I wiped sweat off my face and sat down on the shattered remains of a car. The battle took nearly an hour with most of it due to the lizard's mental attacks. My soul felt raw and tender like it had been stuck in a sandstorm for hours. Thankfully the beast wasn't strong enough to do any actual damage. More importantly, the torture had borne fruit. I pulled up my quests screen and smiled.

1. Intellect Fortress(Class): Endure 10 Psychic Attacks. Reward: Intellect Fortress (10/10)

I released my killing intent and aura while infusing it with the Tao of Adamance. The sudden release was like a shock wave. It spread through the ruined city nearly fifty feet before I corralled it in. It should keep anything below level five from bothering me. I claimed the quest and felt another sigil form. This time it was on the center of my forehead. Thankfully it wasn't excruciating, it was closer to an intense warmth that radiated outward. Once the sigil was fully implanted I was hit with a wave of information about the spell.

[1]Intellect Fortress – Proficiency: Novice. The Mind is impenetrable, the One True Fortress. Upgradeable

It was a peak quality mental and soul defense spell which based on what I had to do to get it made sense. It would passively boost my defenses and protect me from most scouting abilities. The best part about though was that it didn't require any effort from me to use. It would automatically take more spiritual and mental energy from me to power itself. It did reveal a bit more about my class and I was a little concerned. Of my first three spells, only one of them was useful in a fight. The first was a bit neutral until I understood how to control energy better and the final was defensive. In truth I needed more utility spells, making a portal was great but I needed and wanted more.

I decided to stay put and practice my mental energy control for another hour before packing up. The good thing here was the lizard mama's power. She provided enough spiritual energy to make fighting her worth it. Which made me want to hunt around the city but if what that guy said was right I needed to get back. I would be an ass if someone died because I wanted to explore. It took me three portal jumps to make it back to the intersection. This time I found a trio waiting for me. They were all men and looked to be around forty years old. Two of them had rivals while the third wore makeshift armor and had a metal baseball bat. I cocked my head to the side when I saw that the man's armor was a football uniform with a bit of chain to protect his stomach. It looked strange but it seemed like it would work.

"I have your medicine. I am hoping that we can get along a bit better than before. Maybe we start with lowering our weapons?" I kept my hands up and in plain view not that I needed them to activate my spells.

"Good evening young man." The man in the armor spoke up first. He stepped forward and kept his bat at his side which I supposed was progress. "My name is Christopher, Christopher Williams. I am told that you had a pleasant encounter with one of our defenders." When I nodded he continued. "I must say that you are dressed a bit oddly to be from around here. Are you an expat? Or are you one of the people from that tutorial?"

I raised an eyebrow at his question before looking down at myself. I chuckled since I did look like I had spent a year in China. I was even wearing sandals. "From the tutorial. I take it you all got the System's arrival message? Would you be able to tell me what's been going on since our departure?"

"I can do that assuming you are willing to share information as well. We can give you a place to lay your head and a warm meal to fill your belly in exchange for the medicine." He said and looked at my bag expectantly.

I nodded and pretended to reach into the bag. The moment my hand passed into that dark void a chill passed through my body. I quickly transferred three bottles from one hand to the other before closing it. "Wasn't sure which ones you needed so I just grabbed a lot. I stepped forward and placed the bottles down on a car between us. Once I saw that he wasn't going to move forward until I backed off I sighed. I stepped away and then he moved forward. My gaze drifted to the two gunmen who hadn't lowered their weapons. I didn't detect even the slightest aura from them which only confused me. They had survived here for a month so there was no way they managed to do that without fighting.

"Why don't I sense any killing intent from your friends," I asked while turning my attention back to Christopher. His aura was weak but still obviously there.

The trio froze at the question and the two gunmen tightened their grips on their weapons. "I am not sure what you mean."

"You have had to kill things since the world went crazy right? You know monsters and the like. You should have gained an aura and killing intent. The killing intent would come from killing things and your aura would have come from your power. That and your attributes I think. You have one but your friends there don't."

