Chapter 7: Losses
The scavengers broke into a run, clustering together as they rushed toward the slope.
For a moment, the demon hounds didn’t follow. The pack hesitated, their advance slowing as their attention split.
“RRAAAHH! RRAAHH! RRAAAHH!!”
Theo and Erika kept shouting from the ruins, waving their arms, trying to provoke a fight they absolutely did not want.
“I-It works!” one man shouted mid-run. “They’re distracted!”
“Keep running! Don’t stop!”
“Oh, Miss Erika!” another cried. “We would never forget your bravery!”
Back on the stone ruins, Theo watched them descend, boots slipping as they pushed downhill.
“They’re already running,” he muttered.
“Not yet,” David said calmly, already spinning his sling. “They need more distance.”
He released the shot.
Whoooosh—THUD
The stone cut through the air over nearly four hundred meters and struck the staggered alpha again with pinpoint accuracy, snapping its head to the side and prolonging the opening. Theo blinked seeing David’s accuracy despite the ridiculous distance.
“Done,” David said. “Now keep screaming.”
Theo raised his arms again without arguing. Beside him, Erika followed immediately, her voice loud, sharp, and full of forced conviction, just as David had instructed earlier
Moments later. The alpha finally recovered, lifting its head as its eyes locked onto the three of them. They were still there, still shouting, still looking ready to fight.
Then its gaze shifted down the slope, toward the men running for their lives. There was something the fleeing scavengers didn’t understand, but David did. Predators chased what ran, not what stood their ground.
Even more than that, Theo and the others held the advantage of height. From the alpha’s perspective, they looked bigger, more imposing. A risk. The men below, despite their numbers, looked smaller as they ran downhill, scattered, exposed, easy prey.
This had been David’s plan from the start. A calculated bet, and it paid off. The alpha barked, sharp and commanding. The rest of the pack responded instantly, turning as one before surging downhill after the fleeing scavengers.
Theo watched them go, tension easing from his shoulders.
“I-It works…”
“My goodness…” Erika clutched her chest. “I-I’m saved?!”
“Not yet, ma’am,” David said with a small smile as he began climbing down the ruins. “We still need to leave.”
“A-ah, right!”
Theo nodded. “Let’s go.”
They moved quickly, following David’s lead down from the ruins.
At some point, as Theo ran, he thought he heard faint screaming echoing from the distance behind them.
He didn’t look back. Survival came first.
---
Next Day
By the time night gave way to morning, Theo had lost track of how long they’d been running for hours, at least. His lungs burned. His legs felt dying. Sweat clung to his skin, and every breath came out heavier than the last. Erika also didn’t look much better.
David, on the other hand, only seemed mildly inconvenienced.
“Hot damn! This body’s as short as a sheep, but it runs like a fine horse,” he said, sounding genuinely pleased.
Theo shot him an annoyed look. Part of it was the obvious, David wasn’t suffering nearly as much as he was. The other part was… the accent.
Theo still didn’t understand it. One of the few blessings of this world—courtesy of the goddess Lumia—was that everyone could understand each other regardless of their original language.
Which meant David was probably speaking something else entirely. Hebrew, maybe. And yet, in Theo’s ears, it came out as… Texan. Not just the voice. The tone. The rhythm. Even the gestures.
Somewhere along the line, a biblical shepherd had turned into a cowboy.
Theo considered thinking deeper about it, then decided he was too tired to care.
“I need to rest,” he muttered.
“Alright, boss,” David replied easily. “Reckon it’s safe to take a break now.”
---
A small creek ran beside the road, shallow but clear. Theo didn’t hesitate. He dropped to his knees, scooped up water, and drank like he hadn’t seen liquid in days before splashing his face.
“Good thing you know this area, ma’am,” David said to Erika.
Erika stood near the water, staring at it.
“Yes… my men showed me this place every time we went out to hunt or scavenge. They…”
She stopped.
“They… they…”
Her voice trembled.
“They’re dead! Huaaaaaaah!!”
She broke down, wailing loudly. Theo winced, glancing at David. For a moment, he actually felt bad. Fake personality or not, she had just lost her entire group.
“Well, ma’am, I’m sorry,” David said, stepping in first. “Didn’t realize you’d take it this hard. When I suggested using them as bait, you agreed right away…”
“Of course I agreed!” Erika snapped instantly, tears still streaming. “My life is more important than theirs!”
Theo and David blinked.
“But do you know how much work it took?!” she continued, voice rising. “Making them kneel to me? Turning myself into everyone’s crush? Smiling sweetly every single day, even when I’m on my period?!”
She pointed dramatically toward the general direction where his men died.
“And now it’s not one or two, it’s dozens! Dozens are dead! WAAAAAAHHH!”
Theo slowly looked away. “…Yeah. That sounded more like her.”
“Wow,” David muttered. “She reminds me of one of my ex-wives. Abigail.”
“One of?” Theo repeated.
“Well, legally, I was married eight times back then,” David said, as if that was a completely normal number.
Theo stared at him. “Didn’t that cause… problems?”
“Back in my day, when you had a problem with one, you solved it by finding another,” David replied cheerfully.
“…Right,” Theo said. “So in the end, you ended up with eight times more problems instead.”
