Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Antoni had checked the leaderboard after the Midnight Tally during his turn keeping watch. He hadn't expected much to change during the morning, but he always wanted to make sure where everyone stood after each Tally every twelve hours. He had seen the slew of Servant deaths the day before, not surprised in the slightest, and he expected a few more to be listed now after the Midday Tally from more monsters or ambitious Whispers.

Antoni stared at his display with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "How did a fucking Servant get the first Champion kill?!" he growled at the group of Fighters currently resting in their base. They had just gotten back from a quick morning hunt, hoping to run into more easy monsters and potentially a wandering Champion.

They had found a few creatures but no people which already had him in a foul mood. Seeing that the completely inept Servant got ahead of him in points after the first day, however, made him want to hunt her down now.

It was only too bad that he couldn't claim her points for his own by killing her. He read once that they had tried adding that rule one Season, but it had resulted in a terrible wipe on the first floor as they slaughtered each other and never even saw the floor boss.

Still, if he managed to kill her now it would still be an easy thirty points and put him back in the lead where he belonged.

"Does she even really count as a Servant?" Jilani asked as she stretched out on the other chair that he currently wasn't occupying. "She's a Wayfarer, right? From all those stories we grew up with. Why she was thrown with them instead of with us doesn't make much sense to me."

"If Buster said she wasn't cut out for it, then she didn't belong," Farideh said from the couch, grumpily glaring at the two men who had crowded beside her. Luckily, four of their group were upstairs resting, and Demir was in the kitchen preparing some food for them; otherwise, she'd likely be shoved on the floor or in a lap.

"She belongs buried in the sands," Antoni cut in, rubbing at his temple as he tried to think through his options. He wasn't stupid enough to go prancing merrily through the creepy forest to try and stumble upon their prey while pulling every other monster to them, but he couldn't stand the thought of her remaining ahead of him.

"Who gives a shit about her? I bet she just got a lucky hit on a slip who went to get some easy points. You know how they like to do that early on, thinking they're being clever," Abrar said, leaning back to throw an unwelcome arm over Farideh's shoulders and stretching his legs out to rest on the low table between them all. "Their down half their team now. She'll get eaten by some monster soon enough, and if she doesn't, we'll get her at the second floor entrance… as is tradition."

Antoni eyed Abrar for a long moment, seriously contemplating running the man through with his Radiant sword right here and now to reclaim his point lead. The lankier man was their weakest Fighter, in his opinion, not that any of them would be considered weak outside of the tower, though.

They all had trained their whole lives for this, getting expensive Knowledge Tomes and extensive training drilled into them constantly. They had an immediate edge against the other Sects in here and yet the ones who were meant to bow down and serve them were going off and claiming their limited number of Champion kills.

Those Servants needed to learn that their place was at his feet.

"Look Hadia! You got the popularity point last round!" Basima happily announced as they all gathered in the sitting room again. Jin smiled at the surprising cheerfulness of the girl despite not being in much better circumstances. The floors were still stained with blood, but there wasn't any way for them to clean it at the moment. There were no sinks or water closets or plumbing of any kind in the cabin, which meant they'd need to hunt down some water soon.

"Nice," Hadia replied, finishing pulling her hair back with a strap she had found somewhere. "I'm glad Alim got the point before that. He totally deserved it for saving us with that base capture."

It was almost an unspoken agreement that nobody was going to focus on the lives they had lost yesterday. They all knew that it would only lead to tears and not help them survive the present. Perhaps, once they escaped this place they could mourn properly. For now, they swallowed their grief and did as Kian had told them before ever entering this cursed forest: they kept moving forward toward the next moment.

"I'm trying to figure out this math," Jin prompted as she thought aloud. "Eight points and you said one was from the vote but how much exactly went into the other stuff?"

"He got five points for triggering the enchantments. That's how much claiming a base is normally worth," Karam explained as he sat beside her on the sofa. "I think he got another two from killing that Fangwing. Mundane monsters are normally worth two points a piece. Crystals will be worth more depending on their level, but I don't think we'll see any on this floor. None of us are actual Casters yet."

