When we tried to call 911 to report Mr. Toliver’s death, we weren’t able to get through. The recorded message said all circuits were busy. Go figure.
Neither Jayden nor I was willing to pick up his body and drag it somewhere, so for now, we covered him with a bedsheet. Our inadequate duty done, I retrieved the weapon cleaning supplies from my house and sat on the Browns’ porch while I cleaned the Sharps rifle and then the revolver.
Jayden slid his cleaned sword into the scabbard at his hip when his eyes glazed over for a moment, “What the–”
Then his eyes came into focus, “I just found a quest. You’re not gonna believe it, Cade.”
I placed the oily rag back into a small box, “Try me. We’re living through a goblin invasion.”
He bobbed his head, “That’s the thing, Cade. Pull up your System screen. Then look for a tab called Universal Quest Log.”
It only took a moment for me to find the tab. Son of a gun!
Quest—Stem the Goblin Tide
Kill 10 goblins.
XP Reward: 75
I groaned as I returned my pistol to its holster, “Wish we’d seen this one earlier.”
Clicking on the accept box made the quest disappear. There were no other quests available. When I closed it, there was still a hint of something to the right of my vision. Focusing on the neighborhood and the tree line beyond made it easy to ignore those blue alerts hiding just out of sight.
The front door bumped my backside and Hanna’s voice caught my attention, “You guys gonna stay out here?”
Jayden came back to the porch. “Is the TV still off?”
Hanna nodded, “The news is. Most channels have their typical programming. It takes more than the apocalypse to stop commercials.”
After Jayden explained how he found the quest to kill the goblins, he lamented, “Sure would be nice to create a party to go kill them. All I got credit for earlier are the goblins I personally—”
A smile creased his swarthy face, “Hot damn!”
A moment later, a new screen floated into my vision.
Jayden Brown has invited you to join a group.
Do you accept?
Yes/No
Both Hanna and I spoke at the same time, “Yes.”
The screen shifted, showing our names in a small box labeled Group.
When I recalled the quest log, it showed I shared the goblin quest with two others. I leaned against the brick façade and closed my eyes. This new System left me feeling confused. On one hand, it felt like the most epic role playing game ever. But Mr. Toliver was dead. How many more people had died with the first spawns? And this was just the beginning!
Jayden pulled me away from the wall and pushed me through the front door, “Come on, Cade. Don’t overthink things. Let’s get something to eat and then figure out what’s next.”
After patrolling just beyond our neighborhood for a couple of hours without finding more goblins, we retired to the Browns’ house. The power had gone out as the sun dipped below the western horizon and the handful of channels that were still broadcasting disappeared as the living room fell into darkness.
Hanna glanced out the window. “With all the lights out, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it as dark as it is now.”
From my place on a recliner, I craned to see out the window. It was, as she said, inky darkness.
She yawned, “Which of you losers is taking the first watch?”
While I was emotionally spent, I didn’t think I could go to sleep. There was too much to process. “I’ll take the first watch if Jay takes the middle watch.”
Jayden leaned against his sister, sticking his head close to the window, “Kinda creepy out there. What time should I relieve you?”
Even though my phone couldn’t receive calls, there was still a charge on it when I looked at the time, “It’s nine o’clock. I’ll wake you up at midnight.”
Hanna was on the way to her bedroom, “Wake me up at three, Jay.”
While there were candles that could be lit, I didn’t want to waste them. It was anyone’s guess when or even if we could replace them. I turned the recliner around to face the window overlooking the front yard and rested the rifle across the recliner’s arms.
Before long, boredom set in and I murmured, “System, show me character sheet.”
Name
Caden
Regeneration
Level
2
Health
90
1/minute
Experience
40/200
Mana
100
1/sec
spells
n/a
Action
100
4/sec
Age
14
Race
Human
Class
Sharpshooter
Strength
8
Agility
11 (2)
Skills
Ranged Attack
Constitution
9
Firearms +1
Intellegence
8
Wisdom
8
Charisma
8
Glamour
8
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
My health had gone up by ten. That made sense. The System had told me constitution affected my health, and my Con was a point higher.
The two pieces of gear with agility gave me a +2 to my agility to go along with the one point of agility I received when I leveled up.
Still, the stats raised almost as many questions as they answered. I glanced outside and seeing nothing, sent a thought toward the System, System, how do I spend action points?
You may spend action points on skills that require action points to activate. For instance, Firearms +1 costs 20 action points to activate.
That just raised more questions, “So, what’s the benefit for using my firearms skill?”
The firearms skill provides you with the ability to know how to obtain the most effective use of the firearm. This modifies base damage by the firearm.
