Waking up inside the fort's walls was, to put it mildly, pleasant. Asan hadn't slept feeling safe in a long time, except maybe in the hangars, but even there he still had to keep a knife under his armpit just in case a mob of Ronnie could attack at any moment. But things were different in the fort.
Rubbing his bloodshot eyes, the guy sat up and looked around.
They were out in the open air, and he himself was sitting on the ground. Shaking off the dry grass from himself, he got up and stretched. He had long grown accustomed to the pain in his back and neck after each sleep in such places. There could be no talk of comfort when chaos reigned around him. No matter how much he cursed his ant hill, at least there was a couch where both Laszlo and Asan took turns sleeping. Recently, these two had little contact. If any contact occurred, it was mainly during combat missions, giving each other commands or advice.
Perhaps that's why Asan was surprised to see Laszlo standing next to him. The latter was looking at the boy while slowly smoking a cigarette. The smell of the disgusting smoke immediately wafted closer to Asan's nose, and his face twisted slightly.
"Good morning, Asan" his friend said sarcastically, unintentionally blowing the smoke right into Asan's face.
The guy immediately waved his hand in front of himself and, with an unhappy expression, looked at Laszlo, who merely managed to squeeze out a mischievous, playful smile and shrugged his shoulders. Sighing, Asan accepted his friend's actions and spoke up.
"Stinky morning, I'd say. Well? What do you want, Laszlo? Or is all you're interested in is watching my reaction when you smoke right in my face?" Asan said with a displeased grimace, pointing his finger at Laszlo's chest, to which the latter only raised his hands up.
"Oh, sorry, it was an accident! Anyway, Paul asked me to wait until you woke up and bring you to him. We have a city tour planned for today, so get yourself together and let's go" Laszlo briefly explained, after which he turned around, waving his hand at Asan.
All the guy could do was watch his back for a few seconds while his just-woken-up brain processed the information.
As soon as the gears started turning, Asan was already walking side by side with his friend, looking around at the fort's interior.
To his surprise, there were very few people. More like extremely few. He saw only a couple of old men, women, and children aimlessly wandering around the camp. Compared to the evening and day before, it felt as though almost everyone had vanished overnight. Where he had seen about a hundred people earlier, now there were probably only ten or eleven, including Asan and Laszlo. His friend noticed the surprise on the boy's face and patted him on the back.
"Ah, you don't know yet. We were also surprised when we saw so few people this morning. But, as it turns out, there's an explanation for this, and the people haven't disappeared."
"Look over there..." Said Laszlo and pointed his finger at the sunken building inside the fort, resembling a basement entrance. "There's something like a local chapel there. Every morning they have some kind of communal prayer, and almost everyone in the camp comes for it, judging by what those who stayed outside said."
Asan wasn't particularly surprised by this. In their camp, there were believers who could leave the camp for a while to pray, but what really surprised him was the number of people who did this every day. If out of the 16 people they had, two or three would do it, then here it was a completely different matter.
"People need some kind of faith not to go crazy... Well, that's what I think" Asan honestly expressed his opinion, slightly scratching his head.
Soon both boys reached the large gates that served as both an entrance and exit to the camp. Even before approaching, Asan noticed four people talking to the guard, the same one who had wanted to chase them away from the camp yesterday. The tone of their conversation seemed calm, but the atmosphere around them was not the best.
"Let's see. I'm not sure we're going to do this, since these are just your whims. I haven't heard anyone else complain about our weapons" Paul said sullenly to Stilet, giving him an irritated look.
"I've already explained everything. To hand over your weapons upon return was Nelson's order. In the camp, it's forbidden to carry weapons unless you are a guard" Stilet said with a smug smile, glancing at Alice.
The girl was the only one who looked enraged. Asan could feel that she was ready to pounce on the Stilet at any moment and slit his throat while he was dodging the main group. This was also evident from her left hand, which was rummaging through her pocket. To prevent things from escalating further, Paul put his hand in front of her and managed to stop her with that. Finally, Asan and Laszlo noticed Paul. He called both boys over, and they immediately approached him.
