It took another hour until Alex was free from the ropes. Thankfully, the golden skinned giants left him be and it seemed that most of the people had gone to bed. They hadn’t bothered offering him any food or water so he was understandably hungry and thirsty, but he shut it out of his mind. He needed to find a way to escape.

He looked over the chest that still sat in the center of the tent. Alex spent the next hour trying to find some way to open it. He had tried using the Nail File as a pick, but the thin metal had snapped off inside, potentially jamming the lock for all times. He had browsed through the System Shop, looking for anything that could help.

The System Shop carried a lot of odds and ins, including beach balls, hair extensions and self-tanning lotion. Alex couldn’t find any rhyme or reason to why certain items were in the shop but not others. Simply put, none of it would help him.

He couldn’t buy weapons since the System provided you the only weapons you would need for your Class. There were a few things in his Class tab that would have helped but they cost an exorbitant amount of xp that Alex simply didn’t have.

He wasn’t keen on the idea, but there really wasn’t any choice at this point. He would have to sneak out of wherever he was, completely nude.

If there is a Streaker Accomplishment, I’m about to get it.

Tiptoeing to the back of the tent, Alex peaked underneath the tent wall. A cold breeze struck him in the face and he had to blink the tears from his eyes as he tried to find out where he was.

Stars. Thousands upon thousands of stars hung in the sky. Alex had never been outside during the night and the sight was so magnificent, he almost forgot that he was attempting to escape. He looked around to see the tops of several of the rectangular like buildings going as far as he could see. He was on the roof of the buildings!

The tent was on the very edge of the building and looking down, Alex could barely see the street below. His fingers and toes tingled as he realized how far he was off the ground. He pulled his head back into the tent and looked underneath another tent wall. This one showed the other edge of the roof. At least he knew he was in the far corner now.

Heading to the opposite wall, he peeked underneath and found another tent, right next to his own. Turning his head towards the front, he noticed several of the golden skinned people sitting around a fire. They were eating some type of meat that smelled amazing. His stomach rumbled as he the thoughts of him being extremely hungry returned. Good thing he still had MRE’s in his storage ring. Too bad it was locked in the damn chest.

He could toss the chest over the edge of the building to get his gear back, but the noise from the chest crashing into the street below would most likely attract his captors to investigate. Alex chewed on his lips as he realized that he could either go into the next tent, unsure of who or what was in there, or he could try to scale down the side of the building.

He shuddered at the thought. He might have higher stats than he ever did back on Earth, but he knew nothing of climbing. He checked the System Shop again, this time looking for something to help him escape.

A few minutes into his search and he found what he was looking for. A thousand-foot length of rope. It cost him a few hundred xp which was fine. He was more worried about the height he would have to climb down than the loss of experience.

He tied the end of the rope off to the center pole that was somehow affixed to the roof top. Pulling on it, he didn’t feel the pole budge once. He tossed the rope underneath the tent flap and watched as it fell towards the ground. Gritting his teeth, he put a death grip on the rope and swung himself over the ledge.

His heart almost dropped as he swung off the side of the building. His legs quickly twisted around the rope and he became aware that getting rope burn on his…member, would hurt like a son of a bitch.

Sorry little buddy, but sacrifices must be made.

He almost laughed aloud at his ridiculous thought. He slowly made his way down, his Dexterity and Strength giving him enough grip to not have to slide down the rope. He was waiting for shouts of alarm to be called out as he dangled halfway down the building. Every minute that passed was nerve rackingly silent but his Strength and Dexterity held up.

When his gear suddenly appeared on his person, he almost let go of the rope in surprise. He stifled what was almost a shout and clung to the rope, listening to see if anyone had heard him. He waited a minute, then two, but no sounds of alarm came. Letting out a deep breath, he resumed his descent down to the street.

Standing on the pavement, Alex had never felt so happy to be on solid ground again. He looked up at the rope that was still dangling over the side of the building. They would know how he had escaped but there was nothing he could do about it. He smiled with himself at the thought of them wondering where he got the rope in the first place. With a silent shrug, he ran off into the city.

He had no idea where the Bellevue was. He could be running in the exact opposite direction for all he knew but he needed to get away from the golden skilled people at the very least. No matter how decent Rahzoh seemed to be, he had stated clearly to Alex that there was no accord that could be met. They were fighting for their peoples very lives, as was Alex and his friends.

He ran several blocks, always looking down the streets for any sign of the black awning that hung outside the Bellevue, but with the darkness of the moonless night, he knew he would probably pass by it if it was more than a few blocks away.

