Chapter: 12

Len startled awake as Rick patted on his shoulder, hand holding onto the hilt of his sword as he looked around the train carriage. He blinked away his sleep, the train was starting to slow.

In every direction were fields and the irrigation ditches running around them.

Cattle ate on the roughage of the fields that couldn’t grow crops.

It was fall and the growing season was wrapping up. There were rows of people cutting their way through the fields. Most were cleared away, bundles of hay wrapped together to dry out for the winter season.

“Warwick in five minutes,” Rick said.

Len grunted and stretched in his chair as much as possible. He noted some of the soldiers throughout the train, they’d boarded in groups of two or more, spreading throughout the carriages.

He turned his eyes to the outside world once more.

Carts moved up and down the muddy tracks they’d worn into the ground, bringing the season’s bounty to Warwick.

Others were laden with families and all they owned, heading back north or east.

Warwick itself came into view on the left side of the train tracks.

The town was little to talk about. The Lord’s manor sat upon a slight rise watching over all. It still had a wall from its older origins.

Smoke rose from the smithies in the city, farmers getting their orders for the next year and repairs to their gear that had become worn throughout the last season.

The buildings were made with wattle and daub with lumber mixed in. There were a few dozen of them. Mostly tradesman and suppliers.

The largest area of the town was the storage facilities. A half dozen silos were behind a thick stone wall with an arm that could swing overtop to pour its contents into an awaiting train car.

There were a few other warehouses for other foods and goods with a door facing the tracks to speed up the loading.

All of the carts laden with goods navigated through the buildings to the storage facility.

Len spotted people on the platform, families holding belongings to them, a mishmash of items they’d scrounged for their journey. Their faces drawn and worn.

Len and Rick rose from their seats and picked up their stuffed packs, moving towards the carriage exit.

The train came to a rolling stop, jerking them before it settled. The engine releasing a wash of steam and smoke.

As Len pushed the door open, dropping down to the railroad’s gravel bed.

Other doors opened, as metal squeaked, a water hose was pushed out over the train engine.

Len walked through the smoke, looking around the area.

“What’s happening?” He stopped a family who were heading for the train.

“Beasts, mutated things covered in growths and able to do things that no natural thing should be able to do attacked our farms, killed out livestock. Getting out here before it takes us too!” The father pushed past them, chivvying his family onto the train.

Len and Rick walked away from the tracks. Some of their crew were pulling off a field cart, made to be easily broken down and built back up to carry goods.

“We need to get moving and quickly,” Len said.

Rick nodded. “Tell Adrian and be on our way?”

“Yeah,.”

They weaved through the people, those getting off the train and unloading their items and those that were getting off and unloading.

Lots of people heading away. Len grimaced, it was harvesting time. Theymust have waited for their crops before leaving. Their were haunted looks on people’s faces, parents staying close to their children. Fear hung in the air, a familiar tension wrapped up Len’s guts.

Felt odd without the fear.

Len reached Adrian, checking no one was near to hear them. “Rick and I are going to run for the dell and my family. Meet up with the carts, distribute the gear and have everyone working on using their mana to heal their bodies as you march.”

“It is three days to the farms. There are mutated beasts around,” Adrian started.

“We’ll be there before afternoon and it’ll take more than a few mana mutated beasts to put us down. Get the men sorted and on the move.” Len moved past and Rick trailed him. They grabbed up their packs they’d readied before, checked their swords and armor before looping around the train and heading down the muddy road towards Len’s family farm.

Len started jogging, keeping his strength low. Rick kept pace with him as they slowly increased the amount of strength they used.

As they came down a rise, leaving view of the town behind, Len dug his boots into the ground, angling his body along the ground and propelled himself forward.

He moved like a skater on the ground, each step adding more speed as he hurtled forward, the wind pulling at his clothes.

Quick step. Len’s pace increased. Enhanced strength. He hurtled further forward jerkily, his boot plowed through the hard packed road as he corrected and left a footprint upon it, his body straining as his adrenaline sung in his veins.

The spells sent him hurtling forward as he circulated mana, feeding their ongoing cost. They ran faster than horses and trains leaping from hills to sail across the ground.

***

The door to the spectator box at the grand coliseum was opened by Isendia guards as a maid pushed Carolyn’s wheeled chair inside.

The room was a grand thing, three rows of chairs at the front of the box for the younger generations of the Isendia family.

