"Everyone back in the house," Tom ordered, pulling Alex and Chloe back inside.

  "Was that a dragon?!" Chloe asked excitedly.

  "No, it's a wyvern," Tom answered.

  "Is it friendly?" she asked.

  "No, it would eat you," Skippy said.

  Tom would have snapped back at Skippy, but his mind was in a daze as he tried to remember the average stats for a Wyvern. It was easy with [Library of Akashic Records]. Yeah, it was at least fifty times stronger than them, with stats in the average 500 range. They would get flattened in an instant right now.

  Tom pulled out his phone on reflex and found he had reception.

  "Phones still work," Tom announced.

  He immediately called the police.

  "Thank you for calling emergency services. We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls. Please stay on the line, and your call will be answered as soon as an operator becomes available. Your call is important to us. Please remain on the line and do not hang up. If this is a life-threatening emergency, please hang up and dial again. If you require immediate assistance, please contact your local authorities or seek help from nearby individuals. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience." The recorded voice spoke through his phone in an emotionless tone.

  "The 911 line is busy," Tom said in disgust.

  "Really?! A fucking Wyvern flies over, and you think everyone in a forty-block radius isn't calling 911?" Skippy asked sarcastically.

  "We can't stay here," Alex said. That bear left a gaping hole in my house."

  "That's what Hector's mom said after I visited her last night." Skippy chuckled.

  Hector smacked Skippy. His increased size sent Skippy tumbling across the carpet.

  "Gross," Tom stated.

  "We should get out of here and get powerleveling," Alex stated.

  "Is the dragon bad?" Chloe asked.

  "Wyvern," Skippy corrected.

  "Yes, the Wyvern is very bad," Tom said. And I don't think just running around aimlessly to grind levels is a good option. Where could we go?"

  For a long moment, nobody said anything. Then, an answer came from an unexpected source. Though perhaps they should have expected it.

  DING!!!

  Tom pulled up his [Mapping] skill to examine it. What he saw was an almost medieval version of Google Maps around Alex's house. He quickly examined the map, looking for points of interest, and found them. The first was a hospital a couple of miles away in the city, the museum deeper into the suburbs, and, strangely enough, his high school sitting between the suburbs and the city.

  <[Mapping] has Reached Level 3>

  "I've got three," Tom stated.

  "The hospital, the school, and the museum? Which one should we take?" Alex asked.

  "The zoo where the bear came from is closer to the museum. And I can't see a major hospital being left unclaimed for more than an hour. Even if monsters spawn inside, cops will be called to handle it." Alex pointed out,

  "What if the hospital spawns ghosts or something?" Hector asked. "You can't shoot ghosts."

  "Yeah, but we'd have to get past all those police officers. I'd rather have the settlement before we have to deal with other people," Tom shot back.

  "Well, that sums things up, we are going to apocalypse high," Skippy quipped.

  "Our world just became our favorite video game, and you want us to go to school?!" Alex asked, horrified. What about adventure? What about glory? We could make a beeline straight for the dungeon and clear it. I bet the rewards would be sweet."

  "We have no food, no shelter, nothing. This won't be like the LAN party with pizza pockets and root beer," Tom stated. "We will be in the wilderness with no food, no water, no shelter, no internet, no electricity, and I don't know if you noticed, but the pain setting was set to 100 and then removed, so this is going to fucking hurt until we raise our EGO stats. Also, we don't get a guild bonus unless we have a guild." Tom pointed out.

  "I'm with Tom," Hector stated. "School is the best option. It's got plenty of facilities for crafting and cooking, plenty of space, and even some basic defenses. They're not great defenses, but metal doors and brick walls will work for now. Besides, it's a designated safe area, so it's already set up as a gathering point during emergencies or natural disasters. So it should have emergency supplies."

  "How do you know all that?" Tom asked.

  "How do you not? We had an entire session about this when we were freshmen." Hector said.

  "Doesn't that mean we're going to have to deal with a bunch of assholes?" Skippy asked. "Even if we take the fucking school, we're going to have to deal with all those people. I don't remember any of us being all that good at public speaking, and that was before I turned into a four-foot rodent."

