My class is 'Guardian Knight', it is a Rank 2 class I gained because I was part of the first 1% of humans to reach level 1. It grants me two innate skills, one increases my talent in all aspects that are related to being a knight. But I have no idea what a knight is. Do you know what a knight is? So far, I have only noticed that it was surprisingly easy to gain control over my life force which means that controlling life force is probably related to being a knight.
I am not sure what my second skill does yet, but it allows me to mark someone. Sadly, I could not find out what marking someone does yet. What about you? What is your class"
Ezren didn't answer immediately, he had to decide how much he wanted to tell them about himself. He would definitely tell them about his class and the related skills, but he was hesitant to reveal that his race had changed. After a moment of hesitation, he answered
"My class is 'Mage of Creation', it is a Unique class that grants me two skills. I have not been able to figure out what one of them does, but the other one allows me to create matter using my mana. I used that skill to create my hammer.
Ah, and I have no idea what a knight is either."
"That's very interesting" Alexia answered "Would you be able to create a weapon for me too? As you can see, I can fight fairly well using just my body, but I would still prefer using a weapon"
"Sadly, I can't create a weapon for you at the moment. It takes a lot of mana to create a weapon, and I spent pretty much all I had while trying to create my hammer.
I noticed something weird when looking at my status, it doesn't display my last name, it got my age wrong, and my race is displayed as Gene-enhanced human. Is it the same for you?"
Alexia was the first one to answer
"Yes, it is the same for me."
"What are you even talking about? Classes? Status? What is that?" Sarah, who had finally recovered her composure, asked while giving Ezren and Alexia a weird look.
'That's going to be annoying' Ezren thought and proceeded to wait silently until Alexia had explained everything to Sarah.
After Alexia finished her explanation Sarah just sat there quietly for a few seconds. She was probably wondering if Alexia was playing a prank on her since that was just too unbelievable to be true. But considering that she had almost been killed by a zombie-like monster a few moments ago and then witnessed Alexia decapitate said zombie with her bare hand it suddenly didn't sound so crazy anymore.
Ezren, who was really uncomfortable in this awkward silence, decided to be the one to break the silence.
"What do we do now? It was my plan to search for other survivors as soon as possible and then travel toward district 20 once we have gathered a large group."
"I agree that we should search for other survivors as soon as possible, but I have to head towards district 18 afterwards." Alexia answered immediately.
"Why? District 18 is way less populated compared to District 20 and the central government's presence there is very weak. We can't expect to get a lot of help in District 20. District 18 on the other hand has a strong presence of government forces and a good infrastructure connection to the central districts. And even if you ignore those facts, we are geographically way closer to District 18 than to District 20. In we walk towards District 20 we will not find any settlements for at least 100km."
Unfazed by his outburst Alexia looked him in the eyes and answered
"I don't care. My family lives near the barrier separating District 19 and District 20 and nothing will stop me from going there."
Ezren was becoming angry, he hated it when people ignored all reason in favor of emotions.
"Are you insane? What will doing so achieve? You will just get yourself and potentially all other people here killed. And even if you miraculously manage to arrive there alive you will not find your family anyway. They either survived in which case they will have moved towards better protected areas, or they mutated in which case you would have to kill them yourself."
Alexia was still unfazed and retorted
"So, what do you expect me to do? Should I just forget about my family and leave them to their fate?"
"Yes…No. Anyways let's postpone this discussion until later. We have to gather a group of survivors first and our time is running out.
We have to decide if we go together which will make potential battles easier or split up to speed up the search."
"We can do neither. One of us has to stay here and protect Sarah while the other will have to go on the search alone."
'Shit. I totally forgot about Sarah.'
"Then I will be the one to go on and you stay here. I think that you are stronger than me at the moment and protecting someone from an attack is harder than just surviving it alone."
This was the truth, but Ezren had intentionally not mentioned that the person who went out to search for survivors was far more likely to encounter mutations thus making the job more dangerous over all.
Everything he said was true, but Ezren had another reason why he wanted to be in charge of searching for survivors. He wanted to encounter and kill a few mutations to increase his level. Thinking about the mutations made him shudder with fear, but his desire to become stronger was just as great. After all he knew that he was very unlikely to survive the next few weeks with his current level of strength.
So, he would rather face a fairly weak enemy he already knew now, than be too weak to confront whatever he might encounter in the future.
"Sure, I will stay here while you go and search for survivors. We can switch roles once you are exhausted." Alexia answered after some hesitation.
'Why did she hesitate to answer? Does she know my true motive? No that is unlikely and here gaze doesn't seem suspicious, instead it seems a bit annoyed?'
