Chapter 5 - The First Quest

"Scam! This whole thing is a scam!"

As if to taunt me further, the info window remains open, showing what I earned. Or rather, what I didn't.

[ You obtained 5% EXP, and 16 Shards. ]

"No pelt, no teeth, not even a paw?! Come on, man."

Once I was probably about 2 feet away from the body, this message had popped up, and smoke had started rising from the body. Unsatisfied, I had tried to grab a tooth from the disfigured mouth, only to have it dissolve into a cloud the second my fingers landed on it.

"Mid ass system," I grumble, throwing my hands up in the air. In all the excitement, I had worked up quite a sweat, and with a little experiment gone right I found that my Inventory could hold and preserve food and water. Along with my shortsword and work clothes, I had shoved a few 24-packs of water bottles, snacks, and some of the cheap meal time food into small boxes inside a white screen floating in front of me.

If the world hadn't just ended in front of my eyes, I might have thought that I had gone crazy. Actually, I was still contemplating if I was just imagining or dreaming it all up or not.

Just in case, I pinch myself as hard as I can, marveling at how durable my skin is with the armor boost. Still, it hurts enough to let me know that this is reality, for better or for worse.

'Agh, I need a plan of action. I can't just wait around, can I? But… What the hell am I even supposed to do? It's not like I'm a Boy Scout or even have any special skills. I'm not even that smart, I'm just halfway decent at analyzing things on the fly.'

Interrupting my train of thought, the system suddenly pops open with a new message.

[ All Awakening Scenarios have been completed! ]

[ Survival Rate: 73% ]

[ The First Quest will now be distributed. ]

'Wasn't the Awakening Scenario just the beginner fight? Why is the survival rate so low?'

As always, I'm not given much opportunity to think things over as the system rambles on.

[ First Quest (Los Angeles Area): Slay 10 monsters. For every 500 user deaths, another 10 monsters will be added to the total. {0/10} ]

[ Rewards: Safe Zone unlock, EXP, Shards, Map. ]

A surge of hope fills my chest. "That might be pretty easy," I say cheerfully, standing and stretching out my body. After allowing my SP to fully regenerate, my body felt revitalized and ready to go. 'This system might have more perks than I thought,' I realize, drawing my sword out of the Inventory. "Anyways, let's go build up my Stats!"

[ Warning! ]

[ The Evolving System is regulating Skill Gluttony's Mark. Absorb set to ".1" capacity. No proficiency will be gained in relation to this Quest. ]

I can feel my eyebrow involuntarily twitching with suppressed anger. "Every time I start to think this thing isn't so bad," I mutter, storming out of the gas station. My eyes immediately wander to the gas leak, which has been slowing considerably, but is also now alarmingly close to the flaming hunks of metal that are piled over one another. If I spent another five minutes in this block, I might expect to turn to dust in a giant fireball. It had been easy to forget about after killing a giant panther, but I couldn't ignore it further. I crack out my neck, pulling my work shirt out of the inventory, and then tying it around my waist to create a makeshift sheath for my weapon. While the Inventory was useful, it took about two seconds for things to materialize from it, which could be deadly if I was caught by surprise again.

After walking across the large street, now eerily empty, I finally get my shirt positioned the way I need it to easily draw it. It's more awkward to sheathe it, but that wasn't important in a survival situation.

"Okay. Finally ready. Shit, almost forgot my wallet and keys—"

FWISH!

The trail of gas finally lights, spreading the fire from the crash rapidly to the gas pumps, which, with a huge stockpile of fuel under it, quickly heats and expands the air. The resulting explosion demolishes most of the store, and also throws me like a doll through the wall of another building.

And I mean, THROUGH.

I skid to a stop in the center of the large reception area, pieces of cement tapping on the ground as if complaining about my means of entry.

"Ughh… What else can go wrong?" I groan, rolling to sit up. I hadn't taken too much damage, thankfully, but it didn't make that feel any better.

Small chittering from behind me causes me to curse myself for jinxing it. I look behind me to see a pack of tiny creatures peering at me devilishly from the back of the lobby.

