《The Age After》


 (old) Burning City

    I


    Red valley never changed. I traversed it in a dismay, screamed, tried to sit on warm stones and wait. Fixed light hour after an hour. Same eternally dry air. Dry road, dry sand to the left, dry rocks to the right. Under my legs, there were six bright drops. It was seven not long ago and eight even before that and so on.


    Anxiety was filling me up every time I counted them. But despite my wishes, orders, pleas and pains the valley never changed.


    With a sigh, I opened my eyes and exited this almost meditation of mine I spent most of the night in. Dazed and fearful I walked in the next room, glanced at the bed and took a peek from the window.


    It was cloudy and windy outside of the house. Instead of cars, debris and dust were roaming the road of 58th street. Despite broad daylight Grestone-city appeared completely human-free.


    Desolate street was making me feel desolate, so I walked away from the window. Apartment I''d illegally occupied had two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. Judging by photographs and closets, a young pair was living here just recently. Hope they''d managed escape. I ended the whole building search last evening and found it completely empty. Few blocks around my school had been completely evacuated, or so I heard.


    There was someone sleeping on the bed near me though. Like me, she was a teenage girl. I carried her here yesterday after she passed out. Instead of idling and dreading ghosts could as well check her again. The girl looked like she was sleeping?.. One certain detail was making me doubt it. And damn she was gorgeous despite it. Only few people beside my Mom could make me feel this envious.


    And now after reminding myself of Mom, my hands started trembling. I hastily took my smartphone from the bed where I''d left it and turned it on.


    Stop it with stamping your foot, stupid.


    No signal...


    Damn, damn. I knew there would be no signal since light was still off. No light, no power, no working radio stations, it was just two plus two level of difficulty and I still had to torture myself like this every goddamn time.


    My smartphone was showing twenty-two percent charge, day of the week: Thursday, and 14:47 of clock. I would need a replacement soon. Preferably in batteries. What else? Food, water, clothes. Despite digesting many movies and books of an appropriate genre over the years, I felt clueless. No, distressed.


    ¡°I need to go out.¡±


    Dangerous thought left my lips on its own and together with familiar terror strange excitement emerged from unknown deeps. Stop, you scare me, me. Still, this thought reminded me that I was living on a borrowed time. Dangerous or not, I had to.


    I eyed the girl on the bed. How lucky. Other person here (me) couldn''t sleep very literally. Wasn''t feeling even the need to since yesterday, which was one of the not so normal things happening these days.


    Before going out I left a note.


    Even the air outside felt desolate. Also cold, I shuddered and covered myself in too big for me jacket. Mine was ruined so had to borrow someone else''s and it was bothering me. Thankfully there was a store I to ransack nearby. I was going to check it on my way back.


    I walked unhurriadly and sticking to the walls, constantly watching every direction, heart beating fast. Left hand was on belt where my gun was tucked. I spent an hour polishing it with a cleaning kit acquired from one of the apartments - God bless America with its average of two guns per household. Or three? It was the most careful gun cleanup in history so there was an expectation it wouldn''t fail me. I even found 9x19mm to fill two emptied magazines.


    This block seemed to be really free from people. Feds did a great job. Or was it a police? Could they order evacuation? Probably. It was a residential area so all buildings around were four or five-storied. Lots of people to organize.


    No noticeable movements around meanwhile, I nervously rechecked and crossed the street as fast as possible. There was a corner here on a high ground and the street curved a little, creating a good spot to watch my school from half a mile away or so. Breathing slightly heavier than usual, I peeped out cautiously.


    Above the half-destroyed school building, crimson light was sweeping up in spirals. Smoke, but not smoke, dark and viscous, it was reaching the sky like a water falling upward. There, right below the clouds, a gigantic sphere was taking form.


    I saw it once before. Rift between two worlds. First this smoke, next the sphere, next will be a crack connecting us... to them.


    The only difference was a scale.


    The scale of terror and despair it would bring.


    I forced my gaze away. On the ground, monsters were pouring out of the portal hidden by the school ruins, one after another. Some were crawling, some running, and some walking. Winged ones were hobbling awkwardly seemingly not able to fly here, in our world.


    Creatures had no formation, no visible to me order. Only destination - Eagles Bridge. The closest one connecting Grestone Island to the continent. Where were humans for monsters to kill. Thought was enough for me to clench my fists so hard my broken fingers on the right hand reacted with sharp pain. Calm, be calm, me. Count to ten. Bones would snap again if you do this. Slowly make your muscles relax. Good.


    Not all monsters were going south-west, I noticed after monitoring them for a while. Few were spreading out. So they might come this way near the ocean, even though people here had been evacuated.


    Maybe missed some of them already, with this reason in mind, I convinced myself to return. What would I be able to do here anyway, right? Bitterly and grim, I followed my steps back.


    After arrival to ¡®my¡¯ residence I started to search its vicinity in circles. Keeping eyes opened for anomalies, I was checking closed stores, windows, dumpsters, dead ends, everything. Anxiety was eating me alive. When countdown changed from six to five, all coherent thoughts nearly escaped me completely. Should I go back to the portal? Bait a monster somehow?


    Suddenly my panic designs were interrupted. Hm? The street was still empty. Somehow I ended up back to where I started my search. No movements, but I felt uneasy, like something had changed. Look and remember. Here, the grocery store. Right across the road, it was opened. No, the door was broken by someone or something. Human?


    ¡°I need to check it.¡± Muttering, I was licking my dried up lips. If it was a human, well then. If it wasn''t...


    I was living on a borrowed time.


    Crossed the street, hiding behind abandoned cars. While stepping carefully I was avoiding making noises. To an extent. Waiting few seconds, I moved closer. Rustling, plastic crunch, and low... was it grunting? Very low. I took out gun from my belt. Really should have taken a holster for it.


    Bum-bum-bum, was pounding my heart. I blinked and shut my eyes so hard angry tears cropped up. Concentrate, concentrate, me.


    Slowly, I drew a butterfly knife out of my pocket. Dad taught me how to use it somewhat, but I never did for real and was only carrying it as a memento. We used proper knifes on the hunts, and naturally there were proper knifes in the kitchen too.


    Now could be the time.


    I sneaked up close enough to look inside. In dim light I saw a dark red figure, back turned to me and height about the same as me, roughly five feet. The creature was completely naked and hairless. It was crunching chips together with a plastic bag.


    Eerie relief almost numbed me. Not a human. I can hunt it. I can kill it. Thanks God. Unbearable suspense before my death is finally over.


    Next second, blood gushed up to my head, but breathing almost stopped. At this moment, my vision became exceedingly clear. I pointed my gun at the creature. It didn''t react. My hand wasn''t trembling at all. Gun''s sight, creature''s skull, perfect line.


    I tilted my head. The creature took another bag of chips. Ah, no ears. So this one also had only two underdeveloped earholes instead? Lucky. I put down the gun. Right now, I was completely cold-blooded. Even through felt like was on fire.


    One careful step closer. The creature snorted and I turned into a statue. My heart rate was gone, just like that. Only eyes were right on it. The creature had two legs and two arms, just like me. All four limbs didn''t have visible joints. No visible muscles. Just a bug of meat with stretched on it skin.


    What should I call you, hateful creature?


    You are red. Humanoid enough. Kobold will do.


    I closed in fast. Gently, before it even flinched, I lifted up its chin and cut open its throat.


    The kobold turned and its arm struck my chest fleetingly, seemingly lightly. But it wasn''t so. First, I felt my feet losing ground. Pain from my broken ribs caught up when I was in the air. And then I crushed into a shelf hard.


    ¡°!¡±


    I wanted to scream, but didn''t. Air had left my lungs too fast for it. Ignoring it, I stood up, clumsy but swift. Movie hero would have coughed some blood here. I didn''t. All my blood remained inside.


    New wave of pain. I could feel my ribs'' shards move, wriggle to their proper places. But it''s not a healing. I groaned at the same time as the kobold. Damn thing. It was trying to close the gap in its throat with both of its palms. I cut it good. Half of its groaning was in fact burbling.


    Right. Go to hell.


    Damn my back killing me. Damn my ribs crawling inside me. Damn it all.


    ¡°Huh, huh.¡±


    My hard breathing was of habit, really. Doing so was a right thing, such a feeling. Despite pain, seconds running out one after another were only increasing my chances not to use my gun, as I wanted from the start.


    Finally, the kobold stopped its useless...


    The hell...?


    Motherfucking bastard had this?


    Its blood stopped flowing out. Damn.


    I pointed my gun at its head. Through hellish pain in my chest, but there was no trembling, only perfect line. The kobold smiled, best word I managed to find. This long snout was familiar. Big enough jaws to occupy half of its head. Long and massive wolfish form, but smile of a toad. Two rows of shark''s teeth.


    It was seriously freaking me out.


    And I was still clearheaded. There was only six feet between us. The kobold clanged with its claws, three inches long each. I easily imagined them ripping me apart.


    ¡°Kha.¡±


    My ribs were finally whole. Kind of. They were still broken, just connected.


    The kobold threw itself on me. Six feet.


    My pupils expanded. Five feet.


    Time slowed down. Dust dancing in the air, highlight on creature''s skin, floor bending under its weight, I could see everything. Four feet.


    With an arm akin to a whip the kobold lashed at me upside down, razor claws were aiming to open me up like a fish can. My stake burned when I lunged forward with my butterfly knife. Three feet.


    The creature was fast. For a moment, I surpassed it by far. I buried the knife in the kobold''s eye socket deep, up to handle deep. Leaning close to it enough so heavy oily smell infiltrated my nostrils I heard the claws tearing the air behind my back harmlessly.


    I inhaled greedily, my head dizzy, vision blurred. Ready to burn even the very last of my time if the creature moved even slightly. But it didn''t. Dead weight pressed on me instead.


    ¡°Ha, ha.¡±


    My smile surely was so-o-o wicked now.


    I pulled out the knife with difficulty. Felt so tired. Muscles hurt, bones hurt, whole body hurt. Too impulsive, I was. Should have just shot the damn thing and then shot whatever''d have come out after. Breakthrough human limits was breaking down me. Fortunately, there was a way to deal with it. I cut kobold''s throat above barely healed wound. Blood spurted out. Up close, it was bright red. More colorful than human or any on Earth. And it smelled sweet.


    I licked it once and then sank my lips into the hot source. I willed, and ownerless blood, essence flowed in me, drop by drop.


    There was no guilt, no fear, no rejection. As condemned, I was very natural in this.


    ¡°Alice? What are you... who are you!?¡±


    I saw her out of the corner of my eye. The girl I''d been carrying on my own back not long ago. Obviously in a shock, she was pointing a shaking finger at me. It would have been funny and childish if it wasn''t incredibly dangerous, coming from her.


    Wasted kobold fell on the floor with a dull sound. Aw-, awkward. Before her nerves snapped I needed to say something. Not simply plaster face with my friendliest smile. Ah, foolish me. There were some words on my mind already.


    ¡°And you have horns, Kris. So we''re both kind of flawed.¡±


    <hr>


    II


    Kristine Fletcher, my classmate. And future prom queen, no questions allowed. She was tall, unlike me. Perfect curved butt, voluptuous chest, unlike me. Figure straight from maestro''s life work. Slightly round face with sensual lips, cute pointed nose, big and clear sky-blue eyes and waist-long golden hair, partly emphasizing face and partly pulled back in a ponytail. Lord forgive me, I ranted like a stalking geezer.


    Two small horns that she was touching with a frown weren''t her original parts though. Colored in light grey and black they were growing out of top of her forehead. Two inches they were curving back just above her hair and then one inch up.


    Seeing her like this, slowly exploring new additions was only making me feel more depressed and envious. Why there was so much difference between us? She still looked hot. In fact, she looked two times hotter than a day before.


    How one could even compare her with bloodsucking me.


    ¡°You remember us running away from the school, right?¡± I asked somewhat dryly.


    ¡°Ah, yeah. Thanks. For bringing me out.¡±


    ¡°We are even. You killed those bastards pursuing us.¡±


    ¡°Seems so. I barely remember that.¡±


    Kris stared at her fingers she was just touching her horns with. I noticed air shaking slightly around their tips.


    ¡°Kris! It''s, like, impolite?¡±


    She looked at me, at her other hand still pointing in my general direction and finally at my gun pointing back in her general direction. Then she made a contemplated face for a moment.


    ¡°Fine.¡± In unison, we both put down our weapons. Hope she didn''t notice my secret sigh of relief. It would have been lame if she did. Forget it, me. Now, when the mutual death threating was gone, we could talk.


    ¡°You are not surprised?¡±


    ¡°By this?¡± Kris rolled her eyes up which directed me surprisingly well. ¡°Or by you?¡±


    ¡°Kind of both.¡±


    ¡°...I''ve been feeling them growing for a while, you know. Well, not horns, obviously. Bumps of some sort. When I woke up, there was one thing however.¡±


    Piece of paper in her hand and playful smile on her lips appeared almost magically.


    ¡°Dear Kristine. I hope you feel well. Welcome to the end of times. I''m gone to loot, plunder and pillage. Wait me. Your Alice.¡±


    My face was burning in the end of it.


    ¡°No reason to use that voice, you know.¡± I lamented not knowing where to put my eyes.


    Sta-a-a-are.


    ¡°Shut up.¡±


    ¡°I am.¡±


    ¡°You do it too loudly.¡±


    We exchanged smiles, wry and embarrassing from me, bright and understanding from her. The world didn''t seem that dark and gloomy anymore. What I miracle for one bad joke I¡¯d made in a gloomy mood.


    ¡°So I woke up." Kris continued slowly. ¡°Then this and that, then I noticed you on the street, sneaking around. I came after you. Heard you fighting this thing. Walked inside, and you freaked me out.¡±


    Seemed it took me just a few seconds to drain the kobold completely. Could mistake it for an eternity, honestly. I was thinking so while showing unperturbed face, yet trace of suspicion in Kris''s eyes lingered.


    ¡°My horns. Those I honestly didn''t notice before you pointed out.¡±


    ¡°Why would you? It''s like being conscious of your ears.¡± She looked at me with strange mix of surprise and expectation and I nodded. ¡°Exactly.¡±


    Raising my hand, I made a silent order. Red dots appeared on my skin. They connected and soon blood thread silently flew up. Knowing her ability, it was only fair to show at least this much. Trust without fairness does not exist.


    ¡°I call it blood control.¡±


    ¡°You...¡±


    ¡°It''s difficult, you know.¡± Blood thread curved roughly into an ''S'' and then fall down on the ground. ¡°Doing it inside is much easier.¡±


    ¡°I saw you in school. On the floor, after... that event. Thought you''d died as well. CDC people certainly acted like you did.¡± Khis started to connect the dots right away. There was an impulse I had to swallow, to ask how she survived, what happened during the Event as she called it, but she was so expressionless, robotic. With eyes full of suppressed suffering. So I decided against.


    ¡°Massive hemorrhage. My brain arteries have seven different ruptures right now. And hundreds more through the body.¡± I explained instead.


    ¡°You can tell?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. My ability provides both control and tactile sense through blood.¡± Answering to implied ''how'' question wasn''t a problem. ¡°I do want to kill every damned bastard. But this-¡° wide gesture ¡°-still more of a necessity. I don¡¯t thirst for blood either, mind you. But.¡±


    Not a vampire. Not a monster. Maybe not a pure human anymore, but I was not a monster in a true sense of this word.


    ¡°Got it. Not any strange impulses on my side either.¡± Khis nodded solemnly, followed by my sigh. Not a monster here, she was telling me back this way. Naturally, I couldn''t be completely sure. Just as she couldn''t be sure in me.


    ¡°If I ever want to drink your blood, I''ll tell you.¡±


    ¡°Likewise.¡±


    There was a reason for us acting roundabout like that. Human society would never accept us. Not with our powers, my need and her appearance. Not with our blatant connection with... them, so on surface it was impossible to deny. Heck, even I was pretty sure in this connection''s existence. Of course, it was all assuming old human society would remain in the future. One wild guess, honestly.


    ¡°Good.¡± Kris and I both said in the same time and exchanged smiles-not-smiles. Enough for partnership, I guess? Should we shake our hands now? There were not any cameras around, so no.


    Someone would have said that we are best friends, or maybe even girlfriends, able to understand each other so much. Nevertheless, we weren''t. Kris and I were merely classmates who had two things in common: the school schedule and depressingly high IQ test results.


    ¡°How much time are you left with?¡± She asked me matter-of-factly. Connected the dots, huh?


    ¡°After this kobold - maybe a week or two if I don''t fight anymore.¡± By the way, just a few minutes and one dead monster ago I would have been dead in three hours top. This chilling thought I would be better without.


    ¡°Kobold? Whatever.¡± Kris clearly didn''t care about naming it as I did. Prime reason we had never befriended each other. Backgrounds, social circles, hobbies, boy types, even food preferences. Nothing to share. Maybe I would talk to her someday though. I would if...


    Damn.


    Silence was becoming awkward. Was it no topics to discuss or was it simply too many? Oh, she was also wearing someone else''s clothing.


    ¡°Barren''s Sports is over there. We can as well...¡±


    ¡°Good idea.¡±


    Again, smiles-not-really-smiles.


    Here it was, ''Barren''s Sports'' on darkened neon sign. This shop took the whole corner and two stories for itself. It was completely closed, metal shutters and everything.


    ¡°No power, no alarm.¡± She commented.


    ¡°Yeah. I was going to use a crowbar or something, but.¡±


    ¡°You are welcome.¡±


    Kris pointed at the door. I watched closely. Her lips moved, speaking silently. Three words, definitely not English.


    Dark reddish light flashed. With overwhelming crush, the door was folded up in two before disappearing inside the store. Sounds of falling shelves, shattering glass and mirrors followed it. Not hard to imagine what would have happened if it were to hit me.


    ¡°Expected you to just knock out the lock or something. But this works too.¡± Did it sound excessively cheerful? Definitely. With such a result, it would have been much better to break in slow and superpowerless. My eyes meanwhile were on the street, looking around, I was ready to shoot unknown enemies. Kris was breathing heavily with hands on her knees.


    ¡°Tried... to control... failed...¡± She explained through panting.


    ¡°We need to find out your source of power soon.¡±


    ¡°...better.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    Kris shook her head. Two minutes later she was fine, although still pale, and I hadn''t seen a shadow of other living being.


    ¡°I was saying it has left me in a better shape than yesterday.¡±


    ¡°You''re sure?¡±


    ¡°Two more times and I would faint if not.¡± She talked out of experience, shrugged and went into the store.


    Inside we used our smartphones as flashlights. Frankly I didn''t know much about brands, types and such. But I knew one crude criteria: the cost. Finding appropriate size was a bother though, we had to break in the local storeroom. Rammed it. As a person who had nothing to support I watched Kris heading to the bra place with some ire, be damn my complexes.


    I stopped before the large mirror. There was me. I looked... ordinary. Petite, five feet two inches tall white girl. No chest to speak of, no other curves capable of catching envious or lustful gazes. The girl in the mirror had a narrow face, pointed chin and nose, which was fine, but together those didn''t add up to beauty standards. As most teenagers, the girl also had pimples. Damn hormones.


    Describing myself as cute or pretty would be self-deception. There was one thing, naturally. Shoulder-length raven shiny hair I inherited from my mother, something I was honestly proud of.


    To summarize, I was ¡®okay¡¯ in the best of times.


    ¡°The thing you should change about yourself first,¡± unnoticed, Kris showed up behind me, ¡°is the gaze of a matured killer.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to change.¡± I refuted instantly. Furthermore, I didn¡¯t agree with her. My dark brown eyes were sharp, but it was merely "stay away from me" type of sharpness with thick brows.


    Depressingly, both Kris and me was wearing tights, long sleeve tops and jackets with hoods. All clothes were nearly complete black. Depressing thing was how we reasoned it without consulting each other. On my legs there were compression socks and a pair of extremely expensive shoes. Of different brand from Kris! If I were to buy them a month ago, I wouldn''t bear to actually put them on my feet, seriously.


    And wasn''t it a little dispiriting that the most comfortable clothes I''d ever worn were the clothes I stole? Well, I would return them as soon as the owner asks. Moreover, this was a kind of an emergency, right? Thus, I borrowed them. Yep.


    Kris wasn''t in any visible moral anguish too. We also borrowed a pair of fairly huge black-grey backpacks and spare completes of clothing to wear.


    ¡°Are you hungry?¡± I asked when we left the sports store.


    ¡°Remember this and that I did before spotting you?¡± She looked embarrassed. Ransacking the store and strangers'' kitchen felt different to me as well. ¡°Wait, do you?..¡±


    ¡°No hunger.¡± Her tone implied general question. ¡°But I can eat normally. Hope it won''t change. Like tasting new things. Don''t want to lose it...¡±


    ¡°There.¡± Kris cut me off suddenly looking behind my back and then clenched her teeth. I turned instantly, without thinking.


    Big hairless wolves. Three feet tall, nearly black, no tail, the same general muzzle structure as the kobold had: long, one nostril, no ears. Seemingly boneless legs with big claws. I counted three ugly heads.


    ¡°You know how to shoot?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Busted, my plan to arm her.


    Wolves were running slow, in a wide arc. Watching us, grinning at us. I could see Kris clenching her fists, trembling slightly. She was scared. Hell, me too. Seeing their kin tearing men apart right in front of me once was enough for me to have cold feet.


    ¡°To the store.¡± Kris blurted.


    Instead of answering, I was hurrying back even before she ended speaking. Wolves... no, they acted like hounds. Hell hounds? I would stick with that. Hell hounds were running just slightly faster us. Bastards. When I aimed at one of them with my gun on the run it jumped to the side and hid behind a car.


    ¡°They know guns!¡± Kris noticed my attempt too.


    ¡°Smarter than the damn kobold!¡± I confirmed.


    Seconds later, we were already back inside Barren''s Sports.


    ¡°We run through the back door?¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    Words stuck in my throat. Her voice was trembling. I wanted to run, I really, really did. Now you have few more weeks to live, fear was whispering. Just run away and then seek another lone easy target.


    Shut up.


    It was enough to clear my head. Fear didn''t disappear, no. Fear hormones in my blood did. Felt surreal. Hair on my neck readied to stand up, chill waited just before entering the stomach. Goose bumps were eager to pick on my skin. This ¡®almost¡¯ felt unnatural and was yet allowing me to think.


    ¡°How long could we run?¡± In reality, only a moment passed before I shook my head.


    "..."


    Kris opened her mouth, but couldn''t find the words. Oh, I knew this expression. Her mind was denying every answer her panic was suggesting to her as stupid or plain wrong. What an interesting face to watch when it''s not me who is making it.


    ¡°We fight. The entrance is narrow. If you¡­¡±


    Roar.


    Low, moderately loud, extremely menacing. Very close.


    ¡°Strike down the second one... Kris!¡± I started to talk, but ended up yelling at her. She nodded mechanically with vacant eyes. How the hell she managed to kill two of them yesterday? Oh yes, the girl was just as petrified on my back then as now. With a hope it would work half as good as they show on TV, I slapped her hard. Kris twitched and blinked.


    Hound''s head showed up in the doorframe for a moment with the same nasty grin I felt tired already from. It hid before giving me a chance for a clear shoot.


    ¡°Kris!¡±


    ¡°Yes. Yes. I''ve got it.¡± She reacted by rushing behind one of the columns supporting the second floor. Good, I just started to consider giving her another slap.


    And thus our first battle together began.


    <hr>


    III


    Horrendous metal scraping attacked our ears first. Hell hounds were cutting shutters. When claws touched showcases, glass shattered. I was looking around frantically, expecting monsters breaking in anywhere now. Nevertheless, the first one chose the door.


    Somehow, it run inside the moment I got distracted so my shoot was delayed. Pulling the trigger, an afterthought crossed my mind: should have used some clothes or a bag to suppress the sound. Smart from me, probably pointless and also very late.


    Muzzle flashed with a deafening bang. My time perception was being eroded again to the limit and dull pain at the back of my head. I could see the bullet, flying perfectly into the hound''s right eye. Or was it just my imagination? Five feet distance was crossed instantly like a flick of a pen. The hound slowed up... and that was all. I missed. The bullet lodged in its skull with small splash of blood.


    No. Not my fault. Slightly, but the monster''d dodged.


    I fired another round from my gun and started to move backwards, too late. Not a perfect line for a shoot, but I got lucky. The hound was too close to dodge again and took the bullet inside its head before ramming me. Sticking arms was the only protection I could muster. If I were going to die, would it count as being hit by a track?


    My left hand inevitably crashed into my chest and the gun ticked my broken ribs before I lost it. But if it was all. My right wrist twisted before this arm was tossed aside uselessly.


    Snap.


    !


    FUCKI-


    Agonized scream lived short before dead monster weight beat the air out of me. My body failed to present even the slightest obstacle. A paper wall would have worked just as well.


    Despite pain being so bad agonized part of me wanted to cut the hand off, I managed to roll our bodies so me and dead monster both fell on our sides. On my left side, with my left elbow crashing in the floor first.


    For a blissful moment, I felt nothing. In the next, I was foolishly opening and closing my mouth like a fish tossed on shore by tide. Bright red light flared through my teared eyes. I could not hear, not with this ringing, this misery...


    Not. The time. Fucking. Move.


    I ordered myself and burned half of that meager amount of essence the kobold gifted me. All pain was gone together with five days of my life, just like that. Full of false vigor, I pushed dead body aside and jumped back on my feet.


    To face another hell hound, already slashing at me with its paws. Only supernatural speed allowed me to avoid it, and even muscles crackled to bear the burden. With a glimpse I confirmed paled Kris reading another spell or something of hers. Good, because unarmed me was going if not to be killed then to self-destroy very soon.


    Unfortunately, hell bastard noticed Kris too and bared fangs. Its muscles tensed, torso started making a turn. No way could I let it attack her. Fortunately for Kris, even temporary fearless people are bold and brazen.


    I poked hound''s eye with my finger, arcing the whole body forward to reach it in time. Under the hard surface, it was all warm jelly. With my will blood flushed out from my palm to cover its face, I really did my very best.


    The monster roared and slashed me one more time in a whip-like manner. I jerked my body. Too late. Too close. Claws burrowed in my side and the strike threw me through the room. Red light flashed once more and I grinned right before my head slammed into the column.


    Will I live or die? Was my last thought before blacking out.


    All yours.


    Take.


    And devour.


    Warm liquid wetted my lips. Instinctively I sipped once.


    And again.


    Mouthful after another.


    Yummy.


    I indulged fully. Able to open eyes, but not bothered to. Too busy guiding the flow deep inside me. Ah, wasn''t this a life to enjoy. Tiny-tiny drops were dripping in my illusory valley with every sip, watering dried sands and rocks.


    Alice.


    Stop pestering me, inner voice. This is my feast, you do not get involved. Hm?


    Ah. The stream ran dry.


    ¡°Alice.¡±


    I flinched.


    ¡°Alice!¡±


    Oh zip it, I was just waking up. Vague figure appeared, looking down at me. With sight, other senses returned slowly. Nothing was hurting. Some numbness here and there.


    ¡°Kris? So we''ve won.¡± I stated with some disbelief and looked around. On the floor close there was the hell hound killed by me. There was a knife wound on its neck. Oh... I should have been drinking its blood. Not even a drop remained. ¡°You?..¡±


    The girl nodded simply, then powerlessly walked away and dropped on the chair. Two times. She hadn''t passed out after using her ability two times more and even found strength to drag me to the dead monster and feed me with it.


    Slowly standing up, I listened to my body. The worst thing... wait, wait. Guess I should talk it aloud. Just do it like you are talking with yourself, me.


    ¡°There is pain just as much as it should be, but it subsides fast. My ability doesn''t heal my wounds however, not really. Even through my snapped wrist twisted back into normal shape, and ribs'' shards crawled back. And blood flows normally despite the ruptures.¡±


    I salvaged my gun nearby, pulled the knife from the dead hound and moved to the one we killed last. It lacked half of it''s head, and remained half was burned black.


    ¡°This bastard... now there are three cuts just under my armpit itching.¡±


    ¡°I know. I checked you.¡± Kris reacted, shaking her head. She was probably imagining this strike landing on her. I would have in her place.


    ¡°Mm.¡± My hand brushed past tears on the jacket. It felt sufficiently frightening.


    ¡°Sorry.¡± I half-apologized half-signaled to her and stabbed hell hound randomly. For me, breaching skin was enough. Now when I had clear mind I only touched it. By my will blood rushed out and was absorbed through pores on my palm.


    Slow process, and Wrong, Wrong, my-but-not-exactly instincts were screaming at me unsatisfyingly. There was a need to savor the meal. Ignore it, me.


    ¡°It bruised my heart too.¡±


    ¡°What do you think?¡± Wearily asked Kris on my murmuring while watching the ceiling.


    ¡°Not disturbed?¡±


    ¡°After your revival? You should be dead, and I should be dead, like everybody in school. Instead, we''ve got powers like in some comic book and survived.¡±


    ¡°You read comic books?¡± It was funny how that drew my attention.


    ¡°Never. But the concept is so overused it''s still familiar.¡±


    With a secret sigh of approval, I moved to the last hell hound. Second in chronological kill order. Kris had more power to spare on it, evidently, since it was blown in two pieces. Because of it, most of blood spilled out on the floor. I leaned over to it.


    ¡°Useless.¡±


    ¡°So it should be fresh and from the source.¡±


    ¡°From the source. Not much left inside though.¡± Confirmation came naturally after the contact with the still dripping wounds of the hell hound. ¡°And I think fresh too.¡±


    ¡°Here goes donor blood option, hmmm.¡±


    ¡°You plan the future.¡±


    ¡°Donor blood. Big hats. Everything is for our future.¡± Kris stroked her horns demonstratively.


    ¡°If the civilization still stands.¡± Fascinating how lightly I made this comment.


    ¡°Only such a future is worth planning. Everything else is unpredictable.¡± She shrugged. ¡°You''ve finished?¡±


    Yes, I wanted to say but didn''t, instead with amazement watching Kris shamelessly spreading her arms.


    ¡°What? I''m powerless now. Carry me.¡± She pouted. Two chuckles escaped me. Not intentionally. It was only in my mind I was rolling on the floor laughing.


    ¡°You¡¯re ruining your image.¡± I hurriedly hid my lips with a palm. Her next words struck me.


