Aster Loka
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Chapter 134
🕑 Added 2022-05-07 19:37:49 +0000 UTCLevi pinged the area, receiving a number of faint signals, none strong enough to be a dungeon. Probably other Awakened in the city. He was momentarily impressed that so many had managed to gain access to the system and level enough to show up, but considering the population density of the place it would almost be more surprising to find no one.
In his past lifetime, he'd never have guessed that so many people were aware of the system this early. He'd never have guessed there were whole groups of people getting together to delve dungeons after school or before work or on vacations, but it made sense. The first wave hadn't destroyed humanity right off, so clearly there were some defenders at the time.
Levi mentally tucked them away in the back of his mind to think about. He'd need to find a way to connect with those people too. If Laurence's guild was any indication, the majority of recent Awakened probably didn't know how to assign stat points either. Or what to do with ability points once they got them. So much of the system was based on it assuming everyone knew how to use it, when they really didn't.
Levi couldn't even imagine how much more information, how many more options, how much potential power was still locked away behind commands no one had stumbled upon yet.
Or perhaps those who had discovered it had died before they could spread that information to the remaining survivors.
It made him wish he'd paid more attention back in the doomed timeline. If he could have talked to people of other classes more, he could have learned tricks about their powersets to pass on to this timeline.
But at the time, he'd been happy with his Swordsman class and didn't want to make himself envious or tempted to reset when he had so much to lose. Even Summoner, his intended future class, he knew only the barest basics about.
He did know it allowed capture of demons, though, which was the important part. If nothing else could defeat them, he'd turn them against each other. He wasn't so overconfident as to assume he could do something like subjugate a Demon Lord, not in the first wave. But for the second wave? With a year to level and prepare, and build a team capable of taking them on?
And until then, he'd level his dungeon minions as high as possible, of course, they would be invaluable as dungeon creatures would quickly outlevel and overpower humans of an equivalent level at higher thresholds. By the time the invasion started, his team would be able to hold a line better than a human force twice their size.
He sent out another ping, not expecting much - they were in the middle of a section of Destruction dungeons and he should be out of range of all of them, but to his surprise it returned a strong signal. Notably stronger than usual. Definitely a level 2 at least, maybe even a level 3.
"Anyone else up for a quick dungeon run?"
"Yes!" Peter was looking tired, but at the mention of a dungeon his enthusiasm returned immediately. "I want to fight more monsters. And Henry's getting restless too."
Levi wasn't concerned about a few hours' delay, Cassandra was the one with all the setup to do, and she didn't need them for that.
"It's just on the other side of that town."
----
Maybel was having a pretty bad day. First, half her co-workers had called off, leaving her with a double shift. She was too much of a people-pleaser to be willing to bail on her boss - who was not as bad as most - but it still meant she got home late in the morning and tired and grumpy.
But then, just as she was pulling into her driveway, something collided with the back of her car, jolting her and sending up a horrifying screech of metal. She yelped and spun, trying to see what had hit her, only to see a large.. blurry something leaning over. Had there always been a tree in her driveway? How had she managed to back into it while moving forward?
Then a man hurried over, eyes wide. "We are so sorry," he said, gesturing to the tree.
"Drok, no," the tree said, in low, deeply apologetic tones. "No."
"We're just on our way to a dungeon, and he got a bit excited."
Maybel nodded, half convinced she was hallucinating from exhaustion. She put the car into park, since it clearly wasn't going anywhere, and turned it off. "I should call a towing service," she sighed. "This is not what I needed today."
"I don't suppose you can fix this?" The guy asked, looking over his shoulder to someone else. Maybel squinted in her mirror to see him. The other guy was blurry too. She really needed to get new contacts. Another thing she couldn't afford.
"I could repair it with a spell, but it would take a while and leave enough residual mana that it'll never run again."
"I don't suppose you know the procedure for something like this?"
"Drok no," the tree said dejectedly. It seemed to have moved off to the side, into the yard. Maybel blinked at it, then nodded. This made more sense. Of course the tree was in the yard, not the driveway. She must have fallen asleep for a second and backed into it, before pulling back up into the drive.
"I'm fine," she told the man who'd come over to check on her, laughing at her own carelessness. "I think I just need to get some sleep before I burn the house down too."
"We can't just walk away, can we?" He was still talking to the other blurry guy behind the car, down by the sidewalk. Very rude, acting as though she weren't sitting here, waiting for him to introduce himself or go away. Either one would be fine, really, as long as he chose one and got on with it.
She thought she saw another tree there that she didn't remember, and a few kids hanging on his every word. She really should get to know her neighbors better, she didn't know anyone around had that big of a family. There had to be... five or six children, and a couple dogs, and that extra tree.
No, wait, why was she thinking of the tree as part of their family? She shook herself, rubbed at her eyes, then immediately regretted it.
"I'm fine," Maybel repeated. "You don't need to worry about me."
But even if they seemed like nice, normal guys out for a walk with their families and pets, she was hesitant to get out of her car with him standing right there. She didn't know him, and he still hadn't introduced himself or anything.
"See? She's fine, she'll deal with it. Let's go."
"I don't feel right just walking away."
"Do you want to get bogged down in insurance paperwork? If you want to stay and deal with this, I won't stop you, but we have much more important things to get on with than fixing one vehicle."
"Drok, no," apologized the tree, once again.
"I know you won't do it again, just pay close attention to what's going on. I know it's fun to play tag, but this is a town. Watch your step."
The tree nodded.
"Thanks for checking on me, you're very sweet, but I'll be fine," Maybel said, more firmly. Go away, please, I don't want to be rude but I need to sleep.
"Alright, if you're sure..."
She nodded, relieved, and the stranger finally went and rejoined the others. His kids split off from the group and scampered after him, while the trees trudged cautiously down the sidewalk after the blurry guy.
Maybel sighed, rubbed her forehead, and got out of the car. She'd deal with calling her insurance company in the evening once she'd gotten a good long rest. Running into imaginary trees was not going to sound good and she'd need to be able to properly assess what had happened.
Because talking, moving trees... that just couldn't be real.
