Aryan traced his way back to the classroom, conveniently collecting all the spheres from his kills along the way. They met a few people but everyone made their way outside and no one talked. The classroom was empty so, Aryan closed the door barricaded it and went on to promote his level to level 2.
Sid stood protectively over Aryan’s flopping body, as he fiddled with his calculator. A few minutes later, Aryan stood up, satisfied with his transformation. Flexing his muscles, he believed he now had the capabilities of a state level athlete.
‘If only, I had this strength during our recent annual sports festival, I wouldn’t be stuck with silver medal all the time…. Hmmm If I meet Tony later, I shouldn’t shy away from a fight(smiles)’
His body remained the same but his muscles grew more defined. Aryan was most elated by his abs. God knows how long he had been training to get 6 of them, but between university, assignments and personal commitments, his training always took a back seat and hence he ended up with 4 abs while the 5th and 6th were barely visible. Now he could see all 6 abs clearly while the 7th and 8th abs were taking shape.
‘Is this what I’ve been waiting for? A chance to rise up the social ladder without using money and connections? With these powers, would she accept me?...forgive me?’
“Damn Bruv, care to share your secret? Now I’m starting to regret choosing my card” Sid sighed regretfully as he stared at Aryan’s naked torso.
“If your card did have 4 stars, then it must be worth something. Also, can you stop ogling me? this—
Peter burst in at that moment to see his best friend naked with another dude, to an ‘audience’ of slime monsters. Some moments passed before Peter cleared his throat, “Sorry, I’ll come back later. Say 30 minutes?”
Aryan glared at him, “Get in and close the door. Before I set my minions on you.”
One of the slime monsters waved at Peter.
“Wow, what are these? Did you choose a tamer card? That’s so cool! I bet it had at 1st star ranking like mine. I choose a speedster card, that means, I can run away before the monsters can catch me. Isn’t that cool??”
Aryan put a hand to his face and set his hair back, “Right, I should have known you’d do something like this. So, you’re saying you had only one star?”
Sid pointed at Peter and laughed, “Ha Ha Ha! You thought a single star is better than 4? Even a kid could figure that out.”
Aryan shook his head disapprovingly at Sid, “How are you any better? At least he can take care of himself. Forget it, let’s just head down to a safe place before any powerful monsters appear.”
Sid and Peter saw the below notification at the same time:
{{A speedster has joined the team. Additional effects now in effect.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
1) Every member’s speed [+10%]
2) Chance to dodge a critical hit [5%]}}
Peter exclaimed, "Are you all seeing what I’m seeing?”
Sid scratched his head, “That’s cool, it means that if a player with good card joins our team, we get a buff? But why did nothing show up when Aryan and I were together? Is it because it doesn't recognizes Aryan as a player?”
Aryan frowned, 'Why would I get this ridiculous treatment? No. its too soon to rule out others living under the same plight.'
Aryan smiled as he felt more confident with his 'Team'. Taking the same way down, Aryan and his friends proceeded unhindered until the 2nd floor where they met a slime monster twice the size of the average ones, as if that wasn’t enough, it was surrounded by a bunch of average slime monsters.
Peter groaned, “Oh come on! Really? We were so close to the ground floor too. Should we take different stairs?”
Aryan counted 8 average slime monsters around the large one. After levelling up he could summon up to 6 slime monsters plus the added strength of a top-level athlete, he felt confident enough to defeat the monsters.
“No. We’ll let my minions confront them, while we attack from behind. What do you guys think?”
Sid and peter had wooden clubs (torn off legs from desks and benches) as they carefully followed behind Aryan. Upon contact the minions were able to maintain the line as they engaged the small slime monsters. Aryan’s slimes were able to overpower and push them back, until the large slime began to shoot projectiles at the minions, Disrupting their formation and halting their march.
“Annnd that’s our cue, remember to smash them right in front of him.”
Aryan, Peter and Sid hurled drinking glass at the big slime monster. The glass breaking on impact and embedding small pieces of glass inside its body. The slime monsters could not digest pieces of glass. In fact, they spend time to remove any piece of glass in their body.
Peter discovered this trick, while he was trapped in the boys washroom with a slime monster. Using the glass from the mirror to stun the slime monster, giving him enough time to run away. Aryan then made a trip to the staff rooms and collected every drinking glass he could find.
The big slime monster stopped its attack mid-way and began struggling to remove those tiny glass pieces. While it was rendered temporarily inactive, Aryan, Peter and Sid used the wooden clubs to beat the average slime monsters. Not giving them enough time to digest the clubs while beating them to submission. The minions quickly defeated all the average sized slime monsters and began attacking the big one. Given that it was already injured by the initial hail of glass, it was soon destroyed.
Peter and Sid were careful to land the final blow and collect the coins while Aryan collected all the transparent spheres. Sid landed the final blow on the large Slime monster earning him 40 gold coins. Aryan collected a slightly large transparent sphere after carefully searching for some time.
Peter and Sid made their way downstairs, as Aryan found himself alone, ankle deep in Slime monster corpse. Some of the liquid was stuck on his shoes and clothes.
“I know we were under attack…but was it necessary for us to kill them?”
Aryan didn’t know. he should feel elated at his increasing strength. But he couldn’t get over the fact that, the rules were breaking, if it wasn’t completely ignored already. Aryan shivered at the consequence of living in a lawless world.
‘Now it’s killing monsters to protect ourselves, what’s next…humans? It has been more than 3 hours now…yet I don’t hear a single siren. Are the police late like always? Or are they busy with more pressing issues?’
Aryan looked out the window, towards the town. It was silent, eerily so, as if everything was normal. Staring at the scenery, Aryan felt like he was looking at a background set in a movie production studio.