"Hmm 'lesser cure wounds lvl 0'...It's disappointing that I can't heal myself but this is one of the best skills at the moment. What's the point of getting the best monster if it still dies!? At least with this I still have a chance of getting a decent monster and I can keep it alive..."
Noah muttered to himself, but before he chose the skill he looked over the last one that caught his eye."
Hunter's Sight (Level 0): You notice little details and patterns that others may overlook, some of which may prove useful to you. Additionally, your eyesight is improved, especially in regards to your dynamic vision, allowing you to better track objects in motion.
"Hmm… healing will help more when I have a creature, but would I be able to get one early enough? Hunter's Sight seems to be the best skill to preserve the early game, and maybe I can learn the heal spell later. Early start it is! To become strong, I must be able to survive first!" Noah decided, resolving to choose Hunter's Sight as his first skill.
Before Noah could take any further action after choosing his ability, he found himself abruptly ejected from the dark room and back in his dorm. Confusion washed over him as he realized that he had never left in the first place.
Anxiously scanning his surroundings, Noah's gaze settled on his roommates. He wondered if everything he had experienced had been a hallucination. However, his doubts were dispelled when he noticed the three roommates passed out, including Logan, who had been antagonizing him moments before. Another roommate was spasming on the floor, adding to the surreal scene.
A smile soon hung on his face towards this particular view. 'So it wasn't a dream!' He exclaimed inwardly, his emotions at an all time high. Now his only thoughts were wanting to test out what he could do. Although obtaining the skill gave him certain knowledge of how to use it, it doesn't mean he knows if it'll work, but then he remembered an important detail.
'How can I tame a monster without the monsters damnit?! And where's the stats? You can't have a class without also having stats, right?"
After all the stories he read, Noah felt it was only justified that they should be able to have some sort of stats panel in this situation. He furrowed his brows as he focused entirely on bringing up something that would be similar to a stats panel in a game.
'Wah!' Noah exclaimed when he was bombarded by the information he was searching for.
Player: Noah
Race:human(lower species)
Class: monster tamer
Lvl 1
Exp: 0/25
Health: 100%
Stamina: 100%
Mana: 10/10
Attributes
Strength:11
Agility:13
Constitution:14
Stamina:12
Magic: 5
Spirit:38
Skills
Active
Monster taming(lvl 0)
Passive
Soul cage(lvl 0)
Hunters sight (lvl 0)
Noah was startled to see some of the high numbers but he wasn't too shocked because he also had nothing to compare it to, but he could always try to make his own deductions.
"Normally in situations like this, the average stats would be ten so I would say my stats are a lot higher than what I expected them to be but the more I think about it the more it starts to make sense…"
"Working out can explain my above-normal strength and stamina, and my agility can only be explained by my reflexes that have been honed after all the fighting I had to go through. I guess that explains the constitution too… It's sad to say, but I've started to grow more resistant against being beaten, so that I was no longer bedridden as much as I used to be… Haaa…"
Noah became a little disheartened, reminiscing about the multiple times he was ganged up on and at the same time he missed those times. Even though they were some of his most painful moments, they were also the moments that brought the most substance to his mundane life.
As Noah pondered over his attributes, the only ones that left him perplexed were magic and spirit. Despite his knowledge from reading, he couldn't be certain about their exact effects, especially after witnessing how high his spirit was. Instead, he decided to focus on the individual words themselves, just as he had when choosing his class. To his expectations, descriptions of the words materialized in his mind.
Magic determines the strength of your magical abilities as well as determining your mana capacity. It's similar to strength but it is regarded only for magical abilities.
Spirit involves will power, and the comprehension ability in advancing personal skills. Having high spirit will empower your spells, no matter if they are attack, control or buff spells and it will lessen the potency of spells used against you or even negate some, if not most control abilities.
'So spirit is really important! And yet mine is so high?....wait! Willpower! I'm not ignorant enough to not see that my life was hell, I wanted to give up everyday but I held on...that could be related to willpower right? Ah, forget it! No matter, I'm content with my stats, this is my start at a better life...' Noah felt a surge of passion burning within him. He relished the fact that even his difficult life had brought him some form of benefit.
