"What the hell happened to always assume they're stronger and never stop til they're dead, Seth?!" Derek practically yelled.

"I'm sorry. I just knew he wasn't as strong as me. I didn't mean for anything to happen." Seth said head hung low in guilt.

"Well, because you assumed wrong, James almost got turned into a charcoal briquette!" Derek said, anger filling and making him begin to lose control. "You could have ended that fight in the first few attacks but you toyed with him long enough for him to use some kind of item."

"I know, I know! I'm so sorry. Is James going to be OK?" Seth asked.

"I'm good. Though I was worried I'd be a toasted marshmallow there for a minute." James said.

"However you wouldn't go well with Graham crackers," Kiera said, hooking a thumb over her shoulder to indicate Graham behind her.

"Next time you have an enemy cornered you go for the kill, am I understood?" Derek said.

"Yes, sir. I promise." Seth said looking very sincere.

Letting out a long breath, Derek shook his head and closed his eyes.

"Look, you are strong, Seth. We know this. You will be a great asset to the team, but you have to be willing to make the hard choices and end things before something bad happens. Battles and fights should be as short as possible. There is no room for error. If you slip up once your enemy will take advantage. They are looking for an opening in a strong opponent to get the upper hand. It's not some kind of sparring match where you are testing your strength. Treat every fight like it's your last. or eventually it will be." Derek said.

"You also never know who else on the battlefield needs your help. While you are playing with your opponent, your friends could die from their fight. We are strongest together and the faster you finish your opponent the faster you can help someone else with theirs." Bobby said.

"Yeah, I see that now. I'm sorry. I won't let it happen again." Seth said.

"Good. Now, can anyone get back to sleep at this point?" Derek asked.

"I might be able to lie down," James said.

"Anyone else?" Derek asked.

Everyone shook their heads. Adrenaline was running too high now.

"Alright then, let's loot these corpses and head on. They look like they have some good stuff here. We can likely make some use of it." Derek said.

Moving over to the bodies of the goblins, the team began to take the armor off.

"Dibs on the plate armor!" Kedron called jumping over to the corpse of the head goblin.

"This will go great with my paladin class!" He said as he looked at the metal armor.

"Do you think it'll fit?" Asked Bobby.

"I'm not sure. let's get it off and see what happens. Maybe I can make use of part of it?" Kedron said.

As they stripped the head goblin, Kedron set each piece of armor aside and when he had finished the job, the armor began to shift. When he began putting the pieces on, they felt as if they changed size to fit him perfectly.

"Neat! Magically fitting armor? Score one for the new system." Kedron said.

"What did you just say?" Derek asked.

"This armor I took off tall dark and ugly over here? It resized to fit me automagically. So it looks like if we loot armor it will still be useful." Kedron replied.

"That is a great piece of news! But automagically?" Derek said.

"Well, it was automatic, and had to be magic," Kedron said.

"Uh huh...well, I'm glad we figured that out," Derek said. "Take all the armor, just found out it'll change size for the user. We may not need that blacksmith for resizing anymore. Now they can focus on making new things!" Derek called out to everyone.

Once all the items from the goblins had been taken and put into a pile, Derek and Tom went about sorting it all out to be placed in people's inventories. Weapons, potions, armor, and a few magic items were handed out to anyone who needed them, and the rest went into storage.

When they loaded up about an hour later, everyone had at least one upgrade and some new weapons to carry.

"Why are we getting so many weapons again?" James asked.

"Because you can equip weapons directly from your inventory. That means any situation can be accounted for if you have the right weapon. The more weapons you have the more situations you can handle." Derek said.

"Situations like...?" James asked.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Like an armored opponent is best dealt with by a mace or club. But opponents with fleshier bits can have them hacked off with a sword. When you are far away a gun works best, but up close you might be better suited for a knife in stealthy situations. It gives you options, rather than just relying on one weapon all the time." Derek said.

"Huh...cool! I like it!" James said."

"You're just gonna keep trying to shoot people in the dick aren't you?" Graham leaned in and asked.

"Pretty much," James replied.

Loading up in the vehicles, the team began to travel down Highway 40 again on their way to New Mexico. They traveled most of the day and into the evening, having to stop periodically to move vehicles out of the way of the road so they could pass, and fighting off monsters that appeared in their path. Most of the monsters were goblins, still trying to take advantage of travelers, but occasionally other monsters appeared as well.

When they finally reached the city of Albuquerque, the travelers were tired and ready to find a place to crash.

"Carl lives on the east side of town, so we should be able to get to his house and see if he's there before we get too far into the city. Just follow me and we can see if he's there or not." Kedron said through the window of the H2 as Tom pulled up next to him.

Driving down some of the suburban streets of Albuquerque, the teams made it to a single-story house where Kedron stopped. Getting out of the car they went up to the door to see if anyone happened to be home.

