Brandon was in shock. He couldn’t even remember breathing, and was unsure of how much time had passed. His hands were caked in mostly dried blood, his face covered in dirt, streaks breaking through the muck and grime from his eyes to his throat. At some point he had felt Cade lay his hand on his back as he was bent over Kaia’s ever growing colder body. He hadn’t acknowledged or even realized that he had, but it didn’t matter. He had loved Kaia, and although he had never confessed his feelings for fear of ruining their friendship and their friend group, he knew she had known. Everyone had known. But she was gone now, and an emptiness had opened up within him. A void to match the colors of the creatures that now inhabited their world. He consciously breathed in, drawing in a much bigger breath than he ever had before. The pain he felt for his friend had numbed him to the rest of the world, but as his brain started functioning again, he could feel the pain his body had experienced coming back.

He leaned back, taking in Kaia’s still form, a breathless noise escaping his mouth. Cade silently looked at him, and moved to him, embracing him. “I’m sorry Brandon, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop him.” Cade whispered between sobbing breaths. “I’m sorry, I led us into this and I got her killed.”

Brandon steeled his mind, accepting the embrace and returning it. “No, this isn’t your fault. It’s that soulless fuckers fault, and I promise you I am going to find him and kill him and everyone he is with. Then we are going to find the void king asshole and murder him as well.” Brandon felt a rage bubble up from deep within him. He knew this feeling, he had channeled it many times during his service, but this was different. This was much more intense, and he knew that it was not going anywhere anytime soon. “Cade, why are we still stuck in this instance? Shouldn’t we have been pulled back after we killed the mole thing?” He asked as he separated himself from Cade, taking off his cloak to gently cover Kaia’s body. He tried to stand up, but his leg wouldn’t let him. It was definitely broken. He saw the blue wisp floating above her and reached out. He drew her inventory into his without looking at it, and turned to Cade. “Alright, how do we get out of here, any ideas?”

“I’m unsure, but I think if we choose our abilities it might let us out? I chose mine, and got something called Chain Flare. What are your options?” Cade asked in return.

Brandon pulled up his menu again, realizing he hadn’t had the time to actually read over his options.

Congratulations - You have reached the rank of E. You now have access to Mana Generation. You will be given a selection of abilities to choose from. Select one:

* Dash Step: Allows the user to move forward rapidly within a restricted distance from starting location. Cost: 5 Mana - Distance: 0 feet - 10 feet - Distance increases as Dexterity increases.

* Seekers Blade: Marking a target allows the user to throw a designated blade with infallible accuracy. Ability is restricted by distance from target. Cost: 3 Mana Distance: 20 feet.

* ADDITIONAL RESTRICTION: Ability damage and penetration is based on Strength stat over distance targeted.

* Paralyzing Strike: A strike that leaves its target paralyzed. Duration is based on location of strike on target. Cost: 5 Mana

* ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Ambushing an enemy will double the paralysis of an enemy this skill is used on.

You have been chosen to receive an additional Skill. This skill may be taken alongside one of the above.

* REAP: Offer a Human soul to The One. Rewards and Items may be granted to the user upon successful Reap skill and kill. Cost: None

* WARNING: Upon use, Reapers will be given a title that reflects the amount of human kills they have contributed, and the title's rank is displayed for 24 hours post Reap.

* WARNING: Successful Reap will offer a teleport option that the user can select to travel several miles in a random direction.

Brandon felt his anger bubble up as he read the final skill offered to him. This must have been what that bastard used on Kaia. He had even said the word Reap, and then disappeared. “This thing is playing some kind of sick joke. It gave me that skill, on top of letting me take one the normal choices.” Brandon seethed as he told Cade. He hadn’t felt his hands ball into fists, but as his fingers started to dig into his palms, he let out a hissing sigh. “I think I’m going to take it.” Looking up at Cade, he was answered with a single nod. “Just promise me you won’t use it unless you have to, or to kill that son of a bitch.” Cade flatly got out. “Yeah, I don’t really want to kill other people, even if we had to I’m not sure I would enjoy that. Regardless of what the prizes are.” Brandon was unsure, even after discussing it. “I think taking Paralyzing Strike as my normal ability is probably a smart choice. The others are alright but being able to stop a monster or person from moving seems to be pretty powerful. I just need to train and get better on sneaking up and ambushing things.”

