Gavin Gardener

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. I've been luckier than most. In wanting to keep certain parts of my life private, I've spent more time single than not. My family lives on the other side of the country and we don't talk. The kids and my job have been the most important part of my life for years now. When everything all went to hell, I went looking for them, not because I'm brave, despite the big, black build some people cross the street to avoid, but because I had nowhere else to be.

The group home was overrun by the time I managed to make it there on foot. Rick and Debrah showed up as I was trying to escape the tree monsters living there now. My holy magic killed them easy, but there were a lot of them. Rick say he dropped by one of the kids high school, but couldn't get in, apparently it was a closed dungeon, whatever that means. He could see kids through the windows, but the grounds were covered in high level monsters.

After we met up with Leon's group trying to decide what to do, I figured we might as well follow someone who seemed to know what they are doing, even if he was just a kid. The funny thing is I do remember him a little bit, despite all the kids to come and go from the group home. He was way smarter than most, too smart for his own good really. It took him a long time to learn most people didn't like to proven wrong. He also had a bigger chip on his shoulder than most. The type of kid to hold everything in and then explode periodically. The type of kid to heal the world... or burn it to ash.

He seems calmer now, but I get the feeling he's still only looking out for himself, maybe just using everyone around him. Or maybe I've picked up a bit of cynicism myself over the years. Either way, I get that this is the world now, might be worth it to stay close until I find my place in it.

I still have the [Minotaur Blood] has well as a few [Goblin Blood] and [Hobgoblin Blood] I've picked up along the way, thanks to these kids and it's time to use them. Leon may be a loner, but I take the time to get to know the other healers I find in the park. Never hurts to have friends. There's a cute [Shaman] I want to get to know better, he's bit of a hippy, but beggars and choosers right? I find a scribe and priest to help upgrade my [Holy Book] so now it operates at level ten and will automatically upgrade at 26 as well, but that's a lot of levels in between. I'll need more blood from something level appropriate soon.

The magic users and the Sword types have also somewhat banded together. The new religious people have members of all kinds right now. Leon doesn't know but he's actually quite popular. Given the core of the village is here because of our group, plus the number of people we rescued so far... If he wasn't brooding so much of the time, he would notice the looks he gets from some of the women around here. A few men too. Poor Jenny, she's got her work cut out for her, hehe.

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Leon

"Good Morning."

I open my eyes to see Jenny lying next to me. Despite my blunder yesterday, we've grown closer through the fighting. "Morning." I try to say it with a bit of enthusiasm, but I'm the poster boy for people who hate mornings. She just smiles anyway.

"So, when do you want to leave?" She asks.

Technically, we can leave anytime. Mr G volunteered to come and I appreciate the help. I didn't bother to ask Zoe, she's pretty predictable at this point. Typical stubborn eight year old. Mr G and I got ourselves a pair of [Light Cloth Robes] with a bit of barter yesterday. Two INT with +11 HP, good for magic protection, but we'll be wanting to avoid the pointy end of metal things. Most importantly though is the upgrade to our Inventory. We are each rocking 16 slots at the moment and two scrolls [Sonorportation] and [Slow Target]. Completing Debrahs quests got us a level each and a level 15 [Black Cottonwood Bow], for Jenny with a new quiver. I'm not sure how Debrah got her hands on that, but the way she glanced in Dennis's direction, I'm thinking bribe or payment for his bit of authority within the village.

Black Cottonwood Bow

Type

Short Bow

Quality

Epic

Req: Lvl 15, 65 AGI, 35 DEX

+13 AGI, +8 DEX

Flexible bow with [Dark Element] resistance

Dark Hide Quiver

Ammo Clip

Quality

Crude

Req: Lvl 5

54 Arrows

Light Quiver with minor chance to add [Blind]

"Might as well have breakfast first, then see if Debrah needs anything while we're out." I get up and look around. Things are pretty peaceful here with the sunrise. But off in the distance the glow of fire can still be seen coming from the heart of the city. It's worse than yesterday. How long before we have to deal with the people causing that?

We find Debrah assigning people to rotation shifts as [Storage Attendant]. The storage is small so we only need one right now, but the way it works is a lot like our inventories. One can try to search manually, but an attendant can call and store village property with a lot less effort, though it does drain energy, in the form of protection time, from the village fire. It's growing slowly, but we haven't managed to upgrade it since we need the [Mana Shards] to upgrade people inventories.

"Morning children." She greets us with a smile. Ugh, she must be one of those people that actually like mornings. The energy and smile takes years off her pale skin. It's the smile of someone who either doesn't know it's the end of the world or thinks we might make it through this. Either seems a bit naive to me.

"Yo," Jenny returns her smile,"Just seeing if you need anything done while we out."

"As a matter of fact, yes. We had a few people trickle in late last night, and they brought disturbing news with them. The plant your sister is being held at might be more difficult to get back to than we thought. The road between here and there got itself some highway robbers. They say they was held up more than once traveling on it."

"Well it was just a matter of time." I offer. "We need to get there today though, so we can try to break through the roads, bring more people, or go around."

Debrah shakes her head. "I need every able body today, there's just too much to be done. We got a lot of goblin houses to break into today too. Rick's leading a group to the farthest Goblin groups we know of, otherwise... "

We have enough people of high enough levels to run the goblin dungeons if they use superior numbers wisely. Then there are the resources like wood and stone that need to be gathered. The abandoned houses near the park also have a lot of usable things too, and soon we might have to break them apart for the building materials. All in all, she is right, we are short staffed, even with the nonstop influx.

