In the end, Robert had spent a few days in the village. At first, he didn’t want it, but after some consideration, Rob decided it was the best way to act. At least for now. The reason was simple – each and every movie about zombies always showed how deadly the initial phase of infection, was when most population didn’t know about the threat. Of course, despite the sure confidence in the all-spreading characteristic of this magic rabies, he didn’t know the actual speed of turning everyone into rage-fueled berserks. Therefore, it was a guaranteed safety measure, but it still could increase his odds. There was no abundance of the latter as even this settlement took some effort to be cleared.
Robert didn’t want to risk his life while resting or training and methodically checked every building just to be sure. The process took around ten lives of the infected and a long period of recovery when a huge fat blacksmith met him with glowing eyes and a crazy grin. Rob even felt like a child in front of that giant, who just refused to fall. Not only he was bigger than even Monk, but the absence of pain sense made him literally unstoppable. Robert even thought that he was hitting with a plush hammer, as there was no visible effect at all.
The fight took around half an hour, in which most time Robert was mostly running away. His aggressive offensive approach ended when he was tossed like a bag into the nearest wall. The wood appeared to be not from movies, as the hard surface didn’t even cave in, easily taking the impact from Rob’s body head-on, unlike the owner of that body. Moreover, that throw was made when the patterns died out after the infected blacksmith used all his energy to cut through a metal anvil with his grown nails. Adding the speed increase under the effects of mana self-imbuing, only the clumsiness of the giant infected saved Rob’s life, but not his ribs, front teeth, and his broken finger, which happened to be stretched forward during that short flight to his bad luck.
After the recovery, Rob was more careful in his search, finally adapting to fight against these unstable enemies. The experience started to accumulate, helping him to predict the timing of another energy outbreak, which was the main danger during the fight. At least infected couldn’t send their energy into weapons – they had to wield such skill before they turned into madmen, as it was with Sir Henry, to fully imitate the power of knights.
During his exploration, Robert even managed to find another survivor – a bearded man in militia armor with a slightly familiar face. However, the shabby warrior wasn’t happy with possible company in the slightest, as he directly told Rob to fuck off and keep his distance. Despite harsh words, Robert clearly noticed the fear in every action of the beaten soldier, who hastily rushed out of the village. He wanted to warn the man that there was nowhere to go, but there was no point in that as nobody would listen. Therefore, Rob just sighed and continued his search.
The result was a fully cleared village with hundreds of dead. Robert had thought about gathering every corpse for proper burial in the ground or at least in a single building but pushed it away after a short estimation of how long it would take him to do it. That’s why he freed a small building on the edge of the settlement not to feel the starting smell of rot. After gathering food and changing armor to intact one, Rob focused his efforts on making a proper bath. It appeared to be much harder as even finding and transporting a bathtub took a few hours, not counting the amount of work to fill it with water before finally heating it.
Robert was completely spent after that, but he felt very proud of this accomplishment. It was totally worth it. The relaxation. The feel of being clean. The sense of warm touch. Rob even forgot where he was, closing his eyes just to strengthen the enjoyment. Only the sound of the wind was heard, creating a real feeling of calm solitude. He lacked it for so long. A cramped training center from childhood changed to cramped bunkers and later to rows of tents. Rob rarely had real privacy as limited space and time led to opened shower place. Efficiency rarely correlated with comfort, especially in the military.
I just needed to die, to get transferred to another soon-to-be-destroyed world by real God, to survive battles and magic shelling with meteor rain, to kill some zombies to get my first bath in many-many years… What a life! But hey, it is another confirmation that I can experience some parts of normal life even during apocalypses. There is so much to see… and I really want it! And I will achieve that! Maybe my hamburger is going to be eaten deep inside the bunker during nuclear winter on the piles of bodies of mutated rats, by so what? I will eat that fucking hamburger!
