This was a bad idea. A stupid idea. An incredibly reckless, dangerous, absolutely insane idea only a madman with a death wish would ever even think to seriously consider.

Or was it?

In all likelihood, this creature was not the only one of its kind. For all I knew, there could be hundreds, possibly even thousands of the things roaming through the city. Hell, there might even be worse creatures out there, bigger ones, stronger, faster, deadly enough to kill an ordinary human with just a look. What chance did I have against any of that? Not much in my current state, but I knew how to get stronger, and this right here was the perfect chance to do so.

Still, it was one thing to want to kill the damn monster, and another to actually manage to do it. I didn’t have any more that zombie acid, and it probably wouldn’t be enough to eat through the creature’s bones and finish it off even if I did.

Maybe something in the XP Shop could help.

I ran back to the intersection to retrieve my phone. I spotted it easily enough with the sunlight shining off its screen, but the zombie lying on the pavement drew my attention first. Somehow, the thing was still alive, and it growled at me as I entered its vision. The creature attempted to get up, but its limbs were broken, and it collapsed after each futile attempt. It settled on simply crawling toward me instead, at a snail’s pace. With half of its neck missing and its head lolled over to the side, I wondered if it would even be able to swallow anything it got its mouth on.

Either way, it was just about the least threatening zombie I’d ever encountered. More importantly—it was free XP! I was about to go stomp on its head and redeem my gift when another object lying on the ground caught my eye.

I let the zombie live for a moment and went to pick up the axe head. The handle had broken down and disintegrated when I’d smashed it into the creature’s head, but this part had apparently remained behind. It looked slightly bent, but otherwise fine. I put it under the Scan, curious if it might still be useful for something.

Item: Zombie Hunter Axe Head Item Type: Miscellaneous (Tier I) Description: Can be combined with a Wooden Axe Handle to create the Zombie Hunter Axe. Durability: 5/6

Well what do you know, I could actually remake my axe! I quickly went to the XP Shop and found the wooden axe handle. It only cost 2 XP, but I was still at zilch. That problem was solved by a few quick introductions between the heel of my shoe and the helpless zombie’s head.

Zombie (Sprinter) slain: +4 XP

I made the purchase, then tried to figure out how I was supposed to combine these things together. The mouth of the head was too small for the handle to fit through, but when I touched the two objects together, a window popped up on my phone.

Item Creation: Zombie Hunter Axe Requirements: Zombie Hunter Axe Head Wooden Axe Handle Probability of Success: 60% Continue Creation?

I tapped the affirmative. The two items flashed together, and... the handle crumbled away into nothingness.

Item Creation failed.

Of course it did. On the bright side, at least I didn’t lose the axe head. I had just enough remaining XP to buy another handle, and thankfully, I at least had enough luck that this attempt was a success. I Scanned my remade weapon. It gave all the same bonuses as the original, but was slightly lacking durability. I gave it a few test swings until I was satisfied the head wasn’t going to fly off. The weapon was stable, but I'd already seen how useless it was against that hellish monster. That was fine, though. I had another purpose in mind for this weapon: the schemer. Not the zombie itself—I had no idea where it had wandered off, nor any way to track it—but I had another hunch. If I was an intelligent, sentient zombie with the ability to command others of my kind, what would I do? Surely I would try to gather as many subordinates as possible to consolidate my power, right? And if I happened to run into a powerful predator I couldn’t defeat? Well, obviously I’d leave the others behind to act as bait while I made my escape.

That sole sprinter couldn’t have been the only one. I hurriedly equipped my axe and headed in the direction the two zombies and the creature had come from. As I got past the curve of the road, I was delighted to see what looked like a dead body a bit further down the street.

Figuratively crossing my fingers, I ran toward it. The corpse began to rise as I approached, which brought a huge smile to my face. It snarled as it struggled to get up, barely managing to do so on a pair of twisted limbs. I rewarded its arduous effort by swiftly separating its head from its shoulders.

Zombie (Creeper) slain: +0 XP

Well that was a bit of a downer. Nevertheless, I was pleased to find a second corpse nearby. This one was already completely dead, but its existence pointed me in the right direction. I followed the trail of dead and partially-dead bodies like breadcrumbs, finishing off the few that were still left alive. I was lucky enough to find a few superiors, but unfortunately, they were only brawlers and sprinters. On the plus side, the investment in my newly reformed weapon was already paying dividends as the Zombie Hunter Axe's special effect activated twice, giving me a healthy dose of bonus XP.

