As a crowd numbering around 300 was nearing the staircase to the bottom floor, they were stopped by one man who stood at the front alongside two others.
It was Everette, Jack and Amelia.
Everette looked back towards the mass of people.
"I will be going down by myself." This decision caused an uproar among them.
"What!? You can't be serious!"
"What if you don't come back?!"
"Yeah! What would happen to us then?!"
Everette facepalmed; annoyed about the stupid decision they made half an hour ago.
'Why did they have to make me leader...?'
***
*Flashback*
"I think you should be the leader, Everette."
While Everette was still pondering on how to make his plan of securing a path for them to get to the Chapel. Jack approached from the side with a smile.
"HUH! Why should I?!" Everette responded, not wanting to take responsibility for all of them if he became leader.
Jack shrugged with a carefree expression.
"You're a lot stronger than us, plus! I believe you were made for the apocalypse, for some reason."
Everette gave him a strange look.
'Is this dude crazy or something?'
"I-I think you would be a great leader, Everette!" Amelia stuttered but still made her point clear.
"Not you too...", Everette's arm drooped in defeat.
He sighed before turning to the masses and calling out to them.
"Hey! How do you guys feel if I take over the role of leader for a bit?"
The mass was mainly made up of men while there were a few girls here and there.
'Seems like some people completely disregard the rule of no opposite gender in a dorm.'
The majority of them shrugged and agreed while there were some a bit hesitant. They eventually gave in though, after remembering Everette - alongside Jack and Amelia - was the one that saved them.
*End Of Flashback*
***
'And because of that, I'm the leader of this bunch.'
Everette sighed after thinking about how heavy my shoulders had gotten.
'Stat gate' Everette realised that just saying it in his head was enough to make it appear.
***
[ Name: Everette Garden ]
[ Level: 6 ]
[HEALTH: 170 / 170 ]
[MANA: 100 / 100 ]
[STAMINA: 83 / 85 ]
[ Titles: None ]
[ Classes: None ]
[ STRENGTH: 15 ]
[ VITALITY: 17 ]
[ DEXTERITY: 18 ]
[ SPEED: 15 ]
[ MANA: 10 ]
[ WISDOM: 15 ]
[ DEFENSE: 0 ]
[ Stat Points: 0 ]
***
He was able to kill enough Infected Humans to achieve 4 extra levels, even though the XP he gained was a third of what he would've gotten he was still pretty happy about it.
Looking towards the crowd he began to try and ease worries.
"Don't worry! You still have Jack and Amelia to protect you but you all also have weapons just in case. Don't forget, we aren't babysitters."
{"VainValor left the [Party]"}
After saying that, Everette left the party he had with Jack and Amelia. He ventured down the staircase until he reached the end of it and walked around a corner.
'The bottom floor, I wonder what kind of monster resides on this floor—'
The sound of chewing and squishing of flesh sounded out.
*Growl...*
A figure on four legs chowed down on the muscular corpse of an Infected Human.
{"Level 10 Mutated Dog"}
"..."
'A MUTATED!?'
He immediately hid back around the corner and rested his back up against the wall. Everette began to panic.
'I'm going up against a Mutated so early!?'
He tried to calm down his breathing.
Everette carefully peered around the corner and began analysing it. It was around 1-2 meters big with powerful-looking legs.
He looked down at its claws and began to sweat a bit. They were about 4-5 inches long.
The dog had various parts of its body without fur and only bite marks to show for it. Its fur and skin were grey and on its back had four sharp, bony appendages coming out of its spine. They were all about 74-75 cm long and probably 7-8 cm wide.
"Gulp" Everette gulped after imagining what sort of harm it might cause to a human body.
The beast then immediately turned its head to Everette's general location. It then got up from its meal and began moving towards him.
"This is such a cliche..." Everette cursed at the fact it was a cliche way for him to be found.
"Imprint Gate"
***
[Imprints]
[Infected Amped Bee's, Metal Spear {Tier 1}]
{"Would you like to summon this [Imprint]?"}
***
Everette realised that, after letting Jack and Amelia take care of the Infected Humans for a while, he was able to store his [Imprint] and bring it back out whenever he wanted.
It does require him to use his mana to bring it forth into reality though.
A blue cloud then exited through his hand before taking shape and solidifying into the familiar metal shaft and the fuzzy handle. The blue cloud of mana then began coalescing to the tip of the spear.
The Mana then began to take shape to form the bee stringer that was magically welded on the tip of the shaft.
*Scrape...*
The dog's claws scratched away the carpet flooring to reveal the concrete underneath. Each step it took left claw marks on the flooring.
"*Deep Breath* Heh... Let's begin our duel shall we?" After Everette said that, as if understanding his words, it leapt at him with its claws stretched out in front of it.
It raised its left paw before swinging it down on him.
Everette sidestepped out of the way. The air from its pounce blew into his face.
It landed on the wall before jumping off of it towards him again. It went for a bite this turn but Everette avoided it again.
Landing back on its feet, it began to circle him.
'I gotta start countering soon...'
As if on cue, the dog launched itself at him again before curling into a ball and revealing its sharp bone appendages.
Seeing that Everette was about to be impaled, he stabbed his spear into its back while trying to avoid its spikes.
The dog yelped before twisting its back and bending his spear.
'Uh oh...'
Everette let go of his spear and hopped back to put space between them.
It got back up to its feet. The bent spear still lodged in its back.
Everette raised his fists.
'Let's just hope my strength stat is enough.'
The dog dashed towards Everette viciously like a bull. When it neared him, it suddenly rotated its head to the side and opened its jaw - trying to get a bite out of him.
