The dreaded Archers work day proved relatively uneventful as Scott went about his simple routines. Occasional moments would come to pass where various staff members would be caught looking at him, only to quickly look away then pretend to straighten stock on a nearby shelf.

Clearly, many among them wished to ask him about what happened recently. He could not give them answers. His memories on the matter were not particularly clear. Ashton was supposed to be there, but she had called out with an illness. Scott suspected that she needed longer to heal completely than expected. If she appeared at work with angry bruises there would be even more talk.

All things considered it was like he had never been away from the store. The only oddity was the fact that during the time of day when the store should have been at its busiest, the foot traffic was far lighter than usual.

"Man. This place is dead," said one of his cashiers. He continued to straighten the packets of gum at his checkout lane while his neighboring cashier cleaned her conveyor belt. She made an agreeable noise, but said little else.

Scott headed over to guest services to see how Eren was doing. As it turned out, she was doing nothing. There were no irate guests, and the counter top was spotless. She was busy writing something in a little note pad.

"Whatcha got there?" asked Scott, more out of boredom than curiosity.

"Ah? This?" She showed him her note pad.

He nodded to her, and she smiled. "Nothing. Really," she said. "I'm just reviewing my dream notes."

"Dream notes?" Scott looked down at her note pad then back up at her.

"Yeah. I keep track of my skills and stuff, so I can know how I'm doing when I practice them," she said.

He nodded to her then looked back over the largely empty front end. The busy period, such as it was, would soon come to an end. The store would close down in a few hours. Something about the lack of people in the area unsettled him.

Not long after his brief surveillance, a few people wandered inside the store. They complained loudly about the fog outside making it nearly impossible to see anything. Scott's interest piqued, he chose to go check out the phenomenon. He did not recall there being any fog outside earlier.

The moment he stepped into the fog the system voice whispered to him. "Loading world updates..."

"What?" he asked. Nothing changed in his view, however. He stood out in the fog for a few minutes then shrugged. The system was doing some sort of update. What it would bring, he did not know.

Eventually, he went back inside and attended to a minor issue at the food court. They needed more cleaning products to clean the counter. Normally it would be their responsibility to acquire such things from storage, but he had nothing better to do.

Halfway to the storage closet, all hell seemingly broke loose. Rather, the fog flooded into the store and drowned people in a sea of mist and darkness.

"The hell!" cried someone from nearby.

"What happened!" shouted someone else.

The store manager for the night called out over the intercoms a few minutes later imploring the people to stay calm. The weird fog outside had gotten into the store somehow.

A few hours after it had come, the fog passed with little fanfare. Visibility in the store rapidly improved and soon it was like nothing had happened save for the aftermath. Displays were knocked over and more than one shopper was caught trying to steal something when the fog began to clear.

"Man, people are easy to panic," groused Scott and he helped to right a playing card display. Cards packs were scattered everywhere. It took quite some time for him to return them to their proper place. The team member that he was supposedly helping was called off to handle other things, while he was left to do the other man's job.

He went back to his part of the store proper and waited for the end of the shift. The fog was determined to be the reason for the lack of guests that evening. It had rolled in all across the area then rolled out later. Its thickness was such that most people just did not bother to leave their houses for fear of causing a traffic accident. Of course, that did not stop some people and they ended up crashing into each other quite frequently that night.

"I wonder what they updated?" he asked lightly to himself. So far nothing seemed out of the ordinary other than the damage to the store's stock due to the panic that had set in among the shoppers.

They worked late that night, unable to leave until the store was properly tidied up. Scott set out to return home after two am. No one offered to give him a ride, just as before. Everyone was eager to be done with their work shift.

Scott passed a small wooded section on his way home. The scuttle of animals nearby caught his attention, but he largely ignored them. No doubt it was a raccoon, or perhaps even a deer.

He made the next turn-off toward his home. In the distance, he saw a car in the middle of the road and heard a sound like a blaring horn. Curious, but not overly so, he continued on at his normal pace. Soon, he could see that the car had its driver-side door open and the interior light on. The horn continued to blare.

