“We have some of the answers you were looking for,” Professor Dawn said. We were in one of the semi-detached homes on the street we were living on, that had been converted into some sort of mission-control for Captain Davies and his team. There were radios, maps, reports scattered across a table, several soldiers mulling over images taken in the field. The five of us were sat on fold-out chairs, in front of a portable whiteboard that had papers clipped to it.

  Five days had passed where we had been out in the fields, racking up the kills and the SE coins. We’d managed to clear most of the southeast quadrant, leaving a few herds of the herbivores – the scientists had concluded that they were almost identical to the native species, except for their size and the recommendation was to allow them to repopulate. Not just with an eye on the future and using them for training, but also because they were a food source. As we’d travelled towards the east, their ranks had thinned out.

  The terrain was more forested over that way, and we’d come across a den of wolves, the odd red fox and even a couple of bears. All much larger than they should be of course. The deer, cows and sheep kept their distance from those forests, and we were being careful in how the soldiers were clearing the area. The memory of that cave was still fresh in people’s minds.

  “It looks like there’s a hard limit of twenty abilities you can have,” Professor Dawn explained, “although we can’t say that’s the case at higher power tiers and ranks. It is true for Common, rank B and has been for the ranks lower.”

  I glanced over at Kaelyn but Professor Dawn read my mind. “Kaelyn isn’t…maxed out for lack of a better term.”

  Kaelyn, sat at the end of our little semi-circle looked at the rest of us, a little touch of pink in her cheeks. “I have four abilities and two enhancements,” she revealed. “And only one of those is at the highest level.”

  “How come?” I asked.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I was trained for one thing and one thing only.”

  To kill Tiananmut.

  I guessed it was probably like being a boxer. Great with the hands. Not so much with the feet. What was the point of training their legs beyond the movement they needed? The power was in the hands.

  Carmen put her hand up like we were in class. She was sat to the left of me, Kian and Charlotte between her and Kaelyn. Professor Dawn nodded at her.

  “I was just curious how you tested that?”

  “Well,” Dawn said, an excited smile on her face, “we had a couple of our volunteers get as high as they could in rank without spending SE coins and then asked them to get level one of as many abilities as they could.”

  “Has anyone managed to get past rank B?” Charlotte asked.

  “Not yet,” Dawn replied. “We have someone who has over one hundred kills since hitting the rank but still hasn’t levelled up. We’re not sure if they need a lot more kills, if the creature level being lower is an issue or if they need quests as well. But there are no quests yet, so we’re not sure and there have been few Rank B creatures in the vicinity. There might be some hidden experience requirements as well, but the System is not telling us what they are, if any. All we can do is let him continue getting more kills for now.”

  One hundred kills wasn’t a lot actually. It had taken over fifty or so to hit Rank B for us all, but the implication was disconcerting. How many kills would it take at higher levels?

  From my end of the semi-circle, I looked over at Kaelyn and she met my eyes. She could tell what I was thinking, but I could see the perplexed look in her own face. She knew she was Rare, Rank C, but she had no memories of how many kills it had taken to get there.

  “For the enhancments,” Dawn said, “there are eleven in total. From what we know. Again, this is all preliminary. We don’t know if anything changes at higher ranks.”

  As she spoke, all of us were navigating the System to the relevant screen.

  [Improved Strength]

  [Improved Durability]

  [Improved Agility]

  [Improved Stamina]

  [Improved Metabolism]

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  [Improved Sight]

  [Improved Hearing]

  [Improved Touch]

  [Improved Smell]

  [Improved Taste]

  “You said eleven enhancements?” I asked. Dawn nodded.

  “There are some interesting things we have managed to gather about the enhancements. Firstly, there is a cap to them like the abilities. You can choose five at most. But there is a caveat to that. One of the five more or less has to be picked.”

  “Which one?” Kian asked, his eyebrows raised as his eyes flicked between Dawn and the invisible screen ahead of him.

  “The [Improved Mana].”

  The one I didn’t have.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “In our tests with the Rank B’s, the one with the improved mana at maximum level against the one without it at all could use their abilities almost twice as long before fatigue started setting in. The enhancement seems to increase how much mana you have and how quickly it seems to regenerate.”

  “Is that something we can see?” Charlotte asked.

  “Not yet, but it’s something we’re working on. It will take a while though, before we manage to get the technology working. We’re doing something similar to allow you to know what kind of rank you’re facing. Again, it will be a long time before we get it right.”

