The way back was mostly uneventful, and soon John was standing in the middle of the street where used to be the wardrobe gate. Now, instead of a van and a bunch of furniture, he was faced with a smooth grey wall with a garage-sized metal gate and two people standing guard in front of it.

Staying on the sidewalk, he spent a minute watching people enter and leave, and noticed everyone had to touch a blue crystal secured into the walls on both sides of the gate, and be processed by one of the guards. Before coming closer, he sent his wisp high into the sky to be more inconspicuous and joined the small queue ahead. While waiting, he was admiring the strange material of the wall, and before he knew it the guard was already speaking to him.

"Eh, sorry?" He asked in an apologetic tone, missing most of the sentence.

"I was asking if you were already registered, but by your expression, my guess is a no. Come," the guard guided him to a white panel with a blue gem in the middle. "Place your palm on the crystal, and fill out the form. Also, you have to pay a one-time fee of fifteen white ash. If you can't afford it yet, it is ok, but you can't access any System buildings here until you do."

Hmm, fifteen isn't much, sure why not, he thought, placing his palm on the gem, and watching a blue window pop up above the crystal.

[Welcome to the Valiant's stand!

Please fill out the form below to help us find the best position in our budding new community.

Name:

Main card:

Second card:

White ash:

Blue ash:

Your desired role:

Your previous occupation:

Payment: 15 white ash

Thank you for joining and helping keep everyone safer!]

Trying and succeeding to fill a row with random nonsense, he shrugged, filled everything up with useless bits, and willed the payment to go through.

A high ding announced his success, making the guard look at the new screen on the panel above it and frown.

[Name: John

Main card: my own

Second card: also my own

White ash: a pile

Blue ash: a small pile

Your desired role: staying independent

Your previous occupation: a job

Dept: 0]

"That's not how you are supposed to fill that." He spoke, looking at John in more confusion than anger.

"A problem?" The other guard joined in, looking at the screen.

"Sorry, but I am not willing to share that information with someone I don't know. I am not looking for any group either, so there is no need for you to know. Can I go inside? I've already paid the fee."

The guards spoke to each other, unsure about what to do, but a while later they shrugged, saying something about this not being their problem, and let him in.

Looking around, he whistled in surprised appreciation. The whole square has changed beyond recognition, and John compared the places from his memory to the sights in front of him. Where the most prominent feature, the chapel, stood, was now a familiar wooden building with a large skull and seemingly heavy door. Lighting the whole square up were sparsely spread braziers burning with yellow fire, and another two unknown buildings were luring the people inside with their meticulous architecture and alien design.

One was an eye-catching building in the shape of a wide tree, all brown and filled with heavy branches stretching at least ten meters into the sky. The other was a peculiar thing looking like a four meters large red ruby cut and polished to perfection with a single access point in the shape of an arc.

"Hard to believe it's real, huh?" A feminine voice called from his right.

Seeing a familiar face, John tried to remember her name. "Ahh… Mira, right?" He said in a questioning tone, but with a hopeful face.

"You sure?" She replied with a cheeky smile.

"You almost got me… Mirabelle," John laughed. "How are you and Tom holding up?"

"Fine actually, though you dropped a bloody mess in our hands with that shelter. After the initial confusion, all the wannabes and usedtobes came out of the woodwork, trying to grab any piece of power they could. At first, they formed two groups and tried to take the leadership away from Tom, and when they found out they can't do anything without him, Mark actually tried to extort our food reserves if Tom refused to give up the leadership position and work under him. You should have seen Mark's face after Tom bought the inn and told him to fuck off, that moment was priceless." She laughed out, continuing to describe his flustered expression in perfect detail until John remembered the reason for coming here.

"Hey, do you know what time it is?"

"No idea, we can check if you want. Why?" She was caught off guard by the sudden shift in John's expression.

"Well, I think there will be another wave at the same time the Apocalypse has begun. That's why I came back…" John explained, making Mira frown.

"How sure are you about it?" She pressed, interrupting him and having clear signs of distress forming on her face.

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"I remember a hint about it in the morning announcement, so fairly confident."

"Shit! There is a working clock in the hotel lobby." She motioned for him to follow, and moved towards there at a brisk pace.

"Do you know when exactly it all began? It was somewhere around eight, I think."

"Sixteen past eight, that's when my clock froze up." John supplied, looking at the pendulum clock swing from left to right, "and if I am right, we have eighty-nine minutes."

"But why did no one else notice? I don't remember any hint about anything there, and I am sure someone would have said something."

It must have been in the second announcement about the Fate, John guessed.

"Is Tom here? He might know something about it."

"Tom? Why would he know anything about… Wait, you are hiding something, aren't you?" She nudged John on the shoulder, watching for his reaction.

"I…" John struggled to answer but was immediately interrupted by an indignant shout.

"Damn it, John, this is important. If you know something relevant, tell me!"

Looking around, they were already bringing attention to themself by their argument and he was absolutely against talking about the Fate-ladder where someone might overhear so he only whispered, "not here, and get Tom if he’s around."

"John?" She tried to press further, but was shut down and finally accepted his reluctance and led him to Tom's room.

"Hey Mira, how was the duck, did you… John? Did something happen?" Tom asked in surprise, closing the leather-bound book in his hand and standing up.

