Oh my god what is going on? I screamed, at the sudden semi-transparent pane of text appearing overlaid on my vision, inside my head!
Office workers around me screamed as well, and the general hysteria went through the roof.
This sort of confirmed that I wasn’t the only one whose mind had gone kabloom in a weird Matrix style, Graphical User Interfaces inside my head kind of way.
My rising panic, and some others' full on panic attack was interrupted when we heard a sizzling cracking sound from a meeting room. Screams of pain and panic, ensued from the room, the door flew open, smoke billowed out of the conference room, and Gary from accounting came running out, the left side of his expensive suit burning.
Reflexes kicked in, I grabbed a fire extinguisher and started dousing Gary, who tried to keep running but got snagged in a power cable on the floor, so I did an emergency extinguishing on him, which is generally not recommended, though probably preferable to the alternative of burning alive.
An increase in the intensity of panical screaming and a motion in my peripheral vision caused me to whip my head around and look at the open door to the conference room.
A humanoid 3 feet tall, with dark red leathery skin, bone white horns on its forehead and two wings which were lazily flapping it into my field of view.
One hand, he was nonchalantly playing with a globe of fire.
If the hysteria went through the roof before, it hit the heavens now. Wailing ensued, and most of the confused and dazed inhabitants of the 7'th floor of the TerraFujitsu building ran to the elevators and stairs, trampling each other.
Matt, a big dude from Operations, picked up some ugly corporate logistics award, a Star-shaped prize and hurled it at the creature. It definitely did not expect that. The pointy brass star hit, pointy bit first, right in the creature's face. Coming from an off-angle, it had never seen it coming and never got the chance to dodge.
Knowing this to be a moment of importance, I ran at the creature, while it was distracted.
High on adrenaline, passing by a desk, I grabbed a 12-kilo metal paper shearer, a sort of a metal platform with a machete blade attached to the side.
Reaching the creature, I realized that operating the paper shearer as a bladed weapon would be somewhat impractical as it was firmly attached to a bulky platform. Instead, I threw it at it with all the force I could muster.
The small humanoid went down, and I continued to hammer on the diminutive body, while it flapped its wings weakly and tried to squirm away..
A loud crack came along with the wet twack of the metal paper shearer collapsing the creature's rib cage. It was then I noticed the small fire orb, slowly dying out in its hand.
It might have been moments away from barbecuing me.
Matt raced up to me, grabbed the logistics award, and went at the already dead body. "Easy Matt," I tried to say in a soothing voice, but it came out more like "eki blerg."
The whole while, I had this translucent screen superimposed on my vision.
Greetings Human, The Era of Technology is over. Forces of change sweep over your homeworld. What the new Era will bring is too early to say.
Through forces unknown to you, the world known as Earth and the very universe you occupy has reconnected to countless planes of existence.
Take heed and grow in power using the System; skills, abilities, spells, and much more.
For maleficent extraplanar beings will immediately be drawn to the raw, unrefined potential of this populous world.
The pane dismissed itself after I my mind had absorbed the contents. It was not exactly like reading but more of a direct imprinting of knowledge upon my mind.
A new pane popped after the first one faded.
Choose your class.
Firestalker Imp slain, 254 Experience points gained.
The text scrolled as I read it. This seemed like some of the stuff our in-office geek Terry would always read when he was supposed to work.
The line about choosing class kept blinking as the other text faded. As I mentally focused on it, it expanded.
Choose your class carefully !
Know this - The System does not allow for any second chances, all choices are final.
Classes Available:
* Assassin (Eligible for killing a sentient creature in silence).
* Barbarian (Eligible for killing a sentient creature with a blunt improvised weapon).
* Fire Mage (Eligible for killing a sentient creature from an Elemental Fire Domain)
* Scribe (Eligible for high skill in reading and writing)
* Pirate (Eligible for high skill in pistol and dagger)
* Pit Fighter (Eligible for a high skill in unarmed combat)
Even with my mental resilience training, this was too much, and thankfully it mostly faded from my field of vision, when I stopped focusing on it.
