Alex, Ty and Danny stood just inside the entrance of the Bellevue lobby, staring at the dark wood door before them. Just beyond the front door was the City Zone, a place they would need to enter to finally start leveling up.

They were all understandably nervous but there was also the thrum of excitement. Even with their lives on the line, there was an underlying rush of adrenaline flowing through them. This is what every person at one time of their lives had wanted, an adventure.

After a few hesitant minutes, they finally stepped out into the city, greeted by overwhelming silence. The quiet, empty streets were nerve rackingly eerie. Just beyond the awning of the Bellevue, they looked at the windowless concrete buildings that towered over them. Perfect pillars of lifeless grey that stood silent, watching their every move.

“So, our plan is to head straight down the street to our right, always keeping the awning in sight.” Alex stated for the third time that day.

Turning to their right, Alex walked forward with Danny and Ty a step behind him, each off to one side. None of them had any actual military training but this seemed like the best way to cover all avenues of approach. It also gave them something else to focus on besides their nerves.

The building next to the Bellevue had a worn wooden door with faded and peeling red paint, though the concrete building looked exactly like each of the others.

Ah! A perilous journey indeed.

“Do you think the appearance of the door mean anything?” Danny asked.

“Only one way to find out.” Ty said nervously, still watching the street.

Alex grasped the worn brass door knob and slowly pulled. The sound of rusted hinges echoed into the empty streets and they all winced at the noise. Peeking in, Alex noticed another hotel lobby, but unlike the Bellevue. with its dark wood walls and lush carpets, this lobby looked like it had been abandoned for decades.

The wood floorboards were twisted and cracked. Old and worn red velvet couches and chairs were strewn about, as if the building had gone through an earthquake at some point. The front check in desk was smashed to pieces and the stairs at the far end looked dangerously out of commission.

With a deep breath, Alex moved in, his friends following closely behind. The air in the lobby was stale and reeked of something long since dead. They moved through the lobby slowly, looking for any signs of life. With each step, the boards under their feet creaked loudly and their feet disturbed a heavy layer of dust.

“Well, if they didn’t know we were here before, they most definitely do now.” Danny whispered.

Alex nodded but kept moving forward, trying not to think of the horrors they soon might encounter. Just as they approached the stairs, a chittering sound could be heard above and several thumps followed, knocked the dust off the ceiling.

“Back up.” Alex whispered. “I think we are about to get some visitors.”

They backed up to the front door as the thumping and chittering continued. As the first of the monsters came into view from the stairway, the group stared, slacked jawed.

At the top of the stairs stood a rabbit, but unlike any they had ever seen before. It was close to two feet tall and covered in dark grey fur with two red glowing eyes staring back at them. As the first of the rabbits hopped down the steps, clouds of dust erupted from its fur.

“Are those…Dust Bunnies?” Alex asked.

“Who cares what they are!” Danny whispered. “Ty, start shooting, I will try to root them at the base of the stairs.”

Her words brought Alex back into the moment and he moved to the side and sprinted forward, trying to stay clear of his friends’ line of fire. He jumped over an overturned couch easily but when he landed, his foot went straight through the floorboard.

“Shit!” Alex yelled.

He pulled his foot out of the newly made hole and wiggled his ankle around. Happy to find that it wasn’t broken, he stepped a little lighter this time, getting in range of the Dust Bunnies.

Danny’s root spell had successfully blocked of the stairs and Ty was already filling the bunnies with arrows. When Alex finally reached the edge of his range, he shot both guns into the swarm, his handguns barking loudly with each shot.

The mobs were going down easily but with every death, the clouds of dust became thicker and started to spread out. Even at five meters away, Alex started coughing as he continued to shoot into the swarm. It wasn’t long before he had to back up, unable to breath with the thick dust clogging the air.

“We are going to have to wait for that to clear.” Alex managed to choke out while pointing to the large cloud of dust. “I couldn’t even breath over there.”

“Maybe we can make some masks.” Danny suggested.

