4 Chapter 4: Going Outside

After resting for a few hours Lucas checked his stamina and noticed that it was full and let out a light "Whoop" In happiness.

"Time to upgrade this bad boy!" Lucas said as he grabbed onto his trusty baseball bat.

'But before that...' Lucas thought as he approached the carcass of the 'Night Crawler' and reached out and patted it with his bat cautiously.

The creature shuddered a little and Lucas jumped back before realizing that it must have been a nerve impulse. The creature was dead after all... or at least that was what the system said.

"Now time for the 'fun' part," Lucas said as he visibly did air quotes in the air.

Lucas reached forwards towards the large mandibles of the creature and yanked with all the strength he had and realized it came out much easier than he had anticipated. After about a minute he had managed to get the two pincers out of the jaw of the creature and removed the loose shrapnel from the sides of the pincers.

He grabbed some of the tools he always kept with him from the job site and got to creating something that he could call a tool of mass destruction as he got to work on the baseball bat.

The mandibles were sharp and should easily cut through the carapace of other creatures like it.

He set to work nailing and taping down the pincers across the tip of the baseball bat to make it add a sword/spear-like function to it.

Then after he admired his handy work he put his hands on the object and tried to get the popup to appear again.

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-Increased strength and durability.

-Increased sharpness and piercing capabilities while also maintaining a steady and decent source of damage from brute force/bludgeoning damage.

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"Sweet!"

'Now time for the hard part.'

'System, use <Improved Fortify> on the baseball bat.' Lucas thought decisively.

<<Basic Stamina Sense> Is too low of a level to determine how much stamina it will cost to do this. Are you willing to take the risk?>

"Risk it for the Biscuit Baby!"

<25 stamina deducted after reduction has been subtracted.>

Lucas immediately felt a wave of weariness overwhelm him but managed to stay standing as he had 5 stamina left. He looked at the bat to see its newfound strength.

The first thing he noticed without the Systems prompt was the look of the bat.

It was pitch black and it was a mixture between a cudgel and a spear at this point. It seemed much heavier on inspection yet felt comfortable in his hands. He even felt lighter after wielding it.

'I thought stat improvements were impossible without that one skill I had the choice to pick...'

After a few seconds of inspecting it, a prompt appeared with a detailed description of the item.

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<<Please name your creation(Note: Names have effects on the abilities of special items. > +2 (Perfect Condition) (Grade: Rare)>

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'Hmm... a name... for a bat... how about night bat.' Lucas thought as he stared at the pitch-black bat in front of him that looked more like a metal bat than the wooden bat he had from before.

(A/N: Definitely not a rip-off of batman...)

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-Increased swing speed and speed while wielding The <Night Bat>

-Stealth strikes deal an additional 2 times damage.

-Your movements are slightly obscured while wielding Night Bat and you have a 10% bonus to stealth while wielding it.

-Major improvements to Durability, Strength, and Sharpness.

-I. AM. NIGHT BAT!

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"Hot Damn that's good!" Lucas said as a dumb grin appeared on his gruff face.

<User has leveled up <Evolution: Infinite> to level 3. 10 stat points have been awarded. 260 XP is required to level up to level 4.>

<User has leveled up <Builder> to level 2. 5 stat points have been awarded. 50 XP is required to level up to level 3>

"Crafting is just too damn good," Lucas said as his grin widened.

'Put 5 points into endurance, 4 into strength, and 6 into power.'

<Ding!~ Done>

A round of pain ensued before Lucas finally calmed down and felt immensely better.

"Time to rest a few more hours before heading out with this bad boy," Lucas said out loud before realizing that he must sound crazy to anyone listening but realized that most of his neighbors were probably dead anyway and shrugged it off.

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While resting he noticed that there were quite a few unread notifications in the system and he decided to browse them as he waited for his stamina to refill before his outing.

<User has met the qualifications for a new building Subclass active skill called <Construct> View before changing current skill <Improved Fortify> Into it?>

"No way am I changing it out but go ahead and hit me with it."