It was really hard to read Alexia's emotions off her face, but Ezren was pretty sure to have noticed a short expression of annoyance flash across her face.
'Why would she be annoyed? Wait, does she think that I am putting up a brave facade and am willingly taking the more dangerous job to protect her? Why would I possibly want to protect a stranger who is stronger than me from danger? Hmm… does she think that I am trying to impress her?
That makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. I can imagine a lot of guys actually doing something like that to impress a beauty like her.
Well, a lot of guys or people in general are pretty stupid. I would give her the more dangerous task without hesitation if I didn't want to level up. But she doesn't have to know that.'
"Alright I will be going then. Stay alive and see you later."
"Good luck!" Alexia answered.
Without hesitation Ezren turned around and started jogging toward the nearest train cart.
_______________
Ezren arrived at the next train cart only a few seconds later.
First, he walked around the whole train cart once. He found nothing outside the train cart and then decided to take a look inside the train cart.
After climbing through a broken window on top of the train he saw a scene very similar to the train cart he had been in before a great number of mangled, crushed and most certainly dead bodies laid all over the place.
Seeing this gruesome scene he still felt nothing, but that didn't matter right now. He had a goal to accomplish, two goals actually, everything else could wait until later.
He had to find other survivors and level up in the process.
The next three train carts he searched for looked almost the same as the first one.
The amount of damage to the bodies and the carts themselves differed slightly but there were no major differences and more importantly no survivors. No human and no mutations, he found nothing alive in those train carts.
But once he walked toward the fifth train cart he stopped on the spot. He could hear them again.
The sounds of breaking bones and ripping skin. The sounds came from behind the train cart he was currently standing in front of.
'It seems it is time for my first fight.'
Thinking about those different emotions surfaced in his mind. Fear, anxiety and anticipation.
But all those emotions didn't matter right now. The only important thing right now was to keep a cool head and think logically about each and every step.
He took a deep breath and focused his mind on the present pushing all of his lingering questions and confusion to the edges of his mind. Having prepared himself mentally, Ezren started walking again.
After turning around the corner he could now see it… them?!
There were two mutations!
One must have been a tall athletic man before while the other was a boy at most 7 years old.
Both were currently hunched over different dead bodies and in the process of eating them. At least that was what Ezren assumed based on the loud chewing and ripping sound.
'It seems they have not noticed me yet.'
Ezren gripped his hammer with both hands and started walking toward the younger mutation which was eating not too far away with its back turned towards him.
Ezren walked as silently as possible taking care not to step on anything that could make a sound.
Once he was just a step away, he raised his hammer, took another step forward and swung his hammer down with every bit of force he could muster.
The hammer hit the mutation in the back of its head. Its skull caved in under the force of the hammer and pieces of flesh and brain matter were sent flying in all directions.
[You've killed a Level 0 'Unstable Mutation']
The loud impact of the strike alerted the other mutation of Ezren's presence. It stood up and started running towards Ezren. It seems that it had forgotten the half-eaten corpse it had been eating until now and tripped over it.
Ezren would not waste this chance and lunged toward the mutation that was still struggling to stand up. He tried to smash its head like he had done before, but the mutation suddenly jolted forward crawling on all fours toward him.
Ezren did not manage to adjust the trajectory of his strike in time and hit the mutations lower back instead of its head. He could hear the mutations spine shatter under his strike, but the mutation didn't seem to care about that and instead grabbed his left foot.
It then bit into his shin with an unnatural amount of force. He could feel his flesh being ripped apart until the mutation's teeth reached his shin bone. He heard both his shin bone and the mutation's jaw bones crack under the immense pressure.
Ezren instinctively tried to shake the mutation off by moving his leg, but that only brought him more pain. He was about to go into a state of panic due to the pain and shock only staying rational due to the one semi-logical thought left in his mind.
'Kill it! Kill it and the pain will stop! KILL IT!!'
His thoughts were clouded by pain, but this one thought pushed through his foggy mind and compelled his body to move. Without hesitation he lifted his hammer back up and smashed it down onto the mutation's head.
He heard the breaking of bones. The mutation's skull broke, its jaws shattered, and Ezren's shin bone snapped. He had quite literally smashed the mutation's skull through his own leg.
[You've killed a Level 0 'Unstable Mutation']
Ezren could not care less about the notification at the moment, he was desperately trying to separate his leg from the mutation's corpse. But the mutation's teeth were still stuck in his flesh and bones. Every time he tried to pull on the corpse a new jolt of pain went through his leg.
He was gradually losing his reason due to the constant and intense pain.
'I will definitely bleed out if I don't do something. No, maybe I won't. I am no longer human after all.
But will my leg heal?
Do I have enough Mana for that?
