The three boys sat together, recovering from their fight with the pair of deer. Their heaving breaths echoed out around them, slowly getting quieter as they sat together. Cade smirked and found himself unable to control the laugh that escaped his mouth. He started laughing out loud, Brandon and King looking at him strangely, a smile playing up on both of their faces as they fell under the infectious spell of laughter. They laughed together for a minute, moving into silence before Cade found any meaningful words.

“That was insane. This world is insane. I feel like I’m going insane.” He managed to get out, head shaking as he did. He felt Brandon clap a hand on his shoulder, the reassuring touch clearing his head a bit. He knew he was part of a group, a team at this point, but it didn’t help keep him from feeling so alone in this new world.

“The world is gone, at least the one we were used to.” King quietly said, his eyes focused on the ground beneath them.

“There is only one lane to head down now, as far as I can see. Fight, loot, drink, get stronger. Rinse and repeat.” Brandon had materialized a couple bottles, setting one down in front of his companions. He had a wicked smile on his face, drawing Cade’s curiosity.

“What’re you so upbeat about buddy?” Cade could tell Brandon had something on his mind.

“Drink up, then pull up your rewards. You’ll see.” Brandon smiled widely, opening up his bottle and taking a deep drink. Cade shrugged, trusting his friend, as he also raised his bottle - drinking a long stinging mouthful of what ended up being whiskey. Brandon clearly had not given them something easy to drink. He heard King spluttering to his side, the rookie drinker obviously not having had that experience yet.

“Shit that is awful. You guys like drinking this stuff? What the hell…?” King choked out, pulling out a water ration to wash the alcohol from his mouth. Cade and Brandon both laughed aloud, poking fun at him as they watched him struggle.

“I don’t think many people actually *enjoy* the taste of alcohol. It’s the aftereffects that people are after. King, how old are you, if you’re willing to tell us.” Cade had been curious before, but now he wasn’t sure if he had just given alcohol to an underage person, although he guessed that really didn’t matter now.

“I’m 19, so yeah… never really did much drinking before all this. I was pretty straight laced. Two Doctor parents watching my every move made it tough to have a rebellious streak.” King took another swig, his face scrunching up in disgust.

Cade smiled and took some more, feeling the warmth of the liquid move past the back of his throat. Remembering what Brandon had said, he pulled up his display. The rewards notification pulled up and his jaw dropped. He had received:

* 2000 Void Coins

* Void Heart (x2)

* Filtered Regen Elixir (x2)

and something called Boon of the Forest.

Cade was impressed with his items, but he was drawn to his stat page, whistling out loud as he noticed that he had gained a rank in two stats.

Total Rank: E

Strength: D

Dexterity: E

Intelligence: E

Durability: D

Mana Generation: E

* Mana: 25

He had gained a stat in Strength and his Mana Generation had finally gone up. It didn’t do much for him right now, but likely in the future there would be a need for higher ranks. He knew Brandon and King both had Mana hungry abilities, so he hoped they had also ranked that up. Strength for him was a good one, he just needed to improve his Intelligence too so his Chain Flair could improve.

“I gained a rank in two stats, and got a shit ton of coins, but the one I want to know about is the Boon. Did you guys also get that?” Cade spoke up, knowing the others were likely also checking out their stats and rewards.

“2000 coins from one fight? Damn!” King was obviously happy. “I also got the boon too, but there’s no explanation with it. Got a couple more Void Hearts too! A couple steps closer to one of those vehicles.”

“Same here for all of that. Looks like we got pretty standard loot. That’s good. My Mana Generation went up too, and my Intelligence. How about you guys?” Brandon smiled, the first in a while as he read off his rewards. Cade was glad to see him able to be happy again, even if it was a small victory. He hadn’t seen him truly smile since Kaia’s death.

“So we came out with six thousand coins, six more hearts, and stats? Nice. I got Mana Generation too, and my Strength upped as well. We only need seven more hearts total now.” Cade responded.

“Mana Gen and Durability for me.” King replied.

Cade hadn’t seen anything that gave him any more information about the Boon they had received, but he was overall pretty happy with the rest of their loot and the stats they had gained.

