Looking around the teacher’s lounge, things hadn’t changed much from when we left it this morning. The only noticeable thing I saw different was a large pile of shiny things cluttering across the top of the coffee table. Isabella was starting to dig through the fridge and getting some of the last remaining rat meat out, while the little goblin curled itself up in the far corner and tried to make its presence as small as possible.

It seems as if this little guy had developed quite a powerful fear of the two of us, and I can’t really say I blame it for that. First, we defeat it and kill four of its companions. Then we capture it, rip off its claws and teeth, and then feed on its very life multiple times. And to top it all off, we slaughter seven more of its kin upon the rooftop and as it's forced to gather their belongings, it has to watch me chop and slice them into pieces. If I was it, I think I’d curl up and hide in a corner as much as possible too. I didn’t trust the thing as far as Isabella could throw it, but for now it seemed to be sufficiently afraid so as to not be an immediate danger.

Having decided the goblin was currently harmless; I went over to the kitchen and laid a pile of fresh bloody meat on the counter. “For that thing,” I snorted as I pointed a finger over towards the goblin.

Isabella looked to where I pointed and said, “Lunchmeat.”

“Not for us. For him. I’m not quite ready to eat something that looks so much like a human yet.” I told her.

Isabella giggled and then leaned over and hugged me lightly. “Lunchmeat is what I’m calling that thing for now. It seems suitable to me, at least.”

Realizing that she meant the goblin had earned the name Lunchmeat somehow made me feel a little conflicted. Part of me felt sorry for the wretched creature and yet part of me just wanted to go over and kick it until it quit moving for good. I still hadn’t forgotten the corpse of the girl that I’d found sprawled and dead inside the center of the goblin’s igloo. These things killed us, or worse, and still I felt pity for them. Did that make me weak, or strong, I wonder?

Uncertain of even my own thoughts, I didn’t say anything. I simply turned and went on into the bathroom and started trying to get as much of the blood of these beasts off me as I possibly could. I washed my hands and face, and then stripped and did a quick rub down of the rest of my body at the sink. I took the coveralls and dropped them into the tub and ran the water to fill it up so they could soak and maybe some of the blood would come out of them later. They’d need another good stitching soon later too.

Finally, I went back into the lounge and flopped down in my favorite chair. Over the last several weeks, I’d gotten so used to Isabella running around undressed, and I suppose I’d adjusted to my own state of undress, I didn’t even bother with trying to put on the other pair of overalls right now. Instead, I just leaned back, shut my eyes, and tried to focus on healing. If wizards could meditate to recover mystical energy faster, why wasn’t there a way to meditate and recover health faster? Or maybe that’s what that last skill I earned did, and I needed to simply practice it more?

“Stats, skills,” I said. I wanted to look over my recent growth and see if anything unusual had changed.

Name: Bloody HellTitles: The WitnessAge: 17Level: 9CP: 0STR: 10SYI: 8WIL: 7DEX: 10MYS: 8PRE: 7CON: 27SPR: 2LUC: 11HP: 186(132)MP: 80SP: 0PD: 1DR: 0MR: 0SE: 9PE: 48

Club Use – Proficiency (8)Dagger Use – Proficiency (4)Familiarities (Rat) (1) – Due to prolonged exposure with the rat species, you now have a chance to try and understand their behavior patterns and habits with more accuracy.Harvesting (Animal) (18)—Allows the user to attempt to harvest meat and other goods from an animal. The higher the skill, the higher quality animal products that can be harvested.Physical Amelioration (1) – improved the rate of healing by 1% for each level of this skillHarvesting (Humanoid) (6) -- Allows the user to attempt to harvest meat and other goods from a humanoid being. The higher the skill, the higher quality animal products that can be harvested.Intimidation (1) – Allows the user to attempt to imtimidate and frighten the target. Chance of success and level of intimidation increases as the skill improves.Roar (1) – Area of Effect ability that may intimidate, fear, or taunt areas around the character.Spiritual Manipulation – Allows the user to manipulate the energy of the spirit realm when the conditions are right to do so. (12)Taunt (1) – Ability to taunt one creature to draw or keep its attention focused solely on you.Witness Liquidation -- ???Witness Protection -- ????Witness Reconstitution -- ??? (Current death today: 0)

