Jill stared at the dead wolf, shotgun going slack in her hands. She’d killed plenty of game animals; any woman who grew up hunting with her Dad and brothers did. But she’d never seen anything quite like this. The animals she’d killed had been with a single humane shot, maybe two if she’d messed up the first. The animals went down clean and quick, and there was a certain respect to it even if she didn’t really go in for the full spiritual mumbo-jumbo.

There was nothing clean about when she hit animals with Bertha head on though. The last time she’d hit a deer it had, well, exploded. Meat and blood and partially digested grass everywhere and a couple grand in damage to the front. If she just clipped one at low speed they could live but… Jill frowned. This had been no low speed hit; the damn thing had thrown itself at the truck like it was going to chew through the engine block. The strike from Bertha had broken the wolf, but not nearly enough! It should have been splattered.

No way it was a normal animal. Jill brought her shotgun back to ready and stepped closer. Sticky looking fire kept leaking from its mouth in a way that just couldn’t happen.

When she got within a few feet another damn box popped into her vision:

Collect loot?

“What the ass does that mean?”

System inquiry detected.

Tutorial duration remaining: 6 days, 23 hours, 24 minutes.

Loot are physical rewards generated by the System from monsters, related to their physical body or elemental affinity. Loot is automatically harvested and stored in a Sentient’s linked Storage if they have access to one.

Collect loot?

“Dogqueefs! My drug trip is listening to me huh?”

System inquiry detected.

Tutorial duration remaining: 6 days, 23 hours, 23 minutes.

The System observes all events at all times. Information may be purchased at System Access Points at varying rates.

Collect loot?

“Aaarg!” She waved away the box. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be! But there was some sort of crazy magic fire wolf dead in front of her, and she really didn’t feel drugged. She felt like it was midnight on a cold night, that she was stressed out of her mind, and that the smell of gore might just make her puke. She took a deep breath in, then out. Calm. Calm like getting home after a two week hauling route. Calm like the dawn breaking over the desert on a drive east.

Collect loot?

“Oh for fucks sake I’m trying to meditate here! Fine, collect the loot!”

A golden light pulsed over the wolf’s body and condensed into a softly glowing red gem, which flew over to land at Jill’s feet. The fire in the wolf’s mouth went out. Jill’s jaw dropped again and, hand trembling, she reached down to pick up the gem. It was hot to the touch and flashes of fire seemed to sparkle in its depths. Her hand clenched involuntarily around it, knuckles white.

“It's real,” she whispered. “It's all real.” She stumbled, leaning hard against Bertha to keep herself upright. Her truck was slick and sticky. “Oh godamnit!” She cursed, recoiling in disgust from the wolf’s splattered blood, now all over her side. That was real too.

“Ok, fine. Fine! I can deal with this,” she took a deep breath and then let it out all at once. “I’ve dealt with every other shitty thing! You, System! Tell me what the fuck is going on.”

System information inquiry detected.

Tutorial duration remaining: 6 days, 23 hours, 19 minutes.

Direct infusion granted. Standby.

“The fuck’s that supposed to - “

Jill screamed and clutched her head, her shotgun clattering to the pavement, as information slammed into her mind. The System was the end of life as humanity knew it, the coming of magic, filled with wonder and death. Monsters were coming, both mutated animals like the Lesser Firewolf she’d killed and also stranger things coalesced from raw Mana. Infused with magic, they wouldn’t obey any natural laws that humans knew of. They would be faster, stronger, and tougher, with powers over the elements or even stranger things. Thats why the wolf had survived a dead on impact with a tractor trailer at speed: its hide and bones were infused with Mana, making them supernaturally tough. While some would act like the animals humanity was familiar with, others would be driven only to consume and destroy. In places where Mana was denser, the monsters would come faster and be more powerful, able to effortlessly kill pre-System humans who lacked any magic power.

And the difference between pre and post System humans would be extreme. Anyone who gained enough Mana inside of them could become akin to a superhero, the Mana transforming them just like it would the animals. But unlike animals, humans could direct their own growth, choose what the Mana did to them even though the actual workings of magic were far beyond them. In order for humans to understand, the System presented the impact of Mana with numbers, called up at will. The basic statistics of a person summarized by three Attributes - Body, Mind, and Spirit - each representing one of the ways in which Mana altered a sentient being.

“Aw kneegrinder that hurt!” Jill said, her head pulsing along with her heartbeat. “What about me, what are my numbers?”

Jill MacLeod

HP: 70/70

Class: None

Tier: 0

MP: 90/90

XP: 7680/0

Level: 0

Body: 7

Mind: 4

Spirit: 9

Conditions: None

Class Powers: None

Jill’s eyes narrowed as she read her stats. “You calling me dumb?” She demanded, but after a few seconds of no replies she looked over the rest and focused on her Class information. “I saw that before, you asking about a Class. What are they? Oh and could you not - ”

System information inquiry detected.

Tutorial duration remaining: 6 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes.

Direct infusion granted. Standby.

“Balls!” A new spike of pain slammed into her head.

Mana didn’t change humans randomly. Instead, there was a direction, a purpose, to the magic, that made the abilities a person gained work together. In the System this was represented by a Class which determined both how their Attributes would increase and also what Class Powers they could learn. But not all Classes were created equal, with the same amount of Mana being able to boost one person much more than another if it was shaped just right. It wasn’t easy to get a powerful class though: one had to meet the right conditions so that the mana would form correctly. The System itself could help, but it cost rare Perk Points to do so.

Jill wasn’t really a fan of video games, but her various friends and partners over the years had liked to waste time with them. “This is more than just damn numbers. Why is this so much like a game?”

System information inquiry detected.

Tutorial duration remaining: 6 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes.

Information denied. Classified access request has been logged.

Jill snorted. “Real fucking useful. Tell me about -”

The sound of a piercing scream killed the rest of what she was going to say, fear plunging a hand inside her chest to squeeze her heart. A pair of round eyes, glowing green, appeared in the darkness. Something was looking at her.