“Approximately 250,000.”

  According to public reports, that’s how many people survived the Initiation scenario in Nightmare. However, as many others have already remarked, mere figures are inadequate to paint a proper picture of what occurred that night. And, at least for my liking, it is far too round a number.

  As an outsider looking in, Nightmare is a rather frustrating subject of research. For obvious reasons, there is a severe scarcity of verifiable sources, and I find that the claims of many attesting to having escaped Nightmare with return stones fall into question under closer scrutiny. Given the nature of known survivors, this information drought was inevitable. I have verified my sources to my greatest capabilities, but understand that my analysis is imperfect, and should not be taken as definitive truth. No two Scenarios were created the same, and far too many have been lost to time along with those who faced them. Still, their stories are significant to history, so forgive me if later, I stray beyond the facts and numbers I specialize in.

  Statistics alone cannot tell the full story, but in the end, this much is certain:

  One million people entered Nightmare, and when Nightmare ended six months later, only two hundred seventeen returned.”

  —Klein Harriston, A Meta-analysis of Nightmare, August 2024

  Alex shifted in place, the ground making a clammy, squelching sound underfoot. Crows cawed and swooped all around him—unfazed by the shyness they might’ve felt when they were still alive about plucking eyeballs or pecking intestines in front of others. Adjusting his interface, he undid the battle-mode preset he’d created, only to be bombarded with notifications.

  Scenario 1 has been cleared! Congratulations on surviving your first night!

  Rewards for Scenario completion:

  +1,000 Essence Crystals

  Basic Skills Catalog

  100 discounted, easy-to-learn skills of all shapes and sizes! Low costs and even lower slot equips! Would you like to download into shop interface——

  Sure, Alex mentally intoned, waving the notification away.

  Another popped up in its place.

  Skill Paths have been unlocked for purchase in the shop! Skill Paths are——

  Skip.

  —the primary method of class acquisition. The skills you acquire can impact what classes you qualify for, and these Skill Paths will keep you on track for your desired class! Once downloaded into your UI, Skill Paths will provide suggestions for your next purchase and adjust your strategy after each new skill you acquire…

  Alex struggled not to roll his eyes as the robotic voice droned on.

  Of course they’d make this one unskippable.

  Skill Paths were important—except, only the sixteen Standard Class Skill Paths would even be remotely affordable before Scenario 3. At least, so long as people were spending their Essence Crystals wisely, leveling up, or acquiring useful skills for survival.

  Which might be fine if they weren’t also complete rip-offs. In his first life Alex originally chose the Warrior Skill Path, but if he’d known that, it would’ve saved him a lot of heart-ache.

  …Would you like to visit the Skill Paths section in the shop to acquire——

  No.

  Once the System understood he wasn’t interested, it finally hushed up, leaving only silent notifications.

  Aptitude with [Stealth] has been recognized. Proficiency gains have been accelerated.

  60% progress to Adept rank.

  Huh. That’s interesting.

  Skills were ranked from Novice to Adept, Expert, Master, Sage, and eventually Immortal. In his first life, he’d gotten Stealth to the Master rank. The System seemed to recognize his prior experience, granting him a proficiency boost. It was rare but not unheard of—like, for instance, when a professional archer picked up an archery skill.

  Is this going to happen for all my skills?

  Alex was considering the implications of that when he heard a wet splatter behind him, the sound of Jun retching his guts out. Everyone did their first time. He pushed down the sick feeling and kept scrolling.

  New achievement! You have cleared the Initiation scenario with less than 50% stamina to start with!

  Attribute [Half-Dead Persistence] has been granted!

  Decreases stamina consumption when under 25% Health or Stamina.

  Begrudgingly, Alex felt his expression lift a little. Twisted as it was, it felt good to gain something back after everything he’d lost. Although, it would’ve been better not to lose those things in the first place. Nightmare was known for its good bonuses and opportunities; he’d be lying to say he wasn’t looking forward to that. They were all slaves to the System, but it was hard not to heel like a dog at the bones it tossed—even when they weren’t worth the ordeals.

  Power was the way of the world. If seeing these screens meant he’d survived another trial, then their sheer existence was something to cling to.

  New achievement!

  [Reckless Vigor]

  You have skipped the Orientation and still survived Initiation!

  +10 Essence Crystals!

  New achievement!

  [Not Even Close]

  You have beat the Nightmare Initiation Scenari while above 75% Health!

  +50 Essence Crystals!

  Optional Scenario Quest: Vanquish Thy Evil has been completed! Evil has been vanquished tonight, and the High Council rewards justice in great faith!

  + 2,500 Essence Crystals!

  Congratulations, you are one of only 17,583 to complete the scenario quest! For this, you have been awarded an exclusive achievement:

  [Great Start]

  +1,000 Essence Crystals!

  [Nightmare Token] x1 has been added to your inventory.

  Those words shimmered over the field of wreckage: “Great Start.”

  The metallic tang of blood mixed with the putrid waste of spilled intestines. Whatever pittance of satisfaction he’d felt towards all the rewards he’d earned faded away. Alex dismissed the notifications until only one remained.

  Congratulations, Alex! With only 246,753 players remaining in Nightmare, you are in the top 25% of players!

  Please sit tight. A System Guide will be with you shortly!

