After Alyssa got to her feet she headed over to Old Johnny and they started conversing quietly in Navajo. Which left 4 people left in the group of looters that were formerly led by Mister Tattoo and Meth Lady. One man had literally curled up into a ball and was shedding enough tears to fill the nearby wash. He had clearly pissed himself as well. The second man was still staring despondently at Mister Tattoos body. I tried to make eye contact and he refused, flinching and turning away, pissing himself a bit, but didn’t move any further.

The remaining two women of the group were doing much better off than the men. Figures, the women have more balls than the men. One was clearly scared of me but didn’t shy away from my gaze, and the other one had a bit more spine so I decided she was the new leader of the group and I addressed her from an arms length away.

“Leave or die.”

She studied my face for a moment, “What?”

“Leave. Leave this area completely, don’t go back to your apartments, don’t pass GO and collect 200 dollars. Leave.” I stated firmly. “You don’t do that, I’ll simply kill you here and now. Your choice.”

She stared at me defiantly for a good 10 seconds. She didn’t say anything I didn’t either. I just moved my hand to the pistol on my hip. She flinched at the motion and threw her hands up. A tear rolled out of her left eye and she finally spoke up. “Ok, we’ll leave.”

I left my hand on my pistol and nodded. I glanced over at the fetal man “You got 10 minutes to get him together, don’t ever let me see you again.”

I walked away with nothing more being said. Dick was looking at me warily. “Do me a favor and burn the bodies, all of it. Even Dave.” I placed my hand on his shoulder when I said the last.

“But, what about his parents, they’d -” He tried to protest.

“I don’t mean to be insensitive. We can’t guarantee when we’ll reconnect with friends and family. And we have nowhere to store the bodies. They’ll attract more monsters.”

“He is right. I have already performed the ceremony to guide his spirit to the afterlife.” Old Johnny spoke up for the first time other than when he spoke with Alyssa who was still hanging near him.

Dick looked at me with a slight bit of anger in his eyes, that’s right, find your inner fire dude, then at the bodies that the mountain lions and, I guess myself, had left on the ground. Then he nodded his assent and began to conjure a firebolt. I walked off and left him to it.

I spared a glance at Old Johnny and noticed he’d taken a class. OLD JOHNNY: MYSTIC LVL 1

Veep saw that I was in a moment of downtime and decided now was a good time to address me “Hey! You got some new messages and a new title! Would you like to see them now?”

“Sure, let’s see ‘em.”

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED LVL 1 HUMAN THUG! MISTER TATTOO! YOU HAVE BEEN REWARDED 100 EXPERIENCE.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED LVL 1 HUMAN WASTREL! METH LADY!

YOU HAVE BEEN REWARDED 100 EXPERIENCE.

They were so worthless they didn’t even net me a decent amount of experience. “Were their names really Mister Tattoo and Meth Lady”, I asked Veep.

“Nah, but they're dead and you killed them, so, you know, the System doesn’t care what they were named anymore. You defeated them and named them so the System sometimes just rolls with it. It’s not particularly concerned about the small details.”

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE GAINED 1 LVL IN KEEN OBSERVATION (BASIC)

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE GAINED 1 LVL IN COLD BLOODED INTELLECT (BASIC)

Well, I got something I guess.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE GAINED THE TITLE: RACE TRAITOR x 2

You have killed someone who is the same race as you on purpose (Human)

I stopped in my tracks at this one.

WTF!?! VEEP!

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Although with your class I’m sure people will get the wrong idea. Though… when I review the event in your memory, Mister Tattoo hadn’t actually attacked you yet, and technically Meth Lady was justified to come after you as Mister Tattoo and her were part of a group.”

Suddenly Veep was in my vision and pulsing as a tone played in my head. A message appeared immediately after.

CONGRATULATIONS PEOPLE OF EARTH! MANA SATURATION HAS REACHED 90%. MONSTER ENCAMPMENTS AND BASIC DUNGEONS ARE NOW AVAILABLE. SYSTEM GENERATED QUESTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE!

