Despite the celebratory mood, it didn’t take long for the people to realize how horrific their losses were. Or was it more correct to say that they knew all along, and just allowed themself a minute of happiness because they weren’t the ones who died?

  At the start of the fight they had seven groups with about five people in each of them. Two of those were almost completely wiped out, and there were losses in almost all of the others. The only ones who got relatively unscathed were the archer groups.

  Was it a good thing, or a bad thing that not many people were wounded? When people got hit with lethal weapons they tended to die.

  In total, they had about twenty useless followers left, after a good third of them got wiped out. Though, it didn’t feel right to call them useless anymore. These were people who risked their lives in combat and came out alive, and they even managed to follow the battle plan and not scatter around during the fight like headless chickens.

  He decided to promote them in his mind. Like, to a civilian group? Poorly trained group? The original party wasn’t that much more skilled, just better equipped. Melee groups. He would call them melee people. It just didn’t feel right to call someone who died for you useless.

  Dennis didn’t know if the new battle plan was a better idea then what they’ve used when they had Richard. If you count losses, it was more or less the same in terms of survivability, but this attack was way more ferocious than that one, wasn’t it? And having people spread out like that was mighty convenient for him to run between them in mostly straight lines, without the need to circle a large formation. That had to count for something.

  But they probably needed a dedicated tactician, if only to tell them if it was good or not. It was hard to measure, looking at all the dead. He had a suspicion that his overpowered talent did not extend towards tactics.

  They tended to the wounded, looted the goblins for bows and better weapons, someone spoke some prayers and the group moved on. No one wanted to be stranded outside at night, and they had a path ahead that they needed to cover.

  No one actually knew if it would be worse at night then during the day, but it felt like common sense? There were monsters everywhere, and it was common knowledge that monsters were out at night. In stories, at least. No one wanted to test if it was true in reality, not on themselves.

  He was carried by Travis, as he got used to, and noticed that the guy was faster, and felt more ‘weighty’.

  “You leveled up?”

  “Yeah,” Travis answered, his steps light as if he wasn’t weighted down at all. “I’ve spread the points between Strength and Constitution. You weren’t exactly heavy before, but now it’s like I’m carrying a small backpack. Even easier than that. I don’t get tired at all. It’s surreal.”

  So his Con was somewhere in twenties and he just got to ignore fatigue as a concept? Maybe Dennis should invest in it at some point. He didn’t want to admit it, but being carried everywhere was taking a lot of points out of his badassery, and it hurt.

  But his legs hurt more.

  “Did you fight?”

  “Nope,” he shook his head. “I was the ‘useless person’ and got in the middle of my group. More like I got preferential treatment because of you, I think. Never touched a goblin. It’s unfair that I leveled up while no one who fought did. Feels like cheating. Just… every time you killed something, I got a little bit out of it. And you’ve killed a lot.”

  Huh.

  It seems like exp sharing worked even further than passing out bullets. That, Dennis could at least imagine to be a part of the fight. Carrying him around before the fight?

  It could be said that Dennis was able to kill so many goblins because he was somewhat rested. He was sure that without anyone carrying him and giving him time to regain a bit of strength he would’ve been in a lot of trouble.

  Just how far did it extend? Would people who treated the wounds get exp? Or, if someone made a good weapon that Dennis would use, would they get exp for every kill he made? It felt like a support role was at least somewhat viable, even if completely dependent on those who fought.

  “Good for you,” Dennis muttered.

  “Yeah,” he replied quietly, as if contemplating something. “Good for me.”

  The fact that no one leveled up during the fight bothered Dennis. Well, no one except for him and Travis. That fight was totally a level up material no matter what kind of game the system pretended to be.

  It was just so slow. Total ass in terms of game design. Almost like the system wasn’t meant to be played like a game, just resembled one. Dennis had to kill a few dozen goblins to get to level two, and that did sound a bit reasonable for a grindy korean rpg, but only until you realized that every single fight with a goblin was a fight for your life. An average person without a cheat, like a gun or a bullshit talent, would have equal chances of dying in a one on one fight with a singular goblin. A coin toss, to see if you make a mistake and die of bleeding out because the goblin cut your arm a little too deep.

  An average person in melee would need to toss a coin a few dozen times to get to level two, and if at least one of those coins were tails they would die.

  The chances of that happening didn’t feel promising. What an ass game design.

  And the third level? Hundreds. Or at least a hundred. Dennis was pretty sure that he killed more than a hundred goblins by this point, and he was level three.

  That was just absurd. What’s a high level then? Ten? The exp curve felt ridiculous.

