Chapter 10: Objective Found

Off into the distance on his left, he could make out the female dormitory. From the screams echoing in the distance, he could assume that they were in the same situation. More importantly, maybe about half a mile from the dormitory, centered between both the male and female dormitories, was the school's cafeteria, and as an added bonus located on the second floor was the school's convenience store.

The store really did fit its name to perfection. It contained a lot of daily necessities for college students, from snacks and small groceries to hygienic supplies. It was the perfect small base to start with since he knew it would be raided eventually when the students started to get a grasp on the situation. From what he saw when it came to the group of students who had a magic user, they were already starting to get accustomed.

Making sure the coast was clear down below, he was about to drop down from the window before he remembered what got him into this mess in the first place.

"Hmm, maybe I should at least get a different shirt… wouldn't want some other crazy person getting the same ideas."

With his newfound strength and damp clothes from the excessive blood, he tugged on his shirt to rip it off of him. The shirt clung onto his skin; it would've been too tedious to attempt to pull off regularly.

He didn't care what shirt to put on; he just randomly opened a few drawers until he found shirts before randomly pulling one out and putting it on.

The kid who owned these clothes must've been pretty tall or bigger than normal. Noah wore a size medium, but the shirt fitted on him like a XXL. The short sleeves went a little past his elbows, and it reached halfway down his thigh. He didn't mind it; he just ripped the sleeves off and ripped the shirt to waist level so it didn't obstruct his fighting. He actually liked the taste of whoever owned this shirt, as it was an all-black shirt with an ironic saying that said 'but did you die though?' It caused a small chuckle to escape his lips when he anticipated the expressions of the people who would see it.

Continuing his previous action, he carefully dropped his hammer to the ground outside the window before cautiously making his way down. Uncertain of his ability to safely jump from a second-story window, he opted to cling to the ledge and lower himself as much as possible before finally letting go and dropping to the ground below.

Mmph!

Instinctively, Noah landed on the ground with his feet first, absorbing the impact before settling onto his butt. Blinking in a daze, he glanced at the ground and then back up at the window, chuckling to himself in disbelief, fascinated that he didn't experience even a hint of pain.

"Haha, I still can't believe this is happening…"

Growls*

Noah's enthusiasm waned momentarily as he frowned, but the sight of four approaching zombies quickly reignited his grin. With a surge of excitement, he prepared himself for the upcoming challenge, his grin returning as he eagerly anticipated the adrenaline rush of combat.

He knew that with the number of zombies he's killed so far, he should be close to leveling up again. He didn't know if they would give him the same amount of experience since he's on a higher level, but he should be close regardless.

He decided to start with the loner before he took care of the other three. Although he wasn't afraid of fighting zombies, he knew that blind arrogance would only cause an early death. He doesn't know how many times situations like those appeared in his stories.

Bang!

With a quickened pace, he ran towards the lone zombie, smashing its head; its death was instant. Just as he finished off the zombie, he released a deep breath filled with satisfaction. He could tell that he leveled up again as he felt his mind becoming a bit clearer and after many times of increasing his constitution, he could easily tell the difference of his vitality growing.

Instinctively, he rotated his injured shoulder. The few points added to his constitution were already playing a great role in aiding in the use of his arm again.

'More!'

He inwardly smiled, his body pumped full of adrenaline as he charged towards the three zombies approaching. For people like him, he was becoming addicted to the feeling of ecstasy from increasing his stats. If he could, he was sure he would try to kill every monster in sight, but sadly, his body wouldn't be able to keep up.

Swinging left and right, he made easy work of the last zombies in his near vicinity, but thankfully for him, it was far from over. He looked towards the direction of the cafeteria as a small glint appeared in his once lifeless eyes that were witnessing the carnage and mayhem happening ahead.

He was eager to join in on the chaos, but first he had to collect his spoils, which again appeared to only contain gold. Unlike last time, he was mentally prepared for it, and just like before, the chest appeared near the last zombie he killed.

"There's definitely a pattern here… I'm just going to go ahead and guess that the chest will always drop near the last thing I kill when I'm done fighting. I don't know why a god would go through all the trouble to do this, but I won't complain.

With his loot taken care of, he again looked towards the cafeteria, taking off without delay. In his mind, he had already decided that he was going to grind the entire time on the way, and hopefully he could finally get what he's been wanting since all of this started: a tamed creature.

Along the way to the cafeteria, while Noah was busy fighting zombies and the like during his travels, another battle was transpiring down his path that he was unaware of.

"Noooo! Justin! Damn you! Why are you all standing there? If we don't fight together, then we are all next!"

