It took some time for me to explain what I’d learned to my friends but once I had I demonstrated my new speed prowess and they were ready to hop on board. But the twins and Josh couldn’t put off searching for their parents any longer, so we decided that it would be best to try to get their cultivation started while we were on the road. We gathered some provisions and told the principal what our plans were. She attempted to convince us not to leave just in case another horde of monsters showed up, but she was unsuccessful. I assured her that we would be back, and she acquiesced.
Saying goodbye to Susan’s dad and the triplets was a more difficult task. The former vehemently refusing to let her go, and the triplets begging their older siblings to let them come. Susan had to remind her father that she was an adult now and would make her own decisions which didn’t make him happy, but he knew that he couldn’t stop her. The twins threatened their siblings to behave, or they’d make sure to tell on them when they found their parents which made the three boys back down.
Finally, being free of our obligations we walked, and I waddled down the road. It wasn’t until the school was out of sight that we stopped to figure out the direction that we needed to go.
“Where do you think your parents might have gone if not the school?” I asked the three that were still missing their parents.
“Maybe town hall? My mom works there.” Said Josh sheepishly just now realizing that his plan was just to walk around town until he found his parents. There wasn’t any need for him to be embarrassed about that though since we might just wind up doing that. I started moving in the direction of the town hall which wasn’t that far away. Controlling my new speed continued to get easier as I practiced but I still walked slightly bow-legged. I couldn’t wait to level up again so that I could raise my dexterity.
“You know you could scout ahead if you want! We’ll catch up!” Susan said to me, noticing my difficulties with walking. I breathed a sigh of relief and nodded to her thankfully. I took a step forward and the next thing I knew I was speeding through the town. It felt incredible to be able to relax my body and use my full speed. It only took me about a minute to reach the two-story brick building, I slowed down again and decided it would be best to be stealthier in case there were some jumpy humans with guns like at the school when I’d first gotten there.
Changing direction, I hid behind a burned-out car and watched the building. It didn’t take long before a low-level flesh mongrel came shambling through the street, and a familiar woman exited the building. It was Josh’s mom, and I was surprised by the calmness that she exuded while she walked directly toward the monster. The Flesh Mongrel hissed and crouching it prepared to attack.
I pulled out my bow and aimed an arrow directly at the monster, but before I ever loosed it Josh’s mom calmly spoke.
“Stop.” At that moment the creature froze in place. The woman continued to walk towards the monster reaching up to the back of her head where a long needle kept her hair in place. She pulled it out letting her hair fall around her shoulders finally reaching the monster she took the needle and pricked the monster on the neck then turned to walk away. The Flesh Mongrel shuttered and then fell to the ground twitching uncontrollably purple veins spreading across its bulbous body until it stopped moving just a few seconds later.
“Mrs. Nichols?” I said coming out from behind my hiding space finally startling her out of her calm façade. She had been attempting to place the needle back in her hair and she’d yanked it back out prepared to battle whoever had snuck up on her. I held my hands up and did my best to look unthreatening. “It’s just me! Nate, I mean!” She didn’t lower her weapon yet while she studied my face before a look of recognition spread across her face.
“Nate? Where is Josh is he safe?” She said dropping her weapon to the ground and wrapping me in a tight hug. I nodded into her shoulder and told her that he was on his way and should be here soon.
“Where’s Mr. Nichols is he inside?” I said pulling myself out of her embrace and looking behind her at the building. The look on the woman’s face told me everything that I needed to know, however. “How?” She looked like she might have a breakdown thinking about it for a second but then she steeled herself.
“He saved me, on that first day we were all confused. None of us had gotten a class yet so when the monsters showed up, he put himself in the way of one of those things so that I had time to get away.” She gestured to the dead Flesh Mongrel. “I chose a class the next day and I’ve been killing those things ever since.”
I took in her story and felt another remnant of the sadness and anger that I’d felt the day that I’d seen all those corpses in town. But I tamped those feelings down knowing that Josh would be here in just a few minutes, and he would need all the support that he could get. I couldn’t afford to let my feelings get in the way. I was right, when Josh and the others came walking up, he threw himself around his mom and they both shed tears of joy at their reunion. Unfortunately, those weren’t the only tears that were shed within the next few minutes.
After finding out the news about his father it felt like we all might drown in his sorrow. He accepted a hug from me, and I held him alongside his mother until he could no longer shed any more tears and he fell asleep in our arms. We carried my best friend inside and laid him on a couch. We got lucky and found the twins’ parents and a few more families had also taken shelter in the town hall, so we had another happy reunion. But when they were asked why they hadn’t made their way to the school for the triplets the reunion was spoiled. Someone had told them about the horde that surrounded the school when we first got there and that it had fallen. The twin's father got extremely angry at a short plump man and had to be held back from attacking the man.
