Clover’s perception of time slowed as he watched the Bone Rat charge toward him.

His mind raced as he tried to come up with some semblance of a plan. Really, there were no good options. If he let the monster get close, it would likely pounce on him, knocking him out of his chair. At that point, the fight would be lost.

He could only think of one thing to do, and it involved throwing away his only weapon.

The monster with long teeth was only a couple seconds away, not giving Clover any more time to think. He gulped.

With a silent prayer to the heavens, he raised his large metal fork over his head, then threw it at the Bone Rat. It tumbled through the air, side over side, till it smashed into the monster’s leg, handle first.

Its stride faltered, and the giant rat skidded to a stop, struggling to maintain its balance. He had been aiming for its eye, but this worked too. Several pounds of metal whacking it in the leg had been enough to briefly stun the monster.

Clover’s hand rested on the controls of his wheelchair, ready to move at a moment's notice. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to because now, Claire had an opportunity to attack.

He glanced to the side; Claire stood still, frozen in fear. After a moment, she clenched her teeth and shakily stepped towards the monster, ready to bash it with her metal chair, but by that time, it was too late. The monster had already recovered.

It stood back up on four legs with no signs of outward damage.

Before the situation had a chance to get worse, a bullet tore through the Bone Rat’s skull, spraying its tiny brain across the floor.

Congratulations! You have defeated a Bone Rat Lvl 1. +79 Exp.

Glowing green footsteps tracked themselves on the ground in real-time as a familiar Mexican man holding a gun walked towards the dead monster. Behind him, Doctor White and a random assortment of people trickled into the hallway.

Congratulations! Track has reached Level 4!

Congratulations! Track has reached Level 5!

Clover closed the notifications as he let out a breath he had been holding. His shoulders relaxed a bit around the large group.

Still, he realized how lucky they had been. He needed a change in strategy; fighting monsters with crappy melee weapons obviously wasn’t a good plan. The only reason he had been able to beat the first Bone Rat was because it was already on death's door, and it had been distracted. Not a situation he’d stumble into very often.

In order to win a fair fight, he needed a gun. No, he needed a rocket launcher, or a tank - something to slam the scales in his favor. A plan began to form in his mind.

“Clover, what are you doing here? Are you alright?” Doctor White followed by a nurse, hurriedly walked over to his side even though exhaustion was clear in their steps.

“I’m fine, better than ever actually.” He meant what he said. His wounds weren’t that deep; he could continue pushing forward.

Doctor White, on the other hand, looked like he had been run over by a car. His white medical coat sleeve was torn, his hair was disheveled, and blood dripped down from his shoulder. Everyone in the rag-tag group of survivors looked rough. They should be the ones getting medical attention, not him.

Claire stared at the dead Bone Rat with a frown.

“Your wounds need to be treated soon; they could get infected,” the nurse said to Claire and Clover.

The Mexican man he had [Track]ed here, all the way, from the kitchen stepped forward, interrupting their conversation. “Did you see anyone else on this floor – a little boy, about this tall,” he said as he held his hand out at about waist level.

“No, I’m sorry. We didn’t see anyone else on our way here,” Clover said softly.

The man sighed as he glanced up at the ceiling. “Two more floors to go then”

Doctor White put his hand on the tired man’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Miguel; we’ll find him.”

Miguel shook off his hand. “Bah, Of course, we will. Jose is too smart to get caught by a stupid monster.”

The Doctor tiredly nodded. “Take those two downstairs and get someone to bandage them up. We’ll push through to the next floor,” he said to the nurse.

“Wait, take me with you; I can help find people. I have a Tracking Skill,” Clover said.

Claire flinched out of her daze as if someone had just dumped a bucket of ice-cold water on her.

Clover didn’t quite understand what was going on, but, from the sound of it, the group was going through the hospital, floor by floor, searching for survivors and fighting monsters whenever they encountered them.

It sounded like a good opportunity to earn Experience Points while still being relatively safe. With so many people in the group, most monsters wouldn’t stand a chance.

Doctor White shook his head. “Clover, you shouldn’t push yourself too hard. Someone with your condition ---"

Clover stopped him. “Ok. Good luck.” He knew this wasn’t a situation he was capable of talking himself into. He had been through this song and dance before. When people looked at him, they saw a crippled victim in a wheelchair – they thought he was a burden - they didn’t think he could help.

