Chapter 32: Killing Ghoul
Adrian was just a normal senior student with a dream to become a great architect, creating blueprints of magnificent buildings and bringing his own style into the world, but everything had changed just more than a week ago.
Before everything had happened, he was having lunch in the cafeteria and simultaneously planning his coursework, but suddenly, an odd mechanical voice resounded in his mind. Having no time to think over the message it had relayed to him, he was lying unconscious with one cheek on his meal.
When he woke up, he had a strange urge to say status for no apparent reason and status window as in games had appeared before his eyes. It was quite simple and was even far behind modern games in its complexity.
However, a short time later, someone had screamed, drawing the attention of everyone in the dining hall. Then, he saw it!
One student was gnashing its teeth into the flesh of another one, tearing small chunks of meat. A student, who was being eaten, was thrashing and screaming in agony, yet everyone was looking at them blankly.
Someone tried to separate them, but he was also attacked by it. Everyone was screaming and panicking at the sight of murder, fast ones were able to escape from the cafeteria, yet most of them were trapped in the dining hall since a monster was close to an exit and had already stood up from another cold corpse.
10 minutes later, when people inside cafeteria were able to pin down the first zombie, two dead bodies rose from the ground and were also growling threateningly at others, joining the first one. So one had turned to three and three had turned to dozens.
Having no way out, Adrian made the quickest decision he was able to do; he went further into the cafeteria, where staff members should have been operating. Then, he locked himself in the toilet, opened his Beginner's Survival Pack and with a great effort, reached the room of administrator who had also survived and locked herself in her room.
"...Remember, just get back if there are too many of zombies in the corridor! The storage room is right after you pass next to a dining hall. Good luck!"
Sara or administrator of the cafeteria was giving instructions to Adrian. She had light brown hair and a gentle face with a black skirt and a white shirt on her, giving her a touch of an office woman. As for Adrian, even though he was in his early twenties, he looked slightly more mature than his age with his long black hair gathered by a hairband.
Since Sara's personal room was close to the kitchen, Adrian often scouted their surroundings and if everything seemed safe to him, he tried to slip to the kitchen to search for any leftovers or anything edible in there.
However, after a week, they were running low in food, so he was forced to go further towards a storage room.
Gripping a Rusty Sword, the same as Dave's previous weapon, which he got from the first zombie he had killed, Adrian slowly left the room and looked for any zombies in the corridor.
'It seems safe out there!'
Slowly moving towards his destination, he kept wondering why he didn't meet any zombies on his way, yet when he was passing next to a dining hall, he understood where all zombies had gone.
'Are these guys insane!'
***
As Dave entered the dining hall, he was welcomed by a swarm of zombies. He didn't hope that they wouldn't notice him, so he swiftly barged at them and started killing ordinary zombies rushing towards him.
He didn't dare to activate Reinforced Breathing due to his last experience, but he did enhance his body with mana since it didn't have any grave consequences, causing only slight weakness in the body after being used. Serving as a tank for others, he tried to kill every zombie, so they didn't slip towards his back.
At the same time as he was handling ordinary zombies, Rebecca had summoned her elemental spirit, Star, as Dave had told her to do before they entered a cafeteria.
Since it was just a floating orb of light, zombies had no interest in it, allowing Rebecca to search for evolved zombies among ordinary ones. Through telepathic connection, she saw everything with a Star and easily spotted two Hunters and a Ghoul.
Ghoul was slightly larger than other zombies around it, but not too much as a Giant. It had a big stature and broad shoulder with clearly outlined muscles all over its body. It was half as big as a Giant and had similar claws as a Hunter.
According to the plan, Rebecca was tasked with killing a Hunter, so he commanded her Star to kill it. Since it was just a mass of light energy, her elemental spirit was fast enough to follow after a Hunter, as it condensed light energy into a blade and slashed with it at zombie's head, successfully killing it.
