We sat in a circle on benches improvised out of tree trunks and lengths of timber and everyone had a serious expression as we chewed over what we had learned. There were essentially two points of view: investigate the gnoll empire or turn around and head off in the opposite direction. Maria was the main person wanting to leave and while what she said wasn’t particularly convincing, the fear behind her words was very persuasive. We could quickly find ourselves out of our depth.

It was Lucas who best put the other point of view. “We have to check this further. If the gnolls represent an existential threat to humanity we need to know. We didn’t choose this responsibility but this is where we are. It might fall to us to rally other groups of survivors to create a force strong enough to defeat them.”

“How's this,” Jessica offered, “with my tracking sense we should be able to investigate carefully and we can turn back if I pick up large numbers of them.”

My own view too was that we should check this out and after I said as much, there were nods and it was clear we had a consensus. Maria just shrugged.

We reformed our positions and followed behind Jessica as she followed the trail of the gnoll archer.

There was more than a hint of excitement alongside the nervousness I was feeling. The world had changed for the deadlier no doubt, but a budding excitement grew alongside my fear.

The truth was I grew bored easily. Ever since the apocalypse, I hadn’t had time to even think about boredom… but a whole new world lay ahead of me. Literally, a new world. I was walking a path along a new frontier, and potentially I was going to witness things beyond my wildest imaginations. These gnolls might only just be the start of it.

With a cut from an axe, Alan marked the trees as we walked, just incase we somehow ended up getting lost. I was glad that he’d thought to do this; we were going into unknown territory; it was never bad to be overly careful.

“How’s it looking up there?” Maria called from the back. “Seen anything?”

She put up a strong front, but I could tell she was hiding her nervousness.

“Nothing but trees.” Alan yelled back. Jessica also looked back and gave Maria a thumbs up, which was much more reassuring.

We walked for at least an hour before coming upon a massive clearing. I’d have normally been in awe at the vast number of lumber stumps dotting the ground, or even the clear blue sky and beautiful view above, but my eyes were glued to something else.

“He wasn’t lying…” Lucas could barely mumble. Others couldn’t even find the words to speak. The empire he spoke of was there, and who knew for how many miles it extended? A bustling civilization grew out of the ground.

The construction was crude: boulders and rocks made up some structures, other buildings were made from lumber or even clay. Still, the sheer numbers of them was unimaginable. The gnoll community filled the clearing to the left and right up to the forest, and ahead it went for miles and miles to a very distant tree line.

There were so many huts and houses and strange buildings that I struggled to accept what I was seeing. A vast city, unexpectedly carved out of a forest. I felt like I was in a horde city playing World of Warcraft, that was the type of magnitude presented before me now. In fact, it would probably be considered bigger.

“We came, we saw…” Alan started.

“And we left!” Maria finished his sentence. “We are not going anywhere near that thing.”

“I agree with Maria,” I said. “How many gnolls could live in that?” My words were anything but eloquent, but I was shell shocked.

“Hundreds of thousands? Maybe millions?” Mark answered. “They probably don’t care about the same luxuries that we do.” Which meant they didn’t need as much space.

Suddenly there was a blaring horn in the distance. The sound grew and grew to the point where it felt it was being blown all around us. I reevaluated my opinion that the gnoll cackle was the most intimidating noise you could hear before battle.

“I hope that isn’t for us.” Jessica said. “But there are gnolls exiting the front gate and heading this way.” Her eyesight was by far the best of anyone’s here. “We should run.” Her words were as good as law right now.

No one remained for a second longer. We turned and raced back into the forest and out of sight. Alan’s foresight in marking our path proved its value, as we made it to the lumber camp in just twenty minutes. No one had the breath to speak once we re-emerged. Instead, we raced on back to the highway and away from the gnolls for another half an hour before deeming it safe.

“That was unexpected,” I said, barely holding back the cough building in my throat. “but I think we should be safe here.” We had moved far enough that it would be difficult for them to locate us, and even if they did, far enough where there was a good chance we could handle whatever advanced party came our way.

“There’s no way that was there before the quakes… right? I’m not crazy for thinking that?” Anna asked.

“It’s not impossible,” Lucas said, “although it feels unlikely, because the insects and birds that used to be around before are no longer here.”

“Is it possible that city is only the start of what’s coming?” Thomas asked. “Like, the first wave of spawns?”

Stolen novel; please report.

“What do you mean by start?” I asked. “Do you mean more monsters will be coming in the next few days… or long into the future.” It was an important distinction to make.

“I mean in the next few days.” He clarified.

“The world does seem a bit too barren,” Jessica said. There was a unanimous agreement on that. We had grown so used to the constant background noise of insects and birds, that we didn’t even realize they were there until they weren’t. Now there was only an eerie silence broken by the occasional gust of wind.

“Everyone check their map?” I suggested before pulling mine open. We were in unexplored territory for us, so everything around us was grey. The forest was there, and the parts we hadn’t explored personally were merely shadowy and unclear. Our path was visible, and even the clearing we reached was there.

There was a gigantic structure on the map where the empire was located, but as we hadn’t approached or discovered it, there was no writing or indication of what it was. Just a hazy construction on the map. Seeing it from above like this really put into perspective just how large it was.

Everything else was just undiscovered. It seemed without witnessing it or at least getting in a certain proximity, nothing else would render on the map. “So what do we do then?” Richard asked. “I’m tired of walking around without purpose. There’s no guarantee the direction we’re moving is better than where we are right now.”

