Vin stared at the grim-faced Frank, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

  “A target? What do you mean?”

  “The idiot is trying to play hero, and in doing so, he's going to get himself killed,” Frank grumbled. Seeing Vin’s confused face, he sighed. “We’ve got some powerful new neighbors that have already attacked the camp once trying to recover someone we’re sheltering, and we know they have some way of tracking him. Spur knew if there was ever a time for them to try again, it would be now while we’re weakened. To prevent that, he brought the new guy with him. Means we probably won’t be attacked, but in exchange…”

  “They might hit Spur while he’s vulnerable,” Vin finished, his heart dropping as he realized just how much danger Spur and the entirety of wave three was in. Alice had made it sound like these former prisoners were a pretty high level. What was stopping them from scything their way through the thousand brand new level 1 Earthers unless Spur agreed to hand over the man he was sheltering?

  “Precisely. Now, stop wasting my time and go make sure that idiot makes it back alive. Brat still owes me eighty bucks.” Having said his part, Frank turned and jogged over to Shia, shocking the elf by laying his hands on one of the many wounded and stopping the blood pouring out of a nasty gash in their side with a single touch.

  Realizing Frank somehow had his own healing magic was what finally tipped the scale, and Vin bit his lip as he took off, running as fast as he could toward the center of the fragment. The old battle medic clearly had a bleak look on things, but he wasn’t wrong by any means. As much as Vin hated to admit it, their camp had already lost what looked like a few hundred people in the surprise monster attack. A few more wouldn’t hurt them.

  But Spur, Myers, and Phil made up nearly half of their forces above level 20, not to mention functionally led the entire camp. With this new threat at their side on top of the already existing dangers of Edregon…

  Vin couldn’t let the three of them die.

  “God, damn it Spur,” Vin grunted, pushing his legs to move even faster as he ran. He just had to take in and shelter the one man these strangers seemed willing to kill over for whatever reason. Naturally, Vin knew he would have done the same thing if the man had come to him begging for help, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t allowed to be annoyed at the colonel for doing so.

  The grassy meadows and faces of startled sqerrets streaked by him as Vin put his head down and ran for the first time in a very long time. Normally, he either had to dial it back in order to utilize his Distance Runner passive or because he was running with his friends at his side. And while he may not be anywhere near as fast as the divine warrior had been, the combination of his respectable dexterity and his high Running skill meant he could really pick up the pace when needed. Vin had long since surpassed the fastest humans on Earth, that was for sure.

  Following his Mental Map, Vin sprinted across the fragment, his breath becoming more and more ragged and his legs burning as he focused solely on speed and nothing else. Shooting past a small clump of trees like a rocket, Vin swore he saw the scared face of a heavily tanned man wearing a ragged dark cloak that looked vaguely familiar, but he didn’t have time to worry about that right now. Putting the man out of his mind, Vin continued on, praying he wouldn’t be too late.

  Finally, after sprinting all out for nearly three miles straight, Vin found them.

  Standing in the center of the fragment, in the exact same spot they’d appeared in all those weeks ago, was Spur and his contingent of warriors. Vin was easily able to make out Spur, standing at the front of the group and currently in deep discussion with Myers as they waited for wave three to arrive. Phil was within the throng of combat classes, shouting orders and directing them to take up various defenses. He was the first one to spot Vin off in the distance, and he blinked as he realized just who he was looking at.

  Panting, Vin jogged the rest of the way to the group, ignoring the startled jumps he earned from many of the combat classes and the whispers he could easily pick up as he approached. Phil beat him to Spur, and Vin got to witness the colonel’s look of surprise as he turned to find Vin heading his way.

  “My my, look what the cat dragged in!” Spur said, giving Vin a lopsided grin that only looked marginally forced. “And here I’d thought you’d finally struck out on your own for good this time!”

  “Sorry I… missed the wave… of monsters,” Vin said, struggling to get the words out while gasping for air. Dismissing the notification that he’d increased Running to level 15, he forced himself upright, wiping sweat from his brow. “I just came from camp.”

  “Ah, see, you didn’t just miss the wave of monsters though, now did you?” Spur said, a tinge of anger clear in his voice. “You also decided to help yourself to one of my highest level Earthers without asking, whose presence would have almost certainly made a difference in the unexpected battle we just suffered.”

  Vin immediately went to argue that Alice was her own person and she didn’t need permission from Spur to go anywhere, but hesitated upon seeing the state Spur and everyone else was in.

  Spur was absolutely covered in barely dried monster blood and had a few fresh gashes across the side of his face that were still open and bleeding freely. Myers looked like she was favoring one of her legs over the other, and had some strips of gauze tightly wound around her side, keeping a red soaked bandage pressed against some unseen injury. Even Phil looked far more haggard than usual, despite the man’s impressive skills and attempt to keep up a stoic image for the warriors under him.

