Chapter 4: Twenty Points
Dawn did not break so much as it seeped into the world, a slow, grey stain pushing back the absolute black. Kael had not slept. He had watched, listened, and planned, his mind a whirlwind of tactical calculations. The bank was secure, but it was a trap if he stayed too long. Resources were finite. The **[Cracked Canine Tooth]** sat in his pocket, a useless trinket for now, a promise of a system he didn't understand.
His body ached, a deep, pervasive soreness that the single point of Vitality had barely dented. His health had regenerated to a mere **82/100** overnight. The System was stingy with natural recovery. It wanted you to use potions, to spend resources. It wanted you to need it.
His objective was simple, brutal, and quantified: **20 XP**.
He left the bank as the light grew, a ghost in the ruins. The city was different in the dawn. The immediate, frenzied violence of the first day had passed, replaced by a watchful, predatory stillness. The monsters were still there, but they had settled into the new ecology, becoming its hunters and its scavengers.
He moved with a purpose he'd lacked the day before. He wasn't just surviving the moment; he was farming. He avoided the main thoroughfares, sticking to service alleys and connected basements, his new Agility making the parkour-like navigation feel almost instinctual.
His first target was a lone **Corrupted Pigeon**, a bloated, foul thing with a jagged beak, pecking at a long-cold corpse. **Level: 1. Health: 30/30.** It was trivial. A single, precise thrust of the rebar ended it. It dissolved into 5 motes of light and a single feather.
**XP Gained: 10. (90/100)**
Ten points. Halfway there. The meager reward was an insult, but it was progress. The System was teaching him another lesson: not all kills were created equal. The stronger the foe, the greater the reward. The Hound, a Level 2, had given 80. This Level 1 scavenger gave a pittance. The calculus was clear: high risk, high reward.
He needed one more substantial kill. He stalked for another hour, his patience a trained weapon. He found it behind a collapsed newsstand: another **Corrupted Hound**. This one was smaller, perhaps freshly turned. **Level: 2. Health: 110/110.**
It hadn't sensed him. He had the element of surprise. He could repeat his AC unit maneuver, but that was a gamble. Instead, he went lower-tech. He palmed a chunk of broken concrete from the rubble and, with a sharp flick of his wrist, sent it clattering across the street.
The Hound's head snapped up. It growled, slinking toward the noise, presenting its flank.
This was it. No theatrics. Just execution.
Kael erupted from his cover, closing the distance in three silent, powerful strides. He put the full force of his body, every point of his Strength, into a two-handed swing aimed directly at the Hound's skull.
The rebar connected with a wet, definitive crunch.
**Critical Hit! Damage Dealt: 55!**
The Hound staggered, dazed. He didn't let it recover. A second blow to its neck.
**Damage Dealt: 32.**
It collapsed, dissolving before it could even turn to face him.
**Victory!**
**XP Gained: 80.**
**Level Up!**
The wave of energy that flooded him was more potent than the first time. It was a surge of pure, unadulterated power that washed through his veins, scouring away fatigue and knitting his sore muscles. The lingering ache from his wounds vanished. His senses sharpened further, the world snapping into a resolution so crisp it was almost painful. The blue screen flashed, brilliant and commanding.
**Kael is now Level 2!**
**Health and Stamina have been restored and increased.**
**+5 Attribute Points Available.**
**Class Selection Available.**
He stood straighter, the rebar feeling like a toy in his hands. His **Health** and **Stamina** pools were now larger, his baseline for survival raised. But his eyes were locked on the two new prompts.
**Attributes.** He allocated the new points without hesitation, reinforcing his chosen path: **+2 Agility, +2 Endurance, +1 Vitality.** The familiar sensation of tightened muscles and deepened reserves settled over him.
Then, he focused on **Class Selection.**
Three options materialized in his vision, each accompanied by a simple, evocative icon.
* **Berserker:** *Embrace the fury. Specializes in high-damage, reckless assaults. Gains bonuses to Strength and critical damage at the cost of defense.*
* **Sentinel:** *The unbreakable wall. Specializes in defense and protection. Gains bonuses to Vitality, Endurance, and threat generation.*
* **Stalker:** *The unseen blade. Specializes in stealth, speed, and single-target elimination. Gains bonuses to Agility and critical strike chance.*
He analyzed them with a soldier's cold logic. Berserker was a sledgehammer. Effective, but predictable and wasteful. Sentinel was a fortress, but too slow, too reactive. He was a lone operator. His survival depended on mobility, intelligence, and eliminating threats before they could overwhelm him.
He selected **Stalker.**
**Class Confirmed: Stalker.**
**New Skill Unlocked: [Shadow Stride (Level 1)] - Briefly meld with shadows, reducing visibility and muffling sound. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.**
A grin, thin and sharp, touched his lips for the first time in days. A tactical ability. An actual tool. This changed everything.
He turned, his movements now imbued with a new, predatory grace, and froze.
Standing at the mouth of the alley, twenty yards away, was the archer. It was a woman. She held her bow, an arrow nocked but not drawn, her posture tense and ready. She had been watching him. She had seen him level up.
Her eyes, a startlingly clear grey even from this distance, were fixed on him. They were not the eyes of a panicked survivor. They were the eyes of a hunter, intelligent, assessing, and deeply wary. Just like his.
For a long moment, they simply stared at each other across the corpse-strewn alley, two predators in a newly dead world. The silence between them was heavier than any scream.
He had his levels. He had his class.
She had her bow.
And they both knew the other was not prey.
The calculus of survival had just acquired a new, and infinitely more complex, variable.