For one, there were just far more people around here. It was actually pretty damn busy right now, with people walking through this place. There were some individuals trying to keep fortifying the main walls, and others that were sorting through all the stores' merchandise, carrying them around to some of the adjacent buildings and living spaces.
The smell of food wafted through the air, and it smelled delicious. The roads were clean as well. All the corpses that were strewn around were now gone, and the fountain was cleared up properly as well. And to Ashton's surprise, they had actually started a garden here.
The cobblestones had been torn out and the space was instead filled up with soil. A few people were preparing it right now, trying to plant seeds taken from one of the shops.
It was actually an incredible idea. The people here wouldn't know this yet, but mundane plants grew way faster when in contact with mana. Of course, a few generations of those plants later, they would adjust to it to some degree, but where there was more mana, plants grew larger and faster, that was a sort of universal truth.
Since they knew that Ashton was pretty interested in this, and that the hobgoblin had gathered here, they obviously managed to figure out that this spot was special.
"Clever," Ashton walked through the street. A few people recognised him, but for the most part, he was ignored. That was, until Ashton was approached by someone.
"Hey! You, you're the one that helped us out the other day, right?" she asked, and Ashton turned around toward her with a quick nod.
"Yeah, that's me. And you were..." Ashton started, looking her up and down. Her cheek was pretty badly bruised and swollen, and she was wearing plain clothes, but Ashton still recognised her, "... one of the police officers that were in the supermarket, right?"
She quickly nodded, happy to be remembered, "Yes, I'm Police Sergeant Harriet Price. I'm, uhm... out of uniform right now, it got dirty during one of the last trips outside."
Her cheek flinched a bit, so that injury probably came from that same 'trip'.
"Right. I'm Ashton. Well, I'm glad you're okay. Do you know who's sort of in charge here at the moment?"
Sergeant Price smiled, "Yes! That would be Albert Fischer, who you already met as the manager of the grocery store. Him and some other managers and owners that were on-site at the time of the 'Update'."
"Update?" Ashton asked, not sure what she was talking about, and the sergeant just smiled in response.
"Oh, apparently that's what all of this is called on the 'Community' right now," she explained, and Ashton raised a brow. It had a lot of names in Lumia. Divine Wrath, Integration, System Apocalypse... but 'Update' wasn't one. It was actually a pretty apt name. The world was 'updating', after all.
"Hm, I see. I guess I must have missed that," Ashton replied, continuing to look around as he followed the sergeant through the street. People were starting to get equipped pretty well. While they were using the old, blunt and rusty items that they got as a reward for the first quest, it was still better than not having any weapons at all.
Plus, the items were looking a lot better than Ashton thought. It seemed like the people here actually knew a thing or two about taking care of this stuff. De-rusting and sharpening actually seemed pretty in-tune for this place, now that he thought about it.
However, there were also plenty of people that were carrying around other items like bats or golf clubs, some people had bows strapped to them. Hell, there was even someone that was carrying around the bar of a barbell. Pretty clever, actually. If Ashton hadn't gotten his hands on a proper staff, he might have considered that as well.
The sergeant led Ashton into the grocery store. It had been completely re-arranged, with all the food being put back into the storage spaces in the back. The shelves were used, in part, to build the barricades after all, so Ashton knew that this was going to happen.
But beside that, this space was also used as what seemed to be some kind of 'community centre', because there were people learning things from each other in here because of how much space there was.
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People learning how to sew, how to properly handle a weapon, how to use the tools that people had access to. It was also where food was being handed out to people. Of course, this was all happening in different parts of the grocery store, but it was big enough to accommodate all of this.
And in the actual office space in the back, including the break room, the man in question was already sitting with a few other people stuffed in here. They were discussing the inventory of their respective shops right now, and how long they could stretch out the perishables.
The other police office was also standing there in the corner. It looked like these guys decided to help out with security. Well, that was their job, so that obviously made sense. He was still in uniform, though it was pretty dishevelled and also a little dirty.
"Oh! You have come back!"
Ashton nodded, "Yes, I have. Albert, was it? I'm here about the problem someone here posted about."
While Albert, the manager of the grocery store, furiously nodded his head, the other police officer just scoffed. "What are you, some kind of apocalyptic problem-solver?"
