Wyatt pulled up his status after consuming the Augment Orb.

Wyatt Willaby Johnson

Level: 0

Stats:

• Nervous System: 13

• Immune System: 9

• Hard Tissue: 11

• Soft Tissue: 11

• Energy: 0

Skills:

• [Debuffer]

• Empty

• Empty

You have unassigned augment points

Should I share it? Kevin might be upset, but it’s not like there’s anything he can do. Even if he had Energy, his skill is [Comforter], which doesn’t sound very threatening. Unless it can be used for mind control. In that case I would get to find out if he has an orb inside of him.

Either way it works out for me.

“It says I have unassigned augment points.”

“What do they do?” Grace—sixteen, wears t-shirts with sayings like Meat is Murder and Save the Planet, can’t tell if ironically or not—asked.

“Probably let you increase your stats.”

There were other people asking him questions, but he was already focusing on the points, the message changing when he did.

You have 5 unassigned points

Choose how to distribute points

Five points was a lot, almost half of his Soft Tissue. Would he be half-again as strong if he put them into Soft Tissue?

As curious as he was about this, he didn’t have to consider where to put the first. He focused on Energy and it ticked up by one.

He felt another sensation in his spine, but this travelled downward rather than up.

Is it coming from my brain? Is that where it’s stored or created?

Wherever it was, he could feel it now, ready to be used. Eager.

He looked around at the group. Several of them were staring at him, others were arguing.

Kevin was glaring at him.

Perfect.

With a thought, he activated [Debuffer].

🞠

“What is wrong with you!” Kevin spat between heaves. He was on his knees, puking up everything he’d eaten that morning. And the day before.

And since childhood.

Probably everything his ancestors ate too.

It was a lot.

Maybe he’s a competitive eater when he’s off duty? He has a belly, but he’s not really fat…

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Using [Debuffer] on him had been easy, natural. Wyatt had simply intended to use it, and it had activated, a reddish-black flash of light appearing first around Wyatt then an instant later around Kevin. Then the effect had begun.

He hadn’t expected it to be so effective.

He’d need to do more tests on its range, and whether he needed line of sight.

Unlike Emma’s [Willbreaker], it wasn’t a continuous use, channeled skill. Trying to use it continuously felt like trying to swallow nonstop—it just didn’t work. It gave him the sense for some reason that their skills were fundamentally different.

They were the same in one regard, though: Even after using the skill, there was no description for it.

At least Wyatt’s skill’s effect was obvious enough: it made Kevin vomit.

But why? What exactly was it doing? Was it poison, or did it simply inflict nausea?

The color of light when he used the skill was a blackish red, not green, but he couldn’t assume poison would be green. Or that the colors represented what the skills did.

“Are you sure you don’t have any status text?” he asked Kevin.

Kevin’s only answer was to flip him off.

No need to be rude.

Wyatt’s status message no longer had any effects listed, but he didn’t know if that was something that was only visible initially after analysis, or if it was visible only if there was an effect to report.

He might not have one now simply because the cholera and other afflictions he’d been experiencing were gone.

Wyatt assumed they were gone, anyway. He certainly didn’t feel hungover anymore, and his guts felt totally relaxed and empty.

A sound like a cat dying drew him from his thoughts.

Wow, he’s still going.

It had now been over a minute since Wyatt had used the skill on him.

If it’s that effective with only one point in Energy, would it be even more powerful with more, or is Energy basically like a mana pool and increasing it will just let me use a skill more times? I felt it in my spine, so I should try increasing Nervous System or Hard Tissue. First I need to test out if it stacks. But what if it kills him if I use it again?

The rest of the group wouldn’t like that. He’s being an asshole today, but his wife is sick, so I shouldn’t hold it against him.

“I don’t think he’s going to be okay,” Jasmine worried, grimacing as she watched Kevin vomit.

Is it because he’s level zero? Do we have resistances that go up as we level up, and so it was unusually effective against him?

Then again, his Immune System was at eight, which is only one lower than mine despite being much older.

Wyatt tried sniffing out the man’s level to see if he could get a message like with the ahuitzotl, but the only scent he caught was vomit.

He tried it on several others of the group.

Instead of text, all he got was a mélange of scents: perfume, cologne… garlic? That was from Patrick—twenties, vaguely British accent, overly friendly, talks about things he’s done a lot, rich from finding crypto in 2009.

No, not garlic. Blood.

Weird. He doesn’t look like he has any blood on him. Am I smelling his skill?

His skill was called [Bloodbath], so maybe.

Patrick noticed Wyatt looking at him and smiled.

Wyatt wasn’t very good at reading people’s smiles, but he was pretty sure that one wasn’t sincere.

He turned his attention back to the rest of the group.

A lot of people looked like they were in shock, staring at him or the defiled monster corpse, but most people were watching Kevin vomit with grimaces.

People did that a lot, watch things that disgusted them. It didn’t make any sense.

I’m getting distracted. Focus on what I need to know.

I have four points left. I already tried to use one of the points to increase my level, but it didn’t work.

Something about that felt… off. Wrong. He felt he should be able to increase his level by killing monsters.

But again, this could just be a remnant from video games.

I could put one in Nervous System to see if it makes Debuffer stronger, but that will be hard to judge. First I should see how many times in a row I can use it, and if it stacks. I can try testing out the range and whether I need line of sight at the same time. Also I need to see if everyone responds the same to it. Maybe Kevin is just an outlier.

He looked around at the group, considering who to test out his skill on next.

His intention must have been clear, because the ones who’d been staring at him were snapped out of their stupor and began shouting at him.

Am I that readable?

“Someone needs to volunteer,” he said. “We need to test out our skills.” He waved toward Kevin, who began to say something to him, but was cut short as more vomit spewed from his mouth. Several girls—as well as the high-school teacher David—shrieked, leaping away as vomit flew through the air in Wyatt’s direction.

It landed short.

Was he trying to hit me?

“He’s fine,” Wyatt assured the group. “He’s lighter now. Easier to run away from monsters.”

“We don’t have much food,” Regan—nineteen, always sits next to me in class, not sure why—said. “We shouldn’t be wasting it.”

Wyatt had to admit that was actually a good point. Water would be even more important.

Weirdly, despite having his own evacuation not long before, he wasn’t at all hungry or thirsty.

Maybe the orb filled me up? It was weirdly tasty.

People began arguing about dividing up the little food and water they had.

Wyatt was considering how they would react if he chain-cast [Debuffer] on a few of them when Jasmine sidled up next to him.

“If you’re going to be a leader,” she whispered, “be a leader.”

Wyatt frowned at her. Why would she think he was the leader?

The group was devolving into chaos though. Their odds of survival would be better if they could work together. And some of them had skills that, based on the skill names at least, seemed like they’d be really useful. Especially Camila.

“Hey everyone, come on, we need to focus.”

Everyone stopped talking, staring at him.

Wow, am I their leader?

People always told him he had a commanding presence. Maybe they weren’t just saying it to be nice.

“Look, this is all really crazy and new, but we need to test our skills as much as possible.” He gestured at the defiled ahuitzotl corpse. “Do you think that’s the only monster we’re going to encounter?”

No one answered, but even Wyatt could read on their faces that they didn’t.

“So I’ll volunteer next.”

“Bro!” Tyler exclaimed.

Kevin grinned. Then he dry-heaved.

Patrick gave him a strange look.

Most everyone else just gaped at him.

“Are you sure?” Jasmine asked.

“Yep.”

Well, nothing like setting an example. And I am curious.

He looked at Emma. “Use your skill on me.”