Chapter 1

The year 2007…

The New York City skyline was once again dancing with lights. The sounds of the city were very much a lullaby for those who lived within it. But on this day, many streets were backed up due to a traffic accident.

A taxi had been hit by a large dump truck. Accidents were a normal scene in New York, but what was not so normal was the young woman and the man, named Jill and David Cambel, in the back seat of the car. “Honey, hang in there….”

David, with blood dripping from his head, covered in wounds, not caring for his own wellbeing, grasped Jill's hand, who had been sitting next to him. His eyes filled with tears as he gently stroked her face with great difficulty. He was still wearing the pajamas he had on before rushing out of the house. But now those were in tatters from the glass and metal that had cut into his body.

Jill was in no better condition. She had a sharp piece of metal sticking through her chest. She wore a pale pink one piece dress that was a bit too big for her, but it allowed her swollen stomach to be covered. She could feel her life force fading.

They had been on the way to the hospital—Jill’s water had broken, and her baby, whom she had been waiting nine months for, was soon to be born. Both David and Jill were just newly married and had returned from their honeymoon in preparation for the birth of their first child—a child they had been looking forward to.

The sound of sirens rang through the air as the fire trucks finally reached the scene. They had trouble pushing through the rows of cars that were stuck in traffic, but with great difficulty, they had finally arrived.

Ricky Harris, the onboard paramedic, climbed down from his truck with his medical kit strapped to his shoulder and hurried over to the taxi that had half of one side crushed in and was upside down in the road. He looked at the mangled mess of steel and fiberglass with a furrowed brow.

The scene before him was not a pretty sight. But he still pulled himself together and rushed over to the car. The smell of gas filled his nose, which meant that the gas tank had been ruptured. “We need to hurry….”

With a gloomy expression, he looked into the car to see the taxi driver did not seem to be conscious. He shook his head and looked in the back to see a man and woman huddled together in bad shape. Especially the female who had a long piece of metal stuck in her chest. “You two! Can you hear me!?”

“Is someone there!? My-my wife! My wife is pregnant! Her-her water broke! Save our child! Save my wife….” The man, who was still half awake, cried out the best he could. But even just yelling these words was not an easy thing for him to do. He could only grip his wife’s hand tightly as he watched her breathing grow more shallow by the second. He was afraid. He was afraid of losing both his love and the child they were going to bear. But in this situation, he knew that his wife would ask for the child to be saved first. But he still held hope that both could be saved.

“Hold on, I will do what I can.” Ricky rushed over to the side where the mother was and waved to his fellow crew members. His colleagues hurried over with the right tools, and soon the window was pried out.

With a lot of effort, Ricky and the rest of his crew were able to get the young woman out of the car. The man still had to wait to be pulled out. He had been pinned in the collision. With one look, you could easily tell he had thrown himself on top of his wife, trying to protect her. But at this time, the pregnant woman was Ricky’s top priority. With the help of one of the other firefighters and a few volunteers, he was able to pull the young woman out, place her on a stretcher, and bring her near the fire truck.

He could see that her vitals were not good. He took out his stethoscope and pressed it against her belly. He saw a lot of blood in her lower half, so he was afraid that maybe she had already had a miscarriage.

At that moment, a loud explosion was heard, which drew Ricky's attention. He looked over to see some of his crew lying on the ground. The gas that had been leaking out had caught on fire and exploded. Now the entire rear of the vehicle was engulfed in flames. He did his best to keep his calm as a pained expression formed on his face. He was lucky he had been far enough away not to be caught in the blast. He could only take a deep breath and check the mother-to-be’s vitals once more, but he got nothing. There were no signs of life anymore.

“Damn it!” He cursed out loud before checking for signs of life in the unborn child. Only when he heard a faint beat did he feel that maybe there was some hope.

“Good… there is a chance.” He let out a small, relieved sigh. As long as he could save the child….

◈◈◈

14 years later…

In a two-bedroom apartment within the Gilroy tower at 232 East 54th Street, a young girl was frantically rummaging through her desk drawer. When she could not find what she was looking for, she slapped her hands on top of her desk and turned her head towards the door.

“Dad! I can’t find my scrunchie with the blue dragon pattern on it!” A young girl called out from her room. The man in the living room, trying to finish cooking breakfast, sighed and put the spatula in his hand down. He wiped his hands on his black apron and lowered the heat of the stove.

“Dad!” The young girl’s voice once more rang out, causing the man to look down at the coffee table and sigh. He reached down and picked up the black scrunchie that had a blue-scaled dragon embroidered into it and walked down the hall towards the door that was slightly ajar.

“Desaray, you left it in the living room last night.” The man, named Ricky Harris, announced as he knocked on the door.

It was just the two of them. It had been this way for fourteen years now, ever since that fateful day when they entered each other’s lives. Back then, all the adults in the car had died. Ricky had only managed to save one person from that car. The driver and the father died due to their injuries and the flames. The mother passed in front of his eyes. But the baby that resided inside her stomach was saved due to him doing a c-section right there on the spot. He had no choice. If he did not do it, the baby inside would have died. Luckily things went well, and the little girl came out crying.

The little girl’s tale did not end there. She was checked into the hospital, and when found to be perfectly healthy, two weeks later, she was placed into an orphanage. She had family, but they all refused to take her in for one reason or another.

They all gave different reasons, such as they couldn’t afford it or they already had too many kids. Not one of them seemed to care about the little girl who had been given a chance at life after losing both her parents. Because his boss had found out about it, and since Ricky was the one who had saved the girl, his boss had explained the situation to him.

Ricky could not see the little girl rotting away inside an orphanage. He knew they were underfunded, and most of the kids would go unnoticed there and end up being without anything when they reached eighteen.

People talk. He had heard many stories when he looked into the place she was put into. Since that was the case, he made a decision that would change his life forever. After almost a month of paperwork and background checks—Ricky had gotten custody of the little girl.

Life with a baby was not easy. Luckily he had a supportive family. They helped him with everything he needed when he was at work and taught him how to raise a child. And now fourteen years later, the young girl who was pursing her lips looking at him was fourteen years of age—her name, Desaray Cambel Harris. Her last name had been Cambel to start, due to Ricky wanting to give her the choice later on what she wanted to do, but, in the end, she had decided to change it when she grew and understood things.

Desaray knew Ricky was not related to her by blood. She had learned everything when she was ten years of age. But she did not need to be blood-related to see him as her father. He was a man that raised her from young and took her in. He spoiled her and gave her a family which she might not have had. Her silver blond hair that she had gotten from her mother, and her ice blue eyes that she had gotten from her father, none of it looked like Ricky at all except for two things, her personality and the things she likes, which she picked up from her father that cared for her all these years.

Of course, she also had her own likes and dislikes as well. But one thing stood out the most out of everything—her love for dragons. You would think a young girl her age would be giggling about some hot boy from a boyband group, but this was not the case for Desaray. She loved dragons. She did not even try to hide it. If someone said she was strange or tried to pick on her, she would put them in their place. This was not a new obsession either. No, she had liked them since she was very young, and even after all this time, this fact had never changed.

And this was all thanks to Ricky, who had brought home a blue crystal dragon he found in a store. He had thought it looked nice and was planning to turn it into a night light for Desaray. She had just recently watched a movie about dragons at the time and seemed to like them, so he had gotten this one which was a cute-looking blue dragon. But before he could even do anything with it, she had snatched it away and brought it to her room.

Since then, little by little, he would buy her more things with blue dragons. He had once tried to change the color to give it variety, but Desaray ended up crying and calling it ugly. In order to appease her at that time, he had no choice but to take her down to the store and find a blue one. But all of this was fond memories for Ricky. He had never regretted adopting Desaray. He couldn’t even imagine a life without her.

Ricky smiled as he handed the scrunchie over, “Breakfast is almost ready, so hurry up.”

“Okay!” Desaray smiled as she held the scrunchie in her hand. She went to turn but stopped before turning around and looking out the door at her father’s retreating back. “Dad! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Ricky smiled as he thought about how well she had grown. He hoped in the future, she would go to college, learn what she wanted to learn, and live a life of happiness. Maybe one day, he would be holding his grandbaby in his arms. He did not know what the future held—but until the time she struck out on her own, no, even after she struck out on her own, he would support her in everything she did.

◈◈◈

“Bye, Dad!” Ricky watched as his daughter walked out the door and off to school. Watching his daughter growing up so quickly left him with a bit of melancholy, but he was happy she was able to grow up healthy and happy.

He fell into thought for a moment when he remembered something, “Desaray! I am working late today, so make sure you come right home!”

“Got it!” Desaray turned and backpedaled as she blew Ricky a kiss, then turned back around.

She got into the elevator and pressed the button for the bottom floor. She reached up and touched her scrunchie and smiled. She felt blessed to have Ricky as a father. She never felt sad with him around. But she did wonder if he was holding himself back since he had never brought a woman home. She hoped that he would one day get married and find happiness. She also would not mind having a mother.

She looked up at the numbers that were slowly changing with each floor until it came to a stop on the twentieth floor. The door opened, and a young girl around Desaray’s age got on. She had the same clothing as Desaray did. A plaid skirt and a blue blazer marked with the Trinity School logo. She had a blue tie that was slightly loosened around the collar of a white shirt. Her red hair fell down to the middle of her back and was slightly curly.

When she saw Desaray, her eyes lit up as she hopped over to her and gave her a hug. “Desa! I missed you!”

“Becky, I think you need to stop staying up so late. Your mind is rotting away. We were playing World of Logia until late last night, so how can you miss me as if we have not talked to each other for a long time?” Desaray asked. She went to a private school that had its own bus that picked them up in front of their building. She did not go to public schools, and she was glad for that since her school was a school for smart kids. Her grades have always been good since she was young. She had never had issues learning anything in school.

Because of this, she knew her father wanted her to get the most out of her education and got her into a super expensive private school. The Trinity School was located on the Upper West Side of New York City and was about seventeen or so minutes from her house.

“This and that are different! Anyway, did you finish your homework? No, I know you did! Can I see it on the bus!?” Becky was pleading. She had not finished her homework because she got caught up in playing games before Desaray even logged on.

World of Logia was a game that Desaray had been playing in her free time for only one reason: they had a dragon race. That race was a humanoid dragon, but it allowed you to design the character how you wanted, and since Desaray had a love of blue-scaled dragons, she made a character that looked kind of like her with silver blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. Her exposed scales on her body and tail were blue, along with her horns, that was almost a transparent blue. You could say she was very happy with her work. She would need to be after spending almost a week on designing her character alone.

And the reason she even found out about this game was because of Becky. Becky was a gamer through and through. Her favorite genres were role-playing games and MMOs. From one look at her beauty, you would never take her as a gamer. She had green emerald eyes and freckles on her pearly white cheeks. She was popular with the boys at school and was also one not to hide her hobby in the slightest. But in the school they went to, there was not much bullying, to begin with.

Desaray never realized it, but she was also quite popular, but she had high standards when it came to men. Of course, this was mainly because she was rating all the boys around her against her father, whom she deemed the perfect man.

Desaray looked at her friend and sighed as she reluctantly nodded her head. “Becky, you need to get your priorities in order. I go straight home every day so I can get the homework done and then do what I want after.”

“But…. I try! When I get home, I put my books down on my desk, take off my blazer and then sit down in front of my desk. I open my math book and then…. The game across the room calls out to me and asks me to save some strange land from the demon king, and well, they always tell us to help those in need, so I do!” Most would say that Becky was just making up some strange story to justify her actions, but she herself believes her own words, so in truth, she was not lying. She truly believes the games called out to her.

And as her friend, Desaray could only sigh. “Okay, well…. Maybe you should do your homework someplace else then? You can always come to my house if you wish.”

“No, no…. If I went to your house, I would end up not doing anything and distracting you.” Becky was quite sure about this. Even Desaray had to nod her head at this.

The elevator reached the bottom floor, and the two exited and walked towards the exit. They said good morning to the attendant behind the counter and walked across the marble floor of the entrance. Once they reached the sidewalk, they took a right and walked toward the bus stop that was only a few feet away. The morning traffic slowly progressed forward as it normally did. The smell of the city filled Desaray’s nose, a familiar smell that she wished was just a bit cleaner.

Right as Desaray passed the side alley next to her building that had air conditioners attached to the side and a few dumpsters here and there, she stopped and looked down it with a furrowed brow.

“Desa?” Becky looked over at Desaray with questioning eyes. She wondered why her friend stopped when the bus was right there.

Desaray was staring down the alley. She could have sworn she saw something blue out of the corner of her eye, but no matter how hard she looked, she could not spot anything. Blue was a color she would always recognize and would never mistake it for anything else. While she wanted to go investigate, she could not since the bus had just arrived. Shaking her head, she slapped her cheeks, wondering if she was slightly tired. “It’s nothing….”

As Desaray and Becky got on the bus, in the same alley she had just been looking down, a small round blue gelatin ball slowly edged out from behind a box with an Amazon logo. What this creature, if it could be called as such, was, at this time, only a few people would know….

◈◈◈

The dark blue bus with the Trinity School logo on the side drove off from the bus stop with Desaray and Becky on it. The two girls sat in the rear seats where they normally sat. They were usually the first people on the bus, so they got first dibs on seating. Some may wonder why they sat in the back and not the front or the middle seats. This was because Becky needed to copy homework almost every day.

Now this did not mean Becky was a dumb girl by any means. She was always in the top five of her grade during tests. She was just not someone who did her homework due to her gaming habit. When she copied Desaray’s homework, it would always be much different than the original, and she sometimes would even find mistakes as well and point them out to Desaray, which Desaray was always grateful for.

The bus slowed to a stop, and more kids got onto the bus. Becky poked Desaray and whispered into her ear. “Jake is here. He is already coming this way.”

Jake Williams was one of the popular boys in school and seemed to have a habit of trying to get close to Desaray. She did not like him as anything more than a friend since he was too stuck up for her liking, so she stealthily put her bag next to her in the open spot so he could not sit right next to her. Jake smiled at Desaray’s move and sat in the seat just in front of her, looked back at her with that same beaming smile, and gave his usual greeting. “Good morning, Desaray. Did you think about the thing I asked you the other day?”

Desaray rolled her eyes as she looked at the young boy, who was just fourteen himself. His black hair was neatly trimmed, and his slightly tanned skin seemed to glow. One smile from him could make a lot of girls fall in love. Sadly she had to admit he was indeed handsome, but…. “I thought I already said no, right there on the spot without needing to think about it. Jake, I will say this now, go find another girl. I am not going to go out with you any time soon. If I recall correctly, you have asked me out every year since middle school. One time I even punched you in the face. Another time I threw you over my shoulder when you tried to pull me back. There was also the time I kicked you between the legs. Shall I reenact all three of those moments for you now?”

Jake squeezed his legs together, just thinking of what happened back then. The first time they met was in middle school. It was the first day Desaray had transferred in. Her silver blonde hair and her ice blue eyes had put him in a daze when he first saw her. He was even teased by his friends because he couldn’t stop staring at her.

Because he was younger, he was also much more impulsive and did not understand the meaning of space, especially when it came to being between a male and a female. It happened on their first meeting….

Desaray had just walked into the door of her classroom on her first day of school. Her silver blonde hair at the time was slightly shorter. She was very nervous as she came to stand in front of the class to introduce herself. “My name is Desaray Harris.”

“Miss Harris, please take a seat next to Becky and Jake.” The teacher, who was pregnant at the time, motioned for Desaray to sit down. The classroom had a low student-to-teacher ratio, and the seating was in a half-moon shape. This meant unless you sat at the ends, you had a person on either side of you. While the desks were still separated, it was still close enough that one could reach over and touch the other with no problem.

While this was Jake and Desaray’s first meeting, it was not Becky and Desaray’s first meeting. They had been friends since they were young since they had lived in the same building. It was because of Becky’s parents that Desaray was able to enter the school due to a recommendation and even got a bit of a break on the tuition. This was because Becky’s parents knew the school’s dean.

As for Jake, the first incident between him and Desaray happened as soon as she sat down. She had just put her blue backpack on the back of her chair and sat in her seat when a hand suddenly grabbed hers. Ricky had Desaray take self-defense classes since she was young, which she still attended to this day, so when she was suddenly grabbed, she turned and….

“Ow!” Jake held his nose as blood squirted out. He had been hit right on the tip of his nose.

“Don’t touch me!” Desaray yelled out. Becky, who was sitting next to her, panicked and quickly pulled Desaray back before she threw another punch. The teacher, who had just sat down and was about to start class, looked at the scene with eyes filled with disbelief.

“What is going on!?” The teacher cried out as she stood up again.

“Teacher, Jake tried to grab Desaray, and she hit him in self-defense!” Becky quickly explained. No matter what, she would protect her best friend!

“Jake! Did you try to touch a girl!?” The teacher, being female, immediately turned against the poor young man who had just been punched in the face.

His eyes were watering up as he tried to stop the bleeding. But he still answered in a pained voice: “I just wanted to hold her hand….”

“You can’t touch people without permission! Come on, I will take you to the nurse.” The teacher sighed as she looked at the class. “Take out your math books and study page twelve. I will test you when I get back!”

Thus, their first meeting was met with Jake going to the nurse’s office and then to the hospital to have his nose put back in place. Desaray had given it a good clean break. The second and third time was not much different. He was thrown over Desaray’s shoulder a month later when he tried to get her attention by grabbing her hand and pulling her back. The third time he had tried to come on a little too strong after watching a show that had a man pin a girl against the wall, which ended up getting him sent to the nurse’s office once more. Since the last time, though, he did not try to do anything to make Desaray mad, but he still tried to get on her good side and confessed to her at least once or twice a year.

Desaray found each incident good practice for her self-defense abilities. She was able to apply them to real-world situations, which worked out well for her. How good she would be in a real fight was another question altogether.

◈◈◈

“Why are you not answering?” Desaray asked with a raised eyebrow. She had to admit she did find Jake amusing.

“Desa, I think that is enough. He might cry again.” Becky chimed in, which got an instant reaction from Jake.

“I will not cry!” Jake yelled out, his face growing red. But it was a fact that each time Desaray beat him up, he did cry.

“Alright, I will leave you alone. But I will say this one more time. The answer is no.” Desaray stated firmly. She really did not want anything to do with Jake beyond friendship. She knew Jake was handsome and had been chasing her since middle school, but she could not see herself with anyone her age at this time. She just wanted to live her current life without love as it would just make things messy. She wanted to graduate and get into a good college in four years’ time. Then and only then would she even think of love.

“Hey, why is the bus not moving?” Becky suddenly cut in. This made Desaray look up toward the driver’s seat. She had not noticed until now, but the bus had not moved since picking Jake and the others up.

“Sorry, kids, there seems to be some kind of traffic jam. I am not sure what is going on.” The bus driver explained. He had been trying to get back into traffic, but no one was moving.

Desaray’s thought went back to the blue object she had spotted in the back alley. But she quickly shook her head to clear her mind. She grabbed her bag and stood up. “Let’s go. With how traffic is, we will probably make it there faster if we walk.”

“I hate to say it, but you are right. I will call the school to have the kids walk. Sorry about this.” The bus driver, who was a sixty-year-old old man, let out a sigh. He felt bad for making the kids walk to school, but at this rate, they will end up being late no matter what. Luckily the area was a high-end area where crime was less likely to happen.

“Wait! I haven’t finished copying the homework!” Becky cried out, but seeing Desaray starting to get her things together, she had no choice but to follow along.

“When we get close to the school, we can stop so you can finish up. Either way, we will end up being late as things are now, so a few more minutes won’t hurt.” Desaray did not wish to leave Becky in a tight spot, so she did not mind being a little later than they were already going to be.

“That’s my bestie, Desa!” Becky happily gathered her things and hugged Desaray’s arm as the two girls alighted from the bus.

The sounds of horns honking could be heard echoing through the streets. Even some people were sticking their heads out of their car windows and yelling at the person in front of them to move as if they could do anything.

“I wonder what happened….” Becky pursed her lips. She hung on to Desaray’s arm, which was normal for her when they were walking around the school. Desaray was also used to this as well since Becky had always had this habit of clinging to her since they were young.

“I am not sure,” Desaray answered as she looked down the road. She also wished to know what was going on.

“Girls look.” Jake held his phone up, which caused Desaray and Becky to stop, along with a few of the other kids who had gotten on the bus. They all gathered around to watch a live video of what was happening down the street.

Chapter 2

On the screen, a young woman with light brown hair that was tied up into a bun stood in front of the camera with a News 7 microphone. Wearing a green business skirt, she stood out compared to the gray backdrop around her. Behind her were three cars all smashed together in a mangled mess. But the strange thing was that the cops and rescue workers were standing around seemingly in a confused state.

“For those of you joining in, there was an accident on the corner of East 53rd St and Park Ave. What seems like a self-driven car accident at first glance is actually not. From what I have been told, there were two cars and a delivery truck involved in the accident. Two of which did not have a driver. The driver of the delivery truck smashed into both cars as the cars sped through the red light at the same time.

“What is still to be determined is what happened to both drivers of the two cars. Both cars were gas-powered cars and not electric or self-driven. There were no witnesses to anyone getting out of either vehicle either. So the cause of the accident is still unknown at this time. This is News 7. Back to you, Chuck.” The reporter ended her live coverage without really telling much of anything.

“So what, we got ghost cars now? She really did not explain things well.” Jake swiped his screen and closed the app on his phone. He was a little confused as to what he was just told.

“I think the entire thing is just a mystery which is why no one is able to really understand what is going on. I think the reporter was just as confused as we are now, which is why the report was not really able to explain things. Anyway, we should get moving.” Desaray saw no point in even worrying about it as it was just another incident in many that happen in New York. With all the crime the city had, it was surprising they even sent a news crew out to a small accident. It was not really something those news stations would normally cover.

Desaray and her group, which consisted of Becky, Jake, and two others, began making their way to school. Out of the last two of the group of five, one was named Yu Hou, a chinese girl who lived in the same building as Jake. She was slightly chubby with black hair and eyes, but she had a smile that made others smile with her. She was a very cheerful girl, which allowed her to make friends easily.

And the second was a young man with short brown hair and glasses that covered his hazel eyes. His name was Mike Lanes. While somewhat of an outcast, he was not hated by any means. He was just quiet and kept to himself. He was actually first in the grade, which while somewhat gloomy, made him a secret crush for many of the girls.

Well, not all the girls. Becky did not care about the opposite sex unless it was a cute animated guy in one of her games, and Desaray because she wanted nothing to do with love until college or maybe even after that. She was actually not sure on this front since she knew when you like someone, it just happens. She had seen enough movies and heard stories from others about this topic, so she was not blind to the idea of love. She just refused to deal with it at this time.

“This sucks!” Becky complained as she leaned heavily onto Desaray, almost knocking her over.

“Becky, walk right!” Desaray pinched Becky’s side, causing the girl to yelp out.

“So mean! I am tired and have to walk!” Becky complained as she rubbed her side with her free hand.

“You should sleep early then! I woke up at six this morning and got ready for school, and I went to bed at the same time as you unless you stayed up a few hours more… well… I should say that I know you did.” Desaray sighed. She wondered why Becky liked to do this to herself.

“I just….  Ahhh!” Becky was trying to answer when a car suddenly barreled onto the sidewalk smashing between two parked cars and crashing into the front of the building. Desaray had reacted in time and pulled Becky with her, jumping back and falling to the ground in the process.

“That was close! Are you two okay!?” Jake called out.

“Yeah, we are fine. Yu, Mike, what about you two!?” Desaray rubbed her elbow that had gotten scrapped up and looked left and right to see both of them on the ground a few feet away. Mike was face down while Yu was on her back. From their position, it was easy to tell that Mike had tried to protect Yu.

“Bl-Blood!” Becky cried out. Blood was slowly pooling on the ground from Mike, who seemed to have hit his head when trying to protect Yu.

“Jake, give me your undershirt and call 911!” Desaray scrambled to her feet and hurried over to Mike. She looked him over to see he had only one injury on his forehead. She did not know if he had a concussion or not, so she did not dare move him too much. Her father being a paramedic, was very helpful in situations like this. She quickly checked his pulse to make sure he was still alive before checking Yu’s pulse as well. When she saw that they were both alive, she breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Ouch…” Yu slowly came too and held her head. She looked to have bumped it as well, but not as badly as Mike did.

“Don’t move. Just sit there until the ambulance comes. Mike saved you, so when he wakes up, make sure you thank him.” Desaray took the white shirt that Jake handed over to her and, using her teeth, tore it into strips. She quickly wrapped the strips around Mike’s head and kept his head elevated slightly with her knee.

“Desaray! There is no driver here!” Jake yelled out. He still had the phone to his ear, seemingly still trying to get through to 911.

“That’s all well and good, but what is going on with the ambulance?” Desaray could care less whether there was a driver or not. Right now, she was more worried about Mike.

“I can’t get through. It’s just an all circuits are busy recording.” Jake seemed anxious. He kept calling the same number over and over, but nothing was getting through.

Desaray bit the tip of her finger as she fell into thought for a moment before turning to Becky and calling out to her. “Becky, get my phone from my bag and call my father.”

“Huh? Right! On it!” Becky was already panicking. Her entire body was shaking. Her hands fumbled around just to unzip Desaray’s bag and rummaged through it to find her phone.

After digging through the bag and almost dumping the contents out onto the ground, Becky finally found the cell phone that had made its way to the bottom of the bag. The screen was cracked due to the fall, but it still worked. She quickly unlocked the phone, which she knew the pin was Desaray’s father’s birthday, opened the contact and called the number with the word Dad next to it.

But sadly… “All circuits are busy. Please try again later.”

◈◈◈

“Why is no one else coming!?” Becky’s hands shook as she looked at Desaray in hopes she might have an answer.

“This is strange. It’s like no one is around….” Jake did not understand why no one was coming over to help or even inspect what was going on. When he looked around, he saw a few people who were running in the opposite direction. The fact that they were running made him even more confused. But he was starting to have a bad feeling. “Desa, I think we need to leave.”

“Huh? We can’t. I can’t leave Mike!” Desaray was keeping Mike’s head propped up on her knees, which were red from kneeling on the ground, and keeping her finger on his pulse. It was painful since rocks were pushing into her skin, but she was waiting for someone to come over and help out. At the same time, she was trying to calm down, but Jake was not helping.

“Then take him with us! Everyone else is running from something!” Jake yelled out. He kept seeing people passing by. They were completely ignoring what was happening. Cars lined the streets, but even those people who were stuck in traffic were getting out of their cars and running away. It was like a scene out of some kind of apocalyptic movie.

