After Ash and Floof had fallen asleep, I laid awake for another hour or so, listening. I wanted to make sure darkness had fully settled in, and that nothing was creeping around, before I was willing to close my eyes.

  Dreams of a life I thought long-left-behind flooded my sleeping brain. The faces of people I had never expected to see again, mixed in with those of my new family and friends.

  My body snapped awake, something dinging lightly in my head as the visions of last night drained away.

  The dinging stopped, but I had no idea what had caused it. There was nothing nearby that I could tell. It had felt almost like an alarm or a ring in my head, but I had no idea what would have been trying to alert me.

  At least I had been asleep long enough to feel mostly refreshed. I guessed it was slightly before dawn, and after carefully uncovering part of the window for a glance outside, the night sky agreed with me.

  There was something new in the sky, something that I hadn’t seen the night before in my chase. What still looked like Earth’s normal moon was starting to vanish, and two more brightly visible orbs filled the blackness, much too large to be distant stars.

  The first of the new moons was bright blue and at least twice the size of Earth’s. The other was a dark green and roughly the same size. Both of them had a gleam that I recognized. They already had a strong mana flow emanating from them.

  That was likely the truth of where the leviathan’s mom was. He had found his way planetside from some magic gate and was now quickly growing into a menace all his own. That meant I had been wrong, and he was old enough to survive on his own. It was possibly only because of the weaker life here, but that didn’t matter.

  He was a problem I’d need to deal with eventually.

  For now, though, I wanted some hot food. I dug around the garage, looking for what options we had here, as I’d rather go through what I could scavenge up here before digging into what had been packed in the cart. I didn’t want to end up rationing food, period, especially for Ash.

  To my surprise, I found a well-stocked supply of Sterno, a few pots, and plenty of cans of beans. I hadn’t actually known the people who owned this house well, only meeting them in passing a few times, so I had no idea if this was a camping or prepping situation. Either way, I was glad to find their stash. I hoped I’d find its owners alive in the dungeon.

  Floof dropped his head to my leg with a light whine as the beans started to really cook.

  “It’s alright, boy, you’ll get your share too,” I whispered, trying to let Ash sleep a little longer.

  I scooped up the baked beans into three small paper bowls, placing one on the ground for Floof. I had separated most of the bacon into only one of the bowls. That one was for Ash. She loved bacon, and anything that could help her get more food down was a good idea.

  “Dad, is it morning?” Ash asked groggily as she sat up in the chair. The loud sound of Floof slobbering up his beans had likely woken her up.

  “Nearly. Mornings may be a bit different now, though,” I replied.

  “More than they already are?” She stood up as she asked, and walked toward the window I had uncovered earlier, her own curiosity sparked.

  I kept quiet and let her see the new sight for herself. With every integration came new wonders. And while they would never offset the terrors of living through one, sometimes they were still something amazing enough that they could distract from the new harsh reality. Two new moons certainly qualified.

  She stuttered slightly before managing to get her words in order. “Are those two new moons?”

  “They are. Sadly, they are likely full of monsters.”

  “Really? More than here?”

  “Likely yes. The bright colors they are glowing usually means strong mana flows, and this early in an integration that generally only happens because of what was pulled onto them as they formed.” I handed her a bowl of beans and a bottle of water while I explained.

  “And the monsters were pulled from the void to the new moons? Does our old moon have any?”

  That was a good question. I actually didn’t know what would happen regarding the original Earth’s moon. Usually, moons would get the same process as planets during integration, so it was possible that what we thought was the original moon wasn’t, being something new altogether. It would be hard to know for sure until people were a lot more powerful, or a gate that connected to it was found.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Yeah, they were, and with the core of the moons being as powerful as they probably are, some bigger scarier things were able to come through. The kid leviathan in the river is proof of that. As for our moon, I don’t really know. Going to need to find a telescope to really get a good look, but that might not tell us much.”

  She made a face as she ate several more bites of beans. I understood her displeasure. They just didn’t make for a great breakfast. But I had eaten much worse.

  “Is that a normal thing that happens?” Ash asked after getting a few more bites down.

  “The moons? Not really. It’s not so rare that I’d call it strange, but it’s also not typical. It is a problem, though. One we will need to be strong enough to deal with when it boils over.” I took another bite myself before continuing. “I’m sure the groups that got their spots in this invasion had no idea about me, but I wonder if any of them had any clue about the moons.”

