Our conversation died down after roughly half an hour, and the two brothers returned just over an hour after that. Raruk still glared at me, and refused to be more than a stride or two away from his weapon. Verus on the other hand, went and started getting the gist of the conversation from Alissina.

I made sure to keep a small distance between me and Raruk, not seeing a reason to try and antagonize him. Instead, when I sat down in the spot I figured I’d be sleeping for the night, I just watched out into the mists, thinking over everything I had learned.

Which was a lot. The thing occupying my mind above everything else, was that the others from my world were across a country and across a mountain range. Worse than that, they were in what seemed to be a deeply racist human nation. While I refused to think that they would buy into whatever the Hierarchy might tell them, I also knew that all the stereotypes from our world combined with the strangeness of this one might just cloud their judgement…

In fact, I was trying to be careful not to let the same thing happen to me. There was no situation in which I did anything, without first finding out for myself what this Herion Dynasty was like. If what both the others and my gut told me was true, then the Dynasty might just be an okay place to have fallen.

I shook my head, the politics of the situation bothering me. Fuck that.. I’ll just treat people like people.. I’m not going to be starting revolutions or any shit like that, I just want to survive and live. Treating people like people, no matter what is a good start.

I snorted, finding it amusing that all I’d really done was reaffirm what I had already been doing. My amusement quickly turned to speculation as I started considering the rest of what I had learned. It seems like there's a pretty big gap between those below and over level one hundred.. If I want to really be safe, I should probably try to breach that barrier.. But that would involve fighting…

I knew that this would be a big decision. Whether to seek safety in settlements and the strength of others, or to seek my own strength. As I pondered it, my mind wandered. Isn’t this world a second chance for me? I spent almost all of my last life relying on others.. Needing them. And I want to experience the world, explore and find everything I couldn’t do..

It seemed.. oddly obvious. If the freedom to use this second chance to its fullest is only possible through using this system to get stronger, then I will. I nodded slowly, letting myself make the decision. Giving it a chance to soak into me, feeling the weight of it.

As I did, I heard a light crunch of dirt, before Devos sat next to me. From the corner of my eye, I could see that he was looking into the mists with me. “Can’t help but notice that there was an air of… decision making going on over here..” He spoke quietly, but firmly.

A smile quirked upwards the corner of my lips. Of course he noticed. “Just thinking.. This world, it feels like a second chance.” I saw him glance at me for a moment, his expression unreadable. “I didn’t do much where I came from.. I just decided that I wasn’t going to let this world slip by. I won’t let this second chance go..”

He nodded slowly, turning his head to look back out into the mists. “A second chance, huh..?” He nodded again, more firmly. “I sure wouldn’t let it go if I had the opportunity,” He turned back to look square at me, making me turn to face him too. “Only question is, how are you gonna use it?”

I smiled softly, seeing him examining my every expression. I had no doubt that he was looking for any trace of hostility, still not entirely trusting me. “I’m going to get as strong as I can. And then I’m going to explore,” My eyes flicked back towards the everpresent mist, “I’m going to look for new places, new people. Explore this new world, that’s what I plan to do.”

A long few moments passed in silence. Finally, he grunted and said, “You have the second watch, wake me a couple hours after,” and with that he stood and made his way over to his bedroll. I glanced back at the group, Verus and Alissina still talking, occasionally gesturing towards me. Raruk glaring at me from beside his pack, and Devos quickly burrowing into his bedroll. Things could have been worse.

I smiled to myself and laid down, letting myself relax more fully than I had since arriving here.

The next day I woke to Verus shaking me awake, having fallen asleep hard after my uneventful watch. Blinking owlishly, I really appreciated my lower need for sleep as I quickly adapted to being awake again. Huh. Really didn’t realize the two of them were so big. He saw my eyes open and nodded, “We’re getting ready, set aside some rations for you.”

At the idea of some food after so long, I barely kept from scrambling up. The rations disappeared quickly, barely even noticing any taste. Only ten minutes later, everything was packed up and we were ready to set off once more. Standing at the head once more, Devos said, “Alright. We should arrive on the outskirts of Fierca at the end of today,” he glanced at me before adding, “It’s the town that’s closest to the Mist Fields. Basically only populated by adventurers and guides.”

Once I nodded in acknowledgement, he glanced around at us and began moving. Raruk quickly took off to follow, while the rest of us followed more quietly. The day passed slowly and dully. Mists slowly thinned the farther we went, and with only a few random skeleton attacks to break the monotony.

On the other hand, I did get to see the others fight. I decided that Devos must have some way to help see through the mists, as he saw every single one before any of us. When he spotted on, the others would talk for a short moment, before splitting up. I watched, fascinated at the way their group worked together.

