Both Alex and Toby’s team went out the following day with one goal in mind. To either find another event for them to clear, or to find a door they hadn’t seen as of yet. All of the teams stayed on Main Street and it was becoming obvious the Worn Wooden Doors, the Sturdy Wooden Doors and the Iron Banded Doors were likely the most common doors in the city. The fact of the matter was, they needed to start spreading out through the city and exploring.

The group of six walked down Main Street, until they reached the third intersection. From there, they turned left and would walk ten blocks or until they found a new door. If they didn’t find one, they would head over to the next street and make their way back. It was simplistic but they really didn’t want to become lost in what could possibly be an endless city.

Why the hell is there no map in the Interface?

Alex, Toby and Silvia walked up front while Danny, Ty and Rishi held up the rear. They kept a constant lookout for the Stampede which they hadn’t seen since but the thought of hundreds of monsters hurdling towards them was an image they wouldn’t soon forget. Danny and Rishi made sure to add a few points into Agility when they leveled. So far, there was only two ways to deal with the Monster Stampede and that was to run or jump into a dungeon and hope the Stampede continued on. They held no illusions that they could fight it and survive.

Seven blocks down the side street and they had passed more Iron Banded Doors than they usually saw. It was becoming clear to them that if they wanted to find stronger doors or more Events, they would most likely have to continue to explore the city.

It wasn’t until the eighth block when they finally found something new. The building was still made of the same dark grey concrete, just as all the others, but the door was either several degrees more dangerous than they were used to or the System had taken ‘Steel Door’ completely out of context. They just couldn’t tell anymore what the System was thinking.

The thick steel was polished to a shine and instead of a normal handle, there was a massive wheel with spokes all around it. In short, it was a door you would find on a bank vault.

“Well, that’s not scary or anything.” Rishi said, staring warily at the door.

“Given all we know about this zone,” Alex said. “this could be a level above the iron banded doors or even as dangerous as the Monster Stampede.”

“And we won’t know until we step through.” Danny said sarcastically. “Lovely.”

“Do we go for it?” Alex asked.

Silvia snorted, knowing they were all just hesitating. She stepped past Toby and open the door. The thick steel door opened easily and Silvia stepped aside, waiting for Toby to enter.

“Go on Tank.” She smiled. “You’re up.”

“Is it just me, or is Silvia a little more aggressive?” Alex whispered to Toby.

Toby stepped forward, shaking his head. “You have no idea.”

Alex raised an eyebrow but followed him inside.

Of course, they all found themselves inside the lobby of a giant bank. The floors were made up of cream-colored marble and the ceiling must have been close to fifty feet high, sporting intricately carved arches and supported by several white marbled pillars. It was gaudy and pretentious and was probably modeled after a real bank from Earth where only the uber-rich stored their cash.

There were several doors on the left and right of the room but the counter ahead was where the groups focus was set. Just behind the counter, a single figure stood. It was a ten-foot-tall pig, complete with a flat pink nose and tusks jutting out from its lower jaw! It wore a very well-tailored three-piece suit, with what could only be a pocket watch connected to its waist coat and halfmoon reading glasses perched atop its large snout. It didn’t take notice of the newcomers as it seemed particularly busy writing down something in its ledger.

Ty leaned between Toby and Alex. “Dude, it’s a piggy bank!”

Even though Ty had enough sense to whisper, it echoed throughout the wide-open lobby, breaking the silence as though he had shouted at the top of his lungs. Even as they all winced at the sudden noise, Alex had to admit that the acoustics in this place were pretty damn impressive.

The large piggy banker froze and its pink ears perked up. It slowly looked up from its ledger and its beady eyes locked onto them. A sneer appeared on the mob’s face and a low rumble reverberated from its chest. The rumble built up until suddenly the pig let out a loud squeal. Even with its massive size, it vaulted over the counter, the marble floor cracking under its weight. Then what could only be called ‘the best dressed, pork express’, started charging straight for them.

“Spread out!” Toby yelled, banging his sword against his shield to get the pigs attention.

As surprised as they were, the group reacted instantly and had scattered to the left and right. Toby kept banging away at his shield as he slowly stepped to his left where a large marble pillar stood. The pig locked on to Toby and squealed again, barreling straight towards the man. At the last moment, Toby dived behind the pillar.

In those first few seconds, Toby had spotted a few important details. First, even through the pig had large, human shaped hands and fingers, its feet were still hooves. Second, the elegant marble floor was slicker than any normal surface. And third, this pig was far to heavy and moving way to fast to have any type of control once it got moving.

