It was late into the night, somewhere between dusk and dawn. The Arizona sky was a wide, dark slash that stretched uninterrupted from horizon to horizon. The air was cold but the hard-packed dirt still held the heat of the day, and the moonlight lit the surrounding area almost as brightly as the first glimpses of dawn. It was the perfect type of night for a family to run through the terrain without stumbling on hidden rocks or cacti, and even more perfect for predators looking for an easy meal.
"Do you think we should try a fire again?" Autumn gasped between breaths, her lungs working in overtime. The System had given them some athletic boosts, but level six didn't offer enough to give them the endurance to run non-stop throughout the night and the last few hours had sapped the strength from her legs. How much worse must it have been for Devon, having to carry a child the entire time?
She looked up at him as he scanned the horizon behind them, love and disgust welling within her in equal measure.
His scan complete, he set their daughter down on the ground, placing his finger in front of his lips to remind her to be quiet. She was barely five years old and still at level one, the two of them having decided that they would let her grow old enough to make her own decisions on how to level, rather than impose their will on her.
Before The System, the worst thing they'd faced was being called 'crunchy' parents by people who thought that 'hippie' was an insult rather than a compliment. Before Ashleigh had arrived they'd been devout explorers of philosophical and mental expansion, mainly through various forms of drugs and meditation. After Ashleigh had arrived none of that had changed, they'd just made sure to show enough restraint to be in a group with other people before taking a trip - that way the Community would take care of her. It took them three years to even name Ashleigh, wanting her to be able to choose her own name. In a ceremony that involved hotboxing inside of a mud hut with a dozen of their closest Community they'd placed her in the center, surrounded by rocks on which they'd carved the various names that the Community had come up with. They'd even left one blank in case she wasn't ready to pick a name yet. In the cloud of dense weed smoke they hadn't been able to see which one she'd chosen, only learning it after she'd slipped into unconsciousness and had to be carried outside, a small rose quartz with 'Ashleigh' inscribed on it gripped tightly in her little hand. If they weren't willing to impose a name on her against her will, how could they possibly impose her path?
They couldn't have been happier after that, becoming nomads (they hated the term 'hitchhikers') that traveled the country through the good will of strangers. Well, not the whole country, mostly just southern Arizona and a little bit of Texas. That was where their plugs - their drug connections - were and they didn't have the money, or desire, to travel to places like Colorado or Seattle and find new ones. So they couch surfed, tent surfed, or even abandoned-building surfed - nature and strangers providing everything they needed.
Then The System arrived and their peaceful world was turned upside-down. It was obvious from the beginning that the evil System wanted to force them to kill - because why wouldn't it? Why wouldn't the living beings of the universe try to subvert the Universe Herself by rewarding violence? They would not fall prey to that thinking. They'd been staunch vegans their entire relationship and if they weren't willing to eat dead flesh they certainly weren't willing to kill just to gain some sort of power.
Leveling was… hard. They'd realized that they'd have to earn levels somehow, but had no idea what that meant. It had never occurred to them to look online, that was something they'd both given up long ago. They saw others kill creatures, but chose not to participate. It was through sheer chance that they found a traveling market and learned that you could gain levels through activities like creating, art, meditation, and other previously-unknown methods.
Autumn was shocked to have gained a level after helping someone through a bad trip. After that she became a guide to those who would seek enlightenment through various substances, even earning the class Spirit Acolyte in the process. She hoped it would one day turn into a spirit guide or shaman, both seemed like lovely paths for her.
Devon became a Ritualist, guiding prayer circles, ritualistic dances, and more hotbox sessions.
Since Ashleigh was so young they were given the option to choose a path for her before she reached level five. They were told that they would be given the knowledge of how the generic class could earn enough experience to reach level five, and what kinds of tasks it would take to get her there. The System highly encouraged parents to help their children advance enough to survive, or at the very least to keep them from dying too easily in a world that was getting more and more dangerous around them.
Autumn and Devon assumed that after level five they would just have to support her without knowing the direction her path would take, but they hadn't bothered to ask The System any followup questions. They knew what state of being was the most important: peaceful, non-violent, never killing. They stayed in communities that could protect them, and left any time the community started to question keeping Ashleigh at such a low level - or when the community died from animal attacks. They believed in relying on the Community to help raise a child and, thus, didn't feel any urgency to help Ashleigh advance. They also didn't believe in making decisions for Ashleigh or forcibly giving her experience points that she hadn't explicitly requested. They didn't enforce bed times, clothing choices, or even education on their child g they sure as the Goddess weren't going to do it for experience points, no matter what warnings The System sent out.
The warnings had been direct and foreboding: allowing your child to remain under-leveled was placing them at a high risk of death. According to The System, the bare minimum level for survival over the next year would be level five, and no living creature was spared this limit.
Yet this did not deter them - they would not be influenced by governments, society, or the opinions of others - even if the 'other' was a supposed power-bequeathing civilization. If others chose to fight or die, that was on them. As for Autumn and Devon, they would run.
And run they did.
Autumn thought back to a week earlier when Devon had betrayed them. They were sleeping in the back seat of a stalled car, the remains of the previous owners scattered across the dusty ground around it. Ashleigh had woken up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom, so Autumn let her outside before immediately falling back to sleep. The two of them were startled awake minutes later when they heard her screams.
They fell out of the car in jumbles, Devon getting to his feet first and rushing toward the sounds of the screaming. He found Ashleigh sitting on top of a rock, obviously having climbed up the steep face on one side. At the bottom of the rock was an oversized scorpion roughly the size of a small dog. Its stinger was lashing upwards at Ashleigh, missing her by inches.
