everyone had retreated back here. If this was a normal horde, even the destruction of the other walls would be a benefit for his team, because they could help rebuild and gain much good will that way. This was not a normal horde. It was being pushed forward by a [Tamer]. They weren''t going to win this. Mayor Vashti had taken a group of elite fighters to plug the hole in the wall. Darius expected little of them. He had personally killed dozens of Formics, and he wasn''t even an [Attacker]. Every time he looked out and saw the still-endless horde, he knew the truth. He had run a [Tamer] a few times, and while the role was hardly his favorite, he had learned a few tricks. In particular, he had noted how the [Bait Beast] technique and [Charm Beast] spell, temporary taming abilities, could be used to draw large groups of monsters around if used carefully. No one ever did that, because it had a terrible chance to backfire. Trying to draw too many monsters could easily kill you, your friends, and any nearby villages. At this point, Darius suspected that their mysterious [Tamer] had gathered up every monster within a hundred miles. Someone had drawn monsters from far beyond Mayor Vashti''s defensive radius, and brought them crashing down like a tidal wave upon the little sand castle they had built. The right move was to run, he knew. The earlier the better. The monsters were after all of them, of course, but most of all they were after the citystone. While killing humans would advance a monster greatly, devouring a citystone was orders of magnitude better. The sooner they escaped, the sooner everyone escaped, the longer the horde would be distracted with the citystone, and the more of them would survive. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. That was the cold calculus that he was famous for. He had run a [Healer] for most of his career as a reclaimer. He knew when to prioritize those who could live, and give up on those who could not. He had watched friends die, let them die, because it was better than letting the rest of the party die instead. Except... there were no children at reclaimer outposts. Certainly no children in reclaimer combat parties. The rules might be loose out at the edge of civilization, but they didn''t let kids fight on the literal Burn Line. There were children here, inside these walls. Darius had seen their parents carrying them inside. He had seen them crying, seen them alone and in small groups. Dirty and injured and so, so scared. He remembered watching the plays, seeing all the kids gasping at ancient plot twists. He had tried to be annoyed at them for being loud, and silly, and for every other little thing that kids always did. He had never been very good at doing what he was supposed to. Darius let out another [Enraging Roar], then restored Ruth''s flagging shield with his [Bolster Shroud] spell. ¡°Ruth! Hit them hard! I need a minute!¡± She didn''t even hesitate. She rushed out into the horde, swinging her massive glowing hammer around her and clearing the horde like a blender. Once she ran out of momentum, she dropped the hammer to the ground and threw out all of her remaining grenades at once. Darius heard the explosion behind him, but he was already running inside the walls. It was chaos. The walls, once seeming so large and even decadent, were packed with civilians. There was barely room for them to breathe. All of them were unarmed, and most of them had children clutched close. While everyone would of course have a [Combat] class, Darius had to assume that everyone who could actually fight was already on the walls. Many of the children looked younger than eight years old, meaning they didn''t even have classes yet. Many people stared at him with fearful eyes as he ran into the crowd. They moved away, but they called out to him, asking him questions he didn''t have time for. He had too many questions of his own. Eventually, he found Mayor Vashti, not at the breach as he expected, but at the center of the village next to the citystone, leaning on her sword and giving out orders. ¡°I want every single one of them out of here,¡± she said in a tone that brooked no argument. ¡°I do not care if you have to lash them to your backs and carry them. Anyone old enough to have a class gets a weapon. No exceptions.¡± Four men saluted and ran off, almost crashing into Darius before he dodged away. He didn''t begrudge them their haste. Overseeing the death of a village could leave one somewhat... flustered. He knew that too well himself. The Mayor''s eyes snapped to him. ¡°Report?¡± He shook his head. ¡°Still no sign of Joshua.¡± She took in a breath, then nodded. ¡°We will operate on the assumption that he is dead.¡± If she expected him to be upset, she would be surprised. ¡°Of course. I doubt you have the manpower to spare searching for him now.¡± ¡°No. No, we do not.¡± Her eyes were distant for a moment, heavy with pain, before she focused on him again. ¡°Once the citystone is destroyed, the horde will disperse. We will be able to return and search for survivors. It is the best chance to find him.¡± What she didn''t say¡ªwhat no one was saying¡ªwas that there would be a few hundred monsters with extra evolutions wandering the ruins. Citystones were rich in power for monsters, and any that cracked off a single tiny piece would go up at least a few levels. It would not be a simple matter to just come back and clean up. This entire area was going to be impassable for months. Probably longer. It had been a very long time since a monster horde had a chance at an Improved-tier citystone. It was even possible that, if a particularly large monster managed to take enough of the prize for itself, it could evolve all the way to the dragon stage. Wouldn''t that be just what they needed. A dragon-stage monster rampaging around to distract them from the True Dragon just waiting in a dungeon. Mayor Vashti would do her best; Darius trusted that much. However, there was a reason she was sending all the children away before the end. There was a reason she was arming them. ¡°Please be honest with me, Madame Mayor,¡± he said firmly. ¡°Do we have any chance of surviving this night?¡± To her credit, she made no attempt to downplay the situation. ¡°If you mean the village, then no. The horde is too large. At this point, it is simply a matter of mitigating the damage.¡± She looked up at the citystone. ¡°Perhaps if there was a defensive enchantment...¡± She shook her head. ¡°No, the outlying circles have already been lost, and we are next.¡± ¡°I am certain you have some sort of escape route prepared.¡± ¡°Indeed. Various earth Mages have constructed multiple tunnels away from the village. As people do not use them with any regularity, there is nothing to draw the monsters towards them. They lead out to the south, closer to San Juan Bautista.¡± Darius raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°I did not realize there were villages out that far.¡± Mayor Vashti gave him a rueful smile. ¡°You would be surprised how far humanity has spread from the City. There is far more to the world than what sits in sight of the Burn Line.¡± ¡°A fair assessment, I suppose.¡± Darius had rarely traveled more than a dozen miles from the Burn Line. He enjoyed the creature comforts of the City too much. ¡°If you are sending the children south, do the tunnels go any other direction? East, perhaps?¡± He doubted that west or north would be safe. ¡°Actually,¡± the mayor said with a grim smile, ¡°I have a different task for you three.¡± Darius suddenly had the very strong impression he would prefer to go out to fight the horde with his bare hands. Chapter 49 - Repose When Josh finally got close enough to see the main village, it was already morning. It had taken him a while to get out of the tunnels, and they had dumped him farther to the east than he would have liked. At least he didn''t have to spend the night with a splitting manaburn headache. The second his eyes landed on the village, he knew it was a lost cause. The village was in ruins. Every wall he could see had massive holes rent into it, and smoke rose from burned buildings. Packs of monsters roamed the paths and broken roads. There were a suspicious number of young new trees, the sure sign that monsters had died and the Jungle had claimed their corpses as fertilizer for saplings. In some places, the small trees were as thick as a wall of spears. The fact that the monsters were wandering aimlessly was almost worse evidence than the burning buildings. If there were any humans left, and especially the citystone, the monsters would be swarming thick as flies. A roar shook the world, and several broken buildings collapsed from the sheer force of it. Josh flinched as he saw a great head, the skull alone the size of an eighteen-wheeler truck, rise above the trees and buildings. It looked like a wild boar... if the boar was the size of a small warehouse. Its tusks were so twisted and gnarled that they looked more like the rusty hinge of a broken lock than anything, its teeth were sharp like knives, and even its flat nose snorted with the force of a jet engine. Josh managed to use his Identify skill on it before it fell back below sight.
Porcine Dracobeast. Level ?? Monster. Again, not actually a dragon, just a step or two in the same direction. Think of a dracobeast as to a dragon as a monkey is to a human. Not that it actually matters, because this thing would absolutely annihilate you if it so much as glared at you too harshly. Weaknesses: Lacks wings. And fire breath, but most dracobeasts don''t have breath weapons. That''s not a rule or anything, it''s more that true dragons are the oddity for having breath weapons than the other way around. Anseran Dracobeasts have an ice breath attack. You know, gray geese? Brantan Dracobeasts don''t, though. That''s kind of weird.
Josh had to pause to parse that message for a moment. That was even stranger than usual for the System. He wondered if it was in a mood. He didn''t actually know if that was possible. Regardless, the important thing here was that a monster¡ªa boar, apparently¡ªhad managed to eat enough of the citystone to evolve all the way to dragon-stage. That was both a good thing and a bad thing. On the plus side, it meant that there wouldn''t have been much of the citystone for any other monsters to eat. Instead of a horde of moderately powerful monsters, they just had one massively powerful monster to deal with. On the negative side, Josh couldn''t fight a dracobeast. Not with the simple stone ax he had made, not with the entire town behind him. He might not have been able to manage it ever in his entire life, and certainly not now. He was letting himself get distracted. Letting himself ignore all the other implications of the horde and the broken citystone. If the village was dead, that meant all its defenders had died with it. Josh took a deep breath, hefted his ax again, and continued towards the village. He checked their plot of land first. It was actually mostly intact, which wasn''t a surprise. There hadn''t been anyone there, so the horde wouldn''t have been interested in it. Though they had broken through the palisade and crushed two of the shacks, the stone part of the wall remained intact. That was something. There was a Primate Scavenger in the ruins. It looked like a mutated chimpanzee, but it was hard to tell. He had once seen a gorilla shrink with its evolution into a more stealth-focused track. This one had four arms and some crude wooden weapons, but it died to an [Empty Chop] from his ax. He breathed in the mist of its power, and received a message.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 32 Stonecrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
NEW SPELL LEARNED: Stonesense Aura. Sense all materials within range that you can use for Craft: Stone for as long as this spell is active. Cost: 5 mana (reserved). Depth of sense is influenced by Power, different materials you can sense are influenced by Flexibility, total number of materials you can sense is influenced by Capacity, and range of sense is influenced by Sensitivity.
Well that would have been useful before now. They had wasted a load of time digging down looking for bedrock. He doubted that this would have prevented the fall of the village, but maybe, if he had used it properly, he could have done something. He went to activate the ability, only to receive a System error. He blinked, looked again, then groaned. The aura cost five mana, and he only had five mana. Auras weren''t like normal spells. They required you to put aside a certain amount of mana in reserve, and as long as you had the aura active, the mana was out of reach. His Sensitivity score wouldn''t reduce the cost, but it would increase the range and effectiveness of the aura. You couldn''t reserve enough mana to drop you down to zero, which meant that it was basically useless to him right now. He looked down at his talisman. He could crush it and gain a brief boost, which would put him at 6 Capacity for a time. Then he would be able to use the aura, at least to see what it was like. Would that be a good idea, or would it be too dangerous right now? Before he had much of a chance to think about it, two more monsters wandered through the trees. Josh decided that made the decision for him. He hefted his ax and scanned the enemies. The first was a shambling mobile plant in the vague shape of a boar. It had thorns for tusks, a thick weave of branches for a body, and more branches coming off its back with red fruits that glowed slightly.
Lycopersicum Walker. Level 24 Monster. Yep, this is a walking tomato plant. Normally the farmers would have killed it before it even finished ripping itself out of the ground, but what are you gonna do? Watch out for the fruits. Actually, never mind. It would be funny to see you die from an exploding tomato.
Walking plants were never a threat, except for walking trees. If it was alone, he wouldn''t be worried even if it was level 50. Walkers were always predictable, and he had fought enough of them that he was pretty sure he could kill it in his sleep. The other one was more problematic.
Crotalinae Rattle-Breaker. Level 24 Monster. So, as you''ve probably guessed, this thing used to be an ordinary rattlesnake. It was actually pretty nice, as far as rattlesnakes go, which isn''t much. Normally, rattlesnakes go the stealth and ambush path of evolutions. This guy, however, got dragged into a horde attacking a citystone that some idiots upgraded without thinking through the consequences. It was in a very blunt, straightforward mood when it managed to eat a shard of citystone. Bumped it all the way from level 9 to level 24 in one go, and it went all-in on straight offense. The only good news for you is that it''s not waiting to jump out of the shadows at you.
It looked like an ordinary rattlesnake... except it was thicker than his thigh, longer than a shipping crate, and looked as if it could swallow him whole. It hissed and rattled its tail. It sounded like rocks being shaken around inside a tin can the size of a truck. Josh stared at the snake and the tomato plant for a long moment... before turning around and walking away. He was not in the mood for a difficult fight. Not when the monsters were giving him the option to avoid it. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. He kept his attention on the monsters as he circled around. His ridiculous Perception and Sensitivity worked well for him here. His mundane senses were heightened so that he could see and hear the monsters from farther than should be possible, sorting through the noise and confusion that was normal in the Jungle to focus on what he needed. His magical senses, dim as they were, also let him feel once the monsters had decided to give up on him. He was eight levels above them. Not a huge amount, but when combined with the fact that they were clearly glutted on power that they still needed to process, they were fine with not fighting him. He tried not to think about the fact that they had received that power from the people they had killed in the village. It took Josh a bit to skirt around all the monsters and find his way into the central circle of walls. The dragon was the biggest obstacle. He created a few bloodstones, downed a recovery potion to recover his lost blood, and then threw a rock at the sleeping beast. Once it was awake, it smelled the bloodstones on him, and he led it outside the village. It followed him at a slow pace; his body and his bloodstones were a nice snack for it, but not enough to really rile it up. In fact, he doubted it was actually completely awake at this point. Once he was a good mile outside the village, he buried the bloodstones inside the hollow of a tree and circled around, giving the Porcine Dracobeast a wide berth. It glanced in his direction, but it didn''t see him, so it decided to go after the stationary meal. Josh was free to escape, and all the other monsters had cleared out of the way. This wasn''t the first time he had dealt with monsters too powerful for him. With rare exceptions, all monsters were dumb animals. Learning their patterns wasn''t hard. He ran back to the village and slipped inside the shattered gate. He stopped at the entrance. He stared at the broken remains of the village, feeling as if he was the biggest failure in the world. He had thought leading the dragon off would give him a chance to get some closure. A chance to see something important in the village. Some sign that there had been survivors who escaped. A collapsed escape tunnel, an obvious last stand, maybe even a written message. There was nothing left. There were a few scattered logs, splintered and broken from the palisade. He saw some square stones that might have been the remnants of buildings. The Old World structures were gone entirely, crushed into dust and ground into the dirt. The citystone was, of course, completely gone. Not a single red shard remained. There was nothing in the entire world that monsters desired more than a citystone, because there was nothing in the entire world that gave them more power. There were several places where large amounts of dirt had been scooped up wholesale. Josh thought those were probably where the dragon had taken big bites out of the ground to get up every little piece and grain it might have missed. Most of the bodies were gone as well. Not all of them. A dead human didn''t give a monster any power¡ªat least, not after they had been dead for more than a few minutes. If a monster happened upon a human corpse soon enough, they would devour it in an attempt to consume the last of its leaking power. Flesh, blood, and bones, they''d eat it all. Josh had never gotten an exact count of how many people lived in the village. He thought it was a few hundred, at most. There were only a hundred or so corpses here, at their last stand. They had held their ground, and it had all been for nothing in the end. They had died, and empowered the monsters who killed them. Even if the Dragon Slayers came out to deal with the dracobeast, there was still a plague of elite monsters where no one would expect them. Now this place was going to be impassable for months, if not years. Josh rubbed his forehead, acutely aware of his missing fingers. Were the Dragon Slayers active this early in the year? He doubted that they could fight even a weak, wingless dragon right now. Surely this wasn''t the first time that they had lost a village and gained a dragon before they were ready, though. They had to have some plan. He stopped walking when he found the mayor. Mayor Vashti looked strong and intimidating, even in death. She lay on the ground on her back, her face firm but not pained. She still held both of her swords, even though one of her arms had been torn from her body entirely. Her chest had been ripped open, and the blood surrounded her as if it was some mad parody of a halo. He knelt down next to her, pushing aside his bile and nausea. He had seen worse, smelled worse. As long as he focused on her face, he could pretend nothing else existed. Despite how impossibly pale she looked and cold she felt, she could have been sleeping. He retrieved her second sword and placed it at her side. He carefully closed her eyes, then bowed his head. ¡°May the First Immortal guide you to endless victories,¡± he said, quoting a prayer he had heard but never believed. He had little interest in venerating the Eight, but these people did. ¡°May Saint Obadiah the Rogue use you as a knife to the hearts of the guilty.¡± Josh had met Obadiah exactly twice. He was the one who had encouraged seeing the Eight Heroes as something beyond human, beyond people. Obadiah had meant to make themselves an ideal to strive for, not as gods. He hated the idea of prayers directed at him. But Obadiah wasn''t here, and Josh was in no mood to care. If he was here, none of this would have happened. The First Immortal wasn''t specced for horde combat, but that didn''t matter. He still could have killed half the horde by himself. His ¡°weak¡± abilities were higher-ranked than everyone else''s best. Even if he didn''t have a decent spell or technique to wrangle all the monsters, even if he arrived late and had to face the dragon, he would be able to do that. Killing large, slow single targets was exactly what his class was made for. Josh could do neither. He had failed to save the town, and he would fail to avenge it. Everything he had worked for these past few weeks was gone. He continued forward, looking for more evidence of what he knew was true. He had to see, and he did. He found Samson, the mayor''s bodyguard, not far away from her. He was wearing thick metal armor that he had made himself, but the spear in his hand was something more mundane than the enchanted Pyrolance that he was famous for. Josh didn''t know where it had gone. He was too numb to care. He spoke another prayer, this one to Felicia, the Knight. Samson had been a Knight before he switched classes, so it was even more appropriate. Would these two have survived if they hadn''t used his [Crafter] bloodstone? They were both skilled and on good advancement paths. Mayor Vashti likely would have been an Improved-tier [Attacker], and Samson would have been an Improved-tier [Defender]. How much more could they have done for the town, for themselves, if he hadn''t thrown a wrench into the works? There were more bodies, mostly ones that he didn''t know. He spotted Manny, the podborn innkeeper. He was curled around the broken body of one of his waitresses. He saw the mayor''s driver, sliced in half and buried in rubble. Josh had never learned his name. He found Lydia and Judith surrounded by a ring of monster corpses ten bodies deep. There were crude traps scattered everywhere, bear traps and tripwires and more esoteric things. They had been in a small building, Josh thought, though the walls had been knocked down. Runes were carved into every available surface, including the dirt, and the air still smelled of burned sugar and ozone. Lydia had been advancing quickly as an Enchanter, and Judith had taken to being a Trapmaker with a will. It did not surprise him that they had held their own for so long. As far as he could tell, they only fell due to overwhelming ranged assault. Their bodies were pinned by spikes and spines, shot from beasts and walking plants that couldn''t get close enough without being slaughtered. ¡°May the Eighth Immortal know your names,¡± he whispered. This one wasn''t a prayer. Not quite. Not a prayer to the Heroes, at least. ¡°May the Healer remember you. May she return and heal all those you tried to save.¡± Judith had a daughter, though Josh had never met her. Had she escaped? Mayor Vashti would never have let the children stay behind to be slaughtered, and he hadn''t seen any of them among the corpses yet. There was a roar that shook the trees. Too close. The dragon was coming back. He wanted to stay longer, to see if he could find his friends. He needed to see his friends. He needed to know, or this was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. But he couldn''t afford to face a monster of that sort. Not today. Maybe not this year. Someday, though, he would come back. If the Dragon Slayers didn''t get to it first, he would kill this thing himself. He did not stay for one second longer than he had to. He ran, dreaming of vengeance to distract himself from his pain. He did not notice the message that Mayor Vashti had carved into a wall with her swords. The wall had fallen to the ground, face down, and he had no time to go looking for secrets in these ruins. He did not realize that his friends were still alive, having taken the village children south to safety. Chapter 50 - Epilogue Elizabeth the Healer, the Eighth Immortal who had saved the world, cast one last spell to bring everyone in her party up to full health. She had already fixed the big injuries, but wanted to make sure she didn''t miss anything. Deep in the Jungle-choked ruins of the old American capital, they had found a dragon. Considering that their job was to hunt down the biggest monsters before they could be a threat to the City, that wasn''t a surprise. Monsters evolved into dragons at level 128, so every dragon was a world-ending threat if left alone. This one had scanned as a ¡°Columbidae Dracobeast,¡± whatever that meant, and had been level 135. It had been a big scaly thing with feathered wings, a wicked beak, and swift, sudden attacks. All dragons were difficult fights, but this one wasn''t too bad. After over eighty years of working together, the team was a well-oiled machine, and they had taken it down. Sure, Felicia got her guts ripped out at one point and Felix lost an arm, but that was why Elizabeth was here. Sapphira managed to cover them with her shroud long enough for Elizabeth to put them back together. No, the problem wasn''t the fight. The problem was that they hadn''t been looking for a dragon. They had been here looking for a bloodvault. Blowing up threats to the City was only half their job. As the only people who could explore the world somewhat safely, they had to search for solutions. The world was growing more and more dangerous, while the human race was still resetting with every year. It was the same situation they had been in before they defeated the Tower, but worse. Obadiah pushed past the corpse of the dragon without a second glance, and Elizabeth followed. This place had once been some sort of government building. The dragon had ripped the roof off, or maybe that had been the result of time and weather. There was little left inside but splinters and detritus, all pushed to the walls by the dragon''s bulk. It had fit inside the building like a cat in a shoebox; not too big to fit, but not so small that it could explore. In a corner of the floor, there was a stairway down, flooded with broken chairs and desks. Obadiah called over Solomon, who used his summons to clear the way. Any one of them, including Elizabeth, had put enough points in their Strength score to shift the rubble. But Solomon was faster. He was an elementalist summoner these days¡ªElizabeth didn''t remember the exact name of the class¡ªand used gravity elementals to lift everything away. Solomon dismissed his summons. The eight of them descended into the bloodvault without a word. There were warnings on the walls in a dozen languages, citing a hundred laws from a dead government. They promised immediate execution for breaching the vault for anything less than an emergency. Elizabeth saw one that explicitly said that any unauthorized access to the vault would be subject to immediate and direct interrogation by a congressional review board. When the Tower had first arrived with the Jungle, every living human above the age of eight years old had received access to the System. Unlike later years, after the resets, everyone also received a class that first day, starting at level 1. Of the eight billion people in the world, a few hundred thousand unique classes had been assigned. Maybe as high as a million. No one knew for sure. While the System had given instructions on how to create bloodstones, not everyone had paid attention. Many classes were lost with the first reset, and more over the following years, as the world was slowly choked more and more by the Jungle. Most of the surviving governments realized that something needed to be done. So, the bloodvaults were created. Repositories of every bloodstone a government could get their hands on. In the early days, the nations fought over especially valuable stones, but by the end they had finally started sharing what they had and what they knew. Every bloodvault should have copies of everything the world had access to at the end. The door to the vault, a massive circular door of the sort you''d find in a bank, had been broken. Kicked into the vault as easily as if it was a pull-away tab on a tin can. Tyrus summoned an orb of light and sent it in ahead of them. The Eight Immortals stepped inside the vault to find rows upon rows of empty shelves. Elizabeth could tell at a glance that there had been at least a few hundred different types of bloodstones stored here, with eight copies of every one. They were arranged in the standard pattern: [Combat] stones to the left, [Utility] stones to the right. The [Combat] stones were then split into [Attackers], [Defenders], [Healers], and [Tamers]. The [Utility] stones were split into [Crafters], [Gatherers], [Scholars], and [Explorers]. Every individual shelf was labeled, with a place for a box that could hold eight bloodstones. There were also books with plastic pages chained to each section, which she knew would explain every individual class in more detail, including what was known of its level progression. Most of the shelves were smashed. Not as bad as upstairs, but something large had clearly come through without any care to keep the place intact. Glass cases were shattered, and the glittering dust under their feet crunched. Parts of the metal walls were scratched, as if something had tried to dig its way out. There was supposed to be a computer on a pillar in the center of the room, but that was gone too. Elizabeth guessed that it had been smashed by the monster as it scrambled around the room, looking for its prizes. Bloodstones gave monsters experience when eaten. No one knew the exact amount, because humans didn''t gain any such benefit, but the theory was that it was a percentage, or perhaps a percentage in addition to a flat amount. They hunted down the stones wherever they could. The stones in this vault could have turned any random Jungle-touched animal into a dragon. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Elizabeth stepped over to the [Explorer] display. The first intact label she saw was for the Runner class. Elizabeth knew that class. She had spent time as that class before, though not on her current build. She thought Obadiah might have some Runner in him, to supplement his Rogue build. Runners had been a popular class, because the speed they granted synergized well with many combat classes. At higher levels, Runners could dodge bullets. They could jump a hundred feet in a single bound. If they really knew what they were doing, they could even learn spells to extend their speed to others. They were also an important building block for some important higher-tier classes. Most classes based around teleportation had a Runner somewhere in their advancement tree. Runners would have made excellent scouts, not to mention led to the actual Scout class. If they had a Runner bloodstone, they could have extended the influence of the City. They could have a better messenger service. They could move supplies through the outlying villages more easily. She stepped over to the [Gatherer] display. She looked around for a specific class, and soon found it. The Farmer class. Even a low-level Farmer could harvest an entire field in a fraction of the time it would take for a mundane laborer. At higher levels, they could just wave their hands and take everything into their inventory at once. Not to mention that the class was useful in planting the crops in the first place, and was key to more advanced classes that could grow an entire field in the space of an afternoon. She had never seen that combined with the growth of the Jungle, but she was sure it would be impressive. There were no stones left. Not so much as a single drop of blood. The monster had gorged itself. Such a waste. Such a bloody waste. Some part of Elizabeth, the part that had enjoyed fighting a dragon and actually earning a reasonable amount of experience for once, was even more angry because the specific stones hadn''t mattered. The monster could have eaten ten thousand Mage bloodstones or ten thousand Knight bloodstones and gained the exact same benefit. It hadn''t needed to eat unique and irreplaceable bloodstones. Such a waste. Suddenly a notification came in. The world quest that had been blaring for the last month or so. Elizabeth sighed, double-checked that nothing had changed, and dismissed the notification. ¡°Do we have time to go back and yell at Jonah for this?¡± Felicia boomed. Her voice always boomed. ¡°He should be able to get his shit together! It''s been a year!¡± ¡°It''s been a month,¡± Tyrus said gently. Then he frowned. ¡°Though it is odd that it''s taking so long. And since a unique bloodstone is involved, perhaps we should intervene.¡± ¡°Our route will take us back that way early next year,¡± Tahpenes said. She was usually the one with the maps. She checked her phone. ¡°Yeah, just after the solstice. If Jonah hasn''t fixed everything by then, we can step in.¡± Felix crossed his arms over his chest, the shield on his back rattling. ¡°If we wait until the reset, there''s a chance that we''ll lose a Crafter bloodstone.¡± He waved a hand around the empty vault. ¡°Do you really want to risk more of this?¡± ¡°Jonah knows to call us if he needs us,¡± Obadiah said. ¡°He''s never been shy about asking for help. His own daughter is involved, he''s not going to mess around. If he doesn''t need us, he doesn''t need us.¡± Sapphira gave an impressive snort. ¡°I''m not sure I trust that kid to be objective when his daughter is involved.¡± She sighed. ¡°Poor girl. She gets a new bloodstone, and it''s even more non-combat than before.¡± She shook her head. ¡°I knew I should have slipped her a few Shrouder stones.¡± Elizabeth ignored the byplay. This was not new. They had some variant of this discussion every time the world quest notification appeared. Personally, she had faith in Jonah''s pragmatism, if not his restraint or mercy. In all honesty, they should go back and untangle whatever mess he had gotten embroiled in. Eventually, they would, one way or another. But right now, they had more work to do. ¡°We can''t wag off this,¡± she said. ¡°We don''t have time to worry about some mad operative off his rocker. Where''s our next go at?¡± ¡°Uh...¡± Tahpenes checked her maps again. ¡°Up north a bit.¡± She paused. ¡°Walter Reed Medical Center. It''s an Army base.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Elizabeth gripped her staff tighter. ¡°Let''s get this done, and forget about that daft quest.¡± She felt for the poor kidnapped girl, it was true. But if this Hundredborn boy knew what was good for him, he''d give her up and throw himself on Jonah''s mercy. That''s what she would have done. If, by the time they finally made their way back to the City, he hadn''t given up the girl, well. Elizabeth was known as the Healer. Mender had been her first class for this build, and [Healer] was the current role she played. She was unquestionably the greatest healer in the world, in absolutely every sense of the word. But she had more than [Healers] in her build. She had Warlocks and Poisoners and even a few levels of Necromancer. She could curse someone with ever-burning flames, strike them with disease, and if she was in a really bad mood she could animate their own blood to tear them apart from the inside. Elizabeth liked Ruth Moore. If she wasn''t already safe and sound by the time she found her, Elizabeth wasn''t asking any questions. She''d nuke the boy from orbit and sort through the mess later. Walking out of the charred remains of the dragon''s nest, she knew that she didn''t have any other choice. Being one of the Eight Immortals meant striking swiftly, striking surely, and striking mercilessly. Dragons deserved no pity. Interlude 1.1 - Hibernation Pods Hibernation Pods and Growth Pods All right, you little shits, listen up. It seems like some of you weren''t paying enough attention in school, and people keep asking why they can''t use ¡°the pods¡± to skip the reset. Some of you idiots apparently joined the military because you thought that would get you a spot in line. That''s completely wrong, and you''ve all gotten annoying enough that we''ve agreed to explain it again. I got elected because of a bunch of stupid reasons. I lost a bet. Not important. I''ll start from the beginning. By the time of the Last Raid, the entire planet was covered by the Jungle. Completely. You think it''s bad now? It used to be worse. So much worse. Now, the Jungle is quiet. Resting. It used to be that you could see the vines reaching forward, minute by minute. More trees were monsters than not. And fire? Fire just pissed the Jungle off. The point is, when a few hundred idiots ran into the final boss floor at the top of the Tower, all that was left of the human race was clustered around the base of the Tower. There were a few thousand of them, I think. Maybe more, but definitely not as high as a million. Things were looking grim, even if everything went perfectly. Well, it didn''t go perfectly. Only eight of us survived the boss fight. We wished to be immortal because it seemed like the best of a bunch of bad options. We figured out that it would make us immune to the solstice reset. We thought that if there were eight immortals guiding everyone, we had a real chance of reclaiming the world. The problem was, when we came out of the Tower, we found everyone dead. EVERYONE. There was, and I cannot emphasize this enough, not one single human soul still alive on the planet besides us. I''m going to be honest, I thought that was the end right there. Four men and four women can''t repopulate the human race. It''s just not possible. The gene pool would be too small to do anything but stave off crippling inbreeding for a handful of generations. Tyrus showed me the math once. It wasn''t pretty. Credit where it''s due: Elizabeth the Healer was the one who found the answer. Now, the rest of us are what you''d now call naturalborn. Born from two parents doing things the old-fashioned way. Elizabeth, though, was one of the first podborn. See, thirty or so years before that, a famous Crafter usually just known as the Mechanist invented this new thing people called a ¡°growth pod.¡± It was a non-magical device that could grow a full baby from DNA samples. One sample, two, or as many as you felt like mixing together. The ¡°Mechanist Cradle¡± was a huge hit. People used them for all sorts of reasons. Because they couldn''t have babies naturally, because they didn''t have time to be pregnant with the whole death of civilization going on, whatever. Elizabeth knew that the Mechanist had stashed a bunch of his pods in the camps around the base of the Tower. He went up to the Final Raid with us, but he died there. God, I didn''t even see how it happened. ... Uh, anyway. We found his growth pods, and used those to grow the next couple generations of humanity. After all, there were a lot of DNA samples to find among the ruins. The pods will accept basically anything, and it doesn''t even have to be fresh. As long as it''s human and not too degraded, it will produce a baby. Oh, and to correct that old myth: No, the first generation were not clones of all our dead friends. Leaving aside that we couldn''t find enough pieces of most of our friends to clone them in the first place, we decided not to use the cloning function of the pods. Every podborn is the child of at least two DNA samples, no exceptions. Now that we''re well above replacement levels, the pods aren''t entirely necessary. They could be shut down without impacting population percentages by more than a blip. We keep them around out of tradition, and switch off use. One year the pods make a hundred brand-new people made from random DNA samples from dead people. The next year, the pods are rented to parents who can''t have children of their own. Same as before. Stolen story; please report. I know what you''re thinking. ¡°Oh, Felicia, you didn''t mention anything about the pods interacting with the reset!¡± That''s because these pods, the Mechanist''s Cradles, do not interact with the reset. At all. Can''t emphasize that enough. There''s always some idiot who thinks if he hides in a pod during the reset, he can dodge it. Nope, not possible, that''s not how it works. However, the Mechanist did make other pods. Called ¡°hibernation pods,¡± or ¡°solstice pods,¡± these are the things that finally saved the world. Remember, the reset isn''t new. It was there from the very start. Now, in the beginning it wasn''t a big deal. This was before my time, but in the first few years, monsters were spawning below level 8. They were dangerous, sure, but the threat seemed mostly contained to the area immediately around the Tower, and the dungeons. Which were also much more rare, and universally low-level. Most of you probably haven''t even seen a monster below level 8. Well, it''s just a couple steps up from harmless. It''s basically as strong as a normal animal, just more aggressive. Don''t get me wrong, a level 7 rabbit monster can absolutely kill someone. But it doesn''t have spikes or spines or fire jets yet. So it was pretty easy to keep ahead of the monsters, in the first few years. There were countless citystones scattered around, so quests were plentiful. Experience flowed easily, monsters were rare, and you could go the entire year without seeing one. But the dungeons kept popping up, the monsters kept spilling out at the end of every year, and the Jungle just kept growing. The magic got thicker and thicker, and the monsters got stronger and stronger. I''m not going to go over the full history of the fall of the human race. You should have learned it in school, anyway. But around the time level 40 monsters were becoming common¡ªwhich, not coincidentally, is around the point where mundane weapons are pretty much universally useless against them¡ªpeople realized they needed to find a way around the reset. It was becoming harder and harder to keep up the levels, even with the quests. I don''t know how many people tried to find a way around it. God, plenty of them probably had better ideas than the Mechanist. Ways to become completely immune to it, like me and the other Eight Immortals are now. The Mechanist''s idea was a simple loophole, based on the exact wording of the System announcement. His theory was that, if you could somehow dodge the day of the reset, then you could dodge the reset itself. The hibernation pods were kind of a hilarious answer to that question, honestly. Those things can operate for a thousand years. Put someone inside, they''ll wake up right as rain a millennium later. Except, of course, no one needed to sleep for a millennium. Just for a little over twenty-four hours, to sleep through one specific day. The hibernation pods weren''t anything like the growth pods. These were a completely different technology, and in fact were full-on magitech. Without the System''s assistance we have absolutely no idea how to make more of them. We have one, exactly one, hibernation pod still functional. We''ve been studying it non-stop in the hopes of finding a way to replicate it without a Crafter class. See, the problem with magitech is that, like most magic, it has a cost. This used to be common knowledge, when there were Enchanters on every street corner convinced that they had made a perpetual motion engine. The short version is that each hibernation pod can only be used once. Then it has to be re-enchanted. They worked perfectly. Even considering how expensive they were, the Mechanist made as many as he possibly could, and they were worth every penny. It helped that they were cheaper to re-enchant than to build from scratch. We used them as much as possible, building up levels over multiple years until we were strong enough to fight even on the highest levels of the Tower. I was level 128 when we went into the Last Raid. Most of us were about that level. Even in the Tower, it was hard to find enemies of a high enough level to gain real experience at that point. One of the things we hunt for, out in the Jungle when we''re blowing up dragons, is more hibernation pods. The Mechanist made a lot of the damn things, after all. We''ve found a lot of used ones, and a lot of dead ones. We''ve never found a live one. Tyrus says it''s a fool''s errand. That without a human inside them, or at least interacting with them, the magic will fade after a year or so. Same with any other magic item. Still, hope springs eternal. I know Elizabeth thinks we''ll find one with a person inside. Maybe someone who can make a bloodstone that will change things. I think she''s crazy, but then I thought she was crazy when she recruited me to the Last Raid, too. Got it? Now stop bothering us about this. ¨C Recorded speech of Felicia the Knight, the Fourth Immortal, to a barracks of City military trainees, year 32 After Fall Interlude 1.2 - Elements A Primer on Elements, Tiers, and What Both Mean When the System appeared with the Tower, one of the first things that was discovered about magic is that it is separated into a number of discrete elements. On a related note, the System very often groups items or concepts into distinct tiers of power. We will discuss both here, in this primer. We will start with tiers, as the concept is easier to understand. In order, the tiers are Basic, Improved, Exemplary, Master, Iconic, Legendary, Fabled, and Mythic. It is often said that lower tiers are ¡°weaker¡± and higher tiers are ¡°stronger,¡± but that is a gross oversimplification. Classes are famously separated into tiers, for example, but a Basic-tier class does not automatically lose to an Improved-tier class. Likewise, higher-tier elements are not actually superior to the lower tiers. However, higher tiers do require more mana, which correspondingly makes them more powerful by default. There are numerous ways to add more mana to lower-tier elements, which can bring them up to the same power level. There is also ¡°colorless magic,¡± the normal magic that we are all born with. It is a good generic power source for most magic items, but quickly loses out in specialization. The Basic-tier elements are defined by the System as Geo, Hydro, Anemo, and Pyro. These can be easily translated as Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, though they are slightly more complicated than that. The Improved-tier elements are Spiros, Hemos, Luxos, and Noxos. Spirit, Blood, Light, and Dark. The eight Exemplary-tier elements are all combinations of two Basic-tier elements. Cryo (ice) is earth and water, Vareo (gravity) is earth and air, Sidero (metal) is earth and fire, Kairo (storm) is water and air, Ecro (explosion) is water and fire, and Electro (lightning) is air and fire. The last two elements are Katasto (destruction), which is the ¡°none¡± element of the tier, and Dimio (creation), which is all four Basic-tier elements combined. The eight Master-tier elements are all combinations of two Improved-tier elements. Mensos (mind) is spirit and blood, Tempos (time) is spirit and light, Caelos (space) is spirit and dark, Vitos (life) is blood and light, Morsos (death) is blood and dark, and Astros (star) is light and dark. The last two elements are Albos (null), which is the ¡°none¡± element of the tier, and Atos (binding), which is all four Improved-tier elements combined. We do not know of any elements past Master-tier. Following the pattern, we can assume that Iconic-tier elements are combinations of Exemplary-tier elements, and Legendary-tier elements are combinations of Master-tier elements, and so on. However, this has never been proven. It is possible that the elements simply top out at Master-tier. Some parts of the System seem to operate in this manner. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. You may have noticed some patterns with the System names, as well as oddities in the translated names. Philosophers have spent years puzzling over the exact meaning behind the names, languages of origin, and so forth. That''s not why I''m here. Spells, classes, monsters, magic items, and dungeons can all have specific elemental affinities. Spells are by far the most common, and simple for any magic-type class to learn. The Mage class starts with the [Energy Bolt] spell, which can be used to learn any Basic-tier elemental version of the spell with relative ease. Famously, it typically only requires casting the spell through a fire a few times before earning the [Pyro Bolt] spell. Most Mages learn it by accident. Elemental classes are less common, and not always popular. Earning them is simple: Learn a number of the proper elemental spells. However, elemental classes tend to overspecialize. While, for example, a Pyro Artilleryman is a very powerful offensive fire specialist, they will find it almost impossible to learn anything besides fire spells. Furthermore, that class specifically emphasizes overwhelming force above all else. The lesser Pyrourge class is a common sight among reclaimers and anyone else working on the far side of the Burn Line, however, as it is considered efficient without sacrificing much flexibility. Elemental monsters are actually rather rare, but extremely famous. We are still unclear if there is some specific reason a monster might evolve into an elemental form, or if they are given the option at random and sometimes they choose it. Even Tamers have had little success finding the answer with their own monster minions. Regardless, elemental monsters are extremely dangerous, though they also tend to be more valuable for the creation of magical items and potions. It is also important to remember that elemental monsters do not have some sort of simple, automatic weakness to opposing elements. A Pyro Porcine Plunderer (yes, that is a real monster) will not be unduly harmed by Hydro or Cryo magic. Magic items, both official System-approved items created by one of the lost [Crafter] classes and the simpler variety that we create now, quite often have elemental effects. Rather notably, upon completing and closing a dungeon the party will be awarded rift crystals, which are always of a seemingly random elemental composition. Rift crystals have their uses in crafting, even without actual [Crafter] classes, but they are needed more often to advance to Exemplary-tier classes. Finally, dungeons can have elemental affinities as well. These are surprisingly rare, and my research implies that it has more to do with the nature of the rift that the dungeon was created around than anything else. The nature of the rift, unfortunately, is difficult to predict ahead of time. A rift on a beach can have a Pyro affinity, a rift at the top of a ruined skyscraper can have a Geo affinity. I suspect they are heavily influenced, if not entirely determined, by whatever lies on the other side of the rift. Regardless, most dungeons do not have an element; I believe only one in sixteen do. Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain accurate data, because many dungeon delvers do not understand how to differentiate different dungeon elements. Many assume that elemental rift crystals can only come from the matching elemental dungeons, which is simply incorrect. These are all important facts to keep in mind when planning out your own class advancement path for the year. Do you want a more common element, like Pyro, which is well-known with many spells available to learn? It''s an easy path to power, but you will face much competition. Do you want a less common element, like Spiros, which is poorly understood? It doesn''t take much to stand out from the pack there, but then again many have tried before and achieved nothing notable. You can even attempt to find a multi-elemental class, such as the Pyroclastic Mage, which is always powerful. But it''s difficult to gain and harder to master, especially in just one year. As this is merely a primer, I offer no conclusions here. For a more in-depth analysis, I invite you to read my papers on each individual element. Most of these will focus on [Attacker] and [Defender] classes, but I encourage you to look over the details of the elemental [Healer] and [Tamer] classes that we have access to. The Hemos Vampiric Mender is a fascinating Exemplary-tier [Healer] class, and the Firesong Skald a truly unique Improved-tier [Tamer] class (although the path to it is too complicated to be practical in most circumstances). Good luck, and good hunting. ¨C Victor Tenborn, year 27 After Fall Interlude 1.3 - Roles A Primer on Classes, Roles, and What Both Mean The System that came with the Tower is a deceptively complex one, and many people make mistaken assumptions due to a similarity in terms. In our modern world, these mistakes can lead to death, or at the very least wasted time and levels. This primer, therefore, is meant to explain the basics of the System in easy to understand terms. It is my hope that nothing here will be a surprise. I look forward to receiving many complaint letters about how I wasted everyone''s time explaining things that everyone already knew. Class: This is the framework upon which we advance in power and skill. At every 8 levels (starting at level 8), you reach an ¡°advancement,¡± whereupon you may use a bloodstone to modify your existing class. If you do not have a class yet, you will simply gain the class of the bloodstone. However, if you do have a class already, then the bloodstone will allow you to change to a new class, one that is not strictly connected to your existing class or the bloodstone. Role: This is the framework upon which classes themselves rest. In short, the point of a role is to tell you the purpose of a class. Mage, for example, is a class of the [Attacker] role. It is designed for dealing damage. That means that any time a Mage deals damage in combat, they will receive experience. Further, every [Attacker] class begins with a similar (though not identical) spread of abilities. There are eight roles, split between four combat roles and four utility roles. Combat Roles: Due to the fall of humanity leading up to the Last Raid, we now only have access to the four combat roles. These are: [Attacker], [Defender], [Healer], and [Tamer]. Attacker: The role for attacking enemies. Any action which deals damage will grant experience; a tiny amount in training, a small amount against humans in real combat, and a slightly larger amount against monsters in real combat. All [Attackers] gain two active offensive abilities, and one passive skill on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Rogue gains the [Backstab] and [Dodge] techniques, along with the [Stealth] skill. The Mage gains the [Energy Bolt] and [Forceful Push] spells, along with the [Arcane Manipulation] skill. Defender: The role for defending allies. Any action which prevents damage will grant experience; a tiny amount in training, a small amount against humans in real combat, and a slightly larger amount against monsters in real combat. All [Defenders] gain one active defensive ability, one taunt ability, and one passive skill on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Knight gains the [Intercept Blow] and [Challenge Champion] techniques, along with the [Armor Mastery] skill. The Shielder gains the [Cover Ally] and [Engaging Roar] techniques, along with the [Shield Mastery] skill. Healer: The role for healing allies. Any action which cures damage will grant experience; a tiny amount in training, a small amount against humans in real combat, and a slightly larger amount against monsters in real combat. All [Healers] gain one active healing ability, one active other support ability, and one passive skill on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Mender gains the [Least Heal] and [Light Orb] spells, along with the [Anatomy] skill. The Priest (although we no longer have the bloodstone for that class) gains the [Least Heal] and [Invigorate] spells, along with the [Staff Mastery] skill. Note the spell overlap. Tamer: The role for controlling others. Any action which controls others will grant experience. A tiny amount from giving orders to an existing minion during real combat against humans, a small amount from giving orders to an existing minion during real combat against monsters, a slightly larger amount from temporarily taming a minion, and a larger amount from permanently taming a minion. All [Tamers] gain one active command, one taming ability, and one slot for a permanent minion on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Beastmaster gains the [Beast Pounce] and [Tame Beast] techniques, along with one minion slot. The Bard (although we no longer have a bloodstone for that class) gains the [Inspire Courage] and [Enchanting Song] spells, along with one minion slot; Bards gain skills at later levels based on swapping minions out of their ¡°permanent¡± slot on a regular basis. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Utility Roles: Due to the fall of humanity leading up to the Last Raid, we have completely lost all Utility classes. The four Utility roles are included here only for the sake of completeness. These are: [Crafter], [Gatherer], [Scholar], and [Explorer]. Crafter: The role for creating items. Any action that creates, repairs, or significantly shapes an item will grant experience. Unlike [Combat] classes, there is no difference from doing this in or out of combat. All [Crafters] gain two crafting techniques or spells, and a skill for the material they can work with on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Smith gains the [Hands-Free Crafting] and [Instant Crafting] spells, as well as the [Forge Use] skill. The Alchemist gains the [Mix Ingredients] and [Analyze Composition] spells, as well as the [Potion Making] skill. Gatherer: The role for collecting items. Any action that grows a resource or moves an item to the Gatherer''s inventory for the first time will grant experience. Unlike [Combat] classes, there is no difference from doing this in or out of combat. All [Gatherers] gain one ability to either pick up specific types of items at range or influence a resource, one ability to highlight specific items, and a skill granting a personal inventory on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Farmer gains the [Collect Plants] spell and [Identify Plants] technique, as well as the [Personal Inventory] skill. The Miner gains the [Collect Ore] spell and [Identify Stone] technique, as well as the [Personal Inventory] skill. Scholar: The role for gaining knowledge. Any action that acquires new knowledge will grant experience. This means either acquiring a physical representation of knowledge (such as a book), or writing down some new piece of knowledge that they have received. The System takes the Scholar''s own abilities and knowledge into account; hunting down the code to a safe will grant more experience than being told that code. Unlike [Combat] classes, there is no difference from doing this in or out of combat. All [Scholars] gain one ability to project or highlight information in some fashion, one ability to write or record information, and an eidetic memory skill on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Diplomat gains the [Display Speech] spell and the [Record Speech] technique, as well as the [Mental Whiteboard] skill. The Reader gains the [Speed Writing] technique and the [Spot Book] spell, as well as the [Mental Bookshelf] skill. Explorer: The role for finding locations. Any action that directly leads to finding a new location will grant experience. More secret and hidden locations will grant more experience. The System takes the Explorer''s own abilities and knowledge into account; searching for the hidden room in a manor will grant more experience than finding it on a map. Unlike [Combat] classes, there is no difference from doing this in or out of combat. All [Explorers] gain one mobility ability, one sensory ability, and a mapping skill (which opens up a minimap on the System interface) on first taking a class of this role. For example, the Runner gains the [Sprint] technique and the [Spot Path] technique, as well as the [Automap] skill. The Scout gains the [Dodge] technique and the [Spot Hostiles] spell, as well as the [Automap] skill. That is a reasonable summary of classes and roles, and I hope it will clear up some of the misunderstandings that have been cropping up. My next primer will prioritize the eight foundational classes that we still have access to, and their most common advancement paths. ¨C Victor Tenborn, year 44 After Fall Interlude 1.4 - Villages A Report on the Failure Rates of Villages Outside City Protection As ordered by my superiors in the Village Planning Commission, duly appointed by the elected representatives on the City Council, I present here my report on settlement sustainability. I will begin with a summary of my findings: Villages outside the Burn Line have a one in four chance of surviving their first year. Villages outside the Burn Line which possess a citystone have a one in two chance of surviving their first year. These rates improve slightly, but not significantly, in each successive year. Overwhelmingly, villages are most likely to be destroyed within four days of the reset. The reasons for this are obvious; with everyone suddenly stripped of their levels and desperate to regain their power, they end up taking unnecessary risks and attracting monsters too powerful to handle. The second most likely time for a village to be destroyed is on the day before the reset, but that is a distant second. Despite the monster attacks and suddenly emptying dungeons, these are threats that people are acquainted with and prepared for. Citystones help with this in two ways. First, providing quests is a way to reach safe levels without directly engaging monsters. Second, they attract more people to the village. The data shows that larger villages are less likely to suffer serious disasters, more likely to survive disasters, and quicker to recover. Full details are in the attached file. However, it is possible that this is survivorship bias, and only the well-organized villages survive long enough to attract more residents. Unfortunately, citystones have one serious side effect: As any monster that eats a sliver of a citystone will advance in levels very quickly, a village with a citystone that falls will likely leave the area uninhabitable for years if immediate action is not taken to clear out the monsters. Various mercenary and public service organizations have gained recognition for cleaning out dead towns of overpowered monsters. Furthermore, as noted above, a village''s survival rate does not significantly improve past the first year. Of villages with citystones that survive their first year, only sixty percent survive their second. Of course, only sixty-one percent survive their third. In fact, the record for a village surviving outside of the Burn Line (not counting villages which were overtaken as the Burn Line expanded) is seventeen years. Lexington Reservoir used a combination of mountainous terrain, a rigorous training program, and their natural water supply to survive. In fact, even after the village was destroyed, it was re-established just two years later, and has survived three years since. This is indicative of the broader trend, however. Villages die on a disturbingly regular basis, and are then replaced with villages of the same or similar names taking advantage of the same resources or terrain features. Therefore, many people are under the impression that villages survive much longer than they actually do. Stolen novel; please report. When a village falls, the number of survivors that reach civilization is rarely higher than ten percent. The farther the village is out into the depths of the Jungle, the lower that percentage. Unfortunately, the farther out a village is, the spottier our records are. I cannot accurately state any statistics for any of the farther villages. Longitudinal studies confirm that village survival rates are falling noticeably as time progresses. While of course villages inside the Burn Line remain for the most part perfectly safe, the rising monster levels are making it less and less safe on the outside. If world mana density continues at the current rate, then I suspect that villages will be unsustainable outside the Burn Line within forty years. What effect this will have on our survival as a species, I am unclear. I admit that I am tempted to dismiss the problem. As long as the Burn Line keeps expanding, then the outside villages are less important. We only need a small number of farms in the Jungle to produce food, and we can use temporary outposts to claim factories, mines, and other valuable materiel outside the Burn Line. However, the villages provide more than just raw resources. The ability for people to live past the Burn Line is more important than it seems at first glance. Yes, we could comfortably increase population density inside the City without much difficulty, as well as simply building further high-density structures such as the starscrapers. However, the more people who are concentrated in a single location, the greater the risk of failure. Abigail Amasa''s excellent book, The Last City and the Second Extinction, details how having a single point of failure for the entire human race could be disastrous. Not only does having more people outside the City increase the chance of survival in the face of a cataclysmic event, but having the option for cultural rebels (and even literal rebels) to escape is an important safety valve for our culture. It was Solomon the Tamer who once flippantly claimed that all reclaimers are former criminals. I do not argue the precise statistics of that claim, but it is a well-known fact that reclaimers tend to be the kind of people who cannot fit in among the City for whatever reason. I mention this to clarify that, despite the somber statistics of villages outside the Burn Line, I truly believe that they are important and necessary for our healthy society. Expanding more is something that should be encouraged, not discouraged. Allowing those with differing opinions to find a place where they can differ must surely reduce civil unrest. The City''s crime rates are notably lower than were ever recorded in this area pre-Fall. In conclusion, despite the expansion of the Burn Line and the increase in population, our current civilization is not sustainable. If something does not change, then we will suffer a serious, perhaps permanent collapse within just a few decades. ¨C An excerpt from a report by Victor Tenborn, year 73 After Fall (specially requested by the Eight Immortals for personal review) Interlude 1.5 - The Eight Immortals Introduction pamphlet to the Church of the Eight Saints Welcome, new seeker! We are always happy to have anyone come to realize the glory and wisdom of the Eight Immortals. While of course everyone in the world acknowledges the power and skill of the Heroes, only those who truly understand them as Saints flock to our doors. If you are reading this pamphlet, then hopefully you are one of those devoted few. So much of the Heroes is buried under rumor and hearsay. Therefore, I like to get started with a quick primer to make sure that everyone is on the same page! Long ago, the Jungle was choking the entire world. All of humanity was reduced to a single encampment, around the mighty Tower. The greatest heroes of the age challenged the Tower one last time. Through hard work and impossible sacrifice, they succeeded, only the eight greatest surviving. These survivors were given a reward for their strength and victory: A single wish that they must all agree on. They could have wished for anything. They could have ascended from our broken world, living in the heavens. They could have wished for an endless army of servants who would obey their every whim. Instead, they wished for the ability to serve the world forever, so that their people may be safe. It is that act of sacrifice which proved them to be saints worthy of our respect and adoration. This is the part of our doctrine that many people misunderstand. The Eight Immortals are not divine. They are not gods or demigods. They are saints, blessings given to us by a higher power. They are here to serve the world, not the other way around. This is not a matter of doctrinal debate. Every one of the Eight is very firm on this point when asked. They have plenty of disagreements, but this is not one of them. Many people think of the Saints as gods. They act as though they created the world themselves. I am sure you have all heard such things. Wondering why the Saints set up the System the way they did, or why they created the Jungle. The answer, of course, is that they did nothing of the sort. The Saints are simply people, fighting just like the rest of us. We must never forget that. As everyone knows, there are Eight Saints, who gave us the eight bloodstones we still have today. They are the mothers and fathers of our current world, the ones who carried us out of the cradles and trusted us to make the world a better place. Upon joining the church, many new seekers choose a single Saint as their patron. A single ideal to strive for, rather than trying to balance all eight at once. We have found that this method produces a more focused, clear path. Obadiah the Rogue, the First Immortal, Saint of Trust. It was the Rogue who helped found this Church, not as a method of control but as a method of service. Here is where people can find tasks to donate their time, charity to improve the lives of others as well as their own. His greatest virtue is trust in others, trust in their skill and morality. Tahpenes the Archer, the Second Immortal, Saint of Foresight. It was the Archer who planned the first streets of the City, who foresaw the need for a vast metropolis at the heart of the world. She is the one who taught us how to look forward and plan in decades, not years. Her greatest virtue is looking ahead, to shoot where the target will be. Tyrus the Mage, the Third Immortal, Saint of Knowledge. Where the Rogue and the Healer planned to tend to the souls and bodies of the people, the Mage built schools and libraries. He wishes for nothing more than for us to learn and improve our minds. His greatest virtue is the seeking of new knowledge. Felicia the Knight, the Fourth Immortal, Saint of Resolve. While we no longer have Crafter classes, the Knight encouraged us to re-learn how to build without the help of the system. Through her teachings, not only did we develop armor and weapons again, but also the great starscrapers and walls of our City. Her greatest virtue is self-reliance. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Felix the Shielder, the Fifth Immortal, Saint of Determination. In this new world, humanity is surrounded on all sides by monsters. The Shielder teaches us to defend ourselves, to hold a shield between us and the threats. He pioneered the Burn Line, a shield to constantly push out against the dangers of the Jungle. His greatest virtue is survival. Sapphira the Shrouder, the Sixth Immortal, Saint of Empathy. History tells us that it was the Shrouder who helped most of all in raising the first generation of the new humanity. She teaches the value of community, and of working together without exclusion. Her greatest virtue is compassion. Solomon the Tamer, the Seventh Immortal, Saint of Nature. None of us have ever known a world before the Jungle, a world where there was no danger of the very plants attacking. The Tamer teaches the value of the natural world that was lost, and insists on the inclusion of parks and forests inside the walls of the City. His greatest virtue is respect for nature and that which humankind has not touched. Elizabeth the Healer, the Eighth Immortal, Saint of Life. It should be no surprise that the Healer is the patron of more hospitals than anyone can count. She was also the Saint who originally found and used the Mechanist''s Cradles, from which all of the new humanity sprung. She is the ideal doctor, surgeon, nurse, and Mender. Not only does she sponsor houses of healing, but whenever the Eight Immortals return from their wanderings, she attends lectures on the latest medical techniques. There is nothing that she values more than life itself, in all its beautiful forms. Together, the Eight Heroes are the defenders of humanity. They fly across the world, burning out monsters and searching for treasures that might help us in the endless fight. They deserve our gratitude and our love for the sacrifices they make for us every day. Of course, we cannot literally spend all our time in praise of the Eight Saints. We all have our work to do, and if we abandon that in favor of empty worship, we are disrespecting everything they have sacrificed for us. In the Church, most of our time is spent in service to the people. The exceptions are the Hero Days, when we celebrate the birth of each Saint in turn. Unlike most in the City, the Church prefers to spend these days in contemplation and veneration, studying the lives and the Saints and becoming closer to them. Some of us are actually mad that non-seekers use the holidays as an excuse to party, which I don''t think is fair! Not everyone can be a seeker, and the Heroes have never been unclear on this point. They are quite happy for the people to celebrate their birthdays with large parties. After all, wouldn''t you feel the same? Speaking of the Hero Days, this helps make it easier to remember the order of the Saints. Their numbers were determined simply by their birth order in the year. Saint Obadiah was born first (February 17th, Heart Day), Saint Tahpenes was born second (March 8th, Clover Day), Saint Tyrus third (April 26th, Fool Day), Saint Felicia fourth (May 17th, Remembrance Day), Saint Felix fifth (August 15th, Freedom Day), Saint Sapphira sixth (September 6th, Mother''s Day), Saint Solomon seventh (October 24th, Spirits Day), and Saint Elizabeth eighth (November 15th, Thanksgiving Day). To repeat something my own mentor said, you may not remember the exact day Saint Tahpenes was born, but you will certainly remember the day you''re allowed to drink endlessly at the bar! As noted, we at the Church prefer to spend these days in quiet contemplation, but it is most important that they are simply celebrated. To that end, it is not uncommon to volunteer at various charity centers across the City on these days. If you are interested in volunteering more, you can always find a Trust Chapel which will be happy to direct you. Of course, if you have already chosen a patron to emulate, then simply finding one of your own chapels will be your best first step. More than anything, I hope that you find what you are seeking! Whether it be knowledge, community, or a sense of purpose, the Church of the Eight Saints is more than happy to provide! Sermons are once a week, usually on Sunday but not always. Please check with your local church for more details. Good luck, and may the Saints walk with you on your travels. Chapter 1 - Dawn Hou Zheng crawled out of his tent in the morning and stretched hugely. He did most things hugely. That was just how he was built. This was one of the only times of the day he could safely be out and about without his bulky robes, so he took a long moment to just soak in the light of dawn. The Jungle was, of course, thick here. Trees bigger around than he was tall reached high into the sky. Trees that would have been impressive anywhere else looked like shriveled bushes next to their giant cousins. Birds chirped in the distance, filling the air with song. That would be disrupted as more monsters awoke, but still, it was a nice way to start the day. Once his skin had warmed enough, he turned toward the Tower. He was far to the south of it now, too far to see even at this distance, but he still liked acknowledging it. Taking a moment to remember that none of this would be possible without it. Most people misunderstood the Tower. They thought of it as a harbinger of destruction, the first sign of the Jungle that would devour everything in the world. It was actually the opposite. The Tower was what bound the Jungle, what kept monsters from appearing out of random rifts and just slaughtering entire countries. It was the Jungle that gave humanity power, of course¡ªthe Jungle gave power to everyone and everything without exception¡ªbut it was the Tower that shaped that power into something that people could actually use. Without the Tower, there would be no classes, no levels, and no structure. Some people would randomly become gods and conquer the world, others would randomly become cripples and die. The rest would gain some bare trickle of power and be stomped by the stronger. He took a moment to thank the spirits of the Tower for their gifts, as he did every morning. It had no practical effect; he knew this. Still, respect was never wasted, even if the spirits did not grant a boon. Moments after he was done, however, he did receive something. ¡°Hou Zheng,¡± a voice boomed inside his mind. It was like someone was using the inside of his skull as a drum to communicate. ¡°There has been a development.¡± Zheng took a deep breath and pushed the pain down. ¡°What do you need, Lord W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n?¡± The dragon had many names, of course, so he used the one from his own language, which he felt more comfortable with. In English, the dragon was named Flamebreak. ¡°Mizuno Masahiko is dead,¡± W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n said without preamble or emotion. ¡°Another must take up his hunt.¡± Zheng frowned at that. Mizuno was a tough one. Even considering the reset, he wouldn¡¯t have thought anything on this world would be a real threat to him. Had he been outplayed, or had he just gotten careless? That sounded right. Mizuno tended to talk too much, especially when he thought he had the upper hand. Then again, Hou Zheng was no better, so he shouldn''t be throwing stones. ¡°It does not matter,¡± the dragon said, as if he could read Zheng¡¯s mind. He spoke in Zheng''s own native language with no hint of an accent. ¡°He has failed the task. Thus, it falls to you.¡± Well, Zheng couldn''t argue with that logic. He was the closest thing to a friend that Mizuno Masahiko had. Which wasn''t saying much. He hadn''t seen the man in a year, and he doubted Mizuno had thought of him more than once or twice in that time. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Still. He had his pride, and his pragmatism. ¡°I assume I will be paid for this task?¡± he asked. ¡°No matter how simple you claim that it is, it is an imposition on my time.¡± Also, at least one person had already died trying to complete it. While bringing it up would do little more than annoy W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n, it certainly increased the price he would demand. There was a very loud silence. ¡°You haven''t even told me what the task is, or where,¡± Zheng pointed out. He assumed it was nearby, and an assassination. No one ever hired Zheng for anything besides killing people. ¡°An assurance of payment is a small courtesy.¡± ¡°You will be paid,¡± the dragon said finally. His voice ground against his mind even more than usual. ¡°We will discuss this further once you are on your way. Mizuno was last located at a village to the south-east of the Tower, near the end of the valley.¡± Zheng couldn''t help but snort. He turned and started packing up his tent. He was already in roughly the right area, and he thought he knew the village in question. ¡°Is the village still there?¡± ¡°He destroyed it in the course of his mission.¡± Which meant that Mizuno had brought a horde of monsters down and killed a few hundred people while, apparently, failing to get his actual targets. Yes, that sounded about right. It also likely meant that there would be a number of advanced monsters there now, fat on the blood of the people they had killed. It was even possible that there was a dracobeast, if a monster had managed to eat most of the citystone itself. Zheng didn''t mention that. W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n hated dracobeasts. ¡°Will I have any allies for this task?¡± ¡°You may recruit as you see fit.¡± That meant no, unless he got ridiculously lucky. ¡°All right, then who am I killing?¡± ¡°There are four individuals. Two Attackers, a Defender, and a Crafter.¡± He had to blink in surprise at that. ¡°Wait, they have Crafters now?¡± For the past eighty years, this world had only had access to eight foundational classes, split into the four combat roles: Attacker, Defender, Healer, and Tamer. No one had any bloodstones for any non-combat classes, meaning no one had any non-combat classes. ¡°No,¡± the dragon said. ¡°This is an anomaly. His class is irrelevant. All you need to know is that he is a primary target.¡± Zheng yawned. He finished packing up his tent and put it in his backpack. ¡°Apologies, my lord, I''m not awake enough for a briefing yet. I''ll get closer to the village, then call you for more details, okay?¡± He chuckled. ¡°Maybe this will be one of the missions I can solve with a duel.¡± He felt the grumble of the dragon''s disapproval, then the presence disappeared from his mind. Zheng wasn''t worried. W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n was grumpy, but ultimately a good employer. He would provide the information needed to get this job done. And he''d pay enough for Zheng to be set for another couple years at least. On a whim, he brought up his status screen. He hadn''t checked it in a while.
Name: Hou Zheng
Race: Human (fire-type)
Role: Healer
Class: Battle Mender, level 64
Stats: Strength 17, Agility 12, Constitution 14, Perception 12, Power 25, Flexibility 14, Capacity 20, Sensitivity 14
Techniques: 20
Spells: 20
Skills: 8
Would you like to see a full list of your abilities?
He waved away his list of techniques and spells. He never paid too much attention to those past the initial push. You had to relearn everything at the start of every reset, but beyond that the list was just a distraction. Everyone knew that re-learning old abilities was the secret to leveling quickly in the early days, but not everyone was dedicated enough to actually do it. Zheng whistled as he walked, and cast a quick energy spell on himself to push back the last vestiges of sleep. At least he had something to look forward to today. Chapter 2 - The Village and the Pit (part 1) Joshua White, also known as Josh Hundredborn, traveled south, his missing fingers aching with every step on broken concrete. In the Old World, there had been a freeway that led through the mountains and all the way to the coast. The freeway was of course collapsed and overgrown, but people had gone to the effort to cut back the Jungle a little bit. It left a path that a truck could drive, which was enough to get materials to and from the coastal villages. While the road cut through the mountain range, this was a dip in elevation. Rather than being a treacherous, winding mountain path, it was a gentle and simple road through rolling hills. In fact, with everything covered in the endless sea of trees from the Jungle, it was hard to even see the hills. Farther out on either side, they rose into true mountains again, but here it was nothing difficult. In the Old World, the hills had usually been the yellow of dead and hibernating grass. It wasn''t a region known for rainfall, so the hills would only be green for a few weeks out of the year. Now, of course, everything was green trees and green ferns and green life. Josh was hardly an expert, but as he understood it, the Jungle fed on mana, then used that to encourage life to bloom, then fed on the mana produced by that life. This area had once been dry scrub land, but it could have been the middle of a rainforest now. He had no idea what effect that had on the rest of the world. Would that mean that new deserts had appeared elsewhere, in lower-mana zones? Or had the Jungle just magicked water out of nothing? Darius would have known. At the very least, he would have cared. He walked for about an hour before he found a clearing that he thought would be a good place to stop. The clearing wasn''t something artificial, as far as he could tell. No one had burned out the trees here. It seemed to just be a random spot next to the road where the trees weren''t quite as thick as they were elsewhere. Josh sat on a fallen tree, picked up a thick branch, and used [Hands-Free Crafting] to make himself a bowl and some utensils. He had lost most of his tools somewhere underground. Probably when he had jumped into the water to drown the elf, Mizuno. At least he had managed to find a few packets of rations in the village. The mayor had apparently stockpiled them, and while they had been crushed or scattered in the fighting, Josh found a few. Monsters rarely ate anything besides humans and bloodstones, so there was little danger in just leaving big packets of dried meat around. When Josh opened one of the paper-wrapped packages, he found jerky, rice, and even a small rind of cheese. He was surprised at that last one. Milk was easy enough to get a hold of, as long as you weren''t squeamish about where it came from. Making cheese took time, though, and he hadn''t thought that the village existed long enough to properly age cheese. It probably came from the City. Sending materials back to the City to be processed was pretty common. They might not have the really advanced factories from the Old World, but cheese was easy. In fact, Mary''s family was involved in most of the smuggling... Josh stopped eating. When he had first met Mary, when she had found him in those stupid ruins, she had offered him cheese. The good stuff, not this survival meal hardtack. He hadn''t understood at the time quite how big a deal that had been, but he had appreciated it all the same. His missing fingers throbbed again. Mary was dead. His oldest friend, besides his sister, was gone. Because of... what? A stupid operative, a dragon, and an elf. It sounded like the set up to a bad joke. And now she was dead. He had been trying to pretend that it wasn''t true. That he wasn''t alone now. He had tried to focus on how this would affect the mission, on how he needed to find new allies. That was why he was traveling south, to San Juan Bautista. It would have everything he needed. It would still be better with Mary. Your sister could have saved her, a traitorous bit of his mind whispered. Wouldn''t have even been hard. He pushed that thought away, but all that did was make room for new ones. Thoughts of Darius, smart and capable and too serious. Thoughts of Ruth, kind and gentle and also fierce. Both of them, dead on the ground somewhere, if not in a dragon''s stomach. He put his head in his hands and cried. He didn''t know how long he sat there, on that log. It felt like moments. It felt like hours. Mary was dead. Mary, who jumped into every situation literally guns blazing, who had once saved a random stranger out in the Jungle for no other reason than because it was the right thing to do. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Darius was dead. The man who had rolled a [Healer] for most of his life because it was ¡°the most logical way to save lives.¡± The man who took notes on everything until he found the optimal solution. Ruth was dead. The girl who had been sheltered her entire life, then jumped at the opportunity to do some real good. Who had abandoned a life of privilege to go on the run with people she barely even knew, because it was the right thing to do. They were all gone, and his heart felt like it was ripping in four pieces. He had thought that he was past all this. That after losing everything, he was immune to this pain. He had thought himself experienced, mature. He had thought he had scars on his soul, something that made him tough enough to survive this again. He had been wrong. Loss always hurt, because every single time was different. Every single time, someone managed to worm their way behind your defenses, and they hurt all that much more when they were ripped away. He had thought it was like being burned on a hot stove. Do it enough, and there was nothing left to burn. That wasn''t how it worked. There was no being immune to this pain. It was, by its very nature, impossible to defend against. Some part of him whispered that maybe he should just stop having friends. Stop letting people worm their way in. That was a mad thought. No matter how bitter he felt right now, he knew it wouldn''t work. It hadn''t worked when he was a kid, and his childhood girlfriend had died. It hadn''t worked when he was a teenager, and his parents had died. It hadn''t worked when he was an adult, and he had discovered that everyone he ever loved had died. But right here, right now, he just wanted to spend the rest of his life out in the Jungle, never speaking to another human being. ¡°I say, are you all right?¡± Josh looked up to see that, against all odds, there was a wagon on the road. It was a simple four-wheeled wooden wagon, the kind that the smaller villages or poorer residents used. It didn''t have any sort of engine, and of course tying an animal to pull it would be insane. Instead, it was pulled by a large man with pale skin and a gentle smile who looked strong enough to pick up the wagon and throw it. Josh scanned him, and identified him as a level 23 Defender. The man squinted at him, as if he was trying to use Identify on him as well. Josh was still wearing his mask. He always was, these days. He couldn''t be scanned, so there wouldn''t be any rumors about a [Crafter] on the road. ¡°Yeah.¡± He wiped his eyes. ¡°I''m fine,¡± he said hoarsely. ¡°Just... not a great day.¡± The man nodded. ¡°Which way you heading? If you''re going up to Gilroy, I''d be happy to give you a ride.¡± It took Josh a moment to put his thoughts together there. He had honestly forgotten that Mayor Vashti''s village was called Gilroy Crossing. ¡°It''s gone,¡± he croaked out. He cleared his throat, then continued in a clearer tone. ¡°The Crossing. There was a monster horde, and they got the citystone. There''s a dragon squatting on the ruins now.¡± The man sagged. ¡°By the Eight,¡± he muttered. ¡°That''s not good.¡± He sighed, then started to turn his cart around. ¡°Well, there''s nothing else up there that''s worth the trip. I''ll give you a ride back down to San Juan Bautista, if you like.¡± He gave Josh a weak smile. ¡°You should report the fall soon, anyway.¡± Josh nodded and rose from his seat. He took a deep breath. ¡°Does the village have a radio?¡± He should have searched the ruins for one. Vashti had been a careful woman, she would have had one. The man smiled. ¡°Yeah. You can give your report to the monster hunters, and they''ll pass it along.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Thank you.¡± He fell into step next to the man. A thought occurred to him. ¡°Sorry, I''m out of it.¡± He managed a smile. ¡°I''m Josh.¡± ¡°Abraham.¡± He started pulling the cart back down the way he had come, and gave Josh a sideways smile. ¡°You know, you can get in the cart. I''ve got all my points in Strength and Constitution. I won''t even notice the extra weight.¡± ¡°Might take you up on that in a bit,¡± Josh admitted. ¡°Right now I just need to stretch my legs, feel me?¡± ¡°Certainly.¡± Josh jerked his thumb at the cart. ¡°What are you hauling, anyway? Can''t be food.¡± There were electric trucks that could make the trip in a fraction of the time, and they wouldn''t need to take food to another village this side of the Burn Line anyway. ¡°Tools, mostly,¡± Abraham said cheerily. ¡°Simple things that we can make out here. We''ve got a good mine down in Bautista.¡± Josh scrunched up his face in confusion. He didn''t remember anything about that. Of course, he had never actually traveled down this far before. He had gone north a few times, but he had never really gone past Gilroy. They walked for an hour or so like that, just talking about simple, unimportant things. Abraham didn''t push, though he did manage to tease out a few details about what had happened. He winced when Josh described the dragon. ¡°At least it''s not a flier,¡± Abraham muttered. ¡°You hear about that Feline Dracobeast that was squatting in Bautista?¡± Josh gave him a bewildered look. ¡°No. I thought San Juan Bautista had been around since soon after the Fall. I didn''t know it got lost and rebuilt.¡± But Abraham shook his head. ¡°No, that''s what I mean. Well, it was lost and rebuilt, yes, but not that. When the Eight were first flying around blasting every giant monster they could find, there was this giant cat sitting in the middle of what used to be a city. As I heard it, the Archer was hitting the damn thing with arrows the size of trees when it just spread these wings bigger than ship sails and came after them.¡± Chapter 3 - The Village and the Pit (part 2) Josh nodded. Tania, the Second Immortal, had a class that let her conjure a bow and arrow fit for a giant. He could never remember the class name¡ªsomething like Living Ballista of the Infinite Order or whatever¡ªbut the sight of her sniping monsters from over the horizon was famous, even by the standards of the Eight Heroes. ¡°That''s why they''re not around,¡± Josh said. ¡°They''ve got to kill all of the big ones before they decide to take a bite out of us.¡± He tried not to sound bitter. The City was going to fall because there was a giant monster just a stone''s throw from the walls, but he had no way of warning the Eight. Their job was important, though. Most of the reason for the Fall of the Old World was because no one could handle the biggest monsters. The smaller monsters were a problem, no question, and they got worse every year. But they were still nothing compared to a level 128 dragon barreling through all your defenses like they weren''t even there. Abraham nodded religiously. ¡°Oh, don''t mistake me. I know full well what they do to keep us safe.¡± He sighed, letting the cart sag for a moment. ¡°Though I do wish they would come back more often. I remember when I was a kid, they would come back for every solstice. Now, we''re lucky if it''s one in five.¡± Josh didn''t say anything. He had been there for that one in five. The Eight had explained that, even with teleportation magic, they just couldn''t travel fast enough to return to the City on a regular basis any more. They were ranging too far afield. They walked in silence for another mile or so before the monster attacked. Josh was surprised it took so long. This must be a busy road, one that was cleared on the regular. Monsters didn''t bother lone travelers all that much¡ªwasn''t too much of a meal¡ªand two wasn''t much more tempting. But that just meant that the monsters were pickier with their attacks, not that they stopped altogether. In fact, Josh was a little curious how a Level 23 Defender was surviving out here on his own.
