He probably would've broken out in a dance if he wasn't in his mind space. Not only did he find out he wasn't going to die, but he also benefited from his recent 'bad luck'.
[Body has fully transitioned into that of a Chimera, skill 'Genetic Synergy' obtained.
Genetic Synergy - allows you to incorporate your genetic makeup with another species, gaining their strengths and sometimes their weaknesses.]
His mind buzzed with the implications of the skill "Genetic Synergy." The prospect of the skill was both exhilarating and daunting. On one hand, it offered the potential for incredible power, the ability to transcend the limitations of his own humanity. But on the other hand, it carried the risk of unforeseen consequences, of losing himself in the process of assimilating with another species.
Yet despite the uncertainty, Noah couldn't ignore the allure of Genetic Synergy. It spoke to his desire for strength, for evolution, and for becoming something greater than he ever thought possible. And in a world overrun by zombies and chaos, such power could mean the difference between life and death. With his new sense of purpose, he continued to look forward through the notifications.
User has been contaminated by a corrupted substance. Due to 'Birth of the Chimera,' the user has now incorporated the corrupted blood and has now remodified his body traits.
Merge is completed! Host attributes and growth rate have been modified due to the synergy of zombie genes detected. New traits and skills have been achieved.
Growth rate added: +1 constitution, +1 magic per level.
Additional skills have been obtained as well as the new additional title of 'The Fallen One'.
Passive, Stamina Regeneration (lvl 0) gained - permanently restore an extra 1% stamina per 5 mins.
Passive, Immortal Body (lvl 0) gained - permanently increases all base attributes by 5 percent.
Active skill acquired, Killing Instinct (lvl 0) - Similar to Bloodlust, this skill allows you to give in to your instinct to kill. Activating it grants a temporary boost to your body's attributes, but at the cost of your sanity and spirit. The stat boost ranges from 5-25 percent, determined by the amount of sanity lost. Simultaneously, your spirit decreases by the same percentage of sanity lost during the skill's activation.
Title, The Fallen - losing more and more of your humanity, you have fallen to the point of no return while slowly achieving the body and mind of a true monster. Each step towards becoming a true monster Improves your instinctual affinity for magic.]
'Never in my life would I have thought I would say I'm glad I got infected by a zombie! I was even able to get abilities! But does this mean I'm now immune to being infected?
Ah, who cares right now! Let's just check the stats!' Noah didn't waste any time before he hurriedly and excitedly brought up his status.
Player: Noah
Race:Human->Human Chimera
Class: Monster Tamer
Lvl 1
Exp: 0/25->10/25
Health: 100%
Stamina:95%
Mana: 12/12->32/32
Attributes
Strength:11(12)->15(16)
Agility:13(14)
Constitution:14(15)->18(19)
Stamina:10(11)->20(21)
Magic: 5(6)->15(16)
Spirit:38(40)
Skills
Active
Monster taming(lvl 0)
Killing instinct (lvl 0)
Passive
Soul cage(lvl 0)
Hunters sight (lvl 0)
Stamina regeneration (lvl 0)
Immortal body (lvl 0)
Genetic Synergy(lvl 0)
Titles
The Fallen
Witnessing the overload of information, Noah subconsciously squeezed his fist to ascertain his newfound strength only to discover that he couldn't tell the difference.
He didn't know that when his body was being broken down and made anew that his body was also being acclimated to the changes that occurred rendering it useless to sense any new changes.
Instead his thoughts were directed to his newly acquired skills, each one made him feel more empowered than before. That was until he actually noticed the negligible difference in his stats due to the skill 'immortal body'.
'Why did I think that 5% would make any difference to my stats?'
The fact that the skills' name sounded more imposing than all the others while giving lackluster results was enough to cause him to needlessly complain. However when he remembered that the skills were only level zero, he was motivated even more to upgrade all of his skills to increase his strength.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Interrupted from his thoughts by the sudden pounding, a sense of urgency began to swell within him when he realized he still hadn't solved his problem from earlier. He still has yet to figure out what to do about a weapon since he subconsciously sabotaged his present one.
