Village Hill.

The day after the catastrophe, people began to be buried, however, in order to avoid diseases and given that necromancy existed in this world, it was customary to set the dead on fire.

After an impromptu funeral, the restoration of damaged walls, gates and residential buildings began. Almost the entire village has rallied to recover from the consequences of yesterday's disaster. This time even I did not shirk, I tried to help as much as I could. Of course, I was already impatient to start pumping the levels, but I decided to wait a little longer. The same pack of wolves would just gnaw at me in no time. If I walk in splendid isolation, it may end badly.

It may have been a little cowardly of me, but I thought it was common sense. No one limited me in time, I did not need to save someone, I was healthy and day after day I only became stronger, there was no point in rushing things.

However, the situation has now changed a bit. Seeing Balor and his power with my own eyes, I realized that I should hurry up. Several people from my potential team have either already taken the first levels or are about to reach it soon. Since I had been waiting for a year, I decided that I should wait a couple more days. I decided to personally check the progress of the team and tried to persuade those who almost reached the goal to take the last step, discarding all other things. They themselves were interested in this after what happened, who did not want to become stronger and protect their home?

True, there were also problems. The parents of some of the children were determined and did not want them to go on dangerous adventures. I understood them perfectly and felt that I was not acting very nicely, but now I was not going to look for compromises. In such cases, I focused on their children and coaxed them in any way, giving many arguments to ignore their own family in this matter. I told them that they are already adults to make decisions on their own. That if they remain weaklings, then tomorrow another Balor will come and everyone will die, and so on. In fact, the guys themselves were also determined and there was no need to apply special diligence when persuading.

During the attack, only two of those whom I trained died, and both began to train with us only half a year ago. And one girl lost all her relatives, although I did not know the details. In fact, I couldn't even find her, no one opened the doors in her house. Only later did I find out that she completely fenced herself off from other people and practically did not go outside, she simply ignored everyone, including me. Under other circumstances, I would have sympathized with her loss and left her alone. But she was one of those who trained with me the longest and I was not going to retreat just like that. The same Anna was only 11 years old, I could not take her with me, so now every fighter was counted.

Walking around her house, it became clear that the principle of construction was the same as my own. There were no windows, an ordinary wooden house with a thatched roof. The only diffirence was the fact this house was longer. I started to break down the doors. At first I just started punching and kicking, then I tried to knock it out with my shoulder. But sadly, I didn’t even have enough strength to break open the door of the village hut.

The class system really helped and made people stronger. But the difference was not as exaggerated as I would have liked. Even with my 14 strength, I was not much stronger than an average person. Considering that the additional parameter was given only once per three levels, it became clear that this would not change much in the future. There will be no superheroes jumping 5 meters and tearing trees to pieces with their bare hands. Even people of the 0th level remained combat-ready, and theoretically they could well withstand those who had already reached the first level or higher. I didn't want my fighters to risk their lives without even gaining a 1st level advantage, but if I have to, I'll take that step.

I went to the neighbors and asked them for an ax, after which I went to chop down the doors. As soon as I started, I heard an angry cry.

- Go to hell!

Of course, this did not bother me and I continued. Finally I got to the bolt and cut it down with an ax, then kicked the damn door open in a spectacular manner. Even with doors finally opened it was relatively dark inside, but at least I could browse surrounding. It became clear that this house was longer because there was another room. In any case, I finally saw the purpose of my visit.

Her name was Megan, 17 years old. While we was practicing together she was lively and inquisitive. She actively participated in sparring and was interested in various types of weapons. She did not look bad either, her black unruly hair fell to her shoulders, the irises of her eyes were also of a grayish-dark shade. She was as tall as me, about 165 cm, rather a little less. Pretty thin or is it better called slim? In general, I would call her miniature. But at the same time, something seemed to stand out in the chest area, although not too much.

However, she didn't look good now. It seems like it's only been three days since the attack, but apparently she was starving herself or something. At least it seemed to me that she managed to become even more miniature. Moreover, she was all dirty, even traces of blood remained on her. The gaze was not focused, I thought she had screamed earlier with malice, but looking at her now, rather it was just an attempt to drive me away at a low cost. The worst thing is that as soon as I opened the doors, I smelled not very pleasant smells. Moreover, this smell was unfamiliar to me, but if I had assumed, I would have said that it was the smell of a dead rat.