Did that mean what I think it means? After examining my gear, I said, “How does my plus one to firearms interact with the plus six ranged attack of my rifle?”
+6 to your ranged attack improves your odds to hit your target. +1 to your firearms modifies the damage inflicted by your weapon.
Now I felt like I was getting somewhere. “What determines the damage I deal?”
Damage is calculated based upon attack type.
“What about for me? How much damage can I do with my rifle?”
Your [Quigley Sharps Rifle] fires a [???] powered lead bullet. Translating… .45 caliber or 11.4 millimeters lead bullet. Preliminary data collection by the UDS indicate normal damage ranges from 8 to 10 hit points. +1 to Firearms increases damage from 9 to 12 hit points.
I have 90 hit points. This didn’t make sense. It would take me getting hit seven or eight times before my health points would fall to zero. “System, most of the goblins I hit died with a single shot. Yet, it would take seven or eight shots to knock me down to zero health. How is this possible?”
Level 1 [goblins] have between [10] and [25] health. Retrieving log of combat… A review of your combat logs indicate several critical shots.
“How do critical hits work?”
A shot to a vital artery does 3x critical damage. A shot to the head does x6 critical damage. A shot to the heart does 10x critical damage.
Even though it was just me and the System in the dark living room, I found myself nodding at the explanation. A shot to my heart would kill me just as dead as one of those goblins.
The rest of my shift passed much like that as I tried to understand the System that held our lives in the balance. At midnight, I nudged Jayden enough to awaken him. I was happy to relinquish my spot on the recliner. A few minutes later, I fell asleep on the couch.
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BAM! BAM!
The noise startled me awake. Before the sleep left my eyes, I stood with my rifle next to the couch. Hanna rose from the recliner. At some point during the night, she’d relieved Jayden. She peered through the window. “It’s that man from yesterday. Parsons I think.”
She rose and made her way toward the front door while I pointed my weapon in that direction and waited. When the door cracked up, the man who had introduced himself as Wesley Parsons called out, “Please! I need help. Something attacked my home. My wife and kids—they’ve been kidnapped.”
Hanna opened the door wider, “Get inside. Over the past hour, I’ve heard several screams.”
When Wesley entered, Hanna slammed the door behind him. “Any idea what it was? How’d you escape?”
He ran his hand through short cropped chestnut colored hair, “I’d heard the same thing and I got my shotgun and tried to find whoever it was shouting like it’s the Second Coming.”
I lowered my rifle, “Did you find the noise?”
Wesley shook his head. “Not directly. I went to the end of the street,” he pointed toward the opposite end of the street from where the Goblins had come and fled. There was more woodland that way, at least before it gave way to the city limits. He continued, “The house on the end was empty. I saw some shadowy monsters, small like the goblins, but different. I didn’t stay around to get an introduction. And when I returned to my home, those monsters were racing away from my place. My wife and kids trussed up like luggage.”
A weird orange halo appeared over Wesley’s head. I’d seen nothing quite like it. I muttered, “System identify.”
Quest—Rescue Wesley Parsons’ family and neighbors
Rescue 6 neighbors from Kobolds
XP Reward: 120
Do you accept the quest?
Yes/No
My voice betrayed my amazement, “Hanna, he’s got a quest.”
A moment later, Hanna nodded, “Yeah. That’s interesting. I accepted it. Go get Jay moving. The sun will be up before long.”
A bit later, the four of us walked down the middle of our street. When we got to the very end, grass stretched out a few yards. After that, the woodlands curved to the north. Before we entered the area, I scanned the houses nearby. Something, or maybe someones had assaulted both houses at the end of the block during the night. They broke every window and battered down the front doors. And those were hardly the only homes hit last night.
“Hanna,” I started, “What do you think about us inviting a few more families to stay at your place tonight?”
She stepped into the twilight of the woodlands, where the sun seldom penetrated. “That may be a good idea. There’s power in numbers. Especially now.”
A hundred yards further into the woodlands, she paused and knelt. “Tracks. Looks like a big dog’s prints.”
I peered around her. Sure enough, fresh prints marred the ground. What little skill Dad had passed onto me about tracking wasn’t enough to trigger any kind of skill alert by the system, but even I could make out the tracks.
Wesley’s voice was strained, “We’re going the right way. Let’s go. God knows what those monsters are doing.”
We hadn’t gone far when Jayden fell into step beside the family man, “Did you discover the classes yet?”
The pain in Wesley’s eyes was easy to see. I’m not sure I could have held back the tears if I were in his position. Still, he kept moving forward, “Yeah. I saw them after the fight yesterday.”
