Zoe screamed as the computer chair she’d been sitting in before getting up to go to the bathroom and join the system was crushed under the massive form of… something.

A construct, Dexter thought. That was what the message had called these monsters.

It stood around the height of a man on a single leg that looked like thick, coiled worms.

Its head was a large oval made three-dimensional, with a massive toothless mouth that took up most of the face. There was a single central eye the size of a baseball surrounded by several marble-sized orbs. Dangling from the sides of its oblong head were fleshy extrusions like pendulous earlobes which squirmed and writhed as though possessed by maggots. Beneath these ‘earlobes’ were three appendages that looked like unjointed arms topped in many-fingered hands.

Its skin was a bluish gray, like unpolished dumortierite, though the texture was smooth like old leather.

But the most imposing aspect of the creature was the several-foot-long appendage coming out of what one might call its torso. This was the same bluish gray as its skin, but looked harder, like metal. Instead of being topped in a hand, it came to a point, giving it the overall appearance of a jointed, flattened lance.

Before Dexter could move Je-won had already leapt into action, summoning his sword, and Dexter was glad the cooldown on it was over.

Je-won swung at the construct but it dodged, its movement alien and extraordinarily swift as it pivoted away on its single leg which seemed to hover over the floor.

With the monster’s attention on Je-won, Dexter finally did get up, jumping over the back of the couch and sweeping Zoe—who was gaping at the fight, phone held forgotten at her ear—up in his arms and heading for the door that led to the stairs to the restaurant’s kitchen.

“What are you doing!” Zoe cried. “Don’t leave him!”

Dexter ignored her, making his careful but swift way down the stairs with her in his arms, grateful she was so light.

He carried her all the way to the dining room, moving fast but not running, then set her down. “Stay here.”

As she protested, he grabbed the pizza peel from the counter next to the destroyed cash register, then hurried back through the kitchen, and this time he did run. He reached the door to the stairs and went through then turned around to lock it, already seeing Zoe limping toward him yelling about not being left here.

He left her there, shutting and locking the door then turning to rush up the stairs.

Only to be confronted with Je-won exiting the apartment, sword in hand, blood oozing from a small gash across his cheek. “Run!”

Dexter swore and turned around, fumbling with the door to get it open, Je-won’s swift steps nearly reaching him.

He yanked it open and got a punch to the face with the bottom of Zoe’s fist she’d been meaning to pound against the door.

“Crap!” Zoe cried in surprise, looking at Dexter’s now-bloody lip. “But you deserve it for leaving…” She trailed off as she noticed Je-won. “Oh. Did you kill—”

Her eyes widened as her unfinished question was answered when the construct exited the apartment and began descending the stairs, seeming to slide down them, its single leg extending and collapsing to keep the rest of its body eerily still.

“Go!” both Je-won and Dexter yelled, the latter shoving the pizza peel into her arms then picking her up again and taking off through the kitchen.

We’re not fast enough, Dexter realized with dawning horror as he glanced back to see it already entering the kitchen just as they themselves made it out into the dining room.

“Car!” Je-won shouted as they burst outside.

They weren’t the only ones being attacked. Dexter could hear what sounded like screams coming from the townhall down the street. Not of anger or protest, but fear.

He couldn’t think about that right now. He couldn’t help anyone if he was dead. He focused on the car, feeling the monster close in behind him, pushing himself to run as fast as he could.

Not laden with an extra body, Je-won reached the vehicle first, opened the door, and slid in, quickly glancing to his left out the open door to check on Dexter and Zoe as he started the car.

His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to shout something, but the words were lost to Dexter as a hard object smashed into his back, sending him flying forward, Zoe screaming in his arms.

Luckily, when he slammed into the side of Je-won’s car, he’d spun somewhat, taking the brunt of the impact on his back and sparing Zoe.

Je-won was already past them, leaving the safety of the vehicle to once more engage with the monster.

