''Kara, Nathan, is that you?!'' John shouted between breaths.

It looked like John increased his efforts to reach the group since the wolves started crying more and more.

The biggest wolf saw John slice a path through the crowd of wolves. It realized this human was more dangerous than the others. Not only was the man incredibly fast, his glowing blade easily pierced their hides. If it hesitated any longer, he'd probably be the one biting the dust.

The big wolf howled again. The entire pack of wolves but one quieted down and aimed their full attention at John. The last remaining wolf stood guard over the group in the passageway.

Ben saw the pack of wolves refocus on John. It looked like they would take care of John first. The last remaining wolf was there to guard them, so they wouldn’t do anything funny. Sounds of growling wolves could already be heard.

John’s arrival left them with a lot more breathing space since they weren’t actively being attacked anymore. However, now John was in a tough spot. John wouldn’t barge into this room without any confidence, but how long could he truly last against at least a dozen wolves? They had to do something.

Kara was whispering something to Nathan when the battle in the office started. A wince could be heard as it seemed the first wolf was taken care of.

The group realized they had to do something.

SWISH

Kara shot an arrow while sitting on the shoulders of the wounded Nathan. Luckily the arrow hit the wolf in the eye because Nathan immediately collapsed out of exhaustion. Kara tumbled down with him.

‘’Go, go, go!’’ Ben said.

Ben urged Rolo who was still in a stupor. He quickly caught up though and knew not to waste this opportunity. They charged the wolf, with two shields in the front and a halberd from the back.

The wolf was still crying from the arrow stuck in its eye when Ben aimed the tip of his blade at its face and thrust it forward as explosive as he could.

[Congratulations! You leveled up!]

[You unlocked the shop!]

Ben instantly willed the notifications to get out of his sight without paying them any further mind and assigned all his remaining SP into Strength.

The wolves looked around and noticed their group had one member less. The wolves growled at them and tried to pounce on them to get their revenge. However, Rolo and Ben had already retreated into the passageway. In that short moment, Ben was able to see how many wolves were left.

‘’There are even more wolves than I thought. I counted about 13 wolves left alive, including the big one.’’ Ben said.

Rolo nodded in agreement. John was surrounded by wolves, but the wolves were wary to jump in. Every wolf that had jumped in died by John's glowing blade. Three of them were already lifeless on the ground.

Ben looked at his teammates. Nathan sat against the wall, fortunately still conscious but blood leaked all over. If he didn’t get any help soon, he’d be in big trouble.

‘’Nathan, are you okay?’’ Ben asked.

‘’...I can... hold on.’’ Nathan said gritting his teeth.

‘’Can you do that same thing with Kara again?’’ Ben asked.

Nathan pointed his index finger up.

‘’Once huh,'' Ben said.

Ben looked back at the new wolf guarding them. This wolf learned from its fallen brethren and didn’t stand wide in the open to be hit by an arrow. Instead, it sometimes peaked into the passageway from the side without getting his body exposed. Like this, Kara can’t hit the wolf with an arrow.

‘AH!’ John shouted. It sounded like the wolves were starting to get the better of him. They had to find a way to help him somehow. They had to advance, the wolf wouldn’t approach him otherwise. Rolo tapped Ben to follow him.

Rolo slowly advanced to the wolf guarding them, trying to bait a reaction. The wolf didn’t take his eyes off of him.

SWISH

Kara shot an arrow at the exposed head of the wolf. The sound of Nathan groaning and collapsing could be heard in the background. The arrow missed its target and bounced off the edge at the end of the passageway.

Luckily, the wolf flinched away from how close the arrow got to it. Ben and Rolo used this chance to charge at the wolf. The wolf just recovered when the duo was already in front of him.

‘Ah!’ Rolo shouted while he charged the wolf with his shield, pushing the wolf off balance. Ben used this chance to stab the wolf right between the shoulder blades.

The wolf tried to get up, but Rolo pushed him off balance again and Ben finished the wolf off. There was no time to rejoice as Ben looked at what was going on in the office.

He saw John with a bloody arm limping next to his body and an additional six dead wolves sprawled on the floor around him. There were six wolves left, including the big one.

The wolves realizing they were the ones in a bind now, started getting worried. Two wolves got out of formation and charged Ben and Rolo. Ben and Rolo hurriedly dodged the wolves by getting back into the passageway.

The big wolf realized the situation and gave a command.

‘’AWOOOO’’

The wolves slowly backed away to the door with the big wolf in the lead.

SWISH

Kara shot an arrow at the last wolf right before it could retreat. John used this moment to pounce on the wolf and cleanly finished it off with his sword and hurriedly closed the door.

‘’Dad!’’ Kara said as she ran up to John and hugged him.

John embraced her. ‘’Are you hurt anywhere, Kara?’’

‘’No I’m fine, Nathan needs help though.’’

John hurriedly moved to the opened passageway and found Nathan collapsed on the ground. He squatted down next to Nathan and put his hand on the wounds of Nathan when his hand started glowing in a light blue hue.

‘’Can someone buy bandages in the shop?’’ John asked.