What did this mean? If Earth turns into Middle-Earth or the equivalent, what does that mean for current institutions and objectives, what are the rules of engagement? I had to know more.
"Matt, do you have a message in your head asking you to choose a class as well? I chose, and it was awesome what happened. You should also choose a class" I lied to Matt.
Experiments were to be made after all, and time was short.
Matt looked into blank space for a moment, staring unfocused into the air, then clicked his tongue, and said “done”, but immediately made a surprised jump.
His already big frame started to grow before me, clearly scaring him quite a bit, and there was even a little Hulkesque ripping of clothes as his muscles visibly bulged.
A slight scar at his jaw now had an angry purple color and gave his face a dangerous look.
Matt smiled when looking down at his now ridiculously tight and ripped suit. "Thanks, man ! I'm a Pit Fighter now. That was so awesome, uh it's Ralph, isn't it".
"Yeah, its actually, Mike, but I'm glad to have you on my team, Matt !" I intoned, no reason to get all riled up and insulted at this moment. And him being confused about who I was, was an unwittingly honest compliment to my ability of being a bland boring gray man.
I was about to decide on my class, if this was just a bit like the online MMORPGs I had dabbled in with Terry, then this would be a defining feature of the new me.
Unfortunately, A new screaming person broke my concentration. Cindy stormed in from the corridor screaming, "They are going to kill us. Everyone is going to die".
"Cindy, what is going on where?" I intoned sharply.
"Some great red demon with a giant cock and flaming sword and its hellhounds are going to town on the Social hub on 6'th floor," Cindy sobbed.
Cindy was usually an iron-lady, but this was enough to shake even conditioned and trained people, so I tried to give her a little comfort and see if that was enough for the iron-lady to resurface.
"Okay, Cindy, you are safe here, Matt is now a Pit Fighter, and he just killed one of them with the Tristate Logistics Awards.
Now Cindy, you need to focus and choose a class, if you can get a cleric, healer, or something similar it could mean the difference between life and death. See if you can help Gary, or we will never be able to get the books straight after this”.
Cindy sniffed, looked at Gary’s prone form. A sob came out, then she steeled herself, and her eyes stared into infinity.
That was a big relief, Matt might be a strong dude, but I didn’t know if he was a fighter. Cindy I knew to be a relentless force of nature, and she would do the best she could.
I turned to Matt.
"Okay, Matt, I'm going to see if there are any other left on this floor.
“Stay here together !!"
I intoned the syllables very slowly and forcefully.
I walked towards the corridor but was distracted by a spectacle of light from behind me.
Turning, I saw golden symbols moved in a multi-tiered orbit around Cindy.
She made eyecontact with me, while the circles slowly phased out of existence, "Apparently, my Yoga classes and farm upbringing have made me eligible for Life Adept," she said.
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I nodded at her and went around the corner.
The corridor was as messy as the office. People had discarded the stuff they were carrying, there was even a trampled person lying there. It was Terry, our inhouse geek, who sometimes was successful in dragging me along in his RPG or gaming shenanigans. He was an archetypical longhaired and overweight IT tech. After ensuring that there was indeed a weak pulse, I dragged Terry back to Cindy and Matt. I didn’t have the leisure of treating him with silk gloves and all, if his spinal cord was broken that would be it.
As I dragged him in, I tried to make a bit of humorous banter, while also conveying the seriousness of the situation.
“Second patient is in Cindy. Remember any good you can do is better than nothing."
I left while Cindy sat down in the lotus position. Matt had placed the Logistics award on the floor to fully apply his skills, wrestling with the paper shearer blade with both hands and one knee on the platform, trying to dislodge the blade from the platform.
I ran back down the corridor, hearing snarls and a yell from a room. I barged in. Our punky intern, Alicia, had singed smoking clothing. And was strangling one of the little fuckers with a thick black DisplayPort cable. The little imp had a black and yellow pencil sticking out of one of its eyes to top it off.
