After Sam and Evelyn had also taken their seats, the meeting then resumed.

Burt was the first to comment as the larger man crossed his arms and looked at the camp leader. “By what we’re going to do next, can you clarify that? Are you referring to the Demon, Demidemons, and Chosen Few as a whole? Or…?”

“Haaah, yes?” Noah answered with a helpless shrug. “As Jaco said earlier, the leader of Chosen is definitely in cahoots with forces of Hell. So from this point forward, it would be simpler to treat them as one group. While we may not know the exact terms of their relationship, we should assume that the Chosen Few will also take advantage of any resources that the Demon might offer them.”

“Jaco was the only one who directly overheard them. But from he said, Levi was apparently going to visit Hell itself to meet with its king. And from there, receive a boon or something, right?” Sam asked, looking to the Druid for confirmation.

“Mhmm, boon was the word it used. Though the Demon also said that was only if Levi managed to survive. Whether that’s surviving Hell itself, the meeting with the king, or something else, I’m not sure. But I doubt we’ll get lucky enough for Levi to just die from whatever it is.” Jaco said.

Although… hmm. Jaco’s thoughts immediately strayed as soon as his earlier words had left his mouth. He looked down at his hands, and began to wonder. As the others continued to make their own theories about what kind of boon the leader of the Chosen Few was meant to get, he had a gut feeling that he already knew the answer.

It is also said that the first Blight Warlock was blessed to have the Devil’s rotten fingers. That was the exact line used in the description for my Secondary Class when I picked it. If I understood the murals in that fort correctly, it was a man who defeated the Devil to become the king of Hell at some point. So if the newer king can offer something similar as a boon, then Levi might be about to become a lot more dangerous.

Jaco looked around at the faces of those he called his comrades in this Apocalypse. He hadn’t exactly known any of them for very long. When comparing the total amount of time since the Apocalypse had started versus that which he actually spent amongst them, it was a pretty lopsided ratio. In some ways, it was hard to still not think of himself as a guest like when he met them.

Rather than an actually permanent member of the community, it wouldn’t be a stretch for someone to think of Jaco as just the powerful guy who came and left as he wanted. Which, to be fair, wouldn’t be the most inaccurate summary to make. But perhaps it was for that reason that Jaco had felt hesitant about being fully open with them.

Why they’d only known the very basic fact that he was a Hell-Touched Human, but not much else. Like how they didn’t know about the changes it’d done to his body, or how it allowed him to directly sense and interact with the Devil’s Essence. Yet if Levi were to receive this same power, they would need to be warned about it. If that man showed up with a Secondary Class of his own and nobody was prepared for it, the consequences could easily spiral out of control.

Can’t be helped then. I was going to tell them anyway, sooner or later. Might as well be now, while it’s still relevant and could actually be something important for everyone to know. Welp, no better way to do it than to just get straight to the point, Jaco thought to himself.

His eyes glanced around the room. Until, by random chance, his gaze eventually stopped on Adam. He then nodded at the Scout.

“Adam, could you do me a favor and try to identify my info with the System? And then share with everyone exactly what it is that you’re able to see?” he asked. His sudden request caused a pause in the ongoing conversation as all eyes then turned their attention toward him.

The other man blinked a couple of times. “Uhhh, sure? Let’s see… it says that you’re a Hell-Touched Human. Your Class is a Druid, and your Level’s too high for me to actually see the number. That's good?”

“Yeah, thank you. Nothing about what you just said should come as a surprise to anyone, I imagine. Even me being listed as Hell-Touched hasn’t exactly been a secret. But as far as something about it that I actually have been keeping to myself…” Jaco trailed off as he removed one of his gloves. As the last of it slipped off his fingers, everyone was then able to see their blackened, seemingly rotten state.

Practically every pair of eyes within the room widened at that moment. For a second, there was only shocked silence as they all stared at Jaco’s fingers. He had pointedly not shown this to anyone yet, so it was only right that they hadn’t known what to expect.

Sam stared at Jaco with a mix of surprise and confusion on her face. Noah glanced between them, seemingly noting her reaction. Even Evelyn was surprised enough to shift in her seat. Though due to her injuries, the sudden movement was something she quickly regretted as she quickly grimaced.