David opened his mouth, raising a finger—
Then slowly lowered it. He frowned, thinking.
“…Huh.”
---
Stone Ravine
A few hours later, they were moving again.
The landscape had changed without much warning. The trees thinned, then vanished entirely, replaced by dry stone and jagged cliffs. What remained was a narrow path cutting through a rocky ravine, the ground uneven and unforgiving.
Theo walked with the others, eyes unfocused as he brought up his status window.
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[ GENERAL INFORMATION ]
Name : Theo Poliznev
Title : Reject
Class : Necromancer
Level : 1
EXP : 61 / 1000
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[ CORE STATS ]
HP : 56 / 100
MP : 70 / 70
Stamina : 24 / 60
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“W-What the fuck?” Theo said, staring at it in disbelief. “I killed a giant sabertooth dog and this is all I get? Just a meager amount of EXP?!”
Erika, who had already moved on from mourning her “investment losses,” narrowed her eyes slightly as she tried to recall.
“Hm… I wouldn’t call a demon hound meager,” she said. “If I remember correctly, one is worth around a hundred EXP. That’s actually decent.”
Then something clicked.
“Ah! Right, I forgot!” She brightened, pointing at him. “I saw your information back in Agro. You only get a quarter of what normal people receive! Aaahahahaha!”
Theo’s eye twitched, but he decided not to engage.
“So in this world, you can track your self growth?” David asked, glancing at Theo’s empty-handed gestures with mild curiosity. “That’s… convenient.”
“Yeah,” Theo muttered. “Everything works like a video game.”
“What’s a video game?” David and Erika asked at the same time.
Theo exhaled. “Later. I need to figure this out first.”
He tapped the screen again. To David and Erika, it looked like he was poking nothing.
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[ UNIQUE SKILL ]
POST-MORTEM REDISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
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[ ERA ACCESS ]
Current Access : AGE OF ORIGINS
Next Access : ??? (Locked - Lv 20)
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[ ALLOCATION BRANCHES ]
⚙️ Technology : (Locked)
→ Summon inventors, engineers, and thinkers
→ Efficiency, production, innovation
⚔️ Military : Lv 1
→ Summon generals, tacticians, and soldiers
→ Warfare, strategy, combat command
🏛️ Governance : (Locked)
→ Summon rulers, politicians, administrators
→ Economy, stability, policy control
🔒 ??? (Locked)
→ Requirement : Lv 40
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[ ACTIVE CONTRACTS ]
- David
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[ CONTROLLED TERRITORY ]
Numbers : 0
Populations : 0
Stability : N/A
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Theo read through it carefully this time, arms folding as he walked.
“I see…” he muttered. “So my necromancy skill isn’t about raising a random undead army.”
His gaze lingered on the branches.
“It’s more like… summoning specific people with actual skill sets.”
He glanced ahead. David and Erika were already walking in front of him, keeping a steady pace through the narrow ravine path.
“And I guess I need a body as a vessel if I want to summon someone,” Theo muttered, his eyes briefly settling on David’s halfling body.
“So that’s how it worked. Not raising the dead, but using them.” He murmured, “Can I unlock other branches now…?”
He then tapped the Technology option.
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[ NOT ENOUGH SKILL POINTS ]
----------------------------------------
“Hmph, figures,” Theo said under his breath. “Let’s check the Military one properly.”
He tapped again.
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[ BRANCH : ⚔️ MILITARY ]
"Command those who once commanded."
Level : 1
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[ ERA : AGE OF ORIGINS ]
[ AVAILABLE ASSETS ]
→ David (Contracted)
Role : Soldier
Specialty : Decisive, Courage
Information : He who struck his enemies with faith, and distance
Requirement : Lv. 1
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→ (???)
Role : (???)
Specialty : Defensive tactics, morale control
Information : He who won not by strength, but by speed
Requirement : Lv 5
----------------------------------------
→ (???)
Role : (???)
Specialty : Last-stand tactics, unit bravery boost
Information : He who turned narrow passage into graveyard
Requirement : Lv 10
----------------------------------------
→ (???)
Role : (???)
Specialty : Terrain manipulation, ambush warfare
Information : He who walked an army through the uncrossable
Requirement : Lv 14
----------------------------------------
→ (???)
Role : (???)
Specialty : Large-scale warfare, political warfare
Information : He who rose through ranks, not by birth.
Requirement : Lv 16
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[ ACTIVE CONTRACTS ]
- David
----------------------------------------
“Ugh, why can’t it just mention the names?” Theo complained quietly. “Why so cryptic?”
He kept reading as they walked, committing what he could while they continued toward the scavenger settlement, Erika’s home.
---
Stone Ruin
Back at the ruins where they had been attacked the night before, the demon hounds returned.
This time, their jaws were stained with blood, and some carried torn pieces of human remains. The scavengers who had run earlier, what was left of them, anyway.
The alpha, larger and covered in scars, ignored the rest of the pack. It approached the corpse of the hound Theo had killed and lowered its head, sniffing slowly as if memorizing the scent.
Then it lifted its gaze and turned toward the direction Theo and the others had gone.
“AWOOOOO!!” the alpha howled.
“AWOOOOO!!” the pack answered in unison.
Without hesitation, the alpha began moving in that direction, and the rest of the pack followed.