Rest?

The master, the disciple and the rescued kids soon arrived at the house. Erick was still on guard near the gate. Although he was just a teenager, his big frame and imposing posture (the rifle helped with that) could make one mistake him for a trained soldier.

At first Erick was intrigued by the black van but soon lowered the gun when realizing that his brother was the one driving.

"What's up big boy, did something happen?" Nikolas got out of the car and greeted his brother.

"Not much, father just brought back the girl you rescued and they are waiting for you in the living room. As for me, I've been on watch since the beginning." He then showed the rifle and continued. "There were some strange cars around, but none of them had the nerve to stop here!"

Erick laughed out loud, he was really happy to show his "mightiness", even though it only consisted of showing off.

Yuemura greeted Erick with a nod and proceeded to open the door of the minivan. The group of kids got out silently, with downcast faces, it was clear that they were exhausted and somewhat scared.

As they looked at Erick, the children were momentarily shocked: that man had such a big gun! Was he some kind of soldier? Most of them had never seen a real firearm up close until today, only on TV or video games. At the same time, Erick, without losing his posture, analyzed them out of the corner of his eye.

The children appeared to be mostly young, around 12 years old. The oldest, however, was around sixteen years old, the same age as Erick. But he was a thin boy, with dark skin and long braided hair, very different from Erick. They looked at each other calmly for a while, in fact the orphan thought that Erick was older, a soldier perhaps, and said nothing out of respect.

Accompanied by Nikolas and Yuemura, the group entered the house and found Reginald seating at the kitchen drinking a cup of strong dark coffee while Emilia was on the couch talking to Sara.

"... I know it's hard but they should be o-" Emilia stopped talking when she saw her older son.

Sara also looked and saw the young man she had just met earlier that night, in the doorway looking at her. Still in his black outfit that reminded her more of a ninja, he had messy black hair and a slightly pronounced chin. As the children entered the room, she felt a warmth spread in her heart and she couldn't help but smile.

Emilia got up and hugged her son. After that, she was introduced to the kids and tried to recomfort them.

"I know what you've been through must be hard, kids." Emilia smiled tenderly and then gave a few snacks she had prepared beforehand. "By now, the rooms next door are ready for you to sleep in. Unfortunately we were taken by surprise and had little time to pack things up, but we'll soon find something better. Master Yuemura will sleep there too, if you want anything just ask me."

Emilia was a preschool teacher and she knew very well how to deal with children, she had done it all her life. It wouldn't take a genius to understand that these kids needed attention and rest so as not to develop even more serious traumas.

"After that, I hope that we can see each other as a big family, okay?" She said kindly.

The kids nodded, some of them like Lucas and Cibelle, who avoided most of the horror were now somewhat hopeful. Maybe they could have a real family now?

Not much longer, Master Yuemura said goodbye and led the kids to their rooms.

Reginald, Emilia, Erick, Nikolas and Sara were left alone in the living room.

"I'll be on guard until 6 o'clock, you should take your time to rest.." Reginald declared as a matter of fact. Although he was a retired police officer, he spent many nights awake on duty. You could even tell he was enjoying the moment, it was a nostalgic night. Nikolas understood this from his father's tone of voice and agreed with him without arguing.

"You should sleep too sweetie…" His mother looked at Sara and smiled warmly. "I made you a bed in one of our free rooms."

"I - I don't want to bother you, I can sleep with the other kids."

"That's not appropriate, you don't know them. Don't be ashamed girl, Reginald already told me that you are now part of our group! You've even killed two zombies already! Now let us help you out a bit, no need to be shy."

"She won't stop until you accept Sara!" Nikolas shrugged, got up from the couch and went towards the stairs. "You should rest now, because I'm going to!"

The boy went upstairs and into the bathroom. The day had been long and he felt dirty, a smell of sweat mixed with blood afflicted his nostrils, he wasn't used to it anymore. After a relaxing shower, he immediately went to his room and threw himself on the bed.

"Ahh I love this bed!" He stretched himself and relaxed. After rejoicing in the soft pillow, it was time to look at his status.

He had killed a few zombies after the last time he checked, some hours before finding Sara. He was already counting on those extra points for his future plans. Now, lying on his bed, he conjectured whether the person who had made the first kill was the same person from his past life?

[Well, it doesn't matter anyway… But what was that with my title?] Was the system playing a prank on him? With mixed feelings, Nikolas shook his head and called the system.

[STATUS!]

*DING! You have killed a Royal Zombie!" x30

*DING! You have killed a normal Zombie!" x16

*Congratulations, you have leveled up! One free attribute point awarded!" x3

*Name: Nikolas Drachen // Title: Not Fast Enough // Level: 5

Body Type: Mortal

STR: 7 AGI: 6 + 2

CON: 6 INT: 9

CHA: 6 ???

Points available: 10

Skills (3/5):

-Swordsmanship [Master]

-Five Dragons Facing the Heavens [A]: Unavailable

-Shadow steps [C]

After killing approximately fifty zombies, level five was the result Nikolas was able to achieve. You could even say that there would be an average of ten zombies per level, but that would be inaccurate. That's because with each level it got harder and harder to level up. In the last level for example, Nikolas had to kill around twenty zombies to evolve!

The ex-Dragon King analyzed his status screen with a mocking smile on his face, what a noob he was! Fortunately, that was only the first day and his status were way better than before.

He looked over and saw those precious 10 free stat points, which would be a huge boost to whatever attribute he chose to upgrade. However, he had no plans to spend it yet. Mainly because it would only get harder and harder to level up and get free points and Nikolas knew there were other ways to improve his attributes: he could do it by exercising!

Even though it's an apocalypse, with a rather fanciful setting, with a system and stuff, that hasn't changed the fact that this is real life and your body's condition can be improved in the usual way.

From his future knowledge he knew that for an average person, the maximum points one could achieve in an attribute without the system was 10. However, there were some rare cases of people who broke through those shackles. They were mostly olympic athletes or Genius who could have 11-12 in some stats. Yet, Nikolas never heard of anyone starting with more than 12 in one attribute.

The ex-Dragon King sighed thinking about those fortuitous people who had good stats from the start. Yet, he could do nothing about it, he also had his advantages now: The knowledge and his skills!

Even though they were only three and he knew more, those were the most cherished by him. He then 'mentally' selected the first one.

Swordsmanship [Master]: You have achieved the mastery that any swordsman aspires to and few achieve in their lifetime. Your mastery of sword techniques are at the top of the world and any type of sword can be masterfully wielded by you. In this way, any other swordsman with lesser skill is like a child wielding a stick against you.

Reminiscing about the many life-threatening fights he had before he could achieve this mastery, Nikolas soon closed his eyes and fell asleep.