As soon as the class selection screen went away, my view was consumed with notifications and the sound of the hospital speeding back up. That was the furthest thing from my mind however, and I could barely stop the shaking in my hands as I navigated the menu.

  Two Legendary Skills. Holy Shit.

  First, I had to see what had changed on my stat sheet. Like the System said, the Class Selection had raised my ability scores, but not by very much.

  Strength: 16

  Dexterity: 12

  Intelligence: 11

  Spirit: 9

  Health: 17

  Luck: 3

  An increase of 1 or 2 was kinda lame, but I wasn’t going to complain. I was much more interested in the skills I had earned from the Ardolon Symbiote. The four new skills were presented in front of me, and it was like I was opening presents on Christmas Day. It felt weird to be this excited with everything that had happened, but I relished in it for as long as I could.

  I listed my skills by rarity and started at the bottom. The first was the skill I got along with the Force Brawler class.

  Density Shift (Uncommon)

  The user may use 5 energy to manipulate the density of their body. You may focus on one part (limb, torso, head, etc.) of your body and change its density by 10%. This can reduce damage taken momentarily, or increase the power of strikes.

  I took a look at my health bar, which read 170/170. There was a new bar underneath which had unlocked with Class Selection labeled Energy. I currently had 50/50, which meant I could cast Density Shift 10 times before I ran out. A little tooltip popped up, warning me that Energy typically regenerated slowly, although I could boost my Spirit stat to increase it. At my current 9 in Spirit, I regenerated 50 energy every 24 hours. It wasn’t a horrible skill, but I didn’t know how useful it would be. I much preferred a skill which allowed me to not take damage at all, instead of just reducing it. I moved onto the next one on the list.

  Greater Observation (Epic)

  When you focus on a System creature or Applicant, you will be able to see their Stats and Class type. You must view the target for 10 continuous seconds to gain this benefit.

  You also gain night vision and the ability to see details up to 100ft away.

  This was exactly the skill I wanted. Even if it took a bit to activate, I’d be able to see how our stats compared with monsters we were thinking about fighting. Plus, the ability to do so from a far away meant we could do so relatively safely, which was great. This was a good sign. If Epic skills were this good, then the two Legendary ones I had left were bound to be ridiculously strong. I started with the one with the weird name. It didn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

  Leader of Many within Few (Legendary)

  The Ardolon Symbiote you have paired with is of Legendary rarity. This gives the adapted user the ability to interact with all Ardolon interfaces and technology, as well as other symbiotes.

  You are able to speak with symbiotes even if their host has passed away. You can send telepathic messages to Symbiotes and their Adapted within 10ft, even if they aren’t in your party.

  You can now view the location of Symbiote items on the map within the Domain you are in, as well as other symbiote adapted within 50ft.

  The Prince awakens, his armies a forest which never was.

  This was an interesting skill, especially if we wanted to find more symbiotes to pair up with people. But I had to admit, it was pretty underwhelming for a supposed ‘Legendary’ skill… I hadn’t seen any items labeled with “Ardolon” in our journey to Ralph’s, but it had been pretty hard to see anything with all that smog and smoke. Either way, I doubt there would be many interfaces to interact with. We didn’t know if there were any other people who had taken a symbiote item, but at least this skill would help us locate more of them. I was gonna have to talk with Zahra on what our next steps were going to be with this in mind.

  I straight up ignored the last line. I had no idea what it was talking about, but I figured Legendary rarity was just weird like that, or something. Maybe I’d be able to use the System to answer these questions, but I doubted it.

  Finally, I got to the last skill on the list, and the more I read, the more excited I got.

  Greater Regeneration (Legendary)

  Greater Regeneration allows the user to fully reform lost limbs and broken bones, as well as rapid blood regeneration. This is the most efficient passive healing skill, operating regardless of Energy. As your health increases, the rate your health regenerates at will also improve.

  You also gain resistance to nearly all poisons and diseases. This does not apply to System effects which specifically target Symbiote-adapted applicants.

  Current Health Regeneration: 5HP per second.

  Hooooooly shit. Now this was a great skill, and one that I didn’t have to preserve Energy to activate, which was even better. Plus, health was my highest stat, meaning I could really get some use out of this. My previous regeneration had been enough to nullify the smog, and this was infinitely better. It was nice to finally get some good news, especially once I realized I wasn’t the only one who had significantly powered up.

  Radiating from Zahra was a warm heat, like sitting next to a fireplace with a cozy blanket. She had grown a few inches, now reaching around 6ft from her new class. She was humming to herself, looking through her menu until she met my eyes. There was a new black streak through her silver hair, but her face hadn’t changed.

