As the minutes went by, he eventually just put aside his earlier concern. At a certain point, his thoughts just began to enter a circle of repeating worries. And even now, he was at least self-aware enough to understand that he needed to stop thinking about it entirely. Worrying about a question with no answer wouldn’t do him any good, after all.

But at a certain point, he did begin to wonder about something else. Just what exactly his next goal would be? Besides addressing the immediate needs for basic survival, that is.

Would he just wander around, killing anything he could while avoiding creatures that he couldn’t? He could do that anyway just by letting his drone fly around while doing something else. But what would that something be, was the question. Jordan supposed the best thing would likely be to try and find the nearest group of fellow survivors.

Even without any idea of how far anyone else could be or how big this planet was compared to Earth, he would eventually find something if he just walked for long enough. Just a sign they left behind, like an old firepit, would be a good enough start to try and start following a group’s trail.

However, at the same time, Jordan couldn’t be too naive. There was a chance that even if he did manage to find a group, it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. Not when he had a leaderboard that he could access at any time, that proved that not everyone would be welcoming and sought peace and harmony with their fellow man.

Mightiest Slayer:

1: Wilfred Wilbur Wyndham III (52 kills)

2: Zorliay Qorath’zyrunch (26 kills)

3: Yvaro Qorath’zyrunch (26 kills)

4: Sebastion Ironclaw (19 kills)

5: Carl Rowe (16 kills)

…

560: Jordan Joyner (1 kill)

All it’d taken was around the last hour for him to drop a couple hundred spots down the list. This time, he didn’t even want to take an estimate of what the total kill count would be now. Who even knew at this point just how much more it’ll grow overnight after he finally managed to get some sleep? And that was just now.

He could only imagine that it’d just get worse as more and more people learned that killing other Initial Mergers rewarded them with both double Experience and valuable gems. Along with being able to claim their equipment, of course.

Finally, Jordan felt it. Just around nine minutes since the drone had flown off in search of water, it’d been desummoned. Which meant either one of two things, actually. Either the drone had found water at would roughly be about 15 miles away from him. Or it’d just been attacked and then destroyed.

Because that was the flaw with his connection to the drone. It was pretty much limited to only giving mental orders and knowing that it was still there. At least as far as Jordan knew so far, it didn’t have the capacity to send him a signal back through their connection. If it did, that would have made it much easier to set up a distress signal for various situations. Sadly though, that was not the case. So all he could do was make a guess that it either succeeded or just got destroyed.

Let’s go ahead and send another that way, just in case. If it disappears after the exact same amount of time, then it should be good. Even if something is in that area, it should vary in how long it takes to spot the drone. Hmm, you know what? I have a good idea to make sure that isn’t the case.

After waiting the customary few minutes for his TP to get back to full, Jordan had a new order for mind as he recast the Skill. From his inherent understanding of how it functioned, he already knew that its pathing had plenty of wiggle room in terms of more complex instructions.

For the first eight minutes, it would fly in that direction in the exact same manner as before. But then it would take a detour and go around in such a way that it’d delay its journey by precisely one minute. So after ten minutes in total had passed, it should reach the freshwater source and automatically desummon.

If its rounded detour went the way Jordan imagined in his head, it shouldn’t actually end up being that far away, even at the furthest point. Close enough that if there was an aggressive beast in the area, it would still take notice of the drone eventually and then destroy it before the full ten minutes elapsed.

Ten minutes then came and went as the drone was desummoned right on schedule. It was actually kind of a surprise, as Jordan had honestly not expected that to succeed without incident. But hey, a happy surprise was better than the opposite, so he certainly wouldn’t be complaining about it.

With that matter now settled, Jordan stood up and patted off the dirt from his pants. There wasn’t any excuse to delay further, and the remaining time for daylight was still burning. However, that did actually present a bit of a problem. Compared to the drone’s max range, it was “only” 15 miles. But when instead compared to the average human walking speed of 3-4 miles per hour, that was quite a lot.

Hiking for hours was one thing on its own. Doing so in the darkness of night while surrounded by the unknown was just a tad more worrying. Jordan’s fingers rubbed against the grip of his gun as he hadn’t started moving yet, even after getting up. A part of him was very, very tempted to delay the trip until morning.

However, was that really any better, or did the promise of daylight only offer a false sense of security. The light of the sun only did so much when the entire area was shadowed by a thick canopy from the giant trees, even during the brightest part of the day. Add that if there were any ambush predators, all they needed to do was attack from above or just camp on the opposite side of the huge trunks.

If the drone didn’t spot such attackers ahead of time, then it certainly wouldn’t matter if it was day or night anyway. That did little to help with the rather instinctual fear of the wilderness at night, but Jordan didn’t wait for him body to be fully convinced by logic. He just forced his legs to start putting one foot ahead of the other, and started moving forward.

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As he walked into the woods, Jordan summoned his drone. For now, it was to circle him as a constant patrol and return if it spotted any kind of animal. So he decided it would be 120 feet away from for its circling, because its speed meant that it’d only take it a second to return to him at its top speed. And that was even factoring in the fact that it’d need to maneuver around trees and such.

With how relatively close it’d be at all times, he should see it coming before it actually arrived. Then Jordan could try and look for what it spotted from afar, and use Appraise to see what he was dealing with. Depending on the results, he’d act from there as appropriate.

The forest was quiet as the Combat Engineer walked. The only sound was that of his own footsteps on dry leaves and his own heartbeat thumping loudly in his chest. There wasn’t much he could do about the leaves to walk more quietly, because they basically covered the entire ground layer of the forest.

