Humans are tribal creatures. I’ve always thought so, and my belief gets affirmed again when we try to leave the house.

  The outside is a mess by now. The corpses don’t seem to stick around, instead slowly dissolving. It’s like they’re despawning, but only piece by piece. I see goblins, blood and flesh decaying into faint blue particles that soon turn invisible to my eyes and mana sense.

  What surprises me is that it also happens to human corpses. The air feels… almost a little painful on my skin.

  In fact, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels it. Inu absentmindedly scratches the wound on her shoulder. Thatch seems to shudder. And all around us, there are huddling and walking groups of survivors.

  The city streets are bustling again but it’s noisy. Hostile. People glare at each other, looking combative. I look around, too.

  Men and women are huddled around small fires, having scavaged wood from the bits of greenery in the city. There’s sirens in the distance. I ignore them, and am tempted to put on my headphones again. There’s a reason I don’t leave the house without them, after all.

  Worst case, I might have to steal some, as a backup. I notice a girl with some earbuds in…

  “The hell’s up with you, bitch?” a man asks me. “Stop looking at my girlfriend like that. Fucker.”

  I tilt my head, my eyes drifting to the woman’s earbuds again. Do I need a backup?

  Inu grabs my shoulder. “C’mon Snow. Don’t mind them,” she says, glancing at the man. “We don’t want any trouble. Just spent the night.”

  He frowns, but nods. “Fine then. Be on your way.”

  I turn to walk.

  “Actually, wait!” someone else calls out. This is another guy, tall, handsome, brownish-blond hair and warm eyes. He wears a jeans-jacket and a pair of khakis. I look at my own ragged clothing, the half-melted sweater and a long sleeve I stole from Opal’s closet. It’s too big, but it’s comfy, and covers all my skin in a way that doesn’t make me wanna scratch it off, so I don’t mind.

  “Yes, what’s up?” Inu asks, looking at him.

  He smiles at her. I tighten my grip more. Just to be sure, I [Select] him. I don’t think he notices. “Hey. Name’s Vincent. We wanted to ask if you’d like to join our group,” he says, pointing behind him. There are a few people with him, mostly adults. “We’re trying to camp out this whole situation, y’know? Wait ‘till things are normal again.”

  Thatch shakes his head. “Sorry, man,” he says, “no can do. We’re still looking for some of our friends.”

  “We could help you look, if you’d like!” the handsome guy suggests. A few members of his group roll their eyes.

  “Thank you, but we’ll manage, I’m sure,” Inu says.

  “Oh come on, doll-” he starts.

  I step forward, interrupting his speech. He’s taller than me. Bigger. Stronger. And yet, I’m not scared of him. Wonderful what a few knives and a bit of magic will do. “Back off,” I tell him.

  He raises his hands defensively, giving a disarming smile. “Hey now, don’t worry, friend! I wasn’t doing nothing. Just trying to help.” He smells of flowers and iron and sweat. Rancid.

  “We turned you down,” I tell him.

  “Yeah, I was just saying-”

  “We turned you down,” I repeat.

  At that, his brows crease. “C’mon, hear us out. We gotta stick together, don’t we? People helping people.”

  I look at him. “Scram,” I say.

  “What?” he asks, confused. “You really don’t needa be so hostile-”

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  He reaches out to grab me, in the casual way that people so often do.

  It would be a light touch, just my shoulder. Just a little bit of one.

  Fucking disgusting.

  [Suppression] slams into him, and I shoot forward one of the rice-grains of solidified mana I keep with me. It stabs into his hand, just like a tiny needle, and then I disintegrate it.

  My mana spills forth in the middle of his body. It clashes against his, destabilizing his skills, briefly making him wobble, and my skill does the rest. [Suppression] is like a physical weight on him, and the man gasps, robbed of breath by the sudden weight.

  Without hesitation, I kick his shin, and he stumbles to his knees. I press the butt of my axe against his forehead. “I’m particular about my personal space,” I tell him calmly. “Please don’t try to touch me.”

  He doesn’t answer, stunned by the sudden violence, I’m guessing. I give him a moment to gather his bearings. When he tries to talk, I press the pommel against him harder. “Close your mouth,” I say. “Scram.”

