The walk continued in silence after Rezak's foreboding words. Well, actually, the villagers did talk to each other but Marc and Rezak, leading the group said nothing. He was tempted to press the man about truedark was but decided not to. Rezak looked like the type of guy who preferred silence and solitude and Marc did not want to get on his bad side by being too annoying.

Not only that, the man's nerves seemed to be stretched on a taut string and he became visibly more stressed the longer they walked. His eyes swept the environment without pause and he looked as if he expected them to be attacked at any time.

Truthfully, Marc was also expecting the same. After all, he'd been attacked almost constantly while trailing the goblins earlier in the day. The fact that they weren't attacked now, despite the size of their group, was a bit strange. Still, he was grateful for the fact he didn't have to fight for his life. Maybe the monsters were scared of crowds or something?

After over an hour, by Marc's estimation, they paused briefly to rest before continuing their walk. They continued for another two or so mind-numbing hours before the ascenders decided they could finally stop.

The entire group, except perhaps the ascenders, was exhausted by that point. Some of the former captives hadn't even been able to move the entire way themselves and had been supported by their fellow villagers. Everyone of the villagers dropped where they stopped,

Marc immediately threw himself onto the sand when they stopped, his entire body feeling sore from the day's activities. He stared up at the night sky with the hypnotically spiralling constellations and the bright purple moon. That wouldn't stop being weird. How on earth did a red sun produce purple light when reflected off a moon?

After a while, he sat up, shivering slightly as the cold night breeze raised goosebumps across his exposed arm. The villagers were all lying or sitting down but the three ascenders all stood, talking quietly to each other.

They finished up their discussion quickly and started giving instructions. All the useless stuff looted from the goblins were piled up in one spot as fuel for a bonfire. Rezak lit them up with a flame from his hand, magically creating a spark faster and smoother than Marc was capable of.

When they had a large bonfire burning steadily, the food and water was evenly distributed among everyone. Marc noticed the villagers roasted the bitter-tasting tubers near the fire before eating them and tried it out. It tasted... well, not all that good but way better than it was raw. Marc ate little but did drink plenty of water.

The ascenders then gathered the fittest and able-looking villagers, positioning them around the camp as lookouts and guards against monster attacks. Marc joined them, getting grouped with two teens, a thin, lanky redhead and a heavyset blonde.

They sat side-by-side on the sand, keeping some distance between themselves as they watched the desert in silence. Behind them, most of the villagers lay, the younger ones asleep, the older ones too nervous to. The ascenders had ranged further from the camp, opting to scout out the surroundings in preparation for the truedark.

The two teenagers occasionally glanced at each other and Marc, probably wanting to talk. Although it seemed the two teens knew each other, they didn't seem comfortable talking with him there. Marc preferred that, too. If he was being honest, he wanted time to himself.

The day had been crazy what with being isekai-ed into another realm, having to defend himself from monsters, and helping rescue the villagers from savage goblins. Okay, maybe he didn't actually help that much in the last one but it was the thought that counted and he had indeed thought of rescuing them before deciding he wasn't powerful enough to do so.

If he was being honest with himself, everything still felt like a dream. It felt like at anytime, he would just wake up in his apartment to the sound of his alarm and then mostly forget about this experience like every dream he had.

As much as he wished it was, Marc couldn't quite convince himself it was a dream. Aside from the system interface and the magic and everything, he was quite sure a dream wouldn't last this long or be so vivid.

He wondered about his parents. God, he hoped they'd picked Easy Mode. They wouldn't stand a chance surviving in an apocalyptic world. Despite everything, he still loved them.

How about his friends? Julian and his constant smugness. Micheal and his constant mothering. Rachel with her sarcastic quips. The neighbour in the next-door apartment, Alice, whom he'd been flirting with. He didn't want to consider the possibility that one or more of them could be dead. Couldn't.

Marc closed his eyes, held his breath, counted from ten backwards and exhaled. He had to trust that they would be fine. Just six days left till he'd get to see them again.

He just had to make sure he would live to see them. He had to survive this crazy world and get back to Earth. He had to get stronger.

A thought brought his status interface up and he scanned it.

[Name: Marcus Cole ("Marc")

Tier: Tier 0

Age: 20

Race: Human

Attributes:

- Physique [T0] - Level 3(88.7%)

- Psyche [T0] - Level 3(0%)

- Arcana [T0] - Level 3(5%)

Forces:

- Lifeforce {Rank 0}

- Spirit {Rank 0}

- Ether {Rank 0}

Essence: 0 points.

Talents:

-Voidsight

-Ice Shaper

-(0/10,000 Essence)]

Not much had changed in it. He didn't have any points to allocate and he briefly rebuked himself for not killing at least a few of the dying goblins.

He needed levels and the surest way to do so seemed to be fighting... and killing. Constant killing was needed to level up. Which was all kinds of fucked up in a real-life situation because of all sorts of reasons. But everything about a system apocalypse was fucked up, so Marc wasn't going to try to think through that or even think too deeply about how reality had suddenly turned into some video game or had been a video game all along. There lied existential dread.

He needed a game plan. He needed information on how everything worked. How did the three different energies work? What was the proper way to use them? Why was spirit an energy? How could he improve his Talent?

The villagers were probably of little use here. The fact that they'd had their village destroyed by a group of goblins was proof of that. Sure, the goblins were powerful but they were still goblins. The weakest type of creature in conventional fantasy. If the goblins had been able to reach that level of power, why not the villagers too?

