We carved our way through the encampments on our list, gaining experience and skill levels. Three of the remaining camps were filled with more goblins and we scythed through them like wheat in a field. The first one was sent into disarray when Bradley sniped the chieftain from over a mile away. They came running out with no sense or organization and we simply eliminated them as they charged without regard for their own lives. Then we swept in and cleared any holdouts. The levels ranged from 15-20 so nothing was particularly challenging. Once, a group of riders somehow managed to catch us unaware and dove in on us from the low cliff walls overhead. We fought them off all the same and determined they were from a camp not on my list. Of course we went and wiped that one from the desert as well.

It was at this point that the sun had set and we decided to save the last three on our list for the next morning. If all things went as planned we would be back at the settlement by mid-day. I sat back by the campfire and leaned against Kaia’s sleeping form while Junipher placed her head in my lap and slept as well. Between fights, me and Veep, and to a lesser degree by proxy, Johnny had discussed which buildings to build first now that a Governance had been selected.

With the Military Governance taxing 20% of potential farm outputs, Johnny had informed me that we would need another farm plot to feed the current population. Which means we needed to expand. I decided 5sq kilometers would be a good point to start with. It also met one of the requirements for increasing our settlement to a village. The other was housing 250 registered residents. The problem I ran into when I tried to do this was that Winslow was so fucking annoying small that 5sq Kilometers pretty much encompassed the entire thing. And monsters had set up shop EVERYWHERE. So I was going to have to clear the city before I could considerably expand my domain. I sighed audibly and accepted a significantly smaller expansion that at least allowed me to push the walls further out. I was also able to begin construction on the granary, armory, a training yard, and two more farms. This brought my total numbers of farms to four.

At the current layout, the Kiosk obviously sat at the middle with the basic market surrounding it. On the East side of the market sat the apartment building that Johnny had requested. It was capable of housing 25 families of 4 comfortably, each apartment consisting of two bedrooms, a bath, kitchen and living area. Far better than what once stood here, fucking Winslow. On the west was the administration building. That building's front faced a large bonfire that was not of system creation but had become a permanent fixture with someone tending the flames at all hours and simple wooden log benches ringing it. Opposite that was the bunkhouse that could hold 100 soldiers. 200 meters from that building was the newly assembled Western stone wall and gate house that looked out into what remained of the city. The kennel for the riding coyotes was in the NorthWest corner of said wall. A gate house opened up on the South wall that had a narrow dirt path leading out further into the desert and over the tracks. Shubin’s shipment came in, good. That means the trade route has been established. Finally, all of the farm plots were situated on the East side of the settlement outside the Eastern gatehouse.

I attempted to contact Alyssa again and she didn’t respond. I decided not to press her, and focused on my own issues. I really hadn’t thought about anything beyond Winslow since the killing started. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do, but I had already gotten a taste of steering my own path and knew my soul would be irrevocably diminished if I stepped off this path. I knew for certain I wasn’t going to let the idiots of the old world have a say in what I did with me and mine. I stared at the fire in front of me and could feel myself sinking into a deep trance as I sat there thinking about what it is I really wanted. And I realized in that moment that all I wanted was to be free.

My mind began churning through what that meant and what it would take to ensure that I was never guided by unworthy imbeciles again. I gamed out all the scenarios in my head as to what would happen when the authorities presented themselves and demanded fealty to some weak willed, self proclaimed ruler who sat on a gilded throne on the opposite side of the continent. No, not just this continent, someone would take this power and try to subjugate the world? More! I know humanity. They won’t stop. They’ll try to take EVERYTHING! And the system just gave us foolish monkeys the power to do so. FUCK THAT!

I felt the frown form across my face and my trance took me deeper. I couldn’t blink anymore. I just stared manically as my thoughts raced. In my mind people appeared with genuine smiles and good intentions, but they were fools being manipulated into betrayal. In another situation the same people came with fake smiles, their intent radiating off of them, no longer fools of the game they played. Soon soldiers arrived, levying ultimatums they couldn’t back up. The scene shifted and now the soldiers attacked my walls with ferocity, the walls held and rebuffed the attackers. In another scene the walls fell and all my people fell before me and then I too was run through by some nondescript warriors sword. I watched over and over as people I had come to care about in such a short time were murdered or torn apart.