    ¡°Masks should be used by people, and not the opposite.¡±


    I silently walked over and took her from the chair. A pair of bulges touched my back.


    ¡°You are heavy.¡±


    ¡°And you are small.¡±


    ¡°Don''t flat them.¡±


    ¡°I let you feel the real deal.¡±


    Damn this girl.


    ¡°...you¡¯re taking it good.¡± I made a general statement meaning the deadly battle and everything.


    ¡°I learned to handle myself.¡± She answered as a matter of course. Hm. So her life, which seemed perfect, in fact wasn''t. Hardly surprising. Leaving the store, I made sure to go around and not notice a stinking puddle, feeling glad to pass out this her stage of handling things.


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Since I am carrying you, take my backpack too.¡±


    ¡°Kris.¡±


    ¡°Mm?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know how to fight.¡±


    This problem was easy to recognize. Doing some hunts with Dad, learning to aim on shooting range with Mom, training to toss and catch the butterfly knife when bored plus some childish brawls couldn''t be counted.


    ¡°We are alike here.¡±


    ¡°So I am gonna be injured again. Because I can take it and you can''t.¡± Her crossed on my neck hands tensed up. Where was some hope deep inside she genuinely cared about me just a little and didn''t just anticipate my next words.


    ¡°More injuries - more essence to suppress them. More fights, more injuries - you get the idea. They aren''t seen and I don''t bleed. But it''s like avalanche.¡±


    ¡°Won''t you heal over time?¡± Kris argued. ¡°You should have a month now, right?¡±


    ¡°Five sites in our city only, not including our school. The CDC people said that.¡± I shook my head. ¡°It was a day since and there is still no sign of the Army. Or the National Guard. Or even one damn helicopter. Which means they have much bigger problems to deal with. It''s global, Kris.¡±


    ¡°...yeah, I know. Rejecting it won''t make it right.¡±


    We were walking north-west, away from our school and Eagles Bridge after deciding it was important to both run away from stray monsters for now and look at the situation in the mainland part of the city.


    Well, I was doing the walking thing and Kris was lounging on my back. She was the one tired to death, not me.


    ¡°Wait. Alice, stop!¡± In alarming voice, Kris suddenly urged me.


    ¡°Where?¡± I reduced all my popping up questions to one word.


    ¡°Not that. The portal. Your portal in the sky.¡±


    ¡°Not ''my''! Is it opening? Already?¡± My eyes were already searching it... ¡°Wha-?¡±


    I could not find it.


    ¡°When you mentioned helicopters I unconsciously looked back and discovered... the portal has disappeared.¡±


    ¡°Out of view?..¡± It was a city after all, buildings everywhere.


    ¡°No. Ten minutes ago it was right there.¡± After pointing at unsuspicious clouds Kris added gloomily, ¡°Now, there are two general options.¡±


    ¡°Either it''s genuinely disappeared from the sight for some reason, or it could only be seen from a limited distance, again for some reason.¡± Mechanically, I ended for her. Moreover, the second option was much, much worse. We were still inside the evacuated zone, if the portal was unobservable from the cordon lines, if it was only a limited amount of monsters spawned...


    The danger might be vastly underestimated. Praying wouldn¡¯t amount to anything, but I was going to hope the portal had just malfunctioned and harmlessly vanished anyway.


    ¡°Yeah. And you know what we are doing?¡± Sternly, Kris asked me.


    ¡°Relax. We are not going back to check it out.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    Our primal goal was to save ourselves. For that, we did not need to risk stumbling across a group of monsters above our meager power level. We just needed to run from the epicenter while not coming under the eyes of authorities, fanatical religious groups and so on. I hurried my steps. Habituated part of the city was just in a few minutes.


    ¡°Change of topic. Let us talk about demons. Are you okay with using the word ''demons''?¡±


    ¡°...demons don''t have genitals.¡± After thinking, Kris mused in my ear.


    ¡°And you decided to start with that because?..¡±


    "Just first thing came to mind. Besides, it¡¯s fundamental."


    I smirked, thinking up a smart comment, but it never came out. After turning around the corner, we ran into them.


    People. Three guys, all around twenty years old.


    ¡°Hey, you two!¡±


    Simultaneously, they noticed us too. First thing I did was looking up. Thankfully, Kris had her hood on. Without knowing about horns normal person would totally assume she just had a weird haircut. My second action was to turn slightly away from the trio and move the gun further under the jacket.


    ¡°Are these swords?¡± Very quietly, Kris asked while coming down from my back. I looked carefully. Blinked twice. Took my backpack from her. And finally confirmed.


    ¡°Yes, these are swords.¡±


    Moreover, one of the trio was pointing at us with it right now. He and other white guy had straight unsheathed swords. Third, lanky black fella in glasses was carrying a big wooden staff curved with runes. He was also wearing an ancient-looking grey robe. And jeans. And T-shirt with a bat on it, and sneakers like the other two.


    The trio appeared to be almost as strange as our duo.


    ¡°Have you come from quarantine zone? What are your names? Classes?¡± After the trio approached us, a shorthaired pimply spokesman who''d called us spat out questions in a business-like manner. His T-shirt had a gigantic ''S'' on it.


    By the way, it took all three of them no more than two seconds to completely dismiss me and focus on ogling Kris.


    ¡°Oh, thanks God. We were locked down in the storeroom the whole time... can you imagine? And these roars and screeches, I couldn''t sleep at all! If not Martha being with me I don''t know what I might do!¡±


    Who are you!? I wanted to blurt out but managed not to. This relief, pleading eyes, chewed lips, how many fakes could you produce at one time?


    ¡°Em, okay, it''s fine now, it''s fine. Look...¡± The spokesman committed transition from arrogance to frustration remarkably fast.


    ¡°What is going on!?¡±


    Hints of panic and tears in her voice finished them. Next few minutes I was standing with my eyes closed while sword-carrying fellows were jointly trying to ''calm down'' Kris, sharing all kind of personal info in the process. Fortunately, she occupied their full attention and no one bothered with my poor acting skills and dull expression.


    ¡°...why do you have swords?¡±


    This was interesting. I opened my eyes. It was not hard to understand what Kris had done: she finally let the trio coax herself into asking seemingly innocent questions.


    ¡°This? I am level 4 Swordsman. It''s my starting weapon.¡± The spokesman Rob answered with a strange mix of pride and release. ¡°Martin is a Warrior, he got a sword too. And Mystery Man is...¡±


    ¡°Khm.¡± Was it his first investment into conversation? For not talking, I had even started to like this silent guy. Noticing our or most likely Kris''s gaze he hastily turned his eyes to the side.


    ¡°Sorry. Mystery Man wants to keep his Class in secret. Oh and his robe is a lucky item drop.¡±


    ¡°Mystery Man?¡±


    Yes.


    ¡°His nickname. Nicknames are important.¡± Rob clarified nervously.


    You are so nerds, people.


    ¡°What are your nicknames?¡± Nice, Kris! She was so good. I wasn¡¯t seeing any traces of laughter, just pure curiosity.


    ¡°We are yet to come up with them.¡± Martin, the guy with broad shoulders, an amiable face and a T-shirt with a shield on it answered to her.


    ¡°Oh... and these classes?¡±


    ¡°It''s something only few people possess. Did you hear System announcement yesterday?¡±


    No.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Congratulations! Now you only need to open you status window and proceed from there.¡± Rob came back into conversation. His bright smile was telling us ''naturally you wouldn''t come up with this'' or something. ¡°Just say ''Status'' in your mind.¡±


    Like a moron, I followed his words.


    Status.


    <hr>


    IV


    After my awakening there was a moment I foolishly decided to check this out. The world''s apocalypses had come, why it wouldn¡¯t turn out to be in a game-like setting. Yeah, surely, why not? Therefore, I wasted a minute or two on trying out every combination I could think of.


    Status.


    That was my first attempt. And then this happened.


    Absolutely nothing.


    ¡°Oh, something popped out. What is it, what is it?¡± There was so much joy in Kris''s voice.


    ¡°Cool, right? Samantha, have you ever played video-games?¡± Rob threw a touchstone. The girl who''d introduced herself with a fake name while sobbing smiled sweetly.


    ¡°Nope.¡± This was my hobby, and we did not share them.


    ¡°Maybe you''ve read some online novels?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°I, I see.¡± He scratched his neck. ¡°Okay, what you see is called game window.¡±


    "It should contain your name, age, Class and level, stats list and skill list." Martin joined them, clearly wanting to impress the beauty. In a few minutes Kris masterfully pulled out all sorts of information from them. I was impressed, the girl clearly didn''t have the slightest idea what she was talking about, but the trio never noticed it. Even silent Mystery Man.


    It was probably her chest corrupted their minds. While I thought so maliciously...


    ¡°System announcement.¡± Mystery Man suddenly spoke up in a deep voice.


    ¡°New training ground!¡± Rob and Martin shouted in the same time right after, hurriedly tapping with fingers on empty air.


    ¡°It''s right here. Go-go. We are gonna monopolize it.¡± Rob waved at us with agitated grin.


    ¡°You are sure? They are newbies...¡± Martin started and was hit with an elbow from his pal. Next followed strange exchanging of thoughtful glances, hidden pointing at Kris, and obscene smiles.


    Did they really think we wouldn''t notice it?


    ¡°They really think so.¡±


    Oh, so I was muttering it. My bad.


    ¡°Okay, you can go with us; we will teach you some monster hunting!¡±


    ¡°You sure? O, Okay then... We will go after you, is it fine?¡± Kris answered somewhat timidly.


    ¡°Of course it''s fine.¡± Rob nodded magnanimously.


    ¡°They are idiots.¡± I summed up from thirty feet behind the trio.


    ¡°Crazy, not? What''s with this game nonsense?¡± Kris shook her head.


    With a sigh, I explained her in the pithiest way.


    ¡°Why!?¡± Oh, she looked so overwhelmed.


    ¡°Because reading it make me relax.¡±


    ¡°...okay. But why are they not crazy?¡±


    ¡°Why aren''t we? For all I know, these two days have extremely high chances to end up as some really sophisticated trip. I even hope for it. And you looked very enthusiastic in supporting their craziness¡±


    ¡°They have swords. Sharp swords.¡± Kris defended herself. ¡°And I don''t do drugs... oh.¡±


    ¡°If it''s just a trip then you are an illusion inside my brain.¡±


    ¡°I knew you would say that.¡± The girl complained and I laughed triumphantly.


    Martin looked back at us. I waved at him and he turned back slightly upset.


    ¡°Sorry, beauty really ignores you.¡±


    ¡°Aren''t they cute?¡± Kris answered to my mutter with a grin. ¡°Closet types who finally got their chance to show off coolness before the girls. Even Mystery Man was so into his mysterious image.¡±


    ¡°Wasn''t he just shy?¡±


    ¡°With guys like them, it''s the same thing.¡±


    The claim sounded awfully confident. I had nothing to counter it with, so time to change the topic.


    ¡°I even started to forget about the portal problem few blocks from here.¡±


    ¡°Ahah. Mood killer.¡±


    Not idea about Kris, but this trio looked surreal for me. We fought demons at most an hour ago and then met completely ignorant people right after. According to them, quarantine zone was extremely lax and they managed to find stealthy way through. I wasn¡¯t sure why yet.


    ¡°All this talk about monster hunting was too enthusiastic.¡±


    ¡°They treat this as a game.¡± What a disapproving grumble, Kris.


    ¡°Well, maybe this is a game.¡± Speculations wouldn''t hurt. ¡°Let''s look at the training ground for now. How are you, Kris?¡±


    She looked much better, anyway. Even was walking on her own. Was it because¡­


    ¡°They help?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The girl touched her horns through hood with an uncertain expression. ¡°Receiver, I suppose? Can feel them gathering something through the air. Energy of some sort.¡±


    ¡°Mana, in game terms.¡± I helpfully added.


    ¡°They have this stat, you know.¡± Kris shook her head, rejecting the idea solely for this reason. ¡°Feels nice. Warm. Fresh. Like first mouthful of water for a person who''s never known she was thirsty.¡±


    Closing her eyes for a moment, she gently smiled.


    ¡°Kris, the guys would attack you if you ever do it to them.¡± I was dead serious, but she just smiled wider. ¡°And this metaphor was on purpose.¡±


    ¡°You didn''t look disgusted or unwilling. Wasn''t hard to guess. However. As we walk, energy concentration is slowly decreasing.¡±


    ¡°You mean, walk from?..¡± With a general gesture, I hinted at the portal in our school.


    ¡°Exactly.¡± Grimly, she nodded.


    ¡°I see.¡±


    It was fortunate we met the trio though. This part of the city was completely unfamiliar to us ¨C personally my home was in the opposite direction from where we had been escaping to ¨C and the question how to overcome CDC, police and whatever else blockade was crucial. Kris had her horns and any medical examination would expose that I had more injuries than an average plane-crash victim.


    The System teased my curiosity too. How did Kris express? Fundamental. Besides, now we had few more people to fight stray demons, even if the trio didn¡¯t suspect it yet. They stopped before the large shopping mall, and Rob beckoned to us.


    ¡°This is the place.¡± Declaration possessed such aplomb as if he had built the whole building from the scratch and then personally placed the so-called spawn zone inside. Me and Kris both nodded in agreement.


    ¡°We go first, you two watch us. It''s a low-level spawn zone so monsters inside might look scary, but they are not that dangerous. We can teach you to fight them.


    There is one thing. The world has changed. Now people with ''System'' must go forward and ward of the threat for our country. People like us.¡±


    The trio nodded in unison with feverish gazes. Rob and Martin were squeezing swords'' handles hard and Mystery Man knocked the asphalt with his stuff.


    They are indeed...


    I noticed Kris''s lips moving in the same soundless pattern.


    ...idiots.


    The mall was a familiar one. Empty, we diverged from our original path after meeting the trio so it was on the edge of the quarantine zone. I remembered it having three floors, an oval shape and a fountain in its center. Rob did not choose the main entrance but rather opened the side ''for personal only'' door. Without using keys or breaking in, with plastered confidence on his face that it shouldn''t have been closed anyway.


    My doubts disappeared when I saw a transparent blue light screen in the door''s frame. Okay, fantasy enough for me.


    ¡°The training ground restricts monsters inside from running amok. There is an upper limit for their levels too.¡± Rob crossed the light screen with these words and then pointed at something invisible slightly above his head. ¡°Level ten here.¡±


    ¡°What if we want to run away? Will it restrict us too?¡± Despite staring at the light screen in wonder, Kris did not forget to add fearful notes into her voice.


    Rob smiled and made a step outside.


    ¡°So here is our plan. We walk in through technical rooms and hunt weak monsters letting you get used to the job.¡±


    With all my respect to gender myths and truths, this one sentence would have been enough to scare off most of people and not just high school girls like us. These guys honestly couldn''t acknowledge it so when we followed them inside the mall they didn''t suspect a thing.


    Light screen felt exactly like light, meaning like nothing. Surely, I did not see any writings suspended in the air after crossing it either. The air had changed though. Subtly. Was not sure if it was simply warmer than outside or something more.


    My natural and supernatural instincts kept silence.


    ¡°Don''t cross light screens colored in anything but blue.¡± I whispered to Kris. She glanced back with raised eyebrows. My cheeks slightly blushed and I looked away immediately, followed by her chuckle.


    Yes, my bad. The trio influenced me with their patronizing. This girl loathed self-obvious and unasked advices. Because I did and probably many others. It was just our plank of self-obviousness was exceedingly low.


    Despite not knowing game logic at all, simple introduction from the trio was enough for Kris to rapidly develop basic common sense.


    ¡°Mob levels increase farther from the entrance we go so we should start from the first floor.¡± Passing the staircase Rob carelessly remarked with an extremely good example of loathed stuff. Now me and Kris both quietly chuckled, thinking about the same.


    Why hadn''t I befriended her again?..


    We were driven together by circumstances, that was why. For me it would have been hard to pass in her circle of model rich kids. For her it was even more impossible to reach out to my level of plainness.


    Yeah, I thought. For a measured school life, one should have measured friends. Like Em...


    Red covered my eyes. Blazing fury fast arose seemingly abundant and hot enough to melt my very bones. Broken finger bones screeched with nasty noise and blood flowed out when fingernails cut deep into my palms.


    They killed all.


    I was so, so angry. At these monsters, at that event, at everything and at myself. One wrong thought had been enough to set me off.


    They killed...


    Angry and for the first time, thirsty. My lips dried up and therefore I licked them. There was a need to find something. Something to eat. Not food. What was I even doing here? Why would I flee from the portal?


    My pitiful blood essence boiled and was surging steadily. I started to turn when someone grabbed my forearm. What a nuisance. Shake it off.


    Pain from mercilessly twisted skin run through me like an electric shock and awoke my mind somewhat. I stiffly closed my mouth to not shout and returned blood from palms back inside the body before it dripped on the floor.


    That concluded my emergency reactions and I sent a resentment glance at Kris. She smiled at me amiably with fingers still on my hand ready to inflict even more pain and moved her lips.


    ¡°What was that?¡±


    Even a not lip-reader could guess her question. I wanted to answer but noticed a gaze from Mystery Man. Tall guy blinked and covered his mouth with finger before looking away.


    I shook my head once and used mine the most convincing stare on Kris telegraphing her, ¡°Later.¡± She frowned dubiously using one eyebrow and freed my arm. I blinked and shook my head again, trying to get rid of anger still occupying part of me to the point of dizziness.


    Our exchange most likely didn''t take even two minutes. The trio led us through an empty stockroom with groceries to a storeroom full of unidentified boxes.


    ¡°This place is big, spawned mobs could hardly fill it unlike people.¡± Martin finally made wild guess. Like others, he seemed to be close to an edge.


    Effects of flaming speech wore off.


    ¡°Shu!¡± Mystery Man reacted first with one of his rare SFX. Focusing, I heard low animal-like grunts from the hallway we were about to exit in.


    Rob listened to it for a moment, turned round and made an ''ok'' gesture.


    While I was thinking what it was about...


    ¡°Search life.¡± Was muttered in a profound way by Mystery Man. His stuff flashed dimly. Huh? Did he just chant? What was it, a spell? Like from magic, real magic? And to think I would miss everything! Was it a payback for ignoring you, shy man?


    ¡°Five.¡± The guy even showed his opened wide palm for an impact!


    ¡°Good, we act as usual. Do your thing, Mystery Man. And you two - watch.¡± Rob briefly whispered in a command tone, glaring fiercely. What was with this ''your thing'', goddammit!?


    Martin nodded, took two steps closer to half-opened door and readied his sword. Rob was one step behind, Mystery Man behind their backs. Kris and me walked further away. I slid my gun into a handier position.


    Commotion in the hallway grew closer. It didn''t sound like animals anymore, more like... fantasy? I failed to find a better word.


    Finally, a figure showed up in the doorframe. Very small part of me was full of impulse to kill it barehandedly and I had to suppress this part. Focus on something else, me. Look at the creature. Green and small, three and half feet. Pointy ears, small but sharp fangs, big yellow eyes. A club was in its hand and only a loincloth were covering its nakedness.


    ¡°Goblin?¡± Recognition came out completely involuntarily.


    ¡°Yes, goblin.¡± Rob answered, not taking his eyes away from the creature.


    ¡°Bring it on!¡± Martin followed with a scream.


    ¡°Gia-a-a!!¡± The goblin shrieked too. It waved its club and charged straight at him. More ''gia''s followed from the hallway. Four of them, to be exact.


    Rob and Mystery Man seemed to ignore charging goblin, they were focused on the door instead. Martin made one more step forward and safely took the goblin''s club head on his sword, his arms visibly shaken from the impact.


    Two more goblins run into the storeroom, the last two racing right after, all armed with clubs.


    "Lesser Marshes!" Mystery Man pointed with his stuff, which flashed with green brightly, and the floor under the goblins rapidly changed a texture from grey tiles to bog. Only the texture. Strangely, that appeared to be enough. Goblins lost more than half of their speed and even struggled to move their feet. This moment Rob made his move.


    He confidently slashed at the Martin''s foe while the Warrior was blocking the creature. Rob''s sword passed through its scull, directly killing it. Then two of them shifted closer to bog and jointed efforts to massacre the rest of the goblins one after another. Mystery Man was standing still, his stuff glowing. Was it a channeled spell?


    ¡°This is a game.¡± Kris muttered.


    ¡°Yeah.¡± I answered somewhat crispy, still dealing with my rage problem. Focus on the fight before you. The first killed goblin had died without spilling any blood and started to dissipate into a blue smoke right away.


    ¡°What do you think?¡±


    ¡°Their ''skills''... I doubt both of them are professional fencers. Mystery Man also can use at least two magic spells or something. This System indeed is supporting them. Plus, they are using it smart. As expected from nerds, I suppose?¡±


    ¡°You should praise them then.¡± Suddenly Kris smirked.


    ¡°The hell!?¡±


    ¡°Dosage, Marta. We shouldn''t let blood rush in their heads. And. Who had almost gone berserk?¡±


    I was rendered speechless and could only watch the fight slowly coming to end. Meanwhile, first dead body had disappeared completely leaving red vial behind.


    ¡°Lucky item drop.¡± Me and Kris commented with whispers at the same time and rolled our eyes.


    <hr>


    V


    Clap clap clap. The trick with applauding was to stop before it became sarcastic. Starting just after the last goblin had been slayed, I performed it beautifully, stopping clapping just before anyone of the trio made a displeased noise.


    ¡°Nice teamwork, timing and everything,¡± Praising them modestly and dryly, I then instantly moved on by pointing at legacy of the first goblin. ¡°Is it a healing potion?¡±


    ¡°Um, yes.¡± Rob answered while blinking and the Mystery Man nodded.


    ¡°How good is it? You don''t have HP inside your status. Is it still something like ''Lesser Life potion'' which heals scratches and is dropping from low-leveled trash?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Now they were looking at me properly for the first time. Slowly, Martin continued. ¡°Well, the ''Lesser'' part. It can heal a broken bone.¡±


    ¡°Mm.¡± Mystery Man nodded few times enthusiastically with a face ¡®I have personal experience with this¡¯.


    ¡°Wait, you don''t have the System?¡± Rob lifted his hand.


    ¡°I am not admitting it.¡± A nice vague answer. ¡°Anyway. This is a healing potion. We can get hurt here. Therefore, we can even die here. It¡¯s not a game.¡±


    My tone was becoming harsh. That silent outburst had not just faded away.


    ¡°I agree. That is why we are acting in careful manner. Professional, I may say.¡± Smugly, Rob spread his hands, completely not noticing my mood. Now I was slightly pissed off and thus wanted to poke him with a stick.


    ¡°What is this zone called? ''Fielmart Grounds'' or what?¡± I closed my eyes for a moment, taking deep breath, remembered what the mall was named and asked.


    ¡°You didn''t read?..¡±


    ¡°Fielmart South Five Training Zone.¡± Again, Martin answered me openly. South Five. If it was so... how much are we left with?


    ¡°What exactly the System announced yesterday? In what time?¡± Again with the harsh tone. I could feel face muscles tensing up, brows furrowing, and gaze sharpening.


    ¡°Nice job intimidating them.¡± Kris smiled subtly while whispering in my ear. Your fault not asking them in the first place and playing your conspiracy game. Was I really doing that? Rob wasn''t making another doubting comment though. Should press them then.


    ¡°Come on, come on. Just remind me.¡±


    ¡°It was in, in 4 P.M.¡± Martin gave up. ¡°The exact message was... all appropriate people have been given access to the System to prepare defend our homes. Training zones with spawned monsters are being created to support it. Something like that.¡±


    ¡°Defend from what?¡±


    ¡°Consequences of Shattered Void.¡± He frowned, making a honest attempt to recall. ¡°And following collision of worlds. Pretty ominous, right? That is why we sneaked out to level up.¡± He added with nervous laugh.


    ¡°Worlds.¡± Kris echoed.


    ¡°Time limit?¡±


    ¡°Three days.¡±


    Why haven¡¯t you... of course, I stopped myself from asking. They had simply assumed that we already knew. Moreover, it was a pointless question anyway. Like asking about ''Shattered Void'' thing, which sounded so amazingly foreshadowing that it was completely useless.


    ¡°Look, the System works.¡± Rob lifted his arms in a ''calm down'' gesture. ¡°And as you saw killing monsters is not that hard. We were scared at first too, but...¡±


    ¡°Give me that.¡± I interrupted his nonsense calmly.


    ¡°?¡± Rob looked at me, then at his sword in hand.


    ¡°Please.¡± Squeezing this word out wasn¡¯t easy for me and corner of my mouth twitched.


    ¡°Will you let armless girls fight?¡± Kris came to help in time, I was thinking dangerous thoughts. After some contemplations, Rob surrendered his sword to me.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°Goblins act inside the game logic. They have agro zones, they could be baited and¡­¡±


    I stopped listening when he promised all support from our backs. Snorting, I walked out of the storeroom, the gang following me while explaining this game logic to Kris. Through the hallway we left technical rooms. Passing bathrooms, to the left there was a perfumery, to the right an electronic store. Thanks to glassed ceiling and walls of the mall there was still enough light.


    I heard familiar ''Gia''s. Two stray goblins were coming from the oval alley around the fountain. This bottled up anger, I should reign on it. Therefore, without waiting even a word, I pulled out the gun, aimed at the closest goblin, and shot.


    With a sinister hammer clatter, it misfired. Just as people behind me were reacting by raising their weapons and screaming something, I simply pulled back the slide, let the bullet jump out from the ejection port, aimed and shot once more. Click. My gun misfired again. Two times straight... then this was it, huh.


    ¡°Come on, people. Don''t you know perfectly well that firearms don''t work inside System-generated zones? I simply wanted to check this out.¡± That was fun, their reactions. Musing few melody notes, I put the gun inside my backpack and tossed the last aside.


    Rob''s sword was still in my hand. I weighted it carefully. About two and half feet long with the hilt. Cross-guard without fancy ornaments, medal-shaped pommel, leathered grip for one hand. Two words to describe how it felt - heavy and clumsy.


    Aloud, more to myself, I said, ¡°This is a Training Ground. Following this logic...¡±


    First goblin, a cloned version number seven, ran close to me at that moment, waving with the same club over his head. I stepped forward, and the world slowed down for me. The club was descending on my chest. One shouldn''t underestimate its power. This strike would break my few still whole ribs if I take it on.


    Pathetic, but even now I had to burn the tiniest bit of my essence to move with a proper speed. Athletics never was my strong point. I was a shorty with short legs, why would I try my best?


    I dodged the club swing by stepping right and blinked realizing something. Damn, the sword, it remained as useless burden in my arm. I had made the same mistake with the kobold and then hell hounds, too much focus on one action at the time.


    Hurriedly jumping back, I won a brief pause to think. Time, it wasn''t really slowed down, obviously. My ability allowed me to stimulate the brain with the energy I was arbitrary calling ''essence''. Enough to acquire lightning-fast reaction time, but far short from truly thinking through every motion.


    ¡°So in the end, it''s really about instincts and experience.¡±


    Fortunately, goblins were not scary at all, perfect training dummies. Another top-down swing, couldn''t you do anything else? I made one-step to the right and stabbed the goblin in the throat. Two actions did not connect at all, making my whole body stiff and itchy. Green bastard died on spot only because he was even bigger noob than I was. Wild pleasure came from unfamiliar part of me, small but powerful. It didn¡¯t flush me, but offsetted the anger and disappeared.


    Another goblin came to prevent me from pondering and celebrating my first victory without being injured. I stabbed in him too and then all of my ligaments groaned at once when my attempt to change direction of the sword halfway failed miserably and it was still blocked by the club. So this is why one shouldn''t do it while striking at full power... a valuable lesson.


    Third goblin used this opening to smash my shoulder. I did twitch away in the last moment so the bone only cracked. From this amount of pain, I merely flinched. Move, me, always move. Don''t daze around, dammit.


    For a while, I concentrated on dodging. Two goblins were aided by one newcomer to besiege me from different sides and it was really taking all my efforts to dance ugly between them.


    Club swinging top-down, step from its way. Club swinging from one side to another, step or arc the body back. Even with the complete lack of teamwork from the goblins I had to block a quarter of club swings with the sword, my hands shaking and hurting momentary.


    One minute, two minutes, three minutes. I was slowly teaching my body necessary movements, observing my bloodstream, learning to be in the control. When dodging became mostly automatic, just like that, an inspiration struck me worth to check it out. Doing so...


    ¡°What is blood even...¡± I blinked and almost got a hit in the head. ¡°Stupid, stupid!¡± I scolded myself while unsightly running away from the goblins. What a nice mental trap I had built for myself.


    ¡°You''re alright, Marta?¡± Kris called me gloatingly from the hallway she was hiding in. Well, she was doing a great job, holding the guys back from helping me.


    ¡°Yes. I am ending this, Sara.¡±


    I stopped burning essence to overtax my muscles completely and a goblin caught up with me in a second. It swung the club diagonally. I jumped, seemingly lightly, not enough to achieve anything. I should have been hit, but my body moved higher, smoothly shifted in the air and my foe''s strike passed me.


    It was a side somersault; I dodged by using the fucking side somersault. God, I wanted to scream from excitement. When my legs touched the floor again, the goblin''s head was already falling off. I had done it easily, just one slash while upside down in the slowed world.


    The next goblin wanted to smash my shoulder again; I sidestepped and then shifted through the air a lot farther than should have, nearly behind its back, placing the green rant between his last comrade and me.


    Next moment, the blade showed up from its chest. I pulled it out, waited for the last goblin to close in and then thrust the sword in its throat. Little moron tried to catch it on the club, but my arm drifted up and sharp point pierced between the monster''s eyes.


    My body would be hurt if I do this forcefully, but using my ability is a completely different story. I smiled, pleased both with myself and with an absence of strange emotions.


    ¡°Wow.¡± Came from behind. After my glance Rob reddened a little and rambled, ¡°I mean, you looked like nothing much, but this finish. It was so cool, man.¡±


    Nothing much, huh. Well, they did have preinstalled skills and somewhat leveled stats so they probably could fight something like goblins without my painstaking efforts.


    What they didn''t have was my ability to control tissue fluid.


