Arthur woke up feeling refreshed; this time without the aid of a cat intent on making a meal of him. He stretched his arms upwards and realised he hadn’t been hallucinating before he passed out. They really were both perfectly fine. Arthur was shocked. He knew that the world was now nothing like how it used to be, that magic actually existed, or at least something close to it. Heck, he’d come back from the dead. But it was one thing to wake up to a blue message telling you you’d been revived and another to actually witness the magical effects of ether on himself.

A debilitating injury that would leave someone crippled pre-system had been healed in less than half a day if his cracked watch face was anything to go by. Speaking of system messages. Arthur checked to see if he had any new notifications. They no longer randomly appeared in his vision, since his earlier complaining, but he was unsure if that was because of him or the fact that the system had activated its ‘perseverance protocols’ to save energy.

Sabre cat- level 5 defeated

120 ether absorbed…

Current progression 238/43000.

That wasn't right Arthur clearly recalled the cat only possessing 92 ether and yet he had absorbed 28 more from it, over 20% more than stated by the system. He didn't know if that was because his system was defective or if there was something unique about him. So many inconsistencies and so few answers. It was enough to drive him crazy. Perhaps it was also the reason why his teleport had also been delayed or maybe he was reading too much into something of little import. What Arthur did know though was that he was in desperate need of a shower. He stank of shit right now.

Literally.

Looking at the pool of blood around him, Arthur noticed that it was now much darker than before, as well as a much thicker consistency. Identifying it he realised it had now changed state and become Ether Infused Blood Gel (Rare), but its description remained largely the same, with only a line detailing how it had congealed after time spent under the sun.

Arthur stood up on his recently mangled foot and tentatively tested to see if any hint of injury remained. Finding it was perfect, he quickly made his way to the truck that had caused him so many problems. Years spent on the wrong side of the law had taught him a whole host of skills, primary amongst them the art of breaking into a car, but none of his unique skill set was required to enter this particular vehicle as its door was already unlatched.

Clambering into the interior, Arthur looked around to see if there was anything that could be of use. His luck seemed to finally be looking up as he spotted a backpack containing water in a metal bottle as well as a packed lunch on the passenger seat. Wolfing down the beef sandwiches he quickly drank the water to stop himself from choking due to his speedy eating. It tasted like a damp sock left out to dry. Wet in the worst way possible and salty enough that he questioned the sanity of its maker. He couldn't help it, though, as whatever healing that blood had done for him, it had left him feeling ravenous as if he hadn't eaten anything for days. It seemed that extensive ether usage needed to be supplemented with lots of food, at least for a normal human like him.

Speaking of his blood, the healing aspect it contained would be incredibly important for his survival as it didn't take a genius to tell him he'd be getting injured a lot soon enough. Climbing back out of the crashed truck door, he made his way back to the scene of his recent demise at the hands of said vehicle, with the liberated backpack in tow. Getting down on his knees, Arthur began to collect all the blood gel into the metal bottle. It was a lot easier than he'd expected it'd be as the blood was no longer as sticky and viscous as it should have been and had instead taken on the consistency of a jelly-like substance.

Quickly finishing his task, he looked down at the small feline that had almost killed him. Is every animal going to end up like that? The thought was accompanied by a rush of despair. If a household pet was now able to kill him, Arthur didn't even want to consider what the future had in store for him. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself down. Worrying would get him nowhere and so Arthur decided to try and be as proactive as possible in these absurd circumstances. That cat fur will be extremely useful if I can do something with it. After all, the fur would make for some decent protection given the fact that it had stopped a shard of glass being swung at full force.

That meant that it was pretty much stab-proof to any mundane mode of attack. Deciding he might as well take the corpse with him, he grabbed it and placed it within his backpack. Thankfully the cat was small enough to fit in with room to spare. Pacing along the sidewalk, Arthur considered his options. He knew he was far out of his depth. Heck! He’d almost been killed by a domesticated cat. If pets could reach such a high threat level with just a little contact with ether, he despaired at what true predators would become in this post-system world. What humans might become? What he friggin couldn't because of his ether hogging system that didn't seem to be working properly.

