With a heavy sigh, Jaco cast a look at the state of the area. While his response had been as swift as possible, it’d still come a bit too late. Debris lay scattered about from where structures were blown apart. A few buildings burned as fires had set them ablaze during the chaos. And then they were the bodies. While one of the Chosen had taken his time to play with his victims, the others had done the opposite.

  They instead made a game out of it, competing to see who could kill the most. As he looked at those who had been cut down, Jaco felt the spark in his heart refuse to die out. The Druid looked over at the corpse of one of the Chosen as his lips turned with disgust. While they were already dead, others were still out there. Including their leader, who was still conspiring with the Demons to only grow more powerful and enforce their sick desires onto everyone else.

  Jaco’s grip on his staff only tightened as he pictured the arrogant face of Sam’s brother. But then, after a few moments, he remembered himself. The group of survivors here were still shaken up and scared after the recent tragedy. Several were already staring at him with wide eyes, almost certainly unable even to see his Level. Along with the fact that he was Hell-Touched, as well.

  At this point in time, it likely wouldn’t help if his murderous intent to wipe out the chosen was clearly worn on his face. For now, he just needed to take a deep breath and calm down. So, with a few deep inhales and exhales, the Druid did just that. He then walked toward the nearest building and with just a light jump, hopped up onto its roof as somewhere for everyone to see him.

  “Everyone! The last of your attackers are dead! You’re safe now!” He yelled out. From this vantage point, Jaco took the opportunity to look at the people around him as they drew closer.

  There was the distinct possibility that this group was at least partially made of those who had abandoned the camp. While he couldn’t claim to actually know each member of the encampment, he was at least decent at recognizing faces. Yet as his gaze fell upon the faces of those moving toward him, none he saw so far were sparking any sense of familiarity.

  Well, still doesn’t guarantee there aren’t any deserters at all. I know Sam and Noah were worried about how to deal with the fighters who abandoned the frontline when the horde attacked and ran, if they ever came back. But as far as I can tell, this is an entirely new group of survivors. To think there could be dozens, if not a couple hundred, that were so close this whole time, Jaco thought to himself.

  It did make sense that contact hadn’t been made until now, however. While this town was just a short drive on the freeway from the encampment, that was judging distance from pre-Apocalypse standards. When cars didn’t work and practically everyone but him had to move on foot, it did change things. Then add the dangers of the Apocalypse where every mile traveled was venturing into the unknown and risking being away from help if something did happen.

  After taking into consideration, it was sensible that exploration was slow while people were simply putting most of their energy into just surviving the next day. Unless you were someone who simply cheated by being able to transform into a bird that could competitively fly at freeway speeds, that is. And as such, pretty much acted as an exception that made all the previous points invalid.

  When it looked like most of those around had gathered were close by, Jaco once again gave them a quick scan. Once again, there weren’t any faces present that he could personally recognize from the camp. However, now that the crowd was being focused at his position, it made those who had been left behind easier to see. The corpses of those who had fallen from this attack, killed before Jaco arrived to step in. Now they were more clear to see and even could be counted if one chose to do so. For that choice, the Druid decided that he would rather not.

  “Alright, to introduce myself, my name is Jaco. I’m a Druid that comes from an encampment of survivors just like yourselves, where ours is located just a few miles away from King’s City. I was scouting out for a place to relocate out camp, when I happened to come across this area and noticed what was happening. I’m sorry to say this, but the threat isn’t over yet. The people that attacked you today are with a group that call themselves the Chosen Few, and this was just a few of their likely weaker members,” Jaco started.

  “These Chosen are ruthless monsters. Once they’ve marked you as their targets, they’ll just keep coming back again and again until either you or they are all killed. When I say that our own camp is being relocated despite having our own large population, it’s because of them and the constant threat they pose,” he then explained.

  Granted, what Jaco just said could be considered a bit of a lie by omission. As the evacuation wouldn’t even be happening if the Chosen Few were the only threat they had to deal with. It was the potential army of Demidemons and the much more dangerous Demon behind them that was the true concern. Yet when he looked around at the people before him, he didn’t even see any that were Level 20. Maybe they were and it just wasn’t from among the dozens whose Levels he already identified. But from what Jaco saw so far, the average Level here was even lower than what the camp’s currently was.

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  It was enough of a difference to tell him that before today, this commune had never faced a major crisis. Their current state was comparable to what the camp was like back when Jaco first visited it. The vast majority of people who didn’t want to fight simply stayed behind the safe walls, thus not gaining any Levels from after the point they achieved this state of safety. While a small minority did do the fighting and gained Experience Points. But even they seemed to do so strictly more out of necessity, rather than actively strive to become as powerful as possible.

