[Level up! 1 > 2]

  Lv. 2

  Heart: 2

  Power: 1

  Vessel: 7

  I look at my stats. Vessel went up by one without me putting a stat in. I placed one in heart, since it seemed important not to be exhausted by all the walking we were doing. Two more into vessel should have left it at 6, but it sat at 7.

  The air tingles against my skin. The itch from the acidic blood is almost negligible now, which I’m grateful for. I reach out to the tingling air, feeling it abuzz. I try to [Select] it, but that fails. Instead, I focus on what is going on inside me.

  Vessel. It was my highest stat by far, even though it was not particularly high yet. I felt a buzzing source in my chest, which feeds into my skills when I activate them. It feels about half full right around now.

  We’re almost at Inu’s house. Her forehead is beaded with sweat, and I can feel twinges of pain from her, but she handles them. We’ve gotten her a level, too. She was scared of attacking the goblins, but she did it despite that.

  I smile. ‘My friend is really rather brave, isn’t she?’

  Inu grunts, jumping over another bit of rubble. The streets are now empty, most people having filtered into their houses after the emergency alert. We’re decked out in goblin weapons. I tied five daggers to my belt, and Inu has two strapped against her backpack.

  We also keep three of their bone-axes. Those seem a little rarer, and are rather sturdy, though my first one broke just a bit ago.

  “That’s the house, right?” I ask, pointing my axe at an apartment building. It’s about four stories high, the paint outside just a bit chipped. It looked old without being too run down, the kind that seemed like someone might murder you inside, but was actually rather homely.

  “Yeah,” Inu nods. “That’s where I live.”

  We hadn’t met there too often, but I was going to sleep over there today. Until the world ended. I gave the house a long look, then the dimming sky. Might still sleep there, I amend.

  Inu walks to the door. It takes a little more time, and we have to hop over some more rubble, but nothing too bad. I take the time to look around, trying to see if any humans are around, but none show themselves.

  My friend eventually manages to get the key into the lock, swinging open the door to the stairwell. It’s cold inside, colder than outside, and I feel the hair on my skin stand up. Something feels messed up. The tingling against my skin is stronger.

  I give Inu a long look and she nods. We make our way further up, quietly. To the first floor, then the second. White walls with fading paint and worn stone steps. Then, there’s a deafening crack, and we’re showered with stone shards, ducking instantly.

  A gun.

  “Hands above your head!” a voice demands, loud and angry, echoing through the empty stairwell. I stretch my arms up slowly, making sure to appear as harmless as I can. Just some kid, right?

  The person holding it is much older than me, in his forties. He sports a gruff beard, terrified eyes, and unkempt hair. In one word, I would describe him as panicked. “Who are you?” he barked. “You here to loot? Steal our shit, huh? Want me to blow your brains out?!”

  My eyes remain set on the gun. Inu starts talking, but I have full faith in her ability to manage this. Instead, I [Select] the gun. It’s funny, feeling how it works. I get a sense for all its mechanisms, the way a little movement is used to unleash so much force.

  I restrain my desire to tilt my head. Can I mess with the weapon? All I need to do is prevent the hammer from striking… but as I think about it, the man lowers the gun.

  Looking up, I feel that Inu has used [Empathy] on him. The man shares some of her fear, but it’s a softer one, directed at himself. He looks at his own hands. “What… was I about to do?” he says, half sobbing. “Shooting at… some kids! How old even are you??”

  “Twenty-two,” I reply without hesitation.

  He laughs, though it sounds desperate. “I think that was rhetorical,” Inu tells me.

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  “Right, sorry,” I nod.

  “Ugh…” the man says, still caught up with himself. “I… sorry.” The gun lowers some more, and he puts it aside fully. Putting the safety back on and all. I deselect it.

  “Do you… wanna come in?” he asks.

  Inu shakes her head. “My parents live on the next floor,” she says

  The man just nods, and waves a hand, closing his door again. I was tempted to get the gun, but they never last long in an apocalypse. I don’t think that we’ll be facing just goblins for much longer.

  When we reach the third floor, Inu is shaking. I feel her reach out for some calm again and readily accept. She shares in the solemn silence within me. The girl takes a few deep breaths, then flashes me a brief smile, before unlocking the door, and opening it. “Mom? Dad? It’s me,” she calls.

  I’m hit with the smell of… soup. Tomato soup.

  “Inu!” a woman calls, rushing at her and giving her a hug. She winces as they put pressure on her injured shoulder. “Oh, Inu, I’m so glad you’re back home. Where were you?” She holds onto her daughter with both arms.

