We repeated our grinding and clearing for the next three days, Maria coming with us each time. Even at a pace that erred on the side of caution she soon reached level 9. A skill book that fit her perfectly had dropped as well.

Book of Strafing LV. 1: Allows the User to fire three arrows in quick succession.

Cast Time: 0.2 seconds

MP Cost: 3

User must have a bow equipped.

My progress in clearing out a path through the city was basically completed, and by the end of this third day it was possible to drive directly from our apartment complex to the west highway beyond where there were abandoned vehicles and regular spawns. Jessica was passionate about Maria and her progress, and insisted we find her a Class Changing Stone as soon as possible.

I was interested in acquiring another Abomination as well, so the idea sat well with me. What I wasn’t expecting though, was that she wanted Maria to join us for that battle. I wasn’t sure it was the best idea in regards to her safety. Any failure on our part to control the aggro of the elite and she would die.

In the end though, Maria insisted on being a participant and Jessica thought it was a good idea. I wasn’t going to fight them on it, but I made Maria promise safety would be prioritized over maximizing her damage contribution. With Jessica being the more effective in ranged combat, then Maria should be third on the monster’s aggro list should my undead squad lose control of it. I just had a slight fear that some unexpected event or Maria’s use of the Strafing skill at the wrong time might bring about disaster.

Given that plenty of time had passed, the Exceptional Abomination we had previously fought should have respawned by now and that was our destination. Even though Maria wasn’t grouped with us Jessica gave Maria the green light to join in any of the battles once we started fighting and the mob was clearly locked down by my undead squad.

As we cleared our way through the abandoned streets, it didn’t take long to see that Maria was getting massive amounts of EXP. Unlike some games, where ungrouped players got nothing for kills they did less than 50 per cent of the damage to, here it seemed Maria was most likely getting a split of the EXP before it was divided between Jessica and I. Our EXP had been stagnant for the past three days anyway, so even the small amounts we were getting now were welcomed by me and I didn’t complain about Maria taking a share.

Moving through this part of the city was stress free for Jessica and I, which was both a blessing and a curse. I wanted to move on to something better for us, EXP wise, but that would have to wait till after we carried out our scouting of Ghost Hand and his set up.

It took us around two hours of searching to find the Exceptional Abomination, as it seemed he was on the farther point of his route. Again, the sight of the dinosaur-headed monster, wielding six massive cleavers was intimidating. It was repellent, too, how the fatty tissue oozed pus as it dragged chains along the floor. All the same, now that we had our own undead version in the summoned squad as well as Maria for her extra DPS, I wasn’t anxious about the coming fight. Nor did Jessica feel that we needed a special strategy other than slow its movement with Quagmire, surround it with my minions and hit hard.

All the same, we weren’t complacent, keeping Maria at a distance and clearing an escape route through a ruined garage in case anything went wrong.

The pull was clean, Jessica’s arrow made the Exceptional Abomination spin around and lumber towards us without any adds. Then another arrow set up Quagmire trap and next my minions intercepted the roaring monster and brought it to a halt. There were no surprises as the fight progressed, and instead, it progressed incredibly quickly.

Within five seconds of the encounter starting the abomination’s noxious bile was released, and merely three or four seconds after that the monster went into his enrage status. Our DPS was insane and we were literally tearing strips from him.

By the time the boss fell I had merely lost a single Skeleton General only. That was just how much faster we downed him compared to the previous fight. Sharing a triumphant look with Jessica, I quickly reanimated him. There was nothing else that I needed to do to prepare for testing ourselves against Ghost Hand, at least on my end.

I had two Exceptional reanimated dead in my squad and enough supplies for at least a week in the wilderness. Besides that, everyone in the other group was racing towards level 13 and even Maria was gaining on them.

Apparently, she had gained two full levels when the abomination died, which to me was absolutely incredible. That put her at level 11, which really wasn’t far off from Lucas. It probably made sense for Maria to join the others from now on, but I wasn’t sure how Jessica would feel about that: she seemed to be enjoying Maria’s company and I couldn’t blame her, Maria was much more talkative than me.

The Exceptional Abomination dropped three items, one of which was the Class Changing Stone that went directly to Maria. Besides that, we got another Survivor’s Medallion and a Large HP Potion.

Jessica and I had begun to discuss whether it was worth Maria waiting for a second skill or whether changing right now was the best option, when Maria announced that in her excitement she’d already made the decision. She had been given the option of a bow class called Sniper and taken it at once.

Like most classes we’d seen so far, she had two active skills and a single passive skill.

Entangling Shot: Causes vines to sprout wildly from target’s wound. Restrains an enemy in place for at least five seconds and deals damage over time.

Explosive Arrow: Shoots an arrow with a fuse that explodes two seconds after hitting its target. Deals massive damage physical and fire damage.

Clear Vision: Grants the user perfect vision.

Interestingly enough, Clear Vision was the same passive Jessica had received from her Geloas’ Eyes. The difference was that it was possible for Maria to level her passive up, and Jessica could not. In the future, Maria should gain something beyond perfect vision and I wondered what that might be, night vision perhaps?

Full of good cheer and with a sense of mission accomplished, we returned to our base and when Lucas and the others returned, looking rather more tired and worn out than us, we joined with the women in discussing if we were strong enough to take on Ghost Hand and his gang. They believed so, and while I wanted this to be true, I knew I couldn’t put that much weight on the opinion of someone who hadn’t been trying to level up and didn’t know the ins and outs of the game system.