The space had been expanded with maids and butlers serving food and drinks. At their rear was a single chair where Carolyn’s son sat in his armor, looking like some grand conquering warlord. He never had the strength and skill even in his later years. His sister had, and his cousins he’d deployed constantly since she died.

He’d always been frustrated with his lack of fighting ability, and turned to ploys. I thought I could raise him in my path of working from the shadows.

Laughter cut through the box, nephew Talbot well into his drinks as he recounted some event to his cousins.

His wife Emilia nodded to the maid. “I’ll look after her,” Emilia said.

“Yes ma’am.” The maid curtseyed, releasing Carolyn’s wheelchair and moving out of the space. A few of the younger generation leering as she left.

“Semi-finals should be interesting, the whole event makes me nervous, worry for all of the people on the sands,” Emilia confided in Carolyn, as she wheeled her off to a quiet side where they might be able to see the fight and be seen if someone was looking for them.

While also being the furthest from Talbot.

“Tea miss Emilia?” A butler said with a kind smile.

“Oh, thank you.” She tilted her head as he set up a small table and laid out the tea on the table, filling the cups. Emilia looked over the arena as the man expertly slipped a powder into Carolyn’s tea.

And which creature’s monster are you? Carolyn began coughing, using it to move her head around, and spot the others in the room. Most ignored or didn’t care.

Tyrus looked over with an almost frustrated look. The bored cruelty in his eyes, she’d seen it when he had orchestrated a beating against another boy in his class.

That cruelty hidden too deep under his veneers. It was a hot blade through her stomach. She’d thought it would be someone married in, or maybe from another line of the family.

She brought her coughing under control as Tyrus looked away, shaking his head minutely as he drank from his wine.

Andreas her third eldest also watched from the side of the box. His hand tightening on his blade and then relaxing. He looked aged, well beyond his years, older than Tyrus by far.

“Here we go,” Emilia said, offering her the tea, taking her time to give it to her, making sure she didn’t give her too much. And here this girl cares for me greater than my own children, hiding from her husband.

Carolyn drank the poison, she could feel it trying to attack her body. She circulated her mana as Rick had taught her and drew it into her body, counteracting the damage.

“For the first match of the day we have Iron Wall Mulligan and the Black Thorn!” An announcer called out to the cheers of the crowd.

Many in the box were betting in the corner amongst one another on the fighting.

Carolyn seethed, these people were fighting for the chance to join their ranks, this was something to be venerated. They’d had only little drink and simple food. Their attention given to the fighters not their comforts.

Betting on the fighting. There were bets on the injuries that they would sustain or if they would die. Carolyn fought to keep a blank expression Patricia would have torn through this place and set them right. Lydia and Rick’s mother had been a force of nature, hard headed, stubborn but also thoughtful and willing to hear other opinions.

The gates being drawn up pulled her from her swirling thoughts.

“Black Thorn has done really well to get this far, she’s fast, one of the fastest I’ve ever seen. Though she hides her appearance. There’s all kinds of rumors around her. Iron Wall Mulligan is an honorable fighter. I’ve been hearing a great number of stories sung about him too. He apparently had a fight last for nearly forty minutes before a winner was picked.” Emilia dropped her voice. “There’s plenty of lewd songs about his stamina too.” She chuckled to herself.

The two contestants stepped out into the middle of the arena.

Carolyn knew that stature and stance anywhere. She glanced over at Tyrus, her son turned his attention to the fight.

Mulligan came from the left as Lydia strode in from the right. There was a new weight to here movements, like a beast ready, tense before the flight. Like a mount before the charge.

Though there was a grace to it, Carolyn had seen it before, in her husband, in her daughter, in the fighters of Isendia, usually after having traded something away.

Mulligan drew his sword and set himself as they closed.

Lydia raised her blades and settled into her stance as they prowled around one another, taking the other’s measure.

Mulligan took a step forward, Lydia continued to circle, making him take another step lest she come around his side.

He lashed out with his sword. Lydia deflected the blow, his blow went wide. Lydia didn’t let the opening go unused as she slashed at his side, he brought his shield out to defend, her blade rang his shield like a drum he let out a yell and pushed forward with his feet to meet her second blade swinging at him.

Her blow hit his shield, his arm buckled as the shield hit him in the head, he shook his head and took steps back.

Lydia came for him, her swords rang on his shield, each blow jarring the man’s arm and making his shield sing.

He thrust out with a yell. She danced around him, rushing past him in a flurry of sand, her sword hitting him in the back of the leg, he dropped to his knee. She turned around, her blade sliding around his neck and coming to rest against it like a lover’s kiss.

