Pandemonium

People jumped out of their seats, their sleep interrupted, their conversation shut down, as the ringing wouldn't cease. The classic school-bell kept ringing for maybe ten full seconds, and then there was the sound of doors slamming open. I managed a "What the fuck," before we first heard and then saw the monsters burst out of the doors just outside the safe room. It was pandemonium, reminiscent in sheer numbers of creatures moving through the halls to the recess bell in a large high-school, but in every other way perfectly monstrous. And that was before the violence started.

There were some of the more normal, expected creatures. We saw two dozen goblins burst out of a classroom opposite the door in a screaming, laughing burst of random violence, run into an organized charge of six or seven orcs who tackled through the goblin pack with a shoulder-charge. We heard screams, followed by slurping, gelatinous sounds from the East, and the laughing of hyenas to the West. The group of orcs that had charged Westwards mere moments ago were now fleeing the opposite direction, and when the troll creature, which was taller than the ceiling of the hallway, followed them dashing on all fours, he smashed two goblins dead by simply stepping on them.

When all of that passed, there came a creature that must have been some sort of a vampire; think Nosferatu, not Interview with a, dragging a dryad by the throat, slamming it right towards our door. People closest to the door jumped back, but just as it impacted the threshold of this room, instead of flying through it crashed into it like it was a glass wall. The vampire slammed a few more times, and then crushed the aquamarine-skinned humanoid into a purple paste against nothing but air. As soon as it died, the blood and gore splashed into our room and people screamed. The vampire, clearly aware that it could not enter the safe-room smiled at us with needle-pointed teeth, a whole maw of them, and strode casually to the East.

In our room almost everybody was either frozen still or was huddling in a large group in the corner farthest away from the door. At first I thought Artemis was frozen too, but she was thinking. And coming to the obvious, horrifying conclusions to whit:

#1: all the closed classrooms were neither decoration, nor empty, but rather full of monsters and now open #2: all the best fighters we had met so far were in this room #3: that Zack guy was outside when it happened #4: and about 60 other people were still in the old guild hall

She was processing just as quickly as I was, and we both jumped to action within less than ten seconds, if by 'action' you mean jerking towards the entrance.

"Hold on, wait," Chum said. "I have to go. They're all but defenseless," Artemis said. "They're also a half an hour's sprint away. Whatever happens there in the immediate term is gonna happen. You need to have a plan," Chum said. "Chum, what's going on?" I said. "I'm thinking, boss. I've seen shit like this once or twice. It could be a few things, but I can promise you that the hallways are the deadliest place you could possibly be in right now," Chum said.

Some sort of a yellow slime creature started pushing up against the barrier. A goblin was floating inside it, frozen in a grimace of terror and pain and slowly decomposing. It was slowly moving past.

"Well we have to go through the hallways to get anywhere, don't we?" Artemis said. "Yeah, but there's a bunch more rooms open now. Those are probably less intense," Chum said. "Probably." Hannah said. "Yeah, probably. So what, this Tower is so damn overtuned it's a miracle any of you are still alive, I'm not a damned omniscient," Chum said. "Alright, we're listening, Chum, what can you tell us?" I said. "So there's an event going. That means a few things. First of all, this is a pretty involved demi-plane, a lot of planning has gone into this whatever this is. Second, there will be rewards. I'd bet my law diploma that the rewards will be in the classrooms. It won't be random, so I bet that while the monsters can go in and out of their classroom- and probably the danger rooms- they cannot go into other classrooms. Otherwise the strongest mobs would just clear the Tower out room by room and ruin the whole point of you all being in here," Chum said. "That's- wait," I said and thought about it a little.

It didn't seem that consequential right away, but as I thought about it, a possible pattern of advancing down a hall became apparent to me.

"So, wait for a break in the carnage in the hallway," I said, as just, too many, slimy bones flew and tumbled down the hallway, "Rush to the nearest room that it looks like we can clear, and take cover there?" "I mean, I don't know, if you see a pack of capybaras out in the hall you can probably crush them on your way and keep running. Point is, if there is something terrifying in the hallway, get inside a classroom," Chum said.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "Still have to fight," Hannah said. "Yeah, probably. Though I bet there will be safe classrooms here and there as well. If there's an event, there's a plan, and if there is a plan, there may be a plot, and for a plot you need people that either have a role given to them, or who actually know what's happening. Unless you leave ominous audio logs, but that's pretty passé these days. So if you meet someone who isn't trying to kill you, maybe try talking to them. Keep in mind it's not mutually exclusive that they want to talk to you and that they want to kill you," Chum said. "A plot, like a fucking game. Right, because there's already so much game shit here, may as well have NPCs and quest lines," I said. "Yeah, exactly. So, I guess we're getting ready?" Chum said.

