The drive only took two hours before a large encampment entered our vision. Leaning over and running Greyback's back, I looked at Maji.

"Sorry, I didn't take into account that you've never been in a car."

"My Lady, you need not apologise. While Greyback may have fallen ill, I myself am quite content with this contraption. For humankind to have invented such vehicles, it is wonderful."

"If you, hic, say so. I can't wait to get out of this ruddy thing." Greyback, who had been on the verge of being sick ever since we left the coastal town, trembled once more.

"It's called motion sickness. How have you never been in a car before, they're everywhere in our world." From the front, Jokestar looked at us through the rear view mirror.

"I'll explain later, Jack." Guiding a few Fairies onto Greyback's shoulders, they started to glow faintly. It seems that while he could see Greyback and Maji, Jokestar couldn't see the Fairies. An interesting magic or technique I have to admit, being able to hide themselves from the vision of others.

The car came to a slow stop and moving as fast as I've ever seen him move, Greyback smashed through the door and stepped out, tossing the door to the side, happily smiling.

"Ah…" Jokestar and a young female who was riding shotgun stared at this scene as I sigh.

"I'll fix it later, Jack."

Climbing out after Greyback, followed by Maji and Rebecca, I turned my attention to the encampment that we entered and frowned slightly.

That strange feeling kept eating at me. I already knew that the Jokestar with us is genuine, the real deal. On our ride out this way I had confirmed it, but the feeling that bugged me isn't that he might be fake.

It's the coincidence that bugged me. We left the Spirit Realm to come out here and train, but then we suddenly run into a group of survivors and out of everyone we could've ran into it's the General Team of The Dark Reapers.

Either that is indeed one hell of a coincidence and we just got very lucky or we were unknowingly led here to find them. But by what? Fate? Don't give me that shit, fate isn't real. A God? Why would they bother? The System? That's just ridiculous, it would've given us a quest.

"You good, Rubes?" Hearing a soft voice in my ear, I nod, taking the hand that poked my side.

"Talk later, okay?"

"Mm, I want to talk too."

"You two, if you're done with your flirting, I'll give you the grand tour." Both of us looked up at Jokestar and, sighing, we started following him, with Greyback, who was humming a happy tune, and Maji following behind us.

As we walked, I noticed a stark contrast to our own base. Dozens of people littered the man-made roads, most without shelter or even blankets. They also looked starved, their arms thin and without much muscle.

"Jokestar, what the hell."

"Please wait, I'll explain in a moment." Jokestar looked at Rebecca who had just spoken with a serious expression on his face. As we got closer to the centre of the encampment, the people became healthier, more careful and had tents, swags and sleeping bags.

Feeling a stirring of anger in the pit of my stomach, I kept following until we reached a rather large tent, the size of my warehouse in length. Leading us through a door, we entered to see a large office like setting.

People were running back and forth, writing down messages and leaving quickly. I had noticed it, but there wasn't a drop of machinery around here, no radios, no pumps for water, nothing, except for the cars. Jokestar kept leading us to what looked like a separate room and entering motioned for us to sit at a table.

"Right, I know what you two are about to say so let me explain first. The people on the outer edges of the encampment are those that we have picked up along the way, the ones we are trying our hardest to help.

"We have yet to find a location to settle down in, instead using places like towns or outposts as temporary bases. Because of this, we have no constant food intake, no water supply, nothing. You may not know this, but once a person weakens from hunger and thirst and are no longer able to fight or kill monsters, they eventually receive a debuff from the System called 'Useless'.

"This debuff halves their strength, health and stamina. To remove this curse, they have to kill fifty Husks, which given the condition they're in is extremely difficult, even more so when their condition worsens. Right now, travelling anywhere is always a death risk, we've lost nearly three hundred people already. I get it, I'm failing miserably as a leader, but god damns I'm fucking trying, Ruby, Rebecca. I'm trying so fucking hard, yet there has been no progress." Slamming his hand down on the table with some anger, Jokestar breathed out heavily before looking at us.

“So much for the grand tour.” Saying this, I shake my head before looking at him. “If those are your circumstances then that’s fine. I’m far more interested in this ‘Useless’ debuff you’re talking about.”

Jokestar sighs before sitting down a bit roughly. He looks at Greyback and Maji, both standing behind me. “I too wish to know who they are. It’s not anyone we know, right?”

“No, they’re of this world. But before we get into this long winded discussion, I'd like a bit of time without you around, Jokestar. And no, before you say anything, this isn’t about the state of this camp, just need to discuss a few things that we can’t discuss in front of you just yet.” Seeing him frown, he shrugs before standing.

