[Author-- how do I get the text to center in the blue section? Can't seem to get it right for some reason

Now that you've done the few basics on day one. Here is a pro tip for tomorrow. It’s going to be dangerous outside from now on. Don't go out unless you have to.

-Sam the Summoner

"What the hell?"

Alex sat up from his couch, hearing the gunfire and grabbed his pistol before carefully shifting the sheet covering his patio door. There were small flashes in the city, but none of the smoke he saw yesterday. Pulling the door open, the noises in the city began to overwhelm him. What had seemed like simple popping noises from gunfire turned loud, what's worse were the screams.

Feeling slightly nervous he walked out on the balcony, getting a better look. Most of the cars in the street he saw yesterday were still there. He took a couple more nervous steps to the balcony, wondering about the wisdom of exposing himself, he leaned over the railing to look at the street and saw...nothing. No people were on the streets, and he couldn't see the source of the gunfire. Frowning, he looked further down at the coffee shop and saw no one inside the windows. He scratched his head. The world was different now, and he couldn't help but feel somewhat confused why there weren't people in the coffee shop during business hours, gunfire or no. The gunfire and screams almost seemed like ambient background music with no actual movement or activity outside.

"What the hell?" he repeated, standing there for a few minutes before walking back inside to read the guide. Cracking open the book and returning to his page from last night, his previous excitement welled up in him again.

“Finally!”

Intro to summoning spells

And then grunted in annoyance as he started to read more. It read more like a technical manual than a simple guide and had to read the sections over and over again to figure it out. But he kept at it, muttering at the worlds and pausing to puzzle some of the paragraphs out. The excitement feverishly pushing him forward despite how much he hated reading it.

A slight chime sounded

Summon small mammal [unlocked]

Summons a small mammal to aid the caster. Constant mana drain.

A prompt window popped into his vision, then after a few seconds, popped out of existence like a soap bubble.

"Summon small mammal....this.... sucks," looking again at his book he noticed the following pages were blank again. Fuming he dropped the book on the ground and paced around the apartment grumbling before sitting back down in a chair. Leaning forward with a grimace he looked at an open spot on his apartment floor.

"Summon small mammal" he intoned slowly, pushing his intent in the words and focusing on carrying out the instructions correctly. He could feel an energy flow out of him, but it felt somehow wrong to him, like he had messed up a part of an equation. He put his hand to his forehead, feeling that part of him had been drained from summoning it.

A small whooshing noise and a small cloud later, standing on all fours in front of him, was a

"Giant Rat?"

A black rat the size of a dog turned to look at him. It had a pink noise and gave out little sniffs in Alex's direction as if looking for guidance.

"Its actually kind of cute" he thought before reaching forward to pet it.

As if a switch was flipped the rats eyes glowed red and it began hissing at Alex. The hair on its back stiffened up as well and it began advancing menacingly at him hissing more the closer it got.

Alex began backing up "hey rat, hey its fine," he spoke as softly as he could backing up and grabbing the closest thing near him, a large chair by the legs

The Rat kept hissing and lounged at Alex, biting deeply into his leg.

"Ahh bastard" he yelled smashing the chair down onto the head of the rat ineffectually, the chair bouncing off its head lightly.

The rat bit into his leg with even more fervor after being hit and in a haze of pain Alex kicked it off his leg and stepped forward yelling and throwing his weight into swinging the chair. This time the chair cracked harshly against the rats skull. Pulling the chair back for another swing he looked at the Rat and hesitated. Blood leaked from its skull, and eyes shut, it began to twitch and spasm on the floor, half curling up.

Still in a pain haze Alex quickly dropped the chair and stumbled over to his patio door, opening it. Returning to the rat he grabbed it by the back legs and then dragged it out to the patio. Struggling, he lifted it over the side of his railing and peered down at the empty street.

Alex lived on the third floor of his building, and pausing to consider a second to judge the distance, he pushed the rat over the balcony, stepping backwards so he wouldn't see the fall.

