________________

Level

The point in which a Skill adapts and overcomes. The creation of new functions, and abilities.

_______________

Integration

The connection to a Skill, how deeply embedded it is upon the user's very being. It is your progress towards the next level.

Very slightly enhances the power of the Skill.

______________

I stepped out of the house, fully healed now, ready to take on the world. A bag dangled from my neck, something with a long sling. I had to find something among the rubble that I could maneuver to fit over my head, a sling bag, with brown leather skin. I bit off its top just so I can fit my phone, the inaccessible to my hooves. I've tried to make the hole as small as possible, but it's still a gamble whether or not it'll fall off, making it so I wasted an hour for literal nothing.

Fuck! I didn't have a single class option with opposable thumbs!

There was a crashed van nearby, and I quickly shuffled over to it just as a generic alien-looking dude passed by. With the big round eyes, large bloated head, and a slim purplish-gray body. Though he did have a snaking tentacle coming out of his mouth, and a mustache. That is new.

A buzzing resounded in my head as I stared, I knew it to be the mechanism in which I am able to identify my foes. So, I did not use it, bearing with the haptic noise.

I'm really fucked right now, aren't I? Danger at every corner, identifying them alone would potentially alert them of my presence.

But, I do have my own tools to use at my disposal, skills already rising greatly in their integration. Hellkick Gambit had ended up becoming my highest integration one, and for good reason. That has truly saved my ass last fight, and in terms of cost to benefit ratio, nothing else even comes close.

Well, nothing except for the buffs that cost literally nothing, but that's beside the point.

Once the alien had passed, I looked around the road I wish to travel again. There was a single monkey stretching her arms like rubber, a comically large goose with a vacuum-like beak that sucked up carcasses left lying around, unattended, and a chihuahua that's... still just a chihuahua? Crows, birds, cats, dogs; Probably animals that have not undergone Monsterization.

I risked an identify earlier on an insect, and I found a few that show up as [None - Lvl 0]. Mysteries for another time.

There were also plenty of humanoids out in the streets. From goblins wearing school uniforms, to large orcs ranging from pick to the brown of boars, pieces of cloth clinging to their form, unwhole. There was a battle going on up the street, a birdwoman that soars high in the air, against a smooth featureless humanoid that keeps throwing out invisible balls of energy. I'm guessing it's wind, but I'm only aware of its presence because the projectile takes out chunks out of building whenever the harpy woman dodges around the unseen bullets.

The both of them as well, were wearing familiar clothing, if not torn apart to be nigh unrecognizable. This is but a theory, and I cannot be fully certain, but are the humanoid monsters perhaps former humans who have undergone the 'Monsterization' process, but were unable to escape ego death?

Which begs the question of why I'm a fucking horse!

I took a moment just to take in all the chaos. It was fucking pandemonium, but I already knew that. All things considered, they do seem like creatures I can take on, one on one. But most importantly, even those that'd give me trouble don't seem to be all that fast.

Specially since I'm dumping most of the stats I have left on agility, the rest on strength. I had also spent a few hours prior getting my Longstrider up, as much as I feasibly could. It is likely the case that skills raise their levels more during battle, my fight with the hamster not that long despite my massive gains. But still, I manage to raise the skill to a respectable 10% integration.

[Longstrider].

And so I ran. I galloped hard towards Wistell District where I may find Flaze, that's where her condominium was. I stuck by the edges of the roads, closer to the sidewalks to avoid notice, but hopefully far enough away from the ruined buildings where an ambush may be waiting.

I got noticed anyway, a few monsters deciding to give chase, but that much I assumed would happen.

There was an orc barreling over, a floating hamster that might know I'd killed her kin, and a literal snail that had become the size of a dog, but still moved just as slow.

I left them all in the dust as my horse legs pumped. The winds buffeted my face as if I were riding a motorcycle, casually breaking the speed limit. A gaggle of goblins jumped as they heard me coming towards them, panicking for a second before they decided on attack. From swords and daggers, to arrows and a deflated fireball. I nimbly maneuvered around all their attacks, a task made easy by my superior speed enhanced to absurd degrees. I made a turn, an evasion of their group that didn't think to spread out, as they too were left in my dust.

The exhilaration reached my head, my face burning in delight. I'd always found braggart drivers to be impossibly annoying, even though I didn't even drive. But the thrill of overtaking, I now understand. I snaked through monster and debris alike, jumping over a collapsed motorcycle without my Longstrider losing juice. I ran and ran, and kept on running. I saw an old woman looking down at me from a tall building, a gathering people near an old bike shop quickly closed the garage door upon seeing my form.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

A bull suddenly erupted from a building, a large shot of bare rock nearly hitting me. I immediately reacted, the situation observed in but a split of a second as I spotted a crashed car that was just the perfect ramp. I stepped on it and dashed over the roof before leaping high. The car exploded just behind me as the bull rammed it, before continuing his charge towards the clothing store next street.

Crap! That was dangerous! Its speed likely a match for my own.

But I escaped, and I laughed. It came out as a confusing whinny, but I didn't care. In fact it just made the situation all that funnier.

My stats are really showing their worth now. The world so clear in my mind, the situation observed with clarity even in this speed.

A gigantic warg-like creature I spotted upon crossing an intersection, jagged terrifying teeth filled its mouth as it scooped up scattered corpses and vechicles alike into its gullet. I noticed it react to my presence, marginally turning my way, the shadows seemingly bending by its will.