  He closed the interface. There was nothing left to look at now. No threats, no tasks that needed his attention, no distractions. Just a moonlit night like the one he’d always tried to forget. And something told him he wouldn’t be forgetting this one either.

  “Two hundred forty six thousand…” a voice muttered.

  Alex spotted that young woman approaching from the tree line. As she stumbled into the moonlight, he realized she wasn’t a woman—she was a kid, probably around his sister’s age. “Two hundred forty six…” she whispered again. She’d had the sense to wipe the blood from her weapon, and Alex noticed she hadn’t vomitted like Jun. “So many. That’s…”

  “Over seven hundred fifty thousand,” Jun answered. “That’s how many died today.”

  Alex’s eyes swept over the battlefield, where corpses were strewn messily on the grass. He stood only a few feet from where the woman who’d given orders had been split in two.

  That many survived huh…

  He felt like it should be far lower, but the exact number hadn’t been something he cared to memorize. It made sense. Casualties weren’t evenly distributed; a lot of it came down to the luck of the draw and who you teleported in with.

  In those terms, all these people had drawn a dud. Alex took in the scene and decisively locked it away, placing it in that box in his mind that he did not open. Only one life still weighed on his consciousness. Regardless or not of his direct involvement, that woman's death was blood on his hands. He didn’t know if he regretted it, but he couldn’t help feeling remorse when he’d heard Jun’s words.

  At another time in Alex’s life, maybe they wouldn’t have gotten to him. But over those last few years, when there was nothing left to live for, all that seemed to matter was how Alex lived. And…I don’t know. Just reminded me a little of Jordan, I guess.

  A rustling sound, then a clink, came from his left.

  “What are you doing?” Jun asked.

  “What do you think I’m doing?” The girl lifted a leather waist pouch from a decapitated man. “He won’t be needing it now, will he?”

  “We should bury them,” Jun said, “It’s the right thing to do—”

  She clicked her tongue. “Right, two rags of bones and a half-cripple, digging twenty-something holes without a proper shovel. Brilliant idea! If that’s your preferred suicide method, then feel free!”

  Black hair shifted from her face as she sneered. There was a practicality to her actions that raised Alex’s hackles, but the way she averted her eyes from the corpses suggested she was putting up a strong front. He softened a little. She really was just a girl.

  One who's just had the worst day of her life.

  “She’s right,” Alex said. “It’s hard to stomach, but if we want to survive, we’ll need all the supplies we can get.”

  Jun looked conflicted, but he wasn’t the one who protested.

  “We?” the girl snarled. “What makes you think I’m sharing? You’ve already looted that monkey thing over there, haven’t you? This is mine!”

  Alex found himself taken aback. The venomous look in her eyes was unhinged and spoke of violence. He put his hand up in a gesture of peace. She seemed to take that as a cue to continue.

  Admittedly, he didn’t have much of an issue with that. All the weapons they’d been offered, including his own, were designed not to last very long. They weren’t even worth melting down. Almost all the armor was leather and either bloodied or in poor condition. More-so, Alex was interested in more mundane items, like a pair of boots in his size, which she probably wouldn’t take. But when he saw a bag of jerky peeking out from under someone, he still sneakily slid it away underfoot to add to his food stock.

  Jun was a little less subtle. He got up, limped some twenty-odd paces to the middle of the carnage, and reached down. The girl seized his wrist as he came up, and Alex saw what he was holding: glasses. She dropped her grip, and he wiped blood off the lenses with his shirt before wearing them. They were small, round, wire-rimmed, and very much completed his image in Alex’s mind—straightforward and minimalistic. His expression grew concerned once he donned them.

  “You’re injured…” he said.

  The girl shifted her left leg back. “Speak for your—”

  Before she’d even finished her sentence, Jun had already summoned a well-supplied first-aid kit from his inventory. “Come, sit. Show me your leg.”

  He beckoned her to follow him elsewhere after realizing there was no good place to sit in a field of corpses. She didn’t.

  Alex winced. Okay, so there was one person who had something worth looting. Basic supplies like those were worth their weight in gold in Nightmare, and he had the intense urge to scold Jun for flaunting them.

  Though, that might be a little out of step of me.

  A flurry of expressions crossed the girl's face too fast for him to read. “So I’m just a little girl, huh, is that it? A strong man like you’s gonna take pity on me and protect me? Then…” She switched her tone to a sickly-sweet voice, batting her eyes at him mockingly. “If we’re friends, mister, you’ll give me that pretty little bone necklace you got there, right? Or those earrings the monster had?”

  Jun hesitated. She looked at his outstretched hand, then spat on it. “That’s what I thought.”

  She kept looting.

  Not just a girl, Alex amended. A girl with issues.

  Jun staggered off in a daze. Alex was sure it had more to do with the massacre than being trounced by a little girl half his age, but he still felt sorry for him. If there was anything the girl was right about, it was that Jun should be worrying about his own injuries first. They didn’t look half as light as hers or Alex’s.

  Jun attended to his wounds further uphill, and Alex could faintly hear him whimpering. Some things simply had to take their course, and perhaps kind words from the one who’d sent him to his death would be unwelcome.

  Yet somehow, he’d survived.

  What was it he’d said? ‘Your advice came in handy’? That wasn’t a situation anyone should ordinarily come out alive from, and Alex sure didn’t think his shitty advice was the reason Jun had. He was beginning to have some suspicions—none that should be made lightly.

