Exultation

Chapter Two: To The Rescue...Fail!

William nearly jumped out of is skin when his phone rang.

He'd had a landline installed and cloned to his smart phone. It had proven impossible to get service with his smart phone down here, as dirt and metal was quite the barrier to cell service. So he had one of the only landlines in the state most likely.

"Hello?" William said as he plucked up the phone.

"Oh my god William do you see what is going on?!" His brother screamed into the phone, making him wince.

Apparently his hearing was a fair amount better.

"Yes, I was in the middle of town when everything went down. Flipped my truck as a matter of fact when I hit a monster." William said dryly as his fingers danced over his keyboard.

"Fuck, you okay? Wait course you are or you wouldn't be talking to me." His brother said to himself. "Did you get a good class? I got a crappy 1 star scout class, how about you? What did you get? And can you come pick me up maybe...?"

He paused for a moment as he thought over what he wanted to say before he sighed. As uncharitable as it was he didn't really like dealing with his brother. He had a nasty drug habit and was just a general fuck up. But he was also mentally disabled but not extremely so, so it wasn't 100% his fault. That still didn't make it easier to deal with him. He liked him the most of all his family, but that wasn't really saying much. He despised most of his family, to the point that he wouldn't spare a bucket of cold piss to put them out with if they were burning. For very good reasons he didn't want to think about cause it just pissed him off.

Still, in the end it was the apocalypse, and he didn't really want to abandon his brother despite his dislike of him.

Despite his fuck ups he was still his brother, and the only decent family he had.

He sighed, "fuck it, yes I got a good class. So good in fact it even changed my race, I don't really look anything like I did yesterday. And yes I can pick you up."

There was sigh of relief on the other end of the line before his brother spoke up again.

"No shit? What do you look like now?" His brother asked in curiosity and relief.

William frowned as he glanced at a mirror in his room.

"Drizzt, but with black hair." William answered quickly.

A long silence for a moment was his response for a long time.

"Who?" His brother said, legitimately confused.

William rolled his eyes.

"Uncultured swine." He muttered under his breath in dim amusement.

"Dark Elf. Black hair, purple eyes, long pointy ears, high cheek bones, brown skin, very very good looking. Think Lord of the Rings." William rattled off as he contemplated his route to his brothers apartment.

"Fuck me." His brother muttered in shock over the line. "Well, uh, alright then. I'll make sure to be ready for you and not freak out, how long you gonna take?"

William mentally charted a course in his head for a moment before he shut down his computer.

"Hopefully less then 15 minutes, but if I'm not there in 45 I'm probably dead." William said dryly as he hung up.

He picked up his [Void Glaive] as he sighed.

"This is such a bad idea." William muttered to himself.

He made sure to fill his cats gravity dispensers up enough to last them a week just in case.

It wouldn't save them if he died, but if he got stranded or injured then that might last them long enough for him to return.

-Exultation-

William quietly creeped through his cactus patch, his glaive in his left hand and his shuriken in his right ready to throw.

The sun was totally down even if the light from it was still slightly lighting up the sky. Thankfully light pollution from the town nearby lit the sky up a bit more. Well enough for his newly enhanced vision to see.

He came out of his cactus patch and took in the sight of his house, and garage, with a pecan tree slightly obscuring the house. He waited for a long quiet moment as e listened to the night, quietly glad he had some spare car keys he kept within his bunker.

When he didn't seen any movement or hear anything untoward he quietly crept along towards his house. He slipped around his pecan tree and through his back porch as he got to the garage. The building was separate from his house so he winced a bit as his feet crunched through the gravel of his drive way.

A long low growl from above and behind him had him jerk around and look up at his house's roof.

A hunched over figure, tall despite it's posture lurked on his metal tin roof. He could only describe it as nothing less then a Werewolf. It was an 8 foot tall bi-pedal black haired creature with baleful glowing red eyes, a long fang filled snout, and triangular pointed ears sprouting from the top of its head. Its lanky arms and legs terminated in long black claws reminiscent of a grizzly bears mixed with a Jurassic Park velociraptors.

