[Hunter’s Instincts] and [Golem Creation] - both sounded useful, but realistically he couldn’t pursue [Track]’s Upgrade Quest right now. The factory was big, but it wasn’t that big. It would be impossible to track a target for over a mile within its confines.

Of course, he could always go outside. That would remove most of the roadblocks, stopping him from upgrading that Skill. However, with so many monsters swarming the streets, that sounded like a terrible idea. If he really wanted to, he could wait till morning and finish [Track]’s Skill Quest, when it was less dangerous to go outside.

On the other hand, everything he needed to upgrade [Sculpting] was already in the factory. Difficulty-wise, making 6 sculptures sounded much easier than tracking a target for a full mile.

Disregarding practical reasons, [Golem Creation] simply appealed to him more. He thought of a possible future where if he got the Skill to a high enough level, he’d never have to leave to get snacks while, in the middle of a movie again - he could just order his golems to do it for him.

Lastly, the wording was unclear, but it was possible that the original Skill could be deleted once the Skill Upgrade Quest was finished. If that was the case, he would much rather lose [Sculpting]. It wasn’t anything personal - [Track] just seemed like a more practical Skill.

With his mind made up, Clover grabbed a chunk of clay and got to work on making another small dog sculpture. [Sculpting] helped guide his hands, subtly pointing out areas for improvement. The Skill didn’t automatically make him a master sculptor, but if he had to put it into numbers, at level 0, the Skill made him 5% better.

However, he wasn’t grasping around in the dark without the System’s help. He had watched the first two seasons of The Great Zimbabwean Pottery Competition, so he had a basic idea of most of the techniques. He had never made a sculpture before, but the theory was helpful.

Clover chuckled. Maybe all that time I spent watching T.V. wasn’t a waste.

He intently worked, focused on his task. After 20 minutes, he finished the palm-sized sculpture.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 1.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 2

Compared to [Track], leveling [Sculpting] was slow, but that was to be expected. It wasn’t a big deal; Clover could do this all day. Well, actually he couldn’t. Sculpting was a lot harder than he thought it would be. His hands were already growing tired. It took a lot more strength than he expected to manipulate the clay.

Clover placed it on his bed, next to the first one he had made - before he had gotten the Skill. Though not large, there was a clear difference in quality. He checked the Sculpting Quest - the Common Quality counter had ticked up by one.

For his third creation, he added an extra layer of detail to challenge himself. This wouldn’t just be any dog; it would be a beagle, the definitive third-best dog breed.

His hands worked faster and smoother than before, twisting and rubbing the clay into shape. Despite the extra artistic flair, he finished in 19 minutes, slightly faster than last time.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 3.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 4.

In the middle of his fourth creation – a husky, that, in his opinion, just so happened to be the fourth-best dog breed, the nurse that had chewed out the old man appeared before him.

She introduced herself as Ms. Lee and started disinfecting his wounds. Clover didn’t pay much attention to what she was doing, too wrapped up in his work. However, when her hands started to glow green, his whole attention snapped to her.

“Don’t worry. It’s [Healing Touch], one of the rewards from the Beginner Path,” she said plainly before he could even ask. He could tell she had answered the same question too many times in a row.

He held up his hand and poked the green glow, the natural draw of magic enticing him. It was warm in a comfortable sort of way, like a campfire on a cold night. The cuts on his shoulders began to close. Before he was fully healed, the magic fizzled away.

“Thank you,” Clover said. [Healing Touch] wasn’t very powerful - it couldn’t regrow limbs or cure his cancer, but it greatly decreased the time it would take for him to recover.

“Just doing my job. Even if it doesn’t exist anymore.” The lines on her face deepened. She disappeared, off to do whatever nurses in the apocalypse do.

Clover took a moment to look at his surroundings, checking to see if anything had changed while he was Sculpting.

Around him, in his section of the factory, filled with the sick and injured, people urgently tried to contact family members. Others stared at their phones, hiding from this cruel new reality in a digital world. And some blankly stared out into space, too shocked to do anything.

Some, like the old man, worked diligently to improve themselves, but they were few and far between. The majority were frozen with indecision and fear, smothering the factory in a thick layer of silence.

He grew angry at the unfairness of the situation, but there was nothing he could do. Clover returned to work with a new intensity, his surroundings fading away. He was good at ignoring things he didn’t want to see - he had a lot of practice. It was one of his few talents.

He returned to his sculpting and finished the husky without much difficulty.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 5.

