After washing his sweat off Levi asked Alex for some time alone to think. Even setting aside the revelations about the outpost he had to decide what kind of class skill he wanted. Upon Alex’s recommendation, Levi parked himself on the roof of central command with his legs crossed and eyes closed. With both Mediation and Concentrated Will active he settled his breathing, pondering on what kind of skill he wanted.

He spent hours that way, slowly going over his past experiences and trying to predict what challenges he would face in the future. Step by step he reviewed everything that had happened to him. One of the first things he considered was healing, but it was also the first to be discarded. A healing skill would be incredibly useful, but he didn’t have a way to get one. If the class skill was based on the skills he already possessed it wouldn’t matter how he tried to influence the System, it would all be in vain.

After a long time of thought he came up with four potential directions to take. Offense, defense, speed, and some sort of mental fortitude augment. Each of the physical ones had their ups and down, but the end goal was rather similar: increased survivability. In contrast, going for an increase in mental fortitude by trying to focus on a skill like Concentrated Will would likely not have immediate combat implications, but it would be useful in other scenarios, especially for his mental health.

Levi had noticed that despite his high Willpower stat he could still get upset and depressed. Perhaps it was a good thing that the System wasn’t directly changing him, as Willpower was only useful if he was actively using it, not in a passive controlling his desires sort of way. For instance, it wouldn’t stop him from getting distracted unless he was actively focusing on something. It felt like he was just as susceptible to overthinking as anyone else, but instead he was now better at tearing himself out of a self-destructive train of thought. He thought it was similar with Insight. Insight helped him think and make connections, but only if he was actively doing so in the first place. It didn’t make him smarter, only helped facilitated thoughts and insights he was already having. Alex and Kelly had independently reached similar conclusions when he asked them about it.

Ignoring what would actually help him the most, if he went with his gut his first choice would be mental fortitude. It wasn’t even close. He was mess, and if he could somehow prop up his mental state he would do so in a heartbeat. He had never been the best at regulating himself back on Earth, only keeping himself in line by following a schedule, and now that he was dealing with an apocalypse he needed help, and badly. And then there was Aecylic Energy. He knew it was changing him, making him feel things he wouldn’t normally feel. He had mostly ignored the implications, even actively using it to control his mood, the rush of power pushing him to levels of violence he would never have been able to reach without the energy.

Concentrated Will and Meditation helped with controlling his mood, especially the latter, but it just wasn’t enough, especially if he was going to continue using Aecylic Energy. And of course he was, as not using it wasn’t an option. Survival was still first, and Aecylic Empowerment was too powerful to ignore. If he could get some sort of Zen mana control skill that would be perfect. But with limited options he couldn’t imagine the System being so kind as to drop the perfect skill into his lap. Sure, the skills might all be powerful, but he would eat his hat if they all were equally useful.

And that wasn’t even considering the counter argument. He felt reasonably safe now, but complacency would be the death of him, especially considering the dramatic increase in the surrounding monsters’ levels. He needed to stay ahead of the curve. Getting his class skill should help, but he had no confidence in successfully defending against the likes of Kelly’s firepower. He might have Luck unlocked, but relying on something so nebulous was gambling with inevitable failure. He only needed to lose one die roll with death on the line.

But after weighing his options he decided that keeping a cool head was number one. Between surviving a potentially lethal situation and avoiding one he knew which scenario he preferred. Besides, he had more combat skills anyway, so he should still have options on that front. The scarier possibility would be if he focused on some combat aspect and then had his class skill influenced by Slaughter. It was a good thing he didn’t take skills like Berserker’s Rage or Aura of Slaughter. Raw combat power wasn’t everything, even if it was incredibly important. Keeping calm should be his number one priority.

Alex paused his workout, briefly glancing at the rooftop where Levi was meditating. While the spot did fit the criteria Levi had asked for, it also conveniently gave Alex an easy way to keep an eye on him, since there was a clear view from the training yard to the rooftop. Even if David thought he was trustworthy, it was better to be safe than sorry. David’s skill wasn’t infallible.

After confirming Levi still hadn’t moved Alex went back to his workout. His current goal was to gain a body control skill. If he could accurately control his body he should be able to transfer that to controlling his armor, eventually being able to move it like a second skin. That was the plan at least. So far gaining a control skill was harder than he thought. But he could be patient. Other’s might want a path to fast power, but he understood the value of a late game build. Early game wasn’t everything.

