Eyes moving left and right, Caelum began to read and reread the message repeatedly.

[To adapt to the new world, you must remain inside the zone automatically given upon System Initiation.] [Above and Beyond!] Enemies spawned due to a lack of native species to evolve in initiation location. 4 Bosses created and spawned. [Each boss defeated will reward with a specialized ability or item!].

[Initiation Event] [ 45:00:00:00 left till completion]

He was right about the enemies and the system had decided they didn’t have enough of those in a school. God, he was way over his head, for a second there he thought maybe this was his moment to shine, to become something more.

The reality of the situation had fully sunk in now. Caelum threw his bag down and quickly retrieved his phone. Calling several different numbers including his dad and the police he realized that no signals were working.

“SHIT!” Caelum threw his phone at the ground and was just about to step on it when Atlas swiped at his foot. Breathing heavily, he looked at the cat, “Yea no that’s not going to help is it.” Picking up his phone he felt a raindrop hit his forehead.

Looking at the skies he saw that it was progressively getting darker, and rain was about to start steadily falling. Feeling a paw on his leg, he looked back down and saw that Atlas was prodding him.

Having got his attention Atlas bounded towards the edge of the grass field and seemingly just stopped at a certain distance. Following him, Caelum walked to where Atlas had stopped and reached his hand out.

Suddenly it felt as if his hand had hit solid air. With a look of awe, he continued to press his body against the “wall” of air. So, this is what the system meant by zone, and he assumed it surrounded the entire school, effectively trapping all of them.

As he was examining the barrier the rain began to fall harder. He put on his new hood to protect his head from the rain when he noticed that Atlas was shivering a bit.

Opening his bag and emptying it of all the now useless contents he signaled for Atlas to enter. After some prodding Atlas entered the bag and he zipped it up enough that the cat could comfortably stick his head and paws out.

With Atlas in tow, he set off when he felt a tingle at the back of his head, almost like static in his head. He was rubbing his head when he heard Atlas let out a terrified meow and he whipped around to see what could only be described as a monster.

The rain was falling heavily now, and Atlas was desperately moving around in the backpack trying to get out. All the while letting out these heart-wrenching cries.

The… “thing” in front of Caelum was made of various parts of humans. It was gray and rotting with maggots and worms visible on its dead flesh. It had four arms that dangled from its body and no legs.

Roughly the size of a German shepherd it was moving around with its four arms only.

What caused this thing to be truly horrifying was that the head was human which looked perfectly healthy. It was a woman, one of the prettiest that Caelum had ever seen. With flowing red hair, brown eyes and olive skin. And she was crying, silent tears flowed from her eyes.

Caelum could not seem to get his legs to work even with his mind screaming at him to run. As he continued to stare at it words appeared above its head reading, [Ghoul Level 1 (Unique)].

Then she charged at him and leaped.

She landed on his chest and her mouth opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth. She was suprisingly light, only causing Caelum to stumble back a little.

With a shriek she lunged at his neck. Caelum screamed, and threw up his arms in front of him before her teeth reached him.

Her teeth felt like daggers as they sunk into his bracers, only slightly piercing his skin but the pain all the same.

Adrenaline rushed through Caelum and he began to shake his arm to no avail. Realizing she was gnawing through his bracer he spun around, and his eyes landed on a sizeable tree.

Rushing over he began to repeatedly slam his arm against the trunk. The ghoul wailed, let go, and leaped back a few feet. Having a little time to breathe Caelum remembered his dagger and pulled it out held it out in front of him.

Suddenly the dagger felt more comfortable in his hands as if he had wielded it before to some degree. He quickly held it out in a way he intuitively knew would maximize damage. He felt a little relieved that his skills were seemingly working. [Basic Dagger Proficiency] proving its worth already.

Caelum’s eyes widened as he realized his eyes had left the ghoul. He muttered some curses at himself as he noticed that she…it was gone.

He relaxed his posture when he felt the static in his head again. He spun on his heels in each direction yet not seeing the ghoul. [Rogue’s Senses] was working he assumed but he couldn’t locate her.

Caelum knew he was too nervous and that’s why he kept making mistakes, this was a life and death situation, and no matter what he was going to live.

Seemingly dropping his guard, he lowered his arm when the static in his head spiked. Twisting his body, he whipped the dagger in a horizontal slash behind him with all the force he had.

There was the ghoul, having jumped from a tree branch right into his dagger.

With the propelled motion of its leap and Caelum’s slash, he completely decapitated it with ease. The rotting bones and flesh making it uncomfortably easy.

The last thing the ghoul saw was the ground meeting its face as its head hit the ground.

Caelum stood there covered in rotten flesh standing over the corpse of the ghoul. As the adrenaline wore off, he felt bile in his mouth and staggered as he vomited on the ground.

While vomiting he received the following messages,

Slain [Ghoul Level 1 (Unique)]

*Leveled up to Level 3*

*2 levels away for class change*

*For killing a unique monster another class evolution can be taken at level 5*

Disregarding the messages, Caelum remembered Atlas and quickly brought him out of the backpack. Atlas ran out instantly checking the surroundings when he noticed the head of the ghoul now separated from the rest of it.

Caelum was visibly shaking and the vomit on the ground slow mixing with the rain and corpse were not helping. Atlas seemed to notice that Caelum was bothered and rubbed his leg while letting soothing meows out.

Breathing in and out slowly Caelum regained his composure and picked up Atlas and his backpack. Heading away from the area he stopped by the tree he had smashed the ghoul against to check for injuries.

While catching his breath, he realized that he should've stabbed the ghould with his dagger from the beginning. But, he had forgotten all about it, that could've cost him his life.

In fact, he could have even just bashed her against the ground. Amateur mistakes he thought, that in another life would mean he was dead. Shuddering he refocused back on making sure he was physically uninjured.

Seeing, he only had minor cuts and bruises he let out a sigh and looked at his notifications from the system. Focusing on them lead to greater details about the notifications.

[Each level-up will increase the mana in your body. Whether a mage or not mana will allow your body to do things thought impossible with dedication and control.]

That explained how this would work with no stats, they could gain power from mana. It still sounded like he wouldn’t be able to work wonders, like lifting a building, without having a sizeable amount of mana and control.

That was probably how the ghoul had been able to move and fight even with a rotting body. The thought of the ghoul quickened Caelum’s heart and he quickly glanced around.

Terrified that another ghoul might appear, Caelum started heading for the school.

As he got nearer to the building, he heard static from the public address system followed by, Attention all students, please report to the gymnasium for further instruction and help. Again, only if able, if not stay where you are, and help will come when possible.

With that, it cut out, but Caelum had a bad feeling he was not the only one who had encountered a monster. He feared the danger was being severely underestimated by the school.

Caelum knew all of this, but he needed to see other people, even with his school population being around 1200 he still had not seen a single person and that was worrying.

He needed to know that others were experiencing the same thing, that he hadn’t completely lost his mind.

With Atlas safely stowed away in his backpack and his dagger in his hand, he headed inside the school building. But the scene of him murdering the ghoul kept replaying in his mind. He had killed someone… something and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last time.

His hands trembling, he gripped the dagger tighter.