  "That's why Tom is the face of the party," Hector said.

  Tom rolled his eyes. He wasn't any more social than the rest of them. Ignoring his slightly higher charisma stat, he only had two social skills: [Analyze Person] and [Wordsmith].

  "Do you think we can deal with a wyvern if it's just the four of us?" Hector shot back.

  "Not at this fucking level," Skippy admitted. "So back to fucking school then?"

  Tom nodded. "Alright, Alex. I'm sorry, but we need everything we can get, so we're looting the house. We are going to need every advantage, so let's grab as much food, water, and clothes as possible. Actually, where is the rest of your family?"

  Alex shrugged. "Dad took Fang out towards Vancouver for the night. Something about making a man out of him and introducing him to his colleagues. Some dumb sexist thing, I don't know."

  "Should we, like, leave a message or something?" Tom asked.

  He knew that Alex's relationship with her one remaining parent was almost as bad as his relationship with his own parents, so he wasn't sure what she would want.

  Alex waved her hand, burning the words 'I'm at Hopkins' into the wall of her living room.

  Alex nodded. "There, now Fang can come find me. Come on, Chloe. Let's go find some clothes that fit us while the boys rob my house."

  "Ok. Hey Alex, why are your butt and boobs so big now?" Chloe asked innocently

  "I ate my vegetables. It was totally worth it." Alex answered, winking at Tom.

  "Corrupt her, and I'll bury you alive," Tom warned her.

  Tom, Skippy, and Hector started to take everything in the house. They emptied out the fridge and stashed all of their computers inside their storage, including the books and any clothing they could find. They didn't know what they would need, so they made sure to take everything.

  <[Storage] has Reached level 13>

  "Should we take the couch?" Skippy asked.

  "Um, sure," Tom said. "Skippy, you have an upgraded [Storage] skill, you take it. Actually, just take all the furniture, would you? I think Alex wouldn't mind having her home in her back pocket."

  Skippy nodded as he got to work stuffing the furniture into his inventory.

  Tom went into the kitchen to find Hector eating a stack of ham from the fridge.

  "Hector, what are you doing?" Tom hissed.

  "What?" Hector asked as he slurped back a pound of ham. I put on an extra two feet, I'm freaking starving.

  "Just make sure to put plenty of food into our inventory. We don't know where our next meal is coming from."

  Hector nodded as he stuffed a block of cheese into his storage.

  "I'm almost out of space," Hector noted.

  Tom signed.

  "Alright, give me a minute. I need to assign my eleventh level, and I'm going to pick up [Tactician] and get us some party skills," Tom stated.

  "You're not going to max out Augur?" Hector asked

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  Tom shrugged. "We're playing on hardcore mode as far as we know. We only get one shot at this. We need every possible benefit if we are going to survive. I have [Party Leader], but that doesn't do shit unless I get more supporting skills."

  Hector nodded.

  "Yeah, having an angry bear banging on my head was instructive."

  Tom nodded as he opened his status and got started

  DING!!!

  Tom pulled up his skill list. At this point, his choices were already starting to get too large. He had the options for light magic, divination, life magic, utility, and leadership skills available.

  Scanning down the list, he wanted one skill for Augur and two for [Tactician]. He scanned the ever-growing list, focused on finding the one he was looking for.

  Tom nodded in satisfaction at his first two purchases. Honestly, they were bog standard for these skills, but for a very good reason.

  Tom sat his ass down and mediated, reentering his soul space. The [Soul Forge] firing up. Once inside, he immediately searched for three motes of light: [Party Leader], [Storage], and [Mapping]. The three were easy to find as he didn't have many free skills floating around yet. He gathered up all three skills and moved to his newest constellation. He shoved all three into the [Tactician] class.

  .

  <[Soul Forge] has Reached Level 6>

  <[Soul Forge] has Reached Level 7>

  <...>

  <[Soul Forge] has Reached Level 10>

  Tom sent out an invite to the party to everyone, including Chloe.

