The apocalypse is a side.., p.14
The Apocalypse is a Side Quest: Book One, page 14
Nathan sighed. “Damn it, man, you’ve put me in an awkward position.”
According to Nathan’s sensibilities, Bjorn was a distasteful individual. His government had been involved in the mass execution of prisoners, but all he had to say was that it was inevitable.
“What are your goals now?” Nathan said.
“I was transported with my squad,” Bjorn said. “But when we exited to the next circle, we were separated. I need to find them.”
“Why?”
“They are my friends and companions. I have sworn my life to them, and they have sworn theirs to me. We are brothers in all but blood.”
Nathan was trying to do the same thing, wasn’t he? Find his family?
“What are your own goals?” Bjorn said.
“Escape this hellhole and find my sister.”
Bjorn crossed his arms and nodded. “A fair goal.”
Nathan scratched the back of his head, his mind spinning with conflicting thoughts. Working with someone who openly said that prisoner executions were a good thing felt wrong, but if Bjorn was telling the truth about his loyalty to his squad, maybe there was a sliver of goodness—or honor—left in him.
“What do you know about this place?” Nathan said.
“Not much more than you—though, I ran across another group of humans.”
Nathan stiffened.
Other people?
“What were they like?” Nathan said.
“They seemed ordinary. Well-organized, more so than I would’ve expected. They seemed to imply that they had dozens of other people in their camp.”
They might have the mana stones.
“Can you lead us to these people?” Nathan said.
“I was heading that way myself.”
Nathan bit his lip.
I’m about to catch a lot of flak for this.
“I propose a deal.”
“You want us to help him find his squad?!” Emi said.
They’d gathered around the campsite, the sun streaming from overhead. Mara had been doing target practice while Chad worked on some class quests involving his katana. Nathan had caught them up on what had happened, and they were now trying to decide what to do.
“We need the mana stones for your ability,” Nathan said. “And he can lead us to them. I don’t want us to just wander around in circles.”
“Y-you can’t seriously be considering this!” Emi’s hands wrapped tightly around her staff. “He’ll turn around and betray us, mark my words. We can’t trust him.”
“Hold on, gotta record this drama—” Chad pulled out his phone. “—yeah, I dunno about this one, Chief. Emi is already kind of a flight risk, and we got her literally yesterday. I’m not sure we should be adding the big, scary green orc.”
Mara shrugged, the motion tossing her red ponytail on her back. “Seems like as good an idea as anything else to me. Plus, we’ll get a plan now rather than just wandering around.”
“We can figure something else out,” Chad said. “This can’t be the best option—”
Emi grabbed her hair.
“He’ll stab us!” Emi said. “He’ll kill me, just like he killed my family!”
Her words caused the conversation to stop. Chad paused the recording with a frown and put his phone away. Mara glanced at her before making a small shrug with her shoulders. Nathan’s lips pursed, an uncomfortable feeling rolling down his spine—why was he doing this, damn it? Was this really a good call?
I really hope I’m doing the right thing.
“Emi,” he said. “I understand that what’s been done to your family is unforgivable—but he didn’t have any direct involvement in that. And besides that, we need him. We need his information, and his abilities are bound to be useful in the challenges we’ll face.”
Emi bowed her head, her hair hiding her eyes. “I just… I can’t trust him.”
“Who said you have to trust him?” Mara kicked her legs back and forth. “Use him and kill him once we’ve extracted everything we need.”
Nathan’s eyes widened. “Mara, are you insane?! We’re not going to turn back around and assassinate the guy after we made a deal with him!”
Emi paused.
Her fingers twitched.
“You know what?” she said. “I’ve changed my mind, let’s have him join us. It’ll be great.”
Nathan’s jaw flapped open and shut a few times.
“This is an awful idea,” he said. “I take it all back.”
“Nope!” Emi said. “I love orcs! Orcs are great, I have no issues with them at all! Let’s have Bjorn join us!”
Nathan got the feeling that he’d just made a terrible mistake.
“Brute.”
“Leave me be.”
“Oversized pig.”
“Go away.”
“Murderous bastard.”
“…tree hugger.”
Nathan plugged his ears. Bjorn had been introduced to everyone—there’d been a bit of awkwardness, of course. After that, he’d explained the precise directions needed to reach the camp, it would be at least a day’s travel, maybe more. There was no time to waste, and they set off at a light jog.
“They’ve been at it for hours,” Chad said. “Literal hours. Nathan, why did we do this?”
Mara’s trigger finger twitched. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I was wrong. We should kill them both, now. I have explosives, we can make it look like an accident.”
Nathan took a deep breath.
We had good reasons for making this choice. We need allies, we need information—
“Did your mother drop you at birth, or is your head naturally that shape?” Emi said.
Nathan was filled with violent murder for a split second.
The insults continued till they came to a stop to prepare camp. Nathan walked away after dumping a pound of fish from his inventory onto the ground, citing his need to practice his abilities.
He eventually found himself at a gentle stream, the water flowing around his calves and creating a soft trickling sound. In the background, a bird chirped while a branch swayed in the wind. He shut his eyes.
