It has been a month since the world was filled with magicka, after one week everyone was made to register their skills by the government after people started using their skills to commit crimes. Power outages became common since people have pretty much stopped going to work. I have always thought that humans were lazy and it seamed like this was only going to get worse. News reports when there was power only showed people killing off other people in skill wars. Me? I kept working my lonely job as a night clerk at the corner store 2pm to midnight.
Last night came the second mass notice since the awakening. We had 60 days left to get used to our skills. So my daily routine went from playing video games before work and during work to practicing erasing my self and going for long runs. I am good enough at erasing my presence that I don't get noticed by most people, and as long as I stay calm I can even walk into the girls change room at the gym with out anyone noticing. The key to erasing your presence is to stay calm. Naturally I didn't register my self as someone who can erase their presence. I just did my regenerative three.
The more I think back to them days the more it seams like the demons arriving were a good thing. Sure now you might be constantly fighting for your life, but you are not growing fat from never leaving the house and your parents are not struggling to live pay check to pay check.
❧
"Kevin, you might as well go home." My boss was wondering around our empty store. "We have nothing left here anyways and we won't get a shipment for another two weeks if the truck actually comes."
Our store was one of the last still open, three people worked at it and we were there until the last items on the shelf disappeared.
"I don't think it will come." I called out to him from behind the counter.
"No, probably not. Anyways this whole city is starting to feel like a ghost town with so many people running away."
"Who would of thought that a count down would bring so much fear compared to the joy everyone was having before hand."
I waved at the boss on my way out, he was the only one who still recognized me once my body changed from my skills, I looked like I was 18 again but instead of being overweight I barely had any fat left on me.
Today was another day where I wondered around the empty streets. My walk today brought me to a building I spent far too much money on... its blue roof and yellow sign was like a beacon guiding me towards it. I know that most of the objects were probably stolen from inside but I still wanted to look around. Inside was spooky silent with my footsteps echoing off the walls. Displays were thrown down and smashed up while all the tv's were gone. The door leading to the wear house was closed and forgotten about since a shelf had fallen in front of it.
I cleaned up the debris and tired the door. It opened with a gentle click that still echoed through the empty store. My goal was looking for a new band for my smart watch. I have had this one for as long as I can remember but with everything happening I thought it would be good to have a few spares. I was in luck. Under a fallen box I saw what I was looking for. 3 round boxes that still had their reflective seal on them.
I opened the box with the latest version of my smart watch inside of it and tried it on my wrist. Instantly it turned on like my other watch giving me the same data about my self as before. This new watch was larger then my old one making it easier for me to read it. I adjusted its strap and checked the other two boxes. Both were the feminine variant of the watch with smaller bands and faces. I took them anyways just incase this new one broke on me.
I left the store and continued to walk aimlessly around town for a few hours. I didn't really break free of my stupor until I found my self on my door step.
Upstairs my computer was still buzzing, even with the power outages for some reason the computers kept working.
< You're online! >
As soon as I moved my mouse a message popped up from someone who I knew disliked me.
< How you holding up dee? >
< I don't want to leave my friends and family but Tyler keeps insisting that we leave... >
< you two would have the farthest distance to go >
The plan was for our group to meet up, we thought that if the world was going to end as if it was a video game then we should meet up and face it like a game.
< You all are assholes!!! >
I minimized her chat box and listened to the ping of new messages coming in as her message flashed. Today I just wanted to be lost in my thoughts, getting yelled at was not big on my agenda.
I opened my browser and started looking through forum posts about what people were doing to prepare for the end of the count down. Most were stockpiling guns and ammo while others were running for the hills. There was even a post from people in the military trying to calm people down stating that the government will face this threat head on.
From the looks of things our group would be going against the flow of people on our way to meet up. But our plan was to not move until the day of and only if things looked bad. Tyler was the only one heading to the meeting spot early because he had to make it over to the main land first before the ferries stopped moving.
I don't know when I logged into my online persona or how long I was playing for. I just know my mind started to come back into focus as I started fighting a large goat like monster that was supposed to represent the devil. He used to be the strongest boss in the game when it first launched but now he was just another slightly harder to fight monster.
