The pain wasn’t a slow burn, but rather an instant searing pain. The regrettably familiar feeling of teeth lodged into muscle. The force from the creature’s leap caused Sebastian to stumble, but his body kept moving forward, running forward. Forcing its way to what he felt was safety. People. His right arm still limp from the previous bite, with the added injury from another creature, Sebastian didn’t have many choices.

He brought his left arm up and reached over his shoulder to his back, grabbing the monster by the neck. Sebastian tore it off of him, yet again taking another chunk of flesh with it as he tossed the corrupted being onto the ground in front of him, right into his path.

The creature was disorientated. It landed on the ground with a screech. It positioned its body, looked up at its prey and-

[You have slain Lv. 1 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Awarded 5 xp]

The monster’s skull was crushed under the weight of Sebastian’s boot. It felt like breaking through a sheet of ice, only to be met with a thick slush underneath. Ignoring the brain matter stuck to his feet, he kept running.

As much as he was in danger, the squirrels weren’t the brightest creatures. He wasn’t sure how many exactly were following him. But he could still kill a few more if they kept biting him one at a time.

As if the universe heard his thoughts, Sebastian immediately felt a new blinding pain amongst the marks on his back. He reached over his shoulder again, missing the monster’s neck for a few seconds before once again grabbing it by the neck and slamming it head first into a lamp post.

[You have slain Lv. 3 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Defeated higher level being]

[Awarded 22 xp]

The higher level explained the pain he was feeling as he ran forward, a pain much worse than either previous bite. He was getting fairly close to the supermarket now. The once vague figures making their way towards him. A few even seemed armed with weapons but they remained just vague outlines from this distance.

Sebastian refused to look backwards as he kept forward. The squirrels seemed drawn to the blood from his original wound so they continued biting towards his right shoulder. It left his other arm to defend himself, but the pain was truly becoming unbearable as he continued sprinting forward.

[You have slain Lv. 2 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Defeated higher level being]

[Awarded 15 xp]

Another squirrel turned into fragmented flesh on the pavement.

[You have slain Lv. 1 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Awarded 5 xp]

Smashed against the light post, this monster was tossed backwards into the crowd behind him. Sebastian heard them bite and tear at the corpse vividly this time. Since when were squirrels so fucking vicious?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[You have slain Lv. 2 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Defeated higher level being]

[Awarded 15 xp]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[You have slain Lv. 3 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Defeated higher level being]

[Awarded 22 xp]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[You have slain Lv. 1 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Awarded 5 xp]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sebastian was still wrestling with another squirrel as he finally felt a crowd of people run past him and into the diminished crowd of crazy squirrels, pipes and knives in hand. His right side had been gnawed into at least half a dozen times.

Holes of various sizes lined the back of his right and upper body, a fresh one being torn into by the squirrel still on him.

The group came to his rescue, that was certain, but he definitely would have asked them to kill the one that was actually attacking him if he could even get the words out. Why the fuck had they gone straight for the crowd?

He finally managed to grab the monster by the head, an action now way too familiar to him for his liking. With a similarly familiar action, Sebastian brought the creature up over his head and smashed it down on the asphalt parking lot.

For a moment, he had the satisfying feeling of being a certain green monster smashing a mischievous demigod.

So satisfying was the feeling, in fact, that he blatantly ignored the new blood red text in his eyes as he just kept smashing the corpse into the pavement. Only when his body felt drained of whatever energy and adrenaline he had left did he finally stand straight and look to the sky.

[You have slain Lv. 2 Corrupted Squirrel]

[Defeated higher level being]

[Awarded 15 xp]

[Congratulations for reaching Lv. 2]

I knew the sky looked darker tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A giant room with grey concrete walls, a ceiling obscured by darkness and shelving spanning wall to wall. Wailing echoes bounding around the room as hurried footsteps go back and forth amidst candlelight.

The scene Sebastian awoke to almost reminded him of a battle infirmary in one of those bad war movies or shows. He half expected to get bombarded by mortar fire as he pushed his body to sit up.

The lack of feeling in his right arm was something he quickly noticed, but he was unsure if it was from some sort of treatment the group gave him, or injuries from those fucking squirrels.

“Squirrel guy is awake!” A voice quickly echoed across the warehouse

“Squirrel guy is awake? Great! Someone bring boss!”

“Squirrel guy pulled through? Fuck yeah! Go squirrel guy!”

Any joy Sebastian had from surviving the ordeal quickly faded. It was obvious to him that he was ‘Squirrel guy’, a name he had already grown to dislike. In fact, he was sure he’d probably hate squirrels for the rest of his life.

He resigned himself to inspecting the bandages on his body. His torso to his right shoulder was completely wrapped, bearing the distinct smell of what he assumed was disinfectant, some sort of medicine he was sure.

The bandages wrapped his shoulder and right arm completely, leaving only his hand unbandaged. He knew they probably did the best they could for his injuries, so he hoped his Constitution was high enough to repair his arm to some degree.

Just when Sebastian remembered the text that appeared before he passed out, a small group of people approached him.