"Why would he be here? No one was staying in their homes in Dallas." Kerek said.

"Carl is a bit of a homebody. He really doesn't like going out unless he has to." Kedron replied.

Stepping up to the door, Kedron pressed the doorbell button on the front of the house. Tapping him on the shoulder Tom got Kedron's attention.

"The power is out remember, that's not going to work," He said.

"Oh, right. Force of habit." Kedron said and knocked loudly on the door instead.

"Get out of here Jimmy! I told you before I'm not joining your fucking cult you son of a bitch!" came a voice from the inside.

"Well that's weird, I wasn't coming to ask you to join a cult, you crazy old bastard!" Kedron called back into the house.

"Kedron?! Is that you?" Came another yell from inside.

"The one and only!" Kedron yelled back.

A minute later the sound of several locks being undone from the inside could be heard and the door opened to reveal a man about Kedron's age with a scruffy beard and messed up hair. He was carrying a shotgun and had a bandolier filled with knives across his chest.

"What the hell are you doing all the way out here Kedron?" Carl asked.

"We're on our way to the Grand Canyon. There's a quest out there if you haven't noticed."

"Yeah, yeah, I saw it. But in case YOU didn't notice it's the end of the world right now too." Carl said.

"It ain't the end of the world you twat sponge. It's just the change to a new one." Kedron said.

"That's not what Jimmy and his new cult are telling people around here," Carl said. "Been saying they finally were able to bring about the apocalypse and started this whole shit show so we need to join them and praise their new overlord or some such nonsense."

"Yeah, that's not what happened at all," Kedron said.

"I figured as much. That's why I haven't joined that cockgobbler and his crazy crew. But a lot of others have." Carl said.

"Seriously?" Kedron asked.

"Yeah, he has been sending people out recruiting and they are getting quite the following. They call themselves the followers of Zalandar. Say he's some ancient god that has come back to claim this world as his own now and is preparing it for his return with the addition of magic and these fucking monsters that keep appearing everywhere." Carl said.

"Well, that sounds fucking stupid," Kedron said.

"Right?!" Carl barked out. "Stupid sack of shit is just on some power trip I'm sure, but he seems to really believe it. It's been like a plague of Jehovah's witnesses out there ever since."

"Do you think he's dangerous?" Derek chimed in.

"Who the hell are you?" Carl asked.

"Oh, right, these are my apocalypse friends. Tom, Derek, James, Kiera, DeeDee, Graham, Jay, Briana, Bobby, Clay, Seth, Kevin, and Austin," Kedron said introducing everyone.

"Sure are a lot of you fuckers," Carl said.

"Well, a lot has been going on. We are all part of a guild and we are trying to fix the vending machine issue so people can get back to trying to survive the apocalypse. Plus the twenty thousand XP bonus." Kedron said.

"Got room for one more? I'm ready to get the fuck outta here." Carl said.

Kedron turned to Tom.

"You got room in the H2?" Tom asked.

"Not really," Kedron said.

"If it's a matter of transportation, I can have my own vehicle ready. No worries about that." Carl said.

"Then it's fine with me," Tom said.

"Excellent. Let me just go get my stuff. I need to pack a few things." Carl said.

Closing the door again Carl went back into the house to grab what he needed. Locking all the locks on his way back in.

"Cult?" James asked.

"That's what he said," Derek replied.

"That doesn't sound like something we should leave here," James said.

"Oh no, we don't have time to keep solving things like this for people," Derek said.

"But what happens if it spreads?" Tom asked.

"You too? I thought you were more rational than that?" Derek asked.

"We can't just leave it here. They can't just be allowed to spread fake propaganda and gain a big following like that. People latch onto crazy like this in these times." Tom said.

"No, absolutely not. We are not going to get involved. We need to be getting to the Grand Canyon as fast as we can." Derek said.

"Oh come on, don't be a party pooper. Besides, don't you wanna go break up some crazy guy's plans and be the hero again?" Bobby said.

"No, I want to go to the Grand Canyon and be the hero," Derek said.

"Sorry Derek, looks like you're gonna get outvoted," Tom said. with everyone staring at him.

"This isn't a democracy. We aren't voting on these issues." Derek said.

"Fine, then as guild leader I say we need to end this before it gets too dangerous," Tom said.

"Fucking hell. Fine, we can see what we can do. But this better not take too long. We are already behind." Derek said.

A few minutes later, Carl came back out of the house with several bags.

"Um, Carl. Why don't you just put that stuff in your inventory?" Kedron said.

"Well...quite frankly because I didn't think of that, Kedron. It's all still a little new to me." Carl replied, taking the bags off and putting them in his inventory.

"Alright, lead us to Jimmy, Carl," Kedron said.

Looking up at Kedron with confusion, realization hit Carl at what he was being asked for.

"Well, shit. Fine, but you guys are not gonna like this." Carl said.