They looked around their side of the lobby for anything that might serve to help block the dust. For some reason, the dust wasn’t settling down, instead in billowed in on itself. Thankfully, it had stopped spreading halfway across the lobby.

Ty found a first aid box attached to the wall. Opening it, he let out a cheer.

“Jackpot!”

He turned around holding three pale blue masks that you would normally see doctors and nurses wearing.

“Very nice!” Alex said, grabbing one of the masks and putting it on. He felt the mask create a seal around the edges. “Wow, even the masks are magical.”

“Ugh.” Ty said as he put the mask on. “Reminds me of the Aliens movie with that thing that wraps around your face!”

Danny was just about to put on the mask when she stopped and glared at Ty.

“What?” Ty asked.

“I think I will wait a bit.” Danny said coldly. “Maybe these masks are actually Monsters and are about to lay eggs in your stomach.”

Ty’s little eyes went wide and Alex snorted, slapping him on the shoulder.

“She’s kidding…I think.” Alex said. “But maybe cut back on the imagery.”

“Yeah.” Ty said. “My bad.”

Danny finally put on her mask and they headed through the dust cloud, towards the stairs. Danny was about to reach down towards a golden orb floating in the air that signaled her loot but Alex stopped her.

“Let’s check the stairs first before we loot. We don’t want to get ambushed.”

“Good point.” She said, moving past the orb.

They checked the stairs and they looked somewhat safe, if just barely. They moved up the stairs and out of the dust cloud so they could fully see the next floor. It looked clear but Alex let them loot their kills first so that they had someone on guard. It might be considered paranoia but that didn’t mean it was a bad idea.

When it was his turn, he headed down the stairs and saw several glowing orbs still at the base of the stairs. The bodies had already disappeared so at least they didn’t have to worry about any of the bunnies playing opossum.

Experience: 50 (10xp per Dust Bunny x15(/3))

Souls: 5 (1 Soul per Dust Bunny x15(/3))

It wasn’t amazing loot but at least it brought him half way to level one. He joined up with Ty and Danny at the top of the stairs.

“Did you both get five kills?” He asked

“Yep.” Danny answered. “I think since we are fighting like a group, it splits it all up evenly.”

“To bad there isn’t a way to party up.” Ty said. “Someone could possibly steal our kills if they wanted to.”

“They can’t.” Danny answered. “The loot is only able to be taken by someone else after an hour has passed. Until then, it belongs to the person or people who earned it.”

“When did you learn that?” Alex asked.

Danny shrugged. “I asked Jeffrey. I wasn’t a gamer like you dorks, so I asked him a bunch of questions. He couldn’t answer most of them but he did shed some light on seemingly irrelevant things.”

The stairs leading to the third floor was on the far end of the hall, so they kept moving, trying to keep the noise down to just the constant squeaking of the floor boards. All the doors along the hall were locked so they pressed on, hoping the rooms weren’t going to pop out dozens of monsters at once.

On the third floor, they came across another monster. This one was waddling away from them and all they could see was a large grey furry behind with a long tail at the end.

“Rat.” Alex whispered.

“Biggest rat I ever seen.” Ty commented.

He was right. The rat was at least three feet long, if you didn’t include the tail. The only good thing was that it was still waddling away from them.

“Go ahead, Danny.” Whispered Alex.

Danny cast her root spell. As soon as the thorn filled vines grabbed hold of the oversize rodent, it started bucking about. Ty let his arrows fly, earning pain filled squeaks from the rat. The hall was decently wide so Alex hugged the wall and moved towards the rat.

“Don’t shoot me, Ty!” Alex whispered. He could hear Ty laugh which didn’t inspire much confidence.

At five meters, he opened fire, glowing blue bullets striking the rats abundant posterior. He was only a few shots in before the rat spun around and leapt at him.

The first thing Alex noticed was the size of the rat’s teeth. The incisors had to be at least half a hand long. The second thing he noticed was the bits of vines that were stuck to the rat’s face.