“Yeah, and I can give you some better opportunities now that I have a mid range weapon ability. I’m definitely going to need to practice with it though.” Cade responded. “Did you get the guy's name? Cause I didn’t. He was never part of our party so I don’t know.”

“No, but I remember his face and I’m going to submit a Guidebook entry before I select my ability. Seems like we are somewhat safe in here and we haven’t been bounced back into the real world yet. Let’s rest and heal, maybe figure out what we want to do. I want to bury Kaia somewhere. Any ideas?” Brandon looked over to Kaia as he said this. His leg was still broken, and he pulled up the Void Market. He selected the Elixir’s and decided to get a better potion to hopefully heal his leg. He clicked his teeth at the cost of 150 Coins for the upgraded elixir, but he knew that he had pulled in Kaia’s Coins. “You have any problems with me buying an upgraded elixir? It’s 150, and I’d like to split Kaia’s coins between us.” He knew Cade’s answer, but he still wanted to make sure they were on the same page. “Naw man, keep the coins and buy a couple. That fight gave us a lot and I’m probably going to be okay without them. Ill buy some for myself as well as maybe some other items. Thanks though.”

Looking at his total coins, which numbered at 1170, he purchased two of the Filtered Regen Elixirs. He decided to check out the sell option.

Sell: You may select Items to sell here. All sales are final.

* Weapons

* Garments

* Consumables

* Items

He selected the items tab and another selection appeared.

* Spiderling Carcass - 10 Void Coins

* Tough Chitin (x2) - 15 Void Coins (30)

* Forlorn Servant Token (x2) 500 Void Coins (1000)

* Void Heart (x2) 0 Void Coins (0)

Opting to sell everything above, he came out on top with another 1040 Coins, though the Void Hearts being worth zero coins was annoying. Maybe there was another use for them? “I just sold the majority of the items we have collected up till now, including several of Kaia’s. I kept her weapons though. Never know when those will be helpful. I have another 1000 or so coins.” As he finished, he summoned up 500 Void Coins to his right hand, intending to give them to Cade. Instead of 500 individual coins appearing, an unnaturally black orb about the size of a marble was centered in his palm. “Huh, so that’s what a denomination of 500 looks like. Take it, It’s a fair split.”

“Thanks, I’ll sell some of mine too. Might be worth trying to see about upgrading some of our clothing into armor or whatever else this system offers.” Cade accepted the marble of void, looking at it for a moment before taking it into his inventory. His eyes went blank as he likely went into the Void Market. Brandon took out one of the Filtered Regen Elixirs and drank every last drop. It didn’t have any taste and had an extremely strange texture to it that he hadn’t noticed before. Not long after he drank the elixir he felt a tingling spread throughout his body. His leg was still hurting, but he could feel the feeling spread down into the broken areas. He felt his bones moving, his leg physically moving on its own as it was set. For some reason it didn’t hurt but wow was the sensation strange to see. It had fully straightened and he could feel his toes again, letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been keeping in. His body visibly relaxed, Cade’s voice breaking his introspection. “Looks like that thing was much more potent than the basic one. I never thought I’d see a leg “unbreak” itself like that. Wild.”

“Yeah I have no clue how this works, but it does. Really is video game logic through and through. Makes me wonder if we could actually grow back limbs or fingers or toes if we lost them.” Brandon said. “Let’s not test that one if we can.” Cade chuckled.

“Don’t forget to get some rations too. I just bought 5 sets of food and water. Pretty cheap and worth buying several.” Cade reminded him that he hadn’t eaten in much longer than he had realized. Jumping into the store to buy some Nutrient Packs and Water, he pulled a set of them out. The Nutrient Pack looked like an enlarged and super dense granola bar, and the Water was in a completely clear gallon-ish sized container. “Thanks for the reminder. This thing tastes better than it looks, so that much is good.” Brandon said between mouthfuls of the bar.”

Brandon stood, testing his leg and his other injuries. He still had some soreness, but his leg was feeling back to normal and his health bar was showing that he was basically back up to full. “Alright, show me what you got from your ability. I haven’t chosen mine yet, clearly, but I don’t want to leave this area quite yet.” Cade nodded in agreement but stood up and backed away 15 or so feet from him. “I got a skill called Chain Flare. It said I got an upgraded ability, although I’m not really sure why. I’m not complaining though.”

