Chapter 39) Where did everybody go? Or, Get the Flock out of here.
It looked like a good sized town had been built on the shores of the river behind a dirt ramp with a shorter stone wall built on top of it that went around the outside of the Barricade about three hundred feet behind it.
The second, or would it be a third counting the actual wall of the city had towers, or more like platforms just a little higher up than the walkway behind the wall set up nearly every fifty feet.
Between this outer wall and the thirty foot wide Barricade was what looked like a shooting range that had been cleared out of anything someone might use for cover.
Once…
Now it had what looked to be about twenty years of tree growth. And the garrison town looked like had mostly burned down before being abandoned.
Despite the sapling and undergrowth, I could clearly see the inside of the Barricade from up high. I was thinking that the twenty foot wide dirt slope covered in loose stone behind the Barricade must have kept back most of the tree growth.
Going all around the city, I could see no way past the Barricade other than climbing over the thing.
On the other hand, the outer circle had a set of heavy gates in the abandoned town to get into the area between the outer wall and the Barricade, and a walkway along the bottom of the stone covered slope where the Barricade crossed over the mouth of the bay with another smaller abandoned settlement that had another gatehouse and a small fort on the other side of the bay.
They must have needed a way to get in and out to clear out the trees and such.
So it looked like the only way out of the place was either climbing out over the wall or doing one of the other goals. But dying a hundred times, or getting to level ten wasn’t going to get my guys through the wall.
My best guess was that there would either be a portal, leading to somewhere, once they got to level ten.
And since the leveling was happening at different rates, none of the three of them would end up going through any such portal at the same time. Leaving one or now two of them behind while the other one may have to take their exit portal out when it appeared or miss their chance. I doubt an exit gate would let anyone but the intended person go through.
After a hundred deaths, I would imagine they would come out of a portal somewhere other than just outside of the city, but just like the tenth level portal, there was no reason to assume it would even be on this world.
In fact, it might just send them to another trap world, This time one in which their death would be final, sending them off once again to some sort of afterlife with the rules stacked against them.
Or in every one of those situations, something else entirely might happen, I had no way of knowing.
Shoot, what was going to happen to me after I finished up ten thousand Trainees?
Heading out a ways I could see the remains of old abandoned county estates and farms in the area, either gone to ruin with whatever had happened to the town a garrison must have been staying in, or even evacuated all the way back when the capital fell to the Liche.
Rising up higher, I could see no signs of smoke from a cooking fire or anything like that as far out as I could see, just trees and overgrown farmland.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Then I headed toward the middle of the city, way up high since this could be my last time here in this world, getting killed and sent back to my dungeon might be a one way trip this time.
I wouldn’t mind getting reassigned to another job, but something worse might be lined up for me.
Could I just stay here if my dungeon didn’t get turned back on so I got countdowned back? I didn’t want to be stuck as a ball of light forever, but that was already pretty much what lay in wait for me already. At least here I could work with two guys I liked… now. And Josh seemed nice.
I wouldn’t be able to level, so going off with them on adventures might lead to an early death, but it would at least be a nice break before I got sent back to the dungeon and had to face the music.
Down below me, I could see the remains of the upper level of the city, and the place seemed to be a strange mix of completely wreaked buildings with other ones that were untouched.
At one end, overlooking a high drop off a narrow section of the city that looked like an untended park stood the palace, which looked both wreaked and halfway rebuilt.
Slowly dropping down, I could see what had once been an elaborate set of gardens with stone lined raised flower beds, fountains, and statues now had… crops.
Corn, wheat, and even beds of greens with a scarecrow made out of a skeleton wearing some ornate looking tattered and unbleached robes… and a crown… and nailed to a cross.
“Shoot. Someone went biblical on that guy.”
A skeleton wearing a set of black robes and tons of jewelry, including a black spiky crown sat on a throne below a tattered awning on the top of a set of steps overlooking the gardens. A group of skeletons wearing full suits of a mix of ceremonial and more humble armor stood around the throne warmer on guard.
Its head slowly bent up to gaze up at me.
No. I’m a little ball of pale green light up a few hundred feet in the air, it can’t…
It waved.
I ran, err, flew, away as fast as I could go. Behind me, I heard a ruckus, and while still going full speed forward, I directed my attention behind me, to see the sky behind me go black with tons of birds lifting up from what I had thought was the black tiled roof of the palace.
"Looks like the place was in worse shape than I though."
From the amount of feathers falling from the flock, the birds didn’t seem to be in the best of health.
If there had been less of them, I would have gone looking for the boys. The birds came from the upper level of the city so they had to be worth something for Matt and Drew if they killed them. But no, that many, I would just get them killed again, and I would have to wait it out here overnight to meet them in the morning without any gear to hand over to them.
Instead, I headed for the Barricade. They had to have expected flying undead, Right?
The birds had nearly caught up and I saw how withered they were, with bones held together with their feather and whatever Bale magic held undead together. And they in all sizes, big fat ravens, gaunt crows, and even tiny little black birds of some kind.
As I closed in on the walls, the big gold symbols on them started lighting up with the same pure white light as Josh’s circle necklace.
“Look like I got the Smite Stuff!”
As I dove down and past the wall, a curtain of pale white light shot up into the sky, setting the lead birds on fire with white flames as the rest turned sharply, or dove toward the ground.
Coming to a slow stop outside the Barricade I watched the bird circle in place while others began flying off in both directions along the Barricade, the white light rising up in front of them to keep them trapped inside.
Now all I had to do was wait for them to tire out and go back to their roost so I could catch up with the boys… Oh yeah.
Undead don’t get tired.
I just had to hope they could get bored.
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I did a half assed shout out for this author earlier, this would be a real one.
I read it, reviewed it, and liked it.
It's a system apocalypse but with less arbitrary deaths, and an MC who isn't OP. Just a dude, one of many, adapting and surviving in a world gone wonky.
image [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/covers-large/system-overflow-aabazxhe9xq.jpg?time=1711804749]
System Overflow
For many worlds, earning the right to be integrated into the System is the highest purpose. It is the goal of life nearly from the moment that intelligence has taken hold.
For Earth, it was just a thing that happened. They didn't even know about the System. The System, and its [Users] didn't know about Earth... and they aren't ready for them.
Frank gets caught in one of the most error filled integrations the System has ever had. How will he adapt to the new world?
***
Plan to drop 3/4 chapters a week.
Note on tags/content warnings:
Overall, I plan for this story to be less of 'lone nobody strives for the stars' and more of 'guy has to navigate a changed world where people are figuring things out and violence is sometimes necessary'. There will be occasional violence, and definitely some swearing. If there is sexual content, it'll be light references or setting it up and fading to black.