Their established tactic seemed to start with Verus using his ice magic to freeze over the skeletons feet to the ground. Then Raruk would charge and engage the skeleton, while Alissina appeared behind it and slammed a dagger through the back of its skull.

It took me until the second one they’d killed this way to realize that few actual skills were being used. Verus was probably only using one to freeze its feet, maybe another to boost it. After that, Alissina seemed to be using one to make herself much harder to notice in order to slip around the skeleton while Raruk distracted it. Raruk himself didn’t seem to be using any skills at all.

When I asked, Verus responded simply, “We agreed to group together. That means while we could individually beat them alone, we fight together for safety.” I didn’t quite understand why they didn’t just switch off who fights the skeletons, but I decided it wasn’t my place to say they were doing it wrong.

When the third of four attacked, Raruk interrupted. “Let him fight it,” He growled out while thrusting a finger at me. The other two looked slightly pained, but also somewhat interested.

Devos shrugged, “Sure, why not?” Turning to me, “Are you willing?”

I glanced across them, “If it’s just a regular skeleton, sure,” Devos nodded, affirming it was. I simply shrugged and started walking forward.

As the skeleton came into view, I decided I wanted to test Solar Blast.

Undead Skeleton - Level 18

“Not bad then…” I murmured to myself. I could hear the others standing a little ways back, watching. The skeleton’s head shifted towards me as I summoned my sword, the bright golden glow appearing with brilliance. It’s jaw dropped as if in a silent, horrific scream.

With that it charged towards me. I thought of a few ideas before settling on one. I dodged to the side as it’s first overhead strike soared through where I had been. I purposely waited until it had recovered before swinging slowly and obviously from below and to the right.

AS I intended, the skeleton blocked the lazy strike. As it did however, I swung my freehand in a grand arc over the top, before releasing the Solar Blast. I winced as the concussive force of it passed so close.

The skeleton on the other hand, slammed into the ground on it’s back, the solar energy blackening the bones. A moment later, I swung as fast as I would normally, quickly severing it’s spine and then it’s head.

I looked over the blackened bones for a moment. “Seems pretty effective…” Looking up, I saw the others alternatively looking at me or at the skeleton on the ground.

A moment later, Devos shrugged. “Well alright then, let’s get moving. And put away your sword, it’ll attract more.” Nodding, I quickly let the sword fade as I joined the others in following Devos. I couldn’t help myself from trying to sneak glances at the others reactions to what I’d done.

Verus had a faint look of interest but was otherwise straight-faced, while Raruk had already just strode ahead angrily. Alissina seemed to catch onto what I was doing, and if I read the slight crinkle visible by her eyes, smirked. I coughed as though to clear my throat and quickly looked forward.

A bit disappointed with their lack of reactions, it took me a little while to come up with a reason. Considering just what Devos told me last night, they’d probably seen other far more impressive displays of power. So while what I did might be impressive for my level, it wasn’t necessarily actually impressive..

With that solved, it stopped bothering me and I refocused on keeping watch into the mists. We traveled for another few hours after that before Devos paused for a moment, looking up. Following his gaze upwards, my face fell into a grim set as I saw it a well. Rising into the sky, was a barely visible column of dense black smoke.

Devos swore, “Come on, we’re going, now!” For a moment I was surprised at the jogging pace he set, having expected a sprint all the way there. Then practicality set in. Even though we could see the smoke, the source was no doubt still quite a ways away.

I felt myself shift into a jog alongside the rest of them, and for the first time, I actually realized how much of a difference your basic attributes made in this world. Mine were quite a bit higher simply due to my Exotic class, but it was making all the difference. My higher dexterity and strength letting me run both easier and with less effort than the others. Devos seemed to be the only one who was covering the distance just as easily.

Despite our far increased pace, it still took us close to an hour to begin to reach a point the mists were beginning to thin. For the first time in a long time, I was starting to get a farther view than just my more immediate surroundings.

As we ran through this thinner mist, I shot my gaze over as I heard a sharp twang. I saw Devos reloading his crossbow while running, not seeming fazed in the least before another, much louder sound stole my attention. A dull, then sharp blast rolled over us as we ran straight towards it.

For a moment I considered slowing down, but decided to trust Devos. He’d seemed fine enough, but I hadn’t really had the shaky trust I’d placed in him tested yet. In the end, as we ran past where the explosion had been, I glanced and saw almost twenty scattered, burnt, and shattered skeletons thrown about on the ground.

Explosive bolts. Good to know…

Swallowing, I firmly pushed down the small amount of confidence I’d gotten from the conversation the night before. Even if I have a crazy good class and all sorts of advantages, an explosive bolt is still an explosive bolt. Best not to get cocky…

I saw a similar look to what I assumed was on my face on the others as we passed the site. Devos didn’t even pause in his run, simply continuing to lead the way, a determined set to his face.