As Toby had expected, the pig couldn’t change course or even slowdown that quickly. The pig’s wide frame clipped the pillar that Toby dived behind and chunks of marble went flying across the floor. Whether it was the jarring impact caused by the pillar or the smooth floors where the pig’s hooves didn’t have the best of traction, the pig ended up crashing into the floor and sliding across the smooth marble until slamming head first into the far wall.

“Attack!” Alex shouted.

Everyone had stopped and stared as the scene played out before them. Alex’s shout snapped them out of their stupor and they laid on the damage to the downed pig. Danny immediately started casting her root spell to keep the pig in place while Ty was already shooting arrows and Rishi sent out his golem. Alex, Silvia and Toby did their best to stay out of their friends’ line of fire as they closed in. With the size of the pig, finding an opening proved easy.

Alex didn’t hold back as he used his new Modifier to full affect. Every other shot he shouted Buzz! adding an electric jolt to his shots to keep the pig stunned, or at least to slow it down.

The pig was huge and combining its weight and speed, Alex could see why the monster was dangerous, but it was also slow to lift itself off the ground, giving them all enough time to deal as much damage as they could.

While the pig didn’t seem very dangerous anymore, the monster’s Vitality was through the roof. With all six of them going all out, the pig was still alive as it climbed to its feet. Toby’s eyes went wider and wider as the man slashed and stabbed as fast and as hard as he could. Silvia, however, had a wide smile on her face as she attacked in a flurry of blows. In fact, she was a blur with her strikes but every single one looked purposefully placed. The more she struck, the faster her next strike would be and every strike of her spear brought a squeal of pain from the piggy banker.

When the pig finally got its feet underneath it, Silvia let out a tremendous shout, nearly stunning her teammates as she jumped forward, her spear slamming under the arm of the pig and straight into its heart. Blood poured out of the pig’s mouth as it collapsed back to the floor, sending a tremor through the bank.

“You go, girl!” Ty shouted, but Alex and Danny stared at her in worry.

She was breathing hard, with a wide smile on her face and a few splashes of blood dotting her cheek.

It had only been two days since they had rescued her and Alex began to worry that maybe they had gone out too soon. It was entirely possible that the Magic Prozac Pill hadn’t been as effective for Silvia as she let on.

“You okay, Silvia?” Alex asked.

Silvia looked around and suddenly, her smile was gone and her olive complexion started to flush.

“It’s not what you think!” She said quickly. “It’s my Amazon Class. Apparently, surviving what I went through gave me a huge Accomplishment. Not that I am saying it’s worth it, but my Class is big on overcoming certain obstacles.”

Alex thought he understood now. If he remembered correctly, Amazons were thought to be fierce women warriors who only used men to become pregnant. In the darker stories, the women even killed any male children they gave birth to, as they saw men as evil and unworthy. If anything, Silvia’s Amazon Class would make her stronger by overcoming what she had gone through.

“What was the Accomplishment?” Danny asked.

Silvia smiled. “My Class evolved from Amazon, to Amazon Warrior! I can sense the vital areas to strike at now. On the other hand, I sorta lost myself in the moment. For some reason, all I wanted was to kill the threat to us. It was…strange but in a good way.”

Alex gaped. “Your Class can evolve as well!?”

Toby laughed. “I told you that you had no idea!”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Danny said, looking a little hurt.

Silvia rushed to her, wrapping her in a hug. “I’m sorry! I thought I would surprise you all after you saw my new skills in action. I didn’t realize it would be such a rush though.”

“Evolving your Class shouldn’t even happen so early.” Rishi added. “According to Jeffrey, it is unheard of to happen in the first zone and he is unable to tell people about it until someone has experienced it.”

“Wait!” Danny cried. “Please don’t tell me you had to have gone through that in order for your Class to evolve? If that’s true then I will make it my life’s work to take this fucking System down!”

Silvia’s eyes started to tear up as she smiled at her friend.

“No. I asked Jeffrey the same thing. He told me that I just had to overcome an obstacle pertaining to the hardships of womanhood. Toby almost tore Jeffrey’s head off until he clarified that.”

Danny squeezed Silvia tightly before letting go.

“Good! I would have done the same.”

Ty clapped Toby on the shoulder. “You da man!”

Toby coughed into his fist. “Well, let’s get to looting. We still have the whole damn bank to clear out.

