Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –Charles Swindoll

Failing to react to anything in a meaningful way not only reduces the meaningless content of my life but 90% of the stress with it.

It was like a scene from doctor who. The recent ones. With the decent animation and CGI.

I was falling through a brilliant blue cylinder, the walls of which warped and flexed around me. Gravity didn't exist and all I felt was weightlessness despite the wall obviously rushing past.

With the lack of gravity, I struggled to keep a hold of both Klaudia on my shoulder and Dra'ahr in my other hand. Also, my last meal was threatening to make a reappearance.

I just held my breath and shut my eyes, wishing it would hurry up. That did me no favours and had to stare wide-eyed at the nauseating tube ahead of me.

I began to feel the pull of gravity again and I looked directly ahead, seeing a white circle at the end of the tunnel had appeared.

We accelerated towards it, and I noticed the radius of the hole shrinking worryingly fast. I shut my eyes again and grit my teeth, preparing myself for a rough landing.

Instead of landing from the ceiling, gravity was immediately reversed and I was thrown up into the air instead of falling.

I opened my eyes and was immediately relieved to see we were back in the classroom where we had found the entrance to the nest.

I fell to the ground, landing heavily on Dra'ahrs body that had barely made it through the portal.

The hole had apparently temporarily been the exit to the portal we travelled through and was now just the same carpet that the rest of the floor was covered with.

I stood up, standing Klaudia up with me. She was still mostly non responsive, but it didn't appear to be a status effect. I figured it must have just been some lingering part of the effect or a mental block she had put in by herself.

There was only one way to solve this. Maybe.

Improvised healing, don't fail me now.

"Sorry about this."

I stretched my arm behind me and slapped her in the face. Not hard enough to cause further damage to her mind, but enough to cause her to stumble. She didn't cry out or anything, so I thought I had failed when she returned from her initial recoil with a punch to my stomach that lifted me off my feet.

-3hp

Status effect: Winded (0:10)

I waited on the ground in pain for precisely ten seconds as I struggled to pull in a breath.

"What the hell was that for asshole!?"

As if she didn't even know she had been almost non-responsive for the last few minutes.

"Welcome back," I said dryly and coughed as I stood again.

"Are you ok now? You were being weird ever since you got caught in that spell."

"I was? Wait-"

She looked around, seemingly confused by her surroundings.

"-when did we... what about the boss?"

I pointed at the obviously damaged and fairly squashed body of Dra'ahr lying in the blank circle of carpet.

"That was the boss?"

I sighed, sounding far sadder than I felt. Which was easy as u didn't feel sad at all. I only meant to talk to her normally. I guess I was tired.

"She was the boss. She was a queen and honestly, the fight was a little unfair. But she... she really put up a good fight."

"Why did you even bring it here though? Why not leave it in that white room?"

I rolled the corpse over onto her back and using the throwing knife, cut from the hole I had made with the saxe knife all the way down to her crotch.

"Ah, shit!"

Klaudia was already distracted as she stared at the smooth scaled crotch of the serpentine queen, so I surprised her with my outburst.

"Wha!? What's wrong!?"

I stabbed the knife deep into the wound, leaving it there and put my head in my already bloody hands.

"The saxe knife. I left it. I forgot to pick it up again. Uurrrghhhh!"

That was probably the most frustrated I had ever been before. I was fond of the weapon despite only having it for a short amount of time.

"Idiot. But what are you doing here? You didn't even say why."

I breathed out slowly letting my self cool down. I pulled the throwing knife out again and started poking around look in for loot in the still warm chest cavity.

"Loot. Also her soul. Also... you want any?"

"Ugh. No. It looks too much like a human."

"Fair enough."

I got tired of slow progress sweeping with the knife and stuck my hand in. Under the partially destroyed ribcage.

I absorbed her soul while I was at it.

Powerful Soul absorbed at 5% efficiency.

110 spectral essence absorbed.

I now had so much more essence from one day than I had from the previous two. And it was only... one in the afternoon.

That explains the hunger.