“I’ll be out there. Fetch me when you’re done.” Jokestar leaves and after a minute I turn to Maji.

“Can you lay down a silencing barrier?”

Maji raises a cloaked arm and with a crack a barrier suddenly surrounds us. Standing, I walk over to Jokestar’s side of the table and sit down, turning my head to Greyback.

“Greyback, why did you suggest the coastal town for us?”

Greyback tilted his head and grunted. “No specific reason, My Lady. It was one of the closest places I could think of that had enemies that Your Grace and Madam Rebecca could test your new abilities on.”

“So no one told you to bring us here? Not the Seer or Yggdrasil?” While I hadn’t met the Seer, I knew they were responsible for predicting an attack on our base two to four years from now.

“No, My Lady. I simply wished to assist you as best as I could.”

“Rubes, this is far too much of a coincidence. Meeting Jokestar of all people now? The chances of that are…god, I can’t even speculate on the possibility. There is something off about this.”

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“Madam Rebecca, I have already deeply analysed this ‘Jokestar’. While his soul is indeed not from this world, he is flesh and blood, not an illusion or vision.” Maji, who I had learnt is very well versed in utility magic like barriers, teleportation and more, said this confidently. “I have also analysed this base, there is no mistaking this ‘curse’ either, a bad energy lingers on over half of those who reside here. It is eating at their very lifeforce.”

“Any way to remove it without harming them, Maji?” Maji frowns for a moment before shaking her head.

“It is like the curse is a part of them. Extracting it may very well end their life. Although I do not understand words like ‘System’ or ‘Debuff’, I do know that at the level of the soul those who have this curse are suffering deeply.”

“You can see the soul, Maji?” Rebecca looks curiously at Maji. “You never mentioned that during our training.”

“No, I can not. I can, however, get a vague sense of it.” I didn’t know what type of Spirit Maji is, they’ve never really said and I didn’t want to ask since it seemed to be a personal thing. “Those of this world are more…even, dull. Those from your world are bright, uneven, as if you’ve gone through a lot of growth quickly.”

“Interesting. Well, we knew our souls would’ve been brought here, the biggest question is our bodies. Lets not get sidetracked. Although this coincidence has occurred, for the time being we can only really focus on the now.” Raising my hand, I brought out the world map from my ring and spread it across the table.

With Rebecca’s help, we located our base fairly quickly. “Greyback, Maji, where on this map is the entrance to the Spirit Realm?”

“There are many, My Lady.” Greyback looks at the map before pointing a large finger at a spot. “This is where you arrived from.” The spot was completely blank on the map. “It’s likely blank because no human could ever enter the Spirit Realm unless they were given permission.”

“Right. Which means the coastal town is somewhere…here.” Following a certain direction from where Greyback showed me, I located where the coastal town is and moving my finger downwards slightly, tap approximately where we were now.

“The distance, if I’m not mistaken, is about seven or eight days to get to our base from here. Given the poor condition of Jokestar’s men, it’s going to take maybe a month since they need to stop and sleep. From the looks of things, they don’t have enough cars or fuel to transport so many people. I don’t want them coming into the Spirit Realm either, I don’t trust any of them enough.”

“A wise judgement, My Lady. May I ask why you would concern yourself with such a large amount of people? Surely taking the healthy ones and leaving those that are weak will be more beneficial for you.” Looking at Greyback, I found that he had a point. Logically, taking those that were cursed would only serve to hinder us heavily. A bit surprised at the lack of care I actually had for those that were weakened, I crossed my arms and considered if I should do as he says.

“No…no, let’s make sure we have all of them come with us.“ After a few minutes, I answered Greyback. “Yes, they are weakened now, but our base has, or will have, the capacity to feed them, allowing them to regain their strength and eventually work the curse off.”

“I have to say Rubes, it’s not like you to take so long to debate whether we take the weakened humans or not.” Rebecca said casually and glancing at her, I smiled lightly.

“We’re changing because of this word. You too, you used the word ‘humans’ instead of ‘people’.”

“Ah! Huh? I did, that’s strange, I’ve been considering them humans for a little bit now rather than just people…”

Greyback looked at us with some confusion before scratching his butt. “You’re both not human. My Lady, you’re now a Spirit and Madam Rebecca here is an Elf. Is it not right of you to consider them as ‘humans’?”

Greyback’s words did make sense, but it still felt a bit weird. Deciding that we’ll deal with it later, we figured out the best course of action to take.

“We’ll wait until the ceremony before we work on taking Jokestar’s group back to our base. We’ll get them to meet us…here.” Circling a place roughly half a day away from the Spirit Realm, I continued. “By getting them to wait there means that after the ceremony we can head off right away. Greyback, Maji, how much food is within the Spirit Realm?”

