I look at the ring in my palm for a few seconds. Then I turn my vision to the sky, scanning for the bird. However, it’s nowhere to be seen.

I give up looking for the bird and start trying the ring on different fingers. After some testing I find that it best fits the ring finger on my right hand. With it on I feel a cold rush pass through me. Then I feel normal.

I take the ring off and that cold feeling races out of me. I put the ring back on, this time I have my vision turned inwards.

As the ring slides onto my finger I notice a force of oddly flavored mana run through me. It settles in around my heart and brain. Then I can’t sense it anymore.

When I take the ring off the strange mana passes out of me and back into the ring. I put it back on and open my Stats Screen.

Personal Stats:

Attributes:

Value

Name:

Joel Dylan

STR:

14

Level:

20

DEX:

6

To Next Level

1/2500

AGI:

6

Sex:

Male

END:

16

Age:

19

INT:

56

Class:

Earth Mage

WIS:

19

LUC:

4

HP

100/100

CHA:

5

Mana

122/122

PER:

10

WIL:

18 (+3)

Free Attribute points:

11

When I take it off the +3 vanishes from the screen. It reappears when I put it back on.

“Is there something special about this ring or does all jewelry now boost attributes?” I ask no one.

“What?” A voice asks me.

I whip around seeing Abby looking at me quizzically. When did she get here?

I take the ring off and show it to her.

“It boosts my Willpower.” I say.

“Really? Where did you get it?” She asks.

She quickly makes her way to me and looks closely at the ring.

“Umm. A bird gave it to me.” I say.

Her gaze pops up to me. As her eyebrows raise in disbelief.

“Seriously?” She asks.

“Yeah.” I say looking away from her.

She eyes me skeptically for a few moments. Then she shrugs as if she doesn’t believe me, but doesn’t want to press the matter.

“It’s a pretty ring.” She says.

“You think so?”

She nods.

We fall into a strange silence. With me unsure what to do and her still eyeing the ring. I feel a little protective over it and place it back onto my finger. The cold sensation runs through me and vanishes.

With the ring on she looks up at me. Her gaze shifts from the precious curiosity to something scary.

“Why did you run off?” She asks.

My heart races as I feel heat wash through my face. I stammer for an answer but none come to me.

“I’m sorry.” I say.

“It was rude to do. My dad thinks you hate him now.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t. I just…” I lose my voice at the end, unsure on how to describe what I felt.

She stares at me and I feel as if I’m being read like an open book. Her judgmental gaze falters and in her eyes I see pity.

“You know back in middle school you used to come to school with bruises all over you.” She says.

I feel my blood stop in me as I’m brought back to those times. To the beatings and being yelled at. To the fearful walks home knowing that dad was upset with me.

“I always thought that you were just one of those boys that played rough. But when dad saw you at the memorial day assembly, he said that I should be extra kind to you. I didn’t know what he meant at the time but I think I get it now.”

She stops talking and I just stare blankly at her.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened but I’m here if you want to talk.” She says after looking into my eyes.

Then she runs off leaving me in a bad mood and alone once again.

It takes me a while to calm down. Remembering the past always leaves me in a bad mood that takes a while to disperse. On top of that my hand still burns from where the acid sprayed on me.

So with a sour mood I get comfortable and turn my vision inwards. I spend some time finding all the damage to my body and then heal them. Once done I find that I still have three quarters of my mana left and still plenty of sunlight.

To try and help distract myself from my sour mood I start looking for another channel that has some blockage in it. One found I use the same process as last time of forming thunderous waves to crash into it until it’s gone.

This channel runs from my core and down around my stomach. Once the blockage is gone I get a terrible urge to use the restroom.

I race over to a bathroom on the roof and relieve myself. By far one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had in a bathroom.

I block the memory from my mind hoping to never think of it again.

I exit the restroom and my stomach gurgles. Looking towards the sun I see that it’s starting to set. Hours must have passed while I was purifying that channel.

I walk down to the seventh floor where I see everybody except Angila and Andy gathered.

“Oh perfect timing. I was just about to send someone to find you.” Decker says. “Take a seat.”

I go to sit down and as I do so Abby hands me a bowl of left overs and fruits. I accept it and find a seat off to the side.

“Great. So there’s a few things we need to go over. First of all are our short term and long term goals.” Decker says.

I notice that no one else is eating. Did they already eat? Should I wait to eat?

Abby glances at me and makes a motion as if to say go for it.

I feel uncomfortable being the only one to be eating but I’m starving. So I ignore the feelings inside of me and start wolfing down the meal.

“Short term we need to survive day to day. We can’t just hold up here and pray someone comes to save us. The more time we spend in here the stronger the zombies get out there. But as someone has brought to my attention we also need to focus on more than just our strength. Hygiene, health, food, clothes. We need all of these things to survive.”

I find myself nodding at Decker’s words as I eat. He’s right on all fronts. I’ve even realized that we’ve been neglecting certain aspects of survival.

“So I want to hear some ideas from you guys.” Decker finishes.

We’re plunged into silence and all I can hear is me chewing on food. Can the others hear me chew too?

“We can raid the CVS store that’s over on Bergen Street.” Jessica says.

“Yeah and I think we should also look into hitting the Nordstrom Rack.” Rabecca says.

“What about the hotel across the street?” Kyle asks.

