The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame [Isekai - LitRPG]

"Watch your left flank! Don't let that pocket get through," Janet shouted at the defensive line, pointing at the group of four Larkins that were trying to sneak around the players positioned there.

Kam leaned back in his chair, watching the battle with an amused grin. "You all are quick to adjust to an emergency. A lot better than I would have expected from a group of everyday… what was the word you used?"

"Gamers," Janet supplied absently, scanning the horizon for more incoming groups.

The healing tents were overflowing with players as the Larkins held their own against three or more of Janet's people at a time. The large canine creatures were usually an easy one-on-one battle, but their recent increase in size and level had left the defensive line spread thin as they tried to match the creatures four on one to even the odds.

According to Kam, the sudden increase—both in the monsters numbers and their power level—within a spawn zone was known in Kelinar as a Spawn Rush. They happened a few times a year, more frequently within the last fifty years before a Dark Age.

It figures that the people of Kelinar would write down this information, but not the proper way to preserve meat.

"You could help, you know," Janet commented, a note of amusement sneaking into her tone despite the overwhelming exasperation the man brought her. She had seen him take out a sea serpent the size of a skyscraper in a single swipe of his sword, but in any battle he considered beneath him, he sat on the sidelines until the situation was dire. Even now, sitting in the lookout tower with Janet, he didn't even bother to help her with keeping watch, he just lounged on a chair, watching their misery like it was some sort of spectator sport.

"And waste all of that Experience?" Kam asked, a rare note of seriousness in his voice. "It takes me a year to gain a level, and that when I am trying. These monsters are a drop in the ocean for me. Your soldiers, on the other hand, can gain some real Experience and combat prowess. It would be a disservice for me to save them here at the cost of their future. The Dark Age will come before you know it."

Janet pressed her lips into a thin line. The logic was sound, but she was sick and tired of hearing about the looming Dark Age. It was all the Emberians talked about, despite the supposed taboo. Janet wasn't sure if the humans' arrival had loosened their tongues or if the hesitation to speak about it was greatly exaggerated—or perhaps it was only Kam who spoke about it so openly.

"When is the Dark Age supposed to come anyway?" Janet asked, trying to take her mind off the healers tent where her players were recovering from their 'Experience'.

She shouted a warning to the far end of the line, who were distracted by one player's missing hand—an injury that would take the player out of fighting for at least a week while the healers regrew the missing appendage. The group turned to face the approaching Larkins, just a second too slow. Janet gripped the stones of the watch tower, tensing for a blood bath, but a dagger appeared in one monster's eye, another in each of the other two monsters' foreheads. They fell like rocks and the frazzled defenders set about clearing the area for the next attack.

Janet glanced back at Kam who nodded, his demeanor completely relaxed.

"I'll step in if I am needed," he said. "As for your question, there will be little warning when the Dark Age does come; failing spells, System glitches, the like. By your presence alone, the Dark Age should be here in a matter of weeks."

Which he had been saying for over a month now, Janet noted.

Regardless of whether the statement was an exaggeration or not, Janet would feel a lot better about the situation if Randal got his smoking process working. The smokehouse itself was easy enough to build, but the fire was harder to control. Excess energy on the plains made the fire burn hot whether you wanted it to or not. Randal was in the process of collaborating with some of Kam's people to create counter spells that would control the fire, so it didn't char everything beyond usability.

Before offering help, Kam had tried to move their settlement to a 'less volatile area', as he put it. Janet had considered the offer, asking the other group leaders what they thought, and in the end, they had chosen to stay where they were.

There were a few reasons for this, the most important being that there was no competition for the space they currently occupied. The Emberians seemed surprised—even horrified—by the humans' willingness to live in a spawn zone. As such, not even the most racist among them had attempted to drive the humans off the land.

Powerful as he was, Kam was no dictator. If his people took exception to the humans' presence, he would force them out. It was as simple as that. Staying in the spawn zone reduced the risk of this eventuality.

In addition to the added safety factor, Janet had to admit, she rather liked the looks of awe and fear she saw when she mentioned their location to the locals. It gave her more power in negotiations and more respect in dealings with Kelinar. She had, of course, still implemented her plan of being generous in every deal she struck—with the unexpected benefit of fishing and hunting as the source of her generosity rather than her expensive monster drops.

"Are you ever planning on joining the fight?" Kam asked, a note of worry in his otherwise nonchalant voice.

Janet bit back an exasperated sigh. "I told you, I'm not a combat Class. I'm gaining levels easily enough."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Kam had been trying to get her to join the fighting for over a week, each time insisting that her Class would hinder her progress, as he proceeded to do this time as well.

"Too slowly," Kam countered. "The Dark Age will get here sooner than you think. You won't even make it to the Second Ascension if you keep going like this. A few of those monsters down there would beat what you can earn in a whole month with a crafting Class."

Janet wasn't a crafting Class, but she didn't bother telling Kam that. The people of Kelinar—and, Janet assumed, the rest of Ember—had a particularly negative view towards non-combat Classes. Kam was one of the better opinions; that they were not enough to prepare one for the blood bath that was the Dark Age. Others on Ember seemed to think that taking a non-combat Class was at best, foolish, at worst, cowardly. They thought that crafting Classes were inefficient, weak and overall, an insult to the gifts of the System.

