Before leaving, Travis was able to find the incantation to remove the minion in case of emergency. Lucy helped him locate the information. He got the impression that she went beyond her protocols to assist him, but maybe it was just due to his MC status.

Now that Gary knew Shrek could be banished in 3 seconds, it took that long to say the words; he allowed her to stay with just Thomas. Clyde wasn't going to come all the way with them, though.

They drove up the road leading to the base. As they drove, Clyde spoke, “We need a name for the base. Everything else has a name in this maddening game.”

“Even if you are right, now is not the time Clyde,” Travis said in a not unkind tone.

They finished the rest of the short road in silence. As they approached the factories, Clyde started his Heat Signature spell. The plan was to scope out the abandoned factories and truly pray that they were still abandoned. This is why it was imperative for them to have more people, at the very least a steady patrol around these buildings was necessary.

If monsters moved into these, it would be near impossible to remove them, and they could raid down the short road whenever they wanted. Clyde's spell could only see through windows and thin walls, of which there weren't many. Luckily, there were a lot of holes in the walls.

Travis started to sense something as Clyde began to speak, “Something is lighting up like a Christmas tree in there. It's not moving though; it looks like a box, or a chest!” He finished excitedly.

“I can feel it,” Travis blurted out. It was unlike him, but the sensation of being connected to an inanimate object was very strange.

“What do you mean, feel it?” Gary said.

“It's hard to explain; let's get into it when we get back,” Travis said, thinking that was the end of it.

Gary wasn't so ready to move on, though. “Listen, man, I do trust you, but we are about to go fight side by side against God knows what. If there is something you aren't telling me, it's not cool.”

Travis and Clyde looked at each other. Clyde nodded, but Travis wasn't looking for agreement; he wanted Clyde to use his power.

They were driving slowly, but the factory complex was not big. They were about to be through it. Travis looked at Gary, who was focused on driving but waiting for him to speak.

Travis pointed, “Pull up right over there.” There was what looked like a special parking spot, probably for the foreman. It was now out of view but right around the corner from the road leaving the factories.

As Gary slowed to a stop, Travis began, “You know about the player characters, well each one might have a unique ability. Lucy, you know the system on the laptop?” Gary nodded, “Well, she told me that bit of information but was very vague.”

“What does that have to do with you sensing a box or whatever that was? Is that your power?” Gary asked, pretty evenly, but some skepticism was creeping through. They would learn that Gary didn't like not being in the know.

“Maybe, but that's not the main point. There were 500 PCs, but one person was picked as the MC. I'm sorry, the main character. That person is me.”

Gary wasn't sure what that meant since he didn't know anything about video games or TTRPGs. He could imagine that it was important; he wasn't an idiot. What he said was, “Why you?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, but Gary, we don't have time for a deep dive into this. We aren't hiding anything from you; that is it. When we get back, I will answer any questions you have, okay?” Travis said with no hint of frustration.

“Let's do it,” Gary said and started to get out of the car.

The plan was for Clyde to stay close, assuming he didn't see anyone inside the factories. He would use his power to scan all around himself and them for as long as they were in view. Then he would be closer if anything happened that required either a getaway or his assistance.

The abandoned factories were arranged in a sort of rectangle, with the longer sides touching the road to their base and the road leading out to Gary's neighborhood. It was about half a mile, surrounded by woods.

They decided to walk up the last road so they could approach unseen. A large black Explorer is hard to miss driving up an abandoned road. Also, they could move through the last part in the woods. The walk was uneventful, and they ended it on the left side of the road in the woods. It was a bit overcast, which helped with stealth.

Travis had also read his skill book, the one he got from the prize. It was one tier above the basic ones that Gary used. Travis went with a longsword. He practiced a bit with it and was amazed at how comfortable he felt wielding a weapon he had never held before. He kept his blade in his infinite bag, though.

The strap of the bag was over his left shoulder but touching his neck. The front of it was sitting along his stomach and chest. Since it felt empty, it did not hinder his movement or range of motion much at all. It did give him the ability to reach in and grab something within a second or two. He kept it unopened.

Clyde scanned all around himself and the back of his two party members. There was not anyone in sight, at least anyone that had a heat signature. He was dying to go find out what that thing was in the building. He knew he should wait, though.

Gary and Travis reached the end of the tree line. There were houses running parallel to the woods and then a street perpendicular to them. Gary said that his house was down the street two blocks and then to the left.

Once they got out of the woods, they were exposed. Travis pulled out his Beretta and took the safety off. "Let's go," he said.

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There did not appear to be any movement in the houses or on the street. Travis crossed, stopped, and took position, then called Gary over. This was a basic military maneuver; one man moved and covered the other as he came across.

As they started up the other road, there was the sound of a scuffle. It wasn't clear what it was or where it came from. "Let's pick up the pace a little; I have a feeling that we need to hurry," Travis said to Gary.

Gary was uneasy about someone that "had feelings" or premonitions. He was a simple man and didn't believe in that stuff. Obviously, they lived in a different world, but he couldn't help the way he felt about certain things. He could control how he acted, though, and he did trust Travis, so he wouldn't make it a thing, not yet at least.

Travis pulled out his journal and turned to the party comms page. They had practiced some, though not as much as Travis wanted. They didn't have time to do half the things they needed to do. Once the connection was made, he should be able to put his journal back in his bag. Clyde was LT, and Travis was Major for their conversations over comms.

“Lt, this is Major, do you copy?” “Copy loud and clear Major, what's your six?” Clyde said, not knowing the lingo quite yet. “My six is my back not my situation; what's your status?” Travis corrected him.

