Going back to Guy’s office, they head to the inner room where Leah and her family are, dropping down the four heavy backpacks.
“Ethan! It's a miracle!” The family sits together on chairs, “it's Been almost an hour but his internal damage is mostly Healed! His bones are still broken, and external wound is not showing recovery, but he walks and talks!” Leah jumps and hugs Ethan, “This must be the potion you gave me!”.
“Ethan, The name is Guy, I don't know what you gave me, but you saved my life, and my family, I'm in your debt” he tries to stand for a gesture of gratitude but fails, he sits back down holding his chest.
“Don't overexert yourself, it was but a necessary trip I needed to take, might as well make it meaningful, also with you at this state, we can’t make it back to you place easily, your son and my family is over there” Ethan laid it out truthfully, caressing his chin, pondering of what to do next.
“What about you leaving us over here until he recovers?” Leah suggest, “Take max with you, i believe you are more than fitting to keep him safe, alternatively, you can go back and bring your family here, seems like that shaking almost completely calmed down and there seems you got a hour or two of last lights”
“I think moving here is a good option, there are no more than 50 survivors, that means we have the people, but also the space. There is also more manoeuvring space for if and when we get attacked, and the rations of the supermarket would prove more beneficial to be made and distributed in bigger groups - efficiency speaking” Dana speaks out Ethan’s thoughts.
“This is a good option, among the stores there are a lot of multiple rooms, and there are the offices of the shopping center, there lower and higher floors for defensive tactics, But the dungeon gate 50 meters away, it’s dangerous” Ethan raises a potential threat.
“Or a free training area, we can keep guard on the gate. With us to guide them, goblins spawned from it will help everyone here get easy levels, and there is the reputation we already established, I doubt someone will stop your family from taking charge of this place” Dana adds.
“If I may add my two cents, this office of mine, I have worked here for years, the moment I can walk I will help you close up any information about stores, maintenance, entrances and exits.” He stops and then adds, “I also know quite a lot of the people around here, I could help them get in line with you and avoid causing disorder”
“This will do, but the skies they seemed to become darker, i don’t have much time before night falls, I can leave a gun to you and let Dana join the brother-sister duo hold the fort down until tomorrow and come back at first lights, alternatively, I could stay the night and go for a 4 hour of roundabout in day time with my family and max tomorrow“ Ethan lays down the two most viable options.
“We can arm a group of 10 with long knives, and like you did, sprays or metal and wood debris will be held off hand as shields or weapons. Locating ourselves in the main exit, with smaller groups doing patrolling in turns. We will close the rest of the exits, effectively making it into a fortress. Ethan, if we can’t hold for a few hours after watching you, this will be truly embarrassing” Leah concludes, Dana comically nodding in the background.
‘As expected from a group that lives in a country that has mandatory army service, all the main issues closed in a mere discussion, or I just happened to meet all the right people’ Both options are good Ethan smiles.
“So I'll take a small bag of rations for the night, and leave, does anyone know how to operate a handgun?” Ethan asks the room, Guy raises his good arm, “I do”.
“Please instruct Dana of how to use it” Ethan pass the gun to her, “you have about 9 shots, I didn't really checked, but use only when you really must, don’t let anyone know you have it, and don’t expect it to damage monsters as it does to humans, I don't think the system is a big fan of this, just my assumption, might be wrong” he shrugs.
Picking up a small bag, he fills it with a few cans, beef jerky, 3 bottles of water, a trusty stronger bug killer spray he picked from the supermarket, and one more improvised deodorant bomb.
With his new knife sheathed, he approach Dana, “Stay safe,I will be back in a few hours”
He didn’t notice he got a bit too close due to the last events between them, looking at a grinning family that also appears to be in the room he steps back hurriedly.
the two blushing furiously, “You three can get attacked by goblins while I'm gone” Ethan awkwardly and quite poorly retaliates.
Taking a few steps forward, he turns back, “I’ll head out now”, his eyes turn serious, “Stay alive, I will bring you your son by tomorrow”.
Accompanied by Leah and Dana, he meets up with the brother-sister duo, he explains about his leave and the plans they thought of, letting his two companions finish things up, he takes his leave. Surprisingly, Rowan and Rina adapted quite nicely, although a bit crude around the edges answering panicked people asking them random questions on the way to the parking lot.
The skies are beginning to get dark, the rambling of the ground calmed, ‘the expansion is in its ending stages? I have to run, I can't get stuck outside in the dark’ Ethan starts picking up his pace, one leg after another the rhythm increases.
