Head of the Class (System Apocalypse: Liberty #1)

I’d like to blame the explosion for interrupting my class’s lesson. But what really derailed things was Aul K’Unn Tek. It was always Aul. Even the porous walls shaking and crystal lights flickering would have been a relatively short delay, without his questions.

We were used to the ship being attacked; it had happened at least once a week since the Voloids had landed. The four-armed, gray hexapods had practically guaranteed that when they’d landed their spaceship in a prime dungeon location. The only real threat had been when a pair of giant black bears with goat heads had tried to eat the thrusters. Even then, a blast of blazing rocket fuel to the face had persuaded them to find a less spicy meal.

As an elementary school teacher, the Squaw Lake Bird Watchers Society had sounded like a great place to bring my class. So I had gone alone to scout it out as a potential field trip location, expecting to see some mallards and loons.

As a vegetarian, I had been nearly as horrified by the antlered heads on display in the main lodge as I was by the announcement that it was about to become a post-apocalyptic dungeon. I’d played enough RPGs and MMOs to know what a dungeon was, and I knew it was the last place I wanted to be standing during an apocalypse. Ignoring the rest of the messages, I’d run as fast as my couch-potato legs could carry me on a dirt road that still hid a few frozen spots, even in early April.

The white-tailed deer bounding into my field of vision by the time the countdown ended had made me smile. Distracted by its unusual size and fanged maw, I’d missed the spaceship behind the row of trees. The Voloid Matriarch, E’Kklon Vekk, had appeared like Predator from the movies, yanking me from the path of the deer monster and into the safety of her ship, where I had been her guest, or prisoner, ever since. “Teacher, teach,” she’d intoned with a high, resonant voice. Then she’d tossed me into a room with small children.

Other than attending intermittent hunts, that had been my job for the last two years while the rest of the world had gone to shit.

Even before the apocalypse, I’d prided myself on being able to handle disruptive students. Now, I had honest-to-God superpowers to up my game. None of that helped with Aul; he was my kryptonite. He was a genuinely curious child asking thought-provoking questions that entirely disrupted the lesson plan I’d laid out the night before.
“Caleb will not protect hive, is truth?” was the question Aul had asked me. His voice was deep and resonant.
More chirps, clicks, and buzzes flew at me from the rest of the class than they had for any other topic, with the possible exception of when he’d asked if I was a slave. I had answered with an honest, if uncertain, “Maybe.”
“I will protect any sentients in danger,” I said, “but I’m bad at fighting.”

My Universal Translator Skill was amazing, but these beings were notoriously hard to translate. With patience though, I thought we managed. It helped that Aul did most of the talking, no matter how much I tried to get the rest of the class to join in. Alone, the others would answer. When Aul was present, they deferred to him. I could speculate as to why, but I was a teacher, not an alienologist. “Aul is confusion.” His mandibles quivered slightly.

“You know I’m a vegetarian, right?”
He tilted his head in a way that my Skill told me meant agreement, though it still didn’t feel right, even after all this time.

“Well, that’s because I value life, especially sentient life. And it’s damn near impossible to tell where to draw the line on what is and is not sentient. Because of that, I won’t attack or kill anyone not attacking me or someone else. But I’m not a pacifist. I will attack those who attack others. I’m just not any good at it. My Class is Teacher. My points and Skills are spent to help me with that. And frankly, I’m too thoughtful for life-or-death reactions. I freeze up when a warrior needs to act without thinking.

“That’s why I picked up Pavise here,” I said, then reached over to knock on the metal head of the robot that had become the most reliable fixture of my life. He wasn’t there. “Wherever he is. He’s big and square and I hide behind him whenever we get attacked out there.”

Pavise was the result of all of my Perks and a love of Star Wars and medieval history. The System had him listed as a shield-bot Protective Companion. I had upgraded his AI over time with about half of my Credits. He and my WWMRD necklace were my only prized possessions in this new world. “Where are you, buddy?” I sent a questioning pulse through my neural link.

“You left me in the hold again. And you’ve been ignoring your notifications. How am I supposed to protect you when you forcibly separate us?”

“The door closes automatically,” I replied. “It’s not my fault. If you’re that worried about it, go first and make sure the path is safe.”

“Alert me before departing and I will.”

Aul’s left mandible was twitching and I realized I’d been incredibly rude, ignoring his questions. “Sorry, Aul. What were you asking?”

“The ship is currently under attack. I should be with you.”
“They’ll take care of it, they always do. Now hush.” I quieted the alerts with a mental nudge. “Hive hunt. Monsters attack hive. Caleb won’t attack to protect hive? Only carry supplies and heal injured?”

“Yes.”

“Caleb coward?”

“Not really,” I answered. And I knew they knew I was telling the truth. One of my passive Class Skills, Ring of Truth, made it so that anyone I’d never intentionally deceived knew I wasn’t lying. The Skill didn’t force me to tell them everything I knew, a fact that I had made sure to tell them as soon as I knew about it. Trust was essential if you wanted to be a teacher. And I’d never wanted any other job.

Release Date: October 8, 2024

Pages: 710

Genre: LitRPG Sci-Fi

eBook ISBN: 9781778552120

Language: English

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