Experience: 400 (2,400xp per Piggy /6)

Soul: 200 (1,200 Souls per Piggy /6)

After the next few fights, it seemed each of the oversized pigs had one initial charge in them. After that, they were not as dangerous as they looked. Their large amount of Vitality seemed to be their only real strength put with a little tactical awareness, they dealt with them in short order. The group took out six pigs on the first floor, but when they found the staircase leading underground, hidden behind the front desk, they each had their concerns.

“If we have to fight in an enclosed space, like a vault for instance, we might end up in big trouble.” Alex said as he staired down the narrow steps.

“And if we have to run, our large group might end up working against us.” Toby added. “Imagine one of those things running down a narrow hallway. We would get trampled.”

Toby had a good point. The marble floor was smooth and the piggy bankers couldn’t turn quickly or slow their momentum. It was how they killed the six pigs up top so easily, but down in a narrow hallway…Alex shuddered at the thought.

“Oh, stop being a bunch of pussies and go down the steps!” Danny said. “And let us know when it’s safe to come down.”

Alex turned to see the smile on Danny’s face. “Ha..Ha. Would you like to go first?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” She said, stepping between the two men.

Alex was too stunned to stop her. Half way down the steps, she turned to see Alex and Toby gaping at her and she rolled her eyes.

“I’m only going to take a peek. Look at these stairs, there is no way those fat piggies can fit through this way and if I have to run, I won’t have a bunch of people behind me.”

Silvia snorted as Toby and Alex both slapped their foreheads. They waited quietly as Danny descended the stairs. She was only gone a few tense moments before she was climbing back up the steps calmly.

“There’s a long hallway going left and right. They both end a good hundred feet and then turn towards the back of the bank.”

“Split up?” Toby asked.

“It sounds like a bad horror movie scenario but we shouldn’t leave our backs exposed.” Alex answered.

With a nod from the rest of the group, they headed down the narrow staircase. Toby’s team chose to go left, leaving Alex’s team to go right. There was just enough room for Alex, Danny and Ty to spread out along the hallway as the moved as quietly as they could to the first corner.

Once they reached the turn, Alex peeked around the corner and come face to face, or rather, face to snout with a much shorter pig. He didn’t have time to let that thought percolate as the thunder of automatic gunfire erupted. Alex jerked back around the corner but not before several bullets tore into his shoulder.

“Contact!” Alex yelled in pain as he fell back to the floor.

“No shit, bro!” Ty said, his bow pointed at the corner.

Danny, to her credit, didn’t hesitate. She ducked down and started healing Alex which saved her life as the tommy gun which had shot Alex, came around the corner, the pig blind firing down the hall.

There were shouts down at the other end of the hallway but Alex and his team had no time to help. Ty fired two arrows into the hand that was holding the tommy gun and a squeal of protest sounded as the gun dropped to the ground. Alex had one gun out and pointed at the corner while Danny worked on his bleeding shoulder.

She pulled out a Minor Healing Pill and abruptly shoved it into Alex’s mouth.

“Take this.” She spoke. “It should speed up the process.”

She went into casting, her low chanting building up as she pointed her staff at the floor beyond the corner. Within seconds, a tangle of vines sprouted up and another squeal could be heard.

With the healing pill and Danny’s heal over time spell, Alex’s wounds were already closing. Rotating his arm, he winced at the pain but it was manageable for the time being. He picked up his fallen handgun and fired blindly around the corner.

“Buzz! Sizzle! Zap!”

There was another loud squeal and Alex grinned. Jumping past the corner, he made use of his Agility, springing off the far wall and back towards the safety of cover. As he flew through the air, shooting both handguns down the hall, he nearly choked as he saw the number of pigs that were awaiting them. A few had shot off a several rounds but most of them had been taken by surprise and Alex was soon back in cover.

“The hallway is filled with pigs in police uniforms!” He shouted, hoping that Toby and his team could hear him. “They’re only around six feet tall but they are extremely wide, causing them to jam up with their numbers!”

“Got it!” Shouted Toby from the far end of the hall as more sounds of automatic fire rang out. The sound of bullets ricocheting off Toby’s shield echoed down the hall.

“Danny! Root as much as you can! Ty! The first pig around the corner is weaponless and immobile! Use him as a shield and shoot high! I’ll go low!”

Ty and Danny both nodded and got to work, Danny recasting her root spell while Ty popped out into the hall for a second at a time, firing arrows into the crowd. Alex backed up to get a little room and then ran forward as fast as he could. When he reached the corned, he slid down like a baseball player, his guns already pointed down the other hall.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Four explosions sounded off just as Alex reached the far wall and he immediately pushed against it, sending himself backwards across the smooth floor and behind cover again. He had aimed at knee height, hoping to slow down the piggies even further.