After all the drama finished though it was agreed that the entire town hall group would make their way over to the school. I talked to the others in my group about whether they wanted to stay out for a while longer to train but they’d all had an emotional day, so they decided to head back with the others. I had other plans though. The others still hadn’t realized the danger of not getting stronger before the multiverse could come to Earth. Meeting Apollo and the other members of the Congress opened my eyes to how much less powerful we were. “And we all know what happens when a group of powerful people meets a group of weak ones.” I thought to myself.
I checked over my gear and headed in the direction of the forest that we’d made our way through just a few days ago. We’d been lucky enough to not be attacked that often as we traveled last time, but we had been trying to avoid it at the time so that we could get to town faster. This time I planned on going hunting. I allowed my muscles to relax and took off into the woods. Jumping as hard as I could attempting to land on one of the roots of the trees that was at least 30 feet up. I lost my balance on the landing though and fell back down the entire way.
My constitution was high enough at this point that it didn’t hurt all that much, but I was happy that no one was around to see my clumsiness. Bending my knees, I attempted it again and this time I stuck the landing. Training my body was a painful experience and now I recognized why some of the stats were locked until you’d raised others to a minimum. While I attempted to parkour my way through the forest, I fell and smacked into things more than once, but although the bruises were accumulating, I was getting slightly more used to controlling it.
What I could only assume was about an hour after I’d begun my training, I found my first prey. It was a level 10 Flesh Mongrel which confirmed my suspicions that humans weren’t the only ones getting stronger. I crouched low and prepared my bow to fire. The creepy beast was at least 20 yards away and my monocle-like glasses arranged themselves to give me the best view of my target. The goal of this training trip for me to improve my archery so that I wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on skills to get kills.
Pulling back on the bowstring I took a deep breath and then fired. The arrow flew straight over the monster’s head grabbing its attention. It looked straight at me and screamed bounding toward me. I pulled another arrow from my bow and aimed once more. The monster was halfway toward me, and my scope adjusted itself again for the clearest view. I released the arrow and hit its center mass the fletching sticking out of its front, but still, it didn’t go down. Turning to run I moved to get more distance. Just a few feet into my dash I jumped, landing on another root higher up. I pulled an arrow and turned to look for the monster one more time. I found it climbing the root I’d just jumped on and I fired the arrow landed right between the Flesh Mongrels' eyes and exploded out the back of its head.
Sitting back, I attempted to get my breathing under control. My newfound desire to get stronger did not mean that I was used to combat yet, and I was still terrified when monsters got too close. As my breathing calmed down, I waived away the kill notification knowing that I wouldn’t have leveled up from this one kill. “I’m going to die if I keep on like this.” I thought to myself. Getting to my feet I pulled out an arrow and walked over to the base of the tree and carved a target into it.
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I spent a long time shooting at the target. I shot sitting, and standing, I practiced shooting while running and jumping. My accuracy was decent at about 10 yards, but the farther away I got the less often I hit. Then there was the fact that I was interrupted now and again when a passing monster was drawn to my practice, and I had to fight them off. Repeatedly I shot arrow after arrow into the tree and only stopped when the sun had almost completely set.
Luckily, my arrows disappeared after a certain amount of time, so I didn’t have to bother with cleaning up. I looked around at the growing shadows and decided that it was time to set myself up for the night. Winding myself up I jumped my fingers gripping tightly to the base of the tree. In this way, I climbed into the lower branches and pulled myself up. Not being in a group this time, it felt safer to be away from the ground and the monsters.
I sat down and began meditating, but when I did my core still wouldn’t accept any more air essence. Confused I opened the study guide to read.
“This basic study guide only covers cultivation through the first racial upgrade. Please buy a more comprehensive guide to continue your cultivation.” “Well, that’s fucking helpful.” I thought bitterly.
“Maybe Apollo will be a good sugar daddy and get me a new manual?” I said aloud to no one not expecting a response, due to having been warned that he wouldn’t but Apollo had other plans. The tell tail screen that indicated a message from my benefactor popped up and I read it.
