The sky was pretty and clear, I don't think rain will be in the forecast anytime soon. By contrast the streets were littered with, well, litter. Given the residential nature of this neighborhood, most cars were neatly parked in driveways rather than haphazardly strewn about the street. You could walk for blocks and think everything is normal, albeit dirty. Then you would come upon a string of houses gutted by fire, or with the windows and doors broken in or busted out. The numerous remains of man and monster, sometimes hard to tell apart, also didn't help.
Many people were hiding or hunting, a surprising number in fact. Food or monsters or other people though, it was hard to tell what they were hunting or hiding from. There were a lot of stray dogs out and about as well as at the park. Some people have made their pets a priority even at the end of the world. Jenny still hasn't managed to use her [Tame Animal] skill on them though. The only beings that seemed really unaffected by all this change, had to be the birds in the trees. They sang loud and proud as their ground bound neighbors struggled to survive in this new world.
They also provided a nice distraction while Jenny continued to yell at me for nearly getting us all killed, especially Zoe. I stopped listening and apologizing ten minutes ago, having a dislike for repeating myself. I am sorry about the unnecessary danger I put us in, but she doesn't seemed to have fully accept what I, and I think Zoe, have. We are all likely to die sooner rather than later. Skill and power will help, but a ridiculous amount of luck is going to have to fall our way in order to live to the ripe old age of 'a year from now'.
Our village will help, but I can't help but wonder how many people in the world used the [Camp fire Kits] instead of combining them? Given humanities track record for long term thinking, I'm betting not many. Not to mention, while we've encounter a few assholes, we have yet to be assaulted by a force meaning to kill, capture or enslave us. Also given humanities track record of behavior without authority, I know that's just a matter of time as well. I'm beginning to wonder if anyone else realizes that...
"Enough!" I interrupt her latest repetition. "I get it, I'm sorry, we need to move, or is your sister no longer a priority?"
Rather than giving her a chance to answer, I start to walk in search of our next target. Zoe in her pink Sunday dress catches up quickly and take her favorite position at point. Mr G hasn't said much the last few minutes, other than asking me if I lost my mind attacking that Minotaur, but he at least seem to understand I really was sorry for my idiotic actions. I'm not used to being wrong, or apologizing, but he can tell I mean it, thankfully.
That last battle pushed Jenny and I right into 10 and on the verge of level 11. Mr G was now over halfway to eight and Zoe crosses over into level eight as we walk, confirming that we do in fact receive EXP for everything we do. I'm guessing we just get a bigger boost for class related activities. I'm also betting killing monsters with magic will give me much more EXP than if I were to manage to stab one to death. My stats are raising nicely, but I doubt we are so special that other's haven't been doing their utmost to become stronger too.
Right now my my main concern is my health. At max it is 328, but it won't raise above 295 right now, and moving too fast is painful. I think it might be a cracked rib, but Mr G, isn't a doctor so he doesn't know. His [Recovery] can't fix it without a reagent he says. Congratulations, aside from [Bleed], this is my first real status ailment. Sigh. There were no new spells for reaching level 10, so that was rather disappointing, but I'm having an idea about that anyway. Given my control of [Fire Shot] I'm wondering exactly how much control I can exert over my magic...
Despite all this, the rest of the day actually goes pretty well. We attack goblins, rescue women, and gather a sizable crowd. We direct everyone towards the park, but many people choose to stick with us until the end of the day when we return. many others choose to go their own way and to be honest they have my respect. We gather a bit of food and a few tools throughout the day, but our main goal is to level so we can rescue Jenny's sister. The others at the village will have to prioritize gathering supplies.
With the help of the people we meet, we don't have to scout out the goblins ourselves. Everyone seems to know where some are held up, so we quickly move from from one location to another. At The end of the day, everything but the weapons we've collected are for the crowd to carry for us. In return, we add them two at a time to our group and level them with the attacks on the goblins. At the end of the day, we return to the village with a lot more mouths to feed but also with quite a bit of supplies. We have a lot of camping equipment as I made that a priority.
Jenny and I are level 14, Zoe's at 11 and Mr G is at 12, having gained extra exp with all the healing needed for our new friends and neighbors. We've gathered a boat load of [Cloth Pouch], [Sharp Tooth], and [Goblin Spear]. Shields, clubs, axes, swords and various bits of armour should make Debrah happy as well. Their magic casters only seem to use one spell [Arcane Arrow], but the wands they use vary greatly in quality. We gather a number of scrolls, [Mimicry [Slime]], [Precognition [Intuitive]], [Slow Target] and [Mimicry [Hand]] as well as two skill books. The scrolls we hang on to for now, thinking maybe there might be a way to make copies of them. The skill books go to Mr G and Zoe. [Holy Voice] drops the MP cost of all healing and light spells and [Embodiment [Earth]] turns you into and elemental being. That's a lot of defense and it's best for our little tank.
