The Useless and the Useful

It was only the third day since the zombie apocalypse began but the ones who caused it were lying on the ground with their heads split open and bodies dismembered.

"Oh! I got another one!" Michelle excitedly said as she pulled out another item. She put it on her backpack and resumed searching for drops.

Julia was not too far away, tossing and turning the bodies of the zombies to find her next loot.

Miles on the other hand was facing a huge challenge.

There were many things scattered around the place and he had no idea which items were valuable.

He picked up an ordinary looking ring and stared at it, trying to see if something would pop up.

But nothing.

'And there they are happily collecting the drops.' he looked at Julia and Michelle, who were smiling as they rummaged among the corpses of the zombies.

'These beautiful ladies adapted quickly.'

Just yesterday, these two were scared to go out but now, they don't care about the zombies around at all.

He turned back to what he was holding and gritted his teeth.

'Ah, damn it. I don't care anymore.'

He threw it into his bag and moved on.

"Whatever. I'll just put the things that I think are good."

"Oh, a health potion. Nice."

He saw a small green bottle nearby and took it. He knew what it was.

Whenever Miles encountered something that he thinks we're valuable, he picked it up and threw it into the bag.

"Oh, a skill book." He found a small pocket size book and scanned it.

He then became worried.

"Damn. I don't know what skill this holds."

But he still put it in his bag.

The three searched the outside of the buildings and the whole dormitory building 1 and 2.

After almost two hours of searching, they went to a room to see what they got.

The items numbered to a hundred, most of which were health and mana potions.

There were also ten skill books, rings and some small equipment.

"Oh! We have many drops!" Michelle exclaimed.

"Mm. This is far more than what we earned from today's raid." Julia said.

"We killed more zombies than them after all." Miles said.

"So how should we divide it?" Julia asked.

Both the ladies turned to Miles, asking with their eyes what his opinion was.

"Ahem. Well, we should take a list of what we collected today so that we can have an inventory of our items." He suggested.

"Oh…" Michelle looked puzzled.

"It's not a big deal. Just like in business, we need to take an inventory of what we have." Julia explained.

"Right, right."

"Mm. I'll make a list so we can distribute the items among us." Miles said as he pulled out his phone and opened the note app.

"Wait! I'll do it!" Michelle raised her hand.

'Nice!' Mile shouted inside. Of course, he couldn't make a list of what's in front of him because he doesn't know what they were. But he also couldn't just casually push the task to others right away.

He pretended to do it first and see what the two would do. If they didn't stop him, of course, he also has an excuse ready to leave the room and let them make the list.

"Oh, okay. Thank you." Miles smiled. He was very relieved.

"Leave it to me!" Michelle smiled back and put her phone out and began making a list of the items.

"I will go to the rooftop and check the overview of the perimeter. We should start planning our way around the campus." Miles informed them and left the room.

He arrived at the rooftop and a good portion of the campus.

The five dormitory buildings were surrounded by lines of tall trees. There was also an open space in between them and the next area.

"We have to traverse that open space if we want to go to that building. That is just exposing ourselves to the zombies around us. We could handle normal zombies with our number but if they go into a bloodlust state like earlier, many of us will die."

He still hasn't forgotten about that sudden change in the zombie's state and strength. If it was just him, he would like to get them in an enraged state and earn more points from killing them. But now, he has people with him that would likely die from those types of zombies.

"They could get some more level after we raid the building 4 and I hope that that is enough to escape from those zombies."

Among the team, Julia and Michelle have the highest level. They have [ 30 ] on their heads meaning they were both level 6.

William, Dante and a handful others were level 3 while the others were still level 1.

"We'll just have to devise a plan tomorrow after the raid."

Miles slumped to the floor and spoke.

"Current points."

[ Current points: 725 ]

His points did not rise so much because of the increase in their number. The player's levelling speed should also slow down with the increase in their level and competition and decrease in the number of zombies hunted in the near area.

Miles was looking at the points he had and was contemplating what to do.

