It had been a month since the appearance of Benevolent and now alone Martha was running on hard asphalt heaving breaths of exhaustion. Her straight black hair swayed in the cold late autumn wind revealing her rounded face and delicate features, only they were washed in sweat and blood. Striking amber eyes glowed in the dark, it was dawn and these eyes were something she hadn’t had before Benevolent, she’d been informed of something about race change or whatever but she couldn’t care less right now, she was running to safety for her life after all.

Finally losing the large party of little rat kin that had spawned from her attic somehow, definitely Benevolents fault, - she was running towards the city centre where she’d seen barricades placed down and people hanging around. Before arriving there she decided to enter one of the markets that didn’t look totally ransacked to grab food or water which to her dismay she found none of, everything had been either devoured or taken away.

Sitting down on a market counter she heaved a long breath out, this place was empty of food or drink but at least it was just as lacking in the monster compartment. Finally finding the time she decided to allocate her free stat points.

Hit points: 39/170

Mana: 43/160

Free stat points: 10

Name

Martha Swain

Strength

Str

12

(+0)

Level

5

Constitution

Con

8

(+0)

Class

Flame Witch

Dexterity

Dex

13

(+0)

Race

Demon Kin

Agility

Agi

12

(+0)

Titles

The Degraded

Energy Flow

EnF

19

(+3)

Status

/

Energy Capacity

EnC

14

(+1)

Seeing her race and title she sighed, was she really not human anymore? Thoughts drenched her mind but she didn’t have the luxury to think about such matters right now. Bite marks and gashes on her body stood as testament to her struggle with the beasts outside, she had used her newly gained spell –Frost Fire- to slow incapacitate and kill her foes but she’d run out of mana being forced to retreat in a rush, something she’d barely managed to accomplish.

Hit points: 69/200

Mana: 104/220

Free stat points: 0

Name

Martha Swain

Strength

Str

12

(+0)

Level

5

Constitution

Con

11

(+0)

Class

Flame Witch

Dexterity

Dex

13

(+0)

Race

Demon Kin

Agility

Agi

12

(+0)

Titles

The Degraded

Energy Flow

EnF

20

(+3)

Status

/

Energy Capacity

EnC

20

(+1)

‘Now that I’ve allocated my points I should be fine if I see those rats again, frost fire will do them good’

Soon steps could be heard approaching the market, they became ever louder and just as the beings who made them were about to step in front of the market entrance up front Benevolent spoke.

Seeing that the figures that had just entered the market were just humans she sighed in relief, the relief would be short lived though.

“It’s a bounty beast! Another demon witch if I’m not mistaken”

A bounty what? She was being identified as a monster! This was bad, the system had struck her with misfortune yet again…

Three twenty ish looking guys, the shortest of which holding a bow and arrow looked the oldest a full beard covering his jaw, he’d been the one who yelled towards the others about the presence of the witch. She didn’t know how her race had been identified but it was likely an identification skill, this would allow him to see that she wasn’t human. Or maybe… Her eyes?

“Wait I’m one of you! I was human a week ago you have to believe me!”

This was the first beast which could speak that this particular group had encountered, the situation was unnerving to say the least. Indeed though, she had gashes and bite marks all over her body, she’d been attacked by the other monsters! Perhaps she’d been human just a month ago like them, what gave them the right to even think about killing her?

“Don’t be fooled Tim, she’s a Demon, look at those eyes! And even Albert has identified her with his skill so what are you waiting for?!”

She’d stood up when she saw them but hearing their words she couldn’t help but feel limp in the knees, crystal white tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched the man who’d just spoken stretch the string of his bow towards her. Her knees buckling the man hesitated, but he reaffirmed his resolve releasing the arrow.

---

“And the conditions are?”

Squinting at the answer Benevolent had given him Shepherd sighed, it would be a while until he’d have his next fight and even longer to meet the conditions necessary for absorbing the –Orb of Creation-. First thing was, he needed a suitable class! And he’d be able to select one after reaching level three.

The blue tint of the world faded as the greenery around him continued its rustling and the clouds proceeded their journey eastward. Time had truly stopped there, but he and the now nowhere to be seen disintegrated monsters had fought no problem, he could even interact with his environment namely the stone which he’d picked up during the start of the first battle. So many questions yet little to no answers from the system.

He did figure a few things out though, having grown accustom to the systems interface he found navigating all the different tabs and descriptions as effortless as thought. He scrolled trough mostly vague descriptions and what seemed to be random information until he finally opened something useful – the -quest tab-.

Quest Title

Quest Description

Quest Rewards

Boss Tournament

Fight Monsters for Supremacy

Not dying?

