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

"A smokehouse?" Janet patted her legs dry with a blanket they were using as a towel. She missed her extra plush towels back home, but these worked well enough.

"Yeah," Randal said. "We're catching more than we can eat, and I was thinking that instead of storing the extra in our Inventories, we might try preserving some of it ourselves. We've all seen how unreliable the System can be."

Janet couldn't help but agree. The most recent example of the System's incompetence was the personal tutorials that they were all promised. The quests were easy enough to complete, but they all gave coins as a reward, which was useless unless the System store was reopened. According to Linn, the store hadn't been active for over a decade.

To make a bad feature worse, the tutorial disappeared if you ascended. A few of Janet's players were actually waiting to ascend in the hope that there would be some better rewards later in the quest chain.

Janet wasn't holding her breath.

"I think it's a great idea," Janet said. "But I'm not quite sure why you're coming to me about it."

"Rogue jumper!" someone shouted.

Janet turned without hesitation and shot the fish out of the air. It flopped on the beach until one of the runners finished it off with a belt knife.

They spent the last three days honing their fishing system and by now they had it down to an art. Tanks stood in the shallow water, gathering sea greens and small shellfish while the high Dexterity players waited on the beach with ranged weapons to shoot the flying fish out of the air. If the fish landed in the water, they were collected by the tanks, if they landed on the beach, they were collected by a series of runners that were too low in level to take a turn as one of the other two roles. Healers waited on the beach, ready to respond to any accidents or missed attacks.

Rogue jumpers were what they called the fish smart enough to attack someone that wasn't directly touching the water. There weren't many of them.

Janet stowed her bow back in her Inventory. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Actually, I think you were saying something," Randal said, looking a little flustered.

"Right. Why are you asking me? You don't need permission to improve the camp, and you aren't part of my group."

Janet tried not to overstep her authority as one of the seven Tutorial Leaders living within the tent city. Each Tutorial Leader governed their own group and for decisions concerning the whole camp, they took a vote. It was somewhere between a committee and an informal city council.

"The thing is, I'm from Linn's group," Randal said. "And we weren't quite as thorough when it came to looting the tutorial buildings."

Janet wouldn't have used the word 'looting' to describe her unsanctioned acquisitions.

She saw where Randal was going with this. "You need wood to build the smokehouse, and presumably something to burn?"

Randal inclined his head. "If you or one of the other groups have any to spare?"

Janet flagged down one of the beach runners—a fifteen-year-old boy named Jason who had dodged the age limit with a fake ID and early facial hair.

"Can you take this gentleman to meet with Layla?" Janet requested. "Tell her he needs some wood for a smokehouse. Oh, and ask Tyson Becks if he can spare some of his bricks for the foundation."

Jason nodded and led Randal away.

Tyson and his group had been even more ambitious with their resource acquisition than Janet had been. They took anything that wasn't nailed down—and some things that were. Floorboards, tiles, courtyard bricks; they even brought soil. The System wouldn't let you put powder or liquid into your Inventory without a proper container, but they got around the rule by pouring the dirt into pillowcases and sewing them closed.

His group was currently trying to set up a greenhouse so they could start growing some vegetables once the Emberians agreed to trade with them.

Janet didn't feel the least bit guilty about stripping the tutorial spaces. As far as she was concerned, it wasn't even close to the reparations owed for the current situation.

Some of the players still held out hope that they would make it back to Earth someday. They talked about Ember like they were still in a video game; as soon as they beat the final boss or fulfilled some sort of objective they would get a portal home. Some just thought that if they fixed Ember, the System would be so grateful, it would find a way to send them home, despite telling them numerous times that it wasn't possible.

Janet believed they were stuck on Ember forever, but hope was a powerful tool. She would let them believe whatever they wanted to, so long as it didn't endanger themselves or the people around them.

"I got a crab!" someone shouted gleefully.

Janet ran over, expecting to see a creature about the size of her fist. Most of the sea creatures they had found so far were small or they were monsters.

This one was neither.

A crab the size of a man's torso had its jaw clamped around the excited woman's arm. Blood dribbled down into the crab's eyes, making it angrier by the second.

"Get it on the beach," Janet shouted. "We'll get it off your arm."

"No way!" the woman snapped. "I'm not letting this one go until it's secure. Anyone got some rope?"

A nearby woman pulled floss out of her Inventory, drawing a look of exasperation from the injured tank.

"Something a little bigger?" she said. "This thing is obnoxiously strong."

"I've got climbing rope," one of the runners yelled. "But I'm not going near the water."

"Excellent!" the injured woman yelled back. "Hold on a sec."

The woman hoisted the crab onto her shoulder, holding the pincer closest to her face so it wouldn't be able to snap at her.

She carried it over to the man waiting with his rope.

It didn't take long to bind the crab and shove it into a makeshift cage formed with a circle of bookshelves.

The injured woman drew her arm out of the crabs mouth and shook it out. "I'm going to go get this healed. I want first dibs on the crab when it's cooked."

