After awkwardly apologising to the stunned woman multiple times, first for hogging the bathroom and second for scaring her merely due to who he was, Leon walked back to the office. Most people were still asleep. Last night had been long for everyone, but that didn’t seem to stop some early risers.

Then again, who was to say they slept at all?

Once he made it back, Leon opened his status to see if anything else had changed. His eyes skimmed over the interface a few times only to realise that something had changed. Not only had his stage updated, but he’d also gained a new section to display his two new titles.

Status

Name: Leon Hartwell

Stage: Early Foundation Forging

Race: [Mortal] Human

Level: 1

Titles: Prodigy, First Step.

Mind: 2.05

Body: 2.46

Spirit: 1.08

For some reason, the numbers on his stats were definitely wrong. Leon’s Spirit attribute had been very close to a single point, and yet the five percent boost had added nearly twice that amount.

After doing the maths with a calculator left on the boss’ desk, Leon confirmed that none of the numbers were adding up. Either hidden multipliers were working in the background, or he had guessed incorrectly as to what the percentage amplifiers were doing to him.

Thinking it over until his friends started waking up, the only conclusion he could come up with was that he was naturally improving. Just like someone going for a jog or lifting weights, his body was adapting to stimuli and repairing itself to better cope with the stress put upon it. His only evidence was the original value of his Spirit attribute.

When Leon first gained access to his status, he’d already saturated his spirit with aura before sleeping for around half an hour. In that time, the value of his Spirit had most likely increased from the baseline value of one. But of course, while he couldn’t exactly prove that, it made sense with what he currently knew.

Once everyone had eaten their fill and showered, they all stood behind Leon while he looked over his status. All of the notifications and System elements were usually invisible, but he could make them appear for everyone else if he wanted, even blurring certain parts like his full name or stage.

“It’s just like a game,” Marcus said, his eyes darting around. “Name, race, and stage. It even lists your stats.”

Olivia hummed. “It’s obvious what Mind and Body represent, but Spirit is a bit more confusing in my opinion.”

“Strange that it gives a numerical value for something as multifaceted as your body. Why doesn’t it list things like speed or strength?”

“I think that the stats are multipliers. Whatever changes are going on, it’s indiscriminate. Everything is being enhanced in each of those three areas.”

“Does it say anything about mana?” Mila wondered aloud, her head resting on Leon’s shoulder while she hugged him from behind. “Er, what did you call it last night? Qi?”

Leon could barely keep his smile hidden. Mila’s father was Irish, the most obvious reason why she had red hair and freckles. And while there wasn’t much of a resemblance, her mother’s side was actually of Chinese descent. Olivia knew about Mila’s ancestry since they grew up on the same street. Hell, Mila’s grandmother lived in their converted garage from before she was born, the woman even babysitting the two of them so that their parents could go out and relax a few nights a month.

That was also why Mila kept her more… unique interests a secret. She’d recommended that Olivia read a sappy translated romance novel about some street sweeper who was secretly a prince, but instead of loving it, Olivia began to tease Mila for months. She’d even learned a bit of Mandarin and gave her a nickname, the phrase so embarrassing that she resolutely refused to share it with him in case he dared to use it.

And since Cultivation novels were her guilty pleasure, she obviously chose to keep that interest of hers a secret lest she be teased again.

“No,” Leon said, kissing her arm. “It seems that my Qi isn’t quantified like in a game. I’m not sure why, but there’s probably an explanation behind everything here.”

Olivia clicked her tongue. “You said before that the two changes were separate. What was it again? You saturated your spirit with aura and gained access to Qi, then ignited your life essence and levelled up after killing the demon?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly right.”

“I wonder what happens if you only level up but don’t advance your stage?” Marcus asked. “You think you’ll get some special rewards for disobeying?”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “I sincerely doubt it. The screen is guiding Leon to make certain decisions. Why would it reward him for doing the opposite? Such a boy way to think.”

Mila giggled at that, but Marcus didn’t seem too impressed.

“Can you show us your Qi?” Marcus asked, changing the subject. “I didn’t get a good look at it yesterday.”

“I can try but I’m feeling a bit raw, to be honest.”

