《Apocalypse? No, it is heaven!》 Chapter 1 - Darkness is light for some [Welcome to the apocalypse!] Is what made everyone in my class start to scream. Of course there where a few outliers like me who was thankful for it but let¡¯s ignore it for now. [I don¡¯t like explaining so I will only do this once. You, the puny mortals I could kill purely by accident, will be given a chance to rise to bugs, maybe even animals if your lucky. We will be playing a game. There will be levels but it won¡¯t be as you expect. Skills, inventory, quests¡­ no. There are achievements but they are hard and unknown. There is a shop but most will die before gaining access. Want to learn magic? Well it¡¯s always been around you and you have to learn it on your own so maybe, maybe if your lucky a magical beast will preform some in front of you and you pick it up. The first stage is zombies¡­ totally non-magical. Atleast dreams still exist right? Sigh, I guess I¡¯ll get to the good news. Since it¡¯s a game with HP and MP you still are technically immortal and don¡¯t need food, water, sleep or exercise but that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t die. In fact you can die easily, extremely easily. Good luck you microscopically weak mortals.] During the announcement I could already hear screams in the distance. Unlike the panic in my classroom, these where screams that could only come from extreme pain, let¡¯s say¡­ being eaten alive pain? By nature I have always planned things like escape routes in my head while bored so once I saw the announcement I didn¡¯t hesitate. The class is currently in the drama room with another class joining us to make around fifty people. The room itself is massive and it is two stories high. Jumping up on a box used as stage sets I jumped again to grab the metal bar supporting all the lights used during a play and pulled myself up to a sitting position. A few others followed my lead but the majority stayed on the ground, shocked and scared. It was disappointing how useless all these so called ¡®elites¡¯ where. However even if they where disappointing I don¡¯t want to watch them being eaten. There¡¯s no exit in this room from the bars unless I can reach a locked window with metal bars over it. The teacher has the keys so right now I am safe but stuck. ¡°Stop panicking! Close and lock all the doors and windows and block everything off with the stage props or you will die from this!¡± I yelled as loud as I could from my position. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect that from you Jean.¡± One of my fellow bar mates commented as most of the people on the ground began to act. ¡°The teacher has the keys¡± He burst out laughing at that while looking at the barred window that I was pointing at but no one else noticed with the commotion. After a few minutes the room was semi secure but we could already hear the moaning and banging at the door that is characteristic to zombies. Soon, they will break through. In that time I checked my ¡®status¡¯. [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 0 HP: 230 MP: 440 Strength: 17 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 13 Intelligence: 34 Wisdom: 56 Charisma: 42 Luck: 50 Unallocated Status Points: 50 It was surprisingly high but considering my build it wasn¡¯t unexpected. I hate to sound vain but I have always been charismatic and handsome, being named the ¡®Prince¡¯ by many of my fellow students due to both my temperament and looks. The reality is just that I hated reality so I tried to distance myself from it but because of that everyone seems to think I¡¯m some noble figure¡­ well, almost everyone. Even I have some friends. The vitality was about what I expected since I would have super human regeneration otherwise but I train a lot so my muscles are well developed towards a speed build. Luck¡­ I¡¯ve always been lucky. Brain? Well it¡¯s amazing how much of a genius I used to be but depression robbed most of my mental capacities. When the announcement came I felt it all flood back as the depression disappeared which felt amazing. Can¡¯t have a game character being depressed after all. So I¡¯m one of those people that everyone envies and looks up to, for better or worse. For now it means I have a lot of leadership over the students but it also means I will most likely be attacked by my fellow students once they realise the laws are invalid. A lot of people envied me in my high school life and a lot of people would happily scar, bully or kill me because of that envy. I was born with everything they lacked and they hate me for it. [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 0 HP: 400 MP: 440 Strength: 30 Dexterity: 43 Vitality: 30 Intelligence: 34 Wisdom: 56 Charisma: 42 Luck: 50 Unallocated Status Points: 0 The change felt amazing but I couldn¡¯t really describe it other than saying my body just leaped miles higher than I had ever dreamed all at once. My stats sorted out perfectly to first increase my strength and vitality to twenty and then thirty while adding twenty to my dexterity and it leaves me with a fairy balanced character. How strong are the zombies that they could warrant giving us so many stat points at the start? The idea sent a shiver up my spine. I was already next to the window so I tested trying to pull the metal off of it with my new strength. It seems I¡¯m still a little off from that but I did slightly crack the plaster it was attached to. ¡°Miss Green, can you throw me the keys? We need to get everyone on the roof before the barriers break¡± I raised my voice loud enough for everyone to hear. ¡°It¡¯s the one with the blue kitten!¡± She yelled as she chucked it up. Unfortunately she completely missed so another student threw it for me. Looking at the dozens of keys on the key ring I found it easily and unlocked the grate, opening the window. ¡°Everyone get up here and out the window. For anyone who can¡¯t climb up someone help them. Check your status if you haven¡¯t already while the others are climbing up.¡± I told them all. Jumping down I came over to help anyone should they need it¡­ which in hindsight was a bad idea considering many females tried to act as if they couldn¡¯t. Sighing I passed the job over to another guy who was all too happy to help, much to the girls annoyance. What surprised me was that¡­ everyone had different starting stats to assign with me being the only one over thirty. It didn¡¯t make sense but it must be something like grading me off of my past achievements? Or maybe it¡¯s a pity boost? After all being depressed for several years really is horrible beyond what most people would imagine. [*DING*] [As the first and last able to save over fifty panicking people at the start of the apocalypse without a single death you have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (lesser) enhancement to your body!] [Lesser enhancement: Night Vision!] [As the first to complete an achievement, you have earned an achievement!] [You have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (lesser) enhancement to your body!] [Lesser enhancement: Far Sight!] While it was shocking it wasn¡¯t unpleasant. It seems to be keyed towards vision however so it makes me wonder why. Well for now ¡®Status¡¯. [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 0 HP: 500 MP: 540 Strength: 40 Dexterity: 53 Vitality: 40 Intelligence: 44 Wisdom: 66 Charisma: 52 Luck: 60 Unallocated Status Points: 10 So everything got boosted by five for each achievement, even my unallocated points¡­ this is definitely valuable to know. Sicking with the patter I dumped ten into my dexterity. The fact that I almost tripled my general dexterity in a single day is amazing, especially since I was already one of the fastest in the school. By now everyone was on the roof and I was down below scavenging anything I thought to be useful as a weapon before passing it up to a friend of mine next to the window. Things like the metal legs of a table to chair, broom sticks that I snapped the head off of and even the occasional bat that we had here as stage props. There where no ¡®good¡¯ weapons really other than the bats but anything was better than nothing. ¡°Jean one¡¯s coming through¡± My friend warned as a barricade fell. ¡°Don¡¯t worry I got it. We still need more weapons so I¡¯ll take it out first¡± I called out as I prepared the bat which I kept with me just in case. ¡°Jeez bro, no need to act hero. We both know that we¡¯re going to ditch this group soon anyway¡± He¡¯s right, I never liked the hero role and would rather travel with one or two people I trust than a whole group of potential backstabbers. ¡°Who said I¡¯m acting the hero Leo? A corpse of exp is walking towards me as we speak. But I know what your talking about. It¡¯s not like me to help people I don¡¯t trust right? There¡¯s no reason not to so it¡¯s better to sow some goodwill now in case we meet them again in the future.¡± I told him simply as I swung my bat down with all my force onto the corpses head. Above it¡¯s head there was a name (corpse) and a level (7) but once it died they disappeared, along with the corpse who turned into black dust and left behind three copper coins and a dagger. First bladed weapon, get! [You have levelled up x2!] [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 2 HP: 500 MP: 550 Strength: 41 Dexterity: 64 Vitality: 40 Intelligence: 45 Wisdom: 66 Charisma: 52 Luck: 60 Unallocated Status Points: 10 ¡°That¡¯s weird. Hey Leo, I got an extra point to strength, dexterity and intelligence since the last time I looked but I¡¯m not sure how. Anyway I levelled up twice from that and got five stat points for each. I think it¡¯s pretty good, you?¡± I spoke to him happily as the next two zombies where walking towards me.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Isn¡¯t it just like how we both had superior stats from the start due to our training? It¡¯s just rapid training that grants stat points. Here, I¡¯ll test it while your doing that.¡± He explained to me as he hung from the bar and started doing chin-ups. ¡°Tell me how it goes after.¡± I laughed happily as I decided to save the stats in case I can train them up. Quickly dispatching the two zombies and picking up the three and four copper coins dropped from their bodies I went and remade the barrier. It was just a bunch of wooden hollow boxes that where used as stage props so it wasn¡¯t really a sturdy barrier. Thankfully most of the windows where blocked with metal bars since the lighting and sound systems in here where expensive so there where only two barriers that had any risk of a breach, the two entrances that are on both sides of the stage leading to two rooms. [You have level up x2] ¡°I¡¯m going to try and clear out the other two rooms and lock them up as much as possible. If anyone stops freaking out enough to come check on us then tell them where I am.¡± I called out casually. ¡°Sure. By the way it works, I got a strength point¡± I felt a smile blossom on my face. Training is something I¡¯m very used to by now so it is naturally a massive advantage for us. Climbing over the barrier I was in the first room, a dancing class. The barriers where made in a panic and zombies had already entered this room so there where around six of them. Feeling it was a little hard but not undoable since I hadn¡¯t been noticed yet I quickly dashed up and plunged my dagger into the nearest one¡¯s head and used the momentum to send it into another zombie. Keeping my balance I spun around and bashed a head in before backing off. From the initial six, two where killed and one was grounded, struggling to get up with it¡¯s own natural stupidity, clumsiness and a body weighing it down. So I did dash attacks. I ran and kicked a zombie as hard as I could while swinging my bat with me into the one next to it where they where temporarily grounded as well before bashing the last standing zombie in the head, killing it instantly. The one half way up was killed before it could finish and I stomped on the others head, leaving the single trapped zombie to fight with. For some reason the corpses didn¡¯t disappear when it was used to trap the other one so maybe there are certain conditions that need to be met? But none of them disappeared¡­ ah, I get it. They don¡¯t despawn while in combat so the corpse won¡¯t disappear. I stomped the last zombies head and they all disappeared into dust, leaving 24 copper coins on the ground and a reinforced glove. Although it¡¯s only one, it¡¯s value is incomparable in a zombie apocalypse as it will let me use my hand to fight directly should I ever need to without the risk of infection. The coins where more than I expected but I can only guess it was because of the situation. Six zombies in a small room against a level two player. My stats are higher but in a game level can determine how much exp and rewards you get. My level hit seven from that fight and I have a total of twenty five stat points saved up. I secured the room easily. ¡°Leo, the first rooms done. Did you get any company?¡± I called out as I came back. ¡°Yeah a few people came to check it out but when they saw you missing they just went back without asking. As you can guess, they where all girls¡± He chuckled teasingly. ¡°Yeah yeah, laugh it up ¡®Prince¡¯s Butler¡¯.¡± I teased in revenge as he groaned at his nickname. Not bothering to lock up the other room which was a music class I proceeded to pull myself onto the bar again and climb out the window. Honestly I didn¡¯t check the situation outside yet since I was busy with finding weapons and clearing the zombies so when I emerged just in time to watch the chemistry building and a good chunk of the buildings around it explode I was stunned. Someone must have panicked and forgot to turn the gas off and since I assume no one was in there or they where but dead then it made sense that there was no one to press the emergency switch that cuts off the gas valve from the underground gas storage tank. I watched the fire blaze fiercely as I felt dread creep up my spine. Not only is fire a threat that could consume the entire school, it will also attract all the zombies to this area. Before it was infested¡­ but now it will just be a flood. ¡°What was th- holy shit!¡± Leo cried as he came out to see what made the noise. Jumping back through the window and off the bar I bolted towards the music room. I was originally going to leave it as a sort of farm for everyone by leaving it open so one or two zombies could trickle through but now that¡¯s not an option. There where only four zombies inside who I quickly dispatched and just made it to my eight level. Locking the doors and bringing the windows down to lock the metal in place I had the room secure again immediately. I¡¯m not sure if it will last depending on the strength zombies actually have considering I haven¡¯t seen any displays yet but atleast we won¡¯t have to stay on the roof. I¡¯m worried that if they see us up there they will swarm over each other to reach up. [You have levelled up x2] Well even the room being locked will make people feel safer. I doubt the fire will spread considering we are in a concrete wasteland of a school but the beacon it created is just as disastrous if not more so than the fire for us. ¡°Leo we can either bolt now or hold out for the horde to disperse. Both are equally life-threatening¡± I told him simply. ¡°Let¡¯s hold out. We aren¡¯t going to be able to find another safe area by night like here. All the entrances are boarded up with metal and we have curtains to cover the entire room, even the two connected to us. A night training our stats up will be useful anyway.¡± He got serious, something you don¡¯t often see with Leo. ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll go talk to the group.¡± I agreed. Truthfully the only thing bad about this place is the other people. Finding a place that is so secure, has curtains and an easy exit onto the rooftop is almost impossible for anything other than schools and prisons. Sure, they exist but it¡¯s hard to find. ¡°I¡¯ve cleared the zombies in the music and dancing room as well as locked all the doors and windows and covered them with the curtains. That fire will attract a horde so you all have a choice to run for it or hole up inside till they disperse. Personally Leo and I will hole up since we found that stats can be increased through training so this is fine for us but if you want to leave then do it now because the zombies are already starting to build up. This is the only chance you have before we are all stranded here¡± I interrupted their group argument as soon as I came up. They where deciding what to do as a ¡®group¡¯ while the reality was that most just wanted to bolt but they where wasting time because of fear. If it kept up they will be staying here whether they like it or not and telling them that broke their last resistance to leaving. About forty of the fifty people gathered in small groups and left the building after apologising to others and saying their goodbyes. They didn¡¯t try to fight zombies and instead stuck to running but it was inevitable that some where killed. The remaining of exactly twelve people stood in horror as they watched the scene, not willing to look but also not willing to take their eyes away. ¡°H-how could you¡­ they where people, friends, classmates! If you didn¡¯t tell us that they could have lived!¡± A girl screamed as I looked at her coldly. ¡°And what makes you think we will have a better chance of survival here? A horde of zombies will be surrounding us with no escape route. If they breach the building then we all die. They chose to run because they either thought they had a better chance out there or had family they cared about, don¡¯t blame me for something they chose. I simply stated reality so if you can¡¯t face it then keep that to yourself¡± I said coldly before heading back inside. ¡°Everyone off the roof or they will pile up over each other to get to us.¡± I ordered as an afterthought and they gulped. ¡°I really hate people like that. To cowardly to do anything themselves yet blame someone when things don¡¯t go their way.¡± Leo shook his head in disappointment. ¡°You don¡¯t have to comfort me Leo. Anyway let¡¯s get started on our training.¡± [Achievement: First person with 50+ stats in every category] [You have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (average) enhancement to your body!] [Average enhancement: Mental Mapping!] Neat, a few hours got me this. While it¡¯s surprising that I¡¯m the first I guess it¡¯s not unexpected. Even with levels you¡¯d have to gain a lot to catch up to me and the zombies are only level seven, maybe level eight if they kill enough people. It¡¯s dangerous to hunt them and they don¡¯t have the strength to do it rapidly. How many people start off with good stats, get ten extra points from achievements to it all, know that training improves strength and have a place where they can hole up? Yeah, I¡¯m guessing practically none. Well mental mapping is super useful considering we¡¯re in the middle of the city. I was expecting to get totally lost but if I remember everywhere that I¡¯ve been then I should be fine. [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 8 HP: 610 MP: 660 Strength: 62 Dexterity: 73 Vitality: 51 Intelligence: 56 Wisdom: 70 Charisma: 78 Luck: 61 Unallocated Status Points: 45 I had forty stat points saved from levelling and five from the new achievement while my stats went up a fair amount in a short time. The reason it took me so long was because vitality was by nature harder to train up to fifty one but the other stats went smoothly. I even got charisma boosts from the girls staring at my shirtless, muscular and sweaty body. It was kind of uncomfortable but I gained from it so why the hell not. The luck¡­ well, I¡¯m not actually sure how I got that unlike the other stats. The horde took two days to disperse during which time we both spent time training non stop before collapsing and continuing. Some others joined in as well but they were no where near our pace or dedication to it. Eventually I got a second achievement but I had to spend my points for it since luck was too hard to train. [Achievement: First person with 100+ stats in every category] [You have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (superior) enhancement to your body!] [Superior Enhancement: Vampiric Regeneration!] [Achievement: First person to reach the luck limit!] [You have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (unique) enhancement to your body!] [Unique Enhancement: Eyes of truth!] The regeneration was just like things healing super fast, not needing to suck blood to heal. It was a greatly appreciated boon for me. Eyes of truth where literally the ability to see the truth of the situation. I instinctually know that I can see traps, illusions, formations, lying, deceit etcetera. How it works I have no idea but my eyes got slightly darker from the usual shade of blue. We both confirmed that intelligence and wisdom can be improved simply by making plans for the future and running scenarios through our head so that was no issue but as before, vitality was the biggest problem. We actually had people bashing our stomachs with bats as we did chin-ups in order to boost it and the batters strength. [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 8 HP: 1120 MP: 1290 Strength: 127 Dexterity: 145 Vitality: 102 Intelligence: 119 Wisdom: 123 Charisma: 134 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 22 Thirty eight points to boost the luck from sixty two into one hundred. We also realised that charisma does actually make us look better. The ten points from the two achievements that boosted all the stats didn¡¯t work on luck for obvious reasons but they transferred to the unallocated stat points much to my delight. The building fared well in the horde due to the blinds, metal over the entry points and our own caution but we did have one breach from an unexpected place. A zombie smashed through the wall in the dance room. Since there was a glass mirror covering the wall I forgot that the wall itself was only plaster as it backs onto another room, unlike the others which where concrete. We thought that they would overwhelm us but a car alarm came just in time to lure them away and let us place a barrier there. ¡°Leo do you want to leave?¡± We where looking over the remains of what used to be a school. ¡°I do and I don¡¯t. On one hand the school is probably the safest place for us. If we shut the gates we can farm away all the zombies and then turn this place into a haven where we can get supplies and go out for raids. It really is a perfect farm. But on the other hand people will come here. Not just the ones we have with us but hundreds looking for shelter. Not only would it be uncomfortable and constricting, we would have to keep them safe and watch out for backstabbing. In the middle of a city with hundreds of people we will have a constant horde waiting for us outside the gates and if the gates would even hold is another matter entirely. I Really can¡¯t decide.¡± He told me honestly. His point is valid and I agree. Stone walls five metres tall with barbed wire surrounding the entire school and two gates of thick metal as the only entrances. Overall it is the safest place I could imagine finding for an apocalypse but there will be many others who know that as well. It will quickly turn into a human infestation problem and we can¡¯t just outright kill them either. Not only do we not have the power to protect it or the numbers, killing people is something that would be hard for us anyway. It¡¯s not like being anti-social with most people means we want to kill anyone. I know that I can do it if I need to but if I don¡¯t, would I? A mother and child begging for refuge, could I deny them of it? Could I kill them when they try to forcefully stay despite the threats? I doubt it. Maybe in a few years when my hearts been hardened by the apocalypse but right now it¡¯d be impossible. ¡°I¡¯m at the same impasse, that¡¯s why I asked you. How about we head back to my manor to pick up some swords and come back here to decide. Maybe seeing the outside situation will make it easier.¡± I suggested with a tired sigh. As much as I don¡¯t want to admit it all the training took a toll on my mind. I don¡¯t need to sleep anymore but the mind-numbing repetition and time used to do all that was tiring on it¡¯s own. ¡°Mine¡¯s closer. Besides, your family only has a small collection of swords that where given as a gift right? Mine has around a hundred so we will be able to find something good for both of us. Never thought I¡¯d be thankful of the hobbies that eccentric grandpa of mine has¡± He laughed. ¡°Atleast your father doesn¡¯t collect bugs¡± I said with a supressed shiver. Everyone is always talking about how men aren¡¯t scared by bugs but that¡¯s bullshit. A bug scares me a lot more than a zombie, that¡¯s for sure. ¡°He still does that? I haven¡¯t been to your house ever since we started highschool due to that damn tutoring. Even the training we do together at my place is hard to balance¡± He cursed as I laughed softly. ¡°Yeah he¡¯s never stopped much to mums annoyance. I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s why I hate bugs. Mum told me that when I was little and the power went out because of a storm I hid in the bug room and they found me balling my eyes out two hours later. Ever since the rooms been locked but he still uses it.¡± It¡¯s even gotten renovated to twice it¡¯s old size so it could fit more in. ¡°Hahaha what the hell? Why didn¡¯t you just leave?¡± ¡°How am I supposed to know, I don¡¯t even remember¡± ¡°Anyway do you think we¡¯ll survive this apocalypse? To us zombies aren¡¯t really a threat but the text box said it was just the beginning. I really wonder about what will happen if we where to die¡­¡± He trailed off. ¡°Idiot butler, stop thinking about such deep subjects, it¡¯s above your pay grade.¡± I joked as we headed back through the window. ¡°Haha yeah sorry sorry. I was just thinking about my sister¡­¡± ¡°Sis-con¡± ¡°Says the prince who asked his sister if they could get married¡± He reminded as I cringed. ¡°Hurry up and forget that already, idiot butler!¡± I was five for crying out loud! ¡°Of course, my lord¡± He sarcastically bowed extremely low. Getting everyone to gather together I began to speak. ¡°Leo and I are going off on our own for a while. I¡¯m not sure if we will come back but it¡¯s to check on our families so it will depend on what we find. We¡¯ll close the gates on the way so you can hunt the zombies in the school and make this a safe place if you want to but you can leave while the gates are still open if you wish.¡± I told them simply. ¡°W-what!? But your our best fighters! We don¡¯t even have weapons, let alone the will to kill!¡± A boy called out in panic. It¡¯s true, the self sacrificing idiots they are gave the weapons they had to the one¡¯s running away, leaving us two the only ones with bats and the odd awkward pipe or wood to them. ¡°Take our bats then. Closing the gates is already all we can do for you and if you only rely on us you will die as soon as we are separated or when we die. We can¡¯t just look after you forever and just like all of you we have our own families to think about as well. My sister is terrified of horror movies so she¡¯s probably hiding, absolutely terrified. I need to go home.¡± I told him without any room for negotiation. ¡°So that¡¯s why you suggested your house instead of mine. Sorry Jean, I didn¡¯t think about that.¡± Leo muttered to me. ¡°It¡¯s fine¡± I muttered back. ¡°B-but-¡° ¡°He¡¯s right Richard. We all trained a bit but we are still weak. Doesn¡¯t it bother you that at any time zombies could come walking through and eat you alive while we can do absolutely nothing about it? We can¡¯t just rely on others to protect us. Yes, there is strength in numbers but that is only when all the numbers have strength. Right now we are nothing but burdens and none of us have the right to tell them not to go check on their family.¡± It was the girl who tried to blame me for the others deaths. She apologised after she had a few hours to calm down and now she¡¯s turned into quite a capable person, the impromptu leader of the group. ¡°Richard right now my family could be getting torn to shreds and I have no idea whether they are even alive. The people who raised me and the siblings I was raised with, I would do anything to protect them. Do you really not understand that?¡± Leo asked as he showed seriousness once more. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry. I just got c-caught up in the moment¡± He lowered his head shamefully. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Whatever you want to do to get stronger I suggest you do it earnestly, whether it is training or fighting. Once you have the school cleared out things will be a lot safer and I can¡¯t think of anywhere in the city that would be more secure than it. Considering this is supposed to be a game, this is literally a starting area. The gym will have weapons, nets and maybe people. It also might be more secure than this place if you can rig up a ladder onto the roof or even blocking the entrances. In case we don¡¯t come back make sure to go on raids as you need to become stronger and gather resources. Find your family once you are strong enough. Moral means a lot in any sort of group so make sure to make this place into a home, hell even bring pets. If you don¡¯t have a place everyone loves then it will fall into chaos and power struggles.¡± I gave them a heap of advice. ¡°Jean¡­ thank you. For everything. If you didn¡¯t take charge when this started most of us probably would have died, coming back as those things. While I know some did when they left and the others might have later you gave all of us a chance so thankyou.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to thank me Miss Green, it¡¯s because you were here that the peace was maintained and no fights broke out. Everyone in both classes respects you because of what a wonderful teacher you are. That isn¡¯t something anyone else could have done¡± I denied immediately. ¡°I-I¡¯m fine¡± She said through her tears as everyone looked at her in concern as she began to cry when she heard it. ¡°Jean we have to go. We won¡¯t get to your house before nightfall if we don¡¯t¡± Leo reminded me sombrely. ¡°Yeah¡­ yeah, I know. Give it and hour and a half before you start clearing the zombies so we have time to close both gates. We¡¯ll be leaving now¡± I said as I handed my bat over. ¡°Keep it, we¡¯ll be able to find something to work with in this mess anyway. You¡¯re walking through the city, it¡¯s more useful to you.¡± The impromptu leader denied. ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yeah. You said they sometimes drop weapons right? We¡¯ll be fine.¡± She answered instantly. Accepting it, we both climber up onto the roof again through the window and went to where it was lowest before jumping down. ¡°Leo, we¡¯ve already gone through the plan. Let¡¯s do it.¡± I said in a low voice and he nodded. Our goal was to kill as many zombies on the way as possible. The resources they drop are valuable to us even if we still don¡¯t understand the value of copper coins and with our current stats we can escape easily using hit and run tactics. Over the next hour we proceeded to kill close to two hundred zombies as we closed the first gate and reached the second. We got a thousand copper coins for it that turned into ten silver coins (thankfully. Imagine how awkward and loud that is to carry) and I finally got a left glove while Leo got them as well. My weapon was upgraded to a small axe that could be wielded one handed while several daggers made their way onto my body with sheaf¡¯s included. I reached level nine barely while Leo is at level eight. We also found out that human bodies¡­ didn¡¯t disappear. Maybe it¡¯s just because they where a player or that a player didn¡¯t kill them but there where several bodies we found. They where only the ones that had their head damaged so it¡¯s safe to assume they would have turned into zombies had they not been injured in that place but regardless it was a gruesome sight. But I know that in the future¡­ we will have to learn whether we like it or not why the bodies didn¡¯t disappear. Closing the second gate on our way out we began to get more cautious. Even with the gates open the school was an area where we where relatively confident of our own survival but outside¡­ humans, hordes and even collapsing buildings since some where burnt out during the last few days and are on the verge of falling, dropping rubble. From what we¡¯ve observed as well electricity has stopped working. Everyone¡¯s phones, iPods, computers or tablets simply wouldn¡¯t turn on. Well it could just be that technology isn¡¯t working but I can¡¯t confirm it until a thunder storm passes by. And as such we where sneaking through the city and taking out any stray zombies we could. If we got noticed by too large of a group we would use our high dexterity to escape. This continued as a set pace for us until¡­ Chapter 2 - Human Scum And as such we where sneaking through the city and taking out any stray zombies we could. If we were noticed by too large of a group we would use our high dexterity to escape. This continued as a set pace for us until¡­ We found something worse than the undead. Five men in a store raping a woman and her seven year old looking daughter while the father lay dead at the side. The absolute lowest of humanity. I like the apocalypse because I¡¯m a thrill seeker and find the normal world boring and sick. Depression screwed with me a lot so to me it¡¯s the best thing which has happened to me. They are the sort of people however that like it for the pure chaos, death and misery. Acting as the scum of humanity¡­ rape is already bad. Seeing a little girl screaming in pain as a fat guy is raping her made me snap. Before I had even thought about it there was two knifes flying at the back of two of their heads leaving only three left. One more knife followed into another head before the last one landed in a shoulder as they narrowly dodged. Two against two however while one was injured and they where both naked was bad odds for them, not to mention our stats and training. They died almost as soon as they tried to fight back. It hit me even harder when this happened. [You have levelled up x1] [As you have reached level ten you will now get six stat points per level. Every time you hit the next group of ten a single stat point will be added.] [As a level ten player you have officially survived the initial opening of the apocalypse! As such the shop has been unlocked and a money inventory!] Somehow I gained off of those sick and depraved scum, making me feel sick. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ if we had arrived sooner this wouldn¡¯t have happened¡­ I¡¯m truly sorry¡± I said as I crouched down to make myself as unthreatening as possible. For half a dozen minutes after that they sobbed together after clothing themselves. The child probably understands partially what happened but the mother understands it much more. To be raped along with your daughter with your dead husband next to you¡­ just how horrible would that be? I¡¯ve always had this intense dislike against rape even before I understood what it was. I¡¯m not sure why, maybe it¡¯s another memory I have forgotten like the bug room or maybe it¡¯s just instinct but it terrifies me. I¡¯m not scared it will happen to me, I¡¯m scared it will happen to the people I care about. Every time I hear about it I feel angry and am utterly disgusted that people could do such a thing to others so seeing this hit me hard, harder than the whole apocalypse did. I know that there isn¡¯t a way I could have stopped it from happening but it still hurts. ¡°I don¡¯t know you or your personal circumstances and personality but with an apocalypse, his death and then¡­ this, I imagine your feeling pretty crappy right now. If I could have prevented that I would of but I couldn¡¯t. Now all I can do is offer you to come with us or go to the Shining Hope school a few kilometres away for safety. I¡¯m sorry that I can¡¯t do more but in this situation we¡¯re kind of limited in just how much we can do. It¡¯s up to you and I will wait for your decision. Do you want some time alone?¡± She nodded with a weak smile so I walked out onto the street with Leo. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked him softly. ¡°Y-yeah, kinda¡­ I never thought I¡¯d be in this position once again, completely helpless and weak despite having strength¡­¡± He laughed bitterly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± I told him simply as I brought him into a hug. His childhood friend was just like that little girl but unlike them, he was forced to watch, helpless, as the person he cared most about was raped for two days straight. Afterwards¡­ she made him promise to survive one sided and then killed herself. I know how much that impacted him when it was because of his status that they where kidnapped for ransom so I knew he was having a breakdown right now even though he tried to hide it. Being important¡­ isn¡¯t always as happy as people think it is. Sure enough he began crying as soon as I hugged him but five minutes later he stopped and pushed me away with embarrassment. Even if they are your best friend and your on the verge of a meltdown hugging between two guys is awkward when they are both straight. Well, atleast for that long with tears involved. ¡°Thankyou. I know I have no right to cry when it wasn¡¯t me to get hurt but¡­ thankyou.¡± He said while facing away from me. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be a very good prince if I couldn¡¯t even look after my friends right?