My world, was ablaze with fire. The houses around me w,ere up in flames with my backpack on me. I strained my ears trying to hear ,familiar voices alongside the panic as everyone was freaking out understandably.
A cold lump of ice had settled in the center of my chest, freezing my panic that tried to rise up.
I turned to my right and opened the closed Iron Gate and walked into the street.
The sky was filled with the smoke of burning houses and Cars, all except for the Imposing manor house of Old Man Welton, he had a hatred for all things electronic he still used candles and lamps instead of lights his large yard protected against the flames and then I saw him nearly sixty years of spite holding a hose spreading it keeping the flames away from a nearby house. I walked in the middle of the road walking towards him. A satisfied smile on his features as he recognized me, I used to use a farm scythe to cut his grass for 10 bucks. "Ah, Hello there, Kiddo; nice to see those Damnable things got what they deserved, eh?" His voice carried despite the chaos, bearing a sound of satisfaction.
"I'm pretty sure you're alone in that opinion, Old Man," I responded as I walked closer to him.
"Eh, you think I give a Shit," he said a shit-eating smile on his face.
"No, not really; your house is fine?" I responded with a similar Shit eating grin on my face.
"Yeah, not a lick of electricity in this house. Imagine yours didn't fare so well?" A rare note of sympathy in his tone.
"Yeah, went up into the Flames," I said, the sadness no doubt evident in my voice.
"Well, I got plenty of room, until your father can make his way here." I smiled back at him. Looking back I saw many people dragging wounded out on the street. It made for a dreary sight, ash and soot covering their faces looking back as their lives went up in smoke.
I looked back at the Old Man, and he sighed, "Help me make room on the bottom floor, will ya? I got a small collection of medical supplies, and I have a distinct feeling that emergency services are going to be down for quite some time." He said, making a sweeping motion to his front door; together, he and I entered.
Looking around it looked like we were going to have work cut out for us. His manor had three main stories with a small Attic and a Basement. It was a big house for one man, but while he came off as a world-class Asshat to his neighbors, most knew that if you needed a place to stay for swore electronics, you could stay at Old Man Welton's Place.
He and I began with the living room and were moving the furnishings into his basement, the Old Man had a love for antiques and said it made him 'Feel not as old' so we were careful to not damage them, moving them one at a time eventually after we had cleared half of his living room we heard a Sharp Knock at the front door, people must have quickly realized that his home was the only one not bathed In flames and many would probably begin to migrate.
Old Man Welton signaled me to put down the Table we were holding slowly, letting touch the ground. The Old Man rubbed his lower back
"I'll tell ya what, Kiddo growing up is a Bitch and a Half," he said gruffly as he Turned in the direction of the front door and slowly walked towards it. Following him, we navigated through his house, eventually passing a Baseball bat with the blue words 'Louisville Slugger' faded from old age on its side. Welton flicked his right hand towards his single for me to grab it. Quickly I grabbed its worn grip. I nearly jumped when a small window appeared above the bat.
...
[Louisville Slugger(Copy)]
Common Blunt Weapon
...
A bat modeled after the Original made for Browning a struggling professional Baseball Player who saw great success after using this Bats Predecessor.+5% Blunt Damage
....
A somewhat magical Baseball bat, neat. Reaching up to tap the Old Man's shoulder, his head turned one eye locked onto mine.
"I know, we can talk about the weird Magical fuckery when no people are bleeding on the streets, but keep that thing close things could get uglier," he stated Grimly before continuing his march to the front door.
The Old Man raised his voice "Who's there?" He asked. A familiar voice responded it was Mr. Johnson, the Museum Curator, a family man. I noticed his voice sounded panicked.
"Hey, Mr. Welton, I noticed your house was intact, and I was wondering if we put some of the Injured in there?" He asked with a dash of hope rising in his voice.
"Already two steps ahead of ya; him and I are moving the furniture to the basement; if you want to help speed things along, that would be great." The Old Man said as he opened the door to the ash-covered Face of Mr. Johnson.
I watched as a look of relief washed over his face, his eyes started to mine as he spoke again.
"Thank God that you're alright when I didn't see you out there and your house was up in smoke. I thought the worst." He smiled at me before his eyes turned back to the Old Man.
"Thank you. I think I can round up some muscle to help. Do you have any medical supplies?" He asked before he continued
"Most people only grabbed their personal medicine not that I blame them"
Welton scratched his chin in thought "Yeah, I've got a small stash though we should save it for the worst off" he Said
Mr. Johnson nodded. We went to turn around back to the street when Welton stopped him real quick.
"Is Mrs.Gonzalez home? She used to be a nurse, didn't she?" He asked.
"No Idea But I'll look for her." Mr. Johnson before jogging off to the closest group of people. Soon enough, a group of ten people were moving the furniture from the first room of Welton's House to his basement, and another group led by Miss Gonzalez, a retired nurse, quickly and safely moved the injured into the now free room.
A good chunk of people was fine or had only received minor burns, but some people who had been holding their phones and hadn't noticed that it was smoking and didn't drop weren't doing so great, and some... Some didn't make it.
The residents of Mulberry Avenue had quickly settled around, and in the Welton Manor, I and Welton were the only ones in Our Rooms with the injured on the bottom floor alongside Mrs. Gonzalez and her helpers. The Johnson family took the Attic as they had a little one, with the rest either cramped into the free rooms on the second and third floor or camping in the yard.
