Death: Genesis 4: An Isekai LitRPG by Nicholas Searcy

Author:Nicholas Searcy [Searcy, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2023-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

41

ABANDONMENT

We should have stayed,” mumbled Carlos, who was trudging along a few paces behind Zeke and the rest of his companions. Abby strode beside him. Pudge was a little off the path and darting from one obstruction to another as if he sought cover in a firefight, while Talia was at Abby’s shoulder. “Those people need us.”

Zeke sighed, running his hand through his hair. It had grown out of control again, but he’d forgotten to get Abby to cut it. He said, “Nobody’s making you come with us. You could have stayed. You’re strong enough that you could’ve probably established yourself as the big man in charge.”

“You know that wouldn’t have worked” was the man’s response. “I can’t stand up to what’s coming. Not by myself.”

“Leave it,” Abby said with a shake of her head. “We’re not going to just argue for the whole trip.”

Zeke bit off a counter and picked up the pace. As he walked, he constantly scanned the desert for threats. But there was nothing in the area; the stream of undead had killed or converted anything with a heartbeat, leaving the desert landscape devoid of any life. And while Zeke found the lack eerie, he was grateful that the group wouldn’t have to stop and fight monsters unnecessarily.

It had been an entire day since they’d left Jariq behind and almost a week since Zeke had recovered from the battle. In that time, he had done what he could to hasten the repair efforts, but it had immediately become clear that he was ill-suited for that kind of work. The runecrafting wasn’t difficult, but the repetitive nature of enchanting one block of sandstone after another strained his patience and stressed him out. He had spent hours hunched over in an assembly line of runecrafters, and it was an experience he never wanted to repeat, regardless of how necessary it was.

In that time, Zeke was reminded of how little he wanted to deal with Jariq’s problems. He was clearly the strongest person in the city, and not by a small margin. So, as the natural order of things in the Radiant Isles asserted itself, the residents had begun to look to him to solve all their problems. To put it mildly, he was ill-equipped to do any such thing, and when he wasn’t with the runecrafters, he was sequestered in his tower where the petitioners couldn’t find him.

It was ironic that Zeke could easily face down a fifteen-foot-tall giant without flinching, but the moment anyone approached him with an administrative task, his response was to run and hide. Such was life, though. He had no interest in making decisions that would affect an entire city. Nor did he want to confront the minutiae of running Jariq. There were plenty of people better suited to that task, both in terms of temperament and competence.

Slowly, they made their way out of the desert, and as they did, the terrain transformed. The barren rock and sand became scrubby vegetation, which in turn turned into a savanna.

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