POV: Xavier Tremere
That night the six of us played one of the best D&D campaigns ever, it was so good that all of us stayed up late and finished it out before everyone went to sleep at our pad. Me and two others of the group, Jacob, and Dante, pooled our money to rent out this 3 bed 2 bath 2 story house in a decent neighborhood. It was small but it was way better than an apartment. The other 3 slept in the living room, but all of us woke up to words searing into our eyes even with our eyelids closed.
Warning!
Initial scan completed.
Energy threshold met.
I put on a shirt, socks, and shoes before coming out of my room to see Dante walking towards my door, he had a wtf face and was about to ask me a question when more words appeared.
Initializing Integration.
Merging Realities.
Prepare for finalization.
10!
9!
...
3!
2!
1!
Dante and I both stumbled to the side as the countdown reached 1, but after a second we both stabilized ourselves.
"What the fuck is going on?" Dante asked with incredulity.
"I have no idea dude, but this seems an awful lot like one of those system books." I reply, hundreds of thoughts and scenarios running through my head.
Before Dante can respond Jacob comes out of his room.
"Yo, what happened?" Jacob calls out when he sees us.
"We don't know Jacob, but we should get downstairs." Dante replies before turning to head downstairs.
We both follow him, and now that I'm paying attention, I can hear the three talking in the living room. As we enter the living room, Chad turns to us. Yes, that is his name, no he isn't one, and yes, we all get a good laugh out of it from time to time.
"Did you three see the messages too?" He asks us.
"Yeah man this shit is weird, like I woke up to this bright ass light in my eyes, but when I tried to close my eyes to go back to sleep, I realized they were already closed!" Jacob exclaims.
As everyone discusses the situation, I give something a try. Character, Stats, Status. The last one finally does it as more words appear in front of me. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to speak the command, if there even was one.
Name: Xavier Tremere
Class: None (Lvl 0)
Unallocated Stats: 0
Strength: [8]
Vitality: [9]
Endurance: [7]
Dexterity: [10]
Agility: [8]
Intelligence: [11]
Wisdom: [10]
Skills: None
Holy shit! I almost shouted aloud. I was right, this is just like those system apocalypse series. SHIT, does this mean all of this comes with a fucking apocalypse? With that I decide to interrupt the conversation with my discovery.
"Hey, guys all of you should think the word status." I said in a serious voice.
"Huh, why would we-" Niel started.
"WOAH, I have a stat sheet!" Eddie shouted.
A few seconds later everyone was looking over their stat sheets. It was Dante who was the first to gather himself enough to ask a question.
"How did you know to do that?" He asked.
"Well, I've read quite a few books about systems, so I tried a few different commands in my head before one of them worked." I explained.
"I've read a few of those books too, but I never thought any of this would ever be real." Chad said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Oh shit, does this mean there are monsters coming next?" He looked to me with wide eyes.
"I don't know but that was what I was thinking. We should prepare for it regardless." I nod to him.
"Wait, monsters? What do you guys mean." Jacob asked, confused.
"Yeah, monsters. In books about systems there's pretty much always a wave of monsters that comes after the words appear." I tried to explain.
After that there was a good deal of cursing, before we turned our attention to trying to prepare for what may or may not come. We assigned Niel to watching the window for anything, monsters or otherwise. He reported that he could see a few people walking to other houses on the street, but that they didn't look worried, just confused, but he couldn't tell much without the streetlights on. After I heard that I literally facepalmed before pulling out my phone and dialing 911. There was no response, literally nothing, it didn't even ring. That's bad. I moved on to checking other numbers and then the internet, before checking the light switches, we hadn't really needed any extra light it was a clear night and the light from the moon had given us enough to see by. Not to mention that I hadn't wanted to draw attention to us. Unfortunately, we had no connection to anything.
"Guys try your phones call 911 or anyone else and try to get on the internet." I tell them, hoping that someone else has signal through their service provider.
