Eastern Gate of the Slatewell Safe Zone

Granite City

"The number of Monsters that assaulted the East and West Gates were about the same, with each being about fifty percent more than the South gate faced. Our theory was correct that other than flying Monsters that we positioned fighters on the walls for, the remaining Monsters from the North funneled in two groups to assault the East and West Gates." Fredrick enunciated clearly.

Jut just looked at the man with a blank expression while the official Military Commander reported to him about what happened during the second Monster Wave. He didn't understand why the man insisted he HAD to report to Jut, but he did want to know what transpired on the other front lines. So, he listened.

"This resulted in the higher Ascended fighters taking on the bulk of the Monsters and allowed the Normal Rankers to get some hands on experience. To our surprise, the casualties were very low. We anticipated at least a thousand dead and many more injured when we knew the numbers we faced."

"What are the actual numbers so far?" Jut asked, desperately wanting to know. He could see Jerry sitting by his dead friend from where he stood and wanted to know how many more Jerrys there were going to be.

"Less than one hundred casualties and around two hundred and fifty serious injuries." Fredrick said with a wide grin, letting his professional mask slip. "Of those, the most lost was at the Western gate. This is because of an Elite Stone Ranked Monster that escaped after jumping up onto the wall in a single bound. It did a lot of damage before it was driven off."

"Hmm. What kind of Monster was it that could jump that high? Probably a Cat? What did it look like?" Jut asked, dreading the answer.

Fredrick's eyes went distant for a moment, as if his guide was feeding him the answer. "It was... indeed a large Cat Monster. It was the size of lion with blue and grey, almost black, fur. It also, strangely enough, had a massive scar along its chest."

"That mother fucking Cat!" Jut's vision clouded over in rage as he remembered that feline Monster. When he finally calmed down and looked back at Fredrick, both the Commander and Isabelle were looking at him curiously.

"Do you know this Monster, Sir?" Fredrick asked.

Jut instantly deflated, being called sir, and gave Isabelle a serious look before answering. "As a matter of fact, I do. We've fought three times so far. The first time, I stabbed it in the chest with a hunting knife. It's almost killed me twice, the first time was on our way here from the mall. The strangest part is, I first saw it the day of the initialization. I think it used to be this mean stray that lived by my old complex."

Jut had heard from Magatha about her first day in the System and that same Monster attacking her in the park, ushering in her care of orphans. That park had been three blocks from his complex and there had been a black furred tom cat that always attacked people who walked by him. It liked to scope out the dumpsters but had never been caught by animal control.

"That was the cat that sneak attacked you when we were almost here, right? That was the first time I healed anyone." Isabelle sounded concerned and reminiscent.

"That's the one. We need to do something about that bastard."

"I see. I will have it be reported it to the Adventurer's Guild. Is there anything else we should be doing, sir?" Fredrick asked.

Jut blinked again, put on the spot. "I- um- well, what do you mean?"

Fredrick gave him a serious look. "There are no more Monsters attacking us... at the moment. What are your orders?"

"What? I'm not in-" This time, instead of stammering like a fool, Jut was made to wobble in place as a hand smacked his upper back.

"Just tell the man what the aimless Adventurers should be doing, will ya?" Brick said to Jut jovially.

I am going to kill this asshole. Jut complained internally. In the flash, Alex was there and gone.

He would kick your ass. Just sayin'

Jut scowled at the air, scowled harder at Brick, who looked on verge of laughing, then turned back to Fredrick.

"Well, scouting the perimeter of trees to see what's up is a good idea. We should tell the Guild about the new variations of Monsters too. Then teams should start to explore the nearby areas, I guess."

A kick to Jut's shin and a tipped head from Brick made his scowl return.

"And to defend the Zone?" Brick stage whispered.

"Right... And maybe set up some patrols at the gates and rotate watches on the walls?" Jut said with uncertainty. "Use the horns if a wave, or strong monster they can't handle, appears?"

"It will be done, Sir. I'll take my leave." Frederick said with a sharp salute before marching away.

"What the fuck was that?" Jut asked as soon as Fredrick was out of earshot, spinning on Brick.

