Marri went through a flux of emotions as I told her my partially summarised story, all the way from the start where I had the bright idea to jump into the Cage-eater demon’s gob where she gave me a playful ballslap and called me a mega-titface; the ballslap was painful..But justified..It was a true rollercoaster for her, especially when I told her about my kidnapping and whole other fictional life Siya had implanted in my memories; I had decided to spare her the full details about my somewhat unconfirmed-but-unlikely sexual assault, unsure if Siya is even compatible with humans in that regard, just explaining how I woke up naked and emphasizing how she had mangled legs that were going gangrene and didn’t know if I was going to murder her or leave her to die..the stuff with the soulbinding she was fascinated if we could do it between us, but Siya had already told me it wasn’t a shareable skill. Marri didn’t show any upset over it, but I knew she had recorded my words very carefully and was most likely going to ask Siya about a lot of questions when an appropriate time was available.

She did a yikes grimace when I talked about the collossals, the corrupted and some of my disturbing encounters. She smiled fondly when I told her about Mya and her boy and she laughed when I spoke of Grave’s majestic entrance. I received another ballslap as I confessed diving head first into the sea of monsters to save Vyloyn, the Archon, telling me that I shouldn’t blindly listen to quests or messages from strangers, “especially for women that have hot names”, and when I finally got to the cube, aka the arena, I struggled with some of my words and horrible memories, but…I wanted to get it off my chest, even if I was petrified that she would think differently of me. As I spoke about it, trying my best to spare her the truly sadistic details, and she gave me big squeezy hugs periodically, which really was the best therapy. She was gobsmacked when I told her about my escape, including Siya’s mythical rescue, but she really struggled with the part of how I had effectively decapitated myself to get the slave band off, which is, understandable, I had to explain it a second time and she just put her hands in her face and told me to please carry on. So I continued with Seren’s and mine retribution and how I made sure that ‘management’ would not be managing anything anytime soon..although that silent rapier guy did get away..But I’m sure he won’t come looking for me, he didn’t seem the type.

We were interrupted as I got to the part about meeting Kate and Vamp, as Sylvie and Steve started sending messages and calling out that the wounded were ready and that we were going to move in 5 minutes.

The convoy was around 300-400 people at a rough guess, the formation of which was based simply on sticking together either in your family unit or the newly created groups that people were forming thanks to the group up skill that had now been shared to everyone that could receive it, and the strongest groups were stuck at the front and back, with the most vulnerable sticking close to the middle; I myself was in a group with Siya, Triya and Marri, but Siya and Triya joined at the very front, whilst we stayed a few rows behind.

As we left the estate and headed down the main road, we hadn’t travelled for 5 minutes before out came a call to stop the column, as ahead of us was a large group of people heading our way. Tensions immediately rose.

A rough voice called out.

“Aye there! Don’t be alarmed! We don’t want any trouble!” The voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t see the source, so I told Marri to follow me carefully as I weaved us through the crowd; people had their hands on weapons, still wound up tightly after the very recent and raw battle.

“Oh is that right? Where are you headed? And I’ll just add, yes, you really don’t want any trouble with us.” Catara, the diplomat.

“Heh of course Miss. Of course..Well, I don’t suppose yer have a lady called Marri with you do ya?-” My skin immediately pricked up. “-Or a strapping lad called Godu? I met him on the road and uhh, was wondering if he made it safely?”

I grinned as I got eyes on the short gruff man, with the long dark-reddish beard that reminded me of a half dwarf.

It’s Rant, shit I completely forgot about them.

“It’s okay guys, I know him, they helped me out on the way.” As I walked towards him, Marri, Catara, Briggs, Siya, Sylvie and a few others walked with me. I heard Catara grumbling to Marri about how I still too trusting and naive, making Marri giggle.

I glanced back at Catara and gave her a cocky look. “He’s got beer and a guy that can create ice.”

She looked at Briggs for a pause before pushing him back a bit and started to comically adjust her armour and tidy her hair. Briggs gave her a flat stare but I could see a hint of jealousy in his eyes.

