She had missed an entire year, huh?

Liz walked through the outer streets of Ashley for the second time since she had come to the city, admiring the groups of hardened warriors that surrounded her. It made a lot more sense now, the smooth confidence with which they walked and the casual ease with which they dispatched voidspawn.

The entire time that she was sitting in the Void, they were honing their skills against these creatures and adapting to this new Earth. And she of all people knew just how much one could change over the course of a year.

Half of the people around her were dressed in various pieces of armor and wielded wicked weapons, but perhaps the more scary ones were the ones that were dressed in normal, everyday clothes. Those were the ones that displayed their Marks prominently, who were confident enough in their personal strength to forego combat equipment in their day-to-day life.

She hoped to get to their level soon enough.

Harold Tanner - Threat Level: E-(?)

A random guard brushed past her, and she felt a bit of jealousy as she saw his stats. His Threat Level was the same as hers, but unlike her, he didn’t need to destroy his own body whenever he was in a pinch.

Still, she thought that she had recovered pretty damn well.

After a day’s worth of rest, including 14 hours of well-deserved sleep, she was feeling a lot better than before. She was still a little skinnier than she thought was healthy, but a combined 10000 calories’ worth of food had set her back on track to being functional.

She laughed. “It’s a good thing I love food as much as I do.”

Another gate passed by, and she looked around for her destination. This was the outermost part of the city now, which meant that there weren’t any guards to defend against the dangerous voidspawn. Her grip on Breaker tightened, and she reflexively checked her skin for any signs of the blue aura.

None. That was good. She had thought that she had complete control over her body, but like with many things, it wasn’t that easy. She was still trying to function like that athlete from three years ago, when she hadn’t been able to walk a week ago.

Just take it steady.

She’d find a way to gain strength in a less destructive way. If she really had to, she’d just train herself up normally with weights.

Not that using the blue aura would have been destructive to her at the moment. Her spirit held more healing than it had ever had before at the moment, and it glowed a healthy golden green in her mind’s eye. She had to admit, it felt good knowing she had a reserve in case anything happened.

Well, in case anything happened to her. The fact that she couldn’t heal others still stung a bit, but she shook it off when she neared her destination. Cameron had told her that she’d have strengths elsewhere. She just needed to believe him.

The worn buildings and ruined streets gradually opened to reveal a large park, sporting a small baseball field and a worn-down playground. A cluster of trees surrounded one part of it, and she warily watched for any signs of giant beetles before passing by. She didn’t think that one would come so close to civilization without being noticed, but she also had no idea how voidspawn actually, well… spawned.

“Liz!”

She looked up, waving at Rich as he jogged over to her. A crowd of a couple dozen people were gathered behind him, but none of them paid her any attention.

“Dude, I can’t tell you how good it feels seeing you walk again. You’re really recovered, then?”

She smirked. “Both from the injury and from myself, yeah.”

“I’m glad. We should go over to the middle, that’s where —”

“Attention all recruits!” A booming voice resounded from the center of the crowd. There, Cameron was standing on a felled log, a ginormous gilded sword in hand.

Liz whistled. “Woah, I didn’t know the Void could give us stuff like that.”

Rich nodded beside her. “Right? That’s the power gap between E and D, I guess.”

They turned back to Cameron, who had begun speaking again. “First, I’d like to thank all of you for volunteering to help protect Ashley with us. We aren’t certain as to what will happen in the future in this new earth, but from what we’ve seen, things are only going to get worse. We need all the manpower we can get, which means training you guys in the art of fighting voidspawn.”

He paused, as if debating something. “First, though, let me introduce myself. I am Cameron Brown, head of the Ashley Guard and a D-minus ranked warrior. I’ve been here since a week after the apocalypse started, and I fought on the front lines when the First Wave of the voidspawn peaked.”

“As for my Mark…” The man met her eyes from across the crowd and winked. “I bear the Mark of the Paladin.”

A glow of golden light flared around him, and Liz gasped. That was healing energy. She hadn’t seen any come from him when they had last met.

The energy powered him as he swung the ginormous blade, effortlessly felling a tree and catching it on his off hand. “If there’s anything out here that’s too dangerous for you recruits to handle, just holler. I’ll take care of it.”

Liz stared at him. That felt like it was just her blue aura, but better. On the plus side, her confidence in his words about her just needing to find what her Mark was good at was growing.

Before she could think too much about the revelation, though, a woman came up beside Cameron.

Nina Cromwell - Threat Level: E(?)

“Hello, all. As you may know, I’m Commander Cromwell, Cameron’s second in command. For today, we will be establishing squads and drilling maneuvers that are effective against the most common types of voidspawn.”

Something growled from the cluster of trees, and the woman quickly fired a pistol. Despite being over fifty meters away, the bullet soared true, puncturing the emerging wolf straight in the chest.

“This is a newly discovered voidspawn ‘nest’, and we’ve held off on destroying it in order to provide you some training. Everyone, get into a group of three and gather under either me or Cameron. We will lure out individual voidspawn and show the best way to deal with them both in a group and individually.”

They looked at each other.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Commander Cromwell boomed.

“Ah — uh apologies, ma’am!” Rich grabbed Liz’s wrist, leading her over to another man with a Mark on his arm.

Jim Maddock - Threat Level: E-

“This is Jim, a boxer from that athletics convention I was at when the Void hit. Jim, I told you I wasn’t lying when I said I knew Elizabeth Sayler.”

The man stared at her with wide eyes, and she stared back.

“Whoah, you’re actually here. And a lot… skinnier in person.”

She scowled. “You should have seen me when I first arrived. At least now my cheeks aren’t sunken in like a skeleton’s.”

The boxer didn’t seem to have a response to that, so Rich started to lead them over to Commander Cromwell’s section.

“Ah, one second!”

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to see Cameron had come up behind them. Jim gasped again, but Rich just dragged the man away.

“You weren’t lying when you said our Marks are similar, huh?”

“I told you it’d surprise you, didn’t I? Anyways, I’m sure that you’ll have no problems with these basic F ranked voidspawn. Because we’re trying to hone your understanding of what makes your Mark unique, though, I want you to do this without any of your strengthening aura.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “Lesser Marked Paladins have no problem doing the same thing you do with your blue aura, but your metabolism and ability to heal nerve damage are what make you unique. Try and get a better understanding of how your actual body has changed, and maybe explore healing others some more now that you’re recovered. You’ll be amazed at how much your spiritual capabilities are dependent on your physical state.”

After a moment, she nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. I’ll try.”

“Really explore how you’ve changed, alright?”

“Alright.”

He grinned. “Good. Now go catch up with the rest Nina’s group. It’s time to hunt some voidspawn!”