Okay, this is stupid, and it didn't work earlier, but the temptation is too much to resist.

With this chunky armor of a brigandine, the zombies shouldn't be able to lay a finger on the avatar.

And to ensure a backup, a second gladius is waiting in the inventory for its moment of glory.

"Why not try dual-wielding again, this one time?"

These blades are shorter than the rusty sword meaning they're easier to handle.

The previous test was against rats that are a pain to hit, and the undead are nice, big, and sluggish.

They'll remain slow, stumbling idiots until the character goes near the dungeon's entrance.

The shield is unnecessary if there's no pressure to deflect their strikes.

Better yet, as the backpack and this gear are so heavy, running around to fight them for long is out of the question.

Let them come and shred them to pieces with double the efficiency.

Two weapons should end the fight twice as fast, and the second blade will prevent them from flanking too.

"Argh, yes, it's stupid. That's not how combat or even math works."

And still, let's try it anyway. That vault will push the limits of the character, so why not start now?

While they act like they patrol the shallow hill in the moonlight, they can't see shit.

Unless skeletons spot for them, zombies are blind before the engagement starts.

Find a good spot to make a stand, wait until one stumbles on it, cut it down, and then let the rest come.

It's still a few minutes until midnight in this world, the place is quiet, and the minimap shows nobody nearby.

Sure, they caused issues wearing armor with two Res and breaking the shield, but it's in the past.

This is the last opportunity to test things before going in.

"Fine, fuck it. If it doesn't work, the shield is still on the quick-access slot." Sometimes you can't argue with yourself. It's easier to give in.

There is a boulder and it triggers some vague memories as if the avatar made a stand there before.

It should do. Cut down a fucker nearby, then with the back to the rock, make sure they can't surround from every direction.

One of them volunteers to trigger their attention. His rotting green skin already peels off before the first strike.

After that, his head is gone too.

[You killed a Zombie +34 Exp]

"Aww, it's rounding down."

If the math's right, it should have been thirty-four point two, and the system ate the fraction.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Well, it's no surprise; a fourteen percent boost won't make a difference with low-level mobs.

They are on their way now, so let's see what two gladius can do.

"Gladiuses? Gladii? What's the correct plural for these things?"

They line up before this ugly unhistorical setup, and the fight begins. It's a fantasy title after all.

It seems unlikely that players would care if their gear matches or it's completely random. Not to mention the high-level stuff.

The only thing matching that description was DragonSlayer's bow which he didn't use.

Oh, a few advanced players marched through Origin in silly-looking armor on the first day.

And, well, Crimson-Whatever-Ex-Ex also has a wizard character with a pointy hat.

[You killed a Zombie +34 Exp]

They are slower than usual, so going closer to speed things up might be a good idea.

It tells a lot if I get lost in thoughts again during combat.

What if the devs fucked up something so bad, that other than the Guardian Angels, every mob dulled down? Ah, no, those Death Rats were quite lively.

It must be the place and a special mechanic that they get faster and faster the closer you get to the thing they guard.

They have to begin at an easy pace to still give a chance to the players at their worst.

The system makes no sense sometimes, while it's too reasonable in others.

"Sigh, okay, let's speed things up a bit."

Ten steps forward, there are a few to cut down there anyway and it should be close enough.

Learning from the previous encounter, they won't slow down if players back away, so nice and steady. And use that second blade too, if it's already there.

As cool as it sounds in theory, the reality is that the dominant hand makes all the calls.

It's easy to forget that more than one blade is ready to strike.

It was the same with the shield too, focus on the attack and switch to defense when it's needed.

Doing them both is as challenging as attacking with two arms. Except it's way more prominent like this.

One blade's always held back doing nothing since I can't divide the attention.

It's still difficult to admit that Tank was right.

Even though fighting with the right hand was already too much, it sucks that it doesn't work with both.

"It's outrageous, it's unfair."

It is what it is, let's see if it will get in the way, or the avatar can at least pretend to be cool.

The undead are getting warmed up at least, and it's better to go back to that boulder before they swarm too much.

"This is where the fun begins."

[You killed a Zombie +34 Exp]

That's the first one to go down from the right blade, and it's way too much effort.

So far they didn't even land a hit so it's hard to tell if the armor does its job.

It covers everything from the neck down and has long sleeves and a generous overhang to the legs too.

If only it weren't this heavy. Even breathing is difficult under this much weight.

How much of it comes from the stuffed backpack and the armor itself?

The avatar hauled stuff before and ran low on breath when it tried to go too fast, yet the stamina bar holds up now.

[You killed a Zombie +34 Exp]

Okay, another thing to try out. Is taking off the backpack okay? It's the sprinter one, packed to the brim.

So if it's off, would the gear stay on the character and feel heavier, or would it remain in the container?

This is very important to test out and something to do before starting a fight.

"That would have been too logical."

The system doesn't help, and it would be suicidal to open a browser tab in this situation.

Okay. Let's pop up the inventory, look at the backpack icon, and think about taking it off with everything inside.

Crap, that unequipped the second gladius too.

Well, that makes sense. How else would the character hold on to the thing?

Plus, it was inside the backpack, not on the quick-access like the other one.

Yes, this is interesting, the container in my hand feels very heavy, and the inventory looks empty.

There are no potions, arrows, or anything, except the three from the ready-slots.

The gladius in the left hand, the shield, and the bow, with a little red mark showing there's no ammo for it.

Okay, that's fair. So it's something you can do, but you better prepare for the consequences.