"I'll make sure of it," Janet promised. "But you should be more careful where you stick your hand. We don't have anyone that can regrow limbs yet."

The woman shook her head. "That crab wasn't holding onto me; I was holding onto it. Now that I know the strat works, I plan on bringing in more of these guys. Just look at the size of them!"

She ran off with a bounce in her step.

Janet didn't have any response for that. She was glad she never went the tank route. She had enough Endurance to play tank when they needed it, but she had no intention of sticking her hand into any mouths as a fishing technique.

Tanks were insane.

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They continued to prove Janet's point as more and more of her gatherers abandoned the seaweed in favor of wading deeper to find the crabs.

By the end of the day, they had over a hundred giant crabs lying in a pile on the beach. Janet had been the one tasked with figuring out how to kill them, since they ran out of rope after the first three.

It wasn't exactly rocket science. Their shell was too hard to penetrate, but their mouths were another story. A quick stab and the crabs stopped moving.

Janet sent a runner to gather more people to transport the haul. They were going to eat well tonight.

* * *

High Elder Kam had too much on his plate to deal with the endless stream of complaints he was receiving about this newest batch of Chosen. The Dark Age was fast approaching and there were preparations to be made, work orders to be signed and payrolls to be filled out.

So it was with great displeasure that he sat in the council chamber, listening to a guard haltingly tell the story of how the humans settled in Branian territory.

"Is this really relevant?" Elder Trish asked. "I see no reason to find fault with the Chosen's actions. They haven't set foot in any of the cities and they're fishing in an area that we don't use. The monsters will likely deal with them soon and they will be out of our hair."

"I can't even figure out why you thought this was worthy of our attention," Elder Pin said. "Have the Chosen made any threats against us in the past few weeks? I am finding them quite easy to ignore thus far."

"As if the Chosen would dare threaten us," Elder Und said. "Bugs don't stand under a Bran's foot and dare him to take a step."

Kam sighed. The hatred for the Chosen was rather overblown. Who had the time for such rivalries? A month of progress was almost nothing compared to the whole journey of progression. Kam lost more time to the birth of his son than he had to the Chosen's special tutorial.

As far as he was concerned, the people of Ember were aiming their aggression at the only people they could safely despise. It was petty and embarrassing.

"Have the caravans opened trade with them?" Elder Glo asked. "I don't understand how they haven't starved to death yet."

The guard swallowed nervously, seeming to have great difficulty getting his next words out.

System help them, it was like he thought they would burn him to ashes just for bringing this report. Is this what the city thought of the council?

"B-b-before fishing, they t-traded with each other, I believe," the man said. "And they have some System-issued rations left over from the tutorial."

That made sense. The System usually provided as much as it could for the Chosen.

"What are they even fishing for?" Elder Glo asked, unwilling to let it go. "It's craila season. They won't catch anything worth eating."

"They're… eating the craila fish…" the guard said. "Along with razor clams and silver claws."

Kam sat forward in his chair. "Silver claws? Have the come to shore early?"

The mating season for silver claws was still a few months away, but they sometimes came for an extra clutch in the early months of the summer. If they were already coming onto the beaches, Kam needed to get his people out there to catch as many as they could. The crabs would be gone by the end of the week.

"They aren't coming out of the water," the guard said. "The Chosen are hunting them in the mud."

Elder Trish frowned. "Water mages? Has someone reached the Second Ascension already? Holding back the ocean is no easy task."

"No… umm… they're not using magic…" the guard said, shifting nervously.

"Oh, out with it!" Kam snapped. "How are they hunting the silver claws?"

The guard took a step back and Kam regretted his outburst. He needed to find a way to convince the people that he wasn't going to smite them for looking at him the wrong way. He used to think that keeping his name tag visible would inspire them to reach greater heights. By the time he realized that it only terrified them, it was too late to turn it off.

Hiding it now would only start rumors that his level had risen even higher.

"They're using their arms, sir!" the guard blurted out. "They're sticking their arms in the mud and dragging the silver claws out when they bite down."

Kam sat back in his chair.

They were insane.

Mirth bubbled in his chest, overflowing into a fit of laughter as he slammed his fist repeatedly on the table.

The guard looked at him like a maddened hilbeast, but that only made him laugh harder.

Using their arms, were they?

Kam stood. "I'm going to the beach."

"Sir?" the guard asked, his eyes wide. "You're—"

"Take me to the Chosen," Kam said. "I want to meet them for myself."

* * *

"What can I do for you?" Janet asked, pasting a polite smile on her face.

She had hoped the Kelinarian people would reach out to them eventually, but she hadn't expected them to send someone so soon.

Nor did she expect someone of his level.

[Kam — Level 310]

[Bran]

He was the same race as the guards Janet met at the city gates. His understated tusks stood out against his dark gray skin.

He was also past the Seventh Ascension, if Janet's math was correct. After Level 50, the Ascensions came every fifty levels.