With slightly fewer zombies attacking them, Dave allowed others to join him, as it was four against a dozen of zombies now. As they were dealing with ordinary zombies, Hunter sprinted out of the group as it tried to attack Rebecca.
Having waited for this moment, Adam stopped Hunter in its place with Telekinesis, simultaneously retreating backwards as Dave had covered his place. He sent his Broken Spear flying towards the Hunter and pierced its head with his weapon.
Having dealt with Hunters, Dave decided not to wait for Ghoul and rush towards it, activating Reinforced Breathing and lifting his Dull Axe. Most of the zombies had already been killed by their group, leaving only a few of them, so he was confident that the trio behind him would be able to handle them.
After several moments, he was already sending attacks towards a Ghoul as he tried to dodge its sharp claws. Since he would be infected if he was injured by a zombie, it made killing a Ghoul even more difficult.
Blocking another attack from a Ghoul with Mana Barrier, he slashed vertically with his axe, forcing it to dodge to the left, and at the same time, he lifted his left hand which had a ring on it. It flickered with light, shooting Mana Bullet to the head of a Ghoul.
He had time to try it in 3 days they were hunting, so he was already adept at using it and magic ring also wasn't too complicated in usage.
Since Mana Bullet was already faster than a Ghoul's speed, it was unable to dodge a bullet from a close distance, as Mana Bullet accurately reached its head.
[You have reached level 6.]
[You have earned 2 free points.]
'It was slightly stronger than I had expected, similar to a mutated dog, maybe, because it had eaten and infected lots of zombies.'
Trying to catch his breath, he made a note of it in his mind. Provided with more biomass, zombies would grow even stronger, even ordinary zombies could become several times stronger if they ate more humans. Enhancer and Awakeners also gave a great boost to there evolution.
Low rank 1 evolved zombies also fell in that category. Some low rank 1 Giants might be stronger than other ones, but since one or two points in strength didn't make much of a difference and were negligible in a broader sense, ranks didn't break down even further. Naturally, stronger zombies gave more experience points.
Having used Mana Sensing all along, he already detected a person standing on the other side of the doors, so he decided to warn him.
"Hey, man there, better look behind you instead of spying at us!"
Struck speechless by the strength of their group, Adrian looked at them in awe since zombies, terrorizing him over the week and trapping him inside a cafeteria, were easily dealt by Dave's side.
When he heard Dave, the first thought he had was that maybe Dave was saying it to someone else, but as he glanced behind him just to be sure, he saw a zombie sprinting towards him. Perhaps, it was locked somewhere and only now was able to leave from there.
Panicking slightly, he held Rusty Sword before him and waited for a zombie to approach him, as he slashed with his sword at him, piercing its head. Having killed it, he still wondered how Dave was able to detect him.
Warning the guy in the corridor, Dave decided to collect spoils of the battle and open a White Chest which had dropped from a Ghoul after he killed it.
Opening it, he was greatly disappointed since he didn't obtain anything new as a Restoration Bread had appeared in the place of a chest.
'Allocate 1 point to strength and 1 point to agility.'
'Status'
[David Murckly
Level: 6
Class: None
Survival coins: 226
Mana: 12/25
Strength: 17
Agility: 13
Stamina: 11
Intelligence: 11
Spirit: 5 (+1)
Free points: 0
Innate ability: Regression
Skills: Elementary Cooking (LVL 2), Gaming (LVL 8), Mathematics (LVL 7), Leadership (LVL 1), Meditation (LVL 3), Flash Step (LVL 1), Mana Application (LVL 3), Mana Threads (LVL 3), Mana Barrier (LVL 2), Mana Enhancement (LVL 2), Reinforced Breathing (LVL 2), Swordsmanship (LVL 5), Battle Focus (LVL 4), Mana Sensing (LVL 1)]
'5 points for shooting Mana Bullet and 8 points for everything else. Finally, I shouldn't have any problems with speed now!'
Checking everything up and having done everything, Dave decided to ask ways from the guy, who was peeking from the doors.