[28 July 2024, Grand Mesa of Summer A+]

  [Theo and Julia]

  "What the fuck?" Julia and Theo said in perfect unison.

  They could each feel the other person.

  For Julia she felt what she could only describe as a pillar of strength and force. For Theo a vast ocean of determination and ability.

  >Skill 'Bond' Complete

  >Reality Alteration Engine Shutting Down

  >Local Chrono Stasis Field Disabling in 5 seconds

  >4 Seconds

  >3 Seconds

  >2 Seconds

  >Local Message System Disabled

  >Local Message: Chrono Stasis Disabled

  >Local Message: Combat Hold disabled

  As these messages faded the Lion, who had been stopped mid-lunge continued its strike towards Theo. Theo took the blow and then fought back with his Strike skill. At the same time Julia felt her Retaliate skill pull on her power. She felt it flow through the Bond and into Theo's attack. The attack landed on the Lion and a gaping wound appeared on it's side.

  The Lion yowled and swatted at a now slightly off balance Theo. It received another attack from Julia's Retaliate skill for its trouble. As the Lion tried to figure out what had struck it, Theo brought down the Master Tool in axe form, slamming the axe down into the meat of the Lion all the way to the eye of the axe. The Lion yowled and Theo cast Strike, slamming his dagger into the top of the Lion's head. With a crunch the dagger passed through the head and its tip protruded form the underside of the Lion's head.

  The Lion dropped to the ground, dead.

  >Local Message: Combat Complete

  >Local Message: Calculating...

  >Local Message: Congratulations! Users Theo Sorrenson & Julia Brahmin have leveled up!

  >Local Message: Users Theo Sorrenson & Julia Brahmin have have both Gained a Planetary First Title "A-Rank Killers" thanks to their Bond.

  Theo felt energy wash through him and all of his wounds closed up, he even felt stronger and healthier than before. Julia felt the same, and as they both watched the body of the Lion faded into sparkling shards, leaving behind a small pile of items.

  [Theo]

  "Congratulations Theo, you have leveled up, as a part of your System Reward for staying in a High Mana zone, the rewards for leveling up have been increased until level 5. You, and your Bonded Pair, have slain a monster with a higher level and higher mana rank than you, your rewards have been increased. Please wait a moment while your rewards are adjusted."

  Theo waited for a moment, then the voice spoke to him once more.

  "As a reward for leveling up, you will be granted a skill and allowed to pick one skill to upgrade. This in in addition to the Class based level up rewards, and your Racial level up rewards. Congratulations once again."

  >Private Message: You have been granted the skill 'Defender' as a reward.

  >Private Message: Please select one skill to upgrade.

  Without hesitation Theo selected Strike.

  >Private Message: Skill 'Strike' Has been upgraded to Rank B+ from Rank C-. Skill does 25% more damage.

  >Private Message: Level Up process complete.

  [Julia]

  "Congratulations Julia, you have leveled up, as a part of your System Reward for staying in a High Mana zone, the rewards for leveling up have been increased until level 5. You, and your Bonded Pair, have slain a monster with a higher level and higher mana rank than you, your rewards have been increased. Please wait a moment while your rewards are adjusted."

  Julia waited for a moment, then the voice spoke to her once more.

  "As a reward for leveling up, you will be granted a skill and allowed to pick one skill to upgrade, the skill can not be Bond. This in in addition to the Class based level up rewards, and your Racial level up rewards. Congratulations once again."

  >Private Message: You have been granted the skill 'Stanch' as a reward.

  >Private Message: Please select one skill to upgrade.

  Julia thought, thinking of the fight, she only had one skill that delt damage, but it was dependent upon her new 'bonded pair' as the System called it. She thought about selecting Ward in case he ran off again.

  "He did come running to fight something when he heard me scream. He can't be all bad if he would do that for a stranger. Julia thought, and then sighed, deciding to take a gamble on him and selecting Retaliate for the upgrade.

  >Private Message: Skill 'Retaliate' Has been upgraded to Rank A from Rank A-. CHA based damage multiply increased by 2 points.

  >Private Message: Level Up process complete.

  [Theo and Julia]

  What the fuck do we do now?" Julia asked as she looked around the newly expanded world, and reveling in the feeling that leveling up had brought to her body.

