All of us are winded and tired and sore all over after our battle concludes. I slowly and methodically climb my way down the tree, not wanting to risk either [Health] or [Ether] in my haste. Not when we’re all unprepared for another encounter on that scale. Not physically and certainly not mentally.

We’ve got several pieces of broken equipment, and my tent in particular is in tatters, far beyond even the abilities of even a skilled [Seamstress] or [Quartermaster] or whatever other class might get some sort of [Repair] ability. Thankfully, Chloe doesn’t mind sharing her tent with me for the remainder of our expedition, so that’s a problem solved before it starts.

None of us want to deal with the morning chores and preparing our meal for the day. And yet, we all pitch in nonetheless. I get a fire going as Lindsey wanders off to find some fruits to supplement our hardtack rations and leftover rabbit stew. Chloe tends to all of our wounds, seeing to it that our [Health] is fully topped off. Brent lies down for a spell to rest his cracked ribs. But Alexey, who took more punishment than any of the rest of us, is up and working the hardest of all, clearing out the handful of vultures and snakes and spiders now trying to scavenge at the dead apes still lying around our campsite.

Once our campfire gets going, I help him clear out a small crevice about a hundred feet away, tearing away at the underbrush and leaving nothing but dirt and a few errant roots lying about. We throw the simian corpses into the hole, then, with the help of my [Flametipped Dagger], I set them all alight and the two of us stand sentry, letting the smell of dried blood and shit infuse into our clothes and sweat, until the deed is done and we're able to make our way back to our camp.

“Is this your first time engaging in combat?” he asks.

“I’ve been in a few engagements since the System arrived,” I say. “If you’re asking if I experienced war before the System, I can confidently say the answer is no. Other than some reckless horseplay as a kid, I’ve never even gotten into a fight until the System arrived.” I give an answer that I know to be true. Even when accounting for my past life, I definitely was created in a world with the System and never experienced combat outside of its presence.

“You’re lucky in that respect, Sera,” he says after a few seconds of reflection.

“Was it harder, fighting in the combat of old?”

“It was much, much harder back then. But not for the reasons you might be thinking. First, it’s a lot easier to punch a beast than it is to gun down your fellow human. For every one of my fellow men who died to a grenade or a gunshot, there was another who succumbed to the mental toll war had on each of us. Didn’t matter whether it was Kosovo or Iraq or peacekeeping operations with the United Nations back in Korea. I’ve done tours in all three and one thing remains the same. War’s not hell. War’s worse.”

I pause for a moment and let the words sink in.

“And it’s easier out here because we’re fighting for a purpose. We’re fighting out here because whatever monsters we let get through are going to attack our friends and families and comrades back home. Not just to enrich some bastard military contractors, or because some cocksucker in Washington or Moscow or wherever else got a bug up his ass and decided the best way to make a name for himself was to drop a few bombs on innocents.

“We did it, one and all. Gritted our teeth and bared it and killed one another because that’s what our orders were. Dehumanized each other, looked at our enemies as less than human. Not because they were anything less than human, but because we had to. We had to see them as the enemy and bring the enemy down, because if we hesitated to pull the trigger, they wouldn’t, and it would be our comrades who paid the price.

“But I knew and those brave men and women on the other side did too. We had a lot more in common with each other than either of us did with the sons of bitches calling the shots. For that reason, I am grateful for the System. Grateful to fight for a cause I can truly believe in for the first time since I first joined the army as a kid back in the summer of ‘95.”

“But you came back out here, even after you retired?” I ask.

“Of course I did. I’ve been in the army for nearly thirty years now. Not always on the front. Had a few summers off, took two years as a civvy back in the early 2010’s. But the army’s what I know and grew up with.” Alexey pauses. “I’m going to die out here, you know. Your friend might not know, but the others all do. Not that I intend to make it easy on the System or these rat-faced bastards, mind you. I will give them more hell than they can deal with and they will have to drag my body into the fire. But fighting is what I know. It is all I know. And it will be an honor when that day comes.”

“I see.” I truly don’t know how to take his words, instead offering him a solemn nod.

We watch for a few more minutes until our enemies are properly incinerated and buried, and then head back to camp. A meal of biscuits and berries awaits us, scavenged from an abandoned shack a couple miles to the north. No sign of the inhabitants according to Lindsey’s reconnaissance. I feel a bit of remorse at the possibility that they were simply out. But here in these woods, surrounded by these monsters? The unfortunate, the unspeakable, is what’s most likely true.

Once I’m settled in with a full-ish stomach, I finally decide to allocate my level-ups.

[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 14 (From 12). [Vitality] +2, [Mind] +2. Please allocate remaining stat points. (6 Remaining)]

I make the decision quickly. +3 points to my [Mind] with the first level, then +2 to my [Strength] and +1 to my [Mind] with my second. I hadn’t realized until I got hit with Nicholas’s [Bravery Aura] and noticed the effective damage multipliers that the power of my [Ether Bullet] scales with my [Strength] stat, rather than my [Mind] as I’d originally assumed. Now I’m seeing the weakness of my class first and foremost.

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Chloe’s effectiveness scales with her [Mind] stat first and foremost. She can whack things with a wand or her fist as a last-ditch effort. But if that’s the case, we’ve all failed and she should be focusing on her [Speed] and getting the hell away from whatever took us all out.

But I need both [Strength] and [Mind] in corresponding measure. I’m not a pure caster like Anna, whose damage output scales with [Mind] just as her [Ether] pool does. I need a lot of [Ether] to use my techniques, but I’m still doing damage that the System is somehow characterizing as physical, not magical. I disagree with the System’s assessment on the matter. I also have to accept that objective reality does not care that I find its principles in defiance of my reasoning.

