Looking at the battlefield before me, I felt impressed at the rate that Aerith had grown. Before me laid three packs of Husks that we had just fought, with Aerith taking out nearly half of it by herself. Seeing her sitting there panting wildly, I considered her weaknesses that I had picked up over the last week and a half.
Firstly, she is fragile. She has fifty total health, compared to me at two hundred this is very little. Winter herself had one thousand health, which made me look fragile compared to her. Second is the freeze times of Frozen Orb. It varied depending on the Husk, with Screamers taking the longest to freeze at thirty seconds, while a Crawler froze within five seconds. Heavies needed three spells but they would freeze within twenty seconds once that third spell hits.
Lastly her movements were slow when compared to others at Lvl 1. While she can outpace most Husks, Runners and Crawlers gave her the most trouble as they kept pace with her. Due to her being an Ice Magician her movement is unlikely to increase, but she is committed to working on this weakness.
Seeing her wave towards me, I first checked our surroundings before jumping down and high fiving her. “Good work.”
“Thanks!” With a big grin, Aerith plopped her butt down on the ground before poking the air, the usual movement of one looking at their System. “I’ve finished the Class Quest and I can advance!”
“Wait, already?!” Looking at her in surprise, I then realised that she had indeed been killing mostly types of Husks that weren’t around while we had been Lvl 1. Frowning a bit while I thought over what I had intended to show her for the next week, I shrugged and plopped down beside her. “Alright, I think we can head back early. How’s Hawkeye going for you?”
After I achieved success in using Fireball, I very quickly learnt how to use Frost Orb as well, but there had been a rather significant problem. Both used vastly more mana than if they were cast by Jupiter or Aerith, using all of my mana and causing my ring to balance mana with Winter. I realised that this would cause problems on a battlefield so I decided to shelf it for now. After telling Aerith about my success, she tried what I had but for Hawkeye and found she could use it rather easily. She also learnt Fireball, but with both spells she suffered the same problems as I did.
We theorised that we had a hidden talent that reduced the cost of our respective spells which is based on our Class, and with both of us finding no fault with that theory decided to leave it at that and shelf using the spells. Aerith however kept practising Hawkeye, and though it only covered about three hundred metres when compared to my two kilometres, she said it might come in handy and I didn’t stop her from practising it.
“I’m used to it now, but haven’t really found a chance to use it when compared to you.” With a small smile, she scratched the back of her head before hugging my arm. “Can we head back now?! I want to advance!”
“We still have half a day, you know? We’ll head back, but if we see the others we’ll help them out. No need to rush it, you’ll just be asleep for two days.”
“Mm, I know, but I’m excited!” Still hugging my arm as we stood, Aerith looked excited. Recently she’d been a bit attached to me, but more in the way a younger sister would be attached to their older sister, so I didn’t mind it. “Let’s go then!” Tugging on my arm as I chuckle, I scope her up around the waist and jump onto the roof.
Although we had travelled quite far from the rest, I have been keeping track of our location with a map, and recalling the path back I jumped with Aerith, who cheered each time we jumped, and as we got within a few kilometres of the base I saw the rest a bit away from us, about a kilometre or two away. Jumping towards that point, I stopped just within a kilometre and put Aerith down, intending to teach her a lesson.
“Aerith, now that we’re approaching friendlies, what do you think we should do first, to avoid them firing on us by accident?”
“Announce ourselves.”
“Correct, how do we do that?”
“By using radi-Oh!” Realisation dawns on her face as she looks at me. With a nod, I handed her the scope of my sniper. “Now, have a look at the group, they’re there.” Pointing in the direction, I watched as she adjusted the scope and looked at the others. “Now, who isn’t there?”
“Jupiter, Silver, Melody and Ghost.”
“Good, they have most likely gone to Beta to advance with Jupiter driving them there. Now this means the others are working on advancing by luring monsters over, meaning they are fully focused on fighting rather than protecting. Tell me, what is Sheep doing now?”
“He’s watching the group…no, he just moved his sight to the sides of them and further ahead. He’s looking for threats?”
“Yes and no. Like we did, they’re likely purposefully controlling the group and letting a Screamer let their voice ring out. Look further down the street from where they are.”
