Chapter 134 - Catching Up

I struggled to not let anything show on my face from her question. It wasn't something I wanted to get into yet. Especially without Abigail.

"We will discuss it when we get there. It's not a conversation I wish to get into now." My words did little to assuage my mom but it got her moving again, if a bit slowly.

The rest of the trip was silent. The last 30 minutes were only accompanied by the sounds of nature and the leaves blowing in the wind. Even Gabriel's curiosity about my powers was put on the back burner.

Part of me was relieved when the ramshackle walls came into view but the other part felt dread. Dread at telling her that he was no longer with us.

Abigail came rushing out when she saw us and had much the same reunion as I had. Big hugs before wondering what happened to Gabriel, except she used a few healing skills to examine the extent of the damage.

There were smiles and happy faces for the first time in a while upon our return. It was proof that others had survived and people kindled hope at their loved ones being the same.

Leaving Abigail, Gabriel, and my Mother to get reacquainted, I searched out Hal and Austin to get an idea of what was around us. Both weren't hard to find and I could soon put levels and creatures on the map of our surroundings.

Their scouting surveyed a few miles in every direction and circled the camp we had thrown together. The hours I was gone gave them long enough to get pretty far out.

Austin was the faster of the two, but both had Agility as a focus. Hal's Wind Law helped him keep up with Austin's speed.

Upon my return, and the low-threat evaluation of the surroundings, it was Jonathan's turn to venture out to find what was left of his family along with a few others.

Of the 17 of us who returned, other than Abigail and I, four others had extended family they wished to gather. All of my father's family had gathered before the tutorial hit which put most of us together.

The only people that had family elsewhere were the in-laws. The people who had married into the family and had siblings or parents that they wished to gather.

Jonathan had two siblings, a brother and sister, along with his parents. Rachel was an only child but had both parents still living. My Aunt Sam only had a sister still out there as both of her parents had passed some time ago.

Lastly, Lucy, Vincent's wife, had family but she was from Colorado and there was no way we could get there. A 30-minute trip by car had been turned into a multiple-hour journey.

Getting to Colorado would take weeks if not months, and that was without any interruptions or detours. She was understandably upset but held out hope.

We focsed on getting my immediate family first for a few reasons. One, they were the closest, they were only a few minutes away before the world changed and wouldn't take that long to retrieve.

Two, they were the simplest. They were the only ones who wouldn't lead to a cascading effect. Everyone else was going to run into the problem of branching people. Jonathan's siblings both had families, who had in-laws, who had families.

It would explode quickly.

My Mother was estranged from her family and didn't speak with them while my brother had yet to start one. They were the only two I had to gather.

Everyone else was going to have... complications.

We weren't going to turn anyone away but they were going to take longer to gather the people they needed while I only had to go there and back, which only took a few hours.

The third reason we retrieved my family first was, well, because I wanted to. It was a bit selfish but it was a perk of being the leader.

Now that I was back we didn't have to worry about that as much.

All three; Sam, Jonathan, and Rachel, were free to go out and search for their missing family while I would secure the camp. We didn't expect anything bad to happen now that we had scouted the area and knew the levels we were dealing with, but we had kids to worry about and protect.

Sam was a healer, and while she had high levels in both class and profession, wasn't the most lethal of the group. She took two of her kids with her, Alice and Mitchell.

Mitchell was up there in strength with his Body of Wood and Alice was a decent Ice Mage. They were higher level than anything they would find and I trusted them to not get into any trouble.

Jonathan was powerful enough to go alone and that was a good thing. His family was the farthest away and traveling solo would allow him to cut down on travel time.

Rachel was the most powerful mage we had and she refused to take anyone with her. She was adamant that she would be fine and that they would only slow her down.

No one was going to force the issue and soon, we were four people lighter around camp.

Depending on what situations they all ran into, most wouldn't be back until the following day. Afterward, we would have to evaluate the situation. People had friends or family friends they wanted to gather but all of that would have to wait.

Family came first.

Speaking of family, my stalling had run out. Abigail was waving me over and it seemed like the time had come.

I was in for an unpleasant conversation.

~~

"He's really gone?" Both Gabriel and my mother said.

It was rough, but we made it through the story. Abigail started crying halfway through and I had to take over. I debated saying he died to a wave but I wasn't going to lie to them.

Not about this.

Telling them he died to a mind-controlled monster wave took context and we ended up having to recount our entire tutorial. From the waves and pylons, to the Mindbreaker and what happened after.

It took hours to get through everything that happened and there were sure to be small details we missed, but the overall story was complete.

My mother and brother did not take it well. It was to be expected but seeing them break down almost made me falter. There were tears and hugs but there were still a few things to say.

"We were with him before he died. He wanted us to tell you he loved you, and that he'll be waiting for you." My eyes teared up against my will saying that to my mom but I pushed through.

"And to you, Gabe," I said, "He said to live long and prosper."

What happened after was better left unmentioned. People deserved privacy in their time of grieving.

~~

The rest of the day took a while to get back into the swing of things. The joy of reuniting was stifled by telling them what happened. The whole thing overshadowed everything else that they didn't get a chance to tell us what happened.

I was told a monster took Gabriel's legs but I wasn't going to insist on hearing the how right now.

Abigail and the other healers had looked him over and were optimistic about regrowing them. They weren't sure how long it would take but they were confident in their ability to do so.

