“So let me get this straight. You lost your arm on the tutorial circle.”

  “Yup.”

  “But then you managed to get it back. Thanks to a Pandora.”

  “Yeah.”

  “But something went wrong because… reasons, and you ended up with a magic wooden plant arm instead.”

  “Essentially.”

  “And now said arm has become sentient and capable of full independence.”

  “You got it.”

  Nathan had to resist the urge to let his lips twitch into a smirk as he watched Sarah’s face morph into pure and utter confusion.

  “Nathan, excuse my language, but what the f—”

  Nathan made a shushing motion with his lips. “There are children, Sarah.”

  Sarah mechanically turned her head to Lily, who was looking—in so far as a plant could look—at a random brick off to the side.

  “It’s nice to meet you?” Sarah said.

  Lily stared at Sarah for several seconds and didn’t respond. The flower had turned back toward Nathan.

  “Can I go back onto your arm?” she said.

  Nathan shrugged. “I don’t know. Can you?”

  “Put your hand on the ground.”

  Nathan did as he was told and placed his wood hand against the ground. The flower disappeared underneath the ground and sprouted back up right in front of Nathan’s arm. Her stem extended out, and she wrapped around Nathan’s arm, the roots connecting and snapping together like Lego bricks.

  She disappeared into the folds underneath Nathan’s shoulder.

  Sarah stared at the spot where Lily had disappeared.

  “Does that make her my niece?”

  Nathan froze. “What did you just say?”

  “ mean, you’re clearly the father, so—”

  Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t say that. It’s not like that—”

  “Or are you the mother?”

  “Sarah!”

  A small smirk was playing across her lips, and Nathan realized that he’d been got.

  He groaned into his hands. “Why exactly did I want you back with me?”

  “For my charming personality, of course.”

  Nathan groaned again.

  Despite how frustrated he was acting, he couldn’t deny his amusement—and his relief at the fact that she was acting so normal.

  “It’s almost a little bit nostalgic,” Nathan muttered. “I remember we were just like this at home, before…”

  Before Nathan’s grades started to slip. Before she left for college. Before he was kicked out for being a lazy layabout.

  “Yeah, but things have changed a lot.” Sarah stepped to the side and glanced over at Emi, then looked back at Nathan. “You’ve really grown up since then. Not just that, but you’re also the strongest person in the apocalypse. Uh, which is something you’re gonna need to explain to me.”

  “The story isn’t nearly as interesting as you’re imagining,” Nathan said. “But later. Right now, I want to introduce you to the rest of my friends.”

  “I think I remember them. The other two, right? The girl with the gun and the guy with the blue hair and sunglasses?”

  “Yeah, them. I think you’ll really like them.”

  Without any prompting, the group started to move as a unit through the yellow hallways. Nathan’s hands gestured as he continued talking about how he’d met Chad and Mara, also giving Sarah a brief glimpse of their personalities. Although Nathan was pretty sure that everybody he’d surrounded himself with was insane to some degree or another, Chad and Mara really exemplified it. Chad’s obsession with streaming was probably unhealthy, while Mara was so steeped in sadism it was definitely unhealthy.

  Yet as he explained these things to Sarah, he found the edges of his cheeks hurting.

  “You really like them, don’t you?” Sarah said, tilting her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about anyone like that before.”

  At that, Emi poked her head from Nathan’s side toward Sarah. “He was different in the past?”

  “Extremely different. The difference is like night and day,” Sarah said.

  “I haven’t changed that much, have I?” Nathan said.

  “Are you kidding me?” Sarah scoffed and crossed her arms. “I mean, for one thing, I don’t think you talked with anybody except on Discord before this whole thing started.”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Nathan winced at the reminder of his deadbeat lifestyle prior to the apocalypse.

  “Please don’t remind me.”

  Sarah slapped him on the back, and Nathan made the appropriate sound of pain — even though he didn’t actually feel it. “Chin up, little bro! Look at you now! You’re the leader of the town, the savior of humanity, and you even managed to bag a fantasy elf girlfriend!”

  Nathan cocked a single eyebrow. “Well, that’s a little presumptuous, don’t you think —?”

  “WHAT!?”

  Emi’s shout was loud enough to almost make Nathan’s ears ring. He looked back at her in shock.

  “Emi? What are you—?”

  “I-it’s not like that!” Emi stammered, her cheeks flushing bright red. “We’re just friends!”

  Sarah looked back and forth between Nathan and Emi, then slung her arm around Nathan’s shoulder.

  “You’re gonna have to tell me where exactly you picked this chick up, because she’s way too adorable for you.” Sarah leaned toward Nathan. “Are you blackmailing her?”

  Nathan’s left eye twitched. He’d forgotten what a flaming prick his sister was. He had been too distracted by the fact that she was probably severely depressed and traumatized due to the events of the last circle, and so he was focused on getting her to stick by him so he could protect her better.

  “He’s not blackmailing me!” Emi shouted. “He saved me! Twice!”

  Sarah drew back from Nathan and nodded seriously with her eyes shut and her hand on her chin.

  “Oh, I see, a rescue romance. A little bit cliché, but —”

  “Sarah.”

  Nathan put every ounce of his authority into his voice, transforming from the benign younger brother into the number one on the leaderboard in an instant.

  Sarah rolled her eyes and held her hands up in surrender. “I was only joking, jeez.”

