Education costs money. But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser

Significantly less though. And as a result, they're generally happier in the short term. It feels a little cruel to point that out to students.

We had been walking for another fifteen minutes when our surroundings changed again. I was walking almost blind, so while I offered a direction, Klaudia led as she could actually see. Unfortunately, I was still unable to get the night vision skill. I had been following the scent of rot further, and Klaudia helpfully gave a running commentary of the environment we were passing through.

It was a damn cave.

But now, the air was growing humid and hotter. Apparently, we were approaching a dense forest, but the hot wet air suggested more of a jungle.

I activated Life Seeker and I could instantly see all the plants ahead highlighted in glorious shades of green. A massive network twice as tall as the trees themselves knotted downwards in a bright beige. It was interesting that I could see the roots too. The system reached far past my range, so I was only guessing at the depths they reached. And since the skills had merged, not only could I see living material and their souls, but depth was obvious now too.

So as I stared at the jungle we were approaching, I realised something might have been off.

"Hey, can you tell if the trees and stuff are green?"

Klaudia shrugged and looked at me briefly with her glowing green eyes.

"They look green, but the night vision skill makes everything green. They could be white."

"I think they are."

She looked at me inquisitively. I had said something weird, but the circumstances that allowed a massive cavernous lizard nest to bend space through a college building might also give life to these plants without light.

"You know why plants are green right?"

"It's um... that chloroform stuff right?"

I smiled at her mistake, but I quickly stifled it. She didn't do biology, I couldn't expect her to hold cellular knowledge on par with someone who had.

"Close. It's called chlorophyll. It's a green pigment that turns light into energy. Some albino plants rely on leeching nutrients from other plants or hijacking their leaf systems completely. There's no light here, so what made these trees grow?"

"Magic?"

I nodded, realising halfway that she wasn't looking at me so wouldn't see what I was doing.

"Probably. Unless there's some massive nutrient filled area beneath us."

We had reached the outskirts of the dense green, so I knelt down to a small shrub in front of me and felt around the base of its stem.

"They're growing directly out of the stone. Definitely some magic here."

I looked closer at the shrub, noticing a small spot of grey just below the surface where the root was thickest.

I tugged the shrub out of the ground, the root snapping just below the soul. I took a closer look at the soul I had unearthed. It was incredible that the plants even had their souls and it was fascinating to imagine what sort of heights they could reach with a developed soul.

I touched the severed root and the soul flowed into me.

Lesser bio soul absorbed at 3% efficiency.

0.1 spectral essence gained.

It was a dissapointingly low value, but to be completely fair, it was just a plant. I looked closer at the larger plants, but their souls looked no larger. It would be a waste of time and effort to try and harvest them all.

"Let's press forwards. I don't want to use this skill for too long. It's a leech on my stamina."

"What skills that?"

Right, I never explained.

"Its a combination between two visual skills. One lets me see life, and the other... movement. I tried to use them at the same time earlier and almost broke my eyes."

"Fair enough. I'll lead you through the forest. Hold onto my shoulders."

I didn't like having to be led through the dark, but my vitality infused eyesight wasn't picking up the plants. There were plenty of roots to fall over and I didn't want to needlessly hurt myself before I reached the actual nest.

Klaudia guided my hands to her shoulders and led me into the thicket like a sad conga line.

In the darkness, I focused on my other senses. It still smelt only like rotting meat, so that was a miss. All I could feel was an uneasiness in my stomach, my sore feet treading on the stone and plants alike, and the warm skin of Klaudias shoulders under the blazer. Also a miss.

I focused on what I could hear, and besides the footsteps, I could hear soft creaking as if the trees were being blown in the wind. There was no breeze though, and my feeling if uneasiness grew as I recalled every horror movie I had ever seen that occurred in the woods. I tried to remind myself that there was no such thing as demons and murderous psychopaths in the woods, but in this new world, I couldn't be sure.

Klaudia stopped suddenly and I walked straight into her. We stumbled to a stop without falling.

"What's wrong?"

"Its a clearing. There's a temple thing in it."

"Like a pyramid or like stone henge?"

I wasn't sure why exactly I asked, but without any visual stimuli, I wanted as detailed of a mental image as possible.

"Ummm... I guess like stone henge. But way bigger. And it looks like there's a giant lizard in it."

I froze, imagining a titanic lizard that was the mother to all those I had killed before. I could likely tear its soul to pieces, but as I concentrated, my vitality infused eyes made out the lining of a lizard that could only be described as colossal. That was a soul I wanted to get my hands on.

It looked to be asleep currently, giving us the advantage. But I knew these monsters could have sharp senses, so I activated Life Seeker to get a better idea of the surroundings.

With the lizard highlighted red, I could make out its sheer size. It wouldn't even fit inside the college gym when curled up. It was surely housing a powerful soul deep inside it, and as long as I had the element of surprise, this would be so much easier.

