Buttopia
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Chapter 65: Where We’re Going, We Actually Do Need Roads
🕑 Added 2024-12-29 01:14:53 +0000 UTCBefore I could answer Sanquar, an experience popup flashed in my vision. Had it really taken the orc leader that long to truly die, even without his head?
“Is this what it feels like to be you, Dave? I just jumped to level one seventy-seven,” Cecile asked, managing to get some mirth into his voice despite all our extreme exhaustion. I understood the sentiment even if I knew they had to have gained less than me. My core was only at an E. Theirs was C, so I doubted they had gotten the same last two multiplies I had. Sadly for me, though, even with the extra two, it hadn’t been enough for a level, but I was now starting to understand even more of the draw of the Arena. That was far more experience than I had gotten anywhere other than the simulator.
“Usually, it comes with a lot worse of a headache,” I said as I climbed back to my feet. Thanks to Chip’s help, I didn’t feel on the verge of passing out anymore. I placed Corey into my storage for now until I could easily support us both and signaled for Chip to hop on the twinogs as I needed him less at the moment while I pulled out some of my stored food.
“That was crazy, man; you all just took down a faction invasion commander. That just isn’t something that happens every day. Mel’s gonna be mad he missed this,” Timon said before giving a loud celebratory whistle.
“I am very impressed, Dave. That’s a remarkable growth since we parted,” Sanquar said. He wasn’t wrong. I knew that logically, but at the moment, I didn’t feel like it. That fight had taken nearly everything out of me, and I found it a bit unbelievable we had even managed to win in the end. The System had listed him as a berserker, and I’m not sure we could have beaten anything else. If he had stopped to actually think instead of laugh, we’d have easily been dead.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it when we have some time. Right now, there are a lot of other things that need our attention, such as what the rest of the orcs on the planet will do now that their leader is dead?” I asked. Would they even know already? How did a faction invasion work exactly?
“They’ll know, you can count on that. Each of them right now just got a giant failed quest notification. For the most part, they are going to go to ground, maybe try to get out of the universe if they can, but that likely isn’t possible considering what it took to get us here. In reality, we’ve got an orc infestation to deal with. Well, you do. I’m not fighting any orcs, but I’ll drive the bus wherever you need to go,” Timon answered, surprisingly. I just hadn’t expected him to be the source of information. Then again, considering his long relationship with Mel, there had to be a lot more to the man below the surface.
“Good, because I need to find my kids. The world is likely in a real bad place right now, and I’m sure it’s all about to get a whole lot worse until it gets better if it even can recover from this, and while we can’t do much on that front, I will protect my family,” I said, the conviction in my voice stronger than it had been in years.
“Then everyone aboard the Timon Transport, and hopefully, you can tell me exactly where we are going, Dave, 'cause this place looks like every other cold forest planet I’ve ever seen,” Timon ordered, shaking his head as he looked at land around us.
“Everyone hop on the bus like Timon said. I’ve gotta check the house for some things we will need to find my kids,” I said. Had the cell phone survived the earlier assault on the house? Would it even work? The door was still wide open, the way I had left it in my desperate escape, one that felt like it had been so long ago. I found my cell phone next to the remains of my kitchen table. It was in a similar shape to the table, likely stepped on during the initial fray.
Damn, I had been hoping to use the GPS on that to find our way to Columbus. I wasn’t entirely sure how the GPS satellites worked, but I suspected that that system would still be functional. At least more so than the cell towers. Okay, I needed to think, I had maps, we could take the road. That might even give us a good idea of how bad of shape the planet was in. How well could Timon maneuver the bus on our roads? I guess he always had the option of hovering if he needed to get around obstacles.
As I walked around the house, placing anything I spotted that might be useful into my System storage, I imagined what else I could possibly need. In the end, it was the maps, several more tools, the rifle, what little ammunition I had on hand, and my laptop. I had every intention of returning here with Alex and John once I found them. Keeping us all out of whatever chaos was gripping the world seemed like the best idea, especially considering who I had brought back with me. With that last thought I closed the door behind me, not really sure why, considering the giant hole in the kitchen, but I did it anyway and boarded the bus with my friends.
“Where to?” Timon asked.
“I don’t have anything to pinpoint an exact direction we need to go, so we are stuck with some of my older maps. That means I want you to head down this dirt road, take a left when it ends, and drive until that road ends. By then, I should have figured out our full route. There may be a lot of obstacles. Are you going to be okay dodging them?” I asked after explaining the initial route.
“Yeah, but I’m gonna need Chip up here. Kinda glad you didn’t ask me to fly, honestly. It’s gonna take us time to build up the mana needed to keep this bus running, and flight will be a bit costly. We can do that on the way back, though. I should be able to navigate a nice straight flight path now that I know where your house is. Oh I meant to ask earlier: is a hole in the wall like the normal style for your people’s homes? Seems weird,” Timon asked as the Bus started forward. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
“No, that was some orc damage; generally, we try to keep our homes pretty enclosed,” I answered. Timon shook his head, laughing to himself as Chip ran past me to hop onto him. I pulled the maps out as I plopped down across from the brothers, next to Sanquar, the bird I had once known only as Big Bird.
“Is that a map of your world?” Elicec asked as I unfolded the big one that covered United States highways.
“Yes, it is, though I haven’t had to use it in a long time. We had mostly moved to computer-based mapping, but I’m glad I had kept these around,” I answered. Kept around was a strong way of saying I had put them in a drawer and entirely forgotten to look in that drawer in the last couple of years. I wasn’t even sure when or why I had bought them. Had John left them the last time he was here? I looked out the window, trying to gauge just how fast the bus was moving in relation to my own car, maybe four times as fast. It was a hard thing to estimate with just the eyes, especially considering it would make small jumps off the ground every so often to dodge something.
“Alright, now that I’m not driving blind, we can really move this bus,” Timon said after I had shown him my planned route and he had taken a moment to study my markings and the area on the map around them. The bus was now moving significantly faster than it had been before, almost spending more time hoovering over the abandoned cars and the rare blockade we passed than it was on the ground. Rarely did I manage to spot a person, but considering the speed we were traveling at, they were probably doing their best not to be seen if they could help it. Not to mention, the invasion had only just ended, and people were likely still hiding as much as they could.
Only two hours had passed when I spotted the now entering Columbus sign. The trip so far had been spent bringing Sanquar up to speed with promises of more details to come later and his own returned promise to let me pick his brain as much as I wanted. There were unspoken words between all of us that this was only the beginning. The twinogs were nice enough not to bring up any future planning just yet. They knew how much I wanted to find my family first.
“Where to now?” Timon asked, slowing down. The city outside the window was a disaster. Buildings had been destroyed. Fires were raging out of control in several places. I hoped they were still where they had been in my strange dream.
“John’s apartment. Go straight for a bit while I remember more of the directions; it’s been a while,” I said to Timon, racking my brain for the last time I visited and managing to slowly pry the memories loose, guiding the mantis as he drove. Finally, we pulled down the street I thought it was on, and there, ahead of us, I saw them. Alex and John were walking down the street. My heart nearly leaped free of my chest. They were still alive.
“Pull over now!” I yelled, feeling Timon immediately obey.
Deep Scouts are one of the specialized scouting classes, focused more on ranging far away from any central squad. Their goal is to quickly assess the battlefield and relay that information back. While they aren’t usually strongly combat-oriented, it doesn’t mean they are helpless, and there are certain builds that do specialize in some weapon use, though generally limited.
Classes Volume 1 by Zolinjar