This thought made him grin as crazy. He knew that the future would bring him more dangers and life-threatening events. However, Robert wanted to see such destiny as the possibility of literally otherworldly experience. He just needed to be strong enough to see it all. Maybe his goal was plain and boring in comparison to getting to the absolute peak of power, saving the world, or getting his revenge on someone evil, but it was closer to him. It was his. Maybe it was the real reason why he was happy about meeting zombies. Something new. Something unordinary. Something fictional. Therefore, he spent another hour in trying to imagine what he wanted to do, using books or movies from memory as an example. He cleaned himself, and somehow treated his beard and the hair, but mostly lay with the eyes closed.
The sound of thunder made Robert jump from the bathtub in panic before his sleeping mind finally managed where he was and what was happening. The water was already cold, and two moons were barely visible through the dark clouds. It was the first time for Rob to see such darkness here. Without any haste, he wiped himself dry before dressing up and focusing on preparing the food. The latter was easy to find in every house as villagers stored more than enough to feed themselves for months. The raindrops continued to clatter on the roof, only strengthening Robert’s melancholic mood. Still, after he ate, Rob turned his thoughts to actual planning, which started with a quick check-up of his status screen.
Envoy of Wepwakor (candidate) – Tier 0
Strength 15 (417 pt.) – 46% of max potential
Agility 13 (345 pt.) – 51% of max potential
Endurance 18 (556 pt.) – 51% of max potential
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Toughness 9 (236 pt.) – 56% of max potential
Vitality 10 (259 pt.) – 56% of max potential
Perception 10 (259 pt.) – 75% of max potential
Mind 40 (4’526 pt.) – 38% of max potential
Core 9 (235 pt.) – 100% of max potential
Mana regeneration (7): 1% in apr. 56 seconds
Abilities: Adaptive Growth
Traits: Remolded Brain, God’s Envoy, Spiritual Body, Soul Anchor, External Mana Imbuing, Soul Core Poisoning (temporary)
The biggest shock for him was the insane drop in Core stat. He couldn’t feel it on his own and had to rely on the status screen, which led to this unpleasant surprise. Robert figured out the threat of being cut with mana-imbued nails, but he clearly underestimated the effects of it. Even the raise in a few physical stats didn’t manage to light his mood as the possibility of turning in another empty-headed and bloody-thirsty berserk was quite near, lingering around the corner. The single thought that appeared in his mind – he had to train immediately to spend the current abundance of mana. It took less than an hour to fill his mana capacity, limiting his leisure time to a minimum. Also, there was another thing.
Both his Adaptive Growth and regeneration from his Spiritual Body were already working inconsistently, triggering earlier than he thought they would. Or much later in other cases. Such shortening time between them could lead not only to a full infection but to possible conflicting scenarios with an absolutely unknown result. Robert wanted to avoid that at any cost. Therefore, he went running despite the downpour outside. Equipped in armor, with only a knife on the belt, he moved his body through the wall of water in almost pure darkness. It might look stupid, but he knew sprinting was quite exhausting and could help him to spend mana through restoration faster.
The two moons in the sky were barely visible, while the dead village didn’t have any other sources of light. Still, Robert’s eyes managed to adapt in a minute, showing outlines of surroundings. Moreover, he wanted just to waste his energy running in circles around the settlement. The creepy atmosphere tried to get into his mind, but he forcefully pushed all thoughts aside, purely focusing on movement. The slippery ground on top of abandoned corpses, which could appear as an obstacle at any moment, took all his attention, while he was sprinting at full speed. The raindrops muffled everything by a good margin, while water stubbornly wanted to cover his eyes. Maybe that was the reason that he missed the sound of turning wheels before it was too late.
The covered carriage with local donkeys appeared suddenly. One moment there was only a pure darkness, but it was replaced with a huge shadow in another. The next one brought the image of a man with a familiar staff, who ineffectually tried to hide from the rain under a cloak, as the downpour was just too heavy. Robert had to push away his initial thought about halting his run and asking who they were because it was already obvious. He didn’t want to give any chance to the potential enemy. Especially after his previous neglect of a single mage, which ended with him being impaled with a stone spike. That’s why Rob accelerated even more, while his hand already held the knife.
