Since he was in the area, and since healing potions were just straight up useful, Jack decided to continue his journey towards the hospital. Having two functional arms didn’t help his journey much, since he still preferred stealth for now. In the end, it took him a whole extra three days to skirt around the territories of the various monsters in order to reach the hospital.

His chosen entrance was through the parking lot for a multitude of reasons, and for once, it wasn’t because it was the safest route. Far from it actually, the multi-layered parking complex was actually occupied by a tribe of goblins. Jack had already scouted the perimeter of the hospital, and if he wanted in, he could be in already. But Jack didn’t want in.

He wanted a fight.

The world had been ended for almost a month already, and aside from the first day, Jack hadn’t been granted the opportunity to enjoy it. Which was definitely not a normal thought to be having, but for the first time in his life, Jack found himself unable to resist the urge to fight against his impulses. After all, who would stop him?

The parking complex had been barricaded like a fortress by its occupants. Hundreds of car doors, concrete blocks, and whatever other junk the goblins had scavenged from the area were piled along the edges, with scouts dutifully overlooking the walls of their pathetic kingdom. However, they neglected the topmost floor, opting to just close off the ramps leading down. From what Jack had seen of the flying monsters occasionally in the area, it made sense.

However, it offered a significant weak point for him to exploit.

Jack stashed his bag between a bush and the hospital's wall around the corner. Taking only his weapons with him, IE a larger hammer and his mostly repaired shield, Jack scaled the wall, risking glances into the hospital as he climbed. Zombies wandered within, but they entirely ignored his existence. Which suited him just fine. He’d get around to them eventually.

Jack heaved himself up onto the roof of the hospital, wiping the bird shit he’d collected onto his padded jeans. His armor had been slowly upgrading over time, with components of his attire being replaced without sentimental regard. By now, his flimsy paintball mask had been replaced with a motorcycle helmet, and between his double layered jeans he wore sports equipment specifically chosen to be both silent and prevent piercing type damages.

It’s why Jack preferred hammers to other weapons. Blocking blades was easy, but bring a heavy enough rock to any fight, and it didn’t matter what armor you wore. Besides, Jack was strong, and now that he no longer had to be gentle, he enjoyed the feeling of maximizing his usage of every ounce of that strength.

Jack peered over the edge of the roof at the parking complex a sidewalk away. Satisfied, he backed up, taking a sprinter's stance. With explosive momentum, Jack bolted for the edge of the roof, clearing the gap between concrete buildings without room to spare. If his mother was still alive, she’d probably have a heart attack and die on the spot. Jack reveled in the fact that she wasn’t around to stop him.

Then he frowned. Shouldn’t he feel bad about that? He just dissed his dead mother…

Ah, who cares.

Jack sauntered over to the edge of the building where the shade was most prominent. He leaned over as far as possible, trying to see if there were any valid targets. Some had good landing zones, but were too occupied for his liking, while others were just empty. But then Jack found what he was looking for, near the center of the wall. A lone goblin, standing behind flimsy construction, with solid concrete and railings for an easy landing point.

Without second thought, Jack vaulted the railing, holding onto the metal with his shield hand. He spun his hammer in his hand, bouncing in place to prepare himself. Then, he kicked out his legs, hanging almost horizontally. Still hanging onto the rail, he began to swing back towards the concrete wall before he let go.

His momentum carried him to the next level down, where he simultaneously caught the railing and slammed his hammer into the skull of the goblin. His feet tapped on concrete quietly. It took Jack uncomfortably long to regain his balance before he could replace the goblin as it disappeared into black smoke. It left behind three arrows.

The vehicles within the complex were mostly shoved against the outer walls, but apparently some of them were being used as housing. Jack hid himself within the wall so he could watch the comings and goings of the rest of the goblins on this floor. There weren’t many, but what few there were seemed more important than the average goblins that occupied the lower floors.

Jackpot.

Jack took advantage of the constructed scrap wall as a visual break. He climbed along the railing around the outside, popping into the isolated pockets where goblins stood guard. The vast majority of the time, the goblins died without ever seeing him coming, while the rest were too surprised to properly make more than a quiet yelp.About halfway through his perimeter sweep, the goblins within the walls seemed to have noticed a lack of guards.

Jack jumped back into the constructed wall, slipping into a gap between vehicles to hide in the shadows between them. Some goblins wearing very fancy headdresses waved their sticks around, giving commands to the others. A guard from the wall shouted out, running into the center with a small handful of arrows, gibbering and pointing to the place where he found them.

Twenty guards, eighteen regulars, three ‘shaman’ types. Plus the others in the lower levels. And right now, with the rest of the guards running to the center, there was no chance of anything sneaking up behind him.

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Jack dashed into the frey.

The goblins noticed him long before he reached them. There was too much open space. Jack didn’t mind though, as there were still enough random vehicles that he could use for cover.

The guards attacked at range. Unfortunately, there were no melee goblins this high up in the complex. Also unfortunately, Jack was forced to duck behind a truck because he had no ranged options of his own. The goblins seemed content to let him stay there too, only shooting when he dared to poke his head out. A handful of the unarmed goblins ran for the ramps to the lower levels, probably for backup. There was no way Jack could force the guards to run out of arrows before reinforcements arrived.