"You tell me," Mira said with crossed arms, clearly annoyed by not being in the loop.

"Huh? I don't know…" Tom struggled to remember anything he might have messed up.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she apologized with a defeated sigh. "John, please explain what you meant."

Now with both pairs of eyes on him, he quickly thought about how much to share, and finally made a decision.

"After the morning announcement about surviving the first twelve hours, there was another special pop-up for the top one hundred people with the highest Fate, and I remember seeing some stupid comment about the next Fate announcement tomorrow or something similar."

Tom's eyes widened in recognition, and Mira immediately pounced like a lioness on fallen prey.

"You knew!? Wait, so both of you were in the top hundred, huh? What did you get?"

John was getting a little uncomfortable with the way the conversation was heading and tried to reel it back but Mira pestered Tom until he admitted he got five hundred whites, which helped him cover almost half of the inn.

"But why would it happen now?" Tom asked, thinking about the wording he had skimmed through. "Tomorrow could just as well be in another thirteen hours or anytime in the following day."

"All I know," John weighed in, "the second wave came exactly twelve hours after the first, which would suggest, the third should be in another twelve or twenty-four. Now, I don't know about you, but when the second wave came, I got nearly killed by a pack of Rothounds, so this time, I'd rather stay here and see what happens before going out again."

"Yeah, you are right. We've lost six whole parties and had hundreds of casualties over the last eleven hours, half of which happened in the first. Mira, call for an emergency meeting because I'd rather be wrong and nothing happens than do nothing and let more people die. I'll be there in a minute after I change into more appropriate clothes."

"Oh and John, would you join us? We could use your…" Tom asked as they were leaving the room.

"No, I've been killing monsters the whole day, and I am hungry and tired. I think I'll visit your inn and then have a look at the other two buildings. You and Mira got this." He dipped out and headed straight for the wooden building in the middle of the square.

Remembering the stupid door prank, he took care not to slam it and entered the exact replica of the Desperate fool's inn with only a single exception, a different person behind the bar.

The queue wasn't long, and the woman with striking purple hair who served the customers worked efficiently to get everyone the food or the room they paid for.

"Good evening sir, what can we offer you today?" She asked in a melodious voice, looking at John with eyes the same purple color as her hair.

"Do you still have the famous duck?"

"Certainly, anything else?"

"Hmm, a vegetable soup and some nonalcoholic beverage if you can."

After placing her palm on a silver panel behind her, a plate filled with the duck, a wooden bowl full of brown soup, and a wooden mug filled with a steaming liquid popped out on the counter in quick succession, and she asked him to place a hand on a yellow crystal next to her to deliver the payment of four whites.

Looking around, there was some seating arrangement, because out of the fifteen tables twelve were filled to the brim and the remaining three were half-empty. Shrugging, he grabbed the plate and aimed at one of the filled tables, ready to squeeze into the freshly vacant spot.

"John, is that you?" A bald man with a rugged beard came up to him, carrying a plate filled with some kind of fish with vegetables.

"Ahh Josh, how are you holding up?"

"Fine actually, more than fine. That morning hunt proved very lucrative for all of us. Can you believe that we did more in those four hours than the majority of the groups in the whole day? When we were giving a recount to the leadership, they were very impressed and gave us a spot under Blackfist. Come, you can sit with me at his table." He pointed at the table tucked in the far corner.

Carefully avoiding the people around, they got there, sat at the two open spots next to each other, and took a quiet moment to enjoy their food.

"So, who is the Blackfist?" John asked after finishing his soup, placing the perfectly cleaned bowl to the side.

"You really don't know? He is one of the three leaders. Every competent party is under one of them."

"I thought Valiant Tom was the leader here, am I wrong?"

"From what I've heard, Valiant Tom is more like a Mayor, though he and Bloody Mira are working together, so it's kind of the same, and the last of the three is Mark." He pointed out which of the two remaining reserved tables belonged to whom.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice, "Blackfist was interested in meeting you. I tried to downplay your involvement, but after he asked about the Rothounds and where did all the blue ash go, it became very obvious you had a bigger impact than we made out."

"Maybe later," he brushed the topic off, focusing on the delicious duck.

"Just know some people might be looking for you," he spoke in an apologetic tone, "With all the skeletons and the hounds you've killed, well… let me say this, one from my group wasn't happy after finding out how valuable the ash was and how much you gained."

Sighing, John slowly finished his meal in silence, enjoying every bite, and after being done leaned to Josh as he was leaving, "I appreciate the warning… take care."

Another annoying complication but at the end of the day, not a big deal. His self-reliance and contact with Tom and Mira should give him enough protection against any cheap tactics those people might employ. After leaving the inn, he looked around and picked a direction toward the giant ruby.

The entrance was a simple arc covered with a white cloth with a painting of a red dragon breathing fire in the middle, and pushing it back, John stepped into a significantly larger building filled with piles and piles of items of all shapes and sizes imaginable. To simply describe the place, it was a massive mess.

"First time here?" Laughed a guy to his right, staring into a pile of what looked like second-hand weapons from the middle ages.

"The fuck is this?" John asked, confused and put off by the way this was organized.

"This is the Zagratix's hoard, and all that," he spread his hands around, pointing at the piles of random stuff, "is all the junk they are selling here."