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<Construct: Tier: 0 / LV: 1 / Rarity: Common>: Make an item successfully that has a rating of at least uncommon.

A builder can do more than just build buildings. Using a large amount of stamina you have a chance of being able to craft something that you create within your mind given you have the correct materials. Many factors change this chance of creation but the base success rate is 15%.

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"Maybe in the future but for now I think I will stick with my tier 1 skill..." Lucas said after realizing just how good it was.

It could make it to where he could make most things that he previously wouldn't even dream of making. Maybe he was overthinking it but it seemed pretty powerful but definitely not powerful enough to rival his upgraded skill.

'Any other notifications?'

<The skill <Basic Stamina Sense> has leveled up to LV: 2. Efficiency and effectiveness increased.>

'Sure' Lucas thought as he viewed the newly given skill.

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<Basic Crafting Proficiency: Tier 0 / LV: 1 / Rarity: Uncommon> Requirement: Craft a rare item and do it efficiently.

Through your hard work and effort, you have crafted at least a rare item. This means you have some talent. You craft things twice as fast and have a 5% increased success rate to items that are uncommon or below.

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"Accept!" Lucas said happily.

"Noice," Lucas said as a flood of information entered his mind.

"Alrighty. Time to go hunting." Lucas said as he peeked outside the blinds to see a hellscape he didn't expect.

The roads were covered in vines and all the buildings had thick plants covering them. A few strange beasts wandered the streets and cars were overturned as corpses flooded the street. But no creature was as strange as the creature from last night. These resembled beasts that had mutated while that creature from last night... was a true nightmare.

The sun was high in the sky and would last for a few more hours before nightfall.

"I have a few hours to explore and farm some XP. Hopefully, those creatures out there are as weak as that Night Crawler."

Lucas brandished his bat and slowly opened the door to the outside to find bloodshed. Most of the people in the apartment were dead and no creature was lingering inside.

"At least I have a base of operations for now."

Lucas checked a box in his imaginary checklist to check and loot the rooms as well as absorb the rest of the people who died before heading down to the main foyer.

It was desolate and the windows that were placed around the entrance were completely shattered.

Lucas made sure to step lightly and not step on any glass as he made his way toward an open window.

'That door won't open in a million years without me slamming into it like an idiot.'

He gently crawled through the window and began to view the streets looking for a lone beast. He hid beside a car and waited for some creature to come near and wait he did.

It was a full hour before anything showed up and after the long wait, Lucas finally heard a crunch of glass behind him.

Lucas snapped his head in the direction that the sound came from before looking at a vulture-like bird that was about 7 feet tall resting on the roof of a car. It breathed heavily and tucked its wings in and rested for a moment.

"This is the perfect time to strike." Lucas slowly maneuvered himself across the street as silently as possible and got behind the bird near the trunk of the car.

He placed one foot on the back of the trunk to get leverage and the vulture seemed to realize something was up and snapped its head to the side but Lucas had positioned himself so he was in the birds' blindspot.

He quickly lunged forward with the bat and struck the left-wing of the creature. A loud shriek echoed out as he snapped the bones in the wing of the creature completely debilitating it.

The creature fully turned around and pounced at Lucas with its talons and Lucas felt the world around him slow down as he sped up drastically and dodged the talon.

'This dodge skill is great!' Lucas thought to himself as he stabbed forward with <Night Bat>

A sickening crunch could be heard as the creature in front of him had its head pierced/caved in.

"So close to those sick stat points!" Lucas said as he began to inspect the body of the Mutated Vulture to find any useful materials only to find its talons had been damaged in the battle.

"Bad luck indeed," Lucas muttered as something inside of him kicked and he ducked instinctively and just barely dodge a blur of shadow that soared through the air where he once was.

"What the hell?!" Lucas said as he got a closer look at the creature.

A panther who was nearly 4 feet tall stood in front of Lucas with a leering grin on its face. Lucas was just food in its eyes and nothing that could be considered above prey.

'My stealth bonus won't help me here... Time to run!'

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