Caprid Sky-Leaper
Level 32 Monster
Once an ordinary mountain goat, the Caprid Sky-Leaper is now a fearsome opponent that can jump in with a massive attack, kill half its prey, and then jump out again without warning. Pro tip: Try to keep it in one spot.
The monster was still the shape and size of an ordinary goat, though its horns were made of spiraling wood, and its shaggy coat appeared to be made of green moss. It was difficult to pick out any more details, because it had fallen out of the sky and slammed into the ground two feet away from Abraham. Josh didn''t bother with anything fancy. He whipped out his ax and launched an [Empty Chop] at the goat, aiming at its legs. He didn''t have a true root ability that would lock it down, but disabling the legs always worked. At the same time, Abraham dropped the handles for the cart, picked up a long spear he had laid within easy reach, and stabbed forward. It didn''t seem to be a true technique, but he moved with all the discipline of a life-long soldier. Both of their blows struck home. Josh got the goat in the leg, crippling it, while Abraham''s stab slipped between its ribs and sank deep inside its belly. The goat bleated and tried to rise, but it couldn''t manage it. Josh and Abraham both laid into it, finishing it off within a matter of moments. It really was pretty much completely helpless when it couldn''t flee. Despite that, Josh thought maybe it had resisted their attacks a bit. It felt like his ax was sliding off its hide at points, which was especially dodgy because this was an ambush-type monster, not something with heavy defense. That wasn''t a good sign. Level 32 was the fourth evolution for most monsters. Four or five was when they started gaining heavy resistances to specific damage types, or even elemental immunities. This early, it would still be easy to overwhelm them. The goat might have had a heavy resistance to physical slashing attacks, but he still managed to cripple it, and the fight was all but over. As monsters grew stronger, things would get worse. Soon, in a decade or two at the most, all monsters would be reaching these levels. This was where an Enchanter or other [Crafter] came in handy. You needed magical weapons to deal with monsters who had immunities to the common stuff. That was why his bloodstones were so important. That was why he had to survive to the end of the year, no matter what. As he was lost in his thoughts, red mist rose out of the goat''s corpse, before turning white and surging into both of them.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 33 Stonecrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
¡°Huh,¡± Josh said. ¡°Suppose I was closer to a level than I thought.¡± He glanced at Abraham. Since he was lower level, he''d have a higher reward. ¡°What about you, guv?¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Abraham nodded, eyes distant. ¡°Level 24.¡± He chewed his lip. ¡°I have a full rack of bloodstones, considering which way to go.¡± ¡°You hit pretty hard, for a Defender,¡± Josh pointed out. ¡°What are you right now?¡± ¡°Samurai.¡± Josh nodded. That was a [Defender] class that acted much like an [Attacker] class, using high damage and varied techniques to protect people by virtue of killing everything before they could be hurt. ¡°If you decide to skip the bloodstone, I think Samurai gets its first spell at the second advancement.¡± ¡°Yeah, I''ve done this before,¡± Abraham muttered, looking distracted. ¡°Still, if I''m going to be out here alone, maybe going for something else would be better.¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°Not my class, not my build. But Samurai is a pretty good general-purpose class, and it''s got good survival. Unless you''ve already got an Improved-tier class up as an option, you probably want to stick with what you''ve got.¡± Abraham nodded, then tapped something on an invisible screen in front of him. Then he smiled. ¡°Got the Wind''s Edge tech.¡± ¡°Shiny.¡± The technique let him release a short-ranged projectile from his sword. It was useful because it did damage based on his physical scores, not his magical ones. It basically let him use his sword at range, with all the benefits of the sword included. So it fit in more with his build, instead of being a brand-new ability that he had to master separately. They threw the monster''s corpse into the Jungle, rather than leaving it out on the road. It would attract more monsters, and its bits weren''t worth the effort of hauling it to town. Best to just get it off the road, so that when a tree sprouted up it wasn''t a hazard. ¡°Why are you out here alone?¡± Josh asked, as they continued on their way. ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°I mean, I figured that was just your preferred run, but you just made it sound like it''s something new, not your normal fancy.¡± Abraham sighed. ¡°Oh, it''s a story I''m sure you''ve heard a thousand times. Had some friends who used to do this with me. A couple extra carts, a couple extra hands. Between us all, we made a decent amount of money, and we could usually handle any monsters we ran into.¡± He looked back to where they had fought the goat. ¡°To be honest, that''s one of the worst I''ve seen in a while.¡± It was likely a survivor of the horde that attacked Gilroy Crossing. Josh hoped they wouldn''t wander down this way too much. ¡°I''m guessing a run went bad?¡± ¡°No, unfortunately,¡± Abraham said with a mirthless chuckle. ¡°I wish that had been it. I could have been there, you know? It was actually a bad delve. They tried a dungeon they shouldn''t have, overestimated themselves.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I was never into that.¡± Josh flinched. That hit far too close to home. ¡°Yeah. Yeah, I get it..¡± ¡°I wasn''t the only one,¡± Abraham added. ¡°Who didn''t go into the dungeon, I mean. But with half our friends dead...¡± He trailed off, then sighed. ¡°Well. Everyone has different priorities these days.¡± ¡°I get that.¡± ¡°What about you?¡± Josh started. ¡°Wot?¡± ¡°You were in Gilroy,¡± Abraham said. It was a statement, not a question. ¡°How did that affect you?¡± Josh gave him an incredulous look. ¡°Bit personal, innit?¡± Abraham shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. ¡°We''re alone on the road for another few hours. I think I deserve at least an explanation of what happened.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Yeah, I suppose.¡± They walked in silence for another few moments. ¡°Was it really so terrible?¡± Abraham asked. A pause. ¡°No,¡± Josh said. ¡°Well, yeah, of course, but not worse than you''d think, I expect. A monster horde we couldn''t handle, not sure how many escaped.¡± When he got to Bautista, he''d tell the town leaders about the enemy Tamer, but he didn''t see a need to share that now. ¡°There''s worse than monsters that can kill a town.¡± Abraham shivered. Ah, it seemed he had heard some stories of his own. ¡°It''s just fresh,¡± Josh continued. He let out a breath. ¡°Lost a lot of good people there. I expect they found a way to save some, but...¡± He shrugged, unable to say much more. He kept coming back to Mayor Vashti, and the splatter of blood around her like a halo. They hadn''t been close, but she had been respectful and competent. They had been on the way to making real progress. If they had been able to build up the village enough, he could have spoken to Ruth''s dad from a position of strength. Maybe finally solved everything. Now, that was all just wishful thinking. He didn''t have a plan, going forward. What could he even do? Sure, he could fight harder, get stronger, but that was even less likely to work than before. He''d have to be careful, running solo. With no team, he''d have no one to bail him out. Without Mary... He took a deep breath and pushed the pain aside. Again. He didn''t have time to feel right now. He had to find a way to either get to the Eight Immortals or make the City listen to him. Both required that he get stronger. Either he would march through the Jungle until he found the Eight, or he would march back to the City and be too strong for them to brush off. Of course, he thought, the fact that an important operative''s daughter was dead because of him was not going to help his case. Chapter 4 - The Village and the Pit (part 3) He looked down at his hand, at his missing fingers. They barely bothered him at all any more... except when they did. Then he found that he couldn''t ignore them, no matter how hard he tried. I just need to find the Eight, he thought firmly. Once I do that, everything will be fine. It wasn''t much of a plan. It was a goal, though. That would have to be enough. It took a few more hours to walk down the mountain road until they could see the town. Once they reached places where the Jungle had been cut down, it was obvious that they were getting close. They even started to see other reclaimers, tough fighters who gave Abraham nods of approval or a word of hello. Most of them wore masks to conceal their levels, which was a relief. Josh had worried he might stick out. Seemed Abraham was the exception. Thank you, paranoid Yanks, Josh thought. In the Old World, there had been countries that considered hiding your face to hide your level extremely suspicious, or even an actual crime. If any of them had survived, he might be in real trouble. Josh sighed. That was a very dark thought. Well, he was in a dark mood. Mary would have laughed at the Yanks with him. Eventually, they crested one last hill, and saw San Juan Bautista. Josh didn''t know what the town had looked like before the Fall. The same as any other little farming town nestled out here between the hills, he assumed. A lot of wide open spaces, a ¡°downtown¡± that was half a dozen shops. The kind of place where you had to drive half an hour to find a big store. Even with its proximity to the Tower, this place had never been very important. Farmland didn''t matter much when a soccer field could grow enough food to support a large neighborhood every single day. It was different now. The first thing Josh noticed was the massive gaping pit in the earth. Even up here, a good few miles away, he could see it clearly, a black scar gouged out of the green sea of the Jungle. If he had to guess, he''d say it was a mile long, maybe half that wide. It looked very much like a scar, a wound on the skin of a living being, not anything natural like a sinkhole. Trees had been cleared away in a wide ring around the pit, giving plenty of room for the buildings that had sprung up in their place. They dangled over the lip of the hole like docks at the edge of a lake. Even from this distance, Josh could see cranes and elevators down into the pit, anything that might give someone a way to dive down into the darkness and then be pulled back up. The town was marked by a wall at its outer edge, as was common, and surrounding the wall were the wrecks of abandoned cars and trucks. The more intact ones would have been salvaged years ago; these were probably the ones that weren''t worth moving. It seemed they created some barrier to the Jungle, at least, metal and rust slowing down the ever-encroaching greenery by just a bit. He saw people cutting down a few small trees that had sprouted up between the vehicles. Though Josh knew that given enough of a chance, the Jungle would break through steel and rubber easily to reach the people inside the circle of protection. The Jungle was always hungry. He had stopped in the middle of the road, staring down, but Abraham didn''t seem to mind. In fact, the tradesman seemed to be hiding a smirk. ¡°Don''t worry,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°It gets everyone the first time.¡± ¡°You mentioned what happened here. I didn''t realize the Eight were so...¡± He struggled to find the words. ¡°...thorough.¡± ¡°Yeah, that dragon gave them some trouble. We''ve got full reports from all of them in the town archives. Apparently it could dig into the ground, hide itself that way.¡± Abraham shook his head. ¡°A giant cat that can dig and fly. Don''t see the point.¡± ¡°Monster evolutions aren''t intelligent,¡± Josh said, repeating by rote. He was too distracted by the sight before him. Even from this far away, he could see a light rising out of the pit, the gentle bioluminescence that he had learned to associate with magical plants. ¡°They are based on what the monster thinks might be most useful in the moment. This is why higher-level monsters often have such an eclectic collection of abilities.¡± ¡°If you say so.¡± Abraham clapped him on the back. ¡°So! Ready to go?¡± Josh shook himself out of his fugue. ¡°Yeah. Yeah, let''s get going.¡± It took two more hours before they reached the village itself. It hadn''t spread very far from the pit, just three or four streets of houses. It had wooden walls like Gilroy Crossing, but they encircled the entire pit instead of being individual fortresses and miniature villages. Like most villages, the buildings had that rough, slapdash look that came from experienced builders working quickly. Many of them were little more than stacks of logs lashed together or nailed in place, solid but primitive. Even the ones that were made of processed planks and worked stone rarely had any more ornamentation. No one bothered with painting houses out here. You were considered fancy if you cleared the Jungle off your roof every morning. Most of the buildings were halfway through sprouting their own forests from every wooden surface. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. There were a handful of more professional buildings, however. They passed a large stone structure, two stories tall, that was apparently the town jail. That actually made Josh feel better. Crime happened everywhere, but having a jail meant they wanted to keep the criminals alive. It was too common to just exile them into the Jungle. Or worse, kill them outright. The town was busy, far busier than its size would indicate, and navigating the streets with Abraham''s cart was a chore. People called out to him, surprised to see him back so soon, even as they jogged around him and his load. He waved off their concerns, avoiding the subject and not giving any specific answers. That was good. Hearing about the fall of the nearest town could start a panic. It didn''t take long for Josh to realize what was being hauled up from the pit. The smell of dust on the wind, of hot metal and heavy machinery, and the sound of metal and stone banging together, all mixed together to produce a feeling that he found absolutely unmistakable. ¡°This is a mining town, isn''t it?¡± he asked. ¡°I didn''t think there was any glint worth digging up any more.¡± Abraham gave him a smile. ¡°Oh, we''re not after gold or whatever else they thought was worth something in the Old World.¡± He snorted. ¡°Not sure what the point of all that pretty junk was ever supposed to be.¡± Gold and other precious metals actually had a number of uses in enchanting and other magical crafting, Josh knew, but he didn''t see the need to share that. ¡°So what''s the story? You''re telling me someone just found a lode of iron straight under the ground?¡± ¡°Oh, more than one lode,¡± Abraham assured him. ¡°And more than just a little under the ground.¡± He nodded in the direction of the pit. They couldn''t see it from here, there was a row of houses in the way, but Josh could already tell where it was from the direction the town was oriented. ¡°Maybe you didn''t notice, but that pit goes down deep. We''ve found all sorts of veins of ore and precious gems and what have you down there. And that''s not to mention the magic mushrooms.¡± Josh stared in the direction of the pit, then at Abraham. ¡°You''re having me on.¡± He grinned. ¡°No sir, telling the truth of the Eight¡ªliterally!¡± He laughed at his own joke. ¡°The old town was already a loss when they got here, you understand, so they went whole-hog to rip that kitty dragon out of the ground. More than you''re likely to see anywhere else.¡± Josh was stunned. He had thought he knew more about the capabilities of the Eight than anyone else alive. He had seen them in action before, if only the once. Now he was beginning to wonder if that little display had been anywhere near their full power. ¡°So this town has been here for eighty years?¡± Josh asked. He couldn''t help but feel skeptical. The town was busy, and big for what it was. It was rare to see a town with more than a couple hundred people, and there had to be at least that many here. But if it was really as old as Abraham was implying, it was tiny. Especially since it had such a valuable resource at hand. Being able to find new metal rather than scavenge it was priceless, and he didn''t know of any other mines in the state. And if the magical plants were real instead of a joke, that was another valuable resource. ¡°No, less than ten,¡± Abraham said. Then he frowned. ¡°Or wait, I guess it''s more like twenty? It burned down about ten years ago, some Mage screwed up his advancement.¡± He rolled his eyes. ¡°Way I hear it, he actually managed to get all the way to Lifefire Beacon, and then set himself on fire.¡± Josh gave a pained chuckle. That was a famous class, because it was so useful for burning back the Jungle. There were members of the reclaimers dedicated to achieving that class as soon as possible every year to help maintain the Burn Line. He wasn''t in the mood to laugh about idiots biting off more than they could chew, though. ¡°That''s still, what, sixty years where this pit was sitting here doing nothing?¡± Abaraham shrugged. ¡°There''s not much out here to see. You know how long it takes for anything to spread out. There''s a mountain in the way¡ªokay, a big hill. There were other places to explore first.¡± Josh sighed. He supposed he could understand. It probably didn''t help that the City had decided to push the Burn Line farther north, instead of encouraging exploration in every direction. There was more potential technology and manufacturing to the north, while the near south could be used for farming villages. And the far south? Who cared? He laughed at his own thought. San Juan Bautista, the far south, he thought ruefully. We''re not even fifty miles from the City. Of course, fifty miles in the Old World, even on foot, was infinitely easier than fifty miles through the Jungle. It used to be less than an hour drive, but now, even with trucks driving cleared paths, it had to be taking at least five. ¡°Anyway,¡± Abraham said, awkwardly pushing past all that, ¡°we sell our metal and some simple tools to the other towns and the City.¡± He sighed. ¡°Of course, then the City sells the manufactured products back to us.¡± ¡°That''s the way it goes,¡± Josh said sympathetically. ¡°Still, good that there''s a source of new metal out here. The City can''t just keep scavenging the Old World forever.¡± They had already scrapped most of the cars and buildings inside the Burn Line. Josh was surprised there was that field of wrecks outside the town. They spoke for a bit longer as they continued walking. Abraham led them to his storefront, a warehouse on the second ring. Which was to say, there was one row of buildings between his place and the pit. This seemed to be a strong position for him to be in, since he bought metal and hand-crafted it into tools himself. Josh gathered that he used to have more people involved in the operation. It seemed that they had taken turns on who would take the goods to the next village. The dissolution of his social group had also damaged Abraham''s professional prospects. He would have to hire more people if he wanted to stay competitive. That one hit closer to home than it had any right to. Josh made his excuses, and managed to keep a smile on his face until he left Abraham''s store. He had lost too much these past few days. He had too much on his mind. He just... he needed to find a bar and get drunk. So completely and utterly drunk that nothing mattered. Doing that right next to a bottomless pit might be a bad idea. He couldn''t bring himself to care. Chapter 5 - The Village and the Pit (part 4) However, he did have things to do first. He wasn''t going to make the same mistakes as every corpse he had ever found out in the Jungle. He was going to make sure that he had everything settled before he did something stupid. Finding the mayor was the first step. He needed to report everything that had happened at Gilroy Crossing, both the fall of the town and the presence of the elf. He''d even report the dragon, and give them a few bloodstones. God, a town this important might actually be able to make the City listen to them. Probably not. But maybe. He didn''t want to die. He really didn''t. If he did, he probably wouldn''t be searching for the town hall. He would have just told Abraham everything. Or at least the bare minimum to keep his conscience clear for the five minutes between leaving and finding a bar. But... there was an emptiness inside him. A deep, yawning hole in his heart, twisting his guts around it. He was willing to try anything to get rid of that emptiness. It wasn''t the first time he had felt something like this. When Mary had first found him, when she had explained what had happened, he had felt like this. As though there was nothing left inside him, just a hollow space waiting to collapse under the slightest pressure. Mary wasn''t here to talk him out of something stupid this time. Actually, she had suggested alcohol the first time, she had just been there to help him through it. Also, he hadn''t been getting drunk next to a giant pit. Really, the pit was the problem. Maybe if he asked nicely they''d let him get drunk in the prison. Skip the bit where the cops throw him into the drunk tank and just start there. He pushed that aside to search for the town hall. He had to talk to some people for directions. Abraham had already told him that it was on the first ring, which was helpful, but he needed something more specific. The town hall turned out to be on the northern corner of the town, not that far from where they had entered the walls. Josh supposed it made sense that they''d put it somewhere with easy access to the road. The town hall had clearly begun life as a lone fortress in the Jungle. Its walls were made of seamless stone three stories tall. That was the kind of feature you got when you stacked up stone blocks, then had an Earth Mage merge the blocks together. The walls were four feet thick and covered an area the size of three or four houses. It looked like someone had dropped a giant gray brick from the sky. A wooden structure had been built on top of the stone fortress, a last-minute addition to create some luxury and beauty in a place that had clearly been intended for nothing but pure efficiency. The wooden building, which Josh had to think of as the real town hall, was built using wooden planks instead of rough logs, and had been painted a gentle blue-green. There were no doors¡ªthe entrances would be in the fortress below¡ªbut there were plenty of windows with real glass, letting in light and air. With its sloped roof, it looked more like a large home than an office building. Next to the fortress-hall, there was a shorter, broader building. It was only a single story, but it was almost as big as an entire city block on its own. It was constructed of stone bricks that were laid normally, instead of fused together by an Earth Mage. Unlike the town hall, it didn''t look like it was designed to withstand a siege. In fact, with its open design and the way it had been painted gentle earth colors, it looked like nothing so much as a school. As he stepped around to the front, he saw a large sign proclaiming it ¡°San Juan Bautista General Education.¡± He was surprised to see a school, especially one so large and well-kept. This clearly wasn''t an Old World school that had been repurposed or refurbished, this was a new building. That spoke of dedication and purpose that he hadn''t expected to find here. Of course, that was his old instincts talking. There were kids everywhere, and they needed education. Sending them into the City every day would have been a terrible idea even if the City was willing to take them. Which they were supposed to, free education was one of the Mandates the Eight had passed down, but the City found ways around the responsibility. It was a bit after noon, and he heard the sounds of playing children inside. The kids were probably out for lunch or something. Not quite knowing why, he walked inside. The school''s design meant that the outer classrooms formed a wall around an open courtyard. It was a giant sandbox, probably because if it was a grass field it would cost too much to cut it back constantly. The kids, of course, didn''t mind a giant sandbox. There had to be at least a hundred of them. There were kids of all ages, from little toddlers barely able to walk to surly teenagers sitting in the corner and glaring, clearly too cool for this. The younger kids played around, making sandcastles, throwing sand at each other, and squealing with delight. The older kids just glared at everyone, but Josh could tell that they wanted to play too. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. There was a gaggle of about twenty kids close to the entrance, clustered around some adults. The youngest was eight; Josh could tell because he was able to Identify him as being a [Level 13 Attacker]. That... was a disturbingly high level for such a young child. A quick glance told him that most of the others were about the same level, with the older kids being higher. The oldest appeared to be a sixteen year old girl, also the highest level as a [Level 24 Healer]. They were talking to a few adults that were clearly teachers. One woman had long skirts and looked like a schoolmarm from two hundred years ago, while another was wearing an impressive business suit. Josh walked up, curious. ¡°Yes, everything has been arranged,¡± the woman in the suit said to the older kids. ¡°You can all start tomorrow, I promise. We just need some basic information on your educational history. Your ages, current living situations, test scores¡ª¡± The Healer girl winced. ¡°We... we don''t have any of that. Certainly no paperwork. They, um, they said they''d work on our housing?¡± ¡°We can''t just throw you into classes willy-nilly.¡± The woman in the suit raised an eyebrow as if she had just been insulted. ¡°You do understand that we will not tolerate any willy-nilly, yes?¡± ¡°We can''t exactly go back and root through the ruins of our town,¡± the Healer said. She almost flinched at her own words, as if she couldn''t imagine that she was speaking back to an authority. Josh decided now was a good time to step in. ¡°Oi. What''s goin'' on here?¡± The adults turned to look at him. The woman in the suit frowned, and Josh instantly felt her analyzing everything about him, from his mask to his sweat-stained shirt to his chipped wooden armor to his dusty pants to his worn shoes. He suddenly felt extremely inadequate, and wished he had figured out how to use his class to make clothes after all. ¡°This is private business, reclaimer,¡± she said stiffly. ¡°Please be on your way.¡± The other teacher smiled at him widely. She didn''t seem to notice what he was wearing. ¡°Oh, I''m sure he isn''t hurting anything.¡± She leaned forward, hands behind her back, and Josh was left with the strong impression that she was used to leaning forward to meet kids at their own level. ¡°Are any of these kids yours?¡± ¡°Well, no¡ª¡± ¡°Mister Josh!¡± one of the kids said. It was the youngest one with a class, the Attacker. He tugged on Josh''s shirt under his wooden armor. ¡°Mister Josh, they said you were dead!¡± Other kids swarmed him, echoing the sentiment. He heard multiple kids asking him why he wasn''t dead, a few more said he was supposed to have ¡°gone all splat,¡± and one loudly asked if he had bought anything back. ¡°Wait, wait!¡± Josh called over the mess. He pointed at the youngest. ¡°I recognize you. You were at Manny''s bar all the time.¡± He wiped his nose proudly. ¡°Yep! He tried to throw me out, but I didn''t let him!¡± Josh knew that Manny had a soft spot for lost causes, so he figured that he probably didn''t try as hard as the kid thought. He looked around and saw more kids he recognized. Some he had just seen once or twice at the plays put on at Manny''s, but others had been constant presences around the village. One thing was certain: They were all kids from Gilroy Crossing. He turned to the oldest, the Healer. ¡°You''re Samson''s kid, right? Baara?¡± She flushed pink, but nodded. ¡°Yes, sir. Papa thought you might be alive.¡± She paused. ¡°Mama thought he was being too optimistic.¡± Josh couldn''t help but snort. ¡°Yeah, I think I would have bet on your mom''s opinion too.¡± He looked her up and down. ¡°Did you get these kids out here all by yourself? That''s impressive.¡± ¡°Hey, we all helped!¡± one of the smaller kids piped up. The rest began shouting agreement. Some of them even started conjuring fire until the woman in the skirts rushed over and settled them down. She seemed to be a Mage herself. ¡°It wasn''t that big a deal,¡± Baara said quietly to him. ¡°Mama cleared out the underground tunnels. We avoided the horde that way. I mean, we ran into some... problems.¡± She took a deep breath, then continued on. ¡°But we survived. We didn''t lose anyone.¡± Well, that explained how the kids were such high level, relatively speaking. That one kid might have jumped all the way to level 13 just by helping fight one monster. And it seemed that they hadn''t quite realized what they had lost. He had no interest in forcing them to realize all their friends and families were dead. ¡°I''m glad you made it,¡± Josh said, and he even sounded sincere. He was happy the kids had survived. It just hurt, considering all that had been lost. Why didn''t your parents leave with you? He didn''t ask. ¡°Having trouble integrating with a new town?¡± ¡°Do you have their paperwork?¡± the woman in the suit asked. Josh sighed. He was getting tired of not knowing her name. He put on a professional smile. ¡°Apologies. Where are my manners? I am Joshua Hundredborn. I have some experience with these children.¡± Even as he said that, they were still clustered around him, babbling excitedly. They were in their own little world, and weren''t paying attention to the adults. ¡°I do not, however, have any paperwork you might need.¡± Baara raised an eyebrow at him, no doubt surprised at his sudden change of tone. He gave her a shrug. He knew how to talk to people who wanted you to be professional. Chapter 6 - The Village and the Pit (part 5) The principal and vice principal introduced themselves. The woman in the suit, the one who seemed to be making life most difficult for the new students, was the principal. ¡°If they do not have paperwork, that will make integrating the children difficult,¡± she continued. ¡°Though we will, of course, accommodate them as best as we can, I am afraid that they will have to be put in remedial classes at the very least.¡± ¡°Our friends are talking to the mayor right now,¡± Baara said, voice desperate. ¡°I''m sure they''ll figure something out!¡± The Vice Principal''s smile faltered. ¡°Don''t... don''t put too much hope into that, hm?¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Josh said with a frown. ¡°Friends? Who else is there?¡± He looked over the crowd again. It looked like everybody he had seen at Manny''s entertainment nights, minus the adults of course. ¡°Did some of...¡± He didn''t want to remind them of their parents. ¡°Did anyone else come?¡± Baara looked down at the ground. ¡°Not very many. Most stayed behind to help with the, you know, the defense.¡± She took a deep breath and managed a smile. ¡°Manny''s wife and mother came, but Manny was lost before the last retreat. And of course Mama was sure to send us¡ª¡± She was interrupted by a voice drifting from out behind him. The voice sent chills down his spine. It was the voice of a ghost. The voice of a dead woman. It reached out, grabbed his spine, and ratcheted up his brain to a thousand percent. In seconds, he went through every single possibility in his mind. It couldn''t be. Vashti could have sent them out to keep the kids safe. They would be superior choices for numerous reasons. They were high-leveled, with a diverse suite of abilities, and they were experienced in combat. But he couldn''t help but feel that it was wishful thinking. He would have sent them out to keep them safe, but Mayor Vashti would have had different priorities. She would have wanted to keep them close, to help burn the horde more at the end. This could be a monster. A voice mimic, something trying to draw him into a trap. Yes, that was it. That was the only thing that made any sense. He looked down at Baara, but she wasn''t readying the big spear on her back or moving to defend herself. She didn''t even look worried. His mind went to even more absurd places. All sorts of nightmare scenarios. Maybe Baara was a flesh-mimic. He didn''t know her that well. Maybe the whole town was a mimic nest, a trap made just for him. It was a mad thought. Mad, self-centered, and delusional. But it was the only thing that made sense. The only other option was... impossible. Slowly, as if the whole world was a set made out of sugar, Josh turned around. Three people stood at the door. One was tall and skinny, with a cowboy hat and two pistols holstered on her hips. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and was glaring at him for ignoring her. The second was a short dark-skinned woman, with a hammer bigger than she was on her back. She wore a skirt that she could run in, a light top that would work for exercise, and a grin so broad that it looked like her head might split in half. The third was a black man with a large Afro and thick glasses. He wore the simple collared shirt and slacks of a teacher or professor, though they had clearly seen better days. He didn''t seem to be armed, though Josh recognized shroud focuses on his arms. ¡°Well?¡± Mary asked, cocking her head. ¡°You gonna just stand there gawking all day?¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Josh stepped forward, pushing through the gaggle of children, and gave her a massive hug. He picked her up bodily and crushed her in his arms without saying a single word. She didn''t protest. She just laughed and patted him on the back. ¡°Yeah yeah, you big lug. Get it all out.¡± Josh held her for another few moments, then put her down. He wiped his eyes, pretended not to notice Mary doing the same, and grinned. ¡°Should have known I couldn''t get rid of you that easily.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah,¡± she said with a big grin. ¡°I''d have haunted you so much.¡± Something clutched onto Josh''s side. He thought it was one of the kids at first, but when he looked down, he saw Ruth clutching onto him, her face buried in his chest. ¡°We thought we lost you,¡± she whispered. She looked up, eyes shimmering under her mask. ¡°You got grabbed right in front of me! I thought I got you killed because I wasn''t good enough!¡± He smiled and patted her on the head. He understood the sentiment. He had thought... He had thought that he was all alone again. ¡°Sorry, I got kidnapped by an elf.¡± Ruth cocked her head in confusion. At least she didn''t look like she was about to cry any more. Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°Is that supposed to be some sort of new slang?¡± Josh sighed, but he couldn''t actually suppress the massive grin on his face. ¡°No, unfortunately not.¡± He looked around. The kids and the teachers were all looking at them with various levels of curiosity. ¡°You were doing something for this lot, yeah? Why don''t you finish this up, and we''ll find somewhere to talk.¡± Darius gave the news from the mayor. While there were no backups for paperwork, Josh''s friends had managed to convince him to accept the word of the kids on what classes they belonged in. If they fell behind, well, they''d fall behind. They could always be put in remedial classes later. The principal seemed to think that the lack of paperwork was a personal affront. As if they had specifically decided not to bring all that when they were fleeing a monster horde. But she folded in the end, and the vice-principal was excited to have so many new faces. Baara promised she would keep the kids focused on their schoolwork. Unspoken was the fact that if they were distracted, they''d have less of a chance to think about what they had lost. It would hit them eventually, but they could... mitigate the damage. Josh thought Baara herself was doing something similar. She seemed fine, but she also had an important task to organize. Once she finished getting the kids settled, she might just collapse. They had also managed to secure housing for everyone from the village. That had apparently been a bit trickier, as space was at a premium out here. Well, relatively. The mayor certainly wasn''t going to just hand out a couple acres to newcomers like what happened in Gilroy. Still, Ruth had managed to talk him down to a reasonable rent. Or what she called a reasonable rent. Josh''s eye twitched uncontrollably when she gave him the number. The adults would be able to cover it for the kids, with some trouble. ¡°And that''s why we''re on the south side!¡± Ruth finished, with perfect timing. She spread her arms wide to show off as they arrived at their new home. It was a squat log cabin, one of eight in a row, right next to the palisade. ¡°We''re on the third ring, so farthest from the pit. We''re on the south side, so farthest from the trade routes.¡± She smiled and shrugged. ¡°But I don''t think it''s so bad! It''s cheap!¡± ¡°The kids are going to have to walk quite far to get to school,¡± Darius said. He looked over the accommodations and pursed his lips. ¡°I don''t suppose there is some sort of taxi service that they will be able to avail themselves of?¡± Mary waved her hand flippantly. ¡°Nah, they''ll figure something out. We got other stuff to talk about.¡± She elbowed Josh in the ribs. ¡°Elfy problems, right?¡± He grinned. ¡°Yeah, something like that.¡± He nodded at the cabin. ¡°Let''s get inside, get settled. I''ll tell you everything.¡± The cabin was completely empty. There was no furniture. No tables, no chairs, no beds. Not even any cabinets. It was nothing but a wooden cube made out of logs that had been cut down, stripped of branches, and stacked in place. There wasn''t even mud packed between the logs, so they would provide almost no protection against the heat in the summer or the cold in the winter. He sighed. ¡°Maybe we should chop down a couple trees first. Start building things.¡± His rear would appreciate a seat, even one without a real cushion. ¡°Oh no,¡± Mary said. She forced him to sit on the floor. The rest of them sat around him in a semicircle. ¡°We''re getting this out of you if it''s the last thing we do. That means we''re doing it now.¡± He looked at his friends. Friends he had never thought he would see again, who he had already resolved himself to having lost forever. That aching emptiness in his heart was already being filled again. He smiled. ¡°Yeah. There''s a lot to go over.¡± Chapter 7 - Catching Up (part 1) Darius drummed his fingers on their new table. They had found a stack of logs in the yard, so after Josh caught them up he made some furniture. It was rough, but it would serve. ¡°There are quite a few implications here, I hope you understand.¡± Josh shrugged. He continued making another chair, this time without using his spells. His hands followed the blueprint, making it easy to multitask. ¡°There''s a lot, sure, but I''m not sure how much of it is important, you know?¡± Ruth, also making furniture, looked up in surprise. ¡°Not important?¡± He held up a hand for peace. ¡°I''m worried that the dragon has minions coming after us. I''m worried that he''s willing to kill an entire town to get to us. Other than that? It all seems to be just fluff and background.¡± ¡°Really,¡± Darius said, his voice dripping with condescension. ¡°You don''t think evidence of non-human sapients and alternate worlds is important.¡± ¡°Not non-human, remember?¡± Mary put in. ¡°Josh said the elf said he didn''t like being called an elf.¡± ¡°I just mean it doesn''t seem all that important to the problem of, y''know, not dying,¡± Josh said. His chisel slipped on the wood, and he almost cut himself. He focused and started using his techniques again. ¡°I don''t know if there''s, I dunno, a multiverse or whatever.¡± He paused. ¡°All I know is they''re not helping. I''m not going to worry about them before they get off their asses and do something.¡± He didn''t want to think about it too much. Because... what if they could help? They didn''t need to bring armies or anything like that. It had already been proven that at least one person could travel here from another world. Was there any reason he couldn''t stuff his pockets with bloodstones before he came here, share those with the locals? Josh''s own experiences demonstrated how valuable a new bloodstone could be. What if they had something more? A Gatherer bloodstone would make the logistics of supplies easier on all fronts. A Scholar bloodstone would solve most of their information problems. And an Explorer bloodstone... He closed his eyes and sighed. The things he could do with an Explorer bloodstone... Mapping and treasure finding at lower levels. Full teleportation at higher levels. If they had an Explorer bloodstone, they could have found any others far faster. The Woodcrafter bloodstone in the factory proved they were out there. A mid-leveled Explorer would have found it years ago. Even a common Combat bloodstone would be invaluable. A Gunner bloodstone would save everyone loads of time and effort, since they wouldn''t have to go through all the effort of advancing through the Archer class first. The Eight Immortals were looking for bloodstones, he knew, but none of them had the right abilities. They were specialized for combat and survival, not finding lost treasure. That was, after all, why they were the only ones who had survived the Last Raid. Mary clapped her hands, interrupting his thoughts. ¡°So, what''s the plan?¡± she asked. ¡°I don''t think anyone wants to just sit around waiting to get killed by some elf guy.¡± ¡°The elf is dead, Mary,¡± Josh said flatly. But he was grinning. God, he thought he''d never get a chance to take the piss with her again. Darius frowned. ¡°If we are not going to discuss the multiversal implications, then...¡± He sighed. ¡°That''s fine. I suppose.¡± His tone made it clear it wasn''t fine, but he was willing to put it aside for now. Josh genuinely appreciated that. ¡°But we can at least call him something other than elf.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Mary laughed. ¡°You really think that''s what''s important now?¡± Ruth pointed a carving knife at her, face firm. ¡°There''s no reason to misname people, especially if they''ve asked us not to!¡± ¡°He said his name was Mizuno Masahiko,¡± Josh said. He had mentioned that before. It had likely been lost in everything else that had been going on. Mary frowned. ¡°So, was he, y''know, Japanese?¡± Josh shrugged helplessly. Mary thought for a moment. ¡°How ''bout we call him the Tamer?¡± Darius sighed. ¡°Fine. Simple, straightforward, easy to remember.¡± He adjusted his glasses. ¡°Now, what is the plan?¡± Josh leaned back on his hands. ¡°You''ve met the mayor. What are the chances of setting up a similar system as in Gilroy Crossing? We give up the bloodstones, they give up the materials, fortify the village?¡± He didn''t say so aloud, but they''d avoid upgrading the citystone, at least right away. He was certain that was what had drawn the monster horde. All three of his friends grimaced. He chuckled. ¡°Wot, it''s that bad?¡± ¡°The mayor... wasn''t helpful,¡± Darius said at last. ¡°It took a great deal of difficulty to even receive these homes for the refugees. I do not believe that we will be able to extract any more concessions from him.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Well, bollocks.¡± After a moment, he shook his head. ¡°Sod it all. I didn''t want to do that again anyway. We''ve got to go harder this time. Sort out how to power-level.¡± He looked at Ruth. ¡°Any chance you''ve made Rune Architect yet?¡± She winced. ¡°Not... exactly.¡± She paused, then removed her mask. He frowned, but scanned her. She identified as a [Level 34 Attacker]. He blinked. ¡°Wot? How did you¡ª¡± It only took a moment for his brain to realize the logical solution. ¡°You went for Rune Warrior, didn''t you?¡± He didn''t know where she had found an Attacker bloodstone, but it wasn''t as if they were rare. She looked surprised that he had figured it out. ¡°Uh, yeah. Sorry.¡± He waved her apology off. ¡°No troubles. You''ve still got your runes, and you can still enchant junk. That''s what matters most.¡± Rune Architect would have allowed her to do large-scale enchanting, from enchanting buildings to mass-enchanting items. Most importantly, it would have allowed her to upgrade citystones further. Since that wasn''t part of the plan any more, it wasn''t the end of the world. If they decided they needed that after all, she should be able to advance to Rune Architect next time using a Crafter bloodstone. ¡°What about you two?¡± he asked, looking at Mary and Darius. ¡°Mary, you get yours?¡± She nodded and pulled off her own mask. He scanned her, which confirmed what she said. ¡°Level 35 Mage Gunner.¡± ¡°I am still a Shroudcrafter,¡± Darius said. Josh scanned him, and at least confirmed that he was level 35. ¡°At level 32 I received an interesting ability to drain magical items and materials so that I could infuse items directly. It should improve my crafting considerably.¡± Josh nodded. He had known about that ability, but he hadn''t known if Shroudcrafters got it. ¡°Did you learn any new shroud blueprints?¡± ¡°Just one. It is a minor improvement. I believe that I will need to learn how to craft stronger shrouds myself, through trial and error.¡± ¡°Yeah, that sounds about right.¡± Even Crafter classes didn''t give all that many blueprints on level up. You had to figure them out yourself. It made sense that a hybrid Defender class would be worse about it. ¡°At least you''ll have an easier time with that, with your new spell.¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± Darius didn''t seem convinced. Josh took that as evidence he hadn''t managed to test out his new spell yet. ¡°What about you?¡± Ruth asked, leaning forward with wide, eager eyes. ¡°You said you''re still a Stonecrafter, right? Did you get anything good at level 32?¡± ¡°I got an aura I can''t use,¡± he said with a grunt. ¡°My mana is too low. It reserves five, and I''ve only got five.¡± Chapter 8 - Catching Up (part 2) Mary scoffed. ¡°Maybe you should do something ''sides dump all your points in two stats, yeah? Didn''t your mum ever tell you to diversify?¡± He waved her off. ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± But he was smiling. God, he had thought he''d never banter with Mary again. Ruth rubbed her chin. ¡°Hm... we just need to boost your Capacity up a few more points, right? That shouldn''t be too hard. I can still do rune-chains. Maybe I can enchant your armor somehow.¡± Josh started to unbuckle his wooden breastplate, even as he shook his head. ¡°Maybe, but I wouldn''t be miffed if you don''t get it right on your first go.¡± He tapped the stone amulet he was still wearing. ¡°Stat boosts are a little different from enchantments. They''re usually infusions, like what Big D does to make his focuses.¡± ¡°Don''t call me that,¡± Darius said tiredly. ¡°Even if you do manage to do it,¡± Josh continued, ignoring him. ¡°There''s no way it will stack with what I''ve got. It will have to be better than a one-point boost.¡± Ruth was nodding, even as she took his armor and a chisel. ¡°Yeah, yeah. I''ve got some ideas, though. I don''t have the right nouns, but if I use the connectors in the right way I might be able to find a workaround...¡± She descended into incomprehensible muttering. Mary was frowning, counting off something on her fingers. ¡°Wait. Your aura reserves five points.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Yeah.¡± Auras and stances tended to be low-cost. You were supposed to be able to leave them active at all times and still use your normal spells and techniques. ¡°Your base Capacity is still four right?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± He was dead average in that stat. ¡°Then the talisman boosts me by a point.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I''m using Ruth''s Improved-tier rune, the Power/Capacity one, but it''s still just one point to each.¡± ¡°Right.¡± She pointed at him. ¡°But if you crush the stone, you get a two point boost for a few minutes. Right?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Josh had already thought about that. ¡°But being able to use an aura for sixteen minutes at a time isn''t really going to change the game for us, you know?¡± ¡°What does your aura do?¡± Darius asked. He had that intense look on his face, as if he was considering all the possibilities in front of him. ¡°A second advancement usually has something useful.¡± ¡°Stonesense Aura. Lets me sense anything I can use for my Craft: Stone skill.¡± Mary cocked her head. ¡°I can see some use there, yeah?¡± Darius stood up straighter. ¡°Have you tested it?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°Haven''t had time.¡± To be honest, he hadn''t been very impressed with the Stonecrafter class in general. He barely had a handful of blueprints, because even stone weapons¡ªa spear with a stone head, arrows, so on¡ªcounted as wooden blueprints. Stone armor was worth even less than wooden armor. It was really only useful for building structures, and he hadn''t explored that as much as he could. ¡°You should at least test it,¡± Darius insisted. ¡°Auras often change a class''s entire behavior.¡± Mary nodded. ¡°He''s got a point. You know Mage Gunners play completely different if they''ve got Gunner''s Focus up.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. That was true. He had tried playing the class without the aura once. It had proven surprisingly effective, though he had largely been forced to act as a burst-damage sniper instead of a sustain-damage gunner. ¡°All right, all right.¡± He reached up to his talisman. ¡°I''ve got plenty of spares, anyway.¡± He focused his will, and the hard stone crushed under his hand as easily as chalk. Power flowed through him, and his missing fingers throbbed. [Temporary buff! You have crushed your Runestone of Power and Capacity (improved). +2 bonus to the Power and Capacity scores for 16 minutes.] He breathed in the mana of the air. That was probably unnecessary, but it saved him a minute or two waiting for his mana to tick up. Once he was at 6 mana, he activated his Stonesense Aura. Auras didn''t act like normal spells. His Sensitivity score didn''t reduce the cost. Instead, it improved the aura itself. Supposedly, every stat improved every technique and spell, physical and magical. Power would make your techniques hit harder, Dexterity would make your spells faster. That was vague and unclear, though. There was no hard breakdown of exactly what stats did for you, outside their active effects. For the most part, people ignored the effects of Strength on spells, and the effects of Flexibility on techniques. It was easier to just split everything into physical and magical, and largely ignore the vague passive effects. Auras were different. The effect of Sensitivity was very obvious. At level 32, Josh had a Sensitivity score of 36. That meant that his Stonesense Aura was 36 meters. He had known that before he activated it, and known it would be a strong ability. He hadn''t really considered that this would include sensing in all directions. Josh almost fell over from sheer information overload. He could feel everything around him, all the way to the edge of the pit. He could feel out into the Jungle, the boulders and stone poking up out of the dirt. He could feel down, into the bedrock under just ten or so feet of soil. He could feel the very bones of the earth, and not just that. He could feel tiny spots of power that he thought might be gems. He could feel negative spaces like rifts in the stone, and he didn''t know if those were natural gaps in the rock or veins of metal that he could not sense directly. More than that, though, he had such depth of detail. He instinctively felt which stone was strong, where the faults and flaws were. He thought that we could shatter a boulder with a single strike like this, as if he knew the location of every minuscule defect. This, he knew, was a side effect of his sky-high Perception. Or maybe another benefit of his high Sensitivity, or both. Someone with a more reasonable stat distribution wouldn''t have such a ridiculous reaction. Finally, it faded. Josh blinked to see all his friends looking down at him, worried expressions on their faces. He had somehow ended up on his back, looking up at the ceiling. ¡°Wot happened?¡± he asked. He frowned. ¡°My aura turned off. Why?¡± ¡°You ran out of mana,¡± Ruth said. She looked worried. Josh frowned. ¡°Wot? How? Did one of you hit me in the head?¡± Going into negative mana sometimes deactivated auras. Not always, though. The rules were weird. ¡°Oi, Josh,¡± Mary said, tone serious. ¡°It''s been sixteen minutes. Your buff expired.¡± Josh blinked, then checked his status. She was right. Once his mana had dropped back down to four¡ªbecause he didn''t have the passive boost from the talisman anymore either¡ªthe aura had ended. He didn''t have enough mana to use it at all, much less enough to have a spare point. ¡°...huh,¡± Josh said. He was still trying to get his mind around what had just happened. ¡°I think we can use this. Might need to go down into the pit to get best use, though.¡± Ruth frowned. ¡°Really? Why?¡± ¡°Treasure hunting,¡± Josh said absently. ¡°Especially if...¡± He turned his eyes to Darius. Darius was frowning. ¡°If what?¡± ¡°What do you have in your pocket?¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°You could sense those?¡± Then his eyes widened, and he dug them out with almost indecent haste. In his hands were two small red glowing stones. Bloodstones. Which now Josh could sense within thirty-six meters. Including underground, where the Jungle and its bloodstone-eating monsters almost never went. ¡°Yes,¡± Darius said, letting out a breath of air. ¡°Yes, I do believe we can do something with this.¡± Chapter 9 - Down in the Dark (part 1) The first thing they did was return to the school to see if any of the kids were unclassed. If they did find any bloodstones, they would want to know if they could give them to someone who would benefit the most from them. Kids were by far the most likely to still be unclassed by now. None of the Gilroy Crossing kids were unclassed, other than the kids who were under eight years old. That wasn''t a surprise, since they had fought their way out of a monster horde. Their parents would have given them classes before sending them off. Among the Bautista kids, they had more success. Many of the pre-teen kids were unclassed. It was a general rule of thumb that parents didn''t give their kids classes before age sixteen unless there was a pressing need. By the time they were teenagers, they would generally rebel by going out to find classes themselves, but that wasn''t the end of the world. The principal was skeptical when they suggested they might be able to find new bloodstones for them underground. Josh had to admit her arguments were disheartening. The pit was relatively new; it had been formed after the Fall of the Tower and the death of humanity. That meant that even if they did find anything down there, it was unlikely to be a hundred year-old bloodstone of some obscure class. Still, there was nothing lost by trying, so they headed off to their delve. They left the very same day, when the kids from Gilroy Crossing were coming in to settle into their new accommodations. None of them wanted to lose any time. They took an elevator down into the pit with a number of other delvers. Josh noted that they were the only ones who were obviously armed. He wasn''t sure if that was a good thing or not. If there were no monsters in the pit, would that make it more or less likely that there would be bloodstones? He had quite a while to think about this as they were lowered down into the darkness on their rickety wooden platform. It was a smooth ride, and the platform was secured by a solid steel chain, but he couldn''t help but feel apprehensive. Every creak of the wood or sway of the platform set his nerves on edge. He was far from the power level where he would be able to survive a fall of this height. Josh didn''t know how far they traveled down. He didn''t even pay enough attention to know how long it took. Every once in a while he would hear the zip of rope nearby. Sometimes he even caught sight of people diving straight into the pit, their only safety line being a rope connecting them back to the surface. It seemed that some people preferred to get down faster than an elevator. Josh wondered about that. Not about how. Enough time had passed since the reset that a reasonably ambitious person could be level 30 or so by now without taking dangerous risks. They could easily have a few abilities that let them survive a fall of miles by this point. Off the top of his head, Josh knew a handful of Mage Gunner spells that could do it, though they weren''t part of the standard advancement. Josh didn''t know if Mary had bothered to learn them. His question was more why. If there were no monsters down here, nothing but rocks and ore, then what was the point of rushing? Surely all the good mining spots had already been found and claimed. He doubted that there was any need for racing each other at this point. Despite the size of the pit, the light from the sun soon faded away. The others on the platform, clearly more experienced than Josh and his party, lit oil lamps on the corners of the elevator. They also had helmets with electric torches, though they left them off. The result was a tiny pool of light descending into an infinite expanse of darkness. Ruth shivered and clutched her oversized hammer tighter. The rune-chains glowed white, and she received a few looks from the other delvers on the platform. Not too many, though. Enchanted weapons were rare, but not unheard of. They likely assumed she was a spoiled rich girl who had received a gift from her parents. Which... wasn''t all that wrong, Josh realized. Eventually, they were within sight of the pit''s floor, and Josh''s worries were washed away. Josh had assumed that the pit would be bare. After all, it had been blasted out of the ground by the Eight Immortals and a particularly difficult dracobeast. He had seen high-tier battlegrounds before. In his youth, he had seen the Eye of the Deep, a spot in the ocean where powerful uncontrolled magic had pushed back the entire ocean in a wide area, exposing the seabed for a hundred yards in every direction. It had faded eventually, the ocean returning, but he still remembered the sheer power of that sight. Of a battle so destructive that nature itself had fled. The floor of the pit was covered in a mushroom forest, with caps the size of houses and stalks wider than his outspread arms. Most of them were the ghostly white of fungi that never saw the sun, but he also saw tall and thin bioluminescent mushrooms, and the floor of the pit was covered in a moss that grew so thick it could be mistaken for grass. In the light of the mushrooms, it looked blue, but the more natural light of the torches revealed it to be green. There were paths cut through the mushroom forest. Their own elevator came down on an empty space of stone that had been cleared for its own use. Josh and his friends piled out in a daze, even as the others pushed out with far less patience. He looked around, still lost in his own head. There were glowing spots in the air. Spores, he realized, from the mushrooms. He followed one with his eyes as it fell. When it touched the ground, it visibly buried itself, and he could see it beginning to grow a new mushroom stalk. ¡°The Jungle is down here?¡± he asked, surprised. One of the more experienced delvers cocked her head. ¡°Yeah. You didn''t know that? Why did you think we were down here?¡± ¡°For the metal,¡± he said, oddly offended. ¡°No one mentioned a thing about mushroom harvesting!¡± She shrugged. ¡°I mean, it''s both. They''ll be taking up piles of rock and ore all day. But a lot of us are here for the plants.¡± She nodded at a large glowing bush. It looked like a flowering fern, with some of its stalks glowing. ¡°That thing can be used to make a healing potion. Do you know how rare it is to find natural materials that can be used in potions without class abilities?¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He did, in fact. People with the Alchemist class could extract magic from almost anything and use it to infuse their potions. But since the Alchemist class didn''t exist any more, they had to get by with more difficult methods. Among other things, that meant rarer ingredients were needed just to make lower-quality potions. What could a true Alchemist make with this? Josh thought to himself sadly. In Gilroy Crossing, Mayor Vashti had wanted an Alchemist. She''d already had a lower-case alchemist, someone who knew how to mix a few different magical herbs together, but it was nowhere near the level someone could get with the actual class. It was a [Crafter] class, so theoretically Josh''s Woodcrafter bloodstones should have been enough to let someone advance into that class. If so, they hadn''t found the right advancement path before the attack came. They had been too careful, too slow. ¡°Wot about monsters?¡± Mary asked. ¡°If the Jungle''s down here making everything grow and glow, you''ve gotta have monsters.¡± ¡°Insects only,¡± the delver said. ¡°And the scouts kill them all before they can become a threat.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Besides, we can handle a few low-level bugs. We''re mostly Mages.¡± Josh realized she was right. Normal animals in the Jungle could become infused with magic and begin gaining levels, though nothing about the process was well understood. Typically, however, that was rare. Most monsters came out of the dungeons the day before the reset. Dungeons somehow always had a full stock of monsters, but they could only escape when the seals became weakest, on the very last day of the year. If you cleared out every monster in an area, the dungeons would just release more. You had to destroy the dungeon itself to be sure an area was safe. That was what they did with the Burn Line around the City. But there were no dungeons down here. He had never heard of one appearing underground. Or rather, had never heard of an entrance appearing underground. Was that the Tower, making sure that the dungeons could always be accessed? No one knew the precise relationship between the dungeons and the Tower. I''ll bet the elf would have known, Josh thought. Maybe he could have gotten more information out of him before killing him. Then again, it was little more than blind luck that he managed that, so he wasn''t going to go double-thinking his choices now. ¡°Are there any tunnels?¡± Ruth asked, smiling at the delvers. ¡°You know, a twisting labyrinth of passages hiding danger and treasures?¡± She said it like a joke, but she still leaned forward eagerly. The delver laughed. ¡°Sure.¡± She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. ¡°There''s no one digging in that direction right now, but there''s plenty of tunnels. They''ve found good stuff before.¡± ¡°Thanks!¡± Ruth called. She pulled her giant hammer off her back and literally skipped forward, happy to have found a plan. The rest of them thanked the delvers and followed after Ruth. ¡°So, you know,¡± Josh said, in a deliberately conversational tone. ¡°There''s no guarantee we''ll find anything down here. This is more of a test of my Stonesense than real hope for anything good.¡± Darius nodded and pushed his glasses back up his nose. ¡°Indeed. I suspect that these tunnels have long since been mined out of anything useful. That is why they are abandoned.¡± He paused as they passed by a glowing mushroom that was big enough and bright enough that it was hard to look at. ¡°Although we might get lucky and find a handful of gems that were missed.¡± ¡°I knoow,¡± Ruth whined. ¡°But we might find something! Besides, even if we don''t, it''s good practice!¡± She gripped her hammer tighter and grinned. Josh could imagine what kind of ¡°practice¡± a level 34 Rune Warrior wanted. Ruth had spent most of her life forced into the Healer role by her father. From her complaining, they all knew that she almost never advanced beyond the Mender class. Her father kept her close, kept her safe. The closest she was allowed to danger was typically the field hospitals near the Burn Line. She had never even killed a monster herself until this reset. Josh wondered how much more Ruth would have flowered if she''d had a chance to fight like she wanted to. Or maybe the reason she was so obsessed with being allowed to fight was because her father had kept her from it for so long. Mary walked casually, her hands behind her head. The grass-like moss crunched under her feet, sending up small puffs of pollen and spores that glowed in the light of the mushrooms. ¡°I don''t see what you''re thinking to find down here, love. It''s not as though the pit was here in the Old World. No one came down here before the Eight.¡± Ruth raised a finger as if she was making an excellent point. ¡°Ah-ha! But they came here basically right after they beat the Tower, right?¡± ¡°Within a week, I think,¡± Josh said. He hadn''t visited the village''s museum yet. He didn''t know the full details of the timeline. ¡°A month at most.¡± He knew more from the other direction. The Eight had descended from the Tower, their last wish having made them immortal. Everyone else in the world was dead, so they had used the Mechanist¡¯s Cradles left behind to start growing a new generation of humanity. There were a hundred pods, and it took them a while to grow a full baby from DNA samples. So the Eight had spent their time flying around the nearby area, blasting anything that looked like it could be a threat. The dracobeast at San Juan Bautista had apparently been one of the worst. Hence the giant pit in the ground. ¡°That means that the monsters didn''t have time to trash the town completely,¡± Ruth pointed out. She was walking backwards so that they could see her giant grin. ¡°There might be treasures that got buried when the town fell into the pit! Maybe even bloodstones!¡± Josh blinked. He had only been half paying attention to what she was saying. He had already dismissed it as nonsense and wishful thinking. But her logic... actually made sense. After all, he had found his Woodcrafter bloodstone in the middle of the Jungle, in a building that had miraculously been untouched by monsters due to a lucky break with an electric fence. Plenty of things had survived since the Old World. Eighty years was a long time, but not impossibly long. There were still buildings standing that protected treasures from weather and monsters. Yes, monsters hunted out bloodstones preferentially, as they were something that made them stronger. But if monsters were rare down here, then any theoretical lost bloodstone could remain safe for decades. ¡°All right,¡± he said, cautiously. ¡°I''ll give you that it''s possible. Still probably gonna be disappointed, though.¡± ¡°I''m willing to take that risk,¡± she said, as firmly as if he was suggesting they fight a dragon. Which was their end goal, wasn''t it? So maybe she already had the right mindset for that. It didn''t take them long to reach the pit''s wall. The elevator had let them down pretty close, it was just that walking through a glowing mushroom forest had slowed them down. Josh had seen some pretty interesting things, but even he had to pause at that. The wall was covered in moss and slime. Some of it glowed, some of it extended tendrils to try and draw them closer. It didn''t seem like any of it was intelligent, or even strong enough to be considered a real monster. He had faced a Fungal Colossus before. It hadn''t been fun for anyone involved. Chapter 10 - Down in the Dark (part 2) There was a hole that had been dug into the rock, easily identified by the dark spot in the glowing patches of moss. The hole was three meters tall and three meters wide, a perfectly circular entrance into the tunnel complex. It had to have been carved by earth magic. Though it opened up into a cavern, it was tiny compared to the vast pit behind them. It looked more like an air pocket in the stone, and the light of bioluminescent mosses and fungi sparsely lit the space. Josh could see hints of more cracks and tunnels along the edges, the maze that they had been promised. ¡°All right,¡± he said after a moment. ¡°If no one has any better ideas, I''ll turn on my aura.¡± ¡°It seems the best idea,¡± Darius agreed. Ruth grinned. ¡°What''s the worst that could happen?¡± Mary snorted. ¡°Okay, thanks for that.¡± She pulled out her guns. ¡°I''m ready, give it a go.¡± He gave her a look. ¡°We''re not gonna be attacked by monsters just because Ruth said we wouldn''t.¡± She clicked her guns. He sighed, then took out his talisman. He had enough spares that he wasn''t worried about losing one. He focused on the stone and crushed it. He confirmed that the buff was working and breathed in a meditative trance, topping off his mana. Then he turned on his Stonesense Aura. It wasn''t as overwhelming this time, as he was prepared for it. Still, suddenly feeling everything within thirty meters in every direction took a moment to get used to. He could feel the huge open pit behind him, and he could feel the winding tunnels through the stone in front of him. It felt like a maze, with dozens of dead-ends and random turns. He assumed that the miners had been following the richest ore veins, and hadn''t been worried about efficiency. They had still missed more than a little, though. Josh couldn''t get anything like a specific mass out of his Stonesense, but he could feel thin veins between the tunnel walls, hidden behind the rock. He thought he could sense the strength of the stone, the ripples and striations of centuries, but he wasn''t that precise with the metal. He felt the absence of stone, more than anything. Though the metal did feel different from, say, the open air. That was interesting. Perhaps because metal was conceptually related to stone on a relatively close level? Magic could be like that sometimes, more worried about meaning than physical effects. He knew it wasn''t actually physical, because if it was physical, he would be able to sense the people around him. Their wooden armor, even their very bones, would show up if this sense was like an x-ray. He''d encountered techniques like that, rarely, enhancing physical traits until they seemed magical. But they always had a different feel than actual magic. Josh opened his eyes. ¡°There''s an open pocket above us.¡± He pointed. ¡°There are no bloodstones there, but it''s a hollow in the stone. It might be what we''re looking for in general. Something that fell from above and was buried in the battle.¡± Darius followed his pointing finger and frowned at the solid stone ceiling. ¡°Is the stone loose there?¡± ¡°On the sides, yeah,¡± Josh said, not lowering his finger. ¡°But it''s all relative. We can''t dig through with our hands, if that''s what you''re after.¡± Darius heaved a great sigh. ¡°I had hoped that this would be simpler. Still, we came prepared.¡± He turned to Ruth. ¡°Is it a problem that it''s on the ceiling?¡± She grinned. ¡°Nope!¡± She pulled her large fanny pack off, put it on the ground, and started pulling items out. Josh lowered his hand, then stepped forward to look at what she was doing. She had a few small wooden tablets charged with various runes, glowing almost imperceptibly. He knew that meant she had deactivated them, and she could activate them again from a distance. That was the advantage her Rune Warrior class gave her. ¡°How thick is the rock ceiling?¡± she asked. ¡°It''s thin enough for your hammer,¡± he said. ¡°Too thick for your fists. What are you thinking?¡± She looked up at the ceiling again. ¡°I can''t hit it with my hammer from this angle. Even if we built a scaffold or a stair or something to get me up there.¡± Josh nodded. They had more than enough blueprints in their libraries to do that. She bit her lip and glanced at him sideways. ¡°I... have an idea. I''m not sure it will work.¡± He pointed. ¡°Does it have to do with using that thermite paste?¡± She jumped. ¡°You know what that is?¡± He chuckled. ¡°Lady, I''m a reclaimer. They call that a hot lockpick.¡± It wasn''t even hard to make, and any magic-type with a fire spell could activate it from a distance. He wondered if he would eventually be able to make it himself using one of his Crafting classes. Being able to use [Instant Crafting] to create a bunch of thermite out of nowhere would certainly be a trick. He shook himself out of his thoughts. That was something for later. ¡°Not sure how well it will work on stone, though. I''ve never tried it.¡± She shook her head hurriedly. ¡°No, no! I''m not...¡± She scrambled to stuff the small tin of paste back in her pack. Josh thought maybe she should be more careful with it. She was literally keeping it right next to her arse. What happened if she sat on it too hard? ¡°It''s a rune-chain I''ve been working on.¡± She unrolled a sheaf of paper. It wasn''t a true rune-chain, because the power would burn through the paper and render it useless. Still, it worked for taking notes or demonstrating an idea to someone else. Josh hadn''t memorized the runes yet, but he could at least recognize some key features. He tapped the largest rune at the top. ¡°That''s the main rune, that dictates most of the rest of the rune-chain.¡± She nodded. ¡°That''s Vareo¡ªthe gravity rune.¡± She traced the smaller runes that created the circle, like links in a chain. ¡°The rest are the connector runes, like words in a sentence.¡± She bit her lip. ¡°If I did it right, it should flip the gravity of anyone who uses it.¡± ¡°Huh,¡± he said, for lack of anything better. ¡°So you could walk on the ceiling?¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Yeah.¡± She paused. ¡°In theory. Sometimes things get... weird.¡± Mary hadn''t put her guns away, but she looked over her shoulder. ¡°Wot you mean by weird?¡± Ruth clicked her tongue. ¡°I put it on a box. Thought it would fly up into the air, you know? It flipped over and stuck to the nearest wall.¡± She flailed her hands in a vague motion. ¡°Other than that, it worked how I thought it should. It changed the direction of down for it. I dropped it again, and it flew off into the Jungle until it ran out of power.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I haven''t had much of a chance to test it more, but I wasn''t able to get it to orient sideways again. Now it just inverts, or fails.¡± ¡°So you''re worried that it might take you in a random direction,¡± Darius said. He nodded. ¡°That is surprisingly forward-thinking of you.¡± Ruth pouted. ¡°What do you mean, surprisingly?¡± Josh ignored the byplay. ¡°You have anything to mark the stone?¡± She blinked at the sudden change of subject. ¡°Huh? Yeah, sure.¡± She dug in the pack again, then pulled out an extending rod. She affixed a piece of chalk to the end of it. ¡°Here.¡± Josh nodded and used it to mark the ceiling of the tunnel, where he sensed the gap was. It wasn''t far to reach. Josh could have put Ruth on his shoulders and she would have been able to do it. But it remained just too far to use a hammer. At least normally. ¡°Give me the rune-chain,¡± he said. ¡°Let me flip.¡± He collapsed the rod again and handed it to Ruth. ¡°I''m turning off my Aura.¡± He did so, and a headache he hadn''t even noticed started to fade. That could be dangerous. ¡°I have that Break Stone technique, remember.¡± And he had plans for the extra mana. Ruth hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward. ¡°All right, hold still.¡± She carved the rune-chain onto his wooden chest piece quickly. He couldn''t tell if she used techniques, but she didn''t use [Instant Crafting]. When she was done, she pushed mana into each rune one by one, taking a break a few times to recover her mana. ¡°All right,¡± she said finally. ¡°I haven''t activated it yet.¡± The glow had faded to the point that Josh could only see it if he was looking for it. There was just enough mana in the runes to keep them primed, but she would have to put more in when she used her spell. ¡°Tell me when you''re ready.¡± ¡°Wait, hold on,¡± Mary said. ¡°You can do that?¡± Ruth blinked. ¡°Do what? Activate the rune-chain at a distance?¡± ¡°Yeah, that.¡± Mary crossed her arms over her chest and frowned down at her. ¡°Wot, you can just muck up runes at a distance? Turn them on and off for chuckles?¡± Ruth looked at her, confused. It took Josh a moment to realize what Mary was saying. ¡°She can only do it with runes she infused herself,¡± he explained. ¡°She has a sympathetic link to them. She can''t just activate any runes she sees.¡± Mary nodded slowly, while Ruth bit her lip. ¡°I suspect that can still be used against enemies, however,¡± Darius mused. ¡°How long will the runes remain ''hers,'' so to speak?¡± Josh leaned back on his hands. ¡°I dunno. I''m not an expert on runes.¡± He raised an eyebrow at Ruth. ¡°Oi, maybe you can make some more enchanted gear for us, we can figure it out.¡± They were coming to the point where they needed enchanted weapons. Monsters were getting stronger. Ruth didn''t seem to notice the jab. ¡°People put their mana into their gear naturally,¡± she said, mostly to herself. ¡°That''s why enchantments fade over time. Without a human refreshing the runes with their own mana, it all leaks out.¡± She looked up at Darius. ¡°Enchantments fade after a year if they''re not touched. So it would take a year at absolute most.¡± ¡°No way that it takes a full year,¡± Josh said with a snort. He''d be surprised if it took eight days. ¡°Well, we can figure it out.¡± Ruth smacked his chest, then put her carving tools away. ¡°You''re good to go!¡± ¡°All right.¡± Wasting no more time, Josh positioned himself under the spot on the ceiling. ¡°Hit it.¡± Ruth snapped her fingers, and the world lurched. It wasn''t as simple as the world flipping. That would imply a sense of motion. Instead, what had been up suddenly became down, with nothing in between. If he did nothing, he would fall straight up into the ceiling, land on his head, and maybe break his neck. Thankfully, Josh had done something like this before. He had chosen his spot carefully. The second Ruth raised her fingers, he jumped into the air and flipped like a gymnast. It was disorienting, but when the gravity effect took hold, he was able to get his feet under him. He landed solidly on the ceiling, now the floor. He looked up to the floor, now the ceiling, with his friends hanging down like strange bats. They stared at him, surprised by his maneuver. The tunnel was only about three meters tall, so the others could reach out and touch him if they so chose. He knew this for sure because Mary grinned and reached out to ruffle his hair. He scowled and brushed her away. ¡°Nice moves!¡± she said with a laugh. She reached down, looking for something among their equipment. ¡°One sec, lemme toss a hammer up.¡± That wouldn''t work. At least, Josh didn''t think it would. It might depend on exactly what Ruth had written into the rune-chain. Most likely, anything he wasn''t wearing would still be subject to normal gravity. It wouldn''t be effective breaking the ceiling. ¡°I have another idea,¡± he said. He walked over to the chalk marking he had left. He knelt down and placed his hand on the part that he knew was the thinnest bit of the stone. He focused on his [Break Stone] technique from back in Gilroy Crossing. It was a hammer tech, one of a few he had. Obviously, that meant that normally he would need a hammer to use it. The technique showed his arms how to move in the most powerful and effective manner possible. It was moments like this that he loved magic. Instead, he said ¡°Hands-Free Crafting.¡± A burst of kinetic energy with no source slammed into the stone, leaving a large crack in it. His stamina and mana both went down by a point each. He had plenty more to get this done. As long as the rune-chain didn''t run out of Ruth''s mana, he could even pause to regenerate his resources. As it turned out, it only took two more uses of the technique. The stone shattered, and dust and debris fell out, sending his friends down below into a coughing fit. Nothing else happened, which was a disappointment. He had been hoping for another combat art combing the technique and the spell, like his [Empty Chop] art. Maybe that had to be practiced in real combat before he could earn it. Or not real combat, but some form of combat. Combat classes could learn new abilities in training after all. He made a mental note to talk to Mary about it. They could find rock golems for him to pound on or something. Once he got Ruth''s attention¡ªwhich took a bit, because of all the dust in the air¡ªhe flipped off the ceiling at just the right moment again. He brushed off his clothes and smiled at his friends. ¡°Well, that worked. Anything good?