Aaron grabbed his head in pain as his new stats took effect. His veins bulged as blood rushed through, faster than ever before. An intense heat emanated from his bones, reforging them into something stronger but more importantly, something happened within his brain, lighting his nerves on fire. He wasn’t a neuroscientist, so he didn’t know the specifics of what changed; all he knew was that it hurt like all hell. It felt like an army of tiny gnomes were stabbing icepicks into his brain. In this state, the mere act of thinking was painful.

“Are you alright, kid?” Tony asked, his thick black Italian eyebrows raised so high they were in danger of disappearing behind his gray hair.

Aaron flashed him a shaky thumbs-up. The pain continued for a moment then receded. In its place, a pleasant warm feeling was left. Despite all the pain he had just experienced, he felt great – like he could run a marathon without any effort. He wiped a line of drool off his mouth and climbed to his feet. “I’ve never been better.” He squeezed the wooden crate they were hiding behind and watched it groan.

“What happened; how did you gain so many levels so quickly?” Jess asked.

“I made a bomb.”

“Nice work, kid," Tony said like a proud grandfather. "That reminds me of that time I dropped a bomb out of a weather balloon to take out a Yakuza boss,” he told his story, in the slow way only old people were capable of. Aaron glanced at the old man. It was easy to forget with his old age and dad bod that Tony was once the most dangerous hitman in the mafia.

“As for the second part, the reaction was likely caused by gaining a massive amount of levels at once.”

“By reaction, do you mean when you were rolling on the ground in pain with drool coming out of your mouth?” Jess asked.

“Yes,” he paused to readjust his glasses; they had slipped down his face while he was running away. “It seems there’s a bit of a backlash if you gain too many stats at once. Though it’s unlikely for something like this to happen. I pretty much doubled my mind and magic stats in one go – that should be much harder to do now that I have a decent baseline in the stats. Besides, it wasn’t all bad; I unlocked a new skill at level five.”

“A new skill every five levels – another variable that scales linearly... Do different classes gain skills at different rates? No, that wouldn’t make sense. The classes should give an equal amount of skills, otherwise, the path system would be unbalanced – more unbalanced than it currently is.” She muttered to herself, lost in her own world. After a few moments, she stopped muttering to herself and looked at Aaron with a hungry gleam in her eyes. “What skills did you unlock?”

Aaron hummed then opened the blue box notification.

Threshold Reached… Adding one skill to selection based on achievements. Explosive Mark (Uncommon - Tier 1): The spark of all creation was an explosion. Places a mark on a flat surface that lasts for ten seconds. At any point during the mark's duration, you may decide to detonate it. Mark duration, damage, and fidelity increase with skill level and stats. Costs 25 mana per use. Mana Shield (Common – Tier 1): Creates a small shield of mana attached to your hand. Costs 10 mana on creation; additional mana is required to sustain the shield. Damage blocked is based on skill level and stats. Mana Sight (Common – Tier 1): Gain a glimpse behind the curtain. At the cost of 1 mana per second, mana flows will become visible to you.

He explained the skills he unlocked to Jessica. “What one are you going to get?”

He took a moment to think over his options. However, it wasn’t a very hard decision to make; in all the games he had played, a higher rarity meant a skill would undoubtedly be superior. The system seemed to adhere pretty closely to video game standards so far, so he felt comfortable making that assumption. Even if the skill's rarity didn’t affect its power, the skill’s description sounded good.

“I got Explosive Mark.”

“Nice, test it out; what are you waiting for?” she said excitedly.

“Later, I want to conserve my mana for when I actually need it.” Leveling up had given him 120 mana to play with, which was a lot – enough for 24 mana bolts. But Explosive mark was a mana-intensive skill; it would be wasteful to use it without a target.

“Lame.”

The earth shook once more. This time more intensely than the last. All around them the tall stacks of wooden crates wobbled precariously. A crate fell to the floor in a loud crash, spilling its contents out across the floor.

“That’s our cue to go; let’s find the dock and get out of here.” They walked down the dim hallway on shaky legs, walking during an earthquake was harder than it sounded. Luckily, the ground stopped shaking soon after they started walking. However, that wasn’t the only thing he was concerned about - using his enhanced stats he could hear the sound of gunshots in the distance and an odd scraping noise. Someone was outside going on a shooting spree, but that wasn’t what concerned him the most. The scraping noise triggered his danger senses. It was familiar and foreign at the same time.

About a quarter-mile later, the tunnel curved, revealing the outside world. However, a group of goblins stood in their way, carving strange patterns into the walls. What the hell are they doing? The goblins were so focused on their task that they didn’t notice Aaron gawking at them. Before they could notice him, Jess pulled him behind the bend in the tunnel – out of view of the goblins.

“Go, use your new skill. I want to see it,” Jess whispered to him excitedly as she shook his shoulder. He popped his head around the corner and counted the goblins' numbers. There were only four of them. He felt he should be able to handle them by himself now that he was level 6. His physical stats had all doubled since the last time he had fought them – a group of level 2 goblins shouldn’t be too hard to beat.

“Alright, I’ll do it, but cover me if something goes wrong.” He popped his head out around the corner once more, looking for any hidden monsters.

“Don’t worry kid; I’ll whack them if they get too close.” Tony waved a cast iron frying pan in the air.

