THEN

Patrick sat on the bottom temple step, watching the rest of the group.

He didn’t know what everyone was so worked up about. It wasn’t as though they’d been willing to risk their lives to loot the monsters. No, they’d let him come down here all by himself, risking life and limb to cut out the orbs. And now they were complaining, saying he should share. When they hadn’t done any work.

Sure, Patrick hadn’t killed the monsters, but the ones who had were dead, so he couldn’t exactly give them the orbs. And it wasn’t like most of the orbs were useful anyway. Yes, he’d gotten an Item Orb and an Augment Orb, but the other two were Essence Orbs, which he couldn’t do anything with.

He’d been interrupted before he could cut any more out, the others finally getting the nerve to come down, thanks to the creature that had gone up.

Kevin and Camila had teamed up to bully him into giving Akira his knife back so he could cut out the orbs.

Patrick wouldn’t normally have given in, but Camila’s skill sounded like healing, so he didn’t want to piss her off any more than he already had.

Bloody healers. Every time he’d tried playing one he’d hated it, even a shadow priest in WoW. But this was the one time he wished he was one.

Kevin was even more surly than he had been, thanks to a foot injury that looked particularly nasty.

He’d panicked upon seeing the little monster come up and run down the opposite steps.

Or he’d tried to. He tripped on an empty water bottle, and somehow torn his shoe and foot both open on a crevice that circled the top of the pyramid.

Now he walked with a limp, his foot bandaged thanks to Camila. It was swollen to about twice its normal size, and Patrick wondered if it wasn’t broken.

Patrick glared at the man, now sat on the steps several feet away, watching Akira work, casting not-so-surreptitious glances Patrick’s way every so often as though Patrick might leap up to snatch the orb once Akira retrieved it.

Luckily Patrick was wearing cargo shorts and apparently neither Kevin nor anyone else had seen him stuff the two Essence Orbs away in them, so he got away with telling them he’d already eaten all four.

Good thing I looted the level 2s and 3 first.

There were only two unlooted corpses left, a level 2 and level 1 cipactli, Jasmine having looted the third thanks to her new friend.

She’d done it by simply sticking her hand down the croc’s throat. It was a level 1, and apparently throwing up so hard and for so long had ruptured something inside of it, allowing her easy access.

The remaining two orbs wouldn’t be so easily liberated, however, and Akira was now working on cutting into the level 2’s corpse. He was good with a knife, but not as good as Patrick was, and the crocs had ridiculously thick and tough skin.

Still, Patrick’s haul wasn’t bad. He could now use his skill—not that he knew what it did yet—and the Item Orb had given him a nice piece of armor, which he was currently wearing and went surprisingly well with his skill, if only in name.

⦗Bloodfiend Armaments, Level 3⦘

It was an imposing piece of kit, all black and red metallic leather with spikes covering the whole thing. It reminded him of Hellraiser. It didn’t look the same, but it had that same feel somehow.

The armor, at least, he had been able to test out. The spikes pierced the corpses’ flesh much easier than Akira’s pocketknife, maybe because it was a level 3 item and Akira’s knife—when Patrick had thought to inspect it—was level 0.

Luckily he seemed protected from his own spikes, but he had to be careful around others.

He didn’t know how he knew how to inspect things, he simply did. Kind of like using his skill.

He just kept discovering new and interesting ways he’d been modified.

“How many of those are you going to eat!” Olivia laughed.

Patrick looked to his right, where Olivia was standing next to Jasmine as she hunched over the level 3 croc’s corpse. Eating it.

The orb she’d looted had been an Augment Orb, which she’d promptly ate, so she could now use her skill.

A skill which was, even to Patrick, disgusting.

He grimaced but found himself unable to look away as he watched her tear chunks off the monster and shove them into her mouth. Once the orb was liberated from a corpse, it seemed to lose much of its strength, allowing her to tear into it easily—at least with the aid of her skill.

“All of them,” she answered through a mouthful of monster. Blood and other things dripped down her chin, but she didn’t seem to care, she just kept eating.

Patrick scanned the remaining monster corpses. She’d eaten five of them so far.

She was eating them faster than Akira or even Patrick had been able to cut them open.

Which shouldn’t have been possible. Just one croc was bigger than her entire body.

But she’d somehow managed it, bones and all.

The little monster, Chekotae it identified as, seemed delighted with this, and encouraged it.

Patrick could swear the little bugger had a thing for Jasmine. Why else lead her specifically to the corpse with an Augment Orb inside it?

And how did it know, anyway? Was there some way to tell?

