After some thought, this was what John came up with:

For now, with about 20,000 Aura to spend, he decided to focus on defence, since he already had a ranged offence. Melee would come next, followed by building up a minion Spell, all with Combine.

To that end, he purchased Steel Skin for 2000 Aura, then spent another 5000 Aura to merge it with Earthen Armour. The Resulting Level 4 Spell was named Adamant Defence… and pretty much just turned his skin to steel, which he found a little confusing, since he'd assumed that would be what Steel Skin would do. Maybe the original Spell would've just been a localised thing, covering only a small part of his body of hos choice? He kind of wished he'd tested it beforehand.

It was pretty badass though, if somewhat disconcerting at the same time. Looking down at himself to see shining metal that glinted in the light of the burning sky and twanged when he tapped on it was surreal, but it felt properly strong. It ended up lasting for as long as he wanted, too, merely taking up a Spell slot. He'd have to test to see how durable it really was.

13K Aura left, he thought after that was done, perched on the edge of his bed. Do I risk adding another Spell to Adamant Defence? Maybe Wind Shear, which would probably counterattack anything that attacks me? I could get a new Spell entirely, too, though that would definitely put me below the threshold for an emergency level up.

John sighed. Gotta back myself to gather more Aura in a fight. Not like it'll take that much to farm up some more.

And if I'm gonna be willing to spend Aura anyway, I should pick out the best Spell for the job. Level 4s and 5s have to be on the table.

He didn't spend long browsing, though. Indecision could leave him paralysed all day, if he let it. Better not to hesitate. Spending 8000 for a Level 5 seemed like too much, and he worried that the Combine would prioritise the higher-level Spell unpredictably, defeating the point of creating a defence.

Fuck it. Voltaic Chain. If you hit me, you get fucking electrocuted.

Another 4000 + 5000 Aura later, his Adamant Defence was upgraded to Level 5, which had another aspect to it… which he had no way to test right now. Unless he was willing to let one of his comrades hit him, which didn't sound like a smart idea. Especially with the Chain part of the Voltaic Spell likely still in play, in some manner. He'd have to go and find a blue to bully.

Right now, though…

For the sake of thoroughness, John went searching through the upper floor of the house before dealing with the others. There were three bedrooms and a bathroom that looked newly renovated. Judging by the closets, only two of the bedrooms had been in use, and one was for a kid. The master bedroom yielded some clothes that fit him, and he decided to dump a bunch of spare shirts, trousers, etc, into his inventory. Not used pants or socks, though. That felt gross, somehow. Luckily, there were some spares in unopened packaging, though he would've preferred boxers to briefs. Beggars couldn't be choosers.

He didn't linger too long on whom the people who had lived here had been. The bloodstains he'd seen at the top of the stairs as he moved between bedrooms implied they weren't around to complain about his theft. It felt kind of callous, cruel. But he couldn't afford to get caught up on every horror story he encountered.

Unfortunately, there was someone there to take issue. In his focus on ransacking the place, he'd dismissed the lump on the master bed as a quirk of how the sheets had happened to be placed—part of that, he admitted, had been him trying to shield his mind from the possibility that there was a corpse under there.

When the sheets shifted and the lump wriggled a bit, John almost had a heart attack. He slammed Accelerate on and mentally readied Ultimate Shot, but luckily for everyone he noticed the hockey armour that had been dumped on the floor in the small gap between the bed and the opposite wall before any unfortunate accidents could occur.

Chester, he thought. Waiting for Accelerate to end was a bit awkward, but he stuck it out, staying as still as he could.

Soon after, the younger man in question popped his head out from under the covers, blinking blearily. He'd dumped his army helmet, exposing short-cropped, curly blond hair. His face was pale as ever, contrasting with his dark eyes, and without his hockey armour it became even starker just how massive the guy was. Upgrading Strength had packed on some decent muscle to John's frame, but this guy was even bigger, and he was all natural. If he hadn't seen Chester's general action-averse attitude over the last couple of days, John would take one look at him and assume he was an absolute gigachad.

How does someone even get that big at just nineteen? Or eighteen? However bloody old he is. I can't remember.

"What are you doing?" Chester asked, blinking blearily, voice rough with sleep. He had that petulant, frustrated tone that was a telltale sign of someone who'd just been woken up.

"Gathering supplies," John said.

There was a pause. "You mean robbing the place?"

"They don't need it anymore."

+400 Aura

Seriously? That wasn't cool at all.

