“TABBY!” Jo screamed, the moment the monster fell still. Then she started running.

Tabitha slid down the side of the wolf corpse and landed in an untidy heap just before Jo ran up. “Ow.” Jo fell to her knees beside her.

“Who needs healing?” Karl called out. “Is everyone alive? Sound off!” Hearing the voices of Jim, Josh and Annie, Karl came over to Jo and cast his last healing hands on her, then backed well away so as not to hear their heartfelt but probably private conversation.

Jim came into view around the front of the beast, walking with his arm over Josh's shoulders. “The important thing is that all of us are alive, and this thing is dead. Everything else is spare change.” Josh kept his eyes on the ground before him.

Karl cleared his throat. “Jim, is this on the way of the path you found?”

“Yeah.”

“Then please go bring the volunteers here, they must be scared out of their wits. I just hope they didn't run off into a different danger, or worse, scatter.”

“I'm on it.” Jim vanished.

“And don't spook them when you drop stealth!” Karl hollered after him, not knowing how far away he already was.

Annie walked up next. “Sir Karl, I'm sorry. I threw rocks at it but I don't think I did it a single point of damage.” Karl blinked, wondering where she had gotten the idea that he'd expected her to attack as a second level healer with no mana.

“At least you tried,” Josh choked out. Karl looked at him. Ah. That's a bigger problem.

“Give us a minute, Annie. Please check on Jo. And...you did just fine.” Annie nodded with a bit of relief and headed over there. Karl lowered his voice, stepped closer, and wordlessly gestured for Josh to walk with him slowly away from the others.

“Josh, when the fight started, did you attack the wolf?”

Josh swallowed. “Yes, Sir.”

“And you got badly wounded.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And you were lying there, thinking you were about to die?”

Josh only nodded.

“And if you moved, you might have injured yourself further. How many health points did you have then?”

It took Josh a moment to answer. “One.”

“Then you did exactly the right thing. You waited for your health to rise before trying to move.”

“Yes, Sir,” he whispered.

“And then? After I healed you?”

“I...” Josh's eyes were full of tears but he resolutely refused to let them fall. “I ran.”

Karl nodded. “But you didn't run far. You're here now. Did you watch the fight?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Did you come back right after the fight was done and the wolf was dead?”

“I...uh...yes...”

Karl summoned his sword and held it out sideways. It was still red with wolf blood. “Touch the blade, son.” Josh did so, nervously.

“Did you want to do the right thing?”

“Yes, Sir,” he answered honestly.

“Do you still want to do the right thing?”

“Yes, Sir,” he answered honestly.

Karl lowered his blade. “Those are the important questions, and you answered them honestly and well.” Touching the sword wasn't actually necessary for him to use Sense Deceit, but he found the symbolism helped others to take it seriously.

He sighed, trying to figure out what to say. Then he got an idea. “Josh, did you get experience points in that fight?”

“Uh, yes, Sir.”

“So the System agrees that you contributed to that fight, and it should know. You helped us. Did you level?” The low levels came quickly, after all.

The boy swallowed. “Yes, Sir.”

“Have you still got those unallocated stat points?”

“Sir? Yes, Sir.”

“I want you to put both of those points into Willpower, right now.”

Josh got that spaced out look people got when using their interface. Then he took a deep breath. “Done, Sir.”

“Does that feel better?”

Josh's brow furrowed. “I don't...feel any different.”

“When you think about doing the right thing, now, and in our next fight, how do you feel?”

“Terrified, Sir.”

“Good! That's smart. And it can help keep you alive when you fight. But Josh, I want you to imagine facing that again: being low on hit points, scared that you're about to die. Then you get healed. What do you want to do next?”

“Get back in the fight, Sir.”

“Do you think you will? Really think about it, Josh. Do you think you can do better next time?”

Josh blinked, looking surprised. “I...I think I can, Sir. I think I will. I mean...I will, Sir,” he answered honestly.

“Good. That's what I thought you'd say.” Karl smiled. “What's your willpower now?”

Josh cleared his throat. “Four, Sir. It's not even average yet.”

Karl blinked. “You lasted that long in the fight with a two in willpower? Damn, son, good job!”

