(Author: Hello! The random release is here. How many chapters? Well, there is sure to be the next chapter. Aeron kills two zombie students, a powerful Spanish teacher zombie, and a boy bleeding to death while he was still human. He could have saved the boy if he did not summon the blood golem. Remember the MP cost? Whenever he uses Summon: Blood Golem, he has to pay all his current spirit. In other words, all his mana if his golem is destroyed and he needs to summon it again. Thus, he could not cast Healing and save the boy. Still, his goal is to save his brother. Well, Eddy Cruz is actually his stepbrother when Eddy's dad and Aeron's mom married. Enjoy.)
-------Chapter 2: The Grey Zombies--------------
"I'll put 2 stat points into stamina and 1 stat into resilience," Aeron said, a black light appearing from his eyes as he felt his body re-energize.
Now, only his strength stat was below ten. The training axe was great. As he leveled up, the damage output changed from (0-5) to (1-5). The reason he increased resilience was because he was afraid he would encounter another strong zombie. As for stamina, he needed stamina in case he needed to run or fight linger battles. When it came to zombies, he needed to increase his resilience and strength. He used an axe so he had to get in close range. He also planned on increasing his agility, when the zombies became too fast or moved in too large a group.
He cocked his head to one side as he saw his blood golem ram through one zombie to tackle another, taking them both through the wall as they approached the honors student building. Taking his axe out, he ran inside the building. He frowned as he saw four zombies together, feeding on the corpse of a girl. He took advantage and ran at them, leaping high and beheading one zombie and leaned back to push kick another zombie. One looked up, but Aeron quickly hacked his axe into the skull of the zombie. He whistled and his blood golem appeared, tackling the zombie he kicked as he did a spin kick on the fourth zombie.
"So glad I went to the mixed martial arts gym instead of a fitness gym," Aeron grinned and finished the zombie off as he hacked at the heart.
He looked back and cringed as the blood golem stood up from the tackle, crushing the balls of the zombie. Of course, the zombie tried to get up and did not seem to feel any pain as it shrieked and tried to grab the golem. The golem merely spread out its arms and slammed open palms on the head, crushing the skull into paste. Just to be safe, Aeron cut off the head of the dead girl the zombies fed on. As he cut off her head, he heard a familiar ping.
System AnnouncementAeron Ao is promoted to level 2.
3 stat points are awarded.
"Add 1 point to resilience, 1 point to agility, and 1 point to stamina," Aeron said, feeling his body recovery and his muscles relax afterwards. "His homeroom is on the second floor. Blood golem, you head up the stairs first."
The blood golem started for the stairs as Aeron picked up a few black coins. Coins dropped but loot items were incredibly rare. If he got a skill book, he would give it to his brother. He already possessed two skills, both of them at the fourth and fifth tier. He could only add 3 more active, loot-drop skills. He needed to choose them wisely and ensure that they were high tier skills.
"How high do item and skill tiers go?" Aeron asked, as he had seen the system announcement occur when Jorge had a question.
System AnnouncementTier Evaluations
Weapons, armor, and tiers all come in their own tier division. Each division has the same criteria: one as the lowest and ten as the highest. However, some items have level restrictions. Aeron Ao can only equip weapons and other loot from level 1 to 9 from Division 1. Division 2 items range from level 11 to level 19. If items are at this level or above, Aeron Ao cannot equip them. Training weapons are not restricted to level tier evaluations.
Skills are evaluated only through tiers 1 to 10. No level tier divisions exist for skills. Skills can be learned at any level but will not be dropped from level 40 onward.
Division 1: Levels 1-9
Division 2: 10-29
Unable to calculate level cap.
Skill tiers are not categorized by Divisions.
"So this ring counts as a Division 1 item?" Aeron mused as he stared at the white wood ring and noticed the bodies on the floor. "Some of them died by parts of the roof or falling to the first floor. Luckily, this building did not have much zombies. My brother has to be okay. R-23. R-23. Here it is. Eddy! Eddy, are you in there?"
"Big brother?" a boy cried. "Is that you? What about the four zombies?"
"They're dead. Open up," Aeron cried as he could not push the door open when he turned the door knob.
"Hurry and unlock it. We also gotta remove the desk barricade," Eddy cried, murmurs heard from inside as Aeron could finally open the door. He stared around and saw a zombie dead and a girl and boy with his step brother.
"Eddy? You alright?" Aeron asked, looking over him.
