“What have you done?!”

A woman’s shout echoes across Sebastian’s mind as he stands still in the middle of the room. His body felt cold, his clothes covered in sweat as he took heavy breaths. He vaguely felt a body push him to the side, and then his body collided with a nearby chair.

With a small thud, he knocked over the chair and laid on the ground. It felt like his mind was filled with an ever present mist, and the deeper he dived into the mist, the worse he felt. He stared at the ceiling of the room, the colour of the blue walls slowly fading to a grey.

He felt his heartbeat slow, he heard the steady rhythmic sound die out as he just closed his eyes, drowning out the hysterical screaming and shouting that was quickly approaching him.

His mind was dragged out of his state of pseudo death as he saw the faceless woman above him, her hands gripping his shoulders tight. She screamed incomprehensibly into his face as he stared at her with dead, apathetic eyes.

She grabbed a fistful of his hair and dragged his body over to a mirror, smashed on the ground. The faceless woman forcibly turned his head, making him look into the shattered glass. His cold eyes saw a reflection of himself, true, but it was.. Different.

In the reflection, his ocean blue eyes were leaking tears. All emotions other than fear, guilt, and anger were hidden and suppressed within their depths. His face stained with streaks of water. His brown hair was a mess, and noticeably not held within the woman’s hands, even though Sebastian still felt her on him.

His features were younger, less defined, and he’d even say chubbier. Sebastian sighed and closed his eyes, but even then he still saw his tear stained face within the darkness. As if angered, the faceless woman screeched and lifted her hands up.

And then she beat him. She smashed his head into the hardwood, she slammed her fists against his body, she lifted his face up to break his nose and punch his closed eyes.

For hours, Sebastian forced his eyes closed as he remained still, taking the beating.

He wasn’t sure how long it had been when he felt the attacks stop. His body felt destroyed beyond all belief, and he was confident not a single portion of his body was complete at the moment.

He heard a sigh, before he felt a presence approach his face. “Sebastian..”

Mariah yelped as she felt a hand grip her wrist tightly and suddenly, before the grip released just as quickly. She quickly scuttled backwards and away from the man, previously sleeping against the wall.

She had seen him sleeping, soaked in a layer of sweat, shivering like a tree in a storm. With some hesitation, she had approached to see if she could wake him up from the apparent nightmare.

“Sebastian..”

Sebastian had opened his eyes at the last moment, grabbing her hand with a little force, before his mind quickly processed the situation. He blinked a few times, his vision clearing and the mist within his mind dissipating as he looked around the supermarket.

My name is Sebastian Albrecht, 25, security worker for Dallas’ Deals.. He groaned. Even with Scorn around, he still remembered to do his mental checklist every ‘morning’.

[Good morning, Sebastian]

He saw the blood red text appear in front of his eyes, with some doubt and confusion. As if having read his thoughts, something a lot of people apparently have been doing recently, Mariah quickly piped up from her huddled up position some eight feet away.

“Scorn gives everyone a message like that when it deems they’ve taken a long rest.” She shivered a bit as she looked at the man. His build only got better when he increased his physical stats, and it was now rather intimidating to look at, especially with the bloodstained bandages.

Sebastian nodded. He knew he wasn’t special, so Scorn had no reason to single him out.

He stood up, bent his knees, twisted his waist, and clasped his hands together diagonally across his back. He moved as much as he could in this position, leading to some popping and cracking noises, before exhaling with some relief as he stood properly and relaxed his hands to his sides. Morning routine had to be followed, after all.

He grabbed the Inferior Saber that was resting beside him against the wall as he slept, resting it on his shoulder. He was awake, and he certainly didn’t know what the fuck he was meant to do, so he decided to go to the employee’s lounge and be told instead.

Mariah had still seemed a little frightened, but after a few seconds she plucked up some courage and followed after him, earning the duo a few weird looks as people passed by them. Sebastian himself couldn’t care, but he still decided to Identify her when he turned to look at her.

[Human, Lv. 2]

“Oh? You levelled up?”

“I.. killed a Lv. 5 that pinned Jacob whilst we escaped the horde.” She responded quietly, looking at the floor. “That and with some lower levels I did level up, once..”

“What stats did you pick?”

She seemed a little hesitant to answer, but still ended up doing so anyways. “I chose wisdom, it helped me control my senses better..”

Sebastian’s expression changed a little as she said so. She could probably start doing magic if she levelled up again and chose Intelligence this time. Maybe perception can also help with casting? Otherwise it would be the only mental stat that didn’t effect magic casting in some way.

Either way, if wisdom helped her control her perception better, it was only a good thing. That way a repeat of the previous situation wouldn’t happen again. That would just get even more people killed, so it was good that Mariah had the sense to fix the issue rather than avoid it.

“Why are you following me, then?”

