“That’s another one done and dusted,” Basil said as he clapped, then wiped his hands. He checked the hidden prompt again.

Digital Adventurer (Hidden Quest):

Play every slot machine on the first floor, 38 out of 150 complete.

It had taken him two dozen machines in a row before the quest popped up. He had heard about hidden quests before, his uncle Terry had told the story of how he got to level 3 a hundred times. He never understood the point of family reunions for zombies. They didn’t eat under ordinary circumstances, couldn’t feel the effects of alcohol, and were usually lazy unless given explicit instructions. Getting together with hundreds of family members to be lazy in a room sounded like the worst kind of torture to him. Yet they did it every twenty-five years. Why so often?

He shook his head and moved to the next machine. He had plenty of patience. That was part of being a zombie. But he could feel little thrills of anticipation running through him, especially his new arms. He had a sneaking suspicion the arm’s former owner had been saddled with a nasty gambling addiction that went untreated. It practically itched to start the next round. He pulled a token from his pocket and selected the minimum bet. By that point, he had figured out that he had to win a round at the machine for it to count. Sometimes he was lucky and won right at the start, but over the course of the last few hours, he had built a nice little nest egg. Nearly a thousand tokens sat in his pocket. It was more money than anyone in his family had seen in centuries.

“Alright, momma needs a new car,” he mumbled. Strange statements kept leaking from his mouth, and he was certain it was the doing of his arm. He shook his head and pushed the button to start the wheels. He enjoyed the little animations that went on. His favorite had been a coconut dancing with katanas, cutting bananas as they fell from the sky. The imagination that had been a core part of this world was really striking to him.

As he played, an idle thought crossed his mind.

When was the last time I saw Bast?

He ruminated on it for a minute, thinking about how long he’d been playing for. He had heard some of the larger machines do some noisy jangle a few hours before. Not much since. That had been… thirty machines ago? Maybe twenty-five. There had been a spate of wins, something like six in a row, where he had won immediately. Still, a single run lasted anywhere from thirty seconds to a minute, and that was when he won. Sometimes they lasted several minutes, only to turn out to be a loss. Still, the videos were very interesting. It was enough to hold his attention.

The dials came to a stop, showing losing numbers. He sighed, pulled another token out of his pocket, and started again. Only one-hundred-twelve machines to go, including the one he sat at.

–––

Adam sighed and leaned against the tree trunk. It was his fifth of the day. He was getting faster. They were all getting better. Kyra had taken to preparing the monsters with Raven’s help. That had surprised them. If they were quick enough, the monsters could be harvested for parts, which did not fade away like the whole corpses did. One of the attacks after the typhins, he couldn’t quite remember which of the six, had dropped an axe. It was a regular wood-chopping axe, not the battling kind. It seemed… oddly specific. Like it was made to drop, since he had been the one to kill and loot the thing. It still made him shiver when he thought about it.

That particular creature had confirmed something for him: the monsters they were seeing were adapted from earth creatures. Not only that, but it was usually two normal creatures melded together in the most nightmare-inducing ways he could fathom. The one that dropped the axe had been a cross between a praying mantis and a sloth. Unfortunately, it seems they had pulled the sloth from fifteen-thousand years before the system. The thing had been patterned largely after the sloth, standing eight feet at the shoulder. However, it favored behaving more like the praying mantis, rearing back and showing all four forelimbs. It had a set of long, furry arms ending in savage looking claws, and a separate set that looked to be scaly, extending out from the shoulders and resembling scythes. It had a large mouth filled with small, sharp teeth, as well as two sets of fangs, and a set of external mandibles that clearly pulled food into the waiting Cuisinart-like mouth.

That fight had been insanely stressful. He had nearly lost an arm to one of those astonishingly sharp scythe-arms. Liz had used her new bow to distract the creature, though its furry sides were too thick to be easily pierced by her arrows. It had been a lucky shot that took out one of its compound eyes that allowed him to sneak in under its guard and slash the belly open with her sword. Stinking guts had spilled out, steaming in the night air, but that had hardly slowed the thing. It had severed its own organs with a swipe from its blade arm, then continued chasing after him. It took twenty minutes of whittling it down, slashing through thick fur and hard chitin, before it went down. He had severed the head just to be certain, and that head had been mounted to a board as a trophy. It was the largest creature to attack their camp. He was just thankful there had been only one. The stench had kept them from trying to process the body, and that allowed them to loot it.

Another of the lessons they had learned that day: processing a body too much kept it from being looted. They had to balance what they harvested with collecting loot. It had been a long process, aided by a different raid another night. A dozen creatures, the size of a horse, had invaded while they were working. It happened at least once a day, generally either around dawn or dusk. They were all exhausted, on edge, and starting to get cranky. But he had taken the time to butcher one right next to another that he had looted. After that, he changed how much he took while attempting to loot. Once the creature had lost approximately 30 percent of its body mass for any reason, it was no longer lootable. The more it lost to harvesting, the less they got in return for loot. And after looting, the body always faded within seconds, preventing any further harvesting.

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He stood, wiped his brow, checked the position of the sun, then started chopping away at the tree again. The clearing had grown in the week they had been there. The stout log wall was nearly completed, and already most creatures funneled toward the gap where the gate would be. He had added a lip after a few spider-crossed creatures had gone over the fence when they weren’t expecting it. The lip was made from sticks woven through with barbed vines. That had been effective enough, even against the chitinous legs of the more insectoid creatures.

He grunted, swinging his axe and using his ability, cleave. A clean line split the tree all down its forty-foot length. That had been a godsend, almost literally. He was level three, feeling stronger, and he’d already unlocked his solar plexus chakra. Most of the rest of their group was progressing at the same pace.