They were both distracted by me, but Alicia quickly blurted, "I locked one in the fridge as well. We need to take this one out". While running towards her, I looked at the chest-high refrigerator and the little internal mail cart jammed between the fridge door and wall. It vibrated and cursing could be hear from inside it.
Other people might have been stunned, but finding a natural talent was fantastic luck and too good an opportunity to pass by.
I helped her throttle the imp.
Firestalker Imp assist kill, 127 Experience points gained.
I blinked away, the notification, then looked her in the eye. "You need to select a class. Have you done it?"
She looked back, "I know, but it is a tough choice. I have to choose between Warlock and Assassin, and it seems pretty final". I looked back at her. That seemed like interesting choices, no time to wonder why she had access to those.
"Just choose something! I'm gonna open this on 3. - 1, 2, 3 "I kicked the internal mail cart so it slid away, and the fridge door flew open, smoke billowed out, and a very angry imp emerged.
I was prepared, so as the imp came out, I kicked the door closed, its arm and wing were definitely caught, not sure about the head, but then you could not be lucky all the time.
I kicked the door again, and the arm gave a sickening crunch.
Then I ripped the door open, grabbed the imp by the throat, pivoted on my heel, and slammed it facedown on a flatbed scanner. Hitting the "Scan Now" button, the imp screamed while the bar of light scanned its body, and blisters started to form on its back.
Interesting, I thought.
I pressed the button a few more times while holding the imp still. At the 3rd round of scanning, I got a notification, and the imp ceased its pitiful screaming.
Firestalker Imp slain, 254 Experience points gained.
[New class available]
Alicia looked at me, then shrugged. "I'm gonna pick the Warlock class now," she said.
Purple bands of energy and tendrils of darkness surrounded her and stabbed into her eyes and mouth. It looked like she was inhaling warp dust or some weird shit.
She looked at me, her eyes a crazy swirl of violet and black.
"That looks pretty awesome, but we need to get back to the others now, fast. Cindy told of a larger one of these with a complement of canines on the 6’th floor. We need to face it together or flee together!" I stated while moving into the corridor again, going towards Cindy and Matt.
I should probably get on with my class selection as well, but as I had suspected, the options could be expanded. While running back, I tried thinking about class selection really hard, and a prompt came up:
Choose your class carefully!
Classes Available:
* Assassin (Eligible for killing a sentient creature in silence).
* Barbarian (Eligible for killing a sentient creature with a blunt improvised weapon).
* Fire Mage (Eligible for killing a sentient creature from an Elemental Fire Domain)
* Scribe (Eligible for high skill in reading and writing)
* Paladin (Eligible for killing an evil sentient creature with the power of light)
* Pirate (Eligible for high skill in pistol and dagger)
"That's what I'm talking about," I muttered to myself as I selected Paladin. I was okay with being a melee fighter, but abilities that could heal myself or others, buffs and whatnot, that was the thing I was after as well.
You have Chosen the Paladin class.
+4 Attribute points per level
Spells unlocked:
* Lay on Hands; Heal a living being for 20 health points
* Smite; Infuse a weapon with holy energy, allowing it to strike truer and with additional holy damage.
I smiled while rounding the corner together with Alicia. We apparently surprised Matt, the newly made Pit Fighter, who almost hit us with the Tristate Logistics Award. Fortunately he recognized us before he followed up with the now independently operated machete blade.
Well we were after all, all on our edge.
Terry was sitting upright by his own force and looked a lot better, conscious but still pale.
Cindy looked at me, she had some of her old steel in her eyes back and looked focused, squinting at her, her eyes had a sort of golden hue to them, which hadn’t been there before, well, Life Adept, yoga and farm upbringing, you never know when life throws you a curveball.
Matt suddenly looked at my face with a guilty expression.
"Look, Mike, im sorry I thought you were called Ralph, no offense intended." He said sheepishly.
