The residents looked at him, perturbed, when David began to laugh. It didn’t make sense to them that he would start laughing seemingly out of nowhere, especially after bringing discomfort to his patients. Sure, their complexion improved almost immediately as he healed them, but what kind of Healer would laugh in the face of their patient’s pain?

David did laugh, but it was completely unrelated to his patients’ momentary discomfort. It lasted no more than a quarter of a second and was barely worth mentioning. He’d been forced to endure a lot more since the integration.

Ignoring the perturbed looks thrown his way, David was smiling. He was satisfied with himself, knowing he could use the power of the Void to help rather than destroy.

The power that should have consumed everything turned out to be the reason the elderly residents survived. Sure, he could have cut the patients open with a knife and cut out the fleshly aether constructs that resembled ulcers, but that would have consumed more energy, and it would have taken a lot more time.

He was also certain not everyone would have allowed a stranger to perform surgery like that. Not in the open, and not even in a more private setting.

“I think that’s it. The aether ulcers: I think I’ll just call them that: have been removed, and I took care of the others as well. Or are more wounded residents hiding somewhere?” David knew there was no one, but he asked anyway.

“You really healed them,” one of the few Healers at the Bronze Rank muttered, the disbelief in her voice ringing in his ears.

Lilia burst into tears and hugged her grandmother tightly, pressing her head firmly against the elderly woman’s chest. The grandmother patted Lilia and consoled her until her tears ceased.

“Thank you. Thank you very much! I don’t know what we would have done without your help, Your Excellency,” Lilia said, snot running down her nose.

You, just like everyone else in Orhain, would have died. Not to the aether ulcers, but to the monster horde. And stop with that ‘Your Excellency’ nonsense! David nearly snapped. Instead, he asked what he wanted to know.

“Can you tell me more about Orhain? I was... stuck in a Rift for quite a while and have no idea where I am,” he said, mostly truthful. “Though I am aware that we’re still in the Earthen Union, probably on the western continent, but that’s about as far as I can tell. I couldn’t find any other settlements in a several-kilometer radius with my Skills, and most of the surrounding land looks ‘unfamiliar.’”

His question echoed through the town center. Murmurs resounded, but David was mostly interested in the townspeople’s complicated expressions.

“You won’t find any other villages or towns out there,” Lilia muttered quietly after cleaning her snotty nose. “We are the only ones who’ve survived the integration. We are...”

“The last survivors of the Earthen Union’s humans,” someone else, another woman, finished for Lilia as she stepped forward.

The woman was taller than David by an entire head, possibly two, and she was even more muscular than he was. Then again, his muscles were concentrated, whereas the woman looked like a massive bodybuilder on one too many doses of steroids.

“Last survivors? That’s nonsense.” David chuckled, his expression distorting when nobody laughed with him.

Clearly, they weren’t joking. They seriously thought they were the only survivors of—... His heart skipped a beat.

“How much time has passed since the integration?”

His stomach tightened and so did his throat as he waited impatiently for an answer. The muscular woman and Lilia looked at each other for a moment and answered in unison.

“More than a year.”

“Close to 18 months have passed.”

David exhaled deeply and patted his heart.

“Okay, that’s good. I was thinking...” He shook his head.

The probability had been very low, incredibly so, but for a moment he had been worried his escape from the Naughtrealm caused him to be stuck in eternal darkness for decades, if not centuries. Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Why do you think you are the only survivors? And if you really think you are the only natives left from the Earthen Union, where am I from?”

The muscular woman looked squarely at him, but David didn’t pay much heed to her. She didn’t strike him as particularly bright. If anything, physical might appeared to be the only thing she was decent at.

“Our Seekers searched for others for weeks. Some for months. However, none of them found anything... other than death.” Lilia clenched her fists. “Your Excellency, you have to understand... nobody survived. I don’t know how long you’ve been stuck in one of those monstrous Rifts, but the Earthen Union you once knew no longer exists.”

That was nonsense, but he wanted her to continue.

“The integration destroyed everything. They tore the land apart and killed millions by changing the environment around us. It was like all signs of human life had been eradicated.” She looked to the ground, unwilling to say more. Instead, the muscular woman continued. “The Seekers passed through the changed lands and found death and destruction. That included the Infected, as you call them. Entire cities full of them. Kamia no longer exists.”

Kamia. David remembered a country by that name. They were one of the few countries in the Earthen Union that never announced the Union’s universal language as their mother tongue. They continued speaking their native tongue. And they had never stopped, as it turned out.

Come to think of it, I can understand them just fine.

Then again, he could also understand the dwarves, elves, tirac, and even the gods. Not always, but it appeared that the Union’s tongue was much more common than he’d expected. Or maybe the System had its own way with language.

It didn’t really matter before, but it’s quite interesting.

He smiled at his own confusion.

“So you’re saying a part of Kamia has been replaced with other regions. Namely, everything around you is different from what it used to be. There are dozens of Rifts in the adjacent regions and thousands upon thousands of monsters. However, your Seekers—I guess they’re your Scouts—found cities filled with Infected beyond your borders. So, unable to find a single human, alive and breathing, you assumed that you are the sole survivors of the integration?” David raised an eyebrow.