“Wha….?” Desaray finally took a look around to see people running down the street in a hurry screaming. She had not realized it until now, but something truly was going on.

“Guys…. I think it’s too late….” Becky’s trembling voice entered their ears. Desaray turned to look at her best friend to see her eyes wide with fear, her finger pointing towards the car that had crashed into the wall.

Desaray turned her head to see something sitting on top of the car. A humanoid that was short with green skin and had pointed ears along with a large pointed noose with a sharp elongated chin. It licked its lips and smiled at Desaray, showing its black teeth and purple tongue while squinting its beady black eyes.

She did not know what to do, she looked at her friends to see them all frozen in fear and knew things were not good. “Jake, take Yu and Becky and get the hell out of her! I will bring Mike!”

“Ri…Right!” Jake snapped out of it and quickly helped Yu to her feet before half dragging her to Becky and taking Becky’s hand, pulling her along. Becky did not want to go as she tried to pull back from Jake, but he refused to let go. “Becky cut it out!”

“I can’t leave Desa!” Becky yelled out. But Jake still dragged her away. She turned to look at Desaray, her best friend since they were little, to see her smile at her before turning her attention to Mike. That smile she knew well. It was her’ everything will be okay’ smile. That smile was enough for her to stop resisting and allow Jake to lead the way. She could only hope Desaray could escape too.

Desaray gritted her teeth and stood up while pulling Mike up with her. She was happy that Mike was skinny. This made him light enough that even she could carry him. But as she stood up, the thing on top of the car that was stuck in the wall suddenly let out a shrill scream. “GREEEGI!”

Before Desaray could even take a step, she felt something heavy hit her back, causing her to cry out. “Ahhh!”

A sharp pain jolted through her body as she stumbled forward. She lost her grip on Mike, dropping him to the ground. Sadly things did not end there. She felt something pulling at her skirt, causing her to kick backward with her foot, landing it solidly on its target before swinging her body around to see the green humanoid tumble to the ground, trying to stand back up. Now that she could get a better view of what it was, her eyes widened in shock since she had seen such a creature before. “A goblin!?”

She hated to admit it, but she understood why it tugged on her skirt just now. Goblins are mythical creatures that normally show up in fantasy stories, movies, and TV. While sometimes they are depicted as a race of intelligent beings, they are more known for their savagery and their need to breed. With one look, she could tell this one was the latter. The goblin had a brown cloth wrapped around its waist, but there was a certain part sticking up that told Desaray that if she got caught, it would be very, very bad.

She looked down at Mike, who was still unconscious. Blood was soaking through the bandage she had put on him. She had no idea if he was even still alive at this point. Right now, although she wished she could get him out of here, she first had to deal with the situation at hand. She did not dare take her eyes off the goblin for too long as it slowly got up.

She was wracking her brain, trying to come up with some kind of plan to deal with this situation. “I guess there is only one way to make sure we both live….”

It was risky. She had two options. First, she had a feeling that if she ran, the goblin would chase after her and leave Mike alone. But she was worried that if she did, another monster might come out of nowhere and attack him. Her second option was to fight the goblin here and now. Her eyes were already darting around while keeping the goblin in view, looking for a weapon of some kind.

A glimmer of light caught her eye when she looked towards her bag. A pair of scissors had been dumped out when Becky had gone through it. Her eyes flashed. Just now she had barely kicked the goblin hard, yet it went flying back. This meant she could probably win in a fight if she were to use the scissors to kill it. Then she could escape with Mike. “Option two is the only option….”

Taking a deep breath, Desaray rushed forward….

◈◈◈

“Jake, are we just going to leave her!?” Becky, who had long been dragged around the corner and into an entryway, wanted to kick Jake back out since he was not being a man!

“Desa said she would come, so she will. She told me to keep you two safe, and that is what I am doing. For now, rest in here and hope nothing comes.” Jake replied. He could not stop shaking. He had never seen a monster before. He couldn’t help but be scared. So when Desaray told him to go, he did not hesitate. He wanted to leave as fast as he could. Even if he was told to return, he did not dare to. He knew he was being a wuss, but he couldn’t help it. He was scared…

Becky had tears streaming down her now red cheeks from being both mad and anxious at the same time. She snorted and kicked Jake in the shin, causing him to cry out in pain and crouch on the ground before opening the door. But before leaving, she turned and looked back at Jake with disdain. “I am so glad, Desaray never accepted your feelings. As a boy who always chased after her, you don’t even have the balls to go back and try to help her. You do not deserve her and never will.”

Becky left the entryway, slamming the door behind her, leaving behind a dumbfounded Jake. He held his shin and looked at the door that was now closed, blocking all view of the outside world with a blank expression. He did not know what to say. He could not say anything. He was afraid for his life. He tried to act tough but now…. A hand gently tapped his shoulder. He turned to see Yu looking at him. “No matter what she said, you still took the two of us out of there, so I thank you since I could not have escaped on my own, but….”

Yu looked up at Jake with her big round eyes and continued: “Becky was right. You don’t deserve Desaray. She would have gone back for you if she was in your situation…. I am not trying to denounce you. I myself am too scared to leave this place as well, but I would have thought you would have gone back for her.”

Jake sat there staring blankly at Yu, unable to say a word. There was no argument to be made. If he truly liked Desaray, he could have gone back for her, but to him, his life was much more important, which is why he could only watch as Becky left.

On the outside, Becky had already made her way to the corner and stopped at the edge of the building. The streets were filled with abandoned cars. The sounds of people going about their daily business were replaced with the strange sounds of creatures she had never heard before.  These sounds sent shivers down her spine as if she was watching some kind of horror movie. The eerie silence that was only broken by the sounds was truly terrifying.

Becky gulped a mouth full of saliva as she finally worked up the courage to peek around the corner. When she did, her eyes almost dropped out of her head at the scene before her.

A few minutes earlier…

Desaray ran over to the scissors right as the goblin charged at her once more. She dodged the goblin that had dived right at her, quickly picked up the scissors, and spun her body around. This time she did not wait for the goblin to get up. Instead, she jumped forward, pinned the goblin to the ground, and stabbed the scissors in her hand into its neck over and over. Purple blood squirted into the air splattering on her face and school uniform, but even while covered in blood, Desaray continued stabbing the goblin until it finally stopped moving. Her arms had been scratched by the goblins claws and were now bleeding badly, but she did not care. She had killed the thing that had attacked them.

She gasped for air as her adrenaline slowly stabilized. She had exerted herself way past the point of anything she had done before. She looked down at her arms which were burning with pain and clenched her teeth. She slowly stood up as blood dripped from her arms.

Desaray had just gotten to her feet when a blue transparent window suddenly popped up in front of her, causing her to fall back on her butt and cry out in pain. She had no idea if the blue window in front of her was real or not. She stretched out her right hand, extending her index finger, and poked at the screen. “Ouch!”

Desaray quickly pulled her finger back. She felt as if it had been pricked by something. She looked at the tip of her finger to see a small bubble of blood. Her attention was only on her finger for a few seconds when she suddenly saw text appearing in the blue window….

[System Initializing…]

[System Online….]

[System Now Undergoing DNA Scan….]

[Scanning…..]

[Scanning…….]

[Scanning……..]

[Scanning……….]

[Scanning Complete….]

[First Stage Evolution Will Now Commence…..]

“Huh? Evolution!? Whaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!” Desaray let out a blood curdling scream of pain as she felt her entire body being ripped to shreds.

Becky, who was still watching from the corner, was amazed by how her best friend killed the monster, but when she heard Desaray suddenly cry out in pain, she knew she could no longer just stand there watching. She did not even hesitate to run over to her side. “Desa!!!”

◈◈◈

Becky stopped a few feet away from Desaray. Her friend since childhood was now writhing on the ground in pain. Her blood-covered arms had huge gashes in them that went down to the bone. But Becky somehow knew that Desaray’s pain was not due to these wounds. It was something else that was causing her to kneel over and hug her body. Becky reached out with her hand and took a step forward while gently calling out to her best friend: “Desa? Ahh!”

Becky was launched backward as a surge of energy suddenly spread out from Desaray’s body. She tumbled to the ground scraping up her arms and legs as she skidded across the ground on her side. Although she was in pain, Becky was still more concerned about Desaray. She pushed herself up and looked in the direction her friend was in, but she could not see Desaray anywhere. All she saw was what looked like blue fog swirling around the spot that Desaray was last in. “Wha!? What is going on!? Desaray!”

Within the blue fog, Desaray was curled up in the fetal position. Her entire body felt as if it was being broken apart. Her muscles, her bones, and even her skin. It all seemed to be breaking down and reconstructing itself. Normally one would pass out due to shock, but Desaray was still wide awake. She could see her hands and arms starting to change. They were getting smaller and turning blue. She had no idea what was going on, but she felt as if the world around her was starting to change.

She had no idea how much time had passed, but the pain in her body was starting to subside. She could now get a decent look at what was going on around her. In front of her was still the blue transparent screen, but more than that, there was a wall of blue fog encircling her. “What is….. Hmmm? What the hell is wrong with my hands!?”

Desaray looked down at her hands… no these were not hands but claws. While the palms of her claws were a light blue color, the top part was covered in ice blue scales. She looked down at herself to see that even her body was no longer the same, and her line of sight had adjusted to be a bit wider. “Hmmm? What’s this?”

She noticed something new on the ground next to her. She reached out and poked it with her black claw out of curiosity. “That’s….. I can feel that!?”

She hunched over to inspect it even closer, only to see it move slightly with her body movement. “Is this a tail? Wait! If I can feel that, and it’s a tail, then do I?”

Reaching up with her claws, Desaray touched the top of her head.  She felt two small protrusions sticking out of it about two inches long. She was now sure she had turned into something incredible. Just as she was getting her bearings, the blue fog finally dissipated and finished entering her body. A dinging sound could be heard in her ears, causing her to look at the blue screen in front of her.

[Evolution Complete….]

[All Systems Online…..]

[Welcome To The World Order System]

[Force Opening Status Window]

{World Order System}

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 1

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 50/50

[MP]: 10/10

[Skill Points]: 0

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)}

“This…. I knew it!” Desaray yelled out as she jumped up into the air before slumping back down. “I love dragons. I love ice dragons the most, but….. I wanted to be a dragon girl! Not a full-fledged dragon! No wait…. It says here I can evolve, so maybe….. Maybe there is still a chance…. But more importantly. I need to check on Mike and then…. How am I supposed to go back like this…?”

“Desaray? Is that you?” A soft yet confused sounding voice came from Desaray’s side. She turned to see Becky slowly getting up off the ground staring at her in shock and with a bit of fear in her eyes.

“Ah…. If I told you I was, would you believe me?” Desaray lowered her head. Her shoulders and tail slumped slightly. She had no idea how to explain things since they all just happened. She herself was still trying to grasp her head around it. She had gone from a healthy fourteen-year-old girl to a monster. This was not normal, no matter how you looked at it. It was like something straight out of a fantasy story, yet then again, so were goblins, and there was a dead one lying on the ground just a few feet away from her. One she had killed herself.

“Uh….” Becky was highly confused. She could see Desaray’s uniform spread out around the small figure in front of her. The figure had ice blue scales covering its entire body except for its underbelly, which was a light blue, and two transparent light blue horns on top of its head. And the voice alone was very much familiar but…. “I have a mole somewhere on my body, and only you and my mother….”

“Left butt cheek just above the thigh.” Desaray interrupted. She only knew this because they used to bathe together.

“Shhh!” Becky’s cheeks blushed as she ran over and tried to cover the blue figure’s mouth. But when she realized that it was not a human head, she slowly put her hands down and hugged the figure. “Desa!”

Tears streamed down Becky’s cheek. Her best friend had become a lizard! “Desa, how did this happen!? You became a lizard thing!”

“I am not a lizard! I am a dragon!” Desaray snorted as she pushed Becky away. She sighed and looked down at herself. “I do not know. As soon as I killed the goblin, a blue screen popped up in front of me, spewing all kinds of things, and then I was overcome with pain. The next thing I knew, I was like this. I have no idea what is going on, but I now have a game hud and even a status screen.”

“This….” Becky was unsure how to take all of this, but she was slightly jealous if this was the case. Well, about everything except the pain part.

“Anyway, we can talk more, but first, we need to move. I don’t know how, but I can sense quite a few things heading this way, and they are not human. I am too short to carry Mike now, so you will need to help pull him out of here. His chest is still going up and down slightly, so he is alive…. I will get his feet. Just lead us to where Jake and Yu are.”

“Okay.” Becky nodded. She knew this was the right move. She walked over to Mike, knelt down and put her arms under his armpits, then pulled him up. He was heavy for her, but it soon felt lighter when she saw Desaray lift his legs.

“If it gets too much, let me know. And if we get attacked, just drop him and run. I will deal with it.” Desaray wanted to make sure Becky knew to run away as soon as possible if things went south. She could sense that there were many beings around them but did not know their exact location or how far they were from her. She only knew that they needed to go into hiding for the time being and try to figure things out. She also needed to try to get in contact with her father. But she also did not know how to explain her current state to him. She let out a deep sigh as she mumbled: “One step at a time.”

◈◈◈

A few minutes later…

“Heavy…” Becky was struggling. She had all the weight on her side while Desaray was holding Mike’s feet. But she knew with Desaray’s current size, it would be hard for her to carry him without him dragging. Even now, his midsection was bumping off the ground. And this was with Desaray trying to hold his legs up over her head!

“Becky, want me to take the front? I think I might be stronger than I was before.” Desaray offered. She was sure she could at least lift his shoulders up off the ground, and the legs would be lighter for Becky.

“No… I got it….” Becky bit her lip and exerted more strength. She was only going around the corner! Although she was not looking forward to seeing Jake, not after all she had said to him. But then again, if he did come back, would Desaray end up in her current state?

“Okay~!” Desaray was getting used to her new body. It did not feel as weird to be walking with such short legs. However, she did find it funny how she could walk on her hind legs without issue. She also liked the fact that she did not need clothes. It was kind of refreshing, as if something new was awakening inside her. Of course, she herself had not realized this yet.

“This is it,” Becky announced as she motioned with her chin towards the door. The building itself was an office building. It was not just one company but many who had their offices here.

“Go get Jake and Yu and have them help you bring Mike in. I need to go back for my stuff. Umm…. Try to give them a small run down on my current condition. I don’t want to scare them….” Desaray wanted her things since she had some stuff she always kept on her that she got from her father, which she cherished. She really hoped he was okay. But besides that, she was not ready to meet with the other two yet. Becky was one thing since she saw it happen, but Jake and Yu did not. She wondered if they would despise her for becoming a monster….

“I will… And Desa, don’t worry. I will stand on your side no matter what.” Becky could tell Desaray seemed a bit hesitant about meeting others. While she put on a strong front, Becky knew right now Desaray was having many thoughts and worries running through her mind.

“Thanks.” Desaray’s lips curled up into a smile that looked slightly frightening since she had razor-sharp teeth in her mouth, but it was a genuine smile.

She waved at Becky and took off back around the corner. She could feel a few monsters almost upon her. She wanted to make sure nothing happened to her friends so she hoped she could fight in her current form. Her status menu was still up since she had yet to have time to figure out how to close it, but she could see that her ice breath spell was not a spell but more of an innate skill. It did not even require MP, which, if she was correct, stood for Mana Points.

“Gigii!” A familiar sound entered Desaray’s ears as she turned the corner. A green figure was poking at the dead goblin on the ground. “Another one?”

She couldn’t help but frown, but she knew she had to get rid of it since it was actually very much one of the worst monsters out there for females. She wondered how many people have suffered already due to these green disasters. “I can do this…. I think….”

Desaray had no idea how to use her ice breath yet, but she still had claws and a tail. If she used the martial arts she has been learning since young, she should be able to deal with another goblin with ease.

She lowered her body and got on all fours. To her surprise, she found that this was actually quite a comfortable position. After taking a deep breath, she charged forward. Her little body shot out like a rocket, much faster than she had ever expected. So fast that the goblin, who was not paying attention, only got to look up in shock before it was plowed into and smashed into the ground. Desaray stabbed her claws into its chest, piercing its skin easily and breaking through the bones of the goblin’s ribcage as if they were made of butter. She clenched her fists around a soft object within and crushed it without mercy. She could only guess that this was the goblin’s heart.

[You Defeated A Goblin Scout]

[Experience Points Gained….]

“Oh? So I can get experience by killing these things…. That’s good to know since I will need to work on leveling up to see if I can get a humanoid form at some point.” Desaray could only bet on this assumption and hope it was true. She had no idea how long it would take to reach level 20, but she hoped it would not take too long. Of course, she would need to first figure out the ins and outs of how things are done before she could go grinding.

With a sigh, Desaray stood up and looked at her blood-soaked hand. Purple blood dripped from it, but she did not feel sickened by it at all, which she found strange. She had just crushed a living thing’s heart with her bare claws, but she felt nothing from it. She wondered if this was because of her race change. “Let’s just hope I do not have to kill a human… Anyway….”

Desaray wanted to clear her thoughts since they were going down a bad path. She looked at her stuff that was strewn about and sighed once more. She slowly walked over and began collecting her things. She made sure to grab her clothes in case she suddenly woke up naked the next day.

She had no idea what was going on with the world right now. But she felt that she would need to get Becky to kill something to see if she would end up getting a system as well. If she does, good, if not, then she would need to protect her until they could meet up with her father.

Chapter 3

Becky was currently checking Mike’s pulse while Jake and Yu stood at the side. Once she felt it was still strong, she let out a sigh of relief. “I am not as good as Desa but he should be fine for the time being. But I need to tell you two something.”

“Where is Desa? You said she helped you bring Mike here, right? Why did she not come in?” Jake asked. He knew he had no right to chase after her anymore since he could only think about himself when it came to protecting his own life. He had gladly sacrificed her without even thinking about turning around to go back to help her.

“While I have a lot to say about your worry, she is fine for the most part. It’s just that she is ummm…. Not exactly like she used to be.” Becky found it hard to explain. People would normally think she was nuts if she had said anything, to begin with, but now…. “After she killed the goblin, she transformed into a baby dragon of sorts.”

“What!? Becky, this is no time to be joking around!” Jake yelled out. He wondered just what the hell got into this girl for her to be making jokes at this time. He stepped forward and raised his hand. He was about to smack her and try to knock some sense into her.

“If you don’t believe me, then fine, but you will see. She will be back after she gathers her things. But let me warn you. She is only about four feet tall and does not look like a human in any way. If you make any rude comments, scream, or make her feel bad, at this time, I do not think I would have an issue killing you for real.” Becky snorted, she was not afraid of Jake at all. Although she was making a baseless threat, it made Jake’s face pale. As she had thought, Jake was too much of a wuss to even think that her words were false. He even stumbled back a few steps just because of her words.

“Jake, take it as the truth for now. We will find out as soon as Desa returns. Also, a man who raises his hand to a woman is no man. Unless you have a good reason to, never raise your hand to a girl.” Yu pulled Jake back, her words cold. She could understand if Becky was hitting him and he was doing it in self defense but he was about to do it just because he got mad, which made her think even less of him.

Human nature can be funny. During stressful times people’s true nature will be exposed. A person, male or female, who you had thought was a good and upright person, could end up being a selfish person who only cares about themselves. While it is true that no one wishes to die, and only some are willing to sacrifice themselves for others whether it is for love or another reason, it still did not sit well for Yu to have Jake, who would not even go back to check on whether or not Desaray was alive or not to get mad over Becky’s words.

Yu also thought that Becky’s words were hard to believe, but she did not seem to be saying them in a joking manner.  Because of this, she wanted to wait and see for herself if Desaray had actually turned into a dragon, as Becky had said.

Jake, on the other hand, did not want to believe a single word of it. He felt Becky was messing with him since she hated him now. He knew he had no place to be criticizing anyone, but he still worried about Desaray. Just because he already realized he was not in love with her, he still wished for her well-being.

“Why does it seem like you are all attending a funeral? Who died?” A voice came from the side, causing everyone to turn their heads.

Two sets of eyes landed on the short blue figure that looked like an oversized lizard standing on two legs with a backpack slung over its shoulder. Jake and Yu’s expressions were that of shock. Yu had her mouth open wide enough that an egg could fit into it and Jake’s eyes were so wide that they might just fall out. Only Becky smiled brightly as she walked over to the blue figure and patted her head. “Glad you can make it but…. Did you run into trouble?” Becky noticed the blood on Desaray’s claw.

“Ah yeah, I killed another goblin and got some experience points. And don’t pat my head! I am not a pet!” Desaray swatted Becky’s hand away, causing the girl to giggle.

“Hahaha! Couldn’t resist. But another goblin, huh?” Becky frowned. She was no stranger to goblins either. But more than that, she really wanted to know what was going on. “Did you happen to see anything strange, anything that might tell us why these monsters are appearing or, more like, why you suddenly changed into a dragon?”

“No idea, but the streets are semi-quiet. I can hear screams off in the distance followed by roars, so who knows what is actually going on? Is it just this area that turned into some kind of fantasy story, or is it something that is happening all over the world? You would think the army would be out already, or at least the police. But we have not heard a single bit of gunfire.” Desaray really found too many things strange. But before she could do more, she had to figure out her system and how it worked. She was sick of the screen blocking her view. She hadn’t realized she was already used to being a dragon.

“Desaray…?” Jake spoke hesitantly. He was unsure what he should say in this situation.

“Hmmm? Oh, if it isn’t Mr. Scaredy Cat!” Desaray gave a dragony smirk. She had heard everything from Becky already, so she was ready and willing to pick on him.

◈◈◈

“That’s a little unfair, isn’t it!?” Jake cried out. But he did not say anything more. He had no right to argue. He slumped down onto the floor and hugged his knees, not wanting to be looked at.

Desaray smugly lifted her snout in the air before turning serious once more. “How’s Mike?”

“Still asleep. His pulse is strong as far as I can tell from what you taught me before.” Becky replied as she watched Desaray walk over to Make and begin checking his pulse.

They were in the front entryway of one of the office buildings not far from the school bus stop, where Mike, Jake, and Yu got on. Because it was an office building, only the front door was unlocked, so they could not go any further without a card key to get inside. It was the area where the mailboxes for each office were held.

The carpet on the floor was nothing more than an industrial version that was easy to clean. It looked to have been cleaned just recently if you did not count the new stains that the four of them had added to it. With white painted walls and wood trim, it looked neat and tidy as any entryway could be.

Mike was leaning up against a side wall while Yu sat on the floor next to him with a worried expression on her face. She was worried about Mike’s condition. He had saved her when he could have just left her, and because of that, he was now unconscious. She couldn’t help but be moved by his self-sacrifice. She knew she was not the best-looking girl around, and Mike might not be the cutest-looking guy, but he was someone who was willing to put himself in harm’s way to save her, unlike a certain handsome boy who was still shaking in the knees.

Desaray frowned as she let go of Mike’s wrist. “I can’t be sure what is going on. His pulse seems fine from what I can tell, as Becky said, but other than that, unless we get him to a hospital, I do not think we will know what is really wrong with him. The only issue is that there is barely anyone around and monsters all over the place. Which means we will need to bring him there ourselves. The closest one is the Lenox Hill Hospital which is on the other side of Bethesda Terrace…. We are currently on West and 67th St. It will take us about thirty minutes or more on foot, rough estimate, if we rush. But if we run into monsters, it will take longer. Which means….”

Desaray looked up at Jake and pondered for a moment. “Jake, if you want to redeem yourself, then you will need to help us move Mike unless you are willing to see your friend suck in a coma like this for who knows how long.”

Jake lifted his head. He really did not want to leave the safety of the building, but…. He looked over at Mike and bit his lip. It was not like he could stay here forever, he knew this, but he was still scared of the unknown. He took a deep breath and stood up. “I-I will carry him.”

“Are you sure? If you drop him out of fright, he might die, then it will be on your head.” Becky asked with a snort.

This only fired Jake up more to do this task, as he was already annoyed with Becky from the earlier argument. “I won’t drop him!”

“Alright, no fighting, we will need to work together. I will take point with Becky watching the sides. Yu will follow behind Jake and assist him if needed. But before we go, I need to look at a few things. We will also need to search for weapons outside. There are plenty of cars, so we can just loot them for anything useful to protect ourselves with.” Desaray was trying to be a realist. The situation was not a situation where they could just abide by common laws. Anything went now, and the most important thing for them at this time was protection.

“Then just tell us when you are ready.” Becky had no problems with Desaray’s plan. She just hoped Jake would not wuss out again. No one else had an issue with Desaray’s plan either. This allowed Desaray some time to figure out her new menu thing.

She sat down next to the door with her hind legs crossed under her as she poked at the menu screen for a few moments before muttering: “Close status window….”

She had no idea if it would work, but luckily, it did. “So the window is voice activated? Open status window.” Once more, the status window appeared in front of her. With a sigh of relief, Desaray closed the menu again before standing up and going to open the door but was quickly stopped by Jake. “Where are you going?”

“I need to see if I can cast my ice breath. If I can, then that means I can make our trip a little easier if it does not consume too much mana.” Desaray replied.

“Wait, so you were not lying!? You really have a game-type system?” Jake asked. He thought it was a joke!

“Why would I lie about something so stupid? Do you think I like looking mentally insane? Luckily I can open and close the menu now, or I would have to live the rest of my life with a blue transparent screen in front of me that only I can see. Jake, I did not realize you thought so little of me. Once we get to the hospital, you can stay there and watch over Mike. At least there, you will be safe. I hope anyway….”

◈◈◈

Desaray was unsure of many things, and she could only assume that they would be safe at the hospital. But with monsters that do not care for human life or have any fear of a weapon, this might not be the case. What bothered her most about this situation was the lack of people. They lived in New York, one of the most populated cities in the country, yet there were so few people. Take this office building they were currently holding up in, there was no one around. Not a single person has come to the first floor to check things out. There were two cameras in this entryway. You would think they would have come out a long time ago to check on the kids that were taking refuge here. While it was human nature to protect one’s self, this did not mean everyone was like that.

Desaray stood on the front stoop of the stairs and looked around. She could see something across the street sniffing around. It looked like a gray wolf but much bigger than any wolf she had seen on tv. She did not move and waited for it to pass by before stepping down off the stoop. She had no idea how strong the monster was, and right now, she did not wish to find out until she understood her own abilities.

She opened her menu and took a look at what she had access to. She quickly spotted a button next to the skills title. She reached out with her claw and poked the button, causing a new menu to appear. “So this is the skill menu?”

