“Can you feel it? The big clumps of mana in places?” Amy asked. Kendall shook his head and put another chip into his mouth.

”I think they’re bosses.”

”You think we could rank up if we went? To one of the clumps, I mean.” Kendall asked. Amy shrugged.

”If we don’t die, probably. What would ranking up even do, though?” Amy asked. Kendall kinda thought it would be just set rewards you’d get for going into the first rank, then the same for every other one. Maybe some EXP to speed up getting to the next rank, maybe a skill, maybe a skill upgrade. Kendall wondered, since he didn’t have any passive skills, if they existed. It would be a bit unbalanced to make all of humanity glass cannons, especially melee fighters. They probably did exist. He also assumed that gear and accessories existed in rarities, such as rare, common, and legendary. Those would help out with not being able to directly upgrade health. The best part is, Kendall would probably be able to make stuff like that.

”It’d probably give us a reward. Like a skill or something.” Kendall said. Now that he thought about gear, he was excited to get a crafting skill. Even if he was an engineer and not an artisan class, he could still make cool technology and such. He’d need some materials, though. Namely, a lot of metal.

“That sounds good and all, but it’s still a bit dangerous.” Amy said. Kendall nodded.

“It would be worth it to risk it earlier than be weak later. For me, at least. And I’d get a crafting skill, which would help us both.” He said. Amy didn’t looked convinced at the helpfulness of a crafting skill.

”Think about it this way: Once I get a crafting skill I won’t even need to rank up. As I use the skill, it gets upgraded, and I make better stuff. Stuff that raises our health and other stats we need to survive. I’d bet it could also increase our three base stats, too. We’d both become stronger without needing to fight, and after that, fighting becomes easy.”

”I didn’t understand a word you just said.”

”If I can craft things, our stats go up, and danger of everything else goes down.” Kendall simplified. Amy didn’t like it, but sighed.

”I guess so. If this goes wrong, it’s on you.” She said. It didn’t help at all, leaving Kendall to nod and continue down the interstate and into town. The walk took a surprisingly short amount of time. Oddly enough, there weren’t any car pileups. Or cars in general. In fact, there also weren’t any signs. Nothing metal was in sight. That was worrisome.

Town was… different, to say the least. Different as in, a whole lot of metal. Mainly, broken and dented metal on cars that was all piled up in the middle of a street, complete with almost every one having a broken driver side window. Kendall assumed it to be the work of goblins. He didn’t doubt their little primitive weapons could pierce a car window.

“Well. We’re here. Do you feel any mana clumps?” Kendall asked. Amy nodded and pointed to the edge of a hill, where a street reached the top and went back down.

”On the hill?”

”Behind it.” She said. Kendall nodded and began moving forwards.

”Aren’t you going to make a plan?”

”Kill everything that looks like a monster, I guess. You stay back, and I’ll use the turret to take out any nearby little ones.” He said. She nodded and walked with him, taking her book out. It hovered over her hand. Kendall really wanted to know the intricacies of mana. He might be the one to discover most of them. Might.

As they approached the hill, Kendall felt the air get thicker. He saw two green, pointy ears towering over the other goblins, slowly growing into a gigantic goblin as he moved further up the hill. Probably not a boss, but a stronger enemy. Finally.

Kendall placed his turret once he got a bit closer, then began rapid-firing the shotgun at any nearby goblins. Anything the the turret didn’t get, he did.

A fireball flew down, exploding as it made contact with the big goblin. Kendall saw it stumble backwards, with a bit of melting skin and revealed flesh. It didn’t die, though. It took gigantic, stomping steps towards Kendall and Amy. Once it entered the turret’s range, the constant thud of bullets hitting it slowed down. Kendall unloaded, cycling as fast as he could. He used Fortify on the turret, then looked back to Amy. She charged another spell, which caused a spike of asphalt to stab through the goblin’s leg. It cried out and yanked it out of its calf, continuing forward. When it’s hand slammed down onto and made contact with the turret, it accidentally cut its own pinky off on the shield.

Kendall, in this time, had circled around the back. As fast as he could, he used a slightly crushed car to leap and get close enough with his shotgun to the back of its head. He fired, cycled, then fired into its face on the way down. He tucked and rolled with the shotgun while tactically removing his finger from the trigger before hitting it, using that hand to break his fall. The goblin crashed to the ground, the fifteen foot tall body deteriorating on the spot.

Stolen novel; please report.

You have entered Rank 2! Please choose a gift.

Skill: Goblin Slayer (Expand)

Skill: Augment (Expand)

Skill: Basic Engineering (Reduce)

Basic Engineering is an Engineer’s first crafting skill. It focuses on simplicity and will usually give you low value gear. Upon reaching level 3, it advances to Intermediate Engineering.

Kendall instantly passed the first one up and looked at the bottom two intently. With Augment, he could actually give his turret attachments, and with basic engineering, he could make another turret. Okay, probably not, but still. Probably basic things, such as extending arm blades or a basic tracking device. He was still 100% happy with it.

