[CONGRATULATIONS]
[NEW FEATURE!]
[SPECIAL CLASS – "GLUTTON"]
[You are like a ravenous demon, for whom death is not the end, but the beginning. The hunger you cannot name drives you towards the power hidden within the dead bodies. Freshly slain, untouched by anyone's hunger, the remains are raw material – once per day, for 100 Soul Power points, you can transform them into a new skill.]
[Effects of the "Glutton" Special Class]
• If you acquire a body that has not had its Essence or Soul Power extracted, you can, by spending 100 Soul Power points, create a skill from it.
• Reinforced Body
• If you do not use the Glutton Class for too long, you begin to feel an overwhelming hunger.
• Killing and acquiring Essence is as important to you as eating and drinking; you experience a slight but constant hunger.
"Interesting…" Daniel said softly.
He glanced at his status window, seeing his Glutton Class above his statistics. He confirmed the information and processed it once more in his mind.
"Essence?" he said, questioning in his thoughts.
Hmm…?
He looked at his statistics:
[Strength - 5]
[Agility - 6]
[Endurance - 7.5]
[Intelligence - 3]
[Soul Power - 38.34]
He saw that his Strength had increased by one point, reaching a value of 5. He felt an immense power within him – the same power that the strongest people in the world possessed. His Agility also increased by one point, reaching 6; it had surpassed human limits. No living human could be as fast as him. At least, until yesterday, that would have been true.
Endurance increased by 2 points, reaching 5, but that wasn't all. Thanks to the bonus from the "Blood Heart" skill, his actual endurance was 7.5 – a value that might have seemed small, but in reality, it meant something terrifying. He was now a being who could endure 50% more effort than the most enduring humans who had ever existed. Moreover, his skin was no longer soft and vulnerable to damage – it now resembled leather armor, and his bones… he knew they had become stronger than ever before.
His physique became even more sculpted, every muscle tight and perfectly shaped. His face, already handsome, now looked almost unreal – as if fate itself had decided to create a man whose gaze was magnetic, and whose presence sparked unease. He was like a model, barely escaping the covetous looks… Though now, more than ever, he decided who looked at him and who turned away in fear.
"Not bad," he said.
Returning his thoughts to the description of his Class, he analyzed its properties. Essence. He didn't see it, didn't feel it, and the system didn't give any hints on how he might acquire it. And yet… it existed. It was as real as Soul Power, though unlike it, it remained beyond his reach.
On the other hand, Soul Power – he could see it, feel it, and now… he could spend it to create skills. From bodies that hadn't yet lost their Essence. He didn't know exactly what Essence was, but since a body that hadn't lost it could be used to create a new ability… that meant one thing. Essence could be extracted.
Focusing on the reality and pushing aside the intrusive thoughts, he noticed that a dark, blue sky still hung above him. However, he knew it wasn't night yet. He didn't know how much time had passed; he only knew that he shouldn't waste it. Even with such a great boost, he could fall to the weakest of the beast horde in a few seconds.
With little choice, he opted for the path he had come from. He knew there were the most buildings there, which would allow him to survive the night that was surely approaching quickly.
He wasn't wrong. If you counted the entire time from the moment he entered until now, it had already been 8 hours. Knowing that it was the beginning of autumn, there were about 3 hours left until sunset, meaning he had about 4 hours until the dark night, which would surely greet him unfriendly.
Starting from where he had come, he decided to speed up. He was no longer walking; he was running. In a second, he accelerated from 15 kilometers per hour to finally burst forward at 40 kilometers per hour. He moved at a pace that would have seemed unattainable to him just a day ago. He felt every strike of the ground like a powerful rebound.
In just one minute, he covered half the distance he had walked in 15 minutes. At that moment, he passed by some figures. They were there – in the distance, moving slowly, with some small goal in their eyes. They looked like humans, but their movements were strangely delayed. However, the boy didn't pay them much attention. At this moment, only one thing mattered: finding shelter. Something told him that without it, he wouldn't survive.
He kept running. He passed another 60 meters, and the road continued to stretch in front of him, swallowing him in the cold air, which was slowly starting to become colder. His gaze fixed on an object he caught out of the corner of his eye. A bench. On it, moments after passing the figures, he noticed remnants – two legs holding up what used to be an entire bench.
He passed it without hesitation. The air around him was getting colder, and the wind was picking up.
He was starting to get used to the air resistance, feeling every resistance he encountered while running.
When suddenly he stopped, and before his eyes was a skyscraper, not too tall, just 11 stories high, he saw figures nearby, ones he had seen earlier, but now he saw them more clearly. If he had to evaluate them, based on his memories, he could call these beings: zombies…
But they didn't seem to have gaping bloody holes or the appearance of decaying humans. They looked somewhat emaciated.
Their skin had an unhealthy hue, a bit faded, as if they hadn't seen sunlight in a long time. Their movements were slow, but awkward, as if they had never gotten used to this strange new form they had transformed into.
They didn't look like the typical zombie stories. Their eyes were scattered, with a slightly cloudy gaze, and their faces twisted in a way that resembled emptiness. It was as if they had gone through something that made them lose part of themselves, but not completely. Their clothes were dirty and torn, as if they hadn't been changed in ages.
Despite their strangeness, they didn't seem to be monsters. They were more like beings in suspension – as if they had stopped in some strange state between human and something more terrifying. They were slow, but not unnaturally scary. Their appearance didn't induce panic, as if they were just another version of people who had lost everything that once defined them.
He looked around carefully, making sure he didn't miss anything. His gaze moved across the area, analyzing every detail. He noticed 17 zombies, observed them more closely, as if searching for weak points, when the boy's gaze shifted back to the skyscraper that stretched ahead of him. He noticed two destroyed stairwells visible from a distance. The third and fourth, a bit further away, were in better condition, though not without damage. The fourth, from the right, had a few small holes in the structure, and the third only had superficial scratches.
From about 140 meters away from them, he felt this would be the right place for the night.