The Connected System

The front windows were all broken, the glass scattered inside and outside. The door’s hung off their hinges, leaves and other debris filling the entrance. Loch stood in the broken and ruined parking lot looking at the Grandfords. It had only been a couple weeks since they had raided it and its condition had worsened.

Was there anything of value left?

The bodies of over a dozen hobs lay around him, some of the Clan Brady fighters gathering swords and anything else of value from the creatures. Not that there was much.

There had been a few survivors, they had fled in the direction of the hob mound to the northeast, past the intersection of 202, 4 and 43. Loch had avoided it the last time he’d been down this way, and even had a quest related to it.

The Connected System didn’t seem to give out many quests that were not related to Dungeons. Did that mean the Hob’s mound would be considered a Dungeon? Cerie thought it might, which made Loch nervous about the plan.

It was too late to change the plans now.

“Do we bother with it,” Lucy Graham asked.

Mid-twenties, with shoulder length hair that had been long but since the Connection she had done in cornrows, she was the leader of one of the scavenger teams. Her Uncommon Class of Forager, had recently hit Level 7 during one of her runs, putting her near the top for the scavengers. It was her natural charisma and tactical mind that had given her lead of a team. Loch didn’t want to base everything around Levels, even though that was a driving factor. The dark skinned woman had been an inventory manager for one of the big box stores in Manchester before the Connection. She’d been driving through Northwood when it had hit.

Forager was an interesting Gathering Class, Loch thought. It gave Lucy the Ability to spot more valuable items. A very loosely defined Ability, it didn’t tell her what could be made or what the overall value of an item was, but just told her if it would be useful. It gave an overall indicator of condition and potential value. The more crafting recipes that Lucy knew, the more her Ability would become detailed, letting her find particular items. It also gave her an innate sense of direction and as she Ranked it up, she’d get lost less and less, remembering her path and where she had traveled before.

She wasn’t alone in having the Class. There were four more of the scavengers that had it. The rest had a Common Scavenger Class, those that had Classes. Loch and Cerie had tried to figure out what Lucy and the others had done to earn Forager over Scavenger. The Uncommon Class was far more useful and if they could direct others to it, it would benefit the Clan as well as the people given the choice.

Loch thought about her question. When he, his girls and the Millmans had raided the Grandfords they had taken a lot. Not anywhere near what the store had but that had been weeks ago. How much more had grown rotten and spoiled? What had the hobs taken or despoiled?

Would even a handful of cans of soup or vegetables be worth it?

Yes, he thought, it would.

“You think yours or the other teams could push shopping carts up the street and still be able to defend yourselves?,” he asked her, not taking her eyes off the store.

Lucy stepped back, looking west up route 4, then back across the parking lot. Like the road, the lot was a mess. Pushed up sections of pavement, large cracks and holes. It had only gotten worse as the increased extreme weather had hammered at the exposed sections of earth and pavement.

“It’ll be hard, but yeah, I think we can. Maybe a cart each. Two will probably be pushing it,” she said, probably remembering how Loch and his group had brought back two carts each. “We can fill our backpacks too,” she added.

“Take what you can,” Loch said. “All the teams inside to speed it up.”

“Got it,” Lucy said, trotting back to where the rest of the scavengers waited.

She started barking out commands, Loch thankful she hadn’t called him ‘lord’ like so many others were starting to do.

“Davis,” he called out, turning to look at the entrance on the eastern side of the Grandford’s parking lot. It had led to a sideroad that ran parallel to 202 before turning to connect, a short distance past the entrance.

Davis, and Harper, jogged up next to Loch.

“Take your team and guard the entrance facing the mound,” he told the teen, making his voice loud enough that Randy Sager who stood nearby could hear. Davis had been given command of his party, and Loch didn’t want to undermine that, but they all knew that Randy could and would take over if Davis got in over his head. “Once the scavengers have left the store, head for the mound.”

“Got it,” Davis said, starting to turn away.

“You have the sword,” Loch asked.

“Yeah, Erica’s carrying it.”