“Let’s set a watch and rest for a bit. We have a plan, but that fight was exhausting.” Brandon said with a yarn, and Cade agreed. That fight had been tough, and after walking for the morning they were pretty fried. He didn’t know if he’d be able to sleep necessarily, but the chance to sit and recover wasn’t something he could pass up.

“We should take an elixir if you haven’t already, and then when we are feeling healed we can keep looking around the forest for some more monsters. Hopefully whatever we find next won’t be a Forlorn Servant. I’m really tired of fighting those things. I’ll take first watch.” Cade stood and walked around, stretching his sore body as he went. “If you guys manage to sleep, I’ll wake you in a half hour.”

King responded with a thumbs up and a yawn, leaning back to rest against a tree, Brandon also finding a tree to lean against. King’s eyes were closed already, Brandon’s moving around as he checked out his display.

Cade walked the perimeter of the small wooded area they were in. He could tell the deer they had fought had begun clearing out this area, likely trying to turn it into their home or domain. Many of the small trees around the center had been cleared, but that area only extended about 10 or 15 feet. Everything else was normal Oregon woodlands. He knew they weren’t really that far from what had once been a populous area, but the feeling that they had managed to escape Portland made him feel a lot better already. Too many people, none of which he could trust.

Cade spent the half hour checking out the land around them, never straying out of eyesight of his companions. His half hour came and went without anything interesting happening, and he managed to get a quick nap in as Brandon took the second watch. Cade was not surprised when he forcefully volunteered to take the second one. He suspected Brandon still hadn’t developed the trust needed to have King watch over them, but knew he was making headway towards that. Cade didn’t blame him though, PTSD or whatever other valid emotion he was feeling after watching Kaia die was heavy on his soul as well.

They all stood up, their hour of rest coming to an end, the sun still showing strongly through the copse of trees above them.

“Alright, pick a direction, except that one.” Cade pointed towards where they had come from.

“Same direction?” King supplied

“Sounds good. After you.” Brandon and Cade followed closely behind, weapons drawn but not raised. The woods made it harder to maneuver in a defensive stance.

They had probably walked for another 20 minutes, hearing in the distance reatures moving, but nothing came within their proximity. Cade had no clue what that meant, but as King moved forward in front of them, he stopped. Cade immediately raised his weapons and Brandon entered stealth.

“Guys, come here. Something just pinged in my display. Not sure what to make of it?” King had a perplexed look, but Cade walked forward, eyes darting around as he studied their surroundings. He got level with King and a green flower bloomed in his vision, right below his health bar.

“Did we get poisoned? Is that some type of notification?” Cade spoke quick, his heart rate picking up as a slight bit of panic entered his voice.

“I don’t know. Brandon, you get the same thing?” King asked softly.

“Yeah, same thing. But I don’t think it’s a danger notification. Every time we have had trouble in a fight up till now, their has been some kind of added wording or status with it. I think this is something different.” Brandon started turning in place, slowly making his way around. He stopped after turning nearly 270 degrees around. He took off in that direction, his pace quickening as he made his way to the edge of their vision.

“Dude, what are you doing, don’t get too far!” Cade shout whispered after him. A message pinged in his display.

[ Walk this way, I think it functions kind of like a radar. It is pulsing faster and faster as I move this direction. I’m guessing that Boon is some kind of magic map. ]

[ Alright, we are coming.]

Cade looked over at King, an exasperated shrug the only thing King returned his direction. Cade rolled his eyes and started walking towards Brandon’s position. As he said, it started blinking more and more, the flower also somehow getting a little bigger, more growth adding on. Cade didn’t have a better answer and Brandon seemed pretty excited about it. They reached where he was waiting for them, looking out over a cliff - only about 15 feet tall - and saw what Brandon was checking out. A cave entrance was carved into the side of the hill beyond the cliff. It looked old, but nothing like the mine entrances Cade had seen in his old life. Uncle Mike had really liked taking him to experiential things. The Zoo, Aquarium, Oregon Caves, as well as old mines in the boonies, were some of his favorites. Crater Lake was another that they have frequented.

There was nothing special about the cave, but the Boon was definitely telling them to get closer. It almost seemed to be growing towards the cave.