Breathe.
The world faded away. Unlike before, it took mere seconds to clear his mind. Nothing remained but the feeling of cool wrapping around his skin. His body relaxed.
Last time, he’d made the water move unconsciously. Could he do it on purpose?
He reached out mentally and tugged at the water. Nothing. He could already tell it didn’t work. He didn’t have that same strain on his chest that had happened last time, the same pressure, drive, something that had made the water explode around him.
Nathan took another breath. He felt the push and pull of the water flowing around his legs and let his focus sink deeper into the current.
The water flickered—somehow, he could sense it.
Excitement flooded his veins right before the sensation slipped away again.
Nathan’s jaw clenched. Seriously?
Come on. I can do this.
Water was a life-giving substance. But it was also destructive. Perhaps even deadly. Floods. Typhoons. When focused, it became cutting. It was capable of slicing through skin and bone, wiping out civilizations, destroying worlds if needed.
It was dangerous.
Like him.
Something clicked. He opened his eyes and the water exploded out around him. He felt it spray what was left of his suit and pants, shooting out, catching the riverbank’s edge with devastating force, ripping chunks of dirt and roots into the water.
[Skill Unlocked: Riptide Grasp (Bronze)]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[Achievement Get: F-rank Cultivator]
[Achievement Get: Gifted]
[Stat Unlocked: Soul]
“Holy shit!” someone yelled.
Nathan’s eyes turned toward the right, where a group of figures—unfamiliar ones—jumped out of the path of destruction.
Oh shit, did I hurt any of them?!
Nathan ran over. “Hey, are you guys okay?!”
It was a group of two. They were dressed in old T-shirts and shorts, pants, and jackets. Normal clothes for normal people from planet Earth—fellow survivors!
“Holy crap, man,” one with a scar over his eye said. “What the heck was that?”
“Sorry, I was practicing a technique.” Nathan blinked. “It’s great to see another bunch of survivors.”
The man with one eye nodded.
“Definitely. This was supposed to be a routine patrol, I wasn’t expecting to find anyone out here.”
“There’s a patrol? Wait, who are you guys?”
The man crossed his arms.
“We’re with the Harrowed Hand. And who are you?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Wait, the Harrowed Hand?” Nathan said. “I’ve heard of you!”
The man narrowed his eyes. “Where?”
“An orc by the name of Bjorn. We’ve been traveling together to try to find you guys.”
The man’s hand twitched.
“Oh, yeah. One of the exploratory squads mentioned something about that.” He nodded. “Good to meet you—aside from the whole water attack.”
Nathan rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“We’re all good,” the scarred man said. “I’m glad that we’ve run into another person.”
Nathan pointed behind him. “I think we should meet with the rest of my group. We’ll talk more with them.”
The man nodded. “You’re right; lead the way.”
On the way back, Nathan looked at his new achievements.
[Achievement Get: F-Rank Cultivator]
Congrats! You’ve finally ascended beyond total garbage into slightly above-average garbage!
Basically, you’ve chosen the path of mystical enlightenment, which is basically the grindy road to nowhere… but hey, you now have a Soul stat! Sure, you don’t know what it does yet, but it’s there, a spark of cosmic potential just waiting for you to spend the next thousand years figuring it out.
+10 Soul
[Achievement Get: Gifted]
You possess an above-average talent for cultivation, making you more likely to make progress without face-planting quite as often as everyone else. Sure, it’s not the blazing brilliance of a true genius, but you’ve got potential—and that’s at least a bit reassuring.
+10 Soul
Nathan was gifted?
His lips turned down at the word. He ignored the description and popped open his menu.
Stats:
Strength: 10 (+47) = 37
Dexterity: 28 (+3) = 31
Constitution: 30 (+5) = 35
Magic: 3 (+5) = 8
Luck: 12 (+46) = 58
Soul: 10 (+20) = 30
Available Stats: 32
As the System had said, he now had a new stat. Soul.
What was Soul? He clicked on the stat to see if there would be a pop-up, but nothing appeared.
I really need to invest my stats soon.
The group of three walked back to the camp. Mara was cleaning a gun, Chad was talking to his camera, and Emi was chanting something under her breath while Bjorn cleaned up the camp.
Emi perked up when she saw Nathan. “Nathan, you’re back—” She looked at the scarred man and his companion. “Who are they?”
“They’re a part of the Harrowed Hand. I just ran into them.”
Chad flipped off his phone and cast a glance over them. “Huh. Nice to meet you guys.”
“Likewise,” the scarred man said. “We’ve been searching for other survivors. I’m glad to see so many in one place.”
After a few brief introductions, they sat around in a circle.
The scarred man stared at Emi. “An elf and an orc. Didn’t think that you guys existed—despite what the boys said. But, here we are.” He shook his head. “So why were you looking for us in the first place?”
“Mana Stones.” Nathan pointed at Bjorn. “He mentioned you might have them and be willing to trade.”
The scarred man nodded. “We do. We’ve been collecting them, assuming they might be valuable later. I only have one at my camp, though.”
