With the battle complete, the office space returned to dead silence. The only sound was that of the buzzing of the fluorescent lights. It was eerie and felt like she was in a horror movie. But she felt no fear. In fact, it felt peaceful and quiet. It also gave Uruvi the time to breathe and plan her next move.

  She plopped onto the chair that sat next to the glass door and took in a deep breath. It felt good to relax a little, but she knew she had little time on her hands. According to what the assistant had told her, she needed to at least make it to the ground floor if she had to get out of this place, which meant more fighting. She figured it was best to use this time to understand the system before jumping into combat once again.

  She peered at the screen and switched to Base Stats tab.

  Name – Uruvi

  Race – Human

  Age – 29 Years

  Height – 153 cms

  Weight – 56 Kgs

  Class – Undefined

  Traits – Empathic, Stubborn

  It had gotten all the details, even her weight and height. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the word – class. “Robot. What does Class mean?” she asked.

  “Class defines the role of a contestant. It is based on their strengths and contributions during battle and in an adventure group. Examples of a Class are Warrior, Mage, and Ranger.”

  It was pretty much as she suspected. “How do I get a class assigned?”

  “To get a class assigned, you must reach level two.”

  She moved on to traits, which surprised her a little. Traits seemed to have been auto assigned by the system, and theorized that it must have been based on her real-life personality. ‘Empathic? Am I really that empathic…? I wonder what these do…’

  She clicked on them, and the section expanded, showing a description of her two traits.

  Empathic – increase base points of the attribute Empathy by 10.

  Stubborn – resistant to psychic attacks by 20%. Also, get access to skill – ‘Last man standing’ without spending any skill points.

  ‘Sweet! I seemed to have got access to a really good trait.’

  There are more entries below.

  Talents – none

  Blessings – none

  Curses – none

  Boons – none

  She switched to the next tab, attributes, and saw a very familiar diagram on the screen. Seven circles, each one having a unique etching and name inside, were lined one below the other.

  They went – Crown -> Third Eye -> Throat -> Heart -> Navel -> Sacral -> Root.

  ‘These… these are chakras!’ She recognized them very well. A concept of Hindu philosophy and something everyone learns during Yoga.

  She saw that each Chakra had two attributes attached to it. There was also a third attribute that it shared with an adjacent Chakra. All the Chakras and Attributes had numbers beneath them.

  Her nerd brain kicked in, and she was able to make sense of how this system worked, kind of. ‘I see. In order to raise my Chakra levels, I need to raise its corresponding attributes.’ She wasn’t sure about how the math worked, but it wasn’t something she needed to worry about.

  However, there is one Chakra that did not have any attribute attached to it. The Crown Chakra. “Robot. How do I level up my Crown Chakra?”

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  “To level up the Crown Chakra, you must level up all the other six Chakras.”

  ‘Whoa! That is a tall ask.’ She thought she only needed to focus on one or two Chakras, but all of them sounded like quite the grind.

  “Okay, how do I acquire Attribute points?” she asked.

  “One can acquire attribute points by leveling up, completing quests, and getting achievements. They can also raise specific attributes by doing tasks connected to it. For example, earn Strength attribute points by doing strength training.”

  ‘That makes sense.’ She remembered how each Chakra was connected to an element. “Robot, does raising Chakra get me access to the element associated with it?”

  “Negative. To gain elemental powers, one must acquire blessings.”

  “Okay, how do I get those?” she asked.

  “To get blessings and boons, you must complete quests giving out the special deities like the Asuras. Check the map to find more details.”

  Uruvi’s mind began to spin. “What that f…! Asuras? Are you for real?”

  “Yes. The world is now inhabited by the Asura, following their victory over the Devas (Gods),” the robot explained.

  “The Devas were defeated? That is impossible! The world would have gone to shi… well, I guess it all makes sense now,” Uruvi thought. A cold chill travelled up her spine.

