I walked into the house to find my mother in the kitchen making fruit plates for everyone. Which makes sense of course. Without a fridge to keep them cool and fresh, them and vegetables are going to be the first things to go bad.

  She was saving all the seeds of everything she cut apart though.

  “Hey mom.”

  She gave me a look that signified I was in trouble, then went back to cutting up fruits.

  “You know I had to go mom. This isn’t like asking for permission to go to a party. The world has changed significantly all around us. If we don’t adapt then we’ll get left behind.”

  She calmly placed the knife in her hand down on the counting board.

  “I’m not mad at you Freddy. Your father is a different story, but I’m not mad at you. You’ve always been a go getter, and I don’t think there is a single person in the entire world that loves your Grandpa’s books more than you do.

  “I know you would jump at the chance to live through your own experience. I knew it immediately. But I’m your mother Freddy. If there ever comes a day were I stop worrying about you, then it’s because I’m not here anymore.

  “You don’t have to worry about me stopping you from adapting. I need to do it too. We all need to do it. But no amount of adapting will stop me from being your mother. You understand me Freddy?”

  This was one of those times where words wouldn’t capture my response in the way that I would want them to, so I gave her a hug. I’m sure she can understand this.

  After stealing a plate of fruit, I left the kitchen and went back outside, where the discussion was still happening.

  Dad gave me a questioning look as I approached and I nodded as I pointed to myself, but then I pointed at him and shook my head left to right.

  He grimaced.

  Yeah tough days ahead for him. Nothing I can do there though.

  Grandpa then looped me into the discussion.

  “Glad you made it back safely Freddy. What does it look like out there?”

  “Terrible. The earthquake practically destroyed the town and there are very few buildings still standing. The river that formed here isn’t the only new one that popped up, and a few of the marshes grew into full on lakes.

  “It took a while to traverse the area just because of that.

  “But that wasn’t the worst part.

  “There are at least 10 camps of dozens of red people in each one, and while most of them look like the ones we’ve been fighting already, every camp I saw had at least one red person in black plated armor that looked to be giving orders to the rest of them.

  “I couldn’t confirm if they were stronger than the other red people or not, since I never fought one, and whenever they found me, only the normal red people would be sent to try and capture me.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “For some reason the black plated armor ones never left the camps. Which is the only thing that game me confidence to keep scouting even after the first two times I was caught.

  “Which is another thing. The non black armored ones never caught wind of me unless they could see me or I made too much noise. But within a certain range, the ones with black armor would always detect me no matter how silent or still I was.

  “I definitely spent most of my time running and hiding.”

  Aunt Renee responded first.

  “Did it look like they were coming for us anytime soon?”

  “Honestly I’m not sure, but it definitely looks like they were preparing for something and based on how robust those camps look, I don’t think they are planning on abandoning them anytime soon.”

  Nobody else said anything for a few moments as they digested the information I gave them.

  Grandpa eventually broke the silence.

  “All we can make do with are assumptions, and based on everything that took the place, then the first wave of those bastards we’ve been fighting are probably some type of advance fighting force.

  “Sent to clear any large areas of people so that the real force can come in behind them and set up shop. That’s something even our own military does. It’s a tried and true by the book military strategy.

  “I could be wrong, but if my assumption is right, then they will likely take some time to finish loading up with troops and making sure their camps are secure. That would explain why we haven’t been attacked again since last night.

  “Which was probably just a final sweep of the area for the arrival of the next wave.

  “If all of that’s true, then we need to make use of this time properly. But I’ll pause here. That’s just my opinion, which could be wrong. Y’all got any opinions of your own?”

  I didn’t have anything else to say, and based on everyone else’s face, they didn’t either. Grandpa said it at the beginning, all we can do is make assumptions, and this one sounds like the best one we can make.

  Plus it somewhat aligns with the oddness of how weak our enemies have been compared to how quickly we gained enough strength to match them.

  “Alright good. Now I already lost my boat and I’ll be dammed if I have to give up my house as well. So let’s be on our toes. Rakeon, catch Freddy here up on what you found.”

  Oh yeah I forgot he wanted to go scout too. Guessing he went in a different direction since he would’ve reported the same things as me if he went into the town.

  “Well, to keep it short I found two of those Dungeons you mentioned. One of them is smack in the middle of 3rd street. There’s quite literally a cave entrance sprouting up in the middle of the road, I was a little scared to approach it, but I eventually did and got the Enter Dungeon notification you mentioned.

  “The other one is in the park down the street.”

  “Wait, didn’t we already check that park yesterday?”

  “We did, and it definitely wasn’t there. But it’s not the only thing that popped up in the park. Something else is not that far from it… a small shrine looking thing showed up too. I probably would have missed it altogether if it wasn’t for the fact it was literally floating above the ground.

  “I didn’t approach it though. I figured the Dungeons were okay since they matched the descriptions you gave me, but the shrine thing made me run all the way home. Who knows what the hell that thing was.

  “Anyway, both Dungeons were F Grade, but for some reason the one in the park has a 1 person entry limit.

  “That’s everything.”

  “So now that we have the full picture. What’s the plan?”

  That was Uncle Terrance.

  But honestly I think the plan is easy.

  “We need to go see what this shrine thing is that Rakeon found. After that, some of us should enter the Dungeon on 3rd Street. The whole group can’t go so we need to mix our higher leveled members with folks who still need levels and attack the Dungeon while the rest stay here.

  “There’s no reason to go after the single entry one just yet. Feels like too much risk.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me Freddy, anyone disagrees?”

  …

  “No? Okay good. Rakeon and Freddy, both of you go look into the shrine, if anything dangerous happens then come back, everyone else, let’s figure out the groups for the Dungeon.”

  I looked over at my cousin and nodded.

  “Hold on I need to pee really quick, wait for me by the gate.”

  ...I should probably go do that too.

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