Ralph walked over to the young man who had rescued them three days ago, a bowl of soup and a roasted fish in hand.

The park that the goblins had set up camp in had also had a small lake, where the fish had grown big and fat in the last week. All the wild-life on Earth seemed to be making a comeback, after a month of dying in droves or mutating and going mad.

“You should eat. You must have a lot on your mind, but you must eat well to live well.,” he said.

Cain opened his eyes from his meditation, a translucent rock the size of his fist on his lap.

“Sorry, I was just… Meditating”

Cain had found that the Soul Crystals, which  had appeared from thin air like Noel's axe had in what seemed like an eternity ago once Cain had 'claimed' them, strengthened his soul when he meditated while touching them.

They seemed to hold a certain amount of Soul themselves, and crumbled apart eventually if he meditated with them long enough. 

Wukong had been right. It was really hard to cultivate the Body, Mind, and Soul at the same time, but somehow he felt a natural affinity for Soul, while the Blood Crystals also helped him cultivate his Body. The Soul Crystals had allowed him to push his Soul yet another sub-grade.

He stretched out his arms and took the bowl of soup and roasted fish, digging in with relish.

Ralph sat down next to him, his muscles and tattoos dancing as he gently lowered his massive frame to the ground.

“... The people want to know what you plan to do next.”

Cain paused mid-bite into his fish.

“What I plan to do next?”

He chewed and swallowed slowly, and Ralph waited in silence. The white monkey he called Wutang appeared seemingly out of nowhere and jumped up onto Cain’s shoulder, begging for scraps of food.

Ralph had seen him devour three skewers of fish earlier. His daughter loved indulging Wutang, the closest thing she had to one of her stuffed animals since... Ralph would let his daughter feed the monkey all the fish it wanted, even if he had to go hungry himself.

Thankfully he hadn’t needed to, and he had felt vitality streaming through his body every day, feeling actually stronger than he had been in his youth.

“Ralph... I don’t feel qualified to lead anyone, much less come up with plans to survive in this apocalypse.”

“But you are strong. Perhaps the strongest out of all of us.”

“Ralph, I told you, you have higher base stats than both me and Noel had. I’m only this ‘strong’ because… Well, I honestly think that you would probably do a better job. The survivors know and trust you.”

“Hm...”

Ralph sat next to him in silence, considering his next words.

Ralph was a strong man. One of the strongest, before the rifts. He had been a lineman for an NFL team in his youth, along with some of his Samoan brethren, and had turned to coaching high school and community college teams. He was no stranger to the battle, though his calm demeanor made him a favorite amongst his athletes if not the other coaches.

He had been very, very glad that he’d kept sports in his life when the goblins had come to his home, two or three at a time at first. But even though he’d bashed in their heads over and over as they came, the goblins that came by gradually increased in number until a dozen of them had overwhelmed him.

They had dragged him and his family through the streets, throwing them into a wooden pen in the middle of this hellish encampment.

Ralph had been broken as his family had been taken from the pen, one by one.

The earth and the sky had shattered when they took his wife.

The darkest hole had replaced his heart when they took his son.

Then the blue boxes had come, and Ralph had realized Tangaroa still loved him. He had been torn between resentment that Tangaroa had not blessed him earlier and the gratitude he’d felt at being given a second chance.

But even the blessing of the god of the Sea had not been enough. The ‘Will of the Sea’ had allowed him to eke out another few days, endure the vicious beatings that the goblins reserved for him, for he wouldn’t let them touch a single hair on the last remaining kin he had on this Earth. But he'd known that sooner or later, he would perish.

Then, Cain had come into the camp, eyes blazing fiercely as he ended the life of the monstrosity that was the leader of this camp. He had done it with the very dagger that had been its favorite weapon a few days prior.

For the first time since Ralph had lost the most important battle of his life, he had felt hope. He knew he wasn’t the only one. But it was a fragile spark that threatened to blink out at first sign of wind. The survivors were weak, and he was a broken man, Chosen or not.

He could not let Cain walk away.

“I used to think… that I was strong,” he said.

Cain began to reply, but Ralph held up his hand, signaling to Cain to let him finish.

