Taking a long look around me, I grin as I inspect my work.

This may look like just any old massacre, but it was MY massacre. Quite an impressive display for my first time, if I do say so myself.

Yes, I may have killed a few times today, but this was the first time I have done so on such a large scale.

To be fair, on only the first day of this whole system thing, I've already...

...

The first day? How long has this been going on again? How much have I done in such a short amount of time? Am I progressing quickly? Have I not needed to sleep or even rest this entire time?

I had just realized that I had lost track of time. I know it was around 10:00 AM when all of this started happening, and it's been maybe...

...

I honestly don't know how long it's been. Sure, I think the three stooges said something about it only having been a few hours as well, but can you really trust the words of someone who is currently lying in a fiery heap of flesh in the middle of a grocery store?

...

That's what I thought.

Looking to find an answer to how long I've been in the store, I think to look in the pockets of the stooges in an attempt to find a phone, but to no avail as neither John nor Peter had one, and if Miya did, it definitely wouldn't work after being put through the intense heat the flames created.

I think back to the first woman that I ambushed in the staff room, and I remember every item that she originally had in her bag. None of which included a phone. What's up with that? Did nobody think to bring their phones with them to the store today? Is it National No Phone Day? I highly doubt it.

There must be some sort of system work at play. Maybe the system got rid of all the phones? Whatever the case, I have no way of tracking time. I would try to look outside to see what time it was, but I needed to be near an entrance so I could look through the glass doors, as there were no windows in the building.

This wouldn't be a problem usually, but for some reason, no matter how hard I try to find the exit, I can't seem to find it. It's like the building is changing shape to try and keep me in. I am fairly confident in my skills to navigate the building, as I have worked here long enough to know the layout of the building by heart, yet I keep getting lost, settling for merely wandering until I come across something of interest.

This would no doubt be a mystery I would solve later...or not. Either way, there are more important things to be doing, like checking up on the myriad of notifications I have acquired in that last fight.

You have slain Kobold Lv. 1

+100 EXP

You have slain Kobold Lv. 1

+100 EXP

You have slain Kobold Lv. 2

+150 EXP

You have slain Kobold Lv. 3

+200 EXP

You have reached sufficient proficiency with {Dark Magus} class.

Class Skill: {+}

You have slain Kobold Lv. 2

+150 EXP

You have slain Kobold Lv. 2

+150 EXP

You have slain Kobold Lv. 4

+250 EXP

You have slain Kobold Lv. 3

+200 EXP

Level up!

+5 attribute points

You have slain Kobold Lv. 2

+150 EXP

You have slain Kobold Lv. 1

+100 EXP

You have slain Human Lv. 0

+150 EXP

You have slain Human Lv. 0

+150 EXP

Summarizing Battle Results:

Enemies Slain:

10x Kobold

2x Human

EXP Gained:

1850

Titles Gained:

[Firebug]

Kobolds huh...

That was a lot more than I was expecting. It's never summarized a battle before. Then again, I have only ever fought one thing at a time, not including when I killed Carl and that Thief Goblin. Now that I think about it, that felt like only an hour ago at most, but who am I to know the time? I'm crazy!

I get back to what I was doing before, and that being managing my various blue screens.

Status.

Name: Jacob Bates

Level: 6

Exp: 555/2000

Class: {Dark Magus} Race: Human Health: 165/165 Mana: 12/325 Strength: 13 Endurance: 10 Dexterity: 10 Agility: 12 Intelligence: 25 Wisdom:

20

Attribute Points:

5

Skills:

[Blood Trance] {Mire} {+}

Titles:

[Cool Headed] [Murderer] [Monster] [Predator] [Sadist] [Traitor] {Cursed Mage} [Firebug]

It seems my mana got pretty low from that fight. At least I'm already a quarter of the way there to level 7. Wait...speaking of EXP.

I FORGOT TO EAT THE BODIES!

Ah well, it's too late now. I can just eat them later to recover mana. It's a good thing I've got so much food now. I was getting really hungry.

Back to my newly acquired attribute points. I guess I'll pick the most logical choice and try to compensate for my weakne-

Yeah right! I'm min-maxing to my heart's content! All in Intelligence! Can't get killed by something if I kill it first!

Name: Jacob Bates

Level: 6

Exp: 555/2000

Class: {Dark Magus} Race: Human Health: 165/165 Mana: 37/350 Strength: 13 Endurance: 10 Dexterity: 10 Agility: 12 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom:

20

Attribute Points:

0

Skills:

[Blood Trance] {Mire} {+}

Titles:

[Cool Headed] [Murderer] [Monster] [Predator] [Sadist] [Traitor] {Cursed Mage} [Firebug]

Now that that's settled, let's take a look at my new titles and then see what's up with that "+" sign.

[Firebug] is a title obtained by putting your affinity for fire on full display, resulting in more than moderate damage to the environment.

"Only you can start forest fires. Well, not you specifically, but you might be better than most."

Effects:

User takes 50% less damage from fire caused by others, and 100% less damage from fire caused by themself.

