Gary and Javier looked up at Travis; when he didn't say anything for a bit, Gary spoke up first.

“We have to put it down; God knows what this fucking thing can do,” Gary said.

Javier agreed, “I'm with Gary on this, boss.”

Travis had also thought it should be put down but wondered if they could get any information out of it first. He bent down just an inch or two, “What happened to you?” he tried asking it.

All it did was move its broken leg so the bent part was straight, but everyone readied their weapons nonetheless. That's when they heard a snap; looking down at its knee, they could see that bone was reattaching.

The process was slow, and the vampire must have noticed this too because it tried to bite into Travis’s leg. Newly formed vampires needed blood daily, and if they didn't get it, they grew weak. In this situation, if it could have gotten a solid mouthful of blood, its leg would have healed at video game speed.

Understanding this on a primal level, the injured monster reached out with its mouth to bite Travis on his leg. The MCs speed and reaction were good enough to get out of the way, luckily for him. No one yet knew how the vampirism spread. He looked at Gary and said, "do it".

Gary was happy to oblige, so he lifted his axe and split the vampire's head with it. After some discussion, Javy doused it with lighter fluid and lit it on fire. They weren't big on vampire lore, but just living in the west was enough to know certain things.

Something they were not aware of, since the vampire was feral, burning it was a step farther than was necessary. Cutting off its head would have finished the grotesque fiend, had it been near full health, burning it would have been required. The complicated dos and don'ts related to vampire hunting would become common knowledge over the coming days, weeks, and months. Not just for them but for anyone in an area populated by the night walking undead.

-

The walk back to base was pretty uneventful, though it did take longer than expected because of how cautious they were. It was around midnight when they made it to the main building.

Gary went off to go to his unit where he and his daughter stayed. Javy followed Travis inside. Travis was about to be very unhappy that there was no lookout on this side of camp when Clyde came out of the bathroom.

He saw two figures standing in near darkness, and it scared the shit out of him. To his credit, Clyde kept his composure and started to chant a spell; that's when Travis spoke up. Clyde relaxed and went over to shake the two men's hands. He was on night duty himself, but his bladder forced him to take a detour.

“Back so soon?” Clyde asked.

“Actually, we are here for you. It turns out not having the one person schooled in magic and understanding of how the game works isn't a good idea. We are going to leave Gary so he can train his new abilities.”

“He got a journal?”

“I have to get it for him, but yeah, come to think of it, I'm surprised he went to bed without it.”

As if on cue, Gary comes charging into the base HQ.

“I was telling Sophie about our adventures when I went to show her my new journal, like a dumbass obviously since I do not have it yet.”

He bowed slightly in what was supposed to be a gesture of respect but looked like he was being a sarcastic goofball, “if you would be so kind, Major, sir.”

Clyde walked over and shook Gary's hand, congratulating him. “Welcome to the club, Gary, and damn, it's a good club to be a part of.”

Travis went into the HQ as they continued chatting.

Travis: Hello Lucy, we have a new member of the club. He just needs his journal.

Lucy: Travis, dear (said sarcastically), may I tell you something?

Travis: Um, yes, of course.

Lucy: Weren't you going to take the game-like elements of things more seriously?

Travis: Yes, and I am.

Lucy: Really? Then why is it Major Porter that you not only have a pending mission completed and two that need to be accepted?

Travis: We got ambushed by some kind of vampire.

Lucy: Yes, but if you do not take every opportunity to accept and then close out missions, you will not be fighting with a full deck. It will be the death of you, Major, believe me.

It gave Travis the chills to read that. While there is no inflection or tone via text, his perception could sense that those words were not hyperbole. Speaking of words, he knew that they were cheap, but it's all he had now.

Travis: I understand, Lucy. I will make checking my book a priority going forward.

Lucy: Thank you. Now, you came back to get Clyde, which is a smart move. Level up, then get some rest and head back out to that village. Things are going to start moving faster, Travis, and I want you to be ready. Do not ask what or how, just know that I have a sense about these things. Oh, and Gary's journal and bag are in the chest, but check yours first so you can get everything the chest has for you in one shot.

Lucy had picked a horse, and she would be damned if he didn't use every opportunity he had to progress through the game with as much power as possible. That is why she also fed him as much knowledge as she could. Humans were a strange and, in some ways, disgusting race, but they did have a great phrases.

The one that stood out to her now was, “Knowledge is Power.”

Travis Porter - MC

Race - Human

Tier 3/Level 8

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Class - Mercenary

Subclass - NA

Faction - Leader - Joint Task Force

Alignment - Good

Base Attributes

Strength: 14

Intelligence: 10

Reflexes: 15

Endurance: 14

Charisma: 12 (base of 8 Merc skill adds 25% + 2)

Secondary Attributes

Luck: 10 Willpower: 10 Perception: 10

Upgrade Points: 3

Travis looked at his stats. He had exhaustive conversations with Clyde regarding where he should go next, he also gave it a decent amount of thought. Not as much as someone into meta-gaming would suggest he should but enough that he knew where he wanted to go.

