As his bike came to a halt, sliding over the ground while the sun blasted down at him, Ashton looked at the wall standing in front of him. It was made of scrap metal salvaged from cars and shelves, and basically anything else people here could get their hands on. There were some gaps here and there, but they were small enough that a mouse or rat could get through, but it was good enough to protect against most monsters.

  There was someone standing on top of it as well, looking down and making sure to warn everyone if monsters approached, or to open the gate if a survivor came closer. Ashton recognised them, and it seemed that they recognised him as well, because he didn't even have to explain who he was or why he was here for them to call out to have the gate opened.

  Well, he said 'gate', but it was really just a very rudimentary, but clever, setup where many metal sheets rolled from side to side using pulleys and wheels from cars. It worked, anyway. Clearly, there were some people here that knew their stuff.

  Ashton got off the bike and pushed it inside. And almost the first thing that he noticed was just how full this place had gotten. It was already pretty full last time, but at this point it couldn't even be compared anymore. It was clear that this was going to be the central hub of Drakewood. And it was a good location as well, so Ashton had no reason to complain about that.

  There were plenty of people walking around, trying to do their job. There were others that were using their starter gear to prepare to head out and hunt to level up, and others that still seemed to be trying to get their class. But a large portion of the people sitting here were... not.

  They were just sitting at the sides of the road, their heads in their knees, just staring out into space. There were a lot that were injured, but the serious cases were probably inside somewhere.

  But Ashton couldn't do anything about that. If these people weren't motivated to get a class on their own, then it couldn't be forced on them. It was literally impossible to get a class if you didn't work for it yourself. And Ashton definitely wasn't good enough with people to convince them to get up and try to survive. His main conversation partners of the last century weren't exactly the most 'normal' or, well... talkative. Talking to humans just felt weird now.

  "Ashton!" a voice called out to him, clearly quite happy. It was an older man, though he was approaching with a brisker pace than the last time Ashton had seen him.

  "Albert, good to see you," he replied, smiling lightly. It was the manager of the grocery store, who had now essentially become the leader of the entire market street. It seemed he had levelled up a bit and got a few points in physical stats that helped his health out a bit. There was a limit to that, of course; an old man wouldn't suddenly gain the health of an Olympic athlete, but it should definitely help.

  It did surprise Ashton that he got here so fast, though. Almost like Albert had people call him the moment Ashton arrived. Well, that was pretty possible, actually.

  "It's great that you are here! There is something that I wanted to ask you, but I didn't quite have a way to contact you. Please, follow me," Albert said, placing his hands behind his back and walking down the road. He didn't give Ashton much time to respond, so he felt somewhat obliged to follow.

  "Sure, but I don't have a lot of time. I just wanted to pick up the remainder of the items from our deal," he started, and Albert practically flinched.

  "I see... Well, we have a few things we can give you, but we do have to be careful with what we give out, now that we have so many more people."

  "Of course, no worries. I just need a few basic ingredients. Flour, oats, nuts and seeds. A bit of honey would be great. Or, if you have anything that will spoil soon that you can't use otherwise, I'll gladly take that. Plus, maybe some soap and toothpaste would be great."

  "... I see. We can arrange that. We do still have a lot of that leftover, but we would like to save on our shelf-stable foods as much as we can."

  "That's fine. A couple of bags of each are enough for me."

  "How about we give you something-"

  "Albert. The deal was that I could choose what I take with me. I get that you're worried, but a deal is a deal."

  The old man stopped and turned to look at Ashton hesitantly. He wanted to object, but he knew that he shouldn't mess with Ashton.

  It wasn't like Ashton wanted to take something that important away from anyone, but if there was one thing that he thought was important, it was following up on promises. Ashton was already not taking as much as he could according to the original deal, and without him, this place would have been long ruined. He figured that was worth a little bit more food.

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  And it wasn't like Ashton was just asking for it selfishly; these were valuable ingredients that he was going to use for the wisp. Essentially, all these ingredients were going to come around and help everyone here survive, since Ashton was going to take care of some of the bigger threats in the area.

  "We will get you what you are owed, don't worry," Albert finally said, though he was clearly conflicted. He soon led Ashton to a nearby building; it used to be some small clothing boutique, but now it was completely cleared out and was used as some kind of meeting space.

  Most people here were carrying a weapon, and the clothes and armour they were wearing were their respective beginner gear. This gave Ashton a pretty good overview of what kind of classes people got. Lots of sword- and spearmen, some archers, but really not a ton of variety here. The only variety was maybe that some of them were using different types of swords, some had small shields together with their weapon, but that was it. Overall, they blended in with each other, and nobody seemed all too... special.

