Landin casually patrolled the wall again. Following close behind him Bahamut and Anima as well as several other people. Or well several other people he wished he could ignore.
"So what do you say there, fearless leader? Coming to the pub with us after rounds?"
"No, I'm underaged…" Landin replied with a sigh.
"Oh, that's right. Lad here only looks old! Forgot how that darn system fuckery works!"
Landin stopped, turning to look out from the top of the wall surrounding the city. The people behind him slowing to a stop, hopping up on boxes they brought out of their inventories to see over the ramparts of the wall.
Looking at the group he noticed quickly someone was missing. Someone who was always missing.
He brought his hand to his head, "Where is your brother?!"
"Oh, Falius?" one of the dwarves laughed, pointing down out past the wall, "He's holdin' off the monsters like he always is, yeah."
Landin followed the dwarve's hand. Immediately finding a lone dwarf throwing his hammer into the side of a monster, two more approaching him from behind as he roared.
"Don't worry lads! I'll hold them off! The city will stand so long as I live! Rock and Stone!" Falius shouted.
That was until the two monsters that he had failed to notice pounced on him from behind. The pair of wolves snapped their jaws around Falius's leg and arm in an attempt to penetrate his thick plate mail.
Falius screamed in pain, "Ah! The horde has me! Captain! Captain Landin, leave me behind! Protect the city! I'll hold them off for as long as I can!"
Landin sighed, waving for Anima and Bahamut to help Falius for the umpteenth time.
"Why is your brother like this…" Landin muttered under his hands, "And why did Natto make me the captain of a group of dwarves?!"
"That's very rude there isn't it Dalius?"
"Aye, he's being quite rude, Salius," Dalius agreed.
"You both could pass as blocks of stone, you know that?" a third chimed in.
"Not very kind of a brother to say to another brother dontcha think Kalius?" Salius reprimanded.
"Why would I care if it's kind? The only reason I am here is to observe Captain Landin and provide him with appropriate equipment based on his needs. I could give two pebbles about the rest of you lot…" Kalius said callously.
"You are all giving me a massive headache!" Landin shouted back, "Why! Why dwarves?! Why couldn't I have just gotten a normal squad like Kalik!?"
"Hey, we're normal!" Dalius grunted, fixing his leather chest piece.
Landin tried his best to keep his annoyance to a minimum. Anima and Bahamut returned with Bahamut carrying her as well as a struggling dwarf in his talons.
"Why in the bloody rock haven did you go and do that?! I had them right where I wanted 'em!" Falius growled, "Every time this blasted bird interrupts the greatest fight this city has ever seen!"
"You were fighting three wolves," Landin checked his kill notifications, "And they were all level 11. And you are…" he said flatly checking Falius's level, "Level 13. You should be able to handle them without a problem. You're a tank class too! What were you thinking? Going off on your own?"
"Aye. Sorry Captain Landin. My dwarven urge to hold off the swarm of enemies as my compatriots get to safety got away from me!" he laughed, "Rock and Stone brothers!"
"Rock and Stone!" Salius echoed.
"Stop…" Landin sighed.
"Aye, rock hard we are!" Dalius bellowed.
"Stop…" Landin began pleading.
"Stone strong, brothers!" Kalius added, for some reason, joining the chant.
"Stopppp…"
"Boulder Brutes!" they all shouted together.
"Shut up!" Landin roared, "I can only stand your bad dwarvish jokes for so long! Kalik! Thank fuck! Kalik come here and save me dude!"
Landin had spotted the eternally grumpy orc teen in the distance on top the wall. Behind him was a small squad of four as well, a mix of elves and humans.
"What is it?" Kalik grunted.
"You know exactly what it is. Spending too much time with these dwarves is driving me insane! All they ever talk about is stones, mining, weapons, and beer! Speaking of things, how has your squad taken to you? It's been a few days since Natto assigned them to us."
If it was possible, Kalik's disgruntled frown deepened.
"They have no backbone! They are unwilling to fight, unwilling to get dirty and test their strength!"
One of the elven women scoffed, "We are archers…"
"And you keep yelling at us to charge in with you!" another added.
"And I'm a mage? Like hello?" a female human explained with a sigh dripping with attitude.
