Jer Patch
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Bk 3 - Chapter 2: Two steps forward
🕑 Added 2025-04-28 14:00:08 +0000 UTCThe conversation had settled by the time I made my way back to the campfire. Several people had already relocated inside the cavern to sleep, including Jennifer. I nodded at Hawk and headed inside myself to get some rest.
I woke up earlier than I wanted, but my body didn’t need any more shut-eye. Instead, I headed outside to watch the sunrise. While I felt bad about not doing a watch, I figured if something crossed the mental barrier I had inside my head, I’d feel it.
Heck, Grizzle was hanging out somewhere to the northwest fighting something. Nothing was going to come from that direction.
No one sat around the fire, and I headed down to the lake to wash up. It didn’t take long to strip and swim around, making sure to scrub every inch of myself with the warm water. Nothing from the lake bothered me and I dressed, feeling much better.
Concern about Jennifer and my mother hung in the back of my mind, but what Abby said was true. What did it matter? I had quests to finish and rewards to get. Those were what was important, now. That, and keeping my family safe.
I opened the last quest as the first rays of sunlight broke over the horizon to the east.
[You have unlocked the Final Quest(Path to Citizenship): Decide on your true name. Any experience gained once level 50 is reached will be banked. This quest must be complete before you Rank up or it will be forfeit.]
I needed to decide on my true name. What did that even mean?
A boulder sat near the water's edge, and I made my way over to it. I felt someone coming down the path and glanced over my shoulder, spotting Lenna. Just the person I wanted to talk to. Though, something about her looked different. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what, though.
Dengu rushed past her and raced toward the water. He jumped right in, sending water everywhere.
Thankfully, I wasn’t close enough to get wet.
“Okay, he likes to swim,” I said to draw her attention, doing my best to not chuckle at the Raptor bobbing his head in the water.
“He does, but we don’t have a safe area to use, usually,” said Lenna. “Are you doing the dungeon today?”
“Nope, gonna head north to make sure there aren’t any more people wandering about from Jennifer’s group. Plus, Noseen mentioned my reward is in that direction.”
Lenna shivered at Noseen’s name. “You trust him?”
“Of course. He's like me in some ways.”
Dengu splashed in the water and dove under.
“I couldn’t even use Insight on him; it was like the lake monster.” She shivered, but then tried to hide her reaction.
“You mean Nessetra. Yeah, I couldn’t even see her level.”
The only movement in the lake was Dengu, and I didn’t feel anything in the deep near the crystals.
“Hey, what’s a true name?” I asked before she could respond to my comment about our mysterious neighbor.
Her eyes widened slightly, and she joined me on the rock.
“That's where, in my clan, you chose your name for the system. So, my name is Lenna De le Dengu.” She pointed to Dengu. “We are bonded, and my name reflects that. For the last quest, it all becomes official.”
“How official?”
“Whatever you select becomes the name the system shows, from then on, whenever someone uses Insight. My mother called me Lenna at my birth, De Le Dengu was added after bonding with Dengu. After I get to the fifth quest, I get to decide on my name. To decide who I want to be moving forward, for the rest of my life.”
“Sounds like a big deal to your people,” I said, thinking about my father and the rest of the others in the village. Would we have a big ceremony someday about choosing a name because of this quest?
“It is. You are making a statement about yourself as an adult, since that's what becoming a citizen and ranking up is about. You become an adult in the eyes of the system. Either one that civilized, or not.”
“So, I should think about it before I try to complete the quest.”
“Yes,” she said, placing her hand on mine. “It’s immensely important, Alex. You need to know who you are before you rank up.”
“Okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Good.”
“What about those who aren’t civilized?” I asked, thinking of the Aggressive Spinosaurus.
“They’re outcasts, though if they break the system’s laws, they are tagged an Offender.” Lenna frowned. “Offenders can be killed on sight, no matter their level. Bonuses rewards are granted to those who kill Offenders, like bounties.”
Bright pink rays of light spread across the sky as it slowly changed to orange, then yellow. Dark clouds dotted the horizon, but it didn’t look like they were moving fast.
It was time to keep working on my to-do list.
“Can you stay here and watch the settlement? You and Dengu?”
“Sure, we can protect your people.”
That took a huge weight off my shoulders, and I wondered if I should just have a group dive into the dungeon without me. It wasn’t my responsibility to keep everyone alive. My chest felt warm, and I took a deep breath, stretching all of my fingers out.
A tiny voice in the back of my mind whispered that they’d kept me alive when I’d have died in my cold tube.
What if John died because the dungeon was too high level? Or Dad? Or, heck, even Hawk? Without him, we’d be down someone who knew what he was doing out here. That’d be devastating, and I didn’t know if I could live with that.
“When do you leave?” asked Lenna, cutting through my thoughts.
“As soon as folks are up. I’m taking Hammy with me, and I think my father’s coming as well.” Last night, I’d told him he could come, but now I wondered if he should.
Standing up from the rock, I headed back up the path to the campfire, which now roared. Smoke lightly drifted down to me as I made my way through the gap in the fence.
Abby stood near the fire with a pot sitting next to the coals. A floral scent peeked through the smell of smoke. She waved me over.
