It only took the group about an hour to get to Big lake and when they came into the town, they heard shouting and yelling around the curve in the road. Picking up their pace Terry lead the group towards the sounds. Coming around the curve they saw a group of monsters surrounding a group of humans. Looking around to make sure there weren’t any stragglers, Terry had Susan and Bradley take the group and hide behind a building. He then took Tamara, Izzy and his minions and ran towards the monsters.

Terry cast his slowing curse aoe on the monsters before they got to them. He had his minions spread out and Tamara and Izzy by his sides when they met the back of the monster group. All three of them swung into the group taking a few of the monsters by surprise and breaking their ring enough for the group of humans inside it to start fighting back. Terry ducked a swing by a standing pig monster and lashed out with his sword, striking a pony sized hyena that was about to strike Izzy. Blocking the blow that it reacted with, he sliced into the hyena’s neck and kicked it back, just for it to meet Izzy’s dagger in its eye. He blocked a blow that would have knocked Tamara back and kicked the monster in the balls. When it bent down he cut its head off and kicked it back into the rest of the monsters.

It went on like this for a while until all the monsters were dead, the group that was surrounded covered in blood and panting. Tamara and Izzy started going around looting the bodies while Terry walked over to the ones they had saved. There were two men and three women standing there.

“Thanks for the help stranger.” The man closest to Terry said. “Names Jason.”

“You’re welcome Jason. My name’s Terry, that’s Tamara and Izzy.” Terry said pointing to the two women.

“Do you know any healing magic?” A woman asked as she supported the other man.

“I do.” Terry cast his healing spell on the man until he was healed up.

After Terry was done healing the man one of the other women came into view then and bent down to loot a body. She was maybe five-foot six with shoulder length brown hair and nice tan skin, that was covered in blood. When he saw her his heart sped up and his stomach dropped. When she was done looting her bodies she stood up and looked at him, she had amazing sky blue eyes. Terry licked his lips and tried to think of something to say.

“So, um, which way are you guys heading?”

“We actually just met, they were coming from the East and we were running from the North when we got to this intersection.” The man that was wounded said. “My wife” He indicated to the woman who had supported him “and I are heading West.”

“What about the rest of you?”

“We tried to make it North but got over run and chased from Elk River.” The woman that caught Terry’s attention said as she came forward. “What about you?”

“I’m trying to make it up North as well. The rest are just following me.”

“Well where else are we supposed to go?” Izzy said as she came up to them.

“I’m not complaining, I’m just saying.”

“So, you guys are heading North as well, huh. How far?”

“I’m heading to Grand Rapids. I have family up there.”

“I’ve heard that the North is pretty dangerous so you might not like what you find up there.”

“Don’t worry, I’m tough. Izzy would you go get the rest of the group.”

“Sure thing.”

As Izzy walked away, Terry left Tamara to talk with them and he went and looted his bodies and got some more weapons and picked up a new minion. He got the hyena monster, the standing pig monster and one that looked like a giant walking porcupine. When he was done he walked back to Tamara and Izzy was walking back with the rest of the group.

“So, you guys are welcome to join us if you’d like.” Terry heard Tamara say as he came up beside her.

“Thanks, I think we will join you. They want to try and get to Atikin and I’m not sure where I’m going just yet.” The woman who caught Terry’s eye said.

“Her name is Lena.” Tamara leaned over and whispered in Terry’s ear.

Terry blushed a bit as he cleared his throat. “And what about you two?” Indicating the couple.

“We have family over in Saint Cloud so we’re going to go there.”

“Okay, I hope you find them and they are alright. As for the rest of us, we should get going before it gets too dark out.”

With that they bid farewell to the couple and started off down the road. With the information that Elk River had been overrun and the other group hadn’t been able to get past them. Terry decided to try the back roads. They made pretty good time going the back roads and other than a few stray monsters it was pretty quiet. Which made Terry’s neck hairs stand on end. As they walked Terry took a look at his messages and combat log. He had gained 28260 exp from that last fight.

Congratulations, you have reached level 23! You have 10 unassigned stat points and 14 skill points.

With that Terry put five points into constitution and intelligence then closed his stats page. He did notice that he was close to leveling up his firebolt spell, he wondered what kind of improvement it would get once he did. He also wanted to know when he could get more spells. He hadn’t really looked in the basic shop for spells, he might have to do that when they stop one time.

As Terry came back to the present, he heard Izzy and Lena talking off to the side and Susan was riding on Pumpkin. Nothing big attacked them but they were still on high alert. It took them most of the day to get to a nice spot on the road to Zimmerman where they could camp for the night. It was a parking lot for access to a hunting area next to the road. It was surrounded by a fence and then mostly open area around that, so they would be able to see most things coming at them.

They settled down to eat in a large circle. The ladies sitting and talking while petting the giant cats and the guys just munching while resting. Once Terry was done eating, he wandered off a bit and laid down to get some rest so he could be on watch that night. With his higher stats he needed less sleep than the others and so he was the one who usually took watch. Though sometimes one of the others helped keep watch, if they couldn’t sleep.