“Sir?” Josh looked startled.

“I don't blame a dumb person for being dumb. I don't blame a clumsy person for being clumsy. I don't blame a depressed person for being depressed. What matters, especially now, is what you do about it. It's a new world, son! We just gave you something like ten years of therapy with a wave of a number! Now if you hadn't put those points into willpower when I told you to, that would be different. But you did. You chose to do better. So I know I can trust you in a fight now.” Karl stuck out his hand. “We're good, son.”

Josh stared, then took his hand and shook it fervently. “Thank you, Sir Karl. I won't let you down again.”

“I know you won't. And I'll tell you a secret.” Karl leaned in close, and so did Josh. “On Tuesday, my Strength was a two.” Josh stared at him. “And no you may not tell anyone.” Josh shook his head hurriedly.

“My point is, we were what we were. We tried, and sometimes we failed in life. But from now on, we are what we choose to be, what we remake ourselves into as we level. It's a tremendous responsibility and a great freedom. We're all being given a second chance. That's a precious thing. Don't ever take it for granted or waste it.”

“No, Sir.”

“All right. Jim will be back any moment. Go loot the bear and figure out how much meat you can carry.” Karl clapped him on the back and sent him on his way.

He turned around to check on the others, and saw Tabitha standing very still, about fifteen feet away, and calmly smiling at him. Karl raised an eyebrow, turned and saw that Josh hadn't noticed her, then turned back to Tabitha and put a finger to his lips. She nodded and said nothing, just kept smiling.

Okayyyy... Karl thought and turned to go loot the giant wolf. Huh, seven silver is my share for one beast. Well, I earned it.Josh came trotting over. “I didn't get loot from the bear, just the wolf.”

“Hm. Okay, probably just Jim and maybe Tabitha for that one then. Jo!” Karl stepped towards Jo and Annie. They turned and looked at him. “Can you teach me that trick that lets you store gigantic things in inventory? Can you carry this entire beast?”

Jo shook her head. “No, Sir Karl. The trick won't stretch that far. I only found it as a desperation move when that other bear was suffocating me. I can store something heavier than I can lift, but only up to a point. I use two hands, and stuff it into two inventory slots at once.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Karl blinked. “You can do that?”

“Yeah, but I don't recommend it. I seem to have damaged my inventory space now.”

“Damaged how?”

“I mean I only have nine slots now instead of ten, but one of them is a double-wide. The total number of things I can carry is reduced. Beats dying, that's for sure.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I could tell that other bear was just under the expanded limit and this one's bigger, so that's not happening. Sorry, Sir Karl.”

“Wait, then how did you store both the giant bear cubs?”

Jo shrugged. “They stacked. I guess they were close enough to identical as far as the System was concerned, so I could theoretically carry ninety-nine identical bear bodies if we could find that many.”

Karl smiled at the idea. He got the feeling he was missing something, though, so tried to leave himself a mental reminder to revisit that thought and shook his head. “We're all going to learn these little rule hacks eventually. Thanks for explaining. I can cut up the beasts for meat so we can carry it back.”

“Do we really want to tie up that much inventory?”

Karl nodded. “Remember, we're going to get a lot of things from the grocery store, but one thing we won't be able to get—”

“Is meat. Gotcha.” Jo nodded. “At least Jake didn't poison this one.”

The volunteers were suitably impressed with the bodies, and looked on with varying degrees of interest and squeamishness as Karl laboriously sawed off the biggest pieces he could lift and vanished them into inventory. He ended up filling all of his slots with it, and Jo took the rest of the wolf and bear.

“The beauty of it is the time stasis in inventory, both here and in the cafeteria kitchen. The meat won't ever go bad before we eat it all.” Annie commented.

Finally they headed onward.

* *

The White Mountain Grocery had been looted already.

They stood and looked at the empty shelves in dismay. Karl tried to look on the bright side. “Check for signs or messages. Maybe it was another Safe Zone. It was almost certainly humans, anyway. Animals or spawns would have wrecked more than they took.”

They spent several minutes hunting, but there were no signs, and aside from a few odds and ends, there was nothing left but the rotted meat and produce. One of the volunteers grimly pulled out the least bad pieces of fruit that had been left behind and stuffed them into inventory. “If it's safe, maybe the cooks can mix it into something for flavor.”