He stilled and lowered his weapons.

“Black Thorn wins!” the announcer yelled to the crowd’s rising cheers. Lydia drew her weapon away and moved to the side.

Mulligan got up and shook his limbs out, rising gingerly.

“That was exciting and I hope he’s not too badly hurt. His shield was certainly making a lot of noise!” Emilia chortled.

Tyrus was talking to one of his squires, the boy ran off, people making room for him. His squire had a higher position than Rick in the family.

Andreas watched from his position at the wall, an old defeated man, his eyes sad as he followed Lydia out of the arena.

Carolyn sat in the spectator box, watching her family, listening to the deals, the rumors and boasts. Her mood soured as the minutes passed.

***

The grey afternoon kept the air cool, threatening rain but holding back for now.

Len followed the muddy road tracks, the fields were starting to wilt, they hadn’t been harvested. The out-buildings for Shepards too far from town were empty, as were the farming homesteads.

The seed was in the ground but they hadn’t been tended to in at least a few months. No farmer is going to just leave their farms in the middle of growing season unless its for a damn good reason.

“Was there a dungeon around here?” Rick asked.

“There were rumors, I heard, but there was no one here anymore and we were busy trying to survive,” Len said.

“You think that its here already?”

“Could be.”

“Farmer said there were beasts with mutations. Get that from areas with high mana,” Rick said.

They continued in silence, racing forward.

“I smell blood,” Rick said.

“Burning too,” Len said. He picked up the pace, reaching the edge of the dell his family lived in first.

A stream weaved through the hills to create a stream that ran through the largest collection of farmhouses. Three different families worked within the dell. The stream diverting between their fields and continuing to the fields beyond.

Parts of the three compounds outer buildings had been torn down to create defenses. The last hints of fires smoldered on the wall as spiders the size of a cow, covered in a deep blue crystalline armor clambered over buildings, the area around them was covered in webbing that shone in the late morning sun.

Two of the creatures lay dead on the walls, blue blood soaking the ground around them.

There was fighting along the wall, foxes the size of wolves, with crystalline growths coming out of their bodies were met with pitchforks and rakes as they fought at the entrance of a compound having got passed the surrounding walls.

There were dozens of crystal-fox bodies, with blue blood as well. Mana mutated alright.

“I got the spiders,” Rick yelled.

“I’ll take the foxes.” Len sped up down the dell, thankful he hadn’t brought his rifle or rounds with him, the mana was dense enough to cause chaos. He ended the spells he used to enhance his speed as he drew his sword.

The rear-most fox turned as Len used his sword like a cavalryman would.

His momentum carried him into the fray, hacking out with his blade to bring it in-line with the beasts.

He tore through several of the foxes, the blade jarring in his grip as it went through bone and crystal.

He kicked a fox leaping at him, throwing them through a fence and bringing him down to walking pace. His blade tore through another’s jaw as it tried to bite him from behind.

He caught another jumping through the air by its neck, the beast writhing, crystal growing from half of its face as it flared with light, blinding him. Its claws, sharpened crystal slashed at his face.

Len saw it through his mana sight, throwing the beast at another fox moving to leap at him.

He dug his feet into the ground the foxes prowling around to get better position. Len’s blood sung in his veins as he rushed forward, casting stone spike on the ground. Two beasts he was charging for leapt at him to be caught by the spikes that erupted from the ground. He threw himself to the side, slashing through a third fox on his right flank.

Len pulled on the water from the air, it was thick enough as he formed ice pellets, hard as steel that shot out as fast as darts, peppering two foxes.

He kicked another that went for his legs. He turned, digging his feet into the ground, his mana will reaching out to the world like tendrils, securing him in place as a beast leapt at him, he swatted them with his will-tendril. They split the fox that was on the stone spikes he’d made for as they stacked ontop of them, struggling a few seconds before going still.

Len hand his hand over a fire in the grass, the motes of flame gathering around his hand, they stilled, turning blue and gem-like, a flicker of will left after images as they burned through foxes hearts. Dropping them with the smell of wet dog and burnt meat.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Len flicked a stone up with the toe of his boot and kicked it while casting detonation.

The shards of stone turned into projectiles that mowed down the remaining foxes.

The farmer’s faces were haggard with lack of sleep and fighting.

Many had wounds of one kind or another. A few were on the ground.

Two were dead, the third on his way.

Len jumped over to him, putting his hand on the mess of the man’s neck.

