PenguinKills

Chapter 149 - The City

Chris

"So this is it. A city," Austin said from where he stood next to me.

Our caravan had crested the grassy hill we stood upon and were given a clear sight of the city in the distance. Or, more accurately, what was left of it.

What met our eye was ruined concrete and rubble. Buildings any taller than a few stories laid on their side or destroyed completely. Any and all glass had long ago shattered.

Buildings of brick held up the best,...

Chapter 148 - Worriers

Nick

A month had passed since Nick planted his pylon and he could hardly believe the difference. Where the area was once full of ruined houses and derelict roads, there now stood real houses and a palisade wrapping around them.

They were barely better than wooden huts and some were basically shacks, but that didn't take away from the accomplishment he felt. It was a far cry from the once modern city blocks but it was a luxury to most that made thei...

Chapter 147 - Wild Speaker

"What is a copper coin even worth?" Vinny asked.

We were on the road again and his cart jostled along next to mine as we walked. The cart rumbling behind him had significant changes made to it during our stop and it grew even larger than the one I pulled.

He made the whole thing fold out into a temporary forge so he could have a better workspace than what he was dealing with. Making it a forge on wheels almost.

It still wasn't enough to handle the Spirit Fire he had purchase...

Chapter 146 - First Headache

Getting Sarah's last level was easy enough. The monsters on the first floor were still low-level enough for her to defeat, even if she thought her class was weak. She had been trying to hunt creatures far higher level than her and concluded that she was weak rather than the level gap was too much.

Her bow skill was enough to breeze by most of the first floor by herself even without my interference. She managed to get her last level mostly alone, with me having to step in only once when ...

Chapter 145 - Not a Ranger

"God Damnit! It's a tease!" I screamed in frustration at the empty tunnel ahead of us.

Austin and I had just finished the seventh-floor guardian and were making our way down to the eighth when the tunnel abruptly ended. As we neared where it ended, the tunnel took on a rougher and more unkept look which should have made the end less abrupt but my mind didn't want it to be so.

The seventh-floor guardian was a great fight where Austin and I had to go n...

Chapter 144 - Richest

"You know, I really thought there would be stairs," Austin's voice echoed off the cave walls we were traveling down.

We were in the process of making our way down to the fifth floor after defeating the fourth floor guardian and it was taking longer than usual. The tunnel extended on for quite a while without a monster to fight leaving us alone with only our footfalls echoing off the tunnel to accompany us.

The fourth guardian was a massive lizard the size of a car that had an eart...

Chapter 143 - First Coin

Chris

"So this is it? This is a dungeon?" I asked after arriving at the place Austin indicated.

Hal was a bit miffed that he spent hours searching for it only to have Austin find it rather than him, but that went to show the power of professions. Hal's Dismantler profession was never going to beat out Austin's Explorer at finding something no one had found before.

"Yep, this is it, baby!" Austin said proudly, pointing a...

Chapter 142 - The Sad Part

The face the girl made at seeing her arrow bounce off my chest made me want to burst out laughing again but I held it in. The girl was terrified and laughing at her wouldn't help matters.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," I said softly, "Why don't you tell me your name."

She was hesitant at first but she eventually told me her name.

"It's Sarah," She mumbled.

"Well hello Sarah, my name is Christopher," I responded lightly.

Her eyes couldn't leave the spot h...

Chapter 141 - Cabin in the Woods

"Alright, let's stop here for the night!" I announced making the caravan ground to a halt.

The clearing we were in wasn't large but it was enough to hold all of us for the night. We were in for another large stretch of woods coming up and this was the last clearing for a while where we wouldn't have to chop down bushes or plants to make camp.

Plus, there was another reason we stopped here for the night. The dungeon wasn't far away now and we would make it either early or mid-morni...

Chapter 140 - Back to the Basics

Chris

We traveled for over a week at the pace we set and we were making... decent time? It was hard to track. The only landmarks we could go off of were rivers and hills and none of us were expert cartographers.

It was easy to confuse one bend of the river with another on the map or one hill with another. Not that there were a lot of hills we were traveling over in Eastern Indiana. Still, we knew the general area we were in and that was enough.