When Terry opened his eyes, it was already dark. Tamara was up keeping watch and sitting by the fire. “Hey sleepy head.”

“Hey, I miss anything?”

“Not really. Just discussed some plans and learned some more about the new people. They were coming from South Dakota heading to some family up North here.”

“Oh, that’s cool. They tell you anything about their classes?”

“Not really, just that Tammy was a javelineer and Lena was an elemental archer.”

“A jalelineer and elemental archer?”

“Yep. From what I can tell the elemental archer sounds just like it is, an archer that shoots arrows imbued with elements. The javelineer is a little harder to describe, but it sounds like she can create javelines and throw them with pretty good accuracy and power.”

“Huh, interesting. It would be nice to have some more ranged power.”

“Yeah, and maybe someone to help Susan train some more.” Tamara said and yawned. “Well, I’m tired so I’m going to bed.”

“Okay, sleep good.” Terry said and threw some wood on the fire.

Watching as Tamara went and laid down Terry walked outside the firelight and started walking the perimeter, passing his minions as he did. He couldn’t believe they had traveled so far just by walking and everything they’d seen was unreal. He kept watch and thought about what he wanted to do once he got to his parent’s place. Since his goal was getting closer, he would need a new one soon.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Before Terry knew it light was starting to stream over the horizon. With the light coming up he decided his minions could keep watch now so he connected to the basic store to see if they had any other spells he could buy. He had been putting that off for a while now and he was getting tired of just using firebolt. When he was in the store he searched for spells and found six different ones, though three were ones he already had. The others were apprentice frostbolt, apprentice shock and apprentice push. They were each only one hundred credits so he bought the three spells he didn’t yet have.

Closing the store connection Terry got up and started waking the rest of the group. While they roused, he went and gave each of the cats some food and poured some water into a bowl he had. He then pulled some food out for himself and started to eat. Once everyone had eaten they got on their way. Traveling down the road the women chatted quietly with the kids while the men talked amongst themselves.

Terry was out in the lead with one of his minions, the other two were guarding the rear and the cats flanked him. This time Susan wasn’t riding on Pumpkin. As they neared the town of Zimmerman they looked around at the houses and saw that there were doors torn off their hinges and places that had caught fire. When they got further into the town, they saw stores with busted windows and products strewn over the ground. They did stop at a grocery store to restock some supplies but they did it quickly.

The group silently signed with relief when they made it through the town without running into anything. Though for Terry that was also troublesome as it meant there were probably no humans left there. Getting back onto the highway they turned left and started heading North. They didn’t quite make it to the town of Princeton before night fell, so they found a flat spot off the road and settled down for the night.

Terry opened his eyes and they felt heavy; a lot heavier than they should have. He also had a splitting headache and the light hurt his eyes. Groaning as he sat up, he felt something under him. It was bars. His eyes snapped open and he looked around through the pain. He was in a cage made of wood and bones. He saw the rest of the group in similar cages but they all seemed to be unconscious still.

“This one be awake.” Terry heard a guff voice saw off to his right say. “What want done with him?”

“Leave him be for now,” a more sophisticated voice said. “The master will be wanting to view what we caught when he gets here.”

Looking around some more Terry saw a fire off to his right and sitting beside it was a giant of a creature. He couldn’t see who had answered the big thing but he knew there was at least two of them there. He wondered how they had managed to capture all of them without him or his minions noticing. Though he could figure that out later, right now he needed to get out of the cage. He didn’t feel any of his weapons on him so they must have taken them, but he did feel his bag on his belt.

Terry slowly reached into his bag of holding and pulled out a bone dagger. He tried to cast corrosive coating on it but he didn’t feel the release of the spell like he normally did. Cursing under his breath he started to try and cut the ropes that held the cage together. After about five minutes, he was still sawing at the ropes with none of them being cut. He stopped what he was doing and put the dagger into his boot.

“Hey, ugly.” Terry shouted at the big thing by the fire.

Terry saw its head turn to look at him, “what puny human want.”

“Shh, don’t talk to him,” the sophisticated voice said.

“What puny human gonna do,” the big creature laughed and then stood up, he had to be over ten feet tall and six feet wide.

The creature turned towards Terry and he could see what looked like the torso and head of a small child sticking out of the creature’s chest.

“Don’t do anything stupid now.” The child like tumor said in a sophisticated voice.

Terry couldn’t help but cringe at the sight. He could feel the ground shake a bit as the big creature walked towards his cage. It squatted down in front of him and he could just make out the features of the thing on its chest. It had gray leathery skin and was bald with warts on its scalp. He couldn’t quite tell what color its eyes were but he guessed they were black from how dark they looked in the firelight. It smiled at him and its jagged yellow teeth showed and his skin crawled.

“Master won’t miss puny human.” The big creature spoke and its breath hit him the face, almost knocking him down.

“No, the master will notice. You will not touch him or any of the others.”

“What do you want with us?”

“The master want puny humans for fun stuff.”

“Shut up!”

“What fun stuff?”

“No, you won’t get any information from us. Now go back and sit down you big oof.”