  "Why don't we start here," Theo said turning to her and offering his hand, "Hi, my name is Theo Sorrenson. I guess I am now a level two Son of the Soil, and I have no clue what the fuck is happening any more than you do."

  Julia laughed at that and took his hand shaking it, "Hi, Theo, I am Julia Brahmin, and like you I guess I am a level two Hearthwarden. And yeah, not a damn clue."

  Theo nodded, then got a serious and mildly dangerous look on his face. Julia had to admit that the look was one that did something for her, or at least it would have if not for it being directed at her. Theo spoke his tone still normal but all friendly tones were gone. "Good to meet you Julia, now please tell me exactly what it is that you did to me?"

  Julia took a step back, and spoke rapidly. "I saw you were fighting the Lion and I thought you would not win the fight. And I couldn't just let you die after you came to help me, but the only skills that I have that could help are only usable for the person who I use the skill Bond on."

  Theo thought for a moment, then spoke, still dead serious, "What does Bond do?"

  She quickly explained to him what the skill did, and how it had let her passive skill do damage to the Lion when it attacked him. Theo nodded, "So that is why that Strike did so much to it."

  Julia nodded and wondered if she had made a mistake with trusting this complete stranger. Theo sighed and took a breath, when he spoke all notes of threat were gone. "Welp, it seems like we are stuck together for the next little bit at least. Can I interest you in some bottled water and maybe a trail bar?"

  Julia nodded, realizing that she had not eaten all that much today as she had expected to have a massive lunch with Courtney. Theo lead her back to where he had set up camp. On the way they grabbed all of the loot from the Lion.

  When they got there, Theo quickly started a fire with some wood that was lying around, and gave Julia a bottle of water, and a couple of trail bars.

  Julia nibbled on the bars and sipped water as she watched him work, and get the fire going.

  "So," Theo said as the fire crackled away, "first of all, I am sorry about your friend."

  Julia let out a long, heavy sigh. "It's fine, she was one of my oldest friends, but she has not always been the best of friends. I was actually coming on this trip with her to have one last fun weekend with her before I told her we should go our separate ways."

  Theo sat quietly for a moment as Julia wiped a few tears from her eyes. "As much as I hated her for what she did, I still care you know?"

  "I do," Theo said a far off look in his eyes, "may I ask what she did?"

  Julia laughed, "After watching her get vaporized like that, and after realizing that the world is now a whole new place, I am not as mad as I was, but it was shitty. My boyfriend of six months just told me four days ago, that he was leaving me for someone else. I figured out that it was for Courtney, and when I confronted him about it, he admitted that he had been sleeping with her the entire time we were together."

  "Oh, ouch." Theo said, his tone telling her he commiserated with her.

  Julia laughed her laugh sounding more like a sob. "Ouch is right, I mean what the fuck!"

  Julia started crying and Theo awkwardly reached over and patted her on the shoulder.

  "I know that I don't really know you," Juila said with tears running down her face, "but you are the only person I expect I will see for a fair while at the very least, and I need a hug."

  Theo smiled and moved to sit next to Julia and embraced her as she quietly sobbed. After several moment, Julia pulled away, "Thanks. And sorry about that. Probably not what I would call a great first impression."

  "Not a problem at all." Theo said reassuringly. "I am always happy to hug a pretty woman. Now moving on, we do need to discuss what happens next. As it seems that you need me. And I would not hate having someone else around."

  Julia thought for a moment, "You're right, what the fuck do we do?"

  "Well lets think about that one," Theo said, taking a drink of his water bottle. "We are effectively at least seven hundred miles from anything that we could use after the expansion, we have limited supplies, and we both want to continue surviving."

  "Right," Julia said.

  "So we have a couple choices to make," Theo said, holding up one finger, "First we have to decide what our goal is. Is it to get back to our homes and pray they are still there, or is it to make a new home, or is it something else entirely?"

  He ticked another finger up, "Second, we have to decide how to approach what has happened. Do we play it safe and avoid using skills and the system, or do we lean into it and see how far we can take it?"

  He held up a final finger, "And third, we have to decide how we are going to deal with other people. From what the system said, not everyone got the loot we did, so people might want it, and I don't think we should give it up."

