Aaron nibbled on his donut as he waited for a fresh pot of coffee to brew. All around him, people frantically rushed around, desperate to prepare for what was to come. Steam wafted off the pot; it was almost done. His mouth watered. As long as he had his coffee, everything would be alright. Three weeks without it had been torture.

To his surprise, two blue screens appeared.

Water Boiling (Common - Tier 1): Half of life is spent waiting for water to boil; speed up the process. Increase the speed at which water boils. Coffee Brewing (Common - Tier 1): Make something special. Passively increase flavor as well as decrease production time.

He would never have guessed that the simple process of making coffee would unlock two new skills. Of course, both of the skills were bad - ones he would never consider taking. Still, it was interesting to learn how easy it was to unlock skills.

He reconsidered his assessment of the water boiling skill as he ruffled through the cabinets, searching for a cup. The skill could be useful for a fire mage or something of the sort. For example, just getting grazed by an attack could cause someone to boil from the inside out. Coffee Brewing was still useless - nothing could change his mind about that.

He placed a plastic spoon, a carton of milk, and a cup on the counter as he waited for his drink to finish. The machine beeped, his coffee was ready. Before he could taste it, the air warped and distorted. Color lost its meaning as the world's vibrancy faded. An unfamiliar feeling washed over him. It felt like his body was being pulled in multiple different directions at once.

Random Low-Level Monsters Spawning - Prepare Yourself

The distortions, in reality, converged, thickening their effects. Distance collapsed in on itself; objects that seemed impossibly far away were within his reach. With a crack, the world returned to normal. Well, not totally normal. Left in the distortions ephemeral wake, at least a hundred monsters popped into existence.

From living scarecrows to gorillas made of stone, they looked around the office, hungrily searching for prey. Someone screamed, and everything descended into madness - monsters feasted on the flesh of the living, and in turn, cold metal cut into them. Aaron was determined not to join the ranks of the dead.

On the opposite side of the breakroom, three small green figures crouched before him. Just from their eyes, he could tell they wanted to kill him. The tallest, which couldn’t have been much taller than 3 feet, held a primitive spear in its hands. According to the System, it was a level 2 Goblin. He would have to take care of that monster first. Getting stabbed with a spear didn’t sound like fun.

His fingers drifted to the gun on his hip as the Goblins began to circle him, searching for an opening. Reluctantly, he pulled away and instead grabbed the hot pot of coffee. He had limited ammunition; there was no point in wasting bullets on low-level enemies. He could handle them himself.

The goblins stepped closer - close enough to the point where he could smell them. His eyes narrowed; it was now or never. Sorry, buddy. With a heavy heart, he flung the burning hot liquid at the goblins. They collapsed to the floor, screeching in pain. Fun fact: coffee brewed at 205 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pressing his advantage, he stormed forward while firing Mana Bolts out of his hand. The neon blue bolts of magic raced through the air and crashed into his injured foes. Each Mana Bolt rocked their bodies back, bruising the flesh. In the span of a couple seconds, he emptied a third of his mana pool. Before they could fully recover, he snatched the spear out of the big goblins grip. It resisted, but it simply wasn’t strong enough to overpower him.

Without the barest hint of proper technique, he stabbed the spear into the level 2 goblin’s chest. It promptly died. In that time, the two smaller goblins had somewhat recovered. They weren’t in peak condition, but they could still fight. They both surged forward, coming at him from opposite sides.

While trying to free the spear from the goblin’s chest with one hand, he used the other to shoot Mana Bolts at the goblin on his left. The first bolt missed; he couldn’t aim properly while multi-tasking yet, but the second bolt landed, knocking the goblin onto its back.

While he was distracted, the other goblin had managed to get close. Its claw cut through the air, aimed at his stomach. He ripped the spear out and rolled out of the way of the strike. However, he didn’t manage to fully avoid it. The goblin had cut a thin red line into his side.

He popped up to his feet as quickly as possible then put the miniature spear in between him and the goblins. The two monsters charged him, but now that he had a weapon, he was able to dispatch the two monsters relatively quickly. His longer reach allowed him to stay out of their reach; ultimately resulting in him winning the fight without taking any additional damage.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt Lvl 3→6. 3 Skill Points Awarded. Level 1 Goblin Slain! 25 Exp Gained.

Level 1 Goblin Slain! 25 Exp Gained.

Level 2 Goblin Slain! 50 Exp Gained. Congratulations! Class: [Mage] has reached level 2. +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, +1 Recovery, +1 Defense, +2 Dexterity, +1 Agility, +2 Perception, +3 Mind, +3 Magic, +1 Spirit.