¡± As a proof of concept, the whole affair had been a great success. Josh had found a hidden pocket in the stone, some sort of fold or bubble from when the great battle had been rearranging the landscape like mud and clay. As a treasure hunt, it was... less of a success. It seemed to be a load of trash and junk. Ancient bags of crisps and a dead squirrel. There were some keys and cans, but that wouldn''t be worth much as scrap metal. There weren''t any electronics, which were the big-ticket items. There weren''t even any artifacts of historical significance, which could have been a decent find. The pocket of stone would have preserved clothing, personal items, and those sorts of things that museums in the City liked. There were no bloodstones either, but they had expected that. Mary still managed to be disappointed. ¡°All right,¡± Josh said, clapping his hands together. That stirred up the dust again, and everyone coughed. ¡°We''ve confirmed that this spell can find pockets in the stone. Now we just have to get down to work!¡± Mary wrinkled her nose at him. ¡°What''s that supposed to mean?¡± He chuckled. ¡°It means digging.¡± Chapter 11 - Taxes (part 1) They spent all day down in the tunnels, expanding the existing system, shoring up weak walls, and trying to plan out more efficient routes. Josh received several more blueprints for braces and tunnels, though there was only so much he could do with his limited mana pool. Ruth promised she''d work on some mana-boosting items. If he got to the point that he could use his [Instant Crafting] to make a full tunnel, this would all go much faster. Unfortunately, she was usually busy helping him dig. Mary and Darius tried, but were of minimal help. They didn''t have the strength to pound through rock, and they didn''t have the techniques or spells to make the process easier. Still, all things considered, Josh felt good about their progress. From all his skills ranking up, new blueprints, and using the blueprints, he managed to reach level 33, while Ruth hit level 35. They had both been on the cusp. Mary and Darius were still level 34, but he thought they''d get some more experience tomorrow. There were monsters down here, and people did need to handle them. Besides, they had a good haul of treasures from their digging. Still no bloodstones, but a handful of historical artifacts like street signs and discarded scraps of clothing. Sooner or later, they were going to find a body, and Josh dreaded that moment. Though if there really was a museum in town, they''d pay a fortune for it. Near the end of the day, Mary and Darius decided to explore the pit. They didn''t get any monster kills, or any experience at all as far as he could tell. They did, however, get a decent haul of magical herbs and fungi. As a man who had run a Healer for several years, Darius had learned what plants went into potions. They hadn''t found anything particularly valuable, but they had netted themselves a profit for the day. Once they returned to the surface and their lodgings, they found themselves swarmed by eager young children who had been stuck in school all day. They were all very interested in hearing stories about what was going on at the bottom of the pit. Josh protesting that nothing fun had happened did little to dissuade them. Baara helped them get in touch with buyers for the stuff they found, so that got sorted out easily enough. Every village seemed to have a different market system, so it could be annoying sometimes. Bautista seemed to be pretty closely based on the City''s scavenger markets, which was good for the future, if they ended up staying long. The next day didn''t go quite as smoothly. ¡°What do you mean we need a license?¡± Josh asked, trying not to grit his teeth. The clerk who had arrived shortly after breakfast, before the kids had even left, seemed to shrink before him. Josh could tell that he was looming. It was a natural problem that occurred when you were as big as he was. Normally, he would step back and apologize. For some reason, he couldn''t muster up the willpower this time. ¡°It''s... standard procedure!¡± the little man whined. He looked around for support, but there was none. The adults were standing behind Josh, joining him in glaring at the man, and the children thought they were successfully hiding in various places where they could peek. ¡°Out-of-towners need a license to sell anything! The fines aren''t so bad, but selling anything from the pit is¡ª¡± ¡°What fines?¡± Josh demanded. ¡°No one told us about this.¡± The man drew himself up, barely. Apparently he felt on firmer footing with this conversation. ¡°Now, ignorance of the law is hardly an excuse. It is your own responsibility to learn the customs of¡ª¡± Josh interrupted him with a slash of his hand. ¡°We didn''t sneak into your village and plunder your riches. We had a meeting with your mayor yesterday where we explained our plans!¡± Well, Josh assumed that was what had happened at the meeting. Baara was conscientious like that. ¡°He should have told us then.¡± Or, at the very least, reminded them to check themselves. Josh wasn''t interested in giving even that small concession, though. The little man shrank back down again. ¡°O-oh. Well, I don''t know anything about that.¡± He looked down at his clipboard, fiddling with the papers again. ¡°I mean, technically it''s not the mayor''s job to¡ª¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Josh drew himself up more. That alone was enough to make the little man shut up. Josh considered, for a moment, that this man almost certainly had a higher Strength score than him. Ability scores could be difficult to quantify beyond the direct, numerical advantages they gave, but the fact that people with a higher Strength were physically stronger was easy to prove. Josh, with his hilariously unbalanced stats, was already weaker than most of the children. Though this man was wearing a small mask to keep from being scanned, unless he was incredibly underleveled, he would be able to break Josh in half. Still, the man clearly didn''t realize that, so when a man twice his size loomed over him, he shut up. ¡°Why don''t you tell us how much it costs to get a license,¡± Josh said in a low tone, ¡°and we can move on from there.¡± The little man said a number. The household erupted into profuse swearing as every adult¡ªand some of the older children¡ªmade their displeasure at that figure known. Josh managed to keep his anger reigned in, though his eye did twitch. ¡°I''m sorry,¡± he said, ¡°I think you accidentally added a few zeroes to that number.¡± The little man shook his head, though he was trembling so hard it was hard to tell. ¡°N-no sir! That''s the standard licensing fee!¡± He coughed. ¡°I apologize, I should have been more clear, that''s per organization, not per person. Now, there are some additional restrictions applied¡ªcan''t have everyone in town claiming to belong to one licensed organization, after all!¡± He laughed weakly. No one else did. ¡°But I assure you, that process is simple and free. I can do all the paperwork for you now!¡± Josh wasn''t even interested in what new trickery was going to be used in the paperwork. ¡°There''s no way everyone, or even every organization, can afford that.¡± He pointed in the direction of the pit. ¡°I saw dozens of independent delvers yesterday.¡± This time, the little man nodded more confidently. ¡°Of course, village natives do not require a separate license. Their citizen identification is enough.¡± Ah. There it was. This whole thing was just an excuse to crowd out people who hadn''t been lucky enough to help found the village, or related to those people. No wonder this place wasn''t expanding as fast as Josh would have expected. They weren''t fully exploiting the pit because they didn''t have the manpower, and they didn''t have the manpower because they were keeping out competition with fees. Give it another generation or two, and this village might be a rich resource center regardless. But they had only been here for a handful of years. They didn''t have the strong base to get started so quickly. Josh took a deep breath. ¡°We would like a full list of all this village''s... unique regulations.¡± ¡°Of course! I have a copy right here, actually. But what about the fines you''ve already accrued¡ª¡± Josh snatched the papers from the man''s hand. ¡°After we have reviewed them, we will decide whether we want to stay or go.¡± The little man caught his meaning, and blanched. ¡°You''d leave? Without paying your fines?¡± His only answer was the door slamming in his face. Baara took the papers from Josh''s hand. She started skimming through them. ¡°Oh dear,¡± she murmured. ¡°Oh dear, oh dear.¡± Mary stepped past to look up into Josh''s eyes. ¡°You know we can''t leave,¡± she said. ¡°Or at least, the kiddies can''t.¡± Josh grunted. ¡°There are other towns!¡± Ruth said, a little desperately. She looked between them. ¡°Worst comes to worst, we can move down to the coast. That, uh, might be better in some ways.¡± Farther from the City, she meant. Darius shook his head. ¡°For us? Perhaps. But the children are having enough trouble already. Moving again so soon will simply make things worse for them.¡± ¡°It''s a last resort,¡± Josh said firmly. He crossed his arms and looked at Baara. ¡°How bad is it?¡± Baara winced. ¡°It''s, um, not great?¡± She sounded like she was critiquing his choice of curtains for the dining room and didn''t want to hurt his feelings. She looked down at the papers again. ¡°These regulations could be reasonable, if we had been informed of them ahead of time...¡± Mary snorted. ¡°Yeah, and I can hit level a thousand if I wish really hard.¡± Chapter 12 - Taxes (part 2) Baara bit her lip, before apparently deciding not to engage with Mary. She turned to Josh fully. ¡°A sufficiently large organization, informed of these laws ahead of time, could pay the license fee and then be in profit in, oh...¡± She looked as if she was making some calculations in her head. ¡°A month or so? Based on what we sold yesterday, I mean.¡± Josh wasn''t sure that their profits were a good baseline, but then again they didn''t have any others. ¡°The fines are where they get us.¡± She nodded. ¡°Delving without a license is a reasonable fine. In fact, if it was the only fine, people might accept it as a cost of doing business.¡± She flipped to a specific page. ¡°However, selling without a license quickly ramps up the cost. It starts with a small flat fine, but then turns into direct seizure of profits, and finally jail time or exile.¡± She looked up helplessly. ¡°I don''t think we have enough credits between all of us to pay.¡± ¡°Wait.¡± Darius stepped forward, a frown on his face. ¡°You said the first offense is a small fine. How could¡ª¡± ¡°Each individual sale is counted as a separate offense,¡± Baara said apologetically. Josh and the others had given her a few crates of historical artifacts and gathered plants. Depending on how strictly the town counted¡ªand Josh would hazard a guess that they counted every individual spore¡ªthey might be well into the dozens of offenses already. Darius closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ¡°I see. So we have already reached the jail time penalty, but they will oh so graciously allow us to just pay our fines and be done with it.¡± ¡°Uh...¡± Baara shuffled through the papers again. ¡°...yes?¡± There was more muttering from the other adults and older teenagers. Even those without a head for economics had caught on to the kind of bullying that they were finding themselves subject to. ¡°There has to be a loophole,¡± Mary said. She shook her head. ¡°A big giant loophole that you can drive a lorry through. There''s no way this town could have lasted more than a week with rules this strict! How many of the people here are legally founding families?¡± ¡°It doesn''t matter,¡± Darius said, shaking his head. ¡°Regulations like this, so strict so as to be practically a blanket ban, are not truly an effort to collect money. This is all an attempt to convince us to leave the village.¡± ¡°Or work under the locals.¡± Everyone turned to Ruth. She looked around, surprised at the attention. ¡°What?¡± she asked, confused. ¡°That''s the loophole, isn''t it? Baara said operating without a license is a cheap fine. So we can delve down into the pit, then come up and give the stuff to a local to sell. Call them our business partner, I guess. We get to dodge the taxes, but all our money is in the hands of a local.¡± Josh paused. ¡°I didn''t even think of that.¡± He wasn''t an economist. He turned to Darius. ¡°Would that work?¡± ¡°For us? I don''t know. We don''t have any friends here yet. For the village? Perhaps.¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Maybe we should¡ª¡± Josh began, but he was interrupted. ¡°Maybe we should find somewhere else to jaw about it, yeah?¡± Mary asked. She looked at the nearby adults, and then the places where the kids thought they were hiding. ¡°This place is a bit exposed, innit?¡± Josh grimaced. ¡°OI!¡± he shouted. ¡°You lot all have jobs to do! Get to it!¡± He nodded at Baara. ¡°C''mon. Let''s talk.¡± They ended up in the room that had been designated as belonging to Josh. Mary was gleeful in declaring that ¡°no one would ever expect anything important to happen here.¡± She also made eyes between him and Ruth, which he ignored. The five of them stood in the room. Baara shared the papers with Darius. ¡°Wot are our options?¡± Josh asked. ¡°Any chance we have the credits to pay?¡± ¡°We might have a chance,¡± Baara said cautiously. ¡°Most of the parents, um, they gave their kids all their money before...¡± She trailed off. After a moment, she rallied. ¡°Yes, we could pay it off.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Mary ticked off on her fingers. ¡°Pay it off, run away. Those our only options?¡± Ruth pouted. ¡°We could find a sponsor!¡± Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°Sure. Three options.¡± She didn''t hold up another finger for that one. ¡°I am not certain that would work, at least in the short term.¡± Darius looked contemplative. ¡°We still have the fines to worry about.¡± ¡°I, um, really don''t like the idea of uprooting the kids again,¡± Baara said. She looked around at them all. She might be nominally the leader of the refugees, but she clearly felt like a child out of her depth here. Which she was. The fact that someone as young as her had ended up in charge was either a sign of how bad things had gotten or a hint at some leadership ability that Josh hadn''t noticed yet. ¡°We could just do a runner,¡± Mary said. ¡°The four of us, I mean. Make it all public, make it so we take the debt with us.¡± Baara grimaced. ¡°I am not sure that would work. And even if it did...¡± She shook her head. Some steel entered her voice, and Josh was finally reminded of her mother. ¡°That would be a poor reward for what you have done for us.¡± Everyone fell silent at that. Josh suspected that they were thinking the same as he was. She had no idea what they had done. It was their fault that the monsters had come to Gilroy Crossing. The elf had been searching for them, and it was their upgrade of the citystone specifically that seemed to have been the final catalyst. Josh figured that Ruth blamed herself for that. He glanced over and saw her looking forlorn. Yeah, he''d have to talk to her. The citystone wasn''t her fault. He was the one who had pushed for it. He needed to make sure she didn''t get crushed under the weight of his mistakes. ¡°There is a fourth option,¡± Josh said at last. He tried to count it off on his fingers... only to remember he didn''t have enough. He flinched. His missing fingers throbbed again. He forced himself to continue. ¡°We''ve been playing it safe so far. That''s what got us blindsided at Gilroy. We need to be pushing harder, grinding our levels, taking advantage of our unique classes.¡± Ruth nodded, though Josh figured she hadn''t put all the pieces together yet. Darius nodded too, and Josh figured he had put all the pieces together. Baara just looked lost. Mary, however, glared at him with narrow eyes. ¡°What,¡± she said carefully, ¡°are you suggesting?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°It''s simple, innit? We need full access to the citystone.¡± He took a breath, then let it out. ¡°We need to conquer this village.¡± Mary started laughing. Chapter 13 - Takeover (part 1) Of course, it wasn''t so simple. You couldn''t just walk into a village and declare it yours. Getting full admin access to a citystone meant getting rid of anyone else who had access. In some communities, that meant killing every adult in the village. Here, Josh suspected that the mayor was literally the only person with full access. There were non-lethal ways to remove his access. They could buy it from him, or they could physically drag him out of range of the citystone. If he stayed out of range for eight full days, he would lose the permissions, and they would fall to the next person to touch the citystone. It was an idea, but Josh wanted to put all those violent options in their back pocket for now. Though he knew he might look like someone who solved all his problems by bashing through it with his skull, he preferred to talk his way out That meant meeting with the mayor. This wasn''t as hard as Josh expected. Bautista might be a big town considering how far it was from the City, but in the end it only had a population of a thousand people, at absolute most. Their party was a big one, and the mayor had heard about it. He made time to speak to them. ¡°Well,¡± he said when Josh walked into his office. ¡°What an interesting specimen.¡± The mayor was almost aggressively average. He had a brown skin tone of indeterminate ethnicity, he had brown hair cut short, he was of average height and even average age. Josh would guess him at thirty or forty at the outside, just in time to be the product of the first big baby boom the Eight Immortals had encouraged. Josh would bet this man had more than one sibling, older and younger both. He was even average level, scanning as a [Level 17 Defender]. His bodyguard was something else entirely. He didn''t wear a mask, likely to advertise his status as a [Level 43 Attacker], well above Josh''s level 33 Stonecrafter. He was a big, broad-shouldered man, almost as tall as Josh himself, wearing a leather jacket and well-worn jeans. He had a dozen different weapons strapped to his body, from half a dozen knives to a short sword to a rifle to a couple pistols, a mace... Josh stopped counting when he realized that every single one of the weapons was glowing with magic power. Not strong magical power. Even with his untrained eye, he could tell that most of the items were rather weak. But getting so many would still be an impressive feat, and an expensive one. Josh was already wondering if they could get some of those weapons for Ruth to practice more runes. Judging from the glare the guard was giving him, he didn''t think it was likely. ¡°More refugees?¡± the mayor said. He said it like it was a curse. ¡°If you''re going to complain, do it elsewhere. I''ve already given you more than enough. Everyone has to pay their way, here. No handouts.¡± He had a deep, strong voice, the kind that made you want to listen to everything he had to say. That was rather frustrating, considering what was actually coming out of his mouth. Josh wondered whether or not this guy even realized what laws and fines the town was putting on outsiders. He probably did, Josh decided. He was too smug to be unaware. ¡°Joshua Hundredborn, was it?¡± the mayor asked. ¡°Your party asked me to keep an eye out for you.¡± Josh inclined his head. ¡°I appreciate that.¡± Even though he doubted that the mayor had spared him a second thought before now. ¡°I''m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. My friends didn''t tell me much before suggesting we come talk to you.¡± ¡°Hank Hawkins.¡± He smirked, like a dare. ¡°My friends call me Hawk.¡± Josh didn''t take the bait. ¡°Mayor Hawkins. You understand there is some trouble between us, yeah?¡± ¡°Oh, yes. You broke some laws and owe some money.¡± Josh glared. ¡°We stumbled into your trap.¡± Hawkins grinned wider. ¡°You broke some laws and owe some money.¡± Josh let out a long breath. ¡°I didn''t think this would be easy. Don''t suppose you''re willing to just let bygones be bygones?¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. That earned him a snort. ¡°No.¡± ¡°I see.¡± He nodded to the bodyguard. ¡°And what about you, big guy? Why do you work for this arse?¡± ¡°Hey,¡± Hawkins said, frowning. ¡°There''s no need for name-calling, dick.¡± Josh ignored his outburst, keeping his eyes on the bodyguard. The guard shrugged. ¡°He pays.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°In enchanted gear, I''m guessing?¡± The guard shrugged again. Somehow, it seemed more of an affirmative than the previous shrug. ¡°I want to hire you to depose this idiot.¡± ¡°Now wait just a minute¡ª¡± Josh ignored the mayor, and took off his mask. Both the mayor and his bodyguard flinched. It was the first real emotion he had seen from the guard. ¡°Rogue''s bloody knives,¡± the mayor cursed. ¡°You''re the ones that world quest is about!¡± ¡°Yep.¡± Josh gave a broad grin. ¡°And I''m done running.¡± He raised an eyebrow at the bodyguard. ¡°So? What''ll it be?¡± The mayor scowled, then glanced at his bodyguard. ¡°Don''t be stupid. If we turn them in for the bounty, I can split the profits with you.¡± The bodyguard considered this for a moment, then walked towards Josh and his team. Just as Josh was gearing up for a fight, the bodyguard spun around and punched the mayor right in his smug face. The punch created a flash of light when it connected, and there was a sound like a boxing glove hitting a punching bag instead of bone crunching against bone. The mayor crumpled to the ground in a heap, but he was still breathing. ¡°Huh,¡± he said. He looked up at the bodyguard. ¡°You''re a Brawler?¡± ¡°Ring Brawler,¡± the big man said with a grunt. ¡°It''s Improved-tier.¡± He held out a hand. ¡°Beor.¡± Josh took it. ¡°Call me Josh.¡± He let go of his hand and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. ¡°Our second Crafter is Ruth. She''s the one with actual enchanting abilities, so she''s the one who you''re going to want to talk to.¡± Ruth raised a finger. ¡°Technically I''m a Rune Warrior now, but I retain all my crafting abilities! I''d definitely like to see what you''ve got!¡± Beor nodded. Josh frowned. ¡°How did you get so high level so fast, anyway?¡± It was certainly possible to just grind out against monsters, but Hawkins had the stink of a man who didn''t want his bodyguard to stray far. Beor grunted. ¡°Fed monsters.¡± Josh paled. Feeding monsters bloodstones to level them up was a trick everyone thought of sooner or later. After all, killing monsters lower level than you gave pitiable experience, so at a certain point you hit a wall. Why not level them up yourself, then kill them when they were strong enough to provide decent experience? The problem was that monsters evolved every eight levels. And they always evolved into whatever would be least convenient for nearby humans. They could turn into some incorporeal monster that would slip out of a cage, a flying monster that could escape, or a giant monster that was too much to handle. Sometimes they just evolved into bomb monsters and exploded, denying their captors any experience that way. ¡°Are there any monster pens around here?¡± Josh asked seriously. Beor shook his head. ¡°Good.¡± Josh let out a breath. ¡°We''ll start getting you those enchanted items as soon as possible.¡± Beor nodded. ¡°No rush,¡± he said, his voice rumbling like a rock slide. He looked down at the mayor. ¡°What should be done with him?¡± ¡°It depends. How does a new mayor normally take power in this town?¡± Beor shrugged. All right, that explained a few more things. ¡°There''s a prison, right?¡± Beor nodded. ¡°Stuff him there until he agrees to give up control of the citystone.¡± Mary gave him a look. ¡°That might take a bit.¡± ¡°Then we can take it as it comes,¡± Josh said. ¡°Not going to jump straight to murder without even trying the easy way first.¡± He didn''t mention that he almost wished Beor had killed the mayor. That would have left the citystone unbound, which might have resulted in complications if anyone else was nearby, but it would have been better than dealing with the mayor more. Beor nodded, then slung the mayor over his shoulder and walked out the door. And that was how Josh took over a town. At the town meeting later that night, the various shopkeeps and other prominent citizens of the town sat there in stunned amazement as he explained his actions. ¡°So,¡± Josh said, clapping his hands. ¡°That''s what happened. Mayor Hawkins is still alive, and has given up control of the citystone. Most of the salvage and mining taxes are being rescinded.¡± And thank Darius for being willing to help with that headache. ¡°For the most part, things will continue as-is. Any questions?¡± Everyone stared for a long moment. Chapter 14 - Takeover (part 2) The principal from the school spoke up. She looked like she wished that she had brought a weapon to attack him. ¡°You think you can just waltz in here, take everything we have, and we''ll be fine with it?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Josh said bluntly. She scowled. ¡°You''re just some random stranger! Why should we trust you?¡± ¡°For two reasons. First, I want you all to be honest with me. Really honest.¡± He gave her a long, hard look. ¡°Is there anyone here, one single person, who genuinely thinks Mayor Hawkins would do better than some random stranger?¡± The silence was deafening. Josh had done his research before he even met Hawkins in the first place. That idiot hadn''t even built the wall himself; he had collected taxes, then let the people build it themselves. He didn''t pay for so much as a plank. People didn''t really expect much from their mayors out here. You didn''t live in the middle of a monster-infested Jungle because you liked government oversight. Still, there was a very low bar, and Hawkins had utterly failed to clear it. ¡°Second,¡± Josh continued, ¡°I''m emptying the town coffers. Giving back what I can of what Hawkins took. Call it a stimulus package.¡± That caused an excited hubbub, but Josh waved them down. ¡°Now, it doesn''t come out to much. Seems like Hawkins liked to spread the wealth to his cronies. But it''s a few days of pay for most people, and that''s not nothing.¡± The principal scowled again. ¡°How do we know you didn''t pocket it?¡± He shrugged. ¡°I''ve got plenty of witnesses. A few of his secretaries and paper-pushers stuck around too, and they''re already working out exactly what he spent money on. They''ll find a paper trail for you, if you want it.¡± She scowled again, but that seemed to just be her default expression. She didn''t make any more trouble. Finally Abraham, the man who had escorted Josh into town in the first place, raised a hand. ¡°Yeah, hello. Do you remember me?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°I do.¡± He didn''t say anything else. He didn''t want to insult Abraham by assuming he was going to ask for a favor. Thankfully, that didn''t seem to be the plan. ¡°I was just wondering... I thought you said all your friends were dead?¡± The people around him looked at him like he was a crazy person. That was the question he wanted to ask? Josh just let out a breath and smiled. ¡°Thankfully, I was mistaken. They escaped the destruction of the town, and brought the children with them.¡± He looked around at the people of San Juan Bautista, and his smile faded. ¡°You all did hear about what happened to Gilroy?¡± Abraham nodded. ¡°Word had already gotten around when I started asking.¡± It was nice that there was decent communication out here, at least. ¡°Well, that''s why I''m here, and why I''ve taken over. I''d like to see this place get built up a bit more. Deliberately hobbling your growth out here in the Jungle just gets a town eaten.¡± Quite a few people flinched at that. Good. They knew that Hawkins hadn''t been good for the town. They''d be more willing to accept changes. ¡°To that end,¡± Josh continued. ¡°We''re going to be looking into renting out enchanted tools to the delvers, and of course enchanted weapons to the hunters.¡± He smiled. ¡°In fact, I think we have a few shroud focus items that people will find helpful.¡± There was some more murmuring from the crowd at that, but now they sounded interested. Even weak shroud focus items vastly improved survivability, and people always wanted them. Good. Practicality and greed working together could be a very powerful force. ¡°That''s about all I have to say. If there are any representatives from big delving crews, please stick around. Your help will be invaluable.¡± That was Ruth''s idea; Darius had argued against it. She said more people had more ideas, while he said they just caused more confusion. The crowd dispersed, leaving behind four people: Abraham, a man in a soot-stained smock, a woman with a hard hat that had a light on it, and a woman with an overly complicated bow slung over her shoulder. Josh stepped down from the podium. Best to get down to eye level. Looking down on people too much never sat well with him. ¡°All right,¡± he said with a grunt as he popped his neck. ¡°Let''s get started.¡± He pointed at the woman with the bow. ¡°You got a story or a song?¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. She didn''t seem to understand what he meant, but she just blew right past it. ¡°I''m Anna, one of the town''s main hunters. I kill things, and that''s usually enough to keep us safe even without a Burn Line.¡± Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°Most towns go fine without a Burn Line.¡± Considering how fast the Jungle grew, maintaining any reasonable Burn Line was usually an exercise in futility. It was generally more cost-effective to just keep the wall repaired. The City was the exception, and even they had problems with the sheer scale of territory they had claimed. That thought was sour. Sheer scale. They hadn''t even claimed the entire valley. How far they had all fallen. Anna grinned. ¡°Well, that''s more of a side benefit. I just like killing monsters. I go out and burn out any big monster nests, close up any dungeons before they get too troublesome. Seems to help, regardless.¡± ¡°Fair enough.¡± Josh gave a wry chuckle. ¡°Sensing a ''but'' coming, though.¡± She raised an eyebrow. ¡°But, it''s been a bad couple of weeks. I suspect it''s only going to get worse, if the monsters from Gilroy migrate in our direction. I think they''re might be something big coming down. Having some extra help would be a good start to your... mayorship.¡± She paused, considering. ¡°Or whatever it''s called.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°I don''t have a problem with solving problems by killing monsters.¡± He thought for a moment. ¡°Just gotta make sure solving this problem doesn''t cause more problems. I''d have a problem with that, for sure.¡± Anna looked like she was trying to count backwards in her head. ¡°...what? I lost track somewhere¡ª¡± ¡°Killing monsters isn''t a solution,¡± he said, as firm and serious as he could be. ¡°That''s treating the symptom instead of the disease, if you get me. So how do we treat the disease?¡± ¡°A better wall?¡± Ruth suggested cheerily. ¡°With runes for support?¡± ¡°Or better guns,¡± Mary suggested, bored. ¡°With more guns for support.¡± Anna laughed. ¡°Everyone wants Gunners! Everyone wants the big boom, and who can blame them? You get some nice blood splatters with guns. Almost as much fun as swords.¡± She sighed wistfully. ¡°But Archers are more reliable. It''s not as though we have the money to get whole shipments of firearms out here. What we have is what we have.¡± Josh nodded slowly. ¡°Understandable. But better defenses would be a step in the right direction, yeah?¡± ¡°It can''t hurt.¡± A slow grin of anticipation spread across her face. Josh had the feeling of staring down a shark. ¡°You have something that can help?¡± He smiled. ¡°Yeah. I have something.¡± They walked out to the southern edge of town. This was the bit of the wall with the least traffic. There wasn''t so much as a gate in this direction, as there hadn''t been any towns this far when the wall was built. Even now, it was easier to just have the caravans go around to the north entrance. The wall wasn''t in disrepair, exactly, but it could certainly be doing better. Several of the logs were splintered from old attacks, and rot had started to spot the breaks. In the Jungle, you had to clean off rot daily, or it would quickly overcome any defenses. Josh nodded. ¡°This is a good place to start. Let''s expand the wall by a few feet.¡± Anna crossed her arms. ¡°That''s boring. What will that do?¡± He raised a hand to forestall her arguments. ¡°Please, let''s just give it a try, and then we''ll see if you have any further suggestions.¡± Clearing the requisite area of the Jungle didn''t take long. Even putting aside Josh and Ruth''s abilities that were specialized in cutting down trees, they had all lived with the Jungle for years at minimum. They all had experience with this matter. Darius had the most trouble, due to his abysmal Strength score, while Beor felled trees almost as fast as Josh did. ¡°All right,¡± Josh said, cracking his neck. He grinned down at the pile of logs they had created. ¡°Now we can really get started.¡± ¡°What''s that supposed to¡ª¡± Josh touched a pile of logs. ¡°Hands-Free Crafting.¡± The pile of wood began to turn itself into planks. The logs floated in the air, spinning around with sawing sounds as if he was putting them through an invisible sawmill. In just a few moments, it was done. Both Anna and the man from the delvers stood there, speechless. Beor at least had been prepared and knew somewhat what to expect, but the other two didn''t even have a hint that he was a [Crafter] before this. Josh took off his mask, giving her a chance to identify him fully. He grinned as her eyes went even wider. ¡°Sorry for keeping a lid on this,¡± he said. ¡°We''re in a bit of a bind, as I''m sure you can guess.¡± Anna groaned, then let out a chuckle. ¡°The world quest. The one that''s still blaring. The Crafter and the kidnapping?¡± She looked over at Mary, grinning. ¡°That''s... you, I take it?¡± Mary made a whistling noise like a missile and pointed to Ruth. Ruth waved. ¡°Hello! My father is overprotective and for some reason he thinks Josh is evil.¡± ¡°He did take over a town,¡± the last man in the group said. Josh hadn''t thought about him much. He was the leader of one of the bigger delver teams, and he hadn''t done much besides give his name. Terah had helped with the wall, but otherwise was content to just stand by and watch. He seemed the type to fade into the background. Josh gave him a grin. ¡°That''s fair, that''s fair. Not going to try to argue with you. Deeds over words, all that.¡± He picked up a stack of planks. He''d need tools eventually, if for no other reason to improve his mana efficiency, but that could wait until later. ¡°Why don''t we talk while we work? See what you and yours might need.¡± He winked. ¡°No reason we can''t enjoy ourselves on this job.¡± Chapter 15 - Meeting Jael was not enjoying herself on this job. This reset had started so well. She had followed her brother-in-law, Jonah Moore, out to the Burn Line to ensure some of his meetings went smoothly. They did, and not only that, but the reclaimers found a valuable factory, an immeasurably valuable bloodstone was recovered, and her darling niece Ruth had gained a unique [Crafter] class. It solved the problem of Ruth being forced into a [Healer] role without putting her on the front lines of combat, and also promised prosperity for the human race in a way that would certainly make Ruth herself rich. Absolutely perfect. Then Jonah had discovered all the mysteries around Joshua Hundredborn, and ordered Jael to kill him. Jael still didn''t disagree with the decision. There were too many dangerous questions surrounding that man to leave him free. Even though she had failed to kill him¡ªand wasn''t that embarrassing¡ªshe thought it was the best choice they could have made with the information they had at the time. The problem was, it turned out that Ruth had known all along that Jael... solved problems. Now everything was sideways. Ruth had run away with the boy, and now an entire town had been eaten by a suspiciously large monster horde. Jael had no proof that Ruth was even still alive. She wasn''t going back to Jonah without a firm answer one way or the other, though, so now she was trekking through the Jungle, hoping to find evidence of a miracle. She sensed a monster nearby. Her Shadow Ninja class wasn''t designed for tracking, but she had learned a few tricks over the years. She always learned a few techniques and spells for sensing life. They didn''t have the range to help track her niece, unfortunately, but they helped immensely with battlefield awareness. She had more than enough warning to avoid any monster in her path. She leaped into the trees, stepping between the branches as easily as stepping across the ground. Once she found the monster she had sensed, she swung down and plunged two daggers into the creature. One at the neck, one at the heart. It died instantly.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have killed a level 45 Cervidae Charger.
It was a deer the size of a bear, with sharp metal horns that crackled with electricity. She didn''t even look at the experience gain; at her level, it would just depress her. Still, every little bit helped. With her speed and overspecialized assassination class, this detour hadn''t even cost her a minute, and a monster of this level could have been a serious threat to most anyone else. She continued on her way. There was no need to bother cleaning the corpse. The Jungle was always hungry. Eventually¡ªafter three more dead monsters¡ªJael found something curious. A camp, set out in the middle of the Jungle. While that was certainly something that happened with merchant caravans, this was a rather small camp. There was just a single tent and a dead fire in a pit. It looked like there was only one person here. That was very surprising. Even she didn''t casually travel the Jungle alone. After a moment''s consideration, she decided to move on. She walked around the outside of the camp, sticking to the trees. She didn''t even get close enough to see if there was someone outside of the tent. ¡°Are you going to leave without even saying hello?¡± Jael froze in her tracks. There was a man leaning against one of the trees that bordered the small camp. He was tall, maybe reaching eight feet, and about as broad. He was wrapped head to toe in leather armor, to the point that she couldn''t see an inch of exposed skin. She couldn''t even be sure he was male, but his voice sounded masculine. Jael had met worse, and bigger, before. She was a good fifteen feet away from him, and she would normally be confident in escaping. She could even slip out of sight, then come back around and attack him from behind. It was one of her most common tricks. There was just one problem: She couldn''t feel him with her life-sensing abilities. At all. That was hardly unheard of. There were plenty of stealth abilities that could foul her detection, even if they hadn''t been ranked up as high as her detection. The problem was that almost every stealth ability she knew of stopped working once someone had eyes on you. The fact that he was invisible to her detection despite standing out in the open was worrying. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. She plastered a smile on her face, even though he wouldn''t be able to see it under her mask. She stood up straight, subtly balanced to leap away, and put her hands on her hips in a seemingly casual gesture. She left her knives there on purpose. ¡°Sorry for the rudeness, friend!¡± she called. ¡°It''s easy to lose my good manners out here. I was just heading on to the next town to look for my niece.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± He stood up from the tree and took a step forward. ¡°The next town. Not Gilroy?¡± He had a bit of a Chinese accent. Not a huge surprise. The City had a large Chinese population before the Last Raid, and after the fall, the newborn humans had done their best to resurrect the culture. ¡°Gilroy is gone, friend,¡± she said firmly. ¡°Looks like a monster horde got it.¡± ¡°Yes, I did see that.¡± The man sighed and shook his head. ¡°It always breaks my heart to see that sort of thing. What did they do to deserve such... slaughter?¡± Jael narrowed her eyes. That almost sounded like he suspected that foul play was involved. She did as well, of course, but she was the personal assassin of a City operative. She had seen all sorts of crazy ways for a town to die. They generally tried to keep that out of the press, though. Civilians didn''t do well if they knew there were people out there killing their towns. ¡°I''m afraid I don''t know what happened,¡± she said, which was true. ¡°All I know is that there were too many monsters.¡± Best not to mention the upgraded citystone. It would confuse the narrative. The big man nodded. ¡°Of course, of course. Please, I would not expect you to have all the answers, Miss...¡± He trailed off meaningfully. ¡°...Jael,¡± she said after a moment. Lying could cause problems. ¡°And you are?¡± He bowed low with a sweeping motion, like a butler at a mansion. ¡°Hou Zheng, traveling Battle Mender, hoping to ply my skills in whatever passes for civilization out here.¡± He was a [Healer]? Out here alone? Well, Battle Menders could certainly take care of themselves. She nodded politely. ¡°A pleasure to meet you, Mister Hou Zheng. Now¡ª¡± ¡°Brother.¡± Jael raised an eyebrow. ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°Brother Hou Zheng,¡± the man continued, still polite. ¡°I am, after all, a priest.¡± Jael blinked owlishly. That... was a surprise. She didn''t know much about organized religion. That was a City thing. Who had time for all that out here in the Jungle? ¡°W-well,¡± she said, after too long a pause. ¡°That is... good for you. Brother.¡± She gave an awkward cough. ¡°I''m heading off to San Juan Bautista, if you don''t mind.¡± She nodded politely, then left. He didn''t follow, or even say a word. She stuck to the ground, not wanting to jump into the trees until she was out of sight, to keep her true abilities a secret. She was instinctively wary of anyone out in the Jungle alone. Someone like that could be dangerous. Best to assume the worst. A few minutes of walking later, she looked over her shoulder. She couldn''t see any sign of the small camp through the trees. Perfect. She turned back around, already preparing to leap into the trees and run the rest of the way to the town. She almost ran face-first into Hou Zheng. He stood on the path she had been walking, a bare animal track winding between towering trees. He was still dressed head to toe in leather, and with a massive pack on his back. Though she couldn''t see his face, she had the distinct impression that the priest was smiling at her. ¡°Hello, Miss Jael,¡± he said pleasantly. ¡°I couldn''t help but wonder. You said you were going to San Juan Bautista. That is the town with the pit, correct?¡± Jael swallowed down her anxiety. She put on a shaky smile, even though Hou Zheng still wouldn''t be able to see it under her mask. ¡°Yeah. That''s right.¡± ¡°As I thought. Would you mind terribly if we traveled together? I realize it is an imposition, but it shouldn''t be much farther, should it?¡± ¡°N-no...¡± Jael coughed and gathered herself. She was more jittery than she had been on her first assassination mission. ¡°I mean, no, it''s not far. We can go together.¡± ¡°Wonderful! Now, we can negotiate payment on the way, but just to start with...¡± He wiggled his fingers in her direction. Warm energy suffused her entire body, like her heart was a hearth and the heat was spreading through all the rooms of a house. ¡°Just a little something to speed us on our way, hm? Spirits willing, we might be able to work together.¡± Jael gave a slow smile under her mask. ¡°You know, I think we might be able to get along after all.¡± Chapter 16 - Building (part 1) Josh and his team spent four full days upgrading the wall. Baara and some of the other survivors from Gilroy, those who knew about the crafting classes, came out to help. The work wasn''t difficult, but it was still rewarding. Between constantly using his skills and blueprints, to even learning a few new ones, by the end he was level 35, putting him on par with the others. The new wall was twenty feet tall, thick enough to stop a charging truck, and with a platform all around to allow defenders to stand and attack from a superior position. They were careful to keep the civilians out of sight while they worked, though even then Josh was pretty sure rumors were starting to spread just from the sheer speed they put the wall up. Josh hardly even minded. Yes, the bounty was still blaring, and problems could arise if people realized there was a [Crafter] hanging around. Yes, this project delayed his other plan to try and find new bloodstones. Yes, he still needed to select trustworthy people to take [Crafter] classes and train them up. But he just couldn''t bring himself to be upset. He was doing good, honest work, building something that could last. Something that could protect people. Would this have protected Gilroy? Probably not. But it was a step in the right direction. Once he found a quarry, he was going to start augmenting the wall with stone. The first hiccup in their plans came when trying to upgrade the citystone. ¡°No good,¡± Ruth said, from her position underneath the stone. She rolled out and shook her head. ¡°The upgrade didn''t take. The rune just healed over.¡± Josh blinked. ¡°Wait, what? How?¡± He thought a moment. ¡°Is it because you''re not an Enchanter any more?¡± ¡°No, I got an error message. There''s not enough mana in the stone.¡± ¡°...that matters?¡± He knew, everyone knew, that citystones absorbed mana from the surrounding air and the surrounding people. Then it could be used for things, though not much with a Basic-tier stone. A few simple crystal constructs, warning sensors and that sort of thing. He hadn''t heard anything about it being needed when trying to advance the tier. Ruth got up, brushing off her pants. ¡°Yeah. I''m pretty sure the whole tier advancement is about increasing the mana density, or quality, or both. You need to get to a certain threshold to go up a tier.¡± ¡°All right, where are we at now?¡± She opened her mouth, but he stopped her with a raised hand. ¡°I don''t need hard numbers. Just tell me about how far we have to go.¡± She pursed her lips, then looked at the stone. ¡°We''re at about... half. A little over. I don''t know how long that took to accumulate, though.¡± Josh turned to the last member of their team, the intimidating Beor. He followed Josh around unless he was out hunting with Anna or Mary. ¡°Any ideas?¡± Beor cocked his head one way, then the other. ¡°Old mayor bought maps,¡± he said finally. Josh frowned. ¡°What does that¡ª¡± His eyes went wide. ¡°Oh! You mean pings! He was spending mana on pings?¡± Beor nodded. Ruth frowned, looking between them. ¡°I think I''ve heard my dad talk about this before. It''s something citystones can do, right?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°They send out a ping, or a pulse, of mana. There are a few different ways you can use it, but it gives a decent amount of information on a selected area, or the area around the citystone. I''d bet part of your dad''s duties is to make sure mayors are using their citystone mana wisely, writing down ping data on maps.¡± Ruth scrunched up her face. ¡°That kind of sounds like a waste.¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°Why? No one knew a way to upgrade the citystones, and it''s better than letting the mana build up in the stone.¡± This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. She gave him a worried look. ¡°...what happens if you let mana build up in the stone?¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°Nothing.¡± He thought a moment. ¡°Well, nothing we know of. There''s never been a citystone that exploded or anything from mana overcharge, if that''s what you''re asking. No, I just meant that there''s not much a Basic-tier citystone can do with its mana. Using it to map the surrounding area is a fair cop.¡± ¡°Right. Well...¡± Ruth shrugged. ¡°So if we stop spending mana, it should build up more.¡± She grinned. ¡°We should be at the threshold in no time!¡± ¡°As long as nothing else goes wrong,¡± Josh quipped. ¡°Oi, Mister Mayor!¡± he heard Mary call. ¡°Got a situation over here!¡± Josh sighed, even as Ruth nearly fell over laughing. ¡°You be quiet,¡± he muttered. He turned to Mary and Anna, who were running up together. ¡°What can I do for you ladies?¡± ¡°We got a new dungeon off to the west,¡± Anna said. She grinned widely. ¡°I want first crack at it.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°A new dungeon?¡± They happened, obviously, but he wasn''t used to dealing with them himself. ¡°Do you know what level?¡± She shrugged. ¡°Lower than a hundred? Come on, what''s the harm in letting me go in and slaughter everything?¡± Her grin was wide enough that he was worried that her head might fall off. ¡°It''s a brand new dungeon! I''d bet Mary''s teeth nothing in there is higher than level 20!¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Josh ignored Mary''s outburst. ¡°What class are you, anyway?¡± He had initially thought she was an Archer or an Improved-tier version, but she didn''t use a bow or a crossbow. She spun her weapon into the air, then caught it on the way down. It was an absurd double-bladed sword, like someone had stuck two swords together at the hilts. He had seen stupider weapons, though. Felix the Shielder, one of the Eight Immortals, had once spent an entire reset fighting with two whips. ¡°I''m an Undying Exile,¡± Anna said with that same bloody grin. ¡°A Defender, offensive dodge tank.¡± That meant she would get monsters to focus on her and dodge their attacks rather than weather them directly. It was good against individual monsters, less so against groups. It was famously used for fighting humans, in fact. Especially since it was known for having plenty of attack abilities, unlike most [Defender] classes. He knew she was level 36, because she didn''t have a mask. That should be sufficient to solo any dungeon in the area. Of course, last time he had thought that, he had found a freaking dragon. ¡°All right,¡± he said at last. ¡°You can go.¡± She pumped a fist. ¡°If,¡± he added, raising a finger. ¡°You take Mary.¡± He looked at his friend. ¡°I''m expecting you to keep her under control.¡± Mary looked mortified. ¡°You want me to keep some mucker under control?¡± Josh rolled her eyes. ¡°I''m not saying you need to put her in a dress and take her to a fancy ball, just make sure everyone''s guns are pointed in the right direction, yeah?¡± He waved vaguely at Anna''s sword. ¡°Or, other weapons. Whatever.¡± Anna grinned. Mary scowled. Still, they left without trying to kill each other more than usual, so Josh decided to call that a win. Next, they returned to the town hall. Josh initially hadn''t been sure they should stay here, since people knew where they were. What if the old mayor''s allies tried to attack them? Josh thought he got on with most people, but he wasn''t an idiot. Even a non-violent coup was still a coup, and people took that sort of thing personally. There hadn''t been any attacks on the town hall, though. Sure, there had been a couple attacks on Josh¡ªthat was why Beor was insisting on staying so close¡ªbut everyone seemed to be ignoring the town hall. That worked out just fine for Darius, who was up to his elbows in paperwork. ¡°Baara,¡± Josh said as they entered. ¡°How''s he doing?¡± The girl stood up straighter. She tapped her Pyrolance, a massive spear taller than she was, against the ground. ¡°All is well, sir. He says he''s sorted out the delver rights and productivity will increase shortly.¡± She lowered her voice and leaned forward. ¡°Mister Terah seemed happy when he left.¡± It took Josh a moment to remember who Terah was. ¡°Oh, that quiet delver. Owns the biggest crew in town, right?¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Well, keeping the fat cats happy wasn''t a bad thing. He nodded at the girl. ¡°Keep up the good work, soldier.¡± She preened. ¡°Thank you, sir.¡± Chapter 17 - Building (part 2) They walked inside, to find that Darius had completely transformed the mayor''s office. Everything was covered in stacks of papers. Most of them were sorted neatly, but some were a mess of loose-leafs and stained parchment. That second group, Josh knew, was everything that the former mayor had produced. Darius complained about his ¡°execrable organizational skills¡± every night at dinner. Darius himself sat in the middle of the organized chaos like a spider inside a web. Or, no, that didn''t quite fit. More like a magpie in its nest, Josh thought. Hoarding countless little shiny objects that had caught its fancy. Darius looked only slightly frazzled when he saw them enter. ¡°Josh. I presume the wall is done? I received the error message about the citystone.¡± ¡°Sorry,¡± Ruth said with a pout. ¡°I didn''t know it needed¡ª¡± He stopped her with a raised hand. ¡°It''s fine, I promise. We are all struggling to find our way.¡± He sighed. ¡°I think, at least, I''ve untangled the mess of this town''s laws.¡± He gave a bitter laugh. ¡°It''s a good thing the town was so young. The previous mayor didn''t have much time to screw things up.¡± ¡°Does this mean we can move on to the fun stuff?¡± Josh asked with a grin. ¡°I''ve cleared things with the delvers,¡± Darius confirmed. ¡°We can go underground and look for more bloodstones.¡± He pursed his lips. ¡°I wish we could send the delvers to look for them. Of course, I told them to keep an eye out, but without any special sensory abilities, they won''t have much luck.¡± Josh turned to Ruth. ¡°Still no luck replicating my Stonesense ability?¡± She shook her head sadly. ¡°All those magic items you got from the elf were great for my enchanting! But I haven''t gotten close to making any sort of sensing magic item. I''m not sure it''s possible with just runes. It might need something more.¡± ¡°It likely doesn''t help that you are no longer an Enchanter or a Crafter,¡± Darius noted. There was no judgment in his tone. He was just stating facts. ¡°While you retain all your old abilities, it will be far more difficult for you to learn anything new. How much longer did it take you to learn the new runes?¡± Ruth sighed. ¡°Ten times as long. For the easy runes. I still haven''t gotten blueprints for some of the higher-tier runes. They work, I''m just not getting the blueprints!¡± Josh patted her on the back. ¡°That''s normal. Jumping to Rune Warrior is a pretty big leap. The class abilities aren''t going to always play well together.¡± That just made her sag more. ¡°Sorry I didn''t stick with Enchanter,¡± she muttered. ¡°Maybe I should switch back to a Crafter at my next advancement?¡± Darius looked like he was going to agree, so Josh spoke over him. ¡°No. You''re doing much better as a Rune Warrior.¡± Even though she wasn''t fighting much right now, just the fact that she was happier had done wonders all around. ¡°Some of the kids might be able to become Enchanters. We can try to get one of them to Rune Architect.¡± Darius nodded at that. ¡°Yes, Baara has been kind enough to evaluate some of the refugees.¡± He pulled out a paper. ¡°We have a list of eight that I think will be appropriate for Crafter bloodstones. We are just waiting on your approval.¡± Josh took the paper and scanned over it. ¡°These are all refugees from Gilroy?¡± ¡°Correct.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°No one from Bautista?¡± He shook his head. ¡°Not yet. We wanted to stay with those we know for now.¡± He lowered his voice and leaned forward; Josh and Ruth leaned forward to hear him. ¡°Honestly, I do not know Baara very well yet either. This is already a risk. But she has impressed me these past few days.¡± Josh leaned back, and nodded. ¡°Sounds good to me, then.¡± He pulled eight [Woodcrafter] bloodstones from his storage ring, the one he had found on the elf. He very specifically ignored Darius glaring at him. It wasn''t like he could share. Besides, it was a very small storage ring! In the Old World, rings of this size were handed out like candy. Of course, now, when no one had the right classes to make even the smallest of storage artifacts, this one ring made him richer than most merchants back in the City. Still, Darius didn''t say anything about it. He just took a deep breath. ¡°So. Are we going down into the pit now, or later?¡± ¡°Anna and Mary are out clearing a dungeon,¡± Josh said. ¡°You want to wait?¡± ¡°Oh, come on!¡± Ruth said. She pouted. ¡°That could take hours! There are four of us, we can handle anything that''s down in the pit, right?¡± Beor grunted. Apparently he appreciated being included. ¡°It''s basically a simple escort,¡± Darius pointed out. ¡°If not for the assassination attempts, I would say you can go down alone. Honestly, the biggest danger here is that it''s somewhat a waste of time.¡± Josh crossed his arms and scowled. Darius rolled his eyes. ¡°Please. You understand my meaning. It is certainly possible there are bloodstones hidden in places humans have never been able to reach, but it is not guaranteed. And every day we spend on that hunt without finding anything is a day lost.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Yeah, all right, not gonna lie, I see the logic.¡± His eyes flicked to the papers arranged on the desk. ¡°You got a list of the unclassed kids and their birthdays? When''s the next one coming up?¡± Darius didn''t even have to look. ¡°Eight days.¡± ¡°All right. If we don''t find a new bloodstone in eight days, we call it quits.¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°For now, at least.¡± ¡°Give me ten minutes, and we''ll go down there,¡± Darius said. ¡°I just need to put everything away.¡± He looked around at his stacks of paperwork. ¡°...perhaps thirty minutes.¡± There was the sound of someone clearing their throat. Josh turned to see Baara standing at the door, looking awkward. ¡°I can take over the paperwork,¡± she said. She looked like she wanted to smile, but didn''t. She was too nervous. ¡°Um, I used to help my mom. With that sort of thing. Whenever a new dungeon opened up, she and Dad would go take a look while I...¡± She trailed off, and seemed to shrink down into herself. ¡°Sorry,¡± she said. ¡°I don''t have a problem with it,¡± Darius said. He raised an eyebrow at Josh. ¡°What about our esteemed mayor?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°No skin off my knuckles. But what about everyone else? There are all sorts of stuffy types who might take it personal if a kid is promoted over them.¡± Darius snorted. ¡°Oh, we are far past that issue. The coup has annoyed those types far more than promoting one teenager would ever do.¡± He waved in Baara''s direction. ¡°At least she has a chance to prove her competence. You, Josh, have done little to prove your worth besides fighting things in the Jungle.¡± Josh wanted to argue with that, but found that he couldn''t. They were still keeping his [Crafter] class mostly secret, though they weren''t sitting on it as much as maybe they should. To the paper-pushers in the mayor''s office, all he had done was violently overthrow their boss, then help build the wall for a few days. The fact that it was still more than what Hawkins had ever done was the only reason the people hadn''t already deposed him. Beor grunted. ¡°Not many left.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Not many¡ª¡± His face cleared. ¡°Oh! Not many competent paper-pushers, you mean?¡± He made a face. ¡°The old mayor didn''t like people undermining him, did he?¡± A decent secretary could have rendered most of the old mayor''s decrees largely useless. Beor nodded. Darius sorted through his papers. ¡°Baara, come over here. I''ll show you my system.¡± He looked at Josh. ¡°Five minutes.¡± Chapter 18 - Broken Dungeon (part 1) Going back down into the pit without Mary felt strange, somehow. Ever since Josh met Mary a few years ago, they had done practically everything together. It wasn''t like he had many other friends. In the early days, she was the only person who understood, at least slightly, what he was going through. Even his sister had been distant at best. Then, as time wore on¡ªespecially after they fled the City and joined the reclaimers¡ªit just became normal for them to do everything together. They weren''t codependent. They did have their own lives. Today wasn''t the first day that Mary had gone off to fight a dungeon without him, or the first time he had searched for treasure without her. Still, it felt strange. Going down the elevator without her making comments felt like something was missing. It probably didn''t help that all the delvers on the elevator stared at him like he was liable to start attacking them without provocation. Which he hardly thought was fair. All he did was execute a coup of their town''s leadership. Did that make him untrustworthy? He hadn''t even killed anyone! Deserved or not, no one tried to attack him. No one ¡°accidentally¡± pushed him off the platform. When the elevator reached the bottom of the pit, no one even tried to passive-aggressively block him from getting off. Everyone just seemed interested in getting out of his way as fast as possible. Josh, Ruth, Darius, and Beor headed towards the west. As they walked through the forest of bioluminescent mushrooms, Josh spoke quietly to Darius. ¡°What''s the status on getting those shroud focuses made? How long until we can equip the town?¡± That would certainly improve people''s opinions of them. ¡°I can start making them soon,¡± he promised. ¡°The town already had much of the materials I needed in stock. The materials for a Basic-tier shroud focus are not rare.¡± Josh chuckled. ¡°I suppose this town, of all places, has plenty of magic materials.¡± ¡°You are not incorrect,¡± Darius allowed. ¡°However, most of the materials harvested from the pit are better used for potions and poultices. Shroud focuses need monster materials. Anna has been more of a boon to those stocks than anything from this pit.¡± ¡°Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.¡± Speaking very generally, plants were more useful for potions and anything else that was supposed to be ingested. ¡°Speaking of, any luck getting someone with an actual Alchemist class?¡± ¡°Not so long as we''re trying to keep the bloodstones at least marginally a secret,¡± Darius said. He brushed aside a glowing curtain of vines. ¡°I have a few theories for how to advance someone to that class, but I believe it will require an Enchanter at minimum. We are going to need to give someone a bloodstone, and then it will take them eight more levels at least.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Yeah, I know...¡± He swung his hand, releasing an [Empty Chop] to clear some vines from their path. With his ridiculous Perception and Sensitivity, the powerful art only cost one point of stamina and mana. It was still his only combat ability, but the fact that it was a combat art made it more valuable than either a technique or a spell. It was a miracle he had been able to get it at all, with his non-combat class. He was operating on the assumption that he''d never get another. ¡°I''ll think about it,¡± he said finally. He gave Darius a grin. ¡°With you cleaning up the paperwork, I''m running out of excuses.¡± Darius had the look of someone trying very hard not to sigh in exasperation. ¡°Indeed. I have a list of potential candidates. One is the friend of that man you came to town with. Abraham.¡± ¡°Oh? All right, I''ll look into it.¡± He sighed and cracked his back. ¡°I guess we''re moving in the right direction.¡± ¡°Speaking of...¡± Ruth said, slipping up beside them with a weak smile. ¡°You do know where we''re going, right?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Josh pointed at a small, circular hole in the wall. Most of the stone was covered in bioluminescent moss and fungi, so the hole in the stone was like a dark void in a beautiful shifting tapestry. Even though it was barely big enough for them, it was still hard to miss. ¡°Some worms broke in through there. The worms were killed, of course, but I figure it''s still a place to start.¡± Ruth scrunched up her face. ¡°If we''re looking for bloodstones... shouldn''t we search away from the monsters that might have eaten them?¡± ¡°Probably,¡± he admitted. ¡°But this isn''t just a bloodstone finding mission.¡± He didn''t mention how low the chances of actually finding a new bloodstone were. ¡°The delvers down in this pit aren''t used to finding monsters. Oh, there''s always a handful of fungus monsters, but they can kill those in their sleep. Real monsters mean real danger, and someone needs to track them down to their source.¡± He shrugged. ¡°May as well be us.¡± Slowly, Ruth grinned. ¡°Don''t let me make it sound like I''m not going to enjoy it.¡± They entered the tunnels one at a time, which turned out to be more of a headache than it needed to be. Ruth wanted to be first, because she had the biggest hammer. Darius suggested he go first, because he could overcharge his shroud. They all had shroud focuses at this point, of course, but Darius had started as the Shrouder class, and he still had half a dozen spells and techniques for improving his shroud. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. In the end, Beor settled the issue by moving into the tunnel while Ruth and Darius were arguing. There was something to be said for the strong silent type. Besides, as Josh pointed out while Ruth and Darius were both moping, Beor did have the highest Constitution of them all. Thankfully, the tunnels widened out pretty quickly, and they were able to travel in more than single-file. Ruth had a Light rune on a helmet that acted as a decent torch, so they could see where they were going reasonably well. ¡°Have you tried putting your rune inside a headlamp?¡± Darius asked, as they walked down another wide tunnel. The walls were smooth, but uneven. Josh recognized the signs of worm monsters having traveled through here repeatedly. ¡°If you replace the bulb, you should be able to get the same effect.¡± Ruth shook her head. ¡°I tried it back in Gilroy, and it worked okay. The problem was, I could figure out a way to easily reach inside the flashlight to touch the rune and power it.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Now, I guess I could do it easily with my Activate Rune spell, but that wouldn''t make it easier for anyone else to do it.¡± ¡°Yes, I can see how that would be a problem.¡± They continued talking on that topic for a few more minutes, but Josh was largely ignoring them. Ruth had a lot on her plate already with trying to master runic magic items. Your basic +1 Sword or whatever. He wasn''t sure trying to restart the old rune magic revolution was a fair extra burden to put on her. ¡°The City has plenty of books on using runes like that,¡± Josh said, once there was a break in the conversation. ¡°Just to start with, magic can replace electricity as easy as changing a circuit.¡± As he understood it, the main problem was ensuring it was the right kind of current and then regulating the flow. He''d never taken a rune class himself, though. Seemed like too much of a bother. ¡°Once we get back there, we can do the whole thing where we upset all the established monopolies and trade guilds and so on.¡± Darius raised an eyebrow. ¡°You seem confident that we''ll be making it back to the City safely.¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°It''s not going to happen tomorrow, but, yeah. Sooner or later, Ruth''s dad will give up on the world quest. Either because he stopped being crazy, or because the Eight came back and knocked some sense into him.¡± He let out a long sigh. ¡°This would all be a lot easier if they came back.¡± Darius gave Josh a complicated look that he couldn''t quite interpret. ¡°You believe it''s so simple?¡± ¡°Simple would be if I had them on speed dial.¡± Everyone gave him blank looks at that. ¡°It''s¡ªit''s a City thing. You know, with phones?¡± More blank looks. He threw up his hands in exasperation. ¡°You people know what phones are!¡± ¡°I''ve never had a phone,¡± Ruth said. ¡°I mean, I''ve had personal radios and satellite phones, but I think you''re talking about the fancy kind with the touch screen and stuff?¡± ¡°That''s¡ªI mean¡ª¡± Josh glared at them. ¡°You''re all messing with me. The meaning was obvious in context!¡± Beor shrugged. He stepped forward to brush aside a thick wall of moss hanging down covering another tunnel entrance. They all filed through. ¡°Anyway,¡± Josh said, annoyed now. ¡°The point is that we should be good as long as we can talk to the Eight. They''ll order a stop to this madness, and we can all go home in time for a cuppa.¡± ¡°I would not put so much faith in anyone, even then,¡± Darius warned. He looked around the small cavern they had found themselves in, frowning. ¡°I''ve met the Eight,¡± Ruth said. She had her hammer out, and moved to cover Josh almost by instinct. ¡°They seemed reasonable.¡± She smiled to herself. ¡°I think Saint Elizabeth liked me.¡± Josh rolled his eyes at her in a good-natured way. She stuck her tongue out at him. ¡°I meant more because an Operative has more pull with them than any of us,¡± Darius said dryly. ¡°It is quite likely we will never even see them. They will just approve more resources, and then we will all be killed.¡± He nodded at the corpses in the cavern. ¡°I do not like this.¡± ¡°If the Eight come back, we just need to get their attention,¡± Josh said firmly. ¡°They''ll be on our side.¡± He pulled out his ax. ¡°Anyway, that''s enough gabbing for a day and a half. Look alive.¡± The cavern was pretty big as such things went, maybe the size of a football pitch. If anyone ever played football any more, Josh thought wryly. There were multiple exits among the rocky walls, not even counting the one they had come in through. There wasn''t much plant life, though, just bare rock in every direction. If Josh didn''t know better, he would have thought the cavern was new, carved within the past few hours. The mana was still thick here, so the Jungle should have accelerated the growth of any mosses and fungi. Wait a moment. Why was the mana still thick here? They were deeper than the tunnels the elf had taken him to near Gilroy. Was this all because of the pit? If enough life leaked in through the pit... He shook his head. That wasn''t the point right now. Right now, the most important thing was the pile of bodies in the center of the cavern... and the glowing mushroom monsters growing out of the pile. On the one hand, plant monsters were never a real threat on their own. They were common, slow, and not very smart. He had taken enough turns at guarding the gardens at reclaimer bases that he was reasonably sure he could kill a corn monster in his sleep. On the other hand, there were a lot of mushroom monsters there. Without Mary and her fire spells, which did not inspire him with any extra confidence. Chapter 19 - Broken Dungeon (part 2) The mushrooms all looked pretty typical. Wide caps, stumpy arms, stumpy legs, no visible eyes. They had sensed the presence of humans, somehow, and were even now waddling vaguely in their direction. Josh used Identify on one almost as an afterthought.
Fungi Grappler
Level 31 Monster
Look, I don''t know what to tell you. It''s a mushroom that tries to wrestle with you. No, it doesn''t have any special poison or explosive powers. It just grabs you and tries to beat you to death. It''s super boring. Oh, I guess it has one special ability you should know about: It''s all but immune to blunt force trauma. Wow, it''s a good thing three quarters of your party aren''t specialized in blunt weapons like hammers and fists. Fun fact! If you make a single ¡°fun guy¡± joke, I''m turning off your System access for a week.
Josh paused. Turn off System access... Now wasn''t that a horrifying thought. But was it even possible? If it was, and the System could do it for bad puns, word would have spread by now. There were many theories on what, precisely, the System was. It was connected to the Tower, that much was obvious. It had been proven that the Jungle granted power independent of the System, so the most common theory was that the Tower was an artificial addition and limitation to make the power of the Jungle easier for intelligent beings to use. The problem was, that didn''t really explain whether the System itself was intelligent. Sure, it made references to human culture and sometimes spoke in the first person, but that could easily be explained away as random fluff generated by an unintelligent program. Before the Tower, human technology could fake a computer with a personality without too much trouble. As far as Josh knew, the System had never gone so far as to threaten someone. Or worse, actually carry out a threat. Maybe it was just more fluff, randomly generated when a possibility of a pun came up. There was really no way to know for sure, and Josh wasn''t going to test it. He looked at the ceiling of the cave. ¡°You''re not really going to turn off my access, right?¡± Of course, there was no answer. There never was. If people could get a response just by yelling at the System, the world would be a very different place. Even a basic tutorial would be wonderful. He shook his head to clear it. What was he doing? The monsters were closing in, and he was off in the clouds, contemplating nature and existence and all that muck. Ruth held up a grenade in one hand. After they had suffered in the bug dungeon due to a lack of supplies, the two of them had made a lot of grenades. They all had four of them hanging from their belts, and they had spares. These were still the steam and shrapnel grenades, not true magic grenades, but they were effective. Before Ruth could throw the grenade, Darius stopped her with a raised hand. ¡°Why don''t we hold off on that for a moment? They are still a limited resource.¡± He nodded at Josh. ¡°I think you should start us off.¡± Josh raised an eyebrow, but he didn''t exactly disagree. He just thought the clump of mushroom men was a perfect target. He shrugged, took out his ax, very specifically did not wince at the feel of his missing fingers on the haft, and readied his combat art again. He had earned the [Empty Chop] art by combining his [Chop Tree] technique with his [Hands-Free Crafting] spell, essentially letting him chop with an ax even though he hadn''t had an ax at the time. Not only was it an art, a combination of a physical technique and a magical spell that received all the benefits of both, but it was a combat art. Any combat abilities were extremely difficult to earn for a [Utility] class. He suspected that the only way to do so was through strange loopholes like what he had used. He wasn''t sure if he would ever get another. The point being that the art was very strange for a [Crafter]. Using it on its own, without a weapon, sent out a short invisible chop of energy. Exactly as if he produced all the force of an ax, without the ax. Using it with a weapon sent out a wide wave of energy, barely visible to the naked eye. Well, visible to his naked eye. With his ridiculous Perception and Sensitivity, he could see a lot of things that shouldn''t be possible. Regardless, this wave of energy crashed into the crowd of mushroom men, chopping through half a dozen of them as easily as if they were mundane mushrooms on a cutting board. Unfortunately, this didn''t slow down the rest of them at all, and they charged over the corpses of their fellows even as red light leaked out of the bodies. It turned white and streamed around them without care, until it found Josh and he breathed it in. He glanced at his experience notifications, but it was nothing impressive. Fighting monsters of a lower level than yourself barely got you any experience. This entire crowd might give him a reasonable bump all together. He jogged back over to his team, easily outpacing the mushrooms. The range on the [Empty Chop] wasn''t great, but it was enough to keep him out of reach of the mushrooms. Between that and their short little legs, he had absolutely no fear of them catching him while he was awake. Ruth gripped her hammer, looking nervously between Josh, the mushroom men, and Darius. ¡°So... what, is he just going to whittle them down a handful at a time?¡± Josh had killed half a dozen, but there were easily twenty or thirty left. He''d empty his laughable stamina and mana pools trying to handle them all himself. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Darius raised a questioning eyebrow at Josh, who raised a hand in surrender. ¡°Hey, I''m all for nabbing what experience I can, but I don''t think we have the time to burn on this. Best finish it up and keep looking, yeah?¡± Once Darius nodded at that, Ruth pulled out her grenade again, threw it into the crowd of mushroom men, and detonated it remotely. The blast echoed impressively in the cavern, and dust rained down from the ceiling. Josh rubbed his ears and winced. There were only two survivors, and Darius and Beor handled them even with their handicaps. They both fought with their fists, which weren''t all that effective here¡ªthough at least Beor had actual offensive techniques. Still, resistant to blunt damage or not, they were still just mushrooms. Both men dispatched their targets in under a minute. They started sorting through the pile of human corpses, looking for anything valuable or at least a means of identifying them. They were too rotted to ID them based on their faces, so Josh pointed out that the families might appreciate having something of their children. Dog tags, favored rings, anything that they could use to remember them. They didn''t find much, but they put what they could into Josh''s storage ring. A couple families who were missing their delvers might appreciate having the question answered. Even if in the worst way. They also all agreed to incinerate the bodies on their way out. They couldn''t do it right now, because creating so much smoke in enclosed tunnels was a bad idea, but they could do it when they were leaving. Ruth just needed to carve a Pyro rune in the middle of the pile and overcharge it from a distance. Once they had everything they needed, Josh crushed one of his runestones to boost up his Capacity by an extra point. That gave him enough mana to use his Stonesense aura, which he immediately turned on. Once he acclimated to the sensory overload, he was able to determine the direction they should move in. If they kept moving west, they''d find more caverns and pockets in the stone. Unfortunately, he also noticed some places where the stone was shifting even as he observed it. ¡°What does that mean?¡± Ruth asked, gripping her hammer tighter. ¡°It means there are more monsters,¡± he said grimly. ¡°Ones that can move a lot of stone, very fast.¡± ¡°I would assume earthworms, based on the shapes of these tunnels,¡± Darius said. Then he sighed. ¡°I want to complain that earthworms should absolutely not be able to tunnel through stone, but I suppose it''s far from the strangest thing we''ve ever seen.¡± He cocked his head to the said. ¡°Then again, it''s likely the only reason the magic has reached down this far at all. I wonder if that is a normal bit of the Jungle''s ecosystem, monsters expanding it in every direction...¡± ¡°It is,¡± Josh said, distracted. He hadn''t thought about it before, but it was true. ¡°In the early days, Jungle-touched birds and rodents spread seeds around the lands, and Jungle-touched fish and other swimming things got the waters.¡± It was why quarantine procedures had proven so hilariously ineffective. As Josh understood it, the country had been halfway to constructing a wall around the entire state when they realized the Jungle had already reached the other side of the planet. Ruth looked down at her hammer. ¡°Worms get splattered by hammers, right?¡± ¡°Better than mushrooms, at least,¡± Josh agreed. ¡°Come on. It''s this way.¡± It only took a few more twisting tunnels to find the monsters he had sensed making their way through the stone. There were three of them, and they all poked their heads up out of the tunnel floors, sensing their approach. They were not, however, earthworms.
Talpidae Stoneswimmer
Level 26 Monster
An underground monster adapted almost entirely towards moving through stone at maximum speed, with a few other related abilities to shore up its tunnels so others can pass. Fun fact: A System standard week is eight days. Not sure if you knew that.
