Adams examined his status page as they rode towards Newton. Thanks to Tom, he finally got around to assigning his stat points. On top of clearing the lairs, he was doing well for himself. Even if it had been exhausting, Tom hadn't been wrong about claiming the Lairs.

The levels and, more importantly, the acquisition of safe zones for the civilians had been more than worthwhile. He looked around at his friends, people he had known for more than a decade. Thorn, Chester, and Casey were all talking and joking with each other like they had been back in the Middle East.

Adams was also happy to start assigning his stats. He had gone with agility over strength. He had guns, and he didn't need to hit harder; he needed to keep his distance from the monsters while he shot them.

"Alright, my turn. What's white on top and black on the bottom?" Chester asked.

"No idea," Casey said.

"Society," Chester said as he started to laugh uncontrollably.

Adams smiled with everyone else as the bad jokes were thrown around. He missed this: somehow, after they came back from the Middle East, they had lost something, something that they had regained with the system.

"Do you think my family is ok?" Casey asked. "I know I shouldn't be, but I'm worried."

"Don't worry," Chester brushed her off. Your dad was a heavyweight champion, and all of your brothers are there with him. Your parents will be fine."

"They also own a chop shop, Hun," Thorn pointed out. "If nothing else, they'll be able to get out of the Los Angeles area."

Thorn reached over, holding her wife's hand in her own. Casey squeezed Thorn's hand as she kept her eyes on the road ahead.

Adams just sat back and tried to enjoy the normal conversation as it washed over him. Or maybe that was one of Chester's new aura things. Regardless, this was nice. It didn't last very long, as they quickly arrived at the Newton police station.

The building was swarming with RCMP—hundreds of police officers around the precinct. An elementary school just across the street from the station provided plenty of room for the officers to park their cars and prepare. Adams could already see a few people loading magazines and cleaning their guns—unfortunately, too few, as he counted most of the officers more concerned with their coffee than their weapons.

"What the hell is going on?" Casey asked.

"Nothing good," Adams warned as they walked towards the precinct.

They walked inside to find dozens of people discussing maps and talking with each other. Adams grabbed one of the LTs who was walking by.

"Major Adams, what is going on here?" he asked.

"Sir," the Lt. saluted, "you are supposed to head further in. The Chief is waiting for you inside. You men are to restock any supplies they need before we move out."

Adams nodded, heading inside as Thorn took everyone else to start preparing. Adams walked inside, giving a crisp salute to the chief on board.

"Sir," Adams said as used [Identify] on reflex

Name: Jeric Cross

Titles: First

Level: 17

Classes: Chief of Police 5 / Fighter 12

Resistances: Physical, Elemental, Mental

Personal Skills: Pursuit Hunter, Storyteller

Police Chief Skills: Teamwork, Respect, Freeze, Police Lore

Fighter Skills: Aim True, Weather the Elements, Eternal Vigil, Warriors Presence, Discerning Eye, Legendary Strength

Captain Cross was bald, looked angry, and appeared to need to eat fewer doughnuts. Adams was mildly surprised at Cross's relatively high level. Most of the people he had seen so far hadn't reached level 10 yet. That was another thing he needed to talk to the chief about. Tom's group had already reached level 20 in less than a week. First responders would need to keep up or risk being under-leveled when they needed to help. He would need to talk to the Chief about the training Tom had put them through and work on putting their own officers through the same training.

"Your Baily Adams?" the chief asked as he flipped through some papers. "You're ex-military, but you didn't stay with the force."

"Couldn't get out of the military mindset, sir," Adams admitted.

Cross nodded. Adams had really tried to become a police officer, but he had problems. Mostly, he had a nasty habit of sliding back into the mindset of a soldier. He kept expecting his squad car to be blown up by an IED or expecting a kid to try and throw a grenade at him.

It was when he had nearly blown off the head of a civilian that he realized that he needed real help. Fortunately, he hadn't discharged his weapon, but it was close, too close. He had realized that if he didn't put down the gun, he was going to kill someone.

So he got into therapy and switched careers to become a firefighter as a compromise. He was still helping people, but unlike being a cop, being a firefighter didn't bring back old memories, and more importantly, he wasn't walking around with a gun.

"Sir, if I may ask, what exactly are we doing here?" Adams asked.