Loch nodded. Davis’ party didn’t have anyone capable of using the sword, which was only a Level Two weapon, but Loch hoped it would increase in Level after they had completed the quest. If not, there would probably be other rewards and nothing about the blade had indicated it was soulbound. They would be able to bring it back and give it to someone else. Or maybe one of the Clan’s future enchanters, if they managed to get one, could use it.

Maybe that would be how they got an enchanter.

Loch looked back at the party’s healer and the sword she had strapped to her back. He Activated Evaluate, it had been a very long time since he’d looked at the weapon.

BLADE OF JUDGEMENT

Level Two Weapon

+1% Attack every five weapon levels

+2% Slashing Damage every five weapon levels

+15% Critical Hit Chance, +2% every five weapon levels

-Speed Of Judgement: 25 Spirit Activation. Causes attack speed to double for five seconds. +5 seconds every five weapon levels.

He’d always found the Blade to be an odd one. Level Two but with some stats that would indicate something much higher. Cerie had said it was heavily enchanted but that because of the higher stats in Attack and Critical Hit Chance, the main functions of a weapon, it would be incredibly slow to Level. It was overpowered. The fairy had also said that it would hinder the development of the person using it, which was why Loch had never given the weapon to anyone.

Cerie thought it was more of a ceremonial blade than one actually used. It might have seemed powerful, but there were equally powerful and hidden drawbacks. She didn’t hold out much hope that it would be improved, or evened out, by finding evidence of the previous wielder.

The Blade was just so different from the other enchanted weapon they’d gotten from the Grandford’s raid. Brian had outleveled the giant club. Its enchantments were more in line for a Level Two weapon and aside from the special Ability, didn’t really help Brian out. The weapon hadn’t gained many Levels, and even if it had, the 1% bonus didn’t add up very fast.

Tremors Oak Club

Level Four Weapon

+1% Attack per every five Weapon Levels

+1% Bashing Damage per every five Weapon Levels

Requires Base Strength Of 25

-Tremor Bash Rank One: 50 Spirit Activation. When the weapon strikes the ground, it causes Off-Balance Debuff in a five foot radius, +2 foot radius every five weapon levels. Anyone in the area of effect must resist Earth elemental damage or receive Off-Balance Stun Debuff for five seconds, +2 Seconds every five weapon levels. 25% chance of causing Knockdown Effect, +2% every five weapon levels.

Brian would need a new one soon, as even the Tremor Bash Ability was growing outdated. Unlike the Blade Of Judgement, there was no way to improve the Club. And it wasn’t even a weapon that could be handed down. By the time anyone else got the Strength requirement, they’d either have a better weapon or the Tremors Oak Club would be useless for them as well.

For now, Brian was attached to the giant tree trunk of a weapon. It fit his role as Soldier well and the AOE from the Ability was sometimes useful when surrounded by a lot of enemies. Hopefully he’d get something new soon.

Hopefully they all would upgrade their weapons soon.

Either by a Clan blacksmith and enchanter or from the Dungeons.

If the hobs mound did end up being a Dungeon, that increased the number the Clan had access to. Even though they were now over a day away from the Clanhold, the intersection of the routes was still considered Clan territory.

Davis gave commands to his team, the rest rushing forward. He held back, standing near Harper. Loch turned the other direction, moving away from them, fighting the urge to try and listen in to their conversation. He had to remember that Harper was fifteen. She’d had boyfriends before. He walked out to the middle of Route 4, where most of the rest of the Clan’s people were waiting.

Piper was sitting on the ground, a notebook in front of her. Cerie said in front of her, the fairy’s natural glow turned as low as it could go. She was talking, her small hands waving in the air as she talked. Piper was writing as fast as she could, a page slightly glowing as she finished it and turned to another. The notebook was one of Kristin’s creations, tied to a master one back in the Clanhold. Anything Piper wrote was mirrored in the other book.

