The World Cataclysm

Spreading his senses around him, Dave led two girls and avoided large crowds of zombies, changing their route one after another. As a result, the way, which should have taken 15 minutes, took more than half an hour.

Finally, Dave calmly gazed at the huge supermarket, already spotting several zombies around it. Looking at it, he thought 'Yeah! I wouldn't have wished to be trapped there on my first day!'

It was a large two-store building, and he thought that it was a hive for zombies since the supermarket should have been packed with people when everything had happened.

It was the biggest supermarket, therefore, the most popular place for students to purchase what they needed. On top of it, it was conveniently located close to the shopping zone, so more students visited it in the afternoon.

"Ehm...David, why do we even need to go there?"

"Yeah! Let's just pass by it"

Rebecca and Rachel gazed at him puzzledly because they genuinely couldn't understand why they needed to enter it. Rebecca had furrowed her brows as she was thinking hard, while Rachel's eyes seemed slightly unfocused, perhaps, due to the exhaustion from the continuous battles with zombies.

Well, at least, she had gained 2 levels, one from killing her first zombie and another one from killing zombies on the way to the supermarket, and allocated her free points into strength.

"Don't worry so much! I still need to restock my backpack with food, so let's go there and rest a bit. I doubt that Rachel can continue even further." Dave curtly replied, hiding important information that there might be survivors in it.

He couldn't just say that future saviour of their university was in there. Didn't he?

Furthermore, he wasn't even sure about it since it was just a rumour back then, so it might be not true at all. At least, it wasn't harmful to check it.

"Furthermore, how are you gonna grow if you don't face any hardships?" Dave shamelessly added on as he recalled a phrase that was usually mentioned to him when he was a soldier.

"..."

"..."

Rebecca and Rachel were struck speechless as they didn't find any words to reply to him.

He was amused to get no response from them since it was the same for him back in his days.

"But it would be suicidal to enter it from the main entrance point!" Rebecca protested since she still knew the difference between hardship and a death wish.

"Who said that we're gonna go in by the main entrance point? I'm not a fool! Of course, we are entering by backdoors." Dave smiled playfully as he explained it to her.

"..."

She found no words to say as she blushed slightly, realizing that her thinking was too narrow. For some reason, she didn't even think about going in by backdoors, perhaps, because it was accessible only for staff members before everything happened, and she had never used it before.

Dave vaguely explained their plan; they will enter the supermarket from the backdoor and lock themselves up in one of the room. Of course, he dropped the part where he uses his Mana Sensing to search for any survivors in the building.

Slightly relieved by the presence of a plan, Rachel and Rebecca followed after Dave to the backdoors. Since the front of the supermarket was mainly open space, several zombies had spotted them and attacked at the first sight.

When they reached the backside, they saw a van parked before the large metallic doors with another common door next to it. Dave thought 'How convenient! We lost one van but found another one here. It might be for the best.'

Slowly approaching the metallic doors, big enough for a van to go in by it, Dave shushed two girls behind him and spread his senses towards it, trying to find any zombies behind it.

Detecting something big behind the metallic doors, Dave said to Rebecca and Rachel "Wait for me here. I need to deal with something."

Saying it, he entered by the door next to the big metallic doors. The first thing he saw was a humongous monster with rotting flesh and bulging muscles. It looked extremely hideous with its small head disproportionate to its huge body and was slightly larger than low-rank 1 Giants.

'Never did I thought that I will meet my first mid-rank 1 evolved zombie here. Interesting, would it drop any Treasure Chests?' Dave thought excitedly as he recalled how it was already several days since he had acquired any Treasure Chests.

Remaining unspotted by the Giant since he was at his back, Dave lifted his hand and directed it towards it. It flickered with light and mana started gathering right before him as it flew in a straight line to its head.

Boom!

'Tsk...What a troublesome guy! It seems my intelligence isn't high enough.' Dave thought as he glanced at the wound on the monster's head. Even though Mana Bullet had pierced its skin, it didn't go through its skull, exploding when it hit it.

Truly, the defence of the Giants shouldn't be underestimated! Well, Mana Bullet wasn't an actual bullet since it was shaped from the formless mana, so it exploded when it hit the though surface.

The strength of the magic spell usually depended on two factors: mana which was used for the spell and intelligence stat. Mana made it the spell stronger itself, while high intelligence allowed to deliver a stronger punch with the same spell. Because of it, mages allocate their points into intelligence and spirit

Silently activating Mana Enhancement and Reinforced Breathing, Dave lifted his axe and rushed towards the confused Giant, which was paralyzed temporarily due to the shockwave from the small explosion.

He quickly approached the Giant and decided to aim for its spine since other parts of its body were too tough for him. Thankfully, since zombies were anatomically similar to humans, it had the same weak spots.

However, as he had already prepared to attack it, confused Giant quickly turned his body and tried to hit him with its fists.

Shatter!

At the moment of danger, Battle Focus had been automatically activated as everything slowed down before him. Quickly retreating backwards, Dave covered himself with Mana Barrier and used Flash Step to step back.

Colliding with its fist, Mana Barrier shattered immediately but was able to slow down it for a moment, so Dave could dodge it at the last moment. Glaring cautiously to the Giant, Dave noticed that it was still disoriented and started his plan B.

He closely approached it and dodged it clumsy attacks, reaching its back. He sent his axe towards its knee, damaging its tendons and forcing it to kneel on the floor. Then, he slashed with his axe to its neck, crashing its spine. Losing its balance, Giant couldn't resist him in any way.

Thud!

The mid-rank Giant fell heavily on the floor paralyzed as Dave thought 'Well, at least, they are stupid and dull to pain, so they won't defend their weak spots.'

With a great effort, Dave was able to crush its skull and kill it. Unfortunately, he didn't get any system notifications that he levelled up.

However, the Treasure Chest had appeared next to the corpse, and it was blue in colour!