His head hurt like hell.

  “He’s awake!” a voice yelled.

  Groaning, Rowan opened his eyes, then closed them back as the whole world whirled in a maelstrom of colors, the blue of the sky mixing with the green and the yellow of the leaves.

  “C’mon, sleeping beauty, rise and shine. We don’t have all day.”

  Someone patted his cheek. When he opened his eyes, Rowan gasped. A striking woman leaned above him, exposing to his view an enticing decolletage through a beige shirt opened at the two upper buttons. Tall, blonde, tanned, sexy, with gray-blue eyes, full lips, and that type of severe expression that makes men try to soften it with declarations of love and boxes of chocolate. Or at least, that was what he thought he would do.

  “Ouch!” Rowan blurted.

  Thomas has inflicted you with a Kick to the Ribs. Stunned for 1 second. Internal Bleeding: 0.5 HP/second.

  “Don’t stare at my mom’s boobs, you pervert!”

  “You idiot, I just finished healing him!” a girl in her early teens yelled, kneeling near Rowan. Slowly, he began to feel better.

  An unknown Apprentice Healer is applying Minor Healing to you.

  “Turn your Emotes off. You had a ton of hearts emojis erupting over your head,” the woman said, offering a hand.

  “What happened?” Rowan mumbled, trying to get his wits together and raising on his buttocks after accepting her help. Which was the best moment for Lizzie to jump on him, hugging him awkwardly over the throat. He returned the hug. “Hi, sweetie, I’m happy you’re all right!” Lizzie was about to climb into his arms again, but he pushed her away gently, ruffling her hair, intending to concentrate on the story.

  “Short story: I heard Lizzie screaming, then my partner—a total idiot—told me a passenger also heard screams, and,” the woman’s voice choked for a second, “I remembered Thomas had a school field trip here and ran up. I found him running in circles, chased by an alien.”

  “I was waiting for the DOT to finish it,” Thomas explained.

  “I shot the monster and gave you first aid. You were almost gone, but that kid,” the woman continued, pointing to the Apprentice Healer, “did some mumbo-jumbo over you and raised you back to life. Thomas explained everything to me…” She shook her head, her shoulders sagging. “Magic… who would have imagined…”

  Enforcer, level 17. That was the tag floating over the woman’s head. Only then did Rowan recognize her. It was the policewoman from the road, the one dealing with the bus’s passengers.

  Wow… She’s gorgeous! How come I didn’t notice?

  “Last warning: Turn your emojis settings on private,” the blonde woman frowned and accompanied her words with a mild squeeze on his shoulder. “We can all see them. Now, it’s widened eyes and a salivating tongue. You’re this close I charge you with obstruction,” she showed him her index and thumb, only an inch apart.

  “Not my fault you’re pretty,” Rowan mumbled, more to himself. The woman snorted but, at the same time, repressed a half-smile.

  Putting the emotes off was simple; thinking about it popped up the option with Yes or No beside it. Notification flooded him afterward, and he proceeded to read them, ignoring the agitation around him—mainly kids asking Thomas questions about their classes and stats.

  You have Cleared the Ominous Grove mini-dungeon, the first Dungeon to be completed on Earth. +1 Free Attribute Point, +1 Level. You have reached level 21. Reward: Your contribution was judged the most important, and as such, a Core (Mythical Artifact) has been transferred to your Inventory. The default setting has been applied: the Dungeon Core has evolved into a Town Core.

  Overall, he had eight free points to invest. He put one in Strength and, on a whim, one in Charisma. The rest went into Will, his strongest stat, and then Rowan inspected the numbers.

  Name: Rowan Allinder. Class: The Indomitable, Unique, Level 21

  STR: 30 / DEX: 27 / CON: 27 / INT: 16 / WIL: 60 / CHA: 13

  Will Perk, Threshold 1: Will and Wilt: Your Will replaces Strength as your Physical Critical Damage multiplier (1% per every Will point) and inflicts an Unavoidable DOT every 2 seconds. The Critical Chance depends on your Dex (+1% for every Dex point).

