{"Ding! [Genetic Nexus] detected! Would you like to store it?
[YES] or [NO]"}
Everette stared at the blue panel while fidgeting with a metal stick that used to be one of the four legs of his chair.
"..."
Without thinking much of it, he began inspecting the bee.
The oversized bee he killed was apparently infected with some kind of disease or something.
'But what does it mean by amped? Could that correlate to its size or is it due to the disease?'
'And a Genetic Nexus? What's that?'
{"Ding!—"}
Almost as if sensing its host's confusion, it began describing a Genetic Nexus.
{"[Genetic Nexus], a selected body part that contains the entirety of the deceased entity's genetic information. This, however, does not appear often. Uses for a 'Genetic Nexus' is the acquirement of abilities or the creation of [Imprints]."}
"..."
"SO YOU CAN RESPOND TO ME AFTER ALL!"
Everette gripped the sides of the floating, blue panel with both hands like it was tangible while simultaneously dropping the metal stick. Sighing, he let it go before looking at the corpse of the Infected Amped Bee glowing gold.
'So I guess I was lucky enough to have this thing drop a Genetic Nexus, huh?'
"Yes. I would like to store the Genetic Nexus."
After saying that, Everette witnessed the damaged stinger bee dissipate into a blue cloud before quickly entering his body. After seeing that, Everette patted his body down.
'I think... nothing happened to me...'
{"Ding! [Genetic Nexus] is now stored in the {Genetic Nexus Gate}."}
"..."
"And where do I find that?"
He groaned with an irritated expression.
"If you can respond, then you should tell your host how he can use you!"
Everette growled in frustration.
[Eden], after sensing its host wanting to use its function, began to read out its instructions.
"[Stat], [Imprint], [Genetic Nexus], and [Party]?"
"But no inventory huh?"
Everette sighed at that before paying no more thought into it and decided to just take a look at his stats.
"Stat Gate."
***
[ Name: Everette Garden ]
[ Level: 2 - Civilian ]
[HEALTH: 85 / 90 ]
[MANA: 100 / 100 ]
[STAMINA: 22 / 45 ]
[ Titles: None ]
[ Classes: None ]
[ STRENGTH: 5 ]
[ VITALITY: 9 ]
[ DEXTERITY: 13 ]
[ SPEED: 6 ]
[ MANA: 10 ]
[ WISDOM: 15 ]
[ DEFENSE: 0 ]
[ Stat Points: 8 ]
***
"This is average right?"
Everette stared at stats that were linked to physicality.
He sighed before going on to look over at the others.
"My mana and wisdom are pretty high. I wonder why though, last I remember, I never took part in anything magic-related."
Everette scratched the back of his head before shrugging.
"Stat points... Let's put one into vitality and 4 into speed. I'll use the rest later."
[ VITALITY: 9 - > 10, HEALTH: 85 / 90 - > 95 / 100, STAMINA: 22 / 45 - > 27 / 50]
[ SPEED: 6 - > 10 ]
Everette nodded in satisfaction and felt his body heal up a bit. He decided to bring his attention to his spoils of battle.
"Genetic Nexus Gate."
***
[Genetic Nexus]
[ Infected Amped Bee Stinger ]
***
Just by thinking about his nearly acquired Genetic Nexus, Everette was then displayed a rotating, 3d image of the Stinger along with a description of it.
The Stinger unlike its previous damaged form was now repaired and polished. Almost like how it looked when he first saw it.
Not having a chance before, Everette was now able to study of appearance of the Stinger. It was black and had a barbed surface with a sharp tip.
["A bee that was collecting pollen for its hive was suddenly submitted to a slightly larger volume of corruption for its size. Gaining the trait [Amped] its speed also increased. The stinger of this bee has now grown to the size in which puncturing a lethal hole in a normal [Civillian] or [Infected] is possible."]
{"Would you like to absorb this to acquire a [Random Ability] or use it to create an [Imprint]?"}
"Could you tell me what an [Imprint] is?"