Jayden left the scouting to his sister. That was probably a good idea. He made more noise than a troop of girl scouts selling cookies. He replied, “I picked the warrior class. Hanna picked scout. And Cade became a sharpshooter.”
From her place in the front, Hanna turned, “Jayden’s idea of keeping secrets is to tell one person at a time.”
He didn’t have the good grace to blush, “It’s a secret now? Nobody told me. If we’re going questing with Wesley, we should all know each other’s classes.”
The family man paused, nearly tripping over his feet, “This isn’t some quest, kid. Those animals have my family. I’ll do whatever is necessary to rescue them.”
Where Hanna’s harsh stare didn’t faze him, Jayden wore a horrified expression, “Ah, shit. That’s not what I meant. I’d help you even if there’s not a quest.” He lapsed into silence for a bit. But Jayden being Jayden, he eventually asked, “What kind of classes did you have to pick from?”
Wesley pursed his lips, as though trying to control his response. After a few heartbeats too long, he said, “The system offered me several options. I guess because of the help I gave you yesterday, it offered me the class of soldier. I guess you kids also had the option for citizen. It seemed like a generic class. It also gave me the option of priest.”
Even I perked up at that. Jayden practically gushed, “Hot damn, a healing class! That would be badass. Did you take it? What spells did you get?”
Wesley held up a hand, almost like he was trying to stop a car, “Whoa. I didn’t say anything about taking it. It was offered to me.”
It was enough to draw me into the conversation, “Why do you think the system offered you the priest class?”
He shrugged, “Dunno. I’m the youth pastor at Grace Community Church, out on Highway Thirty-one. Maybe it offered me the class based on my job.”
Nodding, Jayden said, “That kind of makes sense. The system offered all of us the Student class. Of course, we didn’t take it. Seems kinda useless now.”
Now my curiosity overcame my reluctance to bother Wesley. “If you didn’t take Priest, what class did you take?”
Wesley shifted the shotgun from one shoulder to the other. “Paladin.”
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0f/4e/ff/0f4eff84d946f90575e6b4138efc4b00.gif]
We had been walking a couple of miles, keeping to the densest part of the woodlands as Hanna tracked the impossible-to-miss tracks when she held her hand up and waved for us to stop. All I could see were more trees. Crouched over, she came back toward us. Her voice was a hoarse whisper, “There’s a clearing up ahead, and I could make out some sort of small monsters. Kinda like goblins, but different.”
As we inched forward, crawling on the ground, the noises become unmistakable. Whatever those monsters were, they sounded like a pack of dogs, if dogs could speak. Even if the language was beyond comprehension.
A chill shot through me when an all-too-human shriek drowned out the dog-like noises. I nearly peed myself when that same agonized scream abruptly cut off.
Wesley gripped his shotgun, “My family’s in there. You can follow me or stay back here. I’m going.”
With that, he scampered forward. Hanna glanced back at us, an exasperated look on her face. She swore under her breath and grabbed her knives, “Okay, let’s do this.”
Even as I double checked my rifle, the terror that had hit me following the battle with the goblins returned. No matter how the System tried to make us feel like we were in a game, the reality felt different as we hurried into danger. Maybe because we really could die.
Nearing the clearing, the monstrous figures became more distinct. Sure, they looked like dogs, if dogs could walk on two legs. They even had snouts with razor-sharp teeth. They carried rusty weapons. And there were a lot of them dancing around something in the middle of the clearing.
Bile flooded my mouth when I realized that hanging over a cooking fire was a human body. A shotgun blast silenced the cacophony of primal noises for a few seconds. Then a primitive scream of dozens of angry voices responded.
I spit the bit of bile that reached my mouth as I went from crawling on my stomach to kneeling. I rested an elbow on one knee and sited down the long barrel. At best guess, I was perhaps two hundred feet from the clearing. I found a furry target and fired as soon as my sights centered on it.
The heavy rifle slammed against my shoulder and the monster fell as the bullet tore into its chest. What had the System said? Heart shots cause critical damage.
I yanked the lever down, ejecting the spent cartridge as the breech’s falling block opened. A few seconds later, I closed the breech and aimed at another target.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
At sixty or seventy paces, I could hardly miss. The plus six to my ranged attack from the rifle made sure of that. The barrel grew hotter with each shot. It was only when I noticed more than a dozen spent cartridges on the forest floor that I realized how many times I’d fired. I only had a few rounds still in my pockets.
