Part Twenty-Seven

Driving through the field, we soon found an old, run-down farmhouse, though it was clearly not unoccupied. Unsettling laughter could be heard coming from a roaring bonfire, around which sat fifty or so small, hunched figures. Not humans, probably, though not anything we’d encountered yet.

Sitting about fifty feet from them was a bus that had been given the Mad Max treatment. The monsters had covered it in steel plates, and attached a snowplow of some sort to the front.

“That’s probably what caused the wreck then. They plowed into the other car with that bus, then dragged the victims out and brought them here. Alicia, what are we dealing with?”

“I..don’t know. I’ve never seen them before. They kinda look a little like Goblins, only they’re smaller and scalier and have unusually big ears. And since we’re still out of Analyze's range…”

“Meaning we’ll be going in blind.”

“What else is new? We rarely know exactly what we’re up against anyway. Hell, that Dracotaur came in from out of nowhere, and we got through that somehow.”

“Yes, but we should still have a plan.”

“A plan? Yes, a plan……”

“Uh-oh. He’s got that look on his face again, the one that says ‘I’m about to do something insane'. Haaah, what is it this time?”

“Think you can make a Grenade Arrow that goes off after a second instead of on impact?”

“So like, a timed explosive? Yeah, I think it’ll be possible. Wait…oh-no.”

“Oh yes. Heheheh, let’s just say that we’ll be using their strengths against them. Heheheh.”

“What’s goin' on? What are they talkin' about?”

“I think we’ll soon find out. Something tells me this will either be a rousing success, or a total failure.”

***

After a few minutes to prepare ourselves and what we needed, it was show time. Those monsters weren’t going to know what hit them.

The only snag I can predict is that the monsters could have traps set up around them, but Alicia didn’t spot anything like that and I trust her judgment, so we’ll act as if there aren’t any for now. At any rate, we’ve done all the preparing we can. I even duck-taped a few shields to the tires so they’d be harder to blow out. Maybe it’ll help, maybe it won’t, but it sure feels like it will. Okay, let’s go.

Everyone got back into the truck except for Gwen, who joined us in the bed this time. She was the only person who used a shield, so I’d asked her to sit back here just-in-case the monsters decided to use ranged weapons instead of chasing us. I’d also given her a bag of various goodies to play with as well, which was sure to sow some extra confusion.

We’d parked the truck far enough away that the monsters would have a hard time noticing it, and that extra distance would also give our first attack more oomph. It was sure to be explosive.

Wait, have I used that joke before? Hrm, I’ve come up with a few of these crazy plans, so it’s hard to be sure, but I don’t think so. Oh well, if I have I have, and if I haven’t I haven’t. Let’s get this done with.

“You sure about this? Seems risky runnin’ right at ‘em and stuff.”

“They’re off-guard right now and completely defenseless. It’ll work. Just hold on tight, cause this is gonna be one hell of a bumpy ride.”

“Aight. Just checkin’. Didn’t want to end up like whoever was in that car.”

“Same, that’s why we’re dealing with them now. Alicia, you good to go?”

“As much as I’ll ever be. I don’t know why I go along with these plans of yours. I made a few extra too, just in case.”

“Excellent. Alright Gwyn, we’re all good out here.”

I smacked the back window of the cab to let him know we were ready, and he responded by starting the engine. Once the tires picked up traction, we started heading straight towards the monsters, steadily picking up speed. The idea was to barrel right through the monsters while missing the bonfire. We didn’t want to risk burning everything down.

“Brace yourselves!”

It took less than a minute for us to reach the monsters, who had even less time to react to the truck barreling straight at them. Those sitting furthest from the fire were the unlucky bastards to get run over, screaming as their bodies were crushed. However, those sitting a little closer weren’t any luckier, as Alicia’s arrows, my spells and an assortment of other projectiles began picking any survivors off.

Our surprise attack was so effective, that we’d killed over half of the monsters within a minute of arriving. Shit, I guess this was too effective. Haaah, booooo. Now we have to do this the boring way instead of the fun destructive way.

“Close in! We’re routing them!”

“Heh?”

“Aight! I prefer this over just picken' ‘em off.”

