The most prominent monsters in the city were, predictably, Tainted. With their zombie-like nature and unhinged laughter, they had stripped the Lion corpses, and he had to fight them off both times he had returned for materials.

  He’d also seen several small groups of people in passing, but he had decided to keep to himself, at least, until he finished his crafting. Jose had pondered on his decision to live for himself alone and reminisced about the days when he could read a fantasy story and lose himself in it. What had given him such a warm and inviting feeling about those stories, he wondered.

  After a time, he realized that what called to him from fantasy stories and games were the adventure and exploratory aspects. The main characters would often find themselves traveling the world for some reason or another and, in doing so, explored new areas while finding great adventures. This is what he had wanted for himself long ago when he had the time for such whimsical fantasies.

  Within this new world he had the opportunity to attain these things for himself and to chase those fanciful dreams of a young man. The chance to be free of the stifling nature of mundane life in a mediocre society whose biggest worries were how many likes they had on social media. To be free of the suffocation that came with working just to pay bills. To be free of the super-rich who every day took more and gave less to the masses. To simply, be, free.

  A smile spread on his face as he dawned his new gear for the first time after completion. He’d almost started feeling giddy at the prospect. But, if nothing else, Jose had always been a pragmatist, he knew that with constant travel came the cost of never putting down roots, of never knowing someone long enough to fall in love, not that he had ever been good at that sort of thing anyway. Clearly, there was a reason he was still single and had no children in his forties.

  He also knew that with adventure came danger and strife at every turn. But he figured that he had lived a relatively quiet life when it came to that sort of thing. The hawkish look of his eyes and his stoic demeanor had always given him an air of danger that saw most people steer clear of him.

  This had afforded him the ability to evade all but the most determined of bullies and assholes. For those others, his innate ability to fight was put to use to teach them that he was not to be trifled with. More than once he’d surprised himself with how easily he could read others' movements, and how at home he felt while in a fight. Maybe that was why he craved adventure.

  He felt he needed to test himself thoroughly against the hardest of moments. He needed to prove to himself that when push came to shove, he would shove back and, what's more, come out on top. He needed to know that the grit he’d always had on display was not just bravado. So he would go seeking adventure and test himself, and hopefully, he would not be found wanting.

  ***

  The first order of business was to climb the nearest highrise. He wanted to try and get a good lay of the land before deciding what direction to move in. He found a mostly intact building; the Lions had caused damage to most buildings in the area with their fight, but some had been damaged by whatever apocalyptic event had taken place during the blackout.

  The tallest building he could find was missing floors from the top; it was supposed to be ninety floors, but he estimated that it had at least seventy of them left. This would give him a good vantage point to scout the surroundings.

  By the time he’d found his way to the building and climbed to the thirtieth floor, darkness had begun to fall. Unbeknownst to him, the building was teaming with Tainted, and they became much more active in the dark.

  As he reached the landing on the thirtieth floor an unsettling sound had begun seeping into the stairwell. It was akin to a pack of hungry hyenas on a savanna night. Eventually, a horde of Tainted burst into the stairwell on the floors above him and surged down like a tsunami. Many fell over the railings and plummeted to their deaths, but just as many ran down the stairs toward Jose.

  He quickly kicked the door open on the landing and made his way into the floor. He craved adventure and to prove himself, but he wasn’t stupid or crazy, he knew that facing such a horde alone at his current level would be tantamount to suicide, no matter how well he could fight.

  Jose got halfway down the corridor before more Tainted turned the corner in front of him, trapping him between two hordes. He had little choice in the matter now, the only option left to him was to fight for his life and hope he would make it through.

  He kicked in the door to an apartment and made his stand on the other side of the door, hoping to funnel the monsters into a narrow opening where their numbers wouldn’t count for much. He quickly turned and began dropping Orbs in front of the door. He was able to put up five before the forerunners made it to the entrance.

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  His Orbs exploded in showers of lighting, devastating the front lines. Monsters fell before the onslaught, leaving scorching bodies behind that quickly turned to ash. But just as they began turning to ash, others quickly took their place. Jose dug in and began the exhaustive battle.

  A monster fell with every stab of his daggers, the monsters mimicked zombies in that the only way to kill them was to destroy the head. He made good use of that weakness in targeting their heads with his powerful daggers.

  Every tenth monster, he’d launch several more Orbs in front of the entrance. His skills didn’t seem to be ether hungry, but he’d resolved to use them sparingly, considering that he didn’t have much ether due to his low level and also didn’t know how long he would be fighting.

