“If we’re staying then we should establish a base. Let’s split up in groups of two and move through these two blocks,” I pointed to the position. “We want a vehicle; we want somewhere to sleep; and we want supplies. We have a little less than an hour before next spawn, so meet up here before then.”

I ended up orchestrating the groups. I sent Alan with Maria, Thomas with Anna, and Richard with Lucas. Two blocks were within Jessica’s radar, and we were all in earshot of each other. There was minimal risk of any problems, but at least these groups were balanced enough if something did happen.

After that, I just started to walk with Jessica on my side. This area had hardly been affected by fighting and yet was still a wreck. The road was almost completely blocked up by cars and all the good shops had been ransacked and broken into. Even the cars themselves had been robbed as glass covered the streets.

“I don’t know if we’re ready,” Jessica said.

“For Rotterdam?”

“That, and for whatever is coming next.”

“What’s on your mind?” I asked.

“Another secret shop? The Fiend? More True Believers? There’s so much. I feel like we’ve wasted so much time.” It was true that we had spent so much time just moving around as well as in trying to start the farm and get back from the secret shop teleportation.

“We’ll level here for a few days and catch back up to where we should be,” I replied. But it was true that we had wasted a lot of time. If Jessica and I had simply hunkered down at Withersburg and ground out the levels, we could probably have been near thirty by now.

“I also feel that the choices that brought us here: they were the right ones.”

I suddenly wondered if this was her Inner Calm talking. We protected those women. We liberated the farm from Ghost Hand. Those were good things we did, even if they weren’t the most efficient use of our time. “I don’t regret them,” Jessica continued, “But more and more I feel like I need to prioritize us and not other people.”

“There’s nothing wrong with feeling that way. It’s just the direction this world is going.” I actually didn’t think her thoughts were a result of Inner Calm. Putting our own group first was just a natural conclusion from living in a world like this. You constantly had to make real choices, and some of those raised you higher while stomping someone else down. Those that were coldhearted and ruthless probably made out the best, but in turn you needed to be willing to give up your humanity.

I hadn’t reached that point yet and hoped to never have to make a decision between our progress and that of another group of decent people. Jessica wasn’t there yet either, but somehow or another she had trapped herself in this loop of feeling the need to push on while wanting to help others. The demands of the situation conflicted with her morality, putting her in a spiral that only perpetuated itself further.

“You’re in control of where you go,” I said, “I’ll be there, too.” She nodded and forced a smile. I could only hope that my reassurances were doing something to help; but only time would tell.

Everyone was already waiting for us when we returned around an hour later. The elites hadn’t spawned yet. “Wow, looking snazzy,” Jessica said. Everyone but Jessica and I had taken the opportunity to acquire a new wardrobe.

“Is the clothes store near?” I asked. I was in dire need of new clothes. My pants were caked with dried blood and the shirt under my armor was greasy with sweat.

“Yeah, and there is plenty for everyone; you can probably find yourself a new pair of shoes, too,” Alan answered excitedly. Alan obviously didn’t recognize the genius that were my boots: the Corpse Runners. They may have been made of human remains and they certainly looked their three hundred years, but they gave me a level of Skeletal Mastery and made me move quicker.

“Richard found a vehicle as well,” Lucas said, “an SUV.”

Eyes closed, Richard couldn’t hold back from making a proud face. If I had started clapping and cheering he would have walked like he was on a red carpet. Eventually, he opened his eyes in a squint to find everyone was looking at him. “Do you know what an Escalade is?” he asked.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“Second block at the end, I have the keys so it’s not going anywhere.”

“Good job.” I said. Transportation was our number one priority, and we were only just now getting it. The SUV was going to save us at least a day or two of walking and made me feel a lot better about staying here for some days and farming the Elites.

“Our spawn should be about now,” Alan said. He started to smack his sword into his shield in anticipation. I was about to tell him to knock it off when the next pair of mobs spawned. This time it was a troop of chimpanzees.

Two days passed by in a blur. By now, the overall theme of this location had become pretty clear. I felt like I was in a Jumanji movie, because nothing but jungle creatures were spawning. Even crazier was the diversity of the mobs – every kind of large jungle animal – and that sort of solidified my fear that there would be multiple levels within the dungeon. If the different mobs we encountered each had their own environment, that suggested that the place must be huge.

Only after fifteen spawns did our camp spot start spitting out repeats, but that was a lot of monsters. Not only had everyone leveled at least twice, Richard and Anna were in a more comfortable range to gain a share of our group EXP.

The speed of leveling was insane for the effort, and the drops were even better. Elites rained loot like nothing else, and I even worried that we were spoiling ourselves to the point of future ruin.

Name: Mike Reynolds (27) Class: Necromancer Level: 24 EXP: 2%

HP: 1210/1210 MP: 390/485

STR: 5 Fear Resistance: 5

AGI: 2

DEX: 5

VIT: 29 +14

WIS: 27 +26

Available: 9

Skills: [A] Summon Skeleton LV. 10| [A] Summon Skeleton Mage LV. 4| [A] Decay LV. 3| [A] Reanimate Dead LV. 3| [A] Bone Armor LV. 2 | [A] Vast Shadows | [A] Temporary Grave LV. 1 | [P] Sixth Sense | [P] Bravery LV. 2 | [P] Mutated LV. 3| [P] Pain Resistance LV. 2 | [P] Skeletal Mastery LV. 4| [P]Intimidate Living |[P] Inner Calm LV. 2 |[P] Necrotic Vision|[P] Blood Thirsty LV. 1

We were grinding easily, without much thought, so I hadn’t allocated my stat points. Summon Skeleton had reached level 10, which granted a third Skeleton General: something I had been hoping for desperately.