He swallowed as he tightened his grip on his shuriken, deeply regretting all of his life choices that led him to this moment.

He reared back his right arm and let his [Void Windmill Shuriken] fly as hard as he could. The monster tilted it's head a bit as the weapon whistled through the air towards it until it flexed it's body and surged forward and up, neatly arcing over the deadly weapon. William's heart sank as the creature's single leap brought it in an arc directly at him even as his shuriken flew over his house and into the field beyond it.

The creature's glowing blood red eyes gleamed as it arced toward him, it's saliva filled maw wide open and claws pointed toward him. William brought his glaive forward in a hurry, bracing it with his foot against the ground. The creatures eyes narrowed as it fell into the point of the weapon, the tip of his glaive punching through it's upper sternum and it's side blade tearing through it's flesh along one side of it's chest. The creature gave a grunt even as it crashed into him full force.

William gave a cry as the monster slammed into him, bones breaking from the sheer weight and force of the creature even as a sharp pain erupted across his face from a claw.

He screamed in agony as he rolled and flailed about in a tumbling pile. They rolled several times before the monster with it's greater weight and mass flew off of him and into a storage shed of his with a crash. William grit his teeth as he groaned in agony on the ground, his left arm twisted and throbbing and his right eye a weeping blood filled mess that he could no longer see out of.

He screamed in agony for over a minute.

"AAAAAAAAAH, AAAAAAHHHHHHH, FUCK FUCK FUCK, FUCKING COCK SUCKING CUNT!" He screamed out into the night for a long time. "FUCK!"

He forced himself to be silent, locking his screams behind his teeth as he whimpered and twisted on the ground.

Eventually, once he grew used to the pain, he forced himself to his feet.

He quickly limped over to his bloody glaive, picking it up with his right hand, a groan leaving his lips as several of his broken ribs protested.

He then limped over towards his shed as blood flowed down his face from his ruined eye socket. He shouldered open the ruined door of his shed and saw the monster laying in a pile against the wall. The things chest rose and fell in a jerky shuddering fashion, copious amounts of blood flowing down it's chest. He noticed air bubbles were flowing up through the blood that flowed from it's chest wound every time it took a breath.

William showed no mercy as he did a savage overhand thrust and stabbed the monster in it's head and upper chest repeatedly until it died.

[Greater Werewolf Lv.10] has been slain! (+800 Essence) (Perk: [Imperfect Regen Burst] has been learned!)

[Void Battlemage Lv.3] → [Void Battlemage Lv.4]
Movement: [Void Tether] has been learned!
— Attributes: [POW +1] | [VIG +1] | [SPD +
3] | [MAG +3] | [CHR +2]

William grunted in satisfaction as he gave a final fuck you to the Werewolf and cut it's head off for good measure even as the level up prompts continued to flow.

[Void Battlemage Lv.4] → [Void Battlemage Lv.5]
Movement: [Lesser Voidstep] has been learned!
— Attributes: [POW +1] | [VIG +1] | [SPD +
3] | [MAG +3] | [CHR +2]

He sighed as he staggered away from the cooling corpse of the motherfucking level 10 monster. He gained two levels and a single free perk from [Death Empowerment], which admittedly was outstanding. It only cost him an eye, a heavily sprained arm, broken ribs, and dozens of bruises. He sagged up against the garage door as he realized just how close he came to dying.

He forced himself to continue on, as he knew he couldn't linger here for long.