It seemed weird that despite how long it felt like down in the nest, it had only been three or four hours.

But enough about what was most likely time manipulation, I needed to get my soul shenanigans back on track.

Time for an update.

I murmured to myself as I dragged my arms through the softest parts of Dra'ahrs body, pulling out any coins and trinkets that I found as I went.

"Soul Reaper."

Soul Reaper (U) class requirements:

Relevant experience: (73.5%)

Souls absorbed: (120/200)

Greater souls absorbed: (21/25)

Powerful souls absorbed: (2/5)

Spectral affinity: (5/5)

I was progressing steadily, the powerful souls being my next big challenge.

"So when did you get that tattoo?"

That what?

"Wha-"

I looked down at myself, wondering what she could see, and there was indeed a tattoo on my chest. A massive one. Like, I didn't know how I hadn't noticed it before now. I should have seen it as soon as I tore my shirt off.

But I recognised it. I knew exactly where it was from and I took my hands out of the dead loot bag to poke and prod at the area it took up, feeling out whether it really was a permanent one. It was.

It was the emblem of the council. The Reapers of the Immortal Night. The skull took up two-thirds of my entire chest, with the most central part hovering just over my heart.

It was an impressive tattoo and the black colour used reflected no light. Only the places slick with my sweat looked even remotely shiny.

"So... I should explain some stuff."

While the two of us very slowly cleaned off the loot we got from the queen using the scraps of uniform lying around, I explained everything from meeting with Nephthys on that first night to all I knew of soul skills so far. I even spoke about my features, the way I had acted around what I found.

There was a moment of silence and I was almost scared that Klaudia would leave now that she knew what exactly I was stealing from the dead and hiding from her.

And she did.

She stood up slowly, her hands trembling slightly but visibly.

She took one weak step to the door trying to hide her face from mine. I stood up but she heard the shuffling and almost ran to the door. With one hand on the handle, She breathed heavy shuddering breaths.

I didn't understand why she was doing this. Surely, she knew what I had been doing when I collected the souls... or maybe she was scared of the lengths that I would go to for such a motive.

"Hey-"

She flinched at my word.

Do I really scare her to this degree?

In my last ditch effort to keep her from leaving, I went back on my promise to myself and threw Social Chameleon to full swing.

I didn't only appear as a functioning human, but one that was the answer to her problems. Exactly who she needed.

"Don't..."

I could barely hear her whisper, but that one word crushed any confidence I had that I could keep her from leaving.

"Please. I-"

"No! That's not you."

She opened the door and In a blur, was through it. I couldn't catch up to her, but I still ran through the door and looked down the corridors to see where she went.

But there was no sign of her.

I fell to my knees in the doorway, feeling more alone than ever. She had shown me affection and instead of even trying to reciprocate, I ignored her. I showed her a glimpse at who I really was and whatever she felt for me wasn't nearly enough to hide it.

Pressure built up behind my face, and my eyes began to sting. Soon, tears were falling down my cheeks and I barely kept myself from openly crying.

Sick of the sorrow, I deactivated Social Chemelon, feeling the weight lift off of me instantly.

The tears stopped as did the loneliness and a lingering hunger was all that remained.

I took a few deep breaths, letting my body fall back to a neutral state. It wasn't good for me to keep using that feature in such a way. My life was one that might force a normal person to suicidal thoughts. I had always dismissed the possibility at ease, but if I suddenly allowed myself to feel, any extended brooding session may prove fatal.

I'm really just tired.

Knowing what would pick me up, I swallowed a couple of the caffeine tablets I kept in my bag. The effects were instant.

Stamina regen ×4 (150:00)

Two and a half hours of vastly increased regeneration was a major plus, I just had to try and use them sparingly. As I didn't have all that many left.

I still felt an underlying rage at myself but I wasn't about to lower myself to self-harm, so I would have to take it out on something else and I knew exactly what I could burn down. But my food came first. And while I ate, I could look through my loot and the last notifications I skipped when I killed Dra'ahr. I grabbed a mostly empty shoulder bag that had survived most of the trauma in the room and swept all of the loot into it. It was almost all just coins and crystals, but there were two other items that I would need to take a closer look at.

