Alice Springs was one of the nicer outback towns, stationed out in the middle of nowhere and sporting a small population in the twenty thousands. Now, after the coming of the System, the place was a ghost town, stuffed with a slew of dilapidated buildings populated by just under a thousand folks collected from all over the area. The aftermath of the mass teleportation at the Tutorial’s conclusion had left many displaced and even more afraid.

Tensions were at an all-time high within, the strongest among them naturally taking it upon themselves to rise up and claim the throne of leadership needed to guide the confused and terrified peoples to newfound prosperity. Men and women from all walks of life now lived within the relative safety of the town, sticking together religiously to survive the harsh deserts and the beasts that waded it.

Strolling through town with the two who had revealed themselves to be Brock and Harry behind him, Shane tried to ignore the horrified gazes the civilians and their children were giving them. They seemed to be incapable of distinguishing them from the very beasts that they lived in fear of.

The layer of guts and grime on them was thick, akin to a carapace almost, so he couldn’t really blame them.

While he had predicted the troubles of bringing such savage seeming people into the town, Shane had somewhat warmed up to them in the day-long hike it took to reach the town, enjoying the duo’s foolish banter. He had given them the local scoop on the situation of the place, enough to at least make sure they didn’t accidentally offend the leader here.

Which, since he knew them somewhat now, was something he thought was highly likely.

Shane could sense that the younger boy was decently levelled, somewhere in his early twenties, but he would be hard-pressed to so much as land a scratch on Jordan. The man was approaching the mid-thirties in levels and had even used a blue rarity Shard of Awakening. Shane had no doubt that even the collective might of the boy and the man who appeared to be his older brother would fall short of the man’s superhuman abilities.

In fact, he mainly feared that Jordan would kill the boy through a fear of potentially being overthrown. He had repeatedly honed his level after dealing with wave after wave of the mindless monsters that sought out the people here, leaving all the other citizens here below level 15, and the only person he’d allowed to use a blue Shard was himself, essentially crippling everyone else’s growth.

Shane didn’t know the man all that well, but he didn’t appear to like threats to his rule at all, especially when it came to people who had the potential to threaten his rule. Other than all that, though, he was actually a pretty reasonable bloke.

**

Brock hadn’t needed Shane’s excerpt about the lay of the land, mostly because he was already intimately familiar with the town. He had grown up here after all; him, his mother and his two siblings. Each direction he looked filled him with memories of his childhood, and it brought him great sorrow to see so many places he used to often visit crumbling under the influence of the System.

But what captured his attention more than anything was simply the knowledge that his brother and mother had still lived here before the System. While it seemed readily apparent that the location of transportation was somewhat random, he had seen plenty of familiar faces in the area, though they didn’t appear to recognise him back under all the grime he was wearing.

Shane seemed to be intent on keeping them close to him, but Brock couldn’t restrain himself as he caught sight of the familiar - albeit rusted - street sign that denoted the street he had once lived on. From what the man could tell, ‘Shayno’ here was around level 13 or 14, so one of the strongest around aside from the town’s mysterious leader, if the man’s information was truthful.

Brock glanced at the Aussie supply seeker continued explaining the kinds of jobs people had to do here to earn their keep, something which Harry appeared to abhor the idea of, “…though I’d recommend taking something in cooking or rebuilding, as most others are-”

He let the man continue to speak and cut off left into the street. A startled cry resounded from behind a short moment later. Quickly, Harry rushed to his side, chuckling, “Where are we going? Far away? Please.”

“Old family home. I’m seeing if any of my family members are still here.” Brock replied, ignoring the latter part of what Harry said and strolling leisurely as Shane scurried to catch up to them.

“You guys need to follow where I’m going.” He pleaded.

Harry glanced at him, but ultimately ignored him, “You used to live here?”

“Yeah, a few years back. Moved away at eighteen to go to College. Wouldn’t recommend it.” Brock said.

“College or moving away at eighteen?”

“Fucking both.”

Harry nodded sagely at his words as they walked, with Shane continually trying to gather their attention to no avail. While he seemed oddly unfazed with Harry’s teenage silent treatment, he looked to be quite miffed by Brock’s. Whether it was because he was just older or because he appeared to be the weakest here was yet to be seen, though the guy seemed too polite to have a go at him anyway.

Brock was more occupied with the fact that the town seemed to have so few Shards of Awakening. His aura senses were still budding, but he could pinpoint an utter multitude of the capped auras of those who were still using the placeholder Ascendancies from the Tutorial. Although, among them, there were still a sizeable amount of people who actually were using improved Ascendancies.

