“Wait.”

Trace stared at the fallen man— the intruder who broke into The Evergreen Gun Range and tried to murder her. She beat him in battle, but…

“Is he dead?” She couldn’t help but ask the question; experience was distributed, and she levelled twice. So, didn’t that mean she killed him?

[Negative,] Ex said, much to her relief. [He is merely unconscious. However, it is recommended that you do kill him now that you have the opportunity since doing so will grant you additional experience due to your level differ—]

“Ex.” Trace cut him off and took a deep breath.

[Affirmative?]

“Please piss off.”

[Affirmative.]

Sighing, Trace sat down on the man’s back. She stayed there for a while, waiting for the police to arrive. I’m not going to take my eyes off him for even a single moment. He was dangerous, contrary to her first impression of him. If I go to the garage to grab some rope, he’s definitely disappearing like a serial killer in a horror movie…

[To prevent that, you can—]

"I'm not going to kill him, Ex,” Trace said before the AI could even finish.

[If he wakes up, he will be violent. He will attack you.]

And as if that was a signal, the man groused. "Urk..."

“I see.” Trace nodded. And she struck him on the back of the head.

Thonk!

"If he wakes up, I'll just do that." It really was that simple. The man likely had a concussion— he wouldn’t be able to do anything to her in this state.

All Trace had to do was wait for a bit, and the police would arrive and apprehend him.

"Where am?..."

Thonk!

Any minute now.

“My head—”

Thonk!

Any…

"Hngng..."

Thonk!

"When are the police going to get here? Fucking hell!" At this rate, Ex was going to get what he wanted, and Trace was going to be a murderer. Or was it a manslaughter charge? Technically, this was self-defence, so she couldn’t really get in trouble if the police arrived and found her standing over the man’s corpse.

Thirty minutes and another strike to the back of the head later, red and blue lights flashed outside of The Evergreen Gun Range, the sounds of a police siren washing over Trace’s ears like a cool bath. She lowered her weapon and stood up.

“In here!”

A pair of police officers cautiously made their way into the damaged kitchen. They took in the scene and the downed man, before Trace gave them a rundown of what happened.

* * *

“You did a good job today, Trace Taylor.” The police officer that spoke was a Latina woman named Veronica. She patted Trace on the shoulder, giving the redhead an approving look. “Thanks to you, we’ve managed to apprehend an extremely dangerous criminal.

“Who is he?” Trace looked past Veronica. The other officer was loading the now-conscious and very dishevelled man into the back of the cruiser.

“Adair Russell,” Veronica said. “Better known online as Adair the Great. You can look him up. He’s famous for being the 9th highest-levelled individual according to leveltracker.com.”

“Wait— 9th highest-levelled in the world?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Just in the United States. He’s somewhere in the top 70 or 80 in the world. At least, that’s what the website says.”

Trace went cross-eyed. “Are you… are you serious?”

“Very. But even worse than that— he’s a prominent member of the Precursors of Peace.”

“Oh.” The redhead was speechless. “You mean the terrorist group?” That was what world governments were calling them.

There was a scoff, and Adair poked his head out of the police car, still handcuffed. “I wouldn’t stoop so low to join their cause.” He continued his odd speech pattern a moment longer before pausing. When he continued, he spoke normally for the first time. “The Precursors of Peace aren’t dangerous; they’re simply edified by fools. Even then, they’re right about one thing: society as we know it will continue cascading into the void, faster and faster by the day. A vacuum shall open up, and only the wisest will climb that pedestal.”

“Yeah, yeah. Please shut up.” The other officer shoved him back in and slammed the door shut. “Hurry up, Veronica. We have literally a hundred other emergency calls to deal with after we’re done here.”

“Right, I’m on my way.”

As if that was some sort of cue, multiple gunshots— even an explosion— resounded in the distance. There were screams. Shouts. Then silence.

Veronica pursed her lips. “I’ve got to go now. But before I do— look, I really don’t want to say this, but you can’t really rely on us to deal with your problems anymore. By that, I mean anyone, even the police. Half our officers walked out on the first day, and half of those remaining left since then. You got lucky this time, but if someone you can’t deal with tries breaking into your shop next time around, you should either run or hide. Don’t call us. We won’t arrive in time.”

So, that was why they took three hours to get here. “I will,” Trace said, before hesitating. “Are you sure you can deal with him?”

She felt nervous for the police officers now that she knew who Adair was. Surely, if he was that high levelled, he’d easily be able to break himself free from jail, right? Veronica was only a level 7 Ranger, while her partner was a level 8 Warrior.

And yet, Veronica nodded. “Adair may be one of the highest-levelled in the world, but that’s only for his class. Me? I’m one of the highest-levelled in the world for my vocation.” She winked and started back for the cruiser. “He’ll have a lot of trouble dealing with my level 10 skills as an Enforcer of Law.”

“Seriously?” Trace watched the officers leave as more bangs and shouts could be heard from a nearby street. “Ex, why didn’t you tell me what her vocation was?”

[Unfortunately, whether a class, vocation, or craft is displayed depends on the individual themselves.]

“Why didn’t you tell me I could do that?”

[It was not necessary as you do not have a vocation.]

“…right.”

