Will of Vienna

A relaxing silence filled the stairways after the battle was over. Rashid and Maximilian stepped to the front of the corridor to keep watch as Michael told them, their eyes were focused on the dark hallway. Behind them, the ten newly leveled students shifted uncomfortably. Their bodies were fully healed by the level-up, but their minds were still tense. Most of them started to familiarize with their talents. Others whose talents couldn’t be activated were reading their descriptions again and again.

Michael knelt down next to the closest dead hound-fox. Its body was already stiff, and started to emit a foul smell. His mind remained completely calm and focused, unaffected by the brutal scene. As a gamer he saw the dead bodies not as useless corpses but resources.

*"In every game, monsters drop loot,"* Michael thought logically. *"But the System didn't give us anything after they died. No items, no weapons, no gold. If the loot doesn't magically appear on the outside, it must be hidden on the inside. Maybe under the skin. Maybe in the bones. There is only one way to find out."*

He brought the sharp iron tip of his recruit's spear down onto the monster's chest area. With a steady hand, he pressed into the thick gray fur and sliced the flesh open, searching for anything unusual near the heart. The blade cut through muscle and bone, but there was nothing there—just normal organs and dark, flowing blood. It was a disgusting feeling in his hands. The smell was worse up close, but Michael's expression didn‘t change. Although this was his first time butchering a cadaver he still didn’t stop. He would never stop because of trivial things as disgust. His determination, his will wouldn’t allow this.

Michael's eyes narrowed. He dragged the spear further down, cutting deep into the monster's belly and stomach area. He carefully searched through the inner organs with his fingers, but again, he found absolutely nothing. Small clumps of half-digested meat and bone fragments spilled out onto the stone floor, but nothing that looked like an item or a reward.

"Michael, what are you doing?" Elena Petrova asked quietly, looking away from the bloody sight in disgust. A few of the other students turned away as well, visibly disgusted and unable to watch. Some even were about to vomit.

Michael didn't answer. He stood up, looked at the carcass, and focused on the only part left untouched. He knelt back down, aimed his spear at the creature's thick skull, and cracked it open with a heavy, calculated strike. The skull cracked with a wet, hollow sound, and shards of bone scattered across the stone.

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He reached into the shattered bone, ignoring the warm, gross mess that coated his fingers. This time, his fingers hit something hard and solid.

He pulled his hand back out. Resting in his bloody palm was a small, white crystal, about the size of a pebble. It was rough and uneven. Thin veins of pale blue ran beneath its surface, almost like something inside it was still moving.

Michael waited for a system notification but nothing alike appeared. He turned the crystal slowly between his fingers, half-expecting some hidden mechanism to trigger.

Nothing happened. The air stayed dead silent. There was no text, no explanation, and no voice in his head.

Michael realized why immediately. *Hmm… It looks like this thing was not created by the System. This means the system did also not create these monsters. They came from the portals—they really must be invaders from another world. The System truly must be a mechanism to help us fight them and not support them.*

"What is that?" Rashid asked, looking over his shoulder while still guarding the front, his spear gripped tightly in both hands.

"I don’t know. It looks like a crystal. It was inside the skull," Michael answered and held it up so the others could see, but he honestly had no idea what it actually did. There were no tooltips or instructions to guide him. "I don't know what it's used for. Not yet. It could be fuel, currency, or crafting material. But whatever it is, we are not leaving it behind. If these crystals turn out to be valuable, we should not midd this chance. Others will be looking for them too. Better to have them and not need them than to leave them behind for someone else."

He looked back at the ten staring students.

"Guys, listen up," Michael commanded coldly. "Take your spears. Crack open the skulls of the remaining corpses. Retrieve every single crystal and pack them away. We will study and learn how to use them later."

The students hesitated, some even argued because it was really disgusting. „I don’t care if you don’t do it. You will miss a chance,“ responded Michael.

Jakob Wallner was the first to step forward, gripping his spear tightly to begin the messy work. Soon, the stairwell was filled with the grim sounds of wood cracking against bone as he began to harvest the unknown crystals. One by one, the others followed his lead, their faces pale and full of disgust but still somehow focused.

While the students were busy with the messy harvest, Sophie Dupont suddenly pressed her hand to her ear. Her **[Environmental Radar]** had just picked up something troubling. Her fingers pressed harder against the side of her head, as if trying to focus on a sound only she could hear.

"Michael!" she called out, her voice trembling. "The vibrations... they're starting again. Something is coming down from the upper floors. Fast."

Michael didn't hesitate. "Stop the harvest! Get ready!" he commanded.

The students scrambled, dropping the unharvested carcasses and desperately trying to reform their defensive wall. But they were clumsy, sliding in the fresh blood and struggling to find their footing. Spears clattered against stone as some of them slipped, and for a moment the tight formation Michael had drilled into them threatened to fall apart completely.

Before they could fully lock their formation, the dark hallway above was filled with movement. Another wave of fifteen hound-foxes charged down the stairs.

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