“Did anyone hear that?” Timon asked. We had just gotten off the bus in the small town, and as I had hoped, it had appeared deserted from a distance. His sudden words made think otherwise, though.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Maud said. Maud, Elody, l, and Karlinovo had decided to co on this trip. The last three had in order to look for anything they thought would be useful. Maud ca because she was hoping to find so soda.
“Neither did I,” I said. That didn’t an anything, though. From what I had learned about Timon, I suspected his senses were much better than the rest of ours. How did one train their perceptions anyway?
“I heard it. Sounded like a door closing in the distance,” l said.
“Who the hell are you?!” a kid’s voice suddenly yelled. I spun my head and spotted him yelling from an open window, a shotgun pointing through it.
“Hey, it’s okay, we’re just here to see what’s going on with the town, and if we can borrow anything. Are there any adults we can talk to?” Maud asked gently, trying to calm the kid.
“No! Ain’t had any of my family here since those monsters attacked,” he replied.
“I promise we aren’t with them. Why don’t you put the gun down and co outside, and we can talk more?” Maud continued.
“Fine, but only because so of you look human, and I ain’t afraid of clouds, but keep the bug away, I don’t like them!” he yelled back.
Monts later, a kid no older than twelve erged from the building. He had, in fact, not left his gun behind, not that it entirely worried anymore. I doubted a shotgun could do much to these days. I added that to a list of things I should determine. Just how resistant was my body to conventional weapons?
“Hey, I’m Dave, and the lady you’ve been talking to is Maud. Have you really been alone here for a while?” I asked, starting to wish I had considered searching the nearby cities for people who needed help sooner. That was sothing I was going to put Grant in charge of the mont we got back.
“…the monsters killed them all. Dad made hide in the woods, when I got back there was no one.” The kid dropped the gun, and everything seed to hit him at once. He dropped to his knees, crying. Dammit, why hadn’t I thought to send people out to the check on as much of the area as I could?
“I’m so sorry,” Maud called, running to hug him. “Co on, let’s talk about it on the bus, okay?”
“Okay,” he said through sniffles as Maud started to lead him back to where we had just co.
“I should have considered the devastation of everywhere around , with how hard the orcs had co at my house, of course, they had gone through the towns on the way,” I said, angry at myself for not even considering it.
“When? Dave, ya ran yerself ragged doing literally everything ya could. This ain’t yer fault. We’ll do what we can for the kid, but rember he’s likely only alive because of what ya did,” l replied. His words didn’t help. I knew they were correct, but at the mont, they did absolutely nothing.
“Let’s just focus on getting the cabling. l, see those lines up there. I’m guessing they are dead, but in the off chance they are live, you might want to send a drone. Get as much of it as you can, wound up,” I said. To l’s credit, he just went straight to work, not trying to talk out of my mood anymore.
There wasn’t a lot else of value in the city. Without power, most of the food had gone bad, and I guessed the kid had been living on what little canned goods he could scavenge since then. I did manage to find so computers and a few laptops scattered about a few of the houses. I was careful to avoid where we had t him. I wasn’t willing to touch anything that belonged to him. He had every right to take whatever he wanted, and hopefully willingly co back with us. We couldn’t leave him here.
Alongside the computers, I was able to find several types of cabling, ranging from Ethernet to speaker wire. I took it all. I had no idea which would be the most useful for what, but it would be important for testing purposes. I spotted Karlinovo going about various houses as well, constantly passing things to Elody to add to her own storage. It seed he hadn’t unlocked his again yet.
After a couple of hours of this, I headed back to the bus to see how our new friend was holding up. “I’m sorry, Mr. Dave,” he said the mont he spotted , still looking incredibly upset.
“It’s okay. You did the right thing trying to defend yourself there. You had no idea we weren’t your enemies,” I replied. There were several snacks on the table in front of them and so leftovers from last night’s dinner, which Maud had apparently managed to dig up. “What’s your na?”
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“Dean,” he replied, so of the tears were drying up now.
“Nice to et you, Dean. I’m sorry about the circumstances it’s under. Maud may have already told you this, but it’s probably safest if you co back with us. Are you okay doing that?” I asked, hoping I didn’t have to force the issue.