Eventually, people started to get hungry; Mr Johnson, alongside Mr Brown, organized search parties to collect food that hadn't burned and to get in contact with the other neighborhoods nearby.
While the search parties were out and about, Old Man Welton pulled me aside.
"I've been poking around on the screen thingy and I've talked with some others about and I've got some information, and I figured as this so similar to the games you like to play you might have some insights that us old Geezers don't have," he said a light smirk as he called people half his age 'old geezers' and his eyes locked onto mine.
"Alright, what did you get, Old Man?" I asked morbid curiosity brimming inside of me.
"Hmm, well, it seems to go off the First Name you you and your father's last name, and no matter what, it has labeled us all 'Low Human,' which pretty much everybody finds somewhat insulting." He said he clearly didn't like the label either. He took a deep breath, looking at me, waiting for a response.
"Same for me, Kien Noble," I responded, waiting for him to continue.
"Class slots vary; most people have two, few have three, and only one or two have One; I've pressed on it and said some mumbo jumbo throwing medieval and magical buzzwords," he said, clearly confused.
"Well, let me take a look at mine; this stuff looks awfully like an RPG game," I responded.
Hmm, I focused on the square in the corner of my vision where Windows had retreated to. I blinked as the small square expanded back to what reminded me of a Character Sheet.
I mentally scrolled down to the Class Section where it stated the [Primary Class], [Secondary Class], and the [Trinary Class]. The Secondary and Trinary had the tag [N/A], with the Primary having [Press Here] instead. Taking a breath, I focused on the [Press Here], and a smaller window superimposed over the Character Sheet appeared.
...
[Available Rank One Classes!]
[Squire]
Rank One Class-Common
This class signifies the Owner as beginning the path to true Knighthood. The Most Important Skill: Maintaining Armor and Weapons. If you take care of them, they will take care of you.
Inherent Skill: [Arms Maintenance]
-Arms Maintenance Lvl: 1
Grants Basic skills in Maintaining basic Gear.
[Pickpocket]
Rank One Class-Common
This class signifies the Owner as beginning the path of Thief. A pickpocket is not a combat class, but it's not without its virtues.
Inherent Skill: [Sticky Fingers]
-Sticky Fingers Lvl: 1
Makes your fingertips better at sticking to unowned objects at command and makes the owner of said object slightly less likely to notice based on the difference between their perception and your Skill
[Apothecary's Apprentice]
Rank One Class-Common
This class signifies the Owner as beginning the path to being a true Alchemist, turning the objects around you into true potions, although as an apprentice, you can only prepare basic Ingredients.
Inherent Skill: [Prepare Ingredients: Basic]
-Prepare Ingredients:Basic Lvl: 1
Grants Basic skills in preparing basic alchemical ingredients.
[Brawling Initiate]
Rank One Class-Common
This class signifies the Owner as beginning the path of the a true brawler. Though right now you're only a baby with anger issues.
Inherent Skill: [Tough Knuckles]
-Tough Knuckles Lvl: 1
It grants a boost to the durability of your knuckle bin ones and how fast they regenerate.+5% Durability and +2% regeneration to Your Knuckles.
[Scholar]
Rank One Class-Uncommon
This class signifies the Owner as be.ginning the path of a true Mage. Though as a scholar, you don't yet have access to magic, you can surely memorize and organize information!
Inherent Skills: [Memorize] & [Organize]
-Memorize Lvl: 1
Grants a heightened memory for information you have read and gives a Minuscule chance to remember forgotten information.
-Organize Lvl: 1
You are now slightly better at organizing informa.ion both in your head and real life.
...
Scan,ning over them all of them where Common except for Scholar which seemed pretty fucking useless right now even with the two skills over the other ones One skill.
I began to tell the Old Man what I had.
"Well I don't have Scholar or Squire but I have an Uncommon one similar to your [Brawling Initiate], [Bar Knuckle Fighter] as well as something marked as a Rare Class [Antique Collector] and Mrs. Gonzalez has [Apothecary], which she picked immediately" the Old Man seemed to be deep in thought before he said
"I'm going to pick the Rare One, I've only got one slot so I hope I don't regret it" he said before his eyes glazed over and his face scrunched up as he clicked on it.
"Hmm, I'll check the skills I got in the morning. Let's wrap this up. Asre he waited a second to see if I had any halfways before continuing.
"The Physical stats seem to be pretty much the same for everyone, bar a points in the tenth place it reigns from .9 to 1.4." The mind and soul stats seem to be more substantially different for everyone, Mr Brown thinks that the Intelligence Stat seems to be one's IQ divided by a 100 and the Luck stat seems to vary from 1 to 2.5" he said.
"My Intelligence says 1.6 and my Luck says two. I'm assuming that's good, and my physical stats all read One as well." I stated he nodded along.
"Nobody has any Achievements or Titles yet so no clue on those quite yet." He said before he began to turn towards the door as he grabbed the door handle he turned his half way.
"Keep that bat near ya, I am bad about all of this, and sleep well kiddo". He said a brief smile on his face and as he stepped out of the room I said.
"You too old Man" he responded gruffly as began to walk slowly up the stairs. Closing my door my mind returned back to my Dad and my brothers