  A little later, I see her father lumber around the corner, too. He is a tall, thin man, with a frown set on his face and wiry, brown hair. He pushes up his thin glasses, then eyes me. “Is this your friend? Snow, you said?”

  The daughter nods for me. “Yes. That’s Snow.”

  He eyes me once more. “Right, I see,” he says. “Come in, you two. I’m sure you’re hungry.”

  I look at Inu, then follow them inside. Her mother shares Inu’s dark skin and black hair, though the older woman’s is much longer. She’s tall, too, a little taller than me, and wears a stretchy woolen sweater.

  They guide me to the dinner table, then put stew in front of us. Inu digs in like a rabid dog. My own appreciation for the food is much more measured. “It’s very good, thank you,” I tell them, and my friend’s parents soften a little.

  “You look… hurt,” the mom comments. Inu told me her name, but I forgot.

  “I’m okay,” I say. The few bruises and scratches won’t kill me. Well, unless I get hit by some kind of mutant virus, but in that case, I’ll figure out some way to kill it. “Your daughter took an arrow through the shoulder. We didn’t have disinfectant wi-”

  “What?!” her father interrupts me. The displeased man now looks downright furious. I find myself not caring very much. Maybe if I’d been scared, I’d have flinched, but with the knives around my waist, I feel safe. Instead, I just blankly stare at him. “How?!” he demands.

  Inu holds out a hand to explain herself, so I let her. Instead, I focus on the soup, and the tingling in the air. The hairs on my arm are still standing on end, and I can feel that the world has changed. My vessel is filling. Would this be called mana? I’ll call it mana.

  I eye my skills again. [Selection] and [Suppression], both still at level one. I haven’t had much reason to train them yet. Our encounters had been fast and brutal. Having something to heal myself would be good. My eye drifts to Inu. No, something to heal my friends.

  “Snow? Is that right?” Inu’s mother asks me.

  “Yes,” I confirm. “That’s how it happened.” I wasn’t listening, but I’m sure Inu came up with a believable story.

  “Oh, you poor things,” she says in a motherly tone.

  Inu pokes me, and I give an awkward smile and a nod. “We… managed.”

  “Right, right. I’m glad you’re safe now. Don’t worry Snow, you can stay here until the government deals with this,” she says, eyes flicking to Norman. Her smile is thin.

  No way. I have absolutely no faith in our world to mop this up. This is just what my status considers floor zero. And the tingling… I’m pretty sure it’s getting stronger. “I don’t think that’s a smart decision,” I say.

  Inu’s eyes flicker to me. I nod, faintly, letting her know I mean it. Her dad gives me a hard look. “You wanna go out there and die?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t plan on it. But I doubt our government will mop this up. Could you try saying ‘Status’, please? It might make things easier to explain.”

  “Honey, I’m not sure…” Inu’s mom starts, but her dad is much more relentless.

  “Status,” the older man calls, then his eyes go wide. “Name… Norman Kelly. How does it know my name?”

  So he’s called Norman, then. I try to remember it.

  “What does this mean? Heart? Vessel? Skills?”

  “What are your skills, dad?” Inu asks, gently.

  He gives her a long look, then swallows heavily. “[Unassuming] and [Protection].”

  Those sound useful. I could see myself working with him.

  Inu’s mom, on the other hand just seems more confused. “Love… what are you talking about? Skills? A status?” A moment later she yelps, staring wide-eyed at the air.

  I bite back a sigh of impatience at the antics. “Heart is your lifeforce. Power is your capability for physical exertion. Vessel is your capacity for magic,” I explain. “Everyone seems to get two skills assigned. They work as you think they would, with some leeway.”

  “Mine are [Empathy] and [Resistance],” Inu adds. “The first lets me share emotions between people. The second… well. It’s why my arm doesn’t hurt too bad.” Her smile is a little crooked, but I find myself almost smiling as well. Silly girl.

  “Oh dear,” her mother says.

  “Mom? What did you get?” Inu asks.

  The older woman takes a long breath. The words come out calmly. “[Dissect] and [Freeze].”

  Now those sound useful. I lean forward a little. “Until now, we’ve found that the skills seem to be inherently supernatural. They don’t just mean you can do something well with mundane means, they mean you can do it better than possible with mundane means,” I say.

  Before I can continue, the tingling intensifies. I stand up without hesitation and walk to the window. When I open it, a howling wind crashes into me, almost sending me back a step, but I keep looking. The air is thick with… something. A moment later, a tiny green thing comes flying at my face.