“Okay, so the Boon is taking us to a creepy cave. Awesome.” King said sarcastically.

“Yeah, not my idea of a fun time. There has to be something in there, at the very least some monsters.” Brandon agreed, but turned to Cade. “What do you want to do?”

“Why am I the one making the decision here?” Cade raised his hands defensively and the other two turned to look at eachother, their quickly exchanged look showing agreement as they turned back to him, smug looks on both of them.

“Fine, let’s shop for some things and then head in there. I want to be prepared, who knows… maybe the Void Shop operates on space wifi or something.” The other two exhaled at his joke, but he saw their body language as all three pulled up the Void Market. Cade bought three more of the second Tier elixirs and some more rations.

“I’m ready whenever you both are. Got several more elixirs and rations.” Cade informed them.

“I did the same, but also grabbed a Mana Charge. My ability is better the more mana I throw into it.” King added, Cade seeing the need for it, regardless of its expensive price.

“I’m good as well. Let’s go. After you Shield-Man.” Brandon poked fun at King but they all knew he was the lead for a reason. King rolled his eyes, but stepped towards the cliff edge and jumped. He landed none the worse, looking up at them and smiling. Cade and Brandon exchanged a look.

“New stats are pretty fuckin cool man.” Brandon said and followed King, landing in a mockery of the superhero landing seen so often in comics. Cade sighed and laughed to himself at his friends' antics. He jumped off, the ground rushing to meet him as he landed and rolled. He realized the roll hadn’t been necessary as the 15 feet felt like stepping off a curb to him. He’s not wrong, that makes me feel like a badass. Cade tried to keep his cool as he stood, knocking the dust from his shoulder, but the goofy smile he had on didn’t go away.

“The thing is really pulsing now. Weapons out, let’s get it.” Cade pulled out his own armaments and nodded to King, his shield already out and facing the cave entrance. They moved forward, each of them at the ready. King stopped and slowly pushed his shield forward; a strange warping of the air in front of him and the space beyond it moving around his shield as it pierced the veil. Pulling his shield back, he reached forward with his gauntleted right arm, the same effect occurring as he pushed it through. Turning, he shrugged before walking straight through it. Cade couldn’t even see him as he moved past it completely, but knew he needed to follow. Brandon nudged his arm and stepped past him, making his way through the strange entrance. Cade followed soon after, his senses disappearing for a split moment before a flash of light that he had grown to hate.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He opened his eyes as the flash dissipated, shield forward and guarding his upper body. His sword he kept down towards the ground, afraid of hitting one of his friends as he crossed the strange veil. What he saw on the other side chilled his blood. King was a few feet in front of them, shield up.

Several bodies littered the ground around him, blood starting to run into a small pool at his feet.

“King, you alright?”

“Yeah, doing fine. One of them bit me pretty good, didn’t pierce my gauntlet but they can bite hard as shit.” King rubbed absentmindedly at his right arm with the edge of his shield. His health hadn’t dropped anything noticeable, so nothing to worry about there. The bodies on the ground looked like giant frogs, but their mouths had jagged edges to them and they had strangely dark coloration, much like the other animals they had encountered up till now.

“There are a ton of them though, and they come fast and from all sides. I was beginning to wonder how long you guys were going to take.” King looked back momentarily, making eye contact with Cade.

“What do you mean? You walked in like 3 seconds before we did.” Brandon asked, the confusion and question clear in his voice.

“Uhhhh I was definitely here several minutes before you showed up. At least 2 minutes, I know that for a fact. They didn’t attack right away and this was like two waves of them.” King was equally confused, Cade could tell.

“Alright, so this is definitely outside of normal time then. Things must just happen faster here. Not sure how, and I guess we don’t have a choice now. The exit is gone.” Cade really couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on, but he noticed some more frogs coming from further down the cave entrance. Health bars and a name shown above each one, Corrupted Cave Croaker. They moved with a hop, but their large size made sure they covered more ground than their pre-freeze versions had. Slightly smaller than the face of Cade’s shield, it was pretty daunting seeing a dozen or so hopping towards them.

“Let’s spread out and give each other some room to fight. Everyone good on their own?” Cade asked, King nodding and Brandon moving wordlessly to his right several feet. “King, you’re in the middle. We will shout if we need you?”