Taking a deep breath, Arthur tried to calm himself down. The world wasn’t ending, at least not yet and he was still very much alive which was definitely a plus in his book. Shit, Earth isn't the only planet with sapient life anymore, at least I don’t think so. It was the only conclusion he could come to with the information he had available. The system must have come from somewhere, and it most definitely hadn’t originated on Earth. That meant that someone, somewhere in the universe had created it. He highly doubted it had come about by chance.

Arthur was used to being the underdog. Life was never fair or unfair, it simply was and Arthur would be damned if he didn't make the most of his situation. He practically had the whole planet to himself, unless someone else had been left behind on Earth too, but he sincerely doubted that. His death had been caused by an error made by the system and he highly doubted that such a powerful entity made mistakes often. That idea gave credence to the fact that Arthur was simply an extremely rare anomaly that sometimes happened when the system integrated itself onto a new planet. Unlucky but within the realms of plausibility.

Taking stock of his situation, Arthur made a list of goals, both short and long term. He needed to discipline himself if he wanted to survive or risk drowning in the bizarreness that was now his life.

Number 1- Survive. The most simple and important thing.

Number 2- Unlock the system. Maybe then he too would be able to get stronger like everything else seemed to be.

Number 3- Take a shower. He stank to high heaven right now.

Number 4- Get me some proper post-apocalypse gear.

Number 5- Raid the university.

Number 6- Find out if anyone else is out there.

Number 7- Learn some sweet ether magic.

Number 8- Bring back Rize.

Arthur paused when he looked at the last goal he had written down. He knew it was possible as he himself had come back from the dead but he frankly didn’t believe that he would be able to do what the system had done. At least not as he was now. 'Maybe never.' He sighed wearily. It wasn’t worth worrying about since there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. The sky was beginning to darken and daylight was waning. Unfortunately, he’d wasted most of it being dead or dying and he didn’t think himself sufficiently prepared to face whatever came out at night.

First things first, I need a good weapon. America being the land of firearms, he could probably easily find a suitable gun if he searched hard enough but Arthur wasn’t quite comfortable with using the very tool that had ended his sister's life. foolish, definitely, necessary, yes. He couldn't look at one of the things without becoming nauseous, never mind actually using one.

Besides, with the rate of the monster’s rapid advancements, such weapons would soon become obsolete, and Arthur thought it would be best to avoid using the crutch and becoming dependent on it when it would become useless soon. Thankfully, Arthur had the perfect alternative in mind.

Slowly stripping himself of his blood-soaked T-shirt, he stood half-naked in the cold evening air. He was about to rob something and Arthur didn’t want to be identified by anyone on any cameras whilst committing the crime, lack of people be damned. They’d come back eventually. Soon…hopefully. He reassured himself with that affirmation. And Arthur didn’t want to get in trouble when people found out that there was a single deranged human running around the city whilst they were all away. Steeling himself, he wrapped the crimson fabric around his face.

He gagged.

It smelt of sweat and, well, blood. There was a lot of the stuff on his makeshift mask after all. The stench was sickly sweet, with the underlying tang of iron, quite unlike anything he’d smelt before.

As ill-prepared as he was, Arthur began to quickly move through the university campus, carefully walking around all the crashed cars. Making his way through the familiar hallways, he felt a tinge of sorrow, knowing that he would never graduate from this place in which he’d devoted so much of his time. Arriving at the storage shed, his intended destination, Arthur grabbed a large stone from the floor and flung it at the building’s window. A loud alarm began screeching as the glass shattered, but he didn’t concern himself with it. Careful of the jagged glass, he just learned first-hand how deadly it could be, Arthur climbed through the new entrance to the storage facility and walked towards where he knew the light switches would be positioned. They flickered for a moment before illuminating the room in all its dirty, cluttered glory.

As an unused shed, the building had never seen much use or maintenance and nothing of actual note had been kept there. Nothing of note for a medical university of course, but not for the budding, wannabe Rambo, seeking out death and glory as Arthur most certainly was not. Finding the object of his desires on a broken shelf, he grasped the small electrical handsaw in his hand. Yes, this will be perfect.

