“There it is…” On the horizon, a town slowly came into view. We had been driving for nearly three days straight and seeing the city in the distance gave us some relief to know the journey was nearly over. “Get ready everyone, remember to stick with the plan and nothing else. If it goes sideways we’ll just take it on the chin and retreat, we can’t afford to be surrounded.”
The five with me all nodded as Ghost, who was driving, accelerated slightly, acting as if we’re a bunch of nomads eager to enter the town. Looking at myself in the mirror, I played with my beanie a bit and made sure my outfit looked good enough.
As to play the part, we had dressed in very poor clothing and dirtied our faces while also hiding any features of our Lvl 3 evolution. The beanie I had on covered my elven ears and as to ensure my good looks were reduced I had dirtied my face as much as possible. I had wanted to add horrific scarring but due to a lack of makeup and makeup artists, we were limited to using what we had on hand. Everything we needed was in the storage rings of myself, Ghost and Rebecca.
As we approached, a blockade came into view, with two people standing on the road armed with assault rifles. They had them pointed at the ground and as we got closer they both waved at us to pull over. Breathing deeply, I give a nod to Ghost who complied and turned the car onto the side of the road, pulling up just short of the two guards.
From a small hut nearby, another three people came out, all armed with an assault rifle. One of them approached and banged on the hood of the car.
“Out. Hands on your head. Any suspicious movement and you’ll be gunned down where you stand.”
Without a fuss, the size of us exited the vehicle with our hands on our heads. While bullets would bounce off my magic shield, the others didn't have such luxury. They were prone to taking damage from bullets, unsurprisingly. We had planned this out already, and sneaking a glance at Geralt, I saw him begin.
“Just don't point those ruddy things at us! The last group killed one of ours by being too trigger heavy!”
“As long as you follow our instructions we won't have a need to and you'll be given passage to Haven. You all struck out on luck, Haven is the safest place around.” A voice behind me spoke with a humoured tone. It made me wonder if they knew about Lux. “Right, against the car. Clara, Elise, pat the females down.”
Feeling a soft pair of hands suddenly patting me down, I waited for Geralt.
“Oi, why are you patting us down?”
“As per the rules in Haven, you can not take weaponry in. Any weapons found will need to be given up and stored. Of course, if you ever wish to leave Haven, you can reclaim them…”
Feeling the pair of hands find my Glock around my belt, I tsked and grabbed the female's hand.
“Oi! Nightsky, do as they say! Don't make a fuss.”
“Yes, boss.” Replying to Geralt, I released the female's hand and allowed her to take my handgun. It was at this moment I felt a familiar feeling…I'm scoped by a sniper. No, two snipers.
We had planned this act out, that we were a bunch of lost nomads that had stumbled across Haven by chance. So far we hadn't even had to use nearly anything we had planned, they seemed to just accept our arrival here.
Once the pat downs were done, and the feeling of being scoped by one sniper goes away, we heard the voice speak once more.
“Welcome to Haven. From here on you will be walking, the car and anything inside of it will be taken by us.”
“Wait a mi-” As Geralt raised his voice, two men raised their assault rifles at him, causing him to stop.
“We get it, us taking your property seems a bit much. But consider it a contribution to the city that will protect you until we can return home. We survived both Nexus attacks with nearly no deaths and killed a dragon! You know what that means, right?”
We stare at him, lost. He grinned and put his hands on his hips.
“That's right! Unity of the Lost is here and so is Midnight and his companions, you know the ones who reached Lvl 3 first? If you contribute to Haven enough you might get lucky and be given a spot amongst their ranks.”
I wanted to kill this man. Who is where?! They're right in front of you, you idiot! And I'm a woman, not a man! Keeping my mouth shut and an expressionless face on, I watched as the man's face crumbled slightly, as if confused.
“Ah? You know, the clan that destroyed that Totem first and reached Lvl 3?” I knew the rest were just as perplexed and expressionless as I was. The man scratched his head before shrugging. “Well, they're like, super strong peo-”
“Youuuu, whoooo areeee youuuu?”