"Dude. Get used to it. We made a huge splash clearing the Dungeon first after so many people got so much further than we did. You lead our team. The recognition goes to you. It's how things work. Not to mention, all three gates used our plan." Brick said, shaking his head and smiling wider.

"That's just it. It's "our" plan. I didn't do anything more than you did. I actually did far less. Weren't you the one who met with Fredrick and coordinated the whole thing?" Jut was floundering now. Having never done so before, he did not believe he was suitable to be in charge to this extent. Even if he wanted to be, there was a reason he never climbed the corporate ladder further than he had. "Besides. Isn't the defense of the Zone on, you know, the Safe Zone to see to?"

"Do you think they actually would, you know, see to it?" Brick said, his mocking playful.

"Well, yeah. There were teams of staff out here during the battle. Right?"

"Pfft. Yeah right. Maybe a handful. The rest were gathered around the Town Hall and saw no action. The lines never broke." Brick said, his disappointment clear. "Not who I would have chosen for the back line, seeing as they allowed the sabotage of the bunker, but that's not the point. They might have some kind of power and are considered "in charge", but who actually protects these people?" He gestured towards the Residential Towers. "It ain't the Slatewell Staff."

"It's us. The Adventurers." Isabelle answered, also looking at Jut. Her smile wasn't as wide as Brick's but hers did hold a note of teasing to it.

"The healer lady gets it. Let me ask you this, Isabelle. Who designed every detail of the plan? Only really taking suggestions from the team?" Brick stroked his chin thoughtfully.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Why, I think it was Jut, Brick." She answered, also looking thoughtful.

Jut was nearly spluttering but they kept it up.

"Yes. It was. And who bought a huge stack of skill orbs and passed them to Fredrick for his soldiers? That had to be the same person who suggested the alchemists be afforded a huge stack of materials to make potions, let's say, three days ago?" Brick's gaze was digging into Jut now.

"Why, Jut, of course. He might not have noticed that his ideas were spread around by a certain healer, builder, and administrator, causing everyone to run out and buy said materials."

Brick hit him with the final, killing blow. "The point is, man, you brought us together and told us to focus on getting stronger to protect the Safe Zone. We agreed. So, we made it happen. Whether you want it or not, you inadvertently set yourself up to be in charge. At least in charge of the people doing the real work. Keep it up, because I'm not going to be the one to do it."

Isabelle stabbed his figurative corpse for good measure. "The Adventurers might have all gathered here without the Crusaders meeting to discuss it first. Could there have been a different plan put in place that won the day? Yeah. But there wasn't. It's too late to say what could have been. I say keep doing what you have been and let people follow. It's better than them cowering away in the towers."

Jut gave up. He huffed. "Fine. I won't argue further. But I am not formally taking any kind of role past the leader of our Guild."

Brick huffed too, skeptically. "I think the day you pulled Diggy, me, Wendy, Isabelle and Derrick together, it was too late for that, but believe what you want to believe. Can we not lose more loot?"

Jut grumped as he began doing rituals over and over again, breaking down body after body. He learned a lot from the bodies and details from Brick and Diggy as they dragged corpses over.

The biggest thing was the Stone Rank enemies. Their corpses hung around for hours. They did harvest from a few Normal Ranked beasts, but that was only at first. After some time had passed, all the corpses were Stone Rank as the normal ones had already been looted or dissolved over time. They even moved outside the wall to gather what loot they could after the inside was clear.

Jut noticed that about a quarter of the teams who fought were looting. The System took this as a sign of apathy towards ownership of the rights to loot. So when a Monster was killed by a person or team other than his group who was looting, he would get a notification telling him he could not loot that corpse, even if he used the ritual. The clean up crew piled up bodies they could not loot in a communal area as they sorted. Whenever they dragged a new one over, they would check on other bodies placed there.

The Stone Ranked variants weren't much different from the Normal Ranked ones. They were bigger and more detailed, like the changes to the scorpions. The cats had longer fangs while the dogs had more variations in appearances, similar to breed differences. The biggest change was to the Minotaur. They wore better armor and had better weapons. They were still wearing shabby chain mail, but chain mail was stronger than leather.

