"Man is condemned to be free." - Jean-Paul Sartre

Education has determined that to be a lie.

I sat, wallowing in what one might call self-pity, but I would fondly refer to as self-loathing.

I couldn't believe I had been so swayed by my dream. The potential for myself it had shown was far more interesting than any I could find in my mundane life.

A random girl screamed from behind me. Probably realising she was going to fail the exam. She should have revised harder.

The scream came again, but instead of one of anguish, this was one of terror and pain.

I looked up and opened my eyes. I was shocked to see the health, mana and stamina bars were there. Did I not just dream that?

I turned and noticed the exam hall was almost empty. Only about a dozen people were here, all further back. They mostly looked far too old to be taking these exams though.

I didn't have time to stop and think about these potential imposters because there was a flood of creatures running into the hall. I had only seconds to do something.

I even watched as everyone else in the hall was overpowered in seconds. Lizards the size of dogs tore across the hall, crushing every table and chair in their way.

They say wisdom is knowing when survival trumps honour. And well, I've never cared much for image.

I threw my chair at the nearest window, making a decent sized hole at head height.

As soon as it left my hand, I had been running towards my target, giving myself as much time as possible to run there. I used an adjacent desk as a step as I jumped through the hole, attempting and failing to fall into a combat roll as I landed. I gritted my teeth as I felt my left elbow bend in the wrong direction, and let out a stifled moan as I felt and heard the muted crunch of bones moving how they weren't meant to.

I had no time to cradle my injury though, as I was covered in dozens of other minor scrapes and bruises too, and had a potential mob at my heels.

But the shattering of glass never came, and despite the obvious strength of the dozens of giant Lizards, they didn't even try to break the window. They just observed me with bored eyes and gradually retreated.

With one immediate threat gone, for now, I could take a proper scope of the situation.

"Status."

Sam Herbert (M)

Age: 19

Class: -

Occupation: -

---------------

Health: 42/50

Mana: 56/56

Stamina: 44/46

-----------------

Strength: 15 (/)

Agility: 8 (/)

Speed: 6 (/)

Endurance: 10 (/)

Vitality: 9 (/)

Intelligence: 12 (/)

Wisdom: 13 (/)

Luck: 10 (/)

Unspent stat points: (0)

Skills:

• Basic fitness [1] (D)

• Spectral Force [1] (A)

• Inspiring Aura [1] ©

Features:

• Rapid Regeneration (D)

• Social Chameleon (B)

Spells:

• Mana force (E)

Affinities:

Spectral: 1%

I wasn't really shocked that my status screen had appeared, it was a classic command to make it appear. What surprised me was the shit interface. I had seen better user-friendly formatting from a bunch of GCSE students.

Unfortunately, none could be changed by force of will alone.

"How do I change my status format?"

I received no answer.

Damn deities and their bullshit coding.

The mental pain reminded me of the very real physical pain. My elbow was likely sprained, maybe even broken. And now that I wasn't focused on the status, it hurt like hell.

I had only lost 8 health points, so maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked. It didn't look pretty though. My elbow was bent 30° in the wrong direction.

Well, if health regen is a thing now like it should be, this could only go one way.

I snapped a thick stick out of the bush I was still half in and jammed it between my teeth. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally hurt myself more.

I took a moment to brace myself against the ground, then a few more moments trying to gather the courage to execute the plan. I couldn't do it. Despite any bravado I showed, I didn't exactly want to hurt myself.

At that moment, I went for it. While I was distracted, I managed to surprise myself enough that I could ignore most of the pain. It still hurt far too much though.

Skill learnt: Mental Strength (B)

Skill learnt: Pain Resistance ©

Well. I wasn't going to try that again in the hopes of levelling the skills, but at least I had them. And the pain from my elbow was nowhere near as bad as it had been. Not that it meant I would use it at all. Hopefully, that health regen would kick in soon.

I awkwardly got up with one hand and assessed my situation. I had jumped out of the northern most part of the college, so I had several options.

