Karl whistled, then bowed his head. “Hordeslayer Jo. Hordeslayer Tabitha. Welcome back. Well done. Well done indeed.”
Jo grinned. “I leveled. Tabitha also leveled. Twice.”
“Congratulations!” Terry squealed. “I made sixth!”
“Hello, all of you,” Karl called to the rest. “I apologize for the disorderly welcome but we're very happy to have you. I'll need to learn all your names, classes and levels at some point, but for now we need to keep moving. We've got a long way to go.”
“Oh here, then. I thought you might want it.” A scrawny young man with poor complexion proffered a small open notepad. Terry snatched it and quickly read it.
“Cool, I'll update it with this entire party. We're getting a bit big,” Terry said proudly.
A few minutes and a few reminders later, Terry passed the list to Karl as he walked at the head of the column. Karl squinted at it and read, smiling at Terry's commentary scrawled on the right. Some of the numbers had been crossed out and updated. It was messy and handwritten, of course.
Name. Class. Level
Alain Marceau. mage. 2 these 5 trapped by gremlin swarm.
Madeleine Bourne. carpenter. 1
Valerie Mills. druid. 2 healed Jo so she's cool
Tom Dent warrior. 1
Josh Weber warrior 1
Bethany Ackerly none 1 these 6 daycare group
Maya Ackerly child none
Sarah Jackson none 1
Jeffrey Jackson child none
Chet Sawyer none 1
Lily Sawyer child none
Paul Goodman mage 2-->3. these 3 trapped by hobgoblin war chief
Chad Goodman warrior. 1-->2
George Ritter "scout" 2-->3. did good
Jo Bell protector 3-->4. hordeslayer badass
Tabitha Addams pyromancer 2-->4. hordeslayer badass
Doug Hooper warrior 4 Danny wrangler, front line
Chenelle Hooper healer 5 official party butt saver
Michael Cook archer 4-->5 party Legolas *talk to about 5th level
Jake Cook tinker 4 fixer and blow shit upper dude
Terry Williams prowler 6 all around awesomeness
Sir Karl Hausman paladin 5 righteous crazy old man
Letisha Jones rogue? 3 pretty and mysterious
Clarissa Jones rogue? 3 not as good as me
Maria Sanchez none 1 financier and host
Anne Liebowitz none 1 wants a job
Daniel Hooper kid none Evil Overlord Minion
Kyle Brown baby likes applesauce
Dana Brown baby doesn't like applesauce
Jim ? rogue ? need to get to know him better
Karl counted rapidly. Twenty two in this group right now, plus seven more back at the Safe Zone. Six kids in all. Only five adults here are level one. We've got enough firepower in this group to hold back almost anything right now.
Karl digested what he was looking at, then realized he wasn't watching the road. He turned to the warrior next to him. “Doug, I'm putting myself on convalescent light duty for the next little while. I don't trust myself to watch the road right now.”
“Good idea,” Doug replied with a smile. “Especially considering that you haven't even noticed that I already passed that off to Michael and one of the new guys. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, Karl, and you can check out and rest otherwise.”
“Who's on rear guard?”
“Our new spare scout and a few of the new kids. We've got this, Karl. Finish sewing your arm back on, for crying out loud.” Karl flexed his left hand self-consciously and nodded.
Time to look at all those System notifications that have been piling up, I guess.
Karl started wading through them all. There were rather a lot of them. Skills advancing, endurance increase, stats increasing...I'm sixth level? That war chief must have been worth a lot of experience. Guess I'd better deal with that. Looking over his stats, Karl decided that he was getting tired of his attacks not penetrating thick hides and dumped both of his free points into strength, bringing it up to ten, just like he'd told Terry he was going to.
Name:
Karl Friedrich Hausman
Class: Paladin
Level: 6
Experience: 820/8000
Health: 85/254
Mana: 180/290
Stamina: 40/125
Endurance: 25
Body: 8.3 (Strength: 10, Constitution: 9, Agility: 6)
Mind: 7.7 (Intelligence: 9, Willpower: 8, Aptitude: 6)
Social: 5.3 (Charisma: 9, Personality: 3, Allure: 4)
Skills:
Analyze Creature (1)
Brawling (4)
Short Spear (2)
Shield Bash (4)
Short Sword (4)
Sense Deceit (1)
Righteous Presence (1)
Spells:
Healing Hands (1)
Purge Lesser Poison (1)
Spellsword (1)
Guardian Aura (1)
I should look up what all those do. Help Spellsword.
