Michael shifted his attention back to Mr. 5 o’ clock shadow, who was likely the leader of the three men that had ambushed him, even as he checked his status. He was down 8 more health from the initial 22. Not overly concerning health point wise, but it still hurt with every breath.

Mr. 5 o’ clock shadow on the other hand looked to be in far worse health. The grass around his chest cavity was already covered in blood. Michael tentatively stepped closer to the unmoving body, before he realized he was being stupid. He analyzed the guy.

[Alan Stanon; tier 1]

The guy was still alive, but likely wouldn’t be for much longer. Michael chanced a quick glance back at the main campus building. There was a heavy blood trail on the steps that led behind the column. The guy was wounded badly by the energy dart, but was apparently good enough to crawl a bit. However, the man had not made it far. Michael could see one of the legs out from behind the column. Michael glanced to check if Sam Weltz, the third man was coming back, but there was no sign of him. Michael did not think he would. Even if he had a healing potion, he would likely not want to charge across open terrain to attack Michael.

The battle was over. That only left the question of what to do with these guys… It was not really a question. They had attacked him, and this was a survival battle. The two would give some kind of drops, and from all indications he might not really need to do anything more with either of them

. Neither looked like they would be walking away from this, even if he left them alone.

Michael’s attention went back to the shaft sticking out of his chest. He had lost another point of health in just the last few seconds. Only like two minutes had passed since he had been shot, but running and falling a couple times had worsened his bleeding status. It was now 2 to 6 HP every minute. Michael would like to think that he could just drink his potion. The arrow might pop right out and his body would heal behind it, but he could not be entirely sure of that.

Michael sighed as he ripped his shirt to expose the area. Blood was dribbling down from where the shaft protruded. Luckily or unluckily the shaft had landed between two ribs. Michael braced himself and breathed in a couple times deeply. He had seen this in movies. He yanked on the shaft. The shaft did slide out in a surge of pain, but not completely. One of the edges had caught on his rib. Michael was pretty sure that was what had happened since the other side felt more free.

Michael spent another agonizing minute of wiggling and rotating. Sometimes he even pushed the arrow back in a bit to come at a different angle. None of it felt good. Eventually with one last bit of pain it popped free. Michael allowed it to drop. He checked his status, even as he summoned the healing potion from his inventory to his hand. After struggling to withdraw the arrow he had lost another 11 points of HP. The wound had worsened further. He was still fairly good HP despite how he felt. It would be such a waste since this potion would heal five times the amount of damage, but he was pretty sure he would need a potion to recover from this unless he was willing to lie around for a few days while he healed.

Michael paused when he saw the loot drops hovering over Mr. 5 o’ clock shadow. There were quite a few of them. Killing contenders was apparently very lucrative. Michael saw several crown loot drops. One had a 100 emblazoned on the golden coin-like drop. Another had a 50, another 5, and a single 1 to close it out at 156 crowns. But the crowns were the least of the drops in his mind, and they quickly disappeared into his body anyways leaving the true treasure. Similar in color, but a lighter shade of yellow was a yellow stat drop. Three more stat points. Finally, there were 2 green drops.

The drops were exciting enough to almost make him forget his predicament, but the pain in his chest and the fact that he was finding it slightly hard to breathe fought for his attention. However, Michael still threw the potion back into his inventory. Why waste an above average healing potion, when he might get a lower quality version in one of these drops. His bleeding status was still there, but it would not kill him for a good while. He could suffer a bit longer.

Michael collected all of the drops. He wheezed as he bent over to collect the fallen machete. His hand instinctively went to the wound. He quickly noticed that keeping his palm over the wound actually made it easier to breathe. It was a wonder, since his lungs had not appeared to have been hit.

Michael moved as quickly as he could back toward the building. He slowed down as he neared the steps, ready to send another bolt toward the guy. The caution was unnecessary. The guy was still alive and fluid enough to look at Michael, but his open side had entrails hanging out several feet behind him and not a small amount of blood had been left on the steps. He probably had a worse bleeding status than Michael. Still Michael was not willing to wait.

“Pleeaseee,” the guy said in a shaky voice. One hand was held up as if to surrender as the other cradled his side. The guy was absolutely terrified. Michael breathed in deeply, which caused the pain to go up a notch. Not as high as it had been when he had been trying to pull it free, but it helped firm his resolve. This asshole had shot him first after all.

The bolt caught the guy in the eye. The head snapped back and then it sank down to the pavement, the body shifted as the muscles holding it up relaxed. The mess that was the guy's side sank back down allowing accumulated blood to start pouring out from the open hole. It took a few seconds before the drops appeared. Two more green drops, two white drops, and 132 drops worth of crowns. The guy gave less stat points and less crowns, so perhaps he was a weaker tier 1?