He grabbed onto the blood in the man’s lungs, removing the clotting before he shoved it back into the man’s veins before sealing them up. He pinched the skin together over the veins and willed the skin together, his mana completing his command. He left a hole in the man’s neck to breathe through.

“Be gentle, leave the hole in his neck unobstructed.”

Len jumped over the fence around the home, his foot leaving an imprint as he ran towards Rick’s fight.

Rick slammed his hammer into a spider nearly two time’s taller than him.

The spider shuddered and the back of its carapace opposite where Rick had struck exploded into crystalline shards.

Rick dodged a ball of webbing and threw his hammer. It struck the spitter, bashing it to the side as it leaked blue blood from between its armor plates.

A tether of will returned the hammer to his hands as another grabbed a second spider’s legs, causing it to stumble. Rick caught his hammer on the run and swung it up int the Spider’s underbelly. It rose up off of its feet, pewing out chunky blue blood before it collapsed.

Len imagined his fists as strong as steel, mana flowing through his channels into them as they took on a metallic sheen.

Len tossed his sword to the side, his body shaking as he punched a spider as big as a cow in the side.

It rocked over to its side, all of his momentum drained into the creature as blood burst from it. He stepped on the ground, changing his trajectory, building up another resonating strike in his body. It would tear him apart if he used it too much. He kicked out the legs of a spider to punch it in the face and draw all the heat from the surroundings into his hand.

The beast froze as he pulled out his fist it began cracking apart.

Len stepped on it, smashing it into the ground as he leapt for another spider fighting farmers inside the compound’s walls.

With a yell he slammed his fist into the top of the spider, dropping it to the ground and spraying the surrounding farmers with blood.

Len rose up from the dust the spider’s impact had thrown up and looked around.

“Clear!” Len yelled.

“Good out here!” Rick yelled back.

Screens that had been hidden in the fighting appeared.

===

Skill: Blunt weapon

===

Level: Journeyman (140)

===

Len grimaced as the experience and enlightenment slammed into him, the spider’s armor cracking underneath him. He picked himself up cracks ran through the spider’s armor.

Len jumped from the spider onto the roof of the home, scanning the dell.

Bodies of foxes and spiders led up to the two compounds. The ground turned to mud with the creatures blood and fighting.

He tracked the faint path made by all of the creatures. Dungeon. Dropping his eyes he looked down at the farmers below, wounded were being pulled away and people were talking to one another.

Rick landed on the roof beside him and handed him his blade. “Dungeon then.”

“Yeah.” Len took the sword with a nod of thanks, and used cleanse on it, removing the blue blood before sheathing it.

“And its overflowing.”

“Not ideal,” Len said.

“Give the troops something to fight when they get here,” Rick said. “Check on the wounded, get everyone inside, fix up defenses and enchant some if you’re up for it.”

Len opened and closed his hand, ever since he found out that he could enchant once more he’d been thinking of the things he could create. All that he had imagined making.

“Lennard?” A man asked hesitantly. He hadn’t heard that name in years, his fami—Len looked at him, frowning as memories flowed to him. “Des?” Len asked.

“Wha—how?” His brother looked from him to the spiders.

“Lennard?” An older man stepped up next to Des, shielding his eyes against the sun.

“Dad,” Len made to move forward.

“I’ll check on the other compound, we’ll need to convert the bodies into cores later. You check in with your family,” Rick said before jumping off the roof towards the other building.

Len nodded numbly he held the pommel of his sword and dropped down to the ground.

People were keeping away from the beasts and most were looking over to Len as his brother Jed joined his father and Des.

His father smiled and hugged him.

Len tensed up and patted the man on the back. Jed and Des looked at him in confusion. Jed was thinner with long hair, while Des was broad of shoulder and looked the most like their father. Both had pitchforks that had a few of the forks cut off to tun them into a make-shift spear.

“What are you doing here?” Len’s father Edward released him from his hug and looked him over.

“Thought that you might be in trouble so I hurried over.”

“The things you were able to do to those creatures, punching them with so much strength,” Edward frowned.

“You’ll start getting the status screen tutorial soon, that’ll make things a bit easier to understand,” Len said.

“Status scre—” Edward blinked, studying a screen only he could see.

“Say status screen and it’ll start up. I’m going to check on the wounded.” Len used the distraction to move closer to those with wounds.

Six lay dead, two more with venom that was eating them from within and five others with various wounds, from broken bones to deep cuts.

Len whistled and grabbed onto the man shuddering on the ground, the venom tearing him up from within.

