I breathed out a sigh of relief. It was over. The Community had survived.

But now we would have to deal with the presence of a military we had thought collapsed beyond repair.

Was America still alive?

The effects of the massive battle only became evident after the chaos cleared. The military had dealt with the remainder of the undead forces, and they had killed the Lich that had posed such an existential threat to our community with relative ease.

Of course, as it turned out, they did suffer a few casualties from the lich's death-throes, but fortunately, no one had died.

With the battle over and relative calm returning, I sifted through the numerous additional notifications I had received since I last checked.

[Reanimated Decomposing Corpse] x32 has been defeated.

[Reanimated Corpse] x47 has been defeated.

...

1,025 experience points received.

...

Level 11 Rare [Lich - Durward Warphoner] has been defeated with the help of others.

16 experience points have been received.

...

Skill [Basic Sword Proficiency] has advanced to Level 8

60 experience points received.

...

Skill [Basic Sword Proficiency] has advanced to Level 9

65 experience points received.

...

Skill [Basic Sword Proficiency] has advanced to Level 10

70 experience points received.

...

Skill [Basic Sword Proficiency] has reached the requisite eligibility to be advanced into the Tier 2 skill: [Intermediate Sword Proficiency].

Would you like to use a skill point to advance the skill?

Yes / No

...

[Accepted]

Skill [Intermediate Sword Proficiency] has advanced to Level 1

50 experience points received.

...

Skill [Leadership] has advanced to Level 5

90 experience points received.

...

Skill [Paragon's Influence] has advanced to Level 3

240 experience points received.

...

Through Skill [Paragon's Tether] you have shared in the successes of those decreed loyal to you in the field of battle.

112 experience points received.

...

Emergency Quest has been completed:

Title: [ Defend your Community ]

Objective: Repel the encroaching horde of undead, led by Durward Warphonor the Level 11 Lich [Rare].

Reward: Lesser Crown of the King. 200 Experience Points.

...

57 Prestige Points have been granted to the [Community of Genesis] for successfully surviving an existential crisis, and repelling an invasion.

...

2,206.38 / 1775.61 experience points until Level 20

...

Congratulations!

You have now advanced to Level 20!

+4 Strength, +3 Constitution, +2 Agility, +3 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, & +1 Charisma awarded!

+4 Free Attribute Points Awarded!

...

Notice: You are now at the max level for your Tier 1 Class: [Juvenile High-Human Paragon]

Experience gain will be withheld until class advancement. Would you like to proceed with Tier 2 Class Selection?

Yes / No

...

Notice: Twelve individuals have met the requisite conditions for [Paragon's Bestowal]. High-Human Racial Advancement may proceed.

As soon as I processed the numerous notifications, a sudden glow appeared behind me as I turned around. I turned around just in time for the glow to dissipate and for a glimmering golden crown to lie in its place.

As soon as I cast [Appraisal] I confirmed that it was the [Lesser Crown of the King].

Name: Lesser Crown of the King Rare!

Prerequisites:

Charisma: 25

Values:

The effects of leadership abilities are multiplied by 10%.

[Kingly Aura]: Stability +2

Charisma +12

Intelligence +30

Wisdom +30

Durability: 167/167

Info: A Lesser Crown of the King. An item imbued with slight traces of divinity. Rulers of lesser Kingdoms seek its possession as proof of their legitimacy. It grants the wearer a kingly aura.

With my new level increase, I had barely reached the requisite Charisma to wield the item. Regarding the new item, I was astonished. I had seen the same item in Holy Arc Online, however, a lot of the values had been completely hidden from me. As a result, I had brushed it off as a largely useless ornamentation. Especially since there were unknown prerequisites and I had never managed to figure out what they were. Now, however, things were different. I had apparently met the required conditions to be classified as a 'Ruler' within the bounds of the system. Of course, I smirked at that. Maybe now I was some sort of King? I couldn't help but chuckle.

I didn't put on the crown yet though. It would have felt a bit... Well... Awkward to say the least. The mere thought of having a conversation with whoever commanded the platoon that had just rescued us, all while wearing a crown on my head, just seemed ridiculous. I'd wait. Even if that Charisma stat could help when it came to persuading people, I just did not want to wear it. I imagined that the cons would outweigh any potential benefits I might gain if everyone had the perception of me as some sort of weirdo. Regardless, I finished surveying the Community. Alex was currently exhausted, moving in between everybody, bandaging arms, and cleaning out wounds. I couldn't appreciate his talents enough. Luckily nobody was in a condition even closely resembling Antonio's, and I was sure everyone would be fine after some rest.

