Eik stared down at the sheet of paper in Harry’s hand, brow furrowed, rereading the scribbles over and over.

“What does it mean?”

“We’re not really sure what it means.”

“What’s this ‘Unified Mass’, then?”

“Don’t know that either,” Harry sighed with a shrug of his shoulders.

“The expansion mentioned? ‘Phase 2’?”—The expression on Harry’s face was answer enough—“So that’s all we get?”

“It seems so, yeah…” Harry seemed like a pretty nonchalant kind of guy to Eik.

Eik got to his feet, groaning like an old man as every stiff joint in his body popped simultaneously. He scanned the small tent. “Got anything to eat?”

As if he had been expecting it, Harry pulled out a footlong sub. It was wrapped tightly in paper, but the front was folded down, revealing halved meatballs, lettuce, tomatoes, and what looked to be a cream cheese-based sauce. Eik’s stomach growled, and he could have sworn he was pulled towards the sandwich by an invisible force.

While he ate, Harry spoke about the event of the past two days. Much of the settlement had been laid in ruins by fierce battles raging throughout most of their territory. Rebuilding would take time, but they’d get there. Worse were their human losses. Everybody had been forced into the fray, regardless of their ability to defend themselves, and it had taken a toll. Tracy, to Eik’s relief, had survived, but many others hadn’t. Many high-ranked Awakened had been killed, either overwhelmed by numbers or felled by monsters whose strength far surpassed anything they’d encountered thus far.

As he recounted one of the worst tragedies since the collapse nine years ago, Harry grew gradually more somber, seeming to approach a subject he’d prefer to avoid.

“Let’s take a walk,” he said, leading the way through the flap in the tent.

The outside was milling with activity. This makeshift camp area had been established on the outer perimeter of their main settlement, Forest. When the monsters had first appeared all those years ago, governments and militaries all around the world had assured their citizens that this strange, new threat, while dire, would be handled. That had turned out to be a lofty promise.

When electrical devices had begun to fail around the three-month mark, things took a turn for the worse. At that point, a few people had started to show signs of awakening, with the number of ability users growing by the day.

Rallying around the most powerful awakened, humanity had struggled to survive in a world that had become unlike their own. They sought together in numbers to survive, building places where they could live and someday, with some luck and some hope, thrive. Their settlement, Forest, spanned a portion of the plains of Yellowstone National Park, surrounded by nature. All things considered, it wasn’t a bad place to live.

“Where are we going?” Eik asked as they made their way through camp, weaving between tents, tables, and campfires.

“I have something to show you.” They didn’t have to walk far before Eik began to hear pained moans and exhausted rasping coming from a gathering of larger tents.

“Hospital,” Harry clarified as they approached.

“I’m guessing we have many wounded?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Can I help?” Eik asked.

“That’s… actually why I brought you here.” Harry said sheepishly.

Inside, the smell was not for anybody with a weak stomach. It was a stench of illness, rot, and death. All beds were occupied, leading Eik to assume that the other hospital tents were similarly filled. The tent was segmented into areas separated by flaps, and the section in the bottom was their destination.

The first thing Eik noticed when he ducked inside was the silence. Nobody was gasping in pain or crying in their sleep.

“What’s going on?” Eik asked.

“We’re not sure. It was a type of monster we’ve never seen before. Not only was it extremely fast and powerful, but it had a tail spike that must have carried some kind of toxin. That’s hopefully where you come in. We’ve got seven people in comas and they’re showing no signs of waking up.”

“Do you have any corpses of that species?”

Harry sighed. “No, the two that appeared managed to get away before we could bring them down with numbers. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they returned after licking their wounds.”

“That’s… not good,” Eik mused studying the first patient. “They seem healthy enough. Like they’re just sleeping.” He continued on to the next, a woman in her thirties.

“We actually started out with nine patients…” Harry admitted, Eik raising a brow at him. He went to the third patient, Harry coming to put a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, Eik. One of the patients here is going to be difficult for you to see.”

Eik froze, eyes wide as he slowly turned to Harry. His stomach tied a knot on itself. “Who…?”

“It’s Olivia. She engaged the monster alone first. We didn’t know what it could do. She managed to hurt it, but by the time we got there, she was already beginning to succumb to the effects of its venom.” Harry’s voice was remorseful.

“O-Olivia? But she’s strong.” He went to the last bed and couldn’t believe that it was really her lying there. It certainly looked like her, but it couldn’t be. She was among the few strongest Awakened in Forest. She was pale. “I don’t…”

“Is there nothing you can do, Eik? The skills of the healers don’t work, and the other apothecaries can’t help either.”

“I’m an F-rank. I awoke like two hours ago in conscious time. You should have saved her.” he rumbled, never letting his eyes leave Olivia’s sleeping face.

“I-I’m sorry,” Harry said. “I’ll let you be for a little bit. I’ll be right outside if you need me. I really hope you can do something.”

Harry turned to leave but stopped to reach into his coat. “Almost forgot this. Use this from now on.” He placed a flat, blank plaque of wood in Eik’s hand, offering a weak smile.

“Thanks,” Eik said to Harry’s back. Only when the tent flap snapped as the man left did Eik fall to his knees at Olivia’s bedside, tears threatening to push through.

“Fuck!” he hissed. His brother had died from poison, with Eik unable to do a thing about it at the time, and now she was going to be next? That could not happen! He wouldn’t let it.

But to have any chance of creating a reversal agent, he’d have to get his hands on one of the damned monsters that did this to her, dead or alive.

***

He visited Olivia’s mother, Sarah, on the way home. She and Olivia were the closest thing Eik had to a family here in Forest. He’d been in the US on an extended vacation to visit his brother studying abroad when the world changed. They hadn’t been able to make it back to Copenhagen, and he had no clue if everyone he knew back home was still alive. Some of them would be, right? Statistically speaking. He preferred not to think about it.