  Will Perk, Threshold 2: Locked.

  Strength Perk, Threshold 1: Miss? What miss? Your strikes have a 25% chance to ignore Evade, Dodges, Parries, or Blocks.

  Constitution Perk, Threshold 1: Tough Cookie. +25% all physical resistances, +25% to Natural Regeneration (HP)

  Dexterity Perk, Threshold 1: Subconscious Fighting. Even if you’re CC’d, as long you're not knocked out cold, your body can move independently, striking the enemy.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  HP regen: 1.25%/minute MP regen:1%/minute

  HP = CON x 10 / MP = WIL x 10

  Health Pool= Lvl.+CONx10. Current HP: 400/480

  Mana Pool = Level+Main Class Stat (WIL)x10. Current HP=560/810

  “Is this normal? I mean, gaining so many levels in one shot?” Rowan asked. He was a bit flummoxed by his considerable gain in levels.

  “Check your detailed logs. This System favors challenges,” Thomas said. “The bigger the difference in level between you and the foes you kill, the bigger the reward… You’re following, right? You look a little st… confused.”

  Rowan’s head was hurting from all that nerdish thrown around, but he wouldn’t let himself be insulted by a kid. “Because you broke me a rib or something, you little punk!”

  “Thomas uses bad words when you’re not around, Isla,” Lizzie reported, obviously siding with Rowan.

  The boy sketched a move to catch her, but she hid behind Rowan. “You little rat!”

  “Enough!” Thomas’s mother clapped her hands. “We need to return to the road. Kids, you know the drill. Hold hands, two by two, like the ants are marching on. I’ll be in the front, Thomas with me, and… err… what was your name again?"

  "Rowan."

  "Rowan, you cover the back. Yell if you need help. Now, let’s go. Left, right, left, right, left, right!” She offered her hand to Rowan, helping him rise to his feet, then started stepping in a cadence, showing the way, followed by the orderly column of kids.

  “She’s great at organizing things,” Rowan noticed.

  “Yeah. Inhale, exhale, left, right, those are her favorites,” Thomas sighed.

  “Err… What happened to the remains?” Rowan asked in a whisper. There was no sign of the teachers’ bodies.

  “The earth swallowed them,” Thomas said, pointing to a mound resembling a grave. “The beasts disintegrated. Have to go in front, or Isla will make me run five miles before dinner,” he said in a hurry and scampered forward.

  Tiger mama, obviously. Rowan smiled and started marching in line with the last kid, Lizzie, and she took him by the hand. On the way, he picked up his backpack and facepalmed using his free hand. Fuck, there was a trail! Clear enough now, the path waved through the trees. If he’d taken the time to inspect the surroundings, that would have eased his climb the first time. When passing the blue line of the forcefield, a notification showed:

  You are leaving a High Mana Density Area, tier A (Glade, Place of Power, former Mini-Dungeon) for a Minimal Mana Density Area, tier F. Warning: Your stats and skills will remain the same, but your HP and MP will regenerate 60 times slower, at 1% / hour instead of 1% / minute.

  “Noooo,” Thomas wailed. “Mana isn’t everywhere?”

  “Is this bad?” Rowan heard Isla ask.

  “For my skills, yes, they are Mana-based. You know, Dash, Stun, Off-Tank stuff.”

  I wonder if I have Mana skills… But before Rowan could inspect his Character Menu, they reached the road. The fallen tree had been removed, and all cars were gone except for the bus and the police vehicle. That meant engines worked again.

  “You can’t go until my partner comes back,” the policemen argued with the bus driver and some vociferous elderly ladies. “There's a passenger lost in the woods; she's gone after him. Oh, here she is. Hi Isla. Oh… What happened?” the man asked when his eyes met the group.

  Pretty name for a pretty lady, Rowan thought. She has the weirdest kid, though.

  “A bunch of aliens attacked the school trip,” Isla said. There were a lot of gasps and incredulous looks around, but she didn’t bother to explain further. “Kids, go on the bus. You, the tourists, make some place for them,” Isla ordered.

