Light was shining in Terry’s eyes when he finally woke up, shutting his eyes tighter he just wanted to sleep in but he knew those days were over, at least for now. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and looked around. He could hear some whispering but couldn’t make out what was being said. He slowly stood up and noticed the whispering stopped as he did.

Moving through the house he checked on everyone and made sure nothing had happened during the night. Going out the back door he went into the back yard and relieved himself before looking around for a secluded place he could reup his armor. Except there only seemed to be one set of bushes and they didn’t hide what was happening behind them very well. Sighing, he made his way back in, he would just have to keep what he had on. Summoning some more weapons was another thing he needed to do.

Once back inside he pulled out some food and started eating, waiting for the rest of the group to get up. Over the next twenty minutes the group started moving and pulling out their own food, some of the elves needing help on how to figure out how to open canned goods. It was a good thing the cans had the tabs to open them as they didn’t have a can opener, though he had looked through the house’s kitchen for one, just in case he needed it.

After everyone was up and had used the bathroom and had some food in their bellies, he got them moving again. They should be able to make it to Des Moines that night or sometime the next day, then they could finally turn North and start up towards Minnesota. They would have to be more careful once they reach the border as there was less open space there.

As the group started on the highway with him in the lead, he looked back at Gantar and Katar, who nodded at him. He wondered how long Katar and his group would be with them, at least until his debt is repaid I would think but how long will that be. He was lost in his thoughts as they made their way out of the small town and out onto the open road again.

Before he knew it, the sun was already high in the sky and he could hear Sam complaining about stopping to rest. Looking around he saw that they were near a row of trees so he made his way to them for some shade.

As the group sat down in the trees’ shade Gantar went over to Terry and sat down next to him. He pulled out a can of beans and opened them, with a bit of difficulty, but finally got them open on his own. The two of them just sat there eating from their cans and being lost in their own thoughts.

“So, what did you think of them?” Terry asked Gantar as he finished the can.

Gantar looked at him with wide eyes and then smiled. “They were delicious.” He had a bit of a high-pitched voice, different than when Terry talked with him before, more childlike. “You can speak our language?”

“I guess I can now.”

Gantar smiled, got up and ran over to Katar and started talking wildly to him. After a minute Katar looked at Terry then at his son, before making his way over to him.

“My son says you can speak our language now, is that true?” His voice was deep, deeper than before, and a bit gravely.

Terry nodded his head, “it seems so.”

Katar frowned a bit but then he cracked a smile. “Then it will be much easier to communicate from now on. But you must tell me how you came to speak our language.”

“I got it as a reward for helping you and your group. I only just looked at the messages last night.”

Katar nodded his head in understanding, “We will need to speak in length at some point.”

Terry nodded his head as the two elves got up and went back to the others. Izzy and Tamara made their way over to him.

“What was that all about?” Izzy asked

“I can now understand them.”

That took the two women by surprise. “How did ya do that?”

“It was a reward for helping them.”

“I got a message saying I helped them and got some relationship points for it but I didn’t get anything else.”

“Same here.”

“Well, I think it might have been an accumulation of helping them, being nice and healing them.”

They nodded at that; it was his potions that had made them able to travel faster after all.

“Do ya tink we’ll make it to Des Moines by night?”

Terry pulled out his map and found about where they were. “Hmmm, if we keep the pace we’re at, it’ll be close. But I’m not sure I really want to be in the city at night. We might be better staying outside it and then going through it in the morning.”

Izzy was looking at the map over his shoulder, “What if we stop here” she pointed to a spot on the map a few miles outside the city.

He looked at it and nodded, “looks as good a place as any. We can check it out and go from there.”

They all nodded their heads and he folded up the map and put it away. Getting the group moving he started heading to the spot Izzy had pointed out. After a few minutes Katar made his way to the front to walk by his side.

“What can you tell me about this world?”

Terry looked at Katar, wondering how much he should actually share with the elf. “To be honest, this world is pretty different than what we’re all used to.”

“You seem pretty used to it.”

“Yeah, but I was a gamer, I’ve played games like this before, so it was easier for me to adapt to it.”

“Gamer, what is that?”

“I guess you could call it a class, but without the benefits. Anyways, that’s not too important. This world was only introduced to us about a week ago. What about you guys, how did you come to be here?”

Katar thought before he spoke, “We were traveling to a new location to setup as our home, when there was a flash in the sky and then darkness. When the darkness lifted we were some place we didn’t know. We traveled for many days before encountering the men you saved us from. We were already weak from the traveling so they easily over powered us and tied us up. They smashed our legs with their weapons so that we couldn’t run away.”

“What was the name of your world?”

“It is known by many names but the most used one is Gaia.”

Terry was shocked at the name. He knew that Earth was sometimes called Gaia, but did that mean they were all from the same place? Maybe just different dimensions? He wondered what other species made it here as well. “Interesting, did you have classes and stats before coming here?”

Katar shook his head, “no that was new to us as well.”

“Were you able to pick a class before being captured?”

Shaking his head again, “no, I was more concerned about getting my people to safety and trying to keep them safe in this new world.”

“Well, have you picked a class since you’re free now?”

“I have, I think it suits me very well. It’s called Tribe Chieftain. What about yours?”

“I got Battle Necromancer.”