“Ty! Send a bomb!” Alex yelled.

Ty whooped, pulling out a single black sphere. Gripping the bomb in his furry hand, Alex watched as it flashed once before Ty jumped out and tossed it down the hall.

“Fire in the hole!” Ty yelled, covering his ears.

BOOM!

The bombs were not that big but in an enclosed space filled with pigs, the sound shook the very walls as it went off. Several squeals of pain were cut off as smoke, blood and a few pork products went flying through the air.

Ty immediately started racing down to where Toby and the others were and Alex knew that he was going to send some of his explosive party poppers to their aid. Alex peaked around the corner again, this time gagging as he jerked back behind cover.

Danny raised an eyebrow. “That bad?”

Alex shook his head. “The bodies are thankfully starting to disappear but not all of them died. There are still a few on the ground and they are all missing a few pounds of meat.”

Danny went green, thinking about the scene around the corner.

“If I throw up, I’m aiming it at you.” She said weakly.

Alex smiled. “I’ll take care of it.”

He stepped around the corner, firing at the downed pigs. Most only needed a shot or two and the few that were only stunned had at least dropped their weapons, giving Alex all the time he needed to end the piggies lives.

“We are clear here.” Alex said. “Go see if anyone needs heals and then you and Ty come back.”

She ran off to see to it and Alex continued looking down the hall. It ended in another turn to the left another hundred feet down. While he waited, he hadn’t heard any more squeals coming from the other end of the hall and hoped that the others had finished up their end without too much difficulty.

It only took a few minutes before his arm felt like brand new but the phantom pain of the bullets ripping into his shoulder and arm were enough to make him shudder. It was a clear reminder that the System wouldn’t hesitate kill them if they didn’t take this seriously.

When Danny and Ty came back and confirmed that Toby’s team was all okay, they moved on. Ty stood guard while they each looted six golden orbs.

Experience: 4,800 (2,400xp per (Piggy x12) /6)

Soul: 2,400 (1,200 Souls per (Piggy x12) /6)

Peeking around the Hall again, albeit much faster than the last time, Alex saw that the hall was clear and that Toby was peeking around the far corner as well. The group came together and all of them stared at the twelve-foot-tall steel vault door.

“Maybe everyone should consolidate their xp.” Alex said. “I have already leveled once and I need to see if I can afford my next Modifier upgrade.”

“Sounds good.” Toby said quickly and from his sudden glazed over expression, it seemed that the man had been waiting to check his status for a while. Alex laughed as he waited for the others to finish up.

There were a few flashes of light and when the others finished, he saw wide grins as they confirmed that they had finally upgraded either their weapons or their armor. Alex giddily dove into his Interface.

Name: Alex Donner

Age: 24

Race: Human

Level: 8

EXP: 6,500/10,000

Class: Soul Survivor

Soul Tier 1: 7,900

HP: 205

MP: 120

Vitality: 16

Strength: 10

Agility: 20(30)

Dexterity: 20(30)

Wisdom: 10

Intelligence: 7

Alex had used his last three attributes from leveling up to round out his wisdom and strength. If the upcoming Boss fight didn’t push him over his 10,000xp cap, he would be able to buy the next upgrade to his Soul Disciple Modifier. Either that or he would have to wait until his next level up where the level cap went up to 15,000xp.

Jumping out of his Interface, he saw that everyone was waiting on him. Danny immediately cast her Nature’s Boon spell, the green waves of magic washing over them as their regeneration was boosted.

Toby and Alex spun the comically oversized wheel and with a loud click, the door slid open along the wall. The golden light that shined out of the vault caught them all by surprise. All along the walls, the vault was stacked from floor to ceiling with piles of gold coins that each looked as if they could topple over at any moment and bury them all in an avalanche of yellow shiny metal. In the center of the room was a small wooden desk, piled with ledgers and gold. Two small pink ears could be seen poking out above the coins.

“And this little piggy went to the bank vault.” Toby said aloud.

The ears perked up and up jumped the smallest pig they had seen so far. It only stood maybe two feet in height and it wore a little pin striped, three-piece suit with a little red bow tie under its chinny-chin-chin. It was perhaps the most adorable thing they had ever seen.

Even as the pig shouted a tiny squeal, and stomped its little legs atop its desk, Danny and Silvia gave out an, “Awwww!”