  “What do you want?” Jun snapped.

  Alex walked past him a little and sat. “To sit in the only place devoid of corpses, maybe?”

  The clearing had a bit of a hill to it on the southern end, making it the only place nobody would’ve retreated to—though, someone had tried. Jun accepted his answer easily enough and stared off into the night, stifling his cries. They sat there for a while, just minding their own business.

  Eventually, Alex broke the silence. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Jun’s finger froze before his interface, which was still set to visible. “What now?”

  Jun had been about to buy the Healer’s Skill Path, and Alex’s mouth had just acted on its own. Did he feel a little guilty for deceiving him? Of course—who wouldn’t. But knowing more than you should was the easiest way to paint a target on one’s back. The smart thing to do was to keep quiet.

  Ultimately however, it wasn’t guilt that drove Alex to speak. Jun detested him, perhaps understandably, but he was a good man. And those kinds of arbitrary constraints were precisely why Alex wanted power. So he could ignore them as he pleased.

  “First, I know how little this means—”

  “Don’t apologise,” Jun said.

  “Right. Anyway, you shouldn’t just unlock the first Skill Path you lay eyes on. It’s a waste.”

  Especially for a man with your talent. The fact that Jun could even afford a Skill Path meant his Nightmare signing bonus had to have been huge.

  “I get it,” Alex continued. “You want to get a healing skill to fix up your leg. And yes, these Skill Paths will offer you skills directly, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be the one you need at this moment—if you’ll even have money left to purchase it with. Your decisions here will influence what Class you’ll get down the line, you shouldn’t make them on impulse. Without medical knowledge—”

  “That won’t be a problem.”

  Alex paused. “What, are you a doctor or something?”

  “I worked with the Doctors across Borders.”

  Of course he did.

  “Is this to ease your guilt?” Jun asked.

  His eyes were distant as he stared in the direction Alex knew that woman’s corpse was in.

  “A little,” He said.

  “Then you should know it’s already too late.”

  “I know, Jun. And if I actually cared, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place. Now, if you want me to go away, I can do that, but I’m going to be honest with you. You’re going to die at this rate.”

  Jun pressed his lips into a thin line. “Then what would you suggest I do?”

  “The short answer is you should open the Basic Skills Catalog. Find the skill called Bone Mend, and pick that.”

  “But there’s more to it than just that?”

  “How long can you listen to me talk without wanting to punch me?”

  “Violence isn’t the answer,” Jun said. He looked Alex’s way, his jaw hard set, taking a deep breath. “I… can’t forgive what you did to that woman. But if you can finish in ten minutes, I won’t go against my morals.”

  So make it quick huh…

  Alex tapped his lip in thought. “Where did you study?”

  “Harvard.”

  Naturally.

  “Alright then,” he said. “The solution I have in mind is a little complex, so I’m just going to explain everything at once. Interrupt me if you have any questions.”

  Alex was certain it was entirely subconscious, but Jun pushed up his glasses.

  He took a breath. “Then I should start with Essence…” he held out his hand, palm open, and it glowed for a second. Soon, he held an emerald colored chip in his fingertips. “...This is an Essence Crystal. I’m about as new to this part of things as you are Jun, but it seems to be what passes for currency now. Figuring out exactly what Essence was confused me, so I asked that Guardian thing earlier, and he said Essence was power.”

  “That’s what he told me too,” Jun said.

  “Yeah. But I wasn’t very satisfied with that answer, so I pressed him for more details. Then he went on to say that Essence is the intersection where life meets power. Or rather, the power that’s inherent to life.”

  Jun frowned. “So you’re saying Essence is a quality of all living things?”

  Damn… One minute in and Alex had already reached his first ‘yes, but no’.

  “No,” he settled on. “The significance appears to lie in where that intersection of life and power exists: The soul.”

  Jun’s eyes widened in alarm and Alex could tell where his mind was heading so he cut him off. “As far as I’ve gathered, not all living things have a soul. Otherwise it seems odd that the announcement earlier would specify the tutorial is for sentient species. Still, I don’t entirely know. I’m not an expert on these things. It’s not like I can actually feel…”

  Alex trailed off, a cold sweat running down his back. Wait… why can I feel my soul?

  He turned his attention inward. It sat there, detached and separate from his body; distant and almost imperceivable. Yet his entire existence gravitated around it, as though it were a mini sun. Suddenly, Alex was reminded of how it’d felt having it ripped from him in those last moments of his life. He put his hand over his mouth.

  Status!

  His status screen appeared before him except it was entirely the same as in his last life. He didn’t have [Soul-Sense] or anything, so why the hell can I sense my soul?!

  “...are you going to continue?” Jun asked.

  “Ah, ri-right, so Essence is found in the soul…”

  Which Alex could feel.

  “And Essence Crystals are just unrefined Essence, made tangible for trade…”

  Yet their power hung in Alex’s soul with an ethereal weight now. Not his, not yet—but his for the taking.

  Balance: 5,090 Essence Crystals

  “Then Essence creates skills…

  “Which forms patterns…”

  Alex tapped his lip, deep in thought. Wait… couldn’t this be really good for me?

  “Then my Essence Signature…”

  “Alex, can you smile for me?” Jun asked.

  “What…?”

  Alex frowned at the interruption. Then gave it a meager attempt.

