Warbreaker's Risk: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure (The Connected System Book 2), page 50
Alone, nothing else stacked or piled around it, like a space had purposefully been cleared. Which it probably had when the Connection put the Holdstone there.
He could see it clearly, the stone giving off the light. Not bright, more diffuse, spreading out around it in a radius, the edges still dark. It was a colorless light, that was the only way he could describe it. The stone just glowed, not tinted by the light. The stone was more of a pillar. It stood about four feet tall. He could see the details as he slowly approached, holding Onyx ready, eyes scanning around.
Loch wasn’t sure it was safe. He’d defeated the Shadowstalker, but was the challenge over? Had he met whatever requirements the Connected System put in place?
The pillar was four-sided, tapering up to only six or so inches wide with sloping tops that met at a point. Runes were carved along the length, a single line down the middle. He couldn’t see the other three sides but assumed there were runes there as well. It looked to be made of a gray stone.
Granite maybe?
He stood in front of it, looking down at the pillar, wondering what he was supposed to do.
The notification had said to claim it.
How?
Loch sighed, reaching forward.
His hand touched the top of the pillar. He felt a warmth spreading out, flowing up his arm, through his body, and down to his Core.
He felt the connection form.
YOU HAVE ACTIVATED THE NORTHWOOD HOLDSTONE.
DO YOU WISH TO CLAIM NORTHWOOD AS TERRITORY BELONGING TO CLAN BRADY?
Loch thought, Yes.
THE NORTHWOOD TERRITORY NOW BELONGS TO CLAN BRADY.
The words faded from his vision.
Loch waited for more.
None came.
That was it?
He thought it very anti-climactic.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Loch pushed open the glass doors, walking out into the late afternoon sun. The same crowd was gathered, maybe a couple more. Harper and Piper ran forward, not caring that they were surrounded by others. Both girls grabbed onto him, holding Loch tight.
His arms encircled them, squeezing them tighter. He leaned down, kissing the top of both girls’ heads. They held him tighter.
Everything faded except for them.
The Connection. The apocalypse. Monsters. Abilities. The glowing green fairy.
All of it.
Just a father and his daughters.
“Did you claim the Holdstone?” Ed Turner asked.
Loch kept the annoyance from his face.
He had wanted to enjoy the moment longer. Just him and his girls. Nothing else. He could forget about everything for a couple of seconds.
And Ed had ruined it.
Just a couple more seconds, that’s all Loch wanted. A few precious moments of peace.
Of course, it wouldn’t happen.
The world wouldn’t allow it.
Not anymore.
Loch gave his girls another squeeze before letting them go. Neither stepped very far, all turning to look at Ed. He stood about five or so feet away, looking anxious and waiting for an answer.
“Yeah, I claimed it.”
Ed’s gaze unfocused as he looked at his Status. It only took a couple of seconds before his attention returned to Loch.
“Nothing happened?”
Loch shrugged.
“Nope.”
“Nothing will,” Cerie said, flying over to hover between the two men. “At least not until the Clan moves into the Hold.”
“Makes sense,” Loch said.
It didn’t, but he was too tired to argue or try to make sense of anything the Connection did. If Cerie said they had to move in, they’d move in.
“Let’s get inside and start setting up some temporary areas,” he said, moving to the side to get out of the way. Harper and Piper followed.
“You heard him,” Brian shouted, turning to the crowd of people. “Let’s get everyone inside.”
Loch could see that the crowd had grown, they’d just been down the hill, waiting. Now they got moving. Brian and Darren pulled open the doors, looking for rocks or something to hold them open. Loch moved further out of the way.
“How bad was it?” Piper asked, leaning forward to get a better look at her father.
“It wasn’t bad,” Loch lied.
“Don’t lie,” Harper scolded, sounding very much like her mother in that instance. Loch missed Kelly terribly. He pushed those thoughts back into the hole they came from. “You look like hell.”
“Harper.”
“It’s true,” she said.
Loch sighed.
“It could have been worse,” Loch admitted, not wanting to say anything more.
“We weren’t worried,” Harper said.
Loch knew she was lying, but he accepted it.
He looked down at the front of his armor. There were no scratches, no rips, or tears from the Shadowstalker’s claws. It was dirty and had some dried blood. The armor didn’t look as solid as it had before, the area where he had been scratched looked worn, older than the rest.
It hadn’t looked like that before. He hadn’t paid much attention, but the armor had been damaged repeatedly in the fights.
It held up, but eventually, claws got through.
But there were no prior rips or tears from when he had entered the Painted Caves Dungeon or when he had entered the school. Shouldn’t there have been some remaining from his many fights?
“Cerie,” Loch called, fingers running over the leather chest, feeling the metal plates, noting the difference where he knew it’d been cut and the material to the sides. The cut areas felt less durable. “Does armor self-repair?”
“Yes, Lord Lochlan,” she said. The fairy hadn’t floated up over the heads of those walking into the school. She looked back and forth, following the people. “All Spirit-Infused equipment will self-repair as it absorbs the ambient Spirit.”
“So they can’t be destroyed?” Harper asked.
