Earned 6 Dust.

There was another ghostly voice inside of Tim's head after the Bat-Mon's corpse vanished.

"Huh... weird." Tim muttered. Unknown to him, the Bat-Mon's corpse he accidentally stepped on was a dying one, weak enough so that even a simple kick could kill it.

Squatting down, Tim's hand was reaching out to the red shard. "...This, is it an item drop?" Tim asked to no one while playing with the red shard in his hand. Then, another blue screen appeared in front of his vision.

Bat-Mon's Shard.

Please select one Majick from the current list:

Destruction - Poison Spray (70 Dust to unlock.)

Mysticism - Leech Life (80 Dust to unlock.)

Conjuration - Leech Seed (60 Dust to unlock.)

Even though Tim was the one who obtained it, it seemed he still needed to spend the Dust for buying them. Not only that, he was a little confused by the selection he was given since they didn’t give any additional information. But when he thought about it, there was no additional information either on yesterday screen. Though, he still had some vague idea about what the majick would do based on its name.

"Well... let's get away from this place first." Tim muttered.

As soon as he put the stone into his pocket, the blue screen was gone. "...Good." Tim said and breathed out a sigh of relief. After all, he didn't want to walk with blue screen floating in front of his vision.

Still carried a plastic bag full of soft-drink cans and red shard in his pocket. Tim walked through the empty city, from his apartment in midtown, under the bright overhead sun bleached the streets. Over the bridge, debris and human bodies drifted in the river. Past the elite residential where all the cars lie abandoned, to the market square where all shops were looted.

He moved through the city and found no sign of life, not a single human nor monster, except for their remain. Not like he wanted to meet the later though. Most of the cars and Trucks were parked at the street, abandoned. Police abandoned their posts. A few human corpses seemingly chose to jump from the roof to end their life.

Tim walked, checked the store, found everything was gone or totally destroyed. Then he walked, entered the store, repeat again with only the sound of the strong wind as his companions.

"...How in the seven hell they looted everything in this place." He protested, holding his urge to shout out his frustration.

This was the thirty-fourth store he'd finished checked and there was nothing. No, nothing wasn't quite the word. There were electronic devices, money, tableware and another luxury, yet useless goods, but he couldn't find any water or foods.

The sun was high, perfectly located right above of Tim's head. His voice was hoarse, his mouth dry. Down the narrow side street was the thirty-fifth store. Massaging his throat, he entered the thirty-fifth store and decided to take a rest in there.

Tim reached into the plastic bag and taking out an aluminium container with 90% sugar and 10% water. Tim slugged some of it and already bored with the same overly sweet taste.

A sudden noise fell on the food section. Tim jumped, startled. Something was moving out in the back. His face stiffened and he took a few moments to orient himself to grab his gun and walk backwards.

Little did he know, a shadow slithered from the said direction. It was an alligator except for it had leaf green-scaled reptile looks, almost looked like a miniature crocodile with a stunted muzzle, above its head was its name and level Dogigator Lvl 3.

Tim sneered, thinking it was the weakest monsters he'd ever met. Obviously, it was the perfect target to test the gun.

Unlocking the safety and slid the top of the gun, Tim pointed his semi-automatic pistol toward the Dogigator, and pulled the trigger.

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"Urgh..." He cringed after the bang, he knew the sound was loud but he never thought it would be this loud. Though, in the bright side, the bullet pierced the Dogigator right on its head.

Earned 3 Dust.

With another voice, though this time the Dogigator didn't vanish. "Well... I guess not every monster we kill will drop the item huh."

Then more dogigators crawled out through the storage room, knocking over the garbage can and white platter, dollar bills were dragged along under the animal's tail.

Two dogigators came out. "Hah, only two. Ez~" Tim said without worry along with two headshots piercing through their head.

Earned 3 dust.

Earned 3 dust.

Then more dogigators came out. Tim stunned for a moment and foolishly counted the number of Dogigator. Four, eight... sixteen and they kept coming in. It seemed Tim had just woken up the whole army of Dogigator.

