Chapter 49: Block Patrol (Patreon)

Peacock Park was as safe as it could get after the apocalypse. Coop was sitting on a wooden bench taking a well earned break while watching ducks swim along the shore of a small lake inside the park. The sun was shining and birds were cheerfully singing from the branches of nearby trees. There weren’t any Primal Trackers to be seen.

Coop hadn’t found where the monsters were spawning from, but he had culled the invaders through the night and into the day. Every once in a while another pack would roam into the edges of the park, but at the rate that they were returning, it would take them weeks before they returned to their previous numbers.

He considered hunting the packs and tracing their paths to try and find where they were coming from, but he already knew he wouldn’t be able to finish the quest chain before the girls were due to return. He didn’t want to leave the park and make it more difficult to meet up with Camila and Charlie. He ended up having a relaxing morning watching birds and squirrels. He massaged his calves and recalled his stretching routine from back at the fort before he walked around the perimeter of the park. His quick patrol found two more packs of five monsters to defeat.

While exploring the park he found evidence that someone had camped inside the dugout of one of the baseball fields, but they had been gone for quite a while. Otherwise, it seemed like the park had been claimed by the Primal Trackers relatively early in the assimilation. It would have made a good place to grind monsters even in the early days. The park was a lot easier to move around in compared to the sandy dunes of Ghost Reef where he had hunted the Ancient Defenders.

Upon returning to the main entrance of the park, where he would meet the girls, he decided he would add a block to his little patrol. He could cycle back to the entrance of the park frequently enough to not worry about missing Camila and Charlie’s return. This way, he would also find more monsters to hunt and hopefully ease the burden on any survivors that were still in the buildings.

While many of the buildings had obviously deteriorated after the assimilation began, he noted that most of them were still structurally sound. Having a civilization shard in a city would probably be a huge boon for developing a proper sanctuary. As long as someone like Balor was around, to strengthen the foundations, the city would basically come prebuilt. Coop wouldn’t have abandoned all the free real estate if he had the choice. Back home they only had the lighthouse and the fort to begin with, and they had both been extremely helpful. Ghost Reef was still defined by both of the original structures.

He walked along a tree covered street that led away from the park. It was lined by a series of storefronts on both sides. There was a barbershop with its red, white, and blue pole still standing, a clothing boutique with wedding dresses displayed in the front window, a used bookstore still full of books, a specialty coffee shop with a smashed front window on one corner, and a fancy looking steakhouse on the opposite corner.

On a whim, Coop went into the bookstore to test his scavenging ability. He had to force his way into the locked front door, but his improved Strength allowed him to force the door open with minimal damage to the rest of the front. The door probably wouldn’t lock anymore, but he doubted that would be a problem in the future. If someone wanted to get in they would just smash the windows anyway. At least it still looked intact without a closer inspection.

He tried scavenging a book from a table that displayed new bestsellers for anyone that entered the store. It immediately joined the rest of his profession’s collection. Coop was surprised that it worked. He thought there would be more restrictions on what was eligible to be scavenged. He couldn’t just loot anything he came across, he had tried other random items before and found himself unable to get them into his storage.

Coop thought it was possible that this was the true purpose of the scavenging profession, and the auto looting of defeated enemies was actually just a secondary feature. Of course, Coop was pushing that secondary feature to the extreme, getting all sorts of benefits from the profession due to his grinding sessions. He had barely explored other possibilities due to the isolation of Ghost Reef.

In any case, his profession allowed him to hoover up all of the books from the small bookstore. It had piles and piles of books stuffed into bookshelves and even stacked on the floor. They were mostly in pretty good shape even if some of them were worn from previous readers. He didn’t discriminate with which books he claimed. All types of fiction, non-fiction, and everything from encyclopedias to journals went into his spatial storage. He’d take them all back to Ghost Reef and see if the undead archive would take care of them. It seemed like a shame to leave them behind and he knew some factions would value their contents. He remembered that pre-mana knowledge was the reason Jones had been Chosen, for instance. Coop cleared out the entire store and exited back to the street.

