I

It was late afternoon when they arrived. The first thing Eva noticed was the palisade. It looked similar to the one she had to defend from several waves of monsters in the Training. Around it, the trees had been mostly cleared, leaving stumps. Piles of monster corpses dotted the landscape and filled the air with the stink of death. Blood trails showed that the monsters had been dragged there from both inside and outside the wall. There were two men with makeshift spears guarding a gate. One of them nodded to Io and allowed the group to go inside.

The inside was little better than the outside—besides being inside a mostly completed wall rather than outside of one. There was a sea of people filling up much of the free space inside. Some faces turned to see the newcomers while others milled about. Several groups had made shelters farther in with small fires for warmth. In the center was a large bonfire that smelled strongly of meat being roasted.

Io led the group to an unoccupied area and told Eva to come with him. She followed him to the central bonfire. Seated around the fire were several people who had an air of importance about them—the council.

“I want you to meet Eva,” he told the council when he had their attention. “She's a good fighter.”

“Thank you, Io,” an older olive-skinned woman said. She turned to Eva. “I'm Maria. If you're a fighter like Io said, you'll want to speak to Martin. He's a police officer and the head of the guards. He'll be here soon, if you want to wait.”

Eva shrugged and found a stump to sit on. The rest of the council was friendly enough, though some were more guarded than others. They all seemed to welcome the help, and she wanted to give what help she could. Eva knew there would be politics—one of the reasons she usually stayed by herself—but as long as it remained their problem she'd be a happy woman!

While she waited, she chatted with Maria. The woman was from Chile, and was pleased to find that everyone could communicate natively because of the Human Language✹ Skill. The rest of the council was made up of people from all over the world, though primarily from China and India. It was as if the Tutorial was filled with people taken completely at random.

Eva secured some meat on a stick to chew on after she was done talking with Maria. Though she didn't need to eat as much as she used to, she still needed some food. As she was finishing her meal, Martin arrived. She knew it was him because he wore a bloodied European style police uniform.

“Martin,” Maria said, getting his attention. “This is Eva. Io took a liking to her and said she's got some skill. Figured you could use an extra hand.”

“Thanks, Maria,” he answered before looking at Eva. “Well, Eva, you've certainly got the right gear to be killing whatever those boxes keep sending at us. Show me what you've got.”

“Here?”

He nodded.

Eva got up and stood at the ready. She'd left her blood-soaked shield on the ground, so she only had her sword. Martin readied his spear. With little warning, he aimed a jab at her torso. It came slower than a hobgoblin's thrust, so she was able to easily parry it and stop her sword next to his neck.

“Good,” he said when she'd put the weapon away. “You're on guard duty: second shift tonight. Come to the front gate when the Tutorial quest timer says '27:14:00:00' to start your shift.”

Eva nodded and left the central area.

While walking back to the area where she’d last seen Hideki, something stood out now that there were a lot of people around. There were no children! She’d seen some people clearly in their early or mid teens, but no one younger than that. Her first reaction was that they’d all been killed; but as she thought about it more, the bigger a mystery it became. Children were resourceful. Even if the Tutorial was dangerous, there would have been at least some that would have survived. That there were none made her wonder where they were. She put the thought in the back of her mind when she saw several larger lean-tos around a fire with Hideki and Sadiya cooking dinner for themselves.

“Welcome back,” he said as soon as he saw her. “What did Io want?”

“They asked for my help on guard duty tonight, so I’ll have to get up near midnight.” Eva shrugged. “No idea what it’ll actually mean, though.”

“I see. While you were gone, we made shelters for all of us. Boris and Irina have their own, and there’s enough space for you to share with Sadiya or me.”

“Oh, trying to take advantage of a woman in the wee hours of the morning, you sly dog?”

“W—what? I would never—”

“I’m just teasing you. I’ll take you up on the offer, by the way.”

Eva chuckled when Hideki blushed. It was going to be a fun evening.

II

Eva woke a few hours after sunset and stretched. She freed herself from Hideki’s arm as quietly as she could before donning her armor. She ate leftovers—a rather bland mix of overcooked meats—and walked to the front gate. Eva saw that she had half an hour before she was due to start her first watch, so she exited through the gate and rested her back on the wall.

Little by little, the next shift started to gather outside with her. She could tell immediately who had experience and who did not. The ones who had done something like this before—the majority—looked like ex-military men or civilian officers. Before long, someone who looked like they were in charge came out.

“Welcome fresh meat!” he barked. “I am Reggie, the captain of the night guard. You will work in pairs to patrol outside the walls for the next four hours. The current watch will be ending soon, so you will go out a little early to relieve them of duty. It is dangerous work. Two people were killed and another handful were injured in last night’s patrol. Keep your eyes open for any threats. If survivors come up to you, direct them to the main gate. We'll deal with them here. Come to me for your assignments.”