I found a vending machine near the front of the college building that was almost completely free of looting. Someone had obviously broken the glass, but most of the food was there. I filled my bags and stuffed my storage too, making sure I had maybe four days of food and drink. All I wanted was a shower.

Knowing that the lizard threat was gone, I could relax in the corridor and sat against the wall, leaning against the vending machine as I ate and drank.

I had plenty of time now, so I decided to check up on my status. I hadn't seen it since before the 24-hour mark.

Sam Herbert (M)

Age: 19

Class: -

Occupation: Monster Hunter

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

Health: 84/84

Mana: 61/61

Stamina: 98/98

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

Strength: 28 (/)

Agility: 18(/)

Speed: 17 (/)

Endurance: 17 (/)

Vitality: 20 (/)

Intelligence: 17 (/)

Wisdom: 18 (/)

Luck: 14 (/)

Unspent stat points: (0)

Skills:

• Basic fitness [4] (D)

• Spectral Force [3] (A)

• Inspiring Aura [2] ©

• Pain Resistance [2] ©

• Mental Strength [6] (B)

• Improvised Care ©

• Analyze [5] ©

• Party Leader [1] (B)

• Mana Infusion [2] ©

• Mental Resistance [2] (B)

• Spectral Empowering [3] (A)

• Loud Voice ©

• Night Vision ©

• Honour [3] (B)

• Harnessed Reaction (B)

Occupational Skills

• Life Seeker (B)

• Trackers sense [3] ©

• Monster Carving (B)

• Critical Weakness [5] (B)

• Corpse Inspection [2] (B)

• Rapid Step [3] ©

• Silent Step [3] ©

Spiritual skills:

• Reason 1 (dark past)

• Reason 2

Features:

• Rapid Regeneration (D)

• Social Chameleon [3] (B)

• Vitality Infused eyes (B)

Spells:

• Mana force (E)

• Full Body Infusion (B)

There were some dramatic changes to my status and an amazing increase in my stats. I could see in my POV what my health, mana and stamina were up to, but to see the actual stat values was another thing. My mana capabilities hadn't improved all that much, but that wasn't exactly an issue.

The issue of having a low health pool compared to most of the monsters I had faced was of much greater concern. Luckily, one of the items I got from Dra'ahr would probably help.

I emptied the contents of the shoulder bag onto the floor and separated all the coins and crystals, throwing them into my storage.

The remaining two items were much more important.

One was a pure and plain white bracer and the other was a fairly regular pair of glasses. The braced was far too large for my fairly skinny forearm, so I let it hang while I analysed it to see what exactly it did.

Royal scale bracer:

Quality: fine

Condition: Pristine

Defence rating: B (locational)

Stats:

+4 defence

+4 Vitality

+2 agility

I looked up from the screen and saw the bracer had changed greatly. On my bare skin no longer hung what was just a white cylinder, but what was now a sleek and shaped bracer made of the same white scales as the monster it had come from. It was still slowly changing shape though, and I watched as it became tighter on my arm, eventually shrinking in diameter until it took the place of my skin. I felt no tightness, but I could no longer see a gap between the scales and my own skin.

The patch of scales covered the entirety of my left forearm from the elbow to the wrist. The scales were flexible, but using my nails, I could feel no purchase or give. It was great... for that one part of my body. I would just have to use my arm to block more attacks.

The glasses drew my attention next. They were wide rectangular black frames that was very much a popular style. But the lenses weren't completely transparent. One lens was completely black and the other merely a translucent grey.

I put them on without analysing them, more excited for the surprise. I, of course, couldn't see through the black lense, but in the other grey lenses, there was a line of text.

Which visual skill would you like to bind to the glasses?

"Life Seeker... I guess."

Visual skill: Life Seeker has been bound successfully. Usage cost eliminated while wearing bound item.

Both lenses became completely transparent, and looking at my own hand, realised that life seeker had been activated. There was no pull to my stamina though, so it hadn't been immediately obvious. I deactivated it with a thought.