The atmosphere was eerily quiet. The only sounds to offend the silence were the rumbling of tank engines, whatever other vehicles the platoon had brought, and the crackling of flames as the flesh of the undead corpses burned away outside our walls. I began walking back to the front of our gate in order to greet the platoon of soldiers that I was sure would want to speak with us.

As I walked, I quickly checked my status, noting the changes.

Name: Thomas Parker [Genesis]

Tier 1 ⇑ - [Juvenile High-Human Paragon] Level: 20 | Experience: MAX

Race: High-Human

Titles: High-Human Paragon | Genesis

Health 457/656 ( +111 / hour )

Stamina 243/572 ( +90 / hour )

Mana 203/828 [858] ( +108 [-10] / hour )

Active Effects:

Slight Mana Channel Overload

Attributes:

Strength: 106

Constitution: 74

Agility: 60

Wisdom: 72

Intelligence: 114 [+5]

Unique Attributes:

Charisma: 25 [+5]

Free Attribute Points: 44

Skills:

Appraisal T1 - Level 4

Intermediate Sword Proficiency T2 - Level 1

Intermediate Mana Manipulation T2 - Level 2

Elemental Affinities

- Intermediate Fire Elemental Affinity T2 - Level 8

- Water Elemental Affinity T1 - Level 3

- Earth Elemental Affinity T1 - Level 4

- Air Elemental Affinity T1 - Level 4

Meditation T2 - Level 2

Leadership T2 - Level 5

Paragon's Influence T3 - Level 3

- Paragon's Tether

- Paragon's Charge

- Paragon's Bestowal

??? - Level 1

Free Skill Points: 17

I decided that my class advancement would have to wait. After all, I knew my class advancement may render me immobile for a little bit if my transformation to a High-Human was any indicator. Which wouldn't bode well for negotiations with the military. It also was evident that Astia's blessing had worn off, but it had served its purpose, and frankly, it's likely the only reason we all came out of this fight as well as we had. I'd have to thank the God at some point, if I ever got the chance that is.

As I squeezed past the slight opening between the two damaged cars marking the entrance into the community, I saw what I assumed was the platoon commander - a Second Lieutenant if the insignia denoting his rank was anything to go by - heading my away, adjacent to him looked like another officer, likely a Staff Sergeant, as well as two other men. One of them had a white patch with a red cross-stitched to his arm, denoting him as a combat medic, while the other appeared to be one of the regular soldiers, perhaps some aide.

The occasional pop decorated their arrival as their soldiers continued to sweep the innumerable amount of undead crowding the roadway and the surrounding terrain. I was thankful for their efforts in ensuring that none of the undead had survived. It would be a pain if we had all gone to bed thinking the fight was over, only to find out some of the surviving undead had broken into the camp. It was going to be a massive undertaking just to clear that many corpses from the area. Disease festered amongst the dead after all.

As the platoon commander neared, I waved slightly, and then greeted him. "Frankly commander, if you hadn't arrived when you did, I don't know what situation we'd be in right now," I announced.

The Second Lieutenant returned my greeting with a hearty laugh as he approached near me with an outstretched hand, "we only barely caught you. Whatever caused that huge ass explosion gave your position away. Without it... Well, let's just say I am glad we came on time. We didn't know there were any survivors in this area though."

I smiled, "Well," I shrugged, "Here we are, evidence of life struggling to get by in Shrewbury."

The Second Lieutenant scoffed at this, "from what I can see, you're hardly struggling. At least, not compared to most."

As he paused, I interjected with my own pressing question. I began hesitantly, curiosity evident, "Why were you in the area in the first place, honestly, we thought the military was gone... For good. We'd been trying to get a radio working, but have had some setbacks up until now."

The Lieutenant looked into my eyes, appraising me, before he evidently decided he was going to go ahead and trusting me. "Some of our aerial reconnaissance operators thought they had seen some type of disturbance in this area... We were curious why the fires had completely encapsulated a section of land in the middle of a completely burned-out urban area. We were nearby when the explosions began." He began, and then stopped as he briefly looked into our community.