  All in all, these were not the kind of people who currently needed to know about the Demon and Demidemons. While they should have received the same System message as everyone else about the Demidemons earlier, did they even understand what it meant? With how far this place was from the city, did they even have any monsters besides potentially some undead? He wasn’t sure if there was an explosion here from the advent of the Apocalypse.

  Maybe there was, if the Demons considered this a big enough population center. Since they killed half of Earth’s population from the very start, their targets almost had to have included even smaller towns like this one, right? But the real question was, did their explosion come with a Gate of Hell, or was that reserved for larger and denser areas like King’s City? Assuming that was the criteria Hell actually went by, anyway.

  From his earlier words, nervous glances were already being shared around. Compared to the total population, not many had died just now. But just the idea of there being more attacks in the future was enough to make many expressions rather dour. Amongst them, however, were also those who latched onto the claim that there were other survivors like them out there and now looked more hopeful. On that note, Jaco continued to address the crowd.

  “I’m not the leader of our camp, so I cannot speak for his final decision. But I imagine that he and the rest of our members would be happy for you all to join us, if you so choose. As we relocate to somewhere safer, you will have that chance to move with us and build something new. This will be happening soon, but it’s not an immediate decision. I’m still looking for the ideal place to set up new roots, so it’ll only be afterwards that you’ll need to decide whether or not you come with,” he finished.

  As the Druid had been speaking, one figure pushed his way to the front of those gathered. It was a man, someone who was both a Scout and amongst the highest Leveled of those Jaco had identified. Jaco quickly recognized him as the person he saved from one of the Warriors and gave the Chosen’s Potion of Healing to. The moment he was done with his speech, this Scout raised his hand and was the first to loudly speak up.

  “There actually is a really big fortress across the river!” he exclaimed. “Been there since the System message about the second stage. But if you need somewhere that can fit a lot of people, wouldn’t that work?”

  The Druid slightly tilted his head, before jumping down and landing on the street. Several of the closest people warily moved back from the sudden movement, but this young man remained steady.

  “How would you describe this fortress?” Jaco asked. “Does it have a bunch of exterior structures around it, with the main fort being taller than any modern buildings and made of dark stone?”

  “I… yeah, actually. That’s exactly what it looks like,” the young man replied, looking a bit confused at how he knew. “We haven’t gotten too close, cause it might have a bunch of undead in it or something. Or at least anyone I know hasn’t gone over there, and those I don’t know might have just never come back. But for someone of your Level, I think it should be easy to clear out even a whole army of undead.”

  “Hmm. What’s your name?” Jaco asked as he considered an idea. A second fortress likely meant there was another Gate of Hell too. Which meant there would be Demidemons, and potentially a Demon. But since these people were obviously still alive, it meant that this fort was probably a fair distance away.

  “Lindon.”

  “Alright, Lindon,” the Druid said as he began to walk and gestured for the Scout to follow him. “How about we do this then. You just have to take me to the fortress. Just show me where it is, and then you won’t need to follow me inside it. I say this because it’ll be extremely dangerous for someone of your Level, no offense, but that’s just the truth of it. Then I’ll see about investigating things from there, okay?”

  The young man eagerly nodded. Despite nearly dying just a few short minutes ago, his face seemed bright with the prospect of this plan. Maybe he was just excited to be helpful, or perhaps he just wasn’t fully aware of the potential dangers ahead.

  Under any other circumstances, Jaco wouldn’t even put someone of such a relatively low Level at risk and would just go alone from here. Even if the fortress was a ways away, he could just fly high into the air and search from the skies. From there, he’d be able to spot the large structure long before he got close to it. Just the fact that Jaco hadn’t seen it when he was flying earlier did mean that it was likely quite far off, as well.

  However, the possibility of a second Demon being present complicated things. If it could fly like the other one or had any long-range powers, then Jaco would just be an easy to spot target. At least from the ground, he would be able to sneak closer to find out before it came to that. As long as he didn’t get too close to risk detection like with the other Demon, it would be fine.

  Since Jaco didn’t know the layout of this town, it would just make things faster to have this young man lead the way. And if he did confirm the presence of a Demon or even just an overwhelming number of Demidemons, Jaco could send Lindon back as a messenger to warn the others. Then they would be able to at least evacuate as soon as possible, should anything happen to impede his own movements.

  “Right then, please, lead the way,” Jaco politely requested. And with that, he quickly escaped the crowd before they could likely keep him down with any more questions or concerns. From there the pair made their way out of the commune.