“Jaco… are you… okay?” Alex hesitantly asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Despite how my fingers might look, there’s nothing actually wrong with them. At least as far as I can tell, they’re completely functional. See?” He then flexed his hand to repeatedly close and open a fist as a way to demonstrate his point.

“Is that from the Demon? Or something else?” Evelyn was the next to ask.

To that, Jaco shook his head. “They’ve been this way for a while now, since the day that we met and the Chosen Few attacked. I’m sorry for not mentioning anything earlier. But I thought that it was one thing if people saw a screen saying that I’m Hell-Touched, and another thing to see the physical evidence for what that actually means. I guess I should explain from the start. Remember how I said that I used those Hell Elixirs to kill the Minotaur, and only survived their aftereffect because of the Angel? Well… here’s the full version of those events.”

He then proceeded to fill in the previously left out details of what happened that day. Of how the Infernal Plague condition that he received hadn’t been fully removed, but changed. That it then gave him two new conditions called the Infernal State and Devil’s Essence. Jaco still didn’t fully understand why or how the Angel’s intervention changed in such a way, but the fact was that it actually became mostly beneficial.

It was what allowed him to use the Hell Staff that he currently wielded. Whereas before, he and anyone else without the Devil’s Essence would have found it impossibly heavy to use. And finally, it gave him something else that could be considered the greatest benefit. The selection of a Secondary Class, which gave him both new Abilities and an increase in Stats beyond what someone would estimate from just his main Level.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

It understandably took a minute for everyone to process the bomb the Druid just dropped. Though the reactions could certainly be considered a mix, with a dividing line based on how well they knew Jaco as a person. Those who didn’t now looked at him with distrust and scrutiny. Though they tried to not make it super obvious, the accusatory glances were still easy enough to pick up on. If it wasn’t for their respect to Noah and the basic fact that Jaco was by far the most powerful person present, those silent accusations might have already been vocalized.

While those who him better, however, had a different reaction. Sam, Noah, Adam, Burt, and Alex’s expressions were those of concern for him more than anything. While Evelyn, who’d known him for the least amount of time, still pursed her lips with her own worry.

“So as for the reason I’m bringing this up now,” Jaco then continued. “You might already have guessed as much already, but it’s because I’m concerned about Levi receiving the same condition as me. At least to me, it makes sense that this is the boon that he’d receive from the king of Hell. I don’t know what kind of options he would get for his own Secondary Class. However, if they have any means of controlling the process, it might even be better than mine.”

“But… even if Levi gets a Secondary Class now, you should still have an advantage, right? Since you’ve had yours for longer and all, it’ll take Levi at least a little while to catch up in Level. So if he’s waiting for that, it should give us some time to prepare,” Alex suggested. His words earned a few nods, but they were quickly countered by Jaco shaking his head.

“Since he’ll be starting from Level 1 with it, and I’m at Level 26 with my Secondary Class, you’re probably right about it taking a bit for him to catch up. But there’s the problem. If I could keep earning Experience, Levi would probably never be able to close the gap between us. But I don’t feel confident about going back to that city any time soon with the Demon there. So if we’re just going off any stray monsters that get close to us, my rate of growth will be at a massive disadvantage. Meanwhile, Levi will probably have the opposite happen to him,” the Druid stated.

Sam nodded, having already catched onto Jaco’s point. “Levi should definitely be aware of how close he is to Jaco in their main Class Levels from when we fought him. Knowing him, he’ll probably ask the Demon if he can just freely use their weaker monsters to grind up his Secondary Class. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Demon could just order the Minotaurs to stand there and act like training dummies for him to kill. Since Levi’s apparently seen as a valuable asset to them, it’s probably not a stretch to that, I think.”

“Exactly.” Jaco crossed his arms as he leaned back. “We know the Chosen Few will attack again at some point, since their leader threatened as much before. Even if we don’t factor in the Demon… well, I’ll put it bluntly. The longer they wait to strike, the more fucked we’ll be. Levi has all the time in the world to train and get stronger. Meanwhile, we can’t do the same without going to the city, and that would mean risking an encounter with the Demon at any moment.”

