It was midafternoon. Everyone was taking a break and eating and talking, relieved to have finally found relative safety. Trying to distract himself from worrying about Terry, Karl listened to Jim tell his story.
“I was trying to make it up to Concord before the deadline and I was running behind. My Harley died a mile or two from here when the damned System switched on and killed the engine,” Jim explained. “I heard screaming and saw people dying. I helped a woman save her boyfriend from these nasty land crabs, but then both of them got killed by goblins half an hour later. I never even got their names.
“So I was alone again, and these monsters were roaming around, and I didn't have a good weapon. So I hid. Pretty soon I got good enough at it that I got the stealth skill, and then a while after that I got offered a class and got a few abilities there. I managed to grab a little food. I leveled around nightfall and just hid up in a tree all night.”
“Did you sleep?” Michael asked.
“Not a wink. I'm dead on my feet, honestly. I found the rifle on the porch here, and I was wondering what to do next when you showed up and I made a stupid tired plan and good thing that failed, and here I am.”
“You did your share in the fighting in here, so let's let bygones be bygones. We all make mistakes sometimes.”
“Thanks, Karl. And this is the first food I've had today, so thanks for that too. Honestly I'm beat. If nothing's going to attack us here, I'm going to sack out for an hour or two if that's okay.”
Jake said, “You can use the upstairs, but watch out for the acid spots. Or pick a piece of floor down here.”
“I'll try upstairs. Hey, are we absolutely sure there's no more spiders or anything still up there?”
Jake nodded. “We're sure. The Safe Zone wouldn't have been able to form if the chosen area hadn't been completely clear.”
“Cool, thanks. And...hey Karl?” Jim called. Karl blinked and looked at him. “Sorry about before. Thanks for giving me a chance.” Karl nodded, and the young man went upstairs.
Well, that went better than it had any right to, Karl mused. I wonder if my Charisma going up helped somehow? The System seems impossible to make sense of, most of the time.
A few minutes later the front door sounded with two knocks, then three. Michael pulled aside the small bureau and opened the door. Doug and Chenelle came inside and helped him barricade the door again.
“We wrote 'SAFE ZONE HERE' at the edge of the driveway in big letters. Hopefully other people will see and come by...not just Terry.” Doug went over to where people had piled some food and started picking through it.
Chenelle checked on the unconscious young woman, then came over and sat next to Karl.
Neither spoke for a minute. It was nice to have a moment when he didn't have to be on guard against either monsters or challenging social situations. After a bit she leaned a little closer.
“Congratulations for your solo kill of an uncommon spawn.”
“You guys should have gotten credit too, if you hadn't been holding one at bay I never would have lasted five seconds between them.”
“Well, apparently Jake got some experience from his gadget being used.”
“Good for him.” Karl sighed wearily.
“It's weird; I thought uncommon spawns didn't start until a few hours ago, but those spiders looked as if they've been here for longer than that.”
“You're right. Maybe they started common. Maybe uncommons sometimes come from common spawns growing bigger and badder.”
“That could be it.”
They sat in companionable silence again for another minute.
“How are you holding up?” she asked quietly.
“I'll manage. Don't really have time to do otherwise. Maybe I'll schedule a panic for next Monday around three pm.”
She smiled at him. “You kept your promise.” Karl just nodded and smiled, unsure what to say. “You're doing a great job.”
“Just paying my dues.”
“If 'paying your dues' means 'living up to a class that demands you be a knight in shining armor', then I'd say there's no 'just' about it.”
“Thanks.”
She lowered her voice further. “I can tell how hard this is for you.”
“It's very much not my style, but I'm trying to adapt. Thanks for helping.”
“I'm a healer now. I think it comes with the job.”
“Well, then here's to doing our jobs.”
“I'll drink to that, as soon as I find something to drink.” She patted his knee and stood. “Don't forget to deal with your new level.”
Already did, he thought, but pulled up his stats to review. Strength is seven now, charisma eight, and constitution nine. I wonder if they max out at ten? As long as it keeps boosting my health I'll keep raising my constitution. Weird how my stamina goes down during a fight but endurance doesn't actually change. Maybe one's for combat the other for not?
Fifth level didn't give him any new special abilities that he could see except his short spear skill had finally gone up to three after the spider fight. He wondered why he wasn't getting skills in a lot of weapons. He could easily believe that it was because he wasn't spending enough continuous time using one weapon to actually learn how to use it well. Plus there probably wasn't a System Skill category for “weaponized household items.”
Abruptly Karl felt incredibly tired. Terry, please be okay. Please just be safe up in a tree and show up tomorrow all smiles and apologies and calling me 'old man.' He started brooding over thoughts he'd set aside earlier: the rough events of the past day, Emma's death, the horrific death rate of the human race, the threat of the hobgoblin fort, the hostility of the first aliens encountered, and felt himself sinking lower and lower.