“Be a good sugar baby and maybe later! In all seriousness, though figure it out try re-reading things!” The jokey message made me laugh a little and I decided to do exactly what it said. Opening the guide, I read the entire thing through again. The guide was only a few pages long so I didn’t understand the first time I read it through but by the time I’d read it a third time I thought that I might understand what it was that Apollo had been trying to hint at. The passage talking about a base element used the phrase “Think about it like a pyramid.” I thought about that for a while, pondering why it would be like a pyramid.
Then I realized that the guide also mentioned higher concepts. “So, if the base element is the foundation of the core, then a higher concept should be used to build on top of it right?” I figured that had to be the answer. But there were so many different things that could be connected to air, and I didn’t know what would happen if I chose a concept that was too high. I didn’t even know what constituted a higher concept. Frustrated, I decided to just continue to meditate contemplating all the different things I could think of connected to air and hoping that when I finally did decide on a concept it would be the right one.
Meditation wasn’t nearly as good as sleep, but I noticed a few days ago that it was a good way of resting while still being aware of your surroundings. This ability saved me when in my meditative state I saw a shadow with specks of different colored essence lights move through the sky close by. My body reacted by rolling away right before the thing crashed down, raking the spot where I’d just been sitting. It flew a little distance away before turning back for another run at me. My meditative breathing stopped, and I realized that I could no longer see the essence of the monster, so I was somewhat blind in the dark.
Getting my breathing back while moving was difficult but I was able to do it. I fell to my knees ducking my head and covering it with my hands. Pain erupted from my back, and I felt the warmth of blood slide down my back, but I couldn’t scream. I had to maintain my breathing I couldn’t lose my sight. Finally, I retrieved Ballads Bow and activated Ritardando strumming a couple of chords before immediately changing it into its bow form. The pain in my back threatened to keep me from pulling the string back, but I pushed through it and fired.
Ritardando had worked well, the bird creature moving far slower than it had been. My arrow hit its mark knocking the bird to the ground. I ran over to its flapping form and put two more arrows into it at point-blank range just to be sure it was dead.
“You have performed during combat! 500 essence awarded 8% removed. 460 essence awarded. You have defeated level 13 Star Hawk!” I’d gotten lucky again, if I hadn’t been meditating when the bird had attacked, I’d be dead right now.
“I guess it’s another thing I’ve got to practice,” I whispered and slumped my shoulders. I hissed in pain from the movement remembering that I’d been injured. I played the Song of Healing, and I could feel the wound knitting itself together. After the practice that I’d gotten playing it lately, I’d gotten somewhat better at the complicated piece but remembering what the original piece was supposed to look like I knew that I had a long way to go before I could play it as written.
I reached back and felt the rough scab left over from my healing. I’d have to be careful with it for a while or else it might split open again. My clothes were covered in blood and my shirt was torn up the back. Taking off my shirt I left it laying where it was, however, I was not willing to run around the forest without pants. I continued my meditation thinking about what concept I could use. Flight was a concept I kept coming back to but unfortunately it felt too narrow to be used to build on top of what I had right now. As the sun came up, I decided. My eyes snapped open, and I smiled excitedly.
“Sound!” It had been so obvious once I finally came to the realization. It had to be carried in the air and it’s all around which means that it must be almost as basic of an essence concept as air. I closed my eyes again and reached out thinking specifically about my chosen concept, and after a while, the other colors disappeared allowing me to see the essence that I was looking for. It was a light green color and I excitedly attempted to draw it in. It moved into me, and I attempted to draw it into the small yellow core.
The new green essence wouldn’t enter it though no matter how much I tried to force it in. I gave up after a while and got to my feet. It was time to continue training. The goal was to stay out there for five days training my body, archery, and cultivation. As the days continued, I was successful with the first two, but my cultivation completely escaped me. I bathed in combat, killing anything that I ran across. I suffered several more injuries and barely escaped with my life once.
I’d accidentally entered the domain of a Level 50 Fire Drake and wound up running for my life suffering some intense burns on my lower legs. But even though I’d been burned, cut, and beaten several times the gains were worth it. I walked out of the forest at the end of the five days checking my stat sheet.
Nathan Schute: Bardic Archer
LEVEL 17
STRENGTH: 15
CONSTITUTION:10
AGILITY:15
DEXTERITY:56
INTELLIGENCE:14
WISDOM:14
CHARISMA:45
PERCEPTION:10
0 Free Stat Points
I’d only gained two levels, but I no longer had to clench my cheeks to walk around, and my archery had improved by leaps and bounds. I made my way back to the school still avoiding the area with the corpses and waived to the guards on the rooftop. They gave me an odd look but then waived back and a few minutes later someone opened the doors to let me in. I searched for my friends in the gymnasium where they usually spend time with their families, but they weren’t there. After asking around I was pointed to the auditorium. Thinking I knew what they were doing I opened the double doors leading into the room and walked in. Surely enough all four of my friends sat cross-legged with their eyes closed leaning against the stage.