Then he decided. "I'll roll one for item and skill then I'll save 1,000 points after that."

[ Item ] [ 100 ]

The Heaven's Dice appeared with its three white and three green sides.

"Please just give me a normal item."

He threw the dice and after it rolled a few times, it stopped with the green facing up.

"Yes!" Miles made a gesture and smiled.

[ Congratulations! You have received the item, 'Swivel Chair(Normal)'. ]

[ Swivel Chair(Normal) - A type of chair that has a seat which can turn in any direction. ]

[ Storage Space ]

[ Swivel Chair x1 ]

"Well… I just don't know what to say… "

He took out the black swivel chair and sat on it.

"Pretty comfortable I should say. At least it's not a trash item."

He was a bit disappointed but the result was better than getting a broken clay pot or a random dry leaf.

Miles selected the 100 point Skill dice this time and rolled it.

Swish. Tuk tuk tuk tuk

It stopped with a white side on top.

[ Congratulations! You have received the skill, 'Booger Flick(Trash)'. ]

[ Booger Flick(Trash) - You can mold a solid booger and flick it accurately two meters away. ]

[ Would you like to learn the skill, 'Booger Flick(Trash)'? ]

"..."

Miles read the description a few times and said. "Can I cry?"

"What is this skill? What can I do with it? Man, trash skill is really trash."

"No, I won't learn it."

[ You have refused to learn the skill 'Booger Flick(Trash)'. ]

[ Please choose what you would like to do with the skill 'Booger Flick(Trash)'. ]

[ Destroy ] [ Store ]

"So, this is what happens when I refuse to learn a skill."

"Destroy should delete the skill and store…hm…like I can still learn it in the future."

"But this skill, I want to destroy it."

[ The skill 'Booger Flick(Trash)' was destroyed. ]

"Finally. I don't want to see those words again."

He found a bar and clicked on it.

[ Skill List ]

[ Learned: Heavy Strike(Normal), Serene River Meditation(Rare) ]

"These are my current skills. Man, I only have two. Even Helen has three and she is a healer."

He looked at his points for some time.

[ Current Points: 525 ]

"Nah, I'll just roll the 1,000. I don't believe I can't roll a good skill next time."

With the dice roll done, he went into his storage space.

[ Storage Space ]

There was nothing on it because he had already thrown away the trash items that he got last time.

Miles held the fireman axe and moved it around into the window.

'Please get inside the storage space…please..'

He was wishing that it would work and he could store items into the storage space.

'Get inside the storage space.'

Time passed and nothing happened.

"Well, I guess it's not possible. The only thing I can put and take out into this storage space are the things that came from rolling the Heaven's Dice. That's a bit disappointing."

He sighed and put back the swivel chair into the storage space.

[ Storage Space ]

[ Swivel Chair x1 ]

"At least I could still use it as an item storage. I just need to invest in items from the Heavens Dice."

After closing the window, Miles returned to Julia and Michelle.

"Oh Miles. I'm done with my work. Here, I'll send you the note text."

Michelle sent him the note txt file via bluetooth.

He read it and smiled.

[ Low level Health Potion(E) x30

Low level Mana Potion(E) x30

Warrior skills: Crushing Blow(E) x2, Sky Blade(D) x1

Fighter skills: Headbutt(E) x2, Kickback(E) x1

Shielder skill: Thick Skin(D) x1

Assassin skill: Backstab(E) x1

Mage skill: Mana Shield(E) x1

Ranger skill: Clear Vision(E) x1

…

]

The list of skills were followed by accessories like rings, bracelets and earrings.

'Great! Michelle is very detailed in her list. That's very nice of you!' Miles was celebrating inside.

"But there were some ordinary items that were mixed in the items so I threw them away." Michelle suddenly said with an innocent voice.

Miles almost coughed when he heard her words.

'Sorry!'

"Mm. Thanks for your hard work." he said while trying not to be awkward.

"That's nothing." Michelle smiled.

