I didn’t lose consciousness this time when I entered the instance. I could have been killed any number of ways within minutes, if not seconds, if that had been the case. I did get beat up and thrown around a lot though, like what happened when I shut down that core last time.

When the turbulence ended I picked myself up off the ground as quickly as possible.

Just in time to see the roof start collapsing around me.

The plaster, wood and drywall of the ceiling fell down on me in a thunderous crash as the hotel room materialized, incomplete, from our world. The collapsing pieces beat me to the ground and knocked the breath out of me.

I think it also broke something in me. Rib, back, I’m not sure. I’ve had worse.

Thankfully, the five floors of rooms above us didn’t come through as well, otherwise I would have been a pancake beneath the weight.

I suppose I should be grateful that my first transfer here included a stable roof, else I would have died straight away.

…

But I am not grateful, I am angry. Very angry.

With a burst of mana, I heal myself and push the drywall off me, ready to destroy the skeleton that brought me here.

The sight that greeted me gave me pause. It was the sick green landscape I had come to hate with the core of my being. Dead mossy trees hung and laid around, fungus ridden underbrush filled the land, and the hazy green mist floated around and blocked the sky with its deathly hue. The sickly earth was all the same.

The goddamn same.

A slew of notifications came, but I ignored them in favor of the target in front of me. The skeleton mage with the core was pushing himself up off the ground as well, looking shaken. Loose materials slid off him and the wraith was floating anxiously behind it. The core was back to its original size and the skeleton mage took one look at me and beat a hasty retreat, pushing through the ruins and somehow tethering the core to him with a spell, limping slightly all the while.

That bastard. I’m not going to let him get away

I moved to run after him but the wraith foolishly comes down at me. I don’t hesitate at all but feel my blood boiling, preparing to destroy it. It won’t be able to stop me.

But then it swerved and flew past instead, I eyed it as it circled me before heading towards the collapsed hotel room.

…

The soldiers were there, partially buried as well. They had taken the trip much harder than me and were lying on the ground, moaning. Struggling to get up.

…

Goddamn it!

If I stop to help them the skeleton would get away and my chance for an easy victory would be gone.

Truly, on this mission, I would have been much better without them.

I am ashamed to say I hesitated for a second. Just a brief second.

But I ran back after the wraith hollering as loud as I could. The stupid thing was agile, but not fast. It didn’t bother attacking the downed men, but veered and flew up and away. Soon it crested the hill and was gone, its task complete.

…

That will not be the last I see of him, I bet.

I looked back at the retreating skeleton mage, barely in view. I could still run after it at this point, but it would be the same as killing all these people.

I take a second to look at my notifications.

Warning! You have been attacked by instance soul curse!

Countdown until death

I cleansed myself of the damned curse and looked down at soldiers sitting up and groaning.

“What- What-,” O’hara was sputtering, holding his head. “Where are we? What happened?”

“Oh, Jesus Christ, Lord Almighty! Save me!” Jones was whimpering. Nobody else was saying anything, they looked to be in shock.

Jeffrey seemed to be handling it the best. After pushing himself to his feet, he slowly surveyed the dreary landscape before turning to me.

“Is this inside the instance?”

“Yes,” I reply plainly.

“What’s that?” Smielnisk asked harshly, ignoring the pain his cracked face was giving him as he spoke.

Jeffrey nodded at me with a resigned scowl before speaking up. “Listen up, we are inside one of the black spheres. It's called and instance and it's a whole nother world in here. We can get out and return home, Greg has done so before. But it will be hard and we will need to work together.”

“Jeffrey,” I say, turning to the lieutenant, “Do you have any notifications on the top right of your vision?”

I see Jeffrey eyes unfocus as he locates them. “Yes.”

I nod my head. “Open them up and tell me what it says.”

After a moment he answers with a question, “I am cursed? And infected?”

I nod and look around, seeing similar reactions from the others.

