“A quick question,” Dennis said, watching Lucas trying to kill all of the goblins in the current small attack while everyone else held their shots. “If we’re funneling all of the exp into key individuals, I feel pretty key-ish. Isn’t it a better idea to have me take all of the exp and reach level 4? I’d like a level 4.”

  “And what are we going to do when you sleep?” John asked. “Or get wounded, or die, or decide to leave the group, or… Putting everything in one basket is unwise. Also, I bet we can raise multiple level 3’s with the amount of exp you need to get to 4.”

  He begrudgingly accepted that the logic made sense.

  All three of the goblins died to the kid's pistol and he whined that it was still not enough to reach that level. Dennis guessed that the kid was literally just one or two goblins away from it, going by the feel, and then it would be Lily’s turn.

  Seeing the little girl giddily dancing in place waiting for her turn to kill all of the goblins weirded Dennis out a bit.

  “Not to be a moodkiller,” he said quietly to John. “And it’s not that I care that much, but the wife-woman maybe had a point. Why are we trying to raise a ten year old into a superhero? It sounds cool I guess, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve been led to believe that it might not be the best idea to have child soldiers.”

  “Wife-woman?” John asked with amusement in his voice. “You mean Nancy? It’s pure practicality for now. Level 3 is not a god, but some of them might get a really strong skill, and since they’re already 2’s I don’t see a reason why they shouldn’t at least reach that milestone. It would help them survive better long-term, and help us out short term. Honestly, I don’t think we would raise them above 3’s, but getting as many people as we could to that level will be good at least to fish for something really strong. And Lily is the closest one to it, so it would take the least amount of exp.”

  “And Lucas?”

  “I don’t think we’ll have time to get to Lucas before we reach the fort,” John said sheepishly. “Or even Kevin. Don’t tell them that.”

  “And if we do?”

  John shrugged.

  “Then we do.”

  After Lucas reached level two they fell into a routine. Lily would try to kill every goblin they encountered by herself, with Dennis as a backup in case some of those goblins approached too close to people. Usually it meant that he got one or in rare cases two kills out of every attack, but honestly she was surprisingly good with a bow for someone who didn’t even have the stats to shoot it a few hours ago.

  The group continued their trek without much trouble, and it actually started to feel like some sort of a hike for Dennis, just with monsters instead of mosquitoes. They picked up more survivors on the way, but those were getting rarer as time went by. Most of the people who were still hiding in their hiding places were probably either found and killed, or committed to stay where they are, waiting for something, even if he had no idea what they could be waiting for. A rescue helicopter?

  The only real known dangers that they could encounter would be another coordinated ambush or a swarm, and Dennis was pretty confident that dealing with another ambush wouldn’t be as hard as the first two.

  Okay, maybe he kind of sort of wanted another ambush. He didn’t admit it out loud, but he was a bit salty that he wasn’t getting all of the exp for himself.

  Not much of a heroic thought, but it was actions that mattered, yes? If asked, he would totally say that he didn’t want another ambush, so it was fine.

  No more than half an hour passed before Lily shouted in triumph.

  That was quick. Just how many of the things was she killing before that made her that far ahead of everyone else?

  “What did you get? What did you get?” Lucas was rattling nearby, seemingly even more excited than Lily was.

  The girl didn’t say a word, looking at him with smug superiority.

  That was one of the problems with skills that they’ve discussed before. Since all skills seemed to be semi-randomly generated depending on vague things that people did, and because of the time-stop effect that got activated the moment someone got presented their skill selection, it was impossible to properly plan or consult each other on what to pick. Dennis guessed that pretty much everyone would get one or two picks for archery or guns, but the other skills? It was hard to suggest anything more concrete than ‘pick what’s best’, because they had little idea of what was even possible.

  They did agree that if someone got a healing skill then they should definitely pick it, but other than that? What if someone got flight? Or the ability to switch places with other people? Would that be better or worse then, say, a boost to shooting speed with a bow?

