“To William!” Garry, Warren and Jake cheered as their glasses clinked against each other. I looked at them annoyed, which no doubt meant that soon there will be yet another toast in my name. Assholes.

I felt bad about what happened earlier today, not because of my wounds, but because I am the least competent member of the team. I had no heart to party, but I would welcome getting a bit drunk.

“There is some bad news.” Jake started speaking after a while, changing the topic from whatever they were talking about. “Since oil tankers are unable to cross the ocean and the sea based pipelines were busted the entire nation is running on reserves with only miniscule transports from our neighbors. The military patrols will decrease to preserve oil, and civilians won't be able to buy fuel.” I half listened to him, but the implications were clear. It will get worse and worse.

“The government will announce it in a few days, no doubt riots will happen.” People still tried to cling to their old lives, commuting to their jobs and travelling to families across the country just to visit, the roads were safe after all.

“You sound like you started from the good one.” Warren said, somewhat solemnly. Jake smiled, though it was void of mirth.

“The military is starting to withdraw towards the coastline. Tanks, artillery and every other part of the military that can pack a punch. Only jeeps, and few other vehicles with only machine guns will stay inland.” That sounded bad.

“The military is putting all their eggs in one basket.” I said, all the others nodded to that. “The high command had no choice, they even forfeited the navy and took everything they could from the ships to be installed on the shores.” Jake added. Our nation was once prideful of our navy.

It was Warren that continued the conversation. “Association cannot hold inland by themselves, there are already quite big monsters spawning away from the cities.” Most of the people moved to towns and cities by now, with rural areas now free of people and basically unpopulated the spawn rate increased. Bigger and bigger monsters started showing up.

“We are forfeiting everything other than ten kilometers away from the cities and towns.” Gods, are things that bad? “Most roads will become impassable, the army will focus only on the main ones.” More and more bad news.

“Any good news?” Garry asked hopefully.

“Association workers will be given guns.” It wasn’t really great news, more like bad news. It was like saying: ‘Great news! You get a gun because a swarm of monsters is attacking our city and we need YOU to defend it!’. Warren and Garry looked like they shared my thoughts.

We drank deep into the night.

-

It was at noon on the next day that we left the base and headed into the forest. “It is best that we use more time to hunt dogs this week.” It was monday. “Once the military leaves it won't be so easy to hunt dogs.” I agreed. Hunting dogs was easy, usually we found one or two dogs at once, sometimes three. That pack of seven was a first, we decided to head towards one of the closer forests. The roads and plains were still full of military patrols.

We spent the next six hours walking through the forest and shooting some dogs, nothing life threatening. The next six days passed quickly as well.

-

[Ranged Weapon Mastery] is now level 20 (max). You have gained 1 Path point. Increases handling of the ranged weapons. Increases Dexterity while using ranged weapons by 20%.

[Meditation] is now level 26. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 26% while the skill is active.

[Path of Wisdom 20/25] They are still laughing at you. Wisdom increased by 1.

[Path of Wisdom 25/25] 1, 2, 3…. and… William learned a new move. Wisdom increased by 1. Skill [Detect Presence] obtained.

[Detect Presence] is now level 1. [Path of Presence] opened. Actively sends a pulse of mana to check the user’s surroundings for living beings. Range 3 meters. Uses 10 mana per minute.

It took a lot of time to level meditation without using small cores, but now that I had means of using mana to train. I had 46 small cores saved, the dogs appeared more frequently recently. From on today it will be even worse, most of the military is finally leaving the city.

We got guns. Pistols with two magazines each meant for protection in the field. Assault rifles were meant for guard duties, and city defense if needed. The range of military patrols decreased to ten kilometers away from the city, as well as their frequency. Drones will be used to check if there isn’t a swarm in the making in the ‘hot zone’, as the military called it now.

Riots happened, though for us living in the bases at the edge of the city it wasn’t noticeable. It was almost like listening to news about riots on the other continent. Even with thousands of people shouting near the city hall demanding equality in the sale of fuel the city turned silent. The constant hum of car engines gradually died down.

I wonder what people will do when they learn that most of the fields are abandoned and trade routes other than few roads between neighboring nations will soon be impassable. I heard that governments want to invest heavily in indoor farming.

Garry, Warren and I decided to stay put for the next few days. To grind using the stockpiled small cores and wait for news about the number and type of monsters that will show up in the nearby forests.

