Walmart.

It was the oddest place, a jungle of steel and food, a cage with exits. a place to get groceries.

His hands snagged the last milk, the jug of white sustenance plopped into his cart. His brown and dull eyes looked up, seeing an older woman staring back, obviously angered at his acquisition of his favorite drink. Silent, he pushed his cart to the left, veering out of the ladies way. He was tired of being around people, having to see people, having to talk to people.

It was fundamentally against human nature to be so anti person, but he had stopped caring about the word 'Human' a long time ago.

His hunched and hooded figure would have been intimidating because of his size, but being six foot three while looking like he hasn't showered in weeks made him look like a homeless man. He didn't particularly care about how he looked, his curled hair disheveled and matted under his hood.

On auto pilot, he traversed the aisle, not looking for anything in particular. He mind wandered just like his legs did. Baggy, worn out, grey sweat pants complimented his red hood, both having faded their colors out after a couple years of being worn and washed weekly. His steps were uneven, as he drug his feet on occasion, not caring about the shitty shoes he bought for 50 dollars on Ebay.

In his cart was milk, cereal, Oreos, and a new set of underwear, his old ones having been stained enough to make him have to change them out.

His 250 pounds trudged into the fruit aisle, lethargically grabbing a set of bananas, the recent nightly cramps not being fun enough for him to skip on eating them anymore. He eventually reached the checkout line, seeing it as the fastest way, and easier, even though he would have to speak to the person, it was easier then the stress of the security hanging around the self checkout station.

He placed his items on the black conveyor line, his now empty cart behind the blond woman who was currently checking out.

The machine did a little beep as the Walmart worker did the basic 'Have a good day', and the blonde lady said 'You too'.

He stepped forward, his hands grabbing the wallet he made sure he didn't forget from his jacket pocket.

He opened it, on one side was his face, plastered on a white canvas. His ID.

Xavier D. Holliday

In the picture, his face was slightly less pudgy, but he didn't care too much to analyze his weight. Xavier pulled out his debit card, holding it in his right hand.

"Hello, how was everything today?" the clerk asked, his hair dyed a interesting shade of red, almost crimson, and closer to brown from far away. His voice was raspy, and he looked like he had wrinkles forming around his lips and eyes, age getting to the man.

Midlife crisis must be a bitch.

"Doing alright", Xavier whispered, not really paying attention to anything other then the screen that told him his total. A whopping total of 23 dollars stared back. He swiped his card, and put in his pin, and signed the thing at the end.

"Have a good day", The red haired man said, and Xavier nodded, no longer in the mood to participate in normal conversation. His bags were in his cart, and he he took his first step before he felt a wave of nausea. He stumbled forward, keeping his balance. The sick feeling of having your body accelerated without moving coursed through him. He bit back his bile, swallowing it back down.

"Wha-"

"Huh?"

"Ugh"

All around him, everyone stumbled, and some of the older and younger ones straight up collapsed. The sounds of liquids hitting the floors as people emptied their stomach was gross. Some recovered faster, others keeled on the ground and stayed there for a couple of seconds. The collective shock made everyone relativly quiete and confused, but as soon as the nausa worre off and people could stand again, people were talking, shouting, screaming.

Xavier's nausea passed, and he slumped forward, leaning on his cart, he never fell, but his stomach still lurched, like it was desperate to escape his bowels and run away.

I dont want to be here right now.

He wanted to be at home, reading, playing dogshit MMOs and eating his oreos, not dealing with whatever mass hysteria he was currently going to be stuck in. He ran some thoughts through his head, but couldnt fin anything that made sense. The best was a gas attack, the worst was the moving of a tectonic plate. His lazy eyes fell on the the exit, people already crowded it, pretenses of human civility gone with the panic that had set in.

Dozens of carts screeched and pushed against each other, and kids screamed as parents shouted. He looked at the mess and was annoyed. He would have to wait, at least until the most rowdy epople went through first, before he could have the chance to really leave.He was going to be stuck here for extra minutes, and that didnt count the ammount of people who would have called 911 and tried to get the cops or ambulances, and he would probably be forced to sit around as emergency services came in.

A waste of a night.

He sighed, and saw that the red haired man was next to him, talking. He tuned back into reality again, not wanting to piss off another person like he had in the past.

"-ey man, are you alright?", The crimson haired clerk spoke in his raspy voice, the upbeat, customer service voice replaced with some actual concern it seemed. He raised his head, and nodded at the man, his eyes falling on the name tag for the first time.