Rant was incredibly jolly as we exchanged pleasantries but he quickly turned sombre as he gave a short story about their attempt to get to their destination. In a nutshell, they had to fight through the roaming swarms of husks, tragically losing people and then only to arrive at the weapons research base to find it practically levelled and crawling with monsters. He emphasized how soul crushing it was but then remembered our conversations and made the grueling trip back in a last ditch attempt; he was beaming with relief that he had just caught us in time, and before he had even broached the obvious question, a message popped into the black thoughtspace of my mind.

ESCORT THE SURVIVORS - COMPLETED.

…

SUCCESS: ADDITIONAL MEMBERS FOR SAFE ZONE..COMPLETE.

Huh. I did wonder about that-Wait..How the hell did the task know this was going to be the outcome!

He didn’t mince his words when he asked if they could come with us and before Catara or Sylvie could respond, he was quick to mention they had special crafting skills that allowed them to build up the travelling wagons which would help protect us all as we travelled to wherever it was we were going.

I only loosely listened as my mind was trying to make sense of this precognition revelation.

“-And cold beer, right?” Catara spoke whilst pulling the most disturbing fake smile.

“Hah! I see we left a good impression on the big guy.” He pointed at me but I was staring off into the distance, deeply troubled by what most would probably just shrug off, but it almost felt sinister.

“Uhh big guy?”

The words went in one ear and out the other.

That task, it somehow knew they would end up joining us? Or did it create the conditions to ensure they would have to?..They’re from Sigura..does..she, or it, know what’s going to happen? She did warn me about how I would need to make a choice..

“Hmm. Don’t worry about him, he’s probably fantasizing about his wife butt naked-”

“Catara!!” Marri exclaimed but Catara just continued with a smirk.

“-Anyways, how about we get sorted with those vehicles and discuss more over a nice cold one.”

They spoke for a bit more but before I knew it, people walked off and Marri hooked her arm into mine and nudged me to follow so I obliged.

“What’s on your mind hon?” Her voice was so pleasant to hear that it shook me out of my deep dive of thoughts. I explained to her the pending task that had just completed, nearly spilling the beans about Sigura’s warning, and therefore, existence, but managed to catch myself, remembering her stark warning which I had decided to take as an absolute, after witnessing evidence of her precognition.

Feels bad to keep secrets but rather this than risk anything happening to Lone.

“Oh wow. That is creepy! Very, very spooky..But have you considered that maybe the task was pending because it didn’t know if they would join or not?..Eh? Eh? See I’m not all beauty and brawn, I’ve got the smorts.” She giggled.

Hm. Yes that’s a good point, but, if only you knew what I saw on the base..

“Maybe Steve will have some thoughts on it. Or Triya, I know Xno sometimes has all this super important knowledge, but doesn’t share unless asked. Typical bot. Like, a while ago I asked about why some mobs drop items and others don’t and he was all like ‘calculations based on EXP density differentials between two entities, determine the range of probability, factored by the excess’. Triya didn’t have a fricking clue what she was translating hehe! But basically, if you kill something that is strong, it has more EXP excess that you can claim, thus, the higher potential for items. A bit like how an ant would not be able to eat a whole Happy meal, but the same meal wouldn’t be enough for an adult..Oh gods I miss fast food, owww..” She lamented, moaning softly as she most undoubtedly started to day dream about burger and fries from the old times.

Old times..Ha. Seems like such a distant memory.

The uncanny game-like logic did not escape me but as always there was nothing to do but shrug it off.

Maybe I’m just an NPC in a hyper-realistic game and I just don’t know it yet. Who bloody knows..

…

..

.

~100 people stronger our journey continued, once our new people were very quickly greeted and introduced of course, including after some very welcomed and appreciated medical treatment had been applied to some of the severely wounded of them; It seems we have extremely potent healers. They couldn’t regenerate limbs from nothing or purge the more deadlier of infections.

