“Well, What do we do now?” whispered Henry.

Having moved out of the building, the group surveyed the unfamiliar land before them. Blue skies and sunshine worked together to provide a sense of idyllic calm to an otherwise terrifying scenario.

When they had first realized that they wouldn’t be driving to town like normal, the group had decided to briefly search the area for other survivors. They had split into three teams of two to search the area. Otto moved with the professor, Emi moved with Henry, and Sylvia moved with Adam. Split as they were, the groups each had a “primary combatant” just in case they came across any monsters. After thirty minutes or so, they had decided to regroup in front of the Student Center where they could discuss their findings.

In the thirty minutes that they had been in the overgrown courtyard, they discovered three very important things.

First, they were not the only humans still on the campus. This was important because there was safety in numbers and maybe, they would be able to help each other to get to the town in the distance. Surely there would be more people there.

Second, while there were people still alive on the campus, there were also tens of bodies of staff and students that did not survive their initial challenge. Corpses were littered throughout the courtyard with a variety of markings denoting their cause of death.

This led the group to their third and most important discovery; there were still monsters on the campus.

Crouched down alongside the others, Otto responded to Henry's original question, “Nothing has changed. We need to try and meet up with other people. Personally, I think we need to get to town as soon as possible.”

“Newport is definitely going to be safer,” agreed Sylvia. “We are basically in the wild now. Have you guys not seen how bad the bodies are? Whatever is here is awful.” She shuddered as she glanced towards where the Health and Science building was. While her and Adam had been looking for survivors, they had stumbled upon a massacre. The scene reminded Adam of the Forerunner's Trial he had experienced, as many of the bodies were either crushed or torn open by sharp claws. The carnage caught Sylvia off guard, resulting in her emptying her stomach and sending the two of them back early.

Blood wasn't something that upset her. It was literally the primary element of her job! But this? This was so much worse than drawing blood or tending to an injury.

Adam stared out towards Newport before sharing a look with Michael. Ever since they first laid eyes on the canyon beside the city, they had been on edge. Something about that place triggered their instincts. It was almost as if they were staring into the maw of a massive predator when they looked upon it. If the thing was in sight, the two of them could feel a sheen of sweat build across their brow as a presence settled over them.

“I am not entirely against making our way to the city,” said Michael, “however, as Adam and I have said before, something feels off about it.”

“Before we make any moves away from here we should at least try to meet up with the other people on campus.”

“From what we saw, I think most of the survivors have congregated in the Arts building.” added Henry.

Emi and Henry had scoped out the Arts building when they had separated, finding a lot of evidence that people had moved that way. They found multiple bodies and a path of crushed grass and bushes that led straight to the side of the building. When they attempted to sneak closer to the building, they saw movement on an upper balcony, however, sounds of creatures eating echoed from one of the new rocky outcroppings in front of the building, giving them pause.

Emi tightly gripped the stick she had been sharpening, “If we plan on helping the people stuck in the Arts building, we are going to have to pass by the monsters over there,” she laid the newly crafted stake on the ground beside her, “We are going to need weapons and ways to protect ourselves.”

“Henry, you are the only one that has a weapon that is usable,” she said.

“I wish I knew how to use magic. The system said that Academics produced many of the general magic users, but we don’t have any skills yet that let us use it!” Sylvia said with an annoyed hiss.

Adam could almost feel the frustration emanating from her. She had told him before that she felt useless when the two of them had been scouting the area. Despite the fact that she, Otto and Emi had all chosen paths that did not offer direct combat abilities, Emi at least had a minor amount of kendo training from when she was a kid and the skill she got allowed her to summon a tool that would help her with crafting. While the tools she summoned were normal tools, at least they could be used to help her make weapons for people to use.

Initially, she thought Otto had a Pursuit similar to Adam, due to his vast change in physicality, however, once she learned that he actually had received a sponsorship and they were both Academics, her frustration grew. Otto’s new body gave him an edge at least! She had nothing.

“Don’t give up Syl, I am sure you and Otto can figure it out!” Adam sent an encouraging smile her way.

He turned to Emi, “Do you think you could make more weapons if you had more materials?”

Emi’s hands never stopped moving as she was already working on a second wooden stake, “Of course I can,” she looked at Michael, “could you give me some tips on stone age weapons, Professor?”

“Of course I can.” The old man repeated with a grin. “Let's gather some materials and then move back inside. We can take a bit of time to prepare items for the others.” He looked at Henry and Otto, “Could the two of you gather sticks and some decent stones? Trial and error is going to ruin a lot of it.”

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Over the next ten minutes or so, the group set up shop again in the Student Center. Back where they had all started, Otto and Henry had stacked up sticks and many stones for Emi and Michael to use to craft weapons for all of them. It was fairly humorous that all the knowledge of ancient cultures that Michael had accrued over his career was so helpful in this situation.

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While those two were busy crafting, the others had broken off into sets of two again. Sylvia and Otto decided to put their heads together to try and figure something out with magic. They had ransacked an office and found some functioning pens, which were now being used to draw out some kind of diagram on the walls.

This left Adam and Henry to keep watch. During the time that the other guys were gathering the materials, Adam had gone inside and made sure the far exit was still blocked by rubble before cleaning a new area for the crafting to take place. He had just set up a space to keep watch from when Henry joined him.

“Hey dude, how are you doing?” he asked.

“Oh, you know, same old same old. Just keeping an eye out for monsters that want to kill and then eat me and my friends.” Adam replied sarcastically. “What about you, how are you holding up?”

