The next morning Jessica woke me from a dream in which I had been walking through a desert, burning sun on my back and legs. It was almost a relief to be back in the world, devastated though it was. Finding I didn’t need any breakfast and nor did Jessica, we set off in the hope that Lucas and Rebekah had managed to survive.

We continued forward pulling mobs at a steady pace and avoiding the snake-headed monsters as best as possible, occasionally stopping to regenerate a bit of MP. Each fight saw one or two of my summoned undead disintegrating as collateral damage. Which meant each new battle cost me around 10 MP.

I also kept Bone Armor up whenever we were going into a new encounter. The fear of that mysterious deathly creature was fresh on my mind: not that I believed for a second Bone Armor would make a difference if it locked onto me.

After nearly two hours of slow grinding Jessica and I both received a welcome message.

Congratulations, you have reached level 12!

The constant re-summoning of skeletons had also raised my level of Skeletal Mastery to level 2, which was a greatly welcome improvement.

Skeletal Mastery LV. 2: Minions deal 20% increased damage and have 15% increased maximum HP per level.

The damage had increased by 5% and so had the maximum HP, a decent buff per level. There was also a skill book that dropped as well, a very interesting one.

Book of Preliminary Inspection LV. 1: Allows the user to see the level and tier of a monster.

Cast Time: Instant

MP Cost: 1

Distance: 10 Meters

This was something we were badly missing. Up until now, all we had to go by was the fact that I could look at a monster and make a guestimate of how good or bad of an idea it was to fight it.

Jessica still had a slot remaining for an active skill, but I felt that Preliminary Inspection didn’t synergize with her trapper abilities at all. I said so.

“I feel like I should learn this,” she replied. “I know it might not be the best I’ll find… but I already am good at gathering enemy locations, why not spot their difficulty as well?”

In order for us to take advantage of this skill without her learning it, we would need a new group member, someone who willing to use a precious skill slot on Preliminary Inspection. That probably wasn’t too likely to happen soon. On the other hand, taking this felt like a wasted active skill for us right now considering we knew which enemies around here were dangerous and which ones we could currently deal with. I mentioned my thoughts but Jessica countered immediately.

“It won’t always be like this though. We saw it just yesterday. It’s been merely a week and a half and there’s already been a big tossup in what we considered normal. What happens if tomorrow it’s tossed around again and there are new monsters? Can we say for sure we could identify the threats? The elites?”

Her point was valid, but I still felt badly about it. She was gimping herself to a more supporting role than if she waited to gain an offensive skill that enhanced her archery.

“Is it fine with you? To give up your active skill slot? You know what you’re sacrificing?” I said.

She thought for merely a few seconds and then took the book and learned it without hesitation. I guessed that was her way of answering me. “Let’s try it out then.” I gave a wry smile.

As we encountered enemies she Inspected each of them:

Goblins were level 2, zombies level 1, and the weird alien creature was level 3; they were all rated normal mobs. The ogres and banshees were both Level 7 and considered normal as well. The abomination was Level 13 and the snake-headed demi-human was Level 15 and they were both showing up as normal as well.

Across the whole day, we didn’t run into an enemy that might have been an elite, to see what Jessica’s new ability made of it. The sun fell and it was our cue to call it a night. We ended the day with around fifty-percent of our next level.

I had told myself that I wouldn’t be sleeping on anything but a bed, but clearly the world had a different plan for me: I spent half the night wrapped in the torn-up carpet of an office, the other half I was on watch. I took the first watch, because whenever I slept, all my minions despawned. I think it was just a lack of consciousness that broke the connection between us, causing them to disappear.

The following morning I had the appetite for another Ration charge and Jessica did too. Very soon we were on our way and pushing hard towards the apartment building. “What if they aren’t there when we reach it?” Jessica suddenly asked.

It was a negative thought, but understandable given the circumstances. There was no survival for them if they had been forced to engage with an abomination or a snake-headed type enemy. Those monsters were nearly twice the level of our friends and would strike them down in seconds.

“We’ll deal with it as it comes.” I said, trying to not dwell on that scenario too much. What we did now might be the difference between their life and death. My focus had to be on traversing the fastest route back. This wasn’t necessarily the geographically quickest path but the one with the mobs that were easiest to kill.

We departed in an early fog without my having any summoned skeletons. I needed a corpse, and we were having trouble locating one.

At last, Jessica found us a goblin, allowing me to summon my core troops. I felt a lot more reassured but I wanted to find another abomination to reanimate and decided against fighting and raising a banshee that was available. We weren’t lacking for damage at all, partly because Jessica hadn’t been saving stats like I was.

She had been steadily pumping STR and DEX ever since she hit 10 VIT. The arrows she shot were like bullets, and the damage was incredibly brutal to see. The arrows often ripped directly through the banshees and ogres like they were cutting through paper.

Sometimes an arrow tunneled through a monster’s skull, and it wasn’t even possible for my skeletons to reach it before it died. Her killing efficiency was impressive, and her tracking was just as good.