Patrick had tried everything he could think of, but nothing he’d done gave him any indication of what the corpses contained.

He couldn’t even get their name and levels like he could with living monsters.

That was another weird thing, Chekotae had no level.

Maybe because it’s listed as friendly?

Whatever the case, they were stuck here, waiting for her to eat all the corpses, which the little monster insisted on before they leave.

At this rate, she’d be done long before Akira finished looting the two remaining corpses.

On the upside, it gave Patrick time to think over his build.

He had four undistributed points, but he wasn’t sure where to put them. This damn bloody thing didn’t give any information on what the stats did, and he didn’t like guessing.

Patrick William Bates

Level: 0

Stats:

• Nervous System: 10

• Immune System: 8

• Hard Tissue: 9

• Soft Tissue: 9

• Energy: 1

Skills:

• [Bloodbath]

• Empty

• Empty

Compared to the others in the group, his stats were pretty good. Not quite the highest, but almost.

He was tempted to dump his remaining points all into Energy, as that seemed like it would increase his ability with skills. Usually the int-like stat increased both your mana pool and spell effectiveness.

But there wasn’t really any reason this system should work like the ones he was familiar with.

Then again, they did have levels and stats and magic skills.

Whatever this was, it was similar to the MMOs he’d been obsessed with as a kid.

Maybe aliens came to our world and modeled this whole thing off of video games.

He laughed without meaning to.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Luckily no one was paying attention to him at the moment. Most were watching Jasmine in horrified amazement, and the rest had gone over to argue with Kevin and Camila over how to distribute the loot.

That’s what it sounded like, anyway.

He just wanted them to hurry up and finish so the little monster could lead them to more power.

It didn’t talk, so he wasn’t sure how Jasmine knew, but she said it wanted to take them somewhere where they could get more powerful.

He’d gotten a message about a sacellum and delubrum when he’d tried to use the first Essence Orb he’d looted, so he was hopeful that’s what it meant.

That was another thing that made him think that this would work like a game. He recognized delubrum from Final Fantasy XIV. While he’d long-ago given up MMOs since he couldn’t control his addiction to them, there had been a several-month period where he was stuck in hospital thanks to his arm injury, and he’d gotten addicted to FFXIV. He didn’t remember the exact details, just that a delubrum had been a dungeon raid he’d done near the end of his time in the game.

And dungeons had loot.

And apparently, a way to get stronger.

🞠

“Finally,” Brandon said.

“You try eating that many bodies,” Jasmine replied, wiping her mouth. There was nothing to wipe away anymore, however, her skill having absorbed it all, not wasting a drop.

“No thanks.” She was acting normal, but Brandon could tell she was still hurt by losing Wyatt.

But not as bad as Bailey was.

He glanced over at his classmate, who was standing, staring blankly at the spot Wyatt had disappeared from. The spot right in front of the pyramid where he’d gotten his head bitten off.

At least she’d stopped trying to dig down into the sand to find him.

Brandon wasn’t sure how he felt. He didn’t know Wyatt all that well. And the guy refused to raid with him for some reason. He was a little weird, but Brandon liked him well enough the few times they’d done anything together. And he’d been a lot of fun last night when he was drunk.

But honestly, Brandon hardly knew him. He also had the suspicion that he wasn’t dead.

Granted, that was mainly because there was no body, and maybe also because he was treating this whole thing too much like a video game.

But they did have stats. And skills.

Maybe dying really wasn’t permeant.

He could only hope.

“How are you going to carry all this?” Tyler asked, looking at all the items Jasmine’s skill had created.

“Awkwardly?” Jasmine shrugged. “I can’t open the stupid chest. Plus it’s already really heavy.” She glared at the large chest she’d somehow vomited up.

It had been very disturbing, but Brandon had found himself unable to look away.

The item looked like an old treasure chest, and according to her was called a lockbox of holding.

The possibility it was something like an inventory or a bag of holding made Brandon extremely excited, but unlike orbs, he couldn’t inspect the items she made. He wasn’t sure if all items would be like that, or if the ones her skill created were somehow different.

They seemed permanent, at least.

Not that that did the rest of them much good.

Which was too bad; several of the items would be useful. There was an item called a starlight sling, which was a slingshot with a floating cluster of small metal bearings that sparkled strangely in the sunlight, that he really wished he could use.

He didn’t normally go for ranged classes, but in real life, diving into the fray as a melee wasn’t on the top of his list of priorities. And he had absolutely no desire to be a tank. No, that was the high school teacher David’s unfortunate roll, if the man’s skill was what it sounded like.