  Julia was quiet for a moment, "Okay, can I cast my votes?"

  "Shoot."

  She took a deep breath, "So first, I think we need to make a new home. I imagine that the cities fell into chaos when this happened, and not much remains of our home."

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  Theo patted her shoulder lovingly hearing how sad that made her, she pressed on though, "Second, I think that we need to lean into it. It feels like a game almost, and that feeling feels dangerous. We can't treat our lives like they are something to be expended."

  "Agreed," Theo said.

  "And lastly," She paused, she looked up at Theo. He seemed nice enough, but he was not what Julia would call delicate. He was six feet four inches tall and looked like a Viking warrior. "I have no idea what we should do. Part of me wants to help everyone, but another part of me wants to hide all of my stuff from everyone."

  Theo looked at her, his eyes searching her own, and he nodded. "Understood. So then, we have goals. First should be shelter. To that effect, I think that we should use some skills."

  "Well maybe we should look for any skills that may have changed from the bond and share what our skills are?" Julia asked remembering what one of the messages had said.

  "Good call." Theo said taking a seat opposite her once again, "You want to go first or should I?"

  "Go ahead," Julia said, curious as to what his class skills might be.

  "Okay so to start with I had three skills, Claim, Farming, and Strike." Theo said, "I also just got one called Defender. Each of those is pretty self explaining. Claim lets me claim things, Faming makes me better at things related to farming, Strike lets me do a combat strike, and Defender reduces the damage I take by five percent. Two of those however have little notes is how I would describe it."

  "Notes?" Julia asked wondering what he meant.

  "Claim has one that tells me any land that I claim will also be owned by you thanks to our Bond. and Defender has one that tells me that if it is you that I am defending I will will take fifteen percent less damage instead of five percent."

  "That is pretty good." Julia said, "Okay my turn. I started with Bond, Ward, and Retaliate. I just got Stanch. Bond is the skill that I used on you, as I explained earlier. Retaliate is the passive skill that let me add to the damage that you did. And ward was what let me create that circle of runes that was protecting me. Stanch seems to stop blood or bodily fluid loss until the target is damaged again, or unless someone removes the skill."

  She checked for the notes that Theo had mentioned. "As far as notes on my skills only Bond has any, and it basically tells me that we both have limited achievement sharing, I can tell where you are at all times, and that we both receive skill enhancements where appropriate."

  Theo nodded. "Okay that is good to know. Now I think that its time that I test out the Claim skill."

  Julia watched as he stood and activated the skills on the land they were standing on. A collumn of power that seemed to descend from the sky slammed into the ground through Theo. He smiled, "This is a weird feeling but I can tell that I own the land, and you should be able to as well."

  Julia stepped forward, and as as soon as she crossed the invisible line of land that Theo had used claim on, she felt at home. "I can."

  Theo closed his eyes for a moment, "I think I can claim the whole overlook."

  "Claim the overlook?" Julia said, looking around at the several square miles of the Overlook.

  "Well I figured I would claim this overlook and we can build here," He explained, "it might mean a little more work getting materials up here but its easy to see anything coming and there are not to many ways up."

  Julia looked around at the changes. The overlook had been just under a hundred and fifty feet long and fifty feet wide, with a slightly higher point at the north end, and a pleasant trail down on the south end.

  "You want to claim the overlook?" Julia asked again, still unsure that he was able to do what he said he could.

  "Yup." Theo said, taking off towards the edge of the overlook. "Alright let's see how this works."

  The flood of power rushing through Theo seemed to continue flowing through him. He instinctively knew that he needed to walk around the land he wanted to claim. "Up for a walk? I have to go around what we want to claim."

  Julia nodded, glad that she had worn her good hiking boots rather than her cheap tennis shoes.

  They spent the next four hours with Theo walking as close to the edge of the nearly one thousand foot cliffs as he dared. Theo could feel the power that was flowing through him washing into the earth and rock beneath him. He could also feel it flowing away from him slightly to the cliff edge. around the edge of the overlook as power poured into the land marking it as theirs.

  The only change that Theo noticed as they walked was that when there was not a natural edge to the territory the energy did not flow away at all and created a rather defined line. When they got back to where they had decided to leave the gold on the ground due to its assumed weight, Theo felt the energy snap to connect and complete the loop.