Reach level 3

Reach level 3

Class Acquisition

‘Not dying huh, sounds reasonable’

Well it was time to abandon the tabs and get some rest, looking down to the forest below he wondered whether anything had spawned in the forest. It was dark, but the moon illuminated the ground littered in brown leaves, all he had spotted in his hour of observation were a few squirrels and what could’ve been an orange fox. Resigning himself to the night he laid on the cloth in the cave and went fast asleep.

The morning was chilly, his tank top clearly wouldn’t provide him much warmth though he didn’t have qualms with the cold so he shrugged the shakiness in his muscles off and did his morning workout routine, if you could call it that. Stretches a few reps of 50 push ups squats and so on and he was all warmed up and ready for the day.

Sighing Shepherd began to descend down the mountain boulders below, it would be another 16 hours until he could fight in the so called boss tournament and he wanted to prepare. Now standing below the cave entrance he looked around and started heading in the direction of the city, only to reluctantly detour towards a different cave in the mountains, he was curious in what kind of state the city was in and how his parents were dealing with the situation.

Leaving behind the bother of such thoughts he continued walking to his destination, only to freeze still in his tracks, rat people! There were four of them and they all seemed weaker than the one he’d fought in the cave, but without the drop his cave provided he wasn’t confident in fighting the creatures before him, one he’d take out easily two should be fine but he wasn’t confident with a number like this.

He hid behind some shrubs and observed the creatures, waiting to see where they’d head for or if they’d separate so he could hunt them down. After barely a minute the latter they did! And it just so happened that two of them were headed straight for them, hiding closer to the shrub he observed a stick next to him and inspiration struck.

‘Inspect!’

Giving an internal sigh he still decided to grab onto it, he knew what types of wood would be sturdy and which would easily brake and this particular stick was the former. At about four feet in length it looked as though someone had left it for future hiking as many of the older folks did in the suburban part of town where he lived. As they neared closer he clenched onto the stick harder and prepared a surprise attack.

The moment he sat their feet through the shrubs leaves he jumped into action, he wouldn’t give his opponents any time to breathe. Although startled the rat men had a good reaction speed as he’d expected, not a very intelligent one though. He stroke the one closer in his vicinity and instead of attempting a dodge the rat had issued a right hand block. A snapping sound issued itself and it wasn’t the branch breaking.

The creature squirmed showing its large front row cutting teeth in rage, but instead of retribution it received a knock in its temple, knocking it unconscious its teeth met the brown leaves below. The crushing blow seemed to have bent the stick somewhat, but it didn’t matter, it would do its job just as effectively against the other rat man. Although it put more of a struggle than its brother a kick to the gut and bash to the side of its face left it on the ground, dead.

Stomping on the first creatures head, it took only a few hits and a similar notification sounded in his head.

Hearing squeals and scrambling from the direction of the two rat men who’d left in another direction he hid behind the shrubbery once more. He waited for five minutes before he peaked his head over the shrub, no rat men to be seen. Suddenly, instead of what he expected would be rat squeals he heard a male’s voice screaming in what was probably a lot of pain.

Abandoning the rat corpses he charged towards the direction of the scream only to find a twenty something year old man attempting to climb a tree, one of the rodents biting on his Achilles from behind. Charging at the attacker he was blocked by the larger of the two. This one seemed stronger than the others being almost an inch taller and far more muscular.

Striking at the beast he was met by surprise when the rodent grabbed onto the stich without a flinch pulling the weapon away from him. Snorting Shepherd brought his right shin to the creatures gut and flung it to the left. Seeing that the man’s screams had subsided he charged at the rodent responsible for his pain.

It took a few strikes and he’d subdued and killed the thing and there wasn’t any mercy handed to the larger rat either.

“Hey tree man, it’s safe to come down now bro.”

Seeing that his attackers had been dispatched the man slowly came down the tree. He was an inch taller than Shepherd standing at five foot nine but underwhelming in comparison to Shepherds physique. His head was covered in dishevelled black hair and dirt and he wore a ripped up black jacket and jeans, what was he doing here with clothes like that? Shepherd wondered

What was most striking about the guy though were his eerie amber eyes, they seemed to suck you right in under his influence, a pathetic influence but an influence none the less.

“Thanks bro! I would’ve been a goner if not for you! Say uh, you’re not from the town hunting a demon kin are you?”

“No clue what you’re talking about, l'et’s start heading somewhere safe and we’ll take this conversation further. Names Shepherd”

Hearing that Shepherd wasn’t aware of what had happened in town the man sighed in relief, nodding they proceeded to head to the cave Shepherd had slept the night since according to the man the other cave was a rat’s den.

“Names Michael”

Their conversation continued without much to note, they were talking about how crazy the situation the world was in was and so on. Not being much of a rock climber Michael asked if they could sit on the boulders below the cave instead of risking it, and Shepherd agreed.

“You saved my tail there bud. First I was being chased by some people because of my eyes and then those things…”

“So you’re saying that you’re the demon kin you asked me about?”