Blinking, I nearly yelled in surprise. Turning my head, I found myself in pitch darkness. Calming my speeding heart as quickly as possible, I analysed my situation and realised two possibilities.
Either I've been pulled into another dimension or my consciousness has been blocked. Quickly sending a single strand around my body, I found I could and landed on the second possibility.
“Who dares interrupt this Queen’s day? Reveal yourself.”
My voice rang out, echoing far in the distance. As it fades, another echoed out.
“Queeeen? She has beeeeen reboooorn? Whereeee is Stellaaaa?”
Why does its words drag on like that? Does it also know Stella? In that case…
“I am the Queen of the Spirits. Stella passed her title to me. I ask again, who are you and why have you pulled me here?!”
Silence followed the echo as I awaited a response. I had to hope my body was okay. Before long, a response came, along with a pressure that made my head spin.
“NO YOU ARE NOT! I WILL HARVEST YOUR SOUL AND BRING HER BACK, OUR QUEEN SHALL RETURN.”
The pressure that hit felt almighty. It was heavy, vicious, as if the world itself dropped on top of my head. This was way beyond me, is this the strength of a Lvl 4?! Before I could say anything, a swirl of darkness started to move nearby, but before it could manifest, a pillar of light surrounded me.
In front of me stood a transparent figure of Lumisara. She looked at the darkness that was manifested and for the second time since knowing her, she opened her mouth.
“Enough, Mortis.” Turning to me, Lumi gave me a small smile, raising her hand towards me. “I will be a bit delayed, O’ Queen of the Spirits.” Her voice carried power behind it, making me feel strangely at peace. “Return first, I will explain everything to you when we meet again.” Lumi pushes her hand towards me and in the next moment I'm looking at the same scene as before.
“-ple who have protected Haven. Now, start walking. Which direction you go isn't our concern.”
It's like time hadn't even passed. Starting to wonder if I'd imagined everything, I got lost in thought as my feet followed the group. What was that place my mind just went to? Why was Lumi all transparent? Who is Mortis? No one had reacted to me coming back, so was it all in my head?
Bumping into someone, I looked up and saw Rebecca standing there, giving me a questioning look.
“Earth to Ruby? Everything okay?” Blinking, I look at the others who had at some point stopped and turned towards me.
“Ah, yes all good, just lost in my thoughts. What's up?”
“The tracker, is it active?” Looking at Ghost who had just spoken, I felt confused for a moment before my brain returned to reality. Surging mana towards my ring, I extracted a small device. Clicking it on, a radar like screen appeared and a few seconds later it beeps.
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“Still active.” Before we left Lux, I had installed a few trackers in the car, in places like the car door. Looking back, I could see we had walked nearly a kilometre already.
“Let's keep going. I'm interested in Haven.” Giving a nod to Geralt, he returned it before turning and continuing. Putting the events of earlier aside to focus on the now, we kept walking until we eventually approached a makeshift wall. There, several guards glanced at us before looking away, continuing to patrol.
A young man came over to us, looking us up and down before smiling. His eyes however didn't match the smile, instead they exposed his greed and lust, especially when he looked at myself, Victoria, Rebecca and Rainbow Tears.
“Welcome to Haven, oh lost souls. Now that you have arrived, all your worries will be no more. I'm a Lvl 2 Barbarian, Mickey. Allow me to give you a tour around the place.” His eyes looked over us once more as Geralt stepped forward.
“We will take you up on that. We want to find a place to reside.”
“That is easily arranged, there are plenty of abandoned houses here, it used to be a fairly large town. Are you the leader of this little team?”
“Yes, I am.” We started following Mickey past the makeshift wall.
“Interesting. Well, congratulations on surviving this long. Haven offers complete protection while within its walls, you only need to sign yourselves to a clan and give them everything. What Lvl are you all?”
“No one here is above Lvl 1. Is that a problem?” Geralt answers while raising an eyebrow.
“Not at all. If you were above this Lvl we would have to exile you. Only those in upper management of the ruling clans or those selected by them may become Lvl 2. Because of the amount of power a Lvl 2 holds, they can not be allowed within Haven without swearing complete loyalty to our leaders.”
