Mr. Stanson picked up his gun again and aimed at the makeshift door. The footsteps sounded louder and louder by the second as the visitors approached the. Then like before a frog monster burst through the door and again was met by a round from the rifle.

The body began to fall like its predecessor, but before it could hit the ground another one jumped through the door and met a similar fate. Then another and another, Roy watched in horror as the bodies began to pile up and slide off of each other, even as more and more of the frog monsters leaped in from the open door and over its kin.

Roy kept count on the number of frog monsters that had leaped into the room, at every count he hoped it would be the end of them, and then the fifteenth leaped into the room and the only response was a soft click from the rifle.

A sense of dread overtook Roy as the frog monster tackled Mr. Stenson just as he reached under the desk for another clip. The creature sank its teeth into Mr. Stenson’s calf as he ejected the empty magazine and inserted the fresh clip. He took aim at the frog on his leg and fired just as another leaped through the doorway. Then another and another, soon Mr. Stenson was on the ground surround by the things, some dead and other’s still alive and clinging to his body.

There was a commotion at the other end of the room as Tristan reached into his bag and pulled out his baseball bat. He rushed to Mr. Stenson and began to knock off the frog monsters that were biting at the man on the ground. Then Huxley began to shuffle out of the crowd and followed Tristan’s lead.

A few of the students were on their phones, some of the calls seemed to have connected, and others were trying in vain. As the shock began to wear off the room filled with their voices. Roy tried to reach for his own phone when he was interrupted by the scene of another frog leaping into the room. This time it seemed to consider the downed man, then slowly began to pivot its bulging body, until its two large eyes stared right into Roy’s.

Roy stared at the two bulbous eyes and the eyes stared back. Slowly he began to push his chair out, his hands shook as they clutched the table for support. Eyes darting to the side, Roy contemplated grabbing his backpack. His left arm reached out for his bag, as he turned his attention back to the frog. Its mouth was open and its body hurtling towards him. Saliva flew out from the corners of its mouth, the thick substance faintly glowing in the dark of the room.

Roy had just enough time to lift the arm clutching the table for support, before the monster slammed into his body, pushing his out stretched hand into his chest. Something was off about his arms, curled into a position he never could have imagined was possible, and then the pain hit him like another frog monster. Roy screamed, it was a blaring throb which only seemed to worsen as the frog put pressure on the twisted limb. Then its mouth bit down on his shoulder and he could see his own blood squirt out from the wound.

Driven by panic Roy searched for something with his free arm, desperately patting down the sides of his bag. His hand found something and he clutched at it, driven by a desperate need Roy plunged the something into one of the bulging eyes.

The eye deflated like a balloon, its contents splattering his left arm which was still clutching onto a pencil. The monster opened its mouth to let out a hoarse growl before clamping down again this time on his left forearm. Roy tried to move his right but any effort he put in was met with a wave of pain. He was completely disarmed.

Roy could feel his blood pouring out of his shoulder, an artery had probably been gouged and he was likely to bleed out before the frog monster finished its meal. With one last ditch effort Roy rocked his body to the left, tilting the chair and sending the both of them sprawling on to the ground, with Roy on top.

The frog opened its mouth as its back hit the ground and Roy used the opportunity to slam his pencil into its belly, which was surprisingly soft. The pencil tore through the skin and the rest of his arm followed its way in.

Roy was about to collapse head first into the frog when suddenly he felt his body being propelled backwards. He felt his chest cavity cave in and a moment of weightlessness, before falling back onto the ground and skidding to a stop in front of the blackboard. He struggled to breath and watched as the frog monster kicked out a few more times before it ceased to move.

Roy though about celebrating but then realized that he probably wasn’t long for this world either. The rest of the frogs were dead, beaten into a pulp by Tristan. Mr. Stenson was lying on the ground, his body covered in wounds, but the man was still alive. Roy was snapped back to attention as another blue screen popped out in front of him.

Reward

For demonstrating great tenacity at the onset of the system you have been rewarded.

1x Elixir of Vitality

After reading the message Roy willed it to go away and it disappeared, in its place was an intricate glass veil, inside swirled a red liquid which was quite vibrant even in the dark of the room. As Roy eyes stared at the veil it gently settled on the floor beside him. Another blue screen appeared before his eyes as he stared at the veil.

