"Ahh," John sighed, enjoying the delicate smell of the herbs floating around the steaming bath.

He had spent the last four hours at the northern outskirts, slaughtering as many undead as he could.

At first, he was just angry, at the Colonel, at the soldiers, at the apocalypse, but mostly at himself. The situation happened because of that old bastard, but what followed was entirely on him. There were so many things he could have done better, but instead, he went there fully intending to let the Fatebreaker Deathfiend raze the whole place to the ground.

He… Before the Apocalypse, he was a god-damned Junior software developer who hated politics with passion, but now he was more than that. He was… who actually was he?

John never cared about leading others, nor did he care about the fabled climb of the corporate ladder. He had been offered a promotion year after year, but he had always refused, preferring to remain as a capable dev with Junior's responsibilities instead.

Now though, he almost felt like the promotion was forced upon him, but the thing was, he enjoyed it. Staying out in the night alone and bashing the dried heads of the zombies, learning how to successfully spear a charging Rothound, feeling the thrill of battle while outsmarting an entire pack… he finally felt like being alive. That never happened in his previous job.

There, he was content, but here? Here he excelled, loving every minute of it, and it was time to acknowledge that. He would continue to grow in strength and help others when necessary, but he wouldn't be chained by anyone. This was finally something that made him happy, and everyone who would try to take it away from him will be damned!

During his time in the bathtub, he finally went through all the cards he obtained during the last day, and the tally was quite satisfying.

Starting with common rarity, on the last day he found eleven cards and two of them were useful. A Cold resistance, and a Heavy impact. The rest was either incompatible or unfitting for his use.

Moving to uncommon, out of those three, one was useful for his wave of force, called Increased area of effect, and one was a great surprise.

It was a single-use Strength boosting card, and its description mentioned a ten-attribute increase for up to a maximum of forty, making him believe it was safe to use. That proved right moments later, as his Strength remained at E, giving him a noticeable increase, but none of the body-bending screw-ups he got after reaching a new grade.

Lastly, there were two new yellow cards, and both were nice and fairly unique in their benefits.

[Infuse flaming affinity

Can be linked with any ability not bearing an affinity tag to temporarily grant a flaming affinity effect]

This one went immediately to his Wave of force, making him eager in anticipation to test it out. Even though testing it from inside his bathtub crossed his mind, after a dumb chuckle he continued on to the last new card.

[Minion camouflage

Can be linked with any ability bearing a minion tag to dampen the sound and dull the light in its immediate vicinity]

That one he could test immediately, and his Storm wisp was currently floating a meter above his bath in the form of a nondescript grayish blob trailing behind arcing light.

Opening up his deck, he made a quick look through all of his active cards.

[John Miles

Increased Focus (C)

Identify monster (R)

Disease and poison resistance (C)

Unbreakable mind (Unique)

Nightstalker's Awareness (Un)

Troll's blood (Un)

Black heart of Sac'ratash (E)

Cold resistance (C)]

[Animate blessed stiletto (E)

Increase melee penetration (C)

Increased minion movement speed (Un)

Increased minion combat distance (Un)

Wicked wounds (Un)]

[Storm wisp (R)

Increased minion attack speed (Un)

Increased projectile distance (C)

Heavy impact (C)

Minion camouflage (R)]

[Wave of Force

Cooldown reduction (Un)

Increased area of effect (Un)

Infuse flaming affinity (R)]

Lastly, he turned his focus on his main body card, and after a slight push of will, he brought up the hidden numbers right next to the tiers.

[John Miles (E ⋆)

Strength: E (30), Perception: E (20), Vitality: E (20)

Fate: E (32)

Dexterity: E (20), Focus: E (20 + 5), Willpower: E (20)]

Number-wise, everything was as he expected, but the small star next to his name made him a little surprised.

Hmm, that must be from my special evolution. Maybe a way to mark those who successfully grasped their Fate before reaching E-grade? Either way, it is looking good, he smiled and climbed out of the bathtub.

Leaving the inn, he headed to the new marvel, which finished its construction sometime during his four-hour extermination, and it was time to find out what the hell he built.

It was a massive ball of swirling energies—roughly fifteen meters in diameter—suspended in the air by eight pitch-black pillars in a way that the bottom part was barely a foot above the ground.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Orbiting this odd structure were dozens upon dozens of small clusters of lights, leaving behind small trails of multicolored dust.

The other thing that hit him was the everpresent deep humm, that reverberated through his whole body like a beat of a massive drum.

The thing was as alien as it was breathing, and John slowly walked toward it in mesmerized awe until he got to arm's length and lightly tapped the amorphous surface.

"Gahh," he yelped out as the thing suddenly tugged on his hand, and before giving him any chance to react, sucked him inside.

Trying to orient himself, John tried to quickly look around, but every movement was difficult. He felt like being stuck in molasses, having to strain his considerable strength to watch himself slowly turn left and right.

Where am I?

Looking up, he stopped and gawked. Just a couple hundred meters above him was a massive real-looking replica of Earth with the city he lived in just above his head, and all around was the same wall of energy, except this time he was standing on the inside of an absolutely enormous ball.

After staying mostly still for a few more seconds, he noticed that there was no point in exerting strength to move. All he needed was patience, and he would gently—albeit slowly—flow through.

Keeping his head up he started walking in slow motion to the right, watching as the city above him shifted. He felt like he was standing on the moon and looking at the planet Earth, but that moon was much closer and the planet a lot smaller.

Looking further to the left, his sight shifted towards the capital city—Prague—and suddenly the next step spun the whole planet above, making him stand directly under it.