  Three things happened in rapid succession. First a torrent of energy that they could both feel descended from the sky and filled in the center of the loop they had walked with the same power. Then two messages appeared, the first was simple, indicating that Theo and Julia had gained a title. The second one was far more substantial, and also far more interesting as it revealed several things about this new world they found themselves in.

  "I know I seem to be saying it a lot right now," Theo said, "but what the fuck."

  "Seriously," Julia said, reading the notice, "'...governed by those who call the depths home' is pretty damn ominous if I do say so myself."

  "Yes, but..." Theo trailed off considering the notice.

  "But what?" Julia asked, wondering what he could have picked up from that message.

  "The fact that they would even give this heads up would tell me that they intend to abide by this, or at least that the System will attempt to enforce this, and considering that it just reshaped our entire solar system, I would be willing to bet on the System. But I could be wrong," Theo shrugged, "Either way it seems to me that this would only be an issue if we suddenly took up tunneling as a hobby, and expanded the deed as it says is possible."

  Theo dismissed the notification, "Alright we have land."

  "We have beautiful land," Julia said taking in the sights around her. To the north a massive bluff of solid white seemed to be under a completely isolated snow storm. The north east held a picturesque tree-scape of red and orange leaves on an equally massive mesa. The south west held what could only be described as a vibrant flower field, rain storms floated above the expansive blooming fields.

  "If this is summer," Theo said thoughtfully, he pointed north, north east, and finally south west, "Then they must be Winter, Fall, and Spring."

  "Okay, then what the hell are those?" She pointed to two bluffs in the east and south east, and a third in the north west. "And those are just the Mesas we can see. I get the feeling that this whole area is a network of Mesas now."

  Theo looked to the north-west, and large purple crystals floated in a perpetual twilight. Long, shifting shadows seemed to move into and out of beams of light that they should not be able to. Faint ghostly glows coated ripples in the air over the Mesa. Deep in his gut Theo did not like this mesa.

  He turned to look at the south-eastern mesa with Julia. Pulsing light patterns filled a fiery sky with streaks of vivid colors ranging from red to deep violet. All around the strange and exotic plants that they could only barely see the landscape itself seemed to bloom in extraordinary ways. Theo whistled, "Wow."

  "It looks so cool," Julia said, and they turned together to see the last mesa to the east. If they were forced to pick a word to describe it, they would both say 'Magical.' Swirling energy fields and glowing glyphs covered the environment. In addition to the surface of the mesa, surreal phenomena like floating islands and strange portals seemed to fade into and out of reality.

  "I know that the world just changed forever," Theo said, "but damn this is all really cool."

  Julia nodded, and shook herself, "Okay, now what, we should at least try and get a camp set up before night fall."

  Theo nodded, "Well let's get some firewood together at the very least and see what we can do about shelter. Then before we go to bed we can finally do an inventory of the things that we have."

  "Sounds like a plan, lets stick together." Julia said, following after Theo and picking up kindling while he picked up larger sticks. They walked for an hour collecting a decent amount of firewood, before returning to the area of the fire Theo had started. They dropped their piles of sticks, and started their inventory of supplies.

  "What do we need gold for out here?" Julia pondered to Theo and herself at the same time.

  "That is a fantastic question, maybe..." Theo fell silent, then shrugged, "actually I have no idea."

  Julia chuckled at that, "Okay so what's the situation?"

  "Currently we are stuck in the middle of nowhere on an overlook attached to a mesa of eternal summer with no way back to civilization after the end of the world." Theo said snarkily earning himself a punch to the shoulder. "Oh you mean other than that?"

  "Of course." Julia said with a smile. She got the feeling that he was trying to downplay how bad it was with the gear that he had. Unfortunately she had not brought much more than the clothes on her back.

  "Okay, here we go..." Theo said and began listing off things as he pulled them out of his large backpack.