“You got it. Let’s get these fuckers.” King moved between them and walked forward, smacking his shield with his gauntlet. Cade watched as one of the frogs lunged towards him, angling for his head with his mouth open, like a tiny green missile. King reared back with his right hand and met it in the side of its head with his fist. The gauntlet activated as he hit it and Cade couldn’t keep his mouth from dropping open in awe as it exploded into mist.

“Hahahahahaha holy shit, that was amazing. Who needs a shield, right?” King said, flexing his hand open and closed. “Kidding though… shield is at the ready.”

Cade couldn’t help but laugh to himself at his antics. King had a seriously powerful combo and he was happy they were on the same side. Cade raised his sword towards the frogs coming towards them. Weirdly enough, there were several different sizes present, not one single uniform monster. He found himself intrigued with how the world had been changed and had to bring his attention back to the giant frogs coming at him. One of them jumped towards his right side, but was stopped short as he swung his gladius downwards, bisecting it completely. Another lunged at him from his left, Cade reacting with his shield this time to bash it aside. In the fringes of his vision he could see Brandon quickly darting in and out with his daggers. King was punching them aside with his right hand, a thick mist building around him. He hardly seemed to notice as he either punched them or let them ping off his shield before stomping down on them.

Several dozen of them must have come in several waves. Cade has lost count at this point, but he knew he’d killed tens of the things.

He turned back to the dark part of the cave as a heavier wet slapping sound started to get louder and louder. Something bigger was moving towards them, not yet visible in the vast darkness. A lumbering dark grey frog about the size of a bear croaked loudly as it walked into the open portion of the cave. Standing up awkwardly on two feet, its eyes were a dark black with bright red rings near the center. They twisted every which way; Cade wasn’t even sure if the things' eyes worked properly, they never stopped moving for a single second.

Surrounding the larger frog were probably another ten of the Cave Croakers from before. Their health bars popped up. A truly massive bar appeared over the head of the larger one. King Vilecroak - Corrupted Cave Croaker was a “fun” name for a really ugly bastard. It lumbered towards them, King stepping back and towards Brandon and Cade as it closed the distance. Suddenly it took off in their direction, arms flapping wildly behind it as it picked up speed at them. It neared King and whipped its hands forward like clubs, Cade only just then noticing that it had nasty looking barbs coming from the ends of its hands in all directions. It looked like a mace had been affixed to the ends of them. King dropped to the ground, choosing to not block one or the other, and rolled back, pushing off of the ground to pop up slightly behind Brandon and Cade.

“I’m going to try to take care of the minions. You two figure out a game plan for this thing.” Brandon shouted out to them, Cade seeing his silhouette move around the boss monster. Several of the minions fell to the ground, dead. Knowing Brandon would take care of what he said he would, he mentally commanded Chain Flare to life, the segmented blade appearing in front of him in a coil. Rearing it back, his newfound strength helped him cut downwards toward the Vilecroak faster than he ever had before. His blades thunked into the skin of the boss, wrapping around its shoulder and arm. Cade pulled backwards as it tightened, the blade pulling the boss slightly towards them. It reacted as the small blades cut into it, a loud groaning coming from it as it flexed and thrashed its arms, Cade was almost pulled off his feet, unable to keep the beast from moving him. He was pulled several feet towards it before he decided to cut his losses and call his blade back. It loosened and his gladius took shape again.

“Minions are dead, I’m here to focus on the big guy. Plan?” Brandon shouted from somewhere to his left. Cade had ended up being between the two of them, King facing off from behind his shield to his right.

Cade took a look at the Vilecroak’s health bar; it had only gone down a tick. Cade sighed in exasperation, but jumped back in, doing his best to stab and cut at the massive beast. King managed to block its swinging arms, lunging in with his right fist, gauntlet ability attempting to do as much damage as it could. Cade watched each time as a tiny percentage of the boss's health went away. Brandon managed several times to get behind it, blades cutting and stabbing into the bulbous body of the creature. Cade had landed a lot of hits, his blades cutting into it but not deep enough to sever anything important.