The training he was doing was tedious at the best of times, but as Alex worked through controlling each muscle individually he kept getting distracted, his gaze drawn to the still figure on the roof.

Levi was a mystery. Alex wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. Neither was David, which was a bigger problem. David thought Levi was trustworthy, but his skill had a hard time getting an accurate read, which was how Alex found himself on babysitting duty. But as time went by, he was becoming more and more certain he was the wrong person for the job. Or, more accurately, that the right person didn’t exist.

Levi was strong. He would have to be, to survive all alone until now. But behind Kelly, Alex privately thought in the back of his mind that if he didn’t claim number two in the outpost power rankings no one could. He was confident in his own power, especially as it related to everyone one else in the outpost. Kelly was an anomaly, and without a cheat-like power he thought he was doing pretty well for himself. But now someone else had appeared, and he didn’t want to admit it, but he took a rather large blow to his self-esteem.

Their spar had been… interesting. Of course, Alex had held back on what he could do, but it was safe to assume the same thing of Levi. Levi might seem a little socially awkward, but he had also spent over a month alone in the wilderness. It would be stranger if he was suddenly immediately comfortable around people after what happened to him. But Alex didn’t think he was stupid. And it was easy to see the guarded look he sometimes had in his eyes. David thought he was trustworthy and they needed more combatants, but the threat Levi intrinsically possessed caused Alex to sweat.

During their spar, Levi’s attacks hadn’t even come close to penetrating his armor. By that logic, he shouldn’t have felt any threat from his opponent. But as the fight went on, he noticed himself flinching every time Levi landed a blow. It was a small thing, and it took him a little while to notice it. He had Combat Sense unlocked and each time he was attacked there was a small part of the skill that was whispering “danger!”

It was frightening. Mostly because he hadn’t noticed it at first. If Levi had gone all out, he might have died. That thought was sobering, and even if Levi had good intentions Alex wasn’t used to anyone other than Kelly having the power to threaten him. Not after he had unlocked his class skill. But here he was, unnerved by their guest and stuck watching over him, tasked with stopping him should he decide to go on a murderous rampage.

But there had been no sign of that so far, and if Alex had to go with his gut, he thought Levi was an okay dude. It might take some time, but he thought that Levi was someone he could eventually trust to defend his back. They had been lucky so far, escaping from the lawlessness and chaos of their original group. Sometimes Alex would lie awake in bed thinking about the people left behind, forced to fend for themselves. But he couldn’t worry about them. He needed strength. His sister might still be out there somewhere. If she was alive, he would find her. He wouldn’t let their parents down.

But those were worries for later. Right now, he had a guest to watch and a town to protect. As much as he valued his personal strength, Alex quickly realized that you couldn’t do it alone. There were too many things needed in this new land. How much had he taken for granted before in the modern world? He couldn’t grow his own food, make his own clothes, or build his own house. Right now his priority was recruiting Levi. David and the captain were incredibly interested in both his combat potential and his knowledge of dungeons, and the rewards they might contain. They needed to grow, and the sooner the better.

About a week after settling in their current location their group faced its biggest threat. Back then there were no walls or watch tower, so the alarm was late in sounding. Alex could vividly remember waking up to the cries of alarm, a sense of dread settling in his stomach as he looked out at their enemies. It had felt like the very woods had moved to attack them, a huge advancing line of scraping branches and rustling leaves moving forwards like an unstoppable force. He could imagine what McBeth must have felt, looking out over a prophecy spelling his doom.

Without Captain Kelly they would all have been dead. And it was still a close thing, despite how she countered their enemies by summoning raging inferno after raging inferno it still wasn’t enough, the close combat professions needing to go in and bludgeon at the tree-like beasts to finish off the last of them. Perhaps if everyone all had large steel axes the threat would have been smaller, but as it was they lost five combatants, severely impacting their fighting strength. It was a sobering revelation of their own mortality, a reminder that here, strength was everything. And Alex wasn’t ashamed to admit there was strength in numbers. So he watched Levi meditate on the roof, praying David wasn’t wrong. Taking Levi in might have been a gamble, but rolling the dice was just part of their new life. Alex just wished so many of their bets didn’t have to be all in.