We walked for a few quiet moments looking into rooms to be sure nothing that could be a threat lurks there. Eventually Leo spoke up, “Hey Mat. I just want you to know I don’t blame you. I don’t forgive you yet, but after thinking about it, I understand why you did what you did.”

His words pulled at my heart. I had no clue how to respond to it. I just looked at him and gave him a smile. “Thanks.”

Leo nodded and we continued onward. After clearing out the areas we could get to without sounding off alarms or breaking doors we stopped and he asked the important question. “Do we stay with Jerry? 10 thousand dollars is a lot. I have that much for sure, but is it worth it?”

“I think we should do it. We can still help at the base. Plus I really think money will lose all it’s merit soon, very soon. Better to spend it now, before it is useless later.” I opened my bank app on my phone and checked my account.

I had over 15 thousand in savings alone. Unlike most lawyers, I lived modestly. I donated a portion of my money to those in need and kept a large savings of money in case something horrible happened to me.

“I have the money, are you good?” Leo winced, “Barely, but I think you are right, money will be nothing but fire fuel in a couple of days.” Let’s do it.

We headed back to the office area and heard the smack of flesh on flesh. We rushed in and found Jerry doubled over on the floor and Madison standing over him. She crossed her arms looking at us, “He didn’t believe I could fight. I proved him wrong.”

I ran a hand across my face. Tomorrow will be a long drive.

---

Morning came without incident. We transferred the funds last night and we were accepted into whatever it was Jerry signed us up for. We packed up as much as we could of stuff that was here. We were not coming back any time soon, if ever.

Outside were three black SUV’s. The first and second ones had doors open and men with guns and tactical equipment were waiting for us.

Jerry looked back to us, “You three are in the front one, I am in the second. Do whatever you are told and they will get us there safely.” He climbed into his SUV and the door closed.

We hopped into our SUV, I sat next to Madison, Leo was in the back third row. A woman was in the passenger seat, she turned to us all.

“Names?”

“Mathew, Leo, and Madison.”

She nodded, “Welcome to the Convoy, Mr. Jerry has informed us you all wish to be taken to the Air Force Base, your money has been accepted and we assure you are safe against earthly affairs. Lucky for you all as of this morning we no longer take cash. We swapped to a more material based currency.”

I sighed in relief. This was a big worry of mine.

“Now we do have some questions for you all while we travel. Information currently is priceless. Have any of you acquired magic or learned anything since you all awoke back home?”

Wait, how did she know I was in my home when I left that grey area? Did it happen to everyone?

Leo spoke up, “Guns are useless now apparently, Mat has first hand experience with that.” I nodded to confirm his claim.

The Woman nodded, “Yes we figured that out last night. However we hope most people have not realized that yet. At least, till we get to the base. What about magic or anything that wasn’t there when you first opened your menu?”

My mind wandered toward the Lawyer title, “No, I assume you saw the damage notifications, also if you kill something, you get experience.”

“Yes, all our people are well aware and on track to level 2. We aim by the end of the next week to have at least one of us reach level 2 and figure out what happens when that is achieved.”

We turned onto the highway headed to the Air Force Base soon to realize tons of cars were left there. Most people were probably teleported away when they were claimed by The System. The driver spoke up, “Going off road, Route 4 till further notice.”

The woman seemed annoyed at that. “Sorry everyone, that will add time to our travel, but we expected something like this. By the way you all can call me Sophia.”

Leo spoke up from the back, “So where did you put your points?”

“That is private information, and I suggest you all keep that quiet to only those you trust most. If people knew your stats, they could learn how to defeat you easier.” She turned back around and faced forward.

She had a good point, we would need to remember that unless it was needed information for something important. I sat back and looked out the window, watching the terrain go by.

Two hours went by slowly. We eventually stopped for a break. I climbed out and looked around the area. Trees and grass far as the eye could see.

One of the people who were in the third SUV came over to myself and Leo. “Either of you know magic yet?”

He was very large for a man, however wore no gear like the others. “No we don’t.” I was worried he might start something

He seemed disappointed, “Damn it. I was hoping to meet a wizard build!” He sat down leaning against the tire of the vehicle. “So let me guess, someone who put all their points into Strength? Or did you spread all five points evenly like most newbies?”

