Landing on a roof, I turn and watch as Sheep lands just beside me, a bit unsteady on his feet. Stabilising himself, he turns and shakes his head.

"Ridiculous. Lvl 1 and we are only slightly stronger than the average human and Lvl 2 means we're jumping between buildings and lifting cars. Such an increase, what will Lvl 3 look like?”

Sheep had awoken earlier than Winter or I, but he had the least amount of increases. Double Strength and Durability. His intelligence hadn't increased like last time and his Reflexes were subpar compared to either I or Winter. His Spell and Talent revealed why.

Inspire:

Inspiration comes naturally. Your presence inspires your allies within one kilometre and gives them a 10% increase to Health, Health Regeneration, Mana and Mana Regeneration.

His talent gave us a natural increase and he had gotten it from his advancement, unlike how Winter and I received a spell. His spell came from being the first Tactician to reach Lvl 2 and being in the top 50.

Double or Nothing:

By activating this spell, your talents and spells are doubled until you are drained of mana. When Drained, your talents and spells will have zero output until your mana is fully regenerated.

Drain is 10 mana every 30 seconds

A very powerful spell and with 50 mana he can sustain the spell for two and a half minutes. In moments of crisis the additional benefit will be well received.

His weapon that he received had been a shotgun handgun. Powerful very close range but useless the moment an enemy is five metres or further. It wasn’t as strong as Winter’s shotgun and it had serious recoil problems. As a result he kept it on him but would use the damaged glock instead, with the promise of Winter duplicating my sniper once she learnt the blueprint.

The issue that we had realised is our ammo count. Winter can craft ammo, in fact the blueprints had been as simple as putting a bullet back together. Even though it's not usable, all she has to do is pour a bit of gunpowder into the casing and place the tip on top and she'll get the blueprints, meaning she can make the casings and complete bullet.

The problem is we don't have the tools to actually make bullets nor do we have a source of gunpowder. At some point we wouldn't receive ammo from the System, or we predicted as such, and would have to rely on ourselves. It's not like we can go to the gunpowder mine and gather it either. Because of that, we decided to use ammo to complete Class quests and get others their Lvl 2, then be frugal with our remaining ammo.

Peeking over the edge of the house, I pursed my lips while retreating back behind cover. The streets were jammed with all sorts of Husks, it's like a crowd of late night shoppers with a special on in several stores. I'd even seen several Screamers in the horde.

"Well we can see the walls to the centre of the town, they're just too tall to see beyond it." Speaking only in hushed tones, we looked towards the walls as Winter spoke.

"Sheep, what's the distance?"

"Er, about a kilometre?"

"Alright, I have an idea but we need to be within five hundred metres. Let's keep going, remember don't put too much strength into jumping."

We had found the Husks don't look up and as long as we're quiet they won't bother us. Though we had grown strong, we knew packs this big would swarm us in seconds. The Screamers would attract more Husks and the Screamers in the new packs would bring more, a never-ending cycle.

As we slowly made our way over houses, we quickly arrived within five hundred metres and stopped. If it had been crowded before, then it’s a lot worse now. While we had made a bit of noise jumping between buildings, it had been nullified by the shuffling of feet, low growling and the sound of Husks walking into objects. The closer we got to the centre, the worse it would get. Looking at the grounds, I spotted a type of Husk I had never seen before. Keeping my head low, I used Hawkeye to get a better look.

It had a gaping, wide open mouth that was giant in size. I had long, limber arms that looked like they could wrap around a person and with it’s mouth possibly devour them whole. It’s too far for Sheep or Winter to make out in the crowd, so I explained what I had seen.

“Another new type? It’s getting worse and faster. We really should look at making the base, this town is going to be extremely difficult to even poke into soon.” Sheep sighs quietly. “Still want to check out the centre?”

“Mm, I’m more sure of it now, there is something in the centre that they’re protecting.” Turning to Winter, I smile. “Airborne.”

Winter tilts her head for a moment before realisation dawns on her face. Cupping her hands and lowering them to the ground, she knelt before Sheep realised what we were doing.

“Wait, wait. What about coming down?”

“I trust Winter with my life, I know she’ll catch me.” Winking towards Sheep and handing him my sniper, and stepping onto Winter’s hands, she launched her hands up.

“Allons-y, Midnight!”

Smiling at her words, I felt myself launched into the air very quickly, like I’m an arrow that had just been fired. Air slams into my face as I keep going higher and higher, a testament to how strong Winter has gotten. Feeling myself slow down as I reach the apex, I turn my body upside down while looking right towards the centre, using Hawkeye and zooming right in.

“Ah, so that explains the quest.” A grin appeared on my face, excitement spreading through my body as I took in the full scene of what laid in the centre of the town. Once done, I started to fall fully and closing my eyes, I twisted my body until my back faced the ground. Smiling lightly and entrusting Rebecca completely, I wait for her to catch me.

