“Someone get Soise over here, Now!” Jujud shouted, jumping to the top of a tree. “GRIND!”

  “That’s not helping,” Ardenidi sighed, floating on a large, airy mushroom. “Who knows what could be going through his mind?”

  Jujud grabbed the sides of her head in frustration. “Xoiae’s going to be livid when she hears this.”

  “She’ll be far more upset if we can’t get Grind back.”

  “I’ll find him,” Jujud muttered. “He has to be close.”

  They skimmed over the horizon, voices fading but still distinct.

  I laid on the ground with my knees to my chest and muddy leaves stuffed in my ears. Though mud couldn't muffle everything, it took the edge of the majority of the noise surrounding me. As long as I could think clearly, I wouldn’t be collapsing into a panic spiral.

  This couldn’t last long.

  I had to do something.

  Even if that meant a fight.

  I covered myself in foliage sneaking through the forest in search of any surviving villages. The vast majority of what few monsters remained were infected, attacking each other for stats. When the monsters were too evenly matched, they formed an uneasy truce, ganging up to fight stronger goblins. Of course, the moment stats started dropping the infected monsters turned on each other, resulting in carnage.

  Soon, I only saw singular goblins declaring themselves chief in villages covered with bodies. Those soon wandered away to fight the strongest monsters in other areas, leaving behind an empty village…

  After village…

  After village.

  What was I supposed to do?

  This was a disaster.

  A sharp nail pricked against the back of my neck.

  I let out a sigh, glancing over my shoulder.

  “DON’T MOVE!” A squeaky voice shouted, belonging to a goblin with gray skin and a missing arm. A goblin fond of the color purple, but who found it too girly to admit that in public.

  And he wasn’t infected.

  “Rex?” I whispered, partially in shock.

  The boy broke into a cold sweat, glancing over my head. “You! You’re…you’re that guy!” He flung himself away, dropping to the ground. “I’M SO SORRY, MASTER!”

  “Call me Grind.”

  Rex twitched. “Yes Sir. Grind. Grind Sir. Master.” He choked. “Please don’t kill me.”

  “Why would I do that?” I chuckled. “C’mon. Where’s the others?”

  The goblin blinked. “You haven’t already seen them? Rose and Junior started living somewhere north, and then Yokikoto and Erenaita might’ve gone someone into the mountains, and Rhuie—”

  He stopped talking.

  “She got infected?”

  Rex nodded slowly.

  I glanced down, registering the dissolving bloodstains on his hands. “Junior and Rose were infected too.”

  His eyes widened. “Did you?”

  I forced myself to nod. “Where are you here?”

  “Dad recommended—”

  “Dad?” I perked up at that.

  Rex swallowed hard. “D-dexten. He said we should find the wildlife reserves when we get strong enough. Other than Yokikoto and Erenaita, I guess I’m the only one still here.”

  Well I suppose that much would make sense. I hadn’t spent any meaningful time with the kids, leaving Dexten to care for everybody pretty much on his own. It’s only natural they’d think of him fondly.

  I had some good friends.

  “You must be strong to avoid getting infected,” I stated, motioning for him to follow after me.

  “Oh that?” Rex shrugged, trying a little too hard to seem cool. “I have immunity to disease.”

  {Rex : WildBorn : Resist malicious afflictions.}

  “Stay close to me, okay?” I paused. “Please.”

  He nodded. “Sure.”

  Yokikoto and Erenaita were a brother and sister pair of hoglings. Since I hadn’t gotten any notifications saying otherwise, I had to assume they were still alive. But with that said, I hadn’t gotten any notice about damage they’d taken or stats they’d gained since my time in the tutorial area, which meant notifications had to have some sort of range.

  Which means Yokikoto and Erenaita could already be dead.

  “Grind?” Rex whispered. “You came here to save us, didn’t you?”

  I looked him in the eyes. “I’m here now.”

  “You’re really strong, aren’t you?”

  I nodded.

  Rex laughed, hugging my knee. “I knew it! I knew you’d come!” Tears ran down his face. “I knew it!”

  In this lifetime, I’d met the children for less than a half-hour before leaving for the second area. He must be desperate to find hope in someone he barely ever knew.

  No. Not desperate. Just practical. I was here now.

  I smiled, ruffling his hair. “I’ll get you out of this. Just watch and learn.”

  “I knew it.” He was sobbing now, squeezing my leg in his arms, as if he were scared I’d disappeared the moment he let go.