"Yeah. That zombie was our homeroom teacher. Most of the students died from the earthquake or from panic attacks. it was horrible. I think the four zombies were the victim of our teacher. I think all the staff are zombies. I saw no dead adults on this floor as we scavenged for food and supplies," Eddy answered. "I picked a sword, like my other friends here. This girl is Jean. She's my girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Aeron frowned as the other boy stepped forward.
"Hi. I'm Robert, Eddy's best friend. Of course, you already know that," the blonde boy grinned as Aeron remembered seeing him at Eddy's birthday party two months ago. "Where'd you get that golem? Are those diamonds? They look so cool, almost as if they were made of blood."
"They are," Aeron said, stunning the three juniors. "We need to go. I would give you a skill, Eddy, but I found no more than the ones I used. The system announcement didn't lie. We do find skills, from loot drops, in the form of skill books. If you want to learn it, or find out its description, open one. You can choose whether or not to learn it."
"Right. Are we going to your motorcycle?" Eddy asked.
"I can only carry me and another. I didn't expect you to have....company when the end of the world came," Aeron said.
"It's not the end of the world. We were just taken from our own," Robert said. "There must be a way back. However, I would like to escape from the school first. Those horned zombies scare me. Them, with their crimson eyes and dull grey skin. Just seeing their shark teeth-shaped skin terrified me."
"I saw none of those," Aeron said.
"You must have been lucky. The weakest we saw, from looking out the window, was level 5. Most of them were level 7 and they usually travel in groups of three. They looked more intelligent than human zombies, but ate them. I think feeding on anything allows those zombies to level," Eddy said. "What about mom and dad?"
"We only have each other now," Aeron said, looking at his brother in the eye. "Mom and dad are not stuck in this god forsaken place. We need to move. I don't even want to see those zombies you described."
"Right. Let's go guys," Eddy said as he followed his brother, one hand holding Jean's hand as he held his sword with the other. All three of them had heavy backpacks and they followed Aeron and his blood golem downstairs. Aeron held up a hand as he saw two grey, horned zombies. They looked like walking gargoyles, and their flesh seemed tougher on the skin not affected by decay.
"System, what are those?"
Aeron asked, the three eleventh graders looking at him. Their eyes widened as they heard a ping and saw the system box appear.
System AnnouncementZombie Appraisal
You have encountered zombies that devoured enough regular zombies, living students, and fresh corpses. Upon reaching level five, the zombies evolve into horned imp zombies. Their grey skin hardens and their flesh decays slower, allowing this kind of zombie to survive without feeding longer than the previous form. Also possess higher strength and intelligence of a child.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"So they are smarter. Like children, they flock together and explore if they are alone. Where is the third one?" Aeron asked.
"It's behind us, blocking the other exit," Robert whispered. The closer exit was covered by two zombies while the farther one was blocked by one.
"You three need to level up anyway. Stick together and do flanking attacks. If I fall, just run past them," Aeron whispered, tightening his grip on the axe as he noticed one of the two was at the sixth level, triple his own level. He stared at the fire alarm at the bottom of the stairs. Children were scared by foreign sounds. He would have to rely on that.
"I can't leave without you," Eddy said, shaking his head as he held onto Aeron's arm.
"We can't be weak-willed on this planet," Aeron snapped silently. "You need to prioritize yourselves to survive. We can't always be together. You know this. I'm sure one of the dead bodies, upstairs, is a senior with a key for the student parking. Go up the stairs, find the key, go to the other stairway at the end of the hall, and ambush that zombie. You have two people depending on you. If I don't appear at the parking lot in half an hour, leave without me. Until then, secure the area, level up, and secure any food. Break into the armory and get the oxygen tanks, air rifles, and pellets. Even if the damage is halved, they can still damage the zombies. Of course, prioritize breaking into the supply room."
"B, but," Eddy started and felt comfort with Jean's hand holding his a little tighter. "Okay. You have to survive, brother. I'm going on ahead."
"Stay alive and good luck. I can't watch your back anymore. I'll pull the fire alarm when I see you at the stairs on the other side of the hall. Hopefully, it will provide you with enough of a distraction to kill it.," Aeron said sadly, hugging his brother.
"I'll go scout ahead. I have agility close to ten already," Robert said and was followed by Eddy and Jean shortly after.
"We'll meet up at soon. You have to be there!" Eddy whispered before he disappeared up the stairs.