Incredibly useful. And I probably look good in glasses.

While trying to see my own reflection in the shiny side of the vending machine, I heard voices approaching. Regular human voices.

I peeked my head around the eye of the vending machine I was next to, and I could see two people approaching. One was a fairly short but incredibly attractive blonde girl and the other was an above average brown haired guy. They were obvious survivors due to their torn and bloodstained clothes. The male survivor had a white pristine pistol tucked into a strap that ran over his shoulders. I wanted it. But I wouldn't take it. I wasn't prepared to kill an innocent person over something like that.

I didn't want to deal with anyone at the time, so I used Social Chameleon to make myself invisible, as uninteresting as possible.

They walked right past me, both looking right at me but only seeing past me.

They were talking about finding others, and something about the spiders in the gym. I guessed that was where the next sub-boss would be. A big spider or something.

That might as well have been my next stop, but I waited until I had finished eating to my own satisfaction before heading towards the gym.

On my way, I noticed that the classrooms on either side of me contained human corpses. Fairly fresh ones.

I repeatedly used soul read on the still present souls, finding more than enough greater souls to fill my requirements. A total of thirty souls later, I encountered my first human powerful souls.

It wasn't the regular grey soul with wide coloured steaks, it was a completely different colour and shape. They had chosen a reason of learning causing their soul to become a light brown and geometrically shaped. It appeared more solid in my sight, reinforcing the powerful aspect of their soul. It looked like they had been killed by more lizards. It was a shame they died before I killed the queen. Almost. But they did have a useful soul. Absorbing a powerful human soul had an interesting bonus as on top of the essence.

Powerful soul absorbed at 5% efficiency. Legacy: He Who Learns

20 spectral essence absorbed.

+1% ability to learn new skills and spells.

I took a part of their soul into mine. And while I already knew this, I could take part of their soul skills too. From what I had gained, I would have hazarded a guess that choosing learning resulted in making learning easier.

So I would need to find something that I wanted to directly improve myself on. But not something specific. Something that I felt some passion for... which was nothing as far as I knew.

I still wasn't sure what I had been thinking of when I earnt that second reason. But I was sure that I didn't want to pick the dark past. I had to make sure that my third and final reason was more positive.

Leaving that particular quest line for later, I decided I had collected enough essence for my next skill. I even had some more mana crystals to buy mana skills with so I opened the store and walked on autopilot while I focused on the skills available.

Soul skills: (412.4 essence available)

• Identify Soul (B)

Cost: 100 spectral essence.

• Soul Fortification (A)

Cost: 500 spectral essence.

• Soul Sealing (A)

Cost: 400 Spectral essence.

Mana skills: (17 crystals available)

• Magic Search (B)

Cost: 25 mana crystals

I had gained so much essence while in the nest, I was sure I was progressing much faster than a regular reaper-in-training would have.

It was a shame I couldn't get another mana skill, but I was most of the way there, and I had no idea what the requirements would be to unlock more in the store.

In regards to the soul skills, I already knew I didn't want Identify Soul. It would most likely tell me basic information about a soul which was useless to me. Using Life Seeker and Soul Read in tandem told me everything I needed to know about a soul.

On a whim, I chose soul sealing. I could afford it now, and as the alternative was finding more souls to absorb to get a fortification skill, it was really the obvious choice.

Skill learnt: Soul Sealing (A)

Soul Sealing:

Bind a loose soul to a body, securing what remains.

Cost: essence in parallel to soul power.

Well, that was a bust.

The only even remotely encouraging thing about the skill was that it gave me a straight answer regarding the cost.

So to bind a soul to a body, I would need to spend essence. Not that I had any idea of why I would need to.

Maybe to hold together a damaged soul so it can be absorbed?

Oh. Fuck yeah.

I decided it was actually a really useful skill. I could tear a soul apart to kill the monster then put it back together to absorb it... But the soul would cost a lot to bind... as much as I would receive...

Fuck it.

