The first rays of dawn illuminated the sky a deep purple as Octavius followed David and the young man through the Sanctuary. A quick identify allowed him to learn the young man’s name.

Qadan Human (F) (Lvl 6)

The young man was ethnically asian, with short, straight black hair and a round face that held a large nose and dark eyes. As he walked forward, he glanced over his shoulder at Octavius every fifty or so feet. Octavius judged that despite his muscular build, Qadan was not the most confident individual.

“So who is Robert?” Octavius asked David as they maneuvered around a row of tents and onto a cleared path.

David turned to face him as they walked. “He’s one of the original founders of the Sanctuary, along with Louis. Right now, he is in charge of all the guards on northern border,” he explained.

Octavius nodded, “So he’s someone important; why do you think he wants to talk to me?”

After barking out a laugh, David answered. “I thought it was obvious,” he muttered before continuing louder, “You are tied with one of the southern guards for the highest level we know of, and you have some of the best equipment I've seen. Of course he wants to talk to you, probably to make sure you’re not a threat, then to figure out where you got your armor and spear.”

Octavius nodded along as David spoke. That was just about what he’d been thinking, but David knew Robert, so his response might have given Octavius some information that he didn’t already have.

They followed their guide further away from the border and into the Sanctuary. Qadan wove between rows of tents, pavilions, and the occasional walled-in clearing. David was close behind Qadan, moving with a speed that was surprising for his apparent age, and Octavius never far behind David.

Over the course of the short walk, Octavius attracted a lot of attention. He guessed it was the polished silver spear that he held in his right hand like a walking stick. People whispered and pointed as he passed them, and though they were quiet, most underestimated Octavius’s perception stat. It was a mild relief when he noticed that most of the whispers were commenting on his gear or level and about anything he'd done. It seemed he was still mostly anonymous in the Sanctuary for the time being.

Their journey stopped when, after about a five-minute walk, they came to a walled-in clearing with a massive doorway. The doorway was far enough across to accommodate two-way traffic and had multiple animal skins hanging from its top to give a sense of privacy. A woman rushed out of the doorway with a makeshift spear in hand before taking off towards the border.

Octavius arched an eyebrow at David, who merely shrugged in response. Both of them turned to Qadan, who was frowning slightly as his eyes followed the now distant girl. After a long moment of uncomfortable silence, Qadan seemed to realize he had something to do. He glanced at both Octavius and David and reddened slightly.

“Oh, umm, sorry,” he said, “You can go in.”

Octavius shrugged and led the way in. His left hand swept the animal skins to the side, and he stepped through, careful to make sure that his spear didn’t slam against the doorframe. Once he was inside, he ran his eyes over the clearing.

The clearing was large, at least a few hundred square feet. There was a fire pit in the middle of the clearing, much like in Ava’s clearing, but that was where the similarities stopped. Instead of a small tent that was made of one or two animal hides that were sewn together, this clearing had what looked to be a dozen or more hides sewn to form a tent that was similar in shape but much larger. It was tall enough in the middle for even a man of Octavius’s height to sit up in.

The centerpiece of the clear was a rough-hewn table made from wood. It was a dozen feet in length and three feet across, stretching along most of the right wall of the clearing. There was a tall man with shoulder-length blonde hair standing with his back to the entrance. He appeared to be studying something on the table, and Octavius used the opportunity to use Identify on the tall man.

Robert (F) (Lvl 10) (Gunner)

Octavius blinked at the message. This was the first class he’d seen someone in the Sanctuary have that he hadn’t heard of before. Huh. A class for gun users. Octavius commented to himself, I guess it makes sense. After all, both spears and guns are weapons. I wonder what his skills are.

The man, hearing the sound of them entering, turned and smiled at David. Now that he was facing them, Octavius was able to take a guess at the man’s age. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties, only a few years younger than Octavius himself. Robert had striking blue eyes and a chiseled jaw that made him seem like a model. The only imperfection on the man’s face was his nose that had clearly been broken a few times too many and never healed right.

“David,” Robert exclaimed, “How’ve you been? It feels like I haven’t seen you in days.”

David rolled his eyes, “Bobby, we all ate dinner together less than two days ago.”

