At some point along his way back to the house, he got a sudden influx of Aura for no immediately apparent reason.

+10000 Aura

His steps stuttered, his eyes bulging. For a moment, he looked around suspiciously, wondering what the hell he'd just done that was considered so cool. He'd simply been walking, hands in pockets, shoulders relaxed, the same posture he'd adopted all the way back at the start of all this. There was nothing nearby, to his private relief. He'd been worried the bonus had been a reward for obliviously strolling past a hiding red-souled monster, or something.

The answer only occurred to him when his Mana Sense spied a monster intruding past the "boundary" he'd declared a few minutes later, on the other side of the house from where he walked. He could have got to it, if he were so inclined, but he'd dismissed the little challenge when the appearance of the black hole had killed his mood. There was something about the shadowy veil over the sky that took away much of his capacity to tolerate the arbitrary whims of the Aura system.

Since the system hadn't hit him with a failure for the monster's encroachment, he had to assume everyone at the house had finished resting, and he'd been rewarded for successfully keeping monsters 100 metres away for the duration. It was as good a theory as any.

That held heavy implications. So I can essentially set myself quests, and get rewarded for it. Is that why I got Aura for destroying the portal world, too? He frowned. I can't remember what I said out loud about the portal, exactly. I'm pretty sure I told the others I intended to destroy the fucking thing. Did the system take that as a challenge, and reward me? Or do portals just give rewards in general? The reward could also have been just surviving the red…

If he could set himself tasks, though, that was potentially another way to gain Aura, and a major one. But if the mechanic was real, it didn't come with notifications to confirm it, making things a bit more dicey. For all he knew, he had dozens of open quests running, based on off-hand comments he'd made.

His narrowed gaze panned back towards the black hole. Pretty sure I declared I was going to destroy that thing, when I first saw it. Did the system take that as a quest, too? If I can succeed in a quest, I can fail in one too, most likely. Have to make sure no one gets to it before I do, then.

The primary question, if the quests worked as he thought, was how best to go about exploiting it, once he'd confirmed them. Could he just declare that he was going to kill X amount of monsters in Y length of time, and get bonus Aura for it? Could he set arbitrary limitations or goals for himself, like not getting hit in a battle, or killing an enemy in one shot?

Scratching his chin, he tried to recall if he'd said anything else that the system could interpret as a challenge for him to overcome. Had he said anything about killing all monsters out loud? He'd certainly thought it. He'd definitely mentioned getting to his family in Dagenham, too, so that was probably another open quest. What else? Had declaring his intent to protect Chester, Jade, and Lily back then been interpreted as a quest?

Either way, I'm gonna have to experiment with this. Gotta be so deliberate with what I say, even more so than I already thought. Eugh.

Another complication, and another potential boon.

Alissa had returned with Sam and the two kids by the time John got back, and they'd set themselves up in the kitchen, sitting around the small dining table in one corner of the room with mugs of steaming drinks in front of them, the air thick with the mingling smells of coffee and hot chocolate. The Asian man's martial artist outfit was a little scuffed up, there was a hint of dust in his hair, and he had a cut over his right brow, but he was otherwise none the worse for wear, giving John a nod with a placid expression when he entered.

The two children, a boy and a girl, were still rather lifeless, their expressions vacant and their eyes haunted. John wondered if they were twins. Sat next to each other like this, the sandy shade of their hair and hazel eyes did look close enough to identical. The outfits only helped that impression, still dicked out in onesies, blue for the boy, pink for the girl, with oversized jackets draped over them both. Neither reacted to John's entrance.

Alissa, on the other hand, arched an eyebrow at him. "Saw you running around out there. So much for stopping to rest, hm?"

The kitchen door was open, unfortunately. He'd hoped none of them would stop him for small talk, but now he couldn't just walk past without seeming rude.

"I did rest. I've got a Spell that speeds up the process," he said, leaning against the door jamb with his arms crossed, hoping he didn't look as awkward as he felt. He didn't know how to deal with kids at the best of times. Facing a pair with trauma like that? The room seemed suffocating. He was tempted to cut off the conversation and retreat to the living room, where he could hear the muffled murmur of conversation.

"Of course you have a Spell for that," Alissa said with a roll of her eyes. She'd pulled her red locks back into an elaborate bun, which exposed the curve of her jawline and her long neck, both of which John carefully didn't look at or react to, though he did find himself wondering if she was oblivious or deliberately leaning into the "Sexiness" thing her system was imposing on her.

"Did you rest?" John asked, eyeing her. She looked pretty fresh.

"Yes. Samuel watched over me at the school, where we met before. Not the best sleep I've had, but I feel refreshed enough. I suppose that's the thing setting you apart from the rest of us, though," she said. "While we're all wasting time winding down after that whole ordeal in the garage, you're straight back out there. How many monsters did you kill, while everyone was asleep?"

"Didn't keep count."

+400 Aura

Alissa snorted, but there wasn't a hint of amusement on her face. Instead, she glared down at her hands where they clenched around her coffee cup. "If I thought hard about it, I could count all the monsters I've killed since this all began, I'm sure. And you…" She trailed off, shook her head. Her eyes hardened as they panned back to him. "There's no point in self-flagellating. I will be better. Work harder."

John didn't know how to respond to that, so he just nodded. When Alissa went back to staring at her hands, and Sam didn't seem interested in starting another conversation, he finally felt safe to retreat, pushing off from the door jamb and heading towards the living room without another word.

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Everyone was indeed awake, though their states of alertness varied. Lily still took up the bulk of the three-seater sofa, though her eyes were open, if a little bleary. She'd finally taken off her motorcycle helmet and chain mail, exposing rather greasy-looking strawberry blond hair and a grey sports jumper with visible stains under the armpits.

"The shower's working, if you want to use it," John said without thinking.