Eva made her way over to Reggie and took a spot in the forming line. Reggie oversaw a small number of people that helped manage the assignments more quickly than he could do alone. Her watch consisted of about thirty people, most of which were men.

She stuck out for two reasons. First, she was a woman who looked rather squishy, and second, she had actual equipment instead of a crude spear or a combat knife. There was the occasional gun; and with ammunition scarce, those people also carried a backup spear.

When she got to the front of the line, she was met by a man about her age with a rough looking beard.

“Name?”

“Eva.”

The man looked down at some papers he had in front of him. When he found what he was looking for, he continued.

“Ok, Eva. You're with Mark, the big burly black fella with army fatigues and a chrome dome. You both will be patrolling about half a click out from the wall on the other side of the village. Focus your efforts on the area of the wall that hasn’t been finished.”

“Ok, thanks.”

Eva stepped away and scanned her fellow guards until she found a man who matched the description she was given. The man had a machete strapped to his side as his weapon of choice. In his off-hand, he carried a thick metal flashlight that was turned off. The area outside the gate was lit well enough to not need it.

“Mark?” she asked, approaching him.

“Who's askin'?”

“I'm with you on patrol.”

“Really? They send me a fucking weak ass like you? Shit!,” he grumbled.

Eva looked up at him with amusement. He turned and began walking along the wall.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

“Lead the way, muscles-for-brains.”

Mark spun and glared at her.

“You wanna go?”

“I've killed tougher than you,” Eva laughed.

This man only seemed to care about book covers and not the contents within. Her armor was testament enough to what she could take. Mark broke off the stare while muttering curses. He turned around and continued on with Eva walking behind him.

III

There were no more words said during the half hour walk to their patrol area. He would occasionally give her a look, and she would roll her eyes in return. He was obviously one of those idiots who needed to have the stuffing beat out of them before they’d acknowledge her strength. At least he didn't give off any creepy vibes. She wouldn't hesitate to educate him with her sword if it turned out that she was wrong.

The wall ended abruptly, with only a small trench extending another twenty yards. Logs were piled up, ready for work to begin again the next day. Mark switched on the flashlight. The forest was closer to the wall than it had been near the village entrance. A flashlight blinked on and a two man team exited the woods. They nodded in Mark's direction before turning towards the gate.

Mark and Eva headed into the woods for their patrol. It was just a case of walking in circles for hours. Nothing to it, really. As they walked, Eva listened carefully. Her senses were better than they used to be; and in the dark, her improved hearing would shine.

Around an hour in, she caught something that sounded off. She heard what sounded like several pairs of legs rather than a group of four legged animals. She paused and reached for her sword. Mark noticed her stop and turned around.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Shut up and listen,” she shot back.

“Why you little—”

“Shut your mouth or lose your tongue,” she glared at him, Infusing★ her blade with fire to make her point.

Mark stopped talking when he saw the sword glow. She removed the element and refocused her attention on the odd sound. She could hear it still, but it was both quieter and closer than it had been before. Whatever was making the noise knew they were there. The sound paused and she held her breath. Then she heard a light whistling and ducked out of the way.

“Get d—shit!” she cursed when she realized it was too late.

Mark's body dropped to the ground with an arrow embedded in his skull.

Eva Charged✦ the direction where the arrow had come from. The flashlight on the ground cast an eerie glow behind her. Several steps into the woods from the ambush site, she rammed into a shadowy figure that looked rather surprised to see her in its face so quickly. The figure was humanoid in shape, and she would have called it human if not for a few features sticking off of its head that reminded her of a fish. It had ears that looked like fins and hair reminiscent of seaweed. She Infused★ air and slashed it. Her strike met armored resistance before cutting through and lopping off part of its head.

Landwalker killed, 3 Experience awarded

That these enemies weren't human made her feel better about killing them. She still had mixed feelings when it came to killing humans even after the poor attempt at banditry the day before. Self-defense was one thing, but she wasn’t going to throw away precious lives for no good reason. Even in self-defense, she would rather not do it if it could be avoided. Mark was an ass, but he didn't deserve death for that! These landwalkers would die.

Nearby the first landwalker she killed, she spotted another shadow. She Observed▲ it.

???, Landwalker Lv 4

She Charged✦ the unnamed landwalker with dark Infused★ in her blade. Unlike the lightly armored archer, this one was more prepared. It had armor that covered it similar to her own, and it had a sword to fight with. Still, the fight itself was rather easy as the landwalker was not very skilled. It wasn't unskilled, but it didn't have nearly as much practice as she did; and that was before the difference in Stats boosted her effectiveness.

Landwalker killed, 4 Experience awarded

Eva whipped around just in time to Dodge✦ an incoming strike from another sword-wielding landwalker. She took an attack with her shield and separated its head from its shoulders.