Aaron took a deep breath then ran out into the open. Knowledge flowed into him as he tried to activate the skill. For it to activate, he had to touch a flat surface with his hand. He followed the vague set of instructions the skill had given him. He crouched to the floor about twenty feet away from the goblins. Slowly, below his hand, glowing red markings carved themselves into the floor. At the edge of his awareness, he could feel strands of mana move within him in complex patterns.

After ten seconds of concentration, the skill finished its work, and he felt a connection form in his mind to the esoteric red markings on the floor. He knew he could activate the skill at a moment’s notice. However, he was also aware of the possibility of it exploding without his input. He only had ten seconds before the explosive mark lived up to its name. There was no time to delay.

“Hey, you ugly green pieces of shit; come and get me!” he yelled. The goblins immediately stopped their work and charged at him, quickly eating up the distance between them. He turned tail and ran away as fast as he could. He spared a quick glance back as he rounded the corner; the goblins were directly over the red markings - perfect. With a tug of mental exertion, he activated the mark.

Domes of overlapping red mana launched out of the markings at extreme speeds, slamming into the goblins and launching them into the air like rag dolls. The red domes crackled with power and expanded to a diameter of around five feet, then dissipated into nothingness. He took note of the skills range.

The monsters slammed into the ceiling so hard that they caused it to crack in a spiderweb pattern. They lay flat - smashed against the ceiling, defying gravity for a moment then, they limply fell to the ground like oversized droplets of rain.

Level 2 Goblin Slain! 50 Exp Gained.

Level 2 Goblin Slain! 50 Exp Gained.

Level 2 Goblin Slain! 50 Exp Gained.

Level 2 Goblin Slain! 50 Exp Gained. Congratulations! Explosive Mark has reached level 2. 2 Skill Point Awarded.

“Good work,” Tony said as he walked out from around the corner and inspected the goblins' slightly burnt corpses.

“They look like they were run over by a car,” Jess said as she poked one with her foot. “That skill is strong; I want it.”

“Maybe you’ll get it at level 5.” Aaron carefully stepped around the dead goblins and inspected the marking on the wall. For some reason, the goblins had been carving geometric patterns. Clumsy drawings of triangles, squares, and circles littered the walls. Weird.

He stumbled as the ground began to shake once more. This time was even more intense than the first two. The floor vibrated so intensely that the corpses bounced up and down on the floor. In the distance, he heard a ginormous crash. The prison was falling apart. As suddenly as the shaking started, it stopped.

“You think there’s going to be another earthquake?” Tony asked.

“Probably, but it doesn’t matter. We won’t be on the island for much longer.” Aaron stepped out of the tunnel and squinted as the bright morning sun shone into his eyes. Even though it hurt, he smiled. He hadn’t stepped outside the prison’s cold walls for months. He was finally free.

Jess laughed as she spread her arms out, relishing her freedom. “I'm freeeeeeeeeeeee baby.” She practically skipped down the road leading to the ocean. A gentle ocean breeze ruffled his hair as he followed her down the path. Everything shook for a moment as another earthquake rampaged through the island, but he didn’t care. Nothing could get him down, he was finally free.

They crested a hill and the water came into view at most a quarter-mile away. However, they were too slow in reaching the dock - the guards had gotten there first. The guards unfasted ropes on the pier and loaded themselves into the only two boats docked there. He sprinted down the road, avoiding the litany of dead goblins on the floor. “Stop, wait for us!”

The guards didn’t stop. If anything, they redoubled their efforts to pack into the boats. He swore under his breath as he picked up the pace. The ground practically disappeared under his feet as he ran faster than ever before. Behind him, Jess and Tony huffed for air as they struggled to keep up.

In the end, they weren’t fast enough. A motor whirred to life and the boats sped away from the dock. He clenched his fist in anger, the guards had left them here to die. Bastards.

“Those rat-faced, no-good, rotten, inbred, bug-eyed, boot-licking, ugly idiots left us. What the hell!” Jess screamed in frustration as she launched mana bolts at their boats. The balls of neon blue mana dissipated before they could reach them. However, the mana bolts caught the attention of the guards.

A bullet impacted the wood under his feet, sending a burst of splinters into the air. He threw himself to the side and hid behind a wooden pillar sticking out of the pier. Aaron clenched his fist as he heard the guards laugh. Their only hope of escaping the island had driven off without them. Now they were stuck on a demon-infested island.

“Well, that could have gone better,” Tony said. The sky darkened, and a torrential downpour of rain began to fall from the sky.

“Great.” Aaron sighed. He numbly watched as the boats sped away into the choppy water. Alongside the rain, a thick mist began to creep in, obscuring his view of the mainland. However, using his enhanced perception he was still able to track the boats’ progress.

With no warning, a giant crab claw burst out of the water and latched onto one of the boats. The guards shot at the monster, cracking its armor, but he was unable to see the conclusion of the battle before they disappeared behind the thick curtain of mist.

“That rules out swimming to the mainland,” Aaron said.

“I never liked swimming anyways,” Tony said, still smiling despite the dire circumstances. The world flashed white for a moment as a pillar of lightning impacted the ground. The system definitely underexaggerated when it said to prepare for minor weather fluctuations.

Aaron sighed. “I guess we should head back.” Another pillar of lightning struck the ocean. This was just about the worst-case scenario he could imagine.

“Fine,” Jess said.

Drenched to the bone, they walked back into the Alcatraz – prisoners once more.