The room was filled with confused faces. I recognized a few of them. I'd seen Chimo and the Asian couple- Mr. and Mrs. Xiang, I had learned- last time I'd visited the Guild, along with Zack, who'd now ran out into the halls. They were frightened, yes, but already coming together to talk about next steps as we spoke.

There were many panicked faces in the room, but several people started to move and at least talk about acting. The frazzled looking woman in thick glasses that I'd woken up to back after the Gym quest was talking animatedly to a man who was taking a pair of tonfa out of his gym bag, and she was showing him something in her backpack. A large man with graying brown beard and hair who looked a lot more like a viking than Zack had was going through his Journal, clearly looking for something.

I'd served them drinks, and we'd chatted. The viking dude was actually called Bjorn and he could cast a healing spell, though, since it came from a class ability he couldn't share it. The guy with the tonfa was Kidlat, and he had admitted that he'd come in here with a Power capacity of 6, and almost entirely squandered it by refusing to believe this was real for the first six hours. The woman had been a lot more shy asking about drinks than she seemed now when all Hell was breaking loose, but I'd got that her name was Rita.

These weren't the only people who were getting ready to do something in the room either. For every three people looking around stunned, or woozy from drink or just waking up, there was one who was gathering their stuff, making up their mind and walking up to join us.

Artemis breathed out and looked around the room. "Listen up, everyone. I really appreciate that you all want to help, but we're going to have to go fast, and we're going to have to go through danger no matter what. That means only the highest levels among us can go, and, if Hannah and Alex are up for it, I'd like it to be them."

Me and Hannah volunteered right away. Chimo rolled his eyes and spoke up.

"You've been insisting you're not our boss, but now that trouble starts you seem happy to take charge," he said. "Please, we don't have time for this. The rest of the Guild are in real danger," Artemis said. "Exactly. So we'll go help," Kidlat said. "Artemis is right. We have to go fast, and we have to punch through whatever we run into. You're not ready," I said. I was sort of surprised that many of them looked at me in surprise and seemed to seriously consider my words. "Yeah, no, I'm not sitting around doing nothing. I'll freak out," Rita said. "Look, we've been talking, and you're right. You cannot do nothing. But you're not ready for a rescue mission either. I've seen what's out there. Those things will kill you," I said. "So what are you suggesting, Mr. Alex?" Chimo said. "Chum, how do you think they'd fare in the classrooms? The newly opened ones?" I said. "No, no way, that's too dangerous," Artemis said. "Well, actually, I don't know. Some of them are nearby, and all they have to do is survive long enough to get past our barrier here," Chum said. "We can do that," Mr. Xiang said, "I have some abilities that let me help move people." "So what, we just randomly clear rooms while you do actual important work?" Chimo said. "You train. Next time you'll be in shape to actually be helpful," I said. "I still don't like it. I just don't believe it's safe," Artemis said. "Oh people will die for sure. But boss is right, if they don't get levels they'll all die," Chum said.

The rest of the group looked around, and some of the more drunk and stunned people looked up to us.

"Do- do we have to go too?" A woman, dark haired, in slacks and a blouse said. "Nobody has to go if they don't want to, but… But Alex and Chum are right. If we don't get stronger, we might be in real trouble soon. Just- organize among yourselves. Get into parties and go explore the nearby rooms. Stay as safe as possible and run if you need to," Artemis said.

Several of the more reluctant, stunned people- I'd started thinking of them as the civilians- looked around dazed and fearful. It seemed that Chum had been right, that they had been hoping to just shack up somewhere safe for the duration of the challenge and forget all about this when it was over. But the meaning of the rules suddenly and dramatically changing did dawn on most of them. They wouldn't be safe. Not really. Something would change, and they would be in danger again. And if they were weak they would die.

So, slowly, with the prodding of the more proactive Guildmembers, the room came alive with discussion and planning.

"They'll be fine. They need this," I said. "Maybe. They're not the first priority. We need to get going, if we hope to be of any use," Artemis said. "Yeap, too much talking," Hannah said. Artemis sighed. "This will be a shitshow. With the exception of Chimo and Bjorn, and maybe the Xiangs these people have no experience," Artemis said. "Then we better go save our people and get back to them as soon as possible, right?" I said. "You're right. Let's go get our people," Artemis said.

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