In the end, Sofia didn’t have much new information for Alistair. She explained to him the talks with the people from New York were going well, and that they had an in-person meeting set up. After seeing his [Eyes of Truth], she wanted him to be there, saying that his Skill would be useful for reconnaissance.

By the end of the fourth day after the initiation, they had cleared almost every monster wave in the Metro Boston region and slightly beyond. That left them in the waiting period. Alistair hated it, despite the peace. He was more at home killing orcs and goblins than talking and trying to play politics with Sofia and her gang.

He had to admit, however, that the New Boston Alliance ran a tight ship. They had set up a semi-functioning government, with Sofia at the helm. She would send people like John or Lily to different subregions, where they would be responsible for law and order and keeping the populace safe from the various mutated animals.

In order to ensure everyone had running water and food, they scouted people who formerly worked essential jobs. While the higher leveled people subsisted with little sleep or sustenance, the same could not be said for the vast majority of the population who were still under level 15. Preliminary counts of stored food suggested they had less than two weeks of meals left for the over 500,000 people estimated to be in the New Boston Alliance’s claimed territory. Because of the gigantism displayed by the mutating wildlife, hunting was more productive as a food source than in the past, but it still wasn’t enough on its own. At the moment, they were searching for any agriculturalists who had gained a Class related to their former occupation, hoping cultivation-aided farming could feed the public.

Over the next week, Alistair and the rest of his allies grinded non-stop. Only needing to sleep four hours a night, he punched and kicked tens of thousands of monsters in his path to leveling up. Alexandra was right by his side, having ditched her old tactical knife for a magical, poisonous dagger. She sentimentally kept her old knife, which her mother had given her for self-defense, but the System store-bought weapon was superior in every way. She could handle a larger blade with her ridiculous Strength, the Tang Clan Dirk growing to 1.5 meters at its zenith. If Alistair had to use one word to describe her new battle tactic, it would be insane — with the Endurance [Barbarian’s Rage] provided on top of her own [Healing Touch], she would poison both herself and her opponents, trusting that she could outlast them in a war of attrition.

She wasn’t the only one to upgrade. The notification he received after killing Marcus informed him he had finally upgraded his [Mana Strike].

Skills:

[Eyes of Truth] (Tier 3 Skill): Karmic vision sees truth over lies. Upgradeable (6/25). (Mutation — Active: Use 1 point of Karma to discern falsehoods and see deeper into the web of Mana and Fate.

[Mana Strike] (Tier 2 Skill): Envelop a body part in condensed Mana and strike your enemies, disrupting their natural Mana channels. Mana Cost: 20. Upgradeable (0/50).

[Dash] (Tier 1 Skill): Run across long distances in a single step through enhancing your body with Mana. Mana Cost: 10. Upgradeable (5/20).

[Fighter’s Instinct] (Tier 1 Passive Skill): Become preternaturally aware of bodily threats. Scales with Agility. Upgradeable (16/25).

[Hand of Karma] (Tier 1 Skill): Sever Fate and soul with a hand of Karma. Karma Cost: 2. Upgradeable (4/30).

[Void Beckoning] (Tier 1 Skill): The aftershock of your punch opens a door to an endless void. Mana Cost: 30. Upgradeable (0/25).

Alistair was annoyed to see that upgrading [Mana Strike] to tier 2 doubled its Mana cost, but the new effect was intriguing. Remembering his fight with Marcus, it was almost like he was adapting his two offensive Skills in symbiosis. His [Hand of Karma] severed the paths of opportune Fate for his opponents, while [Mana Strike] severed their Mana channels. At least, that was the idea; at the moment, his [Mana Strike] was lagging behind his [Hand of Karma] in its secondary effects, and his Karmic Skill did no extra damage, opening himself up to counterattacks.

A new level brought him his usual stat increases and Upgrade Points. He looked for something that could complement his plan for [Mana Strike]. There were some interesting options in the three trees of Magical Pugilist — Elemental Fighter, Monk of Order, and Chaos Assassin. The three trees each seemed to have their own niche of effectiveness; the Elemental Fighter Tree was focused on increasing his damage output by adding various elemental effects to his Skills, or bolstering existing elemental output, while the Monk of Order Tree offered improvements to his bodily constitution and mental abilities, and the Chaos Assassin was about quick kills made simple with mystical chaos energy.