“I have a tea, I want you to try it.” She poured some liquid from the pot into a wooden cup. “It’s from Lenna's people, but I haven’t dared test it yet to see if we can drink it.”
“I’ll test it for you,” I said with a smile. “It won’t kill me.”
I sniffed the tea. It reminded me of the tea Benny drank when he studied. I sipped the smallest amount of the hot liquid. It tasted a little fruity, and not bad. I waited to see if my poison resistance kicked in, but nothing came up.
I used Insight.
[Flora Tea, Tasty.]
“So far, so good,” I said with a shrug.
“Great…” she said, as she set a few cups out. “Your father is walking the fence line and then will be back. Hammy is getting up…”
“I’m here…” he said walking out of the cavern. His dark hair was all over the place, though he didn’t have his armored suit on. “What’s up?”
“I need you to go with me up north,” I explained. “Noseen’s reward is up there, and he said you needed to be with me.”
“Okay, scavenger hunt, I’m in. But, it will slow down my progress with your brother.”
“Not much I can do about that,” I said.
An hour later, Hammy stomped through the ferns behind me and my father. They both carried guns, while my knife still sat in my belt. We’d moved past the edge of my territory not long ago, and now we kept the rocks to our left while keeping our senses open.
“I think if John grabs some of the stuff we left behind, we can make something that flies with a gun,” said Hammy, excitedly. “It’d be much smaller than the shuttle, but should help him expand his class. It’s like you said, Alex, figure out what you want and just go for it.”
“How did the change to using a gun affect your skills?” I asked.
“Oh, that's the best part! I got a skill almost immediately which improved my damage output, as long as it's a gun that I made.”
“What about the gun from your shoulder?” I asked, not wanting to comment on it before now.
“I broke it when it fired at the boss.” He shook his head frowning. “It needs work. I might make it like the one on the shuttle, less of a big boom and more rapid fire.”
“I think it depends on the types of targets you plan on going after,” commented my father. “And what type of fighter you want to be.”
Something tickled my senses near the rock face not far ahead. I held my hand up and crouched down. I’d been following faint tracks in the dirt of the Spino, but they’d been hard to follow, clearly old. Nothing remained of a scent trail, and for some reason in this part of the forest not much crawled around. My prey senses were quiet as well, though I wasn’t sure if that was ‘cause there wasn’t prey, or if everything was at a high enough level that it could hide from my prey sense.
I triggered my stealth abilities and stuck to the shadows as I crept closer to the thing I sensed. A giant rock leaned against the cliff, which had broken off from above. A round area cleared of ferns and trees reminded me of the area outside of the tunnel from the sanctuary.
Nothing moved.
“Hey Hammy, does this look…”
“Hey is this a tunnel?” he asked, marching forward. He marched closer to the rock, looking at each side before I had a chance to say anything. “This is totally a tunnel.”
“Let’s move it.”
All three of us moved to the side of it and pushed. I wasn’t sure how much my dad helped, but we tipped the rock over, revealing a tunnel leading deeper into the mountain.
[You may not return to the Sanctuary without the necessary permit and debuff.]
[Do you want to link the tunnel from Sanctuary to your territory?]
“What would that do?”
[Linking a territory to the tunnel would present the option of being teleported outside of Sanctuary to your territory.]
“Sure…”
[Your territory has been linked to the Sanctuary.]
A sudden push expanded my senses, and my head felt like it would explode. Tears leaked from my eyes before things slowly settled. My territory now reached along the rock cliff to this tunnel entrance. A narrow stretch from just outside the fence line, to here.
I opened my territory sheet.
Territory - Unnamed
Claimed by Alex
Level 3
Citizens: 15
Benefits:
- Minor increase in recovery rate for citizens if they consume calories
- Minor increase in experience earned in the dungeon by citizens
- Minor increase to defense for citizens from Sanctuary
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” I muttered, wondering about this reward.
“It doesn’t feel like a great reward,” added Hammy, as he stared into the tunnel. “I can set up an alert and we can post a sign directing people where to go.”
“That’s a good idea,” said my father. He moved toward the side of the rock and pulled his knife off his belt. Then he carved an arrow and the word village, pointing in the correct direction. “We need a name for the settlement.”
Both of them turned to look at me, and I shrugged.
“What about Lakeside Landing?” I asked. I didn’t add that I’d been thinking of it since last night. The Territory - Unnamed on the stat sheet needed to be replaced. It bothered me.
“I like it,” said Hammy. “Shouldn’t you ask the others?”
My father opened his mouth, but before he could say anything it changed.
[You have renamed your territory Lakeside Landing.]
“That was easy…” I turned back toward the trees, wondering about those clouds on the horizon. We didn’t want to get stuck out here in the rain, plus, until Hammy made it back, the building crew was limited in what prefab housing they could get up.
“We should get moving,” advised my father, he glanced back toward the direction we’d come.
We still hadn’t spoken more about what he’d told me last night, and it felt like a barrier stood between us. For that and other reasons, I wasn’t ready to go back yet.
“I think I need to wander a little more before I head back,” I said.
My father frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but stopped.
The dark clouds in the far distance caught my attention. “A storm’s coming. You guys should head back without me.”
Something crunched in the bushes behind me, and I twisted about, spear already extending in my hand.
