His ears couldn't help but perk up at the sound of growling. He couldn't be sure if it was the zombie underneath the other or if the zombie he presumably killed was still alive.
"Argh, fucking damn it!" Noah roared out in pain when he felt two hands attempting to dig into his ribs. He wasn't that dumb not to know who it was that was trying to tear at his insides.
Thankfully, due to the huge increase in his constitution, his skin was much tougher than before; otherwise, the zombie would have had an easy time digging into his skin. He was only left with two options: retreat or finish the job before the zombie's hands ripped through his flesh.
From what Noah could tell, he only needed less than an inch more to push through the zombie's face to end it. He still didn't have enough strength in his shoulder to use both arms to finish the job. In order to gain the strength he needed, he decided to reactivate his skill 'Killing Instincts' to the max for the extra 25%, raising his strength by three, which gave him enough strength to plunge the bat the rest of the way to finish the job.
Ironically, after going into his killing trance, his body uncaringly used his injured arm while ignoring the pain to push the bat cleanly through the zombie's face.
It would take some time to remove the bat from the zombie's face, which Noah would not allow while he was under the influence of his skill. Instead, he stood up on the dead zombie while the one under it was still stuck underneath. His weight, combined with the other zombie's corpse, prevented the zombie from getting out of its current predicament. In the end, he couldn't prevent it from trying to reach him with its arms, searching aimlessly around the body of the zombie atop it.
Using this opportunity, Noah launched himself into the air using the dead zombie as a spring. Lifting both of his legs parallel to his hips at his highest momentum, he slammed down with full force into the zombie's skull. An audible crack sounded in the room at the same time the zombie's head snapped back with a strong thud to the ground.
With no target left to kill, the effects of the skill soon wore off, leaving Noah catching his breath not only from fatigue but also from the intense exhilaration of the seemingly never-ending carnage he just went through. Even though this is what he wanted, his body still needed time to keep up with his warped mind.
"He huffed…Huff…"
He looked toward his bitten shoulder and then his ribs. He couldn't help but look at the two recently dead zombies annoyingly. "Stupid zombies…" Then he looked forward to the small piles of zombies with crushed skulls that he barely remembered killing. It all felt like a dream, but instead, he was just a bystander watching everything go by.
"Fucking skill! How could you be so OP yet nerfed at the same time?"
Noah huffed some more as he slowly walked to retrieve his hammer, dragging it as he walked over and sat on the bed to catch his breath. He soon began to recollect his thoughts and go over what had occurred. He took on more than he could handle from the very beginning. As a fanatical reader of apocalypse stories and stories revolving around game characters, he knew it was best to grind levels with small groups of monsters instead of doing what he just did unless he had a death wish. But then again, he knew that he just pulled the short end of the stick. He didn't know, well at least didn't think, that changing into a chimera would be so painful.
'Well, at least now I know that I shouldn't rely completely on 'Killing Instincts'. It's an OP skill, but I could've taken my time in the beginning, slowly killing the zombies instead of power-hacking every single one and wasting strength. 'Sigh'… I really need to find a proper build path for myself.'
He relooked over his stats again and thought about what stat would've been most useful in the previous fight while also planning ahead for when he finally gets his tamed creature. According to the skill 'Monster Taming', he can only obtain one contracted creature, and his experience points would essentially be cut in half since he would have to share them with his creature, which made him even more picky about choosing his first tamed monster.
"If I have to have a monster leech off of me, then it better be a cool-looking monster or one that's easy on the eyes, not a random zombie dude.
'For now, I'll just take my time and level up as much as I can before then, so I wouldn't mind if my monster starts receiving my experience afterwards. Until then, maybe I should go with a DPS (damage dealer) build… I don't have someone to support me, so having more points in strength could help me not have to rely on anyone if I go up against a monster that's harder to take down. Then again, having more agility would be nice as well since I don't have anyone I need to protect; I can always run away at the first sight of danger and fight the battles I can win to get stronger. Sigh, this is frustrating.'
He held his head as if thinking was causing him pain. This was a hard decision for him since he isn't given a second chance to redo his stats nor does he have a second life.
Relooking at his status panel, he looked through his skills and level growth instead of his stats again to get a better idea of his options, and after looking through them, he was glad that he made the decision to do so.
"With the added bonus of my constitution and high spirit, I could be considered kinda tanky right now, no? Well, that zombie was still able to take a nice chunk out of me, but it couldn't bite through my bone, or at least I hope not. I'll let leveling up take care of my constitution for now while I increase everything else."
After making his decision, he returned to his status to increase his agility by two and his strength by three. Looking at his stats now, he was satisfied with his decision. He wasn't worried about saving points for a tough situation; that's what his skill 'Killing Instincts' was for.