Coop made it to the first intersection and took a left, planning on wrapping around the block back to the park. Halfway down the block he was confronted by a pack of Primal Trackers led by a level 30 elite that had been waiting among the overgrown bushes on the sides of the road. Of course he wasn’t deterred, attacking them directly with his ethereal glaive already equipped. He moved to the group of monsters who had positioned themselves into a familiar half circle designed to give each member an equal opportunity to attack. Coop stepped directly toward the leader, in the center of the five monsters, and thrust his honed glaive forward.

The wolf-like monster leapt backwards out of range of the blade. Coop transitioned the thrust into a horizontal strike toward an adjacent monster. The quick adjustment caught a regular Primal Tracker before it could decide whether to attack or retreat. The blade crunched through the snout of the monster and defeated it just as another monster decided to lunge from the opposite side.

Coop ignored the lunging monster to press the elite leader, hopping forward with enough swiftness to cause the attacker to whiff its diving attack. Coop thrust his glaive forward once again and made the elite choose to either isolate itself from the rest of its pack by dodging backwards again, or dodging to one of the sides while remaining in range of Coop’s glaive.

The monster made the fatal mistake of dodging to Coop’s right, placing itself into the same line that the already defeated monster had been holding. Coop repeated the horizontal strike, catching the elite monster at the shoulder and slicing all the way through. The elite was defeated as easily as the normal monsters despite being superior in stats and abilities by a significant degree. Coop did enough damage when he landed critical blows to devastate even the strong elites. They would need to have a disproportionate amount of defensive stats or otherwise be protected by skills to survive a headshot from Coop’s blade.

The last three monsters didn’t give up, simultaneously attacking while doing their best to avoid Coop’s glaive, but he was faster and stronger than they were and they weren’t very durable. They had no chance without any particular abilities to elevate them above a simple comparison of stats.

Coop managed to avoid any damage with some simple side steps combined with his unrelenting aggression. Just like when he fought the elite Strength zombies, Coop took the advantage right away and then pressed forward, preventing the monsters from rallying any defense properly. He was sure there would be some philosophical way of looking at his strategy, but he was simply trying to get the first strike every time.

After the last monster evaporated into mana smoke, Coop planted the butt of his glaive into the ground and looked around. The small shops had given way to apartment buildings on the side street. They were in pretty good shape. Before mana they were probably in high demand. Even though they weren’t high-rises they were still luxury apartments with a central courtyard in each building. The landscaping had become unkempt, but it was obvious they were well maintained in the past. The nearby park and walkable shops made it a nice area for a lively setting outside of downtown.

He noticed some movement in his peripheral vision while he was admiring the block and quickly turned to a second story window, catching a man bumping heads with a lady before he could get out of the way. They had been peeking over a windowsill that was filled with colorful succulents that failed to give them real camouflage. Coop stood in the middle of the street and looked around at the rest of the windows that surrounded him. He didn’t see anyone else, but odds were there were more people who were sheltering in place not realizing the danger of remaining outside of the settlements.

With a sigh he thought he should at least warn them that the monsters would just keep getting more dangerous, then let them decide how to handle the information. He walked toward the couple’s building, making a note of where their window had been. As he leisurely went up the stairs in the interior courtyard he briefly considered his appearance. He just had his glaive and gladiator sandals summoned since he was lounging at the park earlier. He looked like an armed beach bum. Maybe the rest of the armor would improve the look, but he kind of was an armed beach bum. Why should he hide it?

He stood on a welcome mat and gently knocked on the couple’s door, #223. He was ninety percent sure this was the correct one, but no one answered. He tried one more time before he would give up.

They still didn’t answer so he moved to leave, but as soon as he started he heard whispering and froze.

“Just open it and see what he wants!” The lady hissed, failing to keep her voice to a complete whisper.

“No way, Laurie, you saw what he did to those monsters.” A man’s deeper whisper responded. Coop decided he would just leave them alone and started to leave.