“Yes, every day you will be cursed and die within five minutes if not cured. I can cure you though.”

I reach out to Jeffrey and cast a cleanse on him. It takes more out of me than I expected, but I get the job done. I glance at Jeffrey who gives me a nod.

“Other than the curse, this place is also filled with illness and disease. Simply breathing deeply will get you infected. I will need to cleanse you of that as well. It won’t kill you immediately but will slowly paralyze you and then kill you over the course of an hour.”

I see the dawning horror on each of the soldiers' faces as they realizations slowly sink in. Some of them looked too stunned to get up.

I pull up my status. I haven’t seen it since I attacked the temple a lifetime ago and a part of me is relieved to see it again. That feeling twists in my gut.

Inner Light: (level 17)

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:

30/462.2106472

Regen: 22.8516944 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

Edge:Sub-Skill of Flare

Coat the edge of a blade with light energy to give a specialized offensive light attribute to object

Barrier:Sub-Skill of Flare

Project a corporeal light energy plane to create a specialized defensive light attribute barrier

Just as I remember it. With a little update, apparently I am level 17 now. I suppose my exploits would be worth a couple levels.

I move to each of them, cleansing them as the mana comes in, and keep talking. “However, this place, while most certainly is Hell and everything in it is trying to kill you, you should be able to acquire abilities like I do. My healing and flare abilities come from this place, so we will have to see what kind of abilities we can get for you guys until we attack the skeletons, take out the core and return home.”

Gotta pretend to know exactly what I am doing here. Fake it till you make it! I mean, it is a good plan, but I am used to soloing this, not escorting a group around. It was hard enough for me to survive alone, much less with these millstones.

I feel sick, thinking about how many ways these people could die.

I reach the last guy, Private Jones. He’s not taking this very well, and I see him shaking while still seated on the ground. I crouched down next to him and put my hand on his shoulder. I am out of juice though, so I will have to wait a little.

“How are you doing, Jones?” I ask, not sure what else to say.

He flinches a little at my voice as if he didn’t realize I was next to him and then looks up at me. His mouth opens and closes with no sound a few times.

Then he whispers, “Have my deeds fallen short? Is this purgatory? ”

I shake my head. I can understand where this guy is coming from. I remember what it was like, dropping suddenly in this hellhole with no idea what was going on.

He then says suddenly, “I am going to die in a minute. Jesus Christ, I should have done more.”

“No you aren’t going to die, I am going to cleanse you of the curse. Just give me a few seconds to recharge my mana.” I try to give his arm a reassuring squeeze, but it doesn’t appear to be helpful.

Jeffrey comes up next to me and crouches down with us as well. “You’ll be fine, Private. Greg lived in this hellhole for two weeks all by himself. You are here with him, a fortune unparalleled. Trust him, he knows what to do.”

I add in and try to grin. “Plus, we’ve got guns this time. This will be a piece of cake.”

The next half minute is the longest of my life as we stare at each other, the seconds clicking down to his demise. I watch his face slowly twist in horror as he watches the timer in the corner of his eye.

“Jeffrey,” I say as I reach out with my hands, “I am going to pass out for a bit as I use up the last of my mana. I will probably be back after five or ten minutes, but in the meantime, keep everybody alive. Shoot anything that moves. When I wake up, I’ll stabilize the group, then we track down the mage skeleton and kill it. We’ll need to do this fast, while the instance is weak. If it takes more than a few days I fear we will fall behind too much.”

Jeffrey nods gravely at me and I cleanse Jones, the warm golden glow enveloping him for a moment before disappearing.

A sigh of relief escapes Jeffrey and Jones looks up at me, his eyes watery. “Thank you.” he chokes out.

“You’re welcome,” I say with a smile, exhausted, even as my vision fades away. I feel Jeffrey hold me as I slump over.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeffrey freezes as he holds Greg, their savior apparent and only hope out of this miserable place as the guy does his impression of a limp noodle.