  Nathan sighed. “Well, it’s rude. So dial it back.”

  “You got it, little bro.”

  The four resumed walking. Nathan noted that Bjorn still had yet to speak. He probably felt uncomfortable intruding on what seemed like a private moment between friends.

  Nathan wouldn’t let him get away so easily.

  “I can’t believe you’ve just been ignoring my other friend, Sarah” Nathan fell back so that he was walking side by side with Bjorn. He pointed with his thumb at the orc. “What, did you manage to somehow miss him?”

  Bjorn adjusted the straps going across his chest. "Huh?"

  Sarah motioned for him to go on. “Sure, tell me about your orc buddy.”

  “It actually has a little bit to do with how I met Emi, as well.”

  For the next half hour, Nathan explained how he had met Emi and Bjorn, the battles they had, along with how they were separated in the first circle. Nathan made the executive decision to avoid talking about the Harrowed Hand — best to avoid sticking his hand into that hornets’ nest, after all. The whole time, Sarah made the appropriate noises of shock, excitement, and generally was just the ideal audience for Nathan. By the time they reached the quest hub, Nathan hadn’t even noticed due to how excited he was to tell his sister what he’d been doing.

  Bjorn glanced over at the bricked-up hallway. “I see that you decided to… What’s the phrase? ‘Set up shop’?”

  Somehow it hadn’t hit Nathan that, of course, the orcs would be unhappy about the fact that Nathan had locked down the quest hub. But on the other hand, was it really that big of a deal? It wasn’t like it was very valuable…

  Except for the fact that quest hubs could teleport to each other…

  Well, it didn’t matter. Surely Nathan and the orcs wouldn’t come to hostilities.

  …Nathan wondered how he was able to convince himself of these extremely stupid decisions.

  He knocked against the stone bricks and immediately noticed that they’d been magically enchanted. Of course, they wouldn’t be using normal bricks — at this level, Nathan would easily be able to blast through any normal stone wall that was used.

  “Who is it?” a voice said from the other side.

  “It’s Nathan. The town leader?”

  He was half tempted to use that savior of humanity moniker that Sarah had randomly dumped on him, but he thought it would be a tad too egotistical.

  “My lord! Don’t worry, we’ll let you in.”

  The bricks swung inward like a door. A mushroom soldier nodded his head at Nathan.

  Nathan squinted his eyes. “How exactly did you…?”

  “A new type of construction designed by Vee, my lord,” the mushroom soldier said. “You haven’t been in town very often, so I’m afraid you’re a little bit out of the loop.”

  Nathan waved him off. “I probably am, and I don’t particularly care. The town has reached the point where it can run itself.”

  At least, that’s what Nathan was hoping. After the constant drama and struggles of the past several circles, it would really suck if there were still problems even after he’d invaded multiple towns and provided his people with plenty of living space.

  When Nathan stepped inside, he was surprised to see that the quest hub was completely full of people. There were a few werewolves and mushrooms, but for the most part, it was people. All of them were dressed in gear, armor, wielding weapons such as swords, knives — one person was holding a double-headed axe.

  “What’s going on here?” Nathan said.

  “In the last circle, nobody could get out due to the limited flight resources. A few people had managed to tame those weird birds and use them as cargo, but that still put a damper on most of the would-be circle travelers. Now, however, there’s no such problem. People have been using the quest hubs to organize themselves into parties and explore the circle further.”

  Nathan saw a booth to the side of the portal where a long line of people were impatiently waiting for — Zayen?

  Yeah, that was him. He had a bright and cheery grin on his face as he signed off some paperwork and handed it to the person who was waiting in line. Once they received that paperwork, they entered the portal and disappeared.

  “What’s up with those people?” Nathan said.

  “People who come seeking your protection.”

  “What?”

  “Again, things have changed since the last circle,” the mushroom soldier said. “From what I understand, everything seems to be a little bit… closer? Humanity isn’t as spread out as it was before. As such, getting to your town has become a viable option for most of the remaining humans who made it to the circle. And of course, knowing your greatness and wisdom, many of them have embarked on a campaign to find your town.” He pointed toward some of the circle goers who were exiting through another stone doorway. “Several of the adventurers have started assisting in this effort. They’re leaving behind trails, marking the walls so that people looking for your town are able to find it.”

  “… That’s good?” Nathan said.

  “Good? That’s great!”

  Sarah stepped up to his side and crossed her arms with a smile.

  “You’re helping a lot of people, Nathan,” she said.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t really have a hand in any of this.”

  “That doesn’t matter. You’re the one who set up the conditions for this to be possible. I doubt many other people in your position would’ve just allowed anybody to come into their town like this. And they wouldn’t have been able to foster a culture where these adventurers are actually trying to help people get back to your town, with no reward whatsoever. You’re killing it, Nathan.”

  Nathan chose not to respond to the compliment. She was wrong, of course. Really, any success he had was pure luck and good timing.

  But there was no reason to bring the mood down.

  “By the way, my lord,” the mushroom soldier dropped his voice. “Lord Chad and Lady Mara have been looking for you.”

  Nathan winced. “I forgot to tell them I was going out —”

  “Not for that, my lord. I overheard them speaking. They want to consume their Pandoras, and they want you to defend them while this happens.”

  Well, now. Nathan couldn’t leave his friends hanging, could he?