Change: New World

An Unexpected Complication

I ran through the hallway, my excitement barely contained, as I made my way to the computer lab. I knew that the only computer room within the old building was in an old, secluded area tucked away in a corner on the 2nd floor.

Back before all this had happened, I hardly ever visited the location, so it took a while for me to remember it existed.

Well, it doesn’t matter now, the only thing I really cared about right now was the possibility of the internet, which caused my budding excitement to swell.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to call me an internet addict back pre-apocalypse.

As it might already be obvious, I gave of the impression of someone who spent long hours of solitude in front of a luminescent computer screen, and that isn’t necessarily wrong. So you might be able to understand why I’m so excited in the first place.

Using all this excitement as fuel, I hurriedly moved along the hallway. I was excited, too excited in fact, that it took me a while to notice the unconscious feeling of… strangeness that was beginning to form within my mind.

[Something is wrong….]

That was the impression I got, but I couldn’t really pinpoint as to why I was feeling such apprehension. My eyes began to frantically look left to right.

I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I knew there was something wrong.

I came to an abrupt stop, as my eyes scanned the surroundings. Hina and Cielle followed suit, and upon noticing my strange behavior, they readily entered into amateur stances and began looking over at their surroundings as well.

[Same, old, same old….]

The areas along these walls, at first glance, looked basically the same as the rest of the 2nd floor. The floors were banged up, blood was splattered everywhere, really, to me it looked like the same type of destruction I had so often observed in my one week of time here.

“....”

No, that was wrong.

It was the same, yet different.

While it was true that this adjacent hallway was still just as “monster damaged” as the rest of the school, there was one significant difference; the type of monster that caused the damage.

Unlike the rest of the floor, which was usually adorned in heavy hoof prints and smashed lockers, this particular hall was covered more by scuff marks along the tiled floor, and claw marks riddling the locker doors.

But the most important, the most distinct feature that I only now came to notice, was the presence of fur. Rather, shedded fur.

“....”

I sighed out despondently.

There was really only one monster I ever encountered so far that had any resemblance of the type of fur found here. It was black and course, unlike the minotaur’s brown and surprisingly soft hide.

It was, obviously, werewolf fur.

“Be careful. Keep as quiet as possible.”

I instructed briskly to the people behind me. Hina and Cielle saw the look of concern shrouding my face, and readily nodded in compliance.

I moved slowly, following the trail of canine destruction while attempting my best imitation of ninja steps.

I had already brandished Efhermet, while I thought over the current situation.

There was an unexpected complication.

For some reason the monster species which spread havoc ceaselessly throughout the night, was somehow close by. I didn’t know whether this was a stroke of luck or misfortune.

I followed the trail, until it led me to a pair of double sliding door.

The door was readily scratched and clawed out more so than the rest of the hall, but nevertheless, it stayed tightly shut.

I took in bated breath, as my hands cautiously moved to the handle. I gently tried pushing the door open, and surprisingly, it gave way rather easily.

I quickly closed the door once more though. Even if it was open, there was no reason to just haphazardly enter a potentially dangerous location.

Instead, I opted to peak out of the small window that framed itself on the upper half of the door.

Wiping off some of the crusted blood on the window sill, I carefully peered into the room.

It was dark, much more so than usual. From the looks of it, the windows were blocked by a heavy pair of curtains.

I gave my eyes a minute to adjust, while my ears unexpectedly perked up. I could hear the rhythmic exhales of whatever lay inside. No, scratch that, what I heard wasn’t a whatever, rather it was several dozen whatevers.

Looking carefully, I could finally make out the hides of glistening black fur that covered the monsters currently resting.

Werewolves.

A rough estimate would bring me around 40 to 60 heads. That was a hell of a lot of wolves.

They all congregated at the center of the room, where they rested rather quietly. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that they looked more like cuddly puppies, than vicious, night pouncing monsters.

My body unconsciously shivered at this scene. While the 50% reduction in fear from my [Psychopath] title kept the fear from mentally taking over, I guess I couldn’t just easily brush aside the effects it had on my physical body.

I took a deep breath, and attempted to quiet my quickly beating heart.

I looked deeper into the room, and almost let out an audible groan.

[Damn it…. of all my luck….]

I cursed mentally, as I went to confirm what it was that depressed me so quickly.

The room, the classroom these beasts had decided to call home, was the place I was so excitedly looking forward to visiting.

The Computer Lab.

Along the walls, covering three sides of the room, were rows of several computers.

From what I could make out, none of them were turned on, but it also didn’t look too damaged from here. Rather, the insides were pretty… neat. Well, at least when compared to the rest of the school.

While my eyes scanned through all of the computers and wolves, I verified that almost all of the computers were reliant on a physical ethernet cable. This was quite a stroke of luck for me, since a physical cable was exactly what I was looking for.

Although unfortunately, my luck was quickly doused by misfortune.

My eyes continued scanning through the room until they came to rest on the one hulking beast that stood out from the rest of the pack.

A large, greyish-black body rested off to the side of the room. It’s massive jaw haphazardly placed on top of an equally as massive paw.

It was twice as big as the others, and from the looks of it, was, in all likeliness, the leader of this particular pack.

Gulping down the growing worry, I forcibly calmed my mind, and used identify on the beast.

[Identify!]