Jeffrey had read the reports of Greg’s experiences here and had been properly mortified and awed by the words. Many people hadn’t believed the stories in their entirety, or at least thought that the words were exaggerated, Jeffrey included. Now, only being here for a few minutes, Jefferey understood that, if anything, the reports downplayed the horror here. He felt the dead weight of despair in his gut as he looked around the bleak, bleak landscape.

Even knowing that Greg had survived, and in his own way, thrived here alone, the oppressive atmosphere of the place caused a feeling of certain doom inside of him.

As much as Greg probably thought otherwise, the guy was an insane monster to have survived here alone.

“Is he alright?” Smeilnisk asked, the panic evident in his voice. Jeffrey didn’t blame him.

Taking Greg’s pulse really quick to make sure he really was still alive, Jefferey grunted and replied, “He’s fine, just spent. He’ll be back up shortly, he used all his mana which causes him to pass out. In the meantime we protect him and wait.”

There was silence for a minute as the people tried to absorb their new circumstances.

Jeffrey knew that these people weren’t completely clueless as to what was happening around the world. They had been activated days ago when Greg’s house became a thing, but they had been given the barest details. Supernatural invaders from another dimension? They were not told that explicitly, but essentially, yes.

But hearing some reports and being put on guard duty is a far cry from being thrust into the middle of an undead showdown. The same was true for Jeffrey. None of them knew anything about the superhuman Greg either.

“Lieutenant?” A worried voice came to him. He turned and looked at the Corporal who had spoken to him.

The woman was handling the situation well, all things considered. Having half your face and arm almost frozen off isn’t something people shrug off.

The Corporal was holding up her burnt black hand though, staring at it in horror. Little green growths had started popping up on it and she eyed them with a detached awed terror.

Jeffrey took a quick look at it and blanched, his eyes immediately switching to her face. There, too, on her dead side, the green growths were coming out. Her blank white eye was now crusted.

Jeffrey handed off Greg’s unconscious form to Jones, who took him like he was an unstable explosive, and went to Corporal Duncan.

Her one working eye stared back at his and he shuddered. Checking his own hands and arms he saw them clear and sighed with relief. He turned and looked at Private Smielnisk who was developing similar symptoms. He spoke as calmly as he could.

“Does it hurt?”

Duncan shook her head, her single eye wide and afraid.

Speaking more confidently then he felt, Jeffrey added, “Yeah, from Greg’s reports from this place, we know that while the infection is aggressive and attacks wounds particularly fast. Greg, never had much of a problem with it, his ability neutralized it easily. Don’t worry about it, it won’t be fatal for a while and Greg will be up and at it soon enough and will fix you back up to perfect health.”

Duncan nodded, putting her hand down and doing her best not to look at it. She brought up her shotgun, holding it as tightly as possible, and peering around the landscape anxiously. Her teeth were set and her face was white. She spoke after a second, tonelessly, “my notifications are telling me I’m infected.”

If they made it out of this, they would need some serious therapy, him included.

“Alright,” Jeffrey said, turing to the group. They all eyed him expectantly, guns clutched in their hands. He paused and then added, “While we wait for Greg to wake back up, I’m going to tell you everything we know about what is happening. When Greg comes to, he can provide more details, but for now, this is what we know.”

For the next ten minutes, Jeffrey did his best to convey what he knew, but the absurdity of it made it difficult. Instances? Game like settings? Skeletons and zombies? Madness, all of it. But true nonetheless.

Enemies. True Enemies. Creatures, while maybe not bent on the complete destruction of the world, more than capable of it. The black spheres, as unknowable as black holes, except for Greg who had returned. And now them.

And the game. Absurd powers bestowed. Evil incarnate. For what reason? Was it all real, or just a story? Who was behind it?

They were blind, but some facts were irrefutable. Like the infections slowly taking over two of the soldiers.