¡± It was disguised in a joke but he realised what I was trying to say. ¡°yeah¡± He smiled. It was several years ago. He has atleast learned to cope so even though he was still in a sad mood he managed to calm down pretty easily. We chatted for a while and occasionally killed a zombie that came too close before we heard from the girls inside again. ¡°B-big brothers, why won¡¯t she won¡¯t wake up¡± She sobbed to us, making our hearts skip a beat and a chill climb my spine. I dashed in leaving the kid to Leo only to find the lady next to several empty pill bottles and spilled water with a hastily scribbled note. Checking her pulse and still feeling a slight heartbeat didn¡¯t make me any better. She¡­ she was still going to die. I had no idea how to fix this nor the equipment necessary and she was already on the edge of death. I watched helplessly as the shallow breathing stopped and the pulse stagnated before the warmth slowly began to drain away¡­ this lady just committed suicide and left their kid alone with two teenagers she doesn¡¯t know. ¡°Dammit!¡± I hit the floor and saw the tiles crack. I picked up the note with trembling hands. I can¡¯t. I was just a casual friend of the child¡¯s mother but she was eaten and I felt responsible despite knowing she wasn¡¯t my kid. Everyone I loved is dead, even my brother who survived the initial panic is now dead as well. Monsters are roaming the streets, both human and zombie, And I was raped. I can¡¯t. I don¡¯t care. I never should of tried to survive. Why the hell did this have to happen to me!? Until a few days ago I was happily married with the love of my life and had two kids but then he was turned into a monster and ATE my daughter and infant child, INFANT!! Even our dog¡­ I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t I can¡¯t I can¡¯t I can¡¯t I can¡¯t I can¡¯t! Just¡­ just let the pain disappear¡­ please. I¡¯m sorry. So she wasn¡¯t even the mother¡­ What the hell is this sick joke? I know that babies are dying¡­ I know that in an apocalypse people will suffer¡­ and I know that I like the apocalypse despite that but¡­ but why a child, why this child. Hasn¡¯t she gone through enough already? Her family dead and in a apocalypse with a lady she barely knows before being raped and having the lady who was looking after her abandon her¡­ Even the one I thought was a so called father was just another random to her? A brother and sister looking after a kid who they barely know and even they died. This kid doesn¡¯t have anyone. It¡¯s a sick joke. I can¡¯t bring myself to hate the apocalypse because it is literally the only thing keeping me alive now. I¡¯ve been on the edge of suicide for years, holding on for something, anything to happen and this is the thing which gave me a chance to live, a chance to make a name and have my own power. But this is something I hate. Something I absolutely loathe. Why does an innocent child need to be raped? At least¡­ couldn¡¯t it atleast have been a quick death for her rather than this bullshit? It doesn¡¯t matter, I realised. Regardless I will take care of this child now because my morals won¡¯t let me abandon her. Even if it is possible she will die in the future the least I can do is try to give her a little bit of happiness before that happens and hope she doesn¡¯t Messing up her hair with a grin as she glared at me, I managed to stop her from crying before I began to talk. ¡°Do you want to come with us? I can¡¯t guarantee if we can protect you or not but we will try the best we can. Do you want to?¡± I asked her softly. ¡°W-what about auntie?¡± She sniffed. ¡°Auntie¡­ that lady killed herself. I¡¯m not going to lie to you. She is dead.¡± I told her sadly as her eyes widened in shock. ¡°B-but¡­ but I have no one else¡­¡± She started to cry again. I flicked her forehead. ¡°What was that for?¡± She asked accusingly as she glared. ¡°Didn¡¯t I ask if you wanted to come with us? That means you still have someone else, right?¡± Her eyes widened again. ¡°R-really?¡± Timid, scared, confused, hopeful, lonely, sad, happy and longing. She wants people to care for her and she wants to live. Despite everything she innocently wants to be loved by others with a hope that is both fragile and the strongest thing in the world. So hopeful, but so scared that I lied to her. I smiled warmly as I ruffled her hair again. ¡°Really. We¡¯ll be your big brothers from now on, okay? And you will be our little sister. What¡¯s your name sis? I¡¯m Jean and this is Leo¡± I introduced as she pouted for messing with her hair again. She seemed really happy when I did though. ¡°Hmph, my name¡¯s page.¡± She said as if she where angry. The smile she couldn¡¯t stop said otherwise but we pretended that we didn¡¯t notice for her sake. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you sis.¡± I said in the happiest voice I could muster. After a few hours walking she fell asleep on my back and I began to explain what happened to Leo. First I gave him the note but after¡­ after I told him about how she died in front of me while I was helpless. It was the worst thing that could have happened to me. Maybe it was because I genuinely believed her to be the mother but it hurt me a lot. ¡°Our path was set for us years ago Jean. We became friends because we where the same after all. Loosing someone we cared about in a horrible way led us into depression and the only things which kept us anchored and alive where our fantasies of something like this. Honestly we are odd and I doubt many will understand us, especially after they went through everything they did in this apocalypse but Jean, we can¡¯t ever go back to being what people consider ¡®normal¡¯. Our minds don¡¯t work the same ways others do anymore and even if we feel guilt that won¡¯t change. Don¡¯t feel guilty because you latched onto the thing which allowed us to live again. I know what¡¯s happening in the world right now and I know that in some way I will always feel guilt for liking a world like this but¡­ but it¡¯s really the only chance we have left¡± He smiled bitterly but comfortingly.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°I know. It¡¯s just¡­ it feels hollow. My sister died in the exact same way, right in front of me when I could do nothing¡­¡± I said as I turned away so he wouldn¡¯t see the tear that escaped without permission. ¡°Why did you make it sound as if she where still alive when we talked to our classmates?¡± He finally asked. He played along until now but naturally he would ask. ¡°Maybe¡­ maybe I just hoped that with the apocalypse and magic that if I believed it she would be there, waiting for me curled up in a closet. I know it¡¯s stupid and that the main reason was just so I could let us leave without anyone stopping us but that¡¯s what I felt, the reason I even considered talking about her.¡± I shook my head to stop the memories. ¡°Is there anything you really need to go to your home for or should we just stop at my place? I thought that you wanted something from there that had to do with her but now I¡¯m not so sure.¡± ¡°I need her necklace. I always kept it besides my bed and I would wear it anytime I was home but I was scared of loosing it so I never brought it to school. Besides your house is on the way and although it is quite secure mine is still safer. If we¡¯re spending the night away it¡¯s best to go there.¡± I told him as I started to get my thoughts back in order again. ¡°If my sister is still alive and willing to leave we¡¯ll go to your place but if she wants to stay we¡¯ll stay¡± I nodded. I wouldn¡¯t force her to come if she didn¡¯t want to and we both knew she would survive something as weak as a few zombies. Ever since we picked up page and she¡¯s been on my back I¡¯ve been letting Leo take care of the zombies for me other than a few knife throws as support. By the time we reached his house we where both at level eleven through the sheer amount of kills. I think it was around six hundred for me and nine for him? It was ridiculous. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like anyone¡¯s come through. Luckily your gramps insisted on distrusting technology and made the gate like a padlock with numbers or it¡¯d be annoying to get in¡± I commented as he began to twist in a eight numbered code. Opening the gate and locking it behind us we went inside for the long walk up the stairs. Their house was a dojo that was remodelled. Technically it¡¯s heritage listed but because it was a restoration they had a certain amount of freedom for what they could do and it made the place quite amazing. Originally it was a traditional dojo that was quite big, maybe able to keep a hundred permanent disciples and it had a lot of land for flowers, tree¡¯s, decorations and ponds but now it¡¯s a manor for a single family. In the city, even if it¡¯s not in the middle it¡¯s still not on the edge. To have this building in a land of skyscrapers is a testament to how wealthy the family is. There is a concrete fence around this place with barbed wire at six metres in height so logically this would be a good place to hole up in as compared to the school, right? Wrong. This place is like a paradise to the scared people hiding from zombies. Both our houses are like this except mine wasn¡¯t a remodelled building and has a modern theme. Right now we don¡¯t have the power to protect our homes. The school is an edgy subject whether it would be safe from other people or not but the houses like these will fall within the week even with my stats because of how luxurious it is. Opening the door and looking around there weren¡¯t any signs of foreign visitors but our guard stayed up. I circled around the back and a minute later Leo did as we planned and called out for his sister and asked if anyone was there. We did this in case someone was occupying the house and was hostile so when they are distracted I could take them out from behind. *Thud* ¡°Oofff!¡± At first I was confused but I relaxed when I noticed it was just Ally barrelling into her brother. ¡°I¡± Sniff ¡°I was so worried, why did you take so long stupid brother?¡± She complained as she cried on his chest. ¡°We got pinned down in a horde. We could have escaped before it finished gathering but it was already four in the afternoon at that time so we stayed in the building rather than travelling in the dark. I¡¯m sorry for worrying you sis.¡± He comforted her as she cried. ¡°Mmhf, whats¡± yawn ¡°what¡¯s happening, big bro¡¯s¡± A tired voice muttered from my back sounding dazed as we scared the hell out of Ally when she noticed there where others. ¡°We came to big bro Leo¡¯s place to see your new big sister Ally.¡± I told her as I signalled ally to play along. ¡°Nice to meet you, my name is Ally. Did these brutes hurt you?¡± She introduced with a smile that made us shiver. ¡°Hmph, big bro Jean messed up my hair¡­ three times!¡± She yelled dramatically as she giggled. I mouthed out ¡®I¡¯ll tell you later¡¯ before changing the topic. ¡°Ally we weren¡¯t planning on staying here but that depends on whether you want to come with us or not. We came to get some swords and find you before going to my place to get¡­ that.¡± I said awkwardly. Unlike her brother, Ally had come over my place to visit me a few times since my sister died when her mum came for tea. I only met the brother at his house and school since they where raising him with heaps of tutoring to be the family head but because ally came over she knew about the necklace that I treasured so much. ¡°Where do we plan on going after that then?¡± She agreed immediately which I was thankful for. ¡°It will almost dark by the time we get there so we¡¯ll stay the night and head back to the school I guess. I wasn¡¯t sure if we should go back there before but then we picked up Page. While the three of us can protect ourselves due to the training having to protect her will put a lot of strain on us so it¡¯s better to have a permanent place to settle down, atleast until she is stronger.¡± Leo looks surprised since I didn¡¯t mention that part of my plan but he quickly accepted it since he agreed. ¡°Let¡¯s go get some swords then. But brother¡­ taz died.¡± She said sadly as Leo¡¯s face fell. ¡°How?¡± He asked weakly. ¡°Some people tried to break in, it was only two but taz went crazy barking. When they got hostile he attacked and downed the first guy by biting his throat but he got a lucky stab in and punctured a lung. Taz killed them both but I couldn¡¯t help him as he died.¡± She said sadly. ¡°At least the old guy got to have his final battle. He¡¯s always been depressed since he couldn¡¯t go hunting anymore.¡± He said, a bit of amusement with his sadness. ¡°Sixteen years old and can still kill two grown men. That stuff about bigger dogs having shorter lifespans is totally toad crap with that old monster¡± I laughed slightly as the other two agreed. Page didn¡¯t interrupt since she is still old enough to realise what we where talking about. She decided it was better for us not to be interrupted. ¡°What about goldy, is he okay?¡± We both stared at him critically at that. ¡°Brother Goldy died last week when you accidently fed him pepper instead of fish food.¡± Goldy was their goldfish, the second animal in the household. ¡°What!? But that was Goldy the twenty fifth, the fortune said twenty five would have good luck!¡± He cried out instantly as I wondered at my choice in friends. If I¡¯m ever sick and he tries to give me chicken soup or medicine I really will die¡­ from poison. He has killed twenty five goldfish, seven fighter fish, eleven clown fish and a single angler fish all by accident, an absolutely astonishing number. The thing is his family even tries to monitor him so it doesn¡¯t happen but somehow he still manages. We have a running joke theory that the reason taz lived so long despite his size was because after surviving Leo¡¯s food he could no longer be killed by something as trivial as age. ¡°I¡¯m not even going to comment anymore. Anyway come on, let¡¯s get this over with quickly¡± Ally sighed. ¡°Big bro, is big bro Leo actually a bad person who likes hurting fishies?¡± She whispered to me innocently as I struggled to keep my laughter in. ¡°No he is just really bad at anything food related. Never eat his food. If you don¡¯t die you just might change race¡± I warned. ¡°Un. Don¡¯t worry, mummy was a chef and she taught me how to cook. If he tries I¡¯ll make sure that I cook instead.¡± She told me with a firm resolve which made it even harder not to laugh. I let her down so she could stretch her legs a bit as we followed to the armoury where the now deceased grandfather used to collect weapons and armours but the armour was simply impractical in our opinion so we just went for the swords and throwing knifes. While the current daggers worked just fine they where still unbalanced. It works for short distance due to my experience, dexterity and intelligence letting me get around the awkwardness of it but as seen by one of the rapists being able to react in time to miss the kill shot it showed that they weren¡¯t good enough for combat situations. ¡°Jean do you still favour the Katana?¡± She asked as Leo went to go choose some weapons. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s what my uncle used to teach me so it¡¯s the one I¡¯m most familiar with¡± I agreed. Truthfully many people thought it was weird to use a katana with the western culture but the sharpness, length and practicality suites me a lot better especially considering I¡¯m fighting beings that I need to keep at a distance rather than getting close. The hand axe is good but the reach is lacking. It will be my spare weapon for emergencies since sometimes hacking through wood could save my life and swords can¡¯t do that but katana will be the main. Well I could use a bastard sword but I¡¯ve never really liked them due to how the blade is positioned. Long swords are also a possibility but same problem, I don¡¯t like it. I¡¯m most proficient in the katana anyway so there¡¯s no point debating over them. ¡°Then it¡¯s that section over there¡± She pointed for me to some shelves. Nodding I proceeded to inspect the blades. There where around fifteen of them but I immediately ruled out twelve. Even though I¡¯m not planning on stealth missions or anything a colour other than black would stand out too much at night while in the day it¡¯d be visible regardless so it made sense to use that unreflective colour. Uncle always told me to focus on practicality rather than sparkle. ¡®Whenever you pick a blade make sure it¡¯s one you would be comfortable with for the rest of your life. You can discard it any time you want if it suites you since I¡¯m not some strict old man but always make sure the blade is atleast that capable before choosing it.¡¯ So on the off chance I will need to fights using the night as cover I made sure the blade was black. Out of the three one was too short for my tastes and one was perfect but I was still debating whether to use the longer one for it¡¯s reach. Eventually what was familiar to me won out over the bigger blade as I considered that I might make a rookie mistake if I abruptly change my blade specifications to something different. The throwing knives where easier since there was exactly the same type my uncle used to train me with here as well. The armoury itself wasn¡¯t some antiques collection, it was all modern forged to be the best it possibly can. It¡¯s unlikely to find better equipment than the gear in here in this country except for the forgers private collection. Even then it wouldn¡¯t be much better. I decided to switch out my hand axe for a slightly better one mainly because it had a sheath and I was more confident in it¡¯s durability. All together I had the small hand axe, a katana, hunting knife and throwing knives. We all put on a modern version of chainmail, a chainmail singlet that was mainly built to resist glancing blows rather than anything solid. It could be breached by anything else but it wasn¡¯t heavy and was useful so it¡¯s what we used. Page got two daggers and a hidden knife inside her new shoes. ¡°I¡¯m set. You guys all good?¡± I asked after I finished equipping my gear. ¡°No we¡¯re not good. Go have a shower, both of you¡± Ally ordered in disgust. Two days workout¡­ right, I forgot. ¡°Ally¡­¡± I hesitated as I made sure page was far enough away. ¡°When we found page she was being raped. I¡¯ll explain the details later but¡­ can you take her for a shower as well? She seems to be ignoring it as if it never happened but I think being clean would make her feel a bit better¡± Ally was shocked and pissed but she nodded easily. ¡°I hope you killed the bastards.¡± She said coldly. ¡°Of course I did. Leo was a little shaky afterwards from the memories but there where no problems taking them out. There was something else but I¡¯ll need to tell you in detail later, just make sure she¡¯s okay.¡± ¡°I will. I¡¯m assuming you already talked to him?¡± She motioned to Leo subtly. ¡°We¡¯re men, we don¡¯t need talk when we can communicate through our manliness.¡± I said arrogantly before deflating at the glare. ¡°I didn¡¯t talk to him much but I made sure he was okay. Talking would have been less effective anyway but what happened is a secret between men.¡± I told her firmly. ¡°Did you kiss him and admit your gay?¡± She said as I choked on my own breath. ¡°I only hugged him, what the hell!? Ah dammit, why do I always realise you trick me after I fell for it¡± I muttered in annoyance. ¡°Because I¡¯m amazing. Now seriously, go have a shower before your odour seeps into the building.¡± She laughingly pushed me out of the room and went to go talk with page. Complying I went and turned the showers they had connected to a tank on and had a cold shower. It was what we used after training since we where always worn out and Leo and Ally¡¯s parents actually had it built specifically for that. No electricity required whatsoever. Even if it was cold, after several years using it every day sometimes two times a day it actually feels quite nice to me so I had no complaints. Drying off I re-equipped all my gear while putting on some of Leo¡¯s clothes, specifically black jeans and a long sleeved collared shirt that I had basically reserved because I like it so much. I left the top two buttons undone since I hate how it feels to have it closed up around my throat so you could see a small part of the singlet chainmail but it literally looks like a singlet so I wasn¡¯t worried. The katana was sheathed across my back the hand axe on my left side with the hunting knife on the right as the throwing knives where at my back hanging off the belt covered by my shirt. There was a knife strapped to my right arm as well as two in my left boot, one visible and one not as to make anyone who captures me think the visible knife is the only one. Some might think it¡¯s overkill but it¡¯s not like it¡¯s uncomfortable or anything so there¡¯s no problem. Afterwards I put a black fluffy jumper I always kept in my schoolbag on as it¡¯s my favourite clothing article and it hid the katana sheath to a certain extent. Mainly I just thought it¡¯d be good in case I get thrown across concrete, same as the jeans since it would stop the skin getting ripped off. Since it¡¯s winter it¡¯s a perfect time to wear it. Other than the axe sheath, knife sheath and the top of the katana that is hidden by the hoody I put over it but still noticeable if properly examined, I looked like a normal teenager. ¡°Here I was thinking I looked cool then you came along. Dammit man, why the hell am I your friend?¡± Leo muttered as he returned to his room to change clothes. It doesn¡¯t help that while he was always attractive I outshone him. Because of that the girls focused on me the most and my charisma even raised almost double the amount his raised from our sweaty half naked work out. Still that¡¯s not to say he¡¯s average or even good, he could be considered amazing in terms of looks¡­ it¡¯s just I outshone him. It was me who was irregular, not him. He came out wearing a similar get up to mine but the jumper was instead a leather jacket and he wore a beany. It sounds crappy but it really suited him, making it look good. Same as me he wore jeans. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just wear that in the first place? It clearly suites you better¡± I asked once he came out. ¡°Because it makes me look older. We¡¯re travelling with a little kid, I¡¯d look a paedophile¡± he complained as I burst into laughter at the stupid reason. ¡°You don¡¯t look old at all idiot. At worse you look like your close to graduation, same as me.¡± ¡°Actually you look younger in those clothes but I might be partial considering you¡¯ve worn the same variation in different sizes for almost as long as I¡¯ve known you¡± Ally commented as she made herself known. ¡°I¡¯m not that bad¡­ the shirt changes colour sometimes¡± I defended weakly. I really do love these clothes since it literally suites me perfectly. ¡°Uh huh. Anyway I¡¯m using the throwing knife on a string for my main weapon. Range is eighteen metres, twenty if I do it right. I also have a slingshot, a few spare stringed throwing knives, hunting knife and a few daggers. Low mid range fighter.¡± She outlined for us. ¡°Katana, hunting knife, hand axe, a few daggers and about twenty throwing knives. Two have ten metre strings on them in case I¡¯m getting low. Close to barely mid ranged fighting.¡± I added in. ¡°Dual wield double sided swords with ten or so throwing knives and bladed knuckle busters. Also two daggers and a hunting knife. Close range fighter.¡± Leo said his own. It¡¯s always good to know what we¡¯re fighting with if we need to fight together so this is close to routine for us, though before today it was just in training¡­ we where bored rich kids who needed to get coached in this stuff anyway as a ¡®hobby¡¯ for when we socialised with other rich kids so we made it fun with combat simulations. We all laughed at how serious we said it before we got ready to move out. We each pocketed a flint and steel, sharpening stone and a few other bits and pieces to maintain our equipment before we left. This time Page was walking as we wanted to give her some free kills to level her up from zero and while Ally would kill as well in order to get her level up, page was the only one who would use her stat points. Ally was worried about us for two days so she began to lose herself in training, especially after Taz died so she was at Leo¡¯s level in stats while I was above them both. ¡°D-do I really have to kill it?¡± She asked timidly. I felt bad for making her do this but there really was no choice. ¡°I¡¯m sorry sis but we might not always be able to protect you so it¡¯s necessary¡± I said with a tensed smile as I held the limbless zombie down with my foot on it¡¯s neck. ¡°We¡¯re all here so it¡¯s fine. If you want I will even give you a piggy back for the next five minutes?¡± Leo coaxed. ¡°Yay! O-okay, I¡¯ll try. H-here I go¡± She said as she closed her eyes and plunged the dagged in. ¡°I did it! Look look, page levelled up!¡± She said excitedly as she went to third person. ¡°Good work. Now you get a piggy back, I¡¯m so jealous. I wish someone would give me a piggy back.¡± Ally said while pointedly looking at me. ¡°You do realise I have a katana sheath that would dig into you uncomfortably right? Not to mention that¡¯s a no crossing zone in the bro-code.¡± I denied. ¡°Tch.¡± She said disappointedly. ¡°No it¡¯s cool, you can cross that line. I¡¯m worried if anyone will accept my sister with how violent she is so the bro code is void in this case.¡± He damned me and got punched in the stomach from the sister as a result. ¡°Who did you just call violent?¡± She asked chillingly. ¡°B-big sister, you where just violent¡­¡± She trailed off as the big sis met her ultimate enemy, childish innocence, and cringed. ¡°Anyway now you can give me a piggy back¡± She smiled victoriously as if it never happened. ¡°Whatever but your getting off if there¡¯s any big fights.¡± I gave in knowing that with her personality she would pester me until I gave in anyway. It wasn¡¯t that she was heavy or anything, in fact she was always quite light and with the massive strength improvement it was the same as carrying a dagger with my old strength but it was awkward while fighting and just in general. ¡°Happy?¡± I asked sarcastically. ¡°Yep now let¡¯s just put your hood up so I can sleep on your head and there, done.¡± She sung happily as she proceeded to do just that. To anyone else we would look like two lovers strolling through the zombie apocalypse. Using one hand I continued to use the katana to remove the limbs of zombies and raise Page¡¯s level until she reached ten and ally reluctantly came down to level up. Then we finally reached my house¡­ no, mansion. Chapter 3 - Plain weirdness and one sided chat with god? ¡°Hey Ally, I¡¯m really seeing that right?¡± I asked just to make sure I hadn¡¯t spontaneously gone crazy. ¡°Yeah.¡± She said in just as disbelieving voice as me. ¡°Leo, you too?¡± I asked to double check. ¡°Well I definitely see it as well, your not the only one. Really wish you where though¡­¡± He answered immediately. ¡°So there is really people fucking zombies in front of my house and having a drug party?¡± I asked one last time just to confirm as they once again agreed. ¡°Should¡­ should we kill them? Or go around? I¡­ I¡¯m really confused what to do here¡± I said as a conflict waged in my heart. On one hand it was people who haven¡¯t done any harm to me so I had no reason to kill them but on the other they where blocking the gate and raping zombies. If they actually got pregnant or got the zombies pregnant, would the world end with the babies birth? Would it summon some evil god to destroy the world? I¡­ I really don¡¯t know what to do. ¡°We¡¯re going to go check out the crazy cat ladies house for fun while you can deal with this crap¡± Ally said as she pulled them all away forcefully, leaving me alone. She obviously thought it was bad for Page to be seeing that especially after what happened to her so I don¡¯t feel abandoned but it was still a little empty. Across the street we have a crazy cat lady. She refused to sell her house so the space that was originally intended to be a massive resort after they bought out the houses was screwed up and eventually we bought the rest of the land, making our mansion directly opposite her property. She has thirty four cats at my last count but that¡¯s just the legal ones (how she got approval no one knows). We all think she actually keeps another dozen or two hidden somewhere in the house based on the smell. One of Ally¡¯s favourite activities was sneaking onto her property and releasing mice into the house, making them all run around like crazy to catch them. Well while I was distracted three of the druggos came up to me stumbling before they broke into a run and revealed daggers once they where around six meters away. Obviously this group is dangerous and hostile then so I¡¯ll dispatch them. I already wanted to after all, this is just an excuse. I used the hand axe and katana to pierce the two on the sides as I Spartan kicked the middle one and accidently caved in their chest, piercing the lungs with the shattered bones and sending them flying more than five metres. Combat ended and they dissolved into dust proving that a player has to kill a human to remove the body¡­ maybe. There might be other situations that do as well. Using that move was risky since although it was a quick dispatch it is hard to pull off and easily avoided but I was counting on the fact that they where drugged up weaklings with zero combat experience and it looked so cool that I couldn¡¯t resist. I promptly dispatched the rest of the group that included five males and females of both race fucking each other and two lackeys who seemed to be only partially drugged left guarding. Basically fifteen people and ten chained zombies. What was disturbing was the notification. [Akirich, God of chaos and insanity, can be reborn infinitely through the pairing of both the undead and the living. Although it takes a hundred years to reach his former level of power he is a destructive force capable of causing unimaginable chaos and misery even with partial powers. The limit to this however is he can only be born once per world. Once the body in that world is destroyed he will move on to reincarnate elsewhere. You have killed Akirich shortly after it started to grow in a female zombies egg and have earned many rewards for your odd but admirable victory.] Yeah, not comforting at all. [Achievement: Save the world from a chaos god!] [You have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (greater) enhancement to your body!] [Greater Enhancement: +100% Chaos Affinity!] [Achievement: Kill a full-fledged god!] [You have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (legendary) enhancement to your body!] [Legendary Enhancement: Prot¨¦g¨¦!] [Achievement: First to earn five achievements!] [You have been given a stat boost! You will also get one (superior) enhancement to your body!] [Superior Enhancement: Area Sense!] Sigh, I mean, on one hand I like getting OP so easily but¡­ isn¡¯t this a little overkill? [Yep but you seem to have luck surpassing the possibilities of your stats. And no, chaos affinity won¡¯t make you go crazy. Thanks for killing him by the way since it¡¯s annoying when all my toys die early. That¡¯s all from me, have fun mortal!] Did¡­ the god just talk to me? What the hell? Now I feel like an idiot for waiting like five minutes to see if anything else appeared and seeing nothing. ¡°Have fun?¡± I asked them casually. ¡°Not really. The old lady hung herself and the cats where licking her feet so much with their sand paper tongues that we could see the bones sticking out¡­ it was disgusting¡± Ally shivered. ¡°What about you?¡± Leo asked as he looked at the now empty drug convention. ¡°I saved the world, killed a god and had the god who started the apocalypse talk to me briefly to inform me that I wouldn¡¯t go crazy from the chaos affinity I gained. I¡¯m really not sure what I feel but I¡¯ll explain once we¡¯re inside¡­¡± I said awkwardly as I trudged over to the gate. The zombie in question dropped a ring and money but I have no idea what it does so I put it on and ignored it. To be honest I think I¡¯m just going to avoid this for now. Sure, apocalypse, yay! And all that but even I felt like that was a little overkill. The idea that I just killed a god by accident after I jokingly made a reference to it is just plain creepy and the knowledge that there is probably going to be more gods born into this world under similar circumstances is borderline terrifying. The sensation I got from that legendary achievement¡­ I felt like my body would explode, like it wasn¡¯t strong enough for it. Every cell burned and stretched even though my body seemed to stay in the exact same space and shape, I physically felt what can only be described as a soul and my mind burned before returning with a clarity it¡¯s never had. I¡¯m not sure how much this ¡®prot¨¦g¨¦¡¯ effects but I felt it attach to my soul. The unique achievement that I got my special eyes from had something similar but it was more subtle, like a small improvement being added to the soul. It was only the legendary and unique achievements which seemed to effect my soul but the difference between the two was like plankton and a whale. Wait, back up. Could that joking reference had come as a side-effect of my eyes? I see the ¡®truth¡¯ but that doesn¡¯t necessarily mean I realise what I am seeing. Of course it could be a coincidence but it¡¯s not like me to make such a reference or feel like I should kill people because of a vague suspicion. I know that I would have killed them no matter what. I felt it. All the attack did was give me a reason to justify that desire. But why? I¡¯m not bloodthirsty. I would much rather knock them out than kill them but yet I felt the desire to murder them all without hesitation. The only reason I can think of is my eyes and frankly it both terrifies and excites me. Terrified of being controlled by my ability and excited about the possibility of my eyes getting me more achievements. Most of all however this has made me realise something. When the god said the first stage of the apocalypse was zombies I was assuming that there would be several months before they slowly evolved or weak monsters like goblins would be dropped in but that was a god after only a few days. Sure it¡¯d need a hundred years to get to it¡¯s old strength but I imagine it¡¯d still be pretty fucking scary compared to my own stats. So¡­ how do we get to the next stage¡­? Thinking about it now is useless but I think I should be a bit more on guard from now on. ¡°Hey Leo can you do me a favour?¡± I asked hesitantly as we where walking towards the gate. ¡°Depends what it is.¡± Well that¡¯s not unexpected. ¡°Can you go catch a cat from the lady¡¯s house and meet us two hundred and twenty metres to the right of the gate?¡± I asked as he frowned, clearly not happy about my request. ¡°Why? Even if we split up before it can also be considered as doing something useful since we where scouting out the house of a potential threat but going back and splitting up by such a large distance just seems stupid.¡± I know, that¡¯s why I hesitated to ask you in the first place but¡­ ¡°I was thinking about how the next stage starts. Can animals¡­ get infected?¡± Because if rats, cats and dogs could it would be a hell of a lot more dangerous. ¡°Shit¡­ fine, I¡¯ll go but I swear to god if I get scratched up by those little monsters I will put a rat down your underwear next time you go to sleep.¡± Before I could protest he was gone. That¡¯s really not a good deal. I¡¯d have preferred to go by myself in that case but if I do then they won¡¯t be able to get inside the property until I come back. ¡°You might want to never go to sleep again Jean. You know cats hate him with a passion¡± Ally chuckled patronizingly. ¡°I think it¡¯s better not to go to sleep anyway. Sleeping¡­ now that it¡¯s useless it¡¯s just another unnecessary risk.¡± I sighed as I accepted my fate. ¡°Maybe but I imagine staying awake so long when we aren¡¯t used to it will add a lot of mental fatigue that could get us killed so it¡¯s recommended to sleep every once and a while until we can adjust to life without it.¡± She just had to point out the obvious. ¡°Sleeping is fun. Page likes sleeping¡± She added herself in. I frowned slightly as I heard her speak. Ever since she killed that zombie she has been speaking in third person and it¡¯s starting to worry me a lot. I can tell Ally and Leo have noticed as well but we have been avoiding it until we are safe since talking is distracting but she¡¯s becoming more and more natural about it and I¡¯m hesitating whether to bring it up now or wait. I understand that some people¡¯s minds can¡¯t handle so much mental trauma and they develop little things like this as if it where normal and it seems like page is doing just that. Does she even remember her family dying or being raped anymore or is it locked away from her thoughts as a form of protection? I did the same when my sister died and it took several months for my family to break me out of it so I understand quite well that it is a possibility but I¡¯m not sure if she is the same. Ultimately I decided to leave it alone until we where inside the property due to the fact that I don¡¯t even understand my own mind, let alone someone else¡¯s and if I hit an activator word or memory that makes her scream things would be very difficult. Sometimes I¡¯d pass out, scream, sob in a corner or try to run away because of my sealed memories resurfacing with certain words or events that trigger my suppressed emotions so it¡¯s not a good idea to do it now even if I don¡¯t think she is the same as me. ¡°Well there¡¯s not much I can do about it. I¡¯d really prefer not to go through that even if it means a lot of sleepless nights,¡± I continued after the pause I used to think. ¡°No. Even if it means guarding you I¡¯d prefer not to have you spouting crap about saving the world, gods and chaos again¡± Wha¡­? ¡°Wait, you think I¡¯m saying it because of not sleeping?¡± I asked incredulously. ¡°Aren¡¯t you? I¡¯d much prefer it being due to lack of sleep than insanity.