I would be lying if I said I didn't want both of those, but I couldn't even use the [Holy Voice] and I lost the rock-paper-scissors to Zoe, us two being the only ones who could use the other. If that's the only skill she uses then she has about 50 seconds of use from it, but 50 seconds can be a long time in battle.
Skill Book
Name
Embodiment Earth
Quality
Superior
Req: 80% Earth Affinity
+100 MP, +4% P def
Physical Manifestation and limited control of Earth Element.
What's interesting is that [Holy Voice] only required a 20% Light affinity but only Mr G could use it. I decided not to think too deeply on that. All in all not a bad haul for the day, especially with the various rings and accessories we gathered. Fun fact wearing two necklaces at ones cancels the effects of both. Same for rings and belts, but each ring after the third drops dexterity by one, then four, then 10, then 20. That was as high as we could go before the eighth ring stopped them all from working. Jenny has the highest DEX at 25 so the eighth ring must require a higher value than that.
We ended up with a fair number of [Sun Vine Necklace] and [Moon Vine Necklace] as well as a few rings to bring back to the village. Still aside from the skill books the best thing for Zoe and I were the new weapons.
Tsuga Staff Type Magic Staff Quality Rare Req: Lvl10, 60INT +9 INT Magic conduit with a chance to [Poison] equal to [Earth] affinity
Interesting because for a level 10 to have 60 INT, they would have had to put all but five points into INT, which is 40 out of 45, and that assumes they started with a base of 10, which I believe to be the average at level one. So far I've only put 20 into INT at level 14 and I started with a base of 16. I still have 20 points to distribute and I'm thinking I may need to stop spreading my points so thin in the future. The other staff [Chestnut Staff] we found is a level 9 weapon that required 45 INT and was only of good quality. We also found two weapons for Zoe to choose from
Stone Hammer
Type
2hand, melee Quality
Good
Req: Lvl6, 35STR
+6 STR
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Primitive Slab of Rock with a chance to [Stun]
Cold Brass Axe Type 2hand, melee Quality Rare Req: Lvl10, 60STR +9 STR Heavy Metal Battle-Axe with a chance to [Slow] equal to [Water] affinity
She has no problems using the axe having put most of her points into strength and starting at base 15, but she hangs on to the hammer as well. The look on her face dares us to try and take it. No thanks, I've already promised to choose my battles.
There were a number of questions generated during the day, but the one that kept coming up was the elemental affinity. None of us has any idea on how to find out what that is much less how much of it we have. Ah well, that's a mystery for tomorrow, today we worry about food and shelter. At least that's my worry as we head back to the park. We raid the smaller unprotected stores on the way back, now that we have more people to carry everything. The places with people we leave alone. There are more than a few large stores that have strong monster in the parking lots or judging by the carnage, inside as well.
We arrived at the park with a few hours of light left. The village has gone through a drastic change during our absence. It looks like a refugee camp plain and simple. The place is overflowing with people, pets, children, magical summons, and a few monsters I have to assume have been tamed. The place is a mad house. We are not the only group to head out during the day, and many people have heard about our temporary shelter. We started with 45 people but at the end of one day there must be at least 400 people now.
We find Debrah near the Village fire, looking haggard, greeting newcomers and giving out quests. Her Caribbean accent is stronger than normal and she seems ridiculously grateful to see us. She quickly dismiss the crowd.
"OK, everyone, one las’ time. If you have a crafting class, please go wit Tom to my right, he will assist you furda from here. Magical fighta dem gwan wit Sista Mary. Physical warrior, Dennis tek care a you. I have business to attend to." With that she heads our way. I look over to be sure, but the Dennis she was referring to is in fact the asshole from yesterday. I frown when I see him and he looks no more pleased to see my group.
"So, how was your day?" She nearly barks in inpecable english when she gets close enough. The accent struggles to break free but I'm not sure the tight control bodes well for me.
"Umm, better than yours?" I'm not sure what I've done. "Something, wrong?"
"No," She says, then takes a deep breath, "I should be grateful, just a lot more work than I was expecting, I could have used the support today."
"What happened?" Mr G asks. If I'm right he should have been one of her supervisors at the Sanctuary Group Home, before all this anyway.
"After you left, Dennis and his crew were insistent that I consider passing ownership of the fire to them. They also felt the need to clean their knives while they were asking. I only had Rick to back me up."
The rest of us immediately start to bristle at her story, I look around for Dennis, I knew that asshole was going to be trouble.
"Don't bother," Debrah waves off our concern, "Our original people might have let him get away with it last night, but food and a good night's sleep make them not so quick to choose slavery this time. Him group back down quick enough when out numbered. But we did find out somethings today. After that incident, I thought it might be best for Rick to hang on to ownership of the fire, but it can't be transferred for two years." Good to know.
"Why is he helping you out now if he was such a problem this morning?" I ask.
"Because we've got bigger problems. Have you seen anybody strange walking around since you got back?"