{"[Imprint], A biological weapon created through the combination of a [Genetic Nexus] and a base of the host's choosing for the [Imprint]. The weapon may gain characteristics of the deceased entity but will always gain some sort of ability relating to it."}
"I see... I guess I should choose.."
*Bang! Bang!*
"Huh?"
Hearing consecutive banging noises on his door, he walked up to the peephole to see two people with a greyish complexion. Their skin seems to be peeling at a slow rate but still peeling nonetheless.
"... Ew... I'm not usually one to judge appearance but damn..."
Everette's face contorted in disgust.
"Although I'm not sure if this is the right choice or not, I'll probably create a [Imprint] because I don't know how random the ability may get."
"For all I know, I may grow a fuzzy coat."
{"Confirmation of the creation of a [Imprint] using [Infected Amped Bee] accepted. ERROR! Must find an base to proceed with creation."}
"Oh right... forgot about that."
Everette then looked towards the corpse of the bee to find the metal "Spear" he dropped beside it earlier.
Walking over and picking it up, He was then then asked for if he was sure if he want to use the stick as the base.
After confirming his option, the stick began to glow. Not bright enough for one to be blinded, but enough that you can't see what's happening to it.
*Door Breaks*
Everette looked towards the direction of the noise to see two individuals with grey skin entering his room.
"OH CRAP! Hurry up!"
He yelled out the glowing stick, in hopes it would actually listen to his words.
Almost like it did, the light died down to reveal the metal shaft with a black and yellow fuzzy handle with the long and black barbed stinger replacing the broken tip of the stick.
***
[Name: Infected Amped Bee's Metal Spear]
[Tier: 1]
[Description: "A weapon created by Everette Garden, using a severed metal leg of his chair and the Genetic Nexus of an Infected Amped Bee."]
[Abilities:
Active abilities: "A Bee's Tenacity": ["By channelling the tenacious spirit of a honey bee, increase [SPEED] stat by 10% and decrease the chance for debuff [FEAR] by 10% for 30 seconds. Cost: 20 MANA, Cooldown: 1m 30s"]
Passive abilities: None
[Analysis: "... It's a weapon at least"]
***
Everette stared at the Analysis, completely distracted by it.
'It's not my fault I couldn't find a better base!'
After breaking out of his stupor, he stared at the slow zombie-looking individuals before reading two blue panels above their respective.
{"Level 2 Infected Human"}
{"Level 1 Infected Human"}
'Oh great, more infected for me to deal with... Wait—... Humans!?'
Everette brandished his spear in front of him.
'Does this count as murder? I-I mean they're still human but also not?'
After concluding this is just mercy killing, Everette pulled back his spear and plunged it through the closest infected.
The spear was able to pierce through the head. Pulling it back out again with a little bit of difficulty due to the barbed edges. After doing that, Everette hastily avoided a swipe from the other by taking a step back.
Deciding to test the slashing capabilities, Everette swung the tip of the stinger towards the neck of the Infected which caused a deep, long wound to appear, before piercing through its forehead.
"The slashing effectiveness is decent for more soft things while its piercing capabilities are better for harder things."
Everette gave a large grin before absorbing the gas diffusing out of the two infected.
{"Ding! Level 2 and Level 1 Infected Humans Killed!"}
[Level 2 - > 3]
After wiping the sweat off his brow, he heard screams cry out from outside his window.
Taking a look outside, he saw what could only be described as a freak show for he saw insects and humans of various sizes; some of them even had an extra limb or two.
The humans that weren't infected ran away from these monsters but were eventually killed and devoured. These "Things" seemed to grow more powerful and slightly larger with each consumption.
Ducking behind my window sill, I peered over a bit and intently stared at what seemed to be some kind of humanoid mutant with extra limbs connected to its shoulders.
{"Level 10 Mutated Human"}
"L-level 10... Mutated Human...?"
'I-Is there stages to this or something?! So we have Infected and Mutated...'
Backing away from the window, I shakily texted Ada to see if she was fine.
After waiting a bit, I began to get worried due to the fact she hadn't replied yet.
'I-Im sure she's fine! Her phone must've died or something.'
Everette convinced himself before walking over and peering out the door.