The Temple of Eldar—a combat-crazed cult that Janet had some minor dealings with—seemed to believe that the greatest goal in life was to raise your level as high as you could; not because you wish to protect yourself, but because to do anything else would be an insult to the System and the System Administrator, whom they worshiped as a deity.

Janet had sent out a general bulletin to the group leaders and the unaffiliated parties, warning everyone about the group and their apparent tendency to kidnap people into their cult. Thankfully, they had seen little issue thus far, but she credited that to Kam's presence. No one wanted to piss off one of the strongest players in Kelinar.

"What level are you now?" Kam asked, pushing his point. "Let me go with you and share Experience at least. You can just sit in the background while I hit things. I'll have you at Level 50 in a matter of hours."

"I'm needed here," Janet said firmly.

Kam rolled his eyes. "Anyone can shout directions. That little voice-amplification skill you have isn't unique, you know. I could get one of my people to take your place while we do some hunting."

"No need," Janet said. "I'm perfectly capable of leveling by myself, thank you. Can you take out the big one to the west?"

A notification popped up in front of Janet.

Kam has invited you to join his party. Do you accept?

Janet glanced back at him. "No."

Kam lifted his eyebrow. "You hate me so much that you would deny free Experience? Really?"

"I know that some information is better kept close to one's chest, and the party System gives too much away for my liking."

Kam rolled his eyes. "You people are all paranoid." He flicked a dagger at the monster she had indicated, the massive beast exploding upon the dagger's impact. Blood and gore sprayed everywhere, but thankfully, it was far enough away from the actual battle that no one was in the splash zone.

Janet shook her head. "I don't understand why it pisses you off so much. There are any number of players on that defensive line that would kill for your help in leveling. You could form a party with all of them, wipe out the monsters and share the Experience equally."

"They need to learn how to fight, not just gain levels," Kam said. "As do you."

"I have too much to do. Why are you so focused on getting me to fight? Group four, watch your left side! Three monsters incoming!"

"We need people like you," Kam said. "Organized, future-focused—mostly—with a way of convincing people to be on your side. You won me over in less than a day."

"You were bored," Janet argued. "And I had something you needed."

"A fresh way of thinking and experience to back it up."

"The method to preserve meat and a certain lack of self-preservation skills," Janet countered.

"Thanks to you, we can fish out of season," Kam said.

"I didn't even come up with the method. That was—eight Larkins dead center, break it up!" She shouted the warning at the defenders. One of them got straight to work, forcing the monsters apart with some well-timed spell casts and a few magical barriers. The remaining defenders moved to counter the now-separated monsters.

"See, this is what I'm talking about," Kam said. "Brilliant."

"I didn't come up with this strategy either," Janet said. "You give me credit for everything we do, which is why you overvalue my input."

Kam shook his head. "Humility is a wasted trait. A little more pride in yourself and you could rise to my level, maybe even higher."

If it was anyone else, Janet would lean into the misunderstanding, humility be damned. But there was nothing advantageous to Kam's assumption that Janet was the only human on Ember with a brain. She needed the people of Ember to acknowledge them as a group, not the few standouts among the humans that the Emberians deemed useful. Kam's attitude that Janet was the only one worth helping was a prime example of his hyper fixation with her specifically, at the detriment of her people. She was fairly sure he was only helping in the battle because Janet would stop talking to him if any of her people died for lack of his help.

In truth, Janet would love nothing more than to shove her Character Sheet in his face just to shut him up, but she didn't want to give that much away. She would share her private information when it became necessary and not a moment before.

Partying with him would not only reveal her level, but it would also be a futile effort as she was currently level-capped. Janet reached the Second Ascension the week before, but she hadn't had the chance to look over her options yet, so she had left herself capped for the time being. Any point of Experience given to her would funnel right back into the System, stolen from her people and not even put to good use.

If the Experience was a drop in the ocean for Kam, it was an ocean in a leaky bucket for her.

Unfortunately, not telling Kam this information meant that he was endlessly trying to convince her to go hunting with him. Perhaps if she did so, she could at least get him off her back, but he would undoubtedly want to see the fruits of their labor, and she was too realistic to ignore the fact that he could force her if he really wanted to. The gap in their level was astronomical, and it made him dangerous.

"If you won't do it for me, do it for your followers," Kam insisted, trying a new tactic.

"Citizens," Janet corrected "And just because they made me de facto mayor doesn't make me in charge."

"That's exactly what it does!" Kam said, flicking a dagger at a monster in the distance that Janet could barely see. "They got organized and elected you leader. Now it's time you lead by example." He stood and grabbed Janet's arm, pulling her into a princess hold.

"What are you—?" Janet couldn't finish the question as a scream ripped from her mouth. Kam leapt off the tower, landing on the ground with bone-jarring force that raised a cloud of dust around them and sent a jolt of pain through Janet's spine.

She felt the effect of his healing spell only a beat after the pain as he sprinted in the direction of the battle.

"Put me down!" Janet shouted, trying to wiggle out of the man's grip.

He ignored her, reaching the battling players in a matter of seconds and pushing past them, leaving the front line behind in a flurry of concerned shouts.

He dropped Janet off several yards in front of the defenders, directly in front of a Larkin the size of a horse.

Kam took a step back, producing a chair and taking a seat with a self-satisfied smile. "Your turn."