Everyone reacts the same way, pulling out their phones and trying to call anyone or get onto the internet, no dice. After that everyone got more serious, we were alone out here, with no way to call for help. Going through drawers in the kitchen I find 2 box cutters and 2 pairs of scissors. Dante comes down from his room with his Klingon bat'leth and a knife. At first, I'm surprised he has a knife, but then I look to his bat'leth and raise my eyebrows.
"You know that isn't sharp right?" I ask him.
"What do you mean it isn't sharp?" He looks down and tests it by running it over his thumbnail.
"Fuck dude I totally thought it was sharpened." Dante says with such an intense look of disappointment on his face I can't decide whether to laugh at him or cry with him.
"I mean it's still kind of pointy, you could try to use it, but honestly Jacob's bat would probably be better." I try to console him and then let him down softly.
"Yeah, you're probably right Xavier." He admits before going upstairs to grab Jacob's bat.
While me and Dante were looking for weapons, the other three were trying to create some sort of barrier with the furniture, blocking any windows and the back door. We had agreed that if we couldn't hide from the monsters that we should try to fight them from only a single direction. That direction would be the front door, and we didn't want anything coming from behind us. As we finished up our tasks and time went by, we all started getting restless. That feeling only increased as we heard gunshots start up in the distance. It was a few hours before anything happened though it felt like it should have been longer before the sun rose, but once it did, we all would have rather sat in restless silence for days if we could have avoided it.
An hour after sunrise right as people were starting to come outside to figure out what to do a tide of monsters appeared out of nowhere running through the streets and killing anyone they could find. I had been starting to doubt if monsters were coming, and boy do I wish I could have been wrong. They tore into people as we watched from inside our house, fighting with each other for pieces, tearing off limbs and pulling out organs. Niel and Eddie vomited at the sight, and the rest of us weren't far off. It was the most gruesome thing I had ever seen, and far worse in real life than any book, movie, or game.
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Once the easy meals were all taken the monsters started attacking houses. It wasn't even 10 seconds later that we heard a thump at the front door followed by another. We all looked at each other and nodded before getting into the position we had decided on. Eddied was the biggest of us, standing at 6'4 and verging on overweight. He was given the bat and would be our front line. His job was to beat back enough of the monsters in the chokepoint of our front door that the rest of us could kill them. It was a dangerous task, but we used pillows and taped them to him trying to give him some sort of protection along with a desk we flipped on its side and shoved into the door to block half of it like a shield. The rest of us had a mix between scissors and box cutters with Dante wielding his knife. Niel and Chad had the scissors while Jacob and I were using the box cutters.
We didn't want the door broken in case we needed to close it later, so as Eddie got ready to swing for the fences, I opened the door. What fell in was a giant ass turkey or maybe a domesticated feathered velociraptor with a lizard like tail ending in feathers. Regardless of what it was Eddie hit it with all his might, the bird's head got smashed into the wall. I took advantage of the opening before it could use its sharp beak or serrated claws, and shoved my box cutter into its throat and then did it again, and again, and again until I finally realized it wasn't moving anymore. By that time Eddie had pushed the desk into position, blocking part of the door. Dante had killed another one of the chickens and Eddie was fending off some sort of bug. I turned to find Niel looking at me with wide eyes, but I just told him to be prepared to do the same.
The bug or whatever it might be, only had four legs and its body was small enough to easily climb around the desk and into the house. Its forelimbs looked armored in chitin while from the joint down to its suspended body was pretty narrow. That's where we need to strike. I told everyone as much prompting Niel and Jacob to move forward and cut and slice at the unprotected part of its legs. Once it was just a body, I could finally get a good look. It had 2 small mandibles or pincers protruding from its face but the rest of it was like a crab or something only having holes for its legs. It took me a second before just deciding to stab through its leg holes. once I got deep enough it finally stopped moving its mandibles, hopefully dead.