For his last Common Quality creation, he made a cat, for a bit of needed variety. Cold sweat dripped down his back, and a wave of nausea pressed against him, but he ignored it, focusing on his work. There was no other choice.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 6.

He placed the cat on the bed next to its friends – or at least he’d like to imagine that his sculptures would be friends. With them all lined up next to each other, his progression as a sculptor was apparent.

The first dog was lumpy and misshapen. Despite his best efforts, it looked like something that would be made in an elementary school art class. On the other hand, his last creation, the cat, looked like it had been made by a talented middle schooler – its features were smooth, and he had even added a little texture to its fur coat. His improvement was clear, but none of his efforts so far were enough to create an Uncommon Quality sculpture.

He had tried to pack the clay together tightly, but some of his sculptures were already sagging slightly under their own weight. He remembered from the T.V. show he had watched that clay sculptures needed to be fired in a kiln to harden. But he doubted he’d get a chance to do that. It was a miracle that the lights were still working in the building; there was no way they would have enough energy to run a kiln. They reached an internal temperature of around 1000 degrees. Of course, that was in freedom units – not Celsius.

He checked his Path Screen, looking to see if there was anything new.

Paths: Track (0/5), Sculpting (0/5)

He was beginning to see a pattern: At Level 5, Skills unlocked a Path. Seeing as how he had enough Skill Points to finish it in one go, Clover completed the Sculpting Path.

As you work, your hands begin to callous, growing ever more capable. However, you find that your sculptures aren’t the only ones being shaped - in a way, they are sculpting you, as well. With each creation, you change a bit more.

Your Sculptures have awarded you a new ability; choose one: [Hardening] or [Softening].

As usual, the System did not provide nearly enough information to make an informed decision. When he clicked on them, no additional information popped up. However, in this case, both options and what they did were quite simple. It boiled down to: did he want his sculptures to be harder or softer?

If he could soften the base materials he was working with, then he would no longer be limited to just clay. He could incorporate stone and other interesting materials into his creations. On the other hand, theoretically, he could harden the clay and make it as hard and durable as stone.

It was an interesting dilemma. In the end, Clover chose [Hardening].

A hard path to walk but a rewarding one. +2 Strength. +3 Dexterity.

His muscles tingled. It felt like something was enveloping them in static electricity. After a moment, the sensation faded, and he tested his new limits by waving his hand around a bit. His body followed his commands much faster than before, and his movements were smoother.

Strangely enough, the extra power didn’t feel like it was coming from his muscles. It felt like a skin-tight layer of something was clinging to him, empowering his movements. As soon as he noticed it, the sensation disappeared, refusing to appear again.

Still, it had given him an idea. His forehead creased with effort as he tried to move his leg. After a second or two of nothing happening, he stopped. His leg hadn’t budged an inch.

Clover stopped himself from being too disappointed; he probably needed more Stat Points before he could do something like that. He read [Sculpture: Hardening]’s description.

Sculpting Lvl 6 (Common) -

Sub-Skill: Hardening Lvl 0 (Common) - Harden your sculptures. Max size small. 5mp for small.

Warning Sub-Skills cannot surpass Parent-Skill Level!

Immediately, Clover tested it out on his cat sculpture. He mentally selected his target and willed the Skill to activate.

After a moment, a soft wind slowly blew over the sculpture, toughening its exterior. It wasn’t winning any awards for speed. A connection to the Skill blinked in a previously undiscovered part of his mind. He felt he could turn off or nudge in a certain direction [Sculpture: Hardening] if he wanted to. In the end, the small palm-sized sculpture took more than 15 seconds to finish hardening.

Congratulations! Hardening has reached Level 1.

He poked the cat – its exterior did not give beneath his finger. He tapped it again, slightly harder this time. It held strong. After a series of highly scientific tests – hitting it against things till it broke – he found that the sculpture was around 25% more durable than before. Which didn’t sound like a lot, but it was enough to keep its structure stable – the clay no longer sagged out of place.

He didn’t receive a Skill Point for leveling up [Hardening], which was disappointing, but there was nothing he could do about that.

He used [Sculpture: Hardening] again, this time on the Husky. Last time, the System had enforced his will and handled the specifics of the magical process. Still, he felt there was room to involve himself in the process.

He mentally nudged the Skill as it activated, envisioning a tough hide of alligator scales forming across the dog’s coat. He had watched a nature documentary a while ago, and they had claimed that alligator skin was strong enough to repel small knives.