Attributes
Strength:15->18(19)
Agility:12->14(15)
Constitution:22(23)
Stamina:20->25(26)
Magic:17(18)
Spirit:40(42)
Nodding his head after looking at his stats, his eyes sparkled when he remembered the second most important aspect besides leveling up, and that was obtaining the loot.
He quickly gazed around the room to see if there would be a bunch of wooden chests around the area. Instead of what he assumed he would find, he was welcomed by another sight that did not disappoint.
Instead of the previous wooden chest, what appeared this time was a chest made out of bronze. Just from this alone, Noah could at least decipher that bronze was a step up from wood, which means… better drops. Apprehension tugged at his heart as he made his way towards the chest that lay next to the last zombie he killed, yet when he finally approached, he frowned while in thought.
'Does this mean that the chest collects the drops from all the monsters around, or do I actually have such shitty luck that out of so many zombies only one dropped loot? No, no, that can't be…'
Before he opened up the chest, he looked upwards as if he was communicating with the being in charge of everything that's happened.
"If I offended you in any way, just know that I'm sorry, but please, PLEASE! You have to play fair!"
After pleading with the powerful being, his excitement returned as if he succeeded in his plea. He bent towards the chest to obtain its contents with eager eyes. Just like last time, he made sure not to open it too quickly since he believed that's why he was so lucky to obtain a weapon before. What Noah doesn't know is that everyone who killed their first zombie received a weapon of some kind.
Continuing to open the chest, he noticed two objects while the chest wasn't fully opened: a big pile of gold and something glowing. After seeing the glow, his curiosity immediately peaked and he shoved open the chest to verify what it was, only to be surprised that the glow and gold weren't all the contents, which further added to his anticipation and curiosity.
The first thing he did was to check everything else and to save the glowing orb for last since it was common that the best things in these situations should be first or last.
Looking into the chest, other than the gold and the glowing orb, there was also a steel dagger and a sheet of paper. Rather than just a sheet of paper, it was similar to parchment that was seemingly made out of wool.
Noah wasn't very interested in the dagger, but that didn't stop him from hoarding it either. Just like in his last battle, it could've come in handy if he lost his weapon or was too tired to swing his heavy hammer. But imagine the surprise he experienced when he read the parchment's contents.
Jonathan Bell
Player: Jonathan Bell
Race:Human
Class: Knight
Lvl 1
Ex: ?
Health: ?
Stamina: ?
Mana: ?
Attributes
Strength:?
Agility:?
Constitution:?
Stamina:?
Magic: ?
Spirit:?
Skills
Warriors Aptitude(lvl 0)
Rodeleros(lvl 0)
Do you wish to roll for a character skill?
It didn't take a genius to realize that the parchment was the status panel of one of the dead zombies who managed to obtain their class before being infected. What confused Noah about the situation was why only one person dropped a skill and not the others, but like all games, he could only pinpoint one thing.
"Fucking drop rates! Of course, you would add that as well… But… I'm sorry, Jonathan, just know that you died for a good cause… probably. And yes, I'll roll for the skill!"
He mentally confirmed to roll for the skill, which for Noah was a very exciting moment, but it turns out that actually rolling for the skill wasn't as grand as he thought it was. Not even a second later and it was already over.
[Skill Rodeleros confirmed, would you like to learn it?]
'What, just like that? No special effects or actually rolling for it? And I don't even get the best skill? Hey, I said I didn't want to be the protagonist, but this isn't what I meant.'
Sigh… calm down, maybe this skill is good too, I don't even know what it means.' Noah tried to console himself while he focused more on the skill to find out what it does.
Rodeleros – Or shield bearer, focuses on the art of using a shield effectively. It enhances the durability of any wielded shield, increasing the amount of damage the shield can withstand and mitigate.
Noah blinked in confusion as he read the skill once again.
'You get to pick a skill and you choose this? You don't even start with a weapon and you choose a skill you might not even get to use? No wonder you died so fast.'
He had once pitied the fellow, but after witnessing the skill he chose, he could only shake his head in contempt. He saw it as another example of someone who believed they were the main character and would receive exactly what they wanted when they needed it. Noah himself had once entertained similar thoughts when he obtained the species change, but he soon realized that many others could achieve significant rewards if they took the initiative, just like him. While he wasn't going to be overly prideful or believe he was better than everyone else, he remained determined to become one of the strongest, no matter what sacrifices he had to make.
After returning his attention back to the skill, he decided not to accept it and hold onto it for now. He remembered the novels he read; usually, there was a skill limit for how many you can learn, but he didn't believe it would be the same this time around, but better safe than sorry, right?
Now that he got the other items out of the way, he was finally able to turn his attention to the glowing orange orb.