36.

“What do you think caused that?” Daniel whispered as he and Santi stood staring at the hole in the side of the building. Scattered boards, pink insulation, shattered glass, and a host of broken belongings lay in an arc all around the side of the building. The hole occupied nearly the entire side of the house and there was little remaining of the original wall.

“Fuck if I know, but I don’t want to find out. Let’s keep an extra eye out just in case, all right?”

“No, shit,” Hana muttered behind the two and Santi glanced out of the corner of his eye at the girl. Her and Daniel had become inseparable and Santi was finding out more and more of her personality as the day stretched out.

“No problem, Santi. I’ll actually keep both eyes on the lookout. Hana, can you tell the others, please?” Daniel asked. There were a handful of others who were working as scouts for the main party, but Daniel was the only one with a class that seemed actually suited for the job.

“Of course,” Hana said before walking away. Santi noticed how lightly she stepped, clinging to the sides of the buildings and close to cover as she moved away. She had good instincts at least.

“We’re starting to see more signs of the goblins,”Daniel said. Neither of the men were looking away from the torn apart house.

“Such as?”

“Dead bodies. Goblins and humans. Some other monsters scattered about too. Found a pair of dead hobs in a backyard about a block up. At least I think they were hobs. They were just pieces that, if one had the time, could reasonably be assembled into the resemblance of a hob.”

“Something big and powerful walking around here then.”

“That was my thoughts on it as well. Maybe as strong as the troll thing?”

“That’d be bad. It took all of us to kill that fucker.”

“I’ll see if I can find any sign of it. Then steer us away from it.”

“Sounds good, be safe, Daniel.”

“Thanks, Santiago.” Then Daniel was walking away, seeming to fade into the long evening shadows. With his low perception it was a struggle to make him out, but he could just barely see Daniel as the other man headed further West.

All afternoon they had been moving in a large group. Nearly forty people walking down the streets, all heavily armed. They had scouts all around them, constantly looking for ambushes or signs of the nest. The further West they went, the more and more signs they found.

Dead goblins and humans being the primary ones. The ruins of the city was a living memory for Santi, one that tugged at his fragile emotional state. With every level and increase to his willpower he felt himself becoming sturdier, less inclined to the emotional breakdowns he had been having when he first regressed. It was still hard to walk through the slaughter and not feel the old agony rear its head as old wounds opened once more.

He trotted back to the main formation of the raid party, seeing Tank’s head high above everyone else’s. Chloe was in the vanguard, her axe hoisted on a shoulder as her gaze swiveled back and forth. Justin, Eugene Brown’s son, was walking next to Tank, his sledgehammer on his shoulder too.

If there was anyone who should have risen to the ranks of the Champion’s based on looks alone, then Justin would have been a frontrunner. He looked like an Olympian and he had a casual charisma that had the people around him smiling and laughing even as they walked through the ruins of their city. Santi knew it took more than looks and charisma to gather the strength needed to assault those bottlenecks between Disciple and Champion, but he had a feeling Justin might have that inner strength.

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If he was being honest with himself, of everyone here in the raid team it was likely Tank, Justin, and maybe Chloe who could do it. They had the inner fire and strength needed to persevere. Santi had his advanced knowledge and knowing that he had climbed to Disciple by himself once before gave him the certainty that he could become a Champion.

It wasn’t like he had a choice in the matter either. If he wanted to prevent the same senseless violence that had ravaged the Americas the last time, he needed to be strong enough to stop the Apostates from restarting their cult. Or at least ensuring it didn’t reach the size it had the first time around. There was a thread of worry there though, for while he knew one of their number, they all certainly knew who he was by now.

Those first few days of peace would have been enough for Bailey to have given them every scrap of information she had known about him. Which was everything. He had trusted her with his life and his past, she knew him the best of everyone in the last life. How she was alive at all, let alone an Apostate, boggled his mind. He tried not to think of it too much, but while just standing around waiting for the scouts to clear block by block, there wasn’t much else for his mind to focus on.

He knew where historical events had taken place and roughly when, but with Akthyr having added the potential and mana to the world? He just couldn’t be sure anymore. He had to focus on what was in front of him, otherwise the dart that had just been thrown at him from across the street was going to punch clean through his skull.

Santi fell to the ground, his eye having caught movement in a partially destroyed two story house. The bolt hissed through the air as goblins started to come screaming out of nearby homes. Most of the houses nearby were half ruined with ceilings or walls destroyed. The scouts hadn’t gone inside the actual buildings, simply putting their heads inside and continuing on.

Santi lunged back to his feet and stabbed the closest goblin. He used Identify to scan it and got back Red Goblin lvl. 4. Vastly underleveled monsters they were quickly being slaughtered as the raid group had nearly the equivalent numbers and a massive level gap.

Santi killed two more of the weak goblins, his new spear feeling good in his hands as he spun about to dodge another bolt hurled from the second story. Santi looked up just in time to see Daniel materialize behind the atlatl user, his dagger sawing across a thin neck. Then it was over.

The ambush had taken no more than two minutes leaving nearly two score of the goblins dead across the street. Santi nodded to the others, eyes scanning for any injuries. They had been weak but no one was of the level to be able to shrug off any type of attacks yet. Even with his title, his durability wouldn’t let him just ignore a knife wound.

Everyone seemed fine, Tank bandaging the few who had taken cuts. Within ten minutes they were moving out again, heading further West. Santi stuck closer to the main party and eavesdropped on the conversations. Fighting to keep a smile from his face as most of them talked about how easy the fight had been. Just last night they had fought these same monsters and nearly died. Today they slaughtered them with ease.

It was the miracle of the System. If you survived long enough and faced enough challenges and weren’t stupid, you could rise and be stronger than one could have ever dreamed. Once everyone crossed out of the Initiate stage and into the Acolyte stage, they’d start entering superhuman levels of strength and speed, even those whose classes weren’t physically leaning.

“I’m starting to get it, Santi,” Tank said as he came up from the center of the group to stand next to him. The two walked along, Santi deciding to stay quiet to let the other man voice his thoughts.

“I killed two of those goblins right now and it wasn’t even a challenge. Getting the bandages to stick to Michelle’s arm was tougher than killing them. Last night though, or when we left the dorms. They were a real threat, something that I had to focus all my attention on if I didn’t want to die.”

“You’re stronger now. One of the strongest people in the city most likely. Even if your class is focused on healing, there’s not much that can stand in the way of overwhelming stats.”

Yet.

Santi kept that part to himself. The dance of skill vs. skill combat would come later when the monsters were subjugated and the invaders began to arrive. That was when they had all begun to realize that just focusing on growing stats and not gaining mastery over the nuances of their skills was a mistake. It took time and willpower to make a skill work in ways outside of the norms.

His Gust spell and Air Current hadn’t been designed to be used like he was using them. It had taken him a long time and plenty of experimentation to make Air Current work like it did. Santi had to add skill exploration to his staggeringly long list of things to do and teach everyone. Well, most everyone. His friends and the other elites he valued.

He needed to save the continent if not the world. Making sure his friends and allies were stronger and more prepared than the others around them would help make sure that hope became a reality. They’d figure out skill manipulation later. Maybe.