Loch dismissed the Status. Level Twenty-Six. Cerie had said that Adapted, like the elves and humans, couldn’t be considered Elite. Their Levels were set. A Level Twenty-Five was a Level Twenty-Five. The differences were in the Achievements and equipment.

She had also said that newly Adapted tended to have more bonuses from Achievements compared to someone from a world that had been Connected for a long time. Loch could understand the reasoning. A lot of his Achievements were first time things. Those wouldn’t be available to future generations. And if a Connected World had been under a specific Clan’s control for a long time, the chances were lower at getting multiple Killer and Bane Achievements. Equipment might be more plentiful and make up the difference but in all of Cerie’s history on other Connected Worlds, the newly Adapted had a bit of an edge because of Achievements and their ability to go beyond the Level Twenty-Five cap.

It gave them a fighting chance against other Adapted. The Connected System wanted its Adapted to Advance and the most rapid Advancement came from newly Connected worlds. It gained a lot from them, far more than it did from a world that had been Connected for centuries or even decades. That was the main reason the Connected System kept reaching out to claim more worlds. It had to keep feeding itself.

At that moment, all Loch cared about was that he was Level Twenty-Six. He was above the Silver Bark’s leader on Earth. Hoskia Silver Bark. That was the name given by Elora. She didn’t know his exact Class, just that he seemed melee-centric. Not that she knew much. She’d never seen the elf fight or use any Abilities. He carried two heavily enchanted swords.

Experience mattered, but so did sheer strength.

Level Twenty-Six was higher than Level Twenty-Five. It gave Loch a bit of an advantage. Barely. And Loch had a lot of first time Achievements, and might be able to get more. He had a lot of Achievements. Most of the bonuses didn’t reflect in his Status, just added on depending on his actions. He had a lot of buffing Abilities.

Cerie had said that with his Abilities and Achievements, he might be considered two or maybe three Levels higher. And Hoskia Silver Bark would be capped at Level Twenty-Five. Abilities, Achievements and even equipment would be debuffed a bit. Maybe Hoskia would be equivalent to a Level Twenty-Seven or Twenty-Eight. The same as Loch.

The difference was that Loch could get stronger where Hoskia couldn’t. At least not yet. Given time, when the Level Cap would be dissolved, Hoskia would get all his Abilities back. And he’d be able to overpower Loch easily at that point.

But for now? Loch had the advantage as long as he kept getting stronger.

Which is what he decided he needed to do.

As much as he hated the leveling system, and being thrust into the role of the strongman, Loch knew he had to embrace it. That was the only way to defeat the elves. He had to play by the Connected System’s rules.

To an extent.

He’d never give up his goals or morals, the future he wanted for Clan Brady, or the way he wanted the Clan to be. He’d been resisting the direction the Connection was pushing him. He didn’t want to let power and strength be the deciding factor. But it was. The Levels proved that.

If Hoskia was equivalent to Level Twenty-Seven, Loch would just have to be higher.

Not as simple as it sounded, but it was a plan.

Loch had mostly been reactive. He was Leveling quicker than anyone else, but he’d had advantages, if they could be called that, earlier. Killing the giant and Misheal Silver Bark had pushed him higher. The Challenge Dungeon at a lower Level had pushed even more. But looking at the Ranking Board, Loch could see that others were getting stronger and growing. Probably faster than he had.

Maybe they had the same advantages, but most likely those people were doing what the Connected System wanted. They were pushing faster and Advancing by actually grinding out the Levels. Loch was doing what the Clan required, when it required, and he kept Advancing.

But how fast could he Level if he actively sought out things to fight? Other Dungeons to delve? He could get more Achievements, maybe more equipment for himself and others. But most importantly, he’d gain Levels.

Loch leaned back against the tree, looking up at the stars through the gaps in the leaves. Familiar constellations.