Robert, who was apparently called Bobby by his friends, chuckled before his face creased and his smile fell. “I heard we lost a full team while I was asleep,” he stated, “What happened?”

While a sigh, David told him about the swarm of beetles that had attacked the night before. How before reinforcements arrived, the entire team was wiped out, along with Avi. Octavius assumed that Avi was the young man who had charged the horde out of grief. David continued to explain how they’d managed to hold off the swarm, with Octavius’s help, until more guards arrived and the horde was wiped out.

Robert shook his head sadly. “Damn,” he said quietly, “We can’t keep losing high-level fighters like Anika."

After sighing deeply, Robert turned to Octavius. While David had reported to Robert, Octavius had taken the time to size the man up. He was thin, despite the visible muscle on his arms. Octavius didn’t have enough information to guess the man’s skill set, but his instincts told him that the man was no rookie.

Robert stretched out his right hand, and Octavius quickly moved his spear to his left hand and clasped it. “I’m Robert, but you can call me Bobby. I’m a Captain of the Guard here at the Sanctuary. You are?”

After shaking the man’s hand, Octavius let his own fall to his side as he responded. “I’m Octavius,” he said, “and I was a soldier in the US Army. These days, I guess I’m just a traveler.”

Robert nodded and eyed Octavius’s armor and spear that was beginning to reflect the first rays of the sun that stretched over the horizon. “If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get gear like that?”

Octavius considered his response before speaking. “Believe it or not,” he said with a smirk, “I got it from a dungeon.”

Robert’s eyes widened, “Wow, I believe it. There are two people in the Sanctuary that have found dungeons. I suppose that explains the gear easy enough.”

Now it was Octavius’s turn to be surprised. “Other people have found dungeons?” he asked, “What did they get from them?”

Robert nodded, “Yeah, one of them came running into the Sanctuary, saying he needed a party of five to do a dungeon he found. Managed to take four other fighters and a few guns. We haven’t heard from him since. The other guy did a solo dungeon and got a spellbook from it.”

“A spellbook? Really?” Octavius wondered aloud.

David interjected, “Yeah, some sort of wind spell. I’ve tried to learn it, but it’s nearly impossible to understand with a wisdom stat below thirty.”

When David said that he tried to learn the spell, Octavius got excited. That meant that the spell book wasn't single-use. The ten-year-old child in him really wanted to shoot spells from his hands, but the requirement of thirty wisdom shot him down. Wisdom was his lowest stat, and using all of the stat points from two levels to boost it above thirty would be something that he had to consider later.

Getting back to the task at hand, Octavius turned to face Robert once more. “So,” he said, “Why did you want to meet me? I don’t doubt that you're interested in my story, but what else do you want?”

“You’re just like David,” the blonde man grumbled under his breath. At that, David exhaled sharply through his nose, but was ignored as Robert continued, “Ok, I wanted to ask if you would join the Sanctuary? An experienced fighter who is level 12 would be a large boon to us.”

Even as the man finished speaking, Octavius was already shaking his head. “No,” he said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t need the Sanctuary, and the idea of having a whole bunch of people that I don’t know giving me orders doesn’t sit right with me.” Or at least people I don’t know who don’t also have any accountability to a larger body, he added silently.

“Alright,” Robert sighed, “Can I offer a partnership, then?”

Cocking his head, Octavius nodded for Robert to go on.

“How about if you won’t have to follow orders, just follow the basic laws like don’t kill anyone or go around stealing things while you are here? If you help out with defending the borders, you will be able to get EXP at a much larger rate than you have been when you were fighting alone, even with some the the EXP going to others. Not to mention you won’t have to waste time cooking your own food and such, along with a safe place to sleep.” Robert proposed.

Octavius considered the offer carefully. With their ammunition nearly dry, they must desperately need strong melee fighters. A simple trade, I would fight for the Sanctuary, but as a mercenary rather than a soldier. Instead of being paid in money, being paid with more EXP, food that’s not dried meat, and a safe place to sleep is a good deal, but I bet I can get more out of him.

“I’ll take that deal, but I want one more thing,” he said, “I want a chance to learn the spell from the spellbook, and the deal will only last until the Emergence ends.”

