David was filled with a sense of urgency, the quiet soothing drone of the safe zone was nice and it helped him to think clearly.

  He needed to get the team together, people he was familiar with and trusted, then they could plan their next move and hopefully get some help from all these new people. Who should he grab first?

  The answer was instant, he wanted action... Camila, she would see the need fastest and start helping.

  He spotted her near the makeshift kitchen area, gesturing animatedly at Katie. Even from a distance, David could read the restless energy in her posture. She wanted to move, to do something.

  "Camila," David called, striding over. "Need you for a minute. I want to get everyone together, plan our next moves."

  She turned, eyebrows raised.

  "Now? Sure, I'm trying to convince Katie we won’t starve if we save another hundred people!"

  "That's exactly why now." David kept his voice low but urgent, trying to speak to the two girls without inviting anyone else into the conversation.

  "We just pulled off something major, but we know time is running out. We need to keep up the momentum before everyone scatters. Keep the team together so we can keep helping…"

  Camila studied his face for a beat, then nodded sharply.

  "OK, OK. Katie, you in?"

  Katie nodded then waved them off.

  “Sure, I’ll be here helping with the food when you round everyone up.”

  "Who next?" Camila asked as they walked.

  "Let’s meet near the Obelisk so I guess tell Charlie then search for Mark, Sarah, Carl, Billy.”

  "Billy's with the dog owners and kids. He's not going to want to leave." Camila’s tone was gentle as she talked about the most troubled of their little group.

  "He needs to hear this," David said. "He has good ideas, a different perspective and he genuinely wants to help. He can leave Bessie to play with the kids. I’ll make it quick…”

  Camila's lips quirked. "You? Quick? This I have to see."

  David ignored the jab, already organizing talking points.

  They'd rescued over a hundred people. Lost some. Saved many. He realized that he wanted to keep working with these people, so he would try to bring them together again.

  Gathering the team took longer than five minutes. Charlie was easy, practically vibrating near the Obelisk answering questions for newly awakened survivors.

  Mark was helping triage with the other medical people, he was reluctant until Camila told him Katie was in.

  Sarah had to be physically pulled away from heading out to see if she could get to another house. The bandage was off her face and faint pinkish marks that were already fading the only physical evidence of her ordeal.

  Billy, as expected, took the longest to convince, seeming so happy to be wanted and able to help others with their worries over pets.

  Carl arrived last, looking like he'd rather be somewhere else. He agreed fast but wanted to talk to some folks first…

  They were close to the Obelisk, not far from the unconscious survivors gathered in rows and watched by the medically inclined.

  "So," Mark said, his deep voice cutting through the moment. "What's this about?"

  David took a breath. "We just saved a lot of people. Over a hundred survivors brought into the safe zone. That's huge."

  "But we lost people too," Katie said quietly. "Three died before we could get them help." The statement hung there. Nobody tried to argue or minimize it.

  "Yeah," David agreed. "We did. And that's going to happen again if we keep doing this."

  "So what, we stop?" Sarah's voice carried an edge. "Just hole up here and hope for the best?"

  "No," Camila cut in. "Exactly the opposite. We double down. But we need to talk about how it felt out there."

  The group exchanged glances. This wasn't tactical planning. This was something else. Charlie spoke up, his usual enthusiasm muted.

  "It was intense, bro. Like, I knew it would be rough but seeing all those people just lying there? Some of them already gone? That hit different than fighting monsters."

  "I kept thinking about my family," Sarah admitted. "Every person we saved, I wondered if someone was doing the same thing for them. If anyone was even trying."

  Mark nodded slowly. "The medical side was brutal. So many needed help and we couldn't get to everyone fast enough. Having to choose who to prioritize..."

  "That's triage," Carl said. "It sucks but it's necessary. Y'all did good work out there."

  "We did," Camila said firmly. "But David's right. We need to acknowledge what we just went through before we plan the next move."

  Katie looked at David with something like understanding. "You're worried we'll burn out. That the weight of all those deaths will paralyze us."

  "Or make us reckless," David added. "Either extreme gets people killed. We need to find the balance."

  Billy surprised everyone by speaking up. "Bessie can tell something is wrong. All those people, their fear. It’s everywhere." He paused. "But hope too. That’s what’s was real."

  The observation cut through the heavy atmosphere. Billy was right. Mixed in with all the horror and loss, there was hope.