Desaray was actually quite happy to see this menu. She hoped she could find something useful in it. “Let’s see. I can learn a lot, from attack skills to passive skills. Some mixed with magic, some not. But each one costs skill points which I do not have, sadly….” Desaray let out a sigh. She had two skills, but from what she could tell, they did not use mana of any kind, it seemed. If this was the case, then she might be able to use her ice breath for as much as she wanted.

“These skills all state mana cost, and those that don’t do not have any mana cost…. Oh, the king of all skills is in this list as well.” Desaray looked at the skill named Appraisal. This was a skill she wanted very much since it was a skill that would tell her what things were. In any game that did not do it automatically, it was a must have skill.

“It costs only a single skill point, so I will get that and a few other single point skills. There is even a basic first aid skill here which can heal minor wounds.” Besides basic first aid and appraisal, she found another one called toughened skin and everyday magic. Everyday magic cost two skill points, but it allowed her to cast a few spells that one would need in everyday life. This included spells called spark, cleanse, drink, dig, and dry. Just from the names alone, she could figure out what they did.

Desaray closed her menu screens now that she had a bit of an idea of what she wanted to do. She had no idea how many skill points she would get per level, but she did hope it was more than one. If she got two, she would get appraisal and basic first aid to start, then toughened skin next. Then the level after that, she would get everyday magic.

“Okay, now to try out this ice breath.” Desaray jumped up on top of a car and looked down the road. She was not too sure how she was supposed to activate the skills, but she found voice activation worked for her menu, so she decided to try it like that. She took a deep breath, aimed her snout toward the middle of the road, and said: “Ice Breath!”

Cold air began to build up around Desaray’s mouth. A bright blue ball of cold energy slowly began to form. Ice formed in the air, and after about five seconds, a blast of cold icy air shot out in a cone in front of her. The further out it went, the wider the range was. But the distance was about thirty feet. The road that was caught at the edge of the blast of cold air had a sheen of white and blue ice covering its surface.

As the energy dissipated, Desaray closed her mouth and pressed her scaly lips together, and opened her menu. She looked at her stats to see her mana did not go down at all, which meant this was an innate skill. “So I don’t need mana to use it, but its charge time is around five seconds. It lasts for about twenty seconds. Although, this is only at level 1. So if I level it up, the time and the duration might last longer.”

Desaray jumped off the car she was on and walked back towards the building where the others were. She figured she could try to charge it while fighting, but in order to test this out, she would need to do so while in a fight. She hated to admit it, but she was actually kind of excited that she was able to use all these new abilities. To her, what she just used was magic, something she could only see in games or on tv, but now…. Her scaly lips curled up slightly. “While the situation is not good, it is not all that bad either. I just hope my father will recognize me….” This was the only fear she had at this time….

◈◈◈

“Alright, so here is the deal. We will make our way through the terrace and then head to the hospital. If it is safe, you guys can stay there. I still need to go to my house and then to Lower Manhattan to try to get in contact with my father, depending on where he is at this time. But with the way things are, my guess is he is probably out on a call or locked down in the fire station. If he is still alive, that is.” Desaray laid down her plans for what she was going to do. However, the last few words were hard to say for her. She was very worried about her father, and while she was unsure if he would recognize her, she hoped that he would at least not try to attack her.

“Wait, you are just going to leave us? What happens if the hospital is not safe!?” Jake cried out. Whether he realized it or not, he could only see Desaray as a means of staying alive. In his mind, he needed her protection if he wanted to make it through this situation.

“What happens after that is not my problem. Look….” Desaray looked at the other three with narrowed eyes. “Out of everyone here, the one I am closest with is Becky. If it came down to one of you and Becky, I would save her first. I am not trying to be mean or anything like that, but I am being realistic, that is just how it is. You save those who are family first. If it is possible, I would help Yu next, then Mike. Jake would be last. I literally have one skill I can use right now, and that is my ice breath which takes five whole seconds to even activate. In that time, you can be killed or worse.”

“What kind of crap is that!? You would save me last!? Desaray, all these years I have been chasing you, I mean so little to you?” Jake did not like hearing he would be first to die no matter what if it came to others. He disliked hearing this the most. He did not want to die, and Desaray was the only thing that could keep him alive.

“Are you an idiot? Why would I risk my life for someone who was not even willing to come and check if I was alive or not? Becky came even though she was scared out of her mind. Do you think she wanted to die!? Do you think she wanted to go out into the unknown? No, she did not, but she still did. She even came over to me and treated me normally, even when I turned into a dragon. If she did not tell you ahead of time, what would you have done? Tried to kill me? Run for your life? Jake, don’t screw with me. I do not owe you anything. As for feelings, there were never any feelings beyond friendship. I never liked you more than a friend I went to school with. That was it.

“Whether you want to hear what is coming out of my mouth or not is up to you. If you prefer to stay here hiding until you starve to death, then stay here. If you want to help get Mike to the hospital, then carry him on your back, and I will do what I can to protect you until we get to the hospital. But no matter what, I will go try to find my dad. He is all I got. But as I said, if it comes down to you, Yu, or Becky and Mike, I would save them first before you.” Desaray looked at everyone there before turning around. Jake went silent, he could not argue with Desaray since he was not as good with words as her. He could only clench his fists, grit his teeth, and hope things would go smoothly. Desaray took a few steps towards the door when she heard Yu suddenly speak up.

“Desa is right, you know. We should be thankful that she is willing to go as far as she is. As of right now, we do not know what else is out there besides the goblins and the wolf Desa told us about when she came back. If we are attacked, I would understand her helping Becky before me since I would do the same if I was in her position. I would save the one closest to me first. It is not like we are heroes of some kind of fantasy movie. This is real life. There is no plot armor that will save us from dying.” Yu lifted her head and looked at Desaray with her big eyes and smiled as she continued: “So thank you. Thank you for doing so much when you do not need to.”

“Hehe….” Becky giggled. “Desa is just a big softy as it is. But I will say she is right. I would do the same. I would save her before any of you. But that does not mean we will not try to help those we can if we are not in trouble ourselves. Plus, if we help Desa kill a monster, maybe we can gain systems as well. If this is like a game, then as long as we get a hit in, we may be able to gain a system like Desa has. Although, I am not sure if we will change as she has.”

“I was thinking the same. Because even then, those who only think about themselves can protect themselves from danger.” Desaray added before shaking her head. “Let’s get going. The more time we waste here, the more likely we will not meet up with anyone.”

Everyone nodded, agreeing with Desaray, even Jake, who reluctantly nodded as well before going over to Mike, and with Yu’s help, put him on his back. The group then finally exited the entryway. As soon as they stood on the front stoop of the building, the group noticed a strange low-lying fog in the air. It was not something normally seen in the city, so it made things even stranger than before.

Desaray took a deep breath before saying: “We will first search the cars for anything we can use as a weapon. Keep it light so we can move quickly.”

◈◈◈

The sound of glass shattering could be heard as an alarm went off on the eerily quiet streets of New York City. “Anything?” Desaray asked as she poked her head through the now-open door of the Honda that Becky had just broken into.

“I found a gun!” Becky cried out. She nervously held a gun in her hand that was still in its holster and passed it to Desaray.

“Not bad. It’s small, so you should be able to handle it.” Desaray looked it over. Her father had a gun chest as well in his bedroom, so she knew how to check if it was empty or not. “Becky, hit this button here, then pull this back to eject any bullets in the chamber. Just make sure this is always down like this so that the safety is on when you are doing it, and never point it at anyone while doing this.”

Becky nodded her head like a good student and listened to Desaray’s instructions.  After checking the chamber and making sure it was unloaded, she was taught how to load a bullet and then load the gun again. “Now, one thing to make sure of is to always have your finger off the trigger when walking, only put it on the trigger when you are aiming at a monster. ”

“Understood. ” Becky nodded her head again. She felt like she had been doing that since the start.

“And lastly….” Desaray leaned in and whispered into Becky’s ear so that only the two of them could hear what was being said.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hand it to anyone.” Becky knew that Desaray did not trust Jake. There was a chance if he got a weapon like this, that he might do something stupid in order to save his own life.

“Desa, I found a bat!” Yu was next to find a weapon as she hopped out of the cab of a truck.

“Alright, then we should be good. Jake is busy carrying Mike, so he can’t carry a weapon. It will be up to the three of us to be the main fighters when it comes down to it.” Desaray looked at Jake, who had a nasty look on his face. She wondered if he realized the kind of face he was making at this time.

“Desa, are you sure we can survive this?” Yu asked in a low voice. She was clutching the bat in her hand so tightly that the white of her knuckles was showing.

“I can’t answer that. I do not know what will happen next. I am just as nervous as you are, but I have no choice. I promised to try to help Mike, and the hospital is the only way. We may even get lucky, and only the Upper West Side is where the monsters are. We could cross the terrace to find out that they have a large army of soldiers standing there.” Desaray answered honestly. This was truly how she felt and thought at this time. She would not give out false promises since she did not know what the outcome would be.

The group slowly made their way across the street, which was now more like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie than anything else. The cars that were just left abandoned yet still locked up, the silence of no human traffic whatsoever. In a city this large, which is normally bustling with pedestrians, it was very strange to see it like this.

“Why are there no other people? Did we get hit by truck-kun and not know it?” Becky asked softly, which almost made Desaray, and Yu burst out laughing. Even Jake, who was in a bad mood, had his lips twitch upwards at her comment.

“My guess is they are either hiding or dea…. Don’t look. Let’s go this way.” Desaray stopped in her tracks and changed directions. They were just joking, but not far from the car she had led her friends around was a dead body that looked like it had been torn apart by some kind of monster. Blood was everywhere. And the scent of iron was heavy in the air making Desaray’s nose wrinkle up.

Becky had caught a glimpse of it and backed up before quickly running to Desaray’s side, almost bumping into Yu in the process. Yu did not dare look when Desaray told her not to and just hurried along. Jake, on the other hand, got a good look as he passed by. His face grew pale, and the smell of iron was making him feel sick. So sick that he had to stop. “Urp!”

“I said not to look! Jake, puke all you want later. For now, let’s move! My nose is much more sensitive now than it was before, so the smell is affecting me ten times more, maybe even a hundred times more than it is you.” Desaray couldn’t understand how it was the girls that could keep it together more than he could. She did not understand why he was so scared of everything.

Jake looked at Desaray’s retreating back and quickly adjusted Mike’s position on his back, then continued forward. He did not hold it against her for being tough on him. He had to admit she was much stronger than he could ever be at this time with how calm and collected she was. He also felt embarrassed that both girls kept their stomachs while he lost his.

Desaray led the group to a side alley and stopped in front of the entrance. “We will need to go down this alley as it is quicker and probably safer than taking the main roads. But there is one thing. I can sense something down here. It doesn’t feel like the wolf I saw earlier or a goblin, but weaker. If this is the case, I want Becky and Yu to try to take it out while I hold it back. Becky, use a blunt weapon and save your bullets for emergencies. There is a pipe at the side, so use that. When I say to attack, attack.”

Chapter 4

A dark alley with trash cans and cardboard boxes cluttered up on each side. Water dripping from the air conditioners above caused pools of water to form on the cracked tar that lined the alleyway. Tufts of grass sprouted from these cracks showing just how stubborn nature can be. Grass growing in the middle of the city in a place where no grass should be. It was enough to make one wonder what would happen if there were no people here for a long time.

Within this damp smelly alley, two blue gelatin balls were slowly creeping across it. They were blue with a round red object in the center of them, something that both Desaray and Becky knew as the core of this monster. “A slime!”

“Now it feels more like an RPG!” Becky suddenly got excited as she grasped the metal pipe she had picked up off the ground. She wondered if she would gain a system like Desaray if she actually killed this thing.

“Just be careful. We do not know how dangerous it can be,” Desaray warned. She knew Becky was excited, but she wanted her to keep on guard as well.

“I know!” Becky pursed her lips. She knew better than to overestimate herself.

“Okay, I will go in and see if they attack me. Then you two will each take one and bash away.” Desaray slowly made her way forward. She did not know how slimes were in the real world, so she did not know if they would jump up at her or what, but the closer she got, she noticed that the slimes did not seem to be reacting to her at all. She walked straight up to them, and they just kept doing their thing. One was even feeding on a piece of cardboard. She could see it dissolving the cardboard inside its body.

“Desa?” Becky called out as she slowly came forward. She saw Desaray just standing there, so she was kind of confused.

“Becky, come here and stand at my side.” Desaray wanted to see if these would attack her or not but wanted to be ready for anything. If one were to attack Becky, she would jump in to protect her.

Becky did as she was told and stood next to Desaray, yet the slimes still did not react. “Ummm….” Becky was confused as to what to do next. She never thought that slimes would not attack her. She actually felt like they were kind of cute, in a way, but not the kind of cute that would make her want to take one home.

“Well… hit it hard enough to break its core. Yu, you do the same to the other one.” Desaray could tell there were no other monsters close by. Because of this fact, it made a good chance for these two to get their systems. That is if her idea was right and that they had to kill a monster to gain a system.

Becky’s eyes glowed as she raised her metal pipe and then brought it down with everything she had. The pipe smacked into the slime, causing it to sink in, the core in the middle cracked and fell apart before dimming. The round gelatin could no longer hold together and turned into a pool of liquid. Yu also dispatched her slime as well.

Right after the slimes died, the two stumbled back before suddenly crying out in pain and falling to the ground. Just like Desaray, they were curled up in the fetal position with tears in their eyes as the pain consumed them. “What!? What is happening to them!?” Jake cried out as he stumbled backward. He could see that they were both in a lot of pain, and clouds of two different colors of fog, one white, one a light green, began to form around them.

“It’s fine. This is the evolution process. They just got their systems.” Desaray yelled out as she stood next to the two domes of fog. She was kind of expecting this, although she was not one hundred percent sure either. The pain these two were going through was something she knew all too well. It was a pain she would never forget. She had no idea what they would become, but she did not care about this either. As long as they could level up and gain skills, that was all that mattered.

“This… You have to deal with such pain…?” Jake’s face paled. He hated pain. He hated anything that would harm him. He was not sure if he wanted to get a system now. He would prefer to find a safe place to hide until all of what was happening finally passed. Desaray snorted at the sight of Jake’s pale face. She had dealt with the pain. She knew Becky could definitely do it, and with how Yu was, she could do the same.

Twenty minutes passed, and the fog surrounding the two finally began to dissipate. What was revealed from the white fog that had surrounded Becky was almost a copy of Desaray except with white scales that had a golden sheen to them, along with two pure white horns on top of her head. Next to Becky was a gray-haired wolf-looking figure that had a mane of flowing green hair. It rippled around as if the wind was passing through it. Both were standing on their hind legs at around four feet tall and looked quite cute for being monsters. Yu looked like a fluffy puppy more than a wolf at this time.

“I really did change!” Becky cried out as she looked at her claws. She was swaying her tail back and forth and inspecting each part of her body. She felt quite funny how her body was so much different, but she also strangely felt it did not feel out of place. Strange but normal, two words that contradicted each other but somehow fit together in this situation.

“Desa, stop playing with my tail!” Yu cried out. Desaray was already busy rubbing her blue-scaled cheeks all over Yu’s fluffy tail while Becky was engrossed in checking herself out.

“It’s your fault for becoming fluffy.” Desaray retorted, not stopping her fluffing.

“Ahh, no fair!” Becky hurried over and began scratching Yu’s ear. The poor girl had tears in her eyes but, for some reason, could not resist the pettings!

A few minutes later, both dragon girls finally let Yu go. With a satisfied snort Desaray turned to Becky and asked: “Becky, what element are you?”

“Light. I got two skills called Light Breath level 1 and Dark Immunity level max.” Becky replied excitedly. She was quite happy that she was going to be able to cast spells and level up now.

“And Yu? What about you? What race and element did you get?” Judging by the green mane, Desaray was thinking Yu’s element was wind, but she wanted to be sure.

“I am what is called a fenrir, and I have Wind Slash level 1 and Wind Resistance level 1” Yu replied with pursed lips.  She wondered why she did not get a max resistance as well.

“Looks like we have more to go with now. The only thing…. Becky, can you still handle the gun in your claws?” Desaray asked. She knew she could, but she wondered if Becky would be okay now that she was no longer human.

“Mmm… Should be fine.” Becky replied as she picked up the gun that was on the ground and held it in her claw with ease. She still had five digits, so it was no different from before.

“Yu what about the baseball bat? Or are you going to be using your claws now?” Desaray preferred using her claws as it seemed more natural to her. This was probably a racial instinct.

“I will use my claws. I do not know why, but it seems that it’s more natural…. It’s hard to explain.” Yu replied while looking down at her claws that had pads on the palms.

“Okay then. Becky will carry the gun and only use it when needed. I am hoping the loud noise might scare off any larger monsters, although that is probably doubtful. Let’s move on!”

◈◈◈

Desaray and her group slowly made their way to the end of the alley, bringing them to Central Park West. They had to cross the street here to enter Bethesda Terrace. If they follow Terrace Dr. all the way to 5th Ave, they would be close to the Lenox Hill Hospital.

A fenrir, two dragons, and two humans stood at the edge of the road, looking back and forth at the long line of abandoned cars. Becky couldn’t help but wrinkle her brow. “It doesn’t make sense. Besides the one body we have seen so far, there are no others around. It’s like they all disappeared without a trace.”

“Becky, I think you might be correct in this assumption. After all, with the number of people in New York City, just the Upper West Side would have a good number of people. Yet there was barely anyone running earlier when the first goblin showed up. As we still do not know what happened or what is causing any of this, we must keep going and hope that Mike can get proper treatment.” Desaray sighed and looked at Mike and then at Jake, who was sweating. “Jake, I want to get you a system as well if you want but first, we need you to bring Mike into the hospital. The three of us can not go close to the hospital if it is being guarded.”

Jake nodded his head. He could understand this fact. “Then please keep me alive until then.”

“Don’t worry. As long as we are not in serious trouble, I will stop at nothing to protect you at this time. I think this goes for Becky and Yu as well, right?” Desaray looked at the two girls, who nodded their heads. “So, while it is not a complete promise, we will do what we can.”

“Alright.” Jake clenched his fists. He understood that Desaray was not backing down from her earlier statement. But at least he knew they would not just leave him if things were not too bad yet.

The group carefully crossed the street and stepped into Bethesda Terrace, a part of Central Park known for its prominent displays of art and architecture. What was normally a busy part of the park was now nothing but a ghost town with no foot traffic at all.

“Desa, shouldn’t we just walk straight across instead of taking Terrace Dr.?” Yu asked. She did not see a reason to be taking the main road through if they could just cut through the park.

“Yeah, you are right. I wasn’t thinking right before. I was thinking there would be more people, and it would be dangerous, but… ” Desaray looked at the foggy path ahead and could feel that there were a few monsters ahead of them but could not determine where they were exactly. She was still getting used to this kind of six-sense thing. She wondered if Becky and Yu had this same feeling. “Becky, Yu, do you sense anything ahead of us?”

“Now that you mention it. I smell something… stinky but am unsure what it is exactly.” Yu replied. As part of a wolf-type race, her senses were quite sharp already, but as a fenrir, they were even sharper than a dragon’s.

“I can smell something, but I can’t figure out where it is,” Becky replied. She had her snout in the air and was smelling around.

“I am the same. Yu, it will be up to you to help determine if something is closer than it should be and a threat. Without your warning, we might end up in a dangerous position.” Desaray did not want anything bad to happen to those here. While she might throw Jake under the bus, the rest were good people.

“On it!” Yu nodded as she extended her claws. Desaray was surprised that Yu was doing things so naturally, then again, it was the same for her. It just came naturally.

Natural instincts seemed to have been ingrained within them after they evolved, which helped them cope with the sudden change of stature and race. If it was not for this, all three of them would not be as they are now and would still be trying to deal with the sudden change.

They walked for about ten minutes before Yu smelt something getting closer. “Desa….”

“Mmm… It’s big. Yu, stay by Jake and Mike. Becky, you take the left side I will go right. Remember, it takes about five seconds to charge your attack. It is also voice-activated, as I said before. Take a deep breath before you start your attack. I do not know what your attack is like or if it uses mana, so try to pay attention to whatever is happening. I will freeze it with my ice breath.” Desaray gave out orders which everyone quickly put into action. She had become the group’s leader without anyone making a single complaint about it.

“Desa, you sound like a raid leader.” Becky teased as she took her position.

“As of now, we have to take every fight as if we are fighting a raid boss. This is just how it is. So pay attention. This is not some VR game; this is real life.” Desaray did not want to leave room for error. She wanted to keep everyone from getting harmed. She just hoped it would not come down to abandoning someone. That would not sit well with her.

“I know!”

◈◈◈

A rotting smell started to fill the air. It was so strong now that even Jake could smell it, causing him to wrinkle his nose. “What is this sme….”

“Shh!” Desaray turned and glared at Jake, who quickly closed his mouth. He knew he just messed up. In a situation where the people who will do the fighting are being quiet, he, as the on-looker and the one being protected, should not make a sound.

“Desa,” Yu whispered before motioning with her claws and holding up one claw. Desaray nodded and got ready to fight. Becky also lowered her head slightly, ready to pounce on whatever it was that was about to arrive.

A shadow slowly formed in the thick fog. It was tall and humanoid-shaped, but the way it was walking was very strange. It seemed to have a slight shuffle in its step as if one of its legs were being dragged behind.

“Desa, I think this is….” Becky was about to confirm what was approaching them when the figure finally came fully into view.

A young woman, well, if you could call her a woman. Her blue business suit was ripped in many places exposing more than what should be exposed. Some might take pictures of such a scene, that was, if she did not have a huge hole in her chest with rotting flesh hanging off her body. Her dirty blonde hair was all over the place and even had dirt and sticks sticking out of it. On her feet was a single blue high heel shoe while her other foot was twisted and mangled.

It was disgusting enough to make one feel sick to their stomach, but Desaray felt something was off. “Don’t attack unless attacked!”

Becky and Yu quickly backed up but kept their gazes on the zombie. This was all they could call it since it was a picture-perfect example of what a zombie would look like. Desaray walked forward and stood in front of the group. She looked at the female zombie with narrowed eyes. “Stop where you are!”

Desaray’s voice filled the air. The female zombie actually came to a stop. Her mouth opened as if she was going to say something, but only a mournful groan came out of her mouth. The female zombie raised its hand to its throat and shook its head. But the message was clear. Desaray understood that this zombie was sentient and was probably a human who turned into a zombie, like how she turned into a dragon. It was just that it could not talk normally. She took a deep breath before saying, “I guess you used to be human like me. Since you can not talk, can you still remember how to write?”

This time the female zombie nodded its head and, with great difficulty, bent over and began scratching the ground with the tip of its finger, which had no skin on it. ‘My name is Claire. A green thing attacked me here in this park while on my way to work, and I somehow killed it. Before I knew what was happening, a window appeared before me. Then I felt a great pain, and before I knew it, I was like this. What is going on? Why am I like this!? I want to die. But I can’t. I even stabbed at my own heart, but it did nothing. I jumped from a large staging area in the park and bashed my head, causing it to fall off, but it somehow reattached itself. I do not want to be like this. Please kill me….’

The female zombie’s head sagged as she knelt on the ground holding her head. Desaray could tell if the female zombie could cry, she would be drowning in tears at this time. She felt pity for the female zombie. She knew it must be hard looking like this. Becoming something you would only see in the movies.

“I understand….” Desaray took a deep breath before letting it out. This was not an easy decision for her. She did not like the idea of killing another human unless they were trying to harm her or her loved ones, but this was something that one could not cure. But… “Before I do what you asked. Let me ask you. If you say status, can you see a window appear?”

The female zombie lifted her head. She let out a mournful groan, and a blue window appeared before her. She stared at it in a daze before looking up at Desaray with questioning eyes.

“What are your evolution requirements?” Desaray asked. There was a chance, even if it was little, that her next evolution might change her appearance a little to something better than what she looked like now. So she did not want the female zombie to give up just yet.

The female zombie quickly scribbled on the ground. “I need to reach level 20 and eat the brains of three elite monsters….” A strange look appeared on the female zombie’s face. It was one of disgust. Of course, this was understandable since not many would rightfully want to eat the brains of another animal unless they had no choice.

Desaray realized that it seemed that reaching level 20 was the bare minimum for the second evolution. The same went for Yu and Becky as well. They, too, needed to reach level 20 before they could evolve. “I am only assuming this, but I believe with each evolution, there is a chance to have your body change in one shape or another. I can not be certain, but it is a high possibility. If we can change into these forms, there is nothing saying we can not regain a decent humanoid form after evolving a few times. If you are willing to do it, you can try leveling up first to reach your evolution requirements and see if that helps. If you still do not change for the better, then I will do as you ask. How about that?”

◈◈◈

The female zombie, Claire, stared at the ground with her finger in the dirt for almost a full minute before finally nodding her head. ‘If there is a chance, then I will try. How do I level up?’

“From what I can understand at this time, killing other monsters. Although I do hope you do not attack me or my friends. But goblins, the green little man you killed to end up like this, might give you some decent experience. Or maybe the blue balls of gelatin, slimes which we found in a back alley. Those do not attack at all, but I am not sure how much experience you will get from any of these things, especially the slimes. But one can only push forward and grind like no tomorrow. I plan to do just that once I reach the hospital.” Desaray explained.

Claire lowered her head and began scribbling on the ground once again. ‘Thank you. I had planned to die, but if there is now a chance, I will do what I can and kill those disgusting green monsters with everything I have. Also…. I am not sure how the hospital is. As far as I know, humans have been disappearing left and right. Be careful. Your form will not be liked by those who have not changed like us….’

Desaray smiled and nodded her head. “I will. Take care of yourself.”

After saying their goodbyes, the group left Claire behind. Claire stood up, looked in the direction Desaray and the rest left, and clenched her fists. She was now determined to live. As long as she can reach level 20 and eat the three brains, she might have a chance to make things better. Better than her current situation, that is. She looked down at the words written on the ground and used her mangled foot to wipe the dirt away. Only after she had done all that did she turn and vanish back into the fog.

Desaray once more pushed forward. She had her cell phone in her hand as she tried to call her father once more. She still could not get through. It was not just her who was worried about their parents either, but everyone was worried. Claire’s words at the end about people disappearing were only now setting in.

“I wonder how much of humanity has disappeared,” Jake mumbled softly, but since the three girls had a heightened sense of hearing, now they could still hear what he had said.