I finished the fight and warped back to town before getting up and stretching. Putting my body on auto pilot while I think is scary sometimes. 6 hours had passed since Dee had stopped typing. I read her rant then sent her a message asking why she doesn't invite her friends and family to go with her. Dee had some hot friends and co-workers from the gym she worked at. I knew she was sleeping or drinking so she wouldn't get the message right away but at least she can't complain that I didn't give her any idea of how she could get out of her complaining.
Without a purpose my days started to blend together. With no more work all I could do was wander around my ghost of a city. Occasionally I would hear voices or see another person but that was becoming as rare as seeing a store that didn't have broken windows. I never realized how much a city felt alive until there was nobody left in it.
"You really are a strange one."
A girls voice disrupted my mindless walk. Of course my reply was a gallant full structured sentence.
"Huh?"
"There looks to be nothing special about him"
She walked in circles around me poking me and lifting my arms up.
"What are you doing?"
She stopped and pushed me adding weight into it.
"Eep! You are real!"
"Last I checked."
I brushed past her as I kept walking.
"Wait," she ran to keep up with me. "I haven't seen a real person in a month..."
I glanced over at her. She was young with dark hair more messed up than my own. She wasn't wearing any makeup and her clothes appeared as dirty as the rest of her.
I shook my head as the way she was talking seamed like she was talking to someone else all while giving me her life story.
I checked my watch' count down. 10 days left until it ends.
I stopped in my tracks. The girl kept on walking but I stood still. Two blocks down the road there was a weird looking dog that didn't belong. It walked on all fours and it's ears were twice the size of its head. The green skin and elongated limbs were drawing my attention to them.
It stood up as the girl increased the distance from me and came closer to it.
It smiled.
A wide grin full of teeth and a thin red tongue that licked its dark green lips.
Its ears folded behind its head.
She stopped and turned her back to the creature.
It shrieked out loud as it started running towards her.
It was half a block closer when my body started moving by its self.
I ran towards the girl and the creature.
Three more steps.
It was moving faster, less then half a block until it reached us.
The creature jumped in the air.
A curved blade appeared in its one hand. The other had its fingers spread far apart to grab something. Its legs tucked under it as its toes each had claws that looked sharp enough to rip someone apart.
I pushed the girl down as I passed her. The creature landed right where she was.
Its red eyes glared at me. It stood up and started smelling the air. Its eyes kept darting between the girl on the ground and me standing before it.
The creature started making clicking noises and grunts.
I inched my way to be between the girl and creature.
A loud crack rang out at almost the same time as something warm bushing past my ear and the creatures head bending backwards pushing it down to the ground.
The creature got up and started running away. Three more cracks rang out. The creature stumbled at every crack then turned a corner running out of sight.
"Are you ok?" I whispered towards the girl on the ground while still looking in the direction that the creature had gone.
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There was no reply.
A cold drop fell onto my shoulder. I glanced down at it to see red splatter marks. I put my hand to my head and found the source. My ear stung as I touched it while my fingers came away red with blood.
I winced and finally looked towards the girl. Her dirty white shirt was now dyed crimson. Her eyes were open and her mouth was parted with crimson lines falling from both sides of her mouth. The blade was still in her its grip stood out from her neck.
It looked wrong.
I bent down and looked closer at her. Her eyes didn't follow me, they just looked where I was.
I lifted her hand and let it fall. Her hand lightly slapped the ground.
I poked her cheek. I really didn't know how to tell if she was alive or dead.
I placed my hand on her shoulder then grabbed the hilt of the blade and pulled on it gently. It slid free with a sucking noise but the hole it came free from looked only like a scratch. I cleaned off her cheeks from the blood wrapped her up in my shirt. I placed the blade on her body then lifted her up. She was light. It felt like I was carrying a sleeping child.
Something cold pressed up against the back of my neck as I started walking. I kept walking.
Pressure was added to my shoulder. I shrugged it off. There was somewhere I wanted to go.