No, the ascenders were his best bet. He remembered their fight against the goblins, if fight could be used to describe it. If he was to describe it, he'd say it was more of a slaughter, awe-inspiring but horrifying.

He considered practicing his Ice Shaping but dismissed the idea immediately afterwards. He still didn't want to reveal his cards yet. Right now, most of the people here thought he was some wanderer who had gotten lost in the desert and had by chance found the goblins' campsite. All the villagers seemed to be weak people without magical abilities - and he still marveled at that. Appearing relatively harmless for now was the way to go.

"How's it like?" A voice suddenly cut into his musings.

Marc startled and turned his face towards the speaker, the lanky boy.

The boy waved a hand in front of his own face. "The Origin Schema. How's it like to see your self shown to you by the Origin?"

Marc frowned. "How did you know I was checking my System? I mean, Schema." Had he been that obvious about it?

The boy shrugged his thin shoulders, his reddish, frizzy hair moving with the jerky action. "You got that long stare, y'know, like everyone does when they look at it. Like you're staring into the distance but also at nothing. So how is it?"

Marc questioned hesitantly, "Don't you know already?"

The lanky boy replied. "I'm not past my 17th nameday. Do I look that old already?"

Marc didn't know what to say as he parsed the boy's reply. Did that mean only adults had access to the System and underage children only got access on majority? Not giving magical abilities to children and teenagers seemed wise but in a world as risky and dangerous as this one seemed to be? That wasn't a good idea.

The other boy, a tall, burly young man with bigger muscles than Marc's spoke up. "Don't mind Kerry. He asks everyone he meets that question. He's just curious about the Schema. Wanted to be an ascender, y'see."

Marc nodded. "I'm not offended at all. It's a good question." He paused briefly to gather his thoughts before continuing, "The, er, Schema is... I guess I'd say it's a bit unnerving to know that some being has the power to scan every aspect of me and render it into a screen and the reach to do it to so many others at the same time." It was unsettling that some being could just manipulate the laws of reality of an entire planet and affect every thing on it.

"Huh," Kerry said, sharing a glance with the other boy. "Never thought of it like that. I reckon not many do."

Marc smiled wryly. "I guess they wouldn't." After all, they're used to living in a world of constant danger. Why worry about some almighty, all-knowing being you can't contextualize when you already had to worry about monsters and powerful assholes and psychopaths? "I'm Marcus."

"I'm Kerry, the former innkeeper's son. The big lump over there's Payne," the redhead replied to his introduction.

"Former innkeeper?"

"He's dead now." Ouch. "Never liked him much anyway." Marc could clearly see him clenching his fist deeply. He had almost forgotten that these kids only a few years younger than him had likely witnessed their families' deaths.

Not much for words, Marc could only say, "I'm sorry." He didn't know what else to say.

"S'not your fault. 'Twas the goblins... and the Council."

There was an extended period of awkward silence before Kerry once more spoke.

"You from the city?" He asked.

Marc was about to reply when something caught his eyes.

He stood up and peered into the distance, seeing a rolling wave of black slowly approaching their camp.

"It's truedark," Payne said in a low, nervous tone. "Magda save us." The built boy made some gestures, likely religious in nature and Kerry copied him.

Huh, so they had gods. This was a fantasy world. Of course, they had gods.

So this was the truedark they'd been expecting. It was a solid wall of... the only word Marc could use to describe it was a wall of black. It just moved implacably towards them, devouring out the moonlight everywhere it passed.

"It's truedark!" A lookout further away from them shouted loud enough for the entire camp to hear.

"Everyone, move as close as you can to the fire. We'll do our best to protect you." That was Rezak's voice. Marc hadn't noticed him and the other ascenders getting back from their patrol.

The villagers hurriedly followed his instructions, gathering around the campfire, looking out at the encroaching darkness. A thick nervous silence descended upon the place, only broken by the quickly hushed crying of some of the younger children.

The ascenders and some of the fitter villagers armed themselves with weapons and makeshift torches and surrounded the group in a loose formation, looking out in all directions.

Marc briefly considered joining them before deciding that no, he didn't want to risk his life that badly. He had no idea what they were going to be facing - he really should have investigated more thoroughly - and his combat skills were mediocre. He would stay among the villagers and only try to fight if he had no other option, no matter how useless that made him feel.

The all-consuming darkness approached at a slow, relentless speed. Marc could feel the tension ratcheting up as the wave covered the desert terrain to meet them. The atmosphere would have been less nerve-wracking if it moved at a faster pace.

Rezak spoke out as they watched the oncoming truedark. "We've moved a fair distance from the truedark's origin point so the spectres that appear wouldn't be as strong as they would be otherwise. The firelight should also help to weaken them some. They are still sure to be stronger than any that would have appeared in your village, so they will be able to possess some of you. Make sure to restrain anyone who has been possessed as soon as you notice it. Be aware, the spectres cannot harm you unless they possess someone to do so. Do not be too frightened by them.

"We've cleared the surroundings of monsters as best as we can so there would be few possessed monsters attacking. Any monsters further away would be more attracted to the former goblin campsite. We will take care of any monsters that attack and will destroy the spectres that appear.

"Keep your minds calm and your hearts firm to ward off the spectres. We are going to get through this."

The villager's morale improved at his speech, awful as it was. Marc, on the other hand, felt more nervous. Monsters who attacked you physically were one thing. Now there were monsters who could possess you.

He held his breath and let it out in one long, slow exhale. No use getting all worked up about it. He had to calm down.

Still, as the wave of darkness enshrouded them and momentarily blinded him, all Marc could think was, 'I really should have chosen Normal Mode when I could.'