  Real, tangible hope in the form of survivors waking up, families reuniting, people working together.

  "We're not alone anymore," Sarah said. "That's what changed. We went from eight people against the apocalypse to over a hundred."

  Charlie nodded “Most of them have a skill and a better idea than we did of how to leverage it.”

  "Yeah, and that brings its own problems," Carl muttered. "More opinions, more arguments, more people thinking they know best."

  "But more hands," Mark countered. "More skills. More capacity to help."

  David felt the group starting to process, emotion had given way to practicalities. Good. They needed this before diving back into planning. He let the conversation meander for another minute then raised the first of his substantial points.

  “So have you checked the system reward for the quest?”

  As he said this he brought up the notification to remind himself.

  [CONGRATULATIONS! QUEST COMPLETE: SAVE YOUR PEOPLE 1]

  [YOU HAVE BROUGHT 10 SYSTEM-COMPATIBLE HUMANS INTO THE SAFE ZONE, ACCESS THE OBELISK FOR REWARDS]

  Then he reached out the Obelisk, the task simple now and with his increased stats not so draining.

  [CALCULATING REWARDS...]

  [ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: AMONG THE FIRST 10 TO COMPLETE THIS QUEST AT THIS OBELISK TITLE EARNED: LEADER (0)]

  [ADDITIONAL REWARD OPTIONS]

  [SELECT ONE REWARD:]

  [SAFE ZONE ENHANCEMENT: INCREASE SYSTEM RESOURCE ALLOCATION TO THIS SAFE ZONE]

  [ADVANCED SKILL SELECTION: ADVANCED SKILL BASED ON CURRENT SYSTEM CONFIGURATION]

  [PERMANENT ENHANCEMENT: GAIN A PERMANENT BONUS TO ONE RESOURCE OR ATTRIBUTE]

  "Did everyone get the leader title?" Charlie asked unnecessarily.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "Leader title, what does that even mean?" Camila read aloud, clearly having ignored the system stuff until now.

  "What does that even mean?" Charlie responded eyes unfocused. “Huh, buffs and influence over the safe zone. Though like everything we have to level it.”

  "Check the reward options," Sarah suggested, “we can be selfish or build something bigger.”

  "This is huge," Charlie breathed. "Like, game-changing huge. Dude, an advanced skill? When skills have literally saved out butts! Or a permanent buff"

  "Or we could make the safe zone stronger," Katie said. "Help everyone, not just ourselves."

  "The permanent bonus though," Mark commented. "That's long-term investment. Compounds over time."

  David's mind raced through the options. Each had merit. Each had significant implications.

  "How is everyone's build developing?" Charlie asked suddenly. "Because that probably helps decide how you spend this.”

  That sparked a flurry of status checks. David pulled up his own, noting that he was mostly invested in his bloodline.

  “I see what you’re getting at. The skill option seems super IF you are happy with the direction your build is going in. That means at a minimum you’ve levelled the attribute and resource pool you hope to get a cool new skill for. Maybe other things, like existing skill level too…”

  Most of the others looked disappointed at that. It quickly came out that with their default still set to system initiate at the last fight they had maxed that out then leveled. Nobody really understood what being level three meant, though it sounded good. The system help was even more Delphic than usual talking about ‘general potential influencing all aspects of the system’.

  The exceptions were David, Camila and Charlie.

  Mostly Charlie who then had to explain how to actually use the system interface properly while pointing out that having Magic and arcane at ten while leveling his skill had opened new skill choices. He now had fireball making him the first person to have multi-target damage.

  Camila was smug about her strength being maxed out even if it seemed to have cost her a level leaving her at level two. A brief demonstration revealed she was in fact stronger than Mark now, albeit at the cost of draining stamina.

  Now it was David’s turn and he felt a momentary surge of dread. He realized he wanted this group to stay together and right now he was the one with secrets.

  “So, I haven’t laid this out for all of you. I’m a little different. You know how I mentioned that I didn’t have patronage?”

  Charlie responded first, knowing where this was going.

  “Yeah, none of us can access that part of our status until the Obelisk and safe zone upgr… Hey! Do you think we get access to that with our reward?”

  “I have no idea. More relevant it’s not that I can’t use it. I don’t have it. My system is for lack of a better word mutated.”

  Seeing looks of concern he continued.

