Aldrich stepped onto the Sign and the white teleporting light enveloped him and everyone else. In the next instant, they were transported to the gloomy innards of the Nexus temple with its dull grey stone and towering, gothic style pillars.The only thing remotely colorful inside of it was the Wellspring of Life which, made of shining white alabaster and marble, positively sparkled with the blue and gold light projected from the glowing crystals hanging from the domed ceiling above.“The Nexus. To think I would return here once more with you, my master,” said Valera. She seemed happy at first, but then she narrowed her eyes. “But this place does not seem right.”“What do you mean?” said Aldrich.“The Nexus is a safe space forged by the twin gods Amara, goddess of light and life, and Sindri, god of flame and forge. There is a warmth to the Nexus that is reflected in their powers. The warmth of positive energy that is uncomfortable to Undead like us, but I sense no such thing now,” said

You did well. Very well,” said Aldrich to Valera. He paused and gave her a nod, hoping that this was enough to make her happy. He was unused to giving out praise because of how alone he had been.The only praise he had received was from his parents, and that praise had come from a place of warmth in their hearts.It had been many years since that same warmth had been snuffed out in Aldrich’s own heart.“Thank you, master!” said Valera with a proper bow. “Mhm. Mhm.” She nodded to herself, smiling and taking in Aldrich’s praise no matter how awkward or little it was.As Valera took in Aldrich’s praise, Aldrich was occupied by the experience flowing into him.[Alpha Striker slain!][+70 EXP][Striker x10 slain!][+100 EXP][EXP Bar: 75/250 > 245/250]Aldrich sighed. Just five points off from level 7. He hated the feeling of going through a fight and being just short of leveling up. But he could not let his mind dwell on that.“Now to raise this Alpha,” said Aldrich. He stepped over to th

The Geist made its way into the clearing, walking Dynamite Girl in front of it to minimize risk to itself.Dynamite Girl stumbled forwards, her head still limp and down, moving with stilted, awkward movements like she was a puppet being jerked along by strings.The Geist cocked its head as it sat by the flowing stream where the Strikers had slept. In front of it, it stared down at a Striker corpse. It picked up the corpse in its large hand, raising the decently heavy wolf creature with ease to its face.With a gurgle, the Geist tossed the Striker away once it identified that it was not a human.“Gehgeh,” said the Geist in a strange, garbled, almost alien voice, though the pitch was high and curious, almost questioning.It looked ahead at a trail of Striker corpses leading into the forest.The Geist stared at the line of corpses for a second and then made Dynamite Girl walk ahead to investigate, obviously realizing something was suspicious. It sat there and stretched out its thick, mus

Aldrich and Valera made their way to the Odinsons shop. It was a good walk away from the main ‘streets’ of the Settlement, taking up its own isolated territory. As he walked, he had the Evileye scout everything it could.Their shop was a large, mobile trailer home that looked somewhat like a subway car or railcar. It was long and rectangular in shape, though sizable enough that it could reliably fit in twenty people to live rather comfortably.Among mobile homes in the Settlements, this was one of the larger ones for sure, indicating that the Odinsons ranked quite highly among nomads in terms of wealth and power.The home was decked out with modifications to survive traveling through the harsh environment of the Wastelands where sand storms, torrential storms, magnetic storms, and basically any storm one could think of blasted the land.There were blinking green generators at the top of the home that likely projected force fields while auto-turrets rotated around, pointing directly at