“A pack of Husks are moving towards them.”
“This is what Sheep will have his attention on and will be relaying to the rest of them by yelling out. Now, since we can’t announce ourselves we will have to rely on Sheep to do it for us. What do you think will be the best way to do that?”
Aerith thinks for a moment before responding. “By shooting Husks, preferably the pack that he is watching.”
“You’re on a roll. One or two shots will do it, Sheep will very quickly realise a sniper has just shot them and will then look to locate us. Remember how I said Sheep is trained as a counter sniper? He’ll figure out very quickly where the shots came from and as long as we keep ourselves within clear line of sight he’ll spot us. Once he does, he’ll wave to us before announcing our arrival to the others. This prevents the group from being surprised and causing accidental friendly fire.”
Taking the scope back and aiming at a Heavy, I adjust before firing, the head and torso of the Heavy exploding in a shower of purple blood and flesh.
“Ah, he turned to us straight away! That’s fast. Oh, he’s waving at us now…he’s turned to the others and yelled at them.”
“And like that, we’ve now announced our arrival and potentially annoyed them by killing a Heavy, but it’s no big deal since it means we won’t be shot at now. Let’s go.” Scoping Aerith up again, we continue making a beeline towards Sheep, and with one final leap, I land next to him and place Aerith down.
“Mid.”
“Sheep.”
With a basic greeting, I looked over the others who had just started to fight the new group of Husks.
“How goes the grind?”
“Slow initially, but now we’re not protecting the gatherers, it's sped up a lot. By my calculation Dawn and Lemon are ready to advance, we’re just using this time to practise. YOU GUYS, STOP AFTER THIS, WE DON’T NEED ANYMORE.” With that shout, I watched Winter step forward and clean up the Screamer who had been wandering the battlefield. The Screamers would let loose a mighty scream for thirty seconds before stopping for a few minutes. They were non-combatants and would just stumble about the battlefield after screaming so it made sense they kept one alive.
“Aerith, how is your training? I take it you guys were in the area?”
“O-oh, I’m ready to advance and I finished the Class Quest.”
“Already?!” Sheep casts a look of disbelief at me before looking back at Aerith. “Well, get in there, show us what you can do.” Aerith nods eagerly and jumps down into the battle. “Mid, how the hell did you achieve her growth in less than a fortnight?”
“Honestly her growth was fast. We discussed it and put it down to the fact our bodies are made for combat.” Explaining the discussion I had with Aerith, Sheep nodded thoughtfully while crossing his arms.
“Makes sense. I hadn’t thought of it like that. Honestly I saw her as a weak little girl because of how we found her when she first arrived. It’s not really growth then, but more like she’s catching up, yea?”
“Mm, that’s how I think about it. Seeing her fight now, she’s at the same level as Dawn and Lemon.” Watching her fight, I noted down her mistakes and lack of communication, though she avoided actually doing anything to compromise the others. “She’s got a lot of potential to be a good leader by the way.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Is that so?”
“Yea, she soaks up whatever I teach her very quickly. I’ve been teaching her about how we’d position, formations and more and she’d memorised it all.”
“Trying to replace me, Mid?” Chuckling a bit, Sheep nodded thoughtfully. “In that case, once she advances I’ll teach her and Jupiter about commanding a battlefield. Having others that can take over for me in case something happens will be good.”
As the others clean up the Husks, Winter nods and jumps up to us as the final Husk dies and nearly runs at me, embracing me tightly as I return it.
“I got worried when our mana balanced out, was everything okay?” Winter parts from me as she looks me up and down.
“Oh, that happened because I did this.” Holding out a hand, I cast Fireball. Our mana pools instantly balanced each other as Sheep and Winter looked at the fireball in my hand in disbelief. “The only downside is that I can only make it this strong, it drains my mana to zero with just this much.”
“How strong is it compared to Jupiter’s?”
“About half. Same for when I cast Frozen Orb.”
“You can use that too?” Nodding to Sheep’s question, he shook his head in the next moment. “The fact it drains your mana means you’ve likely shelved it, correct?”
“Mm, it’s useful in too few scenarios since its cost is too high.” Telling them both of the theory Aerith and I had, they nodded thoughtfully, both agreeing it would likely be the case.
