“What the hell,” Leylah said to Reggie. “Why didn’t you help us?”

  “I did. I made sure you fought it off yourself. If I got involved, I would’ve needed to knock you all out, because you would have tried to kill me.”

  Richard wanted to disagree, but he couldn’t. He knew how much of a hold that lure had on him. In another minute or so, he would have been fighting off anyone to save that fake baby he heard.

  He glanced over to see Fang hugging himself, staring at nothing. Had he heard it too? Richard rubbed his hair, remembering what it felt to run his hand over his bald head. Richard closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

  Reggie moved over to them, smiling. “Again, you did well. Hit level five, and those lures will not have as strong of a power over you. Level seven and it’ll be as normal to you as crickets.”

  Richard dropped his hand and opened his eyes, watching as Marcus knelt over a mound of flesh with tentacles. It was small, with red veins. Richard had no desire to get any closer to it, but he watched curiously as Marcus tapped something in midair. It must be a prompt of some sort. Strangely enough, the monster’s corpse disappeared, and Richard saw instead a floating object appear. Before he could even pretend to identify what it was, Marcus took it and placed it in his inventory. He walked back, smiling. Fang walked back over near Richard and the others. Richard figured he was the humble sort, but this experience gave him an even greater respect for how quickly this place could kill him.

  “Ah, there he is.” Marcus forced all the cordiality into his voice. Richard glanced over to see Elias walking over, holding two huge sacks full of what looked like clams. “Nice stash.”

  Elias set the sacks down. “Are you sure you want the newbies harvesting them? If they don’t even have a loot rate ability, it’s going to be abysmal.”

  “Yes. Let them loot. It’s a great low-stress experience grind for low-level newbies,” Marcus said.

  Richard frowned at Marcus, then focused on his level bar. Already less than a day, and he had gotten used to that level bar in the side of his vision. He didn’t know how resisting a lure had given him so much, but his bar was almost completely full. A small number was blinking underneath, and when Richard focused on it, he realized he had blown past level two and was approaching level three.

  Elias cocked his head to one side. “Lure?”

  Marcus gestured toward the water. “A bloodsucking anemone was in the water. Keep an eye out for others. We don’t want to attract anything bigger.”

  “A bloodsucking anemone?” Elias stared at Marcus, then at Richard and his group before he rolled his eyes. Richard clenched his teeth as he remembered how much that lure had affected him.

  Elias grabbed the bottoms of the sacks. He tipped them over, dumping them all on the ground before placing the sacks back in his inventory. “I’ll go get some more, since we won’t get much from the newbies’ harvest.”

  He disappeared back toward the beach, and Richard didn’t miss him.

  Fang stared at the piles of clams. “Does it have to be so close to the beach?”

  “Reggie will stand guard. Come closer. This is time-consuming, but it’s easier to do this now than carry all these to base camp.” Marcus gave everyone a clam. “Give the system a second to orient itself. Keep staring at the clam.”

  Richard stared, then glowing words appeared in his vision.

  Do you wish to loot?

  Yes / No

  The yes and no appeared as buttons.

  “You can mentally choose if you like. I rather enjoy physically pressing the button that only I can see.” Marcus did exactly that, tapping the air. “In an apocalypse, you’ve got to enjoy the little things in life.”

  Amber gave a sideways grin as she tapped the air. Richard mentally chose yes because he wanted to see what this did. Nothing showed up. By the looks of it, no one else in the newbie group got anything either. Marcus was the only one who had something floating in front of him. It looked like a collection of shattered shells. Marcus grabbed them and slid them into his inventory.

  Amber pointed at his inventory. “Is that worth anything?”

  “Oh, yes.” Marcus already handed out other clam shells. “Order has created the system so that anything you loot is usable. Broken clam shells are one ingredient in the fertilizer Elwyndor desperately needs.”

  Richard took the initiative and got his own clam, this time pressing the button hanging in midair. Once again, nothing showed up.

  They all sat in a circle as Reggie watched over them. Once they started, they moved through the clams quickly. Elias came again, glowering at them all before leaving to get more. Richard could understand why. Marcus was consistently getting way more from the clams. Richard was worried when everyone else started getting something. Broken shells seemed to be the most common, but there was also a mucus glob that made Fang and Amber shudder when Leylah got it.

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  “Nice. Timick’s been asking for those,” Marcus said as Leylah carefully eased it into her inventory. She shook her hand off before grabbing another one. “Really great for waterproofing arrows. Makes them as steady as if it weren’t raining at all.”

  Richard finally got a collection of shattered shells after his fifteenth clam. He relaxed at that, happy to get some loot. Still unaccustomed to inventories, he kept a tight hold on the shattered shells that miraculously were held together in a clump as he eased them into the inventory. The image of the item appeared in the bottom of his vision.

  They were almost done when the other two women and Shrub returned. Marcus, Savannah, and Meredith exchanged information, mostly about the demonic creature the three of them took down. Elias came back with another bag of clams, and everyone went through them again. Richard could guess that there must be some sort of looting skill, because he only got one other shattered shell through the many clams he went through. Elias, however, was getting something more often than not. Marcus seemed to notice Elias’s annoyed face.

  “What’s more important than filling our inventory is leveling you newbies up.” Marcus seemed to say that more to Elias than anyone else.