He was an average man, he run at a respectable speed of 9 km/h give or take, based on the gym treadmill, surprise colored his face as he manage to pick up the speed even farther, that would be about 15 km/h on the treadmill, and it wasn’t even his final form.
He managed to reach a steady pace of what he could assume to be around 18 km/h with a heavy little bag on him.
‘insane’ he grinned wildly, ‘this is twice the speed i could five hours ago, that is elite athletics short sprint speed I’m jogging at’.
Enjoying his new physical capabilities he understood how he quickly closed the distance with his enemies in the last few hours. passing through he sees groups of people, trying their luck among ruins and broken stores, he stops to help only and in extreme cases of violence or sexual assault, not having a moment to spare. Quickly incapacitating the attacker he directs the victims to the shopping center.
After about less than a 10 of such cases, and immense fatigue he slowed down his pace.
He is not far but, considering the time it took him, and using known places he knows as pinpoints - earth has been expanded 10 times its size. What was once a 5 minutes walk was now about 55 minutes of power walking through mostly deserted stone clearings.
In the far distance to his right a body of water came to be, about 1km of a pond, he couldn’t discern the water status due to darkness, ‘On the way back tomorrow I can check if this is clear and usable water’ this could come handy’ He decides.
There were also small parks and greenery that mutated into patches of trees and grass, depending on what was planted there.
With this Ethan could only assume, the expansion wasn’t random, it used the existing matter and layout of the land as the base of the transformation, underground water pocket turned to a pond, parks now a mini forest, small grass patches turned to a randomly placed grass clearings, and concrete and building now an uneven stone floor.Seems like man made areas were more difficult for the world to transform, like how the system wasn’t a big fan of putting guns and shooting knowledge in the passive skill “Spirit of a warrior”. This floated some intense existential wonders as he jogged.
Seeing the rows of private houses in the closing horizon he picked up the pace once more.
Getting closer he can see that the house next to where his family are, there are three people creating awful and loud noises, slamming metal bars and trying to break in.
He quickly checks the door of where his family is, there are also signs of break-in attempts, he didn't know what happened but getting closer the conversation of the next house’s residents and the three men was a dead give away.
From the inside of the barely hanging door the sound of a distressed man, “Leave us alone, we have done nothing!”.
The desperate pleas of the man fall on deaf ears, the three aggressors laughing and hitting harder fueled by his desperation and fear. From a higher floor he can see his family looking at the scene worriedly.
‘I can’t let them keep on drawing attention so much, the last thing we need is wolves coming here’, inspecting the two he discovers they are all level 2 , ‘Did they already kill something or someone?’ Ethan’s eyes turned colder
Under the frenzy of wilding on the door which is about to break, Ethan gets closer, 10 meters behind them.
Looking up, his family noticed him, as they were about to call him he signals them to stay quiet. In return they do a finger gun gesture and pointing at the guys, looking carefully he notices two of them carrying a gun in the back of the belt.
Gesturing a Thumb up, he draws a gun of his own, his family pales, his mom in a moment of weakness, thumps the glass window, the sound was swallowed by the breaking-in attempts but the sudden movements catch the eyes of the three, one takes a gun without warning and shoots the window.
The man missed, a new hole decorated the house’s outer wall.
Shooting a distance of a bit more than 20 meters is far from being idle for a handgun, but if he had aimed, hitting was not a hard task.
Full of anger, Ethan looks at the man aiming for a second try at his family, seeing that the family is already running deeper in the room.
“Damn rats, not only they locked the house like a cage, they are interrupting us with this house too. When we finished with this house, we were gonna get to their house. I saw in the window that there was a hot girl in there,” he shot again, breaking the glass, and started laughing.
The other two hearing this, got hyped, they kept on banging the door with fervor, it was but a matter of time.
‘Now or never’ Ethan takes a crouched aiming position at the man still aiming at the window 10 meters away, the man hopes someone will peek his head, ‘with mom and dad over there it’s but a matter of seconds they will do such a stupid and obvious thing’.
Ethan finds aims, locks them,with the static man aiming for his family, Ethan in the best shooting posture and idle distance, Increased agility to increase reflexes, Ethan picks another target and decides to go for two quick shots, dispatching the two main threats.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Holding his breath he calms down, a shot taken, to the surprise of the two banging the door, the sound doesn’t come from where their friend stands, and he falls down.
[Ding! Level 2 classless human defeated]
Confused for 2 seconds, looking around them they see a young man pointing a gun at them, another loud bang is heard, and only one burglar still stands.
