The entire group stared for long, silent moments at the gold-plated keys Eric solemnly handed Morlekai, along with the little black code book, receiving a fierce handclasp and hug in return.

“Thank you, Alex.” Morlekai swallowed and shook his head, actually sounding choked up. “You just… you have no idea what this means.”

Eric had the cheek to laugh at that. “Sure I do, buddy. It means we rob those territory-grabbing orc assholes blind, and net ourselves an impossible fucking fortune in gold!”

His friend flashed a bemused smile, eyes twinkling with warmth. “You’re damn right we will, kid.” He then turned to eye each member of his crew in that piece of corridor splattered crimson and smelling of blood and sulfur, despite Eric's best efforts to remove all traces of what had happened, allowing the silent tension to build for endless breathless seconds, before saying what needed to be said.

“Our days as the heroes of Junk Town are done. Our house is lost to us, and we dare never return. None of you need me to say it, but we all need to accept it.”

Louie’s eyes flashed with sudden heat. “That goddamn Mayor Stibbs, boss. He needs to be put down. Hard.”

Drake nodded. “Damn straight. Both of my girls are back there, boss. Lucy too. Even if I knew we weren’t forever… they deserve better than to be trapped with that backstabbing asshole.”

"An asshole with a hundred bronze cannons and dwarven golems at his disposal," Morlekai coldly reminded. "With fortified ramparts and angles of fire allowing for a killbox that could probably take out the most elite adventurers our world has managed to forge at this point.” The man gave an angry shake of his head. “Believe me. There’s nothing I’d like more than to drain that asshole dry. But giving in to hot wrath before a cold conniving manipulator like that is playing right to his strenghs."

Alice’s eyes flashed with heat, but she couldn’t help but nod. “Brother’s right. Looking back on it, how many times did that weasily fawning mayor flatter, coax, or cajole us into basically doing his dirty work for free? Clearing out that cavern when first we arrived, which nearly killed you, Drake… building half the infrastructure with promises of future income streams. And save for the inn, who could even pay us back a fraction of the silver that we had invested in it? Silver I know for a fact ended up in Stibb’s hands, in return for town credits. Why, we were just one step removed from giving him our silver to build his fucking town! And how cute it was when he tried to guilt Morlekai for the income model he himself approved so heartily of, just a few months ago."

She chuckled bitterly. "Fucker was playing us so well, using us masterfully when we thought we were the ones who held all cards! He was using those golden keys like a carrot on a stick dangled in front of our faces, up till the moment we arrived at the slaughterhouse!"

“Only it was his pawns that got slaughtered,” Eric reminded them with a cold smile of his own. “And the keys are now ours.”

"Damn right they are, kid!" said Drake. "Thanks to our ace in the hole."

Louie nodded. “Drake’s right. You were born for this business, Eric. No two ways about it.”

Eric smirked. "This from the guy who managed to pick himself free of his wrist cuffs before I got the stones to finally do my part."

“Which was freeing both of these knuckleheads from slave collars that no one short of a mage should have been able to touch,” Morlekai said with an approving nod. His gaze hardened. “Which doesn’t change the fact that hitting Junk Town now is a death sentence. For all of us.”

Drake scowled before shaking his head with a curse. “Goddamn it!”

Eric squeezed the man’s shoulder, flashing a confidential grin before returning his scale helm, along with the others, that he had reclaimed, along with several surprisingly well-kitted packs of supplies, including enough rations to last a month, a number of backup steel weapons, and several hundred silver coins, when Nelly’s storage space merged with his own. “I’ll let you all in on a little secret, but this stays between us, alright?"

This earned him four solemn nods, and four very intense pairs of stares.

"As you might or might not have gleaned with my final parting words with one of the town guards, clearly a good kid who at least appreciates those who had his back when he was down… Junk Town's future isn't tied quite as tightly to Stibb's greedy little claws as that bastard no doubt thinks it is."

Morlekai’s gaze was suddenly like a hawk’s. “Eric, what exactly are you saying?”

Eric grinned. "The minute Susie Sue, who now most certainly does have a class, sits her butt down on a certain chair in the dwarven ruins now fueling the town's growth and evolution? Well… let's just say that her eyes will open up to all sorts of possibilities. And that's all I can say on that.”

Drake whistled, gazing at Eric with something close to awe. “Are you fucking serious right now, boy scout? Do I even want to know how the hell you managed all that? Or should I just roll with it, and go for the confident head-bob?"

“Confident head-bob all the way,” Eric solemnly said, now taking the lead, as if he knew where he was going. Because strangely, he did.

“Follow me, guys. I think I know a safe place where we can rest up for the night."