Chapter 139 - Move Out

Chris

"Run that by me one more time. What did he say?" I asked.

"He said to 'Fuck off and leave him alone.'" Hal repeated.

It took Hal a while to find the Beastmaster in question and, apparently, he wasn't a very friendly guy.

"Did you explain our offer to him?"

"Yes, I did. Believe it or not, he did not want to go on a months-long trip to Northern Canada." Hal answered with heavy sarcasm.

I knew the proposition didn't sound...

Chapter 138 - Strong Warriors Don't Cry

With both my affinity and my new Wind Law, it was time to upgrade a skill that was in desperate need of it.

I had held off on upgrading [Hail] precisely because I didn't have all the pieces yet. If I hadn't waited, I would have had to upgrade it along its current path and tread deeper along either its ice creation or have it affect a bigger area.

While both were decent upgrades, that wasn't the direction I wanted to go with it. The skill had fallen off as I leveled and got more po...

Chapter 137 - Laying down the Law

The days since our return picked up in pace after that. It was odd not to have to prepare to fight constantly and it gave us all time to recover. Needed time.

When Jonathan returned, he came with nearly 20 people in tow which almost doubled the population of our little camp. The area his family returned to was higher in mana and the monsters near them were stronger.

E-ranks were common making it a more dangerous place to the unprepared. Since most weren't that strong and couldn't ...

Chapter 136 - Planning

We planned out our trip on the map for a while longer but the markers were set and our destination was planned. The trip would take months and that required another level of planning.

My initial assumptions were that it would take around a week to get up to Minnesota but the map showed how misguided that thought was.

It quickly turned into a long haul that we would need to be prepared for and a lot more planning was required. Stop points would need to be planned out. Where to get ...

Chapter 135 - Long Trip

"What's in the box?" Gabriel asked.

It was nice to see him cheery and active after yesterday but his constant questions slowly wore on me. Ever since the floodgates opened he had a question about everything.

His latest query was the wooden box I kept close to me at all times. I was surprised it had taken him this long given his sensitivity.

Maybe my aura overshadowed it and hid it? Or he wasn't able to tell the two apart and thought the Arctic feeling was coming from me rath...

Chapter 134 - Catching Up

I struggled to not let anything show on my face from her question. It wasn't something I wanted to get into yet. Especially without Abigail.

"We will discuss it when we get there. It's not a conversation I wish to get into now." My words did little to assuage my mom but it got her moving again, if a bit slowly.

The rest of the trip was silent. The last 30 minutes were only accompanied by the sounds of nature and the leaves blowing in the wind. Even Gabriel's curiosity about my pow...

Chapter 133 - He's Not There, Is He?

The group tightened its formation around us as we all stood in silence. I wasn't sure what they were after exactly, but the excuse to examine our possessions for anything dangerous wasn't going to fly.

There was no way they were going to do that. Even if we didn't have anything dangerous, it was the principle of the matter.

Who died and gave them the right to demand anything of me? Especially now, when the rule of Law was thrown out the window.

"Why don't we all take a step ...

Chapter 132 - My Arms Still Work

Chris

I almost couldn't recognize them. They had both changed so much from the picture I held in my head. From the time before people were forced to fight to survive.

Both had seen better days but they were clean enough to indicate they weren't too bad off. The grime covering me was far worse than what was on them.

I had two days of grueling fights over pylons caked on that I had yet to clean up from. The ending of the tutorial had been a tim...

Chapter 131 - Changed Man

Elizabeth Zalenski (Christopher's Mother)

"Gabriel, are you here?" She shouted as the light came back and the nauseating feeling of being transported wore off.

Before she could take in the state of the house around her, she heard Gabriel's reply, "I'm here. My chair came with me."

Hearing that eased her worries a bit. Gabriel needed that chair to get around and without it, she would have to carry him.

Bits of things began to appear arou...

Chapter 130 - Return to Earth

The feeling of being teleported washed over me once more and I could feel my anticipation rising. We were finally going to see what the Earth had turned into. We were finally going home.

I had to shield my eyes from the glaring sun as I took everything in around me. Lily and Anna appeared right in front of me looking around much the same as I was, just like how we left. Others appeared simultaneously and soon, the backyard was filled with what remained of my family.