  “I deliberately used that word, because it’s not all good. You all assumed that my ability to hear the Nath was a skill, or part of my bonus from the first encounter I had…”

  He paused the continued in a rush “It is, I didn’t lie about it I just left out how it works. I have what the system calls a bloodline. Which is how it quantifies significant abilities from outside the system. I got this from defeating that thing that invaded my initiation. I got to ask the Herald about it and it called the thing a K’R’Nath and told me about the Nath, you know the things that make the zombies.”

  “It’s a higher order zombie. The bloodline has a name, which is apparently a translation but not exact. Necromancer.”

  Here David finished looking at them all almost pleading for understanding.

  There was silence for several seconds. Then Sarah spoke.

  “So, you’re freaking out worrying what we would think because you have a secret Necromancer skill? Does it come with a free lifetime supply of eyeliner?”

  The joke fell somewhat flat. Camila responded next.

  “So, you have this dark power? You bring it up when you need to explain your build. Have you been strengthening it? Spending XP?”

  David nodded wordlessly, feeling the judgement and with dawning understanding he understood. She was a good person, someone who had deep faith and defined themselves by their actions. Oh, this was bad…

  Camila started speaking very softly in Spanish, it sounded like a prayer.

  Carl came back with an obvious question. “So what, this is the power you used to save us, that made you bleed from your eyes.”

  David nodded again.

  Charlie seeing where this was going asked one of his own. “The power that lets you exorcise the Nath, that keeps us safe by warning us?”

  David nodded.

  Seeing the direction of David’s miserable gaze Sarah shared a look with Katie then to everyone’s surprise it was Katie who spoke.

  “So let me get this straight. You are worried that something that was done to you.” The emphasis was obvious. “Something that you have taken and used to help people. Something that made it possible for you to get Halt, which has at this point saved my life twice will make us think less of you?”

  David nodded, trying to see where she was going and starting to hope.

  What she said next was completely out of character for her. “Well, if someone judged you for that I would cut the bitch.”

  Everyone stopped shocked to hear Katie saying something like that.

  Sarah burst out laughing “Cammie, she’s got you there.”

  Now it was Camila’s turn to flush with embarrassment. “It’s not the same and you know it…”

  Katie just looked at her. She stopped. Everyone waited for her to start again.

  Mark’s deep voice then cut through the silence “Well, that was something. I for one would like to say thank you. Please, please, keep using everything you’ve got to keep everyone safe.” The raw sincerity of the last sentence paired with a look at Katie made it clear where he was coming from.

  Charlie then burst out “So, are we cool? Bro just laid out something he was worried about. Trusted us to be cool. So we cool?”

  There was a chorus of yeses. Finally Camila made eye contact with David and nodded firmly.

  Taking a deep breath David continued.

  “Thanks, for obvious reasons I would like to keep this under wraps. I don’t want people who don’t know me jumping to conclusions. Still, it does make the skill tempting…”

  Katie interrupted “We should all pick the boost to the safe zone. That helps the most people.”

  Camila nodded emphatically.

  Then David asked the killer question. “What do we need the most right now? More strength to go out and help people or more resources for those we are already helping back here?”

  "We need to tell people," Sarah said. "Everyone who is going house to house could complete this quest soon."

  "After we make our own choices," Carl interrupted. "Each person needs to decide, just for them, we can’t be going and making life changing decisions for others."

  David nodded. Carl was right. They needed to set the example, that individuals still had self-determination.

  "So what are we picking?" Mark asked. "For the quest reward?"

  Of course, group think, consensus and social pressure were real too…

  The group fell silent, considering options. Billy was the first to speak.

  “I guess, seeing as I didn’t do nothing to earn the reward I’ll use it for the zone. I reckon doing a good job protecting the kids and the like is the best I can give.”

  David's brain kicked into high gear. "Let's break this down. Safe zone enhancement helps everyone but it's passive and localized."

  "Advanced skill is immediate personal power," Charlie added. "But only for us seven. Or eight, I guess, counting Billy."

  "Permanent enhancement sounds cool, and probably longer lasting benefit than a skill we would eventually get.” David added. "Personal power that scales over time rather than an immediate big hit."

  "What do we need most right now? David, Camila I know you want to go after more people. So what helps that mission?"