  "Chloe, make sure to hit yes to the party invite I just sent you. OK, Pumpkin," Tom called out.

  Chloe didn't respond, but Tom noticed that an icon with his sister's face appeared in the corner of his vision along with his three friends.

  "Alright, I just filled out [Tactician]," Tom said

  "Wait, how have you already filled out all your skill slots?" Skippy asked.

  Tom nodded

  "I bought [Leadership Ⅰ] and [Raider Ⅰ]. Then I transferred [Storage], [Mapping], and [Party Leader], which are now [Tactical Leader], [Logistics Ⅱ], and [Coordination Ⅱ]. Until [Tactician] hits level 10, I won't be able to add any more skills."

  "That's going to fucking suck. That's like nine levels and no skill slots." Skippy said.

  "Eh," Tom shrugged. I'll still get skill points, and I can always use them to upgrade my existing skills."

  Alex and Chloe came back downstairs at that moment. Chloe was wearing oversized winter gear that clearly used to belong to Alex. Alex, on the other hand, was clearly wearing her dad's clothes in order to contain her new pornstar-sized assists. Even still, the way her breasts were stretching that sweater was just … Tom shook his head, trying to banish those thoughts. This was his best friend, and he was in an apocalypse. Now he needed to think about something else … something other than his bimbofied best friend.

  He was going to smack her for picking such a distracting avatar.

  "I grabbed all of the clothes upstairs, so we should have spares," Alex said.

  "Is there anything else we need to grab?" Tom asked as he tried to hide his blush.

  He was met with shaking heads as everyone was ready to go. Slipping on some more winter-appropriate clothes and boots, the group moved outside. Unlike the movies, the neighborhood was still full of people looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. The snow had fallen deep enough that it was halfway up Tom's shin, the cold air biting at his face.

  "Shit! Shit! shit!" Hector muttered

  Tom turned to see his friend pulling coat after coat and wrapping himself up like a caterpillar in a cocoon.

  "You ok, dude?" Skippy asked.

  "Weak to frost," Hector said. "I'm literally taking damage right now."

  "Oh, for fucks sake," Tom muttered as he cast a mend spell on Hector.

  "Alright, I think I can take care of Hector if he's bundled up. Alex, could you watch over Chloe?"

  Alex nodded. She scooped up Chloe with ease as princesses played in the snow.

  "Come on, sweety, let's go," Alex said, turning to start trudging through the snow.

  "What are you guys doing?" Skippy asked.

  "Going to school?" Tom said.

  "There's a car in the driveway." Skippy pointed out.

  "Um, I don't have a driver's license," Tom said.

  "Same," Alex agreed.

  Skippy stared at them like they were all fucking idiots.

  "Who fucking cares? It's the apocalypse. If it's too cold for scale butt to walk around in the snow, then let's get in the car and go. Who's going to pull us over a fucking centaur?!" Skippy asked.

  "Your mouth is going to get washed out with soap, squirrel butt," Chloe said.

  Tom and Alex looked at each other, and then she grabbed the keys.

  "I'm driving," Alex said.

  "You and I have the only ranged attack."

  "I'll drive," Skippy volunteered.

  "Oh, hell no. First, I've seen you drive in a Mario Kart, and I wouldn't trust you with a wagon," Hector said. Second, I'll drive because I'm the only one with an actual driver's license."

  You may skip to the next chapter.

  Base

  Personal: +4 AGIL +4 PER +3 DEX +3 LCK

  Racial: +3 AGIL +2 DEX +2 PER +1 CON

  Bloodline: +5 AGIL +5 LCK

  Level Bonus: +1 to all Stats

  Mini-Character List

  Tom: Our Protagonist, the party healer

  Alex: Tom's best friend, a newly created elf and the group's wizard

  Skippy: Tom's friend, a squirrel and the group's duelist

  Hector: Tom's friend, a lizard man and the group tank

  Chloe: Tom's little sister

  Lucy: Alex's former dog and Chloe's animal companion

  AN: