11 Hunter

As they were nearing their minimarket that acted as a temporary hiding spot, Brian jolted slightly as he was checking their surroundings with his Life Pulse.

"Hmm...David, there is a big group of zombies in front of our minimarket. There is also something else. It has a life imprint slightly different than any other zombie." Brian was clearly panicking as his voice shook while he spoke. He never faced such a large group of zombies because they usually targetted one or three zombies at once, one for each of them.

"What do you mean by something else? Another survivor?" Adam inquired for more information since the words of Brian made no sense to him.

"No, life imprint of humans is slightly different from zombies. We have more vibrant auras, while zombies have less intense life imprints. It resembles the giant we had faced in the library but smaller in intensity and different in shape." Brian tried to explain what he sensed as clearly as he could. Adam was slightly confused by his explanation, yet Dave quickly understood what it was.

'I never thought that Brian would also be able to differentiate between different types of zombies.' The biggest problem with hunting was that they didn't know the power level of a monster beforehand. Dave knew that it was possible to identify the general rank by their outer appearance, but not an exact level of evolved zombies. It needed specialized skills to do so.

"How much of them are there?" Dave asked somewhat thrilled.

"I've detected 9 of them including one with a stronger aura," Brian replied in a confused manner, catching something akin to excitement in Dave's tone.

Dave smiled lightly as he was able to deal with ordinary zombies. An evolved zombie may have posed a hardship before he learned [Flash Step], but now he was confident enough to handle a low rank 1 evolved zombie.

"Let's kill them. An evolved zombie will be on me, while you try to kill ordinary zombies." With such words, Dave rushed at the group of zombies wanting to try his skill in action. Adam just followed him with no words, trying to catch up after his friend, while Brian looked frightened as he followed behind Adam.

Sprinting towards the group of zombies, Dave swiftly slashed two zombies instantly killing them. Attracted by the commotion, a bunch of zombies rushed at him.

At the same time, a shadow emerged from the group as it sprinted towards him. It was considerably slower than a Hunter from his dream but fast enough to instantly kill an ordinary human.

It was even faster than Dave at his full speed. As it drew closer to him, Dave habitually held his sword higher as he blocked an attack to his head.

All monsters had their own attack patterns. Hunters had long claws resembling elongated nails on their hands, so all their attacks were based on a slashing motion. They liked to attack in one swift motion aiming at the head of a person.

When they fail to kill the target in one movement, they usually distance themselves from the target.

'And this is the time when they are weakest. Concentrated on distancing themselves, it's unlikely for them to attack at that moment.' Dave said as he read through Hunter's movements.

Blocking the claws of a hunter, Dave used [Flash Step] as he rushed to the hunter, beheading it with a sword strike. Hunters weren't as tough as Giants, so if you were able to deal a blow to a Hunter, it wasn't hard to kill it.

Dave still lacked the agility to rival its speed, but with a [Flash Step], he only needed an instant to kill it.

The winner of a fight was decided in a span of a few breathes. As Adam and Brian were looking at him in awe, Dave didn't stop on it leaving only 2 from the batch.

"Both of you, what are you gazing for? Come closer and kill zombies. I left one for each of you."

As he said it, Dave avoided the attack from two zombies. He was fast enough to easily dodge them as he spoke while dodging them simultaneously.

'Terrifying!' Brian wanted to say that but held his tongue at the last moment. A sight where Dave killed a Hunter was just too shocking since he had never imagined that Dave was able to move so swiftly. All his moves were linked with each other as he held a complete sense of space and enemies surrounding him.

Still surprised by a display of strength, Adam and Brian fought with 2 zombies. They killed more than enough zombies to clash with them one-on-one, not to say, that they had weapons to use.

As both of them fought with zombies, Dave checked his spoils from the battle. He didn't increase his level since a hunter was equal to level 2.

He collected all survival coins on the ground, 6 from ordinary zombies, and 2 coins from a hunter.

'When I killed the hunter, I'm sure that it had also dropped another Treasure Chest. It seems that zombies have higher chances to drop Treasure Chests, but it wasn't the case in my past life. Maybe, they are dropped more often in the beginning.'

Dave found it strange that Treasure Chests are dropping more frequently than he had expected. Wondering what he would get from the Treasure Chest, he held a white chest in his hands.

[Do you want to open a Treasure Chest (White)?]

'Yes'

As the Treasure Chest disappeared from his hands, a book had appeared in its place.

[Small Fireball

Type: Fire magic

-Requires at least 2 spirit points to learn

-Costs 5 mana points to use

Description: Sends a small fireball]

'Skill Book'

Dave was delighted to obtain a Skill Book, even though he knew that Treasure Chests had a chance to drop it. However, the chance of getting the Skill Book from the Treasure Chest was equal to winning a lottery or in other words, infinitely small.

'But it's useless to me.' Dave thought since he had no intention of learning it. Even if he wanted to learn it, he won't be able to do it because his spirit stat was lacking. However, he knew a perfect candidate to whom he could give it.

'It seems that Brian's training will grow harder in coming days'

As Dave thought about how Brian will complain about it, he involuntary smiled.

[Do you want to learn Small Fireball?]

[Every 10 levels you will have a chance to learn a skill at the expense of a book.]

'No'

Dave rejected the suggestion from the system since he didn't want to waste his opportunity on such a skill.

There were two ways to use a Skill Book. The first one was to directly learn it with the help of the system which will implant the knowledge from it to the user.

The second way was to learn it by reading the book. It was harder than the first way, but it was more useful in the long term since, with enough effort and talent, people could learn it just by following instructions in it.

However, the Skill Book would disappear either way. The difference was in the way you learn it. You may rely on the System and take an easy approach yet waste valuable skill points or comprehend it on your own and save skill points for more valuable skills.

Dave wasn't saying that no one should follow the first method. However, he considered it was better to save skill points for more valuable skills since you may spend a whole lifetime yet not learn the skill. It depended on Enhancer's personal talents.

If your talent allowed it, then why not learn the skill on your own?