‘’Yeah I can, I just unlocked it,’’ Kara said.

Ben looked back at his notifications and noticed he also unlocked the shop. Commanding ‘shop’ internally found a list of items he could purchase. Scrolling through the list, all the items he found were general supplies. Items ranged from food to bandages, to weapons, and even a tent. It looked like the system provided the convenience of a shop in exchange for the inconvenience of an apocalypse. Only for basic items though. ‘Typical.’ Ben thought.

The weapons were limited to the weapons also found in the charging armory. ‘At least this way Kara can replenish her arrows’. Looking at the prices, he wouldn’t be able to buy much though. The cheapest item was 1 bronze coin, even though a wolf generally only provided three bronze coins from what he had seen. And those 1 bronze coin items were mostly food items like apples or bananas. ‘At least we won’t starve’.

If he lost or broke my halberd, it would cost him 25 bronze coins to buy another one. That would mean he had to have killed at least 8 wolves to purchase a halberd. He'd be in big trouble if he broke his weapon and didn't have the funds to purchase another one. That was practically a death sentence.

Ben swiped the shop away and walked to Rolo.

‘’You okay?’’ Ben asked.

‘’Yea… are you?’’

‘’Yea…’’

‘’You were great out there by the way Rolo.’’

Rolo laughed. ‘’Thanks, you too.’’

Slipping back into silence Ben and Rolo looked at John healing Nathan. Sweat was dripping from John’s face, but it looked like John’s glowing hands were working. Nathan seemed considerably more relaxed. Some more and he’d probably be able to walk again.

‘’What do you think that is?’’ Rolo asked while pointing at John’s glowing hands. ‘’His sword was also glowing during the fight with the wolves.’’

‘’Looking at the whole situation we’re in it should probably be a skill, right?’’ Ben answered.

‘’Is this some game we’re in?’’ Rolo asked without expecting an answer.

‘’I sure hope the one responsible for this isn’t treating us like some kind of game,’’ Ben said with a dark face.

With an entire system set up to seemingly help its users get stronger by killing each other, it was hard to not suspect someone was behind all this. There is no way this is the result of the natural order of things. ‘’Who?’’ Ben thought while clenching his fist.

‘’I’m worried about my family,’’ Rolo said looking down. ‘’What if they’re in the same situation. What if they didn’t make it.’’ Ben spotted some moisture appearing in Rolo’s eyes.

‘’We don’t know that yet, Rolo,’’ Ben said. ‘’For all we know, we’re the only ones in this mess of a situation,’’ Ben said.

‘’You’re not going to tell me this ‘system’ bullshit is only happening at this stupid camp,’’ Rolo said staring back at him.

Ben was slightly surprised by Rolo’s intense reaction. He’d only known him for a short period of time, but Rolo had never truly reacted as explosive as he did now. Rolo was right, though. It seemed unlikely that somehow they were the only ones affected by this change. His mom, his little brother. Who knows where they were and what they were doing.

‘’Yea, I doubt it,’’ Ben replied. ‘’We’ll only find out if we get out of here, alive.’’

It looked like John was done healing Nathan when he walked up to Ben and Rolo.

‘’How are you guys? Need any healing?’’ John asked.

‘’Never felt more alive,’’ Ben said.

‘’All good,’’ Rolo replied while putting his thumb up. ‘’Is Nathan going to be okay?’’

‘’He’s good now. Kara is patching him up with some bandages and he’s good to go.’’

‘’Yeah, what was that?’’ Ben asked while pointing at John’s hands and his sword.

‘’You were incredible, by the way,’’ Rolo added.

‘’They were my skills. They make my attacks stronger and let me even use some kind of aura to heal others or myself.’’ John said.

‘’So they were skills, huh’’ Ben said while looking at the ground.

‘’What is going to happen to us? Is this truly divine judgment?’’ Rolo asked John.

‘’God did not do this, Rolo. He wouldn’t want any of this to happen to anyone. If anything, it‘s anyone but him that would do this.’’ John replied.

‘’I don’t know what’s happening right now, but we’ll never find out if we die. We have to get out of here and find a safe place.’’ John said as the brother-sister duo walked up.

‘’How’s the wound?’’ Ben asked.

‘’Not too bad, I can move,’’ Nathan said.

It looked like Nathan was too tired to reply as energetically as he normally would.

‘’Great, let’s go then. There’s a separate passage in the basement which leads to the outside. Let’s go.’’ John said as he walked into the passageway they came from.

It looked like that particular passageway was connected to even the basement. It does make you wonder what the original architects designed this monastery for. Was it truly made for nuns or was there more to it.

Rolo gave Nathan his shield back as they followed John into the passageway. Looking at Rolo leaving, Ben slapped himself. ‘Thanks, Rolo’. Ben slapped himself as if he wanted to punish himself. Unlike Rolo, it wasn’t as clear to him how dangerous this entire situation was. Where was his mom? What about his little brother? Would they be alive? And what would he do if they weren’t? First thing first, he had to find out.

John turned around. ‘’You coming Benjamin?’’

‘’Coming.’’