35.

Santiago V Silva

Air Mage lvl. 30

Strength: 30 (55)

Durability: 34 (59)

Stamina: 30 (55)

Dexterity: 30 (55)

Vitality: 34 (59)

Perception: 30 (55)

Intelligence: 60 (85)

Mana: 70 (95)

Willpower: 60 (85)

Potential: 42%

Santi had allocated his one point into each of durability, vitality, and perception. Then rounded off willpower and intelligence so that the two stats would have nice even numbers. The effect of seeing his numbers go up again was only slightly soothing after the day he’d been having.

He settled down on the hood of a car as he started to peruse the spells listed available to him. He was finally going to get [Air Manipulation] but he wanted to see if there was anything else worth saving up for.

Air Bubble (Basic)

Air Manipulation (Common)

Air Pressure (Common)

Air Wave (Common)

Winds of Time (Rare)

Santi looked at the two skills he most wanted to combine, [Air Bubble] and [Air Pressure]. The next big project to save up for. Six more slots and then a spell combination token from the Pillar of Civilization. Something for a later time. He’d be at least level sixty before that was coming to a head and with the way his leveling was slowing it’d take him some time.

Once the monster and beasts started to gain in strength and he had more opponents of the correct level to fight he’d be fine. The lull was just because he’d advanced too fast and was now waiting for his general opponents to reach his level. Rift guardians or Monster Nest protectors would be good fights for him. There was always the dark whisper of the Apostates too. They’d give him good levels.

Later in the integration, when the colonizers came and the factions formed, earning levels from fellow sentients was often easier than getting them from monsters. It was one of the darker aspects of the later years when the monster populations had been culled and suppressed and the dungeons were under careful management. The easiest way to get levels and keep increasing in strength was by killing your fellow man.

Santi sighed as he looked at this list before picking [Air Manipulation]. With his oversized willpower and the general vagueness of the spell, he’d be able to use it to amplify his other spells in addition to doing other things. It wouldn’t work as well or as efficiently as a spell designed for something, but he could make it work.

He got off the car and started trudging back toward Homebase. The day had been going too well, it only made sense that it would spiral into dogshit. Cameron could be temperamental and if he ran off, Santi had a feeling Bianca would go with him. Neither of them had the skills needed for the long cross country trek to the mountains. Santi would be forced to either follow them and abandon the competition for the Pillar of Civilization. Or let them die.

And that wasn’t going to happen. He had lived a life without his family and friends once and he wasn’t going to do it again. He’d just have to make sure Cam was calmer when he got back to the camp and ready to listen to reason. Maybe Mom would work with him and get him a bit more relaxed.

The trip didn’t take long, Santi traveled at a fast jog. It was peak pre-integration Olympic sprinter speeds, but now it was a breeze to maintain. He took his time, viewing the ruins of the city with a critical eye. The homes were in ruins, falling down or burnt out. Holes in the walls and roofs were common and greenery was beginning to run rampant.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Asphalt streets were cracked and filled with potholes and the remnants of cars were broken down on flat tires with shattered windows and dented bodies. Blood stained the ground and homes everywhere he looked. The faint iron smell of it hung in the air as he passed by. The violence of the past was slowly being buried under the weight of time and nature.

People had stopped trickling in over the last few days to Homebase. The scouts had been moving around the outskirts of town, avoiding the downtown, and weren’t finding anyone else anymore. There had to be several thousand people now clustered about Homebase, but compared to what the city had been before it was a pittance.

Santi pushed further on and Hombase’s myriad of walls and barricades came to be. They were pushing further and further out. Guard towers being erected and patrols marching the streets. All on the lookout for monsters or beasts. He shot right past them with a wave, most of them barely reacting to his presence. He was becoming something of a myth to them. Even though his levels weren’t that far ahead of everyone else's, his fighting prowess was head and shoulders above them.

His feats were whispered about, people ogled him as he went by, and he caught more than one hatred fueled look directed his way. There were plenty of people who hadn’t adapted to a world where a skinny nineteen year old had more power than them. That even though he had to physically look up to bigger and broader men, they were the ones who had to acquiesce to him. His age didn’t help either, as the old heads hated taking orders from him.

Even with all of that, they called him to save them. They did listen and they did obey now. He had been right too many times and the other older and more traditional leaders had led them to death and suffering that he had warned them about. So while people like Abraham may curse his name in the dark, they would do as he said.

It was all contingent on Santi continuing to be the strongest. To have the support of the best of the fighters and healers. The masses would follow him as long as he could protect them and give them a chance at a future. In the future he would need them. When [Farmer], [Herbalist], [Tanner], [Blacksmith], [Alchemist], [Leather-Worker], and so many more classes became available. Classes and people doing jobs that he would need to survive and thrive and fight back against the Apostates and their agenda.

Santi had to ask himself how he could balance all of that, all of these people and their potential, vs. Cameron. It made it worse that he knew he’d choose Cam. He would choose Cam over everyone aside from his family. Santi needed to make him see reason to stay in the camp until everything was secure and stable.

His house had just his own family in it for once. Everyone else had felt the need to find their own place to hangout. Mom and Dad had the backyard fence closed to show they weren’t cooking for once. They were all waiting in the living room on their stolen overstuffed couches. Mom and Bianca were on either side of Cam who let them hold him. Dad and Yesi were off to the side with a tray of steaming tea as Santi opened the door.

All eyes turned to him. Bianca and Cam’s were bloodshot from tears and Mom looked like she was tired. Yesi just appeared to be uncomfortable and Dad was projecting a calm and patient exterior. Santi walked to stand in front of Cam and looked at him. He looked like a wreck, his sadness a visible aura that drowned the room in despair.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“We cool?”

“Yeah. Mom talked to me. They got me to see reason. I…fuck, Santi. I thought he was gone. Just seeing his name…I just wanted to see him again.” Tears slid down the big man's face as he trembled. Mom grabbed his shoulder and squeezed, her harsh appearance a striking contrast to the empathy she was showing.

“We will. I swear to you. We will go and find him. We just need to make sure everyone else is safe first.” Santi bent down so that they were at eye level and grabbed Cam’s hand in a rough shake.

“I swear, Cameron. You brought me my family. I will deliver yours.”

“Thanks. I know you would.”

“So, what’s next then?” Bianca asked. She didn’t turn away from Cameron but asked the question to Santi.

“We finish off the rift in the warehouse and get what’s left of the food out. We use the riftstone for Yesi to do a big evolution for a bunch of people. Use that nasty ass pond over there to do a mass ritual rather than the targeted ones. Just some basic stuff, nothing specialized like we’ve been doing. Then we clear out downtown.”

By then the Pillar would be arriving and after Santi claimed it, he could leave with Cam and some of the others to go and find Mr. Murtaugh. Rayleigh and some of the others would stay here and keep the place going. Yesi and Mom and Dad would probably stay and continue to work on their own projects.

“Then, we three, Daniel, Chloe, Hana and Chad are off to find Mr. Murtaugh.”

“Alright, man. Let’s get to it then,” Cam said, head coming up to meet Santi’s eyes, a fierce look of determination on his face.