He clenched his fist as a warm feeling flowed through him, improving his body in every way. His muscles tightened, his vision sharpened, and new connections were formed in his mind, allowing him to think faster. I could get used to this.

A litany of notifications still hovered at the edges of his vision; the System had responded to his desire to not be disturbed and placed them in an unobtrusive location. He had gained a lot of skills during the fight, but now wasn’t the time to sort through them - monsters were eating people alive outside.

Confident in his abilities after dispatching the goblin’s, he stepped out of the breakroom. He was immediately punished for his overconfidence. A gorilla made of stone bashed into him at full speed, cracking his ribs. The impact sent him flying down the hallway. While tumbling through the air, he managed to read the floating blue letters above the monster's head. He was hopelessly out-leveled.

Stoneskin Gorilla Lvl 8

He hit the ground and rolled twice, aggravating his cracked ribs. Within a heartbeat, he had his gun drawn and aimed at the monster. This was the type of situation he was saving his bullets for. The ape slammed its chest then charged towards him. Aaron pulled the trigger.

The first shot struck its shoulder, cracking the monster's stone skin in a burst of rock. The second shot hit the center of its chest, further damaging its hide. Blood flowed freely onto the dark grey rock that made up its skin, but it still barreled towards him with the force of a train. It required three more close-range shots before the monster died. Its lifeless body crashed to the ground next to him, shaking the floor. A second slower and he would have been killed.

Level 8 Stoneskin Gorilla Slain! 200 Exp Gained. Congratulations! Class: [Mage] has reached level 3. +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, +1 Recovery, +1 Defense, +2 Dexterity, +1 Agility, +2 Perception, +3 Mind, +3 Magic, +1 Spirit.

His chest felt warm as the level-up process worked to repair some of his injuries. Most importantly, the two extra levels had given him 60 Mana Points to play with. That could have gone better. Note to self: look both ways before crossing the hallway.

Before he could get up, a level 1 goblin jumped off a desk towards him. He shot it out of the air with a series of Mana Bolts; another dead body hit the ground next to him. There was no respite in this warzone. Immediately another monster pounced towards him. 30 MP later, it also hit the ground dead. He dismissed the kill notifications.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt Lvl 6→8. 2 Skill Points Awarded.

This wasn’t sustainable; there were too many monsters. He couldn’t kill them all. He’d run out of resources if he tried. A bullet punched a hole in the drywall next to his head. With a groan, he forced himself to his feet and took stock of the situation. All around him, life and death battles took place. However, the situation wasn’t hopeless; the guards were slowly whittling down the monsters.

A boar with flaming tusks charged at him but was distracted and changed targets when it was shot in its flank. He grinned lazily. He didn’t have to beat all the monsters. In fact, he didn’t have to kill any of the monsters. The guards would do that for him.

He crouched down low and made his way back to the Warden’s office. Bullets and Mana Bolts flew over his head, but none of them connected. He occasionally had to hide behind an overturned desk to wait for a monster to pass by - he never had to wait long. There was no shortage of targets in the office - the monsters quickly got distracted enough to let him pass by.

Within a minute, he had reached the Warden’s office. He threw open the door, ready to blast whatever was inside. Like a c-tier horror movie, a living scarecrow jumped out at him, but he was ready. He blasted it with a continuous chain of Mana Bolts till it stopped moving.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt Lvl 8→10. 2 Skill Points Awarded.

He closed the door then locked it. He didn’t think he’d be back here so soon. Loud gunshots and screams echoed through the room. He plopped down on the Warden’s comfy leather chair and waited for the carnage to end.

He idly scrolled through the list of skills he had unlocked. Only one interested him.

Stealth (Common - Tier 1): Walk through the night undetected. While active, you are harder to notice. Effect is amplified while in shadows. Costs 1 SP per second.

The skill was simple, but it would always be useful. Sneaking around was a skill that was always in high demand. Besides, he didn’t have a skill that used SP yet; it would be a waste not to take it. He selected the skill, filling one of his four general skill slots.

He passed the time by drawing pictures on the Warden’s desk. It was quite relaxing. Additionally, his stealth skill leveled from just sitting in the chair; he didn’t have to do anything. Life was good. Other than his ribs, those weren’t good.

By the time the gunshots had stopped, he had drawn ten dicks on the Warden’s desk. Feeling proud of his artistic ability, he exited the room. Outside was a mess. Dead bodies littered the floor, and just about every piece of furniture in the room had been overturned. Most importantly, not a single monster was left alive. He softly clapped. Good work. For once in his life, he was grateful for the guards.

He strode past the exhausted fighters. The apocalypse was a marathon, not a sprint.