“They can test for safety,” Karl added. “I saw them casting spells to identify food items.”

Still, it was a dispirited group that assembled outside in the intersection for the trip back. Karl looked them over and frowned. “Hey Jim?”

“Yeah Ka—Sir Karl?” Karl fought the urge to roll his eyes.

“Could you quickly scout a bit further up the road, see if there are any other stores or anything worth looting nearby?”

“I'll take a look. Back in a few.”

After he vanished, Karl looked around at the group, trying to figure out how to boost morale. “So, how many people leveled?” Annie and Josh raised their hands.

“Jim might have too,” Annie pointed out.

Karl nodded. “Good point, I'll ask him when he comes back. Did anybody get any stats raised today outside of leveling?”

Jo raised her hand, as did Chet and Ms. Taggart.

“Chet?”

“I got +1 endurance on the hike.”

Karl looked at Ms. Taggart but before he could ask, she just said, “the same.”

They all looked at Jo, who did not look happy. “Willpower.” Then she stared at Tabitha, who looked back at her fondly.

Jim dropped out of stealth long enough to say, “Nothing that way,” jerking a thumb to the west, then turned south and vanished again.

“You know,” Annie observed, “for all that a scout's job is to collect information, it can be pretty hard to get any out of them. Jim got awfully excited when he looted that bear, but wouldn't tell me what he got.”

“Well, everybody is still entitled to their own property and privacy; he earned it, and he doesn't have to tell you what it is if he doesn't want to. But if you really want to know,” Karl suggested, “maybe see if you can get him to brag about it.” Annie grinned and got a speculative look on her face.

A few damp minutes later, Jim appeared. “Hey, uh, Sir Karl? It's not food, but there's a place with some useful stuff a short ways up here.”

Karl looked around at the group. “All right, let's check it out.”

True to his word, it was only about five minutes of walking before they came to a store belonging to one of the big pharmacy chains. “Good thinking, Jim! Any opposition inside?”

“I didn't go in, but there's nothing around the outside anyway.”

“All right then. Jim, Josh and I will go first and clear the space of any spawns. Jo, Tabitha, Annie guard the volunteers until we give the all clear.”

“Can I come too?” Annie asked. Karl looked a question at Jo, who nodded.

“Okay, but you're a healer so stay behind us.”

“I will.”

It turned out that there were goblins and hobgoblins making a mess inside, but not too many. Jim and Karl held most of them at bay and let Josh and Annie work on their experience by taking out one or two at a time as a team. It took a few minutes longer but gave significant experience to the two newly level three people. Once it was clear, they beckoned everyone else inside.

It was certainly a mess, but a lot of items were still in good condition. A couple of people focused on paper goods, another couple on household items. The food was almost all destroyed but there were still a few cans here and there. An entire case of baby food had survived, which caused some rejoicing.

The pharmacy in the back had seen a lot of violence and was over two thirds empty. Karl shook his head. “Is any of that even good for anything any more?” Others shrugged. No one knew.

They hunted through the store looking for useful items. They grabbed all the soap and toothbrushes and so forth they could carry. Karl looked around with avarice. I almost want to rip out the...

He caught his breath. Slowly, he walked up to one of the bare shelving units. He felt it and tapped at it. It was painted metal, not plastic. “Hey Josh?”

“Yes, Sir Karl?”

“Do you have any inventory space left?”

“A couple of slots.”

Karl pointed at the shelving. “Let's see if these stack.”

It turned out that they did, so Karl took shelf after shelf down, working their way through the store. They had to make a bit more of a mess and it took a while, but they loaded up nearly two hundred metal shelves. Finally everyone reported their inventories and backpacks full, and they got ready to leave.

There was a bit of a collective sigh when they looked out at the steady drizzle, but a bit more rummaging in the store produced a half dozen umbrellas that hadn't been as high a priority when they were searching. They were given to the volunteers. Then everyone braced themselves and went out into the rain.

“It was a really good idea to look for other things, Sir Karl.”

“Much better than wasting the trip, anyway,” Karl agreed happily. “We got some meat, and possibly some metal for the expansion, and a lot of items that will make a lot of people happier. Now all we have to do is get home and see how the other groups did.”