Fucking Hell, it’s way too quiet. Would anyone at least like to make a distant roar or other noise? Something? Anything? Jordan thought to himself. Even knowing from his drone that there was supposedly nothing in the immediate area, the silence was eerie. Especially considering that even something that made a noise outside the drone’s scouting zone should still be heard from afar, like large mammal calls.

But there was nothing, not even the sounds of insects. Even the wind felt quiet, as it only really made noise for the leaves far above his head. Yet at the ground level, the many massive trees acted like a wall that broke the wind long before it reached him.

As time ticked by, the sun dipped below the horizon. It didn’t take long until the last of its light was gone, dipping the woods into almost total darkness. Maybe there was a moon and sky full of bright stars that might provide just enough to see. But Jordan wouldn’t know, because none of that light was strong enough to pierce the canopy and reach him.

The only small comfort was his drone. Because of how dark it was, he could easily keep track of the light it gave off as it patrolled the set perimeter around him. Thanks to the first scouting mission being correct, all he had to do was walk in a straight line. Easy enough, except…

Ah crap, aren’t people really bad at that? I think I read somewhere that when blindfolded, practically nobody can walk straight for even like 20 feet. Much less something 15 whole fucking miles. Damn it, I should have thought of that sooner, he silently berated himself.

But before he got too upset, Jordan’s brain had quickly worked out a potential solution to that immediate problem. He had already been forced to stop at multiple points on this journey and effectively just hug a tree. Because there was no way that he was going to keep walking during the few minutes that his drone was gone, and his TP needed to regenerate.

So since he’d need to stop anyway and then restart his drone’s guarding to make him feel safe, he could use that time anyway to ensure he was going the right way. All he had to do was order it to start flying toward the direction of the freshwater source, and then start the circling after it was 120 feet away from him. That way he would at least get an update after every reset, effectively.

The first time this update came, Jordan indeed confirmed that he’d been walking in totally the wrong direction. If the water was hypothetically north from him, then he had somehow gotten turned around enough to start walking southeast instead. If this had gone on for too much longer, then he would have just walked entirely out of the drone’s scouted area, basically invalidating that entire time spent being cautious.

He was sure some hungry predator out there would have loved for that to have been the case. Anyway, now was the time to correct that dumb mistake and get back on-

Quest Update!

Quest: Mightiest Kingdom

Achievement: An Initial Merger has succeeded in the claiming of a Mandate within the first 24 hours of the Merging! As a universe-wide reward, all other Initial Mergers will receive the temporary chance to expedite the claiming of their Mandates until a total of 25 have been claimed.

New Quest Acquired:

Temporary Quest: The First Lords of the 42nd

Description: Claim your own Mandate and become the head of a new Kingdom. As part of this Quest, you have been granted a sense of direction toward the nearest Mandate. This sense will only remain until the end of the Quest.

Reward: The Title of Lord. Additional rewards may be granted based on performance.

Mandates remaining for this Quest: 24/25

Jordan's eyes flickered as he read through the lines of text. More and more, it felt like he was starting to get left behind as others had already begun to excel. But this was far too important, and not a chance that he could let slip through his fingers.

It would have a direct impact on the other Quest about Kingdoms. Yet even more pressing was the immediate reward that this new Quest had guaranteed. Right now, he only had the Initial Merger Title, and that had come with a bonus of 5 flat Stat points along with a 5% increase. If that was just what a free Title that seemingly everyone received could give, then what about this limited one that was part of a Quest that had been distinctly labeled as temporary?

After dismissing the pop-ups, Jordan closed his eyes. Then while focusing, he could feel it. The sensation was subtle enough, but now that he’d noticed it, he could still keep track of it even without concentrating. The sense of direction could be compared to a rope that had been tied around his waist, and then was being ever so slightly tugged. It seemed that all he had to do was follow the direction it felt like it was pulling him from.

That direction was outside the area he’d checked, though not by much. If the drone’s prior scouting area could be described as between ten and two o’clock, then this felt like nine o’clock. Fortunately, that was opposite of the side that the drone had ended its third scouting mission a little early.

It was technically a risk, even so. One that he logically should patiently wait and have his drone doublecheck the area. Even if he didn’t know exactly what to look for or how far the Mandate was, his drone could at least scout that direction until his TP ran out.

Thought that would mean then waiting up to the full time for it to do so, and then wait for his TP to regenerate. Which meant spending that whole time without his faithful guardian in the dark forest. So yeah, screw that whole idea.

At least the nice thing about the pull was that he’d never get lost. Since the feeling that it gave him felt constant.

But time was ticking to make a decision. And with only so many spots available and literally billions of competitors, this Quest likely wouldn’t last long. Not when everyone else just needed to start walking toward their own pulls, and it was just a matter of who was brave enough to do so and venture into the unknown.

“...Fuck it,” Jordan cursed to himself. He turned away from the water, and toward the pull instead. As thirsty as he already was, he could survive a while longer without a drink. He’d thought about wanting an actual goal just earlier, and here was something that would be as good as it likely got.

He had already lost out on the benefit of claiming to be the first to discover these so-called Mandates. But Jordan would be damned if he didn’t at least claim one of those 24 remaining spots. Starting right then and there, he wouldn’t just aim for mere survival and hoping to see tomorrow every time he slept.

No. From this moment onward, he would strive for more. Not just survive, but claim at least a piece of this insane reality and turn it into something he could actually control.