Tyler raised a finger. “Maybe we can help if it’s in bags. You can use Maria’s purse.” He studied the pile. “For some of it. Even that’s not big enough for all of it. You’ll have to carry the swords. And I’m not sure about the chest.”

Everyone expected Maria to reject this idea, but she just let out a weary sigh and tossed Tyler the bag she’d so recently reacquired.

“What’s even the point?” Kevin complained. “The rest of us can’t use them.”

“Yet,” Brandon said. “That might change once we level up.”

When anyone besides Jasmine had tried to use any of the items her skill had created, they’d gotten something like an electric jolt and been forced to drop them. But the lowest level item was level 1, while they were all level 0, so Brandon thought that might be the reason, Jasmine’s skill giving her some boost that let her use them.

That didn’t explain how Patrick was using level 3 armor, but the idea of leaving the items behind physically pained Brandon.

Even if they couldn’t use them, Jasmine could. And they might need them.

Not that she was any good with a slingshot. She’d tried to hit the temple and—despite being only a few paces away—had managed to shoot the bearing straight into the air.

It hadn’t even hit the temple when it had landed.

A few of the girls had much smaller purses that weren’t good for more than sunscreen, a water bottle, and some snacks, but Camila had a backpack, as did Jack, so they loaded up what items they could in those and Maria’s giant purse.

The others couldn’t even touch the items for longer than a second, so Jasmine had to be the one to do it, but once she did, they found out Tyler’s suspicion was correct: the others were able to carry the bags.

Surprisingly they got everything into bags save for the chest and two swords.

“You can carry the swords, but what are we going to do about that?” Jack said to Jasmine, indicating the chest.

“Try putting Energy into it,” Patrick suggested.

“How would I…” Jasmine frowned. “Oh that’s weird. I know how to do it already.” She looked around at the group. “Why do I know how to do that?”

Shrugs and blank looks were her only answer.

She knelt next to the chest and laid a hand on it. “Something happened. I think I need more Energy to fully… activate it, or whatever.”

“You would have had it if you hadn’t put one point in each stat,” Brandon complained.

“I like to be balanced.”

Brandon only shook his head.

“I’ll just have to drag it then,” Jasmine sighed. She looked around the group, then held her hand out toward Kevin, still sitting on the steps, injured foot splayed out in front of him. “I need your belt.”

He looked down at his belt, then back up at her. “Why? You’re not using it to pull that thing. This is an antique.”

“Why are you even wearing a belt with shorts?” Grace asked. “With your shirt tucked in it’s like you’re trying to look like a dork.”

“Styles change. I don’t say what I think of yours.”

“That it’s awesome?”

“What even is that haircut? You look like my grandmother.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult?” She put on a baby voice. “Did grandma give baby KevKev enemas when he was little?”

“Constipation is a serious condition!”

“Oh my god,” Grace snorted. “She actually did!?”

“I need it,” Jasmine interrupted, “so I have a place to put the swords.”

“They’ll cut through the belt,” Kevin objected.

She rolled her eyes. “They’re rapiers. The edges aren’t even sharp.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “Why do you know so much about swords?”

“I cosplay a lot,” she snapped, shaking her outheld hand. “Now gimmie the bloody belt.”

“That painted slayer Barbie was super cute,” Olivia said.

“Thank you,” Jasmine said, still glaring at Kevin.

He reluctantly removed the belt and handed it over. It clearly wasn’t required to keep his shorts up.

Jasmine wrapped it around her waist. She had to wear it on her hips, and even then she had to notch it on the last hole. She leered at his belly, but made no comment.

She picked up the swords, then froze. “Huh, message just appeared. I discovered a synergy?”

“What is it?” Brandon asked excitedly. “What did it give you?”

She shrugged. “Not sure. Only thing I got was a message. Happened when I picked up both swords.”

“What does it say exactly?”

“Synergy discovered.”

“That’s it?”

She nodded.

He grunted. “This thing’s really stingy with information.”

“Yep,” she said absently, considering the chest.

Chekotae made a sudden chirping warble, drawing their attention.

When the group turned to look, it pointed urgently at the jungle in the distance.

David shielded his eyes against the bright-as-ever sun. “I don’t see anything.”

“Let’s not wait until we do,” Regan said.

Chekotae began hopping up and down, running toward the jungle they were closest to then back to them, then back toward the jungle like an anxious dog.

“We’re coming we’re coming,” Jasmine huffed as she pushed the chest, inching it along through the hot sand.

The little creature urged them on.