The madness of it began to tear at my mind and I could feel my heart racing and sweat beginning to pour out of my skin. Still people died at my command. People died when I took direct action. They died when I took no action. The other leaders of this new world leered and laughed as I was defeated over and over again. Outside of my trance I felt Junipher shaking me in panic, then Kaia stood and I fell over as another sword pierced my heart. NO! NO! NO! No… I railed in my mind. I could faintly hear Junipher begin to sing in desperation outside the Trance. Did I just name it? It has a name. Doesn’t it? The Trance. Doesn’t matter. I’m not letting these people die to the whims of another. Fuck that shit! It’s not going to happen.

The visions seemed to take a different form now. Those that wished us ill, the fools and their soldiers still appeared smiling with their reasonable demands. Still when told to leave they sent their faceless soldiers. But where the walls and my people fell, they now held firm. The fools and soldiers gnashed their teeth in frustration at the lack of progress. They always used that word. Progress. FUCK YOU! I raged and snarled. The scene played out again, but this time when the fools appeared I murdered them before they could smile and whisper sweet words in my ear. They came again and again they died. This happened over and over, though it never seemed to be enough. Soon they would send their faceless soldiers to die by my hand. USELESS LAP DOGS!

A final vision broke as pain flared in my arm. In this vision I embraced my darker tendencies. When the fools came, I heard their words and judged them as they were. I gathered information of whence they came and set about with an army at my back and attacked them where they sheltered. I broke their warriors, enslaved their people, nearly useless as mewling sheep, thinking they were safe behind their walls and their fools. My generals swept the lands. Then the seas. Then we reached into space and wherever I found the foolish I destroyed them. Mercy was not my name, nor was I Judgment. I was the Merciless Reaper of the Foolish, and I would find those fools and crash down upon them with all of my wrath!

The Trance began to break as the pain in my arm increased and the sights and sounds of the real world came crashing back in on me.

“KARL! WAKE UP! KARL!” Junipher was shaking me and yelling with fear on her face. I looked over and realized Kaia had sunk his teeth into my arm in an attempt to wake me. He licked his lips and then whined at me in concern. I looked back at the woman who was shedding honeydew colored tears. An impulse from the fading Trance took me and I reached up and pulled her face to mine and kissed her full on the lips. She eagerly drank me in then pulled back to look at me and quickly darted in for another kiss.

I heard some snickering around me and released her from my grasp and pushed myself up off the ground. I stumbled dizzily before Phil and Bradley were there to steady me.

“Dude, you alright, your heart literally stopped for like a minute!?” Phil asked with concern on his face.

“I dunno, my head hurts like the first day the system initialized.”

“I remember that shit, that sucked.” Bradley added as Valley came up to give me the once over and healed my arm where Kaia had tried to wake me the only way he knew how.

I was about to say thank you when the pain spiked in my head again and I dropped to my hands and knees heaving heavy breaths into the ground beneath me. Bright blue notifications began flashing across my vision faster than I could track.

CONGRATULATIONS! KEEN OBSERVATION HAS REACHED LEVEL 78!

CONGRATULATIONS! KEEN OBSERVATION HAS REACHED LEVEL 79!

CONGRATULA…..

….

….

….

CONGRATULATIONS! KEEN OBSERVATION HAS REACHED LEVEL 250!

CONGRATULATIONS! KEEN OBSERVATION HAS RANKED UP TO EXPERT!

ERROR….

….CALCULATING...

CONGRATULATIONS! TACTICAL ACUMEN HAS REACHED LEVEL 67!

CONGRATULATIONS! TACTICAL….

….

….

….

CONGRATULATIONS! TACTICAL ACUMEN HAS REACHED LEVEL 250!

CONGRATULATIONS! TACTICAL ACUMEN HAS RANKED UP TO… ERROR!

….CALCULATING….

...COMPLETE.

WARNING! SKILL EVOLUTION DETECTED!

The hell….

SKILL EVOLUTION COMPLETE! THE SKILLS KEEN OBSERVATION AND TACTICAL ACUMEN HAVE MERGED. ALL PREVIOUS SKILL LEVELS AND RANKS WILL BE MAINTAINED

NEW SKILL FINALIZED!

UNWILLING MONARCH’S FORESIGHT (EXPERT); Not all Kings become so willingly, but the ones that do succeed in such endeavors tend to demonstrate uncanny foresight. This skill is an evolved skill and provides greater advancement potential than normal skills.

+3 Perception, +3 Intelligence, +3 Wisdom at regular level intervals.

