Zombies are mythical creatures created from the reanimation of a corpse. In some stories they are corpses that have awakened to do some sort of purpose. Pop culture markets zombies as a product of a virus that controls human bodies forcing them to be violent and perform cannibalistic acts. As impossible as all this sounds, John was currently facing a zombie.
John's definition of a zombie was different. Zombies are considered 10 chicken level threat or 10 CLT for short. This meant that an unarmored John would experience the power of 10 chickens when fighting a zombie. Each zombie had it's own fighting style, some practiced kickboxing and others were grapplers. Although there were similar styles there was variation in the way they chained their attacks.
To elaborate, Two zombies with boxing style fighting would both start with a right jab in the exact same way. If the target of the target of the zombie retaliates then one of the zombies might counter with a punch while the other just dodges. The main point here is that the zombies were snowflakes. Which brings us back to John.
With John's new armor he was invulnerable to hand to hand attacks. Which is why he was currently in a makeshift octagon ring with double layered stone walls fighting with a zombie. This was his plan for training.
John would try to learn the zombie's way of fighting and try to beat them with it while bearing dirt block weights in his inventory. John's running speed was faster than the monsters so it was relatively easy for him to trap one zombie in the ring. The zombie in question performed rapid punches when an opponent was within it's range. It overwhelemed the opponent with blows so fast one wouldn't be able to counter it.
The zombie also performed grounding techniques by kicking John in the knees to make him kneel so that it could unleash gattling blows on his head. This was John's hardest zombie yet. He had fought with boxers and kickers but not one with multiple skills.
His chest armor was already bent inwards due to the multiple hits and his helmet would soon face the same fate. John stood up and threw a long straight at the zombie's head that easily dodged it. Since John was putting a lot of weight in one of his foot, the zombie kicked on that foot which brought down the tin can named John.
John predicted that it would take him months to defeat the zombie, But he was happy at this development. The skills he gained from the boxing and kicking zombies were extremely useful. John was highly expectant of the results he would gain from this zombie.
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Many months had passed and John had fought against many kinds of zombies, even taking on multiple zombies at once in hand to hand combat. The hardest opponents he had fought were the wrestlers that used his weight and momentum against him and the zombies that redirected his hits onto himself. The hit redirecting zombie was extremely annoying to fight since it made John hit himself and it also didn't attack on its own, only waiting a hit to arrive.
When John thought he couldn't learn anything from the zombies he went back to the island to make better gauntlets for punching. He added bracers on the knuckles and made the fingers multi jointed so he could move them around flexibly. John was also thinking about his next target, the skeletons.
There was two kinds of skeletons, the swordsman and the archer. John would fight the swordskeletons first before the archers. But John didn't want to fight the skeletons like he did with the zombies.
The zombies offered multiple variations of hand to hand combat but skeletons only performed the most efficient way to use the sword. According to John's observation, the skeletons use the most appropriate way of fighting depending on their opponent. When fighting with zombies they went for the places where the zombie relied on. A boxing zombie? the skeleton went for the legs. Kicking? the skeleton just got close and stabbed the zombie. The skeleton art of fighting didn't waste any time.
John would match that energy with his own and he didn't think that swords would cut it. Swordsmanship required practice and experience, and those things eat up a lot of time. So John wanted his own version of efficiency. He would create the most lethal hand weapon he knew. The stick. John's recalls a poem from his old world that went within the lines of,
"what is a sword if not a sharp stick,
what is an axe if not a sharp headed stick,
what is a spear if not a long pointy stick,
what is a club if not a fat stick,
what is a nunchuck if not two sticks tied to each other,
what is a gun if not a meticulously crafted item containing multiple parts that allows the activation of the gunpowder within a hollow chamber ejecting a tiny metal stick,
What is a morningstar if not a spiky ball attached to a stick."
All in all, the stick was a supreme weapon. And John would make a stick capable of defeating a skeleton swordsman. He thought about the skeletons, they were masters of their art and capable of dodging close attacks. John started crossing off weapons in his head.
The double edged sword wouldn't work since its shape was designed for stabbing and hacking. A skeleton would not be affected by stabbing since it didn't have any flesh, hacking it with a sword would be less efficient than hacking it with an axe since the force is less concentrated.
axes delivered the most force per square inch since it focuses momentum and weight in its axe head. It would be good for fleshy targets with weakpoints but ineffective to a much more agile and experienced swordsskeleton.
Spears, poles, sabres and other weapons were crossed out until only one stick remained, the fat stick. A club was an inexperienced man's best friend, it was where he might score a lady and lose his virginity and it was the ancient man's weapon against other beasts. Truly a powerful stick.
Of course John didn't want the generic ooga booga stick with a simplistic design. John wanted something that matched his metal darklord armor so it definitely had to be made of iron. the handle was thick enough for the tips of his thumb and middle finger to touch when he held it. He adorned the handle in grooves than ran across it for better grip and at the bottom was a flat bottomed pummel.