John still didn't really understand the Aura system. He had never in his life been an expert on what was considered cool unless you counted his propensity to appear distinctly uncool by accident, but he was pretty sure even the most naturally charismatic badass would be struggling to wrap their head around the particulars of what the system found impressive. That wasn't to say he was clueless; through trial and error and a bit of bumbling, he'd managed to figure out that the mind behind the Aura liked a bit of edginess, but the rewards still took him off guard here and there.

"Right," Chester said slowly, expression blank. "Did you sleep?"

John nodded.

Chester squinted at the clock on the wall. It read 5:48. "It's barely been half an hour?"

"That's right," John said. "But I have a spell for sleep, so…"

Chester sighed. "Of course you have. Well, I need a full eight hours. Wake me up if shit's hitting the fan again, I guess."

With that, the younger man wriggled back under the covers, and John bid his retreat.

In the bathroom, the water was miraculously still running, for now, so he indulged himself with a hot shower while he still could, then dumped all the toiletries he could find into his Inventory, and followed them up with the place's towels and flannels while he was at it. Before long, he had pretty much all the grooming essentials one could need, filling in the gaps of the small amount of looting he'd already done before the portal world.

After that, he spent the Aura to repair his motorcycle boots, while swapping out his ragged white shirt and riding trousers for a black button up and some blue jeans, with some brand new white briefs and long football socks. He added his ruined clothes to the Inventory, just in case he wanted them later, for some reason. They barely weighed anything anyway, and with 7 Strength his capacity was at just over 588kg. Even most of the contents of someone's closet was nothing to worry about.

Stolen novel; please report.

With that done, he found he didn't have much of an excuse to delay anymore. His social issues had to be squashed down and compartmentalised; there was no time for anxiety when his own life and the end of the world was at stake.

That wasn't to say his heart wasn't fluttering like a frightened rabbit's when he took a deep breath and made his way down the stairs. The hushed voices had quietened a while ago, and a part of him hoped that meant everyone else had gone to sleep, too.

Unfortunately, that idea was dashed against the rocks almost immediately, as he was barely halfway down the stairs before he caught sight of another of his companions.

Jade was sitting with her back against the front door, for some reason, still in her full suit of medieval armour, like a knight who'd stopped for a break. The visor on her helm was lifted, and her steely eyes met his. She arched an eyebrow, but there was a half smile on her lips. "That was a quick nap," she whispered when he reached the bottom of the stairs. The house was small, and the front door was barely two paces from the staircase, with a door leading to the kitchen shut next to them, and a corridor running along the staircase that led to the living room.

"When I heard you moving around up there, I wondered if you couldn't sleep," Jade continued. "But looking at you now, I'd swear you got a good ten hours if I didn't know any better."

"Sleep Spell," John said simply.

"Ah, of course you have a Spell for that," she said, small smile turning wry. "Is there anything you don't have a Spell for?"

"Killing red monsters in one shot," he said. "But I'm working on that."

+400 Aura

Jade snorted. "Hm. Fair enough. Well, everyone else has to rely on the old-fashioned kind of rest." She nodded towards the corridor that led to the living room. "Lily conked out the moment she flopped onto the sofa in there. Didn't even take her motorbike helmet off. Doug's watching over her, since he reckons he can hold out a bit longer than the rest of us with his time bollocks. We'll have to take a turn watching out for him after, though."

"And Alissa?"

"Gone to fetch that Sam guy and the two kids he was guarding." Jade frowned. "I don't know whether to be relieved or horrified that a couple of kids have survived to see all this, if I'm honest."

"I'd say I'm leaning towards both, but honestly I'm not thinking about that kind of stuff too hard, if I can help it."

"Probably a good idea," Jade muttered, her eyes going a little distant as her gaze trailed off to the side. "Hard, though. Has me worrying for my own family and friends, back up in Inverness. One lass who I've known since nursery has a couple of bairns herself. Way younger than the two Doug's group were looking after, but… Just makes me think of them, is all. Whether they're okay."

If it's anything like here… Probably not, John thought. He didn't say it, though. If the thinning of Jade's lips as she screwed her eyes shut was anything to go by, he didn't need to.

"Well, as you can see, I'm fully rested now," John told her instead. "If you want to get some sleep, I'll look out for you."

"You don't mind?" Jade asked without opening her eyes. "You haven't struck me as a guy with that kind of patience, no offence. Thought you would've been nudging us to get a move on already. Or forging off on your own."

