The side street was a graveyard of normalcy.

  Victor moved between abandoned cars, each one a snapshot of the moment everything changed. A sedan with the driver’s door hanging open, keys still in the ignition, and children’s car seats in the back. An SUV crashed into a storefront, the windshield shattered, no body visible. A delivery truck jackknifed across two lanes, packages spilling out the back like guts from a wound.

  He kept to the shadows, Stealth engaged, every sense alert.

  The fear in the area was different here. Less immediate. The screaming panic from the initial integration had faded into something colder. Dread. The awful understanding that this wasn’t temporary, wasn’t fixable, wasn’t going to end with morning light and reasonable explanations.

  Victor felt it wash over him, and his vision sharpened another degree.

  Four blocks to MaxiMart. He’d made it halfway without encountering anything hostile.

  That was about to change.

  Fear Sense pinged him before his eyes registered movement. Terror, close and intense, coming from inside a corner pharmacy to his right. Not the ambient dread that saturated everything now. This was active, immediate, the kind of fear that came with something terrible happening right now.

  Pressed against the pharmacy wall Victor risked a look through the shattered front window.

  Three goblins inside. Two of them were tearing apart the pharmacy counter, grabbing pill bottles and stuffing them into crude sacks. Looting. The third was advancing on someone cowering behind the prescription pickup area.

  A kid. Couldn’t be more than sixteen, wearing a pharmacy vest that was three sizes too big. Probably working his first job when the integration hit.

  The goblin raised a club studded with nails.

  Victor’s hand moved to the chef’s knife in his backpack before his conscious mind caught up.

  No. Bad idea. Three on one, an improvised weapon, untested combat skills. Every tactical bone in his body screamed that intervening was stupid.

  The kid whimpered.

  The fear spiked, sharp and desperate.

  And Victor felt it flood through him like electricity through water. His stamina bar, which had dipped slightly from four blocks of careful movement, surged back to full. His perception expanded. He could see the individual fibers in the goblins’ leather armor, hear the rasp of their breathing, smell the copper tang of blood on their weapons.

  Fear Metabolism was giving him everything he needed to fight.

  He still shouldn’t do it.

  The goblin with the club stepped closer. The kid tried to scramble backward and hit the wall. Nowhere left to run.

  But maybe he didn’t need to fight them directly.

  Pulling back from the window Victor circled to the pharmacy’s side entrance. The door was locked, but the glass panel beside it was already broken. He slipped through, careful not to make noise, Stealth keeping him functionally invisible.

  Inside, he could see the goblins more clearly. The two looters were excited, chattering in their guttural language, wholly focused on grabbing anything shiny or pill-shaped. No fear there. Just greed and adrenaline.

  The third one, advancing on the kid, was different. It moved with swagger, enjoying the hunt, the power. Also, not afraid.

  “I need to understand my abilities before I commit to anything.” Victor thought as he looked back at the ugly green creatures.

  He focused on the closest goblin, one of the looters, and tried activating Fear Spike.

  Twenty mana drained away. The ability triggered with that strange sensation, like flexing a phantom muscle. Something invisible reached out from Victor toward the goblin.

  And nothing happened.

  The goblin continued stuffing bottles into its sack, completely unaffected.

  Victor felt the feedback through the ability itself. Not enough fear. The goblin wasn’t scared, so Fear Spike had nothing to amplify, nothing to twist. The mana was just wasted.

  Okay. So the ability required existing fear, just like the description said. He couldn’t create fear from nothing.

  But could he create fear through other means?

  Victor picked up a bottle from a collapsed shelf and threw it deeper into the pharmacy, away from the goblins.

  The bottle shattered against the far wall with a sharp crack.

  All three goblins spun toward the sound, weapons raised.

  The two looters tensed. One of them clutched its crude knife tighter, eyes scanning the darkness. There. Just a flicker, but Victor’s Fear Sense caught it. Uncertainty. The beginning of fear.

  Not enough for Fear Spike yet, but movement in the right direction.

  Victor waited, perfectly still, Stealth making him invisible even though he was only fifteen feet away.

  The goblins muttered to each other, their tone suspicious now instead of celebratory. One of them moved toward where the bottle had broken, weapon ready, checking for threats.

  As it moved away from its companions, Victor sensed its fear tick higher. Separation from the group. Unknown threat. The goblin was getting nervous.

  Still not enough.

  Victor picked up another bottle and threw it from a different angle. This one hit a metal shelf with a loud clang.