“Veeeeeep?”

“AWESOME! This is great Karl!” she buzzed happily.

Before I got to asking her about quests, I received one. Actually, I received three.

LOCAL QUEST AVAILABLE: CLEAR GOBLIN ENCAMPMENT

A goblin encampment has spawned nearby. Gather a party and eradicate it.

REWARDS: 2500 XP, 500 UMC

RANK I: LVL 5-10

LOCAL QUEST AVAILABLE: CLEAR KOBOLD DUNGEON

A den of dirty Kobolds has been reported in the area. Find it and defeat the Kobold Chieftain within. Subdue the dungeon core to gain control of the resources found within. Destroy the dungeon core to remove the dungeon.

REWARDS: 2500 XP, 500 UMC

RANK I: LVL 5-10

SETTLEMENT QUEST AVAILABLE: ESTABLISH A SETTLEMENT

There are no safe zones in your area, obtain a settlement core and establish a safe haven for your people.

REWARDS: 10000XP, 1000 UMC

RANK II: LVL 5-10

Ok, I got three. I studied the quest announcement and decided it was pretty straight forward.

“Veep, remind me again where the nearest safe zone is.”

“The nearest safe zone is at the Flagstaff City Hall, approximately 57 miles away.”

“Well, fuck.” That made the decision easy “Accept all of them. We’re gonna turn this place into a settlement.”

“Done!”

I dismissed the notifications from my view and noticed that Alyssa had been following me and was now staring into the air with her eyes glazed over. She had clearly received the same messages I had and was discussing the situation with her own AI. She suddenly noticed me staring at her and looked at me sheepishly “Should I take them all?”

“I take it you want to go along?”

She nodded hesitantly.

I considered her for a moment. She had an interesting class that might be useful. Though I wondered how much emotional baggage she was carrying and how reliable she could actually be. In the end I decided it was her choice to make.

“Got any weapons?”

She rubbed her foot in the dirt of the parking lot and shook her head “No.”

“What does your class use?”

“Uh… I dunno… uh… Garfield?”

She named her AI GARFIELD!?!?

“Garfield says I should be able to use most one handed bladed weapons. I can dual wield too.”

I considered her for a second before she interjected with “Garfield says your hatchet and buck knife would compliment my skill set well” then held out her hands and actually batted her eyelashes at me.

I rolled my eyes at the obvious manipulation tactic. I know your game girl, I ain’t playing like that. I stared hard at her for a minute and the act quickly vanished and she continued looking at the ground awkwardly. When I felt she had suffered my silent treatment long enough I unbuckled my duty belt, slipped the hatchet and buck knife free and handed them to her. “I expect these back at the earliest opportunity. That’s of course if you don’t die before replacing them. Then I’ll just remove them from your corpse.” The smile that formed on her face briefly disappeared and was replaced with a wide eyed stare.

I snickered as I headed up the stairs to my apartment then paused at the door when I heard the patter of small feet following closely behind me. I turned and Alyssa ran head first into my ass, instead of watching where she was going she was fumbling with attaching the knife and hatchet sheath to her belt.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

She looked awkwardly down at her feet and quietly said “I don’t have anywhere to go. You just killed or ran off the people I was crashing with.”

FUCK ME!

“Go stay with Johnny.”

“He said the spirits told him I should stay close to you. If I want to live I need to get strong, and he said you are the strongest here.”

I stared at her and silently cursed Johnny for dumping this mess on me. “Please, I won’t get in your way, I don’t even need a bed. I’ll help out and…”

FUCK ME SIDEWAYS! I don’t need this shit!

“Relax, girl, I don’t need that!” I opened the door and entered the messy apartment, “Though, I could use a maid.”

She wrinkled her nose at the mess and then what I said finally registered on her face. She looked at me and back at the mess hesitant to commit.

“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to stay here.”

