“I’m sorry, you what!” Kira shouted, drawing Kate and Beth towards them, followed a moment later by Silvi and Myri.

“What’s going on?” Kate demanded.

“Mom just told me that she and dad have been thinking they might want to live on the space station.”

“We haven’t decided yet, and it wouldn’t be for good. You know we would never leave any of you behind.” Krystal protested, trying to recover the situation.

“Then why?” Kate wondered in confusion.

“To get away from everyone! Okay?” Kory shouted, scaring Myri. “Down there, we never get any peace or time to ourselves anymore. I mean, come on, it took Charles and Kira pretty much forcing us to come up here for us to take a break.” He chuckled dryly. “And even then, we planned on doing more work. We brought all the maps with information from the teams up with us.” He pulled them from his inventory and threw them on the floor.

“We’re tired,” Krystal told them, slumping against her husband. “When it was just Dungeonville and one or two other towns, it wasn’t too bad. Now, though, it’s just so much work training each and every person to make sure they know what to do. The other town leaders try to help, but they’re busy with their own towns and finding people. The system we have in place is good, but it isn’t perfect.”

“Why aren’t you delegating more, then? Find more people and train them to be the trainers. The town system will allow you to create more positions, including ones with restricted authority, that would be perfect for trainers.” Charles sat on the ground after looking around and not seeing anything close enough to lean against.

“Finding people who we can trust, to not abuse their authority and do the job properly is the main issue.” Kory pulled his wife down with him as he, too, decided to sit on the ground. “We don’t have Kira’s special ability to detect the trustworthiness of the people we interview. All we have is our normal intuition.”

Kira sighed and sat down, joining the growing circle. “You could have just asked; I would have been glad to help you find the right people. But you do realize that this is the entire reason, well partly, that we brought everyone up here? All of us are fighting burnout in some way. We’ve been firing on all cylinders ever since this began months ago, with only one or two breaks.”

“Even with our levels, and abilities, the enhancements they give us, at the end of the day we’re still just-“ Charles cut off and began to laugh. “I was going to say human, but I guess that doesn’t apply to most of us here anymore. Regardless, until we learn to embrace that new side of ourselves, the previous limitations are still in effect in some way. We still see ourselves as human. That’s our baseline and the only thing we know.”

Charlotte was the next to sit down, pulling Scott with her. “What about our duties and the list of everything that needs to get done?”

“There’s always going to be something that needs to get done, another item that needs to be fixed.” Her brother fixed his gaze on her. “Charlotte, we imposed these duties on ourselves. This isn’t like a job where we are being paid.

“We’re just trying to help people, and in mine and Kira’s case, they didn’t even ask for our help. We’re going to them, and pretty much forcing it on them. Sure, it’s making their lives better and safer, but they didn’t ask for our help. Many of the people we’re finding now have already created little communities of their own. They don’t NEED our help anymore. By now, everyone who is still alive has figured out how things work.”

“What are you trying to say, exactly? That we stop trying?” Krystal piped in, confused.

“No, nothing of the sort. I’m not even sure what I’m trying to say to be honest.” He chuckled and ran a hand over his mouth. “All I know, is that we are doing this to ourselves. It’s not our responsibility to save everyone, it never was, and trying to do that will only end with us in ruins and ultimately unhappy.”

“You’ve been thinking about this for a while, haven’t you?” This time, it was Scott who spoke.

“Ever since we were in Massachusetts, and someone spoke to us about the responsibility of those with power. It was like he thought we were superheroes and not people with real wants, desires, emotions, and lives. I’ve always thought the concept was ridiculous and overplayed in the stories, and yeah, it’s been niggling away at my brain ever since.”

“It sounds like you are looking for an excuse to stop.” The normally timid Beth said, before clapping her hands over her mouth with a look of horror.

Charles rolled his eyes at her reaction. “I can’t deny that is a small part of it. You all know I don’t care for people I don’t know, but that’s not the entirety of it. If I wanted to stop, I wouldn’t need a reason. I’d just do it. What I’m trying to do is reason with myself that it’s okay to scale back and not exhaust ourselves every day. I’m trying to find a reason to keep going.”

It was hard to describe to everyone just how tired he was. The amount of crap, he and Kira had begun to see lately was disgusting. More and more, the worse humanity had to offer was what survived the most.

“People will die,” Kate muttered.

“People will die either way, it’s not like we can reach everyone. We aren’t omnipotent, our efforts help, but that’s all. In the end, it’s up to the people themselves to stay alive long enough for us to reach them. If they fail, then that’s on them, not us. We can’t accept responsibility for every life lost.” Charles pointed out, unsure if he was properly explaining his thoughts to them.

“I feel like we’ve gotten away from the original point of this conversation,” Kira said, redirecting them. “Point is, we were all working too hard, and need to relax some. So, enjoy your time up here while you can, and think about how you can change the way you do things on Earth or something. Mom, dad, if you do decide to stay up here you still need to find other people to train beforehand.”

