“Just another block and I can feel two new enemy types. Probably what we’re looking for.” Jessica sounded almost eager and that was my cue to hurry it up and move faster, I guessed that we were both itching to get a look. Nor was I disappointed when I located the new mob types.

Demonic Goat: Level Eighteen. Normal. This monster was a goat man with intimidating horns on his forehead that curled into a sharp tip. The hair of its fur was blood red and tapered off into needle-like points. A black coloration surrounded both of its red eyes, which gave the large satyr a menacing look. The whole threatening effect was topped off with the weapon the demonic goat held in both hands: a gigantic morning star as tall as it was—nearly seven feet.

The other mob was an undead: Blood Lich. Level Nineteen. Normal. This monster was at least ten feet tall and hovered above the ground. The garb it wore was black and red, a cowl that fluttered even without the presence of any wind. A sphere of red swirled between its two hands.

Both enemies seemed menacing enough, but the lich gave me an even worse feeling than the goat did. Most likely, this was because the goat’s attack was obvious, he used that morning star, but the lich was a spell caster, and the spells it wielded were unknown to me.

“Goat first?” Jessica asked. It seemed she had the same idea as I did.

“Send it,” I replied. I was already prepared, and although these were higher level than ogres and half-snakes, I wasn’t expecting any significant amount of resistance from them. Being swarmed by my 10 minions wouldn’t allow for much room to counter-attack.

An arrow pierced through the bristly fur of a demonic goat and triggered him to rush us. His hoofs clapped against the asphalt street as the morning star was gripped tightly in both his hands.

My squad of undead fighters rushed out to meet it and the morning star fell upon my skeleton general with a sound like a gong being struck hard. He didn’t even flinch or give way at all as his sword came up immediately and slashed against the almost metal coat of the demonic goat.

The new monster was swarmed in a moment and my minions hacked it to pieces within seconds. It fell without much ability to put up a fight, and Jessica and I gained 5% EXP and another Survivor’s Medallion.

The lich took a little more thought, and we made sure to find a place where we could hide. This time Jessica placed a Quagmire Trap for it to path through. My minions rushed forward in a zerg-like manner.

Ranged enemies always required respect, because so much of their tactics were unknown. Until the melee attacks of my summoned squad gained its full attention, there was always the chance of a ranged attack against Jessica who had the early aggro from her pull shot. Was there possibly a skill that had a chance of killing you in one hit? Even though it wouldn’t be ‘fair’, the answer was that there really could be.

The lich floated there while changing target from minion to minion casting some blood ability. I couldn’t tell what it was doing, because it seemed to have no effect on the skeletons or the cleaver-wielding Exceptional Abominations. Was it trying to suck blood, or absorb blood?

An ephemeral cackle constantly echoed outward from its maw as the lich continuously cast its spells without much care that they were not working. The garb around its body was swiftly being torn to shreds with each hack and slash from my squad.

Jessica pelted the lich near the eyes with arrows to no avail. There was nothing but blood-red flames where the eye sockets were, and arrows didn’t seem to have the ability to blind it at all. All the same, the monster’s body began glowing red as its life plummeted towards zero.

A circle of blood exploded outward from its body and blasted into my minions, sending them tumbling backwards and onto the floor. None of them had died, but that final attack would probably do significant damage to human fighters attacking in melee.

With a last cackle that seemed to fade into the distance echoing through the area the lich collapsed into a heap on the floor.

To our surprise, there was a Class Changing Stone floating there, which indicated that it didn’t only drop from exceptional monsters. Besides that, there was an item floating above the remains of the lich. It was a shield made of pure bone.

Lich’s Aegis: A shield made from the breastplate of a lich.

VIT +5, INT +5.Increases chance to block attacks by thirty-two percent. Blocked attacks deal twenty-five percent of their original damage.

Grants the user Necrotic Vision.

I didn’t have a shield yet, and honestly wasn’t sure if I could even wield it. My survivor’s rod was only one handed, but it was still quite large. The anticipation just before equipping the shield was too much bear.

A moment later the shield was slotted in my character sheet, and the rush of happiness knowing I’d found another useful item couldn’t be described. This was one of the feelings that kept me addicted, kept me wanting to keep leveling, the feeling of constant improvement.

