Derrick awoke feeling much better than he had the night before. The rest of sleep had shifted his perception, calming him as much as his life allowed. He let out a tired sigh before hopping out of his bed and lackadaisically getting dressed. Before long, he was pulling his dresser out of the way, grunting and groaning all the while.

You have gained 1 point in Strength!

Derrick walked downstairs and scoured the pantry for food, before finding and making himself some oatmeal. It tasted bland, but Derrick shoved it down. He had never been much of a picky person, and that would only help him in a situation like this.

After Breakfast came training, this time mostly  in knife throwing. He gathered a wide variety of knives and retreated to his basement.

Derrick stood in front of his dartboard with a wide assortment of knives off to the side. He knew some of the knives were too large and would probably damage the board, but he didn’t really care. The world was in an apocalypse after all. One damaged dartboard was the least of anyone’s worries

He hurled his first knife forwards and watched as it bounced off of his target. Grimacing, he picked up another one, only for the larger blade to not manage to reach his target at all. He had forgotten to account for the weight. He cursed under his breath and grabbed for a another knife. He could already tell he had a long way to go if he wanted to get any good at throwing knives.

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A couple of hours later, Derrick was left looking at the significant advances he had made in his training session

Knife throwing, Level 15 Increases speed of knife thrown, accuracy and damage with each level. As a class skill, skill level is boosted by Dexterity and Luck halved.

You have gained 3 points in Dexterity!

Derrick let out a smile as he saw what he had gained. The only thing that spoiled his happiness being the ever increasing level of difficulty Derrick knew would be a problem in the future.

Derrick opened his status again, and a small frown appeared on his face.

Class: Rogue

Titles:

Level 1

Health: 104 (R/Hour 11)

Mana: 112 (R/Hour 13)

Stamina: 104 (R/Minute 6)

Strength: 3

Mind: 4

Intelligence : 6

Wisdom: 3

Dexterity: 10

Vitality: 2

Endurance: 1

Luck: 7

Points:

Even with all of the training that Derrick had done earlier and gains he had made, his level and stats still weren’t increasing fast enough for his liking. He eyed his measly level 1 label with no small amount of contempt.

An idea struck then, as he stood there and glared at his level. The world had become like a game right? In games you had to kill ‘mobs’ to level up and gain power. Wouldn’t it stand the reason then, that you could do the same in this world?

Derrick glanced at his level again, his eyes lost in thought. “Something like that would make sense,” his mind mused. “After all, if the level system was effort based, wouldn’t I have leveled up by now? Level two can’t be that hard to reach.”

A plan began to form in Derrick’s mind. If he could find a couple weak monsters, maybe he could pick a few of them off and manage to level up a couple of times. Then, getting stronger would just be a simple matter of rinse and repeat.

Mind made up on this course of action, Derrick began to gather supplies for his excursion until he was interrupted by his rumbling stomach.

“Maybe it would be better to have lunch first,” he thought.

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About an hour later Derrick crept out the front door, keys in his hand, and then blinked, and blinked again. The house across the way . . . It was gone. Completely flattened. A crater stood in it’s place, rock and wood and everything else in one big amalgamous mass. Derrick’s eyes opened wide with fear. Whatever had done that, couldn’t it have done the same to his own house?  Were the people across the way in the place when this had happened? Had they all been flattened as well? Derrick had no idea what to think, no idea if one day he would lay down to sleep, only to never wake up again.

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Derrick stopped, and began to pull his mind back together slowly and surely. “Remember the plan” he told himself, “Keep leveling up, and soon you won’t have to worry about anything like this ever again.”

Derrick shook his head, then began to creep ever so carefully down the tar road. He kept in the shade but well away from any trees, or anything that might be lurking in the now dangerous forest. He found himself jumping every minute when he thought he saw movement in the shadows behind him.

After about five minutes of this, Derrick received a notification.

You Have Recieved The Skill :Stealth, Level 1, 1% chance to remain unnoticed. Improves with each skill level! As a class skill, skill level is boosted by Dexterity and Luck halved

Notice: Since this is a class related skill for Rogue, Advancement is at a 200% increase from normal.

Derrick felt his lips curl up into a grin, even with the gloom that surrounded him.

He was finally a proper rogue! After all, what was a thief without his way to stay hidden?

With newfound confidence, Derrick continued to creep forward, as silently as he could. When the treeline and he parted ways, Derrick began to skirt around the many houses in his neighborhood, using them as cover in case he encountered any monsters. Just doing this gained him two levels in stealth, which he supposed made sense. Not only was his bonus to this skill quite large, but these were just the beginning levels of the skill, and thus the easiest to gain.

Eventually, as Derrick crept down from house to house, he began to hear sounds in the distance. As time went on, he came closer and closer, until he could see someone, a man that looked 40 years old, attacking a pack of about 20 wolves with a large bat. They swarmed around him, but he had his back against the wall and  managed to keep up a steady rhythm, batting away the wolves that got too close. When found an opening, he would shoot at the wolves with the small handgun he carried. The wolves couldn’t handle the bullets, and would die quickly against the attack. Backed up into the wall of the other house as he was, they couldn’t attack him from behind to gain an advantage either.

Derrick looked on at the ongoing fight, unsure of what to do. He balked at the gaping mouthed of the hungering beasts, yet he found himself full of pity for the man’s plight. Derrick didn't know what to do, and his indecision decided for him.

The man ran out of bullets, and the gun clicked. He cursed, threw the now useless metal to the side, and put both hands on his bat. Unused to his newfound force he overextended his makeshift weapon just a tad too far.

Before he could recover, a wolf had already latched it’s jaws around his arm. He tried to shake it off, but another latched into his other arm, and two more bit hard into the bone of his legs. Blood spilled from the wounds on his limbs, and the wolves began to gnaw down. The man screamed, but the wolves hungrily kept biting. Without the excitement of battle, the man’s eyes looked frantically around himself, glazed over with fear. He started screaming over and over for someone to help him, his body fighting against the ferocious wolves that held him all the while.

Looking at that helpless man and those deadly wolves Derrick realized that he couldn't help him. He wasn’t strong enough. Maybe if he was lucky, he could have stood up against one of the wolves, but a whole pack? No chance. And so Derrick could only look on, horrified, as the other man was slowly torn into by the pack, an escalating carnage of gore. One of the wolves got into the man’s guts, blood and viscera spewing everywhere. The man just continued to scream, calling for help from someone, from anyone.

And then one of the wolves bit into the man’s throat, and his screams were silenced. The wolves continued to chew into what had now become their next meal.

Derrick tightened his palms. If he had done something, done anything to help, then he would have ended up just like the corpse in front of him. He knew that, but he had just watched a man get eaten alive. This was not some tv show, this was real. A man had lost his life. The wolves continued feasting, and Derrick suddenly wanted to be somewhere away from all of this. Somewhere safe.

Shivering, Derrick crept away, the wolves being too focused on their meal to even have a chance to notice him. He managed to get halfway to his house sneaking, and well away from the wolves, before he felt himself breaking into a full tilt sprint. Panic and fear guided his footsteps, making him faster, and the terror clouded his mind of the possibility of any other enemy being able to spot him in his rush.

Luckily, he managed to make it to his house, and with shaking hands, unlocked the door, went through, and then locked it again, as securely as he could. He had received a fair few notifications in his terrified run, but for now, he simply ignored them, moving as fast as he could to his room. He opened to the door, and shut it, moving the dresser in front of it again, before collapsing on the bed and sobbing at the horror of what he had just witnessed.