I could go back into the exam hall and pick up my phone and bag from the storage room.

I didn't even bother thinking up an alternate plan. There was no way I was going to leave my music behind. It was really the only thing I appreciated in life.

There weren't any more giant lizards in the hall, but I grabbed a long shard of glass from the window frame. Climbing back into the hall was a pain due to the height of the Broken window, but I managed it without any further injuries. I found a discarded girls college blazer on the back of a chair and after looting the pockets, used one of the arms of it to wrap the handle of my new dagger.

Fortunately, I found that this particular student was of a bad sort and had a flip knife in her right breast pocket. It vaguely worried me that someone would have a knife on them to an exam, but I want going to complain about such a lucky break. I held the glass in my right hand and had the knife in my back pocket in case of emergencies.

As a final thought, I shredded the blazer and used the cloth and parts of broken desk to make a sort of splint. It was difficult doing this with one hand and my mouth, but I managed.

Skill learnt: Improvised Care ©

Useful, but I needed more combat skills. I noticed that massively increasing my strength right at the beginning was a useful investment. I might not have been able to throw the chair hard enough to break the glass if I hadn't.

I took a moment to focus on the plan.

I didn't have one. Past getting my phone back, it was an open world. I would have taken the time to let all the stress of my education and job fall from shoulders right there in the hall. I would have, but since there was no stress, I felt only a minor relief that I didn't have to get up early ever again.

Shit. The plan.

I still needed a plan.

You know everything about these damn games. Where is the most important part of an educational building?

The dean's office.

Correct.

That was the next stop... maybe after finding a medical cupboard. There was a first aid kit at the front of the hall for an invidulator to use, but it comprised of a handful of plasters and a disinfectant wipe. I took them anyway, stuffing them all into my pockets. Until I could find a way to store stuff in a pocket space, because I assumed there was one such spell, carrying space was invaluable.

Next was my bag. I travelled down the remnants of the aisles of desks, only stopping to stare at the bodies left behind. The lizards had torn the others apart. These students had probably used the character customisation far more liberally than himself, but in his shock, hadn't realised.

The bodies were mutilated, to say the least. I couldn't even make out what part was supposed to be where. I only felt an almost imperceptible pressure drawing me to it. I almost felt an impulse to try and eat part of it, but put an end to that instantly. I did want to touch it though. Maybe the dead humans were treated as mobs when they died and dropped loot.

Though I didn't want to go rooting through the organs, it was worth getting a closer look.

I slowly stepped around the body, taking in the torn clothes and flesh, the blood and other bodily juices that had been sprayed in every direction.

Skill learnt: Analyze ©

Skill learnt: Corpse Inspection (B)

I was learning these skills insanely quickly.

The analyze skill was common enough through games, and I knew about its capabilities, but the Corpse Inspection was something different.

Opening my status, I found that I could learn more about the skills I had by focusing on them, almost like mentally double-clicking on it. Disregarding the poor soul in front of me, I eagerly went through all the skills I had that I didn't exactly understand.

Mental strength (skill):

Your ability to overcome the trivalties of the mind. Able to resist mental effects and spells with greater success.

Level: 1 (4.3%)

Ok. This one is a decent passive. It looks like a hard one to level, but if being able to ignore pain helps, thus and pain resistance should level up together nicely.

Improvised Care (skill):

You may not be medically trained, but you manage in a pinch. Health care given through non-conventional materials and means is 50% more effective.

This was such a huge percentage increase that I could only imagine the possibilities. Hastily mixed potions would be so much better. But the lack of a level concerned me. Maybe not all skills levelled in the same way.

Corpse Inspection (skill):

Inspecting a corpse will help reveal its method of demise.

Level:1 (0.0%)

Cost: 5 stamina

Basic, but it might be useful in the long run.