'Status.' He mentally thought.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

William Dustin Blackwood

Level:

5 (240/500)
Race: [Dark Elf ]
Class: [Void Battlemage ]
Power:
5
Vigor:
5
Speed:
13
Magic:
13
Charisma:
9
Essence:
240

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

— Perks —

Dark Elf: [Death Empowerment]

D. Empowerment: [Imperfect Regen Burst]

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

— Skills —

Combat: [Weapon Savant]

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

— Spells —

Creation: [Void Glaive]
Creation: [Void Windmill Shuriken]

Movement: [Void Tether]

Movement: [Lesser Voidstep]

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

William immediately went to the new perk, mentally uttering 'Imperfect Regen Burst.'

[Imperfect Regen Burst: Once a day when night fully takes hold, gain a burst of imperfect regenerative healing, healing all minor injuries, 2 moderate injuries, or 1 major injury, in order of severity.]

William wondered for a long moment what 'night fully takes hold' meant. Was it sunset? Or when the light of the sun fully leaves? He wasn't sure. Although the fact that it was imperfect healing left him a little iffy on the whole thing. Still, beggars and choosers and all that.

He gazed at his garage for a long moment in contemplation. William then sighed in defeat, he hadn't even made it 400 feet outside his bunker before he almost died to a monster that frankly should have killed him easy. Only his enhanced hearing, the superiority of his [Void Glaive], and a truckload of luck saw him still among the land of the living.

Even then without his [Death Empowerment] he would have been permanently crippled and 100% fucked.

"Fuck this." He muttered in defeat as he shuffled away from the garage and back to his bunker.

He dispelled his [Void Windmill Shuriken] as he trudged through the cactus patch, wincing at his bruises as he did so. He thankfully made it uninterrupted back to his bunker hatch. Before he descended he sent his brother a text on his way back to his bunker.

-Bro, I nvr made it to my car. A monster fucked me up. Busted arm, a missing eye, and all bruises. Im gonna hold up for a few days before tryn agn. Cell out and hrd line only. Sry bro.-

William pushed send, and made sure it went before he descended into his bunker with a wince.

-Exultation-

William dispelled his [Void Glaive] once he was within the sturdy walls of his bunker, feeling the fear leaving him rapidly as his secure walls were now enclosed around him.

He was on his way to the kitchen to clean out his wounds when [Imperfect Regen Burst] triggered as the day fully died, funneling healing energies into his ruined eye socket. He hissed and staggered to lean against a wall as he felt his eye socket itching something fierce but resisted the urge to touch it. He watched in the mirror within the living room as his flesh regrew. First his eye swelled up, regrowing in an absolutely grotesque manner. Then the ruined flesh within the socket swelled, filled in, and regrew. And then finally his eyelid regrew last, the sensation of flesh regrowing and sliding over his brand new eye being totally unnerving.

He blinked his eye experimentally a few times, but noted in relief that it worked as well as before.

Only what had been a deep vivid purple was now a shining gold. It frankly reminded him of yellow topaz. Perhaps this was what imperfect meant in [Imperfect Regen Burst]? Some type of mutation effect with the regeneration?

"I sure hope I don't end up looking like a witcher." He muttered to himself.

Yet despite the new color the healing working perfectly, even if he still had a scar over the eye from where the claw had removed it. Another aspect of imperfect healing maybe? That it left scars? He also noted his other two claw wounds were still there as well, so they must count as a separate wound despite being from the same claw.

He got into the bunker proper and limped into his kitchen and got out a hand mirror from a drawer along with a med kit. He gazed into his mirror and winced. His face was a mess of blood, cut flesh, and bruised skin. While his eye and socket were healed, he still had two long diagonal claw marks across his face. One went diagonally over his eyebrow and across his nose, making it a little difficult to breath, while the second one just missed his other eye and went across his cheek.

He supposed that went they healed he'd look like a proper badass if nothing else.

His eye wound must have overpowered any pain he felt at the time from them but they were definitely hurting now. He turned on the water faucet, hot all the way while he got out disinfectant and gauze. He also got out a knife with a wooden handle and bit down on it. Once the water was steaming he he took a deep breath before sticking his face under it and screamed through the knife as the hot water poured through the fresh wounds.

