I’m an idiot, I’m an idiot, I’m a massive fucking idiot.

Luke watched in horror as at first one, and then all of the [Death Guard] turned to face the house. In that moment of frozen time, he prayed to any god listening that the death guard would just shrug it off, and go back to marching.

He wished Luck was an attribute.

It wasn’t.

Instead, the troop ran towards him. The stubby little dwarves were thankfully quite slow, but the captain and his undead mount were a lot faster. With the game already up, Luke focused his domain sense on the leader to get a better idea of what he was facing.

[Level 16 Dwarven Ghoul - An aetherling that walks the path of the Death Guard Captain. Core Domains: Tyranny, Steel and Bone.]

[Level 9 Undead Grackslau - An aetherling twisted by Bone casting. Core Domains: Bone.]

Based on levels, Luke might have a chance against the grackslau alone, but it was a moot point. Fighting the captain and the rest of his unit would be suicide. With trouble imminent, Luke made the split second decision where to assign his free attribute point.

Until that moment his plan had been to prioritise strength. Hitting things harder was always good, and it was the primary attribute of his [Warhammer]. He had even been planning on doing some weightlifting before and after spending the point to quantify what each point did. However, survival was always going to win out over system theory crafting.

Energy surged through Luke’s muscles as he placed the point in [Agility]. It went against his plan, but his hope was that the boost would help him flee to fight another day. Nate is going to have an aneurysm when he sees my attributes, Luke thought. Whenever they played together online Nathan always played the most broken build possible.

The charging grackslau started off slowly, but rapidly gained momentum like a raging bull. As it tore up the street, the four small tusks on its face elongated and branched out into serrated bone spurs. In a few more seconds it would be upon him, so Luke needed to get a move on.

Leaving through the front door was likely to see him gored on the grackslau’s tusks, but staying in the building wasn’t an option. Fortunately, one thing Luke had noticed from the train was that most of the apartment blocks had overgrown rooftop gardens. He should be able to escape up that way.

Luke was on the run when he spent his free attribute point into [Agility], so felt the difference immediately. Legs pumping, Luke flew up the stairs. He was hampered a little by having to carry his shield, but he stubbornly refused to leave it behind.

At the top, a hatch and ladder lead to the roof. Luke had to waste a few precious seconds fighting the rusty latch, but once the bolt pulled back, he was on the roof.

Down on the streets, Luke saw the ghoul captain had dismounted and was waiting for its fellow guards before entering the building. He whispered a prayer of thanks to Gaia, though immediately felt weird for doing so.

The delay gave Luke a welcome reprieve. Though the infantry dwarves ran slowly, they had tricks of their own. A wave of stone surged from the ground and pushed them forwards like they were surfing the street. It was as ludicrous as it was unnerving.

Stepping back from the blocky stone railings Luke glanced around the rooftop garden. Red and purple moss covered the soil, and a pair of giant white mushrooms stood as tall as trees at two corners of the roof. A pleasant mustiness, akin to a damp cave filled the air. It was oddly refreshing. The gap to the nearest building was about a fifteen foot jump. Despite feeling fairly confident that he could easily jump that distance, Luke hesitated. Less than a day ago such a leap would have terrified him.

When the dwarves below smashed open the door Luke swallowed his fear, and backed up a few steps. He put his hammer in his tool belt and was trying to figure out where to stow his shield, when he offhandedly checked his storage space and found it empty. Someone had bought his whip, so he put his shield in the space instead. There was a feeling of resistance, but after a moment the shield popped inside.

[Mycelial Door Shield - Basic (Mortal) - A shield with a weak Rot domain.]

There was no time to process the uncharacteristically snarky system message as Luke heard metal boots pounding up the stairs. He ran forward and threw himself into the air. Don’t look down, he thought, right before he did exactly that.

His stomach dropped, but he had landed gracefully on the next roof before he could overreact. He cleared the jump by a large margin, which gave him the confidence to keep running at full speed through the next garden. The soil underfoot was warm, as if heated from below.