Cade

As Cade finished his sentence, he summoned his gladius without his shield, and mentally commanded the ability to activate. His sword appeared to glow an opaque blue and began to segment the surface. He turned it over in his hand, noting that it didn’t just fall to the ground, but stayed together. Remembering before when he had tried to use it on Kaia’s killer, he knew that it would inherently work at least in theory. Raising his sword behind his shoulder, arm extended, he chose a group of shelving units a dozen feet or so from him. Swinging it, he mentally told it to expand. He heard Brandon draw in a sharp breath and with all his might he swung downwards in front of him. The blade had separated into hundreds of smaller pieces, all interconnected with the same blue light from before. They followed his swing, moving in a wave-like motion straight down on top of the shelving, cleaving it in two almost nearly halfway down before retracting back to form his sword.

“Holy shit man, that was actually insane.” Brandon quietly spoke. “Uhhh… Yeah that’s the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.” Cade swung his sword around several more times, getting a feel for the reach and ability itself. After a couple minutes, he put his sword away and walked back over to Brandon. “Alright, ready to get out of here? I know you still need to select your ability. I know you said it was a blade ability, but what does it do again?” Cade asked.

“Paralyzing Strike. Lets me momentarily paralyze by stabbing something. Looks like the location I injure is important and will dictate the length of the paralysis, but I can also ambush my target and it’ll extend the paralysis by double the length of time.” As he read the text again he couldn’t help but go over the Reap ability again. “I’m going to select the Reap one first, then select the Paralyzing Strike option. Are you ready?” Cade nodded in response. “Alright, Reap is done, here goes the other one.” The world flashed again as they were pulled out of the instance. Cade noted that nearly no time had passed, the sunlight coming into the storefront looked identical to when they had been initially pulled into the instance. Strange, he thought.

Turning to check out their surroundings, Cade decided to investigate the room the mole thing had been attempting to break into. Brandon had moved over to some of the shelves, probably intending to stow a couple bottles of whatever he could find into his inventory. He didn’t blame him, mentally noting to grab some himself. Going into the small room, he realized there was a list of employees with pictures underneath them on one side of the room. He quickly moved over to them and scanning them, found what he was looking for. Connor Philips. Below a picture of a middle aged white male with a “Management” sticker above, was a picture of the bastard that had killed Kaia. He found a pen nearby, and wrote his name on the picture before tearing it off the wall. He walked out and found Brandon searching through a shattered case of very expensive whiskeys. “Hey, I found something.” He handed over the picture to Brandon and watched his face contort in anger. The picture disappeared into his inventory. “I’ll put something out in the Guidebook about avoiding this person. Clearly if he was given this skill, as well as it being offered up to you, then this is going to be much more widespread. We can’t be the only ones to have ranked up to E and been given that awful option.” Cade let his voice fade as he finished.

“I agree. Get it out there, but add that he is mine. I want information about anyone who sees him, but I’m going to kill him.” Brandon said in a quietly serious voice. “Understood.” Cade responded.

Cade made a mental note to record the douchebag's name into the Guidebook along with a description of what Brandon had told him. He opened his menu and saw a communication notification.

[Cade, thanks for letting me know she’s alright. I parted ways with my team. Two of them were offered an evil skill after we fought a bunch of monsters. I couldn’t risk being around them when they had a skill that allowed them to kill others and receive benefits with no consequences. Let me know if you need a 4th, I got a handy shield skill. - King]

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Cade was unsure of how to reply to this. He knew he would have to break the news to King, but wanted to discuss it with Brandon first. This might be too much to ask after just losing Kaia. Not to mention King was vehemently against the Reap ability, which Brandon had just taken. “Brandon, King just messaged me back. He left his team, two of them took the Reap option. They didn’t use it, but I think he is worried about people even having it. He doesn’t know about Kaia yet and asked to join our team.”

