Location - Unknown, Date - Unknown

In the infinite darkness, only given light by 6 swirling masses of light resembling a colorful vortex, 6 figures sat on thrones around a table of glass that stood upon space. They looked unfocused at each other from across the table but as time went by; they began to blink with awareness, one after another.

'Greetings, brothers and sisters. How were your efforts?' One said, seeing the last person blink with awareness.

'Same as always, it seems we are fated to fail in our efforts…'

'Don't give up yet, sister!'

'It matters not, little brother, we have tried this approach for multiple millennia and it had bore no fruit…'

As the conversation continued, it got more and more heated until a singular voice silenced them all.

'Enough! We do not have time to argue with each other, "he" is coming and Lemine is closest to falling victim to his power.'

'It's ridiculous that he would turn on us and do this to us. We are the 6 primal universes! How has this mortal even gained enough power to cause our stagnation?!'

'Have you forgotten we gave him the ability to use origin energy? We created this monster and because of that, we have lost everyone else except ourselves! Our once bright home has become darkness once again, all because of him!'

'Calm yourself, sister! We have time to cultivate a final set of champions. There are no other options. Let us do it one last time and hope a champion arises within us that can battle the monster we created….'

…

..

.

Earth in the year 2025, a planet that was progressing towards peace after it replaced multiple world leaders with people from the younger generation.

Global warming was being addressed, healthcare was becoming more affordable or accessible for people across the world, and oceans were being cleaned of trash and filth on a global scale.

Things were looking bright as the generation that would be around for many years to come worked together to stitch together their fractured world.

That day, like any other, seemed like another day of peace and cooperation worldwide. But then "it" happened and altered everything…

…

Location - Rockland County, New York

Date - February 1st, 2025

Opening their eyes within a dim light with a vast darkness around, a young man climbed to his feet, looking around with a confused gaze. "What the hell?"

Taking a step in a random direction, his head shot upward at the shining light above before shooting to his feet as he felt something attach to his legs.

Seeing a mass of black hands extend from the goo-like floor ignited an immense feeling of danger within the young man.

"No No No No!" He shouted as he jumped free from the encirclement that formed around him.

He continued saying it as he ran around the seemingly infinite space, feeling his energy waning as he hunched over to catch his breath.

"What the hell is this place?" He asked himself, trying to think back on the events before awakening in this place. He was a simple high school introvert with a few close friends about to walk into school. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for him. His mom had left early for work and he put his sister on her school bus to elementary school.

Nothing he thought about could explain how he ended up here.

"Stop dreaming!" A voice said, startling the young man out of his thoughts.

During his brief intermission of thinking, hundreds of hands surrounded him and latched onto his body and eachother. "Get off of me!" he cried, but could not struggle as the hands descended, dragging him into the goo.

"Focus! To get out of here, you need to wake up!" the voice said again with some urgency. "Don't try asking for help because we cannot do anything until you awaken. Now get up, child!"

"How- "the young man wanted to speak but was cut off. "Wake up Drake!" the voice said again as it distorted, sounding like a group was calling to him as the light above began to shine.

Reaching his hand toward the light, he began fighting with renewed vigor.

"Wake up! WAKE UP!"

…

..

.

"Fuck!" the young man, Drake, exclaimed as he shot into a seated position with his eyes wide open as he looked at the people beside him. Taking a second to organize his thoughts, the wailing and screams assaulted him around him.

Before he could speak, a girl pulling him to his feet cut him off.

"We need to move soon. Drake, are you ok?" a young caramel-skinned woman asked as she looked into his eyes with a concerned gaze.

This was one of his close friends named Maple that he had a crush on for the past three years of high school. She was dressed in a white crop top that exposed her midsection and black sweatpants while wearing her hair in a ponytail.

"He's fine. Right?" A boy answered for him as he slapped his face. Looking behind him, the boy, Marcus, wearing a red hoodie along with dark jeans and black sneakers, took a few breaths before looking away towards his two friends with a sick expression.

"You!" Drake said as he looked at his longtime friend. Gazing behind him for a split second, he was instantly shocked by the scene unfolding.

"Is this real…" Maple asked as she looked towards the chaos happening on the other side of the school bus they were hiding behind. She felt even worse at the fact that she could not do anything while looking at the scene, so she looked away shortly after.

