Ch. 4.17

17.

The first hour passed with ease as they traveled through mostly scouted territory. They didn’t try to move across the seaboard but stuck to the interior of the valley and ran quickly, using the interstate to travel. Nobody struggled at the pace they set and even the hot California sun didn’t bother them too much. Santi used his [Air Current] spell to pull air around him to cool himself and his friends. 

“I’m not going to lie. This is boring as hell,” Cameron said. Santi sighed and looked up at the clear blue sky and rolled his eyes. They hadn’t even made it an hour. 

“Don’t start, please don’t start,” Bianca chided her boyfriend and nudged him with an elbow. Cameron grunted in annoyance but shut up. For about ten minutes. 

By the second hour they were all yelling at Cameron to shut up while Alan laughed at them from the front of the pack. Santi pulled ahead and left the rest of the group to deal with Cameron’s antics as he got to the front of the pack.

“I’m going to scout for a bit. I’ll be back,” Santi warned Naomi and she simply just nodded. Her pace never changed from the long legged jog she was in. Santi took off, stretching his legs and letting his enhanced stats show themselves. He even threw in a few uses of [Windstep] to really distance himself from the group. The dry wind brushed against his face and he let himself enjoy the thrill of running at his top speed. 

The miles melted away as he left the others in his dust. It’d only be a few more minutes before he got close to the ruins of Stockton. It was the first large city in their route and they had planned on skirting the outside edge of it. People at Homebase had been gearing up to send an expedition down the I-5 corridor to see if they could bring in people that way, but it’d be a while before they could launch. Especially as they settled the hundreds of survivors out of Oakland.

Signs of life began to show themselves. Cars arranged in now broken barricades, looted shops, scorch marks where skill or spells had torn apart the area. No one came out to greet him or warn him off though. There was a weakening in the area, a thinning that was reminiscent of being near a rift. The closer he got the worse it became. 

“Either a giant rift or a bunch of small ones. Just gobbling up all the potential in mana in the area.” Santi paused and looked about. There was nothing coming up near him that he could detect with his magical senses. Something was deep inside of the city and it had left little behind. 

“Another day.” The thought of going in and hunting a powerful beast was tempting, but getting bogged down on this trip was out of the question. They had less than a week before the invaders would arrive. The levels would be nice though. Santi was still perched on the precipice of his next level. 

He turned and left the city behind and headed West and edged around the center of the city. Santi had never really paid attention to the maze of interstates and highways that crisscrossed California but planning out this trip had been a migraine and a half. Trying to avoid major cities but still get to Las Vegas in an expeditious manner while not having a high enough average level to just cut completely cross country had been headache inducing. 

“Getting [Flight] the moment I earn it,” Santi groused as he leapt over a partially dried out creek bed and kept moving.  An oversized rat leapt at him as he tramped over its home but Santi split it apart with a flick of his wrist without slowing. Anything below mid-level Acolyte was now just a minor inconvenience for him at best. 

About halfway around the city he paused as he felt something tickle his senses. Santi looked off to the west and around the ruins of an extravagant country club. The golf greens had turned yellow and brown and they crackled under his feet as he walked toward where he felt something with his expanded [Air Current]. 

“Stop!” An imperious voice demanded and a polo wearing mid-fifty year old appeared out of nowhere in front of him. Santi frowned as he stared up at the sun baked man. His clothes were clean and neat, the club in his hand glowed with power, and his hair was perfectly combed over. 

“Club members only. I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the man said as he looked down his nose at Santi. 

Club Master lvl. 37

“Listen, we’re just passing by. No need to get defensive,” Santi tried to keep his cool as the older man stared at him.

“I don’t give a shit. Go around, this is ours,” the man growled, his tone deepening and a dark, ugly expression filling his face. The idiot either didn’t have a skill to identify or hadn’t used it on Santi. That or he didn’t realize the gap in levels between them meant he had as much power over Santi as did the ants crawling across the dirt. 

“Chill, dude. You’re being a dick,” Santi said as his own anger started to surface. He had grown used to being respected and didn’t want to deal with this country club dick. 

The man shook with rage as his face became mottled. A vein pulsed along the side of his head as he leaned down and over Santi. Spittle sprayed out of his mouth as he leaned in to scream in his face. His anger spiked and the morph blade became a long, curved blade without his input. The man didn’t notice it. 

“Glenn, knock your shit off!” a woman’s voice rang out, sharp and cutting as she appeared just as suddenly as the man had. Santi hadn’t registered her appearance or noticed her before she arrived. Some type of shielding was going on here. 

“No! This is ours. Damn vagabonds can go and find their own spot!” 

“Who the hell says vagabond. Pull the cactus out of your ass and move over,” the unnamed woman said and she hipchecked him as passed by. She was middle aged with tan skin and a fading blonde dye job. Tasteful plastic surgery and an increase in stats had helped her avoid the majority of the ravages of aging. 

“I’m Linda. You can ignore Glenn, he’s…not harmless.” 

Illusionist lvl. 36

“How’d you evolve?” Santi asked. The information would begin to spread soon enough, especially with the pillars now on planet, but this was starting to raise his hackles. 

“Nice to meet you too. Now, while Glenn was being quite rude, he’s not incorrect. We aren’t accepting any new residents to our community.” Her smile was plastic and Santi could feel his anger rising. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“I’m not looking for a new place to stay. There’s a community further up the interstate, slowly spreading through the Sac region. If you want to trade or anything you’ll have to send people that way. Though in a few days there should be a few scouts coming down this way,” Santi explained slowly. Linda’s smile faded a bit and Glenn seemed to grow more red in the face. 

“We aren’t giving our supplies away. If you can’t stand by yourself then we can’t help you,” Glenn spat. 

“We don’t need your help. Look at my level you dumbasses!” Santi finally snapped. Both of them stopped and looked above his head and they blanched. Glenn’s fat lips flapped around and Linda drew herself in and straightened subtly. 

“Oh.” She said it slowly and swallowed hard, throat bobbing up and down. She took a deep breath and looked him up and down.

“Regardless, thank you for your information, but we don’t need anything.” Linda glanced left and right to the sides of her, to where the illusion’s demarcation was. Santi tensed as he realized he was likely surrounded. 

“If I hear my people are treated badly when I come back this way, you won’t like what happens,” Santi warned. His patience was gone and he turned to walk away. His back must have given Glenn some type of courage as he snorted wetly.

“Some punk kid giving threats. Need to know your place,” he whispered fiercely and full of vitriol. Santi froze and he felt a flare of heat in him reminiscent to the bloodlust curse that had occupied him not long ago. He forced it away as the tension grew around them. 

“You heard me. Only warning you get.” Santi broke away from them and headed off to finish his arcing route around the city. It took him a few minutes of running before he could let the rage slowly fade away. Aside from the condescension in the former upper crust, he had something new he had to go and look for. Someone had been running around and showing people to evolve and he wanted to know who it was.