The moment didn’t last as the little pig shot forward with speed even Alex would be hard pressed to match. Toby went flying into the wall across the hall as the pig slammed into his shield. Alex jumped back and started to fire his guns but he missed as the piggy dodged the glowing blue bullets easily and sped back to the top of his desk, looking angrily at the group of intruders.

“Fast and strong.” Toby said as he stood up from where he landed.

“I can barely track it as well.” Alex grunted as he stared up at the pig.

Danny had already started casting her root spell and before the team had time to move into the vault, the entrance was blocked off with a two-foot-high wall of vines.

“How do we fight it?” Silvia asked.

“Anyone know a word that makes things go fast?” Alex asked jokingly.

“Vroom?” Ty said.

The whole group stared at the four-foot-tall red panda.

“You know what?” Ty huffed. “Fuck all yall!

They all burst out laughing as Ty mumbled darkly under his breath.

“No, Ty!” Alex said. “That really is good advice. I wouldn’t have remembered vroom.”

“Maybe you should apply for one of those children’s education shows!” Danny laughed. “The car goes vroom and the horn goes beep!”

“Kiss. My. Furry. Ass.” Ty growled.

Alex sighted the pig still standing atop its desk and fired.

“Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!”

It didn’t help that he said it like a car revving its engine which sent everyone into another fit of laughter. The fact that the glowing Soul bullets actually hit the piggy had Alex shouting over the laughter.

“Ty! You’re a damn genius!” Alex yelled as his three shots clipped the pig, sending it flying on the far side of its desk.

Ty had pulled out his last bomb and tossed it over the desk. Alex noticed he didn’t say fire in the hole as he covered his ears.

“Fire in the-”

Alex was cut off as the bomb went off and the sheer force of the explosion knocked him and the others on their asses. Ty, who had moved out of the way of the blast, strolled up casually.

“Fire in the hole.”

The others glared up at him but Alex could only shake his head. Don’t piss off the red panda with explosives, check.

After a quick bout of heals, Danny let her root spell dissipate and Toby, Silvia and Alex walked into the vault, their weapons at the ready. The golden orb floated just behind the desk.

Experience: 1,000 (6,000xp per Piggy Bank Boss /6)

Soul: 500 (3,000 Souls per Piggy Bank Boss /6)

Loot: Exquisite Bacon

“What do you think this one does?” Alex asked.

“Did you see how fast that Boss was?” Rishi asked. “If anything, I think applying it to your armor will give you some increase in speed or maybe even a flat Agility boost.”

“Why would you think Agility instead of something like an ability, like a dash or rush effect?” Danny asked.

“It was moving at a constant speed.” Rishi answered. “I believe its Agility was extremely high.”

“Well, that’s good enough for me.” Alex said.

He pulled the pink orb from his storage ring and handed it to Danny.

“What are you doing?” She asked. “I’m not Agility based.”

Alex shook his head. “We agreed when you gave me the Toad Skin remember? This will help you out and you won’t have to spend the next few levels adding your attributes into Agility. Those Monster Stampedes are still a threat out here and who knows what might be waiting in the next zone. Besides, the increased velocity to jumping is still useful and I have plenty of Agility.”

Danny stared at Alex for a moment before she finally conceded.

“Okay, I will try it but if it doesn’t work the way we think, you will take mine.”

Alex snorted. “Holding out for something better, eh?”

Danny flashed him a smile. “Maaaaaaybe.”

She touched the pink orb to her boot and after a brief flash of light, she nodded.

“Plus three in Agility. Damn Rishi, you are good at this!”

“I use to work as a data analyst.” Rishi said with a smile. “I’m good at figuring things out.”

Toby handed his orb off to Rishi, using the same argument Alex had. It took a little more convincing but he finally accepted, using both orbs on his boots.

Ty had tried looting some of the gold lying about but the coins disappeared once he picked them up.

“This is crap, man!” Ty moaned.

“It’s not like gold has any worth.” Alex said, though he stared at the mountain of coins as hungrily as Ty was.

Once they had used their orbs and checked their stats, they left the bank vault behind.

They stepped out of the piggy bank, already agreeing that they would head back to the Bellevue for lunch before heading back out. Alex had only taken a few steps out to clear the street when a large explosion sent him flying.

There was flash of light and a loud sound and then pain, lots and lots of pain. His head felt as if someone had thrown him head first off the top of a building and he heard his friends shouting as he was picked up and thrown over a shoulder. He tried to figure out what was happening but it was all fading away as he let the dark embrace of unconsciousness consume him.