Ch. 4.10

10.

“I have to be close to getting a level, let’s see if this will push me over the edge,” Santi said, more to himself than to Naomi. The woman looked at him from the corner of her eye and a faint smile cracked her face. 

“The rush of levels has been fun. Once you get past Disciple, the leveling slows down dramatically. The power from each level is massive but it’s not as rewarding as seeing the numbers skyrocket.” 

“I remember hitting the wall. Wasn’t fun to basically be stuck there.” 

“Potential is a bitch. This iteration is going much better, plenty of potential flying around. Think we’ll have a much bigger crop of Champions this time around. Lot more chaos,” Naomi said. 

“That’ll be fun. Alright, no point waiting. I’m going to take the wild guess that the onyx building over there is where all the undead are coming from,” Santi said, pointing down to a gothic looking building that had been crudely splashed about with enough black paint that even from a distance it looked tacky and thick. 

“That terrible looking building covered in gross looking paint? Surrounded by zombies? Yeah, I think so,” Naomi said sarcastically. 

“Those undead look a lot stronger than the ones we cut up here. Think it’s time to pull out the big guns,” Santi said as he looked at the woman. Her faint smile widened and a golden glow surrounded her for a second before Santi started to get notifications. 

Reinforced

All Defensive attributes have been increased by 10 percent

Durability, Vitality, and Stamina

Empowered 

All Offensive attributes have increased by 10 percent

Strength, Dexterity, and Mana

Enlightened 

All Mental attributes have increased by 10 percent

Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower

It was nothing compared to the burst of power he had received from the curse entering its final stage. It was closer to a good pump at the gym rather than whatever it was that the curse had done to him. Santi shrugged his shoulders and snapped his neck to the side and looked over to Naomi.

“That’s all you got?” 

“For you, yes. My other skills are balanced to fighting and bigger groups. I’m out of my element here just the two of us,” Naomi admitted. Santi thought it strange that the woman was so open about her skills and abilities.

“The boost is nice. You still want to lead the way?” 

“Of course. Just keep the damage coming.” Naomi followed her words by running forward with her sword drawn. Santi followed right behind her, beginning to overpower [Gust] to open up the fight. The wall of undead here were more solid, not the shambling mass of rotting corpses that had filled the bridge. 

“Now!” Naomi called as she got within striking distance of the wall of bodies. That she could sense the power he had been gathering wasn’t surprising, just a reminder that she was more skilled than anyone around him.

[Gust] came out like a gale and slammed into the line of bodies like a wrecking ball. Bodies were thrown backward to open up the line for Naomi to step in and start slashing. Her red skill blade cut apart the zombies like paper dolls and Santi sent a stream of [Windblade]s to the sides of the formation. 

Reanimated Corpse lvl. 41

Still low ranking and offering little experience but the doors to the black painted building blew open and allowed a wave of armored corpses to smoothly walk out. Santi had plenty of space to look at them without worry as Naomi halted them dead in their tracks. There were seven of them; tall and powerful with bloodless pale flesh that showed in the gaps of their crudely painted black armor. 

Reverent Warrior lvl. 49 

Reverent Warrior lvl. 53

The highest and lowest ranked of the seven monsters, none of them showed any skills or powers as they struck with clubs of twisted metal. They burst forward with speed that rivaled Naomi’s, their clubs a blur as Naomi dodged and weaved around them, not risking stopping the blows with her sword. They started to spread out, trying to encircle the Apostate, but Naomi kept up her retreat while her sword stabbed and cut in the gaps in armor. 

No blood came out of their wounds, just a trickle of clear fluid. Santi sent a stray [Windblade] at the furthest one and the blade split apart the armor and flesh easily. It didn’t slow the corpse down at all. They were tough. Physical based monsters with no skills or powers that just waded into fights without thought. 

Santi cast the spell ten times in rapid succession and had a grim satisfaction as the revenant burst apart like rotten watermelon. Tough but not that tough. Santi looked back at the other six revenants even as Naomi was forced into more and more acrobatic movements to stay ahead of all the clubs coming at her. 

Santi burned them down. None of them had strong defenses and even if he had to throw a dozen attacks at them it wasn’t that hard. Between his efficiency, mana pool, and the buffs from his gear and Naomi’s skill, it was trivial to cast that many times in a row. 

After the fourth revenant went down, Naomi stopped retreating. She planted her feet and started to attack. With only three opponents she quickly locked them down and started to attack and overwhelm them. Santi switched targets and continued to whittle down the masses of corpses coming toward them. It was gruesome but bland work with little to no real challenge to them once they had whittled the warriors down.

“Santiago? Have you noticed anything strange about this?” Naomi said as she ducked under a club blow and proceeded to take off one of the revenant’s heads. She pushed the corpse over with a lowered shoulder and then began to overwhelm the other two monsters with ease. 

“How none of them have any type of abilities? Even with the large levels they’re weak?” Santi said.

“This isn’t a monster den,” Naomi said as she finished off the last two warriors with a series of sweeping attacks that left them both limbless. Santi had finished off the rest of the horde, leaving the black building completely undefended. 

“No, it’s not,” Santi agreed as the two of them started to walk into the building. The smell of bleach assaulted their noses, like walking into a chemical facility. Stainless steel tables had been dragged to fill every spare inch of space with hardly room to walk around them. The far wall held a shelf filled with jars and jars of organs drifting in fluid. 

“Hello?” a voice echoed through the room, soft and high pitched. A door opened and a woman walked out of the room. She was tall and dirty, face covered in grime and her blonde hair was a knotted mess. She was wearing stained scrubs and had white latex gloves on. Square glasses sat on her nose but Santi figured they were more from habit than from any sense of needing them. 

Mortician lvl. 63 

“Are you the owner of all the bodies outside?” Naomi asked slowly as she moved closer to the woman. 

“Oh, yes. It’s unfortunate how many clients I’ve had lately. I…I think there’s a flue or something going on. So many need to be taken care of…” she trailed off, eyes glazed over as she turned and looked back into the room she had come out of.

“What’s your name?” Naomi continued as she got closer to her, speaking softly like she was talking to a frightened animal. 

“I’m Kristen. I’m Dr. Howler’s assistant. He’s out right now and he’s left me so, so, so, much work. I really need to get back to it. The dead don’t prepare themselves,” she broke off into a high pitched crackle as her green eyes rolled about in her sockets. 

“Naomi, I don’t think she’s quite sane,” Santi whispered to her, using [Air Current] to isolate the sound so only she could hear. She turned to look at him and raised a single eyebrow at him. 

“When did you last see Dr. Howler?” Naomi asked. 

“A few days ago. The power went out overnight and he had to go and see the electric bill.The freezers can’t be down for long,” Kristen said as she looked over at them. 

She had been here since the integration had started. By herself. Continuing to process corpses. He looked at that floating level above her head and wondered how she had managed to finish her evolution and become an Acolyte. Kristen stepped through the open door and left the two of them standing there by themselves. 

“This is giving me weird vibes. She’s obviously had some type of psychotic break. How did she evolve? How is she alive?” Santi asked as they worked their way closer toward the door Kristen had walked into. 

“She’s human and strong. Let’s see what’s really going on before we judge her, alright?” Naomi said. Santi shrugged and the two of them followed Kristen’s footsteps and went deeper into the building.