Alex and his newfound companions were walking the streets towards the towering structure of the obelisk. Alex, carrying the wounded, unconscious Zack on his back walked in the centre while Amber and Jake walked by his sides. True to his words, Jake was carrying Alex’s bag over his shoulder while Amber carried Zack’s oversized double-edged war-axe.

“Now, can you explain what happened at the zoo?” Alex asked.

“It’s kind of a long story. But then again, I guess time is the only thing we have right now.” Jake said with a sigh, “One of our companions is- was, part of a faction called the Oracle’s Mound. This all started when one of the higher-ups in their faction divined a great loss of life, followed by a strong energy reading in that region of the city. At first, they kept the information to themselves, not paying it much attention, but that changed when a report reached the outpost administration; two members of the Tyrant Saber Clan were declared dead. After the report came in, Oracle’s Mound’s representative in the administration cross-checked that report and their own earlier findings and found it suspicious that the two died in close proximity to the place they had divined earlier. There seemed to be some kind of dispute inside the administration regarding this, though I’m not entirely clear on the details.”

“I am,” Amber chimed in, “There were three members of the Tyrant Saber in our party and I overheard them after they tried hitting on me. It seems that while the fact that their members died extremely close to the zoo is true, according to them the time doesn’t add up. Oracle’s Mound detected the loss of life before the two Tyrant Saber Clan members were declared dead. This caused a dispute between the Clan, who was inquiring into different possibilities, and the outpost administration.”

“But how could the Tyrant Saber Clan know exactly when their members died?” Alex asked, consciously controlling every movement of his facial muscles through his Unity, “It’s clear that Oracle’s Mound provided a specific time for their divination, but for them to find an issue with the administration’s decision they would have to know exactly when their two members died”

Hearing Alex’s question, both Amber and Jake looked a little bit bewildered, after which they turned their heads in suspicion towards Alex.

“Of course they knew the time, what do you mean?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow, “The Clan simply recorded when their Life Candles were snuffed out.”

“Yeah,” Amber added, “Didn’t you bind a Life Candle in…whatever faction you joined?”

“What the hell is a Life Candle?” Alex panicked a little bit inside.

“Yeah, I totally forgot. Tough day and all that.” Alex tried to rever the conversation topic back to what it was previously, “Anyway, what does all of this have to do with you almost dying in the zoo?”

“We’re getting there,” Amber replied, “So, the Clan started raising a small ruckus inside the administration, demanding a formal investigation, totally disregarding Oracle’s Mound’s findings. The conflict was about to escalate, but according to those three from the Clan that went with us, someone pretty high up the ladder from the administration corroborated Oracle’s Mound’s theory that the cases were linked. Apparently, whoever it was, the Tyrant Saber Clan couldn’t afford to go against them, and so they dropped the issue, officially, at least.”

“It seems Pahan kept his promise, huh? Another favour owed, it seems,” Alex thought to himself.

“Unfortunately, at that point, the issue gained traction and necessitated investigation.” Jake took off where Amber stopped her explanation, “After checking the coordinates in the divination with a map of the city, the administration quickly deduced that the loss of life and energy signature was coming from the zoo. Immediately after that, the outpost administration issued a request regarding this. A thousand contribution points for verifiable information regarding the incident, and thirty thousand contribution points for exterminating whatever was the cause.”

“I see, and you gathered people for venturing inside the zoo, is that it?” Alex asked, “But why would you take up such a dangerous request? And why would you gather so many people? Including you three, there were twenty-five of you in total. Divided, each of you would get twelve-hundred contribution points. I can’t see how that would be worth it, whether from a financial or survival standpoint.”

“Well, twenty-twenty hindsight and all that.” Jake answered with a sigh, “Yes, we gathered everyone for getting into the zoo. By our estimations, there were thousands of creatures inside the zoo before the world changed, and we thought we’d need at least that many to be safe. If we don’t count various insects and small critters, we were still looking at a sizeable population of monsters there, without mentioning the fact that if the Divine Breath made dogs and cats stronger than your average wolf or bear, imagine what became of the actual wolves, bears, lions, and tigers.”

