“Can… Can you get me down?” A timid voice called up from the flat rooftop above as Trevor and his lackey picked up their fallen compatriot, scuttling off into the darkness. The man I had thrown to the roof was leaning over, the anger I had felt from him previously now nowhere to be seen. Instead of bringing him to me, I jumped up to him.
The first true rays of sunlight were appearing on the horizon, so I sat with my feet dangling from the roof and faced it. “I’ll let you down the next time you ask, but do you want to talk to me for a minute first?” I figured offering him the out was fair, but I didn’t want him to leave yet. He was one of the unaspected individuals whose eyes still burned with hope and belief. There was an anger aimed at the world in his every glance.
“They took my things.” The man said simply, looking down towards the mess which had been his place of business. That would be my fault. How had they swiped his goods so quickly? I flicked him a Xaverion mint coin, the large solid gold circle’s eye catching dragon writhing in the air as it flipped. The merchant caught it, looking at the money with wide-eyed wonder.
“I’ll give you another one if you answer a few questions for me?” I proposed. They were basically useless to me as the System didn’t even accept them. For a merchant, though? It was unique, and thus, priceless. I wasn’t stupid enough to think they held no value, but I had thousands and they were burning a hole. As long as I didn’t flood the market somehow, I was sure the man could make back what he had lost. “I’m Grant,” I said, offering him my hand, “just rolled into town.”
“Thank you for your help, Grant.” He thanked me but then frowned as he registered my words. “I’m Rashid, did you say you just got here? Like from somewhere else?” After shaking my hand, Rashid didn’t sit down beside me, choosing instead to stand. He alternated between looking at me and at his ruined “store” below with every word.
I chuckled. “That’s generally where things come from. Elsewhere.” Rashid’s frown deepened as he turned a frustrated look at me, the broken merchant space below. “Fair enough, you’ve just been through a lot. No more messing with you, I swear.”
The swarthy man still looked troubled, and all I could do was throw my hands up. Then he took a big sigh and his face finally creased into a slightly confused smile. It was progress, at least. “What was that drink you gave me?” Rashid asked, pulling his shirt to look at the skin underneath. He confirmed it was still healthy and shook his head in wonder.
“Health potion.” I told him, tossing him another from my inventory. “I’m the one supposed to be asking questions though, unless you want to give the coin back?” With a slightly panicked look, Rashid pocketed the Xaverion minted coin and shook his head more animatedly. “Fair enough, my turn then. What’s the deal with this place?” Best to start with the meat of the matter, I felt. The question might have been a little too broad, however. Rashid didn’t get tripped up though, taking me straight into an explanation of the last few months for Londimin.
“So, the area here was moved in the Change. It’s a chunk of land basically from Kensington to Heathrow. Most of the people who survived either did it in the airport or in Westfields. You know, the shopping centre? There wasn’t any food or anything because the System stole it all. Anyway, on the second or third day, Seth started clearing most of the monsters. Once people joined him for a few hours, they could do the same. With the monster loot for food and a few important quest rewards, the System shops opened and things have been pretty simple since then.”
“What were you selling then?” If there were System stores available, most necessities would be available. You would just have to kill a monster or two for access to them. I had been pretty lucky with my sequestered start in a café, despite the chaos of the actual event. What I knew of as the Shift, they called the Change. I wondered which would stick.
“Ahh,” Rashid scratched at his hair, looking slightly embarrassed, “nothing much. I had a few pieces of jewellery on my person when everything happened, and I had managed to barter the rings and my watch away for some of the magical items which have been appearing. The System stores don’t buy them like they do materials, so there is trade to be had.”
“Industrious,” I noted, “We’ll get your stuff back, mate. And this Seth guy? How is he?” A tyrant leader could bring all sorts of problems if they became powerful enough to match me. I wasn’t so arrogant to think it couldn’t happen, even with my head start. I had more than stagnated on my level gains recently.
Rashid seemed hesitant to give a review of their fearless leader, which was its own message. I didn’t assume anything, but I was starting to see the picture here. “We have a sheriff called Nolan,” Rashid deflected, “you might be better off talking to him first. He was one of the first people to start fighting back, and people trust him in a different way to Seth.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What do you mean in a different way? Like Seth has a skill which makes people trust him?”
Rashid looked at me both confused and a little scared. “No… I don’t think so? Does he? Is that a thing? Oh god, that’s a scary thought.” Before the man could get sidetracked, I clapped my hands together. “Oh, right. It’s not like, uhh,” he hesitated again, struggling for words. “Nolan is just more human, I guess? Seth is supposed to be pretty intense. I only saw him when he cleared the airport. A bunch of us were hiding in one of the planes on a runway and watched as his group cleared the place. From that distance it was more like watching a tornado of blood.”