Satisfied with my knowledge, I tapped the Corpse on a piece of its exposed skull as a sort of goodbye. I hardly needed to try and find out how it had died. I was about to walk away when my fingers started tingling. Like they had been sat on for an hour and the blood was only now flowing again.

Not that I've ever done that. I'm just familiar with the sensation from other parts of my body. But why am I trying to convince myself?

I looked at my hands and saw a thin and faint stream of grey essence flowing from the dead body around my fingers. I watched for a few seconds as the tingling spread up my fingers and into my hand. The stream abruptly stopped, and I was presented with a very strange screen.

Human soul absorbed at 1% efficiency.

1 spectral essence absorbed.

Achivement unlocked: Soul Reaper

Skill unlocked: Spectral Sight (A)

This was an interesting development. It reminded me that I had Spectral Force and needed to try it. Screw the cost. But I did need to know what spectral sight was.

Spectral Sight (skill)

The Essence of souls is revealed to you.

Cost: great

Another stupid cost. But this time, I knew it wasn't me making it up, but someone else was instead. Maybe it wasn't a joke.

Oh well. Nothing learnt, nothing gained.

I activated the skill with a thought, and initially had some trouble figuring out if it was working. Nothing seemed to have changed. But when I looked at the next closest corpse to me, I could see that there was a gentle grey glow around it.

I walked over to it but hesitated before trying to touch it and absorbed the soul. This time, I used the skill spectral force to try and do something with it. Essentially, I just tried to pull the soul from the body. When that didn't work, I tried to push it out in the opposite direction to me. Still nothing, but my attempts were not fruitless.

Spectral Force has levelled up. Spectral Force is now level 2.

I tried again to move the soul from the body but was again unsuccessful. I didn't get a notification either. Maybe I just needed to practice with a smaller soul. I shrugged and touched what I hoped was the dryist part of the body. I was awarded with the shifting of the soul into me and was given the same notification screen.

Human soul absorbed at 1% efficiency.

1 spectral essence absorbed.

I repeated the process with the remaining corpses in the hall, gaining a total of 10 essences. I desperately wanted to increase the efficiency of absorption, but I could only assume the efficiency was linked to my spectral affinity. Since I only got that first percent from eating what might have been pure spectral essence, I had no idea how to replicate the circumstances.

It would have to wait. Besides, I was only a few minutes into what would definitely be the best part of my life. I couldn't wait to get out there and fight a good fight.

As I left the hall, I realised my elbow felt way better, and I saw that I had gained back four health while I messed with the souls. I had only a faint idea how much time had passed since I had hurt myself, so I couldn't really guess at my health regen rate. It wasn't bad though. For a broken limb to be half healed in less than 15 minutes was impressive.

I poked my head out the double doors after waiting until my health was full and my arm was usable again. I held the glass shard in my right hand like a short sword and the knife in my left like a dagger. I had seen a fighting technique used like this before and had only faint memories of how the moves were executed. It gave me a sense of security though. I hated the idea of being defenceless.

The coast was clear, of enemies at least. There were multiple bodies scattered around in various positions. All had been gored and were very dead. But all were opportunities for me. Though I still had no idea what the spectral essence was used for, I knew it was good because the spectral versions of skills looked to be of a higher rarity.

I collected the essence as I went, hurrying to reach the end of the corridor where I knew my bag would be. I kept looking over my shoulder as I drained their souls, wishing it was a faster process. I jumped at every little sound I heard but still listened keenly for each one. There might be a killer lizard around each corner, so I was wary, to say the least.

Upon reaching the student's storage room, I found the door was locked.

Of course. They're always locked when exams are going on.

Though irritating, my strength was probably around double what it was before, so I was confident I could break it down. The noise would be an issue though. As soon as it was open, I would have to leave hastily.

I took a step back and remembered a diagram I saw on the proper way to do this. I leant back on one leg, and then shifted my momentum forwards and kicked at the lock of the doors with the sole of my shoe.

The wooden door splintered around the lock, and I could open it with a hard shove.