I looked around carefully and moved to the door to another room. But seeing this, Megan reacted and smartly blocked my path.

- Get out! I don't owe you anything. - she said in a threatening voice, now she was serious.

- What stinks here? - I squinted, although I already guessed what was the matter.

- None of your business, who are you to break in here? - she took out an iron dagger, I helped her in training in its creation. - Either you leave on your own, or I will throw your corpse out of here.

To be honest, I was a little offended. We met with the guys almost daily and spent a lot of time together. It is obvious that for so long we kind of became friends and did not consider each other strangers. Moreover, in general, I helped them in everything I could. Of course I understood the situation and all that, but I still got a little angry. I took out two Sai from the bosom and went to her. My blades were shorter and thicker than the original Sai, they did not have any cutting edges, only the tip was more or less sharp, in general the main focus was on protection and strength.

But Megan knew perfectly well that I was just waiting for her to start attacking so that I could intercept the blow, so she was in no hurry and was going to attack suddenly. I quickly changed the position of the blade in my right hand and threw in the direction of her right leg, while I myself took the last step forward, entering into close combat and bringing the second blade to strike. Megan reacted and managed to remove her leg, simultaneously striking her dagger, avoiding my blade, she was preparing to redirect my blade with her other hand. But I was not initially going to attack either Sai or melee, I was just trying to distract her in order to charge a low kick, while it is advisable not to die myself. Her dagger and my kick landed almost simultaneously. The dagger entered my left abdomen, I did not have time to redirect her blow. Fortunately, her blow was not accurate and strong enough, heart remained untouched.

Megan herself kept her body balance mainly on her left leg due to my throw, so my blow on her right leg managed to knock her off balance, besides, I hit hard enough and heard her moan. As soon as she lost support under her feet, the outcome of the battle was determined. I was already holding her hand with a knife, and with the other hand I finally punched her in the face. She finally let go of her dagger and fell to the ground, but I immediately sat on top of her and began to hit her in the face, not giving her a moment to come to her senses. After a couple of blows, her face has already turned into a mess, her teeth are knocked out, her nose is broken, her lips are torn. But I did not relax, but turned her over on her stomach and tied her hands behind her back. Only after that I was finally able to pay attention to my punctured stomach from which blood was gushing.

- What a bitch. - lifting my robe, I looked at the wound. It was deep enough, the blood was flowing, but fortunately not too actively. But the pain was very tangible, I took out a bandage from my sinus, prepared for such cases.

I didn't waste time looking at what was in next room. Everything was clear, there were corpses. This stupid bitch is out of her mind. Perhaps in her delirium, she thought that they would come to life or something like that. But in just three days, especially in the summer, these corpses were clearly not in the best condition. Because of this, some kind of plague may even spread. Therefore, I grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the Priest, or rather, I wanted him to heal myself, that was the main thing. Regeneration, of course, will restore me and so, but it only worked once a minute, besides, I was afraid that there would be some kind of infection, it would be better for the Priest to examine me.

Luckily, Meghan was pretty light, so dragging her along the ground wasn't too difficult. Outside, of course, they noticed me, I had to explain that I was just trying to help the girl get to the Priest. Let it be dubious, but one of the men decided to help, he put Megan on his back and we accelerated.

Raphael and Zif were in the church. But besides them, there was also a beautiful woman in armor and two swords behind her back. She was quite beautiful, from her appearance it immediately became clear that the character is not simple. All three turned their gazes at us.

I was already feeling better, regeneration once a minute restored 3 HP, after a minute the bleeding disappeared. But Megan looked terrible, not only did she initially look bad after the hunger strike, but I really disfigured her. When this woman saw Megan, I felt that I might be in trouble. Although right now her ferocious gaze was directed at the poor man who had brought Megan. The Priest immediately began to cast the healing.

- Who did it? - the woman asked.