A growl from a few feet to my side caught me by surprise. Before I could turn, something heavy struck me, sending me tumbling onto the ground. Before I stopped rolling, I caught sight of my attacker. He couldn’t have been over four feet tall, tops. He had pointy ears, like a dog, was covered in fur, like a dog, and had a long snout with a menacing mouthful of teeth, ready to rip me to shreds.
He lunged at me. He tore into my arm, which I’d barely brought up in time. Pain washed over me and I was barely aware of the System or the blue screen that materialized in my vision.
You have sustained [9] points of rend damage. Until treated, you will sustain [1] point of rend damage every [5] seconds.
With my good hand, I fumbled for my pistol. Who was screaming louder, I couldn’t say. The pain in my arm hurt worse than anything I’d ever imagined, but the monster’s screeching may have been even louder.
My fingers circled around the grip and I pulled it out even as the monster shook my other arm, causing even more damage.
You have sustained [8] points of rend damage. Until treated, you will sustain [1] point of rend damage every [5] seconds. Stackable.
Tears blurred my sight as I pointed the revolver at the dog-man’s center mass and pulled the trigger. Again and again until his mouth slackened on my arm and he slumped over.
I crawled to my feet as I became aware of the clanging of metal on metal and the resounding boom of a shotgun. Tears slid down my cheeks as I cradled my wounded arm.
[2] points of rending damage. Seek healing while you are able.
Through the blur, I examined the monster.
Dead level [1] kobold.
Boom! The sound of the shotgun pulled me back to the larger fight. Despite my injury, if anything were to happen to Jayden or Hanna, I’d never forgive myself. A couple of dozen paces and I broke into the clearing.
I barely avoided a carcass of a dog-like creature when I arrived. Jayden stood in the middle of the clearing, swinging his sword around with more effect than during the earlier battle with the goblins. Hanna slashed at a dog-man who stood over several humans who were tied together. Boom! Wesley sent another monster tumbling over, its chest torn open by the heavy shotgun slug.
The remnants of the tribe of monsters broke and ran.
Wesley raced across the clearing, only stopping when he collapsed to his knees next to one of the bound prisoners. “Tasha, thank God! I feared the worst.”
As he tore the ropes binding her wrists, tears spilled down the woman’s face, and she broke down crying. Once free, her arms wrapped around her husband’s neck.
Hanna used her knife to free several children and other adults. I recognized all of them from our neighborhood. I turned and saw Jayden lean against his longsword. Blood dripped from his fingers and red rivulets ran down his arms. His face was ashen as he fell to his knees.
Despite the ticking death sentence I faced without healing, I ran over to him, stumbling around the many kobold bodies, “Dude, are you okay?”
He grimaced, “I hope they don’t have rabies. They tore my arms up good.” Then he caught sight of me cradling my arm, “I see they got you too.”
I shrugged as I lost another two health points, “I ventilated him.”
Jayden swooned and dropped his sword. How much damage had he taken? “Wesley! Hanna! We need to get patched up. We’re bleeding out.”
Although Hanna was the first to arrive because Wesley needed to untangle himself from his family, when he did arrive, he said, “When I hit level two, I got two spells. I don’t think you want me to cast smite.”
Jayden gave a wan smile, “Not if you don’t want me shoving my sword where the sun don’t shine.”
Wesley leaned over my best friend and gently placed a hand on him, “Let’s see how this laying on of hands works.”
A soft glow enveloped Wesley’s hand, and the coloring on Jayden’s face grew ruddier as the paleness disappeared. The Paladin rose, “If the system isn’t lying to me, that should stop any bleed affects. Let me know if you need another heal.”
Then he turned to me, “You know, you’re not supposed to let them bite you, Cade.”
By now, the pain was more numb than anything else. Still, when he rested his hand on my arm, I grimaced as a lance of pain shot through, “he won’t be biting anything else. Ever again.”
When the glow enveloped Wesley’s hand right away, I felt the effects on me.
Bleed affect canceled. +8 health points healed.
Just because Wesley healed me didn’t mean the pain went away. Still, at least now it wasn’t still bleeding and if given time, my body would heal the rest of the way.
I joined Jayden, who had pulled himself onto a fallen log. I needed to take a few minutes to regroup. Neither Wesley nor Hanna had taken any damage, and they both seemed eager to help our neighbors. While they did that, I finally paid attention to the blue flashing light just at the edge of my vision.
Updating party statistics
31 Kobolds killed
310 party experience points.
Your portion of damage—39% adjusted for level [2].
You are awarded with 96 experience points.
Our health regenerated one point per minute. An hour later, Jayden and I were fully healed. We didn’t get back to the neighborhood until midafternoon.