“They can,” Cerie answered, flying over to the Bradys. “Each piece of equipment has a durability rating. What is essentially its own Health pool and Defense. If those get down to zero, the piece of equipment will break. For some pieces of equipment, that durability goes down with age and use.”
“Is there a way to tell an item’s durability?” Loch asked, lifting Onyx.
The axe got a ton of use. Almost constant use, just as an axe, and infused with Spirit to Activate its Abilities. That had to have taken a toll on it.
“Onyx is a Spirit Weapon. It will never break. It may shatter, and you will have to reform it, but it will always be able to exist.”
Loch didn’t think it would be that easy to reform the axe, but at least he’d never completely lose it. Or outgrow the weapon.
Harper pulled out one of her bladed tonfas. She held the weapon, turning it, thinking the same thing her father had. The weapon got a lot of use. How badly was it being damaged, and how much shorter was its overall lifespan?
“Growth weapons like yours have very high durability,” Cerie said.
She didn’t say anything about what that durability was or if the weapons could somehow be repaired to increase their life. There had to be a way, why else would they be able to grow if they were just going to break someday?
So many questions, and what they got answered just led to more.
Loch wondered if anyone in the Connected System, even the Divine Beings, had all the answers.
He noticed Ed coming closer. There was a group of people with him. Loch didn’t recognize them, but he didn’t know all of the survivors. Two men, three women, and two children. A brother and sister judging by how much alike they looked. They stood on either side of one of the women, who had her arms around them protectively. Probably Eight and Six, Loch guessed. The woman looked to be low-thirties, with brown hair, wearing glasses. One of the men stood next to Ed, the others hanging back, looking around nervously.
Definitely newcomers.
“Lochlan,” Ed said. “We had some people show up while you were in the dungeon. Didn’t mention it earlier because, well”—he waved at the school—“they brought some news you should hear.” He turned to the man next to him. “This is Michael Crawford. Michael, why don’t you tell Loch what you told me?”
The man nodded. He was Loch’s height and build, maybe the same age. Bald, no beard, brown eyes. He wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt that had seen better days. A hiking backpack was at his feet, a machete hung from his belt.
Loch saw dried blood on the blade.
Michael looked tired. The whole group did.
“Like I told Mr. Turner, we came down 107 from around Jenness Pond. Took a couple of days to find each other.” He waved at the group behind him. “Were more of us then too.” He sighed, seeing Loch’s understanding and sympathetic look. “Anyways, we really weren’t sure where to go. Didn’t think we could stay at the pond and wanted to find more people. It was a toss-up if we headed toward Pittsfield or here to Northwood.”
“What made you pick this direction?” Loch asked.
Michael shrugged.
“Just a gut feeling.”
Loch saw Cerie’s head snap up. She’d been looking at the kids, who had been staring wide-eyed at her. The others had looked at the fairy, but with no one else reacting to her presence, they had shifted away. Still glanced at her but didn’t seem worried.
Too much, at least.
He wondered why she had reacted to Michael’s statement. Something else to ask her later.
The list was never-ending.
“We got to the intersection of School Street and thought about taking that straight to 4, but we figured going down Main would get us to the town hall faster. We were right to go that way. Not about it being faster, but it turned out to be tons safer.”
“The Gaunts?” Loch guessed.
“Yeah. Mr. Turner said you’d run into them by Johnsons. So we come down off Main onto Route 4 and look back toward Johnsons. There’s a wall there.”
“What?” Loch exclaimed.
Michael nodded.
“Yeah, a wall across the road. It’s at the top of the hill. Not that high, but it’s there, and could see the Gaunts standing on top of it. Not that we knew they were called that. Not until we got here.”
“A wall? Not a tree?” Loch asked, explaining how the first Gaunts had ambushed his small party.
“Nope. A wall. Made of trees, laid horizontally and stacked on top of each other.”
Loch turned to look in that direction. Why were the Gaunts making the wall? As far as he knew, the monsters hadn’t come this far east, so they wouldn’t know how many people were gathered. So the wall couldn’t be for their defense. Was there a wall to the west? Were the Gaunts marking their territory?
If there wasn’t a wall to the west, did they put the wall up to keep people from coming east?
If there were people coming east down Route 4.
Loch would have to go and scout it out.
“Thanks,” he said, turning his attention back to Michael. “That is important.”
“No problem,” Michael said, starting to look a bit nervous. He glanced at Ed, who smiled encouragingly. “Uhm… Mr. Turner said we could stay here?”
It was more of a question than a statement.
Loch nodded.
“Of course, go on inside and find a place to get set up. We’re just getting settled ourselves. Nothing permanent or rooms assigned. That’ll come in the next couple of days.”
“It’s a strong roof over our heads,” Michael said, motioning to the rest of his group. “That’s more than we’ve had the last couple of days.”
“You’ve seen fighting?” Loch asked, pointing at the machete.
“Yeah. Got to Level Four. The rest are Level Three except Mary and her kids. She’s still Level One.”
Loch understood. The rest of the group had protected Mary and her children. They’d done all the fighting. He looked around, not finding who he was looking for.