  Leylah looked at her own level bar. “I have leveled up, but it won’t let me do anything with it.”

  “No, it won’t. You’ll need the orb to process it all.” Marcus gestured for them to follow him as they headed back toward base two. Fang hurried to keep up to stay in the middle of the pack. “It’s why we’ve built such defenses to keep that orb protected. Without it, none of us level up.”

  Reggie and Shrub placed themselves toward the forest as they headed back.

  “What if you can’t get back to the orb for days?” Leylah asked.

  Reggie gave Leylah a sad smile. “I don’t mean to sound bleak, Leylah, but no one survives the night out here.”

  Leylah studied the forest with new respect in her eyes. Richard stared ahead, wondering how he could have survived the forest without the system when he first got there. Then again, the only reason he survived was because of that time anomaly.

  The trip back was silent. After Reggie’s revelation, no one really felt like talking anymore. When they entered the gate, Richard still didn’t feel like he could drop his paranoia.

  Jace was there at the gate, smiling when the group entered. “I’m impressed you all left.”

  Amber gestured toward Marcus. “He made it seem like we didn’t have a choice.”

  Fang stared at Marcus, eyes widening. “Did we have a choice?”

  Marcus smirked. “I mean… not really. Unless you wanted to spend the rest of the time being a few levels behind everyone else.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded,” Fang said.

  Elias passed the group, letting a single word slip out. “Figures.”

  Fang winced, and Richard fought the desire to punch Elias. The only reason he didn’t was because he would not survive a fight with Elias.

  Marcus rubbed his forehead. “In case you haven’t noticed, Elias’s opinion shouldn’t be taken seriously.”

  Marcus must have held back his true opinion through sheer force. Elias kept walking back to his room in the barracks.

  “Alright, newbies. You are officially moving from scavenger duty to guard duty. But first, let’s get your levels organized,” Marcus said.

  Jace shook his head. “You know, usually this is done on the first night with the leaders standing around. But since Marcus practically doubled everyone’s levels, it’s best to do this now before you get a headache.”

  “Headache?” Amber asked.

  “If you go a while without leveling yourself up, that’s what happens,” Marcus said. “Considering the first few levels don’t take nearly as many experience points, it’s far easier to level up fast. After a while, it takes too long between levels.”

  Jace grunted, then looked at the corner of his vision. “I’ve been at this level for the past four months.”

  They arrived at the orb, and Marcus ushered them forward. Richard went first, touching the orb. Once again it turned orange, and he could almost feel the organization in his brain. He stepped aside so that the others could touch the orb. He closed his eyes to see his skill tree better. Because he unlocked the basic health, he saw the advanced health option was available to him.

  Health (active) (basic) (cooldown 3hrs)

  Know how to heal (one) wound(s)

  (This is for your body only)

  Richard was certain they had a stockpile of basic healing potions for everyone to last them a year, but it might be nice, in a pinch, if he could heal one singular wound. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t think it was that helpful, but he was sure the upgraded version of it would be valuable.

  But would he be out in the forest? Perhaps most of his thoughts were from the all too recent memory of the jaguar’s claws digging into his chest.

  “Hey, Jace? Do you have any suggestions about what to pick if someone wanted to join the guard class?” Leylah asked.

  Richard opened his eyes, smiling a bit at the height difference between Leylah and Jace.

  “At this point, no. I don’t know if you’ve heard this suggestion, but usually people make sure every single ability has been unlocked at the basic level before they get two new skill trees. That would be my suggestion. There’s no point in having a master level of the few basics when they can naturally strengthen through use.”

  Leylah nodded and then closed her eyes. Richard did the same, wondering how many abilities he could unlock right now. The entire encounter had lifted him to level four. Below the level bar, he saw blinking words.

  3 points for skills

  “Whoa, level four,” Richard said, without thinking.

  “Shut up. Level four?” Jace asked. Richard opened his eyes to see Jace staring at Marcus in wonder. “What the hell did you have these newbies do? Fight a creature?”

  Marcus shook his head. “I guarantee most of it was mentally fighting off the low level flesh eater lure.”

  Jace gave a low whistle. “Damn, Marcus.”

  “They were perfectly fine,” Marcus said when Fang lost some color in his face. “You never know what’s out there.”

  Jace patted Fang on the back. “Find comfort in knowing that if you meet the lure again, you’ll be that much stronger against it.”

  With the three points Richard had, he followed the advice and mentally chose the three skills that were open to him already, including healing a wound. He hoped that upgrading the wound ability would also lower the cooldown time. He then chose the two skills at the bottom of the basic tree.

  Physical (passive) (basic)

  Increase strength by 10%

  Mental (passive) (basic)

  Increase likelihood of finding best escape by 10%

  When he unlocked those, the two branches above them became available to choose. It was only then that he realized he was going to train with the guard class. Should he have strengthened his punch by ten percent, which was in the advanced category of the physical tree? Oh well, it was too late now. He still didn’t know how much better ten percent would give him.

  “Alright, everyone.” Jace’s words made Richard open his eyes. “I hope you enjoyed that boost to your levels, and I hope none of you are expecting to leave the walls anymore today.”

  “I’m alright with that,” Amber mumbled.

  Jace nodded, then gestured for them to follow. “To the armory.”