“Karl?”
WHAT? He snapped mentally, but kept it from his voice. “What is it, Jake?”
“You really need to see this.”
Karl sighed, but forced himself to get up off the sofa chair he'd claimed by right of age. Behind it, in a corner of the room a short white alien pedestal called the Shop had appeared when they built the Safe Zone. It was apparently the control panel as well as the marketplace. Jake had been going through the features for it nonstop and scribbling down lots of notes, promising to summarize things for everyone later.
Now Jake pointed at some information displayed on the pedestal screen. Karl couldn't see it very well without peering closely, so he looked at Jake instead.
“What is it?”
“You know how there's lots of things to buy?”
“Right, but we can't really afford any of it. We have to save ten silver for tomorrow and work on getting the ten silver for the day after that.”
“Yeah, but I've been looking for things that might be worth it anyway. I figure the single most important thing we need is information.”
“Agreed. What did you find?”
“Well first, there's a manual about all the details of Safe Zone construction. It's five silver.”
That was tempting. “Is that like a paragraph or a pamphlet or a big book or what?”
“Looks like medium sized book.”
“Okay, that's definitely near the top of the shopping list for when we get more money.”
“But then I found something even better. A manual on the System help files themselves.”
“What?” Karl stared. “You mean a book that could explain how to actually get useful information out of the System? How much?”
“Five silver. For a whole book. Big one, too.”
“I'd have thought that would be worth its weight in gold. What's the catch?”
“I don't think there is one. Get this: it was published by a human.”
“You're joking.” The System had barely been on Earth a day. Karl couldn't imagine how a human could write a book in a day, let alone a big one.
Then again, I wouldn't find it at all believable that I could kill a seven foot tall spider, so...
“Read it for yourself.” Karl bent over, squinted and did just that.
HELP ON SYSTEM HELP by Human of Earth Cost: 5 Silver
System Help is awful. This book is the fix. A rare Skill enabled the author to download and index ALL the core Help file entries...
Karl skimmed down through the entry, and then the bottom lines caught his attention:
Example: Try 'Help bioform spells, reconstitution.'
We're keeping the price low to save as many people as possible. Knowledge is Power! Grow strong! Good luck!
Karl murmured, “Help bioform spells, reconstitution.” The notification came up at once and scrolled before his eyes.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Cure Minor Wounds
Healing Hands
Blessing of Life
Rebalance
Cure Lesser Wounds
Reduce Acid...
“My God. Those are the healing spells! That's where the System hid the list!”
Jake nodded. “Karl, if we get this, I swear I will read everything in it. I might actually learn how my class works! How to build better tools and weapons!” He leaned forward, intensity radiating off of him. “Karl, we need this, and the sooner the better.”
“What's our treasury?”
“Sixteen silver, sixty-three copper. But I can boost that a little.”
Karl's eyes widened. “How? A loan?”
“Sales and auctions. Apparently you need a permanent Safe Zone to enable auctions, but I found a back door. It's basically a loan shark option where they take half up front, and put the items up for you. So we can indirectly sell things to the Shop and we can put them up for auction. All that crap we've looted that nobody but me wanted and I haven't found a use for? I can sell it. If any of it looks high quality we can try to do better. I can set the auction so that if it doesn't get a bid by the time limit, it defaults to selling to the shop. And we don't even have to be here when it finishes. The System will automatically put the money into inventory for you.” Jake stood there, fidgeting, the desperate plea obvious in his expression.
I made a promise. But if things get harder and as a result reward more in coin, five silver might be nothing by tomorrow afternoon.
Karl weighed the options, and made the call. “Do it. See if anybody has special skill at auctions; if they do, let them handle that part. Buy that book, and make it worth it, Jake.”
I will keep that promise, even still.
**
One by one, people took showers and rejoiced in getting blood and monster guts off of them. Some had changes of clothing. Systemized items weirdly seemed to get cleaner on their own. Karl wasn't sure, but it almost looked as if the holes in his trenchcoat were shrinking very slowly. Most of what people had was more ordinary though. The washer and dryer were not working, but people made do with hand scrubbing in the sink and clotheslines Jake strung up when asked.
For over an hour, people seemed to unwind with nothing threatening to cause a short spike of terror at any moment. So it was all the more jarring when the young woman woke up screaming. A couple of people jumped. Chenelle headed over towards the couch at once.
“What happened? Who are you people? What are you doing in my house?! Where's my family?! What's going on?!”
Chenelle seemed to know how to handle her. She opened her mouth as if to speak and held up one finger, but otherwise waited for the woman to take a breath.
“Ready?” She waited half a beat, then started speaking slowly and calmly. “I'm your neighbor, Chenelle Hooper, from 27 Walnut. This is my son Daniel. We're all emergency refugees, basically. We rescued you from a giant spider monster that was upstairs. It's dead now. You've been unconscious for a couple of hours since we freed you. We broke in to build a temporary safe zone here to keep my little boy safe from the monsters. Now. Can you tell us what happened to you, when the System arrived?”