He kept his pace until the sky started lighting up the sky. Alex was dead on his feet. He needed shelter soon. He had run by several doors, some that he had never seen before, but there were several worn wooden doors scattered about. He picked one at random and stepped inside.

He found himself standing inside an abandoned hospital. Some of the ceiling lights were on but most remained broken or flickering. It gave off a very ‘horror movie’ vibe. This place shouldn’t prove difficult for Alex but he still found himself nervous. He had never cleared a building by himself and he was still on the run from the golden skinned giants.

With his guns drawn, he moved through the hallways. The first monster, which resembled a classic zombie, came out of a room just ahead of him. Its skin was mottled and it moved at the classic zombie pace of slow and shambling. If Alex wasn’t so hungry and tired, he would have laughed.

He only needed one bullet to kill the zombie. With its slow speed and low health, he would have this place cleared in no time. Then he could finally get some sleep. His gunfire attracted more of the zombies and he obligingly killed them all. Looting as he went, he made his way through the winding maze of hallways.

It was a pathetic amount of xp and Soul Points that he received, but he wasn’t deterred. He needed a safe place to rest and the only way to do that was to clear out the building

The Boss Zombie was not much of a threat, moving slowly towards him. A handful of shots later and the glowing orb of loot appeared. The loot it gave was only rare quality, but he did receive an Accomplishment once he cleared the building.

Congratulations! You have cleared a building by yourself! For this Accomplishment, you have gained +1 to each Attribute!

Alex looked over the Boss Loot, “Decaying Skin” and decided to add it to his second handgun.

The Decayer (Upgraded to Rare): This gun doesn’t shoot your typical bullets. Instead, each bullet is created with a piece of your Soul. You won’t need to reload but you definitely don’t want to run out! Upgrades available in the System Shop!

This gun will now add a Decay debuff to any target! Given enough time and damage, the Decay debuff will rot armor, making armor ineffective! You would be amazed at what some Races consider armor!

Alex shrugged. It wasn’t the best he could have but it was better than nothing. He found a semi clean hospital bed and went over his attributes before finally getting some food in him and then some well-deserved sleep.

Name: Alex Donner

Age: 24

Race: Human

Level: 8

EXP: 7,600/10,000

Class: Soul Survivor

Soul Tier 1: 8,600

HP: 225

MP: 135

Vitality: 17

Strength: 11

Agility: 21(30)

Dexterity: 21(30)

Wisdom: 11

Intelligence: 8

With an MRE finally sating his hunger, Alex laid down on the dusty hospital bed and fell asleep quickly.

A loud crash of wood breaking had Alex bolting upright. Seeing that his room was still empty, he stayed silent, unsure if he had dreamed the noise that had startled him awake. He almost cursed as heavily accented words could be heard bouncing off the walls.

“No signs of monsters. He has been through here…or is still here.”

Alex recognized the accent and realized that his captors must have tracked him down. But how? Did they sniff him out like a hound?

He felt well rested, which means he must have been asleep for at least six hours or more. Anything less and Alex usually felt half alive. How they had tracked him down was a question for later. They were here now and there was only one exit out of the building.

The hospital was a maze of hallways and dead ends but it hadn’t taken Alex long to find his way to the Boss room. These golden assholes would find him sooner or later if he stayed put.

Alex crept to the door and listened. Those golden skinned people were huge and their footsteps were heavy. He could tell they were still a good distance from him but that would change soon enough.

Fighting them head on would be a terrible idea. He didn’t know how they fought, but they had set up a trap to kidnap him before, which meant they were clever. They were also extremely strong. Alex could still feel the slaps that Deborah had given him.

He looked around the room for anything he could use. There was the bed, some messed up furniture and a few oxygen tanks. Stepping over to the tanks, he turned the valve and the hiss of gas escaping the tank filled his ears. Alex couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

He went from room to room, grabbing every oxygen tank he could find. He set them up in a pile in the middle of the hallway and then ran back to grab every metal drawer and broken-down chair and piled it over the oxygen tanks. What he had left looked like an abnormally large pile of garbage. Rushing to the other end of the hallway, he laid down out of site behind a large metal desk. It wasn’t a lot of protection given how close he was but he couldn’t risk moving anything too heavy.

The voices kept up a casual dialog as they moved through the building, the halls carrying their voices easily. They must have been searching every room they passed, which had given Alex just enough time to set up his trap. Every few minutes, another sound of doors being broken open and furniture being tossed about would echo throughout the building. These people were not subtle.

Two golden skinned men came around the corner and Alex held his breath, hoping they couldn’t see him lying prone behind the desk. They eyed the garbage pile for a brief moment and Alex waited out the few moments that stretched on before the two men finally moved past.

