Callum stared unmoving at the words for a moment before they disappeared. He waited for a few minutes, feeling as though something else would flash across his vision, but nothing came.
He had read a few novels about this happening, but the common thread was that they were all different. But something that was always there was some way to review your stats.
“Status?” Callum tested, curious if anything he knew held true. Much to his surprise it worked.
[Status: Callum Green]
Duellist Level 1
HP: 30/30 MP: 0/30 SP: 35/45
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 5
Endurance: 2
Intelligence: 3
Wits: 4
Resolve: 2
Skills:
One-Handed Weapons:
Rank: Novice 1
Proficiency: 0%
He reviewed his stats, and they all seemed pretty low at first glance. He immediately realized that was a rather dumb thought, as there was no scale for what any meant. However, when he subtracted the gains from what his Duellist class said it gave, it put his starting stats at a two in everything.
The HP, MP, and SP stats caught his eye, and while he was sure they represented health, mana, and stamina, he wasn’t sure how they were calculated. He would have to wait until he got more attribute points to see if he could figure out how they were calculated.
He assumed that a two must be average for a person, as he had never considered himself above average in anything. Sure, he had worked out some in his early days of college, but most of those gains had been erased by his sedentary lifestyle while looking for a job.
The stat screen also showed his mana to be empty, which if it wasn’t for the floating screens and apocalyptic warning, might have seemed weird.
Callum slowly processed all of this information, but in the end, realized that he still needed food. He set the sword aside for now and resumed his search for something he could make the trek to the convenience store. At the bottom of his closet, his search finally bore fruit.
He found some hiking clothes and running shoes he had nearly forgotten about. Quickly getting dressed, he prepared to make the hike.
Not knowing what was out there, or if the apocalypse had begun early for some reason, he grabbed the sword to take with him. He ran his finger along the edge to see if it was worth taking. The edge was dull, which caught him off guard, and stumped him for a moment before he remembered that a rapier is a thrusting weapon. Feeling the point of the weapon, he found that it was, in fact, quite sharp.
He inspected the sword and found that it wasn’t the worst as far as apocalypse weapons went. It was fairly well balanced with a wooden handle almost exactly the width of his hand and a circular crossguard to protect his hand. The blade itself was roughly three-and-a-half feet long but was only two inches wide.
Finding himself a little distracted, he settled into what felt like a decent fighting stance and took a few practice swings. Immediately, something felt off, though he couldn’t put it into words. Admonishing himself for the second time about the rapier, he switched his thinking into that of thrusting, not swiping wildly.
This time when he did, it seemed to snap into place. His thrusts were tight and controlled, and his stance widened slightly as if by muscle memory. Feeling the first bit of fun he had in a while, he danced around his room with the sword for a solid five minutes. His impromptu training came to an abrupt halt when he sent his sword through the wall of his apartment. There goes my security deposit.
Thinking he was acting a bit too childish, he calmed down and finished getting ready to leave.
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Realizing now that he had no good way of carrying the sword, he simply slid it through a belt loop. Nearly ready to go, he took a look in the mirror. Some part of him was hoping that the stats he gained had caused him to lose some weight but he was sorely mistaken.
Looking back at him was someone he almost didn’t recognize. His brown hair was cut short from when he had trimmed it for the job interview. He still hadn’t adjusted to being clean-shaven after having a beard for so long. He could see the signs of his sedentary lifestyle, as he had put on a little weight in the last few months.
With a sigh, Callum turned away from the mirror, threw on his backpack, and stepped out into the hallway. He debated knocking on Ryan’s door to see if he was interested in coming with him to the store, but he decided against it. If Ryan started into a rant again, Callum did not feel he could put up with it.
Making his way back out to the sidewalk for the third time that day, he once again glanced around to see if anyone else was around. Finding no one, he started the walk towards the convenience store.
He had been there several times over the past few months, but he wasn’t the greatest with directions and found himself sorely missing the navigation features of his phone.
Callum made it nearly halfway there before he found anyone else. As he turned down a street, he spotted someone several blocks ahead of him but they were too far ahead of him to make out much.