“At least we got a bit more information. I had found it odd that there were not a lot of people around and thought that maybe they had just up and disappeared, but now I guess I was in the right line of thinking.” Desaray sighed. “I just hope a doctor or two are left at the hospital.”

“What do you plan to do if it is infested with monsters or if there are no doctors?” Jake asked out of curiosity. He had not heard all of Desaray’s plans as of yet.

“Mmm… Find a slime and make it so that Mike kills it. Maybe undergoing evolution will wake him up.” Desaray was not sure if it would work, but it was worth a try at the very least.

“Would he be able to handle the pain?” Jake knew the evolution process was painful, so he was unsure if Mike would be able to take it in his current state.

“I am not sure…. This is why if something happens, I will be the one to do it. Since I came up with the idea, I would not leave the aftermath to you all.” Desaray was really not sure what would happen. If Mike ended up dying due to her idea, it would end up being not only her fault but also the person who helped Mike kill the slime. This was why she would do it herself instead of forcing someone else to do the deed since it risked killing an innocent life.

“Desa, you are strong, but you do not need to shoulder the burden all by yourself. If it comes down to that, I will be the one to do it. I owe Mike my life. I will do anything to help him.” Yu suddenly spoke up. If not for Mike, she would have been crushed by the car. He had saved her without care for his own life. Now he was in this situation where he was unconscious.

Desaray looked at Yu and could see that she was being serious. She had to admit it was not just her who was strong, Yu was also strong. Everyone here was. “We will do it together.”

The group continued forward with only the fog blocking their path. Luckily the landmarks around them were something that they all knew, so it was easy to tell where they were. They quickly passed through the park and reached 5th Avenue. “I don’t see any army….”

“I only mentioned it as a what if….” Desaray pursed her scaly lips and glared at Becky, who stuck her tongue out at her. “I wonder why you became a dragon….”

“What is wrong with me becoming a dragon!?” Becky snorted and gave Desaray a nudge.

“Because you never liked dragons as much as me! Didn’t you like elves or something like that before? Why did you become a dragon, of all things? Should have become an elf so some orc could whisk you away.” Desaray snorted back. The two girls glared at each other before looking away, crossing their arms, and humphing. Then not even two seconds later, they both burst out laughing.

“What is that!? Why would you damn me to some orcs!? You are such a bitch sometimes. Hahaha!” Becky hugged Desaray, who smiled although scarily.

Desaray stuck her tongue out at Becky as she pushed away from her and said: “I was just joking. Anyway, it looks like we will not be shot today, so let’s try heading to the Lenox Hill hospital.”

◈◈◈

More streets devoid of human life filled their vision. Desaray was hoping that no matter what happened in the near future, her father would still be alive. She felt that no matter what form he took on, she would recognize him right away. He was the man that raised her and was also the only family she had left in this world. There could be no way she would not recognize him. “When this is all over, I am finding my father a wife…. That Claire girl seemed nice….”

“Desa, did you say something?” Becky could have sworn that Desaray had said something just now. But when she saw Desaray shake her head, she began to think that maybe she was just hearing things.

“Wait.” Desaray stopped and lowered her body slightly. “Something is coming.”

This time Desaray did not notice any smell of any kind but felt a strong vibration underfoot. It was subtle at first, so it did not really make her think too much about it. But those vibrations quickly grew strong and stronger. “Yu, protect Jake and Mike. Becky, to the left, I will take the right.”

“Got it!” “Okay!” Becky and Yu answered at the same time. They quickly got into the formation that had been decided on while walking.

The vibration on the ground got stronger and stronger until, finally, even the street lights were shaking. The doors and windows on the buildings also shook. It was as if an earthquake was hitting the city.

It did not take long to see what was coming towards them. A group of large gray beasts with hairy long upper arms and short legs. Its face had three large eyes and a nose that was pushed into its face leaving only the two holes for it to breathe from. But the thing that made these beasts, or more like monsters, scary looking was their large wide mouths that went from the edge of one of their hairy pointed ears to the other. They had their mouths open, which revealed two rows of razor-sharp-looking teeth and a long black tongue that hung out ever so slightly with a black liquid dripping off of it. They pushed down the street, tossing any car or truck that was in their way to the side. When they spotted the small group ahead, one of them roared rattling the windows around them and began moving faster toward Desaray and her group.

“Desa, I do not think we can fight those!” Becky was the first to see that the situation might be bad. There were four monsters and three of them, who were all level 1, plus Jake who had yet to gain a system and his first evolution, and then Mike, who was unconscious. They had no way to fight these monsters, of which they had no idea what their levels were, and hope to survive without injury.

“Everyone into the building! Becky, you break the door down!” Desaray made an immediate judgment. Until she leveled up and got the appraisal skill, she had no plans to fight unknown monsters, especially ones that looked like they could swallow her whole.

“On it!” Becky did not hesitate in the slightest as she ran towards the building next to them, up the front stoop, and slammed her body into the door, breaking it off its hinges. “Open!”

“Alright, Yu help protect Jake’s back while he makes it up the stairs.” Desaray knew they were too short to help Jake physically, but that did not matter. They only had less than a minute before those gray monsters arrived. And she could tell their eyes were staring right at her.

“Jake, hurry up!” Yu yelled out. She was standing in front of Jake, but Jake was not moving at all. It was as if he was frozen in fear.

Desaray turned to see Jake just standing there and was starting to get aggravated. He was picking now of all times to freeze in fear. “Jake, if you do not want to die, then move your ass! Otherwise, I will take Mike and Yu, and I will run to safety instead of trying to protect you!”

It seemed the word die sunk in, and Jake finally snapped out of his frozen state. His face was pale as he adjusted his grip on Mike and quickly ran up the steps. Yu and Desaray were not far behind him, backing up with each step he took until they had all entered the building.

But just because they entered the building did not mean they were going to be safe. One of the gray monsters roared as it watched the prey it had just been charging at try to hide from it. Its roar shattered nearby windows all around it. In its anger, it bashed a car that was in its path and sent it flying into a storefront not far away. It stared at the building its prey ran into for a few seconds before roaring once more and charging toward it.

“Not good!” Desaray yelled out as she saw the gray monster charging right at them. “Quickly make your way to the stairwell!”

They had only just started to turn to run when a loud explosion of brick and metal could be heard behind them. As the debris shot forward, a large clump of cement and brick smashed into Yu’s back sending her flying forward. “Yu!” Becky cried out and ran over to her side to check on her.

Desaray was still pushing Jake forward but she had already opened her mouth and was charging her ice breath. She did not want anyone she knew to die. Not when they had made it this far. She dodged a few bricks before finally shouting: “Ice Breath!”

Chapter 5

A stream of ice shot out in a cone in front of her and smashed into the huge monster that had just broken through the wall to enter the building. Ice began to form on its huge body as it stumbled backward. Desaray didn’t even think to look at the monster any longer as she stopped the channeling of her ice breath, turned, and yelled at her friends. “Let’s go!”

Desaray picked Jake up by his legs, taking Mike with them as she ran towards the stairwell door. She turned to see Becky hot on her tail and the monster with a partially frozen body not far behind but now much slower. She kicked the door of the stairwell open and dropped Jake to his feet. “Go up and do not stop! If you drop Mike, I will kill you myself, so you better not leave him behind.”

Jake’s face paled as he began running up the stairs. With Mike’s weight piled on top of him, he was already sweating after a few steps and having a hard time breathing. Luckily Yu and Becky quickly went to his side and took Mike from him. “Just go! We will handle Mike. But do not stop for anything!”

Becky gave Jake a dirty look as she and Yu began running up the stairs. While Mike’s legs were dragging behind them, it was at least faster than Jake carrying him. Jake had already been left in the dust as he struggled to climb the steps. He was scared and out of breath. He felt like he was going to die just from breathing.

Desaray couldn’t take it anymore and quickly lifted him up by his legs again as she ran up the stairs following after the other two. All the while, the monster once more lost sight of its prey, angering it to no end. It smashed its body against the stairwell door entrance trying to force its way up, but this stairwell was built in a different way than other buildings. It had metal plating inside the concrete, which made it harder for the monster to push its body through. The metal was bending under its weight, but since it was almost a fully solid construction, it was having a more difficult time than it had with the entrance. The width of the staircase leading up was also another factor that would not make it easy for the monster to traverse.

Desaray’s split decision to take the stairs was the right call, even if she did not mean it to be. She was only thinking of trying to escape the monsters in the quickest way possible, and since the stairs were the closest thing to her, she made a sudden judgment which turned out to be the best decision.

“How far are we going?” Becky asked as they continued to rush forward. They were now five floors up and almost to the sixth floor.

“We will exit to the next floor,” Desaray replied. She felt it didn’t matter which floor they got off at as long as they were able to escape the monsters.

They pushed open the sixth-floor door and stepped into the hallway. The building they were in seemed to be an apartment building. Desaray looked around and frowned slightly. She didn’t realize the kind of building they entered until now, and hiding in a hallway was not an option. “Yu, take Becky and listen in on the doors. If you hear nothing inside, break the door open so that we can still close it. I will protect Mike and Jake.”

“Alright. Becky, let’s go.” Yu grabbed Becky’s hand, and the two went over to the first door, where Yu pressed her ear against the door and stood there quietly.

While they were doing a check, Desaray turned and looked at Jake, who was as pale as a ghost and having a hard time breathing. She clicked her tongue before walking over to him and patting him on the back. “Jake, use your shirt to cover your nose and mouth and take deep breaths.”

She did not have any kind of bags inside her backpack that she had still strapped to her back, so she was unable to give him anything of that nature. She could give him her bag itself, but she refused to do that as it had her treasures inside. No one was allowed to even look at her treasures! She had not even realized her dragon instincts were starting to surface.

A loud roar came from below and echoed through the stairwell, making it seem more horrifying than before. The building was even shaking a little as the monster downstairs was struggling to get up the stairs after pushing its body in.

“Desa, it’s open!”  Becky announced as she came over.

Desaray was lost in thought because she was trying to decide whether or not she should check on the monster’s situation. If its big body got stuck in the stairwell, then she would have a chance….

“Becky, you and Yu take Jake and Mike in. Find a bag of some kind for Jake to breathe into and tell him to keep taking deep breaths, or he might die from hyperventilating. I will go check on the situation with the monster.” Desaray took a deep breath. She hoped she was not sending herself to her doom, but if this monster was truly stuck, then things would work out in her favor. If she could reach level 2, then she just might be able to get appraisal and first aid. The first aid skill might come in handy in healing Mike. It says it heals minor wounds, although, she did not know if Mike’s current situation could be considered minor or not.

“Desa….” Becky was reluctant to let her friend go. She was afraid something bad might happen to her.

“I will be fine. I can use my ice breath to slow them like before, so I am the best person… err… dragon to do the job.” Desaray was not lying when she said this. But she also knew that if she was by herself and the monster decided to chase her, she could lead it away from her friends, allowing them some much-needed rest.

Becky sighed and hugged Desaray. “Be careful. If you are not back in ten minutes, I will come looking for you.”

◈◈◈

Desaray promised Becky she would do her best to be back within ten minutes then entered the stairwell. She could hear the roaring and thrashing about coming from below. “Is it still on the first floor?” Desaray was unsure, but she did wonder if this was the case.

Not wanting to charge right in, she slowly made her way down the stairs keeping her body low. She wished this was one of those stairwells that she could peek out over, but it was probably because it wasn’t that was keeping the monster busy. At each turn, she would peek around the corner, and only when it was clear did she begin moving down the stairs again.

The roars and struggling got louder and louder. By the time she reached the third floor, she had to stop moving forward as she could smell the stench from the monster’s body as if it was right on top of her.

Desaray did not want to be caught off guard, so she backed up a few steps to the previous landing, where she took off her backpack. She then took out her phone and switched the camera into selfie mode. Once she was set, she went back down the steps and to the bottom landing on the third floor. She took a deep breath and edged her phone out over the stairs leading down to see what she could see.

In her camera view was a gray hairy arm flailing about. It seemed like the monster had gotten stuck. Her scaly lips curled up as she realized she was one lucky dragon. She quickly ran back up the stairs to her backpack and put her phone away. She could not let her treasure get damaged in a fight so after a moment’s thought, she picked up her backpack and went up a few floors, and stashed it in a corner. Only then was she willing to leave it behind. As she went back downstairs, she stopped off on the third floor to grab a fire extinguisher.

This fire extinguisher was going to play a key role in her fight as it was going to be used as a means to instantly blind the monster while she began her attack. She had no idea how strong she was, but she hoped she was strong enough to deal some damage to this monster.  Because of the close quarters and her lack of training with her ice breath, she did not think it would be good at this time to use it. She had to wait until she understood her own abilities better before using it at any time. Although it did come in handy in emergency situations. It was just the charge time that was keeping her from using it.

After working out her plan in her mind, Desaray took a deep breath and finally stepped out around the corner. She pulled the pin and readied the fire extinguisher as she made her way down the stairs to where the arm was gripping the wall. It was a huge arm that took up quite a bit of the space between the two walls, which made Desaray feel even luckier. If the monster was not as big as it was, she would never be able to get this close without fearing for her life.

After taking a second deep breath, she let it out slowly and decided it was time. She only needed to be careful of its claws; the rest would be easy. She dashed forward, jumping over the flailing claw, and using the wall as a springboard. She aimed the fire extinguisher nozzle at the large eyes that were now staring right at her and squeezed the trigger.

“Roar!” The large monster was angered by the sudden stinging sensation in its eyes. It began flailing about even more violently, but every time it opened its mouth, it sucked in a mouthful of a strange substance it had never encountered before. It began to choke on the air it was taking in, and at the same time, it suddenly felt a heavy impact on its head.

Desaray smashed the fire extinguisher onto the monster’s head, sending the monster’s head into the stairs with a loud thud, even cracking the cement it was made out of. This caused a pained roar to escape the monster’s lips. Desaray did not stop there, though. She jumped up and swiftly spun her body around, landed back on top of the monster’s head, and jabbed her claws into the monster’s eyes, making sure to permanently blind it.

The monster’s head raised up as it howled in pain, almost knocking her backward and down the stairs. Desaray did not wait for it to try to reach up and attack her but instead jumped off its head and landed in front of it as she watched it flail about and grab at the top of its head, thinking that she was still there. She waited for the right moment and rushed in once more right as the monster reared all the way up, exposing its chest. Using all her strength, she stabbed out with her claw, penetrating the monster’s chest and breaking through its bones. She felt an oddly shaped object in her claws, clenched down on it, and pulled with all her might.

Blood sprayed all over her as her claw exited the monster’s body, drenching her from head to toe. In her hand was a blue pulsating object that she immediately crushed. The gray monster stopped flailing back as its body went limp and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

[You Defeated A Gray Back]

[Experience Points Gained….]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

Desaray stumbled back a few steps and looked at the massive body that was now limp in front of her and then at the system messages and let out a laugh. “Hah! Hahahaha! I did it! Hahaha! I even got 2 levels!”

She was happy. But she knew one thing. If this monster was not stuck like it was, she would not have been able to kill it so easily. No, it is more like she would have become a snack for this monster.

Desaray did not dare stick around as she quickly returned to where she left her backpack. But when she arrived, before she picked it up, she looked down at herself and frowned. She knew Becky and the others would freak out if they saw her like this. “I should probably wash up, but If I do not hurry back, Becky wil…”

“Desa!? What happened?! Why are you covered in blood!?” Becky was right on cue. She stood in front of Desaray and began checking her over but got confused when she saw no wounds.

“I am fine. The monster was stuck in the stairwell, and I used a few tricks to my advantage.” Desaray explained. She looked down at herself and sighed. “Is the water in the apartment working?”

“Yeah, let’s get you cleaned up.” Becky nodded and went to pick up Desaray’s bag for her, only for her claws to get slapped away before they could even touch it. She looked up at Desaray with a confused expression. “Desa?”

“My treasure…” Desaray used one of her claws to pick up the bag, trying to be careful not to get blood on it, before walking up the stairs, leaving a very confused Becky behind.

Although it did not take much time for her to figure things out. “Treasure? Wait!? Dragon. Treasure… Hahaha!”

◈◈◈

Inside the apartment that Becky and Yu broke into, Desaray was currently lying in a hot bath. The building still had power which she found strange but at the same time was happy about since it meant she could now have a hot bath. She laid back in the tub and looked at the blue screen in front of her. “Oh? My health and mana jumped quite a bit in two levels.”

{World Order System}

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 3

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 150/150

[MP]: 70/70

[Skill Points]: 10

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)}

“I have ten skill points which is very good. I guess this means I get five points per level, like any RPG I have played. Since that is the case!” Desaray opened her skill menu and began searching for the skills she wanted to get. First on her list was Appraisal. Costing only 1 skill point, which she was happy to spend. She also took First Aid and Toughened Skin, which all cost only 1 skill point. This left her with 7 skill points. Next was everyday magic that cost 2 skill points, which she was sure would come in handy later on.

[Skill Points]: 5

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)}     {Toughened Skin (Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}

{Dry (Lvl 1)}

“Oh?” Desaray had decided to check her skill menu to see how things would work, and to her surprise, each spell from everyday magic showed up in the skill area and were all at level 1. “That is neat, I wonder what these five spells can do when they hit max…. Anyway, let’s test appraisal first.”

Desaray held a bar of soap in front of her and whispered the activation word. “Appraisal…”

[A used bar of soap.]

[Used for cleaning one’s body.]

[Smells like a spring breeze.]

[Sell: 1 silver]

“Hmmm? You can sell it? 1 silver?” Desaray did not really understand, but at least now she knew she could identify things. She hoped it worked on monsters as well. Desaray looked at first aid next and wondered if her appraisal would work on the menu. “Appraisal…”

[First Aid]

[Heals minor damage.]

[Can heal flesh wounds, broken bones, and minor concussions.]

[Can not heal illness.]

[Cost 60 Mana]

One part stuck out to Desaray within the description. “Minor concussions, huh? I will need to try it on Mike.”

Knowing there was no time like the present, Desaray got out of the bath and used dry magic to dry her body. To make sure she was perfectly clean, she used cleanse as well. She felt extremely clean after using the cleanse magic. Although she still liked hot baths, she knew this would come in handy for those times when she could not bathe. She still had 5 skill points which she did plan to use since she saw that she could get a basic element magic attack for the price of 5 status points. But before she decided on which element, she wanted to try to heal Mike first.

“All done?” Becky asked as she stopped, tilted her head, and looked at the blue-scaled dragon girl. “Why do your scales look extra shiny?”

“Probably because I used cleanse magic on my body. Here I will use it on you too.” Desaray spoke the activation word, and not even a second later, Becky felt a wind swirl around her. As if all the dirt on her body had been sent into the void, her white scales that had been slightly dirty were now perfectly clean and sparkling under the light of the room.

“Amazing!” Becky’s scaly lips curled up. She felt that maybe this system thing was not so bad after all. “What spell is this?”

“Ah. It’s a spell I got from getting everyday magic which cost me 2 skill points. After leveling up two times after killing the gray monster, I got ten skill points, so five per level.” Desaray had a smug expression on her face. She was winning in the level-up department!

“Lucky! I want to level up too! I should have followed you secretly!” Becky pouted. But she was happy to know a few things about the level-ups. She listened to Desaray as she explained how much health and mana she got as well.

“I will help you level up soon. But before anything, I need to see if my first aid skill will heal Mike.” Desaray went to the bedroom where Mike was lying on the bed, covered up to his chest in a blue comforter. Sitting next to him, watching over him, was Yu. She had a worried expression on her wolf-like face.

“How is he?” Desaray asked as she walked over to the side of the bed.

“His pulse is strong, and he is breathing normally, but still no signs of waking up,” Yu replied gloomily. She had no idea how he would react when he saw her in her new form for the first time. She knew there was a chance he would push her away and be scared of her. She knew this and was willing to deal with being seen as a monster. She just wished he would wake up. Nothing more, nothing less….

“I just got some new skills, so let me try to heal him. But no promises.” Not waiting for Yu to answer, Desaray hopped up onto the bed and stood over Mike. She reached out with one of her claws and placed it on Mike’s head. “First aid…..”

A dim green glow flowed out of her hand and enveloped Mike. The dim green glow lasted for almost three minutes before finally disappearing. Desaray removed her hand and jumped off the bed. She had no idea if her skill was effective or not, but she did know it took a good deal of mana to use the skill. Almost half of her current amount.

While this skill could not be used in battle, she had no time to care about that as she stared at the young male teen on the bed. Her eyes locked on to his. There had been no movement all this time but now…. “I think it is working!”

◈◈◈

Mike’s eyes began to flutter. He had no idea what had happened to him after he passed out. He only remembered pulling Yu to safety before blacking out. He slowly opened his eyes, making sure to let his eyes adjust to the bright light. “Whe-Where am I…..” Mike’s eyes landed on the dog that was sitting in a chair next to him, and felt slightly confused. Mainly because the dog was sitting like a human, and second the eyes were staring at him excitedly. “Dog? Wait. Did I get isekai’d?”

“No, silly!” Yu’s lips curled up into a smile, seeing that Mike was now okay.

Mike stared at the dog who had just spoken to him and felt shocked, yet at the same time, the voice was very familiar. He tilted his head to the side and asked: “Yu?”

“The one and only! I am surprised that you could recognize me.” Yu replied and hopped down from the chair and onto the bed. She moved over and placed her paw on Mike’s cheek. “Thank you, for saving me.”

“Should I leave?” Desaray was starting to feel like the third wheel here. She had been standing on the bed this entire time but was being fully ignored right now.

“Haha! No! Desa, thank you.” Yu replied as she turned and looked at the blue-scaled dragon girl. “Your spell worked, and now Mike is okay again.”

“He might be awake, but he will need to stay in bed for a while. He hit his head hard, so even if the first aid woke him up, he needs to rest and make sure there are no lasting side effects. Luckily this apartment is filled with food. So I will leave Mike in your hands. I still need to see if I can find my father. I might not be able to return until tomorrow. I will have Becky stay here to help protect you guys. So you and Becky will be in charge of defense…”  Desaray paused her words and fell into thought for a moment. She felt that it would not be good if both of them went to sleep at night.

“Yu, you will take the first night watch, and Becky will take the second. So wake her up around midnight. I will destroy part of the wall downstairs and pile up some rubble in front of the door to try to keep any monsters out. While we have not seen any yet, do be careful of the windows for any monsters that might have climbed up or are able to fly. I would suggest keeping lights to a minimum at night.” Desaray did not know what to expect, so she wanted to try to think of any scenario that they might run into. “Also, no matter what you hear at night, do not open that door for anyone.”

“Understood. Make sure you give Becky the rundown as well.” Yu had long recognized Desaray as their leader. Because of her, they were able to get this far.

“I will. Oh, if Jake does anything to piss you off, just knock him out with a chop to the back of the neck. I can heal him after.” Desaray left these words as she chuckled and walked out of the room, politely closing it to give the two inside some alone time.

After the door closed, Mike stared at the door in confusion. His eyes drifted to Yu, who smiled and said: “That was Desaray, and because of her, you were able to wake up. She was determined to bring you to the hospital and even fought monsters that could have killed her all by herself. We ended up running into some huge monsters before we could reach the hospital and took up refuge here. Luckily she was able to kill one of the monsters and leveled up, gaining a skill called first aid, which healed you.”

“I see… I will need to thank her.” Mike relaxed as he leaned back. “I need to get used to this. Everything seems like a dream. Can you tell me everything that has happened so far?”

While Yu filled Mike in on the details of everything that had happened thus far, outside the room, Desaray spoke with Becky, who had just finished making some food. “So you will be leaving for a while….”

“Just for now. When I come back tomorrow, I will bring two slimes with me to let both Jake and Mike evolve. I just need you to stay here to help protect them, but….” Desaray leaned in close and, in a low whisper, said: “If it seems hopeless, run away. Leave them and run. I will not think any less of you.”

“Mmm… I will. Desa, be careful out there. And…. Good luck finding your dad. And if you can, please see if my parents are home as well… If you have time, that is.” Becky began to tear up. She wondered if her parents were okay as well…

“Don’t worry, if I see your parents, I will bring them to you. I promise to protect them.” Desaray was not going to leave her friend here worried about her own family. She would be sure to try to find something out, if anything, about her mother and father as well.

“Thank you, Desa!”  Becky hugged Desaray before stepping back and turning towards the food on the coffee table. “Eat a few bites before you go.”

Desaray smiled and did as she was told. Becky only cooked some simple instant noodles, but it was still better than nothing. After a few bites she said her goodbyes and headed out of the room. Her first task was to break up a wall to get as much rubble as she could. She did not go down the same stairwell she came up on, but instead made her way down the other stairwell down the hall and went to the floor below. She already knew she was much stronger than her human form by many times. Her scales were also quite powerful. With these new features combined, she felt it should be quite easy for her to bust down a wall and make enough debris to block the door to the apartment that Becky and the others were in.

◈◈◈

When she reached the fifth floor, Desaray found an empty apartment and began punching away at the walls. The concrete that made up the outside wall of the apartment rapidly began to break up into huge chunks as she punched and pulled at the wall, purposefully breaking it apart into chunks as big as she could get.

After gathering enough rubble, Desaray used a large blanket from the same apartment to wrap the rubble up for easier transport. While it would take a few trips, she still felt it was worth it. After almost an hour, the door to the apartment Becky and the others were in was covered in broken cement. While this might not guard against intelligent monsters, it would, or at least should, make other monsters not even want to deal with the rubble.

With that now all set, Desaray headed back downstairs. When she reached the first floor, she adjusted her backpack and listened for any signs of monsters. Only when she felt the coast was clear did she crack the door open and look around. She slowly stepped out into the main hall and made her way towards the exit. But she only got halfway to the door when she stopped and saw something quite interesting. “A second one got stuck!?”

Desaray was shocked to see another large body flailing about in the entrance to the other stairwell. She never stopped to even look to see if another one had gotten stuck or not when she had killed the first one. She took a deep breath and quickly but quietly made her way to the second monster and used appraisal on it.

[Gray Back Rancor]

[Level]: 10

[Monster Rank]: E

[HP]: 470/470

[MP]: 10/10

“So that is called a gray back rancor? So rancor for short. Wait… Is it different from the last one?” She was slightly confused until something else caught her eye. “Level ten? I guess it’s prone to instant kill when the heart is dug out. But then I guess any living being would be the same unless they did not have a heart.” Desaray pondered for a moment before closing her eyes and pumping herself up. “I need to do this before it realizes there is a threat.”