And a beaming Eric found his pace rapidly increasing as he did indeed know these corridors, his hands instinctively summoning his bow and unleashing arrows cracking through the sound barrier with an odd mixture of anticipation and delight as each arrow effortlessly found its target, knowing just where to fire to hit scurrying rats thinking to ambush him from the upper rafts of what were most definitely overflow tunnels he had once thought were sewers.

He couldn’t help but flash a cheeky smile, feeling almost like he was playing his favorite progression RPGs and stumbling back into the starter zone that had been so perilous, just 8 levels ago. A zone so well mastered that racing through the tunnels leading to his home felt oddly comforting.

Even seeing the far more intelligent five-foot rats that had been so perilous a threat just weeks before as frequently as he did the 3 and 4-footers did nothing more than tick his experience meter that much higher, Eric happily trading bow for saber and racing forward to slice them in half with a single sharp cry as he put his iado practice to practical use, all the while dancing ahead of an increasingly exasperated Morlekai and his bemused friends, refusing to answer any questions, even at their good-natured grumbling of not sharing in the kills.

Not until he had reached the side passage leading to his sanctuary, his heart swelling with a sudden odd mixture of hope and fear as he approached.

The tripwire alarm had, not surprisingly, been sprung, and had no doubt made quite the rattle, when who knew how many rodents had torn at it in frustration.

For just a second, his heart lurched in his throat, terrified about what he might find. Yet a single look at the vault door entrance showed it still intact and sealed.

And how awed he was to find that, save for a few frustrated scratches, the combination lock to his sanctuary remained in one piece.

“Eric, Eric! What the hell, man? What gives?” said an exasperated Drake.

Alice’s gaze was sympathetic. “Are you okay, Eric?” She looked at the vault entrance, eyes widening as she suddenly got it. “Eric, is this your...”

Eric swallowed and nodded. “Yes. Yes it is. By some odd, strange coincidence, the tunnels those assholes were traveling somehow doubled back to these. But if I look at my interface map...” He shuddered as the tunnels twisted in odd ways that didn’t quite fit, almost like one of those pictures where stairs and doors keep endlessly rising and flipping over one another, only with an added dimension or two tossed in for good measure.

Alice chuckled softly. “Don’t give yourself a headache, Eric. The underrealms are, well, a bit weird.”

"Yeah, I'm getting that," Eric said with a rueful chuckle. He then swallowed, feeling strangely nervous as he popped the lock and opened the door. "Well, anyway, welcome to my pad."

He couldn’t help grinning at the surprised smiles and nods of approval his family’s hidden compound underneath the former hotel garnered him, especially when he gave them a brief tour, explaining the intricacies of his training area before showing them the still vast and plentiful food supplies, realizing his initial worries about it feeding him for just a couple of months had been restless anxiety talking. Even with his muscle mass being so strikingly boosted, it was enough to last them all for a good half-year.

Of course the crew gushed with praise for the kitchen and pantry, yet even his miniature library earned a couple pleased smiles from the guys, Drake and Louie both sitting down to a pair of Lee Grisham novels.

"Sweet setup, Eric," Drake said with a pleased smile, cracking open a can of peanuts with obvious relish, Eric happily grabbing a handful for himself.

Louie nodded. "And a full bloody weight room and dojo, complete with training dummies and your own homemade target range! And to think you pulled yourself up from an 8 Strength and Vitality broken wreck, fighting just to survive against rats that could so easily have killed you, into the guardian who covered my girl's ass on her last run. And from there, to the Olympian you now are. No wonder you always train so goddamned hard!” An admiring Louie gave Eric a salute with his beer. “You really did pull yourself up from nothing, didn’t you?”

Eric winced at those words. "Yeah, something like that, I guess. Anyway, as long as we were nearby, I can't think of a safer base of operations than here. So enjoy the books and grub."

Morlekai clapped Eric’s arm. “Well done, Eric. This place is perfect.” He flashed a bemused grin. “I suppose I should thank you for inviting us all in.”

“Wel,l of course. You did make me feel welcome in your own home, after all, so the least I can do is return the favor.” His smile froze, however, when he caught sight of Alice’s shell-shocked gaze, coming out of the master bedroom, or what he always thought of it as, never able to shake the feeling that it wasn’t his place to enter what had been his mother’s sanctuary, or oasis, in the many weeks they had sheltered down here.

“Morlekai, you gotta check this out.”

Her brother gave her a curious look, then followed, a silently groaning Eric now just behind them, almost certain he knew where this was going.

And the look Alice gave him when she showed her brother the glossy full-sized movie posters lining the wall, showcasing both of his sister’s movies, and a dozen of his mother’s favorites as well, said it all.

Considering that every project the famous actress touched turned to a box-office hit, there was no way his friends wouldn’t immediately put two and two together. So of course they did.

