Ashton reached the far corner of the school soon enough. It was the top floor, the furthest away from the entrances accessible through the outside where the initial zombie attack happened.

  A trail of blood had led him here, but of course, Ashton incinerated every last drop. And of course, there was a new quest for him to deal with, too. Just as he had asked, the Guardian of the Innocent had given him a quest to take down all the zombies.

  [Bonus Quest - Save Drakewood Primary School - Continued]

  [Drakewood Primary School was invaded by dreadful Zombies. The [Guardian of the Innocent] has asked you to hunt them all down to protect the school's young children.]

  [Goal - Hunt the remaining Zombies within the school grounds (8/24)]

  [Reward - 500 Coins]

  It was a weird quest. There wasn't even anything that would happen in case he failed. Rather, from all the messages that they were sending at the moment, the Guardian just seemed apologetic, like they were sorry for failing.

  [[Guardian of the Innocent] asks how the girl is doing]

  "... She's fine. I keep telling you. What, you can't tell for yourself anymore?" Ashton rolled his eyes, continuing down the hallway. Frankly, at this point, Ashton was pissed at the Guardian.

  They acted so powerful, saying they would protect this place, and then interfered at the last possible moment. Plus, the only one they protected was Millie. Everyone else was left to fend for themselves, but she was worth saving for some reason.

  But also... she was the only one that was injured. Ashton had come across some other classrooms with kids and students in them, and sure, some of the kids were injured, but that generally came from falling or hurting themselves in the process of running away. Some bruises and scuffs, nothing serious. Beside Millie, of course.

  Ashton had wanted to leave Millie with someone, but after realising that none of the people in the classrooms seemed comfortable taking care of Millie in her current state, he just continued on. There had to be someone here that could pull it together and not completely freak out at the idea of caring for a crippled child.

  They kept saying that, since Ashton was the one that healed her, he should keep an eye on her. And that she was safer with him, than with them. Cowards.

  Then again, maybe that was a bit unfair. Everyone here was reasonably scared. Living under the protection of the Guardian, they were obviously not quite as sure what to do in such emergency situations, especially when the kids were involved.

  Once Ashton took care of the rest of the zombies, they couldn't complain anymore.

  And frankly, the other two kids that were following Ashton around didn't help find a place for Millie right now. They were loud and angry, which made sense. They were basically left alone. It was with the headmaster, sure, but that guy wasn't exactly a great fighter. Not the sort that was capable of protecting others to a reasonable degree, at least.

  Even the last time Ashton was here, these three were the most vocal, and were essentially at the peak of the group of kids that was shoved away to the corner of the school so that they wouldn't bother anyone. They helped Ashton out a lot, and he appreciated how headstrong they were, but he just wished they didn't antagonise the teachers and other students as much as they did.

  [[Guardian of the Innocent] says that you are correct]

  "Hm? Correct about what?" Ashton asked, staring at the message. And then he realised. The Guardian actually couldn't tell how Millie was doing anymore. How much of their power did they use up just now? What the hell made her so special to risk something like that?

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  Sure, the baseline deal that the Guardian made with the council was still intact; the rules in this shitty game were simply different for kids. But losing the power to interfere with the world was a big deal for a constellation, especially one like the Guardian.

  They weren't here to gain something after the game, but simply because they wanted to protect the children of the worlds taken over by the council as much as they could.

  Usually, a constellation with such plans would save up their power of interference for later on, once they could actually do more with that power than this early on.

  If Ashton remembered right, then over in Lumia, the Guardian actually used their powers pretty strategically to try and help as many kids as possible. Not that it really mattered in the end. Lumia was one of the worlds that failed, meaning that everyone, except a select few that were snatched up by constellations beforehand, were killed.

  Ashton couldn't help but keep his eye on Millie whenever he could. He knew she was fine, that much was sure. The Spawn of Akrazoth was great at what it did, that much was for certain. The surgical wound was still fresh just then, but once it was healed in a couple days, it would surely look pretty alright.