It was dark in the long room. There were no windows, and the light in the hallway was doing little to penetrate it.

There was a sound coming from the back of the room. One that I recognised and immediately dreaded. Someone was crying. More importantly, there was someone here. I tried to turn on the lights, but the switch flicked up and down uselessly. I would have to do this in the dark then. It would make it any easier.

"Um. Hello?"

I called to the disembodied sobs. They paused, then I heard a small feminine sound of surprise, then the sound of quickly shuffling feet.

I braced myself. I had no idea what was running towards me. Luckily, it was just another student. She looked young. Probably a first year. And she hadn't changed herself with the system's prompt. Probably more scared and confused than anything.

She hugged me around the waist and cried into my chest. She was surprisingly short, but nothing more than annoying currently.

I put my knife in my pocket and gently put the glass on the floor. I pushed back slowly by the shoulders and she looked at me with tears down her eyes, makeup running. It was wholly unnatractive and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from dying that to her. It might have put me at ease to make a casual joke like that, but she wouldn't appreciate it anywhere near as much.

I opened my mouth to say something to her but was temporarily at a loss. Luckily, she spoke first, breaking the tension.

"Thank God someone else is here. I just... I saw the scale things. They're not lizards. More like dragons, but they were in the corridor. And I just ran in here."

I immediately picked up on the point. Suspicious about multiple things she had said.

"Wait. What do you mean you just ran in here. It was supposed to be locked. And why were you even out of class at this time?"

She looked confused and hurt. I immediately recognised her type. The aptly named seductress. Though she wasn't at the height of her glory, I could see she had a naturally cute face and a well-proportioned figure. Her pixie cut light brown hair only helped her seem cute and sexy at the same time. At maybe 17, she would have been popular with both boys and girls. She got what she wanted by using her body. I couldn't judge, but I hardly held the practice in high regard.

"Um. I'm Kacey. I'm on the student council. I was going to pick up some stuff from the teacher's office just down the hall, but then I was in a dark room, and then the sky, and then... The things."

She broke down crying, so that was the end of the story, but it made sense. The student council members all had keys to most of the rooms usually locked by teachers. Mostly classrooms and store rooms.

I needed more information out of her, and hopefully the keys. I couldn't exactly kill her in cold blood, but I was at a loss as to how to get anything out of her.

I pulled myself out of her renewed grip and walked further into the gloom. I knew roughly where my bag was, so I would just fumble until I found it.

"Ok. Just let me get my bag, then come with me. I'm going to the dean's office. I'll drip you off at the cafeteria as we go past it."

It was massively out of my way, but if I dropped her off Where people were most likely to gather, then no-one would have to die and I might even get something from the system because of it.

Kacey just nodded and stood there looking carefully out the door. I fumbled with a bundle of bags that I could only identify by their faint outlines. I finally found mine, but as I was throwing all the useless books and notes out of it, I heard panicked squeaks and hushed warnings coming from Kacey.

"Oh. Um. Hey.. uh. Hey, guy."

I walked towards the silhouette and quietly but harshly whispered into her ear.

"I'm Sam. Now shut up."

She followed the order an shut up. I had been toying with different personalities with her, and the stern superior figure seemed the most effective. Unfortunately, this wasn't a part that I wanted to play. Fortunately though, Social Chameleon allowed for it to come naturally. I felt at home doing this.

I looked out I to the hallway and saw a small group of the lizards. Two small ones, and a big one. The small ones were black and covered with rough scales. They were also short and wide. Tanks most likely. The third was thinner, sleeker, but far longer and had a more powerful looking tail. It was lower to the ground but looked like it had longer legs. It was a fast hitter. That was the first target.

They hadn't noticed me and... whatever her name was, so so hid us in the shadows just inside the door and waited for the lizards to pass. While they were close, I used the analyze skill on the big one. It would provide the largest problem, so I had to focus on it. Preferably take it out first.