"So what are we gonna do with these skills?" Julia asked.

Miles chuckled and spoke. "Of course, you take what is appropriate for your class."

"Oh! But is it really fine? You killed most of the zombies so you should take them." Michelle said.

Julia knocked her head lightly. "Idiot. He will not be able to learn it even if you leave it to him. That's why he's giving it to us. Right, Miles?"

"That's right. I won't take it for myself because I won't be able to use it at the end of the day. I'd rather give it to you for use." Miles explained.

"Sorry and thank you." Michelle laughed a little and took a skill book to herself.

{ Thick Skin(D) - Increase the DEF and MDEF by 10%.

Requirements: Shielder lvl 10 }

It was just unfortunate that she was still below the level requirement.

Julia then took the assassin skill.

{ Learn the skill Backstab(E)? }

"Yes."

{ You have successfully learned the skill Backstab(E). }

{ Backstab(E-Lvl.1) - Attacking targets on their back deals additional 10% damage.

Requirement: Assassin Lvl 5 }

"I learned it." Julia said with a smile.

"Nice." Miles gave her a thumbs up.

Michelle pushed three small books closer to Miles. "These are the warrior skills."

He looked at them. Two of them looked the same while the one was slightly different.

He picked up the slightly different one.

'Two Crushing Blows and one Sky Blade. This should be the Sky Blade skill.'

Miles stared at it for some moment and kept himself as calm as possible.

'Haah. So I can't learn the skills from these skill books.'

He picked up the Crushing Blow skill book and still, nothing happened.

'Well, just like the items, I just have to save and roll better skills using the Heaven's Dice.'

He learned that he couldn't learn skills from the skill books so these things hold a little importance to him. His only way to gain more skills was to roll the dice more and get better results.

"I already have these skills so they're already worthless to me. But let's hold on to it for now and maybe exchange them for other skills or items later."

He briefly told a lie to the others that was simple yet believable at the same time.

"Oh, okay. Let's do that then." Michelle and Julia agreed and didn't ask anything.

"Here, let's divide the potions among ourselves equally, ten health and ten mana potions each."

He then pushed the health and mana potions to the two but he raised his brows when he saw that they're not taking them.

"What?"

"Can't you just hold it all for keeping? It's better if the strongest in the team holds the items."

"The three of us? A team? When did that happen?" Miles was confused.

Michelle's jaws dropped.

"Just kidding. Right, the three of us are a team. I won't hold all the potions to myself. Just take three of each for yourselves and come to me if you need more." Miles said with a smile.

Julia and Michelle took the potions and thanked him.

"And get any item that you want. For now, I'm satisfied with this axe so I don't need anything else."

"Take them. I will be upset if you don't." He added quickly before the girls said anything.

The two hesitatingly took some items on the table.

Julia took a ring, a pair of earrings and a black scarf.

{ Ring of Swiftness(E) - Increases SPD by 5. Decreases the stamina consumed when running by 20%.

Requirements: None }

{ Silver Ruby Earrings(D) - Decreases bleeding damage received by 10%.

Requirements: None }

{ Black Mist Scarf(E) - Stealth skill becomes 5% more effective and 10% longer in duration.

Requirements: Assassin Lvl 5 }

Michelle also got some items for herself.

{ Iron Ring of Hardness(E) - Increases DEF and MDEF by 5. Punching targets with the ring deals 5% more damage.

Requirements: None }

{ Durability Ring(D) - Decrease physical damage taken by 7%.

Requirements: None }

{ Fitting Glove(E) - Increases DEX by 5.

Requirements: None}

{ Copper Chain Bracelet(E) - The skill Block's cooldown is decreased by 5%.

Requirements: Shielder Lvl 5 }

After the two of them took what they wanted, Michelle picked up two rings and gave them to Miles.

"Take them. I will be upset if you don't." Michelle repeated what Miles said leaving him speechless.

He laughed and wore the rings.

"Alright."

That same second, a small surge of power flowed into his body.