Sharkie felt hung over. Her head pounded and she didn’t want to face the light.

“Ash?” Manuele said, voice hoarse.

Even the noise felt sharp in her brain. “Yeah,” she forced the gravelly word out, scrunching her eyes.

She tried Shadow Mend, not ready to get up. She could feel the dark magic rush into her limbs. It dulled the pain but didn’t eliminate it.

“Goooood morning, travelers!” came a too-loud voice from the hallway.

“Morning, Fisherman Thomas,” Sharkie croaked.

“We’re here,” Manuele said. “We’re up.”

This felt like that first morning in the cabin, five, six, seven days ago—she wasn’t sure. The last few mornings had been okay, but the first few were a blur. Sharkie rubbed at her temples and thought back. After the invisible wall, they’d returned to the house on Michael Bay, intending to just stay the night. That’s when they’d found old man Thomas inside.

The kind man, with his braided white beard, had encouraged them to rest in the bedroom. It had bunkbeds and the same posters from the white canvas tent. They’d been fine when they’d laid down. But then they’d drifted for days. Sharkie’s memory was hazy. She knew she’d gone in and out of consciousness and her vision had been cloudy. She remembered hearing Manuele’s moaning from the bunk below.

Then one morning she could see again, but still had that splitting headache. With some effort, she’d been able to move. Her heal had dulled it—just like today—but the hangover feeling was still there in the background. She’d slunk down from that top bunk and plunked down on the lower bed beside Manuele. He’d seemed to be struggling as much as she was, but after a few jabs from her fist, he’d sat up too. That’s when they’d both said, in unison, “Your eyes!”

Manuele’s irises had turned a deep shade of red. He’d said hers were purple, specifically ‘violet.’ She’d searched the house for a mirror, but couldn’t find one; there was no bathroom. Manuele asked Fisherman Thomas for one, but he’d just stared blankly as if he didn’t hear the question. Manuele was worried about what Maria would think. Sharkie was worried about what the eyes might mean.

Once they were mobile, Fisherman Thomas had practically begged them to do his quests—and bribed them with some pretty good rewards. And after the ordeal they’d been through, they’d decided to accept for a time. Manuele had taken the nothing at the edge of the map pretty hard.

As a result of the quests, Sharkie now had a neon blue +900 weapon power crossbow and baggy yellow rain pants, which granted +225 mana and stamina. She was quite happy with her outfit. It was serviceable and granted a butt-load more stats. She even got a trinket from some chainsaws, which turned out to be suspenders that, while flamboyant purple striped, gave +5 stealth. Sharkie wasn’t sure how that stat worked yet but equipped the item all the same.

Manuele got new weapons too: more swords, just better. These ones had fatter tips that curved up. He said they were labeled ‘cutlass’ in his inventory, whatever that meant. The only sword she could identify was a katana, the star of any good zombie apocalypse show. Manuele also got leathery work gloves and shoulder pads that she thought looked like little mushroom tops covered in red plaid. She kept that opinion to herself though. Manuele was having a rough go.

Most of the quests had taken them into the forest. That’s where the chainsaws were—and the chainsaws were alive. There was some silly plot about a habitat being destroyed by the chainsaws, but then it turned out that it wasn’t their fault. Apparently, the bright green mist they were seeing everywhere had something to do with it.

Fisherman Thomas had tried to explain on their second day of quest turn-ins. Sharkie had found it incredibly sad. It had almost made her cry. And then she was embarrassed about the almost crying. They were just stupid chainsaws. What the heck was wrong with her?

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

It was around then that Sharkie began to wonder if that green mist was the source of her eyes. And then reaching Level 8, later that day, cemented it. She hadn’t seen a notification for a new Skill Point pop-up, but she’d opened her menu just in case.

Drat! She remembered thinking that. She may have even said it out loud. It sucked when a level only gave Stat Points.

That’s when she’d noticed the new tab. Her Skills Menu still had sections marked by yellow, green, and purple gems—for her Earth, Trap, and Shadow Aspects—but it now had a fourth tab as well. Instead of a gem, the new one was identified by a swirl of neon green. She’d opened it, of course, and things became both more confusing and more clear.