The group falls into silence as Decker mulls over the ideas.

“I think that the hotel might be too dangerous right now but we definitely should send a group to clear it. As for the CVS we’ll send a group over tomorrow to bring back some personal hygiene items. Nordstrom Rack is going to have to be put on a back burner. While making sure we have clean clothes is a must, it's not as important as our hygiene.” Decker says.

“I think we should clear out all the buildings around us.” Kyle says. “I think it’ll be safer for us to come and go from this building if we don’t have to worry about being ambushed by zombies from those buildings.”

“That’s a good point. So much to do and not enough people.” Decker says.

“What if we try looking for more people? This building is huge. I’m sure it can house loads more.” Chris says.

“While I would love to be able to bring more people in, we have to make sure that we can take care of ourselves. If we come across people we should definitely offer them refuge here. But we can’t make other people a priority until we can take care of ourselves.” Decker says.

“What about that safe zone thingy? Can we get supplies from that?” Halley asks.

Decker’s eyes glaze over as I assume he’s looking through the Safe Zone screen.

“Most of the things on this list are just furniture, some I think can be used to help us. But I need some time to experiment with them. However I do appreciate you bringing it up because there is something I want to get.”

Decker trails off as his eyes dart around looking at the air in front of him.

“Don’t panic.” He says.

Just then the temperature in the room drops. A sudden and strong tugging sensation yanks on me.

I look over to the direction that I feel pulled in. There I find a large black orb the size of a large TV floating. Then it vanishes leaving a small billboard looking object where it was.

A large rectangle made of some grey metal stands on two posts that dig into the ground. On one side of the rectangle is a black board that reminds me of a chalkboard. The other side is just the grey metal.

“This is a Quest Board.” Decker says.

Curiosity brims in me as I put the empty bowl down and walk over to the board. When I focus on the black rectangle the board comes to life with blue letters.

Dozens of quests fill the black space. They’re broken up into four sections. On the left is the name of the quest, then the reward for the quest. Followed by the difficulty and lastly the cost.

The cost of the quests is what first catches my attention. We have to buy quests? With what?

As I examine the board I notice my name at the top. Next to my name is ‘kill points: 221’.

So do we use kill points to purchase quests? Like how the Safe Zone needs kill points to purchase items?

I read through the quests most of which give some kind of item as a reward. Some give experience and a few give skills. The quests that give skills catch my attention first.

“What do you see?” Someone from the crowd asks.

“It looks like you can purchase quests with kill points. They reward you with items, experience, or skills.” I say.

I hear the crowd murmur as some other people swarm around the board. I ignore them as I continue to read through the quests.

It seems that the difficulty of the quests is based on some kind of letter grading scale. The most costly quests are generally ranked S while the cheapest are ranked F.

As I read through the large list of quests a few pop out at me as interesting. When I focus on one the slot for it extends with a description below the name, rank, and reward.

Available Quests:

Quest Name:

Reward:

Difficulty:

Cost:

Vision Of the Night

Skill: Night Vision

+1 to Perception

F

10

Spend 8 hours trying to adapt to the dark.

Sleepless Nights Matter Not

Skill: Tireless Mind

+2 to Endurance

+3 to Willpower

D

25

Stay awake for 48 straight hours without the aid of substances.

Scavenge

Skill: Scavenging

+3 to Luck

E

75

Search 50 bodies for valuable items

Space in Space

Skill: Spatial Magic

+2 to Endurance

+2 to Intelligence

+2 to Willpower

D+

150

Carry 300 pounds for 1 miles without rest.

All of the other quests with skills as rewards cost more than my 221 points. Plenty of other quests are within my budget but their rewards are like 50 experience points or some kind of jewelry. A few quests have interesting items that I may come back to.

But that voice in mind tells me to focus on the skill quests. As if they are more beneficial to me.

So mostly out of curiosity I purchase the two cheapest skills. The moment I focus on the quests with the intent to purchase them a window asking me to confirm pops up. I select yes then pull up my Quest Log.

Quest Log:

Quest Name:

Difficulty:

Reward:

Vision of the Night

F

Skill: Night Vision

+1 to Perception

Sleepless Nights Matter Not

D

Skill: Tireless Mind

+2 to Endurance

+3 to Willpower

A hand appears on my shoulder bringing warmth with it. I turn and find Decker looking down at me.

“What do you think?”

“I think this is going to become essential to our survival. Some of these quests offer weapons and armor. So that means we may not have to worry too much about scavenging for those items. Then others offer skills and even different types of magic apparently.” I say.

“Interesting. That’s just what I was hoping for.” Decker says.

He smiles at me then takes a few steps back and turns to the group of people.

“Honestly, there is still so much we don’t understand about this system. But I promise you all that I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that we survive. Tomorrow we will send a group out to scavenge the CVS store. Is there anything else we should go over?” Decker asks.

“Do we have any plans on getting the power back?” Nathen asks.

“While we have generators in the garage I don’t want to needlessly use the fuel. But I think I may have found a work around for that but I don’t know how to go about using the new fuel source.” Decker says.

“Well if you need any help I’m an electrical engineer.” Nathen says.

It feels weird calling Abby’s father Nathen. Almost like calling a teacher by their first name.

“Then I think you and I should have a talk later. Alright that’s it for the night. Go and rest, tomorrow will be a busy day.” Decker says.