“I do have a few questions,” Levi said, starting to speak. “For one, you mentioned this is an outpost. Does that mean there are other people somewhere else?”

David nodded.

“Indeed, it does. Why don’t I tell you about our experiences so far after being transported here. But first, I take it you didn’t appear with a group of people?”

Levi shook his head. “No, I appeared by myself.” He wasn’t going to bring up Susan. And besides, he met her later, so it wasn’t like he was lying or anything.

“We appeared as a group,” David said. “A little over three thousand people total. We all arrived together a few days down river from here. Because of all the hordes of monsters roaming around it was decided to create an outpost to see if we could act as a lure, blunting attacks on the main settlement and allowing them to focus on safely building an agricultural base. Our group of about three hundred people is the test group. If we can successfully build a town here then the idea is to create a ring of outposts, protecting the more vulnerable center.”

“How was it fighting a bunch of monsters? I mean, like, how did you guys survive initially? Did you have a bunch of people from the military or something?”

“We had a few. We also had some people who managed to receive special skills, who were then able to help others gain combat skills. It’s not too difficult to gain a combat skill, the real challenge is knowing how to use it. Not everyone is suited for combat.”

Levi mulled over that information. Perhaps he wasn’t as special as he thought, getting a skill during the System installation. David made it sound like fighting off monsters was no big deal. Of course, Levi had no way of knowing if he was lying or not. He didn’t even really know if there was another settlement. He should see if he could talk to some other people and try and get some independent confirmation.

Levi asked another few less important questions, mostly about day to day life and logistics. But while he was interested in hearing about tailoring skills and the plan for farming and food production, he had other more important things he wanted to find out about. Things more central to the System and why there were here.

“Uh, I’m not really sure how to say this,” Levi said, rather abruptly segueing to a new topic, “but have you seen any dungeons?”

“Dungeons? Can’t say that I have,” David answered after moment’s thought. “Did you come across any ruined castles out there?”

“No, not that kind of dungeon the other kind.”

“Well, I can’t say there’s much call for that sort of thing here, and…”

Alex quickly interjected, interrupting David’s misunderstanding.

“No, he means like dungeons with monsters. It’s a gaming term.”

“Oh,” David said, “one of those things. Ahem, well no, I don’t believe we have seen any. Is there some importance to them?”

“Have you explored on the other side of the river,” Levi asked. He tried to keep the tension out of his voice.

“No, we haven’t. The river creates a natural barrier for monsters, so we have focused more on clearing out this side.” David could sense Levi was going somewhere with this, but he wasn’t sure where. He would have to ask Alex later about these dungeons. It seemed like they may be important. He really needed to spend some time learning about these things, but there was just so much to do.

“Well, I think there might be one there,” Levi continued. “A dungeon I mean. I can feel it.”

David cocked an eyebrow. “You can feel it?”

“Um, yeah. I think so at least. I’m not quite sure, but I think it might be a good idea to check it out.”

“It sounds like there’s something more here. I don’t suppose you could enlighten us about these dungeons then? You must have a reason for asking about this. I would have assumed other things would be more important.”

Why was he so interested in dungeons? Levi wasn’t sure he could say. He had tried putting his previous experience out of his mind, but when he arrived in the outpost he had a nagging sensation in the back of his head that he needed to check across the river. That there was a dungeon there. It had seemed obvious to ask, but now that David brought it up, it was strange, wasn’t it? There was something else going on, he could almost taste it, a similar feeling to when a word was on the tip of your tongue. The only question was to try and ignore it or push through to try and enlist help.

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He flared Aecylic Empowerment, comforted by the roiling energy, its presence reminding him he wasn’t some powerless weakling. If the pieces didn’t add up he needed someone smarter than him to crunch the numbers. From the small glimpse he had seen of the outpost it hinted that the people he was talking to were decent enough. For now, that would have to do.

“I’m not sure how or why, but I think dungeons have some sort of relationship with the System,” Levi said. “More than they should I mean. Soon after I arrived here I entered one. I shouldn’t have, but I guess the lure of loot just overtook me. I only survived by luck. But the important thing is the System gave me a message that seemed like it wanted me to destroy the dungeon. I’m just not really sure why, but that fact seems really important.”