Muffled words rang out as two guys with guns moved past me one trying to pull at the bundle in my arms.
Their voices increases in volume as they forced me to stop walking. A arm fell from the bundle and the head rolled off my shoulder laying at a wrong angle.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! I COULD'T SAVE HER. I WAS RIGHT THERE I TRIED TO SAVE HER But..." my words cut off.
A female fixed the girls head back to my shoulder and re placed her arm fixing it in place with my shirt like I had it before.
Their was eight people around me. All of them but the girl in front of me had rifles in their hands.
Something wet rolled down my cheek. I wanted to wipe it away but both my hands were full.
I brushed past the girl in front of me. She was saying something but the words never reached my ears.
What I wanted right now I know I could find in the large store with the orange roof.
As I walked I noticed I was supported on my one side. The girl who was blocking me was walking beside me still. I looked at her, her lips were moving and her green eyes kept glancing up at me filled with worry.
Beside me the other seven walked carrying their guns. I looked over my shoulder. I haven't seen this many people in a long time. I didn't know that this dead city still had this many people.
I thought about how long I was walking like this for. My head started to clear up.
"It's going to be ok..." a soft whisper and quiet footsteps.
I stopped walking at hearing the sound. The sounds all stopped with me. All eyes were on me it felt like a I was suddenly carrying a heavy weight.
"Tell me what you need and I will go get it." The soft whisper broke the silence. Soft murmurs followed it up from the crowd but I couldn't make them out.
"Sh." My voice got caught in my throat. "Shovel." My mouth was dry and that single word hurt to say.
The girl beside me snapped her fingers and people ran into the orange roofed building in front of me.
I was made to sit on the hood of a small car while waiting for the people to return.
"If he would put her down it would be easier to check his wounds." A large man with a rifle scuffed out while glancing down at the shirt of the green eyes girl.
I followed his gaze. Her right breast had been soaked in the girls blood from supporting me. The blood had made the shirt form perfectly to her skin outlining everything and then hardening in that position.
The girl shook her head then crumpled up her shirt breaking the bond that the blood had on it. "Guys are all the same." A smirk flashed on my face just before she twisted my head. Something cold was pressed to the side of my head. "That's odd."
"What's odd?" The big perv, I mean guy came closer to see what the green eyed girl was talking about. Liquid was poured over my side where my ear got hurt. "Where was he bleeding from?"
Two more people came in close to look at me. The green eyed girl took out her phone and pressed it against my arm. "Fuck," such a foul word from such a cute mouth. "He hasn't been using the system since the initial day."
Her fingers moved over the screen changing to views that I had never seen before. Her fingers finally stopped moving on my skill list. "Three regenerations and two unknown in a level one."
A kid with glasses was looking over the green eyed girls shoulder at the page. "Duke, I thought you said you hit that green beast?" The soft sweet voice changed, there was anger in it now.
"I did, was lined up in my scope and I hit it smack between the eyes." The large per pulled out his phone along with 2 others. "See right here." He turned his phone towards us. "Hit unknown creature." The line above that caught my attention more then the line about hitting a creature.
[ shot bullet ]
[ hit crazy guy causing bleed damage ]
[ hit unknown creature causing 0 damage ]
"You shot me?"
The green eyed girl pulled duke towards her so that he could read the phone on my arm "shot by duke dealing 50 total damage!" She let go of the phone and pushed duke into a pickup truck. She was a foot shorter then him and a lot more violent.
I glanced down at the phone that she let fall from my arm. It landed on the exposed hand of the dead girl.
"Killed by goblin scout."
The green eyed girl stopped beating up duke at them words.
Everything stopped again. The green eyed girl slowly walked back and looked at the phone. She reached for the phone and tried to change the information on it but it was locked on that page.
"Who was she." Her voice trembled.
I shook my head. She had walked next to me on my daily walk around the city for 6 hours and I hadn't paid any real attention to her. Droplets fell onto the phone.
I closed my eyes to stop the leakage.