If this man wanted to wipe them off the face of the planet, he could do so without breaking a sweat.

This was no different than any number of people that they had passed so far on the road. Janet decided not to focus on his level and hope that he was there as a diplomat.

Linn didn't seem so sure. She stood several feet away, eyeing the man with trepidation. They were the only two left on the beach, having been caught by the newcomers during a last security sweep to make sure everyone had left. It was getting dark and Janet didn't want to know what kind of monsters gathered around the beaches at night.

The Bran grinned. "I'm Kam, from the city of Thals. I was wondering if you would teach me how you hunt silver claws."

Janet's brows furrowed slightly. "Silver claws?"

"The giant crab creatures," the man clarified.

"Ah," Janet had been wondering what they were called. The System didn't seem to bother with name tags for sea creatures. "Sure. There are plenty to go around."

This was a step in the right direction, at least.

"Do you have an inclusive Endurance above three hundred?" Janet asked, not wanting to sour diplomatic relations by having the man lose an arm to a silver claw. He most likely had it, but it was always best to make sure.

"Inclusive?" Kam asked.

"I'm referring to your Endurance stat multiplied by your Endurance C-level," Janet explained. "I have also heard it referred to as a true stat, but it caused some confusion due to the nature of Ascension stat boosts, so we started calling it 'inclusive' and 'non-inclusive'."

Kam nodded. "I see. Then my non-inclusive Endurance is well above three hundred."

"Perfect," Janet said. "You play as tank, and I'll deal with the flying fish."

She pulled her bow from her Inventory.

"Tank?" The Bran guard asked. Janet had almost forgotten he was there. He seemed to be as wary of Kam as Linn was.

"You're the one I met outside Thals," Janet said, recognizing the blue guard after getting a closer look. "I never caught your name. In any case, thank you for pointing us to this area, you might just have saved our lives."

The man blanched, shaking his head. "I—"

"This is Turk, I believe," Kam said, his grin fading slightly.

Turk's eyes widened. "You know my name?!"

"I make it a point to know everyone's name," Kam said. "You can go wait over there. Save the human if it looks like she's going to get herself killed."

Janet's cheek twitched. She understood the sentiment, but Kam could use a few lessons in polite conversation.

"Now, I confess, I'm curious as well," Kam said. "What is a tank?"

"It's a gaming term referring to someone who has high defense stats," Janet said. "In System terms, a tank would have high Endurance or Vitality, or a strong enough shield to block multiple monster attacks. They distract the monsters so the damage dealers can hit them without taking damage themselves."

"I see," Kam said. "In Kelinar we would call that a forward guard. I should be able to act as a tank in this instance, though it isn't my specialty."

Janet nodded. "Then I look forward to working with you."

Janet nocked an arrow, standing a few feet from the water.

Kam waited until she was ready, then he walked into the water, stopping when the water reached his knees. "Is this far enough?"

Janet shot a fish out of the air. "The crabs are a bit further in. Waist deep, I think." She hit another fish, and it splashed into the shallow water several feet away from Janet. "Linn, can you collect the flying fish as they fall?"

"Craila fish," Kam called back to Janet, his gaze focused on the water. "That's what they're called, by the way."

Linn hesitated, frowning at Kam's back.

"We need this," Janet whispered to her. "These are the first Emberians besides you that have approached us. If you won't do it, go find someone who will."

Linn took a deep breath. "You owe me for this."

Janet nodded. "I'll figure something out, now go!"

Linn zipped around the area, collecting the craila fish as Janet killed them.

Janet had given Kam a brief explanation of the technique her tanks had discovered, but he seemed to be having trouble catching one of the crabs.

"Am I doing something wrong?" he asked Janet. "They let go if I try to pull them out of the mud."

"Grab onto the hairs inside their mouth," Janet said. "They'll get away if you don't hold on. Watch out for the claws, they can snap right through rocks."

"I see." Kam tried again. This time, when he pulled his hand out of the water, he was holding onto a crab the size of a corgi. It wasn't the biggest they had caught that day, but it was a decent catch.

Kam held the crab above his head with a triumphant shout. "Excellent! If I throw this to you, can you kill it?"

"I can try," Janet said, readying another arrow.

Kam threw the silver claw into the air and Janet followed it with the tip of her arrow, releasing the bowstring as soon as she had a clear shot.

The crab jerked and dropped to the sand, the arrow sticking out of its mouth.

Kam was already holding another silver claw. "Ready for another?"

An hour later, the four of them stood on the beach next to a large pile of dead crabs and craila fish.

"Not a bad haul," Kam said, slapping his hands together.

"It was a lot more efficient having someone who could toss the crabs in the air like that," Janet said. "We don't have anyone with sufficient Strength and Endurance. Would you be interested in hunting with me again?"

Linn looked like she was going to molt from the stress and Turk looked similarly mortified.

Kam grinned. "How about we discuss it over dinner?"

Janet returned his smile. "I think that's a great idea."