Dexter groaned as something beneath him moved. He was dazed and was having a hard time focusing.

“Get off me!” came a muffled voice, and he realized he’d fallen on top of Zoe.

He rolled off her, lacking the wits at the moment to do anything more.

As he did, his gaze fell on Je-won and the monster, the construct.

He had never deactivated that eye icon, and so as he stared in a confused haze, his vision populated with text after a few seconds.

(Gliding semaphore [Parasitic aspirator])

Level: Copper

Je-won landed a hit on the thing, and it let out a cry that sounded like someone had plucked a guitar strung with humming, high-voltage lines.

Get up, he told himself. He needed to help Je-won.

The construct lanced its central spear-arm into Je-won’s gut. Instead of penetrating, it sent him flying.

Robust, Dexter realized. Je-won must have activated it. Then he realized something else as he became aware of the sensations in his own body. His back was on fire, either from the impact with the car or the swipe of the monster’s spear-like talon.

Or, more likely, both.

He watched the monster stalk toward where Je-won had fallen and was even now pushing himself up.

“Get up,” Dexter growled at himself. He tried to move, but a sharp jolt of pain lanced through his back, stilling him as he let out a grunt of pain.

The monster connected with Je-won, its talon slipping past his sword to score a hit that cut across the man’s chest. Je-won dodged backward, grimacing, but kept fighting.

Dexter clenched his jaw. It’s just pain, he reminded himself, and tried again. This time he managed a sitting position. “Get… up!” he wheezed.

With pain shooting through his back, down his legs, and up to his skull, Dexter got to his feet.

His legs trembled as dizziness assaulted him. He went to his knees, feeling like he was going to throw up.

He forced his fuzzy gaze to focus on the ground, looking for the pizza peel. He spotted it jutting out from under the car.

He grabbed it, then examined Zoe. “Are you hurt?”

She just stared blankly at him as Je-won engaged the monster.

“Get in the car if you can,” Dexter told her, not wanting to risk moving her if her neck or spine were injured.

Then he got to his feet again, using the car to steady himself. He took one breath, two. His vision stilled, his mind clearing slightly. He stood like that, watching the battle between Je-won and the construct, waiting for an opportunity.

It didn’t take long, Je-won spotting him and the pizza peel he held and intuiting what he was waiting for. Je-won slashed at the monster, the sword not breaking the thing’s hide despite connecting solidly, then juked to the right as its spear-arm swung at him, missing only by inches.

Dexter didn’t hesitate, charging toward the creature, flicking his left index finger up and feeling it tap into the ability he’d placed there.

Dauntless activated. Ignoring level disparity.

He suddenly felt… strange. His whole world felt twisted up and he felt something like a pressure that wasn’t physical.

He ignored it and slashed at the monster’s undefended back as Je-won kept it occupied.

Unlike when Je-won hit it with his blade, the pizza peel opened a massive gash and black blood poured out like sand from a split sandbag.

The speed with which it reacted to this was unlike anything Dexter had experienced. Like it had simply teleported to face him instead of turning.

Dexter had no time to do anything, not even register the strike with the side of the construct’s talon against his own side until he was already in the air.

It had swiped him away like he weighed nothing, and once more he was sent flying.

He landed harshly, the wind knocked out of him, his side burning in pain from where he’d been hit, as the monster bore down upon him, screeching that electric hum.

“Hey!” Zoe shouted at the monster, limping toward it.

Dexter tried to yell at her to get in the car, but all that came out was a wheeze as she placed herself between the monster and him.

To Dexter’s surprise, it simply swerved around her, faster than she could react, and kept coming for him.

She shouted at it again, but to no avail.

It moved toward Dexter, sliding over the ground like it was floating or on wheels.

Dexter tried to get up, but his limbs wouldn’t listen to him.

He pushed harder, his vision darkening. With an effort that nearly made him black out, he managed to push himself up just before it reached him, readying the pizza peel he was surprised to find himself still holding.

