Chapter 7: Let The Hunt Begin

"Now...let the hunt begin."

Madison made her way through the streets of the ruined town killing any Midnight Wolves that she found. When it was around midday she had already killed 20 wolves. Since her agility was massively increased she was able to cover a lot more ground than she was able to before and since she got a strength boost she was able to quickly dispatch the wolves. All of this brought her to level 8 which gave her some more upgrades to her stats.

[Name: Madison Kondark

Race: Machina (???)

Titles: Mother of the Machina Race(2x EXP)

HP: 300/350

MP: 600/600

EN: 11500/11500

Level: 8

STR: 60

AGI: 65

INT: 60

Class: None

Skills: Fear Resistance Level 2, Assimilation Level 1, Nano-machinery(Passive), Nano Construction Level 1, Nano Deconstruction Level 1, Quantum CPU(Passive), Cybernetic Enhanced Senses(Passive), Swordsmanship Level 2, Mana Sense(Passive)

Money: $520]

"So it seems that my stats are increasing at a larger rate and my Fear Resistance skill also leveled up." said Madison after taking a break on the porch of another ruined house. She had done a lot more than she usually does and got a bit careless towards the end but thankfully she wasn't in any immediate danger.

"Hey Aiko, is it possible for me to choose how to arrange my stats at all or is it preset? I mean it's balanced but that also makes me a jack of all trades." said Madison looking at her 3 main stats.

[That will be available at Level 10 Madison, Attribute Allocation will not only allow you to distribute points to your stats, but more stats will become available.]

"Guess I have something to look forward to." said Madison getting back up from the porch.

"Hmmm." Madison looked at her hand and thought about trying out one of her skills, Assimilation. She walked down the street and spotted a rusted out car husk that was on the side of the road. With the amount of degradation on the car it was unrecognizable from what it used to be. When she got to the car, she put her hand on the rusted car.

"Assimilation." said Madison expecting her nano-machines to swarm the car. But as time went on, nothing happened.

"Hey Aiko, how am I supposed to use the Assimilation skill?" said Madison annoyed that she couldn't seem to use her skill.

[Even though you have the Assimilation skill, it does not quite act like a skill, instead it's more like an extra limb. Your nano-machines are apart of you in every sense and will obey your every command, however it's not what you may think. If you want to assimilate something you must command your nano-machines to eat what they are supposed to assimilate. Think of them like a computer program and you're the user giving commands.]

"Alright." said Madison before putting her hand back on the hood of the car. She wanted to also see if these things required to be verbally stated or could also be used in thought as well. 'Eat the car.'

The next few moments afterwards the car was gone, replaced with a thick cloud of nano-machines eating the car rapidly. After several seconds the nano-machines returned to Madison and the car that used to be there was now gone.

[Object Assimilated]

[Object: [Car] has been added to Neural database]

Madison felt a rush of information pertaining to both the car, its respective parts, and how to create it with the nano-machines and was happy knowing that she could make a car if she needed to travel anywhere or if she wanted to sleep while traveling she could use it for that too. She did have to search the country for her family after all and this would make the process a bit easier on her.

"If I can make a car with my nano-machines, maybe I could make a weapon with them too. I can't make a gun yet because I don't know what it takes to make one, although I know there's an old military base around 30 minutes from home...maybe I can go there and assimilate one."

With this in mind, Madison saw that it was going into the afternoon and decided she had enough time to get to the military base and back before nightfall. She quickly headed in its direction after checking her map and killed several wolves on the way.

As the military base came into view Madison saw how large it was and wondered if there would be any monsters inside of it. She had realized by now that monsters didn't usually enter buildings and would just wander around but there were some rare exceptions where wolves would seem to be chasing other animals and would enter houses to find their prey.

Madison went inside and tried to look for their armory as there usually is at least one on base for its occupants. She checked several rooms before finding a locked door with claw marks on it along with a couple of holes in the door around midway up it, most likely from the claws piercing the door but then being pulled out as whatever was on the other side most likely hit it out. She quietly approached the door and heard what sounded like movement inside. It sounded like footsteps.

As Madison went to peek through one of the many holes in the door, she was met with the stock of a rifle slamming into the door where the hole was and immediately Madison backed away as she was startled from the noise. She approached the door again but stood about a foot away from it before calling out to whoever was in there. "Hello?"

-----????? POV-----

As I was lying down on the ground of what appears to be the military base's armory I heard what sounded like footsteps outside. They were distant and after two nights of terror from monsters, I no longer trusted my own hearing. Whatever those things were, they were horrors that I would not wish upon my worst enemies. Thankfully the only door to enter this room was made of a very thick steel and had large locks and latches on it to ensure it could not be easily broken into. When I woke up in here I was unable to leave as it had been locked.

Sadly I found the key to unlatch the door after spending two nights here and by this point I didn't even want to leave. There was some non-perishable food in a locker, probably MREs, that has kept me going since I woke up. The weapon lockers were also locked and the key that I had only worked on the door. There was a rifle in here that looked like it was removed quite some time ago, the weapon had no bullets so it was completely useless for defense as it was.

As the 'footsteps?' got closer I readied the rifle in my hand and pointed the stock of it at the door to scare off whatever was approaching the door. When the sounds stopped I saw a faint silhouette outside of one of the holes in the door and I slammed the stock on the hole to scare whatever was out there away.

After several seconds of nothing I heard a voice outside which gave me hope that I long since thought wouldn't come.