"I'll try," Aeron said silently and waited until he could see his brother on the other side of the hall.
"Golem, tackle them," Aeron cried as he ran to the fire alarm, pulling it just as he ducked a lunge from the weaker zombie. The zombies covered their ears at the foreign ringing sound. Higher intelligence means more attention to the body. Thus, of course they would be able to feel pain. He saw the blood golem tackle the level 6 zombie as he tried hacking at the level 5 zombie. He stared up at the lights and tossed his backpack aside, taking out one of the water bottles and spraying the zombie with water.
"Golem! Throw this one at the lights," Aeron roared as he and the golem switched foes. The golem grabbed the zombie and tossed it up. The wet zombie broke through the light bulb and was electrocuted. As it fell, the golem did a right upper cut, lengthening the neck of the zombie as the neck broke and almost tore off.
However, Aeron was not so lucky. The zombie's skin was too hard, his axe only creating a scratch as he hacked at the shoulder. Aeron's right arm was grabbed, and it threw him through the wooden door to the classroom across from him. He spat out blood and saw his vitality fall by two. The zombie just threw him and he suffered so much damage! Scared, he used his healing and recovered as the golem charged at the zombie. This time, it was prepared and was only pushed back a foot before it lifted the golem and smashed it on the floor.
Aeron got up and rushed at the zombie. Just as the zombie raised its arm to block a hack, Aeron slowed into a spin and sliced at the zombie's waist. The zombie stepped back and Aeron did a high kick to its face. As his blood golem stood up, Aeron grabbed one arm of the zombie and slammed it on the ground, using the zombie's own weight against it as he lifted it over him using his arm and one foot to push it up.
"Stomp on the head!" Aeron roared and the golem stomped with its left foot as the zombie was dazed. The zombie shrieked, spitting out teeth and pushed the golem's foot away as the golem attempted another.
"Stay down!" Aeron roared as he slashed at the head over and over until he felt no energy in his arm and slumped to his knees.
System AnnouncementAeron Ao is promoted to level 3.
3 stat points are awarded.
"2 stats in strength and 1 in vitality," Aeron panted, his body feeling better after a black light shined from his eyes.
System AnnouncementAeron Ao is promoted to level 4.
3 stat points are awarded.
"1 stat in strength and 2 stats in agility," Aeron said. Agility was a must and he had enough strength to make the risk of close quarters worth it. His training axe also increased from (1-5) to (3-8). He picked up over two dozen coins and stared as he saw two white boxes. He opened the first box to reveal crimson and black fingerless gloves.
System AnnouncementAcquired Black Ember Glove
You have killed a zombie triple your level and awarded accordingly.
Gloves increase spirit+2 and vitality+3 when worn.
Adds +3 fire damage to all attacks.
+10% fire resistance.
Item can be upgraded.
Aeron eagerly put on the fingerless glove on his right hand, admiring the black glove with the crimson ember on the back of the glove. What a great find. He had never found a loot drop that gave him armor until now. He picked up a dozen black coins and rubbed his hands before opening the second box to see a black skill book.
System AnnouncementAeron Ao found a Skill Book.
Tier 3 skill: Frost Enchantment.
This skill book is the first sustained skill ability dropped.
Able to enchant the caster's own weapons and a single piece of armor or clothing at a time
+2 resilience on wearing the enchanted armor. +3 frost damage. +10% frost resistance
MP Cost: permanent loss of three spirit points until ability is deactivated.
User cannot enchant other people's weapons or armor.
This skill can be upgraded.
"Holy shit! It's even better than my gloves! Especially upon reaching level 5 and gaining a skill upgrade point, the skill can easily be upgraded! I better give this to Eddy. I need an offensive skill," Aeron nodded and stored the skill book in his storage ring. "I wonder how items are upgraded. There's also the empty class section in my status screen. I don't have to find a trainer, like in the video games, do I?"
He slumped against the wall and rested as the golem slowly repaired itself as its body absorbed the blood of the zombies. Both wrists had blood diamonds now. Once his stamina reached 10 (11) on his status screen, Aeron finally left and headed for the parking lot. He only recovered some of his stats, but his stamina should be fine to escape weaker zombies. If only he fully recovered upon leveling.
NameAeron AoLevel 4No ClassTitleNonePersonal StatsStat Number (max)Strength12 (12)Vitality10 (11+3)Agility14(14)Stamina10 (11)Spirit14 (14+2)Resilience12 (12)