    I had this idea before, to shift my body by shifting the blood inside me. I even attempted it at the night Kris had been passing out and growing her horns, and it resulted in some of my artery ruptures. It was embarrassing, so I didn''t and wouldn''t clarify it to her ever.


    However, why must my ability only work with blood, something humans subjectively picked out and named? Such an ingenious insight cleared my mind.


    Blood, lymph and tissue, all bodily fluids interconnected throughout circulatory system and capillaries were in my power. Only subconscious belief that ''red'' means ''blood'' was limiting me. Moreover, shifting the liquid flowing around every living cell of me was not going to hurt so easily. I was quite literally shifting most of me and not just some parts after all.


    The most important, it felt natural in this fight. Far more so than escaping from clubs on my own. Although still much slower than by burning essence like no tomorrow like I did two times with demons today.


    I thought through everything scrupulously while watching the goblins dissipating into drop items. Only potions, the same result as the trio had gotten. Two red vials and one blue. Similar to small cylindrical chemistry flasks with corks.


    ¡°Kris, catch.¡± I tossed the blue potion to her so she could busy herself with something and opened the red vial. Smelled neutral. I dropped a little in my mouth, evaluated and then drank all of it.


    ¡°It¡¯s really helpful.¡± I commented and pointed at my injured by globlin''s strike shoulder for the trio''s sake but looked at Kris. ¡°It covered expenditures.¡±


    ¡°So we are going to clear out this Training Ground?¡± She mused while carefully sniffing the obvious mana potion.


    ¡°Yeah. It''s perfect.¡± It really was. Empty flask in my hand dissipated into the familiar blue smoke and I added sarcastically, ¡°Eco fans are gonna squeak. Rob?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡± He looked pondering.


    ¡°Do Training Zones respawn?¡±


    ¡°Ehm... I heard so. There were people who cleared one yesterday, they achieved level 10, and the zone was still working afterward. Not sure about the details.¡±


    ¡°Which reminds me, why are you here, in the quarantine zone?¡±


    ¡°Well...¡±


    ¡°Ugh...¡±


    ¡°We were driven away.¡± The Mystery Man suddenly answered in a dull voice.


    ¡°I see.¡± I could have asked for reasons but it was currently pointless and I wasn''t that interested in hearing them anyway. It could be important, yes, my inner voice. New world and everything, but pain like this I was going to leave for Kris.


    ¡°And since the System gave out three days you decided it would be okay to sneak in the quarantine zone and find unoccupied place.¡±


    ¡°...right. The System announces the way to the closest spawning zone every hour.¡± Rob answered carefully. Me and Kris were becoming more and more suspicious even for nerds. Thanks God she used fake names.


    ¡°Okay. Since goblins are going to respawn, let me use this sword until some weapon drops.¡± I changed the topic.


    ¡°Oh, I am a Mage class so I don¡¯t need one.¡± Kris near me smiled sweetly, making it virtually impossible for Rob to refuse. Indeed, he nodded generously.


    Some time later.


    Goblin shouted ''Gia'' and took a sword in its throat. I pulled it out effortlessly - another convention of System-generated mobs was preventing the blade being stuck inside. Dead goblin joined two dissipating bodies and I pushed the ground to fleetingly escape a club''s stab, and then traversed ten feet with only two steps.


    "Last one on you."


    Kris nodded and calmly lifted her finger; Rob and co backed away with wary. Ten feet wasn''t a great distance, but the goblin wasn''t a hell hound. My partner finished her spell silently with only her lips moving before the green runt had any chances to run.


    A thin light beam, dark red in color, split the air apart. It reminded me of extremely pressed water jet, not a laser. In terms of speed the beam was about as fast as a bullet from my gun. With my sharpened reaction I observed this magic attack entering the goblin''s stomach and producing red blast not made of fire but of this strange energy.


    The goblin had disappeared with a ''puff''. Grocery store was officially clear now.


    ¡°Wow!¡±


    ¡°Cool!¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    Followed by differently voiced reactions by the trio, Kris continued to stand proudly with her back turned to them and with sweat covering her paled face. You are doing this on sheer willpower, aren''t you?


    ¡°Certainly, the damage was too severe.¡± I commented neutrally watching red vial materializing in the air and then falling on the ground.


    It was the second gang of goblins we exterminated together with Kris. Including the one I soloed, the whole loot now consisted of three blue potions and eight red, including the one I''d used. Kris was learning to control her power. Right now these power beams were ridiculously strict in consumption of energy.


    ¡°I am still trying to catch the feeling.¡± The girl noticed me glancing at her and shook her head.


    Next thing we both drank appropriate potions, which I justified by getting bruised. Lesser Life potion wasn''t healing my injuries, actually, but was literally providing me with about two days of life. This personal difference with what Martin had said was asking for theorization, but later.


    ¡°It really works.¡± Kris muttered too. Face it, your energy is being called mana.


    Even more time later.


    With a ''puff'', another goblin faded into blue nothingness. I moved away from clubs and slashed half of a green head away.


    ¡°Again!¡± Kris panted from behind. I stepped and fluently shifted three feet to the side. Red beam flashed, making another ''puff''. From up close I didn¡¯t feel a shockwave.


    ¡°Computer games are at least trying to make different faces for NPC. But this System...¡± Dissatisfied with copy-pasted green runts, I grumbled.


    ¡°I see them as typical enemies for people to get a hold of themselves in a kind of real fight. No blood, no screams of pain, no dead bodies left.¡± Kris swallowed a mana potion.


    We waited out blue smoke. Before our eyes, finally, after many killed goblins first actual item appeared, a stuff. Not the kind the Mystery Man had, but five feet long quarterstaff with both ends forged with steel.


    ¡°Finally.¡± Kris sighed exasperatedly.


    ¡°Rob!¡± I called. His company had tired to watch us long time ago and was busy killing goblins not far away. When the guy turned to me, I threw the sword back to him. ¡°Catch!¡±


    With surprise on his face, he caught the sword skillfully. I raised the staff up and said, ¡°We are going to rest a little.¡±


    Rob made ¡®oh¡¯ expression, nodded and joined his friends without questioning, eager to fight goblins like a boy hurrying home to play a new AAA computer game.


    ¡°We are not going to rest, right?¡± Quietly, Kris asked.


    ¡°Of course not.¡± I smiled.


    <hr>


    VI


    To go upstairs, me and Kris traced our way back to storage rooms and staircase we originally ignored. Feeling some worry, to fight it off we exchanged stereotypical ''Ready'' and ''Yeah''. In followed silence, I went up first carrying the quarterstaff and Kris five steps behind me.


    It was our joint agreement. Kris could quite safely massacre all goblins on the first floor alone solely because every mana potion was enough to regenerate her energy pool from scratch. The same worked for me: after getting used to fights, life potions was giving me nearly ten times more essence than I was spending.


    For Me and Kris, two paths were opened. First was the easy path that didn¡¯t need much elaboration. Just farm the first floor and be happy with a steady increase of life expectancy, me. The second path was to increase the difficulty. We preferred it basing on one name. ¡®Fielmart South Five Training Zone¡¯.


    We reached the second floor without anything interesting happening. From here, two-way hallway was seemingly circling the whole floor, connecting every store through back door. It was empty, and dark. I took out my smartphone to check the time. 18:43. Better to go out into the still lightened ally of the mall.


    Randomly picking a door with a security camera, I opened it.


    Spear was thrust into my stomach. Cold point pierced my clothes and punctured my skin.


    I drew in my belly, stepped back, shifted back - everything to drastically escape the strike. Somehow, I managed, sweat already covering my forehead.


    The spear wasn''t fancy one, its head was rusted and full of barbs. Only thought of what could it have done with my internals was enough to give me the creeps. Snap from it, you should look at your foe, not their weapon, me.


    This foe was a goblin. Somehow different from any on the first floor. In a round helmet and in a breastplate it was standing with the spear pointing at us. Door closer wasn''t working for some reason so we were able to stare at each other for a few moments.


    Then little runt smiled and moved, hiding from sight behind the wall.


    "Smart little guy."


    I turned a little to see Kris with a corner of my eye, pointing at the door, dim red light around her fingertip. She clenched her teeth and slowly, very slowly the light faded away.


    So she could control it a little already. But most of my attention was still on the door. I started to walk, falling into the slow world in the process. One step left, I squeezed the staff in preparation.


    In the door, the spear rushed at me again. Fast! Much faster than my normal speed, but I still handled the thrust by pushing it to the left side. The goblin sidestepped and a spearhead''s barb scratched my shoulder deep, leaving tears on a jacket.


    I could have dodged it by shifting myself if I was perfect and skillful, but in reality the only thing left was to mutter, "Damn", and resign myself for this.


    Fluently, the goblin stepped back and into thrusting position. So this is a System-distributed ''skill''? The spear pierced through the air with whistling, aiming into the center of my chest. My pupils contracted but I held the staff vertically and beat the spear off its trajectory.


    With fear I watched it returning into the attacking position, pointing at my throat and thrusting again. Too smoothly for me to compare.


    I was opened. There was a little doubt if I could survive a gaping hole in my heck. Moreover, another goblin chose this moment to show up just a few feet far, armed with an ax and a spiked shield, wearing the same helmet and breastplate.


    The damn spearwielder have been smirking the whole time, I suddenly realized. Little bastard!


    "Hah!" Not a roar but not yet a battle cry left me on its own.


    My essence burned and scorching wave run throughout my body, filling me with savage power. Muscles and bones ached at once when I forcefully knocked the spear far away.


    Take this!


    Screaming in my mind, I brought down the staff on the goblin''s head. Poor bastard never had a chance to dodge when my speed was multiplied and my strike properly connected to its helmet.


    Ring!


    The goblin gaped and started back, its helmet heavily bent, the spearhead touching the floor listlessly. I stepped forward to finish the damn creature, but the second goblin closed in with a roar and the ax already far above its head.


    Hastily, I put steeled end of the staff to block the strike, my hands shook and numbed a little. Subconsciously, I sidestepped by shifting myself to avoid the attack. The ax forced my staff down and the other end of it rebounded up and somehow everything ended up with me striking the goblin back upside down.


    I didn''t mean it at all. Probably, that is why I only hit its shield, but it was good.


    "Alice!" Yes, you was supposed to clear the line for Kris to fire, stupid. Okay, now is right the time...


    Arrow pierced my chest.


    For a moment, I couldn''t quite grasp things, and was only stupidly watching weakly waving shaft between my left ribs.


    "Wha-"


    And then the pain caught up. Melted lead and thorny steel spikes blew up inside my lung, stopped me from breathing, brought powerless me down on my knees.


    What?


    I made unbearable pain subside, but it didn''t go away completely. Was it because the arrow was still inside my body? Just as this thought formulated, with horror I watched the arrow starting to move.


    Light beam flashed above my head and crushed into the goblin already ready to swing the ax on my neck. Hands hugged me under my armpits.


    Kris, wait. Who was that... I haven''t seen it...


    I was dragged into the hallway and then further to the staircase. It took seconds, enough for me to produce some clarity for my head to start thinking.


    ¡°Wait, Kris.¡± Already on the stairs, I stopped her, two words hurting like I don''t even know what. She listened, placed me down and readied her treasured finger to strike down any pursuer who might appear.


    Not a sound. Focus on the inside then, me.


    Blood was everywhere. It was flowing around the foreign object, slowly pushing it outside. It''s shape... was full of barbs just like that spear. No, automatic reaction wouldn''t do. In books, the only way would be to push the arrow all the way through, but wouldn''t I be able to replicate its way inside backwards?


    I started to work on it. When the pain became too strong, I burned a little essence, again. Don''t be too hurried up, me. One centimeter at a time is fine. Make already teared lung tissues to part ways again. Move ribs'' shards, rotate the arrowhead, control every spike.


    Minute, two minutes. With ambiguous sound of chomping my flesh finally let the arrow out.


    ¡°Absolutely disgusting.¡± Commented Kris, making sure to show it on her face and in her voice specifically for me. She looked at the arrow in my hand. ¡°Gah.¡±


    Brave facade failed to conceal how shaken she was. I saw it in a flicker of her eyes, slight shivers of her fingers, nearly untraceable tremble of her lips. Last bits of adrenalin were gone, only fear remained for both of us.


    ¡°Y-You think?¡± Even my voice betrayed me. ¡°I made sure to leave blood and everything else inside.¡± After answering in a fake slightly musing tone, I extended my hand to her. ¡°See? It''s clean.¡±


    ¡°Gah.¡± She repeated squinting and waving arms randomly. ¡°Away, away!¡±


    I laughed tensely and tossed the arrow downstairs. It clanked for a few times before disappearing behind a railing. Some time since we weren''t talking at all, just sitting on stairs illuminated by flashlights.


    We briefed about our positions and tactic before going up, but all of it just was tossed out of the window the moment the fight started. That damn advanced goblin had chosen right position and was keeping me in place with its attacks so I couldn''t spare effort to clear a path for Kris to shoot it down directly. Hell, I couldn''t even remember I was supposed to do so.


    ¡°I had been standing in the door frame foolishly not knowing where to go. Saw a goblin with a bow, called you. I was ready to shoot but it hid away. Then I noticed you falling down...¡± Kris flinched and continued. ¡°So I released Rending Arrow on the first target in sight and brought you out.¡±


    ¡°What arrow?¡±


    ¡°Forget about it.¡± She blinked and hurriedly evaded the question.


    ¡°Hm.¡± I made a long noise. Like hell I would! But Kris surely would stay her mouth shut. ¡°Did you kill it?¡±


    ¡°I saw blue smoke so.¡±


    Really? I hardly heeded to anything. What was this place anyway? I focused too much on that bastards to take an arrow without noticing. There was light and rows of bookshelves? A book store then. Plenty room for a goblin with a bow to ambush from. We should pick another place then. Definitely another room.


    ¡°We need to go back.¡± Kris broke the ice. With a paled face and a detached voice, she continued, ¡°In a few minutes we will find thousands of reasons not to. Maybe I can amputate horns and it would be okay? Maybe you can live on these Life potions without fighting anything stronger than dummy goblins?..¡±


    Yes, we probably might end up like this. The only reason I left to find the kobold today was out of desperation after all. Everything else we did during last two days was just self-defense and what we personally admitted was a game. We never threw ourselves in the true danger on purpose.


    ¡°First floor is just a kindergarten. Now look at us, acting so cocky there.¡± Self-ridiculed laugh escaped my lips. I really wanted to slap myself for taking everything so frivolously. After shaking my head, I traced the tear on my top with my fingers. Kris mirrored me, touching the same spot on herself like in an attempt to go through my experience.


    There it was, the hole on my chest, not too big, covered with squishy membrane. Even without looking at it, I could tell it was my congealed blood acting like a cork preventing the air to seep out.


    How much more could I take before dying? Kris sharply inhaled and clenched her fists.


    ¡°We go back.¡± I did my best to sound firmly.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Echoed she.


    Why couldn''t we escape hoping some evasive ideas which didn''t include fighting to death would work? Why did we cling to increasing difficulty of training so much? I should face it now. We were driven by despair. Not some obvious visible treat all people could easily accept.


    Collision of worlds.


    Shattered Void.


    It made peaceful social butterfly Kris voluntare herself to fight green runts. It made me go after another runt with spear despite it being obviously stronger myself. Despair was born from depths of our minds able to admit just how much worse everything might become in two days the System left for humanity.


    Mom, Dad and little Brian, Aunt Debby and Sandy. All my closest family was here, in Grestone. Now, despite getting some ridiculous power I wasn''t in the superhero movie cast to care enough about strangers to kill myself for them, but for these few people... Me and Kris stood up in the same time. Silently I started to take out Life potions and drink them one after another. There was something I should have tried long ago but never dared.


    Scarlet water but not water was flowing in the void of my mind. Everything I gathered from that place could barely fill a cup of my palms. Bright from inner fire. Mystical energy, physical and yet ephemeral, my blood essence.


    In time of danger I learned by chance to burn it, strengthening myself temporally this way or another. That was all applications known to me. I didn''t experiment at all before now because how scarce my essence always was. Running out of it meant death, simple and clear, so a barrier had rooted.


    I let blood essence slip drop by drop inside my body. From my heart it flowed through arteries to my viscera, muscles, bones. Would it helpful or useless, no idea. For now, I was honestly grateful it didn¡¯t just escape through skin pores and disappear into the air.


    Not registering any changes yet, I looked at Kris standing near with closed eyes, aloof and tranquil. Slowly, her expression replaced with that of dread and after with fatalism. Lightly, she sighed and whispered.


    ¡°Deal. Now teach me.¡±


    So her supernatural ability was in fact as unnecessary complicated as mine. There wasn¡¯t a shred of doubt she let me hear it on purpose. Tricky Kris. I would need to settle this score fairly. Turning away, ten seconds or so I was calming myself by moving essence here and there, concentrating it around my injuries one by one. To no avail.


    When Kris glanced at me I nodded and walked first immediately, overcoming myself with every step. Because she was right. Advanced goblins were scary. Bows were even more scary. My resolve to fight them was as unsteady as my legs. But I had to. Hearing steps behind me, I believed Kris had to too. Good.


    Alone, I might have given up.


    <hr>


    Day One: Alice I


    Inside the peaceful, thick darkness, she floated. It was tasteless, soundless, scentless, without up or down, right or left.


    What is this?


    Where is this place?


    She asked herself. Just she was stack in the school''s bathroom because of stomach aches, then she left it to regretfully return to not listening to a history teacher Ms Good''s lesson. And then blackness. Did she pass out? She tried to move, but to no avail. She tried to scream, but had no mouth. Darkness was void. So void her thoughts couldn''t help but to reduce to simple:


    Is it death?


    Panic engulfed her for a moment. But she couldn''t cover in cold sweat, burst into tears or fall to her knees, not without a body anyway. So her panic was just a passing moment filled with with scattered thoughts searching a single reason to deny.


    When the darkness had changed, she noticed. The pulse...


    From nothing into infinity it flows, blazing with light. Scarlet stream is narrow and slow, but full of indistinct power. I am following it, and as I lightly touch ruby waters with toes the power fills me. Every step covers a mile.


    The stream goes slower and slower until it flows into a pond. This pond is mine alone, and I feel closeness. Fondness. Bubbles of light come up from its depths as I raise my hand. They pop high above, sprinkling me with scarlet drops, coloring my clothes in red. Red dots then grow bigger, eating dress away. Not shy, I trend the straight way of mine. Soon it''s my skin which is dyed.


    Dyed in blood.


    Blood pond is ruffled by steps of mine. Blood waters wave up and down, striking a door, a Gate.


    The Gate which is so high I don''t even try to look for its bounds.


    There are two wings this Gate has, right and left. They are different, there is no symmetry at all. The left wing is of a single draft, but is nearly completely hidden by a gray dark curtain, weaved with threads of moribund light. The curtain is flowing with leisure, forming and erasing mysterious patterns. The right one is of a series of pictures, telling a story. My story. Exquisite work lets me recognize rejuvenated faces of my parents, holding a baby.


    In a trance I walk along the Gate and story progresses. This is me in a nursery, where I cry for attention. My kindergarten is next, picture records a ruthless fight for a toy engine. Then me reading the first book, me watching a scary movie and having a nightmare after, me walking alone to a school, me watching shounen anime, me surfing the web, me doing homework.


    Me, me and me.


    Looking after my cute baby-brother. Quarreling with classmates, watching a handsome guy from afar, walking alone back from the school, running in the morning, exercising before the night. Mourning deceased grandma. I can see myself on every picture, but no person appears more than just once. It''s always only me.


    Me, dying on the floor of the school''s hallway, all alone. There is no next picture. Only darkness. If it''s so I...


    I don''t want to die.


    What a powerful vision, she thought. Had to see herself dying before awakening. She looked around, then stared at bloody pond under legs for a while. Was she levitating? Couldn''t feel that but only her cranky feet. There was a body for her here, at least. The girl stared at her mirrored self in the pond pondering was it possible to see reflections in blood. Probably not.


    After some contemplation, the girl cautiously touched scarlet waters with her toes. It was warm, and strangely not that creepy as she expected. And instead she felt... something. In her vision before it was evident power, but now she couldn''t even properly describe it. Still it was there.


    This bloody pond of her. Mine? Really? She titled head in confusion. I gone crazy so fast, I should report it and seize the prize.


    The girl looked down.


    It was sleeping, was impression she got. Its dormant power. And she was either crazy because of a head trauma or the second option. Yes, she did read fantasy novels all the time after all. Just wasn''t out of the world enough to ever want it for herself. Her life had been fairly good, thank you very much. It had. She ordered herself to stop thinking about it.


    The pond.


    Even if she could feel its dormant power, she had no clue at all how to use it. Still, she didn''t want to think about it as just the last hallucination of her dying brain. The girl casted one more glance at her pictured story. From me, dead on the cold floor, only darkness follows. I don''t want this.


    Feeling another panic attack getting close, she desperately wished.


    Shining ring of light burned through scarlet waters.


    Bum.


    Chest trembled.


    ¡°A-ah.¡±


    Breath in.


    I am alive, the first thought was an obvious one.


    ¡°Haah, khem-kh¡±


    The girl breathed out with a cough and then opened mouth in a soundless cry. Her whole body was aching from myriad of needles poking her in every pore, every muscle and from the inside of her every bone. She couldn''t help but quiver and whimper like a baby from her story.


    Next moment, information flooded her head. From heart through arteries to capillaries and veins and back to heart it flowed, her blood. If the girl closed her eyes, she could see it. She could see it with her opened eyes too though.


    ¡°Argh¡±


    Pain cut short her, scorched her, spiraled right from her spine to her brain and then pierced two holes from inside her skull. Light blazed once when her ability to see returned. Barely. Everything was so muddy, so gray... Floor trembled a little from hurried steps, and somebody''s hands touched her. Vague orange figure resembling human bended over her.


    ¡°!¡±


    She couldn''t hear.


    ¡°I... me...¡±


    Her tongue felt heavy and sluggish. The girl stopped attempts to speak and focused on a man (?) before her. It took a minute before she could see somewhat clear. Vague figure appeared to be indeed a black haired man. Early twenties, glasses, sweat from worry or more likely suppressed fear.


    The young man inside a biosecurity suit, protected by a plastic helm. Apparently, protected from her.


    Young man was busy checking her vitals. Pulse, flash-light in the eyes, the usual. He was talking without a pause but the girl couldn''t hear him. Her involuntary shivers slowly subsided. The man looked in her eyes and said something, probably important.


    ¡°I can''t hear you.¡± She tried to barely convey with her disobedient tongue.


    The man blinked, and nodded. He pointed at himself and said two words. Then he pointed at her.


    ¡°Wha... I don''t... Ah, I saw this in... a name, you need my name.¡± Another nod and nervous smile as an answer.


    ¡°Alice Branson.¡± She tried to speak as clear as possible. But without hearing it herself... she repeated, just to be sure.


    ¡°Alice Branson.¡±


    Two spikes of fleeting but hellish agony pricked her ears and Alice screamed at the full power of lungs, her whole body arched.


    ¡°Ha. Ha.¡±


    She could hear now. It was low hum and high ring at the same time, but still something. The man, had just foolishly started back, murmured something. Alice smiled at him and laughed, but this laugh pretty fast changed to cough. The man, or should she think of him just as ¡®the guy¡¯? He didn''t look mature at all, just some ordinary maybe somewhat nerdish looking guy in really, really wrong place. Alice nodded in her mind.


    The guy was still talking, unfortunately Alice was trying to listen to her body instead. Some pain and numerous itches here and there, and she felt unbearably clumsy. But...


    ¡°I''m fine.¡± She muttered. And, couldn''t restrain herself, added childish ¡°Wow.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± The guy behind plastic helm frowned. This word Alice managed to read on his lips. Second later he looked over pointed down the hallway with obvious relief on his face. Alice glanced there. Two, man and woman were walking hurriedly to her carrying green stretcher.


    No.


    Sudden thought stroke her. The joy being alive disappeared. Alice turned away from the people coming to help her and stared at the door of her classroom. It was open, already familiar orange suit flashed for a moment inside.


    Terror, once bygone, emerged, made her heart beat faster and stronger. Alice swallowed hard and started to get up without thinking, eyes on the door. The nerdish guy grasped her shoulders, his mouth opened, trying to spill some words, keep her down. Strangely his hands completely lacked strength.


    Crash made him shut up.


    With deafening might it made the school tremble, caused pieces of plaster to fall, swayed walls. The floor jumped up, brought people down with unstoppable might. Second strike followed immediately. Akin to blast it pushed the building to the side and rolled laying people over a few times until they crashed into the wall.


    Alice found herself on her knees, shoulder touching the wall. Surprisingly she was in much better shape than others, at least she could stand up, what she did, slowly and awkwardly. Through still lingering noise in her head series of dull plops forced its way.


    What is it?


    For some reason, she deemed these sounds important. Alice strained her ears. The floor was cracked and tilted so much she could barely the building was still standing. Through one particular crack she could see hurried figures running down there. They seemed screaming. Another series of plops. Gunshots, she suddenly understood.


    It was someone''s design. This disturbing thought, once had popped in her head, stayed there without leaving. Alice clenched her fists. She felt funny. She felt dizzy. She felt thirst. Her lips were dried up and therefore she licked them.


    Alice slowly lifted her hand closer to her eyes. Under the pale skin, it was flowing, her blood. She could see it.


    ¡±So much of them.¡± She murmured, not sure was she still hallucinating or not. Probably not. There was veins, arteries and capillaries. The smallest blurred into the red mist. With every beat of her heart it flickered. Dozens of beats in a minute were transforming into ripples traversing through her.


    Charmed, Alice willed. On tip of her middle finger emerged a bright blob. It was she who forced it out, tearing a dot on skin. Auch? To this amount of pain, she was already immune.


    Gunshots were getting closer and close. Alice twitched and shook her head. She knew she had to walk. She tried, but after the first step, she swayed and fell back on her knees. Tiredness overwhelmed her in an instant.


    Come on, come on.


    The blast not opened gaps in the floor. Through one of them, Alice suddenly saw something flashed on the first floor. Just for a fracture of second, but it was definitely not a human. The girl gasped.


    Bullshit...


    One especially load scream full of pain and unwillingness made her heart beat even faster, but it was of no use. She couldn''t muster strength at all. New series of gunshots. Now, on her floor. With fear Alice looked around, but it was behind the corner. More screams. Another dark shadow flashed on the first floor.


    Staircase.


    In panic, Alice doubled her efforts and finally managed to raise up. Then she stumped in the direction of shooting, both hands on the wall. The school had three staircases, and that shadow was moving to one behind her back. Where were gunshots, there were people. Police, FBI, army or black-ops, Alice didn''t care.


    ¡°Come on.¡± Her body wasn''t listening to her. Every step was taking eternity.


    When her sight dulled, Alice stopped. No strength to walk, no will to wait the ending. Absentmindedly, she smeared blood on her finger.


    Ah, I have that.


    The bloody pond of her. Reaching it was surprisingly easy. Intention was all it took. Dried up stone valley appeared before Alice. There was no blood anymore, only red color remained. She stupidly watched it for a while. No matter how hard she tried, she felt nothing. No dormant power left.


    Growl. Short scream. Disgusting crunch and moist champing. Tears barred her sight. Condemned, terrified, Alice looked back.


    Creature was looking at her.


    It was almost black, it''s form was of a wolf, but not a wolf. It had no wool, its muzzle was too wide, jaws too massive. The creature opened its mouth in the grotesque toad smile, showing off two rows of teeth, all sharp, all colored in red.


    The creature pounced at her. Alice screamed and lifted her arms. By some fluke she caught the creature by its thick short neck. Fortunately she was too light and weak so the impact simply flung her far backward.


    Alice landed hard and flipped over for a few times.


    ¡°No! Fuck! Go to hell! Please, no! N-!¡± It was the guy who¡¯d checked her awakening. He woke up in the worst possible moment and tried to crawl away. The creature walked over him slowly with the same sinister smile and bit.


    Alice did the only thing she could. She closed her eyes. Horrifying scream filled her world full.


    ...


    Knock-knock. Claws tapped the floor.


    Second later, not able to bear, Alice opened her eyes. The creature was right above her, its mouth watered with hot yellow saliva. Jaws drew closer. Nauseating stench poured on her. Closer. Alice, tears in her eyes, punched the creature in its nose. Something slapped inside her, burned and this fire scorched her, filling with power. Pain run through when her fingers snapped but the creature drew back with dull shriek, losing two teeth.


    Then it roared and jumped on her.


    Bullet entered the creature''s eye. It winced and second bullet hit its neck, with third and forth following. The creature collapsed soundlessly and pressed Alice down like a mountain. She didn''t have strength to resist, her inner fire had run out. She felt dizzy, losing control over her body functions. Light and sound vanished. Cold pierced her inwards.


    Alice wasted her bloody pond to resurrect from the dead, and she wasted mystery power left in blood in her own veins to fight back the beast. This fundamental and nearly natural-born knowledge dawned on her, denied any questions and reasonings she could have make up. She simply knew.


    There was no running away.


    <hr>


    Day One: Alice II


    Before Alice could fall into the abyss of despair thick, heavy blood flooded her face, nose and mouth. Alien blood. Instinctively she tried not to breath, to wait it out. But there was no help coming.


    The blood was so sweet.


    She sipped once.


    Warm stream washed through her.


    She sipped again.


    The pain subsided a little.


    She couldn''t help but to gulp more.


    Fatigue somewhat loosen its grasp.


    Soon all barriers were gone. Alice didn''t think how wrong was it, dangerous or anything at all, she was feasting on the beast''s blood greedily. Small portion of her mind that still had some reason left was looking inside. There, high above dried planes, red drops were condensing to water what had been a pond. Not many, barely a dozen after every mouthful of blood.


    ¡°Hey, are you alright? Brace yourself, we are going to move this thing.¡±


    No! Alice cried in her mind involuntarily and instantly sobered up, full of vague disturbing thoughts. Unknowingly to her, the gunfight was already over with the local victory of humanity. And she could hear, see and move once again.


    ¡°Uhm.¡± Most of beast''s escaped blood had already ended up in her stomach, so Alice gave sign of life. Soon dead body was dragged down from her. Somebody quickly wiped her face clean with a piece of cloth.


    ¡°Don''t move. I am going to check your injuries first.¡± Old man in the familiar orange suit opened a first aid kit and warned her when Alice tried to struggle herself in a more comfortable position.