It was a plan. Not a good one, but one they needed. Loch had to actively Level if they had any hope of fighting off the Silver Bark. Not just him, but the other higher Leveled in the Clan. Brian Jefferson, Davis Millman, Drew Meyers, Elora Seedspear, Roger and his group, even Josh and his people. And even Harper and Piper.

If Levels were basically equal, the only way to offset the experience of the Silver Bark was in strength. That meant Achievements, Levels and equipment. But mostly Levels. If they could Level their people faster, they’d have the advantage. It was all well and good to say that, but Loch knew they’d come up against the same issue they’d been dealing with.

Time.

Not enough places for people to Level. Not enough Dungeons, not with the cooldowns. There would soon be people high Level enough to send to the new Crone Dungeon but after that, where would they go? The Connection might seem like a video game, but it really wasn’t. Old games had zones, progression starting at the low leveled zones and moving to higher leveled as the characters advanced.

The real world wasn’t like that. There were no high level zones to travel to, not that Loch knew or had found and Cerie agreed. The fairy said that only Dungeons were Level controlled. To find higher Leveled creatures, they’d have to travel and get lucky.

That meant Clan Brady needed to find more Dungeons.

Easier said than done.

Loch looked to the fire where most of the now larger group was gathered. He could make out T.J. Wolf sitting next to Kyle. They were talking with one of the newcomers from Stephanie’s group. Loch didn’t know the man’s name but thought he’d been told the man had a Hunter Class. Could T.J. find Dungeons? There was no way Loch could send the man out by himself, but maybe send him with Davis or Drew’s groups?

A strong gust of wind blew through the clearing, causing the fire to snap and crackle, the flames set to dancing. A couple people moved back as the flames came pretty close. Loch thought he heard one of the twins making fun of the other. Another gust made the canvas of the tents snap.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Loch pulled the blanket he had around his shoulders closer. The wind had dropped the temperature.

It had been very windy for a while before the Connection and had only picked up afterwards. Loch had gotten used to its almost constant presence, but the last day or so it had seemed to pick up. Stronger than before, with random more powerful gusts.

He shifted, looking up at the stars, not ready to sleep yet. He needed to as he was due for a long watch shift closer to morning. Tired of looking at notifications, Loch pulled up one more.

The ranking board.

He avoided checking it, not caring about where he stood, only interested in where one person stood on the rankings. A way to make sure that person was alive. He knew the girls checked almost daily, maybe a couple times a day. The thoughts he’d kept locked up were leaking out more often now. Part of him wanted to let them. The ranking board gave good news.

But it didn’t tell him where she was or what kind of danger she was in. All it told him was that his wife was alive.

Looking at the board, he saw that she’d moved up a couple spots, now in the top thirty Adapted in the world. The name wasn’t in a different font. It didn’t glow or wasn’t larger. But it stood out to Loch, making him smile.

KELLY BRADY

Allowing the brief smile, Loch pushed the thoughts away again. She was alive and he knew he’d see her someday. But he couldn’t think of that. There were the girls and the entirety of Clan Brady to worry about. Someday he’d find Kelly, even if he had to hunt over the entire enlarged Earth, but that day was not tomorrow or even next week.

He couldn’t abandon the people that relied on him.

There were too many threats.

But someday there wouldn’t be.

****

The night was rough.

The wind picked up, the constant gusts pushing against the tents. No one got a full night’s rest. Not just the canvas of the tents made noise, but the trees as well. Even with most having gotten taller and wider, the wind still rushed through the branches. It caused the tops to sway, the leaves rustling against each other.

Loch had spent the last couple hours on watch, the wind pushing against him as he walked. The fire had been put out, afraid the wind would push sparks into the tents. Without the light from the flames, the night had gotten darker. The shadows under the trees deeper. With his Level-ups, Loch’s night vision had gotten better but it wasn’t good enough to peer into the gloom of the night.