  Maybe I didn’t know all the ethics of what was the right thing to do, or how I was supposed to do it, but being here, right now, is who I am.

  This is what I do.

  I took a deep breath.

  Now for the hard part. Actually figuring out how to get to Yokikoto and Erenaita without any other player noticing. Soise has a system for tracking enemies and players power and locations. But I didn’t know if the ‘power’ the board recorded referred to suppressed or unsuppressed power. If it were the latter, I’d be impossible to miss, even if I toned down my stats. We’d probably have to fight the whole way to the mountain side.

  It was a shot in the dark either way, but if I could be mistaken for another player then I just might have a chance.

  //Grind : 1k Hp 1k Str//

  “Your resistance to affliction, how strong is it?” I asked.

  Rex blinked. “The strongest. I haven’t ever gotten sick.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Good.”

  We continued through the forest.

  Monsters wandered uncomfortably close more than once, but they didn’t seem to register our presence, much like the monsters in the city way back during the start of the Core of Observation’s attack.

  “They’re drawn by exp and stuff,” Rex whispered. “They’re pretty stupid if you’re weak.”

  And that meant the other two children might actually have a chance.

  Rex pointed out which mountain he’d seen them run to, and we set off for it. I chose to keep Rex away from the husks of villages, even though the open space might’ve let us go faster. As strong as his resistance to disease was, it was a resistance, not an immunity. No sense taking a risk like that.

  I felt a cold sensation rush down the back of my neck.

  “Grind?” Rex called, grabbing the hem of my shirt. “Why’d you stop?”

  “Someone’s following us.” I raised a finger to my lips.

  Slowly, I pulled the muddy leaves off, eyes closed.

  At first, I barely heard anything. Then the sounds sorted themselves out. They became sharper. Insects huddled around puddles of blood, snapping at each other as they turned infected. Uprooted glass slowly dried, cells dying one after the other. I heard breathing, no less than a mile behind—

  “Nuh uh,” Rex snorted, glancing around the forest. “There’s nobody here.”

  I winced, clamping a hand over his mouth. “Shh.”

  Rex flinched and I sighed, returning the leaves over one ear. “I can hear a lot.”

  “Oh.” He whispered. “Sorry.”

  Someone was definitely following us. I had to be hearing something unusual.

  “We need to disappear,” I stated. “Any ideas?”

  “Yeah.” Rex smirked. “Just one though.”

  Five minutes later, we were riding a bird twice the size of an ostrich. Unlike Soise’s summons, Rex’s monster friend didn’t have the slightest trace of mana. The bird thing wasn’t actually created for Rex so much as it was teleported to him when he needed it, like with me and Crapshoveler. And because of that—

  “They’ll think we got eaten!” Rex squeaked. “Isn’t that right, Tourmaline?”

  His orange bird chirped back.

  “Not very subtle.”

  “Grind, who’s chasing us?” Rex called. “It doesn't sound like monsters.”

  I heard a regular rhythm of steps and pulsing mana.

  “Players.”

  Rex nodded, as if that explained anything.

  “You don’t have to worry,” I stated. “They won’t hurt us.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Tourmaline staggered at a sudden burst of blue light. Even as the bird moved, other floating blue figures surrounded us, bearing weapons and a full suit of armor.

  So much for that.

  “Grind?” Rex whimpered. “You can beat them, can’t you?”

  I grit my teeth. “Soise?”

  “Here! Here!” She called, stepping underneath the ring of floating soldiers. “Just…settle down? Okay? I want to talk.”

  Soise cut off, noticing the goblin. Rex noticed her.

  “She’s pretty,” Rex whispered. “She your girlfriend?”

  “No.” I snapped.

  “Oh.” He blinked. “Can she be my girlfriend?”

  Soise chuckled. “Grind, who is this little guy?”

  “Rex,” I stated. “He’s a friend of mine.”

  “I noticed.”

  “I won’t let you hurt him.”

  “And I don’t want to.”

  The ring of guards still hadn’t moved. “Mind backing off?”

  “Are you going to run off?” She smirked. “Yes, yes you would, and then you’d do something stupid. So I made sure to come to you in person before this gets any more out of hand.”

  Hang on.

  I let myself relax a little. “You’re alone?”

  “Yep. Just want to talk.”

  I took a deep breath.

  “Okay.”

  Soise had her guards carry her onto the bird, where she sat down with me in front and Rex hiding behind.