I smacked the cab twice, the signal to stop the truck and engage, before using the tailgate to leap out of the truck bed at one of the panicking monsters. I landed on it, knocking it to the ground while impaling it with my swords, which also inadvertently gave me a close-up of its ugly face. It was bad, like a cross-over between a pig and lizard.

Pulling free of the dead monster, I looked up to see Gwyn throwing one of his axes at a distant monster, striking it through the head. The guy's Skills may still be a mystery to me, but his combat ability was the real deal.

Two more monsters charged at me then, both wielding strange metal instruments for weapons. The two's charge was slow and sloppy though, and it was easy to parry both clumsy attacks and deliver deadly counterattacks.

Huh, this isn’t that hard. I thought it would be tougher after seeing how they renovated that bus. Maybe they stole it from someone else? Actually, what are we fighting?

Gremlin

Rank: E

Description: A reptilian Demi-Human race that is known for their penchant for tinkering, especially with anything mechanical. Gremlins are not strong individually, instead preferring to use their combined intellects to build war machines for battle. As such, they make for great engineers, but poor warriors.

Oh, that explains it. They all worked together to renovate that bus, but it doesn’t help them when we catch them by surprise like this. Good to know.

Another Gremlin tried to sneak up on me while I was thinking, but was instead cut down before it could attack. Which also meant that all the monsters were now dead. And also triggered something else I hadn’t expected.

*Bloooomp*

::Congratulations! You have reached the limits of your mortality. From this point on, you will be unable to grow any further until you choose a Class.

Your experiences, Skills, choices and natural affinities will all be used to determine compatible Classes. You will be alerted again when this process is complete.

In addition, all restraints on your Authority: Insight have been released.::

Wha-WHAT!? WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!?

Status

Race: Human

Archetype: Warrior

Age: 22

State: Healthy

Titles: Razor's Edge, Way of the Warrior, Conqueror of Trials, Murderer, Mutationist, Unavenged, Novice Mage,

Rank: C (Growth halted: World System is preparing Class choices.)

Skills

Normal Skills: Analyze, Survival Instinct, Dual Sword Aura Rank D, Grudge Magic Rank D, Abyss Magic Rank F, Rapid Recovery Rank F,

Equipment Skills: Mind’s Eye,

Special Skills: Skanda Rank E, Bloodthirst Rank E,

Authorities: Insight,

Equipment: Demon’s Third Eye, Coat of Dark Wrath, Striker’s Armor, Duelist’s Gloves, Striker’s Pants, Sonic Boots, Warrior’s Bracelet, Nightmare’s Twin Swords,

I’d heard a rather odd sound just before the System made a shocking announcement. I saw shocked, but bringing up my Status confirmed what I just heard. I couldn’t decide whether to panic or rejoice. On one hand, I’d just been told I could finally get a Class, something I’d been secretly anticipating for months. On the other hand, I’d also just been told that I wouldn’t get any stronger until I actually got my Class. Granted, that probably only meant growth towards Rank, since it would be way too rough to have my Skill growth throttled as well.

I-I-I-I, fuck! Calm down Michael. Remember, you’re on a battlefield right now. I can’t be getting distracted by this. I’ll worry about it later.

The fight had ended while I was preoccupied, though no one seemed to have noticed. The others were picking through the corpses and looking for anything of value we could take, something I’d normally have jumped right into. And I would have, if not for there now being something else on my mind right now.

***

[Alicia’s POV]

Michael’s acting odd again.

It was subtle, but there was a definite gloom to his actions. Despite the rather large haul of crap they’d found in the Gremlins’ bus, he was acting really sedate, with none of his usual exuberance. Even Regis begging for affection hadn’t elicited much reaction from him.

Ordinarily, she would’ve brushed it off or dealt with it later. If it had been anyone else, she would’ve assumed they were bothered by the human remains they’d also uncovered. But this was Michael. He’d never been bothered by that before, so why would he be now? Plus, there was exactly one other time he’d acted like this.