Charlotte grabbed her brother’s hand while Kira began talking to her parents in earnest. “Come on, show me the menu. I want to see what this dungeon can repair for us, and how long it will take!”

“You don’t need me for that!” He protested as she pulled him to his feet.

Scott waved and simply laid down on the ground. Content to relax right where he was for the moment.

“I’m worried about you.” She declared as soon as the door to the system room closed behind them. “You’re disassociating from humanity right now, more than normal. Why?”

Charles ground his teeth, glaring at her, his fists bunching together. Finally, he punched the wall of the room with a shout, once, twice, and then a third time. Leaning against the wall, he slowly slid to the floor and hid his head between his arms and knees. His bruised and bleeding knuckles forgotten for the moment.

“Did you notice that Kira wasn’t saying anything in protest against my words?” He asked a minute later, his words slightly muffled.

“No, I didn’t notice, but I figured that was just her normal non-caring state coming into play. I mean, let’s face it, she dislikes people almost as much as you don’t even emotionally attach to them in any basic way.”

He chuckled wryly and sighed heavily. “That’s true, but it wasn’t because of that this time. The last couple of weeks have been hard on us. Like I said earlier, people have begun to figure out what they need to do to survive, and how to become stronger. What do you think is the next step after that?”

Charlotte felt a chill run down her spine at how emotionless and drained his voice was. “If they’ve managed to take care of food, shelter, and strength, I guess the next item would be something more primal…” She finished in a whisper.

A shudder ran through her brother’s body. “The things we have seen, sis. I can’t forget them! It’s a lawless world out there, and every time we go down to save a group of people, that’s the risk we take. The ability to level has truly equalized the world in some respects. Men, women, it doesn’t matter. As long as they have the strength, they can all take what they want.”

“Just what-“

“Don’t make me say it, sis, please?” Charles begged, his entire body shaking.

“Alright, but how come neither of you has said anything before now?”

“What would you have us say? That some of the people outside are no better than the monsters the gods brought back to terrorize us?” A hysterical laugh burst from his lips. “We all knew it was a possibility, but what good does knowing for certain do any of us?”

“So, you’ve been what, taking out the trash each time?” Charlotte wondered, trying to understand. “What about Kira? Why doesn’t she seem more bothered by all of this?”

He grunted. “It’s therapeutic for her in a way, being able to bash out her frustrations on actual people instead of just monsters. Actually, I think she’s made even more progress in her overall recovery because of this than ever before.”

******

“That’s a little… concerning, messed up, twisted? I don’t know. It certainly isn’t healthy, that’s for sure. Everyone has their own coping mechanism though, I guess. At least hers is pointed at people who deserve it, while also serving as a form of mental and emotional recovery.” Charlotte burbled, trying to wrap her head around everything.

“I said it’s therapeutic for her, not that she enjoyed it or was immune to what we were seeing. She has more practice at locking these kinds of things away behind mental walls is all.”

“I can see why you’ve been getting worse now,” She muttered quietly, sitting down beside Charles, and wrapping her arms around him. “Seeing something terrible again, and again, when you can’t control it, would do a number on anyone.”

“Can we…” Charles slowly unfolded and looked over at her. “Can we talk about something else, please? This isn’t something that is going to go away. It’s just something that Kira and I need to work through on our own.”

“I don’t, that’s not, we…” She sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s fair. So, let’s try out this repair function. I’m sure there must be some laptops or TVs in the shared inventory. Let’s see how many we have to take parts from to fix one.”

“Thanks sis,” He whispered, his voice choking up. He really hadn’t wanted to talk about it everything they were seeing on a near daily basis any more.

They remained sitting as they each opened up the town menu and found the new option. As soon as they selected the first box, they were offered a selection of where to take the item from. Their personal inventory, the town’s, or the shared inventory.

Charles selected the shared inventory and found a laptop. Next, he moved on to the other boxes and began trying to put in different items. He found that he was able to put in different models of laptops as long as they weren’t too old. However, it didn’t accept any other kind of item.

That was good to know. It meant that they had some leeway when it came to fixing the more rare and expensive items. It was after parts, not the specific model of the laptop. Which made sense, even within the same model, not everything always matched down to the smallest details.

He moved onto the next screen and finally saw how much it was going to cost, along with the length of time. It was going to cost 10UM and five minutes to fix the laptop. Moreover, there was no guarantee that it would work when it was finished. The laptops he had selected might not have the part this one needed to get working again. In which case, he would need to run it through again.

“It kind of feels like a gacha game almost, where we’re rolling the dice. I mean, the odds are good it will be fixed, but you never know. Whatever the gods did to destroy our technology really did a number on everything. It could have to strip all five of these bare just to make one mostly complete laptop.”

Charlotte sent her own order through and slowly nodded. “It does sort of feel like that, yeah. But I wonder what it does with all the bad components. I’m able to fix them with my magic, why can’t it?”