“All of these posters… jeezus, Morlekai, talk about a major movie buff fetish! They must have collected all the Aurelia Silver memorabilia they could find! And I’ll bet my ass that’s an original, ‘My name is Jane Doe’ poster! Her very first movie, and that lucky witch still doesn’t look a day older than her daughter.”

Morlekai grinned. “Both of Elonia Silver’s movies as well. The girl has just as much stage presence as her mother. I think the scandals everyone tried to bury just added to her allure.”

Eric clenched his teeth and said nothing, grateful his friends couldn’t see the hot burn in his cheeks, the churning mass of bitter anger at the bastard who had hurt his sister and forever tarnished her reputation… or the twinge of shame for what he had done in turn.

Before sending it down into the metaphoric basement of his psyche, and adding it to a bucket already overflowing with blood and regret, then slamming shut that cellar door and wiping his metaphoric hands in good riddance.

Because what was one more death compared to all those who had already fallen? Compared to the two men and one woman he had cut down in hot and cold blood earlier that day? And the look on Nelly’s dying face… or Lyon’s desperate cry, made it all too painfully clear that he had shot down living thinking human beings with hopes and dreams, lives and loves, of their own.

He glared down at his clenched fist as his friends admired the movie posters, just feet away. “The hell I’ll feel an ounce of regret. I have every right to fight for my freedom. My sister’s freedom. And if that means blood will be spilled, then I’ll spill all the slaver blood in the world, so long as it keeps me and mine free.”

“Eric?”

He lurched, jerking his eyes up, suddenly feeling acutely conscious of his friends’ measuring gazes, fearing his anger had made his sub-vocalizations a bit more vocal than he had intended.

Before wincing, realizing he already knew what had caught his friends’ too-intent gazes.

It was the picture of him and his sister and Liu Li flying over their armies on the backs of massive draconic steeds, just one poster among many, for a movie set to release just days after their world had ended.

Of course he looked different in the picture. His eyes had been the color of sapphires, not the amber hue they now were. And back then, his face had been utterly free of deforming scars, his hair a striking gold-blond hue that he and Elonia had both inherited from their mother.

But if one discounted all that… and the fact that his body had put on a good twenty pounds of muscle, then sure, there were similarities, he supposed.

Alice gazed at Eric for long moments. “You weren’t shitting us, were you. That really is you, isn’t it?”

Eric sighed and shook his head. “That innocent goofball who had no idea about what was in store for him sure as hell isn’t me, Alice. He was a spoiled rich kid who brooded over his golden cage, pining for a better life while he was stuffing his face full of Kobe beef in a private jet headed to Tokyo. A jet with its own personal chef!”

Eric was surprised by the bitter inflection in his laughter when all he felt was rueful bemusement for the boy he had once been. “I mean, seriously. It’s not like he couldn’t have ditched his family at any time. He was just too much of a chickenshit coward to actually dare going it alone. He wanted both his freedom, and the golden spoon his mother had jammed in his mouth. The only worthwhile things he ever did in his life was guard his sister’s back and take his one movie role seriously enough to train his ass off sparring, so at least it looked like he could fight on the big screen, even if he couldn’t act for shit. That way, at least his death looked somewhat epic, and he managed not to wreck his sister’s final scene.”

Morlekai nodded at Eric’s saber. “Training with a blade like the one on your hip?”

Eric smirked, walking right over to the poster, drawing his sword in the blink of an eye.

A perfect match for the one on the poster.

"Well, what do you know," he said before giving an angry shake of his head, ignoring his friends' concerned looks. "I knew there was a reason why I always avoided this stupid room. Alright, you guys enjoy yourselves. I'm going rat hunting. I'll be back whenever."

“Eric..”

Alice grabbed his arm, slowly shaking her head. “Let him go, Morlekai. This is his home. These are his hunting grounds. And he can see in pitch darkness at least as well as we can.”

“But that’s not the point, Alice...”

“Well, it should be. And after Eric saved our assess… again… and took us into his home, we can damn well cut him, and ourselves, some slack on a time window we had all but given up on completing altogether.”

“Yes, but now the mission's a go!" said Morlekai with unmistakable urgency. "You know how little time we now have."

“I know. But we came damned close to losing Drake and Louise. If Eric wasn’t so damned good at killing, with more necromantic potential than all of Master Grim’s disciples put together, they’d be goners for sure. And god knows how many times I would have had to fuck Nelly before I finally slipped free.”

Eric winced, hearing more than he wanted, but what was now inhumanly sharp Perception meant he could effortlessly eavesdrop on conversations that the boys busy reading his favorite thrillers were completely oblivious to, three rooms away.

“Are you okay?”