He blinked back spots as he pulled himself out of the hot water, quickly turning it off as he cried out in agony. He spat the knife out into the sink for the moment, his legs shuddering as he leaned against the counter. He pulled in several large and deep gasps of air as rested for a moment. Then he forced himself to fetch the knife once more and bite down on it again. He glanced at the wounds and very very carefully used his med kit's tweezers to begin pulling out any debris the water hadn't cleaned out, while allowing the blood to flow and drip into the sink.

After several minutes he tossed the bloody tweezers into the sink and fetched some isopropyl alcohol. He whimpered preemptively before he took a deep breath and poured the stinging liquid onto his wounds. He screamed and screamed and screamed as he poured the liquid onto his wounds for a solid 5 seconds before he pulled it away and allowed everything to drip into the sink.

More crying followed before he girded his loins and he delicately put some gauze over his wounds and applied pressure to them. He then wrapped his head in more gauze wrapping, only leaving part of his face and eyes exposed. He then staggered off to lie down somewhere dark and quiet, grabbing a thick towel to wrap around his neck and finding something that he wouldn't mind bleeding on to lie down in.

This adventurer shit was for the birds.

-Exultation-

William blinked sleep encrusted eyes open as he groggily woke up.

His face hurt like a motherfucker while the towel around his neck was dry and crusted in blood. He groaned as he slowly sat up and glanced at the clock. He blinked in surprise as he realized he'd slept for over 12 hours. He slowly got up out of the cot he set up to sleep in, wincing at this bruised body, broken ribs, and stinging face. He hadn't wanted to bleed all over a bed and the cot would be much easier to clean.

He was a little light headed but the fact that he woke up at all was nice, not that he'd thought he was in danger of dying or anything.

He dragged himself to his kitchen again and peeled the bandages off his face. He hissed in pain as the bandages pulled and tugged at his wounds, dried blood and bandage forming a type of adhesive to his skin. The two diagonal claw marks were red and inflamed but at least he had both eyes. The claw marks looked okay, they didn't smell infected at any rate.

With a sigh he fetched the isopropyl alcohol and cleaned out the wounds once more before wrapped them up with fresh bandages.

It was first aid 101, keep the wounds clean and the bandages fresh.

-Exultation-

He tossed the freshly boiled and cleaned bandages into the dryer before turning it on for a quick cycle.

He refused to just toss them as he never knew when or where he might get more. Reminding himself that everything was precious now was going to be tough. He'd have to retrain himself from simply tossing trash without thought.

He stripped his clothes as well, tossing them to a separate pile from his own.

He winced at his body. He was covered in purple bruises from head to toe. Apparently, getting piledrived by a Werewolf was hard on the body. His left foot was also quite swollen too, badly so.

He used a wet hot wash cloth to wash down his body, wincing every time he pushed a bit too hard on a bruise, or touched a particularly tender spot.

It took him awhile until he was relatively clean, but eventually he got it done. He made himself something to eat as he suddenly found himself ravenous. He used the food in his fridge that was likely to go bad first, as it was a few days away from spoiling. He kept his bunker fridge stocked, but he commonly forgot about the food and had to trash it. So the stuff he had on hand was going to go bad soon, so he took the opportunity to make more then the thought he would eat just to use it up.

As he cooked the eggs and ham he went over his two new spells he got and hadn't had a chance to look at yet.

A mental command saw the first to pop up.

[Void Tether: A spell that creates a telekinetic tether to an object.]

William hummed at that, that was an excellent spell, assuming it didn't have any terrible limitations.

'Lesser Voidstep.' William mentally uttered.

[Lesser Voidstep: A spell that allows the caster to move as a shadow up to 600 yards.]

He smiled happily despite his injuries, that was an amazing spell! Teleportation, even short range, was awesome. Assuming it was teleportation and not a direct movement spell. It said 'as a shadow' but what did that really mean?

