Seren and I sat on my bed, sorta numbly staring off into the middle distance. After a long moment, they finally spoke. “So, that’s the end of the world?”

“Yeah.” I blinked a couple times, trying to rouse myself out of the vision that we had been shown. The sheer enormity crushed down onto my shoulders. The librarian said that we’d be able to talk more in depth about the plan at the end of phase two, but for now, all I could do was allow that deep moment of realization to rest in my belly like a coiled snake.

“Want to talk about it?” Seren rested their head on my shoulder.

I let out a pained, little laugh. “Not really.”

“Want to have sex?”

“Gods, yes.”

***

TEN WEEKS LATER

Jen drove the [All-Terrain Vehicle], while Artemis held the [Vestige-Dungeon Finder] in the back, offering the occasional navigation advice. She really was the perfect back seat driver, only offering advice when Jen really needed it. The two of them had been tightly in sync for as long as they knew, even before Artemis went by Artemis. Jen wasn’t as interested in her back then, but since becoming Artemis, well there was no denying that her girlfriend was gorgeous. Tall, long hair, fierce eyes, those cheek bones, Jen couldn’t keep a grin off her lips at the thought of her girlfriend.

She still had to focus though, they already dipped off of anything resembling roads and were showing the power of the enhanced suspension and massive wheels in navigating this otherwise unnavigable terrain. Of course, the distraction offered by the ghostly figure hovering at Jen’s side added to the difficulty of the driving. Still, Lenny (he claimed his name was something with way too many syllables but the first two were Lenny so Lenny it was) wasn’t that bad of a guest, not compared to some of the others.

Thon was quiet, sure, but Lenny’s quiet wasn’t the quiet of the others. Lenny wasn’t quiet because thon wasn’t all there, thon was quiet because thon was a quiet person. When thon offered advice, Lenny was to the point and extremely coherent, hell more coherent than Jen sometimes got after after a long fight, with the exhaustion tearing at her limbs and bringing her into that point where nonsense was like sweet water.

“We have trouble up ahead.” Lenny spoke with a thin, cold tone, and an accent resembling something mid-Atlantic, like one of those snootier New Englanders. Not Bostonian, no that was too low brow for Lenny.

“What kind of trouble?” Jen kept her voice low, not because she didn’t want Artemis hearing her conversations with the ghost (that cat was already way out of the bag), but because Jen didn’t want to get her girlfriend too worried, at least not until it was time to get worried.

“Group camped out, right by the entrance.” Lenny said. Thon didn’t bother to lower thons voice, no real point to it.

Jen glanced over briefly, frowning. “Human?” She needed to keep her eyes on the road, but going too long without some attempt at eye contact just felt rude.

“Yes.”

Jen nodded and spoke up for Artemis. “Got some players in position by the entrance.”

“Friendlies?” Artemis tore her attention from the scanner and over to the route ahead. She flipped down her erg sight goggles, a god-send those were.

“No idea. Probably best to assume they’re not.” Jen glanced up to where Artemis was perched. “Low and slow or shock and awe?”

“Time is a precious resource.” Artemis grinned suddenly. Jen knew that Artemis loved to act like she was mostly concerned with efficiency and precision, but she also knew that it was an act. Artemis loved the excitement, the adventure, as much as everyone. She just didn’t think she was allowed to.

Time to provide some of that excitement. “Got it, babe!” Jen slammed her foot down onto the pedal and the ATV accelerated over the rolling ground, smashing through the forest with the aid of some pinpoint turns. Thankfully Jen had access to Red, who had a [Driving] skill that she could pull on to make this task much simpler. There wasn’t much left to Red, he was full of holes both visually and mentally, but that was fine, she was still able to call on his skills to do what she needed doing.

A particularly sharp turn had the ATV almost tip over: key word- almost. Jen let out a satisfied whoop, while Artemis grabbed onto the roll cage yelped in a way that was very fun to hear. Jen gave one last turn and took her foot off the gas, allowing the ATV to drift across the remaining distance to the outskirts of the camp.

Artemis remained behind, using the roll cage as makeshift cover. Jen hopped out of the driver’s seat and strode up to the motley looking crew gathered around a fireplace just in front of a massive cave mouth that rose out of the ground like the hippo head in Aladdin.

Jen put her hands on the hips and addressed the gathered. “Howdy folks! I gotta get in that dungeon, and I’d much rather it not become a whole thing. So, how about we sit and have a talk?”

***

Leo Standish hid in the narrows between dormitories, stalking the largely unpatrolled portions of the area, doing his best to keep his profile to a minimum. He had been keeping out of things for the last couple weeks or so. The fights with the monsters had been rough at the beginning, but his combination of skills helped with both the initial fights and with the building afterwards.

He glanced at the three paths on his status screen, a faint grin coming to his lips.

