Active Skills are confusing.

Mark sat down on the carpet floor, it's squish bringing him slight comfort in these trying times.

He had died around three more times after his last kill, most of them due to unexpected sneak attacks or Mark simply getting cocky.

The pain was always as fresh as the first, and the terror and pure fury he felt for the Hounds grew with each death.

Immortality was seeming more and more like a hellish curse then a helping hand. Mark's loneliness didn't help, but he felt that grinding in on floor 0 would bring about an easier time with the other floors. At least here, he could only expect Hounds. Maybe there were more entities, but they seem to be much rarer then the Hounds.

"At least my belt replenishes…" Mark straightened the Belt and made a cracking sound with it. He chuckled at the sound, remembering fonder memories.

Getting off his ass, Mark cracked the Belt once more. He continued to crack it, even as growls were heard nearing towards him.

As the Hound rounded the corner, the Belt came down, cracking its head, and leaving it in the waiting clamps of the Belt.

[ You have Killed an Entity! Active Skill obtained! ]

"What?" Mark called up the status page.

[ Active Skills:

Lvl 1 Hounds Claws: When activated, your fingers will morph into the claws of a Hound!

Passive Skill:

Lvl 4 Toughened Hide ]

Mark smiled slightly at the level of his passive skill, but his attention was more drawn to the new and exciting Active Skill.

"How do I activate it?"

[ By shouting the name inside your head! Verbal shouting will also work, but is not advised! When you feel comfortable enough with the skill, you will have the ability to use it like second nature! ]

Sometimes, whilst the System could be useful, it could also leave many questions, such as,

"The hell do you mean use the ability like second nature? I have to shout out the name in my head, or in reality. It's effectively an incantation." Mark frowned his brows. He tired of thinking it like Harry Potter bullshit, with their silent incantations, but even then it's not second nature!

"Are you telling me, instead of using it like an incarnation, I'll use it like it's apart of my body?"

[Indeed!]

"But I'm Human?"

The system did not answer.

Huffing, Mark decided to follow the Systems advice, and shouted the name in his mind.

A sudden, sharp pain assaulted his fingers. He yelled at the sudden rupture of blood from his hands, as his mind blared in pure agony.

When the pain subsided, and the headache vanished, Mark was finally able to see what had happened.

His arm and palm seemed completely fine, yet his fingers… his fingers were drenched in horrible amounts of blood.

Yet, as he looked at it, he had realized that his fingers, were on the carpet. His human fingers.

His breathing became shaking, as he also shook off some of the blood of his 'fingers', and was finally allowed for a look.

Their pigmentation had completely changed, and his original pink fingers were replaced by a sickening gray color. At the very tips of the fingers, were the claws. A deep black, they gleaned slightly in the light.

Mark looked once more at his discarded human fingers, and he puked. The pressure had finally started to settle in, and his out-look of going home human seemed to become bleaker and bleaker.

Yet, he toughened himself up, stretched out his new claws, and finally got back to work. Mopping around would do nothing, and as his Father had told him,

"Ya best get off yer ass before I whip ya!"

===================

"Did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Oh fucking- Did you cover the fucking door?!?"

"Yes! Of course I did! I might be dumb, but I'm not a retard!"

"Sometimes I think you are…"

"Hey!"

"It's best we don't get too stuck up on this. We have to find a way out. Once we do, we can alert Boss."

"Ok, then what's your plan?"

"Simple, we create a distraction."

"And we're meant to do that, in a fucking cell?"

"Why yes. Bash your head on the metal poles."

"Wait, what?"

"Just do it, you'll heal through it, you just gotta get their attention!"

"But it hurts…"

"Well buckle up baby, we're gonna be in a lot more pain if we don't do this!"

"Why don't you do it?"

"Because I don't want to."

"That's unfair. Why is it I'm the one that's gotta do all this bullshit…"

"Because you're the little brother, little brother."

"I was born just 10 seconds before you! You hold no superiority!"

"Ya ya, just fucking do it…"

"Fiiiine."

===================

Black claws teared through flesh, as Mark gutted the Hound before him. It hadn't even been able to Yelp, before it was pounced upon and massacred.

Mark spit out some of the blood from his mouth, rubbing his eyes slightly from fatigue, as he gazed at his Status screen once more.

•===============•

Name: Mark Marlin Mason

Species: Human

Physical Condition: Tired

Mental Condition: Exhausted

Active Skills: Lvl 3 Hounds Claws

Passive Skills:

Lvl 4 Toughened Hide

Terror Form: Unavailable

•===============•

The Toughened Hide had finally been showing its worthy, with it being able to roughly protect him from most claw sweeps of the hounds.

Hounds Claws had their length increased, which proved to be a hellish nightmare, as it grew the fingers if Mark was currently using them.

Mark was slightly becoming numb to the pain, but his mental condition was clearly worsening, and he really didn't want to sleep in the Hound infested floor 0.

So, he simply wandered. There are multiple ways as to move up and down floors, but the best and most of the time only way, is by No-clipping.

Walls that are a dark pigment then other walls, random doorways, Areas that give paranormal feelings, falling down from the second to last step on a staircase, or interacting with Glitched objects.

Those are the main ways to find your way inside the Backrooms, although some are less frequently used then others.

Mark wanted to do darker pigmentation of a wall, as Level 0 was Mainly complied of yellow walls.

It took some time, and two dead Hounds, to find a wall of darker pigmentation. Collecting his breath Mark, and ran directly into the way.

He face-planted himself against the wall, yet nothing.

Backing away with a troubled face, he turned around with the intentions of looking for a new wall to test.

Yet before he was even allowed to take a step back, something grasped him.

Mark wasn't even allowed to turn around, before he was grasped yet again, by what felt like hundreds of different hands, trying to pull him inside the wall, and as he was submerged into said wall, the world went black.

Landing with a thud, Mark hit the ground hard. His head, slightly smashing into the new floor underneath him.

He groaned heavily, carefully managing to get off the ground, whilst also holding his head in pain.

His vision was disoriented as he stared upon his new environment.

A concrete floor and pillars of gray. It looked exactly like some kind of outside parking unit, yet no visible entrance could be seen.

"Fuck, my head…" Mark continued to groan, as he looked around.

"I guess this is Level 1…"

Mark looked around carefully, his hand now grasping the Belt, it's iron jaws in waiting.

Yet it was seemingly calm. The only sounds that could be heard were the faint breaths of Mark.

Still on high alert, Mark began to move around. Whilst his previous knowledge of this place confirmed it was safe, who's to say he wouldn't get jumped by some wandering group down here?

Yet as he wandered, from dilapidated parking construct's to gray hallways that lead to small office's, he found damn near nothing.

He did find some almond water. Drinking it was quite the experience honestly.

"It's way too good." Mark licked his lips, just to get the sweetness of the almond water back onto his tongue.

Yet, as Mark continued to move from parklot to hallway, seemingly nothing was in sight. No people, not even a distance sound.

"Is there just no-one here?" Mark began to question whether his information on the Backroom was the full story. Maybe all the bases were located on different level's, and Level-1 was to distract all the sentient entities here?

"That wouldn't even make sense though… Why would they do it? Entities can't travel from level to level…" Mark scrunched up his eyebrows whilst he thought about it, yet nothing could explain to him this eerie feeling he was having.

"Hound's weren't documented in Level 0… there was that one thread claiming to have seen one, but the lack of evidence…" Mark's eyes widened.

"Have I traveled to the past?"