[Meditation] is now level 32. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 32% while the skill is active.

[Detect Presence] is now level 13. You have gained 1 Path point. Actively sends a pulse of mana to check the user’s surroundings for living beings. Range 39 meters. Uses 9 mana per minute.

I thought about training [Melee Weapon Mastery], but decided to entirely focus on [Detect Presence]. It took me three days to go through all the small cores that I had, making very noticeable gains in levels. I got eighteen unspent path points the past three days, and I had trouble deciding what to do with them.

Thankfully the military decided to share information about the system with the Association a few days ago. It was a password protected forum, ID cards guaranteed access to it. It was free of spam or trolls, given that all the posts were made by military personnel under their own name. There was information about every Path, skill and perk that the army encountered.

[Path of the Prey] and [Path of the Hunter] were both paths that were unlocked while having both [Running] Paths completed. [Path of the Prey] was unlocked by successfully running away from the stronger enemy, while [Path of the Hunter] was unlocked by catching up and killing a fleeing enemy. It was recommended by the military to pick the first path, the entirety of the army and Association used ranged weapons first. [Fleeing Prey], and advanced running passive skill gave the same stats as [Running], but it only worked while moving away from the enemy that you were aware of. [Hunters Chase] worked only while moving towards the enemy.

The problem was, I would rather not meet a stronger monster in the first place. I wasn’t afraid of dogs, but seeking a big monster, at least two meters tall and god only knows how long was not something that I was willing to do.

Other Path then.

[Path of Meditation] granted [Advanced Meditation] that doubled mana regeneration rate of normal [Meditation]. Given that I still had 2 mana regeneration per hour and with [Meditation] active it was boosted to 2,6 mana per hour. [Advanced Meditation] would give me additional 0,6 mana regeneration, not great. It would be useful if I went the magic path and completed [Path of Intelligence], it didn’t give any mana regeneration perk but one intelligence point boosted basic mana regeneration by 0,2 mana per hour.

I sighed as I read through the dull data that was on the forum, I skipped over a few other uninteresting paths that I had unlocked and decided that there were only three that interested me.

[Path of Dexterity] granted [Grace] perk, it decreased all stamina use by 10% and decreased the chance of stumbling or the like. The memory of the seventh dog biting my arm came to my mind, I only haven't stumbled and shot one more arrow; it wouldn’t have happened. I could also leap to the side instead of back, which would give me at least three more seconds to perform another action.

Another one was [Path of Greater Endurance], it improved [Lesser Regeneration] perk by doubling it’s bonus and gave another 10 endurance points, though it took 50 points to complete it. And it was a pain to unlock it, literal pain since I would need to level my [Pain Resistance] to level 20.

The last one was [Path of Presence], it doubled [Detect Presence] range and allowed the user to vaguely detect the type of being that was being detected, useful but not necessary.

There were also rough estimations of the efficiency of given attributes. Strength increased the muscle power obviously, but it was it’s connection to Dexterity that made it an interesting read. Strength increased the speed at which the person moved its body, but only if Dexterity requirement was met. Two to one ratio of dexterity to strength was considered the most efficient way of gaining speed. If one had more strength than necessary it only increased how much a person could carry and how hard they hit. More Dexterity than in two to one ratio meant that points were wasted, the body was simply not capable of being faster without the necessary muscle mass. The Army advised two to one ratio.

I agreed with the notion and decided to complete [Path of Dexterity] first, running faster was always good in my opinion and soon we will start patrolling open plains where dogs and other monsters could easily spot us.

Ughh, those calculations and reading through pages of dull data is such a pain. How are MC’s in the litRPG stories capable of making OP builds by picking any skills and perks by their ‘feeling’? What a pain in the ass, I miss hunting in the forest now.

[Path of Dexterity 5/25] Close your eyes and put your hand forward. Dexterity increased by 1.

[Path of Dexterity 10/25] You feel something fleshy in your hand, yet you do not see it. Dexterity increased by 1.

[Path of Dexterity 15/25] The flesh has fingers, oh it’s your second hand. Dexterity increased by 1.

Warren walked into my tent soon after. “From tomorrow we are going to guard some lumberjacks. We are going to get a stable pay of five small cores for every day atop what we loot ourselves.” I nodded and Warren quickly left, it was already dark outside.

[Path of Presence] would be more useful for that.