I was already done with the skill, but I could distract myself from it by the smell of fire in the air. I had followed the same route as the couple that passed me earlier.

Did they have the same idea as me?

I reached the doors to the gym in a few seconds of experimental sprinting. Rapid Step really made for an impressive time.

There was a scorch mark above the doors, and the smell of fire was definitely coming from inside the gym. I couldn't hear anything coming from inside, but that might have just been due to the sound muffling of the doors.

I pushed a door open, and a plume of smoke forced me back. It was dark in the massive room despite the fires that covered almost all of the walls and a large portion of the ceiling.

High pitched shrieks followed me out, and I activated Life Seeker. I saw the arching shadows of huge spiders all heading for the left side of the gym. Some fell from high while on fire, some looked like they were trying to rescue webs from the quickly moving fire, but most were on the warpath.

It was dangerous in there, and I wanted nothing to do with it. The stupid couple had probably triggered a boss fight and used fire to try and get away.

Amateurs.

While fire might appear to be a good idea against insect nests, it would quickly get out of hand. This spider nest was no different and all they had done was make the dog-sized arachnids angry.

I took a few steps back from the door and sat on the ground. I planned to wait it out until the fires stopped and the spiders calmed down so I could take a crack at them. Besides, a fire had already been started here. If I was lucky, it would still be the perfect place to start the building fire.

I watched the invisible scent of smoke leaking out of the room with Trackers Sense, spending my time idly trying to fix the broken barrel of the shotgun.

It was more than the flowering barrel I had thought it was. The slug that had initially been put in was jammed just before where the metal had split.

Using Mana Infusion didn't provide enough strength for me to dislodge it. I would likely need some kind of gun repair kit and a few levels in a repair or tinkerer skill to fix it.

I got bored of messing with the problem I couldn't currently fix, then got more bored of watching the smoke trail out of the gaps in the doors.

All at once, my strength left me and I watched helplessly as my stamina dropped from full to nothing in seconds.

The caffeine had worn out, and I had neglected to read up on the effects beforehand. I slid sideways until I was lying curled up on the floor. No matter how hard I fought, my eyes shut and I endured dreamless hours of sleep.

I sat up with a start. The area was significantly darker than before. Not night time yet, but the sun was setting. It must have been around 5 in the evening. I had slept for about 3 hours.

"Shit."

I almost lashed out at anything but calmed myself with the knowledge that it was my own fault. I distracted myself by searching for any changes in my situation.

It was later in the day, and I didn't have long to find warmer clothes or shelter. All I had was a couple of bags, and a fully clothed lower body. My bare torso would do me no favours in the cold night.

My only choice was to use fire, and I could kill two birds with one stone by burning the building overnight. I wondered if I would get any sort of bonuses for such destruction. There was no way I would receive a punishment. Right?

Regardless, I noticed the air no longer smelt of smoke, but of acidic blood. I opened the door to the gym again and a puddle of black and purple liquid spilt out. It quickly spread around my feet and I lifted a shoe to watch it drip down.

Stringy. Gross.

My shoes were already doomed, so I activated night vision and walked into the pitch black room.

I was expecting a massacre and I got it. But I thought it was the couple that would be dead. Instead, the torn and crushed corpses of tens, maybe hundreds, of spiders lay drying around me.

I appeared to have underestimated them severely if they could achieve this kind of slaughter. Maybe I should catch up with them. They were probably taking this seriously too.

I scanned the walls of the room. I knew there were several ways out from the gym, I just needed to know which way they went.

I only saw one set of open doors, so I traversed the very slippery and spidery terrain until I could peek around the open door.

It was a locker room, and between the rows of lockers, what looked like cocoons hung from the ceiling by webs. Some of the cocoons had been torn open and bodies lay damp and dead beneath them.

I couldn't see any sort of damage to these people that had been pulled from the cocoons, so I used Corpse Inspection on one. He was young, a first year.

Human corpse: male

Approximate age: 17

Approximate height: 1.5m

Approximate time since death: 70 minutes

Notable wounds: none

Method of death: Complete drain of mana from body until mana core collapsed.