"Before we get into that, what can you tell me about this Awoken Myths guild?" the Chief asked in a way that Adams didn't like. It was almost hostile.

"They're, kids, Sir. The core group are Beta-Testers. These are people who played a game called Legend of Noralon, which they claim was the tutorial that the system mentioned in its first notification.

Thanks to the system, they've managed to rapidly acquire a lot of power. Unlike the rest of us, they aren't wasting time reacting to or figuring out the system. They already know how to exploit it for the best results, and they're using it as such.

That being said, they were not hostile. In fact, they helped us clear multiple settlement locations, allowing us to protect numerous refugees from what they call monsters. I've also encountered other beta testers. Two of these beta-testers attacked the Awoken Myths guild. Their battle wrecked nearly an entire block around Hopkins High School. One of the Awoken Myths members even appeared to die, only to pop back to life. Fortunately, the Awoken Myths have been extremely reasonable and willing to share information with us. The only thing they seemed interested in was keeping Hopkins High School as their 'territory.'" Adams explained.

"Interesting, we've encountered one ourselves. He took out fifteen good officers before we managed to drive him off." Captain Cross said.

Adams winced as he figured out why the chief didn't seem to like them

"If I could inquire, Sir, where is this conversation going?" Adams asked.

"As you know, settlements bring monsters with them when they appear. The one in Kwantlen University brought with it goblins, or at least that's what the blasted system calls them. Unlike every other settlement, however, these goblins seem to roam about Newton, attacking people at random. I've been calling in the RCMP so we can put this problem down."

"Yes, Sir," Adams said, nodding.

"I'm concerned about this 'guild' because we're seeing ordinary people in the news setting themselves up as kings and despots. If we have another problem in Surrey, I want to know about it now," Chief Dara Cross stated.

Adams nodded in agreement.

"We can figure out what to deal with them later. Tomorrow morning at 0900, we're going to head south to attack these goblins."

"Sir, I have a deal with Awoken Myths. I believe they would be willing to assist."

"I won't bring civilians into this. We already have enough fucking problems with people thinking they're superheroes. If people start actually seeing them as heroes, it would set a bad precedent for the future. We need to maintain the people's trust in our institutions, not erode it with civilians playing fucking Lord of the Rings."

"Sir, is that really the bes--" Adams was cut off by Cross's next words.

"Mr.Adams, I am in charge of this operation. If you cannot follow the chain of command, I will have you removed from my sight. Is that understood?!" Cross demanded.

Adams shut his mouth. He had dealt with enough assholes in his life to know that sometimes you just had to shut up and embrace the suck. He would have preferred to do the job right rather than the optics. But he wasn't going to argue with a superior.

"It shouldn't be too difficult," Captain Cross said. "The goblins are primitive, and they use spears and arrows. Even if there are a few hundred of them, we can easily beast them with firearms."

"What about trolls or mages?" Adams asked. "Some of the people who escaped Kwantlen made it to the Awoken Myths guild. On top of that, the guild leader Tom claimed those monsters would be particularly problematic for our men."

"We haven't encountered anything of the sort. In truth, if it weren't for their numbers, we wouldn't need so many officers." Captain Cross stated. "We are getting off-topic, Adams. I want to go over everything you know about the system before we go into battle. I want to make sure we are prepared."

So Adams explained everything he knew about the system to the Captain to the best of his ability. He made sure to mention that Tom and the guild would have better information, but he insisted on keeping the guild at arm's length.

When he was finally let go, it was nearly midnight. He found where the rest of his group was sleeping and found Sgt. Thorn was standing by the firetruck.

"Have you heard what our orders are?" Thorn asked as she leaned against his red firetruck.

"We're heading south to Kwantlen University to clear out goblins. " Adams asked.

"Head down south to the university, kill a bunch of goblins. Are we going to go and get our new friends?" she asked hopefully.

"No, the chief doesn't seem to trust them," Adams said.

"It's a shame. I really liked the big one. He stood between us and the monsters. He's a really nice guy, a bit shy," Lt. Thorn said.

"I liked the one that healed our injuries and resurrected our dead." Adams snorted as he leaned up against his red fire truck.

"Did either of them mention that we're technically part of the guild?" Thorn asked.

