Gideon Linovol was a schmuck. His girlfriend of two years just broke up with him, when she found out that he had just been fired from his job working at a gas station.
"Worthless bum!" was what she had called him.
'Even though she was such an average looking woman, she dared to insult me like this.' Gideon thought to himself. If his parents hadn't passed away, what kind of life would he be living instead?
Gideon parents died three years ago, on his 15th birthday. They were young business owners who had opened a restaurant together, but went missing when they were overseas learning new recipes.
Gideon missed his parents, but a small part of him resented their choice to risk leaving him to fend for himself. He dropped out of school after they were reported dead, and had to work to stay one step away from being homeless. He eventually moved into a small one bedroom studio apartment in the middle of Iowa.
He had originally moved here because the living expenses seemed cheaper, and there was the old myths of Midwestern friendly. It was, however, a myth. Gideon met his girlfriend, Veronica, while working at the same gas station together. She must have found him better looking than the average guy, but that didn't stop her from leaving him the moment he was fired.
It was even her fault that he was fired! She was flirting with the night manager, behind Gideon's back, and out of jealousy the night manager fired Gideon stating 'poor work ethic'.
As Gideon was riding a bus to his apartment, he saw a skinny man cornering a young school girl on the bus. Gideon looked at him with disgust, but he didn't move to help the young woman. The past few years had been hard for Gideon, and he had not received any help. Life was hard, and he didn't have the time to help others.
"Come on, it's a Friday night, why don't we go out to a bar I know? I know the guys there and if I say you're with me they won't check your ID." the skinny man said. He leaned forward and smelled the young woman's hair. He had medium length dirty blonde hair. They were obviously cheap highlights, Gideon thought to himself as he sized the man up.
The young woman was pushing the man away, but it wasn't enough force to truly make any room between them. She had a school uniform on, which led Gideon to figure she must be from a private school.
'Must be nice to still have mommy and daddy to provide huh? Being able to afford private school they must have money too...' Gideo shook his head. He didn't want to keep assuming about this person he knew nothing about, however he had already started to resent her a little in his heart without meaning to.
"Please leave me alone. My parents are expecting me home, so please stop trying to cause trouble for me..." The young woman said, still trying to keep the man at arms length.
"Oh come onnnnn." the man said, slowly moving his hands around her arms, moving towards her behind.
It was at this moment when Gideon didn't want to look anymore, since it would only make him a pervert, that the bus suddenly came to a screeching halt.
The young man and woman both stumbled, the man fell however the woman was able to keep her balance by grabbing a hand rail. She quickly made her way over to me before putting me between herself and the man.
I simply stood up and walked to the front of the bus, before asking the driver what was going on.
"There is something in the road. I don't know, it looks like a small kid? I can't tell because of the rain." the driver explained, and pointed towards the street before us.
We were on a small side street, a couple of blocks away from my apartment, so I decided to wait for the bus to begin moving again. Since I didn't want to get wet with rain.
The man from earlier had come to the front and shoved past me.
"Open the door, I'll tell the kid to get out of the way. I gotta get downtown to go to the bars before they get boring."
The bus driver simply shook his head before opening the door.
"Ayo kid, you gotta move out of the way, you can't be playing in the streets like this."
The man said, as he slowly approached the child while holding his jacket over his head. The child seemed to have heard him, as they started to stand up straight.
It was at this moment that Gideon noticed something.
"Hey, aren't their arms like oddly long?" He muttered, mainly to himself, however the young woman and bus driver both nodded in agreement.
"Hey, where are your parents kid?" the young man reached out to turn the kid around, when the 'child' swung their arms at his hand. They were finally turned towards the light and everyone could clearly see, this was no child.
Scaly green skin, long arms that reached their feet, a fat stomach, and short legs.
'Is that a supposed to be a Goblin? It looks like one of those Troggs I saw in a video game once...' Gideon thought to himself.
The young man, during this time fell backwards, avoiding the claws of the creature before him. Recovering from his shock he began to back to away from the thing, making his way back to the bus while keeping his eyes on the monster.
However it was at this moment that Gideon saw movement from the alleyway nearby.
"Drive. Get us out of this area... Now." Gideon said quietly to the bus driver.
The driver turned to look at him incredulously, when he saw the young man outside get hit with a club from behind. Another creature had come from the shadows and hit him cleanly in the head. Knocking him to the ground.
Panic began to seep into the bus driver's old bones as he saw a pool of blood begin to form around the man's head.
"If you want to live, out best chance is to leave... Drive or I will." Gideon stated, once more with more than a tinge of urgency and panic in his voice.