  “Would it be better if they knew or didn’t know?”

  “Considering I think there’s a full-sized leviathan, probably with a few more kids on the blue moon, anyone who came here knowing that was either incredibly powerful, a moron, desperate, or some combination of the three,” I answered, finishing off my food and dropping the bowl to the ground for Floof to lick clean.

  “Could you fight it if you had to?” She hit the topic that had me worried. The truth was right now, no, I absolutely couldn’t. Which also meant that if any of the invading groups had come here knowing about the magic level of that moon, confident in their strength, I wasn’t ready to fight them yet either.

  The keyword, though, was yet. I would be ready for that fight much sooner than anyone else on the planet would be. And even if it came to it and I was forced to fight them today, there’s always the chance I could power through fast enough to level myself as I went. It wasn’t a great strategy, and one I would only do out of necessity, but it was something I was prepared for if forced.

  “I would fight it if I had to. At this exact moment, I’d likely die in the attempt, but it’s not something we are going to have to do for awhile. What we are going to do instead is prepare like that future is inevitable, and go monster hunting for the things we can handle today. The faster we get our levels up, the better.”

  “For the world rankings, right?”

  “Yep, once the global rankings are revealed, some big gaps in strength will become apparent, and those differences will only widen. The reason people want to be at the top of the rankings are chances at special System prizes. And trust me, those prizes will be worth it. They have to be, for us to risk the target that will be on our backs.”

  At least, the prizes would be worth it to most people. A lot of early awards were weapons, and I certainly didn’t need or want a different one. Ash would need one, of course, but we’d still need to figure out what her class was before a good one could be picked.

  There was also the question of finding gear for Floof. That dog was one of the only things keeping Ash going right now. He was part of the family, and that meant he was going to grow right along with the rest of us.

  “But isn’t that also going to tell everyone you’re here? I thought you didn’t want them to know.” There was fresh worry in her question as she dropped her bowl, mostly empty, to the ground as well. Floof was there in an instant, happily wagging his tail despite the wounds on his side.

  “I honestly don’t know the answer there. I’m not sure how the System assigns the name it uses for the lists. But I’m hoping it uses my current name, and considering my birthname wouldn’t remotely reflect my actual strength right now, I think it will.”

  Ash started to say something, but I quickly threw my hand up, signaling her to stay quiet. The hair on Floof’s back had gone up at the same time I’d felt the presence. There was something outside, and it was moving toward the door.

  I glared at Floof, hoping he understood what I needed. Growling wouldn’t do anything to help at the moment. Then again, whatever it was out there seemed to already know we were here.

  The sound of something knocking hard on the door sounded out three times.

  It had taken them hours, hours they would have preferred not to waste, recovering and removing the corpse of the giant frog. By the time they were clean and packed, it was well into the afternoon, and despite the fact that they didn’t know where they’d find shelter, neither of them was willing to risk another night in the empty village.

  A list of names had come into their view in the middle of their walk. The global rankings the voice had promised had finally been revealed. And to their surprise, there was a single name they recognized.

  Ulrun was ranked one hundred and two. That meant that someone they knew was alive and fighting back against this. The two brothers looked at each other, the news hitting them both at the same time.

  “Where could he be?” Adam asked, breaking the silence. It was the first true bit of hope they’d had since the monster destroyed their home. Visions of the giant man smashing into monsters with his forge hammer played out across his mind.

  “Well, we didn’t find any bodies in the village, so he would have had to leave for some reason. Maybe the frogs chased them out?” Alecks replied, sounding unsure of his guess.

  “But if we could beat the frogs, how couldn’t Ulrun?” No, Adam was sure it was something else. “What if he’s hunting a monster that took the villagers?”

  “If that’s what he’s doing, I wish we knew where he went. We’re already further out than I’ve ever been, and I don’t like the idea of spending the night in the woods again,” Alecks replied.

  A loud sound drew both of their heads skyward. Flying above them over the forest was a strange giant balloon. Adam was sure that it couldn’t be exactly what it was, but he had no other way to describe it.

  As it passed over them, a loud screeching sound started blaring from it, moments before small green forms appeared near the bottom and leaped out of the sky downward. Were they coming for them?

  “Follow me. I don’t think they saw us. But we need to find a cave or something to hide,” Alecks said in a sharp whisper, his walk turning into a slow run.

  —Memories of Adam Miller before he found Earth