"Are we, though?" Adams asked, unsure if something as simple as a system title actually meant anything.

"We have that title. I think that means we're part of the guild." Thorn said.

"Yeah, I guess we are. But no, it never came up," Adams admitted. But he has [Identified], so he'll figure it out soon enough."

"We should probably tell him soon. Better to enjoy the suck now." Thorn pointed out with a yawn.

"Get some sleep. I'll take the first watch. I'll wake Casey at 0300," Adams offered.

Thorn didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed a blanket and a pillow and was out like a light in less than thirty seconds.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Adams chuckled as he took over the job of keeping a lookout for people he considered his family. He was just about to wake up Casey for her shift change when everything went wrong.

BOOOOM

Thorn jerked up, her rifle materializing in her hands. Adams was right behind her as his 12-gauge popped into his hands. Shouts and screaming started up as explosions rocked the area. Adams looked out at the elementary school across the road, where one of the police cars, the school was already on fire, and the flames were spreading to anything nearby. But [Thermal Vision] showed him dozens, maybe hundreds of heat sources that were neither the fire nor the officers.

"Thorn, what do you see?!" Adams asked as his Lt. looked towards the carnage through her scope.

Thorn had sundered her build when they were at Hopkins and became a pure [Markswoman] as a result.

"Little green men, presumably goblins. They're swarming over the officers positioned by the school," she reported.

BANG

Thorn took a shot at reloading and lining up a second shot.

"SGT., get on top of the firetruck and give us some cover. Chester, you're coming with me. Let's help the injured," Adams said as he moved toward where the goblin horde was attacking. He had no plans to get too close to the goblins, but plenty of people were running out of the now-burning school and towards him, who was badly burned, bleeding, or lying on the ground dying, and he could do something about that.

Adams grabbed one of the injured officers as ash floated down around them. The officer was covered in blood after being stabbed in the gut with a small spear. Unfortunately, the officer had already pulled out the spear and was bleeding profusely. He immediately cast a healing spell on him, burning through over a third of his mana in an attempt, but he stopped bleeding. Grabbing the man under the arms, he pulled him back towards the firetruck, where a proper firing line was forming.

Chester had grabbed two others and was already back at the truck, laying them down for Chester. His paramedic was already administering first aid to the two as Adams carried back his own officer. Adams placed the injured officer next to the other two.

Chester was already heading back to get more, and Thorn and Casey were already up on the fire truck's roof, picking off targets one after the other. Adams followed after Chester, charging behind the big man as they made to retrieve the injured.

"DIEE!!!!" a goblin screamed as it lunged at him.

Adams summoned his halligan, swinging his weapon around to meet the goblin's crude ax. He swatted away the weapon before bringing the halligan around and slamming it into the goblin's skull, sending the gangly green creature to the ground. Not even taking a second to catch his breath, he used [Toolkit] to switch to his 12 gauge. His weapon was raised as the goblins reached his position. Adams opened fire, each press of the trigger releasing a burst of bullets, ending the seemingly endless goblin horde.

Chester's arms lit up with magic, and a small bear made out of purple magic popped into existence. The thing grabbed two of the goblins in its paws and slammed them into the ground with a splat before it started to slaughter any goblin that came close.

"I love magic," Chester called out as he chucked a tire at a goblin caving in its skull.

"Chester, be careful," Adams called out, concerned, as his friend unleashed a wave of decay on the goblins, causing necrotic welts to appear on their skin.

Adams watched as Chester charged into the fire and smoke. Adams cursed as he chased after Chester. Leaping into the fire. That's when he noticed an oddity, despite how large the flames were and how close he had gotten. He didn't feel the scorching heat he had been expecting. Oh, he could tell it was hot, hot enough to burn. It just wasn't burning him. He was wandering through fire without burning.

"[Turnout Gear]," he muttered as the realization hit him. Grinning, he zipped up his actual turnout gear and pulled down his mask as he entered the school. Between [Thermal Vision] and [Turnout Gear], he quickly figured out how far he could push his heat resistance and started zipping through the school with ease.

The school was burning. Embers were raining from the ceiling as flames licked up the walls. Children's paintings and posters on the walls were burning and turning to embers. Over the sound of cracking wood, he could hear Chester as he navigated the burning school.