“Who are the leaders?”
“Masters of this world. They have given our clan leaders amazing power and because of that we follow them.” Hearing this line, I frowned slightly wondering if they meant the Void Legion.
As we followed Mickey, we started to see a sight that made us feel sickened. Camps of people, blatantly abused and tossed aside, littered the footpaths, all of them with a dead look to them. Most of them didn't even have clothing on, all nude as the day they were born.
“What's with them?” Geralt casually asks, flicking his head towards the crowds of people we were walking past.
“Ah, so you haven't heard of the Useless Curse? Well, as it turns out, if you're weak and don't fight, eventually the System labels you as Useless. By the gods I hope the new lot that are coming aren't like them.”
“Why not just get rid of them?” Geralt asked a dangerous question as Mickey laughed out loud.
“You. I like you. We have tried, but the System will just mark you as Traitor if you kill anyone, even a Useless. What's more they technically can work, so for scraps we force them to weave clothing or sort parts out.”
“Brutal. How many people are in this place?”
“In Haven? I haven't got the slightest. I did hear Deckard say forty thousand a few weeks ago, so maybe a bit more than that?”
I looked around at those scattered around us and I couldn't help but…not care. I felt sick at the sight, but sorting my feelings out, I only felt sick because I had to walk close to them and that these weaklings just didn't have value to me.
Looking at Rebecca, I knew my feelings hadn't changed but the way I've started to see humans had. What am I thinking? Has my mindset really changed that drastically recently? Looking at Geralt, I didn’t see him as a weak human, even though he hadn’t evolved. Shaking my head, I frowned slightly as we arrived in front of a building, armed guards keeping the Useless away.
“And with this, the tour comes to an end. In this building they will register you to a clan’s area. No need to leave your current clan or anything, but if we wish to succeed it will be best to join them. For now, you can apply to work with a clan and they will give you housing and food depending on your contribution.” Mickey grinned and looked at myself and the other women in the group without attempting to hide the lust behind them.
“Perhaps we’ll meet again. Hopefully sooner rather than later…” Turning away, Mickey left as I realised what he meant. The System would punish him if he forced himself on us, so he was waiting for us to become desperate, to sell ourselves to him in the hopes of getting food or water…
My stomach twisted in hatred as I felt like snapping his neck, but containing myself for the time being, I simply looked towards Geralt, who just nodded and led us into the building. Walking in, we’re greeted by an open room with a singular desk. Two people, a male and a female, sat there looking bored out of their skulls. Their heads turn to look at us, before shaking their heads, with the male looking away while the female holds up a piece of paper.
“Choose a clan then tell us. We’ll then give you an introductory letter and tell you where to go.”
Geralt reaches over and grabs the paper before looking over it, handing it to us. As Ghost takes it next, he raises a brow before sneaking me a glance and passing the paper to Rebecca. As she looked it over, she gasped then passed the paper to me. Wondering what they had seen, I looked over the paper.
It’s a hand drawn map of Haven, coloured with several sections labelled with different Clan names. So Haven wasn’t united, instead it was separated into various factions. One of the biggest clans, claiming our Clan’s name of ‘Unity of the Lost’ took up nearly half of the map. Turning my attention to checking all of the clans, my eyes quickly locked onto one of the smallest there, one I recognised right away.
‘Tinkertop’s Terror House’
Tinkertop. A former member of the Dark Reapers. He’d left a year after I joined to form his own eSports company that centred around more fun rather than competitive play. Seeing his clan name here shocked me. It’s tiny, about two or three streets worth, but knowing him, he wouldn’t be a Traitor nor would he turn away those in need.
I wasn’t friends with him, but I did get along with him when our paths crossed. If we had to set up a base, going to a clan area under someone we knew would be best, even if we had to act like strangers. Deciding to go along with this idea, I pointed out the clan to Geralt, who didn’t question it and turned to the female, passing the map back.
“We’d like to go with Tinkertop’s Terror House.”