Josh paused. That had to be an intentional answer to his earlier question. Unfortunately, there was still no way to prove it, so he just took a deep breath and focused. The monsters weren''t worms, they were moles. Highly corrupt moles that looked more plant than animal at this point. Their fur was dark bark, broken into crags like stone. Their claws looked like pale wood, but were probably stronger than steel even when they weren''t using any abilities to enhance them further. Their beady little eyes were like tiny red torches. Despite all appearances, Jungle-touched animals weren''t plants. His sister had dragged him to a few lectures in his day. Dissections and vivisections had proven that the visual similarities were just cosmetic. Monster meat did not burn like wood, nothing in a monster produced seeds, and they gave birth to young or eggs or whatever was normal for their species. Josh considered all that, as Ruth brought down her hammer and splattered one of the moles into a spray of sap and splinters. She hopped back before the others got in range, green pulp dripping off the head of her massive hammer. The beast even smelled like sap and splinters, an almost pleasant scent. It was certainly an improvement over the normal smells of dead animals. He shook that thought out again¡ªwhy was he getting so distracted today?¡ªand attacked the other mole with an [Empty Chop]. He trusted Beor to handle the last one. Unfortunately, Josh''s target dived into the stone, dodging the strike. He had just a brief sight of the monster spreading its claws in front of it exactly like a swimmer parting the water in front of it before it was gone. There was a ripple in the stone, and he thought it looked a little different, but he didn''t have time to examine it more closely. Ruth''s runelight wasn''t the steadiest in the world while she was fighting. ¡°Lost one,¡± Josh called, even as Beor crushed the skull of the last mole. ¡°Don''t know if it will come back with friends.¡± It would come back, of course. All monsters went after humans to gain power and grow. The question was whether it would come back alone, attack from surprise, or bring half a dozen more monsters with it. Darius made an annoyed scoff. ¡°You should have kept your Stonesense aura active.¡± Josh rolled his shoulders. ¡°Don''t be daft. Can''t fight with it on, can I? Even if I was willing to try fighting with weights on, it''s blinding to use.¡± Using his aura reserved so much of his mana that he was left with only a single point. If he had some combat techniques, which used stamina instead, that might be something he could try. But he needed mana for his art, so he couldn''t really do that. Before Darius could respond with a no-doubt cutting remark, the mole returned. It burst through the ceiling of the tunnel, landing right on top of Darius. Darius got his shroud up in time, so Josh didn''t even have to feel bad for laughing at him. Ruth and Beor took care of the monster. Chapter 20 - Broken Dungeon (part 3) ¡°Okay,¡± Josh said, as his laughter died down. He wiped tears from his eyes. ¡°Okay. Woo. Right.¡± He coughed, gathered himself, and nodded. ¡°Monsters spread the Jungle, even underground. But there still seem to be an awful lot of monsters down here.¡± He looked at Beor. ¡°I thought delvers were normally safe?¡± Beor shrugged. ¡°Strong and silent only gets you so far, friend,¡± Josh said dryly. ¡°Going to need a real answer here.¡± Beor paused a long moment. ¡°Monsters supposed to be rare,¡± he said at last. ¡°Delvers don''t need guards. Sometimes need to fight, but no guards.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°That''s what I thought.¡± He pointed to the moles. ¡°Those, though, are a bit too much for a handful or unguarded delvers to deal with.¡± Sure, their group had handled them easily enough, but they were ready for them. Delvers would be busy gathering materials, or mining, or mapping the tunnels. ¡°Do we think something''s up?¡± Ruth leaned on her hammer. ¡°Isn''t that why we came this way? I thought we were deliberately hunting monsters.¡± ¡°We are,¡± Josh said. The delvers had mentioned worms down here, and they had been avoiding the area. ¡°Just didn''t think it would be a problem this big, did I?¡± ¡°The question remains, where did the monsters come from?¡± Darius asked. He waved at the moles. ¡°These are not freshly Jungle-touched. They were not normal creatures that were living here and were corrupted. They had to come here from somewhere else.¡± ¡°But if they came from the direction of the pit, someone likely would have seen them,¡± Josh said. That was hardly guaranteed, but the pit was pretty active. He felt confident that any monster would be spotted. It wasn''t as though monsters made any attempt to hide, anyway. ¡°So... another entrance,¡± Ruth said. She looked the other direction. West, away from the pit. ¡°Seems simple enough.¡± ¡°Except it doesn''t make sense.¡± Darius suddenly looked supremely annoyed, as though he had been enjoying a game of checkers and then someone told him it was actually chess. ¡°The pit goes down deep. Deeper than the Jungle could possibly have reached anywhere else. There''s nowhere else monsters could have come from.¡± ¡°Hey, hey,¡± Josh said, holding up his hands for calm. ¡°It doesn''t have to be something crazy. Maybe the monsters did come from the pit, and nobody noticed. Or maybe they''re just from the early days, before people settled here, and they were wandering around underground.¡± Beor shook his head. Ruth smiled at him. ¡°Something to add?¡± She sounded genuinely curious, which was probably better than what Josh could have managed. It was definitely better than what Darius could have managed. Beor hesitated, then nodded. ¡°Tunnels new.¡± He shrugged. ¡°New-ish. They weren''t here when the place was settled, a few years back. The tunnels broke through into the pit recently.¡± He shrugged again. ¡°Sort of recently.¡± Josh felt something cold in his gut as he processed exactly what the man had just said. ¡°Wait. The pit didn''t have any tunnels branching out from it in the early days? It was just a straight shot down with smooth walls?¡± Beor nodded. ¡°The monsters only broke into the pit after people started delving down here. In other words, when there were enough humans around to make it worth the effort.¡± Beor nodded. Josh turned to Darius. They both had grim expressions on their faces. ¡°There is definitely a source of monsters down here,¡± Darius said. His eyes were hard. ¡°I''ve looked over the reports. Delver deaths have increased, but the time span is too short to make any firm statements on an actual trend. Still, we should try to shut it down.¡± ¡°Any idea on the source?¡± Darius shook his head. ¡°I can''t imagine. Everything we know about the Jungle tells us that the mana should only exist on the surface, where humans dwell. It can sink below ground, but only with difficulty. The pit is one of the rare exceptions, and I''m quite sure that''s because it''s so wide open.¡± ¡°Well, what could it be?¡± Ruth asked. ¡°As far as I know, monsters only come from three places.¡± She ticked them off on her fingers. ¡°They''re corrupted by the Jungle''s magic, they''re born from other monsters, or they fall out of dungeons.¡± She thought for a moment, wiggling her fingers. ¡°Or some crazies start up a lab to breed them, but I guess that''s more of the first two.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°You seen many mad science labs?¡± he asked jokingly. ¡°Eight,¡± she said, not at all jokingly. She gave him a level stare. ¡°Dad liked to personally lead the teams that burned those places out.¡± ¡°Okay...¡± he said slowly. ¡°And he brought you with him on those little hunts?¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Some bitterness leaked into her face. Josh didn''t like seeing it. Ruth was usually endlessly cheerful at all times. ¡°No, of course not.¡± Her smile was very bitter. ¡°Can''t risk any harm to his precious little girl!¡± Beor cocked his head, as if he wanted to ask something, but he remained silent. ¡°Wouldn''t that be our luck,¡± Darius muttered. ¡°We run halfway across the world away from the City, and we find some cackling Slaver or Necromancer or whatever doing mad science experiments.¡± Josh couldn''t help it. He snorted in disbelief. ¡°This is not halfway across the world.¡± ¡°That''s your problem with what I just said?¡± Ruth sighed. ¡°Look, I think we might all be a little on edge right now. Josh, do you have the mana for another Stonesense? Just to make sure we''re heading in the right direction.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Yeah, sure. I''ll take a longer look this time.¡± He had plenty of runestones on him, so he had no problem crushing another to give him the boost. ¡°I''d really appreciate it if you could figure out how to make more magic items,¡± he added. ¡°I''d like to have a bigger mana pool.¡± She shrugged helplessly. It was going to be much harder without an actual [Crafter] class, even though she technically still had all the necessary skills. Besides, Josh wasn''t sure if the items he wanted could be made purely with runes anyway. They might need another class, one that used different types of magic creation, to do it. Infusion magic, like how Darius made his shroud focuses, was likely a key component. Well, another reason to look into those unclassed kids. And another reason to look for more bloodstones. Once Josh extended his Stonesense Aura, he could feel the entire network of tunnels. Most of them extended below, which he noted, but ignored for the moment. There were a few more tunnels above, but not many. It seemed they were at the top of the tunnel network, such as it was. He could even feel more tunnels being dug, clearly the result of more monsters. Some of those tunnels would end up permanent, but most would collapse, or even be filled in by other monsters. If every underground monster left behind a permanent tunnel, this entire region would have collapsed into a sinkhole years ago. He focused his sense upwards first, past the tunnels. There were more air pockets, places where the ground had been folded like clams around pearls. Some of those pockets were tiny, but Josh wasn''t worried. Bloodstones were pretty hard to destroy by accident. He doubted the Eight unleashing their full power on the region would have so much as cracked one. Of course, that didn''t mean that there actually were any bloodstones in those little time capsules. Even in the Old World, people didn''t just casually walk around with a handful of unique bloodstones in their pockets. Among other things, bloodstones attracted monsters. Best to leave them safe behind town walls. The problem was, all those towns had been overrun, all those walls broken. Monsters had rampaged throughout the world and eaten every human and every bloodstone they could find. By the time the Eight had realized they needed to start searching the ruins for treasure, it was already too late. There was nothing left to find. The Jungle was always hungry. Of course, that''s what he had thought before he found a unique bloodstone in the middle of the Jungle. That changed his expectations more than a little. ¡°Here,¡± he said, pointing directly above him. ¡°Just a couple feet up.¡± He pointed to another spot on the stone a few feet away. ¡°There, but farther up.¡± He pointed out two more places. Ruth, finally getting the hint, used her gravity reversal rune-chain to flip onto the ceiling and mark the targets in chalk. She even asked him for exact measurements, which she then wrote down dutifully. That was helpful. Beor blinked when Ruth landed on the ceiling. Other than that, he didn''t comment. Josh didn''t know if he should be worried about the man or not. On the one hand, not having the new guy constantly asking questions was nice. On the other hand, Beor''s last boss had been completely blindsided when someone offered a better deal. Josh made a mental note to try to figure out exactly what Beor wanted, and what he thought of what was going on. Ruth broke into two of the pockets Josh had detected by the time the buff from his runestone lapsed, and he had to drop his Stonesense Aura. The first, the bigger one, dropped a car onto the ground of the tunnel with a crash like a falling building and a choking cloud of dust. It filled the entire tunnel, to the point that they had to crawl around it. At first, Josh was ecstatic with the find. Surely, if anything would have a bloodstone, it would be an old car. There was even a corpse in the driver''s seat. All of them ignored it¡ªeven Ruth, for all her complaints about being sheltered, had seen plenty of bodies in the Jungle¡ªand searched through the seats and boot. They found almost a thousand dollars in practically worthless Old World currency, a few dozen Tower tokens which were decent collector items but otherwise worthless, and a bunch of ancient supplies. The water bottles were probably still good, but Josh wouldn''t trust any of the rations. Even the water wasn''t worth dragging up out of the pit. Beor pushed the car out of the way and into a bigger chamber while Ruth continued working. Beor had actually put points into Strength, unlike Josh and Darius. Besides, the car''s wheels still turned well enough. The second pocket rained down some dust and a dried up bush. Josh and Darius stared at it as it bounced on the ground. The light from Ruth''s helmet on the ceiling made the shadows play oddly. ¡°That''s a sharp start, that''s true,¡± Josh said dryly. Darius sighed. ¡°If you were expecting to strike gold on our first day, then I think you will be inevitably disappointed.¡± ¡°Didn''t want to strike gold, wanted to strike red.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°But yeah, no use mucking about. Knew this was unlikely from the start. Even before the monsters showed up.¡± He made a face. ¡°There are a couple tunnels leading up. You think the monsters found the stones already? Can they sense things through rock?¡± ¡°They can certainly sense something. They would be digging blind otherwise, and I suspect that these tunnels would be even more of a mess than they already are.¡± Darius shrugged. ¡°However, as to whether they can sense bloodstones, I don''t know. I don''t believe that there is even a solid theory on how monsters sense bloodstones.¡± ¡°Always assumed they smelled ''em.¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± Chapter 21 - Broken Dungeon (part 4) Josh sighed. He watched Ruth continue on to the next two pockets for a moment. Watching her maneuver with her hammer was interesting. She had reversed the gravity for it as well, so she could properly use her techniques to smash the stone ceiling. It still likely would have been easier if he had jumped up and used his [Smash] technique with his [Hands-Free Crafting] spell. Once the third pocket in the stone proved empty of anything useful, Josh jutted his chin farther west. ¡°There''s something that way, maybe forty meters.¡± ¡°All right. Any idea what it is?¡± ¡°Nope,¡± Josh said with a pop. ¡°My aura couldn''t poke through it. Just a big... blank area.¡± Darius turned to give him his full attention. ¡°Do you mean a large cavern?¡± Josh shook his head. ¡°I can sense that. My aura covers the area, and I feel that it''s empty. You know what I mean, right? You normally run a Healer, you''ve had auras before.¡± ¡°Support auras feel different,¡± Darius said, which Josh had to admit was true. ¡°Still, yes, I understand your meaning. This was different?¡± He nodded. ¡°My aura hit a blank wall. I feel like it might be something.¡± ¡°I agree.¡± The last pocket collapsed in another shower of dust. Ruth flipped back down to the floor of the tunnel a moment later. She shook her head. ¡°It seems that we have nothing better to do.¡± They walked west through the tunnels at a casual pace. Josh hadn''t sensed any more monsters in this direction, but that was no reason to rush. With the winding tunnels, it took them almost an hour to get through what should have taken ten minutes. There was a large cavern, but Josh was quick to assure everyone that it wasn''t what he had sensed. It was a big, oblong chamber, and Ruth had to carve a few more light runes in order to illuminate a reasonable chunk of the area. It was clearly a natural feature instead of carved by monsters. An underground river ran down the side and disappeared out one corner. Stalagmites and stalactites speckled the cavern like the teeth of a monster, and the stone was smooth with the erosion of ages. Josh might have said something about that. Given a long whistle and said something about the majesty of the natural world. He had been working on a rock pun ever since they got down here, but hadn''t quite gotten one he thought would work. Something about ¡°boring tunnels¡± didn''t hit right. He might have said something about that, but he was distracted by two things: The dungeon, and the horde of monsters. Josh recognized the wall of the dungeon immediately. It was seamless white stone and covered the entire wall of the cavern, as if some massive spear had been stuck down into the earth. It was seamless, but not featureless. It was covered in runes and circles of power. That itself was strange enough. You normally only saw the glowing lines on the inside of a dungeon. He didn''t know why they would be visible from the outside, but it was still unmistakable. The floor of the cave was covered in the writhing forms of monsters, chattering and barking at each other even as they roiled like an ocean. There were too many for Josh to get a solid look at any one of them. He spotted a handful of mushrooms like they had seen earlier, as well as small furry things that might be rodents, and shelled things that he couldn''t even guess at. Of course, even the ¡°small¡± things were at least half the size of Ruth. Their green, moss-like fur made them blur together more than a little, but he was more used to monsters than he would ever like to admit. He had seen hordes like this before. Usually, you only saw them outside a dungeon like this right before the reset. When the Tower was at its weakest, and everything escaped to raid the countryside. His heart pounded in his chest so hard that he swore he could feel it slamming against his rib cage. If monsters could escape their dungeons before the end of the season, then everything changed. They would have no idea how long the dragon would be trapped in the dungeon. Was this how the elf had received his orders? Was it out even now, just waiting for the right moment to attack? ¡°This isn''t right,¡± Darius whispered. Even so, Josh felt as though his voice was echoing around the entire chamber. ¡°Yeah,¡± Josh said, even quieter. ¡°No kidding.¡± Ruth shivered. ¡°They''re not supposed to be able to escape.¡± Darius looked between them. ¡°What?¡± he said, sounding genuinely confused. ¡°No, the horde is clearly from the previous reset.¡± He waved a hand. ¡°They got trapped in this cave, and with no humans around only a few were pushed out enough to explore. I imagine this horde has been building up for a few years now.¡± ¡°...okay,¡± Josh said. ¡°That''s, well, that''s a weight off my shoulders, I''ll admit that for free. But then what''s the problem?¡± Darius pointed at the dungeon behind the horde. ¡°That is not supposed to be here. Dungeons don''t go down this low. Not even close. Every dungeon I have ever heard of starts on the surface, and doesn''t go down more than a hundred feet at most. Usually less. They tend to spread wide, not far. Something is very wrong here.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Josh said again. ¡°Why? Why can''t a dungeon spawn underground?¡± ¡°Is this the time?¡± Darius asked incredulously. He jerked his head at the horde. They seemed to be asleep, or at least not actively searching for enemies. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°The quick version, yeah?¡± Josh wasn''t actually all that worried about the horde. They still had their grenades, and they could easily retreat into the tunnels. In fact, they should probably kill as many as they could before retreating. They''d be lower-level than the four of them and thus not worth much experience, but it seemed the stragglers had been picking off delvers. Darius stared at him for a moment, then sighed. ¡°Dungeons form around rifts,¡± he said slowly. ¡°Rifts form at intersections of human will. Generally, that means near towns, but not directly inside their territory.¡± He waved his hand at the dungeon. ¡°That does not fit the pattern.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°So, what do we do about it?¡± ¡°What do we do!?¡± Darius was almost screeching, despite still whispering. It would have almost been funny, if not for the real threat of awakening the horde. ¡°Yes,¡± Josh said patiently. ¡°This is a clear and present danger to our town. What should we do about it?¡± That calmed Darius down. He looked at Ruth, who gave him a beaming smile, waiting for his answer. He looked at Beor, who just returned a blank stare. Finally, he looked back to Josh, who gave him a go on motion. Josh did have some ideas of his own, but he figured it was best to let Darius work things out. ¡°We retreat,¡± Darius said at last. ¡°We have grenades, but not enough. This threat has been here for a while. I suspect it''s grown worse because the chamber is overflowing, and more monsters are being forced out into the tunnels. Still, it isn''t an existential threat in the next five minutes. We can return to town, talk to Anna and Mary, and bring down experts armed to the teeth.¡± Josh smiled at that. ¡°Better than a crafter, a bureaucrat, a wrestler, and a girl with a hammer.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± Darius actually managed a smile and a chuckle. ¡°Besides, I think Mary might actually kill us if we tried to do this without her.¡± The very moment he said that, there was a flash of light. Four people appeared in the cavern, next to what appeared to be a completely unremarkable bit of the dungeon wall. That meant they were right in the middle of the horde, materializing in a swirl of white light that was absolutely impossible to miss. Josh recognized Mary immediately, and Anna was right next to her. The two other people were dressed head to toe in leather armor, and one was almost eight feet tall. He didn''t know exactly what was going on, and the whole group seemed almost as surprised as Josh''s team. In fact, even the horde of monsters seemed surprised. For a moment. There was a rodent-like shriek loud enough to shake the air, and then the horde began to fall upon the newcomers. Mary started firing her guns and Anna swung her twinblade almost as quickly. Josh saw one of the strangers pull out knives seemingly from thin air, and the giant glowed with magical might. It wouldn''t be enough. It wouldn''t be nearly enough. ¡°Ruth!¡± Josh barked. ¡°Grenades!¡± He ripped one off his belt, primed it, and then threw it into a part of the horde that was a little away from Mary''s team. The others followed suit. His, Beor''s, and Darius'' grenades all made satisfying dents in the horde, but Ruth''s exploded at just the right spot in the air to inflict maximum damage. It still wasn''t enough. So they kept throwing grenades. It felt like they were trying to empty a lake by throwing rocks at it, but they did have some effect. A significant portion of the horde peeled off and came screaming towards them, taking some of the pressure off of Mary''s team. Which was probably the best they could hope for. As the horde got closer, Josh could better differentiate the monsters flowing towards them like a wave. He focused on the front-runner, a lean dog-like monster with fur the color of green moss, a snarling face, and a short tail. It took him a moment to realize it was a dog, of a sort.
Cynomys Burrow Runner
Level 15 Monster
Oh, this is a fun one. Most monsters of this family focus on digging and building up their burrows. However, most of the ones you see here came from a dungeon, and there''s not much that they can actually dig in a dungeon, so they ended up focusing on physical speed and strength instead. This guy is just about to evolve again. Maybe after it kills you, it will decide to evolve into something better at digging!
It was a prairie dog, easily four times the size of a normal one. At level 15, it was less than half his level, and if he was facing a small group, he would laugh at the idea that it would be a threat. But with a horde this size, he''d be worried even if they were all level 1. All their low level meant was that they wouldn''t be getting a reasonable amount of experience for killing them. He threw out an [Empty Chop], splitting it and a couple other nearby monsters in half. One monster survived. It was a pangolin, and honestly didn''t look that different from the normal version. He almost thought it was a natural animal before he scanned it.
Pholidotan Roller
Level 12 Monster
Yeah, it rolls into a ball and charges at you. They''re interesting if you fight them when they''re alone or in small groups, but in a mixed horde like this? Nah, they can''t build up any momentum. Their hide makes them tough, at least.
Sometimes he didn''t know whether the System wanted to get them all killed or not. And was it just him, or were these descriptions getting less useful? He felt like when he was a kid, the descriptions included actual combat abilities and potential weaknesses instead of just snark. Maybe it was just nostalgia. He didn''t bother using his art again on this one, instead slamming down his ax. It wasn''t a real technique, and he still hadn''t put any of his points in Strength, but he was a big guy with a lot of weight to throw around. The ax split the monster''s armor, killing it instantly. He yanked the weapon out just as another monster leaped at him, and his shroud manifested to stop it.
Suricatta Leaper
Level 20 Monster
You just have to piss off the biggest one in the swarm, don''t you? You have a Defender, they''re supposed to be the ones pulling aggro. Anyway, as you may have guessed, this is a meerkat. Normally, they don''t jump at people. This guy is kind of a weirdo. Don''t think too much about it, you get weirdos in every breed. This one gave up his ability to dig for more jumping. He might switch back at his next evolution. Assuming, of course, his life is not tragically cut short by a Crafter who is lying about his identity to almost everyone.
Josh''s eye twitched. Okay. These notes were getting a little too targeted for his tastes. Still, he unleashed another couple [Empty Chops] to clear out the monsters that didn''t come with armor. Then Ruth came in and slammed her hammer down on an armadillo. She was immediately beset by more monsters, climbing up her back and trying to bite through her shroud. Before she could be overwhelmed, Josh stepped up and started peeling them off, then throwing them away. He didn''t trust his aim to use an [Empty Chop] while they were on her. Chapter 22 - Broken Dungeon (part 5) They were in a small island of calm, if you could call it that, as the horde split its focus between the two parties. Darius used his larger shroud to physically push back and keep the area around them clear. Whenever anything pushed forward and tried to break through, Beor crushed it into a bloody mess. Josh glanced over at Mary''s group. They had their backs against the wall of the dungeon, and they seemed to be trying to build up a defense by piling up monster bodies in front of them. At a glance, he could see that all four of them had their own personal shrouds, and they all seemed to be more experienced in combat than his group. Or maybe it was just that all of them had actual [Combat] classes and the experience with them. Ruth had a powerful class, but still wasn''t used to it. Darius had a class that was half [Crafter], and he normally ran a [Healer] anyway. Beor was definitely experienced, and the highest level besides, but his class was better for single opponents, and watching him fight, Josh thought he was more used to fighting humanoid enemies. Josh himself probably had more combat experience than anyone else here. But he was stuck in a [Utility] class, with a stat distribution that seemed more like a madman''s fever dream than a clear build. If he was in one of his favored classes, even at the early tiers, he''d be able to contribute much more to this fight. Josh could do a lot of damage as a Samurai or Hunter. At higher tiers, like an Honored Shogun or Whispered Hunter, he could handle most of this horde by himself. But no. He was still stuck in a stupid [Crafter] class. He was nothing but a Stonecrafter. ...a Stonecrafter surrounded by stone. He slapped his hand on the floor of the cave. ¡°Instant Crafting,¡± he said. He felt the magic touch the tools on his belt¡ªhammers, chisels, picks and small shovels¡ªand applied those tools to the ground. Instantly, a hole appeared in front of him, a couple feet wide and an equal amount deep. It wasn''t much, but it surprised the horde, which fell into it. Their charge was broken, and the defenders were given a moment''s reprieve. Ruth, never one to pass up an obvious opening, threw her last grenade at the little pit. It exploded, showering everyone in blood and gore. Josh considered that a small price to pay. He grinned, studiously ignoring the taste in his mouth. ¡°I''ve got loads more where that came from!¡± ¡°Good,¡± Darius said. He primed one of his own grenades. ¡°Because we''re going to need everything.¡± At first, Josh assumed he was just talking about the horde in front of them. They had managed to cut it down by quite a bit, and wondered why Darius was so worried. Sure, they didn''t have an easy road to go on, but he thought they could clear out the rest. At the very least, they''d thin the horde enough to regroup and retreat without fear. Then he realized that monsters were jumping out of the river and joining the fight. He immediately recognized them as otters, despite the vibrant green fur and bright red barbs on their tails.
Lutrinae Battler
Level 27 Monster
Otter Battlers! Unlike most monster titles, these guys match up almost perfectly with the class that shares their name! You do know the Battler class, right? Well. You''ll get a good idea of how it works soon enough.
The Battler class was hard to get to with the world''s current crop of bloodstones. It was still popular, though, because it was a powerful generalist class. It was the backbone of the physical [Attacker] classes, able to use almost any type of weapon as long as it was intended for direct combat. It truly shined as a foundation for higher-tier classes, but on its own it was powerful and versatile. On its own, Josh wouldn''t think much of it. Facing a human Battler could be annoying because of their broad array of abilities, though never much worse than that. The problem was that the System had specifically called out this monster as being at least as strong as a class. That was rare. Furthermore, it was almost twice the level of some of the other monsters. Josh and his friends were level 35, but he still wouldn''t want to deal with more than a few at a time. There were a dozen of the Battlers on the field already, and more were crawling out of the river even as he watched. They didn''t have time to wait to see if the tide slowed. ¡°Ruth, do something about the otters,¡± he barked, in what he thought was an admirably calm voice. He threw out another [Empty Chop] to get some space. ¡°Darius, how are you on mana?¡± ¡°I can last a couple more minutes,¡± he said shortly. Josh could see the sweat on his forehead, the strain on his face. It wasn''t easy holding up a shroud for this long, even if you had the mana for it. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Good. Get ready.¡± He raised his voice. ¡°Oi, Mary!¡± She didn''t hear him. With all the gunshots echoing through the cavern, they were probably all lucky they hadn''t gone deaf yet. ¡°MARY!¡± She looked up, and he jerked his thumb back to the tunnels. ¡°Gonna need a fighting retreat!¡± She threw a glance his way, confusion evident on her face. Then she turned and saw the otters. She shouted a curse that would have made her aunt wash her mouth out with soap, and then started throwing her own grenades. She and her team started moving towards them, clearing a path aggressively. They could afford to take a few hits, because they had a [Healer] with them. Josh crushed another runestone, boosting his maximum mana, and started breathing in the mana of the air to refill it. His [Meditation] skill was still low-level, but the bigger problem was that the magic was thin down here. He needed to have as much as possible in order to get them out free and clear, and he wasn''t sure he could manage that. At least Darius and Mary were holding back the horde reasonably well. Ruth was smashing two or three monsters with every swing of her comically oversized hammer, the gravity rune glowing off and on at the exact right moment to make the maximum impact. Darius, meanwhile, was standing there with his arms outstretched as if he was physically holding up the walls. The monsters threw themselves at his glowing shroud, screeching and screaming with every attack. He flinched at every hit, and he was sweating buckets, but for the moment he was holding. Beor was... not doing great. Even Josh had been doing better than him, before he stopped using his [Empty Chop] to conserve mana. Josh didn''t hold it against him. Beor''s class was specialized for fighting humans, or at the very least individual monsters. He had no ranged attacks to reach past Darius'' shroud, not even a long spear. He had a complicated expression on his face, and Josh suspected he knew all this, but was angry at himself anyway. Josh was dragged out of his thoughts by an especially loud screech, and his head whipped towards Ruth''s group. One of the new companions was beset by one of the prairie dogs, and was stabbing it over and over with a pair of knives. The other three in the party were busy with their own fights. He didn''t think they had noticed the danger. While it would only take a second, that might be too long. They were close now. Josh weighed the risks, then threw out an [Empty Chop]. It sliced off the monster''s head, freeing them to run back towards the tunnels. Josh and his party let them run in first. Once they were through, he shouted and pointed. Beor and Ruth ran immediately, disappearing into the tenuous safety of the tunnels. Josh moved to follow. Darius didn''t. Josh ground his teeth. ¡°Danson! Retreat, soldier!¡± He shook his head. ¡°I''ll hold them off!¡± He was already breathing heavily, and Josh doubted he''d last another five minutes even if he had an hour of mana left. Clearly, something was going on here. Darius needed to talk to someone about how quick he was to place himself in harm''s way, even for a [Defender]. Josh had neither the time nor the patience to deal with it right now, though. He grabbed Darius by the arm. ¡°No sacrifices!¡± Darius tried to shrug him off. He failed. ¡°Just go! It''s the only way!¡± ¡°That wasn''t a request!¡± And then Josh physically threw Darius down the tunnel. Josh hadn''t put any points into Strength. But he was big, he started with a decent score in the stat, and Darius was a twig. The shroud broke like glass, and monsters crashed down on Josh like a wave. He was in the tunnel a moment later, and he slapped his hand onto the wall. ¡°Instant Crafting!¡± he shouted. There was a pause. Because of course there was a pause. As Suricatta Leapers flew through the air, as Pholidotan Rollers spun across the ground, the stone of the tunnel rearranged itself. Blocks cut themselves from the walls, then flew in front of him and locked into each other like some sort of intricate puzzle. In moments, the tunnel was blocked off completely, leaving only Ruth''s rune light and the screeching of the monsters for company. Josh collapsed to his knees. His mana was at zero. If he hadn''t been at max mana, if he hadn''t used that runestone, if the tunnel was just a little bit bigger, it wouldn''t have worked. They would all have been overwhelmed. ¡°We...¡± His words failed. He forced himself to take a few deep breaths. Once his mana ticked up a point, it felt less like his soul had been used as a dish towel. ¡°We need to get out of here. They have to have a few burrowers. They''ll be able to dig through the stone.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± one of the newcomers said. ¡°The farther away we can get, the better.¡± He was in the back of the group, which made sense considering how big he was. Josh was actually surprised he had managed to fit in the tunnel at all. ¡°Yeah, let''s go.¡± He struggled to his feet, and the eight of them started back through the tunnels towards town. Mary gave him a shoulder to lean on, which he appreciated. He had plenty of questions, but one dominated. ¡°Who are you two, anyway?¡± ¡°Oh, where are my manners?¡± the huge man said. ¡°I am Hou Zheng. By the spirits, it is a pleasure to meet you.¡± Chapter 23 - Discussion on Dungeons (part 1) Josh took them back to the mayor''s office, where Baara was holding court. There were half a dozen important figures from the town in the room with her, including Josh''s friend Abraham. Josh was tempted to go in and interrupt, give her some breathing room, but she seemed to be doing fine. From what he overheard, she spoke quietly but firmly, and made decisions swiftly based on the laws that Darius had finished untangling. It was probably only to be expected. She had to have learned a lot from watching her parents. Darius found them a small meeting room where they could clean up a little and have some snacks. They had left messages with the delvers and city guards at the pit, so they knew there were monsters in the tunnels now. Even though Josh expected them to break through his barricade soon, he didn''t think they''d be an immediate problem. Monsters tended to calm down once their blood settled. They hadn''t managed to kill anyone, so they hadn''t gotten a taste. They''d patrol and sniff around for humans, but they''d be reasonably cautious. It helped that Josh and his friends had killed a lot of them. Despite that, Josh had only gained a single level. He was pretty sure that he had only received a single point of experience per kill. It was frustrating to know that he had made a decent dent in a horde that could have easily devoured him, and yet the System dismissed them as ¡°too weak¡± to give him a real reward. Of course, he didn''t say that aloud. He wasn''t paranoid, but avoiding speaking badly about the System was just good sense. Especially when it seemed to be in a mood today. ¡°So,¡± Josh said, once they were all settled at the table. He would have liked to take a shower, but wishes and fishes. If his time in the army had taught him anything, it was that debriefings should be done as soon as possible. ¡°What happened?¡± Mary let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair. ¡°Everything went tits-up before falling face-first in the muck, that''s what happened.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°Was looking for something a bit more specific, yeah?¡± Hou Zheng, the giant, hadn''t taken off his leather armor. He leaned forward, creaking like an old chair. ¡°We found the ladies outside the dungeon entrance,¡± he said. He had a Chinese accent, though not a very thick one. ¡°As we had already been planning to enter ourselves, an extra pair of hands seemed prudent.¡± ¡°Having a Healer along was a treat and a half!¡± Mary said with a grin. ¡°Got run through by one of those bird things with a beak like a spear, he had me all fixed up before you know it!¡± Hou Zheng rubbed his forehead through the armor. ¡°Yes, your... predilection for throwing yourself into danger was a bit of a surprise for me, I will admit.¡± ¡°There is a reason I never did a party with Mary while I was a Healer,¡± Darius said tonelessly. Mary gave him an offended look. ¡°Shove off, you''re a Defender now, that''s at least as bad!¡± ¡°Defenders don''t have to pull spears out of people and manually shove the guts back in.¡± Darius gave her a flat look. ¡°I assure you, I am enjoying my new role quite well.¡± Hou Zheng chuckled. ¡°Thankfully, my spells are advanced enough that I do not have to do such things manually. But yes, it is... a trial, at times.¡± Josh nodded his head at the other new member of the party, who also hadn''t taken off the armor. He couldn''t complain too much, since he was still wearing his mask to conceal him from Identify. ¡°Wot about her?¡± There had been enough comments to clarify her gender identity. Hou Zheng put a hand on her shoulder. ¡°This is Kun, a friend of mine. Unfortunately, she is mute.¡± Kun bowed her head politely, and signed something with her hands. Ruth brightened. ¡°Oh! I know sign language!¡± She started signing back. ¡°Nice to meet you, I''m...¡± Her hands paused as Kun replied. ¡°Oh, mute not deaf. That makes more sense!¡± It did. People with disabilities that couldn''t be cured by magic typically did not go into dungeons. Or go anywhere on this side of the Burn Line at all, really. The City had more than enough room for everyone. Muteness was one thing; Josh doubted he would have even noticed, if he wasn''t scrutinizing both newcomers. He would have just assumed the woman was quiet. But deafness would get you killed in the Jungle. Period. Of course, you didn''t have to be deaf to get killed in the Jungle. No one came out here looking for an easy life. He was still surprised that people actually had children out here, even behind the safety of village walls. He hadn''t asked Baara how long she had lived out here, but the unclassed kids, at least, would surely still be back in the City if they had been born there. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. He shook his head. He was getting off track. ¡°Okay, you went into the dungeon together. Fine. But how''d you come out the bottom?¡± Mary exchanged a look with Anna. That woman had been oddly quiet. She coughed discreetly. ¡°Right... that might be my fault, I think.¡± She managed a grin. It looked less wolfish than usual, and more forced. ¡°We cleared out the dungeon, got to the end. There was a crack in the wall. Not the rift hovering in the middle of the air, you understand, a big glowing crack in the dungeon wall. You know, the wall that never has a crack or break? Anyway, I touched it.¡± She shrugged, as if it didn''t bother her. ¡°Sucked us all in like water down a drain, spat us out where you saw us.¡± ¡°Which is why Hou Zheng yelled at you not to touch it,¡± Mary said icily. Anna smirked. ¡°Sure, it was an unexpected result, I''ll admit to that. Still, I can''t really take too much blame. Sorry and all, but that''s never happened before.¡± Josh found himself nodding along. He had completed enough dungeons to know how they worked. Once you got to the end, you were just spat out at the entrance. There were ways to seal a dungeon permanently, but most towns considered their dungeons a valuable resource, so they didn''t like that. They also usually didn''t extend hundreds of feet underground and dump you out in a cave. ¡°It almost seems as though the monsters were escaping through the crack you mentioned,¡± he said. ¡°What was in the dungeon?¡± ¡°Digging things, like you saw outside,¡± Mary said. ¡°So yeah, I think they were escaping through the crack. Which is, you know, terrifying.¡± Josh was sure that her blank stare mirrored his own. If monsters could break their dungeons and escape, then their timeline had suddenly gotten much shorter. How long would it take the dragon to break free? Hou Zheng, however, was shaking his head. ¡°I don''t think it''s so simple. I know more than a little about dungeons. They are meant to be completely inviolable from the inside. I suspect this was the result of some external force affecting the dungeon.¡± ¡°That makes me marginally less worried,¡± Josh said, only half meaning it. ¡°Especially since we still don''t know what caused it.¡± ¡°Oh, that''s simple.¡± Hou Zheng''s voice was as bland as if he was describing his breakfast. ¡°The rift that the dungeon was formed around was outside standard safety margins. It was an underground vertical tear of unusual size, which always end up as bad dungeons. The rift''s unusual properties stretched the dungeon to its breaking point, and then any damage to the external runes would begin to weaken the security on the inside.¡± Josh stared at him. Darius stared at him. Ruth stared at him. Mary and Anna seemed to be fighting over a cookie. ¡°How do you sound so confident?¡± Josh asked finally. ¡°I thought everyone was still in a tizzy on how dungeons really worked.¡± The big man waved the comment off. ¡°The runes are complex and mysterious, sure, especially without Enchanters to study them. But the basics are, well, basic.¡± He took a small paper cup from a stack and put it on the table. ¡°A rift forms, and the Tower places a dungeon to contain it.¡± He started filling the cup from a water pitcher. ¡°The dungeon contains the power of the rift until...¡± The cup overflowed. ¡°...the power escapes.¡± ¡°On the day before the reset,¡± Darius said, nodding. ¡°No, hold on a mo,¡± Josh said, holding up his hand. ¡°That metaphor doesn''t work. If it''s just filling up with power, then shouldn''t it pop on different days, depending on the rift? Or, hell, even depending on how often the dungeon gets cleared out? Having them all let out on the day before the reset doesn''t fit.¡± Hou Zheng chuckled ruefully. ¡°Yes, well, I prefer the fire metaphor, but I didn''t think you''d appreciate me using that one.¡± ¡°Give it a try anywhy,¡± Josh quipped. ¡°Just without actually setting anything ablaze.¡± The big man considered a moment, his fingers drumming on the table. ¡°All right, think of it like this,¡± he said at last. ¡°Yes, the cup is filling with water. However, the water could not possibly fill the entire cup by the end of the year. The rift is too small, and even if used at maximum capacity, it would take decades for them to fill the dungeon¡ªsorry, the cup¡ªto capacity. Following so far?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Josh said. ¡°Now, imagine that the cup is on fire.¡± Though Josh couldn''t see the man''s face, he could absolutely imagine him grinning widely. ¡°The fire is eating away at the cup from the outside. Whether the cup is full or empty doesn''t matter, the fire burns at the same rate, until eventually it collapses, and you''re left with nothing but ashes.¡± He spread his hands wide. ¡°At which point the Tower creates a new cup¡ªa new dungeon¡ªand the process begins again.¡± There followed a lengthy silence. ¡°I''ve never actually tried to run a dungeon on the last day,¡± Josh mused. He was surprised to realize the gap in his own knowledge. ¡°I can''t say if that is a reasonable metaphor or not.¡± ¡°You can''t go in on the last day,¡± Darius said. ¡°You get an error. If the dungeon, or at least the parts of it that truly contain the rift, are being replaced on the last day, then that would explain most of the discrepancies that have been observed.¡± ¡°All right,¡± Josh said slowly. ¡°And this mess we got in our tunnels?¡± Hou Zheng shrugged. ¡°As I said, the rift is larger. Not stronger, you understand, just bigger. Imagine the same amount of fuel, spread over a larger area. Now, in most respects, this makes the actual rift less dangerous, as it is unable to focus its efforts in bringing through powerful monsters. However, it seems the Tower made a similar mistake in trying to contain it. The dungeon itself is thinner, weaker, and is burning up faster.¡± Chapter 24 - Discussion on Dungeons (part 2) ¡°So, what, this is basically the day before the reset as far as that dungeon is concerned?¡± Josh struggled to contain his skepticism. It seemed a pretty big coincidence that they just happened to find it on that day. Darius shook his head. ¡°No, that doesn''t fit. That horde was built gradually. There''s no way so many were in the dungeon before, and had only just fallen out.¡± Hou Zheng sighed. ¡°Unfortunately, here we are far beyond the limits of my knowledge. If I had to put it to a guess, I would say that the whole situation is strange enough that the normal dungeon limitations don''t apply. Just as we fell out the bottom of the dungeon, likely so did they. Even though that is the exact thing that the dungeons are supposed to prevent.¡± ¡°You think it will fix itself?¡± Josh asked. He knew the answer was no. ¡°Perhaps it will,¡± Hou Zheng said, to his surprise. The big man saw the look on his face. ¡°It''s simple survivorship bias,¡± he explained. ¡°The fact that the world is not overrun with broken dungeons implies that there is a way for the Tower to fix them. Especially since most dungeons in the world are not being raided on a regular basis.¡± Josh made an annoyed face at that. There were still so many questions about how magic worked, and how dungeons¡ªor rifts¡ªformed, and how both related to humans. One theory was that there should be no new dungeons forming too far out of range of human habitation. Unfortunately, they never did get a full spread of all the dungeons in the world back when there were humans under every bush. Now, there was no way to be sure if a dungeon out in the untraveled wilderness was new or not. ¡°My assumption,¡± Hou Zheng continued, ¡°is that the Tower can only replace dungeons once they finish burning out. Or breaking, or dissolving, or washing away. Whatever metaphor you wish to use. The point being that once this dungeon is empty, a new one will be created on the same rift, hopefully without the same problems.¡± ¡°What if we close the rift?¡± Josh asked suddenly. Ruth cocked her head at him. ¡°Isn''t that a bad idea? My dad used to argue with people on when and where dungeons should be closed. I''m still surprised he sent you to close the one near the Burn Line.¡± ¡°It''s an economics thing,¡± Josh said. ¡°Dungeons are a free source of monsters, if you can keep them under control. If you can''t, they''re just a danger.¡± He waved his hand in the vague direction of the malfunctioning dungeon. ¡°If we close that one off, it should solve all our problems.¡± ¡°If we even can,¡± Mary said with a scowl. The scowl was pointed at Anna, who was happily munching away on a cookie. ¡°According to someone, there wasn''t even an option to close the rift at the end of the dungeon.¡± ¡°There are plenty of ways to shut down a rift,¡± Hou Zheng said firmly. ¡°You don''t need System support to manage it.¡± ¡°I really don''t want to shove a bunch of expensive magical materials into a rift if I don''t have to,¡± Josh said dryly. ¡°I much prefer it the System way.¡± Mary rolled her eyes like he had said something stupid. He ignored her. ¡°What do we get if we close the rift?¡± Ruth asked. She had found her grin again, and leaned forward on the table excitedly. ¡°I know there''s something, but I''ve never been able to actually see it.¡± ¡°Advancement resources,¡± Josh said blandly. She blinked at that. ¡°Wait, you mean like bloodstones?¡± ¡°Like bloodstones, yes, but not actually bloodstones.¡± If there was even the slightest chance of getting new bloodstones from dungeons, every single one in ten thousand miles would have been cleared a long time ago. ¡°Other things that you need to advance higher up the tiers. You''ve got an Improved-tier class, you could do with some extra gems.¡± Hou Zheng nodded along. ¡°I know Miss Mary is a Mage Gunner, some rift crystals could push her up to Arch Gun-Lord.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Ruth smiled. ¡°My dad uses that class.¡± ¡°And an excellent class it is!¡± Hou Zheng spread his arms wide, and Josh had the strong impression he was grinning under his leathers. ¡°I''ve never taken that class myself, but I''ve seen it put to good use more than once.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Look, this is all bright as a button, and I''m happy we''re all cheery and smiles. But what were you two even doing around the dungeon?¡± Darius nodded. ¡°We checked the roster, no one was scheduled to be heading there any time soon. It seems... odd that you would stumble by just when Mary and Anna needed extra hands.¡± Suspicious as all get out was what he meant, Josh knew, but no one could say that aloud. There were too many questions about these two. The timing, Hou Zheng''s knowledge of dungeons, and of course their big, concealing clothing. Josh couldn''t throw stones about that last one, considering his own mask, but it was still suspicious. Bloody hell, Josh himself was using it to hide an important secret! Josh was also vaguely suspicious of Kun''s supposed muteness as well, though he pushed that one aside. She''d have no reason to hide her voice from any of them, or just randomly know sign language. The much more obvious answer was just that she was, indeed, mute. Speaking of which, Kun started making quick, agitated motions with her hands. Josh was once again annoyed that he''d never learned sign language. It had been one of the foreign language courses offered when he was a kid, but he had chosen French instead. He''d be surprised if there were a thousand people who spoke French now, and he''d bet his left toes that every single one also spoke English. Ruth raised her hands, looking concerned. ¡°We''re not accusing you of anything!¡± She glanced at Josh and Darius. Neither of them made any attempt to back her up. She puffed out her cheeks before turning back to the woman. ¡°We''re just... worried, about some things.¡± She gave a shaky smile. ¡°It''s been pretty rough for us, since the reset.¡± Hou Zheng nodded. ¡°I can imagine. The reset is always hard, and then that world quest following so soon after...¡± He sighed. ¡°It''s been a difficult season for everyone. Did you know, we were actually beset by bandits who thought we were the ones the quest is talking about?¡± ¡°Wot?¡± Josh asked, before he could stop himself. ¡°How? Why?¡± ¡°The quest doesn''t give many details, but word has gotten around,¡± Hou Zheng said solemnly. ¡°While there are not many pictures, a basic description has been circulated. The one thing that everyone knows about the suspects is that Joshua Hundredborn is a very large man, and Mary Manganese is tall but skinny.¡± Mary''s head jerked up at that. She looked between Hou Zheng and Josh, trying to communicate with just her eyes. Josh kept himself controlled. ¡°You know, don''t you?¡± Hou Zheng inclined his head. ¡°I do.¡± ¡°That only makes you more suspicious,¡± Josh pointed out. He didn''t move for a weapon. He could launch an [Empty Chop] bare-handed. In fact, that was how it had originally worked. He was confident that he could put a dent in this man before he knew what was happening. ¡°You sure as muck didn''t tell me you knew who I was!¡± Mary said hotly. ¡°You about to tell me that this is why you found us on the mountain?¡± Josh understood her fury, but had moved past it. His anger was cold now. He could take a few moments to get all the information before the violence started. ¡°Wasn''t really a mountain, more of a hill,¡± Anna said. She was grinning that wolf''s grin again, and her eyes stayed on Hou Zheng. ¡°Now, mister... whatever you name is, I already forgot it¡ª¡± He managed to look offended despite being covered in layers of leathers. ¡°I haven''t known cutie Mary for long.¡± Mary looked like she was going to leap over and strangle her, but Anna continued without a blink. ¡°I''m all up for a good fight and getting paid for a good fight, so maybe I''d be willing to take out the Crafters myself.¡± She cocked her head to the side. ¡°Do you know why I''m not doing that?¡± ¡°Because you are bound by your word of honor?¡± Hou Zheng asked. Josh genuinely couldn''t tell if the man was making a joke or not. Anna chuckled. ¡°No. Two reasons.¡± She held up two fingers dramatically. ¡°First, I actually do think these kids can make something of this town. I was happy to see the old mayor taken down a peg, no one has offered me too much money to betray them yet, and having Crafters sounds like a great way to build up the town.¡± Josh looked at her sideways. What was that about people trying to bribe her? Had that actually happened? ¡°And your second?¡± Hou Zheng asked. ¡°My second?¡± Anna chuckled. ¡°I just want to fight you.¡± Then she kicked the table so hard that it slammed both strangers into the wall. Chapter 25 - Fight in the Office Mary had known Anna for less than two days, and she already hated her. She was rude, crass, flirtatious when she should be serious and cold when she should be warm, not to mention a battle-addicted maniac who Mary had genuinely thought would murder her multiple times. Sometimes she terrified her, and Mary only stuck with her because she felt safer knowing she was pointed at the enemy. But damn did the woman know how to make a dramatic point. One strong kick sent the big oak table¡ªand both strangers¡ªhurtling into the wall. Kun managed to half dodge and only got clipped on the shoulder, but Hou Zheng got slammed full-force against a solid wooden wall. Not that it mattered, because he started glowing with green light a moment later. He was a [Healer], specifically something called a Battle Mender. His heals were quick and efficient. That was okay. They had learned more than a little fighting beside these two in the dungeon. Mary raised her guns and unleashed a barrage of magical bolts on Kun, who had to duck behind a cabinet. She didn''t use her real spells, just the basic bolts, channeled through her guns. They were cheap as dirt to use, and more importantly had no chance of doing major damage to the building. The whole place was made of wood. She might be more willing to drop a Pyro Shot if she thought that wouldn''t catch the whole place on fire. Anna spun her twinblade, grinned, and lunged. Her class, Undying Exile, was an Improved-tier [Defender] class, but not a standard one. It had far more in common with an [Attacker] class, and seemed to be based on the idea that the best way to defend people was if all their enemies were dead. Kun disappeared in a burst of shadow and reappeared behind Anna, but they had seen this trick before. Anna spun her twinblade around her, while Mary tagged Kun with a Luxos Shot. It would prevent her from moving through the shadows for a few moments. That wasn''t her only trick, unfortunately. She spun and threw a knife at Mary with far more skill and precision than should be possible without magic. A technique, obviously, and one that was hard for her class to defend against. Luckily, she still had the [Trick Shot] technique. Most Archer techniques didn''t apply to guns¡ªat least not directly. Learning [Pyro Arrow] made it easier to learn [Pyro Shot]. Sometimes, however, there were techniques that could be used with multiple weapon types. It almost felt like an exploit, as though the System had forgotten to tag the ability as exclusive to one weapon. So Mary shot the knife out of the air. Kun threw two more, and Mary wasn''t confident in her ability to shoot them all, so she dodged. Easier on her stamina pool, too. Kun couldn''t keep up her assault with Anna swinging a weapon at her, so she had to dodge away and break off her attack. Before Mary could set up a bigger shot to do some real damage, she was slammed across the room by a blast of silver fire. It didn''t kill her, or even burn her, really, but it was a big hot blast that knocked her off her game just as it knocked her ten feet across the room and into a wall. ¡°I am genuinely impressed by the both of you,¡± Hou Zheng said, sounding as calm as if he was strolling down the street. ¡°But we both heavily out level you. I personally have more levels than the both of you combined, and I don''t think that my companion is very far behind. Honestly, in other circumstances I''d be open to solving our problems with a simple duel, but I do not think it would be fair to you at the moment.¡± Mary responded with an [Anemo Shot], boosted to maximum with her Power score. It crashed into his shroud with no obvious effect. ¡°I am still willing to negotiate,¡± he said blandly. ¡°Honestly, you jumped to violence far too quickly.¡± He waved a hand, and another burst of silver fire rocketed at Anna. She cut it in half with her twinblade, and the flames dissipated harmlessly. ¡°Is this some cultural error I was unaware of?¡± Mary ground her teeth. ¡°Stop. Talking.¡± She was done playing around. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. She unloaded [Vareo Shot] from both her guns. It was still her most expensive spell, and she could barely afford to cast it twice, even with her careful bonuses and advantages from her class. It created a miniature black hole, or at least that''s what it looked like to her. It crushed, ripped, and sheared anything within its area of effect with random gravity fluctuations. She didn''t use it very much, and not just because of the mana cost. It created too much of a mess, and there wasn''t much loot left over afterwards. Hou Zheng''s healing abilities were incredible, especially considering the fact that his class clearly focused more on speed than on raw power. But nothing was free, and enough damage would zero out his mana soon enough. She did, vaguely, hope that he survived, because she did have more questions for him. But she wouldn''t lose any sleep if he died. He teleported away, appearing on the opposite side of the room. He teleported. As if it was the easiest thing in the world. Mary stared for a moment, open-mouthed, as her spells tore up the wall behind where Hou Zheng had been standing. All that was left was a tiny crack in the air, like the world itself had broken. Even that disappeared in the space of two blinks. She almost couldn''t believe what she had seen. Even the appearance of teleportation was a rare ability. Rogues and related classes could get it pretty easily if you knew what you were doing, which was why she hadn''t been surprised by Kun, but she had never even heard of a [Healer] class that granted teleportation. She screamed in rage and refocused her attacks, but she had been distracted for a full second. In battle, that was as good as writing a letter to your enemy and inviting them to attack. Before she could even swing her guns around, Kun had disengaged from Anna, Hou Zheng took her place, and then Kun slashed a shadow blade straight at Mary. It cut through Mary''s shroud so fast she almost didn''t realize it. The device on her wrist gave off a smell like burnt sugar, and she knew it was depleted. She backpedaled as she fired her guns, trying to put distance between herself and her opponent. But Kun disappeared into shadow; apparently Mary''s Luxos Shot had worn off. She appeared behind Mary, knives raised¡ª And was hit by a hammer blow that sent her through two walls. Ruth stood there, panting and sweating, the weakness in her limbs a sure sign that she had zeroed out her stamina with an overcharged attack. ¡°You guys could have given us a little more warning!¡± Mary plastered a grin on her face that she absolutely did not feel. ¡°I think it''s working out well enough, yeah?¡± Behind Ruth, Darius scowled. ¡°I''m just glad I upgraded Josh''s shroud.¡± Mary looked over and saw using his ax to trade blows with Hou Zheng, who had a big heavy mace. Anna struggled with herself, teeth clenched in pain. Mary could see fire twisting around under her skin. ¡°Oh, he can do curses,¡± Mary said, her tone like lead. ¡°That''s just brilliant.¡± She had never seen him use curses in the dungeon, but then she hadn''t seen him throw around silver fireballs either. Clearly, everyone had been holding back during their fights. Still, the easiest way to break a curse was to kill the caster. She raised her guns and fired on Hou Zheng. Behind her, Ruth and Darius moved off to contain Kun. Hou Zheng fought Josh and Anna together as if it was all part of a dance. Sure, Josh was in a non-combat class and Anna fought like an animal, but Josh was the most skilled fighter she had ever met, and Anna had the stats to back up her wild style. Hou Zheng was twice their level, bigger than even Josh, and he had real skill to back that up. A lesser fighter would have already been overwhelmed, level advantage or no. Mary hoped her shots would tip that balance, but that didn''t seem to be the case. Between his shroud and his healing spells, he could largely ignore her attacks, and she couldn''t use anything bigger for fear of hitting her allies. She briefly considered trying anyway¡ªthey were both spry, they could dodge¡ªbefore dismissing the notion. He would just teleport away again, and they''d be in the same situation. Assuming she didn''t hit something more important this time. As if summoned by her thoughts, the wall she had shot earlier finished collapsing with a groan. Half the room came down, though thankfully not the half anyone was fighting in, and choking dust billowed out. Everyone coughed and stumbled back, momentarily stunned. Everyone except for Hou Zheng and Kun, who were wearing full body armor. Apparently this included at least some protection from dust. Without any signal between them or parting remarks to their enemies, they both turned and leaped out the open hole in the wall. Mary hardly had time to see them sail through the air before they were gone, and she was still coughing too hard to even consider giving chase. Mary ground her teeth and wiped bleary eyes. She blamed Anna for this. Chapter 26 - After the Fight (part 1) Anna, Josh thought, was not nearly as contrite about the whole thing as she should have been. ¡°Look, I saw an opportunity and I took it,¡± she said, tone defensive. She leaned back in her chair, watching him work. ¡°That muckball was just waiting for the chance to spring his little trap on you. Sometimes you gotta spring it early.¡± Josh sighed as he used his [Scavenge] technique. He deconstructed the ruined wall into useful components. Building materials were cheap enough that it was largely unnecessary. It was more to get the place cleaned up a little. ¡°I get you,¡± he said patiently. ¡°Especially with the level difference. But he was clearly leading up to something. He wanted to talk. If someone is shooting their gob, you don''t shoot them in the gob!¡± Anna rolled her eyes. ¡°You sound like my mother.¡± ¡°Your mom gave strange advice, then,¡± Ruth said. She walked back in, carrying lumber over her shoulder. She had been putting most of her points into Strength, so she could carry quite a load. Josh wasn''t sure if she was showing off or if she just really enjoyed using her new strength. He was leaning towards the latter. ¡°Look, they''re gone.¡± Anna waved her hand in the direction of the hole. ¡°That quiet lady with the big spear put out a BOLO and all that, so the whole town is looking for them. We''re reinforcing the walls. We can keep them out pretty easily. No one in town is going to try to bring you in, even if they do figure out the Crafter thing. We''ve got some rebellious types here, though nothing to worry about.¡± Josh was far past worrying about that, but he supposed he should be worrying about that. Taking over the citystone didn''t render him immune to attack. Especially since he hadn''t really done anything with it yet. He needed to be leveraging his advantages more. ¡°All right,¡± he said at last. ¡°That''s where we need to start.¡± Anna and Ruth both stared at him. He resisted the urge to shift from foot to foot. He was glad Mary and Darius were gone for the moment, or it would be even worse. ¡°Did I miss part of the conversation?¡± Ruth asked Anna. ¡°What''s he talking about?¡± Anna shrugged. ¡°Beats me.¡± Then she grinned. ¡°Maybe he wants to go on a hunt for rebels?¡± ¡°No, sorry.¡± Josh waved his hand as if to brush the conversation away. ¡°Got ahead of myself, yeah? Ruth, we need to upgrade the citystone. Do you know how much longer it will take to reach the right mana threshold?¡± ¡°I''ll check again, but it shouldn''t be more than a few days.¡± ¡°Good.¡± He nodded. ¡°We''ll be prepared this time, but I still want that boost as soon as possible. Anna, have monsters ever crawled out of the pit?¡± ¡°No,¡± she said, frowning. ¡°Beasties only attack from ground level.¡± ¡°Perfect. I want a map of all the nearby monster nests, and the directions you think hordes might come from.¡± He cast a quick [Instant Crafting] on the materials that Ruth had brought, and part of the wall rebuilt itself. It didn''t quite match the old wall, but it would do. ¡°I''m sure that Darius or Baara will have something.¡± A slow, manic grin spread over her face. ¡°I don''t know what you''re planning, but I am here for it!¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Think that''s my cue to smack someone upside the head,¡± Mary said as she stepped into the room. She looked between Josh and Anna, then turned to Ruth. ¡°Oi, what are these two idiots planning?¡± Ruth kept her eyes on Josh. She wasn''t smiling. ¡°Josh wants me to upgrade the citystone. He''s trying to prepare for a horde.¡± Mary let out a breath. ¡°Okay, shouldn''t be as much of a muck pile as it was last time. Doubt we''ll have another angry Tamer riling up the wildlife.¡± She narrowed her eyes. ¡°But if you''re just going to try the same thing again, you''re daft.¡± ¡°I thought we were going to go down into the pit and finish off the rest of the monsters in the tunnels!¡± Ruth added. ¡°And then we''re going to clear out the dungeon and get the advancement materials and¡ª¡± ¡°Ruth, take a breath,¡± Josh advised. ¡°Like you said, we got at least a few days. I''m not trying to give you a twist, just planning ahead.¡± ¡°That is a wonderful change of pace,¡± Darius said, coming in behind Mary. ¡°Apologies if I missed the explanation, what is your new plan?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°I was waiting for the whole group,¡± he lied. Actually, he had just let his thoughts run ahead of his mouth, and forgotten that not everyone knew the full capabilities of citystones. He wasn''t going to admit that he had lost the plot, though. Best to just continue on. ¡°So, like Ruth said: Clear out the horde in the tunnels, clear out the dungeon, get advance mats.¡± He blinked, then snapped his fingers and pointed at Darius. ¡°Does the town have any stored right now?¡± ¡°No,¡± Beor said from the corner of the room. Everyone jumped. ¡°How long you been sitting there?¡± Josh demanded. Beor thought for a moment. ¡°...when did the wall break?¡± Josh took a breath. ¡°At the end of the fight.¡± ¡°There was a fight?¡± Josh gave a quick recap of the events that had happened with Hou Zheng and Kun. Beor nodded along. ¡°Trouble,¡± he said. ¡°They were trouble, they will be trouble.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Anna said, throwing up her arms. Beor ignored her. He turned to Josh. ¡°There are no advancement materials in the vaults. The old mayor used them whenever we got them.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Besides. Didn''t get many of them. Not many people closed dungeons.¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± Anna said, her eyes distant and her tone wistful. ¡°That guy was a jackass parasite, but he knew not to kill your chickens unless they turn into monsters. He had strict rules on not breaking dungeons unless you had to.¡± She made a face. ¡°He exiled one of my best hunters for that, actually. Maybe I should go looking for him...¡± ¡°That''s something for later,¡± Josh said firmly. He used another cast of [Instant Crafting]. The wall was halfway done. ¡°Let''s jump back on track. We need the citystone upgraded as soon as possible, because once it is, it gets slots for abilities.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah,¡± Ruth said, nodding. ¡°We used it for that buff back in Gilroy.¡± ¡°A buff for the whole town isn''t a bad idea.¡± Despite her words, Anna didn''t actually look all that interested. ¡°Of course, that won''t apply to the hunters out in the fields. Probably won''t even get the delvers in the pit.¡± Then she frowned at the wall. Josh grinned. She was getting close to seeing it, he could tell. ¡°I wouldn''t say no,¡± Ruth added. ¡°I just don''t see why it''s suddenly such a high priority?¡± ¡°Breads and circuses, yeah?¡± Mary suggested. ¡°Choose the right buff, that''s a hefty quality of life boost for everyone in town. More than the previous mayor managed.¡± ¡°That''s one option,¡± Josh admitted. He cast [Instant Crafting] again. Anna jumped out of her chair. ¡°Shut the front door.¡± Josh grinned. She pointed at him, or the wall, or maybe at his spell. ¡°Can you slot that into a citystone?¡± There was silence for a moment. Then Mary started laughing. Darius put his face in his hand. ¡°I can''t believe I forgot about that.¡± Chapter 27 - After the Fight (part 2) ¡°If I can put one of my Crafting spells on the citystone¡ªor even just one blueprint¡ªthen everything changes,¡± Josh insisted. ¡°My bottleneck right now is that I can''t use most of the bigger blueprints, because my Capacity is muck. But citystones cast off their own mana. That means they can cast much bigger spells.¡± They''d also be more expensive, because they wouldn''t be benefiting from his absurd Sensitivity score, but that was a small additional price to pay. ¡°I''ll bet we could build a good wall in a matter of days.¡± ¡°There''s also the Woodcrafter stones to consider,¡± Darius pointed out. ¡°I believe I can get us an Alchemist without too much trouble. I just need a Mender who can make it to their next advancement again quickly.¡± ¡°Oh, thank God,¡± Josh muttered. ¡°Healer''s bloody staff, yes please,¡± Mary added. ¡°I hear real Alchemists can make their healing potions taste like soda.¡± Josh didn''t even like soda, but practically anything would be better than the healing goop they made without actual Alchemists. ¡°After that, I just need to grind up my level as fast as possible,¡± Josh said. ¡°If we''re lucky, I can qualify for a new class advancement at level 40.¡± Darius adjusted his glasses with one finger. ¡°I remain worried about your Improved-tier classes. We don''t know what achievements you need.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Well, we just have to roll the dice, don''t we? I''m learning plenty of blueprints and doing things with them, that''s probably the right direction.¡± He snorted. ¡°Guess I could try to learn some more crafting spells, but not sure what that would look like.¡± While he had learned plenty of techniques over the course of basic crafting, he hadn''t learned a single extra spell beyond what his classes granted him automatically. He would probably need to really buckle down on that if he ever wanted a magitech class. But he didn''t know, because he didn''t have access to the class records in the bloody City! ¡°How is everyone else doing?¡± Ruth asked, looking around. ¡°Mary, you know how to get to your next tier, right?¡± Mary made a face. ¡°It''s annoying, but yeah, I''ve got it.¡± She''d have to jump sideways to Gun Lord, which was an Improved-tier class, and then from there advance to Arch Gun-Lord. Another problem that they wouldn''t have to deal with if there were more bloodstones. With a Gunner bloodstone, she could go straight from Mage Gunner to Arch Gun-Lord, with the right achievements and advancement resources. Without it, she had to go the long way around. Ruth nodded. ¡°And Darius, you''re still a Shroudcrafter. Any luck on advancement?¡± He shook his head. ¡°I do not even know if there is an Improved-tier version of the class, or if I would have to specialize more.¡± Josh thought on that one for a minute. ¡°I think... I know there''s a Master Shroudcrafter class, but I don''t know if that''s the next tier up.¡± The System had an annoying habit of sorting things into unofficial tiers, in addition to the official ones. Case in point, his Stonecrafter class was effectively a higher tier than his Woodcrafter class, but not actually. Both were Basic-tier, and there used to be bloodstones for Stonecrafters and Metalcrafters and all sorts of other specializations. So he didn''t know if Master Shroudcrafter was the next step after Shroudcrafter, or if there was a Journeyman Shroudcrafter in between. Even if there was, maybe Darius could skip it. What I wouldn''t give for the internet, Josh thought to himself ruefully. The City still had the internet, or a version of it at least. No one really bothered trying to extend it to the villages outside the Burn Line. No satellites meant that the range was pretty limited. There had been some attempts to set up radio towers, under the theory that the monsters would ignore them without people on them, but they were too expensive to set up and high-level monsters would destroy them completely by accident. It wasn''t worth the trouble. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°I believe I have a few reasonable leads,¡± Darius said. ¡°I''m learning more shroud blueprints on my own, and observing people using them in real combat. I''ve also been carrying a full rack of bloodstones on me at all times, including a Woodcrafter bloodstone, to ensure I don''t miss any possibilities.¡± Josh blinked. ¡°Huh,¡± he said. ¡°Yeah, that''ll do ya.¡± ¡°So there''s a plan, now?¡± Anna asked. ¡°Level as fast as possible, clear out the tunnels, upgrade the citystone. That about the size of it?¡± Darius exchanged a glance, making sure neither had anything more to add. After a moment, Darius nodded to Anna. ¡°Yes. That is... the size of it.¡± ¡°It''s going to be a heavy road,¡± Anna said. ¡°That Hou Zheng was level 64, and I don''t think little miss Kun is that far behind.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± Ruth asked, aghast. ¡°How do you know?¡± ¡°He told us, didn''t he?¡± Mary said. ¡°Outside the dungeon. He didn''t take his mask off, so no hard facts on it, but I''ve been around high-level nobs before. He''s got a spread of points and skills that tells me he''s at least as strong as he says.¡± She gave Josh the side eye. ¡°Should probably assume he''s even stronger.¡± Josh took a breath. Level 64 was... problematic. On the one hand, he was a [Healer], the least directly dangerous role. On the other hand, he clearly had enough attack spells to make a nuisance of himself, and even if he didn''t, Kun was an [Attacker]. She could certainly make a nuisance of herself, especially when supported by a skilled [Healer]. He also suspected that they hadn''t seen her full suite of abilities. She felt to him like a stealth class, best suited to ambushing unsuspecting prey. Which, now that he thought of it, might have been why Anna was the one who started the fight. Giving Kun the chance to draw first blood would have just gotten them all killed before the first one even realized that they were dead. ¡°Level fast,¡± Josh said firmly. ¡°We''ll start with the monsters in the tunnels.¡± Then he sighed. ¡°Even though at our level, they''ll give a point each. Still, there are enough of them to make a dent in our experience bars regardless.¡± Beor coughed politely. Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°You got something to say there, friend?¡± ¡°I am... high-level.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Relatively.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°You know I got there with bloodstones.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡ª¡± Josh stopped. Then he took a deep breath and looked the man dead in the eye. Josh loomed over him, but he loomed over everyone. Beor, for his part, didn''t back down. ¡°You want to feed bloodstones to monsters so we can kill them for experience.¡± Everyone else in the room flinched. Beor nodded. ¡°Aye.¡± ¡°That''s a risky move,¡± Josh warned. ¡°To be worth it, the monster has to be higher than our level. If we grab a level 24 mob to boost to level 40, that means it''s got two advancements to go through. That means it gets two chances to evolve into something nasty specifically for messing with us.¡± ¡°There are ways around that.¡± ¡°To a point!¡± Mary snapped. She glared at Beor as if he had suggested stealing the Second Immortal''s socks. ¡°Any trick you use can backfire. Put the monster in a cage? It turns intangible, or explodes. Put it in a big arena? It grows wings, or explodes. Put it in a huge outdoor area so big that there''s no possible way it could notice you? It grows giant and eats you, or it gets super speed and runs away, or it explodes.¡± She threw up her hands. ¡°No matter what you do, the evolution finds a way to screw you over!¡± Beor shrugged. ¡°It has risks. But for that last bump to the next advancement, maybe it''s worth it?¡± Josh exchanged a glance with Mary. She scowled at first, before slowly simmering down under his look. She rolled her eyes, then nodded. ¡°We''ll try it,¡± he said firmly. ¡°But we have to be careful.¡± Beor nodded. ¡°Of course. This will not backfire, I promise.¡± Chapter 28 - Backfire It backfired almost immediately. Well. Josh had to admit that was unfair. The first three attempts went surprisingly smoothly. They started with a level 33 boar from the Jungle. That meant if they boosted it to over level 40, they''d only have to deal with one advancement. Anna found them a relatively empty stretch near the reinforced town wall, and laid out a handful of bloodstones. Then, they released the boar and waited. Once it gobbled up the bloodstones, it swelled in size immediately, skin tearing free so that literal stone muscles could take its place. The plan had been to let Josh go first, but his measly [Empty Chop] couldn''t pierce that armor. Mary ended up crushing it with her gravity bullet spell. Next, they found a snake. At level 29, it was less than ideal, but they could make it work. It would evolve twice, at level 32 and then again at level 40. That meant they had to be very careful. Its first evolution turned it giant, similar to the boar, but it didn''t appear to gain any enhanced durability. Before any of them could get a good look at it, the snake had already gobbled up the rest of the bloodstones and evolved a second time. Then it started breathing fire. Josh actually was reasonably competent against fire. He had run various fire magic classes multiple times, and one of his oldest friends almost always picked fire classes. Considering the nature of the Jungle, it was a common weapon to use, and Josh had plenty of experience fighting it in all its forms. Josh dodged the flames, ignored the heat across his back, and used an [Empty Chop] on the snake''s neck. That caused it to flinch back, and he unleashed a few more in quick succession until he severed the head. The red mist rose from its corpse, turned white, and then flowed into him.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 37 Stonecrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
If Josh had his math right, that meant he was finally in reach of a particular blueprint that he had been hoping to use for a while. He dismissed that thought for the moment; he wanted to reach level 40, and didn''t have time to get distracted. The next monster they used was a walking corn plant that had awakened in one of the farms. It was level 15. Newborn monsters were always lower level, but they grew by absorbing the mana in the air. Or, as always, by killing humans and consuming bloodstones. If they boosted this one all the way to level 40, it would be going through four evolutions. Even for a plant monster, which were notoriously easier to deal with than animal monsters, that was a bit much. But then it went perfectly. It got bigger, it seemed to grow more defined limbs, and it gained the ability to shoot exploding corn kernels at them. Josh killed it with less trouble than the giant snake. In hindsight, this was a false confidence, and they really should have given up. Or at least stuck with plant monsters. But everything was going so well, and they couldn''t find any more plant monsters at the moment, so they decided to continue with animals. The fourth monster was a bee. It exploded. Specifically, it turned into a Bomber-type monster, then exploded before Josh could even swing his ax. The red mist rose from its corpse, but instead of turning white and flowing into him, it flowed down into the ground. He got nothing from the fight. At least no one was hurt. Next was an ant monster, which also turned into a bomb and exploded. They decided to stop using insects after that, and found an armadillo. Well, a level 26 Cingulatan Stonebreaker. Darius pointed out that if it increased its defense even further, Mary should still be able to kill it. They left out the bloodstones and waited. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. On its first evolution, its claws started vibrating, and it swam down through the dirt as fast as a man could run. They waited a few long minutes. They even threw out more bloodstones as bait. It didn''t resurface. Next, they found a bat. It started as easily the size of Josh''s head, and he expected it to get even bigger. Instead, it shrank down to the size of an ordinary mouse, then shot off into the air like a rocket. Those were all annoying, and Josh felt anemic just thinking about the blood that had been wasted making those stones, but ultimately the most valuable thing they had lost was time. He had earned a level faster than usual, so it was still a worthwhile trade. The last one turned out to be a little bit too much for them. Mary found a walking fish. Those weren''t uncommon, as such things went. Any monster in the water that was corrupted by the Jungle pretty much immediately gained legs and the ability to breathe air. It was like they knew they needed to be able to reach the land to find prey. Josh scanned it, as was his habit, before they left the bloodstones out.
Pterois Crimson Landwalker. Level 33 Monster. Ah, the humble Pterois. Well, it''s not humble at all, it''s a showy little shit. Think of this as like the peacock of the sea, and you''ve got the right general idea. And like the peacock, magic has been good to this bastard. You''re up to date on your shots, right?
It didn''t look like anything special, just a red fish with white stripes, big spines, and lizard-like legs. So about normal for a walking fish. Its description wasn''t anything to worry about, either. The System often left vague warnings that turned out to be nothing. They probably should have paid more attention. The fish grew a bit bigger when it ate the bloodstones, but not too much. It rose up on its legs a bit more so that it wasn''t dragging its belly on the ground, and its spines seemed to thicken a bit. Altogether, it was nothing surprising or worrying. When Josh got within ten feet, he was met with a face full of spines. They didn''t hurt too much, but there were a lot of them, and they distracted him before he could throw an [Empty Chop] at the monster. He heard Mary yell something, then felt the all-too familiar burn of poison in his veins. The System message was just icing on the cake.
ALERT: You have been poisoned! A venomous walking fish shot a bunch of spines at you, and you utterly failed to dodge. You''ll live, though. Probably. Maybe you should have put a couple points in Constitution, huh? It will be painful, either way. Also, you''re paralyzed.