"Rompers, is it a physical movement spell or a teleport spell?" He asked his lazily lounging orange and white cat who eyed his freshly made food with keen eyes. "Don't even think about it red cat."

His cat utterly ignored him in favor of bacon staring so he rolled his eyes as he continued cooking.

-Exultation-

William leaned down into his chair with a sigh.

"Fuck, I sure hope this fucked up system gave out healing classes." William muttered as he picked up a cat toy. "Hmmm, this should be entertaining."

With a tired grin William used [Void Tether] on a cat toy. He smiled as he noted that the spell cost for it was quite cheap. [Void Glaive] and it's opposite [Void Windmill Shuriken] were quite expensive, taking up around 60% of his energy reserves to cast and maintain. Whereas this spell only hit him for around...2.5%? Around there at any rate.

It was cheap, even if he had to maintain that 2.5% while the spell was running.

The cat toy zipped around the living room according to his will. It moved around the living room at a fast clip, easily faster then any Human could run that was for sure. His spell [Void Tether] allowed him to instinctively know the cat toy was at all times in relation to himself. It was exactly as described, a touch based telekinetic tether spell.

Of course his kitties lost their shit. Sprinkles was quickly in hot pursuit, desperately trying to get the mouse toy while Rompers wasn't far behind her. Cupcake was uninterested in mouse chasing shenanigans, and watched from her spot beside him. Just as Sprinkles was about to pounce on the mouse, Swevils popped out and attacked.

Not the mouse of course, no he speared Sprinkles in the side with evil cat glee on his face, allowing Romper to grab the mouse as those two tumbled across the floor in a ravenous twirling death match.

With chaos sowed he got up from his chair and strolled to the greenhouse.

He needed space if he was going to test his [Lesser Voidstep] after all.

-Exultation-

William stood within greenhouse number two.

He had two greenhouses, with one being technically larger but having partitions so he'd passed on using it. He wanted to know exactly where he was going when he used this spell the first time. He took a deep breath, the regretted it as he coughed from his broken ribs. Then he focused on the distant part of the room, past all the empty plant tables before mentally intoning [Lesser Voidstep] in his mind.

He followed his instinct and took a step forward, suddenly moving!

He staggered as he realized he'd cross the intervening distance, over 75 feet, in less then a blink.

"Damn." William muttered as he looked around.

He checked his energy reserves and realized he lost around...5% or so of energy from that spell. Which meant that at his current reserves he could use that spell around 10 or so times in a row before he'd need a rest. He really needed to know the maximum distance he could travel and if it was movement based or teleport based.

The casting time was also non-existent, he'd simply willed the spell to work, took a step, and was gone.

He glanced toward the solid wall for a moment before he focused and disappeared from that spot.

He reappeared within one of the bunk rooms set up for guests, the farthest point he could go and remain within the bunker. He thought for a moment and figured he'd moved around 150-200 feet. That was nice but he supposed a proper test would need more room then he had at the moment.

Still, it was a good test for while he was laid up and injured, made him feel like he wasn't just wasting time.

With a hum he used [Lesser Voidstep] and appeared within his office that was within his room.

He sat down at his computer and booted it up, the super fast machine booting up within seconds. He was still so happy with his computer, despite it being over a year old. It beat having to use his old laptop by a million miles. Course it had been bleeding edge when he'd had it assembled a year ago, water cooled with the hardware as far as it could be taken. It had cost a pretty penny but he'd had money to burn.

He frowned when he realized some of his commonly used sites were down. QQ wasn't responding, neither was Google. On a whim he'd checked Bing after Google but it was down as well. Reddit was still up, and Discord was still working as well. Still, he had thought he'd have more time before sites started going down, it'd only been a day...

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

So, the end of the world, how's that going for you guys? Cause it's kinda shitty on my end...0/10 would not recommend. (edited)

Kana 10/02/2026

YOUR ALIVE! BUDDY!

A FUCKING DRAGON IS BURNING NEW YORK!