“Exactly! He could break the door down if he wanted! Just open it!” The lady continued with exasperation, barely maintaining a whisper that Coop could clearly hear through their front door.

Coop was only a step away when the lock on the door clicked and the door swung inside. A nervous looking man leaned out from behind the door, keeping most of his body behind it. “Can we help you, sir?” He asked. Coop inspected their auras.

[Human (Level 15)]

[Pyroclastic Smith (Intelligence)]

[Chosen of the Black Star]

[Steam]

[Human (Level 9)]

[Enchanter (Intelligence)]

[Arcane]

“I just wanted to apologize for disturbing you two.” Coop began. “And to warn you that it’s only going to get more dangerous outside of the settlements.”

“It’s no problem…” The man started. The pair looked at each other before the lady continued.

“It’s just that we have a baby and didn’t want to get involved with… everything.”

Coop offered his congratulations for the baby and the parents introduced themselves as Laurie and Greg, owners of a coffee shop around the corner. Or former owners, as they had given up on it at this point. Their coffee shop gave Coop an idea though.

“Why don’t you two come back to my settlement and start another coffee shop?” Coop offered. “It’ll be safer than staying put.”

Laurie looked confused, “You have a settlement?” She asked.

“Yep.” Coop stated with a friendly smile.

“What are you doing wandering around out here?” Greg asked.

“I’m just visiting to pick up the family of friends.” Coop explained. “I’m happy to take anyone that needs a safe place as long as they’re willing to help with the settlement. It’s small and isolated, on an island, and we’re remaining factionless.”

Greg looked hesitant, confused that such an offer would appear on their doorstep, but Laurie spoke up right away. “We accept. Should we leave now or…?”

Coop couldn’t help but chuckle at Greg’s face when his wife revealed her eagerness to get out of dodge. “I won’t be leaving for another two days at the earliest, but people are gathering at Crane Point for the trip. Do you know where that is?”

“Yea, we can get there. Is your invitation just for us, or can we tell our friends?” Laurie asked while Greg was still visibly trying to figure out what was going on as he gaped at his wife.

“Bring whoever, but no freeloaders, and if they have a faction that wants to control Earth they’ll need to defect.” Coop extended the offer.

“What about babies? Most of our mommy group is still hiding out.” Laurie seriously asked.

Coop tried not to be offended by the suggestion that he would exclude babies from the safety of his settlement. “I’m not a monster, of course babies are fine.”

“Wait, wait…” Greg interrupted. “You want a coffee shop? We need supplies, equipment…”

“Oh hush,” Laurie stopped him. “We can figure it out, there’s magic now, Greg.” She looked at Coop, “Thanks for the offer, we’ll gather our things and head to Crane Point right away.”

Coop took the hint and made his way to leave, “Alright, I’ll be around the main entrance of Peacock Park if you need help. Good luck.”

Coop left the couple to work things out. Before he was out of earshot he could hear Laurie putting her foot down about exactly what they were going to do next. Good for her, he thought.

He went back to the coffee shop that he had walked past earlier and climbed through the broken front window, avoiding the shards of glass even if they probably wouldn’t hurt him. He went ahead and used his profession to scavenge all of the equipment and materials from behind the counter and in the storeroom.

Coop didn’t actually drink coffee, he had been so wrapped up in his own survivor’s guilt he didn’t do anything except for the simple tasks that were laid out for him. He didn’t drink, he ate based on his team’s meal plan, he only went to parties if someone dragged him there, and barely anyone would go through the effort more than once. Still, he thought a coffee shop would be a good addition to the settlement.

Coop circled several more blocks, always returning to Peacock Park. He scavenged a few more places and also returned to Charlie’s house. He found packs of monsters, but never enough to push his quest forward in a significant way. The park itself hadn’t gathered any new monsters either. He was apparently cutting off the reinforcements by defeating them in the surrounding blocks.