Not wanting to give herself away or lose this chance. Desaray charged forward and jumped up into the air. She remembered roughly where she had attacked before to dig out the other rancor’s heart. With her claws fully extended, she slammed her right claw down and pierced through the rancor’s back. The rancor roared out in pain but was unable to do anything with how it was stuck. Desaray once more found her target, gripped the rancor’s heart, and pulled with all her might. A sickening, tearing sound was heard as the heart was pulled from its body. This time though, Desaray was aware of the blood spray and quickly jumped back, getting out of the way.

She tossed the crushed heart to the side and looked at the notification in front of her.

[You Defeated A Gray Back Rancor]

[Experience Points Gained….]

[Level Up!]

“Hehe!” Desaray made a victory pose with two claws high above her head in a V shape. She was a little sad that she only got one level this time, but it was still better than nothing. “Now then. Let’s get two basic elemental attacks.”

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 4

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 200/200

[MP]: 95/95

[Skill Points]: 0

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)}     {Toughened Skin (Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}

{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)}

It seemed her health liked to jump fifty points per level. And her mana was a little all over the place on how it rose. But it was still about half of her health which was good. The biggest thing was her two new skills. One was Ice Arrow. She chose this because she was an ice dragon, and it was faster to cast than her ice breath. The second spell was fireball. She got this to have the opposite element that her main element. An ice dragon who had fire spells, she was quite proud of herself for her trickery.

Luckily there was no incantation or anything like that. Everything was voice activation. But mana cost was something she now had to think about since ice arrow and fireball both used 10 MP. She could get five casts of one spell and four of another or nine casts altogether of the same spell. She did not know if she could fire more than one at a time or not. This was something she would need to play around with to find out.

For now, her main goal was two things. First, she needed to check her own house to see if her father had returned. If he had, good, she would need to figure out how to get him to notice it was her. The second thing came after that. If he was not home, she would need to head to Lower Manhattan. This was not going to be a quick trip. “I should have said I might need to take another day…”

She knew just getting to her house would take a few hours if she was not lucky and ended up needing to fight or run away from monsters. Then it would take her almost a half day, if not more, to get to the fire station that her father works out of if he was even there. “Well…. I am sure they will wait for me. Or at least Becky will.” Taking a deep breath, Desaray walked out of the building.

Chapter 6

The fog had long lifted and Desaray had already made her way to the entrance of the terrace once more. “I don’t sense anything around here….”

Pursing her scaly lips, Desaray continued forward, walking towards her home. The only thing going on in her mind at this time was the worry about her fathers well being. She hoped he had not disappeared like how so many seemed to have. She did not know what she would do if her father really did disappear or got killed by some monster.

She made her way back the same way she came through the park. No monsters were in sight at this time, which made her feel a little relieved since she was quickly making progress. With each step she took, the closer she came to returning to her home. Her steps were quick. She was basically in a small sprint which she found quite amazing since she was going pretty fast but did not feel tired at all.

About half an hour later, she had finally reached her street. She had not run into anyone or anything, which made her wonder where all those monsters had gone. When she reached her building, she took a deep breath and took out her key, then unlocked the front door before heading toward the elevator, which was still operational. She had no idea how long the power would last, but she did hope that it would last a while. When the elevator dinged and opened up once more, she stepped out and looked down the familiar hallway.

She slowly made her way down the hall while trying to figure out how to explain her current appearance and situation to her father. When she reached her apartment, she reached for her key but hesitated for a moment. “He won’t attack me, right?”

This worry filled her mind as she gritted her teeth and inserted the key into the lock, and with a swift turn of the key, she pushed the door open. She was nervous and excited at the same time, but when she saw that the lights were all still off and it was dead silent, her hopes were crushed.

That was until she noticed the mess the front entrance was in. “Did he come home?”

She saw her father’s work boots thrown about on the floor as if he was in a rush when he came in. He only had one set of work boots, so she knew it was definitely him. She walked in slowly into the house, closing the door behind her with a bit of hope once more. “Dad?”

Desaray called out softly, but she still only got silence. She made her way into the living room and looked at the coffee table. On it was a sheet of paper that was not there in the morning. She walked over to it and looked at it to see that it was indeed a note. On it was her father’s handwriting, something she would never mistake. “Dad….” Tears welled up in Desaray’s eyes as she held the note and began reading it.

‘Desa, I have no idea if you will ever read this, but the world has gone to hell. I have no idea when it started, but people suddenly started disappearing by the masses. As soon as I got to the station, I watched as two of my co-workers turned into balls of golden yellow light and rose into the sky. It passed right through the ceiling as if it was not even there.

‘I immediately turned around and ran all the way to your school to find out that there was barely anyone there. I kept seeing all kinds of weird things on the way there as well. Home was the last place I could look for you. But since I am writing this, that means you were not home either….

‘Desa, if you are still alive, stay safe. The world is changing. I do not know what those beings are, but there are a lot of different ones roaming around now. They are killing people or taking them hostage. I even saw one woman… Never mind. Desa, I love you and will go out once more to search for you even if I have to tear this city apart. I plan to come home every day in the morning, so if you do read this, then please stay home.

‘If I do not return by noon time the next day, then I am sorry…..  I love you, princess. Please stay safe. All that matters is that you are alive and well.…’

“Dad….” Tears streamed down Desaray’s cheeks as she hugged the letter to her chest. Her father was probably out looking for her now, which means he did not disappear. It is also possible that he might have evolved and gotten a system as well. “At least I know you are alive…. I will wait…”

Sniffing and rubbing her nose, she stuck the letter into her backpack before she walked over to the entry, neatened her father’s boots, and cleaned up the dirt. She then went to the kitchen and took out some food. She decided she would make her father’s favorite meal, spaghetti with homemade sauce. It was not hard to do. It only took a while to prepare. She wanted to give her father a nice hot meal in case he did come home. She would wait for him. All night and all day. She did not care. She would wait for her father to return….

If he did not return by noon, she would leave him a letter telling him she had to run back to check on Becky and bring them to her house. With the thoughts of being able to see her father soon running through her mind, Desaray happily began cooking a meal for the two of them to eat when he got home…..

◈◈◈

Outside not far away, in a back alley, a goblin’s face smashed into the ground. A tall humanoid sighed as it looked around. “That makes level 2… Luckily I learned a lot about games from my little girl.” The figure had on a pair of black and yellow overalls with his pinkish skin exposed. Muscles bulged out with spots of sweat trickling down the massive muscles on his body. His red hair stood out against the moldy, mossy city walls. The two black horns on his head were short and far from being anything more than an accessory to look at.

“But to think that as soon as I killed one of these green things, my entire body would change, and I would get this system thing. I wonder if Desa will recognize me… But an Oni, huh?” The oni, or more like Ricky Harris, Desaray’s adopted father, looked down at his own hands that were covered in blood and let out another sigh.  “I hope she won’t be scared. I just hope she is alive…. I guess I can take another look, as searching pointlessly will get me nowhere.”

Ricky was very worried about Desaray. He had planned to keep searching all over, but he knew it was pointless to search aimlessly. He also did not want to stray too far from the house in case she returned. As long as she returned and saw his note, he was sure she would stay put and wait for him. For the past few hours, he had been cleaning up the monsters around the area in hopes of making the place safe for his daughter, but the monsters kept appearing out of thin air no matter how many he killed. They would stay dead for a short while but reappear not long later. Where they were coming from, he had no idea.

“I guess I will stop in the house once more…” Ricky decided to head home once again just in case. He kept thinking that he would swing the door open and see his baby girl standing there doing some housework or cooking. He could only hope she was safe.

Inside the house, Desaray had some music on very low as she hummed along with it. She was currently standing on a chair and dicing up some vegetables, her tail swaying to the music. She really hoped her father would come back sooner rather than later. She knew him well, if he was truly outside searching for her, he would most likely come back a few times to see if she was here or not. She knew that he knew there was only one place she would return to, especially if he left a letter like he did.

An hour passed, and Desaray was currently stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce when she heard keys at the door. She already knew that the only person who would have keys to her house and would use them at this time was her father. While nervous, she acted like nothing was wrong as she continued to stir the pot of spaghetti sauce. She knew that no matter what happened next, it was going to happen anyway. Instead of running away and hiding, she decided it would be best to face it head-on and act like everything was normal.

As the door opened, Desaray clenched her fists and, with her best dragony smile, turned her head and looked at the tall, muscular man who had just walked into the living room and definitely did not look like her father and said: “Wash up, food will be ready soon.”

“Huh? Oh right….” Ricky had just walked in to see a blue lizard standing on a chair cooking in his kitchen and nodded his head. He did not need to ask who the blue lizard was. He had heard the same line many times now. He walked into his bedroom and looked down at himself and realized he was covered in little green men’s blood, and sighed. He hoped this did not frighten her. But at the same time, seeing how she was already transformed meant that she had gone through a lot already.

Desaray’s eyes were filled with tears. It was her father. He, too, had evolved into a new race. He acted the same as always. He even said things the same way he always would. With her scaly lips curled up and tears rolling down her blue cheeks, she continued to stir the sauce happily.

While things were looking up for Desaray, high above in the sky, a yellow blob was starting to form. Golden yellow balls of light were slowly floating up into it in masses. They seemed to be coming from all over the place and not just the area below. The yellow blob of light was growing bigger and bigger by the second. It stretched out for many miles, and while dim at the moment, if one looked closely, it was starting to grow brighter and brighter by the second as well. This was not the only place that had such a thing in the sky. In other parts of the world, the same scene could also be seen all over if you were looking carefully. The world that Desaray, her friends, and Ricky knew was about to change more than they could ever imagine.

Earth was about to change. Whether it was for the best or not was up to one’s own opinion. But one thing that was for sure was that life would not be the same anymore….

◈◈◈

Ricky cleaned up and put on a pair of sweatpants since his normal jeans no longer fit his thickened legs. Although they still rose up halfway past his calf. He walked out of his bedroom and walked into the dining area to see his daughter setting up dishes to the best of her ability. He could hear her grumbling about being too short, which made him chuckle. “I am glad you are alive.”

“Mm…” Desaray nodded with her head lowered. “I am glad you are okay as well… Dad…. Thank you for staying alive and not disappearing.”

Ricky’s eyes began to water up. He had to admit his weak point was his little girl. “As a man and a father, I could not leave my little girl alone. Although it seems you did a hell of a job out there. So what race are you?”

“Hehe!” Desaray’s scaly lips curled up as she did a strange pose and said: “An ice dragon!”

“Oh! To think you got to become the thing you love the most, while I got to become some kind of oni thing. But I have to say I have become quite strong. I leveled up to two already.” Ricky felt proud of himself as he stuck his hands on his hips and made a proud pose.

“You are slacking! I, your daughter, am level 4 already!” Desaray took the wind out of Ricky’s sails, making him lower his head in shame.

“What the hell did you kill to level up so fast? No better yet, just start from the beginning. Tell me everything.” Ricky wanted to know what his daughter had been through this entire time. In such a short time, so many things had happened already.

Desaray explained everything that had happened and how Becky and the others were waiting at an apartment building across from the terrace. Then Ricky told her how things went for him since he had left for work and found things off. He even had to jog to work because of traffic.

“It seems the incidents started near your school and then spread out from there. It is good that you decided to turn around, or you might have run into something stronger before you could even do anything. But to see two people turn into golden yellow balls of light in front of me was just strange, and fear began to well up inside me. I ran to the apartment hoping you had returned but ran into a hairy humanoid dog thing that had a pickaxe. It attacked me on sight, so I ended up bashing the crap out of it.” Ricky replied.  “You have no idea how much my heart dropped when I did not see you at the house. I left the note and ran out of the house, hoping to find you. I am so glad you are alive.”

“Hehe. I was so worried you would not recognize me, maybe even attack me, but it seemed I worried for nothing. But I think I worried most about you either dying or disappearing like so many have. Dad, do you have any idea what is hap….” Desaray’s words got caught in her throat when she felt the ground begin to shake violently. The dark skies outside started to turn bright once again, causing both of them to jump up out of their seats and run to their windows.

In another part of the city, Becky, Mike, Jake, and Yu all took refuge in Mike’s room, with Yu guarding the window and Becky guarding the door. “What is happening!? What is going on!?”

Jake’s frantic cries began to aggravate Becky as she turned and yelled out: “If you do not shut up, I will toss you outside so you can get a front-row seat!”

Jake quickly shut up. He did not dare to anger Becky because he felt that she would really do it. Becky snorted and slowly backed towards the window, and peeked outside. “The sky… It’s a golden yellow…..”

The ground shook, and those in hiding, new evolutions and humans alike, all turned to look at the sky. It looked like the sky was the head of a faucet, and a water droplet had started forming. It bowed down before starting to pull from its source. For those staring at the sky, they could clearly see what seemed to be liquid made of light within. The droplet really began to take shape until, finally, it could no longer be held in place, and it fell….

There was no sound. All those who were watching held their breaths. Even the monsters were not making a sound. All eyes were on the sky and the massive water droplet that was falling from the upper atmosphere. It hit the taller buildings, breaking them open and shattering the first few floors in the process, causing the tops of these buildings to snap off like a toothpick between a thumb and forefinger. If there were people alive in those buildings, they had little chance of survival.

Ricky looked at the massive rushing liquid light, and his mind spun. He did not even need to think before grabbing Desaray into his arms and running towards the bathroom that was closest to the hallway and jumping into the tub, pulling the shower curtain on top of them, and holding his breath. He had not said a word and was only waiting for the impact of the wave that was spreading throughout the city.

Desaray was also quiet. She could only pray that they could make it out to this alive. She had no time to even think about Becky and the others since she did not know if she would even survive this.

The building the two were in started to shake violently, and then there was a loud crunching sound followed by an explosion as the entire floor seemed to shift and began turning sideways. The wave of light swept over the two, causing the bathtub Desaray and Ricky were in to be pulled from the floor itself and swept away in the wave of light as if an ocean wave had come crashing into their home. Desaray could only hear the sound of rushing air and screams around them as she felt her father pressing her down, holding her in place. She hugged his body to make it easier for him, afraid he would sacrifice himself for her.

Ricky could only hold on and keep his head down while gripping the sides of the bathtub. His fingers hurt since something had already smashed into them, but he did not care. He only wanted to protect the one who was most important in his life. The only reason he still had to keep living even though this world was turning to shit. And he would be damned if he would allow some strange wave of light to do any harm to his family.

◈◈◈

Desaray shook her head as she slowly crawled up from under the debris. She looked up at her hp, which had dropped to 190, and sighed, thinking that she was truly lucky. She then looked around for her father, feeling panicked when she did not see him right next to her. “Dad!? Dad!?”

“Here!” A voice came from not far away from under the rubble. When the bathtub hit the ground, they both tumbled out of it and then were hit by a wave of debris. If they were human, they would have definitely been dead.

Desaray hurried over to the spot she heard the voice and began pulling the rubble up until she saw her father full of wounds. Her eyes watered up as she quickly helped him out.  “How are you? What is your health at?”

“I am fine. I only lost thirty health. Believe it or not, even though I am covered in blood, these are only flesh wounds.” Ricky replied as he sat down. He did not even know who to thank in this situation as it seemed that this world had no god, or else this would never have happened unless all of this was God’s will. But for the time being, he was just glad they both survived. He looked up at Desaray, who had a few wounds on her underbelly and sighed as he reached out and placed his big hand between her horns. “I am glad you survived.”

“I only survived thanks to you protecting me… Are you sure you are okay? Wait, what am I even doing!? First Aid!” Desaray had forgotten she had a kind of healing magic. A stream of green light flowed from her hand and covered her father. She then watched as the wounds on her father’s body began to heal up, only then did she let out a relieved sigh.

“Thanks. First aid, huh? I will take that too.” Ricky had not used his skill points since he did not know what to take. He had planned to ask his daughter, but now he knew one of the spells he should take.

“Oh, if you got points, make sure to tak….” Desaray explained the few spells she took, which Ricky went ahead and got as well.

When he was done, he had gotten the basics as well as a single attack spell, fireball. He wanted something ranged just in case. “I must say whatever that was made a mess….”

Now getting to look around, Desaray and Ricky were met with a wasteland. The city that once was looked as if an atomic bomb had gone off. The buildings had been leveled, some all the way to the ground, while others only had certain parts blown off. Smoke rose up to the sky, covering it with a gray haze. Desaray frowned as she looked around. She wondered if her backpack survived…

She began looking around to see some of their household things mixed in with other things lying around. “Dad, help me find my backpack…”

“Hmmm? We can just find another. I am sure no one would care if we stole one from a department store, if you can call it that now.” Ricky did not see why she wanted her backpack when it would probably be impossible to find.

“No, I need that backpack! It holds my treasures!” Desaray was starting to panic. Her dragon instincts were starting to take over. She began frantically rummaging through the debris as if she had gone crazy.

Ricky sighed and got up, and started helping her search. He did not know what treasures she was talking about, but it seemed to be very important to her to be acting like this.

The two began digging through the debris, and even an hour later, with no signs of ever finding it, Desaray was not willing to give up. Her small scaly body kept lifting the steel beams and concrete in hopes of finding her backpack. While Ricky wanted to question why she cared so much about this backpack, he still kept quiet. He was never one to push her to speak about things she did not want to speak about. Unless he knew it was a very serious matter.

After three hours, Desaray suddenly shouted out in happiness. “Found it!” Covered in dust and a little banged up, Desaray held her backpack in her arms as if it was the most precious thing in the world. She quickly opened it, only for her expression to turn gloomy again. Her phone had been smashed, and some of her other things were also broken. She sighed and zipped it back up before putting it back on her back.

“Desa? You good?” Ricky asked as he walked over and squatted down next to the little dragon.

“Mm… Some of my treasure is broken, but I will try to fix it when I can.” Desaray sighed before hugging her father and rubbing her snout on his chest. “Dad, let’s go find Becky and the others.”

Ricky patted her back and then lifted her up. He wondered how long it had been since he had carried his baby girl like this. He smiled as she hugged his neck. While she was no longer human, she was still his daughter and always will be. This was something that would never change, no matter what she turned into.

Desaray was still gloomy over her treasures being broken. While they were nothing more than a phone, some pencils and pens, along with some papers and books, she had instinctively taken these items as her treasures for one reason or another. She was currently running through her menu, trying to find something that could protect her treasures better since the backpack was unable to do that.

“I think whatever that wave of light was scared most of the monsters away or killed them altogether.” Ricky had noticed that he did not see any monsters around. But he could not be sure they would not reappear again like the monsters he killed before.

“I doubt it. I think that golden yellow wave of light was just the beginning.”

◈◈◈

“Everyone okay!?” Becky asked as she looked around. The building they were in had lost all the upper floors. Even the apartment they were in was almost completely gone. They were lucky, and the room that Mike was recuperating in was actually quite sturdy, and even when the wave of light passed over them, it did not break apart the entire wall blocking them from being consumed.

“I am fine!” Yu was the next to call out. She looked down at Mike, who was staring back up at her in surprise. Yu had thrown herself on top of him to protect him from any fallen debris.

He watched as blood trickled down from her head and yelled out: “How are you fine!? You are bleeding!”

“What!?” Becky ran over, and sure enough, there was a big gash on the top of her head. “Yu, come here! We need to bandage this up!”

Becky did not waste time as she ripped up the sheet Mike was using, pulled Yu over, and began wrapping it around her head to try to stop the bleeding. “How is your hp?”

“Still good, I guess. 25 of 35 health at the moment.” Yu replied. She was starting to feel a little dizzy.

“Don’t move around too much. In fact, lay down next to Mike. Mike, take care of her. I will check on Jake.” Becky finished tightening the makeshift bandage around Yu’s head and pushed her to the other side of Mike. Mike blushed but pulled the blankets down for Yu to get in. Yu hesitated for a second, but under Becky’s stern stare, she did as she was told and laid down next to Mike.

“Just rest up, and thank you.” Mike felt a little embarrassed. At first, it was Desaray who was protecting him, and now Yu was shielding him from harm. He was feeling his manliness was slowly starting to disappear.

“There is no need for thanks. I did it because I wanted to.” Yu replied. Becky, who was about to hop off the bed, almost burst out laughing at the corny couple. But she was happy the two were getting along so well.

She looked around to see Jake huddled in the corner, rocking back and forth while hugging his knees, and sighed. She reluctantly walked over to him and asked: “You going to make it?”

“We are going to die. We are going to die. We are going to die.” Jake was only chanting these five words over and over, which was starting to annoy Becky.

Without any hesitation, she reached out and slapped him across the face! “Get a hold of yourself! Do you think you are the only one who is frightened right now!?”

Becky just couldn’t stand it. The entire time he had been acting as if he was the only one in danger. She did not understand what was going on in his head that made him think he was the only one who was scared about their current situation. Yes, they were dealing with it better, but him acting this way was not helping everyone else.

Jake woke up from his trance and looked at Becky. His eyes were still full of fright, but at the same time, he looked mad. His rage seemed to take over as he yelled out: “What am I supposed to do then!? Look at our situation!? We almost all died just now, and yet here you are, acting like nothing happened!”

Becky was not going to stand there and take any crap from Jake anymore. She had been sick of him since he was unwilling to check on Desaray. “What is the matter with you!? Do you really think I am not just as scared as you are!? I have no idea how my family is doing. None of us do! I do not need to stay here and look after you! I am only here protecting you because Desa asked me to! If it were not for her, you would probably have become monster food by now! But all you do is complain. Complain! COMPLAIN! Stop standing on your high horse thinking you are some damn prince! You are not the only one here who wishes for this all to end. You are not the only one here who wants to go home! You are not the only one here who wants to go back to their family. But we are still alive. We are living because we followed Desa, who from the start had only wanted to protect us, even you, who would not even go look to find out if she was alright after she stayed behind to protect Mike!”

“Where the hell is she now!? She has already abandoned us! She is long….”

*Slap!*

Jake was sent flying. Becky had slapped him hard with all her strength. She had jumped up in the air and used the open side of her claws to smack Jake in the face. He flew through the air and crashed into the closet door, breaking it off its hinges. She stormed over to him and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, and looked at him with eyes filled with hate. “Say one more word, and I will treat you like a goblin. Desa would never abandon us. I can guarantee that she is probably on her way here now. Do you think we are the only ones who got caught up in that blast or whatever it was!? Look at the sky! It’s covered in gray clouds and light out when it should be dark out. Our world has already gone to shit but even so! Desa would never abandon her friends. Even a piece of crap like you!”

Becky pushed Jake into the broken door before snorting and walking a few steps before stopping once more, wiping her tear-filled eyes, and looking back at him. “Say that ever again, and I will be sure to tear your throat out.” Becky’s own dragon instincts were starting to take over. Her anger had already been clouded by her new race. At this time, she did not see Jake as a human being but as an insect that she could squash at any time.

Chapter 7

“Dad, wait!” Desaray hopped down from her father’s arms and ran over to a blue blob. She picked it up to see what would happen, and luckily it did not seem to try to attack her in any way.

“Desa, what are you?” Ricky was confused. He did not know why his daughter was picking a monster up.

“I promised to bring back a slime for Mike and Jake to kill. Although if I can only find one, then it will go to Mike as Jake has been… well, let’s just say that Mike, who was unconscious the entire time, was more manly than him.” Desaray replied while shaking her head. She hoped the kid was still alive. She knew Becky was getting sick of him.

Ricky did not know what to say. He really wondered what this Jake kid was doing to make his daughter say this. “Alright, but let me hold the slime thing.”

Desaray nodded and handed it over. Ricky took it and held it in his arms as the two slowly made their way through the rubble. They were already in the area of the terrace, but the flood of debris now covered the entire park. The art and statues that once stood tall were nowhere to be seen. It was just a layer of rubble.

“Ah! Monsters!” A voice yelled out.

Desaray and Ricky both looked over to see a middle-aged woman pointing at them. She fell back, shaking in fear. She was worse for wear, with her hair all over, covered in dust and blood trickling down from her wounds. There was a man and boy around eighteen next to her as well. Each looked quite beaten up. Desaray looked up at her father and asked: “Not going to help them?”

“Why?” Ricky asked, but instead of letting Desaray answer as he continued: “What is the point at this stage of the game? I have nothing to use to treat them, and even if I did, I would save it for you and your friends. Plus, she just called my daughter a monster.”

Desaray let out a laugh as she held Ricky’s hand. She wondered how long it had been since she held his hand like this and looked up at him from her new height. The man who gave her the love and care of a family and was the same man who saved her when she could have died. She had always seen her father as a hero much greater than any of the superheroes in the movies. “Mmm… Our world is probably no more. I do wonder what will happen in the years to come.”

“All I know is that my heart will not be too good since I know we will need to level up. And that means killing monsters. It will be dangerous, and if you were to get hurt….” Ricky sighed. “But what needs to be done needs to be done. I will do my best not to hold you back.”

“We both have appraisal now, so we can check to see what level monsters are. As long as we do not try to fight anything too strong, we will be fin… Hold on, Dad, follow me!” Desaray smelled a familiar stench and ran over to a pile of rubble.  Ricky was a bit confused but hurried after his daughter, who began lifting whole building walls and tossing them to the side. He had to marvel at her strength.

As Desaray dug, the smell got worse, but she had a feeling that the smell was not something bad per se. “Desa, what the hell is that smell?”

“Dad, don’t be rude!” Desaray chided her father before finally pulling up a large chunk of concrete to reveal a body underneath. She held it up and called down to the body. “Claire? No… not who I thought it was.” The body was definitely an undead, but it was not Claire who she had met before. Not caring anymore, Desaray dropped the slab of concrete and shrugged as she began to walk away.

“Desa, what was that!?” Ricky was even more confused now. He had seen a person under the rubble that looked like a zombie. They were moving, but their body was a twisted mess.

“I thought it was a friend I met earlier. She wanted me to kill her because she evolved into an undead and I talked her out of it. I feel that with this evolution thing, we might have a chance to have a humanoid form once again. After all, I can walk on two legs just fine. If I evolve again, will I have a humanoid form? Or will I just turn into a bigger version of my current self? I think the same would go for an undead. A lich is quite close to being alive. In many games and manga that I have read, they were no different from a living human. They are just undead.

“The more I look at things, the more I think things are more in-tuned to have something to do with our history and culture of fantasy and myth. What if the things we are turning into are the result of long-dormant DNA? DNA that has always been in us but never got the chance to be revived until now? What if this world is not what we actually thought it was?