A pair of arms grab me, one holding me below my knees and another around my back. It felt wrong for some reason, the way Rebecca held me and putting it off as my ghillie suit changing how I felt her holding me and opening my eyes as I wrap my arms around her neck, I smile and say “My he-”

When my eyes opened, I felt horror in my stomach as I moved my hands to wrap around my catchers throat. Sheep had caught me.

“Why did you catch me?! I had a whole plan to passionately kiss my wife, why did you catch me!”

I wasn’t choking him…hard. Sheep started to laugh as he carried me around and jumped to another roof. “Oh Ruby, nice of you to drop in.”

“Oh, you didn’t. Sigh, let me down.” Sheep dropped me on my butt, I glared at him as he put his hands on his hips.

“Sorry, I just ate popcorn.”

“If it wasn’t for the fact that it didn’t hurt I’d have broken your hands, Sheep.” Hiding my laughter as I ‘glared’ at him, I saw Winter jump over to us, chuckling.

“Sorry, it was my idea for him to catch you. He was panicking but made it look rather easy.”

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Jumping to my feet, I looked at her like she’d just betrayed me before pouting and turning around. “I wanted you to catch me like a princess.”

“Aw, I’m sorry.” Feeling her hands wrap around my waist, she giggled. “Though I can tell when you’re mad, you need to improve on your acting skills, Rubes.”

“Pff, sorry.” Laughing softly, I turned to Sheep as Winter stood aside. “Cheers for the save, Deven.”

“Anytime.” It hadn’t been only Rebecca I trusted with my life, I trusted Deven too. “So, whatcha see?”

“Ah. Let’s get back to the house, I want to tell Jupiter and his team as well.” Seeing them nod, we turn and make our way back the same way we had arrived from. It had taken half a day to arrive this close to the centre, but from what I had seen we would absolutely be making our way back.

As we jumped over the crowds of Husks, I considered how we could fight such a large amount at once. A shot from me would absolutely go through at least three to four of them, but between reloading I alone wouldn’t stand a chance. Thinking over our team comp, I knew that with all ten of us we would be able to stand a chance, but we couldn’t just jump right in.

I also felt thankful that I had heeded Sheep’s request to wait for his advancement. While we hadn’t run into any problems, if I had been alone I might’ve been in real trouble getting close to the walls. There were no tall buildings until about a hundred metres in, and the sheer amount of Husks that close had sent a shiver down my body, nevermind what laid in wait beyond the walls.

Arriving at the house, I headed upstairs and grabbed Jupiter, Silver, Melody and Dawn. All of us stood in the kitchen as I spoke up.

“Tomorrow we will head to the warehouse we found first and grab the remaining rice and then we’ll be leaving town. I had wanted to grab more plumbing and electricity supplies beforehand, but the situation has changed.”

Leaning forward and placing my hands on what remained of the table, I looked deeply at everyone in the room. “At the centre is a large, black obelisk.”

“The same one from your dream?!” Winter’s eyes opened wide as I nodded to her. The others looked confused.

“I’ll explain in a second, but yes. It’s much smaller, the one in my dream had been the size of a skyscraper, this one is about the height of a double story house. Now, about the dream we’re talking about…” I explained the dream in detail, but left out an important part of it, the part about Diana and Jupiter being there. If that is the future, I didn’t want to risk anything by telling them.

The group remained silent before I continued. “That isn’t the only thing in the middle. There is a dragon, laying right in front of the obelisk.”

The room went quiet as they looked at me in shock. Jupiter, Melody and Sheep turned their attention to their Systems as Winter held her chin in thought. Dawn and Silver both looked dazed as they looked at each other.

“How big?” Winter broke the silence.

“Mm, the only thing I can think of comparing it to is the map, it took up at least half of the centre. Its wingspan is unknown, it was sleeping. Its description is exactly like a western fantasy dragon, grey in colour.”

“Could you snipe it from a long distance and kill it?” Sheep looked away from his System and turned to me.

“No idea, though a shot from about a kilometre would scale up to 980 percent damage, I have no idea if it would kill it in that shot, since its defences are unknown. If it can fly it’ll have third dimensional movement, making it tricky to land a shot as well.”

“So, what plan do you have in mind?” Sheep crossed his arms as if waiting. Nodding to him, I looked at everyone.

“As I mentioned, we grab everything we can from the warehouse we found in our early days then leave the town. We need food primarily, we are starting to run short but for now the rice will do. We want to be at Alpha tomorrow afternoon then back to Beta the next day.

“The plan from here is as follows; We will rest for a day at Beta, then we’ll bring everyone to the town. We’ll bring the semi, SUV, minivan and the campervan. Except I’ll have a different focus when we get back into town.”

“What will you be doing?” Winter looks at me questioningly.

“Machinery. I will be focusing on building machines and grinding the Job. I have been banking on Job Points and will spec it all into Radio. It’s twenty points per node level for me, so it will take what I have, but I also have plenty of machines to build for more points. I will then use those points to go into Computering. I want to fully focus on long range communication and hopefully with luck we’ll achieve it.