[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x2 + Current Level + Rand[1, 3] = (90, 91)]

[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0, 2] = (57, 62)]

[Level: 14; Experience: 10,790; To Next: 1,435]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 970 / 970 ; [Ether]: 519 / 538]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 17; [Speed]: 19; [Vitality]: 38; [Mind]: 46]

I didn’t really do enough to upgrade my [Basic Glyph Manipulation] skill, and my [Basic Ether Manipulation] is at max rank. I get the sense that the skill can evolve, but I don’t know what the conditions are. I suspect it’s a combination of my [Mind] and Level, but I admit that speculation is purely a conjecture with no evidence supporting it.

I’m not wholly confident I’m making the right decision regarding my level gains. But if nothing else, I can appreciate that two additional points of [Strength] definitely help me carry my stuff that much more easily. My back is already thanking me as we finish our breakfast and get on the road, continuing our trek around the city.

By the grace of the goddesses, we encounter a relative patch of mundanity within these roiling forests. What enemies we encounter are so weak that we don’t bother to fight them. In fact, at Nicholas’s insistence, we actively avoid engaging in combat with any enemies below level 6. His reasoning is that any enemies lower leveled than that can be easily dispatched by civilians with conventional weaponry. They need the Experience to advance their classes and develop new Skills, and even Chloe and I are at a high enough level that we gain next to nothing for it.

I wrack my brain to see if my past self has any insights on the matter. I can’t remember anything either way on that front, but it makes logical sense to the current me regardless, and so I don’t raise any objection to the direction.

We end up waiting until dinner before commencing our after-action report. A delicious dinner of beefsteak, as we stumbled upon a level 8 Raging Bull earlier in the afternoon that so helpfully offered itself up to be our dinner. The meat is far chewier and less juicy than normal, both because it’s cooked all the way to medium-well, and because the meat of a mature adult bull is naturally more muscular and less fatty than those of younger cattle or dairy cows. But it’s still a tasty meal and far preferable to yet more hardtack and MRE’s.

“Alright,” Alexey starts. “I want to start off by giving us all a commendation on our teamwork. There’s always room for improvement, but each of us did our part well, and thanks to that, we all survived and got stronger for it. A special shoutout for Chloe and all the work she did to keep us alive and on our feet.”

A wave of polite applause breaks out, causing Chloe to blush slightly.

“I want to admit my fault first,” Lindsey says. “I failed to properly spot the leader of those gorillas. If I had properly [Identified] that there was a level 24 beast leading them, we could have better prepared and strategized for the encounter, or decided it best not to fight. I’ve managed to rank my [Identify] skill up in the last fight, and I’ll be continuing to look for more ways to better spot our targets during scouting.”

“That’s why we scout, but never get too confident that our intelligence is correct,” Alexey says. “Relying too heavily on bad intel is a quick way to the grave.”

Nicholas nods in agreement. “I would say that I did adequately in this assignment, but the mental stress of having to keep my auras going for two more of us meant that my range and effectiveness suffered. I’m about to advance to level 19 though, so I’ll make sure I prioritize my [Mind] stat to ensure improved capabilities for future battles.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Anna says. “I don’t have much to say for myself. I could use another couple of points of [Speed] to help me better maneuver around the extra allies we have now. Twice I had to call off an attack because I was about to hit Chloe or Jackie.”

“Good thing you did,” Jackie says. “I wouldn’t want to have to knock you out to stop the friendly fire.”

The two women give the universal sign of contempt before Alexey harrumphs them both back to civil discussion. “What about you, Brent?”

“I panicked and forgot about the [Barrier Gauntlets] Sera made for us. There were a couple of times I took unnecessary damage due to forgetting about them, straining Chloe’s abilities that much further. I will also remember how the two of them used their [Barrier] skills to deflect attacks by aiming them at an angle, rather than trying to block the apes’ strikes head on.”

I interject. “I made two mistakes. The first was with my build. I didn’t realize until Nicholas started hitting me with his auras that my damage scaled with my [Strength] instead of my [Mind] stat. That is, my [Ether Bullet] and [Lightning Blowgun] get more powerful with my [Strength] stat, despite seeming to deal magical damage. Part of that is because my class stats don’t naturally prioritize [Strength] in either the base stat gains or the level gains. I’ve already allocated two points to it from my level gains in this last fight to help balance me out a bit more.”

“What are your stats like now?” Nicholas asks. “Rough numbers are fine, I don’t need exact numbers.”

“[Strength] is around 15, [Mind] is getting close to 50.”

Alexey whistles. “I can see the desire to balance your stats a bit. But don’t balance too hard either. A team of specialists always beats a team of jacks of all trades with no mastery between them.”

I nod. “The other mistake was even more damning. I ran low on [Ether] in the midst of the fight. But when I moved to grab the [Ether Canister] at my side. I hesitated. I worried that using it now would mean not having it for later. This, even knowing that I have been instructed to use it when I need it. I did, and did so in time, but had I delayed even a few more seconds, the encounter might have gone differently.”

Alexey nods. “That is good, both that you realize your mistake and why you make that mistake, along with the knowledge of the consequences of that decision. I trust that when the time next comes, you will know what to do.”

“Of course, sir,” I say. “There is no tomorrow if we do not survive today.” And I need to survive to see many more tomorrows if I’m to learn who I am and why I am here.

“Sage words, from one so young. Now then, it has been a long day. Let us break for the evening.”