"Yea, more intense for some than others. Um. Carl didn't make it." "Sorry to hear it. He was a good guy." I was a little surprised that Stew actually meant it. "He was. Anyway, where's the rest of your group?" "This is it. We just came from down Gilbert." "Really? Maybe there weren't as many infected creatures over there. We needed most of the Neighborhood Association to clear out the rabid animals." "Which association?" Meagan was quick to ask. "Cathedral Park." "My dad is in that one. I'm going to see if he's here. I'll be right back." "What were they infected with? We mostly had Shattered Squirrels." I asked him. "A lot of what we saw were squirrels and rats. Most everybody figures some kind of Rabies." Sounded like maybe some denial. I was more worried about the current situation. We needed to get some stuff from the store. "So, what's with the yelling?" "Bill, the head of our association doesn't want anybody to go in because Steve did. He only got a few feet in before something grabbed him. We never even saw it. And someone was shooting arrows down at the other entrance." Mike and Stew looked along the building. "That is even weirder than I expected." "Really Stew? Because we now have levels and skills and that kind of blows the top off my wierdometer." Me and Stew looked at Mike. "That is an excellent point Mike, however you don't need to channel Meagan, I can just go grab her if I need to be brought down a peg." "Sorry Stew. I was trying to [Inspect] and I might have used too much Stamina, getting a headache. Maybe I should invest some Points in Vit." Justin's dad had turned around to frown at us. Seeing his dad Justin was quick to jump in. "This isn't a game guys, people are dying." Suddenly the argument seemed to come to an end. "We have the guns so try to stop us if you want. Everybody who wants to go teach someone this is still America, follow me!" Eight people on the other side of the crowd started moving closer to the cave-like entrance, they all had very serious looking weapons. Semi-auto's on slings with pistols in holsters, except one guy who just had a rifle. I decide to do what I could for Justin. "No it isn't a game but it isn't the life we're used to either. Don't forget to assign your attributes." I motioned for Mike and Stew to follow me and moved a little ways off. We only made it to the other side of the first row of cars before the gunfire started. Meagan was crouching next to a man with a family resemblance. "Meagan!" When I saw I had her attention, despite the bullets, I indicated the cars to her. Then I sat down behind them myself. I had a feeling panicking really cuts down on the accuracy of firearms. Once the screaming started inside I found out I was right. A few cars lost their windshields. Luckily only one person got hit by a bullet. The guns fell silent one by one. In the end the silence was only broken by the screams of the injured man. Until everyone started shouting. I saw a group of people shoving around trying to help him as he bled out on the ground. I called out. "Meagan can I use your towel?" She ran up and handed it to me. Shoving my way forward I grabbed a guy and yanked him out of the way to fall behind me. It looked like the guy who Justin had pointed out as Bill. I gave the guy on the ground a once over and saw he had been hit by a ricochet in the thigh. It had made a giant ragged groove in his leg but it hadn't hit any arteries. I put the towel on and applied pressure. "Hey guy, how much HP do you have?" "I don't know. It just says I'm bleeding." "I need you to really want to know what your HP is." "It's, it's uh...fifteen. And the bleeding is slowing. It says slowly now." Someone grabbed at my shoulder. "Hey kid, this isn't a game! If you don't know what you're doing then get out of there." ‡ Congratulations! Basic First Aid is now level 3, +1 Skill Point ‡ Since he said his bleeding was slowing I backed off. "Just keep putting pressure on that." I walked off and sat down on a curb. Mike and Stew sat next to me while Meagan pulled the man she had found behind her. "This is my dad, Marcus." We all greeted him. "My daughter says I have you boys to thank for her making back to me. I'd like to thank you." "Not a problem. She's been a great influence on us." Stew said. I tried to make sure Stew wasn't the only impression he had of our little group. "It was more of a mutual thing. She helped us a lot." "That said, she tells me you four were planning to head into the store?" We watched as a group carried the injured man past and down a side street. They had left a few on the outside as guards but most seemed to be trying to carry as hard as they could, even if only with one hand. I looked back at Meagan's dad. "Yes, that was the plan. We may adjust it slightly." "I