Chapter 116: First of the Entourage

The five primordial Dragonkin stood on the ridge, staring out over the panoramic view of the Ruins of Evercrest.

They didn’t know exactly what they were waiting for, but they waited nonetheless.

The tense silence was only broken by Éloi, who scratched the back of his head while alternating between staring out over the hills of ash and glancing toward the rainy mountainside.

“Remember… let’s keep quiet about Ashy being Epitome.”

That was something he, Ash’s number one fan here, had proposed.

Sadly, Ash’s identity had already spread beyond their cluster. But it wasn’t as if the goal was to hide it forever or even for a week. The only purpose was to ensure that whoever they found didn’t instantly go crazy, either hating on him or lauding him — but mostly hating. Assuming there was a time differential and that roughly the same amount of time — a month — had passed back on Earth, what he’d done should have long since spread by now. Ash wasn’t necessarily a household name, but his infamy wasn’t inconsequential.

‘I wonder if my disappearance has been noticed as well…?’

Not simply his absence from social media, but whether there was a missing person report filed on him.

The most likely answer was…

No.

He could have dropped dead in that house and nobody would have known for an indefinite amount of time. His mortgage and utilities were on autopay, and there was nobody in his life to check up on him.

Not to mention, his mail was currently all being sent to the nearest PO box because he’d been staying in Germany, so it would never overflow. The only chance of discovery would be a curious neighbor, a natural disaster, a burglar, or the post office eventually inquiring about his growing backlog of mail.

Ash couldn’t help but let out a quiet sigh and frown.

He’d never really considered an outcome like that…

But now that he had…

‘That’s awfully pathetic.’

Life was lonely at the top. That was a truth Ash knew. A truth Demitra knew as well; she’d even imparted that wisdom to him.

‘Tyranny breeds tyrants.’

Not even Ash knew where his mind was going with this rumination, but the thoughts themselves made him bitter. Bitter enough that he felt almost happy that Claude had stood up for him — even if it had been under the stipulation that he could use him.

Suddenly, Ash felt the Totem calling to him.

His eyes widened, his tail flailed, and his ears perked up.

Without explanation, he cast [Focus], then bolted into the downpour and toward the Totem.

Sandra called out to him, her voice joining the others’ confusion:

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Ash slid to a stop next to the gigantic red scale and placed his hand against its side. Instantly, the quests popped up. But underneath them was something else… something he instinctively sensed was visible only to him and his Vassals.

A population list of all the races…

[Quest!] – [Feed the Totem Common-Ranked Logs] (2/100)

[Quest!] – [Feed the Totem Common-Ranked Marauder Tendons] (2/25)

[Quest!] – [Explore Foreign Territory] (65%)

CENSUS:

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[Demon] – [1]

[???] – [?]

[Harpy] – [5]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[Dragonkin] – [6]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

[???] – [?]

Without evolving, the Totem had unlocked a ‘Census’ feature. It was one Ash didn’t entirely understand, but he felt he could piece together some of its logic. If he or another Dragonkin saw and encountered someone of a race, that race would be logged by the Totem, along with the number of unique members of said race they had encountered.

However, when it came to the Dragonkin, it simply took note of all of them without anyone having to be seen. After all…

‘6…’

The number was six, yet no sixth Dragonkin was in sight.

Finally, [Focus] ended, and the screen vanished.

Ash turned to the others…

“Check it out, then set out.”

That was all he said before he crested the ridge and began descending into the Ruins of Evercrest — passing by his compatriots.

“Huh?”

But they did as he said and soon exclaimed in near unison:

“Oh!”

“I see!”

It didn’t take long for their voices to be drowned out by the pitter-patter of the rain, leaving Ash alone with his thoughts.

Slicking back his wet hair, Ash scoured the land, then found the tallest mound other than the ridge itself.

His method of scouting was simple: travel from peak to peak on his way toward the mountain where he’d been summoned, taking a respite each time to look for any wandering Dragonkin or to give them a chance to spot him. Or perhaps he’d find wanderers of another race.