“Hey, guys! How’s it going?” I asked loudly, making each of them jump in surprise. Josh was the first one to jump up and run over to me.
“What the hell happened to you? You look like hell!” He said on the edge of freaking out.
“If by hell you mean hot as hell then yeah, you’re right,” Tina said earning herself a no-look high five from her brother and an annoyed look from her girlfriend. I laughed at the joke and took myself in. I was essentially naked, with no shirt, my pants being shredded, and I’d lost my shoes at some point. Then there were all of the partially healed wounds and scars that covered my body. “Should have cleaned myself up before coming back I guess.” I thought to myself. Sitting down in a nearby chair I relaxed and told them everything that happened while I was out there.
“Well, I’m glad that you’ve made it back in mostly one piece, but you’re not allowed to go out by yourself like that again! You want to get stronger I get that but do it with us.” Josh chastised me, but I noticed that he was holding himself together much better than the last time I’d seen him. I probably should have felt guilty for leaving him to deal with his dad’s death on his own, but my trip had been necessary, so I didn’t.
“So, you’re finally getting serious about training?” I asked my friend, and he rolled his eyes at me.
“Well, I don’t have much of a choice. My mom is like crazy strong, and I don’t like knowing that she could absolutely spank me in a fight. I need to be able to take care of her.” I was glad that he was finally taking all of this seriously, but the moment was ruined when Tony chimed in with.
“Your mom can spank me!”
“Me too!” Susan tacked on earning a wary glare from Tina. Josh just leaped up and punched Tony in the arm a few times then wrestled him to the ground until he took it back. Through the whole thing I couldn’t help but laugh, the trip went well for me but I’m glad that I wouldn’t have to do it on my own all of the time.
“So, how’s the cultivation coming?” I asked interrupting the revelry. Each of the others was suddenly glaring at me. “What?”
“Dude we can’t even see this essence shit that you’re talking about! We’ve been meditating every day and haven’t even gotten there! How’d you get that racial upgrade thing in just a matter of days?” Tony had jumped towards me and was shaking me by the shoulders as he berated me with questions.
“Are you doing the meditation right?” I asked.
“Yeah of course! We’re doing it exactly the way you told us! I’m with Tony, I think you must just be freaky good at it or something.” Susan said with a slightly jealous tone. I had them sit back down and continue to meditate and surely enough I was right. Each of them was doing things slightly different from the other, but the one thing they were doing the same was getting it wrong. I spent the next several hours helping them adjust their meditation till it matched what I’d learned from the guide.
I hadn’t realized how good I’d gotten at it but now I was able to maintain the meditative breathing that allowed me to see essence while moving or speaking. “Maybe they’re right and I am just good at this.” I thought with a little pride. We practiced for a while longer before the first of them managed to get it. Susan was the first to gain her sight and she jumped up giggling excitedly and hugging Tina, who just grumbled something about Susan just being good at everything, good-naturedly. Tony had the second success, followed by Tina then Josh.
“Urgh really? I suck this much?” Josh groaned and I patted him on the shoulder with a smile. After reassuring him that with practice he’d be just as good as anyone, I explained about the base elements. A week into training the others were finally able to start creating their core. On this day we each received a system notification.
“Congratulations! If you are seeing this notification, then you have proven that you’re capable of surviving the challenges of the multiverse by surviving the first 30 days (system standard time) of your initialization! Your world has done very well by maintaining 45% of your population! The Congress has deemed that your accomplishments should be awarded. Instead of beginning with a level one system store, you will begin with a level three system store. The store will be delivered to recognized population centers shortly. The world leaderboards will be judged once every three months and the top 10 people on each will receive appropriate rewards! Congratulations once again! Please stand by for delivery of the system store!”
The world shook for about 10 seconds and once it stopped, we rushed over to the gym to make sure that everyone was safe. No one seemed to be harmed but the crowd was humming with nervous energy staring at the item that had appeared in the center of the room. A large metallic black box floated in the center of the room. Once someone went up to it and confirmed that it was just a shop of some kind the people in the room moved towards it excitedly, forcing some of the other classers to get in their way pushing the crowd back. The principal then explained that we needed to view the new item in an orderly way and the crowd got into four lines.
I wasn’t looking at the system store. I wanted to see the leaderboard and to be distracted about the fact only 45% of humanity was left.