    ¡°Be fast, professor. We might need to move soon.¡± Female voice, the same suit, gun in her hand. Woman was looking around nervously, or maybe vigilantly? Her college, or at least another person with a gun was standing near the staircase. There were few more people.


    ¡°Move where?¡± The professor murmured. ¡°Now, lass, you heard agent Summers. List everything you feel wrong with your body and don''t worry. You''re safe for now.¡±


    For now? One should lie here, damn! Alice was thinking so while obediently complaining about her sufferings.


    ¡°Two broken fingers on the right hand. Third rib, broken, possible fractures in forth and fifth. No signs of internal bleeding. Multiple bruises on all limbs, one very impressive bump on the head concurs with ringing in ears - brain concussion is possible. Pulse... seventy five.¡± The professor did not shy from palpating every problematic place, bringing Alice new waves of pain. He sounded doubting and surprised.


    ¡°She is dazed, agent. Not too good, but still better than panic in our circumstances. Lass, I''m going to bandage you. Crude, yes. We''ll fix you properly later, if... well. What''s your name?¡±


    ¡°...Alice Branson.¡± She answered with some hesitation. After all, the last guy who asked her name ended up dead. Grossly, as she was assured by an unintentional glance at his side.


    ¡°Don''t look there, Alice. Lovely name. You were brave.¡± Agent Summers cut in.


    ¡°You''ve seen?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    She didn''t. There was a slight pause Alice discerned. So just the words of encouragement. She speculated that they started shooting the moment they saw the beast, which was after she''d punched it - Alice flinched again hearing imaginary crackle of her bones. Auch. That was not imaginary pain. She looked at the professor resentfully. He shrugged and put away an empty syringe.


    ¡±Painkiller. Very expensive one. It only subsidies pain and doesn''t mess with your hormones or reaction time. But it''s going to overdraft you in a few hours. Should start working about now.¡±


    Alice nodded. She wasn''t going to argue that her pain had been on a bearable level before and the shot didn''t change it at all.


    ¡°We can''t move outside. These things are there right now, and more is coming every minute.¡± The third person with a gun approached from one of the rooms when few minutes passed.


    ¡°The cordon?¡±


    ¡°Have been breached.¡±


    ¡°Damn. Why don''t they move on us?¡±


    ¡°They are disoriented.¡± The professor interrupted exchange. ¡°By the city, its lights, sounds, scents. They don''t know what are buildings for and neither what gunshot sounds represent. Still white noise?¡±


    Agent Summers bended her head, touched the shoulder, listening in something.


    ¡°Yeah. We are cut off. Professor, elaborate. We are in dark here, every piece of info counts.¡±


    ¡°Of course. One moment.¡± He tapped Alice on shoulder. ¡°They call me professor, lass. I''m from CDC, Raymond N. Adler, Ph.D, yes. Me and my team originally guessed... lots of things. But seems we were plain wrong.¡± He sighed. ¡°Don''t let it go in your head now.¡±


    Professor Adler smiled wryly and got up with a groan.


    ¡°Not fun getting old...¡±


    ¡°Can I?¡± Alice suddenly lifted her hand and pointed. ¡°This is my classroom. I want to... to...¡± Her voice died away. Right words couldn''t come out.


    ¡°I can''t...¡±


    ¡°Don''t talk her out of it, agent Summers. She won''t have another chance to say goodbye.¡±


    ¡°I can''t let you go alone.¡± Agent glanced at professor Adler with annoyance.


    ¡°I need to check the other side anyway.¡± The third agent spoke up. ¡°Alice, right? I''m agent Reevs. Here we go.¡±


    He helped her stand up and then gestured to wait before disappearing in her classroom. Soon, he gestured her again from the door frame.


    Alice shuddered. Her calm pulse, which professor attributed to daze, started to accelerate again. She looked at professor Adler and agent Summers discussing something in quit tones, then at the dead monster which nearly killed her. Feeling cold, she headed to the classroom. Leaned on the cold wall with her forehead just before the door, eyes closed. Her heart was running too fast. She told herself to breath in, breath out.


    Okay. She ordered herself to think the worst.


    "Come on, Kyle, do me a favor. For the old times, yes? And for a cup of latte, yes?"


    "Agh... You know what, fine. But if someone decides to drop a freshie here and discovers you two in ''personnel only'' zone it would be on you."


    "Deal. Yay."


    I was staring at my electronic book while Mom was coaxing her colleague to commit a misdemeanor with her charming voice and foxy smiles.


    "Don''t know why would you want me to show this place though. How old is she, ten?"


    Hey! I''m not ten, I''m twelve! I just look younger! There are certain people who would like it! There was a feeling I shouldn''t state it aloud. Kyle stroked his bald head and put his small round glasses on, instantly adding +5 points of intellect to his looks of an old Jew.


    "Okay, come here. Do you like zombie movies?" He tried to smooth the walk to cold chambers with a nice conversation. Uncle Kyle, you really do like latte, don''t you? I am saying this because you are the only person who can ignore Mom herself.


    "Everybody loves zombie movies." I answered with a certainty any twelve-year kid would have had in my place.


    "Nice! Nice, then treat it like a movie."


    "They move?" That would be cool!


    "No! Well, there was that rat case... swear still can smell wet wool. Spider colony, snake inside intestines a month ago... In short, they usually don''t and if they do then not by themselves." Kyle turned his head and glanced at me while I was busy sniffing chilly air of a police''s morgue. Which was disappointingly void of funny smells I''d been imagining on our way here.


    "You don''t seem afraid," He casually noticed. "I''m not allowed to mention my work to kids at home."


    "Mom doesn''t lock the door to her study." I nodded. Following her solving murder cases from the beginning of the century.


    "The lock is broken. Can''t just scratch out time to replace it." Mom tried to explain her poor child upbringing skills. "I''m a single parent, you know!" And there was her justification, one more time ignored by all. I am seeing Dad and his family on regular basis, you know?


    A moment later.


    "Here we have... Joe Doe, fished her out the Bordquet River. Not opening this one. Blunt force trauma is interesting, but you really don''t want to look at drowned woman who''ve spent three days in salt water." With one very persuasive gaze Kyle moved to the next cold chamber.


    "This one will be a better starter." He patted metal shutter with a professional smile.


    When Alice opened her eyes, indeed there were them. Dead bodies, piled chaotically with desks, chairs, shards of glass and debris. She watched them in stupor for a while.


    Closest to her was Sara Valentine, plump ugly friend for a future prom queen. Alice remembered her irritating, and sometimes wicked. Although people claimed her to be a good friend and maybe she was, Alice never knew her good sides. Now she was resting under the desk as if in a dream. When Alice touched her neck, it was chill.


    Next was Oskar Rees. He was rumored to be a drug seller, not because he was poor, but because it was fun. Alice didn''t remember him bringing troubles to school. He was a quiet menacing type, with a large build, a tattoo on his hand and short hair. Now he was lying on the floor and staring at the wall. Alice didn¡¯t come close, she was looking around like in trance, long enough to find her.


    Emma Reid, freckled, always laughing redhead was strangely sitting under the broken window close to her place which was right behind Alice''s. As the girl walked closer, stepping over bodies, she felt her hands trembling. They talked a lot. Mostly stupid staff, chitchatting. Rarely, but they had been hanging out together. The closest person Alice could name to be her best school friend.


    Alice didn''t cry. She couldn''t. Instead, her eyes were dry. Slowly, she knelt near.


    Would have the lesson already ended by now? Emma would have talked about the guys she met on a party yesterday. She never had a stable relationship, was too amorous. Alice would have shared an article she have read just for this talk, and they would have laughed...


    Pain filled girl''s chest. With trembling hand she reached out to touch Emma''s cold cheek. Gently caressed it with fingers. Swept away locks of hair. Indescribable fear made her lower her eyes.


    So painful.


    Yet still no tears.


    Look at her. Alice forced herself.


    There was no signs of suffering in her. Instead, Emma looked peaceful, even slightly bored. No visible wounds, nothing to trace death. Alice silently opened her mouth, lacking words to say. She felt surreal. Ah, wasn''t it right? Surreal, not willing to believe, hoping for the best, refusing to think the worst, anything and everything of these. But reality was right here. Her vision blurred. Soon, Alice heard whimpers.


    She was crying.


    ¡°It''s time.¡±


    Agent Reevs tapped her shoulder. Alice nodded and slowly gathered herself up. She blinked, wiped face. Emma''s eyes, she closed them then and after slowly standing up, she walked away, swept her gaze around. Her dusted jeans jacket caught her eyes. Immediately she checked a smartphone inside... it was in one piece, even working, but with no connection. Clock was showing twenty minutes past five.


    Alice put on the jacket, then slowly moved fingers across its inner pocket, touching long, cold object inside. Her father liked such presents. She followed agent Reevs outside.


    ¡°What''s our status?¡± Agent Summers asked him.


    ¡°There are people in isolation tents. I signaled them, they know we are coming.¡± I didn''t notice at all. He probably used his flashlight or something. Alice really didn''t pay attention so she started now.


    The school''s building had three floors and pretty long corpus with two wings, east and west, looking to an extensive courtyard with a sport field. Apparently, area before the main entrance had been obliterated by the blast which was followed by monsters attacking CDC cordon first. Only a few entered the school itself but they still finished off most of the blast survivors inside.


    Nature of the blast thus far remained unknown.


    ¡°Listen up people. We are leaving this building through the windows on the first floor. Hopefully there won''t be any action, so be quiet. We move slowly and look up for survivals. Don''t provoke these monsters. Or any other monsters. If we have to split up, don''t show up at the north side of the building. This side." Agent Summers pointed in the opposite direction from Alice''s classroom. There were three people from CDC plus Alice to whom agent was speaking.


    ¡°These two guns here are from deceased agents. We salvaged them. It''s against the rulebook, but the rulebook was screwed today sufficiently. You two.¡±


    The woman from CDC took the gun silently. The man however...


    ¡°I-I don''t shot. I''ve never learned how.¡± Denied the honor completely. He was babbling and babbling, looking completely freaked out by the very possibility of going in fight.


    ¡°Professor?¡± Agent Summers interrupted the man with incredibly annoyed face.


    ¡°Sure. But I''m a lousy shooter even in my best days and I''ve lost my contacts during the blast. Don''t expect much.¡±


    ¡°I don''t expect from you more than just defending yourself when needed.¡±


    ¡°Bona fide.¡±


    ¡°I can shoot. My Mom is a police officer. She taught me the basics.¡± Alice inserted a few words gloomily.


    ¡°Sorry, girl, but... Wait, what''s your mother''s name?¡±


    ¡°Rebecca Branson. Lieutenant.¡± Alice added to dispel doubts.


    ¡°It was in a report. That a police officer''s kid is studying here. No wonder the surname sounded familiar.¡± The third and last agent whose name Alice didn''t yet know said. The girl failed to notice how agent Summers exchanged her glance with slight nod from professor Adler.


    ¡°Your fingers are broken.¡± The professor stated.


    ¡°I''m left-handed. And your drug does wonders.¡± Alice demonstrated stubbornness and lied.


    ¡°How old are you?¡± Asked agent Summers after a moment of silence.


    ¡°Sixteen.¡± The girl was ready to be questioned about her childish looks, but it didn''t follow up.


    ¡°And here I am, choosing between a coward, an old man and a teen.¡± Agent Summers sighed instead and murmured in barely audible voice. ¡°I''m totally gonna be kicked out from the service. But we need to maximize our chances.¡±


    She held out the gun to Alice, the grip first.


    ¡°It''s Glock 19. One round in the chamber, fifteen in the magazine, full loaded. There is a spare one, with twelve rounds. Trigger lock is here. Don''t turn it on people, don''t shoot people. Now repeat.¡±


    ¡°One plus fifteen and twelve rounds, not shooting people, trigger lock.¡± Alice nodded while pocketing the spare. Agent Summers nodded back and turned to the woman from CDC. Alice used this pause to check the situation.


    Agents looked strained. The man from CDC was staring down, his hands were trembling closed. The professor appeared aloof and calm. The woman was nervous to no end, but was keeping herself in hands. After some more instructions agent Summers made one final sigh.


    ¡°We are good to go people. Follow orders, maintain your positions, don''t make a sound. Not a sound.¡±


    Alice and professor Adler''s people were moving together behind agents Summers and Reevs. The third agent, Chambers, was watching the rear. On their way down they stumbled across two bodies in CDC orange suits. They had been trying to run up the stairs before they died and now they were missing huge chunks of their spines.


    On the first floor there was a dead agent judging by an emptied gun in his torn out hand, and three already familiar wolf-like monsters. One creature was still breathing. Agent Summers pointed her gun at it, but the beast only stared at her back and started to clang with its teeth menacingly.


    Alice sized the monster up carefully. She already knew about long and massive jaws which could show off toad-shark like smile. The creature had one nostril and vertical yellow pupils. There was no ears, only two small holes as if craters on its skull. No tail, lots of scars. It took a moment before Alice found what bugged her. Its limbs, they had no obvious single joints like elbows or knees. Instead, it could bend in three places each at the very least, which the beast demonstrated by scrubbing floor by razor-like three inches long claws.


    In the end, agent Summers didn''t shoot. The creature was keeping quiet too, which clearly disturbed everyone. Professor Adler had to squeeze cowardly John''s shoulder to subside his trembling a little.


    Alice tilted her head. In the monster''s eyes she could see flashes, or echoes. Something almost... native to her. Powerful impulse, inborn desire. It was hate, no, drive to kill. Drinking that beast''s blood did something to her. Alice knew it, but strangely she didn''t care, even if she should have. Even if she knew she should.


    Drinking blood felt natural. And since it was a natural act, Alice couldn''t muster fear. But something was calling from inside her, so subtly she could barely notice. The girl closed her eyes for a moment, stepping back in the mystery red valley. The calling became stronger now. Guided by faint trace, Alice looked up and there, high in the orange sky she saw it. How have I missed it? Dark cloud, small and thick, was slowly floating there. Its form, maybe remotely but still undeniably was of a monster akin to one lying on the floor before them.


    Alice opened her eyes, secretly clenched her fist with broken fingers, wishing for pain to clear head. Not time to be indecisive, me. She had to use anything to survive. As agent Summers leaded them past injured monster indistinct call inside Alice vanished. Good, the girl decided. She would deal with the consequences in the future.


    <hr>


    VII


    Second time was a sneak time. On the second floor, light flowing from the still opened door to the bookstore was dimly illuminating the hallway. I pointed quarterstaff forward, intentionally copying the spear-wielding goblin, and started to walk slowly to it from the side.


    Finally, not being attacked even one-step away from the doorframe, I learned on the wall with my shoulder. Now inhale, exhale, count to ten so the rapidly beating heart could calm down a little. Barely, I could hear Kris doing this breathing exercise too. Okay, stop wasting time, me.


    I took out a smartphone.


    ¡°This is your model? Did you buy it from second hands or something? Here.¡± During our swift discussion before entering the second floor again, Kris had judged so. Indeed, her smartphone was significantly more expensive than mine was, with much better camera, which was the key here. Carefully, I reached out to the door and made several blind photos.


    First one was blurry. Second one caught the ceiling mostly. Kris drew closer to me.


    Goblin the Spear-wielder was standing above few items on the ground. He was scratching his heavily damaged helmet. Motionless pictures weren¡¯t enough to thoughtfully estimate creature¡¯s condition. I browsed through them, looking for other enemies, but there was none. Bookshelves, boxes with papers, working mess, it didn¡¯t seem like the store itself, more like a storeroom for books. Why there was light then? I returned to the photo with the ceiling.


    There, I pointed silently for Kris, while nervously listening metal clanking and spear shaft rapping around the corner. The fluorescent lamp on the photo was emanating dull day light.


    The girl shrugged and reached to the phone with her finger to switch back to the picture with the goblin. She then zoomed in the loot under its legs. Piece of what appeared to be an armor and few vials with differently colored liquids. One red, one blue, one green, hexagon shape.


    After we stared on them long enough, Kris again switched to another photo and gestured me to follow her.


    ¡°See this bookshelf? Here is a passage to the right, greeny guy with a bow appeared from there.¡± She quietly explained, tickling my earlobe with her breath so I flinched away and stared at the phone. Indeed, the bookshelves were making a corridor and then something like an intersection before another door, most likely leading to the store itself.


    And the spear-wielder was blocking this corridor quite nicely right now. For some reason, understanding his position was bringing me relief. I nodded and squeezed staff in my hands, stealthily looking downstairs.


    It¡¯s not too late to just go down and borrow a sword from the guys. If not me, then Kris can do this easily.


    Quarterstaff is a stupid weapon anyway. There is no blade or sharp tip.


    With a sword, I would have killed that spear-wielder in one strike.


    But it might be harder to block its spear thrusts with a sword¡­


    Sword¡¯s slashes might just slip off the helmet too, it¡¯s not an accessory after all.


    And there was that dangerous arrow coming from anywhere. It might be harder to parry it than they show it in movies.


    ¡°I will handle the arrow somehow.¡± Kris have told me on the stairs, but I guess it¡¯s not that reassuring to hear just words.


    ¡­


    Different thoughts were roaming my head. I shook it and wiped sweat from my palms. Inhale, exhale, me. Nod to Kris, and then step forward in the world slowing down before your eyes.


    Turning the corner, I took out my butterfly knife. When I saw green runt snapping out from its waiting animation, my arm was already in the throwing position. Six feet were dividing us.


    I threw the knife two steps out of spear¡¯s range without hesitation. The goblin flinched its weapon, but didn¡¯t take an action, letting the knife to fly right into its breastplate and harmlessly bounce off. Frustrating, but not of matter.


    Holding the staff in a spear manner, I swung it with strength, aiming at the goblin¡¯s spear and not the green bastard itself. Both of our weapons crashed into bookshelf, but little bastard somehow freed it too fast. Not of matter, I¡¯d tossed the staff away even faster.


    Didn¡¯t expect me running right into you like it was a sumo fight, huh? I caught the spear shaft, pulled and pinched under my left arm like my life was on stake. Hell, it really was.


    Something I only noticed on photos, but this goblin didn¡¯t have a spare weapon. Therefore, it would have been a checkmate with Kris behind me. Normally, that is it. The goblin sneered, his arms¡¯ muscles unnecessary realistically bulged and I felt him forcing me to take a step or fall.


    I decided to follow his arrangement and stepped into a trap.


    Bow-wielder was smiling creepy; Arrow was already notched. I wanted to swallow seeing it to be drawn and set on piercing my head, my whole body immediately turning sluggish.


    ¡°Deny and tear¡±


    The bowstring was let loose, the arrow flew. I could see it revolving and twisting. Could see piercing me again. Fear took over me and panicky I turned my head to dodge, lifted my right arm to shield.


    ¡°Veil of Separation¡±


    Dot of light appeared before me. It flickered once and then grew with unbelievable speed into a red curtain. The spear I was still holding under my arm was twisted and then it broke when this curtain crossed the shaft, tiles dawn was plowed when the curtain reached the floor and the bookshelf nearby was crashed and flung aside.


    The arrow touched thin barrier and failed to pierce it. Instead, it bended and split in few pieces before being shot back.


    In normal time, it took no more than two seconds for the force field to disappear. Enough for me to be stunned for a while and to get rid of fear hormones what I really should have done from the very start of this fight.


    ¡°Watch the door.¡± In supernaturally calmed down voice, I told Kris without looking and spun my half of the spear half a circle.


    The barrier started to collapse backwards into a dot, but I didn¡¯t wait for it. I sidestepped it and rushed to now Stick-wielder, awkwardly thrusting at it. Extremely proficiently, the goblin beat off its own spear to a side.


    You never learn, stupid bastard.


    I discarded the spear and caught goblin¡¯s arm with mine, pulled to me and grabbed its throat with my right hand. Every time I was shifting myself to hasten and hasten every movement. The same way, I lifted my hand and the goblin up in the air. Green runt punched me back in stomach, but without a toehold the strike completely lacked the power to truly hurt me and I ignored it.


    In the next moment, the goblin twitched unnaturally with a moist sound of an arrow diving into its body. Somehow, hearing this and metal ¡®clap¡¯ from his breastplate was making me wanting to throw up. Instead, I threw the goblin to his Bow-friend.


    I wouldn¡¯t ignore such threats so foolishly again.


    ¡°Alice!¡± Cry reached me just a moment after the door to the bookstore was blown of its hinges.


    I jumped high, propelling myself up both with muscle and ability force, leaving Kris freed space to fire.


    ¡°Rending Arrow¡±


    Red line crossed the distance between her and the large humanoid figure revealing itself in the doorframe almost instantaneously. This time, it seemed more potent, thick. Less than a beam and more like a real arrow made out of light.


    I kicked off the bookshelf, touched the ceiling and shifted myself forward.


    The arrow pierced through the figure and the air around it distorted with a strange mix of a blast sound and a paper bag clap sound. The light arrow exploded with a flash, but without a shockwave I could feel at all.


    By a time I touched targeted by me bookshelf right before the intersection, this foe already transformed into a thick blue smoke cloud. What was it anyway? I was too busy with my acrobatic stunts to spare a mindful gaze on an already doomed newcomer.


    On the other side of bookshelf which I temporarily was using as a platform the Bow-wielder was hiding. Well, I didn¡¯t hope me tossing his friendly fired friend would achieve anything either.


    Green runt by some hunch glanced up at that moment. It was my time to sneer, and therefore I sneered as the bookshelf started to fall down under my impulse and weight. Right on the little bastard.


    Bam.


    I proudly stood on weakly struggling bookshelf, my eyes sweeping around, looking for new enemies. What I saw was a small place with two desks, computers, boxes and tall file cabinets. Here this bow-wielding goblin had been obviously hiding. By the way Kris was aiming at the empty doorway to the book store with her glowing by red finger.


    ¡°Small place.¡± I walked over to my butterfly knife lonely resting on the floor. ¡°Small ambush.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s stupid, there should be a horde on us right now.¡± Frowning, Kris complained.


    ¡°Such are game rules. But you better step away from this door anyway.¡± She was still standing with her back to the hallway we¡¯d come from and it was bothering me.


    ¡°Oh, yes.¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡± I nodded and looked at Spear-wielder on the ground.


    Yellow eyes stared straight back at me. The creature was wheezing, thin line of blood streaming down from its mouth. It was lying powerlessly with its arms spreading apart. I blinked. It blinked back.


    ¡°Damn.¡± Feeling stupid, I looked away for a moment. ¡°Well, you fought good.¡±


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Curiously Kris asked me, walking closer. As usual after casting her magic she was paled and sweaty.


    ¡°No idea.¡± Scratching back of my head, I started to explain slowly. ¡°I¡¯m not pitying it. Maybe a little. Weird, isn¡¯t it? Now they have different faces. Is it just a simulation or something more already?¡±


    I was feeling really, like really stupid right now. Fever and excitement of the fight retreated, opening the place to play for latish goosebumps and chill in deeps of my abdomen. Didn¡¯t want to think or make decisions, only lie down on the floor and relax. But part of me was still minding exits.


    ¡°He is something more.¡± Kris answered suddenly. ¡°And I¡¯m saying ¡®he¡¯ to make a point. I would be better thinking this way than the other.¡±


    ¡°Ok. But this one¡­¡± When the goblin who¡¯d shot me with an arrow crawled from under the bookshelf, I stabbed it in the neck. ¡°She can just go inside the System¡¯s hole she creeped out from.¡±


    ¡°Vengefully. Also ¡®she¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Girls are girls¡¯ worst enemies.¡± I really couldn¡¯t follow what I was talking about but continued anyway. ¡°She almost succeeded in killing me and was killed back.¡±


    ¡°Your knife.¡± Kris decided not to comment and demanded instead by stretching her arm. I tossed it to her silently and walked to grab my quarterstaff, looking at her with the corner of my eye. The girl stood above Spear-wielder for a while, and then slowly bended over in some sort of internal struggle.


    She was going to kill with her own hands now. Not from distance. Not with some ¡®power¡¯. Not in self-defense. Something or someone almost alive. Looking at her was bringing me a few years back.


    I was twelve, legal age in the state where Dad took me hunting for a first time. Being always half of a tomboy, I felt ardor. Of course, he didn¡¯t allow me to shot, no. Only to carry his rifle. In the end of the day, I was wet, dirty, tired and much less enthusiastic. Bonfire was fun though and I slept like a baby in my sleeping bag.


    Second day, Dad shot a deer and we followed blood traces for a few miles. We found the deer in a ravine, still breathing powerlessly with a bullet under its heart. Then he allowed me to shoot, and I did. I could remember how recoil almost knocked me off, but strangely, the deer¡¯s head only twitched a little in my memory. Then I tried to help with cutting, felt little bad in the process and even thought to refuse to eat it in the evening, but grilled meat smelt nice and as Dad said, it would have been disrespectful to hunt animals without eating them. We took most of the meat, pelt and left everything else for scavengers. From nature, to nature.


    Kris bended over bringing the knife to goblin¡¯s throat, its tip shaking. Ceiling tile above her head moved slowly and silently, opening a dark frame. The knife touched green skin. From the hole in the ceiling, a goblin¡¯s head showed up and smiled hideously, crooked short blade in its hand. When Kris stabbed deadly injured goblin, the assassin was already falling right on her, aiming at her back.


    Three steps and I thrusted my staff up, meeting him in the mid-air, aiming at the center of his body. Goblin-Assassin twisted, making my strike to miss, but I made my arms shift. In the slowed world, airborne targets for me was exactly that: just targets. And this one didn¡¯t even have a helmet to prevent his skull from cracking when metal tip of my staff holed inside.


    The goblin died instantly and fell on the floor one feet away from Kris before she could react. The girl was still watching the Spear-wielder dying before her eyes when the sound made her flinch away.


    ¡°Oh.¡± She demonstrated more calm with her voice than I could see in her. ¡°You were right. One was hiding in the ceiling.¡±


    Yes. We predicted many scenarios that could occur during our assault. Personally, I saw too much movies to ignore the ceiling tiles and different weapons had been hinting on different classes. Why wouldn¡¯t be a goblin-assassin there too?


    ¡°They could have acted much more efficient.¡±


    ¡°You sound almost disappointed.¡± Kris smirked. ¡°First was a lesson about ambushes. Next was about watching for attacks from distance. The last thing we were taught is to not relax after a fight.¡±


    You are trembling, I wanted to expose her, but instead just looked at the empty door to the bookstore.


    ¡°Area-of-effect attacks should be somewhere in the schedule.¡± I added lightly, tense inside.


    ¡°M? Oh. I want to rest before it. Like now.¡± Kris claimed firmly. ¡°Alice?¡±


    ¡°Nothing. I agree. I was just thinking¡­¡± Almost giggling, I pointed at the doorframe. ¡°How are we going to take our loot?¡±


    Few items were lying on the ground about ten feet deep in the store. Unknown creature had died from Kris¡¯s Rending Arrow there. The thing was, despite the won battle, I couldn¡¯t force out of myself a wish to walk inside and take them.


    <hr>


    VIII


    ¡°Let us count.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°Each goblin dropped four potions: two life potions, one mana potion and one green potion, sixteen in total. Green could be stamina potions or some other energy. Maybe there are classes with Qi or something. Vials are hexagonal, which probably means they are more potent.¡±


    Right now, Me and Kris retreated to the corner of the room after grabbing all loot we¡¯d gotten from the goblins. With very important look, I took one of the new life potions from the table we piled up everything on and drank it.


    ¡°Indeed. Three times stronger.¡± Making an appraisal, I then complained quietly, ¡°Tasteless.¡± Blood essence I was acquiring from demons felt alive and sweet. The last was important for my sweet tooth.


    ¡°Good. Besides potions, we have four items.¡± Kris followed the mood. ¡°These are one weird sword, one glove (not a pair), a necklace and¡­ a collar?¡±


    Nodding, I took a sword Kris described as weird. It had straight double-edged spear-pointed blade, two and half feet long but only three inches wide. A metallic blueish hilt was five inches long, completely lacked a guard and was ending with ring-shaped pommel big enough for two of my fingers. Weirdness consisted of two details. First, the whole sword from the pommel and to the point of the blade was carved with patterns. On the pommel and the hilt it was a miniature but very realistic and detailed Chinese dragon. The blade was coming out from its mouth, densely patterned with numerous flowers¡¯ petals.


    Dragon and petals were impressing me differently. Dragon was cool in a way I liked and petals were beautiful in a way I liked. Naturally, I wanted to keep this sword. Kris wouldn¡¯t use swords anyway, right? Therefore, it¡¯s mine! However, why would these patterns be carved? Not drawn, but carved?


    The second weird detail my sword had was a ribbon. About thirteen feet long ribbon not tied to the pommel, but coming from the inside of the ring through special gap. For a total credibility, this white ribbon was portraying dragon¡¯s body, tails and legs in red colors on both sides.


    Near me, Kris with an expression of a rightful owner was putting on the silver necklace. Simple chain with a pendant in a form of small but an extremely detailed bobcat¡¯s profile with literally a ruby eye.


    ¡°You are picking one ¨C I am picking one.¡± Noticing my gaze, she calmly justified herself. I liked bobcats too and it was a nice reference to amuse me, but I had to concede here. My sword was just too cool to risk it.


    ¡°Jewelry is important for casters.¡± An attempt to disguise my disappointment with logic was still necessary. ¡°Does it have any effect on your magic?¡±


    Kris murmured a few words and her finger glowed with dim reddish light. Observing it for a while, she then shook her head.


    ¡°You are not against the word ¡®magic¡¯ now. You even spell it in English.¡±


    ¡°This is a rough translation.¡± She ignored my smirking. ¡°I can only imitate original language with my lips movements. But it¡¯s not enough. Magic needs the image.¡± Her voice was becoming more and more feverish. ¡°To conjure stronger image right connections, associations, memories, fantasies ¨C everything is needed to be put into a use. Magic is will and my words are expressing my will.¡±


    She blinked and scratched her head embarrassingly.


    ¡°Should I ask?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Kris didn¡¯t seem wishing to talk about her little ¡®deal¡¯ revelation on the stairs.


    ¡°I thought so. Try to put your mana inside.¡± I switched the topic that was clearly going depressingly nowhere by pointing at her new pendant.