Not being a gamer was really hurting Travis, more so than the DM thought it would. Although, between Clyde and Lucy, he was starting to dive in much deeper.

There were multiple reasons why his less-than-stellar interest was a negative. Something that really stood out was how much of an advantage Travis had over the field. Since he didn't really comprehend his edge, he didn't take full advantage of it. Getting 3 points per level was huge, and the higher he leveled, the more it showed. He also was the first player to choose a class as others were locked until he picked his. No one else had every attribute in double figures, not one player on Earth. His charisma was due to his skill choice, but that didn't make much of a difference. With a 15 in reflexes to go with 14 in strength and endurance, Travis was the strongest, toughest, and most coordinated human being ever to walk the planet Earth.

Yet his ability to still use his gun got in the way of showing off all of his other powers and enhanced abilities. Clyde thought that maybe he should use his gun like a swordsman would have used a pistol in Renaissance Europe. Not something that dictated your style, instead it supported you when hand-to-hand was not the answer. That said, he had killed and killed quickly many monsters and enemy humans to date.

Not for the first time, Travis vowed to himself that he would make his speed, strength, and hand-to-hand ability the basis of his fighting style going forward.

Next, he turned to the skills page, where he seemed to have lost one but gained another. These were his skills prior to his new rank. Travis could change what he saw just by thinking it, and he liked to know where the changes were.

Skills

Analytical Mind - Level 4

- Read situations from a tactical or strategic level with superhuman clarity. Your mind is constantly analyzing situations to the point where it can predict danger before it happens. (Your Main Character status will boost the perceptive abilities of this skill. As this ranks up with your perception, it will appear as if the player can see or “feel” the future)

Top of the Leaderboard - Level 1

- Your recent defeat of an enemy faction leader earned you this skill. Now when you encounter an enemy peer (faction leader or head of an order), receive a damage bonus against them. For all other interactions, you will get a charisma boost in their presence.

Class Skills

Two Primary Weapons - Passive

Merc with a Mouth

- This skill boosts charisma permanently. Unless you are in the presence of a fellow Mercenary or someone of the opposite alignment of you. Example: If you are currently ‘Good’ then anyone ‘Bad’ (these are not arbitrary, Good is the first positive alignment above neutral and bad is the first negative) will cause your charisma to go down the amount it went up with the skill, plus that same amount. (Your charisma went up 5 points, it would go down that 5 plus another 5 under the circumstances mentioned) - Passive

Healing Boost - Passive

Triple S enhancement (TSE)

- Speed, Strength, and Smarts are improved to a small extent - Passive (improvement changes with every 3rd level gained)

There were two changes on his skills page.

Analytical Mind Level 4 → with a boost to level 5 this skill has been elevated to Superhuman Perception. While it retains everything from Analytical Mind you also gain new abilities.

Superhuman Perception Level 1: Every player in the world, particularly those made players from the start, will have a special power. As the main character you may develop more than one. For now your power has advanced in the realm of enhanced perceptive abilities and strong senses. With this new skill you will be able to send out an extra sense. Using your mind you can feel for things around in a circular motion with you as the center point, very similar to radar. You may have already experienced this at the end of the previous level. If so this skill will be slightly stronger, and as you use it and rank up the skill will become profoundly powerful. Reading people's presence, emotions, and even potentially seeing what transpired previously.

Also, to go along with your Passive Healing Boost, at level 8 you now also have a more resistant outer shell, i.e. your skin will pierce or break less often. This skill is used in conjunction with your endurance. You are now, “one tough motherfucker”.

"Holy shit," he thought. He was turning into a machine, yet deep down, he had a hard time accepting it. No, not accepting it; he had done that already. What he was struggling with was the concept of having powers.

When he went into a fight, the first thing he thought about was shooting people. It was a hard habit to break, he supposed. The only time he had used his sword was when thinking about it beforehand.

Clyde told him about books where people were introduced into a world with powers, and a hundred pages in, they became axe champions or sword masters. Those are people without a military background to boot. To Travis, at least, it wasn't that simple. You didn't go from being just a regular dude one day, or even in his case, a regular soldier, then turn around and become Superman the next.

It took time to adjust, and he was finding the adjustment period hard to get through. It wasn't all bad, though. So far, they had won every fight, and he had beaten some tough enemies. The two that got away were that dude Adrian that ambushed them and killed Anna; he should have ended that dude. Also, the guy who attacked their base, he had fought hard and didn't hold back but unlike the attacker he didn't use every thing at his disposal.

Clyde had told him later how Anna basically executed his brother or cousin or some shit. At first, they agreed that it was a bridge too far, but maybe she was onto something. In this new world where people had immense power, those that chose to use that power to murder needed to be put down. Not just put down, but done so using every tool he had, and his toolbelt was growing.