Merciless

To his right, a bunch of rotten corpses with mangled bodies were fighting a ten-meter-long python.

Their flesh was ripped-out in places with their guts spilling out of their abdomen, and bones that were sticking out of their bodies.

'Zombies!'

Their sight was truly unexpected.

His current position was quite far from the closest building to Rian, and he could already see more than a dozen zombies.

The zombies were trying to mindlessly tear the python apart just with their bare hands, biting into the python's flesh to rip it out with their teeth.

Meanwhile, the python was coiling its body around them before twisting their spines and bones alike.

Unfortunately, the zombies didn't need their spines to continue inflicting injuries on the python.

However, despite watching the battle from up close, Dilan didn't feel scared.

Instead, he wondered why there were a bunch of zombies so deep in the woods.

But considering that there had been a bad storm just a day ago, they might have been dragged through the air and hurled into the forest, just like him.

That was enough for Dilan to accept the fact that the zombies were around him.

And upon sizing all of them up, he quickly found that one of them was wearing a small backpack.

The moment he spotted the backpack, Dilan labeled it as his personal property.

Without wasting any more time, he advanced through the thicket while clutching the Reinforced Stone Spear in his hands.

His right arm ached a lot, but that was not something Dilan could bother about right now.

Focusing on the beasts ahead, Dilan emerged near the closest zombie only a few seconds later.

With the knowledge he had gained from games and novels, he aimed for the zombie's head and pierced his weapon through it mercilessly.

His eyes were ice-cold as he pulled the spear tip out of the zombie's head.

Adrenaline coursed through his body, and a smirk appeared on his face.

Zombies were not humans anymore, so Dilan didn't even think of granting them the slightest pity.

Instead, he would label them for what they were- monsters that had to be killed in order for him to stay alive.

That mindset allowed Dilan to move smoothly, thrusting the Reinforced Stone Spear in the heads of two more zombies before the rest noticed him.

The few that were not restricted owing to the large python's body that coiled around them moved towards him with slow movements.

Their speed was slower than the average human, and considering that some had broken their legs, Dilan had no problems evading them.

With a quick momentum, his spear pierced out, only to be retracted a moment later.

Repeating this move a few times, he swiftly killed a total of seven zombie corpses that were now lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, the other zombies were busy killing the python, who was fighting for his life and swallowed one zombie and had bitten off the head of another one.

When Dilan saw this, he quickly rushed forward and appeared next to the head of the python before thrusting the Reinforced Stone Spear in its right eye.

His attack was extremely fast, 60% faster than the average human, which enabled him to exert a powerful thrust.

The spear tip pierced into the python, killing it easily.

Afterward, Dilan didn't think of halting in his tracks as he moved backward before starting another onslaught of attacks, ending the life of the other zombies.

From the moment he had revealed himself until now, not even two full minutes had passed.

The sudden and rapid movements and the focus he required to fight all the opponents had tired him out.

Though he had just been walking through the mountain towards the city, Dilan had been on high alert.

A deep sigh escaped his lips as he looked at the corpses.

Without thinking too much, Dilan got hold of the small backpack before he stored the Reinforced Stone Spear, putting it in horizontal between the straps of his backpack and his back.

Taking out the Reinforced Stone Dagger, he started to work.

Dilan didn't even feel pity when he pierced the dagger into the head of the undead that stared at him with their empty, lifeless eyes.

"Nice, they have them!" He exclaimed, showing the first sign of emotion before quieting down, realizing that he was still in an unknown, and dangerous area.

Taking out the Essence crystals that had formed in each of the zombies, Dilan appeared in front of the dead python corpse.

"This one looks like a reticulated python. A few of them should be living on this sloppy mountainside…it will have an Essence crystal as well, right?"

Cutting open the head of the python, he did find an Essence crystal.

It didn't astonish him, but it explained a lot.

'These crystals are probably the catalyst for mana?' He thought while storing away the python's essence crystal, noting that the zombie it had swallowed whole was still not dead and twitching in the python's body.

Thinking that he shouldn't miss out on the essence of more beasts, Dilan thrust the dagger through the python's body.

A moment later, Dilan moved the dagger downward, as its blade cut through its belly, tearing it open.

Yet, he realized that instead of having hit the designated target, the zombie's head, Dilan had missed it by a few centimeters.

Because of that, the zombie was still alive and growling while reaching out of the python's body with its rotten arm.

However, instead of feeling afraid of getting scratched, Dilan just smirked before he pierced the Reinforced Stone Spear into its head and didn't miss it this time.

"I have an Immunity ability, you bastard!"

With a swift motion, he had killed the last zombie as well.

And as if on cue, the head of the zombie, which the python had bitten off, rolled to the feet of the other dead zombie.

This made it possible for him to take out the Essence crystal of both zombies.

"The python didn't even absorb the Essence crystal of the zombie it killed? Did it not know how absorbing the Essence crystal works, or is there some other requirement for animals?"

Dilan had no idea, but muttering to himself was quite helpful.

He had yet to come in contact with a human survivor. So, he was trying to hold on to his sanity, if only by blabbering to himself.

It allowed him to stay calm in the situation he was in, without feeling like he was caught in a video game, a realistic one where he had felt far more pain in a few hours than he had gone through in his entire life before.

Other than the 13 Essence crystals and the backpack, where he had stored the Essence crystals, Dilan didn't need anything else.

As such, he quickly walked away from the battlefield.

After a few minutes of resuming his walk, he spotted the grayish-white wall of Rian's mountainside hospital.

It was also his first stop as a supermarket was near the hospital.

There should be quite a few zombies as well, but they shouldn't pose him much of a problem.

'I can defeat them, as long as they're not too many or stronger…'

With that in mind, Dilan took a short stop to start absorbing the Essence crystals of the python and the Zombies.

This had not been possible before as he had wanted to avoid staying in the area where the monsters' fight had caused a loud commotion.

Now that he had put some distance between himself and his small battlefield, he absorbed all Essence crystals without wasting anymore time!

[Essence of a Tierless Level 0 Zombie has been absorbed→+0.3 Strength]

[Essence of a Tierless Level 0 Zombie has been absorbed→+0.1 Strength, +0.1 Stamina]

[Essence of a Tierless Level 0 Zombie has been absorbed→+0.1 Stamina]

[Essence of a Tierless Level 0 Zombie has been absorbed→ Host cannot gain more status points from ordinary zombies!]

[...]

[...]

[Essence of a Tierless Level 0 (Mutated) reticulated python has been absorbed→+0.2 Health]

After hearing the notifications while absorbing one Essence crystal after another, Dilan couldn't help but feel like he wouldn't level up, at all.

But finally, after the 9th Essence crystal crumbled in his hand, the message he had waited for appeared.

[Essence pool has been filled. Host reached level 2! +0.5 Status points can be allocated!]

Once he received the message, Dilan finished absorbing the remaining crystals before getting up from the ground.

A smile appeared on his face, and there was no way he could complain about the current situation.

Right now, he was still alive, and even his burned arm was slowly healing.

Feeling excited, and free of the shackles that had restrained him, Dilan stepped forward, making his way to Rian.