"Meridin, that was completely irresponsible. How could you run off like that this morning." George greeted me.

I hurried to explain what had happened, while rubbing my head with my hand and smiling innocently. I then told him about the processes of the fire element awakening, my confusion after that, the orcs, the depths I had reached in the city, and what zombies were there.

I described how the fire elemental had changed my powers and finally mentioned the group of orcs on the way back.

“And are you sure that more such stones can be found in the tutorial?” He asked again.

“The spirit of the tower told me that. Perhaps we should spend more time exploring the island.” I said.

George looked at me thoughtfully.

"We've got a lot more to do here. Let's secure our camp first."

"Where do I leave these orc heads and their gear?" I asked.

"Meridin, why were you carrying those heads?"

"I think it would be a good idea to put them somewhere where more people can see them. Naturally without being too obtrusive but still visible. This will remind people of the dangers and at the same time allow them to be more at ease in eventual encounters with orcs."

"Or it will make them more reckless and underestimate our enemies."

"No, I think it will show that we care about the camp, and the changes of the last few days are not meaningless, and that they are producing results."

A long conversation ensued as more people joined us as the evening progressed.

Two hours later, I excused myself with my hard day of hunting and after saying goodbye to our associates, I headed to our restaurant.

Here I was greeted by Nico and he showed me his new creations. Today, after saving for quite some time, he had finally collected the currency units and paid for a second three-week improvement of his cooking profession.

"Here, try some of my new recipes." He proudly presented his work to me.

I eyed several dishes in front of me, the smells wafting from them pleasantly tickling my hungry brain.

After trying the food, I was very impressed.

"Nico, it's very tasty. You really have a gift. You should open a restaurant."

"That's what I'm doing." fumed Nico.

He then told me about his training with the instructor and the many types of dishes they had cooked.

"Now I can keep at least 50% more of the original mana of the meat. And besides, we've been practicing how I can put all my mana into cooking special meals. That way they will be even more mana rich and give better buffs. According to my mana regeneration right now, I can cook 5 or 6 such dishes a day without forcing myself too much."

I was quick to stock up on a few servings of Nico's special treats and even found that my bear could also benefit from the food bonuses. It required much larger quantities, however.

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to afford to feed my bear special food unless it's a life and death battle," I said, staring at my summon.

Nico saw my look and remarked thoughtfully:

"For your bear, every battle is one of life and death. Maybe you shouldn't be so stingy. I'll give you a 10% discount on the price. Remember the old saying, "A hungry bear doesn't dance."

"Hey, are you going to ask me to pay for the food?! Are you serious ?!"

"But of course. Especially for those special foods." Nico shook his head, his smile reaching his ears.

And so time passed and soon the restaurant began to fill up. Nico went back to the kitchen, and various acquaintances came to my table. Half an hour later Nico served us from the new alcohol and appetizers.

Various acquaintances congratulated Nico on the training and me on the fire element. We had decided to celebrate today and had set aside eight liters of the expensive booze and 40 kilos of meat.

We were joined by almost all of Garat Breg's battle group, and shortly after that came Tori, who had finished her evening mana manipulation training.

It was a great party, with lots of singing and dancing. I released the tension that had built up in me, and the alcohol began to work its magic.

"Come on, let's dance." Tori kept pulling me again and again.

"This girl has too much energy." I thought.

As the evening progressed and the alcohol made my head spin hard, Tori and I retreated to my tent.

"Good night everyone, and take care of Nico." I said to the company.

Nico was drunk and sleeping noisily at one of the tables, and next to him a group of adventurers were playing loudly at cards.

"Goodnight Meridin, goodnight Tori."

The next morning George found me early, shortly before six, and gave me a number of tasks. I had to take part in various organizing committees and do administrative work. In addition, despite the many newly founded volunteers, it was again my turn to give a lecture on mana manipulation.

"Meridin, those summons of yours that let you sleep more efficiently are a true miracle. I'm considering becoming a summoner."