"Lord Wallen fights with his firsts!" Kalik roared back.
"Yeah, but isn't he a dual class? Like hello?"
Landin placed his hand on Kalik's shoulder nodding his head in sympathy, "I see. You are dealing with the same my friend…"
Kalik grounded his teeth and balled his fists, "I do not understand these elven and human females! They use language I can not understand ahhh?! And that devilish girl will not leave me alone!"
Landin raised a brow, "Who Mordred? I thought we talked about this Kalik."
He leaned in, bringing his voice to a whisper, "She likes you dude."
"Everyone likes me! I am a prodigy! It is only natural!"
"No you moron! She likes you."
"I do not understand!"
Landin slapped his forehead.
"How can you be so…dense?"
During their back and forth, Landin's squad continued to watch the area, or at least tried to in-between their own bickering.
Since returning to the city, they had been in poor spirits. Losing Drake to whatever happened —that even Natto wasn't sure of— had been a blow to all of them. Charlotte had taken it the worse.
Even to the point she constantly left the city and the squad she had been assigned by Natto to fight beasts. Only coming back to check on Sah Ul' and visit Drake's frozen crystal at his home.
The rest of them however left the city in rounds. Switching duties on the wall to fend off monsters the city's guards couldn't handle. Which Landin would admit, was happening more often the closer they got to the world monster event.
Defeat the Waves!
Time until world wide quest commences: 41 Days, 18 Hours, 11 Minutes.
Your first test against adversity in your new world will put its new citizens to the test. Will you band together and overcome the endless waves of monsters as you fight for control of land, protect your loved ones, and conquer this new world? Or will you create the biggest schism between your new norm?
The problem itself wasn't the quest. But what not having Drake here during the event would imply.
"Oi, lad! We got another group," Salius shouted, stopping Landin and Kalik's discussion.
Landin moved to the edge of the ramparts, looking down at the group of twenty or so people walking to the wall and the gate below.
"There's just more and more of them…" Landin sighed.
It had been a little less than a week since Drake's pseudo comatose state. And somehow the word had gotten out despite Natto's lockdown on the city to prevent information leaking as long as possible. People had begun coming in droves every day to the city to well-
"Rejoice!" a man at the head of the group shouted.
"Ey get a load of this one boys, he's going to tell us another story!" Dalius laughed.
"Rejoice!" the man shouted again, "We have come to liberate you from the shackles of the oppressive tyrant! Never again shall you be forced to bend the knee to such a heinous overlord!"
Salacious chuckled, thumbing to the man, "Who's going to tell this joker we've already been saved a few times? I've been turned silly with how many times i've bloody heard it by now."
Landin looked down at the people pitiably, this type of group was more of the manageable type. They had dealt with far worse ones trying to take over the city.
"No, we're just fine, thanks. How about you turn around and go back to whatever place you want to take us too and leave us alone. Or better yet, do you want to tell me who keeps sending you people here? At least before she decides to make you?"
"I-I am here to save your wretched souls!? Do you not see how oppressed you are!? We have heard far and wide-"
"You were told to leave. Now leave or you will be detained," a cold female voice spoke from behind the group.
The entire group of twenty turned around. All of them confused as they looked at the woman not of their group, fiery red hair and piercing yellow gaze.
"Detained?" The leader of the group said with a scoff. "How will one person detain us?"
Landin groaned as Charlotte's aura ignited, a wave of lightning cascading over the area as each person of the group fell to the floor in spasms.
He pointed down, "Alright you four, go and round them up and put them away…"
"Why does it always have to be us, Salius?"
"I'm not sure, Dalius."
"Must be because young Landin has such trust in our capabilities!" Falius cheered.
"Aye, that must be it!" the rest agreed as they moved to the descending stairs, complimenting one another.
"My headache is coming back," Landing groaned, "At least Charlotte is back. Maybe we should all go visit Sarah and Claire. It's been a day or so since we did," he said openly to Kalik.
Kalik nodded as they both went down the stairs after the dwarves, going to meet Charlotte at the gate.
The walls had been improved since their first initial creation. Now more than just tall blocks of hardened earth there was some structure to them, reinforced with wooden pillars infused with the ambient mana made the combination of wood and earth as strong as steel.