I did not want to reopen the wound of my father's death but the story was necessary and hearing some good news made the day a tad easier.

Gabriel's excitement was thoroughly extinguished but we still chatted about a few things.

It wasn't until the next morning that we heard their story.

"We didn't have a pylon to defend or a wave of monsters we had to fight. We were dropped in an open area with a giant opening in the center of the clearing. It was a hole in the ground going deep into the earth." My mother started.

"Everyone was confused and justifiably afraid for the first few hours and it wasn't until we received a notification to explore the dungeon that things settled down. People were skeptical at first but the first people went in after the notification and soon, more and more people started going into the dungeon. That's when we got our first levels.

"Monsters spawned in the caverns and tunnels that we had to fight and the deeper we went the stronger they got. The first level wasn't that bad but the difficulty increased the farther along you went-"

"They're called floors, Mom, and the first floor ranged from levels 1-10." Gabriel interrupted.

"Floors, levels, same thing." She said which made Gabriel shake his head, "There were different checkpoints that people managed to reach that had rewards. A chest after defeating a particularly hard monster or for exploring somewhere unknown."

"Mini-bosses and loot drops." Gabriel chimed in again.

"The first few days were rough. We didn't have any experience with skinning animals, or cooking by campfire, but it got better as time went on."

It sounded similar to how we started. Skinning and cooking animals for food.

"The dungeon monsters were inedible which forced us to hunt in the clearing. Buildings and shelters began to pop up and we soon had the beginnings of a town. After the first floor was defeated by someone, a pylon spawned in the center of our town. It allowed us to spend the points we received from killing monsters on various things."

We were familiar with pylons so she didn't have to explain what they did and moved on.

"People adapted. Groups formed and people explored the dungeon or chose not to. It soon became apparent some were doing more than others. Level gaps began to appear and that's when it went downhill."

It wasn't hard to guess what happened next.

"Stealing loot, taking other people's gear, forcing them to give you points. It got rough for a while before factions started to form. The two biggest were the Adventurers and the Knighthood.

"The Adventures tried to monopolize the dungeon and control who went in and out while the Knighthood stood against them. They claimed to be fighting for the people but it was clear what they really wanted. It was a fight for control over the dungeon.

"Gabriel and I stuck together and tried not to get involved. We explored the dungeon and tried to level the safest way we could. It was hard at first since we were both Mages, but it got easier. We paid the tax to whoever was in control and we went about our day.

"Gabriel constantly wanted to go deeper. Face stronger monsters and level faster. We were defeating the monsters easily enough, so I agreed. We went down a floor and the fights were hard, but we managed fine enough.

"Until we ran into a boss with a Law. We didn't know what they were at the time and were severely outmatched. It took everything in me to drag Gabriel away after what happened."

She went into more detail after that but the gist of it was clear. While unfortunate, I was just happy they were alive.

His legs would be able to grow back and he would eventually be whole again. Their story continued but it was more of the same after that. Fighting for levels, getting points of food.

Even though their tutorial was less chaotic, we talked throughout most of the morning and into the afternoon.

After they finished, Gabriel finally got to ask his questions and I regaled him in my accomplishments. I told him everything and he constantly asked questions to clarify.

I had already told him of my level but that was only my class level. He nearly burst with excitement when I told him my profession.

It was unsurprising to learn he chose to be an enchanter and he was giddy to know I was a Runesmith. He focused more on the mana side of enchanting though which was slightly different than runes. Similar, but different.

I told him of my Affinity, my Law, my Body of Wood, my Spirit Anchor. Even some of my skills.

"You have a Lesser Law? How?"

"What's a Spirit Anchor?"

"Body of Wood?"

His mouth wasn't able to keep up with the questions he wanted to ask.

He was my younger brother and it felt good to brag a bit. It shocked me to learn that we had the same affinity. Both of us had the Ice affinity which I thought I was alone in.

Abigail took after our father with Water and my mother had Wind. I had assumed I was the only one with Ice. It was nice to share that between us.

He also had a Least Law of Ice which was just below my own Lesser one. He didn't have a Spirit Anchor or Body Refining but he was already brainstorming what they could be after hearing my explanation.

My affinity would soon upgrade to Arctic but it was still the same.

My mother took a bit of a backseat while Gabriel prattled on but I learned she also had a Least Law and it was one I was greatly interested in. She had a Wind Law.

Upgrading my affinity would put me out of commission for a few days which required me to wait until the others came back but getting another Law was a great way to spend the time.

I waited until Gabriel ran out of steam before asking my mother for insight, "Can you attack me with your strongest skills and Law?"

I had asked Hal the same but we had never had the time and the few times we did, it never managed to achieve anything. We were too different in what we wanted.

His Law was centered around his arrows which made it hard for me to connect to. I didn't want to increase the speed of arrows or decrease air resistance. He also had a rotational aspect which didn't really apply.

It was hard to gain insight from his Law when I was going for entirely different concepts.

Getting shot at helped but it wasn't worth our time. The closest I got to forming it was inside the Wind Chamber but my mind was too distracted to complete it.

Now that another person with a Wind Law showed up it was the perfect time to pound it out.

My running thoughts and the idea of finally getting a Wind Law distracted me for a moment and I looked back to see my mother making a horrified face. She looked appalled at the thought of attacking me and looked at me as if I were crazy.

Ah, shit. I had meant to ease her into my new crazy but it seemed we were going straight to the deep end.