Henry’s eyes flashed with annoyance, “You always do this, Adam. You use sarcasm to hide your real feelings.” he turned and stared into the half distance, “We have undergone something absolutely insane and honestly, we probably won’t be able to actually sort through our feelings for a long time. The shows and webnovels I have always loved really dramatize these situations.” He sighed and glanced back at Michael and Emi, “If the professor hadn’t shown up when he did, you do realize that we all would have probably died right?”

Adam held himself back from being sarcastic. Henry was right, he did tend to use sarcasm to hide his real feelings. He wasn’t very good at expressing himself in a positive way. “Sarcasm is just… easier… than being open with people. You don’t deserve that though, sorry man.”

In all honesty, his nerdy friend was one of the best guys Adam had ever met. Henry was someone that rarely ever did anything for himself, always wanting to help however he could. The only thing that he was selfish in was his interest in swordsmanship. The guy set aside a period of his day, everyday, to work on the tai chi forms he learned with Professor Greymore or, in one of the private rooms of the Fitness Center, training his fencing technique. For a long time now, Adam knew that his friend's obsession was negatively impacting his schoolwork but, it so obviously made him happy so he had left him alone. It was a good thing he had though because that obsession was definitely a boon in their current situation.

“I’m not saying you need to always be open with me but, be open with yourself at least.” he continued, “From what I understand so far, you and Otto both went through some kind of trial while the rest of us were in stasis,” Henry’s eyes softened as he looked at his friend, “and based on the way you looked at bodies in the courtyard… you must have seen some stuff in that trial.”

Adam couldn’t stop himself from tensing up at his friends' statements. Images of the man being crushed, Luisa’s body being ripped from the tree hollow, and the memory of Charles apologizing to the man they left behind flashed through his head. Henry’s hand landing on his shoulder brought him out of the vivid memories. Most vividly, Adam thought of Jessica. As the woman he loved, of the monster she had become, and of the state he had left her in... The destroyed conference room sat at the edge of his awareness, a constant nagging feeling in the back of his mind as he shook the image of the monsters corpse out of his mind.

“Obviously, I don’t know shit about what you actually went through but… I do know what has happened since then.” He lightly squeezed Adam’s shoulder before turning back to watch the entrance of the building. “If you need someone to talk to then just know I am here for you, alright?”

Emotions that Adam had been trying to hold back welled to the surface as he felt the support from his friend. Henry wasn’t pushing for answers or making him open up. He was just… there. As someone that was notoriously tight lipped, it was exactly what Adam needed. Someone that would just be there for when he needed them.

He wiped the new spots of moisture off his cheeks. Weird how it’s raining indoors, he thought, and settled into a comfortable silence with his friend.

A couple minutes later, Emi approached them from behind, signaling for them to come back and join them in her makeshift workshop.

As they walked back, they passed the room that Otto and Sylvia had been using, meeting up with the two Academics as they moved to join the others as well.

Sylvia looked at Adam with a big grin as she passed by him. Clearly, they had made some kind of breakthrough, which Adam thought was a good thing. If everyone was able to help in combat then that would be ideal. He looked past them as she walked by, interested in checking out what they had been doing and tripped over his own feet in surprise.

The room they had been in looked like a student's nightmare. Text was scrawled across every surface from the four walls to the ceiling and even some parts of the floor. Curiously, some of the script didn’t make sense to Adam. In some spots, there were key symbols that he could only describe as runes or maybe glyphs? The symbols had some similarity to both chinese characters and nordic runes, switching between sharp and angular lines to rounded calligraphy at points that made no sense to him. Regardless, the room looked all kinds of hectic and disorderly, like the notebook of a genius. Adam realized he was falling behind the others and rushed to catch up.

Laid out along the floor were a series of potential weapons for everyone to choose from. As Adam got a good look at them, Emi went into an explanation.

“Alright everyone, here’s the deal. I was able to make a couple different types of weapons for all of us to choose from.” A grin spread across her face, “And fun fact, this was a huge windfall for me. As a Crafter, making these weapons gave me a TON of experience, so I managed to level up to level 3.”

“We did too!” exclaimed Sylvia. “Sorry to cut you off, Emi, but Otto and I made some discoveries while you were working.”

“It seems like the different Paths of Pursuit have various ways to gain experience,” added Otto. He seemed to concentrate for a moment before the teal runes on his body started to glow, “By harnessing our level one passive abilities, Syl and I were able to come up with a couple different theories before landing on one that seems the most likely.”

He let the glow dissipate, the runes returning to normal, before he continued. “Probably the most important discovery we have made is that a person will most likely gain the most experience by engaging in activities that align with the descriptions of their chosen Path of Pursuit. For the two of us, studying existing knowledge and theory crafting proved to help us more than fighting did earlier this morning.” He smiled at Sylvia, “Syl, actually, figured out most of this information before I was able to, so she received more experience. I am still only level 2.”

Sylvia blushed, “It’s not like you didn’t add anything to the conversation, Otto.”

“Of course! I never said I didn’t.” he joked.

“Anyways, knowing that Emi leveled up so much from crafting, solidifies our theory.” The large man turned towards the others, “We think that for the three of you, actual combat will provide you with the most experience, and with any luck, Henry might be able to gain experience from training as well.”

Sylvia looked between Michael and Adam. “You two are the biggest conundrum for us. We can assume that the professor can gain more experience by performing actions that are in line with his Wolf form but, Adam… you are a major mystery as you turn into something totally unique.”

All of the information they were providing made sense to Adam so far. Learning about his new form was going to be pivotal in his own growth for sure.

“All that said,” continued Otto, “We actually think that Michael and Adam shouldn’t get any weapons.”

Michael and Adam who were both eyeing the weapons before them with a glint in their eye both looked up at him in shock.

Wait… WHAT?