¡± Sigh¡­ Ally, really? A god comes and turns everything into a shit storm and your questioning my sanity because I told you something weird? Isn¡¯t that a little overkill? Well I guess out of the three of us in the last few years she is the least screwed up so it¡¯s not so odd but I didn¡¯t expect her trust in me to be so¡­ weak. ¡°Ally I¡¯m stronger than you¡± I said simply. ¡°Hmph, as i-¡° I interrupted. ¡°No Ally, I really am. All my stats are higher than yours by a large margin and in terms of skill level I have always been slightly higher than you.¡± She frowned but didn¡¯t refute my claim. ¡°How could your stats be any higher than mine and what does this have to do with our conversation?¡± She still questioned it however but there was a slight hesitation this time. And annoyance, don¡¯t forget the annoyance.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°My base stats where higher than everyone and I got fifty stat points to assign at the start. But the real reason I am stronger was because of those achievements the god mentioned. I got an achievement for saving over fifty people without fighting or losses or whatever it was but it boosted all my stats by five. Individually that¡¯s not much but over all of them it is significant. Not only that, it gave me five unallocated points and I also got an achievement for being the first to get an achievement, the first to get all my stats over fifty and the first to get all my stats over a hundred. My body was enhanced by them in ways I don¡¯t really understand and my stats where boosted by a large amount. Added with the two days non-stop training and I am stronger than you by a large margin.¡± I saw her hesitation grow as she was debating whether to believe me or not so I changed tactics. ¡°Ally this rock is around a kilogram¡± I said as I picked up a random stone off the ground. ¡°Watch¡± I told her simply as I clenched my hand and shattered it. Her eyes went wide as some stone lodged into my hand and made it bleed but even when she checked, it only went in half a centimetre at it¡¯s deepest penetration and it regenerated within a few minutes after they where pulled out. More than a hundred vitality¡­ I think I underestimated it a bit. The HP system by itself makes regeneration faster and with those numbers augmenting it the healing was much faster than it should have been. ¡®Status¡¯ [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 11 HP: 1150 MP: 1330 Strength: 134 Dexterity: 159 Vitality: 105 Intelligence: 123 Wisdom: 126 Charisma: 135 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 39 Is what I should be at without the new achievements. ¡®Status¡¯ [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 11 HP: 1350 MP: 1530 Strength: 154 Dexterity: 179 Vitality: 125 Intelligence: 143 Wisdom: 146 Charisma: 155 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 79 From what I can tell the legendary achievement boosted all my stats by ten instead of five and the twenty points which should have went into luck where turned into stat points. Well it could be something else but I wouldn¡¯t know it anyway so let¡¯s just assume it¡¯s like that. How many achievements have I gotten now? Seven? In total every stat was boosted by forty points. 320 stat points. That¡­ is not a small number at all. With the legendary achievement it is as if I had eight and although technically it¡¯s not like that since luck capped it is still an increase that is beyond the rest of the survivors, even my crazy friends who are stronger than they should be due to their training. The only way someone could catch up to me now is to mass-level themselves up and in this stage of the apocalypse that is impossible. Can you imagine the amount of zombies you¡¯d need to kill to get enough levels to catch me? ¡°S-so you can break rocks with your bare hands, s-so what?¡± She stuttered before she could regain control of herself due to the surprise. ¡°That¡¯s not the point Ally. I assume you have around seventy or eighty in your strength by now so you can probably do it as well but it wouldn¡¯t be so easy. My strength is at a hundred and fifty four currently and I have seventy nine stat points left to assign. Ally, if my strength is like that don¡¯t you think my dexterity would be even higher? One hundred and seventy nine. I couldn¡¯t do this from four achievements. I¡¯d need around¡­ seven or eight?¡± She looked at me as if I where a monster. While saying I was crazy or hallucinating could explain away what she doesn¡¯t want to believe seeing proof of my stats means we are either both crazy or I told the truth about it. ¡°S-so that¡­ really happened?¡± She asked quietly with visible tension within her body and atmosphere. ¡°I really killed a god. It was an accident and it was obviously severely weakened but I still killed it and got three achievements for it, one of which was a legendary one that gave me ten stat points instead of five. So, seven achievements.¡± I confirmed. She gulped while trying to think of something to say. ¡°I still have other things to tell you but for now let¡¯s focus on the present, okay? Or that zombie walking towards you will succeed in killing the mighty Ally¡± I said as she froze for a few seconds before snapping back to reality and killing it. ¡°Big bro¡¯s so strong¡­¡± I heard page mutter that about five times throughout our conversation but I ignored it since she was obviously talking to herself. Once we arrived at the place I crouched behind the shrub next to the wall and put a key that used to be around my neck into a hole hidden on the ground. ¡°Technically it¡¯s illegal to have this here but my parents made it in case I ever got stranded outside for whatever reason. They where paranoid that if I where to get stuck outside because I don¡¯t know the constantly changing code on the main gate then someone might kidnap me. Ever since then we¡¯ve had this tunnel though I¡¯ve only used it once.¡± I explained to them as I turned the key and grabbed the handle that popped up. Pulling it open it revealed a narrow hole that led down by ladder. Everything here was mechanical since my parents where paranoid of someone finding it if they could track the electricity or follow the wires (unlikely) and there was a special kind of moss that glowed growing behind windows at the bottom of the tunnel. ¡°It is also¡­ an emergency escape route should anyone ever try to seize the mansion¡± I said darkly. Mainly because someone had actually tried before and it was one of the many events that led up to my sisters suicide. This tunnel reminds me of that¡­ I don¡¯t like this tunnel at all. ¡°Where¡¯s it head out? I never knew this was here¡± Ally said in a slightly accusing tone at not being trusted. ¡°You never knew because I tried to forget about it and it emerges in the lake. If you swim to the bottom there is an underwater path that leads to an air pocket. That air pocket leads to a dry tunnel and this is the other end of that tunnel. We¡¯re going to have to get a bit wet, sorry. Wait for me next to the air pocket. I¡¯ll wait for Leo to get here.¡± I explained to them. ¡°Jean¡­ you have that look again. Does¡­ does this tunnel remind you of her?¡± She said in a strained voice as she bit her lip and asked despite how awkward she felt. ¡°Yeah. Anyway shoo, go explore the fancy underground tunnel¡± Ally had a look I couldn¡¯t decipher before they both climbed down and I lost them in the darkness. Sighing I stopped procrastinating and peaked out onto the street. There where around thirty zombies wandering around so I tapped quietly with my knuckles onto the wall. I kept making it slightly louder every few seconds until finally it was just loud enough for the two closest zombies to follow the noise to me without alerting the others. I kicked one down and began to take the limbs off of the other with my superior stats making the process easier before killing the downed one. It was just an extra, no need to keep it. ¡°I figured we should see if the infection can reanimate already dead bodies or if it is ineffective¡± Leo responded to my questioning look once he arrived. ¡°Fair enough. Ugh, this is going to make me feel sick but¡­ sigh, let¡¯s get this over with¡± I said as I took the still living cat from leo as it thrashed about and aligned it to be bitten on the back left leg. I held it down with my foot and watched despite the rising bile to see if the cat would turn as Leo did the same to the dead cat. No matter how tough I am, hurting an innocent animal, especially a cat, left a bad after taste in my mouth. I know I need to but¡­ I really didn¡¯t want to. ¡°The corpse is reanimating¡± Leo said in disgust as he put the hunting knife through it¡¯s head. Actually how did he even get a corpse here? Shouldn¡¯t it have disappeared? Well now it was just us and the living/infected kitten since the other corpses had disappeared. In the meantime I decided to ask what was bugging me. ¡°How did you get a corpse here without it disappearing?¡± ¡°I just killed it with the intention of keeping the corpse and it stayed. I¡¯m not sure if it would have disappeared once I lost that intention or if it was permanent but now that it became a zombie, the intention was gone and it turned into that dusty non-existent dust like the others.¡± He answered easily though he looked little bothered with it all. ¡°Well I¡¯m guessing that the dead tissue means it has less resistance against the virus while a living host can fight it but either because the cat has low vitality or doesn¡¯t realise what¡¯s happening the virus is spreading fast. The fact that it can spread through a body even without a blood flow is scary. Dosen¡¯t that mean even if you where to cut the circulation off to a bitten arm it would still travel through the body and infect you?¡± I made my conjectures out loud. ¡°Maybe, maybe not. It¡¯s not like we would test it even if we could so we¡¯ll just have to wait until a situation arises where we find out regardless.¡± He sighed. Barely a minute latter I had a violent cat zombie beneath my foot. ¡°Leo I¡¯m going to let it loose so be prepared. I need to see if it has the same speed¡± I told him seriously as he nodded and backed away. Lifting my foot up and kicking it a few metres away I saw the thing hiss before doing a stumbling run at me and jumping way further than it would have been able to as a cat. When I dodged it the thing kept flying another five metres. This thing is dangerous. It must have gotten a strength upgrade with the race change that let it jump so much but on a fast cat it¡¯s horrible. I quickly threw a throwing knife at it and ended it¡¯s life before it could recover just in case it escaped and turned more dogs, cats or mice. I can¡¯t stop the spread but I atleast won¡¯t speed it up. ¡°I knew my hate of cats was correct¡± He said as if it was some grand law of the universe. ¡°I love cats but I have to admit¡­ that was just a big fucking nope. Leo this is dangerous. While the city is rather void of animals compared to other places imagine all the animals that could possibly be infected. Birds, rats, cats, dogs, lizards and maybe even fish if the water supply is tainted. This is literally a time bomb. Think of a flock of bats or birds flying in the sky but every one of them was infected. Even we won¡¯t survive that¡± I said seriously. ¡°There¡¯s a bright side to everything though right? The infection among animals will take a while to spread to that level and by then we will be at a level where we can fight them, atleast if we hole up in a building. Besides the chances of having the flock target us is low to begin with. This just shows us to be cautious of animals as well¡± He replied optimistically as I smiled slightly. ¡°Yeah. Anyway let¡¯s get inside before your sister starts worrying about you¡± It was only two minutes walk to get back to the entrance and once he climbed down the ladder I came in and closed the hidden trapdoor behind me, relocking it in the process. We climbed about thirty metres down in the solid concrete tunnel as we reached the bottom, a one metre wide by three metre high tunnel with a thin stretch of glass on the left wall that held the glowing moss behind it. To get to the lake was around a six hundred metre walk and the tunnel widened out into a cave-like structure at the end. They where both asleep surprisingly so we decided to stay for a while to let them sleep for a bit longer. In that time we both went to sleep as well but it was only a light nap due to the terrain. Page woke us up later and we swam out the hole. I helped page swim as she didn¡¯t seem to be very good at it and once we breached the surface we could see that it looked to be around nine at night. It was a good thing since we had the cover of darkness and after all that time in the dimly lit tunnel and sleeping we could see easily. Well I would have been able to see regardless but because of that we all noticed the faint light coming from the mansion through one of the many windows. Someone was here. Walking towards an outhouse that was near a pool we all got changed into dry clothes and I had Leo and Ally stick back with Page to protect her. With the highest stats being the scout seemed like the best option to prevent any disasters and I slowly made my way across the yard. Although I was confident that no one was watching due to my stats and far sight it was better safe than sorry and I stuck to the shadows as I moved as stealthily across the yard as I could. Opting for the bedroom window that I had a key to since it was mine I snuck in through there and drew the katana and axe both as I slowly made my way through the house. The light was in the second kitchen and my area sense that seemed to expand with my dexterity could pick up two people from the wall I was leaning against. Not sensing any traps I opened the door and walked through without hiding myself at all. There where five people in the room total, two being on one side while three where on the other. It seemed to be two separate groups who probably both got in here for the safety but kept their distance. Most surprising was that the group of three was made up of two of my classmates, a pair of brother and sister who had ran initially and a third person whom I am assuming was their younger brother, around nine years of age. The two sitting closest to me got up, one tripping over their chair in the process and slicing their own arm open. I winced a bit at that. Sighing I went over to the cabinet and pulled out a medicine kit and walked over to patch them up. ¡°D-don¡¯t come any closer!¡± The one who didn¡¯t hurt themselves yelled. ¡°Relax idiot. Do you know how to put stitches in? He¡¯s going to bleed out soon since that¡¯s so deep.¡± I completely dismissed him as I sat down next to his friend. ¡°This is going to hurt but it shouldn¡¯t be so bad because of the needle¡± I warned as I began to stitch the wound shut. The needle I used was a numbing agent but it was designed for bad scrapes at worse so it only reduced the pain by around half. I had already washed it up as good as I could but the blood was simply flowing too fast to do it any better so I started. It was a rough job, I¡¯ll be the first to admit that but it did it¡¯s job none the less. His body should heal through the added HP soon even if he hasn¡¯t upgraded his vitality and he¡¯ll be able to take the stitches out. Using a cloth I began to wipe as much blood away as I could and applied some sanitizer before rapping it up in a bandage. ¡°Depending on what your vitalities like you¡¯ll be fine in anywhere between a few hours or a day. The stitches should grow themselves out but if not it won¡¯t be hard to remove them regardless. Seriously if you don¡¯t know how to use that thing your better off with a bat. Atleast that¡¯s hard to hurt yourself with.¡± I sighed as I went over to the window. Moving the curtain away I struck my flint and steel five times as a signal. These people where no threat to us so I told the others to come in. ¡°W-what are you doing¡­?¡± The guys friend questioned cautiously. ¡°Signalling my friends that it¡¯s safe to come in, what did you think I was doing? You guys are really obvious with the candle you know. Even if the curtains dim it the light is still like a flare to people who have adjusted their eyes to the darkness already.¡± I told him simply. ¡°But we found this place first, it¡¯s ours-¡° I cut him off there with a cold voice. ¡°This is my house and it has been my house ever since I was born. You are the freeloaders here and quite honestly you are weak, inexperienced and unprepared. I could easily kill you all before you even realised you where dead. Even the seven year old little girl in our group could kill you. I don¡¯t care if you stay but don¡¯t make the mistake of thinking you can claim ownership of a place in front of the owner¡± I walked away as the guy was too scared to reply. I may of¡­ ¡®accidently¡¯ shown off my power before by bending a frying pan while ¡®looking¡¯ for the med kit. Walking over to the classmates I decided to talk to them rather than the random unknown pair. ¡°So the room held then?¡± The girl asked. ¡°Sort of. There was one breach but a car alarm drew them away in time for us to board it up. I forgot that the glass wall in the dance room was actually plaster because there was another room backing on to it and I didn¡¯t take the necessary precautions.¡± I told them honestly. ¡°Is Jessica still alive?¡± The guy asked me hopefully while the sister looked like she¡¯d vomit. The little sibling was asleep so they didn¡¯t join in. Jessica was a girl who layered atleast two tubs worth of makeup on a day. She even wore that much makeup despite the situation since her whole bag was literally full of the stuff. ¡°No one died who didn¡¯t leave, well atleast before I left. Now? No idea but probably.¡± His face lit up so brightly that I just had to lower it a bit. ¡°She looks completely different without the tub loads of makeup though. If you like her because of her current looks then you should probably stay away from the school and just keep that crush as a nice memory.¡± She would eventually run out of makeup after all. It¡¯s not that she looks bad or anything and she could be considered good looking but it¡¯s just completely different to how she is with the makeup. Compared to the pale, flawless skin and deep brown eyes she has dimples, a cute face and freckles speckled around in a way that really compliments her appearance and reaffirms the ¡®cute¡¯ look. Even a little button nose! Everything about her face screams cute. He gaped. His sister closed his mouth for him. ¡°What? Even I was a little curious how she really looked under that ton of makeup so of course I spied on her putting it on.¡± I defended as he kept starring daggers into me. ¡°Brother I don¡¯t know what you where expecting¡­?¡± His sister sighed. ¡°I¡¯m just angry that he thinks she doesn¡¯t look good without makeup to the point of avoiding her¡± He said seething. ¡°I never said that. I just said that her appearance is completely different. In fact she is extremely cute to the point where you would want to protect her but you fell for her appearance with makeup, right? If that¡¯s the person you fell for then your better off staying away and keeping it as a fond memory.¡± I said simply. I wasn¡¯t really bothered by it so there¡¯s no reason to make it into something bigger than it is. The sister closed his mouth again naturally as if she does it all the time before speaking. ¡°As always, please use your brain first brother. Jean, right? Well it¡¯s not like I could get it wrong when I have to listen to girls gushing about you every day but that¡¯s besides the point. You said this was your house?¡± She questioned. Her personality seemed like the calculating type but anti-social. She was pretty and she had a slight ice queen aura around her but it doesn¡¯t really matter in the end. ¡°It¡¯s my house. Officially it was even put under my name two years ago.¡± After my sister died my parents began to fight a lot. Eventually they came to an unspoken agreement that the best way not to fight was to not be near each other and they each started taking more and more business trips overseas until it got to the point where coming home was the holiday, not the other way around. They put the house under my name so that I would have the house instead of relatives if something where to happen to them but it was in reality just another excuse for them to avoid the place. It¡¯s not theirs anymore so they don¡¯t have to feel like they are always away from home. Ever since then I¡¯ve only seen my mum six times and my dad eight. She looked a little thoughtful about that but continued without questioning it. ¡°In that case although the apocalypse nullified laws I still consider this house as yours and as such I thank you for allowing us to stay despite having the power and authority to choose otherwise.¡± I didn¡¯t expect that. ¡°There¡¯s no point in fighting over this place and I have no problem with any of you staying here. Within a week there will be so many people here that I can no longer protect it anyway so we¡¯re planning on leaving in the morning. Maybe in the future I will come back for this place but it has nothing but bad memories anyway so I¡¯m fine forgetting it.¡± I answered easily as I remembered my initial purpose of coming here. ¡°Why? Could you not live alongside them peacefully?¡± The brother asked spitefully. He was clearly trying to say that I viewed myself above others. His sister wacked him over the back of the head which made me smile faintly. ¡°People building up inside the property is of no problem itself but there will be a lot of fights and power struggles from both within and outside due to the luxury and security it holds. I can¡¯t protect my house from that and I have people I care about as well who I¡¯d prefer not to put in the middle of such an event¡± I denied easily. ¡°Where will you go then?¡± She asked curiously. ¡°Back to the school. While it will have the same problem as here it will be to a lesser extent. The security isn¡¯t as good and the place is somewhere that many people don¡¯t actually like so raids will be fewer and farer apart. We where originally going to roam about but we picked up someone who we couldn¡¯t protect with that lifestyle so the plan changed.¡± The sister displayed shock for the first time even if it was the slight while the brother looked just as dumb as always so I ignored him. She seemed to see the logic in my decision but I¡¯m guessing she had an analysis on my personality and something didn¡¯t confirm with her analysis so it shocked her. I did hide my true personality quite well so it isn¡¯t surprising but it still amused me a bit. The door opened before the conversation could continue further and I said goodbye before approaching them. ¡°I¡¯m going out to get my necklace. Do you want to occupy a bedroom or stay in the second kitchen? If you do come with me to my room and I¡¯ll set things up.¡± I told them as I walked out the door. Ally went to go talk with our classmates first since she actually knew the sister even if the brother was new but the other two followed me directly. It was only when the necklace was wrapped around my neck that I truly allowed myself to relax and think about everything that¡¯s happened. Eventually I drifted off to sleep. Chapter 4 - Crazy Archer & Back To Base ¡°It really is beautiful isn¡¯t it?¡± I said softly to my guest approaching from behind as if speaking too loud would ruin the moment. ¡°It is.¡± She agreed with a soft voice just as I had. Unless something unexpected happened the conversation would most likely be in the same tone of voice throughout it¡¯s entirety. After a few minutes I could tell she was itching to ask whatever it was she came out here for. ¡°Sigh¡­ Ally, hurry up and ask already¡± I laughed lightly as she relaxed. ¡°About earlier¡­ when I accused you¡­ I¡¯m sorry. I wasn¡¯t thinking straight and I did something stupid and against the trust you have in me. I¡¯m sorry for doubting you¡­¡± She trailed off as she refused to look me in the face. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Your brother and I may be fine with the apocalypse but I know it hit you a lot harder than us. Your worried about your parents right? And taz¡­ I don¡¯t blame you for it.¡± I said easily as I messed up her hair a bit and went back to my star gazing. ¡°I-it¡¯s not just that. I didn¡¯t want to believe in it so I didn¡¯t. The prospects of there being gods on this world just felt so¡­ fucked up. It made me feel weak, weaker than I ever have been. A god screwed up everything in our world so easily but now there¡¯s more of them? I¡­ I just didn¡¯t want to accept it¡± She said as she hung her head in shame. ¡°Ally¡­ I really will start questioning your trust if you think I¡¯m someone that needs your apologies. Who do you think I am?¡± I scolded lightly as a small chuckle escaped her mouth. ¡°Yeah, the great and mighty Jean Paradox, rich kid extraordinaire and a publically recognised top ten in the ¡®guys you would want to marry¡¯ with third place in looks and fifth in wealth. Hmph, what was I thinking, apologising to a playboy like you¡­ thankyou though.¡± She trailed off after her little mood brightener. ¡°I bet I¡¯m number one now¡± I said smugly while thinking about my charisma stat and the newly gained wealth of twenty gold coins from mister baby god. I wouldn¡¯t check the store till later however since I wanted to go over it with all of us. ¡°It¡¯s annoying that I can¡¯t refute that¡± She sighed. Truthfully when you get to such a level to be in top ten things are mainly based off of your public image rather than the difference between looks. With my looks alone I got to third place but in the top three the other two where on par with me but had a better public opinion. There was never really a perfect score for it but now I know that I¡¯ve outstripped them considerably, if they are even still alive. I have the right to be arrogant about it but I usually only use arrogance jokingly rather than adopting it as a personality trait. ¡°The city is a lot more beautiful than I imagined it to be without lights and people¡± I commented after a long while. ¡°Mhm¡± She agreed as the silence once again returned. Over the next few hours we continued to chat about random things that had no relevance as we basked in the view that three in the morning till dawn could provide us with. The sunrise was spectacular, a golden red colour that seemed to eclipse our surroundings for hours as it began to climb high enough to illuminate the world. It only lasted a short amount of time in reality but the moment made the scene become longer. It was the best sunrise I had ever seen which was ironic considering the state of the world. After a long while Page and Ace began to wake up and I told them all the things which I had been putting off till now. Of course I wasn¡¯t so insensitive to talk about Page¡¯s circumstances with Ally when she could hear it but I let her in on everything else, including the information about my achievements and gods message while explaining everything which happened to Leo and me since it started. Although it was a less¡­ disturbing version, I also made sure to tell them about our experiments with the cats. Page got teary eyes and I tried to explain that I didn¡¯t like it either but I feel like she¡¯ll be angry with me for a while. The question about why she started talking in third person completely failed when she answered with ¡°Page has always talked like this.¡± As if she didn¡¯t even remember talking in first person and even with Leo¡¯s attempt at explaining that we met her talking to us in first person she denied it, there¡¯s not much we can do in that situation. Ally told us about the start of the apocalypse for her which was the same as we already knew but with a bit more details while page surprised me by being able to remember everything (other than the first person) so my worry dropped a bit. If third person was the only thing she ended up with after such severe mental trauma then it¡¯s better to be thankful for it being only this much. The siblings and their little brother decided to come back to the school with us as shown by the note they slid under the door at around seven in the morning and the market was limited by level so even with the money we couldn¡¯t get anything worthwhile besides slightly better weapons and equipment than the ones dropped by zombies which we already had covered. There was a little information package for ten silver which told us some basic information like it being technology that doesn¡¯t work anymore rather than electricity but it also said that it would come back a year from the day it was cut off. It was mainly so that people couldn¡¯t use guns or bombs to wipe each other out as soon as zombies arrived. Crossbows still worked according to the package but all guns, bombs and technology was cut off other than the generic gas explosion types. The bombs just outright disappeared if they where bigger than a fifty metre blast radius but the rest we will have to put up with once the year ends. I took my cat with me as well, much to Leo¡¯s annoyance. He only recently found a reason to hate cats even more than before so he sees it as a little demon that he is forced to put up with rather than one of the cutest and smallest cats in the world. I¡¯ve had tiny for five years now and she was the only thing in that house I had attachment to other than my necklace. She¡¯s just so cute and she loves sleeping on my shoulder¡­ believing such a cute thing is evil is borderline heretical but since he¡¯s my friend I will accept his dysfunctions and treat him the same despite the obvious mental impairments. It¡¯s okay bud, we all support you. Ally on the other hand was ecstatic about tiny and I¡¯m sure many other people would be too so I had decided to be careful with who I trust to handle her in case she is catnapped. About three quarters of the way to school I felt a rapid projectile enter my area sense range and quickly turned to see an arrow zooming directly at Page. To aim an arrow at a child¡­ who the fuck would do such a thing? My stats let me pull her out of the way before the arrow slid past and hit the road a few metres in front of us with sparks as the shaft snapped but it was close and there was already another one coming at me. Dodging it as another arrow slid uselessly along the ground I began to order the others. ¡°Retreat for now. We¡¯ll circle around later to take out the archer but we¡¯re too exposed here.¡± I said quickly as they followed my orders. Well not like they¡¯d refuse in this situation. No one would want to stay here. I really didn¡¯t expect something like this so soon but I can¡¯t say it is unexpected either. There will always be the odd person who survived while actually having some skill and judging by the experience it seems humans give more than zombies making them better targets for efficient levelling but I believed that morals would keep this sort of practise at bay for a while longer. They where either one of the scum or their mentality was a lot stronger than most people and the end result was like a tiger being given wings due to this apocalyptic situation. In a sick and twisted way the thought of them thinning out the herd that will be coming towards the school came to me and I considered leaving them alive but at the same time they could get into a vantage point near the school and pick off the people inside when I¡¯m not around to sense it or are too far away, not to mention their potential for growth being enough to make them a future threat. As we ran five more arrows came at us and two where fired so fast that I didn¡¯t have time to completely block them as they where aimed at both sides of the group. Somehow I just managed to stop the arrow by using my own hand as a sacrifice which hurt like a bitch but it would regenerate soon so I wasn¡¯t worried. ¡°Ally, Leo, Cover Page and hole up in the mall. You three should go with them as well but if you feel safer legging it to the school or somewhere else go ahead. Leo if I don¡¯t meet up with you within two hours leave without me no matter what.¡± I ordered as I left before they could object. I already got them into the alleys and they saw where the shots came from so hopefully they will be fine. The arrows hitting concrete was loud and attracted all the zombies within 50-100 metres so I quickly started backtracking through the alleys around the group and heading towards the direction I saw the archer. Far sight made it easy to follow the arrows path back to the archer and he was around ninety metres away on top of a five story building. They won¡¯t have enough time to flee the building due to the size, an amateur mistake but I don¡¯t know if they have a rope leading down so I went as fast as I could. The building itself was rather old considering how centralised it was in the city but thanks to that it had balconies lining the levels instead of the new trend of having massive glass covering everything in a single sleek and shiny design. Using my new stats I could jump up to the first balcony and pull myself up before repeating the process. I made sure not to be seen getting here on the way just in case they where still on the top level but when I got to the third floor I felt something within my area sense, a frantically running person. Jumping back down to the lower balcony I ran down to intercept them at the stairs. Pocking my blade through I made it so the flat of the blade hit his forehead and made them run into it, nocking him down. ¡°Who are you? The archer looked difference so give me a reason not to kill you¡± I said coldly before they could gather themselves again. ¡°I-I-iii I¡¯m just someone he captured as a distraction man, please, let me go. I d-didn¡¯t want to be here but h-he threatened to kill my friend if I didn¡¯t¡± He begged. ¡°Crap¡± Cursing as I ran to the top of the stairs as fast as I could. Bursting onto the roof once I judged it safe with area sense I immediately saw the dead body of a tied up 27 looking female who I¡¯m guessing was the friend. No loose ends huh¡­? Fine, then I¡¯ll stalk that guy until he comes back to finish him off. People who can hunt people so easily wont let their prey escape¡­ hopefully. Onestly that was a load of crap but it was the only lead I had. There really was a rope and I have no idea where they are again. The ¡®prey¡¯ is the only option now.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Using the same rope I scaled down the building as fast as I could before getting to the second from the bottom balcony and directly dropping down. It was time to follow. After an hour stalking the guy I was ready to give up. He was going the opposite way from my friends and I was on a time limit. Sticking with it I followed for a few more minutes as he finally stopped running and started to relax his guard, believing it to be safe. Of course that was when I found out how much of a cruel bastard this archer really was as an arrow was shot at him as soon as the guy relaxed but I was too far away to help even if I wanted to now and I didn¡¯t want to lose him again because of this doomed guy so he became a sacrifice. To kill the prey just as they thought they had escaped¡­ how disgusting. But I had his position now. Going through the alleys and reconfirming his position a few times as I went I was getting closer and closer to the archer. It was unnecessary as he seemed to want to go inspect his prey but I wouldn¡¯t allow him that chance. The guy didn¡¯t turn into dust so he must have wanted the body for something I didn¡¯t want to know and the least I could do was stop it from happening considering that I could have saved him if I did things differently. His body atleast won¡¯t get fucked up by this asshole. ¡°-hat Jey jey? Did you, did you? We fina-¡° The wind carried a bit of his sing-song voice to my ears as I worked my way closer. ¡°-ow we just nee-¡° ¡°-Hmm, but I¡¯m annoyed. Why did such annoying prey appear? I¡¯m supposed to be the hunter but yet that kid dared to try and hunt me¡­ should we teach them a lesson?¡± He giggled stupidly. ¡°Oh, good idea! His precious little friends¡­ yes, let¡¯s play a game of self-sacrifice with that little kiddy. That will be so exciting!~¡± My heart grew cold as I heard his words. Although the conversation where he is talking to himself is fractured and it¡¯s hard to make out what he¡¯s saying I heard that last part clearly. He wants to use my friends as hostages so he can make me trade my life for them. Based on what I saw on the roof he would kill me and then kill them anyway¡­ I¡¯m so killing this bastard. Once he was directly next to my little crack of an alleyway I sent out a throwing knife. He dodged it barely with a small cut on his cheek and brought up the bow with a smug smile, arrow already on the string and ready to be fired but I jerked my hand and he turned to dust. Just in case I had another three throwing knifes in my hands that I released simultaneously with all the strength I could muster after my attempt at a controlled throw failed. I¡¯m not used to the new strength yet so my aim is off if I go above a certain force which was why he even had a chance to dodge the knives but I compensated the accuracy with numbers and used my full strength. One pierced straight through his throat and spine while the other went through his left calf and the third missed by a few inches. He died almost instantly. ¡°What a fucking psychopath¡­¡± I muttered in disgust as I remembered the smile that only widened in the brief moment between the knife piercing his throat and turning into dust. All that was left was a bow, the arrow quiver with twenty or so arrows and seven silver coins. Although I didn¡¯t really want to I picked it all up and ran through the backstreets towards the mall. Even if it was the loot from a man like that¡­ I don¡¯t have the luxury to throw it away, especially since Ally likes bows but all of hers where in a vacation home where she goes hunting half way across the continent. ¡°Your cutting it awfully close¡± Leo said as soon as I appeared. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect the guy to be such a sicko so it took longer than I expected.¡± I said with a weak smile. ¡°Well he DID shoot arrows at us, even targeting page first¡­ what did you expect?¡± ¡°I know that but I just assumed them to be someone who was trying to take advantage of the extra exp killing humans gets you, not¡­ not full blown psychotic.¡± I shook my head wearily as I neglected to explain. ¡°Ally, catch¡± I said as I threw the bow and arrows to her. ¡°You killed him, didn¡¯t you?¡± The male sibling questioned accusingly. ¡°Oh no, I gave the psychopath a lolly pop and sung him some songs and he happily handed over the weapons to turn over a new leaf¡± I layered on the sarcasm. I wasn¡¯t in the mood for this idiots crap. The sister glared at her obviously idiotic brother but I ignored them. The little kid they are leading around understood but didn¡¯t seem scared which confused me a bit but I guess walking corpses that eat people alive has a way of doing that to people. ¡°What happened?¡± Ally supressed her excitement over the weapon to ask. ¡°He had two people tied up on the roof. One was a hostage while the other he sent away as bait with the threat of killing his friend. The girl was killed as soon as the guy was out of sight and I lost him since I went after the distraction by mistake. Following them, as soon as he relaxed and stopped running the guy appeared again and shot him while talking to himself as if there was another person there about how he was going to hunt us to catch me by using you guys as hostages. When I killed him¡­ his smile only got wider before he turned to dust. He was a full blown crazy bastard.¡± That shut up the idiot brother but I didn¡¯t care. It was plain disturbing and shutting up the idiotic bastard didn¡¯t change that. ¡°Thanks for the bow¡± Ally muttered to me without any of the earlier excitement. ¡°Sorry, I ruined it, right? Sigh¡­ I just really can¡¯t calm down for some reason¡­¡± I said tiredly. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. I asked and you wouldn¡¯t have lied to me so whether it is now or when we are at the school that I found out it makes no difference. Are you okay, Jean?¡± She tried to comfort me and she sounded sincere but¡­ ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Something¡¯s really bothering me but I don¡¯t know what and it¡¯s so frustrating. I feel like I made a mistake but¡­ I just really don¡¯t understand. Why do I feel like this?¡± Despite questioning I knew there wouldn¡¯t be any answers. How would she know what I don¡¯t? It¡¯s just¡­ something feels wrong and I can¡¯t help but ask¡­ ¡°Idiot¡­ thinking so hard won¡¯t let you work out what¡¯s wrong. Just wait until it comes to you naturally. Here, tiny¡¯s been lonely without you so take her back and calm down¡± Her voice was warm and I smiled slightly at what she said as she gave tiny back to me. As she was talking she brushed the hair out of my face and made sure I was looking her in the eyes, an old habit we had when we where younger that died down after puberty. Even if it was old the gesture made me happy and I couldn¡¯t help but smile softly. ¡°Thanks Ally.¡± ¡°Are you two done now? I hate to interrupt your little star-crossed lovers scene that I¡¯m sure netted you a handsome amount of charisma points but we¡¯ve wasted enough time here already. We need to get moving again¡± Although Leo seemed as if he was annoyed his voice said otherwise, betraying the appearance he was going for. I mean his voice sounded perfectly happy, even smug, at interrupting the scene. Even with Ally¡¯s temperament she couldn¡¯t help but blush in that situation and shoot her brother a glare while I chuckled at their ensuing fight. It was childish and quickly devolved into bickering over nonsense but the familiarity was comforting and dissolved the tension I had unconsciously built up without realising. ¡°You should ask already¡± I said to Lillian without taking my eyes off of their scene. She hesitated a bit but then spoke. ¡°Are you dating her?¡± I expected it to be about their scene so the question surprised me. ¡°Why would you think that?¡± ¡°As far as I know both of you have never had any news of dating people while in school and that scene just now was overly intimate. I never really thought about it till now but¡­ does ally love you?¡± Her voice sounded as if she wouldn¡¯t believe me even if I said no so I thought about my answer a bit. ¡°We aren¡¯t dating. I¡¯m not sure if she loves me and while I¡¯d like to say I know her well enough to deny it I won¡¯t ignore the possibility but if she does I doubt she herself realises.¡± Because she is the sort of person to supress and ignore her emotions as long as it means keeping the little world she built for herself. Loving me¡­ would shatter that world. ¡°Do you love her?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know even if I did.¡± There wasn¡¯t any thought into my answer. Love stopped being something I thought about before I even hit puberty. ¡°Why would-¡° ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Thanks Leo. I really didn¡¯t want to deal with that. I finally got tiny back which calmed me down a bit. ¡°Tiny.¡± I called coaxingly as I held her in front of my face. She bopped me on the nose in reply which made me chuckle. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I left you alone for so long. Well I guess you won¡¯t understand anyway but I¡¯ll try to make up for it.¡± I set her in my hood so she could sleep without worry of falling off me. Small things, but a start none the less. She was purring but after a while she had fallen asleep. ¡°And you wonder why you have so many girls after you despite the cold personality you portrayed.¡± Leo said sarcastically as the moment shattered. I felt a little flustered honestly. ¡°They never saw me like this¡± I defended. ¡°No but they saw the occasional moments where soft expressions like that where displayed. You are ridiculously beautiful.¡± Ouch, even the ice queen intervened to shoot down my defence but thanks¡­ I guess? It really didn¡¯t feel like a compliment at all¡­ ¡°Look at it from his perspective. Purposefully acting cold and distant with everyone but yet has girls after them despite that. Even with looks like his there shouldn¡¯t be so many in that situation and seeing his own expressions is impossible. Don¡¯t bully Jean.¡± Ally, my hero! ¡°That defence is weak. There are pictures of him with expressions like that circulating so he would have been able to see it easily.¡± Wait, what? Isn¡¯t that a little creepy? ¡°Why is it that I seem to be the only one surprised about this? Ally, Leo? What the heck?¡± They both averted their gazes. ¡°Seriously!?¡± ¡°From memory Ally was bought out with a backstage pass to a band she likes but I don¡¯t know about leo.¡± She even started whistling. Oi ally, are you really my hero!? ¡°Leo?¡± I questioned. ¡°It was a favour I owed. It¡¯s not like you could have changed anything if you knew anyway so it was fine.¡± No guilt at all¡­ should I say something like ¡®as expected of Leo?¡¯. ¡°So things like this can happen to people like you huh?¡± Dammit brother I¡¯ve been purposefully ignoring the name of, I don¡¯t need your pity of all people! ¡°Can I remind you people that we¡¯re in the middle of an apocalypse? Please shut up.¡± Ouch. From a nine year old¡­ Sighing we all agreed reluctantly. I¡¯ve already noticed the increase in zombies within our back paths since we started the conversation, the whistling especially, so it was a good point but the atmosphere was something the others all needed to calm down a bit. Stress relief is very important. After another hour or so of walking it suddenly hit me what I felt bothered by. Guilt. Guilt for letting that person die because of my negligence. So far, all my human kills where of people I could justify killing for one reason or another. By nature my resolve is strong enough to do that much without any guilt. This guy however was a death due to my own inability. I even followed them for so long but yet I couldn¡¯t save them in the end. Sighing to myself I decided to put it off until later. Nothing good will come of letting emotions cloud my judgement while we¡¯re outside of friendly territory after all. Along the way we only ran into one more risky situation which was easily resolved by Ally shooting an arrow over the small horde into a glass window some distance away but otherwise we safely made it to the school by the afternoon. Although I couldn¡¯t immediately spot any zombies the same could be said for humans so it was safe to say the school hadn¡¯t been cleared yet. I suppose it would be more worrying if it had considering the size of the place but I still felt a little disappointed at the extra work it would take. Honestly I just wanted to train. We wasted two days worth of time on our trip to both sleep and travel. Considering I was hoping to push for the achievements at the following stat benchmarks that was quite serious to me. ¡°Jean there¡¯s a lock now. How do you want to get in?¡± Leo distracted me from my musing. ¡°The gate is still the easiest way. We¡¯ll climb it.¡± Compared to the barbed wire the gate was certainly the better option, even if it was a little tall. ¡°Page I¡¯ll carry you over with me while Leo will take your brother. I trust that you two can make it over fine yourselves.¡± Ally took charge. ¡°I can climb over myself¡± The kid tried to argue only to be stopped by ally¡¯s glare. She¡¯s a little defensive about that due to the height. No matter how brave or strong the kid is being on the ground and at the top of the fence is two different matters and falling due to that hesitation would be disastrous for the kids, even the two older siblings could die from that if they landed wrong. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll stay here to catch anyone in case they fall then¡± And with that the great climb started¡­ not really, the gate was only nine metres tall. ¡°Shit-!¡± ¡°Brother!¡± Of course that lump of brainless annoyance would be the one I had to catch¡­ sigh. Let¡¯s just get this over with. ¡°Ooof¡± The air was taken out of his lungs as he landed and I had to bend down with the catch in order to avoid letting him hurt himself from a flat catch but otherwise he was fine. Well, other than the sprained wrist. Dammit. ¡°Ugh¡­ fine, hold my cat. If you drop her I will kill you.¡± I groaned as I brought him onto my back, much to both of our embarrassments. This was just plain gross. And that is how we completed our grand gate climb, entered the relative safety of the school and granted a new mental trauma onto the oaf of a brother. ¡°When we left they where still in the drama room but they might be in the gym by now or hunting down zombies to clear the school out. We¡¯ll head around looking for them in that order¡± I said simply as the others agreed without protest. As we where walking we suddenly heard violins. It wasn¡¯t some beautiful musical masterpiece like you¡¯d expect with such instruments but an unholy screeching made by frantically playing it without any tune or delicacy. Even from a distance it was horrible. For the next five minutes we approached this horrible sound and found zombies gathering in the gym. It seems their plan was to trap them all in there and pick them off one by one, there where thousands inside. ¡°Could that be any more fucking annoying?!¡± Leo yelled over the sound as we arrived at the gym. ¡°Ah, yep, it can be. Run. Run and don¡¯t look back!¡± I yelled. The sound stopped and a hundred or so zombies caught the end of Leo¡¯s yelling and started to come after us. ¡°Dammit Leo I hope you¡¯ll be stat dumping in luck or we¡¯re all going to die in the future¡± Ally cursed at him as we ran. It¡¯s not like we couldn¡¯t escape and in fact it would be fairly easy considering the zombies speed but dammit if it wasn¡¯t annoying. Thankfully we didn¡¯t seem to interrupt whoever those annoying assholes playing the violin where as the zombies following us where the one¡¯s who didn¡¯t fit inside the gym but I¡¯m sure we still surprised them. The kids and siblings where panting while Ally, leo and I where fine but since they where safe for now I made a new course of action. ¡°Leo, Ally and I are going to go pick off that small horde and help clearing out the remaining zombies. I¡¯ll be trusting you four to not get yourselves killed and look after tiny. Stay up here till we get back, the zombies won¡¯t reach you here.¡± I said simply before jumping off. ¡°Page wants to come too! Why can¡¯t page come?¡± She asked with teary eyes. ¡°We¡¯re trying to clear up thousands of zombies Page. Even if most of them are trapped we can¡¯t look out for you while we¡¯re doing it. Protect tiny for Jean okay?¡± Ally said pleadingly. ¡°Fine¡­¡± She said sadly as she went to go sulk with tiny. She¡¯ll be fine after a few minutes with that cuteness overload of a cat so I wasn¡¯t worried. A little dejected maybe but not worried. ¡°Atleast the violins stopp-¡° ¡°Oh you just had to talk you fucking idiot!¡± Ally yelled at Leo as it started again. ¡°It wasn¡¯t my fault!¡± He tried to defend as she just kept glaring at him. Sorry bud, as long as the anger¡¯s not at me I¡¯m afraid I won¡¯t risk incurring her wrath to save you. Good luck¡­? ¡°Spread out in a net with twenty five metres between us. If ones in trouble we¡¯ll be close enough to help while the net¡¯s wide enough to stop us from being surrounded. No talking unless something¡¯s wrong, we need to do this as fast as possible.¡± They both nodded and we jogged to our positions to begin picking off zombies. It¡¯s going to be a long day. Chapter 5 - School Life It was getting dark. For hours now we had been using hit and run tactics on the horde the violin built up with the group who gathered them playing every thirty minutes of so to gather them together again when they chased us. Honestly it would have been easier to take out the horde if they weren¡¯t gathered so the time used to do it annoyed me but I still accepted it because it meant that page was safe since they where gathered within my sight. Well, she would be safe where she is anyway but being away for so long makes it a small relief. Right now there are only around fifty zombies left even after the violin attracted them and maybe a few stragglers across the school. The progress is good but¡­ ugh. The smell is horrible. Close to five thousand zombies bodies, dead but still there since the combat never ended where piled up around the area. Zombie blood covered my clothes and stayed because of that and I was walking through rotten corpses and blood constantly, even getting brain matter and minced bloody flesh in my boots. Utterly disgusting. Worst experience ever. About an hour ago Ally and Leo started to feel sick so I immediately made them withdraw. I think it was just the smell getting to them but seeing as I¡¯m still going I can only assume that the blood on their skin has started to slowly effect them. Thankfully their zombies despawned once they left so that blood is gone but their vitality wasn¡¯t enough to stay here forever, though I was sure they¡¯d be fine. It was just over-exposure in the end and I don¡¯t think the god would make this RPG apocalypse have such a bullshit system but just in case I made them bring their vitality up to a hundred with stat points. They weren¡¯t far off anyway and from what I could tell the hundred mark was a qualitative change so I think they¡¯ll be fine. ¡°Jean right? Lea asked if you could leave those fifty alive and lead them into the ball storage room. She said she wants to use them to level up the people who haven¡¯t killed any zombies yet.¡± So Lea is still leading? Good. She has some capabilities at least. The guy is someone I don¡¯t know however, probably someone else she found in the school. ¡°Sure. It won¡¯t be hard.¡± He ran off back to wherever he came from and I did as I was asked. ¡°Oi! Over here you rotting pieces of crap!¡± That attracted all their attention rather than the one or two following me before. Keeping at a fairly close distance and occasionally yelling I got to the ball storage room and went in. There was a person I saw hiding behind a pole in the gym and once inside I could see another waiting at the second door for me to get them all in. Once inside the door we came through was closed by the one hiding behind the pole and I dashed out the opposite door before the chick could react. Shutting it, I finally leaned against the door behind me and sighed. Even with the stats hours of combat was really tiring. [Ding!] [You have levelled up x2!] ¡®Status¡¯ [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 15 HP: 1720 MP: 1690 Strength: 174 Dexterity: 201 Vitality: 162 Intelligence: 159 Wisdom: 162 Charisma: 162 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 103 Didn¡¯t my vitality improve too much? Well I guess I was covered in zombie blood for ages but my stats seemed to have grown a bit more than I expected. ¡°Finally all that crap is off of me. Fuck it feels good not to be covered in zombie.¡± I groaned as I pushed off the door. ¡°Nice to see you again as well Jean.¡± Lea was the girl who was waiting at the door, I realised. ¡°Are you an idiot? Why did you play the violin to get them into a horde? It would have been so much easier to hunt them one by one, you know that, right?¡± I instantly questioned as I felt the frustration leak into my voice. ¡°We¡­ had an incident. A girl was bitten while we where fighting and her scream attracted more to us. We lost half the group because we got surrounded and if not for the timely intervention of Theodore, a one year junior to us, distracting them and creating an opening we all would have died. We didn¡¯t even know there where other people in the school until then so it was a pretty grim way to find out. They had a plan to trap them in the gym and pick them off slowly from above but there where more than we expected and we couldn¡¯t close the doors. If not for you coming back then we would have a horde moving through the school together.¡± She sounded sad and tired. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a bad plan but you forget that we had hundreds of thousands of zombies here just a few days ago. There was obviously going to be too many of them still as only so many of them could have left with the horde.¡± ¡°I think we all knew that but everyone was scared to fight again after losing their friends or hearing about us losing them. It¡¯s kind of a moral killer to be slaughtered by the undead. Anyway I saw Leo and Ally with you before but they left about an hour ago. Is there anyone else or is it just you three?¡± She tried to change the topic. ¡°Lillian, her two brothers and a little girl named Page we picked up on the way. Ally and Leo left because the blood being on their skin started to make them feel sick but they should be fine with over a hundred points in vitality while I didn¡¯t feel sick at all, period. I¡¯ll introduce you all later. For now you should have your people gather up all the loot from the zombies and spread it out among them. The money can buy you some basic gear to equip them with and there might even be some rare drops I haven¡¯t seen before from the sheer number we killed so be careful you catalogue it all in case it could be something that stabs you in the back later.¡± I told her seriously. ¡°Noted. Did you find out anything while outside?¡± She asked hopefully. ¡°Animals can be infected and a normal cat was able to jump around ten metres due to the strength increase the zombie infection gave it. Dead bodies can be infected and come back even faster than live ones as long as the head isn¡¯t damaged. There¡¯s also this which we bought from the shop for two silver. The shop is unlocked at level ten by the way and you get more options the more levels you gain¡± I said as I handed over the information package which I kept in my pocket the whole time. ¡°Oh, and there¡¯s an inventory for money but not items.¡± I added on as an after thought. ¡°How¡¯d you find out the body stuff?¡± Her voice was a little disturbed ¡°I came across a weird situation that made me worried about it and even though it disturbed the hell out of me Leo and I tested it out on two cats. That¡¯s why we also found out that the body won¡¯t disappear if you don¡¯t want it to. Trust me I¡¯m a cat person so it really disgusted me but there was nothing else I could test it on.¡± I grimaced and she thankfully didn¡¯t pry further. ¡°So you didn¡¯t find your sister then?¡± My expression became sad. ¡°My sister died years ago. I was just trying to delude myself into believing that with magic she might have come back¡­ I¡¯m sorry for letting that delusion affect you even if it was in a small way.¡± I told her sincerely. ¡°When I didn¡¯t leave the school it wasn¡¯t because of anything like fear or uncertainty. My family died several years ago and I¡¯m just a young master who inherited their left over fortunes. Considering I had the same hopes I can¡¯t exactly blame you for it.¡± ¡°You hid your background well in a school that lives off of rumours.¡± I smiled slightly. ¡°As did you. All those girls crazy over you didn¡¯t even realise your sister was dead or that you even had one. They are hard to hide but it¡¯s better than giving the snakes venom and making the rest pity you.¡± She said sounding tired for the first time since I met her. Granted our interactions where limited but it was still enough. ¡°That¡¯s true. I¡¯d rather not see those looks again and mum even went as far as to stop people coming to the funeral so she didn¡¯t have to see them. I didn¡¯t really try to hide any of it from others however, I just didn¡¯t want to talk to anyone period and it had an unintended result. Sis¡­ she meant everything to me.¡± I¡¯m not sure why I said so much but I was feeling impulsive and I strangely didn¡¯t feel like curbing that impulse. We walked in silence for a while. It was slow but not uncomfortable like you¡¯d expect after conversing about something so private with someone practically a stranger. ¡°How many people do you have now?¡± I asked after a while. ¡°Six died including our teacher and we met up with from what we can tell is the only other group in the school to bring our numbers up to twenty four. With your group that makes thirty one.¡± Not bad considering I expected around fifty but I guess the horde cleared away a lot of stragglers. ¡°Do you have a plan for the gates?¡± I said as I ignored the slight pang hearing the only teacher I liked in the school died. ¡°Not really. It¡¯s not a dictatorship set-up so I have to propose everything to the group even though they elected me leader. I can¡¯t decide that on my own and they won¡¯t want to decide until they finish getting over the stress the small horde caused.¡± She sighed. ¡°Whatever you do I suggest you do it fast. You could be killing people or yourselves by not watching over the gates with the new padlocks on them. For the watch have four or more people to make sure no one can betray you and run off leaving the gates open.¡± ¡°Padlocks? We¡­ we didn¡¯t padlock the gates.¡± She frowned as one appeared on my face as well. ¡°So someone either locked you in or others out without anyone realising huh¡­¡± I sighed as things suddenly got a lot more complicated. ¡°I doubt there are any other factions in the school or we would have seen them while scouting and playing the violin so it seems to be the more sinister one of someone locking us in. I¡¯ll ask the others just in case they did it without informing anyone but that¡¯s not likely.¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Just in case have someone use bolt cutters to remove them regardless and place your own. If it¡¯s outsiders then they have the keys to it and if it¡¯s insiders they might have given the keys to outsiders. Prepare your people for a siege.¡± She tensed up a bit before sighing and giving a nod. ¡°It¡¯s annoying how fast everything¡¯s moving¡­¡± She trailed off eventually. I didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Welcome to our humble abode.¡± I gestured dramatically as I led her onto the roof we where camping on. ¡°Big bro!¡± Page yelled excitedly as she ran into me as soon as I came up. ¡°Hey Page. Did you have fun with tiny?¡± I laughed as I ruffled her hair, earning a pout which just made me want to do it again. ¡°Hmph! Tiny kept trying to run away and look for you so she¡¯s in time out.¡± Oh wow she looks really sad. I guess it hurts to be abandoned by something so cute. ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m here now so she won¡¯t run away¡± I smiled as her face lit up and she ran to remove tiny from the box she was in. ¡°Big sis!! Tiny was in time out, I told you not to play with her!¡± Ally sneaked tiny out at some stage and was now being lectured for it. I laughed at the scene but didn¡¯t interrupt while ally looked helpless. ¡°big bro and big sis?¡± The guest I accidently forgot about raised an eyebrow questioningly as she asked. ¡°Her families dead so we took her in. She was crying about how she didn¡¯t have anyone left so I told her we¡¯d be her family and ever since it¡¯s been like this.¡± ¡°Your unexpectedly nice Jean.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± I asked defensively as she laughed. ¡°Nothing, nothing at all~¡± ¡°Your voice totally betrays that you know.¡± I replied flatly. ¡°Don¡¯t be such a spoilsport.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­¡± I¡¯m sighing a lot lately huh? ¡°Big bro! Page finally got tiny back¡± She smiled radiantly as if the lecture never happened. ¡°Good job¡± I smiled as I pet tiny and she started to pur, making page laugh happily. ¡°Jean another skyscraper started to burn about twenty minutes ago.¡± Leo told me as he pointed into the distance. ¡°I know but there¡¯s not much we can do about it other than mark it as a danger zone for travel. Leo have you noticed that the grass has started growing? I know the god said that magic was always around us but I feel like it must of increased in density when the apocalypse started. Soon all these skyscrapers will be overtaken by nature before we even realise.¡± ¡°I did but never gave it any thought. The city will look really cool when that happens but somehow I can¡¯t see that being good for us.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but agree with that. ¡°It works both ways though. It¡¯ll be easier to hide and move around freely once that happens and I imagine quite a few cool things will appear.¡± Disaster and fortune always come hand in hand, it is merely a matter of outlook that determines which one you receive. ¡°I guess¡± He didn¡¯t sound convinced. ¡°Well I¡¯m going to train all night so feel free to continue talking without me.¡± I said as I walked away. ¡°You don¡¯t want to meet the group?¡± Lea asked hastily before I could leave. ¡°They are all tensed now and it is getting dark. Better to meet them tomorrow once they have time to calm down and the darkness will only make them edgy so daytime is better.¡± I said dismissingly. ¡°Fine fine. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow then.¡± She sighed as she hopped off the roof and walked towards wherever her group was situated. ¡°I¡¯ll train with you as well.¡± Leo said as he came to join me. Recently training has become harder since we don¡¯t have weights or anything but things like chin-ups and push-ups still work fine as long as you do them as fast as you can. There¡¯s practically no burn out unless you do it like that. For strength it¡¯s fairly easy to find some bits and pieces to lift around and dexterity is done with the fast activities or a bit of running. Mental stats are the hardest to train now even if vitality is really hard as well since vitality can be increased through training but the mental stats are losing their effectiveness through simple visualisation. I¡¯ll need board games or puzzles to increase them by notable amounts now. ---- ¡®Status¡¯ [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Level: 15 HP: 2190 MP: 1780 Strength: 221 Dexterity: 264 Vitality: 209 Intelligence: 168 Wisdom: 172 Charisma: 231 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 103 I was stunned. Wasn¡¯t this improvement a little overkill? It was only one night of training but yet my stats where brought up so much¡­ Is this prot¨¦g¨¦¡¯s effects? I can¡¯t think of anything else that would have this result¡­ [Finally understanding how awesome a legendary achievement is? Geez kid there¡¯s many beings who would cry blood if they realised you got this power so easily, by accident to boot. At level fifty you¡¯ll unlock me as a talking buddy so I¡¯ll explain things to you then but prot¨¦g¨¦ is one of the top three powers in existence, made in tandem with one called devour to support the number one power called VIP. The winner of this universe becomes a VIP so work hard.] ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡°Are you okay man? I thought you just zoned out but ten minutes is a little overkill even for you¡± Leo¡¯s voice snapped me out of it. What¡¯s he mean ¡®even for you¡¯? That¡¯s offensive. ¡°Leo we have to reach level fifty¡± I said seriously as he looked at me weirdly. ¡°Isn¡¯t that goal a little low? We¡¯re trying to reach mythical levels like one thousand or ten thousand from the start but now our goal is only fifty?¡± I felt a little stupid at that. ¡°At level fifty we unlock the god as a talking buddy and get answers so it¡¯s our immediate goal. Of course we¡¯re still aiming for those mythical numbers but we need short term ones as well right?¡± He looked at me critically as if wondering if I actually had any points in the intelligence stat. ¡°And you just happen to know that¡­ how, exactly?¡± Oh wow he even talked slow to make sure I could keep up. I face palmed. ¡°Stop talking like that, it¡¯s freaky and if you must know mister god just had another one-sided chat with me. I¡¯ve become an OP character, I¡¯m such a badass¡± I said arrogantly as my hair was swept to the side of my face with a hint of dramatic flare. ¡°Fuck off.¡± He spat as I laughed happily. ¡°No~¡± I sung. ¡°Okay seriously, tell me word for word what was said.¡± His playful appearance faded as he got serious. Explaining my stat increase and the conclusion that brought me to the chat as well as everything god said he stood there contemplating for a few minutes. ¡°Yeah. Yeah I really can¡¯t find any reason that I¡¯m friends with such a lucky bastard like you.¡± He said dead serious. ¡°Because you couldn¡¯t live without your wonderfully awesome and sexy best friend Jean Paradox¡± I laughed. ¡°Seriously I must be a masochist for being friends with you¡± He sighed with a weak smile. ¡°And I must be a sadist.¡± I grinned as he glared at me. ¡°Well on the bright side I now have a perfect meat shield.¡± He smiled sinisterly. ¡°And I have a perfect fodder.¡± I smiled exactly the same. ¡°Meoww-rh¡± ¡°Yes yes I didn¡¯t forget you tiny¡± I laughed as she pawed at my jeans. Picking her up after she completely shattered the evil moment we had and made us burst into laughter we walked back to the group. The good thing about best friends is you can be pretty much in sinc with them for moments like that and still know they didn¡¯t mean it. To an outsider we probably looked like mortal enemies before but to the trained eye we where just messing around to deflate the tension that built from my news. I love having best friends. Unlike us, Ally was actually doing something useful with her time all night. She was adjusting her weapons to the new strength and practising with them. While it is mainly her dexterity and strength that gains from such training, being able to effectively use her equipment with such high stats will almost triple her combat power as compared to Leo and I who are brute forcing through right now. Since we are close range fighters mainly anyway that¡¯s not a bad thing but we¡¯ll have to spend some time to do the same as her in the future as well. Page and the three siblings where also being taught some basics with daggers and movement at the same time but for now it¡¯s not enough to be useful. Maybe once their intelligence and wisdom gets over a hundred or so each it will be easier to pick up and years of training for us can be compounded down into a few months or even weeks but for now they only have an average of around forty and while good it is still not enough to make them have any noteworthy progress within a single night. Still even these basics can help them survive as long as no one like us comes along to fight them. ¡°Sis guess what, this bastards become even more over powered. If he keeps going I¡¯ll fade away like I never existed through the mystical powers of being demoted into a side character.¡± He complained to ally as soon as we appeared. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make sure not to fade with you so everything¡¯s fine¡± She comforted in a strangely non-comforting way. ¡°Will Page fade as well?¡± Page asked cutely. ¡°Mascots never fade.¡± Leo what are you trying to do with this kid? Even ally is looking at you as if you¡¯re a pedo now. ¡°Page from now on make sure to keep some distance from Leo or you¡¯ll fade as well.¡± Ally told her seriously. Leo only just realised what was going on and looked panicked. ¡°Okay big sis. Page will be careful¡± ¡®My sister is a monster¡¯ Leo mouthed to me with a distressed look. ¡®Idiot¡¯ He turned to see the sister in question looking right at him with a sinister grin. We aren¡¯t the only one¡¯s who can lip read. She was standing right next to him so even though when he looked she was facing page that doesn¡¯t mean she would stay like that. She caught everything. ¡®Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll live in your steed.¡¯ With that a distressed Leo went through five minutes of hell being a punching bag for his sister in a ¡®spar¡¯. Poor Leo, she didn¡¯t even hold back because of how fast we can heal now¡­ nah not really, it was hilarious to watch. Go ally! And with that Leo was unconscious for near an hour before he woke up groaning even though his wounds healed. At mid-day Lea came to fetch us and until then I was training up my weapons a bit while ally switched over to pure physical training. We made the others train as well even if they didn¡¯t like it but they where happy with the results, though they refused to admit it. Well Page admitted it but that¡¯s different. The group was indeed situated on top of the gym like I suggested through a rope ladder they found and there where even tarps up there to block the sun. Being up here is much safer since the roof is around twenty five metres high, mounted on sturdy walls and has a wide, almost flat space so even hordes will have trouble pilling up here. The gym in question was an indoor basketball court that was detached near a few others like an indoor tennis court, pool, netball and an actual gym so the space was fairly big and if we wanted to, expanding over to the gyms next to us would be easy. Not to mention it¡¯s one of the highest buildings in the school so it¡¯s a pretty good vantage point. ¡°We should go to the maintenance shed and pick up a pair of snips to cut out a hole in the roof. Kick out the plaster and drop down a rope ladder and you have a safer entrance or exit.¡± I said to her as soon as we got up. ¡°Huh? What are snips?¡± Ally face palmed. ¡°Ally don¡¯t face palm at that. The only reason we know is because we stuck to the builders like glue when they made the showers at your house. Snips are a tool used to cut metal sheets, I think the Americans call them tin cutters? Don¡¯t quote me on that but it basically makes it a lot easier to cut them.¡± Why did I even expect a school of rich and pampered students to know the names of them? Even we only know them because it was so ¡®cool¡¯ to see them building that we stuck to the poor tradies and flooded them with questions. They got paid extra for it so they where happy to answer but looking back I can tell we where annoying. ¡°Ah, um¡­ okay?¡± With that she awkwardly led us over to the waiting group. ¡°I won¡¯t introduce everyone to each other since it would be annoying but this is Jean, Leo, Ally, Page, Lillian, Adrian and Darvey. Jean, Leo, Ally and Page are close enough in a sort of family and Lilly, Adrian and Darvey are siblings. You can introduce yourselves to them later but for now we have other things to discuss. I didn¡¯t bring it up last night since everyone was still stressed out but someone padlocked the gates that lead into the school. I¡¯d like to believe it was someone in our group who did it without telling anyone so if it is please stand up but if not it¡¯s likely someone is trying to lock us in.¡± No one came up. Darvey sounds like a good name for the oaf but somehow it¡¯s his smarter little brother that had the name while he had Adrian. ¡°Well in that case we need a permanent watch around the gates and to change the locks. We¡¯ll keep it at two people per gate for now since we¡¯re low on people but in the future it will increase. We have a lot to do today so we¡¯ll split off in groups of two or three to collect items, fortify our base and kill the left over zombies. I have a list that you can volunteer for but just know that everyone has things to do regardless of what you choose. First we¡¯ll go over the new information we got from Jean¡¯s group though.¡± Well she wouldn¡¯t force my ¡®family¡¯ to do anything but we¡¯ll still help. It¡¯s safer that way. It was very selective what we told others like, for example, my achievements so they don¡¯t know everything but pretty much everything else they do. We brought back a lot of information to them. Within thirty minutes she had said everything and split everyone off into groups but us. ¡°Leo and Adrian will watch the left gate and Ally and Lilly will watch the right. I¡¯ll take page and darvey with me to the maintenance storage room to pick up some tools before coming back and fixing up a better entrance.