I waved him off, "none taken, I think we have bigger fish to fry at the moment.”. Turning I put a hand on Terry's soft shoulder, calmly stating, "Terry, you need to choose a class, and then we are gonna get out of here, one way or another."
"But I don't have access to any combat classes. I just have Cook and Scribe," Terry said with desperation in his voice.
"Terry, it’s okay, in that case don't choose, but if you kill one of the flying little imps, you can probably gain access to a combat class.
We have to go now. Everybody, make yourself ready. We are moving out. Terry on your feet."
I calmly but firmly instructed them.
People don't question everything if given specific orders in these situations, so I tried to follow my training and be the person they needed. After all, I needed them.
Alicia surprised us by starting to mutter in guttural syllables, raising her open hand in front of her, and concentrating intensely on it. A small vortex of purple and black energy appeared above her palm.
It was a mote at first, then grew wildly into a basketball-sized sphere. Alicia's frowned hard, focusing her will, and the globe shrank back and stabilized in her hand. She moved her hand up and down and it sort of elastically followed her palm, leaving smoky tendrils behind.
Alicia looked wonderingly at the orb floating above her palm.
"I'm just gonna take a practice shot with this Shadow Orb," she declared. Then promptly shot the shadow orb at high speed towards a conference table in an adjoining room.
The ball impacted the table, and with a violent poof a long black crack appeared across the table, and it snapped in two.
I hadn't been idle—no time for that at the moment. So, looking for an improvised weapon for myself and Terry, I went to Ronnie's desk. Everybody knew he had a problem with alcohol, but nobody mentioned it. These whisky bottles would do for new. I handed one to Terry. "Hit them with it, then stab them in the torso," I said simply.
Using her Life Adept powers, Cindy moved to Matt and me, placed her hands on our chests, and began to chant. Golden rune inscribed ribbons, rotated wildly around her arms as she cast her spell. I thought that this was not exactly a stealthy form of magic that Cindy had gained access to.
Novice Life Aura Level 1 Active
+0.5 % Natural health regeneration
+1 % Effect when receiving beneficial Life Magic
+0.25 % to maximum Health points
I did not really know my stats and assumed that this could become quite powerful down the road and would synergize nicely with my Lay on Hands spell if that was considered Life Magic.
Cindy turned and also cast the aura on Alicia and Terry.
"Okay, let us move out, Matt; you are up with me in front. Cindy and Alicia, do all that you can to keep us alive and enemies dead, and Terry tries to intercept anything that passes by Matt and me.
Our party tiptoed towards the stairwell. The stairwell was a wide open space, with a 2 meter wide stair climbing the sides of the square.
As we neared, we could hear roars and screams.
We needed some kind of edge. Storming down the stairs charging an unknown number of enemies, was not conducive to our survival. I crouched down while holding one fist up. The rest quickly got the idea and squatted down as well.
"Alicia keep looking down the stairwell while you listen," I whispered. She moved around me, and her more petite frame allowed her to keep closer to the wall while still viewing a part of the stairwell.
"Alicia will look for hostiles coming up or down the stairwell. Alicia, withhold your fire until they are at the last set of stairs to our floor, then Matt, Terry, and I should be able to engage them in melee while you follow us down. Now I just need to go to the printer room".
They all looked at me with alarm. "It won't take long. Just stay quiet." I kept in a low silent run dashing 7 meters to the printer room, not taking any chances. Walking to the large LaserMax9000 printer, I hurriedly unplugged its cables.
Suddenly I saw a flash of light on my peripheral vision. Alicia had shot off a shadow orb. With two quick movements from my foot, I had the printer's wheel locks released and started to trundle the big office printer towards the stairwell. I could see Alicia conjuring up a new orb. An Imp form came flying up the stairwell but fell when a shadow orb struck it.
Was that barking I could hear? Hellish barking, and lots of paws clinking fast on the hard stairsteps, oh no. I kicked hard, accelerating the printer, steering it towards the stairwell. While doing so, I bared my teeth and infused the LaserMax9000 with the power of divine retribution, namely my Smite ability.