Landwalker killed, 3 Experience awarded

She looked around for any motion against the flashlight or the moon, but saw nothing. She listened for sounds, but heard nothing. She waited and listened for half an hour, but there was no one left besides her.

Once she had determined that she was unlikely to be attacked again, she looted the bodies of the landwalkers. She got three sets of usable armor, a couple of swords, and a bow with arrows. The most important thing she came across was a backpack. Eva packed away what she could inside the backpack, ridding it of the rations it carried. She didn’t trust their food to not be poisonous to her.

With the newfound equipment stored away or lashed to her, she wondered if she should finish her patrol as normal or report back. After going back and forth for a while, she decided to go back to the gate and let them know what had happened. The next hurdle was figuring out a good way to bring both Mark’s body and one of the landwalker corpses with her. Though she was strong enough to carry them, they were too bulky for her to carry them at the same time. Instead of taking two trips, she chose to make a sled to carry them with her.

Eva Infused★ one of the new swords with air and hacked a small tree down. It was surprisingly easy with the added sharpness of the air. She cut the tree into two and fashioned a sled from the two short logs. She found a vine and wrapped it around the bodies, the sled, and herself as a sort of harness.

IV

It was a struggle getting to the village entrance. Although her load wasn't all that heavy for her to pull, it was unwieldy. Thankfully, the area directly near the wall was mostly cleared of debris, so she was able to walk close to it with relative ease—except for the occasional stump that felt like it had been placed there to trip her up. It took her almost twice as long to return than it had when she'd gone the other way.

Eva was relieved when the lit area by the gate came into view. She switched off the flashlight. There were only a handful of people milling about—the gate guards and Reggie with two of his helpers.

“Stop!” one of the gate guards commanded her as she stood out into the light covered in blood and guts and pulling a sled with two bodies.

Eva stopped as requested, and dropped the harness. She sighed and felt glad to not be carrying that weight anymore. The gate guard came over to her with his spear pointed at her.

“Who are you?”

“Eva. I'm one of the new people sent out to patrol. I need to talk to Reggie.”

“Wait here,” he told her.

The guard walked over to Reggie and the two spoke for a few seconds before Reggie stood up and came over to her. He didn't look pleased.

“What's going on here?” he demanded.

“Ambush got Mark,” Eva answered, pointing to the dead guard behind her. “Took care of the ones I could find. I brought one of the bodies here in case it was needed.”

Reggie paused and looked her over. He glanced at the two bodies on the sled.

“So what happened? I want details.”

Eva proceeded to tell him about the patrol and the ambush. He cursed a few times, like when Mark just took one to the head before she could warn him. When she was done with her tale, he didn’t answer right away.

“It's good that you got the body of our guard back.” he said, breaking the silence. “Please leave the gear you scavenged with me. I want you to bring the body of the, um, what were they called?”

“Landwalkers.”

“Yes, the landwalker. Bring its body to the council. Tell them we’ll have to increase the number of patrols. We need more people to contribute to defense.”

“I will.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Can I keep the backpack?”

“Sure, why not. Report back to me after you've delivered my message. Next time, wait until the end of your patrol before coming back. I don’t want this kind of threat getting through to the civilians.”

“Yes, sir.”

V

Eva untied the armor and swords she’d scavenged and gave them to one of the helpers. Then she got the landwalker’s body from the sled and carried it to where she'd met the council earlier. It was around 3 in the morning when she arrived at the firepit, so she was surprised to see a few people were still awake. She identified two of them as being members of the council. The rest were cooks working through an enormous pile of monster meat.

She walked up to the council and dropped the corpse at their feet, startling both of them with the squishy thud of the body when it hit the ground.

“What's this?” one of the councilors asked. “Hunted meat should go to the chefs for cooking.”

“We have a problem,” she answered. “This is not 'hunted meat'. This is something that tried to hunt me!”

“What do you mean ‘hunt you’?” the other councilor asked.

“Like with swords and bows and all of that. The same way the army might raid an enemy. I tried to Observe▲ one of the three that attacked me and my partner. They showed up like humans do, but they are not human. It said they were called 'landwalkers'.”

The second councilor sighed.

“So what do you want?”

“Reggie says we need more guards. I agree with him. My partner took an arrow to the head. He was dead before he hit the ground. I saw three of them, and I doubt that's all there are.”

“Thank you for the report. We'll talk to him after his shift is over to discuss this. You can leave the body here. Might get a good scare out of the others.”

He chuckled.

Eva took her leave and reported back to Reggie, who sent her to sleep since there was barely any more time before the end of her shift. She did her best to clean the blood and guts off of herself before she crawled back into the lean-to with Hideki. She hated feeling dirty, but there was nothing she could do without water to wash with.