"Chester!! Where are you?" Adams called out. He switched out his 12-gauge for his Haligan because he didn't want the bullets going off in the extreme heat.

There was a crashing sound as a roof collapsed somewhere in the school. Keeping his eyes open, he quickly began to move through the school, searching for anyone who might still be alive.

"Help!" a voice called out weakly. "Help"

Adams immediately moved towards the voice. He found two people huddled under a desk. Grabbing them, he hauled ass out of the building, barely even noticing the two people under his arms as he emerged from the burning school.

Bodies were lined up on the street outside. Some were squirming and moaning. Adams was more worried about the ones who were doing neither. Chester was doing his best to organize the first responders as they tended to the wounded. The goblins were gone; only the green corpses gave any indication they had ever been here.

Captain Cross walked among the injured, barking orders at the few medical personnel who could move.

“Tend to the higher-ranked officers first!” shouted Captain Cross. “Somebody get a head count!”

Chester ran out of the front entrance with a body tucked under each arm. He was hacking and coughing. He set the bodies on the ground and turned away to throw up. No sooner did he spill his guts than he was running back inside.

"Chester," Adams called out, tossing the big man a gas mask.

Chester snatched the mask out of the air and pulled it down over his head before running back into the building.

One of the front windows exploded into a billion glass shards as a desk sailed out through it. The window vomited yet another plume of black smoke. Chester poked his head out through the smoke and sucked in some air. Then, a person flew out of the same window and landed hard on the ground among the broken glass. Adams winced immediately, moving over to help the victim.

Unfortunately, the victim, a woman, was already dead, not from getting thrown through the window but from smoke inhalation, as far as he could tell.

"Goddammit," Adams swore as he moved on to someone else.

The next person he found was covered in heavy burns. Adams Immediately activated his [Stabilize] skill to ensure he didn't die from his injuries. Then he followed through with casting a spell Alex had shown him and cast Lesser Mend. It took almost thirty seconds for him to cast and a third of his mana pool. But the injured man's skin started to return to pink. The moment he was sure the man was going to live, he moved on to the next victim.

Adams ran up to the first body he came across—a paramedic.

“Help me,” gasped the woman, reaching a hand out to Adams.

Adams could feel it when his heart dropped into his stomach as he moved past her. She looked to be in a lot of pain, but his [Identify] and his experience and the fact that he could call out for help at all put him at a lower priority than a lot of the people lying around here. He found a firefighter, his face black with soot except for the stream of blood that flowed out from his forehead. This guy wasn’t moving.

Adams ripped off the Firefighters’s shirtsleeve and wrapped it tight around the wound on his head before casting another lesser mend. He winced as his mana pool dropped even further. He hoped it would be enough as he only had enough mana for one more lesser mend. Then, another window in the side of the school exploded outwards. The chair responsible didn’t fly out this time.

Instead, it swiped back and forth a couple of times against the bottom of the frame, removing any jagged pieces of glass. The chair then disappeared into the smoke, and a human body fell backward out of the window and landed unconsciously on the ground. Chester poked his head through the newly formed avenue of smoke, checked on the person he had just checked through the window, and then ducked back into the burning building. Adams scrambled up to the burning school. Two other firefighters were talking to the person Chester had dropped out the window away from Chester.

When he reached the front of the school, he found Chester. This time, he was inching towards the door, a woman under his arm, and he was dragging at least two limp people behind him. Adams hurried toward him. Chester handed the woman under his arm to Adams and then dragged the two men out of the smoking building. The fires were thinning out, and it was just a massive plume of smoke floating up into the sky.

“That’s it,” Chester said. “There’s nobody else in there.”

“Are you sure?” asked Adams.

“[Life Sense] remember,” Chester said as he ripped off his mask, his eyes red and watery. "No other life signs inside."

Adam helped Chester take the last of the injured to the line of paramedics as the notifications came in.

<[Toolkit] has Reached Level 19>

<[Turnout Gear] has Reached Level 10>

<[Turnout Gear] has Reached Level 11>

<...>

<[Turnout Gear] has Reached Level 18>

<.....>

Adams tuned out the notifications and turned back to one of the paramedics tending to people.

“How bad is it?” asked Adams.

