1.05
Awaking, Eric rolled over and grunted in annoyance. For some reason his bed was uncomfortable today. A few moments passed. Eric shot to his feet. He quickly checked his injuries. Then breathed a sigh of relief. It seems that his health had regenerated while he was sleeping. The skin that the slime had burned into had healed. Leaving it pale and unblemished. It was rather unattractive the way the healed skin left ridiculous tan lines all along his body. His clothes were ruined too. He ripped off what remained of his jacket, sweater and shirt. Eric sighed once again. He had been lucky. A few more moments under the slime and he wouldn’t have survived. It was frustrating. Without magic he had no real way to combat them. Sure, the pan worked but if the slimes get any bigger… His despondent thoughts were interrupted by:
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Slime level 2
Experience Received: 50
Loot Received:
Slime Core (Rank G)
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Slime level 2
Experience Received: 50
Loot Received:
Slime Core (Rank G)
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Blue Mimic Slime (chest) level 5
Experience Received: 90
Loot Received:
Slime Core (Rank E)
Eric finally smiled. The fight had gone poorly but he had still won. Eric gathered his loot while he still remembered. It took a moment to find the cores, since he flung them around the room. Once found he was pleased. They were quite pretty and he figured it’s best to grab any useful loot that he can find.
He had been unconscious for a while but there was still plenty of daylight. Enough for a couple more apartment raids Eric returned to his apartment and threw on a new sweater and a winter jacket which he had pilfered from one of his neighbors. Armed with kitchen knife and spatula. He set off once more.
The fifth apartment on the 6th floor was empty. Eric disappointed, decided to search the 6th. Smashing into the room Eric was instantly beset by panic. The entire lounge had been transformed into a giant nest. A bird’s nest to be precise. Furthermore, there were also about half a dozen evil looking birds looking directly at him. The birds were all seagull sized but their beaks looked sharp! And those eyes looked malicious. “Well… shit” Eric took a few slow steps out of the apartment. Hoping to get a chance to flee. This would take planning. Unfortunately, he never got the chance.
The moment he reached the door the birds flew straight at him. Eric stepped out of their path and slashed them as they left the apartment and entered the hallway. Two birds fell to the ground shrieking in anger. Eric in turn received a wicked cut on the shoulder from one of their razor-sharp beaks. A foot met a low flying bird. Smacking it into the wall. A feat Eric wouldn’t have been capable of without the extra agility and dexterity. From there the fight devolved into a wild melee of feathers, beaks, talons, knife and spatula. In the end. Eric was left standing. Surrounded by the corpses of his enemies. He had several deep cuts on his torso. He sighed. He had just put on that jacket.
Eric decided to do a quick search of the apartment to make sure there were no more birds. There weren’t but there were a few eggs in the nest. And some bones. He didn’t look too closely at those. He kept the eggs. He wasn’t sure why. It might be easier to just chuck them out the window. He kept them because he honestly wasn’t scared of a few baby birds. If they did hatch. And attack him. Free experience for him. The nest he left where it was. When he cleared the apartment level. It would be a good source of firewood. It’s a pain to break perfectly good chairs just to set them on fire.
Back on the sofa Eric waited expectantly.
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: (x4) Terror Bird level 2
Experience Received: (x4) 30
Loot Received:
(x4) Terror Bird Corpse
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: (x2) Terror Bird level 3
Experience Received: (x2) 40
Loot Received:
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
(x2) Terror Bird Corpse
Damnit, still no level up. “This games a bitch,” Eric muttered. He must be close though. He smiled quietly to himself. He had lost a lot of Health points before he thought to use towels to bind the deeper wounds. It was a reminder that even with the ridiculous healing, your wounds don’t heal if they are bleeding. It was a moment of relief when his wounds eventually healed. Annoyed at the difficulty of the fights but happy about the experience he had earned. Eric passed the night in relaxation, trying not to dwell on how close to death he came today.
The next morning Eric was once again on the rooftop. Although with the discovery of the Terror Birds he realized that the roof is probably not the safest place to be, he came up anyway. He had 2 solid reasons. Firstly, he could see the various monsters that travelled within the city. Learning anything he could about them could be an advantage in the future. Secondly, Eric figured he deserved to get a breath of fresh air occasionally. Especially after the battles yesterday.
Well anyway he was currently standing drinking a can of Coke, while watching a veritable army of skeletons travel on the road in front of his apartment. From what he could see there were 4 types of skeletons in the group. The first and most notable was the leader. It wore full black plate armor, he couldn’t even tell if it was actually a skeleton or not. He just assumed so. Then there were the skeletons that carried a sword and a shield (unarmored). Then there were the unarmed skeletons. The cannon fodder. The fourth and last group (that he could see) were skeletons that carried a staff. Eric assumed they were some kind of mage. Which kind of pissed him off. How the hell can skeletons do magic yet he can’t. Doesn’t exactly seem fair. Out of all this what Eric found most interesting was that the skeletons weren’t all human shaped. Most of the cannon fodder were goblins or some other short monster. A terrifying thought then came to him. What happens if the skeletons kill an ogre… or something worse?
