Hurting and afraid, Alex awoke. It was completely dark and besides a silent whimpering, the teenager couldn’t hear anything. ‘That has to be this fucking dog. I hope its hurt like hell!’ Adjusting by the sound, guesstimating where it would lie, Alex carefully palpated himself. His shoulder felt like raw flesh. His back should be one big bruise and stepping carefully, something with his leg didn’t feel right. Ever so slowly, he raised his one good hand to the shoulder, but Alex didn’t know if he could trust his sense of touch. The biker gear was completely shredded and parts of his shoulder would be perfect for a hamburger. He wasn’t sure if he could feel bone or if it was part of his suit. Alex clenched his teeth, trying to ignore the pain and concentrating on the whimpering beast.

‘I’ll get it, and if it’s the last I’ll do,’ he angrily thought. Limping toward the sound, he soon felt something in front of him. He didn’t want to risk the other hand, and carefully tried to touch the beast with his bad foot, he was barely able to make out the way the dog was laying there. A few moments later, he could identify where the dogs head should be and Alex carefully lowered his good foot onto its neck.

He despised killing, but this new world didn’t care and it was either him or the beast and while he still might die here, Alex didn’t take any chances and put his entire weight down. The dog struggled, but it seemed to have lost its fight during the fall and after a last rear up and rattling breath, it finally lay still.

Alex respired, he had won. Even if he was badly wounded and still not out of danger, he had won the fight. He slumped onto his knees and fell down atop the dog, loosing consciousness again.

Alex awoke alarmed, trying to remember where he was. Until he registered the smell. Bloody, wet and dead dog, mixed with whatever else had died down here into an olfactory cocktail he couldn’t begin to describe. It was like his nose ran at terminal velocity into a wall of smell and committed seppuku, ritual suicide, afterwards. He scrambled backwards in an attempt to get away from the dog, but as he had lain on it for who knows how long, the smell had seeped into his clothing, hair and covered his whole body. To his chagrin, he couldn’t do anything else but to accept and hope to ever get clean again. There may be malicious gossip, that he lost the content of his stomach once or twice, but as he was alone, nobody would ever know.

A few minutes later, the teenager had caught himself, in so far, that he could finally try to figure out where he was and how he could get out and back to the orphans camp. It was completely dark and Alex called out: “Hello? Anybody here?” First relatively silent, but as he got no response, not even a mad scrambling of legs, charging at him, he got more bold and yelled. Besides his echo, there was nothing. At least he could conclude that the room was pretty spacious and empty. He knew that he had a self-made torch and matches in his backpack, but it lay somewhere in the darkness or even on one of the floors above him, probably next to his gun.

The teenager fought down his rising panic, trying to keep a cool head. The room was likely made by humans and therefore somewhat square. If he could find a wall, he would hopefully find a door, a staircase and a way out. Slowly limping forwards, Alex wandered to one side, until suddenly he tripped and faceplanted into the floor.

Groaning, he raised himself and felt for the tripping hazard. It took him longer, than he would ever admit, but a few moments later he had found it. Carefully, his hand tasted forward till it met something rough, leathery. Alex flinched and squeaked. His fantasy had always been colourful and in the darkness, everything was ten times more dangerous and spooky. “Man up, it will or will not bite,” he told himself, stretching his hand forwards again. Besides the leathery, rough texture, he could make out scraggly ridges and a cold, scrapey interior. Alex’ hand had completed a circuit and the teenager eventually identified it. It was a normal tire. Sighing he laughed about himself. ‘Damn darkness, making even a simple tire scary.’

Alex carefully stepped away from the tire, continuing his way to the wall. It felt like he was walking for hours, but at least his shoulder and limp got better. The new system, through who knows what mechanic, had enormously elevated everybody's healing factor. Now if it could do something against the smell, the teenager may even excuse the whole apocalypse thing. Alex eventually reached the wall and fumbled alongside it. Somehow even the darkness down here got better, as he saw a faint shimmer a few meters in front of him. His luck was with him.

But he had celebrated to early, as a slight sound to his side alerted the teenager. ‘Am I not alone?’ His fear was rising, the unidentifiable sound soon drowned out by his thundering heartbeat. Alex quickened his steps, freedom just a few meters out of reach, but whatever made that sound, was faster. Something battered his face and he felt claws, raking on his cheeks. In the last moment, Alex turned his head, averting damage to his eyes. The fluttering sound moved away, but the teenager knew, that it was just turning for another attack. He was vulnerable in the darkness. Whatever it was, it was faster than he could react, and besides his hearing, his other senses were stunted. He felt a short wind on his face, before he was battered again. The teenager raised his hands in defence, trying to hit his foe.

SQUEAK! It made, flying away, turning for another attack. Alex was bleeding from a dozen wounds, dizzy from the hits to his head and confused by the darkness. He grew desperate. He knew, he would die down here and it would be the end of his short, but eventful life.

“No! Leave me alone,” he yelled. His enemy completely unfazed, darted at him again. “I WONT DIE HERE!” Alex roared and jumped with outstretched arms, as soon as he felt the wings again. The teenager was successful and buried the beast beneath him. His will to live rearing, he angrily began pummelling it. Breathing hard, Alex let up from the mushy animal. It wouldn’t stand in his way again. Eventually the teenager got up and wiped the blood and gore from his face. ‘At least it isn’t entirely mine,’ he thought, heaving hard, but as his stomach was empty, Alex just coughed.