He wanted to catch up to them to see if they knew anything about what was going on but was worried they might freak out if someone with a sword started running after them. He settled for picking up his pace, hoping that he could catch up to them before they went too far from his path to the store.
As he walked, he found that the increased pace was much easier than usual. He felt like he could go much faster if he wanted to, but out of the fear he would freak the person out, he kept himself to a reasonable pace.
Callum was able to make out more details the closer he got. As he watched them, he noticed they tended to stick close to buildings and seemed very cautious as they made their way through the streets. Their bright red hair was not doing them any favors in the attempt at stealth.
Their caution helped him catch up to them in no time. Once Callum felt he was close enough, he called out to them.
“Hey!”
The person immediately wheeled on him, a woman as it turned out, and Callum caught the glint of a knife in her hands.
“Whoa!” Callum exclaimed, quickly putting up his hands. “I’m not gonna attack you, you’re just the first person I’ve seen outside.”
Her posture seemed to relax, but the knife never left her hands. He slowly made his way closer, not trying to provoke her to attack. Once he was closer, he noticed her eyes flick toward the sword on his belt.
“Oh, so you know.” Callum was confused for a moment before she made a follow-up statement. “About the classes.”
“Yeah. It popped up in front of me when I picked up this sword. Didn’t learn anything else, though.”
“Same happened to me. Saw the apocalypse warning, so I grabbed a knife. Name’s Eliza by the way.” She finally slipped the knife back into a sheath in one of the numerous pockets of the cargo pants she was wearing.
“I’m Callum,” he said, extending a hand in greeting.
“So, what class did you pick?” Callum asked before there was a chance for any awkward silence.
“I went with Stalker. It was uncommon, and uncommon is better than common,” she said with a shrug.
Her straightforward nature was refreshing to Callum after dealing with all the vagueness of job interviews.
“That’s interesting. I’m assuming then you saw the Warrior, Rogue, Ranger and Mage options as well?”
“Yeah, I did. Stalker wasn’t an option for you?”
“No. My uncommon option was duellist, so I went with that.” Callum couldn’t figure out why, but it seemed rather personal to be revealing all of this information.
“Huh.”
Callum waited for a moment for a follow-up statement, but none came. The class Eliza received did raise a few questions about what determined the uncommon class selection, but he was pretty sure Eliza wouldn’t know either.
“So what brought you outside?” Callum asked instead. “I haven’t seen anyone else out and I assumed they were either stuck at work or hiding at home.”
“I didn’t have much food. There’s a store somewhere around here, figured I would try there.”
“Well, that’s where I’m headed as well. I know the way, so you can come with me.”
“Sweet! Thanks. Let’s get moving.”
Callum was a bit surprised by her sudden burst of excitement, but taking it in stride he led the way towards the store.
While the pair made their way to the store, Callum tried a few times to engage her in conversation, but every time she deflected or just answered in a few words. It didn’t bother him that much, but he was curious why she would brave the supposed apocalypse for some food. Not that he could say much, but at least he had some height to him and had been in a scrap or two.
Looking at her, she was at least half a foot shorter than him, and seemed like a stiff wind would blow her over. At first he hadn’t noticed it, but now that he was closer, she seemed almost malnourished with a somewhat gaunt face and thin arms.
Realizing he had gotten a little distracted, Callum missed a turn to the store and was forced to backtrack a little. When he turned around, Eliza gave him a ‘Are you sure you know where you’re going?’ look, but didn’t say anything.
The rest of their journey was uneventful, with the same eerie quiet that Callum had experienced at his apartment complex. They weren’t in a very densely packed part of the city, but to see no one outside still struck him as strange.
As they approached the small gas station/convenience store combo, they could hear a commotion from inside the store. Eliza swiftly approached a window and peered inside. As Callum joined her, she held a finger up to her lips signaling him to keep quiet.
Callum looked through the window and noticed the lack of any staff behind the counter. Finding the source of the commotion was fairly simple then as he saw a group of teenagers grabbing a case of beer off of the floor. The clink of glass being the source.
Once he realized that there wasn’t anything to be afraid of, Callum relaxed. He crouched down and whispered to Eliza, “I think we can just run them off. It’s just some kids taking advantage of the situation.”
Eliza didn’t say anything, but gestured for him to go ahead.