John didn’t think he was a hero. Those types of people wore capes and had a glow to them that was always awesome. He thought of himself as a normal guy who liked to flirt with girls and compete in boxing. But someone clueless of the danger in this evil misty forest had John questioning his sense of self.

Was he actually going to risk his life for a stranger? The thought made him hesitate. Going off the trail was going to be dangerous. But the new guy was ignorant of the dangers.

“Is someone there?” said the new guy. “I hear rustling in the bushes. Um, you’re not a dangerous wild animal, are you? That’ll be dreadful.”

John thought the new guy sounded like a nice kid. Someone who didn’t deserve to have their neck wrung by a gamified zombie. No one deserved that, really.

“Hey! Whoever you are, you need to be careful! There are monsters in the forest!” John yelled, moving off the trail to go in the direction of the voice. “They aren’t fast. Just keep out of their reach!”

“Monsters?” the new guy yelled back. “Monsters don’t exist, sir.”

“Dude!” John shouted. “This isn’t the time to be sane. That’ll kill you.”

“But monsters are⁠—huh. Excuse me, is there something wrong with your⁠—ah!”

Ding! Optional Quest! [First Bold Act Challenge]. A fellow outerperson has joined the fray. Since you’ve shown adequate competency and are in the area, they will receive less tutorial info. You can save them, instruct them, and clear the area of shamblers for greater rewards. Or save yourself the trouble and let them figure things out on their own, which would probably kill them. I hope you choose to help. It’ll be awesome.

“Give me a break!” John broke into a run toward the sound of the trouble. “I’m going to help them no matter the rewards, ding-dong!”

The vegetation thickened around him. Long ferns and fat leaves slapped at his limbs. The forest floor rose and dipped under his feet. One wrong step could twist his ankle.

With the mist thickening so much, the shadows grew bolder. The shamblers could be anywhere, especially with all that ruckus the new guy was making.

He’s on the move now. He’s running somewhere ahead of me. I’ll have to move fast to catch up!

“[Brightlight Orb],” John called out, magicking the light orb ten feet in front of him. The timing was so perfect, John nearly didn’t believe his luck.

The light revealed a [Forest Shambler, Lvl 3] shuffling in the direction of the new guy. It was out of the way of John’s route, which was a little animal trail. But if John moved past it, the monster could lunge at him from behind.

John pounced on the shambler, using an anti-bully move. Leg extended out, he kicked behind the monster’s knee midrun. The monster fell and hit its shoulder against a tree, rasping angrily.

It reached out to claw at John, but he was getting out of there quickly. He felt the shambler’s hands rake the air behind his legs.

Stumbling slightly, John found his footing and vaulted over a log. The floor remained uneven, forcing John to stagger some more. He had to slow down, losing precious time. But he knew he was no good with broken ankles.

The magic migraine ticked slightly in intensity. The new kid shrieked somewhere in front of him. That could be both good or bad. The shamblers hadn’t strangled him yet. Or they could be tearing him apart.

“No,” John grunted, rushing forward. He flew through the undergrowth. He saw another shambler revealed by [Brightlight Orb] and weaved around its backside. The monster turned around to attempt a grab, but John had already moved out of reach.

Finally, the forest peeled away from around him. A small glade opened up to him where the forest canopy didn’t reach over wholly. Actual sunlight beamed down uninterrupted, which made [Brightlight Orb] unnecessary. John flicked off the spell to save his head from heating up further. He looked around the glade while he caught his breath.

Tallgrass reached up to his knees. A medieval fortification stood above the field. The perimeter stone wall around it had long crumbled. Ivy crawled up a tower standing in the middle, which looked to be two stories high. There was an open doorway at ground level where John saw a couple of shamblers shuffling through. Another scream alerted John to the possibility that the new guy was in the fortification.

Shamblers appeared from around the forest treeline. There were at least four at the tower. But now, the glade started to fill with a dozen of them. That didn’t count for the ones John had left behind him. Or the others that were making their way here from different parts of the area, probably drawn by the noise.

John ran forward. He had already committed himself to get here. He wanted to succeed more than anything because death sucked, and nobody should have to suffer it from a monster attack. But to save that new guy would require him to get past the shamblers storming the place.

He sidestepped a few shamblers in the field. When he met with the wall, he planted a hand and sprung over it. His body felt sharp and energetic. The adrenaline was hitting him with an all-time high, but the way he was moving was something else.

The differences compared to his old athleticism were minor. But an athlete felt the minor differences. Every step forward felt a little faster than before. And his fatigue wasn’t getting to him as quickly as it would before improving his attributes.

“Don’t get hit,” he said to himself. He let [Resilience] sit in the middle of his primary attributes and his weaker attributes. That could be to his detriment here if he slipped up.

Reaching the tower’s entrance, the aged stones looked about ready to fall over. A [Forest Shambler, Lvl 1] was next in line to enter the tower. John planted his knuckles on its face three times. The monsters crumbled to the floor and stayed down.

Ding! . . .

For a split second, John paused at the entrance. It was dark inside. And cramp. Moaning shamblers filled the space with their horrific undead noise. The new guy continued to scream at the top, crying for help. He was still alive. But how long would that be the case?