  “I’m not going to eat you,” Soise sighed, glancing at the gray child. When he didn’t move, she turned to me instead, opening her board where little groups of pieces skittered around. “Ardenidi and Toya are searching the East while Master Jujud searches the west. Sip and Catania are looking South, so there’s really no one else around us.”

  I squinted. “You did that on purpose.”

  “So we can talk,” Soise said, closing the board and desummoning the guards. “See? Nobody’s going to attack. Speaking of which, what do you want? How do you plan to get it?”

  “I need to get the uninfected monsters out of here, before they get wiped out,” I said.

  “And put them where?”

  My train of thought derailed. “A-another preserve?”

  “You know they’ll only get killed in a half-year or so.”

  “I’ll take them with me to the academy.”

  “The academy doesn’t allow more than one servant,” Soise said, faking a sigh though there was a crackling sparkle in her eyes.

  “You wanted me to ask that didn’t—”

  “---Per student, that is. Of course even if you took them somewhere else, it’s very likely that they’d get killed anyway. The Union is offering bounties for every monster killed, regardless of what they’ve done. Other than the academy servants, every single monster in the second area is to be killed. Though we won’t get all the monsters in the second area, the intention is to cut off the infection from spreading around and around.”

  “Hang on,” I muttered. “Why not the academy?”

  Soise let out a sigh. “They’re already dead. Xoiae killed everything remotely close to it just a few days before we left. There weren't a lot of monsters in the academy to begin with, and Xoiae’s already so strong that it didn’t make any difference. But that means they won’t be killing monsters again. It’s the only safe place to hide a monster.” She looked me in the eyes. “However, you cannot do it all on your own, understand?”

  My eyes widened. “You’d—”

  “I’m willing to take one monster as a servant, and I’ll care for them like a player. I’m sure the rest of our team is more than willing to do the same if it means easing your conscience.”

  Rex peeked out from behind my back. “That’s good, right?”

  “She’s offering to keep you safe,” I whispered. “How can I trust you?”

  Soise cringed. “We’re a team, Grind. Don’t you remember what we’ve been through? I refuse to accept splitting apart like this. If we have to talk to Master Jujud, fine, but I won’t abandon a friend.”

  “I’m afraid that is not an option.”

  Master Jujud sat crouched on a nearby tree with her hands clasped in front of her.

  Soise jolted, glancing back at her board.

  Master Jujud’s pieces had entirely disappeared.

  “I'm Silver,” Jujud sighed. “I am perfectly capable of finding one rogue player.”

  {Jujud : Huntress I}

  [Define a [target]. While [target] is within one mile, turn invisible to all tracking-type abilities. If the target is one mile or further from self, a [summoned compass] will point in their direction.]

  Then there wasn’t any point in running.

  I had to focus solely on keeping Rex close and safe.

  “Now, Soise, I’m upset you tricked the rest of your team, and you will be reprimanded, but I understand your reasoning.” Jujud said, stepping along the branch, out from the shade into the moonlight. “And Grind, I understand your reasoning, to a certain extent, and I can see how these monsters may feel more realistic than the others. I also understand not wanting to kill Npcs, since the game is usually critical about it.”

  She sighed. “But you misunderstand. Even if the goblin is resistant to infection, he’s still infected. Can’t you see that?”

  She opened his screen, expanding the menu.

  {Rex}

  [Copper]

  [300 Hp 200 Str]

  [This unit has been afflicted with {Unknown Affliction}]

  [This unit’s resistance bypasses effects of {Unknown Affliction}]

  Master Jujud raised an eyebrow. “That affliction never leaves a monster once it’s taken hold. If his ability falters, the infection will go airborne again, and we will face another tragedy.”

  “I’ll revive them!” I snapped. “In the unlikely event something like that happens, we can just bring the players back, right? I could do it. But we can’t bring back monsters!” My chest clenched. “It doesn’t work like that.”

  Something her expression softened. “You summoned the zombie?” Master Jujud raised her hands, summoning a spear. “Grind, given the state our strongest fighters are in, the moral and economic damage of another infection-based attack would set our society back several month’s pace. I’m sorry, but there is no other option.”

  “STOP!” Soise shouted, placing herself between us. “We can’t fight our way to a resolution!”

  “We can’t talk our way to one either,” I sighed. “Jujud.”

  “Grind.” She jumped.

  My second band exploded.