A few more zombies later, I hit the jackpot. I grinned like a kid on Christmas morning at the scattered remains of several corpses lying across the street. And like that kid, my eyes immediately went to the biggest present under the tree.

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The zombie in question was easily the largest I'd seen to date. It must have been at least seven feet tall and was almost as hulky as the brawlers. Luckily, its lower body was entirely in tatters, so it couldn’t do much but crawl after me with its trunk-sized arms. I Scanned it.

Creature: Zombie (Juggernaut) Type: Undead (Tier I) Description: Not available (Intelligence too low)

The lack of a description had me a bit wary, but the zombie didn’t display any other unusual characteristics as I approached. I hacked into its neck as it growled and tried to bite me. It took a couple of swings as this zombie seemed to be more durable than the others of its kind, but I eventually managed to get the head rolling.

Zombie (Juggernaut) slain: +14 XP

No bonus, unfortunately, but still a nice chunk of XP. And maybe now that I’d killed it, I could get some more information about the creature, too.

Creature: Zombie (Juggernaut) Type: Undead (Tier I) Description: Superior Zombie variant. Possesses far greater size and strength compared to most other Zombie variants, while being capable of a far greater movement speed.

So like a super-sized brawler combined with a sprinter. Yeah, that certainly sounded like a dangerous enemy. Good thing I got this one after it was crippled, but I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of encountering one at full health in the future. Yet another reason to get stronger as quickly as possible. I returned my attention to the rest of the zombies and swiftly dispatched of them, then waited for their remains to finish disappearing. The ones that had already been dead gave nothing, and most of the other ones only dropped junk or a bit of cash, but at least the juggernaut left something nice behind.

Item: Ring of Holding Item Type: Equippable (Tier I) Equipment Slot: Finger Effect: Stores one equipped item up to a maximum weight capacity of 15 lb. All item weight is negated while the item is in storage. Special Ability: Quick-Switch – Allows the wearer to near-instantly equip or unequip the item stored within this ring. This can also be used to switch between the currently equipped item and the item stored within this ring. Special Ability Cost: None Special Ability Cooldown: None Durability: 6/6 Weight: .01 lb

I couldn’t initially tell how the storage function was supposed to work—opening up the ring and storing something inside it like I had with the bag didn’t seem to be an option—but once I equipped the ring, it felt like any of the other abilities I’d become accustomed to using. I tested the special ability out with the Zombie Hunter Axe, equipping and unequipping the item several times. The axe vanished and reappeared in my hand almost instantly, and no matter where I was holding the axe when I stored it, it would always reappear such that the base of the handle was in my hand. I could even make it re-appear it mid-swing, though the sudden weight made the movement very awkward, and it was not something I expected to be viable in combat. The special ability also failed to activate was when something blocked the area in which the weapon was supposed to appear, such as when I had my hands together, or against the ground.

Having tested my new item to a satisfactory level, I turned my attention back to the phone and the 38 XP I now had to spend. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything in the XP Shop that would make killing a superpowered monster easy, but I did at least manage to find a weapon that was a significant upgrade from the Zombie Hunter Axe.

Item: Titanslayer Item Type: Equippable, Melee Weapon, Polearm (Tier I) Equipment Slot: Main-Hand Effect: Deals 25% additional damage to all beings with at least double the Effective Weight of the wielder. This effect is increased by an additional 10% for each subsequent doubling of the opponent’s Effective Weight, up to a maximum of 75%. Durability: 15/15 Weight: 8.5 lb Stock: 1/1 Price: 22 XP

It was a spear. And a hefty one at that. The shaft was coal black and made out of some kind of metal, probably a steel alloy. It was taller than I was, and the hiltless blade was another foot and a half on top of that. It was shaped like a shortsword, double-sided and sharpened to a razor’s edge, yet remarkably sturdy.

I almost regretted my purchase as soon as I bought it. It wasn’t a bad weapon, just too fucking heavy. Even with my enhanced attributes and the Melee Weapons skill, it was a workout just swinging this damn thing around. Maybe I could buy another level of Melee Weapons, or a different skill that would make the spear easier to wield. A quick search, and I found something that fit the bill.

Skill: Polearms I Skill Type: Weapon Handling (Tier I) Requirements: Path of the Striker I Melee Weapons I Effect: Increases Dexterity with Equipped Polearms by 15%. Decreases the Wield Weight of Equipped Polearms by 10%. Price: 9 XP

I tried swinging the weapon again. It was still more ungainly than I would have liked, but with some practice, I felt like I could use it semi-effectively. Now, I just had to go back and hope that bastard creature hadn’t wandered off yet.