Josh landed on his back like a felled tree. He was dimly aware of people moving around him, of Mary''s guns going off, but he was a wee bit distracted by the scorching fire running through his veins. The only reason he didn''t scream his throat ragged was because his muscles had seized up, and his jaw was clenched so hard that he was afraid that his teeth would crack. Eventually Ruth ran over. She sat on his chest to immobilize him, then wrenched his mouth open with her hands. She really had been putting points into Strength. She managed to get his jaw open far enough that Mary could pour one of their disgusting healing concoctions down his throat. It probably saved his life, but he almost wished that they had just let the poison run its course. He could have survived on his own, without drinking anything that tasted like fruit left to rot in sewer water for a week. Once the healing had finished, he couched up the rest of it and just lay there on his side, panting. His friends let him do it, hovering but not making a bother. ¡°Okay,¡± he said at long last. He looked up. Ruth was frowning in concern, Mary was scowling in anger at the world, Anna was grinning with amusement, and Beor was watching him closely. ¡°Okay,¡± he said again. ¡°We''re calling that done.¡± Chapter 29 - Potions Darius'' work with the Woodcrafter bloodstones went much more smoothly. Josh hadn''t met any of Abraham''s friends before, but apparently he had reconnected with some of them after the whole town had gotten turned upside down. One of them had been a Mender who hadn''t had much of a chance to level since the reset. Somehow, she was only at level 15 by the time Darius went looking for volunteers. One bloodstone later, and she was a brand new Enchanter. It took barely a day to get her to level 24, and another Mender bloodstone let her advance to Alchemist. It was, as Josh had vaguely remembered, a psychical-type [Crafter] class. All its abilities were non-magical analysis and mixing techniques. Now they had healing potions. Terrible healing potions, even a level 8 Mender could do better with a basic spell, but they were still genuine healing potions. Little bottled miracles distilled from basic Jungle materials. On top of that, they tasted like bland tea at worst. Far, far better than the muck they had been using before, which had often made Josh consider if dying was really that bad by comparison. Josh''s missing fingers throbbed. If an Alchemist was good enough, with good enough reagents, they could regrow lost limbs. Not so early; Josh would be surprised if she could do it before level 80. Still, he could wait. As long as they kept Mary from killing her before then. ¡°Bloody hell, lady!¡± Mary cried, throwing up her hands. ¡°I''m the one who brought you the mats! I''m not trying to shake you down for your lunch money! I just want to make sure I can keep my guts in while I''m out getting you more!¡± Sarah was a wiry young woman with a darker skin tone and a narrow face. Her hair was cut short, and her eyes focused. Everything about her seemed sharp, like a war machine just waiting to crush the unwary up in its jaws. She was also completely unimpressed by Mary''s little tirade. ¡°I have not been able to produce potions in large quantities yet,¡± she said, her tone clipped and professional. ¡°The majority, as you might expect, have already gone to the hospital for emergencies. The remainder I will sell at a reasonable price.¡± They were in one of the homes around the outer ring, meaning it was little more than a wood shack that someone had thrown a bed into. Sarah had found a large cauldron and some glass beakers in order to practice her class. Mary massaged her forehead. ¡°We don''t have a Healer. I told you that, yeah? We need something to keep us in one piece out there!¡± Anna tried to sneak a potion from behind Sarah''s back, but Sarah whacked her on the head without even turning to look at her. ¡°Hire a Mender,¡± Sarah recommended calmly. ¡°Soon, once I can produce more, perhaps my prices will fall enough for you to be able to afford them.¡± Josh smiled. His sister would like this girl, he was sure. She had always said that if a [Healer] let people walk all over her, she wasn''t worth her name. He was also reasonably confident that Sarah was genuinely pricing her wares reasonably. After all, she was buying the materials that Mary had brought her. Mary turned to him and pointed at her angrily. ¡°Josh! Do something about this shite!¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°Wot? You think I can talk an angry Healer around?¡± She rolled her eyes. ¡°You know what I mean, you spoon. You''re the mayor, right? Be all... mayoral at her!¡± He grinned. ¡°Is that a word?¡± She scowled. ¡°You know what I mean. You have money, give it to her!¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Sarah said, as she pushed Anna away by the face. Anna continued to flail with her arms, trying to grab potions. Sarah hardly seemed to notice. ¡°I thought you were going to have him threaten me.¡± Mary gave her a disgusted look. ¡°What do you take me for? If I wanted to beat people with my connections, I would''ve stayed in the damn City.¡±Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Eh.¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°When we left the first time you still could have turned legit. Your family would have been pissed, but you could have managed it.¡± Mary waved her hand. ¡°Yeah, but I''m not gonna start that now. Especially not using you, of all people.¡± She crossed her arms and pouted. It was just the four of them in the shack. It was too small for any more. It was probably too small for just four, in fact. Still, Josh hadn''t come here just to deliver herbs¡ªor to watch Mary and Anna make fools of themselves. ¡°Miss Sarah. How is your leveling going? I understand you did not find any recipes in the library.¡± Anna was, for some reason, literally gnawing on Sarah''s bare arm like a dog. Sarah looked down at her for a moment, then back up to Josh. ¡°Hm? Oh, my levels are going fine. I suspect recipes would be counterproductive on that front, in fact. I am gaining most of my experience through raw experimentation. Every combination produces something, even if it''s something useless, and that counts as crafting.¡± Josh nodded. While officially each class only had a single role, unofficially there was a lot of crossover. Alchemist was tagged by the System as a [Crafter] class, but it had elements of both [Healer] and [Scholar] classes. Using research to gain experience was pure [Scholar], but she had to actually make the items rather than just do the research. ¡°So you need more mats?¡± he asked. He rubbed his hair. ¡°What I wouldn''t do for a decent Gatherer bloodstone...¡± An Herbalist class could clear out the entire pit in an hour, but really, he''d take anything. Just the inventory system would increase their efficiency, even if the class didn''t have any skills with plants. Mary gave him a look. ¡°We still heading back down? I thought you wanted us in the Jungle looking for her muck.¡± He sighed. He was getting a headache. ¡°We can send parties out to get herbs and muck easy enough.¡± They wouldn''t even need to tell anyone that there was an Alchemist involved, though the secret was most of the ways out by this point. ¡°I''m still the only one that can search for bloodstones.¡± Anna had finally gotten bored poking at Sarah. Now she leaned against a wall, as if she was too cool for any of this. ¡°We''re all going to feel like idiots if you find an Alchemist bloodstone down there.¡± ¡°That would still be an advantage,¡± Sarah said, not so much as blinking. She stirred her cauldron. The scent of burned sugar rose out of it. ¡°When does the first unclassed child gain access to the System?¡± ¡°Tomorrow,¡± Josh said with a grunt. ¡°Doubt we''ll find anything before then.¡± He was annoyed, and annoyed that he was annoyed. He had known from the start it was a long shot, but he had still gotten his hopes up. Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°Oh, don''t act like it''s the end of the world, yeah? There are a bunch of other kids after this one who still need classes. ''sides, if we can find some bloodstones, people will hold onto those until the next reset. You''re not gonna see them wasted.¡± Josh sighed, then forced a grin. ¡°Yeah. Yeah, I get it.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Just... need to get my head on straight.¡± He clapped his hands. ¡°So! Big D is busy...¡± ¡°You know he still hates that name.¡± Mary didn''t seem like she was telling him to stop. Just... sharing an interesting fact. ¡°I think Ruth was spending the day with Baara. Wanted to plan out the citystone upgrade and all that.¡± They had reached the point where they could upgrade it at any time. Except no one wanted to trigger another monster horde too early. ¡°Is it just going to be you and me delving down there?¡± Mary huffed out a breath. ¡°If little miss penny-pincher here won''t give us any freebies...¡± Sarah scoffed. ¡°...then yeah. I can go down there.¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°I was getting bored out in the Jungle. Anna and her kids can handle that without us for a day.¡± Anna looked up from where she was poking a shelf full of reagents. ¡°Hm? Oh, no, I''m coming with you.¡± Mary and Josh both turned to her at the same time. ¡°Wot?¡± Anna grinned that too-wide grin again. ¡°I promise, my hunters can pick a few plants without me. I''d much rather spend time with you two.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°I feel like I should be uncomfortable with that, but I''m not?¡± She rolled her eyes. ¡°Oh, don''t be a prude, I don''t mean that. You''re not my type.¡± Josh noted that she was specifically speaking to him. ¡°But you two attract trouble like honey attracts giant monster ants. I think I''ll stick with you.¡± ¡°We cleared everything out of the tunnels.¡± Well, everything that had already been there, and they had finished off the dungeon. Ruth had been very interested in the rift crystals. The point was that while new monsters might have spawned, they wouldn''t be anything too impressive. The most dangerous would likely be a walking mushroom that shot poison spores. She just shrugged. ¡°Sure, kids. Whatever you say.¡± Josh looked at Mary. She shrugged too. Well, he couldn''t think of a good reason to keep her away. ¡°Kinda creepy¡± didn''t count. ¡°Sure,¡± he said. ¡°Let''s see what we see, yeah?¡± Anna waved goodbye to Sarah as they left. ¡°Bye, sis! Say hi to Dad for me!¡± Sarah rolled her eyes. ¡°If I put any of this in my letter, he''s going to come out here and drag you back to the City himself.¡± Chapter 30 - Digging Tunnels (part 1) They had to pass by the mayor''s office to get to the pit and pick up Beor, and they happened to run into Ruth on the way. ¡°Oh, hey!¡± she said. She grinned. ¡°Guess what I found?¡± ¡°A proper sense of bloodlust?¡± Anna quipped. Mary elbowed her so hard in the chest that she bent over. Josh and Ruth both ignored their antics, and he led their group off into a small alley next to the office. There was no need to have a conversation out in the middle of the street, and Beor guarded the mouth of the alley as a matter of course. ¡°Is this about the rift crystals?¡± Yesterday, Ruth, Darius, Abraham, and a fourth woman who might have been Abraham''s wife¡ªJosh felt like he was missing quite a lot of context between those two¡ªhad raided the malfunctioning dungeon. Apparently, it hadn''t been a particularly interesting story, since he and Ruth had crafted enough grenades to level half the Jungle before the group went in. They had defeated it entirely and closed down the rift. Ruth nodded eagerly. ¡°See, at first I was disappointed I only got one type, but I discovered if I have them and a bloodstone, I can preview possible advancements.¡± Mary had Anna in a headlock, but she looked up at that. ¡°Wait. You actually got an advancement? You can hit a freaking Exemplary-tier class at level 40?¡± Ruth grinned wide enough to split her face. ¡°Yep!¡± Anna squirmed out of Mary''s grip in a way that made Josh think that she could have done that at any time. ¡°That is impressive.¡± She sounded genuine, for once. ¡°What did you get?¡± ¡°The rift only gave Vareo crystals,¡± Ruth said with a sigh. ¡°One for each of us. Darius said they usually give different elements, so I was hoping that we could swap between us. Still, apparently this happens, so we could¡ª¡± Anna chuckled. ¡°I meant what class did you get?¡± She drummed her fingers on her twinblades, split in two and sheathed at either hip. ¡°Actually, what class do you have now? Something to do with runes, I believe?¡± ¡°Rune Warrior.¡± Her grin broadened. ¡°My next option is a straight upgrade.¡± She flicked her fingers, and a screen appeared in front of Josh''s eyes. [For killing EIGHT (8) enemies using a Vareo Rune effect directly, you have gained access to the Vareo Rune Warrior class. Note: This class requires and consumes four (4) Vareo Crystals.] [Vareo Rune Warrior (Attacker). Primary statistics: Strength, Capacity. This is an Exemplary Combat class of the Attacker role. Use Vareo Runes to produce a variety of gravity effects in combat. Focuses on personal runes, but party support is possible.] Josh raised an eyebrow. That was a straight upgrade. He also knew from experience that this sort of class only showed up if you had the right class advancement resources in your possession. He suspected that she could have gained a Pyro version of this class, or something close to it, from all her uses of grenades. ¡°Are you going to take it?¡± he asked. Ruth looked shocked. ¡°Of course!¡± she said. ¡°Is there any reason I shouldn''t?¡± He shrugged. ¡°It''s at least worth seeing if you can get anything else. Are there any other dungeons in the area that need to be cleared out? Or, God, maybe someone in this town will actually sell some spare crystals.¡± Anna opened her mouth, but Josh waved her down. ¡°Yes, I remember, the previous mayor burned them all up or sold them. But there are enough people in this town that I would expect at least a few were squirreled away.¡± Anna shrugged, clearly not caring. Ruth, however, just nodded slowly. ¡°I''ll talk to Baara and Darius,¡± she said. ¡°They''ll know for sure.¡± Then she blinked, as if clearing herself out of a fugue. ¡°What are you guys doing, anyway?¡± Josh sighed. ¡°One last hunt for bloodstones down in the pit.¡± He did have a new idea, he just really didn''t want to pin all his hopes on it. ¡°Ooh, can I help?¡± ¡°Uh, no?¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°Thought you were the one who told me you were busy all day.¡± She sighed. ¡°Yeah, I just forgot how annoying paperwork and planning is.¡± He grinned and flicked her forehead. ¡°I''ll bring you back a souvenir from the pit.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. She laughed. ¡°Sure, bring me back some magic mushrooms or something!¡± The descent down into the pit seemed brighter, somehow. Josh and Mary had been around for long enough that people started to recognize them, and of course Anna and Beor had been here even longer. People waved hello when they saw them, chatted with them on the lift down. It was very different from Josh''s first trip. Once they got to the ground, Josh checked his map. Baara had helped him find an old one in the town archives. ¡°So I think the residential part of the town was this way...¡± He walked towards the north-west. The others followed. ¡°You think that''s going to be the answer? Just dig around under an old house?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°It''s better than digging around at random.¡± After a few minutes of pushing through the glowing mushroom forest¡ªthey only had to kill one monster, and Mary got it in one shot¡ªthey came to the stone wall that was the edge of the pit. It was a bit rough after decades of weather, but still surprisingly smooth. Anna looked around. ¡°I don''t see any tunnels. You get the right spot?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± He handed off the map to Beor, who took it without a word. Then he placed his hand on the wall. He felt the cold seeping into him as he breathed deeply, trying to ignore the aching in his missing fingers. He should have used his other hand for this. ¡°Hands-Free Crafting.¡± There was a pause, as if the System wasn''t sure whether it should allow this. Then, finally, the stone in front of them began to crack. The stone chipped away as if attacked by invisible picks, slowly chiseling out a doorway into solid stone. It expanded itself into a tunnel, barely tall enough for him and hardly deep enough to even go anywhere. The stone and dirt and dust sloughed away, moving around Josh''s feet and sliding into a neat pile nearby. In moments, it was done. It wasn''t a particularly impressive tunnel. Josh felt he had to crouch, and it only went a few feet in. Definitely not far enough to go anywhere or find anything. But it had worked. He had managed to dig a tunnel in minutes using nothing but his own crafting abilities. There was even a stone pillar left in the middle of the tunnel to help support the ceiling. That would be terrible if they wanted to move anything through by cart, but for now it was fine. Josh took a deep breath, and smiled. He was shaking and sweating profusely, but he couldn''t stop smiling. This would accelerate his plans significantly. ¡°Okay,¡± he said. ¡°There''s a pocket of air about twenty feet ahead. I should be able to get to it without too much trouble.¡± He took a plastic bottle out of his pocket and guzzled it down. The liquid glowed blue, and tasted like a mouthful of raw sugar. ¡°What was that?¡± Mary asked, suspicious. He grinned. ¡°Mana potion.¡± She made a squawk of protest. ¡°That I bought,¡± he added. ¡°With my own money.¡± He enjoyed the offended look on her face. But good God, had he missed having access to actual mana potions. As expected, with the mana potions it only took about an hour to dig to the cave he had detected with his Stonesense. He thought it was an actual cave, not just a pocket formed in the rock when the Eight were fighting the dragon, but it was hard to be sure. Maybe this cave had always been here, and the fight had just closed off all the exits. Whatever the case, there were two cars sitting in the middle of the cave, parked right next to each other. It was too neat and precise to be the result of random chance during the fight. Unless a random portion of parking lot just happened to sink down a hundred feet with two cars sitting on it. Josh recognized both models of car, though he couldn''t put a name to them. He had never been a car person. Still, these were tough family cars that were common leading up to the end of the world, and therefore still pretty common now, after the Tower. They were four-door sedans with enough assorted junk visible through the windows that it was clear someone had intended to come back for them eventually. ¡°Hey,¡± he said to Anna, even as they were all clambering over the cars. ¡°This reminds me. What''s the deal with all those cars and muck near the entrance to the village?¡± Anna shrugged, then started working at a car''s boot with her twinblade. ¡°Same as ever, I suspect. People were fleeing from somewhere, or to somewhere, and then they had to ditch their cars and run the rest of the way on foot.¡± She popped it open with a grunt. ¡°That happened all the time back then.¡± ¡°No, I know that.¡± He tapped the lock of the boot on the other car. Beor got the hint, and punched through it with his bare hand. He didn''t even blink. ¡°I was just wondering why no one''s done anything with them. Bit of an untapped resource, innit?¡± The boot didn''t have anything interesting in it. Just the sort of random tools you might expect to find in a car. A jack, some jumper cables, that sort of thing. They might be able to find a use for them eventually, but for now he moved on. Maybe there would be something interesting inside the car. ¡°Anything that actually works is long gone,¡± Anna called. She was still rooting around in her own boot, while Mary had broken a window and was looking around inside the car. ¡°Not sure there''s anything left out there besides rusting metal and rotting rubber.¡± She chuckled. ¡°Not like these beauties!¡± Josh had to admit that she was right, these cars were in rather good shape. It seemed that being entombed for decades had preserved them surprisingly well. It almost seemed a shame to break a window. He was about to do it anyway when he paused. He tried the driver''s door, and it worked. It was unlocked, and opened with little more than a creak from the hinges. He laughed. ¡°Hey, Mary! You even try the door before you decided to play a drunk banger?¡± She poked her head up and scowled at him. ¡°Shove off! It was a fair guess, yeah?¡± She stepped out of the car, then tried to open it from the outside. It didn''t work. She turned around, grinning in triumph. ¡°Ha! Mine was locked anyway!¡± ¡°You still didn''t try,¡± Anna pointed out. ¡°Shut up, you.¡± Chapter 31 - Digging Tunnels (part 2) Josh checked the visor. The spare keys fell into his hands. He smirked. His dad had done that exact same thing with his ancient family car. Of course, Josh had never actually had a chance to drive that car. By the time he was old enough, the Jungle had encroached too far, and driving wasn''t really possible. He remembered the basics, though. He inserted the key into the ignition, took a deep breath, and turned it. There was a grind as the engine tried to turn over, as the spark tried to take. In the end, though, nothing happened. Josh sighed and got out. Mary and Anna were giving him impressed looks. ¡°You found a good one,¡± Mary said. Josh frowned. ¡°It doesn''t work.¡± Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°The gas has been sitting there upwards of eighty years. ''Course it''s not working. But the rest of it seems solid enough.¡± ¡°Petrol,¡± Josh corrected absently. He might have grown up in America, but his parents had been rather firm on linguistics. ¡°How long does it take petrol to go bad?¡± Mary and Anna shrugged. ¡°Six months,¡± Beor rumbled. Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°Huh. I would have expected at least a decade or two.¡± Beor shook his head. ¡°Six months.¡± Josh didn''t see a need to ask how he knew that. ¡°Does the town have any stockpiles?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± Anna said. ¡°Most of our forestry and earth mover machines run on gas.¡± That made Josh do a double-take. ¡°Hold up. Since when do we have shite like that? Big machines and all that much?¡± Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°Even I''ve seen them out on the edges. There''s got to be all sorts of paperwork on them, too. You''re not letting Baara do everything for you, yeah?¡± Anna shrugged. ¡°We only have a handful. I think two of those big brush cutters, and a big tractor or backhoe or whatever the difference between the two is. If you''ve been busy, I could see how you could miss them.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°Well. Let''s finish up here. Make decisions after that.¡± They found a few interesting things in the cars. An old cell phone¡ªlong dead, but still intact. Some maps that were now useless, but might be worth something to historians. A scattering of weapons. The sword had some interesting runes, and the knives looked interesting, but any magic was long dead. Enchantments needed to be used by humans every once in a while to hold their power. They also found a small pouch with four bloodstones. They all sat on the ground, staring at the stones, glittering like perfect red rubies. They didn''t look any different from any other bloodstones they had ever seen. For all they knew, they were just duplicates of the normal eight stones that the world had kept for the past eighty years. Josh, however, was hopeful. No, that wasn''t the right word. Hope didn''t usually make his heart beat so fast that he could feel it bruising against his rib cage. Hope didn''t usually make his mouth dry and his palms sweaty. Mary stared down at the stones. ¡°Four bloodstones, just sitting in a car,¡± she said dully. ¡°What are the chances?¡± ¡°Better than the chance of finding one in a factory in the middle of the Jungle,¡± Josh said. His tone matched hers. ¡°How many bloodstones you got on you right now? How many stashed back at the house?¡± ¡°Then why haven''t we found any on the surface?¡± Anna snorted. ¡°Monsters eat bloodstones, remember? You go to that field of wrecked cars in front of the town, see how many of them still have intact windows. Monsters would have gotten to anything on the surface.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°This was the only realistic way of ever finding anything. Some place protected.¡± He chuckled. ¡°If we could find an actual vault or bank, we might find a full organized collection.¡± ¡°City hall used to be the bank,¡± Beor said, not taking his eyes off the stones. ¡°Defensible.¡± ¡°Well, that would have been too easy, wouldn''t it? If there was anything in there, they would have found it a long time ago.¡± Josh sighed, then motioned at the bloodstones. ¡°Who wants to do the honors?¡± Mary nodded. ¡°I''ll do it.¡± She hesitated, then reached out and plucked one of the stones out of the pile. She held it for a moment, staring into the distance. Then she took a deep breath, closed her eyes...This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ...and fell over laughing. Anna and Beor looked concerned, but Josh just frowned. ¡°If this is another Woodcrafter stone, I''m calling shenanigans.¡± Mary''s chuckles started to die down. ¡°No, it''s¡ª¡± She giggled a little more. ¡°It''s a Gunner bloodstone.¡± Everyone stared at her for a long moment. Eventually, Josh put his head in his hands. Gunner was a useful class. It had some interesting differences from the Archer class, and would lead to some technological advancements at the higher tiers. This was a valuable bloodstone, without a doubt. However, it was also an [Attacker] class, which they already had more than enough of. Furthermore, they knew how to evolve an Archer into a Gunner with minimal difficulty. Short of the eight bloodstones the world already had, this might be the least useful one they could possibly have gotten. And, of course, the other three in the pouch were also Gunners. That wasn''t uncommon. Someone on a Gunner path would still find those stones useful for advancement, and the last thing anyone wanted was to get caught on the reset, missing the stone for their favorite class. That had happened to Josh more than once. It wasn''t fun. ¡°All right,¡± he said at last. ¡°This is still useful, and we''ll get it to one of the kids as soon as possible.¡± He looked at Mary. ¡°Can you do anything with it, yourself?¡± She pursed her lips as she held the stone in her hand. ¡°With the rift crystal I got, I can use it to advance to Gruff Gravity Gunner. It''s Exemplary-tier.¡± Which meant both Mary and Ruth would be Exemplary-tier, while Josh and Darius were still stuck at Basic-tier. It was hard not to feel bitter. He forced a smile onto his face regardless. ¡°You planning to go with that one?¡± She made a face. ¡°Maybe? I don''t like the explicitly elemental classes. They tend to overspecialize.¡± Her eyes cleared, and she pocketed the bloodstone. ¡°Especially if we''re already going to have a gravity girl in the party. Doubling up on elements is just begging for some weird monster to pop up and steamroll us.¡± Josh had met more than a few fire elementalists who found themselves completely unable to handle a low-level enemy that was immune to fire. He wasn''t sure it was possible to be ¡°immune¡± to gravity, but he respected the sentiment. ¡°We can clear out a few more rifts, see if you get anything else worth getting got.¡± Mary nodded. ¡°Sounds like a plan to me.¡± Josh clambered to his feet. ¡°So! Everything we need all packaged up?¡± ¡°I believe so,¡± Anna said as she rose. She looked back the way they had come. Josh had widened the tunnel by using his blueprint to add a second tunnel right next to his previous one. ¡°You planning to drag the cars out?¡± He shook his head. ¡°We don''t have the resources to pull them out of the pit yet. Best to just leave them where they are for now.¡± Besides, he wanted an architect to come down and double-check his work. He thought the stone pillars were unnecessary, and could be removed to allow the cars through. He wanted to be sure. ¡°Let''s go.¡± Mary slung her bag over her shoulder with a grunt. ¡°Was really hoping we found a Gatherer bloodstone down here. Would love to have an inventory right about now.¡± She glared at him, clearly thinking about the storage ring he had looted from the elf. Josh chuckled. ¡°You wouldn''t be able to use a new bloodstone anyway. Too valuable. Need to give it to one of the unclassed kids.¡± He narrowed his eyes. ¡°Besides, what level are you? It''s not as though you can just use it immediately.¡± Mary raised an eyebrow as they walked. ¡°I''m level 39.¡± ¡°What!?¡± he said, louder than he intended. ¡°How did you manage that? I''m still 37!¡± She shrugged. ¡°I''ve been going out every day to hunt monsters. Even with the stupid penalties for fighting lower-level monsters, it still adds up.¡± He grumbled to himself as they walked through the tunnels. He was supposed to be the one leveling at an impossible pace. He got experience every time he made anything, and he made things constantly. Yes, he was barely getting a pittance for any of his blueprints these days, but it should be adding up! Maybe he needed to be working more on unique blueprints. He had been leaning hard on his [Instant Crafting] and [Hands-Free Crafting] spells to auto-build simple blueprints for multiple uses. Sure, he could build a simple room using six [Wooden Walls] to build a cube, then knock out a doorframe, but that was still just one blueprint six times. It didn''t get him much in the way of experience. He was still thinking over the problem when he stepped out into the pit. He walked right into Beor''s back. ¡°Oi!¡± he snapped, harsher than intended. ¡°What''s the big idea?¡± He looked around Beor, and froze. Eight people stood in a half-ring around them. Six of them were not wearing masks. A quick glance over them told him that the weakest of them was a [Level 40 Attacker]; the strongest was a [Level 43 Defender]. Josh might be confident in the four of them tackling six enemies with a slight level advantage. He was the weak link, and he could at least survive long enough for his friends to handle the others. The last two, however, were Hou Zheng and Kun. They still wore the full-body leather armor, completely obscuring all their features, but they were impossible to mistake for anyone else. Hou Zheng towered over everyone else, even Josh, and Kun had the lithe grace that he associated with assassin classes. Last they had known, Hou Zheng was level 64. He might be stalled at his current level¡ªthere wasn''t much experience around to push someone much higher¡ªbut that was still far too high for them to deal with. Especially since he was a [Healer] with a party to support. Still. This might turn out all right. Maybe. Chapter 32 - Digging Tunnels (part 3) Josh pulled out his ax slowly, lazily. The hired guns, whoever they were, watched him carefully, but didn''t move otherwise. Hou Zheng and Kun gave no indication that they even noticed. ¡°So,¡± he said lazily. ¡°Normally, I''d say that we should jump straight to the fighting. But.¡± He pointed his ax at Kun. ¡°She''s the one that''s got me thinking.¡± Hou Zheng cocked his head. ¡°How so?¡± He didn''t seem at all concerned about confronting a dangerous enemy at the bottom of a pit in the middle of a glowing mushroom forest. By his tone, you''d think that he was taking a casual stroll through a garden. ¡°She''s some sort of sneaky class,¡± Josh said. ¡°I''m guessing Shadow Assassin, but if she''s as high-level as I think she is, she might even be Exemplary-tier by now.¡± He cocked his head to the side himself, considering. ¡°Hm... you don''t have a dark-element class, those are pretty obvious.¡± And easy to counter. He had plenty of flash bombs from Ruth''s runecrafting, in case her aunt returned. ¡°I''m guessing it''s a non-elemental Exemplary-tier class. Living Shadow Blade?¡± Kun shifted slightly on her feet. Her shadow followed her just a bit too slowly. ¡°Thought so.¡± While he didn''t show it on his face, Josh cursed internally. Living Shadow Blade was an annoying class to fight. It basically acted like a dark-element class, except it wasn''t actually a dark-element class, meaning most of the classic counters were of little use. Of course, on the plus side, an actual dark-element class would be basically invincible down here in this dark pit, so maybe he should count his blessings. ¡°You didn''t have her pop out of our shadows and kill us, so you have something else in mind. You going to have your toughs break our kneecaps now, or they just going to stand there looking pretty?¡± The six toughs shifted nervously. One of them managed to pluck up enough courage to glare. ¡°You''ve got a lot of nerve, after what you did. No wonder there''s a world quest for you, if you''re running around knocking over towns.¡± Ah, so some people had started to put it together. Not a surprise. Beor leaned over and spoke quietly. ¡°I recognize most of these men. They worked with, or for, the former mayor on multiple occasions. Your regime has not been kind to them.¡± By which he meant Josh wasn''t engaging in rank protectionism and petty bribery. He sighed. ¡°Kids, just because I''m not openly soliciting bribes like the last mayor doesn''t mean I''m against working together. I don''t know what the other guy is paying you, but I''m sure I can pay better.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°After all, I''m the one with access to a treasury, aren''t I?¡± Some of the toughs looked away at that. Most just glared. None took him up on the offer. Hou Zheng chuckled, a rumbling sound that echoed off the stones. ¡°You are quite intriguing, Mister White.¡± Josh froze. ¡°Wot.¡± The giant man pressed his fingers together in front of himself, as if he was contemplating murder or preparing to pray. ¡°I have some basic divination spells. Nothing to discover any truly interesting secrets, but enough to at least do a more advanced Identification on you.¡± He paused. ¡°Joshua White.¡± Josh took a long, slow breath before speaking. ¡°Choose your next words very carefully.¡± Hou Zheng spread his arms wide. ¡°As you have deduced, I could have sent my companion in to kill you. Even if she failed, she has enough escape spells that her survival would be all but guaranteed, so we would lose nothing in the attempt.¡± He paused, and Josh could almost hear the smile in his voice. ¡°However, that is not what I want.¡± ¡°It''s not?¡± ¡°No. I am here to negotiate.¡± The toughs looked surprised, and one even stepped forward to say something. A knife was suddenly at his throat. Kun held it out as a warning. Other than the arm holding the knife, she hadn''t moved. Hadn''t so much as looked at him. He swallowed and stepped back. Josh rolled his neck, cracking it. ¡°Okay,¡± he said after a moment. ¡°Let''s negotiate. What do you want?¡± This was an absolutely invaluable opportunity for new information. Even if he didn''t get a single straight answer out of Hou Zheng, the mere chance to speak to someone so powerful about something that was clearly of great importance to him was not an opportunity to pass up. Besides, if there was a chance to end this peacefully, he had to at least look into it. Josh might be great at fighting, he might even like it, but he didn''t want to do it more than he had to. He''d had too many close calls, lost too many close friends, to ever be comfortable diving face first into combat when he didn''t have to.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Well, unless the big man was willing to bet it all on a single duel, but Josh wasn''t holding out hope for that. As a kid, he had expected most adult problems to be solved by duels, and had trained hard. Instead, it turned out that almost no one wanted to pin all their hopes on one fight. Hou Zheng nodded. ¡°My mission is very simple. I do not have to fight you. I need to neutralize you and your friends as a threat, no matter the cost.¡± Josh furrowed his brow. ¡°A threat to who?¡± ¡°Does it matter?¡± ¡°Yeah, a bit.¡± He narrowed his eyes. ¡°Seems like an odd point to dodge, innit? ¡°Unfortunately, revealing the identity of my employer would be counterproductive in this instance,¡± Hou Zheng said with an infuriating calm tone. He scoffed. ¡°Wot''s that supposed to mean? You''re acting like merely saying his name would be some¡ª¡± He froze. There had been one other person who had acted like this. As though Josh had a secret that needed to be kept quiet no matter the cost. That person had killed an entire town to keep the secret. That person had been working for the dragon currently trapped in a dungeon, just waiting to bust out. Oh, he had also been a seven-foot tall elf who walked around covered head to toe to hide it. Josh took another long look at Hou Zheng. He was as tall as the elf had been, but also noticeably broader. Mizuno Masahiko had been a tall beanpole, but this man gave the impression of an ancient tree. Or just a hefty linebacker playing American football. ¡°You''re not like Mizuno, are you?¡± he asked. ¡°You''re something else.¡± Hou Zheng inclined his head. ¡°An astute observation. Perhaps we can speak somewhere more privately?¡± Josh jerked his head at the toughs. ¡°Why''d you bring them if you were just going to ditch them?¡± He didn''t say anything, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Hou Zheng was going to kill them to make a point. ¡°Mostly to encourage you to speak reasonably,¡± he said, and he did sound reasonable. Then again, in Josh''s experience those were the biggest threats. The giant of a man indicated the tunnels that Josh had opened up. ¡°Why don''t we go in there and have a chat? My boys will guard the door, as it were.¡± Josh heaved a sigh. ¡°What do you think is going to happen here?¡± he asked tiredly. ¡°I can''t imagine this ending well. Negotiations will fail, and we''ll fight. I''ll kill you just like I did the last high-level idiot who thought he could bully me, and then I see if your toughs are loyal beyond your death.¡± The toughs shifted uneasily. Kun moved into a ready stance. Josh was confident in handling Hou Zheng. Oh, he was exaggerating his confidence, of course, but he could handle a lone healer, even one with a significant number of levels on him. He already had a plan in mind that should be an instant victory down here. Hou Zheng had some tricks, but ultimately a [Healer] was limited. They were easy to checkmate. Which, of course, was why [Healers] didn''t go anywhere alone. Kun would be a much bigger obstacle, especially combined with a Battle Mender for support. She would probably be able to instantly escape the trap Josh had in mind. ¡°Hm,¡± Hou Zheng said. ¡°How about I sweeten the pot?¡± He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small red stone. A bloodstone. He tossed it over, and Josh caught it on instinct. Hou Zheng made no move to attack or explain, so Josh did the natural thing and inspected the stone. [Priest (Healer). Primary statistics: Power, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Combat class of the Healer role. Bolster, heal, and inspire allies.] A new bloodstone. So soon after they had found the Gunner stone. Like Gunner, Priest was hardly a world-changing class. They knew how to get to it from Mender already, and it was a role they already had. In fact, this was slightly worse than a Gunner bloodstone, because Mender and Priest had so many similarities in advancement. It was like already having access to blue and yellow paint, and then being granted green. But it was still an extra bloodstone. One that Hou Zheng had given without prompting and without reservation. This was a gift that he couldn''t take back. Josh was actually impressed. He forced himself to push that down. The whole point of his anger was that Mizuno had tried to kill an entire village to keep the dragon''s secret. It didn''t matter how many gifts Hou Zheng handed out if he just planned to kill everyone anyway. Josh took a breath and tucked the bloodstone away. He inclined his head towards the tunnels. All three of his companions followed him. ¡°Ah.¡± Josh turned to see Hou Zheng holding up a finger. ¡°If you want me to leave behind my allies, then it is only fair that you do the same, do you not agree?¡± Josh glared out from under his mask. He was tempted to just rip the itchy thing off. ¡°This was your idea,¡± he said flatly. ¡°If you want to turn this into an ambush, then fine, let''s go.¡± He waved his friends away, as if he was annoyed and uncaring, but this was exactly what he wanted. A [Healer] alone and with no one to boost would be at a severe disadvantage, even if they had far more levels. Combine with Josh''s combat experience, and this might even turn into a fair fight. Josh walked deeper into the tunnel as if he didn''t care about anything. He prayed that Hou Zheng didn''t see the trick, prayed that Hou Zheng couldn''t hear his racing heart or see his perspiring forehead. Josh didn''t dare reach up to wipe it off. Then, after what felt like ten thousand years, Josh heard a single set of footsteps following him. Alone. Josh smiled to himself. Checkmate. Chapter 33 - Pit Fighting Michael hadn''t been expecting much when he had taken a basic escort contract for the Chinese guy. The old mayor¡ªor the real mayor, as they were supposed to call him¡ªhad connected them, but that was normal. Hawk was good about doing favors for his friends. Sure, now he couldn''t do quite as many favors since he had officially been ousted, and a lot of his friends weren''t listening to him any more. But for Michael, that was mostly a good thing. As one of Hawk''s few remaining friends, all he had to do was listen to the little man rant about traitors for a bit, nod every once in a while, and then he''d get showered in favors. He didn''t know anything about the Chinese guy, other than the fact that he was big and high-level. Michael didn''t really need to know more. Especially when he heard that they were going after Joshua Hundredborn, who also happened to be their new mayor. Michael wasn''t exactly a City bootlicker. He wouldn''t be out here, miles past the Burn Line, if he was willing to sing along with the City, and he hadn''t paid their taxes since he ran away from home. But the idea of someone stealing a bloodstone was infuriating. It was like he had taken the hope of humanity and ripped it right out of their chests. He tried to hold tight to his anger, to look at the situation logically, but it was hard. He didn''t know how any of the man''s allies could stand being near him. They had to know what he had done. Tracking Hundredborn wasn''t hard. He wasn''t trying to hide. It was Michael who spotted the man''s little party heading to the pit, and he reported it back to the big guy via radio. Following him down was just a matter of waiting for the next lift. Michael kept an eye on Hundredborn from above with a small spyglass, so they knew where to go. They had set up a perimeter outside the tunnels and waited. Hou Zheng even took the time to explain the plan, which was appreciated. Hawk liked his plans to be surprises, even to his allies. Joshua Hundredborn was a big man, to the point that he looked like Hou Zheng''s little brother instead of a child next to an adult. He had the broad build of a man who did a lot of physical labor, and the broad grin of a man who did a lot of hugging. He had an ax on his belt, but also a number of other tools like files, chisels, and measuring tapes. He wore battered wooden armor that had been slashed, bitten, burned, and dissolved in acid in a few places. He also had a mask to obscure his level, which was common out here. However, when Hundredborn came out, things got... weird. Not too weird, but Michael had spent too much time around Hawk to fail to notice. There were things the two men specifically weren''t saying. Secrets they were talking around. Michael did appreciate that Hou Zheng apparently wasn''t going to just blurt out those secrets and kill Michael and the boys later, but still, it was disturbing. Then Hou Zheng tossed Hundredborn a bloodstone. Neither of them said what sort of bloodstone it was, but Michael wasn''t an idiot. If this was worth giving to someone, it was something besides the eight they already had. Probably besides that Woodcrafter bloodstone, in fact. Hou Zheng gave up that bloodstone without a second thought. As nothing but a bribe to get someone to listen to him. Why hadn''t he given it to someone else? Someone who could actually use it? Even if it wasn''t a [Utility] bloodstone, it had to be something interesting. Michael had heard stories about lost classes. Even in the Basic-tier, there were some impressive ones. Hell, his own favorite class took a bit of work to get to. The right bloodstone would make his life a lot easier. That bloodstone brought up a lot of questions. Michael wasn''t sure he liked those questions. Hou Zheng and Hundredborn walked into the tunnels together, alone. Michael and his boys had been warned this might happen. If there was any chance of this being resolved peacefully, they needed to talk alone. Michael hadn''t known Hou Zheng for long, but he was confident that his desire for peace was genuine. Michael, his three buddies, and the assassin all stayed behind. Mary the Gunner girl, Anna the lead hunter, and Beor the ex-bodyguard all stood there glaring. Hawk wanted Beor''s head on a spike, but none of them were stupid enough to pick that fight unless they had to. The only reason Michael had even agreed to come down with Beor against them was because Hou Zheng had promised that his assassin could handle him. ¡°So,¡± the Gunner girl said. Mary, that was her name. ¡°Kun. It was nice fighting beside you in the dungeon.¡± Michael kept his face clear with long practice. Why did they think her name was Kun? Mary continued as if she didn''t expect an answer. ¡°I don''t normally get a chance to run with backstab types, you know?¡± she said. ¡°Sure, pure stealth types, we''ve got a few of those among the reclaimers. Hell, I''d even call it common. But I normally run with Josh alone, and he prefers straight fights.¡± She shrugged. ¡°So do I, for that matter.¡± She received no answer. Awkward silence fell. It stretched on for several long minutes. Michael and his boys stood there silent as tombstones. They had done escort and guard duty before, they could stand around for hours. Beor too. He may as well have been a metal statue for how much he moved. Mary and Anna, on the other hand, twitched around as if they hadn''t ever heard of the concept of standing still. Eventually, they were interrupted by something entirely unexpected: The tunnel they had been watching suddenly filled in with dirt and stone. It wasn''t as smooth as the walls of the pit; it looked like someone had created a slurry of mud and gravel, then shoveled it into place and let it dry for a couple days. It wasn''t particularly solid, but it certainly blocked the passage effectively. Everyone stared at it for several long moments, just trying to process what had happened. It was clear that someone had done this on purpose. Michael was putting money that it had been the [Crafter], isolating the two of them from everyone else. There probably weren''t any other exits from those tunnels. That wasn''t his problem, though. Because after a moment''s pause, everyone left broke into combat. The assassin moved first. She shifted into shadow and went straight for Anna, who dodged with a wild laugh like a crazed animal. She''d always been unstable, and Michael spared her little thought. Mary immediately started shooting at the boy closest to her. Michael signaled for all three of them to go after her, then focused on his own problem: Beor was charging towards him. Michael cursed. Beor was not supposed to be his opponent. Michael ran up to meet his charge, grit his teeth, and punched Beor''s incoming fist. People looked down on the Thug class, for obvious reasons. It was a very simple class. It was technically a Strength and Constitution class, but really everything about it was focused around Constitution. All its techniques were designed around Constitution, and it wasn''t uncommon for people to put literally all their points into that one stat. It was the archetypal class for toughs and dumb muscle. Even more so was Tough Thug, the Improved-Tier class that Michael had. Literally no one he had ever met had been impressed by his class choice.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. That was fine. Michael only cared that it made him very hard to hurt. Beor''s punch made Michael''s hand hurt, but Beor winced far more than he did. Michael shook off the numbness from Beor''s technique, then continued on the attack. The Thug class¡ªand Tough Thug¡ªwas an [Attacker] class, but it acted like a [Defender] in most respects. The point was to soak up the damage and create opportunities. To do that, and to take advantage of the massive stamina pool that the class was expected to have, the class utilized stance techniques. A lot of stance techniques. Every stance technique reserved a portion of the stamina pool, and Michael had at least three active at all times. The second he had known that he might be facing Beor, he swapped out his active stance techniques for something more suited to fighting a Ring Brawler. [Stand Firm] was one of the basic stance techniques granted by the Thug class. It rendered him practically immune to most purely physical effects, like stuns and knockbacks. That right there nullified one of Beor''s biggest strengths. [Stand Ready] reduced all debuff durations for things that did get through his defense, preventing Beor from just punching through and stacking minor debuffs until he went down. Beor punched him twice in quick succession, but Michael just blocked them both with his forearms. Without Beor''s full strength, they were barely a breeze, and Michael felt confident enough to counter with a punch of his own. It wasn''t a technique, just a punch, but Beor still had to dodge. Michael had a decent Strength. Still, Beor had more experience fighting humans. He kept his fists up in a boxing stance, bouncing on his feet to be ready to attack. Michael punched again, still without a technique, and Beor took the opening. He slipped by Michael''s attack, then responded with a hefty kidney shot. That was a common tactic against physical-type fighters. Hitting a vital organ sapped some of their stamina, limiting their options. Against a Thug, it was even more effective, as they could fall out of a stance technique if their stamina dipped too low. Instead, Michael just grunted. His [Resist Pain] stance technique greatly reduced the stamina and mana damage caused by getting hit somewhere vulnerable. He punched back, and this time he did use a technique. [Heavy Blow] wasn''t fancy, but it certainly made an impact. His fist landed on Beor''s crossed arms with a crack, and the other man had to step back, hissing in pain. However, Michael made a mistake. Instead of pressing the attack, he stepped back, returning to position. Thug might officially be an [Attacker] class, but it acted like a [Defender]. He was too used to just waiting to absorb blows. In fact, he was used to letting Beor handle the offense while he handled the defense. Beor recognized the mistake and immediately took advantage. He rushed forward, using lightning-fast techniques to hit Michael as many times as possible in as many places as possible. It felt like he hit a thousand times in one minute, and Michael only managed to block a fraction of them. All he could do was keep his arms up and retreat backwards even as he took the blows. Eventually, Michael''s back hit one of the large mushrooms that dotted the pit''s floor. He dropped instinctively, and Beor''s next punch obliterated the stalk of the mushroom. The cap fell, and Michael scrambled backwards on his hands, keeping the cap between himself and Beor. He didn''t have long. He stood up, steadied his breathing, and prepared himself again. Beor had done quite a number on him. There was blood in his mouth, he was covered in aches and bruises, and he was pretty sure that he had hairline fractures in his arms. However, he had one other advantage: His [Healing Aura]. It was his only spell, and it was obviously an aura. It had been very difficult to obtain. His was a physical class, so gaining any magical ability was hard. Auras were even harder. He had trained with [Healers] and anyone else he could find with an aura. It had taken years until he even got the spell the first time, and longer until he could get it reliably. He had practiced the meditation and tricks to gain an aura as fast as possible over a dozen resets. It was a huge advantage over other Thugs, and since it reserved mana instead of stamina, it didn''t even cut into the number of stance techniques he could use. When he had it active, it reserved everything but a single point of his mana, meaning that if he took a bad blow to the head he''d lose all the mana he had left and would suffer debilitating manaburn. Not to mention lose the benefit of the aura. But he had managed to get through that fight without any real blows to his head, and the few he did take couldn''t push past his [Resist Pain] stance technique. His aura went to work, weaving in mana from the air to restore his injuries. He''d be back to perfect shape in minutes. Of course, Beor wasn''t about to give him minutes. Beor had not been Hawk''s favorite bodyguard for sentimental reasons. He bashed through the mushroom forest straight towards Michael like a bulldozer, and this time he wasn''t messing around. Michael saw metal knuckles on his fingers, glowing with enchantment. He didn''t know what they did, but Beor owned an entire arsenal of enchanted weapons, and not one of them was useless. Michael had asked him, once, why he didn''t use his enchanted weapons all the time. Enchantments didn''t wear out. In fact, using them enforced their magic. So why not use them more? Why carry so many enchanted weapons with him all the time if he wasn''t willing to use them in every fight? Beor''s explanation had been simple: All his non-lethal techniques required him to be unarmed. Using weapons meant he was fighting to kill. Beor''s knuckle dusters glowed red like blood as they came racing towards Michael''s face, and he accepted that he couldn''t hold back either. He ducked the first blow, then punched as hard as he could at the next strike. Again, he didn''t use a technique, but he had decent Strength, and incredible Constitution. When their fists met, Beor''s hand cracked like an ancient tree branch under too much weight, while his own barely felt sore. Beor hissed and pulled his hand back, but jabbed rapidly with his other hand. Michael trapped his arm in a hold and used the leverage to wrestle Beor to the ground. The man slammed face-first into the mud and grass that was the floor of the pit. Michael kept his uninjured arm pinned, while he dug his knee into the man''s spine to discourage rebellion. ¡°It''s over,¡± Michael said, breathing hard. ¡°Surrender.¡± The fact that Beor had pushed him to this point, with his Constitution, was a sign of his ridiculous skill. And this had been an easy fight, relatively speaking. Michael had sparred with Beor multiple times. This was easier than usual. In fact... Michael looked back the way he had come, following the trail they had crashed through the mushroom forest with his eyes. He didn''t see anything. He didn''t hear anything. ¡°What did you do?¡± he demanded. Beor twisted his face up to smirk at him. ¡°Healing aura,¡± he said. Michael frowned. ¡°Yes, I have that. You know I do. What does¡ª¡± His eyes widened. ¡°My boys.¡± He didn''t waste any more time. He hit Beor with a [Heavy Blow] right on the spine, which should hopefully incapacitate him for long enough for Michael to get away. He got up and ran back towards the others as fast as he could. [Healing Aura] had an area of effect, like most auras. Not a very big one, as his Sensitivity was nothing to write home about, but enough to give his boys a boost. As long as he stayed close. As long as he didn''t get drawn away from the fight like an idiot who had never fought in a group before! By the time he got back, it was too late. All three of his boys were down, Anna casually sitting on one, and Mary holding the other two at gunpoint while they lay flat on their faces. They had already been tied up and everything. Of the assassin, there was no sign. Michael slowed as he ran up. Anna and Mary saw him, but neither reacted with more than a raised eyebrow. A moment later, he heard footsteps in the underbrush behind him. Beor had recovered faster than he expected. Michael sighed and held up his hands. ¡°I surrender.¡± He could at least go out with dignity. Chapter 34 - Pit Talking (part 1) When Josh led Hou Zheng into the tunnel, he stopped at the chamber with the excavated cars. He leaned against the tunnel wall, as if he was hoping to escape, and let Hou Zheng choose where to stand. The giant of a man leaned on one of the cars. It was a bit farther away from the tunnel than Josh was. Perfect. ¡°So,¡± Josh said once they were both settled. ¡°You work for the dragon.¡± ¡°On a temporary basis, thank the spirits,¡± Hou Zheng said, in a conciliatory tone. ¡°Please, think of me as a mercenary.¡± Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°A mercenary priest?¡± That earned him a chuckle. ¡°Indeed.¡± ¡°What do you get out of this?¡± Josh rolled his shoulders. He''d been down here working too long, and there was an ache that wouldn''t go away. ¡°Not sure how much glint and shine can get you if your boss eats the world.¡± ¡°I will be granted a currency that is worth much in the higher realms. Lord W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n is nothing if not generous with his allies.¡± Josh''s brain stopped a bit at the name, but he had to assume it was the dragon. He focused on the other thing he had said. ¡°Wait. Higher realms?¡± ¡°Of course. Did you think this was the only world?¡± Hou Zheng cocked his head. ¡°Did Mizuno not tell you?¡± Josh scowled. ¡°He was a bit busy trying to kill me. We didn''t have a chance for a real gab.¡± ¡°Oh. Well.¡± Hou Zheng shrugged. ¡°This is an Earth-type world. Mizuno came from a Water-type world, and I come from a Fire-type. Along with Air-type, those are the four basic world types. Above us is at least one higher tier.¡± He paused. ¡°I have never been to the realms beyond those, and have never met anyone who has. Their existence is mostly just a logical supposition.¡± Josh rubbed his forehead, kneading the skin around his mask. ¡°All right. All right. So you let this world drown¡ª¡± ¡°Burn,¡± Hou Zheng corrected, as if he was talking about how to prepare soup instead of the death of an entire world. ¡°I rather think that Lord W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n will use fire more likely than water.¡± ¡°...sure. So you''re just going to let this world burn because you''re too much of a nob to get off your arse and help us?¡± Hou Zheng hummed thoughtfully. ¡°I believe we are getting off track,¡± he said at last. ¡°This was supposed to be about what I can do for you, and why you might be willing not to interfere in my employer''s plans.¡± Josh scowled and waved his hand. ¡°Have a go, then.¡± ¡°First, proper introductions are in order.¡± He stood up, bowed, and removed his helmet. ¡°I am Hou Zheng, level 72 War-Torn Cleric. I am authorized to negotiate on behalf of Lord W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n, also known as Flamebreak, for safety and compliance.¡± Well, he definitely wasn''t an elf. He had pointed ears, but that was where the resemblance ended. He had dark green skin, like the depths of a forest, and sharp tusks jutting out from between his lips. Josh wasn''t sure how he could even speak coherently, much less with such diction. Past the alien skin color and tusks, he looked... almost normal. With his accent and name, Josh could see an Asian cast to his features, in the shape of his black eyes especially. He had black hair shaved down to almost nothing. In fact, Josh suspected that he had shaved his head clean, and it had simply been a few weeks since he had a chance to keep up with it.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Josh stared for longer than was probably polite. Eventually, Hou Zheng stood up, quirking an eyebrow at him. Josh coughed awkwardly. ¡°So,¡± he said. ¡°You''re, what, a goblin?¡± He laughed. ¡°An orc, I think you would call me. Goblins are the people of air.¡± He grinned, and despite his large tusks, it didn''t look predatory. ¡°Of course, as you will learn, ''orc'' is an insult. I am a human, of a Fire world. Call me a Fireworlder.¡± ¡°Right. Yeah, okay.¡± That remained the least insane bit of this whole mess. Also, level 72 War-Torn Cleric? An Exemplary-tier [Healer] class? That was a problem and a half all on its own, but bugger all if he knew how to handle it. ¡°I introduced myself,¡± Hou Zheng added. ¡°It is only right you do the same.¡± Josh scowled again. ¡°Yeah, yeah okay.¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°Joshua White, level 37 Stonecrafter.¡± He paused. ¡°I am authorized to negotiate on behalf of the Eight Immortals, also known as the Eight Heroes, in matters pertaining to the safety and survival of the human race.¡± Authorized was somewhere between a huge exaggeration and an outright lie, but he thought he''d be forgiven if he did manage to talk the dragon out of burning the City to the ground. Hou Zheng raised an eyebrow. ¡°Indeed? Well, perhaps this will be an even more productive negotiation than I was hoping for. You see, all my employer requires is access to the Tower. If you can grant that, then not one person need be harmed.¡± ¡°I can''t, unfortunately.¡± He wasn''t sure even the Eight could grant it, if they were here. ¡°Leaving aside that the Tower is sealed up¡ªyou do know that the Tower is sealed, yeah?¡± He didn''t seem concerned. He just smiled like a patient father. ¡°Lord W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n is aware, and it will not be an issue.¡± ¡°Well, leaving that aside, there''s all sorts of junk and muck around the Tower that can''t just be moved.¡± In particular, there were enough traps right at the entrance to blow a dracobeast to smithereens. No one wanted more monsters coming out, after all, even if everyone was pretty sure that wasn''t possible. ¡°There''s no way to just clear the way for him to waltz in.¡± ¡°Let us assume that my employer can compensate for any material loss caused by an... aggressive entrance,¡± Hou Zheng said smoothly. ¡°Would you be capable of removing bystanders?¡± Josh paused. He definitely didn''t have the authority to do that, not even on his best day without a bounty hanging over his head. But if the alternative was a dragon burning the City to the ground on its way to its prize... ¡°Let us assume that I can,¡± Josh said. He''d have to call in every favor he had ever received and possibly fake a terrorist attack, but he might be able to get the area immediately around the Tower evacuated. Maybe. ¡°What, exactly, are you offering?¡± Josh almost expected him to say ¡°your lives,¡± but instead the orc just spread his arms wide. ¡°Please. Name your price.¡± That made Josh narrow his eyes. ¡°That''s a shiny offer, but it''s a trick and a half. I don''t know what your boss considers expensive. I ask for half the planet on a plate, and he thinks it''s cheap because I didn''t ask for the moon and the stars too.¡± ¡°Most people ask for the safety of their friends and family, to start with.¡± Josh gave him a flat look. ¡°Call me daffy, but I thought that would be part of the package. Maybe dragons are a bit different, but most humans I''ve met assume not killing your partners and their friends is part and parcel of any deal.¡± Hou Zheng smiled widely. ¡°Ah, but you misunderstand. That is not a threat. Indeed, you are correct, you and yours will not be harmed by Lord W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n if you make a deal. The payment is that you will not be harmed by anyone else, either.¡± ¡°Okay...¡± he said slowly. ¡°And what exactly does that mean? All plain and simple words, if you please.¡± Chapter 35 - Pit Talking (part 2) ¡°They will be taken with him when he leaves for the higher realms,¡± Hou Zheng said instantly. ¡°In plain and simple words, as you put it, he will take them out of the forest fire that is this planet and put them in a nice, safe hospital with friendly nurses and a mug of hot cocoa.¡± For a moment, Josh imagined the dragon he had seen back in that dungeon, a massive beast that could eat him in a single bite, delicately placing his friends in chairs and handing them tiny porcelain mugs with its huge claws. He shook his head to clear the image. ¡°That''s not nothing, but I''m not sure it''s something, either. I don''t know these higher realms from a hole in the ground. For all I know, forgive me for expanding the metaphor, he could drop them off at the hospital and then the doctor comes up with a bill charging a thousand dollars for an aspirin.¡± Hou Zheng''s face scrunched up in confusion. ¡°I follow the analogy, but I must confess, I find it confusing. Why would a hospital ever charge anything?¡± Josh rubbed his forehead. ¡°Before we beat the Tower, this country had some... problems, even in the middle of the apocalypse. Actually, I think it got worse in the apocalypse.¡± He stopped himself and sighed. ¡°Look. It''s all ancient history now. You get the point, yeah?¡± ¡°You cannot be certain that a guarantee of safety is, in fact, a guarantee of safety. Understandable.¡± Hou Zheng smiled. ¡°So. What else would you like?¡± Josh stared at him. ¡°That easy?¡± Hou Zheng shrugged. ¡°That easy.¡± Josh crossed his arms over his chest. ¡°What if I want all the old bloodstones back? The ones we lost when the world died? Can your boss make that happen?¡± At this, Hou Zheng finally showed an emotion besides fatherly kindness. He rolled his eyes in exasperation. ¡°I suppose. There isn''t some magic spell to instantly restore all the old bloodstones, but I have a few on me you might find useful, and Lord W¨² Hu¨¯y¨¤n can easily obtain many more.¡± Josh filed that detail away. ¡°It''s a start.¡± ¡°I''m not sure why you would bother,¡± he insisted. ¡°It doesn''t matter how many bloodstones your people have. It doesn''t matter if a dragon bursts out of a dungeon or the Tower remains sealed forever. This world will burn. That is what the lower realms do, they burn. It is what happened to my world, it is what happened to every other world, and it will happen to this world.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°Aren''t you supposed to be a Healer? You should be trying to save everyone you can.¡± Hou Zheng waved a hand dismissively. ¡°A Healer needs to know when to cut off a diseased limb.¡± ¡°I don''t know how things work in your higher realms or whatever,¡± Josh said, struggling to contain his anger. ¡°And sure, maybe the world itself needs to burn. I don''t know. No one told us shite. But there are millions of people here who do deserve to live.¡± He narrowed his eyes. ¡°A Healer should know that.¡± His sister would know that. The orc did not scowl. But he had the look of someone making special effort not to scowl. Josh had seen that face often enough. ¡°Our ethical differences are irrelevant to this discussion,¡± he said at last. ¡°I offer immediate safety for those closest to you, as well as support for this dying world¡ªas foolish as I believe that attempt to be, I will not interfere with it.¡± He waved his hand again, and this time it seemed very flippant, as if flicking mud off his finger. ¡°That is why I have made no attempt to exterminate your new town.¡± ¡°Ask Mizuno how that worked out for him.¡± He didn''t rise to the bait. ¡°All I ask is for the way to be cleared. Consider it an evacuation in the face of a natural disaster, if you like. My employer gets what he wants, any damage to your City is repaired, everyone wins.¡± ¡°You offer a lot of pretty words, but not much else.¡± Josh uncrossed his arms and held them behind his back, so that his hands were against the stone wall of the tunnel. ¡°But let''s assume that you can deliver everything, shiny and new and wrapped in a crisp red bow. What happens when your boss gets into the Tower?¡± Hou Zheng frowned. ¡°You mean you don''t...¡± He sighed and rubbed his forehead. ¡°What exactly did Mizuno tell you?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°Dunno. He threatened me, called me a dwarf, used a lot of drowning metaphors, then threw a bomb in my face.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Of course he did,¡± he muttered, so low that Josh didn''t think he was supposed to hear. ¡°You always had to be mysterious, didn''t you?¡± He refocused on Josh. ¡°Once my employer enters the Tower, he will begin clearing the floors. Even considering his power and experience, this will take time. I would estimate as long as forty years. The record, I believe, is four years, in much better circumstances. There is no way he can manage it in less than that.¡± Josh nodded, though he filed away the mention of a ¡°record.¡± Who had records of the Tower? ¡°Then what? When he reaches the top and finishes the Tower? What happens then?¡± ¡°The Tower,¡± Hou Zheng said solemnly, ¡°will disappear.¡± Josh had to take a moment to process that bit of information. ¡°The whole Tower,¡± he said, when it became clear Hou Zheng wasn''t going to elaborate. ¡°Just... poof, gone.¡± ¡°Precisely. There will be some alterations to the mana levels in the region, but your Burn Line¡ªan ingenious solution to the problem of the Jungle, I must say¡ªmeans the effects should be minimal.¡± He shrugged. ¡°You will suffer more from any buildings that happen to be leaning against the Tower.¡± That actually wouldn''t be a problem. Except for the defenses, buildings weren''t allowed to touch the Tower. Josh didn''t know the full details, but he was pretty sure people were worried about, well, the Tower randomly disappearing one day. After all, it had randomly appeared one day. It was nice to see that some paranoia was working out. ¡°What else?¡± Josh asked. ¡°Will the Jungle disappear? Will the Eight Heroes lose their immortality?¡± Hou Zheng shook his head. ¡°No to both. The Jungle is always hungry. It eats its way through worlds, and it cannot be purged so simply. Likewise, the lives of your Immortals exist independent of the Tower.¡± Then he paused, a thoughtful expression on his face. ¡°Well, I assume so. It is possible they made a horrendous wish and somehow bound their lives to the Tower.¡± ¡°They wished to be free from the turning of the world,¡± Josh said. There was more to their wish, but that was the important bit. Hou Zheng smiled. ¡°Ah, they were specifically trying to dodge the reset, weren''t they? Yes, then they should be fine.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Though they didn''t need to worry so much. All immortals are automatically immune to the reset. In fact, though we have minimal evidence, my friend Jemma believes that is why the monsters are not reset on the solstice. She thinks that the reset was originally an attempt by the Tower to balance both humans and monsters alike, but the monsters evolved a way around it¡ª¡± He stopped, looking guilty. It was strange, seeing that expression on a green face with tusks. ¡°Sorry,¡± he said. ¡°You probably don''t want to hear about monster theory while your world is burning.¡± It did sound interesting, Josh had to admit, but it also didn''t sound like something he wanted to hear just now. ¡°So, Tower disappears, mana goes wild for a span,¡± Josh summarized. ¡°Anything else? The Jungle won''t suddenly be growing ten times as fast or whatever?¡± ¡°No, the Jungle will be completely unaffected. Well, I suppose it might be slightly disrupted by the rifts.¡± Josh paused. ¡°The rifts? You mean the dungeons?¡± Hou Zheng looked at him strangely. ¡°Yes, of course. The dungeons are an outgrowth of the Tower, to contain the rifts. When the Tower disappears, so too will the dungeons. You will have to attempt to contain the rifts manually. I recommend closing them as fast as possible.¡± ¡°Uh...¡± Josh held up a hand. He made sure his other was still behind him, touching the wall. ¡°Just... hold up. Hold up. Those rifts at the heart of every dungeon. They''re just going to be... hanging out naked in the air.¡± ¡°Not the way I would have worded it, but yes.¡± ¡°The rifts that spew out monsters,¡± Josh clarified. ¡°Indeed.¡± ¡°The monsters are not going to be trapped any more. They can just spill straight out and start killing.¡± Hou Zheng nodded somberly. ¡°I will not pretend it is a small problem. Thankfully, it is also far easier to close an open rift than to defeat a dungeon. Since it is, as you said, hanging out naked in the air, all you have to do is touch it, and the System will do the rest. The monsters rarely even see a need to defend the rifts. After all, the monsters are escaping to this world from dying ones. They have no desire to return.¡± There was a lot to unpack from that, but Josh had to focus on the important bits. ¡°Where do the rifts appear?¡± Hou Zheng blinked in surprise. ¡°Do you not know how dungeons work?¡± ¡°Answer the question,¡± Josh snapped. ¡°Where do new rifts appear? Only around humans?¡± Lots of magic was affected by human thoughts and human presence. In the old world, the most common theory was that the dungeons appeared in places out of sight, but close to large concentrations of humans. Abandoned warehouses in cities, large forests outside of town. That sort of thing. But people had found dungeons in the ocean before. Just a few. But was that because they were rare, or because no one was looking? His hopes were immediately dashed. ¡°Why, everywhere, of course,¡± Hou Zheng said. ¡°The magic has spread to encompass the entire planet. That means that dungeons can appear anywhere on the planet.¡± Josh took a breath. ¡°That''s a bit of a sticky wicket, isn''t it?¡± ¡°It''s not as though it''s the end of the world,¡± Hou Zheng said. ¡°No more than it already ended, anyway. Oh, the rifts will destroy this world eventually, but I don''t see them accelerating the end particularly.¡± He let out a huff of breath. ¡°Honestly, I don''t think your City will last the forty years it will take my employer to clear the Tower anyway.¡± Chapter 36 - Pit Talking (part 3) ¡°You don''t think endless hordes of monsters will make things worse,¡± Josh said flatly. ¡°You''re optimistic, aren''t you?¡± ¡°You already have endless waves of monsters.¡± Hou Zheng shook his head, exasperated. ¡°I really don''t see why you are making such an issue of this.¡± ¡°There are hundreds of dungeons in this valley alone,¡± Josh snapped. ¡°We don''t have the manpower to clear all of them! And what happens when monsters start pouring out of these rifts? They head straight to the biggest population center!¡± ¡°Weak monsters. They will be below the level minimum. Even without the extra bloodstones, you will be able to handle¡ª¡± ¡°Most monsters in dungeons are weak. But they get stronger quickly. Suck up the mana in the air and grow, that''s how it works. And everyone knows that sometimes something crazy strong falls out of a rift. That''s how this all started, with your boss deciding to slum it in a dungeon a tenth of his level!¡± He didn''t shout. He didn''t want the guards outside to realize something was wrong. But he did raise his voice. He did almost yell. He spat his words at Hou Zheng, as if he could shame him into action. It didn''t work. Of course it didn''t. The orc just gave him a flat, unimpressed look. ¡°I am sorry, Mister White,¡± he said, as if he knew what that name meant. ¡°Sorry that you are attached to the embers of a dying world. I feel that I have given you more than a reasonable compromise. I have promised safety for your loved ones, and what prosperity I can offer for your people. I am sorry that this is not good enough for you.¡± Josh sagged. You couldn''t shame anyone into seeing your point of view. You had to meet them on their own level, find out what drove them from behind and what they were reaching towards. It took time, patience, and intelligence. Josh had always been terrible at diplomacy. He didn''t have time, patience, or intelligence. For God''s sake, he had conquered this village because he found their tax laws annoying. His sister was better at it. God, he wished she was here. Of course, if his sister was here, then there was a good chance she would murder him for everything he had done since she left, so small blessings. Speaking of things his sister would hate... He crushed the runestone on his necklace to give him a quick boost to Power and Capacity. ¡°Instant Crafting.¡± Hou Zheng''s head snapped up as the tunnel behind them, the only exit, was instantly filled with dirt and gravel. He rushed forward to touch the wall, while Josh dodged aside and downed a mana potion. Hou Zheng had that teleportation ability, though it was definitely limited. Josh wasn''t worried about him breaking through¡ªnot quickly, at any rate. It probably wouldn''t contain him forever. It would definitely contain him for this fight. Josh pulled out his ax, charged forward, and fed mana into his weapon as he brought it down. It wasn''t a true magic weapon, but Ruth had finally gotten around to putting a gravity rune-chain on his ax. It was his fault it had taken too long, really. He kept losing his weapons, which made her reluctant to put real effort into enchanting anything for him. His ax suddenly swung down with ten times the weight it should have, and Hou Zheng''s mace was knocked aside like a weed before a breeze. It did give him half a second to step back, though, and Josh caught a few words in Chinese. They sounded like foul curses. Distantly, Josh wished he had asked why elves were apparently Japanese and orcs were Chinese. He could already tell that was going to bug him for a long time. It wasn''t exactly his main priority right now, though. Josh sensed mana gathering in Hou Zheng''s hands, and snapped out a punch. His Strength was still bad and he still had no real techniques, but a punch to the face rattled the brain no matter what. Hou Zheng cursed again, his spell disrupted.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. This time he went on the offensive, swinging his mace in wide sweeping arcs. He was clearly more concerned with forcing Josh back than actually hitting him. Unfortunately, even though Josh saw the trick, he still had to move. He had seen Hou Zheng fight enough to know that he didn''t want to get hit. While he was a [Healer] instead of an [Attacker], he had a Strength that Josh just couldn''t match. For the ten thousandth time, Josh wished they had better magic items. Ruth''s runes were more for making devices, less for making items that enhanced individuals. They still didn''t have anyone with the right classes to make true boosting gear. Of course, Josh knew his weaknesses. There was always a simple solution to facing someone with superior stats: Pure skill. Josh dodged every one of Hou Zheng''s broad sweeps as if it was a dance he had trained in for weeks. Between his experience and his high Perception, he could see every twitch of muscle, every shift of a foot. Josh knew exactly what his opponent was going to do before he did. Hou Zheng might not be an [Attacker], but he wasn''t an idiot either. He swept his mace with one hand, using the other to prepare another spell. Josh couldn''t get close enough to interrupt him, at least not in time. Trying would just get him a mace to the gut. White fire flared around Hou Zheng''s hand, and he threw it forward, a screaming fireball that would consume everything in the tunnels. That was what won Josh the fight. He charged forward, ignoring the fire completely, to Hou Zheng''s clear surprise. The fireball slammed against him, but his shroud flared. He felt a horrible flare of heat, so bad that it felt like his skin would crack, but nothing worse. He pushed through it in a moment, and his shroud even managed to survive. It was funny how people used shrouds. Everyone was too eager to let it soak up hits. It would regenerate, after all, so why not let it do its job? Putting aside the wisdom of overusing a lifesaving magic item, Josh knew that this meant that if you dodged in combat, people tended to assume your shroud was depleted or broken entirely. Besides, shrouds were better at absorbing magical damage than physical. He pushed through the fire to see Hou Zheng''s face, filled with gratifying shock. He tried to get his mace up in time to block, even as he scrambled back to give himself more space. However, he was still a [Healer]. If Josh had to guess, he thought that Hou Zheng had been running a [Healer] for a very long time. He didn''t have the techniques that came with an [Attacker] class, nor the instincts that came with experience. Josh might not have an actual [Combat] class, but there was no substitute for constantly fighting for your life. He had fought stronger enemies than this, at worse disadvantages. Josh swung his ax with one hand, pushing mana into the rune-chain to suddenly increase its weight again. While Hou Zheng struggled to block that attack, Josh used his other hand to launch an [Empty Chop] at his head. Hou Zheng yelped as the magical attack caused his shroud to flare, and lost his focus on Josh''s ax. It bit deep into the man''s shoulder, and he howled in rage and pain like a wild animal. He stumbled back, ripping the ax out of his shoulder, and the wound bled profusely. Then he tried to heal himself. That was his last mistake. He was a [Healer], so it was understandable. He knew he needed to get the bleeding stopped quickly. Josh''s ridiculous Sensitivity score let him feel the magic Hou Zheng was gathering into a spell. It was quick and dirty, probably the magical equivalent of a bandage than a full restore. Hou Zheng likely thought that he would be able to get himself into fighting shape in seconds, then go back on the offensive. Josh blasted him with another [Empty Chop], in the exact spot where his ax had bit down before. His shroud was already gone, so the art just bit deeper into the flesh, and Hou Zheng howled again. He stumbled, tripping on gravel and detritus on the stone floor. Josh moved in for the kill. The shadows twisted between them, and suddenly Kun was there. ¡°No you don''t!¡± Josh snarled. He threw another [Empty Chop]. Kun, however, appeared to still have a full shroud. She accepted the hit without a flinch, then bent down and wrapped her arms around Hou Zheng''s huge torso. Before Josh could close the distance, shadows writhed again. Then, they were both gone. His ax swung through empty air and embedded deep into the stone floor. The runes on its head glowed for a moment before fading back into passivity. Josh took long, deep breaths. He had burned most of his mana and stamina in that fight, and he had nothing to show for it. Well, nothing besides the bloodstone that Hou Zheng had given him before the fight. That was something, at least. Still breathing hard, sweat dripping from his forehead, he turned to look at the tunnel. It was still blocked off, filled in with dirt and gravel. He sighed, sat down on the ground, and activated his [Meditation] skill to recover enough mana to get out of here. He tried not to focus on how much he had failed. There was an angry orc out there, and now he had little reason not to attack the town. He wished Ruth had been here. An extra hand and an extra hammer would have been a huge help. Chapter 37 - Over Paperworking (part 1) Ruth wished she had gone down into the pit with the others. Surely she would be able to help more there, than up here doing paperwork! Baara, however, had insisted that Ruth could help. And yes, Ruth was good at paperwork. She had spent most of her life sitting in the back of her father''s truck, filling out reports and checking data. So she could accept the order with grace, even if it was coming from someone younger than she was. But she had also run away from that life for a reason. Well, okay, she ran away because her aunt tried to assassinate someone in front of her, and killed an innocent man in the process. But she had been trying to run away, in a less literal sense, for years before that. She wanted to be on the front lines, fighting monsters and helping people, not¡­ sitting behind a desk and sorting files. At least Baara had promised to let her look at the Pyrolance she had received from her father. Ruth wouldn''t be able to replicate it, not fully, but it did have an awful lot of runes. Even if she didn''t have access to infusion enchanting, the way the runes shaped the power was still worth studying. Ruth got up from her desk, stretching with a yawn. She was most of the way through the pile of paperwork she had been given. What time was it? This room didn''t have any windows. Most of the buildings in the town hall didn''t, which was annoying, but it was the kind of thing you got used to. She''d seen stranger things, traveling with her father. There had been one town that surrounded their walls with a lightning moat. Too bad they had a metal drawbridge. There was a knock on the door, and she opened it to find Baara. The girl was even smaller than Ruth, and when they first met Baara had been a cringing mess who flinched whenever someone bigger than her spoke. Of course, they had been in the middle of a siege at the time. Now, she stood with her back straight and head held high. ¡°Oh, you got here early,¡± Baara said, with a shy smile. ¡°I needed help with some of the City taxes, but I wasn''t sure you''d be in.¡± Ruth blinked like an owl. ¡°Early? What time is it?¡± Baara frowned. ¡°Did you sleep here last night?¡± ¡°No! I mean¡ª¡± Ruth suddenly felt waves of exhaustion threatening to crush her. She yawned. ¡°I¡ªI thought it was getting late. But there''s no way I worked that long!¡± ¡°It''s five in the morning,¡± Baara said gently. ¡°Did you really not sleep at all?¡± She looked past her, then her eyes widened at the pile of paperwork. ¡°Tamer¡¯s minions! Did you get all that done?¡± ¡°I... had an energy drink?¡± Ruth said lamely. Baara gave her an incredulous look, and Ruth shrugged. ¡°I got it from our new Alchemist. I guess I didn''t notice how effective it really was.¡± Baara sighed. ¡°Well. I suppose one night isn''t so bad. Though those things probably have side effects.¡± She winced. ¡°Right?¡± ¡°Josh would probably know.¡± Josh knew a lot of random class details. She was going to have to ask him about that eventually. Then she brightened. ¡°Leveling and advancement clears up that sort of thing!¡± ¡°...I''m sorry, are you suggesting that you want to resolve any medical side effects from drinking an Alchemist concoction by going out to fight monsters? After you stayed up the entire night?¡± ¡°I''m level 39,¡± Ruth said, still smiling. ¡°I just need a bit more to get my advancement.¡± Though she did need another rift crystal if she wanted her Exemplary-tier class. ¡°There''s an easy dungeon nearby, right?¡± She went back into the room and started rooting through the papers again. ¡°Yeah, that one that opened up to the north.¡± ¡°The scouts didn''t actually go inside.¡± Baara stepped up next to her and gently took the papers out of her hands. ¡°It should be easy, but we have no guarantees. I''m not sure that we should send you out personally. You need to rest.¡± Ruth grabbed her wrist. Baara tried to pull her arm free. She failed. ¡°You''re hurting me,¡± she said, quietly but firmly. Ruth took a deep breath and released her. ¡°Sorry,¡± she said. She took a deep breath, then put a smile on her face again. ¡°Sorry! I just don''t like being told to stay behind for my safety. I mean, you get it, right?¡± ¡°I think so? But not really?¡± Baara gave an uncomfortable shrug. ¡°My parents both thought fighting was fun. My dad used to take me out hunting as a reward for getting all my paperwork done.¡± ¡°That must have been nice,¡± Ruth said bitterly.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°It could be, I suppose.¡± Baara looked depressed for a moment. At which point Ruth remembered that this girl''s parents were dead, and she was trying to carry on their legacy. ¡°I-I mean...¡± Ruth squeezed her hand. ¡°It''s good that you have happy memories of them, right?¡± She smiled. ¡°They were trying to include you. That''s not nothing?¡± Better than her father, hiding her away like a pretty bauble. Or her mother, gone with nothing more than a note. ¡°They gave you the best life as they knew it. Don''t ever feel bad about that!¡± Baara smiled, a little more genuinely this time. ¡°T-thanks.¡± She took a deep breath. ¡°But I was just saying that if you''re so close to your level, you''ll probably reach 40 before you even finish the dungeon. Then you''ll have to pause your advancement in the middle of a dangerous situation.¡± Ruth nodded. ¡°Yeah, okay, I can see that.¡± It was a bit disappointing, but understandable. ¡°Did you have something else in mind?¡± ¡°Anna has lists of hunters who might work well together.¡± She searched through Ruth''s papers¡ªwhich didn''t take long, because Ruth had organized everything well¡ªbefore finding what she was looking for. ¡°Here we are. Yes, I think I can organize a team and have the dungeon cleared before the end of the day. You''ll have first pick of any rift crystals.¡± Ruth twirled a lock of hair on her finger. ¡°Is that really okay? Just letting me get a pick of the spoils even though I''m not involved? I mean, I already have the Vareo crystals, I just want more options.¡± Baara put down the paper, and gave her that weak smile, like she didn''t know that she was the one in charge. ¡°I can''t make anyone give you anything for free. But you''re getting the first chance to buy their spoils. You still have your Enchanter abilities, so I''m sure that you can make something that they would be willing to trade.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± That made more sense. Then a thought occurred to her. ¡°Do you think that Darius should give them some shrouds before they leave?¡± Baara raised an eyebrow, then pulled out another piece of paper that Ruth had already organized. Ruth took it, and realized it was a list of sales. It took her a moment longer to figure out that it was a list of the shrouds Darius had sold. The exact items weren''t named, but it was obvious when she knew what she was looking at. ¡°Oh,¡± she said again. ¡°Well, all right then.¡± She looked down at the paper. ¡°At least he''s selling them for a reasonable price?¡± Darius was a good man, if a little grouchy. Still, greed could turn people to dark places. Half the people her dad had gone after had been like that. Some people got a taste of power and tried to make the most profit possible off it. Baara nodded. She turned to go, smiling. ¡°Get some sleep, Ruth,¡± she said. ¡°We''ll have something for you when you wake up.¡± Ruth looked at the closed door for a moment, before sighing and organizing some of the loose papers. She didn''t want to leave a mess behind, after all. Still, it felt like a waste of time to go all the way back to the house. Maybe she could have a bed moved into this office? Or would that just encourage people to give her more paperwork? At least if she had to leave every once in a while, she would have an excuse to go hunt monsters or something. Just as she was about to leave, her hand on the door, something changed. Ruth felt the distinctive twisting of space that could only accompany teleportation, along with a sharp shift in the pressure of the room. She spun around, grabbing the big hammer next to the door, to look into the corner of the room. Her hammer''s head was bigger than her own, and even with her increased Strength, she needed the Vareo runes to use it properly. She was confident using it against anyone and anything. A figure clad head to toe in black leather stepped out of the shadows. Ruth gripped her hammer tighter, activating the runes at the same moment. She had more than just her gravity enchantment on it now. ¡°Hello, Kun,¡± she said coldly. She knew Kun was mute, but she wasn''t deaf. And even if she had been, Ruth was in no mood to accommodate her. She was very surprised when the woman said, in a perfectly clear voice, ¡°Hello, Ruth.¡± Ruth stood there a moment, paralyzed as thoughts rushed through her head. Kun could speak. She and the priest had been lying. Why? If it was for some advantage, why give it up now? Kun just stood there silently, waiting for her to put it all together. In the end, that was what did it. That endless patience, like Ruth could take as long as she wanted, and she would still be waiting there with a hand up. Waiting, but offering no actual help. Ruth let out a long breath. She loosened her grip on her hammer, but didn''t drop it, and didn''t release the magic in the runes. ¡°Hello, Auntie Jael. What do you want?¡± ¡°I want you to be safe,¡± she said with no preamble. ¡°So you joined the guy who is working with the dragon who wants to destroy the City.¡± Ruth nodded, as if this was a perfectly reasonable idea. ¡°Yeah, sure. That makes sense. Just like you decided to hunt down Josh for the crime of becoming the first Crafter. End the world, and then no one will be able to hurt me!¡± ¡°I have spoken with Hou Zheng extensively,¡± Auntie Jael said. Her voice was very distinctive, and Ruth could understand why she decided to pretend to be mute. Ruth would have figured her out if she had said more than two words. ¡°With his information, I believe that the damage to the City can be mitigated to minimal property damage. In return, he has agreed to take you with him when he leaves this world.¡± Ruth didn''t blink. ¡°Yeah, I don''t care about that.¡± Auntie Jael held up a hand, as if she was being unreasonable, and needed to be calmed down. ¡°Ruth, you haven''t heard the details.¡± ¡°Nope! Don''t care about them, either. I don''t care if it''s possible, or even what it means. Is the priest offering to bring me with him as he ascends to the heavens in a glorious pillar of light? Or maybe we''ll just step through a portal and be in a higher world, whatever that means.¡± She threw up one hand. ¡°Or maybe he''ll just strap a rocket to my butt and we''ll go flying! It doesn''t matter.¡± She gripped her hammer again. ¡°You''re getting people killed. Again. Because you refuse to do the right thing. Again.¡± Chapter 38 - Over Paperworking (part 2) ¡°It is more complicated than simply a moral question of right or wrong.¡± ¡°Every time someone says that, it''s because they''re worried someone won''t like their reasons,¡± Ruth snapped. ¡°Every time. Do you know how many times I heard someone say that to Dad? At least Dad was always honest about his reasons to me. He told me, repeatedly, that he wanted me to stay a Healer to keep me away from the fights. Nothing about how I''m secretly a great Healer if I''ll just apply myself more. Nope, he was deliberately crippling me so he could feel better.¡± Even though Auntie Jael was still wearing her mask, she winced with her full body. ¡°That is a very negative way of viewing his motives.¡± ¡°And it''s still better than what you''re doing!¡± She gripped her hammer so hard that her hands hurt. ¡°We can help people, we both can! Do you know how long I¡¯ve waited to be able to fight monsters and make a real difference? And yet this is the year where you decide to turn traitor!¡± She threw up her hand. ¡°Where was this defiance when I begged you to go behind Dad¡¯s back and give me a better bloodstone?¡± Auntie Jael took a deep breath. ¡°Ruth,¡± she said at last. ¡°This is neither the time nor the place to discuss this. If you meet with Hou Zheng, you can negotiate a better deal. I promise you, more than anything else, that he is a reasonable man.¡± Ruth gave her a flat look. ¡°Why would your word on the matter mean anything?¡± Before her aunt could respond to that, Ruth frowned. ¡°Wait, no, that doesn''t matter. Why are you even here? Why choose now to confront me?¡± She narrowed her eyes. ¡°What happened?¡± There was a long pause. Ruth never discovered what lie or excuse her aunt would come up with. There was a knock on the door, and she glanced behind her. The pressure in the room changed, and by the time she looked back, the room was empty. She sighed. Auntie Jael always ran when things got too hard, emotionally speaking. It was why she hadn''t been around when Ruth''s mom had disappeared. It was why she hadn''t been around for most of Ruth''s childhood. She kept her hammer in one hand, still a bit paranoid, when she opened the door. She wasn''t that surprised to see Josh standing there, looming like a mountain. She loved the idiot, but sometimes he forgot that he was literally twice her size. He blocked the door like an eclipse, until he blinked and stepped back to give her more room. She was slightly more surprised to see his companions crowded in the small room outside her office. Mary, of course, stood there scowling like this whole thing was some massive imposition on her time. Ruth tried not to feel insulted, because she was pretty sure it was Anna poking Mary in the side that was annoying her. The big brawler Beor was there too, as well as a man about the same size and shape with thick manacles around his wrists. Ruth took this all in within seconds. She smiled up at Josh. ¡°We having a party? The only one that''s missing is Darius.¡± Mary groaned. ¡°Can''t we do this without him?¡± Josh smiled down at Ruth. ¡°Good to see your mood is up. You ready to get that big rock sorted? Think we''ve left everything to settle for long enough, yeah?¡± Ruth frowned, taking a moment to parse that. ¡°Wait, the citystone? You want to upgrade the citystone now?¡± Josh nodded gravely. ¡°Aye. We just had a fun little run-in with Hou Zheng. Who is an orc, by the way.¡± ¡°Uh...¡± She scrambled to keep up. ¡°What would an orc be, earth? No, we''re earth. Fire, then?¡± Josh nodded. ¡°That explains why Auntie Jael was here, at least. Oh, and she was Kun, by the way.¡± Josh opened his mouth. Closed it. Then, he nodded. ¡°Yeah, that tracks. Anyway, we figure they''re distracted now, we should be able to get this done without anyone making an even bigger mess of things than they already have.¡± ¡°I''m just worried about the old mayor,¡± Mary said. She looked over at the prisoner. ¡°Maybe someone should pay him and his goons a visit, make sure he''s being peaceful as a grave, you see?¡± The prisoner held up his manacled hands. ¡°I don''t know where Hawk is right now,¡± he said quickly. ¡°Please. You said you''d treat my boys right.¡± Mary let out a huff. ¡°Yeah, yeah, everyone''s safe, no need to get your knickers in a twist. Just want to make sure that plonker doesn''t plonk around and cock everything up.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Anna was leaning against Mary as if she was a wall. ¡°Oh, I wouldn''t worry about that,¡± she said casually. ¡°Old Mayor Hawkins has always been boring as all get out. He''ll take the safe route every time. You beat back this problem, he''ll go to ground for at least a week. He certainly won''t interfere with a monster raid.¡± Mary stepped away, causing Anna to stumble. She turned into a flip and a tumble, and somehow ended up on her feet. Everyone else ignored them. Josh placed a hand on Ruth''s shoulder. ¡°Can you do it?¡± he asked, his eyes shining with resolve and determination. ¡°Do you have everything you need to upgrade the citystone and survive the attack?¡± That was a loaded question. ¡°You know we''ve never actually seen a normal citystone upgrade,¡± she reminded him. ¡°For all we know, Mizuno barely did anything last time. Maybe it is normal to fight thousands upon thousands of monsters. Maybe it will call every monster in ten miles.¡± ¡°Even if that''s true, it''s still worth it,¡± Josh insisted. ¡°We''re more prepared for the worst.¡± ¡°Besides, we keep the Jungle nearby pretty clear,¡± Anna added. ¡°It''s not like there are huge ant colonies or bee hives hiding under a rock a mile away.¡± The prisoner looked at her. ¡°You finally got rid of it?¡± Anna gave a savage grin. ¡°First thing I did after the regime change was blow up that stupid colony. Screw valuable source of materials, I''ve lost too many people to ants.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Ruth said, blinking. ¡°Is that what you needed the bombs for?¡± ¡°Yep!¡± Ruth hadn''t really mastered actual bombs yet. She didn''t have the right elemental runes to just conjure an explosion out of nothing. And her trick with a Pyro rune and a water bottle, while great for grenades, had trouble scaling up properly. Instead, she had found a cruder solution: Put a Pyro rune onto something that was already explosive¡ªsuch as a barrel of gunpowder¡ªalong with a few extra runes to shape the heat. It wasn''t perfect, as the runes only touched the explosion indirectly and there was a lot of energy loss, but it was better than just lighting a barrel on fire and hoping for the best. Mary nodded along. ¡°We collapsed the big central ant chamber with the queen, plus every entrance we could find. When we came back a few days later, there were no new tunnels. I think that place is dead and done.¡± ¡°If that''s the only big monster nest nearby, then we''re good,¡± Josh said. Then he shrugged. ¡°Probably. There could always be some massive level 80 bear hibernating in the heart of the Jungle.¡± ¡°Actually...¡± Mary said slowly, frowning. He groaned in exasperation. ¡°I was joking!¡± She shook her head. ¡°Nah, Anna would have clipped something like that. I was more wondering, is Gilroy in range? What if that whole bunch of those monsters get dragged down here?¡± Josh hissed through his teeth. ¡°Especially the dracobeast...¡± ¡°It should be fine,¡± Anna said. ¡°You all tried this up in Gilroy, right? We didn''t see any weird monster migrations down here. I don''t think it would go the other way. We must be out of range of each other.¡± Ruth smiled, relieved. ¡°That''s a good point. It''s probably safe to try!¡± ¡°Eh...¡± Anna wiggled her hand back and forth. ¡°Safe is pushing it.¡± ¡°It''s safe enough,¡± Josh said firmly. ¡°Gather up everyone we can to defend the walls. The sooner we start, the sooner we''re done.¡± He gave the prisoner a solid look. ¡°You going to cop to your mistake? Fight with us?¡± The big man shrugged. ¡°Do I have a choice?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Josh said bluntly. ¡°If you think you might stab us in the back, please choose to stay in prison.¡± ¡°I don''t have a knife.¡± He seemed almost insulted at the prospect. Josh waved a hand. ¡°Someone throw him in a jail cell. We''ll deal with him later.¡± ¡°Wait, wait!¡± The man held up his manacled hands. ¡°Fine, yes, you can trust me to fight.¡± He squinted at Josh. ¡°You are talking about what I think you are, right? Upgrading the citystone a tier?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°The town will get a lot from that.¡± ¡°That''s the hope!¡± Ruth said. If their theory on how crafting interacted with the citystones was right, then it might just change the world. Of course, this would be so much easier if they had access to the City''s citystone, which was already upgraded. Once again, Ruth cursed her father for his paranoia. Still. This was almost a dream come true. Improving the world in a real, solid way, and getting to fight hordes of monsters at the same time? Perfect. She had to remind herself not to get too excited. It was genuinely dangerous, and people could get hurt. She¡¯d prefer if she was the only one in danger. But they were still doing a good thing, that happened to be fun. She couldn¡¯t keep a smile off her face. The prisoner let out a breath. ¡°All right, then,¡± he said. ¡°Me and the boys will fight for you. I think we can do some good.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°It''s a start.¡± Chapter 39 - The First Siege of San Juan Bautista (part 1) Josh stood on top of the wall, watching the Jungle. Behind him, on the ground, Ruth worked on the citystone. The red teardrop gemstone was three meters tall, pointed end straight up, covered in rough facets and angles. It looked like it had been carved by someone who gave up before they finished polishing it. It floated a meter off the ground, rotating in place. The walls were impressive too. They had ended up doing a triple-layer defense in several key areas, especially here around the citystone. The inner wall was made of interlocking stone, almost all of which had been done by Josh personally. It was the smallest layer, but had still required multiple mana potions to get through it. The second layer was the original wooden palisade, basically just a bunch of sharpened tree trunks stuck into the ground. He had helped repair it pretty much immediately after he took the mayor position. The outermost wall was new. Well, it wasn''t a wall. It was a type of defense that Mary had called ¡°Toblerone Lines,¡± but that the System named ¡°Dragon''s Teeth¡± when he got the blueprint. He liked that name better. They were basically just a bunch of little stone pyramids, meant to channel the bigger enemies into easier firing lines. They were so easy to make that he didn''t even have to make most of them manually. He''d just use [Instant Crafting] on a giant piece of stone, and a couple people with a high Strength would carry each one into position. All told, Josh thought it was a pretty solid defense. Combined with the large number of ranged combatants they had gathered on the wall, he thought they had a decent chance of handling the horde before they even breached the wall. The biggest danger was the monsters circling around and attacking from one of the less-defended angles. Monsters weren''t smart, but they didn''t have to be. If there were enough of them, they''d find the gaps by sheer force of numbers. ¡°Ruth!¡± he called. ¡°You ready?¡± ¡°Ready when you are, boss!¡± He turned to Anna, who was grinning from ear to ear, and Mary, who was scowling. Anna had found a crossbow somewhere. It was covered in glowing runes. ¡°Ranged fighters ready?¡± ¡°Ready and waiting!¡± Anna said loudly, even though she was right next to him. He was about to complain, when everyone gave a light cheer. They were ready for this, and it did well for morale to show confidence in them. ¡°Healers ready?¡± he called, louder than necessary. Darius looked annoyed, but nodded. ¡°All support units are ready.¡± Behind him, Josh saw Sarah nod as well. She stood next to a big rack of potions, a toothy grin on her face. For once, he could see the resemblance with her sister. ¡°All right.¡± He raised his voice. ¡°One last chance for anyone to back out! No questions asked!¡± No one moved. The dozens of fighters stood ready, eyes practically shining. He had given them all the worst-case scenario. Told them all that this was the exact thing that had killed Gilroy. They stood strong anyway. Ready to do what they could, one way or another. Above all else, they thought they could do this. Whether it was faith in him, faith in each other, or both, they believed. All he could do was return that. He nodded. ¡°Oi, Ruth! Let''s get this started, yeah?¡± She laughed. ¡°Comin'' up!¡± He recognized the exact second that she finished. The massive citystone stopped its slow rotation, and a glow built up inside it. As Ruth slid out from under the stone and climbed up on top of the wall, the glow started flashing faster and faster. It went from beating like a heart to flashing like a strobe light. It built to a crescendo, looking for all the world like a bomb about to explode. Instead, the flashing light suddenly stopped, as sudden as if a switch had been flipped. A heartbeat later, chunks of red crystal fell from the citystone, crashing to the ground with a sound like shattering glass. The shattered pieces dissipated into white mist that soon evaporated. What was left behind was a slightly smaller, slightly more regular floating red crystal. It looked polished, like how you would cut a ruby to show off its best luster. A moment later, a breeze blew out from the citystone. The wave of gentle power reminded Josh of nothing so much as a perfect warm summer day. Just like last time, he breathed in deeply. Just like last time, he swore he could smell flowers and moist dirt after a light rain.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it It felt like home. He shook himself out of his stupor. ¡°We have a couple minutes before we start seeing monsters!¡± he called. He had a sneaking suspicion that they had exactly eight minutes, even though he hadn''t timed it last time. ¡°Keep sharp!¡± He jumped down to the citystone. Technically, this bit could wait. In fact, it might be better to let Ruth use her sigils, like she did with the Gilroy stone, to prepare for the fight. But Josh didn''t want to wait any longer. He wanted to be sure this would work. He put his hand on the stone. A window immediately popped up.