  "You poor things… Attacked by aliens? Come inside and tell us all!" The same talkative old lady from before said, and Rowan would have bet that her interest was more about gossip than for the kids.

  “Thomas, go in the back of the car," Isla said. “And no, you can’t ride in front; it’s illegal. Don't mess with the door locks like the last time, or I'll handcuff you.”

  “Police brutality!” the boy shouted but obeyed.

  “We’re heading for Elkins to let off the kids; what you do after that is your own business,” Isla informed the bus driver before returning to the police car and taking the lead again.

  For the next half hour, Rowan dozed on and off, his mind spinning wild about the monsters and the magic. Lizzie had climbed in his arms, sitting quietly and looking at the landscape: rolling hills, the valley, a still sunny sky, and the usual sheep-shaped clouds. There was a permanent buzz in the bus and a vibe of creeping anxiety: people chatting, the elderly asking the kids about the attack.

  “Good news. After Elkins, we continue to the resort,” the driver announced in the speakers as they entered the town. “CB Radios are working. This was an isolated incident, not an invasion. The Internet is on. Phone networks are still off, but there is hope of restoring them soon.”

  The bus stopped in a parking lot, with its asphalt starting to look dilapidated. Late August offered warm summer light, an hour or two until sunset. There was a brick church to the northwest and another, smaller, to the Southeast. Across the street was a coffee shop, and many cars were parked in front of it. Overall, it was the typical small town with a rural vibe.

  As soon as the bus’s doors opened, adults ran forward, screaming names, almost in a stampede.

  “Calm down, everybody’s safe!” a bullhorn roared, amplifying Isla’s voice.

  She must’ve called the parents in advance, somehow, Rowan realized.

  “Kids, come out. IN ORDER! Don’t push each other,” the blonde ordered.

  Lizzie hugged Rowan, tears filling her eyes, and went out last.

  “Mommy!”

  “Honey!”

  The girl jumped off the bus like a released spring, the woman barely catching her in time. Lizzie started to chat vividly, pointing at the bus, her words swamped by the surrounding noise of people moving again to other chairs and discussions. People were eager to finally visit the resort and check on their loved ones using the internet. There were a few words Rowan did catch, though.

  “But Mommy, he’s so nice! Let’s take him home! He’s daddy material.” Rowan repressed a laugh. Then Lizzie screamed. “Rowan, please stay!”

  You are affected by debuff: Scream for Attention. Your WIL check failed. Unable to control your actions for the next 10 seconds, and compulsion to follow the Taunter’s orders.

  Fuck!

  His feet were dashing on the aisle without any control. At the last moment, he grabbed his backpack and then started to bang his boot on the middle door.

  “Calm down, moron!” the driver yelled, opening the door.

  “Such a weirdo,” Rowan heard the old lady who tried to make conversation earlier. The debuff ceased only when he was out, panting in front of the girl and her mother. Meanwhile, the bus had departed in a hurry, tires screeching. For sure, to escape the madman: him.

  “I’m so happy you stayed!” Lizzie screamed, jumping up like a blissful whack-a-mole character. “You can live with us. Mommy has a hotel.”

  “Bed and breakfast. I’m Grace, Lizzie’s mother,” the woman offered a hand.

  “Rowan Allinder.” Her handshake felt frail, somehow like her. Three to four inches shorter than Rowan, cute, as graceful as her name suggested, with hair flowing down to her shoulders, between straight and curly, light brown and auburn. The most striking detail was her skin, living porcelain; its white and rose color surreally delicate. Her light green eyes looked tired, adding a sense of normalcy.

  “Thank you… I don’t know all the details, but Isla told me the kids were in danger, and you helped. Oh, sorry. Of course, you can spend the night at our place.”

  “I’m good. Drop me off near the next bus station. Worst case, I’ll hitchhike.”

  “No!” Lizzie stomped her feet, but this time, Rowan’s will resisted, and he frowned back, putting his fists on his hips and trying to adopt a grandmotherly tone.

  “Look, young lady. Using your magic on friends is a big no. Do we understand each other?”

  “M-magic?” Grace stuttered.