“Who?” The female scrowled before looking at the map, her eyes looking around before landing on who we had said. “Oh, them. Fine, but you better not regret this. If they lose any more ground they’ll be exiled from Haven.” Pulling out an envelope and a letter, the female made some scribbles before putting the letter into the envelope and handing it to us. “Take this to Tinkertop, he’ll get you sorted. Good luck.” Giving us a sarcastic farewell, the female sat down and looked away from us.
Exiting the building, we used the map to help direct us towards Tinkertop’s place. As we walked through the streets, we saw more Useless crowding the streets or some running up and down the street, carrying or dragging large sacks and more. The sheer amount of people here made me second guess trying to take over this place for its manpower, there are simply far too many people here. Maybe with many years we could stabilise this place and the additional manpower would be a massive help.
Armed guards also patrolled the streets, carrying various types of weapons like swords, assault rifles and I even saw a pair of Chakrams at some point. From sensing their mana, I estimated most of these guards to be Lvl 2 with the rest being Lvl 1. Along the way, we also discussed in hushed voices about our plan.
We wouldn’t tell Tinkertop who we were. While we knew him, we weren’t friends, we didn’t know if he’d been swayed to the Void Legion’s side either. A question arose while we walked, one that slightly confused us earlier.
“Why hasn’t anyone checked our System Information? We planned to hypnotise them if they did, but the fact we haven’t had to is really strange.” Victoria mutters while I also frown.
“Did you know about System Call Information before joining us?” Victoria and Rainbow Tears were both from Trinity’s group, they had gone hard on grinding, reaching Lvl 3 very quickly. The two shook their heads slowly.
“No, we found out shortly after joining. Maybe it’s not common information here?”
“Or censored. Could also be forbidden since it does reveal one's Class and Job. Since they’re acting as factions it could be that they’ve restricted the use.”
We discussed several theories on this matter until we reached roughly where Tinkertop’s faction resided. Along the street with the building we were told to go to, armed guards paced around but now with a slight difference. Each one had a symbol stitched onto their right chest, the symbol being a wrench, gear and a spinning top toy. Not the most elaborate but a good indicator that they belonged to the same faction.
A few armed guards noticed us the moment we entered the street, with four of them approaching us, looking at us carefully.
“Halt. Who are you and why are you here?”
We turned to look at Geralt who then stepped forward. “I am Killroy, leader of The Silent Few. We have just entered Haven and decided to work for your clan.”
The guards looked at Geralt like he was an idiot and we knew why. A bunch of survivors enter Haven, get given the choice to join a powerful and instead we choose the smallest one.
“Do you have the letter?” After recovering, the guard asked Geralt, who showed them the envelope and they nodded slowly as they took it. “Follow us, we’ll take you to Tinkertop…”
We followed them as they led us to a small house at the end of the street. Knocking once, the guards opened the door and entered with us following them. Arriving at the dining room, a lone man sat there, looking at the ceiling with his feet on the table. He wore military style clothing, without any badges or stripes, just the same symbol in the same location as the others. He had long blonde hair and was rather lanky.
“Sir, we have…new arrivals.” Placing the envelope in front of the man, the guards stood back slightly.
“Ah? New arrivals?” Tinkertop slowly moved his head and looked at us standing there. “New arrivals? Here?” He tilted his head before glancing at the envelope. After a moment, he looked at the guards. “Leave us. I’ll have a chat with these newbies and get them arranged.”
“Sir!” The guards raised a fist over their heart before pivoting and leaving the house. Silence followed them as Tinkertop’s eyes only looked at the letter and after a few minutes he slowly looked at us.
“Speak, who are you?”
Geralt steps forward before then speaking. “I am G-Geralt of-f…” Before he could say anything else, Geralt coughed up blood, causing us to do a double take. Why did he say his actual name? Why did he cough up blood? As those thoughts ran through my mind, a pressure descended from Tinkertop.
“You attempted to lie. That should be more than enough reason for me to slaughter you all here. I will ask again, who are you all?” Tinkertop slowly rose, as the pressure of a Lvl 3 filled the room.