“Hold on,” I said, placing an arm in front of Riu.

  Only two of the lumbering shapes were zombies. The three who lurched along behind them were very much alive, and very much human.

  “Hello!” Riu called as soon as he noticed. He was waving his arm too, his smile returned.

  “Jesus Christ,” I muttered under my breath.

  The three newcomers picked up their pace, and I got a better look at them.

  Two were wearing dark robes, the third leather armor with some metal gleaming on their chest. The zombies were naked except for a dirty loincloth that just barely covered their junk. They stayed near the two in robes as they slowed to a stop.

  The one wearing armor was a dark-skinned woman with long braids. She was almost as tall as me with thick arms and a mace looped at her belt. The other two were also women, but they were on the opposite end of the spectrum. One was even shorter than Riu.

  “Hello!” Riu called again.

  I groaned.

  “Did you come from the town?” the tall one asked. She had an intensity to her eyes that put me a little on edge.

  “No,” I replied, looking over the ragged group. The buff chick looked basically fine, but her two friends appeared about ready to fall over.

  “Damn,” one of them said. “Do you know if it’s close?”

  I shrugged, much to their dismay.

  The shortest of the bunch inched forward, her hands held nervously together. “Where did you come from? Do you know what’s going on?”

  I told them about my crash, the missed orientation and my battle with the crawlers. Then I told them about the plane and everything that happened there. I left out the orb and the old man, choosing to keep those little nuggets of mystery to myself.

  They looked pretty damn horrified when I described what happened last night. Even Riu stiffened as I told the story, reminding me that normal people probably weren’t used to so much death.

  Then it was their turn to speak. Apparently, they’d been on a bus when orientation started. After that, about half the people who’d been on the bus woke up in a giant mushroom forest. Unlike me or the plane group, none of them received a potion or extra ability. Meaning, they only had their gear from orientation to defend themselves with. Judging by the fact only three of them were standing there, I assumed it did not go well.

  Interestingly, they were in the northern US when they got nabbed, while I was in the south. I never got around to asking the plane people where they had been prior to orientation, but it appeared your location in this world wasn’t entirely proximity based. People close together would be brought here or presumably to other games together, but we were getting placed randomly after that. As if to aid this theory, the shortest girl, Gina, said they’d run into a guy this morning.

  “He was from Africa, I think,” she said. “But he spoke pretty good English.”

  That meant no matter where you got grabbed on Earth, your position here was not relative. I’d hoped Avery could be close since Grandma’s house was only a few hours away, but it seemed that theory was dead in the water.

  Speaking of water.

  Gina glanced at the two of us, then her companions. “Do you have any water? There was a creek in the mushroom forest, but we got chased off before we could drink from it.”

  “No,” I replied flatly. I hoped Riu would keep his mouth shut.

  “Water?” He opened his inventory and removed the bottle.

  Goddamn it.

  Gina licked her lips as the kid passed her the bottle. She drank about half of it, then handed the rest to Kacy, the other apparent necromancer. Their massive friend, who did not tell me her name, refused even a sip. By the time the bottle was returned to Riu, there was nothing left.

  “This guy you mentioned,” I said. “Where is he now?”

  “He’s going for that Kiosk, same as you,” Gina said. “But he’s got food on him. He gave us some.” She produced a small, red apple from her inventory and handed it off to Riu. “For the water.”

  The kid bowed, then started munching on the thing. I was going to warn him it could potentially be toxic, but I guess the kid was hungry.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Where did this guy get an apple?” We were on an alien planet, yet that apple looked just like one I could buy at the supermarket.

  “There’s apparently a forest full of them, but we have no idea which direction it is,” Kacey said, then she pointed. “But if I had to guess, it’s somewhere that way. You might run into it if you keep going the same direction.”

  “But I would avoid that place, if I was you,” the tall one said. “He told us there were around fifty of them when he woke up. He was the only one left.”

  “Did he say what got them?” The more knowledge I had about the surrounding zones, the better.

  She made an odd face, like she wasn’t sure about telling me.

  “Squirrels,” Gina piped up. “He said they got attacked by squirrels.”

  “Squirrels?” The three girls nodded. “Huh.” That didn’t sound so bad. “He say anything else useful?”

  “Not really,” Kacey said, her eyes drifting to something behind me. “Is that woman okay?”

  I turned to find Clara standing not far off, her distant eyes looking over the strange newcomers. I’d forgotten she was behind us.

  “She is lost,” Riu said, frowning. “But she is searching.”

  “I think she got separated from her kid or something, but I’m not sure,” I added.