¡± I already told Lea before hand that I¡¯d have people from my group take watch. I was worried about something happening so I wanted Ally and Leo to watch a gate each and the other two where just the only people left. ¡°No offense but I don¡¯t think we should hand over the watch to outsiders Lea. They just got here but yet they are going to watch both gates without any of our own people. It¡¯s fishy.¡± Annoying. ¡°Jean was the reason my class even survived the start of the apocalypse and the reason we came to camp up here. Not to mention those three killed the entire horde, thousands of zombies, without help. Right now Jean alone could kill us all and you can¡¯t deny that after what you all saw but instead he is helping us. He¡¯s probably the most trustworthy individual here because of that. While all of us are banding together out of necessity his group doesn¡¯t need us at all so why would he betray us? I understand what you mean Chase but think about the situation more.¡± Well yeah. ¡°I only wanted Leo and Ally on a gate each since I trust them and their strength so if you want to swap with Adrian and Lillian and they agree then go ahead.¡± Her speech was made redundant by my cold voice. It¡¯s not unusual since my voice is usually cold but recently I¡¯ve been around people I care about so it hasn¡¯t been like that much. I still like the speech though so good work Lea! ¡°Can I swap with you Adrian?¡± A girl asked hesitantly. ¡°Yeah sure!¡± He was overly enthusiastic about his reply and startled her. The girl he liked, Jessica, had somehow managed to survive. Obviously the girl who asked to swap wasn¡¯t her since no way would he be enthusiastic about letting her cozy up to such a handsome guy like Leo but rather it seemed like she had some sort of special relationship with the girl who asked and Jessica pleaded silently with puppy dog eyes. I¡¯m actually starting to pity Adrian a little. ¡°O-okay¡­¡± She was a little dazed. ¡°I¡¯ll have some people send you a pair of bolt cutters and new locks each once I get them.¡± I said after no one else volunteered for a switch. ¡°Sure man. What do we do with anyone who turns up at the gates?¡± Leo asked. ¡°Make them leave immediately or once any immediate danger which made them seek refuge has passed with a second option of staying but being subjected to basic questioning. We need to check that they aren¡¯t spies before letting them in since the threat of whoever locked everyone inside still looms over us." I got some dirty looks but no one objected. ¡°Look for bites as well.¡± Lea added. I forgot to mention anything since I just figured leo and ally would do it regardless. ¡°And what will we do if they find someone bitten?¡± Random guy one asked. Lea looked to me for an answer, which made me a little uncomfortable. ¡°Detain them. We¡¯ll try to bring their vitality up enough to survive the infection and if they ask we¡¯ll release them outside the gate but until all hope is lost and they have turned into a zombie we will treat them like any other person other than the obvious levels of caution.¡± Leo surprisingly spoke up for me. There was a pointlessly long discussion about how we will be cautious with them before Lea just interrupted by saying ¡°Treat them like humans and don¡¯t let your guard down. Is it really that hard? Hurry up we¡¯re wasting time¡± Her words stopped the procrastinating. I pulled Ally to the side before she could run off for her watch. ¡°Be careful.¡± Her face showed a faint surprise but she nodded confidently. ¡°Aren¡¯t you becoming a play boy, telling the cute girl to be careful before she goes on duty? Now stop raising death flags you idiot I¡¯ll be fine.¡± She smirked. ¡°You know why I warned you¡± I grumbled but clearly wasn¡¯t really annoyed. ¡°I know I know, easy target blah blah blah. Shoo already, I have an extremely boring day to get over and done with so stop letting me procrastinate dammit.¡± People will underestimate her gate since it¡¯s two girls watching over it and while strong Ally isn¡¯t invincible and she knows that as well. I only reminded her because it felt right not because I thought she needed it. ¡°No you really look all too happy to procrastinate.¡± I commented flatly and got a forehead flick in reply. ¡°I¡¯m leaving, don¡¯t raise any more death flags for me while I¡¯m gone or I¡¯ll kill you.¡± A small chuckle escaped from her mouth despite the serious voice she put on. I decided not to say anything else so she could keep the illusion of a cool exit she fools herself with. Time to get to work. Chapter 6 - Dawn Of Origin The days quickly went by after we returned to the school. Usually someone would probably relax and grow dull after all the stress suddenly being replaced with such a rosy little community but it just encouraged us to train more instead. Well, atleast my little faction within the group. In that time I¡¯ve done around five runs outside the gates personally to get a wide variety of things such as a few animals, books, games, tools or clothing and food but Leo and Ally are both at one higher than me. The reason for that is simply because I found that the library is a perfect place to increase my intelligence and wisdom and I¡¯m even catching up to school subjects in the process so it seems like a win-win situation to me. The hole we cut to put the rope ladder through was easy enough to do though we did run into a few little mistakes like running into a support beam and having to cut a bigger hole but with the tarps rain getting in wasn¡¯t an issue so there where no major problems with it. By now we had around ninety people in the school all under the control of Lea and a fair amount of animals to liven the place up. It became quite the little community and the efficiency of everyone has rose by leaps and bounds in that time, letting us fortify our school to fairly high levels. With the pairs or people around the perimeter watching and numerous alarms I hooked up with fishing wires it¡¯s doubtful anything will get past us easily. We had a problem with a rat zombie that infected three people before we could put it down but it seems that for the boost they get to their stats the virus potency goes down in return, probably because we¡¯re of a different species so they all got over the infection fine. No one who was bitten by a human zombie has made it through so far but their vitality was all below a hundred so that doesn¡¯t say much. The biggest issue was food. People like eating even if they don¡¯t need to and it is also a source of moral and stress relief so acquiring it became quite important. Of course there are obvious limits to how much we can move back and forth without making a pack mule out of me again, pulling a trailer but it¡¯s good that in the city there aren¡¯t many issues of running out of food, atleast not yet. Some things have started to rot but there are still many more that retain their edibility so it¡¯s not a major concern. We¡¯ve had two suicides in the school which killed moral like you wouldn¡¯t believe but so far there haven¡¯t been any major disasters. Well correction, we ¡®had¡¯ no major disasters. If the current moment isn¡¯t a disaster then I don¡¯t know what is. [Hello again! It¡¯s time for an update! The apocalypse is hard even for the odd person who manages to cruise through it with ease but frankly don¡¯t you think this is a little too easy for an RPG Apocalypse? Even the odd animal zombies are just a slightly higher threat compared to normal so at this rate humans actually have a chance of reclaiming the Earth. But that is a big no no. If you reclaim the earth, how will there ever be a winner in this apocalypse? I can¡¯t just go ¡®okay, humanity wins as a whole let¡¯s reward them all¡¯ because that would be against the point of these games. No, it¡¯s time to spice things up a bit.] [Evolution has been unlocked for all races! There are no automatic evolutions unless I directly interfere or it is a mindless beast who can¡¯t choose for themselves so you can save the first one for as long as you want and build up however many choices you want but obviously there are various advantages or disadvantages to every choice you make in life so this will be the same. For example your evolution could make you into one of the mindless beasts if your not careful so try to be a little cautious before picking any old thing.] [Next is the new races which will be spawned in! Goblins, orcs, trolls, imps etc etc. They are all low level mobs which can grow just like everyone else and with it the undead population will also multiply by several times with various variants created to balance out against them so it is time for the new arc to begin! The great monster flood¡­ starts now!] [Oh and as an after-thought the world will expand in size massively and several special areas like dungeons, ruins and monster nests will appear. In your status menu you now have your race present and some evolutions have a set path that can¡¯t be surpassed. For example if you evolve into an Elf then it might be high elf or blood elf but there are only a few possible evolutions with elf as the base. There are ways to get around that and the elves will have an advantage that let¡¯s them compare to the rapidly evolving creatures as well but just keep it in mind. Good luck!] ¡°Well shit¡± Leo cursed from beside me as we watched the city morph around us. [Achievement: First to pull your stat-points over the 250 benchmark! Has been completed!] [Achievement: First to pull your stat-points over the 500 benchmark! Has been completed!] [Achievement: First to have ten achievements! Has been completed!] [Average Enhancement: Heat Radar!] [Average Enhancement: Padded Step!] [Greater Enhancement: Shadow Stalker!] The system messages for the achievements has changed and it no longer says anything about the stat boosts even though they still exist but this is what I got over the last few days. Seeing heat signatures within my area sense range, footstep sound is greatly reduced and I slip into the shadows almost naturally. It¡¯s an assassins perfect build and since even zombies have body heat it is really helpful in pin-pointing enemies within my range. ¡®Status¡¯ [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Race: Human * Evolution: Available * Level: 18 HP: 5820 MP: 6530 Strength: 632 Dexterity: 745 Vitality: 572 Intelligence: 643 Wisdom: 651 Charisma: 1381 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 136 Note: * is ¡®click to expand¡¯ option. And there are my stupidly high stats that I am utterly in love with. It¡¯s really disappointing to have such a massive mana pool with no idea how to use it though. God sent another message a while ago after I vaguely felt, well, something different and told me that my stats are getting to a level where I can start to sense mana even without knowing what it feels like but apparently I¡¯m still a fair distance off from it. His message said that even a baby could use mana if they knew what it felt like but for someone who has had it surrounding them for their entire life but not knowing it was mana then sensing it without any outside interference is extremely hard. Science would had led us to it in around twenty years or so but humans finding it themselves? Almost impossible. Until now. [*DING*] Race: Human Description: Humans are a rather average race. Strength in numbers, prone to idiocy and/or stupidity and rarely does something right but at the same time they have something many other races don¡¯t. Balance. They have a balance between their body and mind and have imaginations that outshine many others, making them naturally talented at magic should they put their imagination to full use. Of course they are still weak considering a dragon has balance as well but is leagues above humans but at the same time dragons lack the numbers that humans can achieve and have a crippling sense of pride. Humans have unlimited potential that they tend to limit unconsciously. Recommendation: Even though they have potential you should probably change race since there are many others with much more that don¡¯t have the limits humans posses. Even proud human kings in other worlds who are disgusted by other races would happily change if given the opportunity. Is what I got after clicking the expand for my race. I was actually expecting them to be valued less but if imagination is good for magic then it makes sense. Clicking on the expand next to evolution thousands of options appeared before me, separated into grades and recommendation levels with footnotes attached. It was overwhelming¡­ until it cracked and shattered, dispersing into particle effects. [Congrats! I¡¯m directly interfering for you! Because of that ring and the legendary achievement you qualify for a¡­ lets say unique race. It is also one of my favourite and one that I didn¡¯t think could appear until much later in the game but due to it¡¯s awesomeness the requirements to evolve into the higher versions are a lot harder than say elves. Naturally it¡¯s a little nerfed but don¡¯t worry, it is still awesome. Sigh, I guess I¡¯m giving you a free achievement since with my interference the evolution is instant¡­ lucky bastard.] [Achievement: First to evolve! Has been completed!] [Greater Enhancement: Blood Affinity +25%] Race: Blood Vampire Description: The name is lacking to describe how awesome this race really is. Made by a being that cannot be exterminated even if existence itself where to collapse, this race was moulded in her image to become a perfect race fitting her status. She did not make it consciously and was instead an accident but do not underestimate the race because of this. None of the weaknesses and all of the advantages vampires have, these beings are born with naturally superior mana and health pools and higher stats to match their title: The one perfect race. Can eat human food or drink blood, born with 50% in the blood affinity and superior talent they are the perfect beings in looks, strengths, talents and brains. Possessing an imagination higher than humans without the limits¡­ can any other race truly compare? But as is life there are distinctions among the race as well. Evolutions: Blood Vampire, Blood Noble, Blood Royalty, Blood Royalty (main bloodline), Mythical Blood Royalty. Total: 5 Note: Due to the nature of this apocalypse the benefits won¡¯t be as good in the beginning but that is only in terms of stat gain. The affinity and passive gains the race holds are still in effect. No control¡­ sigh, even my ring disappeared. I was actually starting to like the thing. ¡®Status¡¯ I decided to check. [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Race: Blood Vampire * Evolution: Unavailable * Level: 0 HP: 17,500 MP: 15,000 Strength: 850 Dexterity: 2,000 Vitality: 1,250 Intelligence: 1,000 Wisdom: 900 Charisma: 10,000 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 150 Note: Evolution has rounded stats and added certain improvements depending on the nature of the chosen race. Note: Five thousand HP and MP is now the new base without stats adding anything. ¡°Holy shit¡­¡± I muttered as I stared at my stats.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Yeah.¡± Leo replied dazed. For a second I thought he could see my status but then I looked past the screen. As if time was in fast-fowrard I watched the city fall into a maze of hangin walkways, creeking metal and shattered glass as nature overtook it and made it into something I had only seen in drawings. Randomly trees thousands of metres tall popped up around the city in a sort of barrier and blocked off the sky as nature glowed. Everything¡­ Everything had just became something absurd and unimaginable in the course of less than a minute. Not only that, hordes of monsters, flying or on the land appeared and started to make their moves to claim territory. There was already fights breaking out through the mythical land we found ourselves in. What was the most impressive however was the massive floating blue box in the air that I assumed could be seen from all angles. [Dungeon City: Natures Origin!] [Rank: C] [Size: Medium] [Note: Size and rank are in relation to the current world and the dungeons progress. In the future when the world grows it could be labelled as small or it¡¯s rank could be higher or lower. Rank and size will continue to be ranked between dungeons currently inhabiting the world and not out of a set ranking system so small differences will be noticed over time.] But then the note disappeared just leaving [Dungeon City: Natures Origin!] [Rank: C] [Size: Medium] to float freely in the air. The place was absolutely breathtaking. Beautiful beyond compare and vibrant with life and nature everywhere. Even the monsters where in awe of it¡¯s qualities. Luck was in our favour today even if we still weren¡¯t very lucky for a dungeon spawning around us. We where in approximately the middle of the city and surprisingly this dungeon didn¡¯t work like I expected it to. The weakest monsters spawned in the middle and got stronger the further out you go. Directly above us thousands of metres in the sky where vines dangling from the top down to the ground. They had massive leaves that reminded me of jack and the beanstalk but the scale wasn¡¯t even comparable to that children¡¯s tale. This was the entrance. Instead of entering from the outside and working your way towards the middle the dungeon had it set up so that you had to come from the top as the only entrance and exit and work your way outwards. Even the city expanded with new skyscrapers appearing in the distance only to fall into each other and be taken over by nature. There was no comparison. ¡°Lea get everyone prepared quickly. We may have gotten lucky to only be in the middle of the dungeon but we¡¯re still in danger from the sheer number of monsters here. We need to hole up and work our way out until we have a defensible position.¡± I snapped her out of the despair showing on her face and she proceeded to snap everyone else out and issue orders. I looked up again just in time to see some sort of flying dog try to come down and snatch a child so without hesitation I threw a knife at it and pierced the head, raining coins and a talon on the three people below. The knife missed someone by an inch. ¡°Watch the skies!¡± I yelled as I retrieved my knife and apologised for almost impaling the guy. He was shaken but thankful that I saved his daughter. Almost as soon as I yelled several flying creatures began to dive at the group as we retreated into the gym slowly through the rope ladder. We can¡¯t fight two wars right now so we¡¯ll take care of the land creatures first. ¡°Theodore! Drop the filler as you come down!¡± Lea yelled above the noise to one of her strongest and most trusted group members. We made a wooden block to shove in the hole in the roof like a plug to a sink beforehand but when we made it we thought it would be the other way around, retreating up to the roof and blocking it off. This was unexpected but it still worked just the same. ¡°Leo, Ally, Theodore and Tracey I want you to take a roller door each! Everyone else split off into groups to support them! Kids and anyone too weak to fight stay in the middle with James, Audrey, Aiden, and me! Jean I want you to go out there and bring back any survivors from our watch you can!¡± Lea ordered efficiently as everyone split off into their groups. Complying I squeezed my way through one of the doors and took out three goblin looking creatures with orange skin on the way. They where easy to kill but there was atleast fifty of them outside and I suddenly drew their agro¡­ well, I don¡¯t think it really works like that but I pissed them off majorly. Dancing through the crowd I took them out as fast as I could with my new stats and started to dash towards the gate. It has to be understood that right now I am two hundred times faster than the average human with my stats and although these monsters where part of the dungeon and as such had higher levels and strength then they should as newly spawned beings they where no where near my current stats. There where all sorts of creatures in many different colours so I¡¯m not even sure how to describe them but a rat with butterfly wings swooped down and picked up a two metre tall meaty slime with fur covering it as if I where nothing and I saw an ogre at five metres tall struggling under the weight of a caterpillar with spider legs that was sitting on it¡¯s back, chewing into it leisurely. There where all sorts of strange scenes that sent shivers up my spine. I made the mistake of underestimating a slime and having the clothing on my left arm melted and my skin change into an irritated red colour though thankfully it didn¡¯t just burn off. The wound regenerated almost immediately as I only took a few hp worth of damage. On the trip alone I killed around three hundred monsters of varying shapes, sizes and states of matter before I reached the gate. ¡°Crap¡± I muttered as I dashed in and chopped the head off of a giant praying mantis that had the last survivor out of the four people impaled through the shoulder. ¡°Fuck I thought I was going to die, crap that hurt! Thankyou thankyou a fucking million man, that thing wanted to torture me like it did the others.¡± I looked at the bodies as he shivered and saw several holes all over them where the mantis decided to play with it¡¯s victims. Even I felt a little sick at that. ¡°I¡¯m Jean. Can you run?¡± I introduced without wasting time. ¡°Tom and yeah but it¡¯ll hurt like a bitch.¡± He seemed like an easy going guy by how he was trying to act but anyone could tell he was terrified and in pain. Quickly wrapping a bandage around the wound before he could object and tying it tight as he whimpered I started to talk again. ¡°We¡¯ll get it patched up properly later. Lea wanted me to scout around the borders and get any survivors back to our choke point. I¡¯ll carry you for now because it will be faster.¡± His face turned sour but I didn¡¯t give him a chance to object as I princess carried him. ¡°Totally a breach of the bro code, or any code for that matter! Never carry a guy like a princess, totally not cool man!¡± He yelled as I ignored it. Not fun for me either dude. ¡°Can you identify the bodies?¡± I asked as we arrived at the next point. ¡°Charley and piper. Are you going to tell everyone who died?¡± He asked quietly. ¡°The more names we have the less people we have going out to look for them on the odd chance they are alive. It¡¯s cruel but we don¡¯t have the numbers for that.¡± He looked at me considering it before shrugging and we ran over to the next checkpoint for watch. ¡°Only one body. Blood leads that way, as well as a few coins.¡± I didn¡¯t need to say it but I still did. Following the trail and my area sense I came across a girl stitching her own leg together. ¡°Let me do it. Don¡¯t scream.¡± I surprised her but she handed it over with shaking hands. It¡¯s quite impressive that she even managed to do that much. Putting her arm in her mouth I began to stitch it as painlessly as I could. After thirty seconds it was done and I tied a bandage around it and she finally took her arm out, panting and covered in sweat and blood as well as a slightly bleeding bite wound she just gained. ¡°I¡¯ll swap with her.¡± I had a feeling he would swap with anyone at this point but I nodded none the less. We where slower now that he was using his own strength to move but I chose to think of it as a good thing, that there where atleast survivors to be slowed down by. The next four people we came across where all dead bodies. I¡¯ll work out why the bodies aren¡¯t despawning later but with two people we identified their names. ¡°heeeeeyyyy!!!!!¡± I already knew where the two where due to my area sense but they where trying to signal us over to help. Surrounded by twenty creatures looking like a cross between worms and wolves they where desperately clinging to the top of a shaking statue as they fought off the tall lunges and swooping flying creatures. They looked to be in a pretty grim situation but they survived atleast. Placing the girl down I ran off and killed the monsters as fast as I could before they jumped down and I killed the odd flying creature that followed. ¡°I just saw Jason get torn apart and I so thought that was going to happen to us.¡± The guy laughed in a way that seemed weird. The sort of laugh where you only have laughing or crying left and you choose laughing instead, a desperate kind of despairing laugh. Asking the same question with a bit more I spoke. ¡°Can you both run and does that mean you met up with others?¡± ¡°We can run and yeah, we met up with one more person as he was running from the beast that killed his partner. The fucking thing was toying with him, killed him right in front of us and then smirked, fucking smirked at us and walked away.¡± The guy was shivering as some sweat appeared at the memory and I looked at him with a few seconds of sympathy before once again making everyone move forward. By the time I made a full run around the gates I had fifteen people with me, bringing us up to sixteen in number. Thirty defenders and twelve defended where at the main base when I left and the rest where on watch. For only fifteen to survive, well atleast that I know of since I didn¡¯t find all the bodies, is insane. ¡°Make a beeline back to the base.¡± I said simply as I made them move again from the two minute break. Stamina like mine is uncommon. On the way something I had killed easily before and underestimated shot some sort of thorn out into some unlucky guys skull before I could stop it. I simply didn¡¯t have a way to because it was a co-ordinated ambush with some meat shield cannon fodder blocking my way so before I killed them all we lost one member, bringing us down to fifteen. We left the body. ¡°If your body can handle it reinforce the defences. If not recover enough to do so or offer support.¡± We pushed our way through the small mountain of corpses and the soon to be corpses as we made our way inside. Four people had died since I left from simple mistakes like underestimating certain monsters. ¡°Thirty nine defenders, fourteen defended¡± I muttered to myself as I joined the fray, acting as a support when any problems came up like higher levelled monsters or numbers. ¡°Jean I need backup! This guys too big to hurt and he¡¯s coming right at the wall!¡± Fuck a tank character. Running over there was a big fleshy¡­ something about ten metres tall and five wide. It had floating arms detached from it¡¯s weird roundish rectangular ball of flesh body that where constantly punching forwards in a slow but strong way, blowing my hair. How that works I have no idea but it was still a problem. It wasn¡¯t that Leo couldn¡¯t cut it, hell it was even easy. The problem was it was just so big that it barely took damage despite the cuts. Grey blood dripped out but nothing stopped it or even slowed it¡¯s progression. The only saving grace was that it was extremely slow to begin with, moving at about one metre every ten seconds in a weird jump like you¡¯d expect from slimes. ¡°I want to try something¡± I smirked as I ran at my top speed and landed a punch on it with all my strength. The body indented in and splattered blood and flesh over me before flying away into a nearby building and being impaled by a tree. It struggled for a few seconds before falling limp. The arms literally turned into meat paste after it died for whatever the hell reason operated those freaky things. ¡°What the FUCK was that man!!!¡± Leo yelled as the battlefield on this side of the building came to a temporary stop. ¡°That was so not worth it, I got monster in my mouth¡± I groaned as vomit cleaned it out for me. It has to be the worse thing I¡¯ve ever tasted, something between burnt blueberries and honey with over concentration of sugar in it. I really hate honey and am not a big fan of blueberries either. It was gross. ¡°We are SO going to talk after this is over!¡± He yelled before getting back to the battle. Some monsters fled immediately but most stayed to fight. Putting some gum in my mouth to hopefully clean out the taste a bit I went back to what I was doing before. Over the course of the siege, three more of those things appeared and two weird vomiting monsters that melted the walls. Thankfully it didn¡¯t breach through and instead combined the besser bricks into a sort of connected entity but that was only because there was only one vomit blast that connected before getting rid of the monsters. All at once around twenty thousand monster bodies turned into dust and blinded us. [You have levelled up x41!] [The first siege in the dungeon city at the entrance has been repelled, turning this area into the official entrance and safe area! Dungeon town will be built and NPC traders will be spawned! Be warned though that once a month a new siege will commence and the town will be at risk so make sure to train hard enough to repel the sieges! Monsters will get stronger and smarter over time just like dungeon divers and while they have a limit placed on how strong they can get in the starting area and as such you will not face anything stronger than what is deemed as a starting monster in the sieges, that doesn¡¯t mean there is a limit on numbers. Get strong and cull the monster hordes or you may just find this safe haven go up in flames. Death is impossible inside the city area other than sieges or designated locations for death matches.] [For participating in a successful siege defence and being the biggest contributor to the fight, +23 Levels and 80 Gold! +1,000 reputation with dungeon town!] [You have reached the fifty levels benchmark and have unlocked the features: Chat buddy and Guild Creation! For more information ask your new chat buddy!] I absently looked at the messages as I checked out the aftermath of the battle. Out of the fifty three people we had earlier now we are left with 36. Two children died and fifteen defenders bringing it up to seventeen deaths since I got back. The children¡­ a small bug spent hours drilling through the walls as discrete as possible before launching a suicide attack at them and taking them out before we could do anything to stop it. Two more where injured from the attack, including page. She only got a scratch on her cheek though while the other got a hole through their hand, one of the supposed most painful places due to the mass amount of nerves. She will heal but for now it will take a while. Most of the remaining defenders where injured with one even missing a leg and several lacked a few fingers or toes. This is hard to recover from and I¡¯m hoping that HP will restore their limbs but if not it will be a severe handicap on them. The main problem is that no one is getting stronger during the fight other than the combat experience and stat increases since we didn¡¯t level up from it. What was it yesterday, ninety something people? Jeez that number fell fast. ¡°Can you explain the guilds to me mister god or do I need to do something to earn the information?¡± I felt silly asking it out loud but that changed when I got a reply. {I¡¯m not mean enough to keep such basic information from you. First off though, quickly make a guild and invite everyone to it! If you don¡¯t you¡¯ll miss out on something great! Just say ¡®guild menu¡¯ as a command like status screen and it¡¯ll work!} ¡®Guild Menu¡¯ [Guild Menu] Description: A guild is a collection of people banding together to get various benefits. The guild leader can run the guild and use money to buy buffs, buildings or NPC soldiers to fight for them. To find out more you must be in a Guild or be a Guild Leader. Create Guild? Yes/No I clicked Yes. Name: ? Location: ¡®Natures Origin¡¯ Entrance City Specialty: ? Leader: Jean Paradox Generals: ? Members: ? Confirm? Yes/No Spending a small amount of time looking at what it meant I chose what I wanted. Name: Origin Location: ¡®Natures Origin¡¯ Entrance City Specialty: Dungeon Diving, Protection, Production. Leader: Jean Paradox Generals: Ally, Leo, Page, Lea and Theodore. Members: ¡­ (click to expand) Confirm? Yes/No Specialties automatically start with three slots and can be changed but provide small boosts to progress in those areas. Of course other jobs can still be taken, it¡¯s just they don¡¯t get those boosts. More specialties can be gained by completing certain hidden requirements but currently I have three. Everyone I invited could reject my offer if they wished but then they wouldn¡¯t be part of the Guild. I pushed Yes. [Achievement: First to form a guild! Has been completed!] [Higher Guild Improvement: +2 Specialties!] {Kid that achievement will follow you in any guild you make, even if this one disbands which gives you the advantage of having five specialties from the start. Even better¡­ look at this notification!} [By forming a guild in an ownerless city the city has been put under the guilds control! +10,000 Gold coins have been added to the guild funds (not removable) for being the first to claim the city! Now that the city is claimed, dungeon will finish remodelling.] {By city it just means the school zone and about a km more in each direction but it¡¯s still impressive! Congratulation, by being the first owner of this city ten thousand gold is automatically added to let you build up the city but since this is in a dungeon the dungeon will build the city for you, meaning your guild now has lots of excess money! See, aren¡¯t I awesome? What would you do without me? Hahaha!} ¡°Yes you are awesome. I still have no clue what¡¯s really going on but you¡¯re awesome¡± I smiled genuinely as I praised the narcissistic god. Leo looked at me strangely as well as a few others but the guild invitation made them realise there¡¯s more to it than spontaneously going crazy. Almost everyone joined as we watched the ¡®city¡¯ (more like town) morph. {You¡¯re obviously confused so let me explain. By nature a safe area entrance/dungeon town has a designated territory of 25km wide and 50km tall. Out of this you own a 22 x 22 km wide by 44 km tall box, the rest being covered in that black stone except for the entrance. You can expand your territory through guild funds but this box always stays the same size. At the entrance you have a two km wide by four tall rectangle hole that leads into the box at ground level. This is what you need to defend at all costs. Everything else is randomised based on the dungeons interests but it won¡¯t disadvantage you. The vines leading into the dungeon will come out on top of the box where anyone will have to climb down and come through the entrance. The box will also be pretty much hidden from outside view through vines, trees etc except for the clear and flat path into the entrance otherwise the thing would just look ugly.} ¡°Thanks¡± I muttered as it snapped me out of the stunned state I had been in. Right as I finished reading, the box was finished and the hole opened. Dirt filled everything till ground level and then things started. All the walls where covered with vines and creepers with flowers of all shapes, sizes and colours growing out that even glowed. The outside of the box was covered in various forms of plant life other than the straight hole towards the entrance like the god said and even without the glowing lights an artificial seeming type of light appeared and made everything bright like daytime. I assume it regulates day night time cycles and the plants always stay glowing but I won¡¯t find that out till later. And last of all¡­ the town appeared. And it was pretty damn awesome. Chapter 7 - Figurehead leader It was a little odd but at the same time amazing. On the back wall directly in the middle jutted out a half-circle shaped building from the wall by 1km. It¡¯s big when you think about it but overall isn¡¯t something noteworthy¡­ until you realise it reaches all the way up to the roof. Big is an understatement. Metal, glass and precise edges it was like a bigger, better and cooler skyscraper. And this was the guild building. Naturally there where other things in there as well but I haven¡¯t gone inside yet so I can¡¯t tell but from what our god tells me most of the building is the guild space which is awesome. The rest of the place was plane weird in my opinion but beautiful at the same time. Giant mushrooms of varying heights that where hollowed out with all sorts of random things inside. None went past ten km high but I was told there where even markets, hotels and public places within them. On the ground there where houses dotted around that where still living, by that I mean a house grown instead of made with a variety or trees and plants and not to mention the general markets, and there was all sorts of other stuff you could find in this place. What was amazing was the water cascading from the roof onto all the mushrooms and splitting into multiple streams of water that flowed down the sides and dropped into rivers and lakes. This place was a beautiful world of what nature could accomplish other than the modern guild building but rather than looking out of place it fitted in perfectly. For the protection of the entrance it was a living wood wall made by uncountable wood-like vines twisting together to create a massive barrier with a smaller gate that can be open or closed at will. The reason this is good is because it makes them come through one direction rather than flood into the place freely and gives us a choke point to defend from. Naturally some will slip through but all we have to do is have some people dedicated to hunting the strays and it won¡¯t matter. We had our perfect little paradise. The thing I was most thankful for however was that it wasn¡¯t overwhelming. It wasn¡¯t some brightly coloured monstrosity but rather deep dark colours that blended with the soft glow on the walls perfectly. The water had glowing moss of various colours under it that coloured the lakes and streams while the mushrooms where a dark blue colour with a slight glow. The place was stunning. Of course this all made the guild building stand out all the more since it was the tallest, easiest to see and only modern place but it is the most important with almost everything ran from there so it makes sense. ¡°Hey Leo¡± I whispered playfully as he looked around in awe. ¡°I own this place¡± My voice was smug and I couldn¡¯t wait to see his reaction. Not disappointing me, his face went through a variety of expressions all at once before settling on a resigned ¡®I should have expected this¡¯ look. I think I¡¯m numbing my friend to reality, how dangerous. ¡°Hurry up and marry my sister before I murder you out of frustration.