The moment I stepped into the castle it was almost like I was transported to a different location. The place was much bigger on the inside, and it was much brighter as well. The various fire lamps hanging on the walls bathed the interior in an orange hue and made it possible to see, and the ceiling was so high up, I began to doubt myself whether this was truly the same place I had stepped into.

I was standing on some kind of razed platform by the front entrance of the interior, which had stairs that led down to the rest of the castle floors which were tiled and painted a strange black and white checkers pattern.

“This, is not what I was expecting.” I said to Rachel as I continued scanning the area for any sign of the wizard I had followed into the building. From what I could see, there were really only two main spots for hiding, which were the darkened corners leading into giant hallways located on either side of the castle interior. The old man must have ran in one of the directions.

“Hunter, wait.” Rachel said in my head just as I prepare to descend down the stairs of the platform I was standing on. “Take a look.” She brought up my stats in the center of my vision, prompting me to take a moment to read through the list of additional new changes.

_______________

Basic Info:

Name: Hunter.

Age: 22.

Hight: 7 2.

Weight: 360 pounds.

Class: Monster slayer, weapon summoner.

Level: 15.

EX P: 35.

Silver coin: 48.

Skills:

Combat level: 39%

Weapon summoning: level 12.

Cool down time for summoning: 1 minute.

Available Weapons and Items:

Bow.

Arrows.

Sword.

Dagger.

Spear.

Special Abilities:

Weapon summoning by voice: available.

AI companion: active.

AI capability: at 26%

Enhanced speed and agility: at 22%.

Brood strength: at 10%.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

_______________

“Whoa.” I said, amazed by what I was seeing.

“Whoa indeed.” Rachel replied. “You’ve not only gotten stronger and a lot faster, but you’ve gone up a couple levels and unlocked a new special ability too.” The tone of Rachel’s voice was that of pure glee and excitement, which also mirrored the way I felt.

“What about the spear though?” I asked Rachel, my attention drifting over to the available weapons and items heading. for as long as I could remember, I’ve only had the bow, arrow, sword, and dagger as my primary starter weapons since I first woke up in the slayer’s forest. I didn’t have a spear back then.

“Oh, that.” Rachel replied. “Remember your fight in the farmlands with the widow makers.” she asked. “The moment when you tried reaching for a spear but got knocked aside by one of the creatures at the last minute.”

“I remember.” I said.

“Well, just before you were knocked aside by the beast you grabbed hold of the spear. And even though you only held onto the weapon for a second, that was enough time for your augmented body to automatically recognize and register the spear as a new item.”

“Cool.” I said, understanding the new and endless possibilities that particular skill now presented.

***

After Rachel closed out of my stats window I resumed my search for the elderly wizard in the castle. However, my searched did not take long.

The moment I descended the stairs of the raised platform I had been standing on by the entrance, I was immediately flanked by two groups of zombies. One on my left, and one on my right. It was almost as if they came out of nowhere.

“I guess the curse is still in full effect.” Rachel commented as I began cutting down the zombies with my sword. With my enhanced speed and upgraded combat ability, it only took me less than a minute before I had cleared them all.

“These zombies aren’t being controlled by the wizard.” Rachel said as I stood over the headless remains of the previously animated corpses. Most of them I hadn’t even bother to decapitate. My sheer momentum from cutting them down the middle had also done the trick. They were dead. And from the looks of it, they weren’t getting back up.

“These zombies are as a result of the castle trying to defend itself against outsiders.” Rachel added. And no sooner had she said those exact words, something else happened.

First, there was a loud bang as if a door at the end of the darkened hallway to my right had just been slammed opened. Then came the metallic scraping sound of something heavy being dragged along the tiled ground.

“Warning.” Rachel’s voice suddenly boomed within the insides of my skull. “Enemy combatant on approach.”

I quickly turned in the direction of the noise but I couldn’t see anything. The light from the fire lamps weren’t bright enough to penetrate into the darkened corners of the hallways, so I decided to wait for whatever was coming towards me to step out of the shadows.

Whatever the thing was, I could hear its footsteps now. There were heavy. Thumping against the tiled floor as it made its way closer, and closer, and closer. I could hear its breathing as well. Deep, guttural, wheezing. The sound alone caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.

For some nervous reason I looked down at what I was wearing in that moment, and I was utterly disappointed by what I had still yet to acquire for myself ever since I left the slayer’s forest. I had on my brown coat jacket, my pair of blue jeans and black boots. I was even wearing the pair of black gloves I had found in a small wooden box out in the cabin. But I still wasn’t wearing any armor.

Why the hell had I still not gotten any armor?

Just as the unseen monstrosity got closer from within the shadows, I gripped the hilt of my sword tighter and prepared myself for the pending battle. Whatever the monster approaching me was, one thing was obvious. It was going to be a big one.

I focused my attention and steadied my breathing. Soon, the only things I could hear were the creature’s massive approaching footsteps and its deep guttural whizzing.

I waited a couple more seconds.

3.

2.

1.

And the moment the creature stepped out of the shadows and into the light, I wasn’t at all ready for what I was seeing.

It was big.

Very big.

A hulking form of dead flesh and rotten meat, the monster resembled a much bigger version of the zombies I had been fighting up until that point. In its right hand was a weapon, a giant mace with a metal head which I guessed was the source of the scraping noise.

The moment the beast saw me it stopped for a moment, giving Rachel the second she needed to quickly analyze the creature and provide the necessary information about its stats and abilities.

_______________

Zombeast.

Level: 25.

Hit damage: 30.

_______________

There was more information about the creature’s attack modes and combat patterns, but before I could read any further, the monster which was standing in front of me suddenly let out a growl before rushing towards me with its weapon, the thump thump thump of its heavy footsteps accompanying it as it got closer and swung its spiky weapon at my head.