Will the mutations corpse prevent the healing process?
Fuck! It hurts so fucking much, I want it to stop! Make it stop!'
Looking down at the gruesome mess that had once been his shin and foot, Ezren's cloudy mind came up with an insane idea. It was an idea born of desperation and delusion. Yet it still had a somewhat logical foundation. He wanted the pain in his shin to stop and he wanted to rid himself of the mutation's corpse. His mind came to a simple conclusion.
Get rid of the leg!
He used all the focus he could muster to create a small and ugly iron knife. The knife could hardly be called sharp, but it was at least sharper than his hammer.
His leg had been mostly ripped off anyway therefore with a few decisive slices, each accompanied by a scream of pain, he managed to half-cut and half-saw off the last bits of flesh and skin that connected the intact part of his leg to the mangled mess below it using the dull iron knife.
Being finally freed from the mutation's corpse, Ezren crawled back a short distance before he rolled himself into a ball. He waited for the pain to stop, to fall unconscious, for anything to happen that could rid him of this pain.
He waited and waited. For what felt like an eternity, but nothing happened. There was no salvation from the pain. His mind stayed awake, not allowing himself to fall unconscious.
'What is…going on…why do I…not fall…unconscious? Why…does it not...stop? I…want it..to stop! Please…make it..stop! Please…please…stop..make it…stop.'
There was no capacity left for logical thoughts or reasoning. No self-awareness. There was nothing in his mind but pain, unbearable unrelenting pain. He was even denied the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness.
He could do nothing but lay there on the bloody dirt. He could feel nothing but pain and desperation. He could not wish for anything but relief.
He barely managed to curse his own weakness before his mind was once again overcome by pain.
Then after what felt like an eternity, he felt something else. He felt his strength draining from his body and felt intense exhaustion. It was a deeply uncomfortable feeling, but he could not care less anything was better than pain.
And then the pain suddenly vanished. The intense exhaustion remained but the pain was gone.
"He..heh…hahahaha"
Ezren was laughing and crying due to the euphoria caused by the absence of pain. Feeling no pain or rather the absence of pain was probably the best and most exhilarating feeling he had felt in his life.
Even after the pain vanished, Ezren continued to lay on the floor curled up into a ball. His mind was empty and exhausted. He had stopped laughing some time ago.
Now he was just crying, and it no longer were tears of euphoria and happiness.
And he lay there on the ground for several minutes. He was weak, alone and utterly broken.
He had tried his best to keep his composure through all the horrors and shocks he had witnessed today. He had tried to see the positive side of things, to make the best out of the situation. But what was he supposed to do?
He was just a normal human or rather he had been just a normal human living a normal human living a normal life a few hours ago. How was he supposed to go through all this horror and pain without breaking?
He just couldn't do it, he was not like those fictional heroes who could shrug off everything and continue going.
He had no convictions or great goals. He was not even brave enough to take risks in his daily life. For his entire life he had just let himself be pulled along always making the safest choices, never taking any risks. That had worked out well sometimes, and sometimes it didn't. He had lived an overall happy, but empty life until now, of course he had his own rough times where he was depressed but there had been few of those.
And today when everything around him changed he had naively thought that he would be able to change too. That he would be able to take more risks and live a fulfilled life. That was why he had taken the risk and chosen the unique class. That was why he had volunteered to go and search for survivors. He wanted to change.
But where had that brough him? What had changed? The only thing he managed to achieve was to almost get himself killed in his first fight.
After a while Ezren forced himself to sit up and take a look at his leg. His pants were ripped beneath his left knee and a perfectly healed leg and foot were exposed.
He looked around for his former leg that had been ripped off but couldn't find it. He found the broken head of the mutation, but his leg was no longer stuck in its mouth.
He decided to take a short look at his Status.
[Status
Name: Ezren
Last Name: None
Race: Sentient Mana (fixed Human form)
Age: 19 Years
Rank: 1
Level: 1
Class: Mage of Creation (Rank Unique, Lv. 1)
Mana: 9 (190)
…]
'My Mana went down to 9 after my leg healed. I had around 45 mana before which means that it took around 35 mana to regenerate my leg.
What would have happened if I had insufficient mana? Would I have died or just not regenerated? He was too exhausted to care right now.
Me feeling incredibly exhausted makes sense considering that for me mana also acts as Vitality and Stamina. Which means I am currently like a terminally ill person near death who also decided to run a marathon.
I should first head back to the other two and rest until I have at least recovered some of my mana.'
(A/N: Just a heads up, that I made an error while writing the date in the first chapter and I re-edited it now. If you find any errors or inconsistencies in my book, please point them out and I will go back and fix them.)