“I have been thinking a lot about all of this. The system window. The races we are turning into. They are all fantasy races created by us humans. But where did the ideas for these races come from? Myth and legends have always talked about many races from now all the way to the dawn of humans. What if there was some truth to it all? I can’t help but think that maybe our world is truly different than what we are led to believe. Or it could just be my imagination, and some higher being is messing with us since they were bored. Either way, I plan to keep leveling up, growing stronger and stronger, so I will never need to worry about being afraid of dying. And so I can protect those I hold dear.” Desaray smiled as she held onto Ricky’s hand once more. “And you will need to level up to so my Dad can protect me, his daughter.”

“Haha!” Ricky let out a laugh and looked down at his daughter with a smile. When they reached 5th Avenue, they saw that the street was somewhat clear, but the buildings along it were once more demolished.

As soon as Desaray saw the building a few streets over, where Becky and the others were supposed to be, were demolished, she began to worry. “Dad, let’s hurry! Becky and the others are in that building over there!”

◈◈◈

The entire entrance to the building was blocked off. Cement, metal, glass, and even furnishings were layered up past the second floor. “Dad, I think we will need to climb through a window.”

Ricky rubbed his head and sighed as he looked at the devastation. He pictured this happening when there were more people around, and he could expect there to be millions of lives lost. Then again, there would be millions of lives lost either way now that he was thinking about it. Those who have evolved and those who had hidden away, not wanting to go outside. He wondered how many were at the top of these buildings. “Just pick one without anyone in it. I do not want you being called a monster or attacked by humans.”

“It’s fine. They can’t hurt me.” Desaray grinned. She was about to kick a window in when a thought came to mind. She looked up towards the floors above and yelled out: “Becky! Yu! Mike!”

Up in the room that was missing a ceiling. Becky almost jumped in excitement when she heard Desaray’s voice. She ran to the window and looked down, and yelled out: “Desa! Huh? I could have sworn I heard her?”

Becky stared down at the rubble below and noticed that there was no one there. But Yu, who was lying in bed, reassured her she did not hear wrong. “She is on the other side of the building.”

Becky nodded and yelled out the window once more: “Desa, we are on the other side!”

Down below, Desaray heard Becky and grabbed her Father’s hand and pulled him along. The two quickly made their way around the building to see Becky half hanging out the window, looking down at them. “Becky!”

“Desa! You are safe!” Becky’s eyes shined, seeing how Desaray looked unharmed.

“Yeah! And look!” Desaray raised her hand that was holding Her father’s and smiled brightly. “I found my Dad!”

“Good for you! Mr. Harris, I am glad you are okay….” Becky’s voice went small as she looked at Desaray expectantly, but Desaray shook her head. She had not checked to see if Becky’s family was home, and with how the entire top floor, along with her own floor, was sent flying, she was not sure.

“Sorry, I did not have time to check….” Desaray lowered her head. She had been so excited that her own father was alive, and yet…. “I am sorry, Becky…”

“It’s fine…” Becky’s heart sank. She could yell out that Desaray was being selfish, but she knew it was not Desaray’s fault. She held back the tears forming in her eyes and forced a smile. “I had already expected the worst. You know my parents… they are too weak and snotty.”

“Becky….” Desaray did not know what to say. She bit her scaly lip before saying: “We will go look. We will search around to see if there are any signs of them.”

“Okay…” Becky nodded. She then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Come on up. Yu was hurt while trying to protect Mike. She is slowly healing, though. Should only be a few more hours before her Health is back to one hundred percent.”

“Okay, we will be there soon.” Desaray gave Becky a wave before she walked over to the patio door to one of the apartments and stepped through the broken glass.

The entrance was a mess, but the further you went in, the more it still looked like someone’s home. She and Ricky made their way to the front door and opened it to see a clean hallway. “I wonder if anyone is still alive on this floor…”

“Even if they are, it is not our problem. We only need to worry about those we can trust.” Ricky replied. “We should not trust others at this time. While you may be of a higher level than most at this time, it is not safe to trust people we do not know.”

“I know. But if I looked at everyone as an enemy, you can not make more friends later on, right? I would not have met Claire if I had attacked her, thinking she was a monster. And she was quite a nice person. Just someone who evolved into a zombie. I felt really bad for her, but she seemed to feel much better after we talked. Maybe when she evolves a few times, she might become something you can date.” Desaray teased while sticking her tongue out at her father.

He snorted and waved her comment off. “Just be careful. Just because we have evolved, that does not mean the heart of evil still does not exist.”

“I know!” Desaray pressed her lips together as she bumped her father. “Let’s hurry up. I want to see what Mike evolves into.”

“Alright. Let’s take the stairs.” Ricky and Desaray quickly ascended the stairs leading up. The sixth-floor door was blocked with rubble, so they had to climb over it and make their way to where Becky and the others were. When they arrived, Becky dove into Desaray and hugged her tightly.

“I am so glad you are safe.” Becky had a feeling her parents either died during the light wave or disappeared altogether. While she had this gut feeling, she still wanted to look for them. But even with these feelings, she was very glad her best friend was alive and well even after what had happened.

“I am happy you are okay too. Sorry for not checking your apartment….” Desaray began explaining things. She explained how her father left her a letter that stated he would come back in the morning. Once Becky heard the details, she understood. She knew that if, by chance, Desaray went to her floor to check on her apartment, there could have been a slim chance of her missing her father.

Becky knew if that was her, she would have done the same. She would have stayed home and waited. Even if she could have left a note to her parents stating that she was going to check on the latter, there was no telling what might have happened. Wind, a monster, anything could make that letter fall off and get hidden one way or another. Even if something like that was a one in a million chance, she would not have taken the risk. Then she would be the one apologizing to Desaray and not Desaray apologizing to her. But she still could not help but feel sad and scared. But she also felt reassured that she still had Desaray at her side. A person who was just as much family to her as her own parents.

◈◈◈

“To think Mr. Harris evolved too. Well, I guess it would be expected of a man roaming around looking for his daughter.” Becky couldn’t help but feel Desaray’s father had become more handsome than before.

“Little girl, you are too young for my dad, so forget about it.” Desaray stepped in front of her father and knocked Becky on the head. She had long known about Becky’s crush on her father.

“Wha-Wha-What are you talking about!? And I am no longer a little girl; I am a dragon! Human standards no longer apply!” Becky tried to make her argument, but her voice got meeker and meeker as she spoke. She was still too shy to actually confess her love.

“Yes, yes….”  Desaray grinned at her best friend, who was acting like a small rabbit all of a sudden. She then turned her attention to the two on the bed. “To think that Yu was the first to climb the steps to adulthood before us all. Mike, Yu, congratulations on the baby.”

“I am not pregnant! No more than that, we didn’t do anything!” Yu cried out. She wanted to pinch that teasing smile off of Desaray’s face.

“Hehe.” Desaray chuckled as she hopped up on the bed before turning to her father and waving him over. Ricky came over and produced the slime he had been holding. “We only saw one on the way here, so Mike, you will get it.”

“Wait!? Why does he get it!?” Jake’s voice came from behind Desaray and the others. Desaray turned to see Jake standing up with a huge lump on his cheek and a black eye. “I carried him here! Why does he get to have the slime and evolve, and I do not!?”

“Why do you think you should get it? We protected you the entire time. Mike also was willing to put his life on the line for others while you only cried and complained. Why the hell should you get anything? Jake, do I need to beat you up again!? Should I follow through with my promise and rip your throat out!?” Becky cut in. Desaray could see that she was genuinely angry. She could only guess that Jake must have said or done something to really make Becky turn into her evil side.

“Calm down, Becky, while he is annoying, stupid, weak, and has the backbone of a jellyfish, he is still a human being… I think…. Anyway,” Desaray turned to Jake, who was staring at Becky and her with hatred in his eyes. He seemed to have long stopped caring about anything but himself it seemed. “Jake, if you want to evolve so badly, then go find a slime on your own if you are going to act like this. Neither I, nor my father, have any obligation to help anyone here. If you do not like it, too bad.”

“You! Always needing to get the last word in!” Jake hated how girls always had to have the last word. He turned away from them, knowing he could not win against the two with words, and asked Ricky: “Mr. Harris, I know she is your daughter, but why are you letting her act like this!? Wouldn’t it be fair to give the person who worked the hardest the benefits?”

“It’s not my say who gets what.” Ricky disliked this young man. He always felt he was a spoiled brat. His parents, who he had met at parent-teacher conferences, even looked down on his daughter for not having a mother. “She is the leader now. I am the one who knows little about this new world. So what she says goes. If she wants to give it to Mike, then that is her decision.”

“Wha?” Jake did not understand why a father would take orders from his daughter. He looked at everyone in the room, who were all looking at him with eyes filled with disgust and hate, and realized he was not wanted here. “Hah…. Hahaha! Fine! Since this is how it is, then I will go. But just wait. If I am able to survive out there and I grow strong, do not come begging for me to come back!”

“Okay, have fun. Don’t die of starvation or get eaten. Make sure to take the stick out of your butt as well. It makes you walk funny.” Becky made sure to toss a few jabs in as she watched Jake struggle to climb over the wall of debris.

Ricky sighed, looked at Desaray, and asked: “You okay with this?”

“Let him be. If he wants to go off on his own, let him. Maybe some real life and death situations will wake him up a bit. Sadly for him, my mind is no longer fully human either. It seems that the evolution instilled the traits of our new races into us as well.” Desaray replied as she held out the slime to Mike along with a large rock. “Hit it with this and aim for the core.”

“Alright…” Mike took the rock and raised it up before slamming it down as hard as he could at the core of the slime. The slime instantly turned into a puddle of liquid as the core crushed. Mike fell over in pain while Yu and Desaray quickly jumped off the bed as a brown fog began to swirl around Mike.

On top of the rubble, looking down into the room, Jake gritted his teeth. He did not understand what made Mike so much better than him. He did not wish to stay any longer as he marched off in anger. After everything that had happened, he seemed to have snapped. Whether this was good or bad, only time would tell….

◈◈◈

“Desa, I know I went through the same thing, but are you sure this will be safe?” Yu asked. She was feeling quite worried about Mike. She knew that it was a very painful process to gain a system and evolve.

“Mmm… I do not think anyone can die during the process. If they do, they may become an undead at the minimum. But I could be wrong. We can only hope things will work out. But you have to remember Mike is strong. He is not weak in the slightest.” Desaray did not think Mike was weak at all. No one weak would be able to risk their life for another. Strength alone did not matter. It was a person’s heart and their will that made them strong. Mike was strong in Desaray’s eyes.

Yu reached out and held Desaray’s hand as if trying to calm her emotions. She watched the fog as it spun around in a dome-like shape. After quite a few minutes, the fog began to slowly dissipate. What was revealed was not exactly what everyone was expecting. A lump of rocks was in the place where Mike had been sitting.

Yu slowly walked over to the bed and called out to the lump of rocks. “Mike?”

“Hmmm?” The rocks shook and slowly came together and stood up. They did not look human but had a humanoid shape. A red glowing orb was embedded into the head acting like an eye. It was nothing more than a mass of rocks put together, making up Mike’s body. “This is…. I became a rock!?”

“Haha!” Desaray couldn’t hold back as she let out a laugh. But she also smiled warmly at the rocky person in front of her. “I think it is quite fitting for a man who used himself as a shield. If I am not wrong, you have evolved into a golem, right?”

“Ah? Yeah…. I am an earth golem.” Mike nodded. He looked at his hands which were nothing more than a bunch of rocks put together. He also felt his vision was much wider, as if he could see all around him.

“Thank god you are okay!” Yu jumped up onto the bed and hugged Mike, causing the rock, which acted as his head, to turn a slight pinkish color. Desaray found this quite amusing.

“Looks like we got a full team!” Becky replied. They had a Tank now, which would be Mike, and they had DPS along with heals that could be given out by everyone as long as they leveled.

“Mmm… That is if Mike’s Health is high. Mike, what is your health at level 1?” Desaray asked.

“100. Is this high?” Mike asked, causing everyone’s expressions to sink.

“I would say! Mines only 200, and I am level 4!” Desaray pursed her lips. She thought dragons were supposed to have the highest health!

“It works out in the end, so it’s fine. Desa and Mike will be our forwards. Since Mike’s health is lower, he will be the off-tank until he surpasses Desa’s health. I am unsure about defense though, so we will need to check this as we try to level up. ” Becky patted Desaray’s sulking back. She knew that Desaray put dragons above all other fantasy monsters.

“Yeah, we will go with Becky’s plan. Our current situation is no different from a game. So if we want to survive, we will need to treat it as such. Mike, if your stats are geared toward defense, then you should think about spending your points on skills that can boost this aspect. But do not neglect healing.” Desaray patted her cheeks to boost her spirits. She also wanted to make sure that Mike always had a way to heal if one of them could not do it. Self-preservation was still very important.

“I will keep that in mind. Should I start with the basics, as you called them?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, get the basics since the skills will come in handy at any time.” Desaray nodded. The few she took would come in handy at any level and time.

“Okay, so since that is decided, what is our next move?” Ricky asked, his eyes falling on Desaray.

“We will take a look around and try to see if we can find any signs of Becky’s, Yu’s, and Mike’s families. Although I do feel the chances are slim, it’s not 0%, so it is still worth it to look. While we are searching, we can try to level everyone up. I just wish there was some kind of teaming function….” Desaray had looked at her menu but saw nothing that could be used as a teaming interface.

“Desa, I think we have bigger problems….. The sky…” Becky pointed at the sky that was once more a bright golden yellow with a look of fear in her eyes. She slowly moved towards Desaray and Ricky to feel a bit of security in numbers. She knew if this dropped and her parents were still alive that this might just kill them if they had yet to evolve.

“Dad, what should we do!?” Desaray asked, reaching out to hold his hand. Even Desaray couldn’t hide her fear. After the last light wave, she was kind of scared of these huge drops of light in the sky. Her big watery eyes stared up at the sky.

“Everyone to the corner over there where all the debris is piled up against the wall. We will use it to shield us from the wave so we are not swallowed by it. Huddle together!”

◈◈◈

Ricky did not even think when he pulled the kids to the corner and used his body as a shield to protect them. With his new body, he was almost seven feet tall and had a large muscular build, while Yu, Mike, Becky, and Desaray were all around four feet tall and on the small side. He hovered over them with his eyes closed, waiting for the impact from the light wave.

Up in the sky overhead, Desaray could see the liquid light once more building up, but unlike before, it did not seem to be forming a water drop. She watched in horror as the liquid light suddenly fell from the sky as if the faucet had been turned on full blast. It rained down and crashed into the ground. The buildings directly underneath were blocked by the blinding light making it impossible to see what had happened to them. The liquid light spread out in a massive tsunami in all directions.

The entire time Desaray’s eyes were locked onto the huge golden-yellow wave that was rushing toward them. She instinctively reached out and held on to her father’s arm, her eyes unblinking. She could not bring herself to close them.

As the wave got closer and closer, Desaray wondered if this was the end. Before things could even really get started, they would all be swept away and crushed by the impact as they mashed into buildings. But to her surprise and against all expectations, the wave of light slammed into them, but there was no impact. The wave itself had little to no resistance. It swept over them as if they were not even there. What was even more surprising was the notifications they were getting.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

It was not much, but each one of them gained 6 levels instantly as the wave of light swept past them. Desaray shot up to level 10 from 4, while her father, Ricky, went from level 2 to 8. Becky, Yu, and Mike shot up to level 7. All their stats increased as well by leaps and bounds.

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 10

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 500/500

[MP]: 375/375

[Skill Points]: 30

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)}     {Toughened Skin (Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}

{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)}

Before, Desaray had 200 Health and 95 Mana, now, she has 500 Health and 375 Mana. The huge jump was very much unexpected. This also halved her evolution requirements as well.

“This….” Desaray was the first to react. She could feel a huge surge of strength within her. She looked up at her father, who was looking back at her with wide eyes. He, too, felt a huge strength increase.

“Look!” Becky cried out, causing everyone to turn toward what she was pointing at.

What lay before them was no longer a world of destruction but green overgrowth with many flowers covering the fallen city debris. Golden yellow balls of light rose up and danced in the air from this new beautiful greenery.

“Did that light wave do this?” Mike asked in confusion. Everyone began walking towards the edge of the building. The apartment they were in now had a carpet of grass growing on its floor. The furnishings were also covered in overgrowth. It looked like the aftermath of an apocalyptic world ten or so years in the future.

“I can only assume….” Desaray’s eyes were wide. Living in New York all her life, she rarely got to see such greenery. She took a deep breath and could feel there was something in the air besides the normal gasses that made up the air around them. It felt invigorating to take a deep breath.

As they were in awe of their new surroundings, another message popped up in front of them.

[System Upgrade Commencing….]

[Download 5%….]

[Download 10%….]

[Download 40%….]

[Download 70%….]

[Download 100%….]

[Updating 1%…..]

[Updating 20%…..]

[Updating 50%…..]

[Updating 100%…..]

[System Update Complete….]

[New System Function: Team Window Now Available….]

[New System Function: Raid Window Now Available….]

[New System Function: Guilds Now Available….]

[New System Function: Inventory Now Available….]

[New World Function: Dungeons Now Available….]

[New World Function: Raids Now Available….]

[New World Function: World Bosses Now Available….]

[New World Function: Monster Camps Now Available….]

[New World Function: Quests Now Available….]

[World System Notification: World Changes Will Soon Occur.]

[Changes will result in drastic changes to the terrain. Please prepare to avoid disasters.]

Everyone stared at the long list of notifications with wide eyes. Their world. The world they were living their everyday lives in had suddenly become a game world. It was no longer just as simple as getting a system. The world itself was about to undergo drastic changes that would make the place they had lived in for years become unrecognizable.

“Desa, what do you think?” Ricky asked. He knew about games but never had time to play them. Only his daughter played them, so he would go with what she decided.

“I think we should head to the park for the time being. It is the only place with the lowest amount of debris from the buildings. We should gather as much food from the surroundings as possible, as we now have inventories. We need to hurry since there is no exact time frame of when the terrain will change, we need to take advantage of this time to gather food and water.

“We will go through the buildings and the store at the corner of 5th Avenue, what’s left of it anyways. Stash as much as we can away and hope we can get by for the time being.” Desaray paused for a moment before looking at her father and saying: “If we see anyone else doing the same…. We should ignore old morals and take what we can even if it means killing.”

“Understood.” Ricky, at this point, cared more about keeping his daughter and her friends alive than anything else. So even if it meant killing those who used to be humans, he was willing. Food was now scarce due to the light waves destroying things. They had to get everything they could.

“You three get the basics for now. Appraisal will come in very handy now that new flora and fauna have appeared. We can see if there is anything edible as well. Right now, our main course of action is survival. As for your parents…..” Desaray felt sorry for the three, but right now was not the time to be looking for parents.

“Desa, don’t worry, we understand,” Becky replied with a pained smile. While it was tough, they knew it was not time to be searching for anyone. Not in this situation when they did not know what would happen next.

Chapter 8

Desaray had everyone take the basic skills, so they each had first aid as well as appraisal. With their new inventories, Desaray was able to stick her entire bag into what was no different from a slot-based inventory system you would find in any MMO. After that, she began searching the lower floors that had not been harmed by the light wave and stored many things. Food, blankets, and stuff that they would need to at least live a somewhat comfortable life while they waited out the new changes that were about to occur.

Once they cleared the building they were in, they made their way to the store on 5th Avenue. As they walked, Desaray was quite curious about how it was to walk around in a body like Mike’s. She kept taking peeks at him as they made their way over the rubble. She was in the rear while her father took point. Becky, Mike, and Yu were in the middle. Yu, however, started to wonder if Desaray took a liking to Mike when she saw her staring at him. “Desa, is something wrong with Mike?”

Desaray smiled hearing Yu speaking up like this. She could hear a hint of jealousy in her voice. “No, I was just curious about how he walks. The movement of the rocks are perfectly synced. While he has normal hands, his feet are different and are kind of like cylinders that are flat on the bottom and round on top. I was wondering how he was able to climb up over the debris so easily. Normally wouldn’t the lack of tread make it harder to walk?”

“Ah.” Yu felt embarrassed, she realized she was acting like a jealous girlfriend when girls stared at their man. But she was not even Mike’s girlfriend yet! Trying to stay composed, Yu continued: “Now that you mention it.”

Desaray grinned seeing how Yu was acting. She bumped her with her elbow and whispered to her. “Don’t worry. I will not try to steal him from you. I will support you, but you shouldn’t wait too long to tell him how you feel.”

“I….” Yu was going to deny it but stopped herself. While she was embarrassed, it was not to the point that she was willing to run away. She did like Mike. This was a fact that she did not wish to deny. She lowered her head slightly and nodded as she took a peek at the boy she liked, who was walking behind Becky. She needed to find the right time to speak to him.

They made their way over to 5th Avenue, where they were met with another group of people. But these people were not like them, they were still human. Both groups stopped and looked at each other as if they were deer in headlights. It was not until a young boy from the human group yelled out did both sides finally react. “Monsters!”

“Monster yourself, kid! We used to be human too! Once you kill a monster, you will end up just like us!” Becky was the first to yell back at the kid. While she knew she was indeed a monster, she did not like being called as such. She never killed anyone. The only thing that she had killed since the start of all of this was the slime that turned her into what she was now!

“Lier!” The boy yelled back. “We killed a few monsters, and no one turned out like you!”

Desaray and the others froze. Ricky being the adult here, looked at who seemed to be the boy’s parents and asked: “Is this true? Did you kill some monsters and did not change?”

“It’s true.” The man, who seemed to be the boy’s father, pulled the boy back, nodded, and answered. He was shocked to see monsters talking. “Were….” He paused and looked at Ricky and his group before continuing: “Were you really human?”

“Yes.” Desaray stepped forward and replied. “We were all human. In our group, you can say that I was the first to change. I killed a goblin and turned into this. My friends killed slimes, and my father killed a goblin as well. We each got a system upon killing them and changed into what you see before you.”

“I see… We killed little green men, and not too long ago, my son killed a blue ball thing. Nothing happened to us besides the blue window that popped up. The system you speak of.”  The man looked at his family, who were indeed all still humans, and wondered what he would have done if they had changed into monsters. But after thinking about what his son said, he felt slightly bad as well. He looked at Ricky and the others and decided to apologize. “I am sorry for my son’s words. He was rude.”

“It’s fine. He is young.” Ricky replied with a forced smile. He turned and looked at Desaray, who nodded at him before looking back at the man. “If you would excuse us.”

“Huh? Yeah…” The man replied somewhat absentmindedly. He watched as Desaray and her group began to walk away. He was quickly brought out of his stupor when he felt a pinch in his side. His wife whispered in a slight panic as she said: “Honey! Look where they are going!”

“This…. Hey!” The man yelled after Ricky causing Desaray’s group to stop and turn towards the man.

“Yeah?” Ricky already promised himself he would not give up anything that would allow his daughter and her friends to survive another day. With no sources of known food yet, they were not planning on giving up any resources. So as he looked over at the man, his eyes narrowed.

“Are…. Are you planning to go to the store? My family and I were also going to go th…..” Before the man could finish speaking, a fireball suddenly slammed into the debris in front of him, causing him to pull his son and wife into his arms and jump back to dodge the sudden attack. He looked up to see a blue-scaled lizard staring back at him.

“Sorry, but find you or sources of food. We are calling dibs on this store.” Desaray snorted. She felt bad for having to do this, but there was only so much food to go around.

◈◈◈

“What!? You can’t be thinking of keeping it all to yourself!” The woman who was standing beside the man was enraged. She did not want to lose a source of food that could feed her child.

“Look, we do not want a confrontation, but we will not give up anything that will allow me and those I am protecting to live. As you can see, we are five. You are three. We need more resources than you do. Just because we are claiming this store does not mean you can not do the same elsewhere. But if you want to fight over this store, then we do not mind fighting it out. Even if you have a system, we already did not start on fairgrounds.” Ricky had a feeling humans did not get any special abilities when they got their system. He was making a wild guess, but he always trusted his gut in situations like these.

He got a skill called enhanced strength. While he needed to level it, it was still something that boosted his strength by quite a bit. Everyone here had one special ability or two that came with their evolution. If those who did not evolve got more than just the system, Ricky felt that it would be a bit unfair since the evolution process was very painful to go through.

The man took Ricky’s words as a threat. To him, the meaning was that the former humans were stronger and outnumbered them. While even if this was a bluff, the man understood that there was no way that he and his family could win against the five of them. He gritted his teeth and snorted before saying: “We are going. But do not think just because you all evolved into monsters, that you are any better than those things out there. As you know from being a former human, humans have always prevailed.”

“Think what you want. We do not think we are any better than we were before. But since you are giving up, we will be on our way.” Ricky did not care for the cold glare the man gave him. He felt bad for the child since if they do not get food, he will end up suffering but…. He looked at Desaray and the other three kids in his care and took a deep breath. He had four lives here to protect. He could not protect the world.

“Dad….” Desaray held her father’s hand. She could tell that he was not feeling too good at this time.

As Desaray and the rest walked away. The man and his wife stared at them with eyes filled with hate. “Tom, what do we do? If we can not find a few sources of food to stick into these inventory things, we are screwed!”

“We will just have to rummage through the buildings. I doubt they searched them all. My guess is after the messages; they went straight to the closest store. But don’t get me wrong. If I cross paths with them or any monster that was once human, I will get my revenge once I am stronger.” The man, named Tom, clenched his fists. He knew he could not take all five of those people on. If they did have special skills that he, as a human, did not have, he knew fighting would mean death. “Let’s go.”

When Desaray and the rest arrived at the store, Desaray did a quick check to make sure no one was inside. They did not want to get ambushed or anything. “Clear.”

After announcing that the place was clear, Desaray climbed in through the broken window and was quickly followed by the others. “Take everything. Even if we can not use it, take it. If the inventory does not let items spoil, we can maybe use them to trade later on. A pack of cigarettes or even pills from the pharmacy might be used for trading for other items later on.”

Desaray was trying to think far ahead in the future. She had no doubts that even after the landscape changed or even when more monsters began to show up again that colonies of survivors would begin to pop up, and there would be some form of currency system in place. Whether it was bartering or something else, she did not know. Right now, she only wanted to prepare for that time, just in case.

“My side is clear!” Becky yelled out. This was followed by everyone else as well. Ricky was in charge of the alcohol sections and pharmacy. While the kids, Desaray, and her friends took everything else.

“Let’s head to the park then. We can build a shelter and wait out the last of the changes. Maybe we will get a chance to kill a few monsters as well.” Desaray knew that besides securing food resources, that leveling was another thing they had to concentrate on. If they did not wish to be killed or forced to give up their items, they would need the strength to protect it all. She did not wish for anyone she cared about to be harmed.

With the store now cleaned out, the group crossed 5th Avenue and entered the park near the terrace. They had to find a spot that was not filled too much with debris and claim it as their own. Desaray had suggested that they set up a place using the debris to form a barrier as a means of creating some protection from others during this time. When the system said the terrain would change, she did not know what would happen. But if the so-called monster camps appeared right next to them, they needed a way to defend themselves. It was also good to have a barrier to protect themselves from other survivors as well.

◈◈◈

Three days passed, and Desaray and her group had built up a small camp that had rubble surrounding it, making a moon-shaped wall that connected to a huge pile of debris as a barrier for the back side of the camp that had a large overhang. The overhang gave them protection from the weather if there were to be any weather from this point on.

The camp area was only around two thousand square feet and gave them enough space so that they were not clustered together. They did not have any tents or anything like that, but they did have blankets and pillows to give them some comfort while they slept.

On the first night, everyone besides Ricky slept until noon the next day. And after being scolded by his daughter, Ricky finally took a nap for a few hours. He, too, was very tired after all that had happened and instantly fell asleep.

One thing they did realize was that the food went in, but it did not seem to come out after their evolution. They still seemed to need food to live, but for some reason, it did not cycle through their body but more like it was completely turned into energy, and nothing was wasted. This, of course, was a big plus to the three girls since they would not need to do their business out in public. While they were now monsters, it did not mean that they were willing to just stop by a bush and do their duty, literally.

The sky had finally cleared up. The clouds that once filled the sky gave way to blue skies on the second day after what Desaray called the Grand Fall, the day the sky fell. With their new appraisal skill, they had found a few edible plants as well as some which were marked as crafting items which Desaray had everyone collect just in case.

But on this night, the night of the third day, Desaray was sitting on top of the wall made of debris, looking up at the stars. Her short legs were swaying back and forth while her tail flipped up and down every so often. She had grown quite used to her new body and did not find anything strange about it anymore. She let out a sigh as she looked up at the moon. The same moon she had seen many times since she was young. “I wonder what will happen in the future.”

“Sighing at your age is not good.” Ricky’s voice came from behind her.

“Dad?” Desaray turned and curled up her scaly lips. She looked at her father and felt quite happy that he was still alive.

Ricky jumped up onto the wall, sat next to her, and placed his big palm on her head. “You are still young. Although things have changed, you do not need to take on so much responsibility. You have kept them alive all this time, have you not?”

Desaray nodded as she bumped her head up and down so her father would pat it. She found head pats in her current form to be very nice. “But even still…. I feel that our lives are far from being able to be carefree anymore. While I am happy we have all lived to this point, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. You know those who stayed humans will probably never accept us as we are. Each one of us needs to level up to level twenty and evolve once more. And hopefully, by doing so, we will be able to take on a humanoid form of some kind. While I do think this form is quite cute, I do not want to stay like this forever. Of course, if I am forced to be in a dragon form all the time, then there is nothing I can do about it. I mean, it would be cool to have a huge dragon form.”

“I never thought of that. But yeah, I guess you are right. Humans that did not evolve into monsters will probably see us as just that, monsters. It might take a while to get them to wake up and realize we are still the same, just different looking. But then again, humans have always had a history of looking down on things that were different from them.” Ricky sighed.

He thought back to the human couple with the kid and realized he had already made enemies. But they had to stand their ground. He felt bad, but at the same time, he knew it was something that had to be done. With an unknown future, having to think for himself and his family was the most important at this time.

As the night settled in, Desaray continued her stargazing while her father went to rest. With no lights to pollute the skies, the Milky Way filled her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel that seeing such a sight with her own eyes and not on the computer or tv was a very surreal sight. Sadly this quiet time did not last long.

The ground suddenly began shaking violently. This shaking was followed by a loud roar as if some huge monster had decided to wake up. As Desaray braced herself on the wall she was on, she turned to look at her father and her friends, who were about fifty feet away, trying to stand up but kept falling over. “Dad!”

“Desa!” Ricky was panicking. The ground was shaking so badly that every time he got his footing, he fell over.

A loud rumbling sound began to fill the air. Desaray held on to the thick cement block she was sitting on and watched in horror as the ground in front of her began to break apart and began crumbling towards her. “What!?”

Desaray had no choice but to flap her small wings and get on all fours. She quickly jumped off the wall they had built and began to run as fast as she could while flapping her wings to try to keep herself upright. Her wings could not do much, but they did help with balance. Behind her, all she could see was the ground falling apart, crumbling away and creating a large chasm that was quickly widening.

◈◈◈

While Desaray was running with her life on the line, Ricky watched helplessly as his daughter got further and further away from him. “Mr. Harris, what do we do!? Desa is trapped!”

Becky’s voice snapped Ricky out of his trance. He looked at the small blue back getting smaller by the second and was about to yell out, when the ground that was on the other side, where Desaray was, seemed to be getting lower and lower. “What the hell is going on!?”

“I think we are rising!” Becky and the others all began to panic. They did not know what exactly was happening, but it did seem to be the case that they were rising up into the air.

“The system did say that the landscape would change. This means….” Yu spoke up, reminding everyone about the messages they got.

What they could not see was that in an almost egg-like shape, the land that Ricky and the rest were on was indeed rising into the air. It had been cut free from the ground. It was not even moving slowly but rather quickly as it rose up into the sky.

Ricky looked down at Desaray, who was still running, and finally yelled out: “Desa! No matter what, stay alive! We will meet again!”

Desaray heard her father’s voice through the rumbling behind her and turned her head to see the land rising into the air. She skidded to a stop just a few feet from where the ground stopped crumbling away, her eyes wide in shock. But they soon teared up, seeing how her father and her friends were now trapped on the newly formed floating island. “Dad!”

She did not want to be left alone. She did not know if she could survive on her own. She had been keeping herself going this entire time because she had others around her, but now. Desaray’s tail slumped down, her eyes lowered as tears began to roll down her blue-scaled cheeks.  “Nooo….” Desaray suddenly spoke up. She wiped her tears and looked at the floating island and could still see her father looking over the edge down at her. She cupped her paws around her mouth and yelled out: “Dad! I will find a way to get to you! So you must live as well!”

Desaray had no idea how she was going to get up there, but she could only hope that her next evolution would allow her to fly. If she could, then she would fly up to the floating island and find them.

How long it will take, she did not know. She could only hope she could find some monsters that were easy to kill to grind off of. Even as she was trying to tell herself that things would be okay as long as she evolved, she still could not help but let the tears fall. She had already been through so much, and now she would not even know if her father and friends would be safe. She did not even know if she would be able to survive on her own. She had enough food to last a while and a few other things, but that did not mean she would be able to keep herself alive for long.

On top of the floating island, looking down at his daughter, who now looked like an ant due to how high up they were, Ricky clenched his fists. He had to figure out a way to get off this island and return to his daughter’s side. He would have jumped off if the chasm below was not so big. He could not even see the bottom of it with how deep the hole was.

“Mr. Harris…. She will be fine.” Becky tried to reassure Ricky. Although, even she did not know how Desaray would do on her own.

Ricky finally took his attention away from the blue figure who had now begun walking away. “We need to sure up our defenses. We will stay here for now. Desa will probably do the same. She will not venture too far off unless she has to. We will secure this area and then try to find a way to get back down to lower ground.”

Ricky knew his daughter well and knew she would not stray too far. In fact, Desaray had been thinking just that. She did not want to lose sight of the floating island her father and friends were on. In the sky, there was not just one floating island, but many that she could see on the horizon.

“First things first, I need to mark the area and try to find a safe place.” She looked around and felt lucky that there was still a lot of debris around her that she could build a shelter with.

She began pulling large pieces of concrete out of the underbrush and started building a shelter to live in. The spot she chose was an area near the chasm that she had cleared out. It was small, but it was a decent place to set up a temporary base.

She had to thank the fact that she was now a dragon, and a level 10 one, since her strength had risen by leaps and bounds. Moving the large blocks was nothing to her. By the time noon arrived, she had already built half the structure. She just needed to finish it up before night fell.

◈◈◈

The night was very lonely as Desaray stared up at the ceiling of her makeshift fort. She made it in a concealed space, but she still felt too nervous to sleep. She did not dare start a fire at this time of night. She did not want to be seen by anyone. She was afraid of drawing the attention of some high-level monster and then needing to fight for her life.

Being torn from her father with no current way of getting to where he is was not easy for her. While now a dragon, she was still a fourteen-year-old girl. Not long ago, she was smiling and hanging out with her friends, doing the chores around the house while her father worked overtime. On weekends she would cook him a nice supper and maybe even go to the mall to do some window shopping. She was living what she considered at the time a normal everyday life for a girl her age.

But now she was fighting and killing monsters. She had to always be aware of her surroundings since she never knew when she would be attacked next. If she was not careful, she might end up being eaten alive by some monster while she slept.

That was why her mind was on trying to find ways to level up and evolve. If she could evolve, then she may be able to fly, and then she could fly up to the floating island and hopefully be reunited with her father and friends once more.

Desaray did not know when she fell asleep. She did not know if it was due to the stress of the day or what, but when she woke up, it was already light out. She had curled up into the far corner of her makeshift base and used her tail as a means of comforting herself. She rubbed her eyes and slowly made her way to the base’s exit, only to freeze when she saw the scene in front of her.

“Where did this forest come from!?” Desaray yelled out as she quickly went outside after recovering from her shock. She looked around and saw nothing but trees all around her.

While stunned at the sudden change in scenery, Desaray suddenly had a bad feeling. She ran full speed towards the huge hole that had formed yesterday after the floating island was formed. She could not see the sky all too well due to all the tree canopies blocking her view. But when she reached the edge of what should have been a massive hole and saw a huge lake there instead, she gasped in shock for a second before lifting her head skyward.

“It’s gone. It’s gone!” Desaray’s eyes began to water up. The floating island that her father and friends were on was now gone. She looked left and right, but no matter where she looked, she only saw small floating islands off in the distance. “This can’t be happening! What am I going to do!?”

Just thinking about the fact that the floating island was nowhere to be seen devastated Desaray. She was hoping to quickly level up and reunite with her family, but now…. “Is this some kind of cruel punishment?”

She wondered if she had offended some god somewhere and that this was retribution. She fell to her hands and knees and looked at her reflection in the water. She hardly recognized herself with her new body. “I will just need to search each island. I will keep leveling up, and I will find them. No matter how long it takes.”

It was not easy for her to build up her determination like this. She never thought she would come across such a setback like this. She did not know how things were going to turn out, but now that their world seemed to have undergone some sort of reset that gave people systems, she knew her goal was to become strong. And now she had another reason to do so.

“I will eat, then begin the grind. I have no idea how long it will take, but I will try to reach level 20 in a week.” The sad thing about her system was that she could not see her experience bar. It did not tell her how much experience she had to gain per level. She even tried to use appraisal on her menu screen and level but got no response.

Desaray had a quick breakfast that consisted of a single pop tart. It was not the healthiest of foods in the world, but it was enough to keep her going. She had to conserve her food until she understood what she could and could not eat. So she only had a single pop tart just in case she needed to live off them someday.

She analyzed the water at the newly formed lake to find it was quite nourishing for the body. She gulped a few mouthfuls down and felt a refreshing wave sweep over her body. She felt much more awake now and even felt the energy within her grow. “Alright, let’s go do some investigation.”

In order to not end up dying due to her running into a bunch of monsters on accident, Desaray decided to do some investigation. And she had just the spell she could buy that would help in this situation. She opened her spell menu and searched for the name. She had seen it when she roamed through the list earlier. “Found it! Detection!”

It cost her fifteen skill points, but the cost was worth it if it meant she could be forewarned before something got too close. This would mean no accidentally running into a camp of gray backs or other monsters that were dangerous. Now if they used stealth, that might be a different story since she did not know if this skill would actually detect stealth enemies.

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 10

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 500/500

[MP]: 375/375

[Skill Points]: 15

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 1)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 1)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)}     {Toughened Skin (Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}

{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}

Chapter 9

“Whoah!” Desaray came to what she thought was a road to find that it was now a raging river. Her current goal at this moment was to find her old apartment, although currently, the way things were going, it was not going to be easy.

As to why she was going there, it was mainly to take a look. Her home and life had been ruined by the world changes; she at least wanted to know what had now become of her old home.

But in order to do that, she had to figure out how to cross the river that was at least for car lanes wide. She sat on top of a bunch of debris that was now covered in foliage, lost in thought. “Where did all this water come from?

Desaray truly wondered how she was supposed to cross this river. The rushing water did not make it easy in the slightest. Sighing at the sight before her, Desaray looked both left and right but did not see any means of crossing the river. “Did this come off the Hudson?”

When she thought of it like that, it would make sense for there to be water here, if a crack in the ground was formed from here all the way to the Hudson River, then it was very plausible. Since she was not sure which way to begin her search, Desaray hopped off the chunk of debris she was sitting on and picked up a stick off the ground, then stabbed it into the dirt underfoot. She then let go of it and watched it sway back and forth before falling in front of her to the right slightly. “Then left it is!”

With the way her luck was, as of late, she decided it was best to do the opposite of whatever the stick said. She had a feeling if she did not do things in this way, she would end up in the mouth of some big monster.

She made her way down the side of the river for quite a while until she was forced to stop when her detection magic finally picked something up. The best thing about this spell was that it was an activated spell. It stayed on until canceled. It also did not cost any extra mana to keep it going, which was very nice.

Desaray quickly moved to one of the freshly grown trees in front of her and, using her claws, climbed to one of the branches and looked around. From there, she got a much better view of what was around her and easily spotted what looked to be a camp of some kind.

“Is this made by humans?” Desaray wrinkled her brow. She was not sure what was more dangerous at this time. Monsters or humans. If she spoke to them first, they might not attack, but if they still attacked even after she spoke to them, she could be in trouble.

If it was monsters, she could try to lure one or two out and kill them one after the other to gain experience. At this time, she wanted to keep from killing any humans just because. Unless they were doing something bad, she preferred to refrain from taking human lives just yet. But if they attacked her, she would not hesitate to defend herself. She figured a fireball or her ice breath could easily take care of them. She still had 15 skill points, but she was unwilling to spend them just yet. She needed to know exactly what she needed to survive now.

Her current situation had only just changed, so until she had a better understanding of her surroundings, she did not want to go wasting points on something that would not help her right away, like how detection magic was already helpful, meaning it was a good purchase. She did go through the list briefly to see if there was a barrier of some kind, but she still had not seen anything like that. She kind of wished the skill list was more organized. Everything was just thrown in there with little to no direction.

Since she had a good view of what she believed to be a camp, she waited for the little dots in her detection magic to move into view. It was strange since it was kind of like a radar. She was the little white dot in the center, and the yellow dots around her were living beings of some kind.

She sat on her tree branch for almost an hour until, finally, one of the dots came into view. It was a pink-skinned humanoid. It was not human, of course, but it did walk on two legs and even had a long, sharpened stick in its hands as it walked around, showing it had some form of intelligence. But now Desaray was in a bit of a dilemma. She did not know if this was someone like her or not. If this person was once human, she did not want to attack it.

Of course, if it was a goblin race and was once human, she would kill it since all goblins needed to die! Mainly because she knew the goblin traits. She also knew she was taking on some of her own race’s traits as well. Becky had so kindly pointed this out to her. Luckily now she had an inventory, so it would not be as noticeable. As long as she did not start chasing after shiny things, she was good.

After pondering for a moment, Desaray decided to see what would happen if she threw a rock near the pig-faced humanoid.

◈◈◈

The rock arched through the air and landed in the bushes not too far from the pig-faced humanoid. “Who’s there!”

Desaray almost snorted as she held back a laugh. She silently climbed down from her perch and looked at her map to see where each of the dots were. When she saw that they were quite far apart, she moved toward the pig-faced humanoid that was now checking out the bush the rock was thrown into. “Ummm… Excuse me.”

“Who!?” The pig-faced person turned to see a blue lizard standing in front of it. It quickly pointed its wooden spear at the new being in front of it while being on high alert. “Who are you!?”

“Before I ask, were you once human?” Desaray asked.

“Human? What is that?” The pig-faced humanoid seemed quite confused by Desaray’s question.

Desaray ignored it before answering its original question. “My name is Desaray, as you can see, I am a dragon.”

“Dragon!?” The pig-faced humanoid face showed extreme fear. Now that it was looking at the blue figure, it did resemble a baby dragon! It quickly lowered its spear and knelt on the ground bowing its head: “Please do not eat me-oink! I have little oinks to take care of!”

“Err… I did not plan to?” Desaray was now the confused one. She could guess from its reaction that it was definitely not a former human, but the idea that it was this terrified of dragons meant that it must have some knowledge of what dragons were. Desaray wondered if maybe she could get some information from this pig race. “Can you please stand up? It is painful to look at you prostrating yourself like this. I am hoping you can answer a few of my questions.”

The pig-faced man lifted its head slightly but quickly lowered it back down when it saw the evil smirk on Desaray’s face. However, all she was doing was trying to smile. As its butt with the curly pink tail shivered in fear, Desaray heard the pig-faced humanoid answer: “I will do my best to answer you, so please do not eat me-oink!”

“Then…. Can you tell me your name first, if you have one? And please stand up!” Desaray asked in a friendly tone. She felt helpless and a little guilty for scaring the poor pig man.

“I am Oinktera of the pig beastkin,” Oinktera replied as it nervously crawled up from the ground. But it still refused to raise its head.

Desaray looked Oinktera up and down and now understood it was definitely male. “So you are a beastkin. Can I ask how you got here?”

“This…. Miss Dragon, I can not tell you for sure. You see, me and my clan members woke up here just recently. We made our camp a few steps that way and have been scouting the area-oink. The last thing I remember is going out hunting and then waking up here.” Oinktera’s words made Desaray realize that there was no portal that had suddenly opened, allowing things to come about. If this was the case, then things would be much easier to understand but now….

“I see. It must be hard suddenly appearing here out of nowhere. My world was also suddenly changed with no warning whatsoever.” Desaray could sense the sadness from the pigman. He did not seem like a bad person. Just someone who was tossed into an unknown world. If he was truly violent, then he would have attacked her right on the spot.

“It has been hard. We did not sleep at all last night in order to keep watch. Without any signs of how we got here, to begin with, we have had no choice but to be on full alert.” Oinktera let out a long sigh. His eyes looked very tired.

“You should rest because I do not think you will be able to get back any time soon. If you want, you and your friends can sleep while I keep watch. I only ask that you give me some info on what you have scouted so far.” Desaray figured an exchange was not a bad idea. They could sleep a few hours while she watched over them to make sure no one tried to attack them in their sleep.

“This… I could never ask a dragon to watch over me!” Oinktera finally lifted his head. He did not know how he could accept such kindness from one of the ancient races.

“It’s fine. We are doing an exchange. Your world and my world seem to have merged in some aspects. I want to know more about your world so I can understand the monsters that have appeared now.” Desaray explained. This time it seemed her words got through because Oinktera finally nodded his head.

“Then, please follow me. I will take you to our base camp.” Oinktera motioned with his hands and, with his spear in hand, began walking back towards his camp. He did not wish to anger the dragon by refusing any longer. Desaray could see that a few of his comrades seemed to have returned as well.

When they arrived, Desaray was met with another male pig man and a female one. Each holding a wooden spear in their hands. “Oinktera! What is the meaning of this!?”

The male pig man yelled out with his weapon ready, only for Oinktera to raise his spear toward the man. “Lower your weapon! Do you want the dragons to come and rain down fiery hell upon us!?

“D-dragon!?” The pigman quickly lowered his weapon and dropped to his knees. “Please do not eat me! I have little oinks to take care of!”

Desaray stood there, unsure if she should laugh or cry! She wondered if this was the phrase all the pigmen use to try to escape calamity!

◈◈◈

After going through the same routine one last time with the last of the pig men, Desaray had four pig women and three pig males standing before her. Each one looked worn and tired. “Miss Dragon, are you sure it is okay for us to rest?”

Desaray smiled and nodded her head. “Get a few hours’ rest. It is important to rest. From what Oinktera told me, you haven’t slept all night, so take a few hours and sleep. It’s daytime, and I also slept all night, so there should be no problems here.”

Desaray was surprised at the makeshift camp. They had large leaves strung up with vines to make temporary shelters. While not as good as the one she made, it was enough to keep out of the rain if it did rain.

“Why are you still asking!?” Oinktera snorted as he walked over and bowed to Desaray. “Miss Dragon, thank you for your kindness. We will take you up on your offer. If you get hungry, feel free to eat any of us.”

Desaray did not know what to say. Why were these pigmen begging not to be eaten one second, and the next, they were offering themselves up? Was she some kind of evil goddess!? Desaray sighed as she waved them off. “Just go sleep.”

The pigmen felt that Desaray was truly a kind dragon. She was much different from the dragons of their world. To be treated so kindly by such a god-like beast made the pig men feel special. Each one of them fell sound asleep, not caring if they were eaten by the dragon.

Desaray was shocked at how quickly the group fell asleep. The men and women slept separately, which proved they had some kind of rules within their society. “While kind of out there on things, they do not seem any different from that of early humans.”

While the pigmen slept, Desaray looked around the camp. She saw that they had made a fire pit for cooking and a place to use the bathroom, which was surrounded by large leaves strung up with vines. The only reason she knew this was a bathroom was because of the smell. She herself did not seem to need to go to the bathroom any longer, even though she did have the places for it. She wondered if this was some kind of special plus of her evolution.

“I need to find out if they have systems as well….” Desaray pursed her scaly lips. She had not thought about it until now, but it did seem she would need to ask a lot of questions to these pig men.

A few hours later, while Desaray sat next to a fire she had started, Oinktera woke up and walked over. “Miss Dragon, thank you for allowing us to sleep.”

“You can sleep more, you know.” Desaray did not mind. She was a little thankful for meeting the pigmen as it meant she did not need to be alone at this time. Without her father or friends around, she felt a sense of loss, and the feeling of loneliness was starting to settle in. Even if she pushed through, she did not know how long she would be able to keep going.

“No, I feel quite refreshed.” Oinktera sat next to Desaray and looked at the fire.

“Oinktera, can you tell me about your world? What it was like and how the people of your world lived.” Desaray was quite curious as to how the pig men survived in a world where monsters lived.

“My race was part of a bigger kingdom. The beast kingdom was ruled by the dragons. Dragons of my world are ancient beings and are seen as gods because their powers are the most powerful in the world. While they kept the beast men safe, they did not hold back when you crossed them. One could be eaten for any reason by dragons. If they think you even looked at them wrong, you would be either burnt to ashes or eaten on the spot. But while we had to walk on eggshells around them when they appeared, they were also keeping us safe. The beast kingdom was one of the safest places in the world.

“There were many other races in our world, such as the elves, dwarves, homons, and demons. Out of these races, there were also many sub-races as well like the orcs, ogres, trolls, and goblins. There are way too many to count. But you can say that these races are all aligned as well, making up what we call the dark kin. A group of races that know no laws and will kill without thought. They raid villages of all the races, killing men and taking their women.

“They normally stayed clear of the beast kingdom due to the dragons being very protective of what they see as theirs. We were under their protection but, at the same time, owned by the dragons. Even still, we all lived normal lives. Me and my kin all come from a village on the outskirts of the beast kingdom territory. We had many run-ins with the other races while hunting. But this was only because we crossed the border into other domains for hunting.” Oinktera sighed softly as if remembering something.

“As you can see, we are not the most powerful race, so we can only run when we come in contact with others. But if one of our kind is caught, we will fight to the death. Our world is ruled by the strong, so showing too much weakness is basically asking to get bullied.” Oinktera sighed once more. He stared at the flames in front of him with a sad expression on his face.

“Your kind can not use magic?” Desaray asked.

“No. We are unable to wield magic. Most beast kin are unable to do so. Only the higher and ancient races are able to use magic. These consist of Fenrir and Dragons. I do know that the other races seem quite good at magic as well. Especially the elves and demons.”

◈◈◈

Desaray was surprised. She thought everyone from a magic world would be able to use magic, but now she realized her way of thinking was wrong. “I see. So your world was filled with different races, all with their own goals?”

“Yeah. However, the main beast kin tribes’ women were normally sought after by the homon race. Although I do not understand of the appeal, but I guess it is because they looked like the homons except for the tail and ears.” Oinktera could not find himself to be attracted to such creatures. They were nothing like his pigkin girls.

Desaray smiled at this. She understood the appeal was definitely that. But now was not the time to be discussing such things. Instead, she asked: “Oinktera, did your world have a system?”

“A system?” Oinktera thought for a moment before waving his hand, and a blue transparent screen appeared. “You mean this?”

“Yeah.” Desaray nodded, she was a little happy when she saw that Oinktera also had a system. She wondered if she could get a bit more information about them. But when she looked at the screen and saw that Oinktera was only level 2, she did not know what to make of that. “Oinktera…. Did you not level up?”

“Huh? Why would I do something so dangerous!?” Oinktera oinked a few times. He looked at Desaray with fear in his eyes. “To level up would mean to fight those monsters. We only fought the normal animals when hunting. I only leveled up once because I was forced to help kill a goblin. Other than that, I would never go near those monsters. It would mean losing my life.”

“I see….” Desaray looked at his skill list and saw that it was all filled with farming and hunting skills. Stuff that he was probably born with, but each one was quite close to max level, which was impressive in its own way.

After going silent for a moment and looking at the fire in front of her, Desaray finally asked: “Do all beast kin not level up?”

“Well… No… Some of the beast kin do level up, but those are the exceptions since they can use magic even without being a higher race. There are around a thousand or so beast kin, from what I heard, who can use magic and are able to level up, but most of them work for the nobles and dragons.” Oinktera replied.

“I am not sure you realize this, but even you could use magic if you put your points into the skill. You have a skill window, do you not?” Desaray saw that Oinktera had the ability to use skill points which meant he could level up and even evolve if he were to start leveling up.

“We are too weak. Even a single goblin takes four of us.” Oinktera lowered his head. He felt slightly ashamed that he was so weak.

“I do not think you are weak, just that you are putting yourself into a mindset that makes you think you are weak. A goblin is not all that strong alone. If you only need to fight one, you just have to be quick in your actions since they act on instinct. They have some brains that allow them to use weapons, but if you are careful, you can easily kill one or two.” Desaray did not think Oinktera should give up. If he leveled up, he might even become someone very powerful in the future.