It was Dallas, his boss, and a few others. Mostly employees who worked with Sebastian during the night shift.

“Nice to see you’re awake, ‘squirrel guy’.” Dallas said. He was the overly bulky guy at the front. Sebastian wasn’t sure if everyone named Dallas had as much testosterone as this fucker, but it seemed common.

“You know my name, boss.”

“What, you don’t like ‘squirrel guy’? I think it’s cute.”

“I think it’s insulting.”

“You did get to level two killing the little pests. Don’t be too hard on them.”

Sebastian froze for a moment, a movement very visible to anyone looking at him. Dallas just laughed in response. “Don’t worry, you know my level too. You just need to use your skill.”

My skill? Sebastian thought. The moment he thought the word skill-

[Skills]

Identify

Identify? He looked back up to Dallas. A small blurb of red text appeared again as he said the word inwardly.

[Dallas Dale, no title]

[Human, Lv 4]

“.. Your last name is Dale?” Sebastian looked up, doing his best to keep the laughter within.

“It was an unfortunate choice on the part of my parents, yes, I know.” The man smiled wryly, probably upset that Sebastian just glossed over the level difference, but Sebastian didn’t care. He killed the level threes at level one. It was made apparent to him that such small differences didn’t mean much for monsters at least.

Whilst he was going through his internal monologue, Dallas kept opening his mouth, as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t put it to words. Eventually, he just sighed.

“Did you see anyone disappear?”

“Yeah, my bus driver, mid drive. Crashed the bus. Happened right after a big burst of light.”

“You saw the light?”

“You didn’t?”

“Apparently only some did, of varying levels of intensity. Not sure why yet.”

Sebastian shook his head. He knew even less than they did. Groups generally can collect more information after all, and he really just wanted to rest and calm down.

“Fuck..” Sebastian groaned. bringing cradling his head in his hands. What the hell has been happening today? “How many employees do we have? This is your place so I’m guessing you arranged all this.”

“A dozen, not much for this group. Some volunteered to help out.” Dallas moved and sat down beside him, offering a bottle of water, one that Sebastian drank with great enthusiasm. Bleeding out generally does that to you.

“How many people are here? How many have leveled? I was levelless until I killed the first squirrel.”

“The employees all have a level or two. Some others have a level they got on their way here. Packs of pests usually assault the front so we’ve been levelling the employees that way. Honestly, we’re surprised you escaped those corrupted squirrels. Nasty poison on their teeth.”

“Poison?” Sebastian spoke with a slight startle. That might explain the numb, limp feeling in his arm. “It might be because I put points into Constitution? I was pretty fucked up after the crash.”

“If that’s the case then you shouldn’t be resting long. I’ll need all the help I can get. Some pests are starting to get above level five.” The lumbering man sighed. His figure didn’t always seem so big, leading Sebastian to think he might have put his stats into strength or constitution as well.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Sebastian spoke a little absent mindedly. Dallas looked over and seemed to understand this, so he nodded to his group and left the infirmary.

Do they level up by killing too? Then how many people.. Sebastian shivered, before resigning himself to bringing up his stat menu again. If he was going to need to fight again, he wanted to be in the best state possible.

[Attributes]

Strength: 14

Agility: 8

Constitution: 15

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom:8

Perception: 5

Attribute Points: 5

He hated to say it, but he knew his best bet was probably to place all the points into constitution again. He’d love to hit harder, or have a better perception so he doesn’t walk into another alley of squirrels again, but he needed this arm fixed as soon as possible.

The moment he decided to place all five points into constitution and reach a nice round twenty, he felt a warmth surge through his body. The leftover injuries in his bones mended, and he felt the poison in his blood fade, leaving his body as a weird black substance on his skin. The bites didn’t heal instantly, but they visibly restored somewhat.

He still felt some pain, but he could move his arm without issue now. He had never felt more full of energy.

He went into the employees bathroom, the only area that seemed to be unaffected by the group of people inside the building, and he silently thanked god he didn’t lose his employee’s keys. He washed the black secretion off of his skin with the water from the sink and took off his torn shirt. His pants were somewhat damaged, but mostly fine.

Sebastian made sure to avoid his face as he looked into the mirror and down at his body, taking off the bandages.. A myriad of new scars having formed from the bites already healed over, scabs forming over the others. It looked like the injuries were all days old, and he sighed.

He felt odd. He knew his reaction towards it all could be stronger, should be stronger, but for whatever reason it just didn’t. He felt as if this was all normal. He also knew he’d probably only feel it was weird when someone told him it was. He sighed into the mirror and redid his bandages, as if and then left the bathroom.

He grabbed a random exercise shirt from the store, something good for, well, exercise. Then he went to go find Dallas at the front of the store.

“That was fuckin’ quick.” The big man laughed as he saw Sebastian approach, still wearing the bandages but clearly in a much better state. He eyed him a little weirdly for the bandages, but simply shrugged before giving him a chance to speak.

“Now that you’re here, you can pick your weapon.” Dallas grinned.