"They don't help with morning hangovers, though.” I replied as I rubbed my temples with my hands.

"Here, this will help." said George, handing me a strange alchemical flask.

After a brief hesitation, I popped the cork and smelled the strange potion. Then I tasted it carefully, and my body felt the refreshing medicinal effect in it. Then I thirstily picked up the flask and drank it in one breath.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"The wonders of modern alchemy," I said admiringly, "do you have more?"

"Ha-ha-ha, go buy some yourself, I'm almost out." George patted me on the shoulder.

Five hours later, I had finished my tasks and was walking around town.

"There are three new hospitals," I thought, and my eyes slid to the makeshift beds and huge hospital tents. There were various adventurers, with minor to severe wounds, some had even lost a leg or an arm.

One of the doctors approached me.

"We need more beds Lord Meridin." he greeted me, and I chose not to correct him on my title.

"Tell me more about the sick, my friend."

"Every day many wounded come from the city. The battles with the new zombies are pretty tough for most contact fighters. It's not uncommon for us to treat people with multiple wounds on their body, missing limbs, acid burns, and magic. Many come in, or are brought in, suffering from severe poisons. I feel like a doctor from one of the world wars."

I thought for a moment.

"Few are the lucky ones that have chosen to start as combat mages, summoners, necromancers, and other classes that stay back in combat." I said.

"They may be few, but they are not always lucky, Lord Meridin. Many mages and archers also suffer from magical zombie attacks, ambushes, and orc raids."

I slowly looked at the doctor.

"Who inflicts more wounds on our people Doctor, the orcs or the zombies?"

"Zombies, of course." the doctor answered without hesitation." Orcs, however, are much more dangerous. They use magic, arrows, and crossbows. They throw spears and battle axes. No one is safe while fighting them. Besides, they often smear their weapons with poison. So, although we almost always defeat them in battle, we also suffer losses."

My gaze drifted again to the hospital tents, the beds in front of them, and dark thoughts began to swim through my mind.

"Five huge mammoths have been seen in the vicinity today," the doctor told me. "They simply passed by the town, but many people were frightened. What other monstrous creatures lurk in the forests, what their strength is, and are there other creatures besides orcs, even more powerful and dangerous?"

I listened to the good doctor's stories and left a large donation to the hospital before I left on my zombie hunt. They accepted credit to the government, the craft guild, various restaurants and businesses, but mostly needed various items from the stores.

In addition to the credits, I chose to donate some of my currency and hurried to the store to purchase the items they needed. After that, I headed towards the zombie town, with a determined gait and firm resolve.

***

In the days that followed, I fiercely hunted zombies and orcs. Twice, I participated in military-organized raids against large groups of orcs.

Things didn't go well and during those days many dozens of players lost their lives, several of them never showed up at camp after being killed by orcs or zombies. According to our theories, they lacked enough saved currency units. Every time one died, it lost some of its currency units. The amount varied from individual to individual and was most likely related to several factors in a complex formula that was lost on us for now.

Every day, more and more orcs appeared in the outskirts of the city, hunting zombies and humans. Thus, they inevitably came close to our camp, and numerous skirmishes ensued. We couldn't give up hunting zombies, as it was our main source of currency. Besides, we were seeing the zombies dwindle, and so the potential currency units we could get from this city were limited and dwindling.

Apparently, the zombies we fought so far were something of a warm-up. Orcs were many times stronger and more dangerous opponents.

They had weapons and were capable of making intelligent decisions. They also gave out a lot more currency units as rewards.

My theory was that they were the first big test our race faced.

During those days, most of the hunters improved their skills, in one way or another. I also purchased and drank several elixirs that increased my strength, stamina, and even mana. In addition, I paid for three weeks of mana manipulation training and continued to develop my fire elemental and attack spells. Also, our game hunters and our cooks got better and better, and because of the abundant game in the river and in the forest, almost everyone in our camp was eating mana-rich foods and further developing their strength and mana cultivation.