  Legend says there will come a time when evil gets out of control and the world sinks further into despair. When that day comes, the God of Perseverance shall be reborn, only to bring an end to the world and start it anew.

  ‘Are we in an apocalypse. Or is the worst yet to come?’ she wondered. She violently shook her head. ‘Focus Uruvi! I need to first get out of this building alive!’

  She turned her attention back to the screen. She tapped on ‘Skills and Spells’ next and was greeted by a blank page. “Hey, robot. What happened to all my skills and spells?”

  “The Skills and Spells page is open once a class is acquired.”

  “Well, that is a bummer,” she said.

  “The Skill tree and Spells list changes depending on the class. Each Skill or Spell will also need a certain level of Chakra to be able to access it.”

  Uruvi’s jaw dropped at the revelation. “So, I need to level up my attributes, to level up my chakras, to be able to access the skills and spells, so that I can spend my points on them. I got this right?”

  “Precisely.”

  She slouched back onto the chair, letting out a loud grunt. “Why is this system so overwhelming?”

  “Suggestion. It is advised to focus on two Chakras to set up a good foundation.”

  “Yeah… I understood that.” She sat up straight and continued, “I just suck at picking from so many options.”

  “Suggestion. Based on your traits and first battle, the system advises you to focus on the Root and Navel chakras. This will give you a balance of Physical and Mental Strength.”

  She switched to the Attributes tab and took notes of the attributes she needed to focus on. Strength, toughness, Renewal, Valor, Dynamism, and Serenity. She also noticed that her Empathy was at 20, while the rest were at 10.

  ‘I got a head start on Empathy. Maybe I should focus on that… but then again… what do I really want to do?’ Her heart ached for more battle, hands-on combat. She was surprised by how much she enjoyed fighting, especially since she was a very lazy person.

  She fell silent as she quietly debated with herself. She seemed to enjoy the fight, but what if the fighting got tough? Would she still want to walk that path?

  “Decisions… decisions…” She suddenly stood up, wearing a determined look on her face. ‘Let me fight my way up… at least till the ground floor. Then maybe I will make a decision, one way or the other.’

  She exited the glass divider and stood before the elevator. ‘No elevator in case of emergency.’ Her gaze shifted to the busted door beside the elevator, which led to the stairs. She took in a deep breath and headed out, past the broken door and up the flight of stairs.

  The stairs wound around the elevator shaft till they came up on another door. This door, which led into the level 1 basement, was intact. It had a small glass window, allowing Uruvi to peer through.

  She saw that the entire floor was filled with more Pisacha. Much like the one she had fought, they appeared to be scrawny and sluggish. Her eyes shifted to the number above them. They were Level 1.

  ‘Okay… I can do this. But I need to prepare…’ She quickly tiptoed back to Level 2 Basement and began rummaging through the place for more items. Anything that gave her an advantage.

  The floor wasn’t scarce for things to find, but none were particularly useful for the situation. However, it wasn’t too long until she found her first addition. It was a black bike helmet. It looked big and heavy, and when she tried it on, she nearly tipped over because of its size.

  Armor - Black Bike Helmet (+5 Defense)

  Total Defense - 100

  She wasn’t sure if it was worth the hassle, but she figured that any increase in defense was worth the addition.

  ‘Weapon… I need a good weapon…’ She put the helmet aside and continued her search, which led her to a cupboard tucked into the corner of the floor. Opening it revealed an inventory of sports equipment. Her eyes lit up at the sight of so many options. Her hand immediately reached out for the cricket bat. It was massive, almost half her height, and felt like it was half her weight. She tossed it aside and picked up one of the hockey bats. Holding it and spinning it around brought a big smile on her face. “This… feels just right!”

  Weapon - Hockey bat (+15 Attack)

  Total Attack - 95

  She picked up a pair of gloves that added another 3 Defense, bringing her defense to 103. When she was finally equipped with all her armor and weapons, she felt clumsy, but safe.

  “Right. Let’s fucking do this!” She said, hyping herself up as she charged up the stairs.