  The goblin investigating jumped, actually flinched, and looked around frantically.

  There it is Real fear now. Not an overwhelming amount, but present.

  Victor targeted that goblin and activated Fear Spike again.

  Twenty mana. The invisible connection. But this time, something happened.

  The goblin’s eyes went wide. Its breath quickened. It made a strangled sound and stumbled backward, looking around wildly as if seeing threats everywhere. The fear Victor had sensed amplified dramatically, twisting from mild nervousness into genuine panic.

  It lasted maybe five seconds. Then the effect faded, and the goblin stood there, breathing hard, confused but no longer panicking.

  Its two companions were already moving toward it, calling out in their language, checking what was wrong.

  The moment had passed, but Victor had learned what he needed.

  Fear Spike didn’t create fear. It amplified and twisted existing fear. And it required him to generate that initial fear first through other means.

  Psychological warfare. Making them afraid before using his abilities to terrify them.

  The goblin that had been threatening the kid was now heading toward its companions, abandoning its prey to investigate the disturbance.

  All three grouped together, alert and nervous, weapons ready.

  Victor pulled the chef’s knife from his backpack and considered his options.

  He could leave. He’d learned how Fear Spike worked. That was valuable. The kid might die, but that wasn’t Victor’s responsibility.

  Except the fear radiating from the teenager was feeding him constant benefits. His Perception was sharper. His stamina was full despite the blocks of travel. Fear Metabolism wanted him to stay near terrified people.

  And three nervous goblins were easier targets than three confident ones.

  Moving through the shadows, Victor circling behind the grouped goblins. They were focused on the area where the bottles had broken, weapons raised, calling out challenges in their language.

  He positioned himself directly behind the rearmost goblin. Close enough to strike. Far enough that the others wouldn’t immediately see.

  Then he picked up one more bottle and threw it to his left.

  All three goblins turned toward the sound.

  Victor struck.

  The chef’s knife drove into the back of the nearest goblin’s neck, angled downward, seeking the spine. His enhanced Strength made the blade punch through leather armor as if it were paper.

  The goblin made a wet, choking sound and collapsed.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  The other two goblins whirled around and saw him. Saw their dead companion. Saw Victor’s eyes reflecting the dim emergency lighting, glowing like an animal’s in the darkness. Saw the blood on his knife.

  Fear exploded off both of them.

  Perfect.

  Victor activated Fear Spike on the closest one.

  Twenty mana. The goblin’s existing fear twisted into overwhelming panic. It shrieked and ran, not toward the exit but deeper into the pharmacy, crashing through shelves in blind terror.

  The third goblin stood there for one heartbeat, caught between fight and flight.

  Victor smiled, and the ambient light caught his eyes again, making them gleam silver in the darkness.

  The goblin broke and ran toward the exit, screaming in its language.

  Victor let it go. He’d learned enough, and chasing would expose him to potential reinforcements outside.

  Instead, he turned his attention to the terrified goblin that had fled deeper into the pharmacy. It had stopped screaming but was still panicking, hiding somewhere among the collapsed shelves.

  Victor engaged Stealth and moved silently through the debris, following the sounds of ragged breathing.

  He found it cowering behind the pharmacy counter, weapon abandoned, eyes wide with terror.

  It saw him approach and tried to scramble away, but there was nowhere to go. The counter trapped it.

  Victor killed it quickly, knife through the throat, minimizing suffering. The goblin was already too afraid to fight back.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  He should have felt something. Guilt. Remorse. Horror at killing a thinking creature that was cowering in fear.

  Instead, he felt accomplished. Efficient. Like he’d completed a task well.

  Shit Victor whispered under his breath. The kid. Where was the kid?

  Victor found him still wedged behind the prescription counter area, hyperventilating, eyes unfocused.

  “Hey,” Victor said quietly, making his voice as calm and non-threatening as possible. “It’s okay. They’re dead. You’re safe.”

  The kid stared at him with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

  “I’m going to leave now,” Victor continued. “You should stay here. Lock the door after I’m gone. Don’t come out until morning.”

  No response. Just shallow breathing and a thousand-yard stare.

  Victor pulled a water bottle from his backpack and set it on the floor within reach. Then he moved back toward the entrance, stepping over goblin corpses.

  He paused at the door and looked back.

  The kid hadn’t moved.

  Survivor’s shock. It would pass or it wouldn’t. Victor couldn’t help with that.