The new menu page listed two skills, which were already active—she hadn’t had to put a Skill Point in them or anything. The first one read: ‘Acute Vision. Improved vision distance. Improved night vision. Additional effects to be unlocked.’ The second one read: ‘Crippling Empathy. Susceptible to strong emotions.’

“Fudge,” she’d breathed out at that. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but it did explain her eyes and her reaction to the chainsaws.

Below the two active skills, there was a third one that required a Skill Point. It read: ‘Magical Affinity (spend Skill Point to activate). Grants +500 mana and mana regen. Additional effects to be unlocked.’ Then, there were two mystery spots below that, which specified ‘Not yet unlocked.’ They didn’t even say how to unlock them.

When she’d pointed it out to Manuele he’d smacked himself on the forehead, exclaiming, “Oh! That makes so much more sense now.”

Stupid man. Apparently, he’d been feeling terrible while they’d been questing all day and hadn’t said a thing. His menu said he had a skill called ‘Anemia’ that required him to drink animal blood once a day or his primary stats would go down. She was glad she didn’t get a gross one like that. She really hoped that, when the mystery skills unlocked, it would stay that way.

At that point, it was getting late—too late to start a new quest—but Sharkie had insisted that they go back out to deal with Manueue’s Anemia. They found him some poor chipmunk at the forest’s edge. Of course, it wasn’t quite a chipmunk. It was too large and it was also zombified, but it worked. Manuele drained the corpse before they looted it.

And, man, he looked hella freaky doing that. He’d come away from the creature, with every tooth turned sharp, mouth rimmed red with blood. The red of his eyes even seemed brighter. At least the blood steamed away when the corpse turned to smoke. And, after a few minutes, his teeth did return to normal. But his eyes…

That evening was three days ago now and she was still thinking about it, staring up at the ceiling of her bunk while her head pounded. But she had shit to do, XP to gain. Apparently, they had to get to Level 17 for some mega-thing.

They’d agreed to balance leveling with searching for Maria, and Thomas’ quests gave solid XP, but after a few days, Sharkie was starting to itch to venture farther again. She was also actually itching. She scratched at her torso, around her lower left ribs.

“Hey dude,” Sharkie said, pressing a hand to her temple. “Feel like shit again?”

“Yeah,” came Manuele’s voice from below.

“Shit.”

She could hear the creak of floorboards. Their host must be back downstairs. Sharkie swung her legs over the edge and paused for a moment, absently scratching her arm. Then she realized what she was doing. Her forearm had a patch of ashy skin. On closer inspection, it looked to be cracking in a pattern, almost like scales.

“Fuuuudge…” she breathed out.

Then she lifted her shirt—a black tee from the alpacas—to inspect her stomach. It scrunched up, awkwardly, behind her suspenders. The weird dry skin was there too and on her other arm.

“What the heck?”

“Ash, what’s going on?” Manuele asked roughly, swinging out over the edge of the bunk below. He rubbed all over his face and made a blubbering noise.

“I’m…” She half stepped, half slid, down the bunk bed ladder. “Well, look.” She held out both arms.

“Woah. You should get that looked at. I didn’t think Thomas was your type.”

She rolled her eyes at him and he smiled.

“Did you check your Skills Menu?” he asked.

She hadn’t.

“When I, you know, the chipmunk? My Blur skill showed up. And then yesterday it was Animalistic Leap.”

Sharkie sighed and thought, Skills Menu, and the black window appeared. She navigated to the green swirl tab and scanned down the list. She had a new ability, ‘Tough Hide,’ already active, not requiring a Skill Point. Beside it, the skill specified ‘+1000 physical resistance. Additional effects to be unlocked.’

Eczema gives me armor? she thought. Okay… She itched her arm.

The remainder of the skills had unlocked. The next, below Tough Hide, read: ‘Accelerated Regeneration (spend Skill Point to activate). +500 Regen Stats.’ And then the final skill made zero sense. It read: ‘Dragon Breath (spend Skill Point to activate). Expel an attack consistent with your most recently acquired Aspect.’

“Weird,” she said, hopping to the floor. On impact, her head swam a little. She held the ladder for a moment’s pause, then said, “Come on, Karen, let’s see what Thomas has for us. I’ll tell ya while we hike.”