I walk over to my companions, giving them the slow clap as Lilly finishes emptying her stomach of lunch.

"You both did great, well done!" I smile at a recovering Lilly and a jubilant Andy.

They truly did better than I thought they would, and the spears held up well.

"Do you guys feel like you received anything from killing the monsters?" I asked curious if they can feel the class energy yet.

Lilly shakes her head, not ready to speak yet.

"Nah man I don't feel anything, and the system didn't give me an xp notification either." Andy frowns slightly.

"Don't worry Andy I don't get xp notifications either, and I didn't feel anything until after I got my first class selection screen, I was just curious." Everything seems to be going the same way it did for me, not that I thought it wouldn't, I just wanted to see if they were going to experience anything differently.

I gave Andy and Lilly some time to recover from their first fight and then got them up and moving, telling them they could finish resting while we walked, and I found them more targets. It was two groups of saber wolves and a trio of raptors later when I found a second group of beetles. I reminded them both of what they should do and then set to killing off half the bugs before leading the other half right to my companions. They started off well, and were making good progress, when I spotted a barbed panther stalking towards them from behind and to the right. I scoffed to myself and killed the thing instantly with an energy dagger through its chest. When Andy and Lilly finished off their foes, I brought them over and showed them the dead barbed panther.

"This is an excellent example for both of you, and a warning. Just because you're fighting something, doesn't mean something or someone else can't sneap up behind you and kill both you and your enemy without you ever even knowing how or why you're dead." I gave them both serious looks until I felt it had sunk in that they could have just died.

They nodded and I lightened the mood a little by telling them they did a good job on the beetles. After letting them rest I found them a third group of beetles after killing my way through a group of wolves, two trios of raptors, and a barbed panther. I repeated my instructions again but at the end asked them if they thought they were ready to fight more than eight beetles.

"Yeah, I think we can do it, you should kill two less beetles." Surprisingly it was Lilly who spoke first. It was an unexpected but welcome deviation from Lilly's usual attitude. She must enjoy killing the beetles, maybe it was a good way for her to take her anger out on something.

"Okay sure I think we can do that" Andy looked to Lilly, and then nodded towards me.

"Very well I'll leave you two 10 beetles then." I nodded at them and then set them up in the middle of the street again before I was off.

By the time I brought the beetles to them they were down from 16 to 10. I stood a little closer to the pair of spear wielders in case they ran into problems with the extra load. They didn't, my companions handled themselves well, I was proud of them. Before we even got to the fourth group, they had agreed on fighting 12 beetles this time. They were out of breath by the end of 12 bugs, but they seemed excited and wanted to try 14. I agreed after asking if they were sure and they responded with a quick yes. I let them rest longer this time and made sure they were fully prepared before finding them a fifth group of beetles to battle.

"Alright prepare yourselves, I'll be back with the bugs shortly." I told them after I made sure they were in their places in the middle of the street, and went to lure the beetles.

With beetles on my six, I stepped through their little two-person formation and stayed close in case this was too much for them to handle. The first eight beetles fell with practiced ease, the next two they were breathing heavily, and when the final four came as a single group, I was worried for them. They handled it well though using the move they did for the group of three in the first group. Andy and Lilly both took steps forwards towards the outer two beetles, and killed them with a single thrust each, then they retreated a few steps retaking their stances and killed the final two beetles with the same practiced ease as the first 10, even if their aim was a little sloppy and they were breathing hard. I walked up to them, congratulating them both, but neither looked towards me. They were both staring into the middle distance. Ah, they finally received their classes. I waited patiently until they were done, making sure nothing came to kill them while they were distracted.

Lilly was the first to finish and she turned around to face me. She had a pensive look on her face.

"So, what did you pick for your class?" I asked, smiling at her.

"Um, I actually decided not to choose a class, I want to wait longer like you did and see if I can get something I like better." She responded.

"Alright, sounds like a plan." I nodded at her to show I approved, then waited for Andy to finish up.

It only took another minute until Andy was done, and he turned to us giddy with excitement.

"I'm a freaking warrior now guys, I got a class!" Andy was nearly shouting with excitement and had a giant beaming smile on his face.