“Honestly none. We do not eat unless it is for entertainment. We only prepared food for you, My Lady.” Maji bowed slightly as she spoke. Shrugging with a small sigh, I look at the map.

“That’s fine then. They’ll have to make do.” Feeling a poking coming from my cheek, I looked at a Fairy who pointed to themselves. “Do you want to help?” The Fairy nods before glowing brightly. Understanding what it meant, I thought for a little while before shaking my head. “I know you want to help, but what they need isn’t healing. Thank you, though.” Poking a finger out, I gently pat the Fairies head.

Turning my attention to Rebecca, I lightly smiled which she returned. We didn’t have to say anything, we knew each other well enough. She got up while Maji brought down the shield and left the room before returning with a more calmed Jokestar.

Upon seeing me in his seat, he chuckled before planting himself down where I had sat earlier. “It’s like my boss has taken my seat to tell me off.”

“Nah, nothing like that. Sorry, I won’t keep you out of the loop for long, but we needed to discuss certain topics that we can’t let you know about yet. Jack, join my base.” Explaining our situation, including the water source and farm, Jokestar looked like he couldn’t believe it before looking at the map we had laid out.

“So, about a month of travel…” He looked troubled as he glanced at me. “It may well be the last trip any of these people take.”

“Jump into Dimensions. If there are monsters then you can get food. It’s not the best, but it’ll at least allow you to feed people if you gain enough.”

“We’ve been doing that to a small degree but I guess if we were to travel we’ll need to amp it up a bit. Alright, leave it with me. I take it you’re not going to be sticking around?”

“We do have things to do in a few months and before that we want to train so we’ll likely stick around the base, but our aim will be to clear out Dimensions around here. Running into you was not something we thought would happen, much less running into anyone. We’ll assist where we can so don’t worry, we won’t be just getting up and leaving, but we do need to focus on other things.”

Jokestar nodded before speaking. “In that case, leave it to me. Tell me, are Sheep and the others at this base?”

“Yes, they’re there. As well as about five hundred others. When we arrive, we’ll focus on recovery for your guys and once they’ve recovered from their pitiful state we’ll then work on getting that curse removed. Everyone in the base is expected to work, so having those that are weakened and unable to do anything won’t be acceptable, so we’ll help with recovery. Three months from now we’ll depart, but we want you to meet us here.” Pointing at the location near the Spirit Realm, Jokestar nodded. “We’ll be there three months after we leave, so six months in total from now.”

Jokestar stood and gave me a smile. “Seems like you’re used to this world already. Alright, I’ll go and get things sorted. I’ll send a team to clear out the meeting location.”

“Sounds good. We’ll head off shortly and get to clearing some Dimensions. Don’t worry, if we find monsters within the Dimensions, we’ll bring back their meat to help out.”

“I appreciate it.” Jokestar nodded before leaving and with me turning to the others, I smiled lightly.

“Shall we head off? We’ll check out the surrounding areas and take any Dimensions that require one or two Lvl 3s. Greyback, Maji, can you head back to the Spirit Realm?”

“Yes, My Lady. I apologise that we can not be of assistance here.”

“It’s fine, Maji. While I want to bring you guys along, I instead want you two to do something for me.” Turning to Greyback, I started with him. “Can you prepare instructions on some spells that will suit me? Like that Absolute Zero you demonstrated earlier.”

“Yes, I can do that. It will be written in the language of the Spirits, will that be okay?”

“As long as you teach me.” Seeing him nod, I turn to Maji. “Maji, I want you to head back to our base and do two things for me. Firstly, inform Sheep, the one you passed the message to before, about Jokestar’s group. Tell him they’ll need to prepare for the influx of new people. Second, I need you to head to the Spirit Realm and prepare that ritual for the Void Egg.”

“My Lady, the ritual will require some of your blood and your participation.”

“In that case prepare what you can. At least enough so we can start when I return.” Seeing Maji nod, I then watch as Maji puts a hand on Greyback’s shoulder and the two disappear in a puff of black smoke. The Fairies were still with me and Rebecca. Maji couldn’t teleport much, Greyback was nearly her limit alone, but I knew the Fairies would be fine. Looking at Rebecca, I stood and reached out my hand.

“Shall we go on a date, Bek?”

“Jumping into Dimensions, walking around a world on the brink of death all while accompanied by Fairies. My kinda date, let’s go.” With a giggle, she stands and takes my hand, the two of us heading outside with the intent to do as many Dimensions in the next three months as we could.