“Really? No guarantee?” Maria started on him, “Did you forget there’s a gnoll empire some miles away from here? Surely there’s something better than that?”

“Okay… besides the gnoll empire.” Richard corrected himself. “I was trying to make a point. Without knowing what we’re doing, we could be moving away from our goal.”

It was hard to argue with that thought.

“Well… without knowing what’s coming, the best and most logical thing to do would be to level up and get stronger.” I said. No one responded, but I could tell they were hesitant as to what that meant. Leveling meant risking our lives, fighting monsters, putting ourselves in danger.

While hardened, the nearly two-month break had taken the edge off every single one of us. It would be hard to restore it. This was the opportunity we needed to get back on track.

“There’s nothing to kill to even level up though.” Alan said with some dissatisfaction. He was the most bloodthirsty one out of all of us, and our little skirmish with the gnolls earlier hadn’t satiated him.

“There’s gnolls,” I suggested.

“What about a dungeon?” Glenn asked. “Dungeons should still exist.” It seemed Glenn had one-upped my suggestion, and there were several nods.

“Why not do both?” Lucas asked. “We can wander the forest, killing any gnolls we encounter. At the same time, trying to find a dungeon.” This was definitely the better suggestion. At least this way, if we didn’t find a dungeon, we’d at least have gnolls to kill.

“All in favor?” I asked. Which got an agreement out of everyone. Soon we were heading back up the road. The plan was to hunt in the forest near the gnoll city on this side of the lumber camp.

Somehow, the anxiety I had felt about the existence of a huge gnoll empire vanished and was instead replaced by bubbling excitement. The prospect of exploring a new dungeon seemed to excite everyone, maybe me most of all. The idea that we were discovering an unexplored world was thrilling.

Everyone had grown a bit more accustomed to the forest environment and we made light work of the trip back. The gnoll troops we had just been running from were now the thing we were eagerly marching towards.

No one wanted to remain stagnant. Every mob was another chance at loot and out of everyone, I had potentially the most to gain. I had an empty skill slot on account of the Fiend encounter waiting to be filled. If the right skill came along, of course. The resting we had enjoyed had been pleasant, but the skill I needed wasn’t going to just fall in my lap.

It was if fate was on our side the entire time. We came upon a manageable gnoll party just after they had turned about and headed back to their fortress. With Jessica having whispered the information too us, Alan and Richard didn’t need told what to do. There was an opportunity to get in among the weaker back line, and they took it instantly.

The back half of the gnoll group consisted of a shaman and three archers: support and damage dealers. Alan’s charge separated them from their tanky frontline and gave us a huge opportunity. I didn’t even have to call out what to do anymore. We worked together like a well-oiled machine.

Jessica had already raced ahead and used her archery to drop a trap in between the melee types and their casters. Not only that, Anna had cast her AoE ability there as well, completely dividing their party. The tanks would be forced to struggle through a blender to defend their DPS.

With no warriors to defend them from our assault, their damage dealers lasted no more than a few seconds. Lucas was the star of the show in this fight as well. His Wind Slash was an exceptionally powerful ability against enemies with little or no resistance. These gnolls weren’t wearing armor, and besides a light coat of fur and thin hide, they were largely defenseless.

The three archers and one shaman in the back group put up no resistance. The separated tank group didn’t even attempt to fight after, and were already racing through the trees towards the safety of their city.

“Don’t chase.” I stopped Alan and Richard from hunting down the survivors. They didn’t immediately understand why, “Let them report our existence, that way we have a constant supply of enemies to farm.”

I could see a sparkle in Alan’s eye when I said that. He truly was battle hungry. His bloodthirst had almost cost him dearly once, and that experience seemed to have changed him. I truly hoped that was the case, for all of our sakes.

We regrouped at the gnoll corpses and checked on the loot. It was a pleasant surprise to see actual equipment on a corpse again. The first pack of gnolls we had dispatched had dropped nothing, and the zombies and ghouls during our retreat were too low level to drop us anything as well.

“Looks like your hard work paid off.” I said to Lucas before presenting him a sword.

Brutal Katana: This slender, curved blade allows for swift attacks that deal devastating damage.

AGI +7, Attack Speed + 15%

Lucas took the sword happily and then immediately tested it out. He slashed it through the air a dozen times, and then directly lopped off a nearby tree branch.

“How is it?” Alan asked.

“Sharp, it’s already stronger than the nodachi, and this isn’t even a two-handed sword.”

“Does that mean you can dual wield them?” I asked. The Brutal Katana was a one-handed sword, and from when I passed it to him, I could tell it was a comfortable weight. Wielding it with one hand shouldn’t pose any problems in terms of strength requirement.

“Probably, but I doubt I’d be very good.” Lucas said and I accepted his answer.

I saw plenty of dual-wielding characters in video games, but those were just video games. It was likely to be exceedingly difficult to master using a sword in each hand. The dexterity required to do so would be daunting no doubt. It was a conversation for another day, or at least until Lucas actually had two one-handed swords to potentially equip.

After tidying the remaining morsels of loot: some rations, one healing potion and one bandage, we slipped away to the north east. While we did want to encounter more gnolls, it was safest to do so on our own terms and that meant being at sufficient distance. We needed to keep moving.