The basin I had available wasn’t big enough for me to sit in, so I was forced to just splash myself with water to knock off as much of the drying blood as I could. Fortunately, my hydrophobic skin kept the majority of the stuff from sticking, making cleaning a quick process. Once the majority of my body was clean, I turned my focus to the wounds in my chest.

I braced myself for pain, splashing water on them to clean out anything that could have gotten into the injury. Instead of pain, though, I felt incredible relief. The water, instead of beading up and rolling off my skin, instead rolled backward, sideways, and up, right into the holes. As it did, they slowly started to knit back together.

I kept it up for the better part of twenty minutes, and by then all that remained of the wounds were small pinpricks the size of mosquito bites. They didn’t even hurt anymore, just itched. My side felt loads better as well, to the point where I could only feel the pain if I pressed on the area directly with some amount of force.

I had noticed several skill improvements during the walk and the fight but had been ignoring them in favor of getting back to safety. Interestingly, though, the alerts weren’t nearly as annoying as they were before. Had the notifications changed in the second wave?

Now that I was here and had some free time, I pulled up the alerts I had been neglecting.

Race Skills:

Stormborn: 1->2!

Storm Cloak: 1->2!

Electroreceptivity: 1->2!

Archetype Skill:

Born to Roam: 3->5!

Stormborn had obviously leveled from my using it to heal, and storm cloak from when I… fought. Electroreceptivity was trickier.

Thinking back, I remembered when one of the two crazed people attacked me from behind. I remembered distinctly feeling their muscles contract and shift, and that’s how I knew they were about to attack me.

Could I feel the electrical impulses in their bodies? Was that how that skill worked? Focusing, I attempted to sense Kaitlyn behind the curtains next to me, though after several moments I was still unsuccessful. Learning to use the skill would take some additional work.

Taylor had stopped by while I was getting clean, leaving a fresh set of clothes for me. They weren’t from my collection in my room, but considering that none of my old stuff fit, I didn’t mind. Hastily putting them on, I stepped out from behind the curtain, finding Kaitlyn waiting for me.

Beckoning her forwards, we headed around the hotel and through the field where people were quickly starting to move about. It looked like many were preparing to leave the hotel area, likely to go find their homes. If there were dangerous people out there, they all needed to know, but I wanted to check with Cindy first before I started to just shout at everyone to not leave. I didn’t think that would go over well, for some reason.

Cindy, Taylor, and Mr. Garcia were in the first-floor store, busily going through the goods stockpiled there. They were handing perishable foods and meats out to people as they stopped by so they could cook breakfast. Likely a good idea, as we had only a few more hours before everything in every freezer around the city was completely useless if it wasn’t already.

“Taylor, Cindy, Mr. Garcia? I need to talk to you. Now. Somewhere a bit more private?”

Sensing the stress and severity in my voice, they followed me into the back hallway, linking to the Garcia’s apartments. Quickly, I gave them a rundown of my encounter, explaining how I met Kaitlyn.

Taylor spoke up first.

“Vic, you said their eyes seemed to glow red? Could this be something… I don’t know… magical?”

Cindy answered quickly, thoughts already spinning through her head as she sought solutions.

“I don’t think the how of it all is important at present. The fact that there are active attackers roaming nearby definitely is. Kaitlyn said she saw ten, but we have to assume there are even more.

“Mr. Garcia, alert everyone that comes by for food this morning of the situation. Let them know that if they leave here, they should go in groups, and they should go armed. Maybe check with Jessie, to see if she’d be willing to start organizing an effort to fortify the area. We have a few chainsaws and axes, and plenty of trees. A rudimentary fence isn’t out of the question.

“Taylor, Vic? Can you think of anything?”

Taylor responded quickly.

“I’ll go talk with everyone, letting them know of the situation quickly. Then, I’ll start to organize parties that can scavenge and search for more people as they return to their houses.”

Cindy smiled and nodded, sending Taylor on her way. All the while I thought. I did have an idea of what I needed to do next. I turned to Cindy, my mind already made up.

“I think I’m going to pick my final skills and see what this class system is all about. Getting an early start on this System seems the best way to get ahead. We had a good start, and I don’t want to lose that momentum.”

“Good idea Vic. Make sure to record all of your discoveries.”

“Will do. Are the notebooks still up in the apartment?”

At Cindy’s confirmation, I moved to head upstairs. Cindy, meanwhile, took Kaitlyn off to get her situated.

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Back in the apartment, I couldn’t help but be moved by the strange familiarity of it all. It had remained unchanged, while everything else in the world was so very different. It was an unexpected anchor in what promised to be a relentless storm, and I was grateful.

Sitting on the couch, I first focused on Class to bring up its description.

Class: n/a

Classes are the culmination of your skills and help direct your Skill evolution and Race evolution to be more in line with your chosen profession. Classes can be changed or upgraded with each Tier advancement.

Class selection can begin once all skill slots are filled.