“I was a lineman in the NFL. My job was to hold the line with my brothers. It was a battle that we trained for day in and day out, every breath that we took for the sake of protecting others, standing our ground when the opponents came. And they came. Sometimes they crashed upon us like the waves against rock. Other times we crumbled."

His voice a bit distant, Ralph seemed to reminisce. Then his eyes turned focused.

"But I learned my job well, and also this. The team cannot win, the tribe cannot survive without a leader. Without a heart that pumps the blood, or a mind to direct and unite its limbs, we are alone. And no man can hold back the tide alone.

“I know what I am good at, Cain. And I am not a leader. You are the one to lead us right now. You are strong. You have a good head on your shoulders. You move like you have a plan, and we all see it. And you won’t be alone. You have Noel and Wutang with you. And you’ll have me.”

Cain looked back at him. His eyes weren’t shining with their strange light like they did sometimes, but there was still something unshakable lurking in the depths of his gaze.

----------

Cain finished absorbing the last of the Soul Crystals after Ralph returned to sit with the other survivors by the large campfire they had built. Wutang had purified the blood stone containing the hobgoblin shaman’s essence for him yesterday, but True Sight had allowed him to see that he would need to strengthen his soul in preparation for absorbing it, and the Soul Crystals had been perfect for that.

Cain and Noel had decided to stay in the goblin’s camp. The survivors naturally seemed to follow suit, and they had cleaned up the camp over the last three days.

Altogether, Cain and Noel had rescued fifteen people. They seemed to cling almost desperately to Cain and Noel.

The survivors seemed to flock around Ralph Tupuola.

A former football player of Pacific Islander heritage, he had attracted the attention of Tangaroa, the Samoan god of the sea. Emaciated as he was, Ralph was still an imposing man standing at six foot four and quickly gaining back the weight he had lost.

[Status: Ralph Tupuola]

Class: None

Level: 1

Body: F (14% -> 6%)

Mind: F (14% -> 8%)

Soul: F (12% -> 8%)

Active Skill: None

Passive Skill: None

It really did seem like Cain wasn’t too strong compared to other Chosens. Or at least, hadn’t been.

Cain brought up his stats window and examined it.

[Status: Cain Kim]

Class: None

Level: 5

Body: F (56%)

Mind: F (48%)

Soul: F (47%)

Active Skill: True Sight

Passive Skill: None

Traits: None

Killing the hobgoblin had done wonders for his stats.

Cain watched Ralph walk around from campfire to campfire, soothing the survivors with a deep voice that seemed to invoke calm.

The albino monkey, whom Cain had named Wutang, curled in his lap, content with a full belly and preening as Cain ran his hands through his soft fur.

[Status: Wutang]

Class: None

Level: 1

Body: F (15%)

Mind: F (13%)

Soul: F (17%)

Active Skill: Transform

Passive Skill: Purify

[Transform]

A ‘true clone’ of the Monkey King,

this monkey has a natural affinity for Shape-shifting.

Current Forms: Cain Kim

[Purify]

The clone was born for the primary purpose of purifying manna.

Can consume otherwise toxic elements and purify manna.

The first time Cain had used [True Sight] on the monkey, the monkey had yelped and slapped him across the face, its own face blushing.

It had left Cain more speechless than angry.

He resigned himself to the insanity of both the monkey king and apparently his clone. Like father like clone, he supposed.

He’d gained a ‘Trait’ from the Blood Crystal that night.

[Lightfeet]

A predator steps softly.

An instinctive knowledge of moving about silently.

It had still been very risky. Noel or Wutang might have gotten caught by the horde before they’d made it to the trap. Cain could have been detected as he’d snuck into the camp.

Perhaps he couldn’t have killed a hobgoblin in the initial ambush. It was significantly higher leveled than he was, after all.

But Noel and Wutang had made it. And he had successfully infiltrated the camp undetected, and had killed the hobgoblin.

Cain had made a plan, and executed it perfectly. He thought about Ralph's words, but he already knew the answer.

The memory of his father's dying smile and his last words echoed in his heart and mind, filling him with a bitter-sweet feeling, and Cain smiled.