“Hmmm… Would we tell him I picked it up? He probably wouldn’t want to join if he knew. But he is a shield wielder, which we sorely need. I think if we had a shield in that last fight, someone dedicated to it, it likely would have been a much easier fight.” He took his time to respond, clearly giving thought to the issues that could arise if King found out that he had taken the skill as well. “Alright, I’ll extend an offer. I was thinking we could meet him somewhere. How about if we take Kaia back to that park and bury her there? The one that we fought the Forlorn Servant in?”

“I’d like that. Don’t tell him about the ability for now. It will either come up down the road or we can tell him at another point in time. Just not worth it for now.” Brandon was clearly sad, but Cade was glad to know that his friend had kept his head about him. He could understand where his head was at. Cade had dealt with the loss of his parents at a young age, and had to figure out ways to cope. He would make sure to check on his friend regularly.

Pulling back up his Communications display;

[King, we are in agreement on the teaming up idea. We need a shield wielder. But I have some unfortunate news. We lost Kaia. We were fighting one of those monsters after trying to help out another person, and after the fight was over, Brandon was hurt, basically unable to move. The guy we saved must have taken that ability you mentioned, and he killed Kaia before we could respond. He teleported away immediately after, and we were unable to do anything to save her. I’m sorry. We are going to take her to a park that we cleared earlier today, over near 52nd and Steele, and bury her. If you want to join up, or if you want to just pay your respects, meet us there. Be careful though, we are a little jumpy right now for obvious reasons, and trust is going to be low initially. We will be there in an hour. - Cade]

“Okay, I sent the message to King. I’ll keep an eye out for a reply. Ready to head out?” Cade turned and saw Brandon gently lifting Kaia, who was still wrapped in his cloak, into his arms. “Yeah. I think our stat changes are having real effects. It feels like she weighs nothing.”

“Regardless, let me know if you need a hand. I don’t mind.” Cade made sure he knew that he was there to help. He knew to offer what he could and let Brandon come to him if he was needed. “We need to backtrack a few streets to get back to the park. I’ll lead and scout, you just stay hidden as best you can.”

“Cade, I think I can store her. I don’t know how I feel about that though. Should I try? I’m worried it might do something to her.” Brandon was looking at him, pain evident on his face. “I think it would be safer to do so, but I completely understand why you wouldn’t want to. It would allow us to move faster and get to the park safer. I’ll support whatever you choose here though.”

“I’m going to try.” As he said this, Brandon’s cloak lost its shape and fell to cover his arms and hands. “I guess we will find out once we get to the park then. Lead the way.” He put his cloak back on, engaged the stealth function, and started to follow closely to Cade. Calling his weapons, Cade moved out of the store, touching several bottles that were still intact as he went, storing them in his inventory. They stepped through the same doorway they had entered, and walked swiftly out into the afternoon light. Moving north to head back to the park, they crossed several roads. Turning down a 4th road, Cade paused, raising his hand to halt them. Down the road from them on a powerline was a flock of absolutely massive crows, or what were once crows. “Hey Crow, looks like some of your friends are waiting for you.” Cade quietly chuckled. “Har, Har. Not gonna lie, don’t really want to fuck with those things. They are 10 times bigger than normal and there has got to be like 20 of them. That is going to be a very painful fight. We need the shield wielder before we can even manage that one.”

“Yeah I completely agree with you there. Let’s head east a couple of roads, then head north from there. I don’t want to have to run from them, let alone let them see us.” Cade quietly slunk backwards and they continued to move east before turning up another road that had a lot more cover. Even crossing that was nerve wracking and they kept looking behind them as they went, sure the crows were following them. They were on high alert as they neared the park. Still unsure if the park would have remained clear, they tried to see if the bees were still in the tree or not. “I don’t know man, looks clear to me.” He said to Brandon. “Got it, let's make our way towards the tree, maybe King is around. Might be good to enter through a section that has wide sight lines. I don’t want to be ambushed.” Brandon stayed cloaked as he moved towards the center of the park, and Cade followed, painfully aware of how visible he was and how he was probably the main target for anyone or anything looking to attack them.

They had made it nearly all the way to the tree near the center of the park when they heard a voice call out, “Cade… you alone?” Followed by King walking out from behind a playground wall. He had his hands up in the air, likely intending to show them he was no threat, and started walking towards him. Cade visually searched behind King, looking for any sign of others looking to ambush them. “No, and Crow is right behind you.” He could still see Brandon’s silhouette moving around behind King. That cloak is really handy. Cade thought to himself.

