Three young men stared at us in bewilderment. They looked dirty and ragged, and for a moment I didn’t know how to even interact with them. I was black garbed with a skull covering my face, probably not exactly the friendliest looking person they’d met.

After several seconds of silence I raised my hand, “Friendly,” I said. They looked back and forth from Jessica to me; from their expressions it seemed that my skeletons and I were more alarming than Jessica was reassuring.

“Are you three aware of what has happened to our world?” Jessica asked.

There was a pause before one of them spoke up, “Somewhat.”

“Well, don’t mind his mask. It’s just part of the system we have to deal with. Let’s start with your names. I’m Jessica and this is Mike.”

“Robert.”

“Thomas.”

“Alan.”

As I looked at them, none of them gave me any bad or negative feeling, “How do you three know each other?” I asked.

Robert started to speak, “Thomas is my cousin. We were together when it all went down. Alan is a family friend.”

“So if you know a little bit, you know there are monsters,” said Jessica, “do you know about levels?”

It seemed Robert was the leader of their little troupe as he spoke again, “We do, and we’re all level three.”

“Skills, items?” I asked.

“We found one skill but it wasn’t good and none of us wanted to learn it. No items,” Robert took a step forward and looked more relaxed.

“How have you been surviving till now?” Jessica chipped in from the side.

“Well, we actually came from outside the city. The encounters out there were pretty scarce, mostly the green fellas and some undeads. They were easy enough to deal with.”

I noticed that each of the men had a spear by their side.

“We entered the city yesterday,” Robert continued,“ and when we got here there were actually no monsters around. We started looking for something to eat and then we saw this incredibly bright light. We were more interested in the hunger in our bellies and continued to break in to the stores for food.

“Before we knew it though, the light was gone, and monsters spawned in all around us. We darted for this building and been cooped up ever since. Was no way for us to get out.”

“Have you seen anyone else?” I asked.

“No one else.”

I turned to Jessica and started to whisper in her ear, “The area was probably clear because of Lucas and Rebekah. It pretty much confirms they were here yesterday.”

“Most likely,” she whispered back.

“Alright, I have a proposition for you three,” I said. “We can help you survive, help you level, gear, and even change your class.”

“But what’s the catch?” Robert spoke before I could even finish my sales pitch.

“Your loyalty. You become an ally of ours, someone that we can call on. When things are rough and you are needed, you turn up and you follow our orders. Otherwise you are free to do what you want. It’s like being in a guild; if you know about that from gaming.”

The three of them thought about it for only a moment, and then Thomas spoke, “I agree. Can’t really refuse either way, y’kno? We’ll starve soon.”

“Same,” the shorter one, Alan said. And Robert simply held out his hand, which I shook.

It seemed they were already reaching the breaking point with a lack of food and water. I pulled out a Ration and passed it to Robert. “There’s three uses in this. Each of you can bite a third and you’ll be satiated for at least the day ahead.”

Robert took the ration curiously and then consumed one of the charges before passing it down the line. Their unshaven faces showed a smile for the first time. I guessed not being starving and thirsty was a good incentive to join a guild.

“Right now we don’t have any skills available for you,” I said, not wanting to give away Heal. “What we can do though is assist you in killing some enemies. There is almost no risk involved. We’ll help you get started and then it will be up to you to show initiative,” I continued. “as long as you do that, Jessica and I will find Class Changing Stones for each of you so you can pick a class.

“Gather everything you need, we may as well get started right away,” I said.

“We can go now. We just have these spears and the clothes on our back.” Robert said.

Jessica and I walked out to the already cleared street; our destination was still what we now considered home base. The possibility that Lucas and Rebekah had managed to return before the entire light incident took place was slim, but there was still that chance. If that was the case, they were safely inside waiting for our return.

Robert, Thomas and Alan joined us outside a moment later and I could hear them marveling at the lack of dangerous monsters. Here too, I was keen to show them how much more formidable my army of undead was. It was hard to get an idea when the skeletons were all clumped together in a room.

“We’ll deal with the dangerous enemies on the way, and leave goblins and zombies specifically to you three. There’s a kind we call ogres and another type we call banshees that we’ll assist you with, which should give you a good boost of EXP. Have you three made a party already?” I asked.

Thomas seemed to be gaining in confidence. He said, “We are partied; we had a lot of free time to explore and discovered that menu option and a lot more.”

I nodded and led the way with Jessica. The ogres and banshees were the most numerous enemy type now by far, which slowed us down a lot.

