Karl continued to watch people enter and leave the cafeteria for a little while. It was a good way to get used to the current mood and rhythm of the Safe Zone. He had been gone for four days: one for the ill-fated hunt for the alleged Hobgoblin, and three days protecting the cocoon that had resurrected Jo. A lot had happened. Endurance had even had its second Expansion while he was away.

The scouting group to the former Bradley Supermarket Safe Zone left right after breakfast. The party consisted of Terry, Ethan, Michael, and two volunteers whose names Karl didn't catch. The mission was simple: hide the existence of Endurance. If all went well, they would be back before dinner.

Tabitha and Jo came in long enough to buy and store over a dozen meals in inventory, then the two of them headed out. I hope you get lots of experience and level back up quickly, Jo. Karl watched them go, hoping for good news that evening.

Next, Paul Goodman came in and headed upstairs to the room being used as the armory. Small groups of people wandered in over the next while and went up, to return minutes later wearing various bits of armor and carrying System weapons. One group was joined by Chenelle, another by Christine. I'm glad they are taking someone high-level along to bail them out if they get into trouble, Karl thought.

Jim and Annie took charge of another group, which surprised Karl until he took a fresh look at the leaderboard and realized that Annie was now a Level Five Healer and Jim was a Level Six Scout. He still thought of them as newbies…as if he himself had any more than two weeks of experience under the System!

They grow up so fast, he recalled Terry joking. She had been referring to her parents, who were Fourth and Fifth Level, while the cheerleader herself had just gotten to Seventh Level at the time. As far as the updated leaderboard showed, he and Terry were the only two to have reached Eighth Level, but several people were Seventh Level and over a dozen were Sixth.

Ninth Level is a looooong way away, Karl observed. He called up his stat sheet before his mind's eye.

Sir Karl Friedrich Hausman

Class: Paladin

Level: 8

Experience: 150/32000

Health: 364/364

Mana: 350/350

Stamina: 180/180

Endurance: 32

Body: 10.0 (Strength: 14, Constitution: 10, Agility: 6)

Mind: 7.7 (Intelligence: 9, Willpower: 8, Aptitude: 6)

Social: 6.3 (Charisma: 11, Personality: 4, Allure: 4)

Skills:

Analyze Creature (1)

Brawling (5)

Short Spear (2)

Shield Bash (4)

Short Sword (4)

Sense Deceit (3)

Righteous Presence (5)

Leadership (5)

Broadsword (3)

Ministering to the Faithful (1)

Spells:

Healing Hands (6)

Purge Poison (1)

Spellsword (2)

Guardian Aura—upgraded to Guardian Angel (2)

Circumstantial Prayer (3)

Blessing of Courage (1)

Karl considered his stats for a bit. I really should see if I can deliberately raise some of those Skill numbers. I got points in Short Sword and Broadsword on purpose by practicing sparring. I could do more of that.

Looking around, he noticed Letisha entering and heading straight to the kitchen. She must be getting food for the Hawk. What was its name again? Karl searched his memory. …Sky Song. I think that was it. He thought about calling her over for some conversation, but from how quickly she moved, Karl got the impression that she was in a hurry. It can wait, he decided.

A team of lower-level and unclassed people gathered, identifiable by their almost complete lack of fighting equipment. They waited until Barbara Williams showed up before heading out. What's Barbara the Barbarian doing…? Oh, that's the recycler crew. She's their guard. Karl felt a little guilty about referring to Terry's mother by that moniker, but so long as he never said it out loud, it should be fine.

I hope they bring back lots of metal. So far, getting enough metal had proven to be the most challenging part of building and expanding the Safe Zone. But now, with the recycler pulling in hundreds of ingots every day in addition to stone blocks and lumber, they should be able to perform another expansion within a week.

We need land that we can farm safely. I hope there's some System magic that will make food grow a lot faster and better, or it's going to take a lot of expansions to get enough room to grow food just for the people we already have. Although, the number of people we're finding has been dropping. I wonder what our maximum population will be? How many survivors are still out there waiting to be found?

For that matter, what will the monster population be? Karl spent a while digging through the Help files for the System, and eventually asked someone to assist him. It turned out that there would be a time where monsters were done being seeded across the countryside, and after that, the monsters would have to breed and reproduce on their own.

So, we can get ahead of them. They had already made a good start in the area immediately surrounding Endurance. It was getting harder to find the low-level monsters that were good for training up people with new classes. The training parties had to go out farther to find suitable challenges.

⛨  ⛫  ⛨

Karl saw this for himself when Paul roped him into taking a group of Level One and Two people out on a hunt for experience.