Olivia’s mother cried. A lot. Eik wasn’t very good at dealing with that, but he did his best for her. He stroked her back, held her hand, and told her that he would do everything he could to help. And he meant that sincerely.

The residential area had suffered a good bit of damage as well, although not nearly as much as the outer perimeter of the settlement, where most of the fighting had taken place. When Eik made it to his own house, a sizable chunk of the corner of the building was missing. It was just gone, bits and pieces of the wooden wall scattered around the tiny little garden-like area he had. A long, broken fragment of a wooden plank was stuck deep into his herb garden. He sighed.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

If he didn’t have bigger problems, it would probably have weighed heavier on his mind. Except for the giant hole in his wall, the inside looked as it always did. Messy. Not too messy, mind you, but if his mom had seen it, she would have told him to get a grip.

“Mis?” he called, getting a bowl from the cupboard. “Mis?” Usually the sound of food would have her sprinting for the kitchen, but she wasn’t showing up now. Worry began to bubble in Eik’s stomach.

“Mis!” he shouted, franticness taking hold of his voice.

A faint meow echoed in from outside. Hopeful, Eik jumped through the hole in the wall, head on a swivel as he searched for Mis. Another meow.

Above? A tiny head was peeking out from the top of his roof, the streak of brown fur running from her nose and up the center of her black face making her easily recognizable—not that there were many cats in Forest.

“How the hell did you manage to get up there?” Eik asked her in disbelief.

Another meow was all the response he was going to get. “Can’t get down again, girl? You know what they say about places you can’t get yourself down from… Shouldn’t climb up there in the first place,” he finished for her, hands on his hips.

“I guess I might as well test out what an F-rank can do.” He tried to judge the height he’d need to jump to reach the rim of the roof. Bending his knees, he exploded upwards with all the strength he could muster.

The roof of his single story house wasn’t really that high above the ground, but that he was able to grab the roof in a single leap without issue filled him with something akin to pride.

He really had become an Awakened. An Awakened with super powers!

Effortlessly, he pulled himself onto the roof proper. The cat he was always feeding, Mis, just sat there staring.

“What?” he asked. “I’ve come to save you, so how about you give me a more appreciative look than that?”

He picked her up and held her against his chest so she could look up at him, like he always did. With newfound confidence in his physical prowess, he leapt from the roof to the grass below, all cool-like.

As Mis ate her lunch greedily, he took off the shirt again and stepped out of his pants.

The script remained.

[Choose one:]

[Blades]

[Concentration]

[Unique condition met—offering Profound Toxin]

Two of the choices were the same as last time, but [Resistance: Toxin] had now been replaced by this [Profound Toxin]. Guessing by the name, [Profound Toxin] was an ability that would allow him to create poison.

Was it granting him the opportunity to build further on a poison-related path because he had fulfilled some kind of hidden requirement, or did it simply acknowledge his personal and professional history with toxins and antitoxins?

What type of poison would [Profound Toxin] produce? Hemotoxin? Neurotoxin? Chemical? Something… magical?

Although it seemed an obvious choice, it would be prudent to know what he was working with before finalizing something that could not be undone.

The library had a collection of journals with descriptions of skills written by people who had chosen them. [Concentration] was sure to be mentioned there. Given the description, it was doubtful that [Profound Toxin] would be there as well, but one could always hope.

He threw his clothes back on and headed for the library, leaving Mis to eat in peace.

The library—one of the biggest buildings in Forest—appeared to have been spared the destruction. A corner of one of the stairway’s stone steps had been cracked by something, but otherwise Eik saw no damage as he went inside.

When he asked the caretaker to find the journals for him, she pulled it up from a shelf built into the inside of the front desk. Apparently, it was a popular objective of visitors of the library.

Eik took a seat at one of the reading desks near a window, the afternoon sun providing ample light.

With the journals ordered alphabetically, it was easy to find what one was looking for. The handwriting also appeared identical throughout, so someone must have made duplicates.

“Ha!” he exclaimed as he located the entry for [Concentration], drawing disapproving eyes from the caretaker. He tried to look apologetic, but there wasn’t even anybody else here right now.

He read.

When I chose [Concentration], it immediately became a bit easier to focus my mind on my sword training. Although it wasn’t a huge difference, I was also able to keep going for longer without feeling distracted. I’m not completely certain, but I think it’s become slightly easier to keep focus when doing tasks such as reading or cooking. It’s difficult to level up, and I’m not sure how to progress it. Feels too general and I’m not sure I would have picked it if I could go back…

Well, that didn’t give Eik a lot of faith in the skill. He couldn’t afford to take a chance when he only had one other skill and nothing offensive. He’d need to find the monster that had put Olivia in a coma, and to find it he’d need to fight. No way around that.

And he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in exploring his new super powers further.

As expected, [Profound Toxin] was nowhere to be found in the records. There was another skill that appeared almost identical.

The entry for [Toxic], a different and seemingly more common ability, was clear in its explanation compared to [Concentration]. The ability would allow his body to produce and release a toxic substance. Surely [Profound Toxin] would do something similar.

He put the journal down and looked at his arm. [Concentration] was out of the question. That left [Blades] and [Profound Toxin]. Every new Awakened with a hero fantasy would be going for weapon-related skills. If he wanted something to stand out, he’d need something less common.

And [Profound Toxin] was obviously special in some way, and might even also be useful in his work with antitoxins.

Keeping the wooden plaque pressed against his forearm, Eik drew lines through [Blades] and [Concentration].

As he had hoped, this time the text faded and reappeared on the plaque, painlessly.

[Acquired (Unique) Profound Toxin — Lv. 1]

Now he just had to grow stronger.