  They didn’t know what was even possible, so the consensus was to use their heads and pick what was best for the immediate survival of the group, or personal survival. A way to kill a lot of goblins quickly, a way to protect people, or to heal, a way to boost the overall effectiveness of everyone, a way to make an escape or create a tactical advantage… They did cover a lot of bases on what would be good and what was needed.

  But they didn’t know jack shit on what someone's skill selection would look like or what they would pick.

  “It lets me better pretend to be stuff!” Lily said proudly.

  “That’s… the opposite of what we discussed we should pick,” John said wearily. “You didn’t get anything to be better at archery?”

  “I did!” she said. “But I like this one more.”

  “Did you want to become an actress when you get older, sweetie?” the wife-woman asked. “I don’t want to upset you, but I feel that they wouldn’t hire actresses for some time yet.”

  “Talk about underwhelming,” Dennis murmured quietly.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  The girl giggled, spread her arms and started waving them slowly, as if she was floating.

  “Whoosh whoosh,” she mumbled. “Whoosh whoosh…”

  The heck she was–

  She disappeared.

  The place where she was standing before was an empty spot.

  “Wait, what?” Dennis said. “This doesn’t make sen–”

  He felt a gentle gust of wind pass him, making that ‘whoosh’ sound that wind always did when it passed people.

  Something poked him in the back.

  He turned his head slowly, looking at the girl. She grinned back.

  Was he just assassinated? He totally was.

  Oh shit.

  This little girl could pretend to be stuff. And she now was his direct counter.

  “Bullshit,” he said. “I call hax. There’s no way an acting skill should let you do shit like this.”

  “Language,” the wife-woman reprimanded him. Nancy or something? It seemed that she loved standing on a moral high ground.

  “I’m gonna be our scout!” Lily said cheerfully. “John said that we needed one!”

  “I mean, I did…” John said. “Among a lot of other things that we need. And it’s a good thing that you can literally turn invisible… For how long can you turn invisible like that?”

  “Dunno,” she said. “A few minutes? Then I’ll need to wait for my mana to come back.”

  “I say you shouldn’t ‘scout’ anything until it’s at least half an hour,” Jenny said.

  “She shouldn’t ‘scout’ anything at all,” Nancy said sternly. “This is a great skill for her to have, don’t get me wrong, but sending her out alone is…”

  “Don’t worry,” the girl said to Nancy. “I’ll be very careful. I’m a very careful person.”

  Nancy didn’t have many protests after that. Kid or not, Lily was a very careful person, so there was no real reason to try and keep her away from scouting.

  The group continued moving, changing up to Ness as the one who would try to get all of the exp. Jenny was talking to Lily with a notebook in hand, writing down everything the girl remembered about the skills she had in her selection. She was trying to compile all the knowledge they had on the system, and already wrote down everything she remembered from what Richard told her, and what Dennis told her earlier.

  Dennis didn’t tell her about the ‘Sword Saint’ or the fact that he had a zero in his Soul stat. Those felt like something that could potentially invite trouble if shared. When she asked him why he was withholding information he just told her that it was personal stuff that he didn’t want to share. She didn’t like it, but tough luck.

  It seemed that Lily was stealing his homework, because after she finished recounting everything she remembered about her skill selection, she refused to say anything about the skill she actually picked, aside from the fact that it lets her to ‘pretend to be stuff better’. She actually quoted him, saying that it was ‘personal stuff’ when Jenny nagged her.

  When Jenny nagged her more Lily said that she was a very secretive person so there was no point in trying to pry the secrets out because she won’t tell, and Jenny dropped the subject.

  Yeah, trying to get a secret out of Lily did sound like a useless endeavour. That girl was very good at keeping her secrets. He didn’t even know why Jenny tried, to be honest.

  Nothing of note happened as they continued on their way. Ness was trying to kill as many goblins as she could before they reached people, and was failing miserably, so Dennis was killing everything that went through, finally getting a bit more exp. The difference in Ness' and Lily’s accuracy was stark, kind of explaining the reason how the little girl somehow outgrinded pretty much everyone.

