The office building quickly comes into view. Kyle turns onto Second street and I radio Decker again. We maneuver around my car and into the building.

I expected countless bodies to be piled up but all of them have been moved to the sides of the building. Kyle guides the car to the electric car charger and we all file out.

“I’m glad you all made it back.” Decker says.

Abby’s father brings out Andy and Decker’s smile instantly drops.

“What happened?” He asks.

“We got pinned down by a zombie called a Zombie Brute. Andy got hurt in the attack.” Kyle says.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice that Abby’s face has gone white and that she’s looking down at the ground. Does she feel sick?

“How was he hurt? Did he get any zombie muck on him?” Decker asks.

He stands next to Abby’s father peering down at the unconscious Andy. An expression of worry is painted deep in his face.

“He was thrown into a wall. I don’t think he got any muck on him.” Abby’s father says.

Decker looks up to the large man holding Andy.

“And you are?”

“Ah sorry I’m Abigail's father, Nathen Muller.” Abby’s father says.

“I’m Decker. We should get Andy cleaned up. Follow me.”

Decker turns to lead Nathen up to the seventh floor. He walks towards the stairwell door and stops.

“Joel, can you shut down the generator and then meet me up on the seventh floor?” He asks.

“Yes sir.”

With that Decker opens the door and leaves the garage with Nathen and a distracted or sick looking Abby following. I head to the generator room on the bottom floor of the building. Once inside I find two large looking machines and almost instantly regret agreeing to turn them off.

It takes me a while but I find a panel with instructions on turning off and on the machines. I follow them and plunge myself in darkness.

I let my mana race beneath my skin illuminating the room slightly. Now that I’m able to see the door I leave the room and head up the stairs to the seventh floor.

There I find Decker and Angila looking over a nearly naked Andy. They fuss over the blood coming from his head.

“Do you think anything got into the wound?” Angila asks Decker.

“I don’t know. I can’t really find where the blood is coming from.” Decker says.

I walk into the room and make a little coughing sound to announce myself. The two turn and look at me.

“What happened out there?” Decker asks me.

I go over the events of the previous hour in my head. Once I feel like I have everything straight I launch into retelling the events. I end with the hidden quest and class selection choice.

“What choices do you have?” Decker asks.

I pull up the Class Selection screen and read them out.

Classes available:

Class:

Attributes:

Skills:

Warrior

+3 to Strength

+1 to Dexterity

+2 to Agility

+3 to Endurance

+1 to Perception

Battle Physique

Wind Mage

+1 to Dexterity

+5 to Agility

+1 to Endurance

+1 to Intelligence

+1 to Wisdom

+1 to Willpower

Wind Element Control

Water Mage

+1 to Strength

+5 to Dexterity

+1 to Agility

+1 to Intelligence

+1 to Wisdom

+1 to Willpower

Water Element Control

Fire Mage

+1 to Strength

+1 to Agility

+5 to Endurance

+1 to Intelligence

+1 to Wisdom

+1 to Willpower

Fire Element Control

Earth Mage

+5 to Strength

+1 to Dexterity

+1 to Endurance

+1 to Intelligence

+1 to Wisdom

+1 to Willpower

Earth Element Control

Decker rubs his chin once I finish reciting the longer list. After a few moments pass he looks back to me.

“What do you think?” Decker asks.

“I was leaning towards the fire or wind mage skills. However, recent battles have also made me consider the Warrior class.”

“So we’re assuming that if you choose fire mage you’ll be able to conjure balls of flames and the likes, right?”

I nod.

“Then maybe you should choose Earth Mage.”

“Why’s that?”

“If you can conjure earth then you can form walls and pits. You could also form weapons and other structures that may last after you stop supplying them with magic.” He says.

What he says has merit. While being able to bring down volleys of fire balls on the zombies could be useful. It’ll only be useful in battle. The others are very much the same, with little non combat uses.

However, if I could summon walls of stone or earth then I could make this place far more secure. And I did just lose my tire iron. I’ve been going through weapons far too fast. If I could make my own then that wouldn’t be an issue.

Seeing no down sides to his suggestion I focus on the blue screen before me. My eyes fall to the Earth Mage class and after a second of focus a new window pops up.

Do you wish to choose the EARTH MAGE class?

Yes/No

I select yes and brace for the pain. Nothing happens for moments. Then all at once I feel as if I’m being set on fire from the inside.

My vision turns inwards as I instinctively try to find the cause of the pain. My vision travels along my mana channels until I find a hot spot. There I watch as symbols burn themselves into the channels.

Throughout my mana system random channels have these strange symbols burned into them. Creating a filter for my mana to pass through. While my mana is naturally blue once it passes through this filter it looks more like a murky purple.

The burning sensation fades as the last of my channels gain this filter. Not every channel has the filter but close to half do.

With the pain gone I sit up realizing that I fell. Both Decker and Angila look at me with worry on their faces.

“Are you okay?” Decker asks.

I nod my head feeling a headache as I do so.

“How do you feel?” Decker asks.

“Mostly worn out. But at the same time.”

I flex my fist feeling my muscles tense in my forearm. I definitely feel stronger than I did before.

“I feel stronger. Physically.” I finish saying.

“So can you conjure earth?” Decker asks.

I let my vision turn inwards again. I focus on the purplish mana past the filter. It feels a lot heavier than my regular mana. It’s slow to move and requires a lot more effort from me to control.

I push the purple mana out of my hand, causing my hand to glow a purple. I expect a purple light to form an orb above my hand like my regular mana but that doesn’t happen.

Instead a brown clump of dirt amasses above my hand. The more mana I pour into it the more it grows. However, as it grows I feel it gets substantially heavier and harder to keep afloat.

The weight of the ball becomes too much for me to hold. It drops to my palm with a quiet thud.