Alex was still holding his breath as he aimed at the faded green oxygen tank that was peeking out of the pile. Hoping that his plan would work, he squeezed the trigger. The blue glowing Soul bullet flew down the hall. Alex wasn’t as far away as he wanted to be, but he only had so much range to work with.

The shot rang out and Alex whispered, “Boom!”

The glowing blue Soul bullet hit the oxygen tank dead center. The golden men had a moment to finch before the improvised claymore went off. They building shook violently as the oxygen tanks exploded, sending fire and metal into the two men. They didn’t even have a chance to scream before their bodies disappeared amidst the smoke and rubble.

Alex was dizzy from the explosion. He took a Minor Health Pill and carefully walked towards the destruction. Through the smoke, he could make out two golden orbs glowing over the pile of burning metal. He walked past and peeked around the corner, looking for any other enemies that might be nearby. He let a few minutes pass, staying low as to not choke on the smoke before finally turning around and picking up the orbs.

Experience: 2,000 (1,000xp per Tahloh x2)

Souls: 1,000 (500 Souls per Tahloh x2)

Congratulations! You have killed a member of another Race x2! For this Accomplishment, you have gained +2 to all Attributes!

Congratulations! Due to your exemplary efforts to follow your path in killing not by want, but necessity, you have evolved Crane’s Grace! Crane’s Grace now gives x2 to Agility and Dexterity! Embrace Crane’s Grace to evolve this Modifier further! Don’t try faking it, it won’t work!

Alex blinked his eyes at the notifications.

The Tahloh, eh? Guess it’s better than Golden Douchebags, maybe.

He hadn’t been expecting the number of notifications. Stepping over to look down the corner one more time, Alex slowly crept into another hallway. Finding another room to hide in, he looked over his stats again.

Name: Alex Donner

Age: 24

Race: Human

Level: 8

EXP: 9600/10000

Class: Soul Survivor

Soul Tier 1: 9600

HP: 255

MP: 165

Vitality: 19

Strength: 13

Agility: 23(46)

Dexterity: 23(46)

Wisdom: 13

Intelligence: 10

He felt his body start to change to fit his stats. His muscles and skeletal structure become denser while his whole body became for flexible. His thoughts became clearer as well, leaving him in an odd state of euphoria.

Alex didn’t miss that he had enough xp to buy the Soul Adept Modifier. He only worried that he might be left in a state of vulnerability. Weighing his options, he decided to take the Modifier now. He hadn’t experienced any disabling results when he bought the Soul Adapt Modifier and the hard truth was that he might need the upgrade soon.

Congratulations! You are now a Soul Adept! Only with determination and focus, can you continue to move forward! You will now receive twice as many Souls Points when eliminating an enemy! The range for your Soul bullets will now reflect your Dexterity! (1 Dexterity = 1 meter!)

Before, Alex could only shoot at 5 meters, or roughly 15 feet. Now though, with his Crane’s Grace boosting his Dexterity significantly, he was able to shoot 46 meters accurately, which was significantly closer to what he was used to shooting in competitions. If this kept going up however, it could get ridiculous, especially with handguns.

Alex felt his stomach growl and he realized that his body needed nutrients for the amount of growth he had just gone through. He ended up eating two more MRE’s, which was almost 7,000 calories, until he felt normal again. With little else to do, he headed for the exit.

He had peeked out of the worn wooden door and saw the empty street before him. Not seeing any threats, he started his journey into the city again, still unsure of where he was going. He stopped at every intersection, looking down the streets for any Humans or Tahlohs. When he saw that the coast was clear of enemies, he kept running.

He would move to side streets every so often, just in case he was being followed, but he tried to stay moving in the same general direction. The paranoia was wearing on his mind. The buildings were passing by in a blur and before he knew it, the sun started to set. He kept on running, but he was starting to doubt that he would be able to find the Bellevue.

Just keep running. Just keep running. Where the fuck am I? At this rate, I’m going to die of old age before I find that stupid, fucking black awning!

As he was thinking he needed to find a place to rest for the night, one of the doors he was running past suddenly opened in front of him, causing him and those coming out to yell out in surprise. Alex had already pulled out his guns and was aiming them at an equally shocked…human?

Alex looked a little closer. The man in front of him was a little taller than Alex, but not a giant. He was wearing chainmail and his axe was held at the ready but Alex realized that he was indeed human.

“Is that…Alex?” The man with the axe asked.

Alex sighed and holstered his guns. “Yeah, that’s me. I’m sorry, I don’t remember your names.”

The man lowered his axe and gave him a grin. “Ezekiel, and this is Valarie and Tombie.”