Ouch.

As far as I could tell, being in these cocoons was like being surrounded by one big leech. I grew wary for a moment considering whatever got them into these cocoons might still be around, but it was obvious that couple had been in here, likely torn through these cocoons looking for someone then left. If they were still alive, then this thing must be dead.

I saw the culprit half dissolved in the air in the corner of a square of benches. It looked like a large mix between a spider and some sort of tic, or mite. Aptly, it was obviously something that leeched its enemies.

Through the cracks in its carapace, I saw a white item, almost glowing compared to the darkness around it.

I stamped on the shell until it fell open, pouring a fresh layer of goo over my shoes.

The item in question was just a white cube the size of a Rubik's cube. I couldn't tell what material it was made of, but it was heavier than its size suggested, so possibly metal.

Arachnids puzzle box:

Value: none

How amazingly curious.

I would tackle this puzzle later, but I wanted to know more about these webs. They would make an incredibly useful weapon later in the game as mana was likely going to end up being my weakness.

I left the locker room, searching for some sort of stick or pole. I ended up tearing a rung off of a wooden ladder used for gymnastics and re-entered what would probably have been the boss room.

I used Life Seeker to try and figure out how best to collect the webs, after deactivating night vision of course. While I could easily see the flow of some energy still moving from the dead cocoon occupants, I found that one of those on the floor was still alive. Almost.

A closer look showed that her soul was still intact. The body wasn't completely dead, just in a coma-like state and showing all the symptoms of death. She was cold to the touch, her heart wasn't beating, neither was she breathing. But her soul was there. And it was amazing.

Not only had she chosen a soul skill and developed her soul into something powerful, but it was far more impressive than the powerful human soul I had absorbed earlier. It glowed a beautiful violet that mixed with a dark almost metallic blue. Her soul skill was incredible. Truly. One that Nephthys would love, surely.

But...

I hesitated to take this one, as she was still alive. And ever the humanitarian (greedy healer), I knew I had to save her. She was the last person in this room I had any chance of saving, so I had no choice.

I couldn't straight out save her body as she was likely mana-less and it would only fail. I could maybe use mana infusion on her if she was connected to me in some way, but then there would need to be flowing blood too otherwise she might suffer brain damage. I had to do this in the right order.

God damn it! Why are humans so hard to fix?

The first thing I had to do was make sure her soul stayed complete. It would start to disperse as soon as her body died, which could be at any minute. I could use soul sealing on her to bind it there, but I only had around 50 essence and her soul would likely require something along the lines of 200 plus.

I scrambled over to the spider boss, seeing it had a powerful soul, and absorbing it rapidly.

Powerful soul absorbed at 5% efficiency.

45 spectral essence absorbed.

One more... I mean, halfway there!

I absorbed the partial souls from two more dead students whose souls had already begun dispersing. They were only fractions of what they had once been but were both greater, so I got another 15 from them. None of the other bodies in cocoons or not had any spectral energy left in them, so I left them in peace.

After that, it was just a matter of collecting the essence of every spider outside the locker room. I dug deep into piles and I damn near dove into the pools of mess. But I managed to get it. All the souls I could find brought my total up to 275.5 essence.

I slid back on the smooth floor next to the soul, I mean girl. The construct was beginning to tear at the edges, so I hurriedly used Soul Sealing on it.

Target soul will require 275 spectral essence to bind to target vessel.

Continue?

Thank fuck that was enough.

"Yes."

Suddenly we were surrounded by a sphere of... something that slowly began to get smaller. Even with Life Seeker on, I could only perceive the surface as a ripple in the air that was almost solid.

It got tighter around us, passing straight through me, dragging a sliver of darkness with it, and encapsulating her soul. The barrier compressed it into a more solid structure. What was a delicate spindle of violet strands became a helix of strong bands alternating between blue and purple.

There was no hint of the darkness that left me, and I took that to be the payment I had to make for this to work.

She was still on the brink of death, so I switched back to night vision and prepared for my next step.