Karl had to push himself to be sociable, but it was a little easier than it used to be. Presumably, that had something to do with his recently putting a point into his Personality stat, but Karl really had no idea how that worked. Whatever the reason, he managed to recall the social niceties and how to make small talk while the group gathered. Since he was going to be with them for much of the day, he made an effort to learn their names right away.

Dorian Farrier was a short man in his thirties, not particularly fit but not obese either. He had been captured by the Kythar after barricading in his home, and once rescued, he had been just sitting around shell-shocked for days. Apparently, he was goaded into action by Karl's speech about freeloaders, but actually seemed grateful rather than hostile. He was carrying a club and shield and wearing simple armor.

Susan Merrill was in her twenties, a hairdresser who had holed up with several friends until their food ran out. After getting to Endurance, she wanted to ply her former trade, but there wasn't enough of an economy going yet in the Safe Zone to support a business. She had decided that a few levels in a combat class would help her feel safer. She had chosen a spear for a weapon.

Tyler Polanski was a sixteen-year-old boy who was hoping to become a Mage. He had lost his family when the System arrived and been rescued by an exploring group. His chief interest was loot—either scrolls, directly off of monster Shamans, or enough coin to buy scrolls. He apparently was frustrated with his lack of success so far and had turned down Warrior twice while getting to Level Two.

Grace Kerwin was in her forties and had been an office worker. She had a pistol of her own, and had borrowed a bow and arrows. She wanted her gun to be her primary weapon, but until she had a couple of levels she was unable to Systemize it, and needed a class to get the required System Token. She was hoping for some sort of shooter or gunslinger class.

Ms. Taggart was the most surprising addition. Her first name turned out to be Amelia, but she was already sort of stuck in Karl's head as “Ms. Taggart.” She was probably in her early sixties and had been prone to whining and complaining from the moment she was rescued, and also had been an irritant to Karl in the first town meeting. However, she had gone out with his team the next day as a volunteer to carry food back to the Safe Zone, and seemed to be making an effort to be less difficult. She had also sacrificed her house to the recyclers, after extracting a promise from Karl that she would be taken care of in her old age.

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She had no equipment that Karl could see. He braced himself and greeted her, doing his best to ignore her perpetual scowl. “Good morning, Ms. Taggart. Do you know what role you want to play in the party?”

“Healer,” the woman said shortly.

“Oh, excellent,” Karl said, mildly surprised. “I'll do my best to stay out of your way so that you can get experience quickly, and only intervene in case of emergency.” Ms. Taggart nodded. Karl decided to quit while he was not very behind, and retreated a step to look over the group.

They were awkward, milling about and seemed completely ignorant of what they needed to do. Karl wasn't much better, but he had two weeks of experience out there among the monsters and did his best to share what little he had learned. He made sure that everyone had water and snacks in their inventory, and in the other direction he had to caution Grace not to have her inventory completely full at the start because she might need room for loot. The System enables a whole new level of pack rat, I suppose. Ha, I wonder if we'll encounter a Pack Rat monster to fight at some point.

He cleared his throat for attention. “All right. We're going to be heading north on Walnut for about a half hour, and then we will start looking in houses for low-level monsters like Imps and Goblins. We don't have a Scout, so it might take a bit longer to find our first fights. Those of you who are First Level can expect to get your Second Level before lunch, and we may only be out for a couple of hours, all told. I don't want anyone making fatal mistakes because they got worn down quickly. There's always next time.”

“Sir Karl, will you be in the front line?” Dorian asked.

“You and Susan will be the front line, Dorian. My plan is to be right behind both of you, so that I can reach out and touch you with my Healing Hands spell, if you get too badly injured too quickly. I'll step forward if the monsters turn out to be tougher or more numerous than expected, which might happen because, again, we don't have any scouting types in the party.

“Casters and ranged fighters need to be well behind the front line, and one of you will need to watch our backs. You can take turns at it if you like.”

“I can keep watch,” Ms. Taggart declared. “My eyesight is fine as of two weeks ago. I won't be able to do much about a monster behind us, but I can warn the rest of you, at least.”

“Mm. Have you considered a blunt weapon, or perhaps a shield?” Karl suggested.

“I don't want to be close enough to monsters to hit them with a weapon. And I don't want to end up with a Warrior class, or whatever you call it.”

“Agreed, but the monsters might have other ideas,” Karl pointed out. He called up his inventory in his System interface and considered what he had available. “I have a spear you could use, which might help keep the monsters at a bit of a distance. Or, you might try something like a tire iron. A club is a very forgiving weapon.”

“Do I look like I could swing a tire iron?” Ms. Taggart snapped.