Robert frowned and appeared to fall into thought. After a moment, he opened his mouth and spoke, “Okay, I can get you on the line to get the spellbook, but I can’t just shove you to the front.” As he looked at Octavius’s single arched eyebrow, he elaborated, “It’s not long, only five people in front of you. I would say another week. Do you even have thirty wisdom? You don’t strike me as the type to dump all your points into wisdom.”

Octavius grinned at that, “Nope, but I’m going to give it a try anyway.”

David chuckled as Robert groaned softly. “Ok, deal,” he said, putting out his hand to shake. Octavius grasped the proffered hand and shook it.

“I guess I’m off to defend the border then; I’ll have Dave show me around,” he said before turning to leave the enclosed clearing.

Grinning, Octavius sprinted towards the disturbance at the border ahead. Taking Robert’s deal turned out to be an incredibly good choice. He’d spent the day before in a state of nearly constant combat that he was only able to keep up with through the use of a stamina potion and being judicial with his skill usage.

He had leveled up to level 13 in a single day, once more making himself the highest level person he knew about. Now, he was already at fifty thousand EXP out of the ninety thousand required to reach level 14. The temptation to distribute his newly gained stat points was there, but he decided to hold off on doing so. It would be easy to assign them if he found himself in a dangerous situation, and he wanted to try to learn the spell before he put any points into wisdom.

There were seven people who had learned the spell so far, and Octavius had met three of them. The spell was basic, just the creation of a blade of wind, but even that could be deadly in a multitude of situations. In Octavius’s mind, having a ranged attack for emergencies would be a fair trade-off for the eight points needed to bring himself up to thirty wisdom.

The reason he was excited at that moment, however, was the fight he was about to join. He had been resting and having a drink when the alarm that signified a major threat went off. As soon as the alarm triggered with the sound of crashing metal, he began his sprint towards the direction it came from.

As he rounded a bend, the alarm set-up came into sight. It was an irregular, thin sheet of brass that hung from a stick. Someone had gotten the idea to make them a few days ago, and the day before, they had begun to be distributed across the border. While they were far from real gongs, the sound was distinctive and carried for a good distance.

Just past the gong, the reason for his excitement was clear. A massive beast stood proudly, breathing fire at a group of seven guards that were harassing it. The creature was over five feet tall at the shoulder and stood with feline grace. Thick muscles were clear through his thin fur that led up to a massive red mane. The head of a goat sprouted from between its shoulders and glared with yellow eyes, bloodshot eyes at the guards. The snake in place of its tail that was constantly darting forward to snap at the defenders confirmed what it was.

Rare Classical Chimera (Lvl 24)

It was a Chimera, the first fantastical beast he’d encountered outside of the dungeon and the first mythological creature he’d seen. He idly wondered what the implications of mythological creatures from ancient human civilizations actually existing were as he closed on the battle.

While none of the defenders had been severely injured by the time Octavius arrived, two were suffering from minor burns. One of them made quite the comedic figure with his hair burnt to a shriveled crisp on the right side of his head from the heat radiated by the flame.

Octavius knew the fight would be difficult even before he’d gotten close. The goat’s head would halt almost any attempt to surprise the creature in its tracks, and the snake would prevent any attacks from behind the beast.

He fell in next to one of the guards and struck out with his spear. The beast reared back and exhaled a cloud of flames at him. Aborting his strike, Octavius spun to his right and let the jet of flames fly past him and dissipate harmlessly after ten feet.

“What’s the plan?” he called out to no one in particular.

“Just keep harassing it, we’ll probably need one of the mages to help bring it down. None of us can get close to it,” one guard shouted in response.

Octavius frowned at that and decided to think of a plan himself as he harassed the mythological beast with thrusts from the relative safety the range of his spear afforded him. He was just beginning to formulate a plan when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Only, when he glanced over, he saw nothing except the green trees just outside of the border.

Shaking his head, he returned to the fight. Maybe I’m fighting too often, he thought to himself, When the Emergence is over, I think I’ll take a day off.

Before returning to the fight, he accepted the party invite that the leader of this group of guards had sent him. Their health, mana, and stamina appeared unobtrusively at the corner of his vision, displayed as a percentage on a colored bar.

What he’d learned was the main point of parties was EXP distribution, along with the ability to keep track of the status of fellow party members. In a party, instead of all the EXP going to whoever dealt the final blow, it was split based on the amount of damage done by each person.