Unnerved slightly, he trotted forward to get a better look. He wished that he hadn't. The driver's seat was covered in blood, and the windshield was smashed inward like something had come inside through the glass.

A blood trail led off into the grassy area just beyond the car. "The hell?"

He checked the front of the car and saw that the vehicle had apparently hit something big as the front-end was totaled. Whatever had happened there, the driver had not hit a deer. In the grill of the vehicle he found a bit of pinkish-white hairless flesh.

Briefly, he did not want to get involved. He thought to call the police, but then he remembered the sheriff's face. Getting the police involved would only complicate matters.

Scott set off toward the grass then shifted into dragon form. His senses enhanced by his draconic eyes, the darkness of night gave way to an easily navigated landscape.

Dragon Scott followed the scent of blood quite some distance until he discovered a corpse. Ravaged by a wild beast, the corpse had been torn to shreds. Scott could not even determine if it were a man or woman as most of the body had been stripped of flesh and several bones torn away.

An unfamiliar scent caught his attention. He craned his neck sideways and used his mana senses to detect the presence of a creature that hid in the grass nearby. Surprised beyond words, Scott noted that it had a name and level designation.

Scarvulf - Level 9

Draconic eyes narrowed. A monster from the dream world had appeared on Earth? Was this the update that was happening earlier due to the fog?

The creature understood that it had been spotted somehow. It bolted toward Scott then leapt clear of the grass in an effort to take down its much smaller prey. The world seemingly slowed down as Scott took in the sight of the beast. The size of a Great Dane, the scarvulf was like a hairless wolf who had its skin turned inside out.

Scott dodged sideways and lashed out with his tail in a quick whipping motion. He did not come anywhere close to hitting the agile beast. The scarvulf barked ferociously at him then lunged forward once more.

Tackled hard by the beast, the little dragon was knocked back. It tried to bite through his neck, but his scales proved too tough for its fangs to damage him with a single bite. The scarvulf clawed at him and worried his neck back and forth in an effort to tear through his scales.

Enraged, Scott unleashed an imperious jolt directly against the critter's chest. The scarvulf barely noticed at first, but the continued assault caused its chest to begin to burn and smoke. It screeched in pain then jerked its head back and retreated.

Numerous small wounds on his chest and neck, Scott knew that this creature was a credible threat to his life. While his scales did protect him, there was damage underneath due to the pressure of the bite.

The little dragon stared at the scarvulf as it began to pad sideways in an effort to circle around him from behind. Scott had no desire to allow the beast a second chance at his neck. He drew in a great breath then baited it in for an attack at his supposedly unguarded side. When the hideous critter took the bait, Scott swerved sideways and unleashed a powerful blast of his shadowy dragon breath in a direct hit.

Agonized howls echoed through the grassy area as the scarvulf writhed in pain. Its flesh ablaze with the darkness that attempted to consume it, all it could do was scream impotently while it desperately tried to roll around to put out the flames.

Scott did not give it a chance to recover once the flames were out. He leapt upon the beast like a hunting cat and tore into it with his claws. It screamed in pain once more, but was soon silenced when the small dragon bite down through the nape of its neck. Scott worried the flesh there much like the scarvulf had down to him earlier then succeeded in snapping the beast's spine. Paralyzed, it could do nothing but whine pitifully as the little dragon tore into his feast.

Eyes burning red, Blackthorne tasted the coppery tang of victory, blood trailing from his reptilian maw. There was only one true monster in that grassy lot, and it would not suffer a pretender to the throne to live.

Eventually, once he finished his feat, Scott made a call to the police about the abandoned car in the road from the safety of his house. When the cops came around to ask the freshly showered and dried man why he had left the crime scene, he told them that an animal had chased him. He gave a description of the scarvulf.

The police were not fully convinced, but the partially eaten remains of such a creature were discovered. His story of being chased by a monster given greater credence, they ceased their attempts to get more out of him. Though, they did cite the fact that they would be in touch if they needed further information.

Either way, Scott did not have a chance to get back to sleep until well after dawn. Though, he did lock his doors. The world was suddenly a lot more dangerous.