Spellsword
This spell allows the casting of touch spells through any weapon wielded by the caster.
Cost: 5 Mana plus cost of touch spell.
Help Guardian Aura, Karl thought.
Guardian Aura
This spell reduces the damage of a single attack by 50%. This spell can only be cast on others.
Cost: 20 Mana
Duration: 1 hour
Karl blinked. Huh. I can't cast it on myself. Okay, it's for defending other people. Doesn't do much, but doesn't cost much either and lasts long enough to be worth casting it.
Karl had the feeling that he wasn't going to remember this and would have to read these again later. He moved on through the rest of the notifications knowing he was missing some. One of the most recent caught his eye:
Loot received: 6 silver 80 copper
Loot received: Hobgoblin Monster Core
Karl frowned. Monster Core? What the hell is a Monster Core? He wracked his brain; he had a vague feeling it was something important. He wished he weren't so tired.
Help 'Monster Core', he thought.
Monster Core
A Monster Core is a large stone of unusual properties. It has been imbued with the ability to generate monster spawns. If abandoned, it will produce a spawning area and eventually a dungeon if left undisturbed for long enough. Monster Cores can be used as the power sources for Safe Zones.
Safe Zones. That was what had been nagging at Karl. What kind did he have again? Karl checked his inventory. It was full of foodstuffs. Oh, no. I didn't abandon the loot back there, did I? He forced himself not to panic. Chenelle and Terry were with me. I need to ask them if they saw what happened to it. If I left it on the floor, it might create a dungeon. I have no idea what that is, but it doesn't sound good.
Karl walked back to Chenelle near the center of the group.
“Karl.” Chenelle acknowledged him but didn't take her eyes off of the woods by the road.
“Hello Chenelle.” Karl paused. “Thank you again for all the healing. I'm guessing you went to great lengths to help me, and I am very grateful that you were able to make me whole again.”
Chenelle turned to him at that and gave him an odd look. “Feeling better?”
“I think? The brain fog is still there. I had something to ask you about after the healing.”
“Beg pardon?”
“When we were leaving. I took a moment to loot the hobgoblin war chief. I got a notification that I didn't read until just now. It turns out it might be very important. Did you see what happened to that loot? It's not in my inventory.”
“I didn't see it. Perhaps you should ask your sneaky adoptive granddaughter.”
Karl arched an eyebrow at her. “Thank you, I will.” Something was nagging at the back of his mind, but he couldn't put his finger on it, so he let it go. He sighed, looking at the scenery as they walked. “It was so much faster on the outward leg.”
“But so much more rewarding going back,” Chenelle pointed out.
“There is that.”
Karl let the conversation lapse and walked in companionable silence for a while. He sort of let his mind drift.
“Karl?”
He blinked and realized that he had missed something. Terry was next to him. “Terry?”
“I asked if you were okay?”
“Hm? Oh, yes, I'm okay. Just really tired is all.”
“It almost looks like he's going into shock,” Chenelle answered.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Like PTSD?”
“What? No. More like after a serious injury, which, magic healing aside, is exactly what he had. I'm hoping he'll be fine after a good night's sleep.”
“There was something I was going to ask,” Karl commented mildly.
“Do you mean the loot? Terry, Karl was looking for some loot he was supposed to get from that war chief you fought. He said it might be important. Did you happen to see it?”
“Oh, yeah, I've got it. Karl was about to drop it when I gave him something to eat. I'm not going to pull it out until we're safe. It says 'Monster Core: Item grade: uncommon, item quality: good, and Jake thinks it can be used as an improvement for the power core of the permanent safe zone, instead of using System tokens. He says there's a lot of details he needs to look up on his tablet when we get back. The main thing is that this kind of loot is really rare. It's the first one we've gotten in how many fights?”
“Well, it's also the first uncommon spawn you've fought where you stuck around to loot afterward. Oh, except for the bear, I suppose.”
“Fair point, maybe we're just moving into the level range where we start getting these. Still, I don't want to just wave it around until we know what we've got.”