Komodo Lizard:

Level: 5

HP: 60/60

MP: 21/21

It looked relatively weak. The combination of a real earthen monster and the magic of the system was incredibly interesting, but my attention was ill-fated currently.

I waited until the trio had passed, noticing the trails of blood they left behind. One of the black lizards stopped to snack on an already desecrated corpse. It wasn't the big one, but the two others of its group stopped and waited. I almost found it nice that they waited. Almost. I was actually trying to stretch Social Chameleon to its limits and attempt to show such a small threat and so little aggression towards the lizards that they ignored me. And it worked.

Social Chameleon has levelled up. Social Chameleon is now level 2.

Nothing was gained from the level up beside the possibility of proficiency. Yet.

But I continued casually walking up behind the lizards. I had the long glass shard stuck under one of my arms, and the knife stored safely in a pocket. I could retrieve either in a second, which was the plan. In that second I would do as much damage to the big guy, then back off and attempt to destroy the souls of the lizards to level up the skill.

In the final steps, the komodo lizard turned back to look at me. I almost froze but reminded myself that this had to be convincing. I contiued walking at the steady pace, and it turned back lazily. I retained the calm and composed exterior, but I was secretly ecstatic at what was essentially a monster invisibility cloak.

As soon as I was almost upon it, I drew the glass shard as fast as I could and plunged it deep I to its midriff.

-19hp

It was a lot of damage, but not enough. The lizard hissed angrily. I expected something louder, honestly. My strength had pushed the glass straight through the lizard. Unfortunately, my loosened grip caused it to be jerked out my hand. The lizard wasn't bleeding, but at least it's speed would be limited.

It limped towards me, it had lost all strength in one of its back legs.

I flicked out the knife in time to catch one of the darker lizards that had accelerated from behind its larger companion. It leapt at the last second, jaw and claws outstretched, but it was weirdly slow. I dodged to the side and slashed widely with the knife. I missed.

Idiot

I needed the glass back. It had better range.

But to get it back, I'm going to have to kill the big one.

It was a cruel loop, but I could improvise. The lizards were not that big. The smaller black ones were the size of most Yorkshire terrier. But like, vicious versions with cold blood and bigger teeth and claws. Hopefully, they weighed roughly the same.

I was now effectively surrounded, but I could give myself more room easily. The lizard that had just jumped at me was at my back, but had circled and was coming back towards me. More carefully. I glanced both ways. One side had the pissed off black lizard, and the other had a very pissed off komodo lizard and a likely impartial dark lizard. Not great odds.

I ran back towards the door Kacey was hiding behind and kicked the lizard as I passed as hard as I could.

It took a nice 11 damage, but I also took 2. Understandably, the lizard was much better built than the common dog, and it felt like I had kicked a sandbag. It was stunned at least. And actually stunned. I was a little surprised to see the status effect appear above its head.

Stunned (00:25)

I took the immediate advantage I had. I now essentially had a heavy club for the next 20 seconds. I stuck the knife in its neck just below the jaw, where I guessed an important vein was, and grabbing a cheek with the other hand, hefted it above my head. I could still feel it breathing, but as soon as the knife left it's throat, it would bleed out quickly.

The remaining lizards were walking in tandem. With the small one taking the lead. It was a smaller target, but I had no problem with that. I had 15 seconds until my weapon would turn on me so I took the offence and slammed the stunned lizard onto the other as hard as I could.

[ALL OUT]

-37hp

-27hp

The brief words were an unknown factor, but I could guess they were an indication of some greater effect when the lizards collided with enough force to almost kill each other.

But I had no time to celebrate. The komodo lizard was close. And it knew it was about to die. It would be desperate.

I pulled the knife out quickly, deliberately tearing as much flesh on the way out as I could. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed an effect pop up over the lizards. Bleeding II for the top one, and Stunned for the unlucky target.

The top one would bleed out In a few seconds, and hopefully, the bottom one would be stunned enough to finish this.