  Shredder had claimed that Spur had grabbed combat classers in the best condition to take with him, but everywhere Vin looked he saw open wounds and exhausted faces. Clearly the battle had been hard, and Vin immediately felt a pang in his gut that his actions in both stealing Alice away and not being there himself contributed to so much suffering.

  Even if he’d had no way of knowing this surprise attack was coming, it didn’t stop the remorse he felt after walking through that field of death.

  “Look, I’m sorry for asking Alice for her help, but it was in order to stop a threat that almost certainly would have sauntered into camp and killed every single person there without hesitation,” Vin said, his words shocking enough to actually snap Spur out of his anger and spark a hungry shine in Phil’s eyes. “I’ll fill you in on that and everything else later, we have bigger things to worry about right now. Frank said he thinks you guys are going to be attacked?”

  “That old geezer just can’t worry about himself, can he?” Spur sighed, giving Vin a strange look and narrowing his eyes. “We’re far from done with this conversation, but you’re right that we have bigger fish to fry right now. Kym! Could you come here for a moment?”

  At Spur’s call, a small, reedy man appeared seemingly out of nowhere, stepping out from among the combat classers and calmly walking over to join them. Startled by his sudden appearance, Vin carefully took in the man that was the cause of so much recent trouble.

  Kym was short, standing at barely five foot tall from the looks of things and wearing a nondescript grey robe. He had short, brown hair and a forgettable face without any particularly notable features. In fact, other than the black bands tightly secured around each of his wrists, the man’s entire persona looked as if it were carefully crafted in order to make him as unremarkable as possible.

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  Seeing Vin’s startled look at Kym practically manifesting out of the crowd, Myers leaned over and whispered to him. “…We’re pretty sure he actually has some sort of passive that draws attention away from him. He answers just about any question we have about the System and what it offers, but largely refuses to talk about himself.”

  As Vin nodded his thanks, Kym stopped before them, offering Spur a soft smile.

  “Yes colonel? How may I be of assistance?”

  Even the man’s voice was quiet and unassuming, as if he hoped anyone listening to it would just kind of forget someone was speaking to them.

  “Kym, this is Vin. The Explorer we told you about.” While Spur spoke, Vin swore he saw a minor glint in Kym’s eyes as he took Vin in from top to bottom, his focus briefly latching onto his new arm as the colonel continued. “As much as it pains me to admit it, despite his support class, Vin here is probably the strongest person in our entire camp. It seems every time he leaves, he comes back with some impossible new magic or powerful tool. Like that crazy looking arm that I’m trying so hard not to geek out over right now.”

  “Yes, it would make sense that an Explorer would grow in power so quickly here on Edregon,” Kym said quietly, nodding toward Vin as if he was proving a theory he’d been working on. “I imagine the vast majority of Explorers perish quickly, but the few that manage to survive would become incredibly versatile.”

  “Guess we got one of the lucky ones,” Spur said, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, quick question for you Kym. How likely do you think it is that the members of your fragment are going to come for you while we’re out here?”

  “It’s a near certainty,” Kym said, sounding resigned to this fact and more tired than angry. “Though what they plan to do is beyond me. I am no Strategist, and any attempts to predict Golrim’s actions will almost surely be a lesson in futility.”

  “Golrim?” Vin asked, glancing at Myers.

  “The leader of their fragment,” she explained. “The man’s name is one of the few things Kym has chosen to actually tell us about where he came from.”

  “That and the fact that Golrim is apparently some evil genius or something,” Spur scoffed, shaking his head. “Though if the man is so smart, I still don’t understand how you got away from him in the first place, Kym.”

  “He is not evil, and he suffers the same weakness as any master tactician,” Kym shrugged. “Even the best laid plans are reliant on competent pawns that carry out orders correctly.”

  “Anyway, there you have it,” Spur said, turning toward Vin. “We’ve-”

  Before Spur could finish his sentence, the fabric of reality was suddenly perforated by a thousand small holes, each one depositing a stunned and confused individual carefully upon the ground. As the large group of people looked around, blinking stupidly at the bright sun and lush new world they suddenly found themselves in, Spur grunted.

  “Hold that thought. Duty calls.”

  Stepping forward, Spur cleared his throat before projecting his voice out across the crowd.

  “Welcome members of the third wave to your new home! My name is Colonel Spur, and I’ve come to escort you all to our current base of operations. There is a lot we need to explain, but I promise you all General Witherson and I will debrief everyone here on what they need to know. If whoever is in charge of the third wave could please come up here, I’ll explain our next steps. Until then… Mingle among yourself or something. Just don’t go anywhere!”

  As people began murmuring with one another within the crowd, Vin stepped up beside Spur, unable to help himself from making a sly remark.