  “Well, it looks like going with the symbiote option was pretty… rewarding. I've been snooping at your profile in our party, I can see your skills and stats now!” She leaned towards me, the heat wrapping around more of my body, but not getting uncomfortable.

  “It didn’t say anything about the height boost, though. I’m like, supermodel tall. It didn’t give you a few extra inches, did it?”

  I gestured down to my body, giving her a shrug and a raised eyebrow as a response. She laughed, and we walked towards the cafeteria to deliver the spoils from Ralph’s. As we walked, I saw a few people milling about. Most looked relatively normal, although one patient had transformed rather drastically, antlers now sprouting from his head like a moose. He had the highest stat out of anyone in the waiting room, with a 15 in Strength. Everyone else’s stats seemed to float around 10, and most people had a rare class.

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  Some, like me, had an Uncommon class, but the group was basically me and some really old or really young people. The kind that didn’t understand what was going on, and probably picked the first thing that let them out of the Class Selection menu. I found Sayde in the back room of the cafe, digging through a nearly-empty storage closet. She looked pretty much the same, but after a few moments her class appeared, showing itself just above my textbar.

  Her new class was called Mystic Dancer, which I thought was an odd thing for a nurse to pick. As my new Observation skill kicked in, I realized it was an Epic class. Sayde’s jaw dropped at all the food, her eyes darted to our new limbs and silvered hair.

  “Levi! And Ms. Mansour! What happened?! I barely recognized you.” Her eyes darted up and down our bodies, seeing the silvered limbs we couldn’t exactly hide. Not to mention the long silver hair we were both sporting, like we had just stepped out of a new Tron movie.

  Zahra walked towards her, arms open as she did a little spin on the tile floor. It was a perfect raise, her body effortlessly balancing on the balls of her foot as she completed a quick Pirouette on her new foot. Her balance and control were next level, easily at my sister’s level at least.

  “Not too bad, hey? I guess the Grasshoppers or whatever are good for something.” She smiled and took a small bow.

  Sayde stared at her, her face a mix of confusion and slowly growing curiosity.

  “N-not bad at all. Is… Is it…”

  “Real? As best we can tell, yeah. Although it really doesn’t feel like it.”

  She turned to me. “Levi, did the System replace your arm as well?”

  I smiled and showed her my new limbs. “Yeah, and then some. It also cured the cancer in both of us, somehow.”

  She stared at us, incredulous. It was a lot of information to take in, but I hoped it was good news for her at the least. Two less mouths to have to supervise and take care of.

  “That’s amazing! I would still want to run a scan to see, but I think we can take the System’s word for it at the moment. Especially since you both look better than I’ve ever seen you!” She smiled, joy spreading across her face for a moment. She was someone who truly cared about people and tried to help them. I could tell she was genuinely happy for us, even given the horrible circumstances.

  “Yeah we’ve certainly gotten an upgrade. But we also came with a gift. From Ralph’s.”

  I clicked on a bag of Lays chips in my inventory and it appeared out of thin air in my hand, causing Sayde to jump and curse an attempted whisper.

  “The two of you went outside!?” Her voice raised in anger, although she kept her tone neutral like a drill sergeant.

  “That's too dangerous, especially when we don’t know what's out there or what the aliens are going to do. I don’t want the two of you to leave one day and not come back. You have to be careful. You have new bodies that are the result of this weird alien System, but we don’t know if using these powers has any drastic drawbacks. You have to promise me to be careful.” She looked between the both of us, expecting an answer. As I nodded my head, a ‘thought’ broke the silence in my head.

  She really isn't wrong, you know. Merging with a symbiote can be a dangerous affair if the host isn’t compatible with the Ardolonian. You and Zahra benefitted from finding us before the Class Selection began, making it rather easy to choose a compatible class through the System’s analysis ability. You are rather lucky, Ardolonians are known for their symbiotic relationship with the Inner System’s races, with most hosts retaining complete personality.

  Uhhhh what the fuck? Is this the… red ooze thing that I ate?

  I waited, but there was no response.

  I turned my head behind me, half expecting the voice to be there. But there was no one. Sayde turned her head to me.

  “Are you okay, Levi?”

  “Yeah it's just.. Did either of you hear anything just now? Like a voice?”

  “Nope!” “I don’t think so.” Zahra and Sayde responded, and I lowered my head as I pretended to stretch, my body filling with tension. What was trying to talk to me? It said most people retained their personalities. I gulped as that reverberated in my mind. It was too late to go back now, whatever it was. Hopefully I can figure it out soon.

  Sayde looked at me, her brow furrowing.

  “What kind of voice? What are you hearing?” She asked.

  Great, now you’re making her worry over nothing. You idiot.

  “Oh, nevermind. I think I just heard a pipe rattling or something.” I made up an excuse, carrying on like nothing was wrong as the nurse seemed to accept my answer with a slow nod.