"Shit…." He swore out loud before looking at the broken bat that was now lying on the floor in the puddle of blood.
"Well I guess I could still maybe use it…I mean they are only zombies for crying out loud…Although that's only if I'm really immune to being infected. I'll never know if too much of their infections would actually overpower my Chimera trait and kill me."
Quickly trying to weed through his options available to him at this time, he then began to roam his eyes throughout the room hoping that maybe he would spot something of use since he still had the observation skill that always seemed to be active.
'Huh?'
Not really believing he would find something just from a quick glimpse of his surroundings, yet what he did find left him bewildered, following with a confused chuckle escaping his lips.
"Ok this is definitely becoming too much…Class change, Status panel, attributes, zombies and now this? If there's a god who's behind this then he must be a man of great culture."
The object that Noah found that he would have never expected to see in this situation just happens to be a small chest laying beside the two zombies he killed. It wasn't just any chest otherwise he wouldn't have been flustered from its appearance, but the chest appeared to be a wooden chest you would normally obtain in a video game which was the cause of his surprise.
Noah had very little reason to suspect the chest to be dangerous nor did he second guess that this was still a dream. Even if it was a dream he could only wish to never wake up and enjoy his life for the first time.
For someone who was never given anything in life, he wasn't picky about what he would get but that didn't stop him from being curious. Slowly he opened the chest as if opening it too fast would cause the chest to become empty.
What he saw wasn't below his expectations, but more than anything it confused him. Inside the chest appeared to be a one handed double sided hammer and next to it laid three gold coins on the bottom. He wasn't confused much by the contents inside, it was when he pulled out the hammer that caused the confusion. The chest was only two feet long and a foot high yet when he retrieved the hammer, the hammer turned out to be large enough to be wielded with two hands, comparatively different from what he first considered.
The hammer was almost four feet long, the handle seemingly made of wood, but he couldn't determine the origins of it. Yet, he knew the wood wasn't normal just based on how hard the material appeared to be.
He held the hammer in both hands to get adjusted to the weight. Just holding the hammer made him feel as if he was given a burst of strength. 'Does equipment drops actually give stat bonuses!?
Diving into his mind space where he was able to check his stats, he tried to see if he was also able to check for equipment details, which he considered should be common in these situations. Alas, he was proven wrong. The solace he was given was the fact he could at least see his stats to tell which attributes were increased. His stats weren't high numbers, so he could instantly see that his strength went up by two points.
'Ok…so maybe I'm regretting not having that analysis skill right about now..'
If he had chosen that skill, then not only would he be able to view the stats and potential of monsters, but he would've also been able to see the information of his equipment. But how was he supposed to know that a chest filled with gear would appear out of thin air?
He wore a wry smile before peering back into the chest to retrieve the coins. At first, it felt normal for the coins to be part of the contents as he scooped up the money. However, after pondering, he realized what was wrong. Where was he supposed to spend it?
He wanted to get to the bottom of what the money was used for. Maybe he hadn't explored enough of his status, or maybe there was a shop option, but the noise behind the door suggested that he was out of time.
"Was this game made without tutorials? I didn't get time to learn anything!" He momentarily complained as he readjusted himself and made his way to the closest bed near the door. Even as he complained, he still adorned a smile on his face while stuffing the coins in his pockets.
"Well, who am I to complain? Just having the opportunity to have powers to fight monsters is the best thing I could ask for."
Bang!
As he dragged the bed over to the door, another impact was heard from the other side. Unlike his expectations of the door getting pushed off its hinges or the doorframe getting broken in, the zombies managed to puncture holes into the doors with bloody outstretched hands trying to claw their way through.
If there weren't so many of them trying to get in at one time, they may have been successful in making their way into the room. Instead, they constantly stumbled over themselves, which gave Noah enough time to finally move the bed in front of the door. He was amazed at how easily he dragged over the piece of furniture. The increase in his strength replayed in his mind. A crazed smile formed without him realizing it; the excitement was exhilarating. He couldn't help but fathom what was to come.