"Thats awesome Andy, did you get any skills?" I asked clapping him on the shoulder.

"Thats great Andy." Lilly said with a smile, happy for Andy.

"Thanks guys, I got two skills." Andy said, still ecstatic.

"Do you want to share your skills, if not that's okay." I said, not wanting to pry too much, in case he wanted to keep them to himself.

"Sure, the first one is Strike, which basically lets me put more power into an attack, and the second is parry, which allows me to try and knock an incoming attack to the side with my own attack." Andy said in an excited voice.

"Those sound great man, congratulations." I was overreacting a bit, they were decent. I also noted mentally that he only received two skills to my five.

"How about you Lilly, what class did you get?" Andy asked, turning to Lilly.

"I actually didn't pick a class yet. I'm waiting a little bit to see if I find something I want more." Lilly replied to Andy, looking a little sheepish.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Hm, whatever you want Lilly." Andy said, though he was clearly looking down on her decision a little.

"Then how about you Cass what skills do you have?" Andy asked me.

"I have the skill you see me attack with, a skill to dodge, and a skill to see in the dark." I stated keeping anything he didn't need to know close to the vest.

"That's cool man I wish I had gotten a dodge skill." Andy looked disappointed for a second and then his beaming smile returned full force.

"Shall we continue then?" I asked my companions. They both responded in the affirmative.

For the next group of beetles Andy and Lilly decided to take on the whole group with Andy deciding to take the last two alone. It went well, Andy was able to successfully take on a greater portion of the beetles. I assume this is due to his increase in stats from his level up. Letting them both rest and then moving on, Andy asked me if he could try killing another monster now that he had his class. I agreed to let him take on a single saber wolf. When we next found a pack of saber wolves, I killed nine of them, leaving a single saber wolf to Andy. Andy was surprised by the speed of the wolf as it raced towards him.

"Holy shit!" he said before striking out towards the wolf.

I felt something when he attacked the wolf, my energy sense from my skill reacted to the strike on the wolf. Andy must have used his skill to attack with. now that I thought about it, I could now feel Andy with my Energy Control skill. He was like a small blip on my radar. Deciding to activate the skill as Andy was almost bowled over from the weight of the dead wolf skidding into him, I realized I could feel him much stronger, I could feel Lilly now, and I could even feel a Barbed Panther waiting in an alley up ahead of us. Wow, I should have used the active part of my skill sooner, this is extremely useful. I was stupid not to test out the active part of this skill. I could now keep track of both of my companions as well as enemies that I couldn't see. I knew I shouldn't rely entirely on this skill, but it was definitely useful beyond measure.

As Andy steadied himself and pulled his spear from the dead Saber Wolf, I noticed that I was losing a small amount of energy in a constant stream. My regeneration was giving me back about half of the energy at the same rate that it was being used, but I still wouldn't be able to keep it on all the time. With the range it had, I could probably just turn it off for a few seconds to regenerate, then flip it back on for a few seconds to get an idea of what was around me.

With the incredible usefulness of my skill discovered, I walked over to Andy.

"You alright Andy? The wolf hit you pretty hard." I asked, he seemed fine, but I wanted to be sure.

"Yeah, I think I'm okay. That thing was almost twice as fast as the damn bugs." Andy squawked, aggravated.

"Yeah man, that's why I started you on the bugs." I chuckled.

We were finishing up our third group of beetles after Andy had killed his first saber wolf, which he has now killed two more of. When we heard fighting coming from a few streets over. I had been turning Energy Control on and off since I discovered how useful it was, but whatever was fighting must be out of my range, because I couldn't feel it.

"Should we go find out what that is?" Lilly asked, curious.

Both of my companions looked to me. I thought about it for a few seconds before I responded.

"We can take a look, but we do it quietly, I want to see whatever is making this noise before they see us." I tell them.

They both agree, and we move off quietly towards the fight. As we move I deal with all threats, killing the monsters quickly and quietly, so as not to alert whatever we're moving towards. When I get within what I estimate to be 250 or 300 feet of the fight taking place, I can sense them with the active part of my skill. Slowing my companions into a stop before we reach the corner, I wave for them to stay put, and peek around the corner onto the street the fight is taking place on. It's almost over, but what I sensed was correct. Three humans, almost certainly all with classes. They are finishing a fight with a pack of saber wolves. They don't look injured, only out of breath. One is using a sledgehammer, another is using a knife, and I couldn't tell what the third guy was using to fight. I turn back to my companions.