Alistair felt that the Chaos Assassin Tree generally suited him best, but he found a possible solution for his combination attack in the Elemental Fighter Tree. The Communion of Spirit Branch had a leaf called Dead Warrior Whispers that was possibly the strangest ability or Skill he had seen, which was saying something considering all the magical powers he had witnessed over the past week. It allowed Alistair to access the spiritual power and combat instincts of people who had died in close proximity to him, turning their rage and regrets into fuel for his own power. While taking the [Ghost Whispers] Skill that came with Dead Warrior Whispers would bar him from taking [Lightning Cloak], [Ice Cloak], or [Fire Cloak], he was confident in his choice. Adding an elemental aspect to his [Mana Strike] was flashy, but he was more interested in utility over raw damage and aesthetics.

Despite tackling the urban and suburban monster waves, there was no shortage of new monsters to slay. They had no idea how accurate the Pathfinder AI was in calling them monster waves until day seven of the initiation. The New Boston Alliance had dealt with all the monster waves in their region before day five when they were “small”. Not even the thousands of goblins or the insectoid creatures they dealt with during day four compared to what awaited them in rural Massachusetts.

Sofia had announced the meeting with the New York delegation was set to occur the next day, with the next public Quest to occur shortly after. No one questioned how she received that information, but it was obvious it came from her mysterious sponsor. Not to toot his own horn, but Sofia wasn’t that far ahead of him on the leaderboards, making him wonder why she was selected and he wasn’t. Was it because he only had an Uncommon Class? His hidden Subclass contained a decent amount of what gave him the edge over his peers. If showing his status screen didn’t reveal Arbiter of Justice, it was possible not even the aliens from the Final Frontier Empire could see it.

With everything set into motion, Sofia decided they needed to do one last thing before the meeting: gain some levels and plunder some loot. Alistair understood her position, given that the leader of the New York coalition ranked #4 in the entire world. Being too weak gave the Yankees a ton of leverage. That was the reason nearly a dozen people were exploring a forest in the blazing summer heat.

They had some vague idea that the growth of the monster waves was exponential, multiplying each day left untamed. The denizens of the October Mountain State Forest, a beautiful, picturesque reserve that Alistair would come to hate, exemplified that principle.

“There are way too many mosquitoes,” Alexandra complained as she hacked away branches with her dagger. “Is our blood some kind of bug nectar?”

“I don’t think that’s too far off, actually,” Aayush said. The Indian man was soaked with sweat, his body less adapted than the others to the harsh ultramarathon and blistering heat. “I believe our bodily fluids have become an evolutionary catalyst for these critters. Our bodies were purified and improved with Mana in a myriad of ways. From a scientific perspective, it’s a miracle beyond reckoning. It’s like all of our biological systems are naturally designed to contain Mana.”

“What do you mean? I don’t even have that much Mana, I’m a beat-em-up type of Class,” Alexandra said.

“That’s where you’re mistaken.” Aayush opened his palm and a spectral projection of a human appeared. “While those with higher Intelligence and Wisdom appear to have more Mana than others, in reality, the number you see on your status screen refers only to free-moving Mana, the Mana that travels through your channels. Our entire flesh is fused with the stuff, especially if you have high numbers in the physical stats.”

“Oh, that does make sense,” Alexandra said. “It explains how I can do this.”

Alistair wanted to facepalm as his companion punched a tree, drilling through the bark and trunk to the point it toppled over.

“How do you know all of that?” Alistair asked the former doctor.

“It just came to me after I received the [Anatomical Knowledge] Skill through my Class. You would not want to know about some of the monster’s biologies. The brain flayers still give me nightmares.”

Alistair thought Oliver would love to hear more about monster anatomy — he was intrigued by the macabre, which made perfect sense, considering his Class. Sadly, the Necromancer was still in Boston, along with Donna and Tamia. Their territory still needed to be administered and guarded against outside threats, so she had John Desmond and her closest adviser, a woman named Katie, stay back and hold down the fort. Sofia personally asked Oliver to stay along and help, promising that they would still distribute a portion of their loot. Alistair was happy that he would be there to watch over Donna and her daughter.

“Be quiet.”

The terse words came from another high-ranking member of the New Boston Alliance, Blaise Blanchett, a level 22 Archer.

“Excuse me?” Alexandra asked.

“We’re trying to be stealthy,” he said. Blaise was not a man of many words.

“We’re just trying to kill some monsters, right? Why does it matter if they can hear us?”

“Boss’s orders.”

“This one’s not the most original thinker,” Alexandra said, turning to Alistair. “What do you think?”

