Walking in the cold, damp tunnel Richard could feel how much he had changed after the increase of stats. Most of the belly fat had disappeared, muscles became well defined and toned.

He was not too keen about the prospect of becoming poster boy for some bodybuilder magazine and rejoiced that it was not the case.

After walking in silence along the tunnel outside for little less than an hour he could see the exit finally.

Doing a little victory dance he yelled in excitement..

''Gang has provided Richy a way out... Richy is free!''

Bracing himself for anything that could be behind that slightly open door he realized that maybe in the future he should control his urges for shouting out bad references, in case there were hostiles on the other side.

''Open sesame!''

He still could not stop doing it in excitement and opened the door slowly, peeking his head little by little to see what was on the other side.

There was not much to describe: Mostly empty cellar with few spiderwebs here and there and dusty pool table, so he went in carefully looking at every corner with the flash light.

Richard could feel his tense muscles relax for a moment as he strolled towards the staircase and could not hear anything from upstairs.

Placing his slightly sweaty hands on the cellar door and pushing it as hard as he could, it did not budge.

''Should have guessed. Door must be locked from outside and the other gangsters must have lured Snowflake in saving their asses.''

Grabbing the fire ax and placing the flash light pointing towards the door, Richard started to break down the door.

He started humming a catchy song to lighten up the mood, which he thought that went like: ''I am a dude and I'm digging a hole, diggy, diggy hole....''

Chopping the door he noticed that it was obvious there were some other objects barricading the door so he just continued his work with the increased strength and soon could start to remove the obstacles in the doorway.

Removing the last of the obstacles he could finally see natural light coming in: He was outside.

Grabbing the flash light and placing it in my backpack he cautiously surveyed the nearby area, hoping that he had not attracted any unwanted presence to my location.

Seeing that nothing had come out yet at least, he started to look for means of transportation.

The cellar was surrounded by a few barnes and an old fashioned house. Decorating the yard were several zombies ripped into shreds and few of them had bullet holes in head, so he automatically assumed that Snowflake was the main culprit with the shredded zombies and bullet hole ones were by the smuggling gang.

Grabbing his trusty Curtain-kun he started to move towards the old fashioned house, looking out for any possible car or motorcycle with keys inside.

While looking for a vehicle, Richard saw a group of 6 zombies wandering around and pondered.

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''With my new strength it should be easypeasy, better try out ''Mighty Strike'' too to see it's actual effectiveness.''

Coming to the conclusion of trying the new skill, he switched Curtain-kun into a fire ax and picked up a stone next to his foot.

''With ''Mighty Strike'' the fire ax should not get stuck in the zombies head, better not risk breaking Curtain-kun with this.''

Moving closer to the zombies with steady steps he threw the stone at the nearest zombie for its attention. Noticing Richard the zombie slowly started to shamble towards him.

Looking at the zombie coming closer, he was preparing to use ''Mighty Strike'' to estimate how powerful it truly is. The description that somehow seemed to be directly imparted to his head informed him that it uses 5 mana per usage, and should deal both magical and physical damage.

Richard thought that he should be able to figure it out after trying it, and he expectantly waited for the zombies to be in range for his attack.

Activating ''Mighty Strike'' he could see a slight red glow enveloping his ax and feel that something flowed from inside him towards the weapon he was holding.

''That should be mana, right?'' Stopping these useless thoughts he slashed diagonally toward the first zombie's neck and knew that the skill activated as intended.

The hit connected and the fire ax slashed the zombie in two halves like a hot knife through butter. Looking at the victim of his new skill watched in daze as he saw something peculiar.

''So this must be the magical damage huh?'' The cleaved parts had a red glow that was constantly corroding the places where the ax had made impact.

''Quite effective. It uses quite a bit of my mana pool so maybe I should save it as a trump card for stronger foes... After all I have no idea what is my mana regeneration like.''

Feeling the joy of power ups, Richard truly started to crave for more power.

''These zombies are so weak. With their level of strength, it feels like going to low level zone on high level character.'' Making up his mind that after these zombies I should go find some more to become my fodder.

Just as he had made his mind to go hunting after these small fries and killed the next zombie he could hear rustling sounds coming from behind the house.

Group of 50 or so zombies was quietly approaching me, some were obvious gangsters by their looks and startled he began to curse his own stupid mouth.

Richard felt his instincts scream danger and to flee as he observed briefly at the new incoming group of zombies.

Many of the zombies were still holding onto crowbars, axes and even pistols.

Their bodies had multiple wounds, some rotten, some freshly made but one thing was common: They were all looking at him with their dead eyes full of desire and hunger.

Richard used ''Mighty Strike'' and slashed furiously at the five zombies blocking his way to escape and with 5 pleasant dings of **10 Experience points acquired ** he started to sprint like hell.

Running away from the zombies, he followed the road and checked every car on the way if there were keys inside but had no such luck.

Few hours passed and Richard was getting tired. Being sneaky and picking off a few insignificant zombies here and there took a toll on him while following the road, still searching for a usable vehicle.

Passing by a medium sized villa with fences Richard saw remains of zombie bodies recently piled up and burned, which immediately put him in guard remembering that it was the law of the jungle now. Chick & Dicks gang taught him a valuable lesson in regards to trusting people.

''Whoever they might be, you won't fuck me over without paying price for it.'' Richard mumbled quietly and took out his handgun, switched safety off and fully focused on the surroundings.

Circling around the villa he tried to determine if anyone was inside. Hiding behind a bush looking vigilantly for survivors and he was almost sure that there was no-one inside he decided that that place was the place to spend the night: a fenced villa seemed like a safe option to sleep without worries of dying in his sleep.

Coming out from behind the bushes he took strides towards the fence, put his gun away and started to climb.

''Stop right there.'' Masculine and deep voice called out to Richard from behind him.

Richard felt his blood run cold as he was on top of the fence awkwardly stationary and slowly turned his head only to see a black man about in his 40's and a younger Caucasian woman in her 20's. The black man was clothed in tight fitting sports clothes, equipped with an assault rifle in his hands pointing at him.

Seeing that Richard kept silent the black man called out to him again.

''What do you want? Why are you here?''

Seeing that this situation could still be negotiated Richard raised his hands above his head and replied to the black man.

''Just passing by, I saw that the villa is empty and was thinking to rest here for a while before continuing my journey, I mean no ill.''

''Well that is our place to stay, we still do have room for one. Though please do understand if you try anything stupid, I will paint the guest room with your brains.''

''Seems fair enough, I'm Richard, pleasure making your acquaintance.''

''I'm Nick and this young lady here is Nadia. Hope we'll get along well.''