They had a handful of people who held a unique skill, which allowed them to build up the unique caravans, each of which having a comfortable capacity of 20-30 people-depending on how squished up said people wanted to be. But in the end space wasn’t an issue, as those that were more comfortable outside simply chose to jog along the column flanks, or sit up on the roofs which left plenty of room for all after they finished building a couple of additional caravans.

It was quite an uplifting and morale boosting experience for everyone. There was a constant chatter of pleasantries and remarks about how comfortable and cosy the caravans felt, and I could see the comfort was the perfect breeding ground for long lasting bonds to form as conversations ranged from survival tips, experiences and monsters, to similar classes discussing their own capabilities and differences.

I sat with Marri and continued my story, following on from where I met Kate, Vamp and co.

She was fully invested in my story, giving expressions of worry, shock and wonder when I talked about the disturbing leather twigs, the tree-like monsters, and the team effort to break through the shield lines the exit; she nearly fell of her seat when I got to the part where we were about to abandon our critical chance to escape, as the corrupted started to close in and the doors were opening too slowly, until Vivatti and his elite corrupted clearing squad swooped in and cut them down. She was shocked when she realised how I’d only escaped just a few days ago, with Siya cutting the remaining journey to a mere couple of days, that would have originally taken us weeks or months on foot; even with Slipfold..And she ‘Aww’d’ when I told her about Immo and her backstory, expressing the urgency in her new main quest to befriend the beautiful big wolf so that she would naught feel lonely again. The colossals quite rightly terrified her as much as our bloody awful channel tunnel experience, and she thanked me afterwards for giving her a phobia of potholes and cracks. I skimmed a bit over meeting Rant, my Tanner revival experience and the apartment complex I found Triya, but I did point out my disapproval of Triya’s exile, to which Marri agreed and said she had protested as much, which had led to her and Kelly falling out for a while.

This led naturally to her telling me what happened from her point of view, starting with the day that I didn’t come back.

We slowed down a bit as there was some commotion outside, and monsters could be heard screeching with thuds and shouting, as people started to fight. Shortly, Siya updated us to say that they were just ‘trash monsters’, a phrase picked up from her new best bud Triya, and that there wasn’t anything to worry about.

Marri continued that, on the day, the others returned and gave their witness accounts, which could be summarized as ‘he fucking jumped into its mouth and then imploded like a black pissing hole!’ but it was Steve who had put two and two together and was had to stress the fact that we had recently been testing Slipfold in his garden and that it could sever matter as part of the folding process. So although sketchy, that was the agreed situation and there was nothing for them to do but wait and see. So Marri waited. And waited. And the others waited. But after a few weeks she started to lose hope and fear the worst, up to the awfully painful point of considering whether she should have a funeral for me..But coincidently, she said, at the exact same time she had considered those thoughts, she was distracted by a ‘fairy’ orb floating overhead, and she watched as it gently went down and etched a message in the dirt.

TITFACE IS ALIVE. GOING TO BRING HIM HOME.

This fairy orb then shot off into the sky and Marri was left puzzled yet somewhat comforted as that was her favourite word to call me if I was stepping out of line or if she was mildly irritated with something I was doing.

So things started to change as the military started to take a bit of control over the estate although after Catara’s past career was brought to light, she sort of became the middleman between. The military provided supplies, defenders and also training, and in exchange the estate would help with construction of the alien Majik buildings as well as running errands and item retrieval tasks for the base. Things started to look positive as people got stronger from the training and absorbing EXP from the monsters that were hunted..but then the husk army came, they had to evacuate to the army base and things generally went to shit for the following weeks after that as the base came under siege. Repulsively, the Carrion Baron, or Arkly the shitstain I should say, attempted to negotiate a few times to stop his attacks, in exchange for people but thankfully no such trades had been made; the only exchanges were words telling him to fuck off.

Lone had awoken, and started to sigh and make ‘ooo’, ‘aah’ noises whilst reaching up towards Marri’s face; his sign to let her know he was peckish, so she obliged and started to nurse him. The sight of seeing my family relatively safe and my little boy thriving was warming beyond words that I could describe. Everything that’s happened up until was worth it. No matter the scars. It was worth it.