  “You’re absolutely sure we need this?” Carmen said to which Dawn answered with a nod of her head. The other three – wait, Kaelyn too – pushed their fingers like they were poking something invisible in the air. I followed suit, not wanting Dawn to realise I did not have the enhancement. I could guess why though. The Divine Artifact.

  I had advantages and disadvantages in a way to the rest. I didn’t need the [Improved Mana], so I wondered if I could pick five enhancements instead of the four the others could. Or was I able to pick all of them? Same thing with the abilities. If I was capped like they were, it didn’t matter that I could pick any abilities. Would it be better to focus on my class, or have limited abilities from several? Of course, either way, I had the Time Artifact, so I had access to other abilities that nobody else had.

  “So, you’re probably wondering about which other enhancements to pick. The ones for your senses basically sharpen those senses. Now, you might think what good is that, but in our testing, we know for instance that [Improved Touch] has an effect on the Healer and Brawler classes. Smell and Taste affects the Alchemist class. Sight for Hunters and Scouts. Hearing for Scouts and Assassins.

  “Then there are your physical attributes. Strength seems to be required for all melee classes. Durability too for Warriors and Brawlers who are facing the enemy, and how much damage they can take. But they also need Stamina for the battle. Agility seems to affect Assassins, Hunters and Scouts most. Then there’s [Improved Metabolism], which seems to be complimentary to [Improved Mana]. It allows you to recover faster from fatigue and seems to be more efficient at energy output from food.

  “We’ve managed to write up some reports here,” Dawn put a hand on a stack of papers on the edge of a table by her side, “so you can see what we have managed to understand so far, but I should also say that all of this is only at the levels that we have managed to test.

  “We haven’t tested every permutation of enhancements. We don’t know how good these effects will be at higher ranks. We don’t know about exponential or diminishing returns or anything of that sort. This is just our initial understanding.”

  “We’re basically just more guinea pigs in your testing?” I said with a cheeky smile.

  Dawn held her hands out in apology. “What’s happening is unprecedented and as with anything like this, there always has to be that first group taking a step into the unknown. If we had the time and the survival of our planet wasn’t at threat, then of course, as scientists we would take months, probably years before we even gave an initial conclusion.”

  “But we don’t have months, let alone years,” I replied. “We know. We’re the pioneers.”

  “That you are. Would you rather have it any other way?”

  “I’ll be honest,” Kian said, “if there was a choice between this, and sitting at home in front of the telly with a pizza, I’m pretty sure we’d all choose the pizza.”

  Everyone chuckled, including Dawn.

  “I don’t think you’re wrong,” Dawn smiled. “Any more questions?”

  “What are you recommending?” I asked. “Should we start allocating our points.”

  “I think you definitely have to take the [Improved Mana], which I think you have. I would say that Charlotte should take the [Improved Touch] and Carmen should take [Improved Sight]. I would recommend Kian take [Improved Strength] and [Improved Durability] for now. We haven’t done enough testing for mages yet. But here, take the reports w–”

  The door to the room swung open with a bang and we all turned around to see who it was. Captain Davies stood in the doorway, that chiselled face looking more weathered by the day, a few more greys in his beard and the odd silver in his hair. His blue eyes looked tired.

  “Sorry to interrupt, Professor, but I need them now.”

  “Of course,” the Professor said. Quickly, she handed out an enhancement report to each of us as we stood and followed Captain Davies out of the room.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  The man didn’t break stride as he explained. “We lost contact with several scout parties to the northwest.”

  As we’d been clearing the southeast, the army soldiers had been clearing the southwest. A good ten-mile area around the southern end of Warminster, from west to east had been cleared, bar the few areas where we’d left herbivores alive. The plan was to clear a similar area on the northern side the following week, but the terrain was different. More woods and forests and very little flat land. And different types of beasts, like the bears and the wolves we’d encountered already. The scouting parties had been sent out for the past few days to note the movement of any creatures and return in the evenings with their reports.

  “How many soldiers are missing?”

  “Fourteen that we haven’t heard from since they left base this morning. We lost contact with another four an hour ago in the same area. They went against orders and went to check the area for any signs.” He sounded pissed. I couldn’t tell if it was from losing the soldiers, or that the second party had ignored orders.

  “There’s an abandoned army barracks in the vicinity,” Davies continued. “Best case scenario, something happened and they’ve holed up there, waiting for rescue.”

  “And worst case?”

  Davies turned to me, eyes narrowed. “There’s something out there that’s too dangerous to be left alive.”