It actually helped the man to notice the effect of rarity, being able to witness so many people of similar levels in the area. There was a clear difference in aura from those that were still using a white and those using what he assumed to be mass used greens, which Shane had mentioned as being the majority of what people used here, blues locked away in storage as to prevent any uprisings from powerful individuals.

He had made no mention of purples or golds. They’re probably pretty rare. At least until monsters get stronger…

Compared to the auras of him and Harry, those of the greens seemed almost comically brittle and thin. In fact, Harry was almost twice Brock’s level using a blue rarity Shard, yet Brock’s had an unmistakable advantage in the solidity of his own aura and doubted the teenager’s could overpower his own. It had volume but was lacking in strength. For now, however, that aspect was moot point as neither were at the stage where they had enough ambient power to emit it beyond the bounds of their Inner Selves. Harry had said that the Treants had mentioned level 25 as the threshold.

Shane hadn’t seemed to notice the difference between them at all, but if the town’s leader was half as competent as he was said to be, he would. And from how the Aussie guide was painting the man, he seemed somewhat unpredictable, if not openly volatile.

In the end, Brock pinned Alice Springs' collection of Shards to the beast waves they were said to deal with on a bi-weekly basis as he pulled up out the front of his old family home. Shane had long given up on trying to change their minds, instead opting to tag along quietly. When he saw their destination, he piped up hesitantly.

“You… wouldn’t happen to be Brock, wou-“

“Shush dude,” Harry interrupted, blessedly noticing the nostalgic smile donned across Brock’s face, “he’s having a moment.”

This was his family home. A single-story flat appearing to be a bit on the older side, the soft yellow paint having long begun to peel from the wooden and brick exterior, the former beginning to rot.

Conversations flashed in his mind: banter between siblings, lunches packed by his mother, the times she’d humour their idiotic ideas trying to be the fun mum. Brock’s small smile widened ever so slightly.

From within closed curtains, light shone, indicating that someone was living within. Giddy with the hope that his family was still here, Brock stepped up to the front door and rested his hand on the doorknob, much to the protests of their local guide Shane. The door creaked open, and he looked within.

“…James?” he spoke out, his voice cracking a little, “…mum?”

There was a second where nothing happened, then a series of metallic clanks occurred from the back, in a room just outside of Brock’s view. The signature aura of someone still stuck at the peak of level ten radiated from the individual within, although it was the only one he could detect.

Brock’s eyes lit up when the face of his younger brother peeked out of the doorway leading to the room, and the boy froze.

Slowly, a genuine smile worked its way across the teenager’s face and James swiftly rushed down the hall, throwing the door wide open and wrapping his brother in a hug tight enough to squeeze the air from his lungs. He instantly recognised him beneath all the filth and remained uncaring of it, though he did grimace at it when they broke the embrace.

“Brock! You’re here?! I… what!?” James exclaimed, leading his older brother out to the sunlight with him.

Harry rushed up to them before Brock could speak and shook the boy’s hand, despite the fact he was barely a year older, “You’re Brock’s brother? I’m Harry. His best friend.”

Brock raised a brow at him.

“Are you from New York?” James tilted his head at the accent.

“Boston.” Brock chimed in.

“Yeah, New York’s for chumps.” Harry spat.

James frowned, “Ummm… what’s wrong with New York…?”

“Just let him believe that everything is wrong with it,” Brock supplied, his face serious, “it helps, trust me.”

Shane groaned quietly, running his hands down his face, “Oh my fucking god. There’s three of them.”

The trio made mention of their respective journeys here, before bantering for a while longer, much to the dismay of Shane, who repeatedly checked the time on his cracked watch. He appeared to be on a time crunch here.

Eventually, James invited them into the house and the four of them walked inside, Harry and Brock whistling as they arrived in the kitchen and eyed the various complex contraptions and strange items littered across every flat surface they could see.

“What’s all this stuff?” Harry asked, poking what looked like a serrated beartrap with another oblong item he found somewhere on the kitchen table. Quickly, he began prodding the trap’s trigger.

“Traps. We really should be going now.” Shane stressed.

James grinned at Harry, who was almost the same age as him - both of them seemed to immediately get along remarkably well - and grabbed some sort of metal harpoon launcher from the kitchen bench. Brock was fairly certain literally everything in the room was illegal in every country.