“What do you mean?”

Leon explained what happened in the shower, detailing his experiments and the changes that had occurred. It helped to voice his thoughts. Working through them like this was easier than leaving them in his head, and with the occasional question, he even gained a few new ideas.

“How long until you recover?”

“Not sure, but I’m guessing a while. It’s been at least an hour since I used up my Qi and it’s barely refilled. So maybe an entire day or even a week?”

“Did you try to… I don’t know, generate a controlled explosion while you were experimenting?”

Leon just quirked his eyebrow at that, unsure of what he meant.

“Another boy question, asking if he can blow stuff up.”

“Hey, we’re surrounded by hordes of monsters. Sorry for asking if the guy with magical powers can blast them away.”

Leon shrugged. “I haven’t tried yet, but I was thinking about different attacks I could do. Manipulating Qi is not so easy at first. I figure it’s like riding a bike where you have to practice and practice until it becomes second nature. I can also only control big chunks of the stuff at a time, but I’m betting that advancing to the next realm may give me some more tools to work with.”

“So… you can save us if shit hits the fan?”

Everyone stared at Leon with expectation, and he felt his heart flutter. They were relying on him. Despite losing the ability to use his arm, he could still be useful. “Uh, yeah. I could definitely do something if things went bad.”

“Good. When your Qi recovers, we should try to blow a hole through a concrete wall or something epic like-”

Marcus paused as someone knocked on the door. When told to come in, Eric stuck his head in and said hello. He seemed tired. The older man quickly scanned the room, then seeing that he wasn’t interrupting anything, opened the door and walked in.

“Sorry for interrupting,” He said, his tone serious. “We should get moving in a few minutes. I’ve been watching the skies since dawn, and just a few minutes ago a massive flock of birds suddenly took flight. I don’t know what’s going on but this might be our only chance to get into the subway without losing anyone.”

“Do you think they’re nocturnal or something?” Olivia said, her hand under her chin.

“Or maybe they found some interesting prey?”

Everyone went silent for a moment, aware of the only prey they could be hunting.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Marcus cleared his throat. “Does it matter? I don’t know much about animal biology, but I do know that this is the perfect chance for us to get into those tunnels.”

Eric nodded, gesturing for them to get a move on.

Less than five minutes later, everyone was packed up and gathered in the main office. There were over thirty people. A little more than ten were women, most of whom chose to group up together. The only women who didn’t group up with the female doctors were Mila and Olivia, both of them choosing to stay with the people they knew.

Only six people carried rifles, one of them being Marcus. The few pistols they had were handed out between some of the med students who’d been to a shooting range before, but most didn’t have a weapon besides a hunting knife strapped to their belt. Handing a loaded weapon to someone without training would probably be more dangerous than one of them turning into a monster.

Dominic quickly showed everyone the basics of how to use a weapon. Whether it was to keep the pistol strapped into the holster on their waist or make sure the safety was on, he went through everything, even encouraging people to point their guns at the ground and never at another person.

Besides them, a nearly two-metre-tall med student wore a full kit of riot gear that had been on display at the weapon’s store. He even had one of those clear riot shields and a pistol on his waist, making him one scary-looking guy. His name was Redgy and he had graciously volunteered to lead them on their hundred-metre journey to the subway entrance.

When complimented on his bravery, he simply said that he was more than happy to be weighed down since the birds would struggle to carry him away if they came back. Once everyone was ready, Dominic stood up on an office chair and waved for their attention.

“Alright everyone, I need to lay down some ground rules,” He said aloud, making sure to stay quiet. “No shoutin’, no screaming in fear, and if you don’t have anything important to say, shut the fuck up. No whining about how your legs hurt, no asking where we are, and no grunting or groaning. We got no idea what kind of monsters are lurking out there and we have even less information on how they hunt. Silence is key, so keep your safety on and follow your team leaders.”

Dominic paused, waiting for everyone to nod that they understood.

“That’s a good start,” Eric said, interjecting. “Other than that, no one goes off alone. Ever. No separating from the group until we make it underground. And for the love of God, don’t just shoot anything scary you see. Wait until someone gives the order, understood?”

Everyone nodded.