“Well, something lighter then, but still solid enough to sting when it hits…how about a golf club?” When the woman didn't immediately deride the idea, he summoned one from Inventory and held it out. Reluctantly, she accepted the offering, and proceeded to nearly give Susan a concussion before the future gunslinger managed to duck the first practice swing.

“Watch it!”

Ms. Taggart reddened, and gave a curt nod and apology. Then she turned back to him. “Thank you, Sir Karl. I hope I won't have to use this.”

“Well, if it gains you experience towards a Healer class, it is all to the good.”

“I fail to see what is healing about braining a monster with a golf club.”

“The System works in mysterious ways,” Karl answered dryly. “Did someone give you a Staff of Healing?”

“No. They said that they were all out.”

“Hm. Well, we'll keep an eye out for Goblin Shamans and the like, and give you the first Staff we come across.”

Once they had arranged themselves in a sort of marching order, Karl led them out of Endurance through the postern gate and they headed north. It was a warm spring day with white puffy clouds that gave them respite from the hot sun, off and on. The leaves had finished coming in, and the whole world looked lush and green.

If only it weren't filled with monsters trying to kill us, Karl groused.

Before long, he noticed that Tyler was fiddling with a pad, a sort of System tablet, and looking around. “What's that you've got there, Tyler?”

The boy only glanced at him for a moment before returning his attention to the pad and searching. “It's a map of the nearby monsters. People have compiled reports of what was where, and what they killed when. It's not going to be totally accurate, but I can tell you when we get to areas that aren't well-explored.”

Karl nodded. “Clever. That will help.”

They did have to walk for over thirty minutes, taking a short rest break in the middle, without sighting any monsters. A far cry from the first day, Karl thought. I lost count of how many kinds of monsters we fought just traveling half this far.

They could have found more monsters faster by leaving the roads and climbing up and down hills through the woods, but there was a fair chance of encountering an entire wolf pack or worse, which would be too much of a challenge for a group of beginners. A bit of an extra walk was a small price to pay for the relative safety of the houses by the road. The group felt the effort, though. No one besides Karl had increased their Constitution scores yet; Tyler was Second Level, but had put both of his points into Intelligence.

Finally, they came to a house with signs of monster habitation. Karl beckoned everyone into a huddle and spoke quietly as they heard Goblins inside. “All right, nobody has Stealth, right?” Everyone shook their heads. “Does anyone want to spend a Skill slot on it? You won't have to take a Thief class; you can refuse it if the System offers.”

They looked at each other. Tyler looked uncertain. After a moment, Susan sighed. “I'll do it.”

“You don't have to, we can go with a frontal assault against low-level monsters like this.”

“No, no, I can see it being a good Skill to have. I don't want to be a Thief, though. All right, how do I do this?”

Karl thought back. “It only took a few moments for Terry to get offered the Skill. All she had to do was start to sneak up on the monsters.”

“All right. Wait here.”

“Just get information and come back, no need to start a fight on your own,” Karl cautioned.

“Wasn't planning on it. Here I go.”

They all watched Susan run over to a tree and hide behind it. She peeked out and looked around, then ran to another tree. This happened a few times. Karl frowned. She's not disappearing. Maybe her heart isn't in it? The System runs on intention…

He blinked, and realized that Susan was no longer visible. Did she go into Stealth? Or did I just lose track normally?

Minutes passed. Everyone stayed quiet, waiting. If she gets in trouble, she has the sense to yell for help, right? Karl fretted. How long should I wait?

“Up there,” Ms. Taggart hissed.

Karl followed her gaze, and saw Susan climbing out of a second-story gabled window, and swinging around onto the sloping roof. She twirled her spear a moment in the open space past the edge of the roof, took aim at the window, and struck a pose, waiting. Karl held his breath. A moment later, a Goblin popped its head out the window, looking around.

Susan jabbed forcefully and got the Goblin in the neck; it cried out, but not very loudly. More alarming, Susan started windmilling one arm as she overbalanced, and fell off the edge of the roof. She still had a grip on her spear, which was lodged in the now-dead Goblin, and sort of swung down into a very rough landing on her feet, then fell on her side with a loud thump.

Karl dashed forward and tagged Susan with a Healing Hands about three seconds later. “Yes…yes…” Susan hissed, staring at nothing. Then she shuddered, squeezing her eyes shut. Lacking instructions, the others ran up and gathered around the downed woman.

Susan gasped, then said, “Five on the first floor, three left on the second floor. One is wearing feathers. They're going to raise an alarm in about three, two—” She broke off, scowling and nodding, as a ruckus started inside the house.

