Clover had half expected to be swarmed by monsters on the short journey to the Safe Zone, but the proverbial horde never came. This close to the Zone, there weren't many monsters.

With a lack of imminent danger, the tense air that had suffocated the group lifted, and in its place, light conversations sprouted up. Clover didn't participate but listened intently in between nervous glances into the darkness. It turned out that most of the group already knew each other. Apparently, they had been holed up in an office building together after working late on some sort of project – Clover didn't pay much attention to the details.

However, he did pay attention to any scant whisper or rumor about the System. From his eavesdropping, he slowly gained a more complete picture of how this new version of reality functioned. It turned out that he had actually been quite unlucky – encountering two monsters in such quick succession wasn't common this close to the Safe Zone.

Clover made a wide arc around the corpse of some sort of monstrous animal hybrid. It was hard to tell exactly what it was in the low light. All he could say for certain was that its body was riddled with bullet holes. Just looking at it made his skin crawl.

After a few short minutes of travel, they arrived without any casualties. The Safe Zone encompassed a sizable rectangular building made of brick that valued functionality over looks. There weren't any windows, arches, or any other sort of aesthetic architecture. Undoubtedly, it was one of the ugliest buildings he had ever seen. More importantly, likely through System interference, the whole structure had sunken into the ground a good five feet, making most of its doors inoperable.

Of course, that was just a guess; he didn't have a ruler, and the original architect could have been a colossal weirdo who designed it that way. It was possible!

"It was supposed to be a ceramics factory, but it never got a chance to open," a woman said as she led them through a loading bay, the only entrance point and the only break in the building's uniform rectangularity. From how she talked, it was clear that she was used to being in charge. Maybe she was some sort of politician. Clover raked his memory but came up blank; he didn't recognize her.

Ultimately, it didn't matter as he found something more interesting to take his thoughts off the thousands of doubts and fears that constantly rattled at the back of his mind.

A blue wall of light descended down from the sky to the concrete, forming a transparent barrier. Clover poked at it. His finger crossed through the barrier like it wasn't there, but if the rumors he had overheard were to be trusted, it should stop any monsters from entering.

He continued forward, and once he had entirely crossed the barrier, a blue screen appeared with an electronic ding.

He noted that the System seemed to really like blue. Maybe it was its favorite color.

Temporary Safe Zone

Rest away from the dangerous eyes of the night. While within the Safe Zone, Monsters will not take offensive action unless attacked first.

Time Remaining: 164: 49: 51

Clover did the math in his head. According to the timer, the Safe Zone would expire in a week. Which lined up with when the System claimed the first phase of its integration would end. He tapped his fingers against his wheelchair.

He had to get stronger before then.

As the last straggler entered, a stressed-out pair of office workers turned guards promptly closed and locked the loading door. Which slightly confused Clover. There wasn't any point in closing the door while the System barrier was still operational, but nonetheless, the action seemed to soothe them.

The atmosphere inside was tense. A large crowd gathered around a man who tinkered with an old radio, periodically adjusting it to reduce static, as they listened to some sort of government announcement. Clover was too far away to hear the details. Past that, most kept to themselves, not daring to talk too loudly and anxiously eyeing those who came too close. Of course, smaller sub-groups of people who already knew each other had formed.

"Welcome to the factory," the same official-sounding woman said over the gentle hum of a generator. "Follow me if you need medical attention. Otherwise, do whatever. Just don't do anything stupid. Or anything that would attract outside attention."

Most of the group went their own ways. Clover and a few others followed the woman, passing half-assembled factory equipment and raw ceramics materials.

Clover paused, not believing his luck. To his left was a large pallet of clay.

After a moment of internal deliberation, he clumsily snatched a chunk of clay and deposited it in his lap. His amateur thievery made him feel strangely guilty like the police were about to burst out of nowhere and arrest him for his crime. But as he glanced around with tense shoulders, he realized no one was paying attention to him. He relaxed slightly and caught up to the group. Besides, it wasn't like anyone else had a use for raw clay anymore.

The situation made Clover suspicious. What were the odds of him stumbling upon precisely what he needed to grind [Sculpting]? It couldn't have just been luck.