“Sensible,” Chenelle agreed.
“Maybe I should shut up more,” Karl commented. “You answered my questions.”
He lost track of the conversation for a while.
“Karl?”
It was a nice day.
“Karl?”
“Yes, Terry?”
“Would you...pray, for me?”
Karl furrowed his brow. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I mean, as a favor to me, I'd like it if you, you know, said a prayer in your head, just, you know, to clear your head a little bit.”
“Ok, Terry.”
“Thanks, Karl.”
Terry wants me to pray. That's unusual. Okay.
God in Heaven...System...whoever is helping me. Thank you. Thank you for my life. Thank you for all the lives you helped me save. Please help me help these good people. Please help me protect them. Please help me bring them all to a Safe Zone, and build a place where the little ones can grow up strong and brave.
If you need anything from me, if you want me to do anything, please let me know. I try to be a good man. I pay my debts. They need me to be a leader. Please help me to lead them well, to not split the party, to be friendly even when I don't want to, and to see what I need to do to care for their hearts as well as their health.
Please take care of Jane, and tell her that it might be a little longer than I thought before I see her again. Tell her I love her, and not to worry about me, that I'm not stuck alone in the house any more. I'm out in the world, just like she wanted. If you tell her I'm a paladin, she'll probably still be laughing when I finally do get to the Pearly Gates. I look forward to seeing that. Every day. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, System. Amen.
Karl kept walking. He heard sniffling noises. Karl really wondered why he felt so tired.
System Notification: You have learned the paladin spell Circumstantial Prayer(1). Learning is best done by doing.
System Notification: Paladin spells, healer spells, and druidic spells are separate categories. For example, neither a paladin nor a general Healer class can cast the druidic spell 'Rebalance.'
Beside him, Chenelle suddenly caught her breath. Karl kept trudging forward, always keeping the same distance between him and the person in front of him.
“Terry, show me that list of everyone!”
They walked on.
“Terry, go get Valerie and bring her here!”
**
OW.
“What did you do? He just lost half his remaining health!”
“I just cast Rebalance on him like you said to!”
Karl rolled over and retched onto the grass.
System Notification: You are no longer cursed.
Karl got up on his hands and knees. The hell? “Where am I?”
“Karl! You're okay?” That was Terry. He looked up, and Terry, Chenelle, and one of the new people were all kneeling or crouching down near him. He was on a lawn, not far from the road.
“That depends on what's going on. Where's the rest of the group?”
“What do you remember?” Chenelle asked.
Karl tried to think back. “We were fighting the hobgoblin war chief. I got stabbed really hard in the shoulder and felt sick. I...know a lot of things happened after that but it's all a bit fuzzy. I think I'm okay now. Chenelle, where's the rest of the group?”
Terry answered. “They're about four minutes ahead of us. We figured it would be better not to stop everyone unless we had to. Can you stand?”
To answer, Karl stood up. “Apparently so. I feel...well, not fine but I should be in a few minutes.” He checked his stats. “My health is around a quarter full and climbing. I'm good to go. Come on, I don't want to split the party again.” Terry stood up next to him, so he started walking off the grass and back onto the road. Sure enough, there was their little caravan, not too far ahead. Behind him, he heard the others talking.
“Thank God. Valerie, thank you for your help.”
“No problem, Chenelle. That was a weirdly specific notification we both got, huh?”
“Indeed. And apparently it was really good that it came up.”
Karl glanced back. “All of you, thank you for helping me. Whatever you did removed a curse, according to my notifications.”
“A curse!? And you didn't notice it when it started!?” Terry shouted.
“I was a little busy at the time.”
“No wonder it was so hard to heal you. I had to burn through all of my mana just to get your body to stitch together and get to half health. Normally it would have taken less than half that.”
“I guess with bigger opponents there are new hazards to watch out for.” Karl shrugged.
“Karl, we really need to sit down and talk through how you manage your notifications. You're missing really important things sometimes and it almost killed you today.” Terry's tone was stressed.
Karl sighed. “I hate computer interfaces. But you're right. I guess I just have to sit down and learn how other people do it. I'll do it tonight, if you'll teach me.” He looked around at the lengthening shadows. “Speaking of which, we don't have a lot of daylight left. How far have we gotten?”