They were walking up the street, hugging the picket fences that lined this street. In almost any other situation, Clyde would have done an Abbott and Costello routine here, but he knew Travis would get pissed. “My fault, all clear over here; your status over?”

“There is something going on close by; we can hear what sounds like a skirmish. Otherwise, it is quiet. I will contact you in 15 or if something goes wrong, out,” Travis finished. They had agreed to touch base every 15 minutes to ensure everything was okay.

Gary took the lead and was approaching the next block. The sound was getting louder. Gary motioned for them to go into the yard they were next to; otherwise, their cover would end, and they would be sitting ducks. Travis nodded, and they went into the open gate, staying close to the high fence. That's when they got an idea of what was going on.

They went into a yard on the side where they had a picket fence, but the front yard only had a chain-link fence. They could see across the street; that's where they saw three kobolds sneaking up on an orc brute. The brute was coming up the street towards Travis and Gary, though not directly at them.

The kobolds slipped from underneath a truck, stalking him for a minute before two ran up and slashed behind the orc's knees. As the orc fell forward, the last kobold jumped up and slit its throat from behind. Nice, quick, and clean. Until a lightning bolt that was so bright and blue it had to come from the Marvel Cinematic Universe struck where the kobolds were.

Travis looked to see where it came from and saw an Orc Priest coming out of a driveway, two marauders flanking him. It was an AOE spell, so none of the Kobolds got hit directly. That said, they were still singed from top to bottom. Two of them got up and started running while the third just lay there.

Gary looked like he lost a little nerve but hung in there. “What are we going to do?” he said in a pretty nervous tone.

"Right now, we are just going to recon the situation. Where is your house in relation to where they are?"

"Ummm, it's at the end of that block. You make a left, then it's three houses down on the left," Gary answered. Travis's steady demeanor calmed him down some.

Travis watched the Orcs continue up the street. Were they here to claim territory, or was it just a raiding party or something?

Gary was being a bit too conspicuous. "Get down, man," Travis scolded him.

He complied without a word of protest. They continued to watch until the Orcs disappeared in the direction they they had to go. Travis stayed put for another minute, then they moved as well. Staying behind houses and fences when possible, then running across the street when it was clear, they made it to the spot where the Orcs were.

Travis pointed to a couple of large bushes and gestured for Gary to get down behind them and stay put. Gary complied with this as well. He told him to stay down and wait for him to come back.

There were large numbers of enemies in this development somewhere. It wasn't a coincidence that they just happened to see groups from two different monster factions. Something was going down here.

Travis didn't want to bungle into a group of them, so he was going ahead to recon. He thought Gary would have a good front-line party member once he started to rank up, but for now, he was a bull in a china shop.

These houses had good vantage points for reconnaissance, so Travis was able to move undetected a good way. He didn't want to go too far to avoid spooking Gary, but they needed information. He kneeled down and took out his journal. He went to the Local Map, which showed people and creatures he had seen within a certain proximity. Now he saw the three Orcs; they looked to be standing in a circle. If he could get the drop on them and do so from a good angle, they would fall like bowling pins.

Travis marked the spot where they were at and went back for Gary. As he was heading back, there was the sound of an Orc roar, more of a battle cry than a roar of pain. Still, it wasn't super clear which.

Travis ran until he was on the side of the house around the corner from the bush Gary was supposed to be behind. He peeked out, and there was Gary fending off blows from two Orc Brutes.

Gary was getting impatient. What the heck was taking him so long? They were supposed to be doing this together.

That's when he heard footsteps; it was a band of three Orcs. They were moving pretty fast on the street in front of the house he was hiding by. If they kept going, he would ignore them, but no, they came into the yard. That's when Gary heard something from inside the house—gasping humans, it sounded like. There it was; he definitely heard that. People were arguing in hushed tones. They weren't hushed enough, though.

His hiding spot was excellent; Travis had picked out a good one. So the first Orc went right past him down the side of the house, probably trying to close off the back escape route, and the other two moved towards the front door.

Gary acted on pure instinct, backed by confidence in his new fighting skill. He leaped out from behind the bush, took two bounding steps, and brought his axe blade down where the shoulder meets the neck. The strike dug in deep; he felt bones shatter, and blood shot from the wound.

The Orc was half in shock and half furious at whoever had just inflicted it with this much pain. Gary should have pulled the axe out and hit it with one more blow, which would have ended that threat.

This is where skill books come up short. Before the skill book, Gary would not have been able to come down with such a precise strike in such a vulnerable area and with so much force mixed with accuracy. Where the problem lies is in the things a skill book cannot teach someone, which is experience.

Gary felt like he had achieved what he needed to achieve, and the Orc would die. Except these are incredibly tough adversaries. He needed the knowledge to know that one more quick strike would have ended things. Don't misunderstand; the Orc was in bad shape. But from pure rage and adrenaline, it turned around, pulling the axe head out of its neck and swung its meaty forearm into Gary.

From a conditioning or endurance standpoint, Gary is just a regular dude still. The strike knocked him off balance. The Orc he hit fell over and would die soon, but his move gave the Orcs on the staircase time to come over. They were within range of ending Gary when someone opened the window and shot a crossbow bolt into the arm of one of his pursuers. The hit did almost nothing, but the Orcs turned and growled at the window; that's the sound Travis heard. Gary looked and saw that the bolt was from a modern hunting crossbow, so probably no PCs in there.

He held up his axe in a defensive position, one that was embedded into his mind from the skill book and waited for the assault.

Travis saw that it was just these two Orcs, and he moved like a wraith. He knew he could kill the Orcs within seconds, but the sound of his gun would give away his position. Gary didn't look to be in too much trouble, so he pulled his long sword out of the bag and moved in behind the Orcs.