After a minute, he finally managed to develop a decent plan. “Distract the lion and snake heads; I have an idea,” he shouted.

"Alright, we’ll try,” was the only spoken response beyond the annoyed mutters of some of the group.

Octavius disengaged the chimera and ran just into the tree line. Once he was out of sight, he closed his eyes to activate his illusion ring, only for them to snap open when the hair all across his body stood on end. Trusting his instincts as they screamed that he was being watched, he spun quickly. Only, there was nothing around him except trees and bushes. Blinking, Octavius returned his concentration towards activating the ring and soon vanished.

While he hadn’t told anyone about his ring, this would hardly give him away. Creeping forward, he approached the battle once more. None of the combatants noticed him as he closed in on the chimera. Even the snake failed to pick up his scent, so focused was it on killing the guards that darted in and out of its range.

Octavius moved carefully and lined up his spear blade with the snake’s body. Raising his spear, he brought it down in a powerful arc onto the chimera’s tail. The scales offered only minor resistance to his blow before the tail was severed. The snake spun wildly on the ground, no longer attached to the chimera as Octavius dove backward to avoid any counterattacks.

As the snake flopping began to slow, the lion’s head tilted upwards, and it roared. The rage-filled roar was deafening, feeling almost like a physical blow as it reached him. A jet of orange flame shot into the air to accompany the roar, but the damage was done. Now, they could attack the chimera from behind, and it couldn’t turn to engage them without leaving the guards that were harassing its front free rein.

Octavius quickly ducked behind a tree and deactivated the ring. The feeling of being watched returned with intensity, but he couldn’t find its source and the guards likely needed him back at the battle. Turning, he sprinted from the trees and stabbed his spear into the beast’s back leg.

“How the fuck did you do that?!” the nearest guard demanded with surprise and a good deal of respect in his eyes.

Octavius grinned as he twisted his spear, hopefully severing its Achilles tendon. “Ah, a magician never reveals his tricks,” he responded before barking out a laugh.

The guard laughed too as the chimera’s hind leg faltered and gave out, “Alright, you don’t have to tell me.”

The tension was nearly gone from the fight as they systematically chipped away at its health after crippling its back legs. It tried to turn its lion’s head to breathe fire on them but was slow from its lack of functioning hind legs and wasn’t able to. Instead, it merely roared in rage as it blew short bursts of fire at the three guards that distracted it.

It took thirty seconds for one of Octavius’s spear thrusts to enter far enough into the beast from behind for it to collapse.

Your party has killed Rare Classical Chimera (Lvl 24) and you have gained 3690 EXP (1/4)(24)(3)(4)(1.25)(100)(.41)

Octavius shared wide smiles with the panting guards. While the EXP gain wasn’t massive, the battle was quick and enjoyable. “I can’t believe we killed that thing with just eight of us! And no one even got badly hurt!” the leader of the group, Animesh, exclaimed.

The smile on Octavius’s face faltered slightly when he once again caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Only, once again, there was nothing but trees when he looked at the location. Octavius didn’t like this. The movement he’d seen, the feeling that he was being watched, it all added up to something dangerous.

He turned away from where he’d seen the movement and crouched as the guards continued to joke and congratulate one another on a job well done. Octavius’s instincts were honed to a razor’s edge from the military and the constant combat of the tutorial; he trusted them. His eyes scanned the grass until he found what he was looking for.

Discreetly, he switched his spear to his left hand and lifted a rock that was about three inches in diameter. He stood again before suddenly whirling to face where he thought the movement came from. The guards looked at him with puzzled expressions as his eyes searched for a sign.

An instant later, he noticed a small branch of a bush swaying even though there was barely any wind that day. Bringing his arm forward in a quick movement, he hurled the rock at the spot. His eyes followed the rock until it hit something solid and bounced off, except there seemed to be nothing for the rock to bounce off of.

The guards looked on with confusion as Octavius broke into a sprint, eyes locking onto the faint distortion in the air that turned and darted into the forest. Octavius knew that he'd lose his invisible adversary if he let it escape into the woods. Lifting the spear, he threw it as hard as he could towards the shimmering mirage.