  Sarah leaned forward. "We need to be strong enough to handle whatever's out there. Every run, we're pushing into more danger. If we're not powerful enough..."

  "We die and save no one," Camila finished. "I vote personal power. Advanced skill or permanent enhancement."

  "Skill," Charlie said immediately. "The power spike from an advanced skill is massive. Trust me on this, I’ve got three skills which makes me a LOT more effective.”

  Billy spoke quietly. "Bessie and I need to be stronger to protect people. I got a Skill from the other quest so we have that. I stick by my choice, protect the kids."

  Mark considered for a long moment. "The medic in me wants to say safe zone enhancement. But the practical side knows I need combat power. Skill."

  Katie looked torn. "I want to help everyone. But if we can't survive the rescue missions, we help no one. Skill."

  Carl shrugged. "I was going with permanent enhancement, but I can see the logic. Skill gets more in the short term. Of course an M16 might do even more…"

  "David?" Camila looked at him. "You're the one who got the ball rolling. What about you?"

  David had been running calculations, weighing variables.

  "Advanced skill. Here's why: we're about to convince a bunch of other people to go on a dangerous mission. We need to have their backs. Long term this is probably the weakest choice but I need an edge today, I don’t want someone dying because I tried to optimize for end game."

  "Plus," Charlie added, "if the skill trees work how I think they do, getting access to advanced options now could permanently change the trajectory of getting better skills…”

  "Done," Camila said. "What’s next? I know you David and this isn’t it, you would have talked to us one on one…”

  “OK, take turns grabbing your reward from the Obelisk while I talk people.”

  Everyone nodded with Charlie going first.

  "The thing that has limited our impact so far is numbers. There are over a hundred people who can meaningfully contribute to a fight if they need to now. More important they can grab people and hussle them to safety. We need to bring in more people.”

  Charlie looked up from the Obelisk, clearly keeping an ear on the discussion.

  “You mean a Raid. We are like a guild going raiding.”

  “No, Charlie I get the parallel, but no. This is more like, I don’t know. A barn raising. We need something amazing to happen fast. Lots of people pulling together can achieve that. Before we have more of those mutants running around, or the zombies get organized.”

  Everyone shuddered at the idea of more mutants. Then Carl spoke.

  “Dammit, that’s what I was missing. The damn snake claw thing was protecting the train. You know, well you wouldn’t David, that the inside was full of dead zombies with busted heads and chrysalises waiting to hatch. It was protecting more of its kind.”

  Mark and the others nodded in agreement when Carl spoke.

  “Well, that just makes this even more important. In fact this whole pattern makes a horrible amount of sense. Everyone, including us, is doing the same thing – trying to get as many of their people through initiation as possible. This is preparation for the real fight.”

  Camila nodded “So we make our choices, get people together then head out for this raid. Any ideas where? The station was pretty smart, or lucky.”

  “I think we use the destination to help get people on board. Hell, if I got a say in the destination I would be more likely to sign up and we might miss the best location.”

  Mark sounded contemplative as he made his contribution. “Nice idea, I still think we lead with the urgency caused by dehydration.”

  David summarized “That’s the plan. Mark, you sound off first on the urgency. Camila, you speak to rescue needing a target and get buy in that way. I can speak to safety in numbers.”

  He looked around “Anyone else want to prepare something or do you just want to weigh in as needed?”

  Seeing the avoidance of eye contact and silence so familiar from meetings where volunteers were requested for some undesirable task David wrapped up.

  “Right, Let’s try to gather people as soon as we finish making our skill selections. Daylight is burning…”

  As the others touched the Obelisk then spread out David turned to his own choice. The stone felt strangely cool under his palm, not like a dark colored rock sitting out in the sun all day.

  [ADVANCED SKILL OPTION SELECTED]

  [ANALYZING CURRENT BUILD...]

  [BLOODLINE DETECTED]

  [ERROR, STANDARD SELECTION CRITERIA DO NOT APPLY.]

  David's eyes widened as he saw the notification. Then they narrowed as the next message appeared.

  [ADVANCED SKILL OPTION REQUIRES ASSISTANCE]

  [ERROR, PATRON NOT IDENTIFIED.]

  [ERROR, LOCAL SYSTEM RESOURCES INADEQUATE]

  [RECALCULATING, ERROR PLANETARY PATRONAGE LOCKED]

  David just had time to think, well shit not this again as everything went black.