When he returned to the park after yet another circuit around abandoned blocks he spotted three large figures waiting for him. Coop was a pretty tall guy, but even from a distance he could tell that these three were taller and way bigger. Once he got close enough, he used his aura to reveal theirs.

[Human (Level 23)]

[Warbuster (Body)]

[Chosen of the Alliance of Metal]

[Metallic]

[Human (Level 23)]

[Warbuster (Body)]

[Chosen of the Alliance of Metal]

[Metallic]

[Human (Level 23)]

[Warbuster (Body)]

[Chosen of the Alliance of Metal]

[Metallic]

[Human (Level 0)]

Three identical classes, how strange. That’s when he also realized there was a fourth tiny human on the shoulders of the center of the three. He recognized the blonde hair despite it being washed and combed; it was Elly. These giants must have been her brothers. He kept approaching to offer his greetings and see what they needed.

“It’s him!” Elly shouted when he got closer, leaning forward to point at him and let her brother see.

Coop had never seen any classes repeated, but these three brothers all had identical auras. He thought they might also be triplets. They all had faded blue jeans with white t-shirts and cowboy boots. All three had short buzz cuts. Coop had known some guys that had the same look in college and they always had nicknames like Cornbread or Bubba.

“How’s it goin’ boys?” Coop greeted

“You the one that saved Elly?” The middle one asked, looking down at Coop.

“Yea, did she tell you about Crane Point?” Coop answered.

The left brother responded, “She told us, but we ain’t from here, so we dunno where that is.”

The right brother continued, “We came to meet you first anyway. You really the guy on the leaderboards?”

“Ah, yea, but I’m not really advertising it. If you could keep that a secret, I’d appreciate it.” Coop confirmed.

The middle brother nodded first and the other two exchanged a glance and followed with their own nods.

“We’re the Cleary brothers.” The center one stated. “I’m Buck and these are my little brothers. Junior and Tiny. You already met Elly.” Coop would struggle to remember which was which. Buck continued, “Our faction told us to find a settlement so we traveled to the city, but this Endless Empire is no good.”

“They ain’t right.” Tiny commented, shaking his head.

“Mama wouldn’t have liked them.” Junior added. “Singlin’ people out so they can feel all superior.”

“It ain’t right.” Tiny repeated.

“We’ve been hangin’ around, beating up those mean metal dogs.” Buck explained, Tiny knocked his fists together with a metallic clink. “This park had too many of them for us. You did that?” He asked with a gesture to the empty park.

“Yea, ran out of monsters to fight though.” Coop confirmed.

Buck nodded, “What’s at Crane Point?”

“Crane Point has a marina. I’m taking people from there back to my own settlement, away from the Empire.” Coop explained. “You’re welcome to join as long as you find something to do to help out.”

“I wanna go!” Elly shouted from her perch above Buck’s head.

“Then we’ll go.” Buck agreed without hesitating while Elly cheered. Both ‘little’ brothers nodded. “We can show you where there’s more monsters while you give us directions.”

“Lead the way.” Coop told him and started telling him how to get to the marina.

Coop didn’t get far in his explanation before Laurie shouted at them from down the block. She hustled over to the group with her baby strapped to her chest and Greg bringing up the rear with six different bags strapped to him. He was struggling under the weight. Apparently, they had already roused the rest of their friends and were all meeting at Peacock Park to head to Crane Point as a group.

Coop’s invitation had been extended like a game of telephone with neighbors contacting friends and so on. It seemed like a significant portion of the city wasn’t interested in joining the Empire or any faction for that matter. Most had ended up heading to the Empire’s settlement anyway, but some were still staying put, holding out hope for a different option. Despite the city seeming to be abandoned, people managed to keep in touch. The mommy group was just one example of acquaintances keeping up with each other.

Laurie would have the Cleary brothers escort them since they expected to have several infants along for their trip. Elly was super happy about meeting the baby and couldn’t wait to see the rest.

Buck led Coop to the Primal Trackers while they waited for their group to gather.