“I’m not a hero,” John said between gritted teeth. “But I’m not gonna sit around with a thumb up my ass.”

Heart racing, John flicked on [Brightlight Orb]. The illuminated space revealed a stony interior choked with wildflowers, dangling vines, and six shamblers climbing the spiral stairs to the top.

It was a narrow space. Only as wide as John’s wingspan times three. There was little to no room for him to dance around the shamblers here, especially on the stairs. The old, splintered, wooden beams scaled up in a spiral along the wall. A shambler stepped through a broken plank and dropped right in front of John.

The [Forest Shambler, Lvl 3] started to pick itself up. John slugged the back of its head. It hit the floor, but John could tell it was going to get up again. It was stunned, not dead. John stomped it dead.

Ding! . . .

He took the stairs and found a [Forest Shambler, Lvl 2]. The monster’s back was to him. John didn’t bother punching the thing. He grabbed it by the back of its ratty tunic and flung it off the stairs. It hit the ground with a bony thump, moaning angrily up at John.

The other four noticed. Before the nearest one turned around fully, John did the same thing. He threw the [Forest Shambler, Lvl 4] out of his way. The next turned halfway, flailing its arm.

John was lower than it on the stairs. The arm-flailing move was easy to duck. The monster lunging forward to grab him wasn’t as easy to dodge.

Back to the wall, John shoved one hand into the monster’s armpit. The other hand grabbed it by the front of its ripped-up top. He used the monster’s momentum and guided it off the staircase. It landed on the other two that were just getting back to their feet.

Three shamblers stood in his way. He had their full attention. One was a Lvl 5, and the other two were Lvl 3s. Their hollow-eyed glares chilled his spine. If that wasn’t scary enough, the wooden planks were creaking under their feet, bending weakly as if they would break soon. John could find himself falling into a pit of waiting shamblers.

Keep going anyway! He told himself.

He called on [Ratel Rookie] for help. The [Brighlight Orb] magic stayed in the center of the tower as silvery fur sprouted over John’s body. His mouth grew fangs. His finger extended claws. The heat in his head intensified greatly.

First up, a Lvl 3 plodded heavily to fall at John. A plank broke under its foot and sent it flying askew. John didn’t bother to attack as the monster dropped out of the way. He rushed forward and met with the Lvl 5 before it got going.

Claws lashing out, John ripped open the shambler’s face and stunned it. Then he latched onto its chest. His claws pierced the rotten flesh and hooked around ribs. That should’ve disgusted him. Instead, he felt meanspirited satisfaction as he yanked the creature out of the way by its ribcage. He ripped open the chest cavity before it fell out of the way. It landed on its head with a sickening crunch.

Ding! . . .

He obliterated the head of the Lvl 3 with a straight knife-hand attack.

Ding! . . .

With his head about to erupt like a volcano, John flicked off [Ratel Rookie] and [Brightlight Orb]. He groaned, stumbling up past broken planks. He reached the entrance to the top of the tower, one hand on his head. He held out the other in front of him in case he had to shove a shambler out of his way.

A [Forest Shambler, Lvl 2] chased after a short boy running frantically around the tower’s top. The space was small. But the boy made the most out of it by running and jumping out of the shambler’s way. When the boy’s back hit the roof wall, it looked like the shambler had him pinned.

John hesitated. The boy was something he’d never seen before. The boy’s skin was covered in glossy green scales that glimmered under the sunlight. His hands had claws on them. And his teeth were sharp, almost like fangs. He was like a lizard or a dragon but with a humanoid body.

Then it occurred to John that it could be a magic core making the boy look that way.

“Fuck,” John said, snapping to action.

He was too late to do anything, though. The shambler lunged at the cornered kid. It had him right where it wanted him.

But the kid worked with all the limited space he had. He ducked to the side and curled up. The overeager monster hit the perimeter wall and tipped over. It rasped all the way down.

John ran over and peered over the edge.

The number of shamblers had doubled from when he’d entered the tower. The ones he threw out of his way would make their way up here again. He had to get ready for all of them.

But he had some time to spare.

“You alright?” John asked.

“Um, uh,” the scalie kid replied, shaking like a leaf. “Are you one of them?”

“Them? The monsters?” John asked, shocked. “Heck no! Look at me. I’m alive. And I don’t moan and reach out to strangle you.”

“Yes, I’m very thankful for that. But you seem to be of a similar species with these reanimated corpses.”

“What do you mean by that?” John asked.

“You lack the scales of a saurian, sir,” the kid said, standing to his feet. “And you have a strange protrusion on your snout. Do you have a medical condition?”

“No, I don’t.” John stepped back, his heart hammering. This guy’s not transformed by magic, is he?

The kid at full height came up to John’s collar. Green frills swept back where the ears should be. And the kid’s eyes were mainly yellow except for black slits in the middle, like a snake.

His tongue flicked out as he regarded John. “What are you?” the lizard kid asked.

“Human,” John said. “And you’re not human?”

“No, of course not. I’m not an alien species. What a peculiar thing to ask.”

The saurian licked at the air again.

John rubbed at his throbbing head.