"The latter has crossed my mind," John said, thinking to the fledgling teamwork the group had displayed back in the portal world, which he decidedly hadn't been a part of. He tried to tell himself once again that it was partially his fault for going off and doing his own thing while the rest of them bonded through adversity, but there was still a mild, irrational sting to it. Being left out was nothing new to him… And he supposed that was the problem. No matter what he did, he found himself on the periphery.

"But I'll protect you guys as long as I can," he said.

+400 Aura

Frankly, even if the situation wasn't ideal, being around people provided him so much more opportunity for Aura gains. It would be insane to ditch them, no matter how uncomfortable socialisation made him. The situation would have to be truly untenable, for him to choose to leave. Well, unless he discovered a more efficient aura farming method, that was. Hunting down portal worlds did look promising.

When Jade opened her eyes, they'd softened a shade from their usual intensity. "Thanks, John. We appreciate it."

He hadn't the slightest clue how to respond to that, so he unsubtly changed the subject. "Are the birds still around?"

"They were in the tree in the back garden," Jade said with a shrug. "But that was just after we arrived here. They might have moved on."

John nodded. "I'll go check. You get some rest, and I'll make sure nothing disturbs us here."

He had Mana Sense running, and there were plenty of monsters in his considerable range, but nothing posing a threat to them right now. He left without another word or a glance back, making his way adjacent to the stairs and into the living room.

Like the rest of the house, it was a fairly small space, fitting in only a long three-seater sofa along one wall, with three one-seaters dotted about around the flat-screen TV on its little island that acted as the room's centrepiece. Wide windows looked out on a back garden that looked a bit wild by the standards of this kind of estate, with long grass and weeds galore, with a few hedges dotted about, and the aforementioned tree standing sentinel at the far end.

Lily was indeed sprawled over the three-seater sofa, snoring like a chainsaw and still clad in her long chain mail shirt and motorcycle helmet, orange hair poking out from the helmet's rim. A patchwork quilt had been draped over her, and the culprit for that small act of kindness was perched on a rocking chair at the other end of the room.

Doug was still wearing only swimming shorts, exposing his absurdly muscular physique that contrasted rather uncannily with his pale, liver-spotted skin. His face was that of a regular, somewhat cooky old man, with only a few small wisps of hair atop his otherwise-shiny dome. There were no gaps in the grin he aimed at John, though.

"Up and about already, whipper-snapper?" Doug asked, his voice pitched low so as not to disturb the room's other occupant.

"Rest Spell," John said simply.

"Of course you have a Spell for that." Doug rolled his eyes. "So you're ready to rush back into the fray then, eh?"

"Physically, maybe. Gonna take a bit longer to unwind, first. Let the rest of you get some rest in, too."

"Not gonna go out and get more points for yourself?"

"Debating on that."

"Hmph. Noble of you, kid. If I had as much going for me as you do, I'd be out there fighting a one-man war."

John eyed the older man warily, preparing himself for another verbal spar. Ever since meeting Doug, the system had pushed him to assert dominance over the man, subtracting Aura whenever it appeared Doug might be cooler than him. It had been immensely frustrating, and more than a little embarrassing.

It took him a moment to realise there'd been no penalty for Doug's little boast, and tension bled out of John's body like he'd pulled a plug in his gut. He let out a long breath. Whether it had been taking out the three great eyes or surviving a solo battle with the giant crab monster, or maybe even his defeat of the rock golem, something about his actions in the portal world had convinced the Aura system that Doug couldn't be cooler than him, no matter how he bragged and blustered.

Like this, John could look back and admit he actually kind of liked the guy. Rather than distracting annoyances that forced him into a confrontation, he could now somewhat appreciate the nonsensical boasts as mildly amusing banter. Somewhat.

"Sure you would," John said. He nodded towards the back windows. "The birds still out there?"

"Haven't seen them leave," Doug said with a shrug. "But I haven't been watching close, either. The heck is up with them, anyway?"

"I'm pretty sure the parrots are the same ones I set free from a house I stopped in on the first night of all this. And I guess animals can get system, just like we can."

"How does that work, you reckon?"

"No idea. You'd figure it would be something similar to us, with forcing them to do shit that makes them uncomfortable for points to spend on powers. But animals are so much less intelligent. Surely it has to work slightly different, right?"

"Maybe it smartens them up." Doug grinned. "Maybe those birds out there put all their points into their brains, and now a flock of feathered geniuses."

"Those parrots didn't really strike me as prodigies."

As if in response to his words, he heard a distant, high-pitched, "Fuck you!" from outside.

John sighed. "Sounds like they're still here."

He moved towards the back door. It was about time he figured out just how much these birds understood of the situation.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.