“Come on,” Kevin shouted back, hurrying after Chekotae, his injured foot not seeming to slow him down in the slightest, “just leave it!”

“Not after all the work I just did to make this shit!”

“Too late,” came a voice from behind them.

They turned to find Patrick pointing.

From the opposite jungle, a new monster emerged.

Then another. And another. And another.

In a blink, there were dozens.

🞠

NOW

The blood trail led into the jungle.

Wyatt and Emma stood at the edge of it, staring into its gloomy depths.

The jungle floor was thick with plant life, but there was an obvious path that had been broken through recently.

Even with this path, it was only around twenty feet before the jungle swallowed his view of what lay ahead.

“How much do we really need a healer?” Emma said lightly.

“You said yourself we might not come back again.”

She shook her head, still staring into the jungle. “You hear that?”

Wyatt was about to say that he didn’t, but then he did. A female voice. Angry?

He strained his ears to listen, but the voice was gone as quickly as it had come.

He headed into the jungle, moving carefully down the recently-blazed trail.

“We should think about this,” Emma called.

“Stay here if you want.”

She grumbled something he didn’t catch, then followed him.

“We should at least make a battleplan,” she said.

“I already did.”

“Mind sharing?”

“It doesn’t include you.”

“It should.”

“Last time we fought together we both died.” He stepped over a fallen log drenched in blood. He wondered if the blood’s owner was still alive.

What color had the ahuitzotl’s blood been?

He thought back, recalling the memory of his arm after he’d yanked it free from its anus.

There’d been bits of brown, yellow, green, and black, but the blood itself had seemed red.

He wasn’t sure about the cipactli, but maybe this was monster blood. He couldn’t tell if it was metallic in the dim light filtering through the jungle canopy.

He realized Emma was speaking to him.

“—experience. Plus you have all that gear now. And I have… well, my skill’s stronger, at least.”

“Just use Willbreaker if something looks like it’s going to reach me.”

“Great plan,” she muttered.

He stopped and knelt next to a pile of shattered wood, also covered in blood. When he picked up a piece he thought at first he’d gotten a splinter, but no, it was something like an electric jolt.

Did that just drain a bit of my Energy?

He dropped the piece of wood and got to his feet.

“What is it?” Emma asked.

“Don’t know. I think it took some Energy when I touched it.”

She pointed at some of the other pieces. “Looks like it’s dissolving.”

Wyatt tried examining it, but got nothing. Same when he tried to use Analyzer.

“Why do you keep trying to debuff things?” she asked him.

It was annoying that other people could see when he used the skill. He’d need to be more careful.

Then again there’s not really any reason I should keep it a secret. If she asks enough I guess I’ll tell her. Or maybe just let her think I really am trying to debuff objects.

He frowned. Actually, I guess I should try that.

When he did, he felt a weird hollow jolt.

Guess I can’t. Maybe I can’t debuff unliving things?

He continued on, lost in thought.

“We just going to leave it?” Emma called after him.

“You can take it if you want.”

She huffed and followed after him, muttering something that sounded like it was about holes.

After another minute of walking, a voice came again, much closer this time.

Wyatt held up his hand for Emma to stop.

He stood very still, listening.

It was brighter ahead of them. A clearing maybe.

“—anyway. I don’t know why you’re still harping on about this.” It was a man’s voice. Wyatt thought he recognized it, that hint of an accent, but wasn’t certain.

“Because you just did it again!” A female voice. Camila? Maria?

“I don’t see why you’re giving me shite. Wyatt didn’t ask either.”

“He only took one!”

“No one else was doing anything. We need to get stronger. Like you said, I was the guinea pig.” Wyatt was pretty certain now that the voice belonged to Patrick, the maybe-British crypto guy.

“You didn’t need to guinea pig all of them!”

“You didn’t take one even when offered, so I don’t see what you’re complaining about. Besides, what’s done is done. Lena’s getting more anyway. And in a few days it probably won’t even matter. They were all weak. Look how much stronger we’ve gotten already. Just imagine how strong we’ll be then.”

“Bro, we almost fucking died!” That was definitely Tyler.

“The first trial is only one day.” That sounded like Brandon. “Things might get harder after that.”

“That’s them,” Emma whispered.

Wyatt nodded. For some reason he felt hesitancy to reveal himself to the group.

He considered this, but couldn’t think of a logical reason for why he felt that way. Plenty of illogical ones, but none that seemed likely.

Emma strode past him before he could come to a decision, disappearing from sight.

A moment later someone screamed, and then Emma cried out in pain.