I grunted. So, this Seth person had found some opportunity quickly and jumped onto it, not dissimilar to myself. If it wasn’t for the general energy of a dystopian nightmare hanging over the city, I might have thought Seth was a kindred soul. With the stark difference between this place and Ascentown, I made a promise to thank Julianna in some way. Her work in Newtown had made things much more idyllic in our neck of the woods.
“Does he have a Dao?”
“A path?” Rashid asked, confused. “Like the Chinese religion? He’s British, I think…”
“Oh, that’s where it comes from? Interesting. No, I meant like this.” The air filled with my power as I stopped holding it back. Rashid choked, almost flinging himself off the roof to avoid me. I shut the floodgates, and grabbed his wrist before he could do something stupid. Fifteen feet was nothing to me, but I guessed that Rashid was an incredibly smart individual and put points into Mental or Will more than anything. The objectively correct choice. “So… No?”
I could hear the hammering of Rashid’s heart from the distance he maintained. “No,” he shook his head, “I’ve never felt anything like… I don’t think so.” Deciding that this was enough of a grilling for the man, I flipped him another coin, bringing my Xaverion total to a much more even five thousand, one hundred and ninety. Those extra two were frustrating me for a while, in the back of my head. He fumbled, but caught it.
“Very interesting indeed, Rashid. Ha.” I chuckled at the accidental rhyme before quickly wrapping my arm around him. Before he could protest, I hopped off the roof. He screamed the whole way down. I dropped him heavily with a tut and a roll of my eyes. “Oh calm down, you’ll be fine. Might want to have the rest of the day off, though,” I suggested. There were a few sets of eyes looking our way with curiosity, and more still which held only hunger.
“Thank you,” Rashid said again. “You saved my life. Blessings upon you, Grant.”
I had been about to step away when Rashid’s words caught me and I choked up. It had been a casual thing, mostly to stop people from being bullies, but I realised he was right. Almost by accident, I had stopped this man from dying on the pavement. No one here would have helped him, even if they could have. A swirl of confusing emotions stuck in my throat sharply. I coughed it away, lodging another complaint with Londimin in my mind.
“Do you have any paper on you?” I asked.
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I left Rashid about twenty minutes later, having shared with him a map and directions to Newtown. I didn’t expect him to brave the dangers on his own, and told him I’d find him when I was heading back, but that it wasn’t my intended direction. If he could find a way there without me, he was more than welcome to do so. The draconic coins I had given him would be fine to vouch for my word until I returned, not that they’d turn him away.
Unlike Londimin, Newtown and Ascentown were marked with an almost guilt-inducing level of comfort. It was a mixture of having less people, and seemingly less danger in the initial days. Without having to starve for a day and fight for their lives against a horde right away, the people of Newtown were less bound with survival of the fittest. Whatever people had was shared easily.
My own investments in the town were important once I defeated the claimants, too, but it sounded like this place was only just now reaching normal. I bet that until the System stores opened, things were even less pleasant around here. For a few hours, I slipped into the various burgeoning businesses and tried to get the broadest view of the populace as I could.
By the end of my pub crawl, I judged that about ninety percent of this city’s population were basically trash. Almost every single table seemed to be filled with people obsessively talking about killing monsters for money. Not that most could, but they whined that if there were just more low level things for them to fight, they’d get there for sure. I tried not to look down my nose at these people because I had been ridiculously lucky, but I was very glad not to have to worry about my strength or my funds for now.
In the grander System, I was still a weak pauper. This was shown in devastating clarity when I finally got around to using a System store. There were material shops, general stores and even a few equipment stores. We had a few in my own town, but I had been so busy that I hadn’t wanted to get distracted. Seeing a few of the more expensive options lit a fire in me, but it was a bitter thing. “How the hell is someone supposed to afford these things?!” I lamented even as I made a single purchase.
System Store (Level 1) - Equipment
Broadsword - 85 g
Battleaxe - 80 g
Warhammer - 80 g
…
Boots Of Striding - 4205 g
Helmet Of Protection - 7650 g
Golemskin Bracers - 2399 g
The first options were mundane, but the wide variety of enchanted equipment was all serious, even for myself. I had wondered at the lack of magical gear on show but only until I saw the prices in the store. It was no surprise people chose to gamble on a monster loot drop. After getting my hopes crushed by the System, I stopped procrastinating. While I was sure this was going to be awkward, if not devolve straight into violence, it was time to meet the leadership of Londimin.
I pulled my new gloves onto my hands and tried not to think about how expensive they had been at fifteen hundred credits. It was worth it almost right away, even without the effect on them. They felt luxurious in a dangerous way which made me want to go back and get more items. Instead, I focused on the mana the gloves were absorbing and pulled open the heavy front door of Londimin’s government building.
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Item - Manaweave Gloves
Sleek and efficient, these fur-lined gloves are a caster’s best friend - after a fireball aimed elsewhere, that is.
Effect: Stores a large amount of the user’s mana as an external reservoir. Skills cast using the mana in these gloves are touched with the Dao of Magic.