    ¡°It¡¯s not mana.¡± After a stubborn refute, Kris frowned, ¡°How am I supposed to do that?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you move it to cast spells?¡±


    ¡°Not me. The image.¡±


    Oh. My blood essence analogy wasn¡¯t working here. Looking at Kris musingly inspecting the pendant, sudden revealing thought popped up in my head. Dumbfounded, I stared at sword in my hand. Carved patterns that could only decrease its practicality. Woven, uselessly long ribbon. Despite being claimed by me on a moment of notice and lacking gilt and jewelry ornaments, the sword totally looked like a purely decorative piece of work. Unless¡­


    ¡°It can¡¯t be.¡± I muttered unconsciously and hurriedly proceeded to check the theory. Obeying my power, red dots arose on my palm and flowed to the hilt one by one to fill the carvings. Captivated, I was watching the dragon slowly gaining color and life. Vivid life, ready to burst out from the hilt and proudly roar to the heavens. Ups, flowery words, flowery words. All patterns were interconnected from the start, I noted with a stupid grin. Fascinating was the sight and, even more, feeling of my blood very literally completing the sword in my hand.


    ¡°This System designed this sword for you.¡± Being flabbergasted for a while, Kris declared firmly. I nodded in agreement. There was no way any of us would believe in such a coincidence.


    My partner then switched to greedily eating up the last two non-potion items on the table with her eyes, supposedly not believing that it was the necklace specifically designed for her. You can give it me then, oi.


    ¡°Usual caster attributes are jewelry, either a cloak or a mantle and some instrument like a staff or a wand. Take Mystery Man as an example.¡± Not taking my attention from the sword, I mentioned so.


    ¡°I am not going to swoosh wand happily around. Not in this life.¡± Kris answered me in an extremely rigid tone and only returned from digging a hole in my skull with her gaze back to observing the loot after a few seconds. The last two non-potions items were exactly one glove and a collar as Kris had identified it. She took up the glove first.


    ¡°For the left hand.¡± I promptly commented and remembered something. ¡°You are right-handed, but you cast your magic with your left hand. Why is that?¡±


    ¡°Because.¡± With one word, Kris refused to answer. Belongs to ¡®shouldn¡¯t ask¡¯ area from the earlier, huh?


    The silk glove she was prudently studying now was black in color and had silver linings. Bad angle to see more. I wasn¡¯t focusing on my sword anymore simply because filling the carvings with blood started to remind me of any installation on my old computer with its progress bar slowly, slo-o-owly completing one tenth of a percent at a time. Only my darn bullheadedness was preventing me from ending this in a swoop.


    When Kris finally wore the glove, I could see more. It was sitting very tightly, leaving tips of the fingers and the thumb opened. Eight buttons long, was it a right term? In short, it was covering two inches of her shoulder. Silver straight linings were covering most of this glove, intersecting in many places without forming some definite picture. Mostly looked like a vanguard design.


    Well, time to drop a bomb.


    ¡°This collar has the same design. They are set items.¡± I gloated shamelessly, not worrying she wouldn¡¯t understand the game term since it was self-explanatory. Yes, silk black collar with silver linings. Kris always was a proper exemplary girl. High grades, zero absences or complains, one sweetheart in all her high school years. Watching her wearing a collar would be¡­


    Popping my eyes out, I watched her unperturbedly taking the collar, enclasping her neck with it and closing the zipper on a side. Then Kris smiled at me, elegantly touched chin with her left hand and tilted head, forming youthful and just a little bravely lewd image, especially so with a bobcat pendant between her breasts.


    ¡°You actually like it.¡± Realization downed on me and I looked at now completed sword in my hand. Scarlet dragon and petals of roses. Damn it looked great so much even bettered my mood. Surely it was created so to be liked by me.


    ¡°Stylish, defiant, yet not screaming.¡± Kris calmly acknowledged. ¡°Pleasant gift from the System. Only possible after a long observation, looking up our internet history or direct mind-reading.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± We made an important yet obvious conclusion. Then I added grudgingly since she ruined my expectations, ¡°I will take the necklace if it¡¯s useless on you.¡±


    ¡°Of course. Apparently, we doesn¡¯t share energy types so it would only serve one of us.¡±


    ¡°You already discovered how it works, right?¡± Feeling of defeat became twice more bitter after she simply smiled at me again and bounced the pendant with her chest. ¡°Darn.¡±


    To distract myself, I started to wave my sword around. First, playfully, next imitating simpler sword moves I saw in various action scenes. It was fun. Much better than with Rob¡¯s sword, which seemed clumsy at best. Nodding to myself, I stopped and positioned myself somewhat seriously. Hands up, left leg forward. Step and strike. I slashed the air diagonally with a nice swish sound.


    ¡°Now I¡¯m one with the sword.¡± I murmured and Kris noisily rolled her eyes. My sword really felt like a part of my hand though. Nevertheless, as far as controlling it¡­ nope, I tried and couldn¡¯t shift the blade. Driven by inspiration, I transferred one drop of blood essence from the inside my body into the sword. Petals gleamed reassuringly for a moment. I tried to move my weapon with my blood control again and it worked, a bit. Had to suppress the impulse to feed the sword with a dozen drops more on spot.


    We weren¡¯t going to fight now. I still needed to learn of the essence¡¯s use on my own body first.


    ¡°I want to take them too.¡± Kris walked to the bookstore¡¯s door from the side, close but not quite. For safety reasons, she was also pointing at its frame with her glowing fingers. I joined her to tilt my body and carefully look inside.


    Two pairs of glasses were lying peacefully on the floor ten feet far.


    ¡°Yes, it might be really, really big. No, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s really, really big.¡± The problem was, we didn¡¯t want to provoke guardians of the bookstore. Our battle in this room had triggered one already and both of us was feeling sick enough from all fighting this day. That is why we had temporarily retreated after ogling our potential prize. Mental health is important, I justified my lack of courage.


    ¡°There is something...¡± Sighting sword¡¯s long ribbon dusting on the floor, I mumbled and decisively started to work. Now without dramatic progress bars, I directly cut my hand with a blade and smeared the ribbon with my blood freely. White fabric quickly transformed into pink and dragon¡¯s body into even more reddish than it was about to the same shade as on the hilt of my sword. In fact, I used very small amount of blood, just very thoroughly covering every thread.


    When I ended, Kris had already pocketed remained potions and withdrew nearly into the hallway. After scoffing at her contemptuously, I willed the ribbon to move. No reaction. Not surprised, I dripped my essence on it and tried again.


    Looking at half-dead painted reptile wriggling on the floor, I wanted to giggle. While I was doing so silently, Kris was giggling unashamedly while hugging her stomach. Ignore her, me. More blood essence was spent before I made the ribbon properly obey me.


    Me and teared up from extensive laughing Kris exchanged serious nods and under my control the ribbon¡¯s end started to crawl forward with a rustle. Without incidents, it reached the glasses and I wrapped them into a knot. Feels solid enough... musing so I walked as far as the ribbon¡¯s length allowed me and pulled with force. Just as planned, the glasses jumped from the bookstore into a hastily forming untidy ribbon¡¯s ball in my hands.


    Roar.


    I started to run, racket of monsters and falling bookshelves following from behind. I watched my back and therefore saw it right before escaping the room. Tall and wide green figure appeared in the door. Grey, definitely not a goblin, in a full plate armor, with a sword and large metal shield. An orc, I recognized classic fantasy foe. Our gazes met and I slowed my pace. He lifted his weapon and bashed his shield with it. Feeling obliged, I lifted my sword with one hand while awkwardly pinning the ribbon ball to my chest with the other.


    And then I ran after Kris.


    We caught our breaths on the stairs.


    ¡°That was thrilling.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± In a different way than battling with my life at stake anyway. Maybe this is like a hundredth high jump with an old parachute feels. Potentially deadly but kind of habitually. I silently mocked myself for acquiring such a habit that fast.


    ¡°Don¡¯t space out.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes.¡± With some struggle, I unwound the ribbon ball and took out our booty for inspection under the light of Kris¡¯s smartphone.


    ¡°¡­well I think we can easily tell who gets which.¡±


    ¡°Uhuh. You really like silver, aren¡¯t you?¡± Indeed, one of the pair was rectangular glasses with silvered arms. The other pair was small and round of classic design. Kris and I wore them without fussing around.


    ¡°Nothing has changed.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    We waited for a minute.


    ¡°Nothing?¡±


    ¡°Nothing.¡±


    ¡°Maybe you just have bad eyesight?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°To be so hyped up¡­¡± Kris almost swore here, at least judging by her face. That would have been her first time. Suddenly she gripped her top and raised it to her nose. ¡°Ugh, I stink.¡± Oh, darn it. Heavy smell of sweat became apparent to me like by a magic spell and I pinched my own nose.


    ¡°Why did you mention it?¡± I complained in a funny voice. ¡°Where would we find a working shower?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s try mall¡¯s bathrooms first. If not, we can always use bottled water.¡± Kris proposed quickly and we rushed downstairs.


    It was only on the last stair when I noticed tiny transparent notification in the corner of my eyes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    //Pending system update


    //.


    //..


    //¡­


    [System Log open]


    Program initialization


    Warning


    Unregistered user


    Manual operation mode


    Connecting to mental space


    Connection established


    Attempting to expand mental space


    Fail


    Reconnecting to mental space


    Reconnection success


    Analyze


    Warning


    Mental space expansion 136.996380278767(7585)%


    Danger


    Main installation abortion


    Building user interface


    Fail


    Mental capacity exhaustion 99.9(9)%


    Analyze


    Craft discovered


    Searching database


    Highest matching craft record 87%


    Evolution possibility discovered


    Program termination


    Connecting to Source


    Direct connection established


    Executing branch #7


    [System log close]


    //Pending status update


    //.


    //..


    //Status updated


    //External user interface opens in 5¡­


    //4¡­


    //3¡­


    //2¡­


    //1...


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <hr>


    IX


    ¡°I stink. Disgusting.¡± I watched Kris constantly repeating these words in the mall¡¯s restroom on the first floor illuminated by the same artificial sunlight from lamps as it was on the second. Fortunately, besides the light restroom still had a water supply too. But not a lock we could use so Kris insisted on me keeping the door closed before undressing. Getting slightly impatient, I lowered glasses from my forehead. Simple transparent menu appeared before my eyes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Item appraisal]


    [Status check]


    [Message box (empty)]


    [Settings]


    Contribution points(?): 600


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Through the menu, I could see Kris wiping her naked body with towels we acquired from the store nearby. This girl really couldn¡¯t stand dirt and sweat to even completely ignore our glasses postponed activation. She dragged me here not leaving any time to explore their functions.


    ¡°Am I beautiful?¡± Kris suddenly asked looking at me through the mirror.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°¡­surprised me here.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t sound sarcastic so I simply gave you an honest answer. Also, besides being beautiful you are also very narcissistic.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s better.¡± She smiled and slightly bended to wipe the back. Her moist skin glittered for a moment, demonstrating abundant but still immature curves. I focused my eyes on ¡®Message box¡¯ in my glasses and tried to touch it from the outside.


    ¡°Works?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°Good. You looked stupid.¡±


    ¡°Ha-ha.¡± I answered so but didn¡¯t mind her giggling much. Nor touching nor staring worked. There wouldn¡¯t be accidental activations then. Making sure first, next I said in my head, Message box, and it opened. Inside there was one entry, ¡®System log #1¡¯. Why it was marked as ''empty'' then? After checking it in the same way, I found a series of messages from the before inside. Other than that, there was no first-day announcements or anything else.


    Menu, I returned to my starting point somewhat disappointed. Briefly crushing the impulse to check the status, I chose Settings.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Language: English¡ý


    Show hidden entries: ¡õ


    [Notifications]


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Curiously, I checked the drop-down menu to found a list of many dozens of languages inside. Next, I naturally marked hidden entries. I love hidden entries after all. Nothing new showed up so I opened the sub-menu with notifications.


    ¡°Interesting.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Kris reacted to my murmur, then took her own glasses and wore them. ¡°Where are you now?¡±


    ¡°Settings, mark hidden entries, notifications.¡±


    ¡°So¡­¡± She hummed for a moment or two. ¡°I see. These glasses could signal even without us wearing them.¡±


    ¡°Three meters. System uses metric system.¡±


    ¡°New messages and status update notifications, mute mode during sleep or battle¡­ there are many options. Despite being zero settings for everything else.¡±


    I agreed silently and Kris continued, ¡°I assume grey options are these hidden entries?¡±


    ¡°Probably.¡± They were mostly covering ¡®dangerous¡¯ topics like notifications during battles and so the chances were high. Simple check with unmarking this option proved the guess was the right one. Few minutes I was busy tuning notifications so they wouldn¡¯t be overly annoying. Looking over the last time, I nodded satisfyingly. The time was to¡­


    ¡°Status: get!¡± I was totally grinning while ignoring scorning snort from Kris.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Name: Alice Bronson


    Class: ¡ª


    Level: Not applicable


    Rank(?): First [Nameless]


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical attributes(?):


    Strength: 3


    Constitution: 3


    Dexterity: 6


    Speed: 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mental attributes(?):


    Intellect: 6/7


    Perception: 3/6


    Will: 6/8


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Skill-associated attributes:


    Energy manipulation: 1


    Blood essence: 289 | 54/10000


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    [Skill list]


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There was this bunch of information. No class, no level, but for different reasons. On the first glance, it seemed there was a chance for me to acquire a class though. Just a little bit of chance, since it wasn¡¯t a hidden entry. And what could I say¡­ my physical attributes were so low! Fortunately, there was many question marks I could give a try. However, before that¡­


    ¡°What?¡± I asked Kris who was looking at me with a strange gaze through the mirror.


    ¡°Nothing.¡±


    ¡°Oke-e-ey.¡± Sighing heavily, I thought for a moment. There was nothing to stop me now, so¡­ ¡°Don¡¯t do that.¡±


    ¡°?¡±


    ¡°Clich¨¦ ¡®I have nothing to say while I clearly do¡¯ is the one I hate the most.¡±


    ¡°There could be reasons. Too scary, too embarrassing, a number of them.¡± To my serious tone, Kris only shook her head.


    ¡°Politics have reasons to play these games. Human relationships are much simpler. There are things that should be said or be done and things that shouldn¡¯t. Why the hell am I even talking about this?¡± After grumbling so, I shook my head too and added, ¡°Forget it. Better get dressed already.¡±


    ¡°Should or shouldn¡¯t? Your way of life is an easy one, eh.¡± Murmured Kris something I didn¡¯t like. ¡°Nope, I am not dried up yet. See?¡±


    She spun around, showing off her slightly glittering goosebumps. I traced her body down with my eyes and stared on the large towel under her legs she had placed before everything. It featured a group of leopard cabs.


    ¡°Am I more beautiful than three hours ago? What about yesterday? A week ago?¡± Asked Kris while looking at reflection of herself in the mirror.


    ¡°That is what you¡­¡± I started to smirk, but¡­ ¡°You didn¡¯t apply your makeup, did you?¡± Still, she looked exactly as usual. Kris was always wearing a light one, I think? Despite not applying makeup on myself on a daily basis, I knew well how good it could change a girl¡¯s face and now she was yet to open a set she borrowed from a shop nearby. Did she somehow strengthen her natural gift of beauty?


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yet she didn¡¯t sound glad at all. ¡°But it¡¯s not what I wanted to ask.¡±


    ¡°M?¡± Feeling uselessly envy, I reacted thoughtlessly.


    ¡°Alice. Do you have a crush on me?¡±


    ¡°Hah?¡± I blinked. Then I blinked again before snapping out from my momentary stupor. Kris was looking at me sternly, as if trying to pry the answer from my eyes. Which was, obviously¡­ ¡°No. I am straight. Anyways, don¡¯t you have a boyfriend from another school, Kris? He is most likely fine right now.¡±


    ¡°Then it doesn¡¯t add up.¡± She murmured, seemingly ignoring the mentioning of her boyfriend altogether. ¡°Why did you save me?¡±


    ¡°Because you were the only one left alive.¡± Not waiting her to argue, I lifted my hand. ¡°I genuinely died. It was said in the system log, wasn¡¯t it? Mental space expansion, exhaustion, craft¡­ Most likely everybody in the school¡¯s vicinity was susceptible to this. I am not conceited enough to think there was a personal reason for me to survive. Just lucked out in a lottery.¡±


    My voice was getting gloomier and lower with every spoken word.


    ¡°There wasn¡¯t any real meaning behind me surviving. There are many more sites in our city and probably in the whole world events like that took a place in. But.¡±


    Faces of my dead classmates appeared in my mind. Emma¡¯s was the first and I shook my head. Strangely, I could brightly picture every one of them now. The people I didn¡¯t care about much, the people I loathed just a little, the people I wouldn¡¯t usually even notice.


    ¡°Sort of survivor syndrome. Even if there wasn¡¯t any meaning, I wanted to create some and this cause made me save you as a fellow survivor. Don¡¯t look further than that, Kris.¡±


    Sounded heavier than I meant it to be. Whatever. I took off my shoes and socks and stood near Kris on the towel with wild kittens, disregarding her watch request. My own sweat stink had become unbearable for some reason. I stripped myself from clothes and tossed them in the corner to Kris¡¯s pile. The water from the sink was cool, clear and lacked funny smells. I moisten the last fresh towel in its stream and started to wash myself.


    ¡°I am the same.¡± Looking at her own reflection, Kris started to talk slowly. ¡°You know, CDC suspected deadly infection to the end. They put me inside the isolation tent. Took my blood, hair and skin samples, ran me through ultrasound, x-ray and so on but it didn¡¯t give them a clue of what was actually going on. Without this clue it was potentially too dangerous to move me. I became both their responsibility and anchor.¡±


    So that is why they stayed in the temporal camp back then. Hell hounds ran in the opposite direction from our school at first and radios weren¡¯t working so they didn¡¯t expect that magnitude of danger.


    ¡°Well, monsters weren¡¯t part of their operation protocol either.¡± Kris smiled sadly. ¡°I was finally supposed to be transported to a special facility just before they attacked. Twenty, maybe? FBI shot some, but it wasn¡¯t enough. People panicked.¡±


    She fell silent.


    ¡°CDC could have waited to transport others, you know.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Kris denied. ¡°I heard them talk. I was the only one who survived.¡± And then she saw it on my face. ¡°You didn¡¯t know?¡±


    ¡°¡­no. But I expected this.¡± Tired, I felt so tired and powerless at the moment.


    ¡°People panicked. Everything was thrown into chaos. I had to unleash this¡­ craft to protect myself. It was seen, naturally. There was an FBI woman who pointed her gun in my direction for a second.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± I did not react. Just simply continued to wipe my sweat off the body under a quiet sound of flowing water.


    ¡°She was killed because of it. Hell hound knocked her down from a side and tore off her throat.¡± Whispered Kris. ¡°Would she have shot me if not? Should I feel guilty? Instead of this sick¡­ and there I was, still struck in place, dazed, terrorized, when you appeared suddenly, making me wonder was I really alive or not. And when you grabbed me and ran I was really, really glad, you know? Because you were running away from people who could take me in some research facility to study as a lab rat.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t blame her for thinking like that. I went along her false names pretense exactly because this fear wasn¡¯t strange to me. Only, I didn¡¯t think about it too much back then. Maybe as a third or a fourth reason. It wasn¡¯t people who I tried to escape from so desperately after all. And now Kris was feeling guilt to the point she doubted even me.


    ¡°I was left alive, Alice. No injuries, nothing. I was just¡­¡± Suddenly, she stopped, gaze unfocused. Or rather, focused on the text inside her glasses. Soon, her hand jerked to the makeup set as she fetched out a red lipstick. Sweepingly she began to write with it right on the mirror.


    ¡°And this is my value. What is so great here? Just crappy numbers.¡±


    5 5 6 5


    6/7 3 /8 6|7


    ¡°What is so great here?¡± Kris repeated through the clenched teeth and tossed the lipstick in the sink, her face pale. ¡°Half of it isn¡¯t even mine.¡±


    Silently, I took the discarded lipstick and then drew two rows of numbers of my own while my eyes were silently going through question marks in the menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Rank:


    Or Category, or Order, is a rough evaluation of a relation to Origin and an intrinsic ability to control primal energies or their derivatives. Only sentient beings could be evaluated. Primitive species like Earth¡¯s humanity have basic evaluation of Zero and no ability to feel or interact with concepts. The only way they could limitedly contact it is by linking to external Source of a higher order through craft.


    First rank is a starting standpoint of most sentient species and only marks potential abilities to feel and attract primal energies or their derivatives. Former Zero rankers who begin to master their craft belongs to this category.


    Second rank is a threshold//hidden


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Physical attributes:


    Intraspecific evaluation. Range 1-9. Evaluation is balanced so any attribute =5 is an average that covers over 70% of adult population. Att. =3-7 covers over 95% of an adult population. Att. =1-2 pertains to children, aged or sick and crippled adults. Att. =8 can be found in less than 0.01% of the population. Att. =9 is a maximum obtainable result in the entire species by random mutations, manual selection or engineering etc.


    Physical attributes are more easily increasable by using primal energies or their derivatives. Difference between att. =9 and =10 is about the same as between =9 and =1. Attribute =10 is a threshold//hidden


    Strength(?) Constitution(?) Dexterity(?) Speed(?)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mental attributes:


    See physical attributes for general reference but besides current level, upper limit is also evaluated by the same principle. Natural upper limit of mental attributes is linked to Origin and cannot be changed. With every rank up closer to Origin mental space expanses//hidden


    Intellect(?) Perception(?) Will(?)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    More question marks. Even more actual questions. The information System presented me was limited and vague at best but ground shaking at the same time. Before I read it my status was just numbers which meant nothing. Truthfully, my physical attributes remained nothing. But my mental attributes¡­ It wasn¡¯t my hopeful estimation and, because of it, I began to have a bad feeling. Ominous feeling.


    ¡°So we both are evaluated quite high.¡± Kris sounded sarcastic looking at my status painted by the lipstick on the mirror near hers. And even more, she sounded angry. ¡°You think it¡¯s just a blind luck? Aren¡¯t we just golden babies of humanity for System?¡±


    There were only two somewhat vague attributes in our statuses which might provoke her so much. Coincidentally, we were evaluated with incredibly rare 8 in them.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Perception:


    Ability to instinctually adjust, understand, organize, interpret information regarding primal energies and their derivatives¡­


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Very specific, our current low levels were achieved in merely two days. Kris¡¯s upper limit was 8. Fucking 8. And she was a representative of an ¡®inferior¡¯ race which wasn¡¯t even supposed to have this attribute working. How much of a coincidence could it be? I skipped the description to look further, chill running throughout my whole body and blood rushing to my head as my mind was singling out the most important pieces.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Will:


    Ability to go against norms, rules, morals, culture and basic instincts by own free choice while retaining sanity and overall personal integrity¡­


    By Earth humanity standards¡­


    People with Will=6 could go against their survival instincts without specific training¡­


    People with Will=7 could commit most types of crimes¡­ rape¡­ murder¡­ without self-deception¡­ or delegating responsibility¡­


    People with Will=8 could¡­ destroy societies¡­ execute genocides¡­ while remaining fully aware of these actions and without degrading their subjects¡­


    People with Will=9 could¡­ make their entire species perish¡­ if deemed necessary¡­


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Introduction

    The Age After is the third point of view novel about the heroine, Alice, and the world after the mysterious system activation. Post-Apocalypsis and yet not close enough. Slowly coming Apocalypsis?


    For Alice, the novel starts with a dungeon crawler act. During it, I am going to slowly introduce the world changes through interludes. The Age After has ''action'' as its main genre. I shall state it clearly: not shoujo, a slice of life, relationships, or a palace intrigue here, although it possibly contains such moments together with lots of world and character building.


    It''s all about monsters invading, monster-doing-monster-things and monster hunting with cool girl heroine instead of cool guy hero. That is it. I am naturally striving for a good plot behind, the judges would be you. No sudden OP elements. I also feature competent, useful side characters for both story and battles.


    The Age After is rather slow-paced. It''s not a comedy novel, I am trying to make it as realistic as I can... minding the tags and the fact that I want to focus on action scenes without the MC dying. Realistic =/= dark all the time though. The Age After is dark when it needs to be, it''s just not the goal itself.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Anyway. The novel uses popular RPG elements - attributes, exp, skills, etc. I have been thinking about mechanic details for quite some time. What is different (or not, I just hope and want to highlight):


    ¨C Numbers do matter when I use them. That is why no HP or MP system here, they are way more arbitrary in text than I want them to be.


    ¨C Clear level up system, since numbers do matter.


    ¨C Clear exp/reward system.


    ¨C Traces of cultivation tag are indeed included in the box!


    What else? Basically, my novel is R-18 without explicit sex scenes (at least until I learn how to write them).


    Gore: well, it is Apocalypsys with monsters... I won''t shrink away from showing unhealthy scenes.


    Profanity: on a moderate level normally. Variations of the F-word, insults, swearing.


    Traumatizing content (the most important): I plan some sexism, racism, speciesism... Suffering from various -isms characters won''t be punished just for their existence. Some of them are even ''good'' guys. I''ve warned you.


    Release schedule: As fast as I am ready.


    Chapter''s length: 1,200-1,500 words for the main story hopefully growing larger. Various for interludes and side-stories.

 1.1 The Lecture That Gone Wrong

    Rustles of paper and clatters of keystrokes were filling the room. The lecturer¡¯s clear voice had no trouble overpowering it or noises of chattering and board¡¯s creaks.


    Among the students in the lecture hall, there was sitting a girl with slightly Asian looks. She looked out of the place, both the shortest and the youngest, like middle-schooler meddling in a group of adults. The girl had a dreamy gaze, having spent too much time playing computer games the last night.


    Her name was Alice and today she was mostly following a piece of chalk in the lecturer¡¯s hand with her steel-colored eyes. The second lecture of Ms. Lauster, Ph.D., regarding her subject ¡®Beginning of quantum physics¡¯ on this first week of the first year of education was sufficiently profound, yet Alice was yet to write a single word from the source of knowledge or copy a single formula from the board.


    Not because she was a lazy cat. Well yes, admittedly, Alice had no more reasons to show off exasperated efforts after escaping her mother¡¯s vigilant eye at home.


    The problem lied entirely on the lecturer¡¯s relatively young shoulders. No matter how talented Ms. Lauster was to reach prominent scientific heights at her tender early 30 years or how busy she was between her research and prettying herself up to look that good with a voluptuous figure, curly blond hair covering half of her back, thin lips and blue eyes¡­


    Alice coughed inside her mind with little guilt and nearly buried her pointy nose in the smartphone with a web novel she had been reading. A tiny bit of her attention remained on the lecture though, sharing space with weak criticism.


    Ms. Lauster might have spared an effort to change her lecture from what could be found online! At least something!


    So when the bell finally ringed Alice stood up mechanically and started to wrap up her staff.


    "And who was so bored to prank with a false ring a quarter an hour early? Ms. Branson or Mr. Sandoval? Or somebody else?"


    Huh? Alice heard her last name and gawked at professor Lauster before blinking and glancing at the electronic clock on the wall. It was showing 14:44.


    "Okay, very funny, now sit back and¡­"


    It was when Ms. Lauster stopped short Alice noticed.


    A tiny icon in the corner of her eyes. The icon occupied a bit of her sight and looked exactly like a chatting box on her phone.


    What the..? Alice blinked and shook her head. The message icon flickered and, as had been waiting for this kind of attention, rapidly transformed into a number of floating words.


    > System message


    > Congratulations! You were Chosen as a Guardian of Earth!


    > Proceed to system test?


    > Yes, of course/Won¡¯t hurt/The honor is mine!


    "What bell, professor?"


    Alice heard an uncertain question from a student from the rear. Dazed, she ignored it and touched her neighbor¡¯s shoulder.


    "Hey, are you seeing this?"


    "What?" the freckled girl said in an annoyed voice. She was the diligent one.


    "The message."


    "What..?"


    "The system message," Alice¡¯s sharp cheeks reddened from the foolishness of her answer.


    "What the heck are you talking about, big head?"


    Okay, all she was seeing was clearly one stupid joke, Alice nodded inwardly and pinched her back.


    "Ouch!"


    > System message


    > [The honor is mine!]


    > Excellent! As expected from the Chosen One! The first question! Are you bored with your mundane life?


    > A) I frequently think about where I am heading.


    > B) Yes, oh God, yes!


    > C) I am so disappointed in this life sometimes want to see the next one already¡­


    "Wait! I didn¡¯t answer that!" Alice blurted out with growing anxiety. She waved her hand instinctively as to shoo away a fly, but to no avail, the message box did not even budge.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    "The shit is this! You¡¯re fucking kidding me!" a voice cursed nearly simultaneously with her. A large guy with short brown hair slammed his desk with force.


    Alice looked around in disarray. Most students had baffled expressions, some of them already with smartphones in readiness though. One of the prominent human reactions of modern times. However, the short girl quickly found the anomalies. The male student who had just openly sworn, a girl staring into the distance with slightly scared eyes, chewing her pen. Another guy was enthusiastically poking the air.


    "Interesting."


    No, it is not, Alice rebutted the statement silently.


    Well, maybe a little, professor, she admitted readily right after.


    > System message


    > [C]


    > How sad it is, the Honored One! But fear no more, for all mundanity is about to be blasted to pieces by your glorious future!


    "Wait a sec¡­"


    > The second question! Have you ever thought about worlds beyond your mundane planet?


    > A) Admittedly, but as perhaps any random person.


    > B) Not thoughts are they, but dreams of mine!


    > C) I wish there was a way to escape our dull little rock to some interesting place¡­


    "Who are these ¡®we¡¯¡­" feeling powerless, Alice closed her eyes for a moment, a fruitless attempt to escape the pressing reality.


    "Excellent question, Miss Branson. Who are we? Everybody who has found themselves to be a recipient of supernatural system messages, please, hands up."


    Professor Lauster broke in the turmoil of perplexed questions and laughs from the mass of oblivious students, which had rapidly filled the room during the last minute.


    "If you don¡¯t understand, be patient. I will clarify soon," she added calmly, making even Alice doubt her inability to do exactly that.


    The girl contemplated a little before lifting her arm.


    "Yes, yes, me too," the angry guy from before snorted as he light-headedly showed his.