He hadn’t actually planned to tell them he destroyed the dungeon, but after he started speaking he realized just saying he entered and escaped wouldn’t sound very convincing. Levi wasn’t particularly good at lying, and if he was going to talk about this he would slip eventually. Or more like he would slip immediately. Chelsey had always joked that she never had to worry about him cheating, because if he was going to do it he would tell her before he told himself.

As soon as Levi mentioned the System he could almost see the glint in David’s eye.

“So, you mean to say,” David said, “that something about these dungeons relates to the System? What exactly makes you think so?”

Then he paused for a moment before speaking again.

“But I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ve barely met, and you must want to relax after what had to have been a harrowing experience. Why don’t we postpone this discussion for later? There are other people who should hear this. Alex, would you mind showing Levi around? I still have some things to discuss with Agatha.”

“No problem,” Alex said, nodding.

After shaking hands again, David excused himself out a back door, saying they would talk again tonight, leaving Levi alone with Alex.

“Um, so you were going to show me around?” Levi asked.

“Yep,” Alex said. “You should probably see what our settlement is like if you are going to stay here. And I do hope you will. You couldn’t have survived out there without at least some fighting experience, and we could always use another combatant. And I think David likes you. I guess you didn’t lie much. I think he has a skill to tell when people are being dishonest, which he doesn’t like. Something about trust being the basis for which all society is built on or something.”

Levi followed Alex around as they toured the outpost. He was introduced to many people, like some of the combatants practicing in the area outside the building they were just in and the farmers working the small area of land inside the outpost’s walls. He had originally assumed this was just a normal fontier town, comparable to something a few centuries old back on Earth. But he quickly realized it was so much more. Everything was organized just so; the careful planning apparent even to his untrained eye. Agatha, the person David had gone off the meet, used to be a city planner, and with her professional expertise the outpost was above and beyond anything Levi expected to find so soon after everyone was uprooted from their lives and transported to a new world.

During the tour he tried to be dispassionate, tried to keep his distance from the people he was talking to. He failed. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to be here, but he couldn’t help connecting to the people he was interacting with. It felt so different than on Earth. He wasn’t the only one wondering if anyone else was out there, and many of the people he talked to even broke down crying after learning he wasn’t from the original settlement, thanking him for giving them hope their loved ones were still alive somewhere in this new land.

There were other benefits too, like being able to take a proper bath. With soap! Honest-to-goodness soap! Being clean took a huge psychological burden off of him, one he hadn’t known he was carrying. And afterwards he was able to get into some real clothes too. It wasn’t much, just some rough underwear, some too short pants, and a vest, but Levi was starting to feel human again.

If before his will was wavering, now his reservations were almost gone. How could he leave all this behind and go camp out in the woods? There may not be internet here, but everyone cared so much more than he remembered. People hadn’t been like that before, he was sure of it. When he walked into a fast food joint no one cared what he ordered. The people employing him to take care of their house didn’t care, they even said as much, saying he would have to do since they couldn’t find anyone better. His manager may have cared a little, but that was more like ‘I hope nothing happens to you so I don’t have to find someone to replace you since you do a better job than these other sad shmucks’. She was a good manager, and he was grateful for that, but she didn’t really care. It felt like no one did.

He would still keep his distance, he wasn’t that dumb. They weren’t in magical Christmas land where people suddenly weren’t pieces of shit. But it might be nice to have someone to say good morning to. He had lived alone for over two years, and while he didn’t regret his choices, seeing the people practice fighting, working together on the farm, it was… nice. Everyone seemed to be so much more connected than before, back when they all had their noses buried in their screens, headphones on, tuning out the world around them. He had been one of them. And now that he couldn’t and he was actually seeing people, looking them in the eye and saying hello, it wasn’t as scary as he always thought it was.

A shout echoed out, and Levi followed Alex’s gaze to the top of the watchtower to see someone waving down at them.

“I can’t hear you!” Alex shouted back.

Another unintelligible shout followed. Levi thought it sounded like “they’re back”, but he couldn’t be sure.

“I still can’t hear you!” Another shout later and Alex let out a long sigh before shouting back, “if it’s the captain wave two arms!”

The person in the tower waved two arms, and Levi thought he heard Alex mutter something about getting some signal flags.

“The captain is back,” Alex said. “Let’s go find David. I suspect that she’ll want to meet you, and you’ll want him there to restrain her. She can be a bit, well, you’ll see.”