So basically, I got a skill for starting a fire. As irresponsible as that sounds, the effects are quite nice. I only take half as much damage from fire as I usually would, but if I'm the one who started it, I can just walk through it, cool guy style.

Also, is that Smokey the Bear promoting forest fires, or is my insanity getting worse?

Anyway, onto the "+" sign.

As soon as I focus on the "+" sign in my skills section, it notifies me that I am able to choose a new class skill. That's quite different from what I was expecting. I wonder why I didn't get to choose my class skill when I first picked the class.

Anyway, I get the skill options, and I feel a bit underwhelmed. I only get to choose from 3 skills. Nevertheless, I have to look carefully. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to choose these skills again.

Available Class Skills:

{Curse Bolt}

{Summon Demon}

{Dark Corruption}

I've learned not to question the names. Let's get right into the descriptions.

{Curse Bolt} is a class skill obtained through progression of the {Dark Magus} class.

Mana Cost:

20

Effects:

Deals moderate damage to a target, whilst inflicting them with the (Cursed) status effect.

{Summon Demon} is a class skill obtained through progression of the {Dark Magus} class.

Mana Cost:

User decides how much mana is sacrificed.

Effects:

Summons a demon of unspecified strength depending on mana expended.

{Dark Corruption} is a class skill obtained through progression of the {Dark Magus} class.

Mana Cost:

30

Effects:

Inflicts a target with the (Corrupt) status effect.

Inflicts a target with the (Leeched) status effect.

Interesting choices. Although I think the answer is pretty obvious, I still must ask.

What is the (Corrupt) status effect?

"(Corrupt) is a status effect that slowly eats away at a target's mana over time."

So I can get an anti-mage skill? That by itself is pretty nice to have, but what does (Leeched) do?

"(Leeched) is a status effect that slowly drains a target of their HP, transferring a small amount of life to the user."

Okay, that is absurd. If I wanted to, I could totally go down the path of slowly killing things by draining them of both their health and mana pools, but I'm trying to instantly kill things before they get the chance to kill me first, so as much as it hurts me, I'm going to have to pass.

Now it's between a seemingly weaker version of my {Mire} skill and a literal demon summoning skill. Hmm...let me think. It really is such a hard decision. If only someone would give me a recommendation.

"...I would recommend the {Summon Demon} skill."

Well, there it is.

Gained Skill: {Summon Demon}

Now... let's try it out.

"Use all of my mana! {Summon Demon}!"

I feel all the energy in my body leave through my pores and my strength fades, my vision darkens, and my body falls to the ground.

...

I wake up, my body feeling stiff and weak. I try to move my head, but it refuses to budge.

This is a predicament. What happened?

"Your body has gone into a comatose state in response to your mana dropping to 0. You are currently suffering from (Mana Deprivation)."

Oh. I guess I shouldn't have used all my mana in that spell huh? Oh well. At least I probably got some insanely powerful demon from that. I mean, my mana is almost 400 right?

I look around as much as possible without being able to move my head, and I see a slight tint of red in the corner of my vision. It is very blurry, being in my peripherals and all, but it's there. A demon.

Either that or a particularly bloody corpse but I'll take a gamble and say it's my demon.

Trying to move my head to no avail, I realize something.

I can just tell it to move in my line of sight right? It's my demon after all.

"You can give commands to demons you summon by simply wishing it to do so."

Thanks for that.

Umm...demon pal. Come into my line of sight for me buddy.

I hear a faint whizzing noise. It's similar to the sound of a drone if you have ever heard one, just not as ear-piercingly loud.

The noise suddenly stops, and in front of me is an oversized eyeball the size of a basketball. It has a string of flesh hanging off of it. There isn't much more to say about it. That's a floating eyeball.

What's this about? Didn't I pour all my mana into that summon skill? I would have thought it'd be a bit stronger looking.

"Your mana was at 10% of its maximum capacity before you used the skill. This is most likely why this demon is not to your liking."

I guess I have to remember to refill my mana before doing that again.

The demon floats a tad lower, and our eyes meet. It looks away almost immediately. It's almost as if...

"Are you shy?" I ask.

The eye looks closer towards me, but not directly at me.

"No sir, it's just..." a small, high-pitched voice responds.

Did...did an eye just speak to me?

"My previous masters never liked it when I looked at them..."

I don't know what to think of this.

"I'm sorry if I'm not the strong demon you were looking for. I can just go away and you can summon a new one..."

I swear I just heard it sniffle.

"I swear I didn't!"

Wait...you can read my thoughts too? Actually, don't answer. I've already had this conversation before.

Guess I'll get to the point. I am currently unable to move and would be very appreciative to you if you were to protect me as best you can until I can move again.

"..."

Don't tell me you can't fight.

"..."

What can you do?

"I can observe things and relay it to you," it answers. "That's usually what I'm summoned for, but I can also mimic certain creatures to scare away or lure monsters."

That is-

...

Very useful actually.

"How so?"

Well, first of all, you can scare off that unusually large goblin I see behind you.

"Wait, what do you-"

Before my eyes, my newly acquired demon pal is blasted towards the wall like a baseball.

This is truly a predicament.