*BAM!*
Using his right hand, Everette gave a strong uppercut to its head - causing it to lift several inches off the ground. Following up on that hit, Everette's left hand formed a fist and drove it into its side.
Everette could feel his fist stretch inside the dog's body before it was launched away followed by a loud muffled—
*—BAM!*
The dog was thrown several meters away from Everette. It bounced along the ground a couple of times before spinning in mid-air and landing on its legs.
*Growl...*
With a deep growl, the dog sprinted towards Everette again.
It then pounced at him and swung its right paw down at him. Everette ducked under its swipe and sidestepped to its right side.
Seeing that a portion of its back was exposed to him; he yanked out his spear with his right hand and activated its ability while simultaneously jabbing at its frontmost bone spike appendage.
The added speed from ["A Bee's Tenacity"], was all it took to get close to the small gap between his fist and the appendage.
*Crack! Snap!*
*Whimper!*
The dog then slid on the ground due to its leap before shakily getting up. Its whimper then turned to a deep growl. It bared its teeth more viciously.
Everette then shook his hand at how it was before picking up the bone spike. Holding it in his left, He began to taunt it.
"Oh~? It seems like you dropped something here, buddy. Want it back?"
Everette had a large, mocking, shit-eating grin plastered on his face.
This only seemed to piss it off more because it began to radiate a green and blackish aura.
"...T-this was a mistake..."
The feeling coming from this aura felt similar to mana in a way yet wasn't and instead felt more malevolent and corrupt rather than the calm and soothing sensation from mana.
The aura then condensed itself around its legs.
*BANG!*
"*Puah!*... Agh..." The dog immediately blasted off like a bullet - its movements blurred in the eyes of Everette.
Everette was launched several meters and crashed into a wall.
"*Cough! Cough!*" Everette began coughing up blood. He turned his attention towards his health bar.
[HEALTH: 170 - > 38 / 170]
"W-what the hell was that...?"
His vision became blurry.
'I probably hit the back of my head again.'
Everette tried to push himself up off the floor using his left arm.
'I can't move it? but I can still feel it—'
"H-huh..."
He looked towards where his left arm should be and found that—
"W-where is my arm...?"
It was not there and he was suddenly assaulted with a quick, sharp, and excruciating pain.
"AAAAH! WHERE IS MY ARM!?"
Everette was then overcome with the shock of losing his arm. The world around him seemed to slow down as he held onto his stump and tried to stop the bleeding.
'I-Im get dizzy.'
"Agh..." Due to the excruciating pain, the only thing that was able to leave out of his mouth were gasps and cries.
He then looked up and saw his arm in the maw of the beast.
The dog set it down and began taking large bites out of it. Wet sounds and cracking of the bone began to echo out on the bottom floor.
'I-it's eating my arm...'
{" Level 11 Mutated Wolf"}
Everette began to hyperventilate.
'Im gonna die... IM GONNA DIE! IM GONNA DIE! IM GONNA DIE! IM GONNA DIE! IM GONNA DIE! IM GONNA DIE!'
Everette mind was then overwhelmed with fear and panic. He could feel that death was breathing down his neck. A chill went up his spine.
After the beast swallowed the last morsel of his arm, began to radiate the same energy used to deal the devastating damage to Everette.
Everette tried to stand up but his body refused. The bent spear in his right hand, understanding that its host was in danger, drained mana from Everette again and activated its ability.
Everette, feeling that his body was now willing to listen to him, got up off the wall and ran out of the way.
*BANG!*
A dust cloud then rose and covered where the dog impacted.
*Growl...*
The dog walked out with a small dent in its head. It let out a deep growl. It was so pissed off by the human that it no longer felt the pain from the dent in his skull.
'W-What do I do!? I got too cocky! Do it alone? DO IT ALONE, MY ASS!'
The dog began to move the green and black aura towards its legs again.
'Could I replicate that with mana?' Everette's brain began going into overdrive to counter the dog's threatening charges.
Deciding that it was either that or die, he began to try and bring out the blue cloud that is mana.
Instead of the gas he expected, it came out in the form of a blue viscous liquid. It covered covered his entire body. As Everette was gazing at this in awe until a gut-wrenching impact was delivered onto his stomach.
*BANG!*
The force caused him to drop his spear while also flying off.
"Agh...!" The dog launched him into the wall again but... He was not dead?
He checked his health bar again.
[ HEALTH: 38 - > 14 / 170 ]
'D-did it save me?' Everette gazed at the Mana coating his body.
Getting up to his feet, he began focusing on controlling his mana.
*BANG!*
The dog shot towards him again but out of instinct - he swung his fist.
The Mana covering his entire body began coalescing around his arm and suddenly solidified from his fist to his forearm.
It became some sort of translucent blue gauntlet.
Using every strength he could muster, he swung his arm. It resulted in his punch connecting with the head of the dog with a loud BAM followed by a crunch.
*WHIMPER!*
The force of my punch launched it several meters away. It was staggered; in shock that the seriously injured human was able to deal such a blow while standing near death's door.
Everette gazed at the damage he inflicted then directed his gaze toward his gauntlet
"Kuk... Kuhahaha... KUHAHAHAHAHA!"
"I'M A GENIUS! A GENIUS ON THE VERGE OF DEATH!"
Everette laughed maniacally out of joy before looking towards his Mana bar to check how much juice he had left.
[MANA 60 - > 55 / 100]
A sadistic grin appeared on his face.
It was time for a comeback.
*
*
*
*
*
*
"Let's begin round two, shall we? YOU DAMN MUTT!"