¡± He stunned me and walked off with a smug look while I was distracted. Sighing I looked sideways at Ally while I had the chance. Beautiful, kind, compassionate, familiar, funny, happy, bright, strong, talented, smart and trustworthy. I could add a lot more words onto that list easily without any of them being false or exaggerated and I know that if I thought about it deeply it would be hard to find an end to the list. She is an amazing person. Someone irreplaceable or forgettable. Do I love her? Before I simply brushed aside my feelings because I didn¡¯t want to get too close to anyone. Both her and her brother helped me out of that time but it was her who really got me to get over it enough to care again. After that, I used depression as an excuse to cut off my thoughts on the subject but now that¡¯s gone as well. Next it was safety, a weak and fragile excuse but even that was shattered now by the one month period we where given before any further attacks. I lost all my excuses. Various thoughts, memories and emotions flooded in all at once, things which I had been supressing for years and made me think about this ignored topic more than I ever had before. I loved her. That came easily, it was the first thought I had once I asked myself and the further moments of sifting through all of those emotions and memories just made that even clearer but I was shocked by the extent of that love. Looking at it objectively it¡¯s only natural that someone deprived of any real happiness since they where nine would value love and happiness a lot higher than others but even that didn¡¯t quite explain it to me. Maybe I can¡¯t explain it. There isn¡¯t some logical reason for this and even with all my stat points in intelligence and wisdom I feel like I won¡¯t ever work it out. They merely helped me realise it as soon as I thought about it but they can¡¯t solve something like that. Love isn¡¯t so simple. ¡°Having fun?¡± Ally¡¯s voice shocked me out of my thoughts. On some level I had noticed she was in front of me long ago after she saw me zoned out staring at her but I just didn¡¯t register it until that moment. I could physically feel the panic that flowed through my eyes like a love-struck kid¡­ which I guess I was. I¡¯m seventeen so technically I¡¯m not an adult yet. ¡°Maybe. Anyway we¡¯ve got a lot to learn about this place before we can run it properly.¡± I sighed as I temporarily put my thoughts on hold. I care too much about the moment and right now just isn¡¯t the right time to tell her. ---- Ally has been trying to discuss the morality of the gods decisions when he came out with this. {This world would have been enslaved by an alien race in twenty years anyway, I saved you by doing this. Atleast now you can get power to fight for your own life rather than being helplessly enslaved with no chance of death, escape or love for atleast five hundred years. Besides the aim of this game is to get soul-bound powers like mister hotshot here who already has two of them. The winner gets the ultimate prize and becomes a VIP of existence. This game is salvation where you were only promised despair, not just for this life, for every life. Hotshot could already become a god by accident in all future lives with a little training and his eyes will stop him from being used. What do you think the ultimate prize is like? People died and experienced pain yeah but it¡¯s nothing compared to what they where going to get anyway. Everyone in this world will reincarnate into good families and the higher they get before dying, the better the family.} We where both a little stunned at that but evidently I was the first to recover. ¡°What IS prot¨¦g¨¦? I get that it helps my training but how?¡± I swear I could feel a smirk through the box that popped up next. {Prot¨¦g¨¦¡­ is exactly what it sounds like and more.} Perk: Prot¨¦g¨¦ Description: Prot¨¦g¨¦ is a soul-bound perk created by the creator of existence. With this perk you are a prot¨¦g¨¦ in everything you do including things like natural talent or vague subjects such as gaining insights. The main use of it however is the phrase ¡®It is about the strain, not the time¡¯, which negates the natural laws of the universe and allows strength to increase at an extraordinary rate based off of the strain overloading the limits rather than the time it should take to build up such improvements. While it is harder and longer to get stronger with the more strength the have for most, it is merely a question of how much you can strain your body with prot¨¦g¨¦. {Prot¨¦g¨¦ is what makes hero¡¯s look pitiful.} I thought about it a bit and decided that it made sense. My training pushes the limits quite a bit now since I heal faster so the stat improvements are to be expected but I haven¡¯t been training with precisely that goal, meaning I can optimise this a lot more still. ¡°Thanks. As much as I¡¯d like to chat all day about this and work out some more helpful information we¡¯ve been side-tracked from our original conversation about the guild and city.¡± {I¡¯ll explain as we check it out} ---- By the end of the day I had it all sorted out in my head. - A guild needs territory to be founded. Unclaimed cities, plots of land sold by the guild owner for small but spread out guilds like the adventurers guild or even empty land. In the case of it being a city, the first one to claim it will get ten thousand gold to develop the city. Towns can count as cities as well meaning it is possible to abuse but the funds aren¡¯t removable and stick to the city even if the guild moves. -Building is instant with gold. You can buy buffs to your town, debuffs to anyone hostile and even shields for your territory. NPC¡¯s can be purchased with money as well with a variety of jobs or skills such as magicians, swordsmen, blacksmiths, tailors etc. Of course you can still build normally or train people in the crafts but it¡¯s easier not to. -The guild gets an income. NPC¡¯s cannot be extorted and are really just like little machines but they can fork out however much money they want to for quests they enter to the guild. The guild gets a commission for both putting up the quest and part of the reward while the ones who do it get the rest. As a dungeon town it means we will have many, many quests constantly which is very good for our income. Every square km of land brings in 1 gold a day but that only counts length x width rather than the height as well, meaning cities who build up don¡¯t get any free money. -Due to it being a dungeon town we gained a lot of NPC¡¯s for free. This is naturally advantageous for us. NPC¡¯s can reproduce at the same rate as their race and are completely loyal, though they might give you bad deals if they don¡¯t like you. They can be sold back to the system to get money but it will be less than what they are priced for. -Right now there is a general adventurers guild that even a guild leader can join. These are classified as trade guilds and are a different type altogether. They can own cities but usually they just take small plots of land in many cities and run it. There can be branch leaders in these guilds and although automatically an NPC, a player can take over the job and get a decent salary and special quests about the guilds expansion of influence if they qualify for the job but apparently it¡¯s not a good deal so not many will do it. -Inside the guild base there are a few floors reserved specifically for registering for the different permissions, guilds, jobs and requests. We can also rent out floors to guilds. By default the adventurers guild has three floors in our guild building and have to pay us money to stay and in return our quests will be put inside there as long as they are not guild-specific quests. There is much more space for others but the adventurers guild was the only one added by default. -Guilds can be challenged by other guilds. The challengers will attack and if they can wipe out the defenders it will be theirs, along with any and all assets, trade agreements, treaties and bonuses. Usually this is not done as it makes a guild weak to have more than one city and after the war since their forces are split. A leader can also challenge one on one instead of fighting full-scale but only if the defending leader agrees since loss results in the absorption of your guild, whether you where the challenger or the challenged. -Lots of other random bits and pieces like taxes, politics, relations, treaties, communication etc that I don¡¯t want to get into for now. Taxes has ups and down, the biggest being that while it¡¯s impossible to be in dept unless it¡¯s a personal lone due to the nature of guilds if everyone hates you because of the taxes you will naturally make less money from small things like the guild having to pay more for wares and getting less quests or money rewards from them. ¡®Guild Menu¡¯ [Guild Menu] Name: OriginIf you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Location: ¡®Natures Origin¡¯ Entrance City Specialty: Dungeon Diving, Protection, Production, defence, money. Leader: Jean Paradox Generals: Ally, Leo, Page, Lea and Theodore. Members: (click to expand) Guild Respect: 10,000 Leader Respect: 4,750 Generals Respect (average): 1,000 Guild Member Respect (average): 500 Guild Bank: 11,231.54 Gold Removable Assets: 1,231.54 Gold Non-Removable Assets: 10,000 Gold Land Size: 25x25x50Km (Length x width x height) NPC¡¯s: 500 Guests: 3 (click to expand) That was basically the general overview. Everything from the siege was deposited into the guild bank with the items being directly converted into money which was a bit unfortunate but we now had much deeper pockets than my mere hundred and twenty one gold coins which was good. Defence and money will make the city safer and give us more money income so it seemed like a good idea. What I had planned was something big. It would literally use the guilds ten thousand gold immediately but the benefits where numerous. [Guild Menu - Sub Guilds - Magic Association] Name: Magic Association (branch guild) Location: Top five floors in Origin Guild Building Branch Leader: Dean Patios Rent: 50 Gold coins P/day. Build Cost: 10,000 Gold. Use: To teach magic, share knowledge and find talents. Offers various levels of protection, resources and status based on your rank within the association. Confirm? Yes/No It was more than worth the money. To teach us to sense magic and give access to spell theory and actual spells is impressive, fifty gold a day will return our spent money in no time and if we can get high enough ranks then never mind the starting area protection, even up to the mid area raids would be easy to repel with the troops they deploy here. It also unlocks a whole new set of quests. I clicked yes. Instantly I saw the top levels of the tower glow in the distance before it settled down. ¡°Let¡¯s go learn magic¡± I grinned eagerly. Though I was alone so it was a little embarrassing. Who wouldn¡¯t want to learn magic? ¡°Senior I came to ask about the requirements for joining the association on behalf of my guild and if I could request seniors help in showing my people mana so they can sense it and begin to learn the wonders of magic.¡± I said as respectfully as I could. ¡°Scram. I don¡¯t need a useless brat who can¡¯t even sense his own mana.¡± He said without even looking up from his book. ¡°Apologies for disappointing you senior but knowing the circumstances of this world it is really too unfair to say that my people and I are useless. We where just unlucky never to have seen magic before and as such it was blocked from our sights. Please reconsider senior.¡± I couldn¡¯t lose my chance so easily. ¡°Fine. Since this dungeon will soon be bustling with activity from outsiders and as such become a major talent scouting point I will give you a chance. I¡¯ll show you magic once for five seconds and if you can sense it from that time then I will teach you. Watch closely.¡± {Ha! This old man is trying to set you up for failure! Only someone extremely close to the stage of sensing mana without any magic interference would be able to pick it up in such a short amount of time, this old geezer, what a terrible guy. Too bad for him that you are a person like that and even have prodigy to back you up and your eyes, he just set himself up for failure without realising!} I didn¡¯t even read the message as I looked at the old man intently and suddenly something appeared that felt formless but restrained in the shape of a ball above his hand. In the first second something stirred, in the second I felt like I could reach it soon, on the third it was like a connection appeared and a limit I didn¡¯t know existed snapped, on the fourth I felt the composition of the magic in his hand and on the fifth I had a replica on my own hand with only slight instability. Reading the message I skipped earlier quickly as I watched the old mans eyes widen I smiled triumphantly inside and read the new one¡¯s. [+50,000 Reputation with Magic Association!] [+20,000 Reputation with Dean Patios!] [+10,000 Reputation between Origin Guild with Magic Association!] [A young prodigy not seen for thousands of years has appeared by chance in this remote world in front of a master magician. The organisation values such a prodigy greatly and as such the guild branch has been upgraded from second grade to first grade. Daily gold income will double and the magic books, resources and teachers present has greatly increased.] [Achievement: First to use magic! Has been completed!] [Unique Enhancement: Void Connection!] I didn¡¯t expect that but hell yeah, another soul-bound achievement. My inner smile widened. ¡°It looks like I misjudged you kid. Your reputation is high enough now for me to reveal a secret. To you, I am only an NPC, right? What you don¡¯t understand is all the so called NPC¡¯s from pre-built guilds are actually real people that are given a role to play in exchange for rewards. We can¡¯t die while we¡¯re playing these roles and our associations will get many benefits by sending us here. Me? I¡¯m the son of the guild master. This world is merely a small, inconsequential one to us and beyond the benefits we gain we hold no attachment to it. Even with the intelligence boost you get from this game you wouldn¡¯t be able to replicate my magic in that short of time unless you are a once in a thousand years genius. The stats effect your mind, make it better and improve it but they don¡¯t effect talent. Naturally this makes you extremely valuable to our organisation to the point where we are willing to sacrifice benefits we gained to pull you out of the game should you so wish to. You¡¯ll be safe and raised as a young star in our association with numerous benefits. It¡¯s your choice.¡± His words shocked me because I had no clue about any of that or that there was a way to escape but I already knew that my answer was a no. ¡°I have people I care about here and goals of my own so apologies senior but I cannot abandon this game. I thank you for the offer.¡± I was sincere when I said it. ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting you to up and abandon everything anyway since my offer was out of duty. Someone willing to abandon their loved ones and goals for safety wouldn¡¯t be worthy of spending resources on.¡± He smiled. [+5,000 Reputation with Dean Patios!] ¡°I will teach you. Even in here a genius is worth nurturing, although protecting you from danger will be harder. I only ask that you fulfil the original purpose of this guild and return knowledge to us in the future. I can¡¯t directly upgrade your guild rank and as such there won¡¯t be much protection other than the basics a first rank guild branch offers but it shouldn¡¯t be too hard for you to gain enough mastery to rise in the ranks. Wipe some blood on this card and you¡¯ll be registered.¡± Complying I cut my finger open and quickly wiped the blood before it healed. [Status Card] Name: Jean Paradox Rank: Apprentice Age: 17 Affinity(s): Chaos (100%), Blood (75%), Mana (2%), Wind (38%), Fire (3%), Spatial (2%), Lunar (1%), Crystal (7%), Life (14%), Cloud (1%), Rose (40%). Mutated Affinity(s): Rose - Devine White (100%), ?, ?, ?. Special: Void Connection. Teacher: Dean Patios. Other: Origin Guild Leader, Valued Talent. ¡°You¡­ what the hell are you?¡± I was surprised. I have no idea about any of this other than chaos, blood and the void connection which I got from the apocalypse. While I assume they are valuable since they where achievements, I don¡¯t know the extent of that and for the rest I feel like it¡¯s underwhelming. Some are high but the fact that my natural affinities don¡¯t even surpass 40% despite the amount I have feels disappointing. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t really know what you mean senior¡± I said honestly. ¡°Sigh¡­ I guess you wouldn¡¯t. Chaos and blood, while rare, aren¡¯t something odd. There are many ways to get affinities and bring them up to 100% but there are also a lot of affinities where it is unknown how to get them so they only appear from birth. Lunar, Rose and cloud are affinities like that. In fact I¡¯ve never even heard of someone having a rose affinity since it should be an off-shoot of nature, in other words a mutated affinity, and not it¡¯s own entity. The fact you have a rose affinity and with a mutated version of it as well opens a whole new branch of possibilities for us. For someone to be born with a mutated affinity is rare, let alone several. Usually it is one or maybe two if they have them, not four. You need to meditate and find them within yourself before we¡¯ll know what they are and it¡¯s possible to get more but let¡¯s just look at it like starting a building with a good foundation. Mutations are unique and even ones that are seemingly the same on the surface are different below and as such it¡¯s good for whoever has one since they are just another trump-card. Also something that is odd is the fact that the first mutation is visible. That means that you have already found out about it previously whether it was a conscious or unconscious action, which for a mortal without knowledge of magic is close to impossible. The void connection, while pretty rare, isn¡¯t something unique like the roses. The Void let¡¯s you tap into it¡¯s energy to regenerate your own reserves faster and improves the rate you gain insights into magic. Affinities can be improved by insight, special objects and breakthroughs if they align right. The higher your affinity, the better your insights and the easier it is to use. The ideal method would be to improve it to 100% and then gain insights but a lot of the time that¡¯s simply too hard and it¡¯s not a perfect solution. Always remember that while affinities help, having 100% in an affinity doesn¡¯t mean that you are necessarily talented in it. For you, the chaos affinity might just make it easier to use chaos energy and your insight is the same as not having the affinity at all. Of course you can brute force your way through that with time, effort or luck but only the one¡¯s you are truly connected to will come easily to you. I want to explain more but you need to reach the basic level in what I teach you before you¡¯ll understand what I¡¯m saying. For now, go. Go show magic to your guild and improve their strength. They¡¯ll need it. I can tell your not human although it is subtle so let me give you some advice. Take it from a guy who is the last of nine brothers, love and trust is unbelievably fragile. Never trust more than two people. While now they value trust and friendship, what about ten thousand years from now? Time has a way of numbing people and this game will go on for atleast a hundred thousand years. Someone who would die for you today would be able to betray you in a year let alone ten thousand. By saying this I might be taking away something from you like innocence or youthfulness but atleast with a warning, you might survive a while longer.¡± I almost didn¡¯t register his last comment while I was thinking over everything he had said. He had a story to tell that much was obvious but he also had a story I felt reluctant to hear. It¡¯s stupid but trust is something I want to keep and I won¡¯t tempt my logic into destroying it, atleast not yet. ¡°Senior¡­ the roses¡­. I know why I have them. They came from my sisters death.¡± I walked out the door I had stalled at before he could ask anything. ---- ¡°Retractable fangs, change in eye colour, got paler even though i supposedly don¡¯t have side-effects from the change and my voice sounds pretty sexy. Did I miss anything?¡± I asked sarcastically to the god I¡¯ve familiarised myself with to a small amount over the day. {Your eyelashes got slightly longer, your body changed in slight amounts over it¡¯s entirety which made you damn sexy, your hair got a bit longer with a little added volume and glossiness. When drinking blood your dark golden eyes will develop a slight red tinge that looks awesome and the inside of your body is also a lot cleaner/purer. Instead of ribs you have a bone plate but I guess you wouldn¡¯t have noticed due to the muscles blocking sight and the shaping making you look like a normal human. Oh, and your kind of a freaky horror film guy now since your head and limbs can do 360 turns. I think the main thing you missed however where the retractable claws. You are an Alpha Predator by race, a weak and squishy human body that lacks weapons naturally isn¡¯t suiting.} I quickly felt up my chest and realised it was true. How did I miss that? ¡°Are there any racial traits I should be wary of?¡± I asked after checking myself out a bit more carefully. {You can turn beings into vampires if you have the intent to turn them when you bite but they will be a lesser version due to the fact you are just a normal blood vampire. Nobles can make normal, royals can make nobles, main bloodline royals can make royals not of the main bloodline and mythical can make main bloodline royals. There¡¯s also a main bloodline in mythicals but since mythicals are technically a different race it didn¡¯t show up in the evolution list. Hmm, blood has different flavours depending on the strength, race, gender, health etc of the one you drink it from. There¡¯s even breakfast cereals if you look hard enough and the fast regeneration of both health and mana.} ¡°How did you go over so much detail and ignore my hair colour?¡± I sighed as I mentioned the thing I purposefully left out. {Eh? I just assumed you where playing a one-man drama that had you purposefully ignore it in order to make me reveal it spectacularly so I didn¡¯t do it to be annoying.} ¡°Although it¡¯s only been a day, somehow that really sounds like you.¡± I said blandly. {Fine I¡¯ll go the extra mile then. Due to your extremely deep personal connection with roses when you where evolving and your body was easily mouldable that connection came forth and changed your hair colour. It didn¡¯t have the power to do it completely due to the other connections diluting it but it was enough to give your hair soft white tips like a white rose petal. Your hair itself is pure black since that is the colour usually aligned with chaos and dominated the rest. Oddly though, the colour of your pubi-} ¡°And that is my cue to ignore you for the rest of the day.¡± Focusing I watched as my nails sharpened themselves into little spikes. I felt that they could lengthen to about five inches but the further out they go, the more fragile they are (though still strong). The optimal distance was merely a few centimetres out from the original as it is used to help the hand pierce through without much risk of my nails breaking. With the intent to test it I entered an indoor garden in my stupidly big apartment I got with being the guild leader and flattened my hand before shoving it into a tree. It felt a little uncomfortable as I could feel wood splinters scraping over every part of my hand but otherwise it entered with an unnatural ease. I didn¡¯t even use my excessive strength for that. {Don¡¯t ignore me, I have more to tell you! Jeez, so impatient.} For a while I debated it before reasoning won out compared to childish annoyance. ¡°What is it?¡± {The nails are one thing but if you concentrate a bit you¡¯ll find that your hand will be covered with a serrated bone plating that brings your fingers into perfect little spikes. The nails are mainly for crowd control and defence as with the size, if augmented with magic it is optimal for crowds but the plating is for more even combat levels. Naturally the defence is a lot higher as well as it¡¯s piercing power so one on one combat is best with it. Basically piercing and slashing modes, allowing you to be completely badass if used right.} Reluctantly I admitted that that was pretty cool. It was black, probably since the ¡®natural predator¡¯ part wouldn¡¯t allow it to be white, just like the nails but because of that it could easily be mistaken for a glove. ¡°Well whatever. For now we¡¯ll go have a chat with Lea.¡± ---- [POV Change] ¡°Bastard¡­¡± I ground my teeth in annoyance. ¡°What¡¯s the big deal? You¡¯re the leader, I¡¯m just a figurehead used for protection. Naturally I don¡¯t want to do something as annoying as management.¡± That¡¯s not the point, I thought I just got out of this¡­ ¡°So what? Did you think I wanted to lead? Everyone was just plain incompetent and all this crap got chucked on me but I don¡¯t want to do it in the slightest. I literally only just thought I got out of it and you come to spout this crap.¡± I knew it wouldn¡¯t change his opinion at all but in this situation I just really wanted to complain about the unfairness of it all. ¡°I¡¯m not asking you to do all the work, in fact feel free to offload it all to Theodore or any other members you can trust but by nature I¡¯m anti-social and distant. I can¡¯t lead them and everyone looks to you for commands anyway. I¡¯m a figure head for strength while you¡¯re the person truly leading and I don¡¯t have any intention to change my status as a figurehead.¡± It annoyed me but he was right, which just annoyed me even more. He could be a good leader if he tried, I know that from the brief periods where he took command but he simply doesn¡¯t want to. Could and would are two very different concepts and it¡¯s undeniable that we need him as our guild leader. The two extra specialties alone which he told me about are reason enough to let him be the official leader even if he was weak, let alone the fact that he is stupidly powerful, trained and has friends the same even if slightly weaker. With the status of having a mere month to prepare for a predictably bigger, stronger and longer raid to occur it¡¯s probably better not to hinder his training anyway as it¡¯s likely he and his friends are the only thing which will bring us through it. ¡°Dammit¡­ fine. But if your going to dump all this crap on me then you have to atleast take a crap ton of missions to improve the relations we have with the town and bring in money. Don¡¯t just coop up training without giving us any means for survival.¡± I practically growled when I said it which surprised me a bit but I simply couldn¡¯t bring myself to care. ¡°I¡¯m a figurehead but that doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t help. You¡¯ll have to find a way to make the members train whether it is in magic, gaining levels or stat training or I won¡¯t be able to help you much though. I did a run by the adventurers guild earlier and the missions¡­ well, it¡¯s not looking good for us. There was a mission about clearing out a nest of a million hobgoblins. At this rate even if we can hold through the siege it will take almost a month to finish it and by then we¡¯ll be severely weakened for the next siege.¡± All my anger and annoyance drained away to be replaced by the icy reality that his words brought. Fuck. ¡°Don¡¯t look so grim. We have magic, remember? All kinds of stupidly bullshit crap can be done with it. I only skimmed through some basic books the guild gave me but I can already augment my body with it and bring my combat potential up massively. Even with magic things are looking grim right now but we have a month where we can create an NPC army, learn magic and train. Our priority is to bring the numbers down and increase our power and while a month is short it is still better than we would have gotten otherwise.¡± Idiot, you can say such words that completely turn around the despair people feel but yet you refuse to lead. How frustrating. ¡°Can I ask you a favour¡­?¡± I asked hesitantly. Chapter 8 - The path of magic and the realm of roses ¡°Master I¡¯m done¡± ¡°Kid you really make me feel like my last three hundred years have been wasted, and people consider ME a genius.¡± The old man couldn¡¯t help but sigh as he looked at his student with a complicated look. ¡°But master, aren¡¯t these just the basics? You told me this stage wasn¡¯t hard.¡± I reminded. ¡°Maybe but by not hard I meant with a few hours, not a few minutes. Anyway so you¡¯ve sensed them all?¡± He sounded resigned but it perked up again with excitement at the end. ¡°Yes¡± I agreed as I handed over my guild card. [Status Card] Name: Jean Paradox Rank: Apprentice Age: 17 Affinity(s): Chaos (100%), Blood (75%), Mana (6%), Wind (38%), Fire (3%), Spatial (2%), Lunar (5%), Crystal (8%), Life (14%), Cloud (3%), Rose (40%). Mutated Affinity(s): Rose - Devine White (100%), Cloud - Purple Void (100%), Lunar - Blood Eclipse (100%), Crystal - Life Shard (100%). Special: Void Connection. Teacher: Dean Patios. Other: Origin Guild Leader, Valued Talent. ¡°Well the good news is there are similar one¡¯s to this so I can explain them but the bad is that purple void is a poison mutation and as such you won¡¯t be able to train in it until your vitality gets up a lot higher and cloud has a high enough mastery not to hit yourself with your own poison. It¡¯s simply too dangerous to train in for now. Well I¡¯m not going to teach you how to use that today anyway, I just wanted you to sense what they where so I could make plans. For now I¡¯ll help you out with some simple mana control exercises.¡± Instead of being disappointed I was actually excited. Although I can¡¯t use it now a poison technique is perfect for me who wants to go up again numerous opponents. ¡°How do I train in that? As far as I know my mana controls already pretty good and I can¡¯t think of any ways to improve it¡­¡± I wasn¡¯t trying to sound arrogant but rather I simply couldn¡¯t understand what could be done to improve it other than improve my affinity and perfect it through battle. ¡°Well it¡¯s a little hard but guide a flame through this pipe without touching the pipe itself at all with your mana alone.¡± My eyes unfocused slightly at the monstrosity he pulled from nowhere. ¡°Master please have mercy, that¡¯s crazy¡± I gulped. ¡°That¡¯s the point. High stress situations will help you improve.¡± A ten metre cube construct of glass pipes weaving in every direction imaginable to the point where there was no left over space. Completely random and without pattern, this maze was the most intimidating thing I have faced in the apocalypse so far, and it¡¯s not even alive! ¡°Ugh¡­ master, I promised to go do quests today for the guild. This is going to take hours¡­¡± I whined. ¡°No no, please stop being so absurd for a while and take a full day or my life really would have been worthless.¡± I suddenly decided to try my hardest as a petty form of revenge. Stretching my mana out like I was taught, I sensed the entire layout of the structure before pulling it back and guiding a small flame through the entrance. It would negate the purpose of the activity if I left my mana covering everything. ¡°Your mana is too violent. Calm it down.¡±, ¡°Don¡¯t rush it until your familiar with how to move it properly¡±, ¡°You little brat, slow down already. It hasn¡¯t even been half an hour and your half way though¡±, ¡°Okay you brat, just as punishment for showing off do it with a white flame while keeping the glass from melting¡± Suddenly I regretted trying to get revenge. ¡°Master¡­ you¡¯re a sadist¡± I groaned as I tried to get over the headache mana drain and intense concentration caused. ¡°Maybe.¡± Not even denying it? ¡°Now to connect to the void. Inside your head you should be able to feel a doorway. From what I¡¯m told it¡¯s pretty easy to open but it has around ten doors and only the first is easy. Each level allows you a higher recovery rate and better insights while from the fifth level onwards unique abilities will be unlocked. Don¡¯t expect to get far even with your talent without a hell of a lot of time though. The highest recorded talent in the sixty two million years my guild has been active only managed to open six before she fell in battle.¡± I instantly sobered up (although I wasn¡¯t drunk) and felt my mind clear slightly. Following the instructions he gave me to help find the door I sat down and began to meditate. How long passed, I¡¯m not sure but at some stage I found it. A feeling of pressure that I had never experienced before descended and the knowledge that the power behind this door could annihilate me with ease appeared as if it where natural. I felt like there should be some great barrier here but for some reason there wasn¡¯t, instead a weak and fragile door in it¡¯s place. Does that mean everyone has these doors but for others it¡¯s impossible to open or even find? Pushing it open absolutely nothing happened and made me frown. How did I open this thing? Master said it was supposed to be easy but he didn¡¯t know the process so easy depends on how you do it. Maybe I would be able to force my way in but something told me that was wrong, like the door would disapprove of me if I did. Hesitating I tried asking even though I felt stupid. ¡°Can you please open?¡± For several moments I was left standing in this mental realm like a complete idiot before a feeling of approval appeared and the door crumbled to dust. ¡°May I enter?¡± Again I felt stupid but the feeling appeared again and I walked in. Knowledge flooded me about this place and I felt overwhelmed at what I learned. This was literally a void, devoid of any and all physical matter. All that remained was energy of a purity that left me in awe. I didn¡¯t even know energy had a purity before that and yet the sheer purity of it was visible to the eyes. ¡°What do you want me to do here?¡± I tried asking. Nothing. ¡°Am I allowed to know what this place is?¡± I tried changing my question. Approval and then a flood of weirdly pieced memories. ---- ¡°I cannot speak nor do I have form. In some form I posses sentience but it is not in a way you will be able to understand. Right now, I am communicating through the memories of words spoken from those before you as I have no voice of my own. Why did you ask permission? You are the first in many years to do so.¡± I was stunned but quickly regained myself. ¡°I felt like I could force my way in but you wouldn¡¯t approve. I don¡¯t really understand myself but I knew I should ask for permission instead.¡± I answered honestly. ¡°Hmm¡­ ah, there it is. What interesting eyes you have. It has been a long while since I have seen those eyes. Yes, I suppose that would explain it. And a permanent connection with me? My, it¡¯s been even longer since one of those have appeared. For both of them to appear together¡­ what a lucky child. I give you my approval to use this realm in this lifetime. For the future doors it will take your own power to force your way through. You will learn the benefits with time. Goodbye, child. I¡¯m afraid I cannot say your name as it is not within my memories of people talking. If you win the game we will meet again and I will tell you the truth of this realm.¡± ---- I opened my eyes. Before I had even realised it I had been ejected back into the real world with dozens of questions that could not be answered. Sighing I looked up to my master. ¡°The first door is open.¡± ¡°You only just closed your eyes, how could it be open?¡± He looked disbelieving and condescending. ¡°At the minimum I was in there for several minutes before returning, how could I have just closed my eyes?¡± I mean it even felt longer than that, like hours had gone by. He put his hand on my forehead. ¡°Well it¡¯s true. The gate is definitely open or your mana wouldn¡¯t have recovered so fast.¡± He sighed as he looked at me with a complicated expression. ¡°Let¡¯s move on¡± He said eventually. ¡°The biggest danger you face is not from direct threats but the subtle ones. Some races like the succubi do it both consciously or unconsciously while others have one or the other and it can also be learned but manipulating the mind and emotions are the biggest threat you will ever face and as such we need to develop countermeasures early on. There are many methods for this and I¡¯ll be getting you to use two of them, a mana shield inside your conscious realm to block off attacks at the cost of mana and a longer to but much better in the long run version where your mind sets up a small shield which will be threaded with your mental strength and mana over the course of many years to make a permanent shield that doesn¡¯t need mana to operate. Right now you have enough mana and recovery that the mana shield will have practically no cost being at maybe one of two mana a minute but if attacked it will take mana depending on how hard it was hit. I doubt anything will be able to take it out easily as it will cost them more mana to attack then it will for you to defend but nevertheless always be careful. I¡¯ll teach you how to make both and also how to nourish the permanent shield.¡± I didn¡¯t even consider that. How scary, if I didn¡¯t know, how easy would it be to become a puppet? ¡°Master is there any way to speed up the process?