Marcus was too nervous about bringing Richard anywhere near the lake, but because of the vast amount of materials they needed that were advanced or above, that meant Richard remained under Elwyndor’s care. There was one valuable thing he learned from this whole thing. Richard was definitely meant to be a scavenger. Farming drove him crazy, and he was pretty sure that as a cook he would have been farming a lot more than normal. Thankfully, Marcus offered to train with him in the armory as a reminder of what his class choice was.

  Richard also saw how much the newbies struggled. He had plateaued at level fifteen for a while now, and the constant checking of his levels didn’t help. The newbies were all helping with farming, because everyone was helping there. The entire schedule had been put on hold because of the locusts. As the two-week mark of the newbies’ arrival approached, Richard realized how far behind they were. If the newbies weren’t leveling up fast enough, then they couldn’t grow their numbers.

  He talked about his concerns with Marcus while training, and the scavenger leader gave a grim nod.

  “I know. We’ve discussed it as leaders. But getting the farmlands corrupt-free is our top priority,” Marcus said.

  “It’s already been over a week,” Richard said.

  “And it will probably still take another week or two,” Marcus said.

  Richard held in a groan. He understood the concern. He didn’t remember how long it took to recover from the wall breach, but this would certainly take much longer. Richard’s main concern was that he wasn’t sure they could remain with so few people for so long.

  Richard wrapped his whip around Marcus’s wrist and gave it a jerk. Marcus dropped his dagger, smiling a little as he kept his footing.

  “You’re getting good with that whip.”

  “Training in an armory is a lot different from a monster chasing you,” Richard said.

  “That’s the truth.” Marcus picked up his dagger. “Though it is usually guards who are required to go hand to hand with monsters.”

  Richard sighed, taking a drink from his waterskin.

  “It’ll be a slow recovery, but we’ll get there,” Marcus said.

  “Isn’t there a smaller expedition you’ll be going on soon? One that I can join?”

  “Not while the farmlands are as corrupted as they are. And master-level creatures are getting harder to find. We might have to go the other way soon and trust our luck.” Marcus paused with a far-off look entering his eyes.

  “The… other way?” Richard asked.

  Marcus hesitated again, then pointed in the direction of the lake. “There’s only two places that we can safely come back from. The lake and the surrounding areas, and the beach. None of us had dared go over there—” Marcus pointed toward the west “—in a really long time. Several master-level creatures have set up a wall, and there’s too many of them for us to take with our numbers. But…” Marcus trailed off, thinking. “But if we go silently and set up traps…. If we don’t take a guard…”

  “That seems like an easy way to get three scavengers killed,” Richard filled in for Marcus.

  “But it also gives us a chance to get master creatures in traps. And at this point in our survival, a daily trickle of three master monster hearts would increase our purifying production tenfold.”

  Richard rolled his whip up and placed it in his inventory. Marcus’s mind was made up. He just had to convince Reggie to let three scavengers go alone.

  “Just be careful, please. I don’t want to be the only scavenger left,” Richard said.

  Marcus came back to the present. “Oh, it won’t happen today. No one is leaving the walls until Lucy wakes up.”

  Richard raised an eyebrow. “Lucy’s finally getting some sleep?”

  “A well-earned sleep.” Marcus studied Richard more. “Did Elwyndor make the announcement yet?”

  “No, what happened?”

  Marcus’s face broke into a grin. “Dmitri has a pulse.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  ***

  Despite the slow recovery, Dmitri making such a leap in healing certainly brought the morale of the camp up. But as two weeks from the newbie’s arrival came and went, Richard had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning to do something he didn’t want. More than a month here at an apocalypse, and he had been a farmer more than a scavenger. He secretly had the farmer's class, yet had no abilities chosen for it. In fact, Richard begged Marcus and Reggie to take him to the beach to do some scavenging because he was so close to level sixteen, and had been for three days. Sometimes it was maddening how little experience Richard got with farming.

  When Lucy woke up from her almost twenty-hour sleep, Richard went down to the beach with Marcus and Reggie. He breathed in the salty air, knowing the monsters in the water could kill him, but so relieved he wasn’t spreading purifying potion over the black muck to turn it brown. Nothing happened on the beach except that Richard scavenged for seaweed that no one needed right now, grateful that Marcus and Reggie took time out of their day to give this to him.