“Why don’t we try to just reinforce the camp, then?” one of the Mages asked. “I’ve seen how Jaco made these buildings and the earthen wall outside. If the Chosen want to drag things out to get stronger, can’t we just use that time to basically make our own fortress or something to just endure the siege?”

An older Scout perked up. “That’s not a terrible idea, actually. We could do some kind of layered defense and put those traps from before between each layer. I think I heard that a few more traps have been made since the last attack. So we can probably just make more and use them that way to punish any attempts to break in!”

“And if things go sideways, we can always just dig more tunnels to escape. If the base is reinforced, that’ll just give us more time to evacuate if it takes the Chosen a while to get through our defenses,” someone else added in.

“You guys are grossly underestimating Levi then if you think that’ll actually work,” Evelyn interjected as she shook her head. “With how strong he is and how much stronger he might soon get, those traps of yours will barely do anything. And even if Jaco had days to do nothing but make a rock fortress, it’d buy you a minute or two at most. If you’re asking me, your only real option is just to pack up and move before the attack.”

“Come on,” a Warrior said with disbelief. “You can’t seriously expect us to believe that it’d be that easy. Sure he’s powerful, but-”

“You don’t get it then. I can see that you’re Level 22. Guess what? Even with a hole in my gut as a handicap, I’d still kick your ass ten ways to Sunday with my eyes closed. Because that’s the kind of boost that I have from my Class Evolution. And if I were to fight Levi in a one versus one even without being hurt, he’d still also kick my ass just as easily. Even the thickest of walls would be like paper for him even if he didn't get a Secondary Class.”

“Well, even so. We just finished rebuilding! Many have only known this camp as their home since the Apocalypse started. Even if there’s a good reason for it, many likely won’t be happy about dropping that security to move somewhere unknown,” a Mage added as part of her own opinion.

Jaco simply shook his head. It seemed that several of the camp members just couldn’t fathom the difference in Levels and what said difference actually meant. Though the people who were pushing back were those who haven't encountered the Chosen Few in-person. As far as Jaco was aware, they were the ones who manned their own sections of the wall and had fought against the horde of undead.

The power-up that came from a Class Evolution was simply something they hadn’t really gotten to experience yet. As if one didn’t count Jaco and Evelyn, Sam was the first one amongst the camp to have attained that step. Though even between the three of them, only so many people had seen any of them actually show off their prowess in combat. The main two chances would have been when Jaco fought against the Chosen’s first attack, and then the swarm of Spectres. Though if someone hadn’t witnessed either for themselves, it was harder for them to actually get it.

“No, Evelyn’s absolutely correct,” Sam stated. As Noah’s right hand and effectively the camp’s number two, her words clearly had weight as the conversation’s focus immediately fell onto her.

“In the past, this camp’s biggest advantage for safety wasn’t anything direct. It was just the fact that we were far enough from the city that undead rarely came this way. But that doesn’t matter if the Chosen can just come here and lead an army. Especially now. Do you all think it’ll just be undead next time? Because there are plenty of Demidemons in the city now, and even just a smaller army of those would absolutely demolish any defenses we could put up.

“If we do have a few days to prepare, we could definitely relocate. But even if we don’t and need to rush, it should still be simple enough to move the essentials. Levi would probably expect us to try and hold down for a siege. Just moving the camp further away is likely the best thing we can do to throw him off. At least for a little while until we can find a better solution,” Sam finished.

The leader of the camp nodded from his seat, visibility showing his approval of the idea. With that, there was just a little more back and forth. But it was more so to hash out the details, as the actual decision had more or less already been settled at that point. It was only a few minutes later that Noah stood up and looked around.

“Alright then. We currently have a few people out doing a patrol for the immediate area to check for any remaining Spectres. But I believe they should be back soon. Either way, we’ll need the time it takes for them to return to spread the word and get everyone prepared. As soon as a good spot’s been decided on and everything is ready, we’ll begin the process of moving the encampment.”

With that, the meeting was over. Jaco, along with everyone else, stood up from their seats and began to make their way outside. There was no time to lose, so they would immediately begin to get to work.