“Yeah, but can I pack up my stuff before we go? And I need to get Bitey. He’s the only other one who’s still alive. He’s just a pet rat, but he saw his parents die too, and I can’t leave him behind,” Dean said, so of his tears coming back, and his words spilled out of his mouth.
“Of course. Maud, can you help him get everything he wants to bring?” I asked.
“Yep, on it. Co on, Dean, let’s get Mr. Bitey ready for his trip,” Maud said, standing up and coaxing Dean to co with her as she did. While they did that, I pulled up a chat window.
Dave: Gamma, we found a single survivor here, and he’s just a kid. Can you tell Glorp to try and get space for him with the rest of them? He’s going to need friends badly.
Gamma: Yes, I will do that imdiately.
Dave: Thank you, and tell Grant I want to talk to him when I get back about a new mission for him.
Gamma: I will do that as well. Oh, and Grant said the council is coming for a eting tomorrow. Almost forgot to tell you.
Dave: Dammit, tell him I want more notice in the future, then tell Pryte.
Gamma: Okay.
Glorp couldn’t believe how fast so of these projects were starting to co along. The Reltleons had only been here a day, and already they likely had enough lumber felled for two of the long houses. He was glad they were so capable, because this would have taken just him, Grant, and Trolke ages to do otherwise.
He hoped Cecile was having just as much luck in the greenhouses as he was. He pictured so of the amazing crops they could end up with if he were. He pulled a small packet out of his pocket. It was a few seeds his brother had managed to bring with them when Pryte found them. Once they were done here, he was going to ask Cecile to help him plant them. He wanted it to be a surprise for everyone, though. The way the vegetable from his ho planet made people rember the bliss of their happiest mories was sothing best experienced as a gift.
Speaking of gifts, thanks to the Arena and all of Dave’s help, his core was now sitting at a B-tier. Then there was his affinity. The thing that scared him enough that even though he had invested ranks into it, he had refused to use it. Unless there was a life or death situation, he planned to do his best to keep it that way.
-\Core Grade {B}-\Affinity\Speed {C}-\Affinity\Speed\Gotta Go Faster {25}
You’ve begun to move in ways most people can only imagine. Gotta Go Faster allows your core to begin to channel energy directly from the source of all speed itself. This can be extrely dangerous, as mortal bodies are not made for channeling such energies. Further ranks increase the amount of speed you can draw, they do not however make it safer to do so. Furthermore, the more you draw on this, the more you risk your body breaking down as you use it.
The idea that he had access to sothing beyond what mortal people normally did scared him even more. He had heard of people called gods before, but he had always just assud they were just very powerful mana channelers with giant egos. After he had first read that affinity skill, he was no longer quite so sure.
“Trolke, how did you decide what you wanted to do with your life?” Glorp asked the big man the next ti he spotted him. He was quickly considering the giant to be one of his close friends and a great ntor.
“Dad mostly. He taught a lot of this when I was a kid, back before our howorld was free. Sure, I could have changed my path then, a lot of giants did, but I kind of like what I do. Makes rember the big guy every ti I make a mistake, and how he’d gently show what I needed to do to fix it, or to scrap it and start over,” he replied with a booming, yet warm voice.
“Interesting, sadly, I don’t think I can follow in my family footsteps. I think they’re all dead, except maybe uncle Glarppp, but I haven’t seen him since I was a toddler, barely rember his face,” Glorp replied. He fought off the sadness that ca with the words. Despite his unpleasant past, he was happy here.
“Then it’s up to you to find your own path. You’re a smart and incredibly capable kid, so I think you will manage it. Now get back to getting that lumber laid out. We need to get those kids into rooms,” Trolke said with a smile that was the opposite of his new demanding tone.
Air is generally the least chosen of the elental paths for a mana orb. People see the benefits as far weaker than its counterparts, and while that is entirely true for most of its early growth, this quickly becos a nonsense belief as the orb matures. At its highest tiers, only aether can truly stand against it after all, those who can dance in the clouds can move with the speed of lightning.
Air, Far More Dangerous Than Understood by Henjen Klank
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