Making their way down the stairs, Ba'al asked, "John, you got a skill for killing the zombies right? What was it?"
Looking up John said, "I got the 1st Order: Holy Aura (Passive) skill. I got it after killing the first one, and it made the other zombie move more slowly. I think undead are weak to Holy skills or something. What skill did you get?"
As they made it to the first floor Ba'al answered, "I got the 1st Order: Basic Mana Manipulation (Passive) skill. It has a few subskills that help me understand how magic and other things work. As soon as we get somewhere safe I'll see if I can teach you some of it." Going outside, they saw that most of the chaos that they had seen previously had dissipated.
"Okay, let's head to the McHale Center now." John quickly took the lead as they made their way down the street. As they went, a few zombies tried to get them, but between John's Holy Aura and their teamwork, they easily dealt with the few they encountered.
'You have killed a Lvl.3 zombie
'For killing a Lvl.3 zombie you have gained Health+2 Stamina+3
'You have killed a Lvl.3 zombie. You have levelled up!
'For killing a Lvl.3 zombie you have gained Health+1 Stamina+1
Looking around, Ba'al noticed a small orb that was a dark red color. Picking it up, he got a message.
'You have found your first item! Items follow the colors found in a rainbow with 3 stages per color. You have found a dark red item, or a low-tier normal item. Crush the orb and you will receive the item within.'
"John, check this out real quick." Ba'al tossed the orb over to John as he found another dark red one under another zombie. While John read the info about the orbs, Ba'al went ahead and crushed the second one. With a flash of light, a small dagger appeared in Ba'al's hand.
'Silver Dagger: Small dagger that is effective against therians and undead. Strength+3, Agility+2 Extra damage against undead and land-based therians. (Low-tier Normal)
Twirling the dagger, Ba'al turned back to John to see that he had gotten a spear from the orb. "Like the new weapon?" John smirked as they began on their way to the Athletic Center once again. His smirk disappeared as they passed crashed cars and bloody corpses though. Some cars had rammed into buildings, some had flipped in the street, while others were burning or had even exploded. It hadn't even been a full hour since all of this had begun, yet there was nothing but destruction everywhere. How much of a tragedy would there be in a day? A week? What about in a month?
"We are almost there, have you seen anyone?" Ba'al asked, looking around and seeing a few zombies in the distance. Making their way over, they made quick work of the zombies with their new equipment.
"I've seen a few people in the distance, but most of them were heading away from where we were. That's the Center right there, let's get in!" John answered, wiping the blood off of his blade.
As they made their way to the Athletic Center, they noticed that most of the doors were blocked off. Walking around the building, they noticed a group of people fighting against a bunch of zombies. Well, rather than a group versus another group, it was more like 2 people protecting the rest of them.
"Ba'al, let's go! they won't last too long with only the 2 of them against the all of those zombies!" John shouted as he and Ba'al charged into the fray.
'Physique Enhancement!' Ba'al started burning through his Mana as he wove between the zombies, stabbing them in the eyes or slashing off limbs while John made use of his spear and Holy Aura to weaken them and then decapitate them.
The 2 fighters from the group were also doing well against the zombies. One of them had waist length silver hair and she was chanting something to herself under her breath. As she chanted, a teal light crested off of her in a gentle manner. Every so often, it would condense into small pikes or knives and shoot off into the zombies, sometimes taking 2 with a single attack.
The other fighter was defending her while she chanted. She had long Black hair and wielded a short sword with quite a bit of skill. She didn't move forward into the zombies and only protected the other woman. Her movements were a blur even to Ba'al's enhanced eyes. Each time she struck, a zombie fell.
As the battle dragged on, Ba'al stopped enhancing his body because he wanted to recover some of his Mana in case of an emergency. As such, he had to back out from the middle of the zombies, lest he be overrun.
After about another 10 minutes, they had wiped out the last of the zombies. Trying to catch his breath, Ba'al looked over at the black haired woman. As he did so, he saw a shadow appear behind her. Quickly enhancing himself as much as he could, he dashed right over to her, pushing her to the side and blocking the attack with his knife. When the attack landed though, the force of it easily brought Ba'al to one knee. He saw a man with sickly purple skin, one bladed arm, and a distended stomach. The bladed arm was what Ba'al had blocked, but it pressed hard against him and dug into his shoulder. Even with his increased strength, which was over double that of the average man, he was not even close to stopping it completely!
"Ba'al!" John yelled as he sprinted over, swinging his spear at the creature, which jumped back, creating some distance. "Are you alright?" He asked, not taking his eyes of the monstrosity in front of him.
Joining John were the 2 women who were previously protecting the group of survivors who were now opening the doors to the gymnasium and making their way inside. "What is this thing?" The black haired lady remarked. "It looks like it was human, but what happened?"
'Her voice sounds almost like a bell, but it seems more natural, like how a bell would sound if it was naturally made, not one made by humans.' Ba'al thought as he looked at her. 'Her ears are quite pointed, is she human?'
Suddenly, the creature charged at the group. Jumping in front, the black haired woman parried the thing's arm, throwing it off balance as teal pikes of energy shot at it. It was able to deflect 2 of the pikes, but the third hit, pinning its foot to the ground. Just as it was pinned, John charged at it with his spear, clashing with the monster as the black haired woman slashed it across the chest. Grey blood sprayed from the wound, and the creature wailed in agony. Freeing its foot, it smacked both the lady and John away as Ba'al appeared behind it, slashing its sword arm off before getting kicked into the side of the building. As it tried to run, several teal lances skewered its body and it fell. At the same time, the silver haired woman's chanting stopped, and she fell to her knees.
'You have killed a Lvl.15 mutated human. You have levelled up!