Citystone: San Juan Bautista. Improved-tier.
Options: Rename. Check mana balance. Check influence map. Check addition slots. Build structures. Access inventory. Access area map and scanning. Access quest list.
He mentally clicked [Slots].
This stone has 1 addition slot. This stone has 1 empty addition slot. You have appropriate permissions. Would you like to fill an addition slot with one of your spells?
He breathed a sigh of relief. This was the whole point of upgrading the citystone. There were a few other things that got unlocked at higher tiers¡ªthe ability to buy citystone seeds being the most famous¡ªbut what really mattered were the addition slots. Josh clicked [Yes], then navigated through a few extra menus to choose what spell he wanted to add. His first instinct was to use [Instant Crafting], but he realized that probably wouldn''t work. There was some way to make it work, but he didn''t have time to figure it out. Best to go for the simpler option. He picked [Hands-Free Crafting].
Select blueprint.
This was expected. He had hoped that once he selected the spell, the citystone would be able to use any of his unlocked blueprints, but it was never that easy. He chose his wooden palisade blueprint. His stone walls would be tougher, but there was basically unlimited wood around. Stone was harder to come by. He confirmed the selection, and the citystone accepted it. He took a deep breath. Now for the moment of truth. He''d never actually had this level of citystone access before. Even when he was the supposed king of the City''s black market (and hadn''t that been a ridiculous exaggeration), he had never received this kind of authority. The legal half of the City did not play around with giving the illegal half that level of power. He opened up the additions menu, and clicked on the spell. Immediately, his senses fell out of his body, like he was suddenly floating a hundred feet in the air looking down on everything. This was how it felt to use the Map function. More importantly, he could feel his [Hands-Free Crafting] ability, just like when he used it himself. Well, almost. When he used it himself, everything was very instinctual. He had to feel where to put the blueprint, and let the spell auto-build it. He''d never made a mistake with placement, but he still felt like he was going to end up dropping a literal ton of bricks at the worst spot at the worst moment. With the citystone, his view was overlaid with a simple way of visualizing the changes. The area within about a hundred yards of the citystone¡ªsixty-four meters, the System supplied¡ªwas subtly shaded blue. Everything beyond it was shaded red. When he looked around the blue area, a blue wireframe blueprint of his wooden palisade appeared. He placed it at the edge of the blue area, outside the walls that they had already built. He put more mental focus on it, hoping that he would receive more information before he had to confirm.
Build Wooden Palisade? Cost: 20 mana.
He almost laughed out loud. It was clear that the citystone wasn''t taking his stats into account; with his ridiculous Sensitivity score, this blueprint would cost him one mana. Of course, with his hilariously low Capacity, he didn''t have much more than that to play with. He still wasn''t entirely sure how the costs were calculated before his Perception and Sensitivity were brought into play. Tools available and time required both seemed to have something to do with both spells. They had stacked up all sorts of saw benches, pulleys, carts, and everything else they might need next to the citystone, in the hopes that this would reduce the mana cost. He still couldn''t tell if it had worked. The citystone, thankfully, had significantly more mana than he did. It slowly leeched mana from everything in its range, and its range was larger than just the sixty-four meter build radius that he was allowed. Even after Ruth had burned most of that mana advancing it to the next tier, it still had over two hundred mana to play with. Josh let out a breath. Perfect. He stepped away from the citystone. They didn''t need more walls right now. They had prepared as best as they could. ¡°Make sure you patch any holes where you see them,¡± Josh said to Baara. ¡°There''s enough mana for about ten walls. We''ve got the mats for more, so use your own judgment.¡± She clutched her father''s Pyrolance. ¡°I... I...¡± She took a deep breath, then nodded. ¡°Yes. Understood.¡± Josh nodded, then climbed back up to his place on top of the wall. Chapter 40 - The First Siege of San Juan Bautista (part 2) ¡°Good timing,¡± Mary said, as she checked her rifle. She preferred pistols, but the Mage Gunner class could technically work with any firearm. Efficiency would go down compared to a Mage Sniper, but that wasn''t the biggest issue right now. ¡°You gonna join in on the fun?¡± Josh looked out on the field outside the walls. They hadn''t been able to clear much past the dragon''s teeth; true Burn Lines were expensive and dangerous to maintain, so they just cut down what trees they could. Sarah had some ideas for using alchemy to poison the land. Josh had some ideas about how that would backfire horribly. The monsters trickled in slowly, at first. Large, solitary monsters like bears the size of trucks or wolves the size of cars. It was especially obvious because they were picking their way through the abandoned trucks and cars that the village hadn''t bothered to salvage. Out here, with the trees growing between the rusted hulks, it was rarely worth the effort. One of the bears sniffed the air, as if testing the direction of the village and the citystone. It roared in challenge. It was answered by Mary''s rifle, a sound like shattering a glass wall and a smell like a sugar factory burning down. The bear roared in pain and rage, but it was cut short as it collapsed in on itself, a massive spike of gravity between its eyes crushing its skull to pulp. ¡°Sarah said she wanted an ursa brain,¡± Josh noted idly. He hefted his ax on his shoulder. ¡°Something about a stamina potion.¡± ¡°She can get it her own damn self, then.¡± Mary frowned as she pulled back the slide on her rifle. Glowing dust puffed out, the sickly-sweet smell of magic coming with it. ¡°Why do I have to reload? I''m shooting pure magic.¡± Josh didn''t bother responding. He narrowed his eyes at the horde. More monsters roared. They started coming out thicker from the trees, and more weapons fired. Archers shot arrows flying with the impossible speed and accuracy of techniques, or glowing with magic of their own. Gunners fired primitive pistols and repaired rifles. There were more than this village had ever known thanks to the Gunner bloodstone they had brought back and given to one of the children. It was a miracle they had found enough guns for all of them. It wasn''t just bears and wolves, and they weren''t all animal-shaped. He saw big cats, though he couldn''t quite be sure what they had been before the Jungle got to them. There were wingless birds with two heads, giant lizards with six legs, and something that he was sure was a mole made out of moss-covered rock. ¡°No bugs,¡± he noted idly. Mary took another shot, then smirked. ¡°Anna really doesn''t like bugs. She might have undersold how many nests she crushed once she realized no one would stop her.¡± Josh hefted one of Ruth''s grenades, activated the rune, and threw it as hard as he could. It landed in a good spot, and the shrapnel did decent damage. It didn''t cut a huge swath like it would have against bug monsters, though. He even saw many of the injured monsters getting up and charging forward again. He clicked his tongue. ¡°What level are these monsters, again?¡± They were a bit too far away for a scan. ¡°Should be about thirty.¡± As expected. He threw another grenade, with much the same effect. It paused the horde in that area, briefly, but it wasn''t the huge dent he was hoping for. ¡°That''s about the same level as most of the people here.¡± He was still level 37, himself. It was annoyingly hard to get decent experience from anything even slightly lower level than yourself. Mary shrugged, sighted another big monster, and fired again. ¡°It is what it is. I think we''re holding them off well enough, myself.¡± ¡°I suppose.¡± The first lines of the horde had reached the dragon''s teeth. The stone and concrete fortifications slowed them down, allowing the defenders to focus their fire and take them apart. Unfortunately, that resulted in them no longer shooting the more distant monsters, meaning the horde was free to advance more quickly.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°We should probably send out melee fighters,¡± Josh noted. He swung his ax, an [Empty Chop] slicing through a bird monster of some description. It might have been a giant, flightless crow. He didn''t want to use grenades this close to the wall. Mary fired again, and Josh saw a massive monster at the tree line collapse into itself. It might have been a mutated crab. With her gravity attacks, she was the only one who could reliably take out the big ones. ¡°Don''t let me stop you. But the walls can''t protect them if they''re in front of them.¡± ¡°Yeah, that''s the truth, innit.¡± He released another [Empty Chop]. He got two this time. His art had ranked up nicely, making it larger, faster, and stronger. ¡°On the other hand, the monsters are more likely to stick here if we have people in their reach.¡± Darius suddenly skidded to a stop next to them. He breathed heavily, as if had run the entire way. ¡°What are you two doing?¡± he snapped. ¡°Take this seriously!¡± He raised a shroud around Josh just in time to deflect a flying spike. It seemed the monsters had found their ranged attackers. Josh''s eyes flicked in his direction briefly. ¡°Are your Defenders ready?¡± The sudden professional tone seemed to catch him off guard. ¡°What? Yes, of course. I just¡ª¡± ¡°Good.¡± He raised his voice. ¡°Oi! Melee fighters, start second phase!¡± Across the wall, almost half of the fighters dropped their grenades or other ranged weapons, leaving them for their friends to pick up. With no hesitation, they drew swords or spears, shields or staves. They jumped over the wall and landed right in the middle of the dragon''s teeth. The monsters redoubled their assault with humans in reach. Even the ranged monsters in the horde, strange creatures covered in spikes or spitting acid, focused on the people on the ground more than the ones on the walls. But this was not some desperation move, where a bunch of inexperienced children decided to fight a suicidal last stand. Only the most experienced fighters had jumped over the wall. Josh spotted Anna right away. She was supposedly a [Defender], but her class worked far more like an [Attacker]. She danced through the claws of a lizard monster, beheaded an elk with horns like lightning, and landed with her sword planted in the skull of a bison ten feet tall. A fox monster lunged at her before she could dodge, but her shroud protected her long enough for her to split it in half. ¡°Deedee, keep an eye on her, yeah?¡± Mary asked as she fired off another shot at a distant target. Josh idly noted that it was a bolt of water magic, and it took out some sort of burning monster. ¡°I''d rather that girl not get killed too quick.¡± Darius kept throwing out spells to bolster shrouds on the front line, but he spared a moment to glare at Mary. ¡°Don''t call me that. Also, I suspect that I will have bigger problems shortly.¡± Josh threw another grenade. ¡°Wot? You think we need to chivvy this along?¡± ¡°Someone certainly thinks so.¡± ¡°Maybe try being less vague, thanks¡ª¡± He stopped when he realized what Darius was talking about. It was impossible to miss Ruth jumping ten feet off the top of the wall, hammer held high, and landing in the middle of the horde like a bloody meteor. Monsters exploded away from her, leaving a clear space for a moment before they scrambled over each other to get to her. ¡°RUTH!¡± he yelled, more rage than even he would have expected in his voice. ¡°The bloody hell are you playing at!?¡± He cursed under his breath and prepared to jump into the fray himself. Darius grabbed his arm. ¡°Please don''t be that stupid. You are not a combat class, you have one offensive ability¡ª¡± Josh ground his teeth. ¡°Either give me a buff or let me go.¡± He looked hesitant, but nodded. ¡°Fine. I can see logic won''t work here.¡± He stepped back and waved a hand airily. Josh felt the shroud on his wrist buzz with power. ¡°It won''t last long. Please get Ruth out of there.¡± Josh grinned. ¡°No kiss for luck?¡± Darius threw up his hands. ¡°I tried to be reasonable! You all saw me!¡± Chapter 41 - The First Siege of San Juan Bautista (part 3) Josh laughed, and jumped off the top of the wall. He couldn''t mimic Ruth''s maneuver, jumping straight over everyone''s heads and into the middle of the horde. He was pretty sure that was a trick with a gravity rune-chain. Instead, he landed among the dragon''s teeth with the rest of the fighters. That meant he was facing dozens of monsters of all descriptions, screaming and roaring and crying out in pain. He stood among a whirling storm of swords and spells, shields and armor taking hits, blades and polearms slicing and stabbing in every direction. But Josh had been in combat before. This was not the largest battle he had participated in. He knew how to zero in on what was in front of him and not get distracted. The System helped with that, giving him something to focus on when he inspected the thing in front of him.
Cervus Canadensis Peacebringer
Level 34 Monster
Have you ever been to a graveyard? Just walked around, enjoying the quiet, meditative environment? All the rows of marble headstones, some of them with flowers, all organized and serene. It was nice, right? This is the guy who might fill such a graveyard.
It was an elk as tall as a bus, looming over Josh with horns that seemed to be solidified lightning, crackling as if they would explode at any second. Unlike most monsters, which seemed¡ªemphasis on seemed¡ªto be made out of the material of the Jungle itself, this one really did just look like an ordinary elk, albeit enlarged and with crackling blue-white electricity for horns. It narrowed its eyes at Josh, and before it had a chance to decide to kill him or search for meatier prey, he slammed his ax down on its head in a mighty two-handed chop, using Ruth''s gravity rune-chain for added weight. The elk reared back, but then glared down at him again, seemingly only mildly annoyed. There was a small trickle of blood running down the fur of its forehead, but nothing more. Josh cursed under his breath. Level 30 was about when monsters started developing major resistances to mundane weapons. They needed to be enchanted to stand a chance of piercing their hides. Ruth''s little gravity rune-chain didn''t count, as that was purely physical. It just made the ax heavier, it didn''t actually give it any extra magical power. Before the elk had a chance to do anything, Josh swung his ax again. This time, he channeled his [Empty Chop] into it. It worked much better, digging deep into the monster''s brain. It didn''t even have a chance to cry out in pain before it fell. Josh ripped his ax out of its skull, wincing at the pain in his missing fingers, and moved forward into the horde. Ruth was just past the dragon''s teeth, laying about with that damn hammer of hers. She had upgraded it more than once since their first forays into the dungeon. Gone was the heavy wooden club with a few runes carved into it. Now, she wielded a massive metal maul, the head of the weapon easily bigger than her own head. Every time she slammed it down, it shook the ground, and it crashed through armored monsters as easily as if she was crashing through tea cups. Josh threw a grenade, far enough away that neither of them would be caught in the shrapnel but close enough to distract the monsters. Ruth immediately took advantage, showing that she had gained combat experience to go with her new weapon. She swung her hammer wide, knocking back half a dozen monsters at once. That gave Josh enough room to run up next to her, throwing an [Empty Chop] that finished off the stunned monsters. ¡°Good hit!¡± he said. Then he frowned. ¡°Wait, how''d you pull that trick?¡± A tree monster reared up, and he attacked it with an ordinary [Chop] technique to preserve his mana. It still cut the monster in half. ¡°You should have been knocked back!¡± ¡°Got some new tricks!¡± she called. She slammed down her hammer again, and the runes flared with purple light. A wave of power pulsed out, and everything around them was slammed to the ground as if stepped on by a giant boot. Everyone except them. She had somehow perfectly excluded them from the effect. That was not something she had been able to do ten minutes ago. ¡°Ruth?¡± he asked, even as he cut down a living corn plant. ¡°Did you get your last rift crystal?¡± She laughed maniacally. ¡°Yep! Mary gathered some up for us, and I hit level 40 when I upgraded the citystone!¡± She grinned so wide that it looked like it hurt. ¡°Vareo Rune Warrior, at your service!¡± Then she winked at him. ¡°Let''s finish these beasties off, yeah?¡± Josh looked around. The horde was diminished, it was true. Compared to the endless waves of monsters that had assaulted Gilroy, this fight was practically easy. It wasn''t over by any means, though. There were still quite a few of the smaller monsters, and a handful of bigger ones.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. A grin split his lips to match hers. ¡°You got a trick for this, too?¡± ¡°I think you''ll like it. I just needed a little bit of help to make it work. You ready to finish them off for me?¡± He hefted his ax, then downed a mana potion to top himself off. He also checked his grenades. Four left. ¡°Yeah. I''m ready.¡± Ruth''s eyes suddenly glowed with violet light, like tiny beacons in the night. His smile widened even further. It had been a long time since he had seen an Exemplary-tier class go all out. Ruth crouched down low, then leaped straight up into the air. Even with her Strength, which was rather impressive these days, she wouldn''t have been able to get more than a few feet in the air. With her new gravity magic, she jumped fifty feet straight up. She hung there just long enough to throw her hammer. It spun end over end until it impacted some twenty feet away, close to the edge of the tree line. As she fell back to the ground¡ªJosh clearing the space for her¡ªthe hammer glowed brighter and brighter, purple light building like a bomb. The light suddenly disappeared, and for a brief moment Josh thought it had failed. Then the hammer exploded in violet light. Every monster within fifty feet was sucked towards the hammer, as if falling down a deep well. Many of the bigger ones resisted, just stumbling for a moment. But thanks to Mary, there weren''t many of the bigger monsters left. Dozens if not hundreds of smaller monsters, badgers and moles and voles and bats, were all scrunched up into one spot. One big ball of confused monster flesh. It wouldn''t last long. Josh had seen this kind of trick before. It was impressive that it had only touched the monsters, but a stronger spell would have bound them all together, keeping them contained for at least a few minutes. Ruth''s spell had already ended, leaving nothing but a big pile that was already starting to fall apart. Josh doubted a single monster had even died in the attack. That was fine. He had started running the second he realized what she was planning. He threw his grenades at the pile, one after another, and by the time he was close enough to be in range of the effects, he was out of grenades. The monsters howled and bled, but they were tangled up and angry, and too confused to realize who had attacked them. He unleashed every [Empty Chop] he could, emptying his mana bar before downing a mana potion and doing it again. A few fireballs flew over his head and hit the monsters. Some of the fighters on the walls had realized what was going on and decided to give him support. Most of them, however, were busy burning down the bigger monsters that hadn''t been pulled in by Ruth''s spell. There was nothing glorious or even difficult about what he was doing. He felt as if he was chopping through trees, even as his arms burned and magic screamed in his veins as he emptied his mana bar too much, too fast. It felt like his nerves were burning up from the inside. He didn''t stop, though. Every time it looked like a clump of monsters was getting their senses back, he downed another potion and went further on the assault. There was nothing but the blood, the pain, and his arts. Red mist poured out, and he breathed it in almost before it had a chance to turn white. Eventually, after what felt like hours, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Josh tried to swing his ax in that direction, with no success. His arms were wet noodles, and slightly less dangerous. ¡°Hey,¡± Mary said. ¡°You''re good, yeah? It''s done.¡± Josh stopped struggling. He swallowed. His throat felt like he had chugged a gallon of pure syrup. That might have been healthier than the number of mana potions he had used. ¡°Ruth?¡± he asked. His voice came out in a croak. Mary chuckled. ¡°She''s fine. She burned up too much mana by stacking a dozen rune-chains and overcharging them all at once, but she''s just dealing with manaburn. She''s good.¡± A pause. ¡°You?¡± Josh forced his eyes to open. It felt like he had to crack a layer of blood and sweat and who knew what else. He couldn''t see much through his bleary eyes, but he managed to see... quite a few monster bodies. There were shapes that he thought were people. Probably scavenging for materials. He focused on his System notifications. There was the combat log, which he ignored as usual, and more importantly the level-up notifications. The ones he had been waiting on for weeks now.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 38 Stonecrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 39 Stonecrafter! You have 2 free attribute points and 2 class attribute points to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached level 40! You meet the minimum requirements for class refinement. You do not possess any class advancement resources. Would you like to pause your level-up to obtain advancement resources?
Josh breathed a long sigh of relief. ¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°I''m good.¡± Chapter 42 - Class Choices Immediately after the battle, Baara organized the cleanup of the monsters, sorting everything to see who would need what materials, what could just be thrown out, and so on. Josh, Ruth, and Mary didn''t need any of that, but they were still nearly dragged under a howling mob that were high on adrenaline and wanted to burn it all up congratulating their saviors. Darius was also the hero of the hour, as everyone knew where their shrouds had come from, but he was better at avoiding the spotlight. Eventually Josh managed to escape the press of bodies and admirers, and returned to the mayor''s office. Once he had a chance to clean up and rest for a few minutes, he brought up his notifications. The choice of his next advancement wasn''t quite as simple as he expected it to be. As it turned out, once again he had options.
You have FOUR (4) class choices. Seek out additional class advancement resources to expand your choices.
CLASS OPTIONS: Coppersmith (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and devices from copper.
Goldsmith (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, magic items, and runes from gold.
Metalcrafter (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and structures from metal.
Steelsmith (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and structures from steel.
¡°Uh,¡± he said. ¡°Darius?¡± The man looked up. He was with Ruth, making sure her manaburn didn''t cause any permanent damage. He''d already looked over Josh. ¡°What is it?¡± he said, something sharp in his tone. ¡°Another horde of monsters to throw yourself into?¡± ¡°No, that can wait until tomorrow. Just got some unexpected advancements you might be able to help with.¡± He threw his screens at Darius. He read over them, and his eyebrows rose. ¡°Interesting.¡± Ruth raised her head. ¡°What? What''s interesting? Let me see!¡± Darius pushed her head back down to the pillow with one finger without looking. ¡°You need rest.¡± ¡°I don''t, though!¡± Mary said cheerily, as she walked over to Josh. He rolled his eyes, but tossed her the screens as well. She sucked in a breath in surprise, then burst out laughing. ¡°Ha! Yeah, that''s a choice, all right!¡± ¡°Steelsmith is the obvious choice, yeah?¡± Josh asked. ¡°Go up the tech tree and all that.¡± ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Darius warned. ¡°Coppersmith might be the more technologically inclined option. It mentions devices, after all. Goldsmith might lead more towards the magitech you''re looking for.¡± ¡°But Steelsmith will banger on to all the rot I''m looking for now,¡± Josh insisted. ¡°Big machines, those earthmovers and such.¡± Baara had said something about there being manuals in the library, so if he was really lucky, those might count as blueprints and he''d be able to make a tractor or a backhoe or whatever. Of course, Ruth didn''t appreciate being left out of the conversation. ¡°Can somebody please show me what you''re talking about!?¡± To her credit, she didn''t get up or flail about in a way that would strain her injuries. Josh sighed, then threw his screens to her as well. She paged through them for just a moment in silence. ¡°Well, that''s easy,¡± she said. ¡°Pick Metalcrafter.¡± Josh scrunched up his face. ¡°Not sure about another generalist class.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Generalist classes can specialize later. Besides, you basically already know that Metalcrafter will give you a Craft Metal skill. You don''t know for sure about the others.¡± She waved a hand, only for Darius to grab it and put it back down. She ignored this. ¡°What if Coppersmith literally only lets you do things with copper? Steel would be even worse. Metalcrafter would at least give you a chance of making any modern technology, even if probably not any specific skills for it.¡± Josh frowned. He didn''t know enough about [Crafter] classes to dispute any of her points. Pretty much everything he knew came from his own experiences this reset. He knew a lot more about [Combat] classes, but he had never cared much about the other side of the field. It wasn''t as though he had much personal experience with [Utility] classes.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°All right,¡± he said at last. He wasn''t the only one with a [Crafter] class any more; several of the kids had become Woodcrafters, and were passing out bloodstones. That meant he could afford to be a little more cavalier with his build. ¡°All right. Let''s give it a go.¡±
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 40 Metalcrafter! You have 3 free attribute points and 3 class attribute points to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Craft Metal. Make items from metal, alloys, and scrap.
NEW SPELL LEARNED: Repair. Restore an item to a previous state. Requires physical materials. Requires multiple castings for more advanced damage. Only works on items that you are capable of repairing on your own. Quality of repair is influenced by Power, speed of repair is influenced by Flexibility, amount repaired is influenced by Capacity, and cost of repair is influenced by Sensitivity.
He stared at the notifications for a long moment. The [Craft Metal] skill was, of course, expected, and he couldn''t wait to test it out. That new spell, though... He cast around the room, looking for anything broken. Eventually, he settled on the wooden table. It was still in perfectly serviceable condition, but there were a number of scrapes, cracks, and even a small burn down one side. He placed his hand on it, breathed in, then out. ¡°Repair,¡± he said, unnecessarily. He always spoke his spells aloud when he had the opportunity.
Error: Spell failed. No materials available.
That was fine. Better than fine, actually. The spell could have used the material of the table itself, or the wooden chair he was sitting on. The fact that it didn''t meant that it could follow his thoughts at least a little, and not use objects that he considered off-limits. He managed to gather some wood and planks. Or, rather, he found an assistant to do it for him. It was going to be weird, getting used to having people to do things for him again. And these ones weren''t here because they were implicitly being threatened with violence, so that was a plus. When he tried the spell again, he felt the magic take hold of the tools on his belt. He normally kept basically everything he might need nearby, and it was at moments like this that he felt justified. The scratches in the table were sanded down, while a large cracked corner was removed completely and replaced with a wooden block. He tested it, and it felt solid. It didn''t look pretty, but was functional. He couldn''t help but wonder what would have happened if he had brought a full list of materials and tools, like lacquers and stains. Would his spell have prettied it up more? Still, this alone was huge. He already had a dozen ideas how to use this spell. ¡°Darius!¡± he called, louder than necessary. ¡°Where''s that broken torch?¡± Darius gave him a baleful glare from where he was working on Ruth. ¡°If you''ll recall, I''m a little busy here. Ruth stacked so many spells and runes on top of each other, she''s still in the negative mana range!¡± Ruth pushed his hand away. ¡°Oh, stop it! It''s not his fault! Besides, I keep telling you, just get me a decent mana potion¡ª¡± ¡°No,¡± he interrupted. ¡°As your Healer, I am telling you not to have any potions until you are fully recovered.¡± ¡°You respec again when we weren''t looking?¡± Mary asked, amused. ¡°Thought you weren''t a Healer this go-round.¡± ¡°Yes, well, I was a Healer for years. I know how to take care of a patient.¡± He glared down at Ruth. ¡°Stay.¡± He walked over to his pack and started rummaging through it. Ruth propped herself up on her elbows, pouting. ¡°I''m not a dog!¡± ¡°Clearly. Dogs follow orders better.¡± He almost threw some items out of his bag, he was so annoyed. Josh watched the whole affair, bemused. ¡°So help me Ruth, if you get up I will tie you down with a plastic cone around your neck¡ªah! Found it.¡± He tossed the small plastic torch to Josh. ¡°I''m not sure that will work with your spell.¡± ¡°Neither am I.¡± Josh grinned toothily at him. ¡°That''s the point of testing.¡± He tried to click it on a few times, to no effect. Good. He didn''t know for sure what was wrong with it. Most likely just a loose connection somewhere. Again, that was almost better. If he could only use his spell to repair things that he explicitly knew how to fix, that would sharply limit its utility. ¡°Repair,¡± he whispered, unnecessarily. He felt his magic extending to the materials he had gathered. A spare battery, some copper wire and aluminum. There was a pause, as if the spell wasn''t sure that this should work. Then the copper glowed visibly, before fading back to normal. A tiny fraction had disappeared off the end. Josh clicked the torch on. It worked. He smiled, clicking it off and on a few more times to be sure. He noted that the plastic case of the torch, which was dirty and scratched, hadn''t been touched by his spell. Clearly, he wouldn''t be allowed to stretch it so much as to touch materials unrelated to his skills. ¡°All right,¡± he said, tossing the torch up in the air and catching it. He grinned at his friends. ¡°I think we have some work to do.¡± Chapter 43 - Experimentation The first thing Josh did was not actually related to his new spell. Instead, he simply went back to the citystone and swapped out the stored blueprint. His palisade blueprint was useful for defense, but for utility, the [Wooden Wall] was far superior. Used properly, it could build an entire structure. Every wall, including the ceiling and floors, could be made using it. If the town needed to modify it after it was made, they could do it manually. He''d already had a few carpenters knock out doorways on his little wooden cubes. Baara appreciated it, and Darius approved. Anna called it ¡°boring,¡± and Mary seemed like she agreed but didn''t want to say so. Ruth, on the other hand, asked the important question: Was he getting experience every time someone used the spell he had put in the citystone? The answer, unfortunately, was no. He did get experience when he used it, and a slightly larger amount than when he cast the spell without it, but it seemed like he didn''t get quite that big of an exploit. Baara promised to let him use the citystone as much as possible. When he wasn''t available, she would have the [Crafter] kids do it for the experience. Part of him was annoyed that she had slipped into the mayor role so fast, but it wasn''t like he had ever wanted the job. The people seemed to like her better, too. As much as people had hated the old mayor, a violent¡ªif bloodless¡ªcoup still rubbed them the wrong way. Having a quiet, earnest young girl slowly take the job seemed to sit better with them. Maybe they should hold an election soon. Once all that busywork was done, Josh returned to the pit. Anna and Mary ran off to see if there were any monsters left around the broken dungeon, while Josh and Beor returned to the tunnels that he had dug. He wanted to check on the cars that he had found. No one had done anything with it in the past day, which was to be expected. Most people in the village came down in the pit to hunt for mushrooms, not explore potentially dangerous side passages. Especially now that they had an Alchemist who needed materials for her experiments, and a lot of materials for her successful potions. People were practically stripping the pit bare. Josh was actually a little worried that they''d run out. But just a little worried. It was hard to beat back the Jungle''s ridiculous growth rate even when you were explicitly trying. Taking samples, spores, and whole mushrooms was not going to kill this little fungus forest unless they scraped it down to the bedrock. The cars still looked the same as when he had left them. The windows were broken, the tires blown out, the seats ripped or rotted. And of course the chassis was so rusted that it was hard to get the hood up; last time, he hadn''t even tried. He started with the windows, as a test. He had some glass on him, and had previously confirmed that glass counted as stone for the purposes of his abilities. Obviously, he didn''t have any piece big enough to replace one of the windows wholesale. However, all the pieces of the broken window were still here. In theory, his spell should be able to fix it. A single casting drained his entire mana bar, even when it was boosted by a crushed runestone. That wasn''t ideal, but the result was a perfectly clear glass window that looked fresh from the factory. It didn''t even have any cracks. He would call that a success.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He continued working on the car, focusing on one piece at a time, starting with the most damaged parts. He didn''t try to fix the entire car, or even the entire engine, he tried to fix one valve. It cleaned itself of rust and aligned itself with the fan, even as his mana drained again. His power did nothing to the plastic parts, but thankfully they had replacements for most of those that were too far gone to salvage. Plastic tubes and hoses were easy enough to make or find, and they''d brought a few spares from up above. That was how he continued his work, over and over. For hours, he would focus on a part, use his [Repair] spell, and then move on to the next one. He got so deep into the pattern, casting the spell and meditating or drinking a potion to recover his mana, receiving a tool from Beor and swapping in a belt or a hose, that he completely lost track of time. He only remembered where he was when he received a level-up notification.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 41 Metalcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
Josh blinked himself out of his fugue. He allocated his points as usual, more out of habit than anything else. He was going to continue, when he looked down at the car''s engine compartment that he was working on. He was only halfway done. He''d been working through every single part he could, one at a time, gaining experience every time. He hadn''t been paying attention to how much, or bothered to make any predictions on how long it would take him to level. He had figured he''d fix the car, then check his progress. There were a few empty mana potions scattered around him. He hadn''t needed a potion after every casting, and he had dozens more. He had mostly used his [Meditation] skill while working with his hands to make up his losses. He glanced at his watch and saw it had been a couple hours. That was pretty fast progression at his current level, and all just doing what should be absolutely basic for his class. Glancing at his experience log, it didn''t seem like he had gained any unexpected windfalls. Repairing the car was, technically, no more profitable than repairing the table earlier had been. The difference was that there was a lot more to repair. He put his tools down to think. Next to him, Beor paused, then started organizing their materials. Josh ignored him. He hadn''t come down here for the experience. He had genuinely wanted to repair these cars, because he thought that they might be useful. He had a dream about making a flying car, even if that was a ways off. But now... He had made quite a bit of progress on his levels in just a few hours. What if he went full speed, burning through as many mana potions as he could get his hands on in order to level as fast as possible? That was an acknowledged, though expensive, strategy in the old world. It ran into diminishing returns eventually, and it wasn''t really an option these days, as there were no Alchemists to make the mana potions. Except now they had an Alchemist. Josh decided to finish the car in front of him for now, to give himself more time to think. Without using any more of his mana potions, it took him significantly longer. By the end of it, he was dirty, his hands were black with grease and oil, and he smelled like he had just rolled out of a tire fire. But the car started when he turned the key in the ignition, and the biodiesel they had brought down worked as well. And he leveled again.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 42 Metalcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
Josh smiled. Yes, he could work with this. Chapter 44 - Usurpers Mayor Hawkins was seriously considering fleeing town. It rankled him, to be sure. He had been a good mayor. Leadership wasn''t hard. All you had to do was screw over everyone besides your allies, then use the money you got from screwing over everyone to give your allies favors. All relationships were about exploiting resources, but you had to know how to play the game. It was what had made his town one of the fastest-growing settlements this side of the Burn Line. Yeah, he had made some mistakes. He had thought that the refugees from Gilroy were nobodies to be screwed over instead of allies to be favored. Then he had been betrayed by his own bodyguard, who he had leveled up at great expense. Hundredborn must have gotten to him before somehow. And wasn''t that just the rub. Everything about Joshua Hundredborn was so frustrating. There was someone who didn''t know how to play the game. Putting aside the part where he had usurped Hawk over taxes, of all things¡ªas if the man didn''t know how bribes were supposed to work¡ªhe then went on to completely ruin the town and his own power within it. He had multiple unique and valuable advantages that he handed out to random townsfolk. Like most ignorant peasants, they didn''t know how to properly use new classes or bloodstones, so there was little actual benefit from giving them such things. Instead, he had just painted a giant target on the town the moment someone realized what he had done. Not to mention that sooner or later, one of those people was going to use this power he had given them and usurp him in turn. Biting the hand that fed them was just about all people were good for, after all. Hawk had heard something about that happening already, some refugee named Baara all but kicking him out of the mayor''s office. As amusing as all that was, it could have been avoided if Hundredborn had just come to Hawk in the first place. Offered his unique abilities to someone who knew how to put them to use. It was far too late for that now. Hawk was long past the point of accepting alliances from traitors. It only cemented Hawk''s resolve more firmly. Hundredborn needed to die. The fact that the man had survived more than a few of Hawk''s assassins didn''t change that. Thankfully, there were more than enough people in this town willing to make that happen. Well. Not more than enough. Enough, barely. The villagers were, as to be expected, short-sighted fools. The moment Hawk didn''t have the full authority of his office¡ªand access to the treasury¡ªhe had far fewer friends. Most of the little people were seduced by their ¡°new mayor''s¡± generosity, and most of the important people just weren''t willing to work for free. Hawk really was considering running. He had copies of the bloodstones that Hundredborn had been spreading around. He could find another town out here. There were still a few, though this far out they often didn''t have citystones. He could roll in, make some deals, and own half the town in a month. By the end of the season, he''d have his own little fiefdom set up, in the perfect position to become a real powerhouse after the reset. But he''d do even better if he could collect that bounty first. ¡°Uh, sir? Mister Mayor?¡± Hawk was knocked out of his musings by Michael. The man looked like stereotypical dumb muscle, and he had the stereotypical dumb muscle class. But he was worth more than people thought. He was loyal, respectful, and smarter than he looked. Getting the Tough Thug class was harder than it sounded, and now that he had it the man was practically impossible to kill. That alone made him invaluable. Of course, as grateful as Hawk was to have him, the fact that he was here was just more proof of the usurper''s insanity. When you had your enemies in your power, you either crushed them or enslaved them. Neither had to be literal; in fact, Hawk had received a good reputation for not killing people by ruining his enemies instead. The point was that one way or another, you had to make sure the threat was neutralized. ¡°Apologies, Michael,¡± Hawk said with a fatherly smile. ¡°You were telling me how you escaped?¡± At least Hundredborn hadn''t just freed the people who tried to assassinate him. If he had, Hawk would have had to give up all belief in a logical universe. ¡°Uh... yes sir. It''s not a long story, sir.¡± He stepped aside. ¡°Miss Jael freed us.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The woman with the rogue-type class, something Shadow, stepped forward. Hawk wasn''t sure if she had been hidden by Michael''s bulk, or if she had used a class ability. She nodded politely. ¡°Lord Mayor,¡± she said. ¡°I hope returning your men shows my continued dedication to our alliance.¡± ¡°It does,¡± he said. Then he frowned. ¡°Wait. I thought you couldn''t talk?¡± She ignored his question. ¡°You wish to take back your town from a man with a very large bounty on his head. I would be happy to assist in this endeavor.¡± Hawk resisted the urge to grind his teeth. ¡°You want the bounty as well.¡± She considered for a moment, before shaking her head. ¡°I would like a cut, yes, but that is not why I am here. My goal is the girl. Ruth Moore.¡± Interesting. ¡°I presume you want her alive.¡± The bounty was quite clear on that. She nodded. ¡°I have my own mission, and her survival is paramount. If she dies, I am under strict orders to eliminate everyone.¡± Hawk raised an eyebrow. ¡°Everyone meaning...¡± ¡°Everyone who could possibly be considered to have even the slightest amount of guilt in the matter,¡± she said flatly. ¡°You will very much be on that list.¡± Hawk wanted to dismiss the threat, but he hadn''t gotten this far by being an idiot. She was, at minimum, a competent stealth-focused [Attacker]. He suspected she had an Improved-tier class. He had little interest in testing her. ¡°Very well,¡± he said. ¡°I will put out the word that she is to be kept safe.¡± Michael coughed discreetly. Hawk glanced at the man. He was standing over by the door, trying to stay out of the way where no one would notice him. As if a man of his size could hide in Hawk''s dining room. ¡°Yes?¡± Hawk asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°If you''ll recall, sir, we had a chance to see Miss Moore fight before,¡± he said. ¡°It''s one of the reasons we recommended not to attack while she was present.¡± He nodded to Jael. ¡°Though in hindsight, I suppose you would have preferred that anyway.¡± Jael acknowledged the point with a nod. ¡°What I''m trying to say, sir, ma''am, is that she''s a tough fighter. She likes being in the thick of it. Making sure she''s... safe is going to be a lot harder than just staying out of her way.¡± Hawk drummed his fingers against the table. ¡°He does make a good argument.¡± Or so Hawk assumed. He had certainly never seen the girl fight himself. That was why he hired people, after all. ¡°That partner of yours. The priest. I don''t suppose he is around?¡± [Healers] often had non-lethal combat spells. Jael shook her head. ¡°He is busy. He says he wants to bring in allies.¡± ¡°Oh? Anyone helpful?¡± Hawk knew backing these two would pay off in the long run. Mysterious allies were always a fun one. But Jael just shrugged. ¡°Never met them. But going off of Hou Zheng''s skills, I think anyone he brings in could conquer this village by themselves. I''m just not sure they''ll make it in time for anything.¡± Hawk wished she had found another way to phrase it, but fine. He nodded. ¡°So we should proceed on the assumption that we will receive no further assistance. I was prepared for this.¡± He picked up the box he had placed on the floor next to his chair. It was the size of a shoe box, but made of strong oak with multiple latches. He put it on the table. ¡°Michael. If you would.¡± Michael hesitated, but stepped forward. He clicked open the locks one by one, then opened the lid. Hawk could sense the man''s confusion. The device didn''t look like anything special. Just a simple leather choker with some runes inscribed on the inside, glowing so dimly that they were hard to see. It didn''t have an aura of menace or power, it didn''t try to reach out to control everyone in the room. It didn''t even have any mundanely unsettling things like a thorn design or a large lock on the front. Hawk was not surprised that Michael didn''t recognize it on sight. The devices were exceptionally rare. They had been rare before the fall of humanity, and now literally no one had the ability to make more. Hawk didn''t even know where they had come from. Magic items lost their power if left untouched for a year. Had the Eight Immortals found a box of these early on and just decided to keep them for some reason? Jael, however, immediately recognized it. Suddenly she was by Michael''s side, looking down at the object. It happened so fast that Hawk suspected that she had literally teleported. ¡°Ah,¡± Hawk said. ¡°It seems you are familiar with my trump card.¡± ¡°That,¡± she said thickly, ¡°is a Slaver Collar.¡± Her voice was filled with disgust, far more emotion than he had ever heard from her before. ¡°Where in the world did you get a Slaver Collar?¡± ¡°There are a handful left, around the world,¡± Hawk said carefully. ¡°I wonder, did the Eight deliberately preserve them in case they might need them one day? Or did they just grab every magic item they could find in the early days to make sure that they were not lost?¡± Jael looked up. He couldn''t see her face through her full face wrappings, but he could feel her glaring at him. ¡°If you try to use this on Ruth¡ª¡± He waved that away, as if the thought had never occurred to him. ¡°Of course not, of course not! What do you take me for?¡± He grinned wickedly. ¡°This is for Joshua Hundredborn.¡± Chapter 45 - Repairs (part 1) Four days later, Josh leveled again.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now a level 48 Metalcrafter! You have 1 free attribute point and 1 class attribute point to allocate. Your class attributes are Perception and Sensitivity.
NEW SKILL LEARNED: Analyze Structure. Automatically learn blueprints for any object that you study, deconstruct, or repair. This includes items deconstructed by the Salvage technique or repaired with the Repair spell. Multiple analyses will be required for more complex objects.
Josh blinked bleary eyes. The System notification was the only clear thing in his vision. It took him a moment to even realize what he was looking at, and longer to go through his stats and figure out if this was an option he could exploit. He shook his head to clear it and focused on his surroundings again. He was in Abraham''s shop. He''d been spending a lot of time here the past few days, ever since they got the cars out of the pit. Abraham and his girlfriend were accommodating enough, and they had the tools and space he needed. As it turned out, he needed a lot. The cars, while interesting, were probably the least important bit of his little operation. They had attracted a lot of attention, which was good in its own way, because he''d been repairing literally everything he could get his hands on. It was easy to forget, outside of the City, how many little devices people had that they almost never had a chance to replace. They just had to keep using them, fixing them up when they ran down, until eventually they couldn''t be fixed. Most houses had whole piles of old toasters or guns or radios, all just waiting to be stripped for spare parts whenever someone got the time. Now, with his Repair spell, he could fix them all. It was far from perfect, and in particular anything with a circuit board was very likely to turn out to be outside his Metalcrafter skill. Any computer or smartphone was almost impossible for him to do anything useful with. But people didn''t have a lot of those out here anyway. When no one outside the City could repair a smartphone, no one outside the City wanted to bother with one of the damn things. The point being that for the past four days, he had been working nonstop. He''d barely slept. He''d barely even paused for rest. He''d just worked on the object in front of him, repairing it piece by piece, and when he was done with it someone would swap it out for something else. Some objects were easy. Simple items like the electronic torch he had practiced on, or even complex objects with simple damage like a cracked engine block. Those usually only took a single cast of the Repair spell, and not even his entire mana. Others took multiple castings to fix every individual crack and bend. Cleaning up rust on some bearings, smoothing out an axle. It was rare to find something that he couldn''t fix. At least after the first day, when people realized he couldn''t fix silicon or plastic, and they stopped bringing him smartphones. Someone tried to have him fix a Tower-made piece of armor, but he didn''t have a tenth of the mana capacity he needed. Someone else brought a pocket nuclear reactor, made before the end of the world by the Mechanist himself, and he had the same problem. Although the device had been designed to need no maintenance, it seemed that also meant that no one but the Mechanist himself could have fixed it. Josh asked where they had found something like that. The old woman who brought it to him admitted it had been broken for decades, but no one in the family had ever had the heart to throw it out. Josh suggested donating it to a City museum, and she almost brained him with it. For the most part, though, it was all a blur. He''d always been good at operating without sleep when he needed to, and some blessed soul had found him a decent invigorating tea. Coffee had its place, but it couldn''t replace a good cuppa. He had slept sometime, though. He wasn''t sure if he had gone home, or if he had crashed on Abraham''s guest bed. He distinctly remembered waking up one morning to find that someone had put a blanket on him overnight. That probably meant Abraham''s place. Mary would have rather dumped him out on the floor. He''d taken as many mana potions as he could get his hands on. For the smaller fixes, where he only needed to fix a small break that cost a point or two of mana each, he just made up the difference with his [Meditation] skill. It had even ranked up, when most skills like that were usually annoying to rank up. But too often, he found himself having to empty his mana multiple times in a row, and he didn''t have time for meditation. So, he popped one of the glowing blue vials, downed it in one go, and burned off more of his mana. Sarah had sold him mana potions by the crate. Turned out that they were relatively easy to source the ingredients for, and she wasn''t trying to make anything fancy right now. She was just making as many low-level potions as possible to grind out experience while she experimented with bigger things on the side.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He had drunk so many mana potions in the past few days that his teeth were blue, and his mouth tasted like syrup. He twitched every time he moved, and he was pretty sure that if he wasn''t using a magical spell that handled fine detail automatically, he''d find himself unable to even reassemble a pen. He reached for a power drill. It was in the broken pile, not the tool pile. When he did, however, a hand reached out to stop him. ¡°That''s enough for now,¡± Abraham said gently. ¡°You stopped for a minute. Another level?¡± Josh shook his head. ¡°What? Yeah.¡± ¡°You should be level 48 now. Did you get anything interesting?¡± Josh looked at him for a long moment. ¡°...I got a passive skill called Analyze Structure.¡± Abraham looked surprised. ¡°All right. What''s it do?¡± Josh told him. He was so out of it that he didn''t even consider that he could just send over the screens. Abraham stared at him. Josh stared back. ¡°First,¡± Abraham said at last, ¡°you need sleep.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°What? Why?¡± ¡°Because your brain is fried by exhaustion and those mana potions, so you haven''t realized how incredibly valuable this skill will be.¡± ¡°I can learn blueprints,¡± Josh said. ¡°So what?¡± Abraham sighed, then took the next item from the pile. It was a simple wrench with a fracture down the head. ¡°Here. Just... fix this, and we''ll see what happens.¡± He cast [Repair] without speaking. It cost a single point of mana. Josh was far too tired to check his logs and look into the actual math, but he suspected it might not have cost much more than that even discounting his ridiculous Sensitivity score. A nearby pile of steel shavings and a welding torch both glowed for a moment, and then the wrench had a shiny scar down the middle. It was even cool to the touch. That was typical. The notification was not.
Blueprint: Wrench (medium, metal) progress gained. Total progress to full blueprint: 12.5%
¡°Well?¡± Abraham asked. Josh sent the notification over. Abraham read it quickly. ¡°Twelve point five percent. That means if you do this eight times, you''ll learn a new blueprint.¡± ¡°That seems a bit low,¡± Josh managed, even though he really just wanted to lay down and sleep. ¡°Wouldn''t I learn everything in ten minutes that way?¡± Abraham ignored this comment. ¡°It mentioned your Salvage technique.¡± Abraham handed the wrench back. ¡°Use it now.¡± Josh took the wrench, and activated his Salvage technique combined with [Instant Crafting]. The wrench pretty much fell apart in his hands, but he did get some more progress.
Blueprint: Wrench (medium, metal) progress gained. Total progress to full blueprint: 25.0%
Abraham smiled. He looked like he wanted to rub his hands together and cackle, but he was too composed for that. ¡°Excellent. It would be better if it was fully retroactive, of course. However, we can''t have everything.¡± Josh looked at the pile of things he had already repaired today. There were definitely more than eight wrenches in there. ¡°It feels like such a waste, though.¡± ¡°If it makes you feel any better, I think most objects will take longer to learn their blueprints,¡± Abraham said. ¡°A wrench is about as simple as it gets.¡± Josh turned a baleful look in his direction. ¡°No. No, that does not make me feel better.¡± Abraham smiled. ¡°Fair enough.¡± He rose to his feet. ¡°All right, that''s enough of that. Come on.¡± Josh blinked. ¡°Wot?¡± ¡°You need sleep,¡± Abraham said firmly. ¡°I only let you experiment because I know you never would have been able to sleep with that hanging over your head. But you reached a milestone, that means you can take time to have a real break. With food and everything.¡± Josh''s protests fell on deaf ears. Miriam, Abraham''s girlfriend, forced him to go home and sleep in an actual bed. She even locked the door behind him, as if he might just turn right back around and continue working. ...which he had considered doing. Briefly. Mary and Anna waited outside, and walked with him back to the mayor''s office. Josh wasn''t sure if they were his escorts, his honor guard, or if they just happened to be nearby and decided to go with him. He did manage to summon enough energy to tease Mary about spending so much time with Anna, though, which was a plus. Everything was a bit of a blur. He was sure he spoke to someone at the mayor''s office, though he couldn''t put enough clues together to remember who it was. All he knew was that he woke up in a soft bed, his mind significantly more clear, to the smell of coffee. Chapter 46 - Repairs (part 2) He opened his eyes to see Ruth sitting in a rocking chair nearby, looking out the window and sipping at a cup of something. He half-rose from the bed, and she looked at him. ¡°Hey there, sleepyhead,¡± she said with a smile. She took a loud slurp from her drink. Something told Josh that it wasn''t coffee. ¡°You finally up?¡± He rubbed his forehead. ¡°Oi,¡± he said, annoyed. ¡°You gonna hassle me right out of the gate?¡± She grinned. ¡°Yeah, that''s the plan!¡± He gestured at the extra cup on the table, briefly cursing that he wasn''t a magic class this time around. Telekinesis was a useful trick. Ruth raised an eyebrow, but handed him the cup regardless. He took a sip. It was coffee, as he thought, but her drink smelled different. He jutted his chin at her cup. ¡°Hot chocolate?¡± She smirked and slurped some more. He rolled his eyes. ¡°How long was I out? Why didn''t you wake me?¡± ¡°You were asleep,¡± she said firmly. ¡°You make it sound like you were off on a job, but you fell asleep basically the second I got you in bed.¡± The door slammed open, making them both jump. ¡°That''s what she said!¡± Mary cried. Ruth stared at her incredulously. ¡°Were you just standing there waiting for an in?¡± ¡°She''s got an unlisted ability for hearing innuendo,¡± Josh said. He tapped his finger, with his metal storage ring, against the cup. It made some noise, and both girls looked to him. ¡°You''re dodging the question. How long was I out? Asleep, unconscious, whatever.¡± Ruth bit her lip. ¡°...sixteen hours.¡± ¡°Hell and damnation,¡± Josh muttered. He downed the coffee in one long pull. It was only lukewarm, so at least it didn''t burn. He set the empty cup down on Ruth''s table, already feeling better. Potion sickness went away pretty quick, with some rest and coffee. ¡°I''ve got to get back to work.¡± Mary leaned against the doorway, blocking him with a smirk. ¡°Don''t be daft, the world hasn''t burned down in a day.¡± Josh loomed over her. He was good at looming. ¡°We''ve got at least two high level enemies after us in this town alone. People have already tried to off me half a dozen times that I''m aware of.¡± He pointed at Ruth. ¡°Figure there''s a reason she''s watching me. Less likely for her auntie to jump out of the shadows if she''s sitting there, yeah?¡± Mary looked up at him, then leaned over to look past him. ¡°You didn''t tell him?¡± Ruth sighed. ¡°When was I supposed to find the time? He''s been awake less than five seconds!¡± ¡°Oi,¡± Josh said. ¡°Loop me in?¡± Mary pursed her lips. ¡°We''ve been running dungeons.¡± ¡°Wot? Just in the past sixteen hours?¡± ¡°No, you dunce.¡± She punched him in the shoulder. It actually hurt, because her Strength was a couple points higher than his. ¡°Been running them the past four days, while you''ve been playing the part of a machine shop. Figured dungeons were a decent place to level, you know? Plus close up any more threats nearby.¡± ¡°Not sure Baara would like that,¡± Josh said. ¡°Closing the dungeons, I mean. They''re usually considered rich and shiny for the nearest town.¡± Running dungeons for the experience was common enough, even if the monsters tended to be lower-level than the area. It was decent practice. ¡°Yeah... that''s what''s weird...¡± Mary shook her head, frowning. ¡°There are a lot of dungeons nearby.¡± He frowned. ¡°How many, exactly?¡± ¡°In the past four days, I''ve personally participated in sealing sixteen,¡± she said, her face and her tone both dead serious. ¡°There are more.¡± Josh stared at her. She stared back, not blinking. ¡°Now, I''m not exactly what you''d call a historian or a statistician,¡± he said. ¡°But I''ve always thought that most towns have two or so dungeons in their range. Four on the outside.¡± ¡°That''s right,¡± Ruth said quietly. ¡°A lot of my father''s work was about dungeons.¡± ¡°How far are you ranging?¡± Josh asked. ¡°Not that far,¡± Mary insisted. ¡°And these aren''t hidden dungeons. Well, most of them aren''t. They''re in caves and junk. Just yesterday, I ran a water dungeon in a spot where Anna swears she cleared a wolf dungeon two days ago.¡± Josh started pacing. ¡°That''s a bucket of trouble. Especially if you''re missing dungeons. There could be more you don''t know about.¡± He looked up. ¡°Wait. How have you been finding them?¡± Dungeons tended to be pretty obvious, but finding one just two days after it spawned was a bit of a surprise. Mary jerked a thumb at Ruth. ¡°Our Enchanters worked together and made a dingus.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Ruth brightened. ¡°I made it a project with some of the kids!¡± Josh knew that most of the adults hadn''t wanted to switch to Enchanter, though some had. Switching to a normal [Crafter] class was hard enough, becoming an Enchanter was like deciding to learn a whole new language at the same time. ¡°We''re calling them dowsing rods.¡± Mary pulled something out of her belt. It was indeed a Y-shaped branch, exactly like the ancient dowsing rods that were supposed to be able to find water. This one was covered in tiny runes, though most of them weren''t in rune-chains. ¡°It''s pretty handy. Points you towards the biggest source of magic nearby.¡± Josh clicked his tongue. ¡°That''s not going to work once we start seeing more elemental monsters.¡± ¡°Oh, we''ve dealt with that problem more than once already,¡± Mary said darkly. ¡°Almost lost a whole team of fresh-faced teens who wandered into an ursa that was on fire.¡± ¡°We also don''t have enough runes,¡± Ruth added. ¡°Dungeons aren''t elemental, or at least they usually aren''t. I don''t have a rune for detecting general magic, so I''ve been faking it with as many elemental runes as possible. I have the four Basic-tier runes and the four Improved-tier elements, but not much for anything higher. There might be more dungeons out there that we''re missing.¡± ¡°That''s probably not something you have to worry about,¡± Josh assured her with a smile. ¡°They''re called Basic for a reason. If you have all of them, then they should cover everything.¡± He wasn''t actually sure about that, but there was no harm in being nice about it. Ruth was the type to beat herself up over every little thing. ¡°Honestly, detecting them is the least of my worries. We find them easily enough,¡± Mary said. She fixed Josh with a level look. ¡°My problem is where the hell they''re coming from.¡± Ruth shrugged helplessly. ¡°Sorry, I told you, I''ve never heard of something like this before! All I have are theories.¡± Mary kept her eyes on Josh. He sighed. ¡°You know I''m not an expert on all this rot.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I figure you can at least make a guess that''s half as daft as I would.¡± Josh rubbed the back of his head, winced at the sensation of his missing fingers, and put his hand down. ¡°My guess? Something is making the world go all mucky.¡± Ruth cocked her head in confusion. Mary glared. He held up his hands. ¡°Hold up and hear me out. There''s a rift at the bottom of every dungeon. That hasn''t changed, yeah?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Mary said. She rolled her eyes. ¡°We''ve got a bounty and a half of rift crystals, that''s for sure. Even if they aren''t giving out as many as usual.¡± ¡°It just reminds me of something Hou Zheng said about dungeons.¡± And a few things he had been taught as a kid, but that might lead to Ruth asking questions that he wasn''t in the mood to answer. ¡°The rift comes first, then the dungeon exists to seal it.¡± Ruth nodded along. ¡°Okay, I think I see where you''re going with this.¡± Mary sighed. ¡°I don''t. How important is this? Is this like how we were told when we were kids that monsters were made out of naughty kids? Every time someone dies out in the Jungle, they turn into a rift?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Josh said with a shrug. Her head snapped in his direction. ¡°What?¡± He threw up his hands. ¡°I don''t know! You find a full Master-tier mage specializing in the Space element, maybe they can explain this shite! I''m just a random idiot who has run more dungeons than you. I''ve never seen a rift made, that I can tell you. But I don''t know anything about these dungeons. I don''t know if they''re any different than normal ones. Maybe the world cracks every time a smiling baby dies, who knows.¡± Mary let out a breath. ¡°Bloody hell, should have known better than to expect you to have the brains of two monkeys.¡± ¡°Well, why don''t you run one?¡± Josh and Mary both turned to Ruth. ¡°What?¡± they asked at the same time. She grinned. ¡°Josh, you need to get a closer look at these dungeons! That''s the problem, right? Mary telling you about them isn''t enough. Besides, there''s nothing wrong with getting a little more experience.¡± ¡°I''ve got plenty of grinding to do here,¡± he said dryly. ¡°Made seven levels in four days. Think I''m finally playing my class the way I''m meant to.¡± Ruth gave him a pitying look. ¡°Josh. The grind was killing you. More than the debuffs you got from overusing the mana potions, just sitting there for hours doing nothing but crafting was clearly grinding away your soul.¡± ¡°Oi, don''t skip the mana potions,¡± Mary said dryly. She gave Josh a sideways look. ¡°Did she tell you that we had to call in Sarah? You had more potions debuffs than I''ve ever seen. We racked up quite the bill, getting you cured.¡± Josh rubbed his forehead. ¡°Look. I''m not going to pretend that I don''t prefer more... active classes.¡± The irony that he, of all people, got the first non-combat class in almost a century was not lost on him. He was pretty sure it was divine punishment for his sins. ¡°But this is the class I''ve got. I''m the highest level Crafter we have, and I can''t throw that away.¡± ¡°But you''re not the only Crafter,¡± Ruth insisted. ¡°You never were. If you don''t want to step off your advancement path, that''s fine, but at least go out and get some exercise.¡± She smiled. ¡°Besides, we know that testing your designs in real combat can get you upgrades. Don''t you want to see what you can do with actual metal weapons and armor?¡± Josh paused at that. He hadn''t even tried to craft anything with his new skill yet. He had spent the entire time using his Repair spell constantly. Now that he could learn new blueprints automatically, if slowly, he didn''t even need to pound out a sword on a forge. He had been avoiding it because he had no idea where to even start. ¡°I''ll go,¡± he said at last. Ruth grinned, while Mary just smirked. ¡°I''ll go,¡± he said again, before Ruth could say anything, ¡°once I''ve made some decent equipment. And I definitely want to go with a full party.¡± He looked Mary up and down. ¡°What level are you now?¡± She didn''t have her mask on, but it would be rude to just scan her. Mary smirked. ¡°Level 44 Arcane Mage Pistoleer.¡± Josh smiled. ¡°Oh, Exemplary-tier? Good for you!¡± Then he frowned. ¡°Wait, weren''t you going for Gruff Gravity Gunner?¡± She rolled her eyes. ¡°Ruth has got the gravity magic covered spick and span. Would be daft to double up there. ''sides, I told you I don''t like the elemental classes.¡± Josh nodded. He''d had enough trouble running elemental combat classes, himself. God, he''d killed enough people by exploiting the weaknesses in elemental classes. ¡°Pistoleer, though. That closes off some options, I''d think.¡± ¡°Yeah, well. It wasn''t like I was using much besides pistols anyway.¡± Ruth rubbed her hands together. ¡°So we''re all good?¡± ¡°Not quite,¡± Josh said dryly. ¡°Like I said, I want to make some stuff for myself, and then go in with everyone. Darius can probably find us the perfect dungeon.¡± He blinked as a thought occurred to him. ¡°Where is Darius, anyway?¡± Chapter 47 - Slime Dungeon (part 1) Darius, it turned out, had been too busy exploiting his own new class to bother hovering over Josh like a mother hen. By the time the party gathered up the next day for the dungeon, he was a level 45 High Shroudcrafter, and the first thing he did when he saw Josh was hand him a new shroud focus. Josh scanned it before putting it on.
Improved Enchanted Torc. Shroud focus. Improved-tier. This metal ring fits around the wearer''s neck and provides a defensive shroud against enemy attacks. When depleted, the shroud will regenerate with time. This is the highest quality shroud focus possible at the Improved-tier. It''s still pretty terrible, but maybe it can actually survive a couple real attacks.