"Isabelle! Are you okay to heal me?"

About a quarter of a mile from the cafeteria, a massacre was taking place; from zombies to humans and even rodents, bodies lay everywhere! Unlike the zombies' dead bodies, some, if not most, of the humans would still twitch from time to time, indicating they were still alive but were not able to move.

In the center of all the chaos was a middle-sized group of people, all wielding weapons, from staffs, bows, daggers, to swords. The group was all facing in one direction, alert and timid as some looked on with fear and others with hatred towards the creature responsible for most of the deaths that transpired.

Leaning over the recently paralyzed victim was a bigger than normal-sized spider traversing the campus. There weren't many spiders in the vicinity, so having different-sized spiders was normal; however, if Noah were to see this one in particular, then he would surely drool.

Unlike the other spiders that barely would reach two to three feet, this one was as big as an adult's waist, reaching around three and a half feet high and four feet long. It had a body full of fine hairs; its entire body was made up of dark gray with strips of white along all its eight legs wrapping around them with meticulous detail.

The spider had eight eyes, four of which were located in the center of its face, with two of them being the largest out of the pairs. Then, there were the two sets of eyes located on the side of its head.

The spider's front legs, larger and longer than the others, emphasized its predatory nature, while its disproportionately enlarged head and distinctively colored pincers, with hues of blue and light green, heightened the unsettling effect.

The group was slowly succumbing to despair due to their failed attempts to subdue the creature. There were more members of the group before, but as they saw everyone going down one by one, they decided to save their own skins by either running to the closest building, which would be the cafeteria, or back to one of the dorms.

The spider was just too agile for them to gang up on without good teamwork. The only reason they were still bitterly holding on was because of the man leading them, holding a round shield and a short sword. The man would try to get its attention while the others would attempt to hit its blind sides. It was an almost impossible feat considering its blindside should be its backside, but even that was hindered by the eyes on the side of its head.

The man with the shield couldn't deny the chilling effect the sight of the spider had on those still able to flee. If not for the fact that some of the victims were still alive, he knew that a significant portion of the remaining survivors would have already abandoned hope and fled the scene. The sheer terror induced by the spider's presence threatened to overwhelm even the most stalwart of individuals.

He looked onward towards the spider with a deep-seated hatred in his eyes. The spider was incapable of showing expressions, so he didn't know if its stamina was beginning to wear out. The only signs of them having a possibility of winning was the fact that it was no longer lunging towards them anymore. No matter how much they anticipated it, they were never able to react. The spider was always able to single someone out of the group and take them down just as fast as it pounced.

Because it was no longer jumping, that gave the group more leeway to attack its 'blind' spots. Gashes and cuts could be located around its bottom and close to its face. Even one of its back legs was crushed, but that still wasn't enough to instill confidence in the group to try to outright take it down.

Seeing that no one was attempting to attack at this time, the spider dared to feed to recover some of its strength amidst the chaos.

It turned its body, facing the group, while one of the twitching victims lay between the two. No one knew what it was trying to do until it was too late.

"Justin! Aaah! Get off of him!" The leader's desperate cry pierced the air as he witnessed the spider sinking its fangs into his friend, Justin. Without a moment's hesitation, fueled by fear and adrenaline, he charged blindly towards the monstrous creature, heedless of the danger it posed. Ignoring his own safety, he lunged towards the spider, driven by a primal instinct to protect his friend at all costs, even if it meant confronting the terrifying creature head-on.

He didn't realize that almost no one rushed alongside him besides another male wielding a one-handed ax. With his crazed face that also appeared to be on the brink of tears, it could be seen that he also held some type of relation to the victim named Justin.

"Derrick!" The healer who once stood with the shield-bearer screamed out. Even if she wanted to, she knew she should stay behind as she had been instructed since the start of this chaos. Desperately, she still wanted to move forward to support the two, yet fear was the deciding factor keeping her from joining her colleagues.

The fear didn't overcome her rationale completely as she frantically turned towards the rest of the group for help. She knew that Derrick made a mistake when he broke the formation they had decided on. It was partly the reason for the hesitation of the rest of the group, but she desperately needed them to help, to help save the man she loves.

"Please help him! If he dies too, then what will happen to us? We can't fight that thing without him!" Isabelle's desperate plea echoed through the chaos, her voice tinged with fear. Realizing the dire consequences of Derrick's potential demise, she begged her companions to come to his aid, knowing that their chances of survival would diminish if Derrick was to die.

The frightened expressions that appeared within the group convinced Isabelle that her words had somehow moved them. She just didn't realize that she convinced them in an entirely different way.