  Richard wished it became part of a routine, especially since he hadn’t leveled up yet, but as soon as the other leaders gave Marcus permission to take Savannah and Elias to the west with the blockade of monsters, the scavengers were gone all day. Richard watched them leave, wishing he was stronger to leave with them, but he doubted Marcus would let him come with him unless he had a trap ability, and despite unlocking both the basic and advance levels of scavenger, he had a feeling trap would be in the master. Also, with how long it took him to level up, he knew why he was being left behind every day. It still hurt, especially as level sixteen got closer. With the scavengers gone all day, they were only assigned dinnertime dishes or making breakfast.

  Having a steady stream of master monster parts was the key, though. Richard felt like he was suffocating under the monotony as another week went by. Three weeks and the newbies had barely reached level nine. Richard should be happy for the monotony, because it meant another day of surviving when he should be dead. It meant avoiding a third apocalyptic event that would wipe them all out. As they started stockpiling the monster parts, they created more of the purifying potion, and the more they had of it, the more they could purify. It just took so damn long. He wasn’t the only one under stress. Every day that they didn’t contain the corruption in the farmlands, another wrinkle appeared on Elwyndor’s forehead and her frown would deepen. They were supposed to get the ground ready by now for planting, but none of them dared pull out seeds until it was completely purified.

  Richard churned the ground as soon as Amrynn and the others poured the purifying potions. Plenty of time alone with his thoughts. Not strong enough to go with his scavenger class, but also not a farmer, even if he secretly had the class. It was so frustrating. The farm class was one he didn’t want, but it seemed like it was now forced on him.

  Richard kept churning the ground with his special shovel, annoyed. He now spent more time as a farmer than as a scavenger. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have assumed the locust attack was on purpose to force him to be a farmer.

  Richard almost dug his shovel into the dirt when the reality of his thoughts hit him. Order had threatened him that night. An actual threat from a higher being who swore she would kill him if he chose the scavenger class and aligned with Chaos.

  Richard blinked as this revelation rewrote the past few weeks. A world-stopping event meant to kill everything in its path. Something that would force him to be a farmer instead of scavenging. An event that had killed him in another timeline. Everything seemed to fit too cleanly, except for one detail. Locusts were too chaotic to be controlled by Order. All the monsters here in the apocalypse had a variety of Chaos within them.

  Right?

  He needed to stop this line of thinking. Order was trying to end the apocalypse. She would not send creatures to wipe everyone out because one guy didn’t choose the class she wanted him to.

  Though… if she saw him as a threat because he sided with Chaos, wouldn’t she be as thorough as possible to end him? But the creatures in this forest weren’t following Order. That’s why they had the system—to fight back against the creatures sent by Chaos.

  Richard stared at the ground, still frozen in the act, eyes wide. When his heartbeat finally fell to a normal rhythm, he returned to shoveling dirt. It was certainly a cataclysmic event, but he shouldn’t just assume it was about him. The wall breach hadn’t been about him, nor were any other attacks. He was being paranoid because he’d been outside in the sun all day long for weeks doing a monotonous job he never wanted. He just did it because he had to for survival. Which seemed like something Order would force him to do to keep him from getting any stronger.

  “Thank you, Richard.”

  Surprised, he looked up to see Elwyndor standing in front of him.

  “Huh?” Richard asked.

  “I know this isn’t your class, and I see you constantly checking the walls for your crew. Just know I appreciate the help. I’ve been talking with Marcus, and he agrees you shouldn’t stall anymore in your leveling. So starting tomorrow, I will have you in the morning while they collect monster parts in their traps, then you will go with Marcus after lunch on expeditions to the forest.”

  Richard took this in, his mind scrambling to think of something. When he walked outside those walls, would Order force all the creatures to chase him down and eat him?

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes.” Richard rubbed his face. “Sorry, yes, of course. That sounds good. Thank you, I am excited to return to scavenging.”

  Elwyndor nodded, but didn’t look convinced as she moved to her plot of land to work it. Richard ran his fingers down his face before turning over the dirt. The apocalypse was bad before he joined base two. They were on the brink of extinction already before Richard chose his class. This paranoid thinking was exactly what Ike and Dennison dabbled in, and it got them killed. Richard was not responsible for the state of the apocalypse. Besides, he couldn’t imagine Order being so petty as to use the apocalypse to kill him. She was actively trying to stop it, not prolong it.