His tone and wording caught me off guard. I stared at him when I noticed the same box I saw above Leo yesterday.

Crow, Level 1, Classless

“Crow?” What kind of name was that?”

“Wait, you can see the name boxes too! YES!” He seemed very excited.

“So maybe you are not a total loss. You’ve played before right? What was it? M&M? VoV? What was your choice of life Mat!”

I was about to ask how he knew my name, but then I assumed he saw the name above my head. “I have no clue what drugs those are, but I never did anything outside of weed when in highschool.”

He rolled his eyes, “No drugs. Games! RPG, Table Toppers, MMO’s, or anything in between. You can’t say you never played those before.”

I shook my head, “I haven't touched video games in over 10 years. I assume you play them a lot?”

He nodded, “Yea my dad works for the Convoy hence why I am here. I am actually the reason they understand most of this stuff. I had to explain what everything means and the possibility of builds. So what are your stats? What kind of class do you hope to get? I plan to be a tank! My favorite role in any party.”

I looked over to Leo who obviously was having a harder time than me understanding what he was getting at. “We don’t want to share our stat information. However, if you want to teach us, we would be very grateful. Let me grab our other friend Madison.”

“Sure, the more the better. I always enjoy helping new players.” He waited for me to find Madison and we all listened to his lecture. He went over all the stats and what the submenus meant. It was all pretty linear stuff

Strength is your physical might. It’s for heavy weapons and how much you can carry. It only applies to damage for large weapons like axes and hammers. Daggers and ranged weapons don’t work with Strength.

For Vitality it’s basically just the health stat, although he bets it counts toward resistance to disease and poisons.

Dexterity is for speed and light weapons, along with ranged attacks. It helps you aim and dodge attacks.

Endurance is your defensive stat. It’s damage reduction. It’s also useful for resisting physical knockbacks from attacks. Think of it like sturdiness.

Intelligence is for maximum mana and overall attack power of spells. It helps with memorization and learning things quickly

Wisdom is for mana regeneration and how well you can notice things.

The submenus were easier to understand. Abilities show all your skills and techniques you acquire. I saw my Knives skill there. Inventory is all the items you have on yourself. He then showed us we can focus on a specific item and learn basic information on them. I tried it on my kitchen knife

Kitchen Knife:

Great for cutting meat, vegetables, or people.

Deals 8 - 10 + Dex piercing damage.

Leo finished looking over his inventory “This is great Crow, thanks for telling all of us this. How can we repay you?”

He held up a hand, “No need, it’s better this way. By the way, if you want advice on builds and class stuff just ask. I doubt all of this is a direct relation to games I have played, but it seems close enough to get us by.”

I asked an important question, “How do you think we will learn magic?”

He shrugged, “Typically most games skip that part, or you have a trainer. For Monster & Mazes, most caster backgrounds involve studying, obtaining magic from gods, demons or eldritch creatures. A few do get magic naturally, normally from being a descendant of a powerful creature. Such as dragons, elementals, or other powerful casters.”

I thought about that. So we would need to either learn magic, or earn it from something. “Would The System count as a god or whatever?”

Crow thought about it for a moment then shook his head, “No, I think we can only learn from something within the influence of The System itself. Again, that is if everything works like the games. I am just guessing at this point.”

It was then that someone shouted, “Break time over, load up. We won’t stop again till we arrive at our destination.”

We all loaded up and headed out. I looked at my character sheet trying to figure out a way to learn magic.

Name: Mathew

Level: 1 | 45 / 100 Exp

Age: 27

Race: Human [Grade G]

Class: Unknown [Grade Unknown]

Titles: Lawyer

Achievements: Survivor

Health: 115/115

Mana: 145/145

Strength: 10

Vitality: 11

Dexterity: 10

Endurance: 10

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

Submenus: Abilities, Inventory, Terms and Conditions

If everyone else started with only 5 points to allocate, then I am already at a head start. However, what if other people got bonuses like I did? I can worry about that later, when we arrive at base, I will work on figuring out magic. Hopefully someone there has a clue and I can start being useful.

Otherwise, I would need to invest points into Dexterity and possibly Endurance. At least Leo put points into Strength.

We eventually arrived at the base. A couple dozen people wearing combat gear and guns were posted at the entrance. We stopped and the driver handed them some paperwork. I looked at the people and several of them were young. Probably 20 years old. All of them had guns. Surely they knew guns were useless now right? It’s probably for show, for people who didn’t know yet.