#G#Siya# Strong monsters. Up ahead. I might need your support Godu. Triya is strong but also very delicate.

#G#Triya# WOW. Don’t sugar coat your words girl, sheesh!..Xno is heading over to confirm.

#G#Siya# Hmm. Yes. The floaty ball is slow.

Marri looked at me with a raised eyebrow; I shrugged.

#G#Godu# What about the others Siya?

#G#Siya# If I sense correctly they could defeat them with their combined skills. But more importantly if we both fight the advantage will be great enough to reduce the risk of anyone falling or even slowing our travel.

“You going to be okay in here if I go help?” I asked.

“Psch! Hun. I’ve managed to cope .” She stuck her tongue out at me and gave me a half smile. “But just be careful okay? Strictly NO jumping into demon muncher-thingy mouths!..Please don’t leave us behind again.”

I rubbed her shoulder, leaned over and kissed her on the head as I stood up. “Of course. You have my word on that, my beautiful, smart, wonderful, hot lady.”

“Ooh yes, please continue to shower your lovely wife with compliments..who knows, you might get lucky if you keep it up..and stay alive, of course.” She gave me a cute, innocent look. The kind that females have been passing down through generations. One of their many secret weapons that I’m sure has been used to influence the destiny of countless men throughout the course of history..I tried to stare her down, uncover her teasing, waiting for the burst of laughter or a twitch of her smile, but it didn’t come.

Balls: Wait. WAIT. HOLY SHIT BOYS. ARE YOU SEEING THESE READINGS???

Brain: N-no-no-no..That can’t be right..surely it was just in jest?

Heart: FULL STEAM AHEAD???

Gut: Ohhh but I’ve got a pretty good feeling it wasn’t! Look at those eyes!

Brain: BAH. You always say that-AND WOAH CHILL HEART CHILL. We don’t want to cause any awkward social situations now! STAY CALM! There are civilians around!

Balls: LOOK. BOYS, boys. I don’t usually say this but, I think this is it. We’re going to make it..and it’s you guys that are going to get us there. I believe in you all..sniff, I love you guys.

Brain: Wow. Who’s this guy? I like him.

Gut: Yeahhh that’s the spirit! I think I’m tearing up, group hug!

Spirit: Did someone mention my-

Brain: There he is! Get in here you little scoundrel! And you too, heart! We’re all in this together!

Heart: Wooo sir yes sir! I’m FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCKING READY TO GO AT A MOMENTS NOTICE! JUST GIVE ME THE WORD!

New quest unlocked.

…

The caravan was already aware of the threat up ahead and had slowed down as a precuation, and after communicating with Rant and Steve, who were jointly navigating and coordinating our convoy, they explained that we were just coming up to roughly halfway to our destination, and we were near the town of Andover. Xno had returned and reported back that there was a group of fish-headed humanoids being led by a giant one. Me, Siya and a few volunteers sped ahead and engaged the awful looking things. The big one looked like a bloated 3 metre tall man with an enlarged fish head with sharp needle teeth, and the smaller ones all had different types of fish heads but with human features still mixed in like a large human nose or stretched, multiple ears for gills. They weren’t exactly strong as we took them down flawlessly, and I immediately asked Siya if there was something I was missing; she replied that she was unsure herself and it was like the creatures were wearing a mask that made them appear stronger from a distance. It ended up being a fairly straightforward fight where I stunned or crippled the small fry whilst keeping the large one busy, and the others rained down attacks and finished them off before then taking careful turns to attack the large one before Siya executed a scythe missle attack, which was simply just her flying extremely fast and then sticking out her cloak wing to the side like a scythe and reaping its head off. It was the first bit of EXP I’d got in a while since the husks gave nothing, but I could tell that it was still a small amount considering they were only MAGN level 60-70 and I was..

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.81.999

HP 1620/1620

MP 1618/1887

EP 80%

DS 100%

SWRD 99

SHLD 100

FTHR 117

GLYP 133

xx.999 means a pending level up! Yipee!

