They were top of him in a fraction of a second, the demonic dogs seemed to know exactly when he’d open the door. They all came at him at once, one for his throat, another the right thigh, and the last his left ankle. It was an easy takedown for them, and they enjoyed their meal wholeheartedly as Tyrone failed to put up much of a defense.

“Sike!” He shouted with spear raised high and ready.

Thanks to his increased agility, he was able to intercept the lead dogs gaping mouth with the side of his spear. The dog yipped in pain as the electrical energy coursed through it, causing it to spasm uncontrollably. Tyrone tossed the twitching beast to the side.

The next was lunging at his right thigh. With skilled precision, he twirled his spear and caught the mutt by the side of its face. Black blood sprayed as the whole right side of its face was slashed away. Tyrone stopped the twirl just in time to stab down at the last dog, the spear blade diving deep into the monster’s singular eye. With a grunt he twisted the weapon and yanked it free from the now dead beast.

All of his foes were now dead or in dying heaps before him, he wanted to scream out to the world. Shout out that he was the true alpha predator in this area, that the apocalypse couldn’t and wouldn’t put him down. But he managed to reign it in, there was no telling what other monsters were lurking nearby.

“Wowzers, big man!” Botnik floated beside me. “You showed them a thing or two! “

Tyrone walked over the dying demon dogs. Looking down to the one that he’d electrocuted, its body still quivering thanks to the shock of electricity he dished out. But even though it wasn’t able to move at the moment, its eyes still tracked him and were full of loathing hunger as it glared at him.

“Oh, still conscious huh?” Tyrone raised his spear and brought it down hard on its eye, snarling as he felt the weapon pop through the large eyeball and crunch into its skull. “That’s for Chip, you son of a bitch!”

Without missing a beat, he quickly did the same to the other still breathing beast. Even with half a face it’d been trying to stand but was disoriented without one of its ears and a chunk of its eye missing. With a flick of his spear its head was swiftly removed from its body.

Small notifications popped up after each death, letting me know that he’d gained bits of experience.

You have slain: 2 Cyclops Hounds! You’ve earned 30xp each!

You have slain: 1 Cyclops Hound Alpha! You’ve earned 20xp!

“Fifty experience points! That’s not too bad right? A few more of those and I’ll level up again.” He grinned, leaning on his spear for support even though he wasn’t even tired.

“I’m not sensing any more life forms for fifty feet, chief. Want me to store these bodies? If we find a marketplace, we’d be able to sell them and get some credits!” Botnik said cheerfully, ending with a soft cha-ching sound.

“Oh right, forgot you had a storage thingy. Go ahead, but how…oh my god!”

Tyrone’s voice trailed off as he watched Botnik extend a small tube out to touch the corpse, it looked like a vacuum hose. Once it was close enough to the body it sucked the body down it, the large dog body compressed upon itself, swirling around like it was flushed down a toilet until it was small enough to be pulled into the tube.

Tyrone’s face was a near perfect reenactment of the scream painting by Edvard Munch.

“Don’t worry, bud!” Botnik chimed. “I have plenty of room left over.”

It then proceeded to suck in the other two bodies. It was the most mind-bending thing Tyrone had ever seen in his entire life, he found it hard to pull his eyes from the corpses as they whirled down the tube’s nozzle.

“Does that thing work on living creatures?” Tyrone asked as a thought of using Botnik like a Kirby and sucking up any monster that got in their way.

“No dice, pal. Living creatures are a definite no-no when it comes to putting them into an extradimensional space like storage device, the system won’t allow it. But I’m sure there are some trapping doohickeys at the Marketplace that would work similarly to an extradimensional space but work on a slightly different set of rules.”

“You keep mentioning a marketplace. What is that exactly?” Tyrone asked as he knelt to pick up the sliced off ear of one of the beasts.

“Oh that? Well...” Botnik was cut off as a blood curdling scream echoed down the hallway leading into the building.

Pocketing the ear to experiment with his Devour ability later, he cautiously walked over to the hallway that the scream had originated from. His jaw dropped as he looked at the sheer destruction the building was in, windows were smashed, ceiling lights were hanging haphazardly by wires, and some of the stone walls were shattered.

