God damn it. Just God damn it to Hell, those awful stinking beasts. Bloody, bloody God awfulness. Blast, blast, blast, just crap and rats and stinking -worst ever. God Damn it!

…

God, I really need to work on my cursing. I am so upset right now and I can’t even articulate how upset I really am because I can’t curse for real. I haven’t been this upset since the web-based program I used at worked failed to pull up the report I needed, but would instead time out in error. For three hours straight. God Damn it, that was just madening too, I just wanted to turn into a gorilla and smash my computer monitor into a hundred billion pieces. I feel the same way right now too. But I held in my rage then, I guess I can hold it in now. If I turn into a green monster, it probably means I am infected again, not a superhero.

…

God damn it, I should really try to get better curse words in my vocabulary. It’s not like I don’t know any, I work in the transportation industry for pete’s sake! I just can’t get over the inherent wrongness I feel when I try. Mother, it’s your fault I can’t curse wildly and release my frustrations right now!

My trip to get the additional wynots for my journey tomorrow was a fiasco, just utterly awful. If I hadn't had a heal skill, both my arms, my back and my face would be melted goo right now. Painful melted goo too, with exposed nerves screaming at me, demanding I give up the nuclear launch codes and end my misery. It was worse than when I needed that root canal, and that was bad. Before that experience, I hadn’t known what true pain was, but who would have known that such a small part of my body would emit such paralyzing and all encompassing torment. The day of the root canal was the day I decided that dentists had moved from my hate list to my love list.

For my wynot experience, it seemed that no matter what I did or how prepared I was to face those monsters, they always got the jump on me, literally. Each one was a fight to the death and by the fifth one I even stopped being traumatized by their pitiful screaming as I cleansed them. God damn it, the things I do for food.

My knife I brought with me was worthless, bringing me more harm than good as I had to be conscious of not stabbing myself in the fights. The wynots seemed to shrug off being stabbed with it like it was no big deal, even the single one that skewered itself on it when it launched itself at me. Instead of dying, it closed itself up around the knife and grabbed onto my two hands that were holding the knife unsteadily. Even worse, with my two hands trapped and with little surface area to cleanse with, I had limited options with dealing with the wynot as it slowly stripped my hands clean of flesh.

Not nice, not pretty.

…

I guess I was trying to kill and eat it, but God damn it, if this was what our ancestral hunter gatherers had to put up with then it’s a wonder that we all survived up till now. The third wynot got me by even more surprise as the other four as I wasn’t ready and thought I had stood far enough back from the stream to rest and regain my mp. But no, it came at me on a long high arc, beelining toward my face like an intercontinental ballistic missile from hell. That’s the one that got my head too, mostly the top of it as I was sitting down at the time. The thing burned away most of my hair up there too, and while heal cleaned up my skin, it certainly didn’t grow hair back. Now I look half bald and no scar either to make me look like a badass.

Instead of being a badass, much less looking like one, I acted much more like a little pansy, screaming wildly at every jumpscare encounter and flailing about like an idiot each time. I guess my experiences with wynots was not increasing my ability to handle them. Pretty pathetic.

The only thing I got besides the corpses of the five wynots was a level up. I was too incensed when I got it though and ignored the notification and let it settle up on the top left of my vision with a little (1). I had just been dismissing the infection notifications, there were too many to count during the trip.

I make it back to my room and angrily slam my door. The loud noise from it startles me though and I jump at the sound, dropping a couple of the wynot corpses on the floor.

…

Oh man, that was loud. I should not have slammed my door. I look to the walls and ceiling of my room to make sure they weren’t about to fall down and crush me. A little dust falls but that is it. But the noise...

Suddenly my anger is gone and I pick up my fallen foes and quickly peer out of the filthy green window anxiously. Growling in disgust, I cleanse it hastily and then blow off the grey dust. It doesn’t give my window the windex shine, but it's better than before. I look out again for several seconds, but I do not spot anything. It’s getting dark now anyway and as far as I could tell, the skeletons didn’t have glowing eyes so I wouldn't be able to see them in the dark anyway.

