Now that I’m actually here and we can talk at length, Mike and I catch each other up. I tell him about my exploits so far, and his story is similar to mine. He chose a class as soon as the system let him.

Michael Harrington - Level 14.

Race: Human, Male.

Titles: None.

Class: Siege Engineer (adept).

It’s a really weird class that lets him make blueprints, take in materials, and build things. He used it quite effectively to defend his own home at first, then to defend this place.

The Missing Mike quest I’d been carrying all this time updates and finishes. I nearly forgot about it, but it sorts itself out just fine even though I skipped a step. I collect the ten thousand experience reward, but I’m not too enthusiastic about it. Sure, it’s a nice chunk, but it’s not enough to push me to level 5.

“Say, would you happen to have any of these people here?” I ask, reading off the names from the other Search and Rescue quests I have.

There are about twenty of them in the list, but I’d only need seven of them. Mike does me two better, calling for someone and arranging for nine people to come over. All of them update the quests when they arrive, but I can’t claim the rewards until I report back to the quest givers.

“Take one of Jessica’s pets and do a quick solo run,” Mike suggests. “I’d say it’s worth it, a full level-up is no joke.”

He’s not wrong, but I don’t want to waste that much time. Going back and forth would be quick, but I’d need a couple of hours to find every quest giver.

“I don’t know, bro,” I say.

Mike clamps a hand down on my shoulder and looks me dead in the eye. “Just do it. If you wait too long, you’ll end up sharing the experience and it won’t be enough.”

I don’t tell him that I’ll be sharing the experience regardless. Emily is a member of my party and I won’t kick her out just for this.

“Damn, that’s ice cold,” I say instead.

Mike shrugs. “You’re our strongest asset right now, so we have to take any chance to make you even stronger.”

“Asset, huh?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, yeah. Fine, I’ll do it,” I say.

We make the necessary arrangements, and I take off.

----------------------------------------

“So, did it work?” Mike asks as I return a couple of hours later.

“Just barely, but I got another level.”

I leave out the part where enough of the experience went to Emily to give her a couple of levels. She must be confused as hell up on that rooftop. Instead of that, I tell Mike about people’s reactions as I rode in covered in blood, wearing only boxers.

We laugh about it, and he offers me the chance to clean up in Dianne’s backyard shower. As he leads me to it, I go into the attribute tabs to check it out. The set points got allocated right away, but I didn’t touch the free points yet.

Dianne has one of those outdoor showers that’s just a fifty gallon barrel up off the ground. When it rains, the water pouring down her roof gets funneled into that barrel and she mainly uses it to wash up in the summer after she’s done gardening.

Lots of people in Stelver have something similar.

It’s not quite summer yet, and even though the barrel is full, the water is cold as balls. But I don’t complain. I strip down, get under the gravity fed trickle, and work a bar of lavender scented soap up and down my body. Mike wanders off to find me some clothes, and I turn my attention back to the interface as I rinse off a layer of blood.

I still don’t have any idea what I’m doing with my attributes, so I go by feel. My constitution, strength, and agility are pretty high since they get the majority of the set points, but the other attributes are starting to lag behind. I can’t fix them with just one level-up, but I decide to at least make the situation better.

I put two points into perception to help with controlling dash, and the remaining six points get divided between essence and spirit to give me more mana for my skills.

Jack Harrington - Level 5.

Race: Human, Male.

Titles: Power Hungry.

Class: Wavebreaker (expert).

Class Stage: Basic.

Experience to next level: 3991/112,636.

Health: 250/250.

Mana: 80/80.

Stamina: 260/260.

Attributes

Constitution: 16.

Strength: 24.

Agility: 18.

Perception: 11.

Charisma: 7.

Essence: 8.

Spirit: 7.

I also have a skill point, and I use it to upgrade ground pound since it’s my opening move for most fights. Even from just that one skill point, the change is huge.

Skill: Ground Pound.

Description: Unleash a powerful, earth-shaking blow, causing a shockwave that staggers and disrupts nearby enemies but causes minimal harm. This skill scales with the user’s momentum during casting, consuming the momentum in the process.