You have chosen the skill, Basic Engineering.

Rank 2 Engineer

Condition: Amazing (98%)

Physique: Good (Expand)

Intelligence: Incredible (Expand)

Spirit: Low (Expand)

Skills: Turret [Lv2], Repair [Lv1], Fortify [Lv1], Basic Engineering [Lv1]

Current Deployable Placement Limit: 1

“Finally. I have it.” Kendall murmured. Amy looked at the interface, contemplating a decision. Kendall walked over to see what the decision was.

”That’s difficult.” He said. Amy nodded in agreement. She had an option between a single-person healing spell, a buff, and a mediocre attack spell.

”Would the buff apply your turret?”

”I have no idea. I’m not planning on letting it do all the work, anyways, so the buff wouldn’t be bad either way. Neither would the healing spell. The attack spell doesn’t seem too good.” Kendall remarked. “I’ll let you choose. I’ll look at places we can go in the meantime.”

“Alright.” Amy said. Kendall unrolled their stolen map and looked at it. Where they were at was pretty large, and more of those goblins were liable to be there. However, Kendall didn’t want to go back on what he said about crafting earlier. He could make things that would increase their combat power by a lot. If he figured it out, he might be able to make a basic Mana Amplifier. He knew that making himself stronger wouldn’t be hard at all, since he could make crude exoskeletons and such. Not only that, but possibly construct a superior shotgun. Augment would’ve been better for improving the shotgun, but crafting would inevitably be better in the long run.

He decided on trying to find a safe place. While they could always make one, Kendall didn’t like the prospect of living in something he and Amy had built themselves. Even though he’s an engineer, and knows some architectural stuff, he didn’t trust himself to make a reliable shelter. One option was Amy’s house, albeit its small size. However, Kendall didn’t know if she’d do well mentally. Knowing her parents had died was probably a lot, and with pictures of them and yourself everywhere, it would only worsen it. The school was out of the question. Holding up in an abandoned fast food restaurant seemed stupid. What they could do was find an unbroken truck with an RV or something on the back and use it to traverse. Kendall guessed he’d probably be sleeping on a couch, but wasn’t against it.

While the RV idea was good, he’d have to find a way to either make a new engine that runs off of mana or constantly find gas. If mana was combustible, then all he would have to do was put it in the engine somehow. He knew the turret was made of mana transformed into metal, so didn’t consider it impossible for it to become gas. He knew that they could only use mana because of the system, but if he could manipulate its form, it would be amazing.

He also knew mana could make things disappear, like his turret. Gas might not be combustible when it’s made from mana. He didn’t even know if mana was a state of matter, something you used telepathically, if you could make it into a gas, liquid, solid. All he knew was that it could change forms, and then change back into mana. Or maybe transform into mega, and then back completely. There had to be some way he could make it into gasoline.

He was too early into his journey to worry about this stuff. #1 priority was finding transportation that also served as shelter. Second was finding better shelter to attach to the transportation. Third was mana experiments. He’d probably leave most of the mana stuff to Amy, seeing as she’s a mage and likely has more control over it than he does.

”Well? Decided yet?” Amy asked.

“I’m thinking we get some transportation, then maybe an RV or something on the back. If we can’t find an RV, we may have to camp out in somebody’s house.” Kendall said. Amy looked like she didn’t want to do that. At all.

“…Ugh. Well, anyways, I chose the healing spell. It’s only single target, but if the turret can distract the monsters, then it’s gonna need to stay alive.” Amy said. Kendall hadn’t considered that.

“Good point. Seeing how it tanked that hit with Fortify on earlier, you’re right.” The image of the monster’s severed pinky made them both cringe. Amy laughed.

“What?” Kendall asked. She looked at him.

“Just funny. We had the same reaction.” She said. Kendall smiled. Maybe she was somebody better to be stuck with in the apocalypse than he’d given her credit for.

“Yeah. But, ugh. I don’t wanna think about that anymore.” Kendall said. Luckily, when the monster died, all of the leftover blood it spilled was also taken with it and turned to dust, so his turret was clean.

Kendall packed the turret up, and by packed up, I mean made it suddenly disappear. They both looked at where it was a second ago.

“That’s so weird. You’d thing it would at least turn to dust or evaporate like the monsters do.” Amy said. Kendall shrugged.

“Well, it’s not dying, just being stored and repaired.” Amy nodded. Kendall looked around. He had to find them a truck and RV. It shouldn’t be that hard. Most suburban areas like the ones a few minutes away had at least one person with an RV. And, usually, it remained unused. He wasn’t sure about the truck, though.

“I think I know where we could find some transportation.” Amy said. “I used to have a friend who lived around here, and her family would go on trips in the RV a lot. I’d bet it’s still here, since they don’t usually go around on trips during the cold months.” Amy said. That incited a shiver in Kendall. He’d forgotten how cold it was with the introduction of the System, and was only wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans.

Once they arrived at this house, he was definitely stealing a jacket. And then, they’d hit the road.