    Several people, including previously noticed by Alice, followed the suit. No one seemed panicked, only bewildered and alert.


    "Eight so far with myself," counted the professor. "Personally, I am witnessing some formulas. Mathematical formulas. Moreover, with specific descriptions. They are¡­ disturbing, and their source makes me take them seriously. Nevertheless, they should make no sense to your lot. So I assume for now everyone is getting different messages."


    "I have some silly self-answering test thing going online." Alice hurriedly declared.


    "Bunch of insults and provocations. Level ¨C for kids."


    So why did you react so loudly? Alice safely ridiculed the guy¡¯s back with a mocking gaze.


    "Images of spiders. Disgusting. Look at these goose pimples," the girl who Alice had assumed to be scared twisted her lips and demonstrated her delicately manicured hands.


    "A poem," a mature-looking guy with long black hair said dead serious.


    "I have a menu like a game one. Mostly empty, but I can navigate it with mental commands. Verbal or gestural do not work," a thin yet tall black guy cheerfully shared his experience.


    So that what was he poking about?


    "Okay, this is all past funny. Sorry, professor, but¡­" not everyone in the lecture hall took the news well, or seriously.


    Why didn''t I get a game screen! Alice tuned down useless quarrels and thought so irritably.


    > Sys¡­


    Oh, here you are!


    > ¡­tem message


    > It seems additional questions aren¡¯t necessary after all, the Radiant One!


    > An unforgettable adventure is already prepared and waiting for you!


    > One and only!


    > The Training Grounds of Apocalypse!


    Wait-wait-wait. What the hell!


    "I agree."


    And I do not, professor! Alice refuted anxiously without even knowing what exactly the person in question meant. Two seconds the girl spent frozen and then she started to look around restlessly.


    > And 2¡­!


    Now without mentioning any ¡®system¡¯!


    My smartphone! I should call Mom. Nonono, time, no time. I should message her. Damn these messages!


    Two seconds to discover the phone exactly where she had left it ¨C in her own hand. Half a second to light the screen up.


    > And 1¡­!


    Open app! Open chat! Not this chat! Think of what to write, what to write!


    Come on!


    The message icon in her eyes flickered menacingly just when Alice started to print with a speed of a young girl spending her life before various electronic devices. Her finger fluttered four times and then pressed ''send''.


    Okay, now something coherent...


    > Congratulations! Th*/


    What..? Alice noticed a vexing message breaking apart right away. Doesn¡¯t matter, she concluded. Chances were it wouldn¡¯t end well anyway. Why is everything so slow? No, seriously. Alice¡¯s fingers were moving at a snail¡¯s pace. Every tap took enormous effort as if the air was not air anymore but sticky clay.


    Huh?


    People around¡­ they acted unnaturally. No, it was not ¡®acting¡¯, not in a manner of living humans. Alice saw it when she played with a video player or watched some pricy movies with a suitable theme. Not just people, the world itself was playing backward. About -0.5 speed?


    Fuck. The girl could hardly acknowledge this information. So my future ¨C is the world¡¯s past now? she started a slow-mo giggle, tense but mostly overwhelmed. If this were to have happened before system messages appeared, she would have panicked to the point of losing it. But not now. She could think, somewhat. React.


    I can still write Mom against this stupid shit. Alice noticed that her smartphone worked normally as if staying inside her personal continuum. Just slow, aggravatingly so. Her fingers were hurting, protesting against the violence of fighting off broken physics.


    Wha-?


    The world repaired itself to normalcy like by a snap of one''s fingers. Mechanically, Alice ended her short second message, flicked the ¡®send¡¯ button and in silent stupor gazed around.


    Oy¡­


    > System message


    > Attention! The mental interface is loaded


    > Scan is completed


    > Blood integration is possible


    > Loading database¡­


    > Mental space abnormality is predicted


    > Impossible to integrate class


    > Workaround...


    [¡­]


    [¡­]


    > Hunter template is applied


    [......]


    [Transfer]

 1.2 First Encounter

    Alice opened her eyes wide when the scenery changed and uttered a simple,


    "Wow."


    Honestly, she had no words. The whole process had demonstrated none cinematic features at all and barely took any time to scare her for real. Earth, a passing dark nothingness, this place. A cave. Not big, five by three meters, illuminated dimly. The only exit a quick observation revealed was a narrow but high passage.


    "Okay, okay. Everything¡¯s fine," assured the girl herself feeling week in the knees and half-doubting the reality of everything. "Hii!"


    A flash of light from behind provoked a disgracing shriek and Alice jumped on the spot. With her heart pumping loud and clear in the ears, the girl took a breath and carefully looked over a shoulder.


    Not a sign of monster spawning after all.


    Space split itself apart, opening a two-dimensional passage to a place Alice joyfully recognized. It was her university, and furthermore, the exact third lecture hall she had been kidnapped from. The girl could see students panicking and not just a few still flashing with smartphones. No one reacted to an interplanar window in the corner of the hall that looked like a broken piece of glass. There were no sounds coming through to the cave either, only light.


    Alice stepped forward against her instincts screaming danger, as bewitched. This was her world, Earth. No inner walls could lock her desperate desire to rush back, to escape the spooky place. So the girl walked, faster and faster. Firstly with hope.


    Then, with the bitterness of this hope being crushed.


    As long as she was walking to it, the concept of the distance to cross did not even exist. The passage ¨C the portal? ¨C was like a mirage, not meant for her to approach. She was an observer like the people on the other side, only less obvious to the damn thing.


    ...what is this?


    The silence was her answer. Alice closed her eyes for a moment, then walked to a wall and punched the rocks with all brakes got loose. A scream of pain echoed through the cave as the girl squatted down, hugged her bruised fist and teared up.


    "Not a dream, not a dream."


    "Too real for a hallucination."


    "I am an idiot for thinking that."


    "Just take it seriously, will you?"


    "Sword? What sword?"


    Alice''s mind blanked itself for a moment. There was a short sword on her belt, and she noticed it only after it had struck her leg. The girl absent-mindedly touched the thing''s handle with her fingertips.


    The hell?


    Her favorite jeans and beige blouse had vanished entirely at some point in time too. Had gotten changed to grey pants and a dark jacket with deep cleavage, both sitting on the girl tight yet so familiar¡­ enough to not pay attention after the whole freaking teleportation thingy.


    Besides the clothes, she acquired a bow. Alice took it off from the back only to gaze at it stupidly. C-shaped, wooden, old-styled looking. The girl could feel the weight of a dozen or so arrows in the quiver.


    Must be an addition to this hunter template, she thought finally and put the weapon away. Then Alice breathed in cold cave¡¯s air to disperse general anxiety she was feeling and calm down the still hurting after punching hard rock hand and turned her full attention on.


    "Menu!" chanted she and unexpectedly blushed. My God, why do I sound so solemnly? What if nothing happens? I already feel so stupid! This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    [Status]


    [Skill List]


    [System Log]


    The girl breathed out as a short list readily appeared before her eyes. Then she turned the menu off and on again just to briefly experience some control over the goddam system. The latter looked... shabby at best. Floating words, nothing more.


    Well, let¡¯s get some answers first, despite her desire to see her own status Alice poked the ''Log'' with an imaginary fingertip. More branches. A general one with all messages she had received up until this moment. There was a disturbing branch ¡®Quest Log¡¯ with a record and even more disturbing ¡®Battle Log¡¯, this one was completely empty. Now, how does she ask¡­


    The Log refused to share its knowledge. Alice surrendered not, however, with clenched teeth and through a growing headache, she continued to bombard the system with inquiries only to have zero return. Null. Nix.


    Fuck you, system, she thought yet it wasn''t like she could choose not to cross the Rubicon.


    "Okay then. Sta-"


    > Attention!


    > Node #8 is under attack! Win your first battle or die.


    Cold needles pierced Alice¡¯s stomach as she spun to face the exit from the cave. Enemy? Or enemies? Humans, no¡­ monsters? Feverish thoughts loaded her mind full, but fortunately, her hands knew what to do. As if having a separate brain of their own, they took off her bow, nocked an arrow with a piercing head and then rose the bow up and pulled the bowstring halfway.


    Noise distracted Alice from finding how the fuck.


    It came.


    A segmented carapace covering a meter-long body, dozens of pointed, match-like legs moving in a complex unison. One pair of thick claws before big jaws to grab and tear prey and a pair of long, thin and agile forcipules to stab and poison it.


    [Centipede Lvl. 1]


    The system mannerly showed a box above the abomination as Alice, trembling inside in involuntary disgust, aimed at the crawling hellspawn, pulled the bowstring to the limit and loosed it free. The arrow whistled through the air. The carapace crackled as the arrowhead disappeared inside the damned creature¡¯s head forcefully enough to stop it.


    The centipede swung for a moment and fell down.


    [+100 EXP +40 BP]


    The girl shuddered, feeling numb, cold and yet sweating from head to toes, barely aware of the system''s pop-up. Is it over? No. Alice heard a sinister clatter of multiple legs against a rock surface and hurriedly nocked another arrow.


    [Centipede Lvl. 5]


    ¡­appeared. Larger than the first one by a half, with longer and stronger looking legs. The creature twisted its head and Alice saw with horror a pair of dull orange ocellus. Protuberant eyes with intentions, eyes with malice flashing deep inside.


    Giant centipede opened its maw and screeched highly, piercingly.


    The arrow darted as Alice lost to her fear and failed to hold the bowstring firmly in her fingers. Too weak a shot, too badly aimed, it did not miss yet the arrow only barely punctured the carapace. The monster screeched one more time and easily snapped the shaft with its claws, the long body set in motion at once.


    Alice screamed and leaped left, letting the monster to ram the empty air, and the useless bow fell on the ground. She drew the sword, feeling less confident, less skilled. Seeing its erratic tip dancing in the air beyond her control got the girl even more scared.


    The centipede didn¡¯t stop, instead, it turned on the move by running on the wall, but Alice couldn¡¯t hear the clatter of its legs, only clamor of blood pumping through veins. The girl snapped from her daze when the creature came very close and tried to evade it again. A forcipule flashed, missed and then hit her thigh like a whip.


    Pain exploded throughout Alice¡¯s leg and she nearly tripped over. With a scream, she swung her sword down and cut off some legs out of a forest of them.


    Did it feel? The girl didn¡¯t know.


    The world stilled, painted in tones of white. Alice lifted the sword and chopped down again with no grace. The carapace broke, yellow liquid splattered on the ground, the sword, her.


    Like an axe, Alice raised the sword again and hacked a forcipule off just before it pierced her stomach. The centipede opened its jaws, and screeched ¨C maybe? The girl still couldn''t hear a thing. The monster lifted the front segments up, twisted its body into an arc for a throw.


    Alice was the first by a fluke as she thrust her sword forward between the claws, between the jaws, to kill the damn thing for good.


    [+500 EXP +200 BP]


    Eternity took a breath full of expectations for the monster to lash out on her regardless. One eternity before she believed: yes, this is over. She killed the monster before the order to kill her passed through the giant insect¡¯s nerves.


    > You defended Node #8 in your first battle!


    > Reward: 1,000 BP


    "¡­go to hell," Alice answered weakly, let the sword¡¯s handle go and the dead monster slowly bent down.


    "Ha, ha."


    Breath in, breath out. The girl took a step backward and another, and another before her back found a wall to slide down it. Strength left her, tears flowed out and sobs broke the quietness of the cave.


    Alice hugged herself miserably, so wishing to just be back home, not her dormitory''s room she hadn''t spend even two weeks in, but her real home, the house she had grown up within. She wanted to see her parents, her brothers, to say how she loves them, how she needs them.


    Yet she could not. Therefore, Alice cried.

 1.3 Status Is Scary

    Alice wanted to be a cop when she was a little kid, like her mother. Well, a policewoman, an officer. In twelve years, when her elder brother became a cop, she retracted those dreams and decided on a more ambitious target, to be a superhero. There is no defeat in sight for all criminals, but what about global threats? There is probably a mastermind out there is waiting for an opponent, or a giant meteorite to be shattered into dust, is there not?


    Unfortunately, there were no hero academies in a phone book and gamma radiation worked not exactly as the old comic books that the girl¡¯s father and siblings had gathered during their youth were suggesting. Alice checked during her brief search for plutonium to build her own atomic bomb. A little one, to keep the neighborhood safe the responsible young lady was designing atomic fireworks.


    After her dream was smashed by cold reality, Alice simply followed her mother¡¯s wise arrangements. The girl studied mathematics, physics hard, skipped two years of high school and rolled into one of the best universities in the country.


    She had been fifteen just two months ago¡­


    Alice opened her eyes, feeling hungry, thirsty and only slightly refreshed after an accidental tired nap. Momentary she got scared from her own light-headedness. Taking a nap here..? Not a smart move, but the sobering thought came too late.


    The girl stood up without looking at the dead centipedes and moved her limbs a little to drive away soreness. After having brought the bow back to the back quiver, she counted arrows in it: nine. Carefully, she walked to the big centipede, pulled out the sword, ¨C a nasty sound scratched her ears, ¨C and returned it to its sheath.


    Everything she did as thoughtlessly as she could, trying to catch the tails of what had been implanted into her by the system.


    Alice didn¡¯t become a grandmaster of either of weapons over one teleportation, no. The changes were confusing, alarming and slightly delighting. Originally, the girl knew how to shoot, but only firearms. There was no fencing in her personal history either, only five years of karate lessons. Ironically, something she had never seriously thought to use for self-defense since her ''growth'' spurt must have saved her life today when she had been leaping around in fright.


    Before chanting a system command, Alice closed her eyes for a moment and nodded to herself.


    "Skill list."


    Hunt mastery: 1


    Bow mastery: 1


    Spear mastery: 1


    Observation: 1


    Stealth: 1


    Butchering: 1


    Every skill was also showing its relevant price: 1 SP, or a skill point. Wait-a-sec¡­ what about swords? Alice felt a chill crawling down her spine and wind roaming her stomach as she recalled her incompetence while wielding one. She literally got no experience with swords both in her life and in her skill list!


    A vein popped out on the girl¡¯s forehead and she opened her mouth foolishly just to close it tight and inhale very, very deep through her nose. Then she opened her mouth, closed again and repeated several times, not finding the right words to question the ceiling on the subject of giving her a weapon she couldn''t fight with.


    Most of coming to Alice¡¯s head had combinations of ¡®hell¡¯, ¡®shit¡¯ and bloody system¡¯s relatives and all kinds of indecent sexual intercourses. As a gentle flowery girl she naturally did not speak aloud, but only used curses as a meditative technique.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    She might possess the will to survive the shit, but it could hardly erase her indignation.


    "¡­Fine. So be it. Status."


    What appeared wasn''t a fancy and well-organized table, but an uninspiring mundane list. Though Alice only cared that it worked.


    Alice Sung-Hyun Branson


    Human/###hidden###


    Level 1 Hunter


    Exp: 600/1,000


    Skill Points: 0


    Battle Points: 1,240


    Strength: 3.8


    Endurance: 4.0


    Dexterity: 5.8


    Agility: 4.5


    Perception: 5.8


    Not just a human? Me?


    Nonono, not possible.


    The first reaction, full-scaled denial, helped her very little. Bitter heavy mush emerged from her stomach and climbed its way up to burn her throat with acid. Alice choked on it, then swallowed together with cold, hostile air.


    Isn''t? the girl¡¯s eyelashes fluttered in distress as she tried to recall mysterious disappearances in her family, strange calls, creepy friends, ambiguous conversations and unclear warnings¡­


    None of it came to her mind. My family is ok, Alice stated to herself firmly. But what about her? No. I was sick once, so? Millions of kids were, are. Bad time for hollow panic. Breath. Just more crap the system has done onto me, nothing more.


    Alice ordered her body to relax as she stood straight with her feet placed apart and parallel. She clenched hands into fists, inhaled and moved them up to block an invisible enemy, them left leg forward, punched the air. Counting minutes in her mind, the girl went through various kata inside the narrow cave.


    Later, Alice exhaled, slowly lowering her arms back in the starting stance, now calm again. Smiled wryly.


    Not even that scary, hidden is hidden. By the way, the girl frowned, these stats, class and level, monster names¡­ Earth doesn¡¯t have any of it. Probably, she flinched. From now on, sure. What she couldn''t understand, why was it so familiar, so¡­ humanish.


    Carefully Alice walked over to the lesser centipede and inspected it closely while fighting off nausea. The creature lacked small details. The carapace seemed smooth with no antennas or horns. It¡¯s not like Alice was an insect expert, but the centipede really looked like a replica of its smaller prototype.


    The bigger one appeared to be more realistic, the girl concluded as she closed in on it. Segments of its body could be traced clearly, with protrusions and everything. Also the creature¡¯s eyes, so life-like, even after death. Still, she sighed, something seemed off to her. Unnatural.


    Not counting the average craziness of her last hour or two.


    Monsters had statuses, or at least levels just like her. Dangerous, yes, but perhaps nothing like real insects, had they been simply enlarged by some mysterious force. Alice could react, could dodge and, in the end, kill those abominations. Even with her embarrassingly clumsy manner.


    Naturally, the girl didn¡¯t feel any guilt. Alice had cried more because of the mortal danger she had gone through and the general wretchedness she had been feeling. The system did give her ¡®Hunter¡¯ class for a reason, coincidental or not. Killing two centipedes felt nothing like killing dears during hunts with her father and brothers. No, these monsters looked gross enough to generate negative points of sympathy from any sane person.


    Few of those monsters more, or ten, or a thousand¡­ a burned anthill is just a stinking hole underfoot after all. Having decided so, Alice glanced at her status one more time with some detachment.


    "Appraisal. Strength. Dexterity. Agility. Description, open. Hunter. Show me something."


    Oh?


    [Battle Points (BP)] [Special reward system for killing monsters and the world¡¯s enemies and completing system quests. In the present you can exchange Battle Points for experience and items through Nodes]


    Random attempts of collecting at least some information from the system finally bore fruit of knowledge.


    Local Tutorial sucks, the girl judged and glanced at the space-time anomaly in the cave. On the other side, the lecture hall was already full of police and other important people collecting evidence, in other words, missing people¡¯s stuff. Wait, are these my clothes? Hey, careful!


    "¡­"


    No time to be distracted.


    "Quest log."


    [#1 (main): Complete ///hidden entry/// Reward: 5,000 BP]


    [#2: Destroy the closest nest of monsters. Time restriction: 164h 39m. Reward: 10,000 BP]


    Staring at the system''s nonsense, Alice gloomily sighed.


    "More secrets? Fucking really?"


    My main quest sucks too, the girl decided. I would need a hint for this freaking guessing game.


    At the very least, her side mission was pretty straightforward. A plain product of a lazy mind.


    "I really, really hope it will work. So¡­ System shop?"

 Chapter 4 - Stepping Out

    The passage was fortunately straight but nature hardly intended it to be passed by man. The wide cleft was trying to rip Alice¡¯s clothes with sharp rock juts on the narrow walls and more than once strived to make her trip over stones and cracks. On a plus side, the ceiling was low, which the paranoid over spiders and other jumper predators from the dark girl wholeheartedly approved.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    System message


    You are entering Emerald Caves (Dungeon Lvl. 0-15)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Dungeon. Great. Alice walked up to a dead end. Well, not exactly: the wall ahead had a small hole just enough to maybe ¨C maybe! ¨C let her crawl through. The short girl opened her Quest Log. 55m.


    Five minutes she had spent on a slow exploration of the passage. Maybe a hundred meters? Yes, she was a little too careful. You would too if expecting a monster screamer after every corner. Smelling the air for strange odors, Alice inspected the hole closely. There was a lot of space on the other side, seemingly another cave. Too well lit for underground.


    ¡°Emerald, Dungeon¡­¡± A thought flashed, or even a trace of thought, before being shooed away. First thing first, Alice stuck her spear through the hole mumbling a couple of curses and baiting an aggressive ambusher, only to gain menacing silence instead. No knocking from multiple legs, no roaring or panting of a hungry beast; no matter how earnestly the girl was straining her ears.


    I want to go back. Alice caught herself on a traitorous note and hurriedly shook her head, then took off most of her items and placed it around the hole. The short girl drew a sword next, pointed it forward together with her spear and bravely crawled in the cave.


    Empty. The almost round cave was really empty.


    ¡°Huff.¡± Alice smiled with relief and looked around. The cave was big and indeed dimly lit. But instead of a portal to another world, the cavern was illuminated by large green crystallish stalactites. Ah. Not exactly, the girl realized. By whitish moss growing on these stalactites. Bioluminescence?


    Anyway, very convenient. With understandable doubts, Alice quenched lamps and left the bigger one to mark the cave as she was retrieving her stuff through a hole. Then she noticed yellow blood or whatever the centipede left on her sword that the girl hadn¡¯t cleaned yet was evaporating as if burning off by invisible flames. Not just from the sword, from her clothes too.


    Is it¡­ mana?


    A familiar yet out of her reach, she vaguely felt an additional pressure in this dungeon from something what was not the air at all and what immediately reminded her about the system test. The girl immediately felt distant anger of being robbed from whatever Magic Skill system had granted her for a few seconds back on Earth.


    Mana was here, right before her eyes and yet she could do nothing. Calling for it, imagining invisible hands, shaping it by pure willpower and any other wild idea Alice tried out on spot went nowhere.


    49m


    ¡°I need to move.¡± Alice murmured quietly and sheathed her sword as all physical evidence of the bloody(?) centipede¡¯s murder vanished. ¡°Hope it deconstructed bodies too.¡± The thought of sleeping in one cave with two giant dead insects was not inspiring at all. Wait, the girl frowned. The dungeon obviously had some sort of resource management... the dungeon, that is.


    So I will need to drag them all the way. Shivering, Alice shook her head and concentrated on the task on hand. From the big cavern she was in only one wide tunnel was leading out. The tunnel was flat, more or less, with rounded walls and ceiling, lightened by green crystal veins. Well, by the moss in them.


    Whoosh...


    And it sounded like trouble. Spooked, Alice sneaked behind the corner, pressed into a depression in a wall and pointed her spear at the exit. The girl started to sweat as the low hum of blowing air grew closer. Closer. One target,she somehow understood. Closer, before finally it showed up cloaked in streams of driven dust and crackles of mandibles, looking exactly as its name supposed.


    [Snakefly Lvl. 3]


    The spear split up a transparent wing before burying deep into a long black body. With a squeak, the snakefly bent on the spearhead, rowing air with the unbroken wing and all six legs, blindly striking with ovipositor as Alice drove it to the ground with force. Metal ground a short line on the stone floor with sparks and monster''s high-pitched screams, which did not arise pity in the girl at all; she lifted the spear with the giant snakefly impaled on it and then drove it down again!


    The monster cried one last time from being crunched into halves. The ovipositor flinched and opened completely to add some disgusting notes to a flawless win when the girl pierced the head of the creature.


    [+300 EXP +120 BP]


    ¡°RIP you asshole!¡± Alice shouted out in an adrenaline rush, thrilled, still scared and a bit excited.


    Just now, everything went exactly as she had envisioned it. The snakefly indeed tried to dodge the spear, but with a half-meter long body it was a far cry from the nimbleness of a real fly. Alice simply shifted the spear¡¯s trajectory by tilting her left hand. Not a slow motion, but still an achievement the girl herself would have never repeated, that much was obvious.


    Sorry system, this skill is awesome!


    Two skills, she corrected herself immediately and frowned thoughtfully. Spear mastery taught her fundamentals the girl had just started to perceive in action. Moreover, her natural physical limits were lifted by a lot. Two level ups made her faster and stronger than she could realistically hope to achieve in her lifetime.


    Yellow blood liquid scattered all over the place as Alice swung her spear a few times.


    ¡°No, not quite yet.¡± The girl judged her strength after a quick inspection of the snakefly¡¯s dead halves. She had checked the attributes, of course, and according to system, the average attribute was five for a ¡®healthy adult human¡¯. The number, Alice assumed, was a purely statistical viewpoint.


    The snakefly''s body started to burn in familiar invisible flames nearby. Fast. How they hunt, or do they even need to? Maybe... New noises interrupted the girl''s musings and she backed to her hiding spot. Stirring her ears, beside the heart pounds she could hear wings flapping. Not closing this time, no. Alice knitted her brows. Wings meant new snakeflies.


    Clatters of multiple legs? Sounded like centipedes. Shrieks? Unchanging distance?


    41m


    Alice squeezed the spearshaft, inhaled deeply and bravely entered the tunnel. She advanced slowly while listening to the echoes and watching her own steps not to give her away. After two turns the girl found the source of clamor.


    Monsters were fighting monsters. Two snakeflies were circling under the ceiling, and the third already had fallen to claws of a big centipede, lying broken on the ground.


    [Snakefly Lvl. 5], [Snakefly Lvl. 3], [Centipede Lvl. 6]


    Chirp!


    The centipede lifted its body high and attempted fruitlessly to hook snakefly with a forcipule when it went down a little. The low leveled one dived then and stabbed the distracted enemy with its needle-like tail.


    The centipede screeched. Crouching behind a big rock Alice noticed multiple stab wounds on the centipede¡¯s carapace and how sluggishly the monster was moving. Poison?


    39m


    The snakeflies wore their prey down pretty fast. The centipede ceased to move, not dead but paralyzed since its status screen didn¡¯t disappear. In a few moments, it was mounted and then stabbed by one poisonous tail for extra control and one ovipositor¡­


    Alice¡¯s stomach revolted when the apparently female snakefly visually expanded and started to push eggs into the centipede¡¯s body. Of course, her rich imagination added extra sickness and paleness to the girl¡¯s face. The abominable scene was simply beyond her ability to control her body¡¯s psychological reactions.


    Don¡¯t throw up¡­ Too afraid to simply close her eyes, Alice shut the mouth with a palm. Push, push, the snakefly wasn¡¯t hurrying up at all. Stop envisioning it on yourself, idiot. Just stop!


    Eight eggs, the centipede was seeded with eight eggs by the time Alice managed to defeat her worst enemy yet: hideous nausea. She readied her bow, forcing light tremor in the hands stop, and aimed hatefully. An arrow pierced the air and burrowed into the snakefly, knocked it back forcing slimy egg to drop on rocks with a slurp.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Swish!


    Alice had put the second arrow nearby and so shot down the last snakefly almost immediately before it could fly anywhere. Smirking too viciously, she then rushed to finish the creatures off by chopping their heads with her spear.


    [+300 EXP +120 BP]


    [+500 EXP +200 BP]


    These chunks of experience felt especially pleasantly. Never before Alice had been so genuinely glad to kill something. Not just adult insects, their unborn children too: even doubting its ability to survive in the open air, the girl crashed the rolling egg anyway.


    ¡°Now it¡¯s only you.¡± Alice glanced at the paralyzed centipede after she pulled out the arrows. Ridiculous, but the monster looked pitiful even in her eyes now. Being injected by a flying parasite to end up as a host for its parasitic eggs? Numerous horror movies taught her to fear such outcomes.


    Well, you know what they say: not killing, but putting it out of misery¡­ or not, Alice suddenly changed her mind after remembering the metaphor with an anthill and lifted her spear with cold light in her eyes. The girl began from slicing off legs, then she destroyed joints, stabbed every segment of its carapace with methodicalness of a juvenile maniac until finally¡­


    [+600 EXP +240 BP]


    ¡°What are you, a zombie?¡± Gloomily Alice asked no one in particular. Then she blinked and trembled from sudden chill as an idea came to her mind. "This is how they hunt. They poison the prey and leave the head intact!" The centipede had been stoically enduring butchering until she reached its brain. Only then it died. Again, the girl silently rejoiced the luckiness she had enjoyed during her first mortal combat and somewhat nervously took out a bottle to moisten her swiftly drying mouth.


    32m


    Should I press it? Or is it even a choice now?


    Alice discovered a small hindrance to her plans to get ahold of Battle Points. The Great Bugs War happened on a crossroad. The tunnel from there was forking into two branches that hardly differed at first glance. The girl looked hard but failed to see anything distinguishable at the second glance too.


    If she were to choose reasonably, Alice would have picked the road with centipedes, just how? The rocks retained no traces. Left or right? Okay, abort the mission. Let me just get the hell out of this place. She really didn¡¯t like staying in the bloody dungeon. Even if the Node wouldn¡¯t move with her, simply having a path to escape this place was nice enough.


    Nodding to herself, Alice carved a big ¡®X¡¯ on a wall and decisively turned right. Not obvious, but this road curved upwards. In a few minutes, the girl was sure of her decision. There were no monsters, nice and easy. She walked in an unhurried pace, methodically even. Her steps produced barely any noise, deeply rooted knowledge of how seeded inside the girl.


    Nature of these skills never cleared up despite how hard Alice was brooding on it. She was certain her body was in her complete control, exactly as the painfully born skill implied. Exactly as condensed system''s description went, the skill also included every bit of utility, not overloading her mind.


    Her spear mastery skill and others were other kinds of animals. As long as Alice was holding the spear, she was presented with options surfacing from unknown corners of her brain. Multiple options, in fact, options that could transform every moment, will she change her stance, bend a little or wherever direction the fight would flow.


    Well, in her disposal there wasn''t anything exotic, mainly variations of thrusts.


    Stealth skill taught her how to place feet correctly, breath quietly and look from the corners without showing herself. But to do so without some big flaws Alice had to control her body manually, so to speak, same with her bow mastery skill. Also, point-blank range augmented her accuracy by a lot. Finally, Observation skill helped the girl to nail down behavior patterns, such as how awkwardly the snakeflies had landed on the centipede...


    Alice stumbled across two centipedes as she was rethinking her short battles, noticed them in a relatively long corridor when slightly poking her head out of a corner. She had passed three crossroads to reach this place, but she never lost her caution. After all, being cautious and making good use of her skills were two keys Alice was certain would open any door and carry across any bridge in this trial.


    Lvl 2 and Lvl 2. Just enough for my own level up. The nature of the whole experience thingy was still bothering her, but Alice couldn¡¯t deny its contribution to her survival rate. Moving extra carefully, the short girl left her spear standing near and nocked an arrow. I am growing accustomed to this, she thought fleetingly and shook her head. They are looking in my direction. About ten and fifteen meters. Shoot the closest first and then¡­


    Alice was planning diligently three steps ahead to the best of her abilities. Then one quick glance to ascertain the monsters didn¡¯t move. They didn¡¯t. Okay. Breath in, breath out. Now be better, the girl instilled herself. No useless anger. No emotions. Just¡­ wait.