The man frowned. “It’s not good,” he murmured. “One hundred and thirteen injured. thirty-six unconscious but stable.” He hung his head. “Fifty-two dead.”

Adams shook his head. "That's about a third of the people gathered here."

"Closer to forty percent," Paramedic said, clearly depressed.

"We can arrange for the dead to be brought to Hopkins. Tom can bring them back. We might also want to send the injured person there. I'm not saying you guys can't handle it, but …"

Chester waved his hand dismissively.

"Hey, I saw the kid heal over two hundred people within thirty minutes and bring back the dead. I'm happy to just be mediocre in comparison to that."

"I think we need to call off this attack on Kwantlen. We need to get the guild involved in this and ---"

"Absolutely not," Major Cross cut him off. "We are ending this invasion tomorrow morning, and it will be done by the RCMP, not by a band of jumped-up civilians. We already have enough problems before this … system. What happens when some disturbed kid decides to go on a killing spree because he suddenly has superpowers."

"With all due respect, sir, nearly half of our people are injured or dead. We can help the injured, but Tom is the only person we know that can bring back the dead. As the highest-ranking medical officer, I am ordering these people to be immediately delivered to Hopkins. So you can either get on board or shoot me." Chester said as he loomed over the captain.

"Fine," Cross literally spat out the words.

"But we attack at first light. This changes nothing," Captain Cross called out. "We need to eliminate this threat immediately. We move out at dawn, am I understood?"

"Yes, sir," Adams said.

Captain Cross walked away, and Adams looked at Chester, who was already talking to the paramedics.

"I know this isn't a normal medical procedure, but I want you to Send the seriously injured and the dead to Tom. Even if they die in the process, he can bring them back. Right now, I want you to get as many people in fighting condition as possible," Chester said. We can help the rest with magic."

"You know how many regulations that would break, right?" the paramedic asked.

"True, but everyone will come back in perfect condition. So I think they'll forgive us. Besides, we need every healthy body man available for what happens next," Chester said as he glanced around at the destruction the goblins had inflicted on them.

Adams signed as he looked at the world around him. He hoped that Tom and the others were handling this better than they were. Opening up his stat sheet, he assigned his levels and got back to work.

You may skip to the next chapter.

Name: Bailey Adams

Race: Human

Type: Humanoid

LVL: 16

SubRace: British

Age 36

Health: 1200

Stamina: 1520

Mana: 320

Health Regen: 14.4 per hour

Stamina Regen: 19.2 per min

Mana Regen: 6.4 per min

Titles: Major, Awoken Myths

Immune

None

Resistances

Physical 10%, Elemental 9%, Vitality 3%

Weakness

None

Bane

Manslayer

Classes: Firefighter 7, Police Officer 5, Paramedic 3, Major 1

Total

STR: 16

AGIL: 80

DEX: 64

CON: 96

END: 48

PER: 64

INT: 16

WILL: 16

SPIRIT: 48

EGO: 32

CHA: 52

LCK: 16

Base

STR: 16

AGIL: 80

DEX: 64

CON: 96

END: 48

PER: 64

INT: 16

WILL: 16

SPIRIT: 48

EGO: 32

CHA: 48 +10%

LCK: 16

Personal: +4 AGIL, +3 DEX, +3 PER, +2 CON, +2 CHA

Racial: +3 CON, +2 END, +2 SPIRIT, +1 EGO

Skill Slots: 15/60: Skill Points: 0

Personal Skills

- [Pursuite Hunter] - Level 16 >> Level 21

- [Storyteller] - Level N/A

- [Storage] - Level 1 >> Level 19

Fireman 04/11

- [Toolkit] - Level 10 >> Level 19

- [Turnout Gear] - Level 8 >> Level 18

- [Thermal Vision] - Level 7 >> Level 22

- [Greater Detection] - Level 1 >> Level 14

Police Officer 05/11

- [Toughness] - Level 8 >> Level 20

- [Danger Sense] - Level 13 >> Level 21

- [Fancy Feet] - Level 4 >> Level 17

- [Identify] - Level 1 >> Level 4

- [Freeze] - Level 6

Paramedic 02/11

- [Lifeguard] - Level 2 >> Level 6

- [Stabilize] - Level 1 >> Level 9

Major 01/11

- [Military Leader] - Level 1 >> Level 7