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—something like Living Ballista of the Infinite Order or whatever—but 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—wasn't too much of a meal—and 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?”

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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.