I opened my status sheet to check the skill Necrotic Vision.

Name: Mike Reynolds (27) Class: Necromancer Level: 18 EXP: 12%

HP: 745/875 MP: 285/375

STR: 5 Fear Resistance: 5

AGI: 2

DEX: 5

VIT: 20 +12

WIS: 24 +18

Available: 3

Skills: [A]Summon Skeleton LV. 7 |[A] Decay LV. 2| [A] Reanimate Dead LV. 2 | [A] Bone Armor LV. 2 | [A] Vast Shadows | [P]Sixth Sense | [P] Bravery LV. 2 | [P] Mutated LV. 2| [P] Pain Resistance LV. 2 | [P] Skeletal Mastery LV. 3| [P]Intimidate Living |[P] Inner Calm [P]Necrotic Vision

It was there in a beautiful yellow, a passive granted from an item. I opened the submenu.

Necrotic Vision: You can see the essence of life itself. Your eyes have a strange glow to them.

I didn’t quite understand what seeing life essence meant till I stepped away from Jessica and took a good look at her. There was a feint aura, almost like a flame that twirled near the core of her body. I couldn’t see through walls… but this was basically a form of night vision almost.

I took off the Skull Mask, “Look at my eyes, do you see anything?” I asked excitedly.

She gave a deep stare that suddenly made me feel a bit hot, “There’s something flickering in your vision. Almost like a little orange hue, maybe a flame?” she offered questioningly. “What’s wrong?”

It was actually hard for me to keep my eyes locked on hers as she was so incredibly close, “Nothing, you’re just so close.”

“Wait, are you blushing?” Jessica laughed. “Hoho, for a while I thought you thought about nothing but levelling up. But I guess that you have feelings after all.” Looking cheerful, she added, “I’ll have to be careful of those women back at camp.”

“Wait, what is that supposed to mean?” I said aloud. It was impossible to not see Jessica as a beautiful woman with heroic qualities of bravery and determination, but I didn’t want to complicate our extraordinary fighting partnership. The fear of losing our close comradeship was too scary to take any risks by letting loose the powerful feelings I knew were there in me.

As soon as emotions got involved it was harder to think rationally. Maybe I had been over-thinking her remark as I looked at her back.

“Nothing,” she glanced over her shoulder, still smiling. “Let’s get a few more kills and then head back.”

I couldn’t have agreed with her faster. When it came to fighting monsters I felt quite confident, but when I looked at her lithe figure walking ahead of me, I didn’t feel anything like firm ground beneath my feet. We spent another hour exploring and even marked two four-wheel drive vehicles that were in potentially good condition. We could come back at another time and retrieve them with our mechanic.

In the end, we found a few more Rations and three more Survivor’s Medallions. I had 19 of them in my inventory now, and still no idea what they were used for. Jessica insisted on driving on the way back, which I had no problem with.

She really embraced the saying ‘pedal to the metal’. If it wasn’t for her foresight from her tracking I’d question her ability to avoid the enemies along the road. It was such crazy driving I started to question whether my HP would allow me to survive a full-on car crash and subsequent explosion.

I didn’t say anything as she was clearly having fun while swerving along the road. I had to admit, she looked beautiful with her brunette hair fluttering in the wind. It was a silent ride back, but I felt a lot of emotions had been conveyed. Should I say something? Instead I pushed aside hope of romance in a world that was going to ruin and thought about our plans to make the farm into a sustainable and safe base. In the morning we would set off on our trip to the steel mill, and what came after that we could only guess.

On our return without accident, I met with Lucas and was updated on their groups experiences of going to the forest in search of timber. Every animal they had come across was extremely aggressive, even deer rushed at them with no regard for their lives. There were random zombies and goblins about, but that was the extent to which monsters were present.

They hadn’t gone in deep enough to see what else might have spawned in the forest, but all we cared about was working around the edge anyway. According to him, he could down a tree with a single wind slash, which meant chain saws weren’t needed, and the only problem we faced was that of extraction, which seemed to be a reoccurring issue for us.