  Zahra filled in Sayde as we helped her clean the room and prepare it for our grocery haul. We went to work helping her organize and prepare for breakfast. Zahra just jumped into helping her, no asking for help required, and I followed.

  The nurse was moving quickly with precision as she grabbed items and balanced them, stacks upon stacks of Cheese-its and other crackers in one hand, a dozen cans of beans in the other. As she moved, her stats also appeared in front of me, quickly showing themselves before disappearing. Her highest stat was Intelligence at 13, with her next highest being Dexterity at 11. The rest of her stats were all under 10, and her Strength was even a measly 3, which was unsettling. If stats were indicative of power, then I was now stronger than Sayde. I had no idea how much skills played into something's strength, but I wanted to bet they were really important.

  Once I saw Zahra’s stats, I knew it didn’t matter how good her skills were. Her stats had greatly changed after the class selection, probably a bonus from picking a legendary class.

  She now had a 21 Dexterity, 18 Health, 17 Intelligence and 19 Spirit. Her luck was still under 5, and her Strength was now 10. I had received a small increase to my stats for picking an Uncommon class, and the reward distribution was obviously a lot higher with a legendary one. We had both gotten stronger, and I couldn’t help my curiosity around what skills had come with General of Hades. Hopefully Level 0 and 1 monsters wouldn’t be as dangerous as they had been in the past with Zahra’s new Strength, and my own. Despite the Uncommon rarity, Force Brawler felt like a good fit.

  The heat radiating off of her didn’t fluctuate, but seemed to continuously flow in steam-like waves as we removed all the food items in our inventory. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I was aware of how my whole body warmed up when I was right beside her.

  I was usually pretty useless in the kitchen, besides the occasional egg or ramen noodle, but I helped out where I could. Soon, we had a pretty decent spread coming together with the help of a gas-powered BBQ Sayde rolled over. The smell of sausage, bacon, and eggs began to fill the small room, and I began to hear the sound of people beginning to assemble in the cafeteria in front of the cafe.

  Sayde thanked us. “This is exactly what we needed. I don’t condone going outside when we don’t know about the smog, but you two have helped a lot of people with this. So seriously, thank you.”

  “Anything we can do to help, let us know. It's been crazy for everyone. I gotta say, it was pretty convenient we could stuff all this in our inventories. There are monsters out there not worth tangling with, so we didn’t want to be out for long. As long as we’re careful, we should be able to get supplies and necessities when we need them. How’re people holding up here?”

  Sayde stopped working on the scrambled eggs, her arms crossed in front of her. She stared off slightly, taking a pause before responding.

  “Pretty horrible. Half of the survivors are patients, and about half of those people are very old, or very sick. We can’t move them around much at all, and Dr. Hekla had to turn the emergency power generator off to preserve gas in case we needed an operating room. With that being said, we’re not in a good situation. The earthquakes caused some serious structural damage to the building. I’m not sure we’d be able to find a functioning operating room left standing, even if we needed it. The other half of people are staff like me, receptionists, nurses, janitors, a few attending physicians, and the department head Dr. Hekla. We had a meeting where we decided to try and care for the people here as best we could for as long as possible. Some didn’t like that idea, and decided to just leave the hospital all together. I’m guessing you haven’t seen any other people out there?”

  I shook my head no. We had only seen monsters outside, or the corpses of people unable to run or hide in time.

  Was there anywhere safe anymore? Was it even possible to escape this hellish world at some point?

  If only those people knew the hospital was a safe area, maybe they would have stayed. Now, they’re more than likely dead. Just like 6.5 billion people around the world, failed applicants in the world's most messed up experiment.

  Sayde continued.

  “It also seems like the Class Selection will have some impacts we’ll have to deal with. It gave everyone a class and a power or whatever, and keeping that in check has been more than a handful. Mr. Morrison learned he can turn his hands into firecrackers, and fires them off to surprise us. Unfortunately, the bright lights terrify him and cause him to bolt, and we have to try and chase him down. That's mainly been Christian’s job, even with a broken arm he still finds a way to be useful. I don’t know if I’d be able to keep things together without him. That and Dr. Hekla of course. We should meet with them after breakfast, it would be a good idea for everyone to know what you saw out there.”

  Before I could respond, the voice came back.

  Ahh shit, sorry kid. I didn’t know you could hear me, I was just getting the spiel ready for when we could chat. It's been a really long time since I’ve met a compatible host.

  It's a great pleasure to work with you. I am the Ardolon symbiote you absorbed, saving us both from certain extinction.

  I am the Crown Prince of the Ardolonians, and the sole survivor of the royal lineage.

  My name is Artlonnious, but feel free to call me Art.