Chapter 17: Accelerating the Zombie Hunt
The kind of calm before a storm.
Looking through the gap in the window curtain, Tanaka closed the curtain back while glancing at the wall clock showing 6:10 in the morning.
'A little early, but…'
Reaching out into the air, he murmured softly: 'Create dungeon.'
In an instant, the dungeon's domain expanded.
The morning sounds vanished with the presence of the barrier.
Going to the door, he exerted a bit of force and pulled it, breaking the door hinge.
He murmured afterward as he placed the door aside: "Exit the dungeon."
In an instant, the sounds of shattering glass echoed and the door that was once broken was in perfect condition.
'Just as I thought…'
Creating the dungeon once more, he chose the first option of the two unlocked.
After the dungeon expanded once again, he used his sensory sense but found himself alone. All the living beings nearby simply disappeared.
Sitting on the bed, he waited.
Soon, 20 minutes passed.
No zombie appeared inside the house.
When he went outside with the map open, he saw a large number of zombies.
Once again, his theory was confirmed. Zombies are born from the earth.
As long as he stayed inside the house, it would be like a safe zone until found, because as soon as he was noticed by the zombies, they started heading towards him.
"Cowwww!"
"Bitchhhh!"
"Hahaha!"
With disgusting drool dripping like a drunk after drinking everything, not to mention an incredibly disgusting expression with missing skin, the zombies continued to spout nonsensical words as they approached him.
Another thing, although they seemed slow to Tanaka's level, they were clearly not slow. Their speed was faster than an ordinary human running.
In Tanaka's inventory, there were several similarly sized stones that were collected and stored in a backpack.
Taking the backpack out of the inventory, Tanaka opened it and made 50 stones float at the same time and, in an instant, started shooting nonstop.
Being partially enveloped with MP, the stones had a blue aura circulating, making a blue streak in the air as they shot forward. It was similar to a firework shot, making a streak in the air, but blue in color and the sound was more like a bursting air balloon.
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[You gained 1,770 EXP!]
[You....]
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In an instant, he swept away all 11 zombies that were nearby.
On the map, he could see other zombies. Going out, he went in search of the zombies appearing on the map, constantly checking if no one from outside was pulled into the dungeon and killing the zombies he saw ahead.
Making hand seals, he created a total of 17 shadow clones.
And, all of them used the maps and spread out to different coordinates.
Not even two minutes later, a notification appeared in his sight.
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[You leveled up!]
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His clones proved to be efficient, although unlike the main body, at the moment he leveled up, nothing happened to his clones. Using the Chakra Threads with Life Drain by MP, in this type of dungeon, it would be basically impossible for his clones to run out of MP.
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[You gained 1,930 EXP!]
[You....]
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After several notifications appeared, mostly about EXP increase, Tanaka felt the familiar tremor.
"Already 50 zombies?" he murmured.
And then, looking at the map, he saw a bigger red dot.
"It's over there!" Running, he went to the location where the miniboss was spawning.
He wasn't the only one waiting; his other 17 shadow clones had already arrived at the location too.
At his command, several stones whistled through the air, leaving blue trails as they headed towards the miniboss, Zombie General.
"Bang! Bang! ..."
The continuous sounds echoed from the impacts of the attacks. In an instant, 90% of the Zombie General's health bar was gone.
"Stop!"
At his command, all the clones stopped.
He couldn't risk letting them continue with the chance of not dropping items. Although he might be overthinking, considering the EXP gained with the clones was the same amount he got from killing them himself.
"ROARRR!"
Furious, the Zombie General began punching the ground and picking up chunks of rocks to throw at his clones.
However, it was simply too slow; it couldn't hit, missing the target while Tanaka made 15 medium-sized stones float. With a wave of his hand, he murmured in his mind: "Precise Throw."
The blue streaks appeared once again as the 15 stones were thrown. When the first stone hit, it managed to deal over 2,000 damage by landing a critical hit right in the Zombie General's eye.
