Monsters = Coins

A moment later another bolt of black energy came thrashing through the air towards them.

Edric's bestial adrenaline was running on overdrive, his instincts causing his muscles to tense without him even having to think about it.

In an instant, he launched himself forward with incredible ferocity.

However, even with his enhanced body, he could not completely evade the lightning-fast energy bolt. The bolt caught the top of his ankle, colliding with the magenta scales that armoured his body.

A dull pain shot throughout his entire being as he sped through the air. Still, his drive to survive would not allow him even a second to indulge in whatever injuries he had sustained.

The moment he landed, the door from one of the houses right in front of him swung open, and a black mist exuded from the inside at a quickening pace.

~Is that a... zombie?~ he thought to himself as he noticed a figure staggering out of the building.

Luckily, the energy bolts seemed to have stopped coming, though a new problem arose.

He was now surrounded by a horde of undead creatures.

They were clearly once human, with parts of their flesh still the same shade as that of a breathing human. However, a black ooze clung onto their bodies, showing through even their veins which bulged at the neck and head. Half their face had what looked to be black fungus growing from it, and both their eyes glowed crimson.

"Mi-Mister, A-are we going to die?" Afina asked as Edric tightened his grip on the knife in his hand.

He was currently standing at the centre of the village, with zombies coming from every direction. 

It didn't help that their pungent odour burned his throat, and their loud moans effectively deafened him.

If not for the adrenaline running through his body, perhaps he would've already given up.

~On the bright side, all these things will probably block the hunter's line of sight,~ he thought to himself.

He was confident in taking these creatures down, seeing how they were moving sluggishly and had flimsy-looking limbs -what with the fungus eating away at their joints.

However, he was wary of just attacking them. He had learned that killing monsters here could bring more bad than good, still, it wasn't as if he had a choice.

~I hope this thing is a Sealing Weapon or whatever that Andre fellow was talking about,~ he thought to himself, before locking eyes with the zombie closest to him.

He braced his muscles to rush towards it, but the moment he put pressure on the leg that had been shot, it buckled, and he fell to one knee.

~Nearly forgot about this,~ he thought to himself, looking down at the area where the bolt had struck him.

Surprisingly though, there was no wound. It seemed that the black bolts the hunter was using were not powerful enough to break through his scaly armour. Still, that did nothing to reduce the pain he was feeling, for all he cared, his leg might as well be broken.

"Are you okay, Mister?" Afina stuttered her grip around Edric's neck enough to choke him had he been a weaker race.

~This was a poor show of risk management. One day here and I'm already about to blow my only account,~ he thought to himself, as he slowly stood up.

At this point, one of the zombies was just a few steps away from him.

The moment it was within keeping distance, he launched towards it with a single leg, slashing his knife as he did so.

He was no soldier, or knife-weilder in his old life, so it seemed more akin to him flaying his arms around. Still, it got the job done well enough.

The zombie attempted to open its mouth once he was right on top of it, however, he was simply too fast for it, even on one leg. The tip of his knife met the side of his head before it could even get another moan out.

The undead he had just slain had poofed into a cloud of black smoke, and deep within the cloud he noticed the distinct glint of a gold coin floating about.

~I hope that's what I think it is,~ he thought to himself with increasing excitement.

He launched himself at yet another zombie, this one had the body of a rather massive man, with the fungus on its head having completely blocked its right eye. Though it was only big for a human, whereas it stood at 1.9 meters, he stood even taller.

With a swing, the creature's body disintegrated into another cloud of black smoke.

This time, however, Edric hobbled through it, using its cover to catch another zombie unaware.

As he dispatched of that zombie, a trail of gold mist followed him, entering his body through his mouth, and causing him to shimmer in a golden light for a moment.

『+1 System Currency!』

~So it's true...~ Edric thought to himself, his mouth twitching as he tried to fight the coming smile.

"So you guys are just walking gold coins?!" he asked, his smile finally cracking through, revealing a row of extremely sharp silver teeth.

Although Greed was something that had propelled him to the top of the financial world, it had taken him years to properly control it. Back in his youth, he was something more akin to a mafia than a respectable businessman, taking any venture, regardless of how immoral, so long as it paid.

And now, with gold coins just being handed out for free with the swing of a knife, he was beginning to feel his old ways slowly seeping through.

"What's going on Mister?" Afina cried from his back.

"Close your eyes Afina, children shouldn't lay their eyes on the wealth of others," he replied, before slashing at yet another.

『+1 System Currency!』

All the while, one particular undead had remained silent since the beginning of all this. It was the zombie that had crawled out of the trapdoor in the village leader's house.

Its entire body was covered in black fungus, with a single horn growing from its right eye. It stood at 2.3 meters, however, it looked even larger than that.

As it stared at Edric, it whispered something, its words drowned in the sea of low moans being echoed by its comrades.