They didn’t see him; they only saw his condition.

“Thank you. Be safe.” Doctor White and Miguel rejoined the rest of the group and began discussing their next move. The group as a whole looked reluctant to continue.

Clover and Claire followed the nurse out of the hole in the wall onto a rooftop that was connected to the hospital building. Clover bounced around as he drove over some rubble. However, that was the least of his worries. Leaves gently rustled as a force pressed against his consciousness. He shrugged it off without much difficulty. Either he was getting better at defending against mental attacks, or they were getting weaker.

Under the night sky, a twisting canopy of branches and leaves had engulfed a quarter of the roof. He recognized it.

His mortal enemy - the tree was here.

Strangely enough, the rustling sound continued even though the tree’s branches were perfectly still - to an unnatural degree.

The sound stopped.

He glanced back towards the group in the hallway. They had mobilized, splitting into two groups. He wasn’t a pessimist by any stretch of the word, but he did have to say he was surprised that so many people had risen to the occasion of selflessly saving hospital patients. Of course, most of them probably had family members trapped on the higher floors of the hospital, but still, there were more than he would have expected.

He focused back on navigating the rooftop as he almost drove over a Bone Rat corpse. There were almost a hundred of them up here - all of them dead, thankfully.

In the distance, he spotted a giant spider web strung up between buildings with hundreds of super-sized spiders hanging off it. For some reason, most monsters he had seen so far had preferred to stay outside in the street. Most didn’t bother going inside where the humans hid. He wasn’t sure why, but the Bone Rats were different in that regard.

“Why are there so many of them up here?” Clover asked.

“They were trying to make a nest. We were stuck fighting here for over an hour. It wasn’t till that tree rushed in and distracted the Bone Rats, that we got a chance to push through.”

“Why even fight them; why not go around?” Claire asked.

"It’s the only stable entrance to the fourth floor that we’ve found. The staircases leading up to it shattered, and elevators stopped working.” She led them to a rectangular outcropping in the center of the roof. “Thankfully, this one works.” They entered an elevator and descended. A nice jazz jingle accompanied their journey.

“Exactly how long has it been since the start of all of this,” Clover gestured vaguely at everything.

“I’m not completely sure, all the clocks in the hospital broke, but the one in this factory still works even though it's kind of jittery. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s been around 2 hours. Though I could be off by a bit.”

The elevator dinged as its doors opened, revealing a mess of activity. Hospital workers rushed to and fro, bandaging up survivors. A group of people pushed machinery to the side, opening up floor space. The factory floor was large and expansive. Its space was roughly divided up into sections, though most of it went unused.

“Follow me.” They passed what was previously the entrance to the building – the door was open, but the exit was blocked by a wall of tightly packed dirt. He didn’t notice when he was on top of it, but now looking out the windows and only being able to see dark dirt, he could tell that the building was shifted a good ten feet into the ground.

The only way out to the street level was through a raised loading bay, but the ramp leading up to it was guarded by two semi-bored-looking guys, so this was probably the safest location in the entire city.

“It was going to be a ceramics factory, but they never got the chance to finish construction,” she pointed at the machinery and lumps of clay. “Which is good for us because it gives us plenty of space.”

As they walked, or in Clover’s case, wheeled, he was shocked by the amount of people that were gathered in the factory. It wasn’t only hospital patients that filled the space: their families and the occasional office worker were here, too.

How everyone had come to gather in this location, he wasn’t sure - a lot had happened in those two hours he had slept through.

They stopped by a section of hospital beds lined up in a square-like formation. Around half of them were in use.

“Here’s your bed. Someone will be over in a bit to treat your wounds,” the helpful nurse left.

Wordlessly, Claire plopped down in her bed and pulled the covers over her head, shutting out the world. She obviously wanted to be left alone, so he did not disturb her.

Clover stayed in his wheelchair, and grabbed a handful of clay from a box that had been pushed to the wall next to his bed.

He sighed; doing something with his hands helped him think.

While molding the clay into something that vaguely resembled a dog, a flash of blue soared through the factory, fading to specks of light before it hit the roof. Clover flinched; the attack had come from right next to him.

A few of the patients looked startled for a few moments, but they quickly recovered. To them it was nothing more than a common occurrence. Clover was the only one truly shocked.