Loch had gotten tired of his ever-growing list of questions that just led to more questions. There was so much to the Connected System and having Cerie just tell him wasn’t useful. The Clan needed to start building a library of knowledge. Everything Cerie knew about the Connection, everything they were learning, it had to be written down for future generations. Piper hadn’t liked the idea, since she’d be doing most of the writing when they were away from the Clanhold and would need to be present for the rest, but she understood the need.

Everynight, and sometimes if the rests during the day were long enough, she’d sit with Cerie and start writing down knowledge. It was haphazard, not in any particular order or reference, just whatever thread Piper or Loch thought of. It would get more organized later, and Loch knew they weren’t being the most efficient about it, but it was progress.

After the battle with the gaunts, that was Loch’s goal for the entire Clan. Progress.

He walked over to stand next to Drew, who stared at the archway leading into the Chelsey Cemetary and Challenge Dungeon. His team was getting the last of their gear together.

“You sure you want to enter?,” Loch asked.

When he had first come up with the idea of the expedition, trying to get as many of the various hanging threads out of the way at the same time, he had debated who to give each of the potential goals to. The hob mound, Challenge Dungeon and library were the goals. There were houses further past the intersection, and maybe even other survivors in Lee, Barrington or Nottingham, but there was still plenty between the intersection and the Clanhold. Lots of houses and streets to scavenge and a couple more areas to check out.

Areas that Loch wanted to check out. It wasn’t that Loch wanted any potential rewards for himself, it was because he was the highest Level and these were untested areas. He didn’t know the Level of the hob’s mound, but he knew the Levels of the hobs. He’d been in the Challenge Dungeon. Those were threats that others could deal with.

The debate had come between Davis and Drew over which team got which. The mound or the Challenge Dungeon. Each wanted the Challenge Dungeon for the potential rewards. It had been Cerie that had ended the argument. They could each do the Challenge Dungeon, just one would get to go first, the other would have to wait. Which is when Davis had backed off and said his party would do the hob’s mound quest.

His group was the lower Leveled, he’d reasoned. Doing the mound would probably grant them another Level, maybe two if they were lucky. Plus other potential rewards. That would make them stronger for when they tried the Challenge Dungeon. Because of Drew’s higher Level, there was the possibility that they’d get nothing from the hob’s mound.

Loch had been impressed with the maturity Davis had shown. When he’d said this, it had been back at the school and his father had been present. Loch could see the warring emotions on the face of Peter Millman. Pride at the man Davis was becoming and fear at watching his son so willing to enter danger and risk his life. Peter was starting to look like a man lost. He didn’t know what to do with himself now. He’d fallen behind in Leveling, outpaced by so many others, and didn’t have the drive to push himself to catch up. He did the bare minimum in those areas but did help out in all the ways he could but Loch was still starting to get worried about him. As was Davis.

“Yeah,” Drew answered Loch’s question. “We got this. Are you sure you want to let us?”

He looked up at Loch, who was only a couple inches taller. Loch nodded.

“You earned it. You didn’t have to come help us against the gaunts, you could have just turned east and walked away.”

Drew shook his head. He started to speak but stopped. They’d been over it a couple times already. Drew couldn’t have just walked away. He’d run from one slaughter of human survivors by monsters and refused to do that again. Not when he could help. If it was within his power, he would never let that slaughter happen again.

And the only way to prevent that was to gain power.

“Remember the plan?,” Loch asked.

“We run the Dungeon and if Davis isn’t outside waiting when we’re done, we’re to go to the mound and see about helping him.”

Or finding out what happened to Davis and his party. But that part went unspoken. No one wanted to discuss the other possibility. Davis had similar orders. Whichever party finished first was to wait outside the dungeon of the other. Once their run of the Challenge Dungeon was over, Drew and his party were to return to the Clanhold.

“Good luck,” Loch said, holding out his hand.

There wasn’t anything else that had to be said.

Drew shook it. Letting Loch’s hand go, he picked up his backpack, slinging it across his shoulders. He motioned to his team, following them to the arch. Drew looked back, not at Loch, but at Elora. A brief glance, most people wouldn’t have noticed. Loch did though. He glanced at Elora, who had her eyes on Drew and his people as they disappeared into the arch. Loch couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

***

Loch pushed open the door, hearing the squashing of water in the carpet. At the far end of the room he could see a broken window, which had let in rain, leaves and other weather. There hadn’t been enough to flood the room yet, but just enough to soak the entire carpet.