Jin nodded along, still feeling a bit sore from her earlier workout. After burying both Celia and Daren with a shovel she had found under the front porch, she had decided to train out in the front yard while Hadia slept, trying out the new combat techniques that had been seared directly into her mind.

It was the easiest thing in the world for her to remember, but she could already tell it would take some work to get her body into better shape to actually perform the moves. While her mental memory for it felt perfect, her muscle memory was still a bit lacking.

She stretched and stood, looking at the group for a moment before asking with both her voice and hand signs, "So, time for a vote on how we do some things. It looks like we'll be expected to camp here for a while and survive while we search for the floor boss."

"Are you actually suggesting we try to fight it?" Karam asked with wide eyes.

"Well, we can at least find out what it is and go from there," Jin pointed out. "If we don't think we can then we'll just have to wait it out, right? In the meantime we've got other concerns. Like food and water. I don't know about all of you, but I'm starving."

"We need to go hunting," Hadia deduced. "You think we should all go or just some while the others hold the base?"

"I think we should stick together. We're stronger as a team," Jin said immediately. "However, I understand if any of you would rather stay here where it's safer."

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"I'd rather die to a monster than to starvation," Hadia said with a shrug.

"I'm with you," Alim signed to her, a surprisingly fierce look in his eyes, and she hoped his confidence had been bolstered by his own actions yesterday.

"If something happens, you'll need my healing, so of course I'm going," Karam answered.

"Well I'm not staying here by myself!" Basima practically squeaked. "I'll go insane with worry and jump at every little creak of the floor!"

The others chuckled, and Jin smiled. "Well, I guess we should get prepared then. Make sure to grab those cloaks and backpacks. I don't plan on leaving any loot behind this time and we're going to get some more points for everyone."

They nodded and all got up to go get their new items but Karam hesitated at the base of the stairs and looked back at her as he asked, "You said everyone, but how exactly do you plan to get me points? I don't really have a way to kill anything… Not that I really want to."

Jin rubbed the prickly black hairs atop her head as she gave a half-hearted shrug. "You don't need to if you don't want to. You mentioned there's other ways to earn points but in the meantime, how about I just share mine with you? We can all take turns buying things that would help you more, or something. It seems like the others are all on board with cooperating as a team and making sure your gear or whatever keeps up with ours is going to be an important part of that."

She walked over and set a hand on his shoulder. "We're not going to leave you behind, Kar. I promise."

He gave her a hesitant smile and nodded before trudging up the stairs to go retrieve the cloak and bag and whatever else they might find useful. Jin had already thrown a few things in hers this morning, some rope, a knife, a ball of twine, and a small mirror had been among some of the random items scattered around the cabin that she thought might help.

It didn't take the others long to get ready and meet her out in the front yard where she had been practicing with her spear. Once they were all ready, she gave a quick explanation. "We'll go slow, and come back here before the sun sets again. Our first priority is actually going to be finding water, but I'm expecting monsters on the way. I'm thinking of trying to go in just a straight line from the opposite direction we first arrived at for now. Any objections or alternatives?"

They all shook their heads in the negative, but Alim gestured for her to wait for a moment before he disappeared back into the cabin. He came back just a couple minutes later carrying a bucket in each hand.

Jin grinned at him and signed as she said, "Smart thinking. Do you mind carrying those since you don't need your hands to cast your shield on us?"

"I can carry one, too," Karam said, reaching his only hand out.

Alim nodded and handed one of the buckets over. Then they began their first hunt outside of the protective barrier and into the misty forest.

They came upon a squirrel-like creature first that was way too big to actually be one when it was closer to the size of a sloth, with claws just as large. The nice thing about this particular monster was that it was slow. It seemed to be tougher than the demonic bunnies, but a couple [Arcane Arrow] shots and a [Bone Breaker] strike to the skull got Hadia two more points and the rest of them a package of monster meat to go with a fur pelt.

After another twenty minutes of wandering, Jin felt a small wave of relief when she heard the sound of moving water. The sight of the moderately sized creek had everyone grinning at the small victory.

Hadia cautiously led the group forward with Basima and Jin behind Alim and Karam. They remembered the Shade Gulper being listed as one of the Champion killers and weren't sure what other aquatic monsters might be awaiting an unsuspecting person needing a drink.