“Other than that, we’ll separate into three teams. Team one will be led by Winter and will be those who are close to advancing, up to three. Winter will be there to ensure their safety and team one will be responsible for team two. Team two will consist of the other four and will be led by Sheep. Your job will be to find and dismantle as much machinery as possible. The semi will be for this purpose. Team three will be myself and Aerith. She needs the most Job Points and I can help her with gaining them a lot easier if it’s just us two.

“Those within team one are not to advance until all of them are ready to do so, at which point they will advance with Sheep watching over them. Winter will then take the other four where they will fully focus on advancing. In terms of Class quests, I want them to focus on it once they have advanced. If there are any tricky or complicated Class quests then forget about it. Aerith doesn’t have the Class quest, likely because she wasn’t made worthy or because she doesn’t have a Class yet.”

Jupiter and his team had been made worthy, regardless of the outcome of the Nexus event. It seemed that as long as you participated you were marked as worthy in the eyes of the System.

“Once the semi is filled, bring it back to the base. We’ll do this until everyone has finished their advancements and Class quests, by that point I should have results of my own with both Aerith and long range communication. Any questions?”

Jupiter stepped forward. “I like the plan, but doesn’t it put risk on those advancing if the others head out to hunt?”

“Yes, it does. The team who is hunting while others are advancing will focus on clearing the streets around the base first to ensure they aren’t disturbed and I’ll leave my sniper to Sheep. In his own right he’s a good shot so he’ll deal with any threats. Of course, we need to take into account the possibility of a Screamer potentially bringing more Husks to the base, so we can impose a rule that the hunting team must return once every three hours to ensure the area is clear.”

“Is the risk going to be worth it? If we get swarmed, it’s good game.”

Before I could answer, Winter looked at Jupiter. “I understand your concerns, I share them as well. Ru-Midnight’s plan is to advance everyone as quickly as possible because the town is becoming more dangerous every day. We found another new type and if we don’t risk it a bit we’ll lose the chance to kill this dragon. I have a feeling if we don’t kill the dragon we will not find one for a very long time, plus killing it may give us answers…”

I knew what Winter is interested in; the obelisk. I shared that interest as well, I needed to know what the obelisk from my dream is. Looking at Jupiter, I smile gently.

“I wouldn’t ask for such risks to be taken if I could help it. Winter hit it on the head. My biggest concern is that soon this town will be flooded with Husks and it’ll be nearly impossible to get close to the centre. The numbers out here on the outer edges of the town are increasing as well, and while I can’t exactly calculate the time left, I believe we only have about two months before it’s overflooded. If we take it slowly and eliminate risks, the time to advance will be delayed too.”

Jupiter crossed his arms, deep in thought before looking up. “Can I volunteer to advance last and bring those advancing to Beta to eliminate that risk?”

“You can. I do want to have you advance so you can lead your team to help them, but if you wish to volunteer to bring those advancing to Beta then I have no problem. You can’t head back until they’ve advanced and you have to be on guard in case a swarm heads towards Beta, are you fine with that?”

“Yes. If you feel that I can’t advance in time I am fine with not fighting.”

Thinking it over, I knew that they wouldn’t just be able to get all of their Class Points quickly. Aerith hadn’t received the fifty Class points from the Nexus event and is only about ten points out of hundred for example. Ghost and Lemon were in a good position to finish quickly but it might take a few days with collecting machinery. I expect everyone to advance within a month at most.

“Alright, I’ll let you decide on what you want to do. If you wish to volunteer then go for it. But the moment the last four advance, I’ll take you out to finish your advancement while everyone else prepares for the fight, deal?”

“Deal.” Jupiter looked satisfied. I turned to Melody, Silver and Dawn and the three also agreed with the plan.

The meeting dissolves as everyone parts to rest, leaving Sheep and I alone in the kitchen.

“Mid?”

“She.”

“Smartarse. How long have you been up since you slept?”

“Two days, I still feel full of energy.”

“Think those at Lvl 2 don’t need sleep? I woke up yesterday afternoon and I am the same, so is Winter.”

“No, I did sleep, remember? I think it’s about three or four days that we’ll be good without rest or until we deplete our stamina.”

“Well, with you grinding away it’ll be nice to do it days on end without needing to stop. Will you be fine helping Aerith by yourself?”

“Yea, I’ll take it slowly with her until she’s more able in a fight, she doesn’t have confidence in conflicts yet.” Smiling while looking forward to getting everyone to Lvl 2, I walk towards the door out of the kitchen. “Since you don’t need it, I’ll keep my sniper just in case anything happens. Now, distance yourself from our room, interrupt us and I fear Winter may really take your balls.”

Hearing Sheep’s exasperated sigh, he left me with a choice of words. “Don’t be loud again, I can’t exactly drag those four away.”

Blushing at his comment as I remembered the last time, I shook my head free of thoughts as I moved to Winter’s room. To rest, of course.