  He slipped back out into the night and immediately engaged Stealth again, scanning for additional threats.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The street was still empty. The goblin that had fled was long gone, probably still running. Good.

  Victor checked his XP while he moved.

  XP: 30/100

  Two kills. Thirty experience total. He’d need to kill at least three or four more goblins to reach Level 2, assuming they all gave the same amount.

  Worth pursuing? Or was survival more important than leveling?

  The answer came two blocks later.

  Victor heard sounds of violence from a residential side street. Screaming. Breaking glass. The wet sounds of something tearing.

  He should have kept moving. Every tactical instinct said not to investigate.

  But Fear Sense was pinging him, and the fear signatures were human. Multiple people, absolutely terrified.

  And if there were humans in danger, there were probably goblins causing that danger.

  XP waiting to be claimed.

  Victor diverted from his route and approached cautiously.

  A small group of goblins, five of them, had cornered three people against the side of a house. Two adults and a child, all unarmed, all defenseless. The goblins were toying with them, taking turns jabbing with weapons, making them flinch and scream, laughing at their terror.

  Five goblins. All armed. All enjoying themselves too much to be afraid.

  Three humans. Already at maximum fear, feeding Victor’s Fear Metabolism with constant enhancement.

  Victor crouched behind a parked car and assessed the tactical situation.

  He could use the humans’ fear to create chaos, but that would make them easier targets. The child complicated things. He didn’t want to be responsible for a kid’s death.

  But five goblins meant seventy-five XP if he could kill them all. That would push him to Level 2 with experience to spare.

  “I need a different approach” he thought.

  Victor studied the area. The goblins had their backs to a narrow alley. Dark. Lots of hiding spots. If he could separate them, scare them individually, use Fear Spike to panic them, then kill them while they were broken…

  He moved through the darkness, circling wide, using Stealth to stay invisible. The goblins were so focused on their prey that they never looked behind them.

  Picking up a rock from the ground Victor threw it down the alley, deep into the shadows.

  The rock clattered against a dumpster.

  One goblin turned toward the sound, muttering something to its companions. When none of them reacted, it moved to investigate alone, weapon ready, but not particularly worried.

  As soon as it was ten feet from the others, Victor threw another rock from a different angle.

  The goblin spun toward the new sound, and there it was. The first flicker of nervousness. Being separated from its pack. Unknown sounds in the dark.

  Victor stepped partially into view at the alley’s edge, positioning himself so the ambient light from a distant streetlamp caught his eyes. They reflected the light, glowing silver in the darkness, distinctly inhuman.

  Then he stepped back into the shadows before the goblin could focus on him.

  The goblin saw the movement and those glowing eyes. Its fear ticked higher. Something was in the alley. Something had moved. Something with eyes that didn’t look right.

  Victor waited three heartbeats, then stepped into view again from a different position. Further down the alley this time. Again, the light caught his eyes, making them gleam.

  The goblin was getting genuinely nervous now. How had the figure moved so fast? What was it? And those eyes…

  Then Victor activated Fear Spike.

  The goblin’s nervousness exploded into panic. It shrieked and ran, not toward its companions but deeper into the alley, seeing threats in every shadow.

  Victor followed, silent and fast, Stealth keeping him invisible.

  The panicked goblin ran blindly, and Victor caught it from behind. The chef’s knife punched into the base of its skull, angled upward into the brain.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  The creature dropped without another sound.

  Three kills. Forty-five XP.

  The other four goblins heard their companion’s initial shriek and turned toward the alley, confused.

  One of them called out in their language, trying to get a response.

  Nothing but darkness and silence.

  Victor was already moving back toward the alley’s entrance, positioning himself in shadow, waiting.

  Two of the goblins moved to investigate while two stayed with the human prisoners.

  Not ideal, but workable.

  The two investigating goblins entered the alley cautiously, weapons ready, calling for their companion.

  Victor picked up an empty bottle and threw it further down the alley, past where the goblins were searching.

  Both of them spun toward the sound, and Victor saw their fear levels rise. Dark alley. Strange noises. Missing companion.

  He stepped into view behind them, deliberately scuffing his foot on the ground.

  Both goblins whirled around and saw him. Saw the blood on his clothes. Saw his eyes reflecting light, glowing silver like something from a nightmare.

  Real fear now. Deep and genuine.

  But Victor’s mana was low. Only twenty points left. One Fear Spike.

  He targeted the goblin on the left and activated the ability.