Gideon clearly saw the attack, and knew they wouldn't be able to fight against something with a weapon, when they had nothing. They needed to run away... Running away was better than dying at least.
The old man was startled from Gideon's voice, but that helped him wake up from his stupor. He closed the doors, and began to speed away. The first creature they saw screeched and jumped in front of the bus, trying to stop it, however steel will always trump flesh.
With a splat and a squelch, the creature was crushed under the wheels of the bus, as they turned a corner and headed towards the nearest bus station.
"What were those things?!" the girl yelled, now that they were no longer in the tense situation.
"I don't know, but I don't think we stood a good chance with no weapons... Do you have a cell phone? Try calling the police and reporting it. I think we were just on West Grand Ave..." as Gideon began to instruct, he heard a monotone voice come from the girl's phone.
"Please stay on the line for the next available operator. All lines are busy. Beep. Please stay on the line for the next available operator." Gideon's focus then shifted to a screen that appeared before him. A screen that appeared before all inhabitants of Earth at that very moment.
[Your world has been invaded by dark forces! Defend your homeland, or don't!
Pick a class.]
There was then a large list of possible classes, and an even larger timer.
[10]
>
[9]
>
[8]
'OH SHIT I HAVE TO HURRY!'
Gideon began to scan through the long list.
'Warrior... No... Mage... No... Archer? No I don't have a bow... Paladin... No I don't want to be on the front lines...'
As Gideon weighed all the pros and cons as fast as he could, it just wasn't enough time to make the best decision in such a short time.
[1]
'FUCK! Wait this one says [Rogue...]! I'll pick this, I can be a rogue and hide from danger!'
Gideon reached out and selected the Rogue class he saw.
[Roguelike Player class has been selected.]
'Wait, what? I didn't even pick a rogue class? Roguelike? Is that a f*cking genre of games, it isn't even a class!' Gideon began to panic, because this decision would impact his chances at survival.
[Pick a setting!]
[1. Gain a random skill.
2. Gain a random weapon.
3. Gain a random companion.]
Gideon looked at the screen before him and began to think hard. He looked at the bus driver and the girl, and noticed they were also reading something invisible in the air before them as well. He really didn't think that he could trust these two, much less rely on them.
They both froze when they saw the situation earlier... They would definitely be dead weight to him. With this thought, Gideon's choice became clear to him.
"Pick 3." as Gideon said those words, a red energy seeped out of his body and settled nearby.
[Blood Guide has been bound to player Gideon Linovol.]
[Reach Level 2 for another choice!]
With that the screen disappeared and the red energy nearby slowly condensed into a small blob, about the size of Gideon's hand. It looked like a small person but it had no definite features. No face or anything.
'What the f*ck is this supposed to do for me...' Gideon thought to himself.
As he looked at the blob, a screen popped up.
[Blood Guide]
A small living clump of blood, that can guide the owner to treasures, avoid danger, and give small helpful suggestions that will help the owner. Has no combat power.
"Its not as bad as I thought... However it doesn't help me with my lack of self defense... Well, I'm sure I will figure it out."
It was at this moment that the small blob suddenly stood up. It began to jump up and down, and pointing at the bus station.
"Do you want me to go there?" Gideon asked, unsure if the thing could even hear him. However it soon confirmed that it could, however the message it sent was not good.
The blob formed and exclamation point, followed by turning into a skull and bones.
'Danger! Death! I need to avoid the bus station no matter what!' Gideon stood up and ran to the door.
"OPEN THIS UP NOW PLEASE! LET ME OUT!" Gideon said in a panic. The bus driver was confused, but he tried to take control of the situation as an adult.
"Look sonny, I awakened a Driver class, I can fortify the vehicles I drive. I can keep you safe, we just need to go to the bus station and find some others like us. We can even call the police from the payphone there." as the old man spoke, Gideon reached forward and opened the doors to the bus himself.
"HEY GET BACK HERE IT ISN'T SAFE!" The bus driver tried yelling at Gideon's departing back, however he had already disappeared into the streets.
"Whatever, I guess he just got overwhelmed and ran off." the young lady came forward and spoke.
The bus driver looked at her, and said, "You must have gotten a good class? You seem much more confident than before."
The young woman smiled.
"Yeah. It's a pretty good one. Let's meet up with everyone at the bus station first though." she said, smiling. Unfortunately for the bus driver, he failed to notice a glowing red tattoo on the woman's neck that had just appeared. The tattoo was in the shape of two fangs, that glowed a crimson red and swirled around.