A FUCKMOTHERING DRAGON!

William shifted tabs and got to checking Reddit and sure as shit a gigantic 300 foot long red dragon was rapidly doing it's Smaug impression on New York city.

"Fuck my life..." William muttered as he stared in numb horror at the video of the fuck off huge dragon turning sky scrapers into collapsing molten slag.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Oi, fucking caps brah? We get it, worlds ending. No need for rudeness.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

So, my night was awful. Was in the middle of town when shit went down. Monsters and shit coming outta the wood work. Hit a Direwolf lvl 3 with my truck. Truck flipped and ate it. Wolf was a bitch but I killed it while it was injured. So...

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

No shit? Nice. How you do it? Cause I don't know if you noticed but guns ain't working for anyone anymore.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Yeah, I'm more then a little salty about that, do you have any idea how much dosh I put down on my armory? Fucking bullshit.

Kana 10/02/2026

That was a nasty damn surprise. Fucking pack of gobo looking motherfuckers raided the people across the street. Nasty nasty. Heard their screams. The women's screams took longer to stop...

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Green, short, ugly, warts, simple weapons, loin clothes? I killed two, system called them Goblins Lvl 1. Wolf was- Direwolf Lvl. 3. As for how I did it...well my class is pretty powerful, gave me a good starting spell.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Oh, ho! Gotta a spell at first level huh? You must be up there then.

Kana 10/02/2026

Hah! Fucking bitchin man! I hope you pwned those bitches!

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

Hey Evil! I'm glad your okay! Just got back with a generator and some fuel, it's fucking crazy out there!

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Mittens! Glad your alive!

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Ditto

Kana 10/02/2026

Yeah!

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

Monsters are everywhere guys, but I learned something I think from some others. Monsters are in thicker numbers, more dangerous, and higher level at night.

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

Do. Not. Leave. At. Night. Unless. You. Have. No. Choice.

Kana 10/02/2026

...dang that makes sense, I did see more things moving around last night. Glad I had my sledge hammer.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Whoa, now that you mention it...there were more monsters scurrying about! (edited)

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Little late for the warning Mittens but I appreciate the thought...

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

Oh no! What happened evil, are you okay?

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

My brother asked for a pick up to my hidey hole. Against my better judgment...I went...or tried... (edited)

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Don't got a good feeling about this.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Got jumped, literrally the fucker was on my roof, by what ended up being a Werewolf lvl 10. I was lvl 3 at that point. Short story? Broken ribs, busted left arm, slashed face, missing eye. I'm lucky to be alive guys. Stay the fuck in indoors at night unless your rolling with a fucking tank.

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

Oh no, are you okay, do you need help?! TALK TO ME!

Kana 10/02/2026

FUCK dude.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Christ. Are you gonna turn into a werewolf now?

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

DyneKnight I don't think so. Even if it was possible (and I don't know if it is or isn't) I have a healing Perk so I should be okay in time.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

KittenMittens I'm fine, for now. Like I said before you got here, I have a really powerful class. It...

Now, to this point he hadn't told anyone about his 5 star class, nor his race change. Not that he'd really had a chance to. It was his ace in the hole really, he doubted many people had 5 star classes or 5 star races. And if they did have 5 star class/races then he doubted they were as OP as his. The question was, did he want to tell them? He did, that was easily enough to answer.

He'd kinda become a hermit after his wife died. Quit his job, holed up with his cats, focused on his writing and gaming really. Blew his money on land and the bunker and other crap. These guys were his most talked to people, which was kinda sad now that he thought of it.

He sighed before he made a decision and went back to his keyboard.

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

Evilhippy You okay evil? You dropped off there for a minute.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Bro?

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Yeah, sorry guys, just thinking for a second. Well, fuck it I guess. I got a 5 star class and had my race changed to a 5 star race, I hit the top score during the initial prompt when everything turned to shit. I got really, really lucky.