His inner thoughts were interrupted when the other three bodies in the room began to stir. Curious about their experiences, Noah gazed over in their direction, only to find his expression changing as his skill activated uncontrollably.
As Noah's passive ability, "Hunter's Sight," took effect, he noticed details he might have otherwise overlooked. He observed the hint of excitement in Dom's eyes as the larger roommate struggled to lift himself from his bed, and the brief moment of pain that flashed across Logan's face, likely from hitting his head when he passed out while standing. However, it was Jarred who caught Noah's attention the most.
His body was no longer twitching, however his skin now seemed a little paler than usual. Inspecting closer, Noah could spot abnormally black veins on his neck and arms, he swore that those black veins were pulsating.
'Fucking zombie?!' Noah's eye twitched at the sheer thought that someone could turn into a zombie without a source of contamination. A shiver went down his back at the idea that he could've been Jarred and have been none the wiser.
However, Noah's apprehension quickly turned to excitement. "If there are zombies, then that could only mean it really is an apocalypse!" A small grin spread across his face as he contemplated the prospect of facing more monsters with his newfound powers. His long-lost ambition was reignited, fueled by the fantasy stories he had read that mirrored the current situation.
While Noah was immersed in his own thoughts, Logan and Dom were having a different experience.
"What the hell was that? Ugh, Dom, did the same thing happen to you?" Logan asked as he slowly made his way to his bed, one hand still clutching his head where a bruise was beginning to swell.
Dom looked towards Logan questionably. "The same?" Dom contemplated briefly, his confusion was written entirely on his face before it immediately brightened. "Oh! Do you mean you also were able to obtain a class! I chose to be a knight! And I was able to get a skill too!" His excitement grew as he sat up in bed, but then he paused, his expression shifting. "Wait....So that wasn't a dream?"
'Grrr'
The two roommates fell silent, exchanging contemplative looks, until they heard a soft growl coming from Jarred's direction.
"Jarred? What's gotten into you? Ha! Don't tell me you chose some kind of beast class and forgot how to talk?" Dom joked, rising from his bed to check on his roommate. At this point, they paid no attention to Noah's situation, knowing it was futile to try and engage with him given their strained relationship.
They understood that the three of them alone wouldn't be able to coax anything out of him. Ever since his temperament changed after that day, they became unconsciously afraid. That's why they would only ridicule and never insult him, being mindful not to cross his bottom line.
Noah soon snapped out of his stupor to watch the show he believed was about to unfold, but while doing so, he reached for his worn-out bat that he 'borrowed' from the baseball team, soon to be scrapped bats.
His fascination with zombies and their behavior, as depicted in his stories, outweighed the little bit of humanity in him to care whether Dom died or not. He looked on, intrigued by the thought that the apocalypse he had been wishing for all this time was finally about to happen.
"WHAT THE FUC-AHHHH! G-GET OFFF MEEE!SO-sommm-gurgle*hel...."
Noah didn't have to wait long before hearing Dom's screams echoing through the air. When Dom leaned over Jared's bed to check on him, it took only a moment for Jared to lunge toward Dom's face, as if the smell of flesh enticed him to move faster than a normal movie zombie should.
Jared's sudden movement startled Dom. His first instinct wasn't to recognize Jared as a zombie, so seeing him approach his face made him instinctively tilt his head away, which only quickened his demise, making his neck an easy target.
The sound of flesh being bitten into and Dom's cries were the only things audible until Logan's terrified brain caught up with what was happening.
"D-Dom…..Jarred…what the fu-WHAT THE FUCK!"
As it seemed Dom took his last breath and his body finally went limp after all his struggles, Logan no longer hesitated. His only thought was to escape. He quickly jumped out of bed and ran out of the dorm room, yelling for help.
As quickly as he left the room, Noah, who had been witnessing the events, immediately frowned upon hearing the noises in the hallway. Hastily, he ran to the door to close it, glancing out briefly and witnessing the chaos unfolding.
Just like Dom's situation, there were other students who couldn't survive their first encounter with zombies. And, like Logan, many students had the same idea to flee. Cries, screams, banging doors—the noise continued to rage on the other side of the door.
If Noah had half a sane mind and feared death like the others, perhaps he would do the same, but a huge part of him wanted to know: What happens if you kill a zombie?