Before I left the camp I chose a secluded spot and began the summoning ritual. I couldn't believe how much mana I had and how much easier the process was. I had a lot of theoretical knowledge from my time with Nathan and so I knew what to do. I put more mana in different places of the formation and when I was ready - I activated it, and my mana flowed like a river. When the fog cleared and my summoned bear got its seal, I walked over to examine it. It was much larger than before and seemed somehow more fearsome and confident. Its claws were larger and sharper and its muscles bigger. A smile appeared on my face and I hurried towards town.
During the night, zombies had moved into the territories we had pushed them out of and were spread thin again. The various hunters and hunting parties had gotten much better at hunting and soon we had to move further into the city. With the help of my imp and my new summon, I was able to go considerably further in with less risk, but I didn't want to overdo it. There was so much to learn and train and I preferred to do it in a safer environment. However, I was a bit further in than most and was jumping from group to group thanks to my constantly-scouting familiar. Fortunately, it turned out that the zombies weren't trying to ambush us, nor were they trying to hide in the buildings. They preferred to walk slowly along the streets, where it was easier for them to cluster and chase some more careless hunter.
However, their speed was increasing day by day and things were getting more and more complicated. If we met the current zombies on the first day, there would be many casualties. In addition, some fatter and more muscular zombies started to appear, or ones that were faster and somewhat stronger than the others.
Over the past two days, I had learned a multitude of tricks with my bear, and the months of training with my crossbow in the Choice Room were now paying off many times over. Despite the arrow pulling technique, I was running out of large portions of them. There was nothing stopping me from not using them, but I would have hunted slower that way and missed the opportunity to train my weapon. Using the crossbow, mana balls, and even rocks from the ground, I would attract the zombies' attention, and the bear would attack them in the back or from the sides, ideally with enough space to charge at them with great speed and force. Sometimes I wished I also had a long spear to attack the zombies along with my bear, that way I wouldn't give them a chance to focus on it.
Towards noon, I came across a zombie that was shooting spells of negative energy. I had talked to a magician who specialized in this kind of energy and knew what it looked and felt like. I focused my arrows and bear on it and took it out before the others, but that just showed how much more dangerous the zombies were becoming.
Garat Breg, who I met a few times today, also had the theory that these new zombies were coming from further into the city.
"Every night zombies come from inside the city and fill the areas we cleared," he said. "It makes me wonder how strong the ones in the center of town are and what is awaiting us there."
His words got me thinking and I started to work more seriously.
Despite my new levels of mana and the potion I had consumed, I could feel myself continuing to develop my mana cultivation and strengthening my magical channels. I could see my strength slowly and gradually increasing, bit by bit.
This caused me to stop and meditate more and more often during the day. Not only was I recharging my mana and improving my control over it but most importantly, there was a lot of work I had to do on the development and expanding of my energy channel network.
My goal was simple - to have significantly more mana and also regenerate it faster. Besides, when I was done building the channels, I would move on to the next phase in my development as a mage. This would give me the ability to summon far more powerful or numerous creatures, and give me the ability to cast more powerful spells.
The zombie hunt wasn't mandatory at all. There were fish in the river. I found out that there was a lot of game in the forest and many edible plants and fruits. The shop sold various books and atlases that helped in identifying useful vegetation and animals. I think that very soon, the first professional game hunters and cooks would appear. After all, a big doe weighed a lot of pounds and could feed a lot of people. And the food in the store also came with a warning that quantities were limited. How limited and for how long - no one knew.
It was also very important that while I was meditating I was calming my mind and feelings. Experiencing this new world, the constant killing of zombies, as well as the huge levels of adrenaline, shook the psyche of us all. I was very grateful for the choices I had made.