He threaded his will through the man’s body, grabbing onto the venom and dragging it out of his body.

The green and black poison came out of the large wound that went through his chest where the spider had bit nearly through him.

It wasn’t going to be enough he was too weak. His chest was shattered and he had other wounds from being tossed.

Len grabbed him up and jumped away, the man moaning in pain.

“Clear the area!”

Len grabbed the gold coin he and Rick had been trading and ripped a button from the man’s shirt.

“Sell me this button for a gold coin, drop it into my hand,” Len put the button in the man’s hand. He dropped it into Len’s hand. Len put the gold coin in the man’s hand.

His eyes swam in confusion.

Len looked up at the sky as experience clouds gathered. He bounded away as they dropped onto the man.

He tensed up, unable to even yell in pain as his body and mana was forcefully leveled. Enlightenment dropped from the heavens.

“Gonna need the coin!” Rick yelled from the guy he was working on. He’s been bit on the shoulder, bloody holes from the spider’s fangs going through his upper chest and out his back. The whole thing looked like mangled meat.

Len jumped back to his guy as soon a the enlightenment bolt was gone, grabbing the coin he threw it at Rick. He snatched it with a mana tendril, talking to his guy.

Len studied his patient, the poison that was in his body was still eating him up but at a much slower rate.

He grabbed onto it with his tendrils, the man’s body able to take the rougher treatment. He evaporated the blood out of his lungs and dragged out the remaining gunk, sealing veins before he put his hands on the man’s breastbone and hips, willing them to make more blood.

The patient smacked his lips together and Len stopped. Dehydrating him. He pulled out the last of the poison and healed the veins to stop the internal bleeding throughout the man’s body.

His insides were a mess.

Higher body stat is going to help him.

“Grennar, Grennar!” A woman landed next to Len who fought not to throw her back, getting startled from being so focused.

Len looked between the young man and his mother.

“Give him water or stew with everything ground up like you would with a baby.”

“Thank you, thank you!” She grabbed onto his hand before turning her attention back to her boy. He’s going to need the food for his leveling up and to heal.

Len looked over to Rick. He was pouring a stamina potion down the man’s neck. Not good.

Len stepped on the ground, whistling to let Rick he was on his way.

He landed opposite him on the ground stained by the bolt of enlightenment.

“Cauterize the wounds,” Rick said.

Len pulled out his utility knife, feeding it heat and mana, the blade reddened he pulled the wounds closed as much as possible and cauterized it all closed.

The man jerked slightly. If Rick was cauterizing instead of healing the man’s stamina reserves were too low to heal him without overdrawing and killing him with stamina depletion.

Len worked quickly, grimacing at the sickly-sweet smell that came from burning human flesh.

“Other side,” Len said, moving around the man.

Rick turned him on his side.

“You’re burning him!” A boy yelled.

Len caught his shirt with a hand. “Get him the fuck out of here!” He growled at those that were watching.

Des his brother grabbed the boy, picking him up. Len turned back to his work, fighting for the man’s life.

“Shit.” Rick said. “Heart stopped.”

Len pulled his knife away from the man’s back. “Last wound sealed up.”

Rick dropped the patient’s back to the ground, moving his hands to the wounds in the man’s chest. “Raise his legs.”

Len moved around Rick, grabbing the legs and hiked them up. He could see Rick’s mana tendrils reach into the man’s chest and compress the man’s heart, working it for him.

“Come on you lazy bastard, wake up.”

The boy was crying and thumping on Des. Len spread mana around the man’s body, drawing in heat to warm him to help with the shock.

Rick put his hands on the man’s mouth, leaving a gap between his fingers as the man’s chest wheezed up and down as Rick filled and emptied his lungs.

“Weak, come on, a bit more,” Rick said.

It went on for a few minutes before Rick drew back his mana tendrils, the man’s heart beating by itself.

“There you go, yeah.” Rick grinned as the man’s heart kept beating. The Stamina potion was doing what it was meant to, the man’s color coming back to him, his breathing came stronger.

Rick chuckled and sat back as the man’s body recovered. “Well had me worried there for a second.”

“Bodies are really weak,” Len said.

“Weaker than we’ve dealt with in a long time. Have to be careful, else what we do to try and save their lives will kill them,” Rick agreed.

Len looked to the side. People were gathered, having come out of the house. Some were pushing the spiders off of the fence with poles.

“He’s going to need someone to look over him, keep his legs up above his head. Clean out his wounds with boiled water and bandage them.

A group of women moved forward.