Plants crushed underfoot when Luke landed on the third roof. Fungi dominated the garden, and Luke felt a lingering presence of rot. It pressed in on what he was starting to recognise as his own aura.

Sound from behind drew Luke’s attention.

The dwarves had reached the rooftops. Instead of jumping across as he had, they used their earth manipulation to create bridges of stone between the buildings. The ghoul captain and his undead mount followed from the streets below.

Focused on the ghouls below and behind, Luke almost ran headfirst into a fungal mound. It had moved. Spiny tendrils reached out to grab at his ankles as the air filled with purple spores.

Luke choked on the noxious fumes that smelled like spoiled meat left in the sun. Though the tendrils burned his flesh, Luke could tear them off himself with little effort. With irritation, he probed his mental senses at the creature.

[Level 4 Shambling Rot - A fungus that has been infused with Rot. Core Domains: Rot and Undeath.]

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Luke felt confident he could best the shambler in a fight with little difficulty, but had to disengage. With a dozen deadly dwarves on his tail, he didn’t have time to stop and chat. There were quite a few shamblers on the rooftops, but they were easy enough to avoid. Much to Luke’s annoyance, the monsters didn’t make any move to trip or attack the pursuing ghouls.

Racing over the rooftops Luke was fast enough to grow a steady lead over the infantry, despite various obstacles. As well as the shamblers, he got scratched to pieces by a garden entirely overtaken by brambles, as well as several buildings that were a bit too far apart.

The extra point in [Agility] came in clutch for these more challenging jumps, as Luke grabbed onto the side of buildings to haul himself up with a newfound nimble dexterity. The initial burst of speed died down a little after the first few roofs, even as he pushed his muscles as hard as he could. It was like allocating the point allowed him to briefly push beyond his limits.

All good things inevitably come to an end, and the last vestiges of his level up energy ran out just as he ran out of rooftops. Below him the street merged with the main road leading deeper into the city. With nowhere else to go Luke made a desperate leap for one of the glowing streetlights.

A loud crunch filled the streets below. Luke wasn’t sure if it was his ribs breaking or the streetlight itself that gave way as he crashed into it with his impressive bulk. Regardless, he was going to have an enormous bruise in the morning.

If I live that long, he groaned.

On the worn cobblestones of the main road the ghoul captain was waiting for him. To create an opening, Luke lobbed his brown handbag like a bola at the waiting undead.

When it hit the grackslau’s tusks it split open and a shower of heavy rocks hit the beast in the face. The grackslau flinched, and it took the captain a few seconds to get it under control. That was all the breathing room Luke was going to get.

When he landed, Luke rolled, pulled out his hammer, and swung at the grackslau’s legs with a sledgehammer blow. Instead of breaking the knee as expected, the hammer reverberated in his hand as it struck unyielding bones that covered the beast like armour. Only a small crack was visible.

Razor sharp tusks came close to impaling Luke, but his shield caught the attack just in time to prevent himself being gored. He had begun forming it from his storage as he dropped down, and the timing was fortuitous. The grackslau struck him hard enough that Luke lost his grip on the awkwardly shaped door handle and dropped the shield.

A moment later Luke found himself attacked from an unexpected direction: his mind. Raw terror flooded his consciousness. For a moment, Luke’s only thought was that he must submit to the ghoul in front of him.

He dropped to his knees.

The captain trotted forwards on his grackslau and casually kicked Luke onto his back. Luke felt like a truck had hit him as he struck the floor hard.

The ghoul let out a rasp, and it took Luke a second to realise it was laughing at him. His mind went back to the moment right before he broke Ryan’s nose.

That shut him up.

Still pressed to the floor by the captain’s domain, Luke’s thoughts went back further. He recalled the time he got suspended right before his final exams. Roy Mckinley had gifted Luke with a school bag full of whipped cream, so he had given Roy a black eye in return.

You’re just a fucking bully.

Desperate rage battered away the oppressive aura long enough for Luke to look up. The grackslau watched him with bloodshot eyes, and the captain was drawing back a large spiked maul. The ghoul was still laughing.