    ¡°What are they even doing here?¡± Alice asked herself suddenly with her lips slightly open and silently moving. Her fingers relaxed instinctively, the bowstring weakened.


    It wasn¡¯t a computer RPG were monsters were simply arranged smartly to be interesting obstacles between a player and their game objective. One could easily fall into a loop of game-like thinking ¡®oh, they are just a source of EXP and loot items¡¯, but Alice¡¯s nerves were stretched too strong after being that close to death just a few hours ago.


    So she ordered herself to think deeper and very soon a realization came to her mind. And only one way to check it. She changed a nocked arrow to a superior version. This system better not to shut down now, suppressing sudden paranoid fear of losing her skills, Alice stepped into the corridor in the classic archer position.


    The centipedes saw her, creaked at once, stirred. The string whipped and the arrow flew.


    The monsters ran. One to the girl.


    Another¡­ away from.


    <hr>


    Spoiler: Status!<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="12">Alice Sung-Hyun Branson</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Age:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">16</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Classes</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Race:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Human/???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunter (common)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Exp:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2,700/3,000</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">??? (???)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">0</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Battle Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">723</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">Attributes</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Strength: 4.7


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Mind: 7.6


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Endurance: 4.9


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Will: 7.5


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Dexterity: 6.9


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Perception: 6.9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Agility: 5.6


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Wits: 7.1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Absolute Body Control</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: ¨C</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Like a magical undead being, you are lacking muscle memories and have to control your body at all times. You can completely avoid unnecessary movements; your Perception reaction bypasses instincts.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunt</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (2)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hide from sights, track your prey and take it down. This skill provides a specific hunting experience for all your ''Hunter'' templates-related skills.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Bow</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (2)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Nock an arrow, aim, and shoot. One month of training with a bow.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spear</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 2 (3)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Choose your stance and pierce your enemy. Three months of training with a spear.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Observation (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 2 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">As a child of nature, you can discern signs of life and behavior patterns in a complex landscape. </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stealth (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Basic ability to conceal oneself in a complex landscape.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Butchering (Animals)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">A child of nature is capable of providing herself with provisions.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 5 - Monsters Den

    White shadow traversed the short distance in less than a second.


    With a soft ¡®tuck¡¯ the arrow burrowed deep into a centipede¡¯s body, to the fletching deep breaking organs and joints on its way. Nevertheless, Alice missed the head as the monster had bent and half-turned. The overgrown bug only twitched and continued an attempt to make a run for its life even with dozens of its legs not functioning.


    Screeching, the closer centipede rushed to Alice. Of no matter, the girl gazed over it and discarded as she drew an arrow from her quiver. She nocked it and she launched it!


    The second shadow flew straight and almost nailed the escapee to the ground. But no EXP prompt from the system came up despite the girl¡¯s lingering hope. Really, a zombie, she clicked her tongue, thought briefly about the third arrow, but the attacker was too close.


    Alice let the bow fall and retrieved her spear, then did something she would have never done normally. She leaped, pushing herself further up with the shaft. As the centipede was angrily clapping and screeching below, the girl felt comfortable and calm. Lacking footing, yet fully in control: she could easily flip once or twice if chose so but didn¡¯t bother. Landing softly, she broke into a dash and crossed the corridor in moments.


    The spear drew an arc as Alice menacingly brought it down onto the running centipede, cleaving its head in half with force just before a tunnel¡¯s twist.


    [+200 XP +80 BP]


    Hearing clacking behind, the girl quickly pulled the spear¡­


    It got stuck. Because of an angle or a crossbar burrowing too deep, but the spear got stuck. In the panic, Alice did what every clueless combatant would have done in her place: she tried to pull it out again but only dragged the carcass around; with disgust plastered all over her face the girl pushed it then with her heel...


    When she realized her last enemy was already on her back, it was too late. Alice let the useless now spear go and hurriedly turned, saw forcipules already swinging and dodged¡­ in her mind. The short girl wasn¡¯t fast enough. A sharp spike-like limb flashed and bit into her left thigh.


    Pain spread out as an ink drop in a cup of water. Alice choked on her scream, gasped for air. The monster advanced, slashing with its natural weapons left and right and she drew back clumsy, every step bringing new waves of viscous agony.


    Weapon, I need a weapon. The girl finally jerked so the dead centipede laid between her and the attacker and gazed over the sticking spear. She thought of using a sword again, but her hands reached out to a quiver and armed themselves with two arrows.


    It¡¯s like two little spears, distracted herself Alice with wild speculation. Right, wait for me, she silently taunted the hesitating centipede as the pain were somewhat subsiding. In fact, nice numbness took its place¡­


    It struck her ¨C Oh no! ¨C in the process of her knee failing her, bending over on its own. She felt nothing when it crashed on the stone floor but heard a crunch and how the air left her lungs at once. Her eyes imprinted the monster twisting in the arc. It opened its jaws and claws and then jumped.


    Alice lifted the arrows in a strange serenity, watching the world rapidly coloring into white. She bid her time, lingered through unending fractions of a moment and drove the arrows down like two daggers.


    The forcipules pierced her shoulders first; only the girl¡¯s lips twitched and a short moan them left for she had no breath to cry.


    One arrow dug into a cloudy eye-orb next, another punctured its skull. In the last dying struggle, the claws contracted around the girl¡¯s right wrist, gripped like a press, rip off skin, rent muscles, crumbled bones.


    [+200 XP +80 BP]


    With tears flowing like water Alice silently howled and squeezed the jacket in her teeth. You can¡­ just do it¡­ faster¡­ With her undamaged, although shaking hand the girl rummaged pockets until two vials showed up. Red and green liquids were splashing inside.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Level up!


    Hunter lvl. 1 -> lvl. 2


    + 6 Skill Points


    Attributes being adjusted¡­


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Rejuvenation felt so in time Alice even forgot to kindly ask system to shut the fuck up. Invisible energy poured in every cell of her body, sprang throughout her bloodstream, cleared the mind and eased the pain. Or maybe it is the poison kicking in, Alice retorted herself soberly, pulled out the cork from the green vial with her teeth and drank the content in a gulp.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Level up!


    ??? lvl. 1 -> lvl. 2


    Attributes being adjusted¡­


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Antitoxin tasted bitter as those horrible medicines Alice had to ingest in her childhood and fiery heat from her duplicate level up helped very little either. At least I was spared from the pain of giving birth to another shady skill, the girl shredded more tears.


    To her greater joy, the poison spreading stopped. Immediately Alice moved so she could unclench the last grasp of the dead monster using only one healthy leg and free but hardly reacting left hand. Especially tricky job if you are trying not to look at your mutilated arm.


    Secondary level up feels different, Alice busied her thoughts meanwhile. System-guided one was built on the outside energy flow, and the fiery tide seemed to be a reaction from the inside. Not pleasant like at all, but nonetheless her own. Congenital.


    ¡°Auch!¡± Alice hissed. She freed herself, but the pain was slowly coming back.


    Plop.


    Blood painted the gray-stoned floor in red. Plop, plop.


    Alice stared down, stupefied. That hit her. Initial shock had passed during a fever of battle and later poison numbed sensations, so... The girl was now looking at her dark sloppy sleeve with the strangely angled hand inside and felt surreal.


    Mortified, not taking eyes from the cloth-covered wound, the girl blindly found the Lesser Healing potion and drank it down. A liquid fire that scorched her tongue and throat she almost overlooked. The hand aching felt more real. Not at all the scariest part, no, instead it was the suspense. Against will, her imagination was picturing the most hellish agony awaiting her to the point Alice started to feel phantoms of it.


    The girl shivered and crawled away from the dead centipedes, sat down at a wall. The ache changed to tingle and then itch. Trembling strongly, Alice shut her eyes, not thinking, not caring to be a target for a wandering monster.


    Something in her was changing.


    The potion was mending her flesh, moving around and rebuilding broken pieces, melting away irreversible damages. Every moment of it Alice was painfully conscious.


    Wrong, this is wrong.


    [Lesser Life potion] [Heals light injuries: scratches, small cuts and burns, bruises, cracks in bones etc.]


    This was not what was happening at all, and Alice only had one damned clue why, expressed by question marks in her status window, so the girl wasn¡¯t really happy about saving another potion for another unlucky encounter. Speaking of which¡­


    Two ambushes had worked out, and I became so cocky, Alice decisively ridiculed herself and gazed at the dead centipedes with re-found fear. Jumping around like a clown, so sure in these bloody skills¡­ you are nothing! You can die at every moment! Fucking learn!


    Smack!


    Alice slapped herself and exhaled. The thrill of seeing the death door was strong, but she remembered in what the fucking place she was in, gathered her shivering guts together and stood up since there was no use in waiting for her hand to heal up completely. Even if it was hurting like hell now.


    These were definitely guards for something. The girl was thinking hard while pulling out her spear from the slowly burning with invisible flames corpse and bravely surpassing the waking up pain in her limbs. A den? It must be not too close since no monster has come to join the party.


    Either thanks to the Observation skill or her own intelligence, but Alice had realized in time that two centipedes hadn¡¯t been positioned in the long corridor just because. She had taken a risk then and targeted the farthest centipede first. The plan had worked out well if you leave certain pieces out of the picture.


    ¡°It¡¯s a den¡­¡± Alice collected all arrows and muttered slowly, with some hesitation she then called out for system.


    3m


    No time to do the stupid quest, the girl almost wept from relief and right away insincerely berated herself for it. Still, she had reached level 2, earned some battle points and desperately needed some rest to get in shape... it was time for Alice to tiredly shamble back to her node.


    <hr>


    Gangs¡¯ war of 1998, the inflow of opiates of 2009, the city¡¯s administration of 2010-2013 were tthe op three worst periods for Greystone City¡¯s police department. Detective Hernandez was a veteran of the two of them and shared general agreement.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Now his seasoned gut was expecting September 5 of 2018 to reach top position by the evening news.


    The things had gone the wrong way starting from a certain 911 morning call. ¡°My son¡¯s disappeared right in from of me!¡± the hysterical voice screamed right in the ear of the poor green soul on the phone. The address then was recorded, and a patrol car was directed to it. Even a door was knocked out. Police officers found inside a frightened old woman long off her meds, who couldn¡¯t even remember the call.


    The rookie got his deserved thrashing; the department instantly came up with jokes for the unfortunate patrol officers, end of story.


    Jokes livened up after the similar call at 3 p.m. Then the line got overloaded in seconds and all hell broke loose.


    Greystone City suddenly missed a substantial chunk of its population. For the reasons not as ¡®chronic¡¯ as, say, terrorism, no. Hundreds of people were spirited away. The first time Hernandez heard this theory he found it less crazy than his partner¡¯s gigantic flash mob version only by a single step.


    ¡°You¡¯re certain that the disappeared students and the professor demonstrated supernatural powers?¡± He repeated this question God knows what time.


    ¡°I recorded the whole thing from start to finish,¡± a young blonde girl answered proudly and flashed her smartphone.


    ¡°Admirable.¡± The detective smiled as if the police didn¡¯t have a ton of these videos already. ¡°After you give me your personal statement.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± She drew a bored sigh with eyes sparkling. ¡°First the disappearies acted weird, like seeing or hearing things. Thought it was some hoax so I turned on my Mikky¡¯s camera to shoot ev-e-ry-thing.¡±


    <u>Named</u> her sp, detective Hernandez wrote down in his notebook, doubting the nature of this particular student¡¯s affiliation with Forline University. The rest of her story though fell well in line with a dozen he had already recorded. Need to run this thoroughly, he reminded himself.


    ¡°Thank you for cooperation. We will need this video recording.¡±


    ¡°Of course! Happy to serve the police!¡±


    The girl walked away, laughing. Hernandez scratched his short-haired head with a pen and envied her simple-mindedness for a second.


    ¡°Next will be you¡­¡±


    ¡°Detective!¡± A young pale-faced trooper interrupted Hernandez. ¡°You need to see something.¡±


    The man refrained from asking questions. He saw this kind of gaze before, a gaze of a person on the edge. The detective simply followed the policewoman out of the students¡¯ dormitory and then past cordons. Whatever there is, it can¡¯t be worse than the press.


    Forline University lost one professor, two middle managers, four laboratory assistants, and forty-six students. It made the institution the biggest anomaly in the city, with literally thousands of witnesses on top of that. Press flew on this sweet cake akin starving hornets, and social media had new hits to bump up with likes. That ¡®Mikky¡¯ probably had already shared everything it saw with youtube¡­


    Of course, it¡¯s this place. Hernandez stopped before the third lecture hall and raised an eyebrow at the opened by no more than ten inches door.


    ¡°Just get your ass here.¡± British accent and manners of a port worker. Only one person came to mind. The detective shrugged his shoulders and proceed in.


    ¡°And here I thought we¡¯ve tied up already¡­ The hell is that.¡± Years of service hardened his nerves like a blacksmith hardens steel, but Hernandez still touched the grip of his gun on instincts.


    ¡°Yeah.¡± A nervous chuckle from Sergeant Roberts followed. ¡°Exactly. You were saying nothing can surprise you, partner?¡±


    ¡°As a joke, not a jinx!¡±


    ¡°That is enough bickering.¡±


    When soft yet strong tenor intervened, both men fell silent immediately. One of them white, a blue-eyed giant with a very brutal look and aggressively pointed beard, the other average built man with bronze skin, thick eyebrows and kind oval face.


    ¡°Sergeant Detective Roberts and Detective Hernandez. Explain the timeline. Specifically, regarding this.¡±


    The middle-aged, tall, slender woman in a suit pointed at¡­


    Vortex. Most definitely with capital V. Ten feet in diameter, it was revolving slowly in the middle of the hall. Woven from countless specks of light and all colors of nature, it seemed to grow, yet didn¡¯t grow; and seemed to shift, yet didn¡¯t shift. From any direction, The Vortex looked the same as if having only one unique, singular perspective.


    Charming, majestic. Soothing like waters of a mountain river and peaceful like the flame of a candle.


    ¡°Major. Yes.¡± Roberts forcefully pulled his eyes from the thing and coughed down ¡®why are you here¡¯ and ¡®how did you do it, again¡¯ questions. ¡°After forensic experts cleared the scene, we put here two greenhorns just in case and moved most personnel for the sake of a primary survey. About¡­ mmm¡­ 18:56 Gonzales noticed this¡­ spawn of motherfucker¡­


    ¡°Yes?¡± Grey eyes lacked humor entirely.


    ¡°Khm. Well, she tried to sound the alarms, but fortunately, connection in the object¡¯s vicinity was ¨C puh! ¨C just lost. Khm. I noticed her running outside, hampered before she went wild, we walked back, enjoyed the sight together, called the captain and busied the girl with finding my partner. That is about it?¡±


    ¡°So press doesn¡¯t know?¡± The woman certainly knew what was important right now. If she also wouldn¡¯t be closing to the Vortex slowly...


    ¡°If captain suppressed the news within the precinct ¨C sure.¡±


    ¡°Ma''am, I thought you were in Washington for a meeting, something important.¡± Hernandez joined the conversation.


    ¡°I too thought it was important. Clearly, I was mistaken.¡± The woman made another two steps, now fifteen feet away from the damn thing.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you should¡­¡± The only reason he had the guts to give advices to state police major was that they had served in one unit, long before she moved up. And maybe the whole glowing sci-fi thing pumped his courage too.


    ¡°Something is coming. From the fucking inside!¡± Roberts was the first to notice and aim his gun at the Vortex. The major also retreated ¨C thank God ¨C to a safe distance. Gonzales painfully expectedly screamed, but still managed not to lose her chill completely before the boss of the boss of her boss.


    The Vortex glowed stronger, then exploded with a series of flashes. Through nearly blinding light, a shadow appeared. A formless spot of darkness, it slowly took a shape of a person, a human.


    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot without my direct order!¡± Major¡¯s voice somehow calmed everybody down.


    Unhurriedly, the human shadow emerged from the Vortex and started to fill swiftly with colors, with volume, with perspectives. Until finally it looked like¡­ it was on this side.


    ¡°Oh, it worked.¡± The young woman said in a barely surprised voice and opened her strikingly blue eyes. She wore a medieval robe, a pointed hat with straps was covering her curled blonde hair, and in her hand there was a long, carved wooden staff.


    ¡°Miss Lauster.¡± Before words ¡®she looks familiar¡¯ crossed anybody¡¯s minds, the major had been already talking. ¡°I am Olivia Branson, Major of Criminal Investigation Command of the State Police. We need to talk.¡±


    ¡°Most certainly.¡± Professor Lauster nodded. ¡°Regardless of your welcomes I won¡¯t be able to stay here for long. There is a den full of monsters on the other side and it doesn¡¯t plan to set me free so easily.¡±


    <hr>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    System message


    You failed to destroy the closest monsters nest. Node #548 was moved higher in elimination queue.


    Warning! Node #548 is under attack! To avoid the mana contamination, all functions were suspended for 12-hours!


    Neutralize the threat to avoid forceful elimination!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Spoiler: Status!<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="12">Alice Sung-Hyun Branson</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Age:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">16</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Classes</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Race:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Human/???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunter (common)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Exp:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">3,100/7,000</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">??? (???)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">6</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Battle Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">883</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">Attributes</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Strength: 4.7 -> 5.6


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Mind: 7.6 -> 8.3


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Endurance: 4.9 -> 5.8


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Will: 7.5 -> 8.2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Dexterity: 6.9 -> 8.0


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Perception: 6.9 -> 8.2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Agility: 5.6 -> 6,7


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Wits: 7.1 -> 8.1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Absolute Body Control</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: ¨C</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Like a magical undead being, you are lacking muscle memories and have to control your body at all times. You can completely avoid unnecessary movements; your Perception reaction bypasses instincts.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunt</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (2)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hide from sights, track your prey and take it down. This skill provides a specific hunting experience for all your ''Hunter'' templates-related skills.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Bow</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (2)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Nock an arrow, aim, and shoot. One month of training with a bow.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spear</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 2 (3)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Choose your stance and pierce your enemy. Three months of training with a spear.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Observation (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 2 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">As a child of nature, you can discern signs of life and behavior patterns in a complex landscape. </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stealth (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Basic ability to conceal oneself in a complex landscape.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Butchering (Animals)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">A child of nature is capable of providing herself with provisions.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 6 – The desperate run

    The moment she got the message, Alice¡¯s face lost all blood and sticky, heavy flood filled in her head. Somehow, she just assumed from the beginning there would be a way back. The door, the node was there and she only had to wait a few days, maybe defeat some monsters, clear some missions and it might as well open.


    Not according to system¡¯s settings.


    Why is it this word? Why not termination, or shutdown, or suspension, why the fuck!


    Familiar tunnels, road forks marked with X, Alice crossed them hurriedly as far as her Stealth skill and newly found ¡®common sense in mortal danger¡¯ allowed her. More than once, she would stop still or cover in hiding, haunted by shadows, fearing products of her own imagination. Spear she held tight was sweeping air erratically: the girl¡¯s injured hand was hurting like hell, and her lips thinned into a blue line. Strange heat was still active, slowly easing the pain, and without knowing its nature Alice was honestly scared of taking in another Life potion, she would rather endure.


    So the short girl ran. Stressed, not able to get rid of tension was slowly gnawing at her nerves that suffered above year worth in a day. Loaded with scattering in different directions thoughts, scraps of different plans and fading signs of brilliant ideas, which she just couldn¡¯t stick together. Luckily, the tunnels and caves of the Emerald Dungeon remained empty until the very end, where¡­


    [Ant Lvl 3] [Ant Lvl 6] [Ant Lvl 4] ... ... ...


    System''s notifications blurred in her eyes as Alice hid behind a corner. Her wrist pulsed in pain, half of it physical and another half from her panicking subconsciousness reminding her to want to run far, far away or at least stay there paralyzed from the fear of death. The girl opened her mouth to silently gulp the air and seconds passed before she suppressed various impulses. Alice felt dizzy, scorched inside. Wordlessly, she opened her dry mouth and inaudibly asked no one,


    ¡°What should I do?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t let them go inside, can I?¡±


    ¡°System will close the node.¡±


    ¡°Plan, I need a plan.¡±


    Thanks to the undead-like skill, Alice at least spent these seconds completely still. After making sure she could control herself, the girl very slowly cracked her pocket open and took out the second Life potion. Fire-like liquid soon flushed her veins, concentrated in her hand. A few ugly scars reddened brightly and started to dissipate under Alice''s watch. An amazing sight the girl spent significant efforts to look away from.


    Long corridor was dividing her and the first dungeon cave. She could only hear legs'' clatters, barely.


    Ants were black, smooth and looked... well, very much like ants. Half of a meter to a meter long, not really hideous a threat with only one pair of jaws for each.


    The problem was the sheer number of these oversized black garden ants. Alice could see three constantly guarding the hole in the wall. With some grief, the girl noticed the broken glass of an oil lamp she had left near it... Anyway, more ants were running around in the cave with no obvious goal. Alice frowned, hardly able to tell them apart from each other, calculated on her fingers and silently ordered:


    Observation, level up.


    One of her six precious skill points vanished just like that and the first grey skill got maxed out. So this is the limit for them, Alice thought and attempted to view the ants with new eyes..


    A-a-and they seemed to get off from a clone factory''s conveyor all the same. Fortunately, even if system failed the girl, her own math skills and probability theory didn''t. From eight... to ten.Plus say three loafing around. Way above her head, Alice confessed to herself calmly. But system wanted her to take them on. Even the girl herself knew she had to take them on, or what else? Run blindly into the unknown? Or wait for the situation to resolve itself until her body succumb to drowsiness and fatigue in the middle of the full of monsters dungeon?


    Or until a squad marched by and ate her alive as a midday snack. Alice ideated with strange clarity born through her understanding of just how little odds she had, almost self-hypnotized to maintain calmness.


    Bow, level up. Spear, level up.


    Tickling at the ends of synapses, tides and falls at the very edge of perceptiveness. And then the breath of her body became distinct, precise. Purposeful. Concepts flowed in, took the empty places of her brain, rooted deep to connect, link, reorganize. Create knowledge, teach experience, growth the flourishing forest full of branches of knows and leaves of hows.


    I see now. Alice broke into a smile when an illuminating moment passed, looked down, closed and opened the fist. The pain was nearly gone, just as scars. A few things about her the most important Skill just became clear to her, and a plan popped out from it.


    But one glance in the cave full of monster ants and the fear resurfaced all the same. The heart fastened its beats and drops of sweat appeared on the girl''s forehead as she tried to visualize this plan of hers, imagine herself fighting the monsters again.


    She couldn''t. Clack, clack, the ants were running in the cave while Alice was standing just behind the corner having no strength in her limbs to move or even stop nervous tremors in the fingers.


    This kind of fear... was the first in her entire life. Once, she was lying in a hospital, very, very sick, sleepy and in pain. Dying, even. Her parents were there, her two older brothers and she was young, so young the concept of death was so distant and vague. Once, she heard wolves howls, saw from a hill a pack crossing a river under the light of stars and Moon. Her dad was near back then and she trusted him, in him and their rifles. With fear, excitement rose in her tiny body when grey proud beasts reflected in her sparkling eyes.


    One hour, long as days, sufficed to purge ignorance of youth. Alice was alone now, she lacked the support of family and even more so the innocence of a child. Lacked time to nurture something as a replacement, something mature and firm. Something...


    Whoosh.


    The air stirred. Magic. Not hers, but from the cave. Where did they go? Alice noticed immediately as she looked, two ants guarding the hole were missing. Inside? They went inside?The girl had somehow missed the moment while spacing out.


    Clack, clack, clack, the ants organized into a circle around the narrow passage, stared into the dark. Magic in the dungeon surged subtly, scarcely so Alice''s newly six sense noticed it only because she was all fired up.


    Pause, tense Alice too stopped breathing. And then...


    Bang!


    A sound of a dull blast shifted pebbles on the floor, lifted a smother of a dusty cloud.


    Bang!


    The cloud shook and coated the ants in the cave in gray before leisurely settling down. The insects wavered, clicked their mandibles one after another as if communicating. Plop, plop, red dots rained on the stone floor. Alice clenched her hands into fists so tightly her nails pierced the skin and drew blood.


    Someone is here! A bold assumption thundered in her head. Other explanations completely eluded the girl''s mind. Someone is here! She only wanted this answer to be true! It didn''t substitute the genuine will to fight the monsters, nor added to her maturity, but still... as the last straw to push her into action right here and now, would do.


    Plop, plop. Alice glanced down and watched red dots noiselessly dissipating in blue smoke. Slowly, the short girl touched the right sleeve of her jacket to find it completely dry. She sniffed the air then yet failed to discern the odor of sweat. Her lips distorted into a gruesome smile.


    "Okay. Okay. Doesn''t matter still. My plan. Do it." The lips moved soundlessly as Alice assured herself and stepped back into the tunnels.


    [Ant Lvl. 6]


    Despite having a relatively high level, this creature didn''t play any particular role among its kin. Ants were of the same mind. They followed the same orders, had the same awareness, the same determination, like clones born from a singular template.


    Born. Created?


    This particular group of giant ants was busied with a task of ''exploration''. If not, then with something of a similar nature. They had been running through the dungeon like kings of a local food chain until reaching this very cave.


    The ant probed the air with its antennas. The narrow hole remained dark. Void. Alien. Nearly robotic instincts were silent. No directives to follow, and without directives to fill their existence with meaning the ants were lost. They had to follow the task, but how? How? A decision, therefore, was made, foolish in its primitive rationality.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    The ants went into the unknown, two at a time. To explore, to report back, to create a pattern. After one pair was gone, the second would follow in. The large group capable of standing against any rival species of the dungeon shrank and then shrank again. The ants didn''t care. The very ability to they lacked. Once the decision was set, the ants followed it diligently. Indeed, the creatures of the same mind.


    A new pair of ants readied before the wall, their purpose to evade the blasts, discover the pattern, and return. To lead the kin into unknown...


    Swish!


    Something whistled across the air. The ant clutched its jaws, screeched as it turned around, saw an [Ant Lvl. 4] lying on the floor, a long object piercing its head. Screech, screech! The kins followed him and stared at their foe together as one. Another long, sharp object flashed. It''s a flying stinger, all ants acknowledged together as one. A new foe! A foe with two legs, multi-colored carapace and flying stingers as its weapons!


    The tide of ants flowed next as one body with multiple legs and multiple jaws. To cling onto, to rip apart, to kill! Death, they feared not. Grief for murdered kin, they had not. Even their foe was not a real foe, but a target needed to be eradicated.


    Another flying stinger pierced an ant when the black tide reached the entrance of the cave, but it was worth it. The kin found the pattern. The high-leveled ant saw the fo§Ôrth flying stinger pointing at itself and jerked from its way. Too fast! It still pierced through its body. Two legs stopped following commands; pain, there was not.


    The foe ran out of flying stingers! The kin rejoiced, except they did not. Their foe ran into the labyrinth of caves, passages, turns, and caves. Into the dungeon, the hunting grounds for the kin. It ran not fast enough.


    The ants reached the tunnel taking a sharp turn very soon. They had to slow down for a moment.


    Swish! Flying stinger! Once more an ant died! Their foe stopped before another turn, its hand taking a stinger sticking out from the crack in the stone floor. Dodge, kin, it''s your final shutdown!


    The foe ran. The tide was diminished by two ants, the rest didn''t lose nor add to their determination. A new pattern emerged: their foe would stop after every turn, sting one or two of kin, they would shrink the distance a little.


    The foe used a strange, new weapon, yet acted with familiar excellency. Almost... robotic, similar to ants. Deserving praise if they could give away one. But despite mortal blows, the ants were winning this race. When only five of kin remained, two wounded, and the distance became so small a few jaw grips could do the thing, the foe''s stinger thrower fell off.


    Sadly, there was no joy for the kin. Nor expectations for killing their bitter enemy. And even though the foe suddenly retrieved the largest stinger of them all and struck the [Ant Lvl. 6] with it right into the oblivion they didn''t even feel the sorrow.


    <hr>


    Only the first arrow was hard to shoot. Fear had frozen her blood, dulled the eyes, bent the knees. Her heart had been beating hard in the temples, tum-dum, tum-dum, tum-dum. Every bit of willpower she spent on steading her hands. Until the first arrow flew and then strange, surreal sense of liberation filled her.


    Alice grabbed the second arrow clamped in her teeth faster than a white stroke crossed the tunnel and a half the cave between her and the largest ant.


    [+700 XP +280 BP]


    The short girl pulled the bowstring according to skill-induced instinct she consciously aroused and allowed to control her body. In the split moment, she found her next target and opened her fingers. Two arrows her left hand was clenching with the bow, and the one of them she took out right away.


    [+400 XP +160 BP]


    The ants started to react, to move. Alice chose the easiest, the slowest as her third prey. The forth arrow she allowed herself because there was a time to shoot once more, to hit in hope if not to kill, then to injure. The girl didn''t even look. Hit-and-run, that was her plan all along.


    [+200 XP +40 BP]


    Run from one checkpoint with two arrows stuck into the floor...


    [+400 XP +160 BP]


    [+200 XP +40 BP]


    To another.


    [+300 XP +120 BP]


    [+500 XP +200 BP]


    And again.


    [+300 XP +120 BP]


    If Alice were a skydiver, then this battle would have been her free fall. There was no fear in falling, only in jumping... or landing. For her, the fear before the jump was already gone and the earth was too far below. Tiny seedling of unhealthy excitement buddled in her blood, adrenalin as its fertilizer.


    [+200 XP +40 BP]


    [+300 XP +120 BP]


    [+200 XP +40 BP]


    Letting the bow fall down, Alice ran until a T-shaped intersection showed up, the ants almost chewing her heels. The girl reached out to a certain spot, jumped forward, turned around and nailed down the closest pursuer with her spear.


    [+600 XP +240 BP]


    Four left, the girl allowed herself this fleeting thought. She pulled the spear, stepped back and pulled so harshly it popped out from a corpse embrace with a nasty sound.


    Four left.


    <hr>


    "Huh, huh" Alice panted as she leaned on her spear with an ant''s dead body under her legs. The insects indeed turned out to be an easy prey. They might run fast, but only in a straight line. Side-stepping sufficed to baffle the damn things. Yeah, things, the girl was sure of it now.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Level up!