He had a lot to say, especially about these idiots’ lack of power and their arrogance in believing that no one could have grown as ‘powerful’ as them.

“That also means you haven’t met any Protectors, and you do not know anything about the System Sanctuaries, right?”

David interpreted the looks thrown his way and sighed deeply.

“First of all, I am a native of the Earthen Union just like you. And I know millions who’ve survived, and most of them are stronger than your people. Basically, everyone has accepted the System and claimed a Basic Class, and—” He could have said a lot more but didn’t feel like shocking the townspeople too much. Their eyes were already wide open and bulging, looking like they were about to fall out.

Explaining the System Sanctuaries, what Protectors were, and so forth was something he could do later.

“Either way, I think you guys did a… decent job at surviving.” That was as far as he could stretch the truth.

David had to give them the benefit of the doubt. First of all, they had nobody to explain anything to them and had taught each other everything they knew. Second, they did not have any resources. He had discovered some proper weapons, but they were clearly System drops rather than forged by a Blacksmith. There were no Artifacts, no Relics, and David hadn’t seen the Classers of Orhain use many Skill Runes either.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Most of our people died protecting the others. Only a few survived killing the monsters when they attacked. They were too strong, and more good, brave people died to ensure our survival,” Lilia said, her voice somber as she told her story—the story of Orhain.

David listened in silence. He felt like intervening to ask about a few things when Lilia mentioned them, but he held back and waited until she was done.

So the weakest monsters around here are at the Bronze Rank? In that case, you guys did fairly well. David tapped his chin, keeping the thought to himself as the story went on.

Ranking up as an Iron Rank is quite difficult if you do not have any notable Skills or suitable enemies to fight. The Healers should have had an easier time healing someone but it is not like [Cure Wounds] is enough to resurrect the dead. They can only heal those who made it back to Orhain, which rarely happened. Either they returned with light wounds, or some Classers sacrificed their lives for others, leaving nothing to heal.

Interestingly enough, Orhain’s residents didn’t try to leave. More precisely, they had given up on leaving their hometown. Apparently, the Seekers had traveled through Kamia, looking for more secure places, but most of the country was overflowing with Infected. If that was true, the country had fallen.

Then again, Kamia’s border to the adjacent countries was natural, right? David tried to remember what he knew about Kamia. Analyzing the country had been one of his major exams in his final year in high school, but he couldn’t quite recall what it had been about. It felt like his time in school had been centuries ago.

Cut off by an ocean and surrounded by two crossing mountain ranges—was that it? If that were to be the case, Kamia would be like the prehistoric valley, separated from the rest of the Earthen Union. David couldn’t tell if the natural borders were still intact, given that many things had changed with the integration. Monsters could have destroyed a portion of the mountain ranges, or one of the mountain ranges had been replaced by a forest, desert, or another region.

That was possible, but it seemed unlikely the longer he listened.

“A valley of death,” David murmured, glancing at Lilia and the others. “And you stayed here because this was the only way you could stay away from the undead, while also procuring meat and other resources. The monsters are not only your enemies but also your source of life and guardians.”

Maybe the townspeople were not as stupid as he’d first assumed. Sure, they were still weak, but they had made use of their greatest adversary and managed to survive for 18 months.

“We did, and we survived until now. But we can no longer go on like that. Too many good people died protecting us. Our strongest succumbed when the last Rift broke. We failed to clear the Rift early enough and suffered the consequences.”

Blood trickled from Lilia’s clenched fists. “We are on our last leg. If not for your timely arrival, the horde would have killed everyone. Orhain would be no more, Your Excellency.”

And once I leave, you will die. The Infected are probably growing stronger, but so are the monsters. More Rifts will form, and as long as nobody clears the temporary Rifts, they either will anchor and create a constant stream of powerful monsters, or will break and expel all monsters living on the other side of the Rift.

That was fucked up. If they had access to better Skills and the means to grow, David wouldn’t have said anything, but the avian Echos had yet to discover a single Iron-Ranked monster. Sure, there were some weak juvenile monsters, but they were all part of a horde, pack, or already at the Bronze Rank.

“Can you make use of the corpses?” David asked, pointing back to the battlefield.

“We have a Monster Butcher and a Junkyard Artificer. Some of us can make armor and weapons from the monsters, but…”

“But that won’t be enough. I understand.” David nodded. “I don’t know if there will be any system drops since the horde was no challenge to me, but I was not the only one participating in this fight, so you might be lucky. Check the battlefield for Skill Slates and distribute them to the people who are willing to fight.”

He ruffled through his hair, unsure if he was doing the right thing.

“I can help everyone get a Basic Class,” David proposed. “And I can help you a little bit more. Guide your fighters a little bit.”

Did he have so much time to waste? No. Could he leave Orhain’s people alone to fend for themselves? Sure.

