Pops and I finally left Madison to go back to our old home. A lot of people advised against us going there, most were worried about us getting killed on the way. Either because of a monster, an animal, or an Eater. However, a vocal minority had a different issue. So much so that they asked the guards to arrest us before we left.

Their issue was with a possibility. Not one where we died outside the village, but one where we returned and our tracks lured an Eater to Madison. In all fairness, there was some worth to their worriers. Considering we were about to go some place that a group of them attacked, there was a good chance we would end up seeing another. Especially considering where I killed one. The second one I mean.

“Thought of a funny joke?” Pops asked as we continued walking towards the bridge to the north.

“What? No. Why?”

“You were smiling,” I figured there was a reason for that.

“Oh… I was just thinking about the Eaters I killed. Eaters, plural,” I replied, a smile forming on my face.

Pops smiled back, “You know, if it was anyone else telling me that. I wouldn’t believe them.”

“I barely believe it myself. But I did. Two, one was even without the help of the System.”

“And that one almost killed you.”

“Yeah, but the other one didn’t. Ok, it was a good fight, and I got hurt, but I still won and didn’t get impaled that time,” I huffed.

“Not getting impaled shouldn’t be a win condition, but a basic instinct,” Pops sighed.

[System agrees with Pops’ assessment. Being impaled in counterproductive to user’s survival.]

“Oh, bite me. Both of you,” I sped up a little.

“Glad to see the System agrees with me. But why were you thinking about that?” Pops changed the subject. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was just so I wouldn’t be more upset or he genuinely was curious.

“I was just thinking about the people from Madison. The ones that wanted us arrested. I get why they were that worried, and it’s not like we can tell them why they shouldn’t.”

“Cass… They were right, even with the System. Going back there is a dangerous idea.”

“If you don’t want to go, that’s fine. There’s still time for you to go back.”

“I’m not letting you go alone,” Pops frowned.

“Then we are going. Yes, it’s dangerous and I know, but we can’t just ignore the possibility of finding someone back there. Our people might still be alive.”

Pops shook his head, “I really doubt that. Even if they survived the Eaters, the explosion would’ve gotten them. You didn’t see the blast… It was much bigger than I imagined.”

I paused and turned towards my grandfather, “Is that why you were delaying so much? Are you scared of what we will find?”

“I would be lying if I said that wasn’t in my mind. I already imagine I killed some of our people. And even if I say that was a mercy compared with the alternative, it’s not an easy thing to accept.”

“Pops, you didn’t kill our people. Even if the explosion did. I was the one who pulled the rope and triggered the explosion. Their blood is on my hands, not yours.”

Rakeen rolled his eyes, “Great, so instead of having killed our friends, I made my granddaughter do my dirty work. That’s much better.”

“Stop that. Those were my choices, you didn’t make me do anything,” I paused, noticing a tree to my right. One that had a horizontal mark in the middle of the trunk. A mark left by me. More specifically, left by a wheel I threw at it, “I guess those old movies are right.”

“What?” Pops asked.

“The murderer always comes back to the scene of the crime,” I glanced around, there was nothing that proved this was where the wagon had broken. No blood stains, no marks on the ground, no debris. Nothing. The scar on the tree being the only thing that remained from my actions against the supply crew.

“I still say you didn’t have to go that far.”

It was my turn to roll my eyes, “Pops, we talked about this already. I don’t regret my decisions. If I could go back in time, nothing would change. Those bastards would be dead one way or another.”

“Cass…”

“I don’t want to hear it. You don’t like what I did. Fine, I’ll live with that, but I rather live with your disappointment than live knowing I could’ve saved their next victim,” I pointed to something a couple hundred meters ahead, “There is the bridge.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Fine, let’s change the subject. Have you considered giving the System to anyone else?” Pops asked.

“Honestly, Peter was a good candidate. But the way he is now… I don’t know. Cindy… I love her to death, but she has a darkness that makes me worried. She suffered a lot and I don’t think she would put others through the same kind of thing. But abuse is a cycle. Unless you treat it and learn to cope with what happened. Cindy is doing much better than she was when we first found her, but I don’t know if we could say she is not going to lash out at the wrong people if she has power. How about you?”

“According to the System, I can’t do that. Well, I can, but it takes 100% of the progression to the next level. While at tier 1, it will take only 10%. So it just doesn’t seem worth it. Cindy is one option, but honestly. I’m thinking about Michael and Vanessa.”

“You are going to give super powers to children?” I asked, trying and failing to not sound like I was freaked out by the idea.

“Not really. Didn’t your System told you about what happens if a kid gets it?”

“I never asked, Sys?”

[If someone who has yet to reach full body maturity receives a version of System. System’s functions will be limited. The juvenile user will instead receive the benefits of having SP helping their body develop. Their immune system will be enhanced and any growth issues will be reduced. In addition, the SP will assist the juvenile user’s brain to get accustomed to the changes that come with growth.]