“Once you find a place inside, if you wouldn’t mind looking for a man named Darren Holmberg. He’s in charge of the guard rotation, and we could use some more fighters.”
“Not a problem,” Michael said.
He walked past Loch, the rest of the group following. Mary and the kids brought up the rear. She whispered to them, urging them to keep going. The girl stopped, pointing up at Cerie.
“Is that Tinkerbell?” she asked.
Cerie looked confused.
Loch and his girls laughed.
“No,” Piper said, crouching down in front of the girl. “She is a fairy, but her name’s Cerie.” Piper had always been good with children. From an early age, she’d talked about going into childcare. Being a babysitter for a career. That’s what her own seven-year-old self had wanted. She’d still been on that kind of path. “I’m Piper. What’s your name?”
“Emily. That’s my younger brother, Eric. He’s annoying,” she said.
“Hey,” Eric grumbled.
Piper laughed. “I’m sure he’s not that bad.”
“I’m sorry if they’re bothering you,” Mary said, trying to push the kids on. Her eyes widened in fear seeing Loch’s large axe. They drifted to the weapons that Harper and Piper had. She looked up at Loch a little accusingly. “Are these your daughters?”
“Yeah,” he answered, having a feeling of where this was going.
“You let them fight those…” She paused, fear in her eyes. “Those monsters?”
“Not by choice,” Loch said with a sigh. “I didn’t want them to, but…” He shrugged. “Now they’re two of the strongest people here. I wish it wasn’t that way.”
Mary studied him, looking deep into his eyes. She finally nodded.
“This world wasn’t always good, but it was never this cruel.”
There was more to her statement. Loch wondered if she had lost someone.
“True,” was all he said.
Mary got the kids moving. Loch watched them walk into the school. Michael had waited by the door for them. Mary walked in without saying a word and Michael followed.
There was a lot said in the movements and expressions of the two.
Michael was not Mary’s husband, that was obvious. If Loch had to guess, Michael had known Mary and her husband. Family friend? Neighbor? There was just something protective about the way Michael had waited, had watched Mary when she’d been talking with Loch.
There was a sense of loss to the man as well.
Had he lost a wife? A child?
Those were the kind of things that would normally crush a person. Make them unable to function. Loch knew that pain was always there, but for Mary and Michael, just like for him, the threats of this new world kept them focused. There was no time to break down. There were other people that would need them to be strong.
“What do you think?” Ed asked.
Loch looked back to the west.
“I don’t know, but we should send someone to check it out.”
“Not you,” Ed said, a bit of iron in his voice.
Loch looked at him, confused. Why wouldn’t he go? He was the strongest person there. He’d already fought and killed Gaunts.
“We need you here,” Ed said, holding up his hands. “At least for right now.”
“Why?”
“You are the registered Clanlord for this place,” Ed said, pointing at the school. “I don’t know what that means, but…”
“He is correct,” Cerie supplied. “Until the claim is solidified, it is best that you remain at the hold.”
Loch shook his head, getting ready to argue.
“They’re right, Dad,” Harper said, stopping Loch’s argument short. “You can’t do everything yourself.”
“But I’m…”
“The strongest. And from what Cerie says, you’re not going to end up staying back and doing nothing all the time. But for now? Let someone else handle it.”
Loch could see in her eyes who she wanted to handle it.
Part of him wanted to go for the fighting, the excitement. Loch knew he was starting to enjoy that part a little too much. It wasn’t the fighting, or the danger, it was using his Abilities. There was something addicting about it—a freedom in their use and strength.
It was potentially dangerous, though. He needed to go.
Hadn’t he been thinking about setting up dungeon runs to train people? The survivors needed to be trained and get Leveled. They needed strength in order to survive.
Wouldn’t this be a good opportunity for them?
If he went, would it be like the dungeon? His Level could make it too easy, or the Connection might adjust for it and make it too hard for the others.
He cursed.
Inwardly, not letting it show.
Wasn’t this the burden of leadership? Having others go into danger? By becoming the Clanlord and claiming the Clanhold, he was taking responsibility for these people. He’d just wanted to provide a safe place, but now it was becoming more than that.
Part of that responsibility was sending some into danger to protect the rest. Not doing it himself so he could handle other things. Cerie had said that most Clanlords didn’t handle the day-to-day aspects of the Clan, working on their own Advancement or dealing with threats at their Level. But that was for older and established Clans.
Clan Brady was not that.
There were only five members. And there were close to a hundred people at the school.
People that needed guidance.
But more importantly, people who needed to know they were safe.
That was what Ed wanted him for. Ed could provide guidance, but he couldn’t give the people the feeling of safety. That was Loch’s job.
“Okay,” he said, sighing, showing that he was not happy about it. He purposefully ignored Harper’s pleading look. For now, at least. “We’ll send some people to take a look.”
“Good,” Ed said, smiling, he motioned to the doors into the school. A steady stream of people were walking through the doors, carrying as much as they could. “We have a lot of stuff we need to organize.”
Loch groaned, not looking forward to it.
“Dad,” Harper said as he started to walk away.
Loch stopped, fighting back what he wanted to say, instead going with what he didn’t want.
