Level Up

After finishing off the last goblin in the corridor, Alex received a peculiar new message

[Level Up! You are now Level 2!]

a bitter smile spread across his face. Below the message was another notice

[Level up YES/NO]

of course, he was going to level up, he didn't even need a second to decide.

"Yes,"

he replied aloud, confusing Emily as he began to advance in Level. As if his vision was seeing augmented reality, a screen appeared before him.

Name: Alexander Smith

Class: None

Title: None

Deity: None

Hitpoints: 140/140

Stamina: 130/130

Attribute Points [2] Skill Points [1]

Attributes: Skills: Proficiencies:

Strength: 15 [+][-] Charge: Level 1 [+][-] 1H Axes: 2

Dexterity: 13 [+][-] Unarmed: 10

Constitution: 14 [+][-]

Intelligence: 12 [+][-]

Wisdom: 8 [+][-]

Charisma: 8 [+][-]

He decided it would be best to invest one attribute point into Dexterity and one into Constitution, increasing his Dexterity to 14, and his Constitution to 15. For now, he would focus on physical attributes as that was the most necessary to survive.

Apparently due to his background of being a fighter Alex had an innate skill called [Charge]. Which allowed him to rapidly advance to his enemy's position. He knew he would be able to make great use of this skill going forward.

After clicking accept, he began to feel a change in his body. After quickly glancing over his character page to see the changes, he noticed the HP and Stamina had increased by 10 points each. He surmised with little effort that for every one stat invested into Constitution, he would gain 10 HP; the same principle applied for Dexterity and Stamina.

Though minor, he could tell he was slightly faster and could take more damage. After briefly testing his Dexterity, he began looking at his skill points; rather than upgrading one of his current skills, he looked over a list of potential skills in which he had already met the prerequisites. His vision fell upon a skill known as Suffer Agony.

[Suffer Agony]

Active

Once activated user will gain an additional 50 hit points for 5 seconds.

Cooldown: 1 minute

Prerequisite: 15 Constitution

This ability was a life-saving skill he desperately needed in his corner. Alex eagerly accepted the skill. Though he wanted to test it out then and there, he thought it would be best to save it as his trump card, after all, who knows what dangers he might encounter in the next minute.

After completing the level-up process, he began to press forward, with Emily in shortly behind. As they approached the corner of the corridor, Alex motioned to a room nearby with its door broken down.

"Stand watch; I'll go in and see if there are any survivors."

Emily nodded and tightened her grip on her knife, though she hoped someone was alive and well inside, she didn't want to walk into a horrific scene if she could help it. As Alex walked through the door, torch in hand, he saw the room in disarray, shattered lamps lying on the ground, tumbled desks littered the floor, and scattered papers were everywhere.

There had been a struggle inside this room. Yet there was no sign of blood or body parts. Nor were there any corpses lying around; if he remembered correctly, this was a dorm room that housed two female students.

As he looked upon the room's scattered remains, two sets of thoroughly thrashed clothing lie on the carpet. There were bloodstains spread across them. He shivered at the thought of what may have happened to the poor women.

However, he pushed it out of his mind and walked out of the exit where Emily was standing guard.

"Nothing,"

he said grimly, he was at a loss of words after seeing the wreckage that was once a living space.

Emily nodded, not asking further, "We should head towards the stairs and make our way down."

They were on the third floor of the complex, and since the power was out, elevator access was out of the question. Alex nodded and took point; he acted as the vanguard in this scenario.

After gaining access to the stairs, Alex nearly hurled. There was a pile of shredded human body parts lying in the center of the walkway. From the looks of it belonging to multiple people, He shielded Emily's eyes so she wouldn't have to see it.

"Cover your eyes, and hold my hand. I'll lead you to the main level."

Emily didn't need to guess what was lying before her; she followed his instruction, and the two descended the stairs. There were no signs of goblins on the stairs, though somehow that made them more anxious. After climbing down the staircase, the two finally made it to the dormitory complex's Main Level.

Though it was unknown what lied beyond the door, the two students were anxious; it could only be trouble. Hesitating for a few moments while collecting their thoughts and bracing themselves for the inevitable, they eventually managed to find the courage to open the door and proceed on their quest for survival.

Upon entering the main level, they once more found themselves in a dark corridor with a handful of goblins; these goblins dragged body parts into piled. It appeared as if the goblins were beginning to clean up the mess they made on the main floor. Alex charged the nearest goblin and smashed its skull with the stone ax.