Raven looked down from her perch to where Adam worked on the trees. He barely even broke a sweat now, felling and stripping those trees. It was really impressive. She turned her gaze toward Kyra, who was whittling furniture from the cast-off wood Adam put to the side for her. The tiny woman was remarkably industrious. She was also filling out, not just with muscle, but with womanly curves. It was an incredible transformation. She hadn’t looked sick when Raven met her, but it was easy to see the difference just a few days had made in her posture, confidence, strength, and stamina. She smiled, then turned her attention upward. The trees were tough to climb, especially near the top where the wind blew the crowns around like wheat in a gale.

She continued her ascent, transitioning to using daggers as she neared the top. The wind was as bad as ever, more than sixty feet up. This tree was near the clearing, perhaps thirty feet back from the current tree line. But it was the tallest in the area, standing almost ten feet taller than the nearer trees. She took in the dazzling sight for a long moment. It looked like a sea of green. Waves could be seen moving across the treetops. But more interestingly, she could see other clearings. The nearest had to be a few miles away, and was just visible at that angle. It was mostly notable because it had part of a hillside exposed, informing her that the clearing was significantly larger than their own. It was worth mentioning to the others.

Raven turned to start the descent, mind occupied with the possibilities, when something caught her attention. She paused, looking back out across the treetops. One tree was moving counter to the others around it, almost like it was shivering. Then it started to fall, disappearing from sight a second later. She memorized the direction, noting it was east-southeast from where she was perched. Another mystery to solve. That could have been an animal crashing into it, or other humans felling it. Or, perhaps, it had just been old and she had been lucky enough to catch it falling at that particular moment. It was hard to say. But she would bring it up when she got back to the group.

Adam used cleave again, cutting a smooth plank from the large square log. The ability was draining, often taking half his stamina pool in one shot. It varied with each strike, and he figured it was a factor of what he was striking, as well as if there were inclusions or other factors that made the swing cost more. He leaned against his axe, taking a breather, when Raven jogged up.

“Hey, Adam. I think I spotted something.”

“Finally made it to the top, then?”

She nodded. “Yeah. You were right, using the daggers helped a lot.”

“Well, you should probably thank Carl for that. We don’t see him much, but I know he’s doing a lot of work out there.”

He frowned. Not just a lot. Carl had already hit level five. The man was a machine, working upwards of twenty hours a day. He kept the clearing as peaceful as possible. The attacks they dealt with often came during the brief periods he rested.

“Sure, I’ll keep that in mind. Guy still gives me the willies.”

Adam nodded, snorting a stifled laugh. “Yeah, I understand that. But he works hard.”

“Anyway, do you want me to tell you now, or wait until everyone is here?”

“How important is it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Could be very important, could be nothing.”

Adam sighed. “Alright, just tell me now. If need be, we can catch the others up later.”

She nodded. “Right. Okay. Uh… yeah. Well, I was at the top of the tree, right?” She swallowed. “I was looking out to the south, at least, I think it was the south.”

He had to stifle another laugh. She turned in place, pointing and muttering to herself for a moment.

“South is that way,” he said, pointing into the forest. “We’re still a bit north of the equator, wherever we are, so the sun stays on our southern side all day.”

“Right, duh, of course,” she said with a serious nod. “I was looking south at some ridges and I spotted a clearing. It has to be a big one, based on the fact I could see it. But it has to be at least three miles away.”

“Alright, we’ll send Carl to check it out tomorrow.”

“Well, that’s the thing. I saw a tree fall to the… east. East-southeast, I think.” She turned in place again, using her hands to make a rudimentary compass. Then she nodded and turned back to him. “Yeah, definitely east-southeast. I don’t know what caused it, but I did see a big tree fall. Maybe a mile, mile-and-a-half?”

Adam scratched at his beard. It had started filling in and he didn’t hate it, but it itched like crazy. He normally shaved every morning. “That’s a tough call.”

“What is?”

They turned to see Liz walking up, bow slung across her back. She had a hip quiver filled with arrows, and she was whittling with a small blade as she approached.

“Raven spotted something. Go on, tell her.”

Raven nodded, suddenly drawing in on herself. “Uh, yeah. I was just telling him… uh… about a clearing. And a falling tree.”

“I see. That is troubling.”

“Well, they aren’t the same place. I mean, the falling tree was not in the clearing I spotted.”

Liz looked at Adam, who was doing his best to not smile. She rolled her eyes and looked back at Raven, who ducked her head.

“Sorry.”

“Oh, no, Raven. You have nothing to be sorry for.” She reached out and gently lifted Raven’s chin, making the smaller woman blush.

“Alright, that’s enough, you two,” Adam said with a little wave. “You can flirt later.”

Raven squeaked and jumped in place, then turned and frantically waved in negation. “What, no, I… no!”

“Oh, you weren’t flirting with me?” Liz put on her most mischievous smile, making Raven squeak again.

“Liz, stop embarrassing the poor girl. Keep it in your pants. We have other priorities right now.”

“It’s been almost two freaking weeks.”

“So suffer for another night or two. We’re almost to the point where I can start making houses.”

Liz groaned. “Fine!”

“What did I miss?”

Kyra walked up, distractedly plotting out the village to be.

“Liz was teasing Raven again,” Adam started.

“Ah!” Raven squeaked once more, then took off running.

Adam sighed. “Liz, go get your girlfriend. It’ll be dark soon, and you know that means we’re going to get attacked again.”

Liz groaned. “I was just having fun! And she’s not my girlfriend.”

“Not yet,” Kyra muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing!” She turned to Adam. “What’s the plan, boss?”