Lucious rested his back against the wall, blood slowly seeping out of him. Covering his wounds should have taken precedence, but his mind no longer wanted to move. It was a tired, old thing.

His hands fell limp beside him, covered with crusting blood.

Several blue screens crowded his vision. Lucious did not possess the mind to ignore them any longer.

You have been rewarded favorably by the Gods for surviving the First Phase with an above average performance. Congratulations, you are now considered to be better than filth.

The Gods of Chaos look approvingly upon your slaughter. You have earned their Favor.

+10 A, +30 B.

Total First Phase accumulation:

20 A

39.2 B

Level Up

+1 Strength, 1+ Dexterity, +2 Agility, + 3 Will

Level Up

+2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Agility, + 1 Endurance, +1 Constitution, -1 Wisdom

Perk Ascended: Battle Lolie (UC) > Murderous Lolie ®

Tiny, but deadly!

Increase Total Mobility by 10%>20%

Increase Total Offensive Effects by 10%

+1 Strength

+1 Dexterity

+1 Consitution

+1 > +3 Charisma

+3 > +5 Agility

OverEncumbered threshold decreased by 25%.

Intermediate Dodge Ascended to Advanced Dodge

Their bones will break before they could touch you

Increase Melee Attacks Dodge chance by 34%

Increase Range Attacks Dodge chance by 55%

Skill Gained: Accumulative Dodge

For each successive Dodge, Total Dodge Mobility will increase by 5% to a maximum of 50%.

Being Damaged, or not Dodging within the next five seconds of the last Dodge will reset the Effects

Intermediate Tenacity Ascended to Advanced Tenacity

Your muscles will melt and your bones will crumble, but will you even notice?

STM regeneration increased by 25% > 35%

Crowd Control effects on you are reduced by 15% > 25%

Debuff for Minor STM Break reduced by 15% > 25%

Debuff for Intermediate STM Break reduced by 50%

Mind Defense increased by 15% > 30%.

Skill gained: Limit Break ®

Your limits are removed, ever so slightly

10% bypass of limits.

Path Progress Advanced: Knife and Fork

0/50 > 50/50 B

0/50 > 25/50 A

Path Progress Ascended: The Endurer (UC) > The Unkillable ® 25/50 A, 50/50 B.

The world will burn, storms will ravage skies, the oceans will swallow kingdoms, and alive you will emerge Cockroach.

Debuff: Intermediate STM Break

-80% To HP and STM Regenration (+40%)

-80% To All Effects (+40%)

Time until Debuff Devolution: 11 Hours (-6 Hours)

General Information Attributes Level 9 Name Value Name Value Species Human Strength 11 (+1) Constitution 12 (+1) Class N/A Dexterity 19 (+1) Charisma 7(+2) Profession N/A Agility 27(+5) Age 21 Endurance 17 (+1) HP

32/143 (.57/Hour)

Intelligence 17 (+1) STM

10/198 (+1.77/sec)

Wisdom 7 (+1) Overall STM

310/968 (+1.88/sec)

Will 22 (+6)

A typhoon swirled in front of him, words, numbers, and tables abundantly blocked everything but the wretched blueness of this magic.

Numbly, Lucious went through each line, his distaste for the notifications ever increasing. Most of it was jargon Lucious did not understand. What he did understand, however, was that he could now do things he could not do before. He’d gotten more capable over that fight as well. Not just stronger, but more aware and conscious of his surroundings. It was as if he could now flex a new muscle in his body.

He dismissed the screens. It was just the gods playing with their food again.There would be time for that later.

If there was a later.

First, he had to take off the bloody rags he was wearing. The sooner he would change his clothes, the less chance there was of him getting an infection. There were many diseases out there, and none would bode well for Lucious in that condition.

They smelled bad too, as he had sullied himself. It was shameful, but not the first time, and probably not the last. He would live and forget. He’d gotten just a many, many bad cuts, but surprisingly, nothing fatal considering how utterly stupid Lucious was in throwing himself into that dogfight. Pure luck kept him alive. Those crazed men and women were as dangerous as the Ghouls were.

A shiver shook him to the soul. Emotion came back to his face. Nothing like being scared witless to wake a tired body up.

He washed away the memories of the music. They would haunt him later, anyway.

He reckoned that this was just the start of things. Bad things would soon happen. Worst things. Things he would have to clutch his teeth and live through.

His only consolation was that he wasn’t alone in his despair. That was good. Let them suffer as he has. All around him men and women were groaning in agony, their bodies having given up on them as well. And those were the lucky ones. The few of them anyway.

The only people who weren’t crying were dead.

...Other than the Chef. And that chubby bastard which brought him here. One old lady too. And that cunt who was playing the piano. Now that few things were left intact, Lucious could see her, just as fucked up as the rest of them. Or at least, he hoped she was. All Lucious could see was her head against the piano, unmoving. Unconscious, hopefully. Dead would be even better, though Lucious knew far too much to be optimistic in life anymore. His life anyway. Things always seem to go batshit crazy when Lucious is in the picture. Or maybe because he is surviving so much that his life seems especially unlucky. If he died on his first encounter with tragedy, that wouldn’t be lucky either, would it?