Originally, when we leveled Lucas and Rebekah we only subdued ogres as we were afraid of the ranged casts from banshees. It became clear though that a banshee couldn’t cast without access to her hands. If my skeletons overpowered her and kept her hands restrained behind her back, there was no risk to the three young men.

As soon as a mob was held down by my skeletons the three newcomers came forward and fearlessly pierced it with spear stabs. With three people attacking so ruthlessly, the mobs were dying in seconds.

It was obvious watching them that Robert, Thomas and Alan weren’t completely inexperienced. They showed a lot of caution when dealing with the goblins so as to not get in the way of a thrown spear. Their own thrusts against zombies were powerful and Alan especially could down a zombie in a single blow to its chest or head.

Watching the newcomers, I’d have thought they were even higher level than three. Had Robert lied to me about that? I didn’t think so. The thing about people who lived in the country was that they had a lot of outdoor experience. Hunters, typically, knew what they were about when it came to dispatching animals, and that probably extended to these enemies as well.

Even with having to share EXP, at the speed we were moving, they reached level 5 in fewer than thirty minutes. We were merely two blocks away by now from home base, and several items had dropped. One of them was a crude short bow, and since we also gained the skill Sharp Shooting, Robert decided he would take them both. “Already have experience hunting with a bow, so it just feels right.”

There was also another Banshee’s Wail that dropped, which I took. The remaining items were another skill book and a Ration. The skill was a new one:

Book of Shield Reflect LV. 2: Covers your shield in a protective layer that absorbs damage. After a certain threshold of damage is met, the damage is then reflected to the enemy.

Reflects 50% of damage absorbed back to the enemy.

Duration: 30 Minutes.

MP Cost: 7

It was an ability made for a tank, and surprisingly, Alan showed interest in it. The issue was that we didn’t have a shield, but that could be fixed. “The skill says shield, but it doesn’t say it needs to be an item. A lot of things can be used as a shield,” I pointed out.

I turned to a destroyed minivan about fifteen feet away. It was merely the frame of the vehicle as the minivan had been completely scorched by fire. Both of my Skeleton Generals approached the side door and then ripped it off.

“What about this?” I asked, while they carried it over. Alan attempted to hold the van door and evidently found that it was surprisingly heavy. “Try casting Shield Reflect,” I suggested. “If it works we can find something better for you to use.”

The shorter and stockier of the young men took the skill book and then learned it, which was a gamble in itself. If it didn’t work, then he would have a completely wasted skill. He grasped the doorframe again and then cast Shield Reflect.

To my surprise, a thin layer of light formed over the doorframe that gave it a glossy and polished look.

“Great!” Jessica clapped. “I suggest you put points into STR until you can wield that… thing effectively. You’ll need STR anyway for your attacks.”

Honestly, the entire thing looked comical. The doorframe covered a majority of his body, and as for a shield, it seemed like it would do surprisingly well. The next ogre we encountered I allowed Alan to tank and discovered another added benefit to using the door. The window frame that was now empty allowed him to safely stab from behind the protection of his shield. He pushed his spear through the hole several times and finally struck into the brute’s neck, all the while blocking attacks.

Eventually, a light blasted from the shield and smashed directly into the ogre’s chest. The force was so great that it cracked the enemy’s ribs and sent it tumbling backwards and onto the floor. Alan rushed over and repeatedly pierced the ogre’s neck until it perished.

“Not bad,” I said from behind him. I had been poised the whole time to send the skeletons in, but it hadn’t proved necessary.

Alan’s face was red with excitement as he straightened from the body of the ogre.

Robert gave his friend a slap on the shoulder. “You couldn’t have done that just ten minutes ago.”

I heard a light cough from behind me and when I turned to look, Jessica beckoned me away to talk. “I think you should tell them we have Heal. Let Thomas decide if he wants to take that role. They seem promising, and if Alan is going to be playing a tank, he will be taking damage regularly and they will need a healer.”

I didn’t disagree with her, and I had come to form a positive outlook on all three of them. It seemed they were accustomed to surviving outdoors and scraping by with their wits. “All right, I’ll ask him.” We both returned back to the three newcomers who were now chatting cheerfully. It seemed we had given them a new lease on life.

“I do have another skill,” I said. “It’s called Heal, and if you want, you can have it Thomas. You are the only person who can still learn it.”

Thomas, Robert’s cousin, seemed conflicted, “I did want a role that was something more hands on…”

This time it was Jessica who spoke up, “Mike and I are strong now, but we went through a lot of pain, sweat, and blood to get here.” She gestured towards me, “He nearly died two or three times, and we barely managed to scrape by. That was with him having his summoned skeletons to tank for us and me being ranged. Neither of us are close to the mobs we fight when we manage it right.