Another pushed past them, her face covered in tears, pulling her skirts up to run, she stumbled as Rick rose to catch her and keep her away from the patient.

“Save my husband! He’s just there!” She pointed at a man off to the side.

“He’s dead.” Rick said.

“No-no! You can fix him! Don’t deny him! Give him one of those drinks! It will save him I know it will.”

“Come here Marigold, come on,” One of the women took a hold of her, another helping pull her away. “Killers! Save him! Save him!” They wrestled her away, talking to her.

“There are more wounded in the houses,” One of the women said as she reached Len and Rick. “I need four strong lads! Marvin, come see your father, be gentle now!” She took the legs from Len as she waved the boy that Des was holding back forward.

Len stepped away.

“I’ll take the other farmhouse,” Rick said.

“Alright,” Len walked towards the house, people moving out of their way.

“Lennard?” He turned to see his mother pushing the front door of their home open, she stepped out, not quite sure squinting before she picked up her pace and hugged him.

“Hi Mom,” He said.

I feel so detached from all of this.

“What are you doing here, you’re supposed to be in Eskon?” She looked him over as his father had, searching for wounds. “I came to get you all.”

“Get us?”

“Take you to Velkaris, someplace safer before mana spreads throughout the world.”

“Mana? What are you talking about?” She asked.

“That’s—well it is going to be a long story.” Len felt weary thinking about it. “I heard there are wounded to check on?” He asked, trying to avoid talking about it all right now.

Just getting used to the fact that his family was alive was…odd.

“We have some, in the kitchen a few of the lads tried to go and find out where the foxes were coming from. They found a crystal cave, when they ventured in it was filled with those creatures,” Her eyes jumped to the spiders. “Two didn’t make it back and three more were wounded.” She gripped the front of her apron in fists.

“I’ll have a look at them, should be able to get them back on their feet. Father you should rebuild the walls and have people watching the forest where the creatures came from.” Len walked towards his family home, healing others would give him time to think.

His mother looked like she wanted to say more but he hurried up his steps.

“What happened?” She asked her husband, Len hearing it easily.

“One lad appeared with a hammer and started hitting the spiders so hard they died in one hit, then Len was in the fray fighting them with his fists and feet, hit that one hard enough its hard crystal shell cracked.”

“How’s that possible?”

“He said its because of these screen things, say status screen honey.”

“Status screen—what is this?”

Len opened the door and walked into the farmhouse hit with the smell of sweaty bodies, tang of blood and smoke.

He moved through the kids and women, gaining access to the kitchen where wounded were laid out on the floor and the large table.

Two women were preparing food on the counters, one stoking the fire under a pot of water.

Len grimaced at the thought of meals being in the same place as the wounded. His sister Laurie was patting the head of one wounded man, his face tensed in a rictus of pain before it settled.

His leg was broken and he had cuts up his side.

Len grabbed the leg, making him moan in agony.

“What are you doing Lentil?” Laurie demanded.

Len lined up the bone pushing the man’s hands away as he tried to stop him. “Just putting this back in place sprout.” He cast a bone fusing spell, the bone knitting back together, the man tensing and then relaxing with a sigh.

The nickname had come unbidden from his lips, a throwback he’d half forgotten.

Len used a scanning spell to see through the man’s body. A corruption was spreading, he used his will to isolate the corruption and drew it out. The man groaned as black gunk flowed out of the teeth puncture marks in his leg.

It smelled putrid as he cast cleanse on it, destroying it.

He pinched the wound closed, using his mana to knit the muscle and skin back together.

“Be a little tight, but it’ll go back to normal with time.” Len assured the man as Laurie wiped away the black blood and studied the wounds. “How?”

“Magic dear sister.” Len moved to the next patient, putting them all back together. “They’re going to need food and water.” He said once he’d finished, the wounded were all able to move around now and he’d cast cleanse across all of the working surfaces and places they’d been.

“Some tea Len,” A girl said, handing him a cup. Len gave her a nod of thanks and drank the tea.

We had quite a few carts to move things around, I’ll check on those see what condition they’re in.

“Think that’s the first time I’ve seen you talk to Amanda without blushing stuttering or trying to crawl away,” Laurie said as she leaned against the counter next to him.

“Hmm?” He swallowed a mouthful of tea and looked at the girl who’d given him the tea. Amanda? The girl I had a crush on?

She noticed his gaze, eyes furtively meeting his before she looked away, blushing and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

Len shrugged “She’s pretty.” He drank from the tea again.