Besides that, Summon Skeleton Mage gained two levels and went to Level Four. I was hoping that some sort of Skeletal Mage General would come from levelling up, but that didn’t happen when the base level reached 3. Maybe it just happened at a higher level than the regular summon skill on account of being a higher-level ability.

Other than those two skills and Decay, I wasn’t training anything else. It also seemed that getting the next level of Decay wasn’t going to come easy.

In between pulls was relaxation and scavenge time: I got myself a brand-new set of clean clothes.

The biggest upside from the grind was the loot. Our supplies were now well stocked, as each Elite pack dropped multiple Rations. The gear itself was insane too. Even Lucas, who had been with us from the get go, was still missing multiple pieces of gear. As a result of this camp, he had six and everyone had at least four items.

Apparently, I had been incredibly lucky with gear, as I had seven pieces going into the grind. In fact, the only slots I was missing gear for were a pair of gloves and an amulet. Funnily enough, a generic caster glove dropped that Anna – surprisingly – didn’t need, which put me at eight out of nine equipment slots filled.

Gloves of the Serpent: WIS +3

A simple pair of snakeskin gloves.

The stat boost was literally all they did: there was absolutely nothing else special about them at all. They did feel quite nice on the hands though, and so I equipped them happily enough.

We also found six skill books, and two of them went directly to Anna and Richard.

Book of Frost Blades LV 1.

Cast Time: 1.5 Seconds

MP Cost: 18

Distance: 5 Meters

Shoots a blade of ice that lengthens as it travels outward. Deals less damage the farther it travels.Critical strike chance increases as distance is traveled.

Frost Blades seemed like an interesting skill, and it became even more interesting when Anna demonstrated it for us. When she cast, a fully formed blade of ice about a great sword in length shot out horizontally. As it traveled forward, the blade stretched and thinned until it was as thin as a razor blade. At five meters it was as thin and as long as it would become.

The skill demonstrated quite well what the tooltip said. It definitely held the most force and power when it first formed. As the blade grew thinner, it had an easier time piercing defense with how sharp it became, which is where the critical strike came in. The sweet spot was definitely going to change for each enemy you encountered, but that made for a more versatile ability.

Richard also received an ability, but his was more geared towards aggro control and tanking than damage.

Book of Holy Ground LV 1.

Cast Time: Instant

MP Cost: 25

Cooldown: 1 Minute

Distance : 2 Meters around the caster.

Duration: Five seconds

Creates a ground of unholy light around the caster that blinds and damages nearby enemies. Enemies within the holy ground burn for one percent of their HP per second and have their hit chance reduced by twenty percent. Affect is doubled against demon and undead enemies.

This was a fabulous skill that was multi-faceted. The blind effect acted as a defense, it dealt damage, and it could attract the attention of multiple enemies. Unfortunately, Richard really wasn’t suited to be tanking packs of mobs: his skills shined in one-on-one encounters.

Richard and Anna had the fastest progress of anyone. At first we were taking most of their EXP from them, but as soon as they reached level seventeen, and were within five levels of Jessica and I, their EXP gain skyrocketed.

They were both nearly level twenty-one now, and the other four were level twenty three. The EXP crunch was immense, which meant the requirement for the next level was going to get harder and harder.

Still, everyone was pumped up. The decision to stay till the fourth day was absolutely the correct one, and no one even hinted at wanting to leave. Even Richard, who had been on the fence, didn’t voice a complaint about needing to hurry up to save his brother. In fact, no one mentioned Rotterdam after the first day.

Even my skeletons were getting fully equipped. My new skeleton general wielded a scythe that was as big as he was. If I could have given him a black cloak, you would have sword he was the Grim Reaper incarnate. Besides that, a rapier had dropped, which I threw onto a regular skeleton warrior. I was within one of having every warrior fully geared with a weapon. The dream goal of equipping them all with armor, though, was quite far off though.

No matter what monster came out of the dungeon, we dispatched it with ease. The hardest part now was fighting off the boredom. The fights never lasted more than a minute and afterwards you needed to wait an entire hour.

During the downtime, we walked around all the streets near to the dungeon checking the shops and clearing the yard trash: an entire ten block radius had been swiped clean. We out-geared and out-leveled this place completely. “Enjoy it while it lasts! Haahha!” Alan said, while skipping down the road. He was a wild one, and was really starting to get a love for battle.

Eventually I worked up the nerve to ask him what happened: why had he changed so much? He explained that he had a passive called Battle Hungry, and apparently it was already Level Four. Jessica tried to hide it well, but I could see her flinch when Alan described the skill.

It was easy to see the change in Alan’s behavior. He had been adventurous when we met him, but to this extent? Not even close. People do change, but this was drastic to the point where he was thirsting for battle; as if he faced death every day; as if he would die of boredom without mortal combat.

“It’s just fun,” he said. It wasn’t a bad passive to have. I could tell it removed some of the fear he had for combat. He wasn’t making the sole decisions here anyway – no one was – so it would be impossible for him to influence the group to make a bad decision for a pointless fight.

This is exactly what a party is for. I thought. We were a mesh of very different people that fit together well. We filled in the gaps of each other’s weaknesses with our strengths. The sooner Jessica could see that, the sooner she would be out of her rut. Moreover, all the progress we’d made by grinding meant her stress that we had fallen behind the curve of the game’s challenges lessened every day.