“Right, do we have any reason to remain in the town if the rest are ready to advance?”
“Jupiter still needs to advance and we are well under the schedule so we can get his advancement done. Then, the dragon…” Looking towards the centre of the town, I purse my lips before turning to Sheep. “I’ll keep on overwatch and guide you guys back. How’s the semi?”
“Full and back at Beta. We found a lot of different stores and a warehouse filled with non-perishables, wiring, pipes, machinery and what looks to be a computer store.” Raising an eyebrow, Sheep nods. “Laptops and PCs. They turn on, but there is no GUI and we don’t understand the language so we set them aside for you to learn the blueprint with, maybe we can build our own computers?”
“I really hope you aren’t asking me to create an entire operating system.”
“What about the Computing blueprints?”
“Machinery, Sheep. Not Computer Science.”
“But you have a degree in CS.”
“Yea, and programming an entire operating system is a little more advanced than a program.” Sighing lightly, I giggle and wrap my arm around Winter’s waist. “I’ll learn the blueprints of course, but I don’t think we can expect computers just yet.” With a bit more discussion between the three of us, they jumped off while I remained on overwatch, and just as the sun started to set we arrived back at the base.
Excitedly retrieving an iced coffee from the fridge, I sat down on Winter’s lap as I told her about Aerith’s training, who had come over and sat nearby, filling in details while Winter told us about their training.
As night fell, Aerith parted ways to head upstairs and before I could get up, Winter dragged me into another room, her intent very clear from her words. “We’re not sleeping tonight.”
Laying there as the sunlight came through the curtains, we laid there talking in low voices, recovering from the night.
“So she’s been a bit clingy recently? It’s good she’s opening up, I noticed her confidence last night.” I had just finished telling Rebecca about how Kate had been treating me as a sister. “The theory you two have about our mindsets changing when it comes to our bodies is likely spot on as well.” Feeling her breath on my neck as she used my arm as a pillow caused me to feel an extreme comfort.
“Mm. I wonder what our parents will say about these bodies?”
“Haha, dad will be confused. Mrs Piper will probably just spoil us and dress us up, like she always did.”
“That’s if she doesn’t overfeed us beforehand.” Both of us chuckle and look at the curtains, I sigh lightly.
“Mm, if you want, we can go another round?” Rebecca shifts and looks up at me. Before we could even consider her idea, knocking came from the door before loud footsteps walked away. This time Rebecca sighed. “Damn him. When Diana and him are together next I’m going to interrupt them.”
Laughing lightly, I caress her back and sit up myself. We dress ourselves before heading out of the room, Rebecca holding my hand the entire time. Seems she doesn’t mind if Dawn saw us like this, and as long as she didn’t mind I wouldn’t either.
Retrieving a hot coffee, two apples and beef jerky, we sat down and ate rather quickly while discussing the plan with the others. We would first head back to Beta where the others would advance while I started on making radios and learning the blueprints for what they had found. Whether or not it’s a loophole, having a dismantler dismantle a machine and piecing it back really made progression speed up. It became overpowered when it allowed Winter to learn blueprints for weapons we found. Her Talents had sped up too, with her telling me she had the choice to go for Assault Weapons, Long Range Weapons and Melee Weapons. She didn’t have the points to go for them now, but once she banked more she would go for them.
Deciding on who would go in what car, we decided to all ride along in the minivan and leave the SUV behind in case anyone found our messages. Jupiter and the others had taken the campervan and semi back to Beta two days ago and when I inquired about whether or not they might come back, Sheep said that they would stay at Beta for three days to unload the Semi.
We decided to leave the generator, fridge and freeze behind, but not before plundering some fruit, drinks and frozen meat for later today. Everyone piles into the minivan while I jump onto a roof and act as overwatch with Winter standing on the vehicle itself. Guiding the minivan through the streets, it’s not long until we’re out of the town and with Winter and I getting in, we head towards Beta.
With the exception of Winter, Sheep and I, everyone else remained quiet as they seemed nervous about their advancement, but with the three of us telling them of our experience, which really only consisted of waking up with more strength, they relaxed a bit more. Arriving at the turn off and with a short drive, we pulled up alongside the semi.
