Chương 107: Chapter 103 – New Arrivals

Mark watched the crowd slowly leave; some were still staring at the kids, but most just had things to do, and they went to do them. Mark walked directly over to the group, and the woman he saw ushering the kids around stepped forward. Mark said, "Hello, my name is Mark, and I would like to welcome you to Beaver Crossing." The woman said, "What is going on? We were on the bus heading to our field trip, and then the next moment we were standing in a field of wheat with nothing around us."

Mark said, "While the answer is not short, those kids look nervous. What if we get them to come sit down on the benches over by the inn and find some people to watch over them? Then the adults can come, and we can have a conversation and help you figure out what's going on." The woman hesitantly agreed, and they ushered the group over to the inn. Mark was thankful when Clara, Ben, and Ava came and joined them.

Mark explained to Dale his plan, and with Clara and Ben's help, they got the children to come over to the benches and sat down while Dale ran inside to get some cookies and juice to feed the kids. Mark then led the adults and Ava across the street towards the bridge and stopped in an empty village lot within sight of the inn. Mark said, "Okay, you have gone through the same experience that everyone else has. I have been here multiple months now; I have really lost count.

Some people have been here for upwards of a year. You most likely got a message when you arrived, something like this. Then Mark shared his initial message. [Welcome, Candidate.] You have been selected for Integration. All participants will undergo a survival trial. Failure to adapt will result in termination. Good luck. A woman at the back said, "Yes, I received that same message." I thought I was hallucinating or was dreaming or something. It's been about three hours, and we have been wandering around.

We eventually found a dirt road and followed it here." Another lady said, "I don't care where here is, really; I just want to take my daughter and go home." Mark replied, "Well, that is a problem. No one I have talked to knows of any way to leave this place, and the System as we call it, has never offered a way." Almost every one of the adults started talking at once. The conversation ranged from I want to leave too; we're stuck here to If I just wait long enough, I will wake up.

Mark then told them of his first day here, about being attacked by the razor rabbit, looking for food, and trying to find shelter. Ava also explained her story of showing up and being rescued by Mark and her first days learning to survive. They talked for more than an hour over their circumstances and the village they were now in and Mark's willingness to help them figure things out without doing it the hard way he had to do.

Mark then spoke to Ava, and then he watched as Swoop left his perch on the inn and flew towards the closest field. About five minutes later he came back with a razor rabbit in its claws. Mark said, "The one thing that will help you figure out the quickest is to earn your first XP and level up for the first time. The bird flying above with the rabbit in its claws is named Swoop; it is Ava's bonded creature. She has three of them at this time. The easiest way to get xp is to kill your first animal.

Swoop has been generous enough to bring and stun one for an easy kill." Mark then pointed to where he wanted it, and Swoop dropped it enough of a distance to stun it but not kill it. Mark then pulled a spear out of his inventory, which caused gasps from almost all of the adults. Mark said, "Who would like to go first?" One of the men said, "You got to be kidding me you want us to kill something?"

The first lady stepped forward, grabbed the spear out of Mark's hand, marched forward, and thrust it through the middle of the razor rabbit. She then had a startled look on her face and jumped back. The worry didn't disappear from her face, but for the first time since arriving, she looked slightly less helpless. The woman said, "I just got another system message about leveling up and a skill gain. And the message is just sitting in front of my eyes and not going away like the original message."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Mark said, "That is the system screen select the button either by reaching out and clicking on it with your finger or just thinking yes to the level up." Mark walked her through placing her stats and how to read the message and look at her new skill and then explained to her how loot worked.

Without hesitation, she walked forward and touched the razor rabbit and was shocked when it dissolved away and she got the inventory messages. He then walked her through pulling items in and out of her inventory. Over the next hour he was able to convince the full group to all kill their first animal and loot it and level up. The animals that Swoop brought varied, but all were easy and quick kills. During that hour he found out more about them.

The lady that did the first kill, her name was Sarah, and she was the teacher in charge of this field trip. Her teaching aid was Emily. One of the men, Brian, was the bus driver. The other four adults were parents; each one had a child in the class their names were Michelle, Laura, Daniel, and Rachel.

And there were 42 children, four of whom were children of the four parents and the other 38 were classmates with no relations to the others other than being on the same field trip and having previously lived in the same area. Mark found out that the kids all ranged from eight to ten. The teacher, Sarah, wanted to know what they were to do if there was not a way home.

Mark explained how he found Clara, age 11 and her little brother, age 8, and that they, like Ava, who was age 14 were all taken in by the other adults and taken care of. He assured Sarah and the other parents that they would not go hungry and would be kept safe but that he honestly was not sure of the path forward. Mark said, "At this point now you at least have an idea of where you are and a little on how to survive. The system lets both kids and adults level.

When you hit level 8, you can get a class, and as you do things, the system tends to give you skills in the areas you are interested in." Ava said, "I am a Beastwarden my class allows me to communicate with animals and sense them. It's the best class ever." All of the adults just smiled at her. But all of them had worry in their eyes. Mark said, "For now, let's go back over to the inn, and you guys can talk and explain things to the kids.

I need to talk with the village leaders, and we will see about finding you guys a bed for the night, and you can talk to others around the village and learn a little about the world you now live in." The group all walked back over, and Ava called all her bonds and took them over to show them to the children while the adults talked with the kids. Mark excused himself and went and found Dale and Garrick and let them know they needed to get the planned group of village leaders together and have a meeting.

They all met in a meeting room in the back of the inn. Garrick, Dale, Elias, their livestock overseer named David, and their trade representative named Megan. The first thing Mark did was add all of them as official members of their village council. So in total they currently had six members. Mark let them know that he, because of his class and the system assignments he kept getting, would not be able to attend all their meetings but would keep in touch with them and let them know of his desires for the village.

They then started to discuss the children and what they might be able to do to care for them. They came to the decision that no one place could take care of them all but that they could find farmers and livestock tenders and other tradespeople that planned to stay and live in the area to adopt the ones without a parent and help care for them.

They all agreed that they would not rush them and let them take a few days to get used to the place, and they could stay in the inn and double and triple up on rooms, and some or many of them could camp out here in the meeting room. Dale assured everyone that he and his staff could get them all fed, help everyone find a change of clothing, and get them the personal items.

Dale even mentioned that Tom had made a bunch of balls because of some system request and would have them sent down so the kids had something to play with, though after the kids played with Ava's bonds, they all wanted an animal for a pet, which made all the adults laugh. In the middle of that conversation Mark received a new message.

[Regional Emergency Detected] Water-Controlled Region Threat Assessment: Escalating Instance Stability: Critical Population Risk: Increasing Recommended Response: Immediate Investigation Additional Recommendation: Companion Adaptation Potential Detected Candidate: Chew Mark let the village council know about the new message and left the council as they still discussed the kids and what to do with them. For the first time ever, Mark was completely happy to have an emergency to deal with.

Mark then headed outside and found Ava and showed her the message. Ava said, "What's that mean?" Mark said, "When we surveyed the western zone, we got a message about something south that needed to be handled to warn the villages in the area. We did that and heard nothing more until last week, when I got a message that the issue was increasing. Now it's critical. From the tone of the message and reading between the lines, I think it's something like the cave but somehow water-related.

I am going to gather a team of 15 and go investigate. It looks like the system wants Chew to come, which means you get to come." Ava said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go." He looked over the message one more time and then said, "Okay, pack a bag; we are going to head up to Cave Camp and recruit some of the stronger cave divers and then go investigate this." Ava took off at a run before he even finished speaking.