The big creature groaned turning around and headed back to the fire. Terry stood there watching them then turned his attention to the bindings on the cage. They looked like plain rope bindings but obviously they were something more. Along with the fact that he couldn’t cast his skill was worrying. His skill wouldn’t work but he wanted to try his spells so he tried casting each one and all of them failed as well.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Tamara asked groggily.

“Apparently we got captured.”

“What? How?”

“I have no idea right now and these cages are special, I can’t cast any of my spells or skills.”

“Well, shit, that’s not good.”

Terry heard more groaning and the rest of the group started waking up. The big creature looked back at them as he heard them all moving but just went back to doing what he was doing. Even when all the guys started shouting at him.

“Hey, let us out of here.”

“Why are we in here?”

“Hey fucker, you let me out of here or else.”

The threats and shouts continued for almost twenty minutes and Terry just kept trying to think of a way out. He was getting tired of them shouting and the big creature must have too. The big creature reached forward grabbed a log from the fire and hurled it at the cages, knocking one of them on its side. Terry sat down after that and when he did, he felt his bag of holding.

I wonder Terry thought as he put his hand on the cage and thought to put it in his bag. With that thought the cage disappeared and he was standing in the open. Quickly crouching down so as not to be seen he quickly and quietly moved over to the cage with Tamara and Izzy. He put his hand on the cage and it also disappeared.

“How’d you do that?” Izzy asked.

“Shh!” Terry shushed her. “Let’s take this guy down so he won’t hurt anyone else.”

“What about weapons?”

“Here.” Terry reached into his bag and pulled out a couple of daggers, handing them to the women.

“Hey, What about us?” Lena whispered.

Terry thought about it and figured why not. He went over to their cage and put it in his bag. Bringing a bow and a quiver out he handed them to Lena. “Sorry I don’t have any javelines.”

“That’s okay, I can make my own.” Tammy said and materialized one into her hand.

Terry went over to the cage with Pumpkin and Bella and released them. They were still a bit groggy but they got up in a crouch and moved in with him. They all spread out with Terry and his cats in the middle. He cast his slowing curse on the big guy and it was on. Tammy and Lena were next, they each shot and threw their weapons hitting the creature in the back as it moved slowly to turn around. With that the cats moved in to rip the ankles with Terry and the girls moving in after.

Terry focused on the big guy and found he was a level thirty with his health going down slightly with each attack. Izzy and Tamara went to work with their daggers trying to stay at his back. Terry went around to the front of the creature and swung his sword at the child like tumor but it moved and ducked away from his swing. He stepped back and fired off a firebolt at the tumor hitting it in the face. Stepping back in he thrust his sword at the belly of the creature. Pulling the sword out he started swinging and cutting it.

It took them about ten minutes to kill the creature. When the big guy went down, they were glad that it was over but when they turned around to go free the others, they heard laughter. When they all looked back, they saw the big creature roll over and the tumor pop up. They heard cracking and ripping as the tumor seemed to absorb the big guy it was attached to. When it had absorbed everything, it stood about four feet tall with big feet and had green skin.

“Now it’s my turn.” It screeched and thrust its hand out at them.

With that the ones that were closest flew back ten feet. When they got back up Terry cast slowing curse on the little guy and ran forward. He swung his sword and hit an invisible barrier. He moved around so its back was towards the others. It was small enough where it was hard for everyone to attack it at once. Even the ranged women had a hard time hitting it. As they kept dealing damage Terry could see cracks forming on the barrier. As the group kept hammering on the barrier it finally shattered, throwing the group back again. They got back up and started attacking the little guy again. This time though their attacks were cutting into it. With its barrier down it didn’t take them long to cut it down.

When they finally killed the creature Terry’s head felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted off it without him even knowing it was there. He went and looted the body and then cast summon minion on the creature. When the skill was complete the body of the little creature rose up. He figured it must be more of a magic user, which may come in handy if it has mind magic.

Going over to the other cages Terry put them all in his bag. He kept moving so as not to have to answer any questions about how he got out. Now that everyone was out he took a look around to try and figure out where they were.

“Hey over here,” Izzy said. “I’ve found our things.”

Izzy was standing next to a large chest, just like the ones you would see in a movie. She had it open and was digging through it. Once everyone gathered around her she started handing out their things.

“There’s a lot more stuff in there than just ours it looks like.” Tamara said as she looked in the chest.

“Yeah, we probably weren’t the first ones that thing attacked.” Terry added.

“I wonder where all the others are then.”

“That thing mentioned something about a master. So, I would like to get out of here before they get here.”

“You’re probably right, should we look for where we camped?”

“No, as long as we got our stuff we should just try and get back on the road as fast as we can.”

Once everyone got their items back Terry went over to the chest, closed the lid and put it in his bag of holding.

“Dude where did you get that?” Bradley asked coming up next to him.

“It was a gift.”

“That’s so sweet! Do you think I could get one?”

“I’m not sure, I think there may be a way to get one but I’m not sure how. Though they’re probably expensive.”

“Aww.”

“Come on, let’s get going.” Terry said and started off towards where he thought the road was.