He didn’t get a chance to see if he would be quick enough to attack it before it took his head off or impaled him however, as a figure landed on its back.

It halted, flailing its jointless arms back in Je-won’s direction as the man stabbed his sword down into its back.

Its screech grew in volume and intensity and it spun quickly in place, flinging Je-won away, the motion causing black blood to spill out from the new hole Je-won’s sword had made.

Still unable to take a full breath, Dexter forced himself to his feet and charged the monster, whose back was now facing him again, once more thanks to Je-won.

He was dizzy and unsteady and tripped as he ran, but he managed to bring the enchanted metal pizza peel down just as the thing turned with unnerving alacrity to face him, spinning in place on its single leg.

This actually worked to Dexter’s advantage, because as the talon-tipped appendage thrust in his direction, it also put itself in the path of the descending peel.

And so it was with great satisfaction that Dexter felt the enchanted, stainless steel edge cleave entirely through the appendage. The limb fell to the ground and the stump oozed more of that black blood, not spurting, but simply spilling out, as Dexter’s momentum and fall carried him into the monster.

Its main weapon gone, it was no less aggressive, and two wormy tentacles from its leg unwrapped themselves, seizing Dexter and constricting around him as it accelerated forward.

Dexter had the briefest of moments to wonder how it was moving while its sole leg remained firmly motionless and then his battered back was further assaulted as the construct slammed him into the trunk of Je-won’s car, his head smashing into the rear windshield with what Dexter distantly hoped was the crunch of glass and not skull.

He let out a wheezing groan, the world spinning around him, his knees on fire where the backs had slammed against the edge of the trunk. But he was lucky. Just a bit lower, and his back would have been forced to bend backward at a ninety-degree angle. Female gymnasts might be able to manage such a feat, but it would have snapped his far less flexible spine.

He distantly heard Zoe scream, and hoped she didn’t try to save him again.

Black blood from the severed appendage coated him as more of the monster’s tentacles unwrapped from its leg and scrambled for purchase against the trunk as it tried to get on top of the car, its toothless oval mouth snapping at him.

But whatever those tentacles had, they weren’t suckers, as they just slid off with dull yet smooth dragging sounds.

Dexter’s head was pounding, his back throbbing, his stomach roiling with nausea, his breathing ragged and wet, and he wasn’t sure how much of the blood he felt on his face and lips was his own and how much was the monster’s, but he still managed to smile up at the creature.

Because again, he’d managed to hold on to the pizza peel, and now he brought it up with all his might.

This was admittedly not much at the moment, but enough to lodge the makeshift weapon in the thing’s head.

It jerked back, finally disarming him as the blood-slick handle slipped from his grip, and stumbled away, giving up trying to eat him in favor of not dying.

Dexter had no idea if the thing even had a brain to damage, but whatever the case, it didn’t seem to like having several inches of stainless steel wedged there.

Its pendulous earlobes squirming ever more frantically, it swiped with its short limbs at the peel, but none were quite long enough to reach.

Then Je-won was there, yelling as he swung his sword like a bat at the thing’s singular leg.

It toppled to the ground and not hesitating for even an instant Je-won attacked again, swinging his sword down on what might be called its neck, severing the head with such force the blade lodged in the asphalt.

This did not still the construct and with a grunt of exertion Je-won yanked the weapon from the ground, switched to a two-handed grip and stood beside the monster, stabbing down into its chest.

Something green spurted up the sides of the blade and out into the air, no spilling here, but like shot from a firehose, even hitting Dexter’s legs where he lay yards away on the back of Je-won’s car.

The construct stilled and an eerie silence descended.

Dexter thought there should be more noise, but couldn’t quite think of why at the moment.

(Gliding semaphore) slain

5 points received

10 credits received

Je-won fell to his knees, breathing heavily, leaning on his sword, whose point was dug into the ground.

Dexter knew how the man felt; it was all he himself could do to keep his eyes open.

