Richard woke up, staring at the new ceiling of his room, marveling that he had briefly woken up to the ringing of the bell during the night, then simply turned around and went back to sleep. He wasn’t sure how many hours he got, but he couldn’t deny he was sleeping better.

  It had been almost a week since the new newbies had arrived. That was how Richard called them because in so many ways he still felt like one. The scavengers had gone to the beach, where Richard almost fell in the water if Elias hadn’t shoved him out of the way, followed by a lecture from Elias that he should actually use his brain instead of it being something to fill in the hole of his skull. The forest was still hard for him to enter, simply because there were so many animals that could pop out at any time. Richard got hit by three crawlers within two hours of being in the forest, and Elias’s eye rolls helped him feel like he was nothing more than an older newbie.

  Marcus said he noticed improvements, but Richard wasn’t sure if the scavenger leader was telling the truth or if it was only something to help him feel better. At least there hadn’t been a dangerous attack on the wall for a while.

  The Chaos curse had reached 0% again, but the changes remained. Richard was glad he hadn’t died in almost a week, but he also couldn’t deny that he needed to do more experiments on this. He still wasn’t sure what to do with his ability. An ability he didn’t even want. Something thrust upon him by higher beings that really should take care of this themselves. Honestly, he was torn about what to do almost a week later. He still kept it quiet for now, because Dmitri and all the other leaders were busy with the new newbies.

  Richard was slowly but surely leveling up, too. He was still mostly working on his scavenger skill tree. As soon as he had another ability point, he unlocked his stealthing ability so it could start leveling up. There had to be a reason he was always getting caught by those crawlers. He had a feeling that if Marcus had brought a new newbie to the forest, they’d probably get caught. Then again, Marcus was refusing to bring the new newbies into the forest at all. Bringing Richard to the lake had been a turning point for him. He was far more careful, and also Elwyndor wasn’t asking him for any more advanced-level things. Richard was just waiting, though, for when she would. He was finally at level fifteen. He got the impression that this level was when someone was out of their newbie stage. Also, his navigation ability in his survivor skill tree went from 20% to 40%. That was really helpful. Level fifteen was also when people started considering Richard actually capable of helping. He remembered Dmitri mentioning that people above level fifteen could help in harder areas.

  Though the other thing people didn’t warn him was just how much more experience it would now take to level up to sixteen. He figured that would happen eventually, but if he had known that days after hitting level fifteen that he wasn’t even halfway to sixteen yet, he would have unlocked his weapon ability instead of scavenger crafting. Hell, even starting on his cooking skill tree would have been nice. He needed to learn more patience. He should be grateful he even survived this long, because if Chaos hadn’t stepped in and given him this extremely overpowered gift, he would be dead. Honestly, he should have died the very first day.

  Richard was helping the other scavengers cook breakfast, once again kicking himself for not choosing his cooking meal ability. He had already decided that he would choose it once he hit level sixteen. He had gone back and forth between getting that one or getting the weapon ability in his scavenger tree, and therefore unlocking the master level of the scavenger. Richard really needed to unlock some of Order’s gift, though. Despite ignoring it for a while, the gift intrigued him when Order talked to him about it. And it wouldn’t hurt when he was on meal duties to get that skill upgraded. He had a few skills like that he needed to remember he had. Mainly punching and kicking. As Richard sat down to breakfast, he told himself that wherever they went today, he needed to punch and kick something, because it was embarrassing that he’d been here in an apocalypse for three weeks now and punching and kicking were still at their lowest, basic form.

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  Since the scavengers made breakfast, they were also the last group to get it. Richard sat down next to Savannah as Elias sat at a different table. Richard slurped his protein slurry straight from the bowl as Marcus walked over with his plate.

  Marcus snapped his fingers at Elias. “Hey, we need to discuss something.” Elias groaned before picking up his plate and joining everyone else. Richard set down his bowl as Marcus sat across from him. “We’re bringing the newbies to the beach today.”

  Elias groaned. “Didn’t you claim the beach to be as deadly as the forest now?”