  “Lift your arms,” Jun continued.

  He did, his expression growing more confused.

  “Good. You don’t appear to be suffering a stroke, so I don’t understand why you can’t explain this normally.”

  Ah, right. I…guess this can wait. He ruffled his hair, taking a breath. He really didn’t want to be punched today. “Sorry, sorry. Some of the things the Guardian said just clicked with me so I was zoning out…”

  “Why do you keep mentioning the Guardian?” Jun asked, “Didn’t you say you were…”

  Alex shot Jun a harsher-than-intended glare, and he fell silent. Alex was pretty sure he’d been about to call him a Mage. It wouldn’t mean any trouble if it were Jun alone who heard, but that girl was still nearby, and if an actual mage caught wind of that, then the natural follow-up question became: Where is your allegiance? Or: Are you alone? Most oft, said with a creepy smile, then violence.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “That’s… something different,” Alex said. “Your health comes first.”

  “So now you care about my health? What about that woman you—”

  “Now, to explain what I was mumbling about earlier, the System gives us Essence crystals…and it appears we can either spend these Essence Crystals in the shop or Refine them for their Essence.”

  Jun didn’t interrupt again but his expression told Alex he’d just shaved off a minute of the man’s patience with that health comment. Still, at least, he’d dropped the mage thing. You could never be too cautious.

  “Refine?” Jun asked.

  “Yes, the System should’ve given you its Basic Refinement Method when you first came here. And I just found out you can check your status to see how much Essence Crystals you’ll need to reach the next level.”

  “Levels…?” Jun took off his glasses, pinching his eyes. “Thirty minutes ago, I was on a plane. To Seattle.”

  He groaned.

  “Well, it’s a good thing you got invited to Nightmare then,” Alex said.

  “What…?”

  Jun stared blankly. Then his eyes widened in horror, and Alex’s did too. Why the hell did I just say that?

  “I mean, presumably,” he recovered. “I’ve just read too many crazy books. There’s no reason the pilots couldn’t have landed the plane alright.”

  Jun scrunched his fist. Alex probably just lost another minute of his patience with that one. He supposed not talking to anyone for a few years might’ve dulled his social skills. Unfortunately, the System didn’t offer any of those.

  “Refine. Bind. Affix.” He said. “First, you refine Essence through the System, allowing you to level up. Second, you bind that Essence to facets of your body, spirit, and mind---your stats---and through association, your soul. Thirdly, the System affixes that Essence into a pattern of power that the Cosmos recognizes: A Skill.”

  Jun’s expression was very readable. Alex wasn’t about to ask whether he’d had relatives on that plane, but his concern and anger warred against his self preservation and pain. Eventually, it was simply scholarly interest that won out. “So that ‘shapeable force’ you described…”

  “That’s the Essence underlying the skill. Essence is—or appears to be, raw power, until it's shaped into a skill pattern that gives it function. Mana then flows through that Essence-pattern, and it seems to be the energy that activates the skill. But I learned that we can’t actually manipulate Essence directly; I tried that when I first got here. Essence only reacts to the flow of mana, so what you really did when you learned Taunt was force Howl’s Essence-pattern into a slightly different Essence-pattern purely through mana control.”

  Alex was prepared to dodge whatever punch came his way from mentioning his deception again, but Jun didn’t seem as hostile this time. He was resisting it, but there was a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes.

  “The… guardian told you all that?” He asked. “I asked him some questions of my own but he didn’t come off as a forthcoming person…”

  “I was persistent,” Alex said. “And he only told me some of it. The rest I gathered on my own. I was about to get my Masters in physics and I’ve been writing my thesis statement on energy transfer, so these are things I’ve been giving some thought lately.”

  Hopefully Jun didn’t know his physics. Thinking about it, that was a lot less logical than it had sounded in Alex’s head. Jun looked at him dubiously.

  “And you’re… how old?”

  “Twenty-two,” he said, sighing. “You went to Harvard. Me, Stanford. I get the sense there’s a standard for exceptional people in Nightmare.”

  Granted, I’m not one of them. Thankfully, Jun was too busy wrapping his mind around the concept of Essence to spot logical inconsistencies. He seemed eager for a second, but then he looked back in that direction where he’d received his wound and the glimmer in his eyes dulled to his exhaustion and misery. “Right now, I just want to heal my leg,” He said. “I don’t need to know all this. I’m guessing from what you said earlier that just Bone Mend isn’t enough?”

  “It’s enough for your bone—”

  “But not for my torn ligament, I know that. It’s not that I don’t understand—in my condition, I wouldn’t survive if something like…like this happened again. That’s why I was looking at that Healer’s Skill Path in the first place. Would it really not have worked?”

  No, it would’ve.

  “It might’ve,” Alex said instead. “But it’s not as guaranteed as what I’m recommending, and there’s a bigger reason it’s a bad idea. During my Orientation I got the Guardian to bring up this whole Class and Skill thing and—”

  “Please cut to the chase.”

