After the thunder finished shaking the building, Leo went to check on Ron, who was searching the other buildings for supplies.

  Exiting the building, Leo felt that the air itself had taken on even more of a reddish hue, like being inside a darkroom used for developing photos. There were no clouds, yet the sunlight had dulled. It was like the sun also feared what was to come this night.

  There were three buildings for him to check.

  May as well start with the left.

  Quickly jogging to the first building, what caught his attention first was the stench. His senses gave him ample information about what lay inside. The smell of iron and rotten flesh stung his nostrils, throat tightening. His stomach wasn't weak enough to falter his steps, though. He stepped inside.

  And quickly back out again. That building should be torn down and buried. It must have been the place that those men did the unspeakable acts to those now no longer alive and those barely clinging on. A butchery of evil.

  Anger started to flare once again as he walked towards the next building. His jaw tightened until he heard a faint click. He forced it down. There was no target for his rage. The convicts had already gotten what they deserved. Some of them definitely deserved worse than death.

  Inside, he regarded the place to be much more pleasant than the last—not a difficult feat. This was likely the place where the men slept, as it was cleaner than the last building and the large hall the others were kept in.

  It was like an apartment complex, but instead of rising up, it spread deep. Rooms upon rooms down every hallway. A medium sized foyer that seemed to be designed for eating and socialising. Leo found Ron inside one of the rooms, rummaging through weapons and armour.

  “Hey, find the food?” Leo asked, poking his head in.

  “Mm,” Ron said, tilting his head to the right.

  “Nice. Thanks.”

  Leo headed round a corner towards where he was gestured to. With such incredible directions, how could he not find it?

  Needless to say, he checked a few rooms unsuccessfully until he found the food storage. There were pieces of ant hanging up on drying racks, looking very unappealing in the back.

  There were roughly a hundred food bricks and a pile of canteens—a veritable feast, yet those people had to starve.

  Leo placed them all within his storage ring. It felt like there was still ample room remaining inside. There was no tool-tip for it. He just knew there was plenty of space left.

  After gathering everything together he headed back to Ron.

  “I'm gonna try and pick up all these weapons and armour,” Leo said, “We need to arm people to defend themselves for whatever is coming tonight.”

  Ron nodded, taking a step back from whatever he was doing and allowing Leo to pick it all up.

  The pair headed back towards the large hall that Leo creatively dubbed ‘building A’. They crossed over the bodies they had just put down less than an hour ago. Neither of them said anything, swiftly moving to the hall.

  Inside, Leo spotted Cecelia, Bjorn and his wife Ellen talking together with Hector. Leo approached while Ron wandered elsewhere.

  “Hey, kid,” Bjorn said. He looked tired and weary. His eyes showed signs of crying still. “Meet my wife, Ellen. Ellen, this is Leo. He's our muscle.”

  “I’d say nice to meet you, but under the circumstances I’ll just say hello,” Ellen said softly. “Thank you for looking out for my husband.” She smiled. A gentle smile that tried to be kind, even when her eyes couldn’t manage it.

  She looked tired beyond her years, Leo assumed she was around forty years old—give or take five years. She had brown, shoulder length hair and a pretty face. Even behind the blood and grime that accumulated.

  “No problem,” Leo said, returning her smile, “He's taken just as good care of me.” His smile faded. “I'm sorry we didn't find you sooner.”

  “That you found us at all is a miracle. Please, don't say things like that. These people would not have lasted much longer, myself included.”

  Leo nodded, but didn't feel all that much better, hands clenched into tight fists. A half-chuckle from Bjorn took him from his thoughts.

  “The kid’s got a bit of a hero complex, not that he knows it.”

  Leo's affront to the comment even had Cecelia smiling.

  “I hate to ruin a rare nice moment,” Hector interrupted gently. “But I assume you’ve had some luck finding food, there are still very hungry people.”

  “Oh, yes of course. I’m sorry,” Leo said quickly. “Here.” He gestured, and a pile of food appeared on the table next to them like magic.

  Hector's eyebrows rose in amazement as he looked at the pile of food.

  “This…thank you. This will be enough to feed everyone for the night ahead,” Hector said, grateful.

  Hector’s face was stricken. “Did you really find this nearby?”

  “I did,” Leo said darkly.

  “The ant meat will need to be properly cooked, if it's even remotely edible,” Cecelia said, disgusted at the prospect.

  “I can make a fire if we can get wood together. By the sounds of the system announcement earlier, tonight might not be the night to try it though,” Leo said, his expression darkening.

  “That's a fair point,” Bjorn said firmly. “As lucky as it was we managed to save everyone, we need to prepare for what's to come. Starting a fire could be a bad idea if one of the options the system gave us was ‘to hide.’”