  “The newbies have been here a week, and it’s been a lot calmer than…” Marcus trailed off, then glanced at Richard.

  “Than when Richard was a newbie a week ago?” Savannah filled in for him.

  Marcus sighed. “Yeah. Which has to be a good sign. So, I’m feeling confident about this. They’re a little jittery, but that’s expected. We’re also bringing Izzy and Leylah with us. Leylah has been asking for other assignments besides wall duty, so Izzy agreed to let her go with her. I’m quite confident this will go smoothly.”

  Savannah rolled her eyes. “Great. You cursed us. Thanks.”

  Marcus sighed, rolling his shoulders. “Hopefully not. Everyone, just stick to the plan. We’ll have the newbies working on looting clams. Elias, you’ll be gathering them.”

  Elias shot Marcus a glare. “No, I won’t. I set a trap on the beach, and I want to check it.”

  Marcus’s lips drew into a line. “Is the trap in a place where it will take you all day to find?”

  Elias kept glaring at him. “No.”

  “Then perhaps you can check your trap, then help Savannah gather clams.”

  Elias said nothing, skewering his strawberries and taking a huge bite out of them.

  “Yep, I can help with that,” Savannah said, trying to keep the conversation going.

  Richard glanced at his skill tree in his vision. “I’m close to upgrading my loot and my inventory.”

  “Good, good. Are you okay to loot with the newbies, then?” Marcus asked.

  “Yeah, that’d be fine.”

  “Excellent. We’ll want those abilities upgraded.”

  “And what’ll you do?” Savannah asked Marcus.

  “A little bit of everything. Izzy and Leylah will stay with the newbies, so I’ll patrol the beach, making sure no bosses sneak up on us.”

  “Yeah, that’d be great,” Richard muttered.

  Marcus chuckled as he popped a strawberry into his mouth.

  “Anyone want to place bets on what classes the newbies choose?” Savannah asked.

  “They’re all going to be farmers,” Marcus said with no hesitation.

  It surprised Richard how confident Marcus sounded. “Wait, really?”

  “Yeah. I’ve heard of this before. When we lose numbers like this, it’s always farmers that get the first big batch of people.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Savannah glanced over at the newbie table.

  “Does Order often send three?” Richard asked.

  “That’s usually the max,” Savannah said.

  Marcus shrugged. “Unless there’s four. I’ve never heard of anyone seeing a group of five or larger.”

  “We need the numbers, though,” Richard said. As usual, the mess hall looked very bare.

  “It’ll even itself out.” Marcus picked up his empty tray. “I’d better go talk to them and give them the basic rundown.”

  Marcus left Savannah, Elias, and Richard alone. Richard tried to eat because he knew he needed food in order to function. Elias didn’t seem interested in having a conversation, and Savannah kept shooting him distrustful looks.

  “Is your trap far from the beach?” Richard asked because he felt there should be some conversation.

  Elias stared at Richard. “Yeah, it is. Because if you set it too close, you get lame loot like something from a crab.”

  Richard did his best to keep himself calm. Elias put up walls, no doubt because he wanted to keep everyone at a distance. It was easier to push a person in front of a creature that way.

  “Well, I hope you get some good loot,” Richard said.

  Elias rolled his eyes, then picked up his tray to move to a different table.

  “You don’t have to talk to him at all,” Savannah said. “He’s a bit unstable.”

  “Yeah,” Richard said with a small sigh. But he continued to watch Elias because part of him was terrified. Elias had been here for a long time. Almost seven years. If Richard could stay alive, maybe forever, he didn’t want to become bitter and unstable. He could be a danger to everyone around him.

  Marcus returned to the table, smiling. “Alright. The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be back. The newbies are anxious to get going.”

  “Probably so they can be done,” Savannah said before shoveling the rest of her protein slurry into her mouth.

  “Let’s show them the ropes,” Marcus said.

  “Even if they’re all going to be farmers?” Richard asked.

  “It’s important for them to gain an appreciation of all classes.”

  “Or scare them into being farmers,” Richard said.

  Marcus shrugged. “That happens, too. Alright, let’s go to the beach.”