Chapter 25: Valley of Death

  Mundane World, Day 14 After the Shattering

  Ewa glanced at her reflection in the cracked mirror of her family's old apartment bathroom, adjusting her long blonde hair into a practical ponytail.

  At 16, she was considered pretty—with bright blue eyes, fair skin, and a slender frame that barely reached 160 cm. She wasn't the type to fuss over her appearance, but today was different. Today, she was heading out with the boys, and Mark would be there. She even decided to role-play a little, wearing a pretty, stylized white dress that you'd imagine being worn by magical healers, and carrying a wooden staff. Probably last warm day this year, it was late autumn afteral.

  Can it still be called role-playing if real monster hunting and magic crystals are involved?

  She concentrated on her system interface and the first ability she'd acquired, thanks to the mana crystal the entire group had pitched in to buy:

  Identification: allows you to inspect the Tier and Rank of creatures and system-generated items.

  It made no sense to her that if the group wanted her to be a healer, they would give her a colorless identification mana crystal, but Lukas had insisted that this was a typical trope for overpowered characters. If anyone knew what to do in this new, game-like world, it was certainly her min-maxing, game-crazed brother.

  Besides, it was cheap, and after the system had given literally everyone a quest to hunt for those crystals and get abilities, humanity had encountered an unexpected problem:

  There were not enough monsters to hunt. A weird thing to happen in an anticipated apocalypse, but when crowds of overenthusiastic teenagers and armed preppers rushed to the sparse points of interest marked by purple cracks, the slaughter happened in the opposite direction than expected.

  There was only one such place around Bydgoszcz, and some big cities around the world didn't even have one. So, originally, there were too few spawn points, and they were very localized. Now, two weeks later, the purple cracks had grown massively, and monsters had begun spawning in a much bigger area.

  Yesterday, there was even a skeleton that spawned near her block. Ewa was glad these monsters were so easy; she would rather not have any powers than see people die. She would never go on an actual monster hunt herself, no matter how much Lukas insisted. It was one thing to play RPG games with her brother and friends, pretending, and something completely different to go out into the woods and fight.

  But Mark... perhaps she'd have a chance to heal him after a battle.

  She imagined how healing the 190 cm tall brunette hottie could play out. Even better—if he'd be the one saving her.

  The thought of those muscular arms around her made her blush. She smoothed her dress and slipped out to meet the group.

  The boys were waiting downstairs in the commie block's dimly lit stairwell, their backpacks stuffed with provisions and warmer jackets - just in case. All of them wore hiking clothes. Everyone held their "weapon of choice." Lukas had a sturdy, gnarly stick, pretending it was a mage's staff that could serve as a melee weapon until he got his first ability. Simon, a 17-year-old troublemaker with brown curly hair and brown eyes, who was slightly obese, had - for some reason decided to forego any role-playing as the necromancer he planned to become, opting instead for practicality—he just had a wooden baseball bat.

  And Mark had somehow gotten himself an actual sword. He looked dashing! Only needing a dark cape to complement the complete look of a dark knight.

  Before today, their parents would not have allowed actual "monster hunting," as everyone was scared after system initialization, but two weeks after the event, everyone knew that monsters were kind of pushovers, and there were literal crowds hunting for them. The only human victims were those caught off guard by the first mass spawn.

  Ewa glanced at Pawel's door as she descended—the goofy older neighbor who always seemed lost in his thoughts, daydreaming on the stairs. They'd exchanged polite hellos a few times, but nothing more.

  Was he alright? Lukas had told her that he had seen their neighbor going for a hike that first day.

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  When she finally reached downstairs, her brother was the first to speak. "About time, sis," Lukas teased, his messy dark brown hair flopping over his blue eyes. At 16, he was the same height as her and had the skinny build of a kid who'd spent too much time gaming and not enough outdoors.

  Ewa rolled her eyes but smiled. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just get that firebolt spell of yours." Lukas was about to respond with something that would start an inevitable spell debate, but Mark interjected.

  He was a born leader, towering over everyone at 190 cm.

  "Gear check: everyone got water, snacks, first aid? Simon, you got the first aid kit?"

  Simon, the chubby boy of average height among them, nodded.

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes, yes, let's go! I want to finally get Raise Dead."

  He moved out without waiting. That triggered Lukas once more to start with his theories:

  "There are no reports of necromancy skills so far, you know, right? I am sure you need to advance from weaker abilities..."

  It took them well over half an hour of walking before reaching the Death Valley. The entire "hunting zone" on the internet was being called "Death Valley Spawn," however, the actual source of monsters—the anomaly—was still nearly two hours of walking distance away into the forest. The reason it was considered a death valley was because a monument memorializing victims of mass executions committed by Germans was the biggest known landmark. This, and the monster type that it was producing: walking skeletons.

  "Quiet now! We are in the spawning zone—focus." Mark silenced their banter. He pulled out his sword.

  And 10 minutes later, sheathed it discreetly, seeing a police car parked by the path. The police wasn't there to hunt monsters. With quests, potential power gains, and the selling value of mana crystals, almost immediately after it was known that monsters were a laughing matter—fights broke out. So, patrols were dispatched to always be around. Mark and the others felt uneasy, because swords, baseball bats, and all potential weapons were technically illegal to carry.