  “You need to be careful about what skills you affix,” Alex said sternly. “The System says the skills you choose will lead you to your class, but you want to know why that is? It’s because they change you, Jun. Think about it: These skill-patterns are being affixed into essence that is bound to your soul. Remember, Essence isn’t just power, it’s the intersection of power and life. The reason we’re all unique is because we all have unique Essence Signatures, woven directly into our Vital Essence—the patterns that make us who we are! Skills aren’t something you can so easily take back. Each one imprints back on the core of our beings—and Classes even more-so! Are you just going to lock yourself into a Skill Path over a broken leg?! Or… well, of course you are, you’re going to die otherwise, but I mean…”

  Alex gripped the fabric of his pants, his eyelids heavy with exhaustion. Christ, he was getting too worked up over this. Why should he care if this stranger he’d just met regretted this for the rest of his life?

  “Did the Guardian also tell you all that?”

  “He’s really not a bad conversation partner when you get him going,” Alex said unenthusiastically.

  He sighed. Jun had only just awakened, there was no way he could understand. He couldn’t know exactly how those changes added up over time. He’d never had a god to reach into the core of your very being and change you by force. He couldn’t feel his soul the way Alex did now, because if he could…

  Alex shivered. No, he was the one being weird here. Jun was a doctor, a Healer Class might actually suit him well. It was too bad most Healers died in Nightmare.

  Eventually, Alex apologised. “Sorry, I overstepped.”

  Jun looked exasperated. “It’s too late for that. You might have a point, Alex, but I… I’m tired, and I’m in a lot more pain right now than I think you understand. Can we get to the part where this helps me?”

  “Right… yeah. Apologies, I’m a little tired too. So… you’re still going to want to get Bone Mend. But, well, the work around I have in mind really is a bit complex. I’m going to have to explain a few things about stats and leveling up first.”

  Jun’s lips pressed into a thin line. His fist clenched. Alex realized his ten minutes might have already passed him by.

  ***

  Another ten minutes later, and Jun sat on the dying grass, his eyes closed as he focused intently. He hadn’t punched Alex, but if he’d taken another five minutes to explain, he wasn’t sure if that still would’ve held true.

  It’s not my fault you’re a monster.

  Looking at him now, Alex noticed how easily Jun was entering his trance, despite Alex’s convoluted instructions. Occasionally, you met them—people naturally attuned to the powers of the cosmos. They didn’t make it into the common populace very often. All that stuff he’d told Jun about manipulating Skill Patterns? That ‘pull, not push’ nonsense he’d used to turn Howl into Taunt? Yeah, that wasn’t normal. Alex couldn’t do that. If it were anyone else, he’d’ve just explained that the System gives skills and left it at that; because it was true.

  The System existed for a reason: Accessibility. It streamlined all the magic practiced across countless worlds. It tethered the soul in place for stability, replacing the need for a Core. And most importantly, it gave Essence.

  Alex glanced over to where he’d killed that Chimik Necromancer, holding the Essence Crystal he’d created up to his eye. Essence exists in the soul, but it seemed Jun hadn’t caught on to the obvious implications of that. Power unbound from life was now, quite literally, in Alex’s hands. There was only one way to free a soul of its Essence, and that was through death.

  It was simple in concept, but hard to rationalize when it was given to you with a ding! and a cathartic level-up. It was only when you sat alone in silence, feeling that weight settle in, that understanding came with it. Something had died for this power he held.

  Alex closed his eyes.

  Alright, how much should I use?

  Essence required to Level 3: 150

  Essence required to Level 4: 250

  Essence required to Level 5: 350

  Essence required to Level 6: 500

  Essence required to Level 7…

  He did the math. His body ached all over, and his stamina was so detrimentally low that he could feel the exhaustion in his bones; all his thoughts were permeated with haze. Truthfully, he just wanted to dump his whole balance into levels and wretch himself from this frail thing of a body immediately—but he knew that would be a waste of Essence. Leveling up was easy; a purely numerical transaction. It was getting the most out of those levels that was the hard part.

  There was an ideal pace to the process. One that took weeks, if not months to get the hang of. Alex had had fifteen years. He reached out for his Essence Crystals and that ethereal weight seemed to shudder.

  Basic Essence-Refinement Method has been Triggered. Are you sure—

  Alex groaned. He would have to disable the safety check on transactions, those things could get people killed in the heat of battle.

  Yes.

  750 Essence Crystals have been consumed!

  You have leveled up!

  You have leveled up!

  You have leveled up!

  Alert: You are currently Charged. Your time is limited. Apply Essence to your stats.

  Alex’s body gave off a light shimmer. His veins flushed with power. Threads of Essence wove his flesh and mind like traces on a circuit board, soldering power into his very being. It was… a new experience, feeling it like this, through the sense he had for his soul. And so much more magical than he ever gave it credit for.

  It wasn’t true magic, of course. The System removed the need for a real refinement method or a Core but it also removed the upsides. The process was… sterilized. Efficient, clean, but not nearly as free. The System was blunt in its operations and many of the limitations he’d ranted to Jun about could be overcome by learning a proper refinement method…and, well, by having a mage’s lineage, powerful backers, access to monopolized magic and Essence sources, and a billion hours to study.

  If only I was a mage, Jun.

  It wasn’t like Alex hadn’t looked into magecraft, as a way around his dead end. But those kinds of resources were hard to find in a place like Dykriest, or anywhere. In all his ten years, Alex had only ever sourced one Refinement Method and it was a defective one. But maybe in this life, he could—

  Alert: Your time is limited. Apply Essence to your stats.