“As for why we did that, well, the city is almost clean of Awakened Beasts, as I’m sure you no doubt know. Due to that, the administration is not issuing nearly as many requests or as high rewards as they did at the start. While each faction provides a certain amount of contribution points to its members, it is nowhere near enough to advance. If your goal would be just to survive in this crazy new world, then, I suppose our little quest would seem like madness. We gathered the strongest people we could find from the citizens that came to the outpost, those that were like us, those that took to this new world-order, were ambitious, and wanted to advance…much like you, in fact. When we first met, the first thing you tried asking me about was how did I kill the beasts maiming you. I knew then and there you were like us.” Jake continued his story with a rueful smile.

“Okay, so, what happened next?” Alex absorbed the new information, “You gathered your party, set out to the zoo, and then what?”

“Then the horror-movie began,” Amber joined in, “We set out today, before sunrise, planning to reach the zoo as fast as we could and hopefully be done by the end of the day. It took us all about two hours to reach the zoo from the outpost. The journey to the zoo was uneventful; most packs of Awakened Beasts we met avoided us since we outnumbered them, so we made good time.”

“There’s no way the three Tyrant Saber Clan members joined them just for the rewards, or am I being paranoid? How do I ask without seeming suspicious though?” Alex put his mind to work.

“Two hours? Taking the main roads? It doesn’t make sense.” Alex tried making his comment sound off-handed.

“Well, we took a detour.” Amber answered, happy to share a little bit of the experience she lived through, “We followed a shortcut through the little streets and courtyards, avoiding the main road. Saved us quite a bit of time.”

“Now that I think about it, it was the three guys from the Tyrant Saber that told us about the shortcut…” Jake added, shaking his head as he remembered his dead comrades.

“Shit. I knew it. They sent someone to investigate.” Alex thought, trying not to let his worry show.

“You reached the zoo. What happened there?” Alex asked, moving the discussion along.

“Well, immediately as we entered, we knew something was wrong.” Jake explained, “Even if you don’t take into account the fact that the Divine Breath did something to all the animals on this planet, the sheer number of them in a zoo should create quite the commotion. When we entered, it was dead silent. Not even a bird in sight. We figured it had something to do with the cause of the divination, but the administration already knew that, so we couldn’t turn back if we wanted our reward. And so, we started moving further inside the zoo.”

“It was something straight out of a horror movie, I swear. As we made our way through the inner parts of the zoo, each enclosure we passed by held a grisly, mangled, and bloodied corpse of their former inhabitants.” Amber explained, her voice shaking from nervousness, “At first, we thought ‘Okay, so, that’s normal.’ since, you know, there are predators inside the zoo, and they have to eat, right? That’s what we thought too, you know, when we saw the dead monkeys, and birds, and seals and penguins, you know? But then, we saw a dead grizzly bear, and then a pile of carcasses of what used to be a pack of wolves, and then crocodiles, gorillas, and even an elephant carcass stripped to its bones of any meat it had. That’s when we knew something was seriously off, but we were too far gone.”

“Yeah, somewhere at the dead croc, all of us quickly added two and two.” Jake added, “Whatever killed every single animal in the zoo was dangerous. At that point, we had assumed a circular formation; tanks and fighters in the outer circle while casters and ranged attackers were tucked among us.”

“Aww, you’re finally coming around,” Amber said in mock amusement, “And I thought you didn’t like my references.”

“Shut up, it’s the easiest way to explain.” Jake blew her off, “Anyway, we were on our toes, but it was already too late, it had already noticed us. Tigers are nocturnal animals, so this one must have been sleeping after a hearty meal when we barged into its lair, waking it up. When it first showed up in front of us in all its spine-chilling beauty; elongated fangs and the pitch-black fur with white stripes colouring it.”

“We didn’t even have a chance to fight back. One pounce and the first three casualties became disembodied.” Amber continued where Jake left off, giving him a chance to calm down, ”By the time we understood what was happening, another nine had already fallen victim to it as it switched its attention to the rest of us. Panic gripped our little party like a flame in a barn full of dry hay, if you know what I mean. Our coordination was nonexistent, everybody ran screaming in different directions. The only reason the three of us survived is that that monster decided to chase the others, who had run in the opposite direction from us, leaving me and Jake here reeling from the massacre we witnessed.”

“What about Zack, that wound on his torso, I assume the tiger bit him? How did he survive?” Alex asked, his curiosity piqued.

“I don’t know, we weren’t all that close before this happened. Could be his cultivation method, could be something he received when he joined his faction, or something he bought with his contribution points. You’ll have to ask him when he wakes up if you really want to know. Truth be told, we didn’t even really notice he was alive until he grabbed my leg when we tried to get out of there as fast as possible.” Jake answered dourly.