“Didn’t you hear the warning not to use Mana Bolt in here?” a middle-aged Asian nurse reprimanded a senior citizen with his hand outstretched towards the ceiling.

“Sorry! I didn’t think it would actually work,” the old man said with barely contained excitement, in the bed right next to his.

She sighed, suddenly very tired. “No one listens. This is the third time this hour. The first thing everyone does when they get that damn Skill is try to shoot a hole in my wall.”

The old man apologized again, and the nurse walked off, busy with other matters. Clover wheeled his way over to the old man the second the nurse left.

“That was awesome; how did you do that?”

“I know right. I didn’t think it would actually work.” He waved his hand around like he was going to shoot out another bolt of Mana, however, he was stopped by a glare from the nurse. “It’s one of the rewards you can choose from at the end of the [Beginner] Skill Path. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

Clover opened his [Status Screen] and, after a little poking around, found that he had the option of opening a new screen now that he had unlocked his first Skill. He opened it, slightly bothered that an old man had somehow found something in this video game-like system before him.

Paths:

Beginner (0/5), Track (0/5)

Clover had six Skill Points, enough to finish the Path in one go. So he thanked the man and returned to his bed. Something like Mana Bolt was exactly what he needed to be able to fight effectively. It wouldn’t matter if he was stuck in a wheelchair, his Mana Bolt would be exactly the same as everyone else’s.

He put 5 Skill Points into the Path, completing it.

Tread carefully for your first step down this Path, will dictate your future.

Choose 1 of 3: Strike, Healing Touch, Mana Bolt.

As usual, the System didn’t provide nearly enough information. However, before he lost all hope, he discovered he could click on the Skills to get a slightly more in-depth explanation. He continued making his clay dog while reading over his choices.

Strike (Common) - Cost 5 SP

Empower an attack with Stamina. 10 Extra Damage.

Healing Touch (Common) - Cost 5 MP

Aid the recovery of minor wounds with a touch. Recover 5 HP over 10 seconds.

Mana Bolt (Common) - Cost 5 MP

Fires a ball of Mana out of your hand. Deals 10 Base Damage.

The extra information didn’t change his decision. He couldn’t use [Strike] properly while in a wheelchair, and [Healing Touch] only applied to minor wounds, making it useless for his purposes.

Additionally, even if [Healing Touch] could evolve into something more useful in the future, it wouldn't help him much in a fight. Everyone was offered the same selection; he did not have to be the one to take it. It was likely someone else would eventually unlock a powerful healing skill. He just had to survive up until that point. Raising his Stats by killing monsters was the best way of doing that.

A river opens before you, do not drown. Mana Bolt Unlocked. +5 Magic.

His MP increased by 50, and, he was immediately assailed with a strong urge to use [Mana Bolt]. He just barely resisted shooting a light out. Barely. The only thing that stopped him was the appearance of another blue box.

Sculpting Lvl 0 (Common)

A simple sculpture can be worth more than its base materials. Passively increases sculpting ability.

Accept: Y/N?

The Skill did not have a cost associated with its use. Which meant, he could grind it for Skill Points for hours without having to take a break. Previously, he wouldn’t have taken the Skill, but now that he knew completing Paths gave large amounts of Stat Points, it was sounding like an attractive option.

The basis of a plan formed in his mind. He would work all night, raising his Skill Levels, so he could complete as many Skill Paths as possible. At the same time, he’d finish a Class Skill Quest and upgrade one of his Skills. Then in the morning, when he was stronger, and it was safer to go outside, he’d venture out and try to find a gun while killing any monsters he found, along the way.

The plan sounded reasonable to him.

He reopened the Class Skill Quest screen.

Class Skill Quests: Evolve a General Skill into a more powerful version by completing certain tasks and objectives!

Available: (0/1)

Tracking: Following a trail is pointless if you do not know what to do once you reach its end.

Requirements:

-Successfully Track 1/5 Targets

-Track a Target for 0/1 miles.

Reward: [Hunter’s Instincts]

Sculpting: Give life to your creations.

Requirements:

-Create 1/5 Common Quality sculptures.

-Create 0/1 Uncommon Quality Sculptures.

Reward: [Golem Creation]

The only question left was: which Skill should he try to upgrade?