The final farewell for the fallen raiders was a solemn affair. Everyone came together and gathered around the pyres. David and his friends along with the other raiders stood at the front, as did families and close friends who hadn’t raided.

  There were only two speeches, one given by Reverand Okafor and the other by David. Both men spoke to all the dead, their courage and selfless sacrifice for others and for a brief time the factional fighting was forgotten.

  Then the funeral pyres were lit, one by one and everyone stood in silent contemplation as the flames roared skywards.

  David couldn’t help but notice that Billy’s pyre burned brighter and hotter than the others. A glance at Charlie showed his friend watching the pyre with a look of intense concentration even as tears trickled down his face.

  David finally caught his eye and gave him a grave, approving nod. Charlie nodded back, swallowing. Nothing more needed to be said.

  Finally, as signs that the wider crowd was growing restive began to become apparent, the Reverand stepped forward.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for joining together to commend the dearly deceased to God’s final mercy. I ask that as you depart the area you take a moment to offer comfort to those who survive the fallen in the name of Jesus Christ.”

  “Amen”

  Then the ceremony was over. The pyres still burned hot and would for hours before the ashes could be gathered and interred.

  David made a silent promise to himself as he stood vigil and watched the fires taking the remains of his people.

  I won’t let weakness stop me again, I promise all of you that I’ll keep your families safe and your memories alive.

  David didn’t get a chance to speak with Camila or the other girls at the funeral, by the time he ended his vigil the crowd had dispersed, and the girls were nowhere to be seen.

  In an introspective mood after the ceremony David decided not to try and find them tonight, there would be time to catch up with them and warn them about his ex, gift meditation and get started in the morning.

  Instead, sober now through the influence of his Stamina and Health he walked the perimeter fence of their claimed area. Everything was quietening down, the party mood broken by the lighting of the funeral pyres and the inevitable exhaustion catching up with those without well-developed systems.

  Pulling his phone and checking the time on it he saw that it was after midnight. His circuit allowed him to check on the raiders on watch and learn that Carl had arranged for them to be relieved in an hour or so. There was probably a lesson there in delegation and organization, but David wasn’t in the mood to think about that.

  Instead, he turned his attention to his mental to do list. He had made a lot of progress on that recently and, eager for distraction, decided to review his status and see where things stood.

  Looking at the explosive growth in his abilities made him smile. He was fully utilizing his half-step evolution now, all three skills being above level ten, giving him real advantages. He considered what he wanted to do next, the plan for tomorrow was going to give him another chance to boost his power and he had a new goal.

  He needed to be better able to deal with mutants. His investments to date were focused on dealing with zombies, which he was confident in doing, then in setting up to grow the raiders and finally investing in his bloodline, as he figured that would give him further large advantages.

  He reminded himself was that he had increased access, and that meant more information. So, he reached out to the system and started to ask about his unexplored titles.

  What is the first blood title and what benefits does leveling it grant?

  [THE FIRST BLOOD TITLE IS AWARDED TO THOSE COMMITTED TO VIOLENCE IN THE SYSTEM. IT REQUIRES KILLING EXPERIENCE GRANTING TARGETS BEFORE SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS OF EXPERIENCE FROM AMBIENT MANA. THE TITLE, WHEN LEVELED ALLOWS MORE EFFICIENT ACQUISITION OF EXPERIENCE FROM COMBAT AT THE EXPENSE OF REDUCING AMBIENT EXPERIENCE GAINS.]

  David shook his head, hell no. It might be a great way to improve his leveling speed, but he already had what was effectively a cheat for that as long as there were Nath around. The fact that there was a clear downside, combined with the lack of certainty that the payoff was big enough to make the initial investment worth it made this a title to avoid.

  Though he should probably ask the Herald if he was missing something. He moved on to his next question.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  What is the Ghostbane title and what benefits does leveling it grant?

