All too soon, Aaron was woken up by his rumbling stomach. He tried to ignore it, but the sensation kept returning to the forefront of his mind, scratching it like an angry cat. Put simply, he was starving. It felt like his stomach was trying to crawl out of his body. It made sense fighting monsters and magically upgrading his body must have been calorically expensive work. If it wasn’t for Survivalism, he would have been legitimately concerned for his life. Another hungry rumble rocked his body - he headed its call.

He opened a sleep-encrusted eye. To his side, Tony snored loudly. He was stretched out to the maximum, taking up as much space as humanly possible. Which unfortunately meant that an old wrinkled leg had found its way over his chest. He cringed, then carefully moved the limb off him.

That left Jess to take care of. While she wasn’t an explosively loud sleeper, she also had the unfortunate habit of taking up too much space. On the bright side, she hadn’t tried to kill him in his sleep.

He removed her arm from his calf, freeing himself. He picked himself up - eager to get out of the pile of limbs. He opened the door and entered the cold morning air. The rain had finally stopped.

He took one last glance in the cramped shack before closing the door. The shed was too small to house all of them. He needed his space. He took a deep breath then proceeded into the dark to take care of his morning needs. With his increased perception, it wasn’t much of a challenge. The fading light of the moon was all he needed to guide him.

His feet took him down to the dock, through the muddy ground onto the slippery wooden boards. For once, the world was quiet; the only sound that graced his ears was the gentle crashing of the waves. No distant gunshots, torrential rain, or screams of pain; it was just him and the water. His feet continued to guide him like they had a mind of their own. He stopped at the edge of the dock and looked out at the choppy water. His lips inched upward. To think it had only been a day ago when the octopus almost drowned him. It felt much longer.

Across the bay, the city was illuminated by warm orange fires. Houses had crumpled, and skyscrapers had fallen but humanity was still there, desperately fighting for survival - a flower in the concrete that stubbornly refused to die. It was a strangely beautiful sight. He’d never dare tell anyone that, though. They’d think he was crazy for thinking a disaster of this scale could be beautiful.

He took the moment of peace to check level-up notifications he had ignored.

Congratulations! Survivalism Lvl 2→6. 4 Skill Points Awarded. Congratulations! Mana Bolt Lvl 32→49. 17 Skill Points Awarded. Congratulations! Explosive Mark Lvl 5→14. 18 Skill Points Awarded. Congratulations! Meditation Lvl 9→14. 5 Skill Points Awarded. Congratulations! Improvised Weapon Mastery Lvl 24→25. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

Once again, pushing his limits had been an effective way of raising his skill levels. Though, a part of him was expecting to receive more. It seemed that skill levels became harder to come by at higher levels.

Faint footsteps scraped against the wet floor. Aaron made no outward indication of hearing the noise. Instead, he prepared to cast Mana Bolt. “It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Jess said.

He turned, then coughed to clear his parched throat. “Good morning. You’re up early.”

She stopped at the edge of the dock. He had to stop himself from laughing; she had the worst case of bed head he had ever seen. “It’s hard to sleep when some oaf decides to toss your arm around.”

Aaron didn’t apologize. “It’s hard to get out of bed when some oaf decides to trap your leg with their arm.” They shared a short laugh.

“You know, I made a water storage system; want to see it?”

Aaron nodded. That was convenient; he was just about to search for a water bottle. His thirst was beginning to concern him. He had read that the average human could go 3 days without water. He didn’t know how the System affected that number, but he didn’t want to find out.

He followed her back to the shed. Outside of it, she had placed several flower pots on the ground. Small coils of rope were wrapped around their bases to stabilize them. All of the pots were filled to the brim with water, except for one. At least yesterday's downpour was good for something other than making him miserable.

“What do you think. Pretty high tech, right?”

He pointed to the flower pot that wasn’t filled with water. “Why did you put a flower in one?” A small dandelion poked out of the top of the soil. He had no idea where she had gotten it. It definitely hadn’t come from the shed.

“I like gardening, plus it helps me level the skill,” she said simply.

“Why the hell would you take Gardening?”

She gave him a deadpan stare. “Because I like gardening. ” Her expression morphed into a slight grin. “Also it helps speed up crop growth. I don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here. With magic, it could be possible to grow food faster than normal. It’s at least worth a shot.” She shrugged her shoulders.

It was a bit of a long shot. However, with magic, anything was possible. There was probably a Skill Path for speeding up plant growth to the extreme. Even if that didn't work out. Her idea of collecting rainwater was quite smart. He was surprised he didn’t think of it himself.

He picked up one of the pots. The water was clear, but it probably wasn’t very sanitary. Who knew the last time the flower pots had been cleaned. He pushed aside his doubts - getting a stomach ache from drinking dirty water was infinitely better than dying of thirst. Besides, his enhanced constitution should be able to handle it.

With big gulps, the water easily flowed down his gullet. It passed over his taste buds, smooth and refreshing. The water tasted different than any he had ever tasted before. Its flavor was more full, richer, and more complex than he would have expected for a drink that was supposed to have no flavor. He paused; it must have been his enhanced perception acting up. Theoretically, his taste buds should be around 4 times as powerful as a normal human's. That didn’t make much sense, but he didn't dwell on it. Ultimately, it didn’t matter.