“I see,” Alex replied succinctly, allowing silence to settle over the group as they walked.

The rest of the way was walked in silence, offering Jake and Amber the time to come to grips with the new reality the two found themselves in. Thankfully, it seemed that the two of them were avoiding a breakdown from witnessing the many deaths of their fleeting comrades, focusing all their willpower on making their way towards the outpost.

Finally, after another thirty minutes of walking, they reached the main city square, which was now a gigantic crater housing the black, metallic monolith in its middle. Carefully making their way down the crater’s slope, they approached the structure and touched it, getting whisked away inside the pocket dimension of the obelisk.

Once inside, the feeling of safety permeated both Jake and Amber as all the tension keeping them together fled their bodies. Amber simply sat on the floor, heaving as quiet tears streamed down her previously cheerful face while Jake dropped Alex’s bag on the floor and used his sword as a crutch, supporting his wobbly legs from collapsing. Alex, who was still holding Zack on his back, turned his head to Jake as he spoke.

“Don’t relax just yet. Zack is in critical condition, and one of you has to take him to the Healer’s Guild, while the other reports to the administration.” Alex delivered a harsh reality check to his companions.

“Easy enough for me to say when I barely know the guy. Doesn’t make it any less true though.” Alex tried justifying his choice of words to himself.

Jake seemed to have a bucket of cold water dropped on him when he heard Alex’s words, while Amber quickly used her hands to rub her eyes and looked up. It seemed that the words had the intended effect, as the two of them gathered themselves instantly. An unfortunate consequence of that was that now, both Jake and Amber looked at Alex for instructions, seemingly putting additional responsibility on him.

“Jake, you’re going to take Zack to the Healer’s Guild. Amber, you’re going with me to the administration for a report.” Alex spoke his decision on their immediate course of action.

“The Healer’s Guild is great at healing, no doubt, but unfortunately, they don’t seem to be into charity. Most of the people that went on this expedition were low on contribution points. At least we were,” Jake said, pointing to himself and Amber, “And while I don’t know about him, chances are he’s also broke. This doesn’t seem like a normal wound to me, and you can see his guts leaking out if you look well enough, which means the cost for the healing is going to be high. Higher than we can afford.”

Hearing Jake’s small, grim speech, Alex could feel a headache rearing its ugly head as Jake and Amber turned to him for a solution.

“I went out for a hunt to punch and kick things, and clear my head, not gather more problems I have to think about,” Alex thought as he sighed audibly, “Well, since I saved them, might as well save them ‘till the end.”

“Take him to the Healer’s Guild. If you have enough for his treatment, pay for it, if not, ask for Elder Marion’s seventh disciple, Alaric. Tell him Legionnaire Farwalker is asking him for a favour.” Alex spoke in a cold, clear tone.

“Elder Marion’s seventh disciple, Alaric, Legionnaire Farwalker, got it,” Jake answered.

Memorizing each word Alex said, Jake took the still-unconscious Zack off Alex’s back unto his, and took his leave, making his way towards a giant white tent hovering in the distance.

Seeing him off, Alex bowed down to the ground to pick up his duffel bag. Hanging it over his shoulder, he turned to Amber.

“Ready? Let’s go then,” Alex said.

Not waiting for Amber’s reply, Alex simply started to walk towards the administration’s tent in the centre of the outpost. Amber stood perplexed for a second before taking off in his footsteps, joining him on his way. Making their way through the sea of tents, it took the two less than five minutes to reach their destination.

Standing in front of the administration, each grabbed a piece of the entrance cloth as they swiped it aside and entered the bigger-on-the-inside tent. The administration hub was as busy as ever, with colourfully coloured individuals running around, executing various, no doubt important, tasks.

Immediately as the two entered, a flurry of quick steps could be heard walking towards them, followed by a high-pitched voice.

“Legionnaire Farwalker!” the high-pitched voice screamed across the administration hall.

“Volsa, wasn’t it?” Alex thought as he turned his head towards the voice.

“Volsa, correct? What happened, why are you screaming?” Alex asked, slightly surprised by the agitated clerk.

“Apologies. Officer Highgaze tasked me with monitoring when you would pass by, and I couldn’t fail in my duty.” Volsa explained with ragged breathing.

“The reason?” Alex asked, sensing the anxiety inside Volsa.

“I’m not sure. Officer Highgaze said to tell you, ‘You’ve got your first real job’, and that you would understand.” Volsa explained.