Idly, he wondered if the type of Skill Stone a monster dropped depended on where it spawned.

It wasn't an impossible idea. Clover could envision a world where the Bone Rat originated from around the factory and made its way to the hospital - they weren't that far apart. Though, he couldn't be sure - a sample size of one wouldn't prove anything, but if it was true…

Clover shelved the theory as he arrived at a makeshift medical area. Sheets were hung up, giving a rudimentary sense of privacy, and basic medical supplies were scattered across a table.

"Wait here, and we'll get to you," she glanced at the ever-growing line of injured. "Eventually. Sorry."

The remainder of the group dispersed, and Clover found himself an unused corner to wait in, a nervous energy refusing to leave him. He ignored it and then cracked his knuckles; it was time to grind. He had Skill Points to farm.

No matter how strange it was, he would do what he had to in order to survive.

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For his first creation, Clover decided to start with something simple. He attempted to shape the clay into an elongated oval. However, he struggled to make the material do what he wanted. It was a weird sensation. Intellectually, he knew what to do; he just couldn't put it into practice. His hands were clumsy, and his sense of proportion was worse. All four of the misshapen legs of his creation ended up a different size.

After twenty minutes, he finished the palm-sized sculpture and was rewarded with a Skill Point.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 1. +1 Skill Points.

Immediately, his hands felt different. It was a small change - they felt denser and yet simultaneously more dexterous.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Clover hovered a hand above the chunk of clay, mimicking the sculptor he had observed in the Skill Stone. He closed his eyes.

A slight wind blew across his hair.

"Clover." He opened his eyes, trying to act casually. "What in the world is that supposed to be?" an older Asian woman asked. She had a worn-out name tag on her left shoulder, and she carried a roll of bandages in her hands. He didn't bother glancing at her name tag; he already knew her from the hospital, though he never had taken the time to learn her exact job title – something leadership-related, he assumed.

"A dog." Clover looked down at his sculpture. He thought it looked cute, in its own bug-eyed sort of way. But, that opinion was quickly crumbling as she scrunched her eyes up, and her forehead wrinkled while searching for any resemblance. With that sort of reaction, his physical wounds wouldn't be the only thing that needed bandaging.

"Oh, that's nice," Lin said as politely as possible and began to treat his injuries. Her words were like daggers, and he had to stop himself from physically recoiling in pain. He never wanted to show anyone one of his sculptures ever again. They didn't understand his genius.

Clover crumbled his abstract and genius creation into a ball, destroying any evidence of it ever existing.

After fussing over his injuries the appropriate amount, she retrieved a crumpled piece of paper that had lines of questions scribbled over it. "While you were out there, did you see any Deep Ants," she said with more passion than when she talked about medical subjects.

Clover shook his head.

“What about Bone Rats? You came from the hospital, right, so you should have seen at least one.”

“I encountered one. Why?”

"I'm interviewing all my patients to learn more about the System." She shrugged. "It could be useful."

Clover rambled on for a few minutes, sharing what he had learned. She wasn't very surprised when he detailed his encounter with the Bone Rat. Apparently, they were a somewhat common enemy to encounter that tentatively increased in number the further west someone traveled into the city. However, she mentioned that the tenacity with which it had chased him was definitely unusual.

When he recounted his encounter with the magical tree, she was surprised. It turned out that no one else had encountered an enemy like that yet.

Lin freely shared what she had learned. Some of it was based on rumors. For example, one of her patients had told her that a gang of giant spiders were constructing a massive web between two downtown buildings. And another had claimed that the central bank had been taken over by monster ants.

However, some of what she shared wasn't based on rumors – with a couple inputs, she showed him how to force the System to display his Health, Stamina, and Mana as colorful bars in the upper left-hand corner of his vision. Clover felt like an idiot for not realizing something like that was possible.

In terms of value, he wasn't sure how much a HP gauge provided. Like, if he was dying, he would probably know, but he figured it could be helpful for more accurate measurements of his other resources, such as Mana and Stamina, so, in the end, he didn't remove the bar. Besides, it didn't impede him in the way he thought it would; when he wasn't focused on it, the popup would fade into the background.

