Coming back to his senses, Winter looked around the room. His gaze met Sage's, a hint of worry evident in her bright green eyes.
"Why do you guys look like you've seen a ghost? Was it that bad?" he questioned.
Sage was the first one to speak up. "If bad is drowning out the whole room in darkness-"
"Don't forget about the purple." Simon blurted.
"...and streaks of purple. Then yes, it was bad."
Winter looked at the other two for confirmation, in which they nodded at him.
Ava nodding her head, added on. "The atmosphere was heavy, very heavy. Unlike when we was in the clinic, it was a struggle just to take a breath."
Seeing them in shock, he began feeling apologetic towards them. "I'm sorry, I didn't know things were gonna take such a dramatic turn. If I knew, I would've done this in my bedroom or something."
Sensing his apologetic tone, they figured he had no ill intentions. Though they were shaken up at first, they quickly overcame that feeling after seeing that he was alright.
Breaking the silence, Simon spoke in a comforting tone. "You don't have to apologize, it's not like you did it on purpose. There was probably nothing you could do about it."
The two girls nodded in unison which seemed to soothe Winter's worry.
"By the way, did you get two awakenings or something? Why did it fade from red to black, then to black and purple?" Sage asked curiously.
'That's some keen observation there.' Winter nervously chuckled to himself.
"Yeah, after choosing my first class, it upgraded into a Unique class called Warlock." he told her the half truth, not wanting to disclose his system to them just yet.
Sage nodded to herself, happy that he was able to get a unique class as well. On the other side, Ava and Simon stared at the two in disbelief.
'Was it really so easy to get unique classes?!'
Unfortunately, they could only blame their bad luck.
'If only.' they thought. 'If only.'
Nudging Sage's side, Winter nodded towards the siblings direction. "Are they all right?"
Sage shrugged. "Beats me."
"On another note, have you distributed your attribute points?" he asked.
Suddenly remembering her piled up points, she opened up her status panel, allowing winter to preview it as well.
[Status]
Name: Sage Sanchez
Level: 5 (EXP 325/400)
Class: Willowshade Huntress
Strength: 7
Agility: 14
Constitution: 7
Intelligence: 8
Magic Power: 10
Fixed Stats: Luck-20, Charisma-9
Attribute Points: 20
Talent: Advanced Archery
Skills: (Active Skill) Arrowcraft: Able to use magic power to create arrows out of nothing. Arrows disappear 1 minute after being shot.
(Passive Skill) Hunter's Mark: Arrows shot by the user hone onto the target, tracking them.
Weapon: Basic Bow
"How do you think I should go about it?"
Winter pondered for a few seconds before agreeing life wasn't fair. If it weren't for his personal system, he would've probably been overshadowed by Sage's overwhelming amount of luck.
"Alright bring all your main stats up to 10 first, then put 4 in agility and dump the rest in Intelligence. Since you aren't on the front line, you should focus on your perception, attack speed and movement speed."
Sage did as he said.
[Status]
Name: Sage Sanchez
Level: 5 (EXP 325/400)
Class: Willowshade Huntress
Strength: 10
Agility: 18
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 18
Magic Power: 10
Fixed Stats: Luck-20, Charisma-9
Attribute Points: 0
Showing her stats to Winter, he nodded in approval. But before he could completely relax, an alert popped up.
[There has been a minor problem with your previous reward.]
[Instead of receiving 12 attribute points per level, you have received 13 attribute points per level instead.]
[Would you like the system to automatically deduct 4 attribute points, or would you like to manually remove them?]
Winter figured something like this would happen. When he first received the attribute points, he was surprised to get thirteen instead of twelve, but he decided to put it off. Now it seems like it finally trailed back to him.
"Stupid auth-"
*Ahem* Now it seems that it would be corrected.
He decided to remove two points from agility and two points from strength, reducing them to 25 and 35 respectively.
Soon after, a feeling of exhaustion washed over him briefly before disappearing.
Not allowing him to catch his breath, another screen appeared in front of him.
[Due to receiving the Unique Class Warlock, every level up will add 5 points to Magic Power and 3 points to Strength.]
Grinning from ear to ear, he internally rejoiced. 'Well, maybe Sage isn't the only lucky one after all.'
-------
A few hours passed training. Winter helped Simon with his close combat skills, Sage practiced her tracking without her skill and Ava sorted out her 'med bay'—which was really just the garage.
In the basement, Winter was practically throwing around Simon like a ragdoll.
"That's not how you use a sword. Your movements are too wide—creating gaps in your defense, same for your legs. You aren't fencing, so why are they so far apart?"
Simon groaned at his continuous bashing. "Look man, I haven't been training for years like you. This is all new to me, so cut me some slack yeah?"
Realizing his harshness wasn't helping, a flash of guilt was seen on his face as he walked over towards the seated Simon.
"You know what, I'm sorry. I was trying to build up your strength, but it seems I was going at it the wrong way." Reaching out his hand, he continued. "Could you find it in your heart to forgive me?"
Hearing this, Simon smiled, extending his hands out to meet his. "Yeah, it's n-"
Unfortunately for him, Winter didn't let him off so easily.
Taking his hand, Winter pivoted his right leg. Using his free hand, he grabbed onto the cloth near his shoulder and flipped him over his shoulder causing Simon's back to slam down onto the mat.
Simon groaned loudly on the floor while Winter looked down at him.
"Do you think those walkers care if you started training a long time ago or not?" he rhetorically asked. "Well, the answer is no. Unless you wanna become walker chum, you should probably try a bit harder."
"After all, practice makes perfect." he added, remembering his coach's favorite phrase.
Sage watched the lesson unfold whilst shaking her head. They've been training for hours, yet Simon was still making the same mistakes.
"Maybe he needs some practical training." she suggested. "Sun's still up, we can find a solo walker he can fight against."
Pushing through his body pains, Simon stood up opposing her idea. "No way. I'm not fighting one of those things, especially when I can't even hold my ground against this kid."
'Then again, he did kill that small horde of walkers all alone.' he thought to himself.
To the side, Winter was contemplating whether or not he should throw him once more. "If anyone here was a kid, wouldn't it be you?" he questioned.
Taken back, Simon smugly grinned. "Not exactly, I'm actually gonna be able to legally drink this year. While I would assume you two are still in high school, right?"
Sage and Winter gawked at him in disbelief. He didn't look a day over 19, and even that was pushing it.
'Guess he got some of the good genetics, huh?'
*Ahem, ahem* Simon cleared his throat, pride radiating from his body.
The two rolled their eyes, as they walked towards the stairs. "That's good for you and all, but that's not gonna help you right now." Winter stated.
"Unless you wanna be a male escort that is." Sage remarked.
Simon stood their rooted, hands on chin, genuinely considering the offer.
Seeing him standing there contemplating, Sage sighed. "It was a joke idiot."
Releasing a breath of relief, Simon wiped his imaginary sweat off his forehead. "Well good. You're a bit too young for my preferences. By the way, I thought you two were together, so I was kind of thrown off by that question."
Hearing him, Sage and Winter both blushed, denying the accusation. "Haha, w-we aren't d-dating." Sage replied shakily.
"Right, we barely know each other." Winter stated firmly.
Sensing their awkwardness, Simon internally cringed scurrying past them. 'You know what, fighting a few walkers doesn't sound as bad right now.'