  Twenty mana. The goblin’s fear amplified dramatically. It screamed and broke, running back toward the street, abandoning its companion.

  The remaining goblin in the alley stood there for one second, watching its companion flee, looking at Victor, weighing its options.

  It chose wrong. It charged, weapon raised, trying to fight despite its fear.

  Victor’s enhanced Perception showed him the attack coming. He sidestepped, and the goblin’s crude sword scraped against the brick wall where he’d been standing.

  The goblin overextended, off balance.

  Driving the chef’s knife into the side of its neck, Victor angled toward the heart.

  The goblin made a wet gurgling sound and collapsed.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  Four kills. Sixty XP.

  The goblin that had fled the alley was running down the street, still screaming. The two who’d stayed with the prisoners saw their companion fleeing in terror and looked at each other.

  Then they looked at the dark alley their three companions had entered.

  Three went in. None came back. Only screaming.

  Victor stepped into view at the alley’s entrance, silhouetted against the faint ambient light, his eyes catching and reflecting it, glowing distinctly in the darkness.

  Both remaining goblins saw him. Saw the blood. Saw those inhuman eyes.

  They broke and ran, abandoning the humans, abandoning their loot, just fleeing into the night.

  Victor let them go. He was out of mana, and chasing them would be a risk without reward.

  The three people stood there, shocked and confused, alive.

  One of the adults, a middle-aged woman, looked toward the alley where Victor stood in shadow.

  “Thank you,” she called out, her voice shaking.

  Victor didn’t respond. He just melted back into the darkness and continued toward MaxiMart.

  He’d saved them. He’d killed four goblins. And he hadn’t felt guilt or horror.

  Was that the Noxborne evolution. Making killing easier, more natural? Or was it simpler than that he saw the goblins as monsters, System-spawned creatures that happened to be intelligent, but fundamentally different from humans?

  He didn’t know.

  The MaxiMart parking lot was chaos. Abandoned cars everywhere, shopping carts overturned, small fires burning near the garden center. And movement. Lots of movement.

  Goblins. At least a dozen of them, probably more, inside and around the building. They’d claimed it as territory, setting up crude barricades at the entrances, posting sentries.

  Crouching behind an overturned delivery truck at the parking lot’s edge, Victor was studying the situation while his mana slowly regenerated.

  Main entrance: four goblins visible, probably more just inside.

  Garden center entrance: blocked with shopping carts and debris, but he could see gaps. Two goblins are on guard.

  Side employee entrance: one goblin, smoking something that produced green smoke, looking bored.

  The side entrance was his best bet. One guard. Less visibility from the main group.

  But he needed that guard gone without alerting the others, and he was still low on mana. Fifteen points now. Not quite enough for Fear Spike yet.

  Could he kill it without using abilities?

  Thrax took another drag from the stolen cigarette, savoring the harsh burn. Guard duty was boring, but at least the humans left good stuff behind. He exhaled smoke toward the dark parking lot, weapon propped against the wall beside him.

  The night was quiet. Too quiet, maybe. But that was better than

  An alarm screamed to life near the his post from one of the humans metal beast.

  Thrax jerked upright, cigarette falling from his lips as his hand found his weapon. The sound cut through the silence like a blade, piercing and relentless. His patrol-mates were already moving toward it, weapons raised, shouting questions at each other.

  Should he follow? Or stay at his post like the boss said?

  Thrax took three steps toward the garden center, torn. The alarm kept wailing. His patrol was thirty paces away now, investigating. He was alone at the entrance.

  The alarm died abruptly. Someone must have smashed it.

  Thrax let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding and turned back toward his post, muttering about jumpy nerves and false alarms. Just a stupid human. Or a rat. Nothing important.

  Three sharp knocks came from the metal door beside him.

  Thrax froze mid-step.

  The sound had come from right there. Right next to where he’d been standing. But there was nothing. He’d been looking at the indoor garden the humans made, yes, but he would have heard footsteps. Would have heard breathing.

  He raised his weapon and took a step closer to the door, peering at the dark metal surface.

  Three more knocks. But from the other side now. Behind him.

  Thrax spun, heart hammering against his ribs. His eyes swept the empty space. Nothing. No one. Just shadows and concrete and the faint smell of old cigarette smoke.

  His breathing came faster. Louder.

  Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

  Movement caught his eye. Not movement exactly. A reflection in the door’s small window. Two points of light. Silver. Glowing.

  Eyes.