They didn’t ask questions, accept for O’hara who had many. His eyes lit up during the lecture.

How were classes acquired?

What were the conditions for the different classes?

Could they gain these powers as well?

What was the structure of the parameters of this place?

How could he get an awesome class?

Jeffrey didn’t have answers for the majority of the questions. Out of the different possible reactions, Jeffrey supposed the enthusiastic embracing of the possibilities was better than despair. It was easier to be excited when an infection wasn’t eating you alive.

“Damn!” O’hara swore, after a particularly excited questioning. He looked around sheepishly. “I got a lung infection.”

Jeffrey wanted to slap the guy. He was taking this whole thing too casually. He had gotten the lung infection a while back from all his talking.

Suddenly, a shot gun rang out, breaking the unnatural quiet of the landscape. They all were startled, looking over to the source.

Duncan stood to the side, her gun still raised. Her infection was looking worse than ever, her left side was almost completely covered. She stood stiff, hardly able to move.

“What happened?” Jeffrey asked, looking over to the direction she had shot.

“Zombie,” She said flatly, lowering her weapon. “Single one, ambling up here.” she paused a moment and then added as a grunt. “Got a class from it.”

“You did?” O’hara burst out excitedly, “So we just need to kill something?” He looked around eagerly, as if hoping a hoard of zombies would appear.

Jeffrey frowned and spotted the dead undead zombie, its top half shredded. He nodded and added, “Good work. Keep a sharp eye out people.”

Greg’s voice spoke up, “What class did you get?”

Jeffrey turned and spotted Greg sitting up with the help of Private Jones. He looked a little worse for wear, but his eyes were alive and alert.

Greg gave them a smile, “Good job staying alive, I was only a little worried.” Then he saw the corporal’s infection and his face twisted in surprise. “Judas Maude! Come over here and let me take care of that!”

“Steady there, man!” Jones said anxiously, helping up Greg.

Duncan ambled over and Greg reached out with his hand, “Yeah, I guess I am not surprised, The infections easily invade the body when there are wounds. Here you go, I’ll get to all of you here. Heal.”

The soft golden glow enveloped Duncan and she let out a sigh of relief. Jeffreys saw the ugly green fungus turn to gray dust and then brush away, leaving her clear and bright.

Despite seeing it several times already, Jeffrey couldn't help but marvel at the miraculous sight.

“I’ll get to your injuries soon, but let me clear up everybody else too.”

“Thanks” Duncan replied, looking down at and moving her arm again.

“No prob.” Greg said with a tense smile.

Moving to Smielnisk next, Greg made his rounds, pausing between heals to collect mana and offering encouraging words.

“So what class did you get?” Jefferey asked, standing next to the Corporal.

“Kinetic Sorceress.” She replied, giving that unfocused look as she reviewed her status.

“Holy Shit, that sounds amazing!” O’hara exclaimed, now cleaned and ogling Duncan with excitement and envy. “That sounds so OP!”

“OP?” Jeffrey asked, giving the private a frown.

“Stands for Overpowered,” Greg explained, finishing up on Jones, who was looking up at Greg with worshipful eyes. “It does sound pretty amazing, but don’t forget our enemies also have powers. To normal humans, any kind of power would be OP. What’s the description say, Corporal?”

“It says, ‘ A class that allows for manipulation of kinetic mechanics though mana usage. Skill usage limited to quantity of Mana available. It comes with two skills. Kinetic Aura, which allows me to create a bubble of space where I can influence kinetic energy and Hard shot, which I can use to accelerate objects I am touching.”

She looked out over the group with a frown, “It doesn’t seem very helpful.”