"How do I change the type of ammo I resupply with?"

"What?"

Klaudia responded to my question, but I ignored her. She wasn't the target of my interrogation.

Resupply configuration commands:

Command: "request resupply."

"Request resupply."

Resupply requested.

Weapon type: 6-ring shotgun

Default ammo type: Flechette (15 copper)

Alternate available ammo types:

• Buckshot (5 copper)

• Slug (50 copper)

• Birdshot (1 silver)

Confirm default ammo type.

"Slug."

Resupply requested. (Slug rounds)

-50 copper coins.

The familiar white particles formed the ring and shells, but they were much longer this time. The price increase indicating the sheer size and power of the slug rounds.

The white light faded, leaving the shells in my open hand in the darkness.

I pulled the shotgun from my storage, purposely trying to shelter the light with my body, in case the lizard was sensitive to light even while sleeping.

I opened the shotgun and the two empty shells popped out. I had toforcefully pull out the four remaining full shells with the feeling I was doing something I really wasn't supposed to.

The shells dissolved into white particles when they were clear of the gun. I got no refund, but that was hardly the concern at this point. I was likely to get a stupid amount of money for killing this thing.

I clicked in the new ammo and then used resupply again to get a second ring of shells. Hopefully, I would cripple it before it could fight back, but I wasn't as optimistic as usual in cases where my life was at stake.

Klaudia led me through the first ring of stones until we were well into the temple grounds. I saw several lizards scuttle past us, but they were tiny and insignificantly weak. I wanted to hide our presence here, so while they didn't give any experience for killing them, I crushed every one that saw us.

Klaudia winced each time, and I could practically feel myself losing favour with her each time my foot came down, but I wasnt about to risk our safety over the lives of some soulless biological automata.

We continued past a further ring until the scaled behemoth was mere meters away. I was scared to breathe particularly loudly, and I could feel Klaudia trembling slightly beside me. The beast blew thin jets of foul smelling steam from its nostrils, and I noticed more details as I was closer. It had two nostrils on the side of its head that I could see, and three eyes organised in a neat line that extended further up its head. I assumed the pattern was repeated on the other side which painted an alien picture of a lizard with more facial features than normal.

A mutation like this promised a greater reward.

"Sam."

I jumped at the noise, then scowled at Klaudia as she had raised her voice to the limit of a whisper. But she looked shaken.

"What now?"

"Analyze it."

I didn't reply. It was unnecessary to risk it waking even more than we had.

I checked my stamina and satisfied that I would get by, analysed the monster.

Queens Elite Wyrm Guard (evolved):

Level: 35

Hp: 1052/1052

Mp: 196/196

I looked further down its body and noticed that its body reflected the image of a mythical wyrm far more than I had realised.

Where I had assumed rear legs would be, the body merely carried on, thinning until it resembled a tail that coiled behind it. There were no wings on its back, but there did appear to be a series of spines that were laid flat.

The most worrisome part that also provided some relief was in its name. While the name told me that there might be other powerful guards, it also told me that whatever it was protecting would be weak and defenceless without it. Like ants. It helped me to imagine them as lesser insects... until I looked at the hulking myth that lumbered in front of me.

Regardless of my own doubts, I had a hurdle to overcome, and a brain already whirring out possible solutions. I settled on the one that would end this the fastest.

"Ok, here's the plan. I'm going to scale the pillar closest to its face. I'll unload as many shells as possible into its eyes, and while it's blinded and waking up, take advantage of the confusion and aim for its weak spots. Strike hard, and strike deep."

Klaudia looked uncertain, but she slowly drew her blades and held them in steadier hands. She nodded at me.

"Where should I aim?"

I didn't even need to think properly for this. If she had the opportunity, there was only one spot weaker than its eyes that she should go for.

"It's throat. When it raises its head, run under and slash its neck. It's not that tall, but it will be fast. It has short but powerful legs and that tail is going to suck if it uses it well. So... watch out for that."

She nodded again and crept closer to its head to get into position. I did too and approached the stone pillar. In the dark, I couldn't tell it from its background, leaving me effectively blind again. I sighed, but as I could still feel that the broken pillar was rough and made of large bricks, it was only a half-assed one. I could still climb this.

Almost five minutes, a few points of damage in scraped joints, and three levels in a climbing skill later, I managed to ease myself onto the flattest part of the pillar. I laid there for exactly two minutes, letting my stamina raise itself to an acceptable level.

I then stood slowly, staring straight ahead at the trio of shut eyes that was facing me. I pulled out the shotgun and aimed ahead with my arm outstretched. Then I remembered the force involved in firing a slug round and almost reluctantly steadied the gun with my second hand so that I could stare down the iron sights.

A moment passed and I questioned the quiet. Why was no-one doing anything? It dawned on me that it was up to me to begin this entire conflict. I could just retreat now if I wanted to and leave the entire situation behind me.