“I see… and would the kids know they have the System?”

[Juvenile users would be able to talk with System, and access functions that are not related to level up or acquiring new skills.]

“What about Titles?”

[A juvenile user is capable of acquiring a Title, as the said Title would fundamentally change how the juvenile user’s SP would work. One additional piece of information. If a user has any offspring, said offspring will have System since birth.]

“The System is inherited… It really isn’t going to take that long for everyone to have one, will it?”

“My best guess, about 10 years at most. At least, considering someone can travel across the ocean to share it with people from a different continent. I haven’t done the math, but you can get 20% progression in just one day, and that is without even going out to hunt. As long as you are not using skills, so let’s say it’s 1 person per day. It would take you, alone, less than two months to give the system to everyone in Madison. Now scale that up and remember that everyone at tier 1 can do the same,” Pops explained.

I looked down the river, towards the village of Madison as we crossed the bridge, “Is that the right thing to do? Giving everyone the System, I mean.”

“Honestly. I still don’t know. A part of me still thinks this might be an elaborate plan to get rid of us. But what choice do we have? It’s not just the Eaters, but even animals are taking advantage of the System. And apparently, our food was already covered in SP. Those particles were already changing us even without the full interface. At least now we can guide the direction of the changes. It’s like you said, this give use the power to fight the Eaters. That’s the only thing that can do that. At least as far as anyone knows. So maybe it’s worth the risk.”

I nodded, and we continued to walk across the bridge, “You know… it should take us a day to get to the village. Maybe more if we don’t rush. We didn’t have to burn through the heavy topics before even crossing the river.”

Pops chuckled, “True, but now we can talk about more fun things.”

“Like?”

“Like the kind of skills we hope to get.”

“Oh, there is one that I really want. Something that lets me heat up either anything or just a piece of metal. Can you imagine how easy it will be to take a shower with that? And to make food without fire.”

“Sorry to break it to you, kid. But even in the old world, things that heat up other things were very energy hungry. I can only imagine this will be the same with the System,” Pops smiled.

[That assessment is accurate. The Energy required to make any significant change in temperature will be considerable.]

“It’s a good thing my class focuses on getting more Energy then,” I announced proudly.

[System is able to create a quest that will have a skill similar to what user mentioned as a reward. Does user want that quest?]

“But a quest would need me to track down things that might have that skill. Or something similar, right?”

[Correct.]

“Yeah, let’s hold off for now. I have no clue where to even start searching for that kind of thing.”

“Oh? So this is a quest. Kind of interesting,” Pops smiled, “You forgot to tell me about this.”

I ignored that comment, he had the System, he could ask it what he wanted to know, “Do you have a skill in mind? To ask the System for, I mean.”

“I do, but I think I should wait until I’m tier 1. I really miss using a telescope to watch the stars. And I don’t think any skill I could get now would be strong enough to mirror that effect.”

“Oh that would be really cool. And it’s easy to consider where to start. Eagle eyes are famous for a reason.”

“Birds in general have a good eyesight. Dragonflies have compound eyes, which also could maybe work as different lenses. But… the idea fells… strange.”

“Which part? Eating a Dragonfly to get the skill?” I asked.

“I didn’t even think of that,” Pops grumbled, “I mean actually getting the skill. Would my eyes change? I don’t want to have bug eyes.”

“I mean, I have a massive scar across my stomach. Scar girl and Bug eyed old man. We can make a fun freak show while we are on the road.”

Pops shook his head as we continued walking. It was mostly uneventful. There were times when we found an animal or another, mostly prey, that just ran away once they saw us. The predators seemed to notice we were too dangerous for them. Pops and I did consider hunting for food, but that felt like a bad idea. Even if we did get something, we would need fire to cook it properly and that could attract an Eater.

We were eating some berries while another deer ran away from us when I realized something, “You know. Remember that mountain lion that came after me?”

“I remember you telling me about it.”

“Yeah, I remembered the System mentioning something strange. The SP inside the mountain lion triggered his hunger response once it realized I had a lot of SP inside me. It made it… hungry for SP, if that is the right term.”

“And it was able to track you down?”

“It was, maybe there is a smell, or a trail of SP. Or it just used his regular senses to come after me. But that got me thinking. If an animal without access to the System could do something like that…”

Pops was the one to finish my sentence, “Then there is likely a skill or something that can track down large clumps of SP.”

Just as he finished speaking, we heard the sound of metal grinding against metal coming from the top of the hill. Followed by metal coiling and being released as a large black shape flew through the air, landing a few meters to our right. I quickly triggered {Compression} as my hands wrapped around my staff that was sitting on a small form across the back of my waist. For the past days I spent a lot of time talking big game about my fighting skills, and now Pops was going to have a chance to see it firsthand.