Thirteen skills so far, but I still wasn’t certain what the three witness skills did or how to improve them. The rest of them were low trained and I didn’t have much faith in them, but since they were fighting type talents, I didn’t have many chances to practice them. Isabella had been making spells and just tossing them at thin air, but who was I supposed to practice Taunt against? My Shadow? I suppose I could try with the goblin again; even if I just increased Intimidation, it was an improvement on something.

As I was contemplating on how to improve my skills – I wasn’t certain if poking the goblin with a feather or something would train up Dagger Use or something else (Maybe Acting since it wasn’t really fighting, but pretending to fight?) – Isabella came over with a small rag full of meat and sat it down on the table in front of me. There wasn’t a lot of room left on the table because of all the little rings, earrings, bracelets and things the goblin had scavenged, so Isabella slid the pile of them as close to the edge as she possibly could without them spilling off. A moment later she left and came back with another rag filled with food, which turned out to be apple slices when she laid it down and unfolded it!

As I greedily reached for an apple slice, Isabella quickly slapped my hand with a slight giggle and then sat down in my lap. “You rest and heal. I’ll feed you.” As the after thoughts of battle always tired me more than the actual fight itself, I didn’t even argue. I just closed my eyes and tried to calm my heart and mind.

I was going to try and put myself in front of Izzy so I could keep her safe, and honestly I had no clue how to do that. Most movies or anime made it seem like a person just picked up a stick and then three days later they had mastered it and become an expert martial artist. Maybe other people were like that, but sometimes I felt like I didn’t even know which end of the tail to hold that rat’s spike by.

If this were some sort of manga, the author would’ve tossed some old retired Japanese samurai in one of the rooms and had him sitting there cross-legged and meditating, just waiting to pass on his knowledge to the ‘chosen one’. Even thinking of it made me smirk a little to myself. I know my luck; I would’ve walked in and the old dude would’ve told me, “I can’t teach you. You’re not the chosen one. You’re the witness.”

Somehow, I couldn’t help but smile at my own wistful silliness. Isabella kept feeding me little tidbits of rat and apples, and we passed the next half an hour or so in quiet before she finally got up and went to the kitchen to clean up. I guess over the last two weeks, we’ve learned how to read each other fairly well. I knew that when she started to get paler, she was either getting flustered and embarrassed, or else hot under the collar and upset. She’s learned that sometimes I just like to sit and be alone in my own thoughts and enjoy the quiet, and she was kind enough to allow me those moments of peace.

Honestly, her warmth, her touch, her kind and gentle way, I’d come to both relax and rely on these things. Isabella might be a demon that fed on my life sometimes, but she really didn’t want to. Since we’d gotten the goblin yesterday, she’s barely fed on me since. I know she needs the energy for practicing or using her magic, and yet she was trying to get by without feeding on me as much as possible. I might joke to myself and say that I’m becoming a demon worshipper, but truthfully, the joke might be on me. I think I honestly might be!

Finally, I glanced up and noticed that my health had returned fully the rest of the way. It was kind of annoying to have to keep a stats window up and hovering to the side all the time; it created a blind spot in my vision, off to the left of the center of my vision. What this system needed was some sort of way to do a custom UI Skin for information or something. Or maybe even a way to see your own picture at the far edge with the party images.

As it was, I had a blind spot in my vision, but I needed that information so I could gauge my own life. You’d think that building up a physical endurance and feeling less pain would be a good thing, but like most things in life, it had a downside too. I wasn’t adjusted to this new level of pain insensitivity, nor to this level of health, and as such it created some sort of disconnect with my brain’s way of processing how hurt I actually was. When a rat first bit me for six points of damage, it hurt, and I knew that I’d suffered a major wound. Now, I could impale myself on a goblin’s spear and it barely registered. There was pain, a sudden flash of pain, but nothing debilitating. No mental warning from my brain that said, “Hey you, you just got hurt bad! Hold still, apply pressure, and seek immediate medical treatment!”