  But... Ashton was worried about leaving now. He had to. He was already wasting too much time with all of this. If things had gone according to plan, Ashton would have come by, dropped off the people from Market Street, bought something from the vending machine, and then left to go on his way to take care of the lizardmen.

  And now? Could he really just leave after making the decision to cut off a child's arm? Even if it was the only way to save her life, this also permanently altered her life. Then again... everyone's lives changed permanently over and over again with everything that was happening.

  Ashton ground his teeth angrily. Just because some bastard was too cowardly to go and kill some monsters for the first main quest, so many people died.

  He swung his staff to the side and crushed the skull of another zombie, before quickly taking down the other four that were gathered around the door together with it.

  Ashton immediately incinerated the corpses and their blood that had splattered on the floor and walls, and then loudly knocked on the door in question.

  In front of this particular hallway, there was one of those heavy safety-glass doors. He didn't really know why. But this was one of the reasons why he figured people were hiding here; this was one of the few safe places the amount of people here could hide out. And since it was locked, Ashton figured he was right.

  "Open up! This is Ashton Garling, I'm here to take down the Zombies!" he exclaimed, and almost immediately, the doors to one of the classrooms in this hallway was torn open. The teacher, one that Ashton had spoken to and met last time he was here, quickly unlocked it and let him inside.

  "Hurry!" she said, glancing behind Ashton to make sure nothing else was there, though she was of course stunned by the bear carrying a child in its arms.

  "This guy's with me, don't worry," Ashton sighed, pushing past the woman. "Again, I'm taking down all of the zombies, so just take these kids. You have the most people here, right?" he said, looking around through the open doors as he walked down. Most of the school's survivors were gathered here. Ashton was disgusted by the amount of them that were carrying weapons. If they were armed, then they should have gone and taken care of the zombies on their own.

  "Of course! But... what happened with Millie, she's not been... bitten, has she?"

  Ashton could clearly see the fear in the teacher's voice. He turned around and stared into her face. "She has been bitten, yes." He spoke loudly, to make sure everyone could hear him. "These three kids were all on their own, protected by your Headteacher. He was infected, and bit Millie. But no, before you guys freak out, she's not going to turn into a zombie. I had to amputate her arm to make sure of that, though."

  The teacher's eyes widened, and the whispering voices of the people in the classrooms sounded out around Ashton.

  "You... cut off her arm? And wait, did you say that Mister Crombe is one of them, now?" the teacher asked, but Ashton shook his head.

  "He's not. Not anymore. I killed him and burnt the body, the same way I burnt every other body of theirs. Which reminds me, if any of you even think you got some Zombie blood on your clothes, give that all to me and I will burn them to make sure the virus can't spread," Ashton said, as he kept looking around. Despite the glares that he could feel on his body from the adults gathered here, Ashton didn't care. He glared back even more intensely.

  "Cowards." He said, making sure everyone in the room could hear him, as he had the Drunken Bear put Millie down in safe spot. Ashton turned to Joey and Sean. He gave them a small bit of a potion that was viable to drink. "You two, make sure to watch her well. If Millie's in pain, give her some of this. She might run a fever this night as well, but she should be fine. There shouldn't be a chance at infections or any complications."

  Obviously, the spawn didn't just use regular, physical means to amputate the arm. It was using magic to mould the flesh of Millie's arm the way it wanted to. She didn't even lose any blood through the surgery itself. Plus, the potion that Ashton applied to the wound afterward would fully take care of any inflammations or possible infections that could have happened throughout or after the surgery.

  The kids didn't seem exactly happy to be left here; everyone was looking at Millie the same way that all the others had, but at this point, Ashton had no other choice. There were still nine zombies left in the- Scratch that, ten zombies, since someone apparently turned in the time since Ashton last checked.

  He had to make sure to get rid of all of them as fast as he could.