A sickening crack sounded as the rat landed head first into the sidewalk and Alex shivered a little from the noise.

A loud tinging bell sounded in his head.

Level up!

Shaking his head, he tapped the window to shut it and looked down at the dead rat on the sidewalk. "Bastard" he muttered, limping back into his bathroom, he put his leg into the bathtub water he had poured the night earlier, not caring about the waste of drinking water. Small clouds of blood leaked from the wound in the water and he reached down tentatively to poke around the bite marks on his leg. Surprisingly it wasn't too bad, but still painful.

After a while of prodding and wiping his leg the wound looked relatively clean but was still bleeding. Pulling his leg out of the water he walked to the closet and got one of his junk work shirts , wrapping it around the wound tightly and then tying it in a knot. It wasn't much, but in the meantime it would have to do.

Wondering what had happened he returned to the couch, propping his leg up-wards on a chair, and then pulled out his guidebook again. Rereading the passages on summoning he didn't notice any mistakes until he reached the parts that had been blank for him.

Hi there, Sam the Summoner here. Sorry if you might have gotten a surprise there. Happened to me as well. I don't know who is in charge of setting the teaching guidelines but whoever it is must be a an asshole. There was however, the lesson that you need to understand. Your summons CAN and WILL turn against you. Food for thought. -Sam

Frowning, Alex cursed a few times before reading the book again, his previous excitement diminished but not completely gone.

After Sam's easygoing passage the book turned technical again and in very hard to understand language pointed out the finer areas of controlling a summoned creature. There were a number of factors, including his base level, his "skill," his current "Mana" levels, his amount of rest, his confidence, and just about every other variable under the sun including being nice to the summon and feeding it treats. He frowned at the last part. However, he hadn't seen any of that technical information the book hinted at, and he had no idea what level his mana was. Unlike a game, everything seemed to be hidden from him.

…

"I wonder" he thought

"STATUS" he yelled out loud.

We at the Deimos corporation regret to inform you that your status is not currently available due to features locked in the beta edition of your world. Please be patient while our hardworking development team continues to unlock new features and exciting possibilities. Sorry for the inconvenience and have a nice day!

Scowling he sat there for a moment, before looking up and listening to the sounds of outside again. The violent noises making him feel a little insecure.

He turned to look at the floor where had summoned the large black rat, considering his options.

"... I should be fine with the level up now,” he decided

"S...Summon Small mammal"

After the small gust of smoke cleared, in front of him was a raccoon looking up with him with beady eyes.

The same drained feeling as before crept in but it didn't seem nearly as bad this second time. Cautiously, he waited there a few moments, waiting for the animal in front of him to hiss and change eye color like the rat had done. After waiting a moments he hesitantly reached out and give it a small pat too the head, the raccoon instead of reacting continued to stare back at Alex mindlessly,

"That's odd." He thought to himself.

Then with a bit of insight he realized that he didn't feel totally drained. Reaching out his hand to a spot next to the raccoon he intoned

"Summon small mammal"

And again, with a slight smoke flourish another giant rat was looking at him. Unlike the previous one, this had brown fur and sat in front of him placidly. He could feel the drain even more though, and started to involuntarily sweat despite not being hot.

"one... last time...." he muttered, trembling slightly

"Summon small mammal!" he shouted this time, as he tried to overcome the draining feeling.

"Ugghhh" he bent over. It had felt like he had just lost his runners high after running a marathon. Taking deep breaths to calm the nausea he noticed the last creature sitting on his kitchen counter top looking at him with the same dull expression. A large brown sparrow looked at him inquisitively.

He smiled. Things finally seemed to be going his way. Making his way to his closet he put on an old backpack and put his book inside. Changing into new clothes, he looked down at his leg, noticing the bite marks on his leg had already started to close. The world really was acting according to a video game. He just had to make sure he knew which game rules were being implemented. He had the slight suspicion that he was being screwed.

Before he left his apartment he pulled a few more things out from his place: a bottle of water, his 9mm pistol and a box of ammo for it, he couldn't find anything inside that would be useful as a weapon.