WARNING! The ability STEELY GLARE has evolved into The Monarch’s Unflinching Gaze.

The Monarch’s Unflinching Gaze inflicts fear and pain in those who oppose your authority and allows you to glimpse their intentions when under its influence.

Once again everyone was leaning over me and Junipher and Valley were working to alleviate my pain. This time though I could clearly hear them arguing about what was wrong with me.

“His HP is at full! I don’t understand what’s wrong with him!” Valley gasped in exasperation.

“I know, I don’t understand either! Karl? What’s going on!?” Junipher asked urgently.

“Hurk... “ I tried to speak but only drool and snot fell from my lips as I pressed a hand into my eye socket as though it felt like my eyes would fall out next. I dry heaved a moment later and collapsed further into the ground.

“KARL!” I could feel Junipher’s soft hands frantically checking my body for unseen wounds as I rolled in the dirt at her feet.

Finally the pain receded and I kept my fingers pressed into my eyelids holding them closed as I managed to stretch my body out in the dirt. When I finally felt like I could talk I pulled my hand away from my eyes and saw my beautiful plant lady once again staring down at me with concern on her face.

“I’m good. I think. Unless the System has any more surprises for me, Veep?”

“No, I think that was the last update for now. You should be good. Though I’m sure you don’t want to see it, you gained the title FIRST EVOLUTION for being the first of your species to evolve a skill. Though how you did that I am still trying to figure out…”

“What happened, Karl?” Junipher asked the question that was on everyone else's mind.

“Seems whatever was happening in that Trance, also caused me to gain a massive fuck ton of levels for two of my skills. They capped out and then evolved.”

Junipher gasped, “Trance? And a Skill Evolution? Come sit by the fire and explain.”

I didn’t protest as I was led to the fire and now that everyone was up and curious I explained the visions I saw in the Trance. They all listened intently as I described the people that would come with empty offers and later violent demands, and how the soldiers would kill us over and over again. Then how the last vision took a different path, one I felt I was already headed towards but hadn’t yet committed to. Then explained that two of my Advanced class skills capped out and evolved into Unwilling Monarch’s Foresight and my Steely Glare also evolved into The Monarch’s Unflinching Gaze.

“God’s above and below, Karl. What you did hasn’t happened in my people in over seven centuries.” Junipher exclaimed. “The Trance, as you call it, is even far more rare, almost mythic in nature. When such a thing occurs it is a portent of things to come. And the people that have such visions generally cause massive shifts in the Universe at large.”

Bradley clapped me on the back with an easy going smile, “Sounds like you had a spirit walk my friend!”

“Some spirit walk, I’ll avoid doing that again if at all possible. I also never pegged you for the spiritual type?” I groaned through grit teeth, my head still felt like it was on fire.

“I’m not, but I am Navajo, and I have been taught the ways of my people. They hold such with great reverence.” He smiled and stood and stretched.

“Fuck you!” I smarted back as he laughed.

“No thanks, not my type. And anyway, I think someone else has claimed you.” He laughed again and stepped out of the fire light to survey the desert.

I looked at Junipher who was smiling at me mirthfully then turned my head to Phil who had been silent this whole time. “What do you think, dude?”

He looked up from his own thoughts, “You know what I believe. I don’t know about spirit walks and such, but we know how people are. I won’t go into shit we’ve already argued about back and forth, but you know what’s coming.”

“Yeah, I think a lot of that Trance was conjured by my mind. I had control of it at first, it was like working through Calculus when you only know Algebra. Some of it makes sense, but more doesn’t. Then at the end it all kinda snapped together.”

“I won’t lie, Beesh. That end version of you that you described scares the hell out of me. It sounded a lot like Ghengis Khan and shit, you were a conqueror. And the Merciless Reaper of the Foolish? The fuck is that?” He leaned in as he spoke, the intensity in his voice taking on a life of its own.

“I dunno, though it felt like I would find out soon enough.”

“That sounds like an Advanced or Master Class.” Junipher added.

“Maybe…” my face soured at the thought.

“Whatever it is, Beesh, the thing I think concerns me the most is that I understood the logic at the end. We know how our people can be. Not all of them are bad, but they sure are lazy. All they have to hear is that someone else is taking care of their problems and they stop thinking for themselves. That version of you knew there would be no freedom if you didn’t act to secure it.”

“You’re probably right about that.” I said sourly.

“Well, Karl, then it seems the path is set.” Junipher said as she gripped my arm.