Something drained out of him, and he felt a headache beginning to form, but he ignored it. The air around the sculpture thickened, turning to a barely visible white fog.

The fog was slippery like most probably was, but with the System’s help, he could wrangle it. Not quite sure what he was doing, he moved the faint white fog around the sculpture, trying to mimic the System’s movements.

After ten seconds, the outside layer of the sculpture cracked. Shortly after, it crumbled to small pieces and [Hardening] deactivated itself.

The thin white fog faded back into the atmosphere.

Congratulations! Hardening has reached Level 2.

He had failed, but that was okay. He had successfully proved to himself that it was possible to alter Skills. Still, he wished [Sculpture: Hardening] would have come with an instruction manual.

He poked the crumpled remains of the sculpture - it alternated between hard and soft at almost random intervals. He clearly had been doing something; he just wasn’t sure what.

He thought back to his little experiment, and immediately several ideas on how to better use the Skill popped into the front of his mind. However, he pushed them to the side. He wanted to unlock [Golem Creation] before he played around with [Hardening] anymore.

Clover coughed twice, his lungs aching with each; he wiped a bit of spit off his mouth and returned to his work.

Determined, he molded the clay into the shape of another cat. [Sculpting] guided his hands more firmly than before. He manipulated the material, adding a level of detail his other creations lacked. His hands ached, and a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead, but his newly increased Strength allowed him to push forward, more easily moving the clay how he wanted.

Before he knew it, his cute cat sculpture was finished.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 7.

He glared at the palm-sized figurine. His efforts hadn’t been enough to reach the threshold of Uncommon quality. Clover had two options. He could spend more time on it, fixing it up, or he could start from scratch and make another one now that [Sculpting] was at a higher level. The cat’s lifelike eyes stared back, returning his glare. Maybe quality wasn’t the issue – the cat definitely didn’t look bad – it was at least twice the quality of the beagle sculpture. His eyes narrowed further.

“What are you doing?” Claire asked, interrupting his starring match.

“Grinding for Skill Points.”

“Why?” She sat up in her bed, her wounds having been treated by a nurse.

On the surface, it was a stupid question. Why wouldn’t he try to get as many Skill Points as possible? But as he looked around at the injured and sickly people lining the hospital beds, he saw again that he was the strange one. Like before, most stared blankly into space or found some other means of distracting themselves. Did they not know what was now possible? No, of course not; everyone had seen firsthand, what the System was capable of.

He sighed. Clover understood how they felt. They had no hope that they would be able to move forward and grasp the future the System had presented for themselves. The task ahead was so long and arduous that they were too scared to start. Really, what were the odds of someone like him – crippled, stuck in a wheelchair, or blind – what were the odds of that type of person succeeding?

Slim to none.

He was good at ignoring things he didn’t want to see – it was a skill Clover had a lot of practice in, but now that he saw Claire’s red-rimmed eyes, he couldn’t ignore it any longer.

On a deeper level, she was asking what allowed him to push forward while others were too paralyzed to do anything. The only problem was that he didn’t know what to say.

His mouth felt dry. “I realized I don’t have to be who I used to be. With the System, if I raise my stats high enough, then even I can have a chance at a normal life. So, I’m making these stupid little sculptures because in the morning – the second the sun rises, I’m going to go out there and kill some monsters. If I fail, I’ll die, but I’m willing to take that risk. I’m not going to be stuck in this chair my whole damn life,” as he finished his rambling stuttered-filled speech, Clover realized he had spoken a lot louder than he intended to.

Everyone near him was staring at him. His face turned red, not used to the attention.

“One day, when I’m a high enough level, I’m going to take a walk through the park with a cone of ice cream, and it’s going to be the best day of my life. And I know that day will only come if I work my hardest right now and make as many of these tiny sculptures as possible. So, I guess that’s why I’m grinding Skill Levels,” he trailed off awkwardly.

There was silence for a moment. Then a deathly pale child started to make a clay sculpture of his own. The boy's actions started a chain reaction: a blind man tapped his cane on the ground, a woman covered head to toe in bandages, multiplied numbers out loud in a thick French accent, and an old woman juggled random objects.

Slowly then, gaining momentum, the occupants of the factory practiced all sorts of Skills. It looked like an all-around looney bin, but Clover couldn’t stop himself from smiling. His awkward and stilted speech had been the push these people needed to save themselves.

They were just waiting for an excuse to start.