“There has got to be something” he mumbled to himself while searching around his place unsuccessfully. He eyed the chair again but dismissed it.

He took one last quick peak outside from his balcony, and noted the same weird feeling outside. It looked deserted outside but he could hear gunfire and activity.

The entire time he moved around the apartment the three creatures he summoned would watch him move around but not react to anything. Turning to the three he thought for a moment back to games he had played.

“Follow me” he said, looking at the three.

As if released from their spots, the three creatures began moving towards him. As he made his way to his door, he looked back at his apartment, before realizing what was bugging him. He grabbed his smart phone and dialed his mom.

…

…

…

“No service?”

Frowning at the phone he pocked it, pulled open his heavy wood door, and stepped out into his apartment hallway.

His first step out triggered a flash, and he felt a sense of vertigo as he found himself back inside of the white room, floating in nothingness.

Big text floated in the air, waving up and down like a banner

Loading Please Wait......Loading Please Wait

Thinking quickly he spoke out to the white nothingness.

“Eva are you there?”

“Hello!” The same cheery voice responded out from the white. He was actually surprised that anyone had responded at all.

“What’s going on here? I was only walking out from my apartment?”

“What do you mean?” She responded “Your place was in a different instance from the outside world, at least in the first week anyway. Have Fun!”

“Wait!”

…

…

…

“What?”

Scratching his head that she actually responded to him “…what do you mean instance?”

There was a pause at that and a sigh.

“I forget that your world is relatively primitive so I shouldn’t be so shocked that you wouldn’t know. An instance,” she began with another sigh and a tone that it sound like she was talking to an idiot, “separates different places in your world. Your current residence has not been connected to the world as a whole yet, due to current restrictions placed on new accounts.”

“so what..”

“I’m sorry, look, I’m very busy right now, you are just going to have to wait until more of the accounts have died off before I have more time to answer your questions. Honestly, its like I have to speak to children all day because you are all so-”

“DIED off?”

“YES!” she yelled, exasperated, then continued on with a prouder tone “So far we have managed to eliminate half of your world’s population!”

“WHAT!?”

“The Deimos thanks you for your time. Have a nice day!”

Loaded. Have a nice day Gans!

He didn't have a moment to think about Eva because popping back into existence into his hallway his eyes widened at how badly things had changed. The sprinklers were all going off and the fire alarm system was absolutely blaring in his ear and white strobe lights were going off and on from their wall mounts. He thought he heard other noises as well, but with the lights flashing and alarms blaring he didn’t notice much. At the end of the hall way there was a body slumped up against the wall.

“Holy Shit!”

With a slight flash, his three summoned creatures appeared next to him. It might have been his imagination but, the seemingly dull look in their eyes had momentarily broken for a moment when they took in everything in the hallway.

“Follow me” he over the blaring sirens to the trio, before rushing up the body at the end of the hallway. Reaching it he realized that it was his next door neighbor. He was covered in small cuts, and had a huge piercing hold in his neck. Blood slowly trailed from his neck wound and he looked pale. Reaching out to him, he put a finger to the man’s neck. Cold.

He never got the guy’s name, but he had seen him once in a while in the hall way, 5 foot Asian guy. He played music, a lot, and half the time he walked by the door a slight pot smell was drifting out. Looking a the neck would again he looked away from his neighbor, glancing down the hallway both ways. Nothing yet.

His palms started to sweat and he kept glancing around wondering what had attacked his neighbor. He looked at his summoned creatures for some relief, each of them was still following close by and looking attentively at him. Coming to a resolution, he moved to the elevators, noting with increasing apprehension the blood stains on the door and call button. This was not like any game he had played in the past. People were dying.

Quickly tapping the call button and then wiping the blood off his finger he noticed it wasn’t lighting up. A shrinking howl pierced through the blaring of the fire alarm followed by a shrill cry, “HUMAN!” It had come behind him in the direction of his apartment.