“In your group, it’s clear now that Alan will be tanking, and that will put him at considerable risk. And suppose you go for a ranged option of some sort, that doesn’t mean you are safe, either. As you’ve seen, goblins have ranged abilities, and so too will other mobs you face.” She looked at him. “If I had the option to learn Heal when I started, I would have chosen it in a heartbeat knowing what I know now.”

Her words seemed to sink in deep and caused Thomas to reflect. “Can I see it?” He asked. It was important he understood the requirements of the skill, anyway. Jessica looked at me and I removed the skill book from my inventory and passed it to him.

Thomas held it in his hands for a few moments and then looked at his two companions for confirmation.

“I think it’s a good idea. Not having a way to reliably recover HP is going to set us back,” Robert said.

Alan didn’t say anything, but the stare he gave Thomas was pleading.

“Alright, I’ll do it,” Thomas said. The book in his hand vanished and that meant he’d learned Heal.

I found myself feeling pleased. Having a healer and a solid camp had to be a good choice for them. Deeper down though, I also felt some anxiety and hoped that nothing untoward happened to Thomas as a result of this moment. Skills that dealt damage seemed to be a dime a dozen, but good support skills were incredibly rare and sometimes carried a real risk of attracting aggro. In some systems, the role of healer required real expertise, to keep the tanks in the fight without overdoing it.

“Let’s keep going. We’re probably only about fifteen minutes out from our destination,” I said.

We didn’t need to baby them as we walked on now. Alan seemed eager to get a feel for his new role as a tank. Jessica and I made sure they kept a good distance away from the abominations and snake-headed demi-humans, though.

When the three men saw the intensity of our encounters with those mobs, they became a lot less cheerful, and it was clear we didn’t need to warn them to stay clear. In fact, Alan went distinctly pale when he witnessed the abomination slamming a cleaver down over and over against my Skeleton General. I looked over at him, “The more damage it deals, the more damage you’ll deal back, right?” I asked. It didn’t seem like my remark made him feel any better.

“There’s someone up there.” Jessica said when we reached the apartment building.

“Just one person?” I asked.

“…Yeah… just one.” Jessica said in an ominous tone, causing a grim feeling to well up in me. We raced up the stairs to the third floor and found ourselves in front of a room with a closed door. Jessica knocked but there was no answer, and not seeing any other option I beckoned the Zweihander-wielding Skeleton General to break down the door.

There wasn’t the slightest response from inside when the door exploded into a mess of debris. Jessica raced through and into the bedroom only to find Lucas laying on a bed in a pool of sweat and blood.

A wound on his chest was wrapped in blood-soaked clothes and a large circle of blood had spread around him. “Quick, get that out of the way,” I said to Jessica while pulling a Bandage from my inventory.

Jessica rushed to the side of the bed and removed the makeshift bandage Lucas must have applied to himself and exposed the deep gash across the side of his chest. It was an incredibly horrible looking wound, and from the smell alone I reckoned it was infected.

Even if I threw the Bandage on, I felt the chance of his survival would be nearly zero. And I didn’t want to just cover up that mess and leave it festering underneath.

“Thomas, in here!” I yelled. The countenance on Lucas’s face was bright red and the thick layer of sweat on him suggested he had a high fever. This was a flashback to my own previous infection.

Thomas entered the room and then was suddenly taken aback by all of the blood. It could have easily been mistaken for a murder scene.

“Heal him quickly,” urged Jessica.

Thomas took another step forward and cast Heal. A bright, blue-tinted light covered Lucas and the red of his face receded slightly. Even the wound seemed to change color and looked much better. Despite that, it still needed to be bandaged.

The open wound closed after I applied the Bandage, but I reckoned there would be a deep, permanent scar there on his chest. Lucas’s anguished face seemed to return to calm as he slept on the bed. “Heal him once more please. After that you three are free to go level. I recommend staying in the area though. We will be here,” I looked over at Thomas. He nodded, cast Heal again, and left the room.

It seemed they were eager to level, as they left just a few moments later.

“Where is Rebekah then?” Jessica asked in a low voice. I didn’t have an answer, and silent anxiety was all she received as her reply.

A part of me felt guilty. If we had stayed with the two of them for a bit longer, perhaps this might not have happened at all. As if Jessica could tell what I was thinking, she said, “It’s not your fault. They also agreed to split up. You should get used to this, because it won’t be the first time.”

What she was saying was true, but I was being an idealist. In a perfect scenario, none of my guild would ever be hurt, be killed. I needed to harden my resolve; people were going to come and go: that was the nature of this new world we found ourselves in.