“Who are you and what did you do to Lentil?” She asked.

Len pushed off of the counter and put the empty cup on it. The world fell apart and I survived through it for a hundred and fifty years. Now I’m going to save your lives.” He gave her a tight smile and walked through the house and out the back.

People were working out the front, clearing away the beasts and setting up a new wall as well as ditches.

Len crossed the empty courtyard to the sheds that held the carts. He started inspecting them.

Going to need to make a converter to process all of those dungeon monsters.

He patted the last cart he had checked his eyes travelling to the wall and the tools there.

A cart converter wouldn’t be a bad idea.

He moved to the tools rack. “Be a real simple enchantment.” Taking chisels and a hammer he imagined the blueprint of the enchantment filling the cart and burning into the wood.

Faint blue lines appeared over the cart and pressed into the wood, mana draining from him as they burned a pattern into the wood.

Len dismissed the burning blueprint, , putting his tools down at the back of the cart he selected a chisel and pressed it into the wood, following the burned-in outline.

===

Skill: Carpentry

===

Level: Journeyman (140)

===

Len looked at the roof, dropping his tools he sprinted for the door.

The experience slammed him into the ground as he cleared the threshold of the barn , enlightenment blasted through his mind.

Len picked himself up out of the dirt, a healing spell removing the after effects.

Getting through all these skill ups is a pain in the ass.

===

You have leveled up!

===

Level 1

0% to level 2

===

***

As afternoon began darkening into night Len heard footsteps approaching the barn as he blew the wood chips away from the rune he just finished.

He stood up, looking at the interior of the cart, it was covered in the lines and runes of the enchantment, looking like a geometric piece of art with runes inscribed within.

Len looked up from his work as his father walked to the doorway and leaned against it.

“So, you want to talk about what’s bothering you?” He asked.

“Just need to get these ready so you can pack up what you want and we head to Goran and then Velkaris,” Len said. “I’ve put an enchantment that will draw out the essence of the dungeon beasts and condense cores.”

“When there’s something on your mind and you’re not sure about how to say it or find it hard to talk about, you go off and do the jobs you know you can complete and after a bit of time you’ll finally figure out how you want to say what you want to say. Give yourself time to process,” Edward said.

Len worked his jaw. “Am I that easy to see through?”

“You are to me and your mother.” Edward smiled.

“Mana is spreading through the world and screens, its how Rick and I are so strong, they’re why there’s a dungeon in the nearby forest and those creatures attacked the farm.”

Edward nodded along. “That’s a part of it.”

Len rested his hands on his hips and breathed in, letting it out. “I’ve lived this life before, in it you and the rest of the family died on this farm. This time I want to stop that from happening. Its good to see all of you, though I’m having a hard time taking it in because you’ve well—you’ve been dead to me for over a hundred years.”

“Okay,” Edward’s eyebrow rose and then he nodded. “So, you taking us to Goran and then Velkaris?”

“Is to keep you alive and protected from what’s to come.”

“Have you created a list?” Edward asked.

“Yeah,” Len admitted.

“Always were one for making lists to try and figure out things,” Edward smiled. “Lay it on me.”

“Carts look good, though we’re going to need beasts to pull them.”

“Creatures killed all of them that could pull them,” Edward grimaced.

“Then we’ll need people strong enough to pull them instead,” Len said.

“That’s impossible, they’ll weigh too much and tire people out.”

Len walked over to the nearest cart and grabbed the harness, pulling the cart with ease before releasing the harness and returning to Edward.

“It used to be impossible, but a lot of things just became a lot more doable.” Len held his chin in thought. “We had to do the skill level up with the soldiers anyway, we can set it up so that everyone can do it. Make everyone stronger.”

There was a flash of light and people started yelling. “Looks like someone got a skill-up.” Len took two steps, taking himself out of the barn and another two got him to the back door as people were rushing out. Kids were crying and yelling.

Len moved through the press of people into the kitchen where Amanda was groaning on the floor.

“Nothing to worry about, just need to do cooking and skill related activities outside,” Len yelled as he looked at the hole in the ceiling. Glad we don’t have to fix that now.

Rick walked in through the front door. “Skill up?” Rick asked.

“Yeah I forgot to tell them.” Len kneeled next to Amanda. “You’re okay, you just got a skill in cooking I guess?”

She nodded her head.

“Be careful, you’re going to be a lot stronger than you were before. Come on lets get you walking around.” Len guided her out of the house, people talking and watching them. She put in too much strength to her steps a few times, Len kept a hand on her back, making sure that she didn’t launch herself into the ceiling.