He pulled up his shirt to cover his nose as the stench of decay and rot slammed into his nostrils. Which threw him off because though he could smell the stench of at least dozens of rotting bodies, he didn’t see any. Following the gruesome trail of blood and guys he could see that someone or something had dragged the bodies down the hallway and to the left towards the shipping area.

“Ah shit, that doesn’t look good.”

Though the bodies in the hallway were dragged off elsewhere, the few bodies in the lobby were still exactly where they met their demise. Whatever has dragged the other bodies off must have been scared off by the cyclops hounds.

Tyrone tried his best not to look at them, but still his eyes wandered. the body right next to him was a man, he didn’t recognize him, it looked like the guy tried to fight the cyclops hounds and had lost, badly. They didn’t leave much left for Tyrone to identify him.

Hitting his limit, Tyrone crumbled over and emptied his stomach. “How the hell are they decomposed so bad already?” He spat. “Wait a second. Ah fuck! Hey, Botnik! What day is it?”

“It’s Sunday evening, boss!” Botnik hoovered over to me, letting out a whistle as he scanned the body beside me. “Ouch, he doesn’t look too good!”

Sunday. Tyrone clenched his eyes closed and bawled his fist, holding in a shout of outrage. He had come to work on Thursday night, that’s when the quake happened. After being hit in the head he was knocked unconscious for nearly three days. For three whole days he was laid out, fading in and out of consciousness.

He put a hand on his makeshift paper towel bandage wrap on his head. The bleeding had stopped thanks to the level up, but it was still tender, and he knew it was going to leave some massive scars across his scalp.

Looking towards the exit door, the urge to get the hell of the building drove him back on his feet. He had lost three whole days. God only knew what the rest of the world was going through as he was napping away the apocalypse. Just how many other people were dead by now? The idea of cyclops hounds roaming throughout the state sent a shiver down his spine. He had just barely managed to fight them off thanks to getting some boons, but what about his mother? She was sixty, there was no way she’d be able to fight off a pack of hunger crazed demon dogs.

Other thoughts ran through his head as he began to think of the quake and how well his mother's apartment building could hold up when even Sergeant Mills top of the line building came crumbling down with ease.

“She could be trapped under rubble...” Tyrone refused to even consider his mom as being dead, feeling that he’d be able to tell somehow. “No, no she’s alive. I-I got to get to her.”

Then he started thinking of his older brother, he lived in Brooklyn Center. Was he safe? Maybe he was able to get to their mom in time. Three whole days. Maybe they think he’s the one who’s dead or lost.

“I have to find them.” Tyrone clenched his fist and set his jaw.

Quickly he settled on checking in on his mom first, she only lived a few blocks from his apartment, and then together they would go to his brother’s place. But he desperately hoped that they’d both be hunkered down somewhere safe and they could reunite all at once.

Just as he took a single step towards the exit, another scream ripped through the air. The scream was soon followed by the person calling out for help, they sounded feminine and utterly terrified out of their wits end. Tyrone gritted his teeth as he halted.

“Seems like someone is in distress. What shall we do? I’ll follow your lead, bud.” Botnik flashed his flashlight down the hallway, illuminating a scene of gore Tyrone had only though existed in over-the-top horror films.

“Fuck me and my damn hero complex! Let’s go, Botnik!” Tyrone called over his shoulder as he rushed down the bloody hallway and towards the person begging for help. He knew deep down that whether his mom was alive or not, she’d smack him down the block if she knew he’d run from someone calling out for help. “Just hold on for me a little bit longer, Ma”

A woman was stuck in the elevator, though the door was busted open and a spider the size of a potbelly pig was trying it darndest to claw at her. Running up to the situation, Tyrone tensed up and gripped his weapon.

“Help!” The woman cried out once she saw him. “Please.”

With the spider completely focused on the woman, it didn’t notice Tyrone standing right behind it. Brandishing his spear, he stabbed down and skewered the thing, frowning as the oversized bug screeched out its last breath. It was then he learned something he’d always keep in mind while dealing with insect monsters. Don’t forget to look up. Three spiders the size of house cats landed on Tyrone’s shoulders and on top of his bald head, their fangs puncturing his scalp.