¡± I asked hopefully. ¡°Many. From now on when you come back show me any treasures or materials you find before selling or using them and I¡¯ll tell you if it can be of use. Also, other than time some insights and certain techniques can improve it but your rank is too low right now for me to give you one. No more questions.¡± The mana shield didn¡¯t feel like much but the permanent shield was like a protective shell being added to my mind. It was¡­ weird. I can¡¯t really describe it beyond that but it feels as if I gained a new body part but since it¡¯s in my mind it feels a lot weirder. Meditation is the best way to improve it apparently, well atleast without the technique and materials. I don¡¯t quite understand it.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Now there¡¯s only two more problems left. You need to be able to carry more without using stupid things like backpacks which are plain ineffective and we need to up your combat ability in both defence and attacks. Spatial magic can do this but it¡¯s a little tricky for your current level so instead you¡¯re going to do a little experiment for me. Nature magic can make little worlds inside of people where they can store items and living beings unlike spatial magic but you have a rose affinity. Technically, the principle should still be the same but I¡¯m honestly not sure if it will work. If not then I¡¯ll have to help you brute force through nature magic for a few weeks until you can do it since spatial is still harder than that.¡± That¡¯s like an ultimate teaser. Here, have a convenient inventory! Oh wait it might not work so if not wait a few weeks. ¡°Is there no other alternatives besides those options?¡± I asked. ¡°Well you could use items but honestly that¡¯s just stupid. Easy to lose, break, get stolen and they are expensive and small. The amount of times I¡¯ve seen someone lose some precious resource because they had it in an item like an idiot is uncountable. If the items break the contents are erased and the resources and masteries needed to make them is stupidly high. Better to use nature magic especially since living beings can go inside.¡± My hopes where dashed. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ inconvenient.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± He agreed. ¡°This too will be in your mental realm though it¡¯s a little different. You have to use the nature, or in this case rose, magic to grow a physical realm inside your mental one. At first it will be small but it is separate from the other realms and impossible to forcefully access unless your mind is fried. The growth itself will also help your shields development though not to a large extent. It¡¯s just like an initial boost and then with time it will get stronger than it would in the same amount of time without it.¡± That doesn¡¯t sound so bad. ¡°So how do I grow a realm inside my mind? It seems a little advanced for a beginner.¡± He smiled. ¡°Simple. You replace a realm that already exists. There are many weak realms within this primary realm and the best example is the mental realm. Find a random monster and use it as a catalyst to grow a new realm, having the roses take it over. Once you feel it succeeded you bring it into yourself. Usually I can¡¯t help you through the process since I¡¯m confined to the guild but that¡¯s why I had you bring that little guy here instead, so I could.¡± I looked over to the little cage the monster was sleeping in. I spent four hours last night looking for that thing and I almost died as I had to go to the third ring in the city to find it. Monsters have been digging tunnels into the ground expanding downwards and growing or making their own structures to live in. In the first ring there are atleast tens of millions of monsters who get stronger the further out you go. This little guy¡­ jeez. So much effort just for him. ¡°What¡¯s so special about that guy that I had to go so far for him?¡± I asked now that we where finally on the topic. It¡¯s been bugging me since he told me to get it. ¡°This is a nearly extinct race now that you only have access to because a dungeon spawned them. They are called Flower Children. While they are not very strong they are born with a connection to nature and an affinity of 80% or higher. The reason they are so sought after is precisely because when you initially form a pocket dimension through nature and another creatures mental realm it starts off small. Like a few centimetres small. These creatures however bring it up to a few metres from the get go and it has a much faster growth rate than without it. Naturally there are alternatives and even better options but there¡¯s no way you¡¯ll be able to access them anytime in the next few thousand years and by then there¡¯s absolutely no advantage they will hold over you. It only takes a few months to bridge the gap after all.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t it hurt it though? He came with me willingly without a fight after seeing me so it feels wrong to do this to it.¡± Master frowned a bit. ¡°If it really bothers you then we¡¯ll ask him. I¡¯ve never heard of them not fighting before so it bothers me. He¡¯ll talk in images so prepare yourself since it will feel weird.¡± He can talk? ¡°His race talks through their nature affinity as a language with images. I have a nature affinity so I can connect him to us pretty easily but you¡¯ll learn how to do it even without affinities in the future as well.¡± He didn¡¯t allow me to ask anymore questions. I felt mana flood the room though it wasn¡¯t something I could recognise. I guess this was nature, I¡¯ll remember it. The little flower faced creature that was made of leaves woke up and looked at us for a while before I felt a mana fluctuation from it and saw the images I was told about. ---- I watched him die. Old with browning leaves and drooping, shrivelled petals he watched peacefully as his children played in the field and his life force drained away. He lived in seclusion and survived the fate many of his kind fell to and his wife had passed merely a week earlier. When he died his spirit floated nearby watching as a tree grew from his body rapidly and his children came over to cry. He felt sad for seeing that but also happy that his death created life just like all of his kind. But then something foul happened. An unknown entity dragged his spirit away violently and bound it to itself. Death was impossible for as long as the entity lived and it would never return to it¡¯s tree again, nor create a new one as it never really dies. But in the midst of despair this peaceful creature found salvation. Merely a few days after it was bound, a person appeared. He knew what beings like this did to his people, they took the mental realms and used it for themselves. Usually he would dread such a thing but he had already lived a full life and died peacefully. He never had any hate for such people when they never hurt him or the one¡¯s he cared for so it was of no consequence especially when he no longer needed it. So he came peacefully. If his mental realm is destroyed the entity will lose his spirit and he will once again be free. Although he won¡¯t be able to return to his tree and family, his death will create a new tree and he will have helped nature once again. Compared to the despair he felt earlier, now he is happy and peaceful once again. Life and death¡­ they hold no meaning to this flower child as with both it will help nature. What happens to him afterwards will be up to the people he has decided to look at as his benefactors. ---- ¡°That was unexpected.¡± The old man mused to himself thoughtfully. Dispelling the cage with a sweep of his hand, he stepped forward and sat down in front of the flowerchild. Reaching his hand forward I felt the nature mana he was using enter the flowerchild as the old man touched it¡¯s head. He looked surprised but smiled gratefully at the old man though I had no idea what he did. ¡°I just gave him a gift as repayment for his kindness. Come. We¡¯ll start now.¡± Once again I¡¯m reminded that although he is my teacher I know nothing other than his status as the future guild leader. Who is this old man really? After strict instructions, I eased the mental realm out as comfortably as possible. Once it was free a bright smile appeared on the little plants face and it bowed. The old man helped me and the plant didn¡¯t resist so it was easy to do. The rest however¡­ was up to me and luck. ---- I groggily sat up and looked around. After following master¡¯s instructions on how to do it I passed out. The process was a success though I¡¯m not sure how I knew but I feel like the little guy helped me when I was about to fail and I don¡¯t understand how. My surrounding showed that I was inside my new realm, the rose inventory¡­ rose realm? That sounds better. I was in a dome made by interlapping red rose petals and in the middle, floating and slowly rotating was a single, massive white rose. As a test I pulled a coin I had outside before hand inside and it appeared on top of the petals. The realm worked, though it¡¯s different than I expected. From what I was told nature makes a real mini world inside while this is a rotating rose. It¡¯s also bigger than it should have been at around fifty metres. I¡¯ll have to ask master why that happened but I have a suspicion. Well, two suspicions actually. For one, the flower child and master helped and two my rose realm was formed purely by roses rather than what nature forms with earth, water and nature. Naturally it is smaller if it takes something not of the affinity to create it but mine is bigger because it¡¯s purely from my rose affinity. Opening my real eyes and feeling the connection with the rose realm fade into a small connection where I could transport items freely, I was greeted with the flower child standing on my face and looking at my eyes intently. Gently lifting him up I put him down and stretched a little while looking for master. ¡°The only thing you don¡¯t finish excessively fast is sleeping apparently.¡± The old man laughed as he appeared behind me. ¡°How long was I out? And what¡¯s with this little guy?¡± I asked with a frown. ¡°Two hours. He¡¯s been looking at you like a god that entire time after he saw your rose affinity and he even pledged allegiance to you while you where out. Your rose affinity should grow a lot faster with him around so it¡¯s good for you.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about that. He¡¯s cute and I like cute things but being worshipped feels¡­ awkward? Well since he¡¯s the size of Tiny he¡¯ll fit fine on my other shoulder. ¡°Then I¡¯ll name him Mini.¡± I relaxed. I was only worried about how long I was out and not that so now that I know it¡¯s only around mid-day I¡¯m fine. ¡°You accepted that rather easily?¡± He asked curiously. ¡°He¡¯s cute.¡± The old man stiffened a bit and put on a strained smile. ¡°I won¡¯t question your preferences.¡± My palm miraculously found it¡¯s way to my face in a grand way. ¡°I like cute things, not whatever your thinking old man. When you see a kitten don¡¯t you want to cuddle and pet it? They are cute. This little guy is cute and he fits on my shoulder so like Tiny he¡¯ll be Mini and will be my shoulder pet.¡± His face completely changed. ¡°Bahaha sorry sorry I just really wanted to mess with you a bit. Of course I¡¯m not such an idiot to make a mistake like that. Still it¡¯s unusual to see a guy openly displaying their love for cute things. Usually stupid reasons like pride or embarrassment stop them even if they love cute things in the first place so it¡¯s amusing.¡± I think that¡¯s the first time I saw him laugh, like really laugh. ¡°Here, this is a picture of Tiny. She¡¯s one of the smallest cats in the world, well atleast was before the apocalypse. Now I have no clue.¡± Why did I have a picture of Tiny on me you may ask? Because I could. ¡°You¡¯ll have to bring her next time.¡± Was all he said about it. After some small talk about various topics, I spent the next two hours training again. The old man helped me learn various bits and pieces about mana theory and use while instructing me how to use mana to enhance my body with a better method then the textbook version and find a balance to use in combat. I¡¯m not using any attacks with my affinities yet since my understanding isn¡¯t high enough for that but the basic mana attacks work fine like fancy streaks of mana coming off my sword to bisect the surroundings or mana shields, arrows, bombs and platforms to jump off. This is enough to bring my power up a lot but after almost dying yesterday when I went to find Mini I¡¯m not stupid enough to think myself invincible. It wasn¡¯t that I was strong¡­ it was just that others where weak. That¡¯s what I learned from my trip. Master gave me a list of all the basic materials he thinks I can acquire that are useful but he also said to take anything unknown or that my eyes react to as well. For example if I where to fight a creature that had a glowing horn and used magic then I would take the horn although I don¡¯t know what it does. Apparently they also drop cores that have some value so I¡¯ll have to collect a few. If nothing else I can sell them to the NPC¡¯s for more money then they would drop if they just turned to dust. That¡¯s selective though as many do and don¡¯t drop them so it depends on what I¡¯m hunting. ¡°Lea asked me to tell you it¡¯s time.¡± A random NPC delivered a message for her. ¡°Tch. Bye master, I¡¯ll come back tomorrow with some interesting stuff. Thanks for teaching me today. Do you mind looking after Mini? I can¡¯t talk to him yet so it¡¯d be too hard to explain what¡¯s going on.¡± I sighed as I petted the sleeping plant. ¡°Sure, it¡¯ll be interesting anyway since it¡¯s rare to find a Flower Child willing to talk like this one is. Remember to look for a Trifling Ashen Eagle.¡± He reminded. ¡°I know. Thanks.¡± I left. ---- ¡°Ally, Leo, I¡¯ll be going ahead. Don¡¯t go further than you think you can handle and if anything feels wrong retreat immediately.¡± I reminded as we reached the first barrier leading out from the centre area. The dungeon works in rings and because the entrance is so big the first ring is fifty kilometres and also the area we have to watch out for in the next raid. For every ring we expand into we¡¯ll be raided by it¡¯s monsters once a month but normal dungeon diving is fine. I knew they could look after themselves in the first ring and the second with some difficulty and caution but they will improve more without me. For now I¡¯m stronger which means their battles wouldn¡¯t hold any danger and thus, less improvements. It¡¯s a dangerous improvement method but all three of us are doing it willingly. From what I know the other rings are all ten kilometres but master said that they¡¯ll expand every ten rings to double their size and right now there should be around 101 rings including the entrance one as long as the dungeon hasn¡¯t formed more yet. The dungeon will keep getting more rings as it expands and stronger monsters by extension. When you add it up it¡¯s really damn big and it will grow a lot bigger. ¡°I didn¡¯t spend all day training magic to enhance my senses to fall into a trap Jean¡± Ally answered dryly. ¡°I know but am I not allowed to atleast show my worry this way? I almost died at the start of the third ring yesterday so I¡¯m worried.¡± ¡°If you keep acting so out of character I swear I will start vomiting. It¡¯s gross.¡± The way Leo said that makes me believe him¡­ what the hell man? ¡°Your gross.¡± Ally replied immediately to her brother. ¡°Maybe but it makes me feel like a heroine to be treated like this by an obvious main protagonist or antagonist. It really makes me sick.¡± Ally rolled her eyes but didn¡¯t refute it which left me feeling rather helpless. ¡°You read too many stories now stop fantasising about being my heroine, it¡¯s disgusting. I¡¯m not even a main character, anti-social remember?¡± Leo got ready to start a big rant before Ally covered both out mouths. ¡°Jean there are any-social protagonists and Leo I really don¡¯t give a fuck about how much you want a dick up your ass. Can we just go already?¡± Pfft, Leo¡¯s face right now is priceless. Ally seems a little pissed off today but I don¡¯t know why and asking will just get me into trouble. ¡°Bye¡± I disappeared before Leo could try to deny it. Much funnier this way. ¡°Which way do you want to go Glitch?¡± I asked at the barrier before the third ring to make things more interesting. {To the left two kilometres and then forwards is an annoying place so avoid it because I¡¯d rather not see you naked after your clothes melt off but the rest I don¡¯t mind. Just explore a little of everything.} ¡°What the hell is over there to melt my clothes off?¡± {Slime den. It¡¯d probably hurt you a hell of a lot as well but you¡¯d recover pretty soon. Problem is the clothes don¡¯t recover with you.} I thought back to when my sleave was burned off and agreed that it was for the best to avoid that place. ¡°Hmm¡­ then I guess we¡¯ll go¡­ that way¡± I pointed towards an interesting place I picked up in my area sense. {Nice choice.} ¡°Thanks.¡± I grinned as I started to slip over there while drawing the least attention I could. I didn¡¯t even have time to curse as I dropped to the ground to avoid a small projectile thrown at my neck with extreme precision and speed. Focusing on what threw it I could see a monkey the size of my palm that had started fleeing before the projectile even arrived. ¡°Cautious little bugger. Too bad it would attract attention to chase it, the thing had an interesting weapon.¡± I muttered to glitch as I looked over what the monkey threw at me. A small sharpened metal circle about the size of a finger nail was embedded in my mana shield. Although I dropped to the ground to avoid it, my mana shield is higher than me and as such it still hit the shield. Master told me how some weapons and attacks can pierce through the shields so I¡¯m being cautious. My skills aren¡¯t high enough to stop such attacks after they made it through as it is now but a balancer to that is they are generally enchanted to pierce through mana and the physical damage/ force isn¡¯t as high in compensation so my bone gloves might stop attacks like that. I don¡¯t want to bet my life on that though. {They are actually pretty decent pets. Focused on dexterity they can take out large numbers of enemies as long as they aren¡¯t hit. If they are it¡¯s pretty much a one shot since they have crap vitality but they make amazing snipers.} ¡°I¡¯m sure they do. That thing was atleast two km¡¯s away when it threw the disk.¡± Though it was five when I looked. If my dexterity and intelligence hadn¡¯t gone up so much to increase my area sense range I wouldn¡¯t have been able to ¡®see¡¯ it. Continuing I took out some monsters along the way as I made my journey. It took around an hour to arrive with the kills I had been getting and the fact I was keeping a low profile but eventually I reached the place I wanted to be. ¡®Glitch I¡¯ll have to talk to you like this from now on, sorry for anything that get¡¯s lost in transit¡¯ Recently I realised I can talk to him like when I mentally command for status menu or something but it¡¯s awkward to keep up and I unconsciously lose words during it. It¡¯s a ¡®breach of privacy¡¯ to mind read in his opinion but at the same times there are situations where people can¡¯t talk and as such it¡¯s like any loud thoughts directed at him that he picks up but the thinkers of such thoughts often make mistakes and miss a word during conversations. {Glad to be loved *emotional crying*} ¡®I really don¡¯t get you¡¯ {I know. Get to level ten thousand and I¡¯ll explain the entire apocalypse and it¡¯s true meanings as well as my mysterious identity.} ¡®Your standards are way too high. That¡¯ll take ages¡¯ I mentally sighed. {Well then you better hurry up and get back to killing. The monsters aren¡¯t going to kill themselves you know- oh, that was really bad timing.} I mentally snickered at what I was seeing with my area sense. One of them literally just jumped down it¡¯s leaders throat of it¡¯s own free will just as he said it. ¡®I always wanted to battle some fantasy creatures I knew of since this started. Giants¡­ how fun¡¯ I smiled widely as I entered the nest. They had built a crude sort of colosseum out of some sort of grey stone or hard mucus around a cleared out area devoid of skyscrapers or nature. There where only around twenty of them and fifty lesser giants who served them like gods (a lesser giant became food btw) so while it¡¯s not easy it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to clear out. I¡¯ll make sure to treasure this fight in my memories after they become piles of dust. It¡¯s not every day you get to fight the stuff of legends after all. Should I bring a head home for Leo? I remember he used to be scared of giants after watching movies about how they ate people. Yeah, I¡¯ll slip it into his room after we get back. This is revenge for making me have the scarring thought of you being my heroine Leo. I hope you like my present¡­ Chapter 9 - Boss monsters are unpredictable ¡®Can you give me some info about them?¡¯ I asked glitch once inside. {That¡¯s why I¡¯m here, right? To be a helpful guide in the apocalypse and talking buddy to prevent solitude making people go crazy. Giants and Lesser Giants, their strength depends on their size. Lesser giants are looked down upon and treat the giants as gods while the giants treat them like slaves. Lesser giants are focused on the scout role, having a higher dexterity than normal giants while having some giant-like strength and giants are strength and vitality creatures. Simple minded, they don¡¯t know magic but are quite good at forging. In fact if you where to come back in a week or two they would already have one set up while swapping their clubs for swords, spiked chains and crossbows. The scariest is the leader who gets the right to wield a whip. Doesn¡¯t sound so scary but with his strength and mastery it¡¯s a lot stronger and faster than any other weapons they hold. He can also regenerate by eating the hearts of other creatures, especially his kin.} ¡®It¡¯s almost cute how helpful you are.¡¯ {*frowny face*.} By the looks of things while they are in the same camp, the lesser giants and giants are separated from each other due to their class difference. While I could try eliminating them all at once or pick off random enemies it¡¯ll be better to get rid of these fellows first. Sneaking into their little tenting set up, I began to wait for a chance to come along. Around half a minute later a lesser giant walked off towards the giants and I took it out. Two minutes later an angry roar came out and a few giants came over and ate five lesser giants for me. It seems the one I killed was supposed to serve them and never arrived, earning the punishment of everyone. The leader came over and bashed the giants up while lecturing them but just by that you can see the class difference by not killing them immediately. {See, simple minded.} I agreed. Over half an hour I took out lonesome lesser giants through assassination without being detected before once more a lesser giant went off to serve the giants and I killed it. This time it was the leader who came over angry and started to kill them indiscriminately. One idiot tripped and threw a hammer at the giant while running which was like dropping a stone into a clear lake, the giant went crazy and slaughtered them all at these lesser beings rebelling. By the end only three where left, two females and a male, to repopulate the slave¡¯s numbers and where severely beaten at that. I snuck in and killed them as soon as the leader left. While not much, I got a hint of his combat ability through that fight which will make fighting much easier. Moving onto the giants next I had to get a little more careful. Although disgusting I slipped down their throats while they where stuffing their faces with food and targeted the rough location of their hearts with over-charged magic attacks from the inside. Rather than it being easier to kill them my magic was too flashy and their bodies hid this. Leaving the body¡¯s laying there as well made it look like they where sleeping as compared to dead. I only managed to kill five of them like this before they caught on and instantly the whole camp was alert. Their situation wasn¡¯t looking good with all their slaves dead and five of their mere twenty numbers not waking up but now they where alert it would be harder. I revealed myself. ¡°Over here!¡± I called out, drawing their attention to me. They growled and tried to rush forward but the leader stopped them. Looks like he¡¯s a little more intelligent then his followers. Cautiously, they edged closer before leaping at me as soon as they where in range only to find me already gone with one of the giants being decapitated by a blue light in the process. The leaders control slipped as they entered a rage and charged at me. I continued this pattern until there where only three left, the leader and his two harem chicks. His gaze was oddly calm despite the previous rage as he seemed to be considering something. Shocking me, he actually spoke. ¡°I underestimated you because I thought you to be human, for that I apologise. I challenge you to a duel with the conditions of these two being spared regardless of the result and in the case of my defeat my tribe will submit to you as forging slaves. Do you accept?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± {Did I forget to mention the leaders intelligence? Whoops :P When the giant race is enslaved they lose the forms they are so proud of and turn into dwarfs. For them, this is the biggest dishonour as the dwarf race came from their defeat initially and are much weaker than them, also having a form smaller then even humans. The difference between the two races is giants are brute force while dwarfs are skilled in forging and earth magic. Of course the dwarfs still have abnormal strength but it is barely half of their old achievements. This guy must really care for his harem of he wouldn¡¯t be willing to do such a thing. Due to the simplicity of their race, the harem will lose their memories upon death while he will not. I¡¯m guessing he has already experienced this which is why he is willing to do it at all.} ¡°What are the rules of this duel?¡± I asked after reading glitches message. ¡°Any weapon, attack or trick is allowed as long as it doesn¡¯t involve others and the life and death of the loser is chosen by the victor.¡± A whip came out from nowhere. {That¡¯s why he wanted a duel, because he didn¡¯t have a whip yet but the rules of a duel would provide one for him.} ¡®That makes a little more sense. It was suspicious how easily he started a duel with such high stakes.¡¯ I commented as I got back into my combat stance and gave him a nod. Instantly the metal whip was coming at me with high speeds and although I dodged into the air, a flick of his wrist changed the direction and hit me hard across the back. My shield almost shattered from that one blow and I was sent flying forty metres. I underestimated him. Improvising, I made hundreds of whips out of mana to counter his and launch my own attack to began to whittle down his hp from a distance and watched as small wounds appeared all over his body. His counter was quick as he spun the whip surprisingly skilfully and deflected most of my blows but it soon became a battle of endurance that I was sure to win since some of the blows connected every second and soon I would dominate his HP. Realising that he couldn¡¯t win like this he closed the distance as best as he could but I maintained my own with my superior dexterity. Over a short amount of time I grew better with my mana whips and he grew more and more desperate until eventually I won. ¡°I concede. Choose, kill me or spare me.¡± He said bitterly. From the beginning he knew there wasn¡¯t much of a chance to beat me but still tried regardless so really losing wasn¡¯t as bad as it could have been but it certainly wasn¡¯t nice. ¡°I¡¯ll spare you. What is your name?¡± ¡°Well it was Abelard but it will change.¡± He sighed as chains appeared around his body and ripped it to shreds. Out of the body, a much smaller but still muscular man walked out, a dwarf. His harem went through the same process. ¡°Now my name is Ash. My last name will only be given once I have completed my first grand project which will determine my specialty. The rest of the giant tribe will respawn as dwarfs in whichever area you designate but we must follow manually. The lesser giants will evolve into giants to replace our loss and new lesser giants will be created.¡± His bitterness seemed to have disappeared immediately after the race change. ¡°Don¡¯t resist and don¡¯t break anything.¡± I said simply as I brought them into my rose realm. We would talk later. ¡°Glitch why didn¡¯t you tell me there where features like this?¡± I asked once they where gone. {Many reasons but the most notable would be that every race with such an option see it as devolving rather than evolving and as such in a situation where they will respawn anyway inside the dungeon it is better just to die. Plus I¡¯m not going to give everything away for free. Trial, error, luck, money and coincidence will bring you such knowledge. Just like how the magic guild became a class one instead of two due to your own talent when you didn¡¯t even know there was a class difference, there will naturally be a lot of little things like this that can affect the game. Just because NPC¡¯s can be bought doesn¡¯t mean that is the only way to get them.} ¡°If that¡¯s the case why have you already given me so much information?¡± {They are either the basic things you need to know which becomes available as you discover them or things which are not important enough to restrict. Occasionally I will give tips or hints beyond that but it stops there.} So things where a little more annoying then I thought. ¡°Is or will there be a chat menu in the future?¡± I asked while thinking of how it was unlikely that he would tell me how ally and leo were doing. {Nope. Telepathic messages can be intercepted which is an important mechanic for the game in the cases of spying, information gathering and tracing.} How annoying. ---- I found that damn eagle. I followed it to the edge of the third ring right into a trap and now I¡¯m desperately fighting for my life. It is ordering around a tide of spiders which I am stuck in the middle of without any path of escape. For every ten I kill, one hundred more follow and for every hundred it¡¯s a thousand so most likely, I am going to die here unless they finally run out or I get a miracle. I¡¯m hoping for the first option as miracles are bitches who come back for repayment with interest later but I¡¯ll take what I can get. I refuse to die from such a bullshit trap just as I get into the apocalypse! On the bright side over the two hours I¡¯ve been stuck here slaughtering spiders my mana control and insight has gone up by leaps and bounds so right now I can rely on my magic and a lot of concentration to slaughter the horde. The void connection is regenerating my mana fast enough to send out continuous attacks but I am still slowly inching down lower and lower.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°If I die will you tell Leo and Ally what happened?¡± I asked glitch after getting a stupid idea. {Yes but only if you approve beforehand and they pay for the information.} ¡°That¡¯s enough. Wish me luck.¡± {No.} ¡°Oh come on, in what might be my last moment your getting moody now of all times?¡± I asked exasperatedly. {I¡¯ve been told to stop being so nice to people as it breaks the immersion of an Apocalypse.} ¡°Seriously? And you actually listened? What the hell? Shouldn¡¯t the immersion be based per person? I think it seems more like an Apocalypse for the all-powerful being who created it to casually talk to his entertainment as if he¡¯s not committing mass-murder than being some random dickhead. I can find those anywhere.¡± I grumbled. {That¡¯s a fair point but it¡¯s not so simple for me. Well I¡¯ll think about it atleast.} I sighed as I stopped argueing and recalled my mana. Instead I was going to be relying purely on my speed, reflexes and luck to run through the horde cutting up spiders until my mana hits full again and repeat the process for as long as it takes to make it out of here alive or die trying. As soon as the magic stopped they closed in from all sides and I closed my eyes. At the last moment¡­ they opened again with all the killing intent I could muster and froze the charge for a split second, giving me an opening. Taking advantage of it I leaped forward with all my strength directly through the spider in front of me and several behind it as well. I couldn¡¯t do this before because the fangs would poison me on the way through but as long as I took it by surprise, I could use it¡¯s body to take the ones behind it by surprise as well and make the horde lose sight of me. Instantly I began to unleash my slaughter, never staying in one place more than a second and using every chance I could to cover myself in so much blood I couldn¡¯t be made out from the horde of spiders. The damn eagle was the reason these things could target me so well and now it¡¯s lost that ability as long as I keep moving. The horde fell into a panic as their Aura¡¯s fluctuated and the eagle suddenly stopped relaxing and stared at the ground intensely. Occasionally, they would react and try to corner me again but with how difficult I was to distinguish I was already long gone every time it happened. Legs, fangs, heads and life was severed at a ridiculous rate as my combat experience grew piece by piece and my slaughter increased in efficiency. Ten minutes in a fang nicked my arm and I began to slow. Once another one scratched the side of my throat I began to use magic again to clear my circle out and defend. They went berserk, desperately trying to get at me before the poison was expelled from my system and actually helped me save mana in the process due to letting down their defences and making them easier to kill. I had brought my mana up past the danger point in that time so now I could relax a little and once again focus on my situation. The eagle was taking me seriously so it wouldn¡¯t be so easy to slip into the horde again but I was sure I could do it. The main problem was the spiders where agitated, occasionally spearing through one of their own in their paranoia. For now, when I¡¯m using magic, this is good as it¡¯s whittling down their numbers but the reality is that soon I will once more have to enter the horde and this paranoia is something I can¡¯t predict. For some reason seeing that this mindless horde actually had it¡¯s own individuality scared me. If this bird didn¡¯t use them as cannon fodder, would I even be alive to feel this fear? Or is it that the bird merely has influence over them rather then control? If it where to launch attacks from the air while I was fighting the horde surely things would have been more difficult for me but yet it¡¯s staying there watching despite it¡¯s obvious tension. Either it needs a lot of concentration to control them or this is merely an alliance arrangement where it isn¡¯t allowed to interfere more then augmenting their vision. After twenty minutes the poison was dispelled and I used near two thousand mana at once to fragment the ground in fifty metres in a massive pulse that sent the spiders into the air before once again covering myself in blood. This was how I planned to slip into the horde and it will be even harder to track me from the start then last time. Despite the extra cost I kept a weak mana barrier up over my body. This time I needed enough time to fully regenerate my mana rather than leaving early because of poison and wasting more to come back in so I couldn¡¯t afford to be poisoned again. Dancing, shredding, and slicing through these overgrown spiders I continued my slaughter. As if in a sort of trance I killed, killed and killed some more as all my bodies potential was drawn out to augment my killing. It was only hours later when my body had tired that I came out of this trance and once again returned to the centre. In that time my abilities had shot up a lot and although it isn¡¯t as high as when I was in that weird trance they where still a lot better then before I entered that weird state. It was like I grasped the essence of something but I don¡¯t understand what. My sword got stronger, my movements were refined and my intent improved massively to the point that I can now freeze the entire horde for a full second with killing intent alone rather then a mere split second like before. Focused solely on one-minded slaughter, I reached a breakthrough I don¡¯t understand and increased my odds of survival massively. Once I cleared out my circle I slaughtered for another hour before the horde backed off and formed a ring around me. All that remained was an endless sea of corpses before meeting living spiders to the point it was hard to tell between the dead and the living. A smaller spider squeezed it¡¯s way out from the crowd and with it¡¯s golden shell, strong aura and massive killing intent I had no doubt this was the leader. There must have been some lingering fear as the eagle soared up to five hundred metres before continuing to observe the fight. ¡°Why did you come into my territory?¡± The voice sounded disembodied, fractured and grating as if it had forcefully bound the energy of the world in order to release it but the world resisted. I pointed at the eagle. ¡°Abraham this goes against our agreement. Why are you breaking your word?¡± The killing intent that was directed at me hit the bird instantly and I watched it flinch before steadying itself. ¡°You have killed me ten times already you damn spider! The least you can do is repay me by stopping this thing from killing me again!