[Ding! Level 2 classless human defeated]
Quickly understanding the situation the third man is about to reach one of the guns from his friends’ bodies.
“You wanna join them? Pick it up” Ethan offers, the man turns as white as the wall behind him, stopping in the middle of bending over to the gun, he stands up.
“Was it a monster or human you killed?” Ethan asks, inching closer by the second.
“What are you doing?! We didn’t kill anything! No one!” the man erupts in anger, still threatened by the gun pointing at him getting closer by the second.
“I was not asking a question of ‘if’, what was it that you killed? speak the truth and i will let you go, The world changed and we all have to take actions we don't want to” Ethan said comfortably trying to fool him with empathy.
“It was a group of four people who owned one of the handguns, they tried to get the one my friend had” He admitted sadness starting to appear on his face as he starts to realise that his two friends are now gone, Ethan is 3 metres away from the man.
His look of sadness turns to anger, Ethan can already see his actions clearly, with a hand on the knife’s handle he informs the man, “The hot girl from the building you aimed next, is happened to be my sister”, the sentence confused the man for just 2 seconds, the 2 seconds Ethan needs.
Just as his mom and dad peeked their heads after a long moment of quiet that followed by the sound of two shots, they saw Ethan draw a long sharp japanese kitchen knife.
Catching his throat the man fell to his knees and from his knees on his belly, the staircase getting recolored.
[Ding! Level 2 classless human defeated]
Using his bloodline talent on the three bodies the system rings again.
[Ding! Strength increased by 1!]
Picking up the two guns, he finds 2 extra clips on the man's belt and bag with food and water.
3 guns, 5 clips. 3 full with 13 bullets and 2 half full, there is also rations, ‘nice’ He patted himself on the back mentally sending his peeking family a peace sign to the window.
Knocking on the door Ethan calls to the people of the house “The three are dead, i mean no harm, can I ask to speak with you? I'm the son of the family who currently Stays at the house next to you, if you won't come out to speak with me, I will leave, Know that though, you are passing on a chance for a safe haven, you have ten seconds”
Five seconds later a voice comes from The other side of the door.
“How can we blindly trust you?” A doubtful man asks.
“You can't, 3” Ethan Admits coldly.
Time's up, Ethan turns and takes leave, just as he is about to Leave the house entrance, a woman in her early 40’s opens the door.
“Please wait, can we ask for more information” she asked embarrassed and afraid.
“First, we leave at first light to the shopping center, it's about two hours walk, some friends of mine took control of it from a bunch of monsters, there is currently space and rations, privacy is not guaranteed, be advised” letting his words sink in he continued speaking, “I'll come at first light, get ready with essentials only. Tents and metal Kitchen utensils and in a carryable manner, also, How many are you?”
Stumbling upon the wave of information crushed into her she managed to answer confusedly, “4, my husband and two kids”.
“Can they walk?” Ethan asks
“Yes, but what happened to the shopping center five minutes away?” she asked.
“This is the one, It is now two hours away, come with me tomorrow and will naturally understand, also your husband should really move those away” he pointed at the three dead people on the door steps and walked away.
A family of four looks at Ethan’s back walking away, leaving bloody footsteps on the entrance of their house.
A few barricades later, the door opened and Ethan getting jumped by his family, his lungs squeezed.
“Calm down, there is a lot to cover and I really need to sleep”.
In the background he sees Max looking for his mother, a tear forming in his eye.
“Where is my m-” Max was about to cry out
“You too, relax, your family, they are all okay, your father got hurt but he is now safe and recovering” Ethan explains.
“So let’s go now!” the kid persists.
“We can’t, things are weird outside, going out at night will be extremely dangerous. I will put you all up to speed, we will then get some sleep, and we head out first thing in the morning - at first lights” Ethan tells everyone present.
Checking his still working watch he adjusted the time to that of a sunset hour, 19:00.
Sitting in the living room, he elaborate about everything he have been through, Dana, the gist of her background, of helping people, of the goblins and the dungeon, the hobgoblin, the man he broke his arm - this one earned his a scornful look from his father and mother, the supermarket bullies and finally the group plans to take charge of the shopping center.
He didn’t need to explain what happened next door, they saw it.
The room fell in complete silence, Ethan left for about six hours, but the story he tells is a tale of a man they didn’t know.
“Ethan,” His mother breaks the silence, “I am worried for you”.