It’s a shame, but I honestly needed the numbers right now just to let me know how close to dying I was, and how much more punishment I could sustain before it was all over. I’ve never read about anything like this before in those stories, or heard it mentioned in a TV show or movie, but it might explain a few things that I used to laugh about when watching action flicks. You know the scene where the hero gets shot in the arm, blood flies; takes three more shots to the leg and shoulder; and then climbs a ladder at full speed ahead? I almost felt like that might be me right now. My health and physical endurance has risen so quickly, my mind hasn’t sorted out the subtle nuances of what’s a tiny wound, what’s a major wound, what’s not even worth counting as a wound – so it just kind of says “umm… ouch… need more information to process degree of ouch… ouch…”

I guess as I experience more things with this beyond-human body (I’ve passed the old limits of human constitution, you know!), I’ll learn how to better judge the effect of things on it. A child doesn’t know what “hot” is until he puts his hand on a stove eye or something for the first time. I suppose I’m a child of the new superhuman? Ultrahuman? Extrahuman? BeyondHuman? What the heck should I call the people who had pushed past the old human limits? OH! I know! Since Apple is probably destroyed, they can’t get upset if I use the term iHumans! Infinite Humans, or iHumans for short, since there might not actually be an upper limit to what we can grow and become from now on!

I suppose I’m a child of the new iHuman race!

Smiling, I got up and began to get dressed in the spare pair of coveralls. You know what type of magic I’d learn, if I could right now? Some sort of self-cleaning, self-stitching clothing enchantment that would keep my things from falling apart. Apparently, a person can heal from almost any level of injury after enough time. Unfortunately, their clothes didn’t. Tomorrow, I might be fine after getting stabbed twenty times, but my clothes were still going to be full of holes. A magic that made clothes mend themselves would actually go high on my list of spells to learn, if I was a wizard. I guess I’m just strange.

Isabella looked at me while I was dressing and raised an eyebrow in my direction. “What’s going on?”

Shrugging, I answered. “I was just going to take a look out and see how things are now. I’m fully healed once more, so I was thinking now might be a good time to try something with that goblin wall. If nothing else, maybe I could lure a few more of them out into the hallway and pick them off. We’ve cleared twelve in the last two days, and their numbers can’t be limitless. If there’s only a few in there now, I might be able to clear past them.”

“I’ll come with you,” Isabella answered.

I frowned but didn’t argue. She’s already shown she can handle herself with the fight on the roof.

“Tie that beast up first and make certain he can’t get loose,” I told her.

I cracked open the door without bothering to look back, but I trusted she could handle the little wretch. Or kill it if she had to. When I didn’t hear anything at first, I opened the door a crack and glanced up and down the hallway as much as I could. Silently, I shut it back.

“Nevermind,” I told her. “The Jello-Muncher is coming. I don’t know if it’s just patrolling or if it can sense the blood or something else draws it, but it’s sloshing its way down the hall and towards the roof.”

“But,” I said with a smile, “if it acts like normal, we’ll have some time once it gets up to the roof. From what I saw observing it before, it seems to take about half an hour to consume a corpse, and it consumes one before it goes on to the next. Once it starts eating, we should have a little more than three hours to get down the hall and mess with that blockade.“

“Excellent,” Isabella said as the little goblin began to scream again. Once more she was feeding on the little beast and stealing its life until it passed out on the brink of death. “I’ll take the time to see if I can do something to help us improve our odds a little more out there.”

I wasn’t certain what she had in mind, but I trusted her and left her to her own preparations as I stayed at the door and anxiously waited for Jello-Muncher to pass us on by so we could take the fight back out to the goblins once more.