The damn thing chewed through the vines while its back was turned to us!

His body reacted before his brain could. Alex jumped up and then kicked off the wall, barely avoiding the large teeth that were speeding towards him. He heard the rat smash into the wall behind him but he didn’t bother stopping his escape. The rat had covered five meters in a single leap. He needed a little space before turning around.

His kick carried him towards the opposite side of the hall. He was able to twist his body just enough so the when his feet hit the wall, he took off at a dead sprint. He only made it two strides before gravity reasserted control, but he at least cleared the thorn covered vines that were still on the floor.

Turning as he landed, he was just in time to see the rat pick itself up off the floor and turn around. Its beady red eyes were glowing angrily and it started to make its way towards Alex again.

Alex opened fire, leading the rat away from the stairwell and his friends. Bullet after bullet hit the oversized rat in the face but when Alex hit one of the red glowing eyes, the rat stopped moving and screamed in pain. Seeing that, Alex stepped forward and shot the rat’s other red glowing eye, mere feet away. The rat suddenly stilled and then dropped to the floor. A golden orb appeared just as the rat’s body disappeared and Alex held out his hand to loot the orb.

Experience: 100 (300xp per Oversized Rat /3)

Souls: 10 (30 Souls per Oversized Rat /3)

Congratulations! You have reached Level 1! You have 3 available Attribute points!

“Ding!” Alex said happily. Danny gave him a curious look.

“Ding means I leveled up.” Alex explained.

She smiled but still rolled her eyes at him. “Dork. Why don’t you both put your new points in. I will keep watch. And stop dancing, Ty.”

Ty was standing behind Danny and was in fact dancing, but there was no way she could have seen that.

“Whoa!” Ty said. “Do you have ESP too?”

Alex snorted. Danny’s companion, Willow, was hard to see but he could make out the little Eldaman whispering in Danny’s ear.

“Her companion told her, Ty.” Alex stated. “It’s on her left shoulder next to her ear.”

Ty looked over and saw the green humanoid creature happily waving down at him. Ty waved back with his furry black hand. Ignoring their antics, Alex pulled up his Status and placed an Attribute point into Agility and Dexterity since they were his main stats, then he put the last one into Vitality since he was very much attached to staying alive. He could feel his body go through its slight changes. It was an odd sensation followed by a small euphoric rush. He dismissed his Interface and took up guard for Danny.

After their attributes were set, they headed to the next floor. Unlike the others, these set of stairs led to two old wooden doors barely attached to their hinges.

“Boss room!” Ty exclaimed.

“Maybe.” Alex said as he turned the door knob, finding it unlocked.

“So, bigger monster then?” Danny asked.

“Yeah.” Alex answered. “Sometimes they will even have special abilities.”

“Then why the hell are you so excited, Ty?” Danny asked, glaring at the ninja panda.

“Bosses usually have special loot.” Ty said, seemingly unconcerned.

“Still, let’s not rush in without a good look.” Alex said, trying to calm Ty down. “I will admit, I’m a little excited as well but we are essentially noobs here. Remember, even if those mobs below were easy, it only takes one mistake. No resets.”

Ty grimaced but didn’t argue while Danny nodded, agreeing whole heartedly.

Opening the double doors showed them that the floor was actually an old-style swimming pool, complete with aggregate flooring and broken-down wooden pool recliners. The water in the pool was filthy. A mixture of black and green algae floated atop the dark water and the smell was equally as disgusting.

Alex gagged. “That is rank.”

Before the others could comment, the calm and disgusting pool surface exploded as a giant Toad covered in sickly green and yellow skin burst from the pool and landed on the aggregate floor. Sitting close to Ty’s height, the toad blinked its bulbous eyes at the trio.

“Kill it!” Alex yelled, running to the side. “Watch out for its tongue!”

The Toad’s huge maw opened, revealing shark like triangular teeth and a pink tongue. The tongue shot out towards Alex but he dived into a roll, the tongue flying behind him to smash a pool recliner into kindling.

