t was still early in the day, and after finding that no cars, or bicycles, or any mode of transportation worked, we had started our long walk to the land that we owned. After walking for all of ten minutes I realised how difficult the journey would be. The tension in our group was unbearable. It was clear that Niels hated Emily, but Emily was in some other world. She acted like a little kid.

We were walking down the road when we saw another group. The three of them were armed with one stick and two bows. They were all level one and were fighting level three knights. Looking closer, I realised that the knights were labelled as the ‘knights of doom’. Knights. Really. The system can’t even come up with a central theme. I thought as I weighed the pros and cons of intervening. The group was clearly losing so I decided to intervene.

I motioned for Emily and Niels to follow me. We jumped into the fight. I blocked a jab at me and dodged a swipe from behind me. I thrust my sword through the first knight and it disappeared. The second knight tried to use the time to swipe at me, but I blocked his attack and decapitated him. I turned around to see that Niels had won his fight, and that Emily hadn’t even joined in. The fight hadn’t even lasted a minute.

There were several drops. While we had three average swords, the swords the knights dropped were of poor quality. I scanned the rest of the loot when something caught my eye.

Banner

Turns house into town hall

Quickly, I grabbed the banner and put it into my backpack. Now I don’t have to go back to that store and get scammed again. I checked my notifications and was surprised at what I saw.

Two knights of doom killed

50 dollars earned

Level Up!

You have levelled up to level 3. You may now put a point into any stat.

+Strength

+Speed

+Endurance

+Magic

My suspicions were confirmed. My fourth stat was magic. I had always suspected it, but seeing it confirmed was a different feeling. I put my point into magic and looked at our two groups and saw that they had all levelled up. I was the only person at level 3 and everybody else was at level 2. After a bit, the other party caught their breath and started to explain what they had gone through.

“We stayed in one of the houses,” one of them said, “But then we started running out of food and water. To make matters worse, a spider thing spawned inside of the house. We just about managed to kill it. We needed food really badly so we decided to go outside and try to find some. Those knights were walking around the outside mindlessly and we decided to try and fight them. Initially, we were doing well, but we all have low endurance so the longer the fight went on the worst it got for us. And then you came. Thanks for that.”

“No problem,” Niels responded, “To get food and water, go to the shop, just think ‘shop’ to go there. While you’re there get some for us too.”

“Thanks,” said the person. A second later he disappeared. We all just sat in silence for a second before a woman in the other group shuffled around a bit.

“Where are you going? Because there isn’t anywhere around here, well, unless there is. And you aren’t wet, and it rained last night, so you aren’t sleeping outside. And also-” she said, speaking so fast I could barely understand her.

“Slow down. Please.” I begged.

“Where are you going?” she asked again.

“We’re going to build a house. We bought land and materials in the shop so we can actually do it. In a system recognised house monsters can’t spawn inside.” The other party all blinked.

“Wow. That’s amazing. Umm… We just met you but can we come with you?” Another member of their group asked. I looked at Niels and Emily. They were both nodding. I turned back to the other group.

“Sure,” I said.

“This is going to be so much FUN!” Emily exclaimed. The other group stared at her. Niels looked like he was about to punch her. I tried to continue the conversation.

“The thing is,” I continued, “The land is nine and a half miles away at this point.”

“I think I speak for all of us when I saw we would be happy to join you,” The woman in the other group replied.

“Everyone, I have the food. Did you know that after every level you have to pay more for food?” I turned, happy to see that the food and water had arrived.

“I Can’t believe we haven’t introduced ourselves yet,” the woman said, “I’m Sara, these are my friends, Justin and Daniel,” Sarah pointed at the man who had gotten food first, and then the other man. They both gave small waves.

“I’m Alex, she is Emily, and he is my brother, Niels,” I replied, indicating towards my companions. With introductions out fo the way we started eating.

The only sounds that could be heard were of us eating. Eventually, Justin spoke, “When I went to the shop, I got the food, but I got distracted by the leaderboards. I learned three things. These are really big so please listen. Firstly people are levelling up extremely quickly. Secondly, there are only 100,000,000 people left alive. Thirdly, there was a message saying that humanity was starting to develop magic. One person has magic. Someone in the world has magic,” He said, stressing the last sentence.

The whole group fell silent. I could see the rest of the group processing this new information. Do I tell them? If I do, then… I don’t know what they will do really. Could be from kicking me out of the group to calling me their saviour. I need to find a better time to tell them.

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Niels said, “The first bit is good. The second bit is a lot to wrap my head around. That’s so many people gone. Many of them are probably people that I personally knew. Then to the third thing… If someone is able to use magic, then humanity has a chance. I can imagine some super-powerful person going around the world, saving people with their magic. If only they were here right now.”