  Unless you are Richard and spawn killing every goblin that appeared conveniently at your doorstep, he didn’t know how a normal person was supposed to level up.

  But on the other hand…

  Feeling the effect of 27 Dexterity finally made him realize it. Or it wasn’t just noticeable before?

  He asked Travis to approach the main party, because this was something that needed to be discussed. It was game-changing.

  Yeah, maybe he will look out for a way to increase his stamina later, just without sacrificing the speed.

  “Hey, hero,” Jenny said, and then immediately switched to the question that was apparently bugging her all this time. “How the hell are you so fast?”

  “That’s kind of what I wanted to talk about,” he said. “Did your gramps not notice it? They’re not linear.”

  Amusingly, it was the kid with the gun who immediately picked up on Dennis' meaning, his head snapping towards him like he was a goblin or something.

  “The stats are not linear?!” he shouted. “Bullshit!”

  Just how high was the kid's Mind? And where did he learn what linear even meant?

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Are you sure?” John asked from nearby.

  Dennis nodded.

  “It’s not noticeable until you go over twenty,” he said. “Maybe over twenty five? But yes. Every next stat point is worth more than the last one, I’m pretty sure.”

  “How high did you get? To be as fast as you were… back then?” Jenny asked.

  “27. I’ve got a skill that boosts my speed when I save people.”

  “You were faster than a car,” John said. “A fast car. Whatever the increase is, it’s substantial. I would’ve expected such speed from having, I don’t know, 50 Dexterity? More?”

  “And the stats codependency?” Jenny asked. “Is it a thing?”

  “It’s totally a thing,” he said. “Also got a Mind boost, but the higher the stats the higher the disparity between them. I’m afraid that even the difference in one point would be too much at higher values.”

  “It could be exponential,” John said. “If it is, then…”

  “Then we need to level up,” Ness said, joining the conversation. “I mean, everyone already has to level up, but… We need to funnel all of the exp in a few key individuals, because if they grow exponentially, they would get strong enough to protect everyone. A bunch of level twos are basically the same as unpowered people, but… What’s the threshold? Level five? A bit more? It will be strong enough to carry everyone.”

  “Like Dennis is already doing,” Jenny said.

  “He’s a freak of nature,” Ness said. “No offence. But yes. If the growth is exponential, and leveling up is hard, then this is not a game where everyone becomes strong. It’s a game of raising champions.”

  “Superheroes,” Dennis said, smiling. “This is a game of raising superheroes.”

  “Like raising a pokemon to fight for you?” one of the kids asked, the girl with the bow.

  “No,” Dennis said. “Superheroes.”

  “That’s depressing,” Jenny said. “If humanity survives, it’s going to become the worst kind of meritocracy. A bunch of gods walking among men, without anything to stop them. A common person wouldn’t even have a chance of leveling up, he would either be protected by those gods or die in an attempt.”

  “Supports are a thing,” Dennis said. “Both you and Travis leveled up without really fighting.”

  “Who’s Travis?” the little girl asked.

  “Rude,” Travis said, still carrying him. “Am I invisible? I’m Travis. Travis The Horse, it seems.”

  She chuckled.

  “I’m Lily. Will you get the skill to turn into a horse when you level up?”

  “Maybe,” he said. “But I doubt that I’m going to be one of the ‘superheroes’. I’m not much of a fighter.”

  “It’s not that hard,” she said. “You just aim and shoot. Picking up the arrows later is annoying. You can pick up my arrows for me, if you want?”

  “Maybe I’ll do that,” he said. “Becoming a peasant in a feudalistic society with gods at the top sounds like something to be avoided. Sounds pretty lawless.”

  “We can make a Justice League,” Dennis said, getting excited at the idea. “I’m totally down to beating all the villains into compliance.”

  “Let’s think about the society structure after we survive?” John said, trying to channel the discussion in the more productive course. “And have a society to structure? I’m more concerned about what it means for our immediate plans. We need to–”

  He was interrupted by a trio of goblins who got out of the house nearby and charged at the… umm… melee people.

  “Mine!” Lily shouted cheerfully as she aimed her bow and released the arrow, killing one of them. Dennis looked behind, checking out if there were anything attacking the rear of the group.

  Yep, one goblin there, a few yards away from the group and running at people. They were at least prepared for it, having their weapons out and ready for the fight, but there was no worry on their faces.

  The reason why there was no worry was apparent, because these small attacks were totally becoming a joke.

  The goblin was running at people, with the intent to hurt. There was a reasonable chance that it could succeed without Dennis’ help.

  Heroic Dash activated.

