Staring down at the tower's base, Tom moved the charred husk that had been a goblin and tossed it off the platform. Underneath were symbols etched into the wood inside of a circle with a smaller concentric circle and more runes inside of that.

"Does that look like Azroc's summoning circle?" Derek asked, reaching out to trace the engravings.

"It's similar, but it's not the same. They weren't summoning Azroc, but it definitely was some kind of warlock patron ritual." Tom replied pondering the implications of this discovery.

"So, now goblins get classes?" Jay asked, confused as to what this meant for their future.

"I thought they had classes. More rudimentary classes than ours, but classes nonetheless. I guess this means something has changed and they can get the same classes as us. Probably has something to do with their use of the vending machines. I don't like this." Derek thought aloud as he worked through theories of what might be happening.

"So why would it change all of a sudden?" Zach asked looking between Tom and Derek for answers.

"I guess there are two theories. One, they are changing because they used the vending machines, and the System needed to recognize their classes so the system is compensating for that. Or two, since the world is built on video game logic, the monsters we fight have to become stronger as we become stronger. In the video game world, it's called Level Scaling. As you get stronger the monsters level with you to ensure you don't just steamroll the game." Tom explained getting a nod from Derek in confirmation of his thoughts. "It could be either one of those, or possibly a combination of the two."

"Great, so when we thought we could get stronger to survive better, now the monsters are going to get worse too?" Isaac blurted out, losing his cool a little at the thought of stronger monsters showing up.

"Looks that way. In games, it's a good thing, because if you kept killing tiny monsters you wouldn't be able to level effectively once the XP started being zero for tiny creatures. Of course, in reality, what it means is we will basically always be fighting for our lives." Derek added.

"Awesome. One more thing to add to the 'I wish they fucking wouldn't' pile for this new existence." Chris chimed in, putting his hands on his hips and turning away to stare off into the distance.

"Not a lot we can do about it right now. But it means we have to be on our guard. Clearly, this world is evolving still and we have to stay ahead of it. No taking monsters for granted." Derek said, grunting as he stood from kneeling.

"Does this mean we can evolve too?" Tom asked, almost as much to himself as to the others.

"I haven't seen much indication of that so far. Normally in that kind of setting, there would maybe be a species rank that would show us we have the ability to evolve. But I guess time will tell." Derek replied, stretching his back and getting satisfying popping sounds.

Tom stopped and opened his system interface. He looked at the messages he had received from the fights recently and noticed he had been minimizing his notifications since the battle with the Devourer and pulled them up to look through them. There were a lot. Hundreds of messages to go through. So, with a thought, he minimized the messages to a more manageable stack.

XP Gained:

Your raid party has defeated 497 Devourer minions. XP gained: 385,276. Your share of this XP is 16,567.

XP Gained:

Your raid party has defeated the dungeon boss: Devourer. XP Gained: 1,435,786. Your share of the XP is 47,859.

Dungeon Cleared

Your raid party was the first to clear this exclusive world event dungeon. Because this is a historic moment and this dungeon will not be able to be run again, your party gains an additional 50,000 XP each for clearing it.

Level Up:

You have earned enough XP to advance to the next level. You are now level 23! Continue to work hard and push yourself to gain more XP to continue to level up. You receive 10 attribute points to distribute as you see fit. You also receive 5 skill points.

Admin Blessing

For rallying teams to your cause to deal with an issue that would have ended Earth's existence, you have been awarded +5 to Charisma.

Dungeon Rewards:

Your raid party left the dungeon without claiming a prize for its completion. Each party member will be awarded 1 Rare Core as a reward instead of choosing an item.

"Well fuck me sideways with a broom," Tom swore suddenly, causing a couple of people to jump.

"What?! What is it?! Are we being attacked?!" Clay yelled and equipped his weapon as he spun about looking for something to attack.

"No, nothing like that. We were so focused on the people who died that we forgot to claim our dungeon prize." Tom explained as he read over the prompt again.

"Oh, yeah. But you saw the system gave us a rare core right?" Isaac said.

"You noticed and didn't say anything?" Tom asked indignantly.

"I just assumed you all had read your prompts like normal people. How was I supposed to know you just keep putting things off like that?" Isaac replied with a shrug, showing he didn't care how Tom felt about it.

"Yeah, yeah. You're right. I always put off prompts. I need to start being better about looking at those." Tom muttered to himself, although loud enough that others could hear him.

"At least they gave us something," Derek tried to add helpfully. "They could have just said too bad so sad, you didn't select an item and just left."

"True. Glad they have some kind of fail-safe in there for that." Tom admitted.

