Chapter 22: Inferno

Tarin looked surprised.

"Me?" As far as I remember I haven't been very helpful in any of the fights and I couldn't do anything to the Berserker.

Tarin felt a shudder at the mention of Berserker. Adam watched him for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"Don't worry about it, practically none of us could hurt the Berserker at first. Besides, the next zombie is a special case. Do you remember the smoke coming out of the top floor?"

Tarin nodded.

"We think it's one similar to the [Zombie Glacier] on the fifth floor, but with fire."

Tarin looked at him in confusion for a few seconds. Adam realized that Tarin had not participated in that fight. So he took a few minutes to explain the situation to Tarin.

In the end, Adam took the blizzard spell out of his backpack and showed it to Tarin.

"With this spell and your help, we hope to reduce the threat of fire to a minimum."

Tarin held the spell in his hands for a few seconds before asking.

"Do you really think I can do it? Since the fight with the Berserker I don't think I'm cut out for this, but I'm also tired of feeling useless."

Adam was a bit surprised by Tarin's words, so he thought a bit before answering him.

"From my point of view, while most people have stayed at home, you have dared to go out and fight. You are level 4 for a reason, aren't you?"

"I don't think you're right, Carlos dragged a whole group of people to clean apartments"

"And they failed completely" Adam interrupted him. "Besides, they only dared to leave their apartments when they received information about the zombies from you and Tracel. I mean, I don't think we're heroes either, after all, I started cleaning this building because I feared for my life."

Adam paused to think for a second about what he wanted to say next.

"Even though you joined a little late, you have dared to fight the unknown, without any prior information. So I don't think you are useless."

"So what about my betrayal then? I passed information to my brother knowing full well that it would affect you. Besides, does Marlen agree?"

"Marlen is still angry about it. As for me, I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't a little pissed off, but to tell you the truth it's not like your betrayal was a big deal. At no point did you plan a trap that would put us at risk or anything like that. Besides, as Miriam said, we have to take advantage of the most powerful mage we have. Supposedly, in Carlos' group there are a few, but they are all level 1 and don't specialize in ice. You are the best option."

"I will. Since I've been back home I've felt completely useless. "

Seconds later, the book disappeared from his hands and Tarin learned a new spell.

"We'd better get back."

Tarin nodded and followed close behind Adam. Meanwhile, Tracel, who had listened to the entire conversation from the window, bit his lips as he thought about Adam's words.

Back in the superblock, Tarin tried to ignore Marlen's wary look as everyone got ready. Just as they were about to ascend and begin combat, Miriam intervened.

"I think we should wait a bit. Everyone who thinks they will level up should give it a try. I know Marlen, Tarin and Jane have already leveled up, but I'm sure Adam has not."

Adam stopped to think about it and realized it was true. Marlen had recently leveled up, when the zombie glacier knocked her unconscious for a long time. So had Tarin and the Berserker, and Jane had fallen asleep after that battle. Even Miriam could level up again.

As for him, Adam had been knocked unconscious briefly during the battle against the Berserker, but it had only been an instant before Miriam healed him, so he hadn't leveled up.

"I agree, those who think they will level up sleep. We'll be out in half an hour."

Adam lay down on a piece of furniture and tried to sleep, but to his surprise, he didn't feel as tired as he expected after so much fighting. It took him a few minutes to fall into a light sleep.

[Engineer have risen to level 7].

[New skills unlocked:].

[Small machine fabrication].

Waking up half an hour later, Adam thought about his new skill and the system generated an explanatory message, just as it did with objects.

[This skill allows the engineer to design blueprints for small machines with all sorts of uses. It can only be used once a day and leaves the user exhausted. The skill can fail if the engineer's knowledge of the design he is trying to create is poor].

The ability didn't seem to be of immediate use, but it was certainly something curious. Adam thought for a few minutes about what he could create with the new skill, but besides some devices for geophysical activities, nothing else came to mind.

"Are you awake, Adam? We're all getting ready."

Adam came out of the room he had chosen to rest in and approached the group.

"Any interesting new skills?" he asked.

"Yes. I obtained an ability that takes away a person's fatigue and brings them back to peak physical condition for 5 minutes."

Adam looked at Miriam with a smile.

"That sounds pretty useful."

"Yes, but after those 5 minutes the target will feel double the fatigue and go into a state of exhaustion. Also, I need to directly touch the target to activate it."

Even with the limitations, Adam thought the ability was quite useful. In addition to Miriam, Noah leveled up to level 3 and gained a skill called [Double Shot] that didn't need to be explained. Jane, apparently, gained a pretty good skill called [Alertness], which allowed her to be aware of dangerous situations before they occurred.

Marlen, meanwhile, gained an ability called [Inhuman Strength], which also didn't need to be explained.

With everything ready, the group prepared for the last fight in the superblock. From the stairs, they observed that the top floor was still engulfed in flames.

Carefully they all ascended step by step, feeling the temperature rise to an almost unbearable level. Adam had brought his flamethrower, for although he doubted it would work against the zombie, he wanted to test its other function against the enemy's flames.

"Do I use Blizzard?" Tarin asked, who was sweating non-stop and getting more and more nervous.

"No, first we need to know where the zombie is, you'd better use the spell directly against it."

Tarin nodded and they all continued the ascent. When they were on the eleventh floor, they all stopped when Adam signaled.

"Wait here, I'll check if my flamethrower is useful against this fire."

Adam approached the flames on the top floor in the unbearable heat. Even the fire from his flamethrower hadn't affected him this much, so it must have been much more dangerous.

He stretched out his arms and brought the nozzle of the flamethrower as close as he could to the wall of flames in front of him and pulled the trigger.

To Adam's relief, his flamethrower slowly began to consume the flames. The wall of fire diminished and he was slowly able to see what was behind it. The entire hallway was charred and still covered in fire. The zombie to blame for it, was nowhere to be seen.

Adam motioned for the others to follow him. Tarin, for his part, began to gather energy to cast [Blizzard]. Adam slowly cleared the flames and the others advanced step by step. Halfway down the hallway, he noticed something was different.

"I'm having a harder time putting out the fire, it's like it's resisting going into the flamethrower."

His voice startled Tarin, but luckily he didn't cast the spell. The others looked at Adam and nodded, not knowing what to say. They were all completely drenched in sweat and wished the zombie would appear to end the inferno.

Adam kept moving forward and tried to put out another flame, however, something different happened. The fire was initially absorbed by the flamethrower, but it suddenly moved violently away away from the weapon.

In front of the group, all the fire seemed to come to life, as it moved strangely. Adam was still able to continue absorbing the flames, but at a much slower rate.

"I think it's the zombie! Tarin, get ready!"

A few seconds later, some of the fire came at them and the whole group had to jump back.

Noah and Jane fired at the flames, but missed.

The flames continued to advance and they continued to retreat, until abruptly a giant fireball shot at them. Adam reacted in time and triggered the flamethrower. The weapon slowly began to absorb the fire and deflected the fireball towards the right wall.

The whole group jumped to the left, until they hit the corridor railway. Moments later, the ball exploded and spewed flames all over the group.

Most of them ended up with first-degree burns and some with second-degree burns.

"Tarin throw it now!"

Tarin cast his spell and a huge blizzard advanced towards the fire from the hallway.