“You and Ken are the only ones who saw what happened. So you know it wasn’t my fault, right!?! You know that, right!?” Her voice became a little shrill as she seemed to panic somewhat, but Sebastian’s glare shut her right up.

“I’m aware, yes. I’m guessing the others don’t feel the same way?”

“They feel it’s my fault that.. Spear died. It should have been me, yes, but it, it wasn’t my fault! Please..” The woman seemed to break slightly, threatening to stain her face with tears at any moment now, gaining a sigh from Sebastian.

He knew it wasn’t technically her fault, yes, but it still left a sour taste in his mouth seeing her like this. Her life was practically traded for someone else’s.

“It was Jacob’s fault, alright?” He acquiesced quietly, just shaking his head. “You can follow me, fine, but you listen to Ken and I. Our levels are above yours anyways.” Sebastian waved his hand dismissively as he stepped into the Employee’s Lounge. “Wait outside.”

She stopped and looked around nervously, looking like a deer in headlights as she remained still, right beside the door.

The first thing the bladesman saw upon entering the Lounge was the absence of the group of people surrounding a map of West Cairn, instead only seeing a sleeping Dallas on the couch, a book laid open over his face. Sebastian laughed slightly as he looked at the exhausted boss man. He brought his hands right up beside his face, before clapping as quickly and loudly as he could.

Dallas woke with a start, jumping up slightly as his body tensed, his eyes narrowed as he looked to the sound. His expression quickly grew frustrated as he saw the perpetrator of his rude awakening, but also a feeling of helplessness. He rolled his eyes before sitting up straight on the couch.

“What is it, squirrel guy.”

“I need something to do. You can’t possibly have that many level fours, and I even have a skill. Gimme something.” He wasn't even going to entertain the use of the title.

“You have a skill?”

“Just Saber Expertise. Inept at the moment.”

The big man frowned. “No one else has an extra skill right now, not even Ken.” His words surprised Sebastian slightly, but not that much. No one else fought a horde of rats, and the only other people who did, didn’t have good enough weapons to properly get a feel for them.

“Well, that just shows how useful I could be right now then, right? Give me something.”

“Fine, fine. You want something difficult, or easy?”

“Depends, can I bring people?”

“Who?”

“Ken and Mariah.”

It was Dallas’ turn now to show a weird look, but he shrugged. “If it’s those two, sure. Ken didn’t want to leave without you anyways.”

“Then difficult it is.”

“Good! You can go to the commercial district then.” He stood up and walked over to the map. “There’s a pharmacy here, Goodman’s Pharmacy. It should have a lot of what we need, enough for some time at least. Should even have some insulin.”

He pointed to a spot some distance away from Dallas’ Deals, an area easily a couple hours walk. “You’re the only group going in that area, everyone else is patrolling or looking for survivors in the residential areas.”

“I said difficult, but this almost seems like a suicide mission.”

“It ain’t, unless you’re an idiot about it. No banging squirrels on lamp posts like you did last night. Quiet. If you fight, make it quick and then run. The supplies are the important thing here, not experience.”

“Fine, I’ve got it. Good that we’re a small group then anyways.” Sebastian nodded.

“Good. You can leave when you’re ready, but don’t linger too long. We need the medicine.”

Sebastian just nodded again without a proper reply, leaving the room. He asked someone to quickly find Ken for him, to which he obliged. Apparently, the swordsman had also made somewhat of a name for himself after the exile of Jacob. He was amongst the ranks of the strong in the group, but only one of the few who had their names spread amongst crowds.

His goal for this mission, ultimately, was to level up at least one, hopefully more. He understood crucially that being in a group is only a luxury if your personal strength is high, otherwise you end up like Knife or Spear, a fate he couldn’t let himself fall to.

The random passerby quickly returned with Ken in tow, the man beaming when he saw Sebastian, greeting him with a laugh. He had noticed Mariah standing behind him, but only gave her a sympathetic look and nothing more.

It was unknown if Mariah had previously approached him or not, but Ken was clearly okay with the woman tagging along wherever they went. He seemed especially happy with his new sword, an item probably at the peak of the ‘Inferior Patchwork’ tag.

“The guy told me we’re going on a mission, so what’s up?” The teenager smiled, bouncing on the balls of his feet, betraying the nickname ‘Zen’, one that Sebastian decided he’d start using anyways.

“We’re getting medicine. In the area the swarm came from.”

Zen’s expression froze at the mention of it, before he just laughed. “Fuck it, why not? I doubt we’ll see anything more crazy than a rat horde hivemind.” He rolled his eyes and quickly moved to leave the supermarket.

Sebastian smiled wryly as he heard the swordsman. He’d probably have believed the same if he hadn’t had that final discussion with Dallas yesterday, but whatever, he wouldn’t shatter the guy’s mindset for the fun of it.