Footsteps approached from the store. I quickly got off the car and started walking again. The green eyed girl kept watch of the phone that was on the dead girls hand but didn't touch it. I started walking in the direction of my next stop. A few blocks from my place there was a graveyard that had a statue of an angel in it.
I walked up to the statue and laid the girl at its base. I looked around at the people there. There were no rifles or shovels to be seen.
"Shovel?" The green eyed girl put out both her hands and a shovel slowly appeared from no where. Her bloody shirt was also changed for a clean one making the bloody v mark on her chest stand out. "What the fuck!?"
"The system has an inventory, what have you been doing these past three months?" She rolled her green eyes at me then placed the shovel in my hands.
I moved a few steps away then started digging. Four other people moved and joined in with the digging. The 4 changed out with 2 different people when we got down to about my waste line. When I finally couldn't see out of the hole I noticed duke standing over me with the sunset behind him holding the girl wrapped in my shirt. He handed her down to me I laid her down and brushed her hair out of her face. I then opened up the blood stained shirt and pulled out the blade.
I placed the blade on the ground and climbed out of the hole. The green eyed girl had placed a cloth over the dagger. "Put if away it's weird." She handed the cloth wrapped dagger and I tucked it into my pants. I then started to spread dirt into the hole.
"You aren't even going to say anything?" Duke watched me as I buried the lifeless body. I shook my head.
"Humanity lost one of its children today." The green eyed girl spoke up as I continued to cover the body. "The count down is a lie, the demons are here already." She paced in front of the slowly filling grave. "Duke, Mitch and Tom all shot at the demon we saw when we entered this city. Yes it was a demon. The system showed that this poor child was killed by the demon known as a goblin scout." She paused to look down into the grave. The girls body was mostly covered. All but her face had dirt on it. "This poor child." Her voice became a whisper.
I stopped shovelling. People were walking up to the grave and looking down into it. There was about sixty in total ranging from late teens to the early thirties. Duke looked to be the oldest among them.
Once everyone had passed by the grave Duke grabbed a shovel and covered her face then helped me fill in the rest of the hole.
I left the graveyard with out saying a word. I was tired. I dragged my feet to my front door. I went to close the door behind me but the green eyed girl was standing in the doorway. I was too tired to care any more. She followed me inside while Duke and the rest of them broke into my neighbours places. I placed the cloth wrapped dagger on my counter then unbuttoned my jeans and climbed up the stairs. The girl followed me through my house. I entered the room with my computer in it. I moved the mouse abs checked to see if anyone was there. My pants fell and I stepped out of them.
I left them on the floor and walked into my bedroom down the hall. I lost my follower at the computer so I closed my door and started going through my dresser. I pulled out my last fresh pair of boxers and mentally planned a walk to find more in the morning. I laid the boxers on my bed then turned to my washroom. The lights no longer worked so I left the door open and stripped off my boxers and turned the nozzle on the shower.
The door to my room burst open as I stepped into the shower. A naked green eyed girl burst into the washroom. "Look up and don't move!"
I covered my self with my wash cloth took one last glance at the girl and covered my eyes with my other hand. The warm water stopped splashing against my chest. My washcloth got yanked from my hand. I made sure to keep my self covered.
"Turn around, I'll wash the blood from your back." I followed her words and enjoyed the feeling of a human touch fit a while.
Once my back was clean I felt the water splashing against me again as she left the shower. I heard my towel leaving the rack then heard my door close. I turned around and adjusted the temperature removing the hot water. There I stood slowly turning blue waiting for a part of me to return to the land of slumber. I started shivering so I quickly washed my self off and ventured out into my room to the drawer under my bed where I keep my spare towels to dry my self off.
I dressed in my boxers then grabbed a shirt and a pair of shorts from my dresser. My house guest was standing in front of my patio door looking up at the sky. I offered her some food and went to eat my self.
"You need to learn to use the system." The green eyed girl let out a soft laugh as I jumped. I never heard her come down the stairs.
I though about what I knew about it. "There is more then just stats and skills?" She nodded and clothing replaced the towel around her.