When they all looked at each other even more confused than before I shook my head. I was about to ask another question when my stomach growled. I decided to leave it alone until after I had something good to eat. We exchanged a few more words and I ended up providing all of the antibiotics I gathered before they led me to their base. Like something out of a zombie movie, they had taken the mall. The five-story building had been turned into a fortress. They had lined up cars on all the sides to form a sort of wall. They had even managed to turn the parking lot into a kind of garden. Though the plants they were growing were little better than buds. It was still pretty impressive. "How many people do you all have?" I asked absentmindedly as they led me inside."

"We can't exactly give out that information but we have enough to maintain this place," Christopher said as we arrived in the food court. He gestured to the five restaurants. "Feel free to stop by any of them. I think they all have someone working there if not you can just call someone over. You can also make something for yourself if you wish. Now if you will excuse me." Before I could respond Christopher had turned and half jogged away. I assumed that the sick person was important to him. I pushed it to the back of my mind and rubbed my hands together. It was time for me to finally get a good meal.

After I finished eating I was escorted up an escalator and into a small guest room. I was pretty sure it was a storage before things went crazy but it was pretty comfortable. They had set up an air mattress inside which helped the atmosphere a bit. I shut the door and put the air mattress into my bag and then pulled out my bed and laid down. There was no way I was going to sleep on an air mattress. I would almost rather not sleep at all. I also managed to get a watch from them so I could properly tell time. I slept for four hours and then started cultivating. It would be a few days before my next level at this rate so I gave up just as the son started to rise. I packed up my bed and replaced the air mattress before I left the room.

My escort was gone so I wasn't sure if that meant they trusted me or if they just weren't awake. Either way, I didn't care. I made my way into the mall proper. I couldn't help but be impressed. It wasn't exactly high living but they had managed to make something decent out of the chaos. Unfortunately, I doubted it would last. None of the guards had a spec of aura about them. It was like I was looking at a person from before things went to shit. I made my way over to a duo who was patrolling the second floor when my curiosity got the best of me. "Can you tell me what happened after the System arrived?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The pair looked at each other when the taller of the two spoke up. He was around six feet or so with dark brown skin and cornrows in his head. He had a rifle over one shoulder and a handgun in a holster on his side. "Uh, Christopher said he would go over things with you later. I don't know much of the official details myself but things got pretty crazy. Animals started to change. Even the squirrels turned into overgrown monstrosities."

I nodded and tried to picture a giant monster squirrel without laughing. Based on the looks on their face I had only partially succeeded. "Do you know where he is now? Christopher I mean."

He gestured to the main escalator. "Go up to the third floor and head to the Security office. If he is in there right now someone should let you in. If not you should be able to wait there for him."

"Perfect thanks." I gave them a nod and left.

When I got to the security office I was surprised to see that it was much bigger than I expected. They had taken down two walls and it took up about half the floor. I resisted the urge to explore the whole thing not wanting to ruin a new relationship when I didn't need to. I found a woman with long blonde hair and a scar across her jaw seated at a check-in desk. "Hello, is Christopher here? I have a few things to discuss with him."

She held up a hand. "Wait here a moment and I will let him know you are available." She then stood up and disappeared behind a door.

I leaned against the wall and folded my arms. It was a bit annoying that even during the end of the world I still had to wait. I was the strongest person on earth. After five minutes I was considering opening a portal or kicking the door down but thankfully she returned before I did it.

"You may enter." She said and held the door for me.

I did my best to flash a pleasant smile as I stepped past her. I walked into the hall behind her and heard Christopher's voice call me to the furthest room. He was seated at a desk that reminded me of a gym coach's office. It was the smallest room by far and had a single window and a dull wooden desk. A desk that was covered in paper including a floor plan of the building.

"Hello, Allow me to thank you for the medicine, it helped quite a bit. If you get your hands on any more then I would gladly pay you for it. I have weapons and ammo though we are working on armor. There isn't a lot of useful stuff in the immediate area."

I shook my head. "Do you all not have a System hub here?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You mean one of those things that appears once you get enough people? No, no we stayed out of that blood bath. The closest one is about ten miles from here. Last I heard some gang got a hold of it after the last owner was killed fighting some beasts. Why do you ask?"

"I see you all fighting with old weaponry. You should have been able to get spells or skills. I imagine they aren't cheap but together you should have been able to buy a couple at least."

Christopher slowly nodded while looking me up and down. "David, the man you met with first mentioned you had a weird bubble around you. I assume that's one of these skills you mentioned?" When I didn't confirm he slowly nodded. "If you have any of those for sale we will buy them from you."

