Releasing Nolan’s hand, Nolan spoke again first although his eyes were cold.

  “Leo, while I appreciate the help, there’s something I need to ask first.” His hand slowly hovered over his weapon.

  Taken slightly aback but not readying himself for combat, Leo replied with warmth, “Ask away. I’ve got questions too.”

  “Are you one of the convicts?”

  As if triggered, his whole party became cautious and hyper alert as they stared the newcomer down.

  Leo’s face twisted. “No chance I’m one of those dogs,” Leo replied, words laced with venom.

  His words seemed to pass whatever test the man was giving as his posture relaxed, hand back resting at his side.

  “Sorry.” Nolan smiled softly. “Just can’t be too careful. We’ve been tricked before,” he said, his words carrying not sadness but regret.

  Leo nodded. “I understand. I’ve had my experiences with them too, all bad ones. Do you folks come from a camp of sorts?”

  “Not exactly,” Nolan replied. “We had more people, but being in a big group doesn’t guarantee safety. We’ve just been trying to survive out here best we can.” Nolan’s gaze changed to a more assessing one.

  The warrior, Gordon, chimed in at this point. “That isn’t the Pugilist starting gear! I can tell, even through the fire damage.” His voice was higher pitched than Leo was expecting, perhaps due to excitement, or he was younger than he looked.

  “Did you get it from the mystery box?” he asked, eyes sparkling.

  The wiry archer called out from behind. “Those boxes are a thousand SC. You’d have to kill a metric shitload of ants to afford one. Waste of money. Better to be focused on professions.”

  They all looked at him expectantly, so he just answered honestly, “I didn’t get it from a Mystery box. I got them from a dungeon a few miles away on the outskirts of the city. I can’t remember exactly where it was but I know the rough direction.”

  “See, I told you,” Jules said smugly.

  “I got my boots from the mystery box though, and I’d have to disagree. They work pretty great.”

  Jules’ mouth hung open, as both Nolan and Gordon laughed.

  “What did you expect, he’s level 18. Kid’s a veteran,” Nolan said.

  The way that Nolan said “kid” reminded him of the way Bjorn spoke to him. It made him smile. He didn’t mind it at all.

  “Did I see you use fire, ice, and lightning?!” Gordon asked, rushing up to him with childish excitement.

  Leo stepped back slightly, but not seeing a way to really hide the fact, Leo went with the truth.

  “Yeah. Got lucky and ended up with more Essences than usual. I liked your lightning spear by the way, shit was awesome! Also, you got to the soldier so fast, and I thought I was quick. Was that some kind of charge skill?”

  “Yeah!” Gordon gave a few little spear jabs into the air. “I got it at level five. It increases my speed to get into the fight more quickly. But three Essences! Man, you’re so lucky!” Leo didn’t correct him. “I just got Lightning. Love it though!”

  Leo had to admit that Gordon’s excitement was infectious. It was like finding a kindred spirit. He was around the same age too, if Leo guessed correctly.

  “While I’ve no doubt you’d be a match for Gordon’s energy, I’d like to ask for more pertinent information,” Nolan said.

  “Sorry,” both Leo and Gordon said in unison.

  “Do you have a camp, Leo? Or some kind of group?”

  Getting his head back into important things and less about skills, Leo replied. “I do. It’s not too far from here. I was on my way to scout out the Tower for my group as they are all kind of getting things organised and sorted after the Bloodmoon. Do you wanna come back with me? We could use the extra people.”

  “Would you mind giving me a moment to discuss with my group?” Nolan asked kindly.

  “No worries.” Leo smiled. “Mind if I store what’s left of the ants? Or did you guys want me to wait in case you wanted to split the loot?”

  “You can take ‘em, we owe you our lives after all. Least we can do.”

  “Thanks.”

  Leo went around picking up chunks of antling that seemed to be in a decent enough shape. It looked like the System didn’t just pick up the entire corpse splattered over the area. It wasn’t too bad, even if the stench started to get worse. He did wonder how a profession that was focused on harvesting materials would fare when collecting corpses compared to him.

  By the time Leo was finished, the group was done conversing. It didn’t take long, as Leo had expected. It wasn’t like there were a lot of options out here.

  “Leo,” Nolan called out, and Leo jogged over.

  “Made a decision?”

  “Yeah. We’d like to come with you. If you don’t mind?” Nolan asked graciously.

  “Not a problem. Are you ready to go now?” Leo glanced at the still seated archer. “Your friend okay to move?”

  “I’ll keep healing him as we walk. There will probably be more ants coming soon. They get much more vigilant as we get closer to the Tower. Bigger patrols too,” Morgan, the healer, said in a calm, passive voice.

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  This perked Leo’s interest. “Have you guys been to the Tower?”

  “We got as close as we could,” Morgan began explaining. “We thought that it could be a place where people would congregate, but sadly the number and level of the ants got too high. We had to run once we were spotted by this group. We had killed off a few as we retreated, but they just kept coming.” She smiled, barely. “Thanks for your help on that.”

  She seemed to have a very cool head on her shoulders, showing little emotion as she explained everything.

  “That’s really helpful, thanks,” Leo nodded gratefully before continuing. “I’ll lead the way.”

  “We don’t know where your camp is so of course you have to lead…” Morgan muttered.

  Leo took it in stride, chuckling. “Good point. Let's go.”

  The walk back was either thankfully uneventful or fairly boring, depending on who you asked. Leo was a bit sad at having to head back so early, as there were still a fair few hours left before nightfall. But it couldn’t be helped. Getting these people back to camp was the main priority.