While he wasn’t intent on attacking or taking them out, it would be nice to officially add them to the census. Even if he had seen all the races in the Fold of Existence, the game system or whatever hadn’t carried that information over to the Totem.

As he walked, he summoned the [Evercrestian Recurve Bow] into his hand.

“I wonder how many of us there will be…”

If everyone from Earth was summoned, that was about 8 billion people split between sixteen races. Even if this space was large, Ash didn’t see how it could possibly accommodate such a massive population.

Even a couple million was stretching it…

Plus, judging by Jack and the age Claude alluded to, there was some phenomenon of people being stuck in bodies of a set physical age. At least, it appeared as such.

‘What if a baby is summoned…?’

Would it simply be their fate to die in the tutorial, unable to comprehend a single thing happening around them? Or would they be spared from the summoning altogether?

However…

‘If they were spared, then who the hell would be back on Earth to take care of them?’

Unless time was frozen there or something, anyone under the age of five was doomed.

And if they were summoned, it was likely that everyone under the age of nine or ten would fail the tutorial, with that fatality rate only slightly improving as they got older.

There was also one more thing Ash noticed as he reached the top of the hill…

‘From the very first knowledge injection, it seemed quite clear that all those who would be summoned would be summoned at once, not in waves.’

Meaning, he’d get his answer soon enough.

“Help! Please!”

A shrill voice carried to Ash’s ears from his right. Spinning toward it and noting no hostiles around, he wasted little time casting [Focus] and predrawing the bow. He even used [Empower].

He quickly scanned the scene and spotted her.

A woman with a stubby tail was running up the hill toward him with a starved hellhound chasing her. Ash peeked at the dog with his glasses to get its level, which was 3, then fired.

The empowered black arrow buried itself between the dog’s eyes just as it sprang for the lady.

[You have slain Firebound Hound]

[First Kill Bonus!]

[+3 EXP]

The woman fell onto her back after tripping over her stubby tail and watched as the dog exploded into drops.

Whipping her head back up toward Ash, her black hair swinging into her eyes, she shouted:

“T-thank you!”

Ash spared her no words, only opening her status.

♱♱♱

[Lucia Ghilis] – []

LEVEL: 1

STR: [10]

AGI: [10]

DEX: [10]

INT: [10]

CON: [10]

ACTIVES: [???] [Burst]

PASSIVES: [???]

♱♱♱

‘Tch.’

Even with the five-level difference, her racial skills weren’t revealed. However, he did get to see her basic ability.

Seeing that she wasn’t a Dragonkin, Ash turned and continued down the side of the ash mound, heading toward the mountain.

There wasn’t much reasoning behind it being his final destination, beyond the simple fact that it made sense to check where he and the others had spawned.

The woman chased after him, shouting:

“S-sir! Wait up!”

Ash stopped, letting her get around the face of the ash mound and come into his sight. With the last second of [Focus], he turned toward her and cast [Dragon Fear].

Instantly, the woman fell to her knees and began quivering.

Ash looked at her status and noted that all her stats had fallen by 1, marked by a ‘(-1).’

His experiment was successful. He got to witness both the ‘fear’ aspect and the stat debuff. He also confirmed the debuff persisted after [Focus] ended. It was something that had been hard to confirm with the Marauders, as [Dragon Fear] didn’t do much against them except make them slightly more cautious.

Then, he turned and continued on his way.

The woman stretched out her hand and called:

“S-s-stop… Stop! D-d-don’t leave me!”

Ash didn’t slow.

The woman called out again, only this time her voice was accompanied by unsteady footsteps.

“I s-said stop!”

Ash paused, looking back at the pitiful woman as she shuffled after him. To be honest, Ash was somewhat impressed by her determination.

‘I guess she did finish the tutorial quickly.’

One had to have at least this much grit to slaughter the goblins without too much hesitation or time wasting.

Ash began to speak:

“If you wish to follow and…”

‘Cannot…’

Ash sighed, shook his head, then said:

“I don’t know where your race’s Totem is, but follow me as long as you wish; however, you are to help me find the others of my race, the Dragonkin. Additionally, I will not tolerate you following me back to my Totem once my journey is complete.”