Autumn skidded to a stop next to Devon, her hands at her mouth to hold in her gasp. The scorpion hadn't noticed them yet and they were frozen with indecision. Devon looked around frantically and found a large stone that he would have struggled to lift before the additional points added to his Agility and Strength. Autumn would have been upset that he'd added points to Strength, further enabling toxic masculinity, but they never talked about things like that. And he couldn't deny that he liked the primal feeling of being stronger.
He felt her hand on his arm as he picked it up and saw the look of horror in her eyes. "Don't," she whispered.
"I have to!" He whispered back, getting more concerned by the second.
"Just scare it away!"
Just as she said that Devon caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and saw that the scorpion had found the sloped side and was slowly working its way up the almost-smooth surface. Without thinking he rushed forwards and hurled the rock.
His agility made his aim true and his strength added power to the stone. There was a sickening crunch and the scorpion was dead, its ruined body leaving a trail of white goo and broken carapace oozing down the rock. Devon jumped easily onto the rock and scooped Ashleigh into a hug, kissing her head before jumping back down. It was then that two notifications flashed into his mind:
"Midnight Scorpion, Level 6 defeated."
Devon Vaunt, Level: 7Class: Ritualist
I gained an entire level just by killing one scorpion? It takes weeks to earn a level! He was awed, not only with how quickly he'd gained a level, but also by how easy it was. One rock, one smash, and he was leveled up. If I did this more often I bet I could be level 10 in a week or two!
The thoughts flashed through his mind and he dispelled them with a mental wave of guilt. He would never tell Autumn about his guilty thoughts. They never talked about leveling anyway, and her feelings on any sort of killing was extremely clear. A little too clear, he thought as he saw the look on her face.
A short trip back and they were inside the car with Ashleigh sitting outside on the hood. They wanted her in clear view, but didn't want to expose her to the toxic energy of adults arguing.
"Look, it needed to be done! It was going to kill her!"
"So you just killed it?" Autumn's tone brooked no understanding of his point. "Animals hunt and kill, that's their nature. We are enlightened beings - we break the cycle! I thought you, of all people, understood that! The first time things get hard you just kill instead of just grabbing her and running away?"
Devon dropped his head. He knew there would be no convincing her. "I didn't think about that, I just saw her in danger and wanted to keep her safe."
Autumn hissed an almost-yell through her teeth and waved at the front window. "She wouldn't have wanted you to do that! You've probably already poisoned her spirit by making her watch you do that. You just taught our child that when danger comes your way the first response - the first MALE response - is to kill it. Just kill, smash, or fight your way out of it. This is the impression you've coded onto her soul and now she is going to have to live with that!"
She shook her head then lowered her voice, talking to herself. "We're going to need to do a cleansing ritual. Not from you!" She threw a sharp glare at Devon. "A ritualist without blood on his soul. I can get some mushrooms and we can let her sweat it out. There has to be someone here with a hookup…"
Devon tuned her out. She was obv3done talking with him and his input would only be met with anger. He wished they'd talked more about Ashleigh's path. He wished he'd put his foot down about making her stronger. Hell, he wished he'd just been able to have a single conversation with her about raising Ashleigh in this new world without it turning into a fight that led to both of them getting so high that they forgot why they were fighting in the first place.
But that wasn't them, and wishing for it wouldn't change how things were now. He could try to help Ashleigh level, he supposed, but Autumn would notice and there would be hell to pay after. No, the best thing he could do is keep them safe until Ashleigh was old enough to make her own decision on the matter. One thing he knew for sure was that there would be no more killing. The power it brought was intoxicating, and that was exactly why killing was so dangerous. Autumn may be unreasonable at times, but she wasn't wrong - the masculine trait to handle every situation with violence was why their world was in such a terrible state, and he wasn't going to add to it.
A week later the trio were paused in the moonlight, Autumn catching her breath while Devon scanned the area for threats. They'd been chased by some sort of mutated jackrabbit. It was damned fast and could bite through anything, but if they showed any aggression towards it it ran away.
"I think I scared it off," Devon breathed out with a sigh of relief, just before the tawny blur flashed in and dragged him screaming into the night.
In the heartbeats it took for Autumn's mind to catch up to what had happened his screaming stopped with a loud crunch. Ashleigh turned slowly in a circle, looking for where her dad had gone. She started walking toward Autumn, but Autumn's attention was focused on the glowing yellow eyes slowly emerging from the darkness behind the girl. The coyote came into view, its attention on the child in front of it.
Autumn swore she could see a smile break out on its face as it literally licked its chops. Her mind unlocked and she realized she only had seconds to spare.
Autumn ran. She was sure the car was too far away, but with the coyote distracted she might have a chance.
She risked a glance back over her shoulder so missed the small, gray blur that severed her Achilles Tendon as it passed. She yelped and tumbled into a roll, landing on her back just in time to see the jackrabbit in the air above her. She reached out in reflex and managed to catch it by the throat. She squeezed and shook it, trying to pop its stupid little head off.
"Just fucking die!" She knew if she killed it she'd probably get a level like Devon had, which would heal her and give her a chance to get to the safety of the car. Her grip tightened and she was thankful for all the points she'd put into Strength. She hadn't told Devon because she wouldn't give any man that kind of power over her, but she needed to be able to defend herself if her Agility didn't let her get away fast enough. He probably would have called it hypocritical for her to prepare to fight, but it wasn't about her. It was about them. The men and monsters that would try to take advantage of her. She didn't want to kill or hurt anything, she just had to be ready to in case they did.
With a final snapping of bones the rabbit's head lolled to the side and she felt the blissful sensation of healing wash through her. She started to sit up only for a paw to slam down onto her chest, pushing her back into the dirt. She could see the blood and hair still lodged in the coyote's teeth as it lunged for her.
** System Announcement: Congratulations! All members of your planet have reached level five! **