  "One Backpack,

  Seven granola bars,

  Two quarte size Nalgene bottles,

  One Rain Jacket,

  Two Disposable Ponchos,

  Five Hundred feet of five-fifty cord on a spool,

  A first aid kit,

  Two space blankets,

  Five M.R.Es,

  three and a half Cans of Sterno,

  One half-Pint container of Hot CoCo mix,

  One 'Compendium of Colorado' maps book,

  Two headlamps

  A Ziplock of miscellaneous batteries

  A Mixed bag of first aid, sunscreen and other general medical stuff

  Three knives of various lengths

  One box of matches,

  One lighter,

  One magnifying glass,

  One 10x10 camp tarp

  One set of sweats

  Two pairs of socks

  One water filter,

  One pocket notebook,

  and a few pens and pencils.

  Oh and one collapsible camp stool."

  Theo finished the list patting the stool that he was sitting on.

  Julia's mouth had fallen open around the hot chocolate mix, "You were hiking that fast with all that on your back!"

  Theo shrugged, "I like to be prepared and it helps me to stay in shape."

  Julia gave him a once over with her eyes and shrugged, muttering "I guess I can't argue with results."

  Theo blushed deeply, then cleared his throat, "Well I guess that does not include anything that you have and the stuff we got from the System."

  Julia looked ashamed, "I regret to inform you that, all I have is this water bottle and some bug spray and sunscreen. I was not anticipating being seven hundred miles from anything. As far as the stuff from the System, I have this bracer, the tunic that I am wearing and something that was called a Skill Stone."

  "Hmm," Theo said poking at The stuff they had gotten from the lion, "This looks like a hide, three inch long claws ten of them I think, several teeth, and finally three gold coins and seven silver ones. The stuff that I got from the System was the dagger, a skill stone and the Master Tool."

  "The Master Tool?" Julia asked, confused.

  Theo picked up the Axe from where it leaned on a tree within easy reach and willed it into the shape of a shovel. "Apparently it can take the shape of most simple tools. We also have our phones and I have a watch, but I do not know how long they will last. Phones will probably be useless in two or three days at most."

  They both checked their phones and saw that they were black screens. Julia sighed, "Or they got bricked by whatever the System did."

  "Or that," Theo said looking thoughtful, "did you have anyone you would want to be calling you?"

  Julia was about to answer, when he shook his head, "Sorry, I know that we are kind of stuck with each other, but I shouldn't pry. Anyways, that is about our situation."

  "That isn't great." Julia said, ignoring the pang of panic that threatened to come out.

  "No, it is not." Theo said, his brows knit together in thought.

  "Why don't we build a little bit of a shelter, then get a fire going and eat a granola bar or two each, and focus on food and improving our shelter tomorrow." Julia said.

  "Sounds like a plan," Theo said a bit absent mindedly, and Julia knew he was going though any options that they had.

  They worked well together, quickly coming up with a plan and executing it. She watched Theo lift a massive log into the top of an a-frame they had lashed together with 550 cord and decided she was glad he was who she was stuck with. As he started to layer some sticks over the large log, she started using one of the knives Theo had brought to make some simple tent pegs.

  As they worked together to lash the camp tarp down over the stick frame they had built Julia began to wonder what they would do about bedding, and it finally hit her that while the shelter they had built was somewhat spacious. Theo was a large man, and due to the fact that no two objects could occupy the same space at the same time, they would end up snuggled together.

  She began to worry, but then realized that if it was could she would probably be grateful for the warmth. She stood up and began casting Ward in a large circle around their camp. As sky darkened, Julia wondered if they would be okay and continued using her Ward skill around the perimeter of the camp.

  When the sun finally set, there were several layers of Wards around the camp. Theo looked at the shelter then at Julia and handed her a space blanket. "You go ahead and sleep in there, I can stay by the fire."

  "No, I..." She started to protest.

  "Look I get that you are stuck with me, and if it turns out that nights are cold as hell here, then we can revisit this tomorrow. But I am not about to force you to sleep with me in such confined quarters." Theo said, and then shrugged awkwardly, "Besides I like the stars."

  Julia felt a great surge of relief. "Thank you Theo. And thank you for everything today. I hope you know that even though we just met, I really appreciate everything."

  Theo smiled a big grin that melted Julia's heart a bit, and spoke, "And I appreciate all that you have done. Lets get to sleep and get to work on whatever needs doing tomorrow. Night night, Julia."

  "Goodnight Theo."

  Do you think I should do shoutouts?