"The inventory system allows you to carry almost a full store of stuff for one." She pulled out her phone and pressed something on the screen. The towel that disappeared when her clothing appeared re-appeared in her hand. "The second greatest part is the gear equip slots."
She showed me how to place things into my inventory. It was as easy as putting an item on the phone while it had the inventory window open. You could not put anything into it that you could not hold your self. The gear equip slots had an hour cool down but if you really needed to change something you could move it in the inventory then remove it before putting it on naturally.
All clothing had stats now, sadly most were zero defence points. She showed me her top armour item, a police grade bullet proof vest, but even that only had 4 defence points.
"Now I taught you something, so teach me how your computer and shower work." Her green eyes practically glowed in the dark room.
I didn't feel like it was a big secret, anyone who had a computer before the power went out knew how it worked. I shook my head and flipped a switch adding light into the room. Her eyes enlarged as she followed me down into my garage. There stood boxes of my actual goal during my daily walks. Broken smart tv's and phones were in one box. But I just turned and opened up my fuse box. Each of the fuses were replaced by glowing pink crystals.
"Ever wonder why your phone has power?" I tapped my phone to the fuse box. Sweat started rolling down my forehead. I checked my watch and saw my mana draining while I pushed my mama into all the crystals at once. I cut the flow of mana and the lights went out. Slowly the glow from the crystals faded away. I hadn't found a way to sustain the power yet and the forums all died out from people talking on them five days ago. "We are human power cells," I was catching my breath. "If you practice moving your mana around you can power things other then your phone or smart watch." I was watching my wrist, I had to thank my level three mana regeneration. "I can power one room for an hour or the whole house for ten minutes with my mana right now."
She put her hand up to the faded crystals. Before I could stop her she had her hand touching all of them. The crystals glowed for a second until the girl fainted from mana drain. I caught her then placed her phone on her arm like she did for me. Moving to her main page I saw she was level 5 and her mana pool only had the base 20 still. This must of been her first time using mana.
I carried her up stairs and laid her on my bed then went back down stairs to my small deck. I grabbed the dagger on my way out into the cold dark night. People were moving around the area with torches. It looked very primitive to me, but they are the first people I had seen in a month. It made me wonder how Tyler and dee were doing out on the road.
I removed the dagger from the cloth. I could feel the dagger reaching for my mana now that I was in a calmed state. This is probably why they said the dagger was weird in the first place. I fed a little mana into the blade and saw the edge of it start to emit a dark smoke. I played with my control of the mana until the blades edge only had the black substance on it.
I brought out my phone and placed the blade into my inventory to check its stats.
[ Shadow Talon ]
In the hands of a lower demon this blade will just be sharper at night, a higher ranked demon can use the same blade and be able to extend the blade with additional dark damage.
"Damage changes based on who and how it is used." A smile crossed my face. I headed back inside and grabbed a piece of paper and jotted down a shopping list for tomorrow. Then went and locked my door before passing out on the couch.
I was awakened by the sound of someone falling out of my bed upstairs. I got up and got a few things from my fridge and shelves and put them into the blender. The mixture was thick smelled bad and was the colour blue. It was a recipe that Tyler had given me of raw things that will restore mana.
I poured it into a tall glass and sat it on the counter. The green eyed girl fell down the stairs on her back side. Her hair was a mess and she could barely keep her eyes open.
"You'sh twicked may." Her words were slurred worse then if she was drunk. "You'sh twied to sweep wif may."
I shook my head as I grabbed the garbage cam and brought it and the cup of blue liquid to her. "Drink this." I put the cup out in front oh her.
"No, I won't twust joo!" She barely had the strength to push the cup away so I tilted her head back and plugged her nose before slowly pouring the glass into her mouth. I kept her nose closed while she eventually took the glass from my hand giving her self time to breath before downing the rest of the glass. I winced and brought the garbage bin closer. She glared at me before turning green in the face.
I left her to finish throwing up the potion that would overflow her mana pool. I grabbed my phone and a hair elastic from my table before pulling the girls golden hair back into a simple pony tail. I placed my phone on her back and watched her mana pool refill then overflow. This potion is one that Tyler had made after he stretched his mana pool to be just over 500. When I tried it with my mana that is used only for the house right now, a small pool of 120 in comparison to him, I was sick for three hours while my mana settled down.