A moment later Zoe seemed to appear beside him. “Dex!” she choked out, her eyes red and face streaked with tears. “Are— are you okay?”

He chuckled, coughed, then weakly lifted one hand and gave a thumbs up.

She laughed, then sobbed, then took his hand.

I really need a class, Dexter thought. He’d get right on that. As soon as he could breathe normally again.

“Are you okay?” Zoe asked Je-won, who was also still trying to catch his breath.

Dexter didn’t catch the man’s reply because a new message distracted him.

Autogenous Imprint formation detected.

Analyzing…

Analysis complete.

Imprint capacity increased: 1 of 2 applied.

Assigning nomenclature.

Class applied: Dauntless

System abilities: Not applicable

Inherent abilities: Endure

Dexter lifted the hand Zoe wasn’t holding and tapped on endure, not missing the irony in the fact that he barely had enough energy to perform the motion.

Endure

Unity Drain: High

Intention: High

Description: Draw on Unity to endure through debilitating damage.

He frowned, wondering if the system had forced him into a class like it had forced him into the system itself.

But it said Imprint capacity was one out of two. Did that mean he could still pick a class?

Lethargically, he brought up his status screen.

Dauntless

Leaderboard Rank: 68,103

Score: 5

Level: None

Class: Dauntless

Attributes

∴ Agility (Novice 5)

∴ Endurance (Novice 4)

∴ Strength (Novice 6)

∴ Durability (Novice 6)

∴ Intelligence (Novice 8)

∴ Vision (Novice 9)

∴ Hearing (Novice 9)

∴ Smell (Novice 5)

∴ Taste (Novice 5)

∴ Touch (Novice 4)

Abilities

∴ Endure

Skills

∴ Control (Novice 6)

∴ Perception (Novice 7)

Titles

∴ Dauntless

He long-pressed on class and the prompt to enter a class appeared.

Curious, he entered dauntless.

Dauntless

Error.

Conflicting Imprint already applied.

“What are you doing?” Zoe asked Dexter as Je-won finally joined them. He had several cuts, but seemed mostly okay, likely thanks to his robust ability.

“I got assigned a class,” Dexter answered, his breathing almost back to normal, though he hurt… everywhere. “But it looks like I can still pick one.”

“Which class were you assigned?” Je-won asked.

Dexter told him, relaying the message about Imprint formation and the ability he’d received.

Je-won didn’t react like Dexter expected, stabbing his sword into the ground and getting out his phone.

“What is it?” Zoe asked him.

“My sister.” He already had the phone to his ear. He spoke a moment later. “Nara! Are you—”

He listened for a moment, then let out a sigh. “Good. I’m sorry. I should have been there.”

Dexter couldn’t hear what she was saying. Telling him not to worry about her, he imagined.

Then Je-won frowned, looking at Zoe. He talked with Nara for another few seconds, then told her he’d be there soon and hung up.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Zoe asked him.

“You said you joined the system.”

She groaned. “Seriously? You’re going to get on my case now? I think we have bigger problems to worry about.”

“Zoe, that is my point. Did you read the last system message?”

An expression formed on Zoe’s face Dexter couldn’t quite interpret. “I was distracted,” she said quietly.

“It said it was going to attack everyone in the system. You’re in the system but you weren’t attacked.”

Zoe pointed at the corpse. “Uh, did you already forget about that?”

“It ignored you. It only came for Dexter and me. You stood right in front of it and it avoided you to go after him.”

“He had just cut it open. It probably wasn’t too happy about that.” She looked around, held out her hands. “And I don’t see any more of them.”

Je-won said nothing, only looked thoughtful.

“I wonder if they’re okay,” Zoe said, staring down the street at the townhall where not long ago a crowd had gathered. There were still a few cars, but there wasn’t a person in sight, and the night was entirely silent.

This snapped Je-won out of his thoughts and he focused on Dexter again. “Sit up, let me look at your back. I saw it hit you.”