  Less than two seconds later the goblin’s head flew away. Dennis was getting good with angling his strikes in a way to not get the blood on him. He was still totally covered in blood from the fight before, but at least he wasn’t getting covered more.

  Thirty yards crossed before the goblin even managed to take two more steps, just like that. Dennis looked back at the front of the group where the three goblins were attacking. Two of them were dead already, one from an arrow and the other from a bullet. It seemed that the silencer pistol kid was still trying to get a second level.

  There was an arrow flying towards the third goblin. Dennis grinned.

  While the goblin was alive and wanting to kill people, it presented a threat. Who knew, maybe it’ll dodge the arrow? He should totally be there in case it happened. Dennis wanted to know if he could outrun the arrow.

  Less than a second passed and he was halfway there when the arrow struck and he lost his speed in disappointment.

  Eh, he’ll get there.

  These small attacks were totally becoming a joke. And the best part?

  He was running around for a total of three seconds. He was as tired as he would be from running for three seconds.

  Yeah, fuck the Constitution stat. He didn’t even get winded.

  Collecting the lost arrows and checking out if the goblins had better weapons became a routine at that point. Less than thirty seconds later they were back to moving.

  “As I was saying,” John said when Dennis approached them. “We need a plan for the immediate future, with this development. We need to know the numbers and find out if it’s even worth funneling all of the exp in the ‘champions’, and–”

  “Superheroes,” Dennis said.

  “And to decide how many of them we can reasonably raise fast enough, and how, and who,” John ignored him. “They will need to have builds and stats that synergise, and that start being effective in the shortest timeframe possible.”

  “Dibs,” the brothers said at the same time.

  “Dibs,” Ness said just a moment later.

  “I also want to be a god among men,” Lily said. The other kid nodded.

  A lot of the group echoed the sentiment one way or another.

  Dennis was pretty sure that if their followers heard them, a lot of them would also call dibs.

  John sighed.

  “You do realize that you’re volunteering for being the ones to risk your lives and be constantly in danger? And not everyone can be an archer?”

  “I wanna be a god!” Lily provided a counterargument.

  “I don’t want to say that it’s a bad thing,” Jenny said. “But we don’t have enough goblins to level up everyone. Aside from the ambushes, we’re getting two or three on average every few minutes. And it feels that they’re getting rarer.”

  “We don’t know where they go after they kill everyone in an area, but they do go somewhere,” Ness said. “Maybe some kind of a goblin camp? There’s also the swarm.”

  “Let’s not look for a swarm,” John said hastily. “As far as I understand it, third level is the first milestone where someone gets way more powerful, because they get a skill and those seem game-changing. I think we should raise everyone to that one by one and then see who will be the most useful. Also, dibs.”

  “Not fair!” Lily shouted.

  “By everyone you mean…” Ness asked.

  “Everyone in this group,” he said. “And Travis. Almost all of us are level two already, so it makes sense. I think it’s only Lucas who’s still one, but he feels almost there.”

  “I hope I am,” the gun kid muttered.

  “Pass,” Travis said. “I can pick up the arrows, but I’m not committing to put my life on the line on a daily basis. Give the exp to someone who will use it.”

  “I also don’t feel like risking my life all the time,” Jenny echoed, as did a few of the others.

  “It takes about a hundred kills to get to the third level, if I’m getting it right? Right,” John said. “So about an hour from zero if one person kills every goblin that approaches. Some of us are closer than the others, so I suggest we go in order from those who already have the most exp, to those who have the least.”

  “Lemme level up before that,” Lucas said.

  John nodded.

  “Raise your hands if you want to risk your life on a daily basis and maybe become gods among men,” he said, raising his hand, and then did a count. “You don’t count, Dennis. So, if we include only those who volunteer and go in order of who has the most exp, then it’s going to be… Lily, Ness, Gary and Larry, me, Kevin, and Lucas.

  That was a lot of names that Dennis didn't bother to ask and then felt awkward about asking them. Who the hell was who? Gary and Larry were probably the brothers. Maybe. He should really ask at some point.

  “How the hell did the little girl outpace us?” one of the brothers asked.

  “You aim like shit,” said the other. “Should’ve invested in Mind, like I told you.”

  “All of the children want to kill the monsters,” someone muttered. The wife woman? “Of course. I don’t feel like we should let children become the soldiers who would be duty bound to risk their lives. Am I the only one who cares? This is wrong.”

  “You’re not my mom,” the gun kid said instantly. Lucas? His name was Lucas.

  “I will shoot you with an arrow,” Lily echoed.

  “I’m not a kid,” the teenaged boy said, being totally immature and a kid in Dennis’ eyes. He was probably Kevin, unless Dennis messed up the names.