"Actually, they don't normally," Bob interjected. "I think it only happened this time because it was a one-time completion dungeon."

Everyone turned to look at Bob when he said this.

"You mean we could have lost a reward if we hadn't just been lucky enough to be in a one-time dungeon?" Tom asked in a serious tone.

"Yes. Unfortunately. Always be sure you pick a reward. Normally it's a lot harder to miss because the vending machine appears in front of you. This last time it was less noticeable because the vending machine was already there." Bob continued. "You should have a far less difficult time forgetting in normal dungeons."

"That all makes sense. I sure wish I could have picked something from that machine though. Would have been epic." Tom thought wistfully as he imagined looking over all the options.

"The others all have the same options. Just have to look through the menu to find them. I can show you how to use it if you would like." Bob offered to Tom.

"That sounds great! Next time we are near one I will hold you to that." Tom agreed and stuck out his hand to shake with Bob.

They shook on the agreement and then Tom went back to staring at his character sheet. He had ten more points to use. This time he felt like Strength and Constitution needed some attention so he put five points into each and looked at his stats.

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Tom Harris

Race: Human

Class: Warlock

Level: 23

Total XP: 545,926

XP To Next Level: 84,074

HP: 350/350

MP: 470/470

SP: 280/280

Attributes:

Unused Attributes Points: 0

Strength: 40

Constitution: 35

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 28

Intelligence: 47

Wisdom: 40

Charisma: 75

Luck: 20

Non-Combat Skills:

Inspect

Level: 6, Rank: Beginner

Combat Skills:

Vehicular Homicide

Level: 15, Rank: Novice

Spells:

Eldritch Blast

Level: 5, Rank: Beginner

Dark Ball

Level: 2, Rank: Beginner

Dark Healing

Level: 6, Rank: Beginner

Satisfied with the way his build was still progressing, Tom turned to the others in the group.

"Make sure you are setting your attribute points if you haven't already. Don't need anyone falling behind in their growth. Time to get back into the vehicles and head on! Was there anything worth scavenging from the goblins here?" Tom called out to everyone in the group.

"Some armor, and a few weapons. Nothing extra special though. Looks like we interrupted a ritual of some kind though. But without the details of what they were doing the items are just random crap we don't have any use for." Bobby explained, stepping forward to show Tom the ingredients that were being used in the ritual.

"Well...that's gross. They killed the chicken on the ritual space I suppose?" Tom asked looking at the odd assortment of items in Bobby's hands.

"Looks that way. The dagger they used is ornate looking, but has trash stats." He continued. "I'd say it was a summoning ritual, but I have absolutely nothing to base that on except old Indiana Jones movies."

"Well, if there isn't anything of real value, just leave what we don't think others can use, and let's get going. Time to roll out!" Tom finished the last of this sentence in a loud voice as he spun his hand around in a circle over his head, signaling the others to load up.

Piling back into the vehicles, the parade of vehicles took off again headed for Dallas. Their first stop would be Flagstaff again. There, they could check in on the people whom they had helped with the problem of the raiders. Tom hoped that the people had found a way to come together and try to survive. It was a strained hope, but he still firmly believed that with the majority of the aggressors dead, the need to survive would bring the raiders to the city for help.

It still weighed heavily on him that they had to cause such devastation, but the raiders had left little other choice with their continued violence on the people of the town who just wanted peace. And peace never came without a cost to someone. It was an age-old truth that Tom's grandpa had always taken the time to explain to him after telling him some of his war stories. Tom loved listening to the tales of the battles his grandpa had told him. And they always ended with that adage "freedom is never free". Tom now understood what that truly meant.

Back in the vehicles, Jay started up the GS2 and they took off down the highway. Soon the goblin tower fell behind the horizon in their rearview and the sun began to fall on the same. They pushed on for a while longer but eventually pulled to the side of the road to camp for the evening. Everyone agreed to take shifts watching in groups and once camp had been set up some food was put in a pot to cook over a fire that was built.

Sitting around and watching the members of his guild chat about their lives, telling stories, and joking with each other brought warmth to Tom's heart. It had felt so heavy over the last few days that he wasn't sure how he would have continued on. But this moment and others like it made the weight and sacrifices worth it. He smiled despite himself and turned to talk with James who had come to sit next to him.

Telling stories of their days before the apocalypse, James, Derek, Tom, and a few others sitting together laughed at their antics.

"So you all were video game developers before the apocalypse?" Isaac asked, looking at Tom with genuine interest.

"Yup! We worked on several games over the last few years. Did you play Dragons of Argonia?" Tom asked.