    Hunter lvl. 2 -> lvl. 3


    + 6 Skill Points


    Attributes being adjusted¡­


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Level up!


    ??? lvl. 2 -> lvl. 3


    Attributes being adjusted¡­


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    System doesn''t get in a way during a fight, at least...


    The third level-up differed from the previous. It didn''t bring rejuvenation to the girl, no. The shower of energy washed through her lazily and started to squeeze in when Alice suddenly felt... full. That''s when her doubling level-up came. Every cell of her body burst in flaming agony. Alice cried out pitifully and fell down between the killed ants. Two energy flows met and collided.


    Through blinding pain the girl could feel as if her whole body transformed into a big balloon, ready to blow up while two spoiled kids were fighting over a pump.


    ...fuck... they didn''t tell... it hurts... fuck...


    Spoiler: Status!


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="12">Alice Sung-Hyun Branson</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Age:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">16</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Classes</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Race:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Human/???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunter (common)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Exp:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">8,600/14,000</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">??? (???)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">6</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Battle Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2,763</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">Attributes</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Strength: 5.6 -> 6.5


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Mind: 8.3 -> 9.0


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Endurance: 5.8 -> 6.7


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Will: 8.2 -> 8.9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Dexterity: 8.0 -> 9.1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Perception: 8.2 -> 9.4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Agility: 6.7-> 7.8


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Wits: 8.1 -> 9.1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Absolute Body Control</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: ¨C</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Like a magical undead being, you are lacking muscle memories and have to control your body at all times. You can completely avoid unnecessary movements; your Perception reaction bypasses instincts.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunt</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (2)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hide from sights, track your prey and take it down. This skill provides a specific hunting experience for all your ''Hunter'' templates-related skills.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Bow</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 2 (3)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Nock an arrow, aim, and shoot. Three months of training with a bow.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spear</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 3 (4)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Choose your stance and pierce your enemy. Nine months of training with a spear.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Observation (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 3 (MAX)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">As a child of nature, you can discern signs of life and behavior patterns in a complex landscape. </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stealth (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Basic ability to conceal oneself in a complex landscape.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Butchering (Animals)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">A child of nature is capable of providing herself with provisions.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 7 – I am not...

    The dungeon was quiet. In one particular place, a bluish light emitted by crystals on the ceiling was shimmering on a pair of transparent wings. With its thin legs holding onto cracks in a wall, a [Snakefly Lvl. 3] was keeping a watch over a tunnel. Snakeflies were different from ants: each had some individuality. When an ambiance of magic in the tunnel slightly changed this giant insect chose differently from what another snakefly might. It took off and buzzed slowly on its way to the anomaly.


    Soon, a wonderful scene opened before the large compound eyes. A group of its species dead foes was scattered across the rocks losing their mana purposelessly. The snakefly screeched and threw itself into a cloud of energy, greedy drinking the energy for its evolution with every inch of its body, every segment of its wings. An ovipositor opened and closed in desire and the snakefly looked around following the primal instinct, seeking to reproduce itself among lots of potential incubators.


    Finally, the snakefly found it, not-dead-yet foe. Unfamiliar, surprisingly big and scarcely short on limbs, but foe nonetheless. Wounded, paralyzed? The giant insect closed the distance. Not too close though, awaiting the rapid evolution...


    The snakefly''s body glowed with dim green light and started to grow. Soon... soon it will leave a strong offspring... The last thoughts of the snakefly might be something like this as well.


    Alice jumped, faster than ever, a sword shined gloriously for a moment before hacking the monster into two halves.


    [+400 XP +160 BP]


    Alice snorted, more angry than scared and suppressed a gagging impulse from the images in her imagination after having looked at the snakefly''s ovipositor aiming at her. Again. The girl closed her eyes, feeling residual pain and fatigue from her recent level-up and remembered the last system plate:


    [Snakefly Lvl. 3->4]


    So this is how it works for the monsters. Or just for this dungeon? The short girl wasn''t sure. At the very list, she hadn''t been enjoying any incoming XP in the past few excruciating minutes, which was clearly a good sign for her ??? class in the status window. Nothing close to that snakefly very visibly having siphoned magic energy for itself. It could have probably evolved once or twice more.


    Naturally, Alice was worried now. The monsters in the dungeon were growing muscles with every passing hour. They could probably consume a little from the air even without killing each other, right? The girl nodded to herself and decided to assume so. Like there was no concerns left from the great ants battle...


    Finding herself unconsciously opening the system log and thinking too much, Alicestopped. Right. There was something much more important to her. The girl made her way back into the tunnels while gathering her ammunition.


    At the dungeon''s entrance, surprisingly, her lamp was still lying on the ground. The ants had tipped over but not damaged it. Alice just wiped the dustoff and kindled the fuse.


    Soon, the girl was a little anticipating when she dived in the dark.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    System message!


    You are leaving Emerald Caves (Dungeon Lvl. 0-16)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It is increasing after all! Alice noticed the maximum level of the dungeon went up by one immediately and felt uneasy. Not because of something she had been expecting to see, but because of a smell. Very heavy sour smell. Draught pushed it in her nostrils and the girl grimaced as she crawled through the hole in the wall.


    Alice crawled out and stood up. Dizziness hit her in the head right away. The magic in the air was gone. Or at least, she couldn''t sense it anymore, had no means to know for sure. The girl walked through the cramped, rocky passage. already missing nice illumination from the dungeon. The ground too, it was uneven, bumpy, not at all easy on her feet.


    The smell was getting stronger. Breathing with her mouth, Alice pointed her spear forward to be safe, the lamp''s dancing fire blinked on the blade. Fifty meters passed slowly...


    Alice stopped. Yellow blood was stinking to the point it started to tingle her eyes. Oozing out from broken carapaces, it was covering the ground and the walls. The black bodies were laid down and on each other chaotically, numbered between a dozen and two.


    Twisted legs, fractured heads, broken antennas, the ants died a messy death. The short girl felt her stomach revolting because of the smell or the sight. System didn''t send her status messages so no life remained in these monsters.


    If it was me at level zero... I would be dead meat.


    How much luck a person could waste in one day? Alice shuddered. But if it were me there right now... With a fair amount of disgust, the girl stepped right on a fairly big ant. Not like she had much choice.Level one Stealth skill had its limitations: the corpse crunched nastily and the girl stopped and focused.


    Here it was, an invisible tide pushed her back, softly like a memory of morning breeze. Energy unlike any other, the magic was being summoned in the portal cavern. A tiny share of it must have been coming from the dungeon, Alice realized, which had provoked system''s 12-hours shutdown.


    "I am not a monster." She stated confidently and loudly. "I am a human." Alice then followed the ''what if'' line of thought and added: "A person."


    A few words managed to stir the other side and disrupt the flow of magic, but the girl didn''t move, only waited patiently.


    "...shou...uself." An answer finally came, all but both inaudible and illegible.


    "Okay. Right." Alice felt incredibly nervous but it didn''t make her discard her wits: "There are monsters all around, you know?.. Fuck, you do, ehm. I am armed. I won''t attack you first, but I will be ready for everything, okay?"


    "...ine..."


    Now she could exhale with relief. Alice was so not ready to deal with magic that in fact she also dropped her shoulders and closed her eyes for a moment.


    Excited as she was, the girl passed to the entrance unhurriedly and with enough noise.


    The portal was inside the cave. Only the scenery had changed.


    Two dead centipedes were also inside, though in different positions and not as Alice left them.


    A person was there.


    Alice''s mind firstly registered feminine figure in a tight blue robe. So it was her. Of course, she was taller and more curved. Most girls were. The stranger was young, a teen. She was leaning against a wall and pointing her left hand right at Alice.


    The short girl didn''t point her spear back, no. She prepared to dodge and meanwhile gazed at the stranger''s hand in wonder. The air around it was swirling and glowing slightly, coloring white skin in pale blue. No brainer, a dangerous spell that killed all these ants with some sort of a bludgeoning force.


    "I..." the young girl started haggardly, "mot..."


    Light in her hand disappeared. Her eyes briefly showed whites before she dropped down along the wall and sprawled across the floor powerlessly. Alice watched motionlessly, stupefied for a few seconds until she snapped out of it and rushed over. No-no-no, fuck, don''t you die onme now. She reached down to turn the unconscious girl up. Her body was soft as if not having any bones and not heavy at all. There was no resistance or any reaction to speak of when Alice checked her breathing, took her pulse ¨C both weak, but steady. Then the short girl calmed a little to look closer.


    The co-victim of system-tailored disaster was a pure white girl. She had long straight hair of the brightest blonde color Alice ever saw. Natural beauty, she thought with contradicting feelings of fascination and jealousy and then frowned. There was blood under the small pointed nose and on the thin yet somehow plumpy lips of the sleeping beauty. Her narrow face was too pale. Alice touched smooth skin with some shyness, moved fingers up, opening the right eye. It was emerald green, extremely catchy. It was also circled with burst blood vessels.


    Alice looked around more frantically than she would normally be. The girl new basics of the first aid, how to bandage a cut or do mouth-to-mouth ¨C and no matter how thrilling the last idea was, the right one it was not.


    Oh? Isn''t that..? Her eyes caught glass vials on the floor. Three pieces she saw immediately, and there were two more after a second glance. All empty. A deductive chain of reasonings instantly formed in Alice''s head. Her hand dug into a pocket of her jacket and brought to dim light a Lesser Antitoxin potion.


    Neutralizes potion abuse... No wonder she could grind so many ants. Mana potions are cheat. Not like Alice was envious or anything. But to be sure, she continued to observe. In a few minutes, the sleeping beauty was breathing sporadically with erratic heartbeats and the lips turning blue. The assured in the diagnoses girl finally nodded and fed her with the antitoxin.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    With some pity Alice left the beauty to rest on the hard ground. Now only to wait... There was nothing for her to do after all. She had checked the blonde''s robe for other system elixirs ¨C empty. Had summoned the shop just in case ¨C not working.


    Foreseeing lots of dirty work, Alice begrudgingly stood up. Then she suddenly remembered something and stopped to muse for a moment.


    "Ah." Glancing down at the pretty face in revelation, the girl smirked. "You are not alone."


    Feeling accomplishment and giddiness from the lingering horrid stench Alice turned away cooly and for the first time gazed at the portal.


    ...


    ...what the. actual. "FUCK!"


    <hr>


    Time passed and soon citizens of Greystone City learned they were not alone in their tragedy.


    Megalopolises. Towns. Farms. Small communities. Mountain villages. Ocean liners. Lost tribes. In the country and beyond.


    Disappearing people wasn''t an attack on the nation, no. A natural disaster of a black spawn kind, more likely. Relative numbers were small, just a fraction of a percent. Millions of people ¨C either genocide of statistic, depending on point of view.


    Earth had changed at that moment. Unbeknown to humans yet, Earth had changed.


    It swept over the world.


    What had been lost long.


    Forgotten and erased.


    To the Earth''s core and to the farthest stars.


    What was dead, remained unliving.


    Who was sleeping, saw new dreams,


    Lingering through heartless time...


    A woman had once decided that she was a witch. History was in her family just that: history. Old books, old legends. The woman lacked guidance and care when she needed them. Once she believed in the old books nothing could change that. Insane most would say and would be right ¨C the woman was certainly beyond their definition of sanity.


    Then certain things had happened. Strange things. The woman spoke with ghosts and learned their secrets, cured diseases with her strange, kinky rituals. Coincidences most would say and would be right. Nothing the woman had done went beyond common reasons. But she had gathered some momentarily lost souls around herself, or maybe simple doubters in common reasons.


    Time passed and the woman turned into an old woman with long white hair and dignified looks. A young mother had come to her, mother with a baby boy so sick modern medicine had given him only ten years of life. A young mother desperate enough to seek a witch.


    The old woman was asked to heal that time, fortunately since she never shied away from curses. She believed being a witch, after all. Not good, not bad. The old woman agreed, gathered her grasses, a tongue of a frog, blood of a virgin and who knows what else. She drew symbols of power, placed the baby inside, fed him with a witchcraft potion.


    And the boy got cured, right before the witch and the mother.


    The mother was crying happily, hugging her son.


    The witch was looking at the sky with a strange smile and fires in her old saw-this-all eyes. Laughing silently.


    She felt young again.


    A fishing ship was cutting into waves of the Atlantic ocean, a shore of Iceland just two hundreds of meters behind the starboard. The captain intended to circle the island from the north-east, having picked a routine route. The weather was sunny and almost cloudless, in one word nice, and so the sailors'' mood. No one on board had their relatives missing. The world''s problems hardly mattered to working men who had to feed their families.


    The ocean''s turmoil and rocking water, therefore, caught them completely unprepared. It came suddenly, without howls of wind and torrents of rain, smashed into the port board, tilted the ship hard. Only years of experience saved the team from losing anyone to hostile depths.


    Among hasty commands, swearings came up in abundance. The sailors were more surprised than scared and the ship scooped enough water to keep them occupied. The turmoil didn''t end there either, although not as strong anymore as at first, it was still trowing the ship up and down.


    That they didn''t notice at first was nothing strange.


    That they didn''t believe their eyes when they did notice.


    The ocean was running away from the shores of Iceland, exposing rocks and sands that hadn''t breathed the air for thousands of years. Shells were covering the naked bottom of the ocean, shells and occasional unlucky fish. The lowest tide of them all? Such a thought was an obvious one until one sailor didn''t scream "The island is rising up!" and indeed it was so.


    Not only up. It was moving, visually turning around before the sailors'' very eyes while their ship was escaping from the ocean floor with its fastest speed.


    Not many were obvious to the world''s changes in the past days.


    A bearded mountain climber exhaled cold rarefied air and glanced ahead. Myticas, the highest peak of Olympus, was waiting for him to overcome the last two, maybe three hundreds of meters. In good weather, the mountain was friendly even to tourists who lacked special training, but he wasn''t one of them.


    The man had lost his wife just a month ago. Faithless as he was, there was no deep meaning in him choosing mountain Olympus. Yet still, this ascent was his spiritual, even if not a little goalless journey in a sense so he had chosen no easy path.


    The man continued to climb up dully. A meter after a meter, one steady step followed by another.


    The breeze pushed into his back. The climber ignored, but the wind got stronger fast and he frowned. The direction felt wrong. Upwards? And then, abruptly, the scenery altered entirely.


    There was light.


    Golden and lofty.


    The peak disappeared in it; the man froze, overwhelmed. No, not just overwhelmed. The light had weight, hardness. It stopped all movements without any pressure, gently yet irresistible like a mother''s embrace. The light eclipsed Myticas, shined onto surrounding lands.


    The ground shifted and the climber subconsciously lowered his eyes. A staircase unnoticeably appeared, built from myriads of marble tiles. The light purged all shadows and dust. Far ahead, behind the brilliant but not blinding golden curtains, he distantly saw pure white outlines.


    Walls of a temple? Palace? Or even town? No matter how hard he looked, the man couldn''t discern anything and felt desperate. Somehow, he knew: what he was seeing was going to change everything. His life or even...


    A soft sigh entered his ears and the man vanished.


    <hr>


    Spoiler: Status!


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="12">Alice Sung-Hyun Branson</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Age:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">16</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Classes</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Race:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Human/???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunter (common)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Exp:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">8,600/14,000</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">??? (???)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">6</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Battle Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2,763</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">Attributes</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Strength: 6.5


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Mind: 9.0


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Endurance: 6.7


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Will: 8.9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Dexterity: 9.1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Perception: 9.4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Agility: 7.8


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Wits: 9.1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Absolute Body Control</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: ¨C</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Like a magical undead being, you are lacking muscle memories and have to control your body at all times. You can completely avoid unnecessary movements; your Perception reaction bypasses instincts.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunt</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (2)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hide from sights, track your prey and take it down. This skill provides a specific hunting experience for all your ''Hunter'' templates-related skills.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Bow</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 2 (3)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Nock an arrow, aim, and shoot. Three months of training with a bow.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spear</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 3 (4)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Choose your stance and pierce your enemy. Nine months of training with a spear.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Observation (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 3 (MAX)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">As a child of nature, you can discern signs of life and behavior patterns in a complex landscape. </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stealth (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Basic ability to conceal oneself in a complex landscape.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Butchering (Animals)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">A child of nature is capable of providing herself with provisions.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 8 – When spoilers are spoilerish enough already

    The world was grey. Sticky like a bog, sunless, soundless. Over the chapped ground hanged grey skies without clouds as far as an eye could see. Miles, dozens. Hundreds. The sight would fail a casual onlooker before the horizon would deign to appear.


    On boundless plains, a person was walking, vested in a grey dress, laps mending with the ground and skies. The person was a woman and the only colors that were not grey belonged to her. The face, the eyes lacked emotions. Not cold, just¡­ dispassionate. How long she had been walking was impossible to say. The ground kept no traces of her bare feet.


    There was no meaning in her walk. The scenery wouldn¡¯t change no matter what. The chasm was simply too vast to cross, to measure. Still, the woman never stopped. She walked and walked¡­


    Until she suddenly opened her eyes as a girl with white pale skin in a strange robe laying on hard rocks.


    ¡°Still alive.¡± She spoke with amazement. Well, not exactly spoke, wheezed out from her dry throat.


    Her body was hurting in many places so the girl moaned pitifully. Pain. One of the unfortunate implications of having the body in the first place. Made of soft flesh, brittle bones, foul liquids, and other disgusting stuff to be exact. Mostly of uncontrolled nerves and useless brain activities right now though.


    Instinctively, the girl turned around to disconnect hurting places from the stone floor. It did help somewhat but very soon the limbs she hadn¡¯t been feeling at all started to act up, bringing brand new sensations.


    It¡¯s nothing like a simulation! The girl thought...


    ¡°Ah! Nh! Hi! Mhm!¡± ¡­while her mouth was letting out all sorts of embarrassing sounds.


    The dreadful torture didn¡¯t last for long. The girl was able to sigh with relief soon. She even teared up. No, not her¡­


    ¡°You woke up.¡±


    ¡°Hi!!!¡±


    It was not her, it was her body!


    No way she would react this way!


    Instincts are b¡­


    No swearing, no swearing.


    The main point, not her. Yep.


    The girl exhaled and looked suspiciously at the owner of the voice. A girl. Small one. Can¡¯t be a kid¡­ doesn¡¯t sound like it. The little stranger approached and lifted an archaic lamp that caught her attention. Really, the thing was using fire to light up the surroundings! Chemical fire! What is it, like four hundred years old? Shouldn¡¯t it reside in a museum?


    Oh. It must be a system¡¯s item, she lost the interest and switched to the stranger.


    The little girl had a mature face. Not beautiful, but not ugly by any means either. Narrow steel-colored eyes were giving away her Han heritage. Most likely third generation? Mainland or peninsula though was hard to tell. She had pointed nose, sharp cheekbones and chin, thin lips. Alas, the only quality deserving a prolonged stare at her back was the girl¡¯s short hair, black like a raven¡¯s wing and shining like a starry night. Straight, it was covering her ears and neck while keeping the forehead open.


    Shortly speaking, it seemed the girl had yet to use any number of appearance corrections despite having a raw base for that. Would be admirable a century ago when such practices were frowned upon but in the current age, it had zero sense. There are social standards to follow, you know? Ever heard of the doctrine of perfection?


    Of course, she kept the critique to herself. The girl was armed to the teeth, for God''s sake! Barbarically so. A sword on her belt, a bow and arrows on her back. She remembered her having a spear too. Spear...


    From her laying position, the girl looked around frantically. The cave. The passage. She remembered... she remembered...


    Her hand swung up to cover the nose, the look on her face was completely hideous as the eyes sprung to the side where she...


    "I cleaned up after you." Again with this voice, both cold and sarcastic. The steel eyes for a brief moment showed full depths of irritation with it.


    "I..." She glanced and indeed saw only yellow stains left. The acidic smell wasn''t that unbearable as she had imagined for a moment. Memories though, memories were flashing in her mind as she tried to push coherent words out of her mouth: "I... sso..."


    "Here." The voice softened somewhat. A reaching hand that held a half-filled bottle of water provoked her on a greed dry gulp. "Hard times, huh. Sorry, I suppose?"


    The tone wasn''t apologetic at all though.


    "But I really want to hear the story about this space station you came from. The one I can clearly see in on the other side of this damn... portal."


    <hr>


    Alice watched the awoken beauty finishing off her water supplies for a few moments before walking away. She had been waiting hours for answers, surely several minutes wouldn''t crush her patience.


    "Very sci-fi." The short girl started to comment as she stared right into starry space inside the portal. "I don''t see anything like engines I can recognize, so space station is it. The form is close to ocean liners, why? Well, this part is different. Strongly."


    Theatrically, Alice pointed at the notable section with her index finger. A giant disc was dividing the space station into two and was slowly rotating clockwise.


    "I am not that bad with math, you know. This station is two kilometers long, give or take. Look at the outer part of this section. Very wide but not high, it rotates at a very specific speed. Space lacks gravity in common sense, right? Centrifugal force here is intended to mimic it, right? This is the habitual part of this station, right?"


    Hearing herself raising the voice, Alice inhaled forcefully and closed her eyes for a moment. Logically speaking, there was no reason to confront the elephant in the room so forcefully. Being social, friendly would be surely far more fruitful, right?


    But this was a too freaking big elephant! My entire world, myEarth could not sponsor, let alone hide such elephant, right? Right?! On the inside, Alice was screaming curses on this continuing breakdown of her old nice world. On the outside, she was like a statue with every muscle frozen by the power of will and skill. Mostly skill.


    "Now it''s obvious the two of us are from universally different places." She spoke after a pause in an aloof way. "I wouldn''t mind normally, not with how crazy this day has been already. A lie. I would mind, but system broke my common sense, I get that, shouldn''t be surprised by anything by now. A rant, I know. The point is..."


    Even more theatrically, Alice crossed her arms behind her back and nodded at the portal:


    "A few sections of this station blew up at some point. Internally, I should add. Constructions are bent outward, you see. The station stopped losing atmosphere only recently. See these little dots flying around? These are people. The portal, the door, this thing moves over time. I saw them up close. No safe cables, no propulsion systems, nothing, but they maneuver freely. Fascinating."


    Indeed she sighed as if of envy.


    "Did you experiment with the space-time continuum? I am not crazy, it''s a trope. A science experiment goes wrong, boom, things happen. Like giant bugs and dungeons things. So did you?"


    The silence lingered. Alice continued staring in the portal, hearing only a rustle of cloth behind.


    "Did we? Yes, yes, we did." The blonde beauty answered frankly, albeit weakly and Alice clenched her fists. "This is Final Hope. Both the station and the experiment. A trivial name, want I admit myself, but it does hold quite a significance, very literally, for everyone."


    An experiment, huh. Should I be glad for narrow escape for our planet with LHC potentially having created a black hole?


    Alice turned around while keeping her face cool.


    "Let''s play it fair, shall we? You answer my question, I answer yours." The voice was nice to an ear, deep yet melodic. She smiled: more the blonde girl was speaking, more liven up she seemed. "Actually, it''s too old a game for our so novel circumstances. Change of the rules: if one of us asks a question, she should answer it too if possible. Ideally, little personal details spoken of freely are to be met fairly by the other party.


    Of course, a demonstration of goodwill is essential. Very well. My name is Kristine Mefodievna of the Oligovichi, <em lang="ru-Latn" title="Russian language text">knyaginya russkaya."The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Alice managed to keep the poker face but lost her words here. Fortunately, Kristine didn''t plan to stop with just an introduction.


    "Our primal mission was folding and puncturing of space, so to speak. I hope you are not against me withholding specific secret details, yes? Great." When Alice nodded mechanically, she rejoiced for some reason. "Our current predicament was not the goal, this I assure you. In fact, it''s baffling me to no limit. May I ask, did you have some... body modifications? Anything to check?"


    "...huh? Sorry, I am still lost on... fuck." Alice touched her teeth with her tongue and suddenly became angry. "Fuck!"


    She didn''t realize Kristine wrinkling at her swearing.


    "I should have noticed. Damn. I had a dental filling. Had."


    "Filling? I don''t... oh." Realization sparkled in green eyes. "What an old technique!"


    Alice waited for continuation but only saw expectations on Kristine''s face slowly becoming resentful. What an open girl, she admired with a hidden chuckle, which surprised her.


    "I am Alice. I don''t have titles or anything. Just your average American citizen."


    "American?" Kristine looked both joyful with the acceptance of her game and confused by Alice''s words, but smiled soon. "Since it''s within your customs, you can call me Kristine."


    The girl gave her approval dead seriously. Alice, being not a stereotypical American on a vacation, just wisely answered with a nod.


    "My whole body was artificial."


    Kristine casually dropped a bomb.


    "And how is it?" Nothing else came to her mind, honestly.


    "Inconvenient. Slow. Everything is so... abrupt. I don''t like pain." The blonde girl shared. "Wait, I will try to stand. Can you watch me not to break something? I feel so fragile."


    "I meant how... your old body... was..." Murmured Alice to no one in particular.


    Kristine moved up comically awkwardly, holding onto a wall with her both hands. The short girl even wondered how she had managed to fight back monster ants, but didn''t ask. Magic, right?


    "Phew." The blonde looked very pleased with herself. "I have no idea how. The experiment was near its end, I was correcting a few parameters on a fly... then I was here. Then this system messaged me and before I had any chance to make sense of it I had been attacked. These creatures kept coming in waves of two at a time so I looked through the system shop to find a weapon.


    Fortunately... and unfortunately as it happens there were these mind clearing potions. They helped. Then I got sick from them ¨C is it a correct word to use, got sick? Ten times worse than a simulation''s safe block. My following memories are vague. You probably know the rest."


    Alice knew. In return, she told pretty much everything that happened to her starting from the boring lecture. She talked briefly, but her head start gave her more history to share. Next, the two girls very cooperatively exchanged exact system messages they received.


    "I had no test." Kristine denied. "No sign of anyone acting strangely, nothing of sort. Emphasizing, I was connected to the station network and had full authority."


    "But I did. Psychological test, physical, inner energy, and magic tests."


    She didn''t recount exact results though.


    "Ah, an explanation is necessary." The blonde girl frowned and lifted her palm. The air above spun with a whistle. "These are telekinetic abilities. Yes, they were enhanced frighteningly and even unbelievable, I am willing to agree here."


    Kristine''s Earth ¨C and Alice was still in a mild shook from this ''different Earth'' setting discovery to the point she temporarily ignored random revelations ¨C apparently had such a thing. Not a magic thing.


    "I could lift a pen so my ability was the undisputed peak."


    "We don''t have scientifically proved paranormal abilities although I am not that sure now."


    But they still have pens! If it even means the same thing!


    "Oh."


    "What is it?"


    "What language are you speaking right now?" Alice asked with her eyes searching something on the ceiling.


    "Russkiy. O-oh."


    "American English. Yeah."


    "I feel stupid. You shouldn''t have asked." Complained Kristine. Her slightly flushed cheeks looked adorable, and it was a good sign that Alice recovered some spirit to pay attention to these little details.


    "I feel ya."


    No one asked a meaningless ''how''.


    <hr>


    Kristine was pondering her or maybe their next course of actions. Alice might look small but she recognized in her a little smart person from a backward society. In their circumstances, the last fact was of no matter. Knyaginya was still under the impression of the heroic tale the small girl had told. Killing so many monsters by using one''s fleshly body and cold weapons definitely earned praise.


    "Let''s not beat around the bush."


    "What bush?"


    Kristine switched from her thoughts with great vigor despite Alice making a very serious face.


    "...it''s an idiom. It means that the translation is literal."


    "I noticed as well. Remarkably how it disposes of the accents and synchronizes with movements of our lips." Kristine smiled sweetly. "So why do you want to stop to walk around and about?"


    The eyes of the short girl sparkled, and not in a playful manner. Knyaginya pretended not to notice.


    "Do we cooperate fully or not? System wants us to complete the dungeon, signs all are here. How this shop works, one exit from this place, so on."


    "I want to say that we should..." Kristine started slowly.


    "But you are afraid that this is a trap of some sort, an insane experiment, alien social study, very convincing hallucination."


    Alice listed calmly. Involuntary, the blonde girl uttered:


    "I am impressed."


    "One of us can be a tool of system or the system''s creator."


    What a bold smirk.


    "Now it''s just preposterous."


    "Yeah, pushing it further than a fun conspiracy theory would be a stretch."


    At least for now.


    "At least now."


    She is bold.


    "Very good. I accept full cooperation on the path to survival." Kristine sighed and smiled. "I can''t see a reason to push the decision either, right?"


    "Riiight. Then your game is still in force."


    "Don''t look so disappointed. What do we need first... oh, I know. My true chronological age is fifteen years."


    Still smiling, Kristine didn''t even bother to hide her eagerness to find out the true age of the little bold girl.


    Spoiler: Status!<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="12">Alice Sung-Hyun Branson</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Age:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">16</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Classes</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Level</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Race:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Human/???</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunter (common)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Exp:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">8,600/14,000</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">??? (???)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">3</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Skill Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">6</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Battle Points:</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">2,763</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">...</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="4">Attributes</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Strength: 6.5


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Mind: 9.0


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Endurance: 6.7


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Will: 8.9


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Dexterity: 9.1


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Perception: 9.4


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Agility: 7.8


    </td>


    <td style="text-align: center" colspan="2">Wits: 9.1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Absolute Body Control</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: ¨C</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Like a magical undead being, you are lacking muscle memories and have to control your body at all times. You can completely avoid unnecessary movements; your Perception reaction bypasses instincts.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hunt</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (2)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Hide from sights, track your prey and take it down. This skill provides a specific hunting experience for all your ''Hunter'' templates-related skills.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Bow</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 2 (3)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Nock an arrow, aim, and shoot. Three months of training with a bow.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Spear</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 3 (4)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Choose your stance and pierce your enemy. Nine months of training with a spear.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Observation (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 3 (MAX)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">As a child of nature, you can discern signs of life and behavior patterns in a complex landscape. </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Stealth (Nature)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Basic ability to conceal oneself in a complex landscape.</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Butchering (Animals)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">Lvl: 1 (1)</td>


    <td style="text-align: center">A child of nature is capable of providing herself with provisions.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>