I had made a lot of noise while I was hunting the wynots, I hadn’t even thought about loudness back then, but what if the yelling had attracted more zombies and skeletons? It wouldn’t be strange for that to happen. That being said, it's not like they didn’t know where I lived, my house wasn’t going anywhere. From the sporadic zombies I had crushed this day, it seemed that they were just spawning out there randomly, but the skeletons acted like they had some sort of control over them, otherwise I would not have been mobbed by them earlier. What was stopping an all out attack against me?

I don’t know, but suddenly I do not feel as safe in my room as I had been earlier.

This brings up a question, how much does my enemy know about me. I had assumed that he knew everything his minions knew, but would that be too simple? Pesos undoubtedly knew my location, but with a name like vengeance spirit, I assume the greyhound had a compass attuned to me.

Did my enemy know where I was? I defeated all of his people, perhaps none were able to report back to him to tell him of my circumstances. If I had a bunch of disposable skeletons and zombies, I would have some scouting the area at least.

That said, how much of my abilities could my enemy actually figure out anyway? All he knows is that I defeated everybody he sent after me. Sure, I have some weaknesses, but its not like he knows them. Furthermore, its not even confirmed that the zombies and skeletons are even from this enemy of mine, they could just be a “natural” occurrence of this place.

…

Huh, this is pointless speculation. I am going to end up thinking myself in circles and waste time and energy. Stick to the facts, somebody out there sent Pesos to kill me. In a kill or be killed situation, I hope I have the mettle to be the one who survives. I certainly survived those God damn wynots. I’ll figure out more when I head out tomorrow.

I give a deep sigh and start cleansing every square inch of my room, I do not want to wake up in three hours with a lump of fungi in my throat again. Once is enough for that kind of experience. For all the drawbacks that staying in a single place brings me, I do not think I would survive long without shelter. Besides the mental comfort this place gives me, sleeping out in the wild would probably have me infected and killed while I was unconscious in no time. I’m not going to risk it if I can. If I get attacked tonight, hopefully I can react before they break down my door.

While cleansing, I bring up the notification I had been ignoring.

Congratulations! You have leveled up!

No surprises there. If memory serves me, that would bring me up to level five. Not bad for a single day’s work, I think.

As soon as I dismiss the notification to go check out my stats, I get another one.

You have reached level 5! Next stage of access to The System granted.

Identify (basic) restriction lifted

Wow, identify? Does that mean what I think it means? Even if it is basic, the system's stinginess has been cured!

Looking to my immediate left, I spy a book on my dresser. Excitedly, I call out, “Identify!”

Book (infected)

…

Gee, thanks. I guess basic really means basic. There is a lot the system could have said about this book, Foundation verse Empire. Title, Author, date published, maybe even the synopsis on the back. Either the system is not all knowing as it makes itself out to be or basic really is basic. Or perhaps I just expected too much out of it. Maybe it only identifies properly items from the system? At least it gave me a condition. In fact, with this ability, I can see how long it takes to infect something here. Not that I am going to waste my precious phone battery as a timer for this.

I hold the book up and even though it is infected, it is not infecting me. That is a good sign. I cleanse it and then use identify on it again.

Book

Good to know it works like I thought it would. I still think it’s doing this awesome book an injustice though. I first read this book during my senior year of high school on a Church trip with my year to Jamaica. Warm breezes and long sandy beaches with hammocks spread around the palm trees just begged for books to be read on them. After I went through my stash I brought from home, the few books that apparently came with my room caught my eye.

The first one was a light ero novel and while that had my undivided attention at first, I decided it would be bad form to read that openly at a church function. The second was this book, the second in a series apparently. I ate it up and when I got back home I bought the rest of the trilogy. Isaac Asimov, a man before his time, his sci fi novels from the 1950’s still stand true today.