Ashton stared at him for a moment, but before he could figure out what to say, the sergeant practically barked at him, "Constable Flynn! Please, he's the one that helped us by taking down all those goblins!"
The constable rolled his eyes slightly, "Yeah, yeah. I've just got to wonder how someone could possibly take out all of those things on their own. How they could stomach killing so much."
With a raised brow, Ashton replied, "You're such a little man."
Confused and startled, the constable stared over at his superior, who was just holding back a laugh. Before he could reply, Ashton turned back to Albert, "As I was saying. I'm here about the people someone posted about on the community. The ones walking alongside monsters?"
Albert's eyes widened, and then he let out a slight laugh, "Oh, no, no, you don't have to worry about those. Some of the people we had on outlook were just confused, and thought they saw people," he explained, "But logically, we know that wouldn't be possible. You see, we have figured out a few rules of the 'Update'."
Silently, Ashton nodded his head, waiting for the older man to explain.
"First of all, those monsters will always attack people. Even if they're doing something else beforehand, and even if they are scared or there is no chance for them, they will always attack us. Two, the monsters get stronger as time goes on, and the stronger something is, the more 'coins' they give when they are slain."
Albert continued on, mentioning a few basic 'rules'. For the most part, he had done a good job. He hadn't said anything directly wrong, but... he was missing a few things. After a few minutes of letting Albert speak, and when everyone else in the room looked pretty smug over having figured out these things, thinking that the big 'hero' that had rescued them didn't know this, Ashton let out a sigh.
"Creatures." He started, looking out of the window of the office that oversaw part of the shop. Everyone seemed confused, when Ashton continued. "The quest said 'creatures'. Living things. Not plants, though, but anything else that is living. Animals, monsters..." Ashton turned around, looking back at them. "People. Things work different depending on which you choose. If you kill animals, you get a more limited reward selection. If you kill monsters, that's the expected baseline. The vast majority of people will have done this, at least here in the city. And when someone kills people to clear that quest..."
The constable scoffed, shaking his head. But this time, it wasn't in that smug way from before. Rather, he was clearly startled and confused, "But... we're not 'creatures', we're people."
"What, you think goblins aren't people? Orcs aren't people? I mean, the system makes the distinction right now, but they have their own civilizations. They form towns, they have families, they fall in love. Probably, I don't know. But anyway, fact is, it's possible."
The constable placed his hand onto his holster. Though, it was probably just a stun gun. He doubted someone like him would be carrying a firearm. "How do you know it's possible?"
Ashton rolled his eyes. It wasn't like he could come up with some kind of lie at this point either. At least not if he wanted Poppy to stay happy.
"I just do. I have experience with folk like them. But don't worry, I have not killed any human being," Ashton replied. He wasn't lying, but, well... he wasn't exactly queasy about killing people if he had to.
The fact that 'Marked' even existed in the first place was a sign that there were people that didn't deserve to take up space in this world to come.
Ashton looked back at Albert, "These people are called 'Marked'. I'll tell you more about them later, but what you need to know for now is that those that cleared the first quest by killing people now count as 'Monsters'. Or well, like a step between people and monsters, as far as the system is concerned. They're going to change, physically and mentally. The biggest change they'll have experienced at this point is that they have that same bloodlust that other monsters have, and they're mostly ignored by actual monsters. Or well, they're not specifically sought out by monsters, I guess."
Albert looked around the room, trying to gauge what everyone else was thinking. Frankly, if Ashton was saying it so confidently, then there was no reason not to believe him right now. After all, why would he lie to them? Being extra safe didn't sound like a bad idea, at least.
"So what are we supposed to do?"
"Just watch out for people that act erratically. The ones that you need to be especially careful of right now are those that are basically... feral. They won't speak, they'll just attack. And soon, they're going to change physically and gain traits of certain monsters."
"Traits of monsters? Like what? Will they grow larger? Will they start looking like goblins?" Albert asked, almost not wanting to hear the answer. But Ashton just shrugged.
"Honestly? No clue. It depends on a lot of factors. Their personality, their behaviour, or even their skills, abilities, or class," he started, "But there is one thing for certain. Especially right now, the Marked are more dangerous than any monster out there."
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