The Beast and the Sage

Levi looked around. He'd appeared in a far more developed area than he had expected. It seemed to be an entire compound. He couldn't see much of it because where he was currently standing, there was a clusterfuck of people milling about. From what he could see of it, it didn't look super modern, but it didn't look like anything from a fantasy setting either.

Before he could really begin getting his bearings, a notification popped up.

__________

SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT

The final person has arrived in the safezone. 150/150

Your safety and well-being are a priority.

To ensure you all experience a comfortable transition, we have made the following accommodations:

For one month, simple rations will be available in an unlimited supply in the canteen provided at the safezone. After the first month, simple rations will be available at the canteen at a small experience cost for five additional months.

In addition, each of you have been granted a small storage pack, and a welcome package has been placed in your inventory. It provides a number of items you will need, including potions and suitable equipment for your new classes.

A library is available for everyone. It will provide Profession and basic Skill Tomes. You may only take two professions and are limited to learning only the basic skills of your class and profession.

A select collection of very basic Ability and Spell Tomes will also be available. The system ensures any who want a book will get them, and they will respawn when taken from a shelf. Please do not fight over this resource.

In regard to those Professions, we have provided pre-planted gardens, livestock, a smithy, a tannery, an alchemist lab, a carpentry workshop, an enchanter workshop, a slaughter house, a bakery, a butchers shop, and much more.

We also have training grounds and archery ranges for those who would like to use them.

However, after six months, all rations and supplies will cease to be available. At that time, your future survival will be dependent on how well you've adapted as a community. Earn professions and take advantage of the resources you have been provided. No one needs to leave the safezone, but you must all adapt to survive.

As a final note, you have 24 hours to agree on a system of governance. The system will provide system mechanics for this new government. In addition, the system will enforce the rules of this government for the first six months.

Adapt and survive. Grow and prosper.

_______

Well, at least half of that was bullshit for Levi, but there were a couple things that he'd gladly take advantage of.

The first thing he did was check for the storage pack. It took him only a second to realize it was literally a leather pack that had suddenly manifested itself onto his shoulders. He gave it a quick look over, and when he went to open it, an inventory window popped into view.

'Hell yeah, spatial storage from the start is awesome.'

It had 25 slots, but one of those was occupied by a 'Welcome Package.'

He'd wait to open that.

For now, he was happy to have spatial storage and would worry about exactly how to fill it later.

He was planning on leaving as quickly as possible. He didn't exactly have a long time, Parched Soul was already ticking. He found he could see the status of the debuff if he thought about it, but more than that, he could actually feel it on a mental or emotional level. It was this sense of restlessness or anxiety weighing on him.

But he had a plan.

He'd grab as many potions as he could, raid the library for all of the Spell and Ability Tomes, plus any other books if they actually had things other than Tomes, then he'd pack the rest with food rations.

He realized he should probably find something to light fires, a torch, and maybe a bedroll if he could find one. If he could get his hands on something for a makeshift tent, that would be nice, too.

Hopefully, he'd be out of the safe zone in a couple of hours. He wasn't planning on going far. He would set up camp just out of sight from the safezone so that he wouldn't be bothered. He'd stay there for at least a few days, trying to learn what he could and getting his bearings, and then he'd figure things out from there.

Okay, maybe he was moving too fast and overthinking things a bit. Maybe he should slow down and make sure he had everything he needed first. Even if that cost him some time.

Levi took a deep breath. First, he had to see about a girl.

____

"Hey, do you know a girl named Paige?"

That was his theme song for at least twenty minutes. Until finally, someone actually knew where she'd gone.

An old lady was sitting by a firepit and apparently having a heated debate about the future drug laws of the safezone. When he'd walked up, she was explaining how prohibition had only ever had negative results and how drug laws were entirely unnecessary under the circumstances anyway.

It was the governance stuff that he had no interest in. Apparently, a few people were taking it seriously.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a girl named Paige," Levi said.