“Me too” he admits with a smile, “I was mistaken for acting rush against the broken arm guy, but I have seen monsters and men, and There is no place for them in this world, In a few years, even months, when other races will come, when stronger enemy will appear, what do you think will happen? The guys that tried to break in, I heard what they planned to do with you had I been late”.
He let the last sentence sinks in before speaking once more, “This is a world where kindness and forgiveness will only get you stabbed in the back, trust and love can be discern with a look, the same goes for deceit and hostility, at least, I truly hope it is this simple”
“So far it’s been working for me quite well, with your permission I need to sleep for a bit” He stands up.
turning to leave, washing himself with the water left in the drains, he jumped into the casual daily durable clothes he picked from the shopping center, throwing his cloak aside.
falling a sleep in a moment, the blinds slightly open to have indication of first lights.
He didn’t even know how long he slept, but he woke up a bit after the sun started to rise.
Checking his watch it was 5:54.
Seems like earth size sync with the earth time cycle, ‘Was earth no the only planet expanding?’’ He jumped out of bed too fast, getting woozy, “troubles for later”.
He slept so tight he felt nothing, walking out the room, almost everyone was awake, they seemed Like they had a difficult time sleeping.
“How are you all doing? Ready to move?” Ethan asked, still woozy from the sleep.
He took a few of the rations from the bag, they all woke up, ate, and the bag became lighter.
“Did I miss something? you all look restless” Ethan asks tilting his head.
“We are about to see few dozens of survivors in the post apocalyptic world and start a fortress in a shopping Center” the middle sister, as if this explains anything
“We are about to go to a world where there are street crawling with unknown dangers” Lily added.
“Your actions from yesterday make me feel uneasy” Sarah, his mom, said honestly as if there is a way he causally answer such a remark.
“I am proud of you, and In those times, seems like you are the most easily adapted, you just need a bit of guidance, and we would like to be exactly that, and support you with whatever actions you chose to take” John, his father comes out with a comment that made everyone present look at him with surprise.
“Let’s go quick!” Max’s childish voice filled with urge broke the awkward silence and got a chuckle from everyone.
“Before we go out, I want to add one more thing, seriously, Trust no one, especially you guys. A lot of people saw me, Leah and Dana in a show of great power, we drew the gaze of not only friends and good will intentioned people, don’t be dazzled by flowery words, we clear? The things we might encounter on the streets outside…are not easy” final warnings were given.
Going to the family next door Ethan knocks the almost unhinged door - ‘it is truly a miracle they didn’t get barged in at night’.
“We are going, you coming?” an offer laid out straightforwardly.
The door opens up a few moments later a family of four carrying 3 full backpacks with tents strapped coming forward, “We are the Bennets, my name is Eliya, my husband, Ed, and our two daughters, Adelle and Lina, they are 13 and 14. Thank you for taking us along”.
Scanning the family, Ethan noticed a slight hostility in Ed’s eyes, he stepped forward, not speaking, he went past Eliya, Her husband took a defensive position in front of the scared girls.
“I'm not here for the girls, I am here to tell you that I don’t mind doubt, or hesitant, but if you look at me with hostility one more time, you will lose one of your eyes” the family shudders, as the random man turns his back not even waiting for them to return the comment.
As Ethan turned his back, Ed's scared facade turned to anger and hostility once more.
John walked past his son, “my son was quite clear, you think because he doesn’t look at you he is dumb to just let you be? Just yesterday three armed men almost broke into your house, have you no shame? You are more than welcome to stay here.”, John points on an almost collapsing door.
“A man that didn't even look at what happening outside dares to use such stare, when you were shaking in fear with your daughters, Ethan killed a wolf of 1.6m height alone to let us get her safely, if any of us even catches you looks with that stare at my son, you will never have a place to where we heading, not now, not in future, your family included. Now follow us and I dare you to try and lie your eyes on my son like you just did one. more. time” pointing at his son he stressed out the final words slowly.
Eliyah sends a death glare to her husband, making him lower his gaze, “that man saved us yesterday, and offers us a safe place, the door is one kick away from falling down in a world where all rules are worth ass! Pull a thing like this one more time and I am leaving without you, show some gratitude!” Turning to John she speaks again “I apologize for my husband's actions, please take us with you!” Eliyah pleaded.
[Ding! Charisma increased by 1!]
A smile tugs at Ethan's lips.
It is a long moment of awkward silence, unofficially, and very clearly, one man decides what will happen next. “Let’s move” Ethan orders and everyone starts moving forward.
