29.

Abraham was barking orders as streams of the non-combatants raced into the warehouse. Santi forced his tired body to move, needing to clear the warehouse of any potentially lurking threats before the weaker members of the community got there. He cursed Abraham for being so short-sighted. They had just beaten the attacking force, but that didn’t preclude that there could be more enemies hiding in the warehouse.

He shot by the leading edges of the scavengers with ease and entered the dark warehouse. The wave of golems and cyclops had been defeated, but their trek through the warehouse might have doomed all the survivors. Everywhere he looked there was smashed and inedible food. The giant racks had been tipped over and spilled, crushed under heavy plodding feet as the army had raced to recapture their prisoners.

He wasn’t here for that. Forcing himself away from the ruined food, he ran through the warehouse pushing his senses to their absolute limit to ascertain if the building was empty. It took less than a minute and he settled in front of the rift to watch it as the scavengers started looting.

The cries of distress at finding the food destroyed were heartbreaking. Still, they carried on with their work as they pulled what could be salvaged free. It would take hours for them to go through the massive warehouse. Santi would stand guard for every minute of it.

As the minutes turned to hours, others came to join him. Chloe and Rayleigh first, then Tank, Cameron, and Bianca. Santi saw his Dad out of the corner of his eye as Vicente helped load up salvaged food. They were all quiet and stood vigil with him.

“The wounded?” Santi whispered to Tank. he had to remind himself that was part of his job now. He couldn’t just run off and do whatever he felt like. He had a responsibility to the people here.

“Not many. If the golems got a hold of someone, there wasn’t much left. The smaller cyclops were just as bad. Got a handful who were hurt, but the other healers can get them on their feet.”

“How many did we lose?”

“Won’t know for a few more days. More than the goblin raid.”

Santi had to contain himself as the thought of the heavy losses threatened to buckle his knees. How could he stand this weight? He was stepping up, trying to command these people and lead them to a future where they’d have a chance, but how could he withstand the deaths.

He had ordered this. He had approved the plans and led the battle. These people had trusted him and now the dead were being piled up and the food they had come for was nearly worthless. He kept it all bottled in, refusing to let it out. The recent boosts to his willpower kept him on his feet and moving, his emotions locked down so that he could process them later.

He needed a focus for his mind and started to look through his System notifications. There were plenty of kill alerts, with the most prominent being the level thirty-one cyclops. It had been too long since he had seen the most important notification.

Congratulations, you are now Air Mage lvl. 28

Santiago V. Silva

Air Mage lvl. 28

Strength: 32 (57)

Durability: 33 (58)

Stamina: 30 (55)

Dexterity: 30 (55)

Vitality: 33 (58)

Perception: 29 (54)

Intelligence: 52 (77)

Mana: 60 (85)

Willpower: 53 (78)

Potential: 32%

Santi had assigned his six free stat points to strength, stamina, and dexterity with each of them receiving two points. While the battle had been fierce, it hadn’t been enough to net any type of achievement for himself. Maybe some of the others had earned it, but for him it was more an endurance trial than an epic battle.

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The lack of potential gained was concerning. If the golems were puppets, their potential was capped and limited. They couldn’t grow so the System wasn’t going to reward someone for destroying them with potential. The cyclops had been the only opponents that the system had rewarded potential with.

If he had bothered to ask anyone who had been fighting them or checking his own status screen more frequently he would have noticed sooner. Another oversight to add to the list of failures that had been on his head lately.

“You guys manage to get levels?” Santi asked. He desperately needed out of his own mind.

“Got one,” Tank said.

“Two for me,” Hana chimed in.

“Cam and I both hit the cap,” Bianca informed him. That was good, they could get their evolutions underway sooner rather than later. Just needed to find a few treasures to help boost their affinities.

“Daniel, did you find what I asked for?”

“Yes. There were a few guards I had to deal with. That's why I was late.” Daniel disappeared into the shadows and returned two minutes and forty-three seconds later. He was holding a bulging bag and had a content smile on his face.

Santi grabbed the bag and started to ruffle through it. It was the entire cyclops treasury. All of their looted natural treasures or anything else they had created or scavenged over the years. The small black backpack was overflowing with a mix of different items.

“Found the earth affinity and fire affinity items for you two. Chloe, got something you can use too. Why don’t you take this bag to Yesi and get started on the evolution. I can watch the rift. We’re going to need you guys on the inside when we clear it.” He tossed the bag to his sister and the three of them took off, leaving just his small team with him.

“Did you see anything else when you were in there?” Santi asked Daniel. He hadn’t cleared this particular rift in the last timeline and was wondering what exactly had been in there. There certainly hadn’t been dwarves.

“Plenty of metal. Good stuff too. Silver, gold, and some other ones. I didn’t recognize them, but they were placed in the center of their horde and had special golems guarding them.”

Likely mana infused metals. Or something in that same vein.

“The dwarf?”

“Kept separate and near all of the cyclops. Couldn’t have gotten him free if I wanted to.”

“There’s five more of them in there?”

“Five of them, four of those special golems and maybe another six to eight of the regular Acolytle class. Didn’t bother counting the junkers.”

“Shit.” That made at least fifteen opponents who probably had more levels than his team with a supporting cast of junk golems and smaller cyclops. They had thinned the herd of the Initiate level golems and cyclops by a fair margin, but there's still more on the inside.

“Yeah, it’s going to be rough. They’re probably pissed I stole all of those treasures.”

“Yeah.”

“Think they’ll come back out?”

“No. Not after this. They lost a lot of bodies. If they come out again, it’ll be all of them and then they’d have to leave the rift heart vulnerable. They’ll hunker down and try to build more golems. The odd mate might try to come out and get revenge, but I doubt it.”

“So, why are we watching the rift then?”

“To make sure they don’t come out.” It also allowed him to brood and wallow in his own misery while looking like he was being productive.

“Santi!” Abraham barked as he came marching over. The man had seemed to have calmed down since his teams had disaster land on their head. He wasn’t being polite, but he had kept his assholery to a minimum.

“Yeah?”

“We’re almost done. A lot of it’s trashed, but we got quite a bit out.” Abraham walked away. Santi had to think, but that was one of the best interactions he’d ever had with the man.

“Was it just me, or was he polite?” Tank commented.

“I think that’s as polite as he ever gets.”

“I don’t like him,” Hana decided to throw in. Everyone nodded but watched as the scavengers finished their work As the last of them pulled out of the warehouse, Santi motioned for the others to follow him and they left the warehouse too.

“Get some of the other scouts and put a watch on the building, Daniel” Santi gave his scout leader the orders as they left. Daniel and Hana walked off to go and get who they needed as Tank walked with him alone.

“Could I have done something to prevent this?” Santi whispered, looking over at the broken barriers and blood drenched streets.

“Maybe. I don’t know. We can’t obsess over what could have been. We need to focus on being better. Not letting shit like this happen. Could you have done anything that would have had us be better prepared?”

“Yes,” the whisper tore at him. He had been so focused on trying to grow strong, leading the pack and ensuring everyone’s survival, he had failed to think about how to grow the others stronger. He worked with them to get them the treasures they needed and rituals required, but he could do more. More sparring, more teaching, more being a mentor.

“Then we work on that. We collect the survivors. We get stronger and we keep staying alive.”

“Alright, I can do that.”