Two men were walking alongside each other while traversing through a college campus. The taller one with jet black hair had a slightly crooked smile on his face while he continuously turned towards his partner with brown hair to ask questions.
The black haired man, Swain, did not receive answers from the brown haired man as Sylas was lost in thought remembering the fights and resulting feelings he had just been through. He wasn't stewing in emotional feelings. No, he was remembering the warm sensation he received after killing the squirrel and the two zombies.
The burst of warmth throughout his body was tangible at the start of the System Integration as well as when he hunted the squirrel, but the zombies didn't give the same result. Was it because they were zombies? Sylas then remembered the system messages after killing each foe.
[You have killed a level 3 [Squirrel].]
[You have killed a level 1 [Zombie].]
[You have killed a level 1 [Zombie].]
Maybe it was because of the level? The squirrel was level three while the zombies were only level one. Also, he was level zero when killed the squirrel that was three levels higher than him but he was the same level as the zombies. Logically, this made sense to Sylas, but he'd have to experience more to know for sure.
Sylas came back to reality looking at Swain slowly walking in front of him. In a hushed tone he asked Swain about his experience in the Integration so far and Swain readily told him every detail.
Swain had recently finished morning baseball practice and was walking back to the dorm to shower. He was walking with Josh and Brandon, whose names Sylas just learned, as they also lived in their dorm building when the three of them received the message from the system notifying them of the impending System Integration.
After a few minutes of discussing what the screen could have been they decided to start running back to the dorms, but the baseball field was a twenty minute walk from the dorms so they didn't even make it half way back before the Integration began because there were many people already freaking out over the notification.
When the Integration began he felt the same warm current throughout his body as Sylas had but he didn't get to revel in it as immediately people around them began to scream. As they looked around, the people screaming had their skin start to shrivel and discolor as their screams became hoarse. These zombies immediately attacked those near them checking on them. This action caused Swain to jump to the aid of those closest to him, swinging his bat at nonlethal places to try and disable the attackers, but his actions were futile as the zombies continued to gorge on their catch. He then went for a permanent solution by batting their heads.
At this point in the story his smile had faltered and his voice choked while avoiding eye contact with Sylas. Sylas reached out to place his arm on Swain's brawny shoulder, turned him towards himself, giving a reassuring smile, and letting him know that he saved people with his actions.
Swain continued his story after a moment, telling Sylas that he had received several notifications from the system stating he had killed level one zombies by the time he had cleared the area, but that most of the humans that were attacked were already dead. After a probing question from Sylas, he did remember a slightly warm feeling matching the initial Integration feeling after each zombie, but he did say it was small enough that he missed it without thinking about it directly. He had also reached level one after his initial fights.
Swain, Josh, and Brandon then brought the surviving humans with them as they were heading back towards the dorms. Running into several scenes of zombies feasting and survivors running away. They included everyone into their group until a large pack of zombies came around the corner of a building close to them, which is when Sylas also showed up to help them.
Throughout the story, perhaps because they were speaking to each other, they ran into more zombies than Sylas had seen on his way to Swain. They each took care of half the zombies they ran into with Sylas receiving these notifications.
[You have killed a level 1 [Zombie].] x4
[You have killed a level 2 [Zombie].]
[You have leveled up to level 2!]
Sylas told Swain about his theory of higher levels of enemies increasing the warmth of that warm feeling when Swain reminded him of something he had overlooked since the start of the integration.
"Weren't there [Tutorials] in the system interface? There's probably information about this in there."
Sylas was gobsmacked for a moment. Of course he didn't have to figure this out on his own. The system was helping them! Well, at least a little. It would've helped to actually have time to prepare, but he can only take what is given to him. For now, at least.
"Thank you for the reminder. I'm going to scroll through it for a moment so you keep an eye out for me and let me know if you need my help."
Swain acknowledged and Sylas was already digging into the [Tutorials] menu finding [Leveling] in the list and deciding this was likely to have what he was searching for. A new blue screen appeared in front of the [Tutorials] explaining what he was looking for.
[Leveling consists of gaining experience through multiple facets of life. The most simple ways to [Hunting] and through the completion of system provided [Quests]. Other methods are available but are beyond the scope of the tutorial.]
Seeing that his questions weren't answered, Sylas directly opened the [Hunting] tutorial.
[Hunting is the act of killing other beings under the System's purview. The successful act of hunting will reward the hunter with a portion of the hunted's [Mana] as well as the chance to obtain an item based on the hunted's abilities. The [Mana] received will be curated to the hunter based on their method of hunting.]
Seeing himself getting closer to the answer he's searching for, Sylas quickly went to the [Mana] tutorial.
[Mana is the energy resource of the System. Each being under the System's purview has mana within themselves allowing them to have a connection to the System. Mana can be used offensively in such manner as spells or enchantments to weapons, defensively as shields or enchantments to armor, and as utility in special classes. An increase in the mana a being is able to contain within their body has a direct correlation on their strength and an indirect correlation for their level.]