This is just like what happened when he didn’t tell me about that damn vial Finnél had sneaked into his bag. There’s something bothering him that he doesn’t know how to deal with on his own. I’d like to get this out of the way now, but I’ll wait until later so the others don’t misunderstand. Who knows? Maybe he’ll tell us on his own.

***

I tried to get into the looting, but was ultimately unable to do so. Even finding all kinds of shiny, fun-looking things hadn’t been enough to lift my mood. Nor was the promise of loot from that weirdo, though I wasn’t sure if he’d even be there anymore.

Speaking of weirdos, I wonder how Tavin’s doing. He’s probably working Brad and his friends to the bone, those poor bastards. And where’d Braddock and Grant get to? I can’t imagine those two sitting on the sidelines for long. They’ll be back before I know it. Probably.

I was trying to get my mind off of it, but it wasn’t exactly easy. I’d looked through some of the new information that had been unlocked for Insight, and very little of it made me happy.

“Heh, even if that fuckin' maniac don’t give us anything, all this more than makes up for it.”

“I agree. There’s no food, but the sheer amount of randomly useful stuff those Gremlins collected is staggering. Jewelry, money, electronics, there’s a little bit of everything.”

“I threw out some of the broken stuff that was mixed in, but I’m not sure if we’ll have enough room to transport all this. We might have to leave some of it behind.”

“Ridiculous. Why waste perfectly good loot. You agree, right Michael?”

“Huh? Oh yeah. Let’s take as much as we can. There’s no use letting it sit here for the next group of monsters to find.”

“Heheh, see? He gets it. Now, let’s get packin'.”

We started loading everything into our bags. Surprisingly, everything did fit, though only after all the refuse was thrown away. Anything broken beyond repair was obviously going to be chucked out, but the Gremlins had also included actual garbage among their possessions. The number of empty food packages we found was staggering. They definitely had a bit of a hoarding problem.

That’s done. Let’s go back and get this whole mess settled.

***

“””””…”””””

Wow, talk about a cliché. The guy actually left before we got back. How didn’t I see this coming?

It wasn’t just the man that was missing, but the wrecked car was as well. We’d followed our path directly back from where we ambushed the Gremlins, so we shouldn’t have gotten lost or anything. And yet, there was no sign of the man.

“I feel like we should’ve expected this outcome. Somehow, I’m just not surprised.”

“Tch, fuckin' freak just took off. If I catch him, I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind.”

“Hm, what’s that?”

“Alicia? Where are you going?”

While the rest of us were coming to terms with this somewhat-expected betrayal (not that it was a betrayal), Alicia was instead investigating something along the side of the road. I watched her pick up a cloth sack, check it, scream in shock and then nearly drop it. Her sudden scream had also gotten the others attention, and they were all staring inquisitively at her.

“Uh, you all might want to check this out.”

“Huh? A bag? Is it a magic-. What!?”

Alicia handed the bag to Gwyn, who froze after checking it himself. He then handed it off to Kalia, who had much the same reaction, who then handed it to Gwen, who I snatched it from because I got impatient.

Dimension Bag

Rank: B

Description: A superior version of the magic bag. Dimension Bags contain powerful enchantments that allow them to hold far more than their inferior models, and also allows them to preserve the natural state of anything contained within. Storage can grow up to one hundred cubic kilometers.

“Uh, does this mean this bag can slow time for things stored within it? Also, this thing is freaking huge inside!”

“I believe so. I can’t decide whether to be pleased by this, or irritated by how that man went about things.”

“…Both? Actually, we didn’t learn that maniac’s name, did we?”

“Nope. Maybe we should be happy that nothing really happened from this.”

No, it wasn’t nothing. I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t nothing.

Gwyn and Kalia both seemed relieved that this had ended peacefully, but I wasn’t so sure. The way that man appeared and disappeared so randomly worried me. There was also the matter of who he’d been, and why he’d been here. Not only had he wielded strange and powerful magic, but he also had highly useful items like the Dimension Bag to spare.

Clearly he was an otherworlder, and an extremely powerful one at that. But why was he here? And why did he send us to hunt those Gremlins? What was the whole point of this, and is it somehow connected to me getting my Class now of all times?

…

……

………

…………

And why do I feel so much dread in the pit of my stomach?