As the Academy came to life around him, Morgan entered, waving at the guards. It was weird that it had only been two days, but they all knew who he was. They were gathering in small groups, preparing for patrols into the city to scavenge supplies and materials. Morgan decided talking to Katherine should be first on his list.

  Katherine was sitting in her office, peering over the dynamic map. She glanced up at him as he entered.

  “Good Morning, Mr. Ward. I have already received reports from the night. You were very industrious.”

  “Yes Ma’am, I eliminated five rifts but came back to see if Frank or Mara wanted to go out with me. Sophia told me everyone in the group splits the experience from killing the monsters and closing the rifts, but gets full tokens. We will need people out there in groups for them to all gain levels. It won’t help if me and a couple guards are level 15 and the rest of the survivors are level four.”

  “Hmm,” she placed her hand on her chin thoughtfully. “Well, we have already gotten reports from the scout in the tower that rifts are popping up within sight of the Academy. It might be a good idea to send a couple of groups out. We will need to focus on people who are not crafters. They get their experience from making things…” she trailed off, scribbling notes on a pad to he side.

  “Mara will not be able to go with you. She and Annabelle are leading a small group of guards and other crafters to work on refitting the train carriages.” She held up a notebook. “I have been keeping tabs on the rift spawns. They are happening at almost exactly double to frequency as the last two days, and closer.”

  “Well, that’s good. People will be able to gain the levels they need.” Morgan replied with a smile on his lips.

  “Not exactly. One of the rifts the guards went to was only a block away, and it was six hobgoblins. They were much bigger and stronger than the goblins. One of the guards was gravely wounded and nearly died before getting to the healers.” She stopped and scribbled something else on her pad. “I will need to divide up some healers to go with the groups if they are in this much danger.” She shook her head. “I tell you, this is so much harder than just running a school.”

  “I bet, I will see if I can get Sophia to find anything in the shop to help out on defense.”

  “I appreciate that. Also,” she said, getting serious and standing, “I wanted to officially thank you for helping yesterday. You were one of the first to respond when we were attacked. If you had not gotten here when you did, I don’t know if we would have lasted until all the patrols got back. We owe you a larger debt than you may ever know.” She held out her hand and shook Morgan’s twice firmly. When they released, as she returned her hand to her waist, she wrinkled her nose and sniffed at her hand. Morgan’s ears started to turn red.

  “Oh dear lord, what is that smell?” She said, then glanced up at him, holding up a placating hand, “Pardon me. You have been working all night, of course. I apologize. You have no need to be embarrassed.” She smiled at him, “I am sorry, you have done a lot already. Can you show me where and what you fought?” she continued, motioning toward the map. Morgan told her and informed her about the trolls. She scribbled notes on her pad.

  After the debrief, Morgan browsed the shop, asking Sophia to look for things to help the defenders. There were very few things, mostly materials, but a scouting tripod thing was cheap, so Morgan bought that using 25CT. He now had 726CT, 72UT, and 18RT. He still needed the ET for the interface. Katherine got it set up in the tower.

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  Morgan went and washed, changing quickly. He found Frank in the cafe, eating fresh eggs and bacon. The food was delicious. It turned out that buying fresh food and donating it to the cafe was cheaper and allowed the cooks to level up using their skills.

  Frank had already planned to go out with Marcus and Jiwoo as part of the guards with Mara and Annabelle. After a quick chat, he suggested that Morgan continue leveling on his own if he was able. Then he would get more experience and be able to level faster. Marcus entered the cafe and, with a nod to Frank, came over. Marcus glanced at Morgan as he sat down next to them for breakfast, then placed his thin calloused hand on Morgan’s shoulder, then shook it and gave it a hard slap.

  “Ya know, I didn’t think much of ya when you showed up the other day. And I gotta say, you got some grit and some guts. After I seen them stab you in the chest, I thought yous were a goner. Glad yous on our side.”

  After eating breakfast, Morgan decided to go with the group down to the train station, then head farther south so he could hunt on his own. The group was four guards, Mara, Annabelle, Frank, Marcus, and Jiwoo. Jiwoo had developed her telekinesis skill enough that she could lift her own wheelchair. They made good time and spent the trip chatting.

  Mara had braided her hair up tightly against her head. Morgan kept catching himself staring at the skin in the curve where her neck and shoulders met. What the heck is wrong with me? I don’t even know this girl, and the world is ending. He forced himself to walk in front, so that he wouldn’t let his eyes betray him. Once they reached the train station, Morgan said his goodbyes and then took off, vaulting the river and running south. Once he had gone a good distance, the disc showed a new closest enemy, dead ahead.

  Morgan moved from rift to rift and fought for seven hours. He eliminated six more rifts and gained two more levels. He was 72% to level 14. He gained five skills and five attribute points.

  ::Your current attributes are Str - 16, Dex - 20, Con - 13, Wis - 13, Int - 11.::

  He placed four points into strength and then one more into dexterity.

  ::Your current attributes are Str - 20, Dex - 21, Con - 13, Wis - 13, Int - 11.::

  The change in 40% more strength had him feeling like a newborn. He was pushing too hard into things. If it weren’t for his Olympic levels of agility, he would have fallen many times just trying to walk.

  His skills were a mix of useless and incredible.

  ::Epic - Cosmic Bolt - Fire a beam of pure light::

  ::Rare - Tidal Wave - Summon a large wave of water, useful for surfing::

  ::Common - Int + 2 (Evoker) - Gain 2 Intelligence::

  ::Rare - Feral Instincts - Increases trap evasion and dodge chance::

  ::Mythic - Int + 6 (Wizard) - Gain 6 Intelligence::

  ::Legendary - Lord of the Dance (in shadows) - Dance like no one is watching; gain bonus 45% movement speed and increased stealth in darkness or shadows::

  ::Your current attributes are Str - 20, Dex - 21, Con - 13, Wis - 13, Int - 19.::

  Two of the skills used mana, and two increased his intelligence. He didn’t need mana or spell power, so that was also useless to him. However, the other two skills were straight improvements to his physical skills and abilities. Sophia informed him that the lord of the dance was a top-tier assassin skill.

  Morgan returned to the train station and helped move a few of the things around. Frank was moving iron railroad beams with ease. Morgan had trouble lifting one side of them to place them on a cart. They had determined they would need to convert the engine and refurbish about 15 of the cars to hold people. Currently, only five of the train cars were passenger cars. The rest were cargo and would need to have beds and rough cabins made in them. They had already completed one to test it out. It was roomy inside, but each cabin held two sets of bunk beds. Would be tight, Morgan thought to himself.

  Mara was under the train engine, removing a set of large bolts. She was confident that they would have the engine replaced by the end of tomorrow. She had streaks of rust and sweat on her forehead. She worked tirelessly, then saw him. She looked at him with a smile. Morgan felt incredibly claustrophobic and excused himself, stammering. Back with Frank, he berated himself as he helped load up more and more supplies into the cargo trains.