If the monster had been any stronger, faster, or smarter, or if John had been any weaker, slower, or less alert, he probably would have been in big trouble. As it was, his Mind stat let him notice Jade's eyes widening. Agility let him turn, and reflexively activate Accelerate. And, finally, Strength gave him the physical speed to side-step the attack and lash out with a Striker-empowered kick at the same time, preventing the monster from sailing past him and straight at the others.

The rat monster tumbled head over heel in slow motion. John raced after it, acting on instinct. Accelerate let him catch up in a heartbeat. Mana Blades spawned from each of his hands, and he crossed his arms over each other, forming an X. Then, he lunged forward the last footstep and lashed out with both blades at once.

Black blood sprayed over the gym's mirror as the monster's body full away in four pieces. Accelerate ran out at just the right moment for John to hear the sodden squelch of monstrous body pieces hitting the floor. They began rotting away immediately, like the creature had been dumped in a vat of acid.

+400 Aura

"Tch. Only four-hundred points? I might as well have left you to the others after all, you little shit," he grumbled under his breath.

John checked himself over to make sure he hadn't got any monster gore on him, then turned back to the others. They were watching him again. He was starting to think the sinking feeling he got in his stomach whenever he had their attention like this was never going to stop.

Then something occurred to him. "Oh, yeah," he said, frowning. "I got lost in the heat of battle and killed it. I'll try to leave the next one to you guys."

+400 Aura

"You're crazy, man," Chester breathed, shaking his head.

John made sure to show no outward reaction to that. It hurt, but so long as the guy's opinion on him didn't affect his Aura, he could live with it.

"Maybe," John said. "From here on out, you guys will take the blues. I'll fight greens."

It would pain him to give up potential Aura gains with those kills, but he had some ideas for mitigating that problem. The mysterious mentor role had been working well so far.

First, he figured it was worth getting the Inventory while he still had the chance. Things had been going extremely well so far, almost too well, but there was no knowing when he could fuck things up, and the potential Aura loss if he broke his persona could be catastrophic.

Thus:

Unlocked Inventory!

-10,000 Aura

Despite himself, John winced at that expenditure. Nothing else he'd purchased so far even came close to matching that outlay. Buyer's regret almost overwhelmed him as his mind went into overdrive, imagining all the things he could have unlocked with 10,000 goddamn Aura. Knowing he still had thousands left mitigated the pain somewhat. And he told himself that he'd be able to earn it back fairly quickly, given how much he was accumulating just by being around other humans.

John's mana pulsed, sending a wave of warmth through his body, suffusing his flesh, blood, and bones. It circulated a few times, then returned to the mana sphere in his navel. There was a pop, like air had been displaced inside his soul, opening a strange void within the mana sphere. After that, a new pulse of mana travelled up from the sphere, but it shot straight for his head.

The familiar feeling of new information having been injected into his mind appeared. There was no transition, no loading sequence. It was just suddenly there, like it had always been, and he could recall it perfectly without even trying. The slightest twitch of subconscious thought, and all the knowledge it had implanted was available.

Every bit of regret vanished within five seconds of discovering what his new Inventory could do. To him, it appeared simply like this:

Inventory (0KG/247.2KG)

[Empty]

That much potential storage alone wasn't what had him excited, though being able to hide away 247.2 kilograms of stuff in his soul was plenty awesome—he immediately assumed such a specific number had to have a reason behind it, and it felt safe to assume it was multiplying his body weight by his Strength stat. He couldn't remember the last time he'd weighed himself, but 82ish kilos sounded about right for where he'd been when the apocalypse had kicked off.

His anticipation was more than just the mechanic of the storage, too, though he was greatly enthused by the news that he could store something in his Inventory just by touching it, no complex ritual required. It didn't matter how large it was, as long as his Inventory kept beneath the weight limit.

As such, he stored away his backpack immediately, delighted to get what turned out to be 9.3KG of weight off his shoulders. Interestingly, it counted the backpack and everything in it as one item for the sake of storing it away, but listen all the items within, along with their weights. A bit of testing revealed that getting stuff out of his storage couldn't be exploited, sadly: any objects stored would always appear in his hand. No telefragging or launching items for him.

Figuring out whether food and water perished in his Inventory would be a longer process, since the menu itself gave no indication on that front. He remained cautiously optimistic.

But all that was relatively ordinary. Useful, but not enough to get the imagination running. What really set his heartbeat racing in anticipation was the idea of what he'd see when he eventually accumulated enough Aura to unlock the new options that had been opened up to him:

Unlock Outfits Menu: 10,000 Aura

Unlock Armoury Menu: 20,000 Aura

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Unlock Crafting Menu: 25,000 Aura

Unlock Market Menu: 50,000 Aura

Unlock Alchemy Menu: 60,000 Aura

Unlock Enchanting Menu: 75,000 Aura

Unlock Portal World Menu: 100,000 Aura

Judging by the fact they were named menus like the Spells and Skills had been, he imagined they'd function in much the same way, granting him access to a new list of things he'd have to spend further Aura to purchase.

All of them pretty much spoke for themselves regarding what they'd genereall provide, but the actual possibilities were endless. It was hard to stop his imagination from running wild. The only thing keeping him in the present was the knowledge that there were three other human beings standing right next to him, probably wondering what the hell had just happened to his backpack.

"Let's go," he told them, then moved on as if nothing had happened. The others whispered together as they followed, but he ignored it as usual.