The wind was loud but it had silenced the rest of the nocturnal noises. The night time animals had all gone to ground, hiding in their dens to get out of the unrelenting wind. It wasn’t a cold wind, but it still brought a chill.

Or maybe it was just Loch’s thoughts.

The lack of light had turned his thoughts darker.

Loch wasn’t a fan of this time of night. Closer to morning but still dark. Even the nocturnal animals had returned to their dens and nests. It was silent. A strangeness to the night that only the morning sun would drive away. That sun wasn’t there yet and wouldn’t be for a couple more hours.

He always felt like he was being watched, even when he knew there was nothing.

This was the time of night when people were most tired, which was why he wanted to take that shift. In movies and books, it was the time of the night when ambushes or attacks would happen because the guards would be tired and not as attentive.

As much as Loch tried to focus on the woods around him, listening to the few noises, trying to sense if anything was lurking, he still found his thoughts wandering. So much to worry about. Even with Ed, Kristin, Darren and the others taking on larger roles and handling everything at the Clanhold, Loch was still pulled into more than he wanted to be.

Part of it was his fault. He couldn’t step fully away. He kept saying he wanted to, and needed to, but he just couldn’t do it. Not yet. Maybe not ever. It just wasn’t in him to fully let go. At least with the notebooks and Kristin’s Ability, he wasn’t confined to the Clanhold. Communication was a lot easier.

Still not perfect and there was a limit to how many of the books Kristin could create. Was there a limit to their range? If there was, they hadn’t hit it yet.

They had to find a way for other groups to communicate. If he was going to send T.J. and a group out to hunt for more Dungeons, they had to have a way to communicate with the Clanhold. With the increase in the size of the planet, what used to take hours would now take days. If a Dungeon was found, the Clanhold would have to wait for the scouts to return before they could head out to the new Dungeons.

That would take too long.

He’d have to give up his notebook.

Cerie had said there were methods of long range communication using crystals, but no one in the Clanhold had an Ability that would create those crystals. The fairy didn’t know how it was done either. One of the more annoying gaps in her data.

That such crystals existed, how they were made and used, was common knowledge on worlds that had been Connected for a long time. The Silver Bark had mostly filled her with knowledge they felt they’d need on the newly Connected World. There was a lot of knowledge that the Silver Bark, being a race long Adapted, just took for granted.

The more that Cerie recited to Piper, the more gaps they discovered. It was frustrating for everyone, including Cerie. She didn’t even realize there were gaps. Discovering them reminded her that she wasn’t a real creature anymore, just a memory locked into the Codex Band.

Natives of a newly Connected world got a lot of advantages but Loch wasn’t convinced they equalled out to experience and knowledge that came with having grown up in the Connection. The real advantage the natives had was in numbers. Even with all the deaths when the Connected System arrived, and all the deaths that occurred immediately after and since, there still had to be millions or maybe even billions of humans left alive. The problem was with the planet getting bigger the pockets of survivors were more spread out. It was harder to come together.

Most likely on purpose by the Connection.

It was a way to create strong Clans. Weak natives would be destroyed or enslaved by the invaders, making the invading Clans stronger. But if the natives were strong, they would push back the invaders and reclaim their world. A newly Adapted Clan that did that? They would become monsters in the universe.

Either way the Connected System won. It would reap the Spirit from all that fought, survived and thrived. Or died. It would take their Spirit as well. No matter what, the Connection grew stronger.

Northwood had a lot of people, and more kept coming in from the surrounding towns. They were drawn by the Clanhold. If the area had this many people, what would the larger nearby cities like Concord, Dover or Rochester have?

How long would it take to get to any of them?

Loch sighed. He wanted to go to one of the cities, probably Concord, and see what the situation there was like but there was no way it would happen anytime soon. Not with all the current threats and things he had to deal with. Could they send a scout? Who would volunteer to go?

And would they get there before winter set in?

It was fast approaching and the Clan was not ready.

That was the priority.

Preparing for winter.

And the Silver Bark.