  Thrax’s throat closed. Those weren’t goblin eyes. Weren’t human eyes either. Too bright. Too wrong. Staring directly at him from the darkness with intelligence that promised terrible things.

  Then the fear hit.

  Not natural fear. Not the kind that comes from seeing danger. This was different. This was terror that erupted from his chest like his heart had exploded, flooding his body with ice-cold certainty that he was going to die here, alone, in the dark, and no one would even find his body.

  Thrax heard himself scream. Heard his weapon clatter against pavement. His legs were moving, carrying him away from those silver eyes, away from the door, away from whatever nightmare thing was hunting him.

  He ran into the parking lot, shrieking words that didn’t make sense even to himself, his mind breaking under the weight of fear so pure it felt like drowning.

  Behind him, in the darkness he fled from, something that moved too silently.

  And Thrax knew with absolute certainty that running wouldn’t save him, but he still had to try.

  Victor didn’t let it get far.

  He was on it in three strides, Stealth dropped, pure speed. The chef’s knife drove into the goblin’s back, between the shoulder blades, angled toward the heart.

  The creature collapsed mid-scream.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  LEVEL UP

  You are now Level 2

  +5 Attribute Points

  Health, Mana, and Stamina restored

  The sensation was instantaneous and overwhelming. The exhaustion Victor hadn’t fully noticed vanished. The slight tremor in his hands from adrenaline smoothed out. He felt taller, stronger, more solid.

  Five kills. Level 2 achieved.

  Quickly dragging the goblin’s body into the shadow near the building, Victor then tested the employee entrance.

  Unlocked.

  He slipped inside MaxiMart and let the darkness swallow him whole.

  The interior was dimmer than he’d expected. Emergency lighting provided barely enough illumination to navigate. Shelves were toppled everywhere, products scattered across the floor, evidence of looting and violence.

  And goblins. He could hear them throughout the store, chattering in their language, celebrating their conquest.

  Victor engaged Stealth and moved carefully through sporting goods, heading toward the hunting section.

  He passed three goblin corpses on the way. Human-killed, based on the wounds. Security guards, probably, or armed employees. They’d fought back and died for it.

  But something was wrong with the bodies.

  They were being eaten.

  Rats. But wrong. Too large, too aggressive-looking, with red eyes and fur that looked almost bristly. Three of them were tearing into a goblin corpse, and they were the size of house cats.

  DIRE RAT - LEVEL 1

  System-spawned creatures. Scavengers. The integration wasn’t just adding monsters that fought. It was building an entire ecosystem, complete with carrion-eaters to clean up the dead.

  Victor gave the dire rats a wide berth. They ignored him, focused on their meal.

  He found the hunting section and immediately felt better. Real weapons. Compound bows, crossbows, and hunting knives that were actually designed for combat. Camping gear useful for survival.

  And goblins. Two of them were looting and grabbing anything that looked valuable.

  Victor watched them from the shadows, considering his options.

  He had full mana now, thanks to the level-up. Eighty points. Four Fear Spikes if needed. But he was learning that psychological warfare worked better than just spamming abilities.

  He picked up a camping hatchet from a nearby display. Better than the chef’s knife. Balanced for throwing or close combat.

  Then he picked up a metal camping cup and threw it across the aisle.

  The cup clattered against the floor.

  Both goblins turned toward the sound, weapons ready.

  Victor threw a second cup from a different angle.

  The goblins were getting nervous now, looking around, trying to identify the source of the sounds.

  He stepped briefly into view at the end of the aisle, just long enough for the emergency lighting to catch his eyes. They reflected, glowing silver, and he smiled before ducking back into the shadow.

  One goblin saw him and shrieked something to its companion. Both of them started moving toward where he’d been, weapons raised, but cautiously. Afraid of an ambush.

  Good. They should be afraid.

  Victor circled through the next aisle over, completely silent, and came up behind them.

  They were focused forward, on where they’d seen the figure with the glowing eyes, not watching their backs.

  He threw another cup behind them.

  Both goblins spun around, and there he was, standing in the aisle they’d just left, holding the hatchet, eyes glowing in the dim light.

  Real, genuine fear flooded off both of them.

  Victor’s mana was full. He had options.

  But he wanted to test something. Could fear alone, without Fear Spike, be enough to make them vulnerable?

  He stepped toward them, not rushing, just walking steadily forward, eyes locked on theirs, letting the ambient light make his gaze gleam.

  Both goblins backed up, weapons raised but hands shaking.

  One of them broke and ran.