We allowed ourselves a slight detour to find an abomination as soon as possible, because that way we could continue to mop up the enemies in our path and increase our pace. It was relatively easy going, as we skipped all the snake-headed demi-humans we encountered.

The EXP was steadily climbing closer to Level 13, and when we were 90% of the way there, Summon Skeletons leveled up to 6. I was expecting the new benefit to another skeleton warrior, but what I got was a second skeleton general.

Summon Skeleton LV. 6

Cast time: Instant

MP Cost: 14

Distance: 4 Meters

Summons 4 skeleton warriors and two skeleton generals to fight for you. Skeletons can now be summoned without a corpse. If skill is cast with no corpse available, only one skeleton is summoned, chosen at random.

I now summoned 5 skeleton warriors and 2 skeleton generals. My army of undead was steadily growing, and I felt I had come a long way from the two that I started with.

By constantly using the skill, even when she knew the information it would give her, Jessica had also improved Preliminary Inspection to level 2. It had a cost of only 1 MP, and since we weren’t utilizing her traps currently, she spammed it on every enemy. It was a good idea, and also demonstrated that the more you used abilities, the faster they would level.

I wasn’t sure if it was the same for my Summon Skeletons though, as the skill had leveled up even after my summoned warriors had been alive all day. I had only needed to recast it a few times, and not that often as of late. My belief for summoning skills, or mine at least, was that it gained EXP through the kills of the skeletons, or maybe skills simply leveled up by completing the purpose of the skill.

My minions’ purpose was to kill enemies and the purpose of Inspect was to provide information: they leveled up in different ways. Regardless, the morning was progressing smoothly for us, and I didn’t feel like any one of my skills was falling behind.

Admittedly, I wasn’t using Decay enough, but it didn’t work on the abominations and we were skipping each snake-headed demi-human for speed. It would level when I found the time to work on it, which wasn’t a priority right now.

There were down sides to Jessica leveling Preliminary Inspection to Level 2 though. The cost went up to 2 MP, which wasn’t so bad. She could still spam it. An irritating issue was that I was now getting constant pop ups. It seemed that Level 2 of the skill allowed your party members to see the information you received on each cast.

Jessica reveled in the fact I had to endure the suffering alongside her, and somehow I couldn’t voice a complaint. She had leveled it against my judgment, and was probably hoping that something amazing would come out of it.

We hit Level 13 merely ten minutes after finding the first abomination. We ended up pulling an abomination plus around fifteen more enemies. The weak addons merely died to the toxic bile while we put our full focus into downing the abomination.

It was unfortunate that my own reanimated abomination died during the fight, but I simply re-summoned with the new corpse. We gained a hefty haul of loot though, perhaps the best drops of any battle that I’d been in.

There were two Bandages, a Ration, a weapon, and also a mysterious coin. I took the Ration as agreed and split the Bandages between Jessica and I. The coin… I wasn’t sure what it was.

Survival Medallion

That was as all that the message said, and there was no flavor text or indication of what it was for. Jessica suggested I hold onto it so I stored it in my inventory. The weapon that dropped was a two-handed sword.

Zweihander: A long sword originating from the Middle Ages. It has incredible range and destructive capabilities.

STR +5, VIT +3, Attack Speed -10%

Grants the user Break Defense.

I looked at the passive ability it granted.

Break Defense: Pierces 25% of an enemy’s armor.

This seemed like a way better item than any of our starting weapons, which prompted me to assume it must have dropped off the abomination. I looked at Jessica with puppy eyes, and it took her only a moment to realize what I wanted.

“Go ahead. I don’t care if you put it on one of your skeletons.” She laughed and I enjoyed the moment. We were getting a good understanding of each other and, more importantly, how to work as a team to best effect. There was also now the perfect recipient to receive it: my second skeleton general.

I passed the magic weapon to him and marveled in all his glory. The large sword held in his two boney hands looked absolutely terrifying, and if he was my enemy, I would run for the hills immediately. My only curiosity was if the passive ability of Break Defense would work for him or not? It was highly likely that my minions couldn’t receive benefits meant for users.

Regardless, his destructive capability must have jumped considerably, and I was itching to try it out. I let him play with the next goblin we encountered, and watched him split the little menace clean in half. I was so proud in that moment, like a father watching his son.

“We’re close,” Jessica said. “The apartment is directly west. When we left them, they would have come directly to here.” It was discouraging that according to Jessica there were no downed monsters in the area as we walked slowly through the streets with their clusters of spawns.

“Wait, there are people here,” she suddenly said, turning her bright eyes to mine.

“Is it them? Are they alive?” I asked excitedly.

“I don’t know, it might be. They’re just around the corner.” And we made a beeline for their location, hardly pausing to smash through the mobs in our way. We entered an abandoned clothes store, and hurried up escalators that no longer moved. It wasn’t Lucas and Rebekah, but there were three people backed up against a counter.