"If it was a gas attack, they chose a dog shit gas to use",Xavier grumbled, finally looking the man in the face, his green eyes seemingly full of life in comparison to his own brown. His name tag read George L.

"Yeah, man... man I really need to get a different job," George said, his eyes finally falling on the still trailing mob that was leaving the building post haste.

"Mmhm", Xavier responded, eyes now focused on the trail of people, the initial panic had left, but they were still rushing and get into each others way. It seemed to be human anture that they would have trouble doing anything in an orderly fashion.

As soon as the thought was finished, his knees buckled, a sudden increase in weight almost forced him to his knees, but his larger body was used ot not falling, and he was able to force himself back up.

"What the fuck-", He was interrupted, the pressure that had came felt real, an outside force that was trying to get his attention.

"Greetings denizens of Earth, Terra, or Planet 3"

Like thunder the voice descended, invading and unavoidable, the sound not echoing in the now deathly silent building, instead coming from inside, like someone had jammed ear buds into your brain. It was loud, captivating, and elegant, all at once. People fell again, some decided to stay on the ground, and others recovered again, but unlike the nausa, the pressure wasnt a one off, and instead was constant.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Something is here

"This is a prerecorded message to help you survive your coming days."

George grabbed onto Xaviers shoulder. Shocked with the contact, he looked at the clerk to see his knees wobble violently, his older physique was struggling with the weight he guessed, he himself was having a hard time standing up straight, but it didn't flatten him.

The voice returned again, placing him back into focus.

"As of now, mana has returned to your atmosphere, and with it, many challenges. Much of your local fauna will now be mutated by Ambient mana, and much of the world will change to accommodate your Spires. Do not be afraid of change, because change will happen regardless"

The ones who remained standing gawked upwards at the sky, as if they were hearing the word of god himself. For all he knew, it might as well been. As an Agnostic, he was finding the current predicament particularly uncomfortable.

"Is that god?", And similar statements went around, and he could taste the fear, the manic energy.

"Many of you will not survive your trials, but those who do, we will await you beyond the veil, beyond your world, and beyond existence you are used to."

George toppled, his legs no longer holding him, whether or not it was his mind or his body that fell first, Xavier couldn't tell.

"We of the Coalition of Many World would welcome you to among those who will live"

"Collect, essence, strengthen yourself, and learn, grow, pierce your veil and our open arms await you"

The voice disappeared just as fast as it had showed up. Xaviers numb, normal, and calm demeanor changed.

He shuddered.

The pressure was gone, and he reached down to the fallen older man, his darker skin contrasted Georges paleness. Georges hand was a death grip, the older man having stopped breathing, the shock having frozen him in place. Xavier looked at the people still in the store, everyone had stopped moving, their eyes focused on something else, but the cries of babies cut through the silence.

White, ephemeral words popped into existence, within a black box in front of his vision, the box and words opaque, and almost solid.

..

Xavier Derek Holliday

Mana Color: Yellow

Essence: 0

..

There was nothing else written on the black board, only his name, mana color, and essence count. The white letters startled him, his heart rate picking up naturally. His pupils dilated, and his mind was trying to bluster out questions, only for them to never be answered.

What is essence, Why was it 0, What was Mana color, Why yellow, why where only these things displayed, and not more.

If the voice was to be believed, then was this a natural byproduct of Mana?

Screams, screams broke his delirious focus, he watched as people, instead of leaving, ran BACK into the store. the carts were pushed aside, and he could hear screams from outside the walmart, like a discordant symphony.

Those weren't screams of terror, no.

Those were screams of pain.

Xavier took a step back.

"MONSTERS!!!!!"

"HELP!!!"

"DEMONS!!!"

Monsters spawns had already started?

It was too early in the game for monster spawns, he had just gotten his basic status screen. The difficulty curve seemed to be high, evasion and defense would have to be heavy investments if the screams were to be beloved and they weren't some trick to force him to backpedal. People were running away, meaning rather, lots of small mobs, are some larger, mini boss creatures were doing the damage out there. Since the Monster spawn had just started, he was betting on small mobs. Unless the spawn changed with server count, in which case, the other players around him would be detrimental towards any kind of-

Georgess voice carried fear, and broke him out of his delirium.

"Hey man, we got to go, shit sounds bad"

Right, not a game, real life. This was real life. His hands shook, and he stood straight, his usually hunched figure disappearing as he revealed the extra 5 or so inches he usually hid by slouching so aggressively. Real life things, like monsters and Mana. Of course this was real life. Real life things like voices in the sky and 'Essence'. Unless he was actually going insane, then he had to come up with a plan.