“I see…” Oinktera fell into thought. His people had always been taught not to fight the monsters. So he had always had the mindset of not fighting them because he was weak. But that day, when they fought the goblin and killed it, he realized that it was no normal goblin but an evolved one, a hobgoblin. “You may be right. Now that I am thinking back on this. The goblin we killed was an evolved goblin. While we did lose a few people, we did kill the hobgoblin in the end, and the experience was spread between all of us. If it was a normal goblin…..”

“See. While you might get injured, you can not be afraid. You have to at least try to level up and grow stronger. Especially now that you and your kin are on your own.” Desaray knew that even she had to be careful when fighting. She might be at an advantage, but if she was forced to fight twenty or so goblins, she might just die. “What you should do is get appraisal. Then a magic spell. You only need to level up two times. I noticed you spent all your points on farming skills. Is there a reason for that?”

“My system may be different, look at my skill list.” Oinktera had a troubled expression as he opened up his skill list. In fact, it was far different from Desaray’s skill list. It had many crafting and daily life skills but nothing that looked like magic. But it did have two skills she knew well. “Start off with these two.”

“Appraisal and first aid?” Oinktera looked at Desaray questioningly.

“Appraisal is essential in figuring out if you can win against an opponent. First aid, while not the strongest of healing magic, will at least heal minor wounds. And it is magic. This would mean you are not magicless. You might even gain the ability to use other magic when you evolve. The same goes for the others of your race.” Desaray explained.

Oinktera’s eyes widened. He had never thought he would be able to use magic. He had looked at the skill before but never thought too much of it. He thought first aid would just allow him to patch up wounds easier, not that it was actually magic. Hope filled his eyes. If what she said was true, then he might just be able to level up and even use magic in the future. Oinktera suddenly stood up and then knelt down with his forehead pressed into the dirt. “Thank you for allowing me to see a path that I never thought would be possible!”

◈◈◈

A few hours later, the pig men were all running around building new shelters. Desaray had talked with Oinktera for quite a while and decided she would stick around for a bit as she explored the area. She figured safety in numbers was a good idea, especially in a world that has changed and is now filled with monsters. She had no idea what she might run into.

But she refused to live under a leaf. While it was a good temporary shelter, long term, it was not very safe. So she began building a new hut with the rubble that was all over the place. The pigmen saw this and immediately took the job from her and began building her a new house to live in.

So now Desaray was looking at the radar on her screen that made up her detection magic. “There are a few monsters not far from here…..” One thing that Desaray realized was that while she was the white dot, the pig men were yellow dots, but the dots on her radar that did not belong to her or the pig men were red. She came to the conclusion that yellow meant NPC and red meant enemy. Of course, she did not know for sure yet. She still had to go and check it out on her own.

“Oinktera, come with me.” Since Oinktera wanted to level as well, she would try to help him out. She sent him a team invite which he quickly joined. She could now see his name and his HP and MP bars in the right corner of her peripheral vision.

“Miss Dragon, what is going on?” Oinktera asked. He had already grabbed his spear and was now walking to Desaray’s side.

“There are a few red dots in my detection magic. We will go check them out. If we can fight them, we will. If not, we will slowly back off and hope we are not detected. But listen. If we do get detected and the monster is too high a level for all of us to deal with, we will run in the opposite direction of the base. We do not want to lead enemies back to our base if they are too strong.” Desaray wanted to make sure this point was clear. Never lead an enemy home. Unless you know for a fact that, that enemy will die if you gang up on it with more people.

“Understood.” Oinktera nodded his head. He was very nervous but he knew this was his chance to finally start his rise. He would be the first of the pigmen to evolve and use magic!

Desaray, with Oinktera following after her, slowly and cautiously made their way toward the first red dot. She had no idea what kind of monster this was, so she could only hope that it was either a lower level than herself or at least not higher than level twelve.

When they got to a line of thick bushes, the two crawled into them to use them as cover. What they saw was a large bear with long fangs and spikes on its back. “Appraisal….”

[Spiked Back Bear]

[Level]: 8

[HP]: 200/200

[MP]: 20/20

“We should retreat…” Oinktera was shaking. He did not wish to fight a spiked back bear!

“Why? It’s only level 8. We can defeat it. With any luck, it might even give you level 3, and you can get the spells I told you about.” Desaray did not expect to level up on a level 8 monster, but she was not going to let free experience go. “Come on.”

Not caring for the shaking pigman, Desaray slipped out of the bush and stuck her claw out towards it. “Fireball!”

The fireball shot forward and slammed into the rear of the spiked back bear, who was caught unaware. It roared out in pain as its fur caught on fire. “Roar!!!”

With her claws at the ready, Desaray charged forward. She was also keeping a side eye on the detection magic radar to see if anything was charging over. She wanted to finish this fight before anything was attracted to what was going on here.

Oinktera had no choice but to rush out of the bush with his wooden spear. He did not dare sit idle while Desaray did all the work. He did not wish to be eaten! “Take this-oink!”

Oinktera stabbed his wooden spear into the spiked back bear’s side before quickly pulling it out and retreating. While he did not wish to fight such a high-level monster, he was not inexperienced in fighting. After all, his hunting skills were almost maxed out.

The spiked back bear roared out in pain once more and tried to swipe its claw at Oinktera, but it was too slow and was unable to hit its target and instead ended up losing an eye.

Desaray had used the chance when the spiked back bear was distracted to jump up on its head and stab her claws into its left eye. She wanted to blind it to make it hard for it to attack them. She quickly jumped down and yelled out: “Oinktera, attack its left. I will get rid of its other eye!”

She could see that the spiked back bear’s health was quickly dropping. It was now at 250 HP. She had to admit that the defense of this bear was quite high. She figured that while Oinktera could hurt it, it was not enough to cause substantial damage. But safety comes first. If she could blind the monster in front of her, she could slip under its stomach and try to gouge out its heart. While it might be messy, it was the cleanest way to kill it. Otherwise, she would need to shove her hand up its but and cast a fireball. She did not wish to do this….

She could use Ice Arrow, but she had not practiced with it enough to have decent aim. This fight was making her realize she was not ready for hard combat yet. Monsters like this were fine, but in the end, it would rely on her own ability to understand and control her spells if she wanted to survive in this new world. She needed to practice and master her own spells so that when higher-level enemies came, she would have a better chance of winning.

Chapter 10

“Both eyes are out, keep stabbing it with your spear from different sides!” Desaray was looking for an opening right now to finish off the spiked back bear. Currently, it was thrashing around now that it was blinded making it hard to slip underneath it.

“On it” Oinktera charged forward. With his hunting skill, he was easily able to dodge the attacks from the spiked back bear. He rushed in, stabbed it with his spear, then jumped back before he was attacked. These kinds of hit-and-run tactics were easily chipping away at the now blinded spiked back bear.

After Oinktera went in a few times, he finally got rid of his nervousness and was really showing off his abilities. Desaray was quite shocked at how well he was doing. But she did not just allow him to take all the glory. She waited for the right moment before yelling out: “Oinktera, back off!”

Oinktera quickly jumped back. He watched as an icey cold breath came out of Desaray’s mouth, smashing into the spiked back bear who was now slowly freezing up. The spiked back bear’s movements began to slow just enough for Desaray to rush in and slide across the icy ground. She waited for the moment she was right underneath the spiked back bear and stabbed her claws out, piercing through the spiked back bear’s thinner hide of its underbelly and piercing into its heart. She did not know why, but she could feel that the spot she was aiming for was where the heart was. Almost like a form of instinct, she could just tell where it was located.

Blood splattered on the ground splashing all over Desaray, but she did not care as she let out a roar and ripped the heart out of the spiked back bear’s chest. She quickly got out from under the spiked back bear’s body as it crashed to the ground.

[You Defeated A Spiked Back Bear]

[Experience Points Gained….]

Sadly she did not level up. But at least she got some experience. She looked at Oinktera’s avatar in the corner of her peripheral vision and smiled. “Not bad, two levels!”

“I actually leveled up! I got two levels!” Oinktera was ecstatic. He never thought he would ever reach beyond his current level but now… “Miss Dragon, thank you so much!”

“Oinktera, just call me Desa, short for Desaray. No need for the whole miss dragon thing.” Desaray felt weird being called miss dragon. “But from now on, we will need to work on leveling up more. And by we, I also mean the rest of your kin. We all need to level up and get to higher levels and evolve. This new world is strange to both of us, so we have to work together.”

Desaray decided. She would help the other pigmen level up and level alongside them as they expand their reach into the areas around them and level up at the same time. They could form a team and take on higher-level monsters. But first, they all had to be ready.

“Me and my kin will follow your orders.” Oinktera suddenly knelt down and bowed his head. It was like a knight giving an oath. Desaray scratched her head. She did not know what to make of this.

“Alright, for now, let’s head back. This battle made me think of many things. So besides shelters, we will make a new plan.” Desaray put her hand on the spiked back bear’s corpse and took it into her inventory. To her surprise, the entire thing had become dismantled. She now had ten stacks of spiked back bear meat, hide, fangs, and claws in her inventory.

This was beyond her expectations, but it also made things much easier for her. The two returned to camp to find three huts made of concrete rubble that had already been built. “They were quick.”

She was actually quite surprised at the speed and craftsmanship these pigmen had. To be able to quickly build so many huts made of rubble to the point that they looked almost perfect was surprising indeed.

“Oinktora and Oinktura both had building skills at max. They were my village’s main builders. So these kinds of simple huts are nothing. In the future they will build a much bigger home for Lady Desa.”

Desaray froze and looked at Oinktera. He went from calling her Miss Dragon to Lady Desa!? “You do not need to call me lady….”

“Lady Desa, I can not comply calling a sacred beast like yourself without any kind of honorific. It would not sit right with me. So please allow me to call you Lady Desa.” Oinktera did not seem like he planned to budge anytime soon.

Desaray could only sigh and nod. “Alright, suit yourself.” It was at least better than Miss Dragon. Desaray thought.  “Anyway, we should cook up some of this spiked bear meat and celebrate our first successful hunt and your level advancement!”

“What? Oinktera, you leveled up!?” Oinktyra, one of the female pigmen, yelled out in surprise. She did not think they could level up, but now seeing Oinktera’s smug expression, it seemed he had truly leveled up!

Desaray smiled as she said: “It will not just be him either. All of you will be able to level up soon. We are going to go over a plan on how to achieve this in the next few days. We will slowly expand our influence in the area outward and map it out. This way, we can see what kinds of monsters are out there, if there are any dungeons, and if there are any others like you out there as well.”

◈◈◈

While Desaray was setting up a base camp, up on the floating island, Ricky was tearing his hair out. “Uncle Ricky, you should not worry too much. I am sure Desa is doing fine.”

“Becky, I know she is probably doing okay, but that is only a big what if. That girl…. I can’t help but worry for her.” Ricky sighed. That was his daughter. Of course, he would be worried about her. After letting out a long sigh, Ricky asked: “How is the perimeter?”

Becky had only tried to calm Ricky down, but she too was very much worried about her best friend. She had no idea how it must feel to be on her own right now. The floating island they were on had moved many miles while they were asleep, and now they had no idea where Desaray was anymore or if she was okay. She was very worried. But she also knew that they had work to do here. This island they were on was not safe in the slightest. “The ogres seem to be keeping their distance after the last scrimmage. However, Mike ended up taking a hit straight on. Luckily first aid was enough to heal him. But we can not keep going on like this. If they send anything over level 8, we might not be able to hold our ground.”

“Alright, just keep an eye on their movements and keep practicing your skills. As long as we are always on alert with the current fort we have built, we should be able to hold out for a while. But we can not just keep sitting here, either. Out of all of us, Becky, you are the only one with wings. If you can evolve and fly down to the lands below, we may be able to  find Desaray.” Ricky knew it was wishful thinking, but he still had to try. If he could at least know his daughter’s current situation, he would be able to relax a bit.

“I will relay your orders.” Becky tried to lighten the mood a bit by saluting, but she only got a dry chuckle from Ricky, who shook his head.

Becky quickly met up with Yu and Mike, who were on watch. “Becky, how is he?” Yu asked. She was also concerned about Ricky and Desaray.

“I don’t know. I think he is ready to jump to the ground below, but that would most certainly be death for him. He has not slept at all either since we woke up to find the island had moved. I am afraid he will end up sick or end up killing himself from trying to get to the ground below. He is currently seeing me as his only chance to find out Desaray’s current situation. If only we teamed up before we were separated….” Becky regretted not teaming up with Desaray as soon as the function became available.

“We can only pray that she is fine. But we also have to worry about our own safety at this time.” Mike was not trying to be mean, but their current situation was not all that good either. Ogres had appeared out of nowhere and attacked them when they were trying to figure things out. While they were able to push them back and even kill a few, they were currently in a kind of stalemate. The only thing they had going for them was that these ogres did not seem to be able to use magic.

“I know. And he also knows. He told us to keep an eye on things. Mike, you keep watching while Yu and I practice. We need to master our skills.” Becky and Yu had been sparing off and on. They did not care about injuries since they could be healed. They just wanted to learn how to use their skill in combat so that they would not lose to a monster. One wrong step meant death for them.

◈◈◈

Back on the ground, Desaray was currently staring at her stats. “I have 15 skill points…. If I use 4 to level up ice breath and appraisal… Should I then use another two and up ice arrow? If I can get good at it, I can stay within my element…. ”

She had noticed that ice arrow’s damage had a (12) points next to it. She was not sure why this was, but when she looked at fireball, it did not have such an effect. This was why she was picking appraisal first over the spell since she wanted to see if her appraisal skill would give her additional information.

Desaray pondered for quite a while before finally dishing out four of her points. “Appraisal!” Desaray did not hesitate to use appraisal after leveling it up on her menu. Luckily her guess paid off, and she did not waste any skill points.

[Ice Arrow(Lvl 1)]

[Damage]: 10-20 (+12)

[Details]: Damages a single enemy with the ice element. Has a chance to penetrate the first target into another based on the first target’s defense. Damage increased due to Elemental Affinity.

“So that is what that is….” Desaray used appraisal on her status window as well and found a new line had appeared.

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 10

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 500/500

[MP]: 375/375

[Elemental Affinity]: Ice

[Skill Points]: 11

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 2)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)}{First Aid (Lvl 1)}     {Toughened Skin (Lvl 1)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}

{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 1)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}

“Since that is the case, I will up Ice Arrow as well.” Desaray quickly used another two points to up ice arrow.

[Ice Arrow(Lvl 2)]

[Damage]: 20-40 (+22)

[Details]: Damages a single enemy with the ice element. Has a chance to penetrate the first target into another based on the first target’s defense. Damage increased due to Elemental Affinity.

◈◈◈

After upping ice arrow, Desaray looked at her other skills and pondered once more. “Since I have 9 skill points left, I might as well go ahead and up first aid and toughened skin as well.”

With that, Desaray only had 6 skill points left. What she did notice was that while level 1 to level 2 in her skills was relatively cheap, level 2 to level 3 was not. It costs 10 skill points to get to level 3. The only good thing was that, for the time being, it seemed to be a flat rate for all her skills. “With 6 points left… is there anything worth buying?”

Desaray flipped through her skills list until she finally came upon something she had not seen before. “Weapon crafting?” She tilted her head to the side and wondered when this had always been on her list. She looked a little more and saw a few more profession-type skills she could get. All of which were one skill point to get.

“Let’s see… Weapon crafting, armor crafting, jewel crafting, alchemy, rune engraving, foraging, hunting, and cooking. It’s like I am playing some kind of MMO….” Desaray thought for a moment before finally deciding to take a bit more in-depth look into these skills and see what she would need.

For weapon crafting and armor crafting, she could easily do without any real tools. Even the starting portion of the weapon crafting was basic things like a wooden spear and an axe and knife made of stone. The armor crafting only needed animal hides and thread made of grass or thin vines. As for jewel crafting, alchemy, and rune engraving, things were a bit different.

Each one needed things from different professions. Jewel crafting needed tools made from weapon crafting. While these were tools, they could only be made through the forging of metal, which Desaray did not have the ability to do as of yet. Alchemy needed things from foraging, jewel crafting, and weapon crafting. Rune engraving needed things from both jewel crafting and alchemy. But one thing she did note was that the jewel crafting actually gave her quite a bit of boosts to her stats based on what she crafted and wore. So once she was in a better state, she would definitely need to think about getting these profession skills.

In the end, Desaray went with armor crafting, weapon crafting, foraging, hunting, and cooking. This left her with 1 skill point to sit on until the next time she leveled up. “Oh? It seems that these are split from basic skills.”

When Desaray looked at her status window, she noticed a new section had been added after she took the new skills.

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 10

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 500/500

[MP]: 375/375

[Elemental Affinity]: Ice

[Skill Points]: 1

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 2)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl 2)}     {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}

{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 2)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}

[Professions]

{Weapon Crafting (Lvl 1)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 1)} {Hunting (Lvl 1)} {Foraging (Lvl 1)}              {Cooking (Lvl 1)}

Hunting was a useful skill since it came with hidden bonuses such as stepping lightly to not be heard, better vision, and hearing as the skill levels up. They would be handy for her later on as she fought stronger monsters. Weapon crafting also had a hidden bonus which boosted her strength a bit. Armor crafting boosted her dexterity. Foraging heightened her sense of smell and eyes. Cooking heightened her sense of smell and taste.

She did not think that by taking these professions that she would end up getting so many bonuses. These were subtle changes, but she was sure as the skills grew, they would help her even in battle. She saw how Oinktera fought. He had keen senses in battle, and even though he was inexperienced, he did well against a monster of a way higher level.

With her new skill set, Desaray began her training. She had to perfect her current skills so she could easily use them in battle. While she was doing that, she also started crafting simple stone weapons. Her first creation was a stone dagger. She wanted some kind of weapon she could have on her just in case. Even if her claws were very sharp, she wanted to have a throwaway backup weapon as well. Sometimes she would not be able to fight with her claws, so a weapon was mandatory.

Something she did learn was that crafting skills had their own experience bars meaning they could level up without needing to use skill points. She now understood why Oinktera had his skills almost maxed out for hunting. It was because he had to do it on a daily basis, and this allowed his skills to level up on their own. Although, she also did not see a method of leveling up a profession with skill points either.

“I guess you can only level it up by actually using the skill. Luckily the crafting process is semi-automated.” It did not come with a crafting window or anything like that. But it did instill her body with the motions and knowledge needed to make each thing. Even if she had never made one before, she instinctively knew how to, allowing her to craft as she pleased.

◈◈◈

Desaray sat at the campfire in front of her with a hard stone lying on the ground at her side and another dagger-shaped stone in her hand. She was currently inspecting the edge of the stone she had just sharpened.

“That is?” Oinktera walked over and asked.

“This is a stone dagger blade. I am finishing the blade first before I fix it to a hilt. I will upgrade your spears later to stone spears. It will make hunting and xp farming easier later.” Desaray did not turn her head as she answered. She was actually quite engrossed in her crafting. “Oh, right, when I go to make armor, I will need to take your measurements later. All of us need armor, even if it is only the hide of another monster.”

“We can even get armor!?” Oinktera opened his eyes wide, he never expected Desaray to go that far!

“Mmm…. Armor is important to keeping you and myself safe. It is a necessity. As long as you all work hard, I will do my best to help you progress.” Desaray felt she was quite close to level 11 now. She did not know exactly how much, but she did know that it would not take too long before she reached it. She wanted to keep getting stronger and stronger. Each level was another step toward her goal.

After finishing the stone blade, Desaray began her woodworking. She was actually using the freshly made blade to carve the hilt. It did not take long to get it done and smoothed out. With a bit of thin vine, she wrapped it around the hilt to lock the blade into it. Only then did she start sharpening the blade once more.

With her dagger done, she began working on spearheads. It was no different from a knife, so it went smoothly. She made twelve in total. She found by her sixth spear, her weapon crafting even leveled up and gave way to bronze weapons. Although she had no idea where she was going to find copper and tin ore, but the information on how to make them was now in her mind. She also got information on how to make a stone pickaxe which gave her the hint that she could farm it somehow.

“Alright. I will start on your armor.” Desaray did not expect to have gotten the spears done so quickly, so she now had time to work on their armor. She planned to make her set first, which was going to be the hardest, so she had Oinkyera and Oinktira help her with measurements. Once the measurements were done, she could begin cutting out the shirt and coat she planned to make. The only issue was her tail. But the designs in her head were telling her it was not too hard to do.

It got too late, so Desaray was forced to finish her armor the next day. But she found that these skills were already overly helpful at this time. When she was done, she laid out all her newly created items in front of her. “Appraisal!”

[Stone Dagger]

[Damage]: 20

[Basic stone dagger. May break after too many uses or hitting a solid surface.]

[Rough Leather Coat]

[Protection]: 10

[A leather coat made of monster hide]

[Rough Leather Pants (Beast-kin)]

[Protection]: 8

[Leather pants made of monster hide]

Seeing that her new items even came with stats, she was slightly happy since she could find out how much they were going to help. She did not know how good the protection values were, but she figured they were only minor since they were low-quality goods. Well, she did not know if they were low quality or not since she did not know what higher quality goods looked like.

After she finished her own armor, she put it on and found it really easier to wear. The only thing that was a little hard to put on was the leather pants. But she made them easier to deal with after a minor adjustment. She made a button out of wood, and with some thin vine, she sewed it on and then made a slit and another hole for the button to slip into. This made putting her pants on much easier since she could just button them up instead of trying to slide her tail through a hole. As for the coat, it was not as hard. The wings section was cut out in a V, and the back of the coat only slipped up from the bottom and buttoned up in the front.

Everything was made to fit her body so that it would not obstruct anything. She thought wearing clothes would feel weird with her new body, but she actually felt quite comfortable. At least now she looked less like a monster and more like a beast kin.

She quickly got to work on the pigmen’s clothes, doing the females first. They only needed a button for the back of their pants, and that was it. Other than that, they needed no other special adjustments. She had finished all the female clothing by midday. It was then that she began doing the male pignmen’s clothes. This took until nightfall, but it did up her skill enough to know how to make bronze armor. It even gave her a new weapon crafting skill to make a hammer for forging.

The only issue with armor was the forge. It would be a while before she could make such a thing. But with new weapons and armor done, she knew tomorrow would be a new day. So while they all sat around the fire eating dinner, Desaray stood up and clapped her hands. “Okay, starting tomorrow, we will start hunting and leveling! We all need to evolve, so we will strive to hit level twenty and then meet the requirements for evolution. We will start small so we can all get used to our skills and fighting styles. We will then work our way up from there.”

◈◈◈

Five days later, Desaray was happily looking at her new levels. Not only did her main level increase, but also her professions that she had not gotten to level two went up as well.

[Name]: Desaray Harris

[Race]: Ice Dragling

[Age]: 14

[Level]: 11

[Monster Rank]: F

[Evolution Requirements]: Reach level 20 and kill 3 Rank E Elites

[HP]: 570/570

[MP]: 420/420

[Elemental Affinity]: Ice

[Skill Points]: 6

[Skills]

{Ice Breath (Lvl 2)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl 2)}     {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig (Lvl 1}

{Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 2)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}

[Professions]

{Weapon Crafting (Lvl 2)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 2)} {Hunting (Lvl 2)} {Foraging (Lvl 2)}              {Cooking (Lvl 2)}

One thing she had learned the past few days was that her Ice Arrow was much easier to use than her Fireball. Even though Fireball was at level 1, it was still not as easy for her to cast. This showed that there seemed to be a bit of a learning curve when it came to affinity. Why this was, she did not know, but she was more than happy to use her Ice Arrow.

She found she could hit targets almost perfectly between the eyes from far distances. This allowed her to fight from afar without worrying about being in too much danger. Although she knew it would not be proper training if she did things like this the entire time. This was why she also trained without using magic as well. Luckily all the monsters are of a lower level. Oinktera was now level 7, and his friends had reached level 6.

This was a huge boost over the past few days, but Desaray noticed that once you reach the level 5 mark, leveling starts to become slower. Within the past five days, it took her a while to level up one level. Oinktera hit level five quickly, but it took four days just to hit level seven.

But during this time, they were not just sitting around. Desaray’s inventory was filled with plants and herbs that could be used for alchemy. As well as more hide from monsters. She even found tin ore. Which she found was actually easy to find. It looked like an ore node one would see in a video game, further cementing that some higher power was at play and messing with them.

“Boss, we have mapped out the whole area for a few miles. Should we explore that crevice we found?” Oinktera asked. In the past five days, he and his kin had started calling her boss.

“Yeah, we will rest up today and celebrate our progress thus far. All of you have risen in level and have grown stronger. But remember not to let your guard down. At any moment and time, we could die with a single misstep.” Desaray replied as she threw some wood on the fire. She was preparing to make some barbecue monster meat. She had found that she felt stronger after eating monster meat. She did not know why this was, but she did.

It was not by much. Only a slight increase, but it was noticeable after eating a few days of monster meat. She just wished she could see her normal stats. It was nothing like the increase she got from leveling up.

After a night of stuffing themselves and sleeping peacefully, Desaray and the pigmen headed out towards the crevice. They had been keeping track of the area by making a map using a notebook Desaray had and a pen. It came in handy since they used the camp as the center point and then slowly drew things out from there. Any point on the map that was marked was a point of interest or a meeting point. A circle meant a meeting point, and a point of interest was marked with a star. There were only two stars on the map at this time, and they were heading to one of them now.

When they arrived, the crevice was made up of part of the landscape that seemed to have risen at some point. Even the building that was there had been engulfed by the cliffs now jutting out of the earth. Desaray readied her stone dagger as she said: “Okay, everyone, stay on guard.”

Oinktera and the others all nodded and slowly began to follow Desaray. The passage was narrow, but it was still wide enough for them to walk down single file. The landscape turned from a lush green forest to a rock, one with nothing but brown grass patches here and there on the dirt ground.

The change was a bit too drastic. Desaray had a feeling they were about to uncover something they did not expect here or walk right into some kind of boss monster. But even if they did, that did not mean Desaray was about to back down unless she knew for a fact they could not win.

Risks also come with rewards. If one did not risk their lives, they would not gain anything in return. They walked the narrow path for almost twenty minutes until, finally, it opened up. It was a half-circle area, but on the far side, against the steep cliff, vines hung down from above and fell over a large opening in the wall of the cliff side. “A dungeon!”

Ointera was the first to speak. But when he spoke, his voice cracked as he trembled in fear. Even the other pigmen were the same. Dungeons were not like regular monsters. The monsters inside were stronger and much more vicious. “Boss, we should leave this….” Oinktera could not even finish his words because when he looked at Desaray, her eyes were shining with excitement.