By the time he moved the bed, there were two holes big enough for the zombies to climb into. The speed at which they succeeded went unnoticed in Noah's eyes; he was too busy having distracted thoughts to truly think about what was transpiring. Movies and books made him believe that such a feat was natural, so he didn't realize the strength that would be needed to claw a hole into a door without impacted force.
As the zombies attempted to get through, one particular zombie had already penetrated through the hole far enough to allow its shoulders to pass through. It then began to clutch onto the bed to pull its body in faster. This action was enough to give Noah another shock.
'I'm not sure if these zombies actually have intelligence or they are doing that based on instincts. Heck! Maybe I should have my first tamed creature be a zombie if that's the case.' His eyes quickly pandered from the zombie in the door to the small group behind it before shaking his head.
'There's no time for that now, and besides, there was supposed to be a penalty if they died. I need to be smart about this.' After coming to a decision, his body began to fidget when he thought about the battle that was about to transpire. He could die, but the thought of killing zombies and gaining otherworldly strength outweighed that fear. His lifeless eyes finally flickered with a hint of life.
"GAME STARTTT!" He yelled out as he didn't bother to hide his excitement to what would be others' hell. He had no experience when it came to any kind of martial arts, but he had enough experience fighting where his instincts were enough to get him by in this situation. To him, he didn't need to know how to properly wield his weapon just to kill low-leveled zombies. They were his free experience to pave his way to strength.
The scene that transpired was familiar to the game of whack-a-mole. The zombies were taking turns shoving their heads through the door while Noah planted his hammer into their skulls, plastering their brain matter across the walls and onto himself. The first time brought about a surprise when his strike caused a skull to implode, bringing about more blood and gore to fling out onto himself than it should've.
Once again, he had to remind himself of his newfound strength as he clutched his hammer tighter than before to contain his eagerness.
Witnessing this, he couldn't help but think about his most enticing skill. If his sudden strength brought about this much satisfaction, then what about his skill? He still was unsure exactly how the skill would play out despite having the knowledge of using it. He decided to activate his killing instinct skill now, considering the fact that he felt relatively safe during this encounter against the supposedly slow zombies. It wasn't because he was just too eager to use the skill, not at all.
If it was before the Chimera changes, then the current scene would be a cause of alarm because even though he wasn't being bitten or scratched, small amounts of blood still managed to slip into his mouth. It was impossible to avoid with the amount of brain splatter filling the air as his hammer constantly swung with reckless abandonment, his breaths were labored with the amount of times he repeated his attack.
However, as the events continued to occur, you could find Noah still swinging away with an exhausting smile while occasionally licking away the scattered blood and savoring the taste without realizing his actions.
His eyes were dilated while seemingly being in a frenzied trance. Even though his body was beginning to slow, he still felt rejuvenated. It was as if every moment he satisfied his killing urges, he was given an extra dose of strength. Due to the skill killing instincts and the joy he was experiencing from gaining otherworldly strength, it easily slipped his mind that the increase in power was from leveling up. His mind was too far gone to understand that this meant he was losing himself more to his skill in order to gain more power.
Thankfully, this worked to his advantage as he was unaware of the amount of students that were turned into zombies wandering his current floor. He was unaware of the changes happening outside of his door, although pure chaos was occurring around the campus.
The students who could run had already escaped the vicinity of the dorm or were eaten and became wandering zombies looking to feed. Those that could fight were already beginning to form small groups to aid in their survival. Then there were the ones who managed to barricade their rooms and pray for help to come.
Out of every scenario, it still left Noah with his only choice of fighting every zombie that was attracted to his heart-wrenching screams from before.
Swing after swing, he continued to mow down the zombies with the same intensity as before, if not more. After he killed roughly 8 zombies that managed to climb through over their dead zombies compatriots, Noah then proceeded to move the end of the bed away from the wall to allow the door to fully open, since the zombies were no longer able to come through the gaping hole from before.
This may have seemed like a stupid decision on his part since he wasn't thinking about anything other than killing as much as he could, but the effects of killing instincts shouldn't be compared to the instincts of a mindless zombie. His body was instinctively finding a suitable situation to continue to kill as much as it could, which won't always be the smartest option but in the case of killing mindless zombies, the situation should be more than satisfactory.