Karl was about to start giving orders when he was suddenly deafened by the sound of Grace's pistol firing twice. He blinked a couple of times. Grace was staring upward and smiling grimly. He tapped Dorian on the shoulder and pointed at the front door. Dorian nodded and headed up onto the porch. Karl offered a hand to Susan, who took it and struggled to launch herself upright. Staggering a bit, she joined Dorian and took position to his left.

For several long moments, nothing happened. Karl wished he had a way to just trickle Healing Hands into himself a little at a time, so he could fix his ears without wasting an entire spell on it. He held one hand to his ear and pressed it closed with one finger. Then he got a notification.

You have learned Aura of Vigor (1). Learning is best done by doing.

Not now, System, Karl thought quickly, and the notification vanished for the moment. He would figure out what had just happened after the combat was over. He did notice that his hearing had cleared up, at least, and a quick glance at his Mana showed that he had just spent thirty on whatever that new spell was.

There wasn't any more time for introspection as a thunder of footsteps preceded a pack of Goblins rounding the corner of the porch; they had come out a side door rather than the front. Dorian and Susan pivoted smoothly into position, and Karl stayed a step behind them. Grace took a few steps farther back, staying off the porch and getting a clear shot at the side of the Goblin group. Amelia Taggart was facing away from the fight, dutifully watching the road to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them from behind. Tyler seemed to be fidgeting and staring intently at everything at once, gesturing vaguely with his hands like a nervous tic.

The combat went surprisingly smoothly, at first. It looked like an easy fight, and Grace made another racket as she fired once more into the pack of Goblins. Then she cursed, holstered her gun and summoned her bow. Probably got a gun jam or something, that thing's not Systemized.

The Goblin front line looked about to fall over when a Goblin Shaman came around the corner and started chanting. A green glow enveloped the two in the front and they looked considerably better. Karl noticed the Staff it held and nodded grimly. We'll be taking that in a minute, thanks.

Susan hissed as a Goblin sword managed to slash her arm badly. Karl reached out and tagged her with Healing Hands. “Wow,” the woman muttered, then resumed fighting with renewed vigor.

The Goblin Shaman was casting again. Grace fired an arrow and missed. The spell went off, healing the Goblins the rest of the way, and a moment later, the spellcaster stumbled as it got hit in the head with a thrown rock. That must be Tyler, desperate to interact with magic in any way possible. Good job, making himself useful.

Karl kept an eye on everyone's Health, but otherwise let the new adventurers handle it. The fight seemed to take forever, as nobody had an easy way to take down the Shaman, and continued until the creature ran low on mana. The front line was about out of Stamina as well, but rallied long enough to finally finish the Goblins off.

Most of them sat down on the porch to catch their breath. Karl checked his stats, then asked, “How much experience did you all get from that fight?”

“Thirty,” most of them said after a minute. Tyler had thirty-four, and Karl had gained about 160 experience from the fight.

“Ugh,” Grace sighed. “You mean we have to get in eight fights like that to level?”

“It's about fifteen fights for me,” Tyler complained.

“Looks like I'm drawing off half the experience; sorry about that, but I don't see how to avoid it unless you want me to completely sit out the fights,” Karl told them.

Tyler frowned. “I'd rather you help us, at least for the next few.”

Amelia had tiptoed past some of the bodies to get to the corpse of the Goblin Shaman, and picked up the Staff. “How do I use this thing?”

“Find someone injured and shake it at them.” Karl noted with approval that she kept on looking at their surroundings, not abandoning her watch for more than a couple of seconds at a time.

“Who's hurt?”

Predictably, Dorian and Susan raised their hands. Amelia picked her way back across the pile of corpses and held the Staff in front of her, then paused. “This is ridiculous.” She stared at the Staff in disbelief. “How am I suppose to heal people with this thing?”

“Shake and pray,” Dorian suggested.

Grimacing, Amelia shook the Staff at him, then paused. “Well?”

Dorian shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

Amelia shook it some more with a skeptical look on her face.

“Ms. Taggart, you do have to have some faith in the thing or it won't activate. The System runs on intention.”

“But it doesn't work!”

Karl held onto his patience and tried to think of how to goad the woman. “You're not being firm with it. Tell the thing to heal him.”

“Well, why didn't you say that in the first place?” Amelia snapped. “Heal him!” she commanded the Staff, shaking it firmly.

A green glow enveloped Dorian, and he gave a sigh of relief. “That's better. Thank you…Amelia, was it?”

“Yes. You're…you're welcome.”

Her mouth worked uncertainly a moment, and then for the first time Karl had seen, Amelia Taggart slowly started to smile.