Chương 21: New Hastings

Ch 21 - New Hastings Grey awoke to a group of surprised and scared faces.

"How'd he do that?" one of the new members of the group asked in a hushed tone.

"Beats me. Guys a freak." Another whispered. The faces were staring over him. Someone propped him up with his head elevated on a backpack while he was passed out. An empty potion bottle meant they had fed him a health potion to help him recover. Grey had almost completely run out of mana during that fight. Had it not been for his revelation using the Split Mind Technique, he wasn't sure how they could have won that battle. He took a bite out of a strange, magic fruit he got from the fox cave.

It was the shape of an apple but twice as large. It also had a slight magenta glow to it. Its juices were particularly sweet, and the syrup tingled on his tongue as he slurped it down. (Identify) had called it a Mana Fruit when he checked the other day. The description must have been accurate, because mana flooded back into his body at an impressive rate. He had leveled up from the fight and put his free points into MANA and INT. Once again, these stats have helped him the most.

His stats were balanced, mostly, but that was because of his ability. He only had to invest free points into INT, MANA, or WIS to see returns from his shapeshifting.

"Wo-hohoh.. Close call! Nice job dude, you totally stabbed him good! Real good! He was like Roar!! And you were like BOOM… Then you put the black yucky stuff in him! Too cool!" Raccy cheered, hopping up and down. A young teenage kid was next to him, giving him high-fives in encouragement.

"Thanks, guys.. Let's rest up, and can someone get me some food? I'm starved." Grey smiled. The group had a barbecue, grilling up beef they gathered from the minotaur's herd. Joe brought out some beer that was taken from the brewery. They all laughed and told stories of what they saw during the battle. The spotlight was on Grey. The group took turns telling their stories of what happened, and how Grey slayed the lions.

Grey felt more and more responsibility fall onto him as he looked at the faces of everyone looking up to him.

"You're amazing. I can't believe you're this strong." Sarah said, sitting close by Grey.

"Well…I probably would have died without your Split Mind Technique. That's how I came up with my plan during the fight." Said Grey. Sarah's cheeks began to blush as he spoke.

"It's ok, you don't have to spare my feelings. I know I'm not that strong. I just appreciate that you want to help all of us." She said.

"Really, your technique was a huge help. You do a lot for the group, too. Don't forget that." Sarah hid her face and poked at the fire with a stick.

"Thanks, Grey." In the morning, only coals remained of the bonfire from the night prior. With the lions slain, there wasn't any threat from predators during the night. There were some talks of settling the area, but the group concluded that the land wasn't arable enough, nor was there wood for construction. They continued onward towards the mountain range, hoping to find other humans or at least a safe place to rest. And so the caravan moved. The ride was quiet for the day, bringing them towards the mountains.

The prairie turned into woods as they neared their goal. Grey's Sense Mana could detect an abundance of mana radiating from the peaks ahead. Grey wasn't sure whether this was a good sign or a bad omen. A mana-rich environment could mean incredible resources, but it also meant that others would fight them for it. The group approached a large bridge spanning a wide, rushing river. The bridge existed before the system. Grey remembered crossing it when he headed south to go snowboarding.

He realized that the giant mountains they had been heading towards were once just tall hills. If hills turned into these mountains, I wonder what a real mountain range has turned into? The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The thought was scary, but Grey pushed it to the back of his mind when he noticed a roadblock on the bridge. A semi-truck was parked horizontally, preventing anyone from crossing.

As he looked closer, he noticed a few people poking their heads over it, staring right at them.

"Sarah. There are people behind the truck up ahead… What should we do?" Grey asked.

"I can send them a message with telepathy, but what should I say?"

"Tell them we're just passing through, and don't mean any trouble." Sarah nodded and closed her eyes. After a moment, she opened them and looked back towards the roadblock. The group exited the truck and told everyone else about the folks ahead at the roadblock. Many were excited to hear about more humans and hoped they had found a safe place to settle. Grey was happy to run into more people, but also decided to err on the side of caution.