The woman stared, speechless. Chenelle didn't bat an eye.
“Yesterday around one p.m. The System gave everybody timer warnings? And then said 'common spawns' were starting? Do you remember that?”
She nodded. “Okay, now, this is going to be hard to hear. Were there three other people here with you yesterday?”
The woman stared, and then sagged a little. “They're dead, aren't they? My family?”
Chenelle nodded slowly. “You were the only one still alive when we got here. I'm sorry.”
The woman took a deep breath. “The aliens. They're giant spiders, right?”
Chenelle paused to choose her words. “The aliens are responsible for the giant spiders. As well as lots of different monsters, unfortunately. There was a spider in my house too, only not as big. My husband Doug almost died killing it. Karl here,” she gestured, “lives over on Sycamore, and he's been gathering survivors, going house to house. So we've ended up fighting several different kinds of monsters.
“We broke in here and killed all the monsters in your house because we needed a safe place to rest. When we found you were alive, we cut you loose, brought you down here, and did what we could for you. You've been asleep on the couch for a couple of hours while the spider venom wore off. I'm glad you're awake.”
The woman held up a hand, and Chenelle stopped talking. Everyone waited for her as she visibly worked through what was in her mind, then deflated. “Thank you for rescuing me. My name is Maria Sanchez. This is my parents' house.”
Everyone relaxed a little when they realized that Maria was not going to freak out and demand that they leave or anything like that. Gentle questioning revealed that Maria was level one and had no class yet. She had been attacked mere minutes after the System arrived, when she went upstairs.
It was something of a bonding experience for the group, as they all related their circumstances and shared important bits of information. Slowly everyone settled back down.
Karl hated to interrupt. In fact he desperately wanted to sleep. But now that he knew he had a genuinely safe place to sleep, it would have to wait for nightfall. He couldn't afford to waste daylight.
“Everyone, I know it's a lot to ask, but I'm looking for volunteers to come back out with me. We've got more monsters to hunt while it's still light out. I don't think we can afford to waste the chance. Things are moving too quickly. It's hard to adjust to fully recovering from life threatening injuries in half an hour, but we need to use that.
“I'll go out alone if need be. Certainly I understand if you need to recuperate for a while. But Terry's still out there, and while I'm not going to go blundering into the woods, I am going to hunt and destroy any threats near this house, so she has an easier time getting back. If we can I want to rescue more of the neighbors. And I made a promise, so I intend to get ahead and make sure we have ten silver every day.”
Karl sighed, then added, “I want a chance to clean up before I go, so take your time and figure out who wants to come and who's staying here.” He picked up his backpack and made his way through the crowd to the bathroom and shut the door.
Fifteen minutes later he felt much more refreshed, and realistically able to go out and fight for three more hours. It turned out that only Chenelle and Doug wanted to come. Nobody asked Jim because he was sacked out and exhausted. Maria and Daniel were too fragile to risk outside. Doug and Chenelle had argued about who would stay with Daniel, but finally, reluctantly, they accepted Maria's offer to babysit while they both went out. Michael and Jake had asked for and received permission to bury Emma on the property, in a shady spot not too far away. And Terry was still missing.
The three of them set out, not bothering to be stealthy since none of them had the skill. Chenelle and Doug had just hit level four, and Karl was level five, and two fighters and effectively one and a half healers was a solid little group.
“So, where to first?”
Karl had to bite back the urge to say, “let's go follow Terry.” They couldn't go that way without making a dangerous amount of noise. He wished that Jim hadn't been exhausted, so he could send him after her.
“We've got several options. Honestly, as important as money and gaining levels are, we also need to rescue more people. So I say we check out the houses we skipped on the way we originally came from. It seems as if a fair number of people are managing to kill the indoor spawns but are being trapped by the outdoor ones. We should save them before they get overrun.”
“And they might be willing to contribute to the Safe Zone fund,” Chenelle pointed out.
“Every copper helps,” Karl conceded. “I think if we prioritize saving more people, we'll still get into plenty of fights to accomplish our other goals.”
“Let's go,” Doug prompted them. “Time's wasting and I want to get back to Danny.”
The next house was on the mill side of the street. It was lower than the road, something that Karl was coming to associate with marsh folk. While many of the spawns seemed utterly random, and almost as bad for the monsters as for the humans sometimes, at least some of the creatures had already found more hospitable environments for themselves. Karl had an unhappy vision of swarms of marsh folk filling the low areas, making for an enemy army next door to the mill. Something to watch out for.
