Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

-Gamma City, Northeastern central region of Urth-

It had been several months since the world ended. One day everything was still normal and the next everything had changed. All connections between the great cities had broken down. They entered the system era. Most people were perplexed by the sudden message of the apocalypse. Others fell into a panic but it was not that bad at the start. Except for the broken-down communication system, there was no change. Few people did the tutorial, as they did not take it seriously in the beginning. This led to a great number of citizens being assigned a random class.

Still, the city stayed mostly civilized. There were those who had done the tutorial and explained everything to the others. The leadership created an emergency government to keep the city under control.

Then Monsters started to randomly appear from portals. They found out that modern firearms were useless in the system era, you could not even hurt a normal player with them. Still, the crisis was solved. Even with random assignments, every third person had a combat-oriented class. Within the first few weeks many stepped up to fight the monsters and a system was created to efficiently deal with the invaders. Inspired by history bands and guilds were formed under the leadership of the government. People were sent out to other cities to get information.

Of course, there were those who wanted to use their newfound powers for their own benefit. But as the saying goes, in a world where everyone is special, no one is special. A thief trying to rob an old lady ended up in hospital when the old lady took out her bow and shot him down with a multi-shot skill. Attributes and Skills were not bound by age. Many older people became a lot healthier as if they had become younger.

The news made the round when they managed to connect with some satellite cities. Yeah, everything was looking great...

She and her group were currently hiding in the outskirts of a satellite city at the border of Gamma. They were on the run. She pulled the curtain aside and looked at the streets outside. The once neat suburbs looked as if a horde of beasts had rioted in the streets. Windows were smashed and the streets were filled with all kinds of broken furniture and rubbish from the demolished houses. It was evening the world was darkening as if to match her mood. Just how did this happen.

The sound of shattering glass made her jump. It was in the back of the house! She rushed to the kitchen in the back to be confronted by a horrifying scene. It was her uncle standing over the limp bodies of two of her party members. Her brother and cousin lay there on the ground with severely bleeding claw marks. Their armors were cut like paper. In its hand, it, her uncle, held the neck of her father's limp body.

"Hehe, there you are!", the creature that was once her uncle spoke in a deranged voice. Tears filled her eyes and sorrow and anger welled up in her chest. Her uncle did this, but it was not her uncle's fault. Who was she supposed to blame here?!

"Uwehehe, don′t look at me like this, sweetie~"

Swift, way too fast! In the blink of an eye, the creature had moved and grabbed her from behind. With its grotesque arm covered in a hard shell and ending in claw-like fingers, it held her waist while the other caressed the cheek. She was petrified! Her uncle's once familiar face pressed against her cheek and a long alien tongue wandered over her skin down to her neck.

"kikik! Why so distant? Don′t be like that. Soon you will be ve~ry close to me. Just like your mom was."

Nausea grew in her stomach. Scenes of the day merely a week ago flashed in her mind. The day they caught her uncle and ambushed the hide-out. Worse than wild beasts only commanded by the lowest human emotions and basic instincts. Completely unfettered the horde had pounced on them.

Sorrow clouded her mind and something dark sprouted in her heart. She had been indecisive. She had been too emotional. It was her fault.

Her gaze fell on the bodies of her father, brother, and cousin. The light in her eyes dimmed. It could feel her body stopped trembling. "Kek! Did you break? Did you finally give up?" Oh, how long had he waited to taste the tender flesh of his niece? Ever since. Urgh-

Bittersweet waves of pain flooded his body? How? What? The girl he had just held in his arms had grabbed both his wrists and crushed his flesh to the bone.

<Ding! Passive Skill: Heart of Steel acquired!>

Her eyes lost the light as her hand wrapped in divine aura crushed that face that once belonged to her uncle. She held onto one of the wrists and didn't let go. She could barely overwhelm it in strength when she used the skills of a Monk. She would be dead, the moment the creature could move freely. This needed to end fast before the effect of the skill stopped working.

It was stunned after taking hits to the head, so she pinned it to the ground and kept whaling on it. At some point, the skull caved in, but she kept pounding until there was little left above the neck. These things had a tenacious vitality and often revived from even the most life-threatening wounds. She knew it was not dead. There never was a kill notification, no matter what one did to them.

Heavily breathing she stood over the body of the thing. She looked at the bodies of her family on the ground. It was not over yet. The two on the ground were unconscious, her father was dead, for now.

She took up her father's sword and started to dismember all of them. Not once did her face change as she divided her loved one's bodies. Not even when their blood sprayed into her face. The lack of a kill notification proved that it was too late for them.

<Ding! You have dismembered your own family in a most gruesome way. Requirements for a class change met. Would you like to change to the rare class "Rakshasa"? Y/N>

A rare class? While she stared at the system window the rest of her party returned. It was her sister and her sister′s boyfriend. They were out scouting during the attack.

They looked at the scene and the girl's lifeless eyes. Her sister pulled her into a tight hug. She tried not to look at the ground.

"A Zarkist?", the man asked looking at the parts of the creature on the ground.

"Uncle Jacob," she answered taciturnly. Her sister froze for a moment and the man beside them cursed.

The three wanted to mourn the dead, but they knew that their time was limited. They collected the body parts with a heavy heart and put them all on a makeshift bonfire and doused everything in gas. Even burning would not kill these creatures. All they did was buy time. Several days, maybe a week.

Leaving the burning remains behind they hurriedly set off. The fire would lure even more of them.

They got into a car the two had found when scouting. It looked as if an enraged gorilla tried to flatten it, but it was still running. Sitting on the backseat her eyes again focused on the small system window. A class change....