Richard Manton, the man commonly referred to as Spotter, or Spot affectionately, watched as the bubbly Succubus carted off a confused Lich Lord. He got back on the Bone Wolf and sped back to the base. Upon returning, he and everyone else received a notification.

“Hello! Now then. It seems like our little Lich Lord is on the run! Pursued by the government, he decides to leave behind all but his mistress and hide from the law! So begins the Hunt! A special worldwide Event! Unfortunately, only people in whatever State he is in are notified of his presence for now. If he gets stronger, everyone in the entire Country or even the Continent can prepare! But for now, here are their coordinates! Go get him!

Also, the unprotected Area that used to belong to him is now under new management! Welcome, Rick Manton! Looks like you played your cards right! Congratulations on the promotion!”

What a dick. Thank goodness the voice sounds like a guy or Andrew might have had some issues after being scolded by a cute girl every day.

The first thing Rick did was check out the crash site of the helicopter. Upon his arrival, he was greeted with several solutions to the oncoming problem. He noticed these guys weren’t completely decked out. They didn’t have all their required gear that soldiers needed.

All they had were massive explosive rounds. They were more like walking bombs in the first place. Most of the time, they wouldn’t be packing this much heat unless they weren’t going to get close. They had planned on bombarding the place from a distance. What a spineless method.

They didn’t want to risk infection by going down and making sure everyone was dead so they were going to just blow everyone here sky high. They probably wanted to conserve the ammunition meant for common weapons so as to keep their guards back home ready.

Even then, these guys looked like they hadn’t trained ever! Doesn’t this mean they used regular people?! What was the current situation if they had to use civilians?! Sure, the pilot was trained, but he wasn’t equipped with any weapons! Theories swirled around in Rick’s head, but he wasn’t lying to Andrew. He truly did not have a way of contacting the nearest military compound, much less his superiors at the top.

He got back on Ribcage and returned to the ‘castle’. Or rather, the Castle. It was definitely more guarded than before. It seems the Builders were planning on reconfiguring the surrounding area to be just one massive building. There would be space for training and a place for farming, but that was only for those staying in the Castle.

The area surrounding the Castle was set up like an old medieval village with small thatched buildings easily made of sticks and dirt. Though they were cheap, they were masterfully built. They didn’t have leaks and they stayed cool during summer and warm during winter. They were roomy and had good basic furnishings like beds and outhouses. People will have to make do with the basics for now, it seems.

The wall was undergoing a serious remodeling by being completely built of stone. The metal was going to be used for weapons and things like doors or barricades. Rick admired the changes that were happening before his eyes. The sun was definitely in the sky now, as the warm feeling hit his back.

That was when he received an alert.

‘Hello. This is your Clan leader. I may be away for a while, but have no fear. I am using this chance to retrieve more allies and see if I can find more ways to be of use. I will set up Quests so as to help people easily find where to go. If something happens back at Base, I am just a message away.’

Andrew may have left the Area to Rick, but not the Clan. Thanks to this, Andrew still had some say in whatever went down here. With that in mind, Rick felt more at ease. He set up some quick Quests for the young ones and the old ones to complete. The men and women who showed talent in hunting did and the ones who did well at cooking or household chores stayed around the Castle.

Reese and Brandon practiced their Spells and Skills repeatedly, earning their next Level in magic. Reese could call out a far stronger fire than before. The first could be described as a spray of fire, the next one could be called a Fire Ball. Definitely something simple but destructive. Brandon was a Fear Monger, a user of Scare Tactics. This included things like Intimidate and Terrorize. These two could weaken enemies or paralyze them in place if the enemy was weak enough.

For some reason, it seemed like Ribcage, Red Amigo, and Scratch didn’t earn anything like magic. But that was fine since they were plenty strong as it was. Thankfully, the Bone Wolf didn’t need to be fed and Scratch could now eat people food. It seems from Andrew’s words, she had gained a strange Skill called Turned upon becoming a BOSS. This meant she could sort of transform into a human now. That means her intelligence and strength were now stronger than before.

Now, as the temporary leader, Rick could finally see the Domain tab. He could see where the members of the three groups were headed and the simple survivors here and there. Bored and kind of antsy, Rick decided to go check out the training areas. The Castle was the size of four regular four bedroom sized houses. It was more mansion sized than castle sized, but the structure was different.

There were stairs that led to the towers on each corner. That’s right, it had spires. They looked more like observatories since they weren’t pointy or imposing. They just looked like a small room placed upon a spiral staircase. But, the staircases also led to the roof of the Castle which had ramparts that archers or snipers could use.

This meant there was now a second line of defense within the Castle grounds. The construction wasn’t finished, so Rick kept looking around outside. He came upon the training grounds. Instead of circular targets, there were now Skeletons in place that would train against the Humans if they wanted it.

Unfortunately, this meant that Skeletons would need to be healed. In order to train, one would need to spend 50 GP to buy a Potion afterwards. But this was fine since the Shop allowed for the selling of unnecessary Resources or weapons and armor. This also meant that $500 could afford a Potion. Now, Quests were issued to go find any and all the money they could.

Not very many people were still at the Castle, since the construction was still going on. Most were either hunting and scavenging or training for the next attack. This was also going to be the easiest as well. Future opponents won’t be so disorganized.

This entire Region pretty much now belonged to the Undead Clan and Rick could finally see the next door Regions. Well, not physically, but on the monitor, he could tap the neighbor Regions and receive certain information. This also meant he could see the previous broadcasts and even see the Top Ten of the Week.

Rick also noticed the Clan’s logo on the map. It colored their part of the Region in a dark gray that differentiated from the others. None of the nearby Regions had Clans, which was a given. Well, maybe they had Clans, but not to the level of Andrew’s.

“I want to go hunt…”

Ribcage lifted his head and sort of nodded. It would seem that this wolf was more attached to Rick more than Andrew, but this was just a matter of opinion. Ribcage agreed with Rick since it was in his blood to hunt. That didn’t change even after he died.

Checking the map, Rick found a spot that was indicated with an exclamation point. This was to symbolize that the area was not safe for Level 0s. Rick hopped on to Ribcage and told Reese where he was going.

After about an hour, the two found themselves in a grocery store about twenty miles away. Even though an Alpha Bone Wolf is fast, they aren’t a match for a normal car, after all. Rick signaled for Ribcage to Summon his Minions.

Rick was still wondering how come Ribcage’s Summon was different from Andrew’s Summon. Instead of using the dead, the wolf could just Summon 10 Skeleton Wolves no problem. He had the wolves circle around the place while he himself tried to make heads or tails of the Radar. It was wonky, just like when he tried to hunt down the big wolf standing next to him.

This must mean that the Radar wouldn’t work in places that had strong enemies. After once again focusing on the task at hand, Rick scoped the store out. The wolves would prowl the aisles, but they didn’t find anything. The place was already ransacked, so there was nothing usable here.

But then what moved in? Was it a really strong zombie? Or perhaps a pack of wild animals? But where were they? His answer swooped down from above, aiming its talons directly at his face!