Jonathan crossed the courtyard, walking toward the Big Burger Bar. He could see the torch and phone lights of the rest of the group through the darkened window as they searched for more supplies.

He flipped his character sheet into view again and scanned through it.

Name: Jonathan Mitchell

Race: Human

Occupation: Teacher

Class: None - Choose your Class!

Level: 2

Experience: 1500/3000

Speed: 14

Strength: 15

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 11

Perception: 12

Stealth: 10

Willpower: 12

Charisma: 14

Hit Points: 24 - bonuses available, choose your class!

Recovery: 1HP/hour

Mana Points: 10 - bonuses available, choose your class!

Recovery: 1MP/hour

Fear Points: 0

Recovery: -1FP/20 minutes

Weapons:

Sword of the Sun God

7-12 damage

+20% attack

+1-6 damage against the undead

Bonuses when wielded by Devout Class

Skills:

Leadership (Charisma) +20%

Combat:

Fists +25% Damage 1-3

Sword +10% Damage 6-12

Objectives:

Find other survivors.

Gain experience to level up.

Stay Alive.

Quests:

Escort the survivors to safety (+300 XP)

Even though he lacked experience with the kind of games this all referred to, it wasn’t hard for him to understand what the scores and percentages meant. He wondered how he compared to the others. He guessed that his strength, speed and constitution were above average as he kept fit, whilst his leadership skill came from working as a teacher.

It irritated him that the system had deemed his intelligence a lower than average score, but there it was. The system had classified him, and he had to work with what it had given him. Besides, he was used to a physical approach to things. He’d never had a lot of time for academia, preferring sports where possible.

A blinking message informed him he could add two points to his characteristics now that he had reached level 2, and that he should choose a class before he could advance further.

He’d already skimmed the warrior classes, thinking that it was the most obvious choice for him. The options included sub-classes like soldier, which received bonuses when working as part of a group and looked like a good all-rounder, skilled in all weapons. Then there was the barbarian who could fly into a rage, scoring triple damage instead of double when a critical hit arose. The knight class gained strong leadership bonuses and added support to others in the group. The gladiator sub-class focussed on toughness and speed, and gained a 10% experience bonus for kills. Archers focussed on the obvious skill of archery, with bonuses on speed and stealth. Still decent fighters, but their obvious forte was ranged attacks. Alternatively, there was an option to choose the warrior class without a sub-class, which looked like a mix-and-match option, lacking any of the obvious benefits of the others but giving more freedom to develop in the way you wanted.

None of the options satisfied him. He glanced through the rogue sub-classes, which included things like thief, scout, bard and assassin. Some of these options gave access to magic, but compared to true spell casters, their abilities were limited. Most of them had a heavy focus on stealth and cunning, or charisma and perception. Jonathan pressed on.

He had already dismissed the idea of taking up a spell caster class. He just couldn’t take the idea of casting fireballs and magic arrows seriously. Besides, they required a high intelligence score, which the system hadn’t granted him.

The longsword that he’d retrieved from Annabel interested him. Even as he held it, he could feel that it contained a power that was more than the simple metal suggested. It also provided additional bonuses for the Devout classes.

So he skipped past the spell caster section with its lists of magicians, necromancers, illusionists, druids and so forth.

The devout classes covered, amongst others, clerics and priests. The former were a more combative class, whilst the priests a more supportive class, but they had powers that were like those of spellcasters but focussed on either destroying the undead or supporting the group, healing them and so forth. Then there were the monks, whose speciality was unarmed combat, with limited mana-fuelled abilities. Finally, there was the paladin class - and that was the one that caught Jonathan’s eye more than the others.

In truth, Jonathan had little interest in a class which centred around some form of religious devotion. He didn’t believe in god anyway, so committing to being the representative for a deity he’d never heard of didn’t feel right.

Despite this, he focussed the Paladin class. Although paladins had to be affiliated with a chosen deity, there was much less of the worshipful devotion mentioned in the cleric and priest class. It gave some healing bonuses, including the ability to cure infection, which had to be useful under the current circumstances.

“Paladins, as well as being fierce combatants, gain both leadership and combat bonuses. Along with increased immunity against infection, a paladin can learn some cleric’s divine abilities, including healing others, curing infection and creating sanctuaries. At level 5 and above, the paladin can focus on building a base, usually a castle or tower.”