  “Not planning to chop off anyone’s head from this wave, are you?”

  “Don’t think you’re out of the doghouse just because of everything we have going on,” Spur grunted, shooting him a sideways glance. “And for your information… not that I know of. They were still working on the list of who would be leading waves three through nine while we left. No idea who’s in charge here.”

  Vin was about to comment that it was probably for the best, seeing as there was no need to scar another thousand people with a public execution right off the bat, when Phil’s voice rang out.

  “Spur!”

  Vin and Spur spun around, following Phil’s finger toward a lone figure slowly but steadily walking toward them. As far as Vin could tell, he’d just appeared in the dead center of the nearby meadow, as if he’d been teleported. While the mysterious stranger calmly approached them, Vin got a good look at him.

  The man wore a wide assortment of leather pieces, each looking as though it had come from a different set of armor, and most of them dyed different shades of brown or black. He had both a short sword and a miniaturized crossbow on either side of his hip, and a small pouch that rattled as he walked. Part of his left ear was missing, and he had a deep scar running down the right side of his face, straight through where his right eye used to be.

  The stranger carried himself as if he were simply out for a stroll, and not currently walking toward a giant group of armed and bloodied warriors. As the various combat classers began to react, drawing their blades and leveling their weapons at the man, he finally stopped. Smiling, he waved at Spur specifically.

  “Colonel Spur!” He called out, loud enough that the thousand new members of wave three could easily hear him. “Might I have your ear for just a moment? I’d like to apologize for the actions of a rogue member of my town, and discuss a peaceful alliance between our people! I’m willing to make reparations for the trouble he caused!”

  “That’s Golrim,” Kym said, causing both Vin and Spur to jump as they realized the quiet man was standing right beside them once again. “While I am not a fan of violence, you will save yourselves a lot of trouble if you kill him here and now.”

  “Rogue member of his town my ass,” Spur muttered, squinting at the man just standing there unbothered by the small armory pointed in his direction. “Look at him, that scar just screams ‘I’m evil.’”

  “Again, he is not evil,” Kym said, shaking his head. “He is something far worse. Cunning.”

  “Spur, what are your orders?” Phil asked, staring at Golrim in confusion. “Also, worth mentioning, the man doesn’t register as particularly dangerous to my Challenger’s Intuition. More than the average warrior, but even you could take him rather easily in a direct fight.”

  “I’m going to ignore that last bit, but thanks for the heads up,” Spur frowned, his eyes never leaving Golrim. The man was still just standing there with a knowing smile on his face, waiting to hear Spur’s answer.

  “I’m a little busy at the moment,” Spur finally called back, gesturing vaguely at the thousand members of wave three watching this discussion in confusion. “Do you think you could come back tomorrow? At the camp your rogue member attacked last week?”

  “Of course! I’ll show up first thing tomorrow!” Nodding his head, Golrim turned and walked away, showing his back to the mass of waiting warriors without hesitation. Once he’d made it back to the middle of the adjacent meadow, he vanished once more right before their very eyes.

  “Well… That’s mildly concerning,” Spur sighed, running a hand through his hair. “As if I didn’t have enough to worry about with wave three showing up days ahead of schedule and our camp getting destroyed. Myers, can you ask Alice to reset as many of her traps tonight as she can? I want to be prepared for whatever the hell tomorrow brings.”

  “Of course sir,” Myers nodded, finally returning her crossbow to its holster. Vin didn’t miss the fact that she’d loaded one of her purple, explosive bolts, and he was quite happy he didn’t have to witness what one of those would end up doing to a human body.

  “Colonel Spur!”

  Vin turned to find a young man standing with his back ramrod straight, staring straight ahead as if it was the first day of basic training and he didn’t want to upset his drill sergeant. “I’m Captain Reonelli, currently in charge of the third wave, sir! Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but I have a priority message from the higher ups in Project Ark that I’ve been instructed to relay as soon as possible to prevent the information from failing to reach you in the untimely event of my own demise!”

  “Jesus, they sent a greenhorn,” Vin heard Spur mutter under his breath. Sighing, Spur waved for the man to continue. “Of course, captain, what’s the priority message we need to hear so badly? Project Ark finally decided to cut our pensions or something?”

  “No sir!” Captain Reonelli all but shouted, staring unblinking over Spur’s shoulder as he conveyed the message those back on Earth deemed critical to reach them. “It’s Sender X, sir! We’ve discovered that the United States is not the only country it reached out to!

  “There are other people from Earth being sent over to Edregon!”

  Finally! Haha one of the most frequent comments I received on the first few chapters of the story were from people saying how annoyed they were with stories where only the US mattered. I tried to hint at the fact that we only knew as much as Vin and the Earthers who were sent did, but I didn't want to out right spoil the fact that other countries besides the US had been contacted as well.

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