Apparently, the water wasn't what they needed to worry about though as a large tree branch came crashing down upon Hadia before she reached the stream. She gave out a loud yelp in surprise and pain as the [Mana Barrier] around her instantly shattered from the heavy blow, and she fell to the dirt.

"It's a floraval of some kind!" Karam yelled, reactively casting his [Refreshing Mist] and dropping the bucket to go help free Hadia. "It won't be able to chase, so get out of range!"

"Bas! Shoot it!" Jin called out as she threw her spear directly at the trunk of the massive tree.

"May the arcane arrow fly true!" Basima incanted, sending a bright blue arrow into the lowered branch.

The tree howled, making everyone except Alim wince.

Jin was slightly horrified to see the bark of the trunk split open to reveal an actual face with glowing pale green eyes and jagged teeth. It seemed to rear back for another heavy strike but Karam had managed to help Hadia regain her feet as the pair made it out of range in time to avoid the blow.

"Let the mists refresh the fallen!" Karam incanted to help heal the nasty cuts on Hadia's head and hands.

"Thanks, big guy," Hadia said between heavy breaths. She glanced up to look at Jin and asked, "So, you want the points for this one, sky girl? I think you might get a few extra from it. Floravals don't normally show up on the first floor."

Jin raised an eyebrow. "It's still Mundane though, right?"

"Sometimes rare monsters will spawn in and you can get some extra points for them," Karam explained. "All floravals are considered rare no matter the Caste. They often have tricky secondary effects that make them exceptionally hard to defeat and most Champions will just avoid them if they don't have a good solution."

"Mundane ones like that tree, though, don't usually show up, so I have no idea if it has weird things like noxious gas or spits acid or whatever nonsense," Hadia finished and looked back at the angry tree. "Maybe it was just there to catch strays without a group? I'm not sure I would have escaped all those branches on my own."

Jin hummed in thought, then shrugged and reconjured her [Silent Spear] to throw at it again. It howled again but she frowned for a moment and looked down at her hands. Now that she was paying attention to her body more and was more aware of her technique, she didn't feel as strong with that throw as she had when training earlier against a stump in the yard.

"What's wrong?" Basima quietly asked her.

She just shook her head. "I'm not sure. One sec."

Jin pressed the Display rune on her bracelet again and this time focused on seeing if she had a Talent affecting her Strength Attribute at all.

"Well, that's unfortunate," Jin muttered with a frown. Sure, she did prefer playing video games solo normally, but there was no way she was going to be able to fight in here all alone. It also meant her throws would never be as powerful as her thrusts. Not the end of the world, but it was definitely something she'd need to keep in mind.

"What is?" Basima asked in confusion to her statement, glancing between her and the bracelet display that she couldn't see.

"Nothing important," Jin said with a shake of her head. "I'm just going to try fighting a bit closer so I don't have to keep wasting mana to reconjure my spear, I think."

With that, she reconjured her [Silent Spear] one last time and got to work hacking away at the tree branches and dense growling trunk.

It was odd to not have any sound come from her strikes but the monster was making enough noise on its own to let her know she was doing a decent amount of damage. She was also surprised to learn that her [Piercing Thrust] could make even a tree bleed.

When it finally gave a low groan and stopped moving, she carefully approached to trigger her looting of it.

She decided since it likely didn't have any edible meat on it to forgo instantly looting it this time and shook her head.

"Yup," she softly replied and was immediately drenched in a shower of gray ashes as the monster's branches dissolved above her.

She coughed and almost wanted to vomit again at the idea of corpse ashes in her mouth, but the sound of something moving through the brush towards them had her twirling towards it with her spear raised.

"Woah, there," a middle-aged woman said, raising her hands in a defensive manner from a few yards away. Behind her was a handful of other Champions looking at them with a mix of nervousness and curiosity. It wasn't a full Sect of ten, and she wondered if the rest were hiding or left behind at a base or something.

Jin took a few steps back as the rest of her own party moved in to support her. They hadn't really talked about what to do if they ran into other people.

"You're the Wayfarer Jin, right? With the Servants?" the apparent leader asked with a hesitant smile. "I'm Darya, and we're the Workers."