Fuck you.

[+1 Will Cultivated]

Jerking to his feet, Luke caught the ghoul and grackslau off guard. He hit the beast with his hammer. It might not be as impressive as the maul, but he hit the beast hard enough to crack its skull open. He didn’t kill it, but managed to momentarily daze it.

Luke grabbed his shield and rolled forward onto his feet at a sprint. A few seconds later he looked behind him just in time to see dozens of bone spikes grow out of the ghoul’s armour, exploding outwards.

He brought his shield up just in time to catch a shard flying at his face. Though he was at the edge of the blast he was still thrown to the floor by the force of the attack.

[Concept gained: Bulwark - Copper rank awarded for successfully blocking a fatal blow. +2 Endurance. You shall not pass.]

A series of thuds on the cobblestones behind him told Luke his time had run out as the rest of the ghouls arrived. As he rushed back to his feet, he saw that even the grackslau had recovered from his attack. The armoured monster had bone spikes sticking out of its body, but they didn’t stop it from getting back to its feet.

Certain that he was about to die, Luke thought fast. Spotting an alleyway in the next street he ran for with every shred of power he had in his body.

He was sure it wouldn’t be enough.

Fortunately, instead of pursuing him, the ghouls had something else to deal with: a rampaging grackslau.

The last thing Luke saw as he disappeared into the alley and glanced back was the bony beast bucking and brawling with the dwarves. The captain tried and failed to get it under control, so crushed its spine with a heavy maul attack. Apparently the ghouls had little patience for disobedience.

[You have killed a level 9 Grackslau. Loot generated from aetheric death echo.]

[You have gained enough experience to reach level 6.]

Luke sprinted through the alleyway, then another, and narrowly avoided running out onto a street with a dozen more ghouls marching. Instead, he turned, and ran deeper into the city. He was mindful that with his level up he had a new attribute point available, but kept it in reserve. If needed he would dump it in [Agility] for another speed boost at the first sign of pursuers closing in.

Though the city was sparsely populated, there were enough undead to keep Luke on his toes. It was mostly wandering patrols of ghouls, but there were also a few zombie hordes, troops of skeletal archers and a [Bone Golem] that almost squashed him. The latter wasn’t as large as the shadow giants deeper in the city, but was still the size of a truck.

Luke took to the rooftops again. Up high it was easier to avoid such dangers, but even so he had a few close calls. He accumulated some fresh bruises when a necrotic vine almost knocked him to the streets below.

It took Luke another twenty minutes of running around before he was sure that nothing was chasing him, and he was in the clear. To get out of sight, Luke ducked inside an abandoned building by climbing in through a broken window.

He chose the building because from looking in it appeared to be a workshop of some sort and was in a more industrial district of the city with precious few undead.

There were even signs of resistance, as there were several scorched piles of bones lying beneath a streetlight, and a zombie impaled to a wall with a long metal spear.

Perhaps this was where the city’s defenders made their stand.

Inside the building there was a giant furnace occupying much of the space, with tables and machinery spread about. Luke wasn’t stupid enough to play with the lights this time, nor peek out the window, so instead he sat down against the wall, listening for sounds of anyone approaching.

To help him calm down, Luke opened up the marketplace again. It had been almost two hours since he first opened it so he wasn’t expecting much difference, and indeed it was mostly the same. There was one new item on offer, but it was surprisingly stagnant.

Of the many people who had unlocked it before him, barely any of them were actively using it. He couldn’t be sure if it was because loot drops were rare, or people were hoarding the good stuff.

Whatever the reason [Eve’s Apple] was still listed. It was late in the afternoon, and besides a single chocolate bar Luke had eaten nothing in almost a day.

He was starving.

[Eve’s Apple Purchased]

Luke’s door-shield still occupied his limited storage space, so instead the apple dropped into his waiting hand. It was the best apple Luke ever tasted.

[+1 Intellect Cultivated.]

Damn the forbidden fruit really does taste the sweetest.