With that I stop supplying the earthen ball with mana. I feel the mana in the ball hold it’s shape even though it’s just loose dirt.

I examine the construct and find that it doesn’t bleed off energy like my mana does when it’s outside my body. Instead it holds firm even when I press on it, despite me not supplying any mana to it.

“Fascinating. Can you form rocks and metals too?” Decker asks.

I shrug my shoulder and turn my vision back inwards to the weird symbols filtering my mana. The symbols glow brighter as I push more mana through the filter to form another dirt ball. I notice that only a few of the symbols glow while I make the dirt ball, while most remain dim.

I stop making the dirt ball and focus on the symbols. It takes some effort but I can light up individual symbols by focusing on them. I tentatively push mana through the filter with a different set of symbols lit.

Pain instantly radiated from the filter. Feeling as if someone is pouring acid through my blood.

“What’s wrong?” Decker asks after noticing me wince in pain.

I take a few seconds to calm myself and push the pain down.

“I don’t know how to explain it but I have these filters in me now that I push mana through to make the dirt. However, I can make certain parts of the filter activate but that causes pain when I do so.” I say.

“Weird. Maybe you need to activate certain ones to make certain materials. But if you don’t get the combination right you get some kind of backlash. Or it could be that you aren’t activating those parts right. Or it could be that they are used for the other elements, like fire or wind and that’s why you feel pain when you activate them. You don’t have the right affinity.” Decker says.

“Guys I think we should worry about Andy right now. The bleeding is coming from this part of his head. And it feels far too squishy for a skull.” Angila pipes in.

We turn our gaze to the man lying on the couch. He’s far paler than before and it looks like the wound on his head is still bleeding.

Decker turns back to the couch and takes out a first aid pack from next to the couch. He opens the pouch and takes out a bottle of what looks to be rubbing alcohol. He opens the bottles and pours the contents onto the man’s head.

There’s a sizzling sound as the liquid bubbles. Once the bottle is empty Decker takes out large white pads of gauze. He opens them and lays them down where white bubbles froth up. Next Decker takes out a wrap of gauze and starts wrapping Andy’s head.

Once done with that the two work over the guy, washing him down with wash clothes and water. While they’re doing that I feel awkward just standing there watching.

I excuse myself and leave the two to their work. I feel bad for not doing more but what is there for me to do?

As I walk away the tingle in my mind rings out making me feel that something bad is going to happen. I turn back to the room where Decker and Angila clean down Andy.

I don’t like the guy but I don’t want him to die. He was one of the first people I found since all of this went down.

I shake the thoughts from my mind. I shouldn’t be focusing on that right now. Not when I have this new skill to figure out.

My feet carry me to the staircase. There I find Nathen and Abby talking with Rabeca.

It seems that Abby and Rabeca are telling Nathen what’s happened to them since the start of the apocalypse. I avert my gaze and try to walk past. But as I do so Abby calls out to me.

“Joel come here.”

I stop and turn to the group. With a mental sigh I walk over to them.

“I think I should be thanking you kid.” Nathen says as I walk over.

“What for?” I ask, feeling awkward.

“From the sounds of it you’ve saved my girl here and you also saved us all back at the apartments.” He says.

“It was nothing. Don’t worry about it.” I say.

I find something very interesting on the floor as I avoid eye contact with the large man.

“NOTHING!” He says loudly. “My daughter’s life is not nothing.”

He pulls me into a large hug. I freeze and feel my mana react as if I’m about to head into a fight.

The man holds me firm even as I squirm to try and escape his grasp. However, after a moment I realize that the hug is quite warm.

I remember my envious gaze when I watched him hug Abby. Is this how she felt? Warm?

The large man lets me go and holds me at arms length.

“I am forever indebted to you. Thank you.” He says.

My mouth opens and closes as the sincerity of the man’s emotions. I’m left at a loss for words.

“Yeah.” I get out.

“Dad stop, you're embarrassing me.” Abby says.

“How could I be embarrassing you? All I’m doing is thanking our savior.”

I feel my cheeks heat up.

“I have to go.” I say.

I hear protests from the group as I all but run into the staircase. My feet carry me two steps at a time.

Why am I running? Why is my heart racing?

I break onto the roof and let the cool breeze flow over me. I walk to the edge and close my eyes trying to calm my heart.

I’m no savior. I don’t deserve that praise. So why are they giving it to me?

I shake my head viciously.

Forget it. Forget their words. Forget the hug.

I push the thoughts out of my head and focus on the cold wind blowing against my face. My heart eventually calms down and I feel as if I can think again.

KKKKKKYYYYYYAAAAA!

The cry of a bird breaks the silence causing me to jump. I turn around letting my mana burn hot in me.

Sitting on a table behind me is a familiar looking raven. It cocks its head at me as if to ask ‘what’s with that reaction?’. It’s electric blue eyes peer at me full of intelligence that no bird should have.

“You scared me.” I tell the bird.

It crows at me again. Then it bends down and picks something off the table. A silver glint catches the sun.

The raven spreads it’s large wings and flaps them. It hops off the table and flaps over to me.

Instinctively I raise my arm out in front of me. The bird lands on my forearm facing me.

In its mouth is a silver ring with a black gem set into it. It bobs its head making me feel like it wants to set the ring down.

I offer it my free hand and the bird drops the ring into it.

“Is this for me? Or am I just holding it for you?”

The raven caws. Then it starts beating its wings. It rises off my forearm and caws at me again. Then it flies away.

“Thank you. I guess.” I call out to the bird.

I look down to the ring in my hand. Silver shiny metal with a single black stone. As I focus on it a window appears in my vision.

Ring of Willpower

+3 to Willpower

My jaw drops as I read the window before me.