Punching the elevator a few more times he quickly gave up as he heard a few more accompanying shrieks responding to the first one coming from the other direction of his apartment door and he dashed to the stairwell next to the elevator. He left the door open for a moment as his the rat, raccoon, bird trio followed him in, and slammed it shut. Sitting in the corner was another corpse, a girl he didn't recognize with almost identical pierce marks on her neck. Blood had been smeared across the walls and trailed on the railing up to her body. Without checking the body, be began taking the stairs down two at a time.

Half way down the doorway above him crashed open and he heard the same shrill voices as before, screaming excitedly as they closed on his trail. He moved even quicker than he imagined he could, seemingly flying down the steps and at one point hurtling over another body laying across the stairs. Slamming into a blood splattered exit door, he burst into the lobby and took a shocked second to register the scene in front of him. Bodies were strewed across the lobby, some human and a few monstrous shaped. Pools of blood were on the floor coming off the bodies, and blood splatter marks were strewn across the room.

Through the glass double door entrance, he could see a clog of the dead laying on inner and outer both entrance doors on either sides. It looked like there had been a mad rush to get inside and outside at the same time. He could imagine people getting attacked as they tried to get through either side of the choke point.

Brushing aside the scene in front of him, he again slammed into the first door leading outside, a body leaning against it coming in with him as he stumbled across the bodies in the interior part of it, his three summons following with him. The sparrow latched onto his shoulder at this point, struggling to keep up from hopping on the ground.

He heard the lobby stairwell exit door burst open but he didn’t bother looking back, reaching the other entrance door and pushing even harder on it, bodies had been pressed up against it and he wasted a few seconds squeezing against it, the rat and raccoon jumping through his legs as he pressed through to the outside.

The outside he saw from inside his apartment unit was not the outside world he was in now. Smoke clouds were littered across the city sky and from what he could see and the intermittent gunfire he heard from inside his unit exploded into full scale war sounds now that he was outside. Heavy gunfire was going off very close by to him.

The streets were still littered with the same cars as yesterday, but unlike yesterday the surreal chaotic calm was gone. Most of the vehicles had been damaged in some way, and there were blood stains and bodies littering the road, bearing different gruesome marks of damage.

“Holy shit...” he whispered

Another bang noise popped up next to him and he shook off the shock of the devastation in front of him, looking back over at the creatures that had been chasing him. Three of what could only be described as goblins were trying to push against the inner door of the entrance way, the corpses slowing their progress like it had him. They, however, were not hesitating like he was. Pushing against the door with expectant eyes and huge grins of shark filled teeth and not stopping to notice the destruction and death. They all carried short spears and had painted their green faces with blood streaks.

With that one look behind him, Alex ran down the street towards the gunfire, weaving in between the different wrecks and scattered bodies on the street. He saw the corpse of a golden retriever and he grimaced further. He lived in a fairly nice area near a park, and a lot of the people here had dogs and took them regularly for walks. His stomach churned at the thought of seeing more.

Running towards the gunfire he turned a corner, the goblins were now on the street behind him shouting excitedly and giving chase. As he turned the corner he ran into five men wearing fatigues and a few cops in riot gear all of them turned to face him and point their weapons at him. Surrounding them lay a pile of monster corpses. He only recognized a few of them and noticed the distinctive green goblin bodies in the mix.

“FREEZE” a large cop in the lead shouted at him.

“DON’T SHOOT” he yelled as he dove to the ground taking the bird on his shoulder with him, he noticed the rat and raccoon imitating him, diving behind him as well

“GOBLINS CHASING ME” he yelled from the floor as an officer in full riot gear kept shouting commands at him and pointing his shotgun in his direction.

Just then the three goblins that were chasing him rounded the corner after him and the group instantly unloaded into the goblins. Alex kept his head down the whole time with his hands over his ears, shocked at how loud it was. The explosive sounds nowhere near the level that he heard in video games or movies.

Looking over he saw the goblins get torn apart from multiple impacts, one of which was tossed back by the shotgun impact. Relief flooded into him as he smiled and started to pick himself off the ground.