"What is your Mana color", He spat out, and looked up again, and saw Georges eyes had changed from the green they were a second ago, to a darker shade of glowing blue. It was surreal, but he quickly recovered, and waited for George to respond.

"Uuhh, ...Blue?"

Xavier pushed his cart to the side, no longer caring about the contents, he walked forward, a new goal in mind, a purpose. He walked about 20 feet and he stopped next to the woman who had checked out before him, her cart having tipped over, and the contents on the floor. Her phone was at her side, and her eyes were unfocused, as she still was in shock.

Xavier knelt down, and look at her closely, and on inspection, realized she was more then likely around 40 years old, the crows feet under her eyes being the only other indication of her age, but she certainly dressed like a 40 year old, with the pink suit, and heels. She look like she was going to run for office.

In a Walmart no less

"Hey miss, Want to come with us?", He asked. It was good luck he wasn't at the doors, because he already had 3 colors in close vicinity of each other. He would prefer to have a full 4 man group, but having 3 could work, and since it was the main colors of the color wheel, he might have a solid group if he could convince her.

"wha- what are you talking about?", she spat, her eyes coming back into focus. She tried to stand, but the voice had done some damage, and she fell back down.

"Its an ambush, and i need a full party, We got yellow and blue", Xavier said. He needed to collect a group, and Fast. He was thinking, and rolling over ideas when he heard another scream from the entrance, closer then the others.

"RUN AWAY!!!"

If this wasn't some instance of mass psychosis, or everyone being affected some test gas, then that would mean that alot of the the outside would be impossible to traverse, as insects, rodents, and pets could all be mutated by Mana, possibly causing disastrous affects, since they all together would outnumber humans, and since Mana more the likely would allow some of them to use magic, or something like it, then going outside would be a bad idea.That was going on the basis that Mana was now an omnipresent object, like air. Since the voice had said 'Ambient Mana' that meant it was more then likely going to be nasty without a good base to hole up in.

If he was right, Essence could be magic related, or a type of currency. Magic currency? Essence and Mana color were both vital enough to be the only things on his status page

His Mana color was yellow, he was unsure of the meaning, but it could have applications or be important to have different Mana colors together. He was making assumptions that the color of mana would affect magic, so in a way, it was a class in his book.

He needed to figure it out early, the screams that came from the door and the running people told him that he would need something other then physical to win a fight on this level, and since he hadn't been given any hints, then collecting a group with each color would allow him to observe and figure out the game.

The red eyed woman stood up, Her vision finally falling onto the entrance.

He looked up again, and found himself not shocked.

Mutated Blood Hound (W), hovered over its head in the phantasmal white letters, the once normal looking dog, presumably a lanky blood hound, had grown malignant pustules of glowing Grey and White mass. The pustules didn't seem to slow it down, but I sure did make it horrid to look at.

It' mouth hung open, rows of teeth, akin to a sharks lined the digestive cavity. Red blood had splattered its side, but its gait was different, unnatural from the normal walk of a dog. Behind it, a carbon copy of the grotesque creature ran through the door and rushed into the store, chasing after the retreating.

Xavier stood up, The newest arrival confirmed his suspicion. 'Small mobs'.

The door way was splattered with all kinds of liquids, but currently blood dripped onto the floors, as more, perfect copies of the original mutated blood hound dashed into the building, the throats of those who were still in shock were quickly torn out. Bursting through the abandoned carts, roughly 10 to 20 of the creatures sped after the. Ones who tried to retreat back inside.

A hound turned its head, and its eyes, no longer filled with lofe, but instead were just solid white orbs of hatred, fell on Xavier, George, and the pink suited woman. It bounded foward, with zero hesitation at full speed. It had designated them as prey

Running would be pointless, the speed of a dog naturally faster then most humans, and not accounting for any changes because of their mutant status.

That didnt stop the Red eyed woman from scurring away, her heeled feet frantacially clacking against the floors.

"Hey George", Xavier said, His eyes watching the nearing threat.

George turned back around, his first steps to run away interrupted by the larger man's words.

"Help me kill it", Xavier said, a nervous edge creeping into his voice. His hands shook, but not with fear.

Xavier stepped forward, and unlike every other denizen inside the metal jungle called Walmart, he had, only the smallest upwards curve on his lips.

The faintest of smiles.