“We’d need to go meet your leader to make a deal, though,” Chad said.
The scarred man grinned. “Actually, you’re speaking to him.”
“Really?”
“Yup. At least, the leader of our camp. I don’t have any control over our regional operations.”
Regional? It’s only been two or three days since we dropped out of the tutorial.
“Can we back up a little?” Nathan said. “I don’t get how you guys have formed an entire organization. I can believe that you managed to find a bunch of people and put together a survivor camp, but a whole organization?”
The scarred man nodded. “Two things. First, the tutorial. Our tutorial was different than yours—we were dropped in with about fifty thousand people. We were also inside for several months, not two weeks.” He looked at Nathan. “I’m assuming you guys had smaller groups.”
They were inside for months? No wonder they were able to get so organized—they had so much time.
“Yeah, everyone here was dropped in with only ten or twenty except for me, right guys?”
A bunch of nods came from everyone except Mara, who was too busy examining the scope of a rifle.
“Is she always like that?” the scarred man said.
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “Pretty much.”
The scarred man quirked his lip before regaining his neutral expression. “Anyway, a couple thousand of us banded under one man—the guy who formed the Harrowed Hand. The goal was to bring order to the tutorial, make sure everyone was fed, quell any violence, you know?”
Chad adjusted his sunglasses, his expression blank. “That’s a noble goal. But how did you not get disbanded when you entered here? The rest of us all were separated from our groups once we left the tutorial.”
“Our boss, the leader of the Harrowed Hand.” An odd light came into the scarred man’s eyes. “He’s invincible. I’ve never seen anything like him. He killed monsters, developed his magic, and somehow got an award from the System allowing him to group people together for transportation to the first circle.”
“He must be pretty powerful,” Nathan said.
“Extremely so.” The scarred man’s voice grew higher, more excited. “And he had a dream. He wanted us to spread our order everywhere. Save people all over the place, and we couldn’t do that if we were all just bunched up as one big blob, so he came up with a plan.”
Mara perked up curiously. “What kind of plan?”
“He divided us into groups of a couple hundred each, led by a regional governor. Once we dropped, we’d establish camps, absorb fellow survivors, and conquer the Nine Circles. The long-term hope is to set up some kind of communication and transportation between each other, but that’s way off.”
“That’s a pretty heroic dream,” Nathan said. “I’d like to meet him.”
“Maybe you’ll run into him at some point,” the scarred man said. “But anyway, you guys want a mana stone, right? How about we head back to my camp? If possible, I’d like you to meet our regional governor. I think he’ll be very interested in someone of your capabilities.”
Nathan shrugged. “Sure. It couldn’t hurt to meet him, right?”
“Yeah. He’s only a day’s travel away,” the scarred man said. “Oh, and he should have more mana stones, too.”
Nathan nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
They set off. The scarred man walked alongside his partner, leading them toward the camp. Nathan walked in front.
He felt a tap on his shoulder. Chad stared at him with a solemn expression. He signaled toward the back of the group with his eyes, then slowed his walking pace. Nathan slowed down and he fell in line with Chad at the back of the group.
“What is it?” Nathan said.
“I don’t trust them,” Chad said.
“You didn’t trust Emi—”
“No, you don’t understand.” Chad took off his sunglasses, revealing his blue eyes. They were clear and steady and altogether different from what Nathan had expected. “Nathan, there’s something really off about those guys.”
Nathan would’ve dismissed Chad, but something about his tone concerned him. Chad always had a lightheartedness about him, even when he’d been attacked by a T-Rex. There was none of that now. Instead, he was dead serious.
“What is it?” Nathan said. “Is it something they said?”
“Look, I’ve met a lot of people as a streamer,” Chad said. “Most of them are good. Most of them are awesome. But there were a few people… you just meet them and you know something’s off, but you don’t say anything about it, cause it’s just a silly feeling, right?”
Nathan hesitantly nodded. “Right.”
His voice lowered. “Every single person who gave me that feeling turned out to be batshit insane. It always comes out that they were pedophiles or some shit.”
“You’re not accusing this guy of being a pedophile without any evidence.”
Chad let out a hot breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“No, Nathan, you’re not…” He breathed out slowly and stared at Nathan. “There was this one case I remember. It was so distinctive, I still remember it even now. I’d just been invited to a collab. I was an up-and-coming streamer with only a handful of followers while she was crazy-popular, so I was super grateful. We met up. She was a sweet girl. We were joking, having fun, but the whole time, there was just… something in her eyes. She wanted to schedule another collab, but I declined.”
“Okay—”
“Nathan, a week after that collab, she killed her family,” Chad said.
Nathan’s jaw dropped.
“I’m telling you,” Chad said. “That look in her eyes? I saw it just now. In both of those two. I don’t know what they’re hiding, but there’s something they’re not telling us.”
Nathan nodded slowly. “I… Jesus, Chad. I get your point. I’ll keep an eye out.”
Chad nodded and slipped his sunglasses back on his face. “Thanks, man. That’s all I wanted to say.”