Attention

To examine an object focus on it and think [Examine]

Elixar of Vitality

Restore Health Completely

Remove All Conditions

Increase CON to HP Modifier by 0.1

Increase Max HP by 100

Roy carefully raised his left arm and picked up the veil. His entire arm was a sanguine shade and blood was still gushing from his wounds. Roy called out his status screen and observed that he had 9 points of health left. The [Condition] also showed that he was [Bleeding Severely] and [Poisoned].

Using his teeth Roy pulled out the stopper and gulped down the contents of the veil. Instantly his wounds began to visibly heal. The number beside his health jumped to 127 and then to 234. The bleeding and poison effects also disappeared. Roy felt like he had just taken a stroll in the park, as opposed to being mauled by an overgrown frog.

Leo and Arnold walked over to the frog he had killed just moments ago, the two looked down at the body, they prodded it to make sure it was dead and then stared. Leo walked over to Roy and knelt down, putting his hand over his eyes and trying to push down on his eyelids.

“I’m still alive.”

Leo jumped up in surprise and then seemed to look over his body which was sprawled on the ground. The amount of blood pooled on the ground had probably given him the impression that he had died.

“Oh, sorry...” he raised his arm and straightened his shirt for a lack of anything better to do with his hands.

“Do you need any help?” Leo was around five foot five and looked fairly scrawny, despite that he was working part time as a life guard, so he probably had his first aid certifications, “To get that bandaged.”

“I think I’m fine,” he couldn’t believe it himself; the contents of that tiny bottle had probably saved his life.

“Oh, ok. I’ll go check up on Mr. Stenson then,” Leo gave Roy one last look with his dark brown eyes before heading over to Mr. Stenson.

With his body out of the way Roy could see Arnold use his foot to prod at the dead frog monster. Arnold was fascinated by animals, ever since kindergarten he had spent his time looking at, touching, killing and then dissecting a whole variety of critters. His favorite part of course was the killing bit.

Just as he thought that, Arnold gave the corpse a strong kick that sent it tumbling across the aisle like a soccer ball. Its appendage twisted around it torso and all manner of liquids spilled onto the ground from the wound in its belly.

Then he turned around and looked at Roy, “Fuck that thing, never seen anything like it on National Geographic.”

“Pretty sure it’s not of this world,” Roy pushed himself off the ground and made sure not to slip on his own pool of blood. Roy followed Arnold as he walked up to the corpse again, this time he picked it up and dropped it onto a desk. Its torso fit but the legs dangled from the sides. Roy was reminded of the frog dissections in Biology, which probably wasn’t far from what Arnold was about to do.

Roy looked down at its body, the mouth was wide open and the teeth were caked with blood. Roy took a step backwards and readied himself in case the dead body wanted to return to life and jump at him again. As he studied the monster another blue screen popped out.

Attention

To obtain extra items from a body, focus on it and then think [Loot]

The way that was worded was pretty morbid, Roy almost felt like he was a grave robber as he focused on the frog and thought [Loot]. Conjuring up images of him digging up the frog in the cemetery at midnight, all while being scrutinized by the tombstone at its head.

Another blue screen interrupted his thoughts.

Loot

1x Corroded Iron Dirk of Failing Fortitude

An item appeared beside the corpse, as Roy turned his attention to the dagger, the blue screen disappeared. Arnold looked at the blade and then looked back at Roy.

“This yours?” he asked as he motioned towards the knife. He was probably hoping to cut open the frog with it.

“Yes, and no you can’t borrow it,” Roy quickly picked up the knife and examined it. As he thought that another blue screen appeared.

Corroded Iron Dirk of Failing Fortitude

The prized possession of a talented young captain. A tragedy at sea led to the deaths of all aboard the EIS Resilent, with it went the hopes of the settlers of New Atlarium. Since then this weapon as lain buried under the waves.

4 – 8 Physical Damage (Slashing & Puncture)

(While Equipped) - 5 CON

Enemies damaged by the dirk suffer – 1 CON for 2m (Stack up to 10 times)

Enemies with 10 stacks lose 100% of base HP regeneration

Roy held the dagger in his hands, and wondered whether or not that counted as being equipped. Roy brought up his status screen and found that his CON had been reduced, and with it HP had fallen to 209. He then placed his dagger at his side, slowly his constitution rose back to 9; however, his HP stayed at 209, it was separated from the number 234 by a slash. It appeared that his current HP would not follow his max HP as it rose.