"No, the System provided some for us at the beginning of the tutorial after that we had to earn them. Once you reach level 20 you will get the ability to select a class. Of course, you will need a basic System hub at minimum to make a choice."

Christopher paled a shade at that. "I see so those of us that have them already will be able to recruit people easier." He mostly mumbled his reply.

"Not quite. The System placed restrictions on us for the tutorial. Restrictions that included we weren't able to hurt, enslave, or kill each other during the tutorial."

He looked at me as if expecting me to continue. When I didn't he raised an eyebrow and I got to watch as the realization dawned on him.

"They just unleashed a plague on the earth." He got to his feet and ran his hand over his head.

"Yes, I don't how long it will take but the group I arrived with split up when we got here. Even if only a small percentage of them are strong enough to avoid being killed by the monsters it will be a problem. Some of us have hubs as well. The tutorial workers filled us with propaganda about being the 'chosen' of humanity. I am not sure how many people believed that but it won't take many to start the chaos." I was on the fence about telling him my status. Not that I didn't want to help them but there was nothing I could do at the moment. The mall was good but it wouldn't survive an outright attack. Hell, it wouldn't be able to keep me out for more than a second or two. I still needed to go and check out the building. Not to mention I needed to grind my levels.

"I see, you don't seem distressed by this. Have you found a group to travel with?"

Christopher's question pulled me back to the moment. I shook my head. "No, I am traveling alone. I am on my way to that large building in the distance. Do you know anything about it?"

Christopher let out a long sigh as he took his seat. He reached into his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Ah yes and no. We had a group go and check it out but they couldn't get within five hundred feet of the building. They said they were attacked by metallic birds."

He passed me the sheet and I quickly scanned it. I let out a low whistle as my heart began to beat faster. I couldn't tell the levels of the enemy from here but they sounded like creatures I would deal with in the fourth or fifth quest. They were birds about the size of small airplanes. Their wings were either metallic or just strong enough to cut through metal. The person who wrote this wasn't confident in either option. "It doesn't say how many of them there were. Do you have an approximate number?"

He shook his head. "Unfortunately no. They do report seeing eggs so it's possible that they are reproducing which would be a disaster. If you still intend to go there could you bring back some information? If you can kill them that would be even better of course."

I nodded. "I will do what I can. Are you and your people going to stay here? It wasn't hard for me to get here so I imagine others are going to find it eventually. I am not sure how effective guns will be." I paused at that as something occurred to me. "Have your people all been fighting with guns?"

"Yeah, most aren't healthy enough to use a bat, and truth be told the bat isn't great against the monsters with harder bodies."

I nodded as I put together my hypothesis. "How many of your people have been able to gain a level? How did they do it? In the tutorial, we were all given spells, skills, and weapons. None of us had technological ones though. There were no guns or advanced explosives that I saw."

"You think that how we kill monsters determines how we gain energy?" He rubbed his chin as if considering the statement. "If that's the case we would have to use old school weapons to fight the monsters but the ones in the city have become stronger. It would become a blood bath."

"I think you should create two groups and rotate them in and out. One group would use guns to protect the weapons users. Over time the traditional weapons should lead them to level up. Once that happens you should be able to phase out the guns."

"It won't be easy to convince people especially Americans to give up the guns to fight with blades. Especially when they are fighting a rat the size of a car."

"They won't have a choice. The monsters will probably get stronger to give us cultivators something worthwhile to fight. If they don't move to keep up they will be drowned beneath a tide. That's not to mention what will happen when they realize that there isn't a government around to stop us."

"You seem to have realized that already. What do you plan on doing."

I stared at him not entirely sure what I should say. I hadn't decided what I was doing at the moment. I wanted to form a faction of my own of course but what did I want to do with it? I could make it a safe place for people who can't or don't want to fight but that would mean I would have to do all the fighting. I would have to be both the army and the nuclear deterrent. The blood that would be on my hands would be terrible. If I only recruited cultivators would that look like? I ultimately didn't have the answers and I wasn't going to find them sitting here. I went over a few more things with Christopher before I got up. I said my goodbyes and stepped back into the city. It was time to find my new home.