Kana 10/02/2026

Hah, fucking right on man! I didn't get a 5 star anything...never heard of anyone so far getting one for tha tmatter, but fuck it I got a race change too! 4 Star Class and 3 Star Race! It's fucking awesome!

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

I got a nice 4 star class and a rare 5 star race too! I feel relaly lucky...

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

I'm jealous guys, I only got a 3 star class and 3 star race.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Honestly, I think we were all lucky as fuck, even you Dyne, Mittens especially with her 5 star race. I'm getting the idea from online that most people don't get more then 1 star anythings and some people get scrub 1 stars. I'm kinda worried some dumb fuck will attack me thinking I'm a monster though. My race change is Dark Elf, and I definitely look like one (black hair, not white), while my class is Void Battlemage.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Dark Elf? Void Battlemage? Edgy dude, real edgy ;P.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Fuck off, haha! It can sound edgy but if not for my five star class and race I'd def be dead. What did you guys get?

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

For race I went from Trash Human to 3 star High Human. Lost some weight, blemishes and a few flaws are gone, bit of muscle added to. Nice but nothing in super special snowflake range. My class is Ranger, and I actually got a skill and a spell when I leveled from defending my apartment from a few Goblins. Glad I had my bow to be honest or I don't know what I'd have done. Stealth for the skill, and Blend (think active camouflage) for the spell. Pretty nice.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Not bad bro, betcha you'll get some survival skills which will come in very handy when food gets rare.

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

Yeah, rangers are all badasses, and while I'm not from Texas everyone knows Texas Rangers are hardcore motherfuckers Dyne!

Kana 10/02/2026

You will rock it bro, you got this! One Ranger, One Riot!

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Thanks guys, I mean it. Now what about you two Kitten? Kana?

Kana 10/02/2026

Well, I got an awesome race change to 3 star Dwarf! Fucking bitchin man, I love dwarves! Gimli forever! As for class I got a 4 star Mechanist class. It's like a craftsman and enchanter mix, but heavy on the craft part...like I use magic to make my creations work better? I'm not sure but I'll know with more levels. I think it's kinda steampunk stuff or at least so far. I got the Minor Craft skill and the Cog enchantment spell. Craft let's me make stuff pretty easy, and Cog lets me...animate cogs? Kinda weird. Between the two I made an automatic crossbow from the scrap wood and other crap laying around my place. Only reason I'm alive right now actually. Fucking monsters.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Nice. Think you can replace some technology maybe with steampunk equivalent? Stuff is gonna start breaking down with no one to maintain anything. I'm worried about electricity once the power plants start shitting the bed.

Kana 10/02/2026

...maybe. Gonna need more levels first to find out. I...think so? Have to see.

KittenMittens 10/02/2026

My lights are flickering guys some I'm gonna tell you what I got before I go set up my generator. My class is Alchemist, which is basically a explody potion so far. My race...no laughing? My race is...Nekomata. Now like I said, no laughing! Power is flickering again guys, gotta go no time to chat!

KittenMittens is offline.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

I think she's embaressed guys. But the name really matches though. I gotta go though too, mtired and hurty, seeya.

DyneKnight 10/02/2026

Catgirl lol. See ya evil, feel better.

Kana 10/02/2026

Does that mean she has magical kittie ears? Kittie tail? Wanna pet. Enjoy your nap evil.

Evilhippy 10/02/2026

Oh, before I go guys? Send me pics of your places to my email, somewhere I can Teleport to. Tell Mittens too when she pops back up! I got a short range teleport spell and I might get a longer one when I level up. I wanna know where you live...just in case of emergency yeah? In case the net goes down I'll have them on my drive.

William sighed as he logged out of discord.

His facial cuts were throbbing and his ribs were aching. Oh and his foot was swollen too. He sighed as he downed some over the counter painkillers and hobbled to his bed. It was concerning that his brother hadn't called or left a message but there was nothing William could do about that right now. He'd also need to call Bob, his late-wife's father, see how he was doing in all this. The man was old.