  Clara stood there a while longer, then started shuffling on toward the next hill. Gina looked like she wanted to go after her, maybe try and help her out, but her tall friend ended that notion with a stiff glance.

  “We should probably be going too,” I said. “Thanks for the information.”

  “Hopefully we all find what we’re looking for,” the tall woman said, then we exchanged a few parting words and the women continued on their way.

  Riu tossed his apple core to the ground and waved them goodbye. After that, we kept going ourselves. It didn’t take long for us to pass Clara again.

  It looked like Riu really wanted to slow down for her, but we had to keep moving. And despite what they’d said, we needed food. If we found the forest with the apples, we would just have to risk it.

  A few hours later we stopped at the base of an incredibly steep hill. The teens who were ahead of us had tracks right up the middle of it, but there was no way I could get to the top without help. Despite how it seemed to stretch forever in either direction, I would just have to go around.

  “You know you don’t have to wait for me, right?” I said between panting breaths.

  Riu was sweating, but the kid looked like he could go the rest of the day without a break.

  “I will stay,” he replied. “It is better if we are together.”

  Part of me wanted to press him a bit, get him to leave. But he was so quiet it was almost like being alone.

  I leaned back against a tree, then slid to the sand. My back was on fire, and even my good leg was nearly spent. We’d been away from the plane crash for the entire morning and part of the afternoon. Only a handful of hours stood between us and nightfall. I’d hoped to find the kiosk by then, but it looked like we’d have to spend the night out here.

  “So, Riu,” I said. “Everyone on that plane received a C tier skill or spell. What did you get?” If we were going to be staying together, I needed to know what he could do.

  He frowned at the question, and I worried he hadn’t understood me, but then he walked a few paces away. Then he turned and rubbed his stomach.

  “What, do you spit acid or something?” I half laughed, then realized something like that wasn’t impossible. Not here. Not anymore.

  “It, uh, makes sick.” He paused for a moment. “Makes me sick. But I will show you.” He lowered into a half crouch, then the air around him started shimmering.

  The space around him warped, distorted, then he vanished. Within a fraction of a second, he reappeared about a foot away from where he started.

  He doubled over and stumbled to a tree, a hand over his mouth. While he kept himself from throwing up, I realized something.

  That skill is probably overpowered.

  While he could only move a short distance now, what happened when it leveled up? Could he go further? Maybe even chain teleports together?

  “I can only use once,” Riu said, wiping some spit from his chin. “Too much mana.”

  It had several drawbacks, but if Riu managed to survive and level that skill, it would become very useful.

  Seems like these tier C skills and spells aren’t all that powerful at level one. I’d never seen a fireball as pitiful as the one I’d been blasting off. But the skill said it would have “explosive” results at level three. How much stronger do these spells get as they gain levels?

  While I was still deep in thought, something skittered in the forest. I pushed myself up, listening. Sounded like more sand crawlers, the little ones thankfully. But there was something else, something I couldn’t place.

  Riu was still struggling to keep that apple down when we spotted the first coming at us from the forest. In all the black trunks and roots, the eel thing almost blended in. But then it hissed, and charged, no concern for its own safety.

  It got a fireball right in the face, then another a moment later.

  Riu raised an eyebrow as I blasted the monster a third time. Was probably wondering how I had so much mana. Then he drew his daggers and moved a bit in front of me, ready to slash anything that got too close.

  Several more came skittering at us from down the short slope. I missed my first few shots, but then nailed one right in its freaky ass legs.

  Notice: Fireball has gained a level!

  The notification was accompanied by a Ding! that sounded like it came straight from a retro arcade game. Guess it’s time to see how much these improve with levels.

  My next fireball was about three times the size of my last one.

  Energy exploded from my chest and into my fingertips, the blast sending a jolt of recoil through my arm. The roiling sphere of flame blasted into a tree, tearing a massive chunk of bark off as it sizzled out of existence.

  “Holy shit.”

  They were getting closer now, and I shot again, this one also a miss. With the extra firepower, my aim was thrown off. If I didn’t start hitting my shots, we’d be swarmed.

  The tightened palm around my staff tingled, static building up around my hand. Despite the monsters, I glanced down and noticed veins of blue spreading up the length of wood, each river of energy flowing toward the crystal at the staff’s tip. Focusing on the power coursing through my fingers, I directed the energy into the staff, then raised it.

  My fireball appeared over the crystal, but it did not shoot. It waited there, spinning, the air crackling with heat. My mind was connected to the staff, mana flowing through me to the amplifier.

  Then I gave the command, and the spell launched into the rushing horde.