I

When Eva did eventually find Hideki, he was with a woman she'd not yet met. A flash of envy hit her and then disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. The woman was olive-skinned with dark hair. She wore the same fur armor everyone else seemed to, but she carried a well-made bow that looked possibly landwalker in origin.

“Hey,” Eva said.

“Oh, Eva. This is Maria. She's friends with Thomas and our replacement scout.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said, relieved.

“You too,” Maria said. “When I heard what happened to Thomas, I was mad. I can't believe there are people out there taking advantage of others like this!”

“Hideki and I ran into some wannabe bandits early on, so I'm not really surprised. I just hope that it's not the whole town, you know?”

“Well, that's what we're going to find out. You know the way to where the fight happened? I can take it from there.”

“Sure. Mapmaking▲ helps with that.”

Eva led Hideki and Maria through the gate and north towards the hunting grounds. Mapmaking▲ gave her pretty vague directions, all things considered. They were enough that she was reasonably sure they were headed correctly.

“I see you picked up some drinks,” Hideki pointed out as they hiked up a hill.

“I traded the Spear★ I got for them. They're potions. Here, take a look.”

Eva tossed him one of the red Health Potions✦. Hideki looked it over before giving it back.

“Neat. Any idea how they're made?” he asked.

“No clue. I asked the guy who made 'em, but he was keeping the secret to himself.”

“That's a shame,” Maria added. “It would be good to have that kind of thing for the monster waves. Might save a few lives that way.”

“It truly is a shame,” Hideki agreed.

“I'm just happy to have them. The stamina ones, mostly. Maybe next time I can come in first and get the Repair Skill because God knows I could use that with the amount of fighting I do. Better than the stupid Spear★.”

Eva could see Maria roll her eyes at the rant. It was a little silly; but on the other hand, she had the Stats to do that every day, yet she didn't. And it cost her.

“How are you only level 6 after coming in second today?” Maria asked suddenly.

A quick Observe✦ put Maria's level at 8. She thought about it before deciding she really didn't care if people knew. There were plenty of others out there with the same circumstances. She wouldn't tell the whole story, since that was not important to getting the point across.

“I started with Stats around 30. My Stats are currently around 50. I level slowly because I started so much higher to begin with. Hideki's level 9, so he might be at the point where he can't add more Stats without breaking through, I'm not sure.”

“I'm there,” Hideki confirmed. “I need a thousand experience to break through with all Stats at 25. If my math is right, you'll be hitting your ceiling point somewhere around 60 or 70, Eva.”

“That's why, I guess,” Eva shrugged.

“So you're much stronger than everyone else?”

“Not everyone; but, generally, yes.”

“I see.”

Eva felt a little put off by the terse response, but pushed past it for now. Hopefully it was out of worry for her friend Thomas or something like that rather than jealousy.

II

Soon enough, they were moving down into the valley where Eva and Hideki had hunted. There were more signs of activity that made the job of finding the scene of the fight easier. It only took about ten minutes of searching the area she thought was correct from Mapmaking▲ before they stumbled into the right place. The dressed corpses of the boars had been removed by someone or something. There were no bones or skins left where they'd been forced to drop them. The fighting space had likewise been cleared of bodies. Again, no bones.

“Maria, I think you're up,” Eva said after taking a moment to look around.

Maria took charge. She looked around and asked a couple of questions about what had happened in the fight before leading them in the direction her Tracking Skill indicated. Apparently that was another good passive skill to get that boosted passive perception slightly. Eva added it to the list of things to go learn when she had time. Something she was in short supply of between the dungeon, the daily grind, and other one-offs like this scouting adventure.

As they slowly tracked the way the bodies had been lugged, Eva was able to see the occasional mark against the ground or a broken branch that looked out of place. Her having high perception certainly helped in that regard. As she was not the one doing the tracking, she didn't expect to gain the Skill. At least it was some practice for learning it on her own later.

It took two hours—and another valley—before they came to a natural clearing. The grassland and rocky ground beyond the trees was mostly flat, and the open area was fairly sizable—a few square miles. On the far side of the clearing from where they stood was a walled fort made of wood. There were some humans in metal gear patrolling atop the walls. All in all, it seemed like just another town like the dead raiders had said. Well, until you looked at the entrance, anyway. The front where the gate was had several dead bodies impaled on sharpened poles. Bodies without heads, that is. The heads? They were nowhere to be seen. Eva shuddered, hoping the victims had been dead before they were run through.

Sneaking over for a better view presented more of a challenge than Eva thought initially. With the sounds from their gear—and the occasional hunters or patrols exiting and entering the fort—they had to take several breaks to hide amongst the trees to let people pass without noticing them.

Viewing the entrance from closer up made Maria gasp. The heads Eva had thought were missing were instead nailed to the gate. The place had an all around vibe of welcoming and hospitality.