“It’s only a level five dungeon, whatever that even means. Maybe it needs to gain some more experience and grow a few levels before it can do something like that.” Charles said with a shrug.

“I suppose I can see it being an upgrade at some point,” She agreed after a moment. “That still doesn’t explain what happens to all the bad components though.”

“Its version of experience points?” He guessed, watching the timer count down. “Or it could simply store them until it can fix them. Who knows, does it really matter?”

“No, it’s just one of those mysteries that I wanted to know the answer to.”

They chatted about useless things for the next couple of minutes while they waited for it to finish.

“Well,” Charles began as he pushed the power button on the laptop. “It’s nice that multiple items can be started at once, otherwise that five-minute or longer wait would really be a bottleneck. We’ll need to find out how many items it can do at once though, and maybe always have it working on a hard, long-term project.”

Charlotte nodded and pressed the power button on her own laptop. Hers chimed and booted up without a problem, while Charles’ did nothing. He would need to run it through again.

“Agreed. Complex projects, like medical or factory equipment, if it can, would be best. We need to get some factories back up and running.” She shook her head with a wry smile. “We also need to make sure people can stay safe while working. Which means they’ll need to be inside the town walls. In time each town really will become a city again.”

“We’ve done the best we can for everyone, but we aren’t their leaders. I don’t know what we are anymore.”

“Guardian angels,” Charlotte replied glibly. “That’s what we are, you and Kira especially. The two of you step out of portals and save people’s lives. We’re the guardian angels of the human race on Earth. Well, most of it, at least. The Asian gods have blocked access to most of their continent. I can only assume they are saving the people there themselves.”

“Well, I suppose that’s better than superheroes, but only just.” Charles put the laptop back in for another repair cycle while they continued talking. “Speaking of which, Alli wants to start teaching us about our powers and abilities more often. She knows we’re in uncharted waters, but she has all that information from Alaria and wants to help.”

“Can we even do anything with our powers yet? I mean, besides making our eyes glow and enhancing our existing abilities, it hasn’t done much for me. I know we both have the ‘Mists of Dispersion’ spell from when we unlocked our divine element abilities, but that’s it. I don’t have much hope for us being able to control anything until we manage to awaken more of our Godhood, or whatever.”

“Probably true, but it’s important to her, so we need to make some time, regardless.”

“Fine, it’s not like it’s a chore being around Alli, or Silvi, whichever name she is going by at the moment.” Charlotte flicked through the menu, looking through each option with a critical eye. “Have you talked to her yet?”

“No! Come on, we only talked about it this morning. We’ve been busy. I was planning on doing it tonight if we got a moment.” He leaned back, letting his head thump against the wall. “Now I’m not so sure. I think one heavy discussion a day is quite enough. Having two might just bring me to tears.”

“I can understand that. Just don’t put it off for too long.”

Charles retrieved the completed laptop. The time to fix it had been significantly shorter this time. It started right up with the press of a button. “Well, the repair function works, but it is somewhat finicky.”

His sister nodded. “It can be as finicky as it wants. I don’t care. As long as I don’t have to put up with requests to fix crap for people anymore!”

Charles took a moment to move the tree from in front of the playground and then they went back to the main area.

Scott was pushing Myri and Silvi on the swings, while Kate and Beth were climbing the trees. Kory, Krystal, and Kira were watching from close by on a picnic blanket, with some food spread out around them.

“So, what did you decide? Are you going to move up here?” Charles asked, sitting down beside Kira.

She elbowed him in the side with a narrowed look.

“Uh, no, we actually let the matter drop entirely after the two of you left.” Her father replied. “And with that in mind, we do actually have something for you and Kira. We mentioned bringing these earlier, if you remember?”

The next second, a stack of maps appeared in Krystal’s hands. “On these maps are all the information from the exploration and rescue teams from the other towns that have begun trickling in over the last few days. Each mark is a spot where a team found a group of people that were unwilling to move. Instead, they wanted to have a town created at their location.

“Some of them will be impossible since they are too close together. However, others should be doable. The teams encouraged people to move locations when they could. Safety in numbers and all that. Along with the hope that a town marker would form. They’ve also marked down where they ran into nests and groups of monsters, hostile or not.”

Kira carefully took the stack of maps from her mother and began spreading them on the floor.

“Well, I guess we won’t be needing to look quite as hard for survivors for the next little while,” Charles muttered, taking in the dozens of marks on the maps.

“There are more in the towns on other continents as well. We simply didn’t bring those maps up with us,” Kory told them with a grin. “Kira told us a little about what you’ve been running into, and we thought these might help. The teams have been working their way through the… filth themselves. There’s a fairly high turnover rate right now with each of the teams that have run into those problems.”

“Few of the people in the teams can handle seeing all that again and again.” Krystal finished for him with a brittle smile.