Countless minutes later, they were all breathing hard, the endurance portion of the fight coming to a head as the frog monster's health hit less than 5%. Cade chugged down an elixir, confident that they were near the end. Of course, just his luck though that it never came that easy. The Vilecroak started to shake, its limbs rapidly vibrating, a loud croaking boiling up until it was almost too loud for them to stand. A status change appeared under the monster's health, Dying Frenzy. Cade swallowed, looking at his companions, their reactions much the same as his. The frog's eyes completely turned red, the same color as the ring before. They started speeding up their frantic moving and Cade had to dodge, narrowly avoiding a red beam that started from the eyes of the monster, and did not stop. The beams followed the path of its crazed eyes, cutting deep furrows into the cave surfaces around them.

“Guys, those are straight up lasers coming from its eyes. Don’t get hit.” Cade yelled, but he could already see them both dodging the beams. Cade didn’t want to risk his weapons getting cut in two, so he stowed them both and crouched, waiting to dodge. The lasers arched overhead, one of them screeching across the ceiling, the other cutting downwards towards Brandon. He dodged to the left as it careened past him, but the follow up was much closer to hitting him than before. Cade saw the one on the ceiling moving towards King, but it changed direction and quickly moved towards his location. He started running in the opposite direction, zig zagging as he went, hoping it wouldn’t follow him. He reached the wall of the cave and jumped upwards, his improved strength launching him well into the air. He shoved off of the wall, intending to head back towards the creature to possibly confuse it. His eyes opened widely as he flew through the air. His mind slowed down as the laser moved towards him, forcing him to contort in mid air to avoid it, but he realized he wasn’t going to be able to move out of the way.

The laser cut sideways at the last moment, catching his arm at the wrist and slicing towards his fingertips.

Cade cried out and landed heavily on the cave ground below. It was strange, as he could feel immense pain coming from his left hand but there was no blood dripping down his arms as he gripped his new injury. He rolled around on the ground, unable to process the world around him in his pain. Unable to tell what was going on, time moving outside of his perception, he felt something touch him and struck out with his legs. He heard a familiar voice swearing at him, but it took him a few seconds to realize it was Brandon, trying to help him. He unwrapped his body from the fetal position, opening his eyes; tears, dirt and viscera stinging them as he looked around. The monster’s body was sitting where it had fallen, no longer slinging lasers at the three of them. Brandon put an elixir to Cade’s mouth and he had the presence of mind to drink it.

He immediately felt a tingle spread down to his injured hand. Looking down, he was appalled to see most of the right side of his left hand was missing. The lazer had cut through him from his wrist to just to the right of his middle finger, destroying his pinky and ring fingers. He choked out a noise as it hit him that his hand was missing for the most part.

“Damn, that’s not pretty. You look like you’re cosplaying as E.T. man.” King was trying to help Cade through his injury, but even the levity of the statement didn’t help Cade here.

“Fuck, is it going to grow back? I can’t really feel the pain beyond a general burning sensation.” Cade got out shakily. Flexing his hand through the pain was weird with two of his fingers missing.

“Sorry buddy, glad that didn’t go any lower though. Nice dodge. That was its final attack, after it got you it just dropped dead, must have been some kind of final death throes.” Brandon was looking at his hand beside him, shaking his head slowly, a grimace on his face. “On the bright side, check out our loot. I got 15 Void Hearts from the total fight, another 3000 coins, a Mana Charge, a new set of pants, but no stat increase.”

“Think the elixir can heal this? I guess I can fight with my shield still, it might just take me a while to get used to this.” Cade heard what he had said but his mind was - reasonably so, occupied by his injured limb.

“I don’t know man, I think in this new world anything is possible. Seriously though, glad you’re not dead. That was insane.” Brandon left him alone, opting to sit a few feet away from him to give him space. Cade saw the mote of light move away from Brandon, the Safe Zone establishing around them.

Cade took a deep breath and tried to keep from feeling bad about himself. He knew he could still fight and he believed his friends wouldn’t abandon him for something like this. Still, his mind moved to a million different reasons as to why they could and should. He had to shake himself out of wallowing in his own pity, so he pulled up his notifications. He had also received 15 Void Hearts, 3000 more coins, and instead of a Mana Charge, he had received a rank three elixir. A pair of vambraces were the only other item he had gotten, and looking at them, he was impressed with their ability.