Getting out and stretching, I saw the others and waved at them before heading towards Jupiter, intending to chat with the newly advanced guys after.
“You guys are back rather fast, did something happen?” Jupiter nods towards me and puts down what he had been carrying, turning his attention to me.
“Nah, everyone is just ready to advance. The only one left is you.”
“Got it. Though it’s surprising that everyone is ready this quickly, I thought it would take a month like you said.”
“Well, as it turns out they kept luring Husks with a Screamer and with Winter and Sheep watching them the Husks weren’t really a threat.”
“Makes sense. Silver and Melody have regained a lot more confidence, they said that being a part of a bigger group like this has increased their confidence in surviving. I just hope they don’t get overconfident, especially after their advancements.”
We sat down as we watched the others meeting up. “How did their advancements go?”
“Good, except for Silver. The System gave Ghost and Melody rewards, but only for being the first in their Class to reach Lvl 2. Silver didn’t get it and all three didn’t get a reward for top fifty either. That reward seems to be the clothing or armour by the way, Melody and Ghost both received a talent stone. Silver is a bit bummed out about it, but he said he’ll live.”
“Ah, shit. YOU LOT, GO ADVANCE NOW. FIND A FREE SPOT. TOP 50 REWARDS ARE GONE!” Yelling at the group who all jumped at the sound of my voice, Aerith, Dawn and Lemon all scattered, with Aerith and Dawn going to the campervan and Lemon the minivan. Stomping my foot down at seeing the girls go to the campervan, I resisted the urge to drag them out and throw them in the semi before sitting down again.
“Fill me in on what they received.”
“Sure. Ghost is frightening with what he received. Dual silenced pistols is the weapon he received along with a spell that adds unique poison to any weapon he uses depending on the hand the weapon is in. It costs all of his mana, but once applied it will remain until he runs out of ammo. The right hand’s poison causes a target to become weakened, lowering their defences over time, 5% every five seconds up to 25% total. The left hand does stacking damage, though we don’t know how much. If a target is afflicted by both, the numbers are doubled.
“As for his talent, it’s ridiculous. To those that he considered unfriendly he becomes extremely hard to detect. We don’t know how strong it is, but he believes that as long as he’s not just waltzing down the street he’ll keep himself hidden. In addition, he has the typical additional damage when shooting or stabbing when something doesn’t know he’s there, basically a stealth backstab.”
“Go Ghost…” Glancing in his direction with a brow raised, our eyes met as he flexed, winked and went back to unpacking the semi.
“Melody has a new spell in addition to the two she had, which were to apply a shield or place a barrier down. It applies a shield to everyone in the party that displays on the HUD, but if she targets someone outside of the party they still get the shield as well as the person she targets. Her talent is a lifesaver, her shields convert themselves into health when damaged, healing that person. A full shield provides about fifty percent of your maximum health and the healing is fifty percent of the shield in total if the full shield is used up.”
So if one had one hundred health, one of Melody’s shields would provide twenty five points of healing. Doing the maths I realised she’d provide twenty five percent healing no matter what. ”How does healing work?” Turning to Jupiter, I saw him shrug.
“Never been hurt, have you?” I told him we hadn’t but looked at him with a bit of surprise. Seeing him smile, he responded. “We didn’t just stand still and let ourselves be hurt during the Nexus event. When we lost Clown and Ashby we still responded instantly and retreated to the bunker, their loss never really hit until afterwards.”
“I see.” Unsure on how to respond, I remained quiet while trying to think of what to say. Thankfully Jupiter continued the previous topic.
“Melody’s weapon is a staff, meaning she will need a gun of sorts as back up. As for Silver, he got what appears to be a katana. As for his spell, when it’s active it fires off an energy blade outwards when he swings his sword. As I said, he didn’t get anything else.”
Sighing, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “How is he now?”
“Still down as I mentioned before. It’s certainly a hit to have him lose a talent, but his speed, strength and the new spell keeps him around our level.”
“Mm, I’m more worried that he’ll feel like he can’t keep up.” Getting up, I look towards the semi before turning to him. “Get ready by tomorrow. Sheep will be taking you so you can advance.” Jupiter looked at me with surprise before nodding with determination.