Gesturing to it with a nod, he reached into the pantry and took out a packet of biscuits for them to share, “what Shayno said. They’re traps. Well, most of them. My Ascendancy is related to metallurgy and metal manipulation, and since no one’s allowed to fight apart from that idiot Jordan-”

“You shouldn’t openly state that sort of-” Shane protested. Brock recalled a person from his childhood by the same name.

James openly ignored the man and continued, “-and his goons, I decided to use my power outside of combat and take up artificing. Make traps and stuff to assist during the beast waves and deal with whatever slips through.”

“Can’t gain any levels with the kills until Jordan acknowledges my traps' usefulness though…” he added bitterly.

Harry glanced at Brock meaningfully, “You need a Shard of Awakening?”

A look of realisation began to dawn on Shane’s face as he eyed the knowing expression on the younger speaker’s face, and he opened his mouth to protest, but a bright flicker of light to his side gave him pause. Almost reluctantly, he glanced over, his eyes bulging as he caught sight of the small pile of various coloured Shards, counting at least thirty with just a quick headcount.

“What colour fluid you need James? I got plenty,” Brock boasted, gesturing toward his respectable stores.

The boy in question appeared utterly dumbfounded by the idle display of what amounted to absolute control in this town, especially since Jordan held the lone monopoly on the Shards anyone found during the ongoing beast waves. Quickly, he recovered and stared at his elder brother.

“Where the hell did you get all these, Brock?” he looked somewhat fearful, something which made Brock frown imperceptibly.

The man shrugged easily, doing nothing to alleviate the tense atmosphere in the room, “Werewolf swordsman and his magic ring. Mondays, am I right?”

“You could have said that to me before.” Harry protested.

He didn’t respond, instead eying Shane as he stared at the pile intently. He didn’t mention anything, but with the sparsity these things seemed to have, he’d throw the guy across the room and out the window if he tried anything. James leaned over the table and lightly sifted through the pile, his movements almost reluctant in nature.

Eventually though, he pulled out one of the few golden Shards within, and the crystal responded to his touch by pulsating softly and bathing the room in its ambient power. The fluid was evidently resonating with his own. I guess that solves the issue of people that’re colourblind. Or just… blind.

Shane gasped lightly. After fighting high-levelled beasts for months - Harry for weeks - Brock and the kid were used to the presence of ambient energies as powerful as this. James’ hand was positively shaking as he gazed down, wildly swishing about the crimson fluid within, one much like Brock’s own.

“I…” James stuttered, gazing down at the crystal, “I don’t know if…”

“Just take it mate. It’s all my shit anyway.” Brock consoled him, “Technically.”

“O… ok…”

Shane finally managed to regain his bearings and spoke up, “No, no. That’s a terrible idea-”

“Shut up, Shane,” Harry warned, fiddling innocuously with what appeared to be a simplified ballistic knife. He was holding it the wrong way.

“…ok…” he muttered meekly.

The rest of the day proceeded smoothly, with the group - and yes, Shane - staying to watch as James consumed his new Shard of Awakening and awoke hours later, a new and improved metal-based Ascendancy waiting for him. It was similar to that of before, albeit with this one focusing more on artificing and metallurgy than the direct combat applications of metal manipulation, though it was still rather a key component of the power.

James didn’t really mind the craftsman centred route it seemed to be taking, as that was what he’d wanted anyway.

Shane had remained quiet the remaining part of the night, seeming oddly fearful, a feeling which James too appeared to maintain, even as he found his stat bonuses per level to have tripled to a whopping thirty and witnessed the newfound smoothness that his Ascendancy worked with. Brock’s frown slowly deepened, and he knew Jordan was the reason why.

In the end, the day finished with Shane leaving them behind, and James inviting the duo to use his working shower and scrape the weeks’ worth of filth off their bodies, before staying the night. Brock was obviously given his old room and Harry copped the guest one. The brothers had left the topic of their mother unspoken for the entirety of their reunion, both unwilling to open that can of worms and face the harsh reality of expectation.

James had offered Brock some fitting spare clothes, and he had graciously taken them, although he’d still rinsed off his beast hide. He’d probably use it as some sort of armour during combat to prevent his clothes from becoming ruined again. Even after taking a handful of direct blows from beasts in their low thirties, the hide was still fine.

Brock bid his apparent ‘best friend’ and his brother goodnight and tucked himself in his familiar bed, enjoying the sensation of sleeping under a proper roof without the constant fear of beasts for the first time in a bit under two months.

It was nice.