"Good morning, Asan" Paul said briefly, flashing a sloppy smile.
"And to you, captain. What the hell is going on here? We were just about to lose control…" Asan said, teasing Alice, who, upon hearing these words, glared viciously at Asan.
"Say that one more time, and you'll be crawling on your knees and begging for forgiveness like a dog, you bastard" the girl said, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away.
Paul merely sighed upon seeing this situation.
"Enough. You'll find out what happened along the way. Right now, there are more important tasks at hand" he stated and approached the gates, raising his gaze upward toward Stilet, who was already slowly opening the gates.
Asan shrugged uncertainly and waited until the gates opened. Soon their group stepped outside the fort and beyond its sense of security. The blood-red sky well illuminated the city surroundings, and being on a hill made it an excellent vantage point. Squinting, Asan scanned the city with his eyes and couldn't help but feel a slight pang in his heart.
Ruins.
The city's buildings were destroyed, and the streets were filled with debris.
This was bad not only because he felt sorry for the people who lived in these houses... No. The main reason was that they were unlikely to find anything worthwhile in the destroyed buildings, and this significantly reduced their chances of success in their mission to rest.
"Yep, wherever you look, it's a fucking mess" Crane said, scratching his beard. He was the only one, besides Laszlo, who had facial hair.
"What will we do, Captain Paul?" the usually silent Bridgite asked uncertainly. She reminded him somewhat of Asan, but they differed at least in their personalities.
"What what... We'll keep going and searching everything we can find here, but let's put off talking until later" Paul said, closing the discussion.
The group immediately set out down the hill and began inspecting the nearby surroundings. Since this was an inspection of the city, Paul said that they could also fight some groups of Ronnie, as they needed to level up too. Everyone was inspired by this idea, especially Asan, who wanted to quickly reach the fourth level and become even stronger by taking gravity magic.
Time passed quickly. Today, Asan was in a group with Alice. Of course, this did not please the guy, especially when she started asking him about the morning joke, but there was nothing he could do about it. After a couple of hours, the young man stood in the middle of the city, proudly lifting his head up and feeling a pleasant breeze on his face. He was no longer cold, as he had found a fairly comfortable and, most importantly, well-fitting down jacket that also suited his taste.
"Interesting, why is this Ronnie without clothes? Were they not human before?" Asan pondered aloud, receiving a sharp response from Alice.
"To ask such a question. Sigh... We didn't see their transformation, right? So why do you think they were humans?" The girl unexpectedly posed a counter-question, looking directly into the boy's eyes.
Asan was slightly taken aback by this but did not show it, simply shrugging his shoulders. Her theory had some merit, but something told him that Ronnie had been human before. There were too many indications pointing to that. It would have been better to know why only some people, and not half, had transformed. Wouldn't it have been more efficient for the system to transform everyone into Ronnie at once? Although it seemed that wasn't its goal in testing humanity. Well, this wasn't the most important thing right now.
"So, what's going on there? The others will be arriving soon. We've already gathered quite a lot, I think this could be enough for everyone for a whole day, if not more" the guy said, looking at four bags with various contents.
Despite the destroyed houses, it turned out that much of what was inside had not been touched. Asan was greatly surprised by this fact, because even if the items survived, why hadn't the soldiers taken them? He didn't get an answer to this question, and he didn't care anyway; on the contrary, it was good if they got more.
"Pity to give all this away... Um... Alice, so what happened with the guard?" Asan decided to change the topic, since the girl hadn't answered his first question and just ignored him. To this question, she firmly turned around on her heels and started explaining right away.
"That bastard wants us to hand over our weapons when we return. Someone must have pissed themselves when they saw our little knives and Crane's hatchet yesterday and cried to their mommy in a skirt. Scumbags!" the girl explained the situation with the guard as eloquently as possible.
Asan shook his head and rubbed his head. Giving up weapons was not a good idea, and he didn't like it. Could this be the war that Crane spoke about? But then, what would be the move from the Geographer? Well, the boy would soon find out, as he saw a group of four people heading towards them.
"What does the Geographer have in mind?"