Shortly after I defeated my fifth zombie with another Claw Slash and bite combo, I received a pleasant surprise.

Level Up!

You are now Level 1

5 stat points available

XP to next level: 1,500

I paused, quickly scanned the horizon to verify no other enemies were nearby to surprise me, then pulled up my interface.

-Class Skills-

Skill 1: Claw Slash 1 (8%)

-Stats-

Power: 6 (+2)

Speed: 5

Agility: 4

Presence: 5 (+2)

Mind: 5

Points Available: 5

While I’d forgotten to check my skill progression before, it did seem to be increasing independently from received experience.

It was now at 8%, which made me think it was gaining about 2% every time I used the skill. I’d used it four times, counting this latest zombie.

It made me wonder though—did the skill only increase when facing an enemy, or could I raise it simply by calling on the skill enough times?

I tested it out, using Claw Slash on the air. As the cooldown ticked away the seconds, I watched the various dots slowly draw closer. None were too near my current position. It did seem as though several of them were now standing around where I killed the first zombie. It might be better to retrace my steps and clear them out before they grew too numerous.

On the way back my cooldown refreshed, so I utilized Claw Slash again. This time when I checked my interface, the class skill had gone up to 9%. So, it seemed practicing it still yielded results, just at a much slower rate.

By now I’d made it back to the intersection. I padded along to where the dots were beginning to cluster and peeked around the corner. Five zombies were standing around, moaning and shuffling in random circles. None of them appeared to notice me.

I ducked back, then sat on my haunches to wait for my skill to cooldown again. While I did, I studied the stats section of my interface a bit closer.

According to it, I had five points available, but I wasn’t certain what that meant. There had to be a way to apply them, but how? Also, I still didn’t know what any of them even did.

A message appeared beside my interface.

Would you like to view a tutorial on CGI generated stats?

I quickly accepted, and my vision filled with text.

Whoopsie! Seems like I forgot to give you the rundown on what your stats represent earlier. Luckily, those egghead engineers were able to slip a new tutorial in for when you reached your first level. So... I guess congratulations are in order? Woo, come back to me when you reach my level—not that you ever will!

Your most important stat is Power. It’s a mixture of strength and endurance, how hard you can punch and how well you can take a punch, that sort of thing. Speed is exactly what it sounds like, how fast you can move or complete a task, regardless of how sloppy the end result might be. Agility is not only a measure of reflexes, but also coordination and how well you can evade and balance.

Presence is a bit of an odd one. It measures your force of will and how well you can exert that will upon others. While the system will attempt to aid the user in any influence attempts, you’ll likely find this stat is far more relevant when interacting with system-generated entities than with other users. Just consider yourself warned before you try and blunder your way into some curvy co-ed’s pants.

Lastly, Mind is less a measure of intelligence, and more how your brain reacts to inputs, both physical and those via your interface. A higher mind will both enhance the strength of your abilities and make for a more streamlined experience while using the system.

There you go! Now go spend those new points and enjoy everything your anthronite body has to offer!

Alright, that at least explained a few things, though I wasn’t entirely sure what a co-ed was.

While I puzzled over this, another message appeared.

Would you like to view a tutorial on applying stat points?

Wagging my tail in gratitude, I mentally accepted.

WELL TOO BAD! I told you to figure this stuff out on your own. Trial by fire, baby! Trial. By. FIRE!!!

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

<*Sigh*... Logging a system request to update this with an ACTUAL tutorial...>

My tail slowed. That’s... huh. I was really starting to dislike this Craig person. Although I suppose their lesson on using cores had saved my life, so I couldn’t be too bitter if this one was less than helpful.

Luckily, it didn’t take too much effort to figure it out on my own. Like everything else with the interface, all I had to do was concentrate on what I wanted to accomplish and the system did the rest. If I looked at any one stat long enough, the interface asked if I wanted to apply points, and how many. Simple as that.

A few minutes later, I’d dropped four points into Power, raising it to 10, and the last point into Agility, so that it was 5 along with my other stats. Seemed a good place to start.

Though part of me wondered if I shouldn’t have just put all of them into Power, since that’s what seemed to be giving my Claw Slash its edge. A little extra crunch when biting down on zombie heads couldn’t hurt, either.

Well, what’s done is done. Time to see if the increases actually made a noticeable difference. Especially since my Power had now reached the ‘human average’, as the system put it.

There were five zombies waiting near the container full of Korean snacks. As I stood watching, another stumbled around the far corner and joined the pack meandering about looking for me. That made the sixth and final I would need to finish the quest.

I started forward, only to hesitate.

Just like with the two zombies before, these monsters seemed to naturally clump together. I wasn’t sure if that was intentional or not, but it made the idea of a direct assault against them a daunting prospect. Sure, I could lead them on a slow chase, baiting out one at a time as my Claw Slash refreshed, but all it would take was one mistake and the entire pack would be on me. Besides, I might not have time before the quest ran out.

Maybe there was a better way than constantly going for the head. I took a moment to watch the zombies’ slow movements, then struck.