The new variations of Monsters were the snake like people, or Lamia. The spiders. The wolves. The non-people like snakes. There were also some horses, tall ostrich like creatures called Raptors, and some different kinds of rodents. The verity was cool and horrifying. What exactly happened to the Monsters during the Lock Down?

Only Monsters looted by Jut almost always produced a Monster Core. Isabelle did get a few, but the difference was staggering. He didn't fair too much better with the nodes, though. They each got one or two of each type of Monster. Only the Minotaur and Lamia dropped coins. Where the snake people kept the coins when they didn't wear armor was a question he didn't want to answer. Lastly, gear could appear on any kind of Monster, but outside of the Crypts, that happening was few and far between. They only got a few pieces and other teams didn't seem to fair much better.

It was just before the group was about to split up to aid the people where they could, if anything past Isabelle's healing was even needed, when the world went still. It was like sound was turned off. Then a slow and sad melody began to play in Jut's ears. It was accompanied by a System Window that opened on its own.

Congratulations. You have survived the first Wave after the Lock Down phase of the [Manaetherical System]'s Initialization! Here's how your population fared: Total Survivors: 1,723,678,994 Survivors Total Slatewell Safe Zone Survivors: 833,898 Survivors.

This Wave happened because the Monsters were allowed to form Lairs, Dens, and Dungeons. The runoff population attacked the closest source of Ascendant Beings. Don't let these Monster homes grow for too long or you'll experience another Wave. To get your Safe Zone's population used to the minimal required actions to avoid future Monster Waves, a Worldwide Quest has been issued.

Quest: Control Monster Spawns. Objective: Clear out and/or destroy Lairs, Dens, and Dungeons. Rank: All Rarity: Worldwide Difficulty: Required Description: Monsters kill Ascendant Beings and Ascendant Beings kill Monsters. It's the natural cycle of the Manaverse. To survive, Ascendant Beings must stem the tide and control the frequency of Monster Spawns. Do so by destroying Monster Lairs, Monster Dens, and Dungeons. Radiant Crusaders Objectives: [Monster Lair]s Destroyed: 0/25

[Monster Den]s Destroyed: 0/10

[Dungeon]s Destroyed or Subjugated: 0/4 Reward: Better survival odds.

This [Quest] is not voluntary and has been accepted on your behalf.

Jut dismissed the windows after reading them multiple times. Before he could discuss any of it with his team, something else appeared. This, however, was a woman. Someone Jut had actually met. She was at least as tall as the Town Hall, and Jut would wager she was appearing before everyone in the world.

Ophelia, the Prime Deity of Life, Creation, and Order, was standing before them in her scary form. Her hair was the stunning silver of moon light. It floated freely around her burning yellow eyes and her skin was the cosmic swirls of the universe.

"People of Earth. I beg that you take this Quest seriously. The Monsters will not stop. It is their nature. It is part of the System. However, Monsters can always be spawned. Ascendant Beings cannot. If you learn anything from the Initialization, let it be this: This Quest. Complete it and repeat it, even though you won't get one like it again."

Ophelia seemed to take a breath, as if thinking. Did she have to breathe? Jut doubted it. It was likely a habit from when she was mortal. She continued quickly.

"We Primes have already intervened as much as we are capable. This will be the last time I will be able to speak to you all directly while the Manaether Density is this low. What you do from here and how long you live is up to you now. Please, take heed." Ophelia's plea sounded so desperate and heart wrenching, it had to be magic. But Jut didn't care. He wanted nothing more than to run out and do the quest then and there. That sensation stopped shortly there after but it made an impact on him. nb Then she faded away. Gone as if she was never there. Yet, her words rang in Jut's mind. So, the only way the world will get her help is through her champions.

Looks like we have work to do then.

Alex was right and Jut would see it done. He figured he needed a word with a certain Commander to update their plan.

I thought you didn't want to be "in charge". Lol

Jut frowned. Shut up.

He needed to go back to the penthouse and review his notifications before doing anything else. Then he wanted to stop by the Adventurer's Guild and get to work. All, of course, after he spoke with one Clara Sheffer.