That was easy enough to understand. It also meant I needed to pick my skills, but I already had ideas in mind for what I was looking for. To start with, I pulled up my skill list to take stock of my situation.

Skills: v1.0.2

Proficiency

Effect

General Skills (1/2)

Identify

1/20

Gives user information. Amount and clarity based on identify level. Shows only basic information

Race Skills (3/3)

Stormborn

2/30

Increases the effectiveness of strength, constitution, and wisdom when in stormy conditions (+6%). Grants enhanced regeneration when touching water (+60%). Gain mana from enemy storm attacks. (+12% mana steal)

Storm Cloak

2/30

Your strikes contain the might of storms. You can use mana to fuel powerful physical attacks by cloaking tools with mana.

Electroreceptivity

2/20

You gain a 6th sense to sense electricity in a range of 10ft around you. Grows more powerful with use

Combat Skills (0/1)

None

Magic Skills (1/1)

Novice Storm Magic

1/30

Chaos Aligned. Control the power of storms.

Archetype Skills (3/3)

Born to Roam

5/100

Skill growth is increased while exploring new places alone (+5%)

First 1!

1/1

You were the first person to be upgraded. Absorbing ambient mana from kills is easier.

Eyes on the Road

1/5

You are born to travel. You have a supernatural ability to wind up where you want to be and senses strong enough to keep you out of trouble.

For my first new skill, I figured I would start at the top of the menu. General skills, it was.

Unlike selecting my Archetype skill, the menu of options I had available was extremely, almost unreasonably, long. There were everyday abilities like running, jumping, swimming, and many other forms of motion. There were also versions of almost every possible job, such as writing, reading, carpentry, and blacksmithing. There were even options that were laser-focused on a single task, like fence making, or table making.

I ignored all of them, making my selection without much concern.

Cartography

1/30

Ability to draw and create accurate maps

Before the second wave, this skill wouldn’t have been very useful. Now, though? Map-making was vitally important to literally everyone that needed to go from one place to another. Someone had to go there first, and considering I had the Lone Wanderer archetype and the Eyes on the Road skill, that person would probably be me. The synergy between my previous skills and cartography should make me incredible at it.

Now, I only had one skill slot left open. My combat skill.

As I started to pull up the menu, a feeling of dread settled in my stomach. My mind flashed back to the gritty, visceral fight in the forest.

I had seen action moves, of course, and imagined what it would be like to be in a fight. Unlike in the movies and books, though, time didn’t actually slow down. The fight was fast, the whole ordeal over before I even really processed what was happening.

A single misstep, a single unlucky dodge or trip, and I would likely be either dead or severely injured. The only saving grace I had was superior physical stats, and those wouldn’t last long. I was sure that dedicated individuals had already passed me in skill levels, and some had probably been fighting for a long time even before being changed by the waves.

I was starting from ground zero.

But did I even want to fight? Honestly, the answer was no. I had no desire to kill anyone ever again.

I would probably have to.

I think The Walking Dead hit the nail on the head. If the world became dangerous, people would become dangerous too. I needed to be ready for it. Mind made up, I focused again, pulling up the list of combat skills.

There were fewer options to choose from in this list. All the basic weapons were covered, just like Cindy had written in her journals. Also, just like Cindy had mentioned, though Bows were considered weapons, Guns had no options available. At least it kept my options to a minimum. Eventually, I was able to narrow my choices down to three; novice swordsmanship, novice unarmed fighting, and novice spearsmanship.

Swords were an interesting weapon, mostly because they were one of the first... well, actual weapons. Spears and bows were made to be hunting tools. Hammers and clubs for building. Knives were the same, designed as tools for cutting, not super great for attacking someone else.

But a two-and-a-half-foot knife wasn’t useful for skinning and also wasn’t useful for hunting. It was for killing people, plain and simple. Carrying a sword was the ancient equivalent of carrying a handgun; people didn’t bring one unless they carried it to protect themselves. Violently.

Melee combat, on the other hand, wasn’t something I would have originally considered. Given the system, though, It likely wasn't any weaker than the other options. It wasn’t a bad idea, as you would always be ‘armed’, in a difficult situation, as it were. The downside was that there was probably a pretty impressive skill gap. An angry idiot could kill someone with a baseball bat. It took a person that was either dedicated or lucky to kill someone with their bare hands.

Spears were useful too. They were cheap and practical, and though learning their intricacies would take some time, they weren’t the most complex weapon to wield. They had lots of reach, too, which would be useful for me in keeping my distance from larger enemies.

In the end, I decided to discard melee from my choices. I wanted to use a weapon. After some contemplation, I set my resolve and made my decision.

Novice Swordsmanship

1/10

Basic swordsmanship techniques and skills

I ended up choosing swords over spears for a simple reason; I thought swords were cooler. If I was going to be saddled with a combat skill for the next major chunk of my life, I wanted it to be something I thought was interesting.

*ding*

All skills selected. Would you like to begin Class selection? Y/N

Following the prompt, I entered the next menu.