I could leave the school and take Klaudia adventuring. I might earn my class slowly as a scavenger, but I might end up happy.

My doubts were clouding my judgement and I almost got back down from the pillar. Almost.

But the lizard shifted in its sleep, disrupting the deep cycle of its steady breathing. The sudden sound and movement caused me to panic and immediately I lost my balance.

+3 defence applied for (0:45)

As I began to fall, my focus remained on the lizard still in my sights.

In the last second, before I fell, I squeezed the trigger and the end of the barrel exploded into light, causing an almost equally large explosion of blood to spurt out of the far side of the lizard's face. I didn't see any of it though, as I had fallen several feet onto the stone and was dazed by the fall for a further 20 seconds.

-395hp (severe critical hit)

Status effect applied: vital haemoraghing (1:39)

Critical weakness has levelled up. Critical Weakness is now level 2.

Critical weakness has levelled up. Critical Weakness is now level 3.

Critical weakness has levelled up. Critical Weakness is now level 4.

I could only imagine the surprise it must have felt to have been woken by having its brain turned half to mush. Or the pain. The wyrm screeched in pain and anger, damaging my ears and causing pain that ate through the numbness of the daze. The lizard's body was up like a whip and despite its half torn face, still looked at me with three functioning eyes filled with malice. The golden eyes glowed in the dark and as soon as they found me in my weakened state, flashed red for an instant. That split second was all it took for me to reach a state beyond fear.

Petrified (1:00)

My body froze in sheer terror and I found myself unable to even use my soul skills as it slid closer and closer to me.

It was losing massive amounts of blood from the hole straight through its head, assuring that it wouldn't survive the minute. All it wanted to do was make sure I didn't either.

"CHALLENGING CRY!"

A shout from behind the wyrm distracted it for a second but it tore itself from the effects of the skill and continued its advance.

"Ugh! Fine! Pierce!"

My control over life seeker was failing and I lost sight of the monster and Klaudia, the darkness pierced only by their eyes. I could only assume she had attacked it directly after being stunned by the wyrms initial cry.

The wyrm couldn't have been able to survive for another 20 or so seconds, but it was more than strong enough to kill them both instantly if they left their guard down.

I could only imagine how the two were fighting, but a lack of noise besides scrabbling of stone and dragging skin hid all knowledge from me.

I could see the monster was still fighting valiantly and despite probably losing half the blood in its body, it still persevered.

The seconds ticked by and any second, I was expecting to hear the death screams of either one of them. Or the death notification. Something.

But even once I was free from the petrification, I heard only sounds suggesting a stalemate. I didnt understand how the elite guard had any health left as it had been over a minute since the effecr was applied. It was still taking around 20 damage per second, but it should be dead unless...

Skills... Shit.

It only made sense the elite queen's guard would have skills, especially if it was evolved.

"Klaudia! You still alive?!"

I received a grunt of pain in reply and activated Life Seeker just in time to see the wyrm lift its head from Klaudias prone body and turn back to me. She had been injured, but was still showing signs of life.

The approaching danger was another problem. Its head wound seemed half healed, and I could only assume it was due to a skill. Maybe because it ate it healed. I didn't know. But what I did know was that this asshole had hurt one of my friends. Possibly my last living one.

My anger balanced with my own desire, and I held back from merely tearing its soul. Instead, I fired all five of my remaining shots at it.

I was hipfiring but still managed to land four of the five I fired one glanced off its scalp with a shower of sparks, but the other three dug deep into its face again, dealing far more damage.

-69hp

-103hp

-138hp

The wyrm slowed again and I could see it was on its last legs. I had no other weapons available to me aside from the shotgun, so instead of slitting its throat like I would have preferred to do, I let it slowly bleed out and get more tired in front of my eyes. It's head finally fell and as sit took its last few laborious breaths, I slowly walked up to it, collecting the spare ring of shells I had dropped. I reloaded fluidly and put one foot on its hard snout.

"If your queen can hear me now, let it be known; you hurt my friend. I'm coming for you. Don't bother running. Just prepare yourself to die."

Already tired of my own voice, I pushed the top barrel against the first hole I had made in its head, aimed further back instead of across.

It hissed weakly in response and I patted the ridge above its ruined eye, comforting it.

"Shhhhhh. You fought well. Goodnight."

Then I pulled the trigger and the monster went limp.

-294hp (critical hit)

Monster killed:

Damage dealt: 1150

Exp earnt: 1937

Skill unlocked: Honor (B)

Honour has levelled up. Honour is now level 2

Occupation has levelled up. Monster Hunter is now level 2.

+2 VIT

+3 STR

+1INT

+1WIS

Shotgun master has levelled up. Shotgun Mastery is now level 2.

Shotgun Mastery has levelled up. Shotgun Mastery is now level 3.