“What are you talking -” Cade felt a grin spread over his face as King turned to see Brandon right behind him, a knife pressed only a little threateningly to his side. King jumped back, his shield appearing on his left arm as he fell back in alarm. “What the hell is wrong with you man, that is not okay. Sneaking up behind someone like that is a good way to get yourself stabbed, or… hit I guess.” He said in a panicked voice as he looked down at his shield. Cade hadn’t gotten a good opportunity to look when they had first met, but he noticed that the edge of his shield was definitely tipped, or more so, bladed. The edge of the bottom two thirds of it extended several inches outwards from the thick metal shield. Honestly, it was terrifying and super cool to see a shield so obviously usable as a weapon.

“I had Crow here check if you were actually alone, and it looks like you are, he just wanted to say hello.” Cade said to King as Brandon put his blades away, opting to move back over to where Cade was standing. Cade walked over and stood near King, offering his hand to him. King reached out as he stowed his shield, shaking Cade’s hand in return. “Well that’s a pretty fucked up way to say hi man.” He glanced at Brandon as he said it, a pointed look sent his way. Brandon just shrugged and said nothing in response. “You obviously read my message.” Cade said as he looked down at the ground. “We don’t have a lot of trust to hand out right now.”

“Yeah, I understand. I’m really sorry to hear about Kaia. She was a really good person and was always kind to my friends and I. It makes sense why you’d be cautious.” He looked over at Brandon. “Crow? Was it? The few times we spoke she would sometimes tell me about her friends, and if he is Cade, you’re either Marco or Brandon, cause you’re definitely not Alice or Tara, that’s for sure.” He said, chuckling, trying to lighten the mood.

“It’s Crow now. Unless you want to tell us your real name.” Brandon forcibly said in return.

“Nope, all good. My bad, I didn’t intend any disrespect. King is chosen, I want to honor my parents and the name they gave me, but I’ll wait until we know each other better. Maybe we can save that for a later date, ey Crow?” Brandon grumbled in response, but Cade knew he was satisfied with that answer for now and was glad they were connecting, even in whatever weird way this was.

“Well, tell us what happened to you. I know you said your party split but we need more context, especially considering they took that fucked up option.” Cade got right to the point, deciding that gently stepping around it probably wasn’t the best option.

“My friends are fine, at least they are all alive. I just didn’t appreciate the things they had to say regarding that ability. Two of them were offered it, and they took it. Neither of them used it, just to be clear, at least not yet, but they had started to talk about how it could be useful if used on “the wrong kind of right people,” whatever that means. I tried to reason with them, but there was no way to get rid of the option, at least that is what they told me. I’m not exactly a pacifist, but I have real misgivings about taking life from another person unless you are protecting yourself or someone else, and unless all steps to peace have been attempted beforehand, you know?” He looked up at Cade as he said this, Cade nodding once in return, understanding the sentiment but also realizing it probably wasn’t realistic in this new world. Two days in and one of his best friends had been murdered in front of him for no other reason than to gain a boon from a demented conqueror they had no knowledge of.

“I get it. But you need to understand that we are going to do whatever we can to survive. I speak for Crow as well when I say that we are willing to kill anyone who stands in our way. The man that killed Kaia needs to be brought to justice for what he did, and if…” “When.” Brandon interjected. Cade acknowledged him with a nod and a glance, “When we find him, we are going to kill him and anyone who knows what and who he is and what he has done. Regardless of who they are.” Cade knew this statement was likely to be inflammatory to King, especially after what he had just said.

“Okay, I see where you are coming from. I don’t agree with hunting another human, but I also respect and see your anger towards him. I can’t promise I won’t try to change your mind, but I get it.” King said slowly, obviously thinking through his words with care. “My parents are Doctors - Were Doctors. Sorry, still not used to the idea of them being gone. They were both devoutly religious, but… obviously that doesn’t fly in this new fucked up universe. Mom was a children’s physician, and my father was a clinical psychologist. I think they both took on more cases that were unpaid than paid, not that I had anything but a very privileged childhood, mind you. But they both were truly good souls, wanting to improve the world almost more than anything else. I grew up looking up to them immensely, and had begun to follow in their footsteps. I initially wanted to be a Doctor, but decided to pursue the path of being a nurse. I was in school at UP and was home for the weekend when this shit happened.” Cade noticed that King had dropped his shoulders, the memory of his parents obviously being a hard thing for him to reconcile. Cade reached out and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder before motioning for them to continue to the tree nearby.