The others walked out of the building and Alex finally recognized them. They were the ones that Toby was sitting with his first day in the dining room.

“Hello everyone.” Alex said with a tired smile. “I got a little lost and was looking for my way back.”

Ezekiel snorted. “Lost you say? The other’s said you were kidnapped. Everyone has been out searching for you. We just decided to hit this building for a little xp before heading back.”

“Well, I’m sure as hell happy you did.” Alex said with a laugh.

“Come with us.” Ezekiel said happily. “And tell us what the hell happened.”

They were surprisingly far from the Bellevue, at least twelve blocks but it gave time for Alex to tell them all about the Tahloh. They all looked a little pale by the end of his story.

“So, there are other Races here and they are all our enemies?” Tombie asked, his deep voice tinged with worry.

“It looks that way.” Alex answered. “I didn’t learn much but I don’t think they knew about the System Shop or the Interface. None of them wore wristbands like us and they left me alone in a tent.”

“And they have been here for years?” Valerie asked. “So, they already have a head start on us.”

“I will tell everyone when we get back, so they can be up to date.” Alex said. “How are Danny and Ty? And Toby’s team as well?”

“Well, they told us what happened and all.” Ezekiel said. “And then they started organizing search parties. They thought a monster had snatched you up so most of us weren’t sure if we would find you.”

Alex nodded. “I get that, but thanks for looking anyways.”

When they finally made it to the Bellevue, there were a lot of people still up and about. Alex walked in the lobby to see his friends all together, discussing something over a small coffee table.

When Ezekiel and his team walked into the lobby behind Alex, Ezekiel shouted that he had found Alex. While his teammates hit him on the head for trying to take all the credit, the eyes in the room snapped to the front. Danny was up and running towards Alex before anyone else had the chance to speak. Her red hair became a blur as she tackled him to the ground.

“About time you made it home!” Danny yelled into his neck.

Alex held her tightly for a moment before the others stood around him. Jumping off him and helping him up, Danny wiped a few tears from her eyes.

“So, I have a story to tell you guys.” Alex said.

They herded everyone into the dining room where Alex shared what happened, again. He made sure to add in every detail he could, including that the Tahlohs wanted to know where they lived. This caused a brief moment of panic and it took a while for everyone to settle down again.

“The question is,” Toby asked loudly. “how do we fight them?”

Alex nodded. “The Tahloh are huge and clever, but I assume they don’t have access to what we do. They live on the top of the buildings and none that I saw were wearing a black band on their wrist.”

“Then where did they get the flashbang that hit you?” Ty asked.

“They might have made it.” Alex offered. “The two I killed didn’t have any weapons that I could see and their clothing was simple. Maybe they can use magic of some type or have an innate ability like our Modifiers.

“What we know is that they are not friendly. They are fighting for their planet’s survival, just like we are. Just as well as all the other Races we have yet to meet. We should assume they are all enemies.”

“There’s no way to barter for peace?” A man in the back asked.

“Not that I see.” Alex said. “I don’t know exactly where they are but since I went in the same general direction, we can assume that they are to the south of us. I was running most of the day before I ran into Ezekiel’s team, plus through the night when I escaped. So, maybe fifty or sixty city blocks?”

“Considering how fast and strong they might be, that might not be far enough.” Danny said.

“I would suggest heading out in teams no smaller than five.” Alex said. “I know it’s less experience from the mobs, but safety in numbers is better. I would rather avoid them for now, at least until we can all upgrade our Modifiers, weapons and armor.”

There was a round of nods as the group agreed. Finishing up the meeting, Alex left for his room. He wanted a shower and then sleep. He was beyond tired. The constant worry of being captured again had drained him dry.

A hand grabbed his just as he opened his door, causing him to jump. He turned to find Danny staring up at him, her large green eyes staring into his. He hadn’t even noticed she had walked with him.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” She asked.

Alex nodded. “Yeah, I think the scariest thing was climbing down that building. Even thinking about it makes my fingers all tingly.”

Her lips curled up in a grin. “Yeah, heights are a big ‘no’ for me.”

“Try it naked.” He said with a laugh.

Her laugh felt like music to his ears. Something about this woman made him feel calm and secure. He stared down at her for another moment before giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks for always making me feel better.” Alex said. “And thanks for not giving up on me. Ezekiel and his team told me how you and the rest of the team got everyone together to look for me.”

She tilted her head for a moment just before jumping up on her toes to kiss him fully. Alex was stunned by it but he wasn’t going to complain. He wrapped his arms around her and let himself fall into the moment. When she finally pulled back, he was greeted with a wide smile.

“Show me how thankful you are.” She said as she pulled him into his room.