  Not that they had to be special, but it still came to show that a lot of these people were guided by others instead of finding their own way.

  However, there were also a handful of individuals that were different. Those were people that seemed to have leadership-based classes, and Ashton had seen a lot of them in Albert's office the last time he was here. And then there were the two police officers.

  They still wore remnants of their uniform, likely hoping that it would help them keep some of their authority from before everything. But beyond that, their classes also stuck out to Ashton. For one, the sergeant had a metal chain wrapped over her torso, from left shoulder to right hip. Dangling at its end was a small metal ball. It didn't seem like anything heavy, though. She was also wearing thick gloves and a leather chest-plate.

  As for the constable, though he also seemed to be a type of swordsman, his swords were... unique. There were two of them, each with a single serrated edge. However, they were curved, and one sword had its edge on the inside of the curve, and the other on the outside of the curve.

  What the hell did this guy have to fight with to get a class for these kinds of swords?

  Ashton was led through the room, as a path was made for him by Albert. The constable scowled the moment he laid eyes on Ashton, but the others that knew about him seemed relieved.

  "... What's this about?" Ashton finally asked, looking around, smiling curiously.

  Albert turned to him and smiled broadly, "This is what I wanted to ask you about. I'm sure that you have heard of this monster called a 'Wyvern', yes?"

  His smile disappearing immediately, Ashton stared at the old man. "You're planning on taking it down?"

  "I'm happy that you catch on quick! After seeing the rewards, it would be stupid of us not to give it a shot, right? And considering how strong you are, it would be an honour if you could join us."

  Ashton looked around. Everyone in the room was smiling, as if they were excited. They were immediately just so extremely cocky.

  "No thanks," Ashton said, looking down at his watch. "Sorry, I'm a bit low on time, do you mind if I go by the store and grab what I need?"

  Nervous and startled, Albert looked around. "Huh? But, but I... Ashton, I'm sure we can come to some kind of agreement. Having you join us would be a true relief."

  With a scoff, Ashton shook his head. "I haven't survived so far just to go kill myself, sorry."

  Immediately, the people in the room started to whisper. They had clearly heard about Ashton before now, so they must have not expected him to turn this down. Like he was weaker than they had heard.

  But Albert thought differently. "Why would you say such a thing? Is it that dangerous?"

  "Yes. It's an extremely powerful monster. Nearly shat myself when I saw it the other night. Oh, that reminds me, I'd like to take a roll or two of toilet paper if you still have any."

  Albert went pale, not sure what to say.

  "Yes... yes, sure." It was like his plans had just gone down the drain. Ashton was actually pretty happy to see that someone trusted his strength to this degree.

  "Oh, what a joke!" the constable yelled out from the corner of the room, stepping forward with an annoyed groan. "You're really just here to scam us out of even more stuff?"

  "Constable Flynn, stop it!" the sergeant stepped forward, putting a hand onto the man's shoulder, but it was just shrugged off.

  "Oh stop it already, Harriet! This guy's been a sham all along!"

  Ashton rolled his eyes. "I'm just collecting what I'm owed. If you have any other monsters you need help with, sure, but taking on the wyvern is too much of a risk right now."

  "What you're owed? Just look at you, all black with a leather jacket? Who're you fooling? You're just a sissy wearing a costume of a tough guy! " without hesitation, the constable stepped closer to Ashton, almost to the point where he would be able to attack with his swords.

  "... I might be wrong, but I remember that word not being a bit problematic, right?"

  "Oh what, did I hurt your feelings, tough guy?" with a laugh, the constable looked around at the room. There were a few other people chuckling along with him.

  Ashton rolled his eyes. "Mhm, sure you did. If you'll excuse me, I'll go cry now."

  Though he was about to just leave, the constable, swung his sword at him. He didn't use the edge of his sword though, he was using the blunt outside of one of his swords. It would still hurt if he hit someone with that, though.

  Not that Ashton was going to be hit by something like that. He called the wisp out of his vessel and activated the force spell. Ashton had changed it back to the instantaneous force mode, but it was focused in the forward direction now.

  And so, with a flick of Ashton's wrist, the wisp appeared mid-air, and a moment later, the constable was thrown backward off his feet. He let go of his sword due to the sudden jolt.

  Ashton turned and caught the sword with a raised brow. He looked it over a bit more closely, since he had been curious, and then just tossed it back on the ground.

  "If you want to make someone else look weak, I don't think attacking when their back is turned is the way to do that."