  [THE GHOSTBANE TITLE IS AWARDED TO SYSTEM USERS WHO CONFRONT ETHEREAL ENTITIES SUCH AS NATH WITHOUT APPROPRIATE SKILLS. LEVELING THIS TITLE GRANTS INCREASED RESISTANCE TO SPIRITUAL ATTACKS AND SERVES AS THE BASIS FOR DEVELOPING SKILLS TO OPPOSE SPIRITUAL ENTITIES]

  Now this was interesting, there might be synergy with his bloodline and it sounded like it probably allowed him to get more relevant skills. Definitely going on the list, though it seemed likely that it wouldn’t help with the mutant problem they were facing.

  [THE SURVIVOR TITLE IS AWARDED TO SYSTEM USERS LACKING SURVIVAL SKILLS FOLLOWING DEVASTATING ATTACKS LEADING TO LOCAL SYSTEM DISRUPTION. NOTE: THIS TITLE IS ALSO GRANTED TO NEW INITIATES IN THE ABSENCE OF WIDER SYSTEM SUPPORT. THE TITLE PROVIDES LEVEL BASED INCREASES TO THE EFFICIENCY OF SYSTEM RESOURCES FOR SUPPORTING BASIC BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS AND GRANTS ACCESS TO SYSTEM ATTRIBUTE PERCEPTION AT LEVEL TEN.]

  This one was both more and less exciting than he expected. His first reaction was boring; it sounded like the system equivalent of disaster relief. Then he thought about subsidizing basic biological functions. That meant you would need less food…

  It made sense for those lacking skills in a disaster; they would be able to endure more with less help. The really interesting bit was that it offered a new stat. One that they hadn’t had access to up until now. Perception.

  He wondered what resources it used and why it was offered. Then it hit him, this was a way to help system users avoid trouble, helping noncombatants to stay alive, even combatants would benefit. If the system could achieve this, he wondered why it wasn’t offered as an option for the system initiate title.

  He reached out and dropped his inquiry and to his surprise received a reply from the Herald.

  Squire David, in the absence of the wider system your inquiry carries little risk. However, when an answer touches upon the Lords and Ladies you need to be aware that the question and your information are recorded within the Greater System. As a result, the relevant Lords and Ladies, should they be paying attention, would be informed.

  This is another reason why a Patron providing advice is superior to relying on System features. I will provide you with the context a Patron would normally provide.

  Perception is an advanced attribute, one of several created to improve detection and analysis. It is generally viewed as the best of these due to its flexibility and utility with every system resource.

  Access to perception usually requires bargaining with the Lord who developed it, who you would call Stalker or possibly Hunter in your language. He is uninterested in granting access to his legacy widely, making the attribute and its related skills hard to gain.

  The creation of this title is infamous within the system as he was forced to do so after a wager during a Gaia spore incursion. The Hollow Analyst, the winner of their bet and one of the Stalkers greatest rivals forced him to grant the core of his legacy through a foundational title after he failed to prevent the spores evolving. It later emerged that the Hollow Analyst had been conducting an experiment that accelerated the spore’s growth and reduced their signature, causing the outgrowth and evolution to occur far faster than anticipated.

  The Stalker had already pushed the new title when this came to light, though he was allowed to restrict access by binding it to disaster, officially this was a generous act and reparation for his failure to prevent billions of system users being overwhelmed by Gaian outgrowths.

  David listened, fascinated by the strange terms and after thanking the Herald for the information he asked a different question.

  Given the fact that related skills are hard to gain is it worth investing in gaining perception?

  The answer was instant.

  Yes.

  David had an awful thought and sent it without thinking, remembering the creature’s fascination with him had begun with figuring out his bloodline.

  Are you just saying that because you want to see what it does with my Bloodline?

  The response surprised him.

  Yes. Though the interest is far from academic. Your bloodline has a sensory component, in addition you are mistaken if you believe that you need the Stalkers skills to make use of Perception.