The fearful reaction of donkeys warned the coachman in time, making him look up. The drops of water blinded him for a moment, leaving no possibility of anything else. Robert’s palm was already on his cloak. In the next moment, the mage was pulled from his sitting place, directly to the ground. The scream from shock was interrupted by Rob’s knee, hitting the man in the face.
“Walter, what is it?” the woman’s voice filled with concern sounded from the carriage, hastening Robert.
“Let us check with Garret,” another man offered while opening the door, “Hey, Walter, is everything good?”
Robert dropped the body of the dead coachman with a newly appeared hole in the neck and rushed to the entrance of the carriage. His leg kick slammed the door, hitting the face of the speaker in the process and making him groan from pain. Not wasting any time, he opened the door and gripped the robe of the fallen man, pulling him out. However, before he managed to do it, he had to duck under a flying fireball, which was cast by the young woman.
She is quite pretty…
Random thought didn’t stop him at all, as he still pulled out the mage despite all efforts to counter that from the latter. Still, finishing the enemy appeared to be not so easy task, as the other two didn’t stop their resistance. Rob had to block clumsy hit with the staff from the woman, and to jump back from stone spike, distancing him from the carriage for a moment.
“Stop it!” the angry shout together with the primal roar of the predator turned his attention to the side only to see a huge maw of drake appearing in few meters from him. Robert barely managed to put his arm in front of him before the beast rammed into him. The row of teeth clung to his arm, easily breaking them from sheer force. The metal plate managed to hold them from entering the flesh, but the feeling of being crushed under pressure darkened Rob’s vision for a few seconds.
However, the feeling of him flying in the air, while his arm was still stuck in the maw of the drake immediately woke him up. His shoulder twisted from overstain and seemed to be on the verge of tearing apart, but that only angered Robert. With the same roar in return, he gripped his knife tighter before pushing it directly into the eye of the drake. Another push raised him in the air and pulled the blade out, but Rob repeated the hit, making the beast screech from the pain.
The raider of the drake, who obviously was a knight, stroked with the sword, almost beheading Robert. The cut went through the top of the helmet but fortunately was slightly higher than Rob’s skull. Still, he just madly grinned before hitting the handle of the knife, pushing it further into the eye up to the brain and twisting. The last convulsion sent another wave of pain and the drake collapsed, finally opening its maw. Rob rolled on the ground a few meters before stopping. His beaten body and motionless arm begged for a rest, but he willed himself to stand up. Taking off his helmet with a huge hole on top, he tried to gather his strength in front of the knight. However, his shaky posture and absence of a weapon didn’t look intimidating in the slightest.
“You will pay for it!” the voice, full of rage, was hard to hear because of a heavy downpour, but somehow Rob managed to do it. The figure of the knight stood up tall, with each small movement showing boiling emotions. Even the longsword in his hands felt like only an addition to the image of pure hatred.
Okay, that looks dangerous… but, so what?
“Make me, metal ass dickhead!” Robert answered, clenching his fist. Looking at the slowly approaching figure, he added, “Hey, moron, you need to hurry up as your girlfriend will fry me with her fireball faster than you manage to come here. Or are you trying to be intimidating? Don’t be a coward – I am unarmed and feeling like shit. Still better than your lizard, fucker.”
“She is not… Wait… Stick? Robert? Is it you?”
Before the knight managed to end his question, the flame projectile was already flying right into the chest of Rob. Not having enough strength for an agile fast dodge, the latter just decided to drop on the ground in an attempt to minimize the damage. However, the fireball still pierced his body, sending him directly into the darkness with a wave of pain and a burned smell.
“Angela, stop! I know him!”