  “It will most likely turn into a fight of some sort,” Cecelia said thoughtfully. “So far the non-violent option has never been one we could use.”

  “These people have never fought,” Hector said pointedly. “Anyone that had any ideals of fighting were swiftly cut down by our captors. I’m afraid we won't be of much use in terms of the violent option.”

  “Depending on what happens, you may not have a choice,” Cecelia said, her tone stern.

  Hector’s face dropped. “You mean to make us fight? After all we’ve been through…”

  Cecelia placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, comforting but served a purpose. “I understand. You hoped your tribulations were over. Now I’m telling you that another begins soon. But at least with this one you can fight for your own fate.”

  Hector’s eyes met Cecelia’s, a brief fire lit within. People nearby listening also perked up.

  “I’m afraid we don’t have any weapons or armour, it was all taken from us,” Hector said.

  “I picked up everything I could find in the other building,” Leo said.

  He walked over to a more open area, and sets of armour, weapons and wands appeared—sprawled out in no particular order.

  “Thank you,” Hector said, grateful. “That ring of yours gets more impressive each time I see it.”

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  “I can show you where to get one, if we survive the night.”

  “Oh?” Hector said, intrigued. “There are more? I'm surprised that none of your companions have one.”

  “He failed to mention that it involves risking your life through an abandoned facility full of corrupt beasts level nine and above. Culminating in fighting against a giant bear-wolf hybrid that's level what, fourteen?” Cecelia said, looking at Leo.

  He hung his head a little low and then spoke in a tone akin to a child answering to his mother after being scolded. “Fifteen.”

  Cecelia snapped her fingers in fake realisation. “That's right. A level fifteen deadly bear-wolf hybrid.”

  Hector's face at this point had gone pale as a ghost but was looking at Leo with either fear or reverence—perhaps both. Leo just kept his head down in mild embarrassment.

  “You fought through such a place on your own?” Hector asked, incredulity in his voice.

  “No, no. Of course not,” Leo said, shaking his head.

  Now looking a little less afraid of Leo, Hector let out a little sigh of relief.

  “You went in with just a level five healer,” Cecelia added flatly.

  Hector again didn't seem to know where to look or what to believe as Leo just looked confused. To him, he hadn't gone in alone so he wasn't sure of her point. Having a healer made things way easier.

  “I fear any more of this conversation and I may not be of any help this evening,” Hector said, voice wavering. “I’ll try and get people ready to fight, they won't be happy, but like you said. It may not be a choice. Are we setting up defenses here?”

  At this point Ron had come back over. “The other building is better,” he said in his usual gravelly, no nonsense tone. “Not the one these animals slept in. There is a more defensible building.”

  Everyone was silent, Bjorn looking at Ron in bewilderment.

  “We are definitely in trouble if Ron is using more than one sentence,” Bjorn said, laughing.

  Everyone else joined in with chuckles or laughs. Apart from Hector who seemed a bit taken aback and confused by the sudden change of mood. Ron simply rolled his eyes and walked off, heading out of the building.

  “Jokes aside, Ron is right,” Cecelia began to explain. “This building is too open. It may only have one entrance but there are many windows and a large area to defend. I won't sugarcoat these next words but what you tell your people is up to you.”

  She looked directly at Hector. “We may all die tonight. This place–” she gestured around her. “Is not a kind one.”

  Hector’s eyes were steely, voice hard. “I am well aware of that. I will go and gather up everyone now for the weapons and armour, after they are fed, inform them that we may need to move to another building.”

  He walked off towards the largest of the groups, those not being actively healed.

  “Right.” Bjorn clapped his hands together, the gauntlets making the sound more muffled. “Let's get ready ourselves… What should we do?”

  “We should speak to Ashley and Amy, see how those still being healed are coming along. We may have to make some grim decisions depending on how many still need help. We can't go into whatever is happening tonight without our healers having any mana,” Cecelia said.

  “Does mana take a while to come back for healers?” Ellen asked.

  Leo was a bit curious at the question, but soon realised that Ellen had most likely spent her whole tutorial so far in this hellish building, not learning anything. The others would likely be the same. It looked as if Cecelia had made the same realisation as her brows furrowed.

  “What class did you choose? If you don't mind me asking,” Leo said.

  “I always liked archery when I was younger, so I picked that one. I didn't get long to even use my bow before being taken by those men,” Ellen explained.

  “I see,” Leo began. “Well, you'll have a mana bar too right? Little blue bar in your vision?”

  Ellen nodded. “Mana comes back on its own. Pretty slow, but faster if your Wisdom stat is high. I could be wrong but I'm assuming that's its main purpose. Healers seem to get a lot per level. Since Ash is level 12, her stats are pretty good and should be able to keep up with the healing.”

  Ellen looked at him with slightly wide, somewhat suspicious eyes. “How do you know so much?” she asked.