“Do you know anything about the Affinity section of the Status Screen?” Clover asked as she wrapped a bandage around his head

"Now that I don't know much about. I'm not entirely sure what an Affinity is or how to gain one, but I do know that in rare cases, some people started off with one."

“Who?”

"That's confidential." She smiled.

They talked, passionately sharing rumors and theories about the System till she finished working.

“Thanks for the help,” Clover said. There were one too many white bandages wrapped around him for him to look respectable.

Lin waved him off. "Don't look at me like I'm some saint. I get Skill Levels for patching you up. Not everyone here is a selfless idiot," she said. He had a feeling she was referring to someone specific. She sighed. "I don't know if I'll be here in the future, but if I am, ask for me, and I'll patch you up."

Clover said his goodbyes then departed, off to find another hidden corner of the factory to work in. After a bit of searching, he found a mostly isolated location. However, a loud confrontation drew his attention across the factory before he could restart his work.

Two men argued loudly, screaming at each other. Their words didn't make much sense to Clover without hearing the start of the argument. One pushed the other, and a second later, a sloppy punch was thrown, dealing no real damage.

The commotion intensified as the crowd gathered around to watch surged forward to separate the two.

Clover looked down at the clay in his hands and did his best to ignore the screaming, restarting his Skill Point Grind in short order.

After the disaster that had been his first creation, he was determined to do better the second time around. To start, he took the time to mentally create a vague outline of what the finished sculpture would look like.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, then shifted the material in his hands, beginning the process of making a second clay dog. He lost track of time while working, and the outside world faded away. He diligently took care to even out all the large lumps on the sculpture's exterior and even measured it so that the legs would all come out to be roughly the same size.

His fingers were cramped and sore when he finished, but he was rewarded with his best sculpture yet.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 2. +1 Skill Point.

Clover wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. [Sculpting] was more tiring than he had expected. It seemed to drain more energy from him than just the physical actions required. He glanced at the bars hanging in the top left of his vision. His Stamina had decreased significantly – by more than ten points. Interesting – he shelved the information for later.

Clover placed the sculpture on his lap and craned his neck, viewing it from different angles. His eyebrow twitched. Now that he was done and able to look at it from different angles and perspectives, the sculpture definitely could have looked better. It looked vaguely okay, only if he looked at the dog from the front. He sighed.

Still, he forced himself to be positive; with another Level came more improvement, and he was one step closer to completing the Path.

If he kept at it, his sculptures would eventually look decent. Not that their looks were overly important in the grand scheme of things. He wasn't setting out to become a master sculptor – he was just using [Sculpting] to grind Skill Points.

Despite his increased experience, his third sculpture was the most disastrous yet. It started well, but the statue began to sag and droop before long. Still, he finished for completion's sake, surprising himself with how fast he could work now that he had a few Levels under his belt.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 3. +1 Skill Points.

Slight changes continued to accumulate in his hands.

Sometimes, it felt like the clay moved in ways it shouldn't have, that it parted and folded under his touch too easily, and it stayed in positions that should have been impossible for half a second too long. At others, it felt like his hands were being guided by an invisible force, lightly pulling him in the right direction.

Clover coughed. At this point, the fatigue of the day, well, night's events, began to set in. He hadn't pushed himself this hard in a long time, and if it wasn't for the five points he had put into Vitality earlier, he would have most likely passed out by now.

He rubbed his chest. The pain wasn't as bad as usual; he could push through it. If there was anything he was good at, it was ignoring pain.

In a way, he enjoyed the challenge. Grinding for Skill Points filled him with a sense of satisfaction that had been lacking from his life in the past. With a slight smile that was only halfway forced, he resolved to make another dog statue, even though his hands were dead tired, and a cold ache stabbed at his brain.

He worked and worked, losing track of time in a blur as he curiously observed the strange and subtle abilities [Sculpting] gave him. Just as he felt he was gaining a foothold in his understanding of the Skill, he blinked.

He had finished the sculpture. And this time, to his almost surprise, it wasn't bad. He'd go so far as to say that it would be praised in an introductory art class.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 4. +1 Skill Points.

"What's that supposed to be?" a bearded man with intense dark eyes asked.

Clover flinched, not immediately answering.

Dried blood hid beneath the stranger's nails.