Coming out of his roll, he took aim at the still open mouth and shot at the base of the tongue. The twin handguns roared, spitting out glowing, Soul bullets that bit into the soft flesh of the tongue, causing spurts of blood to erupt from the monster’s mouth.

Ty immediately drew his bow and two arrows found their way into the open mouth, the toad croaking loudly in protest.

“Yeah, take that, Kermit from hell!” Ty shouted.

Danny chanted under her breath; the tip of her staff started to glow a vibrant green. With a shout, she pointed her staff and a green bolt of magic slammed into the Toad, tipping it backwards where it fell back into the pool.

“Woo!” Ty yelled.

“Guys.” Danny said. “I don’t see a glowing orb yet.”

“Shit.” Alex hissed as the Toad leapt back out of the water, heading straight for Ty.

The red panda didn’t have time to dodge and was hit full force, buried under the mass of the Toad. Danny screamed and started casting her green bolt again.

“No, Danny!” Alex shouted, running for the Toad. “Heal Ty!”

Nodding her head, she dropped the cast and gasped in pain as the spell backfired on her. That didn’t stop her from immediately chanting again, focusing on her healing spell.

Alex was more than impressed. Danny was definitely a badass in his book considering how she was handling herself. Even if she wasn’t a gamer, she went out of her way to figure out what she could. Rushing towards the toad, Alex could only hope that Ty put one of his newly acquired attribute points into Vitality.

With a leap that Michael Jordan would be proud of, Alex jumped up and landed on the Toads back. With his handguns pointed down, he unleashed hell, firing his handguns as fast as he could squeeze the triggers. The eyes were first to go, popping into bloody, ruined mounds of flesh. Alex didn’t stop, however, screaming as he continued pouring bullets into the Toad sitting atop his friend.

When the Toad suddenly vanished with a resounding Pop, Alex found himself falling towards the pointy end of Ty’s sword. Apparently, Ty had not died from the impact and had been stabbing the Toad from underneath.

With a yelp and the assistance of his Agility, he barely managed to twist his body, avoiding the sword and landing face first onto the floor.

“Ow.”

Lying next to him, Ty nodded, his eyes open wide as he stared at the ceiling.

“You and me both, bro. Ow City.”

Danny continued casting her healing spell, her chanting barely audible as she hurried through her spell. Alex felt the cuts and bruises on his face slowly heal until the pain finally subsided. Sitting up, he gave a look at Danny.

“Did you modify that spell?” He asked.

She half laughed; half sobbed. “How could you tell?”

“Just a guess.” Alex said with a grin. “Thanks for saving our bacon.”

“What he said.” Ty added. “I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. Frog nightmares.”

Alex and Danny both cracked up at that. Maybe it was just the release of built-up tension but the laughter kept going until they were all gasping for breath.

“Okay, let’s see what the Toad Boss gave us.” Alex said, reaching out for the golden orb.

Experience: 300 (900xp per Toad Boss /3)

Souls: 50 (150 Souls per Toad Boss /3)

Boss Loot: Rare Toad Skin

Congratulations! You have reached Level 2! You have 3 available Attributes Points!

Congratulations! You have killed you first Boss! For this Accomplishment, you have gained +2 free Attribute Points!

Alex focused on the Boss Loot, which was a tiny glowing dark green orb floating above his hand.

Rare Toad Skin: Apply to a single piece of Armor or Weapon and that gear will be given an ability or attribute coinciding with the deceased Monster’s Talents! WARNING! Can only be applied to one piece of Armor e.g., chest, one boot, one shin guard, one vambrace, ect.

“Wonderful.” Danny said sarcastically. “Toad Skin.”

“Don’t judge too quickly.” Alex laughed, seeing the look of disgust on her face. “Gaining increased jumping would be awesome. I think this is the equivalent of enchanting your gear.