Finally, the mist had thinned enough and we were close enough to the edge for me to see out of it. What was unfortunate was what we saw.

Expanding beyond the gray and brown bare soil of the Mist Fields, the ground slowly regained its color. Over a stretch of what I’d guess to be roughly a mile, the ground slowly sprouted greenery and grass. The dead fields turning into a more stereotypical plains. With mountains in the background, I could also see a thick forest far in the distance.

But my eyes weren’t on any of that. Nestled into that startling green, was a small town, and it was on fire. I felt everyone around me falter in their run for a moment as we saw why. Hundreds, thousands of skeletons were fighting, slowly spreading around the walls and swinging weapons. Spotted throughout the battle, I could see explosions along with massive spouts of flame and ice. Spikes of rock slammed up and through skeletons, miniature tornadoes formed on one side.

For a long moment, I stood mostly still, dumbfounded at the battle I could see unfolding. It was only after hearing Devos curse again that I looked beyond the flashiness of the massive magics and saw that while each one of those skills was wiping out swathes of skeletons, there was always more. A flood of thousands couldn’t be stymied with so little.

I glanced over at Devos just as he was looking around at the rest of us. His face fell and he let out a long, shuddering breath. Just before I would have asked him a question, he spoke. “I’m going down there. My best chance to help is to try and snipe off some high up Knights or hopefully the Lord if it’s a particularly weak one…” He glanced across all of us again before his eyes fell. “I can’t make you come with me. The Knights alone will be roughly my level, and the Lord is above.”

I slowly sucked in a breath as I heard what he was saying. He was thinking he was most likely going to die. He continued speaking, “I recommend you all head as far around as you can and either enter from the opposite side if you can, or keep on going to Typhal.”

I saw the others nodding their heads, and was about to do the same. A small, ever so slight glint of sunlight caught my eye, shining directly onto Devos’ crossbow, while at the same time a whisper floated through my mind, saying only two slow words. ….Risk……. Reward…….

I froze for a moment, not knowing what to think. Then, I felt the internal magic within me stirring, shifting into a shape that was… incomplete. As though it was close to finishing something, but not quite there. Missing something.

Gritting my teeth, I decided. “I’m coming with you.”

Devos was in the middle of talking to Verus when he stumbled over his words. He turned to look at me with disbelief and a hint of anger. “Look, I thank you for the sentiment, but just because you have a powerful class doesn’t mean-”

I cut him off before he could finish, “Look, you know how fast I can level. If you can help me kill one of those Knights, maybe two, I can then do it myself. I’ll climb in levels and maybe, just maybe, we’ll get out of it.”

He opened his mouth to protest. His mouth worked in silence for a moment before his eyes narrowed. “Why? Why would you do that?”

I didn’t hesitate to answer. “Because I think I just found out why Heroes are so powerful. They get premonitions, slight nudges towards their goals.” I could see both Verus and Devos staring at me, even Raruk seemed more confused by what I was saying than angry. Alissina remained as difficult to read beneath her mask as always. “And I just got one, to go with you.”

Devos’ mouth shut in an almost audible snap. He regarded me for a long, long minute before reluctantly nodding. ‘I can’t argue with that, and I certainly can’t stop you.” I let out a held breath and nodded back.

Verus and Alissina were looking at me very intently, Verus even going so far as to glance back at the horde of undead before shaking his head. “We can’t follow, not there, not yet.” He looked to both of the others for a moment, “We might fight a few on the outskirts, but we’ll see. Once behind everything, we’ll decide whether to stay or to head on to Typhal immediately.” His mouth turned into a frown as he glanced back at the undead, “I wish we could help more.”

Devos shook his head almost before he was finished speaking, “No. Don’t be, it's fine. Get behind and do what you all think is best,” it was Devos’ turn to glance at the skeletons attacking before looking at me, “We have to go now.”

I nodded, turning back towards the others for a brief moment, “Thank you all, good luck.” To me, it felt lackluster. Evidently it was enough for Raruk and Verus, as they started heading out in a wide arc.

Alissina held back for a moment, looking between both me and Devos, “Don’t die.”

He replied for the both of us, “We’ll do our best.” It seemed to be enough for her, as she nodded sharply and started heading off with the other two, leaving me and Devos looking towards the horde. We waited only one additional moment before Devos simply started loping towards the battle, moving much faster than before. I quickly realized he’d also noticed that we two could have gone faster earlier, and thus was upping the pace.

Quickly matching it, I ran beside him, looking towards the swarm of undead we were racing towards.