Chapter 115: Lockdown

  "I went around to my usual haunts, less than half of which were still standing," Kyle began, the first words out of his mouth setting the tone for what was to come. "Most of them were in or around the slums, the rough parts of the city where adventurers like to gather, and the hotspots for the carnage last night. Some of the survivors tried to run, only to be stopped at the gate. Turns out there's a strict lockdown being enforced, people can still come in, but nobody gets out without an invasive magical scan by an Archmage or an Inquisitor, to root out infiltrators."

  "Inquisitors are a rare Class," Harvey interjected, his brow furrowed. "An evolution of more traditional faith based Classes like Priest or Cleric, but requiring substantial combat ability and unyielding strength of will. Even if all the temples pool their manpower, there can't be more than a few dozen in the entire city. Archmages are even rarer, I could count them on my fingers."

  "Pretty much," Kyle shrugged helplessly. "It's not a full quarantine because you can technically get out, if you make it past a queue of tens of thousands of people, and gods help you if their scan picks up any contraband."

  That was a non-starter then, as I'd already come to expect. Even in the best case scenario, we'd have to leave the city with little more than the clothes on our back, and even then I had no confidence that my inventory would remain hidden, not against targeted magic, specialised in unveiling hidden secrets.

  "Looks like we're putting down roots," Harvey declared, aligning with my own thoughts on the matter. "Though I can't help but wonder what the long term plan is. Heaven's Reach is overpopulated on a good day, and dependent on supplies from the neighbouring villages to survive. I can only imagine the situation after entire streets burned down, taking their stores with them. The situation could easily spiral into riots, especially once word of the lockdown filters out, and trade caravans stop coming."

  "It likely won't get quite that bad," Ralph piped up to add. "The top brass seem to be expecting further waves of monsters, so the population should come down over time, just from simple attrition. Food might still be tight at the start, but once people start dying, that'll be less mouths to feed and delicious corpses available for the survivors."

  "So we're hoarding food," Pumpkin concluded. "Good thing we already got a head start on that. Who knew our caravan getting wrecked would prove a blessing in disguise?"

  "Equipment too," Kyle added. "The army will already be gathering up all the good stuff, so gear will be scarce going forward. There's a local industry, and level ups from the System sometimes provide gear as well, but nowhere enough to sustain a prolonged conflict."

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  "From drug dealers to arms dealers?" I mused, the corner of my lip twitching. "I like it. Looks like Joe Blow will be seeing me again sooner rather than later. I take it we'll have wide discretion in how we run things?"

  "Might as well," Harvey shrugged. "We're completely cut off here, and even if the Dead Hand send reinforcements, they'll be weeks away at best. Teleportation isn't an option any more, not with the city on high alert, anyone trying it is likely to be killed on arrival.

  "I doubt we'll get anybody, even if there was a possibility of fast travel," I point out, having reached a grim conclusion over the course of this discussion. "The amount of resources spent to undermine a single city makes no sense, not unless it was the first strike of a larger campaign. Never mind us, I'd bet the entire North is on fire right now, and everyone even close to the Wall will soon have far bigger worries closer to home. We might actually be the lucky ones, at least we're in a city capable of fighting back."

  [100 Experience gained for planning around the big picture.]

  Surprisingly, the System saw fit to reward me for my words, though even that generosity didn't really move my mood, not when it more or less confirmed that war had come to our doorstep.

  "Ooh, that's a rush!" Ralph gasped, sitting upright as faint sparks surrounded him for a brief moment, before sinking into him and vanishing beneath curls of midnight black fur.

  [Ralph - Level 2 Cat]

  "How are you only Level 2?" Pumpkin asked. "You're much older than I am!"

  "First off, rude," Ralph admonished. "Secondly, when would I have needed to level before this? Heaven's Reach was peaceful and prosperous, there was plenty of food for the taking, and the worst thing I ever had to fight off were the overgrown rats near the granary. Now that everything's on fire, though, I'm happy to have Nine Lives."

  "You get Nine Lives at Level 2?" I ask, annoyed by the implication. "Is that the only time you can get it, or does it show up again later if you skip it?"

  "It's the only guaranteed shot at the Trait," Ralph shrugged. "Most of us take it, because why not, but there's always a few who go for something else. Afterwards, it just goes in the regular pool of things that can show up at each level up, nobody knows exactly how your choices are curated, but there's always a chance."

  "Legend has it that if you reach Level 99 without taking it, you get an upgraded version called Ninety Nine Lives," Pumpkin added. "Though I'm pretty sure that's a joke, because I can't think of a Cat that's gotten that high, ever."

  "What would a Level 99 Cat even look like?" I ask, struggling to imagine it.

  "A deity," Kyle interjected. "Or a demi-god at least, someone who has reached the final step before ascension. Levels don't go above 100, by the System's reckoning, not because it can't count higher than that, but because numbers become meaningless past that point. Anyone who makes it there will know who they can or can't fight, it's a small club to begin with."

  That was actually good to know, as none of the literature back in the village ever talked about the high-end, probably because nobody ever made it that far. Well, I always liked being first, so I'd do my best to add my new home town to the record books.

  Ruthless: Path of Conquest!