The old lady's head snapped around. "Paige? I met her. Why are you looking for her?" Her voice was filled with challenge, but Levi really didn't feel like dealing with it.

"Being honest, it is kind of her business. If you don't want to tell me where she is, I'm not going to argue. There's only 150 people here and not too many places to check."

The old lady shrugged. "She walked that way earlier, but I can't be sure she's still there," she said, pointing.

"Can you tell me what she looks like, to make finding her a little easier?"

The old lady's eyes narrowed, "How are you looking for her and don't know what she even looks like?"

"I'm doing someone a favor."

"Hmph, well. She has black hair and curls. Light brown skin. Kind of doe-eyed. Probably about 5'2". She was wearing a light yellow tank top."

"Thanks," Levi answered and headed in that direction.

He passed an archery range and what looked like a sparring ring. There were a few practice dummies in both. Levi rounded the tall walls of the archery range, but there wasn't anything behind it except the treeline.

He'd figured the walls would be enough to keep arrows from getting past and striking anyone. But it had also been placed so that nothing was down range, either. It took him a moment to realize the walls may not always be strong enough as bow users gained levels.

Levi doubted Paige had gone into the forest this soon, especially by herself. He didn't know her, but most people wouldn't wander in under these circumstances. The only reason Levi planned to is that he didn't have much choice and didn't actually think the immediate areas were going to be all that unsafe, even if it wasn't technically in the safezone. He also had a fair amount of experience in the woods from his childhood.

Levi was about to start scanning the perimeter for the best place to look next when he heard what sounded like a young woman yell out about fifty yards into the treeline.

"Hey, come back. I just want to hold you and talk!"

Levi thought that was a pretty strange thing to hear yelled out in a forest, but he'd just be glad to keep his promise to Rick and be able to get to work on his plan.

He started walking into the woods, trying to hear more and locate her, but it was quiet. He made it about 40 yards before a voice a few yards slightly behind him spoke.

"Who are you, and what do you want?"

Levi got so spooked that, on instinct, he literally jumped, tried to turn towards the voice as he was jumping, tripped in the process, and then landed in what he hoped wasn't poison ivy.

"Jesus... Fuck..." was all he'd managed before faceplanting in the hopefully benign vines

For her part, Paige had deliberately snuck around him. She had been worried he'd been David from earlier, maybe hanging on to a grudge. And she had been going for intimidating, but not trying to scare him that bad. Now, she figured he couldn't be all that dangerous and chose to drop the intimidation act. Besides, her giggling was kind of ruining it.

Levi rolled over onto his back, "Holy shit you scared the hell out of me." He was a little pissed off, but when he saw her smiling and holding a hand down to help him up, most of that passed. Her smile was just... somewhere between radiant and delightful in a way that was better than the two.

After she got him standing, they stared at each other for a moment, then Levi realized it was getting awkward.

"I'm looking for a girl named Paige. That you?" He noticed, a second after he'd asked the question, that she was wearing a yellow tank top and matched every other description. Levi decided not to bring up that he had her description. It would probably feel weird at this point.

"Yeah, why?" Paige thought for a moment, "Oh is Grace looking for me?"

"No... I was told to give you this on behalf of Mr. Stowe." Levi fished the coin from his pocket and offered it to Paige.

She took it and looked at it. It was just a simple dull grey coin without any design or embellishment. "What is it?"

"Not sure, Rick refused to tell me, but he did say to tell you Mr. Stowe said to use it when you feel you need him the most." Levi decided against saying the part about being a decent sort. It would definitely come across weird, no matter how it was said.

"Who the fuck is Rick?"

"My interviewer. Pretty sure it was the same Entity as your Mr. Stowe, but just a different version. At least based on everything I picked up." Levi paused for a moment and then realized something was bugging him. "By the way, what are you doing out here? I am pretty sure I heard you yell out about trying to catch someone and hold them."

Paige smiled that smile again, "Oh, that was a frog. It was cute, and I was trying to figure out how to use my skill on it."

"Uh huh. Makes sense. And sneaking up on me? Another skill or ability?"