Area of Effect: 50 feet, centered on the user (increases up to 250 feet through consumed momentum).

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Effects: 5-50 damage (dependent on distance from user and consumed momentum), staggers all enemies, 13% chance to inflict a short stun effect.

Cost: 30 mana.

The biggest change is in the skill’s range, but everything about it got better. But the cost went up by 10 mana as well, so it’s a good thing I spent those points into essence and spirit.

Mike returns by the time I’m done with the interface and the shower. He tosses me some clothes that are a couple sizes too big.

“Where’d you get these?” I ask as I inspect them.

It’s an old pair of shorts, green and faded, and an off-pink polo shirt with a few holes in it. No boxers or socks.

“They’re Jim’s,” Mike says. “He wouldn’t part with anything else, sorry.”

Jim is Dianne’s dad and Mike’s soon-to-be father in law. Dianne still lives with her parents, waiting for Mike to get his degree. They planned to move away to a big city after that and get a fresh start together, but I imagine those plans are on hold now.

“Make sure to pass on my thanks,” I say as I pull the clothes into my inventory to equip them.

“Already did,” Mike says.

I keep the heart boxers in my inventory to have something if — when — these clothes will be torn to shreds. Then I equip the shorts and the polo shirt, and I find that they fit me snugly. They didn’t resize or anything, I’m just bulking up with each level and I didn’t notice until now. I’m taller, wider, and now that I’m not covered in several layers of dry blood anymore, I can see muscle definition that wasn’t there before.

Well that just makes my entire wardrobe at home useless. So many nice clothes that won’t fit me anymore. The prospect makes me a tiny bit angry.

----------------------------------------

We spend the next hour strategizing, tossing ideas back and forth. Mike cracks open a few beers he has on hand, and we drink them slowly on the porch. They’re lukewarm.

The system gives me a warning as soon as I take the first sip.

Warning: You’ve been poisoned.

Poison type: ethanol.

You have resisted the effects.

“Ain’t that just fucking great,” I complain. “Soon, we won’t even be able to get drunk anymore.”

“Jim has a few bottles of hard liquor, but he’ll get pissed if I take those,” Mike says. “He’s already angry that I ruined his front lawn with monster guts and skills.”

I don’t go off about the disastrous future in store for him if he goes through with marrying Dianne. The two of them already know, and anyway, it’s not my place to comment on it.

People come and go as we talk details, some reporting back to Mike, some to me. We give new orders or instructions and they’re off again. Pops finds us after a while, and after a round of hugs, he joins in. Then William joins, then Emily, and she sits one rung below me on the porch steps.

Even she looks haggard by now, and I absently find myself massaging her shoulders to keep busy. She flinches at first, ready to bolt, but then she melts and lets me do it. She squirms and arches her spine, so I move my hands to her back and knead my fingers into tightly coiled muscles.

Dianne comes out of the house to greet us, and when she sees what’s going on, she sits down in front of Mike. He doesn’t catch on right away, and it takes me elbowing him in the ribs multiple times, gesturing to Emily with my eyes, until he takes the hint. He starts giving Dianne a backrub as well.

Jessica finds us like that, barging into the picture surrounded by about ten pets. Her eyes go wide and she yells, “I knew it!”

Some short lived banter later and a failed attempt from her to force my hand lower down on Emily’s back, she gets to business as well. When Derek and Carter arrive, the group is complete.

Mike looks at them with a weird expression of longing, and I realize that besides Dianne and Pops, everyone else is here with and for me. None from his group stick around, they just come and go.

Dickheads, I think, but I keep it to myself.

At some point, Mom of all people appears. She rides in on a pet, going fifty miles an hour.

“Jack! Mike!” She screams, jumping off the back of the pet and scrambling up the steps to hug us.

Then she slaps me over the head, and goes on a tirade about my near death experience. I figured she’d hear sooner or later since Derek got that ball rolling, but I was hoping it would take a while longer.

“Hey, where’s my hug?” Pops says with a chuckle.