Spinning around, Trace returned to the kitchen and halted when she saw the damage that had been done: water was leaking from a broken pipe while fire burned in a straight line across the table counter; pots and pans and knives and plates were knocked off the shelves and onto the tiled floor; and there was a gaping hole between the stairway and the entryway.

“Ugh, I’m going to have to clean all this up, aren’t I?”

“Oh my god!” A voice drew her attention. She blinked and turned to face a startled Liz with her hands over her mouth. “Trace, are you alright? What happened here?”

“It’s… Shakespeare paid me a visit, I guess? I don’t fucking know.”

* * *

There was a lot to explain, but Trace told Liz the gist of what happened just a few hours before. Liz flew into a rage, wanting to march straight to the police station and shank Adair. After a few steps, she collapsed and passed out, exhausted from her day of fighting in the Dungeon.

She was covered in grime and dirt and green ichor. Blood from monsters, Trace surmised. Liz must have been busy since she was already at level 11 despite being level 8 a few hours prior.

Trace hauled Liz to her bed before returning to the kitchen once more. She would have given her best friend a quick shower if she didn’t have more pressing matters to attend to. “Alright, Ex. It’s time for me to choose a vocation.”

[Affirmative. As previously mentioned, the commonly chosen list of basic vocations is as foll—]

“No,” she said. “I already have a vocation in mind. I’d like to be a Builder, so I can fix all this shit.”

[Vocation found:

Builder – A basic vocation designed for building and repairing structures or objects.

Trait Growth:

Strength: E to E+

Magic: F+ to F+

Endurance: F+ to E-

Vitality: F+ to F+

Dexterity: E+ to D-

Skills Gained:

(G) Quick Hands – Your speed of working with tools is enhanced.

(F) Makeshift Materials – You have the keen ability to use unconventional materials effectively for building.

(F+) Rapid Repair – You can work thrice as fast when building or fixing things for up to an hour. Can be used once a day. Cooldown will decrease for each skill level gained.

Do you accept this class?]

“Sure, if it means I can be done with this and go to sleep sooner.”

[Affirmative,] Ex said. [You are now a Builder.]

Name: Trace Taylor

Race: Human (Earth A314)

Class: Spellshot – Lvl 6

Vocation: Builder – Lvl 1

Craft: Locked

Traits:

Strength: E+

Magic: F+

Endurance: E-

Vitality: F+

Dexterity: D-

Skills:

Class Skills:

(G) Improved Accuracy – Lvl 6

(F) Deadly Sight – Lvl 3

(F+) Last in the Chamber – Lvl 2

(F+) Recall Weapon – Lvl 3

Vocation Skills:

(G) Quick Hands – Lvl 1

(F) Makeshift Materials – Lvl 1

(F+) Rapid Repair – Lvl 1

“Cool. So, I can now just? ...” Trace waved a hand, unsure whether she had to say something to activate her new skills.

[Now, you will need to acquire tools and materials before you can get to work.]

“Oh, right.”

It wasn’t easy work; it was quite laborious. Most of the flames had already become nothing more than a smoulder through time alone, but she still had to grab a pail full of water to extinguish the rest.

She proceeded to wrench the leaking pipe shut and went to the garage to find spare materials. Using a stack of extra flooring Liz's father had been intending to renovate with, she boarded up the broken window and all the other windows for good measure, before using what was left to fix the unsightly hole in the wall. Her Rapid Repair skill proved to be as useful as she thought it would be, reducing a whole night’s worth of work to two hours.

“Fuck. My phone’s broken.” Trace halted right by a scorch mark on the floor. Bits and chunks of the electronic were scattered haphazardly around the room. If one looked at it as it was now, they wouldn’t even know it had been a phone. “Think I can use my vocation to fix this?”

[Negative.]

“Thought so.”

Sweeping up all the shards of broken plates and glass, she dumped them in a trash bag and disposed of it on the pavement outside.

Trace only paused when she heard more gunshots ring out in the distance; it made her contemplate for just a moment. It had only been a week since the Esvol came and implanted a femtochip in everyone, supposedly integrating Earth into the multiverse. The world had gone mad in that short time.

She thought the first day where millions of workers around the globe collectively walked out of their jobs was already the end of the disaster, but when hundreds of millions of people quit their jobs and murder rates skyrocketed even further in the days that came after, it turned out that people were still reeling from the change. They still retained some sense of normalcy from before this apocalypse then, only starting to realise how real this was after a night’s sleep. Now, as the first week came to an end and the second week began, Trace knew—

“For fuck’s sake… this means I won’t be able to buy a new phone, doesn’t it?”

[Negative,] Ex said.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

[Affirmative.]

Locking the door of The Evergreen Gun Range behind her, Trace headed up the stairs and sunk into her bed with only one thing on her mind.

This was just the beginning of the end of times. And things were only going to escalate from here on out.

[(G) Quick Hands has reached level 2!

(G) Quick Hands has reached level 3!

(F) Makeshift Materials has reached level 2!

(F+) Rapid Repair has reached level 2!

(F+) Rapid Repair has reached level 3!

Builder has reached level 2!

Builder has reached level 3!]

“Oh, piss off! I’m trying to sleep!”

[Affirmative,] Ex said.