Chapter 7: Entering the Forest (Rewritten)

After some more spell casting, I decided to stop for now and continue with my plans. I stood firmly on my feet, and took a basic sword stance.

I started to swing, thrust, chop and cut from different angles, trying to improve my skills.

About 20 minutes later, I finished my warm up.

"It's time to enter the forest, but before that. Hello guys, fancy seeing you here."

Just like the last time, 2 zombies emerged from the dark woods.

(Perfect way to test my new magic in combat.)

I gathered my Mana at their feet, creating small sized holes that made them trip and fall to the ground.

After walking up to those defenceless enemies, I killed them with my sword.

[Zombie Killed +5 shop points]

[Zombie Killed +5 shop points]

Looking at their corpses, made me think (When did it become so easy? Zombies really aren't hard to kill.).

This small encounter was short, but that didn't stop me from finding ways to improve myself. And at the very start of my search, I could find at least 3 things I could have done better.

1. I used too much mana

2. Cuts with my sword weren't precise enough

3. My physical fitness is still not up to the standard

"I will need to train and kill more" This sentence was enough to make my blood boil with anticipation.

My excited state thankfully quickly died down, letting me look for some more items acceptable by the quest.

My inspection didn't last long, with me not finding anything useful.

Checking my surroundings, resulted in some good news, with no more enemies trying to attack me.

Then I focused on the trees and darkness in front of me, with my gaze lingering on them for some time.

Finally I entered this dangerous place, with only one thought in my mind.

(This is just the start of my adventure.)

*******************

12 hours later

[Name: Alexander Lambert

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Health: 32%

Mana: 9%

[Stats]

Strenght J-

Resistance J

Dexterity J-

Intelligence J

Agility J-

Constitution J-

[Skills]

Talents:

- Stealth Lvl 3 (2 -> 3)

- Swordsmanship Lvl 2 (1 -> 2)

-....

Magic:

- Earth Magic

- Minor Earth Manipulation [New!!!]

- Earth Spikes [New!!!]

-....

Abilities:

- Analysis

- Luck

[Inventory]

-.... ]

"*Huuu*... *Aaaa*... *Huu*.... It's hurts really bad. Fucking infection." seeing my own skin and all of those green spots, I knew I will need to endure even more that the last time.

After opening my system, I bought some bandages from the shop and checked progress on my quest.

[Title: Zombie Infection

Quest Requires:

- Heal 4 Infected Wounds [1/4]

- Kill 30 Zombies [9/30]

- Collect 7 Zombie tooths [2/7]

- Collect 5 bottles of Zombie blood [1/5] ]

(Not a bad harvest.)

Turns out that easiest thing to get is zombie blood, with only one down side, blood can only be taken from zombies that lived for more than half a year.

Specific cause of this limitation, turned out to be their race ability, which is connected to their resurrection. As zombie's blood that ran through their veins, begins to turn into a deadly poison.

At first this poison only takes a small part of their bodys, but each month after they initial ressurection, resualts in them having less and less blood, with poison repleacing what was left of it, in turn making it more potent.

There are couple of requirements for zombie to evolve, main one being the strength of their poison. That also means that other aspects, such as physical strength are naturally higher.

That information let me understand how hard this quest could be.

(To get this one bottle, I nearly lost my life.)

*******************

Not long after entering the forest, I came upon two zombies, one male and one female who were wandering around.

Deciding to test my new armor performance, I sneaked up behind their backs.

I took a position in the bush less than a meter away from them, with me not being spotted.

While hiding there, I was carefully watching my surroundings for any additional enemies and movement. After sitting like this for 15 minutes, I didn't find anything alarming.

(It's time to act.)

My first target was zombie woman on the left. I used my sword to deal with her quickly, but I didn't kill my target without getting injured myself.

While turning to the male zombie on my right, I was dumbstruck, he reacted much faster than I originally anticipated.

(He's strong. A lot stronger than zombies I dealt with before.)

As a way to confirm my deduction, I felt pain coming from my right arm and my back.

In our previous exchange, this zombie used such strength and speed that I wasn't even able to react before he hit me twice.

While trying to dodge his third blow, something grabbed my ankle. It restricted my movement, but I still was abte to barely avoid his blow, after which I casted my new spell 'Minor Earth Manipulation' to free myself from the enemy's grasp.

My spell was a successful choice, letting me escape, and keep some distance to look at what grabbed my ankle.

In that exact spot, I saw a zombie's hand that was sticking out from the ground (That doesn't look good...), and just as this thought appeared in my mind, four zombies burrowed out from the under the surface.

Facing those 5 enemies, made my already tight grip around the hilt of the sword, just a little bit tighter.

"I will need to take some risks"

After rushing to the zombie that grabbed me and the male zombie from original two, I plunged my sword into the graber's chest.

Using all the force I could muster, I pushed the blade all the way through, and stabbed the second zombie standing behind him.

I let go of my sword and kicked those two, making them fall on the spikes I created previously with my magic.

Wounds from those spikes weren't mortal, but it wasn't their purpose in the first place. They will give me enough time to deal with the rest.

I extended my arm forward and took 'Black Rose Revolver' out of my inventory.

Aiming at the closest target, I shot him in the head, and killed him instantly.

On the second one I wasted 2 bullets, missing his head the first time.

The last one I shot 3 times in the chest ,and finished him off.

Now, the only enemies that were left, were the two stuffed on the spikes.

I approached them, seeing their struggle to free themselves. But, I didn't care about their pitiful state, and only retrieved my sword, before stabbing both of them repeatable, until they died.

"How did they plan such a well coordinated ambush?"

Just as those words left my mouth, I heard footsteps coming in my direction.

(Here they come. Time to play some hide and seek.)

*******************

Throne room

"I had a lot of fun playing with you. It's a shame that I'am only able to do it once, at least for now."

*******************

After a lot of hide and seek, I finally escaped pursuit of my enemies and took shelter in a cave I found while wandering around.

Entrance was pretty well hidden, and me finding it was purely accidental, but I didn't lower my guard because of this reason.

While standing in front of the entrance, sun behind my back almost disappeared from the horizon.

Deciding to explore this cave with little sunlight I had left, I entered. Right away, I could see it's size 3x4x3m.

(Not so bad. At least I will be able get comfortable in this cramped space.)

Scanning this cave after my eyes adjusted to darker environment, I realized that someone lived there.

Or I should say someone did in the past, with amount of dust that gatherd on makeshift bed and campfire that wasn't used for a long time, I was certian that this place didn't see a living soul for a long time.

"So generous of the previous owner to left me such a nice place. I decided to make this cave my new base."

After this, I spent rest of this day cleaning up the place to a reasonable state.

Before laying down on the makeshift bed, I wiped the sweat off my forehead.

"For the next couple of days, I will be busy with improving myself and finishing [Zombie Infection] Quest."

Saying those words was the last thing I did before going to sleep, for the first time in this Training World.