  For once, he seems to think, and just grimaces. I take a step back, and he gets up, stumbling back to his group. They look at me with confusion, but overall don’t seem to take me too seriously, laughing at the guy for getting so suddenly trounced.

  None of them felt or saw my skill activate. I deselect him, focussing both my skills on the pain in my side again. The little critter took its chance to wriggle.

  Thatch looks at me and I shoot him a faint smile. “C’mon,” I say. “Let’s go.”

  - - -

  On the way to the castle, the “adults” try to lecture me on violence for a little bit, but I ignore them. Inu and Thatch are on my side. They both saw that the guy’s vibes were fucking rancid.

  Adults don’t always get that. He was just a little older than me, maybe two or three years. But the overly familiar act? Gross. What a weirdo.

  Norman tries to put a hand on my shoulder, too, but Inu catches his wrist and pulls him back. That makes me smile. She must’ve talked with them about boundaries before, I’m sure.

  Honestly, I’m glad they have a distraction from the way the world is changing. With my sensitivity unlocked, I can feel the mana in the air. Just faintly, a tingling in the back of my mind, but I reach out to it, and try to find it.

  The sensation of pin pricks against my skin returns, but it’s stronger. Still, my own mana courses inside my body, stopping the needle-like probing from going any further. I think that it’s this kind of external pressure that may be assimilating the corpses.

  It makes me think. Are we supposed to craft in this world? Our bodies have clearly changed, and it said our limits were removed, but what else? Magical items seem reasonable to assume, but how do we make them? Do materials not despawn if harvested? Do we have some kind of inventory?

  My clothes and backpack aren’t disintegrating, so clearly the mana acts with some sort of nuance. Does it recognize ownership of some kind? Do the monsters drop something when fully disintegrated?

  I wanna know more. I think of dissecting a few goblins, but trying on the half-disintegrated corpses seems… pointless, somehow. Like they’re already lost. Would any promising materials just survive the erosion?

  “Snow?” Inu asks me, stopping my train of thought.

  “Yeah?”

  She nods forward. More people. It’s a crossroads and a plaza, now filled with humans. They huddle around improvised tables, eating rations, talking. There are barricades along the edges, made from metal scrap. I almost wanna laugh.

  Two days. It took two days of the end of the world before things came to this.

  “Is there a way around it?” I ask.

  “No. Thatch checked. Most nearby roads are blocked the same way. Seems people are being led here by police for some kinda announcement,” she says.

  I nod, faintly, and keep solidifying grains of mana, collecting them in a pocket. There are a few dozen of the things by now, all slowly withering away. I think they can last maybe a day. Which makes them useful as little disruption pellets.

  “Let’s see what they’re about then,” I say, walking forward some more.

  As we walk forward, I can feel the mana changing. The incessant buzzing against my ears is replaced by a more gentle ambiance. Are the other humans leaking mana? Is it somehow more tolerable than what generally exists in the world? Are we being encouraged to herd together?

  Is this a ploy to manufacture some kinda slaughter?

  We walk up to the square. There are people standing “guard”. They look like ragged survivors, like everyone else. Torn clothing, small bloodstains, the works. My eyes flick over them, assessing the danger. “Hey. Who are you?” they ask.

  I happily let Inu and Thatch take care of it. They state their own names, those of everyone else, and so on. The guards just nod. “Right then. You here cuz the police sent ya?”

  “We encountered a policewoman on our way here,” Inu says. “But we’re mostly looking for our friends.”

  As if. I swipe my eyes over the crowd again. The mana here feels a little… sticky. No, there’s no way Opal or Sylves would have picked a place like this one. Sylves is too skittish, this would make her nervous, and Opal… I eye the castle. We’d be able to find Opal from there, hopefully.

  “I see,” the guard says, eyes turning a little sympathetic. “Don’t cause trouble, don’t use skills on others, and stay safe. If you need food, there are tables in the middle of the plaza.”

  “Got it,” Inu says with a smile. “Thank you.”

  We walk in without trouble. I eye the crowd. I hope the whole “getting out” part won’t be any worse.