Adam grimaced as he sat in an old chair. Somehow, the auditorium had managed to make it through the integration period basically intact. Aside from the ever prevalent water damage, that is. Still, with the school's new elevation, the second story of the Arts building seemed to have dodged most of the destruction.

  “I’m not the biggest ‘people person’, but I’m pleased to be around more of them” said Michael from beside him.

  Upon entry into the auditorium, Adam had felt the change in the atmosphere. While the people here were scared, they had managed to structure themselves in a proactive manner. There were roughly thirty survivors in the building aside from Adam and his group.

  Apparently, there had been a Music Theory class in one of the classrooms, a History of Man lecture in the auditorium and an archaeology program out of Central Washington University was setting up an exhibit that they were going to showcase after the break. With all of these things happening at once, there had been a surprising number of people in the building when the Integration started.

  Adam nodded, “It’s a shame that more didn’t make it.” He looked down to where Henry and Otto stood talking with the three athletes from before.

  Tang, the overly large man that had previously wielded the prop bush like a shield, had filled them in on what happened here. When he, Dimitri and Shawn, the two baseball players, had come back from Stasis, they were in their Music Theory classroom with about fifteen others. General confusion held them in place before they all decided to leave together, moving to the lobby before anything happened. When they got there, other people in the building had tried to go outside to see what was going on. The class's inability to make a decision had saved them, as their delay had stopped them from exiting the building themselves.

  Tang had simply shaken his head as he glossed over the violence they had witnessed upon their group's arrival, stating that the only reason their group had survived was because six of them had all selected Path of the Warrior. Using whatever they could get their hands on, they had managed to dodge past or fight off any of the monster rats that approached them.

  Over the last two hours, they had attempted to find a way to leave and get everyone past the rats but hadn’t had much luck finding a safe way out. Each time they had attempted to leave the building, they had been attacked by armored sabercats or the rat monsters which apparently were called barbed whiprats.

  “Well, with any luck, the sabercats that had been attacking them before are the ones we just killed” Michael sighed.

  “Hopefully.” Adam responded. He looked at the professor and let out a long sigh of his own before asking what was really on their minds. “So… do you think we are going to be like that every time?”

  The professor tensed, his discomfort evident in the way he pursed his lips. Michael shifted in his seat, “I really hope not,” his eyes hardened, “if becoming an uncontrollable beast is what we get for choosing this, then I fear we made a mistake.”

  With that, the two men lost themselves in their own thoughts, sitting in a companionable silence while the other group members spread out to help wherever they could.

  At some point before their arrival, the survivors had raided the ticket booth outside of the auditorium, where they had found a couple boxes of sealed bags of chips. They weren’t much but they provided a sustenance that they would all eventually need. While Henry and Otto spoke with the three men that had helped them, Sylvia and Emi had gone to look for the food that Tang had mentioned.

  Adam was sure that they were avoiding him and Michael. I mean, who wouldn’t be afraid or freaked out by their friend turning into a monster and eating a different monster in front of them? A monster that, if his fears were to be confirmed, was so much more than a simple beast.

  If he had been alone, Adam would have curled in on himself, riddled with anxiety, but Michaels positive outlook and aura of strength anchored him in his sea of emotions.

  He couldn’t help but agree with the man's statement. Being able to transform? Amazing. Becoming strong enough to help his friends? Even better. But potentially losing his humanity? He had a hard time reconciling with that.

  Was this normal? What does it mean about him, that the system recognized the Path of the Beast as being the Pursuit he was most compatible with?

  Prior to the Integration, Adam had only ever killed bugs and a couple squirrels over the years when he accidentally hit them with his car. He had no experience hunting and had no interest in it either. So, why was it that he was so compatible with this path?

  “Adam?”

  He jolted upright and turned to Michael. Based on his face, this wasn’t the first time he had tried to get his attention.

  “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

  Michael nodded in understanding, “I figured that was the case. You wanna talk about it?”

  “Honestly,” he gestured to everything around him, “there is so much I need to talk about but if I do it now, I think I am going to break down. Too much has happened too quickly for me to process it all.”

  The older man smiled softly, “Well when you want to talk, I'm here. The world is a different place now and, as someone that is in the same boat as you, I'll check in with you if you check in with me.”

  A small wave of relief washed over Adam. Knowing that he wasn’t alone, that he had someone that could understand the things he was feeling, was indescribable for his sanity.

  Just as he was about to respond to him, Michael stiffened in surprise and his eyes lost their focus.

  “Woah… how did that happen?” he muttered.