-200 Aura

The American woman smiled wryly at him. "Thanks for letting me know."

John nodded, holding back a grimace as best he could. Looking on the bright side, he decided to take it as a good thing he'd confirmed that social faux pas were evidently considered uncool enough to penalise. While he was at it, he patted himself on the back for lasting this long before stepping in one.

Jade was perched at the end of the three-seater sofa, with Lily's legs on her lap. She too had removed the upper half of her armour and her helmet, though she'd kept the leg bits on, for some reason. Maybe they were just too awkward to remove and put back on? He wasn't experienced with such things. Her grey eyes were alert, but her posture was slumped, like she was sinking into the sofa, her head leaned back on a cushion. She gave him a small nod of acknowledgement, which he returned.

Chester, by contrast, had put his hockey goalie armour and army helmet back on, and had taken one of the one-seater recliner sofas. His eyes were drooping to half-lid, and his mouth was hanging a little slack, but he had clearly been listening to whatever Doug had been saying just before John entered, and he was sat up straight, fingers laced in his lap like an attentive student trying to stay awake in first period.

Last but not least, Doug was still sat on the floor in the same position he'd taken hours and hours ago, cross-legged like a meditating guru, arms crossed over his chest, bulging out his biceps. With the grin on his face and sparkle in his eye, you'd think the old man didn't know the meaning of fatigue.

"Nice of you to join us again, whipper-snapper," he said, brushing over John's awkward comment to Lily as if it hadn't happened. He gestured to one of the two remaining one-seater sofas. "Good hunting out there?"

John thought of the 10000 Aura bonus, and the theory he was nursing about quests. "Yeah, pretty good." On a whim, he activated Aurora Blade, showing off his flashy new Spell. "Upgraded my Mana Blade to this. Freezes enemies on contact."

+400 Aura

Doug let out a low whistle. "Impressive. The rate at which you pick up new powers is kind of infuriating, though, if I'm honest."

John dismissed the blade, letting himself sink back into the chair. He had never been a fan of leather furniture, due to the awkward squeaking sounds it made if you so much as twitched a finger, and it didn't have the soft warmth of regular fabric upholstery. He tried to stay as still as he could once he was comfortable. "I think my system's pretty much made for it. Wants me to be… independent."

That wasn't exactly accurate. His real thought on the matter was the system wanted him to show off to other people. But he couldn't exactly say that, now that he'd already gone and lied about it, telling them the system wanted him to save people or whatever.

He had to fight another frown as the implications of that hit him. If the system was specifically choosing ways to torment its users, what would it look like to others if 'saving people' was supposedly a misery on par with whatever they were being put through? Did they think he was a selfish psycho Darwinist who was being forced to grudgingly tolerate and assist other human beings, and hated every moment of it?

Didn't think that one through, did I? He thought, trying not to cringe in his seat.

"I think it wants all of us to be independent, in some ways," Doug said. "But at the same time, I do wonder if it wants us to fight each other, too."

John had no answer to that. He was already working under the assumption that human PvP would come into play eventually, regardless of the system's intentions. And when that time came, there was no doubt in his mind the system would reward him for fighting humans just as much, if not more than fighting monsters.

"Just to clarify," John said. "Are you planning to all stick together as a group? Alissa and Sam and the two kids included."

"That's the idea," Doug said.

"We all have our own objectives, but we figure going after them alone will never see them done," Jade said.

The others nodded in agreement.

John looked around, taking in their expressions. "And those objectives are? Aside from the obvious, like survive all this."

"I've got family to get to," Doug said simply.

"Same," Jade said.

"Think that's all of us," Chester added.

Lily hiccuped a hollow laugh and threw her arm over her face, burying her eyes in the crook of her elbow. "Yeah, I think getting to my family's a bit unrealistic, though. I knew intellectually that the invention of planes massively changed the world, but I didn't appreciate that, until, well, I was faced with the reality of what I'd have to do to travel halfway across the world."

A beat of silence passed.

"There might be other options," John said. "A flight Spell. Or you could enchant an object into flying. Hell, you could even get a piloting Skill and take a plane there yourself."

Lily smiled at him. "I appreciate the optimism, John. Thanks."

Why did it still feel like he'd said the wrong thing?

"My family situation's not that much better," Jade said after a moment. "Getting to Inverness is going to be a bitch of a thing. Though I have tae admit it's nowhere near as bad as crossing an ocean, like."

"Getting anywhere is going to be a long term deal, unless you want to risk the noise of a car or motorbike when you're probably going to have to be stopping every few minutes to clear the road ahead," Chester said, shoulders slumping.

Lily suddenly sat up and slapped herself on the cheeks. "It's something to work towards, at least! Let's all be optimistic. It's good to have long term goals, and it's even better to actually work towards them with the mindset that they're achievable, even if they look difficult." With a grin that looked a little forced, she jumped to her feet and strode for the door. "I'mma take John's advice on that shower. You guys let me know how you decide to move forward. I'm down for whatever."

And she was gone before anyone could object. Her footsteps receded down the corridor, then up the stairs, and into the bathroom. The telltale groan of water moving through pipes echoed through the house a second later.

"Hm," Doug said, staring at the door long after she'd left. "Well. At least the girl's putting in an effort. Could be worse." He turned his attention back to the room. "Now then, I'm going to cut to the chase: we're going to be relying on you for a while, John, so chances are we're going to be following you at least to Dagenham. Is that agreeable to you?"

John nodded slowly. "No objections."

"Good. And you've already talked about circling around the outskirts of the city, killing monsters and collapsing portals along the way, yes? You wanted to follow the M25."

"That's the idea."

Doug's eyes hardened. "Then let me try and convince you of a route we should take through Watford. I know I said things are bad there, but I have a plan of my own."

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