From what the women told me, he spent most of his time on compound and wasn’t really putting the effort into leveling. Now this was an important fact that I could use to speculate about his power. Ever since the arrival of the game system on Earth, I’d been levelling with hardly a break. It was hard to believe but this was only day 12 since the apocalypse. As far as I knew, I’d made good choices and my squad of summoned undead was as strong as anyone could have made it in the same time. In this light, Ghost Hand might be merely level 7 or 8, which would be enough for him to dominate most people, especially if he had access to guns.

The other consideration was grouping. In Jessica I had a very smart – talented even – DPS and pulling partner who complemented my skills. Would that have given us an advantage over Ghost Hand though? The report of the women was that he had three other men in his gang who also were levelling up. The fact he only allowed a few close people to level up meant he was cautious of someone growing stronger than himself. It was likely he had allowed the women to be abused to appease these closes members, in hopes they would be satisfied enough to not overthrow him. In other words, it didn’t sound like he’d been building a team the way Lucas, Thomas and Alan had, let alone Jessica and I.

Even if Ghost Hand was level fifteen, I didn’t think he would be able to deal with the force we were coming with. So, while Lucas was recommending we scout from a distance and try to pick off one or two of the others who had levels, it seemed to me we were more likely to catch them by surprise with a direct approach. “I kind of think we should just show up during the day with my army of minions in Vast Shadows,” I said, “claiming to be survivors who have heard about the farm and are looking for safety. That way I’ll get an understanding of how dangerous he is and possibly what their members are like.”

“And if Ghost Hand tries to kill us right then?” asked Lucas.

“I think we’ll win the fight and by some distance.” And I explained my thinking, getting the women to confirm again that most days Ghost Hand and his entourage did not go out of the compound. It just did not seem possible that they were near our level.

“What about us?” asked one of the women.

“You had best stay here, except Maria. She can hide in one of the vehicles and guide us. According to the map it should be about an hour drive.”

“And what happens if Ghost Hand is friendly. If he acts like he’s happy for us to join the farm?” Lucas asked.

“Kill him anyway,” said Maria, eyes full of fire. “Kill all four of them. You’ve no idea.”

There were nods and mutters of agreement from the other women.

I shrugged. “If we get the opportunity to jump them, we do. If they then surrender, I’m not going to kill anyone in cold blood. Otherwise, as far as I’m concerned Ghost Hand and his crew are scum so I’m hoping things go south. And if there are guns around, no one should show any mercy as it might bite you in the ass. So, to reiterate: we go to their gate as survivors hoping to join. If we get inside the camp, I’ll drop my squad on Ghost Hand when I think we have the advantage.”

“Let me do the talking,” said Jessica, her voice grim. “Sounds like they will underestimate a woman.”

I glanced at and had to agree. That would be the smart move. Their own attitude might work against them and cause them to lower their guard.

“All willing to try this? It’s volunteers only. I’m not holding anyone to our deal on this. But I would remind you that it’s not just about revenge. It’s about building a place that can be a beacon for all survivors to gather at in safety.”

“I’m in,” said Alan.

“Me too,” added Thomas and Lucas nodded. All three of them looked determined and I was heartened.

“Is anyone close to levelling?” I asked. “If so we can delay a bit, otherwise I’d like to go tomorrow or the next day at the latest.”

Jessica and I were merely 40% through level 17, so not exactly close. We could definitely hit 18 with a full day’s grind, but as our next active skill wasn’t likely to be until level 20, it didn’t seem worth giving Ghost Hand any more time. If, as I suspected, he and his gang hadn’t yet reached 10 the sooner we made our move the better.

Our abilities took us well beyond the snake-headed mobs and abominations that were nearby, and I wanted to hunt stronger enemies. The issue was that moving deeper into the city was too risky. The Fiend could stumble upon us and wipe us out in an instant.

We were stuck between a rock and a hard place, the hard place being long and arduous grinding with minimal reward. Enemies that took a bit of finesse to kill were what I was looking for. Good EXP and good drops were the dream. Until we had that, we were at something of a plateau. And while it didn’t sound like Ghost Hand and his crew were concentrating on levelling, they could certainly progress faster than us if they wanted to.

I was pleased then, when no one wanted to delay.

“We leave tomorrow morning after a good rest. Think about what you may need, if anything. We’ll be driving straight from here to the farm,” I said.

No one had a complaint. I was expecting some pushback, but perhaps the others shared my calculations. Perhaps too, they felt like I did: that already we were leagues above our former selves. We were all well above super-human strength, even Maria.

If we worked together, maybe we could even kill the Fiend. Obviously, I wouldn’t take that gamble any time soon. The biggest uncertainty that troubled me was not Ghost Hand but was what was to come for humanity? We were probably only at the start of whatever challenge this was. The mysterious blue light that had mixed up spawns came around a week after the apocalypse and so what might we expect at the end of week two? Or the first month? Or the first 100 days? For now, I felt we were well ahead of the curve in terms of levels, at least I imagined so. But I remembered how easy it would have been in those first few days to fall behind and never even be able to start progressing against zombies and goblins. Another steep curve might come our way at any time.

Sleep didn’t come easy that night as I turned my thoughts to Ghost Hand: there were three options. Ghost Hand would prove to have an unexpected trick up his sleeve and we would be killed; my companions and would kill him and his followers; or he’d surrender. From what I’d heard about him, that last option didn’t seem likely.

I had already killed two men before in self-defense, but that didn’t make it any easier. They’re bad people. I told myself that over and over.