¡± He shouted out arrogantly. ¡°I killed you because you where poaching on my sons. I owe you nothing and it is already generosity on my part that I haven¡¯t surrounded your spawn point and trapped you in an endless cycle of death. Do not temp me.¡± ¡°Hmph!¡± The eagle flew off. ¡°This is my territory. You only harmed the fodder this time and there was no permanent damaged done while it was because of that bird it happened so there is no grudge between us. You have two hours to recover your body and spoils of war before you must leave. If you remain after then or come back at a later date of your own free will I won¡¯t be so merciful but as long as you do not stir hostility with me I will not come looking for you.¡± The horde flooded away and I lost sight of the leader. Immediately, I slumped onto my back and started breathing rapidly. That was the most tiring activity I have ever done, it feels like my mind was completely dried from energy and I¡¯m left with was an all consuming headache in it¡¯s place. An hour longer and I would have died from this headache making me lose track of my senses and rendering me unconscious. Even now things are blurry. [You have levelled up x74!] [Due to killing more than 100,000 enemies, exp bonus has been given! You have levelled up x21!] [Due to surviving an endless horde, loot has been increased in value!] [Due to earning the recognition of the third ring boss Argoria Bloodhaven and being spared, you have earned a partial treaty! Argoria promises not to go out of his way to hunt you as long as you do not breech his territory again in the future.] ¡°Sigh¡­¡± I closed my eyes and ignored the messages. The level ups restored my hp and mp but my mind was still exhausted. Half an hour later I pulled myself up and began the audacious process of using mana to collect all the loot into my inventory. Eventually I was forced to prioritize as I didn¡¯t have enough space so I kept the poison sacks, beast cores, fangs and a small amount of full bodies to bring back for crafting. I got 6,350 gold coins from the fight, bringing me up to a total of 7,132. [Would you like to convert the rest of the spoils directly into guild funds? Yes/No] ¡°Yes.¡± [+9320 Gold has been added to guild funds.] I could only pick up barely a tenth of the physical drops but I knew I was ripped off. The direct exchange rate was crap but it was better then losing any gain from it all completely. {You¡¯re times almost up. Leave. Also, check your status menu.} ¡°Right¡± I nodded as I started to run. Once I was out of the territory marked by a see-through line now that I knew of it I went to scale a building and spend a while recuperating. I was overlooking the place from up high and it was easy to tell I shouldn¡¯t have gone in there with the millions of black spiders hanging from colossal webs between the buildings. At most, I killed around one hundred and twenty thousand but this place was totally over-run with them. So many of them¡­ they really are only fodder¡­ ¡°Status¡± [Status Menu] Name: Jean Paradox Race: Blood Vampire * Evolution: Unavailable * Level: 193 HP: 20,220 MP: 19,300 Strength: 998 Dexterity: 2,347 Vitality: 1,522 Intelligence: 1,430 Wisdom: 1,210 Charisma: 10,250 Luck: 100 Unallocated Status Points: 1930 The status points reached ten per level at level fifty and then stopped increasing so I got 450 from 0-50 and 1430 from 50-193. Sighing I got down for ten minutes training to bring my strength over the benchmark. {Sorry, you where late by about two hours and someone else got the achievement first after dumping stat points. Better luck next time in the ten thousand benchmark.} ¡°My luck¡¯s not so good today huh? Well whatever, I can¡¯t expect everything to work out perfectly. Can you explain what just happened to me?¡± I asked about the odd feeling. {You could say that 1000 in all bodily stats is a qualitative change. In other realms not cut off from the correct power system, you would have became a god with that benchmark hit. Every time you add a zero onto the benchmark number, you rank up in which realm god you are increases and every time you increase that rank you get a massive power increase. Unfortunately for you this world is cut off so it was more like your body harmonising and allowing you to bring out your bodily stats better and you won¡¯t get the power upgrade you would with becoming a god until you leave the game or survive until it finishes and the game become nullified. To put it into perspective, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 10,000,000, 100,000,000, 1,000,000,000¡­ every zero brings it up massively. The ¡®god¡¯ you killed was a rank five god meaning they would have ten million in all bodily stats after the one hundred years was up.} ¡°You sure know how to kill a good mood. Why would you even bring someone so strong into the game so early? That¡¯s completely destabilising!¡± I complained instantly. {I¡¯ll give you that information for 5,000 gold since you already qualify for it¡¯s knowledge due to being the one to kill it.} ¡°Ugh¡­ fine, take it.¡± I said bitterly as I watched my money disappear. {The world has been rearranged quite a bit so old maps no longer have much meaning but let¡¯s just say there is one hundred main territories or ¡®continents¡¯ now. They are all a lot bigger then any of the previous continents and on every one two gods are born with the same power limitation of 100 years to get back up. One ¡®good¡¯ and one ¡®evil¡¯. They will wage war against each other and many will die in the conflicts. By luck, you took out the ¡®evil¡¯ god before it could defend itself and it is considered the ¡®good¡¯ gods victory. Basically you just did all it¡¯s work for it and got minimum rewards while making your continent a bit more stable then others, giving it more time to develop before the other continents get a clear winner. Maybe five more gods will die in such a pitiful way by my estimations and the one¡¯s who kill gods now or later will become the major future players in the game along with a few outliers who get strong without the achievements gotten from killing a god.} ¡°You really went out of your way to fuck this world up didn¡¯t you?¡± {Well yeah, it is an apocalypse. If it was so easy to survive it wouldn¡¯t be an apocalyptic event would it?} ¡°I guess. It¡¯s really bothering me though, why didn¡¯t my area sense stop me falling into that trap? I should have seen the spiders easily and it was only once I was in there that I did.¡± I frowned while remembering the main reason I almost died, relying too much on a sense that failed me. {Well it¡¯s not really a secret but a ¡®boss¡¯ is a monster who meets the requirements to advance to the next ring but instead chooses to stay, earning a power boost until they leave. Every boss region blocks such scouting techniques in order to make the traps worthy of being a boss region. You can also set up magic to mimic such effects but your still a ways off from learning it. In return for this however they are confined to their region even if they can send their forces outside which can often lead to many powerful monsters grouping up to launch a raid on them without any means of retaliation like that eagle for example. Because it can fly, the fodder isn¡¯t enough to kill it so once it isn¡¯t in the boss territory anymore it can just escape into the air. The only reason it is maintaining a treaty of sorts is because if he get¡¯s his spawn point camped then it would be horrible for him once he dies as although powerful he doesn¡¯t hold much power in close range combat.} ¡°So there¡¯s things like that? Tsk. That means there are regions that could literally block off all the senses right? That sounds so annoying to deal with¡­¡± I muttered darkly as I began to search the city. {Are you looking for the thing that girl asked you for?} ¡°Yeah. She¡¯ll be annoyed if I keep putting it off.¡± I answered as I found it. Lea went to the town before I ditched my responsibilities on her and found a certain shop selling a flower for sixteen thousand gold. She wanted me to pick it up if I could and find out why it was worth so much money. The NPC told her it was in the third ring so naturally she can¡¯t come for it herself but I¡¯m a totally different matter. ¡°Why¡¯s something so valuable unguarded? Literally nothing cares about it¡­¡± I asked in disbelief as I watched one of the weakest monsters in the ring look away from it in disgust. {They lack the intelligence necessary to study the flower and as such don¡¯t know the uses like NPC¡¯s do. It¡¯s quite a common occurrence but usually these sorts of flowers are still rare since everyone plucks them for some quick cash and doesn¡¯t focus on regrowing the population.} ¡°Well let¡¯s just get it and leave then. My rose realm is full so it¡¯s not like I can get many more benefits by staying.¡± ---- ¡°Your looking rather pitiful there Leo¡± I said from on top of a bus as I smiled smugly at him just to piss him off. ¡°Says the guy who managed to get a massive scar on his neck. How did you even managed that when hp restores everything? Atleast my injuries are temporary.¡± I have a scar on my neck? I pulled out a mirror from my pocket and saw that I really did. It wasn¡¯t ¡®massive¡¯ like Leo made it out to be but it was still there and looks to be from the fang that scrapped me earlier. ¡°Glitch why do I have a scar?¡± {Everyone needs some cool battle scars. You can get rid of it with money but in order to bleed you dry certain wounds from creatures like boss monster fodder zones or special items will scar you. It¡¯s to save the economy, okay?} ¡°I can already see the commotion their precious prince getting a scar will cause¡­¡± Ally sighed. ¡°What did you do? We leave you for one day and you find a boss monster or special item? What the hell man?¡± Leo asked with an exasperated sigh and looked at me oddly. ¡°I was led into a boss zone and almost got killed. On the bright side, I am now officially ten thousand times weaker then the god I killed would be in a hundred years.¡± I said sarcastically as I jumped down from the bus and started walking back to base with them following. ¡°Literally or figuratively?¡± Ally asked. ¡°Literally.¡± We walked in silence for a while. ¡°I¡¯m going to be stat point dumping.¡± Leo surprised us. We had decided to train our stats up for as long as possible so I didn¡¯t expect that from him. ¡°You have an advantage over us right now that we won¡¯t catch up to for atleast several months without using stat points. Evolving will help as well but from what an NPC told me, the higher base stats I have before my evolution the more I will gain from it. I could try to train them up for ages but there¡¯s only so far that gain will take me before I¡¯m overtaken by both those using stat points or getting multiple evolutions. I need to use them and then evolve so I have a strong enough foundation to quickly get more levels with.¡± He explained seriously. ¡°Ally?¡± I questioned. ¡°I¡¯ll do the same. There¡¯s only so long I¡¯ll let a play boy like you surpass me.¡± I looked at her helplessly at the fact that I¡¯ve never actually dated anyone. This title is totally unfair. ¡°You better be able to bash me up by tomorrow then.¡± Other then filling them in on what happened, we didn¡¯t talk much. Somehow a gap had formed between us and I was the reason. I just hope that¡¯s all it is. Chapter 10 - The void Roses rained through the air like snow, painting a scene of transcendent beauty that is rarely seen. They continued to fall for what seems like hours as this scene danced through the moonlight and made me fall into a trance. Suddenly, something wet touched my cheek, shocking me out of my daze. Looking around in confusion I realised for the first time that the roses where covered in red paint-no, blood. By chance one had brushed by and painted me with the familiar sensation, stopping my trance. Suddenly the ¡®beauty¡¯ of the scene was replaced with horror as I stared at the roses painted red with blood dripping from the sky and the ground threatening to drown me in them. Struggling I desperately tried to claw my way to the surface as the thorns cut into my skin and the blood threatened to drown me with that ever sickly sweet smell roses produc making me so nauseous it was a miracle I didn¡¯t pass out. Crying, I slipped backwards off the wall of thorns into the sea of them below. While falling time seemed to slow down and I stared at the moon, my panic disappearing and only despair replacing it. I wouldn¡¯t die. It would hurt but I would survive¡­ atleast for a few hours, days if I was unlucky. After that, the blood loss, pain or the blood drowning me would claim my life and I would be no more, dying pitifully and painfully in some forgotten hole. Then suddenly everything changed, a slender hand reached out and grabbed me, making the horror around me spill away like water. She was like a goddess when she saved me and I never felt more emotional then that one moment, being something that could never flee from my memory. But it was only later I found out what price she had paid to save me. Digging desperately through the wall of thorns she had scarred her face and hands horribly, all to save me¡­ And because of that I had ruined her life¡­ In a world of wolves I had given her a glaring weakness, her scars, to paint her as a target. No matter how powerful her pack or how loyal her friends, the numbers where overwhelming and eventually, they dragged her down, tearing her to shreds in the process¡­ And that is when I snapped. They had killed my saviour, my goddess, my sister! I would kill them all! But I was weak. The only thing I could do was collapse their packs one by one, tearing and burning their futures and picking them off from the shadows once no one was watching by using the food my pack had an abundance of to lure the desperate into murder. I got my revenge but I was never happy with it. In fact, it only made me angrier¡­ My pack feared me so they ran away. They abandoned me because I was the Alpha and dared to do what my pack should have from the beginning. Cowards, hypocrites, betrayers¡­ Why do you abandon me? All I wanted¡­ All I wanted was to take from them what they took from us¡­ And yet it was you cowards that let them take from us that where the first to run¡­ I hate you¡­ mother¡­ father¡­ Why did you let her die? ---- I woke up crying. It was that dream again, the one that simplifies my entire life down into a natural ecosystem instead of a complicated and disgusting abomination called civilisation. In a way it felt unnaturally correct to the point where I can barely remember the truth but yet the scene where she reached through the thorns and saved me was still as clear as day. Blood trailing over her body like crazy and tears streaking out of her eyes, she smiled with relief as she ignored the pain and hugged me to her tightly. My heart ached at the memories and my rage burned for release but eventually I just settled down to stare out the windows in a daze while letting the memories flood over me like a broken dam. Everything was my fault. I was the reason my sister got scarred and ostracised by the vicious creatures called humans and I was the reason her bright life of fame, popularity and happiness was turned into despair, loneliness and pain. If she didn¡¯t save me then she never would have had to die. ¡®If you where to die, do you really think I would have a reason to live anyway?¡¯ She asked one day after I confronted her about it. Ever since then I lived only to be her sole reason of living. Everything I did, every action I took and the undivided love I gave was all for her. Somehow, I managed to keep her for almost five years and she was just beginning to look like she could pull through and get her life back on track. But then she came. And within two weeks, my sister was dead. In the rare moments of having my own mind after it happened, I used my family¡¯s wealth and influence to collapse everyone¡¯s family who had hurt my sister and then bait scum into targeting them. In the end, she was the only one left. The one I couldn¡¯t touch. Oh how gleeful I felt when she got caught up in a car bombing and had half her face melted off. Everything was returned to her and within months she was forced to do what she made my sister do to herself by those she considered friends. That was the only day I had been truly happy since my sister died. After that, I slowly spent years recovering as I lived without a purpose. Depression took hold for the first time now that my one-tracked mindset of revenge had loosened and I was overcome with despair. But I deserved it. This is what my sister felt, I deserve to feel this when I was the cause. I knew I was an idiot for it since logic would never tell me to do such a thing but somehow I had survived due to that notion. Slowly, I began to feel a hollow sense of happiness again as friends entered into my life and pets were bought for me and I continued to live day by day and year by year until eventually the world changed and the haze covering my mind was lifted. I was free and I was happy about being free. But I still had the guilt that told me I shouldn¡¯t be free when it was my fault. Pushing it aside and having it effect me in the background rather then deal with it I continued on in this apocalypse as if I where a new person but now¡­ I let it all flood me at once. Much later I opened my eyes and smiled softly. ¡°You really spoil me sister¡­¡± And like that, I was once again crying. ¡®Sis loves you no matter what so be happy for sis or sis won¡¯t be happy.¡¯ A single phrase had seeded itself into my mind, once forgotten but now burned in so permanently even death might not erase it. ¡°I must have made you so sad these last few years. Sorry¡­ I¡¯ll try harder sis.¡± As if the world agreed, a beautiful sunrise tore through the room and despite being created artificially from the dungeon¡­ it brought warmth I had been lacking for a long time. ---- ¡°Why do you bother sleeping?¡± Leo asked in the cafeteria as he came to eat with me. There was no need to do these sorts of things but routine and the taste just made it addictive. ¡°Dreams I guess?¡± I shrugged off. Choosing some simple food from the NPC¡¯s, I bought a plate of bacon, sunny side up eggs, mushrooms, some toast and a bit of black pudding on the side. ¡°Someone died yesterday.¡± He said after a while. ¡°Really?¡± I went straight to sleep after meeting the old man so I didn¡¯t hear anything. ¡°Yeah. A group of three went out for levels and only two came back. Apparently they where surrounded and almost died but the guy somehow burned their own body for an explosive increase of strength. The other two survived but he was literally turned into ashes a few hours after the fight.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not the first and won¡¯t be the last. Atleast not all of them died, others weren¡¯t so lucky.¡± It felt wrong treating death so coldly but it didn¡¯t really effect me beyond the guilt of not being effected. ¡°Ah, and finally he wakes up and stops playing hero, hurray for the return of the ice prince¡± He said sarcastically. ¡°Well it¡¯s not all bad. Around five people trickled into the city and apparently a few of them where just scouts for larger groups that will come once they report back. The numbers will kick up and defending the place will be easier, especially since they lived out there compared to these idiots holing up in a box hoping it will pass over them. Maybe it will give the others motivation to risk their lives a bit before they die from inactivity.¡± He didn¡¯t sound convinced. ¡°How about the dwarfs?¡± I was curious about how they integrated. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Lea made them some forges by playing god with the money and they are fitting in nicely¡­ well, for now atleast. People are still thinking of them like either NPC¡¯s or monsters so there might be problems in the future.¡± The future huh? I¡¯ve been getting a weird feeling lately like I won¡¯t be able to see this places future until, well, the future. Like I¡¯ll leave or disappear after a while and only come back much, much later. It¡¯s honestly scary because I don¡¯t understand how or why I have this feeling and the implications if I¡¯m right are massive. If not for my eyes I would dismiss it as paranoia but what really scares me about it is that I like the idea. Being alone in this world¡­ for some reason it appeals to me. Leo, Ally, Page, Tiny, Mini, the old man, it¡¯s like I could happily abandon them all other then tiny. That¡¯s definitely not like me. I even love Ally but yet I could abandon her? What bullshit is that? Being abandoned is what I hate most. ---- Time flew by and the feeling got stronger. To distract myself from it I threw myself into fighting and training as I grew at a stupid rate. By the end of the month I could travel freely in the seventh ring and venture into the eighth with caution and if I had used my stat points there is no way my progress would be so slow. The old man has already given up disbelief and has instead layered every bit of knowledge he can onto me. Now, I¡¯m at a level of general knowledge that even without him I¡¯d be able to improve, though naturally with him will be faster. At the last second before the raid I officially entered the next rank. [Status Card] Name: Jean Paradox Rank: Novice Age: 17 Affinity(s): Chaos (100%), Blood (75%), Mana (23%), Wind (40%), Fire (11%), Spatial (3%), Lunar (17%), Crystal (10%), Life (15%), Cloud (15%), Rose (60%). Mutated Affinity(s): Rose - Devine White (100%), Cloud - Purple Void (100%), Lunar - Blood Eclipse (100%), Crystal - Life Shard (100%). Special: Void Connection. Teacher: Dean Patios. Other: Origin Guild Leader, Valued Talent. With [Achievement: First to reach novice rank!] [Average Enhancement: Mana Sense!] As my reward. It basically just enhances my sense of mana by a lot passively and helps my ability to understand it¡¯s movements but isn¡¯t so helpful overall. I¡¯ve learnt not to trust my senses so much now and I could do this even before I got the enhancement so it¡¯s not really so great. On the bright side the extra magicians dispatched because of my rank upgrade would help with the defence. It wasn¡¯t anything major but they where reinforcing the walls to help force the monsters into the choke point. The gates where opened behind a group of elites where hundreds more people and NPC soldiers waited for the stragglers just in case. Honestly I over-estimated the threat because I didn¡¯t realise there where different rings at the time so we should be able to hold on fine, especially with¡­ that. Glitch has been really cold lately, merely saying the things I am entitled to know rather then seeking out conversations and joking along with me. No matter how much I try to be friendly we¡¯re stuck at this. Before he would have given words of encouragement right now but instead he is completely silent unless I ask anything. His mood swings are confusing. Leo has been keeping close but I can tell he¡¯s hiding something from me and whatever it is, Ally is in on it. Our relationship feels the same but knowing there¡¯s something between us makes it strained and I¡¯m not sure how to react. It¡¯s the first time since we became friends something like this has happened and I never had any friends like them before them to draw experience from. Tiny got cuter. Mini decided to die after all and left a little tree in the magic guild by the guild leaders permission. And Lea barely even speaks to me. Page is probably the only one things feel the same with but due to her impatience and childish curiosity I rarely see her lately as my training schedule is boring. ¡®Maybe this feeling is just a growing doubt of not belonging? Maybe I¡¯ll just leave by myself eventually?¡¯ I thought to myself rather pitifully before dismissing it. Just because Ally and Leo are keeping secrets doesn¡¯t mean I would leave. That was just a stray thought that forced it¡¯s way into my head, a flame that only burnt for a second. So much for happy thoughts huh? I¡¯m already sinking into stupid feelings after less then a month. ¡°You¡¯ll be my stress relief¡± I whispered to the oncoming hoard. Shooting forwards I instantly entered a slaughter. I could take care of this horde single handily now but there would be stragglers. Hours, and hours, and hours¡­ I slaughtered freely with the others to back me up and a small army to kill the stragglers that got past. ¡°Everyone retreat back for recovery, I¡¯m activating the formation.¡± Lea ordered as we all pulled back. Suddenly I watched a wall of flames appear and engulf the horde before enlarging until it covered several kilometres. With my area sense, I could still see them running into the flames mindlessly due to the raid mechanics overriding their self-preservation instincts. I could have went on but others where tiring so this was our crowd control method. Silently, I watched as they burned. Something about the scene was beautiful despite the morbidity of it. ¡°Hey Ally¡­ I love you.¡± Over the sounds of battle, only she heard due to her training in augmenting her senses and before she could react, like a coward, I walked into the sea of flames to drown away the nervousness and frustration by killing the burning tide. Unexpectedly, I found myself crying as such simple words reminded me that she was the only one other then my sister I have loved. Luckily the flames obscured them and destroyed the evidence. For now, I will slaughter. Sorry for being a coward. ---- ¡°You bastard, don¡¯t drop something like that on me in the middle of battle and then run away!¡± Ally was fuming as she had me pinned to the wall. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± I smiled weakly. I felt rather helpless about the situation. ¡°Stop smiling! You and your fake assed smiles are so annoying! Always trying to put others over your own damn feelings by smiling nicely and ignoring your own problems, what the fuck is wrong wi- wait never mind, why the fuck did you have to say that then of all times!? Do you know how much that threw me off!? And then you just ran away!!! Your such a bastard!¡± ¡°I-¡° Before I could speak she cut me off. ¡°I don¡¯t care what you have to say for yourself. That was a low move and you know it and I refuse to pity and forgive you because of some sob story. Bastard.¡± She was beginning to calm down and her face got slightly red but it was like she was physically forcing the blush down. I didn¡¯t even realise that was possible. ¡°So I guess that¡¯s a rejection then?¡± I asked as passively as I could despite the beating heart and burning pain asking caused. ¡°Maybe.¡± She stormed out leaving me confused in the small room she cornered me in. ---- Short, awkward interactions. When Leo found out what happened he burst into laughter and wouldn¡¯t stop teasing me. What made it even worse was Ally walked right up to me one day and kissed me full on the lips saying ¡°Don¡¯t expect this to happen again, I was just experimenting¡± And stormed off. It¡¯s been stupidly confusing. Naturally we tried to keep it under wraps from everyone else so of course everyone knows what¡¯s going on which only made the situation even worse. I think I would have preferred a clear rejection than this. Atleast then I¡¯d know what the hell was going on¡­ ---- ¡®Jean come here, we have an outsider, like outside the dungeon outsider, who wants to see the guild leader and refuses to talk to anyone else.¡¯ I was surprised to say the least. It should take outsiders atleast several months to get here and yet there was one actually demanding to meet me personally? It made no sense. ¡®I¡¯ll be right there.¡¯ We where basically texting through magic but it had a lot of limitations I won¡¯t go over. ¡°Where are they?¡± I said as I met up with her on the bottom floor. ¡°IT is by the biggest waterfall. There¡¯s no way that thing is human.¡± I frowned a bit. Well, almost nothing would be human by now so what was she expecting? But I¡¯m guessing it must have looked completely different to warrant such a reaction so I didn¡¯t comment. It was disgusting to look at. A red heart floating that was around one metre big with pulsating black and purple veins covering it and matted, greasy thick hair dotted in patches with rotting skin added in just for good measure. With the creepy hole cut out for it¡¯s sharp teeth it was like looking at something straight from a horror film. ¡°You are the guild leader?¡± I winced, even it¡¯s voice was disgusting. Glass grating together and somehow forming sound. ¡°Good. I have a note for you.¡± Ugh, did it really just vomit a note up to me? So gross¡­ Welcome! Confused I looked up and saw the heart grinning as a spatial tear opened up and began to swallow me. Panicked, I sliced the heart into pieces before being sucked in and everything turning black. ---- [Ally POV] ¡°Hey Ally¡­ I love you.¡± My heat skipped a beat before returning back several times faster then usual as I looked at his form disappearing into the flames. Did¡­ did he just confess and leave me here? Really? That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s¡­ ugh! ¡°Bastard, get back here!¡± I yelled while slashing at the flames with magic. ¡°Ally stop! You¡¯ll break the formation!¡± My brother tackled me and forced me to calm down before getting off and returning to kill the few that made it through the fire. ¡°Meany¡­ I love you since we¡¯re kids and when you finally confess to me like I dreamed of you ran away¡­ I hate you¡­ but I love you¡­ dammit, bastard!¡± I cried silently to myself as I went back to killing to distract myself. Idly I thought about how odd it was to be angry about the thing I fantasised about for years happening but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to feel anything but anger at him running away. Supressing it for so long because of how screwed up the guy I loved was mentally to the point where he never even considering love, I waited for this moment for years but then they just left me alone with my thoughts instead of hugging and treating me like a princess. Dammit. Why were my expectations so high? I¡¯m such an idiot. It was only an hour later that the blush hidden by the fire finally retreated. ---- ¡°Why couldn¡¯t you have just hugged me and apologised? If you did all of my anger would have flooded away and we could be happy.¡± I complained while leaning against the door to the room I finally cornered him in. I so badly just want to hug and kiss him, never letting him leave my side¡­ but yet this irrational anger is stopping me. Ugh, this is so frustrating! When all I want to do is melt in your arms¡­ why can¡¯t you let me? ¡°Idiot Jean¡± I muttered before walking off angrily. ---- ¡°It¡¯s not so bad, you said maybe right? That¡¯s better then you would usually react in that situation.¡± She comforted. ¡°Lea that doesn¡¯t help at all¡± I groaned with my head buried into a pillow on her bead. ¡°Think about it Ally, he¡¯s a clueless idiot when it comes to anything social, especially love, and you said maybe. Why not take advantage of that and tease him a little until your anger comes down? You can get hugs and kisses under the excuse of experimentation and then once you¡¯ve calmed down you can monopolise him like you want to. Naturally he¡¯ll catch on quickly due to not being an idiot by nature but you¡¯ll get to have that for a while. Well not like I even understand your irrational anger anyway¡­ your weird.¡± My eyes lit up before dimming at her last comment. ¡°My race change made it worse¡± I complained to her as my head went straight back into the pillow. ¡°But just the fact it was there to begin with was weird.¡± ¡°Ugh¡± ¡°Anyway just use this as a chance to calm down a bit. Everything will be fine.¡± Looking up at her with innocent eyes, I saw a shiver wrack her body. ¡°Nononono, whatever you have planned I refuse!¡± She called out immediately. ¡°Tch. I just wanted you to hook up with Theodore so I could observe and learn from it. What¡¯s the big deal?¡± I complained. ¡°You are a terrifyingly selfish person. Please spare me.¡± ---- Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit! I feel like my hearts beating so fast that I¡¯ll pass out! Did¡­ did I really just kiss him!? Gahh I can¡¯t take it anymore, I have to tell Lea! ¡°Sis, where are you going so fa-¡° ¡°Shutuporiwillcastrateyou¡± I said rapidly as I ran passed him in the hallway. ¡°Why is my sister such a heartless monster?¡± He was practically crying. Although he whispered I still heard and sent a small needle into his arm before continuing. ¡°Guess what Lea!¡± I burst when I finally found her. ¡°You stabbed your brother and terrified half the guild? I heard.¡± Her glare deflated me a bit. Damn rapid communication. ---- [Leo POV (ally became too scary to show her thoughts about this)] ¡°Are you screwing with me?¡± I asked unbelievingly as the book in my hands fell to the ground. ¡°I-I was there. O-one second he was there and the next a massive hole opened up and swallowed Jean. He managed to kill whatever the thing that did it was on the way but¡­ what the hell do we do now?¡± She was panicking and in a way I was too. ¡°Lea that lucky bastard will be fine, I guarantee it with my manhood on the line, but we¡¯re totally screwed. Fuck, how am I going to explain this to my sister? We need countermeasures immediately¡­ think leo¡­ how do I stop a crazy, psychopathic sister going on a killing spree¡­ ugh¡­ I got it! Lea, quickly make a prison with the guild money and trick her into it as a tour! We¡¯ll lock her in until she calms down or even if we can¡¯t die in here we¡¯ll wish we could.¡± I said dead serious while already thinking of plans to bait her with and backups in case that one failed. ¡°She wouldn¡¯t do that- umm, maybe? She wouldn¡¯t do that right? Leo? Leo, she wouldn¡¯t right!?!¡± She yelled out in panic almost crying. ¡°Ugh be quite! Yes, yes she would! Make the prison now and do anything you can to lure her into a cell and close it!¡± I snapped at her and she quietened down. ¡°Dammit why did I have to have such weird friends?¡± She cursed before storming out. ¡°Fuck Jean, how could you up and disappear on me? Sis is totally going to blame me for this even though I had nothing to do with it. You are a shitty best friend man.¡± I complained before slumping into the desk. ¡°Oh crap, how do I explain this to Page?¡± After a while a new kind of terror overtook me. Not the terror of physical harm like my sister gave me but the terror of disappointing a little girl and having her crying in front of me. She looks up to all of us but it¡¯s only Jean she really treasures. ¡°I really need to bring my luck up already, this is horrible. Dammit man, you better not die or I might really be killed.¡± ---- ¡°I swear I¡¯ll beat the shit out of you when I get out if you don¡¯t let me out now Leo.¡± Ally said coldly as I looked on from outside the cell. ¡°I¡¯d like to say this is for your own safety sis but it¡¯s really not, it¡¯s for ours. Anyway please get angry at Lea, she was the closest so it was her fault.¡± I begged pitifully before being kicked into the wall by the girl I tried to lay blame on. ¡°What happened?¡± Ally picked up and her voice got even colder. ¡°Jean is gone. Some weird thing came and teleported him away and he¡¯s gone.¡± Lea tried to put up a brave face but Ally just went full on psychotic. (The following scenes are omitted due to the pure and unrestrained rage, swearing, crying, and all-round craziness of Ally¡¯s reaction. Just for reference, it only ended when she tried to head but the cage open and knocked herself out in the process which was almost half a day later. Something about waking herself up from the nightmare as well as getting out in the process being a win-win? Her race is a little scary with their emotional attachments but saying what it is would be a spoiler. Anyway, imagine away.) ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me he was alive? I hate you¡± She sniffled cutely while crying in a corner which totally went against the earlier scene burned into our memories. ¡°We did. Thousands of times, repeatedly, as you freaked out and refused to listen. Now do you understand why we put you in here?¡± Lea asked dully as her eyes had a slightly dead quality to them. ¡°No! I should be out there looking for him, not in some random cage!!!¡± She screamed immediately as we both flinched. Is she reverting? Crap. ¡°Ally listen to me! You know him the best out of everyone and even I know that he will definitely come back here but if your not waiting for him, what does he have to come back to!? You heard how big the world is now! He could be anywhere! The only chance we have to find him is if we wait until he comes back to us himself! So stop freaking out already!¡± I yelled at her, snapping. Usually I¡¯m kind to sis so she rarely see¡¯s this side but even she flinched at it when it came out. It meant I finally had enough. ¡°But everything was so perfect¡­ I hate the apocalypse¡± She huddled up and began to cry. Sighing I opened the cage despite Lea¡¯s panic and went to comfort her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Shh, shh, it¡¯s okay. Cry all you want. He loves you and there¡¯s no way that will change with his personality and he will definitely come back so don¡¯t worry about anything. I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Eventually she fell asleep after crying for hours. The same thing has happened many times in the past but today¡­ today was the only day I saw how truly hurt she felt. Our parents, dog and now the guy she grew up with and loves to the point of obsession are all gone. Thrust into a cruel world with only one of her friends she knows of surviving¡­ and a race that heightened all these emotions¡­ I¡¯m sorry you had to go through so much. I¡¯m a failure as a brother. ¡°Lea¡­ let¡¯s tell page once ally wakes up. They both need someone to rely on right now and I¡¯m not good enough for that job¡­¡± I muttered to her while stroking the hair out of my sisters face. I hate seeing her cry. ---- [Normal POV] ¡°Where am i?¡± I asked out into the seemingly void space. [In trouble. A lot of it.]