The key was to get to them before they grouped in large numbers. Though easy to kill individually, they were extremely deadly in groups. The other three goblins in the corridor were alerted and rushed towards Alex and Emily. Emily pierced a goblin through the neck with a single stab. At the same time, Alex battered the skull of the second one.

The third grabbed Emily and climbed up to her chest, where he began tearing at her clothes with a lustful gaze. Before he could finish, Alex pulled him off by the back of the neck and slammed him into the ground. Emily, enraged by the goblin's lecherous actions, stabbed down vertically into its skull as hard as she could, spilling brain matter onto the floor.

After finishing off the goblins in the corridors, they began to move quickly. If they failed to do so, the goblins would trap them. Goblins had excellent senses and would have heard the battle that had just taken place. As they took a turn around the corridor, they spotted another room with its door intact, though slightly ajar.

For now, they could hide inside the vacant room until the goblins passed. That was the plan, at least, but upon slamming the door shut behind them and locking it, they discovered a horrific scene lying in the middle of the bedroom.

A young woman in her early 20s lied in the middle of the floor. Her limbs twisted and bent out of shape. Her body covered in bruises, welts, and cuts, all of which appeared to be recent. A thick goo was spread across her body and spilled out of several orifices.

As a man, Alex instinctively knew what this was; it did not take much imagination to understand what had transpired in this room. Horrified and enraged, Alex glared at the door behind him. As he stared at it, he could hear the growls of the goblins behind it, attempting to force their way in through the door.

Alex stepped towards the door, prepared to fight until he heard wheezing coming from the girl behind him; she was still alive. He and Emily walked over to the poor young woman and knelt beside her

*cough* "who's there?" *cough*

she gasped in a shallow and raspy voice. The goblins blinded the poor girl as they ravaged her. Alex grabbed her hand in an attempt to comfort her.

"My name is Alex; I live in a dorm on the third floor. We'll get you out of here," he stated with fierce determination.

The girl was so weak, her body ravaged by a gang of goblins, her limbs nearly torn off, she was unable to move on her own. It was difficult for her to speak, her throat sore from some violent acts by the goblins.

It took her a while to form the words with a single tear falling for her shut eyes.

"Kill me…."

She moaned in pain as she uttered the phrase. Emily was shocked and began to cry herself; if Alex hadn't opened the door for her, perhaps she would've suffered a similar fate. She walked into the corner and cried, unable to face the girl, which could have been her.

Alex gulped as he swallowed the saliva that had built up in his mouth. After a long pause, he tried to persuade the girl as he squeezed her hand tighter,

"I can get you out of here. There's no need for you to die."

The girl shook her head slowly, almost as if there was no movement, to begin with,

"I'm in so much pain… please end it," she stated, slowly forming each word that unintentionally emphasized her suffering.

Alex let go of the girl's hand and walked away for a few moments trying to clear his head. This doesn't seem right; this isn't like killing goblins. This would be murder. He was about to refuse her request when he heard the girl whimpering in the background. Slowly turning his head around and getting a good look at the girl under the break of dawn, he felt compelled to put her out of her suffering like a wounded animal.

He would do it in the most humane way available to him.

"Look away"

he commanded Emily as tears flooded down her face like a river whose dam had just broken. She turned away, closed her eyes, and plugged her ears. Alex walked over to the girl and asked,

"Is this really what you want?"

the girl nodded her head ever so slightly. He let out a long sigh before putting her in a front headlock.

"May you find peace in the afterlife,"

Alex murmured while a single tear rolled down his cheek.

"Thank you,"

the girl slowly whispered before Alex cranked her neck and snapped her spine with all the strength he had, instantly killing the woman.

Alex wiped the tears from his eyes as he spotted a message in his peripheral vision

[The gods frown upon intraspecies killing and thus you are not rewarded for your actions]

[You have slain a human and gain 0 xp]

'What the fuck is this shit? Gods, what gods? How could any deity allow this shit to happen!'

In his enraged state, he glared at the door, the sounds of goblins wailing and the creaking of the door failing under their assault filled the room. Alex picked up his ax and a club that lie in the place next to the body. His eyes never turning from the door, he shouted fiercely at Emily,

"Open it! I'll kill them all!"

Emily's initial instinct was to talk him out of the rash choice, but after seeing the rage in his eyes, she knew trying to deter him would only result in suffering. She stood before the door and opened it in a way that allowed her to hide behind it. Roughly a dozen goblins rushed into the room as Alex shouted with all the fury in his body,

"Suffer Agony!"