They have a huge underbite, with two curved tusks nearly reaching up to touch their cheeks. Their bodies are scantily-clad in rags, but it shows off their well-toned muscles. Their skin is a pinkish color, with splotches of green randomly thrown about, while their beady black eyes bore into me. Their weapons seem to be made of crude iron and wood, but they grip them tightly.

"What the hell?"

"RAGAPAHH!!"

One of them screams, and the others give a similar rallying cry, before sprinting at me all at once.

"… Great."

— — — — —

Three left.

They weren't too bad to face alone; the only Stats they really had were Strength and Speed. Yet, the nerf to my Skill was really hurting, especially because two of the ten so far had been Speed steals, meaning I wouldn't even get a full Strength Stat boost. And there has been ten of them, meaning my brain was feeling overloaded from all the input it had been processing.

On the plus side, despite only granting me a tenth of a Stat, it did seem to take a full Stat Point from the little gremlin things, which helped me a bit. Still, I had lost a little over a quarter of my HP, and I had already used the one HP pill I had gotten.

'But I'd probably be dead without the armor,' I think, locked in a staring contest with the last three little creatures. For something so small, I hadn't been expecting them to hit as hard as they did — the tallest was probably two and a half feet tall, but they all had roughly equal Strength to me.

But, that meant that their Speed in comparison to mine was completely lacking.

I dash forward, breaking the staredown as I come within 5 feet of the monsters.

'Absorb 'em all,' I command mentally as I extend my left hand. Three trails of smoke reach from my palm and attach to one of the monsters each, solidifying and then retracting back into my hand within the span of a sevond.

[ Absorbed 0.3 STR from Adolescent Mini Mutant (x3). ]

While fighting for my life, I had (accidentally) found out that my Absorb Skill could target up to three targets at once, which was the only reason I still had more than half of my HP. Otherwise, the damn things would have nearly killed me in the few blows they managed to land.

The surviving mutants are all startled by my movement, and two of them frantically swing at me. It's slow enough that I can step to the right, narrowly avoiding the closest one, and blocking the blow of the second with the flat of my blade. The third one jumps into action, literally. It leaps up into the air, bringing its makeshift axe down on my head. Or it would have, but I backstep away, letting the mutant I was blocking tumble to the ground and tripping the other as it lands.

Exasperated at the other two's failure, the first one to attack lunges again with a stab of its longsword — which is a little shorter than my shortsword. The little monster is so short and has such short reach that a lazy downward swipe of my blade causes its arm and weapon to thump loudly down on the floor. Almost as loud as the screeching that soon follows.

I grimace at the noise as the other two, who were still struggling to untangle themselves, freeze and watch their brethren collapse to the floor in a bloody mess. Unable to stand the vocal attack on my ears, I flip my sword over and stab it through the thing's head to end its suffering.

Enraged, the other two stumble up to their feet to charge me, but one has a dagger, and the other is the axe wielder, so all it takes is a horizontal slash to take them both out.

Of course, it was more that I was startled, and swung wildly, managing to behead both in a single blow, but small details, right?

As their bodies drop to the floor, a new system message pops up.

[ Mini Mutants (x10) defeated. Calculating total drops. ]

[ You obtained 15% EXP, 30 Shards, Mutant Tooth {Small}(x2), Mini Longsword. ]

"Actual drops!" I gasp, immediately clicking on both.

[ Mutant Tooth {Grade F+} (Small): A canine from a Mutant creature. Decent Durability. ]

[ Mini Longsword {Grade F+}: A crude Longsword made of sharpened stone. 1 foot, 3 inches long. Will break in a pinch. ]

"That's… Great. But in any case, drops! So! What do I do with them?"

My stomach gurgles; I reach in my Inventory and grab a protein bar, tearing it open and biting into it in one fluid motion. However, I nearly drop it as another system message pops up to answer my question.

[ Some items can be sold in the Shop or used as Crafting Ingredients. ]

"Ooo! Where do I find those?"

[ The Shop and Crafting Station are locked until after the First Quest. ]

"Buh I finihhed fhat!" I complain with my mouth full, pulling up my menu to check the quest completion. My swallow feels loud as I look at the numbers on the screen.

"… There's no way."