And some of the books.

He looked around at the shelves that lined the walls and the bins arranged in the middle of the room. All filled with hundreds of books. All fiction. All meant for children and teens. The bottom floor of the Chelsey Memorial Library was the kids and teens sections.

How many weekends had he and the girls spent in this room? Moving from bin to bin to find books to borrow? Hanging out for the various music and reading events the Library had put on. He glanced at the far wall, straight ahead from the door. That had been where every kid that completed a challenge, reading 1000 books before Kindergarten, got to see their name hanging on the wall. Harper had missed out but not Piper. Her name had been there. She’d been so proud and excited on the day it got hung up. After that, when they’d visit the Library, she’d make a beeline for the wall just to see her name.

She’d outgrown that and her name had been removed when the Library had run out of space, but Loch had never forgotten that excitement she’d shown.

Most of the names had fallen off the wall. There was a pile on the desk, where the reference computer had once sat. That was gone, most likely taken by the Worldcore.

He walked between the bins, looking down at the arrayed children’s books. Loch ran his fingers across the tops, stopping at one and flipping through the books. There were so many titles he remembered reading to the girls when they were little.

There was nothing down here that they really needed. All the reference books were on the main level, but Loch had wanted to walk the room one last time. So many memories were in this building. The books on these shelves were entertainment.

Which Loch knew they needed. People were starting to grow bored without anything to do but work and sleep. They needed hobbies again, or something to just escape the day to day. A young woman, Addison Taylor, was a musician and started to play a set every couple of days. There hadn’t been much of an audience at first but it started to grow and was getting bigger each time she played. Others had also started to step up.

When they had instruments for them to play.

Some board games had been scavenged, decks of cards found, and tournaments had been started. Some books had been taken from the nearby homes, but there were more needed.

Loch wanted to take every book in the Library, but knew they couldn’t. They had to concentrate on the reference books first. How to be a Blacksmith, how to tan leather, how to stitch a shirt. All those were far more important for the growth and survivability of the Clan.

But they’d need entertainment as well. It couldn’t all be about work. Everyone needed something to do on their downtime. A lot of hobbies wouldn’t exist anymore. Something would have to replace them. Reading was an option.

There were just so many books. The scavengers, and even Piper with her Spatial Bag, could make dozens of trips and not get them all. Loch wondered if there was a book upstairs about how to make books. Not write them, but physically make books. Most everything had gone electronic with books, but he held out hope that they’d find what they needed.

He walked into the back room, where the more teen-centric books were. Shelves along the walls, tables in the middle. So many books. Moving to the back corner, he checked the small kitchenette. No food, which wasn’t a surprise. The Library wouldn’t keep much on hand, counting on people hosting meetings and events to bring what they needed. He grabbed some paper towels and plastic silverware, stuffing them into the backpack he carried. Moving back into the room he started grabbing books, concentrating on series and mostly the big name ones. Those that might have more wider appeal.

The backpack quickly filled up but the weight didn’t bother him. Pre-Connection, a backpack full of paperback and hardcover books would have been heavy. Now it was nothing. He just wished for a bigger backpack. And carrying books, even without weight being a concern, was still awkward. They didn’t sit in the pack easily and neatly.

Loch stopped at the door leading out of the room. He sighed. They’d have to make another trip. They had to get as many books as they could. Not just for reading and entertainment, but preservation. This was stuff that they wanted to save and pass on to future generations. Books were important, not just the reference ones, but the stories and adventures.

There were books that he had read to his girls that his parents had read to him, their parents to them, and so on down the lines. Books that someday he wanted his girls to read to their kids. Or maybe Grandpa Loch could read them. There were books written hundreds of years ago that were still read today. Those had to be preserved.