"There's three people, I think all three have a class. They're finishing up a pack of saber wolves as we speak." I say quietly.

Just as I finish speaking, we hear a gunshot go off, it came from down the street the group of three is on. I quickly look back around the corner to see what happened. The third guy is now holding a gun, aimed at a dead wolf laying on top of the one with the sledgehammer. It doesn't look like he was hurt too bad, maybe some scratches but he is alive. Must not have wanted to make noise with the gun until they had no other choice. I move back to Andy and Lilly.

"One of them was tackled by a saber wolf, and another shot the wolf before it could kill the one that was tackled." I respond to the question on their faces.

"Should we go talk to them?" Andy asks. I look to Lilly to see her opinion.

"I think we should, it's the only other people I've seen besides you two since this whole thing started." She responds to the unasked question.

"Alright we can go speak with them, but be cautious, don't give away too much information, and keep your guard up. If anything happens, I'll go for the guy with the gun, and you two try and take cover, understand?" They both ascent to my instructions, and we move around the corner as a group.

I walk us down the middle of the street in full view with my hands in the air, then I make ourselves known.

"Hello there." I speak loudly and clearly.

The guy with the gun spins, his hand going to his hip where I can see his gun now holstered, but he doesn't draw it. The guy with the knife was helping the one with the sledgehammer up when I spoke, he didn't turn but pulled his friend up faster than he was before, apparently to the sledgehammer guy's annoyance, as he grabbed his midsection and grunted.

"Who are you?" Gun guy asks, not scared, but mildly annoyed and surprised.

"My name is Reaper, and these are my companions." I reply coolly, uninterested in giving strangers my name using my preferred username for games instead.

"Reaper huh. Seems a bit pretentious buddy, but alright. My name is Roland, that is Zack, and Charlie." Roland Smirks at me before gesturing to the man who has the sledgehammer first, and the man with the knife who helped him up second.

"Now who's being pretentious ... Roland." I smirk right back, and nod for my companions to introduce themselves in case they decide to use different names too.

"I'm Andy." Andy says and gives a small nod.

"And I'm Lilly." Lilly echos Andy and gives a small wave.

"We were just in the area when we heard fighting, and decided to see who it was." I explained why we were here.

"I see." Roland said, looking to the rest of his group.

"If that's all then we're happy to meet new people. Haven't seen many around since the world went to shit." Roland continued speaking for his group.

"We were thinking the same thing." I said walking closer now that tensions were down.

"Do you guys have classes yet?" Zack asked as we came within normal speaking distance.

"Yeah, me and C ... uh Reaper have classes, but Lilly doesn't yet. How about you guys?" Andy told them, with his big fat stupid mouth.

I refrained from sighing out loud as Andy was already telling them too much even though I specifically told him not to.

"Yup. Us three all have classes, and we're all level three." Charlie bragged.

"Do you two have any levels yet?" Roland asked, trying to be nonchalant, but failing.

"Oh nice, no I only have one level, not sure about uh Reaper here though to be honest." Andy responded like a fool.

"I see, thank you, Andy was it?" Roland sneered and glanced towards his two buddies.

Finally picking up on the situation Andy was slower to respond now.

"Uh ... yeah that's me, no uhm ... problem." Andy looked towards me as he finished, starting to get worried.

"Why don't you three hand ov ACK!" Roland grabbed his chest crying out in pain mid-sentence.

Before Roland even finished the sentence, he was moving his hand back to his gun. I launched an extra strength energy dagger into his chest, piercing his heart before anyone even realized my hand had moved. Without hesitating a second I Burst towards Charlie and shoved my Energy Blade into his chest, with a single step back, a pivot as I unsummoned my Energy Blade, and a heartbeat later Zack was collapsing to the ground with a hole through his heart. An eyeblink later and Rolands body hit the ground with a wet thump. I released the breath I had taken before launching my first extra strength energy dagger and turned to my companions.