The lizard was hesitant to attack me. It was angry and in pain and had just seen me decimate its team. Of course, it was wary. But I couldn't let it get any ideas about calling for backup so I revealed my trump card.

I activated Spectral Sight and at once saw the soul in the lizard. It was like a grey mist hovering around the canter of its body. It was far darker than the souls of the humans he had absorbed, but also looked weaker. Immediately I knew it would be easier to bully.

I used spectral force on it, holding it in place. The lizard stopped breathing. I couldn't read any expression on its ugly scaly face, but I couldn't imagine what it felt like to have someone holding your soul in their hands.

I couldn't do this for long though. The strain on my body was becoming evident, and though my stamina mana and health bars weren't dropping, I felt the toll it was taking on my body. I needed to end this.

With a quick flex of my mind, I tore its soul in two.

-41hp

Spectral Force has levelled up. Spectral Force is now level 3.

Spectral Force has levelled up. Spectral Force is now level 4.

Monster Killed:

Damage dealt: 60

Exp earnt: 140

It instantly died and I released the skills, feeling the stress leave my mind.

Monster killed:

Damage dealt: 72

Exp earnt: 161

Oh. The small one died. Why more health though? Was it a higher level?

I clearly needed to analyse each of the monsters I encountered, as I encountered them. But that meant the lizard I had tried to squash earlier was still alive and not as hurt as I had hoped. I turned to it and saw I still had three seconds left before the stun wore off.

I grabbed the glass shard from the back of the komodo lizard and repositioned my grip on the knife. I didn't have the energy to tear it's soul apart again, but I sure as hell had the energy to stab it.

I waited for it to come to me so that I could catch my breath, but that also gave it the same opportunity. It leapt in much the same way as the first, but I could deal with this. I dodged, letting it pass me and swinging with the glass at the last second.

The sharp edge of the makeshift blade slid along its side, catching purchase as it hit the thickest part of the tail. I remembered that it wasn't uncommon for a lizard to detach its tail to confuse and distract a predator. That was true in this case too, but what I didn't know was thag the tail doesnt just flop off, it essentially launches away and whips around like a deranged snake on cocaine. It was by far the grossest thing I had ever seen in my life, and I had spent many many hours on the darkest parts of the web.

I stood, shocked that that could naturally happen, but it did its job perfectly, and the dark lizard had time to circle back and leap again without me noticing.

It landed on me, it's momentum pushing me down. I couldn't do anything to stop it as it was holding my arms down with its clawed feet. It seemed to grin through a partially shattered mouth then lowered it to my throat.

The lizard was instantly knocked off of me by Kacey. She had apparently grown a backbone far too late in the battle, but just on time to help. Unfortunately, she had no experience fighting and had tackled the lizard off of me. Though I was safer, she was now in the most dangerous place possible and was almost instantly clawed and bitten to death.

I almost sighed. I try to save one person and she goes and dies in a stupidly heroic act.

The lizard was happy with its kill and had seemingly forgotten all about me, so I stabbed it in both eyes at once with the glass and knife while it tried to dig into its meal.

-28hp

-27hp

Monster killed:

Damage dealt: 84

Exp earnt: 182

Then I sighed. I had put minimal effort into keeping Kacey safe, And she had died.

It almost felt wrong absorbing her soul. But think she would have wanted this. Before I did though, I noticed her soul was a light shade of blue. It was still mostly grey, but I could definitely see blue in it.

I looked closer at it, reluctant to touch it. I realised the ridiculousness of the situation as I stared at the bloody and mangled body of who might have been the only other survivor, staring at her as nothing more than an exhausted vessel. I laughed with a small smile at how normal this already seemed to me. I would be branded as a phsycopath if a passing student had seen this, but it would have meant nothing.

"Humans are such tricky beings."

I laughed again as I crouched down and touched Kacey on the least bloody part of her body. There wasn't really one though, so I just grimaced at the sticky, warm feeling on my fingers and let her soul be absorbed.