Josh didn''t know why he even bothered checking item descriptions, half the time. The System remained extremely condescending until at least the Master-tier. As he was putting it on, he wondered if he could learn to make it if he deconstructed it. ¡°How many of these have you made?¡± he asked. He didn''t want to suggest deconstructing it if this was the only one. Darius handed out more to Ruth and Mary. ¡°A few dozen,¡± he said casually. ¡°I cheated by burning up rift crystals to imbue my crafting. Using monster parts is more efficient, as I''m sure you''re aware, but with the number of dungeons we''re clearing, I do not feel guilty losing so many crystals.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± Josh said. They were already past the effective monster level for the area. While that meant it was safer, it also meant it was harder to gain more levels or hunt useful monster parts. He had heard that even Sarah, the Alchemist, was hitting a wall with her ingredients. ¡°You picked a good dungeon for us?¡± ¡°I picked the oldest one we know of,¡± he said flatly. ¡°With the rate they''re appearing, that''s the best that we can do for information. It''s a few hundred yards outside the wall.¡± Josh paused. ¡°Dungeons usually don''t appear that close to citystones.¡± Darius raised an eyebrow. ¡°And what, exactly, made you feel as though anything about multiple dungeons appearing a day was usual?¡± ¡°Fair cop.¡± Josh made sure his shroud focus was secured, then grinned at the others. ¡°Ready?¡± Ruth hefted her hammer, Mary spun her guns, and Darius checked the straps on his shield. They all nodded at Josh. ¡°All right.¡± He drew his sword, brand new and inscribed with Ruth''s runes, and pointed it into the distance. ¡°Off to the dungeon!¡± They didn''t encounter any monsters on the way to the dungeon. Considering how many people had been clearing out this area recently, that wasn''t much of a surprise. The dungeon itself was nestled in a thick grove of trees, the kind of trunk-to-trunk wall of wood that you could only get when a dozen monsters all died at the same time and sprouted into trees that grew together. The entrance to the dungeon was a small round dome in the earth, no taller than a man. It would be easy to miss, if not for the fact that no plants or trees grew over it. In the hungry Jungle, it stood out like a bleached white bone in the middle of a garden. Josh made a note of how it looked. If he had to guess, the dungeon had appeared in a clear spot between the trees, rather than displacing existing trees. That might be important. There was a hatch at the top of the dome, with four indentations for hands. They put their hands in the indentations, and the hatch cracked open with a pneumatic hiss. They dropped down the ladder into the dungeon''s entrance. It was a small, circular chamber with white walls and a single exit. There were a handful of rune circles glowing on the walls, like lamps. The second all of them were inside, they received a system message.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have discovered the dungeon RIFT: 3J63B78A9 SEAL. Spawn level: 8.
Josh waved away the notification, and noted that none of his friends looked surprised. ¡°All the new dungeons have names like that?¡± They all nodded. ¡°I looked up typical dungeon names,¡± Darius said. ¡°This is not unheard of, but most new dungeons are named after colors. They seem to be randomized, or perhaps going off a list that we do not have access to.¡± ¡°All right.¡± Josh was tempted to change the name, just for the fun of it. Considering that they meant to clear out this dungeon on their first run, it wasn''t worth the trouble. He frowned, then brought up the dungeon info again. ¡°Spawn level 8?¡± ¡°There have been a few higher-level jobs,¡± Mary admitted. ¡°I found a level 40 yesterday. But yeah, they''re mostly low-level. That''s typical, yeah?¡± Josh worried his lip. ¡°...I think?¡± This was really getting outside his wheelhouse. He was chuffed that the others seemed to think he was some huge expert, but it wasn''t all that. Sure, he''d closed more dungeons than they had, but it wasn''t as though he had been studying them. Mostly, he just ran through them as fast as possible. ¡°Might be an indication of the rift strength. Spawn levels can increase, after the reset.¡±Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. They all nodded at that. Ruth took a moment making sure she already had all the runes on the walls, then together they all walked through the seemingly empty doorway. It rippled like a disturbed pond as they passed. Passing through the invisible barrier didn''t feel any different than stepping into a cold room. On the other side was a room identical in size and shape to the first, still round and white. Everyone had their weapons out, ready for combat. Darius kept his shield in front of him, and his right hand roiled with near-invisible energy, ready to boost their shrouds in an emergency. They needn''t have bothered. There were four monsters in the room with them. They were silver blobs, like drops of mercury the size of footballs. They bounced gently on the floor, and seemed to be inching towards the party. Inching forward very slowly.
Sidero Dewdrop Slime. Level 8 Monster. Wow, it took you a while to meet slimes this time around. These are supposed to be some of the most common monsters, you know. Of course, they''re also common prey for other monsters. They''re basically free-ranging bundles of magic, which is useful for all sorts of things. These are specifically dewdrop slimes, of the Sidero elemental variant. Ask your girlfriend what that means.
¡°Ruth,¡± Josh called. ¡°What element is Sidero?¡± ¡°Metal,¡± she said without hesitation. ¡°It''s an Exemplary-tier element. I don''t know how it can appear at such a low level.¡± She hefted her hammer, then glanced at Mary. ¡°Magic isn''t going to be much good here.¡± Josh pushed her hammer back down. ¡°Neither will crushing them.¡± Slimes of all varieties were infamously resistant to blunt physical force. He wasn''t sure how her gravity magic would interact with them, either. ¡°Let me try first.¡± ¡°Wait, wait!¡± Ruth used one hand to draw quickly in the air, her finger leaving behind glowing lines. Josh recognized it as one of her runes¡ªexcept when she used it like this, it was a sigil. Once she completed it, the sigil burned brighter for a moment, and then he felt his body lighten. He almost thought it was a gravity sigil, but it was actually an extra two points to his Strength. That was better, really. ¡°Thanks,¡± he said, getting used to his new power. He swung his sword a few times, keeping an eye on the slimes. The things were really slow. ¡°I haven''t seen you use those too much.¡± Ruth sighed. ¡°They''re too situational, and they don''t stack with any buffs from the runes. They''re also temporary, mana-intensive, and I can''t chain them together like runes.¡± She shrugged. ¡°They''re just not worth the effort, most of the time.¡± ¡°I bet.¡± He also thought that they probably hewed too close to the support role she had been forced to play for most of her life. Consciously or not, she had probably avoided them for that reason alone. ¡°Oh, hurry it up, you two,¡± Mary said, rolling her eyes. ¡°Josh, either deal with these snotballs yourself or I will.¡± Considering that would probably result in magical bolts reflecting around the room, Josh quickly stepped forward before she could get even more impatient. He raised his sword in a low guard, one that he had practiced so many times it was ingrained into his bones. His missing fingers made him hitch a moment, but he soldiered on. Then, he lunged. Slime monsters had a number of different variants, and different tactics worked best against them. Dewdrop slimes were among the easiest to deal with: They were heavily resistant to blunt damage, had some extra properties from their elemental affinity, and were slow. He dashed across the floor faster than most people would believe someone of his size capable of, charging forward like a knight with a lance and burying his sword deep in the slime''s side. The monster withdrew into itself, and tried to grab onto Josh''s sword when he pulled back, but he was too strong for it. Still, Josh cursed himself. The one situation where a metal sword was a disadvantage, and he had just started using one. His wooden sword would actually be a better weapon here, at least marginally. The slime seemed slightly stunned by the ferocity of his attack, and he took the opportunity to slash it, trying to cut away the silver material of its body. He needed to dig in deep, to reach the core, otherwise this fight was going to be a slog. One of the other slimes got too close. Not dangerously close, it was still slow and low-level, but close enough that he noticed. He stabbed it, and this time he hit the core on the first try. The slime instantly shattered into silver dust, giving him more than enough time to turn around and throw an [Empty Chop] at another one. Arts had weird interactions with magic resistance, so he had initially been hesitant about using it. On the other hand, if there was ever a time to experiment, it was when he was forty levels higher than his opponents. Thankfully, the invisible slice of energy cut right through another of the metal slimes, shattering its core in one hit, without reflecting off its metal body. The shape of the art was a bit different than it usually was, since he was channeling it through a sword rather than an ax, but at least it worked. Two more [Empty Chops] finished off the other two, and he was left with nothing but four small shattered crystals surrounded by glittering silver dust like fine grains of sand. He took a deep breath, stood up straight, and sheathed his sword in a single motion. For a moment there, it was like he was in a simpler time, clearing out dungeons for experience and loot. He was only drawn back to the present by Ruth''s excited clapping. He turned to see her smiling and bouncing on the balls of her feet. ¡°Oh, that was so cool! Did you get anything good for it?¡± Chapter 48 - Slime Dungeon (part 2) Josh checked his combat log, and snorted in derision. ¡°Got one point of experience each.¡± He hadn''t even noticed the mist flow into him, it was so minor. He looked around. ¡°Not sure about the loot situation.¡± ¡°The cracked cores are worth something,¡± Darius said. He gave Josh a look. ¡°They would have been worth more if they were still intact.¡± Josh rolled his eyes. ¡°You want intact slime cores, you can walk up to the next group, reach inside them, and pull the bloody things out yourself.¡± It seemed Darius wasn''t that interested in cores, because he ignored Josh''s jibe. ¡°Furthermore, the dust should have its uses in alchemy. I am sure that Miss Sarah will appreciate us bringing some back.¡± Collecting the dust took longer than killing the monsters had. They had enough water bottles¡ªproper plastic bottles, not their improvised wooden shite that were useless for anything besides terrible grenades¡ªthat they could get it all, but that just meant it took them even longer. They had to scrabble on the floor, seemingly searching for every last grain. ¡°What I wouldn''t give for a Gatherer class right now,¡± Josh muttered. A Scavenger could have swept their hand and immediately collected everything of value in the room. ¡°At least you have that storage ring, yeah?¡± Mary said. She tossed him another bottle, which he dutifully stored away. ¡°You think the orc guy will have one on him too?¡± ¡°Eh, maybe?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°Not going to say it''s impossible, but it would be a stupid move for him to show his face anywhere near here ever again. I expect he''ll send Jael rather than dealing with us personally. We beat him pretty good last time with our weakest member.¡± Darius raised an eyebrow. ¡°You think you are the weakest member of our party?¡± Josh snorted. ¡°Of course!¡± He pointed at Ruth. ¡°Exemplary-tier Attacker.¡± He pointed at Mary. ¡°Exemplary-tier Attacker.¡± He pointed at Darius. ¡°Improved-tier Defender.¡± He pointed at himself. ¡°Basic-tier Crafter.¡± Darius opened his mouth as if to argue, but then thought better of it. He shook his head. ¡°I suppose I cannot fault your logic.¡± Josh did most of the rest of the dungeon by himself, though he let Ruth and Darius borrow his sword to fight a few times. Ruth didn''t like the sword, and gave up pretty much immediately, while Darius did like combining it with his shield. They weren''t sure giving him a sword full-time would be a good idea, though. Mary, of course, refused to even touch it. She had her guns, and she was going to stick with them. The dungeon was only four rooms long, not counting the entrance and the final boss chamber. None of the rooms had anything besides metal slimes, and none of the slimes were higher than level 10. By far the hardest bit of the endeavor was gathering up the cores and dust. In no time at all, they were waiting at the door to the boss chamber. ¡°So,¡± Mary said. ¡°It''s going to be a giant metal slime, yeah?¡± Josh snorted. ¡°No bet.¡± ¡°It really could be anything,¡± Ruth insisted. ¡°Don''t slimes evolve every four levels?¡± ¡°Dewdrop slimes, yeah,¡± Josh said. ¡°Different variants have different rules.¡± Once weaker monsters evolved into a stronger variant, they would shift to evolving every eight levels like normal. ¡°So if the boss is at least level 12, then it will have evolved into something else.¡± Ruth looked at the doors, as if she could see the boss already. ¡°What''s the worst-case scenario?¡± ¡°Dragon,¡± Josh and Mary said at once. But Darius shook his head. ¡°No, I don''t think that, at least, is something we have to worry about here. From what I understand of how rifts work, they only draw through monsters of the appropriate level. No dragon would fall through a rift this weak.¡± ¡°The one we found Flamebreak in was level 8 too,¡± Mary retorted. ¡°Exceptions happen.¡± ¡°Of course. But that was also a very old rift, as far as we could tell. This is brand-new.¡± Josh wasn''t sure that would matter. He would admit to being a mite paranoid on the matter. He''d delved hundreds of dungeons, and the town had delved almost as many just in the past few days with this weird plague of rifts. No one had ever found a dragon in a dungeon before. Still. He''d keep his escape options open. ¡°All right, putting aside a dragon, then it''s probably just another slime. What can a dewdrop slime evolve into?¡± Josh knew the answer, he was just curious as to what Darius would say. Darius pushed up his glasses. ¡°A giant version is the most obvious,¡± he said. ¡°That might also be the most dangerous. If its core is out of reach, then we will have to burn it down the hard way. That will be annoying, especially with Josh as our only valid pseudo-Attacker.¡± Ruth gripped her hammer tighter. ¡°How much danger will he be in?¡± ¡°Almost none. With my shrouds, he can be kept safe indefinitely. If he does take damage, we have real healing potions from Sarah the Alchemist.¡± Ruth looked more alarmed at that. ¡°He''s not supposed to take any more potions yet!¡± ¡°It will be fine,¡± Josh insisted. ¡°I''m not going to get hurt. I promise, if things look bad, I''ll retreat and let you have a go. I won''t take any potions.¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. She relaxed, a tad. ¡°Okay, good.¡± Then she sighed. ¡°I wish I could do something to help. Some sort of cutting spell, or something.¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°Just remember to bring a backup weapon next time.¡± Josh barked out a laugh. ¡°You of all people don''t get to complain about someone only bringing one type of weapon.¡± ¡°Hm? Oh, you mean my guns?¡± She smirked. ¡°Who ever said all I had was guns?¡± She reached down, pulled up her pant leg, and revealed a long knife strapped just above her ankle. ¡°Never leave home without them.¡± Everyone stared. ¡°You had a spare weapon this entire time?¡± Darius demanded. ¡°Why didn''t you say anything?¡± Josh added. ¡°God dammit, I was running around like a maniac, when you could have been helping!¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°You looked like you were having fun.¡± She drew out both knives, one from each leg, and handed them both to Ruth. ¡°Here. You''re not a weapon specialist, so you might even get a technique for them.¡± Oh right, Josh hadn''t even thought of that. Ruth used hammers and clubs so exclusively, he had forgotten that they didn''t actually have anything to do with her class. She might be able to get some easy techniques without too much trouble. Ruth considered for a moment, then handed one back. ¡°We should all be armed,¡± she explained. ¡°I know it should be an easy fight, but...¡± She shrugged helplessly. No one could disagree with that, so Mary took the knife back and held it, ready to go. The entrance to the boss chamber, unlike the other rooms, wasn''t just an opening in the wall with an invisible barrier. It was a tall pair of steel doors, wide enough for four people to walk through side by side. Strange designs and glowing runes etched the door, though Ruth said most of them didn''t do anything important. Without another word, they all reached out to one of the hand-shaped symbols on the doors. Light flowed out from where they touched the door, running through veins in the steel like electricity in a circuit board. In seconds, a pattern emerged, a complex geometric rune, and then the doors cracked open and revealed the chamber on the other side. It was bigger than the one they were already in. It was hard to tell for sure, because there were no walls, no ceiling. Instead, it was as if there was a large circular platform suspended in a sea of stars. Twinkling, glittering motes of light danced in an infinite expanse of black, making it feel as though they would all tumble out into the void if they took a single step. Huh, Josh thought. Is this the new standard? In the middle of the chamber was the rift, a purple-edged tear in the fabric of reality itself. It felt as though a massive claw had reached out and ripped the very air apart, as easily as if tearing a painting. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling, tall enough for a giant to walk through and wide enough for a boat to sail through. Thankfully, there was no dragon curled up around the rift this time. Instead, there was a man sitting cross-legged in their path, idly sharpening a sword. At least, it looked like a man at first glance. On a second look, its clothes were made of the same silvery material as its body, the same silvery material as its sword. It didn''t look up when they entered, giving Josh a moment to scan it.
Sidero Humaniform Slime. Level 18 Monster. Ugh, these guys. A slime that has chosen to evolve into a more humanoid form, giving up most of its strengths in exchange for a bunch of different weaknesses. Still resistant to magic and bludgeoning, but not as much, and it''s only marginally more intelligent. At higher levels, it can mimic skills and abilities, but right now it''s just a human-shaped blob. Look, it''s a metal slime in human form, I don''t know what else you want from me. The core is usually in either the head or the torso.
The core, it turned out, was in the monster''s crotch. ¡°That had to have been a joke, right?¡± he asked no one in particular, as silver dust settled onto the floor. The fight hadn''t been difficult with all four of them piling on. Josh would have killed the boss in the first hit if the core had been in the head. ¡°The System somehow managed to put the core there just to screw with us.¡± ¡°I dunno,¡± Ruth said, cocking her head to the side. ¡°I''m not sure how much control the System has over...¡± She waved her hand vaguely. ¡°Everything. I don''t think it can really do something like that.¡± ¡°The description was a joke, though,¡± Mary said. She cleaned off her knife in a few swift motions, then returned it to its sheathe. ¡°It could have told us where the core really was.¡± She raised her voice to the ceiling. ¡°Could have even made some good jokes about it, too! But no, it thought it would be funnier to see us wiff a one-shot!¡± ¡°It''s something important to keep in mind,¡± Darius said gravely. ¡°The System is not our friend. Josh snorted. ¡°Yeah, learned that lesson a while ago, thanks.¡± He wasn''t even worried that the System might get annoyed and do something. It didn''t mind people talking about it. As far as anyone could figure, it thought it was funny. ¡°I still thought it would be tougher,¡± Ruth said, poking at the broken core with her boot. ¡°I know we were all like four times its level, but my shroud took a full-force hit without breaking!¡± Darius could not hide a small smile. ¡°Well. I suppose we should all be thankful for our shrouds, then.¡± ¡°Oi,¡± Mary said, her tone flat. ¡°You preen any harder, you''re liable to break something.¡± ¡°Still!¡± Ruth said. ¡°My dad always said to be careful, even if you have the level advantage! I''ve seen him kill things with twenty levels on him.¡± ¡°That''s because he''s smart,¡± Josh insisted. He gulped down the water in his bottle, then bent down and started gathering the silver dust into it. Sarah and the other Alchemists had better appreciate this. ¡°Levels work pretty well for measuring power, but they''re not perfect. Especially when you bring smart blokes like your dad into it.¡± Darius raised an eyebrow. ¡°I note you didn''t include yourself in that list.¡± Josh ignored him. ¡°No matter how strong this slime was, it was still mindless. If we had let the fight go on for longer, you would have started to notice patterns. Just repeating the same two or three moves over and over. Pretty easy to beat it like a rented drum, once you''ve figured that out.¡± ¡°Most monsters aren''t quite so predictable, of course,¡± Darius added, picking up the explanation. ¡°They''re animalistic, but still possess a rudimentary intelligence and ability to learn. I imagine whatever monster your father killed was something he was familiar with, and could kill relatively quickly. Correct?¡± ¡°It was a human,¡± Ruth said flatly. ¡°A criminal outside the Burn Line who had been feeding monsters bloodstones and people to grind them up for experience.¡± They all stared at her. ¡°So,¡± Josh said dryly. ¡°Yeah, it was a monster he was familiar with?¡± Ruth let a small smile cross her face. ¡°Yeah, I guess so.¡± Chapter 49 - Slime Dungeon (part 3) Jokes aside, Josh couldn''t help but remember his own experiences fighting higher-level humans. Against Mizuno, he had gotten lucky and been able to drown him, which had bypassed his shroud and most of his other advantages. Against Hou Zheng, he had leveraged his superior skill and combat experience, as well as the fact that Hou Zheng had underestimated him. The problem with fighting people was that they learned. There was a reason Josh had gone for the lethal option with Mizuno. Trying and failing would mean that he''d never get an opportunity to try again. He had known attacking Hou Zheng was unlikely to work, but he''d had to try. If he had known his ¡°mysterious ally¡± was actually Jael, Josh might have done something differently. Well, probably not. He had already correctly deduced her class and knew there was a chance she could do exactly what she did. He might have put more effort into talking her down, though. He shook his head as he finished gathering up the dust from the metal slime. ¡°Let''s close this rift and be done.¡± All four of them stepped up to the rift, which wasn''t strictly necessary. Technically any one of them could do this bit. That was probably an intentional design choice, so a single surviving party member could close a dungeon if need be. Josh placed his hand near the rift, and a prompt appeared.
Dungeon complete! Would you like to exit this dungeon, or close this rift? Warning: Exiting without closing the rift will grant no further rewards. Warning: Closing the rift will collapse the dungeon and kill any surviving monsters. No experience will be gained for monsters killed in this way. New rifts will no longer be prevented from forming in range.
Josh wondered about that last bit. One of the reasons people left dungeons up, in addition to the training opportunities, was because they were more predictable than stomping every new rift that popped up. The wording had always bothered him, though. Were the rifts really prevented from forming? He''d heard one theory that it was more like the dungeon was absorbing other rifts that tried to pop up in range. That would explain why the rifts kept getting bigger. In this case, though, the rift was small and pitiful. It had apparently existed for less than a week. Josh doubted anything more than the initial batch of monsters had even had a chance to wander through. No wonder they were all so weak. Josh reached out to the ¡°close rift¡± option. He was interrupted by someone stumbling out of the rift and nearly knocking him over. Josh was a big man. He knew that. The body that hit him, though, was bigger still, and easily knocked him off his feet by sheer weight of mass. Thankfully, Josh recovered quickly, and rolled to his feet, sword in hand, to see what had hit him. He assumed it was some monster, maybe even a new boss-tier enemy. It was rare to actually see a monster come out of a rift, but it happened. Instead, it was Hou Zheng. It was hard to tell who was more surprised. Hou Zheng wasn''t wearing his full-face mask, so Josh could see the look of utter shock on his green face. His mouth hung open, and he just stared for a moment. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°What am I doing?¡± Josh asked, and he couldn''t help his voice from screeching a bit. ¡°I''m just finishing up a bloody dungeon. You''re the one falling out of a rift like a monster on a bad drug trip!¡± ¡°Think you''re missing the point, Josh,¡± Mary said in a conversational tone. She had her guns leveled at Hou Zheng''s head. ¡°The why isn''t important.¡± Without another word of warning, she fired both her guns. Hou Zheng''s shroud protected him from the first few shots. A blue-white energy field appeared to absorb the bolts of magic firing out of her guns. That gave him enough of an opening to throw a ball of silver fire at Mary, forcing her to dodge. Ruth tried to come around with her hammer, but the fireball exploded, forcing her back as well. Darius boosted both of their shrouds, then stepped up with his shield to block another bolt of fire. Josh threw an [Empty Chop], forcing Hou Zheng to dodge back into range of Mary''s attacks. Josh''s mind was racing. Hou Zheng had come out of a rift. People had tried to enter rifts before, many times. No one had ever managed it, not even with high-level Explorer classes with access to strange dimensional magic abilities. Josh wasn''t going to call it impossible, but there was definitely something more going on here. Hou Zheng didn''t just know some weird trick, there had to be a reason he could go through the rift when no one else could. He threw another [Empty Chop] in Hou Zheng''s direction to distract him briefly, but otherwise stayed back to observe. They had him contained, at least for the moment. This wasn''t an ambush. Hou Zheng had left the rift alone, without backup. He had been surprised to see them. So he was using the rifts for his own purposes, not just as some back-alley way to attack them. Rumor was that the rifts led to other worlds, and now that Josh had met an elf and an orc, he was even more sure of that. Was this how they had entered this world in the first place? He had always assumed that the dragon had entered its dungeon through the rift. He still felt confident on that. But... the seals around dungeons were for monsters. A human could walk in and then just walk right out again. Did it matter if you were from another world? Maybe, if you had a way to step in and out of rifts, you could use them as some sort of portal network. A thousand holes drilled through the fabric of the world, leading anywhere you might choose.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. He was interrupted from his musing by Hou Zheng raising his voice. ¡°Jael! I need backup!¡± Josh didn''t know if Hou Zheng''s voice was carrying through the rift, if he had some device he hadn''t seen, or if he had cast some spell. All that mattered was the bit where the rift was about to spit out a high-level assassin. Hou Zheng had minimal direct offensive ability, and he was still pressing them hard. A bolt of silver flame sizzled past his head even as he thought that. It was all that the four of them could do to keep him distracted, and Josh could see the signs of shrouds beginning to fail. If Jael joined this fight, even while trying not to hurt Ruth, she''d end it in moments. Josh didn''t hesitate. He reached out to the rift and clicked the menu option to close it. It was like a soap bubble popping. One moment they were in the middle of a stone chamber, fighting over a glowing tear in the fabric of reality. The next, they were outside again, standing on the exact spot that the dungeon hatch had been before. The hatch was fading even as he watched, dissolving into mist like dry ice.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have closed the rift of dungeon RIFT: 3J63B78A9 SEAL. For closing a level 8 dungeon rift, you have been awarded a single Basic-tier rift crystal. As party leader, the crystal will be deposited directly in your inventory.
Josh blinked at that last line. It had been so long since he had an inventory, at least while running a dungeon, that he had forgotten that it could drop the crystal in there directly. He focused on his storage ring, and found a small crystal inside, in addition to a few supplies and far too much metal slime dust. He didn''t have time to investigate further, because they were still in a situation. Mary, Ruth, and Darius all had their weapons pointed at Hou Zheng, who was half-crouched with his hands ready to cast spells. They had only been out of the dungeon for seconds, but everything would erupt back into violence at any moment. Then Josh realized that he didn''t actually have any reason to want it not to erupt into violence, and channeled an [Empty Chop] through his ax. The art shattered the last vestiges of Hou Zheng''s shroud, and then the bolts from Mary''s guns started shooting through his clothes and creating spurts of blood. Josh highly doubted that those would keep him down for long. Any front line [Healer] would have plenty of self-buff and self-healing spells. Ruth''s hammer came down with the weight of a building behind it. Hou Zheng dodged, but it still blew a crater in the dirt of the Jungle four meters wide. Mary''s guns started to glow brighter¡ªher own Gravity spell, Josh thought¡ªand he moved to cover her by throwing another [Empty Chop] at Hou Zheng. Darius, meanwhile, cast a buff to recover Ruth''s shroud. Josh recognized the mistake immediately. Hou Zheng wasn''t focused on Ruth right now, so Darius should have moved to cover Mary with his shield. Without him physically in the way, the Battle Mender threw a bolt of colorless energy at Mary that disrupted her spell. Not much, not enough to cause her guns to explode, but enough to ruin the spells she had been preparing. She cursed and backpedaled, trying to get more room so she could dodge next time. This was why mages normally fought at range. There were too many ways to disable them in close combat. However, Hou Zheng wasn''t giving her a chance to do anything else. He muttered something in Chinese that sounded annoyed and dismissive. Then he pulled back his sleeve, revealing a large gold bracer carved with runes, studded with gemstones, and filled with so much magic that the air rippled when it was exposed. Josh didn''t wait to see what it did. He threw an [Empty Chop] at Hou Zheng. He would have liked to aim at his arm, chop it off entirely, but he operated entirely on instinct. He went for center mass. His attack hit the orc in the torso, throwing up another spray of blood and causing him to grunt in pain. Unfortunately, it didn''t stop him from sending mana into his bracer. The gemstones started to glow, brighter and brighter. After a second of building up, they flashed... Hou Zheng was gone. In his place was a rift. For a few long moments, Josh and the others couldn''t do anything but stare. The rift looked exactly the same as the one they had just sealed inside the dungeon. Maybe it was a slightly different color or a slightly different shape, but for all intents and purposes it was the exact same. Josh had so many questions he didn''t even know where to start. Had Hou Zheng created this rift? Revealed the old one? What was up with that bracer? If this was a real rift, then what about the monsters¡ª A clawed arm reached out of the rift. All four of them flinched back, raising their weapons. Before they could do anything more than that, however, the arm froze. It stopped moving, as assuredly as if it was a photograph. Not just the arm, Josh realized. The ragged edges of the rift, normally flapping like a rip in fabric, had frozen as well. Lines began to draw themselves around the rift and the arm, as if some divine architect was sketching out a room with a pencil. First, the rift was contained in an octagon of lines, then another at a slightly different angle. Then another, and another, until they were coming too fast to track. Like an accelerated drawing of a building, Josh could see the dungeon coming into shape around them. The boss chamber around the rift, and the rooms around that. More details were added with each passing second, and Josh started to see walls, then runes. Just as Josh began to worry that they might be trapped in this new dungeon, the air snapped, and they were outside. Well, no. That was what it felt like, but they hadn''t moved. It would be more accurate to say that the lines that had been sketching themselves had disappeared. But they had felt so real by the end, despite their lack of density, that it felt like Josh and the others had been transported. All that remained was a hatch on the ground. Slowly, hesitantly, Josh crouched down and placed his hand on one of the spots.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have discovered the dungeon RIFT: 4I53P77B9 SEAL. Spawn level: 8.
¡°Well,¡± Darius said. He pulled his hand back. He had checked it as well. ¡°I suppose that explains a few things.¡± Mary gave him a glare. ¡°That all you got to say?¡± Darius pushed up his glasses. ¡°I think any further theorizing can be saved for after we get back to the town, don''t you?¡± Chapter 50 - Staging Ground Hou Zheng stumbled out of the rift into the dungeon, his bracer burning on his arm. This was the same dungeon he had left from, just moments ago, and he thought he might vomit from the sudden return. Of course, he felt that way even when using the bracer correctly. Rifts had never really been meant for casual travel. ¡°Are you all right, Hou Zheng?¡± He refocused and saw Jael, the assassin, looking up at him with a blank expression. Then again, she almost always had a blank expression. Behind her, the dungeon chamber was filled with a number of other mercenaries and hirelings, all sourced from this world. None of them knew the full extent of his plans, but they accepted his payment well enough. In fact, except for Jael, none of them even knew that he wasn''t from this world. They all stared at him, wide-eyed. Hou Zheng blinked, then reached up to touch his face. His helmet. He had forgotten that he wasn''t wearing his helmet. He had taken it off before stepping through the rift, wanting a moment to breathe. He wasn''t even wearing a basic mask to hide from scans. Indeed, he could see many of the mercenaries with the tell-tale expressions of people who were using the Identify skill. Several of them almost jumped in surprise when they only received basic information. Had they expected him to be a monster? He sighed internally. Dwarves. No matter what world they were on, they were always the same. Solid, reliable, and so unimaginative. At least they were easily motivated by money. He might have to pay them extra to keep this quiet, but that was no great loss. On a world like this, in the process of burning away at the end of its life, his money might as well be unlimited. ¡°I''m fine,¡± he said to Jael. ¡°Your niece says hello, by the way.¡± She stiffened. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Well, not really,¡± he admitted. ¡°She was too surprised by my popping out of a rift and busy trying to kill me to pass along pleasantries.¡± He smiled, careful not to show teeth. Dwarves were so skittish about that. ¡°I''m sure she misses you, however.¡± ¡°How did you see Ruth?¡± she demanded, her professional mask slipping a little. ¡°I thought your bracer takes you somewhere random.¡± He licked his lips. ¡°It''s... more complicated than that.¡± He raised the bracer. It had cooled off, thankfully. He could even use it again right now if he really needed to, but he would prefer not to risk that. ¡°This controls the dungeon, and through it, the rift. The rifts are infamously chaotic, so it''s easy to think of the dungeon as naturally ordered.¡± ¡°You''re lecturing again,¡± she interrupted. He smiled. ¡°Apologies. It is not easy to put my teaching days behind me.¡± It had been decades since he took a Scholar class, and yet he still found himself gravitating towards it. Before he could continue, Jael clapped her hands, getting everyone''s attention. ¡°You all know why you''re here,¡± she said. ¡°We''re almost done with our preparations. The second we''re ready, I want you all ready too. Check your gear, your spells, and anything else you might need.¡± They got the hint and retreated to the next chamber to sort through their supplies. All the monsters were already dead, of course, so they''d be perfectly safe. Hou Zheng shook his head sadly. ¡°I apologize for the need for secrecy.¡± She shook her head, more emphatically. ¡°Irrelevant. Ruth. Why did the rift take you to her?¡± She considered. ¡°Or was it the dungeon?¡± ¡°The dungeon.¡± He sighed. ¡°I should have anticipated this. Dungeons don''t like being controlled. They''re prone to... acting out.¡± ¡°You make it sound as if they are intelligent.¡± His lips quirked. ¡°Something like that, perhaps.¡± She nodded. ¡°So, when you forced it to send you through the rift, it rebelled. It knew you had a connection to Ruth.¡± ¡°Unlikely. Dungeons cannot see outside themselves. I find it more plausible that it sent me to Mary, as I did a dungeon with her before.¡± She gave him a long look. ¡°Dungeons... remember each other?¡± He chuckled. ¡°Now we are getting into the realms of theories and philosophy. I do not know the answer to that question.¡± He waved a hand. ¡°Irrelevant. How is our progress?¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Continuing apace,¡± she said, accepting the change of subject. ¡°The mercenaries will be ready to march within a day or two. In fact, they are ready now, if you want to rush.¡± ¡°I do not.¡± Rushing always caused more problems than it solved. Slow and steady, that was the way to do things. ¡°We still have not found an appropriate rift.¡± They could force it, but that would cause many problems. Among other things, he would destroy his bracer, which was almost irreplaceable unless he was willing to pay a rather exorbitant price. ¡°Mayor Hawkins is continuing to make noise.¡± Again, her face was completely dull, but Hou Zheng thought he could detect a hint of exasperation in her voice. ¡°He has repeatedly expressed the idea that this plan will never work. He keeps bringing up the fact that the siege of monsters failed to kill Hundredborn.¡± Hou Zheng groaned. ¡°Remind me again, why am I keeping that idiot around?¡± ¡°He has important connections to various mercenary organizations.¡± Hou Zheng groaned louder. Jael raised an eyebrow. ¡°How old are you? My niece would be more mature about this.¡± ¡°Yes, well, your niece hasn''t had to deal with an ugly little dwarf talking about how wonderful his Slaver Collar is.¡± Before she could respond to that, he heard an entirely different voice. ¡°Hou Zheng. We have much to discuss.¡± Rather than crude English, the voice spoke in Hou Zheng''s own language, perfectly and without a hint of an accent. The voice echoed around the room, making Jael stiffen, and he was happy that she had sent the mercenaries away. It was also coming from the rift. ¡°Lord Flamebreak,¡± he said, turning to the rift with a smile. ¡°It is a pleasure to hear your voice once again.¡± And not rattling his skull like a bull in a porcelain shop, he didn''t add. ¡°I have no patience for niceties. Report.¡± Briefly, Hou Zheng wondered what could be keeping a dragon busy when he was still trapped in a dungeon, before deciding he didn''t want to know. It would be either something stupid or something horrifying. ¡°The Crafter and his allies are currently penned in a town far from the central human settlement. It is unclear what they have told the locals, but we have been intercepting anyone leaving. Their knowledge will not spread.¡± ¡°Sufficient. And the girl?¡± Hou Zheng was surprised the dragon remembered the deal about the girl. Hou Zheng had received permission to broker the deal with Jael, but he had assumed that the dragon would forget about it moments later. ¡°Still with the Crafter. Unharmed, but also a thorn in our side.¡± He had been genuinely impressed with how she integrated runes into her combat style. Rune Warrior and its advancements helped weaponize runes, of course, but it still took quite a bit of skill to pull it off. ¡°Capture her as soon as possible,¡± the dragon said, somehow making mercy sound like an execution order. ¡°Once she is out of our way, our allies will be able to aid us without reservation.¡± And they''d have a hostage if Jael got any ideas. ¡°Of course, Lord Flamebreak. Do I have permission to extend the offer to the others in the Crafter''s party?¡± ¡°You do. They do not need to die. They simply need to be removed from play.¡± ¡°I suspect it will be easier if I have something unique to pay them with, my lord.¡± There was a pause. Then, without fanfare, four small red stones were spat out of the rift, one by one. Hou Zheng caught them all easily. They were bloodstones, and a quick scan told him what kind. None of them were particularly rare or interesting. He could get these for free on most worlds. But they were all [Utility] bloodstones. On this world, burning away the last of its life, there were people who would murder their own families for a chance at these stones. Jael eyed them greedily, clearly guessing what they represented. Hou Zheng just tucked them away without looking at her. ¡°These should be sufficient,¡± he said calmly. ¡°Good. Do not fail me, priest.¡± Hou Zheng bowed before the rift for a long moment, until he was sure that the dragon was no longer paying attention. Then he straightened and gathered himself. ¡°Well,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°Let''s get this attack ready to go, shall we?¡± After all, as much as he would like to ensure the [Crafter] and his friends survived, he did not think it likely. The man had already rejected too many offers, from too many parties, to be tempted at the last moment. No. This world was burning, and Josh Hundredborn was going to burn with it. Hou Zheng sighed. It was such a shame. Such a bright spark, lost too soon. Well. No one had ever said the world was fair. No one had ever said that any world was fair. He put his helmet back on and got to work. Chapter 51 - Risky Experiments (part 1) Josh and the others didn''t quite know what to make of the encounter in the dungeon. The idea that Hou Zheng was somehow teleporting through the rifts was an incredible discovery, but they had to put that aside for the moment to focus on why. He clearly hadn''t been trying to ambush them specifically. That meant that he was doing this for some other reason. Speculation proved to be about as productive as a bunch of fruit bats in a juice factory. Ruth kept suggesting that he was planting bombs, but Josh nixed that as easily as asking Anna. She had been suspicious about the dungeons ever since they started sprouting like weeds, and had her hunters keeping an eye out for any devices that might be the cause. They would have noticed bombs. Not to mention there wasn''t anything worth bombing at the dungeon locations anyway. Mary''s theory was simpler: Scouting, leading up to assassination. He had a high-level stealth ally, after all. That led to a discussion about how many people Hou Zheng might be able to teleport around with him. The fact that he hadn''t had any with him implied that he couldn''t bring anyone, but it was weak evidence. Josh thought that, at the least, it was evidence that Hou Zheng and Jael didn''t trust each other fully. If he did, the orc could lend the bracer to her so that she could do the scouting. Darius headed off that line of reasoning by pointing out that they still couldn''t be sure of Hou Zheng''s goals. Perhaps he wasn''t scouting at all, and was doing something in the region that only he could do. There was little overlap between an assassin and a priest, after all. Furthermore, they didn''t know for sure that he hadn''t lent her the bracer for a bit. His own theory was more complex, and based more around the strange dungeon that Mary and Anna had run with Hou Zheng and Jael before they realized who he was. Darius thought they might be looking for a specific dungeon, with very special properties, perhaps even broken somehow like that one. Unfortunately, that kicked off another round of theories. What sort of dungeon would he be looking for? Would he be trying to find a way to break the dungeon holding the dragon, to get him out early? Josh, of course, just wanted that bracer. Teleportation would certainly be a world-changer. Even if it only worked for one person and couldn''t be replicated, there were options. If the range was long enough, they might even be able to reach the Eight Heroes and warn them of the dragon. ¡°That won''t work,¡± Ruth grumbled, as they finally ambled back into town. The guards gave them nods as they passed. ¡°My dad''s stupid quest is still blaring. They''ll probably shoot you on sight.¡± Mary snorted. ¡°I''d shoot you if I thought it would get the quest to go away.¡± ¡°They could,¡± Josh admitted, though privately he doubted it. Most of the Eight wouldn''t kill him. Not without giving him a chance to explain, at least. ¡°It''s still worth a try, though.¡± As long as he didn''t run into Solomon alone, he still thought it was the best plan. ¡°Thought the plan was just to get strong enough to make everyone listen,¡± Mary said. She swatted something on her cheek with a scowl. ¡°Bloody bugs. I swear they''re more annoying than the magic ones.¡± Insects had been harassing them all day. They had forgotten their insect repellent, which was especially silly because there were a few Alchemists around now. Multiple low-level Alchemists were trying to grind levels by producing easy items like bug spray. Sarah could probably make literal magic bug spray by now. Yet they had forgotten bug spray, and nearly been eaten alive by insects in just a few hours. At least healing potions worked for bug bites. ¡°Getting stronger remains the goal,¡± Darius said calmly. He remained completely unconcerned with the bugs. He had tuned his shroud somehow to zap any that got too close. He claimed he could only do it for himself, but Mary didn''t believe him, and swore violently every time she was reminded. ¡°With luck, that can even be done here.¡± Ruth yanked open the door to the mayor''s office as if she owned the place. ¡°We should be able to do it here! Everybody is great, and I''ve already got a bunch of ideas for what we can do with the citystone!¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Those ideas will have to wait,¡± Baara said, as she walked up. She paused, did an awkward half-bow, and continued. ¡°Uh, if you don''t mind. Mister Mayor, your companions told me that you were abusing mana potions to continue working?¡± She said it like it was a question, as if she wasn''t sure what she had been told. Josh sighed. ¡°Aye, that''s true. Don''t worry, I haven''t taken any potions since I got knocked out of the fugue.¡± ¡°Yes. Well.¡± She shifted from foot to foot. On her back, her father''s massive Pyrolance was like a flag rising behind her. ¡°You got those mana potions from Miss Sarah, correct? The first Alchemist?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± He frowned. ¡°Has she run out of potions?¡± ¡°Or did she go mad as a hatter and start poisoning people?¡± Mary asked. Ruth jabbed her with an elbow. ¡°Be nice!¡± Mary rolled her eyes. ¡°She''s Anna''s sister. I assume that entire family is just waiting to explode the second your back is turned.¡± Josh sighed. He needed to lock those two in a closet and have them work out their differences, one way or another. ¡°Baara,¡± he said. ¡°It''s been a long day, and we have a lot to do. We ran into...¡± He stopped. They had tried to avoid involving Baara in the dangerous work so far. It was one of the reasons they had left her with the paperwork. They could figure out if they wanted to talk to her about Hou Zheng later. ¡°We have a lot to do,¡± he said again. ¡°Can you please tell us what Sarah has done?¡± Baara winced. ¡°She collapsed. She''s been drinking too many mana potions.¡± There was a pause, then Mary laughed out loud. It was not a happy laugh, nor a nice one. ¡°Oh, that''s rich,¡± she said, as bitterly amused as an old crone watching enemies fail. ¡°Should have known she''d be a hypocrite about dosages.¡± Josh tried not to smile. He really, genuinely tried. ¡°I''m sure she''ll be fine,¡± he said. ¡°That way, we can give her hell for it later.¡± He turned back to Baara. ¡°We ran into Anna outside the walls. Has anybody told her yet?¡± ¡°I sent a runner.¡± Josh suppressed a flinch. Baara reached out to touch his arm in concern. ¡°Mister Mayor? Are you all right?¡± ¡°Yeah, it''s just...¡± He managed a weak smile. ¡°Brain decided to go all barmy on me for a second there.¡± It wasn''t her fault, after all. She had sent a runner, a messenger. Not someone of the Explorer role with the Runner class. It wasn''t her fault they didn''t have anyone with the Runner class. Mary, sensing what was bothering him, stepped up. ¡°Yeah, so the crazy battle maniac knows her sister went on a bender. Did you need something from His Mayorshipness, or was this just an update?¡± ¡°Just an update.¡± Baara stepped back, letting go of his arm. ¡°She is far and away our best Alchemist. I thought it was important to let you know.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Yeah, it''s good to keep us in the loop.¡± He looked at the others. ¡°In fact, we''ve got some updates for you, too. We got a free meeting room or somesuch?¡± The group was a bit too big for the mayor''s actual office, which Baara had largely claimed as her own. ¡°Of course. Right this way.¡± She turned to leave. Mary raised an eyebrow. ¡°You sure you want to just head off to a meeting like this?¡± Josh paused. They were all sweaty, their clothes were a mess, and they were covered in bug bites. He didn''t even want to know how bad they smelled. ¡°On second thought, let''s take a mo'' to get fresh,¡± he said. He forced a smile. ¡°Don''t want to be stuck in a small room with us right now.¡± Half an hour later, they were all dressed in fresh clothes and at least halfway to presentable. ¡°How are you the one who took the longest?¡± Mary asked, as she adjusted her guns on her belt. ¡°I am sorry that I choose to take a moment to my appearance,¡± Darius said in a dry tone. ¡°You weren''t finished that much faster.¡± Mary shrugged. ¡°Honestly, I''m not mad. I just thought for sure that Ruth would be the slow one.¡± Ruth just looked confused at that. ¡°Why do you keep acting like I''m some helpless little duck? I grew up mostly on the hot side of the Burn Line!¡± ¡°Ducks aren''t helpless,¡± Josh muttered. He opened the door to the meeting room. Baara was already waiting there. ¡°You ever fought one of those Anatidae Screamers? They''ll eat you whole.¡± Ruth stuck her tongue out. Chapter 52 - Risky Experiments (part 2) Once they settled down, they explained the situation to Baara. About how they had encountered Hou Zheng, and witnessed the creation of a new rift and consequently a new dungeon. ¡°That is concerning.¡± Baara made a note of something, then rang a bell. The door opened, and one of the younger kids from Gilroy ran in. One of the much younger kids. Josh wasn''t sure she was even eight years old. ¡°What''s up, boss?¡± she asked. She looked at Josh and the others, then bobbed something that she might have thought was a bow. ¡°Find Anna¡ªno, find one of the older runners. Someone who can safely go out into the Jungle. Tell them to find Anna, tell her that I need a full list of every dungeon that she can get me.¡± She handed the girl the piece of paper. ¡°Then give that to the headmaster at the school. She won''t like it.¡± The girl bobbed her not-bow again, then ran out the door without another word. ¡°Sorry about that,¡± Baara said quietly. Josh noticed that she was much more confident with the messenger. Was it because she was talking to someone younger, or a subordinate? ¡°This is a bit time-sensitive.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°You''re worried the orc is going to do something crazy, like empty a dungeon of monsters and throw them at us?¡± Baara looked down at the table, steeled herself, and then looked up again. ¡°I... I don''t think that''s it. Most of our reports say that the monsters are pretty weak. The highest rift anyone has seen was level 40, and Anna already closed it. Whatever is happening here, I don''t think it''s about the monsters.¡± Josh sighed. ¡°You''re going to agree with Big D, aren''t you.¡± Darius glared at him. ¡°Stop calling me that.¡± They spent an hour or so going over all their ideas and theories with Baara. They didn''t really come up with anything new. Yes, Hou Zheng was clearly doing something with the dungeons, but they still had no idea what. And they didn''t know what they were supposed to do in response. Their current plan was just to continue closing down dungeons, which rubbed Josh the wrong way. It was too obvious; Hou Zheng had to have accounted for it, one way or another. But what else were they supposed to do? They couldn''t just not close the dungeons, not with their enemy apparently constantly opening new rifts. If those rifts got swallowed up by existing dungeons¡ªwhich everyone agreed they were pretty sure was how it worked¡ªthen soon the dungeons would be too powerful for anyone to deal with. They might not be a problem immediately, but at the end of the year, when the dungeons weakened and all the monsters poured out, they would be in real trouble. The only productive thing they did at the meeting, Josh felt, was when Baara theorized that Hou Zheng was rolling the dice on dungeons. He wanted one with specific properties, and was making as many as possible until he found one. In that case, their best option was to just close them down so fast that he couldn''t use it for whatever he was planning. Josh agreed, but it still felt too simple. Like they had found an excuse to continue doing exactly what they were already doing. It wasn''t as though they could go any faster. With their best Alchemist out for at least a while, it might be best if they slowed down. Eventually, they decided that they had squeezed all the blood out of this stone. They rose to leave. ¡°Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?¡± Baara asked.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°You need something else?¡± Josh was perfectly willing to help with whatever she needed. As far as he was concerned, Baara was basically already the mayor of San Juan Bautista. He just needed to finish transferring over citystone permissions for her. But she shook her head. ¡°Just curious.¡± He grinned. ¡°I think we''re gonna have a look at that project Abraham was working on.¡± He waved as they left. ¡°Cheers!¡± Once the door was closed behind them, Mary jerked her thumb behind her down the hallway. ¡°Actually, I''m going to see a crazy lady about a bunch of monsters. Don''t think I can help much with your thing. See you later!¡± Josh let out a breath. ¡°Well, as long as she and Anna don''t kill each other, I''m not going to take issue with it.¡± He looked at Darius and Ruth. ¡°You two still coming?¡± Ruth rested her hammer on her shoulder and grinned. ¡°You think I would miss this?¡± Darius actually managed a small smile. ¡°I''m certainly not giving up the opportunity to work on this project.¡± The garage was just across the street from the mayor''s office, not that far from the school. The town had already had a few cars and trucks, though Josh wasn''t sure precisely why. His guess was that the old mayor had been a rich tosser spending too much money on himself. He had already absconded with every vehicle that had been stored in the garage, even though they were supposed to belong to the town. Idly, Josh wished he had enough spare time to send someone to look for that guy. Not an assassin, just someone to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn''t do anything crazy. Such as, for example, sending assassins after Josh. There had been a couple more in the last few days, and Josh had been forced to kill them. That hadn''t done his image any favors. People noticed them, even on their short walk across the street. Some smiled, some just gave them polite nods. A few scowled, which unfortunately Josh had to admit was still fair. At least people had stopped throwing things at him at the town hall meetings. The garage was big enough to hold half a dozen normal trucks, though not the big eighteen-wheeler that was rusting on the south side of the pit. It was a new building, not something refurbished from the Old World. Josh had no idea what had possessed someone to make such a big building for the vehicles that almost no one used. Right now, they had dragged in every car that looked even slightly repairable, including the two they had found down in the pit. Even with help and his Repair spell, fixing these cars should take months, at least. It was Terah, one of the big delvers who Josh had hardly spoken to, who found the shortcut. They could put any spell that someone had into the citystone. It was a simple system. However, everyone was used to just ignoring it, because citystones didn''t get those slots until the Improved-tier, and until now all citystones except one were still at the Basic-tier. Terah pointed out that they could just put the Repair spell on the citystone, and use its much larger mana pool to instantly repair the vehicles. It worked, though it wasn''t quite that simple. The repairs needed extra materials for everything but the easiest repairs, and the citystone didn''t have unlimited mana. Josh''s eyes boggled at the mana cost, and he refused to do it more than twice, on the cheapest cars to fix. Then he switched the citystone back to the wall blueprint so that he wouldn''t be tempted. Having two cars back to pristine condition was quite a lot all on its own, though. They were a bit too sporty for the Jungle, since they didn''t have any roads out here. That was fine too. Josh and Abraham rebuilt them entirely, putting them into a single massive chassis. The end result was a big truck with a metal frame that already looked like it had survived a war. They gave it wheels big enough to crush small trees, and Josh learned more about rubber vulcanization than he ever expected when getting the tires ready. Turned out that San Juan Bautista had a whole grove of rubber trees, and it was one of their primary exports. Josh hadn''t known that. He hoped Baara did. Who was he kidding, she probably already knew the growth cycles of the trees and the monsterization rate. That was what they had done already. Josh almost thought of it as a proof-of-concept. The monster truck would serve the town well, even after they were gone. Someone could use it to push through the Jungle itself, especially with the blades they had added. Now that he was sure that he could help put together an engine and a drive shaft, he had convinced Abraham to start on their next project. They entered the garage to find a number of frames and chassis laid out on the floor. Josh and Abraham had gone out and collected most of the cars that looked intact. Most of the actual parts were basically trash unless Josh cast Repair hundreds of times, but that was fine. Mostly. Chapter 53 - Risky Experiments (part 3) ¡°You''ve been busy while I''ve been gone, I see,¡± Josh said. Abraham turned away from his conversation with his wife and smiled. ¡°Yeah. We think we''ve got something worthwhile by now.¡± Miriam stepped forward. ¡°We''ve got eight platforms ready.¡± Her eyes flicked over to Ruth. ¡°Do you think you can manage the levitation trick?¡± ¡°That''s why I''m here!¡± she said happily. Her smile softened. ¡°But, uh, I''m not sure. Lifting them is the easy part, doing it consistently is going to be tricky.¡± Miriam gave her a stunning smile. ¡°Don''t worry, we can work on it together!¡± Ruth brightened. ¡°Oh, did you take a Crafter class too?¡± ¡°No, but I think I can give you some pointers.¡± She took Ruth''s hand and pulled her over to the nearest car. It was missing its wheels, its windows, and probably ten more expensive parts on the inside. Josh decided to leave them to it. Abraham walked up, rubbing greasy hands on a rag. ¡°I''m confident that we can get the cars to work,¡± he said. ¡°Miss Moore''s runes are the only part I''m not sure about, but I think they''ll figure it out.¡± He smiled in his wife''s direction for a moment, before turning back to Josh. ¡°I''m still not sure about the train linkages, or your cabins. If we''re going to do that, do you really need the cars?¡± ¡°We can scratch the cabins.¡± Honestly, Josh had just wanted to be able to stand up inside the vehicles. It was a stupid extra complication on an experimental prototype. ¡°How many of the cars are running, right now?¡± ¡°Four,¡± Abraham said without any hedging. He waved a hand at the garage. ¡°Like I said, I''m confident that we can get the next four working. Everything runs off good old-fashioned biodiesel, too, so we didn''t have to convert anything.¡± ¡°Was that a concern?¡± Darius asked, speaking up for the first time. ¡°Yeah, I don''t think I''ve ever ridden in a gasoline car,¡± Josh said. ¡°Everything was moved over to petrol long before the end.¡± Abraham raised an eyebrow. ¡°You do realize petrol used to be a word for gasoline, correct?¡± ¡°Yes, well. Now it means biodiesel.¡± It wasn''t as though there was much of anyone around to disagree with him. Sometimes it felt like it was literally just his sister and Mary''s family. ¡°I wish we had a refinery here.¡± ¡°Not much use for one,¡± Abraham said. ¡°At least, there wasn''t. It''s not as though it''s expensive to ship in.¡± Josh supposed that was true enough. ¡°I can put a few cans in my storage ring.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Sorry, mate, got off track. What do you need me to help with, then?¡± ¡°Do you still have the blueprint for those linkages we worked on?¡± ¡°...yes?¡± Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°You know those don''t disappear until the reset, right?¡± Abraham gave a small laugh. ¡°Maybe I should have said, are you willing to work on them more? As I said, with their current configuration, I''m not sure they will work perfectly for our purposes. If one of the cars goes down, there is no quick release mechanism.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Maybe even make it automatic? But then how to keep it from jumping off like a frog on a plate...¡± ¡°I still think you are ignoring the obvious project,¡± Darius said. ¡°Flying cars are a marvelous idea, but if we can''t make them work, we should focus on something simpler. A juggernaut truck that can plow through the Jungle.¡± Josh waved a hand, dismissing him. ¡°If you want to play with that monster truck more, be my guest. Put some saw blades on it or something.¡± They spent a few hours working on the linkages. Josh didn''t get much experience, as all the new blueprints were just considered variants of his existing one. Still, he thought it was a productive time. He also discovered that he could designate one of the variant blueprints as the new ¡°primary.¡± It didn''t seem to do anything to the experience gains, but it cleaned up his interface a bit, so that was nice. It had been a big day, though, so he was dead tired. He had no idea where Ruth was getting the energy to keep going. She was still carving runes under Miriam''s direction as if it was her sole purpose in life. At least she had something to do besides fight. He, of all people, wouldn''t throw shade for her wanting to fight. But you had to do something else or you''d go mental. It was growing dark by the time he stepped outside, and there weren''t many people out on the streets. Even in a decent-sized town like this, you didn''t want to spend too much time out at night. Walls were only so much protection. The streets were reasonably well-lit, at least. The new Enchanters had been making plenty of rune-lights as practice. That had also led to the revelation that apparently enchanted items¡ªor at least certain types¡ªdrew mana from the air. With so many around, they were actually reducing the ambient mana that people could draw on for other things. Josh felt as though he had probably heard that before somewhere. It wasn''t an actual problem yet, but Baara had started drafting legislation to limit the number of lights drawing on the mana, and keep them turned off during the day.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Once again, Josh was glad he didn''t have to deal with that headache. He hadn''t been planning ahead this much when he had usurped the previous mayor. His primary goal had just been to get his friends out of paying stupid taxes. Still, putting Baara in a position of power turned out to be a grand idea. There was an alley between two buildings that was dark. Josh frowned. This road led to the back of the mayor''s office. He had used it to leave earlier in the day. Still, he wasn''t in the mood to risk walking down a dark alley this close to the Jungle. There were too many monsters that specialized in stealth. There was a reason that most people only hunted during the day. He turned his back on the alley and took four steps. Then he spun back around and threw an [Empty Chop] behind him. Jael dodged like a shadow, flattening against the wall in a way that no human should ever be able to manage. Josh pressed the advantage as best as he could, throwing another [Empty Chop] at her. Her class was focused on stealth and ambushes. She had little defense, but she could annihilate him if he gave her a chance to recover. Unfortunately, she was hardly a novice. Instead of trying to dodge to the side again, she flowed up the side of the building as though she was made of ink and smoke. She leaped off the wall once she was high enough, landing behind Josh with two black knives in her hands. Josh had his ax out, and his missing fingers were throbbing. He had decent armor these days, between the pieces he''d looted from Mizuno and the things the new Crafters had managed to cook up. But he''d need better than decent to survive a Living Shadow Blade, even though she was like half his size. He knew for a fact that she had at least one spell that could ignore most of his defenses. ¡°Any chance we can talk this out?¡± he asked, only half-joking. She narrowed her eyes at him. ¡°You are a threat.¡± He let out a long breath. ¡°Lady, has anybody ever told you you''ve got a one-track mind?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Well, at least she was honest. She was still a complete nutter, of course. ¡°Look, you and your boss have been...¡± He sighed again. ¡°This has been a mess from start to finish. I want to blame you for everything, but I''ll admit I had a hand in stirring up this pot.¡± A small hand. ¡°No, you know, I need answers. Ruth''s dad figured out who I was, and went straight to the assassin option?¡± ¡°I have a very specific set of skills,¡± Jael said, unconcerned. ¡°I was the only tool available. Jonah believed that if I failed for whatever reason, you would flee to him for aid. This would allow him to re-evaluate and move on.¡± ¡°But why would I¡ªoh. He didn''t know Ruth knew about you. You were supposed to just be some mysterious assassin showing up out of nowhere. Then we''d run back to our wealthy benefactor.¡± A nod. Josh kept an eye on her knives. She remained ready to use them, but she hadn''t moved forward yet. With his sky-high Perception and Sensitivity scores, it took him effort to zero in on her, but he did it. He could even sense her mana, a bit, and she was keeping it mostly still. ¡°Well,¡± Josh said. ¡°He''s not a complete plonker, then.¡± He gave her a flat look. ¡°Still a mad choice for your brother.¡± ¡°Brother-in-law,¡± Jael corrected, so fast that it sounded like a reflex. ¡°He married my sister.¡± ¡°Oh. Sure, yeah.¡± He paused. ¡°Look, I know you''re working for the orc and the dragon and all that now, but you get how I''m not the lynchpin any more, right? Killing me won''t stop knowledge from spreading. It won''t stop the Crafter classes from spreading.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I can''t think what you''re even doing here, especially if you''re not trying to murk me¡ª¡± Josh froze. A distraction. Behind him, he heard the sound of boots on dirt. Someone with a stealth class had been sneaking up on him, very slowly. They had realized they had been made, and decided to accelerate their move. Josh spun around with an [Empty Chop]. He caught the old mayor Hawkins, dressed all in black, right in the chest. The man''s shroud caught the art, though it did shatter. He didn''t flinch, and tried to hit Josh in the neck with something. A knife? Josh stepped back, dodging by an inch, and threw out another [Empty Chop]. Several things happened at once. First, Josh felt strong hands grab his arms, pinning him in place as solidly as if he was trapped in a coffin. Second, his art hit Hawkins again, this time throwing up a spray of blood. Hawkins screamed, and this time he did flinch back. It didn''t help Josh much, though, because he couldn''t move despite all his struggling. Third, he heard a girlish scream. All three of them turned to see that Baara had wandered out of the office at some point. She stared at the scene in horror, hands over her face. Josh made his decision instantly. Baara didn''t even have her father''s Pyrolance, and Josh wouldn''t have bet on her odds against one of these people in the best of circumstances. She wasn''t a fighter. ¡°RUN!¡± he yelled. He specifically didn''t use her name. If they didn''t know who she was, they might think she was no one important. ¡°Find Ruth, the girl with the hammer!¡± Baara looked briefly confused, but turned on her heel and fled. She''d likely be back in minutes. He seriously doubted he had minutes. Hawkins cursed as he wiped his mouth. He had an empty potion bottle in his hand. ¡°No time for gloating, then,¡± he muttered. He snapped something around Josh''s neck. With the strong arms pinning him, he had no chance of dodging.
ALERT: You have been collared! A level 24 Hunter has slapped a Slaver''s Collar on you. Come on, seriously? He''s literally half your level! You must follow your master''s orders, and may not harm your master or attempt to remove the collar. I want to make some BDSM jokes, but this is just sad. Level 24? Even you could beat this idiot in a fair fight!
¡°Stop,¡± Hawkins said. Josh stopped struggling. Well, he thought. Shit. Chapter 54 - Slavery (part 1) Josh had been hit with a Slaver''s Collar exactly twice before. The first time, it had been a joke from a friend of his who liked experimenting with different [Tamer] classes. They weren''t really friends after that incident. The second time had been when he and his sister had been arrested for trespassing on a government training facility. That had actually worked out okay in the end, but it had still given Josh a strong dislike for certain types of government officials. He wondered idly, as his feet moved of their own accord following his captors out of the village, if a former mayor counted as a government official. Should he consider Hawkins a whole new category all his own, or just lump him in with the rest? Meaningless thoughts like that helped to distract him from his towering rage and genuine fear. Slaver''s Collars were rare and expensive. Officially, they were completely illegal for any and all uses. Even if many shady characters found a use for them in the background, both governmental and criminal, most people still flinched whenever they were mentioned. There were too many stories of what it was like under a Slaver''s Collar. Solomon, the Tamer, had been collared once, about fifty years ago. Seeing one of the Eight Heroes being used as a weapon had left a very strong impression on the young culture of the new world, even if he had ultimately escaped before he did too much damage. Now, most right-minded people destroyed Slaver''s Collars on sight. Still, Josh had never been so naive as to believe that they were all gone. It was like being a puppet. That was what got Josh about it, every time. The collar didn''t do anything to his mind, he could still think and reason perfectly normally. But every single muscle, all the way down to his smallest toes and his eyes, were under the complete control of the one who collared him. Even walking normally like this, hands manacled behind him, guards around him in case of monsters, it didn''t feel like walking. It felt like someone was playing with him like a doll, like they were reaching down and forcing his limbs to move with each and every step. He couldn''t even ignore it. It was too strange a sensation, too much an intrusion and an imposition. He could feel the collar around his neck constantly, in every sense of the word. Josh''s missing fingers throbbed. He ignored it as best he could. He couldn''t even scratch. There were a number of guards around him, mostly Thugs and one that he suspected was a Tough Thug. The leader of that group from the pit. Michael, right? Well, they were all big guys who could match Josh in size. They were mostly there so that the monsters didn''t kill him before they got him to his destination. Mostly, but not entirely. They were also there to keep an eye on him. People could break out of a Slaver''s Collar, especially when there was such a level disparity with the one who collared them. Why hadn''t Hawkins had someone else do it? Josh hadn''t made a serious attempt to break free yet. After all, they could just collar him again, this time by someone of a higher level. Maybe if Hawkins trusted people more, they would have done that to start. They got out of the village quickly. Despite all the improvements that Josh and Baara had made to the wall, it was still far from a fortress. It wasn''t really designed to impede people much. It didn''t take long to find a gap in the patrols and slip out without anyone noticing. Honestly, that was probably for the best. If anyone tried to interfere, Jael would probably kill them before they could blink. If not her, the four Thugs would likely make a pretty good go of it. For now, Josh was alive, and being taken somewhere. That meant that they needed him for something. Of course, there were many terrible things you could force a [Crafter] to do while wearing a Slaver''s Collar. Josh had barely recovered from his own little voluntary overwork binge, he didn''t need to do it again for someone else. One of the Thugs cursed under his breath. At first, Josh thought nothing of it. The man was probably just dealing with normal bugs or something. But a few moments later, the lead Thug stopped and turned back. ¡°We lost someone,¡± he said. Next to Josh, Jael tensed. Hawkins scoffed. ¡°If he can''t survive a short walk through the Jungle, then I don''t know what he''s even doing on this side of the Burn Line!¡± He waved a hand at himself. ¡°I''m lower-level and I''m fine!¡± No one saw fit to mention that he was in the middle of the formation consisting of people almost twice his level. In fact, wasn''t he a Hunter? If he''d been cultivating his abilities at all, he should be able to find his missing man easily. He didn''t even bother trying, though, and the lead Thug¡ªMichael¡ªstopped for a minute to look for him. They eventually found the man''s body tangled up in the limbs of a tree. No one was sure if the tree was the monster or if a different monster had left him up there after killing him. The body hadn''t been eaten, but that didn''t mean much. Plenty of monsters murked humans and then didn''t bother eating them. Regardless, they gave it a wide berth, and weren''t attacked further. They were certainly more on their guard from then on out, though. The Jungle was always hungry. Eventually, they came to their destination: A dungeon, mostly concealed in a small cave in a hill. The cave was small enough that Josh could see all the way through when standing at the entrance. Still, it hid the dungeon entrance well enough, especially with the Jungle overgrowing outside. He could understand how Anna and her patrols had missed this one. Or maybe it was new? There were a couple guards around the hatch. After a quick discussion about their missing friend, a full party entered the dungeon. Josh was forced by the collar to put his hand on the hatch, in addition to Jael, Hawkins, and Michael.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have discovered the dungeon STAGING GROUND. Spawn level: 16.
...okay. That felt a tad ominous. Once they were inside, no one else followed. He wondered if there were already four people in the dungeon. They didn''t let more than eight people inside. Well, they normally didn''t. There were a lot of weird things going on with dungeons these days. The inside of the dungeon was clean. If Josh had to guess, it hadn''t existed long enough for any of the monsters to start making nests or the like. Not that he saw any monsters as they led him through the chambers. Seemed they had been cleared out. When they got to the final chamber, they found Hou Zheng holding court. As Josh had expected, there were four people total, hovering around Hou Zheng and the rift. The orc was back in his full armor, but he didn''t have the concealing helmet, so Josh assumed that the others knew what he was. The other three were wiry men with practical armor designed for speed. They wore masks similar to Josh''s own, covering just enough of their faces to foul a casual use of Identify. Josh recognized the look of professional mercenaries. They were like reclaimers, but more willing to take missions to fight people. He didn''t recognize this actual company, which wasn''t a surprise. They usually operated pretty far from the Burn Line, unless there was a major mission that the government wanted to hire them for. Josh was amused at how Hou Zheng towered over them. They weren''t exactly small men, but next to the orc they looked like children clustering around a parent. When he saw Josh, he waved off his men and their paperwork. They stepped back without a word. ¡°Mister Hundredborn,¡± Hou Zheng said with a genuine smile. ¡°It is a pleasure to see you again.¡± Josh said nothing. Hawkins had ordered him to be quiet, and he had no interest in fighting the collar over this. There was a pause. ¡°Ah. Yes.¡± The orc sighed. ¡°Jael, if you wouldn''t mind...¡± ¡°I''m not the one who collared him,¡± she said stiffly. Hou Zheng muttered something under his breath in Chinese. It sounded sarcastic. He raised his voice again. ¡°Will someone please give him permission to speak?¡± Hawkins snorted. ¡°Very well.¡± He waved a hand. ¡°Answer his questions.¡± Josh still didn''t say anything. After all, Hou Zheng hadn''t asked him anything yet. Hou Zheng nodded. ¡°Right. Let''s get down to brass tacks, as they say.¡± He pulled his sleeve back, revealing the bracer on his arm. ¡°Do you know what this is?¡± ¡°An enchanted item.¡± Josh''s mouth moved without his express consent. That was all that the collar forced him to say, but he decided to continue on his own. ¡°I found something similar on Mizuno. It was burned out.¡± Hou Zheng nodded. ¡°Yes, that is about what I expected. These bracers have a number of lifelink functions. It is very common for them to burn out on the death of their owner. But do you know what it does?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°It controls dungeons.¡± Josh blinked. Then blinked again. ¡°The dungeons control the rifts,¡± he said slowly. ¡°Control the dungeon, and you can alter how the rift functions. Maybe even use it for travel.¡± ¡°Exactly. That is the primary purpose of these bracers. Though, I should note, that is not the primary purpose of a dungeon. Or a rift. They do not enjoy being used in such a manner, and it causes... complications.¡± Josh raised an eyebrow. ¡°Complications like a gaggle of rifts appearing?¡± ¡°Oh no, that is quite an expected result.¡± The big man shrugged. ¡°It is simply the way the worlds work. If you rip a hole through the fabric of reality, it will not repair itself. Not quickly, spirits know. That is what the dungeons are for. Sealing up those rifts.¡± Josh got the basic idea. He wasn''t sure how that fit in with adventurers wandering in and killing everything to seal up the rift, though. He was tempted to ask about it, before pushing that aside. That was not why he was here today. Well, the reason he was here was because he had been kidnapped. But he figured he could at least do some good while he was in front of the man who had answers. Hou Zheng seemed willing to talk, if nothing else. ¡°I can think of a few ways to use a trick like that strategically,¡± Josh said. ¡°Bring people through one at a time, or open up a dungeon and let all the monsters out. That sort of thing.¡± ¡°Neither is an option, unfortunately.¡± He held up his bracer. ¡°This only works on the wearer, and I only have one. I can''t even pass it to my allies, because it is life-bonded. And there is simply no way to open a dungeon early and let the monsters out. Period. If it even seems like that might happen, the dungeon will instead collapse and throw everything into the void. It is instant death.¡± Well, that explained why the dragon wasn''t trying to escape that way, at least. Briefly, Josh wondered if it was possible to finish the dragon''s dungeon and dump him into the void. If one of them had tried to touch the rift at the beginning, would this mess already be over? Maybe that was why the dragon had been curled up around the rift so tightly. ¡°So why are you making so many rifts, then?¡± Josh asked. ¡°You said it was an expected result. Well, you had to expect that we''d notice a bunch of new dungeons popping up.¡± Hou Zheng grunted. ¡°If you haven''t figured it out already, then I do not have the time to educate you further.¡± He sounded genuinely regretful, as though he''d like nothing more than to continue lecturing on dungeon and rift mechanics. Josh, for his part, suspected it was the theory about trying to find a dungeon that was broken the right way. ¡°I did not bring you here to discuss my plans.¡± It clicked for Josh then, and he sighed. ¡°You want to try to recruit me again.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± ¡°I guess I should admire your persistence and all that,¡± Josh said dryly. ¡°But why do you think it will go any different this time?¡± ¡°Because this time, I come with payment.¡± He held out his hand, holding four bloodstones. Chapter 55 - Slavery (part 2) Josh froze. He didn''t even notice that Jael was behind him before she unlocked his manacles and freed his hands. Hawkins ordered him to step forward and check the stones. He barely even heard, and walked forward in a daze. He checked the stones one after another.
Scavenger (Gatherer). Primary statistics: Strength, Perception. This is a Basic Utility class of the Gatherer role. Collect and recycle machinery and devices.
Bookworm (Scholar). Primary statistics: Capacity, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Scholar role. Read and comprehend new books and other forms of information.
Runner (Explorer). Primary statistics: Agility, Constitution. This is a Basic Utility class of the Explorer role. Run at great speeds for long distances.
Mechanist (Crafter). Primary statistics: Agility, Flexibility. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and devices from smaller parts.
Josh couldn''t breathe. Four new classes, all Utility classes. Scavenger was worth a mint, especially with all the junk still scattered around and grown over by the Jungle. He knew Mary would probably sell her parents for a Gatherer''s inventory, and he was pretty sure that careful class advancement would lead to other Gatherer classes like Farmer or Miner. Bookworm was one of those weirdly specific generic classes. It was focused on novels and entertainment, on finding new and interesting things to read. It was still a Scholar class, though, and thus came with a number of useful tricks. It might even lead to the Lawyer or Diplomat classes, both of which would be invaluable. Mechanist was what he had been aiming for this entire time. Well, one of the stepping stones to more advanced magitech classes. On its own, it wasn''t much more than any of the Crafter classes he already had. In fact, if you didn''t already have Metalcrafting from another source, it was actually pretty annoying, since you couldn''t make machine parts yourself. But it could save them all, used right. And the Runner. That damned Runner. He had never cared about that class, not really. It had plenty of uses, and it was a key component in quite a few advanced builds. If you knew what you were doing, it could grant abilities that let you outrun the wind, lend that speed to others, and eventually even teleport. Still, there were other, more specific Basic-tier classes that filled most jobs better. The Sprinter class was better for speed. The Stepper class was a magic-based Explorer class, so it was better for teleportation. And of course the Walker class was a better generalist foundational class. Josh still wanted it. He almost broke free of the collar''s control out of a sheer, frantic need to grab that bloodstone. To finally, finally, fix his mistake. He took a deep breath and decided to preview what he could get from the Mechanist bloodstone. It was the most important. Besides the obvious option to advance to Mechanist, there were three options.
Smith (Crafter). Primary statistics: Strength, Perception. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Forge metal objects into shape with physical strength.
Tinkerer (Crafter). Primary statistics: Perception, Sensitivity. This is a Basic Utility class of the Crafter role. Make devices out of all sorts of materials.