  “Mostly guesswork.” Leo shrugged. “Some of it is a lot like video games I used to play. And I played a lot.”

  “You can trust the kid, honey. He's one of the good ones,” Bjorn said, placing a comforting hand around her, pulling her into a hug.

  “I'll do my best to keep you safe,” Leo said, firm in his conviction.

  “There’s that hero complex again,” Cecelia said, rolling her eyes. “It’s going to get you killed.”

  Leo frowned, but hoped she was just kidding. He began to speak up but Cecelia wasn’t done.

  “As much as I'm sure Leo could sit and talk about stats for hours, we need to get moving. We don't have much time left until night and there is far too much to do.”

  “You're right. I'm sorry,” Ellen said apologetically. “Let's go speak to your friends.”

  The group moved over to where Ashley and Amy were hard at work. The pair looked exhausted. The hours of healing and the mental aspect of knowing what happened to them was taking a heavy toll.

  “Hey Ash, Amy, we were hoping to move everyone to the building next to this one. Ron said it’s a better place to hold up,” Leo explained.

  “Are you joking?” she asked sharply, before her shoulders slumped. “I'm sorry. Healing these people has gotten me a bit worked up. I'm tapped for mana, so every time I get a little bit back I'm putting it to work.”

  “That's what I feared.” Cecelia’s voice was soft, then firm as she continued. “You may have to give up healing some of these people. We are going to need your–”

  “No.” Ashley and Amy said in unison.

  “I understand that, but—” Cecelia started before Amy interrupted.

  “You don't understand,” Amy said sadly, shaking her head. “These people have been injured to the point that their own restoration from Vitality doesn't fix them up. Not to mention they are still level one. Their Vitality is basically at a normal human level before the system. They are in constant pain. I can't let them suffer any longer than they have to.”

  “What she said,” Ashley included.

  “If you burn yourselves dry here,” Cecelia said quietly, “you won’t be able to save anyone when the fighting starts.”

  Leo stepped forward and placed several more mana potions onto the floor. “Drink these whenever the cool down ends. We have enough potions that you should be able to get a decent chunk of mana back,” he said, hopeful.

  Ashley smiled. However, it was a sad smile, filled with sorrow and exhaustion. “Like Amy said, you don't understand.” She held out her hand and several empty potion bottles spilled out of her storage. “We’ve been doing that already. But thanks for the resupply.”

  She was trying to make him feel better, despite the horrific situation she was in.

  Leo bit his lip, frustration mounting. Why can’t I ever do enough? I need to do more.

  It felt like there was always a step he was missing, one where a bit of extra conviction or push would have made a difference. No one would agree that he wasn’t doing enough, but Leo’s mind was conflicted all the same.

  “I respect your conviction, even if I disagree. I won't ask to stop. Can they be moved at least?” Cecelia asked.

  “Some of them might not survive the night, even without being moved. Unless we can heal them,” Amy began explaining. “We tried to prioritise those like that but they require basically a whole mana bar to heal. It's nothing like healing a fresh wound, which takes less than half. The aura is helping a little but it’s slow going, even with the two of us.”

  “Shit, what do we do then?” Bjorn asked.

  Cecelia seemed to consider it for a moment before answering.

  “We will have to split our forces. People would be stumbling over themselves here if we try to fight with everyone. I suggest we keep one healer here and one in the other building.”

  Her face dropped. “Those in this building probably won’t make it—if we are to believe Ron's assessment and take the system threat seriously.”

  “I'll defend this one then,” Leo said, without hesitation.

  “As will I,” Cecelia agreed.

  “I’ll–” Bjorn began but both Cecelia and Leo looked at him.

  He cursed under his breath. “I get it,” he said.

  “If this is our only option then we should barricade up the door and windows as much as we can before leaving,” Bjorn added, before turning and facing the whole hall.

  “Attention! Listen up!” he said, his voice booming out. Instantly all heads were on him, any talks dying down.

  “As you may have heard from Hector, we will be moving to the other building in preparation for what's to come. Before you ask, no, we do not know what exactly is coming. Sadly, some of those being healed are unable to be moved as of this moment, so a few will be staying behind to protect them best they can. Anyone else who wants to can do the same, but it will probably be more dangerous.”

  Bjorn left his words hanging in the air for a moment before continuing. “I’m asking you to gather up what armour and weapons you can and help us barricade up any windows and doors to help people staying behind. We don't have a lot of time so—”

  His words cut off as everyone's eyes went focused on something else. Leo's included.

  Quest updated!

  The Blood Moon Rises

  Night approaches, the moon rises.

  Make yourself scarce or gather the resolve and will to fight for survival.

  This night will be a bloody one.

  Objective: Survive until the Bloodmoon ends

  Reward: Access to Tutorial Store and Profession system