He let out a low sigh as he laid down in the uncomfortable cot again.

-Exultation-

He was less groggy when he woke up this time, and his body was no longer in severe pain.

He slowly got up, flexing and twisting his body, testing every motion. He was happy that it appeared his [Imperfect Regen Burst] had apparently triggered a few hours ago and healed the rest of his injuries. He guess they must have been classed as minor injuries for it to heal them all, which was pretty nice. He blinked when he looked at the clock. He'd slept quite a bit again, around 12 more hours. It was surprising cause he'd only ended up being awake for around 4 hours before he'd laid down again but then again that made sense as he always slept a lot when hurt.

He quickly went into his bathroom, as he desperately needed use it after sleeping for so long.

With his old bandages removed and after a real shower he felt refreshed and ready to go again. Which was good as he'd fucked around enough in this bunker. He had stuff to do after all.

And with a [Lesser Voidstep] he felt more confident about venturing outside.

Still, he first hopped onto his computer and noted all three of his friends had indeed sent him a few pics of where they lived, which he downloaded to his drive. They weren't online which was a bit concerning but the clock showed it was a bit past 1 AM so they were likely battened down inside and waiting out the night monsters.

Google, Bing, and QQ were still down but Reddit was up still so he strolled the new subreddits that were popping up about monsters and everything else that was going on.

New York city was a flaming ruined hellscape now. The dragon had apparently torched the whole city before roasting everything around it within 5 miles for good measure. The last sighting was of it settling down in the still burning ruins of NYC, Staten Island specifically.

Monster attacks from what he would normally call legendary creatures or boss monsters were popping up all over, mostly attacking major population centers and military bases.

San Francisco was now home to a 9 headed Hydra that spewed fire, lightning, cold, and acid blasts from it's nine heads. There was video of a lucky crane operator dropping a load of steel I-beams on it from hundreds of feet up. The monster actually lost two of its heads and was buried for a few minutes until it ripped it's way free in a fury of elemental blasts. The sight of it's heads regenerating within a minute once it was free was frightening.

There were sightings of these creatures everywhere on the internet.

He saw video of a massive 200 foot wingspan Thunderbird perched on the Eiffel Tower, ravaging Paris with a massive lightning storm.

Shanghai was attacked by a truly gargantuan Sea Serpent with glittering black scales, spewing blasts of water that were cutting skyscrapers in half and drowning the city in a deluge.

Moscow was invaded by what could only be described as a 150 foot tall lava elemental, with the creature burning everything that came within 50 feet of it alive and spewing lava at any perceived target, sometimes reaching hundreds of feet away from it.

A massive Firebird was seen in Saudi Arabia, sending massive waves of fire into the holy city of Mecca with wild abandon, with the fire being so hot it was seen evaporating stone before the camera suddenly cut off.

Similar sights were all over the web and he made sure to download each video when possible and save it to his drive. He wasn't sure if or when the web would go down so he wanted as much information as possible on these threats. He hoped the Starlink satellites stayed up but he just didn't know for sure. He got as many videos as he could but focused on every sighting of these legendary city killing monsters that were in North America first.

Thankfully there didn't seem to be one in Texas, but that was cold comfort to him was he watched 10's of millions of people die in HD.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

William Dustin Blackwood

Level:

5 (240/500)
Race: [Dark Elf ]
Class: [Void Battlemage ]
Power:
5
Vigor:
5
Speed:
13
Magic:
13
Charisma:
9
Essence:
240

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

— Perks —

Dark Elf: [Death Empowerment]

D. Empowerment: [Imperfect Regen Burst]

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

— Skills —

Combat: [Weapon Savant]

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

— Spells —

Creation: [Void Glaive]
Creation: [Void Windmill Shuriken]

Movement: [Void Tether]

Movement: [Lesser Voidstep]

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-