see. Well my daughter won't be having anything to do with anything like that." "We won't be forcing anybody to do anything." "Good. Come on, your mother is worried." He walked off without a backward glance. Meagan hesitated. "We're going to scope it out and do a bit of training. You said you got some easy points, we'll work on Skills and our Titles for a few hours." I told her. "OK." She lowered her voice. "I'm going to be back by lunch. Don't you dare go in there without me." I held my hands up. "Wouldn't dream of it." Once she caught up with her dad they ran after the group with the injured man. Stew turned to me and waggled his eyebrows. "We're totally going in without her aren't we?" I looked him straight in the eyes. "Not unless you have a death wish. You see her swinging that stick? She's better at this than any two of us put together. We're going to train until she comes back." Which is exactly what we did. Though we started doing [Sprints] and [Leaps] Stew got tired of that and wouldn't stop whining. Switching to weapons we swung them around pretending we knew what we were doing. Stew insisted on keeping his baseball bat but Mike shared his machete, that ended up giving us both Knife Proficiency. Then Stew suggested we work on [Jump] and [Leap], by playing tag on cars in the parking lot. Even with the new Stamina system we still got tired so after a few hours I convinced Mike to teach me some [Basic CPR]. I only got two levels of that one. While Mike and Stew sat in the shade of a car I used my new Climb skill to shimmy up a street light and see if I could find out anything about the tower. The ten foot tall doors looked securely shut and I couldn't see any windows. I guess the creature on watch could see me fifty feet away awkwardly holding on to a street light and didn't feel like giving anything away. Except a crappy arrow that I could swear almost flew in a corkscrew it was so badly made. I got a level in Climb, which was almost worth more than the info I didn't get because my skill kept insisting I should tense my hands, just so, and hold on with claws that I didn't have. Once I got down I sat with the others and we [Inspect]ed each other until Stew fell asleep. Then Mike and I practiced throwing. I figured that one out when I started throwing pebbles at Stew. Once he woke up he found another skill when he grabbed a head sized rock to try to throw at us. Mike and I had a good laugh about Stew finding the Carry skill while we practiced [Throw]. Around noon we sat down and started looking at what we got. I ended up with 23 Skill Points while Mike had 22 and Stew 20. Stew mastered his Club Initiate Title that he got around the time I was busy being poisoned. The thing I found most interesting was that at the last level he got {Imbue Club}. ‡ {Imbue Club} - Infuse your club with a potent magical force for a limited amount of time. Cost: 5 Mana per minute. Higher levels reduce cost and improve longevity. ‡ He didn't care much because he tried it and it didn't crush a car on the first blow. We did get yelled at by the four guys still standing around the entrance for destruction of property. Mike shared what he had gotten from mastering the Average Title. He refused to show us the {Mana Bolt} he had gotten at the fourth level. He said he didn't like fire then ignored us when we begged. I was literally on my knees. Giving up on that I decided to finish my Vigorous Title. After everything I had put in earlier I only needed five more points. Putting them in I mastered it and swore. Vigorous - You have surpassed the bounds of human potential •Cha +1 •Health Regen +1/15min •Stamina Regen +1/sec •+10 Stamina •+15 HP "That would have been useful last night, right?" "No shit, would have saved us a lot of trouble." Stew keeps things in perspective. I still had plenty to finish Solo if it had the same point progression as the others. Dumping it in I saw the list of bonuses. "God dammit! How does that even make any sense. I would kill you if you were a person!" Loner - You dealt with your first shattered alone •Attack +5%, Per+1 •Health Regen +1/15min when not in party •Dodge +5%, Dex +1 •XP +5% when not in party •Learn:{Heal}, Wis+1 DAVID SMITH - SHATTERED BUT WHOLE

ATTRIBUTES Dave Shattered HP(Regen) 101 (2.2/15Min) Str 7 Int 10 Per 7 XP Human Level 6 MP(Regen) 44 (2.4/Min) Dex 8 Wis 6 Cha 5 162/600 18 Job --- Stam(Regen) 55 (2.76/Sec) Vit 11 Res 5 Lck 3 3 Skill Points Buffs:

SKILLS Skill Level Martial Art

Level Spell Level Basic First Aid 3 [Stomp] 7 {Gentle Hands} 1 Desperation 3 [Climb] 6 {Healing} 1 Carry 3 [Sprint] 4 Running 2 [Throw] 4 Basic CPR 2 [Leap] 3 Proficiency Level Hurl 1 [Jump] 3 Knife 3

Ability

[Two Handed Blow] 3 Improvised Weapons 2 [Inspect] 3 [Swing] 3 [Crush] 2 [Dodge] 1 [Equip] 1