We dealt with quite a few of those two types of monsters, finding out that the chicken actually had fucking teeth when it silently screeched at us as we stabbed it to death, but 15 minutes later we were introduced to some sort of horned lizard. And I don't just mean it had little spikes all over it, this thing had two massive horns protruding upward from its head, they looked like freaking lances though only 2 or 3 feet long. To be fair the thing also had spikes down its spine all the way to its tail which was easily 10 feet long and ended in a serrated spike. Fortunately, this lizard didn't seem to be too fast or strong, but it was big and low to the ground, kind of like an alligator. Its mouth was shorter than an alligator or crocodile, but its mouth was full of needle like shard teeth. Luckily, we only saw three of those.
As Eddie grew tired, being the one fighting the hardest we took our chances during a few second lull in the fight and switched Eddie for Niel, changing weapons along with positions. 20 minutes later, and 45 minutes into this insanity the number of monsters gradually started to wane. We were all tired and it was a massive relief knowing we were close to being done, or that's what we all thought. As the last monster died and we sat back to catch our breaths a single monster struck.
It had the body of an ash grey cat of some kind, even ending in a puffy grey tail. Unfortunately, that's where the nice parts ended, the top of its skull was a perfectly smooth alabaster white ending in a sword like horn at its nose. At the end of its six fingered paws were several inches long serrated claws the same alabaster white as its head. As it silently stalked towards us, I turned in time to see it about to pounce. Its mouth opened wide, showing teeth the same color as its head and claws, even coming from the grey furred bottom half of its jaw. I had no time to think and just reached for every last bit of energy I had, and lunged for the monster before it could close in on me.
We met with it in midair and me only having just risen to my knees, I knew my little box cutter wouldn't be enough to kill this thing, but I had to try. Somehow as the box cutter penetrated the monster's chest, I felt something leave my body before being bowled over by the force of the monsters' leap. The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake by Dante. I'm alive? I asked myself, unable to believe it.
Congratulations, you have received a title!
[Magus]: You have shown the ability to use energy without the system in a dire life or death situation. + 5% Stat Effectiveness + 5% Personal Energy Control
A title? That's awesome I wonder if anyone else got one or just me. Also, it turns out that when I felt something leaving my body, it had been mana, and that was how I killed the monster and wasn't killed myself.
Congratulations, you have reached the maximum threshold for level 1.
You now have access to the [Class] system.
You may now choose a class.
Warrior:
A standard class for those that like to use their brawns as their primary asset.
Stat increases per level: +2 Strength +1 Vitality +1 Endurance +1 Free stat
Rogue:
A standard class for those that like to use their speed and stealth as their primary assets.
Stat increases per level: +2 Dexterity +2 Agility +1 Free Stat
Archer:
A standard class for those that like to use distance and accuracy as their primary assets.
Stat increases per level: +2 Dexterity +1 Agility +1 Intelligence +1 Free Stat
Tank:
A standard class for those that like to use their resilience as their primary asset.
Stat increases per level: +2 Vitality +2 Endurance +1 Free Stat
Cleric:
A standard class for those that like to heal from safety instead of fighting.
Stat increases per level: +2 Wisdom +2 Intelligence +1 Free stat
Mage:
A standard class for those that like to deal damage from afar.
Stat increases per level: +2 Intelligence +2 Wisdom +1 Free stat
Random:
A random class for those looking for something different, and willing to put their path in the hands of fate.
Achieved Class:
A class that has been earned and reflects what you have accomplished.
Advanced Mage:
You have shown a great proficiency for the mage arts.
Stat increases per level: +4 Intelligence +3 Wisdom +3 Free stats
Note that it is possible to improve your class options by accomplishing feats and gathering more energy for your class.
We all talked about the last part of the class message, how we could improve our classes, but we needed to be able to survive and I was happy with Advanced Mage as a class, it was double the stats of the regular classes which everyone else ended up picking.
Congratulations, you have reached Level 1.
For reaching level 1, you have received stats according to your class.
+4 Intelligence, +3 Wisdom, +3 Free stats
Congratulations, you have received Skill: Bolt
Bolt: Send a small blast of energy at your target.
Congratulations, you have received Skill: Energy Strike
Energy Strike: Using a weapon or your body, send a pulse of energy directly into your target, damaging their interior.
Congratulations, you have received Skill: Bubble
Bubble: Create a bubble around you using energy that will block attacks but allow your own energy to pass through.