Protecting its face with its large hand, the Zombie General roared again, but no matter how much it tried to shield its head, the stones pierced through the hand and hit the target.
When the fourteenth stone struck, the Zombie General began to tremble as it dissolved into a slime, soon turning into a large cloud of what looked like polluted black smoke.
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[You gained 28,900 EXP!]
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[You leveled up!]
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[You obtained <Soul Stone – Rank C> x2]
[You obtained <Recovery Potion – Rank D> x3]
[You obtained 110,000 ryō]
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'This time, I didn't get a skill.'
He touched his chin while seeing this notification. At the same time, he controlled a stone and smashed the head of a bold zombie approaching him.
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[You gained 2,150 EXP!]
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When the miniboss was finished, his shadow clones once again started hunting zombies.
Two minutes later...
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[You leveled up!]
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"It took killing 31 zombies for me to level up, and considering their levels increased after passing the first miniboss, if there even is a second or third one..." He murmured: "And the speed at which I can gain EXP thanks to the shadow clones is simply too overpowered..."
Of course, even if it's overpowered, even if he's cheating, it doesn't make him want to slow down.
And if it wasn't because he had to wait for the zombies to appear, maybe his EXP gain speed would increase even more.
Under his control, after his skills leveled up a few more times, he was finishing off zombies even at level 30 with just one stone to the head.
"TREMBLE!"
"Another one?" he murmured.
On the map, he tried to locate the miniboss's spawning and, noticing it wasn't far from him, Tanaka ran there while finishing off the zombies on his way.
At the location, he saw a brief assessment of the miniboss's information appearing.
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<Miniboss >
LV37 <Zombie General>
HP: [23,125/23,125]
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Unlike the first one, this one was a bit larger. If the previous one was five times the size of an adult man, this one was five and a half.
"ROARRR!"
When the zombie pulled half its body out of the ground, it started roaring while saliva flew.
"How disgusting," he murmured.
This scene reminded him of his past life when his drunk uncle started shouting, and the saliva accumulated in his mouth splattered everywhere.
Shaking his head, removing that image from his mind, Tanaka started making stones from the ground levitate.
Before the miniboss could target any of them, both he and the clones began attacking without waiting for the miniboss to fully emerge from the ground.
Continuous sounds, similar to the popping of bursting balloons and the 'bang' of stones hitting the target, echoed. He also noticed that while the miniboss wasn't fully out of the ground, its defense was higher, receiving only half the damage it took when it was entirely out of the ground.
With combined attacks from him and 17 shadow clones, the boss's health began to melt at a visible speed, and in an instant, only 99% remained. Before he could ask the clones to stop attacking, it was already too late.
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[You gained 36,600 EXP!]
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[You obtained <Soul Stone – Rank C> x3]
[You obtained <Recovery Potion – Rank D> x2]
[You obtained 120,000 ryō]
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"So, even if it's my clone finishing, I still get my drop, that's good." He sighed in relief.
While reflecting on this, his clones, who were draining the life force from the zombies, finished draining one each.
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[You leveled up!]
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"By the way, besides minibosses, is there a boss?" In some games, the boss would appear after facing a few minibosses; some would have two, others three or four, sometimes more than five, but that was quite rare.
He thought about various games he had played before and concluded that it was basically as he had deduced. And, while he was thinking, his clones had already killed enough zombies for him to level up again.
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[You leveled up!]
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"This leveling speed..."
"DIEEEE!"
When he stopped thinking randomly, he shot a stone at a zombie that was approaching him.
"TREMBLE!!"
"Already?" He was a little stunned.
The speed was even faster. However, it made sense. Since the number of zombies appearing had doubled...
"Wait, are there two red dots?!"
"Is one of them the boss?" Seeing that the size of the red dot on the map was the same, he made his way to one of them while watching on the map as eight shadow clones headed in the same direction as him.