Head was shaped like a giant lantern, hollow in the middle. The hollow feature would make it more aerodynamic while adding speed to weight without compromising John when he stops the club's momentum. On four corners of the square where protruding spikes. The edges were extremely sharp allowing John to bash the enemy with the flat side and hack with the edges. The head was finished of with a point at the top if ever John decides to use it as a fat spear.
John created an improved version of the club, a mace. He ran it through multiple reforgings and "crafting tabling" until the mace was finalized. It generally looked the same except for the torch he added inside that would act as a cool design and possibly burn the enemy. The mace weighed about 200 kg and was a head smaller than John. The mace head was about .7 meters wide or three feet wide. A brutal weapon for a brutal looking John. Hurling the massive blunt weapon on his shoulder, John immidiately went to the overworld. Bohk was still in the island carefreely hunting small fishes in the beach traps.
After a short time of sneaking above the trees, John finally found a solo skeleton minding its own business. John ran towards it without entering its range of aggresiveness and built a dome for them to fight on. The skeleton just stood there, stepping around for a bit while John finished his dirt enclosure.
The fight began with John placing his foot within the three meter range of of the skeleton. The skeleton looked the Iron beast infront of it and raised its sword while taking a stance.
The silence made the beating of John's heart louder. Suddenly the skeleton sped towards John and stabbed its sword towards the eye slits in his helmet. John's reaction time was hone during his matches with the zombies so the moment the skeleton moved John backed away and swung his mace diagonally upwards.
John's angle of attack would make it difficult for the skeleton since it was targeting the right side of its body where its sword arm was raised towards Johns eyes. In one second the skeleton engaged John and John backed of the next half second John swung his mace and hit the skeleton.
The battle ended within two seconds, the victory going to John. The mace proved its mettle as a hard hitting weapon. There was no chance of dodging such a large object at such a fast speed. The result was a broken down skeleton smashed against the dirt dome. A one hit wonder. John was feeling so accomplished that he started roleplaying out of nowhere,
"Muwahaha, infront of supreme power! Technique is worthless" His deep voice reverbing under his helmet.
Although John was right with his words he didn't know the specifics of what he did. In the short half second he smashed his mace towards the skeleton he managed to produce enough force to split a car in two.
John went out the dirt dome and started massacring spiders and zombies that he saw before retreating when he noticed that the enemies were multiplying rapidly. He went back to the island while humming self composed tone he made. He found Bohk sleeping beside the throne with a bloated stomach. John laughed at his chicken, thinking that it was addicted to the island's fishes.
Tommorow John would use the bones as a fertilizer for the sapplings he planted in the island.
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"Hey Vell, can you help me with this spirit contract theory..." a white haired preteen girl said while furrowing here eyebrows at the paper infront of her.
The Person she was talking to was sitting at a desk facing a window while writing something in it. Vell, looked at hear roomate/friend who was holding a paper above her face while she layed on her bed. Sighing she replied with a tired tone,
"You know, for a Grent you seem oddly slow at understanding things"
*gasp* "my family has nothing to do with my stupidity, now help me and I shall excuse this offense" The white haired girl said with a faked tone of superiority.
Her friend just laughed and asked her friend what she didn't understand.
"Well, it says the prevailing theory of spirit sources is ethero imprint. I don't know what ethero imprint means" The Grent girl said.
"Hmmm... Ethero imprint is when a creature manages to express it's will directly in the ambient ethero without channeling it through its body. Ethero manipulation relies on the body channeling and intent to affect physical matter. An ethero imprint skips the channeling part and jumps to the 'affecting matter part'. The Spirit source theory implies that spirits are former creatures that affected reality without using their bodies that the ethero shapes itself to the creature's will even after it is dead" Vell explained.
"So the creature had such a strong will that the ethero is still shaped in the form of the creature's will. Is that why most spirits are nonexistent creatures and sillhouetes of humans?"
"Yes, that is what the teacher said. In some cases the ethero reflecting the will of the dead creature develops it's consciousness and creates a domain. However, cases like these are rare. Spirits that are usefull are not many and the stronger one's capable of making a domain are even rare. The biggest domain ever found only had a radius of 10 meters" Vell added more details to the conversation they were having. Her friend had a habit of missing details so she had to elaborate now rather than later.
"Man, why are we even learning about this. Its not like spirits are even that usefull!" the spoiled Grent protested.
"You're definitely adopted, They're teaching us this just in case we come across a spirit. The weakest spirits take of 1% of your channeling speed and your grandfather has one capable of taking away 15%. If you met a spirit and you fail to contract with it you would be a colossal waste of resources." a reprimanding tone came out of the girls mouth.
"Ok ok, you don't have to be so mad" The Grent girl said softly "It's not easy to communicate with a spirit since they speak in an unknown language, not all spirit encounters are succesful"
"that's why contracts were made, intent communication and bond forming matrices were placed in daemos leather. Allowing for better communication and easier friendships" the Black haired girl spoke in her monotone voice.
"Haha you sounded just like those guys from the association advertising their new inventions"
"....the contract was made by them..."
"..ah.."