  Alright, alright! Got it…

  Posture relaxed, Alex sat cross-legged, taking deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. The System had refined his Essence; now it was time to bind that Essence to his stats. He never looked forward to the method he was about to use.He meditated and focused his mind on the sensations he’d experienced throughout the Scenario.

  He focused on the ache in his bones as he ran through the forest. The protest of his legs—not only to move but to move with the deft precision required of Stealth—it had been like trying to swim with limbs made of lead. The shudder in his lungs was again made tangible in his body’s memory. The cold night nipped at his skin, reminding him of its presence as he zipped past plumes of lost breath. He locked his attention onto the gazes that molested his back, on the fear—and the shiver—he’d felt while working out how to shake off his pursuers. He was still in that forest, dead leaves crunching to dust underfoot, dagger tight in his hand, the necromancer in sight of its edge. It’d taken will, it’d taken composure, it’d taken Fortitude.

  Alex’s eyes snapped open.

  Essence has integrated with Fortitude!

  Fortitude +3

  Essence has integrated with Vitality!

  Vitality +1

  Essence has integrated with Dexterity!

  Dexterity +1

  The charged feeling left Alex like electricity through his fingertips, leaving behind a version of himself that was suddenly more.

  Five stat points with three levels?

  That wasn’t bad for someone who hadn’t leveled in years, curse his sorry fate.

  A smile tugged at Alex’s lips. Or rather, it wasn’t bad at all. It was a much better conversion than he expected, given how short his role in the battle had been.

  Leveling up and gaining stats only became harder the higher those numbers went, but it was a drug of its own sort. Years ago, he’d sat in a clearing much like this one, sobbing and thinking of killing himself, and he still remembered his surprise at how chemically satisfying it’d felt to level up. Especially at the beginning when even the smallest improvements were like steroids to his work-crippled figure.

  But that’s exactly what they were, steroids. You couldn’t simply pop a pill in your mouth and expect your body to bulk like a barbarian’s. You had to train your stats to squeeze the most density out of that Essence.

  Sure, his stats would still increase if he leveled up some more this instant, but like it’d be a waste. Post-battle meditation had its limits as a training method, and that fight simply hadn’t been worth more than spending three levels on. Moreover, his frail existence was unused to this power, so he couldn’t yet guide his Essence in his charged state. Instead, his Essence bound itself to wherever he was the most exerted—his Fortitude—and right now, Alex needed Strength more than he did Fortitude.

  Well, not that I’m complaining. He opened his Interface to see how it all reflected on his stat spread.

  Alex Smith

  Tier 0 - Level 5, Unranked

  Class: None

  Health: 87%

  Mana: 39%

  Stamina: 28%

  > Traits

  [???]

  > Titles

  None

  > Attributes

  Half-Dead Persistence

  > Skills

  Stealth (Novice)

  > Stats

  Vitality: 3

  Strength: 1

  Dexterity: 3

  Fortitude: 5

  Perception: 4

  Arcane: 2

  Hmm…

  Alex had the sudden urge to consume his entire Essence balance and scream to hell with it. That’s a good indicator that you’re experiencing a power high, and that’s when it’s most important to isolate yourself from the System.

  He grunted and turned off the screen.

  Jun, who had leveled up as well, sat with his leg outstretched, watching bone and flesh knit itself back together. He was using Bone Mend as a directive for mana flow, binding his Essence into Vitality, and guiding it with more efficacy than Alex would ever be capable of.

  Of course, that alone wouldn’t have been enough, so Alex had taught him another trick—the one he also planned to utilize in this life, and the main reason he didn’t want to waste his essence early. A cold aura emanated from the man now, like an icy glaze thickening over the grass where he sat. Alex knew that controlling that amount of power had to take intensive focus, so he tried not to distra—

  Jun looked in his direction and beckoned Alex over.

  You fucking monster.

  The subtle glow of Essence-charge hadn’t even left Jun’s body as he summoned his medical kit, holding his hand out, palm up. Alex’s hunch only grew stronger, and greater in proportion.

  “Your wrist, let me see it.”

  Reluctantly, Alex did. “I didn’t think the information I shared would resolve your anger towards me.”

  “It hasn’t. But you got that wound from saving me,” Jun begrudged.

  Ah, so that’s it.

  It indeed was not it. Jun dabbed Alex’s wound with disinfectant and stitched it up with the deft precision of someone more adept than he let on. Once he was done, Alex realized this had a deeper purpose. He’d been ensnared in a trap so flawlessly placed—and so comfortable, frankly—that he almost couldn’t complain. Jun wrapped his wound, and before Alex could pull back his arm, he followed up with a sucker punch.

  “When I asked if you were one of the mages who’d been ‘prepared for Nightmare,’ you said you’d tell me about it if we survived. So, what’s all that about?”

  Well, shit. Alex had said that because he hadn’t expected him to survive. And yet, here they were. He was in trouble of his own making. Real trouble.

  If information alone could paint a target on his back, then this was the kind of information that would actually have people aiming for it. They didn’t take kindly to having their existence revealed. The tradition of killing to prevent that was becoming a little outdated with the System Apocalypse, but this was Nightmare, and Mages always lagged behind the times. It was a pointless secret to keep—but they wouldn’t see it that way

  “Yeah, It was a convenient lie,” Alex said. “I’m not actually—”

  “Please stop trying to deceive me,” Jun said.