I used the throwing knife to cut off her tattered blazer and shirt. She had a very slim body underneath the clothes, a soft petite figure. A cold one though, so I managed to keep my mind focused and made a slight incision as close to her heart as I could tell. I then made another cut on my finger and made sure there was ample blood flow.

I held an open bottle of vampire blood in my other hand and tilted her head back with her mouth open. I took a deep breath, readying myself for a laughable impossible task. But before I could over think it, I went ahead.

The entire contents of the bottle passed down her open throat and I pushed my bleeding finger into the wound I had previously made over her chest.

I outed as much mana as I could into a mana infusion focused on the fingertip leaking blood.

I felt the mana leave me and hoped it would be enough to jumpstart her mana core.

Just as I was about to run out of mana, her body twitched, and I switched my view to Life Seeker. Flickers of red spread across her chest, branching from where I had pushed the mana.

Her heart began to beat, and in seconds, her body glowed again.

Feat accomplished: Dead ringer I

Achievement Unlocked: Not just a fluke

Her body began twitching uncontrollably and I recognised the symptoms as her body transforming and becoming vampiric.

I have to go.

I stood and sprinted out of the locker room, heading for the hallway. I slipped on gore and turned back, glancing into the dark where a pair of red eyes glared out at me from the locker room door.

I made one final push through the open doors and slammed them shut behind me. I had forgotten the bloodlust that the new vampling got. I just hoped the spider blood in filling the gym counted.

A tense few seconds passed, and instead of a mass of shape claws and teeth assaulting me from the doors, I remained unharmed.

I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down back where I had slept earlier. I passed the time by lightly throwing a copper coin into the air and catching it again.

I soon doubled up and practised my agility and speed by throwing them up together and catching them individually.

Skill Learnt: Focused Catching ©

I kept it up, moving onto three and then four coins, levelling up Focused Catching ridiculously quickly.

I kept on, staving off boredom and the approaching chill, leading up to seven coins being caught in a single throw and levelling the skill up to 11. At levels 5 and 10, I even got a point in agility, so it wasn't a complete waste of an hour.

I pulled out another coin, trying for eight when I remembered why I was bored and waiting.

I cracked open the door to look through, but with night vision then Life Seeker, I couldn't see anything resembling the girl. I couldn't really make out her features in the dark, but there wasn't even any sign of life. I opened the door properly to look in the locker room, and I walked straight into her.

She fell onto the floor and I immediately offered her my hand.

"Hi. I'm Sam."

She accepted my hand to help herself up but hesitated to say anything to me, just looking around confused. It made sense, really. She thought she was dead then wakes up with new skills, a new species and an incredible hunger for frankly gross stuff. Then some guy she's never met before approaches her.

"Look, I know this is confusing for you. But you're ok now. Relatively. I'll take you somewhere safe if you want."

She shook her head, then spoke way more confidently than I expected.

"I was just checking out the new visual skills. Predators glint is weird. But I can tell you know what you're doing. I'm just going to find my friends. I'm assuming they're all alive, and I know where they could be. So no, I won't accept your invitation, but I do want to thank you for saving me. However you did it, and I assume it has to do with that skull tattoo. I mean, it's not that I'm not grateful, but I don't know what it's going to be like to be a vampling or whatever and I guess I'll just ask what you want to do?"

Her words got rushed and blurred as she rambled on. How were you supposed to talk to someone that had just bought you back from the dead? She was nervous and I found it cute.

Sue me.

But I was invested now. If I wasn't exploring wherever with Klaudia anymore, then I had no real long-term plans past burning the college and finding a shirt. Not necessarily in that order though.

"Let me join you. This might sound weird, but you have an incredible soul. And... I want to see where you go with it. And tell me what happened to it since you were revived."

She did look a little suspicious at that but shrugged and held out her hand to me.

"Ok, you can join me and help find my friends. As thanks, I'll tell you about my soul. Deal?

"I'm not sure if that counts as a deal, but sure."

I shook her slender hand, marvelling at the tight grip, and smiled at her. This was an exciting prospect.

"Cool. By the way, my name's Annie."