"Woah," losing balance, he stumbled, falling on the strange surface. Trying to catch himself, he pressed his palm to the ground, but the moment it touched the floor, he was violently sucked through and out of the structure.

This was the wildest thing he had ever seen, and he immediately returned back inside.

Now knowing what to expect, he once again moved his sight toward Prague, and after withstanding the jarring shift found himself standing under his capital city. Hell, even the river cutting through it could be seen flowing out of the city and north toward Elbe. It was fascinating, and John started exploring the world, looking over Germany, then heading up over the North Sea, looking at the chilling climate of the fjords of Norway, and all the way to the North Pole.

He… looking down, he was still standing in the seemingly same spot, and as he tried to take another step, he found himself mostly stuck.

"I see, but how do I…" he mumbled, and a soft child-like voice answered his musing.

"Neeeed help, huuuuman?" It was distinctly feminine and was followed by tinkling laughter that echoed all around him.

Turning around, John tried to find the speaker, but couldn't see anyone.

"Ehh, hi? I am John… Can you help me?"

A flickering ball of swirling lights the size of his fist zipped around him in three lightning-fast circles.

"Huuuuman Jon, nice huuuuman?" It finished its flight and stopped less than a foot in front of his face.

Nodding, John watched as it slowly circled around his head, and then headed up toward the Storm wisp floating above him.

"A wisp!" It giggled and sped up as it flew around his minion. "Look look, huuuuman has a zappy wisp!"

A new childlike voice joined in, coming from the left, "Uuuuiiii a zappy wisp! Come, look, quick!"

What followed was a dozen lights quickly rushing up and forming into a light-show above his head, leaving John standing there in awkward silence.

That situation remained for the next couple of seconds until a loud whistle made all the dancing lights freeze up and turn orange.

"Now, now, stop bothering our guest, little ones."

They all turned yellow and fled away.

Holy crap, that's a long beard!

John stared at the waist-long and perfectly combed facial hair of the bald man in front of him. The old man's face had the laugh lines of a long and happy life, creating a stark contrast to the firm body outlined under his flowing azure robes and the thin blade tied to the frail rope which he used as a belt.

"Jon, nice! Come visit later! Play?"

Smiling, he gave it his promise and watched as it turned blue, bumped into his chest, changed into a bright pink, and zipped out through the surrounding wall like the rest.

A soft laugh came out from the old man, "They are shy little buggers, but a lovely company after you get used to their antics. Either way, let me explain what you are actually looking at."

He took a single fluid step that carried him thousands of meters away, and before actually thinking, John merely stepped in the same direction with an intent to follow and arrived right next to him.

"Woah now, I must confess, this was meant as a demonstration of what you can eventually achieve here… I wasn't expecting you to keep up with me. How did you do it?" He used his right hand to lightly comb through his beard, waiting for John's response.

"Huh, I…" Looking above him, he traveled from his previous position all the way here, under the middle of Africa. "I don't know. I didn't think about it, I just followed after you, I guess?"

Snorting, the man nodded, "That would do it, that would do it indeed. My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Gar'shin and I serve as a gatekeeper of Astragoratius mechatius," he followed with an elegant bow.

"I am John," he attempted to mimic the similar bow, yet felt like he failed miserably. "If I may, what is the purpose of this building?"

"As it is right now, it can serve as a connection between bastions in the same territory, and also as a hub connecting all shelters inside your sector. Let me show you the… It should be right…" He continued staring into the distance while mumbling incoherent thoughts.

"Ehh, is something wrong?"

"Hm? No, everything is… unless I could… Hey John, can you show me where exactly is your bastion?"

"Well about that, I obtained a unique shelter, and part of its specialty is an isolated location, cut off from all world command structures, could that be a problem?"

"Cut off from the world command structure? Yes, that would do it, that would do it, indeed. That also cuts you off from most of the benefits I usually provide. The only place you may access is the Grand Forum, but the first assembly is scheduled exactly two weeks after the initiation. Hmm, that leaves only one other service which will actually synergize perfectly with your unique situation."

Pointing up with his finger, he continued, "It can point out the direction to the hiding place of your Territory Hierarch, and what I believe others will be forced to do is a joint effort of different bastions carefully cross-referencing the directions. Yours though? Yours seems to point out from your current position. You understand?"

"Mhm. Well, can we try it out?"

"We can, indeed." Gar'shin looked up, and the whole planet spun backward, reorienting itself to the previous spot. "Now, for some the first time can be a little difficult, but if you can control those minions by your will alone, the process here will be exactly the same. Decree your will and the direction will be revealed."

"Interesting, let's see." Show me… no that is not right.

He could intuitively tell that his will didn't find anything to latch on to, so he tried again, focusing more on his intent.

Show…

A thin yellow beam of light manifested from the position above him, and started spinning around it like a clock hand.

"What is it…"

"Patience young man, give it time."

The process slowed down after the sixth revolution and finally stopped at eleven o'clock.

"Soo, the Territory Hierarch is somewhere to the north-northwest?"

Getting a light nod, he filed the new information for later and got ready to leave.

"Thank you for your help, Gar'shin. Oh, and let the little ones know I said bye."

"Bye-bye, huuuuman."

The gatekeeper wished him good luck mid-laugh, and John reached out to the wall.

He got lucky with the Sector Overlord, but there was no way he would push his luck further. There were many things to do, and on the top of the list was the last wave of the Restless Assault.

No more hiding and pretending to be weak. I am probably one of the strongest humans alive, and it is time to act accordingly.

The final wave would be coming in under an hour, and Valiant's stand was the perfect place to face it.