  No, I’m really not…

  But Alex never would never get anyone to believe that—not with all he knew. He noticed that girl crouched over a nearby corpse, pretending she wasn’t listening, but she totally was. Nobody spent that long scavenging bodies.

  Could she be…?

  No, she was too weak to be a Mage. But that didn’t mean she could be trusted either.

  This was a crossroads, wasn’t it? The fork in his path where he had to decide how much information to share. He’d given his word, and that was one of the few codes he tried to uphold—but he already broke it today. What was once more?

  In the same vein, Alex already felt like shit. He didn’t need more of that feeling.

  He sighed. “Have you read any urban fantasy novels?”

  Jun frowned, “No, but my brother—” He stopped abruptly, his expression growing tender. “No,” he said eventually, “But I know what they’re about. I’d believe anything at this point.”

  “Mages exist,” Alex admitted. “Have existed. For centuries, since the beginning of man, pretty much. And not just them, vampires, fae, werewolves… It wasn't too long ago that churches persecuted them as heretics, which is why you’ve never heard of them. They keep their business to their own world, but they’re out there. And they’re not always the nicest people.”

  Jun’s expression went blank for a moment, “I see. Then… you’re saying this is all their doing?”

  “No, but—no.”

  Alex clamped his mouth before he could mention they weren’t entirely uninvolved either. He’d said enough. “Look, if I can give you one warning, Jun, watch out for vampires.”

  “They aren’t as bad as they are in movies… right?” He asked.

  Alex closed his eyes with a deep breath, the sound of those chains rattling in his ear.

  “They’re worse than you can Imagine, Jun. If ever, you hear mention of the Blood Lotus—”

  “You devil!” A voice screamed. Alex turned toward the girl further down the slope, her frame heaving in tantrum. “You’re one of them, aren’t you! How else would you know so much about—”

  “You still haven’t answered the original question,” Jun said, pulling his attention. “I don’t believe that you’re uninvolved. If you’re not really a mage, then which of them are you?”

  Alex sighed. “Look, you can believe it or not. I don’t really care anymore, but I’m not—”

  He jerked his head aside as something whistled past his ear—a pulse of mana slicing the air where his head had been. His dangersense screamed, and he immediately spun toward his attacker.

  No. My cheek. It would have only scratched my cheek, but what the actual—

  “Don’t ignore me like I’m some child!” the girl growled. “I asked you a question. How do you know so fucking much about all this?!”

  Alex watched her heave where she stood.

  Seriously?! She shot at me just for that?!

  Anger began to swell. He’d been letting her listen because she was a child, but maybe some children deserved to be smacked. His hand hovered near his dagger, not yet drawing it.

  He rose, his stance calm but ready. He could only assume she wasn’t a mage—otherwise, she’d be levels beyond them already, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was whether she was an enemy.

  “State your reason for firing,” Alex growled. “Now.”

  He slid his dagger a few inches from its sheath. Five meters separated them. She had projectiles—odd, since she’d killed with a dagger during the Scenario—but his reaction time could handle that. He knew he didn’t cast an imposing figure, but that didn’t matter. One wrong move, and he’d be at her throat.

  And it seemed that wrong move was about to take place. Jun was trying to pacify things but she wasn’t listening. Her face twisted in fury, her fingers twitched—then she… suddenly relaxed? Her entire disposition shifted. She turned away, expressing doom and gloom, and muttered, “Sorry.”

  Sorry? Alex almost sputtered the word. Just that?!

  “What’s your name?” he demanded.

  Her anger flared again, but was quickly quelled, her expression becoming sullen. She didn’t answer. Christ, one second she’s raging, the next she’s down in the dumps like someone killed her dog.

  Gloomy. I’m just gonna call her that, Alex decided.

  “Was all this just because I ignored your question?”

  She sneered, but Alex couldn’t think of anything else he’d done to deserve her anger.

  Oh. Or maybe there was one other thing. Alex sheathed his dagger again, his hand remaining on it. “I don’t owe you answers,” he said. “But if you’re mad at me for beating the scenario while you resorted to other measures, then your anger is misguided.”

  He met her eyes, fury kindling there. He kept his stare steady to let her know he understood what she had done to survive. She froze under his gaze, guilt flashing across her face before she turned and fled into the woods. Alex almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

  She was upset because she’d killed for nothing, and for at least a second there, she’d been upset enough to kill over it.

  Not just a girl, Alex amended. A dangerous one.

  “Oh so that’s what the clear condition meant.” Jun’s expression was melancholic. “That poor girl…there had to have been another way.”

  “There was,” Alex said. “As I recall, you weren’t a fan of it.”

  Alex received an icy stare from the man. He ruffled his head, sighing. “What I meant to say is I can understand why a child in duress might come to that conclusion.”

  He started to rejoin Jun on the grass, but the man thrust out his hand in a halting motion. “Thank you for answering my questions, Alex. I know keeping your word is not easy for you.”

  He tried not to grimace as Jun continued.

  “But it doesn’t undo what you’ve done. I think… I think I understand now, that I probably owe my life to the fact that you did what you did. I’d be grateful for that, Alex, but I know you didn’t do it to save me, and there had to have been another way. Nothing… absolutely nothing gives you the right to decide how people’s lives should end.”

  “I’m not going to argue that,” Alex said.