Information like that will spread like wildfire I imagine. The paperwork was returned, and we were allowed to enter. We drove for a few more minutes before stopping before a large square and brown building. It looked like nothing important.

We all climbed out and Sophia lead us into the building. Inside uniformed people were going back and forth between rooms, everyone was talking and sharing information. We were taken to a larger room with other people like us. People who were not part of the military, but made it here after the message from President Bari.

Jerry left us going with a couple other people from the Convoy, all talking like old buddies. Sophia gave us some guidance, “Okay, someone will be here shortly and explain what they will do with you all. I suggest you volunteer to do work. Those who don’t pull weight end up getting the sticky end of the shit stick.”

With that she left us. It was just Leo, Crow, Madison and myself. We all sat together. Madison and Crow apparently hit it off well talking about games and some other topics. I looked around the room. There were about 20 of us in here.

Someone obviously important entered because several of the uniformed people in here guarding us stood a bit straighter. It was an older man, his rank had several stripes.

“Greetings everyone. Welcome to the Air Base. Most of you are family or friends of the military here and we promise to keep you safe while we figure everything out. As far as we currently know, the world as we know it is changed. Our President enacted Martial Law and several other doomsday contingencies. If anyone here wishes to help defend your new home, myself and other people here would be happy to have your help. Any volunteers?”

I glanced at Leo who was already raising his hand. I followed as did Madison, Crow, and a couple others within the crowd. We were directed to leave the room following a young man who had no gun on his person.

We ended up in a similar room, but this one had more people.

“I am Captain Franks. I will be in charge of you all to figure out where best to utilize you. Does anyone here have any skills or abilities yet?”

I raised my hand along with a couple others. “You there, with the black hair in the back, what do you have?”

Realizing he was pointing at me, “Knives.”

He nodded, “Do you have points in dexterity?”

I didn’t respond for a moment before replying, “No I don’t.”

He didn’t seem to like that answer and asked the others for their skills.

Two others had Knives, one person had Clubs, and the last had Dodging.

“Everyone here is going to work on obtaining the Knife skill or a Club skill. If you have neither go follow those three to the training area. Everyone that has a skill stays behind.” He pointed to three individuals by a set of double doors. Eventually it was just three of us left including Captain Franks.

“Congratulations, you all are drafted starting today. You will be given gear and assigned a team. Any complaints, and I will put you in that first room with the leeches. If you do not like it, you are free to return what we gave you, and leave. Any questions?”

I had nothing to say, but accepting my new reality with confidence will ensure I learn how to survive. Then I had an important question, “What about magic, sir? Has anyone done that yet?”

He looked at me for a long moment, “No, nobody has figured out magic yet. The closest is a few of our medics have some first aid skills that increase healing. However, not a direct magical ability according to our intel. Do you have a magic build?”

I was worried to say too much, but if it could get me to learn magic...”Yes, Intelligence and Wisdom are my two highest stats.”

He nodded and seemed to like that, “Good, I will remember your name. I will put your name on that list. If you figure anything out, you are to immediately report to me. Nobody else, understood?”

I nodded and he led us to a table full of equipment. Boots, knives, bullet proof vests, everything except guns most people in the Military probably get. “You won’t get full equipment, but it’s enough to start with. Start with boots and get one of everything. Starting tomorrow you all are on scouting missions if you have knife skills. You, with the club skill. You are on guard duty. We have a few objects that should work for that skill, talk to the Supply Manager and get what works best for you.”

With that he left us to equip ourselves with some help from those overseeing us and the equipment. We were assigned to scouting teams. I was put on a team with four others. Tomorrow we would head North to investigate reports of a red portal. Confirm it’s real, and then leave.

The one good thing I enjoyed was the shower. It felt good to wash away the grime from the past few days. I also remembered so much has happened, and it’s only been 24 hours. Just the other day I finished a court case, now I am assigned to a Military Scouting team to find out if a magical portal is real.

My wounds were gone, not even a scar. This system dude has one amazing benefit. I wonder how it applies to broken bones or things like cancer? Would those people heal up slowly, or would that require magic still?

Whatever the case, tomorrow I hope to gain a level up. If the portal had zombies then we could gain some experience.