Lucious grimaced. This trail of thought never leads anywhere good.

He tried to get, mustering all the little power he didn’t have. His hands pushed against the ground too, making his life slightly easier. With a few groans and curses, Lucious had brought himself halfway up, hands supporting him against the wall, before he fretted and fell forward.

Two burly hands caught him by the shoulders. Lucious lifted his head up, meeting eyes with the Chef. “Finally decided to give me a hand, ay?” Lucious smiled. An obnoxious, ugly smile. It was a wonder how well he could twist his childish face.

“I had my hands full, raver” The Chef replied, distaste in his tone.

He wasn’t the same. The big man was tired. He was changed. They all were. The haughty look that he first gave Lucious was not there. He was still a bigoted bastard, but a haughty, bigoted bastard he no longer was. Progress.

“Bloody hands, these.” Lucious clutched his teeth, slapping away the Chef’s hands. Or at least he tried to. They were too damn heavy to move, and Lucious had no strength in him.

The Chef held on, his face hardening, as well as his clutches on Lucious’s punny shoulders. Oddly enough, and wholly irrelevant to current circumstances, Lucious was suddenly reminded of the sound crushed bones make.

The numbness though was on his side now. There was no fear. Annoyance, fatigue, gloom, but not fear. He did not want to die, but he did not want to live. He wouldn’t have minded being put out of his misery.

The Chef let his hands drop to his waist, spitting to the side. “Helping you back there might have killed us all, and you know it.”

“Yes, just like I did when you were dwindling into your own, miserable, fucking death. Twice” Lucious spit too, more out of necessity than choice. It was just the right thing to do.

“Horseshit! The first time you came for the weapons, and the second you came as a crazed monster. I saw you cut the throat of one our own.”

“He swung at me. Besides, I am a raver, remember?”

“He almost GRAZED you? That’s why you killed the poor boy?”

Lucious Chuckled “Poor boy? Poor boy? And here I thought you only cared about your own hide.” Was this a good time to spit? No, probably not. “Intentional or not, I saved your regrettable life twice. That’s two favors, just in case your delusion mind is preventing you from facing the fact that you got saved by a lonely, sad, half-raver, twice, in the same fucking hour.”

Lucious walked, or more like limped, past him. That’s the thing about them proud bastards, being indebted to someone who is of a lower kind irks the-

Lucious’s right foot tripped on something, sending him stumbling for a couple painful steps, his sore legs taking the brunt of it.

Laughter bellowed from behind him. That damn Chef. So much for the tough act.

His foot had nearly gone into one of the holes those Ghouls came out from. Even from their graves, these Ghouls are still trying to ruin his day. This time, Lucious did spit. Into the hole, hoping it would land in front of whatever God is messing with them this time.

Surviving had made Lucious feel very smug about himself.

Still feeling pleased about getting away with his life, Lucious went to get into a better garb. Sadly, all of his options had substantial holes stuck through them. It took a bit of time, but he finally found a shirt from some guy of whose neck was mostly missing, and a leather coat from someone whose head was half eaten.

Lucious finally threw up his lunch, but in return, he now had new clothes, albeit a couple sizes too big. He kept his pants, but all of his nasty shirts were traded. His new coat was...flashy. Some type of scarce alligator leather robe it seemed. It was probably meant to go down to right below the waist, but for Lucious, it went all the way down to his ankles.

Not his type of fashion, but sadly, beggars can’t be choosers.

Lucious was feeling good about himself. He had, of course, patched himself up with the tablecloth, so he was no longer bleeding out his precious blood. He had also resupplied himself with a couple, cleaner, steel knives, which would no doubt sell for a hefty price if needed. Food too in his pockets, for a midnight snack.

That’s when he turned around, and saw her, just a few meters away from him. Their eyes met. Her piercing, horrible eyes. It was then, for the hundredth time, did Lucious just realize how naked, small, punny he was. He felt his bones creak against the weight of her gaze. She was searching for something. A reaction, a flinch, an oddity.

But alas, there was nothing to see in Lucious. His face kept still, devoid of any wrinkles and expressions.

She dismissed him with a frown, going off to search, almost desperately, among the dead for her something.

Lucious heaved, his eyes becoming wet. Weakness seeped out of his body as the shaking went through him.

For the first time, panic had saved him. The moment his eyes met her his body had frozen. A deer, Lucious was like a deer to that walking calamity.

Skill Progressed: Seventh Sense ® into Intermediate Seventh Sense ®

What your mind won’t do, your body will.

Thank you, really. I love blue. I've always loved blue. Blue is my favorite color. All hail the color blue.

Lucious swallowed, keeping his arms close to his knifes as he made his way out of the cafe.