Pulling out the cat's carcass from his backpack, Arthur pondered on how exactly he could skin the damned thing. Arthur was no wildlife extraordinaire and he’d never butchered an animal in his life, lucrative as it was, much less a cat, but he was one of the most intelligent students to study at this prestigious institution and he’d be damned if he let such a small thing as inexperience stop him. Turning the electric saw on, he placed the rotating blade on the cat's soft stomach. Thankfully, with a little pressure, he was able to cut into the fury skin. What followed was a messy job that left Arthur’s hands covered in cat guts but by the end of the arduous process, he had in his hands a small, but serviceable piece of sabre-cat skin. Proud of himself, he hoped it was enough for what he had planned.

Luckily, it was. eighteen minutes and three broken staple guns later, Arthur had managed to tightly wrap the stab-proof skin around his forearm and set it in place with said staples. Looking at his hard work proudly, he tried identifying his creation on an impulse and was both surprised and irritated with the results.

Cowards arm guard level 3- The pathetic works of a desperate human somehow resulted in the creation of armour at a lower level than the creature that the materials came from. Its only redeeming quality is said materials. Protects against sharp projectiles. Provides an extremely minor speed buff.

Snarky system messages aside, Arthur was happy with the result. Moving around to see the effects of the buff, he found that there was no noticeable difference from his usual movement speed. Well, it did say extremely minor. Arthur could only hope that it served him well in his moment of need. As pathetic as it was, Arthur was satisfied with his armour. Now he just needed a weapon, the main reason he'd come here. He recalled professor Jackson's constant bragging of his purchase of a Japanese Katana over the past few days as well as the promise that he’d bring it in for the students to see. Arthur could only hope that the professor had delivered on his word. I could always raid a museum I guess.

Walking towards the staffroom, Arthur prayed for his luck to hold out. Upon entering the spacious area, he let out a sigh of relief. Lying there, displayed on the table, to strategically showcase all its splendour, courtesy to professor Jackson's vain tendencies no doubt, was a four and a half foot long blade, as beautiful in its ornate design as it was in deadly purpose. An engine of death, a reaper of lives.

Or at least it would be when Arthur got round to sharpening its dull blade.

Pulling it free from its black scabbard, he admired its shining silver sheen. On an impulse, Arthur decided to identify it and was surprised by the beautiful blade's description.

Japanese katana level 9- A weapon created by master smith without the usage of ether. The resulting weapon is surprisingly deadly.

Arthur began to laugh. With this, his chances of survival had risen astronomically. Now he could thrive instead of simply survive in this dangerous world. He could become powerful, unlock his system, dest-

A deafening wolf howl coming from the streets quickly brought him back down to earth. He wasn't ready; nowhere near ready. The world had dealt him a difficult hand and he’d be stupid to play this game by its rules. His access to enhancing himself with ether was cut off for the near future and he’d need to use his human ingenuity to make up for that. Weaker than nearly everything, it would take cunning and a great plan to fill out his ether goal of 42,000. With a cat at level 5 giving him around 100 ether he would need to kill around 420 of such animals to unlock his system. And if a fight against a household pet almost proved fatal, he dreaded to think how bleak his future looked.

But now Arthur could plan and prepare for the fights, choose the battlefield and do everything possible to make the fight as unfair as possible in his favour.

And he knew exactly what was needed to do to ensure he came out on top. With a spring in his step, Arthur quickly walked back into the university's main building and started to make his way to the surgery department. Entering the familiar room, Arthur took a moment to just sit down and take everything in.

He had woken today preparing to take a medical exam and was now contemplating the genocide of all animals and how best to go about it. Smiling at the absurdity of the situation he made his way to a cupboard he knew held a lot of surgical supplies.

Opening it, he laughed at the sight that greeted him.

Anaesthetic (weak)- A solution created to put human patients to sleep prior to surgery.

It was only weak in strength but it would serve his purposes just fine. He’d like to see how an animal fighting off sleep could hope to fend his katana off. Looking outside the window, he saw how the sun was beginning to set. All his plans would have to be put on hold until dawn tomorrow. He’d need to get himself a good night of rest to wake up energised for fighting.

His dreams, when he finally managed to get to sleep, were filled with visions of stabbing sleeping cats. Mumbling something unintelligible, he rolled over and fell off the couch. Tomorrow, he would be taking a trip to the zoo.