The hard work of attacking in close combat fell to my bear, and my imp kept circling around me warning me of dangers. This gave me a much greater peace of mind, and I could bear the hardships more easily. However, often, just as I closed my eyes, the corpses of dismembered zombies would appear before my eyes, and their screams would haunt my dreams. Fortunately, the human brain was wired in such a way that it could get used to just about anything, and I hoped to adjust safely to life in this fearsome world.
In the late afternoon I came across the bodies of several hunters. I recognized them by the mana that was rising after the death of the creatures and theirs was much cleaner than that of the zombies. The strangest thing was that they had been killed by arrows. I looked around, maybe I was in danger too. I hurried over to one of the nearby buildings and sent my imp to investigate. He found nothing suspicious and I decided to investigate the nearby area and buildings.
There were a number of almost completely ruined buildings around and only about nine of them were relatively stable. After exploring a little more than half of them, I finally came across signs of people. I hurried inside the building and soon heard voices coming from somewhere below. After looking around carefully, I found a hidden door that led to an underground floor! I entered through it and approached the human voice.
"Don't worry, you can count on me for anything." came the muffled voice. "I will guard you and bring you food. "
(In the interest of "political correctness", some of the following material is distorted and does not correspond to reality. Read at your own risk!)
When I got closer, I saw two men tied with ropes, one of them with his clothes torn. In front of them stood a beautiful woman who spoke to them with her face flushed with lust.
"In this new world, the weaker sex will not be able to last long without protection. But I will protect you and take care of you. I will turn this dungeon into our fortress of love, where together we will survive this tutorial."
As she said this, the woman kept massaging the intimately exposed man, and he looked at her in horror and panic. His mouth was gagged, but I could see the terror in his eyes. I looked at the other man. He knew what was coming and was trying to stay as far away from the woman as possible. He was tied to a massive chair and had nowhere to escape, so his gaze was that of a rabid animal being watched by an evil predator.
As I watched the scene, an anger I had never felt before raged in my chest. How could here, surrounded by danger, in a city full of zombies, in a game where many of us would find our deaths, this monster slaughter his group and capture these gentle creatures and sexually assault them? Making plans to turn the tutorial island into a nest of abominable lust and vile passions? That was simply unthinkable.
I mentally dressed myself in my imaginary shining knightly armor and with an epic and majestic gesture... sent my bear to deal with the self-absorbed woman.
I had decided to preserve the life of this sociopath, this monster, so that others might see that in addition to the dangers outside, we would have to deal with the dangers we were used to seeing on Earth. Robberies, murders, rapes, political incompetence and amateur literature.
Fortunately, we wouldn't have to think about overpopulation, global warming, the melting of the ice caps, the hole in the ozone layer, starvation in Africa, and the unlawful piracy of music and movies.
So my trusty bear attacked the woman surprisingly in the back and since it had the higher ground, its victory was complete and decisive! After receiving a paw behind her neck, the woman lost consciousness and slumped to the floor.
The two bound young men watched the scene with wide eyes. Perhaps they were wondering what new horror awaits them. Perhaps, in their eyes, the bear was a thousand times more frightening than the woman on the floor.
However, I hurried after my bear and appeared before them, in all my majesty.
"I am Meridin Zlodar, a summoner, and this is my bear. I am here to save you." I hastened to introduce myself.
"Meridin Zlodar! "I could imagine their thoughts. "Here to save us!"
"He looks like an angel from heaven. He is so magnificent!"
After standing majestically for a few seconds, I cleared my throat briefly, then untied the captives' ropes. The naked young man made a few strange squeaky noises, blushed profusely, and hurried to the next room where their packs were.
"Thank you Sir Meridin!" the other young man began to thank me in an uneven voice. "If it weren't for you... we... would have..."
The young man's face contorted in pain and his eyes filled with tears.
In order to preserve the dignity of those involved in this scene, I will spare the subsequent events and go directly to what happened when we got into town and everyone saw the two young boys and their evil rapist!
A huge crowd gathered, and I tied the woman to a thick tree. She had woken up and was looking at me viciously and with sincere and undisguised hatred.