Dashing forward, I kept close to the shipping containers. The zombies saw me once I was about thirty feet away and all turned in my direction, but I just kept loping forward.

There was one near the edge of the group that I aimed for. As I dashed past, I activated claw slash. It was difficult, since my forelegs didn’t really want to bend in the direction I needed. I ended up slowing so I could rear up on my hind legs, bringing my claws down on the zombie’s kneecaps.

I barely made contact, but that was enough. My claws shot out, severing the monster from the bottom half of his legs. With a dull moan, it toppled over.

Right on top of me. I yelped and squirmed away, but not before the foul monster managed to nip me once or twice. Then I dashed away, through the others and on to safety.

I paused a good twenty feet away, panting heavily. Okay, low attacks didn’t work. I was better off aiming for the upper body with my claws, which was easy enough to do with a flying leap, but still left me exposed to attack by any other nearby monsters.

The only silver lining to that last encounter was that I could definitely confirm the increased Power was making a difference. The bites I’d received didn’t hurt nearly as bad, nor were they bleeding so profusely. A single common core later and I was back in fighting shape.

While I recovered, the zombies moaned and shuffled slowly towards me, other than the one I had managed to strike who pulled himself along on his hands, the two stumps of its lower legs just standing where I’d left them.

It would be another fifty seconds or so before Claw Slash was off cooldown. Either I needed to take a slow lap around the containers or think of something else.

And something else I did. Just a short ways behind me were the piles of pallets I had used to torment those awful raccoons. Several of them were stacked higher than the containers themselves, and they were extremely wobbly. My near spill on a much lower pile had proven that.

I made my way over to them and considered my options, ignoring the slow-moving threat coming up the lane.

Yes... it might be tricky, but then again if it didn’t work, I could always go back to my original plan of baiting the zombies out one at a time.

I clambered onto the nearest pile, and from there leapt to the next. This was the pile I’d almost tipped over the first time, and while it wobbled, it felt slightly more stable beneath my paws. I chalked it up to the slight bump in Agility.

From there another two leaps got me up to the top of the nearest shipping container. Down below, the first of the zombies had arrived. Much as I’d hoped, they had no idea what to do with the pallets, and merely stumbled into them in an effort to reach me.

I watched from above, gloating, until I’d gathered the entire crowd, including the half-legged crawler. When that one finally arrived, I moved to the tallest pallet pile.

Even from here it extended a few feet above my head. Giving the pallets a slight nudge with my nose, I watched in satisfaction as it swayed slightly. I nudged it again.

More swaying. I leapt up and pressed my forepaws against it. Suddenly, the whole pile pitched over towards the zombies.

That was the good news. The unfortunate side-effect was that, due to my exuberance in pushing it over, I tumbled along with everything else.

An almighty crash rent the air. Zombie moans and howls mixed with the sound of splintering wood. My vision spun in several rapid circles, finally coming to a stop upside down, where I lay dazedly, my legs splayed against the shipping container that had arrested my tumble.

With a spastic flail of my legs, I managed to right myself again.

Once I did, I almost barked for joy. The zombies all lay in broken heap beneath the pile of wood. Their brittle, atrophied frames had been their undoing. Even a few broken pallets were too much to lift away.

I moved in for the kill. The first zombie was buried up to his neck, and since my skill was still on cooldown, I merely opened my jaws and applied the tried-and-true crunch method of combat. A flashing message listing XP and a common core was my reward.

Leaping atop the wobbling pile, I began laying into the zombies, a bite here, a kick there, until the pile had stilled at last. My vision was full of kill confirmations that I quickly dismissed.

Interesting though, I hadn’t received a notification that the quest was completed. I pulled it up to verify.

Quest update: (1) zombies left

Time remaining: 8 minutes

What? I spun about at the same time the wood pile gave a shudder.

From underneath, an arm stretched out and grabbed my hind leg. I yelped in surprise and tried to kick it away, but only succeeded in pulling the zombie further out of the pile. It was the same one I’d emancipated from its own leg earlier!

The zombie pulled itself close and, before I could react, bit down on my leg. I howled and kicked at the zombie, but something in my leg gave out and I twisted, falling on my side.

Releasing my leg, which now bent at an unnatural angle and was a mass of gray tendons and strips of flesh, the zombie crawled its way up my chest. It sank its head into my belly and bit down into the soft flesh.

A high-pitched whine coursed from my throat. I flailed and kicked, kicked and flailed. I bent my head, jaws snapping at the zombie’s face, but the angle was wrong, and I couldn’t reach. Despair and terror seized at me, driving me into a mindless panic.

In the midst of all of this, my skill came off cooldown.

I didn’t act consciously. At this point, using Claw Slash was becoming as much an instinct as howling at the moon. My skill activated, and as my front paws scrabbled at the zombie tearing into me, claws extended and sliced into its skull like a knife through a rotten melon.

The zombie slumped to the side and lay still.

You have defeated: Zombie (Basic) — Level 1

100 XP and 1 Common Core awarded.

Quest Completed — Here They Come!

Defeat (10) zombies

Reward: 1,000 XP, Yellow Quality Loot Box