8.

Someone set a cup of hot tea in his hand. The camp was much better supplied than Santi had thought it would be. Someone had done serious planning when they had set out. Three single axle trailers had been repurposed to be pulled by people and were loaded down. Camping gears, long term food, water, sanitary supplies, and a dozen other things Santi hadn’t thought about when he was getting his own base set up.

The tea was a nice touch, even if the leaves were stale. There was campfire coffee being cooked over an open flame and someone had ripped open imitation chocolate packets and stirred it into hot water. It was still early morning, three till ten, and people were eating breakfast.

Someone had managed to coral a bunch of chickens and there were fresh eggs being consumed. The smell of the cooking eggs made Santi’s stomach growl, it had been over a week since he had eaten non-canned food. Everyone was settled down in the dining room around the table and were looking at him with a mix of shock and caution.

Chloe and Daniel had come in with him, while Penelope had gone out through the camp to help the wounded. The two ranged fighters had taken Yesi’s place on the roof and Hana had drifted off to look around. Santi was certain that she didn’t trust his family’s group to have properly scouted.

“How did you find us?” Mom asked eagerly, leaning forward to touch his hands. She was ignoring her own plate of fried potatoes and eggs, green eyes locked on him. He had to tear his own gaze off of her to look around at the others. Chloe had a partially raised eyebrow as she was waiting to hear how they had found his family.

“Luck. Just dumb luck. Why are you out here?” Santi tried to get the attention off of him and towards his family. Chloe wouldn’t let it go, but he needed her to chill until he had time to deal with her questions in private.

“Yesi, she really pushed us to get out of town. There were all these monsters and creatures. It was dangerous. We…we made it out and that’s all that matters,” Dad spoke suddenly. He had passed his own plate of food to Cameron who was wolfing it down with haste.

“Santi, are you going to introduce us to your friends?” Bianca asked.

“Oh…um, yeah. Chloe is our frontline fighter. Daniel is our main scout. He’s the one who found you. Penelope is the healer and the two guys up top are Chad and Adam. Hana is wandering around somewhere, she’s our other scout. Umm… guy’s this is my Mom and Dad, Gabriella and Vicente. My sisters are Bianca and Yessenia.”

Santi pointed out each and every person and everyone said a mix of hello’s and good to meet you’s. Bianca looked at Chloe and then back to Santi and arched a single eyebrow at him, turning her head so Chloe couldn’t see her. Santi rolled his eyes at his older sister and focused on the last person at the table.

“And this is my best friend. Cam.”

“Last, but not least,” Cam said with half an egg hanging out of his mouth. Bianca slapped his arm and shook her head in disgust.

“Forgive him, he’s a caveman,” Bianca told Daniel and Hana. She was used to Cam’s actions, the younger man had been a semi-permanent addition to their kitchen table for most of her life after all.

“I am not. I am the Defender,” Cam shot back to a rousing groan from all of Santi’s family as Cameron looked pleased with himself.

“That’s your class?” Chloe asked, suddenly interested. It was one of the few non Survivor or Brawler classes that they had interacted with.

“It’s my superhero name!”

“Cameron, use your inside voice,” Mom scolded him. Cam ducked his head and muttered an apology.

“Cam’s a Defender, me and your father are both Survivors, Bianca got Fighter, and Yessenia is a Planner,” Mom said. That was enough to rattle through Santi’s daze. Defender was a Common class, but Planner was a Rare grade class. Something that shouldn’t have been possible till, at the bare minimum, the first evolution.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“What are your guy’s levels?” Santi asked, trying to buy himself time to think.

“Me and your Dad aren’t very strong, just seven. Cam is much stronger, but I don’t know what he’s at. The girls are two of the strongest people in the camp!” Mom sounded weary when she said that. As if it had been a continual fight between them.

“I’m level 19,” Cam said, flexing a bicep without looking up from his rapidly diminishing plate of food.

That was solid work for being so early in the initialization, especially if they were traveling. The core of fighters he had been assembling around himself were well beyond the bell-curve. Regardless, Cam was going to have to level and quickly. A Defender would round out the team well. Yesi’s class had so much more potential though.

“You’ve got some work to do if you want to keep up with us,” Chloe said from the other side of the table, her barb flying without hesitation. Cam looked puzzled for a second, looking back and forth between Chloe and Santi.

“I can get you being higher level and stronger than me,” Cam pointed at Chloe, then slowly turned to Santi.

“The munchkin though? I don’t believe it,” there was a whisper of a smile there.Cam’s sense of humor wasn’t something most people enjoyed. Or called humor if they were older than twelve.

“Santi’s the strongest person in our camp. He’s the only reason we were able to get approval to leave town without a larger group,” Daniel cut in, perhaps worried about the teasing being done.

“Our Santi!?” Mom exclaimed, half rising from the chair to touch his shoulder.

“Yeah. He’s already maxed out his class,” Daniel continued to spill secrets and Santi wanted to inch backwards as he watched the myriad of expressions that were flashing over his Mom’s face. She wasn’t happy. Leveling meant danger and her son shouldn’t be putting himself in danger. Something she was not a fan of.

“He’s the reason we’re all alive. He was…prepared to do what was needed,” Chloe said.

“So, Cam, what does your class do?” Santi asked, knowing damn well what the class did.

“Oh, you know. Stuff. Shields, Endurance, I’m tough. Stuff like that,” Cam shrugged then smiled evilly.

“But, tell me what your class is and what you did?”

Santi glared at him, promising himself that Cameron would get his just deserts.

His Mom and Dad nodded looking concerned while his sisters looked interested. Santi took a deep breath and started to tell them what had happened and what he did.

He skipped over the fight with the ent in the rift, just saying there was a weakened guardian he had killed. No reason to tell them of the gruesome wounds he had taken.

He spoke quietly of the rest of it. Of the cursed store and the drained husks that had attacked him. Of the attack in the middle of the night. Paulie’s death.

They knew who Paulie was, having met him and heard multiple stories about him, and the table grew quiet as everyone knew the pain of losing someone. Santi didn’t ask questions about what happened back in their hometown or how Cameron was level nineteen. If they hadn’t cleared out monster nests or rifts, it spoke of continuous low level fighting. Of creating mountains of corpses and wading through lakes of spilt blood.

He told them of the monster nests. Of the creature’s he had fought and killed and how he had leveled himself. He told them everything he could about the system and leveling, restricted to just what knowledge had been discovered naturally so far.

They spent two hours sitting in the kitchen just talking. Learning from one another. It felt good to hear their voices and see them. Other’s from their party trickled in till the kitchen had nearly twenty people in it. That’s when Yessenia stood up and started to clear the table of the empty plates.

“Yessenia has been leveling like crazy by just plotting out stuff. Planning and logistics and shit. Kind of jealous actually,” Cam said as he moved his chair to sit next down next to Santi as all eyes turned to the teenager.

“We now know where we’re going! There is a safe spot, or at least safer spot, and it’s not far away!” Yessenia spoke up, her voice silencing everyone in the room as she took command. Santi couldn’t tell if it was pure force of will or a skill she had, regardless it was impressive. His many meetings with the other councilors flashed into his mind. All the useless fights they’d had, all the back door dealings. Yesi was going to be a breath of fresh air back home.

“Let’s start planning on how to get home. Mr. Lawrence, how are supplies?” Yesi continued to plan and strategize out loud while Santi made his own plans. Now that his family was secure, it was time to start advancing again