Richard realized something as the days went on. Not only did attacks at night happen often, but it would be months before he could sleep through the alarm bells. When Richard asked Dmitri about it the next day, Dmitri smacked his head, grumbling about how he knew he’d forgotten to tell them something before warning them that the forest came alive at night and to expect the alarm bells.

  The next few days also told Richard that he couldn’t be a farmer. He absolutely appreciated everyone who was. The meals were delicious, and he enjoyed having a full stomach. He appreciated the people who did the farm work. He wouldn’t dream of looking down on them, because they had something Richard didn’t have: the ability to enjoy their time with their thoughts. True, it wasn’t all silence and contemplation in the farmlands. Farmers talked to each other a lot about their lives. But even seven minutes alone with his thoughts made Richard want to pull his hair out.

  This couldn’t be a normal reaction, and he was fully ready to admit that. On the third day, when he was close to having a panic attack because he felt so isolated, he knew farming wasn’t for him.

  It didn’t help that the other classes weren’t much better. Marcus, despite having a very exciting first day, resumed his plan of keeping them indoors and going over the different pictures of plants and animals that were best to collect. On the third day of lecture-style information, Richard raised his hand and asked Marcus if he really expected them to remember everything he had put on there.

  “Yes,” Marcus said with almost too much ease.

  “I’m more of a visual learner,” Richard said.

  “Mmm.” A slight smile flickered across Marcus’s face. “I appreciate the candor, but these plants and animals are in the deepest, darkest parts of the forest. If I took you there and showed you these plants, you’d be dead before we reached it.”

  Richard resisted the urge to slam his head on the makeshift desk. “But I won’t remember all this. It’s been three solid days of lectures. There are similarities between some of the more dangerous stuff, and I don’t think a brief mention and then moving on is going to help.”

  Marcus was trying to hide his smile. “Alright, Richard. Tell me, what are the properties of emberthorn ivy?”

  “Most commonly found near places where fire salamanders have fought. They are black, but glow like embers at nighttime. They are particularly useful when setting traps that ignite on touch. A key ingredient in fireproof potions.” Richard paused, shocked that the information had come to him with little trouble. He tried to justify his near-perfect recall memory, figuring they had just talked about this at the beginning of class. Marcus seemed to pick up on those thoughts.

  “Bloodroot?” Marcus asked.

  They went over this yesterday toward the end of class. Richard opened his mouth, and information spilled out of him.

  “Most commonly grown around piles of bones or large, unmarked graves. They grow in clusters, and bleed when cut. They are best used in salves for the more necromantic diseases.” Richard smacked his lips, wondering how all that information had come out of him so fast.

  “And illusion thistle?” Marcus asked.

  “Grown from the corpses of illusionary gifted creatures, but most often they grow from the sludgy residue of an ever-changing slime. This is a very important ingredient in a potion that will create a double of you.”

  Richard sucked on the inside of his cheek as Marcus listened, smiling. Richard finally let out a sigh. “The system?”

  Marcus nodded. “The system.”

  He resumed his lecture, though Richard still grumbled to himself. He wanted to go out and do things, but did he want to put himself in this much danger? Going out and facing the apocalypse seemed scary, but could he be a farmer? Even though he hadn’t felt another time loop start since that first full day, he somehow felt like he had entered one whenever he woke up. Learn about plants. Fight with wooden swords. Farm. Repeat.

  The only thing different was when he and his group of newbie friends went to visit the different Order gift stations. He appreciated potion making the most. There weren’t many potion makers, and Richard found it rather fun to gather the ingredients and place them all in a potion. Ever since his conversation with Marcus, he noticed that he only needed to listen or read the instructions once, and he could make a potion again with no help. He even enjoyed getting the materials ready. Perhaps it would be potion making that he would choose. They seemed to need more of them.

  What disheartened him, though, was learning that when potion makers, healers, and weapon makers weren’t working on their projects, they were hard at work on the farms. It was enough that Richard had to reconsider what class he wanted, because he hated farmwork. The bigger thing was he hated being alone, but the root cause for that was hiding behind the very real foggy memory that he couldn’t access.

  On the fourth day, Richard got to learn under Timick. Timick had a lot of knowledge about not only weapons but was also the closest to cracking those silo inventories in the farmlands. Timick the tinkerer seemed quite content with his life of playing with different loot items, figuring that if Order allowed them to drop, then they had to be worth something. When the newbies arrived at his workshop in the armory, he wasn’t teaching them what he did, but more like showing him the madness that was his workshop. He was testing many devices, not just for weapons, but for strengthening the wall. He worked on a warding device to automatically ring the bell well in advance to give that much more prep time for the guards. Richard realized why many people would accept a knife in the gut if it meant Timick would live longer.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  Elwyndor came to the doorway, and Richard resented what the rest of the day would bring.

  “Alright there, newbies. We’ll be learning how to spread weed killer potions today.”

  Richard wished he felt more excited than he did, but the thought of weed-killing potions made him uncomfortable. Before Richard slipped out the door, Elwyndor placed a hand out to stop him from leaving. Richard glanced at her, eyebrows raised.

  “Dmitri would like a word with you,” Elwyndor said.

  “Oh?” Richard asked.

  “Yep. Every newbie gets it halfway through their two-week training period.”

  Richard stared at her. “It isn’t halfway.”

  “There’s a lot of you,” Elwyndor said without missing a beat. Richard opened his mouth to say something else, but Elwyndor kept going. “Do you want me to tell him you’d rather spread weed potion on the ground today instead of talking to him?”