Tyrone yowled in pain as their teeth hooked into his flesh and he could feel venom being injected inside his veins. His skin felt like it was on fire and his head felt heavy and then… nothing. Tyrone swayed on his feet for a second and then shook his head clear, the pain was still there from the initial bite but the venom just made him slightly drowsy.

Face twisting in annoyance, Tyrone reached up and snatched two wiggling spiders off his head, sneered at their shocked expressions, which was a strange thing to see on an insect's face. Apparently, they were expecting something to actually happen from their sneak attack. With an evil grin, Tyrone smashed the squirming arachnids into each other, his newly increased strength making it an easy task.

The last spider that landed on him gave up on biting and began spinning a web to cover his face. With a snarl of rage, Tyrone ripped the spider free and slammed it into the wall. Viscous green blood splattering all over.

You have been poisoned with Spiderling venom!

Your high resistance to poison has made you immune to spiderling venom.

You have slain: 4 Spiderlings. You’ve earned 48xp!

“Oh my god, you’re strong…” The woman blinked up at him, a mixture of awe and terror on her face.

She was a very petite Asian woman; just hardly above five feet. Her black hair was cut short in a professional bob style, which perfectly framed her youthful face. Dark almond eyes brightened at the sight of Tyrone poised with his weapon, soft pink lips formed in a perfect “oh” expression. The pantsuit she was wearing hugged her frame, but not too much so she still looked professional, respectable, and very attractive.

Or at least it once did, now her pantsuit was in ruins, covered in grime, and the sleeves were torn off turning the top into a Mad Max inspired vest. So now she looked like a spunky grunge rock band groupie.

“Yea, I leveled up recently…” Tyrone said as he unsummoned his spear, causing it to wink out of existence. Instinctually he knew that with minimum effort he could bring it back out in a flash. “Need a hand?”

Now that she was on her feet, she barely came up to his shoulders. Tyrone’s eyes bounced up and down, checking her out, making sure she didn’t have any wounds that needed tending or any bite marks. “Are you alright?”

“Yep, I'm good. I just threw myself into the elevator as soon as that thing popped up. I have an intense case of arachnophobia...Oh wait,” Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, then jabbed a finger at the security logo on his shirt. “I know you! You’re a security guard! You’re… Jamal, right?”

“Tyrone.”

Her face reddened as she blushed. “Oh, sorry… Uh, I’m Jenny Song. You leveled up recently? That’s amazing! You came in all 'here comes a new challenger' like! I’m still a bit away from my first level, so i really thought that was going to be the end of me, y'know? I usually run away from the monsters than try to fight them, y’know?"

Before Tyrone could get a word in, she barreled right on.

"There are a few of us huddled together at the East wing, did you want to come? We could really use your help. I was sent out to grab some supplies from the janitors closet over here, think I got everything.” She patted the bag strung across her. “We can’t stay here for long; those spider things are all over the building. Have you seen the dock area yet? It’s like chalk full of those spiderling egg sacs, it’s so gross! Oh, where’d your spear go?”

Tyrone took a step back. Jenny’s mouth ran almost as fast as Barry Allen. Taking a moment to let his mind process her sting of words, he nodded. “Right, let’s go to the East wing. But why are you guys still here? Don’t you know that a dragon is on its way?”

“Oh, that’s because we…”

He raised a hand to stop her oncoming tirade, turning his head to the side. There were things lurking in the shadows and a clicking noise was growing louder by the second. “We should go now. Something is trying to sneak up on us.”

Jenny nodded her head feverishly, making her look like a bobblehead figure. “Oh right, follow me!”

Tyrone turned around to see if anything was chasing them, there wasn’t, but he did see what looked like a cross breed of a centipede and a black widow creep up from the lower level. The monstrosity was about the size of a small bus. The abomination crept to the smashed remains of the spiders I’d killed, then reared back and screeched a mournful cry.

“Oh, hell nah!” He swore under his breath as he put on more speed. If this system truly did change their world to be more game-like, then that thing was the definite boss monster of the building, he knew that he wouldn’t last a minute against it alone.

As they ran up a set of powered down escalators to the next floor, Tyrone couldn’t help but to look back once more. The large creature was no longer alone, now surrounding it on all sides were dozens upon dozens of spiderlings eager to chase after their fleeing prey.