  It wasn’t as if there was a time limit on getting to the Tower, well apart from the tutorial time limit. Although if Morgan’s words were to be believed, then getting to the Tower alone would prove a hard challenge.

  Not that he was even remotely against trying.

  “Okay, I’ll go and okay things with Cecelia before bringing you guys in,” Leo said, halting the group as they were moments from his camp.

  Leo ran the remaining distance and sought out Cecelia.

  Finding her quickly, he was unsure why both her and Bjorn were frowning at him.

  “What is it?” he asked curiously.

  “You look like shit,” Bjorn said bluntly before chuckling.

  Leo looked down at his still repairing armour. It was scorched all over. Then he confirmed his suspicions by wiping a finger across his face. It came back dirtier than he’d feared, basically black with soot.

  Leo groaned at the fact that he tried to recruit people looking like an old timey chimney sweep. “Yeah, had a bit of an encounter,” he replied vaguely.

  “You seem to be healthy enough,” Cecelia said, looking him over more carefully. “Do you have anything to report?”

  “I do.” Leo grinned. “Just outside the camp are four people that I came across out there. They seem to be good people, decent fighters too. They also have a healer with them which we definitely need. I told them they could come back with me but would okay things with you before bringing them in.”

  Cecelia deeply sighed before her face turned serious. “You clown! Did you not stop to think about this properly?”

  The sudden tone shift completely took him for a loop as his mind raced for an answer.

  “I don’t know what you mean. What did I do wrong?”

  “Think about it.” She tapped her head. “You bring back four strangers all the way to camp, four decent fighters, which if by your measure, means they are more competent than most of the people here. Then you run off, leaving them to their own business just outside our camp with zero eyes on them.”

  Leo’s eyes went wide, he hadn’t even thought about it. He’d trusted that any potential danger was gone just because he saved their lives and received a handshake. Never once even considering a betrayal.

  “You understand then. Now, show me to them. Bjorn, find Ashley and Ron. We may be in for a fight.”

  “Cecelia, are we not being a bit too cautious?” Bjorn asked skeptically.

  “I don’t think they are going to be hostile,” Leo added, trying to diffuse her anger.

  She didn’t entertain any of their sentiments, already moving.

  “Move.”

  Marching across the broken courtyard, she didn’t stop as she asked, “Which way?”

  Leo pointed and started to lead the way. Inwardly cringing at his actions and hoping that nothing went wrong, it wasn’t like they had much to steal.

  Or so he thought. But as he looked around he could see that people had started using their credits to buy all sorts of Profession equipment and materials.

  The pair quickly approached the area he left Nolan’s group and Leo inwardly chanted.

  Please be there, please be there.

  Turning the last corner, he spotted Nolan’s group still resting exactly how he’d left them. He breathed out a large sigh just as Nolan greeted him with a wave, but before he could wave back, Cecelia pushed past him, forcefully enough to knock him slightly.

  Keeping to form, she acted like a gracious host, even if Leo could see she was ready for action.

  “Greetings,” she said formally, “My name is Cecelia, apologies to keep you all waiting. I believe our Leo has led you here, giving you certain expectations.”

  Nolan didn’t miss her non-welcoming phrasing, even if her tone was formal.

  “Nice to meet you Cecelia, my name’s Nolan.” He gestured to his group. “The people with me are Gordon, Jules, and Morgan. We were led to believe that we would be welcome at your camp, but from your demeanor it appears we may have been mistaken.”

  “Not necessarily, but you can understand that in this place one must be wary.”

  Nolan nodded. “Leo saved us from a pack of ants. Without him we would have lost at least one of us, so I owe him. I wouldn’t dare go against that. I won’t go so far to say you can completely trust us, but I believe that we should be given a fair chance.”

  “Please miss! I have loads I want to chat to Leo about,” Gordon pleaded before Morgan kicked out the back of his knee, making him crumple.

  Cecelia watched the exchange, softening slightly, but still kept up her seriousness. “Understand that if I welcome you in that eyes will be on you for a while as I assess risks.”

  “I’m fine with that,” Nolan said casually. “I actually respect the caution you’re showing. When I met Leo and his relaxed attitude to everything I assumed that I’d have to try and military up this camp a bit. But it seems I didn’t have to worry.”

  Cecelia chuckled. “He is a bit too trusting,"

  Frowning at being ganged up on, Leo wanted to argue but figured he was potentially getting off easy.

  “If he wasn’t so incredibly powerful I’d have him be our cook, never leaving camp.” She smirked.

  At that statement, Leo’s determination to become the most powerful person in this tutorial was renewed like the heat of a thousand suns, but so was his fear of Cecelia’s wrath. As long as she was being serious of course.

  The tension seemed to fade from the air, both groups dropping their hostile positions in favour of light hearted bantee. Bjorn arrived shortly after with both Ashley and Ron, with the former instantly running to the dirty and burned punching bag.

  “What the heck happened?! It’s only been like a few hours since I last saw you and look at the state of you. Come on, we will go find Lena and have her soak you down,” Ashley said, grabbing Leo’s arm and dragging him off.

  “I swear we are usually more professional,” Cecelia groaned.

  “Are we?” Bjorn laughed, seemingly relieved as his shoulders relaxed.

  “It’s always like this,” Ron added flatly, storing his bow away.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Nolan said, laughing. “It actually cemented my decision to stay.”

  Cecelia gestured. “Come, I’ll show you around. I’d like to hear more of your story.”

  As the story is growing and the follower base is too, I wanted to ask about people's approach to Patreons. This is all very new to me so I want to see what people's thoughts are. How do you feel about Patreon?