  The other tried to stand its ground for about three seconds, then followed its companion.

  Victor let them go. He’d proven his point. Fear was a weapon even without magic.

  He turned his attention to looting the hunting section properly.

  He found a proper hunting knife with a seven-inch blade and a gut hook. A small hatchet that was better balanced than the camping one. A headlamp that still had batteries. A tactical backpack to replace his school bag. Rope. A first aid kit. A water filter. A compact survival kit with fire-starting equipment.

  Everything he grabbed went into the tactical backpack with quick efficiency.

  The dire rats had finished with the first goblin corpse and moved on to another one twenty feet away. They completely ignored Victor, just focused on eating. The System’s new ecosystem is establishing itself. Predators, prey, and scavengers are all integrated into Earth’s existing framework.

  One of the rats looked up as Victor passed, its red eyes gleaming, gore dripping from its muzzle. It chittered once, then went back to feeding.

  Not a threat assessment. Just acknowledgment.

  Victor shouldered the backpack, now heavy with supplies, and headed for the exit.

  He made it halfway to the employee entrance before running into a problem.

  Three goblins, walking together, coming from the main store area. They saw him before he could duck into shadow.

  For a moment, everyone froze.

  Then one of the goblins recognized the blood on his clothes and the weapons he carried and shrieked an alarm.

  All three charged.

  Victor ran.

  Not toward the employee entrance. That was blocked now. Instead, deeper into the store, toward the garden center exit he’d seen from outside.

  The goblins chased, screaming, alerting others.

  Victor’s enhanced Perception let him navigate the dark store at full sprint without running into obstacles. His improved Agility gave him speed. But the goblins were fast too, and they knew the layout better.

  He burst through the garden center entrance, smashing through the crude barricade of shopping carts, and hit the parking lot at a dead run.

  Behind him, goblins poured out of the store. Not just the three chasing him. More. Lots more.

  Victor ran for the parking lot’s edge, Stealth useless now, just pure speed and the hope that he could lose them in the residential streets.

  He made it to the delivery truck he’d hidden behind earlier and risked a look back.

  At least eight goblins were chasing him. Maybe more.

  But they were slowing down. Stopping. Looking at something.

  The dire rats had followed the commotion out of the store, drawn by the chaos, looking for opportunities.

  And apparently, they’d decided living goblins were easier targets than dead ones.

  The rats attacked, swarming, biting, utterly fearless despite being smaller than their targets.

  The goblins forgot about Victor and started fighting the rats, screaming and swinging weapons.

  Not waiting to see who won. He turned and ran into the night, heading toward Jennifer’s apartment, the tactical backpack heavy on his shoulders and the sounds of violence fading behind him.

  He’d learned his abilities. Killed five goblins and gathered supplies.

  And he’d discovered that the System wasn’t just adding monsters.

  It was rebuilding Earth’s entire food chain, one corpse at a time.

  Victor slowed to a walk three blocks from MaxiMart, breathing hard, checking behind him for pursuit.

  None. He’d lost them.

  He pulled up his status, considering his attribute points.

  NAME: Victor Hale

  SPECIES: Noxborne (Evolved Human)EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 12%

  LEVEL: 2

  XP: 15/200

  ATTRIBUTES:

  Strength: 8

  Agility: 12

  Endurance: 9

  Intelligence: 8

  Wisdom: 9

  Perception: 12

  Unspent Attribute Points:

  Five points. He’d survived tonight through stealth, speed, and awareness. The hunting knife and hatchet meant Strength mattered more now than it had with the chef’s knife. But the real advantages had been seeing threats before they saw him, moving fast enough to avoid fights, and having the stamina to keep going.

  Two points into Perception. Because awareness was important.

  Two points into Agility. Speed was survival.

  One point into Endurance because speed was useless if you couldn't use it for long.

  ATTRIBUTES:

  Strength: 8

  Agility: 10

  Endurance: 9

  Intelligence: 8

  Wisdom: 8

  Perception: 10

  The changes were subtle but immediate. Colors became slightly more vivid. Sounds gained texture. His body felt lighter, more responsive.

  Victor dismissed the screen and kept moving through the night, heading toward Jennifer, toward safety, toward whatever came next.

  Behind him, in the darkness, dire rats finished their meal and scattered into the ruins, looking for more corpses, building their place in the System’s new world.

  The hunt had begun. And Victor was learning to hunt in shadows, using fear like a weapon, becoming something that even monsters will learn to run from.