[Improvised Weapon Fighter]

He had gotten that one immediately. After doing some studying into the path allocation system, he determined that he had qualified less for any sort of combat training, and more that one semester he was part of an improv team on campus. The team had collapsed thanks to three of the members getting into a whole thing. It was a fucking mess, but still had yielded Leo his only combat path.

Its primary power allowed him to pick up anything that was weapon shaped and let him use it as a weapon, and a system-integrated one at that. He had his trusty claw hammer at hand, which had saved both his life and dozens of others during those initial days.

[Handyman]

This one had come pretty easily, a response to his work back of house for the theater. It let him repair and maintain all kinds of gear and facilities. It also gave him access to the [Rough Fit] perk, which let him use materials that wouldn’t otherwise be valid when he was fixing shit. The group he had been running with had dismantled a lot of junk around campus, and thanks to [Rough Fit], he was able to turn that junk into valuable repair materials.

[Intern]

Honestly, he still wasn’t sure why he had gotten this one. He guessed it was because he was still undecided on his major. As a super-senior. Still, it had proven its use, allowing him to copy skills and perks from other people, albeit at a much lower degree of power and only one person at a time. He mostly used [Intern To] with medics. There were never enough medics to go around, especially with how things had gotten.

Leo tried to not think about the current state on campus. He knew that he should still be working with one of the groups that he had hung with before, but they all had holed up, refusing to do anything about the new attackers. Sure, the new attackers were scary-tough, and scary in other ways to boot, but someone had to do something about them. If they weren’t dealt with, well-

His internal monologue was interrupted by a sudden scream, coming from the nearby courtyard. He reflexively let out a “fuck” before running off in the direction of the sound. As Leo rounded a corner into the courtyard, he saw two of the pigs pushing a young man up against a wall.

The pigs were more pig-people, but it was easier to call them pigs, especially since they wore police uniforms. They also stood eight feet tall, with round builds, pig-pink skin, and twisted snouts. Oh, and they all carried guns, snub-nosed revolvers that could blast through all but the toughest of humans with a single shot.

Fortunately, the pigs lacked in perception, and had failed to notice Leo as he entered the courtyard. One of the pigs began to frisk the young man, who Leo thought he recognized from the West Court defense group, which didn’t make any sense why he was out this way. Unless the dude got kicked out for some reason and was looking for another place to hold up in. Leo held back another curse as he began to sneak closer to the pig not involved in the frisking.

The other pig held its revolver out, aimed at the back of the kid’s head. That pig growled out, “If you fucking move, I’m going to put a bullet through your head, you hear me!”

Leo knew that this was all play, some sort of bizarre programming that made this new generation of monsters play out their roles in a shadow of the atrocities that had once visited humanity before the system came. Leo had never had any love for the cops, and for good fucking reason. He had even less reason to put any trust into these pigs.

He pulled the hammer from its resting spot in his belt, and willed his erg through it. The perk [Improved Improvisation] activated and the hammer grew from a small carpenter’s tool into a proper maul, with a four foot long, metal-reinforced haft. The head of the hammer was only slightly bigger, but design to puncture rather than purely smash. He gripped the maul with both hands, the grip perfect, and then swung away.

Fortunately, before he had left the Cafeteria gang, he had [Intern To]ed someone with ambush skills, and they acted a power multiplier as Leo slammed the hammer’s head into and through the pig’s skull, doming it with a single blow. The frisking pig turned to me in shock as I grabbed the downed pig’s gun.

Before the remaining pig could draw its revolver, Leo threw his hammer with full force, hitting the pig firm in the chest and knocking it back. “Fuck off, cop!” Leo shouted as he switched his erg to the revolver, shrinking it down to fit in his grip, while also filling him with knowledge of how to properly aim.

The pig had dropped its own gun and began to build up to charge at Leo, while he settled into a shooter’s stance, feet shoulder width apart, both hands on the gun as he brought it up to aim. If the pig got him, he’d be smashed into pieces, but the gun’s relevant skill also filled Leo with a strange calm, an inner peace that he channeled as he fired three rounds dead center into the pig’s chest. It stumbled backwards, its forward momentum arrested, and then Leo aimed up just a hair and fired another three rounds into the pig’s skull, sending its brains splattering onto the back wall.

A system message popped up as Leo collected his hammer and the second pig’s gun.

Level up! +10 perk points, Health/Erg restored

The kid was staring up at him wide-eyed, wet-jeaned and Leo let out a soft sigh. “C’mon kid, let’s get you somewhere safe. The cafeteria should still be a haven for people.”

The kid nodded several times, but Leo was interupted by another system message.

ATTENTION

As one of the first 10,000 to reach level 50, you are eligible for an improved path merge or upgrade. Please select your desired option now.

Merge

Leo’s eyes went wide as the paths listed on his sheet disappeared and a new one appeared in its place.

[Master of All Tools]