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It did not matter, Michael started opening his green drops. He was eager to ease the pain in his chest. The first was what Michael would consider a dud, a brown leather jacket. It had a good look, but was not something earth shattering. The second drop gave a basic equipment upgrade. Not great since it was only worth around 500 crowns at the upgrade stall. A far cry from the premium upgrade he had received from the executive zombie, which was worth four times what this one was. Although Kyrie had gotten a basic equipment upgrade. It had increased her katana’s quality from average to good quality. His bracer was already at good quality, Michael doubted this upgrade would pop the quality up to exceptional, so perhaps it would decrease the spawn time a bit or something like that.

Michael opened the third drop and immediately smiled. It was an average quality healing potion pack. It would give three healing potions that were able to restore 100 HP a piece. Michael immediately downed one. Michael watched as the hole in his chest closed, and his insides knitted themselves back together. A check of his status showed that he was back to 200 of 200.

Michael continued on, opening the fourth green drop.

[Base skill level upgrade (1-3): will upgrade one aspect of a skill for any skill that is level 1 through 3.]

Michael would have to think about this one. Increasing a skill level was not something to be done lightly. Leveling up skills was allegedly more difficult as they progressed. The benefits that could be gained on level up could differ. This base skill level would only upgrade one aspect of the skill. Comparatively, a premium skill level upgrade or pushing multiple aspects himself, could increase more than one aspect for the same level. He checked his status.

Name: Michael Nacht

Tier: 1

Contender: 352,603

SP: 200/200

HP: 200/200

K:--

P:50/50

S:--

Primary Attributes

Strength: 30

Endurance: 20

Dexterity: 27

Agility: 21

Vitality: 20

Toughness: 20

Secondary Attributes

Ki: –

Pulse: 5

Spirit: –

Special Ability

Shaping (ability): LVL 4

Quickened step (skill): LVL 2 duration 1-3 Seconds; Potency: +35% agility, +14% Dexterity; Cost: 6-10 SP per use

Health Offering (skill): LVL 1 duration 5 minutes; Potency: +10% to one attribute; Cost: 20% of Health pool for 1hr

Michael noted that his shaping ability had increased to level 4. He had only used his pulse one time since he had last checked, so the cause was definite. He had formed the dart and strengthened it awfully quick. Perhaps in half the time that it would have normally taken. He shrugged as his mind moved on. His pulse control increasing was definitely a good thing.

Michael first placed the drop points. The yellow drop went to increase his pulse to 6. Then he put one more point in dexterity and agility. He planned to continue to work on his speed and reaction, but he also wanted to increase his pulse when three stat points fell in his lap all at once.

Then Michael looked at his ability page. He tried to see if he could see what changes he could make with the skill boost, but it simply gave him a…

[Do you wish to use the basic skill level upgrade?]

Michael would have to decide blindly. He would have to pick which skill and use the upgrade before even seeing what changes it could effect. Who could say whether he would get to see how it would change the various aspects or if he would have to make a decision blind there too?

Michael contemplated the decision for another 30 minutes. His thoughts also shifted on whether he should go after the third assailant, Sam Weltz. Good chance that guy might not have a healing potion either. Another set of drops was pretty tempting, but eventually Michael dismissed the thought. There was no doubt that the guy was wounded fairly badly, but it did not seem like it was to the point where they would be fatal in a short amount of time. For all Michael knew the guy would run for several more miles. What had solidified the decision was that Michael had tried to follow the blood trail for a little while. However, he eventually had to give up. By the time he had rounded the building Sam had disappeared behind, the blood drops were already few and far between.

Eventually Michael returned back to the front of the Bay institute main building, collected the archer’s weapons, and prepared to enter the building. He decided to hold off on using the skill upgrade, at least for now. It would be more beneficial to use it to bring one of his skills from level 3 to level 4.

Passing the bodies again, Michael momentarily dwelt on the fact that he had just killed two people. Technically, he had only killed their mentality, soul, whatever you wanted to call it. Regardless, they were now brain dead in whatever capsule in whatever sector of the realm that they came from.

Michael honestly did not feel too bad about it all. Perhaps it was because they had attacked him first, or perhaps it was because his actions had been in the heat of combat. Perhaps it was just because he had been desensitized by killing human looking zombies for nearly two full weeks. He had been slightly hesitant about finishing the job with the archer. Perhaps he would think about that sometimes, since the guy had been pleading for his life…

However, it was not like Michael was out hunting other contenders. They had been the ones out looking for trouble. He had just been the one to come out on top. Perhaps he would kill more contenders in the future, but there would be no question that whomever he killed would deserve it. Michael would not have his family watch as he picked off other contender hopefuls just so that he could benefit from the drops.