They had made it a mile or so before Karl got the notification:

System Message:

Rare spawns will now commence. Increase your power levels by destroying spawns or through other means. Good Luck!

“Son of a mother,” Jo muttered.

“Everybody got that?” Karl asked. There were nods all around. “Okay, let's move fast and be extra alert. When the System says that, that means it's dumping rare spawns across the countryside this very minute.”

Jim dropped out of stealth. “You heard?”

“Yup. Jim, please tell me you leveled today and are really awesome at stealth now.”

Jim grinned. “Ask and you shall receive. Yes and yes. Maybe not as good as Terry, but I'm getting up there.”

“What level are you now?”

“Higher than third,” Jim said with a wink. “Everybody keep as quiet as you can, and I'll try to give you as much warning as possible. Those damned boars were about half a mile ahead so I'll have to check on them.” He ran off ahead and vanished.

“Okay, you heard the man. Quiet as we can.”

A grim silence settled over the group as they trudged on. The largest noise was the rain hitting the umbrellas, and Jo occasionally clanking slightly since she didn't have room in inventory to vanish her armor. A few minutes later Jim emerged from stealth, gave them a thumbs up, beckoned them onward, and vanished again. Apparently the boars had moved on.

Or they've been chased away by something bigger, Karl's imagination offered.

They covered another half mile, and another. They were only one and a half miles from Endurance now. Karl was starting to hope they would make it back without another fight. Much of the remaining distance had just been cleared of monsters in yesterday's fighting, after all.

The System has granted us many miracles, Karl thought, but one miracle it has taken away is the ability to travel a few miles in a few minutes with little danger.

Jim suddenly appeared before them and waved them to a halt. “There are a lot of monsters coming, but they look busy and I think they'll pass us by.” There was a rumbling sound. “Coming from that way.” Jim pointed north, and a bit east, to where an open area with few trees made a gap in the forest. The rumbling got louder. And louder.

A stampede burst onto the road from the field to the north, and quickly crossed to the south side. At first it was hard to identify the animals; then Karl realized that he was looking at muskrats grown to giant size. There must have been hundreds of them. It took at least a full minute for all of them to cross the road. The thunderous sound abated but didn't quite go away, and Jim did not look any happier.

“Wait for it.”

The rumbling grew louder again and another horde of animals followed the path of the giant muskrats. This time it was wolves. Among them were at least three BBDs, or Big Bad Daddy wolves, to use Terry's label for the uncommon version. The wolf they had fought earlier looked different and was bigger, but had still been of uncommon rank.

The last of the wolves passed by. The sound started to fade. Karl found it very troubling that Jim was not relaxing in the slightest.

The sound building again was not the rumble of an entire stampede but the hoofbeats or footfalls of a small number of much larger creatures. It was unnerving to simply hold still and wait, but eventually three animals came into view, pursuing the other creatures north to south. They were giant moose.

Even an ordinary moose is a huge beast capable of wrecking a car if it annoys them. Two of them were over a dozen feet tall. The third was even bigger. In a few strides they had flashed by, though Karl was pretty sure that one of them had glanced their way in passing. They held position for another minute before Jim breathed a sigh of relief. “One minute.” He scouted ahead, returned, and said quietly, “Let's get the hell out of here.”

Karl waved them forward and they hurried across the open area and back to road lined with woods on both sides. Never thought I'd be relieved to have woods full of monsters up close to the road. They pushed on.

It wasn't much longer before they were passing the location of the old kythar camp and the burned out houses along Post Road. Minutes after that, they approached the intersection with Walnut Street and the ruins of the hobgoblin fort. Again Jim waved a halt, then scouted ahead. He reappeared and beckoned them forward. Almost home.

It was a short jog, just a couple of minutes, and even the slowest volunteer was willing to run the remaining distance. Jim kept scouting ahead the entire way, then appeared in front of the gates. He wasn't moving to enter yet. As Karl ran up, he saw why.

The outer wall had numerous cracks in one area. The gate was not broken, but it was battered. And the guardian gargoyle was missing from its perch. While they were away, Endurance had come under attack.