For the people who chose the right classes, things worked out pretty well, but for the rest of the people, things didn't work out that way. They had chosen not particularly strong classes and naturally were having difficulty accumulating points.

In addition, almost 30 new people have been arrested and convicted since I had captured the rapist girl. They were sentenced to varying amounts of time in forced labor, and three particularly dangerous individuals were locked in newly constructed cells.

A serious effort was made to form groups of weaker players and led by stronger classes to hunt zombies several hours a day, so that everyone could increase their strength.

The government guarded the part of the city close to the camp, and we had to solve many organizational difficulties in order to effectively protect the groups from the constant attacks of the orcs, as well as the strong zombies coming from the city center.

It turned out that each successive upgrade of the same skill cost more and more currency units. Also, the magic potions in the shop that improved various physical stats almost completely lost their effects after the third bottle.

Thanks to my efficiency, imp, and magic rats, I managed to find two more magical chests, as well as to kill and loot multiple orcs. This way I managed to get tons of contribution points.

One of the chests had a leather armor that fit me perfectly and I hurried to put it on. In the other was a very good saber, which I put on the government's magical weapons exchange list and eventually traded for a more powerful magical crossbow. Since the crossbow was a much sought after weapon, I had to bid for it with my previously accumulated contribution points and lost a significant amount of them in the process. However, I was very pleased with the fact that I was able to get a better weapon.

In the weapon exchange department, anyone could drop off an item and list what they were looking for. For example, let's imagine you leave a spear as a deposit and are looking for a sword, and later someone else leaves a war hammer and is looking for a spear. Since the spear and the war hammer are of the same category in terms of value, if there were no others looking for a spear, the exchange would take place as soon as the second person paid the due fees for the exchange. If there were two or more seeking a spear, a bidding session was organized. Bidding happened twice a day in the morning and evening.

Items were sorted by value, with some more valuable than others. For example, there were many magic bottles that filled by themselves, absorbing the small drops of water in the atmosphere. These, and other similar items, currently had a far lower value than various types of weapons and armor. Items of different value categories couldn't be exchanged between each other except by the express arrangement of the owners.

This system was not particularly sophisticated and its purpose was to make the exchanges happen quickly so that as many people as possible could improve their strength.

I watched all these changes and couldn't be sure how good or how bad they were. But for a government raised from a thousand randomly selected members of our race, I think we're doing more than well. George Bristol and a few other people were primarily to "blame" for that. I'm not sure how the other thousand groups of a thousand people are doing, though. I could only hope they weren't worse than us... Especially in third world countries or those that weren't particularly democratic and were used to responding to the authority of some dictator.

While I was pondering all this, I came across Garat Breg, who was arguing heatedly with a group of people. After a brief conversation, I learned that today Garat's group was assigned to guard one part of the city and had suffered heavy losses from the orc attacks.

"We need to do something about these orc attacks," I thought, remembering all the suffering from the last days.

Then, guided by my skill in mysticism, I chose a suitable place for meditation in the camp and with the help of my imp and a rope, I climbed a tall tree where I settled down and began to meditate.

I closed my eyes and the memory of the night sky on the Earth covered with bright stars appeared before me. I remembered the Milky Way and thought of the many races inhabiting it. I thought of our little planet on the outskirts of the galaxy. I thought about it and felt particularly sad about it. True, we had gotten away with the wars that had ravaged the galaxy, but that was because at the time we were still scratching on the walls of our caves.

Perhaps now, more than ever, we needed heroes. People who think about humanity, not just their own personal advancement. Noble people. Like my aristocratic ancestors.

I stood like that for a long time, watching the night sky on the tutorial island, and finally I made up my mind, and after practicing my skills for a few hours, I went to sleep.

Early the next morning, after reporting my plans and thus receiving an official mission with the appropriate reward in contribution points, I summoned my fire hounds and headed for the woods. I knew which direction the orcs were coming from, and without lingering I ran that way.