Katar nodded his head like hearing that was what he expected. “That is a class you should be careful with. Many people will not look fondly on what you do.”

“I know, I haven’t been summoning things in front of the group to try and keep it a secret, though not sure if any of them know. I have told Izzy though.”

The look on Katar’s face said he didn’t know who that was. Pointing to her he said her name again. Katar made an “O” face in understanding at that. “What will you and your group do now then?”

“We will still be looking for a place to call home but as of right now, we will travel with you and your group. Safety in numbers, at least until we get stronger.”

“You’re welcome to keep up with us. I’m trying to get back to my family to make sure they’re alright. Not really sure about the others, but I think it’s the safety in numbers thing for most of them.”

Katar nodded at that, “I will also follow you until I have repaid the debt I owe you. You have been most kind to us and my son.”

“The debt, what is that about?”

“You save my life along with the rest of my people. So, I have pledged my loyalty to you and will fight by your side until I am able to repay it. It is something that my people take very seriously.”

“Well, I won’t complain about the extra help. How are the rest of your group doing?”

Katar looked back at the rest of the elves. “They are doing the best they can, I have instructed them to all pick a class that they like and hopefully they will benefit the group as well as them.”

Terry nodded at that and kept walking, not knowing what else to talk about. Katar must have felt the same as he slowed down and rejoined the elves. He looked back at them and wondered what classes they would pick, especially Gantar. He enjoyed spending time with the kid, and Susan and Bradley too. Which kind of surprised him as he hadn’t really liked kids before this.

It took the group most of the rest of the day to reach the point that Izzy had pointed to on the map. Terry enjoyed that they hadn’t run into any more monsters again while on the road but still couldn’t help but feel they might be left behind, level wise. He really wanted to level up and find out what else his class could do.

They made it to the spot, which just had an out building to a field. It was only about twenty feet long and ten feet wide. Just barely big enough to fit the whole group in with some space in between. They were only about ten miles from the city of Des Moines, which they could already see and it looked just as bad as Omaha had.

Black smoke drifted up from so many places and there were loud shrieks that reached their ears but were thankfully still fairly distant. As the group got settled in for the night, Susan came up to him.

“Um, Terry… Do you think I could get some more arrows?”

He turned and looked at her, smiling. “Of course, I’ll try and get you some more soon.”

“Thanks! And do you think I could also get a sword or something as well. I was kind of useless at that last fight cause I ran out of arrows and had to start beating them with my bow.”

“Hmm, you’re right, I’m sorry I didn’t think about that earlier.” He patted her on the shoulder and was amazed at how well she was coping with this whole situation. She looked like she was still just a kid but he knew that she was a tough kid. Who else could say they stood their ground when faced by a huge horde of kobolds and came out of it alive.

After everyone had settled down for the night and he could hear soft snores he got up and went outside, being as quiet as he could. Going around to the back of the building there were some bushes that were just big enough to cover him from view.

Getting into the bushes he opened his special inventory and looked at what he had. He had two hundred of the kobold bodies and he wondered how well they would do as skeletons. Instead, he brought out two arms, two legs, a torso and a head, dumping them on the ground but close enough to each other that they would all target as one.

Targeting the parts, he cast summon skeleton and watched as the parts lifted up and shifted together, making a whole body. Then he watched as the skeleton moved under the skin and then burst forth before ripping the flesh from its bones. The flesh dropped to the ground in a pile. He looked over the skeleton to see if there were any differences between that one and one of the whole bodied ones. He didn’t see anything different so he figured the parts would work just as well as a whole body.

Dumping out more parts, he had them in piles, head, torso, arms and legs. Casting summon skeleton on one after the next, he soon had his five skeletons back to brand new. After that he pulled out a dozen kobold bodies and dispersed his armor. Casting summon bone armor on the first kobold body was the same process as casting it on a human body. Though the bone structure the armor was made up of was slightly different and it had just a bit better defensive stat.

After he was back to having full armor he started on getting some new weapons. A new sword for himself and then one for each of his skeletons and then three for arrows for Susan. Pulling out some more kobold bodies he got a few more daggers and enough swords to fit each of the group, if they wanted.

When he was finally done casting everything he picked up the piles of flesh and put them in his special inventory. As he was finishing up collecting everything and was about to head back to the building he heard a twig snap. Looking around he saw someone crouched in the bushes.

“You might as well come out; I can see you.”

The shadow stood up and walked through the bushes. It was Gantar. He had an embarrassed look on his face. “I’m sorry for intruding on your business but I just wanted to see how the skeletons were made.”

“Did you see then?”

He nodded, “Yes, it was fascinating to watch. Why do you hide it from the rest of the group?”

“Because they wouldn’t find it as fascinating as you do. They have different morals than what this new world calls for.”

“So, they wouldn’t like it?”

“No, no they would not. I think they mostly know what class I am, but they’ve all kept quiet about it so as not to know where these things come from.”

Gantar looked thoughtful at Terry’s explanation. “But you won’t be able to hide it forever, will you?”

“No, probably not but I just want to get stronger so then they can’t do anything to me, even if they wanted to. Now come on, let’s head back.” Terry put his arm around Gantar and led him back to the building. Setting the new skeletons up around it, they went in and settled down for the night.