Reidar took a careful step forward, raising both hands, palms out, to show he meant no harm. The floorboards creaked under his weight, and the boy's head snapped up from Lena. His eyes widened in fear as they locked onto Reidar.

The boy's eyes darted to Lena, then back to Reidar. He didn't speak, but his body language was clear: he was ready to bolt at any moment if Reidar gave him a reason to do that.

The man froze mid-step as the boy scrambled backward, pressing himself against the peeling wallpaper. Lena remained kneeling, her voice softening in a way Reidar hadn't thought possible.

"He's with me," she said in a gentle voice. "We're not going to hurt you."

The boy's wide eyes flickered between them, his breathing shallow. Reidar watched Lena's rigid posture soften as she reached into her inventory and withdrew a strip of cooked ant meat skewer from the previous day.

She offered him the skewer, holding it out carefully.

"Are you alone here?" She asked, her voice still using that strange, calm cadence. The boy stared at the offering but didn't move.

Reidar retreated to the doorway. The last thing he wanted was for the kid to get scared and run away, so he blocked the door.

Lena looked at Reidar with worry. "He's been living here alone. I don't know how long, but he's scared… Terrified."

Reidar nodded. "We're not going to force you to do anything. We just want to help. Can you tell us your name?"

The boy hesitated, his gaze flicking between Reidar and Lena. Finally, in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper, he said, "Jake."

Reidar smiled gently. "Okay, Jake. Are your parents around?"

Jake shook his head. "They are dead."

Reidar and Lena exchanged a glance. Losing parents was an expected tragedy in this new world, but the boy's survival alone was something else entirely. Months had passed since the cataclysm. How had a child survived without protection?

Reidar studied the boy's thin build, the way he stayed coiled like he might bolt any second. And there was that crazy speed he'd shown before—that was definitely part of it.

<That must have been the reason.> The System granted strange gifts, even to the young. If it gave Reidar the ability to share his skills, then why not give a boy incredible speed?

It was unlikely Jake met a vendor, because there was most likely no one in Loden aside from him. There were simply too many monsters, and no place seemed safe or large enough for a group of people to organize a base and get a vendor's protection. The monsters had likely already occupied the buildings that offered such space.

So, by exclusion, Jake was alive because he had a trait.

"I'm Lena," she said, her voice still soft. "This is Reidar."

The boy gave a nod; his eyes never left them.

"We're just passing through," Reidar said. "How old are you?"

"Eleven," Jake said.

That confirmed Reidar's theory. <What a fucked up world…> Reidar could only imagine what Jake had to go through, in most part because he went through it at the same time. The difference was that he was 30, while the kid was 11.

One might have thought that a kid was not that different from an adult in terms of reasoning abilities, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Adults broke under that kind of pressure, and a child's mind was even more fragile. A young mind wasn't built for the constant terror, the isolation, or the need to make life-or-death decisions every hour. An adult might ration supplies, plan an escape, or fortify a position; a kid just ran. They hid.

They starved slowly, too scared to venture out for food, too small to fight, and too inexperienced to understand which threats were real and which were just shadows. Survival wasn't just about strength or a System-given trait; it was about cold, brutal calculation. Something an eleven-year-old shouldn't ever have to learn, and that likely wasn't able to.

And yet, Jake had survived. Against all odds, the boy still drew breath in this corpse of a town. That simple fact said a lot about the kid.

Lena shifted her weight; the worn floorboard beneath her boot creaked. "Why did you run from us?"

Jake's gaze dropped to the floorboards. "The monsters..." It was clear he was referring to Reidar's spectral knights.

Lena shot Reidar a sharp look that clearly blamed his summons for frightening the kid. He gave her a look that basically said, 'How the fuck was I supposed to know?' but it looked like she didn't give a shit.

"But..." Jake's voice then dropped. "I also thought you were with the church."

The words hung in the dusty air. Reidar felt his muscles tighten. Lena's posture went rigid, her hand drifting toward the blade at her hip. A child in this ruined city knew about the Church of Unbinding and feared them enough to run.

That meant the church was spreading much faster than they had assumed. At the beginning, Reidar thought the church was something that spread from Havenwood, but it was clear at that point that if they had reached this place already, they must have originated somewhere else.

This wasn't his main concern, though, because the distance between Loden and Havenwood wasn't short, and yet their influence already extended to both places.

It meant that the church was growing, and fast at that. Reidar and Lena exchanged glances.

Jake took the skewer with trembling fingers, his eyes darting between them as he took a tentative bite. The tension in his thin shoulders eased slightly as he chewed.

Lena kept her voice low. "Would it be alright if we stayed here for a few days? We need to rest."

The boy gave a quick nod, his gaze dropping back to the meat in his hands. Relief washed through Reidar. They had shelter, at least for now, and the kid… They would take care of him.

However, Reidar did something he hadn't done before because of how the situation unfolded.

His eyes drifted upward, to the numbers that were going to tell him what kind of kid Jake really was.

—Jake Roberts—Level 53—

Reidar's breath caught.

<HOLY SHI—>

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.