It didn’t take us long to finish getting to the tiny industrial area of Fenton. It consisted of a half a dozen small industrial buildings spread out amidst an office park. There were a few warehouses in the mix, but for what, I did not know. Maybe I will find out someday, but not today. Apocalypse took slight precedent over random curiosity.

  We pulled into the parking lot that Brett was standing in the middle of. He was waving at us like he had no concerns in the world. He clearly acclimated to the apocalypse better than most. After parking and getting back out into the oppressive August heat, we followed young Brett into the building until we ended up in a large workshop. The Sounds of grinding were going on in several spots. I got lucky as old Smitty greeted us, “Well, hey there, Captain. I called because we had a bit of a breakthrough.”

  “Can you now mass produce magically enhanced AR-15s?” I was probably a bit overly hopeful, and it showed through in my voice.

  “Nah, Captain. Something that will lead to that someday though. So maybe just relax and let Smitty walk you through…” He paused when he saw Natalie for the first time. He pulled out a rag to wipe off his face and hands, “Well I’ll be. We got young royalty in here. It’s Natalie Snowe.” He stopped talking to me entirely, “Miss Snowe, to what do we owe the pleasure of you being with us these darkest of days. Though, your being here sure does brighten these dark days indeed.” If I gave him enough time his eyes might even pop out of his head like some old cartoon.

  “My, my Captain Cassland, why have you been hiding such handsome hard working men from little ole me?” She broke into a southern belle accent seamlessly. She batted her eye lashes at me in the most exaggerated manor I had just about ever seen.

  I rolled my eyes. “Natalie, this is one of our gunsmiths Smitty. He is one important part of what we are doing to protect Fenton from demons.” Smitty smiled and bowed a bit before Natalie. “Smitty if you could enlighten all of us, including precious royalty that Natalie is, as to what this new discovery was. And why did it need my immediate attention. I’m really hoping this trip will showcase for Natalie and her viewing audience some of the steps we have taken to help humanity.”

  “Well, Captain, did you want to explain to her and her audience about the parts you know. I’m not so good at the public speaking kind a thing.”

  I laughed, “Sure why not I’ll get the viewing audience at home caught up to where we are and the significance of it. Then, Smitty, you are taking over to explain to us the new wrinkle that you have added to everything here.”

  I turned to Natalie and tried to give the quick run down on video so that it could be uploaded to the internet. “These men behind me all have classes related gun and weapon smithing.”

  “Don’t forget armor smithing,” Smitty added in

  “Also armor smithing apparently. And they all have class abilities to help with that. They use these abilities to help craft new and enchant existing items. So far they have been able to produce limited ammunition that bypasses many demons extra durability. If you have seen videos of abyssal orcs, then you have seen them walking through a hail of small caliber bullets only slightly worse for wear. Until now, we had to focus on kill shots, but this allows us to shoot them anywhere in the body and still do significant damage. The biggest problem we seem to be running into is a lack of magical materials to blend with steel, lead, copper and other alloys to make enchanted ammunition. That is as far as I know.”

  Natalie, Vern, and Smitty all clapped for me. The two teenagers were nowhere to be seen. Figures that we can’t keep track of them. Smitty slowly got up and walked to where I was at, and then said to all of us, “follow me for how we solved the lack of magical materials problem.”

  We followed Smitty diligently. I looked at Natalie who looked very engrossed in all the machinery around us. It wasn’t exactly a factory; more so it was a machine shop that could manufacture individual guns or small blocks of bullets at a time, but it could not mass produce anything. Smitty took his time showing us the lathe and processes they were using to precision cut parts to make a rifle. Eventually the procession led outside and to a partially connected building. He warned us it would be a bit chilly in there.

  We stepped into an overgrown refrigerator. It was probably 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and the goosebumps jumping to the top of my skin was proof of the frigid feel to the room. There were two adults in the room: a man and a woman. Both wore extra layers, but otherwise seemed fairly comfortable here. They weren’t shivering at least. I used assess on the two heavily layered people, because as long as I have mana I’m not gonna get caught flat footed.

  Human, Corpse Specialist, Level 2

  Human, Corpse Specialist, Level 1

  Corpse specialist is a new one. I wonder if that means we are in a cold corpse storage building? I am sure I will find out soon enough.

  Smitty ended what building suspense. “These two fine folks who worked at a funeral home have the ability to drain built up mana from a dead body. Bill and Cynthia if you would be so kind as to demonstrate.”

  Both of the winter dressed people nodded and took their own large glass jugs over to separate tables. They then opened up the bags to reveal a dead lupin in each. They put one hand on a corpse, nearly in unison while the other hovered over their own glass bottles. The corpses, while clearly dead originally still had color to them. The fur still looked like it belonged to a living creature despite very obvious wounds on each body. It felt a little strange looking at the dead lupin in such a clinical setting, but here we were. We all looked on as the color slowly faded from fur and exposed skin. While the other hand emitted a dark purple honey like susbstance that slowly dripped from their hand into a glass bottle. It was like watching something drain from technicolor into a black and white. Its like I was watching Pleasantville, only in reverse. I used some of my recovered mana to identify one of the giant glass jugs.

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

  Condensed Mana Essence- Black

  This substance is used to enhance a nonmagical material to prepare it to be enchanted. Black is the lowest color on the mana spectrum as the body didn’t have enough mana to form a full mana core. This is also used as a material component for a variety of arcane abilities.

  Well hot damn, there goes our lack of mana rich material. I kept my mouth shut as I waited for Smitty to explain.

