Chapter 2
I slowly opened my eyes and struggled for what seemed to be minutes to keep them open. A series of messages bombarded my mind in the same feminine voice from before. “You have slain Evolved Dog: A Caucasian Ovcharka (lv.3) and gained enough experience to level up. Five status points were given thus an additional five status points were given because of the Abnormal title. Please allot the status point to confirm level up. Mana Manipulation has leveled up twice.”
‘Status’ I thought.
Name: Duwei Ashbend(lv.1) Titles: Abnormal, Wrathborne, Coward Class: None Sin:0
Health:100/100 Mana:137/250 Stamina:47/150
Strength(STR): 10
Dexterity(DEX): 10
Constitution(CON): 10
Endurance(END): 15
Intelligence(INT): 25
Wisdom(WIS): 25
Skills: Rage(MAX), Mana Manipulation: Novice(lv.7)
Affinity: Abyss(???????)(high)
Looking at my magically inclined stats, I had decided to go full magic. “Add five to both intelligence and wisdom,” I croaked out and then decided to look at my new status.
Name: Duwei Ashbend(lv.2) Titles: Abnormal, Wrathborne, Coward Class: None Sin:0
Health:100/100 Mana:300/030 Stamina:150/150
Strength(STR): 10
Dexterity(DEX): 10
Constitution(CON): 10
Endurance(END): 15
Intelligence(INT): 30
Wisdom(WIS): 30
Skills: Rage(MAX), Mana Manipulation: Novice(lv.7)
Affinity: Abyss(???????)(high)
I turned my attention away from my mind to look at my surroundings and immediately regretted it. I briefly glanced at my surroundings before bile started to rise in my throat. I then emptied out the contents of my stomach on the ground. My apartment was in an abysmal state. Not one piece of furniture was left untouched be it by destruction or blood they covered the entire apartment. Nausea filled my body once again until I puked out more stomach acid, this action proceeded until nothing came out. I looked up from the puddle of bile and regurgitated food to behold my surroundings once again.
I didn’t vomit, but I had difficulty looking around and maintaining consciousness. My twin bed was destroyed, shredded to be exact. The once blue sheets had turned a dark purple. My couch was destroyed, as its entire frame was crushed till it was nothing but a pile of wood and leather. I could barely make out the splintered remains of my table. Slowly as I continued to bask in the ruin of my apartment, my gaze came upon the beast.
It was a massive creature that looked to have been a dog at one point in time. It is hard to tell as there were lumps of flesh dangling off its corpse, a disgusting smell assaulted my nostrils, and I wretched but alas nothing came. Covering my nose, I once again turned my attention to the body of the beast. There was black smoke being emitted from the parts of flesh that were dangling from the decaying, putrid body. Something about stuck out to me, in its eye there was a stick that resembled a table leg.
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I got up from the ground and slowly sauntered over to the beast’s corpse, and found difficulty in walking. My entire body ached as if I had just gotten done with one of those extreme full body workouts. Walking correctly was an impossible task as every step I took my legs locked up, and I had struggled to maintain my balance. I took another step, and lost control of my leg as an intense pain attacked. I fell into a pool of blood, and a cold metallic taste entered my mouth. I put the disgust I had felt aside as I tried to alleviate the cramp in my leg. I began to extend my leg and tried to hold the stretch whilst fighting back tears. After some time passed, I tried to stand up once again, while trying to be careful of creating any more instances of pain.
I had gotten closer towards the beast’s body and could identify the object that was protruding the eye socket of the animal. It WAS my table leg, but it gave off a sick feeling the previous brown coated wood leg had turned black. I felt chills running down my back and began to wonder if this was the result of my abyss magic. I tried to recall the fight with the creature but found I was drawing a blank. The only thing I could remember was one word I spoke before the fight. ‘Rage’ I thought.
Before the I was attacked I had never looked at the skill and decided to look at the skills description. Rage: Awarded to those born of hate and anger for a period allows the user to double their stats at the cost of their sanity. Cost 50 mana. Cooldown is 1 hour. Looking at the skill description it slowly dawned on me that the ability was incredibly powerful, but it wasn’t without repercussions. Sadly, it is the best skill for me to survive this hell. Thinking back to one of my titles, Coward, this power easily circumvents the effect of the title in combat. A sort of reprieve from the barbarity of violence and blood.
I looked at my status again and saw that mana manipulation had leveled up twice. I don’t know what sort of effect this will have, but I can only assume that it makes it easier for me to use magic. I don’t think I would know the difference as I never used magic before the attack. I had decided to attempt to use magic. I decided to follow what all protagonists in novels do and try to meditate to sense the mana in the atmosphere. Nothing. I felt absolutely nothing. I then turned my attention towards the inside of my body as if to find my mana pool. More nothing, I feel absolutely nothing.
I decided to keep at it to learn my second most valuable tool in the ongoing evolution. Hours go by and slowly a cold feeling enters my body a numbing cold that I felt would consume all the heat in my body. Growing scared I removed my attention from that and opened my eyes. I heard sirens off in the distance, and I slowly stood up and walked towards the oversized hole that looked like it was once my door. As I got outside of my apartment, it looked to be the afternoon, and despite the apocalypse, the sun was still out beating down its oppressive UV rays causing me to sweat. I gazed upon the apartment complex and it’s many buildings, to put it mildly the outside looked to be the exact same as my apartment, but on a much grander scale.
There were a few smaller beasts prowling around munching on the corpses of the diseased. Laying all across the street there were bodies of women, men, and children being torn apart by the evolved animals. It’s ironic to think that just earlier this morning someone was playing fetch with their pet, and now the pets are playing fetch with each other using the owner's body parts. Fear gripped my heart when I looked up and down the street. I couldn’t see or hear a single living human. I walked back into my ruined apartment to contemplate what to do.
I smelled, really bad, it was a smelly smell that you would often smell while going by a sewage plant. Take that smell and add in the smell of copper and iron and you have one smelly person. My clothes were in caked in the blood of the beast, it was funny as aside from the blood and smell there was not a single thing wrong with the clothes. I walked over to my bathroom, and slowly took off my clothes and turned the nob for a hot shower. Luckily the water systems were still working. After a few minutes the water had warmed up and I stepped into the shower. Letting the water embrace me in a separate world away from the apocalypse going on. After a while I stepped out of the shower, and walked over towards my dresser pulling out a black t-shirt and blue jeans. I then walked over and put on some brown work boots. I looked outside and it was slowly growing dark.
*GRRRLL*
My stomach was growling. I got up and walked over toward the ruined kitchen to see if there was anything edible remaining. I couldn’t open up my fridge door because of the huge dent in the refrigerator. I then turned and looked over at my pantry to find it in shambles. Cans of fruit were smashed, chips were nothing more than a pile of crumbs. I walked over in hopes of just one thing surviving.
*GRRRLL*
My stomach continuously made its self and desire known. Nothing had survived that would be considered edible. I sighed and walked back to my room. I heard a chorus of animal calls, frightened at the idea of dealing with any more of these creatures I ran to the bathroom and laid down in the tub. For hours on end their calls had kept me awake, but slowly exhaustion overcame the terror, and I finally fell asleep.