Loch went upstairs, emerging into the front room that served as the lobby, check out desk, and offices for the librarians. There was the round table to the side that had held the computers for internet access but those were gone, just the table remaining. He wondered what happened to the librarians. He’d never known their names but they’d been so nice to the girls and remembered them every time they visited. He hoped they were alive somewhere.

He could hear the others in the main room of the library, going through the shelves. There wasn’t a point in joining them. It wasn’t a large space and would already be crowded. The windows appeared to all be intact, there was no weather damage.

Yet. It would happen soon enough.

Looking up at the ceiling, he thought he saw a small brown patch in the tiles. A sign of water damage. The roof was starting to leak.

Loch set the bags down in front of the desk. Brian stood in the vestibule, looking outside. Elora and Harper were outside, scouting. The relationship between the two had changed after their fight with the Chimera. Harper had been distrustful of the elf, but now seemed more accepting. Loch wouldn’t call them friends, but at least Harper was cordial and willing to work alongside Elora. The others were gathering the books. Piper moved through the aisles, taking the books the others collected. The Spatial Bag could hold a lot, since books weren’t that big. Luckily weight wasn’t an issue.

Moving to the side of the desk, Loch looked down at the rack full of coloring pages. He smiled, remembering Piper as a child and how excited she’d be to go through it and grab pages. She’d get home and start on one, the others mostly forgotten as her mind would wander. There were so many memories contained in this one building.

He felt his anger toward the Connection rising again. It was always there, just below the surface. Simmering and gaining in strength with each new atrocity that the Connection forced on them or important event from the past that it destroyed.

The Connection wasn’t a physical thing, at least as far as Cerie knew. There was nothing on Earth he could hunt down and destroy. He had to get off Earth. He had to get stronger, as strong as the Divine Beings that were now Patrons to people on Earth. Even stronger than them. There had to be something, somewhere, that was physical. Some origin or heart of the Connection. That was what Loch wanted to find.

Even if it took centuries.

He took a deep breath, burying the rage back under the surface.

Loch started grabbing the coloring sheets, all of them. Piper would want to take them all, but he’d insist she limit herself and let other kids get some. This time he took them all, moving behind the desk to look for the boxes of crayons they’d kept back there. He felt bad going through all the drawers and cabinets, setting aside anything that would be useful, but it wasn’t going to help anyone sitting in the empty library. At least if he took it all back to the Clanhold, the survivors would benefit.

The cabinets didn’t contain much that was useful. Some notebooks and pencils, which Loch grabbed. More coloring sheets. Thumbtacks and staples. They’d found some corkboards in a couple of the houses and the school’s storage room. Those were being hung up to provide notices and anything else they could think of. Loch hoped in the future it could be used for advertising of events.

Along with the idea of books, he’d instructed the scavengers to start collecting board games. With no electricity, televisions or gaming systems anymore it meant no more video games. But a lot of houses still had board games, decks of cards and such. The Clanhold was starting to amass a decent collection.

Loch had originally wanted to wait for life to settle down, get some semblance of normalcy. But this was now a Connected World. The life of constant combat, worry, stress, strife? It was their new normal. Waiting would accomplish nothing beyond letting the people of the Clanhold get more and more depressed.

Game nights, music nights, organized events. All that needed to happen in order for there to be some semblance of normalcy. A break from the hell that was now their lives.

Loch was glad that there was no alcohol. He would have liked to enjoy a beer now and then, but having access to a lot of it would be dangerous for the more depressed members of the Clan. It would come, there were Brewer Classes, but Loch hoped it would be a while and at least until the situation with the non-combat and crafting oriented members of the Clanhold was resolved.

He moved into the corner office, a place he’d never been before. The head librarian’s space. There were books, most likely her personal collection. Lots of papers across the text, notepads, a space for the computer that had been taken by the Worldcore. The shelves contained mostly mementoes. Personal artifacts. Framed pictures of family, pictures drawn by local kids. He opened the file cabinet, going through each drawer quickly.

With a sigh, not liking it but knowing he needed to, Loch sat down in the chair and opened the first drawer.