“No, I’ll take care of it.” She said and went looking for a broom and trash bags. While she worked I settled in at my computer and started looking up information on Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff. Those were the largest or closest major cities, I suppose Show Low was about the same size as Flag but it was also farther away. What I found was not promising. A Dragon flew over Davis-Monthan Air Base in Tucson and absolutely torched the Air Wings stationed there. Then a horde of orc like creatures stormed down from the Catalinas and commenced to raping, pillaging and razing portions of the city.

Phoenix was similarly attacked by marauding monsters but seemed to be doing only a little better. Though reports of superpowered street gang fights breaking out and destroying entire sections of the communities that made up the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Flagstaff was doing the worst. Yetis came down from the Snowbowl and started destroying everything on the North side while armored insect things attacked from the South. While the loss of life was high the thing that concerned me more was that the crazy liberal Mayor had already claimed the city core. Who knows what that bitch will do.

Alyssa continued to clean up while occasionally looking at my screen. I decided while we had the time I could get some explanation on how my skills worked from Veep.

“Alright, Veep, I noticed I have ranks next to all these skills. What do the ranks mean?”

Alyssa looked at me questioningly. “I named my AI Veep, I’m asking her to clarify some of this skill stuff. Veep, are you able to project yourself so that Alyssa can listen in?”

As soon as I asked, Veep appeared in the middle of the room, “I can. Nice to meet you, Alyssa.”

“Oh, hi!” Alyssa’s eyes glazed over then looked at us with a bit of disappointment on her face. “Garfield is kind of shy, says Veep can handle it.”

“Ok then, Veep, the room is yours.”

“Alright, so you currently have Base level Skills. When you reach your Advanced Class the Skills you get from that are even stronger. Forget that for now, we will focus on what your Base Skills provide for you. Skills are the real way the System provides strength. Skills level independently from your Class, and have the potential to impart greater attribute increases. Skills may also occasionally impart specific abilities that aren’t actually tied to your Class.”

“Ok, so we should be focused on Skill growth over just getting levels?”

“Yes and No. You, Karl, should focus on getting levels, the amount of Skills you already have from your life experience is rather overwhelming, which is reflected in your attributes. Which is why you were able to easily fend off monsters several levels higher than you.”

“I don’t know if I would say it was exactly easy.” I grumbled as Veep lectured.

“So because I’m much younger I don’t have as much life experience, I’ll never be as strong as Karl?”

“This is where it gets complicated. The System doesn’t start quantifying life experience until the being has sufficient mana saturation. Since Mana is rather harmful to adolescents it doesn’t take hold until the being has reached biological maturity. In your case Ms Alyssa, you have probably only been given credit for a few years of life experience. You’re basically starting from scratch while Karl is starting with a huge advantage.”

“I see, then how do we get more Skills?”

“By doing stuff. Specifically actions that the system would recognize as you attempting to learn something new. For example, if you wanted to learn how to throw knives, all you have to do is pick up a knife and make a concentrated effort to throw it with the end goal of it striking a target with the blade first. If you do this and fail enough times, the first time you meet success the system will acknowledge that and grant you the Basic level of that skill. Successfully throw more knives at targets and the Skill will grow. If you want the Skill to grow faster, start throwing those knives at your enemies and killing them.”

“So repetition is effective, but combat usage is even more so?” I confirmed.

“Now, lastly, each Skill has five ranks. Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and Master. Each rank has exponentially more levels to work through than the previous rank. Basic has 10 levels and only provides one point attribute bonus. Each additional rank adds another point of attribute gains at specific level thresholds. So for Intermediate you get attribute increases every 10th level after the first, Advanced gets three attributes every level after the 25th and goes to level 250, etc. If you want the full breakdown the information is available under the help menu, but I think you get the picture.”

“Yeah, I got fucking lucky! I already have skills ranked Advanced and Expert.”

Alyssa went back to cleaning while we considered the new information.

“Alright, on to my next question.”