So why did he feel like helping them? Why exactly did it feel like he was connected to them? They were weak, barely worth his attention, really…

Whatever. It’s not like I’m in a rush.

Kamia was quite the distance from the Dwarven Sanctuary. Then again, it wasn’t like he was missing anyone from there. Maybe Zachariah, and definitely Maja—he missed Electra too—but it wasn’t like he could teleport like Maja. They would be fine without him too.

But the people from Orhain wouldn’t. Without him, they would die.

“You’ll help us, Your Excellency?” Lilia asked with a shaking voice.

David was not a fan of her calling him ‘Your Excellency’, and he doubted he ever would, but that didn’t change his plans.

“I’m not going to clear all Rifts or defeat all monsters. However, I will help everyone acquire a Basic Class and share what I know about Skill Runes, Class Skills, stats, and the likes. My expertise may not help everyone, but I’m certain it will help most.”

While it was not possible to advance everyone to Silver Rank in a few weeks, especially with the System registering everyone’s contribution and effort in the performed tasks, he could provide an environment in which everyone could grow stronger.

“I want a Class!” someone shouted, and David’s eyes landed on a young man, a teenager at best, squeezing through the masses, waving his hand in the air. “Please help me kill those monsters!”

David cocked an eyebrow at that. The boy was no older than sixteen. He had bright ocean-blue eyes and sharp features. However, he was short and skinny. Worse even, David could see his wildly flickering life signals. While the boy tried to shroud his emotions, hiding his fears beneath a facade of fake excitement and bravery, David saw the truth.

“Not today,” he shook his head. Ignoring the boy’s grimace, he turned to Lilia. “Do you have a spatial storage to keep the monster corpses, or do you want me to preserve them for the time being?”

The muscular woman stepped forward and answered in Lilia’s stead, “We have a cooling box with an expanded space. A masterpiece of our Junkyard Artificer!”

He wasn’t quite sure if a Junkyard Artificer’s cooling box could be compared with his defective storage necklace, but he wasn’t going to argue. If they had the means to take care of themselves, so be it. It was probably for everyone’s best.

“In that case, I assume you guys don’t need my help.” David nodded with a faint smile on his lips. “Either way, I would like to know all about this town. That means I’d love to know everyone’s Ranks, Classes, stats, Skill Runes, and how you want to progress. Furthermore, I want to know what resources Orhain has, which special items the town possesses, and any other relevant details.”

The residents looked oddly at him—some even with open hostility—and he realized, in surprise, that the shroud of warmth within him shifted ever so slightly. It did not go so far as to drain the power he’d just acquired, but his strength no longer increased. And if it continued like that, David was certain he would lose some of the power he had gained since discovering Orhain and meeting its residents.

“If you want to share that much,” he added with a light shrug, “I cannot create specified workout routines and custom paths for everyone if I don’t know what I’m working with.”

That seemed to satisfy most.

“I may be able to see and feel a certain bit about you and your powers, but I don’t know everything. That’s also why I would like to guide those without Classes. Nobody should have to pick a Basic Class they do not like or know nothing about. But even if your Basic Class does not fit you perfectly, your first advancement at the Bronze Rank will unravel many paths. And as long as you work hard in the right direction, you will be able to pick a Class that suits you better. With my help, unlocking a Rare Class shouldn’t be too difficult—though I won’t promise anything.”

Uncommon Classes hadn’t returned either, but he hoped Lilia and the others would be able to advance their Class to Rare or Epic once they reached the Silver Rank.

“Why are you helping us?” an elderly woman asked, her suspicion palpable.

“Why not?” David shrugged in response. “Like I said, I was stuck in a Rift for a while. All by myself, without anyone to talk to. Being around people feels quite good.”

Much better than I expected, he added silently.

While his answer was not enough to mollify everyone, it was good enough for some. That was enough for David.

He retrieved a black slate that resembled a noteboard and handed it to Lilia. “I got that from one of the System Sanctuaries I worked for. The information stored within has been removed, which should give you more than enough space to note down everything—everything you and your townspeople are willing to share with a stranger. Insert your mana and think about the information you want to store. Keep it short and precise, or you’ll end up filling the storage with useless data.”

With that, David turned to the others. “I can still help those who’re unwilling to share their stats, Classes, and so forth. The information would help me help you more efficiently, but I do not necessarily need it. But...” He lifted his finger. “Don’t come at me and complain when others improve faster than you.”

When nobody responded, he excused himself with a nod.

He’d considered going to sleep, but he wasn’t tired. It must have been weeks—maybe even months—since he’d slept properly, yet he was far from tired.

Rather, his mind drifted to reinforcing [Mind Palace] and [Soul Domain]. While his Skills hadn’t been upgraded in the Naughtrealm or in the darkness that came after the Fallen had expelled him from the Void’s Rift, he could still cast [Reinforce], [Aether Breath], and refine [Mind Palace] and [Soul Domain]. He didn’t need the System to see the improvements. He could feel and see them.

I guess it is time for a breakthrough.