“Excellent. Now, let’s get moving.”

Everyone followed Eric and Dominic into the emergency stairwell. Leon and his group were right behind them while the med students followed up the rear. Once they were at the bottom, they stopped in front of the emergency exit and waited for everyone to group up.

“Alright, the wall of meat here is going to take up the lead,” Dominic said, pointing to Redgy in his riot gear. “When he walks out, the kids are going to follow him out next. After ten seconds, the next group will go until we’re all walking towards the subway. Remember, no talking. Is everything understood?”

No one replied so Dominic took a deep breath and pressed down on the metal release bar. It groaned, clean sunlight pouring into the dark stairwell. Eric winced at the screeching metal. The sound would’ve been unnoticeable before last night, but now that there was an eerie silence in the streets, the noise seemed to linger for an uncomfortably long amount of time.

Dominic pushed the door open an inch to look through. Once he saw it was clear, he tried to push it open all the way. The door only opened halfway until it bumped into something. He pushed hard with his shoulder, but whatever was blocking the door refused to budge.

When Eric stepped up to help, his shoe made a wet slap. He stepped back only to see a pool of blood flowing under the door frame, his shoe leaving a bloody bootprint where he’d stepped. A few questioning stares were exchanged but no one said anything.

Dominic wedged his foot between the frame, slowly forcing the door open enough for Redgy to squeeze through. Marcus followed while Leon was close behind.

“Oh my God,” Redgy whispered, Marcus gagging a moment later.

Once Leon made it through, he wondered if the door had been replaced by a portal leading straight to hell. The emergency exit had been blocked by a pile of corpses. Bodies lined the street, most of them in piles taller than he was. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of bodies. Nearly all of them stacked into small hills of death.

Worst of all, they looked wrong. The people in the corpse piles were like empty juice boxes. Mere bags of bones with their skin loosely wrapped around their skeletons. It was a horrifyingly new sight that dug into Leon’s psyche, yet he could do nothing but temper his breathing.

Unlike the corpse piles, there were random people mushed into the pavement that hadn’t been sucked dry. It was obvious they had been dropped from great heights, but why hadn’t they been consumed like the other bodies? Too damaged? Saving for late-

Leon gagged as a heavy, rotting metallic scent invaded his nostrils. He quickly covered his face with a cloth, but as he took another breath he decided that it didn’t help nearly enough.

While he waited for Olivia to squeeze through, Leon noticed that the street was almost completely dyed red. The black asphalt, the grey concrete sidewalks, and even the patches of grass were soaked in blood. Any divots were transformed into red puddles, the gutters overflowed with blood since a pile of bodies had clogged up the storm drain, and there was a low drone of buzzing as hundreds of flies hovered around the uneaten corpses.

Leon struggled to keep his breakfast down.

Once Olivia was out, Mila pushed through next, both of whom turned pale at the sight. When Dominic made it out, he muttered something along the lines of ‘Christ on a stick’ under his breath. He managed to push one of the bodies out of the way, but the pile was too big to move any of the others, meaning the door would have to stay half open.

Redgy waved for them to follow, guiding them to slowly weave between the corpse piles as they walked down the street. Marcus held a rifle since he had experience. It was pointed at the sky, leaving him and the girls to stick close to him since no one else was given one due to safety reasons. Leon had never shot a gun before, so it made sense that they wouldn’t hand them out to teenagers.

An eternity passed by the time they saw the entrance to the subway at the end of the street. It was slightly raised with a small roof covering the stairwell, which was a small detail, but it meant the stairs and subway would be entirely devoid of blood or remains. It was a calming sight in the ocean of red.

Strangely enough, the corpse piles suddenly stopped at the end of the street. While there was still a lot of blood, all of the bodies seemed to be piled within this hundred-by-twenty-metre stretch of road. Many piles covered entire vehicles that were parked in the street, one of them hiding most of a bus with hundreds of remains.

Leon glanced back at the groups of people behind them. Everyone was in a small group to avoid being wiped out at once. If one group was attacked, then the others could still flee or take the time to fight back since there was a bit of distance. That was the theory at least, but when someone at the back of the line flew straight up into the air, Leon realised how foolish they’d been.