We had just enough time left to clear the road of the corpses before the convoy arrived, but I was interested to see a couple of the new folk butcher some of the teeth, bone, claws and skin, carefully wrapping it up in cloth and putting it away. They realised we were not doing the same practice and explained something we had only just recently found out; monster parts can be used to fashion weapons that is more effective against them.

Well, more game logic that I’ve witnessed coming into play..I wonder if those scientists know about this.

We carried on our journey and had to stop a few more times, dealing with a large stickman that we absolutely steamrolled since it was MAGN 30; bringing great satisfaction and a twisted sense of nostalgia to everyone that had been in the estate from the very start. Then we had a bit of a dicey situation as we were swarmed by a horde of skullwearers; their levels weren’t high, but their numbers made it very difficult for me to fight effectively so I left it to ranged sorcery types and just focused on protecting them as they created inferno’s and showers of plasma. The last stop was due to an unexpected roaming band of deer-like things that had their hooves replaced with sharp chitin blades and their mouths had turned into circular leech mouths with jagged triangular teeth lining the inside. The freakiest part about them was that they would run up tree trunks with extreme agility and jump from tree to tree, stabbing their blades into the wood as they travelled; it was just utterly unnatural to witness. Fortunately, they were not interested in fighting against such a large group as ours after the first one that got too close was cleaved by Catara.

As we travelled the last few kilometers to salisbury plains, I got more info from Catara as to why we were going there and the longer term plan in general. It had been part of a few objectives the military base had come up with due to the extremely large unoccupied area being ideal for building a long term defendable settlement. It was a huge plateau, meaning you could see for kilometres in any direction thanks to the mostly flat grassland, and this meant from a defensive point of view, you could start off small but then build walls on the outer layers, expanding over time to accommodate however many people that wanted to stay. But the area also had rivers, lakes and small patches of woodland dotted about, which would be essential for resource farming. The place was infamously known for munitions testing and military shooting ranges, but more famously for stonehenge and other archealogical sites, not that wouldn’t be of much use to us.

We arrived as it was starting to get very dark, but the caravans and carts had strip lighting, powered by Majik of course, that illuminated the darkness ahead, allowing us to travel the final part without too much trouble apart from a handful of straggling nocturnal horrors attempting to grab an easy snack from the rear of the convoy; we didn’t lose anyone though thanks to Siya and the protection afforded from the caravans.

Steve was supported by recovery Majik as he constructed another makeshift cave in the ground, and the caravans were parked up at the entrance to help defend the entrance. People then started to organise themselves, planning logistics along with what needed to be done, who was going to sleep where, who was going on watch first, what we were going to eat etc, and it wasn’t long before open tasks were written and stuck on the wall, with plenty of eager volunteers snapping them up, happy to contribute to increasing our chances of survival, or just to earn some rewards. Probably alcohol or comforts I bet.

We were afforded the luxury of having Steve make me and Marri a private room, along with extra comfy blankets, partly for Lone’s sake but also as a reward for sticking my neck out to save them. It was humbling, and in an attempt to defuse the imposter syndrom, I reminded him that if he needed anything, I could probably retrieve it within minutes so long as I could wrap my arms around it and if I had a slipfold anchor near it, and he had responded saying that it was much appreciated and that there would definitely be something coming up shortly. The ‘something’ turned out to be the AWE scientists that had escaped via the transport tunnel to burghfield. They had originally planned to ask to be extracted in the morning, but were asking for urgent assistance in getting out as they were near the large town of Reading which was a complete warzone teeming with monsters on the best of days, including having a confirmed corrupted population that reportedly liked to roam around and in fact were the very reason for their keenness to get out as a few had been sighted close by; something we would have to start planning against now that the husk army wasn’t there to accidently defend us..Although Steve wasn’t only burying the husk remains, he also extracted a very sizeable haul of bones and claws from them. Smart man..

