Grandpa was currently having a pretty serious talk with a few of the other adults.

  It’s happening because I made my thoughts and intentions known that I’d be leaving for a bit to scout the town and as much as I can around us, and Rakeon followed suit.

  Apparently he reached level 25 last night as well and chose his Trait.

  Now our mothers and aunts really didn’t want us to leave, and they were arguing over that at the moment.

  Grandpa backed us, and they apparently didn’t like that.

  But this wasn’t theirs or even Grandpa’s decision. I was leaving. Especially since I knew that they were all safe for now. This is time perfect time to do something.

  I had a few different goals to accomplish out there.

  Explore the rest of the town and see just what else the earthquake affected. If a brand new river is now running through our property, then there should be plenty of other things happening all over the place as well.

  That’s one. Next, just survey the situation. Are there still people fighting back in the City? Are there any more red people coming to attack us? Just getting as much information I can get without endangering myself too much.

  And finally, finding a Dungeon.

  Rewards, stable leveling, and those coins.

  We need all three.

  I highly doubt the coins were given to us as a reward for no reason, so getting more of them should be a priority as well, and since none of the red people we’ve faced so far had them, then a dungeon is probably our best bet at the moment.

  From where I was sitting and observing the fire, I heard footsteps approaching me.

  It was Dad.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m doing alright. You?”

  “You know me.”

  He shrugged slightly after saying that before continuing.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “And mom?”

  “Well…she’s not happy.”

  “I figured, what about Aunt Renee? Rakeon wants to leave too.”

  “Yeah neither of them are happy, but that’s kind of expected. Listen Fred. Everyone here knows if you really wanted to do something we can’t and probably won’t try to stop you unless it’s something truly stupid.

  “So, let’s talk. You mentioned a bit of your thoughts this morning but go into detail.”

  Dad was always fairly practical and logical. He cared for me just as much as mom, but his leash was always a little bit looser than mom’s. Especially if I gave him a truthful and logical explanation for whatever I did or was trying to do.

  Of course, growing up, there were times that my explanation didn’t cut it, and I either got in trouble or was barred from doing something, but for the most part things were smooth.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  So, I spent the next few minutes explaining all my thoughts in detail about the red people and the situation we were now faced with. About what I thought was happening, and what I thought would come later.

  There were plenty of holes in my thoughts because I didn’t have a lot of information and this was technically all just theory, but I felt that my logic was sound at least.

  Plus, this is the man that always taught me to trust my gut, and my gut was screaming that something was wrong, so I wanted to trust it.

  After I finished my explanation, his brows furrowed slightly. Not as deeply as Grandpa’s as he didn’t have the same wrinkles Grandpa had, but they were furrowed, nonetheless.

  “Alright. I can understand that.”

  He paused for a moment then looked up in the sky for a couple seconds before looking back at me.

  “You have until sunset. If you’re not back by then, I’ll turn that City upside down to find you. Understand me?”

  “Yes dad.”

  “Alright, now go before your mom finds out.”

  I know for a fact he wasn’t joking one bit about that, but it’s interesting that he didn’t clear this with her first…I wonder if he’s prepared for the fallout.

  Sigh

  I’ll pray for you dad.

  After saying a short prayer for my dad, I quickly departed towards Aunt Risha’s house and close to the destroyed part of the wall that now doubled as an entrance for the brand new river the property now featured.

  It didn’t take long after making my over the wall to see the state of the area beyond.

  Destruction.

  A lot of it.

  I carefully and slowly advanced towards the destruction as best as I could. Roads were destroyed, buildings were toppled, and the few small ponds and marshes in the area had overflowed with water.

  It almost felt like mother nature was reclaiming what was rightfully her own.

  If this wasn’t the apocalypse then I don’t know what was.

  …

  It took me quite a while, but I eventually made my way deeper into the town. There was some noise coming from deeper in and I wanted to get eyes on what it was.

  Though, I didn’t feel too confident about what I would see because despite all the screaming we heard this morning, there was no more of it now. There were only so many things that the lack of screaming now could mean.

  I tried not to think about it.

  Making my way around the building I now found myself behind, I could finally begin to make out the noises I could hear earlier.

  And what I made out…was that it was people talking, but I couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying.

  Not good news.

  I was already being extremely cautious with every step I took, but after hearing the voices, I was practically moving at a snail’s pace as I continued to approach.

  Maybe the smart thing to do at this point was run all way back home, but I wouldn’t have accomplished anything by doing that. Getting eyes on the source of these voices would go a long way in helping the family to plan our next steps.

  We know we can’t just sit still and continue to wait for problems to come to us, but that didn’t mean we should just run around like children with no clue about what’s going on. Information won wars or something like that.

  Anyway.

  I finally got close enough to see the location where the voices were coming from.

  It was the large parking lot of a store I couldn’t recognize anymore due to the fact it was destroyed.

  In fact I was currently hiding behind the wreckage of a building myself.

  Though I wonder how most of the large parking lot stayed fine, despite all the chaos around it.

  Didn’t have time to figure that out though because what I was looking at didn’t make me feel good.

  A camp.

  Before me sat a sprawling camp with plenty of bodies moving around it.

  That had to be a few dozen red people.

  They were gathering weapons, fixing armor, eating food, and talking amongst each other.

  But none of that was what worried me.

  One of the red people.

  He was different.

  Everyone else had brown leather-like medieval armor except him. He was dressed in what looked to be some form of black plated metal armor. It wasn’t a full suit, just a chest plate and arm bracers, but it was enough to throw me off.

  Especially when it clearly looked like he was giving orders in the camp. I couldn’t understand them, but body language could be spoken by all.

  Every time he spoke or moved, the rest of them deferred and seemed to carry out whatever it was he said.

  For about another 10 minutes or so, I continued my observations, until the red person in black metal armor paused.

  What did he pause for?

  Is he getting mental orders from somewhere perhaps?

  As I tried to guess the reason for his pausing, I watched as he finally began moving again but it’s like he was looking for something in the area.

  …Don’t tell me…

  His head snapped in my direction.

  Fuck!