  They all sighed in relief—it seems no one cared. They also met a lone man with a baseball bat ogling them unfriendlily, but soon, he left the path into the forest.

  "We need to get closer to the epicenter," Simon stated the obvious.

  "What else is new, Sherlock?" Ewa glanced at the towering purple cracks with unease. They formed an impassable barrier perpendicular to their path, taking up most of the skyline from that side. The topmost and thinnest cracks in reality had begun crawling onto the sky above them.

  "Do you think this was the last time it expanded?" She asked, her voice quivering, hoping for Mark to console her. But it was Lukas who answered, always eager to theorize:

  “Oh no, not a chance. According to the extensive and exhaustive database I have built, supported by long research, such events always escalate with time.”

  “Long research? Really? It began two weeks ago.” “Also, you sound stupid when you try to pretend to be smart,” she silenced him, annoyed at her brother.

  “HEY! I am not pretending!”

  But she felt fear squeezing at her heart already. She knew. This wasn't just fun; they really needed to get strong enough before monsters threatened their stubborn parents.

  “Shush! Ready!” Mark pointed at a skeleton shambling from the distance.

  “Ewa?”

  She concentrated, trying to think hard about using her ability on the monster for the first time.

  "Rank 1, Tier 1," she informed.

  "Alright, easy enough. Ewa, stay behind but be close. Everyone else, surround it. I pull aggro; only those behind it attack."

  Everyone spread out, following Mark's command. Before venturing out, they had agreed to follow Mark's commands and experiment on their first fights. It was a well-known fact that the best way to kill those skeletons was crushing skulls, but other than that, how does one kill a walking skeleton? Sever ligaments? Bleed it out? Destroy organs? So when the monster mindlessly followed the first person in front of it—Mark—others bludgeoned its limbs. They aimed at femur bones. At first, the only results were empty-sounding thuds on the white material, and the enemy being pushed by the blow. Whenever it was hit by someone, it was pushed off course slightly as a result of low mass, and then changed its target to whomever last hit it. Whichever of the boys the skeleton tried to reach, that person just backed off, and someone else was attacking. They continued this grim game of tag for a while, the only sounds being clunks on the bone and heavy breathing. Finally, the first femur cracked completely, the limb falling off, and the skeleton now trying to crawl clumsily.

  "Try arms now," Mark commanded. They continued the game; thudding resumed.

  "Leg is not moving!" Ewa observed.

  Now the monster just helplessly squirmed, trying to reach one or another attacker. Finally, one of the arms detached.

  "CLEAR! Move away!" Mark commanded. And everyone got away, catching breath.

  "Arm is not moving either! Ok, now let's try chest."

  Crushing rib bones was much easier; every hit crunched something. Soon the skeleton stopped moving, and they backed away without anyone saying anything. The bones began an ominous hissing and gradually turned into dark smoke that dissipated into nothingness.

  "Ehh, no stone... I think," Simon punctuated what was obvious for everyone.

  "Right—anyone got experience unlocked or something?"

  "Nope."

  "Nothing," Ewa added. "No, wait—my empathy bonus got... it now says 0.01 bonus. Wow, this is going to take forever."

  "Yes. Getting mana crystals is the way," Lukas proclaimed sagely.

  "Perhaps..."

  "Incoming!" This time it was Simon who spotted.

  "I see two."

  "Two."

  "Alright, normal formation, surround them, but focus heads. No playing this time. Careful, everyone. Ewa?"

  "Both Tier 1 and Rank 1."

  They followed the same plan, with the fight getting a bit chaotic after the skeletons split, chasing after different targets. Skulls didn't give up as easily, each deflecting some direct blows, and the inexperienced boys even missed a few times, but all in all, the fight was easy, with mindless and clumsy opponents. They watched in fascination and anticipation as the monsters disappeared.

  "There it is! It is black!" Simon exclaimed and reached, grabbing it.

  "Hey!"

  "Simon!" Lukas tried pushing him away, but it was too late. The crystal got quickly absorbed. "What the hell, man?!"

  "What? It wasn't red! I am the one to be necromancer anyways!"

  This was clearly not what they had agreed on; everyone knew it, but it was already too late. Mark just sighed:

  "So, are you... a necromancer?"

  Simon's eyes crossed as he focused on the system interface.

  "Fuck!" Almost everyone chuckled.

  "Serves you right. So? What is it?"

  "Dark steel mana crystal of tough skin," Simon answered meekly.

  Lukas burst out in gleeful laughter.

  "A tank! You are a friggin' TANK!"

  A dark rumble interrupted their antics, soon followed by loud cracks like massive ice breaking all around them. The purple cracks of the anomaly expanded, with them being so close to it that now some of them expanded even over their heads high in the sky.

  "Oh no... not now!"

  "Formation, everyone on Ewa!"

  The sky suddenly darkened above them, and from behind the trees in the anomaly direction, smoky tendrils of mist began crawling in their direction, thick and not dissipating, prodding the ground like octopus limbs. It wasn't white like normal fog, but instead it looked dark gray, like smoke, with no smell.

  "No, no, no!"

  "Incoming!"

  "One."

  "Tier 2, Rank 1!"

  "It has weapons. It is something new!"

  "Alright, don't panic. We've got it. Normal plan, then we fall back!"