Vambraces of Reflection: The wielder can reflect certain wavelengths of light, beams, and some projectiles without taking damage. Durability of Vambraces are a direct reflection of wielders durability.

“You’re kidding me. I get my hand lasered to shit and it gives me this? The system is fucking with me, surely.” Cade was frustrated but couldn’t help but laugh and raise the new items in the air, equipping them. He explained to his companions what they did and King started laughing too, besides his best attempts to stifle it.

“Yeah, really good timing on that one, sorry man.” Brandon held out a bottle, and Cade happily accepted it.

“Well, shall we buy one of those vehicles now? We definitely have enough Hearts.” Cade wanted to move on, trying to steer the conversation towards their original goal. He wasn’t too happy right now but knew he couldn’t dwell on it.

Brandon handed over a dozen of the Void Hearts, King doing the same. Cade mentally pulled up the vehicle page within the Void Market, selecting the four seat option. 25 Void Hearts were taken from his inventory, a new tab within his inventory appearing as the vehicle was pushed to his ownership.

“Want me to pull it up in here or wait?” Cade asked his friends.

“Let’s see it. I imagine we can probably stow it again? If not… well.” King shrugged. Brandon gave him a look of nonchalance, also unsure of what could happen.

Cade walked a short distance from where they were at and pulled out the vehicle. The G.R.I.P.S (Gravity Resonance Integrated Personnel Shuttle) deployed in front of him. They all let out the same collective noise of awe. A massive angular personnel vehicle resembling a cross between a modern Humvee and a science fiction spaceship sat in front of them. King ran around to the far side, jumping up into the passenger seat to get a better look at it.

“It doesn’t even have wheels. How is this thing floating?” Cade said aloud, Brandon nodding along with his words.

“Yeah I’m wondering the same thing.” He said breathlessly. They both moved towards it, wanting to look more closely at it. The shell of the G.R.I.P.S. was a darkened purple; somehow shiny and densely matte depending on the angle you looked at it. It had three seats facing forward, with one in the rear on its own that looked backwards. There was no part of the strange vehicle that touched the ground, it floated on some type of - Cade assumed based on the name - anti gravity device. There was probably a two foot clearance between the lower armored portion, which looked to be at least a foot thick. They all three spent several minutes marveling at how it was built, knocking on different things, sitting in the various seats or just moving their hands over the surface.

It was like a bunch of children discovering a new toy. Grins spread across their faces, crawling around on top of it and checking out every piece of it. Cade jumped into the front left seat, assuming it was the driver's seat just to notice it had the exact same appearance as the other seats, even the rear facing seat looked like it had the same build to it. Pulling up his display, he summoned up some food and water packs, realizing he was hungry after that insanely long fight.

“Hey, tell it to add it to your display!” Brandon’s voice came from the back of the vehicle. Cade did as he said, commanding it to join with his display. When he did, the screens lit up within his display and he was able to see how it worked in better depth. King had definitely done the same, because he was giggling like a child and “pressing” buttons as he looked over the furthest passenger seat again. Cade found something he figured was a power button and pressed it in his overlay, the machine starting up instantaneously with a whirring noise. It started very soft and built up quickly into a low hum, sounding like a constant pulsation. It was nearly completely quiet, only audible when he put his ear up to it.

“How we feeling? Want to try to put it back in our inventory and make our way back to I-5?” Cade asked the others.

“Yep, sounds good to me.” King jumped out and stood back and Brandon walked over towards Cade.

“Here goes nothing. Don’t explode please.” Cade grimaced and put his hand onto the G.R.I.P.S. and commanded it back into his inventory. It disappeared. Cade shrugged and summoned it again. It showed back up, exactly the same as it had been, the only difference this time was that his display automatically connected back up to it, the interface lit up.

“Man, that's cool. Wish we could have used this in the old world. Would have made parking so much easier.” King laughed, but they were all thinking the same thing.

Cade pulled it back into his inventory once more and shook his head in amazement. This new world would never quite make sense to him.Turning towards the exit, the three of them left the cave.