Enough about Isaac, I look back at the wall I had just cleansed and use identify on it. It’s still un-infected and I move back through to where I began. My window as still clean too, so at least my skill lasted a good while.

I pull up my status to see what changed.

Inner Light: (level 5)

A unique light attribute class able to learn every light attribute skill and uses mana directly for every skill. Class locks all other potential attributes and skill types. Skill usage limited only to quantity of Mana available

Mana:

38/51.84

Regen: 2.5629696 per minute

Skills:

Cleanse

Clear body of foreign influences

Heal

Enhances natural healing

Flare

Coat external surfaces with light energy to give a light attribute to object

I am still getting a 20% increase every time, which is nice. I suppose my output would increase too as I encounter stronger enemies so perhaps it’s just meaningless inflation. I see my decimals are still out of control.

I am surprised that identify is not on my status screen. Thinking back to the notification, it didn’t say it was a skill, I just assumed it would be. It just said that the restrictions to it was “lifted”. I guess that means its a default setting that newbies need to unlock? It’s a good theory.

I am getting pretty tired and despite the excitement of my new ability, I have had a long rough day and could use some shut eye. Cleansing the entirety of my room is taking a long time, and here I thought brushing my teeth was a bother before bed.

After a good fifteen minutes of cleansing, my room is completely clean now and I am pleased to see that my first cleansed spot is still infection free. It's completely dark too, so I am using Thor’s hammer as a light source by using my heal skill on it. While the soft blue flames are the least bright of my skills, the heal skill is also the least costly when it is not actually healing anything. It makes a good enough light source and only costs about five mp a minute.

Holding the light blue barrel in front of me, now I am curious. I give it a quick identify.

Metal Barrel (Heal)

Huh. I wonder if I can use this barrel, or any object, to extend the reach of my heal skill. While I imagine it would be exponentially more costly to do that, I can see potential scenarios where that would be useful. Ugly, awful scenarios, but potential nonetheless.

I cut off the heal skill and then use cleanse on it instead, holding the skill in place.

Metal Barrel (Cleanse)

Same thing. Next I coat it in flare.

Thor’s Hammer: Holy Metal Barrel

No kidding. This is too much. All I can think about is the holy hand grenade and now I have a holy metal barrel. And the name, Thor’s Hammer? Are you kidding me? I am going to get sued. That’s just what I have been calling it in my mind, I’ve never actually said it out loud, you know? I guess this is evidence that the system can read my mind then. That’s pretty disappointing. On the other hand, seeing the name officially on that marker barrel, I feel a little smug.

I think I am going to have to consider my flare skill more carefully, it clearly has more to it than I originally thought. Sure, putting the flare skill on it changed it to holy, I can accept that, but its name now? What decides that?

I undo flare and watch as the barrel turns into an ordinary Metal Barrel again. How sad.

I grab Foundation and Empire again and light it up in flare.

Holy Book

Judas Maude, I think I just created another Bible. I am going to get burned alive at the stake for this one. Man, first sued and then burned? This skill is clearly troublesome.

I’m glad it doesn’t have a name though, like awesome book, or something. That would be embarrassing, but it leaves me to wonder about the criteria for naming things.

Lastly, I pick up one of the knives from the skeletons and I coat it in flare as well.

Holy Skeleton Dagger

Well, that seems contradictory, an oxymoron if I ever saw one. What makes the dagger a skeleton dagger? (Also, apparently it's a dagger, not a knife) Is it a skeleton dagger just because it came from the skeleton? Or is there more to it? I certainly would have thought something called a skeleton dagger would have been made of bone. That just seems proper. I turn off the flare and now it’s just a regular skeleton dagger, no longer holy.

Since it is a skeleton dagger maybe the dagger is cursed? That would make sense considering the amount of times I hurt myself with it today. But I believe that would just be blaming my clumsiness on something else instead of just me and that would not be wise. Besides, I would have assumed that all the light skills I used on it would have gotten rid of any curse.