  You have already got a skill which benefits from it, your bloodline will benefit from it and given the relative weakness of your senses, even without all of that, you would benefit tremendously from it.

  Perception is triggered by the act of straining a sense, in essence trying to perceive more triggers your Perception. Intuitive and simple for the user. Any sense whether granted by a skill or natural benefits. This is part of what makes it so useful. It is also why it is better than most similar attributes, as others are built to either require specific artificial senses, often granted by skills, or work on one or a limited number of senses, sometimes amplifying them in ways relevant to particular species but not others. In addition, Perceptions, drawing on an unspecified resource pool is a generalized advantage.

  Among those who study the system it is widely viewed as a top tier attribute with tremendous conceptual complexity in the background leading to exquisite utility. The difficulty of obtaining it is one of the reasons that newly initiated users with potential access are viewed so favorably by the Lords and Ladies.

  David nodded, then thanked the Herald before he moved on to asking about the deployment of the array that he and Charlie had purchased. It turned out that that was quite a bit easier to use than he had feared and that even the presence of the undeployed array was acting as an anchor extending safe zone features, though not the barrier, which raised an interesting question.

  How does the safe zone actually work? As in mechanically how does it operate, does it have vulnerabilities I need to worry about?

  Squire David, your level of access is sufficient to acquire some additional insight into this topic, you also have a need to know as you are the owner of the local Obelisk, which provides many of these features. This information should not be shared with those that have lower status than yourself.

  The Herald then took on a lecturing tone as it explained, though somehow David got the impression again that it was choosing its words extremely carefully and trying to make some sort of point to him without coming out and saying it.

  What you refer to as the safe zone isn’t a single effect, instead it is a series of overlapping effects, each of which can be considered to be somewhat analogous to a domain effect or an individual skill.

  The Properties of the safe zone to alter your regeneration of resources and assimilation of Mana into experience can be considered to be a domain, projected into the immediate surroundings of appropriately qualified system artifacts such as the Obelisk or your array flags.

  Greater System access, such as it is here, can be considered to be akin to a domain skill laired on top of the domain. The associated costs are paid by the user, not the domain holder, which would be the System itself in this analogy.

  The ability to guide system initiation can be considered to be a separate projected skill amplified by the domain of the Obelisk. This sort of skill can accomplish incredible things over long ranges by using the domain not the focus as the basis for transmission, improving range and within the domain dramatically reducing associated costs.

  The specific process here is akin to the method of imparting a new skill, requiring Mana commitment from the user to create their own system.

  The ability to repel non-System Mana users is more complex. It is a feature of the Obelisk, covering a minimum of the area of Greater System access, though this can be extended. This projection comes at a further cost and, unless targeted against specific entities, limited efficiency. Power also reduces with distance from the foundational domain of the System. Also, as this effect is very weak, but constant, it doesn’t truly stop intrusion. To use an analogy it is a constant irritant and unless identified and actively resisted efficiently encourages moving away from the annoyance. The cost is low but proportional to the number of subjects affected and area covered.

  It is worth noting that while low the costs are a problem. Hostile entities that remain for some reason strain the Obelisks. Without sufficient users to generate an income to offset this failure and shutdown result. This has already happened multiple times since initiation.

  Finally, the beacon and the visual barrier it generates are the product of a skill of mine. I sustain these to demarcate the core Obelisk area, attract humans to safety and aid navigation. Additionally, another skill makes it harder to detect system users within the area, reducing the attention of hostile entities with good senses and increasing the effect of the repulsion field by limiting attractive forces.

  I hope that you can see how building on a domain-like effect with a population of subservient users gives the System a great deal of strength, flexibility and range it would otherwise lack, as well as empowering those users far more efficiently than if the system were to rely upon skill-like abilities not anchored on strong domain type architecture…

  David nodded. He thought he saw what the Herald was hinting at, and it suggested he might need to change his plans for the next day.