Once the skeleton army was out of sight Eric decided to finish the 6th floor (and hopefully level up). Unfortunately, or fortunately depends how you look at it. There were no monsters in the other two rooms. So, Eric looted everything he could from the level. As always there were tinned goods, knives, matches, drinks and clothes. Which he happily looted. He had to make two trips but it was well worth it.
Pleased at his progress. Eric at an early lunch and proceeded in a cautious manner to the 5th floor. Only to be stopped. Like before, the fire exit door was closed but this time. There was a dog sized hole in the bottom. Or rat sized… “Well shit. What to do? What to do…?” This was frustrating. Ever since meeting the rats. Eric had lived with the fear of being eaten alive by a swarm of rats.
Fuck it! Eric returned to his apartment. But not to rest no Eric took several swigs of vodka. Grabbed a handful of knives and the last crude goblin spear. He was ready. He was tempted to just throw in a couple of bottles of vodka and some lit matches but wisdom stopped him. That would probably be detrimental to his health. His arms were a bit full but he somehow managed to navigate his way past the various doors on his route. He then proceeded to start kicking the door.
He was interrupted by a curious rat within a minute. The rat received several jabs to the face for its trouble. Eric was a scary kind of calm. Very cold blooded. After nonchalantly killing the rat he resumed kicking. A few minutes passed before another rat was bold enough to leave the nest. Like before it got a few thrusts to the face. Unfortunately, the spear then broke as the rat struggled in its death throes. Eric resumed kicking. Like yesterday the door took a very long time to fall. No other rats interrupted Eric’s kicking.
Once the door fell, Eric retreated to his apartment. He needed to regain his stamina. Eat. And maybe put a little more thought into how he planned to fight so many rats.
While cooking some soup Eric waited expectantly for:
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Overgrown Rat level 2
Experience Received: 30
Loot Received:
Overgrown Rat Corpse
Ding!
Congratulations!
You have reached level 4!
You now have 5 unallocated status points available.
Ding!
Victory!
You have slain: Overgrown Rat level 2
Experience Received: 30
Loot Received:
Overgrown Rat Corpse
Eric gave a small evil smile. He hoped there would be plenty of rats to slay. After much consideration Eric placed his distributable points like so:
Name: Eric Scot
Age: 27
Race: Human
Class:
Level: 4
Faction: Unaffiliated
Distributable Status Points: 0
Hitpoints: 80/80
Stamina: 125/125
Health Regeneration: 1/s
Stamina Regeneration: 5.25/s
Vitality: 10
Mana: 100/100
Strength: 12
Mana Regeneration: 0.5/s
Agility: 12
Intelligence:10
Dexterity: 11
Wisdom: 8
Luck: 5
Charm: 3
Meaning he added 2 strength to kick down the doors faster, 2 agility so he might be able to fight the rats better and 1 Dexterity to make his strikes more accurate.
After this Eric felt more confident. He could feel his inner strength rise and he was slightly lighter on his feet. He quickly finished making and eating lunch. He was curious to see how he would perform against the rats. He might need a little more liquid courage though...
On his way down the stairwell, Eric began to hear the quiet scratching of claws on stone. There was also the occasional squeak. Eric smiled grimly. It seemed the rats had set up a welcoming party.
Eric peaked around the corner of the stairwell. It revealed 5 rats one of which was the larger kind of the large rats. They were gathered near the bodies of those slain earlier. Clearly wondering what had destroyed the door and slain their fellows. Eric smiled. He held a knife in each hand with many more in the pockets of his jacket. (Which was a bit of a safety hazard) Eric really hoped he didn’t fall on the knives during the battle. Eric decided to experiment on ways to fight the rats. What he wanted to do was throw the knives. He hoped the increased dexterity would allow for greater accuracy. At the very least he couldn’t be any worse of a throw than he was before the apocalypse.
Stepping around the corner, he was instantly noticed by the rats. They slavered in delight and began to rush towards him. They were met by knives. Now he wasn’t suddenly hitting the rats in eye or some such nonsense but his knives were hitting the target. He managed 6 throws before the first rat reached him. 4 of the throws hit the rats, slowing or stopping them. One of the others hit a rat with the handle not the blade. The other missed the rat because it made an abrupt shift in direction. The large rat, the one at the back of the pack, reached Eric. Eric met it with two knives straight into its chest as it jumped at him while he backpedaled. He then stepped to the left, then using the rat’s momentum against it he shoved it away to strike the ground hard behind him. He then drew his last two knives and efficiently finished off the weakened rats.
Eric grimaced but he was quite pleased with his work. It had been quite efficient. Clear-headed and organized these rats are truly no threat to him. A human body is superior to a rat’s and that’s before the update. They may win from ambush but with the heal system he could probably fight the rats unarmed and still win. Although, that would be painful. And stupid. Very stupid…
Eric wanted to give a primal roar of victory but thankfully his survival instinct kicked in. That would have been a silly idea. Or would it? Eric started sweating, was the vodka kicking in?