  “These fine folks are extracting the mana from these bodies. The bodies don’t have enough mana to form a mana core, so this is the full essence the bodies otherwise have. We currently are limited to using the process on bodies under level eleven.”

  Natalie asked the obvious question, “What happens at level eleven?”

  “The bodies at level eleven gain a mana core. We extract that instead.”

  “Thank you for that clarification, Mr. Smitty.”

  Smitty blushed from all the attention of Natalie, “Well, gee, Miss. We is sure lucky to have you here.” How is she able to do that. I had to wonder what her charisma might be. She seemed to have more likability than me.

  That was apparently the whole show that Smitty was offering so I asked, “how do we integrate this material metals?”

  Smitty stopped looking at Natalie and slowly turned to me, “Well, we need to bring the metal to a melting point and then mix in this material.”

  “We need a steel mill?” As if those grew on trees. “Does Fenton have a Steel Mill?”

  “Actually, yes Captain, yes it does. We have to cross Interstate 44, but there is a small steel mill within Fenton.”

  “Excellent. Do you have people over there now?”

  “Yes we do. We have a few guys who know how to run it, and we have a metallurgist working on integrating the two materials. Two of the Fenton squads are also patrolling that area to ensure the safety of the workers.”

  “Excellent. I will have to head over there, but not today. There are a few more places to get to in the area before the day is over.”

  “Of course, Captain. The guys over there ain’t prepared to show you around as of yet.” He almost looked relieved that I wasn’t visiting it yet. Probably has more to do with not disappointing Natalie more than anything else.

  “With that all done, I guess we will need to continue to make the rounds. Thank you all for the demonstration. This does indeed do wonders for our lack of magical material problem.” I wasn’t trying to be dismissive, but there were other things worth showing Natalie as well. Besides, I was getting a bit chilly in this room.

  We eventually got ourselves packed up and headed back down the road. Fenton Park, where we fought the shit demon, wasn’t far away. I wanted to check on the defenses we should be erecting against the Meramec River. We had the Meramec River bordering from the southeastern corner of Fenton up to the Northeast corner, and then some of our northern border as well. It was a decently wide, decently deep, and swift-moving river. It made a natural border and made for the beginning of a good defense against demons headed from that direction. I just wanted to make sure we built on that.

  It took just a few minutes to drive the two blocks roughly to the edge of the river. I was happy to see a wide line being dug near the road that ran parallel to it and the river. It would be wide enough for us to install a low concrete wall to protect the roadway a bit better. It was so hot outside, but it was worse inside the Humvee. That became my motivation to get outside the vehicle and take a look at the construction.

  We stepped out, and the heat from outside was a few degrees below the Humvee interior, but not by a lot. I saw the spot where the shit demon emerged, and I had to momentarily fight back the urge to vomit. Even though my nose couldn’t smell the creature, my brain still registered the smell. I was definitely investing in nose plugs or a gas mask in the future.

  As I scanned my surroundings, I noticed that despite the oppressive August heat, it was actually really nice outside. There was a slight breeze, a handful of white fluffy clouds in the sky, and plenty of sunshine. The shade under the closest trees looked very inviting, so I invited myself to said shade, and looked about some more. Natalie came up next to me, “So this is the site of the shit demon fight.”

  I pointed over to the ruins of a restroom, “That is where it emerged, and that stone over there,” I pointed to a massive rock about 10 feet away, “is where Ben died. He was a good man and didn’t deserve to die, but he sacrificed so the rest of us wouldn’t have to.”

  “You speak pretty highly of Ben. Did you know him?”

  “Not really, but I recognized his patriotic spirit. It might sound cliché or cheesy, but he really was an American hero that day.”

  “You were a hero today, though. You killed the half-demon woman. Maybe you're becoming the hero.”

  I laughed out loud. “I am not a hero. Today was luck, subterfuge, and a priest blessing already magical bullets. I honestly don’t know how I resisted her charm-like aura. It practically demanded to be friends. She didn’t even try to focus on me, so that means it was a passive thing that was always active. That is extremely terrifying.”

  “I think you sell yourself short. Why don’t you show me around this place a bit and tell me what you are doing here to help the defense of Fenton?”

  “Thanks for that.” I proceeded to do exactly that. We even went and drove over to part of the bluffs shopping center to show how we were converting a home décor store into temporary housing. It was still in its early stages, but we needed to build in an awful lot of plumbing and electrical capacity that wasn’t originally there. We still didn’t have much in the way of food-growing infrastructure, but we were managing most everything else. What I would do to have a full-blown mid-level druid handy.

  The day finished on a positive note. Apparently, Will had taken the time to tap one of the corpses at the refrigeration site and used his ability two times before he hit level five. He used it three more times since he upped his charisma to five with his 5th level stat point. This netted two class tokens, or, as the system called them, a class core. I guess because they attach to our own internal mana core. I had decisions to make about classes, or at least I thought I did. Turns out you need two affinities to move to a new uncommon class or three for a rare. Both class cores failed because one was for a scout commander, which only had charisma in common with my previous class. The second was also a bad fit as the lesser hellfire sorcerer required demonic or devilish to be in the included affinities. This level up was going to be harder than I thought.

  Day four came to an end with us being closer to full evacuation. Natalie had enough material to broadcast something tomorrow night, and we had tentatively set ourselves up to head into the local Hound studios for the segment tomorrow. With that thought, I went to bed at the end of the fourth day of the apocalypse.