“Let’s get back to the Bellevue for lunch and tell everyone what happened.” Alex said as he helped Ty up from the floor.

They returned to the Bellevue just as people were heading to lunch and several of the players had swarmed them, asking what they went through. While they explained what they saw and did, making sure to include that the state of the doors might hold some hint as to the level of difficulty they might face, Alex noticed the large Somali man along with four others at a nearby table, staring at them.

Toby caught the looks and turned to Alex.

“Those five are becoming more aggressive. The big Somali over there almost got into a fight over a training room while you all were gone.”

Alex sighed. “What the shit is wrong with them? It’s not like any of us are competing with each other. The better we all do, the better our chances of surviving this.”

Toby shook his head. “Who can say. They might just be trying to embrace their Modifier but even then, I think they are going about it the wrong way.”

Once the players finally got enough information, everyone settled down to eat. Alex went over his stats while doing so. He added two points each into Dexterity and Agility, thanks to the Accomplishment they had received and the last point went into Vitality. Usually, he might consider saving some of his points for later, as he had always done in games back home, but he also wanted to stay alive to have a later.

Name: Alex Donner

Age: 24

Race: Human

Level: 2

EXP: 50/500

Class: Soul Survivor

Soul: 185

HP: 140

MP: 95

Vitality: 10

Strength: 8

Agility: 14(21)

Dexterity: 14(21)

Wisdom: 5

Intelligence: 7

“Alex?” Danny asked. “What was your Soul Points at when we killed the Toad Boss?”

Alex dismissed his Interface. “It went down pretty low, twenty-eight. I can’t actually see the number but for some reason, I always know what it is.”

Danny’s lips thinned. “That’s a little too close for comfort. You need to be more mindful of that. If the Boss hadn’t died when it did, you would have been in serious trouble.”

Alex grimaced. “It sucks that we can’t see the health of the mobs we face, but I’ll remember.”

“So, what are you going to do with your Toad Skin?” Ty asked.

“I don’t even want it.” Danny said with disdain. “There is no way to tell what it does until after you apply it.”

“Just because its gross doesn’t mean you should turn it down.” Alex stated. “Any boost at this point would be useful to us. Did you see how fast that thing jumped? I could make good use of that.”

“I saw, man.” Ty said, with a haunted look. “I saw it all too well.”

Danny snorted. “Here, take mine.” She said, holding out her hand as a dark green orb appeared from her ring. “I really don’t see the upside to using it. Maybe give me one later on that might help me.”

“You sure?” Alex asked.

“Yep! Jumping around won’t help me with my Agility right now and I am not using it on my other Armor or my staff.”

Alex took the offered orb with a nod. Holding it near his boot, he received a prompt from his Interface.

Do you wish to apply Rare Toad Skin to your right boot? The ability gained will coincide with the deceased Monster and cannot be removed until another orb takes its place!

The prompt didn’t say what ability he would acquire and the fact that he would be stuck with the ability until he could change it gave him pause. Shutting his eyes, he accepted. There was a flash of light and he looked to find his right boot hadn’t changed into weird looking frog foot, which he was extremely thankful for. Focusing on his boot, a description came up.

Leather Boot of Hopping (Upgraded to Rare): This boot is now sturdier and will resist slippery surfaces. Increase to velocity when jumping.

Grinning, he applied his own Boss Drop to his other boot. When he saw that it had the same affect, he gave a thumbs up to Ty and Danny.

“Increased velocity to jumping and more stable on slippery surfaces.” Alex stated. “Perfect for jumping around and shooting stuff.”

Ty whooped and applied his own Boss Drop to his right boot. With lunch finished, they decided to head back out. They already noticed a few groups getting ready by the front door. Alex wished them all luck and reminded them of the stakes. A few rolled their eyes and one person called out, “Thanks, Mom.” Giving everyone a good laugh at his expense but he could see that they appreciated the sentiment and reminder.

With a wave of ‘good luck.’ Alex, Ty and Danny headed back out into the City Zone.