“We just passed Independence Avenue, so we're a little more than halfway home.”
“Have we been picking up more people?”
“A few. They came out of their own accord when they saw us pass by. We haven't launched any more rescue missions but we haven't seen any SOS signs either.”
“Karl?”
“Yes, Chenelle?”
“You might want to walk through the caravan and say hi to everyone. Show the flag. I think it would reassure people to see that you're doing better.”
“That's a good idea, thank you. Um, Terry, could I borrow that list again? I want to work on getting everyone's names straight.”
Karl worked his way slowly forward, greeting everyone and making a point of learning a thing or two about them to help them stick in his memory. A lot of people wanted to shake his hand, or say they were glad he was feeling better, or thank him for organizing the survivors and helping them band together.
He was surprised by how good it felt. Socializing wasn't usually his thing; he knew he had a somewhat abrasive personality at times, but he made a real effort now. By the time he had reached the front of the column and thanked Doug for leading the group onward, he was in a pretty good mood and his health was topped up again.
“I think it's time to look for a site for our temporary Safe Zone. There are about thirty of us now, so it needs to be a big place, and we'll pay for several rooms in it at least. I'll ask Terry to search next time she sweeps by.”
“Search for what, old man?” Terry dropped out of stealth a few yards away.
“A big building we can clear for our temporary Safe Zone, young lady.”
“On it. Hey George!”
A few minutes later, Terry had picked out a mansion with a large lawn. With so many combat classes available, it was pretty short work to clear the building. They sent low level people along to get the experience with higher level backup. Karl asked Jake to handle Safe Zone construction again. They ended up with seven rooms, including the kitchen, two bathrooms, living area with fireplace, and three bedrooms.
“I wish we could tell the other Safe Zone that we're all right. They must be worried about us. We hadn't planned on an overnight,” Jake said.
“I could run it in under an hour,” Terry offered.
“No, it's too risky, even for you,” Karl said to squash that idea immediately.
Jake coughed. “Oh, Terry? This is kind of a fancy place. Do you think you could, like, scan for valuables I could auction?”
“I'm not that kind of rogue.”
“Oh.”
“I'll see what I can do,” George piped up, unfolded himself smoothly from his piece of floor, and left the room. Paul and Chad exchanged knowing glances.
“It's funny how fast things change. This morning, our group of eight seemed huge and massively powerful. Now we've got twenty-eight and a lot more power.”
Karl glanced around. “Where's Chenelle?”
“She and Doug took one of the bedrooms for some quality time.”
“Ah.”
“Jo and Tabitha took another one.”
“Okay.”
“And I think a couple from the--”
“Enough. Stop teasing me, I'm an old man.”
“I guess I will, being a young lady.”
“I don't know where you get the chutzpah.”
“My parents blame each other.”
Terry's mood dimmed visibly, but she forced herself back to cheerfulness. She hadn't talked about her parents being missing more than once or twice since they'd met. Although he hadn't told Terry, that was one of the reasons Karl had chosen Bill's Market; it was along the most likely path for her parents to have been on when the System hit. He figured he shouldn't press her by talking about it overtly, as she was already coping extremely well all things considered.
Karl leaned closer and lowered his voice. “How's Michael?” Asking her would also remind her of the mental manipulation, Karl hoped. Maybe it would help her cut herself some slack for her worries.
Terry sighed. “Not great. Hitting fifth level decreased his buffer from trauma, like you guessed. And it was only yesterday it happened.”
“Does he need company, or a talk, or anything?”
“I think he very much wants to be alone, but I made it clear that we're here for him if he wants.”
“Good. Thank you. I'm feeling pretty drained after today, to be honest.”
“Karl?”
“Yes, Terry?”
“Can I see your interface?”
“You mean...” Karl concentrated. Share interface with Terry Williams. Show interface. “Did I do it right?”
“Yeah, you did. Thank you.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Um, everything, I guess. What have you been putting points into?”
“Well, my strength was two and my constitution three when we started, and my charisma was five. I think those are the only stats I've increased.” Karl looked again. “Oh wait, my allure went from three to four, but I don't know why.”
Terry snorted.
“What's so funny?”
“Check out a full mirror sometime. Don't worry, your face didn't get any prettier.”
“Well, I know I've been overeating. Maybe I should buy a System clothes outfit, if it will resize with me.”