"Doc, go ahead and take care of the civilians," the Second Lieutenant said before he stopped himself and glanced back at me, "With your permission of course?"

I nodded, "We'll take whatever help we can, don't feel so restrained," I told him.

With that, the medic saluted the Second Lieutenant and then proceeded to squeeze through the gap in our gate and made way to tend to everyone's injuries along with Alex.

The Second Lieutenant then proceeded to survey our walls. "The lot of you have managed to pull something together in a time when most are still attempting to make sense of what happened." He appraised.

"You’ve even managed to protect yourself..." He finished as he examined the literal mounds of undead piled just within the gate to the community.

I could tell however that there was something the officer was hiding from me, as his voice betrayed a slight reluctance to voice a pressing question.

“It seems like you might have something else on your mind?” I asked him quizzically.

He frowned slightly at my inquiry and looked searchingly into my eyes, before coming to some sort of decision.

"Look...?" He paused, apparently waiting for my name.

"Thomas Parker, Leader of what we're calling 'The Community of Genesis'."

The Lieutenant appeared amused, "Community of Genesis? Eh?" He then continued with an outstretched hand, once again introducing himself, "I am Second Lieutenant Rick Thompson, 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company. Assigned to lead this motley band of lucky bastards, and based out of Camp Edward in the Cape," he said smiling, before frowning once again as he resumed his explanation.

"Anyways, my reconnaissance mission wasn’t as simple as investigating some sort of disturbance. We were attempting to resume contact with the upper echelons of our command, but evidently, that hasn't gone well. Early last week all communications ceased and we’ve been operating in the dark since then. We have a sizable contingent of national guard members, soldiers who had been on leave and reported when things went to shit, retired veterans who have been reactivated into service, and local volunteers. All of them are on edge though, understandably worried about their loved ones scattered across the state, and in some cases the country. Our goal was to search for survivors... but, frankly, we can’t support those efforts nearly as well as we’d like," Second Lieutenant Thompson said.

"We’ve locked down the entire peninsula of Cape Cod, but have failed to make any concrete progress towards sustaining a massive civilian population, particularly refugees who have no place to go. It doesn't help that most of the current residents of the cape seem less than enthusiastic about sharing their homes with strangers," he sighed.

"At this rate... and I probably shouldn’t be saying this... But, we won’t be able to hold on indefinitely, and that’s without considering our daily operations in curbing the advance of those demons... Aliens... Or whatever the hell those things are. We’ve managed to contain them, but we don’t know for how long. It seems they’ve only given scant effort in trying to leave the Greater Boston area to our bitter relief," he finished.

The Second Lieutenants' voice then shifted nervously.

"This may be too much to ask of your small group... but... Would you be able to house some of the refugees? Obviously, we don’t expect you to house all of them, but we need to diversify our positions. Keeping everyone locked down in the Cape is dangerous, and it’s apparent that your group is managing well enough..." He said hesitantly.

"Of course... we’d give you supplies and support in whatever way we can. We can open lines of communication, spare some supplies, and we may be able to also provide a 'section' of soldiers for defensive operations in the area. Unfortunately, we might not be able to provide any more than that... so the rest would be up to you. However, I'm sure event twenty or so combat-ready men would do wonders in pacifying the local area."

I could barely hold in a smile at our good fortune. Frankly, we had been attempting to gather more individuals into our community, whether for safety reasons or to just support expansion into what was left of the local community; but I did have some concerns.

“Look... while I appreciate the offer, we can’t take in just anybody.. at least not yet, we haven’t established ourselves enough, if you want to send people, then we’ll take in anyone who can be useful. But, we wouldn’t be ready to take in that many children or the elderly... anyone who can’t pull their own weight will just make what we're trying to establish here more tenuous... At least for the near future.”

Even though I meant what I said, I couldn’t help but feel the slight hypocrisy in my statement. We let Liam and William in, and we’ve also allowed children into our community. Though, Liam was an obnoxious asshole, a coward, and even freeloaded, at least the children helped out with some minor tasks around the community. Granted, those were small numbers of individuals. I doubt Lieutenant Thompson was referring to half a dozen people when he asked us to take in refugees.

The Lieutenant paused and then continued. “That’s understandable...” he said as he surveyed the community in front of him.