The whole printer began to glow with a blue aura, and I suddenly felt aching tiredness in my mind. Steeling myself, I ran full speed with the printer first down the stairwell.
The barking increased, and while crashing down, I noticed a pack of 3 headed monster hounds, their paws on fire and wildly baying, bounding in great speed, up the stairs towards me.
Freefall stopped, and gravity hit hard as I came down the first set of stairs, but I kept the momentum going on the printer. The first monster hound suddenly seemed dubious about the Holy office printer it was about to charge into, but feral rage and the fact that there were plenty more hounds ensured that it kept charging.
I screamed at the monsters, and then with a resounding clang, the first dog was smacked to the wall, its side a ruined burned paste, the printer continued. Still screaming with righteous fury, I had the printer firmly grabbed in my hands. I sprinted on the wall and made the printer swing left down the next set of stairs. I was a holy grinder, and these were infidel peppercorns.
As the Holy weapon charged down the stair dragging me along, more monster dogs were ground up. Sure, some of them managed to bite at me, they had three heads after all, but in my holier than thou office rage, I wasn't registering it. Shadow orbs rained down from above striking imps flying in.
Matt roared from behind me, indicating he was keeping up. And I suddenly felt infusing energies as golden runic ribbons danced around me.
Taking the last bend, I made the printer turn again and cried "Onwards" while tripping down the stairs to the bottom floor.
I hadn't noticed the big demon guy until now, which was probably good.
As a good warhorse, I just crashed into him, delivering my weapon. He looked like a larger version of the imp, bending slightly to fit into our Social Hub. Now he was knocked down, with an extreme look of annoyance and some pain.
I took a split second to react, tilting the printer with judicious force down onto his pelvic section. The look of annoyance now became a look of complete pain—the holy weapon damaging the demon's internals and externals.
I had lost the bottle on the way, but I wrenched off a paper tray magazine from the printer and started bludgeoning the beast in his face. It was a bit difficult since his horns were in the way. I heard Matt's roar and saw that he was killing the injured dogs.
Suddenly I was drawn back to the demon, who had managed to raise himself enough to hit me with one of his mighty fists. As I flew through the air, I oddly thought, "this is the end for PETA" while looking at the dogs being mauled by Matt and now also Alicia using Shadow Orbs.
I collided with the wall and lost consciousness.
Dully I awoke, in what seemed moments later, Cindy was standing next to me looking worried, the golden circles spun around her arms. It looked really beautiful I dully thought.
I could see Alicia and Matt squaring off against the demon and not winning.
Matt expertly put himself between the demon and Alicia while she threw Shadow Orbs at it.
When it attacked, he parried and evaded. But the demon was a massive opponent, and given the beating it had already been through, it was clear that it was in another league than the small imps.
Then I saw Terry. With a savage scream, he jumped the distracted demon, hitting it in the temple with the whiskey bottle.
He then proceeded to stab it repeatedly in the thorax and throat region while screaming some World of Warcraft babble.
Matt immediately joined the happy-stabby, and Alicia moved to fire Shadow Orbs at the demon point-blank. It was quickly over, and the demon bits no longer moved.
Lesser Firestalker Demon Warrior assist kill - 1347 Experience points gained.
I couldn't get my breath. Cindy said with a sob, "it's not working. I cannot heal your injuries; they are too severe".
"Wow, dude, I can become a Demon Hunter now," Terry said with a blank look in his eyes, accessing some prompt menu.
Looking back at me and the rest, his goofish grin evaporated as he gained his social bearings and said: "Mike, are you okay?"
I tried to say something. Then I tried to think something. Both didn't go that well.
You have become eligible to use "Office printers" as Holy Avengers.
You have gained the skill "Titan weaponry."
I slowly felt myself fade away while reading that. Terry, for some reason, was blindfolding himself with a piece of cloth and chuckling evilly. The fucking dude had utterly no respect for me bleeding my guts out here. Argh the pain
You have died.
Wait, I'm still reading, I thought weakly.