Matthew stumbled into the tunnel leading to the White temple and sat on the ground.
His breath came hard and forceful, expunging the visceral images of the bodies from his mind.
He clenched his stomach as it boiled and rebelled against him, his sweat coated his entire body. He took off his coat and some of the layers he wore for snow.
Voices drifted from the temple, Good. The White Ant hadn't been here.
The temple had meant to keep them safe, he would have gone in but he was bloody and would garner rightful suspicion.
Overall he just didn't think he could keep up with humans after everything that had happened. He exhaled and tried to think of what would happen next.
I have work tomorrow, when will they send us back? Why were we even brought here? We can't fight those monsters. No amount of willpower or more importantly gunpowder can overcome that.
He had to get inside, maybe explain that he hadn't killed anyone.
As he considered this a tall figure sauntered out of the temple.
It was a dark-skinned boy, with short cropped black hair and bored eyes. He wore very casual jeans and a dark blue jacket.
The boy noticed him walking over. He crouched down, asking.
"You okay?"
Matthew couldn't even be bothered to smile or look him in the eyes, He waved his hands.
"Not my blood. It was from… something else."
The boy smirked, pulling out a chocolate bar. He broke it in half and said, "In exchange for your struggles."
Matthew considered it for a moment. He took the chocolate, savoring it and his churning belly seemed to relax.
He looked up at the boy offering a weak smile.
The boy offered him a handshake in return, "My name's Joshua."
"I'm Matthew." He replied, he shook the hand and then launched into an explanation of what had happened outside. The Rolling bug, great ant and how he had escaped death.
He excluded the strange blue coins, they were still in his pocket. Absurdly light, he had to constantly check that they still existed in his pocket.
"Sound?" Joshua nodded, listening with rapt attention. He stood dusting off his jeans. "You can go in, you don't have to worry what people will think. Other people came back a while ago."
The dark-skinned boy left Matthew in disbelief. He seemed to have just been played, giving out a vital weakness of the monsters for half a chocolate bar.
Matthew sighed, "Wasn't a bad one at least."
When he returned to the temple he only got a few questioning looks. Everyone had settled down, they whispered in small groups.
Matthew could see a large group by the fountain, he inferred that the people speaking had also seen the White ant.
The air was tense and heavy. The temple smelled of old stones and dust.
He slumped down against the wall and closed his eyes. People were arguing, mostly about whether leaving or staying here was the right thing.
"Hey, are you okay?" a soft airy voice said.
When he looked up he saw a blonde girl giving him a concerned look. Matthew studied her emerald green eyes for a moment, they were striking and complimented her beauty well.
Matthew appreciated the concern and her pretty face, but he'd really prefer to be alone right now. "All good. You're the second person to ask, do I look that bad?"
"I want to be nice, but you're lying to me. You look like you've seen hell." The girl answered, and she offered him a hand. "I'm Stella. The fountain just began to flow, come and get some water, I wouldn't recommend drinking though, just to wash off the umm…."
He didn't take her hand, standing by himself. Matthew glanced at the fountain, from afar it was silent but it really was flowing.
"Thanks"
He walked in front partially ignoring her as she called out names of people.
"The big guy is Parker, that's Adelina and that's Kirk. Don't mind him though, he's a bit dumb," Stella explained.
He caught glimpses of the people she pointed at. Parker was the stocky, grey eyed boy who had been warning them not to leave.
Adelina was a reserved girl, with long auburn hair and deeply disturbed eyes. Matthew silently wondered what did that to her. She wouldn't have seen the carnage if she escaped early.
Kirk, who was much closer and offended by Stella's introduction.
"All i did was drink some of the water," he muttered.
Matthew took off his glasses and splashed some water on his face. He stared at his reflection for a while grimly, avoiding his eyes as usual.
His bushy black hair and beard dripped water disrupting the still mirror of the fountain. Blue eyes shone back at him in the corner of his vision.
He listened to the people arguing, deciding to sit and hear things out .
"Are we seriously going out there? I like being alive, and who knows what will change if we just wait a couple more hours?" a boy complained.
"The army could have already been deployed," a girl added. "This many people being kidnapped is a national crisis."
"How are we sure there's anything edible out there? Heck, we just got water. Our captors could be bringing food next."
"So we wait here for them?" another person snapped. "To do what they want with us? Hell no!"
"But it's better than certain death! We could fight people, but definitely not a monster the size of a truck!"
Adelina chimed in sourly. "What if they control the monsters? How are we fighting then?"
Silence. Then someone muttered, "We have a higher chance of exploiting some human error than killing those things barehanded."
"Why are we even talking about fighting?" another voice interjected. "They may be blind. We can just be quiet and escape."
"If you're willing to stake your life on that assumption, do it," someone shot back. "But I'm not."
Parker interrupted their argument, "Let's try to keep things nice, we all don't know what the right thing to do is."
Then something popped up in front of him.
It was a white screen, with gold bezels and winged edges. Like a game screen.
Congratulations on your selection to participate in the Sunbird's human empowerment program!
Many people shouted as the screens popped up in their eyes.
"What the hell? Sunbird?"
"What do they mean by human empowerment?"
Matthew didn't know whether to be glad he wasn't going mad or to be scared of what this could mean.
Human empowerment? Are the people who brought us here not human?
Many questions stirred in his head, as he wondered what the criteria for selection even was. He raised a hand and tapped the prompt.
It collapsed and displayed a new screen:
Name: Matthew
Level: 1 (Spirit coins: 0/8)
Health: 90/100
Stamina: 52/70
Mana: 10/10
Stat Cards
Armaments
Traits: Ariel' web
Skills
"This is not good." He mumbled, his eyes panned through the temple and it seemed everyone received the same prompts. People began to talk about levels and mana. He wondered if he had just been thrown into a damn game.
It was startling, to say the least, but he had played enough MMORPGs to have a limited understanding of what was happening. He tapped on each section, pulling up additional information:
Stat Cards – They increase your abilities passively. Getting the same stat card twice combines them, increasing the modifying value. At level three, you can draw five stat cards for five spirit coins, and at each progressive level, draw two new stat cards.
Armaments – Tools tied to your soul that aid you on your adventure. They can be obtained by sacrificing Wish Coins at a deity's altar.
Traits – Mystical qualities gifted by gods to their followers. Each one is very hard to obtain and sometimes requires trials, but they are all valuable.
Skills – Special arts imparted on your four primary bodies by the Root. Gain levels using spirit coins and have a chance after five levels to choose a new one.
Matthew whistled, laughing self deprecatingly. "Ticks all the boxes. Gods, magic and superpowers. How fucking funny."
He wondered if the people who died outside would find this funny, if they had waited a couple moments they would have known.
Challenge the dungeon! Request for quests! Slay monsters for their Spirits and grow stronger.
He got up and began to leave. Joshua already had a head start if he was still alive. Once he entered the tunnels exiting the temple, he took out the three blue coins.
They felt weightless, like they would phase through his hand or just stop existing if he looked away. Matthew wondered how to use them for a moment before crushing them in his hand.
They broke so easily. Turning in a torrent of blue dust, flowing into his chest.
"Easy enough." He quipped, he checked the items in his bag. He wouldn't be back here for a while.
He smiled, now at least he didn't need to worry about work tomorrow.