9.

Sleep was good. Showering was good. Waking up was bad. Every muscle in my body was crying for relief as I staggered out of the dormitory in new clothes and boots. I had pushed myself hard before, but this was the next level of muscle fatigue. It was a constant battle to keep a neutral look on my face as I went around and got caught up on what had happened when I fell asleep. Agatha was useful for this, the older woman claimed she only needed a few hours of sleep and she had proved it by reporting everything she had seen.

Dan had managed to get one of the draughts and was back on his feet ordering people around. Luke was still outside of the fort even though the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon and the next wave of sea monsters was coming. The repaired gates were being watched by a dozen or so lightly wounded, while the rest of the volunteers, now severely reduced in number, would man the walls. Dan had decided my time was better spent in the library and had given our scorpion to some others. Frustrating but it could have been worse. I did need to read more.

Miguel and Bobby had drifted off to sleep just after me and hadn’t gotten up yet. The kitchen was only producing bread from the ovens and a thin broth. Something that would have to change soon enough. A few more mana hearts and we could get the fort fully functioning. Other than that, a lot of people were slowly coming to terms with what had happened. Agatha had been drifting around talking to everyone and touching the pulse of the group.

Nineteen people had died in the first fight. Forty had been wounded, but our draughts had managed to get thirty of them back on their feet, with the last ten stabilized. Currently Dan was using sixty up on the walls for the current fight, including all of his soldiers. Another forty or so were reserves in case the gates were breached or the walls needed replacements. Dan had over half the remaining population of the fort following his orders. Entrenching himself as the leader of the fort while I was sleeping.

“I’m going to the library, see if I can find our more about our situation.” I told Agatha. The older woman nodded slowly.

“You will help me find my granddaughters?” There was more suspicion this time when she asked.

“Yes. To do that though we need to get strong enough we don’t die when we leave the fort. It means grinding levels and learning some rudimentary skills. All of which I’m certain the fort will provide, this is a tutorial, a place of training. Give us three days here, I’ve found a map, I just need to decipher it and make some plans. Can you give us three days?” I find it demeaning to have to butter up this living fossil, my irritation scratching at my limited patience. I needed to eat and get more sleep, I would normally never be bothered to this extreme.

“Three days from today. Then we leave or I find someone else who will help me.” Agatha agreed, sitting back on her bench seat. Another timeline I would have to juggle, to be honest though it was going to be her or Miguel who pushed us out. The problem with leveraging your help in the future, for help now, was that eventually you had to pay your dues.

I left her and went to the library, glad to find no one in it. It was a large room and was full of stones. Similar to the skill stones, they were triangular and covered in silvery pictograms. Everytime I picked one up, I could feel the press of information in my mind, a tidal wave of words that I would slowly decipher. It was faster than traditional reading, I could get a book's worth of information in only a few minutes. The mental drain afterwards though would hit like a truck. I had read more than anyone suspected though, parceling out my knowledge carefully. I didn’t regret that I hadn’t taken the dash skill, this wealth of information was a power that I could share whenever I felt like, withholding information needed for my rivals to gain power. I could Increase my own power, aid my allies in their transformation into useful pawns.

The three days turned into a blur. I managed to fix my sleep schedule, waking at early light to help with the butchering of the crabs. We had managed to siphon enough hearts away to raise Agatha’s constitution to six, Bobby’s to seven, and Miguels to six. Getting Bobby’s from six to seven had required six hearts though, and we made the decision to let everyone stay at six for now. It would require theft at a large enough scale that anybody could tell they were disappearing.

We had managed to make an extra two dozen doses of the healing draught that we had put away. Finding storage vessels for them had simply required a thought from me, the fort creating glass vials, with stoppers, that perfectly held a single dose. We had stored them in some packs, along with an assortment of camping supplies that the fort had created. In truth they were fairly flimsy and I doubted their long term survival.

I had found the outdoor courtyard could function as a sparring area. Someone would place their hand on a lump of stone against the walls, previously hidden by snow, and they could draw forth a training dummy made of stone. They could either have it in training form, in which it would replicate fighting moves of the weapon you had as a trainer, or it could be used for live sparring. When Bobby had come out with a warhammer nearly as tall as she was and started training with it, I had to hide my shock. I had suspected she’d be more of a ranged fighter like Agatha, or a precision fighter like Luke, but rather she seemed to enjoy the brutal simplicity of the big hammer.

Luke was also worrisome. I had the beginning of plans to deal with him, but it was hard. He spent his time outside of the fort, he fought in the dark against those who managed to make it past the killing fields that were the beach. His levels were skyrocketing, his speed was enough that it was similar to Miguel’s dash skill already. Barely more than a blur of movement as his spear lashed out again and again, his training was normally sparring against two of the dummies.

