Chapter 28

Sally opened her mouth to say something more, when Rob’s eyes narrowed and he suddenly whispered, “Quiet.”

Rob’s eyes narrowed.

His Perception had picked up something.

Something much more threatening than any of the Marsh Boars or Mire Leeches that populated the area.

Rob stood up and picked up his spear.

“Stay here,” he said to Sally.

With that he moved out into the night.

Rob hurried forward towards where his Perception had picked up something.

He moved towards the spot as directly as he could, sometimes making large berths around slightly higher level Marsh Boars that might have given him some trouble.

He eventually arrived at the edge of the marshland, north of where their camp was, to the edge of another patch of jungle.

Rob tried to hold onto the signal of the hostile entity, but it started to fade away.

Damn.

Rob paused and examined the jungle surrounding him. His eyes scanned looking for some kind of sign. Ripped branches, blood, or footsteps. Anything.

It took him a moment, peering amongst the bushes and leaves, but he found a footstep in the dirt.

A human footstep.

They were being watched.

Seth moved rapidly through the jungle away from his enemies.

No, not enemies, he quickly corrected himself. Targets.

Seth had no idea if the people he was told to spy on were enemies yet.

Well, Brad and his crew had been deemed a potential threat, but then that lizard guy had shown up and destroyed them, so Seth wasn’t sure what to make of that.

An enemy of my enemy is a…friend?

Seth ran throughout the night. He eventually made it to the beach. If anyone was watching him, they’d see a shadowy figure moving across the beach under the shimmer of moonlight.

The level 10 rogue didn’t care if anyone spotted him at this point. The lizard-dude had spotted him. It didn’t matter if he was spotted again. Most important was getting back to the camp and letting Paul know what he’d discovered on his reconaissance mission.

Paul would know what to do. He always did. That was why he was their faction’s leader. He could see things more clearly than the rest of them. There was something about him. Where everyone else just contained fear and panic, Paul had vision.

Seth’s heart pounded in his chest as he arrived back at his faction’s camp a few hours later. Despite being within eye sight of one another, going from one end of the cove to the next was not a short journey.

The morning sun was beginning to rise as Seth stepped into the faction’s camp.

Multiple people were already awake, working on their Vocations at the different stations: the woodworkers, the weapon and armorsmithes, the seamstresses, and the other crafters. At least fifteen people were awake, going about their business. They all stared at Seth, their eyes widening as they saw him arrive out of breath.

Oh shit, Seth thought to himself. Paul probably would have told me not to arrive this way.

He still remembered one of the token pieces of wisdom Paul had shared with him a few days earlier: ‘Managing our fear is the key to survival in a situation like this. Fear will kill us all.’

He looked around the camp and saw Paul moving around the campsite, doing his morning rounds. The faction leader was a Healer class and found using his skills even on those tired from working on their Vocations, helped him improve his class. Of course, it was healing their squad of hunters and warriors that gained him the bulk of his experience.

At level 13, Paul was the highest leveled person Seth had met in the Tutorial so far. Even lizard-dude was a level below Paul. Not that, that offered Seth much comfort. The lizard dude was a spear-wielding warrior who specialized in killing things. Paul could only heal himself so many times before someone like that would eventually kill him.

Then again, Seth thought, as he imagined the two figures going toe to toe against one another, Paul wouldn’t beat someone like that in a fight. No. Paul would convince him to see his way. Just like Paul had shown his way to everyone in our faction.

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Paul and Seth locked eyes and the older man gestured with his fingers to go speak privately in his medic tent. Seth nodded and a few moments later they were standing by each other.

Paul placed his hand on the ground and an invisible force of energy shot forth from their spot. No one else could see it. It was an auditory shield. One of the skills Paul had picked up with his Vocation. It came in handy quite a bit. With multiple people’s Perception stat rising, it was hard to keep information on a need-to-know basis. The auditory shield was one of the ways Paul “managed” the faction’s fear levels.

“What happened on your mission?” asked Paul. “Have Brad and his allies become a bigger and more immediate threat than we expected?”

Seth shook his head. “No—Brad and his men are dead. A new person showed up. Dressed head to toe in lizard-crafted armor. He wore the skull of a dead lizard. He looked like an absolute monster. He killed Brad and his men easily.”

“You saw him do this?”

“I caught the end of the battle while hiding in Stealth,” said Seth. “I ran out of Stamina and Aether points to keep the Stealth going on my way back, and that was when his Perception picked me up. His stats are high. He’s a level 12 Warrior.”

“Interesting,” said Paul, nodding along. “How many others are with him?’

“Two others, a boy and a girl,” said Seth. “The girl’s a healer. The boy doesn’t have class. It was weird.”