*Groaning noises*
He saw about three Infected humans crowding around a door to a room before they all turned towards him.
"..."
{"Level 2 Infected Human"}
{"Level 1 Infected Human"}
{"Level 1 Infected Human"}
"I may have a weapon but this is not fair."
The Infected then began charging towards him. Everette, now fully out in the hallway, responded by swiping his spear towards their heads.
He was able to slash the leading Infected eyes before stepping back to see it fall on the floor. The other two flanked him.
Unconsciously activating his [Imprint]'s active ability, ["A Bee's Tenacity"], his movements became slightly faster.
[ MANA 100 - > 80 / 100 ]
Thrusting his arm forward to the chest of the infected to his left, he impaled it before letting go and twisting his torso around to punch the right one.
'4 points into strength'
While in the motion of his swing, he allocated four points to increase the chance that his punch would actually do damage.
[ STRENGTH: 5 - > 9 ]
*BAM! Crack!*
His fist connected with the nose of the infected, ultimately breaking it.
Spinning back around, he pulled out his spear from the left one before plunging it back in again, except it was into its head.
{"Ding! Level 1 Infected Human Killed"}
Yanking it back after hearing it was dead, he swiped it towards the right one and separated its head from its neck. The momentum caused him to spin a bit before dashing off to the kneeling Level 2 Infected to kill it.
***
{"Ding! Level 1 and Level 2 Infected Human Killed"}
*Knock Knock*
"Anyone in there?"
Everette knocked on the door that was being crowded around earlier.
"Y-You're definitely human right!" A muffled voice of a man came from behind the door.
"Yes... Can't you see through the peephole? I'm not grey or foaming at the mouth."
He then heard the clanging of keys and the clicks that signal the door was being unlocked.
The door swung open to two Normal humans.
A guy with golden hair, brown eyes and about the height of 5ft10 - came out with a girl behind him. She had long black hair, black eyes with glasses situated on her face and was around 5ft6.
"..."
Everette narrowed on this.
"Although it doesn't matter anymore, You are aware girls aren't allowed in the male dorms right?"
The guy laughed it off while the girl hid behind him in embarrassment.
Everette sighed before asking for their names.
"I'm Jack, while this is my girlfriend, Amelia." The guy, named Jack, introduced him and his girlfriend.
Everette nodded and was about to introduce himself before Jack chimed in.
"Are you Everette by chance? The Eve?"
"Ugh...!" Everette cringed before reluctantly nodding again to confirm his suspicions.
Amelia then peered over Jack's shoulder to try and get a good look at the corpses behind Everette before Jack's hand covered her eyes.
"Hey... Did you get a floating, blue panel pop up in front of you? About this shape and... Uh, size?" Jack asked Everrete while using his hand to describe its shape and size.
"Mhm. Have you two worked out how to get it to work yet?" After Everrete said this, the two shook their heads at the same time with a defeated expression.
"I see... Go find some kind of weapon and I'll explain it while we walk."
***
The two came back with their chosen weapon. Amelia held in her hands two kitchen knives while Jack came back with... A compound bow and arrows!?
"H-Hold on! How the hell were you able to convince the teachers to let you have that in your room?!" Everette questioned.
Jack smirked, "Oh? Easy really, Just don't let them know you snuck it in." He then shrugged.
"..."
"Alright, whatever. Let's go."
Everette then explained to both of them on the way how to use [Eden].
"Hey! Is your weapon an [Imprint]?" Jack asked with an enthusiastic gaze after gaining knowledge about [Imprints] and [Genetic Nexus].
"Mhm", Everette gripped the yellow and black fuzz handle on the metal shaft. He then began to brag a bit about how he killed the bird-sized bee and how it dropped its Genetic Nexus. But, of course, he left out how scared he was.
"Awesome! You're really brave, you know that! I don't know anyone who can do that without getting scared!"
"Y-yeah! Same here!"
At this point, Everette got down some basic parts of their personality.
'Jack is an upbeat and extroverted person while Amelia is a shy and introverted person. How funny.'
Everette hadn't noticed it yet but Jack's infectious positivity brought a smile to his face, the more they walked together.