“It can’t hurt to be too careful, right?” Alistair said. “This monster wave has been left unattended for almost a week. How strong do you think these ones have gotten? We wouldn’t want to get ambushed.”

“Hmph,” Alexandra sighed. “I guess you have a point.”

When Alexandra wasn’t looking, Blaise nodded at him. Good thing Alexandra didn’t see that, Alistair thought.

Thirty minutes after entering the forest, they had encountered suspiciously few monsters. Local reports from survivors said that there was a horde of what they could only describe as ogres from a fairy tale in the preserve. For the first five days, everything was fine, until, on the sixth day, thousands of ogres swarmed the surrounding rural towns, killing everything in sight. No one was entirely sure what happened to the battalion after, though the prevailing hypothesis was that they retreated into the forest.

In fact, they didn’t just see no ogres, but little wildlife of any variety. Sofia stopped dead in her tracks, causing everyone else to halt as well. She stood still for a few seconds, the other people looking at each other in confusion.

“Something’s not right,” she finally said.

“What do you mean?” Lauren asked, who had tagged along to store and classify the loot.

“Alistair, do you sense anything? My danger sense is going out of control.” She kept her voice low and terse, and he almost felt like he was being barraged with prickling cuts from the force of her aura.

“I’m not getting anything,” he said truthfully. His [Fighter’s Instinct] wasn’t sounding off at all, though that didn’t mean there wasn’t a threat. “Let me try something.”

He spent a point of Karma (which he had learned was capped at 10 at his level), letting the energy rush to his eyes. The moment his vision shifted, black lines covering all ten members of their group assaulted vision. Tendrils of wispy darkness from the depths of the forest supplanted the normally unique and vibrant hues and timbres that emanated from each person.

“What the—” he exclaimed, touching the black lines. The instant he made contact with them, his stomach dropped. “Everyone watch out!”

The following second seemed to last for an eternity. Alistair remembered his perception of time slowing down to a crawl as the first hand erupted from the dirt.

An innumerable horde of ogres leapt out of the cover of the trees, dragging gigantic clubs that looked like they were carved from the trunk of a redwood tree. The beasts were twice the size of an orc and looked twice as fierce, with foot-long tusks and blood-red eyes that reflected the full moon.

The ground beneath them quaked with an undulating fury as decrepit hands broke through the foliage, grasping on to anything they could. Most of them were fast or strong enough to dodge or break their clutches, but not all. Two hands managed to hold a man and a woman Alistair didn’t know in place long enough to be splattered by a vicious one-handed swing of a club.

With his [Fighter’s Instinct] and prior knowledge of an attack, Alistair was easily able to jump out of the way of the subterranean attack. The only problem was that he had nowhere safe to go. They were surrounded from every angle, even from below. Only the sky was clear, and he couldn’t fly.

Alistair briefly considered jumping from tree to tree to escape, but that would leave Alexandra and the others stranded. Plus, he wasn’t about to ignore the juicy loot and experience. Sure, there were probably thousands of ogres, but with so many, they had to be the ogre equivalent of the grunts that they found in every monster species. Cheap and expendable foot soldiers that were perfect as grinding farms. The thought of an expendable foot soldier triggered a vague memory, but it was the least of his worries at the moment.

The other seemed to realize after their initial shock they weren’t as big a threat as initially perceived. An ogre had killed two of their party in a single smash, but they were the weakest members besides Lauren, caught off guard by a slow and hulking ogre. They wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

He had to give Sofia props for her quick reactions and steeled composure. As soon as he shouted his warning, she unleashed her invisible sword, slicing off the hands of all the remaining underground ogres in one trip, her blade flashing between each wrist at breakneck speeds before returning to above her shoulder.

“Make a circle!” she shouted, as they engaged the attacking ogres. Any monster near the leader of the New Boston Alliance was instantly shredded by more cuts than a single sword could ever make. It was like her sword exuded pure sharpness. “Aayush and Lauren to the center!”

Alistair tried to use [Ghost Whispers] for the first time, reaching out to the spiritual presences near him. It was faint, but he felt the footprints of souls of the people who had just died. He couldn't gain any new fighting prowess from them, but he absorbed the residual spiritual energy left by their departed souls, infusing it into his hands. To cover his hands, he willed his Terragen Wraps out of their stasis, black bandages forming over his hands out of thin air. He always had them on these days, but they luckily had a cosmetic function to turn invisible when not in combat.

He didn’t expect to use that function for several hours. With a casual punch of his left hand, he dispatched an ogre charging at him from the side without glancing at it once. One down, thousands to go.