  Lily was mostly playing with her new skill, disappearing sometimes for almost a minute before anyone saw her again. It made people nervous a few first times when it happened, but they got used to it. Dennis noted that it took her about ten to fifteen minutes of ‘recharging’ before she could pretend to be the air or whatever bullshit she did for a whole minute again.

  Was the fact that her skill cost mana that made it so strong? Most of the skills in Dennis’ skill selection claimed that they did ‘minor’ stuff, like minor restoration, or minor precognition. There was nothing minor in what the girl was pulling off. Was this the difference between a passive skill and the one that cost mana? If he had a Soul stat, would’ve Heroic Dash given him something like +5 to stats instead of +1? Lily’s invisibility wasn’t even invisibility, for god's sake. He was pretty sure that she made no sound, and left no smell. Or would it be more correct to say that she smelled and sounded like wind when she pretended to be wind? It was busted, that’s what it was.

  Should he invest in Soul?

  Nah, that thing would eat so many stat points before it became useful that there was no point. He’d just throw those points in the passives instead, getting them strong and most importantly always free.

  But then again, if Soul affected not only mana capacity but also regeneration, and skills that cost mana were generally stronger than passives, didn’t that mean that someone could just throw everything in Soul and have more mana regeneration than the skills cost without the need to invest in the skills? That felt more efficient than throwing points in every passive he got.

  Nah, passives were supposed to be where the overpowerness was. It was common sense, and he would commit to believing that. It was either that, or crying that he got cheated out of having any mana, so the choice was obvious.

  It took Ness a bit less than an hour to finally proclaim quietly that she did it. He didn’t mind the wait since every creature that she generously failed to kill was a nice donation to his leveling progress.

  “Homing Arrow,” she said with a small smile. “No missing shots for me anymore.”

  Well, no more leveling donations from Ness to him, it seemed. Such a safe, pragmatic and boring skill sounded just like something she would pick. He guessed that even if she had some cool and esoteric shit in her skill selection, she just skipped it in favor of safe and reliable.

  The brothers, Gary and Larry, had a half-mad half-logical idea in mind. Since the party would need actual tanks or at least someone who would be able to hold off the goblins in melee range, they wanted to try out grinding the goblins in melee in hopes of getting some skill for that.

  Since one on one fights were way too risky, they decided to grind together. The one who dumped everything in Strength before, it was Gary, right? He used a spear and was focusing on offence, while the other used a sword and a dagger and tried more of a parrying-counterattacking approach.

  When the goblins came attacking again the brothers would focus on running at one of them and trying to kill it as fast as possible, and then switching to the next one and so on.

  Good news, by running outside of the group and approaching the goblins alone they managed to draw aggro, making all of the creatures try to kill them first, so at least that worked for them.

  Bad news, they were failing miserably.

  Naturally, it meant a fuckton of work for Dennis.

  “Why the fuck do you parry like that?!” Dennis shouted again at the stupidity that he was witnessing while using all of his speed to try and parry a strike that Larry parried right into his own neck. “You want it to move away from you! Away!”

  Dennis was a safety-net, protecting the brothers from hits that would hit them, and gods that was a lot of work, even with using his skill all the time.

  Gary wasn’t much better with his so-called ‘offence’, managing to somehow miss the goblins while thrusting his spear for what felt like half the time.

  Thankfully, it got a bit better with time, in a sense. Gary stopped trying to thrust and relied on his boosted strength to just hit the goblins with the spear like it was a big stick, and that worked better. Those hits packed a lot of punch, breaking bones, and were harder to miss, at least.

  Larry stopped trying to parry and ditched the dagger, and just blocked the hits that came at him with the sword, without trying to deflect them and tanking all the force of the blow.

  Dennis’ eyelid was twitching as he was looking at the travesty that they called fighting.

  It was working.