I grab the other dagger as well to make sure and the results are the same. I am the proud owner of two skeleton daggers, occasionally, holy ones. I am not sure what to make of that.

Also, I unlocked new stuff at level five, does that mean at certain levels I will continue to unlock features of the system? That would be nice, maybe all the mysteries of the universe would be laid out before me in one harmonic, unified message. Considering my day. it would probably just say, “Screw you!”

I feel like I have more questions than answers now, but perhaps that will always be the case. I put my dagger upon my dresser and climb into my bed. Let me say I am really happy it came over with me. Short of a flamethrower, a tank, or a boatload of canned goods, I think my bed would be next in line on the list of items I would have taken with me to this place. If I am going to be an a strange, unfamiliar, and dangerous world, then having my own bed with me is priceless.

Before I had gone to bed I had dragged my dresser over to barricade the door. Sure, it blocked a quick escape, but at least any attempts to break into here, windows or otherwise, would surely wake me in time to react. I check my phone, I have 15% battery life left, regardless of me not using it at all today. Useless thing. It’s apparently 8:35 right now; I set the alarm for three hours to make sure I don’t get suffocated tonight.

I lay back in bed, ready to sleep.

…

…

…

Wow, its so quiet. I usually sleep with a box fan going at night to serve as white noise. In fact it’s still there, in the corner, still plugged into the outlet on the wall. There is no electricity, obviously. But still, there is not a sound to be heard. My house is right next to the freeway too, which is why I had a box fan in the first place. Still, even the sound of cars and trucks zooming down the highway had turned into comfortable white noise after a year there. Now there is just, nothing. No crickets, no frogs, no wind, no airplanes. No noise pollution at all. Just lonely silence.

…

I had been experiencing this all day and I have been able to ignore it, but now I can’t get away from it. It’s unnerving.

I roll over to try to get comfortable. It's hot and muggy here, so I don’t use any of my sheets or blankets.

Its Saturday night at 8:40. I will be the earliest to bed of my family at this point. My twin and his wife are out on a vacation right now, perhaps enjoying a night out at a nice eatery. I’m not sure where they went, maybe hiking out west. They did that last time, although they have a four month old now so probably not. I’m sure they told me, I just hadn’t bothered to put it to memory.

My oldest brother and his wife are either out kayaking on the river they live on or working the night shift in the restaurant they manage together. They often get called in for support when employees are sick, need it off, or when it’s just super busy. Since its a saturday night during the summer in their tourist town, it’s probably super busy. Even I help out there in the kitchen in the summer. They couldn't call me in today even if they wanted too, though…

The sister who lives with me is up north with Mom and Dad, an hour drive away. They might be watching a movie now, perhaps one of the Harry Potter’s that my youngest sister had gotten into lately. If I hadn’t been assigned to dog sit Pesos for my twin this weekend, I would probably be up with them too.

Then, lastly, is my second oldest brother and his wife. I really don’t know what they would be doing. Perhaps out with some friends? Or since my sister-in-law is five months pregnant, maybe they are taking it easy, spending the night in the house with their five year old daughter. I know their A/C unit had gone kaput earlier this week and they had been living in hell until it got fixed, a necessity for somebody with MS, so it would make sense they stayed in to enjoy their cool air.

If not for this madness, I would be at my own home now, in the living room, perhaps reading or watching netflix. I wouldn’t have been alone, Pesos would be there too, relaxing on the floor next to me. Here I am, instead, wondering if I am going to survive the night and Pesos is dead; I killed her.

I’m going to have to face her again tomorrow when she respawns, everyday until her vengeance is achieved. I look up at the timer. 843:65

Even considering how awful today was, I bet tomorrow is going to be worse. I had better get as much rest as I can.

Before I lost consciousness, I cast identify on myself.

Gregory Tyler

Human

Inner Light: (level 5)

Gee, thanks.