"It's mana? That's what enters our bodies with each kill?" Sylas muttered out loud.
Swain overheard and couldn't help but comment with a wry grin "Mana? Are we going to have MP (Mana Points) and HP (Health Points) like the games we play?"
"This does seem to act like a game so it's possible. I'll look at the character screen."
Sylas directly pulled up the [Character] tab in the main System menu.
[Name: Sylas Redstone]
[Race: Human]
[Class: ]
[Level: 2]
[Tier: 0]
[Rank: Commoner]
[Strength: 7]
[Vitality: 5]
[Dexterity: 7]
[Agility: 6]
[Intelligence: 9]
Sylas looked through his stats and informed Swain of what he was seeing.
"No MP or HP, but I understand what I read in the [Hunting] tutorial now. My Strength, Dexterity, and Agility have all increased because I've been acting like a bruiser who gets into melee fights, takes a hit or two, dodges when they can, and relies on brute force to end the fight."
Realization flashed through Sylas and Swain's eyes as Sylas was talking. At least they understood the basics of how to get stronger now. But Sylas couldn't help but think that his question wasn't fully answered. Did the squirrel give more mana because it was higher level, because there was a large gap in levels between himself and the squirrel, or was it a combination of the two?
Shaking himself from the reverie of his thoughts, Sylas motioned Swain to continue forward with a look and a movement of his chin. They were only a few minutes from the medical building on campus. Only a few minutes away from Sam.
As they had been walking, Sylas noticed that there were a lot of corpses littering the ground. While there were a few zombies, it was mostly humans mixed in with a variety of garden woodland creatures such as squirrels and moles.
Sylas noticed a shadow flash across the ground. While he looked around for the cause
WHISTLE
Swain's bat quickly swung through the air towards Sylas's head.
THUMP
Swain's bat connected just above his head as he ducked quickly. Sylas then saw feathers falling around him. Connecting the dots he stood back up and looked towards the sky for more birds that could be coming their way, but he saw no movement.
"Woah! That guy was level three! That was enough to get me up to level two now."
"Gratz. Gratz. I think you enjoyed swinging at my head just a bit too much though." Sylas chuckled looking at the huge grin under the thin mustache.
"Whatever you have to tell yourself" Swain giggled in response. "Oh! This notification says I can open an item from the level three pigeon."
Sylas quickly told him to open it, wondering what the tutorial meant when it said the item was 'based on the abilities of the hunted'. Would the item be a bird? Would it be something a bird could use? Would it be based on what the bird's best attributes were?
Swain interrupted Sylas's train of thought when he sadly said "These are trash." handing them over to Sylas so he could also look at them. As Sylas thought about wanting to know about the boots he was just handed he was interrupted with a notification.
[Skill Unlocked: Analyze]
[Analyze: Get a small amount of information from objects with low mana in them]
Sylas thought about how useful this skill could be as he activated it on the boots.
[Bird Booties]
[Grade: Common]
[+1 Agility]
Sylas thought they were a bit underwhelming but since the common grade was likely the lowest, he wasn't surprised by it. After some convincing, Swain put the boots on and mentioned he could barely feel a difference, but with a look from Sylas he kept them on and continued to trudge along.
Peaking around the corner of the building they were next to, Sylas could see the sign "Medical Building" directly across the courtyard from them. Looking through the courtyard he couldn't see any movement from the multitude of corpses strewn about. He and Swain started to walk quickly and quietly towards the medical building.
THUMP
They stopped as they heard a soft banging sound as they were approaching the entrance of the building.
THUMP
This time it was louder and they could locate its origin. Inside the medical building. Where they were heading. They quickly got to the entrance where the glass doors had their glass smashed and splintered on the floor. The sight inside made their hearts drop.
A pack of at least ten zombies were crowding around a large double door made of glass that led into the main clinical practice room. There were hospital beds with state of the art robotic patients for the nursing students to practice taking care of along with medical equipment and supplies.
Sylas felt a warmth spread throughout his body as he saw a group of five students beyond the glass doors. His eyes stopped on a taller than average woman with medium length dirty blonde hair and sky blue eyes. Her skin was nicely tanned from the amount of time she spent outdoors whether she was studying, walking between her many classes, or going on picnic dates with her beloved.
Sam.
She's okay. The knot in his stomach, that he didn't realize was there, relaxed, letting him breathe a bit easier.
CRACK
One of the zombie's fists made a crack on one of the large doors which elicited a scream from the group inside. Sylas refocused on the zombie pack noticing, for the first time, a significantly larger zombie in the middle of the pack.
[Analyze]
[Zombie]
[Level: 5]
[Tier: 0]
[Rank: ???]
The large zombie rotated its head until it was staring into Sylas's eyes.
"Shit."