  After a time, the entrance was full of ash from the dissolving kills, and Jose began coughing and choking. He was forced to abandon his spot and run deeper into the apartment, making for the entrance to one of the rooms.

  The horde of Tainted was in a frenzy and moved much faster than he anticipated surrounding him before he could get to the new position. Jose dumped every remaining point he had into agility and capacity and began swinging for the fences. Back and forth, he alternated between dropping Orbs and using Strike.

  Though his body was now much tougher, and his constitution was much higher than a normal person's, it wasn’t long before the scratches and bites from the monsters began adding up. His new gear afforded him protection to the more vulnerable parts but did not cover every inch of him. It also did nothing for blunt force trauma. Surrounded as he was, the monsters found the unguarded parts of his body and left behind gruesome wounds from bites, slashes, and blunt force.

  The Tainted scratched at his skin, pulled on his clothing, and bit into his flesh throughout the struggle. He was bleeding from several places and exhausted within minutes but was gaining nourishment at an unprecedented pace. Soon, he reached level seven and received a new skill.

  [You have acquired a new skill, Bolt.

  Bolt - Discharge bolts of lighting scorching and electrocuting your enemies.]

  He looked at the name of the skill and used it without reading the description. The skill exploded out of his dagger as he stabbed a Tainted, and a bolt of lightning lanced forward as his dagger dug through the monster’s skull striking the monster behind it.

  At some point, Jose had begun using the skills by simply thinking the names as opposed to yelling them out, allowing him to conserve more stamina for fighting. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been fighting, but he was exhausted, bleeding out, and he could tell his ether was running low.

  He took a desperate gamble and used Strike and Bolt simultaneously as he stomped on the ground. The plan was to make a hole through to the next level down so he could run and hide. But instead, a wave of lightning rolled out clearing the remaining monsters in the room.

  Quickly, Jose used Volt-Gen mending his many wounds and prepared for the horde to collapse back in on him. He’d expected healing to feel warm and comforting. Instead, each wound hurt as much while healing as when he had received them.

  To his eternal surprise, no more Tainted appeared in the hall or rushed into the room after his area of attack move. Exhausted, he fell to his knees, gasping for air, but quickly got back up, stumbled out of the room and down the hall. As exhausted as he was he still kept the presence of mind to realize that sticking around in that room might not be a good idea, if the noice of the fight hadn’t attracted more monsters, the smell of all the blood he’d shed would.

  He needed to find somewhere to hide and rest. He’d healed most of the larger wounds the first time he used Volt-Gen and would need to use it a couple more times to heal any internal wounds, but he was completely out of ether so it would have to wait till it was replenished.

  Jose froze at the end of the hall; he could hear that dreadful hyena-like laughter from around the corner and had no strength or ether left to stand and fight. He turned and began checking doors, hoping to find an open one. His heart sank as the laughter and footsteps got closer, and he still hadn’t found a place to hide. He began running on wobbly legs, repressing a grunt each time he took a step; he hadn’t broken any bones during the earlier fight but plenty of them were still bruised and battered.

  He spotted an open closet at the end of the hall but wasn’t sure he would make it. What was worse, he could now hear the laughter coming from that direction as well. He dug deep and sprinted to the closet, diving in and quietly closing the door behind him. He’d made it just in time too because a second later he could hear a horde of Tainted running past the door.

  There were many loud crashes as he heard the Tainted run into the room he’d been fighting in. They barreled into the room, crashing into walls and upturning furniture, desperately searching for something to kill and eat.

  He sat in the back of the closet trying to take quiet, slow, deep breaths, both to calm himself and catch his second wind. As he did, the Tainted suddenly quieted down, seconds later, he could hear them loudly sniffing the air in the hall. The loud sniffing got closer, and he stood up against the wall making ready for his last stand because if they found him now, he would most assuredly parish.

  The pounding in his chest got louder as the sniffing got closer and he nearly burst out of the closet to make a dash for it. It took all of his strength and courage to stand his ground and wait them out. The Tainted continued sniffing the hall for several long minutes before finally giving up and dispersing, taking their unnerving laughter with them.

  Several minutes later, Jose collapsed on the floor exhausted from the intense fear and anticipation of death. It had taken a while to calm down after realizing that they hadn’t found him and even after they dispersed, he stood there anticipating their return before finally calming down and taking a seat to rest.

  His body was torn and bloody, but maybe the cleaning chemicals in the closet had served to cover up the smell enough to fool the monsters. Or perhaps they simply couldn’t follow the trail due to their own stench. Whatever the cause, Jose was thankful that they hadn’t been able to find him.