“Thanks for sharing, man. I’m sorry to hear about your parents, sounds like they were good people who didn’t deserve what happened to them.” Cade said as he reached the tree, placing a hand on the old wood of the tall oak.

“Appreciate that. They were, but they would have hated this new world. It’s probably better that they didn’t have to experience this.” King responded sadly. “Anyway. Moving on - although I appreciate the quick therapy session - I know you guys are here for something else. Please, don’t let me interrupt. I’ll step away and keep watch.” King started to walk backwards before manifesting his shield to turn around, letting the point of it rest against the loose soil surrounding the tree.

“Crow, you by chance grab your camping kit from home before we left? I grabbed a couple things but honestly hadn’t realized how much of a commodity a shovel would have been.” Cade looked over as a folded shovel appeared in Brandon’s right hand, in his left he brought out the Ka-Bar they had found on Bridget.

“Yeah, grabbed my folding kit. You start digging, I’ll cut away the roots as we go.” Cade grunted in acknowledgement and started to dig a dozen feet from the tree’s massive trunk. They dug for several hours, trading off between using the shovel and the knife. Cade noted that neither of them would have been able to keep this pace before the freeze, as he had been thinking of it. Whatever was happening to their bodies, those stat boosts were really starting to improve their strength and stamina. It made him wonder how far the ranking system stretched. He was able to drift off in thought as they dug, which was good as it kept him from wallowing in the task at hand.

“Cade, that should do it. We can stop here.” Brandon reached out and broke Cade from his mental break room. “Ah, yeah. Guess that should be good.” Cade hadn’t even realized they had dug nearly 5 feet down, with plenty of room for Kaia to be buried. As he thought this, he saw Brandon leap nearly the entire distance out of the hole. He had managed to jump high enough to get one leg above the lip, pulling himself up. He reached back and extended a hand to Cade. Taking it by the wrist, Cade climbed out after, really starting to appreciate his new abilities.

Cade stepped back and waited for Brandon to do whatever he needed to do. Brandon moved to the edge of the freshly dug grave and leaned down. As he did, Kaia’s body appeared in his arms, exactly the same as it had been before. He dropped back into the hole and gently laid her down. Cade looked over his shoulder towards King, who had taken a seat with his shield in front of him nearby. “Hey, you want to join us?”

“Yeah, that would be nice. Thank you.” King stood up and walked over solemnly. He respectfully held his shield against the ground in front of him, his right arm resting on top of it as he watched Brandon exit the grave.

Cade took up his shovel and wordlessly started covering up the body of his friend. Brandon had taken up the same task on the other side of her grave, and soon the hole was covered in freshly tilled earth. Cade walked over to his friend and put an arm around his shoulders. “Never again. I won’t let any more friends die.” Brandon softly said as he stared at the grave of his friend and love. “Same here buddy. She was a light and this new world didn’t deserve even a moment of her glow. Rest well Kaia.” Cade managed to get out, tears slowly falling down his cheeks.

“I’d only known her for a few years, but from the moment we moved to that neighborhood, she offered her help and kindness to us. I’ll remember that forever.” King spoke his final words about Kaia, silence coming after for what felt like several minutes.

“Ah. Hey, put that shield away and take one of these.” Cade motioned his hands towards King’s shield, and in his hands appeared several bottles of flavored vodka. “Kaia for some reason loved this garbage, so that’s what we are going to drink.” He handed a bottle to each of his companions, both of them taking the twist cap off.

“To Kaia.” Cade raised his bottle towards the sky, poured some out onto Kaia’s grave, and took a long swig. The others followed suit, King spluttering slightly as he gulped it down.

Brandon turned to them, “Let’s go find somewhere to stop for the night. It’s getting dark fast.” Cade hadn’t even realized that the sun had been setting as they had drank to their friend. Cade agreed and they picked a direction. Turning towards the houses at the edge of the park, they stowed the alcohol, pulled out their weapons, and cautiously made their way over.