There was no guarantee these people were good, and he'd rather not get caught up in another bad situation. He told Gerald to find a good sniping position in case anything went down. Grey, Jim, and Sarah took one of the cars to make contact. They rolled up to the semi-truck blocking the road and stepped out.

"Hey there!" Grey shouted. The defenses obscured the people guarding the roadblock, but one man stepped out over the top to greet them.

"This here is Willy's town, named New Hastings. You can only stay if yer' useful! If you wanna pass through ya gotta pay the toll!" Grey hesitated a moment before speaking, "We wanted to pass through, we thought the mountains might be a good spot to settle. Some of us might want to stay here with you. We don't have much in terms of payment, but we could work something out." It irritated Grey that they were asking for payment this soon in the integration.

I get it, everyone is struggling, but why make travelers give up what little they have?

"The leader can come in, talk to Willy. The rest of ya' gotta stay out there." The man answered. Grey frowned. Separated from the group, he might be in trouble if a fight broke out. Feeling confident in his abilities, however, he accepted and stepped through the makeshift gate. There were a handful of guys, each armed with guns. They had similar clothes on, resembling a uniform. Willy must be taking inspiration from the military. They guided him through the town for a bit.

He noticed a few people around in various houses, working on things like construction or fortification. The area of the town Willy's people were living was quite small. They parked trucks and used other fortifications to barricade their portion of the town off from the rest. Grey made small talk with the escort, mentioning that he was searching for his family. The guards guided him to a taller building that must have been offices before the integration.

They brought him in, past a receptionist, and knocked on a door.

"Come in." Willy was an older gentleman, sitting with his legs crossed atop a desk. Grey didn't feel particularly threatened by him, yet there was a noticeable aura about him.

"Hello, I'm Grey. I'm the impromptu leader of our group. Some of us might be willing to join your settlement. There were a lot of civilians we rescued on our travels."

"Hello Grey. I'm Willy, in charge of this ragtag group here. Hope the guards out there weren't too harsh on ya'""They were… Alright. I'm headed south in search of my family. We figured the mountains might have people or resources useful to us and were hoping to pass through."

"This little town I got set up is all I have left after the apocalypse. We call it New Hastings. The people here trust me… So you're searching for your family, that's honorable." Willy leaned back in his chair and stared at the roof.

"I'll tell ya the truth. We're struggling here. We don't nearly have enough food for everyone here. And so adding new people to our town is troublesome. On one side of us are the mountains. They're covered with mutant apes. Brutal things, we don't dare get close. The other side of the river has the lions. Tell me, how'd you pass through there?"

"I defeated the lion and one lioness. If there's more, they're weakened. You might be able to set up farmland on the other side of the river now." Grey offered. Wily's eyes opened wide.

"You really killed the lion? That thing was a monster! How'd you do it? Actually, it doesn't matter. I guess thanks are in order." Willy stood up from his chair and approached Grey, outstretching his hand for a handshake. Grey took it, allowing his guard to fall slightly. Willy doesn't seem like a bad guy, just desperate to help his people.

"We've got some food we can spare for passage. Me and a few others must keep travelling."

"Don't worry about the toll. Gettin' rid of those lions is good enough. Where do you travel to? Where are your folks?" Grey frowned, hesitating.

"Florida."

"Hahaha!" Willy bellowed.

"You really think you can travel all across the country? I bet you barely managed to get this far. That's quite a journey, young man. I must ask, though. Have you looked at the forums?"

"Forums?" Grey asked.

"Our settlement has a (F) Grade Settlement Orb. This makes us an official settlement in the eyes of the system. The orb has various powers that increase our survivability. One of the first things we unlocked was a system menu we can access, which allows some degree of communication with other settlements." Grey's eyes opened wide, waiting to hear more.

"I'll tell you what. Bring your people in, and we can look at the forums for your family. That way you can be sure they're safe." Grey couldn't believe his ears. He was elated to have some hope in his search. The two shook hands again, and Grey returned to the group with the good news. The convoy was excited to enter New Hastings, eager to find sanctuary in this new mad world.