For repairing EIGHT (8) complex mechanisms, you have gained access to the Metal Mechanist class. Note: This class requires and consumes six (6) Sidero Crystals.
Metal Mechanist (Crafter). Primary statistics: Agility, Flexibility. This is an Improved Utility class of the Crafter role. Build objects, equipment, and devices from smaller parts.
Wait, he could get an Improved-tier class? What was that about a sidero crystal? Oh right, the crystal he had won from the metal dungeon. It looked like while the class was metal-themed, it wasn''t actually of the metal element. Josh preferred it that way. He''d need more crystals by the time he reached his next advancement, but he could swing that. His eyes went back to the Runner bloodstone. ¡°Step back,¡± Hawkins ordered, sounding almost bored. Josh felt his feet move him back. Away from the bloodstones. His hands didn''t shake in rage. He didn''t grind his teeth. But good God it was close. ¡°All I ask is that you stop trying to interfere,¡± Hou Zheng said calmly. ¡°You are making great strides in this village. You can turn it into the new center of the world. As much as I do not believe you can save this world, you still have a chance.¡± Josh took a deep breath. ¡°What happened to pretending the dragon won''t destroy the whole damn City?¡± ¡°I still believe damage can be kept to a minimum,¡± Hou Zheng said. He remained maddeningly calm. ¡°And I still have the authority to offer you and your friends escape from this world entirely. However, you have demonstrated that you do not trust such promises.¡± He held out the stones again. ¡°I suspect that you trust this more. You have to know what you can do with these.¡± Josh thought about it for a long moment. Tried to put everything together and think it through logically. Stopping the dragon themselves had always been a long shot. Their only hope had ever been to either inform the City or the Eight Immortals, preferably both. Would it be so bad to just take these stones and... accept the end?This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. What had the City ever done for him? He had tried to play by the rules, like his sister had asked, and he had found a pit of vipers. He conquered half the criminal underworld only to get thrown out for disrupting their precious little system. Despite considering themselves the beacon of civilization, all they really had going for them was a better citystone and the growth pods. What would be lost, if the City fell? Okay, thinking it through logically, a lot would be lost. Most of the world''s active factories were in the City. Countless libraries filled with all of human knowledge would be in danger if a dragon rampaged through the streets. Even if not one single person died¡ªand that was bloody unlikely, even if they evacuated¡ªthe loss to the world''s industry and knowledge would be incalculable. And even putting aside all that, the dragon wanted to take the Tower, and the dungeons. Remove them entirely. Which meant the rifts would be naked to the world, yet still spilling out monsters. That might not sound like much, but he had seen what happened when monsters roamed freely. Then again... ¡°Let''s say I agree,¡± he said, stalling for time. ¡°What then?¡± ¡°Then I give you the bloodstones, and you stay in this town for the rest of the reset,¡± Hou Zheng said. ¡°Right, sure, yeah. But how do you plan on making me keep up my end? I''d like to think I''m an honest sort, but you barely know me from Adam. I don''t think you''ll just take my word on shite this big.¡± Hawkins scoffed. ¡°We do have a Slaver''s Collar on you.¡± Josh didn''t bother dignifying that with a response. Even if he couldn''t get it off himself, his friends would have no trouble. And if Hawkins had enough collars lying around to enslave that many people, his rule of the town would have been very different. Hou Zheng ignored him as well, keeping his eyes on Josh. ¡°Are you aware of magic contracts?¡± ¡°Sure, but no one can make them any more¡ª¡± He stopped, realizing. ¡°Of course. You had someone with a Lawyer class in your higher realms or whatever write you up a contract for this.¡± ¡°Well, not for this,¡± Hou Zheng admitted. ¡°I do not have that much foresight. And I can''t return to the higher worlds outside of the solstice. Not easily, at least. No, I had a friend write me up a number of blank contracts that I can fill in now.¡± Josh frowned. ¡°That''s not how Lawyer contracts work. They have to write everything up themselves. Explicitly.¡± ¡°My friend is a Master-tier Arch Judicial Contract Lawyer,¡± Hou Zheng said, his tone dry as dust. ¡°I promise you, he can do quite a bit more than a Basic-tier Lawyer class.¡± He pulled a scroll out of thin air; a storage ring, Josh guessed. ¡°If you''d like to begin?¡± Josh suddenly really wished Darius was here. Or Baara, or Abraham, or Abraham''s wife Miriam, or really anybody who was slightly better at paperwork than he was. God, he''d even take Mary, if that meant she''d be doing it instead of him. Hou Zheng wrote up the contract quickly, and Josh took it in his hands as if it would explode. The concept of a magic contract was pretty simple: The signatories were magically compelled to follow the contract. You couldn''t break out of them with brute force like a Slaver''s Collar, but on the other hand you couldn''t be affected by one without your express consent. If you tried to sign a contract under duress, it would simply fail. It would also break automatically at the solstice. Or, to be more specific, it would break if any party involved in the contract was affected by the reset. He read over the terms and conditions carefully. It wasn''t that complicated. In exchange for Josh staying on this side of the mountains, making no attempt to send anyone over the mountains for the purpose of warning anyone about the dragon, and actively preventing anyone from doing the same, he would be given the rewards already agreed upon. Those were listed again: Four copies of four different bloodstones, all of which were listed. Extraction from ¡°World 16777-H216 (Earth-type),¡± which Josh confirmed was the term for his planet, for him and all his loved ones. The list of loved ones was both depressingly and hilariously small. It just listed Ruth, Mary, and Darius. His sister wasn''t even on the list. Not that she''d ever be willing to go, of course. ¡°I think my friends will have more people they''d like put on this list,¡± Josh noted wryly. Hou Zheng nodded. ¡°I will have them sign their own copies. They will be able to name their own.¡± Well, that was one loophole down. There would still be loopholes, of course, there always were. A static document could never last long against a mind actively trying to circumvent it. Even though Josh usually preferred the brute-force approach, he was sure he could find a way around it soon enough. Still, that wasn''t something he could really rely on. He wasn''t exactly some genius Lawyer himself. God, he''d literally never had that class. He was far from the type to pick up Scholar classes. He couldn''t trust his loophole skills against a priest and a dragon. ...his life was mental. He had a sudden, strong wave of nostalgia for the days when he was just another reclaimer on the Burn Line. That had been a life with a clear goal in front of him. Not easy, but simple. He had been making an obvious difference in the world. He shook his head to clear it. ¡°All right, so you can enforce things on my end. What about you?¡± ¡°I am signing as well.¡± ¡°Yeah, not what I meant.¡± He tapped the contract. ¡°I don''t see the dragon''s scrawl on this thing. What''s binding him?¡± Hou Zheng sighed. ¡°To be honest? Mostly his own apathy. He doesn''t care about you.¡± Josh narrowed his eyes. ¡°Your lies are shite. He''s sent two alien bounty hunters after me.¡± The big man snorted. ¡°That''s not quite the imposition on his time and money that you might think it is. I do not know the full details of his abilities, but I suspect hiring us was slightly easier than writing a letter. Our conflict is not something he is worried about. He is scratching an itch to remove an annoyance. Nothing more.¡± That shouldn''t have been as insulting as it was. Being underestimated was a good thing. Still, Josh couldn''t help but feel offended. ¡°Fine. So I''m an itch. He''s not going to fly a few miles out of his way to shoot a fireball at us. I''ll buy it.¡± Hou Zheng cocked his head to the side, eyebrow raised. ¡°Did you never scan him? He actually doesn''t have fire breath¡ª¡± ¡°Whatever!¡± Josh snapped, loud enough that the guards put their hands on their weapons. He ignored them. ¡°No dragon, that''s the important bit. What about everyone else?¡± He jerked a thumb at Hawkins and the rest of his cronies. ¡°What happens when I sign this? These buggers can jump me the second we''re done.¡± ¡°I''ve already signed a contract of my own,¡± Jael said. Her tone was flat, businesslike. ¡°Unless you break your contract or Ruth is in danger, I will not be able to interfere.¡± Hawkins, on the other hand, snorted. ¡°I haven''t signed anything.¡± He sighed dramatically. ¡°I suppose I can negotiate a treaty between us.¡± Chapter 56 - Slavery (part 3) ¡°I do not have unlimited blank contracts,¡± Hou Zheng said, a wry smile on his face. ¡°I will need several more for his companions.¡± He turned to Josh. ¡°I am willing to include a clause that requires I make Hawkins leave the area. I will not agree to attack him, however.¡± Josh raised an eyebrow. That might actually be worth signing. Especially if Hou Zheng drove Hawkins out before Mary and the others had to sign. Hawkins scoffed. ¡°Fine. You can both do whatever you like. I have my price already. I''ll survive anywhere in the world.¡± Josh was careful not to react to those words. You can both do whatever you like. He felt bonds loosening on him. Not entirely. He still couldn''t attack Hawkins or actively try to remove the Slaver''s Collar. But it had wiped out all of the standing orders. That gave him many more options. He struggled to keep his face passive, and willed his heart to slow. ¡°Let''s circle back. What happens if I say no? You just kill me on the spot?¡± He jerked a thumb at Jael. ¡°Maybe have her do it?¡± ¡°By all the spirits, I should,¡± Hou Zheng admitted, which actually made Josh respect him a bit more. At least he was honest. ¡°And I will admit that I am tempted. However, that will make it impossible to negotiate with your friends, which in turn will require a more violent solution. No, I would be forced to utilize my backup plan.¡± ¡°The dungeons.¡± Josh still didn''t have the full details. He was pretty sure that he knew it wasn''t monsters, though, so he used that. ¡°It''s something to do with the monsters, right? Or the rift crystals.¡± Pretending to be confident in false knowledge was a decent way of getting people to talk. Everyone loved correcting people. Hou Zheng shook his head sadly. ¡°I was hoping you would figure it out... but, no. That is not fair. You have only seen one dungeon even slightly like the one I am trying to find. It is understandable that you would not think of it.¡± The broken dungeon. So his plan did involve manipulating them somehow. Josh carefully didn''t react to that, either. ¡°I don''t suppose there''s any way that I can get out of this without signing anything? You let me go, continue on your little plan, and we try to kill each other like right honorable folks?¡± The orc smirked. ¡°I''m afraid not. As much as I would love to finish this all with a simple, honorable duel, I think we are well past that. If nothing else, I suspect Mayor Hawkins will be upset if he doesn''t get something else out of this.¡± Josh glanced over to see the little man scowling. Michael, the Tough Thug, loomed behind him like a mountain, ready for violence. He needed to finish this before he gave another order. ¡°All right, then,¡± he said with a shrug. ¡°Give me a pen, and let''s get to signing.¡± Hou Zheng pulled a fancy quill out of thin air. It had a foot-long brilliant rainbow feather attached to it, and Josh had no idea what sort of bird it could have come from. He didn''t think it was magical, just weird and fancy. Hou Zheng even pulled out an attendant ink pot, when every magical quill that Josh had ever seen never ran out of ink. He couldn''t help but bark out a laugh. ¡°Okay, yeah, that''s brilliant, I love it.¡± ¡°It''s important we both sign with the same quill and ink.¡± ¡°Hey, no complaints on my end.¡± He made a show of thinking for a moment. ¡°Does it have to be that ink, though?¡± Hou Zheng paused. ¡°No. Why?¡± ¡°No reason,¡± Josh said with a shrug. ¡°Just seeing that quill, I figured maybe the ink was some super expensive thing that needs six hours in direct sunlight to dry or something.¡± A somewhat awkward silence fell. Josh gave him an incredulous look that he didn''t have to fake in the slightest. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°It only takes ten minutes to dry,¡± Hou Zheng said stiffly. ¡°And it is absolutely beautiful once it does. It has this prismatic sheen that catches the light¡ª¡± Josh made a noise to stop him. ¡°Look, I''m happy you like your ink. But this is basically a couple steps up from a slave contract. Let''s go with something quick and dirty, yeah?¡± Another awkward silence fell, tripped over the previous silence, and lay there. ¡°Oh my God,¡± Josh said. ¡°That''s the only ink you have, isn''t it?¡± As a distraction, this actually was working out even better than he could have hoped, but really. ¡°My storage ring is far from infinite,¡± he muttered. ¡°Ink is a specialty item at the best of times, I can''t just¡ª¡± ¡°Look, look, it''s fine,¡± Josh said, patting the air to calm him down. ¡°I''ve got something that should work.¡± He activated his storage ring and pulled out a container full of liquid. The casual tone of the conversation had everyone off their guard. They were joking around, laughing, and he wasn''t making any trouble. He was willing to sign, wasn''t he? He was being helpful, wasn''t he? There was nothing wrong with him pulling something out of his storage ring.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Hawkins had already ordered him not to hurt anyone, after all. Biodiesel was normally stored in special containers, usually either metal or plastic. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, and Josh could make the metal containers now. He had gained a decent amount of experience making increasingly more complex cans for Abraham. However, when you had a storage ring, you didn''t need to bother with anything fancy like that. Plastic could be expensive this far out from the City, after all. Clay and ceramic, on the other hand, were literally as cheap as dirt. Many mages learned Earth spells that could crudely help the shaping process, and kilns were easy. Normally, you didn''t want to store anything volatile in ceramic unless you had to, for obvious reasons. The advantage of a storage ring was that you didn''t have to worry about anything breaking during transport. You just had to be a little careful when you took it out, and everything would be fine. Josh lobbed a ceramic tank of biodiesel at Hou Zheng. The tank was about the size of a man''s head, with a screw cap on the top. As it flew in the orc''s direction, Josh hit it with an [Empty Chop]. The tank shattered, showering everything in front of Josh in flammable liquid. One of the fun things about storage rings was that time didn''t pass inside them. Objects would come out exactly as they went in. Josh kept a few lit matches just for this sort of occasion. Hou Zheng went up with a very satisfying wave of heat. People started screaming, and Josh immediately threw himself to the ground. A gun went off. He hadn''t realized anyone had a firearm. He ignored it for now. He still had his shroud, and he still had work to do. Hou Zheng wasn''t screaming. He still had his shroud as well, so the fire didn''t hurt him. Not yet, at least. The fire clung to him, and would eat through his shroud in moments. Josh wished he''d had enough foresight to bring some napalm, which would have done even better. Well, live and learn. Still, there were a few things he could do to push that along. He threw another [Empty Chop] at the burning figure in front of him. He wanted to aim for his wrist, maybe cut off his hand and get the storage ring, but that wasn''t an option. Josh had enough experience to know better than to try for an impossible shot. He threw out another art, cutting deeper into the shroud. It popped like a soap bubble. All of a sudden, the small chamber was filled with the scent of burning hair and flesh. To Hou Zheng''s credit, he didn''t scream. He fell away and rolled on the ground, trying to put it out. Josh steeled his heart and focused on finishing him off. ¡°STOP!¡± Josh felt the word deep in his bones. Hawkins, it appeared, had gotten over his shock. He ground his teeth, but he couldn''t move. The collar on his neck burned cold, and his body wasn''t his own. His only respite was that, apparently, all of Hawk''s men thought the order was for them. No one attacked. Josh focused on himself, and on the collar. He had never broken a Slaver''s Collar before, but he was literally twice the level of the idiot who had put it on him. He would never get a better chance than this. It was like trying to break through a steel collar with his neck. The harder he pushed, the harder it grew, the colder it grew. He swore he could see his breath misting out in front of his face. He couldn''t hear anything beyond the roaring in his ears. Surely Hawkins was screaming more orders, but they didn''t affect him, so focused as he was on the pain. Or maybe time had stopped, and he was frozen in this eternal moment of torment. He forced his way through it. Forced his way through the pain and the cold with raw, hot fury. A little brat of a man had tried to collar him. A greedy little shit who had manipulated his way into power, who everyone hated so much that no one even cared when he was overthrown in a coup. That small-minded creature thought he could control him. Just when Josh thought it would be too much, just when he thought that the collar would kill him before he broke it... The collar fell off. As easy as that. It hit the ground with a dull sound. Josh shook his head and took in his surroundings. Hawkins and his guards were staring, open-mouthed, as if they hadn''t had any idea that it was even possible to break free of a Slaver''s Collar. Clearly, no one had told them how the things worked. They weren''t the ones Josh was worried about, though. Jael crouched over Hou Zheng, helping him put out the fire. Josh knew that he only had seconds before she realized he was free and decided to turn her attention to him. He was tempted to attack her. She was a specialized ambush [Attacker], he might actually be able to do real damage. Instead, he ran. He was surrounded by seven enemies, most of whom were about even with his level, if not far higher. This wasn''t the time to take unnecessary risks. Thankfully, no one was guarding the exit. Oh, there was a big Thug at the door. Clearly, no one wanted Josh to run away. But they hadn''t thought this through, because that was the slowest way to exit a dungeon. Instead, Josh reached over and touched the rift. The rift that was in the middle of a dungeon that had already been completely cleared of monsters.
Dungeon complete! Would you like to exit this dungeon, or close this rift? Warning: Exiting without closing the rift will grant no further rewards. Warning: Closing the rift will collapse the dungeon and kill any surviving monsters. No experience will be gained for monsters killed in this way. New rifts will no longer be prevented from forming in range.
Josh didn''t hesitate. He clicked on the exit option. There was a flash of white light, and then he was outside, standing on the hatch into the dungeon. He ran. He had been tempted to close the rift entirely, but that would have dumped all of them on the ground outside as the dungeon faded. It would have confused them, certainly, but once they realized what was happening, Josh would have been in arm''s reach of seven angry mercenaries. Josh ran out of the cave, past the startled guards. He pointed back towards the dungeon. ¡°Monsters!¡± he cried. ¡°Monsters are escaping!¡± Just as he hoped, the guards turned their attention back to the dungeon, too confused to do anything else. Sounding authoritative, or at least clear, was an important skill in an emergency. It was better than most [Tamer] magic at getting people to do what you wanted. Josh didn''t wait for anyone else to come out of the dungeon and explain what he had done. He just ran straight back to town, through the Jungle. Of course, that almost got him killed four times. Alone and unarmed, more than a few monsters thought he would be easy prey. He was barely able to fend them off long enough to escape. The Jungle was always hungry. Chapter 57 - The Second Siege of San Juan Bautista (part 1) Josh returned to the town broken, bleeding, and royally pissed off. ¡°Where the hell you been?¡± Mary demanded when he walked through the gate. Most of his friends and allies were standing there in full gear, clearly ready to leave. ¡°We were just about to send out a search party!¡± That actually got him to crack a smile. ¡°Wot? I thought you might need the exercise. A little bit of excitement is good for the heart.¡± He winked at her. Ruth punched him in the shoulder. ¡°We thought something happened to you!¡± Then she looked him up and down. ¡°Uh, actually, what did happen to you? Where''s your ax?¡± She sniffed the air. ¡°Did someone set you on fire?¡± ¡°Other way around. And yeah, I''m going to need another ax.¡± He rubbed his forehead. He was a little dizzy. Did he have a concussion? He didn''t remember hitting his head. ¡°Uh, also, it''s possible that we have incoming.¡± An older man cast a regenerative spell on Josh. His head immediately cleared, and he gave a grateful nod in the Healer''s direction. ¡°Where were you?¡± Mary demanded. ¡°Bloody hell, man, you look like you went three rounds barehanded with the Knight herself!¡± Darius pushed his way forward. ¡°That''s not important right now. What do you mean, we have incoming?¡± Josh let out a breath. ¡°So, turns out Hawkins has a couple Slaver''s Collars stashed away.¡± He gave them a quick summary of what happened with Hou Zheng at the dungeon. He glossed over the explanation of the dungeon-manipulation bracer and the contract, as he felt those were less important right now. ¡°He''s definitely coming with as many troops as he can,¡± Josh finished. ¡°I just don''t know if he already found the broken dungeon he''s looking for.¡± He was beginning to regret not closing that rift. What if that was the dungeon Hou Zheng needed? He pushed that thought away. He could spiral into insanity if he kept going over what-ifs and could-have-beens. He certainly had enough regrets to feel guilty over already. Darius started ordering around the guards and scavengers that had gathered around. Anna sent out orders to withdraw most of her people, but she said she''d keep a few out in the Jungle as scouts. Terah, who represented the delving crews, promised to get the news out to them. They''d help defend the walls, or at least know to stay out of the way. Josh didn''t take part in most of the preparations. He''d spent the night marching through the Jungle, been interrogated, and then run through the Jungle in an adrenaline-fueled sprint that he had barely survived. He was crashing, hard. He wanted nothing so much as to sleep for a week. Healing magic could only help so much. He settled for stumbling into the mayor''s office and sitting on a couch. Baara was around somewhere, filling out paperwork and overall making sure the town was functional. Through his haze of exhaustion, Josh was thankful that he had finally given her full permissions for the citystone. The last thing he wanted was to die and leave the place confused in a time of crisis. ¡°All right,¡± Darius said, as he put a mug of coffee in front of Josh. ¡°What haven''t you told us?¡± Josh looked down at the steaming mug. ¡°Did you know I fought a coffee plant once?¡± he said idly. ¡°It was called a Coffea Arabica Blood Drinker. I think it was level sixty? I was level seventy at the time, and I still had trouble with it. The damn thing had drunk four towns dry before word got out and they sent adventurers after it...¡± Darius snapped his fingers in front of Josh''s face. ¡°Focus. What didn''t you tell us?¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Josh blinked, then nodded. ¡°Magic contracts,¡± he said. ¡°Hou Zheng wanted to bind me, and was willing to agree to quite a bit for it. He offered to remove Hawkins from the area, but couldn''t promise to keep the dragon away.¡± Mary scoffed. ¡°If he can''t keep the dragon away, what''s the damn point?¡± Josh shrugged. ¡°He insisted that the dragon wouldn''t care about us so long as we agreed not to interfere.¡± He took a long sip of coffee before continuing. God, it was terrible. Sugar cane was hard to cultivate these days. Sugar monsters were dangerous. ¡°He also offered bloodstones.¡± Mary, Ruth, and Darius all looked at him sharply. Everyone else was outside, preparing for another attack. ¡°What stones?¡± Darius asked. ¡°Did you get any?¡± ¡°Scavenger, Bookworm, and Mechanist.¡± Josh let out a long breath. ¡°And Runner.¡± Mary flinched at that last one. Darius and Ruth didn''t notice. Ruth leaned forward eagerly. ¡°Did you get any?¡± Josh shook his head. ¡°He had a storage ring.¡± ¡°DIBS!¡± Ruth cried. Mary shot her an angry look. ¡°You can''t just call dibs on a storage ring!¡± ¡°Yes I can, because I just did!¡± Josh snorted. ¡°You''re just mad you didn''t call it first.¡± ¡°Shut it, you.¡± Mary thought for a moment, then grinned. ¡°Fine. You get the ring, but I get the contents.¡± Ruth didn''t even have to think about it. She held out her hand, a big grin on her face, and they shook on it. ¡°I don''t suppose I get any say in this?¡± Darius asked wryly. ¡°Nope!¡± they both answered. Darius sighed, then spoke quietly to Josh. ¡°If there is anything particularly valuable in that ring, we are agreed that Mary should share, correct?¡± Josh waved him off. ¡°Yeah, yeah, she''s just messing around. She''s not going to hoard the bloodstones, at least.¡± Darius nodded. ¡°Okay,¡± Ruth said, clapping her hands. ¡°Preparation time! I finally perfected an actual grenade, made out of, you know, metal, so I''ve been making as many of those as possible. Thanks for the materials for that, Josh. What else do we need?¡± ¡°I do need a new ax,¡± Josh said. He smiled weakly at Ruth. ¡°Sorry, they took my last one. If I''d known, I would have put it away in my storage ring.¡± She blinked, then got up. ¡°One sec.¡± She ran off, only to return a moment later with another ax. It was the same basic woodchopping ax he''d had before, but this one had more rune-chains inscribed all over it. There were two different ones on either side of the head, then a few smaller ones linked together down the shaft. Josh didn''t know what linking the circles together did, but it certainly seemed more complex. He took it with appreciation. ¡°Nice. It do more than the weight changing trick?¡± ¡°Yeah. I wanted to do a thing where you can throw it then summon it back to your hand, too, but I couldn''t get that to work.¡± She pointed at one of the rune-chains. ¡°I did get it so that you can throw it super hard, though!¡± Josh couldn''t think of how that would be useful. ¡°Thanks!¡± he said. He quickly searched for something else to say. ¡°Yeah, uh, yeah, that''s¡ªwhat are these other rune-chains?¡± As she excitedly went over all the improvements to the weapon, Josh noticed Mary and Darius step away out of the corner of his eye. They seemed to be arguing about something. On its own, that wasn''t much of a surprise. Both of them were the type to like arguing in general, and putting them together was a quick recipe for an explosion. This was different, though. They were arguing for a lot longer than usual, with Mary waving her hands angrily. Instead of a quick pop and flare, he was worried that this was building up to something nuclear. Ruth, of course, hadn''t even noticed. ¡°And I couldn''t get a sharpness enchantment working, but I think this rune-chain will enhance the durability, so at the very least you won''t have to sharpen it as much, so if you could give me some feedback¡ª¡± ¡°Can you hold that thought just a mo?¡± Josh interrupted. She looked a little hurt, so he was quick to reassure her. He jutted his chin at Mary and Darius. ¡°You think those two are all right?¡± Chapter 58 - The Second Siege of San Juan Bautista (part 2) If there was anything that could distract Ruth from runes, it was people in distress. Her expression immediately changed to worried. ¡°Oh, no! What do you think is going on? Come on, let''s go talk to them!¡± Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along. Josh couldn''t help but feel amused by the fact that he was being bodily dragged by a girl who was literally half his size. He really needed to put some points into Strength soon. Maybe once he got to Improved-tier? Yeah, then his insane point distribution wouldn''t be as important, and he could spread out a bit more. By the time they got over to them, Mary had her hands tucked under her armpits and wasn''t looking at anyone. That was a very bad sign. That meant she was genuinely worried that she might hit someone if she didn''t control herself. Darius, to his credit, seemed to have realized that, and had stepped back to take a breath. He had his glasses off, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ¡°Oi,¡± Josh said, with forced cheer. ¡°What''s all this? You have a party without us?¡± Both of them glared at him. He''d call that a win, since they weren''t glaring at each other any more. ¡°It''s about that stupid bird,¡± Mary muttered. ¡°Little D is making a thing of it.¡± ¡°Don''t call me¡ª¡± Darius looked confused for a moment, then rolled his eyes. ¡°Don''t call me that, either.¡± ¡°What bird?¡± Ruth asked, bewildered. ¡°Is this about that hawk monster?¡± ¡°They''re talking about Anna,¡± Josh said with a sigh. ¡°You know, the crazy bint with the weird sword.¡± ¡°...what does that have to do with birds¡ª¡± ¡°It doesn''t matter,¡± Mary snapped. ¡°It doesn''t matter what happened with her, or what didn''t happen with her, because who I do or don''t do isn''t anyone''s bloody business!¡± Josh closed his eyes and let out a long breath. ¡°This is about sex.¡± It wasn''t a question. ¡°No,¡± they both said instantly. ¡°It kind of sounds like it is,¡± Ruth pointed out. ¡°Well, it''s not,¡± Mary snapped. ¡°No one in this room ever has to worry about who or what I''m shagging!¡± Darius opened his mouth, but before he could shove his foot down it, Josh interrupted. ¡°ENOUGH!¡± he yelled. Everyone, including Ruth, turned to stare at him. ¡°Look, we''ve got a freaking magical orc and an army of mercenaries ready to pop up in our backyard sometime between yesterday and five minutes from now. We''re all dealing with too much shite right now to toss this stinker onto the pile.¡± He pointed at Mary. ¡°You, don''t talk to anyone about anyone''s pants, including your own.¡± He pointed at Darius. ¡°You, likewise.¡± ¡°I never accused her of anything,¡± he insisted. ¡°I simply wanted to know where Anna was, as she is an important part of our defenses!¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°And then you started laying down trap words and double-meanings and¡ª¡± ¡°ENOUGH!¡± This time, they just glared at him, but they did shut up. ¡°I don''t care. Keep this in your damn bedroom.¡± ¡°We''re not¡ª¡± Mary began. She was interrupted by Ruth, of all people, covering Mary''s mouth with a hand. ¡°Nope,¡± she said. ¡°Nope, nope, nope. Josh is right, not the time, not the place. You two can finish up your weird hate-fueled escapades later. Right now, we need to get ready for the inevitable attack.¡± Darius glared at her, but wisely didn''t argue. Instead, he turned to Josh. ¡°When do we expect the attack to begin?¡± Josh crossed his arms and shrugged. ¡°That''s the big question, innit? Dunno if the big guy had everything ready or not. Think the fact that we haven''t seen anything yet is probably a good sign, though.¡± The door burst open, and Anna ran into the room. ¡°My boys saw something. You coming?¡± Mary glared at Josh. ¡°This is not my fault.¡± Anna laughed. ¡°So you''re not the one who set the big guy on fire?¡± ¡°Okay, that bit is my fault.¡± Josh paused. ¡°Wait, how do you know about that?¡± She jerked her head to the exit. ¡°Because he''s out front, yelling for you.¡± Josh looked at his friends. As one, they all turned and ran outside. Once they reached the top of the wall, they were greeted with a disturbing sight. Josh had expected an army of mercenaries. There were certainly enough soldiers, reclaimers, and random kids with too many levels and not enough sense in the world. There was always someone willing to pay for violence, so there were always people willing to sell it. Mercenaries varied between fresh-faced kids who didn''t know which end of a sword to hold to some of the highest level people in the world outside of the Eight Immortals. Josh had thought that they were prepared for the worst. He thought Hou Zheng might have managed to hire some of Jonah Moore''s peers, real monsters like Rezin the Ruined, who famously rolled a fire mage every single reset. Or Golgotha, that weird [Healer] who kept trying to reinforce his bones with steel, and seemed to get closer every year. He hadn''t been prepared for tanks. He had never actually seen tanks in real life, at least outside of a museum. They had been obsolete long before humanity lost the ability to make more. Pound for pound and credit for credit, high-level classes were just more effective in every way. An artillery mage could do at least as much damage as a tank, a decent Defender could survive at least as much damage, and they''d both be more mobile to boot. Even with the fact that people had to re-train their classes every single year, they were better than tanks in every single way. But damn, seeing armored vehicles sitting there, massive gun barrels pointed at the wall, was certainly intimidating. They were small tanks, admittedly. Also, it was possible that they weren''t technically tanks. He had never kept up on that sort of military terminology. What was the difference between an Armored Fighting Vehicle and an official tank? It couldn''t just be the treads. Regardless of exactly what they were called, Josh didn''t think anyone on their side of the wall had been expecting to see four heavily armored vehicles with very large cannons roll up to their front gate. There were mercenaries too, of course, but they were almost redundant. They could handle mercenaries. While most of them were wearing masks, the ones who weren''t were between levels thirty and forty, with two or three that Josh spotted barely tapping level fifty. The defenders outnumbered them, and with a better defensive position, they could hold them off. Except that those tanks looked ready to blow their defensive position to smithereens. Chapter 59 - The Second Siege of San Juan Bautista (part 3) As Anna had promised, at the front of the crowd was Hou Zheng, the orc [Healer]. He stood at the center of the line, flanked by the four tanks like an honor guard, and had his arms crossed in front of him as he looked up at the wall. Gone was his leather full-body armor. Instead, he wore long, flowing robes of red and white, layers intricately folded around and within each other. Despite how seemingly ostentatious they were at first glance, Josh soon realized that they would offer a full range of movement in a fight. The sleeves were wide to let him move freely, and while the lower bit was long, it didn''t drag on the ground or bunch up around his legs. Josh had definitely seen this type of clothing before, in Chinese dramas and the like. He had a distant memory of them being referred to as Taoist ritual clothing, and he had a strong feeling that this was what Chinese priests were expected to wear. The outer robe was red with a few dashes of orange, evoking a clear feeling of fire. The inner robe was white, clean and pure. All that paled in comparison to Hou Zheng''s face. He wasn''t wearing a helmet, or a mask, or even a hat. A quick scan told Josh that he was a [Level 80 Healer], which was worrying all on its own. He looked up at Josh, grinning around his massive tusks. He was making no attempt to hide his identity now. Everyone could see that he was very much not a local human, and no matter how this battle shook out, people were going to have questions. Hou Zheng''s own mercenaries kept glancing at him, as if they still couldn''t quite believe what they were seeing. Josh didn''t think he was doing it to show off, though. Josh was pretty sure the burns just hurt too much. Hou Zheng''s face was a mass of pale green burn scars, flesh twisted as though melted. The scars all looked ancient, as if he had been healing for months if not years, and his eyes were still bright and strong. They still looked painful, though, even more so considering that Josh knew exactly how much magical healing must have hurt to heal them that fast. One commonly quoted truism was that healing a wound hurt as much as getting it in the first place. That wasn''t actually true, but it was close enough to be quoted, and fast healing universally hurt more than slow healing. Josh thought back to their various fights. Hou Zheng had never fought like a support caster, and rarely acted as anything but a front-line combatant. Josh didn''t know what class he had now, but it was likely some hybrid Attacker/Healer class designed to let him fight up close and personal. Most [Healers] could easily fix burn scars at such a high level. Biodiesel burned hot, but not so hot as to permanently scar beyond what even magical healing could accomplish. Josh felt his missing fingers throb in pain. He clutched his ax, then forced himself to calm down. ¡°Oi, you didn''t need to go to all this trouble!¡± he called, once his friends had assembled beside him. ¡°You want some burn salves, our Alchemist works for fair rates!¡± He had no idea if Sarah had any burn salve recipes yet. Probably. She had already invented some sort of magical toothpaste. Hou Zheng chuckled, and a low, uncomfortable laugh reverberated through his mercenaries. Jael, Josh noted, did not laugh. She was not wearing a mask either, and kept her eyes on Ruth, standing next to him. Josh scanned her. [Level 72 Attacker]. Of course. The good news was that she was out in the open. She was stealth-focused. As long as they kept an eye on her, her primary advantages were nullified. ¡°I can deal with a little bit of pain for a while longer,¡± Hou Zheng said. The orc''s voice was deeper, raspier, than before. Perhaps there had been some damage to his throat, as well. ¡°I am, however, officially done offering you deals.¡± Josh nodded. ¡°Fair ''nuff. Why''d you ask for me, then?¡±This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Perhaps I simply wanted to make sure that you were within my target radius.¡± So he was done with deals, but not done with games. Josh could use that. ¡°Speaking of your radius...¡± he said, as he gestured behind his back. ¡°Where''d you get the tanks? Not the kind of scrap you find locked up in an old garage.¡± Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Ruth moving away. She could do the most damage with some silent time to prepare. Mary, meanwhile, stayed next to him, hands on her guns and eyes on Jael. Jael definitely noticed Ruth leaving, but she didn''t move. He didn''t think she noticed Darius leaving as well. Hou Zheng''s grin broadened. ¡°You would be surprised what you can find if you know where to look.¡± He patted one of the tanks. A resounding clang echoed around the walls. ¡°There are three old military bases less than a hundred miles north of here. Outside your City''s famous Burn Line, but not so far into truly dangerous territory. It was not hard to bring them here.¡± Even assuming he had somehow found four tanks in perfect condition just waiting to be oiled and fueled, there was no way he could have driven them down here. Not without the City noticing. The scouts, guards, and reclaimers would be high enough level at this point that they''d have to be dead to miss something that obvious. Honestly, Josh wasn''t sure that Hou Zheng could have driven them down here even if they were in perfect condition with full teams of repair crews and the entire City unanimously deciding to look the other way. There were no roads that ran that entire way without breaks, and driving any vehicle through the Jungle was an exercise in futility unless they were designed specifically for it. The trees were thicker than walls in many places, they resisted any attempt to clear them with active force, and trying to do so would attract legions of monsters. There were ways to solve or avoid these problems. Josh had two ideas, one of which was half-assembled in Abraham''s garage, and another which was parked on the south side of the village. But there was a reason that the City used the Burn Line, and expanded it so slowly. ¡°So,¡± Josh said slowly. ¡°You drove a few tanks out of a dungeon.¡± Hou Zheng grinned so wide that Josh was genuinely worried he''d split his face. It definitely looked like it hurt, with those burns. ¡°Well,¡± he said, ¡°it was a little more complicated than that. But yes, essentially.¡± ¡°No, you''re going to need to explain that one,¡± Josh said. He was curious, but he mostly was just stalling. He had no idea what Ruth and Darius were doing to prepare. It wasn''t as though they had considered tanks when they made their plans. Still, he trusted them to figure something out. ¡°You can''t drive anything through a dungeon.¡± The only way to get anything into a dungeon was for a person to carry it in. Normally, that wasn''t an issue. Storage rings and large Strength scores meant that people could carry a lot into a dungeon. Still, people had tried to get vehicles in before. Josh had heard a story about a full party all sitting in a vehicle and activating the dungeon entrance in the hopes that it would be carried with them. It hadn''t worked. ¡°That''s actually remarkably simple,¡± Hou Zheng said, as if he was explaining a cooking fire to a child. Josh almost thought that he had forgotten he had led an army of mercenaries to attack the town. ¡°If the majority of an object is overlapped by a rift when the dungeon forms around it, then the object will be drawn inside the dungeon.¡± He shrugged. ¡°It also influences the shape of the dungeon. There are now three Metal dungeons and an Explosion dungeon up north.¡± Josh stared at him. ¡°All right, even I assume I believe that heaping pile of nonsense, what? You drove them through a rift and popped out right here on our doorstep?¡± ¡°It was more difficult than that, but yes, essentially. The hardest part was finding a dungeon that was broken in the proper way to allow everyone to leave through it.¡± His smile turned to something more genuinely amused. ¡°I''m sure that part doesn''t surprise you. I know you like playing the fool, but you''re smarter than you look.¡± ¡°Would be hard not to be,¡± someone on the wall muttered. Muted chuckles bounced around his forces. He decided not to engage. ¡°Why don''t we get down to brass tacks,¡± Josh called. ¡°No use dancing around it. Wot do you want?¡± Chapter 60 - The Second Siege of San Juan Bautista (part 4) Hou Zheng sighed dramatically. ¡°I am here to kill you, destroy the town, kidnap Ruth Moore¡ª¡± Jael glared at him. Hou Zheng rolled his eyes. ¡°I''m sorry, rescue her against her will. Once the town is burned and the people slain, my mission will be complete.¡± Silence. The defenders weren''t laughing any more. ¡°That''s a lot of trouble for a small problem.¡± Josh remembered what the orc had said about him. About how the dragon considered him little more than an annoyance to be scratched out. Josh believed him. So why all the trouble? Hou Zheng shrugged. ¡°Trouble for me, yes, not trouble for my master. This could have all been avoided, you know. I did offer to pay you.¡± Josh noticed some guards giving him side-eye. He really wished he''d had a chance to give a big speech about honor and dignity and not trusting genocidal dragons. Didn''t exactly have time, now. He could ask for a minute, but he didn''t think even Hou Zheng was polite enough to just give him time to make a speech. It would be a great way to get him to attack immediately, before Ruth and Darius had a chance to do anything. Instead, he went on the offensive. ¡°Notice you''re not talking too loud about your boss,¡± he said, in a voice he knew would carry. ¡°Don''t want your mercs to know they''re fighting for someone who wants to destroy the City and kill everyone there?¡± Most of the mercenaries looked confused. Many looked angry or frightened, and glanced over at the orc as if in confirmation. Hou Zheng barely even twitched. ¡°Your habit of exaggerating the problem will not avail you,¡± he said. ¡°You know very well that the City is not in danger. I think¡ª¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± Josh said, holding up a hand. ¡°Did you seriously just say avail?¡± The orc gave him a flat look. ¡°You, of all people, do not have any ground to critique my language.¡± Josh snorted. ¡°Bollocks. I don''t care what country you''re from, you clearly understand enough English to know better than to use avail.¡± Hou Zheng took a deep breath. Josh thought he saw an eyebrow twitching. It was hard to tell, because all his hair was burned off. ¡°I did not come here to debate linguistic trivialities.¡± A slow grin stretched over Josh''s face. He found it hilarious that, of all the insults and taunts he''d thrown around, this was the one that managed to get under his skin. ¡°You sure? Because I''ve got some opinions on what''s coming out of your gob.¡± The orc raised his voice. ¡°I require this man''s head. He has rejected all overtures of peace and nonviolent solutions. Deliver him to me, dead or alive, and your people will not be harmed. You will be allowed to flee south, to other villages.¡± A very heavy silence fell. Josh forced himself to remain utterly expressionless. His heart was hammering in his chest. He might be the highest level person here, not counting his friends, but that didn''t mean all that much. Any two random people on the wall could pitch him over the side without trouble. Hou Zheng was an honorable sort, he''d accept that and keep to the deal he had just offered. He had made a few mistakes, however. ¡°Wait,¡± someone called. Josh vaguely recognized her as one of the delvers. ¡°What''s this about leaving the village?¡± He had forgotten how attached people were to this village. This was a place that they had built, carved out of the heart of the Jungle itself. They weren''t going to abandon it without a good reason. ¡°I have my orders,¡± Hou Zheng said, stony-faced. He did not seem to realize what a terrible reason that was. ¡°It is too late now. This town, its citystone, all must fall. They are too dangerous to allow to continue. However, the people do not have to fall. There are still villages where you can¡ª¡± ¡°You''re telling us to just run through the Jungle and hope we find somewhere safe?¡± someone else demanded. Josh squinted at the man. He had seen him in Abraham''s shop. One of the merchants? ¡°You might be some level 80 freak, but the rest of us aren''t! Most of us haven''t gone out there in years!¡± ¡°I can guarantee safety¡ª¡± ¡°What was that about the City being destroyed?¡± Anna interrupted loudly, which Josh appreciated. If Hou Zheng actually guaranteed safety, he might manage to flip a few people to his side. ¡°My parents are back in the City, I''m not letting you kill them!¡± Others on the wall cheered Anna, or jeered Hou Zheng. A few even started throwing trash and food, making the mercenaries flinch back. The mercenaries who, Josh noted, looked a lot less sure of themselves than they had at the start of this thing. The orc looked up at Josh. He didn''t try to shout down the people heckling him, or defend himself point by point. He seemed to have accepted that he had lost the ideological battle. He gave Josh a simple, small nod. Even under all the burns, Josh could see the genuine respect the man had. This hadn''t been a difficult fight for Josh. It would always be difficult to convince people to leave their homes in any circumstances, and an invading army had even more trouble. Defeating his arguments had not been difficult.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Still, Josh saw genuine respect in his eyes, more than expected. It was overwhelmed, however, by the burning ember of pure rage. Josh understood, then. He had been confused as to why Hou Zheng seemed so calm. After all, Josh had set him on fire. Still, he hadn''t thought too much on it. People who regularly ran [Healers] could be a bit weird about physical injury. Since they could fix it without too much trouble, sometimes they didn''t care. They just dismissed it as nothing more important than the cost of the spell to heal it. Hou Zheng had not dismissed his burns. He had not forgiven or forgotten the one who had attacked him. He had just buried that ember of anger down deep, too deep for anyone to notice. But when push came to shove, he had come here with an army. He had come here with tanks. And he was not accepting any outcome today but Josh''s death. He could give Josh some respect, first. But he was going to kill him. One way or another. Hou Zheng opened his mouth, and Josh knew he was about to give the order to attack. Josh acted first. ¡°Darius, NOW!¡± he called. He didn''t even know what he was ordering. He had no idea what Ruth and Darius were trying to prepare. He just knew that they had run out of time. Thankfully, it seemed that he had managed to stall for long enough for them to get something set up. There was a curious whirling sound, and then a ceramic jug went sailing over his head, over the walls, and towards the enemy army. He felt like he had ages to watch it fall. Josh wasn''t a tactical genius of any sort, but even he could see that there were three immediate problems in front of them: The tanks, the mercenaries, and Hou Zheng himself. Josh had no idea which one that Darius would consider most important to hit first. The answer, it turned out, was the tanks. Josh had hoped that the tanks were some sort of trick or illusion. That had always been unlikely, as Hou Zheng didn''t strike him as the type to pull bluffs like that. Of course, tanks showing up were plenty unlikely all on their own, so Josh had been holding out hope. Maybe the tanks were too old and ill-maintained to move on their own. Maybe they didn''t have any ammo. Maybe they were just elaborate paper copies magicked up by an illusionist to look real. Nope. The first firebomb impacted the side of the tank, the ceramic shattering, and burning liquid flowed across cold metal. It did not burn away any hidden paper wards, it did not break through an illusion of light and dreams. It did what fire usually did to hardened tank armor, which was to say basically nothing. Then the massive main gun turned, paused briefly, and fired. The entire world shattered. That''s what it felt like, at least. A wave of sound so loud that Josh could feel it impacted him at the same moment that the wooden wall exploded into splinters and shrapnel. He was thrown away like he had been slapped by a giant, and he felt his shroud break from that one hit. It did its job, though, and he recovered after just a moment. He struggled to his feet, and looked up. There was a huge hole in the first wall, and the mercenaries were pouring through it. Thankfully, they still had the second wall, which hadn''t been breached. The mercenaries found themselves stymied by Mages and Gunners on the wall firing down into the horde. Almost all of the mercenaries had defensive shrouds, which was an annoyance. He was more worried by the flickers of light he could see around them. Glowing veins and eyes, flares of light when they punched, that sort of thing. Even through Josh''s muddled mind, he recognized what that meant: They had been given support buffs to increase their strength, damage, and defense. It seemed that Hou Zheng had decided to stay in the back and support his army, rather than wading into the thick of it. That would make it harder to eliminate him. With a start, Josh realized he had lost track of Jael. ¡°Bollocks,¡± he muttered, as another firebomb sailed overhead. It landed in the middle of the mercenaries this time, and several of them died before the rest of them could put the fire out with magic. He finally decided where he needed to go. He shouldn''t be outside the walls, facing the full army, the tanks, and the orc. As much as he would like to solve any of those problems personally, he wasn''t in a [Combat] class. Gone were the days where he could dance through a hundred enemies untouched. Still, that didn''t mean he was helpless. He pulled one of Ruth''s new metal grenades off his belt. Well, they were at least as much his own creation as they were hers. She didn''t have the necessary [Crafting] skills to work with any material beyond wood, and now that she was a [Combat] class, she''d never get one. So he had made the grenade''s casing, basically nothing more than a metal can containing liquid mixed with nails. Ruth provided the rune that could be used to heat the can, and the liquid inside, to explosive temperatures. They had tested a few different types. Sturdy cans with nothing but water inside had proven less effective than they''d like. The cans mostly just broke open, without much shrapnel. Stronger cans broke more violently, but less predictably. Weaker metal, filled with a small mix of nails and other pieces of shrapnel, had proven much more effective. Josh pushed mana into the rune, waited a breath, and then threw it over the wall and into the mess of mercenaries below. Before they had a chance to realize what was happening, it exploded in a mess of fire and shrapnel. They had also started filling the cans with biodiesel instead of water. Instead of steam explosions, now they had good old-fashioned fire explosions. The air was filled with shouts, cries, and gunshots. Josh''s explosion was barely more than a pop over all that. It did make him wonder, however, why the tanks hadn''t fired again. Even if the mercenaries were so disorganized that they were getting in the way of another shot, surely the tanks could just make a new hole farther down the wall. Somewhere that none of their allies would get in the way. Josh pulled out another grenade, and readied his new ax in his other hand. Hou Zheng was his ultimate goal. He could already see the big orc running away, and he had to chase him. There were a lot of people to cut through in the way, though. It was time to get to work. Chapter 61 - Firebomb Darius was quite pleased with his reaction to the unexpected tactical situation, all things considered. Hou Zheng was, of course, a threat that everyone had anticipated, even Josh and Ruth. The small army of mercenaries, likewise, had been well within his predictions. The tanks had been... outside the scope of his plans. Incredibly outside his scope. But once he took a deep breath and thought about it, he was able to just treat them as high-level artillery mages with high-level Defenders, who couldn''t move very far. From there, he could find a better tactical solution than just cowering. He was proud of the firebombs. They had made them earlier. Clay and ceramic were common, as earth and fire mages could work together to make it easily enough. Making a large number of clay pots filled with biodiesel had been a nice, simple suggestion that Darius had been able to give to the village. It was one of those things that didn''t need much more than a decent number of people working together. Mayor Hawkins had encouraged a selfish, profit-based mindset that did not lead to those kinds of ideas. So when Josh signaled for them to do something, Darius had immediately thought of the firebombs. They would be a reasonable weapon against the mercenaries, of course. Even if they had a large number of fire mages, they would still do a good amount of damage. Darius wouldn''t have been surprised if the enemy had broken entirely once burning liquid covered the battlefield. People often underestimated fire as a weapon, especially the terror aspect. But Darius had not been trying to fight the mercenaries. Not yet, anyway. The walls would hold them off well enough. No, they needed to fight the tanks. His original plan had been to use some sort of catapult system to launch firebombs, but he had given up that idea almost as soon as he had it. Catapults were too complex to build and maintain for what they needed. If they already had a blueprint and could build them with the citystone, then perhaps it would have been worth it. As it was, he came up with a simpler answer: Throwing them. Each firebomb was about the size of a human head. They were heavy on their own, and heavier when filled with biodiesel, but not so heavy to a mid-level fighter with decent points in Strength. Darius gathered a few Thugs and other people who didn''t seem to be doing anything important, taught them about shot put, and watched them work. They learned quickly. When Josh called for him to enact his plan, Darius was ready. All he had really needed to do was find the people he had trained over the past few days, get them into place with some spotters, and let them go. They activated the delayed fire runes on the bombs, spun a few times, then threw them over the walls and onto the tanks. ¡°Why did you have them aim at the tanks?¡± Ruth asked, incredulously. She was standing right next to him, and he could barely hear her. The sounds of battle, of gunshots and screaming people and roaring flames, were so loud they drowned out all else. ¡°The fire isn''t going to do anything to them.¡± ¡°Terror,¡± Darius said with a satisfied smile. She looked at him, then in the direction of the tanks, then back at him. ¡°Gonna need a bit more than that, Big D.¡± He rolled his eyes. ¡°Don''t call me that.¡± Another firebomb was thrown. More screams and shouts and sounds of battle were heard. ¡°Do you know how hard it is to train a tank crew?¡± She hefted her massive hammer over her shoulder. ¡°Can''t say I do.¡± ¡°I suspect that our friend the orc doesn''t know either. Which is why I am quite confident that the people piloting those tanks are not skilled professionals.¡± He shrugged. ¡°It''s not as though we have any classes that would make it easier.¡± She didn''t speak for a moment as she thought. Darius resisted the urge to make a snarky comment about her actually thinking for once. ¡°So you''re saying... the fire makes them panic. More prone to making mistakes.¡± ¡°Exactly. Especially since I am quite sure that having a few gallons of burning liquid come crashing down is likely blinding more than a few of their instruments.¡± Another strongman threw a firebomb. Darius watched it go sailing away, heard it shatter when it landed. He heard a scream, and smiled. ¡°Besides, if we miss, it''s likely still going to hit the mercenaries.¡± ¡°I guess... I''m not sure this will be enough.¡± Darius allowed himself a quiet chuckle. ¡°I promise, this is merely the first step. We needed to buy some time. Have you heard any of the main guns since that first shot?¡± She cocked her head to the side, as if listening. ¡°Huh. No, I haven''t.¡± He nodded. ¡°I don''t care how well-preserved those tanks were, it''s been eighty years.¡± At minimum. Nobody was using tanks much near the end. ¡°There have to be mechanical and systemic flaws, likely many which they failed to catch before deployment. If anything goes wrong, the crews won''t know how to deal with it.¡± A slow grin spread on her face. ¡°Anything like, say, a firebomb dropping on their heads?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± Just then, another of the main guns went off. Another bit of the wall exploded into splinters. At least it was distant, so whoever had fired hadn''t had the presence of mind to shoot somewhere more tactically advantageous. Darius sighed. ¡°But it is, ultimately, a delaying tactic. We''ll need to deal with them soon.¡± Ruth hefted her hammer. ¡°Leave it to me.¡± She didn''t run off, though. He considered for a moment. Ruth was far from the only heavy-hitter in town. Anna had plenty of decent Mages working under her. The Pyro Artilleryman could probably give the tanks a run for their money in sheer damage output. Unfortunately, most of his spells wouldn''t do much against metal armor. At least, not more than what the firebombs were already doing. Darius had already sent him to reinforce the flank and fight the mercenaries. There were other Mages with other elements, of course, but he was their best fire Mage, and fire was the most common element. Being able to burn back the Jungle always made you popular.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°How confident are you that you can breach tank armor?¡± he asked at last. ¡°One hundred percent!¡± she said cheerily. He glared. If she was really that confident, he doubted that she would have waited for his permission. She rolled her eyes. ¡°Okay, fine. I really do think I can break a tank easily. I can turn this hammer into a black hole bomb and crush one of those things like a tin can.¡± He saw the problem. ¡°But your hammer will be destroyed.¡± She nodded. ¡°Bingo, baby cakes.¡± ¡°Never say that again.¡± Ruth scrunched up her face. ¡°Yeah, that felt off to me too.¡± She shivered, but calmed down. ¡°Anyway. I think I can batter through the armor with my hammer, but it''s going to take a lot more than one hit. I can''t do it while the mercenaries are there to slow me down.¡± Darius adjusted his glasses. ¡°A fair point.¡± ¡°Do you have a pretty little solution for them, at least?¡± ¡°Oh, yes.¡± He smiled. ¡°We dealt with them days ago, really.¡± Ruth looked at him. She looked towards the walls, with the screams and gunfire and flashes of light. She looked back at him. ¡°They don''t look dealt with.¡± ¡°Every single soldier defending San Juan Bautista is wearing one of my Improved-tier shrouds,¡± he said. ¡°They are likely better protected than almost everyone in the enemy army.¡± He shrugged nonchalantly. ¡°Mid-level Basic-tier shrouds are easy enough to find, as I am sure you know, but anything above that is much more rare, and much more expensive. Not what I would expect random mercenaries to have access to.¡± ¡°Wow. I guess that''s one way of looking at it.¡± There was a pause. It was filled with a sound very much like Mary cursing loudly over her own gunfire. It was gone in a moment. ¡°Not that I''m, uh, doubting your shrouds or anything. But even in the best case scenario, that advantage is going to take some time to win the day. I don''t think they''re going to give me a chance to batter at the tanks.¡± Darius sighed. He had been enjoying the firebombs sailing through the air, but he supposed he should pay more attention to Ruth. ¡°Apologies, yes, the shrouds are far from a guaranteed victory, and a slow one at that. We need a faster solution.¡± Ruth looked towards the wall again, but she looked more contemplative this time. ¡°Mary has that Vareo Shot spell. It''s usually better against heavier targets. Do you think that will do anything?¡± Darius sighed. ¡°Unfortunately not. That''s what she was swearing about.¡± Whether it was the sheer mass of the tanks or especially strong armor, it sounded like her spells weren''t strong enough to make a dent. Ruth gave him a quizzical look. ¡°Wait, you could hear what she was saying?¡± ¡°I have a high Perception.¡± Ruth snorted. ¡°Not compared to Josh.¡± Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. That was hardly a fair comparison. ¡°Still, gravity magic seems the way to go. How fast can you make more disposable gravity weapons?¡± Ruth shrugged helplessly. ¡°A couple hours? I only know how to make the hammers. I might be able to rig something up, but it won''t be as strong as the hammers anyway.¡± ¡°Perhaps a simple distraction will be enough,¡± Darius mused. In fact, perhaps they were distracted enough already. He needed to get a good look at the battlefield. ¡°The tanks have not breached the inner wall.¡± That, of course, was the exact moment that the inner wall was breached. Not by the tanks. That, at least, would have been ironic enough that Darius could have been slightly amused even as he scrambled to react to the emergency. Instead, it was something else. Something that Darius had actually been preparing for ever since the walls went up in the first place. Something that Darius had managed to forget about when four armored war machines arrived. The wall was breached by the mercenaries. Mercenaries didn''t have siege magic, as a general rule, since they generally didn''t need to fight in sieges. But that didn''t mean that they were helpless against a sturdy wall. Clearly, someone in the army had gotten close enough to unleash a powerful spell. Splinters of wood the size of his forearm went flying. He heard cries of pain, and could only hope that they came from the enemy. Even if not one single person on his side was hurt, it didn''t matter. Mercenaries came pouring over the wall like ants. His meticulously crafted line of volunteer soldiers, everyone''s position chosen based on their abilities, buckled in the face of that assault. Buckled, but held. Still, he felt every splinter as though it was a personal failing. He couldn''t have reasonably anticipated the tanks. As bad as they were on a tactical level, emotionally they hardly even registered. No one, not even himself, would blame him for failing to plan for tanks. The mercenaries, though? He had absolutely planned for the mercenaries. They were everything they had planned for. They were the reason there were firebombs, and a line of defenders behind the second wall, and why he was giving orders here instead of on top of the wall. And yet he had forgotten about them, and let them get those enough to breach the wall. Exactly as he had planned for them not to do. He''d had contingencies if they got close enough. Traps and mines planted in the dirt. He hadn''t even had them activated yet. He had been distracted by the shiny new threat like an amateur. ¡°Ruth, go find Mary,¡± Darius ordered. ¡°Tell her to go after the orc. Then, you go after the tanks.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± she said, the flighty girl gone in favor of a warrior who was happy to obey if it meant she would be able to help. ¡°What about you?¡± ¡°I''m on support duty.¡± She looked hesitant, then nodded and ran off towards the wall. She jumped to the top, not bothering with the stairs, in a single bound. Darius pulled his shield off his back and readied his shroud. ¡°Keep throwing firebombs,¡± he ordered his recruits. It was probably unnecessary. They had continued working through everything that had happened. Even so, they were less than halfway through the pile. ¡°Only stop if the mercenaries get within direct range.¡± Relaxation time was over. Now, the fight began. Chapter 62 - Leap Ruth really needed to learn to enjoy herself less in mass battles. People were dying. Even if she could just ignore the screams of pain from the enemy, her own people were in serious danger! Hunters and delvers who she had been fighting with for weeks now! But beneath all the genuine worry, beneath all the genuine fear, there was that spark of thrill. There was a battle, and people needed her help. Not as a support class, but as a warrior on the front lines. She got to fight a tank. Ruth jumped off the wall, using her Vareo runes to lighten her weight and increase her distance. It wasn''t anything like flight, and she wasn''t sure she could ever use gravity magic to achieve that. But it was enough to make her heart pound harder and her stomach to rise up in her throat. It was the best feeling in the world. She raised her hammer above her head, and at the top of her arc activated her [Meteor Smash] technique. It was one of those bizarrely specific techniques that most people never discovered. In this case, it was a hammer technique designed for people who liked to leap up in the air and slam down like a meteor. Ruth''s [Meteor Smash] technique was at rank 8. She really liked using it. She activated the runes on her hammer at the perfect moment, suddenly increasing its weight a hundredfold. Even with her increased Strength, she would never be able to swing it with these runes active. But since she was already falling, she didn''t need to swing it. All she had to do was keep it on target. As she fell towards the tank, she poured more mana into her runes with her [Overcharge Rune] spell. She had built more capacitors and redundancies into the rune-chains than in her previous hammers for exactly this purpose. She could keep going, break the runes and turn the hammer into a massive bomb, but that wasn''t what she needed right now. The wind rushed past her as she fell. The shouting and the explosions rose up from below. No one had looked up and seen her yet. Not that it would matter even if they did. They didn''t have any serious anti-air capability. No one really bothered with that. It was why she was so fond of this trick. This moment, when she was falling, always felt like it lasted forever. The wind in her hair, the ground rushing up to meet her, the magic thrumming in her hammer. She fell so fast that the g-forces pushed against her like a massive hand against her entire body. She felt numb, the wind too cold for her to feel anything. She felt nothing, except her heart beating in her chest. She felt nothing, except her grin on her face, so wide that it hurt. Then she hit. She had aimed for the tank that didn''t have any fire on it. Her hammer impacted the hatch at the top, the turret with the massive cannon attached. It was crushed like tin foil, crumpling around her hammer''s head. Ruth knew in a second that the cannon was useless. The tank itself might still be operational, but without the cannon it wasn''t a threat. Then Ruth landed face-first on the tank''s armor, belly flopping onto solid steel. Her shroud, the high-level magic item that Darius was so proud of, shattered like glass. Thankfully, Ruth was fine; shrouds were good at letting people survive falls from truly ridiculous heights. But she doubted her shroud would recover any time soon. She might have strained the enchantment so much that it was permanently damaged. That was fine. Ruth had prepared for this, and had a spare. She leveraged herself off the tank, spitting out the taste of steel in her mouth. She swapped out her shroud focus for the one in her pocket. You couldn''t wear more than one at a time without them interfering with each other, but she had just put the second in a lead box and it was fine. She got the second focus on and activated just in time, as bullets started sparking off her shroud. She tried to rip her hammer out of the tank, gave up, and jumped down to the ground as more shots were fired. Once she was using the bulk of the tank as cover, she saw that she had a new notification. She was surprised at that; she hadn''t been close to leveling. As an [Attacker], she received some experience for fighting, even against humans, but that shouldn''t have been enough to push her over the limit. More curious than she should be in an active warzone, she mentally clicked on the notification. A blue screen folded out in her vision. [CONGRATULATIONS! New art learned: Gravity Meteor Smash. Combine magic and skill to slam down from a great height onto the ground. Does not require a weapon. Certain bonuses can be applied by channeling this art through a weapon. Damage of attack is influenced by Strength and Power, speed of attack is influenced by Dexterity and Flexibility, size of attack is influenced by Constitution and Capacity, and cost of attack is influenced by Perception and Sensitivity.]The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. A slow smile spread over Ruth''s face. She suddenly wasn''t worried about her hammer being stuck in the tank. She was curious why she hadn''t earned this art before, though. She had certainly used her [Meteor Smash] technique and [Overcharge Rune] spell at the same time before. Still, she knew that gaining new abilities could be inconsistent. She checked her stamina and mana levels. Mana was a bit low, and she took a few deep breaths to activate her [Meditation] skill and absorb some more magic from the air. The mana in the area was starting to get thin, a common problem in large battles. Still, with all the rifts and dungeons scattered around right now, the local mana was higher than normal. This battle could last for a good long while before it ran out. ¡°She''s over here!¡± Some idiot decided it would be a good idea to give her a nice, loud warning. A mercenary came around the side of the tank with a small pistol. He leveled it at her, and fired. When Ruth was eight years old, when she first gained access to the System and her father had ¡°suggested¡± she take the Mender class, his traveling group had been beset by bandits. It had been early in the reset, so the bandits had assumed that they would outlevel their victims. Her father had no trouble with them, of course, but he couldn''t be everywhere. A bandit had cornered Ruth, and pointed a gun at her. She had frozen, then. Of course she had. She had been a child, and she knew just enough about guns to be terrified of them. Her father had been very careful about not letting her play with his guns. Once the bandits had been taken care of¡ªyears later, Ruth was pretty sure her aunt Jael had been involved more than a little¡ªher father had decided to train her with guns. Not on using guns, of course, that would obviously be too much for his delicate little baby. But on dealing with guns, on facing guns. On having guns shoved into your face from a few feet away while you were unarmed. Ruth rushed forward, taking the bullet on her shroud. The mercenary didn''t get a chance for a second shot before she was on him. She wrenched his arm up¡ªanother shot fired, but it went wild¡ªand then kneed him in the groin. When he went down, she made a double-handed fist and slammed it down on his head like a hammer. He collapsed like a sack of non-monster potatoes. She wondered, briefly, why he didn''t have an active shroud, before she saw the light burns all over his body. It seemed like Darius and his terror campaign were having a real effect after all. Shrouds were notoriously weak to sustained damage, such as from fire or electricity. They were much better against single, sharp attacks, unless they were designed otherwise specifically. Even as she had that thought, there was a whistling sound. She looked up to see a firebomb coming down straight at her. Ruth activated her [Leap] technique. [Leap] was one of those techniques that anyone could get if they tried hard enough. As far as Ruth knew, it wasn''t attached to any specific class or role, though Josh had claimed that [Explorers] tended to learn mobility abilities like that much more easily. Ruth had learned the [Leap] technique every year for most of her life. It was one of the few non-support abilities her father encouraged, since it let her flee from a fight more easily. It still wasn''t easy to learn, though. As she understood it, you had to leap a decent distance into the air before you even had a chance to learn it, but no one was quite sure what that distance was. And even then, it took more than a few tries to get it. Sometimes it took days of jumping off tall objects like a maniac to get it. Ruth got it in less than an hour when she used her gravity runes to extend her jumps. There were a lot of little loopholes like that in the System. Not glitches, per se, but mistakes that apparently no one had seen fit to correct. You had to jump a certain distance to get a chance to learn the [Leap] ability, and it didn''t matter how you jumped that distance. As long as you put in effort with your legs and ended up higher than when you started, you were good to go. Ruth''s [Leap] technique was currently rank 10. She used it a lot. Sometimes she thought she used it more than walking. She could use it to jump forty feet straight up. Jumping sideways was a bit trickier, but better than jumping headfirst into a descending firebomb. Of course, she didn''t exactly have time to check her landing, and ended up bowling through half a dozen mercenaries as flames exploded behind her. They were too confused to stop her when she leaped again, this time jumping up and away from them. From the air, she was able to confirm what she had seen before: Mercenaries were swarming the wall like ants, pouring towards the breach. There weren''t as many as she had thought at first, maybe a hundred or so, but that was still a lot for a small village to handle. Even without the tanks. Ruth didn''t have to think twice about her decision. They had prepared for mercenaries. Darius had multiple backup plans. They could deal with that. What they hadn''t prepared for was tanks, and that was something that she was uniquely suited to handling. She might be the only one who could handle them, at least without doing something truly crazy. Before she had even fully reached the apex of her leap, Ruth focused on the closest tank¡ªnot the one with her hammer still stuck in it¡ªand activated her new [Gravity Meteor Smash] art. As gravity magic wrapped around her, protecting her and accelerating her towards her target, she wondered briefly what kind of life she lived where this didn''t count as ¡°something truly crazy.¡± An awesome life, obviously. Far better than a boring old Mender. When Ruth hit the tank feet-first hard enough to dent the hatch, she was grinning like a madwoman. Chapter 63 - Shadows Mary always had mixed feelings about fighting humans. For all her love of fighting, for all that she tended to go out and kill something whenever she was bored, she did have morals. Oh, she''d killed humans before, no question, and she''d do it again. But she was well aware that her job, as a person in general and as a follower of the Immortal Archer specifically, was to kill monsters. Shooting some fresh-faced mercenary who was younger than her didn''t feel good. Watching him fall to the muck, his shroud broken and his body riddled with magical bullet holes, felt worse. On the other hand, she did like fighting. And humans were certainly a more unique opponent than just more monsters. They were intelligent, resourceful, and she never knew what to expect. Sometimes she had to enjoy the little things like a fun fight. Especially when she was fighting for her life. She just had to ignore the way she felt when she killed a fresh-faced mercenary who looked like he could be one of her brothers. She had started the fight on the walls, shooting down into the crowd, but unfortunately she''d been forced to flee to the ground. A mercenary had climbed up and started laying about with a sword. A few big spells in his direction had distracted him enough to let everyone get away, but the line had still broken. That was what was both fun and annoying about fighting humans. When fighting monsters, you largely knew what each one was capable of. The one with wings could fly, the one with stubby claws could dig or climb, or both. With humans, you could see someone who looked like a generic swordsman, and then he''d suddenly start scrambling up the wall like a spider. Things were more chaotic on the ground. That worked out for her. She turned to face the wall, as if she was one of the mercenaries, and carefully shot spells at the mercs who were assaulting the town. At a casual glance, it looked like she was just another invader, and with everything so confusing, no one had a chance to see where the shots were coming from. She set a woman on fire¡ªthat would eat through her shroud and give the defenders a better chance¡ªwhen she paused due to low mana. The density in the area was low due to the battle, so her passive regeneration was having trouble keeping up. She took a few deep breaths to speed her recovery. This saved her life. The battlefield was loud. Even putting aside her own shots, there were more guns, the clash of steel on steel, grenades exploding, cries of pain and rage. She had in her earplugs just to make sure she wouldn''t be deaf tomorrow. Therefore, she didn''t hear anyone sneaking up on her. She just happened to look behind her, hoping to find a safe spot to hide for a moment, when she saw a woman dressed all in black raising a knife to stab into her back. Mary yelped¡ªuh, gave a strong battle cry¡ªand spun around, firing a few shots with the last of her mana. The woman bent like a shadow, and all the shots missed. Mary scrambled backwards, desperately trying to keep to her feet, fire her guns, and think of a better plan all at the same time. Time. She needed time. ¡°Oi!¡± Mary called, even as she blocked a knife with her guns. ¡°You''re supposed to be the orc''s new pet, yeah? Shouldn''t you be off with him barking at anyone who gets too close or somesuch?¡± She realized she didn''t actually know where the orc was. He had disappeared from the battlefield, and she hadn''t seen his powerful buff spells recently. If past experiences held, he was probably alone with Josh in a cave somewhere, ranting about something. She put that out of her mind. A distracted archer was a dead archer. Jael ignored her question, and stabbed again with two knives coming down like snake fangs. She pushed the knives against Mary''s block, getting in uncomfortably close. ¡°Where,¡± she hissed, ¡°is my niece?¡± ¡°Archer''s tits, lady, I don''t know!¡± Mary kicked out, and Jael dodged, giving Mary some more breathing room. She fired a couple normal shots, but they hit her shroud to no effect. ¡°Probably defending this town from the army of fourth-rate mercs you brought to kill it!¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Jael visibly paused, but her hesitation only lasted a moment. ¡°One town is not worth the world. Besides, every chance was given¡ª¡± ¡°I did not ask for your life story!¡± Mary shot from both guns, one a [Pyro Shot] and one an [Electro Shot]. Casting two different spells at the same time was a trick she was still getting the hang of. Jael disappeared into her shadow again, and Mary cursed up a storm. Bloody shadow classes. How could she be expected to fight when her opponent could just drop into a shadow whenever she wanted? Then a thought occurred to her, and Mary smiled wickedly. There was one reasonable way to fight anyone with any form of shadow magic: Light. Mary didn''t think that Jael had an actual Noxos-element class, so this wouldn''t be as effective as it could be. She still thought it would be effective enough. When Mary felt motion behind her, she didn''t hesitate. She closed her eyes, then pointed one gun behind her and one in front of her, and cast her [Luxos Shot] spell from both. The spell was still at a low rank, as she had little use for it. It did enough. Light flashed like she had flipped on a floodlight for a moment, chasing away all shadows. She could see it even through her closed eyelids. As she opened her eyes, Mary spun around to bring both guns to bear on the assassin. The shadows wouldn''t be gone for long. She half expected her to already be gone. Instead, she was surprised to see Jael stumbling away. Her black outfit was marred by a glowing spot in her gut. There wasn''t any blood that Mary could see. Had the effect of her shot somehow bypassed the woman''s shroud? They both recovered near instantaneously. Mary opened fire with normal shots, mana roaring from her guns almost as loudly as normal bullets. The air filled with the scent of burned sugar. Jael''s form blurred like a shadow, just as expected... and then nothing happened. She stayed solidly where she was. Mary''s shots impacted her shroud, making it visibly weaken. It was a credit to Jael''s experience that she didn''t hesitate. Upon realizing that her trump card had failed, she didn''t panic. Instead, she lunged forward, trying to get inside Mary''s range and finish this quickly. Mary had plenty of experience too. She stepped back calmly, dodging swift knife strikes where she could and accepting hits on her shroud where she couldn''t. The area outside the wall had been cleared of obstacles, all the trees cut down and all the dead cars dragged into town to be repaired or recycled. There was nowhere for Jael to hide from her. The shot lodged into Jael''s clothing was dimming. Mary didn''t know how much longer it would last. She fired another [Luxos Shot], even though it dipped too far into her mana reserves. She cursed when Jael dodged. ¡°Bloody balls, lady, just stay still and let me kill you!¡± Instead, Jael threw herself forward, sliding under Mary and between her legs so fast that she couldn''t even get a bead on her. No one had tried that move on her any time recently. Before she knew what had happened, Jael knocked her to the ground. She stabbed down with her knife, but it was blocked by Mary''s shroud. It seemed almost perfunctory. ¡°I don''t have time for this,¡± Jael hissed. ¡°I need to find my niece.¡± She ran off towards the walls. Mary raised her guns from the ground, but before she could even pull the triggers, Jael disappeared into the shadows. She didn''t reappear anywhere that Mary could see. She ground her teeth, then forced herself to relax. Darius had plans for Jael. Light traps better than her little trick with one spell. If Jael crossed into the town, she''d regret it. Mary climbed to her feet and looked around. She wasn''t sure why Jael had returned to the town, though. Had Ruth gone back in that direction and Mary hadn''t noticed? Just then, there was a huge boom. Mary looked over to see that Ruth had crashed through another tank, crumpling its top down as easily as a kid stomping on an empty soda can. Mary had to admit, she was impressed. When she had seen four tanks rolling up outside the town, she had not expected Ruth to be the one to take them out, and to make it look easy. She didn''t even have her hammer. Through the chaos and the shouting, Mary spotted a squad of mercenaries point at Ruth. They picked up their weapons and ran after her. They wouldn''t be the only ones. Ruth had made herself a target. Whatever had happened to her hammer, whatever new tricks she had learned, she''d be at a disadvantage against so many people without her weapon. Mary smirked, raised her guns, and started jogging over. Fighting humans was so much fun. Now all she needed was for Jael to come back, and she and Ruth could fight her together.