"What is this…" Drake asked as he looked at a couple of people fighting against one another, one with bloody clothes and the other with a terrified expression on their faces.

"Look closer…" Marcus said. Watching as the fight progressed and the bloodied person eventually got their opponent to the ground and took a bite out of them, causing them to beg and scream for help until they fell silent.

Drawing a quick conclusion in his mind, Drake scanned his surroundings and discovered a few lifeless bodies laying across the ground with varying degrees of injuries while he watched one even climb to its feet and run off towards the screams further away.

"Zombies…" Drake murmured as he looked back to his friends with an investigative expression on his face. He naturally wanted to know how this was even possible but he had to think about the current moment.

"Why did this-"

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! You have joined The Ascendant Trials]

[To begin your path of Ascendance, Slay a creature]

Looking at the words that have shown up across his retina as if reading subtitles on a video. Drake's words stopped as his brain worked to process what was going on.

"Do you guys see this… thing too?!" Maple questioned, using a hushed tone, so no zombies heard them.

With both nodding in agreement with her question, they wondered what it could mean. They questioned what ascendance meant, but with the world becoming this way now, it was one of their few chances for survival.

While watching for any zombies that notice them, they contemplated what to do.

"We just have to kill a zombie… no biggie…" Drake said a little too calmly for his friends to look at him normally. This wasn't some common event they experienced daily. This was a zombie apocalypse, a real one.

Despite being scared by the idea of zombies, he still had to come to terms with everything and couldn't wait for the military or others to help. He needed to find his mother and little sister in two separate places in town.

Using his experience playing many video games and reading stories online as a guide of sorts, he called out quietly for a menu and more directly to view his status to see what, if anything, was possible.

A second later, a screen of text appeared, showcasing his status. Seeing a representation of his stats, he smiled lightly at the distribution of his attribute points so far, before being surprised further by his current level.

__________

Name: [Drake]

Title: None

Race: Human

Level: 01 —-> 05

EXP: 0/1080

Health: 70

Aether: 90

[Attributes]

Strength: 8

Agility: 5

Dexterity: 6

Vitality: 7

Intelligence: 9

Free Attribute Points: 25

Innate: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown

Skills: None

__________

"Level 5," He said as his smile turned into a smirk before telling his friends of his discovery, allowing them to view their status windows themselves.

"I am level 4," remarked Maple as she pumped her fist once in a short and silent celebration.

"I am the same as her…" Marcus said as he was a bit upset being a level under Drake but ultimately stopped being jealous as he remembered their current situation. It was then that they realized some time had already passed. In reality, it was only about 10 minutes.

It was quieter in the bus lot except for the screaming from within the school and emergency sirens in the distance.

"We need weapons and shelter, for now, let's see if there are any weapons we can find, if not any out here we'll have to improvise…" Marcus said with a bit of worry in his tone, he truly didn't want to fight any zombies but with his best friend wearing a telling smile, he knew he was going to fight despite the situation.

As the trio began checking for weapons of any kind on the surrounding dead, they split up and spread their search carefully to the surrounding buses.

Searching carefully and methodically, while avoiding any zombie stragglers, one of them found a baseball bat in a slightly bloody school bag sitting on the steps of a bus.

"Jackpot!" remarked Drake quietly as he dragged out the bat by the handle. Seeing it was getting stuck, he unzipped the bag slowly while attempting to pull the bat free. As he did, he heard a small groan from within the bus, along with very slow yet heavy steps. "Are you kidding me…"

Feeling a bit panicked, Drake rushed his retrieval of the bat, which caused him to free it quickly. Unfortunately, his hasty actions caused the bag to fall down a step before a hand stopped it from continuing any further.

What was truly even more unfortunate was a hidden baseball within the bag rolling out and bouncing down the steps, causing a couple of moderately loud thuds to resound throughout the quiet bus.

Hearing the rapid movements and loud growls coming towards him from inside the bus, Drake backed up and readied the bat just in time to catch a zombified girl turn the corner.

Luckily, zombies didn't seem to know how to use stairs. This particular one fell head-first, directly into the swing of Drake's new bat.

Crack!

[Congratulations on killing a level 2 Normal Zombie]

[60 EXP Gained]