"We'll go around then, no point in needless risks when the woods on the other side of the river come close to the plant, right Jenny?"

"Yeah." Jenny confirms.

"Well dats de thing," Debrah interrupts. "We need to know who dees people are and where dey are and how many dey be. I don't have people to spare finding out and you're already heading dat way, so..."

I bark a short laugh. She's really taken to this village elder thing, huh. Not that I mind, I have no interest in that type of being in charge. Not to mention these thieves set up way too close for us to be safe.

Quest

Safe Travel Guide

Debrah, the Village Elder, would like you to gather information regarding the robberies on Blue Apple road

Rewards

Increased reputation with Sanctuary Village

Accept

Decline

Hmph. OK then time to get this show on the road. "Jenny, take Zoe and Mr G, through the woods, I'll meet you at the plant after scouting the road between here and there. we'll take some [message paper] to make meeting up easier when we get there."

"Wait, what? Why we splitting up at all?" She ask incredulously. Zoe looks mad that I would abandon her and Mr G looks at me like I've hit my head hard at some point. "If anything," Jenny continues, "My class be the one with tracking and scouting abilities for hitting level 15, why you the one looking for thieves?"

"Simple, If the 4 of us travel that road, we'll definitely be a target, if only one poor looking Mage walks a road, then he's not worth the trouble. I can't travel the woods and expect to be able to fight properly if there's trouble, not with my best combat spells being fire. This way we reach our destination with minimum hassle and complete all our goals for today."

Mr G seemed less than convinced, even after a few more minutes of arguing, but in the end, I'd earned enough trust to get my way on this. We ate breakfast, said our goodbye's to Rick, waved to Debrah and were off on our separate path to the same place.

Jenny was dressed for the woods, jeans and a tough jacket with a pair of boots made by a [Leather Worker] aiming for the [Cordwainer] subclass, whatever that was. They gave us each 2 AGI which was better than nothing. Most old world Goods have no additional stats, but they could be broken down and remade by the crafters. Mister G, was dressed much the same but with a large sweater hiding much of his muscle mass. It would be a nasty surprise for anyone who thought the healer was an easy target. Zoe's bright pink Sunday dress was clean and very noticeable, but even traveling through the woods, they weren't really opting for camouflage so she should be OK. And talk about nasty surprises for anyone thinking 'easy target'.

I went for a bit class, I had the same boots as everyone else, but opted to have them dyed black. A black vest and a bright teal dress shirt, let me feel almost human again. No tie, but I wasn't exactly going for a job interview. The light robes I had altered to resemble a light trench coat, also dyed black. I actually wasn't that fond of dark colors, but needs must. Cost might have been a factor, but for some reason, the [Clothier] seemed to think she owed me, or maybe my group. I left her a few coppers anyway, even though she was insistent the EXP was payment enough. I would have preferred dress pants, but a pair of black jeans from home completed the look.

The look was important, since while I hadn't lied to Jenny about the four of us being a target, I never said I intended I avoid looking like one myself. Tired dirty and travel worn would not get me what I was after.

Since this morning, I've kept two of my new level 15 spells going, only turning them off long enough to regenerate MP.

Mage Sight

50 Mana 5/s

Magic Assist

5% MP regen

Pay no attention to the magic behind the curtain

Golem

100 Mana 5/s

Magic Creation

Damage Varies

Additional Varies

He doesn't say much

Both spells drained my MP in under four minutes, but it only took two and a half to recharge so I wasn't worried about being caught flat footed. I had yet to understand the [Golem] spell. Activating it drained my Mp but didn't actually do anything as far as I could tell. I wasn't willing to operate on the assumption that the system was broken, so I had to be doing something wrong.

[Mage Sight] on the other hand was an interesting development. Since yesterday, I've watched the play of magic during others active spells and I swear I think I may be able to learn a manual way to do them all. Gonna need time to study all that though. In the meantime the world as taken on a hue of colors I have yet to figure out. Some are obvious like the elements, my mind filling in colour to match my understanding. Red, blue, green and yellow filled in nicely for the elements I could use. I assumed the off-white and grayish hues to be light and dark magic, which I couldn't touch. But what were the purple, gold and clear elements supposed to be? I couldn't touch them really, though they did seem to respond in someway to everyone's magic...

Anyway, the roads were pretty much the same mess as yesterday, if not worse. There were occasional people who avoided getting too close and I had no real interest in talking to strangers just yet. I reach Blue Apple road without incident and start to walk it. It curves a bit but will eventually bring me to Center street which leads out of town and close to Jenny's plant.

I'm starting to decide about how to make contact with these thieves when the decision is made for me. Two men step out from either side of the road, sword and small crossbow drawn.

"Lookie what we got here, Stubbs, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sword says.

"Oh, I think I'm thinking what you're thinking, Mikes." Crossbow replies.

Are these guys for real? is this a comedy show? I take a closer look at these clown and have to keep from laughing.

Mike

Class

Thief

Level

5

Health

365

Mana

145

Stamina

165

Steven

Class

Home Breaker

Level

4

Health

321

Mana

119

Stamina

189

Thanks to a stronger [Identify], I can now see classes. Judging by theirs, they've chosen classes that give bonus EXP for less than morally upstanding acts. What kind of thought process does a decision like that even take. I wonder how muc---

"Hey! You listening boy!? Your money or your life fool!"

Guess I zoned out a bit, the one with the sword, Mike, seems a bit annoyed with me. Wait, money? Don't they mean coin? No one could possibly be after the old money, right?

"Gentlemen," I show teeth in what could be considered a smile. "I've been looking for you all morning."