To his mild surprise, there were no monsters on the property. Neither were there any people, however. The owners seemed not to have been home when the System arrived; the garage proved empty. I wonder if the spawning tends to cluster where there are people. But there are too many monsters around here, and we're rural. It can't all be this densely populated, nothing could survive long. As he had that thought, he got a notification.
System message: You have discovered an important fact about the System. While somewhat random, initial spawn densities are chosen to roughly match densities of the local dominant species. However, some regions become breeding grounds for surrounding areas, with a much higher than average density of spawns. Experience +50.
Karl sighed. Well, that's just great. I guess we're playing on 'hard' mode here. I guess that means we'll level up faster, maybe? Doesn't seem worth it. He was having a hard time shoving aside gloomy thoughts.
The group traipsed back up to the road and proceeded to the next, which was on the temporary Safe Zone side of the street. They approached quietly but again saw nothing. They crept forward to circle the house starting on the left side. Doug was in the lead, started to peer around the corner, then recoiled quickly. A second later, a loud grunting shout went up. “Tan pig people, almost full size, one of them looked right at me,” Doug reported.
“Up against the wall of the house,” Karl urged. The healer stayed behind the two fighters. “How many?” He could already hear movement of multiple creatures approaching.
“We're about to find out,” Doug grunted.
They didn't have to wait long. Half a dozen humanoids came running around the corner. Two more came out slowly, keeping their distance. The six surrounded them, fanning out in a semicircle, cutting off escape. Squinting at the two in the back, Karl identified Orc Shaman and Orc Mage. He pointed them out to the others. The other six just showed as Orc Warriors.
“We may have to dive in among them if that mage can cast fireballs.”
“Let's hope they crunch easy then.”
“Save heals for yourself, Chenelle.”
“I'll heal who needs healing. Don't say foolish things,” Chenelle told her husband.
These creatures seem organized and intelligent. They usually attack on sight, but do they have to? Is it possible to negotiate?
Karl cleared his throat. “Hello.” The three orcs on his side immediately rushed him, wielding either long knives or short swords. I guess not.
Karl stabbed his chopper into the leftmost warrior, keeping it at bay, then equipped his latest flimsy shield at the last moment to block the knives of the other two. Doug started hacking on his first opponent with the hobgoblin sword.
Everything became a blur then, as Karl dodged and rolled, punched and kicked, threw rocks and sometimes dirt in faces, grappled, stole knives from his opponents, and took some blows in order to get strikes in. This wasn't an easy fight. He used the inventory trick constantly, ran through several weapons, and still couldn't take any of the warriors down for good. Every time he got close, the monster glowed green and got better.
Then there was an incongruous snapping sound, and suddenly Chenelle was...winding a warrior up in a sheet? Karl wasn't sure how that worked but seized on the momentary immobility and stabbed the bound foe repeatedly, then used him as as shield against his foes, finally finishing one of them off. Doug went down on one knee, glowed golden, and jumped back up.
Two on one was easier. Chenelle was throwing another sheet somehow, momentarily blocking sight lines. Doug shouted, “Fire in the Hole!” and threw one of Jake's creations over the heads of his foes. It exploded in midair making reddish smoke, but Karl couldn't see what other effect it was supposed to have. He got slashed twice on the same arm, and one stab in the gut punched through his coat, but many other blows were deflected.
Chenelle was using throw pillows now. In particular, she was using one as a shield against knives, and it was surprisingly effective, absorbing several blows while it got shredded, until one managed to stab her hand. Karl managed a critical strike and took another foe down despite the healing spells from the shaman. He realized that he was only doing so well because the orcs were concentrating on Doug. Karl slapped the warrior's shoulder and cast healing hands on him. Then the enemy mage cast a fireball and threw it towards them.
FWOOOSH! Everyone was momentarily startled when the fireball detonated prematurely over the orcs and the air seemed to catch fire, and he heard more than one orc squeal as it was singed. Karl thought he might have lost eyebrows but was otherwise unharmed by it. Thank you Jake. Doug glowed, and glowed again. Karl threw himself at two of Doug's opponents, enabling the warrior to concentrate on just two of his own.
He heard Chenelle grunt but didn't see what caused it. The orc he was hitting the most had been healed twice, undoing his efforts. It was chaos.
The second time Chenelle grunted, Karl could see the glowing streak coming from the orc mage. He reached back and tagged her with healing hands. While thus distracted he got sliced shallowly on the neck and stabbed in his right ear. He finally managed to take down another warrior but then had nothing left of his stamina to fight the blows raining down on him, simply raising an arm to block the worst. He fell to his knees. A golden glow enveloped him but the restored health melted away almost immediately. He'd lost the initiative, a deadly mistake. His health point total was in free fall.
Suddenly the rain of knives stopped. He squinted and looked up. His last opponent fell, and he blinked to see Terry standing in front of him, her clothing in tatters, blood-soaked dagger in hand.
“Hey old man. Miss me?”