“Yeah, well, loosen your belt for now, there's a long line for the Shop pedestal. For most people it's their first time seeing one. Even if a lot of them only have a silver or less, everybody loves to window shop at a store from outer space.”
They were quiet for a while.
“UGH! I can't find anything in this mess. What are these little specks?”
“You mean notifications?” Karl opened one to demonstrate.
Terry stared at him, then off into space, then put her face in her hands for a few moments before looking up at him again. “Oh my God. No wonder you're missing things! Every little thing gets its own separate window! There are like hundreds of these! You've got them set to minimize so small I can't even spot all of them. I'm amazed you can even see out of your right eye. And you've got a handful of unimportant ones set to show up full size even in the middle of combat!”
“Oh, I thought I'd gotten all of those. I got most of them! I'm not good with computers...” Karl trailed off, knowing he sounded defensive.
“Okay, we are going to have to go through the entire settings part of the interface.” Karl grimaced. Terry didn't look much happier. “God, this is going to take ages to explain to you, I wish we could just...wait a minute.”
She stared off into space determinedly for what turned out to be several minutes. Karl was partway through a sandwich when she shouted, “AHA!” almost startling him into dropping it, which would have been tragic, because Karl really wanted to finish this sandwich, his second so far.
“Okay, I figured out how to share this. Karl, tell your interface: 'obtain interface settings from Terry Williams.'”
Karl did so mentally, while chewing. After he swallowed, he answered, “Okay. Now what?”
“Oh for...gimme a minute.”
Karl munched on the last of his sandwich. It was very satisfying.
“Okay, Karl, let's try this again. Try: 'copy interface settings from Terry Williams.'” Karl dutifully did so. Nothing seemed to happen, so he shook his head.
“I don't get it, that should have worked.”
“What are you trying to do?” Karl asked.
“I'm trying to make your interface act like mine does!”
Karl thought, System, make my interface act like Terry's does. Then he flinched as his vision changed. Everything looked clear and sharp again. There was a blinking little cursor up in the right hand corner of his vision. He mentally opened it, and it was a like a text file, and all of the notifications were there, in just one window, in chronological order as far as he could tell. When he told it to go away, it went back to being a blinking cursor in the same spot. He didn't have to steer it to one spot in particular or choose the size of it. Much easier.
“Oh that's clever.”
Terry stared. “What did you do?”
Karl explained. Terry looked indignant, which was very cute. Sitting nearby, Jake started laughing.
“Terry, I told you, the System reacts to intention. If Karl doesn't know what he's trying to make the System do, the System won't do it.”
“It is much better now,” he said, trying to placate her. “Does it ever stop blinking, though?”
Terry stared at him. “It's blinking because you haven't read it all yet.”
“Oh. Maybe I should do that, then.”
Terry kept staring at him like she wanted to strangle him. “Yeah, Karl, I think that would be a very good idea.” So quietly that Karl could just barely hear it, she muttered, “fucking idiot savant!”
“Me, or the System?” Karl asked.
Terry waited a beat too long to reply. “The System.”
Karl deliberately waited a beat. “Of course.”
The blinking light in the corner of his vision stuttered for a moment, so he opened it up and read the latest entry:
System Message: You have discovered an important fact about the System. The System is partially sentient. Experience +100
Terry fell over laughing when he told her.
**
The parents wanted to put their toddlers in one of the bedrooms, but it was another unseasonably chilly night, and without the heating system working the only warm room was the one with the fireplace.
A little while later they reported that they were all set, though. Surprisingly Tabitha had come to the rescue. Escorted by Jo, she went outside and returned with several large rocks. Wordlessly she took cookie sheets and trivets from the kitchen, placed the rocks on them in the bedroom, and then gripped each rock for close to a minute before it was glowing a dull red.
The parents watched all this as she worked in silence, then thanked her as they fenced the rocks off from curious hands.
Tabitha ducked her head, murmured, “I like fire,” and left the room.
People were plenty tired after the long (for some) hike, and though there were lots of stories to share, sleep rapidly became more important. Karl made sure that watches were set and people knew how to tend the fire, then curled up on the floor, which should have been very painful, but wasn't. He fell asleep in moments, hoping that tomorrow would be an easier day.