"Nope. It was the same skill, Beastspeak. All of the squirrels were chittering about where you were as soon as you walked into the woods. I don't think I can use my ability yet."

"Well, at least you figured out how to use your skill," Levi added helpfully.

Paige shook her head. "Not really. I can kind of understand them, but only vaguely. I instinctually interpret what they're saying, at least with the squirrels. I haven't figured out how to get them to understand me, yet. But I haven't gotten the chance to really talk to any of them, either. They've actually been assholes, tossing nuts down at me."

"Huh, that's interesting... that means that even system assistance doesn't grant automatic knowledge or proficiency. That might actually make the gap a little smaller than I thought." Levi was muttering to himself by the end. He had trailed off, and stood staring into space thinking. It was like he'd forgotten Paige was even there.

Levi came out of his thought, and realized he had went quiet, "Sorry about that. Hey, look, I've got some stuff I really need to take care of. It was nice meeting you."

Paige had watched Levi go through being scared shitless, to reasonably confident, and now acting squirrelly. She thought it was cute. And he wasn't a bad looking guy, either.

He wasn't super tall, somewhere about 5'10" and 5'11". He had brown hair to just below his neck and a short well kept beard. He kind of had a little fat around the belly, but not a lot, and he had a decent amount of muscle.

She didn't really think anything would happen between them, but you never know, so she decided she may as well toss out a line.

"Yeah, I get it. But you think you may want to hang out and talk more later? You seem to know a little about the system stuff, and I might need some help." Truthfully, she thought she could figure it out, and would have if she'd only caught that adorable frog, but sometimes you throw a guy a bone.

He cocked his head and squinted his eyes at her a bit. Is she subtly hinting or flirting with me? Nah, no way.

Part of him wanted to tell her that he wouldn't be able to, due to how busy he was about to be. Then he remembered what Rick had said about her having a hard time finding people to trust. Levi wasn't sure how true that was based on his initial impressions of her, but for the sake of doing the right thing, he relented.

If he was being honest, he also thought she was absolutely gorgeous, so there was that.

She might be a little out of his league in regarding looks, but never count yourself out, and don't worry about it.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be..." Levi turned around in a quick circle, looking at the area. "Here, actually. This place is perfect to set up camp."

It was surrounded by dense enough trees, with a clearing just large enough to place a small camp but not large enough to easily stumble across. It also had the walls of the archery range to block any excess light from a fire that may escape the treeline. And as far as Levi could tell, there weren't any paths leading out of the safezone nearby.

It was the perfect place to hunker down and learn a skill or two before moving on.

Paige hesitated, not really understanding what he was doing setting up camp right outside the safezone, but then realized her own restrictions regarding safezones. He probably had something like that. "Okay, sounds good. I'll come by tomorrow or something. See you then."

Levi gave a small nod, "Yeah, see you then. Hey, we'll get to see each other's starting equipment."

Paige hesitated, "Our what?"

"Our..." That's when Levi noticed she didn't have the pack that he was wearing... that everyone in the safezone was wearing. "Hold on." With a thought, he pulled up the System Notification from when he'd arrived. He began looking for a way to share it, but as soon as the thought entered his mind, he received a prompt.

**Share System Notification Y/N?**

With a thought, he selected yes.

He watched Paige read through it. First, she was interested, then confused. When she was done, she stood there with a blank look on her face for a moment before a light bulb went off in her head.

"Fuck me, I left before the last person arrived! I missed out on the stuff you all got." Paige explained.

Levi just shrugged, "Trust me, it could be a lot worse."

Paige just glared daggers at him.

______

After Paige and Levi went separate ways, Paige had a concerning thought. Something was making her act different.

She'd only been here for a little over an hour. The world had just changed. Sure, he'd been cute, but that would never have been more than a stray thought before. That shouldn't have even been a thought in the current situation.

Fuck, she didn't even get his name.

Something was messing with the way she thought and behaved. It wasn't the first time. Was her class affecting her? She needed to figure it out.