Oh, that, was bad, that was bad!! I shouldn’t have done that! Tim thought as he sprinted down the tarmac while the dogigators were chasing after him. They barked, they mad, and somehow when they were together they became fast.

"Enhance: Sprint!" Tim shouted.

Throwing out the dice, the number that showed up was 6. Of course, it would be 6 or any number that Tim's wanted 50% of the time, depending on the flatness of the ground, where he stood, the weight and setting of the dice, where the dice would land, the way he gripped it and with proper swing and spin; This was how Tim got called as 'Prince of Gamblers.'

It wasn't luck, never the luck. Though, while sometimes luck was playing some part, most of the time it was all trickery, deception, and precision.

And the terrain, compared to last night there was more chaos in the shopping district. A huge tangle of shopping trolleys, running up the stairs, ducking under the shop signs, slipping past the abandoned cars, avoiding the mountain of corpses, pools of blood and debris. Tim just couldn't run at his maximum speed in this place.

After some time, Tim decided to made the turn to get lost from the Dogigator. Only to get confronted with a swarm of Bat-Mon sucking and ripping hundreds of human bodies.

So this is where everyone goes. Tim thought.

A woman, seemingly just arrived on this hell hole. She struggled to get up, but the Bat-Mons were making sure she pinned to the street. Tim looked into the woman’s eyes, which stared straight back at him. She still alive, but there was no life left there when she noticed Tim just ran through the swarm of the Bat-Mon, slipping away from the Bat-Mons while ignoring her.

Helping her is a bad idea, really, really bad idea! Tim muttered in his own mind. At the very least, he was helping her by distracting several hundred Bat-Mon toward him. Completely unsure if that helped her or not.

On the street, Tim could see a man, most likely a father sat slumped over the steering wheel. In the back, Tim saw a baby was strapped into an infant's safety seat, crying loud enough even Tim could hear her. The dogigators were surrounding them, barking while thrashing their body, while the Bat-Mons were thumping to the windshield maddeningly.

Nope, too many risks. Tim thought.

He continued to run, while the number of his pursuer got bigger, compared to the Blood Hound, these creatures were more fierce and more persistent.

Seven minutes already passed, and yet they kept coming from every corner.

At the end of his path, just before the right turn was a church. Tim ran towards it when he saw the front doors were open, no blood, no human remains. Without any hesitation he rushed inside, moving without the respectful quietness that people adopt when entering a church.

Immediately closing the door behind him, with enough distance from Tim and the monsters behind him, he blocked the front door with the plank and chairs.

"...That was close..." Tim panted when he heard the nearest monsters slammed against the door.

"Maybe... maybe it was wrong to not immediately picking the majick." Tim protested. As a gamer themselves, he always thrived of what they said as the most efficient build, but after realizing the situation it might be wiser to maximise what he had.

With 100 initial Dust, 13 hours had passed, Tim lost 20 after used Enhance: Sprint twice, and gained 15 dust after killing the monster.

All in all, he had 108 Dust left. Spending it for the strongest majick might be a good idea, but he still needed to have some dust left to use it. Not to mention, Tim himself didn't know how long the church front door would be able to hold them.

With a sigh, Tim eliminated Leech Life from the list and moved his finger to pick the majick.

Majick Name: Leech Seed

Majick Type: Conjuration

Majick Difficulty: 3

Initial Cost: 12 Dust

Effect: Plants a seed on the target. It will drain 8 + (Caster's Mind) life out of the target per minute up to 32 Life, until the target destroys the seed, or the target is dead. The same amount of life will be restored to whoever eats the seed. Multiple Leech Seed draining will not affect the same target at the same time. Leech Seed will not work against Undead.

Critical Success: Double the base absorption rate and the base threshold limit. Work against the Undead.

Failure: Nothing happened. Lost the Dust.

Critical Failure: Leech Seed will be planted on the Caster's body, after absorbing the maximum amount of life, the seed will vaporize. Double the amount of the Dust used.

The effect of this majick probably has a certain value, depending on the situation though. Tim thought as he rubbed his chin when he read the majick description.