The plan to extract them was pretty straightforward, involving me and Siya to return back to aldermaston, fly straight to burghfield and then I would Slipfold the 42 scientists and military that were waiting there all the way back to salisbury; all in all it was expected to take just under an hour as long as no complications arose. I made sure to check with Marri beforehand to which she replied “We’ll definitely need their help since they can build the reinforced buildings..Just be careful..Oh and make sure you pick up some curtains or sheets so we can give ourselves some privacy; Lone’s a very heavy sleeper but, still. And make sure to not take too long, I’m getting a little bit sleepy myself..”

There were no other such words that were more motivational than that and I hurriedly found Siya and let her know we would be going straight away.

We slipfolded cautiously to a main road, away from the base, and Siya picked me up and took off, heading in the direction and finding the road that Steve advised we should follow. The other site was only 10km away so it would be a 10 minute flight, but along the way Siya caught me off guard with a request..

#Siya# Godu?

#Godu# Hm? Yes?

#Siya# Could I come stay with you and your family tonight? After you finish your mating rituals with Marri of course.

I nearly choked.

#Godu# W-wha-Oh. Um..

Right. Um. Not sure how to answer that.

Being honest with myself, I realised it was going to feel weird not having Siya sleeping close by. It had been a critical survival tactic that had proven itself plenty of times where we’d had to either flee or fight an attacking monster, but in every instance, Siya had been the one to alert me thanks to her preternatural senses.

#Godu# I reckon it will be fine, but let me check with Marri okay? Not because I don't want you around, but because I need to be considerate of what she wants as well. It’s one of those human things you might find weird because you’d think we’d do anything to minimize risks, but even before there were monsters, parents would encourage even their children to sleep by themselves, to encourage independence..Um if that makes sense.

#Siya# Hmm okay. Yes. Strange. The most vulnerable of the family unit is exiled whilst the comparatively strongest still sleep next to each other..Okay.

#Godu# Yeah! Well..Huh...Yeah. Actually thinking about it, parents themselves don't sleep alone...Seems a bit unfair doesn’t it..

I didn’t want to ask Marri over mindspeak as normally it would be the kind of thing that would start alarm bells ringing in any rational wifes mind. “Oh can this young, pretty mothgirl sleep in the same room as us? Nooo don’t worry about that time, we’ve slept in the same room many nights now..alone, together. Nothing has happened I swear it.”

Yeah. She trusts me but I don’t want to test that trust..I’ll need to give her some context in person before I ask.

My nightvision skill wasn’t doing too well at this distance, reminding me to upgrade it as soon as possible, but we found the base as well as seeing the flashing lights in the distance where hell knows what kind of battles were taking place over in Reading. Although to be fair, it doesn’t look too different to when Reading festivals used to be on.

The base itself had taken a beating, with buildings turned to rubble with some missing huge chunks like a black hole had spontaneously appeared and taken a huge clean bite out of it, but through Catara relaying messages, we located the small shed that housed the entrance to the underground depot and spotted one of the soldiers down on one knee, scanning her surroundings. It was somewhat anticlimatic as we went down and identifid ourselves; they had already prepared a neat line in the order that I would take them, so I gave them all a quick brief of what was going to happen and then we proceeded. Each person took less than 10 seconds to slipfold, step away and then I would slipfold back, rinse and repeat. No nasty surprises, no monster attacks, just a pleasant, smooth, escrot. All in all it took probably 5 minutes before Siya, who had been lazily sitting as a guard, got back up, stretched and hopped over to me, giving me thumbs up before showing off and summersaulting over my head and onto my back. Light as a feather.

#Siya# I'm happy. This was nice. No fear. No fights. No hurting. Just helping. Incoming corrupted danger close.

Feeling satisfied and content, I smiled, acknowledging her blase warning that she'd just casually thrown in there.

#Godu# Yeah. It bloody well was nice wasn’t it. Thanks for the warn-

There was a huge boom and the screech of corrupted rage as they finally found us, but it all cut off as I slipfolded back to the plains.

Our new home.

…

..

.