While all the skills and levels were nice, now that the threat was gone, I was immediately concerned for Klaudia. I looked over again and like the dead monster, Life Seeker was fading.

"Klaudia! Shit. No. No. Nonono."

I stumbled over to her, throwing my shot gun into storage and tripping slightly because of it.

The red glow was fading but I could see her heart was still beating. Weakly though, and it got weaker by the second.

In the dying light, I could see the damage the wyrm had incurred. Both of her legs were eaten almost up to the knee, and the flesh of her lower body was ripped and torn.

She still held her daggers in both hands and it gave me some comfort that she fought back the entire time.

Analyze.

Klaudia Lanachetz

Level: -

Health: 2/68

Status effects: Bilaterated (-">, Slow Bleeding (15:35)

She was in a bad way, and barely clinging to life. Her legs were beyond repair and as far as I knew, she was going to die.

I needed urgency. The kind of desire to save her that I never would normally. This would require me stretching my abilities to their absolute limits.

I waited until she took another point of damage and activated Social Chameleon, forcing myself to care.

Waves of pain flowed within me when I fell to my knees, tears already flowing down my cheeks.

I had not talent in mana, so learning a healing spell was beyond my abilities. Improvised healing was all I had, and I felt that the more outlandish my solution, the better it would work.

I ripped off my shirt and using Klaudias long knife, cut it into long strips. I twisted the strips into tight spirals and tied them around her legs as high up as I could without making the existing injuries worse. She was bleeding mostly from her legs and as I tightened the tornequettes, the slow flow stopped completely.

The slow bleeding effect stopped but it was replaced by another status effect.

Aplastically Anemic (-">

"Shit."

The curse sounded loud in the darkness as I understood partially what was wrong with her. She had lost too much blood and her body was too weak to provide more. Her body was unable to heal itself and without any magic or potions or whatever, she would be stuck comatose like this.

I shivered despite the warmth and felt a cold bead of sweat run down my spine. There was no way for me to do a transfusion, and I wasn't confident in my abilities to even perform it. That was even if I had access to the equipment necessary.

The only way for her to get more blood was to... give her the blood.

I picked up my discarded rucksack and pulled out one of the bottles of vampire blood. In legends, drinking vampire blood was enough to turn them. It was my only remaining chance. Even if she immediately tried to bite me, at least she would get the blood she needed.

I slowly poured the blood into her open mouth, tilting her head so she could easier drink without choking.

Almost a quarter of the way through the bottle, she started reacting to it. Her body started shaking. Gently at first but then she started convulsing. And all at once stopped.

I analysed her again and saw her health was rising rapidly before my eyes. I could see her maximum health was slowly rising too. The vampire blood was doing more than healing her but was also making her stronger.

I cut the tornequettes from her legs and was astounded to see the flesh begin to smooth itself over. I adjusted my view and saw the bones growing too. The flesh grew around the bones and I watched with morbid fascination as tendons, veins and muscle sprung from nowhere.

I followed the growth down to her feet and as soon as her flesh was completely healed, she started moving again. It was just a twist of her ankle then she curled her toes.

Relief flooded through me and I was about to start crying again so I deactivated Social Chameleon and let rationality overtake me again.

She started to make small noises and I took that as a good sign that she waking up.

Too late I remembered the carnage that the Dean had left after he had been transformed into a vampire. I was cautious again. I wasn't sure how she would react to being turned.

I stood up and took a few cautionary steps back. I tripped over a loose stone in the ground and fell heavily on my back. A small cry left me as I fell against my efforts and the sound made Klaudia sit up in an instant. She looked at me with hunger in her eyes. I deactivated life seeker for a few seconds and reactivated it after seeing her irises were glowing bright red, cutting through the darkness.

I tied to use social Chameleon to make myself look uninteresting and unsavoury, bit she wasn't slowed and crept towards me on all fours like a predator. Any other time, this would have been an extremely precarious situation, but the darkness and blood removed any semblance of romance.

"Ummm. Klaudia? You ok?"

I backed away, shuffling until I hit a pillar, halting my hasty retreat. I wanted to close my eyes and look away, but the fear I actually felt made me stay still and do nothing but stare.

She reached me and slowly crept up my body, I noticed she was far lighter than she had been previously. Possibly a species thing. As she was certainly a different speci-

Sharp teeth sank into my throat, tearing into my skin. I immediately tensed up and moved to push Klaudia off me. But I felt sluggish. I struggled to raise my arms and barely managed to land my hands on her shoulders. In my fading vision, I saw her pull back for a second with a savage sharp-toothed grin, blood running down her chin.

I found it funny that despite my efforts to save her, she might be my downfall. Despite the fact I might have been about to die, I smiled.

"I'd better not... die... You... bit-ch"

And then my head fell back and all I knew was a thick darkness.