“I can guide her with getting used to her strength, looks like your dad wants to talk to you,” Rick gestured to his father who was watching from the barn.

“This is my friend Rick, he’ll help you out.”

“O-okay, what’s happening to me?”

“Just had a bit of a level up, real fast like, that’s what hurt and the information that flooded your mind, that’s from you increasing your skill,” Rick said, moving up to put a reassuring hand on her back.

Len moved off towards his father, steeling himself for the hard conversation ahead.

“Will Amanda be okay?”

“The system recognized she had a skill and rewarded her with enlightenment and experience. Others will get it too as the system quantifies everyone’s skill and level.”

“How do you get a skill?”

“Practice it, so you would have a farming skill, probably carpentry and smithing because you repair tools and carts, building because you built the barns. Just need to do complete a project with that skill and based on the grade of the item you create you’ll get a correlating skill level.”

Edward held his chin.

“Rick and I will create a skill-up, it’s a lot of stations with tasks that correlate to a skill. You complete the task and station and you’ll get experience and enlightenment as the system figures out how good you are at each skill,” Len said.

“What’s experience?” Edward asked.

“Best way to describe it is—it’s a type of energy that will increase your body and mana stat. You get it for killing things that are as strong or stronger than you, or making things.”

“We need to do something about the spiders and foxes that come from that crystal cave,” Edward said.

“Rick and I will head over there with the soldiers that are coming to clear it out. Though the dungeon will recover with time and more of the creatures will be created.”

“Is there a way to stop it?”

“Just have to keep on dungeon delving it to keep the dungeon recovering and not making more creatures,” Len said.

“We could keep them down if we stayed here,” Edward said.

“The farm isn’t safe anymore,” Len shook his head.

“If we can get strong enough to fight them then we should keep this dungeon from causing other people problems.” His father said.

“This is just one dungeon, there are thousands of them out there and most people are way too weak to deal with them. They’re going to get overrun and killed beasts with magical powers are going to start appearing everywhere, you need to get behind walls.”

“Len farming is all that we know,” His father held out his hands to encompass everything around them.

“What about trains dad?”

Edward stilled. “What about them?”

“I know how you love trains, you’d talk about them all the time. Take us into Warwick to see them passing through whenever you could. You taught me more about boilers and steam engines than I learned in my entire time in Eskon. Rick and I are going to need a conductor to run a train and build the tracks that it will run on.”

“What would you need a train for?”

“To recover mana stone and sell it. If we can mine it all out and sell it then we’ll never have to work again. The family can do whatever they want well into the future,” Len said.

“But you’re saying that we have to leave this all behind? All that we’ve worked for.”

“Yes, if you want everyone to survive. You might have survived today, but you would have been digging graves this night instead of debating whether to leave your home. If I didn’t tell you, you could become stronger would you be thinking of this?”

Edward grimaced. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“These creatures are just a taste of the things to come. Behind walls with fighters defending you is the safest,” Len said.

“What about the harvest? Its ready to be pulled in now.”

Len breathed in and looked out at his family’s fields. Farmers would produce more with the skill ups if the system spread to them. Though there was less than a year before the mana apocalypse ruined everything.

“Harvest everything but keep it, food is going to become much more scarce,” Len said.

“We will have to give some to pay for our taxes,” Edward said.

“We’ll pay for it if we can, you can’t eat money.”

“Just how bad does this get?” Edward asked.

“End of civilization,” Len shrugged.

Edward sunk into thought.

“Why—why do you trust me?” Len asked.

“I know you, I know that you wouldn’t joke about something like this and you are my son.”

“Even if I’m nearly three times your age?”

“That would put you at over a hundred and twenty?”

“More like a hundred and fifty.”

“How?” Edwards asked.

“Mana, it changes everything. I’m going to check out that path to the dungeon, could you take this cart around to the front and have everyone fill it with the beasts from the dungeon, including the blood on the ground.”

“You want to bring them to town?”

“The enchantment will condense their essence into cores that have a lot of uses.”

A group of skill-ups dropped from the sky to the area infront of the house.

“I guess that they finished building a new wall,” Len said. “Dad could you organize a working area outside where people can work on their carpentry and building?”

“You want to increase people’s skills?”

“Yeah,” Len watched as Rick finished talking to Amanda and ran off around the house. Cooks were using an outside cooking area, glancing over to Amanda with worried looks as they worked. “The faster we can skill-up people the safer we’ll all be.”