I got up and collected my things for going out, including the shadow talon. Just as I was about to head to the door my leg was grabbed in a way that made it impossible for me to move.
"I still don't trust you, and you never explained how them pink things worked."
"If you want to learn about them then come out with me today." I thought about it a bit. "But don't bring your whole followers."
She nodded then let go of my leg. I went down into the garage and grabbed a few mana crystals. Duke was standing at my front door as I passed it again. I waved and flicked the lock before checking on the green eyed girl.
"I can't get up." I shook my head while looking down at her. I put out my hand to pull her up to me. Once she was on her feet I put her arm over my shoulder and carried her like that down to the entrance way.
"Karen!" Duke stole the green eyed girl from my side as the door opened. "You are too young to be drinking, once we find mom I am telling on you."
"Relax buddy." I closed and locked the door behind me. "She is just suffering from mana depletion."
"What did you do to her!" A large hand grabbed the back of my neck and pushed me into my door frame. My one hand was trapped
I tried to explain but my words were garbled and far from sounding anything like words.
"Duke enough!" The green eyed girl had fallen in the time that Duke had tried to merge my head with my door frame.
Duke released his grip on me enough so that I could turn my head and see the girl who had fallen from my front porch. She was being helped up by another boy and girl. Dukes grip on me let go completely as he saw the red streak on her face from where her forehead met with the concrete. The look on his face was of pure shock and fear.
Everyone around us was glaring at Duke. I coughed then checked my door to make sure I did lock it and the lock held before I started my way past the crowd. The green eyed girl was standing up when I passed her. Her stance was wobbly but she caught her self on my shoulder. Her grip stopped me from walking away.
She was the undisputed leader of the group. Her words rang out as she yelled at Duke. Nobody moved or said anything until she had finished yelling and giving orders to everyone around my complex. Apparently my complex was to become home base for the next few days.
I started walking. By the time I hit the road I was alone again. The voices echoed out behind me but that was no longer my concern. I placed my hands in my pockets feeling the energy drain from the hand full of crystals there my other hand found that my phone was buzzing softly. I pulled it out and my footsteps stopped. A new page I had never seen was displayed. On the top of the screen read the words humanoid races of the world. Under the header the word humans was followed by a huge number. But that number was dropping.
Below humans was another fifteen words. Most of the races had less than fifty. Nine of the races were red. Three sets of foot steps came running down the road while I tapped one of the red race names.
“Goblin.” The word left my mouth and I could feel my anger rising as I read about the race. “Steals females of more dominate races to impregnate to continue their race.” There were five kinds of goblins listed.
The goblin number went up by 20.
I put my phone back in my pocket. My body was trembling. My fingers found the hilt of the shadow talon. My mind went blank.
I was panting. I checked my stats on my watch. Both my stamina and mana were near depleted. I collapsed to the ground resting I my eyes and waiting for my stats to regenerate. I laid there for what felt like an hour when I thought I heard someone call out something behind me. I laid there with the thought of ‘fuck it, just kill me’ running through my head.nn
“Holy shit, it’s him.” I couldn’t place the voice of this guy at all in my mind. “Karen, don’t touch him, he could be dead.”
A pressured rolled me onto my back. A soft moan escaped me. Slowly I opened my eyes. My view was obstructed by blonde hair. Whimpers came from the blonde mass. Slowly I lifted my one arm and placed it over the mass. The whimpers turned to full on crying. Fists gently smacked against my chest. I pulled the mass closer to me. The mass tried to pull away but was trapped under my arm.
“Karen they are coming, we can- holy shit he is alive.” I turned my head towards the voice. A short red hair girl stood in front of a pile of rubble.
I released the mass and felt it wiping its face off in my shirt before moving off me. A screech rang out and I saw the red head girl lay flat against the ground. The mass on top of me pressed its full weight on me.
The creature came into view as I looked up into the sky.