Although it felt like longer, only twelve days had passed since the RPG apocalypse, and I had a nagging feeling on the back of my neck that there were a lot of new challenges ahead. After one week there had been the flare, which heralded the spawning of many more monsters. Would there be something similar at the two-week mark? The pessimist in me couldn’t believe it was possible to keep progressing so smoothly as Jessica and I had been.

Sleeping that night didn’t come easy as all sorts of high-level scenarios filled my mind. What would be thrown at us next? The last special event could be considered deadly, but in terms of actual difficulty it wasn’t really that bad.

If you hid away in a country-side like this one, it would probably be easy enough to avoid new events by staying clear of the many mobs in the city. Was that intended? The nature of the attack on Earth was a challenge, designed to make us fight in the world as though in an RPG game. It was so carefully structured that I really felt in the long run, or even the medium run, hiding out would not prove to be a successful option. Even now, Jessica and I and the others could not afford to fall behind in levelling, given the possibility of some event that raised the bar higher than we could jump.

I don’t remember when I fell asleep, but I absolutely didn’t feel rested that following morning. Not only did I have a slight headache but I was starving. From the scents coming into my room it seemed breakfast had been cooked: eggs and some bacon which was from on site, a welcomed treat.

This was the first time I’d eaten something that wasn’t a ration in many days or straight out of a baggy in two weeks—an actual cooked meal. Coming into the kitchen, I found that Alan had cooked the bacon and eggs, and sitting at the table with a full plate was Jessica.

“Here, Mike, enjoy some fresh food,” said Alan proudly.

I thanked him, ate breakfast, and then I realized there was something terribly wrong.

“I’m… not getting full,” I said. “This feels like I haven’t eaten anything.” I looked at Alan, then Jessica, a feeling of anxiety settling over me like a dark cloud.

“Me too.” Jessica’s face was filled with confusion.

Alan scooped some scrambled egg out of the pan with a spoon, blew away the steam and ate it. Then some more.

While he tested his own response, I wondered aloud, “Could it be… we can’t sustain ourselves on anything but Rations?” If that were the case… then a peaceful life was impossible. Rations were dropped from enemies, and as you killed them and leveled, Rations became more and more rare a drop from the lower level ones.

“I think we’re being forced to continue killing monsters to survive. But the Level Ones don’t seem to have had this issue at all. Is this lack of energy from real food happening because we have been eating Rations or is it because we’ve reached a certain level?

“Should we say something to the others who want to level?” Jessica asked. She was right to think about that; if it was levels, then they deserved to know before leaving the relative safety of being able to live off natural food. Yet was access to natural foods really enough of an incentive to leave your life to the mercy of others? You had zero power or control of your own fate as a Level One.

These people had experienced that already anyway, and the ones coming with us absolutely didn’t like that. Ghost Hand was the perfect example. He wasn’t even particularly strong and yet had thirty people at the tips of his fingers. What about months from now, a year from now?

“I don’t think we can say for sure it’s the levels. If it isn’t food, I have a hunch that the post-apocalypse system will find some means to stop them simply retreating from the game.”

Jessica gave a nod to me. “All the same, they should understand the possible consequences of levelling.”

While Alan finished his breakfast – no longer quite so enthusiastic about it – Jessica and I went outside to the vehicles. The sun had merely risen an hour ago and the temperature was still cool, albeit humid. Everyone was outside waiting for us already, including the two steel mill workers and three men they deemed necessary for helping them.

Not a single one of the seven that had already expressed interest in levelling backed out. They were all here and waiting, eager to grab their own thread of destiny and ensure no one could cut it short against their will.

“Do you need any special gear or can we go?” I asked Will, one of the two mill workers.

“I think we’re good like this. Hopefully the mill is intact.”

“Good then. We’ll take three vehicles. Jessica and I will each drive one, and one of you will drive the third, any volunteers?”

“I’ll drive,” Will said. “You can follow me so there’s no getting lost.” I nodded and let him leave first, Jessica followed directly after and I drove the last of the vehicles in our small convoy.

They weren’t kidding when they said the steel mill was merely a five-minute drive. We pulled onto another off-road for about thirty seconds and then the mill was there right up against the forest. It was a huge hangar-like building with giant doors for equipment to come through.