I sat down and slowly began to write my testimony. When I finished I hung them on the tree next to the villainess. By this time a curious crowd had formed and everyone came over and began to read my beautiful calligraphy.
"Shame on you, an old woman raping young boys." I heard a voice from the crowd.
"Two whole boys at that. Isn't one enough for her." spoke a sorceress with big glasses and eyes glowing with loneliness.
"If everyone starts kidnapping boys like that, they'll run out!" some of the crowd hastened to agree.
"Once upon a time, people respected their parents and nobody raped." an old nihilist philosopher ranted. "It's all the television's fault..." he decided, defying all logic and evidence.
"And the government, and the government." shouted others.
Soon, however, those with the crazier and weirder opinions got tired of being ignored and the argument became somewhat abstract, noisy and off-topic. Before long, however, things got serious again.
People were shocked by the incident and realized that they now live in a world without police and lack of laws. Many people suggested different punishments for the rapist. Some were practical, others not so much, some were well reasoned, others appealed to our animal instincts. I decided to address the crowd. I sent my bear to lie down by the tree with the woman I had arrested and climbed on top of it. Then my gaze slid over the crowd and I slowly addressed them, my voice loud and clear:
"I'm the one who saw and arrested this woman," I began. "These two are her surviving victims." I pointed to the two boys. "You are the ones who have the power to decide what to do in other cases like this. But before that, let's think about the situation we are in.
We are in a new place. We are here to win a game. We are here to help humanity secure more resources from the galactic bureaucracy. Those resources are limited. They are invaluable to us young races. We must do our best to achieve this. We must not just think about morality and ethics, good and evil, but also about efficiency and progress. For unity and duty. At a time like this, we must take offense and move forward together and with a joint effort defeat the other races. To bring as much benefit as we can to our planet and our race.
I propose that we choose twenty people to lead us and each of them chooses up to four more and so take responsibility for building and running a united human camp.
To build a unified army. For introducing common laws to protect us all. For a common economic policy that helps the needs of humanity and the individual players.
I suggest that anyone who wants to be one of those 20 people hurry up and introduce themselves to the others. Аnd within a day, two or three at the most, organize an election and let's all start being more organized.
My name is Meridin Zlodar, son of Marquis Zlodar, maybe some have heard of the Zlodar family and know about our history. Maybe they haven't. I am also putting my name in for candidacy. And now I leave you to decide what to do with this woman and her victims. I will go to town with a group of volunteers to find the bodies of her other victims to bring them and bury them here, in the first human camp. In the first human cemetery.If there's any volunteers to gather at the south end of the camp, we leave in 10 minutes.
Having said that, I hurried away, ignoring all the questions and gestures from the crowd. One of the young men I had rescued came up to me and said with glowing eyes:
"Thanks for everything Sir Meridin. I will vote for you! We all need someone who knows what he's doing in this chaotic place."
"Do that," I replied after a brief pause and then continued to the exit of the city.
Ten minutes later, he and a large group of volunteers headed into town at a brisk pace. We didn't have much time and it would soon be dark. We knew the zombies were going to get a lot stronger, but we also knew that there were still people who preferred to hunt in the evening.
We kept up the high pace and after a number of zombie encounters we made it to the scene of the crime. I pointed out the bodies of the humans, we picked them up and after a brief inspection of the basement we hurried to the human camp.
Later in the evening, our group of volunteers, at my direction, lit bonfires and held a ceremony to bury the dead. Some asked to make speeches, but I asked for silence and respect for the dead. Many attended the funeral and many stayed late that night. I also had many conversations, mostly with hunters I knew, and with the first group of people we went out of town with.
Our camp had gotten bigger than the day before. Many new people were attracted by the tree shops, bringing the camp population to over 700. Very soon, here would be the official settlement of all the people in the tutorial.
About an hour or two after dark, I finished my meetings and conversations and headed for the tree shops.