“STAY ON THE GROUND!” the lead cop shouted at him angrily.

“SORRY!”

“DON’T MOVE!”

Five of the men men approached him quickly, surrounding him, a few of them still had weapons pointed on him and he caught wary glances at the summoned animals next to him. The rat hissed a little, and he noticed the group tense up.

“What are those supposed to be, Pokémon?” One of the voices asked in a rough voice.

“It’s my….class” he responded, getting quieter as he thought on how dumb he sounded saying that to a five grown adults in tactical and riot gear with military grade weapons.

“’Nother one of the weird ones” a cop remarked.

For whatever reason the guys standing over him looked more relaxed after he responded, despite having mowed down three goblins and the constant gunfire going off in the distance.

“Any weapons on you?” Large lead cop asked.

“Err.. Yeah, I’ve got a 9mm in backpack.”

The lead cop looked down at him, scowling slightly.

“Search him.”

With that he felt his backpack being opened up and his stuff being removed

“Hey!”

“Shut up kid” the lead cop answered warily. “I’ve been out here all day shooting weird things and watching people die. I’m not really interested in you acting stupid. As if a large rat, raccoon and sparrow eyeballing threateningly me weren’t weird enough” he grumbled.

After a brief pause while they looked at his stuff the lead cop got impatient tapping his feet after awhile while they men were staring at his book.

“Alright whatever, stand up”

Alex stood up and looked at them, his objections sticking in his throat as he took in their appearance. Ragged clothing, bloodshot tired eyes, sweat stink and a general slump to all stances, they had the look of people who were near their limit. Most of them however were fully in gear despite the heat. And two of the riot police still held their riot shields, both of which had been scratched up and bloodied.

“Mind if I drink this Sir?” one of the guys in fatigues said, holding Alex's water bottle in his hand. He was dripping with sweat. It must have been 85 degrees with full sun that day and he was standing outside with full fatigues and military armor.

“Sure its fine” he replied, feeling embarrassed

“Summoning book... huh....” he then drew the 9 mm action back and checked the inside. “pistols not to bad. You have any experience using pistols?” the lead cop asked again. Looking closely at him he kind of resembled a character from a zombie movie Alex had watched.

“Not too much. I was going to use it as a last resort kind of deal....” he paused “I should have used it on those goblins, but I had forgotten it to be honest.”

“Hmmff” Lead cop grunted “Name is Officer Henderson by the way. I don't really see any reason to take either of these, although it looks like Dave won't be giving you back your water any time soon.” he said, as he handed back the pistol and book, which Alex promptly zipped back up.

“Catch” said the guy who drank his water, tossing the empty bottle back to Alex and shrugging sheepishly “probably be handy to have something to refill, never know when you will run into another full bottle out here and the taps are starting to go out... Names James by the way.”

“Thanks” he replied while catching it, “so what now?”

“Well” Officer Henderson replied slowly, looking over Alex a second time, “we are headed back to the station, you're welcome to come with. You're not the first person out here with some weird thing going on, although I don't see how well you are going to do with those three” he said pointing at the summoned creatures, who were still glaring at the officer.

“Yeah...lets go, I don't think I could head back to my place without getting into trouble again. I don't know how many of those... things are still inside.”

“Really?” the cop asked, looking at him askance, “you don't feel any pressing need to go out and slay the monsters or anything?”

“Uh.... Not really, I almost died back there.”

One of the soldiers sighed “well at least hes not stupid like the other ones” A couple of the cops gave the soldier a wry grin.

“Is that unusual?” Alex asked, shuffling his feet.

Officer Henderson stood there awhile, looking like he was chewing something over before taking a look at their surroundings again.

“Listen, I don't mind filling you in how things are going out here and, I'm guessing you stayed inside yesterday otherwise you would probably be a bit more wary. But lets talk and move alright?”

The other men grunted in affirmation, most of them already looking around the street with their weapons still at the ready.

“Ok lets go” he whispered

--------------------------

I'm not sure that last line is gonna stay because I keep thinking of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL65X12ViYQ