They left the block of flats and resumed their slow northbound march. John forced himself to focus on his Mana Sense and Soul Vision, keenly aware of how dangerous a lapse in concentration could be. Since it'd probably make him look like a bit of a dick if he just went and found another monster for himself to kill after promising to leave the next one for the others, he angled them towards another blue soul a few streets over. His magical senses took them around the back of a house and into a row of garages hidden away there.

Ironically, the setting wasn't the only thing reminiscent of the first major monster melee he'd partaken in. John was quite shocked to come face to face with another of the eyeball monsters. This one had dozens of pale white worms in the place of eyelashes, each one gaping a mouth containing concentric rings of barbed teeth. Its red legs were about the length of an adult man's, and the eyeball itself was maybe the circumference of a car tire. It blinked languidly at them, its eyelid closer to stormy grey than black.

Scoffing to himself, John gestured at the monster and took a step back. "This one's yours," he said. "It's weak as hell, so draw it out to get more points."

By then, it had noticed them approaching. The eye narrowed. Its wormy lashes wriggled around, pointing their mouths towards the tasty-looking humans. Looking closer, John could see little flecks of red on the teeth.

He clenched his jaw. "Remember, that thing has eaten people. Make it pay."

Jade was the first to step forward. In her armour, she looked like a resplendent knight of old. It fit her well. The machete ruined the image a bit, but apparently the swords had already been looted when she got to the museum; in the early moments of the monster invasion, most people hadn't wanted to waste any precious time tugging on awkward armour. There hadn't been a moment to get anything better since.

Lily moved second. Her chain mail looked a little more awkward when she had fairly regular trousers on underneath, but her crossbow had enough menace on its own to make up for that. It was an ornate thing, made out of polished wood. Up close, he could see little runic symbols etched into the handle, faintly glowing. She carried no bolts, but she didn't need to. Her D-rank skill took care of that. She took only a few steps forward before dropping to one knee and sighting her crossbow on the enemy.

Chester was the last to join their advance, but he moved the furthest forward. Everything about the massive guy was awkward: the army helmet, the hockey goalkeeper armour that had needed to be tied together at one shoulder, and the horribly inappropriate weightlifting shoes. He had no weapon, and his hands were clenched into trembling fists at his sides. But he'd stepped up without needing to be pushed into it, and that had to count for something.

The eye monster was glancing between them, bending and straightening its legs, like it was warming up as it tried to decide the best target to attack. It clearly had no thoughts of self-preservation. There wasn't even a hint of fight or flight, and the concept of a wild animal backed into a corner didn't even factor into the equation. Killing humans seemed to be the first and only thing on its mind.

"Let me get the killing blow," Jade said. "That's the only fookin' thing I get points for anyway."

"All I gotta do is shoot it," Lily said with a tremor in her voice. "No biggie."

Chester let out a weary sigh and lifted his hands above his head. "I guess I'll hold its attention then, eh?"

Despite his promise to let them handle it, John had Accelerate on a hair-trigger, ready to impale the monster with a Soul Arrow at a moment's notice. A blue soul probably wouldn't be a problem, but he was sure there'd be plenty of Aura in it for him if he swooped in to save the day at the last second.

The monster attacked without warning. Its crouch took it no lower than usual, but it sprang up, launching itself for the nearest enemy: Chester.

Luckily, the humans had been ready.

Lily's crossbow twanged three times in the space of a second, launching a trio of bolts. Each one impaled itself in a worm-eyelash. Whether she'd been aiming there deliberately to draw out the fight and gain more points for everyone, or if she'd just missed, John didn't know. Either way, the monster's momentum was thrown off, and it went stumbling to a side, its worms flailing in furious indignation. It glared at Lily.

But that glare didn't last long. Chester clapped his hands above his head, and a searing flash of neon pink briefly blighted the world. The monster flinched back, coming to a total stop, then it was charging forward once more, all its attention on Chester. The man in question let out a quiet whimper, but stood resolute.

Jade stepped in then, bringing down her machete in a brutal overhead slash. There was a distance of metres between her and the monster, but with her skill that didn't matter. A giant golden projection matched the movement of her machete, looking large enough to slash right through a double-decker bus. It slammed to the ground right in front of the monster, sending it stumbling back and kicking up a plume of dust that almost reached above John's head height. The golden projection vanished like it was never there.

The dust hadn't even settled before Lily's crossbow unleashed another three bolts. These stuck right in the eyeball monster's leg despite the lowered visibility, and it stumbled even further back. Another flash of pink dragged its focus away from its latest attacker, drawing its ire to Chester once more.

After that, the battle settled into a rhythm. Jade's great golden slashes slowed it to give Lily an easier target. Chester's pink flash drew its attention away from the ranged attacker. Then Jade would attack again to prevent it reaching its new target, and the cycle would start anew.

In less than a minute, the eyeball monster had been pin cushioned with crossbow bolts, and it was clearly losing strength. Lily had been aiming for non-lethal attacks after all, as John had theorised, but there were only so many places to non-lethally hit a creature with a crossbow bolt, and the point became somewhat moot when you'd hit it half a hundred times already. It stumbled around like it was drunk, barely able to stand. Its worm-lashes were all lifeless, flopping around like wet hair. Its eye could barely stay open.

Jade stepped forward, brandishing her machete. She glanced between Chester and Lily. "You two got enough?" she asked, voice tight.

They both nodded.

Without further preamble, she raised her machete above her head, then brought it down like an executioner's blade. The golden projection gleamed once more, slashing through the monster like it wasn't even there. It burst apart in two halves, spraying black blood over the gravelly ground.

When Jade turned back to them, she was pale. She looked at John. "Where's the next one?"

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