The World Which Is

Chapter 29

"Those are different," Herbert says. "They're monster waves. They exist to attack a settlement. They grow along with it until it's a city. Then they go away."

"Cities have enough problems internally without needing the extra stress of being attacked," George comments.

"So because of Chuck, monsters get pulled to the caravan..." I look down the length of it. "Why are there so many carts, then? I'd think that word would spread and no one would want to risk it."

"With risks comes rewards," Daz says.

"Or long stay in jail," Sasha adds.

"No jail in the wild, that's the beauty of them," the sneak replies with a smirk.

"And faster skill gain," Max says. "So Chuck's caravan draws a lot of people looking to fight; guards are never a problem. And because of that, merchants are willing to travel with us."

"Not to say of the deal Chuck has with them," George says. "They get to keep part of what they harvest from our kills."

"Our Kills?" Helen says. "When have you ever joined in?"

"I join in spirit," George replies. "I join by keeping your bellies full and morale high."

"But yes, they get to keep some of the spoils just for harvesting them," Herbert says.

"Why do you say harvesting? They just access their inventories and take what's there, right?"

"They haven't gone over harvesting as part of your classes yet?" Herbert asks. "You were going to be a guard, right?"

"They don't start us on guard related stuff until we have the class."

"Okay. Then, after you've emptied the inventory, you can get more if you butcher the corpse. It's mostly extra meat, hides, and bones, but those with high enough skill have been known to pull out the unexpected gem, or precious ring, or something small like that, but valuable."

"How does a ring end up as part of any kind of reward for killing a monster?" I ask, perplexed.

"The system puts it there," Max answers

"Or they ate someone who had it," Helen adds.

"No way," the archer says. "No one goes in the wilds wearing something that valuable. The system throws that in as an incentive to get people to risk their lives, and to get them to spend their points on the skill."

"That implies the system wants something," Helen replies. "It doesn't want anything, it's just there."

"I'm just saying—"

"How about we stop the religious talk before it gets to blows?" Herbert warns.

"Sorry boss," Max says, and Helen smirks.

There are groups of people who think the system came here for a reason. What that reason is varies from group to group. Grandpa Louis says that most of them started on the day the system appeared, and that they were those people whose lives weren't going well before that. They saw the system as the answer to their prayers that God hadn't bothered with.

He had to deal with a group like that. It's how he ended up as a Commander. With a gun to his head, was the way he described it. When they started showing up in Court, he wanted them kicked out, but the Mayor said Canada was built on inclusion, and she would not start going against that.

That was before I was born. We've had a few mayors since. After one group tried to take over Base because they saw him as 'The Voice of the System', tolerance for those kinds of groups dropped in Court.