“Hit you too,” Dexter rasped with a grin.

“I had robust up.” He looked at his arms, which had several shallow cuts. “Not perfect, clearly. But it helped.” He shook his head. “Sorry about leading it to you. I would have kept fighting it back in your apartment, but the ability dropped at the end there and I needed to kill time until the cooldown expired. I wasn’t expecting you to be coming back up.”

“Like I would just leave you there.” Dexter grinned and pushed himself up, then grimaced.

Je-won helped him off the car. “You good?” he asked, placing a steadying hand on Dexter’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You don’t look it,” Zoe said skeptically. “You’re covered in its blood, but I see some red in there too.”

Je-won moved behind him, lifting his shirt to examine his back. “Well, you’re going to have one heck of a bruise.” He ran two fingers lightly down either side of Dexter’s spine. Even that light touch caused pain. “Seems okay. You should get an x-ray though.”

“Not sure that’s going to happen any time soon. Even after the first attack the hospital was packed. It can only be worse now.” Dexter gestured at the construct’s corpse. “Besides, I got points and credits. Ten more and I can buy what I think might be a healing potion.”

“I don’t think you’ll survive ten more in your condition,” Zoe pointed out.

Je-won looked at the corpse. “I received points as well. Less than the first monster I killed with Nara. I got five hundred for that.”

“Five hundred?” Dexter asked in surprise. “I got five.”

Je-won nodded. “Same. The message did say it was unexpected that any were killed in that first wave.” He looked down at his sword. “Though I have to say, this time was more difficult. It took a lot of force with my sword to get it to break its skin.” He glanced at the pizza peel, jutting out the side of the construct’s severed head. “I wonder if that thing does more damage.” He focused on it for several moments. “No damage readout, unfortunately. Its grade is F0 instead of F1.”

“You can inspect items?” Dexter asked.

“Did I forget to tell you that?” Je-won shook his head. “Should have written down a list. Just focus on it.”

Dexter did, and after several seconds information appeared.

Pizza Peel, Stainless Steel (Enchanted)

Grade: F0

Unity Drain: None

Description: An ordinary item fundamentally altered to draw on a minor amount of Unity.

Dexter turned his attention to Je-won’s sword, but no information on this appeared.

“I can’t inspect your sword. You said it’s F1?”

“Yes. I’m assuming that’s better than F0. Did you activate your ability?”

“Figured I could use all the help I could get.”

“Perhaps that is why you were able to harm it more easily, then.”

Dexter nodded slowly. “It was Copper. I don’t know what level that is, but it has to be higher than none. Since my ability ignores level disparity, I probably did more damage.”

“Yes,” Je-won agreed. “But it would be good to test the theory.”

Zoe laughed without humor. “Yeah, let’s hold off on that.”

Je-won smiled. “Once I get back, I’ll have Nara try to enchant my sword.”

“Think that will work?” Dexter asked.

“Can’t hurt to try.” Je-won moved to the corpse and knelt beside it, putting his hand on it.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Zoe asked, grimacing as he touched the bloody thing.

“Looting it.”

“Good idea,” Dexter said. “I would, but I’m just going to stand here for a minute.”

Je-won chuckled, removing his hand. “Only one item. Another imprint like Nara got.”

“What does it do?” Zoe asked. Despite her disgust, she had moved closer and was looking down at the corpse.

Je-won got to his feet, shaking his head. “No idea. We haven’t found an inventory, if there is one.”

“What’s with its leg?” Zoe asked. “Are those suckers?”

Je-won frowned, once again kneeling down. Using his sword, he tapped one of them. It made a faint thud. “They look like balls. That must have been how it moved like it did.” He got to his feet again, looking at Dexter. “An Imprint is what it said you formed, right?”

Before Dexter could reply, the corpse moved.

In contrast, the three of them froze.

“Is it still—” Zoe began, but before she could finish, the corpse exploded and something small and red rocketed out of it.