Name: Xavier Tremere
Title: [Magus]
Class: Advanced Mage (Lvl 1)
Unallocated Stats: 0
Strength: [9] +5% Effectiveness
Vitality: [9] +5% Effectiveness
Endurance: [8] +5% Effectiveness
Dexterity: [10] +5% Effectiveness
Agility: [9] +5% Effectiveness
Intelligence: [15] +5% Effectiveness
Wisdom: [13] +5% Effectiveness
Skills:
Bolt
Energy Strike
Bubble
I added 1 of my free stats to Agility Endurance and Strength each. As for my skills. Bolt was about what I had expected and useful for any mage. Energy strike on the other hand was likely somehow linked to how I killed the monster, though it's not the greatest skill for a mage. And finally Bubble which sounds stupid but is actually incredibly useful, I'm just glad I don't have to yell out my skills to activate them.
Everyone else's class choices were as follows. Dante chose rogue, Eddie decided to be a Tank, Niel picked Warrior, Jacob did the same, also picking Warrior, and finally Chad chose mage. The only thing I can say is that it would have been nice to have a cleric.
----------------------------------------
That was two weeks ago now, and fortunately for all of us that was the last monster we had to face for a while, it was hours before we fought next. Throughout the past two weeks we had fought monsters, leveling and scavenging for food and other supplies. We met different groups of people who had banded together taking over territory and shops. We decided not to join any of the gangs and stayed to the outskirts in the neighborhood we started in. We would try and make runs into the city in the center of our zones, but only the biggest gangs could claim territory in there and they hoarded the food inside guarding the edge of the city like it was the DMZ between north and south Korea. We heard rumors that inside the city a different kind of monster roamed, something much stronger than the original four kinds.
While our life was a little rough out here, we were able to find enough food for the six of us for now and we were surviving. Unfortunately, everything changed one day when I had gone out scouting for our group, even though I was a mage my stats were double that of everyone else. I had found a stash of food and come back early only to find three of my friends dead on the ground and Jacob and Dante fighting over the top of them. Dante noticed me and used his agility to make space while calling out to me.
"Xavier, he fucking murdered them he slaughtered them in cold blood!" Dante cried out, outrage and despair in his voice.
"He's a lying sack of shit Xavier, he killed them." Jacob called out, shouting over the last part of Dante's words.
I knew, just from that exchange who was at fault. I could hear it in his voice, Jacob didn't give a shit about what he'd done, he sounded cold as if 3 of our best friends weren't dead on the ground next to him, that his shoes weren't covered in their blood.
"How could you Jacob!" I screamed at him.
I felt dark despair and hot rage fighting in my chest for dominance. I chose rage, charging at Jacob deciding right then and there to kill him like he killed the others.
"Shit" Was all Jacob said before he prepared to fight. It sounded like he was annoyed more than anything else, which only stoked my rage.
Dante closed in with Jacob at the same time as I started launching bolts at him. There was a reason Jacob waited until I was gone to strike, I only had 1 level on everyone else but each of my levels was still worth 2 of theirs. Jacob tried to dodge my bolts, but he always ended up being cut by Dante if he did. We were a good team, having fought together daily for these last two weeks. It wasn't long before he was forced to take a hit from one of my bolts out of exhaustion and blood loss. It was a hit that blasted a chunk out of his leg hampering his movement further. From there it was honestly too easy. I stopped Dante from delivering the killing blow, wanting to ask Jacob.
"Why! Why did you do this you bastard!" I yelled at his prone form, towering above him with a bolt prepared in my hand.
"Hah ... *cough* *cough* It was the ... re-requirement to join th-the gang." He said, having the audacity to laugh.
"Which gang did you betray us for huh!" I asked hoping to get the answer before he died of blood loss.
"Meh, why n-not. It's not l-like I care any-anymore. It was V-Vaunted." He barely got out.
With that last word a launched a bolt right into his face, disgusted by the idea of him breathing again.
"Vaunted. They will fucking pay for this." I said looking to Dante who simply nodded.