  Richard tried to make it seem like he was having a genuine quandary about it all. Elwyndor only smirked, and Richard let out a sigh.

  “I’ll go talk to Dmitri.”

  “Thought you might.”

  Richard followed Elwyndor’s directions and found Dmitri on the wall, watching the guards do formations. Richard climbed the ladder, then walked toward Dmitri. They watched the guards doing their formations. There were three lines, and each line was practicing defensive maneuvers.

  “They’re really organized,” Richard said.

  “One would hope, yes. Everything we do, we try to emulate Order in hopes she’ll take care of us during this chaotic time,” Dmitri said.

  Richard kept watching the formation, feeling like Dmitri was practically praying to Order with his words.

  “So, you wanted to see me?” Richard asked.

  “Elwyndor suggested I talk to you first, considering you are so excited to return to farming.”

  Richard glanced at him, and Dmitri let his smile appear on his face. Richard groaned, rubbing his forehead. “Is it really that obvious?”

  “Elwyndor knows there are certain types of people who can’t handle being a farmer, and that’s okay. Every class is needed,” Dmitri said.

  “I know farming is important. Hell, more than half the inhabitants of base two are farmers.”

  Dmitri nodded. “And we need every single one of them.”

  “I just… hate being alone. With my thoughts,” Richard said.

  “Why?”

  Richard shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  Dmitri grunted. “Our minds may have forgotten our past lives, but our bodies still remember.” Dmitri leaned against the wall, hands clasped together in front of him. “Besides farming, how are you adjusting to base two?”

  “I… think well. Well enough for an apocalypse,” Richard said.

  “Marcus and Jace both mention you’ve been eager to leave the camp. To go back out there.”

  Richard sighed, folding his arms. “I wouldn’t say I’m eager necessarily. I don’t think a person would be mentally well if they were excited to enter that forest.”

  “So what is it? Why do you want to go back?” Dmitri asked.

  Richard didn’t want to go back. That was essentially what he wanted to say to Dmitri. But he couldn’t deny that there was an apocalypse-sized problem that needed to be fixed.

  “We’ve got to figure out how to stop it, don’t we? See if there’re portals from hell we need to blow up to keep the creatures from coming here.”

  Dmitri chuckled. “You’re not wrong.”

  “I don’t mean to sound cocky or anything. I just… want to help the people who are trying to stop it. Which is… everyone. Even farmers.”

  “Especially farmers, since they keep us alive,” Dmitri said.

  Richard nodded. “Yeah.”

  The conversation lulled as they kept watching the guards. The back line held their spears, and the front two lines made an armored section with shields.

  “I’ll be honest because you need to hear it,” Dmitri said. “Of course everyone wants this to end, but… this apocalypse, right now, is the worst I’ve ever seen. The monsters are getting too bold. Too many see through our wards and notice base two when they shouldn’t. Newbies who come are too afraid to enter the forest, and the ones that enter…” Dmitri sighed with a slight shake of his head. “The ones that come back aren’t the same.” Dmitri rubbed his temples, taking a slow deep breath then letting it out. “I try to be as optimistic as I can, but if nothing changes, we’ll be wiped out in less than five years.”

  Richard tore his gaze from Dmitri to look at the forest. The trees a few miles away were moving, even though there was no wind.

  “I don’t want to make you think you’ve got to save the world yourself. Despite how good it sounds for people to think it only falls on one person’s shoulder, it doesn’t. It’s a group effort, but… it’s hard when the morale is so low.”

  They watched the guards again in silence. It was a while, but it was time that Richard wasn’t farming. He studied the trees, curious. Despite the four days of training, Richard and his group were incredibly close to level five. It was slightly disheartening that it was taking so long.

  “Have you considered a class you’ll choose at the end of next week?” Dmitri asked.

  Richard sighed, then hung his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Not farming?” Dmitri asked.

  “Probably not.”

  “That’s fine, you know,” Dmitri said. “Every single person who has come to base two in the past three months has chosen farming, even though scavengers and guards are the most likely to lose members of their group.”

  “I just… I don’t think I…” Dmitri waited, letting Richard sort through his thoughts. “I don’t think I’m a fit for any of the classes.”

  Dmitri chuckled. “Despite how much you think that makes you different, that usually means you’ll have a special gift from Order to help, like Timick, Lucy, or Amrynn. You might be a potions maker. Amrynn has noticed you taking a liking to it.”

  Richard tried to let his shoulder drop, but he was still too stressed to pretend he was relaxed. He again stared out into the forest.

  “Richard?” Dmitri asked.

  He sighed, shaking his head. “Perhaps I am going to be a potions maker. But… I think what I really want to do is to be a scout.”

  Dmitri raised an eyebrow. “A scout? Like a scavenger?”

  “Perhaps. When you said there used to be other base camps, that caught my interest. I don’t want to scavenge; I want to explore. Bring back information about the land so that people can make plans to… to…”

  “You want to find the supposed portals of hell,” Dmitri said. “To come back and help us form a plan to attack it, and lessen the effects of the apocalypse.”

  This time, Richard’s shoulders did relax. Something felt undeniably right about what Dmitri suggested. Dmitri simply smiled at his reaction.

  “Believe it or not, that is part of the scavenger’s job description,” Dmitri said.

  Richard’s brows furrowed. “Really?”

  Dmitri nodded, then moved from the wall, gesturing for Richard to follow. “Let me show you something.”

  They climbed down the ladder. Richard followed Dmitri as they walked to the potion-making building. Dmitri and Amrynn nodded to each other in greeting.

  “I’d like to show Richard the map,” Dmitri said.