"How about this, we can send some of our more skilled refugees over at first. I’m sure that they’d be happy enough to help out if provided with a roof over their heads and a relatively stable environment. And frankly, their skills have gone unappreciated by the Camp."

"After a month or two, if you’re willing. We can begin operations to transition some of the other families and civilian populations to your 'Community', he finished.

I stopped him before he had any wrong ideas, “Just wait and hold on one second. While I'll likely agree with your offer, I can't help but ask, when you say 'civilian populations', I'm just a bit concerned you're implying that we're going to be expecting some massive influx of individuals coming into the area, just how many people are you thinking of sending over here?”

“Well,” the platoon commander hesitantly said, but with resounding conviction noted, “by the end of the summer, we’d like to send over at least several hundred.”

I guffawed. ‘Several hundred? That much of a large influx could destabilize the entire community if we aren’t careful. Even I knew that. Several hundred people couldn’t possibly know each other as intimately as our group knows one another now... who’s to say there won’t be troublemakers interlaced throughout the refugees?’

“You have to understand, Lieutenant Thompson, and with all due respect, that while I’m all too happy to help... such a large influx may destabilize the community. Things aren’t perfect here, but if even a small group of individuals have it in them to disrupt what stability we’ve gained.. it could be extremely harmful.”

He waved me off, “I understand that, and we will vet individuals the best we can. However, you are the best shot we’ve got. Your ‘Community' is the most established civilian stronghold we’ve seen scattered across Southern New England. And frankly, we’d like to at least see some resumption of civilian activity in the area... If not at the very least, give the soldiers a better sense of what we’re fighting for... Instead of submitting to the idea that the wider country is now a desolate wasteland.”

I took a moment to contemplate that small revelation. Frankly, I don’t know what we would have done without their platoon's timely arrival, and in some ways, this was the perfect way to really pay them back for their support. I'd feel a heck of a lot of guilt if we just refused to return their goodwill. “I agree. I’ll have to bring it up with our... council, but, we’ll discuss it. It might take a while to come to a decision though... As you can see... things are in a bit of a disarray." I stated.

He nodded. “Don’t worry. We were planning on setting up camp for the night nearby anyways.”

I smiled and motioned for him to discard the idea. “No, you’re platoon is welcome to come inside the community. We’d be horrible guests if we let you camp outside, especially after what you’ve all done.”

With the discussion finished, we continued to deal with the aftermath of the invasion. The injured were hauled back to the house and whatever other accommodations we had. I personally helped carry the unconscious, and mana-deprived Rachel back to the house, while the platoon set up a small triage tent within the community's perimeter. While most wounds suffered by our group weren't too severe, it was necessary to at least help Antonio recover. The platoon medic was a godsend in this case.

Otherwise, several other military tents were erected, and the military vehicles parked. As I had noticed before, the platoon had two M1A2D Abrams in their possession, as well as three Humvee's and two trucks that appeared to be used to haul soldiers and supplies. It was quite an addition to see the sudden increase in activity within the community, but it was welcomed. When we all came back, we were also greeted by the other members of the community who had been forced to wait, namely my Mother, Dante's wife, Antonio, and Alejandro's little sister, Maria, Noah's girlfriend, Emma, Kaitlyn, and the five kids, Daija, Ariel, Max, Emry, and Ross.

Accompanied next to Ross was a much larger Manes, the dog had grown quite drastically over the past week, and he was already a quarter the size of a fridge. He was only going to get larger too. I could sense it. The dog was a tamed monster, at least, that's what Manes was evolving into. It seemed the mana wave had a very interesting impact on Earth's wildlife, and dogs weren't excluded. He was extremely loyal and friendly though, so I haven't worried just yet. That didn't mean I wasn't concerned or kept an eye on the mutating dog, but in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but hope that the monster dog remained loyal. Imagining the sweet bliss of watching a massive dog tear into the flesh of our enemies only brought a smile to my face.

I quickly discarded the image as my focus returned to the crowd of people we had left behind at the house during the fight. They all held worried and anxious looks on their faces. Rightfully so, as we had returned with a host of personal injuries. On top of that, I'm sure they would have felt and heard the explosions occurring during the midst of the battle despite hiding out in the basement of Alex's house.

I sympathized with them all, but the good news was that we had survived the assault, and had made potential new allies as a result of it.