  “What?”

  Michaels eyes returned to focus with another small grin, “I just leveled up. The system says I can choose my class now.”

  Adam blinked. He had completely forgotten about his system messages from before. The stress and immediacy of their situation had forced his notifications to the back of his mind.

  “What level are you now?” he asked.

  “I just hit level 5.”

  Michael raised his hand and swiped it in the air, as if he were using a tablet. His movement was oddly comical, reminding Adam that the professor was in his late 50’s by the stiff movements he was making. He definitely would have been squinting through his glasses perched on the end of his nose if it had been a real one. Luckily, the system seemed to always be clear. Adam assumed it was directly connected to your mind which would allow for ease of use.

  After he swiped through a couple more notifications Michael said, “This damn system won't tell me anything about the classes. It just keeps asking if I would like to proceed with class selection. The game elements associated with the system are still so new to me. Should I go for it?”

  “Wait a sec. I wanna check to see if I can do it too.”

  As he responded to Michael, Adam willed for his notifications to appear, causing almost all of his vision to be obscured by a slew of screens.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “Holy shit, I’m level 5 too” breathed Adam.

  He knew he had leveled up from the previous fights based on how he was physically feeling. The basic stat allotment of the Path of the Beast heightened his physical body to levels that he had never experienced, but he had no idea that he had grown so much.

  Michael slapped him on the shoulder, “That's great news! We can make our choices at the same time. Do you think any of the others are ready? I feel like it would be nice to do our selections as a group.”

  Adam glanced down to the ground floor where Sylvia had joined Henry and Otto’s conversation with the three athletes. “I think Henry could be, and maybe Sylvia.” He scanned the rest of the auditorium but didn’t see Emi anywhere. Based on the way she had been eyeing the metal bars that Shawn and Dimitri had been using before, she was probably looking for materials to craft with. “I'm sure Emi will be able to soon as well. Especially if she is able to make some real weapons and armor for people here.”

  “I’ll run down there and check with them real quick. Take your time and go through all your messages. If any of the others are leveled up and ready then I'll bring them up here and we can do it together.”

  With that, he turned, jogging down the steps to the others.

  Adam went back to his system messages.

  Interesting, he thought. It doesn’t look like this is only usable while I’m transformed. That will be really convenient, especially since I am a little nervous about my beast form at the moment.

  Seeing the message, Adam tasted the blood in his mouth once again. The crunching of the creature's bones between his strong jaws… He shook the thoughts away.

  100%? So does that mean that I can use stone magic?

  This is good information but I kinda already figured that Affinities would be important.

  And there it is, he grinned to himself. I bet Sylvia is going to be so jealous. Maybe she can show me how to do the mana manipulation stuff and I will be able to learn to shoot ‘stone bullets’ or something.

  Awakening an elemental affinity was really exciting. He had always loved earth style magic and had OBSESSED over earth-bending from Avatar: the Last Airbender. He and Dante would spend all weekend watching the old episodes. When they got the chance to play, they would pretend to be benders. Dante would switch it up all the time but Adam was an earth-bending loyalist.

  Thinking about Dante made him think about home. His brow furrowed as he considered the way of the world. Dante was probably fine but his Grandma…

  He couldn’t think about things he can’t change. Back to his notifications.

  The part about stone being a ‘Partial Affinity’ was very interesting though. Stone seems kinda specialized but does that mean I can only do stuff that is related to stones? Are rocks and stones different within the system? Would it be too much to ask for the system to provide some basic information? Anxiety began to curl in the depths of his abdomen. If I only have a partial affinity for stone, am I not able to use it as well as someone who’s entire affinity is stone?

  Looking through all of his notifications hadn’t taken too long but between reading them and getting lost in his thoughts about home, he allowed enough time for Michael to start making his way back with the others. Not only were Henry, Otto and Sylvia accompanying him back to Adam’s location, Tang, Shawn and Dimitri were following him as well.

  Tang grinned at Adam as he approached and whispered to the group, “I know the world is ending and all kinds of horrible stuff is happening but… you gotta admit, knowing that we can get stronger and level up, just like in games and novels, is pretty exciting.” He pointed past them up to the upper balcony, “Everett is the only one here that has a class so far. You guys should go talk to him about the experience before you make you accept the class selection.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow at Tang, “Everett? As in Everett Garcia?” His gaze paused as he scanned the exit towards the balcony.

  He nodded to the professor, “Yeah, that's him. I don’t know what you knew about him before all of this but I can promise you this. He is definitely different from what you remember.”