Alice chuckled softly. “Of course, brother. If anything, I’ve never felt stronger, feeding upon the blood and essence of a girl almost twenty levels higher than me, when Eric was kind enough to take her heart but leave me her head, so her dying memories and potency could be mine. And she didn't feel a lick of pain, Morlekai. In her dream, she died peacefully in my arms. But still… god, Morlekai. I’m glad I didn’t have to do it the other way… feeding on them over a period of weeks, as their pace slows, and they find one reason to delay after another, and their need for me grows so desperate, like a trio of crack fiends, even if I'm the only one truly getting high. Draining their youth, their Vitality, so that by the time they can no longer deny the ancient withered faces staring back at them through hand mirrors held in palsied hands, they just… can’t… stop.”

Alice choked back a sob. “And I really, really, don’t want to take that path! I’ve spent so many years just taking tiny, tiny sips… breaking up with the strongest, most virile boys in college I could seduce, no matter how much I ended up falling in love with them, the moment I saw a single silver hair on their otherwise perfectly healthy bodies. And I never felt luckier than when I ended up falling in love with the great big goof I’ve known forever. Louie!”

Alice chuckled throatily. “That man’s such a godsend. Naturally resistant to that part of me, even when I was a blushing girl just learning to feed… and now that he can level? God, it’s such a relief. Because satisfying me hardly costs him more than a single kill. So maybe I can actually marry him one day, and have a family, and never have to worry about him dying on me, even if he never gets beyond level whatever. But only if I never wake up the demon inside me that would so love to play and play with all her prey, until not a single Confederate soldier is left standing. Just withered husks, dying crones, and ancient men.”

“I get it,” Morlekai said. “We both fight our hungers. Because if we ever give in fully...”

“We’ll be just like our mothers.”

Eric smirked and shook his head as he pulled the latch to the vault, more than a little sympathetic to anyone eager not to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

“Hey bro, whatsup?” asked a curious Drake, putting down his book as he finally registered Eric’s departure.

Eric smiled, waving away his friend’s concern. “Nothing you need worry about. Just visiting some old haunts. I’m going to take advantage of being a bit stronger than I was the last time I was here, and, you know… think about things a little.”

Drake nodded. “Sure, I get that. You want any backup?”

“No worries, I’m good,” Alex assured with a smile. “Besides, with my infravision, I’m all about that night fighting. Going to have some fun leveling up my ninja skills, ha ha. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be back soon enough. In the meantime, enjoy the reads and the grub. And hell, grab a bed too, if you like… so long as you take a bath. Because, yes, we actually have, or had, access to cold water, still filtered, don’t ask me how. Or at least I did a few weeks ago.”

Drake positively beamed. "Thanks man, I will!" He then furrowed his brow, scratching his blond locks. "By the way, I had a question I wanted to ask, and, well, you're the man who would know."

Eric grinned. “Shoot. What’s up?”

“Well, with power out in the city above, how exactly is it that the lights work in here?”

Eric blinked, feeling a cold shiver racing down his spine. He said nothing, realizing he had absolutely no idea how exactly that worked. And he should. He should have been asking himself, or better yet, his mother, that question from the very first day. Was it battery operated? Chemical? Nuclear somehow? He didn't have the foggiest idea. And if it was a generator… how had it not blown? Because most electronics had shorted out at the very moment all modern gunpowder had exploded. And even if most cars wouldn't start, hadn't he heard that modified diesels with a completely redesigned ignition system were running? Or had been running? Hadn't his mother been shouting about that very topic, once upon a time? On a phone… he was almost sure of it.

And hadn’t his mother, or sister at least, been using the computer that day?

He frowned, shaking his head, suddenly feeling dizzy as hell. He always ended up going rat hunting on those days, back before he had gotten podded, long before the rats had become so intelligent and, well, evil. Back when he had backup, and a trainer who had thought it excellent practice.

And here he was, with a class and a core he was steadily infusing, and a chance to finally close this starting chapter of his second life. And best of all, he now had the perfect opportunity to improve his skills. Stealth was now just a hair’s breadth from finally hitting Journeyman level. He could feel how close he was!

Then he frowned, looking down at the vault lever, realizing he was forgetting something.

“I’m sorry, did you ask me something, Drake?

Drake looked up from the book he was reading. “No man, we’re good. Why, is something up?”

Eric shrugged. “Never mind. You want me to fry you up some rat-kebabs later?”

“Oh yeah, definitely! Those were epic, back before we devoured them all! And Eric?”

“Yeah?”

“Excellent taste in books, my man. Nothing but thrillers.”

“And some fine LitRPG. A perfect combination for this brave new world,” Eric said with a smile as he slipped out the vault door. “Later, buddy.”