Backyard was a...

Epilogue - Coincidence and Meddling

Vasariametz

Coincidence.

It was a word that explained happenstance. The small chance of something outside the norm occurring. It explained the little details that seem to coincide with one another just enough to draw attention but not so much that people look deeper.

Coincidence.

A word that Vasariametz did not like to use. Using it meant that he did not know something and after how many years he had lived, that was un...

Chapter 129 - Prizes

~~AN~~

Sorry for the delay, this chapter had to be split into two because it ran so long. This one alone is over 3,000 words. There will be an Epilogue chapter for you guys tomorrow to finish out book 1.

~~

Chris

When the timer ticked to zero, my vision went black and I felt the same sensation as I had 90 days prior.

Teleportation.

The room I appeared in was different than the one I ...

Chapter 128 - Curtains Close

Chris

Tutorial End: 00:00:25:12

I knew that Tracy was stalling but I allowed myself the chance to voice my thoughts. I wasn't required to do so but it felt good to get it off my chest. It was different than discussing it with Austin or Abigail, they were biased to what I had to say.

Tracy, though, jumped headfirst into the kind of thinking that was required when back on Earth. Maybe a bit too much for my tastes, but sh...

Chapter 127 - When Words Fail

Tracy

She felt it before she saw it.

Since the last wave finished, every bird that Kathy had sent North was killed indiscriminately. Arrows of Ice, spears of light, or balls of fire killed anything that got close to what their camp was doing.

Her eye in the sky was blind and she wasn't warned of his approach.

She knew what was coming. The way the northern faction exited her camp left little doubt. The only reason to depart as quickly an...

Chapter 126 - Closing Hours

Picking myself up took longer than I cared to admit. It was more than just my body I had to put back together. I prepared for injuries, though, and had potions to help with that, my outburst... not so much.

Healing potions were stashed inside the keep to use and I had a few on me for emergencies. I had to keep a few stashed to make sure not all of them broke if I got pummeled a little too hard. If I kept all of them on me, like I did for the Vine Bears, there was the possibility of them...

Chapter 125 - End

Austin

He could feel the Light Law the beasts had resonating with his own. His attacks were being bent by the monsters as they closed in, going where he hadn't intended for them to land.

It was frustrating not to have them go where he wanted them to. The deviation wasn't much, a few inches here and there but that changed a lot when the things he was aiming for required precision. His attacks were aimed with pinpoint accuracy at weak points and the ...

Chapter 124 - Zwahelios

~~AN~~
Extra weekend Chapter for you guys! This puts us 16 ahead of RR and I've been trying to increase that lately. We're almost at a full month ahead as of today.

~~

It was always fun smashing around the beasts of the wave but this one was going to be different.

The difficulty level was in for a sharp incline but I didn't think it would be out of my reach. All the different Paths of Power that I had stepped down added up to a gr...

Chapter 123 - Pylons

The hammer was AMAZING. It was everything I wanted it to be and more.

After Austin's frostbite was cured, he was kind enough to spar with me to break the weapon in.

With his misfortune of touching it known, I refrained from hitting his uncovered skin with it, but the rest of him was fair game. The weapon was so cold that it caused frostbite just by touching it.

The weapon was that cold. I didn't even have to use mana or skills to get it to such temperatures, the ice it was m...

Chapter 122 - Frostbound Hammer

After choosing the permanent option, there was a further choice that I could make. This one was optional and my chance to influence the result in some way. I could have the boost focus more on the vitality boost if I wanted to, or the magic boost.

I wasn't able to change it much but I decided to leave it as is. The vitality, endurance, and magic boost were all something I needed. One wasn't that important over the other and I didn't want to mess with something I shouldn't.

It was ...

Chapter 121 - Leveraged Strength

~~AN~~

Extra Chapter!

~~

While all of the classes sounded powerful, there were two that were lesser compared to the rest. Both Blizzard of the Frost Giant and Chilling Death of Helheim came with downsides that I wasn't comfortable with.

That wasn't to say I would never be comfortable with them, only that wasn't the direction I wanted to go right now. ...