The Message

Rowan looked at the changes to his skills and even he could not help but have his eyes go wide. The bloodline had affected him so much while only being 25% awakened, this would generate a ridiculous amount of benefits to him. The hyper vision alone was enough to take Rowan's mind off of the fact that if he was reading this right, he was no longer completely human, something called a slaughter fairy. What in god's name even was a fairy, wasn't that supposed to be a being with cute insect wings?

He smiled at the thought when he focused on the bloodline section a little too long and another box of information popped open. [Bloodlines are a human's ability to manifest the DNA mixed with their own.] Rowan looked at that quizzically but thought of it logically. If current instruments never found this extra DNA in humans, then it must be something that had to do with mana that made that possible. Now, with enough mana, the bloodlines are awakened, which will eventually lead to humans becoming a much more unique species in this new world. He looked forward to what changes that would bring. Suddenly, though, he was brought out of his stat page by the sound of static that he could hear.

He slowly walked forward towards the sound and found a radio covered in blood. He picked it up from a bloody hole that was no doubt the remains of taser cop. It seemed that a message was playing on a loop. "All surviving officers are to bring any found survivors to the Evergreen stadium where relief efforts are currently centered. I repeat: All surviving officers, or any survivor that can hear this, know that we have indeed made it and our forces are gathering in the Evergreen stadium."

Rowan stretched, and the plan made itself in his mind. He would get Camille and Em to Evergreen stadium. Then he would be able to see what this new world truly had to offer without having to worry about them being in direct danger. He could even turn the base into a base of sorts for him to return to. Rowan was just thinking that when words of blood red flashed across his vision. [Red alert! Urgent Quest! The schools' become a dungeon!] Rowan knew the extra information was coming, but even he was not prepared for what scrolled past his vision.

[A zombie king has formed on the campus and turned the entirety of the school into his domain. Please kill the zombie within the time limit to stop him from ascending to rank 3 and threatening the lives of all survivors.] [Reward: Astra Box! Lvl +5] Rowan froze at the rewards, while he did not know what an Astra was, if this gave him five levels then the danger involved must be astronomical. [Comment: A dungeon is a space designated by a parasite zombie as his own. Any lower-class beings belonging to the zombie race in the area will contribute to its stats.]

Rowan saw that and realized that even if all the zombies here were only to contribute a single point into one of the zombie king's stats, that would be dangerous. Rowan was about to go get Camille when another message then flashed across his vision [Side Quest: Slaughter is thy middle name!] [The namesake of your bloodline is no longer dormant and prove that by weakening the zombie king before your inevitable confrontation. Slaughter every zombie remaining in the school. Reward:???]

Rowan realized almost immediately that he had his work cut out for him. Camille and Em came from the back room looking refreshed. Rowan had no clue how Camille had pulled it off, but Em was wearing a pair of shorts and a hoodie much bigger than her, but the grime of yesterday's events was gone from her. Camille, on the other hand, now wore a pair of athletic leggings and a sports bra that would keep her rather ample bosom in place.

She wore an Evergreen college windbreaker over it and was in the process of zipping it up when they walked out. Rowan pulled the booklet with Earthen spike from his pocket and went down on one knee. "Em, come here, take this book and see if you can learn this.] She naturally listened to Rowan and took the book and nodded to him, much to his surprise. The book broke down into light particles and was entering her mind while Camille saddled up to him while she was doing it. "Did you get the same quest that I did? To take down the zombie king that is forming?" Rowan nodded his head.

"Things are about to get hectic, but I think more than just the people here got that message. I think that message may have been broadcast to all of Evergreen city in fact, which may cause other people to come here which will either add to this zombie's strength or take away from it." She cocked her head to the side. "What makes you think that the whole city got the message?" Rowan told her about the message that played on the police radio. "It stopped at the same time that I got the quest alert. More importantly, anyone that realizes that these quests from the system offer rewards that allow us to jump in strength, anyone that awakened the system early will be making their way here. I think the first course of action is to get you and Em to this safe zone, and then I will make my way back here to kill the zombie king."

She nodded along because she could see how interested he was in this enemy and there was no point in trying to convince him that he should stay in the safety zone with them. She could not explain how she knew that. She simply did. As Em began to make her way over back to them, she saw the gears in his mind turning as he swiveled back to her. "Oh also! Don't tell anyone we meet about the abilities of the seer. I did not realize when you shared it with me, but you can see information on others that most of us will not be privy to. There will be some that seek to take advantage of that. We can avoid extra trouble that way."

She nodded as Rowan swiveled back to the doors into the auditorium. "I know we should go out the back, but my car is parked right beyond the horde that's gathered around this building. She could see his mind moving again and could almost feel his want through his skin. He was burning with anticipation for what came next and the only thing holding that back was her own and Em's presence. He swiveled back to her. "You and Em both need to level. She may require mana to use that Earthen spike spell and considering she doesn't have access to mana yet…" Camille cut him off before he could finish what he was saying.

"Actually, I don't know how, but I think she may be as unique as you are. I held her hand to help her kill one of the zombies on my side under the bleachers yesterday, and while we showered, she was telling me about her status page. Her attunement is actually called creation, while she may not be as ridiculous as you, but she has a similar stat boosting passive called tier 1 soul." Rowan realized that the little girl may be quite the anomaly, but he knew her mana space had not opened. He could still recall the pain and knew that if she went through something like that, he would know.

Right as Rowan was thinking that, the little girl raised her hand and a spike double the size of the one that zombie had used rose from the ground in a flash, causing both of their eyes to go wide. Rowan walked over to the young girl. "Em, how did you do that?" She smiled at Rowan and pulled up her sleeves to reveal a bracelet on each of her wrists that neither of them had realized before. It looked like it was made of the stones like the ones that were currently in his pocket. "Mr. Rowan, for some reason I have a skill under active called creators workshop! It allows me to use the surrounding things to synthesize a creation. I saw that you left all these stones yesterday after clearing the zombies yesterday so I used my skill on it and it created these bracelets!

If Mr. Rowan wants me to, I can create you one with a couple more stones. I've been collecting them, but they aren't as pretty as the one you got from the big zombie. Rowan pulled the stone from his pocket that still showed [???] and handed it to the girl who smiled in happiness and then all of a sudden it vanished from her hand. Rowan's jaw dropped, and Camille snickered and patted the little girl's head.

"Em, tell Rowan about your other active skill." She enjoyed the touch for a moment before smiling and nodding. "The other one is called inventory. It allows me to store things. It makes them nice and neat for me to look at, and keeps my pockets clear!" Rowan looked between them both. How in the hell had she just popped out and got such amazing abilities. Rowan feigned anger for a moment and said out loud, "Hey system, what's with this blatant favoritism? I had to work for my skills!"

The system replied as a roll of text that the three of them all saw. [Being Jealous of a child is unbecoming Mr. Raid] None of them had expected the system to respond other than Rowan, who had already surmised that the system was in fact here to guide humans into becoming more powerful, why he did not know but that was the system's sole purpose but there was more to it and he had inferred that from the comments the system made. Rowan smiled while his two companions doubled over in laughter while he quickly snapped his eyes to the bracelets before they were covered by the girl's sleeves.

[Mana stone bracelet: +1000 mana while worn. Can be used in place of the user's own mana.Can be replenished with more mana stones.] Rowan looked at it and realized that the five cost of the spell would be nothing to the girl. Also, why was her spike so much bigger then? Rowan was going to ask when the system interjected [The one known as Em is smart, she realized that a spell can be modified rather quickly and used double the mana for a single spike.]

Rowan nodded to no one in particular as he looked at the girls once again before he could finally continue his plan. He handed a couple of floorboards to Camille that he had sharpened while inspecting the changes to his status screen. He had made a makeshift weapon belt but just a moment ago, Em held her hand to it and it shined gold and became a real weapon belt. Rowan could see that while his companions were both unique existences capable of helping him and other survivors immensely. The two daggers now resting lightly across the small of his back. He turned to both of his companions.

"I will make sure to leave some of them. Both of you should do your best to level here. Give it your all. The length of those spears should make it so that you don't have to get too close." Camille had taught Em exactly where to aim after seeing Rowan. "Em familiarize yourself with that skill and you should make short work of the few that make it through the gaps. Our goal right now is to wipe out every zombie between us and the parking lot." They both nodded to him, but at the same time Rowan knew that he could finally test out his new body and abilities.

He looked at Camille. "You will have the space to move around in here while the doorways will funnel the stragglers that are left behind in my wake." She looked at him and then at the doors. "Where will you be, then?" Rowan smiled and pulled both daggers. They were each a foot long and sported an edge on both sides.

They are simple, just like the name implied. He pointed one forward as his stance lowered, "I'll be out there!" The words just registered in Camille's mind as he took off like a rocket, his stats now natural at five times that of an average person. He cleared the room in a second and it looked like he was going to collide with the door for a moment but instead he threw both daggers causing them to hit the hinges in the door at the perfect angle to stick into the wall and cut through the hinges. He jumped and twisted through the air feet first while his hands snatched the daggers from their resting place and he rode the door like a surfboard into a crowd of what he could now see were more than a thousand zombies.