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A few minutes later, he had found his way back to the wall and braced against it. Alex decided against a short rest, even if his body craved it. ‘Just a few steps and I am back to freedom’ The faint shimmer before his eyes, the teenager scraped the rests of his strength together and continued onward. With a gasp of relief, he finally stood before the shimmer, but what he believed a doorway to freedom was in fact a swirling mass of darkness, a few shades lighter than its surroundings. Alex slowly extended his hand to it, a cold feeling spreading up his arm. It felt like he put his hand under water, but without the pressure of it. More like a fog, cold but light. Maybe some sort of wetness, but as he pulled back and examined his hand, it was completely dry.

Curious, he stepped closer, putting his hand on the border of this mist. It was definitely colder than the air outside. ‘Weird, but…,’ Alex began to grin. If he was right, he found an essence, and just in time. If it was an essence seed here, it had probably to do with darkness and would maybe help him get out again. Alex was of course sure, as the first essence seed Jones has found, was one of animal, and it was in the rabbits enclosure at the orphanage. Andrej’s essence seed, the second of their group, was one of wood and they had found it in the forest starting a few hundred meters away from their camp, while looking for firewood.

Slowly, Alex bend down, grasping into the fog. A few seconds, he just swished with his hand, until he touched something cold and the second ever system message plopped up.

You have found: Essence of Shadow (M).

Do you wish to absorb: Essence of Shadow (M). Y/N?

Alex jumped in elation. He really had found an essence. ‘M? M! M. Mythical? Should I really absorb it? The others would get really mad, if I ignore the camps rules…’ The teenager argued back and forth, but fact was, even if he and the others had accepted, that every carrier of an essence seed was decided upon together, he was still trapped down here and without it, he didn’t know if he would ever make it back to the orphans camp. Clenching his teeth, Alex mentally pushed YES.

His head exploded in colours, feelings and concepts he had no name for. Hurt, the teenager held his head, until he registered the mass of notifications.

Congratulation, absorption successful!

Welcome to the worldcore-system!

Loading class selection…

Loading…

Loading complete.

Please select a role:

Crafter - Defender - Vanquisher

No affiliation in immediate surroundings, automatically selected: Vanquisher.

Please select your Main focus:

Mage - Scoundrel - Warrior.

Baffled, Alex opened and closed his mouth for a few moments. The others may have told him about their initiation, but the feeling of being connected with everything else around him, the feeling of wholeness of being complete was indescribable. If he hadn’t been alone, he could have sworn, Ninjas cutting onions were somewhere around him. He had never felt like this before. Finally he belonged somewhere and he wasn’t alone anymore. Alex had lost his parents early on and while his two best friends gave him some human warmth, it was incomparable to what he felt at that moment. Tears were streaming down his face and he silently sobbed. The teenager knew, that this exact moment would nurture him, in times of solitude, for years to come.

Some time later, Alex finally remembered the messages. He called them up again and wondered what the affiliation meant, but he knew, Jones and Andrej were defenders and stayed at the camp most of the time. As he wasn’t particularly good friends with them and hated the handicrafts class at kindergarten and school, Alex easily accepted his role as vanquisher.

Even if he had to kill, the last two weeks weren’t exactly peaceful and the teenager slowly learnt how to cope in the apocalypse. He’d rather quickly went into overdrive imagining himself with the different focuses. The somewhat scrawny, one-seventy teenager, laughing evilly while slinging bolts and orbs of shadow sounded awesome, but as he had experience with playing games before, Alex decided to try this a bit more serious. ‘I am mostly alone here. Janine and Lin don’t have an essence yet and a mage needs a team, otherwise he would be easy pickings…’

As a mage was normally pretty defenceless once he ran out of mana and the enemy was still living, he swiftly discarded the image from before and imagined himself as a warrior. He knew Jones was one, as the boy had bought an iron plate from the systems-shop, as soon as he could. Alex quite liked the idea of him wearing plate armour, standing in front of hordes of enemies, maybe two axes or a sword and shield in his hands. ‘But what happens if I get overrun? What happens if I am to slow to flee?’ He didn’t fight often during the last two weeks, but if a fight was in vain and he had no chance, Alex would leg it as fast as possible. ‘No, I guess its the scoundrel I would choose. Maybe with a shadow seed, I can vanish? Teleport from shadow to shadow? Elusive and never to be seen?’ Grinning, the teenager confirmed his choice.

Confirming focus: Scoundrel. Y/N?

Happily, Alex pushed yes and an explosion of power from inside himself threw him onto his back. Momentarily he lost his senses, not quite unconscious, but overloaded with information and the sensation of his body, growing to accept this new system, the earth worked under. Finally regaining control, he opened the notifications, blinking in a furious, annoying red light on the side of his vision.

Please select a class inside your focus:

Alex quickly closed the window. At least fifty different classes had popped up, crowding his view. He had made out a few boring ones like thief or robber. Somehow he should be able to filter his choice, and he knew from the others before him, that a class decided his attribute gains and the four skills he could get. So Alex went to work.