Edge, Sasha, and Jumo awoke before dawn and left the settlement, returning with the remains of a peak stage-two weasel early in the afternoon.

  The beast had been surprisingly difficult to kill, but in the end, their teamwork wore the creature down, and Jumo’s Piercing Javelin broke through its guard. They would have chosen a different target if the weasel hadn’t been harassing a resource-gathering team that was harvesting supplies the settlement desperately needed. But given the looming threat of the undead horde, the beast had been elevated to a high-priority target.

  On the bright side, its skills had been unusually good, which explained why the weasel was so tough. By this point, Edge had picked up enough experience that it looked like Mantle would hit rank four before the kaiju arrived, which would improve their odds of taking it down more than upgrading any of his other powers.

  He wished there was time to advance more of his skillset before the decisive battle but doubted it was in the cards. When he called up his Guide, he learned the fight earned him another cycle too.

  You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle up your core. Your new cycle is: 40.

  You have 5 attribute points awaiting allocation.

  He went ahead and put the points into Power, since he’d forgotten to do it last time and his new shield had grown quite heavy during the melee. Physical strength wasn’t as critical to him as other warriors, since he was a skill specialist and didn’t have to carry the weight of his gear most of the time.

  However, it was important that Edge didn’t let his Power lag too far behind other creatures his stage. He needed it to swing his weapons hard enough to penetrate the hides of durable beasts and keep himself from being overwhelmed in a brawl. Besides, being able to move heavy objects comes in handy every now and again.

  The potentia went streaming out of his core and into his muscles, leaving them a bit bigger than before while enhancing their efficiency. He was still at a stage where investing a single cycle into an attribute made a huge difference, growing significantly stronger as the magic suffusing his tissue burned like acid before the pain faded away.

  When the show was over, his body felt light as a feather, and he was able to reposition his shield without slowing him down. I should pick up a few more points of Power eventually, he decided. But this will do for now.

  When Edge ran a few errands and made it back to the lodge, he had a surprise waiting for him.

  Everyone was seated around the table, waiting for him to return. That wasn’t unusual in and of itself, since the crew tried to meet up for meals whenever they were in town and had time to spare. The unexpected part was that Lilly and Ann were here too, sipping on bottles of Trapper’s private reserve—beer the senior hunter brewed herself and only brought out to celebrate important moments.

  As it happened, today was a special occasion too.

  “I meant to run this by you earlier in the week,” Trapper began after he took a seat and cracked open a bottle. “But it slipped my mind since we’ve all been so busy. Given that you’re already on good terms with these lovely ladies, I didn’t think you would object to getting a little closer than you already are. The short of it is Lillian asked me if it would be all right if she and her sister joined our crew.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “Neither of us is running a store full-time anymore,” Lilly said. “We want to broaden our horizons and become proficient in hunting beasts.”

  “If you don’t mind our company.” Ann grinned to show she was teasing.

  “I would be thrilled to have an experienced monster hunter with us, now that the plains are a high-threat biome,” Violet added. “And Ann is a ray of sunshine any crew could be lucky to have.”

  “Lilly saved my life in the Sweltering Green and Deep-Gill Grottos,” Sasha said. “And I’ve always thought well of Ann.”

  “Lillian kicks some serious ass.” Jumo nodded vigorously. “I would be delighted to show Ann the ropes and do whatever I can to help her cycle up her core and rank up her skills.”

  “I’m sure we have a great deal we can teach one another, and having more people to watch my back is always welcome.” Riller smiled wide as he finished his sentence. Edge suspected most of the man’s enthusiasm came from the prospect of having two beautiful women join the crew, not that Edge could blame him.

  “I have no objections,” he said. “Both of you have saved my hide on numerous occasions, and I would be thrilled to have you join the team.”

  “Then it’s settled.” Trapper pulled out a fresh round of beer for everyone. “I’ll stop by the hunters’ association a little later to make it official, but by unanimous consent, Ann and Lillian Allbright are now part of our crew. We can’t afford to party all night until we deal with the kaiju, but we most certainly will after. For now, let’s enjoy a few more bottles while Violet and I whip up something special in the kitchen.”

  That sentence marked the beginning of a merry celebration. The sisters were two of Edge’s favorite people, and he was thrilled to have them around. He trusted both women with his life, and he’d fought by Lilly’s side enough times to appreciate just how strong she was.

  Having a shadowkiller will diversify the targets we can hunt, and aside from Earl, she might be the closest person in the settlement to reaching stage three.

  He was curious to learn more about the siblings’ backstory, but that could wait until they felt like divulging it on their own. More than anything else, he was happy that his friends were having a good time and enjoying each other’s company.

  They didn’t get drunk, but they did dance for a while when Riller pulled out the crew’s magitech music player. Ann was light on her feet and preferred to follow, with a natural grace that told him she’d done this many times before.

  Lilly was lithe and took the lead when they paired up. It wasn’t a problem, since Edge didn’t have much experience and was leaning on his superhuman attributes to keep up. After she spun him around a few times, he said, “I didn’t realize you were looking to join a crew.”

  “Shadowkillers generally prefer to operate solo,” she replied as they danced their way across the room.

  “But that’s to maximize the Mortium we earn and rack up more views on the feed. Ann and I already have most of what we need from the exchange, although upgrading my implants to tier three would be nice. Besides, everyone on this crew is qualified to be monster hunters, and I don’t mind branching out into stalking prey that doesn’t smell like shit and won’t haunt my nightmares for years to come.

  “We trust you, we like you, and I want Ann to learn how to work with a team. She has a solid foundation to become an elite fighter, and now that our lives are on the line, it’s important that both of us grow as strong as we can. Running with a veteran crew is the best way to survive aggressive cycling up, and she could use the company. To be honest, I could too. Neither of us expected to be on Ord for longer than a year or two. Now that we’re here for good, we need to put down roots.”

  “That makes sense.” Edge laughed as Lilly spun him around, dipped him low to the ground, and set him back on his feet. “Regardless of the details, I’m looking forward to having you with us.”

  Luckily, he had asked Ander to make several extra pins in case anyone lost theirs, so he was able to give one to the sisters right away. The gesture earned him a pair of hugs. He he saw Lillian surreptitiously wipe away tears from the corners of her eyes, which made him wonder if she had been lonelier than she’d let on.

  The siblings had a nice house in the residential district, but Trapper promised to build them rooms in the lodge too. Everyone was planning to pool their Contribution Points to get the place remodeled once the crisis had blown past, so there would be plenty of space on the new second floor.

  They went their separate ways not long after. Lilly and Ann promised to stop by for a meal at least a few nights each week. Trapper would start taking Ann into the field to cycle up, and the crew was ready to teach her how to hunt and help out however they could.

  Edge had another meeting scheduled, so he bid his friends farewell, put Rue into his backpack, and stepped outside the lodge, heading from the hunters’ quarter to the poorest part of the residential district.