Greg nodded and looked at her, crossing his arms speculatively. “For now maybe. Both skills need mana to use, which you probably have a small pool of. From my experiences though, these skills can scale up with the amount of mana available to use. For now, you could maybe deflect a stone thrown at you, which we will definitely test after this. But in the future I expect the radius will grow as you level up as well as the amount of mana you could funnel through it. It wouldn’t surprise me if you could stop a truck with it at higher levels. And Hardshot can probably shoot out small rocks for now. While your gun is superior, perhaps in the future you can become a mobile cannon. Imagine shooting a sphere of steel the size of a basketball at supersonic speeds at command.” Greg grinned at her with that thought and after a moment she grinned back.

“Sounds nice,” she said.

“Yeah, grab some objects and start getting a feel for your limits. It would be incredibly helpful if you can deflect arrows from us with your aura. Just don’t use all your mana or you’ll pass out like I did. Once I’m topped up, I’ll come and see if I can’t heal you up all the way.”

“That’s so badass!” O’hara whined, looking around for a zombie to kill. “I want that class! Do you think I will get it if I blow away a zombie too?”

“Maybe,” Greg replied with a frown, “There might be a correlation with how you kill something and your class, or it might be completely random. I have no idea. Also, everybody getting the kinetic class might not be the best idea, it has a big weakness.”

Jeffrey nodded, following Greg’s chain of logic. “She probably can’t do anything against the wraiths.”

Greg replied with a wry grin, “Perhaps later she’ll develop a skill that can, but she also might not. Stacking our group with this type would keep us in the same situation that got us here. As cool as her class is, guns are still a more effective weapon for her.”

“So if the classes are based upon how the first kill is obtained,” Jeffrey said, the gears working in his head, “We should try killing the zombies in different ways to get different classes. Hopefully we can get another one that will help us deal with the wraiths.”

“Right!” O’hara butted in, “we need a balanced party. We can’t all be DPSs!”

Jeffrey stared at the kid, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

“I’m going to get the most awesome class!” O’hara said excitedly, “I want to be a pure mage and throw fireballs! Or lightning! Or ice! I don’t care! Maybe I’ll try for some sort of elementalist!”

Greg gave Jeffrey a bemused smile which he didn’t return.

“F***!” O’hara said after a second, “I got infected again.”

As Greg cleansed O’hara, Jeffrey looked around the bleak landscape. Although O’hara seemed caught up in the moment, Jeffrey was glad to see that the rest of his crew was taking this much more seriously. The Corporal was busy shooting off small pebbles into the dead green bushes a ways away, but she was keeping her eyes keen on the surroundings. Smielnesk was doing the same on the other side, Jones was staying close and sucking up to every word that came out of Greg’s mouth, while sweeping the landscape with his eyes.

Good. According to Greg, there were many, many things out here trying to kill them. With Greg up and working though, Jeffrey couldn’t help but feel a little optimistic.

“Alright,” O’hara said, trying to keep his breath calm and focused to avoid another infection like Greg suggested. “When is the next zombie coming? I’ve got an idea for killing it.”

Greg looked around with a frown. “Probably the freebies are gone, I am afraid. While the zombies are mindless, the skeletons are far from it. They will gather up all the loose zombies as fast as possible. They won’t attack until they feel they have the strength to do so.”

“We shouldn’t wait for that,” Jeffrey said, feeling the bad gut feeling again, “We need to take on the enemies on our terms, not theirs.”

Greg nodded. “Neither side is ready for a confrontation right now. We need to get you guys your classes and hopefully stabilize the group so you are less dependent on me. We should also move to try and chip away at the skeleton’s forces. Or maybe that black mage is back. God, I hope not, I think I killed him for good. He had a name, unlike all these other spawned creatures.”

“So,” Jeffrey said, gripping his gun a little tighter and feeling his gut twist uncomfortable. “Hunting tactics.”

“Right,” Greg replied, his eyes tight. “We need to keep a careful lookout too. There is another party out there that’s got it out for me, and I suspect it's very powerful now. I got the notification when I got here.” Greg eyes the landscape one more time and added, “Looks like I haven’t seen the last of Pesos.”