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Dan had taken to assigning shifts of when others could use the training facility with his man Alan overseeing it all. Those who fought on the walls, and the newly formed scouting parties, had priority. He was already dividing the group into fighters and support, with the fighters having first priority on all the supplies. Not ideal, but the discontent was already brewing with those who had become second class citizens under Dan’s rule. Which also included myself. I took no shifts on the walls, content to keep absorbing knowledge like a sponge. Miguel, Agatha, and Bobby took their shifts and even went out on a few patrols.

Their levels were increasing, but there had been a general murmur that levels weren’t coming like they had in the first two nights. All the fighters were equal in strength to me now, all their points going to strength, constitution, and vitality. Watching a woman, who was barely five foot five, flip a crab onto its back had been a moment of shock. If I didn’t get a move on, this could spiral out of control. My overall stats were still solid I think, but the more direct combat stats were lagging.

Our small team was already lagging behind, since they had taken my advice and not used their early stat points. There was a growing distance socially from the high ranking fighters and the rest. A social schism slowly forming before my very eyes. It was this more than anything that caused me to drop the bomb on everyone. As Dan had all of his sycophants around him, along with the various emerging leaders of the community, I approached their table.

“There’s eight more forts like this one. Each has three small keeps attached to them. If we want to win the faction wars we need to take five forts.” I spoke in a calm but clear voice to cut over the general chatter, watching with delight as my information ripped apart their plans. There would be no holing up in the fort and grinding out levels, we would have to go out and explore, fight, conquer, kill. I couldn’t wait.

“Do we need to win though? Is surviving here enough?” Deacon asked from Dan’s right. The thin, nondescript man was becoming more and more Dan’s second in command. Often commanding when Dan wasn’t available, organizing the patrols, ensuring everyone was fed and clothed and the guard rotations were working. Skilled and competent. I’d need to kill him or subvert him.

“From the information in the library, the night attacks will get worse and worse , if the keeps aren’t manned and drawing some of the monsters' attention. They’re smaller in scale, but similar to the forts. Need just ten or so people to man one. Three or so hearts to get them fully functioning.”

“Thirty people, that would reduce our fighting force by a third, Dan. We’d be real thin.” Deacon continued to put his two cents in. Dan was just staring at the table, his middle finger tapping the wood rhythmically.

“Do you know where they are?” Dan finally said.

“One North of us, one South, and One East. No more than ten or so miles. Me and my team are going to the North keep, there’s more detailed maps there apparently. That shows the entire region.” The lie came easily enough. I already knew where the other seven forts were, and their respective support keeps. The closest other fort was to the North of us, along with different monsters. Monsters that would give perception points rather than constitution. It was the closest keep and I wanted to scout it and see if we could boost more of our stats.

“We can’t risk losing you. You’re the only one who knows how to read what’s in the library.” Dan refuted my plan.

“I wasn’t asking.” I told him. It was difficult to keep my voice neutral, to make sure there were no hints of anxiety or fear or anger. It was a simple statement. I wasn’t going to be subordinate to him.

“We need to work together to survive this-” Dan started, but I cut him off.

“Yes, together. Not with your lording above us. My team will take the furthest keep and bring back more information on the terrain. Maybe see if we can find others who are out here.” I was more firm this time. The hackles on Dan’s men were rising, they were bristling and I saw some of the older soldiers reaching for their weapons. Dan was still as stone, his eyes locked beyond our little tangle and on the figures all watching us. The support staff outnumbered the fighters and their grumbling had been getting louder lately. They were watching with interest at our confrontation. More importantly, Luke was there.

Everyone spoke of him already. His speed and skill were unmatched, as was his antisocial behavior. Quiet and surly when forced to talk, he was still the most powerful person here and he looked very interested in the maps.

“It’ll take a while to get the people and supplies ready. Tomorrow we can send teams out.” Dan said.

“That’s fine. They can reinforce us. Ten miles North along the coastline, on a rocky hill is the keep. We will have it activated by then.”

“I want the Eastern keep.” Luke said, stepping into the circle. There was finally a hint of something besides apathy on his face. I already had maps with rough directions sketched out with the help of crude paper and pencils stored in the library. Just in case this scenario had come up. I had made sure Luke was actually in the dining hall when I came to give my ultimatum. I gave him the correct one, while tossing the Southern keeps directions on the table in front of Dan. I was drawing a line in the sand with this, letting everyone know I was standing outside of the proto dictatorship he was establishing. It was risky to leave the keep and leave everyone here to be swayed by Dan, but I needed my own base of operations. Someplace that was mine, that I didn’t have to worry about being watched. The Northern keep would work for now.