It took Sam and Jack another hour to reach the gate. Sam was panting heavily.

He looked at his new chainmail.

(Medium Armor chainmail-> Defense +3)

" I will get used to the weight of this thing. The +3 defense makes it worth it to sweat a little bit." Sam said.

"Halt!" a guard at the gate yelled.

"Who are you? Where are you coming from? What is your purpose here in Woodchester?"

Sam and Jack were startled because of the barrage of questions.

Sam took a step forward and spoke

"We were living about six hours from here,but our home got destroyed by zombies. We are two adventurers looking for a new place to stay."

" I have never seen you before, so if you leave your weapons at the gate and speak to the village chief first, I will let you enter." the guard told them.

Sam and Jack accepted, deposited their weapons at the gate and made their way to the village chiefs house at the town center.

His house was guarded as well. Sam and Jack got stopped again when approaching the house. They entered after telling the guards the same story as before.

The house wasn't really spacious and like the other houses completely built from wood. A big room was used as kitchen and living room, and the second room was used to sleep. That was it, no second story or bathroom.

'Definitely a spawned village. These sorts of houses couldn't be found in this area anymore.' Sam thought and saw an old man about 70 years old coming towards them.

"Hello, I am the village chief of Woodchester Rudolph, who are you two?"

Sam answered.

"We are travelers who lost their home. My name is Sam, this is Jack. We are searching for a place to stay for now. We won't bring trouble to this place, village chief. On the contrary, we have combat experience and could help you with various dangerous tasks!"

" We have a defense post on the northern street which got attacked by a big group of zombies and needs reinforcements, while on the street to the east is another village that gets constantly attacked by goblins. If you can help us out and show your sincerity, I will give you a small shack to live for now."

"Ok, we can help you, where should we head to first?" Sam asked.

"Go to the northern defense post first and help them."

After their meeting with the village chief, Sam and Jack left his place again. They retrieved their weapons and departed.

It slowly started to turn dark, so the both of them walked quickly. They spotted the post after walking for about 40 minutes. It looked like a little castle. One big building and a tall tower surrounded by a wall. It was a simple structure that blocked the narrow passage leading to the valley, Woodchester was built in.

It was currently surrounded by a group of zombies. They were growling and scratching the wooden wall.

"That must be about 30 zombies and they sent two people? Does the village chief want to kill us?" Sam wondered as he watched the zombies.

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Jack looked at Sam and said " How about we lure one or two of them away, kill them and repeat that?"

"Yeah, let's do that, stand over there behind the rock. I will be the bait and lure them away from

the NPC camp, when we pass your position, start firing."

Sam slowly walked near the zombies. He started knocking his club at the shield walking one step at a time. The plan worked but instead of two zombies, five pursued him.

Sam panicked but still returned to Jack, leading the zombies. He passed him shouting "I lured five of them, wait until they are 20 meter away, then start shooting!"

He continued walking another 30 meter, then turned around facing the zombies with resolution. He didn't know when, but his character had changed a lot. His thirst for power grew day by day. Facing five zombies he felt no fear anymore. He looked forward to the fight, because the more enemies he killed, the stronger he got and right now his goal was to reach Level 5!

His eyes focused and he charged, tackling the first zombie aside and ramming the second with his shield. Another one had already been killed by an arrow from Jack, that left two zombies standing. One of them turned around and went towards Jack after being shot in the back by him.

Sam took care of the other zombie, chrushing it's head. He swiftly disposed of the two zombies that were standing up. Meanwhile Jack killed the last one and started collecting his arrows.

After a five minute break Sam left and returned with five zombies again.

They killed them as easy as the first time. Sam also got his hands on some metal shoulder guards, which he could add to his chainmail and that gave him an additional point in defense.

After another break, Sam left for the third time but returned with a worried expression.

He took position and informed Jack via teamspeak.

"There are six enemies this time. There seems to be a different type as well. It's a ranged attacker, who shot arrows, I couldn't see him cause I fled when the first arrow was fired. Try to take him out first,you should identify him easily.

Jack nodded from his position and waited. When the enemies passed him his facial expression turned gloomy.

He whispered in the guild chat " Sam the ranged attacker is a skeleton! It's wielding a long bow, quite a bit better than mine....more important is that it will be quite hard for me to kill it. Skeletons are vulnerable to blunt weapons right? You should kill it. Same tactic as before, but I will try to shoot 3 zombies this time and lure another one. You should protect yourself and kill the skeleton as fast as possible. After that you can kill the remaining zombie and help me if it is needed."

By the time Jack finished he had already started to shoot.

The first arrow was a clean headshot. After that he started shouting to attract the remaining enemies.

Sam took the opportunity and rushed at the skeleton.

It heard the sound of Sam's chainmail and started to fire at him. He blocked the first arrow, but the power behind it slowed him down. He could feel the tip of the arrow scratching his gloves through the shield.

' Without this metal plate on the back of the gloves this would be a painful wound' Sam thought but didn't stop charging. Another arrow was shot but barely missed Sam's head.

He got in reach and slammed his club on the zombies head.

*Crack*

A single hit was enough and the skeleton fell down.

'Congratulations Sam Williams! For defeating an equipped monster one level higher than yourself you are awarded with two stat points.'

'Both in defense!'

'Stat points allocated'

Sam had no time to catch his breath, he saw 3 remaining zombies closing in on Jack.

He followed and killed the first zombie with a swing from behind.

The last two were just a couple of meters away from Jack who had only one arrow left.

Sam measured the distance, took a few steps forward and threw his shield at one of the zombies.

The shield hit the back of it's head and damaged its brain.

Jack who was confronted with the last zombie didn't shoot his remaining arrow. He instead grabbed it and ran forward as quick as he could. In the blink of an eye he arrived in front of the zombie and stabbed out two times swiftly. Both stabs landed in the right eye and even though the first only damaged the skull, the second stab split it and pierced the zombies brain.

'Accuracy improves close combat too, maybe i should level it a bit as well??' Sam pondered while the last zombie fell down.

" We should rest for a few minutes then check out the situation at the NPC camp. We killed more than half of the horde after all!" Jack suggested.

Sam nodded and sat down heavily. He was exhausted after all the fighting.

' I have the feeling that I am lacking something to level up! Something more is required to reach Level 5 than killing normal or equipped zombies...'

After pondering for the next minutes, Sam stood up and walked in the camps direction with Jack.