I immediately veered off-course, hiding within a pile of wreckage, but still without ever stopping, my run unbroken.

Broken cars and blood-stained vans surrounded me now. I weaved across their gaps, stepping over the hoods and roofs of others. The glint of metal caught my eye just as I passed a flipped over SUV, a jagged knife held by a pale-skinned gremlin.

I had turned, just as it jumped, the leap so well timed I cannot dodge even with my speed advantage. I clicked my horse tongue and readied a fireball, shooting it just as the creature landed on my body. The knife dug deep into my torso, but the creature was already gone after but a single moment. It had immediately caught on fire, an imitation of hellflames, and it panicked and let go, the screams soon fading as I further sped through the broken roads.

[Blessed Heal].

A knife was still lodged into the side of my torso, but thankfully the mere speed I was moving at dislodged it, and the heal I cast was enough to fully push it out and heal the wound.

I let out a gasp, and then a sigh, after the danger had passed over. It had taken all my willpower to not freak out when I felt myself get stabbed, but I knew it was coming despite myinability to dodge. I was able to prime myself.

I might not have the same luxury next time.

[You have defeated a Level 6 Rogue!]

[Your Level Has Risen to 9!]

I had leveled from that quick kill, the Gremlin apparently dying from the quick blast of flames. I put half the new stat points to magic, and the other half for agility. I was a third of the way to my destination now.

The world grew darker, a passing cloud obscuring the sun. It framed the destruction that I saw before me, the many vehicles crashed and broken, lamp posts and electric lines toppled over. There were splatters of blood everywhere, people dead, half-eaten corpses scattered. I'm sure for many of them, it was supposed to be just another day.

I saw two kids, a boy and a girl. They were crouched beneath a collapsed car, warily glancing around.

Our eyes met, I saw the dejected look on their faces, an obvious effort to masquerade as resolve and determination.

I turned away, and kept on running.

I never did want children.

I just can't stop running. That would cancel my skill and I would quite literally be fucked then. I need backup and fast, and I need to meet up with people I can trust and rely on. Even setting aside how much I can count on those kids in a fight, I'm an actual monster now. Not just a normal horse. And I can't communicate.

Do I have the time then, to spend cajoling children?

Is the apocalypse the best time to start being a surrogate parent when I know I'd fucking suck at the job and hate every second of it?

Absolutely fucking not.

Good luck little ones. I'm rooting for you!

Once I had left them behind, I turned a corner and saw three hairless poop brown rats feasting on a person's corpse. They were bigger than normal, but not impossibly so.

The rats were probably low level, that's what my instincts were telling me, so I risked a single identify as I drew closer.

[Rogue - Level 7]

I'm still not certain what the classifications on my free identify skills are, but I assume Rogue means my target has little in the way of vitality at least.

So I ran them over, the creatures reacting too late to my approach. I activated my Hellkick Gambit as my feet just naturally moved to stomp and kick the creatures during my run. It worked, a flash of light and hellfire shining behind. Some were hit multiple times, the rats bouncing in between my strides.

I knew the skills activated even with stomps, an aspect I'd tested further on rubble prior. It actually works even without a living target, the light ability possibly useful even without a direct hit. Though something tells me that it's most useful at point blank, with the kick connecting with my target. The results would be lacking, against surrounding targets.

[You have defeated a Level 4 Rogue!]

[You have defeated a Level 6 Rogue!]

[Your Level Has Risen to 10!]

Two of the three rats died. My plan worked. One was actually a level above and still it was defeated without so much as putting up a fight.

Good. I can earn some easy levels this way.

I kept an eye out now as I ran on the broken roads. Perhaps there are more of those rats that I can easily squish and squash with my feet, raise my skills and levels before I meet up with my friends. Then they can go "Oooh! Aaah!" at my prowess.

I heard a skittering from behind me. I turned my head to look, and saw a wave of grey, many organisms moving as one. Most the size of common mice, some as large as a cat, others yet more comparable to the hamster that I fought. And killed.

I realized then, that these were the same as the rats that I killed, a simillar poop-brown shade. They were running after me, likely because I killed one... two of their kin. One still lives by my mercy, they should really just let me go!

But the monsters... Or systematized animals, same thing. They do not listen to reason, clawing over and under each other as they scrambled to rip me apart. Most of them I saw, were quite slow, no chance of ever reaching me, trampled to death by their own stampede. Really makes me think that what I did was no big deal and they're overreacting, if they so readily do it among themselves.

But they were not all weak useless, some among their swarm were those that were greater, even rats not created equal. They broke away from the pack, a dozen keeping up and seeking to catch my horse ass. Their rabid eyes alone told the story of what would happen once they sink their teeth and claws into my soft behind!

I must absolutely never let myself get caught!

_______________

Name: Jackal Dolmer

Level: 10

______________

(Unassigned MANA: 10)

Vitality: 10

Strength: 15

Magic: 15

Agility: 40

Intelligence: 10

_____________

Class:

[Thy Blessed Pony]

[Hell Baby]

Skills:

[Foal Blessing] (Level 1 / Integration 10% -> 14%)

[Hellborne] (Level 1 / Integration 12% -> 15%)

[Hellish Fireball] (Level 1 / Integration 20% -> 23%)

[Trailblazer] (Level 1 / Integration 2% - > 4%)

[Blessed Heal] (Level 1 / Integration 14% -> 20%)

[Longstrider] (Level 1 / Integration 4% -> 25%)

[Horsekick Gambit] (Level 1 / Integration 29% -> 33%)

_____________