The three of them sat in the cramped space behind the history desk, a small, fragile island of humanity in the silent library. Ben shared a bottle of water with them and a crushed energy bar he'd scavenged from a forgotten backpack. The small act of communion eased the tension between them.
"So, these... levels and skills," Ben said, looking at Kai. "You see them? Like a HUD in a game?"
Kai nodded, surprised at Ben's easy acceptance. "You believe me?"
"I saw a car get thrown half a block by a creature made of living shadows, and my history professor get eaten by a giant beetle," Ben replied with a shrug. "A guy getting video game powers is probably the most normal thing I've seen all night. I'm just mad I didn't get any."
While they talked, Kai focused inward, checking his status. The wound on his leg still throbbed, a dull ache that the system's health points couldn't fully numb. He had 95 XP to go until Level 5. A new level felt like a necessity now, not just a bonus. He mentally probed the System, trying to see if there was anything he'd missed. As he did, a new tab flickered into existence for a bare second at the bottom of his status screen. [Quests]. Before he could focus on it, it faded away, grayed out. It was there, but it wasn't active. Not yet.
"Kai? You okay?" Elara's voice pulled him back. She was looking at him with concern. "You spaced out."
"I'm fine. Just... thinking," he said, deciding not to mention the quest tab. It was another complication he couldn't explain.
He watched as Elara took out a spare bandage from her kit and showed Ben how to properly wrap a pressure dressing around a wound, using his textbook-wielding arm for practice. She was a natural teacher, calm and methodical, carving out a small piece of normalcy in the madness.
Suddenly, a low, rhythmic thudding began. It wasn't a sound they heard with their ears, but a vibration they felt in their bones, resonating up from the concrete floor.
THUMP... THUMP... THUMP...
It was the sound of footsteps. Impossibly heavy footsteps.
Ben's face went pale. "It's back," he whispered, his voice trembling.
"What's back?" Kai asked, grabbing his saber.
"I don't know what it is. I only saw its shadow. It passed by about thirty minutes ago," Ben stammered, his eyes wide with terror. "It's huge. Ten times bigger than that thing you called a Broodguard."
The thudding grew louder, closer. The bookshelves around them began to vibrate, a few loose books tumbling to the floor with soft thuds. A fine layer of dust rained down from the high ceiling.
Kai, Elara, and Ben huddled together, not daring to breathe. Kai crawled to the edge of the bookshelf and peered out into the main reading room.
A colossal shadow fell through the shattered front doors, eclipsing the light from the street fires. A single, tree-trunk-thick leg, covered in what looked like rock and moss, slammed down onto the pavement outside. The impact shook the entire building. The leg was so large he couldn't even see the rest of the creature it was attached to.
The leg lifted, and the thudding continued, moving down the street, away from them. The vibrations slowly faded, leaving a silence that felt even deeper and more terrifying than before.
They stayed frozen for a long time. The unspoken truth hung in the air between them: they were completely, utterly out of their depth. This wasn't a city of monsters; it was a city that monsters were now walking through as if they owned it.
Staying here, hiding in the library, wasn't a long-term plan. It was a temporary stay of execution.