The gates had been upgraded into mana forged steel thanks to the addition of the dwarves from Sandal.
Landin and Kalik waited with the dwarven quadruplets, as well as Kalik's squad of disgruntled mages and archers as the gate lifted to let Charlotte inside.
Landin inspected her but came back with nothing. Natto had handed out several accessories to everyone for identification and adverse effect protection.
He raised a hand all the same, "Welcome back Charlotte. How's the outside?"
"It is getting much worse. The monsters are growing in strength and somehow these groups keep avoiding the higher leveled E-Ranks surrounding the area," she explained, "We will have to go out and take care of them with Mordred, the twins, and Quetz I think. If we don't the non-combat classes will be in some trouble."
Landin nodded, turning to walk in stride with her as they moved back toward the city.
"Alright I'll let Natto know when we get back to Drake's. You're coming right? We can all go to the new restaurant next to the cafe too! Last I saw it was bumping! They even have a jazz band!"
"You mean that infernal noise you call pleasant?" Kalik frowned.
"Like OMG, I love that place!" one of Kalik's squad members beamed, "They have the best tomahawk steaks, even before the system I've never tasted anything like it."
Landin smiled, pointing to the girl, "See! Come on, we deserve a little luxury right? We can take out Sarah and Claire as well! And I know Ari is probably bored out of her mind with her administrative duties by now."
Charlotte pursed her lips nodding, "Fine, I have to drop off the monster cores to Natto anyway. And I want to see if there are any changes with them… At the ice I mean…"
Landin gave her a sympathetic look nodding back.
"I understand you want to take everything on just like the rest of us, but we couldn't have done anything. He just… I don't know, passed out when he ranked up. It wasn't your fault or anyone else's. Come on Charlotte, you know Drake would have told you the same."
"It doesn't matter, Landin. He will come back, he always comes back. We just have to protect this place until he does, just like he asked us," Charlotte said coldly, "I'll meet you both at Drake's house. I have something to take care of first," she suddenly said breaking off from them.
Landin opened his mouth to say something but stopped himself instead sighing.
"Even Claire isn't taking this nearly as bad as she is, and she's married to the guy!"
Kalik only grunted and continued forward with Landin close behind as they moved through the city.
Countless buildings had popped up with the influx of citizens from Sandal. Tall trees with houses in the branches made up several acres of area for the elves. In the distance smoke constantly billowed to the sky where dwarven workshops fired in perpetuity.
There were now specialty shops as well for anything under the sun. Bows, swords, spears, leather armor, heavy armor. There were even enchanting and ink tattoo trade shops. Infusers for magic stones made from Monster Cores. Not to mention healer stations at every gate for the patrols that kept the city safe.
Natto had started slowly building a local police or enforcing group since the town, now turned city's conception. And now they patrolled the city stopping civil disputes and keeping the peace.
Landin was happy because there was no corruption among the enforces. It was hard to get away with anything like that when your boss was near omnipotent and paid you well.
Natto, Ekko, and Tatsuki were all territory assistants. And while Tatsuki had not become a partner assistant to Natto, she still retained much of her capabilities as one while helping the other two with the city.
With them in charge, very little was able to pass into the city unnoticed. That was especially true with all three of them reaching E-Rank with Drake, Damien, and Leon ranking up.
All three assistants still needed to consume a boat load of E-Grade monster cores, but with the upgrade the city was safer than before.
As they continued down the streets, the bustling walkways reminded Landin of the time before the system. People happily going about their days as if the world wasn't filled with monsters that would tear you limb from limb. Or secret undead organizations trying to turn the whole world into a vampire petri dish. Or very unsecret organizations trying to cleanse the world of anyone they didn't deem fit.
But here within the city, it was hard to see them as worries. ReUnite just felt safe. Landin smiled.
How else could so many people get away with acting like life is still normal if it wasn't? He thought, perusing the shops as they passed.
Eventually they managed to get through the crowds to their destination. The center of the city and where the main residence was for the lord of the city and his family.
The city had begun calling it the inner sanctum as if it was some holy place no one was allowed to trespass into. But Landin and the rest of the students of the Tyrant Asuran simply called it home.