This sounded like the right choice to Jonathan. It combined what he felt he would be good at – using his raw strength and speed in combat – with secondary powers which would be invaluable. True, the warrior sub-classes all had better bonuses on the combat front, but they lacked the healing safety net that he figured would be vital for survival.

“Paladin it is,” he muttered, and he mentally pressed the option on the screen in front of him. He’d realised a while ago that although the screens that appeared had clear buttons on them, it wasn’t necessary to reach up and press them. Just thinking about it would have the same effect.

As soon as he decided this, he felt a warm glow suffuse his body. His character sheet updated to add that he was now a Paladin Level 2, his hit points jumping by 10 and his mana points jumping by 5. His sword skill increased by another 20%, whilst he also gained +10% resistance to infection, as well as a Cure Infection option, at a cost of 8 mana points. The sword updated its powers to give him Detect Undead, Light the Dark and Ward Undead, all at varying mana cost.

Almost as an afterthought, Jonathan added his two characteristic points to two different statistics. One he added to strength and the other he added to his speed. It disappointed him to discover that a strength of 16 didn’t give him any additional bonus, but he noticed a tightening of his muscles as the extra point was applied.

Text appeared in front of him

You are a Paladin, a defender of the realms against the darkness that threatens to consume it! As a Paladin, you are expected to uphold the values of bravery, honour and protecting the weak and the innocent from those that would harm them. You are a beacon of hope in the black night, and many will rally around you. Never fearful of death, you will put others before you…

“Yeah, yeah,” Jonathan muttered, “I’m the hero. Whatever.”

He skimmed through the rest of the passage. The main change to his objectives was that he was supposed to ‘Defend the Weak and Helpless.’

Jonathan frowned. In principle, he had nothing against helping other people, but it was part of his competitive nature to put himself in front of other people. How were you ever supposed to win otherwise? Sure, team sports required cooperation, but it was up to you to be better than anyone else. Even your teammates were your competitors.

It was a dog-eat-dog world out there and survival of the fittest ruled. Now, more than ever, this seemed to him to be true.

Jonathan knew, however, that he needed other people if he wanted to survive. Not because he had any great sense of responsibility, but because there was safety in numbers. It was this more than anything that had driven him to go along with Gary’s plan. With the undead all around and the world going to hell, sticking together as a group had seemed the best option.

However, he also knew that numbers required leadership.

If he was going to be part of a group, there was only one place he intended to be: In charge of it. Which meant that he needed to focus on levelling up. The more undead he could kill, the stronger he would become. The stronger he became, the more commanding a position he could hold over the others.

And the safer he would be.

Apart from Gary, he was the only person in the group to have levelled up yet. Jonathan needed to make sure that he levelled up faster than anyone else. Which would be dangerous, but it was necessary.

He wondered which of the two of them, him or Gary, was stronger at level 2.

It would be worth finding that out, just in case. At least try to find out Gary’s statistics and so on.

He had already reached the door of the Big Burger Bar, but had stopped for a second. Holding the sword, he concentrated on the Detect Undead divine skill, at a cost of 6 mana.

Instantly, he felt the presence of the undead behind him.

He spun round and realised that the presence he could feel was Gary. The Detect Undead skill bathed Gary in a red glow.

Jonathan narrowed his eyes as he observed Gary and Rain talking.

Even though he knew Gary wasn’t undead, Jonathan had concerns. Although he was trying to do the right thing, Jonathan suspected that Gary would become a problem at some point.

And he was prepared to deal with it, if that happened. So far, he’d needed Gary, as he was the only person who seemed to have a clue what was going on. Now that Jonathan was getting a handle on the system and realising what the situation was, he wasn’t sure if Gary was going to be useful for much longer. Worse, there was every chance that he was a danger.

Still, it was too soon for Jonathan to decide anything. They needed to get to this farmhouse first.

As for the Rain woman, she was just weird. Jonathan didn’t trust her at all.

If it came to a head to head between Jonathan and Gary for any reason, Rain could be an issue. She seemed to have a soft spot for Gary, which meant she would take his side. Jonathan didn’t know her statistics or abilities, but he’d seen her in action and knew that she was far more powerful than he was.

The sooner he could consolidate his power in the group, the better.