"Did I?! That was where I really cut my teeth on MMOs. I played RPGs but they were always single-player games. But DOA changed my life. I only play MMORPGs now. Man, I can't believe you all worked on that game." Isacc remarked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"We did. We also were all three on the Assassin's Assault game. That was fun to talk about because we would all joke about going to AA meetings." Tom laughed as he recalled the inside jokes around the office.

"Remember how Donovan would always lean back and say he couldn't go because AA was for quitters! That son of a bitch was a true alcoholic through and through." Derek added, chuckling as well at the thoughts of the past dancing through his mind.

"What about you Isaac? What did you do before this world went to hell in a handbasket?" Tom asked, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

"I was a commercial airline pilot," Isaac said, looking down at his food as though he was embarrassed by the job.

"Really?! That's so cool! What airline did you fly for?" James asked.

"You think that job is cool?" Isaac asked turning to look at James with confusion.

"Controlling a giant aircraft to bring people from one place to another in a matter of hours that normally would take days to drive to or weeks to walk to? Hell yeah, it's cool." James replied with excitement.

"Most modern planes flew themselves for the most part. But I guess it is kinda cool to think about. I worked for Air US Mainway. Not the biggest company but they paid well and treated their employees like family." Isaac added. "I got to fly all over the country. It was nice to see so many places, but was hard to have a family with that kind of commitment."

"I could see that. We didn't even travel like that and we were still single." Tom said, adding to the conversation.

"Yeah, James and Tom here even lived together. Made it nice when we all wanted to hang out though. Plenty half of the people lived there so we just hung out at their apartment to play games." Derek said.

"Half? Wait who else worked with you?" Isaac said looking around the makeshift camp.

"Kevin," Tom said looking over at him and smiling.

"Meat-head Kevin? Kevin the Barbarian?" Isaac asked in complete disbelief.

"He didn't always look like that. That's a Barbarian perk. It makes him look all beefy. He was a skinny little nerd with anger issues before all this." Tom said smiling even wider at the shock on Isaac's face.

"Can confirm. I saw him just before the change too," Jay said pulling up a seat near the fire to join the group. "He roided out in a matter of minutes with that perk. It was cool to watch."

"Interesting. I will file that under things I probably didn't need to know." Isaac said a look of confusion bordering disgust coming to him as he looked at Kevin one more time.

"What about you Chris? What did you do before all of this?" Derek asked as the food was announced to be ready.

"I was a mechanic. I owned my own shop. Worked on cars since I was a little boy. My dad was also a mechanic so I followed in his footsteps. I love taking things apart and fixing them and it was some of the happiest childhood memories doing it with my dad." Chris said, a look of sadness coming over him.

"Everything okay Chris?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, it's fine. My dad passed away about four years before this all happened. So at least he didn't have to see this shit hole." Chris said, looking down at the bowl of soup he was handed from the communal pot.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Chris. Losing a loved one is never easy." DeeDee said as she scooped out more bowls of the soup for others.

"Thanks. But it was for the best. He was getting older and I don't know he'd have lasted in this world." Chris replied spooning some of the food into his mouth. "This is delicious by the way. Where did you learn to cook like this?"

"A little from watching videos online before the apocalypse, and now from a skill. Cooking can be learned by anyone and gives you some hints as to what will make things taste better as you experiment with recipes." DeeDee replied smiling wide at Chris.

"You mean that cooking can now be reduced to a skill that you can learn from so anyone can be a chef?" Tom asked sitting up with interest.

"I suppose. But it kinda feels like there's more to it than that. Like, everyone can learn it but some have like an affinity for it that makes it easier. I don't know if that makes sense." DeeDee tried to explain.

Instantly curious, Tom pulled up his info sheets and looked at his skills. He did a close inspection on Swords and sure enough, it pulled up another menu.

"Well, I'll be damned. You're right, DeeDee." Tom said in shock as he stared with unfocused eyes at the skill screen.

Skill: Swords

This skill allows the user to gain experience with swords. Pointy end toward the bad guy

Level: 7

Rank: Beginner

Affinity: 78%

"If you inspect a skill you can see the affinity you have for the skill. Like I have a seventy-eight percent affinity with swords." Tom explained. "I wonder if that will affect how far I can go with the skill?"

"It will. But for many skills, it's mostly unimportant." Bob interjected. "Most skills are never raised to a level where that type of difference will matter. It will be more obvious with physical skills like Swords, but it still will be of little consequence until you reach much higher levels."

The snapping of a branch off in the distance suddenly caused the team to jump and look toward the trees behind them.

"What the hell was that?!" Tom called out. "Everyone weapons ready! Form up!"