As he drank his fill, the sun crept over the horizon, casting the sky in a soft shade of lilac and orange. He took a deep breath. A new day had arrived; it was time to fight back. Yesterday, the System had caught them by surprise, but today, they would be ready. Humanity would have its revenge.

Illuminated by the rising sun, Aaron spotted a tall tower being constructed on the island. It was farther away than he would have thought possible, but after a quick examination of the island, he discovered that its size had more than doubled overnight. The same went for the bay separating the island from the mainland. The Earth was increasing in size.

If he squinted his eyes, he could see bricks flying through the air, assembling the tower piece by piece. The construction method was alien, something no human could hope of accomplishing at the moment. The only thing it could possibly be was the Prize Tower. Curiosity burned within him; he wanted to see what treasure was hidden within it. Hopefully, there was something to eat in there. He’d happily accept a cow as a prize. Or, better yet, something shiny - like a diamond.

Aaron and Jess theorized about the Prize Tower as they waited for Tony to wake up. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long. The old Italian lumbered out of the shed like a donkey. After a brief discussion, they decided to head to the Prize Tower. It would be negligent to not investigate it.

For the most part, the journey was peaceful. They were only interrupted once. A Level 1 Goblin climbed over a hill and then charged at them the second it spotted them. Its small feet splashed mud to the side as it charged forward, disregarding any sort of strategy. He signaled the others to not attack. He wanted to test out how much the Power 3 Path had impacted Mana Bolt. With a thought, a ball of mana appeared in his hand; there was no need to modify it - not against a level 1 opponent.

He dispassionately waited for the Goblin to get closer. The Mana Bolt felt heavy in his palm. Not only had its size increased, ballooning from a tennis ball to the size of a soccer ball, but most importantly, the density of the mana within it was vastly increased. It was incomparable to the spell he had used yesterday. Delaying the skill's release barely strained his will.

Finally, the Goblin neared. With a flick of mental effort, the ball of mana shot forward like a cannonball. It flew straight and impacted the monster square in the forehead. The flesh around the impact point indented in a ripple of force. The spell dug deeper into the Goblin, reaching bone. Its skeletal structure resisted for a fraction of a second before it snapped. With a sickening sound, the Goblin’s deformed head was removed from its body. Lifeless, it collapsed.

Level 1 Goblin Slain! 25 Exp Gained.

Aaron’s eyes widened. He knew the skill was stronger than before, but he didn’t expect it to have improved by that margin. Yesterday, it had taken multiple Mana Bolts to do any real damage to the small green monsters. Investing so heavily in the Power Path had paid off.

Jess politely clapped as if she had just finished watching a kindergarten school performance. “Nice, you shot the things head off.”

“Don’t go losing your head about it. It wasn’t anything a big gun couldn’t do,” Tony said.

Aaron groaned at the terrible pun, then continued on his journey to the Prize Tower. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Within a couple minutes, they reached the tower.

Its red-brick exterior towered over them, casting a shadow over the landscape. A perfect arch was placed in the center of the building, marking its entrance. Prepared for a monster to jump out at him at any moment, Aaron entered the building.

The interior was simple. Consisting of a couple benches and a series of blue crystals carved into the wall at set intervals. The ceiling was low to the ground, with no sort of staircase to access the rest of the tower's height.

“It’s only one floor? Then why is it so tall?” Jess asked as she searched around the room.

“Bigger is always better,” Tony said sagely.

Aaron rolled his eyes. He ran his fingers over a crystal. To his surprise, a blue screen appeared.

Welcome to the Prize Shop. Items will restock intermittently based on their rarity. Steel Longsword (0/100): Completely average in every way. It's a blade, and it will cut, but it won’t do much more than that. Costs 25 Invasion Points. Fashionable Cloak (0/50): Assassinate your enemies with style. Slightly increase the effectiveness of Stealth-Type skills while worn. Costs 50 Invasion Points. Wooden Plank (0/1000): The most basic construction material. Provides a 2 by 4 by 8 wooden board. Costs 1 Invasion Point. Minor Health Potion (0/500): Restore 100 health per use. Costs 10 Invasion Points. Minor Mana Potion (0/500): Restore 100 mana per use. Costs 10 Invasion Points. Small Food Package (0/250): Enough food to feed one person for one day. Costs 15 Invasion Points.

The list stretched on, covering just about every item imaginable. The discovery that the prizes were limited was a worrying one - that was sure to cause conflict. There weren’t enough prizes to go around. Especially when vital supplies were concerned. At least 500 humans were left on the island, which meant the tower had enough resources to feed half of the population for 1 day, not a very promising number.

He had no idea how difficult it was to earn Invasion Points. The System had announced that they could be earned by killing monsters, but he hadn’t gotten any yet. Maybe he had to wait for the tower to finish its construction before it would award points.

He continued scrolling down, searching its inventory for a minute. Eventually, he found something game-changing.

Ilyrx Assault Ship (0/3): The standard vehicle in the Ilryx military, perfect for navigating hostile waters. Even though it is small, this ship can compete with the best in its class. The hull is reinforced with durability enchantments, and low-grade magical weaponry is mounted on the deck. Costs 10,000 Invasion Points.

It was expensive, but it was exactly what he was looking for. With the Assault Ship, they would be able to escape without being harassed by sea monsters. In between paying for food and other supplies, it would take a long time to be able to afford it. Still, he was optimistic. How hard could it be to get 10,000 Invasion Points?