Jack had an escape route by the way of leaping down the walls again, but he wanted to stay for as long as possible. Both to draw the goblins up higher, making it harder to chase him if he did flee, but also for training purposes.

“COWARDS!” Jack shouted in a vain attempt to provoke them.

Surprisingly, it worked.

Jack witnessed through the shattered window of the truck as the goblins bristled at the insult. Besides the shamans, who just tightened their muscles, every single goblin decided to charge towards Jack, regardless of whether or not they held weapons. That didn’t stop them from picking up sticks or rocks as they ran past them though.

Jack timed his exit with the first goblin rounding the corner. His hammer dispatched it quickly enough, and since it vanished into black smoke and embers, he never had to worry about it getting stuck. Each of his senses were heightened to allow him an omnipotent view of his surroundings. He kept track of each archer specifically, trying his best to either keep cover between them and him, or within his line of sight so he could block their arrows. The goblins' numbers quickly overwhelmed him, forcing him to retreat. But they weren’t so much that Jack didn’t feel like he couldn’t handle the little yellow eyed freaks.

For every step he moved forward, he shuffled a dozen back. Mostly he was just able to injure the goblins, but he did get lucky and kill a few. The injured whimpered, running back to the shamans. Jack watched them as the shamans waved their arms and staves over the injuries. It did nothing to heal them, but once the ceremony was done, each goblin seemed content to stand off to the side.

For every lunge Jack made into the mob, he was forced back half a dozen feet to block the incoming arrows. These goblins weren't dumb, but they weren’t smart either. They knew how not to hit each other, but clearly they didn’t recognize the futility of their actions. Maybe they were just waiting for more backup. A shaman muttered angrily to itself, abandoning his healing duties to join the archers. It raised its staff and began chanting.

The mob of goblins backed off again in response to the shaman.

“MORONS!” Jack insulted them again. Just like before, an invisible wave passed over the goblins, and they charged in his direction once more.

Do they really understand me? Or is something else happening. This is the… third time this happened. The first time was back when he was attempting death by combat.

The video game ‘taunt’ skill came to mind.

For every kill, Jack was forced a single step back.

Reinforcements had arrived. They began slowly, handfuls at a time, but soon dozens were running into the far end of the battlefield.

Jack pushed forwards.

Lunge. Claw swipe, followed by bite. Gang up from both sides.

Jack studied the patterns of the goblins. Just like humans, they all had habits. Unlike humans, Jack didn’t attempt to mimic them, and instead just took advantage of them. His strikes started to look less ruthless, and more refined. He knew exactly how much strength it took to break goblin bones. How much effort he had to put into a kill.

His roar of challenge was made with a smile.

The goblins standing back joined the fray. Archers without arrows attempted to bash his helmet in with their bows. Jack kited them around the obstacles within the complex, shouting insults at them whenever they deviated from the path. He didn’t want them to think. He wanted them to attack.

A horde was upon him.

And finally, Jack no longer took steps backwards.

----------------------------------------

The parking complex was cleared less than an hour later. Other than the armed guards, it was like fighting literal children. After the fight on the highest level, Jack hadn’t even taken any damage.

His helmet was missing the glass, a fact Jack was grateful for as he sucked in hot, tangy air. But it was fresh. He unbuckled the thing, letting it thunk on the ground. His weapon was replaced with a rusty sword, and instead of the round captain america shield, he had a wooden goblin sized tower shield. Somehow, the thing was sturdier than the metal of his previous shield. The goblin that had once wielded it had been guarding a food stockpile when Jack killed him for it.

Out of the over three hundred goblins he had killed, only six bodies remained behind. One in fifty, more or less. Were these odds consistent?

Jack would find out, as he exited the complex and entered the hospital. Looking left and right, Jack saw the halls of the hospital extend out way longer than the hospital was wide. It was indeed a dungeon, just like he had thought.

Now, normally Jack would leave himself an exit. Leave the door unlocked, break a window, or have a safe place to retreat to. But since this was a dungeon, there would be no breaking windows. And Jack locked the door behind himself.

Dozens of zombies glared at him from every direction.

Jack grinned, his eyes wilder than any of the monsters he’d encountered thus far.

“I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me.”

Jack crushed the giant zombie with the huge piece of rooftop rubble. The thing wasn’t even able to fight back at this point, so Jack had had his fun.

His one leg was missing its pants from where it had been chopped off hours ago, though the leg beneath looked pristine. His helmet was missing, tears covered every piece of his clothing, what little there was left, and his fists were wrapped in bandages with metal woven into the knuckles.

Two days without rest, Jack had climbed the hospital, floor by floor, blocking off every dead end as he cleared them just to ensure he didn’t miss a single enemy. They grew in size, and complexity as he climbed. Not just zombies, like he had thought, but acid slimes (killed via fire extinguisher), bats, giant cockroaches, and mechanical golems built from medical equipment all infested the dungeon.

But the climb was worth it.

The golden text was back.

“You have achieved something Awesome.”

Jack smirked, stumbling back towards the roof hatch.

Awesome…

Time for sleep.