  “Good. Then on that note, thank you,” Jun said through gritted teeth, “For sharing your knowledge with me, and helping me heal my leg. If it helps ease your guilty conscience, I’m no longer in danger of dying. But make no mistake, I don’t forgive you, Alex. This place… I can’t say your methods are wrong, but I can’t accept them.”

  “You’re a good man, Jun,” Alex said. “But believe me, you’re not out of the woods yet. I’d have a lot more faith in your survival if you’d punched me as soon as I started talking.”

  Jun pinched his eyes, wearily. “I just want to be alone right now. Please find somewhere else to rest.”

  Alex nodded solemnly.

  But before he turned, he noticed something odd. The grass where Jun sat was thicker, and vibrant green with life. Alex’s hair bristled on end. His trait stirred, feeding him information he couldn’t decrypt, but understood the gist of anyway.

  He let out a held breath and walked away.

  So my hunch was correct, then.

  It only raised more questions, and he was too tired to think about them.

  Suddenly, fatigue weighed on Alex, and his vision dipped as he stumbled over a corpse halfway down the slope. He half-rolled and half-tumbled the rest of the way until he thankfully came to a stop—against another corpse.

  “Ouch…”

  He clutched his ribs as he made his way upright, wincing as he saw his health drop by 1%. Then he gazed past his screen, looking out into the sea of corpses. 750,000 of them.

  Was Jun’s talent scary? No. The scariest thing about it was that it had gotten him nowhere. In his last life, Jun had died just like that. And he wasn’t alone.

  Of those millions, how many unpolished gems…

  The night seemed to swallow his question, offering no answer. The System didn’t care about the Integration’s habitants. He, of all people, knew that. The universe was vast, its resources endless, the System’s hunger insatiable. People were just numbers—casualties of doing business. Nothing worth noting.

  And yet I’m still here.

  Alex stood. He ignored the ache in his ribs and pushed himself to keep walking. His pace was brisk, more hurried than it had any right to be at his stamina level. His logical side told him to conserve his energy. He was so tired. Body, mind, and soul, he needed rest.

  But he’d been here before, in this state, and in this mind, and he knew what would happen if he didn’t push himself from it this instant. If he let himself rest, he wouldn’t have what it took to keep going. So he walked forward, entering the forest.

  The night took an unnaturally somber tone as he listened for sounds of life and heard none. Although the trees still had full branches, their shriveled leaves scraped against one another in the wind rather than rustled. The trunks they belonged to were hollow husks of what they used to be, with bark that peeled like scabs and parched roots that writhed in dry soil. Animal calls carried over every so often, but the undead only did it out of habit. There was little in this world that was still living, and thus, there was naturally little life left to listen for.

  It was then that Alex noticed it.

  An odd scratching sound arose off to his left. A harsh, rhythmic sound akin to nails scraping on sandy chalkboard, overlayed with a hoarse whimper. How long had it been going on for?

  Whatever it was, it hadn't noticed him yet. His trait was calm, and the sound wasn’t coming any closer. As far as Alex remembered, there shouldn’t be any hostiles in the area, but his paranoia had saved him too many times to disregard it now.

  He entered Stealth.

  His legs burned; so did his lungs. But slowly, his presence was erased and he faded further into the night. It was in the little things—in the way the twigs and leaves underfoot seemed to avoid his path, the way the dark shifted a little to congeal the plume of his breath, or how his breath itself seemed to come just short of a living thing’s cadence. He crouched low, circling the trees, his dagger at the ready well before it could be heard leaving its sheath.

  That girl, Gloomy, was sitting there, hunched over, scratching at the ground. Her fingertips were raw and bloody, her nails jagged and crusted as they drove fervently deeper. She came loose with only a surface layer of dirt each time, a pile collecting beside her. There was a determination to her seemingly senseless actions that made him grip his dagger tighter.

  There’s something buried there, he thought.

  There wasn’t. Alex finally understood when he noticed the second figure hidden further behind some foliage. He was a scholarly-looking man with dark skin and a business suit not dissimilar to Alex’s own. And he was dead.

  A line had split his throat, sharp and neat enough that it had Alex thinking of hasty actions as he looked at the young girl who must’ve drawn it. He recognized what this was—it was the pointless death he’d so heartlessly disparaged her for.

  Regardless, the cleanliness of the kill bothered him. He knew that a girl didn’t have to be a mage to be dangerous. Didn’t even have to be powerful.

  But then there was that whimper again. He heard a soft hic under her breath as she continued digging: The dry sound one made when there was no moisture left to give and all too much reason to give it. It carried right past his ears and registered on a level too personal to ignore.

  This is private, he realized. This is not mine to see.

  He continued on his way, and soon a wall of heavy mist sat before him, stretching from horizon to horizon. He could hear ill whispers from inside, light, airy things. They tugged at his emotions, made gaps in his thoughts, and attempted to penetrate his mind.

  Further in, more sinister things crooned. Creatures that would tear him limb from limb if they ever found him. He shivered, not from his trait, but from his memories.

  If I want to stop seeing sights like those, I have to become stronger.

  A cloak of night shrouded Alex once more; as he stepped into the mists, they seemed to whisper, welcome back. This was the last place he ever wanted to return to, but his proficiency with Stealth needed to rise. As far as training methods went, the more his bones chittered at the thought, the more effective they likely were.