I think about it, but come on, there is a guy with a demon on his shoulder talking to a girl with a tail not 20 feet away. My definition of strange is fairly broad at the moment. I just raise an eyebrow at her.
"Ok fair enough, but if you see anybody walking around with a face mask, be careful, they're trying to start new religion. I want to say they're not getting anywhere but that ain't the case."
"Oh? that Sister Mary have anything to do with that?"
"No, if anything she and some like her, have stronger faith since the Celestials come. They just ignore the part implying their God might not be the only one, nothing new there. The new guys though, they all about being mad at the old god, and trying to appease the new one."
"What new and old gods?"
"Basically their leader is the pray until everything is better type, but he's on the verge of starting a cult. They think everything has gone to hell because a new god is in charge. I'm worried they try something new when they figure praying not going to work."
She had a point. A lot of the shelters and group homes I grew up in were a big fan of religion. I personally believed in the old God about as much as I believed in the Santa Clause. And I never believed in Santa Claus. Considering the amount of damage the old religions did, I can't imagine what someone trying to start a new one could get away with, especially with the breakdown of society and, y'know, actual magic!
"What does this have to do with Dennis?" I ask.
"He's feeling outnumbered and suggested 'the enemy of my enemy' when these guys showed up. I tell him to fuck off at first, but 30 of these people show up this morning, now, there be at least a hundred a dem."
I sighed, just another problem to the list, and it's not like Dennis isn't going to still be a problem to be dealt with eventually. Thankfully, it's too soon to tell if these new religion people will even be a problem.
I should be wondering why she's bringing this problem to me, but I've figured out by now my group looks to me as the leader for some reason. Even Debrah despite the fact that she's pretty much running this village now. None of us are chatter boxes except Rick and Zoe, but he's jolly and she's eight. I'm actually quieter than the rest, but I do as I want and the others seem fine with following for now.
We talk about this new angle for a bit, but the fact is there is nothing we can do until someone does something worthy of our attention. We unload the supplies we've gathered into the piles around the fire. There is food, clothes and a shit load of miscellaneous equipment. The weapons, scrolls and building supplies Debrah feeds to the fire. At first I think she's destroying them, but she explains there is a small resource storage in the fire somehow. It's almost full though, and she surprises us by using one of the tricks of village elder.
"Watch dis." is the only warning we get before a rumble can be heard on the edge of the protection zone. "I was waiting for you to get back before I do dis." Is her only explanation.
She leads us in a walk to the disturbance. The ground is shaking at a certain spot, the soil and loose rocks working there way up out of the ground. Debrah stops and nods approvingly at the mound that grows from the dirt.
"So far this is the only thing we can make, but that's because the fire can't store enough resources it's own. With this we can move on to bigger and better things. "
Suddenly a wooden stake pops out of the ground, then it grows, wider and higher, after a few minutes I can see it's not a stake but a pointing pinnacle of a roof.
"This is our first storage depot ." Debrah says loudly. There is applause and a loud cheer, I turn to see a crowed as gather to watch this new addition to the village be born. You gotta admit, this is pretty cool.
I finally see some of our new residence Debrah was talking about. The ones I can see have a white cloth covering their face, and I get the impression they are trying to imitate the Celestials dream appearance. Yeah, these people are going to be interesting at the very least.
The building grows slowly, Debrah informs us, it is going to take all night, so we attend to other matters. First is healing my ribs. [Blood Leaf] is an chemical reagent growing along the banks of the river not far from our Village fire. It's a small thing that runs through the park, no more than 300 feet at it's widest. The plant are a deep red and lily pad looking. We have to trade, a few of the things we held back from Debrah, but we get a few healing potions thrown in as well. Mr G uses the [Mending Concoction] made from the blood leaf to fully fix my ribs and the 10% missing from my health starts to regenerate.
A few miles upstream is apparently the home of a large group of [River Slime]. An Ooze type monster. They showed no interest in making their way down stream but Debrah had a watch on them anyway. They were large, dog sized, and clear and had already killed one of our villagers. He found out the hard way physical attacks were a bad idea. We had enough magic users to wipe them out despite their higher average level compared to ours, but the alchemist warned that they were the only thing keeping the water clean enough to drink. Living filters apparently.
After washing up while there was daylight left, I was forced to visit the privy trench. Outhouses were vetoed by Debrah in a bid to use everything available to us. The [Farmers] agreed waste could be treated to make decent fertilizer, but wasn't necessary. Our Elder disagreed saying the modern fertilizers wouldn't last forever, so we should use them sparingly. All I know is I hope to get outhouses built soon.
Many people seem to be trying to start miniature gardens, next to tents and flimsy looking lean to's. There were teachers teaching and more than a few people cooking. Stranglers to our village appeared every now and then. Cloth and leather armour was being traded and sold. Weapons were being repaired. All in all not bad for just a few days work. We were a long way from safe or beyond the need for scavenging, but we should be OK if we just got a little time.
Yeah Right.