Character Sheet

Name Roy Stone Level 1

Race Human Condition Normal

HP 209 / 234 HP Regeneration 0.009

MP 118 MP Regeneration 0.04

-

Statistics

STR 9 INT 10

CON 9 WIS 7

DEX 10 AGI 10

Unallocated Stat Points 0

-

Resistances

Heat 0 Cold 0

Force 0 Electric 0

Poison 0 Corrosion 0

Hallow 0 Void 0

Mental 0 Spiritual 0

-

Skills

-

Abilities

-

Traits

-

Roy sat in the puddle of his own blood as his mind wandered and further scrutinized the status menu. The loss of four points in CON, or constitution as he determined, only led to a drop of 25 points in HP. After the drop he would be left with only 4 points in constitution, it seemed unreasonable to assume that those four points would be responsible for 207 points of HP. Thus Roy felt that his HP must have a base a value, this was further reinforced by the fact that the elixir had risen max HP by a hundred points. Furthermore, if Roy assumed that the base HP was a nice even gamey 200, the first 4 points in constitution would have had a 7 point effect on HP. Decidedly less than the 27 points the next 5 points had on HP. Roy could assume that constitution had a greater per point effect on HP at higher values, but that would be a stretch so Roy left that as a tentative answer.

Next he moved on to the dagger. Roy wasn’t too sure on the other stats of the dagger. How did damage work, and what distinguished a slashing from a puncture based attack? Roy had played plenty of games in his spare time, but the calculations had eluded him, in the end bigger always meant better.

Of course he didn’t feel like finding out right now considering that meant fighting something, and fighting something would eventually lead to a bloody conclusion, one which he had almost arrived at just moments ago. Roy though back to Lawrence’s reaction, now that he had almost bled to death he was beginning to regret his earlier enthusiasm.

Roy was interrupted as Arnold stomped over to his own bag. He quickly pulled out a multi-tool and flipped open the knife. Then he pulled the frog back up by the leg and began to cut open its stomach using the small knife.

Roy walked away and joined up with the group gathering around Mr. Stenson. Tristan was at the front; Mr. Stenson leaned onto his shoulder as he gulped down a vial of red liquid. Some of his wounds abated but he still looked half dead. Roy surmised that those were of a different variety then the panacea he had gulped down. Besides bleeding, Roy had also been hit with poison. Without some type of antidote Mr. Stenson’s situation would only slowly deteriorate.

“Alright class,” Mr. Stenson dropped the gun onto his desk and pulled out 3 more magazines from his desk, he then plopped them down beside the rifle and made no move to pick up the gun, “I’m going to head down to the office. I want everyone to stay in the room and wait for the announcements; if they don’t come by tomorrow morning I want the class to head to the police station at Ford and First Street. Does everyone understand?”

There were a few murmurs around the room. Then Julia shouted from the back of the room, her voice quivering. The class turned their attention to the girl near the back. Her auburn hair was a mess; it partially obscured her eyes which were in a worse state then before.

“NOOO, you can’t leave! What if those things come back?” her eyes dart from Mr. Stenson to the pile of dead frogs on the ground.

Mr. Stenson turned his gaze to Tristan, “While I’m gone Tristan is in charge, make sure to keep quiet.” Mr. Stenson picked up his hat, an old wide brimmed thing with a hole at the side. He walked to the door and looked over the class one more time.

“Make sure this door is covered and the windows are closed,” he stared at the group who had opened the windows, “Your homework questions are on page one hundred and eighty-three, if you don’t know the answers make sure you get them from a friend before class starts tomorrow. That goes doubly for you Mr. Stone.”

Roy flinched on instinct as his name was called out, then he looked back towards Mr. Stenson, his face is pale and he seems to sway from side to side, probably because of the poison.

“Of course, Sir.”

“Alright, have a nice weekend everyone.” he said as he walked out of the room and turned to the left. His footsteps echoed in the empty hallways before disappearing.