“Holy shit!” she said quietly. “That’s a seriously bad way to go.”

“I hope the heads came off first,” Eva agreed.

“I don’t think the raiders were a couple of bad apples,” Hideki pointed out.

“No, I don’t think they were. I think the whole place is rotten to the core. This’s the most overtly evil thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t have a good feeling about it.”

“Let’s keep watching to learn what we can,” Maria interjected. “We can tell the guards and the council what we find out.”

Over the next hour of watching—until the sun set—Eva was able to make a few observations. None of the living people they'd seen had been women. The men she had seen well enough to discern faces of were either very happy or very unhappy. There was no middle ground. The unhappy ones primarily displayed some kind of fear, and they were the ones on the wall. It was the smiling ones that went out on patrol or to go hunting.

III

With the light fading quickly, the three began the journey back to the village. Eva felt hate towards whomever was responsible for that level of cruelty. A glance over at Maria told her all she needed to know. The woman felt the same as she did. Hideki had a solemn look about him. He'd seen death when they'd fought off the bandits and had reacted poorly then. She could only imagine how he must have felt when seeing something much worse.

By the time Hideki needed to use Light for them to see, they'd gotten past the hunting ground. Eva used Mapmaking▲ to lead them through the darkness. All the while she thought of what she could do. She wasn't a hero. She was a juggernaut to be sure, but she was not a suicidal hero. Still, she decided she should at least look into doing something if there was a good opportunity. At the very least, she'd go have a talk with the council to let them know of the tragedy happening over there like Maria suggested. Maybe if they stepped up the training in the dungeon, they could raid the place and free whoever was still alive. A place like that was definitely keeping people locked up.

After getting into the village an hour later, Eva made for the council at the center with Hideki, Maria at the infirmary. There were several leaders still awake and chatting amongst themselves when she arrived. She took a stick of roasted meat and sat down next to one she recognized. The man nodded at her.

“I'm not sure if you heard,” she began, “but there was a hunting party attacked by humans yesterday. I went out with a scout and a friend to take a look at the area since there was supposedly a town only a few miles away.”

The councilor nodded again.

“Well, when we followed the trail the attackers left, we found a fort in a clearing there. I don't think they had all that many people, maybe a couple hundred at most. The problem is that they're raiding to kill people and possibly capture them alive. There was a gruesome sight by the gate, with severed heads, impaled corpses, and stuff like that.”

“Hm. So what do you want me to do about it?” he shrugged with the weight of dealing with problems all day. “It sucks, but we've got our own problems. People don't have good housing, food's iffy, there are monster attacks daily that we've been lucky to survive. If you want to go save the world, do it on your time. My job is to save the people here.”

“So use the dungeon I scouted to train up people? Even if there's nothing we can do, that's a no brainer. There's a good chance these assholes are going to pick off or kidnap the people you want to save for their sick games. Even if we don't end the threat, at least make sure people can defend themselves!”

“You know, that's not a bad idea,” the councilor smiled. “Since you suggested it, your job is going to be training them. Tomorrow, take twenty of the least leveled people who are willing to fight to the dungeon and teach them to fight. Be back before the monsters come and leave right after.”

“Seriously?”

“They're not going to train themselves, and you want them to be able to defend? You know how to fight, you teach them.”

“Fine,” Eva grumbled.

She cursed the mouth that always seemed to find work she didn't want to do. She wasn’t fit to train anyone—her own Skills and skills weren’t all that great. It was her Stats doing the heavy lifting! How can that be taught? She shook her head and grabbed Hideki on the way back to the shelter.

IV

“What’s bothering you?” he asked when they were settled for the night.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about the whole training thing they gave me,” she said and shook her head. “I don’t really want to do it; but at the same time, it’d be good for them to be stronger with all the fighting that’s going on. That Training I got had notes saying to help humanity, which just makes it that much more of a difficult choice.”

“So why not help?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that doing so is a big responsibility, you know?”

“I understand. What else did the notes say?”

“Mostly about finding the dungeons and watching out for alien invaders. So far they’ve been right, and that’s the most infuriating thing!”

Hideki hugged her. She sighed and hugged him back.

“I know I’m being stupid about this,” she said. “I’m also not cut out to be a trainer, but who else could do it?”

“It’s ok to feel out of sorts. I still do after what happened when the Tutorial started; but then I met you and I found hope. These people need that hope too. You may feel awkward, but you’re the right person for the job. I can tell you care in spite of what you went through.”

Eva knew he was right. Even if she wanted to run away from the responsibility, someone had to do it. Might as well be her.

“Thank you,” she said, grabbing him in a tight hug.

She planted several kisses on his face before pulling him on top of her. He’d earned it.