“Oh, it’s right here!” Mom yells, pouncing on him. “It’s a really tight one for your neck! How could you let my babies go through all of this?!”

Everyone laughs, and Pops holds her tight, mumbling love you too, honey.

Jessica leans in and whispers, “sorry. She’s been going off on Polly for an hour now. Said that if one of the pets doesn’t bring her here asap, she’ll let the kids have a taste of parrot.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Pops holds her until she calms down, then he kisses her forehead before gently lowering her to the ground. Another round of laughter passes around, and Mike eases up.

“I told them all,” he says out of the blue. “When Jack gets here, he’ll make everything okay. We just have to hold out until then.”

I look at him and blink, suddenly at a loss for words.

“Why me? Why not Pops?”

Mike shrugs. “I figured he’d be busy and you’d come first. But I have to say, I never expected he’d be following your lead.”

William hears that and gives me a short nod. I can just feel what he wants to say, so I flip him off. He grins.

“Make some room,” Mom demands, stomping over to the porch. “Tom, I want a massage too!”

“Yes, honey,” Pops says, following her like a lovestruck teenager.

“Where’s my massage?!” Jessica blows up. “I’ve been busting my ass the last few days, too!”

She forces her way onto the porch steps as well, crowding herself in front of me and nearly pushing Emily aside. Emily shoots her a sharp glare that all but screams get your own damn masseuse. There are no takers at first, but then, surprising everyone, William sits down behind her and starts rubbing her shoulders.

“Thaaat’s the spot,” she cooes.

I smile at the absurdity of it all, but I let everyone relax. Just for a moment, just for a short while so they won’t go insane.

----------------------------------------

Things slowly die down on their own, so for once, I don’t have to be the party pooper. Dianne takes Jessica and Emily away and shows them to the shower, going off about the importance of conserving water unlike other people she knows.

Guess I spent a little too long in there, but I just had so much blood on me.

Derek and Carter wander off on their own, as does Mom. She wants to check up on the kids in the safe zone, she knows them all from her job at the school. Everyone peels off one by one, until only Mike, Pops, William, and I are left.

Mike tells us about the defenses he’s made and what else his skills can do.

“It’s only walls and trenches for now, and only out of dirt or wood. But I also have this skill that lets me store literal tons of compatible materials. I dig the trenches with one skill, take in the dirt, and make walls out of it with another skill.”

“Those walls are a bit soft,” William notes. “We should see about reinforcing them.”

“Sure thing, I just need the wood.”

The conversation goes on like that, we move through points quickly and waste little time. More runners come with various reports, and to my displeasure, Mike starts pointing them my way. The various men and women seem distrustful at first, but they tell me what they have and take their leave.

Even Mike excuses himself at some point, and he leaves to repair what he can or build new walls and trenches where he can’t.

“I’ll be off too,” William says. “Gotta check in with my groups and see if they have anything important for you.”

“William?” I ask as the man turns to leave.

“Yeah, boss?”

“Fuck you.”

He laughs. “You don’t have to like it, Jack. You just have to do a good job.”

Pops waits until he’s gone, then he sits down next to me.

“What’s that all about?” He asks.

“William thinks I should be Stelver’s leader or something.”

“Fuck him!” Pops explodes.

“That’s what I’ve been telling him.”

I expect that to be that, but Pops takes a moment to calm down and speaks again.

“He should do it,” he mumbles.

“I’ve been telling him that, too. But he says he doesn’t want to and that I should do it.”

Pops gives me a long, hard look, then he softens and lets out a pent up breath.

“Don’t tell me you think he’s right,” I groan.

“Okay, I won’t tell you,” Pops says. “I’ll ask you something instead: how do you feel about it?”

“I don’t know. I’m scared? I don’t like it? It seems like too much?”

Pops nods. “Then don’t let them force you into it. Let someone else do it.” He gets up, dusts off his pants, and turns to leave as well. “I want you to be happy, no matter how you’ll go about it. But here’s the thing: if you don’t fill that spot, you give up the right to complain about the man that will.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

He walks off down the street, and I’m left all alone on the porch to ponder everything.